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Paper short abstract:

Panel 1 will focus on methods for teaching story writing following Chinese language arts education, in which students first appreciate literary works, then imagine what is not written to create stories. We will argue that these methods are an easy and practical way of teaching story writing.

Paper long abstract:

　As mentioned in the panel introduction, there is insufficient research on creative writing methods in the field of Japanese language education. However, creative story writing has long been practiced in language arts education, and numerous studies on its teaching methods have been conducted in many countries. In China, in particular, the curriculum standard for language arts in high school states that students should appreciate literary works and cultivate their creative abilities based on this appreciation (Ohno & Zhuang, 2018). Textbooks include a variety of step-by-step writing assignments, starting with imitation of literary works and ending with writing original creative stories. Although the modern Chinese composition education is criticized for its excessive respect for rhetoric or emphasis on preparation for university entrance examinations, there is much to learn from this long tradition.

　In this panel, we will focus on the “拡写,” “続写,” and “改写” methods for teaching writing stories, which can be easily adopted in the Japanese language classroom. In these methods, students first appreciate literary works, then imagine, and write what is not written or what follows, or rewrite stories by changing the point of view, characters, development, etc. Thus, through these methods, students write stories using the setting and plot of literary works as teaching materials. While teachers require adequate knowledge and preparation to let students decide on the setting, plot, and development of stories, these methods of using literary works greatly reduce their burden. The benefit for the student is that they can easily write stories because the material provides them with ideas for their imagination and creativity, rather than having to come up with a story from scratch. Depending on the selection of reading materials, this method can be implemented in a few lessons and widely used in various classes.

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Paper short abstract:

This paper acts as a report of a Creative Writing Workshop conducted at a university in Italy with five japanese language learners at an intermediate to advanced level, with a particular focus on its effectiveness seen through a language education perspective.

Paper long abstract:

From November to December 2022, a workshop focused on the creation of stories applying one or more methods of expanded transcription, sequential transcription, and revision transcription was conducted at a university in Italy with five japanese language learners at an intermediate to advanced level in four sessions of 90 minutes each. The text used as teaching material was “Shiroi inu” by Atouda Takashi (approximately 2300 words long, low intermediate level).

The workshop was carried out as follows:

First session: reading of “Shiroi inu” and assessment of reading comprehension using the “Story structure review sheet”;

Second session: planning out the story using one or more methods of expanded transcription, sequential transcription, and revision transcription. The "Story structure creation sheet", similar in format to the "Story structure review sheet" was used for planning the story;

Third session: writing the story (min 500 words);

Fourth session: class review and comment of everyone’s stories.

In the workshop, the expanded transcription, the sequential transcription, and the revised transcription were introduced together, and it was left up to the participants to decide which one to use. In addition, we did not correct grammatical errors as the creation of a story and enjoyment of others' stories were prioritized. The extent to which grammatical accuracy is required for conveying stories is an issue for the future.

To verify the effectiveness of the workshop and its methodology, we analyzed the stories written by the learners, their comments on the stories of others, and the post-workshop questionnaire.

The five learners were not all interested in writing stories from the beginning, but they all enjoyed writing them and were motivated to write more by the end of the workshop.

The contents of the stories varied from person to person, and everyone seemed to be able to freely expand their imagination. In addition, the students challenged themselves to use new expressions by utilizing dictionaries and other resources. It was also apparent that the workshop motivated them to read novels and other works of fiction in the future.

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Paper short abstract:

Sharing one's experiences and thoughts, for self and social awareness are the core of FLE. Creative Writing may be a complementary tool for those who are not always able or willing to engage in self-disclosure. imagination and creativity are essential to agency too, and strongly needed in FLE.

Paper long abstract:

In Japanese classrooms, there are activities that involve sharing one's experiences and thoughts with others, deepening understanding through dialogue, and connecting it to writing.

For example, Kawaguchi's (2011) 'personalised' composition is based on the idea that the essence of language learning is to share what is true and important to oneself and to actively and voluntarily participate in interaction with others.

Hosokawa et al.'s integrated activity-based Japanese language classes are also activities in which students delve into and deepen the 'themes' that are important to them through dialogue, in other words, they deepen their thinking through mutual self-disclosure and self-expression with their dialogue partners, and finally, through preparing logic and writing reports, etc., they aim to become aware of their position and values within society.

Deepening mutual understanding through self-disclosure and engaging in discussions to contemplate one's role in society undoubtedly has a positive impact on Japanese language acquisition and fosters growth as a language user. However, learners may not always be able or willing to engage in self-disclosure. They may possess aspects of themselves that they cannot or do not wish to disclose.

In the integrated activity-based Japanese class conducted by the presenter in the 2022 academic year, there were students who concluded that they could not or did not want to talk about their own themes. In such cases, there is potential for expression through entrusting one's thoughts to narratives, in other words, by depicting a possible world, a desired world, or even an undesired world. While integrated activity-based Japanese classes deepen the themes within oneself alongside others and contemplate the relationship with oneself within the real world, creative writing, which creates stories through imagination, can be said to create a world outside of oneself.

In this presentation, I argue that imagination and creativity are essential elements of human socialization and also lead to agency in society (the ability to set goals, reflect, and take responsible action to bring about change). I assert that they are also demanded in foreign language education.