Paper short abstract:

In order to respond to the particular need grammar education to be enriched, we are developing an online reference grammar for Japanese beginners. The items in the grammar are described in accordance with their functions and in relation to the sematic/functional synonym(s) of every form.

Paper long abstract:

In order to respond to the increase and diversification of the Japanese learners and learning methods, there is a need to enhance the educational content and improve the teaching methods of Japanese (Bunkacho). It has been pointed out that grammar and grammar education is the field which particularly needs to be enriched (Shirakawa 2018).

There are a wide range of issues surrounding grammar education, but here we would like to focus on the following two points:

(1) There are teaching materials for learners that do not have grammar explanation notes.

(2) The grammar handbooks and manuals do not necessarily provide the information the learners need.

In relation to those problems, especially on the premise of (2), we are developing a grammar handbook ("reference grammar") for Japanese beginners that can be used online. It has the following features.

1. The grammar is available online, and any learner from any place at any time can easily access it.

2. The target are the learners who have completed the beginner level, but beginner learners also can use it for autonomous learning. It could also be helpful for Japanese language teachers to organize their educational content of grammar.

3. The most prominent feature is the way the grammar is structured. In a previous questionnaire survey on Japanese learning, the respondents said that in grammar learning the most difficult and necessary thing is the distinction of the grammatical forms with sematic/functional similarity. Based on this, we describe the grammatical items in the reference grammar according to their functions and in relation to the sematic/functional synonym(s) of every form.

4. All the content of the reference grammar can be translated online to more than 130 languages.

The grammar aims to provide description from the learner's point of view, and to make it easy for anyone to obtain the information that meets the learners’ needs.

References:

Shirakawa Hiroyuki（2018）「日本語研究から日本語教育研究への越境」『日本語の研究』第14巻2号、pp. 68-83.

Bunkacho https://www.bunka.go.jp/seisaku/kokugo_nihongo/kyoiku/index.html

Paper short abstract:

In recent years there is a great increase in attempts to incorporate anime into Japanese language education. From selecting the anime to conducting the class, this presentation will introduce specific methods for using anime to teach grammar items whose usage is difficult for learners to understand.

Paper long abstract:

In recent years, Japanese anime has greatly influenced Japanese language learning, and thus attempts to incorporate anime into Japanese language education have increased (Kumano et al. 2011). However, most of them focus on role language, which is characteristic of anime, and there are few attempts to utilize them for teaching grammatical items (Kamigaso et al. 2017).

Many of the grammar items that are difficult for learners to learn are those whose appropriateness is determined at the discourse level rather than at the word/sentence level, such as the passive and transitive/ intransitive verbs and verb tense. We attempted to teach these language items by using anime, which is relatively simple and easy to understand because of its visual images and simple storylines. The following is an overview of this attempt.

1. Grammar items covered: transitive and intransitive verbs and the passive voice (advanced level), verb tenses (intermediate level)

2. Anime used: "Detective Conan," a complete episode with few grammatical deviations.

3. Class procedures: The following is an example from an advanced-level class.

1) Homework: vocabulary preparation for transitive and intransitive verbs.

2) 1st class session: Test 1 (to check to understand grammar items), Activity 1 (a task to improve understanding of grammar items while watching an animation).

3) Homework: summarize a story using target grammar items

4) Second class session: Activity 2 (tasks to deepen understanding, such as role-playing based on homework), Test 2, followed by a reflection on the class.

In the test at the beginning of the class, there were some errors, and many students were not confident even when answering correctly, but several positive statements such as, "Thanks to Conan, I could clearly understand the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs" were found in the participant reflections, confirming the effectiveness of the classes.

There are many unfamiliar vocabulary items in anime, which can cause difficulty in using anime depending on the learner's level. This attempt showed that anime can be used to teach grammar items at a variety of levels. This presentation will introduce specific methods for using anime, from selecting the anime to conducting the class.

Paper short abstract:

In this study, we suggest that the use of time order expressions is one of the problems of linguistic performance in Japanese. This study aims to clarify the correlation between the choice of time order expressions and communicative intention in Japanese Language of Uzbek native speakers.

Paper long abstract:

In this study, we suggest that the use of time order expressions is one of the problems of linguistic performance in Japanese. We define time order expressions as expressions of the temporal correlation between two situations. Though there are plenty of types of time order expressions, we argue that the question of why a particular expression was used and what was intended to be conveyed by using that expression is relevant to the issue of proficiency in Japanese. Therefore, this study aims to clarify the correlation between the choice of expressions and communicative intention by learners of Japanese.

This study examines the word order of sentences containing time order expressions in the utterances of native Uzbek learners of Japanese. To achieve this objective, the following survey was conducted. The subjects of this study were 10 native Uzbek speakers majoring in Japanese at the Tashkent State University of Oriental Studies in Uzbekistan. The learners had N2 and N3 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT). The object of analysis in this study is the speech data of Japanese learners. To analyze the data, we first used the I-JAS corpus (International corpus of Japanese as a second language) illustration (Sakoda et al., 2020), asked the learners to complete a storytelling task, and recorded a total of 40 data samples. Next, we transcribed the speech data and compared the prominences (emphasized words) of the learners' native language expressions with the corresponding Japanese time order expressions to examine how the time order expressions were interpreted.

The results of this analysis revealed a correlation between prominence in learners' native language and time-ordered expressions in Japanese. Specifically, it was found that prominences in Uzbek speech containing time order expressions tended to be placed in predicates. Also, based on the data of Japanese language learners of the N2 and N3 levels of the JLPT who speak in simple sentences, we conclude that linguistic performance problems remain even at the upper-intermediate level.