Paper short abstract:

We report on a project to develop a Japanese textbook on the theme of SDGs written by students who are not majors in Japanese language education, enhancing their understanding of Japanese learners. We adopt qualitative analysis via semi-structured interviews to determine how change their believes.

Paper long abstract:

　There is much to be done to increase the number of people who understand Japanese language learners and Japanese language education. In particular, it must be desirable for young people to become familiar with Japanese language education. We report on a project to develop a Japanese language textbook on the theme of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) written by university students who are not majors in Japanese language education. The level of the textbook is intermediate, and the main activity is oral communication. The SDGs goals, themes, and activities of each section in each lesson are as follows.

Lesson 1, Goal 11: “Make Cities Safe, Resilient and Sustainable” - Speech

Lesson 2, Goal 1: “End Hunger” - Interviews

Lesson 3 Goal 6, 12, 14: “Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns;

in particular, sustainable management of water and sanitation” -Discussion

　In the project, we collaborated with other seminars that actually study the SDGs, leading to accurate descriptions, and we enhanced their understanding of Japanese language education through the discussions on how to describe Japanese for learners.

　To the best of our knowledge, there are no other examples of such an activity to improve understanding of Japanese language education while creating Japanese language learning materials. We believe that this project is very significant in this respect.

　Furthermore, we will adopt qualitative analysis via semi-structured interviews to determine how the students’ understanding of Japanese language education changed through analysing their beliefs of Japanese language variations. From this, we hope to clarify the positive changes in the attitudes towards Japanese language learners and language education, and to consider the possibility of creating a place for coexistence between learners and native speakers.