L2 learners’ perceptions of grammar: The case of JFL learners in the UK

This study reports on the findings of a questionnaire administered to 93 students studying Japanese as a foreign language (JFL) at British universities, focusing on their views of the role of grammar in their learning of Japanese. Learners’ views are important because mismatches with their teachers’ views can affect their learning negatively. Following previous studies, the learners in this study, who were at upper-beginner to lower-intermediate levels, valued formal instruction and wanted teachers to give detailed explanations on grammar. In particular, their views suggested that they seek greater understanding of the semantic and pragmatic features of new grammatical structures. We suggest that particularly in the case of a ‘less familiar’ language such as Japanese, anglophone learners can benefit from a ‘focus on forms’ approach that incorporates different learning processes such as pattern recognition and making associations, alongside a ‘focus on form’ approach that assists their understanding of how the target grammatical structures are used in context

初級日本語におけるMoodleを使ったリスニングクイズの実践報告 = On the Practice of Listening Quizzes Using Moodle in Beginner-level Japanese

This article reports on the practice of listening quizzes using Moodle that has been done in the Japanese language programme at Oxford Brookes University. It discusses the usefulness of the virtual learning environment (VLE) and the listening ability of upper-beginner Japanese language learners. The quizzes were carried out in an upper-beginner course and a total of 112 students participated. The study used the results generated by Moodle to analyse how students coped with the quizzes. It also analysed them with the results of the listening tests and that of the final examination, which were employed as indications of the students’ listening ability and their grammatical and lexical competence respectively. The findings showed that a quarter of the students’ listening ability had not improved despite the fact that they were doing the quizzes regularly. It also showed that for one third of the students, their grammatical and lexical competence was higher than their listening ability and that many of them had not done the quizzes regularly. From the above findings and drawing upon previous studies, this study suggests that listening instructions focusing on listening strategies are necessary for students struggling with listening, in particular, for those whose listening skills do not show as much improvement as would be expected given their regular practice. It also claims that VLE is an effective tool, not only for monitoring how a large number of students cope with listening tasks, but also for supporting their autonomous learning and the teaching of listening strategies

The acquisition of Japanese nominal modifying constructions by non native speakers

Esta tesis trata de la adquisición de los modificadores nominales en japonés como segunda lengua (L2) y de un fenómeno que se observa en el proceso de la adquisición en el que los aprendices de L2 ocasionalmente insertan un no entre el modificador oracional y el sustantivo núcleo. Dicho fenómeno es interesante porque se manifiesta en distintas construcciones, los hablantes que producen el no no nativo proceden de distintas lenguas maternas (L1) y porque los niños japoneses también producen un no no nativo en los mismos contextos durante una etapa de la adquisición de L1. Se ha propuesto una explicación teórica sobre el caso en L2 y se ha especulado sobre su semejanza con el caso en L1. La tesis consta de dos partes: una parte teórica y una parte experimental. En la parte teórica se han revisado los estudios previos sobre la construcción genitiva, la frase adjetival y los modificadores oracionales. Se ha identificado la “forma adnominal” como un elemento clave y se han propuesto dos hipótesis para dar cuenta de su presencia y de la distribución complementaria de la partícula no: una versión revisada de la Clasificación de Cláusulas (cf. Cheng 1991) y la formación de unidades fonológicas. En la parte experimental, se han realizado dos estudios: un análisis de datos de los aprendices de L1 inglés y L1 coreano y una prueba de producción guiada de los aprendices de L1 español. Los resultados demuestran que los modificadores oracionales se adquieren en un cierto orden. En cuanto al fenómeno de la inserción de no, se observan dos fases. Se ha atribuido la primera fase a la adquisición de la Clasificación de Cláusulas y la segunda fase a la formación de unidades fonológica

英国における日本語教育の再考―異文化理解をめぐる学習者及び日本語教師の意識調査から = Revisiting Japanese Language Education in the UK: A survey on learners’ and teachers’ perceptions regarding intercultural understanding

世界のグローバル化に伴い、以前にも増して異なる文化や価値観を持つ人々が共生するようになり、外国 語教育では単に言語を的確に使えるだけではなく、相手の文化を理解し、自己の文化との違いを受け入れる能力、つまり異文化間コミュニケーション能力（intercultural communicative competence, ICC）が求められるようになった（Byram et al. 2013）。英国の高等教育においても、人の移動が頻繁になりかつ世界情勢が不安定な中にあって、異文化に対する寛容性や関心の高い人材を育てるための教育がますます強く望まれるようになった（Bothwell 2016）。しかし、言語教育の実践では、未だに言語とコミュニケーションを中心とした授業が行われている場合が多い（Byram et al. 2013）。また、異文化間能力（intercultural competence, IC）は必ずしも自然に身につくわけではないとも言われており、意識的なトレーニングの必要性が唱えられている（Behrnd & Porzelt 2012)。本発表は、英国の日本語教育の現場においてどの程度 IC 及び ICC の養成が意識されているかに関する基礎的調査の報告である。英国で活躍している日本語教師（n=34）と日本語を専攻し、日本に留学した経験のある大学学部生（n=38）に彼らの動機や異文化理解に関する意識、日本語教師または話者としての社会的貢献について、オンラインアンケートを行い、詳細な記述を求めた。Byram（1997）の ICC モデルに照らし合わせて学生回答者のコメントを分析した結果、全体として“critical cultural awareness”の不足が目立った。自らを異文化に対する寛容性が高いと評価した学生が多かったものの、その根拠として挙げられた理由からは、異文化理解への自己認識にかなりの差が見られた。また、英国の大学の「多文化コミュニティー」としての側面に対する認識が高いとはいえないことが窺えた。一方教師は、英国の大学の「多文化コミュニティー」としての側面に対する認識は高く、日本語教育の実践の場が、異文化理解能力開発のために有益な教育効果をもたらすことを十分理解していることがデータから観察された。しかし、「多言語多文化社会を意識した教育を行っているか」という問いに対しては、具体的な教育実践に言及した回答が少なく、日本文化について紹介する際に自己の文化と照らし合わせて話し合う程度で IC 及び ICC の養成がカリキュラムに含まれている場合は少ないことが分かった。つまり、教師のビリーフと実践の間には乖離が見られた。以上の結果を踏まえ、英国における日本語教育の現場で IC 及び ICC を高めるために何ができるかを考えたい。= With the advance of globalisation we are living in an increasingly diverse society where people with different cultures and values coexist. Foreign language education has also taken a ‘cultural turn’ (Byram et al. 2013) by which, in addition to learning to use the target language accurately and appropriately, gaining intercultural communicative competence (ICC), i.e., understanding and accepting other cultures, has become a central theme. In the age of international mobility and instability, it became required in higher education in the UK to train students to be tolerant and be interested in other cultures (Bothwell 2016). In reality, however, language and communication continue to be the main focus in many language classrooms and ICC has not been integrated as one of the learning objectives (Byram et al. 2013). Studies have also shown that intercultural competence (IC) does not always develop naturally through the experience of studying abroad, and suggest the need for intercultural training prior to studying abroad (Behrnd & Porzelt 2012). This study is a fundamental research on the awareness of IC and ICC in Japanese Language education in the UK. An online questionnaire was administered to each group. The questions focused on their motives for teaching or learning Japanese, how they perceived IC and ICC and what they thought their contribution to society was. Some questions asked the participants to explain in detail and a total of 34 teachers and 38 university students, who are majoring in Japanese and have studied abroad in Japan, participated. The results from analysing the student questionnaire using Byram’s ICC Model (1997) showed that in general many of the students lacked “critical cultural awareness”. Although many of them thought that they were tolerant to other cultures, there was a big difference in their self-awareness to IC. The results also showed that many of the students did not recognize British Universities as a ‘multicultural society’. The results from analysing the teacher questionnaire showed that many recognized British Universities as a ‘multicultural society’ and fully understood that the classrooms of Japanese language education could improve IC and ICC effectively. However, to the question, ‘Are you teaching students to have an awareness of our multilingual or multicultural society?’ only a few teachers provided concrete examples of IC and ICC related teaching, and few curricula included the training of IC and ICC. That is, there was a separation of teachers’ belief and actual teaching. Based on the results above, we would like to consider what we can do in order to improve IC and ICC for Japanese language education in the UK

Negotiating politeness practices and interpersonal connections in L2 Japanese: Insights from study abroad narratives

One of the main challenges and opportunities for language learners in a study abroad context is learning to navigate the routines of L2 social interactions and politeness practices necessary for establishing oneself as a legitimate social actor and forming meaningful interpersonal connections. This can be particularly difficult when there is significant divergence between learners’ self-presentation strategies and understandings of politeness associated with their existing languages and those that are prevalent in the new cultural environment. This chapter reports on a study examining the ways in which L2 Japanese learners enrolled at UK universities made sense of their experiences of politeness within the context of forming interpersonal connections during study abroad in Japan. It presents narrative accounts based on interviews with university students who studied at a partner institution in Japan for 9–12 months. Analysis focuses on the ways that learners not only attempted to understand the cultural significance of politeness forms according to contextual norms but also actively incorporated their knowledge of other languages and cultures into their developing understandings of politeness

Construction of a de novo assembly pipeline using multiple transcriptome data sets from Cypripedium macranthos (Orchidaceae)

The family Orchidaceae comprises the most species of any monocotyledonous family and has interesting characteristics such as seed germination induced by mycorrhizal fungi and flower morphology that co-adapted with pollinators. In orchid species, genomes have been decoded for only a few horticultural species, and there is little genetic information available. Generally, for species lacking sequenced genomes, gene sequences are predicted by de novo assembly of transcriptome data. Here, we devised a de novo assembly pipeline for transcriptome data from the wild orchid Cypripedium (lady slipper orchid) in Japan by mixing multiple data sets and integrating assemblies to create a more complete and less redundant contig set. Among the assemblies generated by combining various assemblers, Trinity and IDBA-Tran yielded good assembly with higher mapping rates and percentages of BLAST hit contigs and complete BUSCO. Using this contig set as a reference, we analyzed differential gene expression between protocorms grown aseptically or with mycorrhizal fungi to detect gene expressions required for mycorrhizal interaction. A pipeline proposed in this study can construct a highly reliable contig set with little redundancy even when multiple transcriptome data are mixed, and can provide a reference that is adaptable to DEG analysis and other downstream analysis in RNA-seq

初級日本語学習者の語用論的意識向上を目指した教材作成 および教室活動のデザイン [Shokyūgakushūsha no goyōronteki-ishikikōjō o mezashita kyōzaisakusei oyobi kyōshitsukatsudō no dezain] = Developing pedagogical material and activities to enhance learners’ pragmatic awareness in beginner level Japanese

近年のグローバリゼーションに伴い、外国語教育は学習者が言語と文化の多様性について深く考え、異な る文化背景を持った他者と適切にやりとりができることを重視するようになった。それには語用論的意識 （McConachy & Liddicoat, 2022）、つまり、ある文脈で使用可能な言語表現を分析し、それらの意味について 検討することができる能力の育成が重要だと考えられる。日本語教育では語用論的側面を扱った教科書が中 上級者向けにいくつか開発されている（Ishihara & Maeda, 2010; 清水, 2013）が、初級では依然として文法や 語彙の学習に重点が置かれる傾向がある。初級修了後に日本に留学し、社会の一員として生活を試みる日本 語学習者が多い英国の教育現場において、語用論指導はより早い段階から導入される必要があると考えられ る。 本稿は、初級日本語教育に語用論指導を取り入れることを目標とした BATJ プロジェクト（2019−2021 年）について報告する。プロジェクトではまず、英国で主流の教科書を分析し、語用論的側面がどのように扱わ れているか調べた。次に副教材を開発し、教室で実践した。最後に BATJ 会員を対象にウェビナーを実施し、プロジェクトについて紹介した。実践に対する学生と担当教師の反応は概ね好評だった。学生からは日本語をより自然に使うことや日本語 の理解を深めるのに役立ったという意見が寄せられ、教師からは学生が興味を持って活発に活動に取り組ん でいたとの報告があった。また学生が何に戸惑いを感じ、どのような説明や活動が効果的か予想するのが難 しかったという意見もあった。このような補助的な教室活動を少しずつ導入し、教師がお互いに気づきや振 り返りを共有することで初級日本語教育に少しずつ変化がもたらせるのではないかと考える。= With the advancement of globalisation, foreign language teaching has come to place more emphasis on the development of learners’ abilities to reflect on linguistic and cultural diversity and interact sensitively with individuals from different backgrounds. This has foregrounded the importance of pragmatic awareness, which includes the ability to analyse and reflect on the significance of linguistic choices in view of context (McConachy & Liddicoat, 2022). In Japanese language education, pragmatic instruction has been introduced at intermediate and advanced levels (Ishihara & Maeda, 2010; Shimizu, 2013), but instruction at beginner-level tends to remain heavily focused on grammar and lexis. This is a problem, especially in the UK, where many students study abroad in Japan after completing beginner-level Japanese and aim to participate in Japanese society as legitimate social actors. This article reports on a BATJ project that sought to introduce more pragmatic learning at the beginner level. It was carried out from 2019 to 2021 and comprised four phases: a review of pragmatic instruction in major textbooks; designing and creating supplementary classroom activities; piloting of said activities; a webinar for BATJ members for dissemination. Responses to the classroom activities by students and teachers were generally favourable. Students found them helpful for using Japanese more naturally and deepening their understanding of the language. Teachers reported increased engagement and interest in class during the activities. They also expressed difficulty in predicting what students would find challenging and uncertainty over how to teach pragmatic aspects effectively. We argue that more pragmatic instruction can be incorporated into this level by introducing similar small-scale activities and creating opportunities for teachers to share their reflections on effective pedagogy