Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/62498

JaLCDOI : 10.14943/b.edu.126.19

KEYWORDS : 方言矯正;地域史;教育雑誌;明治30年代;Dialect Correction;Area History;Educational Magazine;Meiji 30’s

This study clarifies the status of dialect correction in elementary school education and examines the formation of the “national language,” focusing on Iwate Prefecture in the Meiji 30’s. The educational magazine titled “Iwate Gakuji Iho” and writings produced by Iwate Prefecture Normal School were used to collect historical data for this analysis. Iwate Prefecture Normal School established a guideline for the use of standard language instead of dialect, and considered that the dialect should be corrected timely through the whole curriculum based upon Japanese language education. In fact, some of the elementary schools, under the guidance of an enthusiastic county school inspector, worked on the task of the dialect correction. They viewed the fact that the language spoken by children was quite different from the language used in readers as a point of controversy. And, in some cases, they worked on such correction as a part of teaching of manners. However, there were many difficult issues to be addressed such as their tendency to be eager to teach characters in Japanese language education, continuation of thorough correction, and methods to take steps on correction. Therefore, they made few approaches to the correction during this period. However, it may be concluded that the common practice of pursing the language capacity to be taught and acquired in school led to the dialect correction and the formation of the “national language.”