open access

https://hdl.handle.net/2115/80921

Journal of Japanese language and international education studies

日本語

2021-03

北海道大学高等教育推進機構国際教育研究部

日本語・国際教育研究紀要

24

1-4

The COVID pandemic which was first discovered in late 2019 has since spread across the globe, and even as we move into 2021, it remains a threat. The social effects wrought by the growing pandemic were profound, and educational institutions were also forced to completely redesign their systems. In order to allow education to continue even as COVID continued to spread, colleges and universities in particular moved to implement online lectures. As of July 2020, 70% of lectures in Japanese universities were being conducted online. Over the past several years, the field of Japanese language education has seen rapid advances in online learning materials and testing being provided to support the growing number of students outside Japan, as well as those living in remote areas with limited resources. However, Japanese educational institutions, and universities in particular, have resisted the use of online lectures, due to credit requirements, insufficient equipment, and the belief that language education is most effective when conducted face-toface. Now, the COVID pandemic has pushed educational institutions to implement unified policies in response, which has led to Japanese language courses that serve international students rapidly shifting to online formats. This was not an intentional change made after careful consideration and planning, but rather an adaptation to our changing environment. However, this forced shift to online language learning has brought not only challenges but also benefits. In the following feature articles, we present an examination of the lectures in the Intensive Japanese Course and General Japanese Course, provided during the first semester of 2020 by the Institute for the Advancement of Higher Education -International Education and Research Division, as well as a review of the benefits and challenges posed by the shift to online Japanese language education at universities. The following preface provides background for the Feature Articles, describing the process and issues related to the shift to online learning in the Intensive Japanese Course and General Japanese Course. The Elementary Conversation class was challenging to conduct online; the first article reports how an online oral examination was held. The second article reports the techniques used to teach Kanji writing in the Introductory Kanji Class for Non-Kanji Background Learners. In the General Japanese Course, the curricula of Intermediate and Advanced classes are based on the “Hokkaido University Japanese Standards” , which aim to develop communication skills. The third and fourth articles introduce the practices used for Intermediate classes to show how active learning classes were implemented online. The summary article summarizes the results of a questionnaire survey of Japanese Course students on online classes and considers future issues. We hope that the field studies presented in this issue will provide insight into the future of university Japanese language education.

その他

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