FURUBEPPU Hizuru

Japanese teacher training course for teaching Japanese as a foreign language in Yamaguchi Prefectural University was instituted as one of the qualification licenses with the foundation of the Faculty of Intercultural Studies in April, 1994. Since our establishment we have sent more than 500 graduates out to society. I engaged in the teacher training program as a chief for 28 years, and now, upon retiring in March of 2021, look back on more than a quarter century of this work. During these 28 years, we changed the curriculum three times to meet the needs of the times. 570 students participated in domestic training of the Teaching Japanese as a foreign language course, which was the most important core subject. We conducted this course 26 times without fail. In terms of the overseas training, 195 students were sent as trainees mainly to secondary schools. 125 overseas Japanese assistants were sent to 23 organizations of eight countries, and this constituted the main characteristic of the Japanese teacher training course in Yamaguchi Prefectural University. The reason why we focused on the experience in foreign countries was that we expected our students to make much of the relationship with the people and experience the enjoyment felt through teaching Japanese. As a result, we hoped the people who come to understand Japan and Japanese culture would increase, and that they will further help in building a peaceful world. Finally, we showed there are many graduates, who are now Japanese specialists in The Japan Foundation, Japanese lecturers in university or Japanese teachers in Japanese language schools, with all playing an active role at home and abroad. We also showed a variety of examples of career paths with Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language as one of their life choices.

The purpose of this study is to visualize the process of moving from anxiety to liberation of English proficiency held by Japanese assistants (hereinafter referred to as JA) dispatched to secondary schools in English speaking countries, and to show the growth and essential role of JA. As a result of analyzing the monthly reports of 16 JAs by paragraph and topic in four stages of their terms abroad, immediately after dispatch, 3 months, 6 months, and just before the end, it turned out that it went from the "English wall", through the stages of "thinking about the ideal way of learning a foreign language", "breaking down the English barrier", and to "releasing the anxiety of English proficiency". By the time the anxiety was released, the importance of the role of "catch-up" for students that JA supports was inferred. JA is a person who can "speak things that teachers cannot speak", and through "catch-up", students can not only catch up with the delay of learning but also teach English to the JA, while the JA can strengthen one’s position as JA and gain motivation for learning English. It can be guessed that a warm, personal relationship between the JA and students, that grows on an equal footing with each other, is established. In intercultural learning, JA and students have a mutually beneficial relationship and can break away from stereotypes of each other, and in a multilingual environment, English is regarded as one of the tools because of the enjoyment and acceptability of language exchange. It was suggested that those are factors that promote the development and growth of JA's English proficiency.

Teaching practice is an essential subject in the course of TJFL (Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language). However, the content of Teaching practice is not specified yet. This paper suggests the introduction of culture-topic modules which integrate direct methods with culture in the teaching practice in New Zealand to improve the quality and effectiveness of classroom time. A culture-based vocaburary arises from the culture-topic modules, and appropriate selection of culture words to make use of the modules is discussed. This study tries to show one of the possibilities for practice teaching in courses of TJFL at the universities.