Date:
November 1980
Page No.:
89
Writer(s):
Mary Lee Field
Based on the author's experiences
teaching composition to Japanese university
students in 1977-78, "Teaching
Writing in Japan" identifies some of
the cultural assumptions which Western
teachers are likely to bring with them
into the classroom and traces the
author's attempts to recognize and to
overcome those assumptions. The most
important principle which the article
illustrates is that the patterns for
composition which Japanese students
unconsciously imitate, even when
writing in English, are patterns
shaped by their own cultures; likewise,
the patterns for English composition
have been shaped by a long
rhetorical tradition. The article
outlines a pedagogy for teaching
English composition to Japanese students,
one based on the student's and
the teacher's mutual respect and
understanding of each other's culturally
shaped expectations.
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