Linguistics Instruction for Japanese Junior High School Students

Page No.: 
58
Writer(s): 
Mika Igarashi, The University of Tokyo/JSPS

Reference Data:

Igarashi, M. (2016). Linguistics instruction for Japanese junior high school students. In P. Clements, A. Krause, & H. Brown (Eds.), Focus on the learner. Tokyo: JALT.

There have been some attempts to teach linguistics to elementary and junior high school (JHS) students. However, little has been empirically investigated about how such teaching influences these students. This study aimed to investigate the effects of linguistics instruction on the language learning of 22 Japanese JHS students. Participants attended linguistics classes that dealt with syntactic and morphological rules in Japanese and English. Four variables were measured: metalinguistic ability, self-efficacy in language learning, beliefs about language learning, and language attitudes. Participants answered preinstruction questionnaires to evaluate their self-efficacy, beliefs, and language attitudes and took pre- and posttests of metalinguistic ability. Two months after the last class, delayed questionnaires were completed. The results revealed that post test metalinguistic ability scores were significantly higher than pretest scores. Also, positive responses regarding language attitudes showed a significant increase. These findings suggest that linguistics instruction can have a positive effect on language learning. 

これまでに小・中学生に言語学を教える試みはいくつかあるものの、それがどのような効果をもたらすのかということについて実証的に検討した研究はほとんどない。そこで、本研究は言語学の指導が中学生の言語学習に与える影響を明らかにする。調査参加者は22人の日本人中学生であった。参加者は日本語、および英語の基礎的な統語論・形態論を扱う4回の授業に参加した。測定された変数はメタ言語能力、自己効力感、言語学習に対する信念、言語に対する態度であった。メタ言語能力に関しては指導の事前と事後にテストが実施され、他の変数に関しては事前の測定に加え、最後の授業の2ヶ月後に遅延の測定が行われた。分析の結果、メタ言語能力は事前に比べて事後の方が有意にスコアが高く、言語に対する態度のスコアについても有意な上昇が見られた。これらの結果から言語学の指導は言語学習に対してポジティブな効果をもたらすということが示唆される。

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