Title: A New Approach to Teaching and Learning the Japanese Language in the 21st Century: Social Networking Approach -From Japanese Language Education as a Tool to Japanese Language Education to Develop Global Citizenship
Abstract:
The 21st-century world is characterized by technology-led, rapid, drastic, continuous changes. The main purpose of education is to create people who can live productively as well as effectively in the society where they are living. Now that the 21st-century world is, far different from the 20th–century counterpart, so volatile, complicated, uncertain, and ambiguous, we need to have a special set of knowledge, skills, and qualities, generally called the 21st-century skills or key competencies in order to survive in this global age. Japanese language educators are also expected to produce people who are equipped with them. So far, the main goal of foreign language education has been to impart foreign language knowledge and skills and produce people out of our classroom who can use them as a tool. Now we are expected to produce global citizens who, taking full advantage of their rights and skills, can work collaboratively with other people in multilingual and multicultural societies, contribute to and improve local and global societies. Social Networking Approach (SNA), proposed by Tohsaku (2013) , is a new, innovative approach to teaching and learning foreign languages to help language learners develop language, cultural, and social skills necessary for leading a productive life in the 21st century. The presenter will introduce SNA and demonstrate that SNA is a new language learning and teaching approach that responds to the needs of the 21st-century society. The presenter will also discuss how the goals and ideas of SNA can be implemented in the Japanese classroom through a variety of instructional strategies.
Presenter: Y.-H. Tohsaku (University of California, San Diego)
Ph.D. in Linguistics from University of California, San Diego. Currently, Professor at School of Global Policy and Strategy, University of California, San Diego. Director of the School’s Foreign Language Program. Research interests are second language acquisition, foreign language pedagogy, and language testing. Publications include “Yookoso!: Invitation to Contemporary Japanese”, “Yookoso!: Continuing with Contemporary Japanese” (both McGraw-Hill), “Doraemon no Dokodemo Nihongo” (Shogakukan), “Nippon 3.0 no Shohosen” (Kodansha), and so forth. Published numerous papers related to foreign language teaching and testing, etc. Participated in the development of the National Standards for Learning Foreign Languages in the United States. Presently, the Japanese language representative to the Executive Board of the National Standards Collaborative Project. Former Board Member of the Joint National Committee for Languages, the lobbyist group for foreign language education in the United States. Former President of Association of Teachers of Japanese (ATJ) and American Association of Teachers of Japanese(AATJ). Project Director, Japanese Global Articulation Project (J-GAP). Currently, President of Computer-Assisted System of Teaching and Learning Japanese (CASTEL/J). Received the 2015 Society of Teaching Japanese as a Second Language Award.
Ohio Association of Teachers of Japanese 