The context of this study lies in the fact that in Australia, compared to learners of Japanese language in Japan, learners tend to have fewer opportunities to use Japanese. For many learners in Australia, especially beginners, it is difficult to find a variety of opportunities and maintain motivation to seek out and participate in such opportunities to use Japanese. In the present study, the researcher exploits sociocultural approaches (SCT) in a beginning-level Japanese language program in an institutional setting in order to enable language learners to become language users in Australia. Based on Lave and Wenger (1999), the study considers that learning a foreign/second language brings about not only the acquisition of linguistic structures but also leads to changes in participation in communities. Adopting SCT, the researcher created Japanese language revision courses at an Australian university and designed participant roles, rules, and artefacts in the revision courses as well as devising activities that aimed to develop the classroom into a community and to enhance the use of Japanese as a means of self-expression for learners. The results of the study show that the learners developed a sense of community in the classroom through a variety of activities in the revision course. One of the new roles introduced for this study, the role of the nicchoku, had a significant effect on making classroom interaction learner-centred and authentic. Under the leadership of the nicchoku, other learners engaged in learning activities, while the teacher stepped aside to take a support role. The nicchoku altered the typical teacher-fronted classroom sequence of Initiation-Response-Feedback (IRF) and helped redistribute classroom turns more evenly among classroom members. The study suggests that interactions are important not only to learn language but also to build human relationships. Thus, if the course aims to build both language proficiency and a learning community, it is necessary to create a variety of interaction opportunities in the classroom so that learners can acquire interactional competence/social skills to build a good relationship in a target language in/outside of the classroom. The results of the SPOT show a significant improvement in the Japanese proficiency of all the learners in the revision course. In addition, the study described an acquisition process of the verb ??ogoru?? as an example. The learners encountered the expression, learned its linguistic structure, applied it to a variety of contexts to learn its usage, and used it as a means of self-expression. The process showed that using the linguistic structure as a means of self-expression occurred through, first, acquisition of the linguistic structure, second, exposure to appropriate applications including sociolinguistic aspects in a given context and, third, experiences of a variety of interactions though activities. Thus, all stages of classroom activities are necessary to help learners enhance their ability to use Japanese as a means of self-expression. These findings suggest the classroom can provide learners with opportunities to use Japanese as a means of self-expression if the roles and activities in the classroom are carefully designed to bring learners into learner-centred interaction sequences, which are both qualitatively and quantitatively different from the typical teacher-fronted IRF sequences. In addition, the study indicates that learning a foreign language and becoming a language user is a complex and dynamic process of learners participating in communities that are created, maintained, and changed by their members, the acquisition of linguistic structures and appropriate application to context, and individual learners?? personal attributes and experience.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/258244 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Ohara, Tetsushi, Languages & Linguistics, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, UNSW |
| Publisher | Publisher:University of New South Wales. Languages & Linguistics |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/copyright, http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/copyright |
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