Patterns of variation in teaching Japanese as a foreign language

Abstract

Japanese is one of the most learnt foreign languages in Hong Kong. Although a number of education institutions offer Japanese programmes to cope with the demand for learning the language, the number of programmes or courses for training Japanese teacher in the city is not sufficient. Unlike English teaching, Japanese teachers cannot expect students to have prior learning experience or basic linguistic knowledge in Japanese. Further, Japanese is usually taught in Japanese due to the absence of common languages among the teacher and the students, particularly in Japan. In regard to the characteristic features of Japanese teaching in Japan, teacher education and training is also premised to teach Japanese in the target language. It is presumed that the current Japanese teaching practice is based on such teacher education/training programmes/courses and is developed under the system of the apprenticeship at workplace or teacher community. This study focuses on the professional teaching skills and knowledge of teachers in the field of teaching Japanese as a foreign language (JFL) in Hong Kong and analyses these with reference to the patterns of variation and invariance, which are the important components in the variation theory of learning. The patterns of variation and invariance significantly provide teachers with specific teaching procedures for improving students’ learning and an explicit explanation to the effectiveness of teaching. In other words, effective teaching practice developed from substantial teaching experience is able to be explained in an explicit manner, which is considered to be informative for those who cannot maintain their teaching practice under the apprenticeship system or novice teachers. In order to identify the particular teaching practice of experienced JFL teachers in Hong Kong, the present study collected lesson plans written by experienced teachers and those produced by a novice teacher for comparison. The characteristic lesson plans used in JFL teaching had provided a foundation to explore how teachers planned and structured their teaching. The findings indicated that the basic teaching methodology in JFL was factually standardised and the patterns of variation and invariance were constituted in a systematic way in the lesson plans of the experienced teachers. As the particular patterns of variation and invariance were not observed in the novice teacher’s lesson plan, these were presumably not taught or trained in teacher education/training. In this connection, adopting the patterns of variation and invariance into JFL teaching in Hong Kong is expected to bridge the gap between teacher education/training and the professional teaching techniques gained through interactions with students in classrooms, which is believed to be beneficial to both experienced and novice teachers.