Reconsideration of Literary Materials for
Japanese University English Classes
(Parallel Session 2: Room A, 14-14.50)

Kazuko Takahashi, Doctor Course, The University of Tokyo Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, ex-Assistant Professor, English Department, Seinan Gakuin University

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to reconsider the content of literary materials used in Japanese university English textbooks mainly from a practical standpoint. This paper has a tripartite structure. The first chapter gives a general overview of the fact that literary works have recently been isolated from Japanese English teaching against the background of the communication-centered language education. In this chapter, the standardized tests for university admissions held from the late 1970’s to the early 2000’s (‘The Common First-Stage Exam’ and ‘The National Center Test for University Admissions’) are mainly analyzed.

Through this analysis, the gradual isolation of literary materials from the English examinations is pointed out. The second chapter analyzes the characteristics of university English textbooks from the early 1980’s to the early 2000’s in which short stories are used as their main materials. Through this analysis, the problems of traditional types of literary materials are pointed out. The last chapter examines the several conditions of ideal literary materials for Japanese university English teaching. If we carefully choose suitable literary works for English education, and deeply consider the content of English textbooks, we will have more opportunities to utilize literature in our future English classrooms.

Biographical Data

Kazuko Takahashi taught English and modern British novels by E.M. Forster, Katherine Mansfield, D.H. Lawrence and others at Seinan Gakuin University in Fukuoka, Kyushu.   After leaving Seinan Gakuin, she has been studying effective ways to utilize literary materials in Japanese university English classrooms. Her recent publications in this area include: ‘Is the English of Literary Works Really “Unique”?: Doubts about its Exclusion from Second Language Learning’ in Language and Information Sciences 5 (2007); ‘Bungaku to Gengo-Kyoiku: Eigo-Kyoiku no Jirei wo Cyu-Shin ni’ (‘Literature and English Education in Japan’, written in Japanese) in Saito, Yoshifumi, ed. Gengo to Bungaku, Aasakura Gengo no Kanousei Ser. 10 (2009).