日本語教育における仮名文字教育の再考 - 書字教育を通した韓国人学習者の文字の実態調査から -
Reconsidering Kana Character Education in Japanese Language Education : From a Fact-finding Survey of Korean Learners’Characters through Writing Education
The author is currently involved in the training of Japanese language teachers for Korean secondary schools at a university in South Korea, and when I looked at the characters written by learners, errors in stroke order, poor character shapes and character balance, etc., were noticeable, and she became acutely aware of the need for character-writing education. Based on this background and awareness of the problem, this study first clarified the actual situation of handwritten characters of Korean learners of Japanese, and analysed and discussed changes through class practice of character education focusing on calligraphy. The results suggest that, although most Korean learners had already learned kana characters before entering university, the emphasis was on learning and pronouncing the characters, and not much character-writing education was provided. The survey also revealed that, compared to hiragana, education in katakana is neglected. In addition, through classroom practice, it was observed that significant improvements can be achieved if the textbook font is used for the printed font and the knowledge of character-writing is properly explained and taught, even in a short period of time. Furthermore, the learners were seen to be motivated to “write characters,” and the results of writing education were confirmed. This made clear the importance of incorporating character-writing education in the introductory period of language learning.