Series | SAIL
Volume 20 | Monograph | The Teaching of the Italian Language in Japan

The Teaching of the Italian Language in Japan

A Case Studio on Kansai

open access

Giuseppe Maugeri - Università degli Studi di Urbino Carlo Bo' - email orcid profile
Graziano Serragiotto - Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia - email

Aims & Scope

This research stems from the need of the Italian Cultural Institute to map the institutions involved in teaching Italian in the area considered and to analyse the quality of the teaching and learning process of the Italian language. The objectives are multiple and linked to the importance of finding the causes that slow the growth of the study of Italian in Japanese Kansai. Therefore, the first part of this action research will outline the cultural and linguistic education coordinates that characterize the Japanese context; in the second part, the research data will be interpreted in order to trace new methodological development trajectories to increase the quality of the Italian teaching process in Kansai.

Part 1

This part focuses on the situation of foreign language teaching in Japan. It also describes the strategies to promote the teaching of the Italian language in Japan from 1980 to now.

1 Modern Language Policy in Japan Between Past and Present This first chapter describes linguistic policy for the promotion of foreign languages in Japan by the Ministry of Education (MEXT).

2 Japanese Educational System Focus of this chapter are the cultural, pedagogical and linguistic education characteristics of the context under investigation.

3 Teaching Italian Language in Japan The purpose of this chapter is to outline the general frame of the spreading of the Italian cultural model in a traditional Japanese context.

Part 2

In the second part the action research and the training project design are described.

4 The Action-Research Project This chapter describes the overall design of the research and the research questions that inspired an investigation in the context under study. The aim is to understand whether there is a link between the methodological choices of the teachers and the difficulties in learning Italian for Japanese students.

Part 3

In this third part, the situation of teaching Italian in relation to different learning contexts in Japanese Kansai will be examined.

5 A Case Study at Italian Culture Institute in Osaka The goals of this chapter are to analyse the problems of teaching Italian at the IIC and suggest methodological improvement paths for teachers of Italian language at IIC.

6 A Case Study at Osaka University The data obtained by the informants will be used to analyse the situation of the teaching of Italian at Department of Italian language of this university and suggest curricular and methodological improvements to increase the quality of teaching and learning Italian.

7 A Case Study at Kyoto Sangyo University The chapter outlines the methodological and technical characteristics used to teach Italian at Kyoto Sangyo University and suggests strategies aimed at enhancing students’ language learning.

Keywords Mix methods research Italian as a foreign language to Japanese students Teaching and methological system Educational Linguistics