Social Change and Roles of Japanese Language Teachers:
How teachers in the future should manage technology?

Tomohisa Yamada (Hokkaido University)
1. Introduction
The level of the ICT 1 literacy of Japanese language teachers, as is reported in“Yamada”(2016), remains as low as ever. Behind this situation, the lack of systematic training
in the ICT literacy can be mentioned as its cause, in addition to the physical cause that theycannot prepare machinery. In reality, in training courses for Japanese language teachers, they
are not taught about how to make practical use of the ICT, and even after they have started
working as teachers, they have few or no opportunities of receiving training in the practicaluse of ICT. This is considered to be the reason why the ICT literacy of Japanese language
teachers stays at a low level as before. On the other hand, because of the increase of thenumber of learners and the diversifications of their needs, the work of Japanese language
teachers goes on increasing. It is expected that if things move on like this, time spared forteaching will become even shorter. Therefore, it is necessary for Japanese language teachers
from now on to make effective use of ICT in their own business, and to make efforts for “theimprovement of business efficiency” and “the improvement of educational effectiveness”.
In order to contribute to the improvement of Japanese language teachers’ ICT literacy, thisarticle will discuss the following three aspects;
1)

a general view of reality of ICT and Japanese language education and social change.

2)

those problems found in the area of present Japanese language education.

3)

how Japanese language teachers in the future should have close relations withtechnology.

As Leask and Pachler (2014) point, the terms Information and Communication Technologies (ICT),
new technologies and digital technologies will be used more or less interchangeably in this paper.

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2. Foreign Language Education and Technology
2.1 Changes of Foreign Language Education and Technology
The first case in which technology was introduced in foreign language education was theLL (Language Laboratory) classroom or booth as a facility to teach language through using
audio or video. Next CAI (Computer Assisted/Aided Instruction) was introduced in the 1970s,
as a computer which was not connected to the Internet. It is said that CAI has changedlanguage learning method by giving solitary learners who were practicing in an LL Room ora Booth independence with which they were challenged to solve problems. However,learning work itself remained as monotonous as before, because the questions provided had
been arranged beforehand.
In the 1990s, computers came into widespread use for individuals. In 1995, Microsoft Co.
put Windows 95 on sale. This worked as a major factor and made e-learning sites come out
in language education, which enabled web-learners to learn independently. In addition, itwas during this period that as a result of the spread of personal computers amongindividuals, methods of producing and presenting teaching materials changed from mainly
paper-based ones to digital-based ones through computers.
With the start of the twenty-first century, the current to offer teaching materials widely andpublicly came forward. This arose from OCW (Open Course Ware) established by MIT(Massachusetts Institute of Technology). OCW is an attempt to provide all the classes carriedout at MIT without any cost. This practice has continued until now and universities andcolleges all over the world put their classes open on the web.
In some cases, personal teaching materials were published. Khan Academy, established in
2004, is one of them. Mr. Khan, who used to be an analyst of an investment bank, uploaded
animated drawings on YouTube by using Tablet devices and making animated drawings justas we write letters on the blackboard, in order to teach math to his nephew living in a faroff place. People thought it easy to understand and it became very popular, spreading allover the world in an instant. Merits of learning over the Internet are that learners can returnto the most difficult spots over and over again. Furthermore, another merit is that they canlearn in remote places. For this reason, Khan Academy spread worldwide on the Internet.
The teaching form influenced by Khan Academy is called Flipped Learning. Flipped learning4

is explained as follows: it is a preparation centred teaching form (Shigeta 2014: 113) in whichlearners are led to confirm their knowledge and to put it to practical use during the classand the lectures formerly given during the class are finished before the class. In other words,
the order of the activity performed in the class and the order of what was done at home isreversed. This is now called Reversed Teaching. Flipped learning has advantages that learners
can make sure of their knowledge at their own pace returning to automated drawings overand over again. Teachers can also decrease their burden of explaining to learners according
to their individual pace.
The learning method of making effective use of both the advantage of learning on-line andthat of learning face to face, together with Flipped Learning, is called Blended Learning. Thisis literally the blend of on-line and face to face learnings and its main point is making thebest use of both approaches. In Japanese Language Learning, there are some attempts tomake practical use of Blended Learning. For instance, LMS (Learning Management System)by Shinozaki (2013a, 2013b) and Yamada (2010): there is a report on LMS, in which they set
up animated drawings with grammatical explanations in the beginning and they try to
deepen understanding of face to face teaching and its problems.
Recently, MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) coming from Flipped Learning havebecome widespread in higher education. As MOOC is a learning form suitable for lectures,some people criticise that the form is not good for language learning. (Yamada 2016,Yokomizo & Yamada 2019)
So far, we have surveyed the changes of technology in foreign language education, but
recently some changes have been seen in digital devices for individual use. In the latter halfof the 2000s, the main item of machinery used for language teaching was the PC but in
addition to the explosive popularity of smart phones, and because of the spread of tabletshaped devices originating from iPad of Apple Co., which appeared in 2011, individual
learning has shifted from PC to tablets. According to the survey of 14 cities in Asian Zone
held by Global Habit (2017), the rate of ownership of smart phones in Asian Zone is abovethat of ownership of PC. Furthermore, as for the younger generation (below 34) the rate ofownership of smart phones is more than 90% in 10 cities out of 14 cities. Consequently, weJapanese language teachers should pay more attention to the fact that the devices future5learners will depend upon are not PC but smart phones or tablets.

2.2 Japanese Language Education and Application of ICT and its Problems
As introduced in the former paragraph, the development of technology in Japanese
language education is remarkable, but how have the teachers coped with the trends of thetimes? For example, the Japanese MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science andTechnology) started up “A team to examine efficient application of the ICT”, and in 2017, theMinistry published a guideline for efficient application of ICT in compulsory education, which
extends over 11 branches. Therefore, the teachers working in compulsory education courses
are supposed to give lessons making practical use of ICT in Japanese language education.
However, when we see the field of Japanese language education from a different angle, werealize that there are no definite guidelines concerning the practical use of ICT. Accordingly,
those teachers who are giving lessons making active use of the ICT have a strong tendency
to be “those who are fond of and also good at the ICT” and the present situation is that theteachers, male or female, are repeating trial and error in their own ways. (e.g. Fukukawa &Tezuka 2016, Koshimizu et. al 2018, Lee 2019) As a result, most Japanese language teachers,
those who are neither fond of nor good at ICT, are left behind, and the Digital Divide among
teachers is getting wider and wider. This has produced a new problem. This situation agrees
with the idea of Rodgers (2003), who proposes that it is necessary for us to go through 5stages, Innovation, Early Adaptors, Early Majority, Late Majority, Laggards, in order to spread
innovation among the general public.
The following shows the relationship between Japanese language teachers and ICT in a chart
based on Rodgers’ ideas.
Teachers who are fond of andgood at ICT
Teachers who are not fond of but
good at ICT

Teachers who are fond of but
not good at ICT
Teachers who are neither fondof nor good at ICTTable1. The relationship of the ICT and Japanese language teachers

In the field of future Japanese language education, it is necessary to take up “the teachers
who are neither fond of nor good at the ICT” shown in a chart above as its target and to
improve their literacy of the ICT. Otherwise it will be impossible to deal with the increase of6Japanese language learners and the diversification of their needs. Then, how should weelevate the literacy of Japanese language teachers? As for this subject, it is effective to referto the SAMR model proposed by Puentedura (2012).

2.3 SAMR model
The SAMR model is a guideline for teachers to take in technology in their teaching (SeeFigure1). The SAMR model is roughly divided into two parts: “Enhancement” and“Transformation”. “Enhancement” is the practical use of technology that enhances theeducational effectiveness in the traditional teaching activity. “Transformation” is the practicaluse of technology that produces a completely new teaching activity far from the frameworkof the conventional teaching form. Furthermore, “Enhancement” is subdivided into
“Substitution” and “Augmentation”, and “Transformation” into “Modification” and“Redefinition”. In this model, the conventional learning method is clearly distinguished fromthe future learning method and teachers are recommended to compare the SAMR modelwith their own method and to adopt new technology effectively and successfully.

Figure 1. SAMR model

SAMR model is a very informative model, but it is not so practical for teachers who are toopressed with daily school work to pay careful attention to those four subdivisions. Instead,when teachers take in a new technology in their teaching, they should try to think and decide7whether it is as a ‘Substitution’ for their usual teaching or it is a new experience never foundin their former class, that is, as a ‘Redefinition’. Then, it could be a useful guideline. On topof that, if they can make sure that their new attempt is useful for their business efficiency or
if it will contribute to the improvement of educational effectiveness, the teachers will surely
be able to have good relations with ICT.

3. Examples with ICT put into practice, in Japanese language education
This article, for reference, introduces the literacy of ICT, which teachers in future need tostudy, with each of the services itemized in the following table.

Slack

Substitution
vs.
Redefinition
Substitution

Yourei.jp

Substitution

oTranscribe

Substitution

Web Japan

Substitution

jReadability

Redefinition

GoogleForm

Substitution

Sli.doRedefinition

GoogleTranslate

Redefinition

Services

Purposes

Details

Improvement ofbusiness
efficiency
Improvement ofbusiness
efficiency
Improvement ofbusiness
efficiency
Improvement ofeducational
efficiencySubstitute for e-mail. Web service like Slackwill be main stream in terms ofcommunications among teachers.
Useful Website in thinking over sentences toshow learners.
Convenient site in transcribing learners’presentation.
Convenient Website for teaching learners byusing animated drawings instead of words orpictures. There are hundreds of animateddrawings of Japanese culture and society.
Web service which divides reading materials
which teachers used to make in their own
ways to morpheme and visualise them.

Improvement ofbusiness
efficiency &Improvement ofeducational
efficiency
Improvement ofbusinessefficiency &Improvement ofeducational
efficiency
Improvement ofeducational
efficiency
Improvement ofeducational
efficiency

Platform which makes it possible to present aquiz or test on the web which used to beprovided paper-based. It does marking andcalculating automatically, which saves time.

Service which collects and analyses learners’opinions. It enables interactivecommunication.
It recognises learners’ pronunciation, whichenables learners to practise theirpronunciation.

8Kahoot!

Redefinition

ZOOM

Redefinition

Improvement ofeducational
efficiency
Improvement ofeducational
efficiency

It makes four-choice questions. Learners cananswer on their smartphones. Good for
motivating learners.
Website which is useful in teaching several
learners on the Internet.

The services shown in this paragraph are chosen from the viewpoint of expectations for“improvement of business efficiency” or “development of learning effectiveness”. In otherwords, if these two points are not made accurate, there might be no need to depend upon
technology. Let me repeat: in case of adopting in technology, teachers should ask themselves
the basic question “Why should I make use of it?”

4. Conclusion
In this article, having discussed the present problems hindering for the improvement ofJapanese language teachers’ literacy of ICT, we have offered our opinions on how theteachers in the future should deal with technology. As I have already mentioned, if only “theteachers who are fond of and good at ICT” are allowed to perform their teaching activity intheir own way, most teachers belonging to “Late Majority” will be left behind. As a result, thepossibility of Japanese language education as a whole becoming stagnant is high.
Accordingly, in the Japanese language education world, not only the endeavor of each of
the teachers, but also the development of accurate guiding principles concerning ICT andJapanese language education must be required. In addition, taking into consideration theprospect that the roles of teachers will change with the development of technology, teachers
from now on should have the capacity to tackle questions such as in what way they shouldmake more active use of technology or how teachers can contribute as flesh-and-blood
persons, getting over their hatred for technology.
In this way, we have discussed the relationships between Japanese language teachers andICT, but we cannot ignore the limits. We could not succeed in showing a concrete guideline
for dealing with ICT systematically. We expect that this will be solved by the development of
a new framework in which ICT literacy is classified according to its different levels of difficulty.
As for the learning effectiveness, we need more specified investigation. We have to9

continue our search to clarify following questions: To whom and what kind of effect will begiven?

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