ATJ Journal Now Available Online

ATJ is pleased to announce that back issues of its journal, back to the first issue published in 1965, are now available on-line through the JSTOR digital archive. Through a special arrangement with JSTOR we are offering ATJ members access to the back issues online. Beginning January 1, 2003, members will be able to browse and conduct full-text searches of all issues of the Journal, from its original inception as The Journal-Newsletter in 1965, excluding the three most recent years.

In 2001, the Journal of the Association of Teachers of Japanese was renamed Japanese Language and Literature. The volumes under the current title will become available online through JSTOR in 2005. For participation information, which will be by password-protected access, please contact ATJ member services.

If your institution’s library is a subscriber to JSTOR's Language & Literature group of journals, you will be able to access the JATJ archives immediately through your library’s on-line catalog, along with 46 other journals that are included in the collection.

JSTOR is an independent not-for-profit organization whose mission is to create a trusted archive of scholarly journals and to increase access to those journals as widely as possible. Information regarding JSTOR is available at www.jstor.org. The most recent journal collection, Language & Literature, of which JATJ is a part, is a compendium of 47 titles spanning the literary cultures of many nations, including Japan, China, Germany, Egypt, and the U.S. The Language & Literature Collection adds 1.4 million new pages to JSTOR’s electronic archive of important scholarly journals, bringing the total number of pages in the archive to over 11 million.

The Language & Literature Collection was developed in conjunction with the Modern Language Association (MLA), through a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The MLA assembled a group of specialists to aid in the selection process. The resulting collection offers valuable insight into linguistics, comparative literature, and literary history, theory, analysis, and scholarship, and it is representative of the diversity of scholarship in these fields. Through this collection, scholars will be able to research topics such as Arab Cinematics in Alif, find essays reviewing the major scholarship in Romantic and Victorian literature in SEL, and learn about the literary traditions of Argentina in Hispania. In over 100 years of PMLA and over 70 years of New England Quarterly, scholars will be able to trace the history of literary studies and investigate the intersections between history and literature. Many of the journals in the collection are multidisciplinary in nature.

With the release of the Language & Literature Collection, JSTOR introduced a new enhanced language feature. Some articles in this collection contain content in non-Roman, non-ASCII alphabets, such as Japanese and Chinese. Users are now able to choose whether to view the citations for this content in the original alphabet or in a transliterated format.

The Language & Literature Collection expands upon 13 language and literature titles that are already available to JSTOR participants through the Arts & Sciences I Collection; 34 of the titles are completely new to the JSTOR archive. (A complete list of titles is available at www.jstor.org/about/langlit.list.html.) To date, over 250 libraries are participating in Language & Literature. JSTOR now contains the back runs of 275 journals and is available at nearly 1,500 libraries in 70 countries.

Japanese Language and Literature, the ATJ’s newly renamed journal, seeks articles in the fields of literature, linguistics, and pedagogy. Literature articles are particularly needed. The journal is refereed, and back issues are now on-line through the JSTOR archive (see preceding article), which will bring the JLL to even greater prominence in the field. Please submit your work to the appropriate editor (see last page for a list of editors); encourage new faculty members and graduate students to submit their research.

ATJ Endowment Is Growing

ATJ has joined the ranks of other non-profit organizations in establishing an endowment fund. Contributions of any amount to this fund, which are tax-dedictible, will help to ensure that the Association can continue to provide services to members in the future. A contribution has been made to the Endowment by Yukie Aida. Please consider donating when you next renew your membership, or by mail at any time. For more information, contact the ATJ office.

NEWS OF THE ALLIANCE
Professional Development Reports

[Keisuke Musashino, a middle school teacher from Portland, Oregon, received a professional development grant from the Alliance to attend a summer institute for K-8 language teachers and sent this report.]

I attended the K-8 Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew and Japanese Teacher Preparation Institute, which took place at the National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center at Iowa State University, in Ames, Iowa from July 8-18, 2002. Most of the participants flew to Des Moines. When I arrived, a representative from the institute kindly picked me up. As other participants arrived at the airport, I saw Japanese, Arabic, and Hebrew teachers interacting with each other. On the way to Ames I wondered how the workshop would be. I had never been to a workshop for teachers of languages other than Japanese.

We started each morning by observing a demonstration class taught by a leader teacher, Lynn Sessler-Schmaling from Menesha, Wisconsin. There were about 15 youngsters in the class who had finished kindergarten or first grade. None of them had any previous experience with studying Japanese. Lynn-sensei did not waste any time in getting them immersed in the world of a new language. Soon they looked really comfortable being in the environment and started producing the language! Students learned many things, and they used what they learned again and again in different contexts. It was truly amazing to see the kids greeting the teacher and their peers, counting, singing songs, expressing likes and dislikes, and complimenting each other in Japanese after only seven days of instruction.

Each morning after the demonstration we had an opportunity to ask questions of Lynn-sensei. Then we shifted to study sessions led by Dr. Helena Curtain and Dr. Carol Ann Dahlburg. Many topics and issues were covered in this ten-day intensive workshop. I learned about teaching language in a story form, teaching language in content areas, how to make interdisciplinary thematic units, literacy, and assessment. After the group discussion we divided into language groups for further discussion with a language specialist. Five Japanese teachers were with Dr. Hiroko Kataoka, and she facilitated discussion and consulted with each of us to help us complete our projects.

On the last day of the workshop, reflecting over breakfast, I realized that I had learned a great deal, and there is one more thing which made it really memorable: the people who were there. I had a chance to get to know other Japanese teachers teaching in different states. I had never interacted with teachers of Arabic or Hebrew before and was not familiar with the culture. However, it did not take much time to understand that they are really warm-hearted people who know how to have fun and are passionate about teaching. They gave everyone a glimpse of their culture by preparing a special dinner, singing and talking together. What a precious opportunity! At the end of the workshop, we all thought about what an excellent bonding experience it had been for all the participants, and we were filled with encouragement and inspiration. I would like to say shukran, todah rabah, and arigato to everyone who was there for making the workshop so special.

[Setsuko Buckley, who teaches at Whatcom Community College in Bellingham, Washington and is the recipient of an Alliance grant for professional development, participated in a Summer Institute at the East-West Center in Hawaii entitled “Empowering Relationships: Ways of Authority in Japanese Culture.” This report on cultural values in the Japanese education system is based on her final project at the Institute.]

After World War II, the Japanese education system was altered based on the U.S. system. Today Japan receives international recognition for its educational excellence, especially its achievement in math and science. How has this American-oriented education system succeeded in Japan? And how have Japanese cultural values played a significant role?

American education emphasizes individuality and development of the whole person. In Japan, students are highly individualized in the classroom and work hard to attain their goals through competition. Student cognitive learning is especially geared toward academic excellence. Yet the concept of the whole person is still emphasized through moral education and social interaction. This cognitive learning, assisted by affective learning as moral support, has aided Japan’s rapid economic growth since the postwar period. Japanese education has produced highly literate and numerically skilled high school and college graduates as the frontline workforce, and this has contributed to Japan’s high productivity. Thus, competition and cognitive and affective learning have been very successful.

A primary mission of Japanese education today is to enhance a well-balanced intellectual, moral, and physical development and to produce self-reliant whole persons. Given the high competition and mental pressure for entrance examinations, a support system at home and school is essential. At home, the mother provides a great deal of emotional support, while the father acts as an authority figure, especially on decision-making for the child's future. Consequently, the child tends to be emotionally and financially dependent on the parents until high school or college graduation. Today the majority of Japanese families are nuclear, yet they maintain the concept of ie (house). Japanese children harmonize and cooperate with their family members and identify themselves as uchi (in-group) as opposed to soto (out-group) as part of their socialization process.

At school, the role of the teacher is both authoritarian and supportive. Especially at the secondary level, the teacher transmits knowledge to the students in a highly text-oriented, teacher-centered style. The teacher also provides students with academic and life guidance. This helps students and teachers develop mutual trust and understanding. The development of peer relationships is enhanced within this structure as a miniature of Japanese society. Each classroom consists of a teacher and 40 students and contains han (small groups). This structure is highly top-down yet community-oriented, so that every student feels a sense of belonging, care, and harmony. One hour per week is spent integrating students together as a homeroom based on school activities. Building this ie-type structure is emphasized more at the elementary and middle school levels.

In summary, the Japanese education system has duality: cognitive and affective, authoritarian and supportive. These components were well harmonized in Japanese schools until the 1990s. However, the system is losing its equilibrium. This can be attributed to emphasis on highly cognitive learning, lack of social inclusiveness, and lack of moral construct and support. These issues need to be addressed.

Bridging Scholarships for Study in Japan

The winners of 35 Bridging Scholarships for study abroad in Japan in Spring 2003 will be announced at the end of November. As always, recipients will represent a broad range of majors, study programs in Japan, and colleges and universities in the U.S. The list of Bridging Scholars will be posted on the ATJ website, at www.colorado.edu/ealld/atj/Bridging/scholarships.html, as soon as it is released.

Applications from students who will be studying in Japan in Fall 2003 will be due April 3, 2003. Please encourage your students to study abroad and to apply for these scholarships, which are funded by contributions to the nonprofit U.S.-Japan Bridging Foundation. Contributors to the Spring 2003 scholarship fund include Boeing, Freeman Foundation, IMCA, Lockheed Martin, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Nichimoto Trading, Northwest Airlines, Philip Morris, Shinsei Bank, The Starr Foundation, Teradyne, Universal Studios, and Weyerhaeuser.