総合的な視点に基づいた児童英語指導法に関する研究 : 英語を専科としない学生による積極的かつ専門的アプローチをめざして  [in Japanese] A Study of Teaching English to Children : In Pursuit of an Active and Professional Approach by Non-English Major College Students  [in Japanese]

The concern of this paper is to clarify a joint research project conducted in 2005 at Toyo Eiwa University, whose purpose was mainly to explore ways to instruct Toyo Eiwa students to teach English to children in a significant and effective way. In 2002, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) introduced in the nation's public elementary schools the "Period of Integrated Study," in which they could conduct English-related activities for the purpose of promoting international understanding. In the following year, the MEXT established an Action Plan to "Cultivate Japanese with English Abilities," one of whose focuses is to support and enhance English conversation activities in elementary schools. Therefore, teaching English to children, both preschoolers and schoolchildren, have been attracting much attention of teachers and educators, not to mention the parents. Such being the case, several faculty members with different academic backgrounds set up a joint research project in order to investigate into good ways for our students to contribute to meeting the needs of the society; even though they do not major in English, they can support those teachers in kindergarten and elementary school as undergraduates, and will be able to do so in the future at different stages of their life. The joint research actually aimed at serving a double purpose; for the faculty to search for a didactics of training especially Toyo Eiwa students to teach English to small children in various approaches, and for these students to receive training in teaching English to children with heightening their awareness of the meaning of international understanding. We have made full use of the research results in an elective English course, "Children and English," which was first introduced in our curriculum in 2005, by taking turns to interact with the students as instructors as well as co-learners.