Department of Education and Skills, Ireland
OZAKI Hiroko

Currently, Ireland is undergoing educational reform for the Junior Cycle (or the first part of secondary school. hereinafter “JC”). After the completion of JC, students in Ireland must take the Junior Certificate, a national test, and to prepare for the test, JC has taken on an aspect of rote-learning, and the resulting decline in student motivation was seen as a problem. Accordingly, a complete revision of the JC curriculum was begun in 2012 in order to cultivate the ability of students to learn independently and autonomously throughout their lives. One of the main features of this educational reform is the introduction of a new course called the Junior Cycle Short Course (hereinafter “Short Course”). This new course involves spending approximately 200 hours studying a single subject, or roughly half the standard amount of time spent learning subjects, allowing the student to learn in a way that matches their wider interests and personality. While there is currently only one JC that teaches Japanese, the segment of Japanese learners can be expected to grow if more schools add a Japanese Short Course.

The Post Primary Language Ireland (PPLI) to which I am assigned is involved in developing the curriculum for language Short Courses, and the Japanese language Short Course curriculum is specifically the job of the Japanese-Language Chief Advisor. The overall structure of the Japanese Short Course was created according to the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Language: Learning, teaching, assessment), a shared curriculum framework for all languages, to which the syllabus for each unit, specific class activity proposals, and a list of resources were added to create a sample unit of five modules.

In addition to development of Japanese communication abilities, another important role of the Japanese Short Course is to teach the learners the difference between Japanese and their native language (English or Irish), and between the Japanese culture and their native culture of Ireland. Furthermore, the development of key skills for the 21st century is also a goal shared by all courses in the new JC curriculum, so when designing each sample unit, it is necessary to ensure the learning outcome matches that goal and to consider the study topics and activities accordingly. While that work is not easy, the creation curriculums according to this new approach is highly stimulating and enjoyable.

Diagram of the key skills for the Japanese Short Course (National Council for Curriculum and Assessment)

Ard Scoil Ris School TY Japanese Class

What makes the job of Japanese-Language Chief Advisor interesting is the ability to experience numerous types of work. This might include creating curriculums, visiting schools and observing classes, and holding seminars and Japanese classes for non-native teachers. While the main job of the Japanese-Language Chief Advisor is to support Japanese-language teachers, there are also opportunities to teach Japanese directly to learners, such as through university classes or Japanese-language courses for those about to visit Japan for the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme, or those who have just returned from it. Last year, I had the opportunity to help teach a TY class (Transition Year, the first year secondary school-Senior Cycle) at a boys' school. The TY Japanese class primarily focuses on Japanese culture with some language studies. The day I assisted involved a mini-speech contest during the first half of class in which each student briefly introduced themselves, for which I assisted the teacher in charge as a judge, after which I spoke about Sumo in the second half. The students showed great interest, likely because they had already been learning about Japanese martial arts, and joined in with calls of “Yoisho!” as they closely watched my demonstration of the basic squats, purification hand movements, and stamping that occurs before matches, while practicing the stamping themselves. Despite being in good shape from daily rugby practice, the students were still surprised that their thighs were sore after practicing the squats and stamping, but they still found the sumo practice to be exciting.

The Japanese-Language Chief Advisor also serves as a coordinator. I seek out Japanese people with backgrounds in Japanese-language education who have an interest in Japanese-language education in the secondary school-Senior Cycle, also visiting Ireland as exchange students or on working holidays , and match them with PPLI and secondary school-Senior Cycle teachers to serve as volunteer assistants. Both the Japanese assistants themselves and the host schools have been very satisfied with the program, but the students themselves have been extremely happy for having been able to enjoy high quality Japanese classes, which in turn both relieves me and makes me happy as well.

My assignment to Ireland will soon come to an end, but I hope to share about my experiences in Japanese-language education in Ireland, increasing the number of Ireland supporters in Japan, and continue to support Japanese-language education in Ireland.