Analysis of Everyday Conversations and Their Application to Japanese Language Education

2026/04/01

I specialize in Japanese language education for non-native speakers and provide assistance to international students at Keio to improve their Japanese language skills. In my language education work, I am particularly interested in the development of learners' conversational skills.

A single utterance in everyday conversation can serve a variety of functions, such as questions, requests, invitations, apologies, or promises. While native speakers can naturally select expressions suited to these functions, non-native speakers must consciously learn which vocabulary and sentence patterns to combine to create effective expressions. That’s why, in educational settings, it is necessary to introduce specific Japanese expressions step by step, according to the learners' proficiency level. As part of my basic research, I collect examples with various functions from everyday conversations and drama scripts. I then organize and classify characteristic expressions, vocabulary, and communication strategies, and explore ways to incorporate them into teaching content and materials. Since real-world conversations are always shaped by the context in which they occur, there are limits to what can be taught about conversation within the classroom alone. Nevertheless, it is important to provide educational opportunities that expose learners to conversational examples with a variety of functions, enabling them to efficiently acquire expressions for rich communication in Japanese. 

In recent years, I have also been focusing on metalinguistic expressions. Metalinguistic expressions are expressions in which the speaker refers to his or her own or the other person's utterances themselves. When exchanging information with others, we also use metalinguistic expressions to direct the flow of conversation (e.g., “to go back to what I was saying,” “I digress”) or to refer to our own or another person's way of speaking in order to manage relationships (e.g., “this may be a bit rude,” “please be clear”). By learning these expressions, learners can better manage and navigate their conversations more smoothly on their own. Metalinguistic expressions also have cultural elements, making them essential for understanding the cultural context of conversations.

I aim to explore these complex and multilayered conversational systems and contribute to enhancing the conversational abilities of Japanese learners by reflecting my research findings in education.