A Review of “Japanese through Newspaper Articles”

Hosseini, Ayat

A Review of “Japanese through Newspaper Articles”

Document Type : Research

Author

Ayat Hosseini

Assistant Professor of Japanese Language and Literature, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Tehran

Abstract

The present article introduces and evaluates the textbook “Japanese through Newspaper Articles” written by Osamu and Nobuko Mizutani which is commonly taught in “Journalistic Japanese” classes both in and outside Japan. This article reviews the book from two different points of view: first, the linguistic and pedagogical functions of the book are evaluated, and its achievements as a language textbook are criticized. Second, the cultural aspects of the book are evaluated and the image it tries to portray from Japanese society is analyzed. In order to achieve these goals, 60 real journal articles are randomly selected from Japanese press and their content is compared to that of the news articles in the book by using polarity tags.

Keywords

Japanese Language

Language Teaching

Journalistic Japanese

Newspaper

Polarity Tags

Subjects

Foreign Languages

Mizutani, Osamu and Nobuko Mizutani (2010), Kaiteibanshimbun-de Manabunihongo, Yondehanasugendaino Nihongo [Nihongo (Japanese) through Newspaper Articles, Revised Edition], Tokyo: The Japan Times Ltd.

Nation, Paul (2008), Teaching ESL/EFL Reading and Writing, London: Routledge.

Takamizawa, Hajime (2004), shin–hajimete no nihongokyōiku 2– nihongokyōiku no kisochishiki [New Japanese Language Education–Basic Knowledge in Teaching Japanese], Asuku publication.

VanPatten, Bill and Alessandro Benati (2015), Key Terms in Second Language Acquisition, Bloomsbury Publishing.