Show notes #15: ER in Japanese. Interview with Dr. Mitsue Tabata-Sandom (Part II)

Our previous episode featured the first part of our interview with long-time promoter of ER in Japanese Dr. Tabata-Sandom, which dealt mostly with the particularities of the Japanese writing system and its effects on learning to read the language. In this episode we include the second part of that interview, which deals with topics such as the challenges that authors of Japanese graded readers face, the limitations of Japanese graded readers and of doing ER in Japanese, Japanese teachers’ openness and willingness to do ER, and the role of children books and manga in learning to read in this language. But maybe most importantly, this episode comes with a very rich account by our guest of the resources that are available for those who want to do ER in Japanese.

We are very grateful to Dr. Tabata-Sandom for having sent us the links to those resources, which are listed below:

• Sendai International School of Japanese’s Sendai and Miyagi Japanese Reading series
• KC Yomu Yomu series
• Oxford Brookes University Japanese Graded Readers
• The Nihongo Tadoku Library
• Greg no tame no niki
• Dr. Tabata-Sandom’s “Yomimono Ippai” website

Some articles mentioned in this podcast, and some not mentioned but valuable and related, are here:

• Webb, S., & Macalister, J. (2012). Is text written for children useful for L2 Extensive Reading? TESOL Quarterly, 47(2), 300–322.
• Ro, E. (2017). How learning occurs in an extensive reading book club: A conversation analytic perspective. Applied Linguistics. doi:10.1093/applin/amx014.
• Tabata-Sandom, M. (2017). L2 Japanese learners’ responses to translation, speed reading, and pleasure reading as a form of extensive reading. Reading in a Foreign Language, 29(1), 113-132.
• 松下達彦（2017）「日本語読解テキストのリライトの重要性とアプローチ－語彙的要素を中心に－」『日本言語文化研究会論集』13、国際交流基金日本語国際センター・政策研究大学院大学、p.1-18

Advertisement