• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2000.07a
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• pp.235-240
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• 2000

In the age of global communication, more human exchange is extended at the grass-roots level. In the old days, language policy and language planning was based on one nation-state with one language. But high waves of globalizaiton have allowed extended human flow of exchange beyond one's national border on a daily basis. Under such circumstances, homogeneity in Japan may not allow Japanese to speak and communicate only in Japanese and only with Japanese people. In Japan, an advisory report was made to the Ministry of Education in June 1996 about what education should be like in the 21st century. In this report, an introduction of English at public elementary schools was for the first time made. A basic policy of English instruction at the elementary school level was revealed. With this concept, English instruction is not required at the elementary school level but each school has their own choice of introducing English as their curriculum starting April 2002. As Baker, Colin (1996) indicates the age of three as being the threshold diving a child becoming bilingual naturally or by formal instruction. Threre is a movement towards making second language acquisition more naturalistic in an educational setting, developing communicative competence in a more or less formal way. From the lesson of the Canadian immersion success, Genesee (1987) stresses the importance of early language instruction. It is clear that from a psycho-linguistic perspective, most children acquire basic communication skills in their first language apparently effortlessly and without systematic and formal instruction during the first six or seven years of life. This innate capacity diminishes with age, thereby making language learning increasingly difficult. The author, being a returnee, experienced considerable difficulty acquiring L2, and especially achieving native-like competence. There will be many hurdles to conquer until Japanese students are able to reach at least a communicative level in English. It has been mentioned that English is not taught to clear the college entrance examination, but to communicate. However, Japanese college entrance examination still makes students focus more on the grammar-translation method. This is expected to shift to a more communication stressed approach. Japan does not have to aim at becoming an official bilingual country, but at least communicative English should be taught at every level in school Mito College is a small two-year co-ed college in Japan. Students at Mito College are basically notgood at English. It has only one department for business and economics, and English is required for all freshmen. It is necessary for me to make my classes enjoyable and attractive so that students can at least get motivated to learn English. My major target is communicative English so that students may be prepared to use English in various business settings. As an experiment to introduce more communicative English, the author has made the following syllabus design. This program aims at training students speak and enjoy English. 90-minute class (only 190-minute session per week is most common in Japanese colleges) is divided into two: The first half is to train students orally using Graded Direct Method. The latter half uses different materials each time so that students can learn and enjoy English culture and language simultaneously. There are no quizes or examinations in my one-academic year program. However, all students are required to make an original English poem by the end of the spring semester. 2-6 students work together in a group on one poem. Students coming to Mito College, Japan have one of the lowest English levels in all of Japan. However, an attached example of one poem made by a group shows that students can improve their creativity as long as they are kept encouraged. At the end of the fall semester, all students are then required individually to make a 3-minute original English speech. An example of that speech contest will be presented at the Convention in Seoul.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.91-117
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• 2007

This study was to compare the contents and practical problems addressed, the process of teaching-learning method, and evaluation method of Korean Home Economics curriculum and of the Oregon and Ohio's Practical Problem Focused Family & Consumer Sciences Curricula. The results are as follows. First, contents of Korean curriculum are organized by major sub-concepts of Home Economics academic discipline whereas curricular of both Oregon and Ohio states are organized by practical problems. Oregon uses the practical problems which integrate multi-subjects and Ohio uses ones which are good for the contents of the module by integrating concerns or interests which are lower or detailed level (related interests). Since it differentiates interest and module and used them based on the basic concept of Family and Consumer Science, Ohio's approach could be easier for Korean teachers and students to adopt. Second, the teaching-learning process in Korean home economics classroom is mostly teacher-centered which hinders students to develop higher order thinking skills. It is recommended to use student-centered learning activities. State of Oregon and Ohio's teaching-learning process brings up the ability of problem-solving by letting students clearly analyze practical problems proposed, solve problems by themselves through group discussions and various activities, and apply what they learn to other problems. Third, Korean evaluation system is heavily rely on summative evaluation such as written tests. It is highly recommended to facilitate various performance assessment tools. Since state of Oregon and Ohio both use practical problems, they evaluate students mainly based on their activity rather than written tests. The tools for evaluation include project documents, reports of learning activity, self-evaluation, evaluation of discussion activity, peer evaluation in a group for each students for their performance, assessment about module, and written tests as well.

• (The) Research of the performance art and culture
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• no.25
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• pp.253-289
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• 2012

Dasiraegi is a traditional funeral rite performance of Jindo located in the South Jeolla Province of South Korea. With its unique stylistic structure including various dances, songs and witty dialogues, and a storyline depicting the birth of a new life in the wake of death, embodying the Buddhism belief that life and death is interconnected; it attracted great interest from performance organizers and performers who were desperately seeking new contents that can be put on stage as a performance. It is needless to say previous research on Dasiraegi had been most valuable in its recreation as it analyzed the performance from a wide range of perspectives. Despite its contributions, the previous researches were mainly academic focusing on: the symbolic meanings of the performance, basic introduction to the components of the performance such as script, lyrics, witty dialogue, appearance (costume and make-up), stage properties, rhythm, dance and etc., lacking accurate representation of the most crucial element of the performance which is sori (song). For this reason, the study analyzes the music of Dasiraegi and presents its musical characteristics along with its scores to provide practical support for performers who are active in the field. Out of all the numbers in Dasiraegi, this study analyzed all of Geosa-nori and Sadang-nori, the funeral dirge (mourning chant) sung as the performers come on stage and Gasangjae-nori, because among the five proceedings of the funeral rite they were the most commonly performed. There are a plethora of performance recordings to choose from, however, this study chose Jindo Dasiraegi, an album released by E&E Media. The album offers high quality recordings of performances, but more importantly, it is easy to obtain and utilize for performers who want to learn the Dasiraegi based on the script provided in this study. The musical analysis discovered a number of interesting findings. Firstly, most of the songs in Dasiraegi use a typical Yukjabaegi-tori which applies the Mi scale frequently containing cut-off (breaking) sounds. Although, Southern Kyoung-tori which applies the Sol scale was used, it was only in limited parts and was musically incomplete. Secondly, there was no musical affinity between Ssitgim-gut and Dasiraegi albeit both are for funeral rites. The fundamental difference in character and function of Ssitgim-gut and Dasiraegi may be the reason behind this lack of affinity, as Ssitgim-gut is sung to guide the deceased to heaven by comforting him/her, whereas, Dasiaregi is sung to reinvigorate the lives of the living. Lastly, traces of musical grammar found in Pansori are present in the earlier part of Dasiraegi. This may be attributed to the master artist (Designee of Important Intangible Cultural Heritage), who was instrumental in the restoration and hand-down of Dasiaregi, and his experience in a Changgeuk company. The performer's experience with Changgeuk may have induced the alterations in Dasiraegi, causing it to deviate from its original form. On the other hand, it expanded the performative bais by enhancing the performance aspect of Dasiraegi allowing it to be utilized as contents for Performing Arts. It would be meaningful to see this study utilized to benefit future performance artists, taking Dasiraegi as their inspiration, which overcomes the loss of death and invigorates the vibrancy of life.