National Methodological Schools of Foreign Language Instruction: The Case of Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language

   This paper addresses the notion of “national methodological school of foreign language instruction” as applied to the theory and practice of foreign language education within an individual country, as well as to the professional community employing specific approaches, methods, and techniques.

   Thus, the article aims to expand and refine the conceptual apparatus of foreign language teaching methodоlogy in the part of determining the specifics of the concept “national methodological school of foreign language instruction”, which constitutes the relevance of the conducted research in the context of globalization of education.

   The concept facilitates the conceptualization of teaching practices within distinct professional communities—an area that has been underexplored by researchers to date. The main method of research is the criterion analysis of methodological sources (textbooks, manuals, etc.). The study sets forth the basic criteria for analyzing a methodological school of foreign language instruction, including the aims and objectives of teaching, characteristics of instructional materials, the nature of teaching means, the pedagogical organization of proficiency development, the type of interaction between a teacher and a student, and other criteria for in-depth investigation. Using this framework, the paper explores national methodological schools for teaching the Japanese language in Russia, the United States, and Japan. These schools serve as ideal subjects due to the fundamental differences in the methodological principles underlying the Japanese language instruction in these countries. The empirical part of the study analyzes the most widely used course books and instructional-methodological packages employed in teaching Japanese as a foreign language in the specified countries. The paper presents key conclusions drawn from the description and analysis of the approaches and methods reflected in these teaching materials. In essence, the results of the study showed the reliability of the concept of “national methodological school of foreign language instruction” and the methods of its core characteristics research.

   The study reveals clear distinctions among the methodological schools of teaching Japanese in Russia, the United States, and Japan, particularly regarding their leading teaching methods.

   Notably, the Russian school employs the conscious-comparative method, while the traditional American school has predominantly relied on the audio-lingual method until recently. In contrast, the Japanese school adheres to the direct method, explicitly excluding translation as a teaching tool. Furthermore, the study highlights the interpenetration of methods and the influence of globalization on foreign language education, evidenced by the adoption of European assessment standards and competence level scales. The widespread adoption of the communicative approach is identified as a key manifestation of these globalizing trends.

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