Current Status and Issues of Japanese Language Education in Argentine : The Case of lnstituto Privado Argentino Japones en Buenos Aires

摘要

The Japanese communities have been taking the leading role in Japanese Language Education in Argentine. Those who had emigrated before World War II composed the Japanese associations, and they established Japanese language schools throughout the country in order to transmit Japanese language and culture to their posterity, especially the younger generations than the second generations. At the time those schools were established, the education of Japanese as a heritage language (JHL) was predominant. In late years, however, one of the main roles of those schools has been shifting to the education of Japanese as a foreign language (JFL) while maintaining the education of JHL under the influence of the alternation of generations among the Japanese communities in Argentine. Instituto Privado Argentino Japones en Buenos Aires (Nichia Gakuin) is the only elementary and middle school approved and privileged by the Ministry of Education of Argentine to educate Japanese language as a required subject. This article focused on the case of Nichia Gakuin to view and highlight the current status and issues of Japanese language education in Argentine through the interviews with three Japanese language instructors involved with Nichia Gakuin. In conclusion, it is not appropriate to look at the natural shift of JHL to JFL with folded arms, and it is necessary to improve a new effective educational system to let all the people who wish to learn Japanese language and culture not only Japanese descents in Argentine. Since this article is based on a qualitative study, it will be a forthcoming task to conduct a quantitative survey to reveal the motivations, and the needs both of JHL and JFL learners in Argentine.