Editor's Preface: This project aims to promote creative writing skills among Japanese language learners and provide them with opportunities to publish their work to benefit future learners. The project targets undergraduate students in their third and fourth years of Japanese language studies, taking courses designed to develop their reading skills to allow them to read a novel without external support. To this end, students were encouraged to participate in significant reading activities outside class. However, students indicated that they had hard time to find more attractive reading options other than textbooks they read for class assignments. This project seeks to address the gap by encouraging students to create their own fictional works. Working in groups of three or four, students wrote a fictional work together. The students in the third-year Japanese class learned onomatopoeia used in literature and Japanese superstitions as parts of course works. Their creative writing was inspired by the course materials and used various words that are not found in commercial Japanese language textbooks. They successfully differentiated writing styles and applied these to their creative writing. Upon completing these assignments, students were motivated to publish their own work for future students of the Japanese language, expressing hope that their works might encourage others to write in various genres to improve their language proficiency.
Editor's Preface: This project aims to promote creative writing skills among Japanese language learners and provide them with opportunities to publish their work to benefit future learners. The project targets undergraduate students in their third and fourth years of Japanese language studies, taking courses designed to develop their reading skills to allow them to read a novel without external support. To this end, students were encouraged to participate in significant reading activities outside class. However, students indicated that they could not find attractive and appropriate reading options among the extensive Japanese reading collections. This project seeks to address the gap by encouraging students to create their own fictional works. Working in groups of three or four, students wrote a fictional work together. The students in the third-year Japanese class read Spirited Away and watched the original anime as course assignments. Their creative writing was inspired by the story and used various words that are not found in commercial Japanese language textbooks. Fourth-year students wrote a story relating to the main theme of the course: Tokyo. They successfully differentiated writing styles andapplied these to their creative writing. Upon completing these assignments, students were motivated to publish their own work for future students of the Japanese language, expressing hope that their worksmight encourage others to write in various genres to improve their language proficiency.
