(Nakahara) Hello, everyone. I’m Jun Nakahara. For today’s session, we would like to have a discussion with Mr. Takaki Asada, who teaches Japanese at Tokyo Gakugei University Senior High School. Thank you very much for coming. Asada (A): It’s my pleasure. (Nakahara) Today, I would like to ask you about the practice you are engaged with at Tokyo Gakugei University Senior High School, which makes use of drama in the classroom. I heard the courses are intended for first and second graders. Could you describe what the classes are like? (Asada) It is very difficult to describe in one word. The subject I’m in charge of is Japanese, so as one example, by regarding drama as a literary work, I let students write a haiku based on that. (Nakahara) I see. (Asada) In another case, I incorporate theatrical acts into the class and let the students learn actively by making presentations. (Nakahara) I see. I also heard that artists join your class and you use “Shin Kokin Wakashū” as a material. Are they tanka poems? You present two or three poems to the students, tell them to undertake preparatory learning, and let them write a script? What kind of script? Am I getting it right so far? (Asada) Yes. We do lots of things, and one of them is the style you mentioned. In a course using “Shin Kokin Wakashū,” some of the activities go beyond studying Japanese. By drawing lots, three tanka poems are selected and assigned to six groups in a class. The procedure of interpreting the poems belongs in the region of studying Japanese. However, we don’t stop with simply interpreting or appreciating the poems, but further proceed to creating new cultural outcomes. To be specific, the students create a new drama and perform it. Including “Shin Kokin Wakashū,” collections of tanka poems are usually divided into categories. There are three categories. These are seasonal poems, such as the four seasons, love poems, and others. These categories are especially distinct in “Kokin Wakashū". Anyway, from these three categories, I pick several poems and have the students draw lots. Then three poems from different categories are assigned to each group. (Nakahara) That means, for example, a group will be working on a summer poem, a love poem, and another. (Asada) Exactly. Students are already done with the interpretation of those poems. I then let them incorporate the poems into a script. They can put them in a line or narration, or use some kind of image related to their interpretation, either is fine. Each group integrates the three poems into a single drama and performs it in front of the rest of the class. (Nakahara) How many hours does it take for the students to create a play? (Asada) It depends on the year. (Nakahara) I can imagine. (Asada) By the time the students start their work, they are already finished with their interpretation of the poems, so I use our one-hour of class time on creating the play, giving advice to each group, and subsequently, I tell the students to do the rest of their work as an extracurricular activity. If artists are to join the class, they do so at this time, which is called the reading presentation, where students read the first draft of their script without performing it. (Nakahara) Students read their scripts? (Asada) Yes, they do. Artists are assigned to each group to see if the scripts stand as drama. If the scripts need improvement, they advise the students and let them brush up on their draft. I use another hour for further brush-up, so that makes about four hours in total to complete. (Nakahara) Meaning to get ready to perform, right? (Asada) Yes. (Nakahara) Do the artists visit again to watch the students’ performances? (Asada) Yes. (Nakahara) I see. So, the next question is why you invite artists to your class. I mean, I would like to know how you share your work with the artists. (Asada) The reason I invite artists is because of a project run by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), called the “Experience of Artistic Expression which Contributes to Nurturing Communication Skills of Pupils and Students. Our school was adopted by the project, so frankly speaking, we have acquired the budget for that purpose. (Nakahara) I see. (Asada) So the personnel and
travel expenses are funded by MEXT. But first of all, the reason why I applied for this funding was mainly because, since I was already working as an adviser to a drama club at school, I had a good relationship with the artists who currently help us out by providing us with venues and advice. (Nakahara) I see. So you ask the artists to give sharp advice on students’ scripts from their professional perspective? (Asada) Yes. (Nakahara) I see. Well, I’m completely a layperson in Japanese as a subject or in classical literature. When you say classical literature, or you might say tanka poems, I only have an image of something you are forced to memorize or master the grammar. I’d better say I “had” the image. Your talk has changed my view a little. And when it comes to Japanese classes, I have an image of reading and comprehension. There’s no image of performing or acting by yourself. It’s more like inputting something. Does your driving force to deliver such classes derive from such ideas? (Asada) Well, since classical literature is a field of interpreting words from old times, for many years it has been pointed out that you should not stop with interpretation. There have been many different practices devised in the field of Japanese language teaching, but not many practices that include creation in the field of classical literature teaching. In other words, classes already exist that allow students to investigate intellectually and to make presentations intellectually. For example, many of them involve students making presentations in front of other students about what they understand about classical literature. (Nakahara) I see. (Asada) But that is not enough for fostering sensibilities. On the contrary, in the field of teaching "tanka" poems and "haikus" in modern Japanese, tbook. students engage in activities such as composing their own poems after learning those in the textbook. And in the field of teaching contemporary poetry students are often allowed to recite the poems. Maybe it is done occasionally in the field of teaching novels, too. I believe that such performances are also part of presentation activities, so I would like to incorporate them into the field of teaching classical literature. (Nakahara) I see. (Asada) However, when you try to do something in classical literature class, it is quite difficult to get the students to do ancient writing. (Nakahara) It must be. (Asada) Therefore, I came up with the idea of getting them to actively recite
classical literature, or arrange classical literature into modern pieces and perform them. (Nakahara) I see. I’m not actually used to such performances. Well, it’s been more than 20 years since I was a high school student, but there weren’t such things then. I had the image of drama as something strange, well, this may be because I lived in an extremely rural area. I had no chance to get to know what drama was when I was young. Has that situation gradually changed? (Asada) Well, it depends on the regions whether you can have an opportunity to come into contact with drama. (Nakahara) Really? (Asada) Take our school, for example. There is a modern Japanese school event for the first graders to go out and see a play. And at the school festival, all eight classes of third graders perform a play. For students, at least for our students, drama is not a strange thing. (Nakahara) Wow. Then it must be a problem of where I lived. Well, I have no intention of blaming my hometown, but I think I somehow had no chance to come into contact with knowledge such as this. However, thinking carefully, performances such as seeing or being seen, playing or being played are something that exist in daily life. (Asada) Yes. (Nakahara) Everyone lives one’s life by more or less playing the role of someone, so performances might not be so distant from us. (Asada) That is exactly what I say to my students. “There’s not one of you who lives without playing the role of someone. (Nakahara) Right. (Asada) “You are playing the role of a friend here, and the role of a child at home." It is normal for us, as humans, to play such roles, so just give yourself airs a bit and act. (Nakahara) I see. (Asada) That’s the way I do it. (Nakahara) Wow, your students are learning Goffman from high school. What it is to act. I see. Now, to change the subject slightly, when it comes to making a class interactive by using drama or some kind of performance, there must be people who make the assumption, “Then Sensei, you don’t have to learn about ancient grammar, do you?” I think it is possible to stand in a position where you completely abandon the style of class that focuses on memorizing or conveying information. How do you keep a balance between those two approaches? (Asada) I basically think that nothing should be one-sided. (Nakahara) I see. (Asada) I heard that some teachers only teach grammar, but teaching grammar one-sidedly instills the idea into the students of regarding classical literature as something grammatical, something that only needs interpretation. Such an approach may have resulted in the increasing number of classical literature haters. (Nakahara) That’s me! (*Dr. Nakahara raises his hand. (Asada) You were! (*laughing) (Nakahara) I’m sorry. (Asada) The nation also tells us not to deliver classes that only increase the number of classical literature haters. (Nakahara) Really? (Asada) So, you are obliged to take somewhat of a balance, and I think that’s the way it should be. When it comes to delivering the classes I mentioned in the field of teaching classical literature, for example, I, of course, get the students to learn about grammar, the meanings of words, or various kinds of literary works in other sessions. (Nakahara) Do you secure class time for such learning? (Asada) Of course, I do. Unless I deal with such things, for example, if I let them work only on a drama all year using the classical literature classes, I think all the students will turn their backs on me. (Nakahara) They will become like so-and-so theatrical company. (Asada) Yes. Many of the students here go to university, so… (Nakahara) I suppose so. (Asada) It is natural to be able to do ordinary things in ordinary ways, and such style used to be the most popular before. There is a history of inventing more and more new class styles in this way and that way. (Nakahara) I see. (Asada) Among those new styles, I came to think of trying an unusual approach that no other teachers had tried before. (Nakahara) I see. (Asada) Yes. (Nakahara) As for the topic of a little while ago, that our daily acts are theatrical and related to acting, incorporating acting into classes might actually be regarded as normal, in a sense. From that point of view, class styles seem a bit unbalanced, at least they might have been 20 years ago. (Asada) For me, it was more than 30 years ago. (Nakahara) Really? (Asada) Yes, I just kept listening and listening in class. (Nakahara) Same for me. Finally, many people watching this online are aiming to teach at university or high school. Could you give them advice or a message from your perspective? (Asada) I also have some experiences of teaching at university and I found that even university students will fall asleep if I only give a lecture. (Nakahara) Yes, they will. (Asada) I think there is basic knowledge or common sense to be learned in every field. Since I’m a school teacher, the course I’m mostly in charge of at university is “Studies on Japanese Language." I give the students a certain topic and have them memorize what they should so in every session, but I always make sure to incorporate the activities of holding a discussion related to the topic and making a presentation on that discussion. I also have university students’ work in the class using “Shin Kokin Wakashū,” as I described before. (Nakahara) Really? (Asada) Unless you experience such classes as a student, you will never reach the stage of delivering them as a teacher, and you will end up repeating the classes you took in the past. (Nakahara) You just end up reproducing them. (Asada) There’s no denying that I also reproduce the classes I took 30 years ago to some extent, and I would like to go beyond that. In order to do that, you have to devise by yourself, learn from the practices of those who went before you, especially from those who publish reports of their practices, and have a mindset of incorporating new perspectives by making use of different opportunities. (Nakahara) Those are what you need to do. (Asada) I think so. (Nakahara) OK. I would like to ask more questions, but this is the end of the session. Thank you very much. (Asada) Thank you.
