Learning Japanese by Reading ‘manga’: The Rise of ‘Soft Power Pedagogy’

Abstract

Multimodal examples of Japanese language input (such as ‘manga’ and anime) have now become the default choice for curriculum designers, material developers, and classroom teachers to make learning ‘fun’. More traditional written only text-based materials are now in direct competition with such materials. While there has been a comfortable relationship in additional language (L2) teaching between using text and image, for example, pictures, fuzzy felt boards, and now much more sophisticated technology (e.g. Rosetta Stone™) to explicitly teach the lexico-grammar, the proliferation of ‘manga’ in Japanese language textbooks and as stand alone course materials, for example, has largely been left unproblematized. In this paper I explore three issues to using material examples of Japanese popular culture in the Japanese language classroom and beyond. First, I focus on ‘manga’ as a case study and relate it to a course that I have been teaching for the last five years using ‘manga’ as artefact. Second, I explore how using ‘manga’ and other J-pop artefacts can impact on how the notions of legitimacy and appropriateness are linked to constructions of learner and teacher identities. Third, I will introduce the concept of what I’ll call ‘soft power pedagogy’ as a way of theorizing the use and potential abuse of ‘manga’, anime and other examples of Japanese popular culture in and out of the classroom.

Japanese Keigo: ‘Situational Context Analysis’ and ‘Politeness Strategies’ in Violet Evergarden Anime

“…As one of the Japanese popular media, we can observe a new opportunity to use anime in Japanese language pedagogy. This is not a new suggestion because Japanese popular media have already started to be implemented in learning Japanese, including through manga (Armour, 2011) and anime (Chan et al, 2017;Fukunaga, 2006;Karimah et al, 2019). Students often only know the keigo the lecturer told them, although it does not represent the majority of the keigo in daily Japanese conversation.…”

The Role of Parental Support and Family Variables in L1 and L2 Vocabulary Development of Japanese Heritage Language Students in the United States

“…The findings that “reading for pleasure in Japanese” accounted for nearly 30% of the variance of L1 Japanese vocabulary knowledge and that “Japanese pop culture” was associated with high Japanese vocabulary knowledge support the view that promoting extensive reading using favorite materials is an excellent approach to motivate adolescents to explore their multilingual capabilities. Japanese pop culture has been gaining popularity across the world, and manga and subtitled anime have become the default young readers’ favorite pastime and pleasure reading (Armour, ; Choi & Yi, ; Fukunaga, ). The finding that “Japanese pop culture” negatively predicted L2 English vocabulary may cause some concerns, but given that the target students overall demonstrated grade‐level English proficiency, such concerns should be minimal.…”

“…Parent‐child joint storybook reading, for instance, has been found to be beneficial for young children's literacy development (e.g., Chiong & DeLoache, ; Duursma, ; Paris & Paris, ). “Light” reading materials including manga (graphic novels) and subtitled anime (animated films) may also serve as a starting point for literacy practice among young readers, given the increasing popularity of Japanese pop culture across the world (Armour, ; Choi & Yi, ; Fukunaga, ). The availability of such reading resources and practices at home may explain the higher reading achievement of children from families with higher socioeconomic status than that of lower socioeconomic status peers (Aikens & Barbarin, ; Roberts et al, ).…”

Students with Varied Degrees of Asianness: Goldmine for Crosscultural Exchange

“…This indicates that Japanese pop culture such as anime films may be a driving force for studying the language for those who have little connection with Asia. The popularity of Japanese pop culture and its application to Japanese language instruction have been well discussed recently (e.g., [1] and [18]). Thomson [18] recommends the incorporation of pop culture into the curriculum, since, according to her survey, many students are interested in Japanese pop culture.…”