Attitudes Towards the Japanese Language Held by Deaf Children of High School Department Students

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 22K20214
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: :Education and related fields
• Research Institution: Hyogo University of Teacher Education
• Principal Investigator: Nakashima Takeshi 兵庫教育大学, 学校教育研究科, 講師 (20964109)
• Project Period (FY): 2022-08-31 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 日本語への意識 / 聴覚支援学校 / 高等部 / ビジネス文書 / 敬語の難しさ / 漢字の読み方

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We confirmed that some students in the upper secondary school of a deaf school have the same difficulties with the Japanese language as other linguistic minorities. In addition, various perceptions of and conflicts with the Japanese language were identified. For example, while some felt that Japanese was necessary for networking with the hearing majority, others had difficulty in handling business documents used at work, and others felt difficulty in using honorific expressions. It was also found that in some cases, a respondent felt embarrassed if they did not know how to read kanji characters and worried that others around them might think that they had not studied enough.

Free Research Field

社会言語学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

聞こえない・聞こえにくい生徒たちは、手話だけでなく日本語を使用して生きることは確かである。しかし、日本語の習熟度の面ではマイノリティ言語を使用する外国籍児童と同じように日本語モノリンガルとの比較では苦手意識をもつケースがあると確認された。したがって、2011年に改正された障害者基本法第3条三において、手話が言語と明記されたように、手話によって社会生活を送ることを可能にする教育的・社会的施策の必要性が示唆された。また、日本に住む生活者の日本語習熟度と意識は、本研究の対象者を含め様々でり、社会生活を送るうえで必要な日本語レベルの基準を日本語モノリンガルに据えないことも重要だと考えられた。