研究実績の概要 |
This research explores how literary texts function to cultivate thinking skills, and how it should be used in English education for the above-motioned purpose. For the former, Sugimura chiefly reads over both the literature- and thinking skills-related books and articles to build a theoretical framework and selects literary texts as materials; for the latter, Kudo and Sheehan think of how materials should help students in English classes to improve their critical perspectives. Furthermore, fieldwork will be conducted in the UK, and data will be collected in a case study. Based on the results, and on the literature reviews, we will integrate these two key aspects, thinking skills and literary texts, into a model of English education where literary texts can be used to promote thinking skills. In the academic year 2015, Sugimura read some articles and the books by V. Christina Bruns, by J. Hillis Miller, and other scholars in the field. Then, she wrote up a research paper on it. Kudo carried out a case study and collected data concerning the students’ reflections on literary texts, group discussion, etc. Kudo has become interested in inferential questions since this case study, and been doing more research in this area. Kudo and Sugimura had a brief exchange of ideas on literary texts for educational purposes with some other researchers in the Liberit Conference 2016. Sheehan presented a paper on this theme at the symposium ‘Literature and Language Learning’ last November. He also contacted the UK group, who will help us to proceed with this research project.
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現在までの達成度 (区分) |
現在までの達成度 (区分)
2: おおむね順調に進展している
理由
Sugimura and Kudo each moved to a new workplace, and we had to look into and change the research schedule. Therefore, we started to do this research in the schedule different from the original one. A field research in the UK was put off until the academic year 2016. Instead we had more time to deepen our understanding of thinking skills in general by reading over the related articles and books, which has been of great help to plan how to conduct research in the UK. And a case study, which was not included in the original plan for the year 2015, was conducted by Kudo to find out how non-literature majors respond to literary texts and accept them.
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今後の研究の推進方策 |
In summer, we will visit the UK to observe some literature classes in the Trinity Foundation Programme in The Institute of Japanese Studies, Bangor University. We also have a discussion with the UK teaching staff to find out their educational goals and how they are achieved. By the end of this year Sheehan and Sugimura will have finished reading the book by Alec Fisher, etc. to identify eligible criteria for evaluation of thinking skills. They also have examined online materials from the Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations (OCR) and have studied their educational goals in relation to thinking skills. Kudo will continue to read more about inferential questions to use literary texts effectively in class. Based on the outcomes obtained through literature review, we will select some more literary texts to achieve our objectives. Also another case study will be conducted where a different text is used in class. For the data collected in 2015, we will do a statistical analysis of them to present a paper at an international conference.
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