Study and Practice of Teaching English Writing : A Comparison between Japanese Students and English Native Speaking Students

本研究的目的是收集日本大学生的写作样本，探索学术英语写作的教学方法。研究人员收集并分析了国际基督教大学日本学生的各种写作样本。样本包括一年级和二年级英语课堂上的写作任务，专业课上布置的论文，以及高级论文。研究人员还分析了日本学生用母语进行的学术写作、以英语为母语的学生的写作，以及说中文的学生的英语写作。通过识别和分类日本学生在词汇、结构和语篇层面的写作困难，研究人员揭示了日本学生写作的弱点，并开发了针对句子和段落层面常见写作错误和问题的教材。研究人员开展的另一个项目是对现有的英语写作教学文献进行分析和分类。研究结果连续三年在美国TESOL(以其他语言为母语的英语教师)大会上公布。

This research started as a project to collect writing samples of Japanese university students and develop teaching methods of academic English writing. The researchers collected and analyzed a variety of writing samples written by Japanese students at International Christian University. The samples include writing tasks in Freshman and Sophomore English classes, papers assigned in area-major courses, and senior theses. The researchers also analyzed academic writing by Japanese students in their mother tongue, writing of English native speakers, and English writing done by Chinese-speaking students. By identifying and classifying Japanese students' writing difficulties at lexical, structural, and discourse levels, the researchers revealed the weak points of Japanese students' writing and developed teaching materials focusing on common writing errors and problems at sentence and paragraph levels.Another project that the researchers have conducted is to analyze and sort available literature on teaching English writing to speakers of other languages. The research results were presented at the TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) conventions in the United States for three consecutive years.