A survey on the use of Japanese language contents in educational institutions in the Pacific region

调查的主要目的是概述太平洋地区教育机构日语教学信息技术设施的可用性和使用现状。这项调查是在八个国家/地区的教育机构进行的，它们是：马歇尔群岛、密克罗尼西亚、巴布亚Au、斐济、萨摩亚、塔希提岛（法属波利尼西亚）、新喀里多尼亚和夏威夷群岛。(The后两者是我们今年新选定的研究领域，其他则是我们去年的研究领域。调查结果显示，85%的大学拥有信息技术设施，其中54%的大学正在使用这些设施进行日语教学。据透露，太平洋地区的许多教育机构缺乏可以使用日语的信息技术环境。在有日语的地方，计算机似乎主要用于日语教师的文字处理和网络搜索。学生使用计算机的情况仅限于非日语活动，如用英语研究日本文化。计算机的使用受到限制似乎是由于硬件的质量，如互联网的接入速度和维护。调查结果还显示，教师缺乏知识和信心可能是充分利用现有设施的障碍。调查结果表明，太平洋地区教育机构的日语教学信息技术设施的供应和使用尚未达到令人满意的水平。与世界各地的日语教学机构进行交流（电子邮件、聊天和主页）对太平洋区域教育机构今后使用信息技术至关重要。

The main aim of the survey was to outline the current state of the availability and use of IT facilities for Japanese language teaching in educational institutions in the Pacific region. The survey was conducted at educational institutions in eight countries/areas, which induded Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Pa]au, Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti (French Polynesia), New Caledonia and the Hawaiian Islands. (The latter two have been newly selected to be our research areas this year, whereas the others have been on our list from last year.)The responses to the survey showed that 85% of the institutions had IT facilities, and 54% of those institutions were using the facilities for Japanese language teaching. It was revealed that many of the educational institutions in the Pacific region lacked IT environments where Japanese language could be used. Where Japanese was available, the computers seemed to be utilized mainly for word-processing and web search by Japanese language teachers. The use of the computers by students, where applicable, was limited to non-Japanese activities such as researching Japanese culture in English. The restricted use of the computers appeared to be attributed to the quality of hardware such as the speed of Internet access and maintenance. The survey also revealed that lack of knowledge and confidence on the part of the teachers could be a barrier to the full utilization of the available facilities.The findings suggest that the availability and use of IT facilities for Japanese language teaching in educational institutions in the Pacific region are not yet at a satisfactory level Promotion of information exchange using internet (e.g., email, chats and homepages) with Japanese-teaching institutions across the world would be critical to future IT use in the education institutions of the Pacific region.