<Research Paper>Roles of the Bridging Program Between Japanese Language Courses and Specialized Courses

大学における日本語教育の役割の一つは学部留学生が専門教育を無理なく受講できるようにすることであり、日本語教育と専門教育をいかに橋渡しするかが検討課題となる。本稿では、日本語科目と専門科目をつなぐ橋渡し科目として開講された「留学生教養」の成果と課題を、受講生へのインタビュー調査を通して明らかにし、橋渡しプログラムに求められる役割について考察した。「留学生教養」については、専門科目の理解度の促進や受講生のモチベーション向上などに有効である一方、授業運営方法などの違いから、受講生が専門科目との間に難易度の乖離を感じていることが分かった。その上で、橋渡しプログラムの役割を、専門日本語教育と初年次教育の両立、講義理解力の養成、自律性の涵養という三つの観点から論じた。One of the main goals of Japanese language education at universities is to enable international undergraduate students to take specialized courses without difficulty. Therefore, we need to examine how to bridge Japanese language courses and specialized courses. In this paper, we first clarify the effects and problems of the subject “Liberal Arts for International Students (LAIS), ” offered as a bridge between Japanese language courses and specialized courses, by examining the data from interviews with students. We then discuss what is required in the bridging program. LAIS was found to be effective in promoting understanding of specialized subjects and increasing students’ motivation; however, students found a discrepancy in difficulty between the LAIS and specialized subjects due to differences such as teaching methods. Based on these findings, we discuss the roles of the bridging program by focusing on the following three aspects: balancing specialized Japanese language education and first year experience, fostering lecture comprehension, and cultivating autonomy