- English
- Japanese
Professor Akira Ota
Professor Akira Ota is a member of the Japanese Language Education and Japanese Culture Studies course. His research focuses on contrastive linguistics and Japanese education.
What do you specialize in?
I specialize in “contrastive linguistics” and “Japanese education”. However, my academic background started from Spanish linguistics then extended to Japanese linguistics, Japanese education, Portuguese linguistics, and Technical Japanese education. All these subjects may look so different; however, studying foreign language and foreign language education enabled me to find out the mystery of why people can acquire a new language.
What kind of research have you done?
For contrastive linguistics of Japanese and Spanish, I have specialized in demonstratives and deixis. For contrastive linguistics of Japanese and Portuguese, I have specialized in tense and aspect of verbs. For Japanese education, I have concentrated on 1) research on methods for intercultural online discussion, 2) business Japanese education, and 3) logical reasoning especially necessary for international science and engineering students, learning math and physics in the Japanese education system. Currently, I’m doing research in experimental classes on how to study logic in Japanese and math education.
Every year, I have had a lecture on “logic” at a university in Korea.
How does contrastive studies and Japanese language education relate?
This question is the history itself of contrastive linguistics. My original field was Spanish linguistics. Therefore, I have experienced as a foreign language learner. When getting into graduate school, my research shifted to Japanese as a foreign language, then to Japanese education. At the beginning, I had trouble looking at Japanese, my mother tongue, objectively. From such experience, I think contrastive linguistics and Japanese as a foreign language are fields that need to be studied together.
At a University in Spain and Portugal
What do you expect from graduate students at Kanazawa university?
I want them to cultivate the knowledge of looking at languages objectively including Japanese. To do so, I want them to learn their mother tongue once again. Additionally, if Japanese, I want them to learn another language, besides English, and for international students, to compare Japanese and their mother language and be able to explain their structures.
