Methodology of teaching the Japanese hentaigana syllabary to future specialists in the field of East Asian languages and culture and teachers specialising in East Asian studies

Archive of Scientific Articles

Abstract. The aim of the research is to substantiate that the teaching of hentaigana characters, which still occupy a special place in the modern Japanese language, contributes to a deep understanding of the historical background behind the origin of hiragana, a Japanese syllabary type standardised in 1900, the ways of using ancient and modern forms of Japanese ideographic writing. At the same time, the teaching of practical knowledge of the semi-cursive and cursive forms of the hentaigana syllabary makes it psychologically easier to perceive unfamiliar ornate handwritten characters, develops imaginative thinking. The paper addresses the problem of training specialists in the field of East Asian languages and culture and teachers specialising in East Asian studies in the ideographic writing of the modern Japanese language. The research was conducted with respect to a special historical competence, the characters of the hentaigana syllabary, considered by many authors to be an outdated and archaic syllabary, using the content analysis of literature sources and the problem analysis of a situation. The paper presents the methodology, methodological techniques and examples of tasks for teaching hentaigana characters that are often found in the modern written Japanese language to future specialists in the field of East Asian languages and culture and teachers specialising in East Asian studies. The scientific novelty of the research lies in developing a methodology for teaching the system of semi-cursive and cursive writing using the example of the archaic hentaigana syllabary, one of the types of Japanese ideographic writing. As a result of the research, a comprehensive methodology for the immediate training of future specialists in the field of East Asian languages and culture and teachers specialising in East Asian studies in selected hentaigana characters in two stages has been developed. At the first – retrospective – stage, the students study the periods of development of hentaigana characters originated from China; the process of formation of hentaigana characters; the variants of hentaigana characters used in modern Japanese. At the second – prospective – stage of ideographic writing training, the authors propose the application of the developed comprehensive methodology, which includes four main techniques, active and passive tasks based on the information, digital, research, game, intellectual and health protection educational technologies.