The following is an excerpt from The Yomiuri Shimbun's Educational Renaissance series. This part of the series, continued from last week, focuses on efforts that higher educational institutions have been making to turn enrollees into "university students."

KYOTO--Dozens of students at Kyoto Seika University pour through six different dictionaries, searching for differences in the way words are defined. "Look at the definition of 'renai' [love] in Shinmeikai. It's straightforward and intense," one student notes, referring to a dictionary published by Sanseido Publishing Co.

"This one gives a rather simple definition," another points out. Yet another says, "It's [the differences between these dictionaries] interesting, isn't it?"

The lesson, which was held in May, was part of the "Japanese literacy" course. It has been made compulsory for all freshmen in the private university's humanities department. The course is designed not just to help develop the students' Japanese skills, but also to foster the abilities necessary for university students, including conducting research and being proactive, as well as being able to express themselves appropriately.

During the class I visited, the students first read Shinkai-san no Nazo (wonders of the Shinmeikai), a book that explores the unique definitions and examples in Shinmeikai. The freshmen then compared the dictionaries and wrote on their findings.

The aim of the lesson was not only to teach them how to use Japanese-language dictionaries, but also to offer them a chance to discover more profound aspects of their mother tongue.

"I believe that younger generations today have a narrower focus of interest," says Prof. Ikuhiko Morishita, head teacher for the course. "However, if they build a richer vocabulary, they can become interested in many more things--and this is the start of learning at university."

Before moving to Kyoto Seika, the 53-year-old professor worked for 20 years at major cram schools such as Kawaijuku and Sundai, where he taught about how to effectively write university entrance exam essays.

After taking charge of the course, Morishita found cause for concern in his students' essays, as many of them were merely lists of facts.

When told to write about "my favorite season," for example, many students just write something like, "In spring, flowers bloom and there are entrance ceremonies," without giving any reasons for why they like the season.

"I guess that students today have become used to [communicating by] e-mail, through which they can make themselves understood without making any particular effort," Morishita says.

In recent years, more and more universities offer Japanese-language training programs as part of their first-year experience programs.

For four years, the National Institute of Multimedia Education has been conducting tests regarding the Japanese-language skills of incoming freshmen in areas of vocabulary, grammar and kanji. According to the results of last year's tests, which 29,000 students at 54 institutions took, 90 percent of the test-takers from national universities reached levels equivalent to third-year high school students.

In contrast, however, levels shown by their counterparts at private universities were widely dispersed, with some of the schools finding that more than 60 percent of their test-takers attained scores about the same as those of middle school students.

Kyoto Seika University made the Japanese literacy course compulsory for the humanities department three years ago. To develop the program, a project team was set up under the president's direct supervision. Morishita and others have been recruited from other organizations for the development, with the team currently made up of four faculty members--including the professor--and 10 assistants.

To enter the course, freshmen in the school of humanities first must compose essays on given themes so they can be divided into classes depending on their levels. This year's 450 new students have been grouped into 11 classes, each of which has about 30 students.

The course sometimes uses manga and movies, and the freshmen are told to jot down essay ideas under given themes.

Based on these notes, the students discuss the ideas, while also talking to instructors, who correct their drafts, before completing a 1,000 to 2,000-character essay. Students can expect to complete five such essays each semester.

Essay themes differ depending on the class level. Upper-level students, for example, often are assigned abstract ideas such as "Keeping proper emotional and physical distance in relation to others," while "People and things that have influenced me" is among typical topics assigned to lower-level classes.

However, all these classes share the same philosophy: using essay topics to get students to reflect about themselves and think about how they can better work with others in society.

Students are required to attend Japanese literacy classes and students who are absent must visit the team's office. Although the course is tough, a 2007 academic year survey showed that more than 90 percent of the participating students were satisfied with the program.

However, for this current academic year, the humanities school had more spaces than applicants, suggesting the school is still having difficulty effectively promoting the program's success among potential students.

Nonetheless, Kyoto Seika University will expand a similar program to its three other schools--manga, art and design. Vice President Yasuo Yoshitomi, 70, himself a manga artist, described the reason behind the planned move: "It's because it's time for universities to arrange everything for their students' learning from the beginning."

Source: yomiuri.co.jp