The Realities and Challenges Faced by Writing Centers in Japan

More than a decade ago, when the two of us were still graduate students, we worked as tutors at a writing center at the University of Tokyo. At that time, writing centers were still rare in Japan. Since then, however, partly due to growing concerns about students’ academic writing skills, writing centers have become more common at Japanese universities. According to reports released by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), the number of universities that reported having “writing centers or other centers to improve Japanese language use” increased from 6.9% (53 out of 764 universities) in 2013 to 13.4% (104 out of 775 universities) in 2020. Yet, a closer look reveals that only a handful of prominent institutions have been able to sustain their writing centers over time. This article provides an in-depth view of the current landscape of Japanese writing centers, spotlighting their challenges and emphasizing the Thirteenth Symposium on Writing Centers in Asia as a pivotal connector for future endeavors.

While nearly all writing centers in Japan share the one-on-one tutorial as their basic support mode, different centers adopt various methods and handle different types of writing according to the needs of their students and institutions. Some centers focus on class assignments, term papers, and presentation materials linked to the undergraduate curriculum, while others also handle résumés, job and grant applications, master’s and doctoral dissertations, and proposals submitted to academic conferences.

The services Japanese writing centers offer can largely be classified based on the language of the writer’s text, the writer’s first language (L1), and the language spoken during the tutorial. At a typical Japanese writing center, graduate-student tutors conduct tutorials about writing in English as a foreign language (EFL), and both the tutor and writer speak Japanese, as that is their L1. This format enhances the comprehension of Japanese-L1 students. At some writing centers, Japanese-L1 graduate students, international students, or faculty who are fluent speakers of English offer EFL writing tutorials in English. Some writing centers also provide tutorials in Japanese for both L1 and L2 writers of Japanese.

However, looking more deeply into the matter, it becomes clear that many writing centers face resource constraints to offer comprehensive services and multiple language combinations. Despite the ideal language support envisioned, sufficient human and financial resources are often lacking. For instance, some universities face the innate problem of insufficient graduate enrollments. This problem is reflected in the low national average ratio of 10.2% for undergraduates advancing to graduate school (MEXT, 2022). Such insufficient graduate enrollments make it challenging for writing centers to find Japanese-L1 and L-2 graduate tutors proficient enough to provide English writing tutorials. Furthermore, financial constraints plague many institutions, preventing them from hiring dedicated full-time professionals to manage the writing center and train graduate tutors. Okuda (2017) offers an insightful critique, suggesting that some Japanese universities may perceive writing centers merely as tools to secure research grants, resulting in their reliance on short-term budgets.

A more intangible challenge is reconciling the pedagogical philosophy of writing centers with Japanese traditional and competitive educational systems. While many centers focus on process-oriented writing and the nurturing of autonomous writers, echoing North’s (1984) principle of “producing better writers, not better writing” (p.438), students’ preference leans heavily towards grammar-centric feedback (Nakatake, 2013). This preference can be attributed to the impact of rigorous entrance examination preparations. In English classes at high schools in Japan, students favor grammar explanations and translation skills to acquire techniques to obtain high scores in university entrance examinations (Allen et al., 2022). Even after entering university, students continuously seek grammatical corrections rather than communicative success in writing. This ingrained preference often conflicts with the centers’ philosophy.

To address these tangible and intangible challenges, it may need to conceptualize a distinct Japanese model rather than merely pursuing the replication of the American writing center model. Gally (2010) points out the language issue in non-English-speaking countries, arguing that non-corrective feedback may not always be applicable, especially regarding English writing tutoring in Japanese writing center contexts. Fujioka (2011) also stresses the importance of developing a critical view of what to learn from the American model. It is vital to recognize that the societal needs for English writing in Japanese contexts, especially within the English as a Foreign Language environment, could completely differ from those within the English as a Second Language environment. To move ahead, it is imperative for writing center professionals to convene, share common challenges, and continue discussions.

The Path Forward Through the Thirteenth Symposium on Writing Centers in Asia

While the first writing center in Japan opened in 2004, it wasn’t until a few years later that moves were taken to build a cross-institutional community to discuss the latest research and practice related to writing centers and writing education. The first symposium in Japan on writing centers was held at the University of Tokyo in 2009, followed two years later by the establishment of the Writing Centers Association of Japan. Ever since, WCAJ’s annual Symposium on Writing Centers in Asia has been a pivotal gathering for participants in a variety of positions at many institutions. The symposiums have played an essential role in building social networks and in sharing the practices and challenges individual centers face.

After a hiatus of two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Thirteenth Symposium on Writing Centers in Asia was held at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in central Tokyo on February 18, 2023. (When travel restrictions were still in place, WCAJ had considered holding the symposium online but decided not to because of the symposium’s emphasis on face-to-face interaction.) Although we had fewer participants from outside Japan than before COVID-19, we were delighted to welcome over 50 people from Japan and Taiwan.

The theme in 2023 was “Lessons from the Pandemic: Making Writing Education More Flexible.” The symposium opened with a plenary session by Brian Paltridge, Professor of TESOL at the University of Sydney. Professor Paltridge’s talk, titled “Change and Stability in Thesis and Dissertation Writing,” provided valuable insights from his upcoming book co-authored with Sue Starfield, Change and Stability in Thesis and Dissertation Writing: The Evolution of an Academic Genre (to be published by Bloomsbury in 2024). Following Professor Paltridge’s plenary speech, the symposium featured fifteen talks and four poster presentations on a range of topics by both individual speakers and groups. Presenters shared the challenges posed by the pandemic and how they had coped. The benefits of this face-to-face gathering were evident, as many participants stayed until the closing ceremony, fostering a sense of unity.

While the Symposium on Writing Centers in Asia might not offer immediate solutions for the challenges, it undoubtedly reinforces the close-knit community and fosters the development of the next generation of writing center professionals. During the Thirteenth Symposium, we observed promising signs for the future of writing centers. Graduate tutors presented on diverse topics ranging from visitor analysis, changes in tutor training to preferences for online vs. face-to-face tutorials. These signals are still subtle and sporadic, but they suggest that we need to develop adaptability to the unique and evolving Japanese educational landscape within this community. The community formed by the Symposium on Writing Centers in Asia will play an even more significant role in the sustainability of writing centers in Japan.

References

Allen, D., Yamamura, K., Nakamura, T., & Meguro, S. (December 9, 2022). A study of Cambridge B1 Preliminary and B2 First in the Japanese high school context. The 10th New Directions Conference. Denpasar, Indonesia.

Gally, T. (2010). The culture of writing centers. Komaba Journal of English Education, 1, 61–84.

Fujioka, M. (2011). U.S. writing center theory and practice: Implications for writing centers in Japanese universities. Kinki University Center for Liberal Arts and Foreign Language Journal, 2(1), 205–224.

Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). (2016). Heisei nijuu rokunen do no daigaku ni okeru kyouiku naiyoutou no kaikaku joukyou ni tsuite (gaiyou). [Status of reform of educational content at universities in 2014 (Summary)]. https:// http://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/koutou/daigaku/04052801/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2017/12/06/1380019_1.pdf

Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). (2022). Reiwa ninen do no daigaku ni okeru kyouiku naiyoutou no kaikaku joukyou ni tsuite (gaiyou). [Status of reform of educational content at universities in 2020 (Summary)]. https://www.mext.go.jp/ content/20230117-mxt_daigakuc01-000025974_1r.pdf

Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). (2022). Gakko kihon cho sa 2022 [School Basic Survey 2022]. https://www.mext.go.jp/content/20221221-mxt_chousa01-000024177_001.pdf

Nakatake, M. (2013). Challenges and possibilities in tutorials in a writing center in Japan. The Language Teacher, 37(6), 17–20.

North, S. M. (1984). The idea of a writing center. College English, 46, 443–446.

Okuda, T. (2017). The writing center as a global pedagogy: A case study of a Japanese university seeking internationalization (Unpublished doctoral thesis). The University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

Dr. Kimie Yamamura is a Lecturer at the Institute of Liberal Arts and Science, Kanazawa University, and in charge of the Writing Center. She is the Organizing Committee Member of the Writing Centers Association of Japan (WCAJ). Her journey with writing centers began when her Ph.D. supervisor, Professor Tom Gally, introduced her to tutoring at Komaba Writers’ Studio, the writing center at the University of Tokyo. After graduation, she served as an Assistant and Assistant Professor at the Academic Writing Center of Aoyama Gakuin University. Now at Kanazawa University, she teaches English writing classes while enhancing students’ academic literacy through her contributions at the Writing Center. Dr. Yamamura’s research areas include applied linguistics, mainly focusing on language as social practice and self-access resource centers. Her most recent article is “STEM Students’ In-Between Identities and Ambiguous Desires Toward Learning EFL Writing” in STEM English in Japan in 2022, published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2022.

Dr. Maiko Nakatake is an Associate Professor in the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Centre at Gakushuin University, where she teaches undergraduate General Education English courses and is also involved in curriculum development for these English courses. During her Ph.D., she worked as a tutor at the writing center at the University of Tokyo. After receiving her Ph.D. in applied linguistics from the University of Tokyo, she worked in writing center administration at Aoyama Gakuin University. She is the Organizing Committee Member of the Writing Centers Association of Japan (WCAJ). Her research areas include second language acquisition, writing centers, and second language writing. She has published many articles on writing centers including “Challenges and possibilities in tutorials in a writing center in Japan” published in the journal The Language Teacher.