The use of popular culture materials in a tertiary-level Japanese language classroom: insights from J-pop and J-hip hop

The use of popular culture materials as part of a language curriculum is not new. There have been many attempts to include popular culture materials such as films, music, TV dramas and literature at the primary (Parry, 2014) and secondary school levels (Allen and Ingulsrud, 2003; K. Cheung and O'Sullivan, 2017), as well as the tertiary level (Decker and Castro, 2012; Pierson-Smith, Chik, and Miller, 2014; Ronayne, Shayne, and Nguyen, 2012). This benefits the students from both linguistic and cultural points of view by immersing them in the world of native speakers.

It has also been reported that popular culture materials are a vital motivating factor for students learning a language (C. Cheung, 2001; Luo, 2014; Rets, 2016), as they are informal materials that tend to be accepted by audiences from different social classes and educational backgrounds (Danesi 2015) and that can be accessed at their convenience (C.W. Chen, 2024; Kim, 2023). Despite its popularity among students and the predicted benefits of using such authentic materials, it is a complicated and challenging task to employ popular culture materials in classroom teaching, because it is not easy to find materials that match the learning objectives both in terms of language and culture. Therefore, it would only be manageable to selectively include one or two pieces of popular culture material that meet the learning objectives rather than teaching the whole course with popular culture material alone.

Among the many types of popular culture materials that can be used in the classroom, this study examines the potential of using contemporary Japanese popular music (J-pop and J-hip hop) as an example of foreign language teaching using popular culture materials in a tertiary-level Japanese language classroom. This study shows what aspects of the Japanese language can be taught through modern Japanese songs at the tertiary level. This study also demonstrates that these songs can provide authentic vocabulary and grammar and deepen students’ syntactic and pragmatic knowledge by analyzing song lyrics. In addition, songs can be employed to teach extralinguistic elements and linguistic theories and to develop analytical skills.