中條, 清美

内山, 将夫

Chujo, Kiyomi

Utiyama, Masao

multilingual society

外国語教育

foreign language education

カルタ

karuta cards

携帯型ゲーム機

handheld gaming device

With the advancement of ICT and transportation technologies, the world is now experiencing the progress of globalization and multilingualization. As a result, the interest in and the need for multilingual education are increasing. This paper describes the development of multilingual vocabulary learning materials to meet the needs of a global world. The materials were first created in the form of 'karuta', a traditional Japanese card game and later adapted for PSP (Play Station Portable), a handheld gaming device. The target words for this material emphasize daily life vocabulary. They were statistically selected based on corpus linguistics techniques. Karuta is made up of photo cards and reading cards. The reading cards include an extensive variety of hints about the target word such as its size, color, shape, history, usage, habitat, etc. It was produced first in English and was translated into Japanese, Chinese and Korean. The Japanese version is targeted to foreign students who live in Japan; the Chinese and Korean versions will be useful in increasing foreign language courses at senior high school in Japan. PSP learning material was also developed to meet the needs of mobile society. Learners can study foreign languages anywhere and anytime in enjoyable way with PSP.