ABSTRACT
This chapter explicates Makiguchi Tsunesaburo's "knowledge cultivation model" chishiki keihatsu shugi and applies it to Japanese language instruction in a socioeconomically and racially diverse Chicago public (K-8) elementary school. P. Applebome argues that schools are the primary institutions of the social reproduction system; children from privileged families grow up to become members of the privileged class and children of underprivileged families grow up to become members of the underprivileged class. Makiguchi's knowledge cultivation model provides an actual way for educators to respond constructively to the prevailing knowledge transmission model practices without having to result to social activism. The chapter explicates how Makiguchi's knowledge cultivation model in community studies can be concretized in contemporary foreign language education and addresses the relationship between knowledge and language. Makiguchi's aforementioned viewpoint on the relationship between knowledge and language concurs with that of contemporary scholars, namely cognitive linguist George Lakoff and cognitive psychologist Raphael Nunez.
