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Insights from reflections on Japanese language learning by JSL students

Japanese (日本語)

神戸大学留学生教育研究

9

27-45

神戸大学大学教育推進機構グローバル教育センター留学生教育部門

2025-03-31

This article aims to gain insights into what JSL students find difficult and what they think is beneficial for their language learning from the interview of two JSL students who have succeeded in entering Japanese high school.While the number of JSL students, i.e., those who need to learn Japanese as a Second Language, is increasing in Japan, the percentage of these students entering Japanese high schools remains much lower than that of native Japanesespeaking students. Previous research on second language acquisition has shown that, unlike daily conversational skills, it takes five years or more for non-native children to acquire the proficiency of the target language necessary for learning academic subjects.The interviewees, JSL01 and JSL02, came to Japan in their early primary school years and entered Japanese schools with little or no knowledge of Japanese. They had no access to systematic Japanese language instruction or support at school. However, they developed unique ways to learn Japanese respectively, such as by displaying Japanese subtitles when watching TV to learn usage of Kanji and by carefully listening to expressions used in real conversations to fill the gap with those introduced in the language textbooks. They also reflected on their experiences, describing their negative experiences at the time as learning opportunities.Superficially they are different in their learning ways or experiences, they seemed to have a certain mental attitude in common, which are considered as essential to develop language proficiency. The results of this study suggest that fostering mental attitudes like theirs is key to the success of JSL students in learning Japanese and reaching higher education.

心的態度

紀要論文