A PILOT STUDY OF JAPANESE LANGUAGE STUDENTS AT THREE STATE UNIVERSITIES IN THE UNITED STATES: IMPLICATIONS FOR JAPANESE LANGUAGE TEACHING POLICY

Page No.: 
103
Writer(s): 
Hiroko C. Kataoka

One hundred and eighty-five Japanese-language students
at three universities in the United States were surveyed about
their major field of study, why they chose Japanese, and
their career expectations. Information was also collected
about whether they were taking Japanese as a required or as
an elective subject, and the attrition rate of the course.
Special attention was paid to students of engineering and
science and technology. The purpose was to discover if the
provision of Japanese language education was targeted at
"critical" fields of business, fmance, and science and technology.
The results, amongst other things, indicate that students
in the critical fields have work-load problems; that.
increasing language requirements may drive students away
from Japanese to easier languages; that many students have
only vague ideas about why they study Japanese; and that
only 30% had concrete plans to visit Japan.

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