Nihongo gakushusha no shoki gakushu dankai deno tsumazuki no Kokufuku (How can 'Early-Learning-Stage-Strugglers' of Japanese Catch Up?: From a perspective of learning strategies

This paper studies how those who struggle to learn Japanese at an early-learning-stage manage to catch up at a later stage. The principle method of investigation was an online survey, which focused on why they struggled initially and how they eventually overcame the difficulties. The group studied was the learners of Japanese enrolled in the beginner’s course at the University of Leeds who did not perform well in the first semester in their first year, yet successfully completed the course with a good result in their final year. Having analysed the data from the perspective of learning strategies, the study has shown that the main causes for the initial struggle were attributed mainly to lack of both cognitive and affective learning strategies, such as insufficient understanding of general characteristics of the Japanese language, unfamiliar methods and pace of teaching, and anxiety in class. It also found that those who successfully overcame their difficulties were monitoring and evaluating their cognitive and affective states using meta strategies, and made efforts to improve their learning of Japanese by making effective use of various learning strategies when they went to study in Japan.