The Causes of Anxiety in Highly Anxious Students in Japanese Communicative EFL Classes

The purpose of this study was to identify the causes of speaking anxiety in highly anxious students, of which their teachers might not have been aware, and solutions to alleviate the problem. Sixteen students from a Japanese language-oriented university participated in an interview survey. The participants’ anxiety levels were measured using a five-point Likert scale questionnaire that included five items related to foreign language classroom anxiety. The results were compared to the results of interviews with their teachers, and interesting responses from the student interviews that their teachers did not raise were highlighted. The main causes of anxiety were an unpleasant classroom environment, peer pressure, and non-ideal class types. Students argued for several strategies to reduce the anxiety associated with speaking practice, increase their use of English, and improve their proficiency. To achieve these strategies, teachers need to take into account the opinions of students they did not previously focus on.

Challenges and experiences to develop a Japanese language course for international medical students in Japan: Maximising acquisition of Japanese language by applying adult learning theories

Introduction: The International University of Health and Welfare (IUHW) School of Medicine was founded in 2017 with the intention of providing medical content in English a historical first in Japan. Twenty international medical students have been accepted annually, with the majority possessing less than beginner level Japanese language proficiency at the time of enrolment. However, proficiency in Japanese, especially in the context of medicine is required for academic success and program completion. To address this, the IUHW School of Medicine has developed a course in medical Japanese with the objective of facilitating international students’ acquisition of medical Japanese and reinforcing such acquisition through various listening, speaking, reading, and writing activities. This study aims to describe the Japanese language education program for international students at the IUHW School of Medicine, with particular focus on the development of the curriculum and course content. Methods: The course is designed based on the following educational strategies and their applications: (a) Synchronisation of both medical and Japanese contents; (b) Collaborative learning; (c) Japanese output of medical content learned in English; (d) Practical output through making/giving a presentation and discussion with medical experts; (e) Detailed language feedback from language experts; (f) Reinforcing the vocabulary knowledge by writing; and (g) Building up vocabulary and expressions with relevant contents. Results: Our observations suggest that our international students have been able to continue their medical education in Japanese smoothly. Conclusion: The content-based instructional design that includes second language acquisition strategies may also be applicable to other Asian languages such as Korean and Chinese.

Needs Analysis of Japanese Courses for Nursing Students

Japanese is an elective course that can be taken by every student in the Nursing Study Program of Stikes Ranah Minang. References regarding the teaching material given to the students must be appropriate so that they can get the benefit from this course. To find out the reference, it is necessary to do a needs analysis so that the students get the material that they really need to support their learning process at present time or in the future. This study was conducted to analyze the needs of Japanese language learners. The research was conducted with a qualitative approach and descriptive method. The research population is the students who are taking the course of Japanese Language II at the Stikes Ranah Minang Nursing Study Program. The research instrument used is a questionnaire. Data were analyzed using the descriptive techniques in the form of numbers and percentages.

Evaluating the learning goal attainment in Nihongo Noryoku Shiken N5 course

The objective of the study is to evaluate the learning implementation of the Nihongo Noryoku Shiken N5 course as a new course offered in the 2020 curriculum at the Japanese Language Education Study Program in UNNES. A goal-oriented evaluation model by Tyler was employed in the evaluation process to measure how far the learning goals that have been determined at the beginning of the lecture are achieved. This evaluative research relied on a quantitative descriptive approach; its steps comprised (1) data collection, (2) data processing and analysis, and (3) recommendation formulation. According to the evaluation results, the learning goals of Nihongo Noryoku Shiken N5 had been met, although it was not that significant. Several conditions cause such issues. (1) In the class, some students had good Japanese language skills; they claimed that the lesson was too easy, so their progress was not significant. (2) The evaluation instruments were not valid. (3) Other conditions, e.g., the implementation of online learning and tests, hindered classroom activities and monitoring. Improving the teaching and learning materials and evaluation instruments is recommended. Furthermore, some additions to the curriculum need to be considered, such as adding the credits for the grammar or Bunpo course.

JAPANESE APOLOGY EXPRESSIONS BY JAVANESE AND SUNDANESE SPEAKERS

This research discusses expressions of apology in Japanese by Javanese and Sundanese speakers at Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta. The apology differs between Japanese and Indonesian. Apologizing to the Japanese uses many reasons, the Japanese may distrust the speech partner and cause misunderstanding. In learning Japanese, Javanese-speaking learners are different from Sundanese-speaking learners because their culture also influences them. This research aims to determine the strategy of apology expression by Japanese language learners who speak Javanese and Sundanese as seen from the semantic formula and the differences between the two. This research used a descriptive method with a qualitative approach to describe the strategy of apologizing in Japanese by Javanese and Sundanese mother tongue learners using semantic formulas. Respondents were UMY students from level 2 and level 3 PBJ Study Program with 15 Javanese speaking students and 15 Sundanese speaking students. This research showed that most Japanese learners who speak Javanese and Sundanese tended to use the Speech Act Indication Expression (apology and appreciation) when expressing Japanese apologies. They used polite language ultimately when apologizing to lecturers.

THE INFLUENCE OF ANIME ON THE EXISTENCE OF INDONESIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

The form of literary works is increasingly varied over time. In the past, one can only share their thoughts in oral form, but now, they can express their idea, thoughts, and work through visual media. One example is anime. Anime is becoming more popular among Indonesian, especially students. This article focused on anime’s influence on students’ motivation to study the Japanese language and its effects on the Indonesian language and literature existence. Questions that arise from this topic are how anime influences students’ motivation to study the Japanese language and literature, its relevance on the Indonesian language and literature existence, the effect of watching anime, and how to deal with the negative effects that might occur. This research uses an interactive qualitative method with surveys and interviews to collect the data. The data obtained were analyzed descriptively and presented in tables. The results of the research indicate that anime is indeed influencing students’ interest to study the Japanese language and literature which can affect the Indonesian language and literature existence, there are negative effects of watching anime, and efforts need to be done to prevent and overcome these negative impacts. Due to the pandemic, the data collection process was carried out online via Google Forms and WhatsApp. Therefore, the data obtained is not as good as the data collected face-to-face.

Japanese? Language? and Gender?

This essay offers an overview of language and gender research as it unfolded in a particular ‘Place’: Japan. In the past thirty years, Japanese language and gender/sexuality relations have been characterised both domestically and globally as special, sometimes as unique, due to the existence of distinct joseigo ‘women’s language’ and danseigo ‘men’s language’. A preferential focus on the surface-segmentable forms (pronouns, sentence final particles, etc.) over discursive features and a limited focus on Standard Japanese in the early years of Japanese language and gender research has led to a tendency to view ‘the’ Japanese language as a homogeneous unity and to the reification of the three critical categories, ‘Japan’, ‘language’ and ‘gender’. In this essay, I discuss the problematic nature of the three critical terms, and suggest ways in which Japan-as-Place might profitably be renarrated as the complex place it is and Japanese language, gender and sexuality relations revisited as they operate within that complexity.

An Affair with a Village – Joy Hendry

Joy Hendry is today a leading Japanese studies scholar and anthropologist, recompensed with the Order of the Rising Sun, who founded and presided over several major research associations over the past decades. However, at the time this story starts (as it is a story Hendry is writing in this book), she is a young woman starting her fieldwork for a doctorate. She had mastered the Japanese language already, but many aspects of Japanese daily life, especially in a retired rural area such as the small village of Kurotsuchi (Kyushu), elude her – as it did for most foreign academics in the 1970s. Written during lockdown due to the pandemic, Hendry narrates [...]