In recent years, the number of students studying Japanese language has been on the rise. More than eighty percent of these students are non-Japanese language majors. In 2009, of the 165 universities, Chinese Culture University had the largest number of Japanese language majors nationwide. In lieu of this, for the purposes of this research, the subject and scope of this investigation will be limited to PCCU’s non-Japanese studies classes that feature a Japanese language oriented curriculum. In addition, this study will also be investigating two broad types of Japanese language learners and their motives for learning the language. These will be categorized as: General Purposes and Japanese for Specific Purposes.
In order to obtain a clear understanding of the current state of these two categories of Japanese education and in order to unearth any hidden problems therein, this study will be carrying out an investigation of 250 learners and 4 professors in the category of Japanese for General Purposes . I will also be investigating 108 learners and 3 professors in the category of Japanese for Specific Purposes. This study will also be approaching the investigation of learners and instructors from different angles. The learners were given questionnaires while instructors were interviewed. In the end, this study will be arranging the issues facing PCCU’s General Purposes and Japanese for Specific Purposes as follows:
1. The issue of full classrooms and class division.
2. The loss of motivation for Japanese language learning.
3. The issue of class hours in Japanese curriculum classes.
4. The issue of class content-student need incompatibility.
5. The issue of inappropriate course title designation.
6. The issue of professors pursuing further training in the field of Japanese
language education.
7. The issue of whether or not Japanese literature students can take courses
outside of the Japanese Language Department.
8. The issue of the suitability of the goals held by Specialized Japanese
Education curriculums.
The author aims to approach the aforementioned issues in ways that will benefit Chinese Culture University.
