Learners in
japan are confronted with two major problems when attempting to learn
english as a foreign language. The first problem is the multitude of differences between their native language and
english; the phonetics in
japanese compared to the phonetics produces in
english, as well as grammatical differences. The second major challenge is their learning environment and unique mentality in
japan, than can create issues in the classroom.
The
japanese phonetic system makes no distinction between the “L” sound and the “R” sound, having only one sound between the
english pronunciation of both those letters. This causes a problem phonetically when trying to distinguish between words that use those letters. A lack of the “V” sound also poses a problem, as
japanese students often revert to the “B” sound in
english instead (Shoebottom).
japan also places a vowel after every hard consonant, creating a problem when saying multi-consonant words. For example, the
english word “Practical” would be spoken as “Pu-ra-ki-ta-ru” by a typical
japanese speaker. The final hurdle with phonetics from
japanese students is that they also do not have the same range of vowels as is the case in
english, and therefore have issues with diphthong in different words, such as the distinction between “bought” and “boat”, that can sound exactly the same to a
japanese
english learner (Shoebottom).
Grammatically,
english and
japanese are very far apart. The sentence construction is completely different, with the pattern “subject, object, verb”, as opposed to
english's sentence construction pattern of “subject, verb, object”. This can create issues for
japanese
english learners.
japanese also lacks any kind of auxiliary verbs, which makes the construction of the negative form and certain conjugations in
english a challenge for some students. There are also no articles, with some nouns even taking up the place of adjectives. This can lead to strange sentences that don't always sound right to a native
english speaker.
japanese has no distinction between countable and uncountable objects, which makes it difficult to identify when to add “a” before a noun for countable objects and uncountable objects. Finally, the
japanese language has no relative pronouns, which can be an issue for understanding them in
english. Finally,
japanese does not use possessive pronouns the same way (Shoebottom). Therefore, these are all areas that need particular attention when teaching
english to
japanese students.
The second problem
japanese students have with
english comes from their learning environment and unique cultural mentality. There is a popular
japanese proverb that says, “The nail that sticks out gets hammered down”. This can help understand some of the issues
japanese learners will experience. In compulsory learning, “...
japanese schools suppress spontaneous behavior and enforce discipline...” (p. 142, Sugimoto). This leads to a general lack of participation in class and disrupts the model of teaching
english as a foreign language where student speaking time is maximized.
At the same time, while the
tefl teacher would work hard to break away from the text book and adapt as much as possible, “It is standard routine in many subjects for the
teacher to instruct an entire class to read a textbook aloud, in unison. This gives the class a sense of working together and makes it difficult to deviate from the set pattern.” (p. 132, Sugimoto). This makes “..students who are good at answering multiple-choice
questions but who lack creativity and original thinking.” (p. 141, Sugimoto). This is not a good thing when trying to learn
english, and makes certain activities and general participation very hard.
japanese learners also have an aversion to directness in
japanese can also create a problem when forming
english, as westerners tend to be more direct. This can create very general sentences in
english that lose their meaning (Shoebottom).
Therefore, one can see that the overall differences in
japanese students` mother tongue and
english, as well as differences in their ideology can create many issues for
japanese students learning
english.
Work Cited
Shoebottom, Paul. "The differences between
english and
japanese." A
guide to learning
english. Frankfurt International School, 1996. Web. 22 Feb 2012.
Sugimoto, Yoshio. An Introduction To
japanese Society. 2nd. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ Pr, 2003. 132-42. Print.