Research on Japanese Literacy Skills of Foreign Residents in Japan and Development of Japanese as a Second Language Program

In this project, we realized a big scale research on Japanese literacy skills of Japanese-Brazilian living in the most concentrated community (Homi-danchi, Toyota-city, Province of Aichi) in order to prove the hypothesis that there doesn't excite communication by Japanese letters between Japanese residents and foreign residents because of limited Japanese literacy skills of latter. With the result of this research, we tried to develop Japanese instruction program attached by literacy skills acquisition program.The resume of the result of this research is followings,(1) It showed that the Japanese literacy skills of foreign residents are so limited that they are in serious situation. More than 70 % of factory workers can't read "危険"(Danger) neither know its meaning. And, only 46 % of all collaborators can write their name with Katakana correctly.(2) This research was applied to the determined community, using the signs and indications which are seen in that community by the research collaborators in everyday life. So, the result also show that they don't have enough communication by Japanese letters among the community.(3) The fact that foreign residents can read and write Hiragana and Katakana well, comparing with Kanjis, provides rationality to the ideas of asking the migrant workers to learn Hiragana and Katakana as basic literacy skills.Based on those results, we could developed new JSL (Japanese as a second language) policy and program accompanied by Japanese literacy skill acquisition program.

In this project, we realized a big scale research on Japanese literacy skills of Japanese-Brazilian living in the most concentrated community (Homi-danchi, Toyota-city, Province of Aichi) in order to prove the hypothesis that there doesn't excite communication by Japanese letters between Japanese residents and foreign residents because of limited Japanese literacy skills of latter. With the result of this research, we tried to develop Japanese instruction program attached by literacy skills acquisition program.The resume of the result of this research is followings,(1) It showed that the Japanese literacy skills of foreign residents are so limited that they are in serious situation. More than 70 % of factory workers can't read "危険"(Danger) neither know its meaning. And, only 46 % of all collaborators can write their name with Katakana correctly.(2) This research was applied to the determined community, using the signs and indications which are seen in that community by the research collaborators in everyday life. So, the result also show that they don't have enough communication by Japanese letters among the community.(3) The fact that foreign residents can read and write Hiragana and Katakana well, comparing with Kanjis, provides rationality to the ideas of asking the migrant workers to learn Hiragana and Katakana as basic literacy skills.Based on those results, we could developed new JSL (Japanese as a second language) policy and program accompanied by Japanese literacy skill acquisition program.