Teaching and Learning Kanji in Europe : Some Efforts to Develop Learner's Autonomy

This paper discusses how a Japanese language program can help a learner of the language become autonomous with special reference to learning kanji. The author conducted a survey in 38 institutions of higher education, mainly in France and Germany, and visited some programs and professors or lecturers for follow-up interviews. The survey reveals that many Japanese programs in European countries require their students to master from 1,000 to 1,500 kanji by the end of the second academic year, while they give only one class hour for kanji in the first year and none in the second. In order to develop a learner‘s autonomy, some programs offer special support systems which enable their students to plan and evaluate their own learning processes by themselves and to master many kanji in a relatively short period of time. The author highlights a few successful cases and analyzes what makes them so. She also introduces some web sites or free tools for autonomous kanji learning and ways of making good use of them in a few European institutions.departmental bulletin pape