Comparative research regarding the primary teaching material used for University level Japanese Language programme: Focusing on Audio Education

Along with the development of globalization, higher communication skills required of people are becoming more demanding. To address this issue, individuals with high language ability are in high demand in the field of language education. However, one may observe that there is a tendency for individuals to neglect their original language and cultural background during the process of studying and adapting to a different language and culture. This means that an individual might not be able to promote his/her original cultural background, despite their fluency in a foreign language. Hence, the issue of "Localization" is then playing a major role in Language Education in the midst of globalization. According to the "Survey on JapaneseLanguage Education Abroad" conducted by The Japan Foundation in 2015, there were 3,651,715 Japanese learners in countries outside Japan. While the usage of textbooks published in Japan has increased since the publication of "Minna No Nihongo" (Everyone' s Japanese), the number of Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) applicants has increased to 750,252 (68,359 more than the number in 2014, a 10% increase). In the midst of the above, the problems concerning localization of Japanese Education overseas need to be discussed and reviewed constantly. Therefore, by focusing on the audio education accompanying textbooks published in Japan and China, this paper, from the perspective of language education, aims to clarify the characteristics of the localization occurring in audio education in China