Abstract
This paper is concerned with language problems of Japanese children - in particular, what factors affect children's dislike of Japanese as a school subject. The following is a summary of the author's discussion. 1. Two traditional language problems for children are learning standard Japanese and learning Chinese characters. Currently, less emphasis is placed on the former; however, the latter remains a focal issue, as much as in the past. 2. Three issues are involved in the recent problems of Japanese language education for children. They are the children's dislike of writing compositions, their declining interest in reading, and their dislike of Japanese as a subject. 3. A survey of elementary school children was conducted in order to examine the character of their resentment of Japanese as a subject. Following mathematics, social studies, and music, Japanese is the subject that children dislike most. The higher the grade the students are in, the more they dislike the subject. 4. The major reasons that children, especially those in higher grades, dislike the Japanese subject seem to involve the following factors: Japanese classes require writing compositions and learning Chinese characters; problems solved in Japanese classes do not have clear answers; and there is much homework in the subject. 5. Children who are interested in language activities tend not to dislike Japanese as a subject. 6. In this paper, the author proposes two measures toward solving the problems. First, it is necessary to reduce the amount of Chinese characters that children have to learn. Second, we need to develop teaching materials to stimulate the children's interest and formulate questions that unequivocally lead to logical answers.
