Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to clarify international graduate students' studying environments, laboratory activities, and communication problems, in order to obtain basic data for use in the teaching of technical Japanese communication skills. First, this paper explains about Japanese for academic purposes, and describes the features of technical Japanese education. For the purposes of this paper, technical Japanese communication comprises a broader definition of communication than just language. Then, it reports the results of interviews conducted with seven international students studying in science Master's programs in Japanese graduate schools, four times for each student over six months after entering graduate school. The topics of the interview are on the subject of their laboratory communities and communication problems. From the results of interviews, this paper discusses the teaching of communication skills in Japanese in preparatory technical Japanese education.
