A Study of Kanji Expressions in the Japanese State Examination for Certified Care Workers:

An Analysis from the Perspective of Formulaic Sequences Research

Abstract

Due to a growing number of care workers in Japan whose native languages are not written in kanji, there is an urgent need to help improve these individuals’ knowledge of kanji. From the perspective of formulaic sequences research, a quantitative analysis of the Japanese State Examination for Certified Care Workers was conducted to learn how educators can improve foreign care workers’ understanding of kanji expressions. Three dictionaries were used for morphological analysis. Since care workers need to acquire technical terminology, keywords containing three or more kanji were extracted along with novel words. The results indicate that not only technical terms, but also keywords and new occupationally relevant words are important for the language education of foreign care workers.