Abstract
Among non-Japanese residents who moved to Japan with the aim of finding employment, there are many people who have lived in Japan for a long period with few chances to learn Japanese. Due to the fact that there are many non-Japanese residents whose Japanese reading and writing skills, in particular, are low, it is difficult to use the type of Japanese tests that are currently being set. Therefore, this research utilizes data on language ability and self-evaluation obtained from the Target Persons Assessment of the Japanese Language Learning Support System for Toyota City (JLLSSTC) Proficiency Test, which was developed to target the region's non-Japanese residents. These assessment examinations are composed of questions that test very basic Japanese language abilities; moreover, learners have the advantage of being able to take the test in their native language. This research focuses on non-Japanese residents living in regions with concentrated levels of foreigners, and clarifies the features of their Japanese language abilities and their self-evaluation of those abilities. In particular, we first applied external criteria to the actual assessed Japanese ability levels of 185 respondents. Then, based on this criteria, we were able to extract a more than moderate correlation between performance test results and the various self-evaluation items of listening, speaking, conversational exchange, reading and writing through the results of analysis of 30 self-evaluation items. Based on these results we can conclude that the high correlation found between the total points of the various self-evaluated skills and the classification of assessment results suggests that self-evaluations could become an alternative to placement tests.
