An Analysis of the Relationship between the Attitudes and English Proficiency of Hong kong's and Japanese Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between English language attainment and attitudes towards English between Hong Kong's students and Japanese college students. The subjects were the Hong Kong's students who are studying Japanese in Japan at Shukutoku Japanese Language School to prepare for entering Japanese colleges and Japanese sophomore students. In order to analyze the relationship between them the students were measured by three kinds of assessment: a short version of TOEFL a composition in English with a given title, a series of questions concerning the experience of their past English education and a series of statements on the study and use of English. The results showed that the Japanese college students marked higher points than the Hong Kong's students in the grammatical field whereas in listening and reading, the Hong Kong's students were superior to the Japanese students. This fact has much to do with the high motivation of the Hong Kongs students while some of the Japanese students study English without special purposes. At the same time, the Hong Kong's students started studying English not later than 6 years old, and used to have 5 classes a week from primary to secondary school with teachers using English more often than their native language. In Japan, the students began learning English at the age of 12 and had 3 to 4 classes a week at junior high school with teachers using Japanese more often than English. Moreover, the grammatical accuracy of the Japanese students was superior to that of the Hong Kong's students, which shows the success of teaching accurate grammar throughout junior high and high schools in Japan. However, because the Hong Kong's students described more complicated things than the Japanese; students in composition and did better in listening and reading comprehension in TOEFL it is required that the Japanese students need more chances to use English in many practical ways.