抄録
In Japan, the number of immigrant children has been on the rise, and some in high schools find it difficult to have a good command of the Japanese language. However, the immigrant schoolchildren who want to enter established universities in Japan often take English–Japanese translation tests. For some immigrant children, translation questions from English into Japanese are difficult to deal with. Although this is unfair to some immigrant children, few researchers have shed light on the issue. Therefore, this paper reveals whether Japanese native speakers’ translations could differ from those of non-Japanese native speakers’ English–Japanese translation tests. Four English–Japanese translation tests were used. The participants in this study were twenty-one graduate students: ten Japanese native speakers, ten non-native speakers and one Chinese–Japanese bilingual participated in the study. To analyse the translations, cluster analysis and descriptive analysis were used. Cluster analysis found six clusters, most comprising participants who shared the same native tongue. Descriptive analysis revealed that translated Japanese words were different between native Japanese speakers and non-native speakers. These results suggest that it is necessary to take into consideration the viewpoints of both examination administrators and immigrant children.
