THE SPECIFICS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHING JAPANESE IN CHINESE UNIVERSITIES

Abstract

(The work is carried out with the National Social Science Foundation of China, project 16BSS021). The article systematically analyzes the 70-year history of teaching Japanese in higher education institutions in China. The Japanese language education has gone through three important historical periods of development: the restoration of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations in 1972; the introduction of the reform and opening policy in 1978; and the significant expansion of student enrollment in 1999. Currently, China leads the world in a number of Japanese language learners. However, there is a number of problems in learning Japanese, in particular, the problem of uneven distribution of educational resources and the problem of a small number of studies of the practice of teaching Japanese. The paper offers a number of measures and recommendations, the application of which will help to improve the curriculum for learning Japanese, as well as help identify the most capable students.