Paper short abstract:

This study described Japanese language education and learning practices for Japanese studies/Japanology in European higher education and explored these practices' future outlook in the framework of adult learning. This research focused especially on Japanese language learning as lifelong learning.

Paper long abstract:

　This study described Japanese language education and learning practices for Japanese studies/Japanology in European higher education institutions and explored these practices' future outlook in the framework of adult learning.

　This research focused especially on Japanese language learning as lifelong learning. The European Commission has incorporated an action plan for "Encouraging schools and training institutions in using efficient teaching and training methods and motivating continuation of language learning at a later stage of life" (AJE-CEFR Project, 2016). The Council of Europe and European Union education policies also refer to language learning as lifelong learning. Assuming lifelong learning as continuous from childhood through late life, students in European higher education institutions are in the process of lifelong learning. In recent years, the learner population has become increasingly diversified, and learning styles not falling under the conventional higher education framework―such as autonomous learning through the Internet and composite learning combining social activities and informal learning―have been reported. Learning in such styles must also be embraced in a comprehensive discussion on lifelong learning.

Miwa (2011) discovered the possibility that adult learning practices cultivated through day-to-day experiences can be a theoretical and practical basis for lifelong learning theories. Therefore, this study attempts to describe Japanese language education and learning in recent Japanese studies/Japanology, using approaches based on the adult learning framework advocated by Miwa (2011).

The outlook of future Japanese language education and learning was explored in terms of the concept of learners as defined by CEFR and materialization of learning by "social agents."