Context:
This article presents the results of a research study investigating barriers inhibiting Japanese students in higher education from participating in online global education. Such elements as the use of the English language medium as well as Japanese conceptions of learning and studying, which are different from students in Western culture, are discussed.

Source:
Kawachi, P. 2000. "Democratisation of access to learning opportunities: Opening up global education to Japanese learners." Paper presented at the 14th Annual Conference of the Asian Association of Open Universities, Manila, Philippines, October 25-27, 2000.

Copyright:
Reprinted with permission.

Rationale

The increasing diversity of collaborative learners brought together by global education does not at present involve the interactive participation of Japanese students. I define "global" education as that provided through the English-language medium for open learning at a distance using computer-mediated communications. As the second leading economy in the world - with cutting edge technology - one must wonder why the Japanese are not engaging online global education.

Among the various barriers to participation, language constitutes the personality and cultural barrier so far inhibiting their participation. This study investigates this barrier and seeks to identify and disseminate suggestions to facilitate the interactive participation by Japanese, which in turn will enrich the learning experience for all participants around the world.

Introduction

Japanese students in higher education – and in similar ways to other Eastern Asians – differ in their learning from Western students. These differences have been enshrouded as "cultural" (Richardson, 1981 ; 1994) or "personality" differences (Watkins and Hattie, 1981). In her review of global education, Robin Mason (1998 : 85, 141) has remarked that students from Japan, Korea, and/or Hong Kong were slow to adapt to pro-active collaboration and interactivity for learning, even when asynchronous and not extemporised. Japanese and other Southeast Asians have also been widely stereotyped as extensively employing rote-memorisation and surface approaches to their learning (Kember and Gow, 1990 and 1991 ; Maley, 1989 ; Watkins, Regmi and Astilla, 1991) - creating a dependency on these approaches (Kawachi, 1999) that are now seen in the West to be associated with achieving a low level of understanding (Fransson, 1977), poor-quality learning and weaker academic outcomes (Entwistle, 1998 ; Meyer, Parsons and Dunne, 1990a,b ; Richardson, Morgan and Woodley, 1999). The present study examines Japanese students to investigate why they perhaps-universally avoid engaging English-language-based collaborative learning in online global education.

Here I present a needs analysis related especially to language concerns. Next I investigate their conceptions of learning to see if they understand learning in the same terms as do Western global education providers. And then I investigate their approaches to studying using a standard Western instrument - Entwistle"s Approaches to Studying Inventory (Entwistle, Hanley and Hounsell, 1979) pre-tested and modified for the Japanese context. The findings are then interpreted in terms of neural linguistic networks. These four studies consistently find that the distinct nature of the Japanese language is at the root of the difficulties they face engaging global education.

Finally I present the implications which call for cultural sensitivity and awareness by global education providers to facilitate the interactive participation by Japanese in the immediate term, and for national curriculum change in Japan in the long term. Instituting these suggestions is proposed as sufficient to democratise access for Japanese to global education.

Methods : Needs Analysis

The Japanese language with only 71 phonemes available has the narrowest phonological range in the world. In comparison, English has a range of about 300 phonemes for an individual native-user.

The narrow phonological range requires relatively more phonemes per idea than any other language – leading to their thinking at a rate of 25 ideas per minute, compared to 40 ideas per minute in English for English native-users (Becker, 1988 : 40-41). Accordingly, if a Japanese student is thinking in Japanese and translating for English, then the student would either have to learn to think faster in Japanese, or will appear to non-Japanese to be expressing ideas in a low-density output, and thus lower interactivity, than English native-users. Moreover this narrowest phonological range enforces a dependency on reading logography and visual memorisation, rather than on logical interpretation of meaning and analytical skills required in English, creating and enforcing the highest-known culturally-specific ambiguity intolerance (Hofstede, 1980 : 122) (for expansion see Kawachi, 1999) presenting culturally-specific support needs. Providing an informal atmosphere among the online students could allow Japanese students to use more-relaxed shortened forms of expression, and thereby increase their rate of flow of ideas.

Also related to language, there remains the potential for overload with respect to reading speeds. Non-native users read differently and at different speeds from native users, and individual cultural differences here are not yet well understood. Chambers (1994 : 108) performs calculations of assimilation and study time using 100 words/min for "easy text" and 40 words/min for "difficult text" (based on some experimental findings of Whalley, 1982, and Lockwood, Williams and Roberts, 1988). No studies have yet been reported on how Japanese read. Also it should be kept in mind that reading English online is known to be different from reading English off-screen in a hard-copy print-out. Research by Wang, Inhoff and Chen (1999 : 194) shows that native Chinese-English bilinguals read English language at 255 words/min compared to Chinese language at 380 equivalent words/min - indicating a slower English-reading rate and slower concomitant assimilation study rate can be expected for Japanese students, compared to English native-users.

This slower situation can be expected to make Japanese students more short of time than native-English users. The perceived value of learning activities indicated in the prepared materials is therefore going to be seen more critically when considering the time-benefit : the time and effort required to be put into the activity by the student balanced against the perceived benefit – personal learning and gradepoints – from doing the activity (as described by Rowntree, 1992). A perceived lack of course personal relevance could lead to slowing down and dropping out (Sherry, 1996 : 8 ; Rowntree, 1992 : 72). In the case of Japanese, slowness in English reading and assimilation may be a significant reason why they do not even start to engage global education.

Methods : Conceptions of Learning

In his definition of "phenomenography" as the description, analysis and understanding of people"s experiences of the world, Marton (1981) distinguished between a first-order perspective in which we observe and make statements about reality, and a second-order perspective in which we listen and report what the learners think and what they conceive reality to be. In arguing for the second-order perspective, Marton (1981) warned that some cross-cultural comparisons of a conception may be invalid since it might not exist in the other culture(s) : specifically noting the Western bias in Piaget"s theory of learning in that abstract formalism occurred in and characterised Western societies but not some non-Western societies.

It has not yet been made clear until now what conception(s) of learning Japanese hold culturally. It is important to identify what conceptions they hold, since any difference(s) could help explain the differences in how they go about their learning.

I have performed several second-order phenomenographic (Marton, 1981) determinations of Japanese students" conceptions of learning, using the English language and - for enhancing validity - also using their Japanese language. Their conceptions were investigated in theory – what do you understand by "learning" – and in practice – how do you go about "learning" – in extensive interviews and self-reports.

Briefly, the questions I used were based on those of Morgan (1993 : 59) used in the interview study of Morgan, Gibbs and Taylor (1981) based in turn on the questions of Saljo (1982). I adopted wave analysis (Leslie, 1972) on open-ended responses after data reduction according to the method of Lincoln and Guba (1985 : 347).

The resulting phrases were then aligned with Dewey"s six avowed aims of learning (Table 1), and next with the various taxonomies of the surface and deep levels of learning found in the literature (Table 2) according to

where the above roman numerals (i) to (vi) refer to columns in Table 2.

The wave analysis among three successive "waves" of survey results confirmed that the obtained taxonomy for Japanese conceptions was exhaustive and comprehensive, with no new category being discovered in a successive wave. The successive frequency distributions of responses over these Japanese Conceptions are shown below in Figure 1.

Student"s two-tailed t test for paired samples showed no significant difference at any level, pairwise among the three waves ;

A:B t=0.33, B:C t=-0.38, A:C t=0.86 ; 10 df,

where t = (mean d - uD ) / ( s / vn )

Student"s t test requires the two conditions that the distributions are "normal" and that their pairwise variances are the same, in order to test whether they are samples from the "same" population – here meaning a population of Japanese university students. Their variances were essentially the same ; varA=650, varB=594, varC=765 : F(A:B)=1.09, F(B:C)=1.29, and F(A:C)=1.18 ; each <<2.98 for 10df. However, their distributions cannot be determined to be normal. Pearson"s correlation coefficient confirmed a very strong linear correlation among them pairwise ; r(A:B)=0.85 p<0.005, r(B:C)=0.90 p<0.001. and r(A:C)=0.85 p<0.005. (See Woods, Fletcher and Hughes (1986) for statistical procedures.)

An identical study was carried out in the Japanese language. Both the questions and the essay responses were in the students" native Japanese language. Phrases in Japanese were then extracted and the data reduced as before. The Japanese-language study involved two independent series of students Series D and Series E that consisted of different groups of students at the medical university U1. Sample data from Series D are shown in Table 3 below.

The Japanese phrases (shown in Table 3 with an approximate translation) were then each associated with a nearest-meaning category of Japanese Conception from J0 through to JX, and the distribution pattern over all the categories are shown below in Figure 2. This distribution is visually very similar to the distribution (Figure 1, above) found in the English-language study. It was concluded that the English-language findings and the Japanese-language findings were consistent with each other, within reasonable interpretation.

These studies were "naturalistic" according to Lincoln and Guba (1985) developing a "pattern theory", in which I collected and then searched through data looking for categories that formed a "pattern" – here of Japanese conceptions of learning – and then by comparing or contrasting this obtained pattern with those of other studies to develop a theory for the Japanese pattern essentially grounded in the data, and constituting "grounded theory" according to Strauss and Corbin (1998).

The above findings revealed that the students expressed considerable near-universal levels of surface approach (indicated by Category J1) with about 85% of students expressing this, and which I interpret as being a carry-over of surface-approach prowess from secondary education when overloading likely developed an over-dependence on reproducing memorisation. These same students expressed a simultaneous deep approach (indicated by Categories J5, J6 and JX) expressing a mature deep-level understanding of learning and abstract thinking required for success at university, interpreted as metacognitive awareness of learning (in theory) or as deep approach (in practice). The implications from these findings are that Japanese continue at university to hold and recognise a reproducing orientation as valid learning – at least having local-cultural face validity – alongside a gradual appreciation of the deep approach promoted by the Western educative process.

The above findings showed their conceptions of learning were defined by the reproducing orientation inherent in the etymological components within "kanji" and the metaphors for learning in Japanese (consistent with Hiraga, 1997), and at the same time by a deep purposeful orientation.

The etymological meanings presented in the "kanji" logographs of the Japanese language for the term "learning" and related terms (Hiraga, 1997) include "narau" to learn (here the logograph represents a young bird flapping its immature wings to practise movements for later flying), and "manabu" to study (here the logograph represents a child copying the hand-gestures of the adults to be able later to participate in society), both of these are related to "maneru" to imitate. "Narau" to learn is also directly related to "nareru" to get accustomed. The noun learning "gakushuu" consists of the logograph "gaku" for study (from "manabu") plus the logograph "shuu" for learn (from "narau"), while the noun for study "gakumon" consists of the logograph "gaku" for study (from "manabu") plus the logograph "mon" for ask, which is interpreted as learning through asking questions to others. Furthermore, the term for to research "kenkyuu" consists of the logograph "ken" for polish plus the logograph "kyuu" for to reach. And the teaching act is "sazukeru" to offer, from the logograph "te" hand plus the logograph "u" from "ukeru" to get or receive. The most common term for a teacher is "sensei" the person who goes first, with the corresponding term "seito" for student – the one who follows afterwards. These and other terms all indicate a reproducing orientation to the act of learning.

However, "gakumon" can also be interpreted not only passively as in asking what to study but also as a pro-active approach. And there are terms – though in rare use – of "jogensha" an oral advisor or counsellor - someone who helps by speaking, "shidosha" a person who gives directions how one should go, and "sokushinsha" perhaps closest to the English "tutor" or "facilitator" – a person who urges, stimulates, encourages or gives hints how one could progress by oneself. And there is the term "kangaeru" thinking creatively by oneself (not with a teacher). So Japanese is not without terms for deep approaches to learning. It is probably true that the examination orientation of pre-tertiary education in Japan over-emphasises the surfaces approaches through being overloading, and that these reproducing terms in "kanji" are carried over into tertiary education to the exclusion of the "kanji" terms for deep approaches to learning.

Methods : Approaches to Studying

In the past twenty years, there have been three major questionnaire instruments developed to investigate students' approaches to studying (see Marton, 1975: and Marton and Saljo, 1976a,b) ; - Entwistle's 'Approaches to Studying Inventory (ASI) (Entwistle, Hanley and Hounsell, 1979, and Entwistle and Ramsden, 1983), Biggs' 'Study Processes Questionnaire' (1987), and Schmeck's 'Inventory of Learning Processes' (Schmeck, Ribich, and Ramanaiah, 1977). They have been applied in various geographical settings around the world : including Australia, Britain, Canada, mainland China, Hong Kong, Nepal, Nigeria, Philippines, South Africa, Spain, the United States, and Venezuela, but not until now in Japan.

The ASI is widely recognised as a robust reliable instrument to determine the preferred approaches to learning of students in higher education, and has generally shown loadings on a Meaning Orientation and on a Reproducing Orientation that reflect Marton and Saljo"s (1976a, b) dichotomy of a deep-approach or surface-approach strategy on a particular task.

The methodology of designing and applying my new Extended-version of the ASI (EASI) together with terminology, is given in my Kawachi (1999). I have found design problems in the 64-item Original version, and in the new shorter versions. I therefore have followed Oppenheim (1992) and developed a 76-item longest version with wide six-box scales for attitude measurement with high sensitivity.

In the past year, I have examined approximately 500 students engaging four-year baccalaureate courses at conventional universities, at pre-first-year, end-of-first, end-of-second, and at end-of-third-year using the EASI, and preliminary data from the end-of-first-year students at one university have been already reported (Kawachi, 1999).

This new EASI contained additional items which confirmed the internal consistency of responses for each individual. The Hawthorne effect was absent, and there was no detectable acquiescence effect (see Richardson, 1992, and for details Kawachi, 1999).

The data were collected from the students in the place and at the time of their usual studies to enhance validity (Guba and Lincoln, 1989 : 175). There was expressly no anonymity. Rapport was pre-established and excellent. After minor repairs, a return rate of 100% was obtained, with full responses (in duplicate) to each of the 76 items.

Exploratory Principal Component Analyses (PCA) were performed using SPSS for Macintosh (1999) software. The solution is unique and the components mutually exclusive and independent. Only two significant principal components were extracted, and there being only two was confirmed by Cattell"s (1966) scree test.

Scale Reliability Analyses were performed using Cronbach"s alpha coefficients (shown below in Table 4) to confirm the internal consistency of the responses on each subscale. (In any case, the 12 additional items I had introduced into the design of the EASI had already confirmed the reliability of individual respondents, in piloting, and prior to these analyses.)

The interesting finding here is the unexpected low Cronbach"s alpha value for the Surface Approach. A low-value Cronbach"s alpha could be explained by the factor containing two components. Since the Surface Approach subscale is well-known to be widely employed by Southeast-Asian students, the low value found above could suggest it should be split into two subscales. The Factor Plot (given below in Figure 3) indicates the first three items SA1-3 of the Surface Approach, and not the other three items SA4-6, are in the first Factor I of Meaning Orientation. Sadler-Smith and Tsang (1998) reported a similar observation in Hong Kong students, and postulated that memorisation in the Hong Kong context could be divided into an enabling strategy to facilitate understanding with a positive connotation and the mechanically reproducing dysfunctional approach with a negative connotation. Accordingly, students in Japan express some aspects of the Western Reproducing Orientation together with their concepts of deep learning. That is, Japanese hold some aspects of the conception of rote memorisation as facilitating later understanding for reconstructing meaning.

Factor Analyses (FA) (which is not the same procedure as PCA – see Bennett and Bowers, 1976 ; Maxwell, 1977, for details of FA, and Woods, 1983, for similarities and differences between FA and PCA) were also performed using the Varimax Method with orthogonal rotation, and using the Direct Oblimin Method with oblique rotation, and using the Quartimax Method with oblique rotation, to explore possible factors and their respective loadings. Different Methods were employed by me exploratively since the published literature reports different authors using different Methods. On my data, each Method gave consistent findings.

The loadings on the two Factors from Quartimax FA are given in reduced format in Table 5.

The Quartimax oblique rotation extracted only the two factors similar to PCA, and these two were confirmed to be independent by mutual correlation coefficient analysis – presented in Figure 3, below.

Interpretation : Neural Networks

Gardner"s theory of multiple intelligences has been proposed as an effective basis for multistreaming teaching to reach all types of learners, though it is not yet fully accepted by everyone. However, it is important to seek some theory which might help explain these findings of a Japanese predilection for surface reproducing approaches to learning.

Gardner"s theory of multiple intelligences posits at least seven distinct "intelligences" (Gardner, 1993, 1996 ; Gardner and Hatch, 1989) now eight (Barkman, 1997 ; Checkley, 1997 ; Hoerr 1997) and possibly nine (Checkley, 1997) that are integrated in unique combinations to function as whole [numbered here in sequence according to Gardner in Checkley, 1997 ; #1 verbal / linguistic, #2 logical / mathematical, #3 visual / spatial, #4 bodily kinaesthetic, #5 musical, #6 interpersonal, #7 intrapersonal, #8 naturalist, and possibly #9 existential]. Gardner states the first criterion for a separate intelligence as neuro-isolatability (Hoerr, 1997 : 3).

It is generally well recognized that the dominant cerebral hemisphere for linguistic intelligence is the left cerebral hemisphere for normal right-handed persons, while visuospatial intelligence is in the right cerebral hemisphere (Obler and Gjerlow, 1999).

Japanese language involves both "kanji" logographs and "kana" phonographs. Selective alexia (loss of reading) and agraphia (loss of writing) for kanji logographs only, with preserved kana phonographs and preserved verbal fluency, was first reported in the Japanese medical literature as "Gogi" ("word-meaning") syndrome by Imura in 1943 (Sasanuma and Monoi, 1975). The lesion responsible for Gogi syndrome has now been located in the left posterior inferior temporal lobe, by Makoto Iwata in 1984, and since then more than twenty similar cases occurring through stroke-induced brain damage have been reported in otherwise normal Japanese (Iwata, 1984, 1986 ; Sakurai et al. 1994). The difficulty in counting such cases derives from the case-by-case variations in the lesion and the impairment(s) presented (see for instance the critique by Sugishita et al., 1992). It is now thought that the selective effect on kanji is caused by the lesion disrupting the necessary connections to and from the right cerebral hemisphere, since the lesion occurs in the area for relating visual to verbal meaning (Hamasaki et al., 1995).

Cases with loss of reading and writing kanji, with unaffected kana, and with severe naming difficulties have all shown the lesion to be in the same region – with greater severity of naming difficulties associated with the lesion extending either further forward to the anterior part of the middle temporal gyrus or further sideways medially to the parahippocampal gyrus (Kaneki et al., 1988 ; Sakai et al., 1992 ; and Sakurai et al., 1994).

Sakurai et al. have suggested that Gogi syndrome was peculiar only to Japan, and that the same lesion in English-speaking countries might present anomia with reading and writing difficulties of irregular words (Sakurai, 1994 : 613), while Hamasaki et al. (1995) suggested the same lesion would only present reading difficulties – alexia without agraphia (subangular alexia). In Chinese, 25 cases of alexia have been identified by the Chinese Alexia Test (logographic) that presented impairments different from cases with alexia in Western phonographic languages (Chen, 1992). Agraphia without alexia is also known in the West (Levine et al., 1988) so writing can be dissociated from reading - despite reading feedback being utilised during the writing process (Otsuki et al., 1995).

A study of another three cases using computed tomography and photon emission computed tomography located the lesion for selective kanji loss to the lower posterior temporal lobe, and the lesion in contrast for selective kana loss to the left angular gyrus (Kawahata, 1988). An infarction in Broca"s area in the right hemisphere – probably causing damage to the kana graphemic buffer - resulted in the interruption of the process for kana writing and not that for kanji writing (Hashimoto et al., 1998) (see also Sasanuma and Monoi, 1975, for a review of lesions in Broca"s area responsible for selective loss of kana reading and writing). In normal right-handed Japanese (all 20 cases, tested tachistoscopically), kana was located to the left cerebral hemisphere and not to the right, while kanji recognition used both the left and right hemispheres (with no gender differences) (Shimizu et al., 1981). A similar study on 30 normal right-handed Japanese showed that concrete kanji, compared to abstract kanji, were processed better through the left visual hemisphere in the right cerebral hemisphere (again with no gender differences) (Hatta, 1977). And a more recent study in 1990 on 40 normal right-handed Japanese has shown that kanji reading was located (through the left visual hemisphere) in the right cerebral hemisphere, rather than in the left cerebral hemisphere (Miyazaki et al., 1990).

From the above investigation into neuro-isolatability, it is proposed that "kanji" is sorted to and resides in the visual-spatial intelligence in the right hemisphere, and "kana" as with English in the so-called linguistic intelligence in the left hemisphere (assuming right-handedness ceteris paribus). As additional evidence, phonological awareness test results were found to be significantly correlated with reading ability in British native-speakers of English, while visual-skills test results were correlated with reading logographia ability in Hong Kong, and in Taiwan, and not with reading English ability in Britain (Huang and Hanley, 1995).

This is not to suggest any cultural difference in overall intelligence due to early language learning : when measured in their respective language, there is no cultural difference in learning quality (at least in early childhood) between alphabetic language users and logographic language users - the Shanghai Picture Vocabulary Test, reading comprehension tests and the Combined Raven (reasoning) Test have shown no difference in primary school children (aged 7.5 to 12.5 years) between alphabetic and logographic matched contexts in Mongolia (Jing, 1996).

Early oral and aural language learning is not located to any particular cerebral region in the pre-school child, and only when reading and writing starts then all language (speaking, listening, reading and writing) is located to the left hemisphere to be used for reading. At this stage in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean, images of the logographs are stored in the right hemisphere to use for reading (from about five years old in Japan), and not in the left hemisphere (Becker, 1988 : 47 ; Gregory, 1987). Rubin et al. (1978) found that culturally-specific learning or crystallized intelligence can be differentiated from fluid intelligence in the third year of primary education. So dependence on visual-spatial intelligence may set in after 7 or 8 years old. Early exposure to phonological script before learning logographs has not shown any adverse effect on later proficiency in logographia (indeed there was even a slight benefit but not significantly so, attributed to the fact that the majority of Chinese logographs contain some phonetic "radical" component – in a study of Taiwanese exposed to zhu-yin-fu-hao phonological script later compared to matched Hong Kong children ; Huang and Hanley, 1995).

Implications

The implications from the present study can be divided into measures that could be promoted immediately by global education providers to facilitate Japanese engaging online collaborative learning, and into measures that could be instituted in the long term by earlier English-language learning into the Japanese national curriculum.

In the immediate term, the global education provider – and specifically the online tutor - should be aware of the culturally-distinct conceptions of learning and approaches to studying of Japanese students. To promote improved quality of learning, online tutors should take into consideration the English-language needs of the Japanese students since these language needs influence their reading and comprehension speeds and their ability to learn collaboratively with others online.

Nearly all Japanese in higher education maintain prowess in visual intelligence carried over from primary and secondary education. The risk therefore exists to their drawing upon their prowess in undesirable surface approaches in times of work overload. In this respect, the courseware and tutor should make efforts to initiate intrinsic motivations in Japanese students that induce a deep approach to studying. Increasing the visual context of web-screens can also be of immediate benefit to Japanese students. In a related study, Heaton (1998) has confirmed that Japanese preferred reading Japanese-language web-pages with high visual context and low-density content.

The experience of Japanese in early native-language learning, with unusual dependency on reading "kanji" logographs, initiates their prowess in right-cerebral-hemisphere visual intelligence. This prowess is subsequently reinforced by overloading during secondary education and is then utilised for visual memorisation and employed in surface approaches in tertiary education. Left-cerebral linguistic intelligence prowess could be facilitated by earlier instituting English-language learning for Japanese children at five years old, at a similar developmental time as when the images of the logographs are beginning to be stored in the right hemisphere to use for reading Japanese. In any case, English-language learning should be started before 7 or 8 years old. If English is introduced into early primary education of all Japanese, this could be a simple and perhaps sufficient step to democratise access to global education 

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