Persistence in Japanese Language Study at Universities in Australia

University students in Astralia were investigated in order to find how their motivation affects their persistence in or termination of their study of Japanese. It is a universal phenomenon that the number of students learning a second language diminishes as they advance to higher levels. Japanese language courses in Australian tertiary institutions are not an exception. An examination of students'' motivational traits revealed that there is a typical characteristics that continuing students tend to obtain. The reasons of dropping out of the courses were also examined from the viewpoints of learners'' gender and cultural/linguistic backgrounds, and these two factors seem to have some significant effects on the students'' continuation/discontinuation of their learning of Japanese.