Mari Kawakami

In this study, I conducted a survey on evaluation criteria for writing adopted by teachers of Japanese as a foreign language. The aim of the survey is to find out common evaluation criteria which apply to writing Japanese at various levels of language proficiency. There were two items which most teachers found important. Firstly, the reader must understand the general meaning of the entire passage. Secondly, the reader must understand the specific meaning of the words in the passage. The common theme of these two points is, "Can the reader understand what is written?" It is noteworthy that this theme tends to be measured in terms of grammar and content. The survey results suggest that understanding by the reader is the true measure of writing ability.