Learner Motivation and Teaching Aims of Japanese Language Instruction in Slovenia

The purpose of this paper is to describe Japanese language teaching and the role of language teachers in Slovenia. Firstly, this paper shows the development and current situation of Japanese language teaching in Slovenia and Central Eastern Europe based on the statistics by the Japan Foundation survey from 2015 and preceding years. Next, the paper discusses the background and tendencies of the internal perspective with regards to the motivation for language learning, sustained by autonomous learning, and pluralism of languages and cultures in CE Europe Lastly, the importance of pre-service and in-service teacher training programs is emphasized, with the conclusion that the role of Japanese language teaching in Slovenia is not only to support the development of learners’ linguistic proficiency, but also to offer learners and the educational institutions opportunities to act as social citizens, and organizations with a perspective that is wider than the European horizon of thought.