English Acquisition for Japanese L2 Learners People often say that Japanese people learn the language poorly. You can agree on this point when you see the TOEFL average ranking. Japan arguably has the worst score in Asia. However, there was, and still exists, a myth that people believe that Japanese students are good at grammar while studying for the entrance exam for years and years. But is it true?? It's not just the question of talent in language learning. We cannot simply conclude that Japanese students lack the ability to acquire a second language. It's more because of the education system that places weight on passing tests and getting scores. Although they have a good grasp of grammar and can read and write according to what they have learned from the textbook, it seems that most Japanese English speakers have problems in real conversation situations where they cannot understand what they say The speaker NE is saying and make sure the speaker NE understands what he is saying. When we learn Japanese, we don't have to teach ourselves to discover the phonemes of our language, we do it unconsciously at an early stage and we know what they are. However, English is the second language students encounter when they are 12 years old in middle school. They start by learning English from NNE teachers and mainly from grammar books. They would not have the opportunity to learn to distinguish phonemes in English, for example /r/ and /l/ sound. They might be able to convert some phonemes into similar sounds that exist in Japanese, but they wouldn't understand the slightest distinction that the /l/ in leaf and the /l/ in feeling are different. That the position of the tongue may differ when it is lateral and velarized, but who cares... middle of the paper... at school along with pronunciation and followed by the acquisition of the written system of the language. This includes the acquisition of the oral and written systems of the learner's L1 and L2 across all linguistic domains, such as phonology (the pronunciation system); vocabulary, morphology and syntax (the grammatical system); semantics (meaning); pragmatics (how language is used in a given context); paralinguistics (nonverbal and other extralinguistic features); and discourse (strokes of language beyond a single sentence). To ensure cognitive and academic success in the L2, a student's L1 system, oral and written, must be developed to a high cognitive level at least during the elementary school years. Teachers recognize that each language is best acquired throughout school through natural and rich use of language, oral and written, across the curriculum.