Japan Society of English Language Education NII-Electronic Library Service JapanSociety ofEnglish Language Education Why Some Japanese Students Have Trouble Learning English: A Factor AnalyticStudy YUkaYAMANAKA Graduate SbhooL Kdnsai U72iversity Osamu TAIffIUCHI Kitnsai Uitiversity Abstract This research was conducted to examine the reasons why some Japanese students had trouble learning English. In order to identify the causes behind the issue, a questionnaire was developed and a total of393 co!lege-level students from threeschools were surveyed. In Study1, the data obtained from students' questionnaires was analyzed by using a factor analysis, As a result, six factors for thereasons causing difficulties in leaming English were identified. In Study 2, the data of 116 students from the above population were used to exarnine the differences in dithculties between successfUl and unsuccessfUl learners. [Ib confirm the result of the statistical analysis, two successfu1 learners and two unsuccessfu1 learners fromeach group were asked questions. The results show that poor knowledgein grarnmar and writing was fbundto be one of the significant reasons fbr unsuccessfu1 learners. Based on the findings, seme pedagogical and research implications were a!so presented, 1. Introduction Itisoften said that many Japanese studerrts have trouble learning English (Kan, 2006). Since the end of the 1960's, when SLA (second languageacquisition) was estal)lished as a research field (Ellis, 1994), many types of research have been conducted, and the research on successfu1 language learners has been widely ayailal)le (e,g., Cohen & Macaro,2007; Gridiths, 2008; Takeuchi, 2003a), However, the number of studies on unsuccessfu1 leamers is much less than that on successfu1 learners. This research, therefbre, ismainly targeted on the reasons -hy some students have troublewithlearning English, instead of fbcusing on thereasons why some students have succeeded in learning English. This study is made up of two studies, In Study 1, factors causing dienculties inleamingEnglish fbr Japanese high school graduates were identified based on the results of a questionnaire. In Study 2, the differences in dicaculties between successfu1 and unsuceessfUl Japanese highschool graduates were thoroughly exarnined. 201