A public university has shifted the Japanese language teaching method from using full textbooks to the application of combining textbook and online platforms. This shift is in lieu of the transition in teaching and learning patterns initiated by the rapid development of IT and the effects of pandemic. What motivates the researchers to embark on this study is that with the change of learning face-to-face to online learning, foreign language instructors need to prepare more interesting online materials to ease online teaching and learning. Generally, this study is aimed to introduce yet another online teaching materials for the teaching and learning of Japanese. Specifically, this study is to explore how the students learned Japanese online with the assistance of Minato, employing quantitative methods. A forty-seven-item questionnaire, with questions related to behaviour (13 items), situational (20 items) and cognitive (14 items) factors was administered, and 37 students participated in the survey. Based on the findings, it had been illustrated that out of 47 item questions; eleven (11) items recorded the highest score of 4.6 mean points. Eight (8) of the highest means are items from Situational Factors and three items from Cognitive Factors. The sub-factors for Situational Factors consist of learning about culture and learning about lifestyle. Out of eight (8) items with the highest means; three (3) items from culture and five items from lifestyle. The subfactors for Cognitive Factors are learning vocabulary, learning pronunciation and learning grammar. Out of three (3) items with the highest means consists of two (2) items from learning vocabulary and one item from learning pronunciation. The lowest mean of 3.5 points is from Cognitive Factors and the item is learning grammar. Therefore, this study has proven that teaching and learning using videos and photos are the most effective methods for learning Japanese culture and lifestyle through an online platform, whilst learning grammar still need teachers-students' face-to-face interactions in class.

The advent of COVID-19 along with the rapid development of online devices has triggered the evolution of online learning, which its development has turned into an important modern teaching and learning tool. However, various information, such as its practicality, descriptions, innovative ways to apply and customise it to cater to a specific course is much needed for any electronic tools to be adapted into the teaching or learning a foreign language. What motivates the researchers to conduct this study is that with the evolution of online learning, Japanese language instructors need to provide more interesting and appropriate online learning materials to help students' cognitive understanding as well as to facilitate the online teaching and learning session. Generally, the purpose of this study is to investigate how students at one of Malaysia's largest public universities have been using Minato to learn Japanese online. Specifically, this study is conducted to explore how Cognitive, Situational, and Behavioural factors would affect students' online learning process. This study employs quantitative methods. 410 students who adopted Japanese language as an elective course participated as the sample of this study. A survey containing forty-seven questions about Cognitive, Situational and Behavioural factors is managed online. The survey is adapted from the Social Cognitive Theory by (Bandura, 1986). The findings have shown that between these three factors, Situational factors display a great imprint on the student's learning process. Behavioural factors rank second and the least impactful is the Cognitive factors. It has clearly shown that Minato has a significant influence on learning Japanese culture, vocabulary and pronunciation. However, Minato scores low among the students when it comes to assisting their understanding on grammar. Thus, it is suggested that more specific research on certain aspects of Japanese online learning should be conducted because online learning tools are not completely perfect without certain flaws.

Since the beginning of 2020 following the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic, ODL has become the new norm in education either at the primary school level or in higher education institutions. This study is motivated to identify the student's perception of the teaching and learning platform chosen by the instructor so that the ODL session can be optimized and will successfully assist the students' attainment of the Japanese language course. The purpose of this study is to investigate how students perceive Telegram as an ODL platform for learning Japanese. This quantitative study used a 5-point Likert scale as an instrument. The survey was divided into five sections. Section A was the demographic profile, Section B was Learner-to-Learner Interaction, Section C was Learner-to-Instructor Interaction, Section D was Learnerto-Content Interaction and Section E was Learner-to-Platform Interaction. There are 26 items for the Four Types of Interactions. 186 students learning Introductory Japanese Level II participated in this survey. Data is analyzed using SPSS Frequency Statistics, Descriptive Statistics and Paired Samples T-Test. The findings of the study show that students agree with the choice of Telegram as an online Japanese learning platform and the interaction between students, instructors, content and platform is positive. It is suggested that qualitative studies are also conducted to explore more about their perceptions of Telegram being a platform for ODL.

A learning strategy is a person's approach to completing a task and it varies according to individual compatibility. In learning Japanese, the use of appropriate strategies plays an important role in the learning process and can improve students' performance. The researchers were inspired and motivated to conduct this study to discover students' views on the strategies used to learn Japanese to achieve optimal learning outcomes. Thus, the objective of this study was to explore learning strategies through reciprocal determinism used by undergraduate students studying Japanese at the main campus of Malaysia's largest public university. This quantitative research employed a survey via Google Form with 5-Likert scales and was administered to 144 participants learning Japanese as a third language course. It contained four sections that engaged a merge of Bandura's (1986) reciprocal determinism and learning strategies by Wenden & Rubin (1987). The instruments were divided into three sections which consisted of 41 items with 19 items on Behaviour, 11 items on Individual Characteristics and 11 items on Environment. Data was analysed using SPSS Frequency Statistics. The findings showed that generally students claimed that they practiced saying the materials to themselves repetitively, memorised key words to be reminded of key concepts and kept studying the materials learned from class. The data also revealed that students were mostly positive on their metacognitive self-regulation. Furthermore, within a good environment, students put in effort in their studying and they sought help when needed. Future studies are encouraged to focus on creating a teaching model based on the language learning strategy found in this research through qualitative research or a combination of both quantitative and qualitative methods between face-to-face and online language learning.