This paper is another installment in the ongoing project on early language learning in a Japanese FLES program, conducted by ELLRT (Early Language Learning Research Team): Richard Donato and G. Richard Tucker with graduate students from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. The Japanese instructor in this FLES program, Yoko Morimoto, has been a teacher-participant providing an insider's perspective. Since 2002, the research team has extended its focus to literacy learning. Chinen, K., Igarashi, K., Donato, R., & Tucker, G. R. (2003), for example, studied literacy recognition, attitudes toward the program and self-assessment of oral proficiency. Takahashi, E., Donato, R., & Tucker, G. R. (unpublished manuscript) examined kanji knowledge development in terms of recognition of meaning and sound extraction. In the present study, the focus moves to literacy production, particularly kanji writing. During the 2003-2004 academic year, we investigated the types of errors that are produced by early language learners in comparison to those produced by Japanese-speaking children. Our qualitative error analysis led us to recognize and try to understand the development of early language learners' personal systems for kanji writing.