English-speaking Learners Of Japanese Research Articles

Accuracy and Stability in English Speakers' Production of Japanese Pitch Accent.

Standard Japanese uses pitch accent to distinguish words such as initially-accented hashi “chopsticks” and finally-accented hashi “bridge.” Research on the second language acquisition of pitch accent shows considerable variation: in accuracy scores in identification, in different dominant accent types in production, and in the unstable accent types of repeated words. This study investigates pitch accent production in English-speaking learners of Japanese, asking how accuracy and stability vary (a) with amount of Japanese experience and (b) between learners. Two groups of learners (13 less experienced; 8 more experienced) produced 180 words in three contexts (e.g., ame “rain,” ame da “it’s rain,” and ame ga furu “rain falls”). Three Japanese phoneticians identified the accent types of the words that the learners produced. The results showed no difference in accuracy or stability between the two groups and little inter-learner variation in accuracy: all had low accuracy. Although some learners had relatively high stability, they did not maintain accent type contrasts across contexts. These results suggest that first language English speakers do not encode pitch accent in long-term memory, raising questions for future research and language teaching.

Enhancing Higher Order Interpretation Skills for Japanese Reading

Computer-mediated reading materials can help learners improve their higher order interpretation skills for constructing coherent text representation. As an example, courseware created for improving higher order interpretation skills focuses on anaphoric resolutions and backward inferences, skills particularly important for developing reading skills in Japanese because of the language's tendency to omit referents if they can be reconstructed from the text. Such omissions, because they do not characterize English, present particular difficulties for English-speaking learners of Japanese.

Acquisition of Yo-on (Japanese contracted sounds) in L1 and L2 phonology

This study observes the prosodic constraints that govern the pattern of simplification of Japanese contracted sounds in the acquisition processes of first (L1) and second language (L2) learners: Japanese children and English speaking learners of Japanese. Japanese language has a group of palatalized consonants, known to scholars of Japanese language as the 'contracted' sounds, [CjV]. In accordance with the prosodic constraints of Japanese, which is mora-timed, a mora has to be the same length as a CV mora. However, in addition to typical moraic timing errors, learners of Japanese whose L1 is English appear to treat Japanese contracted sounds initially as consonant + glide clusters, where there is an equivalent [Cj] cluster in English, or otherwise tend to insert an epenthetic vowel [CijV]. The phonological status of the palatal glide [j] is still controversial in both English and Japanese. The acquisition process of the Japanese CjV unit by English speaking learners could offer the clue to clarify this issue. Given the similarity between palatalized consonants and consonant clusters in their phonetic status, the acquisition literature of consonant clusters is considered initially. In general, L1 learners at an early stage of acquisition employ a reduction strategy to cope with the production difficulties associated with the clusters. Sonority appears to be the causal factor referred to most frequently. If the sonority hypothesis governs the reduction pattern, syllable initial clusters reduce to whichever consonant in the cluster creates a maximal sonority rise, and syllable final clusters reduce to whichever consonant in the cluster creates a minimal sonority descent; e.g. Onsets pl ? p? Codas lp ? l(Ohala,1999). The former would possibly be the case if the CjV unit in Japanese were treated as a consonant cluster. The results of this study show a contrastive reduction pattern between L1 and L2 learners. Due to the moraic timing constraint, Japanese children would not epenthesize vowels in producing contracted sounds, while L2 learners violated moraic timing by lengthening a vowel or inserting gemination as well as an epenthetic vowel. The reduced consonant also differed between the two groups, and the result shed light on the clarification of the phonological status of /Cj/ sequences in Japanese and English. The findings of the study also point to Japanese children's early acquisition of palato-alveolars, which accounts for the prevalence of the recognition that children are good at producing the contracted sounds.

Acquiring Interactional Competence in a Study Abroad Context: Japanese Language Learners’ Use of the Interactional Particle ne

This study examines the development of interactional competence () by English-speaking learners of Japanese as a foreign language (JFL) in a study abroad setting, as indexed by their use of the interactionally significant particle ' ne.' The analysis is based on a comparison of (a) 6 sets of conversations between JFL learners and native Japanese peers during the first week of the study abroad program, and (b) 6 sets of conversations between the same pairs of speakers during the fifth week of the program. Although there is great variability in efficiency of interactional competence acquisition among JFL cohorts, JFL learners on the whole seem to have enhanced their interactional competence by using more ' ne' alignments. This study supports the argument that a study abroad program provides a valuable developmental experience that can accelerate JFL learners' acquisition of interactional competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acquiring the Scope of Disjunction and Negation in L2: A Bidirectional Study of Learners of Japanese and English

While L1 transfer and L2 learnability have been studied extensively in the domain of syntax and the syntax/semantics interface, purely semantic phenomena have received little attention in the L2 literature. This paper presents two experiments examining the relative scope assigned to disjunction and negation by English-speaking learners of Japanese (Experiment 1) and Japanese-speaking learners of English (Experiment 2). Previous evidence from L1 acquisition shows a protracted initial default for the interpretation of the relative scope of disjunction and negation. Our results show no such default in L2 acquisition, contra the predictions of Epstein et al. (1996). Instead, we find evidence of L1 transfer, suggesting ‘Full Transfer’ at the L2 initial state extends to the domain of semantics. Results also show uneven success in the two L2 groups, which is explained through the different learnability scenarios that arise as a result of transfer and the availability of positive evidence in the L2 input.

Deriving meaning through context: Interpreting bare nominals in second language Japanese

Previous studies on the second language acquisition of telicity have suggested that learners can use morphosyntactic cues to interpret sentences as telic or atelic even in cases where the cues differ in the first language (L1) and second language (L2) (Slabakova, 2001, 2005; Gabriele, 2008; Kaku et al., 2008a, 2008b). The present study extends this line of research by focusing on a case in which learners cannot rely on morphosyntactic cues in order to reach the appropriate aspectual interpretation. We examine the acquisition of telicity by English-speaking learners of Japanese, focusing on how learners interpret bare count nouns such as kaado ‘card’ that obligatorily display count noun morphosyntax in English. In Japanese, a bare noun such as kaado is ambiguous with respect to number and therefore a verb phrase such as kaado-o kakimashita ‘wrote card’ can be interpreted as either telic ‘wrote the cards’ or atelic ‘wrote cards’ depending on the context. The results of two studies with both intermediate (Study 1: n = 38; Study 2: n = 38) and advanced (Study 1: n = 7; Study 2: n = 10) learners of Japanese show that there are learners at both levels of proficiency that have difficulty with the interpretation of bare count nouns and assign an exclusively telic reading to a verb phrase such as kaado-o kakimashita ‘wrote card’. We argue that this interpretation is due to the boundedness of count nouns in L1 English and propose that a retreat from negative transfer is difficult when there is variability in the native speaker input and when meaning has to be derived from context in the absence of morphosyntactic cues.

How can you be so certain? The use of hearsay evidentials by English-speaking learners of Japanese

As argued in Kamio's (1990, 1997) works on the theory of territory of information and other studies, there are differences in how evidentials are used in Japanese and English. Due to such differences, English-speaking learners have been reported to face difficulties when marking their epistemic stance in Japanese (Kamada, 1990). This study systematically investigates how English-speaking learners of Japanese use hearsay evidentials in Japanese and English, and it empirically examines whether there is a transfer effect from the learners’ first language to the target language. Data were elicited through production questionnaires in which the learners were instructed to verbally convey hearsay information to specified addressees. Quantitative analysis of the data showed that the learners used significantly less overt hearsay evidentials in both languages, as compared to the Japanese speakers’ production in Japanese. Furthermore, quantitative and qualitative analyses identified patterns which suggest possible effects of transfer from English to Japanese. Additionally, close examination of the learners’ production according to evidential types and in relation to the situational variables controlled in this study revealed instances in which the learners were attempting to approximate the Japanese speakers’ use. Suggestions for future research and for a pedagogical approach to teaching the use of hearsay evidentials are also provided.

English-speaking learners’ use of component information in processing unfamiliar kanji

AbstractReading in the Japanese language cannot be accomplished without adequate recognition of kanji words. Abundant research suggests that, when recognizing kanji words, it is crucial to use semantic and phonological information of constituent components of kanji. This paper reports on the results of a study investigating if English-speaking learners of Japanese have the ability to use kanji component information. A test measuring learners’ ability to utilise component information was devised and administered after training sessions. The analysis of the test results suggests that learners of Japanese have an ability to use component information. Judging from the findings of the study, learners are better at using semantic information than using phonological information for processing kanji words

PROCESSING AND LEARNING OF JAPANESE DOUBLE-OBJECT ACTIVE AND CAUSATIVE SENTENCES : AN ERROR-FEEDBACK PARADIGM

Do native speakers always outperform second-language (L2) learners in terms of speech processing accuracy? Surprisingly, the answer to this seemingly obvious question is no according to the study reported here. Indeed, native speakers sometimes make more errors than learners in interpreting their own first-language (L1) speech. In this competition experiment of the double-object active and transitive causative sentence processing strategies, six native Japanese speakers and nine English-speaking learners of Japanese participated. The participants were required to identify the agents of the main lexical verb (“doers”) of a series of Japanese sentences, each consisting of one verb and three noun phrases, in which word order and case-marking cues either competed or were consistent with each other. In the first (pretest) and last (posttest) parts of the study, participants received no feedback about the accuracy of their responses, whereas in the middle part they received immediate feedback. The stimulus sentences were such that a listener could determine the semantic role of noun phrases (actor, causer, or recipient) only by taking into consideration both the case markers and the verb's voice (active vs. causative).

Individual Variation in a Japanese Sentence Comprehension Task: Form, Functions, and Strategies

This article reports on follow-up analyses of Sasaki's (in press) competition experiment study of Japanese sentence comprehension strategies. Individualbased analyses are contrasted with group statistics which were reported earlier. A competition experiment was conducted to investigate the double-object active and transitive causative sentence processing strategies by English-speaking learners of Japanese (JFL learners), and how immediate error feedback affects them. Six native Japanese speakers and nine JFL learners participated in the study. The participants were required to identify the agents of the main lexical verb ('doers') in a series of Japanese sentences, each consisting of one verb and three noun phrases, in which word order and case-marking cues either competed or were consistent with each other. (These were all grammatical sentences: i.e. they were morphosyntactically well formed. Also, the sentences were all semantically interpretable. ) In the first (pre-test) and last (post-test) parts of the study participants received no feedback as to the accuracy of their responses, whereas in the middle part they received immediate feedback. The stimulus sentences were such that a listener could determine the semantic role of noun phrases (actor, causer, or recipient) only by taking into consideration both the case markers and the verb's voice (active vs. causative). The analyses indicated tremendous individual differences within each group. Some learners demonstrated an evident word order bias, and a subset of the native Japanese revealed an even stronger word order dependency than the learners, to such an extent that they were outperformed by learners in the accuracy in interpreting non-canonical sentences. The results are explained in terms of the working memory constraint, and directions of further research are discussed

Paths of Processing Strategy Transfers in Learning Japanese and English as Foreign Languages

This paper reports on a competition model experiment designed to investigate the sentence-processing strategies of English-speaking learners of Japanese (JFL learners) and Japanese-speaking learners of English. The participants were required to identify the sentence subject of a series of English and Japanese word strings, each consisting of one verb and two nouns, in which noun-animacy, word-order, and case-marking cues either competed or were consistent with each other. The results indicated a correlation between learners' proficiency in Japanese and case-marker dependency in Japanese strings. JFL learners primarily resorted to animacy cues to interpret Japanese strings, suggesting a prepotent role for lexical semantics. There was little evidence of transfer of surface word order, although some JFL learners resorted to the Japanese canonical SOV order to a greater extent than the native Japanese.