Japanese Speakers Of English Research Articles

The acquisition of multiple wh-questions by high-proficiency non-native speakers of English

This paper investigates the knowledge of multiple wh-questions such as Who ate what? by high-proficiency non-native speakers of English whose first language is Japanese. Japanese grammar is known to license a wider range of such questions than English – who came why, for example – although the precise theoretical account is not yet clear. Acceptability judgements were obtained on 6 different types of such questions. Acceptability of English examples was rated by native speakers of English, Japanese examples were judged by native speakers of Japanese, and the English examples were judged by high-proficiency Japanese speakers of English. The results for native speakers judging their own language were generally in accord with expectations. The high-level non-native speakers of English were significantly different from native speakers in their ratings of these sentences. However, the ratings were clearly not simply the result of transfer. The consequences of this finding for theories of Universal Grammar (UG) in second language acquisition (SLA) are discussed.

Repetitions: a cross‐cultural study

ABSTRACT: This paper investigates how one feature of conversational style ‐ repetition ‐ is utilized within the system of turn‐taking cross‐culturally, examining and classifying the immediate repetitions utilized at topic and subtopic boundaries of three different types of interactions: NSE‐NSE (native speakers of British English), NSJ‐NSJ (native speakers of Japanese), and NSE‐JSE (Japanese speakers of English). Five interactional functions of repetition are identified: interruption‐oriented, solidarity, silence‐avoidance, hesitation, and reformulation repetitions. It is noted that the frequency of the use of different types of repetition varies across cultures, some being exclusively confined either to English or Japanese interactions. It is argued that the differences in the use of repetitions are closely related to the differences in the turn‐taking mechanism of English and Japanese interactions and also to the socio‐cultural values attached to their use.

Intrusive or co-operative? A cross-cultural study of interruption

This paper highlights how interruptions are used within the system of turn-taking, referring to the rules of turn-taking set out by Sacks et al. (1974), and classifying the kinds of interruption used by conversational participants. I classify interruption into two main types: co-operative and intrusive. Intrusive interruption is further divided into three types: topic-changing, floor-taking, and disagreement interruptions. The occurence of these different types of interruption is examined in the data from three different interactions; NSE-NSE (Native Speakers of English), NSJ-NSJ (Native Speakers of Japanese), and NSE-JSE (Japanese Speakers of English) interactions. It is noted that the frequency of the use of the different types of interruption varies across cultures. Furthermore, this paper discusses interruption from the perspective of the sociocultural values attached to its use.