The Effect of Study-Abroad on Pragmatic Transfer

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-20
Author(s):  
Naoko Osuka
Keyword(s):  
Study Abroad ◽  
Limited Range ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Pragmatic Transfer ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
Studying Abroad ◽  
The Us ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Computer Based ◽  
Japanese Learners

AbstractThis study aims to investigate the effect that studying abroad may have on pragmatic transfer in requests, refusals, and expressions of gratitude, produced by Japanese learners of English. Twenty-two Japanese college students completed a multimedia elicitation task (MET) before and after studying in the US for one semester, together with twenty-two L1 English speakers and twenty L1 Japanese speakers as baseline data. The MET is a computer-based instrument for eliciting oral data. Unlike previous studies on pragmatic transfer, which often lack statistical evidence, this study includes statistical analysis. The analysis revealed that negative pragmatic transfer occurs within a limited range. The identified transfer includes pragmalinguistic transfer, whereby, assuming that their politeness levels are equal, learners directly translate L1 expressions into L2; and sociopragmatic transfer, whereby learners transfer L1 discourse patterns and functions. Resistance to L2 norms and increased fluency can be influencing factors. The results indicated that the effect of study-abroad is limited because most of the negative transfer which was identified before studying abroad remained after studying abroad. Thus, the necessity of explicit pragmatic instruction was proposed.

Program Design and the Development of Students’ Global Perspectives in Faculty-Led Short-Term Study Abroad

2020 ◽  
pp. 102831532090615
Author(s):  
Melissa Whatley ◽  
Adam C. Landon ◽  
Michael A. Tarrant ◽  
Donald Rubin
Keyword(s):  
Study Abroad ◽  
Program Design ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Study Abroad Programs ◽  
Term Study ◽  
Global Perspectives ◽  
Studying Abroad ◽  
Short Term Study ◽  
Before And After

This study explores connections between design features of faculty-led short-term study abroad programs and resulting changes in students’ global perspectives. Over 2,000 students provided data for this study, completing the Global Perspective Inventory (GPI) before and after studying abroad. Results indicated that program features such as participation in an internship and opportunities for reflection are positively associated with global perspective development while abroad, whereas features such as number of students traveling together and coursework in English are negatively associated with such development. Given the increasing numbers of students who participate in faculty-led short-term abroad programs, research that provides evidence-based recommendations concerning program design is essential to enhancing global perspectives through study abroad.

Japanese learners’ acquisition of English manner-of-motion verbs with locational/directional PPs

2002 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shunji Inagaki
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Matching Task ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Motion Verbs ◽  
Directed Motion ◽  
L1 Transfer ◽  
Positive Evidence ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
Japanese Speakers ◽  
Japanese Learners

This study investigated first language (L1) influence on second language (L2) argument structure in a situation where an L2 argument structure forms a superset of its L1 counterpart. In such a situation, a partial fit between the L1 and the L2 may trigger L1 transfer, whereas availability of positive evidence may allow the learner to arrive at the L2 grammar (White, 1991b). This study tested these predictions by investigating whether Japanese speakers can recognize the directional reading of English manner-of-motion verbs ( walk, swim) with locational/directional PPs ( under, behind), such as John swam under the bridge, where under the bridge can be either the goal of John’s swimming (directional) or the location of John’s swimming (locational). By contrast, their Japanese counterparts allow only a locational reading, as Japanese is more restricted than English in allowing only directed motion verbs ( go) to appear with a phrase expressing a goal. Thirty-five intermediate Japanese learners of English and 23 English speakers were tested using a picture-matching task. Results show that, unlike English speakers, Japanese speakers consistently failed to recognize a directional reading. I suggest that positive evidence need not only be available but also be frequent and clear in order to be used by L2 learners to broaden their interlanguage grammar.

scholarly journals The role virtual exchange could play in helping prepare students for real-life study abroad

2020 ◽  
pp. 165-177
Author(s):  
Andrew Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Study Abroad ◽  
English Language ◽  
Culture Shock ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Financial Assistance ◽  
Intercultural Awareness ◽  
National Education ◽  
Life Study ◽  
Studying Abroad ◽  
Before And After

More and more Japanese students are studying abroad and the Japanese government has set a target of 180,000 students to study abroad each year by 2020 and is providing financial assistance to students to help achieve this goal. However, is financial assistance enough? Surveys conducted with students from a national education-focused university in northern Japan, before and after their study abroad experience, show that they feel underprepared before they leave to go overseas and regret not fulfilling the opportunities they had while abroad. The key areas identified where they needed assistance were with their English language ability, confidence building, and intercultural awareness. This paper suggests that doing a Virtual Exchange (VE) before they travel could help students in all of these areas. It could provide much needed language support, motivation to explore other cultures and share their own, and deliver the confidence to enable them to become more outgoing and make the most of the opportunities presented by studying overseas. Additionally, there is a case to be argued, that VE could help reduce the impact of culture shock. Overall, it is very likely that the use of VE prior to departure could improve students’ study abroad experience. The author also understands that more research is needed on this and proposes a further study comparing students who have studied abroad without conducting VE in advance to those who have, to try and assess its impact on the study abroad experience.

scholarly journals Using Speech Act Sets to Inform Study Abroad Instruction

2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (6) ◽  
pp. 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Siegel
Keyword(s):  
Study Abroad ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Pragmatic Development ◽  
Japanese University ◽  
The Us ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Informed Instruction ◽  
Pragmatic Assessment ◽  
Do So

This paper considers the use of speech act sets (SASs) to inform study abroad instruction and examine pragmatic development of English learners before and after their overseas experiences. To do so, it focuses on pre/post-study abroad oral discourse completion tasks completed by five Japanese university students who studied abroad in the US for one semester. Their spoken responses to a set of ten scenarios were video recorded, transcribed and compared to SASs, which are models of functional language use. To exemplify this approach to pragmatic assessment, the paper focuses on three SASs: apology, request, and thanking. Findings from the SAS analysis show not only pragmatic development but also identify specific aspects that teachers may wish to address during study abroad instruction. This type of informed instruction can build on students’ existing ability and target pragmatic options that they may need to adopt if they are going to study abroad. 本論の目的は、留学前教育において発話行為セット（SAS）の使用を奨励することと、留学前後における英語語用論的能力、特に発話行為の発達を分析することにある。本研究では1学期間の米国留学を行った5名の日本人大学生 に対して実施した口頭談話完成タスク (ODCT：oral discourse completion task) に着目した。このテストは留学前と帰国後に実施され、10の筋書きに対する応答を録画し、書き起こして、機能的言語使用のモデルとされるSASと比較した。中でも「謝罪」「依頼」「感謝」の3つのSASに焦点を当て分析を行った。その結果、発話行為に発達がみられただけでなく、留学前教育において指導が必要とされる点が明らかになった。このような研究に基づいた指導は学習者が既に持っている能力を伸ばすことができるだけでなく、特に留学の際に必要となる発話行為に焦点を当てることができる。

Pragmatic Development through Blogs

2014 ◽  
pp. 137-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noriko Ishihara ◽  
Yumi Takamiya
Keyword(s):  
Pragmatic Language ◽  
Mediated Learning ◽  
Pragmatic Development ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
Language Choices ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Regional Dialect ◽  
Face To Face Instruction ◽  
Japanese Learners

In the acquisition of pragmatic competence, technology-mediated telecollaboration can be a crucial advantage as learners can be socialized into the pragmatic strategies of expert language users in a dynamic interactive context. This chapter focuses on the pragmatic development of three foreign language learners of Japanese over 16-21 months as they blogged with Japanese learners of English in Japan before and after studying in Japan. The blog-mediated learning was provided in conjunction with face-to-face instruction, and the learners' sense of community expanded through the study abroad experience as well as the blog-based telecollaboration. The learners' pragmatic development observable in their blog posts included their use of address terms, gendered sentence-final particles, a regional dialect, emoticons, and style shifting between the clause-final desu/masu and plain forms. The findings indicate that learners' pragmatic language choices can be interpreted in relation to their language socialization and agentive negotiation of emerging multiple identities.

Explicit instruction, input flood or study abroad: Which helps Japanese learners of English acquire adjective ordering?

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 158-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Makiko Hirakawa ◽  
Mayumi Shibuya ◽  
Marie Endo
Keyword(s):  
Study Abroad ◽  
Explicit Instruction ◽  
Intensive Study ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Study Abroad Programs ◽  
Positive Evidence ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
Natural Exposure ◽  
Preference Task ◽  
Japanese Learners

This article explores what kind of second language (L2) input influences Japanese learners’ acquisition of adjective ordering restrictions (AOR) in English where Japanese exhibits no AOR. In Study I, an explicit instruction (EI) group ( n = 13) and a natural exposure (NE) group ( n = 12) responded to a preference task. In Study II, an input flood (IF) group ( n = 15) and a NE group ( n = 16) were involved in the same task. The EI group received 90-minute EI across three weeks while the IF group received positive evidence with multiple adjectives over 15 weeks. The NE groups participated in three or five-week intensive study-abroad programs in North America. Results from the two studies showed that many of the participants failed to make correct choices at the pre-test indicating difficulty with AOR and that only the EI group improved in their performance at the post-tests. We claim that positive evidence alone does not guarantee L2 acquisition of AOR.

Comprehension process of second language indirect requests

1994 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 475-506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satomi Takahashi ◽  
Herbert L. Roitblat
Keyword(s):  
Nonnative Speakers ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Literal Interpretation ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
Sentence Reading ◽  
Comprehension Process ◽  
Indirect Requests ◽  
Japanese Learners ◽  
Subsequent Target

ABSTRACTThis study examined the comprehension of English conventional indirect requests by native English speakers and Japanese learners of English. Subjects read stories inducing either a conventional or a literal interpretation of a priming sentence. Reading speeds did not vary as a function of the interpretation. Subsequent target sentences that paraphrased either the literal or the conventional interpretation of the prime sentence were read more quickly when they paraphrased a conventional interpretation of the sentence than when they paraphrased a literal interpretation. Target sentences were also read more quickly if they paraphrased the interpretation induced by the context than if they did not match. The results suggest that both native and nonnative speakers process both meanings of an ambiguous conventional request.

Pragmatic development, the L2 motivational self-system, and other affective factors in a study-abroad context

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-168
Author(s):  
Akiko Inagaki
Keyword(s):  
Study Abroad ◽  
Extrinsic Motivation ◽  
Motivational Factors ◽  
Willingness To Communicate ◽  
Conventional Implicature ◽  
Pragmatic Development ◽  
Affective Factors ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
Pragmatic Comprehension ◽  
Japanese Learners

This study investigates (1) whether the pragmatic competence of Japanese learners of English improves when studying abroad and (2) the relationship between the learners' pragmatic development and their motivational factors. In order to investigate the pragmatic comprehension of conventional/non-conventional implicatures, a Pragmatic Comprehension Test (PCT) was given to approximately 150 Japanese learners of English before and after a sixteen-week study-abroad programme. A questionnaire exploring motivational factors, such as intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, L2 ideal/ought-to selves, Can-Do attitude, and willingness to communicate was also circulated amongst the participants before the programme. Factor analysis was performed to determine which factors were related to learners' motivation, and six factors were selected. The results indicated that the participants developed comprehension of conventional implicature but not non-conventional implicature. A cluster analysis was conducted on the participants' PCT scores, and the participants were divided into three groups. The highest scoring group showed a statistically significant result on one factor - confidence.

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