scholarly journals Japanese Junior High School English Textbook Input and Wh-Question Formulation

2020 ◽  
Vol 2019 (1) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Paul Lyddon ◽  
Hiromu Okamura

Second language acquisition of English wh-questions is complicated by asymmetries among different wh-question types. In a study of the wh-interrogative production of Japanese junior high school (JHS) learners, Hasebe and Maki (2014) found a disordinal interaction between wh-question type and English proficiency level. They also noted an unexplained tendency for more advanced learners to over-insert do. Connecting these findings, the present investigation hypothesized greater learner exposure to wh-questions with do at higher levels of study, which was evaluated by comparing the proportions of relevant wh-question types across the three grade levels of three popular ministry-approved JHS English textbooks. Although failing to support the research hypothesis, the results revealed a scarcity of noncopular main verb wh-subject questions. Given retrograde development of this particular question type, these findings suggest a possible need to explicitly sensitize learners to the distinctions between various wh-question types as well as provide additional implicit exposure to them. 第二言語習得研究では、英語のwh疑問文の種類によって習得速度に違いがあることが報告されている。Hasebe & Maki(2014)による日本人中学生を対象にした調査では、wh疑問文の種類と英語の上達度の間に非順序的な交互作用があることに加えて、初級の学習者に比べ、中上級の学習者は主語疑問文でdo挿入を過剰に適用する傾向があることが分かった。この結果をもとに、中上級の学習者はdo挿入があるwh疑問文のインプットを、初級者よりも多く受けていると考え、日本の中学校で使用されている教科書に掲載されていた疑問文の例を調査した。その結果、インプットの量が影響しているという仮説は支持されなかったが、全体として主語疑問文の数が少ないことが分かった。Hasebeらで観察された学習者の主語疑問文の習得に対し、本研究の結果は、学校教育の場において主語疑問文のインプットを増やすことや、疑問文の種類の違いを明示的に指導する必要性があることを示唆している。

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 33
Author(s):  
Dan YANG ◽  
Ziqi WANG

This paper studies the learner evaluation results of Chinese and foreign cultural materials in Oxford Junior High School English Textbook of Yilin Edition (2nd semester of Book 8) with a questionnaire. It finds that the content of Chinese and foreign culture in this edition is rich and diverse, which can cultivate students’ cross-cultural identity and communication ability. However, some typical problems exist, such as uneven distribution of Chinese and foreign cultures, lack of cultural diversity awareness, lack of interdisciplinary nature, falling to stimulate students’ learning enthusiasm.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 101
Author(s):  
Rita Karmila Sari

<p>Textbooks that are too difficult to read will decrease students’ motivation in learning, while textbooks that are too easy to read will make students less interested in reading them. Therefore, the readability analysis needs to be done so that the textbooks used as learning media are suitable for the students who become the target readers of the books. This study analyzes the texts in Junior High School English textbooks entitled “English in Focus” grades VII, VIII, and IX published by the Center of Book Archieve of the Department of National Education by using cloze procedure. The tests were carried out in SMPN 1 Gunungputri and SMP Sejahtera 2 Cileungsi, involving students in grades VII, VIII, and IX. The texts tested were adapted to their grade levels. The tests were made in the form of 100 words which were then omitted at every 5th word. The readability results of “English in Focus” textbook are that not all texts in the book are suitable for students who use it. If the books are considered as suitable teaching material, these books need some changes because there are 6 texts from the total of 24 texts that are considered too difficult for students.</p><p>Keywords: textbook assessment, readability, cloze procedure</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 2019 (1) ◽  
pp. 41
Author(s):  
Luke Houghton

This study is an analysis of how English and “English speakers” were represented in Japanese junior high school textbooks. The frequency of nationalities shown as English-speakers and the frequency of nations and national landmarks mentioned in the textbooks were counted with reference to Kachru’s (1985) “circles” of English to identify areas of overrepresentation or underrepresentation. The ways in which English speakers were given voice were also investigated. The study found that, although the textbook authors attempted to represent the English language as spoken by a variety of nationalities, there was a bias towards representing Japanese students and inner circle nationals as the primary users of English, a severe lack of representation of people of outer circle nationalities as English speakers, and little discussion of varieties of English. 本研究では、中学生対象の検定教科書において、英語および英語話者がどのように表現されているかを調査した。英語話者として表現される国籍及び、国やその国を表徴するシンボルの頻度を記録し、ブラージ・カチルー(1985)が提唱した同心円モデルを使い、過剰表現又は表現不足の領域を調査した。この調査で、教科書はさまざまな国籍の人が話す「英語」を表現しようとしたが、日本人学生と内円(英語/第一言語)の国々の話者を英語の主なユーザーとして過剰表現する傾向があり、 特に外円(英語/第二言語)の国々に属する英語話者に関する表現や、様々な英語に関する議論が大幅に不足していることが分かった。


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ehsan Namaziandost ◽  
Arash Hashemifardnia ◽  
Syed Esmail Hosseini

This study was carried out to examine the speech acts of Directives, Assertives, Commissives, Declaratives and Expressives used in conversation parts of Iranian Junior High School English Textbooks (Prospect One, Prospect Two and Prospect Three). The researchers selected and counted all the speech acts to see which speech acts were more frequently used. Searle’s (1976) speech acts model was used to analyse the data. After counting the speech acts, percentage and frequency were used to get the final findings. The results indicated that Assertives and Declaratives were, respectively, the most and the least frequently used speech acts in the Prospect Books. The Chi-square test results revealed that the speech acts were not distributed equally in the Prospect Books. The findings of this study can assist the material designers to include different types of speech acts in EFL textbooks in order to help the EFL learners develop their communicative and pragmatic knowledge. Keywords: Speech acts, pragmatics, prospect books.


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