L2 English Learners' Performance in Persuasion Role-Plays

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 66-83
Author(s):  
Shin'ichiro Ishikawa
Keyword(s):  
English Learners ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Role Play ◽  
Grammatical Knowledge ◽  
Second Person ◽  
Novice Learners ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
Intermediate Learners ◽  
Japanese Learners

Using persuasion role-play data, this study examined the features of the persuasion by Japanese learners of English (JLE). The quantitative and qualitative comparisons between the JLE and the English native speakers (ENS) showed that (1) the JLE took turns 16–26% less and spoke 8–35% less, and they did not speak more than the interviewers; (2) they used first/second-person pronouns 19-86% less; (3) they overused fillers and “want,” while they underused hedges, second-person pronouns, amplifiers, and semi-prefabricated phrases; and (4) they were divided into three subgroups (novice, lower-intermediate, and upper-intermediate) in terms of the use of high-frequency words, and the novice learners were characterized by talking about themselves, the lower-intermediate learners by generalizing their claims, and the upper-intermediate learners by making their persuasion more effective by utilizing their lexical and grammatical knowledge. These findings could be utilized for the development of new teaching materials and curriculums to enhance L2 learners' persuasion skills.

scholarly journals Contrastive Interlanguage Analysis of Discourse Markers Used by Nonnative and Native English Speakers

2014 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazunari Shimada
Keyword(s):  
English Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Learner Corpus ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
Japanese Learners ◽  
Qualitative Analyses

In this study, the use of discourse markers (DMs) in the speech of Japanese learners of English was investigated. To explore the features of their DM use, corpora of nonnative and native English speakers’ speech were analysed using the methodology called Contrastive Interlanguage Analysis. A frequency analysis of DMs revealed significant differences between Japanese learners’ and native speakers’ speech, supporting earlier findings. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the learner corpus data suggest that Japanese learners may use the marker so more frequently than other nonnative English learners, while also using certain interpersonal or cognitive function markers such as you know, I mean, and just less frequently. The findings suggest the need for language instructors and materials writers to understand the characteristics of Japanese learners’ interlanguage and to provide them with appropriately designed DM input. 本研究は、日本人英語学習者の話し言葉における談話標識（discourse markers: DMs）の使用を調べたものである。日本人英語学習者のDMs使用の特徴を探るために、対照中間言語分析の手法に基づき、非英語母語話者と英語母語話者の話し言葉コーパスを分析した。まず、日本人英語学習者と英語母語話者の話し言葉におけるDMsの使用頻度を分析したところ、先行研究と同じく、大きな差が見られた。次に、非英語母語話者の話し言葉を量的・質的の両面で分析した結果、日本人英語学習者が、他の非英語母語話者に比べてsoを多く使用し、you know, I mean, justなどの対人関係的、認知的機能をもつDMsをあまり使用しないことが明らかになった。その結果は、教師や教材作成者が日本人英語学習者の中間言語の特徴を理解し、学習者に対して慎重にDMsをインプットしていく必要性があることを示唆している。

The limits of extended naturalistic exposure on the perceptual mastery of English /r/ and /l/ by adult Japanese learners of English

1995 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 380-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naoyuki Takagi ◽  
Virginia Mann
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Identification Accuracy ◽  
Spoken English ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Japanese Learners ◽  
One Year ◽  
Adult Exposure

AbstractTo evaluate the effect of extended adult exposure to authentic spoken English on the perceptual mastery of English /r/ and /l/, we tested 12 native speakers of English (A), 12 experienced Japanese (EJ) who had spent 12 or more years in the United States, and 12 less experienced Japanese (LJ) who had spent less than one year in the United States. The tests included the forced-choice identification of naturally produced /r/s and /1/s and the labeling of word-initial synthetic tokens that varied F2 and F3 to form an /r/-/l/-/w/ continuum. The F.Js’ mean performance in both tasks was closer to that of the As than the LJs, but nonetheless fell short. Extended exposure may improve /r/-/l/ identification accuracy; it does not ensure perfect perceptual mastery.

scholarly journals ANALISIS KONTRASTIF KOTOWARI HYOUGEN ANTARA PEMBELAJAR BAHASA JEPANG DAN PENUTUR ASLI

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Novia Hayati
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Japanese Language ◽  
Contrastive Analysis ◽  
Completion Test ◽  
Unpleasant Feeling ◽  
Japanese Learners

 Abstrak Analisis Kontrastif Kotowari Hyougen  antara Pembelajar Bahasa Jepang dan Penutur Asli. Di antara beberapa aktifitas berbahasa, tindakan menolak sering dianggap sebagai tindakan yang cukup sulit karena memberikan perasaan tidak menyenangkan terhadap lawan tutur. Tindak tutur menolak tidak terlepas dari latar belakang tindak tutur berbahasa oleh pengguna bahasa tersebut. Pembelajar yang berbahasa ibu bahasa Sunda memiliki kemiripan dengan penutur asli dalam membuat tindak tutur penolakan dikarenakan adanya kedekatan aturan undak usuk bahasa sunda dengan tainguu hyougen dalam bahasa Jepang. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui ungkapan penolakan yang digunakan oleh pembelajar bahasa Jepang kemudian melalui perbandingan dengan penutur asli diketahui persamaan dan perbedaanya serta permasalahan dalam ungkapan penolakan oleh pembelajar. Instrumen yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah Discourse Completion Test (DCT). Hasil analisis data menunjukan terdapat persamaan diantara pembelajar dan penutur asli dalam pengguna {wabi} terhadap dosen akrab (penggunanya lebih rendah). Sebagai permasalahan dalam ungkapan penolakan yakni pembelajar menggunakan {fuka} dalam bentuk futsuu no hiteikei, dan {koshou} dalam frekuensi yang cukup tinggi. Sebaliknya, penutur asli menggunakan fukanoukei, dikarenakan apabila menggunakan futsuu no hiteikei akan diterima sebagai arti penolakan yang kuat/keras.Kata kunci: Kotowari hyougen, DCT, Taiguu hyougen, penutur asli, konstraktif  Abstract Contrastive Analysis of Kotowari Hyougen between Learners of Japanese Language and Japanese Native Speakers. Among several speaking activities, action of refusal is often considered a difficult act as it gives an unpleasant feeling againts interlocutors. Refusal speech act cannot be separated from the background of the speech act by the user of the language. Learners whose mother tongue is Sundanese language has similarities with Japanese native speakers in making the speech act of refusal due to the proximity of the undak usuk in Sundanese with tainguu hyougen in Japanese. This study aims to determine the expressions of refusal used by Japanese learners then, through comparison with native speakers, to determine the similarities, differences and problems in the expression of rejection by the learners. The instrument used in this study is Discourse Completion Test (DCT). Form the analysis of the data it was found that there were similarities between learners and native speakers that {riyuu/iiwake}, {wabi}, {fuka} were used as the main semantic formula. There are similarities between learners whose mother tongue is Sundanese and native speakers in using language {wabi} to professors considered familiar (lower usage). The problem of expressions of refusal used by learners {fuka} in the form Futsuu fuka no hiteikei and {koshou} was in a fairly high frequency. In contrast, native speakers use fukanoukei, because using Futsuu no hiteikei will be considered as a strong/hard sense of refusal.Keywords: Kotowari hyougen, DCT, Tainguu hyougen

A Lexical Study Based on Corpora, DDL, and Moodle

2011 ◽  
pp. 204-218
Author(s):  
Yasunori Nishina
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
English Abstract ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Abstract Noun ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
Japanese Learners ◽  
Lexical Study ◽  
Implied Meaning ◽  
English Noun

This chapter suggests an effective method for lexical studies using Moodle within the framework of data-driven learning based on parallel concordances, and particularly shows how teachers can prepare and compile materials of a specific keyword for Japanese learners of English. It is often the case that knowledge of L1 possessed by EFL learners affects that of L2 when they do L2 writing. The author shows this using the case of the English abstract noun condition, because it differs in its usage (e.g., implied meaning and context) by English native speakers and by Japanese EFL learners. Errors of this kind can be overcome by presenting parallel concordances concerning translation equivalents and their synonyms of the English noun in question. Thus, the several steps in the compilation of classroom materials based on parallel concordances with Moodle are presented here.

MOTION VERBS WITH GOAL PPs IN THE L2 ACQUISITION OF ENGLISH AND JAPANESE

2001 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shunji Inagaki
Keyword(s):  
English Learners ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Motion Verbs ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Directed Motion ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
Grammaticality Judgment ◽  
L1 Influence ◽  
Japanese Learners

In English, manner-of-motion verbs (walk, run) and directed motion verbs (go) can appear with a prepositional phrase that expresses a goal (goal PP) as in John walked (ran, went) to school. In contrast, Japanese allows only directed motion verbs to occur with a goal PP. Thus, English allows a wider range of motion verbs to occur with goal PPs than Japanese does. Learnability considerations, then, lead me to hypothesize that Japanese learners will learn manner-of-motion verbs with goal PPs in English from positive evidence, whereas English learners will have difficulty learning that manner-of-motion verbs with goal PPs are impossible in Japanese because nothing in the input will tell them so. Forty-two intermediate Japanese learners of English and 21 advanced English learners of Japanese were tested using a grammaticality judgment task with pictures. Results support this prediction and provide a new piece of evidence for the previous findings indicating that L1 influence persists when an argument structure in the L2 constitutes a subset of its counterpart in the L1.

TRANSFER AND TRANSITION IN THE SLA OF ASPECT

2009 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Gabriele
Keyword(s):  
English Learners ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Native Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Input Cues ◽  
Japanese Learners ◽  
English Native Speaker ◽  
Rule Out

Previous studies have shown that it is particularly difficult for second language (L2) learners to overcome the effects of transfer when they need to unlearn specific aspects of the native language in the absence of explicit input that indicates which properties of the first language (L1) are ruled out by the L2 grammar (Inagaki, 2001; Westergaard, 2003; White, 1991a, 1991b). The present study focuses on the effects of transfer in the domain of aspectual semantics through an investigation of the interpretation of the present progressive in L2 English and the imperfective marker te-iru in L2 Japanese and examines whether L2 learners can rule out interpretations available in the L1 but not in the L2. Japanese learners of English (n = 101), English native-speaker controls (n = 23), English learners of Japanese (n = 31), and Japanese native-speaker controls (n = 33) completed an interpretation task in English or Japanese. The results show that the L2 Japanese learners were more successful than the L2 English learners in both acquiring the semantics of the imperfective in the L2 and ruling out interpretations available only in the L1. It is proposed that successful unlearning depends on both the grammatical complexity of the semantic target in the L2 and the transparency of the input cues available to the learner.

Quasi-neutralization in the acquisition of English coronal fricatives by native speakers of Japanese

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emiko Kaneko ◽  
Younghyon Heo ◽  
Gregory Iverson ◽  
Ian Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Language Transfer ◽  
Acoustic Characteristics ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
Sentence Construction ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Japanese Learners ◽  
Construction Task

Second language learners show various forms of mispronunciation, or modification, of target pronunciation, most perhaps due to direct native language transfer, but others, summarized here, to deflected contrast, hypercorrection and covert contrast. The present paper reports on a novel form of adaptation that we term ‘quasi-neutralization,’ in which acoustic characteristics of competing target phonemes are found within the same interlanguage segment (e.g., think [θɪŋk] pronounced as [θsiŋk]). The three English voiceless coronal fricatives /s/, /ʃ/, /θ/ were elicited from Japanese learners of English via two techniques: a wordlist reading task that encouraged participants to focus on their pronunciation, and a sentence construction task that diverted their attention from pronunciation. Among different types of modification, quasi-neutralization was observed predominantly when participants were conscious of their pronunciation, which could reflect their linguistic insecurity as learners. This research thus illuminates another of the strategies that learners employ in the acquisition of L2 pronunciation.

Towards a Model of Advanced Learners’ Vocabulary Acquisition: An Investigation of L2 Vocabulary Acquisition and Retention by Taiwanese English Majors

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Lee Reynolds ◽  
Wei-Hua Wu ◽  
Hui-Wen Liu ◽  
Shu-Yuan Kuo ◽  
Ching-Hua Yeh
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
English Language ◽  
Vocabulary Acquisition ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
Part Of Speech ◽  
Japanese Learners ◽  
L2 Vocabulary

AbstractDevelopment of vocabulary is one of the fundamental elements for second language acquisition; it is important to meaning transfer and successful communication as well (Barcroft 2004). The purpose of the research reported in this paper was to investigate to what extent the characteristics of vocabulary affect Taiwanese English language majors’ second-language vocabulary acquisition and retention. This research builds upon similar research conducted by Willis and Ohashi (2012), which found a relationship between acquisition and a word’s frequency, cognateness, and length for Japanese learners of English. Our results indicate a significant relationship between acquisition and a word’s frequency, level of polysemy, and part of speech. Correlation results show that polysemy and frequency are both strongly related to acquisition. Nevertheless, a negative correlation between phonemes and acquisition was also shown. The findings indicate that high frequency words and polysemous words are both easily acquired and retained; in contrast, words with more phonemes require more effort by Taiwanese English language majors to learn and retain. Findings from a multiple regression analysis further suggest that high frequency polysemous nouns are easily acquired and retained by Taiwanese English language majors. Pedagogical implications concerning the variables investigated are provided.

Factoring out the parallelism effect in VP-ellipsis: English vs. Dutch contrasts

2009 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 427-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nigel Duffield ◽  
Ayumi Matsuo ◽  
Leah Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Qualitative Difference ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
Vp Ellipsis ◽  
Computer Based ◽  
Japanese Learners

Previous studies, including Duffield and Matsuo (2001; 2002; 2009), have demonstrated second language learners’ overall sensitivity to a parallelism constraint governing English VP-ellipsis constructions: like native speakers (NS), advanced Dutch, Spanish and Japanese learners of English reliably prefer ellipsis clauses with structurally parallel antecedents over those with non-parallel antecedents. However, these studies also suggest that, in contrast to English native speakers, L2 learners’ sensitivity to parallelism is strongly influenced by other non-syntactic formal factors, such that the constraint applies in a comparatively restricted range of construction-specific contexts. This article reports a set of follow-up experiments — from both computer-based as well as more traditional acceptability judgement tasks — that systematically manipulates these other factors. Convergent results from these tasks confirm a qualitative difference in the judgement patterns of the two groups, as well as important differences between theoreticians’ judgements and those of typical native speakers. We consider the implications of these findings for theories of ultimate attainment in second language acquisition (SLA), as well as for current theoretical accounts of ellipsis.

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