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Errors on subject verb agreement made by Japanese learners' English : Effect of syntactic context

Research Project

Project/Area Number 15520364
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)

Allocation TypeSingle-year Grants
Section一般
Research Field Foreign language education
Research InstitutionGunma Prefectural Women's University

Principal Investigator

WAKABAYASHI Shigenori  Gunma Prefectural Women's University, Faculty of Literature, Professor, 文学部, 教授 (80291962)

Project Period (FY) 2003 – 2004
Project Status Completed (Fiscal Year 2004)
Budget Amount *help
¥3,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,000,000)
Fiscal Year 2004: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000)
Fiscal Year 2003: ¥1,700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,700,000)
Keywordsgrammatical morpheme / 3rd person singular -s / subject-verb agreement / syntactic structure / performance factor / event-related brain potentials / past tense inflection / linear distance / 第2言語習得 / 日本人英語学習者 / 形態 / 統語 / 形式素性 / 屈折 / 生成文法 / 機能範疇 / 第二言語習得理論 / 屈折形態素 / 極小理論 / 素性 / Distributed Horphology / モジュラー一致モデル / 多要因モデル / 読解速度
Research Abstract

Studies in second language acquisition in 1980s and 1990s revealed that learners know more than what is available in input and what can be learned with general learning strategies. On the other hand, the question why some specific items are extremely difficult to acquire did not attract researchers until late 90s. Researchers have tried to answer this question since, but their arguments generally rely on naturalistic data, which were not completely suitable to the purpose. This study has carried out a series of experiments in which syntactic contexts were controlled. The results show that the proportion of errors varies in accordance with certain syntactic contexts, and that this variation is not totally attributable to the linear distance between the subject and the verb.
The whole study is divided into five. In the first study (Chapter 1 in the technical report), I pointed out the importance of the theoretical framework and suggested that the linguistic theory is the most appropriate. In the second study (Chapter 2), three sets of experimental data were presented. The first two were production data collected with an oral translation task, and the other was comprehension data with a self-paced reading task. In the third study (Chapter 3), another oral translation task was carried out. In the fourth study (Chapter 4), event-related brain potentials (ERP) were collected. In the fifth study (Chapter 5), data were collected to investigate the system of verb inflections, and this time, the material was English past tense inflection instead of 3rd person singular -s.
As discussed in the report, we need to carry out further experiments, where a number of variables, such as phonology, syntax, and discourse, are controlled. Some relevant items, such as be-verb and auxiliary have/has, were not dealt with in this study, and hence further research is certainly required.

Report

(3 results)
  • 2004 Annual Research Report   Final Research Report Summary
  • 2003 Annual Research Report
  • Research Products

    (5 results)

All 2005 2004 Other

All Journal Article (3 results) Book (1 results) Publications (1 results)

  • [Journal Article] 第二言語習得研究における「こころのモデル]の重要性 : be動詞と3単現の-sの難しさの違いに対する説明2004

    • Author(s)
      若林茂則
    • Journal Title

      明海大学大学院応用言語学研究科紀要 6号

      Pages: 83-95

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
    • Related Report
      2004 Final Research Report Summary
  • [Journal Article] Daini gengo shutoku niokeru ‘kokoro no moderu' no juyosei : be doshi to 3 tangen no -s no muzukasisa no chigai ni taisuru setsumei [The importance of "the model of mind" in the studies of second language acquisition : an explanation for the difference in the difficulty of the use of be-verb and that of 3rd person singular -s.2004

    • Author(s)
      Wakabayashi, Shigenori
    • Journal Title

      Selected Research Papers in Applied Linguistics (Graduate School of Applied Linguistics, Meikai University) No.6

      Pages: 83-95

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
    • Related Report
      2004 Final Research Report Summary
  • [Journal Article] 第二言語習得研究における「こころのモデル」の重要性:be動詞と3単元の-sの難しさに対する説明2004

    • Author(s)
      若林 茂則
    • Journal Title

      明海大学大学院応用言語学研究 第6号

      Pages: 83-95

    • Related Report
      2004 Annual Research Report
  • [Book] 第二言語習得研究入門:統語知識の獲得2005

    • Author(s)
      若林 茂則
    • Total Pages
      258
    • Publisher
      新曜社
    • Related Report
      2004 Annual Research Report
  • [Publications] 君林 茂則: "第二言語習得研究における「こころのモデル」の重要性:be動詞と3単現の-sの難しさの違いに対する説明"明海大学大学院応用言語学研究科紀要 応用言語学研究. 第5号. 83-95 (2004)

    • Related Report
      2003 Annual Research Report

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Published: 2003-04-01   Modified: 2016-04-21  

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