Inappropriate uses of language in requesting discourses of foreign learners of Japanese language and the Japanese norms in the process of conversations

1997 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 08837010
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: 談話(ディスコース)
• Research Institution: NAGOYA UNIVERSITY
• Principal Investigator: MURAKAMI Kyoko EDUCATION CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS Professor, 留学生センター, 教授 (00210005)
• Project Period (FY): 1996 – 1997
• Keywords: requesting behavior / foreign learners of Japanese language / flows in conversations / discourse analysis / norm consciousness / foreign language effect

Research Abstract

Wi investignted the morms which underlie in the requesting behavior of Japanese people through the nnnlysis of inappropriate oxpressions and unnatural flows in conversations of foreign learners of Japanese language. In order to find the variability in flows in the conversations, we constructed sevaral situations which demand requesting communications which differ in the following six aspects which are assumed in change the manner of communications in native Japanese speakers ; objects of request, relationships of obligations and roles between two persons, relationships of favors and benefits, cost of the communication, the possibility to be rejected, and the degree of the familiarity between two persons. Using these situations, we conducted survey and experimental research.
In the survey research, 16 foreign learners of Japanese language and 28 native Japanese speakers constructed conversation scripts in which one person requested a favor to another in the given situations. While Script s written by native speakers share the common basic structure of the conversation flow which are changenble to the congruent to the implicit norm required by the features of the situation, foreign learners tend to adhere the fixed conversation pattern ignoring the differences of the norm.
An experiment of doing conversations through the telephone in the real situntion was xonducted using the new samples consisting of 12 foreign learners and 12 native speakers. The single trained experimenter responded to all the subjects in the constant manner. Recorded conversations were transformed to the written form, and analyzed by CHILDES which is a software for the discourse analysis Japanese speakers also shared the common flexible structure of the conversation flow in this experimental lask. However, foreign learners showed unnatural expressions and timings of the utterance which makes the flow of the conversation inappropriate. Main reason for this inappropriateness is considered to be insufficient considerntions to situntions and partners which come from insufficient proficiency of the languago use and the "foreign language effect" ; the decrease of thinking ability when one was forced to uso a foreign language. Effect of norm consciousness on the requesting behaviors were also discussed based on the irregularities of learner's conversations.