2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
The countability of abstract nouns and its acquisition difficulties: Research with Japanese learners of English
| Project/Area Number |
15K16800
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Research Field |
Foreign language education
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| Research Institution | Nihon University (2016-2018)
University of Shizuoka (2015) |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2015-04-01 – 2019-03-31
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| Keywords | 抽象名詞 / 可算性 / 有界性 / 境界 / 冠詞 / 英語 / 日本語 |
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
The countability judgment by Japanese learners of English is strongly correlated to the distinction between concrete and abstract nouns. As learners improve in English, they will learn to judge abstract nouns as count. Furthermore, properties that are common among semantic categories such as boundedness and derivation types are unlikely to influence L2 countability judgment of abstract nouns. Rather, L1 interpretation of nouns may have stronger effects after all. The study also found that some learners rely on intuition to decide noun countability without drawing on contextual information; however, such learners are neither the majority nor those with low proficiency.
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| Free Research Field |
第二言語習得論
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| Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements |
多くの先行研究で習得が困難と指摘されてきた抽象名詞の可算性において、本研究で実証研究データを提示できたことは、今後の英語教育に大きく役立つと思われる。特に、L2の可算性判断は語彙意味の影響を受けるのではなく、L1の解釈に起因する可能性が強いと示唆された。これは、可算性の指導時に使用される「抽象・具象」といった用語の理解や「数える」という行為自体が、結局はL1での解釈を通して行われている可能性を示している。文法としての可算性の本質的な役割や、文脈情報による抽象名詞の可算化について、文法書や指導に活用できる説明を再検討する必要がある。
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