The difficulty order of some English grammatical items

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K02870
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Foreign language education
• Research Institution: Tenri University
• Principal Investigator: Yoshida Chika 天理大学, 国際学部, 准教授 (00388886)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 白畑 知彦 静岡大学, 教育学部, 教授 (50206299) ; 須田 孝司 静岡県立大学, 国際関係学部, 准教授 (60390390)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 第二言語習得 / wh疑問文の習得 / 前置詞の困難度順序

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purposes of this study to investigate which aspects of grammatical items are easier and which ones are more difficult to acquire for Japanese adult L2 learners of English (JLEs). We selected two grammatical items: wh-questions and prepositions as target items. As for wh-questions, the most difficult type of wh-questions is subject wh-questions. In particular,the agreement between subjects and predicate verbs was the most difficult for JLEs. We also discussed why the agreement was difficult for JLEs.
With regard to prepositions, sixteen types of frequently used prepositions were examined. The easiest prepositions to acquire were spatial "on" and durational "for" and the most difficult ones to acquire were directional "for" and possessive "on".

Free Research Field

第二言語習得

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

文法項目の習得難易度を示すことは英語の教育現場での指導において有効であると考える。習得が容易である項目にはそれほど時間を費やさずに済む一方で、習得が困難である項目には時間を費やして丁寧に指導できる。さらに、その学習者がつまずく要因が明らかになっていれば、その点に注意した効率的な指導が行える。