2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Theoretical and Empirical Research on Sentence Processing and Comprehension among Heritage Language Speakers and Second Language Learners

Research Project

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Project/Area Number	17H02365
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Foreign language education
Research Institution	Chuo University
Principal Investigator	Hirakawa Makiko 中央大学, 文学部, 教授 (60275807)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	武田和恵文教大学, 文学部, 教授 (10331456) Snape Neal 群馬県立女子大学, 国際コミュニケーション学部, 教授 (10463720) 福田倫子文教大学, 文学部, 教授 (20403602) Matthews John 中央大学, 文学部, 教授 (80436906) 梅田真理群馬県立女子大学, 国際コミュニケーション学部, 准教授 (80620434)
Project Period (FY)	2017-04-01 – 2021-03-31
Keywords	第二言語 / 継承語 / 日本語 / 再帰代名詞 / 言語理解 / 言語処理 / 言語知識
Outline of Final Research Achievements	This project explored second language acquisition and heritage language acquisition, focusing on the linguistic knowledge and comprehension processes learners acquire, both theoretically and empirically. These two groups often fall short of native-like competence, possibly due to limited language learning environments that often exist in the classroom and at home. Even if they attain very advanced levels of linguistic knowledge, they may nevertheless behave differently when processing language during language comprehension. We have examined the processing of reflexive pronouns and numeral classifiers in Japanese, tense and aspect of verbs in English, among other linguistic properties, and found both similarities and differences between second language and heritage speakers when compared to native speakers. By extending our studies to Thai- and Chinese-speakers, we have obtained novel data with evidence of cross-linguistic influence, including L1 effects in comprehension and processing.
Free Research Field	言語習得
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	継承語話者の研究は、移民の多い北米や国際間での人の移動が多い欧州での研究が盛んであり、アジア言語と比較し、印欧語を対象とする研究が圧倒的に多い。本研究プロジェクトでは、その成果に言語類型的に異なる４つの言語（日本語・英語・中国語・タイ語）が含まれる点で、学術的意義が大きい。また、日本における外国人日本語学習者や日本語を母語とする英語学習者にとって、習得や処理過程における困難が予測される領域の一部を明らかにしたことで、有効な指導法の提案や日本語学習者や継承語保持のための支援研究へと発展させることができる点において、社会的意義も大きい。