2018 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Extended discourse in Japanese learners of English: From the perspective of oral and written narratives
| Project/Area Number |
18K00789
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| Research Institution | Meikai University |
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Principal Investigator |
中邑 啓子 明海大学, 外国語学部, 准教授 (20449044)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2018-04-01 – 2021-03-31
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| Keywords | oral narrative / written narrative / spoken discourse / written discourse / English learners / Japanese learners |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The purpose of this study is to examine the acquisition of extended discourse skills in Japanese learners of English by studying oral and written narratives. Regarding foreign language learners of English, basic narrative skills are important for both speaking and writing. Elicited narratives were collected from Japanese university students who are studying English, ranging from beginners to advanced learners, to be compared with those gathered from native speakers of English and Japanese in earlier studies (e.g., Nakamura, 1990, 1999, 2004, 2009, 2014).
Analyses of the English narratives created by the Japanese learners will highlight issues they face in engaging in narrative construction and may reveal narrative strategies transferred from Japanese. In particular, narrative organization (e.g., referential structure, verb tense, use of transition signals) and evaluative language will be examined. The scientific significance of this study is that it addresses a gap in the research on English language learning in Japan, which has focused heavily on issues such as vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar, and less so on the topic of extended discourse skills. These results will lead us to understand how to better instruct Japanese learners of English in their narrative skills, which will improve their ability to engage in spoken and written discourse.
The first year has been spent mainly focusing on the collection and transcription of the narratives. Stories have been collected at three universities, at three levels of proficiency (beginner, intermediate, and advanced).
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
The first year has been spent mainly focusing on the collection and transcription of two different types of narratives (i.e., Balloon Story, Frog Story). Stories have been collected at three universities, at three different levels of proficiency (beginner, intermediate, and advanced). To date, approximately 300 students have participated, but narrative collection is still being conducted and will continue into FY2019. After stories have been collected, they have been transcribed and coded using CHILDES and CHAT (MacWhinney, 2000). (According to the original research schedule, FY2019 was for collection of narratives and FY2019 was for transcription and coding of narratives; however, it was decided that it would be more efficient if collection and transcription/coding progressed in parallel in FY2018).
At the same time, a database has been established to organize the previously collected oral and written narratives (i.e., Balloon Story, Frog Story) by native speakers/writers of English and Japanese (approximately 200 participants per language). Transcription has progressed smoothly, and coding and analysis are under way.
As part of the data collection, questionnaires were administered to participants to learn about their attitudes towards reading as well as their reading habits, in order to see whether they were reading stories and narratives in their first language (Japanese) as well as their second language (English).
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
Collection of the oral and written narratives is still progressing in parallel with the transcription and coding of the narratives. The main goal of this upcoming FY2019 is to complete the data collection and to complete most of the transcription and coding.
Data analysis will start soon, with early analyses focused on narrative skills in both the Japanese and English monolingual narratives such as:(1) evaluative language, examining the role of affect in narratives, by looking at a wide range of grammatical and discourse strategies (e.g., adverbs, adjectives, pragmatic participles, adversity passives, causative and benefactive constructions, and character speech, hedges) and (2) the expression of motion events (e.g., using strategies appropriate for verb-framed and satellite-framed languages). By looking first at the native English and Japanese narratives, we will be better able to understand the features of culturally- and linguistically-appropriate narratives. For the most part, the analyses this year will focus on comparisons of Japanese and English narratives, leading into deeper analyses in FY2020, looking at the narrative skills of Japanese learners of English by proficiency level, and narrative skills of Japanese learners of English as compared to native users of Japanese (e.g., to see the transfer of strategies from Japanese).
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| Causes of Carryover |
Some funds have been left to be used in the next fiscal year (FY2019) due to expenses which did not arise in FY2018, but will arise in FY2019 (e.g., honorarium).
During the FY2019, at present, there are plans for three conference presentations: (1) June 12 (International Pragmatics Association, Hong Kong), (2) July 6 (Japanese Society of Language Sciences, Sendai), and (3) August (15th International Cognitive Linguistics Conference, Japan). Therefore, funds will be used for transportation and hotel. In addition, funds will be used for paying honoraria to individuals helping with transcription and coding.
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