2019 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. In the first year (FY2018), elicited narratives of two types (i.e., Frog Story & Balloon Story) were collected from Japanese university students at three universities at three proficiency levels.
This year (FY2019), additional data was collected from approximately 300 students. The data collected from Japanese learners of English was compared with data gathered in earlier studies from native speakers of Japanese and English (e.g., Nakamura, 1990, 1999, 2004, 2009, 2014).
The narratives first were analyzed from the perspective of affect & evaluation, comparing the strategies that monolingual English and Japanese narrators use with preliminary data from Japanese learners of English (e.g., character speech, frames of mind, causal connectors, onomatopoeia/mimesis) (Nakamura, 2019a, 2019b).
Next, the narratives were then analyzed in terms of the expression of motion events, looking at strategies used by monolingual English and Japanese children and adults, using a developmental framework. The strategies mastered by native narrators in English and Japanese have implications for Japanese learners of English (e.g., manner /path/ground of motion, mimetic expressions) (Nakamura, 2019c).
Third, the narrative data was analyzed from the viewpoint of narrative construction , looking at the use of narrative strategies and elements (e.g., referential structure, transition signals, verb tense).
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
While most of the data collection has been completed, transcription and coding/analysis of narratives will still continue into FY2020. A database has been established to organize all of the previously collected oral and written narratives (i.e., Balloon Story, Frog Story) created by native speakers/writers of Japanese and English (approximately 400 participants per language) in addition to the narratives from the Japanese learners of English (currently a total of 600+ participants). It has required more time and effort to complete the database than originally expected.
Analyses of the data are currently underway, with analyses of the spoken and written narratives from the monolingual native participants (children and adults) being conducted from several perspectives, namely evaluative language, expression of motion, and narrative construction. In parallel with the transcription and coding of the data from Japanese learners of English, preliminary analyses of the English learner data have commenced, but the main focus of the research this year has been to throughly analyze the monolingual narrative English and Japanese data to create a solid understanding of the strategies native narrators use in their construction of narratives for later comparison with Japanese learners of English.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
In FY2020, the transcription and coding/analysis of the data from Japanese learners of English will be completed. This will allow for more in-depth analysis of the narrative data from different perspectives (e.g., by proficiency level) in addition to detailed analyses of the narrative skills of Japanese learners of English as compared to native users of English (e.g., type/token analyses, error analyses). Analyses will be conducted to see how the English narratives created by Japanese learners of English of different proficiency levels (i.e., elementary, intermediate, advanced) compare to those created by monolingual English narrators. By comparing the narratives created by learners of different levels of proficiency, we will also be able to see what areas cause difficulties for learners of different levels. In addition, by comparing the English narratives created by Japanese learners of English to those made by monolingual Japanese narrators, we will be able to see if there are areas of transfer from Japanese to English in terms of narrative strategies.
This upcoming year (FY2020), I was planning to present my research at multiple international conferences (e.g., Japanese Society for Language Sciences, International Association for the Study of Child Language); however, due to the current worldwide Coronavirus situation, all of the conferences I had hoped to present have been postponed to next year (FY2021). I will continue to search for different opportunities to present my research in FY2020, either through online conferences or publications.
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| Remarks |
Recent research publications available on the ResearchGate page.
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