Exploring the development of grammatical competence of EFL learners and developing the methodology for it applying Item Response Theory

2009 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19320091
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Foreign language education
• Research Institution: Yasuda Women's University
• Principal Investigator: YAMAKAWA Kenichi Yasuda Women's University, 文学部, 准教授 (00279077)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): NAKANO Michiko 早稲田大学, 教育・総合科学学術院, 教授 (70148229) ; SHIMIZU Yuko 立命館大学, 経済学部, 教授 (60216108) ; OHBA Hiromasa 上越教育大学, 大学院・学校教育研究科, 准教授 (10265069) ; SUGINO Naoki 立命館大学, 情報理工学部, 教授 (30235890)
• Project Period (FY): 2007 – 2009
• Keywords: 文法能力 / 日本人英語学習者 / 韓国人英語学習者 / 項目応答理論 / ニューラルテスト理論 / 非対格動詞 / 関係節 / 冠詞

Research Abstract

The present research aims to explore the development of overall grammatical competence of Japanese EFL learners. First, we reanalyzed the data on unaccusative and unergative verbs obtained in our previous studies in terms of variation. We obtained different results from what Sorace's influential model of variation did not predict. Second, we created a new grammaticality judgment task on English articles, and administered it to Japanese EFL learners. The results showed that learners' grammaticality judgments correlated with types of processing strategies they used. Third, we administered grammaticality judgment tasks (unaccusative/unergative verbs and relative clauses) to Japanese and Korean EFL learners, and found that although the overall performance of Korean learners was better than that of Japanese, the characteristics of the results were similar to great degree. Last, we made a first attempt to apply Neural Test Network to SLA research in order to overcome the shortcomings of some of the statistical methods used in our previous studies. The results indicated that four distinct stages of development were involved in the acquisition of unaccusative/unergative verbs by Japanese EFL learners.

Research Products

• [Journal Article] The acquisition of restrictive relative clauses by Japanese and Korean learners of English. (2009)
  • Author(s): Ohba, H., Yamakawa, K., Sugino, N., Shimizu, Y.,, Nakano, M
  • Journal Title: Proceedings of the 14th Conference of Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics Pages: 467-470
• [Journal Article] The acquisition of unaccusative verbs by Japanese and Korean learners of English. (2009)
  • Author(s): Yamakawa, K., Sugino, N., Shimizu, Y., Nakano, M.,, Ohba, H
  • Journal Title: Proceedings of the 14th Conference of Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics Pages: 9-14
• [Journal Article] Acquisition of English grammatical features by adult Japanese EFL learners: The application of Item Response Theory in SLA research. (2008)
  • Author(s): Yamakawa, K., Sugino, N., Ohba, H., Nakano, M.,, Shimizu, Y
  • Journal Title: Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching (e-FLT) 5 Pages: 13-40
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] A Study of grammar development among Japanese university students: Intransitive verbs, transitive verbs, ditransitive verbs and logical subjects in Xcomps-Part (1). (2007)
  • Author(s): Nakano, M., Sugino, N., Yamakawa, K., Ohba, H.,, Shimizu, Y
  • Journal Title: Proceedings of the 12th Conference of Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics Pages: 264-267
• [Journal Article] A Study of grammar development among Japanese university students: Intransitive verbs, transitive verbs, ditransitive verbs and logical subjects in Xcomps-Part (2). (2007)
  • Author(s): Nakano, M., Sugino, N., Yamakawa, K., Ohba, H.,, Shimizu, Y
  • Journal Title: Proceedings of the 12th Conference of Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics Pages: 268-271
• [Journal Article] Variation in the acquisition of unaccusative verbs by Japanese EFL learners. (2007)
  • Author(s): Yamakawa, K., Sugino, N., Ohba, H., Nakano, M.,, Shimizu, Y
  • Journal Title: Proceedings of the 12th Conference of Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics Pages: 134-137
• [Presentation] The possibility of the application of Neural Test Theory to SLA research. (2010)
  • Author(s): Yamakawa, K., Sugino, N., Shimizu, Y., Ohba, H., , Nakano, M
  • Organizer: Poster presentation at the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL)
  • Place of Presentation: Sheraton Atlanta Hotel, GA, USA
  • Year and Date: 2010-03-06
• [Presentation] The acquisition of restrictive relative clauses by Japanese and Korean learners of English. (2009)
  • Author(s): Ohba, H., Yamakawa, K., Sugino, N., Shimizu, Y., , Nakano, M
  • Organizer: Poster presentation at the 14th Conference of Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics. Co-op Inn Kyoto
  • Place of Presentation: Kyoto, Japan
  • Year and Date: 2009-08-02
• [Presentation] The acquisition of unaccusative verbs by Japanese and Korean learners of English. (2009)
  • Author(s): Yamakawa, K., Sugino, N., Shimizu, Y., Nakano, M., , Ohba, H
  • Organizer: Paper presented at the 14th Conference of Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics. Co-op Inn Kyoto
  • Place of Presentation: Kyoto, Japan
  • Year and Date: 2009-07-31
• [Presentation] Exploring the acquisition of English articles by Japanese EFL learners using on-line tasks. (2008)
  • Author(s): Ohba, H., Sugino, N., Yamakawa, K., Shimizu, Y., , Nakano, M
  • Organizer: Poster presentation at the Third CLS International Conference
  • Place of Presentation: National University of Singapore, Singapore
  • Year and Date: 2008-12-05
• [Presentation] A Study of grammar development among Japanese university students: Intransitive verbs, transitive verbs (2007)
  • Author(s): Nakano, M., Sugino, N., Yamakawa, K., Ohba, H., , Shimizu, Y
  • Organizer: ditransitive verbs and logical subjects in Xcomps - Part (1). Poster presentation at the 12th Conference of Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics.
  • Place of Presentation: Royal Cliff Beach Resort, Pattaya, Thailand
  • Year and Date: 2007-12-21
• [Presentation] A Study of grammar development among Japanese university students: Intransitive verbs, transitive verbs (2007)
  • Author(s): Nakano, M., Sugino, N., Yamakawa, K., Ohba, H., , Shimizu, Y
  • Organizer: ditransitive verbs and logical subjects in Xcomps - Part (2). Poster presentation at the 12th Conference of Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics.
  • Place of Presentation: Royal Cliff Beach Resort, Pattaya, Thailand
  • Year and Date: 2007-12-21
• [Presentation] Variation in the acquisition of unaccusative verbs by Japanese EFL learners. (2007)
  • Author(s): Yamakawa, K., Sugino, N., Ohba, H., Nakano, M., , Shimizu, Y
  • Organizer: Paper presented at the 12th Conference of Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics.
  • Place of Presentation: Royal Cliff Beach Resort, Pattaya, Thailand
  • Year and Date: 2007-12-21