2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

The Effect of Understanding Linguistic Markers on EFL Reading Comprehension

Research Project

Project/Area Number	20720148
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Foreign language education
Research Institution	Aichi Prefectural University
Principal Investigator	IKEDA Chika Aichi Prefectural University, 外国語学部, 准教授 (50305497)
Project Period (FY)	2008 – 2010
Keywords	英語教育一般 / 英文読解 / 接続語句
Research Abstract	The aim of this study was to categorise linguistic markers and coherence relations expressed by these markers in terms of their linguistic characteristics and the direction of logical flow. Then, focusing on causal relations in a text, the influence of English proficiency, the explicitness of markers, or their logical direction on understanding of target causal relations by Japanese EFL learners was investigated. The results showed that learners with high proficiency could effectively use linguistic markers in a text in order to understand coherence relations but, irrespective of proficiency, learners did not seem to be aware of the importance of establishing logical connections between text segments even if there were no explicit linguistics markers in a text. The practical implications for EFL reading instruction were drawn.