Modeling the Syntax Development of Japanese EFL Learners

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25770214
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Foreign language education
• Research Institution: Kurume University (2014-2016); Kinki University (2013)
• Principal Investigator: SAKATA Naoki 久留米大学, 外国語教育研究所, 准教授 (70581114)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 語彙知識 / 統語知識 / 心理言語調査 / 英語技能 / 教科書 / 学習インプット / 大学生英語学習者

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This project has sought to model the process how the input Japanese EFL learners in university have been exposed to affects their syntax and English use. For this purpose, a corpus of high school textbooks was created and how the input influences the learners has been investigated. Since the amount of the data is huge, the analyses are still in progress, but it has been found that 1) input may have larger impact on the syntax development than explicit part-of-speech or argument structure knowledge and 2) high school textbooks by the new curriculum guideline, which took effect in 2013, may be better in terms of vocabulary development.

Free Research Field

英語教育　心理言語学