The acquisition of Japanese topic construction by L2 learners of Japanese

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24520595
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Japanese language education
• Research Institution: Tenri University
• Principal Investigator: YOSHIDA CHika 天理大学, 国際学部, 准教授 (00388886)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): SHIRAHATA Tomohiko 静岡大学, 教育学部, 教授 (50206299)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 日本語教育 / 第二言語習得

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of this study is to investigate which aspects of“wa”are easy or difficult to acquire for L2 learners of Japanese. L2 learners at the early learning stage can perform“wa”without much instruction. On the other hand, even highly advanced L2 Japanese learners cannot perform the“wa” as perfectly as Japanese native speakers.
The result indicate that all the participants were easily acquire an adverbial expression　+“wa”such as (Kyou-wa (today)), kono heya-wa (in this room)). On the other hand, they had some common errors which native Japanese would not make. In addition, error tendencies were different among the participants. These inconsistencies between the learners’errors may be due to L1 influences. Such L1 effects can be observed at the discourse level rather than syntax level when Japanese and their L1 were compared. This case study suggests that most difficulties in“wa”acquisition may be related to competing L1 and L2 discourse factors.
shi

Free Research Field

第二言語習得