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Japanese-Language Education Overseas
Japanese-Language Education around the Globe - Vol.13 Summaries
Membership Category in “multicultural
dialogue activity” of Local Residents:
An Ethno Methodological Analysis
(PDF/586KB/Japanese)
SUGIHARA Yumi (Graduate Student, Ochanomizu University)
The increase in cross border movement of multiethnic people has brought
about a surge in the number of foreign residents living in Japan. To cope with the sudden increase in foreign residents, various Japanese-language support activities have been on the increase since the 1990s. More recently, activities aimed at mutual accommodation like problem sharing via dialogue,
which involves the participation of both Japanese local residents and foreign residents, are on the rise.
This is contrary to the usual practice of interaction where the Japanese
are the teachers and foreign participants the learners. In this study, I focus
on interaction in a multicultural dialogue activity by local residents to reach
some points for review.
The aim of this research is to find out how the participants can establish a more diverse relationship that is not only based on an individual’s nationality. I use conversation analysis as a method of research and analyze how members categorize, identify, and describe themselves and others when talking.
I also analyze the reason for the categorization and what maintains the categorization till the end of interaction.
The results of this resarch are as follows:
These results give us concrete suggestions as to how we can maintain diversity in relationships in a multicultural dialogue activity.
Effects of Mnemonics on Immediate and Delayed Recalls of Hiragana by Learners of Japanese as a Foreign Language
(PDF/336KB/English)
MATSUNAGA Sachiko (California State University, Los Angeles)
This paper reports a study which investigated the short-term
and long-term effects of picture and sound mnemonics on remembering hiragana
by learners of Japanese as a foreign language (FL). The study tested two
hypotheses. One was that FL learners of Japanese, with or without prior
experience in learning non-Roman scripts as their L1, would not benefit
from the picture-plus-sound mnemonics on the immediate recall test. The
other was that those learners without such experience (the Roman group)
would benefit from these mnemonics on the delayed recall test while those
learners with such experience (the non-Roman group) would
not benefit.
In this study, 66 beginning learners of Japanese at an American
university participated in four computer-generated tutorial sessions of 40 hiragana.
In each session, one of the four sets of ten hiragana was introduced in one of
the four teaching methods:(a) picture and sound mnemonics (P + S), (b) picture
mnemonics (P), (c) sound mnemonics (S), and (d) flash cards (F). Each session
consisted of (a) a learning phase, (b) a review phase, and (c) a self-test phase.
Each session was followed immediately by an oral interview and by
recall tests two to
five days later.
The analyses of valid data from 50 participants on the self-test
half supported the first hypothesis; the P + S method was effective only for
the Roman group. The analyses of valid data from 45 participants on the delayed
recall test also half supported the second hypothesis; the P + S method was not
effective for either group. The results from both tests are discussed in relation
to a previous study (Quackenbush, Nakajo, Nagatomo, and Tawada, 1989) and transfer
of L1 script recognition strategies (Chikamatsu, 1996; Koda, 1989; Mori, 1998).
In addition, an observation is made as to why the P + S method was effective,
and future studies are suggested.
Implications of Representations
of Casual Conversation: A Case Study in Gender-Associated Sentence Final
Particles
(PDF/241KB/English)
KAWASAKI Kyoko (Ph.D. Candidate, University of Melbourne)
Kirsty McDougall (Ph.D. Candidate, University of Cambridge)
One of the key features by which Japanese speakers traditionally denote separate men’s and women’s languages is sentence final particles (SFPs). In recent years it appears that female speakers are shifting from using the traditional feminine forms to neutral and even masculine forms, whilst in Japanese language textbooks a more traditional, gender-specific portrayal of language is maintained. This study compares the distribution of gender-associated SFPs in Japanese language textbook dialogues with that in natural conversation across several age groups, to investigate the extent to which Japanese teaching materials reflect actual spoken language. Female characters in the textbooks examined used feminine SFPs more often than real female speakers from all age groups, indicating that textbooks are promoting a more traditional and stereotypical view of women’s language. In the natural conversation data, the younger the age group, the smaller was the number of feminine SFPs used, with the youngest group’s usage of SFPs actually resembling that of male characters in the textbooks. It is argued that the discrepancy found between Japanese language as presented in foreign language textbooks and as spoken in Japanese society has significant implications for Japanese language teaching.
Personal Narratives Spoken by Japanese Native Speakers: The Functions
of “tara/soshitara” and the Motives for Using Them in Discourse
(PDF/682KB/Japanese)
KATO Yoko (Graduate Student, the University of Tokyo)
This study deals with the discourses that describe the
past personal
experience (hereinafter“ personal narratives”) spoken by Japanese
native speakers. A total of approximately 125 minutes of television talk show
programs were analyzed. Among several connectives that appear in the personal
narratives, this study focuses on “tara” and “soshitara,” which were the second most frequent connectives after te forms that appeared
in the transcripts. This study aims to investigate their functions and the motives
of their use.
First, the syntactic and semantic features of “tara/soshitara” are
sketched. Then, “tara/soshitara” is classified into four
usages based on the results of previous studies. The four usages, namely, “hakken” (discovery), “hatsugen” (emersion), “hannoh” (reaction),
and “renzoku” (sequential actions), are examined in terms
of the information structure, that is, foreground and background in discourse.
This study concludes that the most important motive for using “tara/soshitara” in
personal narratives is to describe simultaneously a proposition and express the
speaker’s evaluation (i.e., “unexpectedness”), which is derived
from the syntactic and semantic features of “tara/soshitara.”
The Difference of Motivation between Korean Learners of Japanese as
Second Language and Japanese as Foreign Language
(PDF/533KB/Japanese)
LEE Su hyang (Graduate Student, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies)
The purpose of this study is to clarify the relationship between the motivation for learning Japanese; factors intensifying the motivation, such as learning strategy and perceived attainment; and experiential factors, such as the experience and length of a learner’s stay in Japan and the experience of visiting Japan. Subjects of the study were 139 Learners of Japanese as a Second Language (JSLLs) in Japan and 164 Learners of Japanese as a Foreign Language (JFLLs) in Korea. All subjects were Korean. Results showed that the motivation of JFLLs was higher than that of JSLLs. However, the JSLLs’ perceived attainment of their ability in Japanese, which is a factor that intensifies motivation, was higher than that of the JFLLs. It was also suggested that experiential factors strengthened motivation indirectly by influencing perceived attainment. The most important difference between JSLLs’ and JFLLs’ motivation was the tendency among JSLLs to have a feeling of self-efficacy, which lead to the maintenance of their motivation. We discuss in this study the need to provide an environment that is similar to that of JSLLs, which promotes a feeling of self-efficacy for JFLLs, so as to maintain high motivation.
Additional Bilingualism and a Supporting Classroom: The Power Relation
between Languages (L1 and L2) in Society
(PDF/903KB/Japanese)
HARA Mizuho (Graduate School, Ochanomizu University)
Japanese-language education for school students in a multilingual environment is different from that for adults in that teachers should be aware that the students are still developing their first language (L1) and cognitive competence. To students, language encourages their cognitive development as well as plays a communication role. Therefore, it is important to have an additional bilingualism perspective, which tries to keep L1 in addition to Japanese-language acquisition. According to Landry & Allard (1992), students are inclined to become monolingual in case the social status of L1 is low and there is a big gap between L1 and predominant language in the society. They also pointed out that creating a classroom environment in which students can find their L1 important is the key to success in additional bilingualism. However, there is a tendency for the structure of society to be reproduced in the school classroom (Wilcox 1982), and the interaction between participants shows the power relation between languages (L1 and L2) in the society and conveys it as messages (Martin-Jones 1995). This study tries to clarify the power relation between two languages and messages transmitted among participants by way of interpersonal interactions in a communitybased bilingual support class based on the philosophy of additional bilingualism in Japan, for the purpose of exploring the possibility of realizing additional bilingualism. This bilingual classroom involves mostly shifting languages and using interpretation. As an observed result, two languages are used equally in the support class. In the end, the study indicates the relationship that “society provides schools/classrooms” is not firm, but it is possible to create a new relationship in a classroom.
Speech Levels of Aizuchi and
Their Shifts: Differences between Native
Japanese and Korean Learners of Japanese
(PDF/551KB/Japanese)
NAITO Mariko (Lecturer Japan-Malaysia Consortium for Higher Education)
In this paper, I have investigated speech levels of aizuchi
and their level shifts in Japanese conversation among native Japanese and
advanced-level
Korean learners of Japanese who study outside Japan.
Native Japanese speech levels are mostly fixed in casual style,
while those of Korean learners are not fixed. Moreover, although the level shifts
that take place among native Japanese only occurred slightly at the beginning
of conversations and at the conclusion of each unit of discourse, such features
were not found among Korean learners.
Clothing Verbs in Japanese,
Chinese, English, Swedish, and Marathi:
A Contrastive Study
(PDF/472KB/Japanese)
TOHNO Takayuki (Graduate Student, Kobe University)
LU Renmei (Graduate Student, Kobe University)
The present study is a typological-contrastive study of
clothing
verbs in Japanese, Chinese, English, Swedish, and Marathi.
The reason for choosing
clothing verbs is the well-known fact in the field of Japanese language
pedagogy that they are difficult for non-native
speakers of Japanese to master.
This paper addresses the following two crucial issues:
| Verb-framed language | Satellite-framed language | |
| Presence of primary vs. secondary distinction |
Japanese (Goal/body part distinction also lexicalized) |
Chinese |
| Absence of primary vs. secondary distinction |
Marathi | English,Swedish |
A Study of the Communicative
Function of ~ teageru
(PDF/571KB/Japanese)
YAMAMOTO Hiroko (Lecturer, Nagoya Women’s University)
This paper attempts to describe the function of “~
teageru” from
the point of view of communication.
“~ teageru” has the following four functions: 1) It can
indicate the speaker’s recognition that the actor is psychologically superior
to the receiver; 2) it can indicate the speaker’s recognition that the
actor feels close to the receiver; 3) the speaker is especially involved in the
subject matter, perhaps as a specialist in the field; and 4) it can indicate
the speaker’s feeling of support for others who work hard.
The first two functions both serve to adjust the relationship of
giver and receiver in terms of benefit. The other two functions, on the other
hand, serve to indicate the speaker’s recognition of the situation and
his or her position.
These differences in function cause “~ teageru” to
have two pragmatic traits. One is that it can indicate that the actor is superior
to the benefit receiver. The other is that “~ teageru” cannot
be used, because of the speaker’s focus. Furthermore, through conversation
using “~ teageru,” both speaker and listener build a base
for communication together by indicating the way each thinks about the other.
A Study on tokorode
(PDF/415KB/Japanese)
KATO Rie (Lecturer, Kagoshima Immaculate Heart University)
This paper aims to analyze tokorode. It shows that tokorode is a concessive expression that reflects the aspect of the verb preceding it and relates this meaning to other structural characters of this expression. For example, negation tends to be used in the main clause and the subordinate clause cannot be repeated. This paper also shows differences between temo and tokorode. They cannot replaced each other when the event of the subordinate clause is compared with other events.