IUJ Repository (International Univ. of Japan)
Not a member yet
645 research outputs found
Sort by
L2日本語学習者にみられる『時の副詞節』の習得
Get PDFThis study tests the One to One Principle (Andersen, 1984) in the adult JFL context, investigating the acquisition of Japanese temporal clauses. A one-to-one correspondence between form and aspect is observed in before- and after-clauses, but not in when-clauses in Japanese. Given the One to One Principle, it was hypothesized that before- and after-clauses would be acquired earlier than when-clauses. The results obtained from written and oral tasks with American JFL learners showed that even those who have mastered before- and after-clauses have not mastered when-clauses. Given the above assumption, it is concluded that the One to One Principle is operative in the JFL context. In addition, it is important to notice that the subjects in this study were taught when-clauses earlier than before- and after-clauses. When-clauses were, however, acquired in the later stage. Thus, to the extent that before- and after-clauses are assumed to belong to a separate developmental stage from when-clauses, this study also supports the Teachability Hypothesis (Pienemann, 1984,1989).Furthermore, Pienemann (1985) proposes that L2 items should be taught in the order in which they are learnable. This study therefore suggests that a curriculum may be more effective if before- and after-clauses are introduced earlier than when-clauses.conference pape
Helping our ESP students to get access to the productive vocabulary they need
Get PDFOver the last decade and half some ESP practitioners have made a concerted effort to carve out a distinctive niche for ESP in the area of domain-specific vocabulary. This paper argues implicitly that, while domain-specific words and domain-specific lexical behavior have some significance for ESP materials design, ESP practitioners might reap better returns on their study time if they take into account the significant new developments in EFL vocabulary theory, research and publication which are taking place in English Language Teaching (ELT) as a whole. Rather more explicitly, the paper welcomes the fact that these new developments all point in the direction of a much greater and more systematic role for vocabulary in the syllabus and in the classroom, but points out that in many ESP contexts there are time and other constraints which threaten to vitiate any attempt to adopt such an enhanced focus on vocabulary. The author then shows how one appropriate solution which has been developed in an ESP context at the International University of Japan (IUJ) - the local dictionary - can help to relax the constraints without departing from the general principles suggested by the latest theory and research.departmental bulletin pape
Developing Critical Thinking Skills in The East and South-East Asian Regions
Get PDFThis paper will test a multilevel cultural framework for conducting needs analysis related to the development of certain so-called higher-level thinking skills, or critical thinking skills, in university level service English programs in the East and South-East Asian regions. These thinking skills are associated with the modern intellectual and academic traditions of the West and their emphasis on fostering independent thought among individuals. The framework that is tested in this study is the four dimensions of culture framework that was developed heuristically by Flowerdew and Miller (1995) as a result of an ethnographic research project conducted in an English medium tertiary education institution in Hong Kong; The testing consists of setting this Hong Kong generated framework against data derived from secondary sources which deal with different aspects of the four dimensions of culture in Japan. The author will argue that Flowerdew and Miller's assumption that ethnic culture is both unitary and largely inseparable from academic culture may not be entirely true in the case of Japan. Two important signs of this cultural variegation in Japan are the relative lack of uniformity in the academic cultures of Japanese middle and high schools and an interesting contrast in Japanese responses to two equally important western academic traditions, one concerned with mathematics and the physical sciences, the other concerned with the social sciences and the humanities. The implications of these findings for syllabus design are discussed in the context of an actual thinking skills component incorporated in a pre-MBA English course run at the International University of Japan. Institutions with similar educational needs in other parts of East and South-East Asia are encouraged to test this framework and adapt it to their own needs.departmental bulletin pape
Effects of Interaction Enhancement on Constraining Overgeneralized Errors of English Articles
Get PDFOne of the most hotly discussed issues in classroom-oriented second language (L2) research is to determine optimal ways to incorporate form-focused instruction into communication-oriented language teaching. This study examines the effect of an instructional technique in which a teacher leads L2 learners to restructure their interlanguage grammar by providing form-focused feedback (e.g.,clarification requests and recasts) in a communicative problem-solving task. The technique is termed 'interaction enhancement' because both 'input' and 'output' are enhanced in this interactive instruction. Two types of interaction enhancement are proposed in this study; one is 'interaction enhancement with meaning-focused debriefing' and the other is 'interaction enhacement with form-focused debriefing'. The effects of the two types of interaction enhancement on the learning of English articles were compared with that of non-enhanced interaction in a quasi-experimental study with 78 Japanese L1 learners of EFL.. The three different types of instruction were given to three intact groups over 3 weeks and their improvement in the use of English articles was measured by a pretest, an immediate posttest, and a delayed posttest. The results of statistical analyses indicate that both types of interaction enhancement had a positive effect on the learners' constraining of overgeneralized errors with English articles.conference pape
Development and Learning a Second Language: The Acquisition of Analogical Reasoning
Get PDFThis study examined the cognitive affect of previous experience in an English language environment overseas on language learning strategies of high-ability bilingual Japanese post-secondary students. Informetion was collected on male and female students who had scored at least 120 on the English Skills Assessment test batteries (ESA), and from structured interviews. Results suggest that students who were brought-up in Japan and initially exposed to native-like English in elementary level schools overseas were singificantly more competent in using amalogical reasoning in the acquisition and transfer of second language knowledge than those first exposed to English during early childhood overseas, or during adolescence. Findings may help to explain the pattern of differences on high-ability bilingual students in which some consistently outperform others in second language learning.conference pape
Teaching oral communication skills in academic settings: A case study in task - based approach to syllabus design
Get PDFThis paper describes the applications of the task-based approach to designing a syllabus for an oral communication skills course in an academic setting. It discusses the goals of the course within the relevant institutional contexts, outlines the principles of the task-based design, describes and classifies the tasks, and provides a descriptive account of the organization and sequencing of the tasks in the course schedule. It argues that such an approach has much potential in second language curriculum development.departmental bulletin pape
Implicit and Explicit Learning in Psychology and SLA
Get PDFThis paper examines the concepts of implicit and explicit learning and knowledge as they have been used in cognitive psychology and in second language research. The treatment of these concepts in psychology focuses on the work of Arthur Reber, his colleagues, and his critics, mostly within the experimental paradigm of miniature artificial grammars. The presentation of the second language research points out some of the mismatches between the theoretical constructs and their empirical application to studies of natural language learning. It concludes by advocating caution in interpreting findings in relation to the theoretical constructs, while seeing promise in the further study of the effects of different task demands on different forms of learning and knowledge.conference pape
The Difference of Two Japanese Nagative Forms of Predicates: NAKUTE and NAIDE
Get PDFThis study examines differences between two negative forms of predicates: NAKUTE and NAIDE in relation to the degree of subordination between the main and the subordinate clauses. NAKUTE and NAIDE, both of which are negative counterparts of inflected part of predicates TE, function to connect two predicates or clauses. NAKUTE and NAIDE are divided into four groups respectively, and the degree of subordination of each group is examined. This study argues that the degree determines the selection of NAIDE and NAKUTE, i.e., the lower the degree is the more frequently NAKUTE appears instead of the other negative form NAIDE. Moreover, the grammatical features of predicates which precede both NAIDE and NAKUTE are also examined. This study argues that the degree, the grammatical feature of the preceding predicate and the difference between NAKUTE and NAIDE are deeply interrelated.departmental bulletin pape