Paper short abstract:

This study clarifies the manner of and changes in the intermediate Japanese language learner's reading of noun modifying clauses. The data analyzed in this study are six-month observations of the process of reading Japanese text by an international student studying education at a graduate school.

Paper long abstract:

The author has conducted a six-month observational study on a Japanese language learner at an intermediate level with a non-kanji background in terms of the process of reading Japanese text. This study focused on clarifying the manner of and changes in the learner's reading of noun modifying clauses. A long-term observation allows us to understand what types of reading errors learners make and what they notice and become able to read correctly.

The participant was a graduate school student, R, who studied education in Japan. His native tongue was English, and his ability to read Japanese text was at the early intermediate level The reading materials were documents regarding school education. R used the necessary equipment freely to read the materials as usual and organized their English translation text. The observation period was from June to December 2021, 19 times in total.

The data analyzed in this study included 137 sentences with noun modifying clauses, the English translations of these sentences, and notes and comments by R. All relevant data were video-recorded to document the translation process. The reading errors recorded in the data were compared for the first ten sessions and the second nine sessions. The results indicated that;

(1) the total number of errors was reduced from 22 to 11.

(2) the reading errors associated with specifying the scope of modifying clause, especially errors due to the influence of commas in the modifying clause, were often observed in the first half sessions.

(3) R tended to translate without paying attention to the whole sentence structure. In the first half sessions, especially in the first few, he only understood the meaning by connecting the sentence fragments. The tendency was reduced in the second half sessions, and he began to grasp the sentence structure visually using particles as a clue. This was observed not only in terms of noun modifying clauses but also in R's reading practice in general.

These changes were derived from R's awareness of effective reading. Based on these, what is necessary for the support of reading practice for intermediate learners is discussed in this article.

Paper short abstract:

The distinction between "wa" and "ga" is seen as difficult. In this presentation, I will consider the appropriate timing of introducing the terms and concepts of "topic" and "subject" in order to make a proper description that leads to the appropriate use of "wa" and “ga”.

Paper long abstract:

The distinction between "wa" and "ga" is seen as difficult by both teachers and learners of Japanese, but I argued that it is not difficult regardless of native language differences if it is introduced step by step using appropriate grammatical terminology (Iori 2020).

"Wa" is "topic" and "subject" at the same time when whose case is nominative (marked with “ga”) but it is "topic" but not "subject" when whose case is accusative (marked with “o”) (Mikami 1960).

　(1) Taro wa sono hon o kai-ta. (Taro wrote that book.) (Topic & subject)

　　　　　TOP that book ACC write-PST

　(2) Sono hon wa Taro ga kai-ta. ((Lit.) The book, Taro wrote it.) (Topic but not subject)

NOM

(3) Hanako ni wa Taro ga sono ken o renraku-si-ta. (Topic, co-occurring with "ni")

to case contact-do-PST

((Lit.) To Hanako, Taro contacted about it.)

　In Japanese, it is natural that “topic” rather than “subject” continues from sentence to sentence in a text, which is different from languages such as English, where it is natural that "subject", which is typically an agent, continues (note that Taro in the second sentence of (4) and (5) is the "theme" and not the "agent").

　(4) Taroi wa ii otoko da. {??Minna ga (φi o) aisi-tei-ru./○(φi wa)Minna ni aisa-re-tei-ru.}

nice guy be everyone love-DUR-PRS by love-PASS

(Taro is a nice guy.) { Everyone loves him. / He is loved by everyone}.

　(5) Taro is a nice guy. {○Everyone loves him. / ??He is loved by everyone.}

From the above, it can be said that it is the use of "wa" that is more difficult than the distinction between "wa" and "ga". In this presentation, I will consider the appropriate timing of introducing the terms and concepts of "topic" and "subject" in order to distinguish the use of "wa" and "ga" and to make a proper description that leads to the appropriate use of "wa" based on the result of a corpus research and of my practice in teaching Japanese.

The originality of this presentation is that it theoretically and empirically discusses the appropriate introduction method for grammatical items related to "wa".

Abbreviations:

ACC: accusative, DUR: durative, NOM: nominative, PASS: passive, PRS: present, PST: past, TOP: topic

Bibliography

Iori, Isao. 2020. Wa to ga no tukaiwake o gakusyuusya ni tutaeru kokoromi: “Syugo” ni motozuku apurooti,”(“An essay to convey to Japanese language learners the essential parts of the distinction between wa and ga in Japanese : An approach based on the notion “subject””), Gengo Bunka. 57, 25-41, Hitotsubashi University.

Mikami, Akira. 1960. Zou wa han ga nagai. (Elephants have long noses.) Kurosio Publishers.