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Paper short abstract:

I use the Livable Countries Corpus 1.0, which contains essays on "Conditions and Reasons for Livable Countries," as research material to analyze how 100 German-, Serbian-, and Croatian-speaking learners of Japanese compose the opening and closing sentences of their essays.

Paper long abstract:

In this study, I use the "Written Language" section of the Livable Countries Corpus 1.0, which contains essays on "Conditions and Reasons for Livable Countries," as research material to analyze how 100 German-, Serbian-, and Croatian-speaking learners of Japanese (from beginner to advanced levels) compose the opening and closing sentences of their essays. I will also analyze the differences between their compositions and those of 20 native Japanese-speaking university students who wrote on the same topic.　　

I find that most of the essays written by beginner students begin with a question, while most of the essays written by intermediate students describe their thoughts. In contrast, most of the compositions written by advanced learners begin their sentences by quoting the theme of the composition. This final characteristic is also found in the compositions of native Japanese-speaking university students.

Regardless of their Japanese level, many students describe their thoughts, feelings, and impressions in their concluding sentences. If I focus on the links between the opening and closing lines, I find that most of the compositions written by beginner-level learners show no connection, while the compositions by intermediate-level learners do. Not only is there a connection between the opening and closing lines in the essays by advanced learners, but many of them also summarize their arguments. These characteristics are also found in the compositions of native Japanese-speaking university students.

Based on the results of my analysis, I argue that it is necessary to teach composition from the elementary level in such a way that the intention of the text can be inferred by reading the opening and closing lines.