The present study attempted to confirm the validity of the Foreign Language Grammatical Carefulness Scale (FLGCS) developed by Kusanagi et al. (2015). According to Kusanagi et al. (2015), Grammatical Carefulness (GC) is defined as a personal trait reflecting learners’ behavioral and psychological aspects of language use, and it consists of three subscales: phonological carefulness, lexical-syntactic carefulness, and pragmatic carefulness. Although the initial validation concerning factorial, content, and criterion-based validity has been done, the criterion-based validation did not take into account the correlation between the performance focusing on the specific aspects of language use and each subscale under the GCS. In order to examine the validity of the subscales of GCS, this study applied two types of task: a discourse completion task (DCT) and a reading and underlining task (RUT), which are considered to measure pragmatic and lexical-syntactic aspects of learners’ performance respectively. It was found that the two subscales (lexical-syntactic and pragmatic) and the scores of the two tasks were weakly correlated, which means that this study found additional evidence showing the validity of FLGCS.
作成者: Yu Tamura
Measuring Japanese learners’ explicit and implicit knowledge of constraints on verb semantics: A case of assertive predicates in English as a Foreign Language.
This study attempted to uncover, using untimed and rapid grammatical judgment tasks (GJTs)1, how constraints on verb semantics are represented in Japanese EFL learners’ explicit and implicit knowledge. Non-assertive predicates were chosen as target structures, and the participants were eighteen Japanese graduate students. In the untimed condition, the participants were allowed to take as much time as they wanted, whereas in the rapid condition they were instructed to perform as rapidly as possible. The results of a two-way ANOVA revealed that the main effect of grammaticality was statistically significant, though the main effect of task type was not. In addition, no significant interaction between the two factors was found either. This indicates that the participants were not able to correctly reject the ungrammatical sentences in both conditions. Thus, it can be concluded that the participants had neither explicit nor implicit knowledge of the rule of non-assertive predicates.
Tamura, Y. & Kusanagi, K. (2015b). Measuring Japanese learners’ explicit and implicit knowledge of constraints on verb semantics: A case of assertive predicates in English as a Foreign Language. International Journal of Curriculum Development and Practice, 17 (1), 25–38.
Asymmetrical representation in Japanese EFL learners’ implicit and explicit knowledge about the countability of common/material nouns.
By the use of grammaticality judgment tasks in two conditions (untimed and rapid), the present study examined Japanese EFL learners’ explicit and implicit knowledge about the countability of common and material nouns. It is well known that Japanese EFL learners exhibit long-lasting difficulty in attaining knowledge of countability. However, previous studies have not taken the explicit/implicit distinction of L2 knowledge into account. Hence, the present research conducted a grammaticality judgment study, targeting highly proficient Japanese EFL learners (N = 18). The stimuli consisted of both grammatical and ungrammatical sentences including number agreement errors with two conditions (common vs. material nouns; k = 12 for each). The results of a two-way ANOVA (task type: untimed and rapid, by the stimuli type: common and material nouns) clearly revealed that there was a statistically significant interaction between the two factors, showing a large effect size. This suggests that (a) there was no effect of task type on the material nouns, which might lead to the conclusion that the participants were not aware of the countability of material nouns, even as explicit knowledge; (b) the accuracy score of common nouns substantially declined, which means that the countability of common nouns was not fully acquired as implicit knowledge.
Tamura, Y. & Kusanagi, K. (2015a). Asymmetrical representation in Japanese EFL learners’ implicit and explicit knowledge about the countability of common/material nouns. Annual Review of English Language Education in Japan, 26, 253–268. [Full Article]
Reinvestigating Consciousness-Raising Grammar Tasks and Noticing
This is a case study dealing with the relationship between consciousness-raising (CR) grammar tasks and noticing, replicating the work of Fotos (1993). Using only a reading and underlining task as a measure of noticing in order to successfully capture noticing as a complex cognitive process is inadequate because the way in which learners process target grammar structures can vary greatly depending on their level of awareness. Therefore, post-experimental stimulus-cued retrospective interviews were added to obtain both quantitative and qualitative detailed information on processing input. Nine post-secondary ESL learners who studied in a university preparation course participated in this study. Present and past counterfactual conditionals were chosen as target grammar structures. The participants were randomly divided into two groups: a direct CR group given a teacher-centered deductive lesson and an indirect CR group where the students learned the target structure inductively in a dyad style. Pre- and post-Grammatical Judgment Tests (GJTs) were also administered to assess the effectiveness of these two methods of instruction. One week after the treatment, each student engaged in a reading and underlining activity immediately followed by a retrospective interview. Although no quantitative difference was found between the two groups in noticing and GJT scores, qualitative data revealed that the learners processed the underlined target structures very differently.
Tamura, Y. (2015). Reinvestigating consciousness-raising grammar task and noticing. JABAET Journal, 19, 19–47.
Tamura & Kusanagi (2015c)
Kusanagi et al. (2015)で開発された文法的慎重性尺度の下位尺度である語彙・統語的慎重性と語用論的慎重性について，文脈完成課題と読解中に文法的誤りに下線を引く課題を用いて妥当性の検証を行いました。文脈完成課題は語用論的慎重性と，読解課題は語彙・統語的慎重性とそれぞれ弱い相関を示し，文法的慎重性尺度の下位尺度としての語用論的慎重性と語彙・統語的慎重性の基準関連妥当性を示す新しい証拠が得られました。
Tamura, Y. & Kusanagi, K. (2015c). Validation of the grammatical carefulness scale using a discourse completion task and a reading and underlining task. LET Journal of Central Japan, 26, 75–84. [Full Article]
Tamura & Kusanagi (2015b)
日本人の英語学習者を対象として，文法性判断課題を用いて明示的暗示的知識の測定を試みたものです。対象項目を，英語の非断定的述語（non-assertive predicate)として，非断定的述語の補部（complement）に対する意味的制約への知識表象を検証しました。時間制限のない文法性判断の結果を明示的知識の指標，読みなおしをせずにできるだけ早く判断をくだすように指示をした文法性判断課題の結果の暗示的知識の指標としています。文の文法性（2水準）と課題（2水準）を独立変数として，文法性判断課題の正答率を従属変数とした分散分析を使用しました。結果として，文の文法性の主効果のみが有意であり，学習者は対象とした言語項目の意味的制約に関する知識表象に欠陥がある可能性を指摘しました。
Tamura, Y. & Kusanagi, K. (2015b). Measuring Japanese learners’ explicit and implicit knowledge of constraints on verb semantics: A case of assertive predicates in English as a Foreign Language. International Journal of Curriculum Development and Practice, 17 (1), 25–38.
Tamura & Kusanagi (2015a)
日本人英語学習者の明示的・暗示的文法知識を，時間制限のない文法性判断課題と読みなおしをせずにできるだけ判断を早くするようにと指示をした時間制限あり文法性判断を使って調査した論文です。Kusanagi & Yamashita (2013)のパラダイムを援用し，学習者の習得が困難であるとされる名詞句の可算性に焦点を当てました。具体的には，数えられる可算の普通名詞（e.g., cat/cats）と数えられない物質名詞（e.g., gold）についての知識を文法性判断課題で検証しました。可算の普通名詞は時間制限の有無でパフォーマンスが著しく悪化するのに対し，物質名詞は正答率が低いものの時間制限の有無の影響を受けないことが明らかになりました。これによって，明示的・暗示的知識の表象が文法項目によって異なる可能性が示唆されました。
Yu Tamura 