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An analysis of written English: assessing characteristics of English writing by Japanese university students through perspectives of World Englishes and English as a lingua franca

  • Reiko Takahashi EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: February 8, 2023

Abstract

This paper investigates distinct characteristics of written English by Japanese L1 (first language) speakers of English and compares them with common features of English as a lingua franca (ELF). Utilizing categories drawn from the literature, I have analyzed 92 writing samples by Japanese university students in order to assess whether there are any distinct characteristics shared among L1 Japanese speakers of English, particularly as to (i) lexico-grammar, (ii) lexis, (iii) semantics, and (iv) pragmatics. I have then examined whether there is any overlap between Japanese characteristics and ELF. The phenomenon of extending a sense of the original English word in Japanese and of then using the extended sense in English has supplied evidence of L1 seeping into L2 (second language) English use. In addition, the use of certain expressions has been found to be tightly connected with the Japanese language and culture (e.g., ‘study society’) in this study. This study has also shown a clear overlap between the writing of Japanese university students and common ELF properties and features, including extra use and regularization – in particular, the extra use of the particle and the pluralization of uncountable nouns – and explicitness and neutrality in word choice.

要旨

本研究は、日本人英語話者の英語 (ライティング) を、世界の多様な英語及び「国際共通語」としての英語 (English as a lingua franca (ELF)) の観点から分析した。特に、文法、語彙、表現に焦点をあて、第一言語 (日本語) と第一言語文化 (日本文化) が上記に与える影響と、日本人英語話者の英語に (第一言語を問わない) ELF使用者に共通する特徴があるかを調べた。調査では、日本人大学生の英語ライティング・サンプル (計92) を分析した。その結果、前置詞の追加的使用、不可算名詞の複数化、複合語の使用、原語にはない意味の追加等において特徴が見られた。特に、原語にはない意味が、日本語に借用される過程で特定の語に加えられ、その語がその加えられた意味で英語使用時 (ライティング) にも使われる現象は、第一言語を日本語とする英語話者ならではの特徴と言える。ELF使用者に共通する特徴としては、追加的使用、規則化、語選びにおける明確化が見られた。


Corresponding author: Reiko Takahashi, Department of English Communication, Gakushuin Women’s College, 3-20-1 Toyama, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-8650, Japan, E-mail:

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Published Online: 2023-02-08
Published in Print: 2022-09-27

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