Volume 30, Issue 1

First language learners acquire vocabulary in the context of participation in discourse, and the quantity and richness of that discourse is the best predictor of their progress. Similarly, we argue, engagement in discourse, in particular debate and discussion, is an effective component of classroom instruction for second and foreign language learners. Evidence supporting the effectiveness of a particular discussion-based program, Word Generation, is presented, in particular its effectiveness with current and former second language learners of English. Principles implemented in Word Generation that could be applied in any educational setting are identified.

Following on Pomerantz’s (1978) study, the speech act of compliment has been studied from various aspects. Past studies have been confined largely to examination of a single compliment and its response pair. However, actual compliment speech acts rarely end after one such exchange. Therefore, this paper observes the strategic development of compliment discourse: how compliment discourse, a series of exchanges that include compliments and their responses, develops, recesses, and moves into the next topic. In analyzing the extended speech act, rather than merely compliment response pairs, this research reveals the following developmental patterns: repetition of compliment and response, followed by frame shift to close the compliment discourse. The findings indicate that people collaboratively construct compliment discourse for the purpose of facework, i.e., avoidance of self-praise and agreement with others, and respecting evaluation of evaluation.

In the literature of Japanese linguistics, the verb omou ‘to think’ has been extensively studied in terms of epistemic modality and analyzed as an expression of the speaker’s opinion specifically at a sentential level. However, through examining the data of storytelling in everyday conversation, we found that this verb rarely occurs in the non-past predicate form omou. Instead, it occurs in a connective -te form, i.e., omotte. Unlike omou, uses of omotte in storytelling sequences rarely indicate the speaker’s opinion. Rather, it shows a quotation of his or her thought evoked during an event or in telling a story; it also plays a significant role in managing larger units of talk. This study, within the framework of interactional linguistics (e.g., Ochs, Schegloff, & Thompson, 1996), focuses on the form omotte and investigates how it is used as a linguistic resource to manage the organization of a story.

Using a longitudinal spoken learner corpus called C-JAS, this research examined the use of semi-polite forms of verbs, which are made up of plain forms of verbs followed by the polite form of copula desu, by learners of Japanese. Findings demonstrate that over a period of time, L2 learners develop not only individual semi-polite verbs but also their paradigms, which consist of affirmative non-past, affirmative past, negative non-past, and negative past. The study also compared the use of semi-polite verbs with that of standard polite forms of verbs and revealed their usage rates. Based on the results, I propose a hypothesis that L2 learners have a general tendency of preferring analytic operations to synthetic operations in order to develop their own grammar.

The present study examines how learners of Japanese as a second language employ the Japanese pragmatic particle ne in non-turn-final positions during their conversations. Data taken from class and club sessions totaling roughly 34 hours reveal that intermediate learners of Japanese studying in an American immersion language program use the particle in three main positions: turnfinal, turn-initial, and turn-internal. In particular, the turn-final and turn-initial uses were characterized by the use of formulaic sequences. Furthermore, the data indicate that the physical locations of language classrooms and club activities do not affect the position of the particle. These findings suggest that discourse structures and issues of (in)formality or intimacy influence learners’ variety of ne use. This study concludes with proposals to integrate these factors in theoretical and educational studies of Japanese language acquisition.

This article addresses the pedagogical implications of kūsho ( ; literally “air writing”), that is, the spontaneous manual tracing of Sino-Japanese characters (kanji) in the air with a bare fingertip, by learners of Japanese. I describe the phenomenon of kūsho, then review research indicating that it is common (if under-recognized) during kanji learning and recall and, moreover, is associated with a small but statistically significant advantage over conventional paper-andpencil copying as a technique for memorizing the shapes of kanji. I propose that teachers of Japanese explicitly sanction kūsho and encourage students to selfconsciously incorporate it into their repertoire of techniques for memorizing or recalling kanji. The issue is particularly salient in the context of the ongoing cultural shift away from writing by hand to computerized word processing, which in this generation is reshaping the psycholinguistics of literacy in Japanese. Practice of kūsho may secure a kinesthetic basis for facility with kanji among learners for whom keyboard-based typing is rapidly displacing manual writing.

In this paper differences in the depiction of the same event are described, setting forth the hypothesis that naturality of language or any language-likeness is due to differences in the construal of the objective world. As a case study, this paper considers how we express intentional events involving an agent that is unspecified or not important. To answer this question, data were collected from the same scene of a parallel corpus translated from Japanese to Russian (and vice versa). I then quantified the differences between the languages in the distribution of the constructions used, i.e., passive, indefinite-personal or active, intransitive, V-te aru construction or transitive, perfective or imperfective; and then determined what expressions are favored in each of the two languages. The data were then analyzed in detail to determine why these differences occur. The study yielded the following results. I. In expressing a process, in Japanese, a passive construction is used, whereas in Russian, a passive indefinite-personal sentence is often used. In addition, in Russian, an active construction is sometimes used. II. In expressing the results, in Japanese, an intransitive sentence tends to be used more often. In Russian, various expressions are used, including passive and intransitive sentences. III. The difference between Japanese and Russian lies in the different ways of construal, that is, whether or not a speaker seizes and depicts events subjectively from the vantage point of the patient.