Fuyuki Mine

This study examined the stage of passive voice acquisition, which is considered the S-Procedure in the Japanese developmental stages based on the processability theory, and the influence of the L1. The research method consisted of analyzing learners’ longitudinal conversational data (L1 Chinese and Korean, n = 3 for each) and the cross-sectional data of conversational and oral narratives (L1 Chinese, Korean, Turkish, English, and Spanish, n = 50 for each) and conducting a distributional analysis of the passives and B-type conjunctions, which are hypothesized to belong to the S-BAR Procedure. The results showed that passive sentences began to be used later than B-type conjunctions. Thus, the passive voice belongs to the stage of the S-BAR Procedure, rather than the S-Procedure. Furthermore, a Classification and Regression Tree analysis was conducted using the cross-sectional data, and a model was constructed to predict the use of passive sentences by L1 and Japanese language proficiency (SPOT score). The model indicated that the influence of L1 is limited. Passive voice is used in all the L1 groups after the intermediate level. L1 Chinese, Turkish, and English learners are more likely to use the passive than L1 Korean and Spanish learners, but at the advanced level, the passive is used regardless of the L1.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how formal instruction and language exposure influence learners' perception and output of Japanese sentence-final forms. 44 learners participated, divided into four groups by sex and proficiency level (lower or higher), and 28 native speakers (NS). All participants were required to assess 31 Japanese sentence-final forms, from the perspective of how often they hear and use them in daily conversation, and for the learners only, how explicitly they were explained in class. Path-analysis was used to see the relationships between learner's perception and frequency of output, explicitness of formal instruction, frequency of NS's use, and NS's tendency of use by sex. This analysis was done separately for each group, which were then compared. After the assessment the learners were interviewed to identify how they learn sentence-final forms. The results indicate the following, (1). The learner's perception is constrained by his/her lack of knowledge and low proficiency. Especially for lower-level learners, formal instructions promote noticing of sentence-final forms by making it possible for the learners to attend to the forms. (2). Language exposure has a larger effect on higher level learners than lower level learners, exposure with situational information gives learners the key to understand the meaning and function of each sentence-final form.