峯布由紀
人間文化論叢 9 265-275 2006年 査読有り
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.