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.