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Characteristics of the written narratives of intermediate Japanese language students
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Abstract:
Some aspects of narratives are language-specific and it takes time to reach a native-like level for a Japanese language learner. This study investigates which features of narrative writing would be difficult for intermediate students of Japanese language to master by testing students studying a fourth year level language subject at an Australian university. The framework of this investigation is based on the work done by Minami (2008), who found several common features in “good” Japanese stories by examining Japanese oral narratives told by Japanese-English bilingual children. According to Minami’s study, good Japanese stories contained the following features; 1) reasonable length, 2) a large and varied vocabulary, 3) use of the past tense, 4) narration of events in chronological order, 5) use of passive forms, and 6) accurate subjectreferential markings. This study found that the learners could use some language-specific features of Japanese narratives without learning them in the classroom setting, such as use of the past tense and passive forms, which bore similarities to the performance of native speakers. On the other hand, some rather basic grammatical features introduced in the first or second year of their Japanese studies were still difficult to use at the intermediate level; examples of this include sentence types and subject referential markings. Thus, for learners of Japanese, the application of basic grammar in the writing of narratives appears to be most difficult to master, and that may or may not be detected in simple grammar tests.
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Keyword:
200312 - Japanese Language
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URL: http://chl.anu.edu.au/sites/jsaa2013/
http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/544850
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