Hiroko Nishimura

西村 浩子

西村, 浩子

59686

Nishimura , Hiroko

59687

Kwansei Gakuin University Repository

THE EFFECTS OF PRACTICE ON PROCESSING OFFORMULAIC AND NONFORMULAIC SEQUENCES FORJAPANESE LEARNERS OF ENGLISH AS A SECONDLANGUAGE著者（英） Hiroko Nishimura URL http://hdl.handle.net/10236/00030418ABSTRACT  The Effects of Practice on Processing of Formulaic and Nonformulaic Sequences for Japanese Learners of English as a Second Language  by Hiroko Nishimura  Formulaic sequences (FSs) in English are important in terms of distribution, idiomaticity, and speech fluency.  However, there is still a lack of research on learning FSs, especially, when the context is included.  Therefore, by conducting 7 experiments with individualized environments and real classroom practice, this study attempted to investigate the effects of language practice on FS knowledge compared to nonformulaic sequence (NFS) knowledge, in the mental lexicon of Japanese EFL learners; participants were adults and high school students.  This study consists of 7 chapters.  Chapter 1 reviews previous studies related to cognitive grammar and FS learning based on a usage-based model perspective.  Chapters 2 through 6 present 7 experiments that consistently used the same test: the Phrase Appropriateness Judgment Task (PAJT).  PAJT was designed to examine how accurately and quickly participants judge contextually appropriate word sequences (i.e., the data reflect not only word sequence processing but also sentence-level processing that includes the target word sequences).  A main finding of Experiment 1 (Chapter 2) was that contextualized FS processing was different from NFS processing in Japanese EFL learners.  When they judged correctly, high school and adult participants processed FSs and contexts containing them, significantly faster than NFSs. Given the results of Experiment 1, Experiments 2 through 7 were designed as pretest-and-posttest experiments to examine the effects of language practice on contextual FS knowledge compared to NFS knowledge (implicit learning more broadly).  Oral English sentence-reading training (ORT) was adopted in Experiments 2, 3, and 6, and silent English sentence-reading training (SRT) was adopted in Experiments 4, 5, and 7.  The stimulus sentences in ORT and SRT were identical; they were relatively easy-to-understand English sentences in which stimulus word sequences from PAJT were embedded.  In addition to the accuracy and speed of participants’ oral sentence-reading, comprehension accuracy was also analyzed.  Although adult ORT experiments (Experiments 2 and 3) showed that though reaction time (RT) and training session results showed differential semantic processing between contextual FS and NFS knowledge, ORT did not significantly facilitate contextual FS processing even for participants with high English proficiency.  Based on the above results, SRT was used as a treatment in Experiments 4 and 5 (for adults) on the assumption that cognitive load for articulation interferes with a favorable learning effect on processing FSs.  The results indicated that SRT significantly promoted the efficiency of holistic processing of FSs in speed judgment and in turn FS processing of content sentences in adults with high English proficiency. Based on the results of the above experiments for adults, Experiments 6 (ORT) and 7 (SRT) were conducted among high school students.  One of the reasons for this target group was that they had already been exposed to English since elementary school and therefore, had a different English educational background from the participants in the previous pretest-and-posttest designs.  Nevertheless, the results showed that neither ORT nor SRT positively affected contextual FS processing.  Instead, the results indicated that high school students’ decoding skills have not yet become well established.   The main findings of this study can be summarized in the following 2 points.  First, because most Japanese EFL learners’ oral reading is not yet well automatized, not ORT but SRT with a relatively simple level of English (which requires less cognitive resources) can promote contextual FS processing more than NFS processing.  This promotion effect, in turn, leads to efficient processing of English sentences, which is essential for smooth communication.  Second, Japanese EFL learners, including high school students and adults with low English proficiency, may enjoy the advantage of holistic processing of FSs, as shown by some results of this study. Research on FS learning adopting contexts is still lacking.  Therefore, the significant points of this study are that it has investigated the effects of language learning that can be practiced in the environment of EFL on contextual FS knowledge and, accordingly, has generated meaningful implications for FS learning and teaching for Japanese EFL learners.  

THE EFFECTS OF PRACTICE ON PROCESSING OF FORMULAIC AND NONFORMULAIC SEQUENCES FOR JAPANESE LEARNERS OF ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

59624

Nishimura, Hiroko

59625

https://kwansei.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=30518&item_no=1&attribute_id=20&file_no=1

学習が日本人英語学習者の英語定型・非定型表現の処理に与える影響

学習が日本人英語学習者の英語定型・非定型表現の処理に与える影響

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