Subject referential expressions and encoding of referential status in L2 narrative discourse by L1-English learners of Japanese.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This dissertation investigates the acquisition of subject referential expressions by L1-English learners of Japanese and classroom input as a possible contributor to non-target style usage among learners. The investigation utilizes a functional approach, examining how referential status is encoded through the use of subject referential forms: NP with a subject-marking particle ga, NP with a topic-marking particle wa, and null anaphora. Sixty-one learners, including university students in second, third, fourth-year Japanese classes and learners at advanced and high-advanced levels, as well as thirty-one native Japanese and English speakers, participated in the study. All performed two kinds of narrative tasks: storytelling of a picture book and film retell. Analyses of the narrative tasks indicate the following trends: (1) use of null anaphora for reference maintenance at early stages, (2) overuse of NP-wa at early stages, (3) delayed emergence of NP-ga to mark new information, and (4) overuse of NP-ga and persistent difficulty to acquire the functions of NP-wa among advanced and high-advanced learners.
To examine the role of classroom input in the above trends, three Japanese textbooks were analyzed to ascertain to what degree and in what functions NP-ga, NP-wa, and null anaphora are used in the texts. The analysis shows that input of NP-ga is scarce compared to the other forms in the first-year textbook and explicit explanations of distinctions between ga and wa are lacking in the second and third-year textbooks. As a secondary source of classroom input, classroom discourse was analyzed, which found that NP-wa is more often used than other forms in teacher talk. These suggest that the overuse of NP-wa at early stages and delayed emergence of NP-ga found in the learners' narratives may be attributed to the input that they receive in classroom. Suggestions for improved pedagogy are presented at the end of the dissertation.