ERIC ED386020: Accuracy Order and Frequency Order of Relative Clauses as Used by Japanese Senior High School Students of EFL.

29 Pages·1993·0.48 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
FL 023 056
ED 386 020
Kubota, Mikio
AUTHOR
Accuracy Order and Frequency Order of Relative
TITLE
Clauses as Used by Japanese Senior High School
Students of EFL.
PUB DATE
93
29p.
NOTE
Journal Articles (080)
PUB TYPE
Institute for Research in Language Teaching Bulletin;
JOURNAL CIT
v7 p27-53 1993
MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage.
EDRS PRICE
Classroom Research; *English (Second Language);
DESCRIPTORS
Foreign Countries; *Grammar; Grammatical
Acceptability; High Schools; High School Students;
*Language Patterns; 'Language Proficiency; Language
Research; Language Tests; *Linguistic Theory; Second
Language Learning; Sentence Structure; Testing;
Translation
*Japanese People; *Relative Clauses
IDENTIFIERS
ABSTRACT
This study investigated the accuracy order of English
students of
relative clauses in the usage of 199 Japanese high school
it looked at:
(1)
English as a foreign language (EFL). Specifically,
order by
whether the Accessibility Hierarchy conform to the accuracy
(2) how frequently
Jallnese senior high school students of EFL; and
given three
this population uses relative clauses. Subjects were
sentence-combining, and
kinds of tests, in grammaticality judgment,
order
translation. Results indicate that this population followed an
Difficulty
matching the Accessibility Hierarchy, and the Pexceptual
using
Hypothesis to some extent, and that the subjects preferred
relative clauses to present participles and post-modification
of a
positions. A pedagogical implication is that center-embedding
relative Aause functioning as object of preposition should be an
(Author/MSE)
area of classroom instructional focus.
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Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
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Accuracy Order and Frequency Order
of Relative Clauses as Used by
Japanese Senior High School
Students of EFL
-11
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1993
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2
97
Accuracy Order and Frequency Order
of Relative Clauses as Used ,by
Japanese Senior High School
Students of EFL*
lc io Kt'
wir
A BsTR ACT
This study attempted to investigate whether the accuracy order of
English relative clauses would match Keenan and Comrie's Accessibility
I I ypothesis, and whether ndative clauses would be used more frequently
than participles and infinitives in postmodification positions. A total of
199 Japanese senior high school students of EFL (English as a Foreign
Three kinds of tests: gram .
Language) participated in this experiment .
sentence-combining test, and translation test
maticality judgment test ,
were given to them.
The following results were obtained from the study:
type was the easiest to relativize among
The OS (Ohject-Subject
{I)
the SS, SO, OS, 00 types.
The accuracy order of relativi/ation was SS, SO, OS 00 in the
(2)
ln the lice composition test,
grammaticality judgment test .
the
frequency order was OS .00 SS SO. This frequency order
if Kuno's Perceptual Difficulty Hypothesis in
matched the pattern
clauses was preferred
relative
over
right embedding
of
hat
enter embedding.
The subjects followed the pattern that was in accord with the
CI)
Accessibility Hierarchy, except for the genitive type, only in the
Object 'Object of
grammaticality judgment test: Subject, ( ienitive
Preposition.
The relative adverb was e;isier than the relative pronoun functio ming
(.11
3
28
as the Object of Preposition in the grammaticality judgment test.
The 'relative pronoun 4 deferred preposition' construction was used
(5)
more frequently than the 'preposition
relative pronoun construc-
tion.
The frequmcy of using relative clauses was higher than that of
(6)
present participles and infinitives.
INTRODUCTION
English relative clauses seem to be difficult for Japanese learners to
acquire, because the Japanese language has prenominal relative clauses.
English is a right-branching language, while apanese is a left-branching
one. Japallesespeaking learners of English have to "switch relative
clauses to a postnuminal position in the process of learning English"
(Schachter 1974:210) and the choice, of relative pronoun is dependent on
the gender type of antecedent and the case of relative pronoun, and a
relative. clause is embedded as a modifier in a noun phrase. (NP)
This
.
syntactic complexity may lead tee the late development of relative clause
formation in second language acquisition (e.g.
, Schumann 198()) as well
as in first language ac(luisition (e.g.
Menyuk 1969).
The longitudinal study by Schumann (1980) focused on tlw 'acquisition
of relative clauses by five Spanish-speaking learners of English. Ile found
that relative clauses nudifying the object of the main sentence were
acquired first and that relative clauses modifying the subject of the main
sentence were drveloped at TI later stage. Ceencerning the or(Ier of (level-
ulnne'lll id' relative pronouns, Schumann (1981)) suggested the following
three stages uf developmental WWICIUTS, hIlSrd on his evidence:
: omission of relative pronoun
Stage 1
'I gut a friend speaks Spanish.'
: substitution of personal prone elm for relative pronoun
Stage
'1 gut a friend he speaks Spanish,'
4
29
Stage 3 : proper use
'I got a friend who speaks Spanish.
Following Schachter's (1974) claim that interference between two
languages is not the main source of errors, Keenan and Comrie (1977)
looked at the similarities ttmong MOP than fifty languages regarding
syntactic functions for relative pronouns and proposed the Noun Phrase
Accessibility Ilierarchy Ilypothesis for relative clauses. This Accessibil-
ity Ilypothesis represents typological universals of relative clause forma-
tion as well as the difficulty order of relative clauses. They urovided the
following universal hierarchy:
Indirect Object .Object of Preposition .
Direct Object
Subject
: more accessible than]
Genitive! .Ohject of Comparison
A relative clause formation is more natural, that is, more accessible in
Subject position than in Direct Object position, which is more accessible
than in Indirect Object position, which is nmre accessible than in Object
I if Preposition position, and so on.
(1979) Ii H)ked at the data of relatke clauses produced by adult 1.2
and found a close
learner,: of English in the sentence-combining task ,
relation between the accuraO order and the AccessibtlitY Hierarchv .
except for the position of the genitive ipossesive) ,
which proved to be
easier than predicted. She explains that the reason for this phenomenon
mun'
that 'whose' is the most salient relative marker and that 'who,:e
is treated as a unit,
Sheldon (19;r1) examined the difficult
1/r1 ler in the comprehension of
relative claus4's b children learning Enghsh as their
language,
fit st
Sheldon categorited relative clauses into the following four types for the
purpose of her study, based on the functions of the head noun mid the
relative prohotm:
5
SS (Subject of sentence is Subject of relative clause)
The people who live in Philadelphia are busy.
SO (Subject of sentence is Object of relative clause)
The people who we know live in Philadelphia.
OS (Object of sentence is Subject of relative clauso)
I know some people who live in Philadelphia.
00 (Object of sentence is Object of relative clause)
I know the people who you know.
(examples from Doughty 1991:,136)
Sheldon found that children understood sentences in which the function of
the head noun was the smile as that of the relative pronoun (e.g., SS and
00) ,
formulating the Parallel Function Hypothesis. Thus, she proposes
that relative clauses with a parallel function (SS/00) are easier to
acquire than those with a non-parallel function (SO 'OS)
Kuno (1974) proposed the Perceptual Difficulty Hypothesis, which
predicts difficulty in terms of embedding of the relative clause. Its claim
is that center-embedding is perceptually the most difficult kind of embed-
ding, compared with left- and right-embedding, since center-embedding
interrupts the processing of the matrix clause: therefore. SS and SO types
are more difficult than OS and Oft The Perceptual Difficulty Ilypothesis
is in line with Slobin's (1973) Universal Operating Principles, one of
which claims that "interruption" or "rearrangement" renders sentence
priwessing difficult
.
A few empirical studies Hive been conducted in Japanese FFI. situa-
tions. Saito (1984) made a survey of natural order of acquisition by
Japanese senior high school students. The results supported the Accessi-
bility Hierarchy Hypothesis. Takazawa (1987) studied what she called
the 'learnability order" of relative clauses by senior high school and
college students (the total number: 226)
assessing the paraphrase test in
,
which two sentences were transformed to one sentence with a relative
31
clause. 11er finding is that the OS and SS types were learned more easily
than 00 and SO, indicating that a relative pronoun which functions as a
subject in its relative clause is easier to learn than one functioning as an
object and that the antecedent functioning as an object in the main
sentence is more accessible than one functioning as a subject.
college students the sentence-
gave thirty-four
Kawauchi
(1988)
combining, translation, and free composition tests, resulting in the
accuracy order of OS..7.00, SS> SO in the sentencecombining test,
In the free composition test
OW,SO, OS SO/SS in the translation test .
the frequency order was OS :'00 'SO ',SS. Therefore she concluded
that the OS type was the easiest to relativize and the SO type was the
most difficult . The results of Kawauchi's study correspond to the Percep
is a summary of the
tual Difficulty Hypothesis. The following Table 1
past studies of the acquisition order:
TABU'. I: The aLquisition order of relative clauses
Acquired LATER
Acquired FIRST
Ilypotheses
SS & 00
SO & OS
Sheldon (197.1)
55 & SO
OS &
1:uno I197.1)
So & 00
Os
SS &
Keenan and Coinrie 11977)
Finpirical studies conducted in Japan'
Saito (1951)
TakataWil
19871
ii
of these three FFI. studies in Japan imply that the OS type is
The result,
the easiest for Japanese learners of HI. to acquire and the S( ) type is the
hardest . There were unly three studies regarding the acquisition order of
relative clauses in Japanese 1:11. situations, to the hest of tny knowledge,
will investigate hnw Japanese senior high school
research,
I
students acquire English relative clauses,
7
:32
It should be noted that strictly speaking, accuracy/difficulty order is
distinct from acquisition order: in cross-sectional studies the subjects'
abilities to use the language accurately in obligatory contexts are mea-
sured at a given point in time, while longitudinal studies attempt to look
at the process of how learners th.welop the language over a long period of
time (see Ellis 1985:2)1.4, Larsen-Freeman and Long 1991:108). Since this
research is a cross.secthmal study, the accuracy order is focused on.
in the light
Nloreover,
of work on avoidance, Schachter (1974)
examined English compositions written by nonnative-speaking learners,
who included Japanese speakers. She finind that Japanese students
prodm-ed fewer relative clauses than Arabic and Persian lea.ners. She
established the concept of -avoidance strategy," which she believed
Japanese students used, This research will also examine whether or not
Japanese senior high school students produce relative clauses frequently.
RESEARCH QU ESTIONS
The first purpose of the present study is
to examine whether the
accuracy order of relative clauses is the same as that of the Accessibility
Hierarchy, the second purpose is to explore the frequency of relative
clause formation. The following Research Qtu,st ions are proposed:
Does the Accessibilit
Ilierarchy conform to the accuracy order by
(11
Japanese senior high school students of FEL?
(')
1),) Japanesc 5(116 ris high schilirl students of 1+1_ use relat i
clauses
frequently?
111.1'0T II ES ES
lypiolicses 1
to fi ('oncerti Research Question No.1, will'I'CaS ll1.poth-
escs 7 and S are related to Research Question No, 2.
: The ( )5 type is the easiest for Japanese senior high school students
111
relativiir among the four types.
112 ; The SO type is the most difficult for Japanese senior high school
33
students to relativize among the four types.
These two hypotheses are in accordance with the Accessibility Ilypoth-
esis. Rased on Saito (1984) , Takazawa (1987; , and Kawauchi (1988) ,
it
is assumed that Japanese students have the least difficulty in relativizing
the OS type, among SS, SO, OS, and 00 types. This order of difficulty
also sustained by the
Hypothesis; center-
Perceptual
Difficulty
is
embedding of the relative clause would be more difficult to process than
ncm-center-embedding.
113 : The Subject type of relative clause is easier to acquire than the
()bject type.
: The, Object type is easier to acquire than the Object of Preposition
t ype
Object of Preposition type is easier to acquire than the Genitive
115 :
t ype
1lpotheses 3 to 5 predict that the Accessibility ilypothesis is a reason-
able predie tor of difficulty (4 relativitation. The Accessibility
ypot he-
I
sis represents the following ordering of difficulty:
Subject 'Object 'Object of Preposition
Genitive 'Object (4 Compirison
iS hypothesiz-d that correct responses would decrease as the positilin if
It
the hierarch goes diwn. That is. the more' accessible position would Ia .
produced with greater accuracy than the less accessible one.
sheldon (1971) proposes the Word Order
I hypothesis, which claims
that -a surface structure in wlnch the underlying word order is preserved
is easier to process than one
TI which the underlying word order is not
relative clauses in which the subject
preserved." Therefore,
NI'
is
relativized would be easier than niative clauses in which the object NP
relativized. Hypothesis
follows Sheldon's prediction.
is
it relativ
: There is no statistically significant ditferemice
litfie'tiltv
iii
It;
i/;ition between the ()Neil of Preposition type and the relative
9
34
adverb.
No studies or theories have predicted the difference in relativization
between a relative pronoun functioning as the Object of Preposition and
a felative adverb. Thus, the null hypothesis is proposed.
117 : Relative clauses are used more frequently than participles in post-
modification positions.
118 : Relative clauses are used more frequently than infinitives in post-
modification positions.
Mori (1983) studied the production strategy of postmodification in a
composition test given to 70 Japanese university students. Iler result
showed that 62.5% of the subjects used relative dames over present
participles and more than 90'!(, were favored over past participles. The
percentages of using relative clauses were 65.2%, 89.6% over infinitives.
Therefore, she concluded that Japanese students tended to use relative
clauses more often than participles and infinitives. This study leads to the
formulations of Ilypotheses 7 and 8.
PROCEDt RES
Subjects
A total of 199 Japanese senior high school sophomores of EH. (16
to
17 year olds) were the subjects of this experiment .
They had already
studied basic usage of relative pronouns such as /rho,
which,
why, how in
whom, whiisc and relative adverbs.
wh4
,
class. A ndative pronotm functioning as the Object of Comparative was
not found in their textbooks, so that it was not examined in thi: study.
Data collection and analysis
The three kinds of tests were given independent l to all the subjects in
order to avoid the influence of the previous test and to determine whether
or not test variation may result in different performance (see Appendix).
0