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Abstract The study aims to investigate the selection of either「ナカッタ」“na ka tta” or「テイナイ」 “te i nai” the negative replies, to reply「シタカ?」“shi ta ka”, the past interrogative. In terms of the usages and choosing the right negative reply in the daily conversation of Japanese native speakers, they are somehow quite different from those of many foreign learners who have learnt from Japanese language textbooks. One study on the same issue has pointed out that it is vital to consider the point of time and situation when choosing the correct negative reply. However, the content arrangements in those popular Japanese language textbooks seem to fail to provide the necessary and sufficient information for learners. Also, some researcher even argues that the lack of the sufficient information in the texts is probably the reason why almost every advanced Learner with the N1 qualification participating in the study failed to choose 「テイナイ」 “te i nai” correctly when answering the following designed dialogue:
「昨日、パーティーで田中さんに会った?」「いや、会ってないよ。来てたの?知らなかった」。 “Did you meet Mr. Tanaka at the party yesterday?” “No, I didn’t. Did he go to the party? I didn’t know at all that he had gone to the party.”
The research subjects selected in that study were Koreans, Chinese, and Vietnamese. However, the participants chosen for this study were Taiwanese learners of Japanese. As for the research questions, some past questions were designed to reply to「シタカ?」 “shi ta ka”: “When ~?” “Where ~?” “What kind of feeling ~?”
The participants were asked to choose either「ナカッタ」“na ka tta” or「テイナイ」 “te i nai” to the designed situational conversations. In addition, the study attempts to investigate the popular Japanese language textbooks used in Taiwan. The research contents were also focused on the past questions,「シタカ?」 “shi ta ka”. Therefore, based on the common dialogues designed in those textbooks, there were three items for「ナカッタ」“na ka tta” and five for「テイナイ」 “te i nai” listed out for discussion, followed by an investigation of the content arrangements to identify and discuss what kinds of problems may be caused by using these textbooks, in terms of learning effectiveness. Also, the cruxes of the problems are easily made by Taiwanese learners.
There are totally six chapters in this study. Chapter One is the preface, which defines the motivation of the research, as well as its problems and some important issues. Chapter Two is to introduce the important learning issue of correctly applying「ナカッタ」“na ka tta” and「テイナイ」“te i nai”, the negative replies, to「シタカ?」“shi ta ka”, the past interrogative. Some existing studies on the same issue will be discussed first, and followed by the three items for 「ナカッタ」“na ka tta” and the five for「テイナイ」 “te i nai” for discussion. Also, the individual semantic meaning will be explained thoroughly in this chapter. Chapter Three is the research methodology. It is to confirm and explain the methods, standard, subjects, and questionnaire set up for this study. In the Chapter Four, the results of the investigation will be analyzed and examined carefully. For Chapter Five, the author will look into some popular Japanese language textbooks used in Taiwan, and discuss their impacts on learning. Chapter Six is the conclusion of the study. Also, the author will propose some useful suggestions to improve the current education in Japanese language learning. Moreover, some possible further studies will be presented here, too. This study is expected to bring up some useful awareness and guidance to Japanese classroom teaching and the future development of Japanese language textbooks.
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