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Serious research into Japanese Language Learning can be traced to the 1990’s. The focus of this research has primarily been on students in Japan studying Japanese as a second language. This paper, however, aims to focus on Japanese as second language-learners overseas, using students from the Japanese Literature department of Soochow University, Taipei, Taiwan as the research pool.
First, a sample of six students was randomly chosen from the pool of thirty-two students, who participated in “LARP at SCU” beginning in March, 2004. Then an analysis was conducted based on the collection of conversation and Japanese composition data from a period of one and half years. From the analysis of these six samples, the author is able to analyze the characteristics of the usage of Japanese Shijigo.
Second, the Japanese Shijigo can be analyzed from two aspects: 現場指示 and 文脈指示. The results of this research indicate that the sample students displayed concise usage of Shijigo according to various situations; therefore, we can conclude that the study of現場指示 is quite mature.
In文脈指示, although the sample students were able to use 文脈指示詞 in the beginning stage, they tend to misuse "A"系指示詞 for "So"系指示詞. In addition, during the research period, there was no correction of such misuse in the language pattern of the sample students. Such phenomena indicate the difficulty of "A"系指示詞 for overseas Japanese language learners. From a pool of both native Taiwanese and native Japanese language speakers, the author is able to observe interesting results reflected from the usage frequency and the categories of Shijigo. In addition, literature review affirms the misuse of "A"系指示詞 is the result of yet-to-be-learned situations. Therefore, the author's hypothesis is based on the sample student's mother tongue's (Chinese) grammar categories rather than on the Japanese ones.
The hypothesis has proven that the effectiveness of Japanese language learning is highly correlated with the mother tongue of the learners. Therefore, this paper concludes with recommendations for teachers to isolate Shijigo as an independent teaching item during the early Japanese learning stage for more effective results.
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