| Asia Pacific Journal of Corpus Research Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 23-34 |
| Abbreviation: APJCR |
| e-ISSN: 2733-8096 |
| Publication date: 31 August 2021 |
| Received: 15 July 2020 / Received in Revised Form: 18 July 2021 / Accepted: 30 July 2021 |
| DOI: https://doi.org/10.22925/apjcr.2021.2.1.23
|
Modal Auxiliary Verbs in Japanese EFL Learners’ Conversation: A Corpus-based Study
|
| Shusaku Nakayama (Meiji Gakuin University) |
| Copyright 2021 APJCRThis is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Abstract |
| This research examines Japanese non-native speakers’ (JNNS) modal auxiliary verb use from two different perspectives: frequency of use and preferences for modalities. Additionally, error analysis is carried out to identify errors in modal use common among JNNSs. Their modal use is compared to that of English native speakers within a spoken dialogue corpus which is part of the International Corpus Network of Asian Learners’ English. Research findings show at a statistically significant level that when compared to native speakers, JNNSs underuse past forms of modals and infrequently convey epistemic modality, indicating the possibility that JNNSs fail to express their opinions or thoughts indirectly when needed or to convey politeness appropriately. Error analysis identifies the following three types of common errors: (1) the use of incorrect tenses of modal verb phrases, (2) the use of inflected verb forms after modals, and (3) the non-use of main verbs after modals. The first type of error is largely because JNNSs do not master how to express past meanings of modals. The second and third types of errors seem to be due to first language transfer into second language acquisition and JNNSs’ overgeneralization of the subject-verb agreement rules to modals respectively. |
Keywords |
| Corpus-based Analysis, Error Analysis, ICNALE, Interlanguage Analysis, Japanese Learners of English, Modal Auxiliary Verbs |
References |
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The Author |
| Shusaku Nakayama is currently a PhD student at Meiji Gakuin University in Tokyo, Japan. He earned his MA in English literature in 2019 at Meiji Gakuin University. He has been working at senior high school and university as an English teacher. His research interests include corpus linguistics, textbook analysis, and teaching English as a foreign language. |
The Author’s Address |
| First and Corresponding Author Shusaku Nakayama PhD Student Department of English Meiji Gakuin University 1-2-37 Shirokanedai, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 108-8636, JAPAN E-mail: shusaku-nakayama@outlook.jp  DOI QR Code |
