ISSUES IN JAPANESE ESL

Alan Baker

Word Order & Particles

Japanese is an SOV language, whereas English is an SVO language. Students may thus have trouble placing the verb before

the object(s). As opposed to English prepositions, Japanese has

post-positions that designate each noun’s function. For instance, wa = topics, ga = subjects, wo = direct objects, ni

= direction/indirect objects/others. Students might have trouble with the prepositions

in English since they come after, not before, the noun they mark and they often don’t have the same function as the Japanese particles.

Moveable Phrases

Because of the particles, Japanese allows greater freedom of phrasal movement, such that the following sentences both mean the same thing: Watashi (I) wa (top.) inu (dog) to (with) hon

(book) wo (DO) toshokan (library) de (at) yomimashita (read past)

Watashi wa toshokan ni inu to hon wo yomimashita.

Moveable Phrases (Cont.)

Because the phrases in Japanese have greater ability to move, Japanese ESL/EFL students might have trouble with the relatively stringent word placement in English.

For instance, it might require quite a bit of explanation as to why “I read a book in the library with my dog” is grammatical while “I read in the library a book with my dog” is not.

Verbal Conjugations

All tense and aspect meanings are inflected at the end of the verb in Japanese, thus there are no auxiliary verbs or modals

In fact, in classical Japanese, many additional inflections existed that would require a complex string of adverbs or modals in English.

Verbal Conjugations (Cont.)

Students will likely have great difficulty placing the correct auxiliaries/modals and conjugating them.

For instance, the –ing of the progressive aspect may be used while the auxiliary ‘to be’ may be dropped or mis-conjugated, as in “I reading a book” or “She am reading a book yesterday.”

Topic Prominence

Japanese uses a topic-comment structure commonly, but English uses it rarely.

Thus one sees: Watashi wa hon wo yondeimasu – Literally: “As

for me, (I) am reading a book,” but used in the same context as “I am reading a book.”

Theoretically the TopicP drops to the CP subject position when no subject is specified. (Kishimoto, 2009)

Topic Prominence (Cont.)

Japanese ESL/EFL students might have trouble overusing the “As for X,” form and, when doing so, dropping the subject to create sentences like, “As for me/I, going to the store.”

Likewise, once the need for filled subject position is enforced one might see an overuse of structures like, “Marsha, she went to the store,” wherein Marsha is the referent of she.

Possessive Pronouns and Adjectives

Japanese normally marks possession similarly to English ‘s by using the particle no, but it lacks possessive pronouns and adjectives. As such, one sees the following translations: That’s my book = Sore (that) wa watashi (I) no

(poss.) hon (book) desu (cop.). That book is mine = Sono (that) hon wa

watashi no* desu. *The second hon is dropped and the no acts as a nominalizer like ‘one.’

Possessive Pronouns and Adjectives (Cont.)

The topic-comment structure allows Japanese sentences to express possession in a different way, like this: Watashi wa, ashi (leg/s) ga itai (hurt). (As for

me, (my) legs hurt.)

Possessive Pronouns and Adjectives (Cont.)

Students may have difficulty using possessive adjectives and pronouns because they don’t exist in their L1.

It may take additional enforcing to show that possessive adjectives are necessary so that students produce “My legs hurt” rather than “As for me, legs hurt” or “Me/I legs hurt” and produce “The book is mine” rather than “The book is my/I/me’s.”

Direct Object and Subject Dropping

Both the subject and object can drop in Japanese if the context allows their retrieval. (O’Grady et al, 2008)

English demands a subject, even in cases like “It is raining” that require a pleonastic pronoun. I am reading (something). – watashi wa (nanika

wo) yondeiru Japanese and English can both occasionally drop DOs.

Yondeiru – (I) am reading (something). Japanese can drop both subject and object when

context allows.

Direct Object and Subject Dropping (Cont.)

Another Examples: Toshi-wa hon wo mita. Watashi mo mita. (Toshi

saw a book. I also saw (it).) Japanese can drop objects in places English

can’t. Students may have trouble with the

obligatory subjects and the higher frequency of obligatory objects in English.

Direct Object and Subject Dropping (Cont.)

For instance, students might need extra help understanding that “reading” is not a complete sentence because it lacks a subject, and that one needs to use the pronoun “it” in cases like “Toshi saw the book, and I also saw it.”

Articles and Count Nouns

Japanese does not have an article system with which it marks definiteness or indefiniteness, nor does it distinguish between count and noncount nouns.

Instead it relies on a four-part demonstrative system* to show definiteness when necessary

*The demonstratives show closeness to the speaker (kore/kono), closeness to the addressee (sore/sono), distance from either speaker or addressee (are/ano), and interrogation (dore/dono).

Articles and Count Nouns (Cont.)

Without the demonstratives, the definiteness is ambiguous, as follows: Ano otokonoko ga asondeiru = That/Those

boy/s is/are playing Otokonoko ga asondeiru = A/The boy/s is/are

playing Japanese ESL/EFL students may have

trouble with the obligatory show of definiteness or indefiniteness in English, often omitting articles.

Articles and Count Nouns (Cont.)

Special attention needs to be paid to help students who produce sentences like “Dog chased girls” instead of “A dog chased the girls.”

Furthermore, confusion due to English count and noncount nouns may result in “I bought a/the turkey” where “I bought some turkey” would sound better.

Plurality

Japanese does not mark plurality in its nouns, though occasionally [+human] nouns are marked with the suffix -tachi.

Research suggests that when -tachi is added to a [+human] noun, the meaning usually becomes not only plural, but definite as well.

Plurality (Cont.)

For example, the following Japanese words are paired with their possible translations (Nakanishi, & Tomioka, 2004): Karasu = a crow, the crow, crows, the crows *Karasu-tachi = ungrammatical (unless using

personification) Kodomo = a child, the child, children, the

children Kodomo-tachi = the children

Plurality (Cont.)

This switch to definiteness using the plural suffix may cause some students to have further issues understanding articles, such that the difference between cats and the cats might seem even more obscure.

As previously mentioned, the lack of distinction between count and noncount nouns in the L1 may exacerbate these difficulties since noncount nouns don’t receive a plural -s.

Subject-Verb Agreement

As has been shown, Japanese does not mark plurality. Thus, its verbs do not agree in number.

Japanese verbs also do not conjugate in order to agree in person.

The third-person singular -s is also one of the most difficult forms for ESL/EFL students to learn when the L1 verbs do not need to agree in person.

Subject-Verb Agreement (Cont.)

As such, erroneous sentences like the following might occur: “The children is playing” “She go to the store”

In order to improve subject-verb agreement, a great deal of practice will likely be required since the concept of subject-verb agreement in non-existent in Japanese.

Non-syntactical Issues: Phonetics

Japanese contains most of the same sounds as English, but many students stumble on several sounds that occur in English but are absent in Japanese.

For instance, Japanese has a flap r produced in-between where most English rs and ls are. Because of this, Japanese speakers have issues hearing and producing a difference between lice and rice. Other absent sounds are /v/, /ð/, and /Ɵ/.

Non-syntactical Issues: Phonetics (Cont.)

Complex consonant clusters are also problematic since Japanese typically has simple consonants followed by a vowel/s. ESL/EFL learners often insert vowels to break up consonant clusters, as in “table” being pronounced [tebuɽu].

The difference in phonetics between Japanese and English suggests that a frequent oral practice is mandatory to help produce native or near-native sounds.

Sources

Kishimoto, Hideki. (2009). Topic prominency in Japanese. Linguistic Review, 26(4), 465-513.

Mirua, Akria and McGloin, Naomi Hanaoka. (2009). An integrated approach to intermediate Japanese. The Japan Times, Ltd.

Nakanishi, Kimiko, & Tomioka, Satoshi. (2004). Japanese plurals are exceptional. Journal of East Asian Linguistics, 13(2), 113-140.

Shoebottom, Paul. (2011). The differences between English and Japanese. Frankfurt International School. http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/langdiff/japanese.htm

Tohsaku, Yasu-Hiko. (2006). Yookoso!: continuing with contemporary Japanese. McGraw-Hill.

Tohsaku, Yasu-Hiko. (2006). Yookoso!: an invitation to contemporary Japanese. McGraw-Hill.

William O'Grady, Yoshie Yamashita & Sookeun Cho. (2008). Object drop in Japanese and Korean. Language Acquisition, 15(1), 58-68.