An Analysis of the Frequency of Noun Phrase Structures in Japanese Junior High School English Textbooks

Abstract

　　For second language (L2) learners, acquiring noun phrase (NP) structures is thought to be one of the most important elements in the development of their overall L2 proficiency. The purpose of the current study is to investigate to what extent the target NP structures are included in the input Japanese English as a Foreign Language learners are exposed to, by analyzing Japanese junior high school English textbooks. The results show that while NPs premodified by This and postmodified by prepositional phrases appear frequently in the textbooks, the other target NPs do not. In addition, all the target NP structures do not frequently appear in the sentential subject positions: they are often used as other components such as sentential objects or internal elements of various kinds of phrases. Through the comparison with the results of the previous study, it is also indicated that the differences in the degree of acquisition observed in the previous studies can be explained by the frequency data obtained in the current study. Some implications toward Japanese EFL classrooms and L2 acquisition research are discussed.