What Factors are Evaluated Positively or Negatively

— Native Speakers’ Evaluation of Learners’ Oral Proficiency —

Abstract

The purpose is to examine what points of Japanese learners' performance tend to be evaluated positively or negatively and judged as good or bad points in conversations with 25 Japanese native speakers and 25 Japanese language teachers. In this research, participants evaluated the non-Japanese university students' (NNS) Japanese. If they felt the NNS's Japanese was good, they gave ○. If they felt the NNS's Jpapanese was bad, they gave × as they watched video recordings of the learners' free conversations with Japanese native speakers. Participants also gave comments of their reasons for awarding ○ or ×. All comments were classified onto cards according to their content. These were treated as evaluation factors.

The results show that both Japanese native speakers and Japanese language teachers tend to evaluate:

(1) vocabulary and expression, discourse competence and communication strategies positively.

(2) grammar and pronunciation negatively.

(3) Japanese native speakers tend to evaluate sociolinguistic competence positively, whereas Japanese language teachers tend to evaluate it negatively.