The purpose of this study is to investigate the process by which Japanese EFL learners acquire the pragmatic competence to recognize the appropriateness of function-chains used in spoken English. It attempts to shed light on that developmental process by comparing groups of Japanese EFL learners with native speakers from the United States, and then examining the characteristics specific to those Japanese students. The following three groups of Japanese EFL learners participated in this study: junior high school students, university students with experience of study abroad for four months or over, and university students without experience of study abroad, all with varying levels of proficiency and experience in English. As for analysis of data, qualitative analysis was employed along with the quantitative results from a one-way ANOVA, which proved to be useful and complementary for the purpose of this study. Matrices were used as a means of displaying, analyzing, and synthesizing the data in order to recognize any useful and informative patterns that might emerge. As a result, the following characteristics of Japanese students were identified when compared to native speakers: the areas of difficulty specific to each group, those areas difficult for Japanese EFL learners irrespective of English proficiency level, and the areas in which Japanese EFL learners were oversensitive (overly strict) in their judgment as to what constituted appropriate language.
