The Influence of Input and L1 on Japanese Learners’ Acquisition of English Tough Constructions

Abstract

Japanese tough constructions are of four types and quite different in nature from English ones although one of the types superficially corresponds to English ones. This study investigates what kind of tough sentences Japanese learners of English at a relatively early stage of acquisition produce and how L2 input and L1 influence the production. Data from the JEFILL corpus and input data from English textbooks at public junior high and high schools in Japan were analyzed. The results revealed that Japanese junior high and high school students produced a certain number of tough constructions using 11 predicates and with errors. The predicates that the learners frequently used in tough sentences were congruent with the input data. In this respect, the quality of the input seemingly influences Japanese learners’ acquisition of English tough constructions. However, the input frequency appeared to be insufficient for explaining the full range of learners’ data. The input cannot explain learners’ errors either. The various linguistic properties observed in learners’ data, including error sentences, are rather consistent with L1. Thus, it may be the case that, aside from input influence, there is both positive and negative transfer from L1. A follow-up experiment with an acceptability judgment task was also conducted to test whether Japanese learners wrongly allow a resumptive pronoun in tough constructions as the learners’ production data suggests. The results show that the Japanese learners (high-school students) allow it just as in their L1. These findings suggest that Japanese learners’ linguistic knowledge of English tough constructions may differ from that of English native speakers, at least at an early stage of acquisition.