Abstract
The objective of this paper is to investigate the recognition of speech styles and social distance through the Japanese expressions used by foreign students from China and Taiwan and native Japanese. The subjects were asked to complete a Discourse Completion Test. I analyze the results of the expression test focusing on polite style (desu/masu-style) and plain style (da/dearu-style). The findings derived from the study show that the Chinese and Taiwanese students chose their speech styles according to "social distance" and to the "costs" they should pay, while the Japanese tested chose ones according to "in-group/out-group" differences. Though Japanese express their intimacy to an "in-group" person in the plain style without sacrificing politeness, it is difficult for foreign students to learn the effective use of the plain styles for "in-group" people.
