A Survey of Vocabulary and Expressions Used in the Disaster Information in Osaka: From the Point of View of Japanese Language Education

Abstract

At the time of Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in 1995, many foreigners were found to be information illiterate. After the earthquake, it was shown that many foreigners were unable to understand Japanese used for informational purposes, even though they had studied Japanese. The purpose of this study is to investigate the vocabulary, expressions, and grammatical patterns used in disaster information that are difficult for Japanese language learners to understand. Using KH Coder, a morphological analysis tool, the author analyzed announcement data that are still used in Osaka for earthquake and tsunami warnings and alerts. The author collected 115 words of frequent vocabulary, 12 frequent expressions, and 11 grammatical patterns of instructional sentences from these materials. Using the Japanese Language Proficiency Test as a foundation, the author measured the difficulty of the vocabulary, expressions, and grammatical patterns. The author found that there are some vocabulary, expressions, and grammatical patterns in these materials that are difficult for Japanese learners to understand. The results of this study will contribute to the creation of Japanese disaster information.