How Functional Verb Collocations Including Sino-Japanese Cognates should be Handled in Japanese Language Education for Chinese Native Speakers Studying Japanese as a Foreign Language:

Insights from Familiarity and Frequency

Abstract

The frequently-used indicators for foreign language acquisition are learners’ language proficiency and errors in using the target language, showing insufficient breadth of “acquisition”. This study, focusing on Chinese learners of Japanese acquiring Functional Verb Collocations including Sino-Japanese cognates, reinterprets acquisition from the perspective of learners’ familiarity with the collocations concerned, the importance of which is illustrated with its correlation with the frequencies of the same collocations in BCCWJ. Additionally, an interview with one of the learners has been conducted to analyze how Chinese learners of Japanese build their familiarity with those collocations. The results show that it is built up in various ways other than through Japanese textbooks.