Production of Wago Verbs in Context

The Case of Chinese Learners of Japanese

Abstract

This study aims to investigate how Chinese learners of Japanese produce wago verbs in contextual sentences. The following three research questions are addressed: 1) Are there any differences in the correct use of wago verbs in context according to level of Japanese proficiency? 2) Is it a retrieval problem that learners cannot produce correct wago verbs although they "know these words"? and 3) What types of errors can be seen in the process of producing wago verbs? Two types of tests and follow-up interviews were conducted on 72 Chinese learners of low- to high-intermediate levels. The results showed that: 1) there was a tendency toward production of correct wago verbs as learners became more proficient, 2) productive knowledge of wago verbs developed later than receptive knowledge, 3) five types of errors were found in the process of production: errors caused by a) incorrect associations with L1, b) transfer of Chinese, c) collocational weakness, d) the sameness of inflected endings written in kana in mixed kanji-kana orthography, and e) misunderstanding of case particles.