Just as there are variations in linguistic forms, there are also variations in linguistic behavior, which correlate with its constituent elements, such as the identity of the participants, the time and location of the utterance, and the contents, purpose and medium of the message. All these work together to produce actual linguistic behavior. Further, these variations have inherent values and goals, and their selection is governed by personal and situational attributes, as well as by criteria based on the consciousness of linguistic behavior. In Japanese language education, it will be necessary to deal with such variation, appropriately and proactively, in accordance with the learners’ goals and current level of acquisition, and taking into account the results of contrastive studies of patterns of linguistic behavior found in the context of the learners’ native languages.

　Dialect is a term for varieties of language that are distinguished according to various criteria, and encompasses social and functional dialects in addition to regional dialects.

　In contemporary Japan, an individual belongs to numerous social groupings, choosing and switching dialects for communication according to regional and social structures. Accordingly, the conventional view of dialects merely as regional features that may be learned in addition to the standard language is insufficient.

　In order to speak a second language appropriately, instruction is necessary not just for the meaning of linguistic features, but also for how to encode a message in a way appropriate to the discourse context. In so doing, it is necessary to consider how actions can take on different meanings depending on the region or social grouping, and become aware of how their dialects signify actions and conceptualize situations, and link this awareness to actual speech acts. Language is not just an autonomous system, but one that is used in conjunction with actual social and regional conditions.

　This study analyzes connective expressions in spoken language data from 90 Japanese learners, and investigates how two cognitive factors, the way of thinking and language processing skills, affect language development.

　Processability Theory (Pienemann 1998) views language acquisition as an acquisition of the procedural skills needed for processing the target language, and proposes a developmental hierarchy for these automatised procedural skills: lemma access > category procedure > phrasal procedure > S-procedure > subordinate clause procedure. Minami (1993) classified Japanese connectives into three types: A (e.g. -nagara), B (e.g. -tara), and C (e.g. kara) based on Japanese syntactic structure. Applying Processability Theory as the theoretical framework, this study predicted the developmental sequence of Japanese connectives:

　　A (phrasal procedure) > C (S-procedure) > B (subordinate clause procedure).

　The results are as follows:

1. The variation of connective expressions shows the tendency to increase from simple basic expressions to complex expressions: cause > adversative > hypothetical cause > hypothetical adversative (concessive). Novice learners do not have enough working memory to think of what to say, because they also have to process grammatical information consciously at the same time. That is why the expressions are limited to simple thought.

2. The accuracy of each type of connective increased to over 90% in this order: A > C > B. This result suggests that the processing skills develop following the developmental hierarchy proposed by Processability Theory.

　Based on the contrast with the demonstrative sochira, this paper deals with the use of demonstrative soko in which refers to the hearer in a conversation. In this usage, sochira, which refers to a direction, essentially as a deictic, can refer to the hearer in certain contexts, such as: Doo shita no? 'What is the matter? Sochira koso doo shita no? 'What's the matter with you?' On the other hand, the demonstrative soko, which refers to a place essentially, can refer to the hearer in a certain contexts, such as: Soko, urusaiyo! 'You there, you're too noisy!' On the basis of metonymy, these demonstratives can refer to the hearer. However, both soko and sochira differ in terms of whether this metonymy usage is idiomatic. While sochira, which is an established idiom, can refer to a hearer in a confrontational context, soko, which is not an established idiom, cannot do so. The person to whom demonstrative such as soko can refer is only a particular hearer, who cannot know that he/she is about to be referred to. In this paper, such contexts, in which the hearer doesn't foresee that he/she is about to be referred to, are called semi-confrontational contexts, and the character of such contexts is clarified. A semi-confrontational context wherein the intention of the speaker is to refer to the hearer with soko is one in which impolite nuances are conveyed to the hearer by treating him/her as a place.

　Nakamura (2001) states that ‘‘female language” is an ideology widely shared and referred to, but not necessarily practiced. This paper, starting from an examination of ‘‘mada meshi kutte nai,” investigates gendered language in Japanese from the perspectives of essentialism and constructionism, and considers ways to ideally address gendered language in Japanese language education.

　Recent research findings show that gendered language is not practiced to simply mark femininity or masculinity, but plays an integral part in nurturing relationships and developing identities. However, Japanese language reference books, dictionaries and textbooks still refer to the “female language” and do not discuss these findings. On the other hand, results of a survey indicate that learners of Japanese would like to learn gendered language in Japanese. The paper argues that in order for learners of Japanese to learn to express themselves fully in Japanese using gendered language, teachers need to provide a variety of models, and at the same time they need to provide venues of support for the learners to equip themselves with the skills to critically examine gendered language.