A Case Study: The Use of the Third Person Singular Inflection -s by a Japanese English Learner

This project was designed to address a particular English grammatical point, the present tense the third person-singular –s that most Japanese English learners struggle to acquire with native-like control. There was one participant in this case study. The participant was given tasks that required attention to the present tense third person singular form. The research was also designed to investigate how effective explicit grammar instruction could be for a Japanese English language learner. Previous SLA research has shown that there are a number of factors that contribute to acquisition of a second language. This paper focuses especially on factors such as the age of language learners, the order of acquisition and types of instructions, as compared with the results of previous research findings. Some pedagogical implications drawn from the study results will be provided at the end. Literature Review The case study was designed to answer Ellis’ (2006) questions concerning whether grammar should be taught and if so, what grammar, when, and how. Despite the fact that Hedge (2009) claimed that grammar teaching is provided within the framework of presentation and practice, Ellis (2006) claimed that grammar teaching does not necessarily accompany presentation and practice. Grammar teaching can be a form of contriving to provide many exemplars to learners through input. Corrective feedback itself can be the means of grammar teaching in communicative tasks. I would use the definition of grammar teaching Ellis (2006) provided in the article as follows: Grammar teaching involves any instructional technique that draws learners’ attention to some specific grammatical form is such as a way that it helps the learners either to understand it metalinguistically and /or process it in comprehension and /or production so that they can internalize it. To Ellis’ first question, Should we teach grammar? , the answer would be ‘yes’ especially for my participant considering his age. DeKeyser (2000) investigated how the age of arrival along with the verbal ability of subjects who started to learn L2 as adults affected ultimate L2 attainment. He found that there was substantial correlation between age and ultimate L2 attainment. Aptitude did not play a role in L2 acquisition of child learners. Adult learners have more difficulties acquiring L2 in a naturalistic way. Later, Ellis (2012) claimed that the age of onset has effects on the rate of acquisition and on ultimate attainment. Despite the fact that early start of L2 learning produces superior L2 acquisition, older learners have greater cognitive development and profit more from explicit learning. Moreover, Ellis (2006) stated that learners who had grammar instruction progressed more rapidly and achieved higher levels of proficiency. DeKeyser and Ellis’ claims implied that explicit grammar instruction is useful for adult L2 learners. Other research findings, such as Genesee’s (1987) empirical study in the Canadian immersion program, have shown that naturalistic language learning does not result in learners’ high levels of grammatical competence. Therefore, providing grammar instruction instead of naturalistic learning environment to an older learner seems to be rational. Ellis’ (2006) next question is What grammar should we teach? Ellis’ position was that it is essential to describe the form-meaning connections of the target language. In addition, it is important to refer to two different kinds of difficulty: the difficulty learners have in internalizing a grammatical feature and the difficulty they have in acquiring the ability to use that feature accurately in communication. Ellis also refers to the English grammar present tense third person singular –s that is the target grammar in this case study. According to Ellis, most learners have no difficulty in grasping the rule for English third person singular –s, but they have enormous difficulty in internalizing this structure to use it accurately. The grammatical items one focuses on could yield different levels of ultimate attainment. In this case study, the target grammar third person singular –s was selected because it does not exist in the participant’s first language, Japanese. Besides, considering the participant’s objectives of learning English and his stage of development, mastering the third person singular –s is crucial. However, there is little research done on Japanese subjects learning the third person singular –s. Abraham (1984) investigated the patterns of use of the present tense third person singular morpheme (-s) ACADEMIC REPORTS Fac. Eng. Tokyo Polytech. Univ. Vol. 37 No.2 (2014)