2014

16

2014

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JACET KANSAI JOURNAL
THE JOURNAL OF THE KANSAI CHAPTER OF
THE JAPAN ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGE ENGLISH TEACHERS

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE 2014
CHAIRPERSON
Yuko Oguri
University of Shiga Prefecture
MEMBERS
Kaori Nitta
Kinki University
Yasuko Sato
Otemon Gakuin University
Tomoko Yashima
Kansai University
EDITORIAL OFFICE
Yasunori Nishina
Meiji Gakuin University
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the following colleagues who served as
reviewers of the papers considered for publication during the preparation of JACET
Kansai Journal No. 16:
LIST OF REVIEWERS (in alphabetical order)
Kei Mihara (Kinki Univ.)
Nobuhiko Akamatsu (Doshisha Univ.)
Atsushi Mizumoto (Kansai Univ.)
Sonoko Harada (Emeritus, Kobe College)
Kazunori Nozawa (Ritsumeikan Univ.)
Naoya Hase (Kwansei Gakuin Univ.)
Takaichi Okuda (Kansai Univ.)
Yumi Hato (Kyoto Institute of Technology)
Keiko Hayashi (Hiroshima Jogakuin Univ.)
Virginia Peng㸦Ritsumeikan Univ.㸧
Nobuyuki Hino (Osaka Univ.)
Osato Shiki (Kwansei Gakuin Univ.)
Maiko Ikeda (Kansai Univ.)
Tomoko Smith (Osaka Univ. of Pharmaceutical
Hiroyuki Imai (Kansai University)
Sciences)
Keiichi Ishikawa (Kyoto Women’s Univ.)
Tazu Togo (Kyoto Notre Dame Univ.)
Emiko Izumi (Kyoto Univ. of Education)
Masanori Toyota (Kansai Gaidai Univ.)
Shuhei Kadota (Kwansei Gakuin Univ.)
Shigeo Uematsu (Kyoto Sangyo Univ.)
Toshiyuki Kanamaru (Kyoto Univ.)
Haruyo Yoshida (Osaka Kyoiku Univ.)
Masayuki Kato (Kobe Univ.)
Shinsuke Yoshida (Kansai Univ.)
Toshiko Koyama (Osaka Otani Univ.)
Copying All content in this journal is protected by the Japanese copyright law. All rights reserved.
The material therein may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium provided it isreproduced accurately and not used in a misleading context after permission has been granted fromthe Kansai Chapter of JACET. If any of the items with copyright in this journal are republished or
copied, the source of the material must be identified and the copyright status acknowledged.
Instructions for Contributors can be found in the appendix and via http://www.jacet-kansai.org/old/kako.html#kiyou
ᥖ㍕ㄽᩥࡣ㸪JACET 㛵すᨭ㒊㸪࠾ࡼࡧ JACET 㛵す⣖せ⦅㞟ጤဨ఍ࡢ⪃࠼᪉ࢆ཯ᫎࡋ࡚࠸ࡿࡶࡢ࡛
ࡣ࠶ࡾࡲࡏࢇࠋ

The articles published herein do not reflect the opinions of JACET Kansai Chapter or the JACET
Kansai Journal Editorial Committee.
© Kansai Chapter, The Japan Association of College English Teachers, 2014

JACET Kansai Journal
No. 16 March 2014

Editorialiii

ᑠᰩ⿱Ꮚ
Invited Article᰿ᓊ㞞ྐ
ゝㄒࢸࢫࢺࡢ㠀㏱᫂ᛶࡢ࢖ࣥࣃࢡࢺ

1

Research Articles
Ayako HIRANOThe Effects of Output-oriented pre-task vs. Input-oriented pre-task Before a Dictogloss Task

13

Cheena FUJIOKA
Using the Novelization of the Movie, Dead Poets Society in an EFL Reading Course

33

Atsuko NISHITANI
A Rasch Analysis of Grammatical Difficulty: What Influences Item Difficulty?

50

Masumi AZUMA
71
Figurative interpretations demonstrated by three language groups: English, Chinese and Japanese
Research Notes⸨ᮏ ᜨᏊ㡢㡩▱㆑ࡀ᪥ᮏே EFL Ꮫ⩦⪅ࡢࣜࢫࢽࣥࢢ࡟୚࠼ࡿᙳ㡪࡟ࡘ࠸࡚90

ᱵཎ ኱㍜ / ෠Ọ ⱥኵ᪥ᮏேⱥㄒᏛ⩦⪅ࡣ୺ㄒࢆ࡝࠺࡜ࡽ࠼࡚࠸ࡿ࠿ ̿㔞ⓗ࣭㉁ⓗ◊✲103

Kanako YAMAOKA
Qualitative analysis of effects of the use of authentic materials in remedial English classes at aJapanese university

123

Noriko KIMURA
Factors that affect Japanese EFL learners’ motivation to do a learning task

134

Application Report

Kansai Chapter
The Japan Association of College English Teachers

154
Hiromi MURAKAMI, Yoko YAMADA, Keiko KANAI & Sachiko TAKAGIDesigning Materials as a Measure to Facilitate Teacher Development: The Use of an Internet Blog
AppendicesࠗJACET Kansai Journal㸦JACET 㛵す⣖せ㸧࠘ห⾜つᐃࠗJACET Kansai Journal㸦JACET 㛵す⣖せ㸧࠘ᢞ✏つᐃ

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Kansai Chapter
The Japan Association of College English Teachers 㛵すᨭ㒊⣖せ⦅㞟ጤဨ఍ࡣࠊJACET KANSAI JOURNAL No.16 ࢆ࠾ᒆࡅ࠸ࡓࡋࡲࡍࠋ௒ᅇ
ࡣ㐣ཤ  ᖺࡢࡼ࠺࡞≉㞟ࡣ࠶ࡾࡲࡏࢇࡀࠊᩍᖌ࡟࡜ࡗ࡚ࡣᚲ㡲ࡢࠕࢸࢫࢺࠖ࡟ࡘ࠸࡚ࡢㄽ
ᩥ࠿ࡽጞࡲࡾࡲࡍࠋࡑࢀࡣࠊ᰿ᓊ㞞ྐඛ⏕㸦ᮾிእᅜㄒ኱Ꮫ኱Ꮫ㝔㸧ࡢࠕゝㄒࢸࢫࢺࡢ㠀㏱᫂ᛶࡢ࢖ࣥࣃࢡࢺ࡛ࠖࡍࠋ ᖺ  ᭶࡟⚄ᡞᕷእᅜㄒ኱Ꮫ࡛㛤ദࡉࢀࡓ⛅Ꮨ኱఍ࡢㅮ
₇ෆᐜ࡛ࠊ72(,& ࡜ⱥ᳨ࢆ౛࡟ᣲࡆ࡞ࡀࡽࠕࢸࢫࢺࡢ㏱᫂ᛶࠖࢆ㧗ࡵࡿࡇ࡜ࡢ኱ษࡉࢆㄽ
ࡌ࡚࠾ࡽࢀࡲࡍࠋࡇࡢࡼ࠺࡞኱ࡁ࡞ⱥㄒࢸࢫࢺ࡛࡞ࡃ࡚ࡶࠊᡃࠎࡀ᪥ࠎసᡂࡍࡿࢸࢫࢺ࡟
ࡶࡇࡢࠕ㏱᫂ᛶࠖࡣせồࡉࢀࡿࡢ࡛ࡣ࡞࠸࡛ࡋࡻ࠺࠿ࠋ ḟ࡟ࠊᢞ✏ㄽᩥ  ᮏࡢ࠺ࡕᰝㄞࢆ⤒࡚᥇ᢥࡉࢀࡓ  ᮏࡢㄽᩥࡀࠊᥦฟࡉࢀࡓ㡰࡟ᥖ㍕ࡉࢀ࡚࠸ࡲࡍࠋከࡃࡢ᫬㛫ࢆ㈝ࡸࡋ࡚ᑂᰝ࡟ࡈᑾຊࡃࡔࡉࡗࡓᰝㄞጤဨࡢඛ⏕᪉࡟ࡣࠊᚰ
ࡼࡾ࠾♩⏦ࡋୖࡆࡲࡍࠋ ࡞࠾ࠊJKJ ࡣ㝈ࡽࢀࡓண⟬ࡢ୰࡛Ⓨ⾜ࡉࢀࡲࡍࠋࡑࢇ࡞୰௒ᅇࡣࠊ౛ᖺ௨ୖ࡟ࡓࡃࡉࢇ
ࡢ㈶ຓ఍ဨࡢⓙᵝ࠿ࡽᗈ࿌ࡢᥖ㍕ࢆ㏻ࡋ࡚ᨭ㒊άືࡢࡈᨭ᥼ࢆ࠸ࡓࡔࡁࡲࡋࡓࠋ㛵ಀྛ఩࡟ཌࡃ࠾♩⏦ࡋୖࡆࡲࡍࠋࡲࡓࠊ㔝ཱྀᨭ㒊㛗ࡣࡌࡵᖿ஦ࡢࡳ࡞ࡉࢇࡢᝰࡋࡳ࡞࠸ࡈ༠ຊ࡟
ࡶ࠾♩⏦ࡋୖࡆࡲࡍࠋ⦅㞟ጤဨࡢ᪂⏣㤶⧊ඛ⏕ࠊబ⸨ᜤᏊඛ⏕ࠊඵᓥᬛᏊඛ⏕ࠊࡑࡋ࡚ጤ
ဨ఍࡜ᢞ✏⪅࠾ࡼࡧᰝㄞ⪅ࡢ㛫࡛㎿㏿࡟ᑐᛂࡉࢀࡓ஦ົᒁ㛗ࡢோ⛉ᜤᚨඛ⏕࡟ࡶឤㅰࡢព
ࢆ⾲ࡋࡲࡍࠋ
 JACET ࡀ୍⯡♫ᅋἲே࡟⛣⾜ࡋࡓࡇ࡜࡟ࡼࡾࠊᢞ✏つᐃࡢⴭసᶒࡣᨭ㒊࠿ࡽᮏ㒊࡟ᖐᒓࡍࡿࡇ࡜࡟࡞ࡾࡲࡋࡓࠋࡲࡓࠊᢞ✏ㄽᩥ⏝ࢸࣥࣉ࣮ࣞࢺࡣࠊ࡛ࡁࡿࡔࡅලయⓗ࡟ㄝ᫂ࢆຍ࠼ࡓⱥㄒ࡜᪥ᮏㄒ∧ࡢ 2 ࡘࢆ⏝ពࡋࡲࡋࡓࠋᛂເࡉࢀࡿሙྜࡣࠊࡇࡢ࡝ࡕࡽ࠿ࢆ౑⏝ࡋ࡚࠸ࡓࡔࡁࡲࡍࡼ࠺ࠊ࠾㢪࠸࠸ࡓࡋࡲࡍࠋJKJ 16 ྕࡀ᪥㡭ࡢᤵᴗᨵၿࡸ◊✲ࡢ୍ຓ࡜࡞ࡿ
ࡇ࡜ࢆ⦅㞟⪅୍ྠ㢪ࡗ࡚࠾ࡾࡲࡍࠋ                                        JKJ ⣖せጤဨ఍ࢆ௦⾲ࡋ࡚                            ᑠᰩ⿱Ꮚ                            2014 ᖺ 3 ᭶ 8 ᪥                     


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JACET Kansai Journal, 16, 1-12. (2014) ©JACET Kansai Chapter
ISSN 1880-2281

Printed in JAPAN.

Invited Articleゝㄒࢸࢫࢺࡢ㠀㏱᫂ᛶࡢ࢖ࣥࣃࢡࢺ
 The impact of nontransparency of language tests᰿ᓊ㞞ྐᮾிእᅜㄒ኱Ꮫ኱Ꮫ㝔㸯㸬ゝㄒࢸࢫࢺࡢ࢖ࣥࣃࢡࢺ◊✲ࢸࢫࢺࡀᏛ⩦ࡸᣦᑟ࡟୚࠼ࡿᙳ㡪ࡢࡇ࡜ࢆ᪥ᮏㄒ࡛ࡣࠊࠕἼཬຠᯝࠖ࡜࠸࠺ࠋⱥㄒ࡛ࡣࠊ
backwash effect ࡜ゝࡗࡓࡾࠊwashback effect ࡜ゝࡗࡓࡾࡍࡿࠋ౛࠼ࡤࠊFulcher and Davidson(2007: 377)࡟ࡼࢀࡤࠊwashback ࡣ “Sometimes referred to as ‘backwash’. The effect of a test on
learning and teaching. Washback studies focus on practices or behaviour that would not be present
if it were not for the test.”࡜࠸࠺ࡼ࠺࡟ᐃ⩏ࡉࢀ࡚࠸ࡿࠋࡲࡓࠊࡑࡢᙳ㡪ࢆᏛ⩦ࡸᣦᑟ࡜࠸
ࡗࡓࣞ࣋ࣝࢆ㉸࠼ࡓࡶࡢࡲ࡛ྵࡴᴫᛕࢆ⾲ࡍࡶࡢ࡜ࡋ࡚ࡣࠊimpact ࡸ consequences ࡜ゝࡗࡓ⏝ㄒࡀⱥㄒ࡛ࡣ⏝࠸ࡽࢀࡿࡼ࠺࡟࡞ࡗ࡚ࡁ࡚࠸ࡿࠋ
ࠕἼཬຠᯝ◊✲ࠖ࡟࠾ࡅࡿ◊✲ᑐ㇟ࡣࠊ୺࡟ࠕᩍᖌࠖ࡜ࠕᏛ⩦⪅࡛ࠖ࠶ࡗࡓࠋࡶࡕࢁࢇࠊ
ࢸࢫࢺ࡟┤᥋ⓗ࡟㛵ࢃࡿࡶࡢ࡜ࡋ࡚ࡣࠊࠕᩍᖌࠖ࡜ࠕᏛ⩦⪅࡛ࠖ࠸࠸ࢃࡅ࡛࠶ࡿࡀࠊࢸࢫ
ࢺࡢࢫࢸ࣮ࢡࢫࡀ㧗ࡃ࡞ࢀࡤ࡞ࡿ࡯࡝ࠊࡑࢀࡀཬࡰࡍᙳ㡪ࡢ⠊ᅖࡣᣑ኱ࡍࡿࠋChalhoubDeville (2009: 119)ࡣࠊࢸࢫࢺࡢ࢖ࣥࣃࢡࢺ࡟ࡘ࠸࡚ࠊḟࡢࡼ࠺࡟㏙࡭࡚࠸ࡿࠋ
Somewhat simply, impact analysis calls for documentation of the influence of test content,
results, and practices on learning, instruction, and the curriculum. Impact could be examinedat the micro or macro level. Investigations could be set up to study impact in terms of direct
or indirect influences on test takers, the educational community, or society at large.㸦ୗ⥺➹⪅㸧ࡇ࠺ࡋ࡚⪃࠼ࡿ࡜ࠊࡇࢀࡲ࡛ࡢࠕἼཬຠᯝ◊✲ࠖࡣࠊ୺࡟ࠕ࣑ࢡࣟ࡞ࣞ࣋ࣝࠖࡢࠕཷ㦂⪅࡬ࡢ┤᥋ⓗ࡞ᙳ㡪ࠖࢆぢ࡚ࡁ࡚࠸ࡿ࡜ゝ࠼ࡿࡔࢁ࠺ࠋ
㸰㸬ゝㄒࢸࢫࢺࡣ࡝࠺ㄒࡽࢀ࡚࠸ࡿ࠿ ࡇࡇ࡛ࡣࠊࡲࡎࠊ᪥ᮏ࡟࠾ࡅࡿ௦⾲ⓗ࡞ⱥㄒࢸࢫࢺࡢ㸯ࡘ࡛࠶ࡿ TOEIC ࢆྲྀࡾୖࡆࠊ
ࡑࢀࡀ♫఍࡟࡝ࡢࡼ࠺࡞ᙳ㡪ࢆཬࡰࡋ࡚࠸ࡿ࠿ࢆලయⓗ࡟ぢ࡚ࡳࡿࠋTOEIC ࡣࠊ᪥ᮏᅜෆ
࡟࠾࠸࡚ࣅࢪࢿࢫ࣭ࣃ࣮ࢯࣥࢆ୰ᚰ࡟ᖺ㛫 200 ୓ேࢆ㉸࠼ࡿཷ㦂⪅ࢆ㄂ࡗ࡚࠸ࡿ࡜ࡉࢀࡿ
㸦Retrieved from http://www.toeic.or.jp/library/toeic_data/toeic/pdf/about/transition.pdf㸧ࠋ௒᪥ࠊ᪥ᮏࡢ᭩ᗑ࡟࠾࠸࡚ࡣࠊⱥㄒᏛ⩦㛵㐃ࡢ᭩⡠ࡢࢫ࣮࣌ࢫࡣࠊTOEIC ᑐ⟇ᮏ࡟ᇙࡵᑾࡃࡉࢀ࡚࠸ࡿ࡜ゝࡗ࡚ࡶ㐣ゝ࡛ࡣ࡞࠸ࡔࢁ࠺ࠋ࡛ࡣࠊࡑࢀࡽࡢᑐ⟇ᮏ࡛ࡣࠊ࡝ࡢࡼ࠺࡞
1
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根岸 雅史ࡇ࡜ࡀ TOEIC ࡟ࡘ࠸࡚ㄒࡽࢀ࡚࠸ࡿࡢ࡛࠶ࢁ࠺࠿ࠋTOEIC ࡢᑐ⟇ᮏ࡜࠸ࡗࡓ࡜ࡁ࡟ࠊ
ࠗTOEIC බᘧၥ㢟㞟࠘ࡢࡼ࠺࡟ヨ㦂ࡢᐇ᪋ᅋయ࡛࠶ࡿࠕᅜ㝿ࣅࢪࢿࢫࢥ࣑ࣗࢽࢣ࣮ࢩࣙࣥ
༠఍ࠖࡀฟࡋ࡚࠸ࡿ᭩⡠ࡶ࠶ࡿࡀࠊ࡯࡜ࢇ࡝ࡣࡑ࠺ࡋࡓ⤌⧊࡜ࡣ㛵ಀ࡞࠸ಶูࡢฟ∧♫࠿ࡽࡢ᭩⡠࡛࠶ࡿࠋ౛࠼ࡤࠊ⚾ࡢ┠ࢆᘬ࠸ࡓ᭩⡠࡟ࡣࠊࠗࡓࡔࡢࢧ࣮࣐ࣛࣜࣥࡀ᫬㛫ࢆ࠿ࡅࡎ࡟༙ᖺ࡛ TOEIC ࢸࢫࢺ࡛ 325 Ⅼ࠿ࡽ 885 Ⅼ࡟࡞ࢀࡓࣛࢡࣛࢡຮᙉἲ࠘࡜࠸࠺␗ᖖ࡟㛗࠸ࢱ࢖ࢺࣝࡢ᪂᭩ࡀ࠶ࡿࠋࡇࢀࡣᮡᮧ೺୍Ặ࡜࠸࠺࠸ࢃࡺࡿࠕⱥㄒ࢜ࢱࢡ࡛ࠖ࡞࠸ࠕࡓࡔ
ࡢࢧ࣮࣐ࣛࣜࣥࠖࡀ᭩࠸ࡓᑐ⟇ᮏ࡛ࠊ኱➽࡜ࡋ࡚ⱥㄒᩍ⫱Ꮫⓗ࡟ぢ࡚ࡶ࠿࡞ࡾ⌮࡟࠿࡞ࡗࡓᏛ⩦ἲࡀ㍕ࡗ࡚࠸ࡿ࡜ゝࡗ࡚࠸࠸ࡔࢁ࠺ࠋࡋ࠿ࡋࠊࡑࡢ୰࡟ࡣࠊࠕᮏᙜࡢⱥㄒຊࡀ࡞ࡃ
࡚ࡶ 900 Ⅼྎ࡟฿㐩࡛ࡁࡿࠖ㸦ᮡᮧࠊ2012㸸 21㸧࡜࠸࠺ࡼ࠺࡞ゝⴥࡀ㋀ࡗ࡚࠸ࡓࡾࡍࡿࠋ
ࡉࡽ࡟ḟࡢࡼ࠺࡞ࡇ࡜ࡶㄒࡽࢀ࡚࠸ࡿࠋ
…TOEIC ࡣࠊࢧ࣮ࣅࢫၥ㢟ࡶཝࡋ࠸ၥ㢟ࡶᇶᮏⓗ࡟ࡣྠࡌṇゎ 1 ၥ࡜ࡋ࡚࢝࢘ࣥࢺ
ࡉࢀࡿࡼ࠺࡞ࡢ࡛ࠊ㞴ࡋ࠸ၥ㢟ࢆṇ⟅ࡋ࡚ࡶ㡹ᙇࡾᦆࡽࡋ࠸࡛ࡍࠋࡇࡢࡓࡵࠊฟ
ฟࡿ࠿ฟ࡞࠸࠿ศ࠿ࡽ࡞࠸ᡤࢆᡭᗈࡃຮᙉࡍࡿࡼࡾࡶࠊࡲࡎࡣ㢖ฟ㡿ᇦ࠿ࡽᢲࡉ࠼࡚࠸
ࡃຮᙉࢆࡋ࡚ࠊ᫆ࡋ࠸ၥ㢟࠿ࡽṇ⟅ࢆ≺ࡗ࡚⾜ࡃ࡯࠺ࡀຠ⋡ⓗ࡛ࡍࠋ㸦ୗ⥺➹⪅㸧ᮡᮧ㸦2012㸸 137㸧TOEIC ࡢཷ㦂ࢆணᐃࡋ࡚࠸ࡿⱥㄒᏛ⩦⪅ࡓࡕࡢከࡃࡣࠊࡇࡢᡭࡢ᭩⡠ࢆ㉎ධࡋࠊᑐ⟇ࢆ❧࡚࡚࠸ࡿ࡜⪃࠼ࡽࢀࡿࠋ ࡋ࠿ࡋ࡞ࡀࡽࠊࡇࢀࡽࡢⅬ࡟㛵ࡋ࡚ࠊTOEIC බᘧ࣮࣌ࢪࡣࠊᐇ࡟⣲ࡗẼ࡞࠸ࠋࢸࢫࢺࡢᙧᘧTOEIC®ࢸࢫࢺࡣࣜࢫࢽࣥࢢ㸦45 ศ㛫࣭100 ၥ㸧ࠊ࣮ࣜࢹ࢕ࣥࢢ㸦75 ศ㛫࣭100 ၥ㸧ࠊྜィ 2 ᫬㛫࡛ 200 ၥ࡟⟅࠼ࡿ࣐࣮ࢡࢩ࣮ࢺ᪉ᘧࡢ୍ᩧᐈほࢸࢫࢺ࡛ࡍࠋฟ㢟ᙧᘧࡣẖᅇྠࡌ࡛ࠊゎ⟅ࡣࡍ࡭࡚ၥ㢟⏝⣬࡜ࡣูࡢゎ⟅⏝⣬࡟グධࡋࡲࡍࠋࢸࢫࢺࡣⱥᩥࡢࡳ
࡛ᵓᡂࡉࢀ࡚࠾ࡾࠊⱥᩥ࿴ヂ࣭࿴ᩥⱥヂ࡜࠸ࡗࡓタၥࡣ࠶ࡾࡲࡏࢇࠋ
㸦Retrieved from http://www.toeic.or.jp/toeic/about/tests.html㸧
ၥ㢟ᵓᡂ࡟㛵ࡋ࡚ࡶࠊTOEIC ࡢཷ㦂⤒㦂ࡀ࠶ࢀࡤࠊ࠶ࡿ࠸ࡣࠊࠗTOEIC බᘧၥ㢟㞟࠘ࢆぢࢀࡤࠊࡔࢀ࡛ࡶࢃ࠿ࡿࡼ࠺࡞᝟ሗࡋ࠿ᥦ౪ࡉࢀ࡚࠸࡞࠸ࠋ ᑡࡋලయⓗ࡟㋃ࡳ㎸ࢇ࡛ࡳ࡚ࡳࡼ࠺ࠋ௨ୗࡣࠊTOEIC බᘧ࣮࣌ࢪ࡟࠾ࡅࡿࣜࢫࢽࣥࢢࡢ
ᛂ⟅ၥ㢟࡟㛵ࡍࡿグ㏙࡛࠶ࡿࠋ• ᛂ⟅ၥ㢟 30 ၥ㸯ࡘࡢ㉁ၥࡲࡓࡣᩥ❶࡜ࡑࢀ࡟ᑐࡍࡿ㸱ࡘࡢ⟅࠼ࡀࡑࢀࡒࢀ 1 ᗘࡔࡅᨺ㏦ࡉࢀࡿࠋ༳
ๅࡣࡉࢀ࡚࠸࡞࠸ࠋタၥ࡟ᑐࡋ࡚᭱ࡶࡩࡉࢃࡋ࠸⟅࠼ࢆ㑅ࡧゎ⟅⏝⣬࡟࣐࣮ࢡࡍࡿࠋ
ࡇࡢࣜࢫࢽࣥࢢࡢᛂ⟅ၥ㢟࡟㛵ࡋ࡚ࠊᮡᮧ㸦2012㸸 97㸧ࡣࠊḟࡢࡼ࠺࡟ㄒࡗ࡚࠸ࡿࠋ

2
2

言語テストの非透明性のインパクト
The impact of nontransparency of language tests•ᘬࡗ᥃ࡅࡢࣃࢱ࣮ࣥ࡜ࡋ࡚ࡣࠊ
– ㉁ၥᩥࡢ࣮࢟࡜࡞ࡿ༢ㄒࢆࠊࡑࡢࡲࡲ㛫㐪࠸ࡢ㑅ᢥ⫥࡟౑࠺– ㉁ၥᩥࡢ࣮࢟࡜࡞ࡿ༢ㄒ࡜Ⓨ㡢ࡢఝࡓ༢ㄒࢆࠊ㛫㐪࠸ࡢ㑅ᢥ⫥࡟౑࠺㸦degree ࡜ agree ࡞࡝㸧– ㉁ၥᩥࡢ࣮࢟࡜࡞ࡿ༢ㄒ࠿ࡽ㐃᝿ࡉࢀࡿ༢ㄒ㸦package ࡜ airmail ࡞࡝㸧ࢆࠊ㛫㐪࠸ࡢ㑅ᢥ⫥࡟౑࠺– ᫬ไ࡟ࡼࡿᘬࡗ᥃ࡅ

࡞࡝ࡀ࠶ࡾࡲࡍࠋ
ᑡ࡞ࡃ࡜ࡶࠊ௒᪥ࡢ᪥ᮏ࡛ࡣࠊࡇࡢࡼ࠺࡞ࢸࢫࢺ㛤Ⓨ⪅⮬㌟࠿ࡽⓎಙࡉࢀࡓࡶࡢ࡛ࡣ࡞࠸
ࠕࢸࢫࢺ࡟ࡘ࠸࡚ࡢㄒࡾࠖࡀᗈࡲࡾࠊࢸࢫࢺཷ㦂⪅ࡣࡑࡢㄒࡾࢆ࠶ࡓ࠿ࡶ┿ᐇ࡛࠶ࡿ࠿ࡢ
ࡼ࠺࡟ಙࡌ࡚࠸ࡿ࡜࠸࠺≧ἣࡀฟ⌧ࡋ࡚࠸ࡿ࡜⪃࠼ࡽࢀࡿࠋ
㸱㸬ゝㄒࢸࢫࢺࡢ୙㏱᫂ᛶ࡜ㄒࡾ
࡛ࡣࠊ࡞ࡐࡇ࠺ࡋࡓ≧ἣࡀฟ⌧ࡋ࡚࠸ࡿࡢ࡛࠶ࢁ࠺࠿ࠋࡑࢀࡣࠊࠕゝㄒࢸࢫࢺࡢ୙㏱᫂
ᛶ㸦nontransparency of language tests㸧ࠖ࡜࠸࠺ᴫᛕ⿦⨨࡟ࡼࡗ࡚ㄝ࡛᫂ࡁࡿࡔࢁ࠺ࠋࠕゝㄒࢸࢫࢺࡢ୙㏱᫂ᛶࠖ࡜࠸࠺ᴫᛕࡣࠊ➹⪅ࡀ Fred Davidson ࠿ࡽಶேⓗ࡟⪺࠸ࡓᴫᛕ࡛࠶
ࡿࠋゝㄒࢸࢫࢺ㛤Ⓨ࡟ࡣࠊḟࡢࡼ࠺࡞ᵝࠎ࡞ẁ㝵ࡀ࠶ࡿࠋStages of test development
1. Deciding what to test
2. Designing test specifications
3. Evaluating, prototyping and piloting
4. Scoring language tests
5. Aligning tests to standards
6. Test administration
Fulcher (2010)ࡑࡢᵝࠎ࡞ẁ㝵࡟࠾࠸࡚࡞ࡉࢀࡿุ᩿ࡸ⾜Ⅽࡀࠊୡࡢ୰ࡢேࠎ࡟ࡣ᫂ࡽ࠿࡟ࡉࢀ࡚࠸࡞࠸
ࡢ࡛࠶ࡿࠋࢸࢫࢺ࣭ࢫ࣌ࢵࢡࡣ࡝ࡢࡼ࠺࡞ࡶࡢ࡞ࡢ࠿ࠊࡑࡋ࡚ࠊࢸࢫࢺࡀ࡝ࡢࡼ࠺࡟సᡂ
ࡉࢀࠊ࡝ࡢࡼ࠺࡟᥇Ⅼࡉࢀࡿࡢ࠿➼ࠎࠊࡑࡢከࡃࡣࠕ⸭ࡢ୰࡛ࠖ࠶ࡿࠋࡇࡢࡼ࠺࡟ゝㄒࢸࢫࢺࡢከࡃࡢ஦᯶ࡀ୙㏱࡛᫂࠶ࡿࡓࡵ࡟ࠊࢸࢫࢺసᡂࡢᙜ஦⪅௨እ࡟ࡼࡗ࡚ࠊࢸࢫࢺ࡟ࡘ
࠸࡚ᵝࠎ࡞᥎ ࡀ࡞ࡉࢀࠊㄒࡽࢀࡿࡢ࡛࠶ࡿࠋ⾲㸯ࢆぢ࡚࡯ࡋ࠸ࠋࢸࢫࢺసᡂ⪅ࡢᣢࡘ᝟ሗࡢከࡃࡣࠊࢸࢫࢺࡢ୙㏱᫂ᛶࡢࡓࡵ࡟ࠊࢸ
ࢫࢺཷ㦂⪅࡟ࡣ┤᥋ఏࢃࡿࡇ࡜ࡣ࡞࠸࡜⪃࠼ࡽࢀࡿࠋࡑࡢ୧⪅ࡢ㛫࡟ࡣᵝࠎ࡞ࠕ௰௓⪅ࠖࡀᏑᅾࡍࡿࠋࡑࡢࠕ௰௓⪅ࠖࡣࠊ࢖ࣥࢼ࣮࣭ࢧ࣮ࢡࣝࡢࠕ௰௓⪅ࠖ࡜࢔࢘ࢱ࣮࣭ࢧ࣮ࢡࣝ
ࡢࠕ௰௓⪅ࠖ࠿ࡽᡂࡿ࡜⪃࠼ࡽࢀࡿࡔࢁ࠺ࠋ࢖ࣥࢼ࣮࣭ࢧ࣮ࢡࣝࡢࠕ௰௓⪅ࠖࡣࠊࢸࢫࢺ

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根岸 雅史సᡂ⪅ࡢእഃ࡟࠸ࡿࡢ࡛࠶ࡿࡀࠊఱࡽ࠿ࡢᑓ㛛ⓗ▱ぢࡸ㸯ḟ᝟ሗ࡬ࡢ࢔ࢡࢭࢫࡢྍ⬟ᛶࢆᣢࡗࡓ㞟ᅋ࡛࠶ࡿࠋἼཬຠᯝ◊✲࡟࠾࠸࡚ࡶࡗࡥࡽ↔Ⅼࡀᙜ࡚ࡽࢀ࡚ࡁࡓࡢࡣࠕᩍᖌ࡛ࠖ
࠶ࡿࡀࠊࡇࢀࡣ࢖ࣥࢼ࣮࣭ࢧ࣮ࢡࣝࡢࠕ௰௓⪅ࠖ࡜⪃࠼ࡽࢀࡿࠋࡲࡓࠊࠕฟ∧♫ࠖࡢከࡃࡶࠊ࢖ࣥࢼ࣮࣭ࢧ࣮ࢡࣝࡢࠕ௰௓⪅ࠖ࡜⪃࠼ࡽࢀࡿࠋ౛࠼ࡤࠊ኱Ꮫධヨ࡛ࡣࠊ኱Ꮫࡈ࡜࡟
㐣ཤၥࢆ㍕ࡏࡓ᭩⡠ࡸ㐣ཤၥࢆศᯒࡋࡓ᭩⡠ࡀ࠶ࡿࡀࠊࡑࡇ࡟ࡣฟ㢟ഴྥࡢศᯒࡀ࡞ࡉࢀ
࡚࠸ࡓࡾࡍࡿࠋࡑࢀࡽࡣࠊࢸࢫࢺసᡂࡢᙜ஦⪅࡟ࡼࡿࡶࡢ࡛ࡣ࡞࠸ࡀࠊ࠶ࡿ✀ࡢᑓ㛛ᛶࢆᣢࡗࡓேࠎ࡟ࡼࡗ࡚᭩࠿ࢀ࡚࠸ࡿࠋࡋ࠿ࡋࠊࡑࢀ࡟ࡶ࠿࠿ࢃࡽࡎࠊཷ㦂⪅ࡣ඲ᖜࡢಙ㢗ࢆᐤࡏ࡚ㄞࢇ࡛࠸ࡓࡾࡍࡿࠋ

⾲㸯㸬ࢸࢫࢺ᝟ሗࡣ࡝࠺ཷ㦂⪅࡟ఏࢃࡿ࠿
ᚑ᮶ࡣࠊࡇ࠺ࡋࡓ㞟ᅋࡀཷ㦂⪅࡟ࢸࢫࢺ᝟ሗࢆࡶࡓࡽࡋ࡚࠸ࡓࡀࠊ௒᪥࡛ࡣࠊ࢔࢘ࢱ
࣮࣭ࢧ࣮ࢡࣝࡢࠕ௰௓⪅ࠖࡢㄒࡾࡀཷ㦂⪅࡟኱ࡁ࡞ᙳ㡪ࢆ୚࠼࡚࠸ࡿ࡜⪃࠼ࡽࢀࡿࠋࡑࡢ
ㄒࡾࡢ௦⾲ⓗ࡞ࡶࡢࡣࠊࢿࢵࢺୖ࡛ࡢㄒࡾ࡛࠶ࡿࠋ௒᪥࡛ࡣࠊከࡃࡢ᪥ᮏே࡟࡜ࡗ࡚ࠊࣃ
ࢯࢥࣥࡸࢫ࣐࣮ࢺࣇ࢛ࣥ࠿ࡽࡢ࢖ࣥࢱ࣮ࢿࢵࢺ࡬ࡢ࢔ࢡࢭࢫࡣ᪥ᖖⓗ࡟࡞ࡾࠊ᝟ሗ཰㞟ࡢ➨㸯ࡢᡭẁ࡟࡞ࡾࡘࡘ࠶ࡿࠋࡑࡢ⤖ᯝࠊࢸࢫࢺ࡟㛵ࡍࡿ᝟ሗࡶࠊࡲࡎࡣ࢖ࣥࢱ࣮ࢿࢵࢺ࠿
ࡽᚓࡼ࠺࡜ࡍࡿഴྥࡀᙉࡲࡗ࡚࠸ࡿ࡜ᛮࢃࢀࡿࠋ࢖ࣥࢱ࣮ࢿࢵࢺୖࡢ᝟ሗ࡟ࡣࠊࢸࢫࢺస
ᡂ⪅ഃࡀฟࡋ࡚࠸ࡿබᘧࡢ᝟ሗࡶ࠶ࡿࡀࠊࡑࢀ௨እ࡟ࡶࡑࡢࢸࢫࢺ࡟㛵ࡍࡿ኱㔞ࡢ᭩ࡁ㎸ࡳࡀ࠶ࡿࠋୖ࡛㏙࡭ࡓࡼ࠺࡞ࠕࢸࢫࢺࡢ୙㏱᫂ᛶࠖࡢࡓࡵ࡟ࠊබᘧࡢ᝟ሗࡢ୰࡟ࡣࠊཷ㦂⪅ࡀᮏᙜ࡟▱ࡾࡓ࠸ࡼ࠺࡞᝟ሗࡣ࡯࡜ࢇ࡝ྵࡲࢀ࡚࠾ࡽࡎࠊཷ㦂⪅ࡣ⮬ศࡀ▱ࡾࡓ࠸᝟ሗ
࡟㛵ࡍࡿࠕㄡ࠿ࠖࡢ᝟ሗࢆಙࡌ࡚ࡋࡲ࠺ഴྥ࡟࠶ࡿࠋࡋ࠿ࡋࠊࡇࡢࠕㄡ࠿ࠖࡣ༏ྡᛶࡀ㧗ࡃࠊࡲࡓࠊࡑࡢಙ៰ᛶࡶᵝࠎ࡛࠶ࡿࠋࡇࡕࡽࡢ౛࡜ࡋ࡚ࡣࠊ᪥ᮏ࡛ࡣࠕYahoo!▱ᜨ⿄ࠖ

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言語テストの非透明性のインパクト
The impact of nontransparency of language testsࠕ㸰ࢳࣕࣥࢿࣝࠖࠕࣈࣟࢢࠖ࡞࡝ࡀᣲࡆࡽࢀࡿࠋࡇ࠺ࡋࡓࢧ࢖ࢺ࡛ࡣࠊ᪥ࠎᵝࠎ࡞ཷ㦂᝟ሗࡀࡸࡾ࡜ࡾࡉࢀ࡚࠸ࡿࠋࡇࡢ✀ࡢࡸࡾ࡜ࡾࡢಙ៰ᛶࡣࠊᙜ↛ࡢࡇ࡜࡞ࡀࡽࠊࠕ࢖ࣥࢼ
࣮࣭ࢧ࣮ࢡࣝࡢ௰௓⪅ࠖࡢࡶࡢࡼࡾࡉࡽ࡟ୗࡀࡿࡇ࡜࡟࡞ࡿࠋ
ࡇ࠺ࡋ࡚ᐇయ໬ࡍࡿ௰௓⪅ࡢㄒࡾࢆࠕࢿࢵࢩ࣮࣭ࢩࣥࢻ࣮࣒ࣟࠖ࡜ྡ௜ࡅࡿࡇ࡜࡟ࡍࡿࠋ
ࢿࢵࢩ࣮࡜ࡣࠊࢫࢥࢵࢺࣛࣥࢻࡢࢿࢫ†࡛┠ᧁࡉࢀࡓ࡜ࡉࢀࡿࠊᮍ☜ㄆື≀ࡢ㏻⛠࡛࠶ࡾࠊṇᘧ࡟ࡣࠕࢿࢫ†ࡢ᛹⋇ 㸦Loch Ness Monsterࠊࣟࢵ࣭࣍ࢿࢫ࣭ࣔࣥࢫࢱ࣮㸧 ࠖ࡜ࡉࢀࡿࠋ
ࢿࢵࢩ࣮ࡣࠊ20 ୡ⣖࡟ከࡃࡢ┠ᧁ౛ࡀሗ࿌ࡉࢀ࡚ࡁࡓࡀࠊ┠ᧁドゝࡸ෗┿࣭ᫎീࡢከࡃ
ࡀࠊ᪤▱ື≀ࡸ⯪⯧ࠊὶᮌࠊ⯟㊧ࠊࡲࡓࡣἼື࡞࡝⮬↛⌧㇟ࡢㄗㄆ࡛࠶ࡿ࠿ࠊ࠶ࡿ࠸ࡣᤐ
㐀
࡜
ุ
ᐃ
ࡉ
ࢀ
࡚
࠸
ࡿ
㸦
Retrievedfrom
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%8D%E3%83%83%E3%82%B7%E3%83%BC 㸧 ࠋ ᐇ 㝿 ࡟⮬ศࡢ┠࡛ぢࡓࡇ࡜ࡢ࡞࠸ࢿࢵࢩ࣮ࡀேࠎࡢ୰࡛ᐇయ໬ࡋ࡚࠸ࡿࣉࣟࢭࢫࡣࠊࢸࢫࢺ࡟ࡘ
࠸࡚ࡢ௒᪥ࡢேࠎࡢㄒࡾ࡜ࡲࡉ࡟ྜ⮴ࡍࡿࠋࡲࡓࠊࢿࢵࢩ࣮ࢆᤕࡽ࠼ࡓ࡜ࡉࢀࡿ෗┿࡟ぢࡽࢀࡿࢿࢵࢩ࣮ࡢࠕἼ⣠ࠖࡶࠊࢸࢫࢺసᡂ⪅࠿ࡽࢸࢫࢺཷ㦂⪅࡬ࡢ࢖ࣥࣃࢡࢺࡢࠕἼ⣠ࠖ࡜ࡶࠊ࢖࣓࣮ࢪࡀྜ⮴ࡍࡿࠋ㸲㸬ゝㄒࢸࢫࢺࡢࣅࢵࢢ࣭ࢹ࣮ࢱศᯒ
ゝㄒࢸࢫࢺࡢἼཬຠᯝ◊✲ࡣࠊ୺࡟ࠕᩍᖌ࣭Ꮫ⩦⪅࡬ࡢ࢖ࣥࢱࣅ࣮ࣗࠖࠕᩍᖌ࣭Ꮫ⩦⪅࡬ࡢ㉁ၥ⣬ㄪᰝࠖࠕᩍᐊほᐹࠖ࡞࡝ࡢᡭἲࡀ⏝࠸ࡽࢀ࡚࠸ࡓ(e.g. Alderson & Hamp-Lyons;
1996, Watanabe; 1996, Muñoz & Álvarez; 2010)ࠋࡋ࠿ࡋࠊࢫࢸ࣮ࢡࢫࡢ㧗࠸ゝㄒࢸࢫࢺࡢሙ
ྜࠊࡑࡢᙳ㡪ࡣ࠿࡞ࡾࡢᗈ⠊ᅖ࡟ཬࡪࠋ≉࡟ࠊ࢔࢘ࢱ࣮࣭ࢧ࣮ࢡࣝࡢ௰௓⪅ࡢㄒࡾࡀࡶࡓ
ࡽࡍᙳ㡪ࡣࠊࡑࡢᙳ㡪ࡢ኱ࡁࡉ࡟ࡶ࠿࠿ࢃࡽࡎࠊ௒᪥ࡲ࡛ぢ㐣ࡈࡉࢀ࡚ࡁ࡚࠸ࡿࠋࡑࡇ࡛ࠊ
ᮏ✏࡛ࡣࠊࣅࢵࢢ࣭ࢹ࣮ࢱ࡟╔┠ࡋࠊ᪥ᮏ࡟࠾ࡅࡿ௦⾲ⓗ࡞ࢸࢫࢺࢆ౛࡟ࠊࡑࢀࡽࡀ࡝ࡢ
ࡼ࠺࡟ㄒࡽࢀ࡚࠸ࡿࡢ࠿ࢆぢ࡚ࡳࡓ࠸ࠋ
◊✲ᑐ㇟࡜ࡋࡓゝㄒࢸࢫࢺࡣࠊTOEIC ࡜ⱥ᳨㸦⣭ࢆ㝈ᐃࡋ࡞࠸㸧࡛࠶ࡿࠋㄪᰝᮇ㛫ࡣ
2013/06/15㹼2013/07/28 ࡛ࠊゎᯒࢹ࣮ࢱ௳ᩘࡣ 15,579,018 ࡛࠶ࡗࡓࠋࡇࡢ୰ࡢࠕTOEICࠖࡲࡓࡣࠕⱥ᳨ࠖ࡜࠸࠺ゝⴥࢆྵࡴࢧ࢖ࢺࢆゎᯒࡋࡓࡀࠊၟ⏝ࡢࢧ࢖ࢺࡢ࡯࡜ࢇ࡝ࡣࠊ≉ᐃࡢཷ㦂ᑐ⟇ᩍᮦࡸࣉࣟࢢ࣒ࣛࡢ㈍኎ࢆ┠ⓗ࡜ࡋ࡚࠾ࡾࠊࢹ࣮ࢱ㔞ࡶከࡃࠊゎᯒ⤖ᯝࢆࡺࡀࡵࡿࡓࡵ࡟ࠊ௒ᅇࡢゎᯒ࠿ࡽࡣ㝖࠸ࡓࠋࡇࡢゎᯒࢹ࣮ࢱ࡟ࡣࠊࣅࢵࢢ࣭ࢹ࣮ࢱࡢゎᯒࢆᑓ㛛࡟ࡍࡿ Jetrun Technology ♫࡟౫㢗ࡋ࡚⾜ࢃࢀࡓࠋୖグᮇ㛫࡟࠾ࡅࡿࠕTOEICࠖ࠾ࡼࡧࠕⱥ᳨ࠖࡢฟ⌧ࢧ࢖ࢺᩘࡣࠊࡑࢀࡒࢀ 1112 ࡜ 1009 ࡜࡯ࡰྠᩘ࡛࠶ࡗࡓࠋᮏ✏࡛⤂௓ࡍࡿゎᯒ⤖ᯝࡣࠊࠕࢿ࢞ࢸ࢕ࣈ࣭࣏ࢪࢸ࢕ࣈ࣭ࢢࣛࣇࠖࠕ࣮࣡ࢻ࣭࣐ࢵࣉࠖࠕ࢝ࢸࢦࣜศᯒࠖ
࠿ࡽᡂࡿࠋࠕࢿ࢞ࢸ࢕ࣈ࣭࣏ࢪࢸ࢕ࣈ࣭ࢢࣛࣇࠖࡣࠊㄪᰝᑐ㇟࡜࡞ࡗ࡚࠸ࡿࡶࡢ㸦ࡇࡢሙྜࡣࠊ
ࠕTOEICࠖ࡜ࠕⱥ᳨ࠖ㸧ࡀࠊዲពⓗ࡟ㄒࡽࢀ࡚࠸ࡿࡢ࠿ࠊྰᐃⓗ࡟ㄒࡽࢀ࡚࠸ࡿࡢ࠿ࢆ⾲ࡋ࡚࠸ࡿࠋࡇࢀࡣ Jetrun Technology ♫ࡀ⊂⮬࡟㛤Ⓨࡋࡓ TrueText ࡜࠸࠺᪥ᮏㄒࡢゝㄒゎᯒ࢚ࣥࢪࣥ࡟ᇶ࡙࠸࡚⮬ືⓗ࡟ุ᩿ࡋ࡚࠸ࡿࠋ⾲㸰࡜⾲㸱ࢆぢ࡚ศ࠿ࡿࡼ࠺࡟ࠊTOEIC ࡜ⱥ᳨ࡣࠊⱝᖸࡢᕪࡣ࠶ࡿࡶࡢࡢࠊ㐣༙ᩘࡢேࠎ࡟ዲពⓗ࡟ㄒࡽࢀ࡚࠸ࡿࡇ࡜ࡀศ࠿ࡿࠋ

55

根岸 雅史⾲㸰㸬ࢿ࢞ࢸ࢕ࣈ࣭࣏ࢪࢸ࢕ࣈ࣭ࢢࣛࣇ㸸TOEIC

⾲㸱㸬ࢿ࢞ࢸ࢕ࣈ࣭࣏ࢪࢸ࢕ࣈ࣭ࢢࣛࣇ㸸ⱥ᳨ࠕ࣮࣡ࢻ࣭࣐ࢵࣉࠖࡣྠ୍ࡢᩥ࡟ฟ࡚ࡃࡿ༢ㄒࡢ⤖ࡧࡘࡁࢆ⾲ࡋ࡚࠸ࡿࠋTOEIC ࡛┠❧ࡘࡢࡣ㸦⾲㸲ཧ↷㸧ࠊࠕTOEICЍⱥㄒ(841)ࠖࡢ⤖ࡧࡘࡁࡢ୰࡛ᙉࡃฟ࡚࠸ࡿࡢࡀࠕЍⱥ఍ヰ(382)ࠖ࡜ࠕЍࣜࢫࢽࣥࢢ(191)࡛ࠖ࠶ࡿⅬࡔࠋࠕTOEICЍຮᙉ㸦748㸧ࠖࡢ⤖ࡧࡘࡁࡢ୰
࡛ࡶࠕЍⱥ఍ヰ(167)ࠖ࡜ฟ⌧ࡋࠊࠕTOEICЍࢫࢥ࢔(152)ࠖࡢ⤖ࡧࡘࡁࡢ୰࡛ࡶࠕЍࣜࢫࢽࣥࢢ(78)ࠖ࡜ฟ⌧ࡣከ࠸ࠋࢿࢵࢺ࣮ࣘࢨ࣮࡟ࠊTOEIC ࢆຮᙉࡍࡿୖ࡛ࡶࢫࢥ࢔ࢆྲྀࡿୖ
࡛ࡶࠕࣜࢫࢽࣥࢢࠖࡸࠕⱥ఍ヰࠖࡀព㆑ࡉࢀ࡚࠸ࡿ㸦ሙྜ࡟ࡼࡗ࡚ࡣࠊⱞᡭព㆑ࡸၥ㢟ព㆑ࢆᣢࡗ࡚࠸ࡿ㸧ࡇ࡜ࡀศ࠿ࡿࠋ୺ࡓࡿ⤖ࡧࡘࡁࡢ࠺ࡕ࡛ࡶ࠺୍ࡘࠊࠕTOEICЍ௙஦(460)ࠖ࡜⤖ࡧࡘ࠸࡚࠸ࡿࡢࡶ⯆࿡῝࠸ࠋࡇࢀࡣࠊ᪥ᮏࡢ TOEIC ཷ㦂⪅ࡀࠊ௙஦࡜ࡢ⤖ࡧࡘࡁࢆᙉࡃព㆑ࡋ࡚࠸ࡿࡇ࡜ࡢ⾲ࢀࡔࢁ࠺ࠋ

6
6

言語テストの非透明性のインパクト
The impact of nontransparency of language tests⾲㸲㸬࣮࣡ࢻ࣭࣐ࢵࣉ㸸TOEICࡇࢀ࡟ᑐࡋ࡚ࠊⱥ᳨࡛ࡣ㸦⾲㸳ཧ↷㸧ࠊ኱ࡁ࡞⤖ࡧࡘࡁ࡛ࡣࠕⱥ᳨Ѝຮᙉ(425)ࠖ࡜ࠕⱥ
᳨ЍᏛ⩦(232)ࠖࡀኴ࠸ࠋࡇࢀࡣࠊ࢖ࣥࢱ࣮ࢿࢵࢺ࣮ࣘࢨ࣮࡟࡜ࡗ࡚ࡣࠕⱥ᳨ࠖ࡜࠸࠺ࡶࡢ
ࡀ㸦ຮᙉ࣭Ꮫ⩦࡜࠸࠺ゝⴥ࡟㇟ᚩࡉࢀࡿ㸧㠀ᖖ࡟ࠕᏛᰯⓗ࡞ࡶࡢࠖ࡜ᤊ࠼ࡽࢀ࡚࠸ࡿ౛ド࡛࠶ࡿࠋࡲࡓࠊࠕⱥㄒࠖ࡜࠸࠺ゝⴥࡀ࣮࣡ࢻ࣭࣐ࢵࣉࡢࡑࡇ࠿ࡋࡇ࡟኱ࡁ࡞⤖ࡧࡘࡁ࡜ࡋ࡚ぢࡽࢀࡿࠋࡇࢀࡣ᪥ᮏே࡟࡜ࡗ࡚ⱥㄒ࡜࠸࠼ࡤⱥ᳨࡜࠸࠺㐃᝿ࡀᙉ࠸ࡓࡵࠊࡑࡢ⤖ᯝ࡜ࡋ࡚ࠊ᪥ᮏㄒ࡛ࡢグ஦࣭ࣈࣟࢢ࡟ࡇࢀࡔࡅࡢ㢧ࢀ᪉ࢆࡋ࡚࠸ࡿ࡜࠸࠺ぢ᪉ࡶ࡛ࡁࡿ࠿ࡶࡋ
ࢀ࡞࠸ࠋ

7
7

根岸 雅史⾲㸳㸬࣮࣡ࢻ࣭࣐ࢵࣉ㸸ⱥ᳨ࡉࡽ࡟ࠊࠕ࢝ࢸࢦࣜศᯒࠖ࡟┠ࢆྥࡅ࡚ࡳࡼ࠺ࠋࠕ࢝ࢸࢦࣜศᯒ࡛ࠖࡣࠊᢳฟࡋࡓ࣮࢟
࣮࣡ࢻ࡟ᑐࡋࠊTrueText ࡢ⊂⮬㎡᭩࡟ࡼࡿ࢝ࢸࢦࣜࢆศ㢮ࡋࠊ⤖ᯝࢆ㏉༷ࡍࡿࠋTOIEC ࡛ࡣ㸦⾲㸴ཧ↷㸧ࠊୖ఩࢝ࢸࢦࣜࡢෆ 4 ఩ࡀࠕࣅࢪࢿࢫ୍⯡⏝ㄒ࡛ࠖ࠶ࡿⅬࡀ┠ࢆᘬࡃࠋ௙
஦ࡸࣅࢪࢿࢫ࡟ࡘ࠸࡚ࡢࢸ࢟ࢫࢺࡢ୰࡛ࡇࢀࡔࡅㄒࡽࢀ࡚࠸ࡿࡢࡣ TOEFL ࡸⱥ᳨࡛ࡶぢࡽࢀ࡞࠸ TOEIC ࡔࡅ࡛ࡢ≉ᚩ࡛࠶ࡾ 5 ఩ࡢࠕⱥ఍ヰᏛᰯ࣭ⱥㄒሿࠖࡸ 6 ఩ࡢࠕཷ㦂࣭ཷ㦂ຮᙉࠖࡼࡾ㧗࠸ᩘ್ࡀฟ࡚࠸ࡿࡢࡣ㠀ᖖ࡟⯆࿡῝࠸ࠋ

88

言語テストの非透明性のインパクト
The impact of nontransparency of language tests⾲㸴㸬࢝ࢸࢦࣜศᯒ㸸TOEICࡑࢀ࡟ᑐࡋ࡚ࠊⱥ᳨࡛ࡣ㸦⾲㸵ཧ↷㸧ࠊTOEIC ࡜ᑐ↷ⓗ࡟ࠊࠕⱥㄒ࣭ⱥㄒᩍᮦࠖࠕཷ
㦂࣭ཷ㦂ຮᙉࠖࠕ㒊άື࣭Ꮫᰯ⏕άࠖ࡜࠸ࡗࡓ࢝ࢸࢦࣜᒓᛶࡀ㢧ⴭ࡛ࠊࠕ⏕ᾭᏛ⩦ࠖࠕࣅࢪࢿࢫ୍⯡⏝ㄒࠖ࡜࠸࠺ᩥ❶࢝ࢸࢦࣜ࡟ᒓࡍࡿࡶࡢࡼࡾࡎࡗ࡜ከ࠸ࠋᏛᰯࡸཷ㦂࡟ᙉࡃ⣣௜ࡅࡽࢀ࡚࠸ࡿ࡜࠸࠺ࡢࡣࠊⱥ᳨ࡢṔྐ࠿ࡽ࠸ࡗ࡚ࡶࠊⱥ᳨ࡢᙜึ࠿ࡽࡢ┠ⓗ࠿ࡽ࠸ࡗ࡚
ࡶ⣡ᚓࡀ࠸ࡃࡔࢁ࠺ࠋ

⾲㸵㸬࢝ࢸࢦࣜศᯒ㸸ⱥ᳨99

根岸 雅史ࡇࡢࡼ࠺࡞ࣅࢵࢢ࣭ࢹ࣮ࢱࡢゎᯒࡣࠊ࣑ࢡ࣭ࣟࣞ࣋ࣝࡢㄪᰝ࡛ࡣぢ࠼࡞࠿ࡗࡓࡶࡢࢆぢࡏ࡚ࡃࢀࡿࠋࡋ࠿ࡋ࡞ࡀࡽࠊࡇࡢゎᯒ࡟㛵ࡋ࡚ࠊⱝᖸࡢ㝈⏺ࡶ࠶ࡿࠋࡑࢀࡣࠊ୍⯡ⓗ࡞༢ㄒࡣ࣮࣮࢟࣡ࢻ࡜ㄆ㆑ࡋ࡞࠸ࡓࡵ࡟ࠊゝㄒࢸࢫࢺ࡛ࡣ㔜せ࡞ᴫᛕࡸࢺࣆࢵࢡ࡛࠶ࡗࡓ࡜ࡋ
࡚ࡶࠊࡑࢀࡀ୍⯡ⓗ࡞༢ㄒ࡛࠶ࢀࡤゎᯒᑐ㇟࡜࡞ࡗ࡚࠸࡞࠸ࠋ
ࡇ࠺ࡋࡓᙅⅬࢆ⿵࠺ࡓࡵ࡟ࠊඖࢹ࣮ࢱࢆⱝᖸ㉁ⓗ࡟ศᯒࡋ࡚࠾ࡃࠋࡓ࡜࠼ࡤࠊࠕࣃ࣮ࢺ
(Part)ࠖ࡜࠸࠺༢ㄒࡣࠊTOEIC ࡢㄒࡾࡢ୰࡛ࡼࡃฟ࡚ࡃࡿࠋࡇࢀࡀฟ࡚ࡃࡿࢧ࢖ࢺ࡛ࡣࠊ
ࡓ࠸࡚࠸ࡢሙྜࠊࣃ࣮ࢺࡈ࡜ࡢᑐ⟇ࡣ࡝࠺ࡍࡿ࡭ࡁ࠿࡞࡝࡟ࡘ࠸࡚ㄽࡌࡽࢀ࡚࠸ࡿࠋࡲࡓࠊ
TOIEC ࡛ࡣࠊࠕⅬࠖࡸࠕࢫࢥ࢔ࠖࡢ௚࡟ࠊࢫࢥ࢔ࢆ♧ࡍලయⓗ࡞ᩘᏐࡶ㢖ฟࡋ࡚࠸ࡿࠋ
ࡇࢀࡽࡢࢧ࢖ࢺ࡛ࡣࠊ┠ᶆ࡜ࡋ࡚ࡢࢫࢥ࢔ࡀㄒࡽࢀࡿ୍᪉࡛ࠊࠕຮᙉࡏࡎ࡟ 600 Ⅼࢆྲྀࡿࠖ࡜࠸࠺グ㏙ࡢࡼ࠺࡟ࡑࡶࡑࡶࡢⱥㄒ㐠⏝⬟ຊࢆୖࡆࡿࡢ࡛ࡣ࡞ࡃࠊTOEIC ࡢࣃࢱ࣮ࣥࡸ࣮ࣝࣝࢆ⌮ゎࡋ࡚ຠ⋡ࡼࡃⅬᩘࢆྲྀࡿ᪉ἲࢆఏ࠼࡚࠸ࡿ᭩ࡁ㎸ࡳࡶᏑᅾࡋࡓࠋࡉࡽ࡟ࠊ
ࠕࢫࣆ࣮ࢻࠖ࡜࠸࠺༢ㄒࡶ㢖ฟࡋ࡚࠸ࡿࡇ࡜࠿ࡽࠊ⣲᪩ࡃゎ⟅ࡍࡿࡇ࡜ࡀồࡵࡽࢀ࡚࠾ࡾࠊ
ࡇࢀ࡟ᑐᛂࡋ࡞ࡅࢀࡤ࡞ࡽ࡞࠸࡜ཷ㦂⪅ࡀㄆ㆑ࡋ࡚࠸ࡿࡇ࡜ࡀศ࠿ࡿࠋ
ࡑࢀ࡟ᑐࡋ࡚ࠊⱥ᳨ࡣࠕྜ᱁ࡋࡲࡋࡓࠖࠕཷ࠿ࡗࡓࠖࠕⴠࡕࡓࠖ࡜࠸࠺ࡼ࠺࡞ㄒࡾࡀከ
࠸ࡀࠊࡇࢀࡣࠊⱥ᳨ࡀ TOEIC ࡢࡼ࠺࡞ࢫࢥ࢔ᆺࡢࢸࢫࢺ࡜ࡣ␗࡞ࡾࠊྜྰᆺ࡛࠶ࡿࡓࡵ
࡟ᙜ↛࡛࠶ࢁ࠺ࠋࡉࡽ࡟ࠊⱥ᳨࡛ࡣࠕ༢ㄒࠖ࡜࠿ࠕⱥ༢ㄒࠖࡀࡼࡃฟ࡚࠾ࡾࠊ⊂❧ࡋࡓ༢ㄒၥ㢟ࡀྛ⣭ࡢ㸯␒࡟ඹ㏻ࡋ࡚ฟ㢟ࡉࢀ࡚࠸ࡿࡓࡵ࡟ࠊཷ㦂⪅࡟ᙉࡃព㆑ࡉࢀ࡚࠸ࡿࡼ࠺
࡟ᛮࢃࢀࡿࠋࡇࢀࡣࠊTOEIC ࡛ࡣࠕࣜࢫࢽࣥࢢࠖࡀᙉࡃព㆑ࡉࢀ࡚࠸ࡿࡢ࡜ᑐ↷ⓗ࡛࠶ࡿࠋ㸳㸬ࢸࢫࢺ࡟ࡘ࠸࡚ࡢㄒࡾࡢಙ៰ᛶ
࡛ࡣࠊࢸࢫࢺ࡟ࡘ࠸࡚ࡢㄒࡾ࡜ᐇែࡢ㛵ಀࡣ࡝࠺࡞ࡗ࡚࠸ࡿࡔࢁ࠺࠿ࠋㄒࡽࢀ࡚࠸ࡿ஦
㡯ࡀࠊࢸࢫࢺࡢࢫ࣌ࢵࢡ࡟ࡑࡶࡑࡶつᐃࡉࢀ࡚࠸ࡿ஦᯶࠿࡝࠺࠿ࠊࡑࡋ࡚ࠊࡑࢀࡀࢸࢫࢺ
࡟㢧ᅾ໬ࡋ࡚࠸ࡿ஦᯶࠿࡝࠺࠿࡟ࡼࡗ࡚ࠊ࠾ࡼࡑ㸲ࡘࡢࢱ࢖ࣉ࡟ศ㢮࡛ࡁࡿࡔࢁ࠺ࠋ
ࢱ࢖ࣉ㸯㸬ࢫ࣌ࢵࢡࡢつᐃ࠶ࡾ㸩ࢸࢫࢺ࡟ぢ࠼࡚࠸ࡿ஦㡯ࡇࡢࢱ࢖ࣉࡢ஦౛࡜ࡋ࡚ࡣࠊࠕ࣓ࢹ࢕࢔࣭ࢳࣕࣥࢿࣝ㸦➹グヨ㦂࠿ࣃࢯࢥࣥࢆ౑࠺࠿࡞
࡝㸧ࠖࠕ᫬㛫ࠖ࡞࡝ࡀᣲࡆࡽࢀࡿࡔࢁ࠺ࠋࡇࢀࡽ࡟㛵ࡋ࡚ࡣࠊከࡃࡢሙྜࢫ࣌ࢵࢡ࡛つᐃࡉࢀ࡚࠾ࡾࠊእ㒊ࡢே㛫࡟ࡶ᫂♧ⓗ࡟♧ࡉࢀ࡚࠸ࡿࡢ࡛ࠊㄒࡾࡢ☜ᐇᛶࡣ㧗࠸࡜⪃࠼ࡽࢀࡿࠋࢱ࢖ࣉ㸰㸬ࢫ࣌ࢵࢡࡢつᐃ࠶ࡾࢸࢫࢺ࡟ぢ࠼࡚࠸࡞࠸஦㡯ࡇࡢࢱ࢖ࣉࡢ඾ᆺⓗ࡞஦౛࡜ࡋ࡚ࡣࠊࠕ᥇Ⅼ᪉ἲࠖࠕ᥇Ⅼᇶ‽ (Accuracy, Appropriacy,
Range)ࠖࠕ᥇Ⅼ⪅ࡢ㈨᱁࠾ࡼࡧカ⦎ࠖ࡞࡝ࡀ࠶ࡿࠋࡇࢀࡽࡣࠊእ㒊ࡢே㛫࡟ࡣぢ࠼࡚࠸࡞࠸ࢃࡅ࡛࠶ࡿ࠿ࡽࠊࡑࢀࡽ࡟ࡘ࠸࡚ㄒࡽࢀ࡚࠸ࡓ࡜ࡋ࡚ࡶࠊࡑࡢಙ៰ᛶࡣ㧗࠸࡜ࡣゝ࠼࡞࠸ࡔࢁ࠺ࠋࢱ࢖ࣉ㸱㸬ࢫ࣌ࢵࢡࡢつᐃ࡞ࡋࢸࢫࢺ࡟ぢ࠼࡚࠸ࡿ஦㡯1010

言語テストの非透明性のインパクト
The impact of nontransparency of language tests ࢸࢫࢺ࣭ࢫ࣌ࢵࢡ࡛ࡣࠊ࠿࡞ࡾヲ⣽࡞ࡇ࡜ࡀỴࡵࡽࢀ࡚࠸ࡿࢃࡅ࡛࠶ࡿࡀࠊᐇࡣࡍ࡭࡚
ࡢ஦᯶ࡀつᐃࡉࢀ࡚࠸ࡿࢃࡅ࡛ࡣ࡞࠸ࠋ౛࠼ࡤࠊࠕ㑅ᢥ⫥ࡢసᡂ᪉ἲࠖࡸࠕࢸ࢟ࢫࢺࡢ㑅ᢥ࡛ࠖ࠶ࡿࠋ㑅ᢥ⫥ࡢᩘࡸࢸࢫࢺ࣭ࢱ࢖ࣉࡣỴࡲࡗ࡚࠸࡚ࡶࠊࡑࡇ࠿ࡽලయⓗ࡟࡝ࡢࡼ࠺
࡟㑅ᢥ⫥ࢆసࡗ࡚࠸ࡿࡢ࠿ࡣࠊಶูࡢసᴗ࡛࠶ࡾࠊ᫂ᩥ໬ࡉࢀ࡚࠸࡞࠸ࠋࡲࡓࠊࢸ࢟ࢫࢺ
ࡢ㑅ᢥࡶྠᵝ࡛ࠊࢸ࢟ࢫࢺ࣭ࢱ࢖ࣉࡸࢸ࢟ࢫࢺࡢ㛗ࡉࡀỴࡲࡗ࡚࠸ࡓ࡜ࡋ࡚ࡶࠊ᭱⤊ⓗ࡟≉ᐃࡢࢸ࢟ࢫࢺࢆỴᐃࡍࡿࣉࣟࢭࢫࡣࠊ᫂ᩥ໬ࡉࢀ࡚࠸࡞࠸ࠋၥ㢟సᡂ⪅ࡽࡢ㞃ࢀࡓዲࡳࡸ⾜ືࡢࣃࢱ࣮ࣥࡀ࠶ࡿ࠿ࡶࡋࢀ࡞࠸ࡢࡔࠋࡇ࠺ࡋࡓሙྜࡣࠊᙜ↛ࡑࡢㄒࡾࡢಙ៰ᛶࡣ㧗ࡃࡣ࡞ࡃ࡞ࡿࠋ
ࢱ࢖ࣉ㸲㸬ࢫ࣌ࢵࢡࡢつᐃ࡞ࡋࢸࢫࢺ࡟ぢ࠼࡚࠸࡞࠸஦㡯ࢸࢫࢺ࣭ࢫ࣌ࢵࢡ࡟つᐃࡉࢀ࡚࠾ࡽࡎࠊࢸࢫࢺ⮬యࢆぢ࡚ࡶศ࠿ࡽ࡞࠸஦㡯ࡶ࠶ࡿࠋࡸ
ࡸ⣽࠿࠸ࡀࠊෆᐜ⌮ゎࢆၥ࠺㝿ࡢ㉁ၥᩥࡢࢱ࢖ࣉ࡞࡝ࡣࠊࢫ࣌ࢵࢡ࡟࡞࠸ࡇ࡜ࡶᑡ࡞ࡃ࡞
࠸ࡋࠊ࡝ࡢࡼ࠺࡞ࢱ࢖ࣉࡢၥ㢟࡜ࡋ࡚ฟࡉࢀ࡚࠸ࡿࡢ࠿ࡣࠊಶูࡢࢸࢫࢺ㡯┠ࢆぢ࡚ࡶศ࠿ࡽ࡞࠸ࠋࡲࡓࠊసᩥ࡟࠾࠸࡚࡝ࡢࡃࡽ࠸ࡢ㔞ࢆ᭩ࡃ࡜࡝࠺ホ౯ࡉࢀࡿ࠿࡞࡝ࡶࠊ㛗ࡵࡢ࢚ࢵࢭ࢖ၥ㢟ࡢ᥇Ⅼ࡟࠾࠸࡚ࡣ᫂☜࡟Ỵࡲࡗ࡚࠸࡞࠸ࡇ࡜ࡶከ࠸ࠋࡇ࠺ࡋࡓࡇ࡜࡟㛵ࡋ࡚ࠊእ㒊ࡢே㛫ࡀఱ࠿ࢆㄒࡿሙྜࠊᙜ↛ಙ៰ᛶࡣ࠿࡞ࡾపࡃ࡞ࡿ࡜ᛮࢃࢀࡿࠋఱࡋࢁᙜ஦⪅ࡀṇ☜࡟ᢕᥱࡋ࡚࠸࡞࠸ࡇ࡜ࢆእ㒊ࡢே㛫ࡀ᥎ ࡍࡿࡇ࡜ࡣ୙ྍ⬟࡛࠶ࡿࠋࡑࡶࡑࡶࠊከࡃࡢࢸࢫࢺ࡟ࢫ࣌ࢵࢡࡣ࡞࠸࡜࠸࠺᰿ᮏⓗ࡞ၥ㢟ࡶ࠶ࡿࠋ௒᪥ᐇ᪋ࡉࢀ࡚
࠸ࡿࢫࢸ࣮ࢡࢫࡢ㧗࠸ၟᴗ࣮࣋ࢫࡢゝㄒࢸࢫࢺࡢከࡃ࡟ࡣࠊࢸࢫࢺ࣭ࢫ࣌ࢵࢡࡀ࠶ࡿ࠿ࡶ
ࡋࢀ࡞࠸ࡀࠊ㧗ᰯධヨࡸ኱Ꮫධヨ࡟ࡣヲ⣽࡞ࢸࢫࢺ࣭ࢫ࣌ࢵࢡࢆసࡗ࡚࠸ࡿ࡜ࡇࢁࡣ୍⯡ⓗ࡛ࡣ࡞࠸ࡔࢁ࠺ࠋࡲࡓࠊ௬࡟ࢸࢫࢺ࣭ࢫ࣌ࢵࢡࡀ࠶ࡿሙྜ࡛ࡶࠊၥ㢟సᡂ⪅ࡀࡑࡢᏑᅾ
ࢆ▱ࡽ࡞࠸࡜࠿ࠊぢ࡚࠸࡞࠸ࠊ࠶ࡿ࠸ࡣࠊぢ࡚ࡣ࠸ࡓࡀࠊ௒࡛ࡣᛀࢀ࡚࠸ࡿ࡞࡝ࠊࢸࢫ
ࢺ࣭ࢫ࣌ࢵࢡ㏻ࡾ࡟ᚲࡎࡋࡶసࡗ࡚࠸࡞࠸ࠋ
ࡲࡓࠊㄒࡾࡢಙ៰ᛶࢆࡉࡽ࡟ୗࡆࡿせᅉ࡜ࡋ࡚ࡣࠊࢸࢫࢺ࣭ࢫ࣌ࢵࢡ࡟ᇶ࡙࠸࡚సࡗ࡚
࠸࡚ࡶࠊእ㒊ࡢே㛫ࡣࠊ㐣ཤࡢၥ㢟࠿ࡽᵝࠎ࡞஦᯶ࢆ᥎ᐃࡋࡀࡕ࡛ࠊ⮬ศࡓࡕࡀᡭ࡟ࡋ࡚
࠸ࡿ᝟ሗࡣࠊịᒣࡢ୍ゅ࡛࠶ࡿ࡜࠸࠺ព㆑ࡀ࡞࠸ࡇ࡜ࡀከ࠸ࠋ౛࠼ࡤࠊࠕࢸࢫࢺᵓᡂࠖ
ࠕࢸࢫࢺ㡯┠ࡢᩘࠖࠕᩥ❶ࡢᩘࠖࠕࢸࢫࢺ᪉ἲࠖࠕࢸࢫࢺ࣭ࢱࢫࢡࠖࠕࢸ࢟ࢫࢺ࣭ࢱ࢖
ࣉࠖࠕࢸ࢟ࢫࢺࡢ㛗ࡉࠖࠕࢺࣆࢵࢡࠖࠕ࣮ࣜࢲࣅࣜࢸ࢕ࠖࠕᩥἲ㡯┠ࡢ⠊ᅖࠖࠕㄒᙡࡢ⠊ᅖࠖ࡞࡝࡟ࡘ࠸࡚ࡣࠊ㐣ཤࡢၥ㢟ࡣࢸࢫࢺ࣭ࢫ࣌ࢵࢡ࡟ᇶ࡙࠸࡚సࡽࢀ࡚࠸ࡿ࠿ࡶࡋࢀ࡞
࠸ࡀࠊࡑࢀࡀࡍ࡭࡚࡛ࡣ࡞࠸ࠋ౛࠼ࡤࠊࡇࢀࡲ࡛ࡢࠕࢸ࢟ࢫࢺ࣭ࢱ࢖ࣉࠖࡀࠕ≀ㄒ࡛ࠖ࠶ࡗࡓ࡜ࡋ࡚ࡶࠊࡑࢀ௨እࡢࢸ࢟ࢫࢺ࣭ࢱ࢖ࣉࡀࢸࢫࢺ࣭ࢫ࣌ࢵࢡ࡟ྵࡲࢀ࡚࠸࡚ࠊฟ㢟ࡢྍ⬟ᛶࡀ࠶ࡿ࡜ࡋ࡚ࡶࠊእ㒊ࡢே㛫࡟ࡣࡑ࠺ࡣぢ࠼࡞࠸ࡔࢁ࠺ࠋ㸴㸬⤖ㄽ ᮏ✏࡛ࡣࠊࠕゝㄒࢸࢫࢺࡢ୙㏱᫂ᛶࠖࡀࡶࡓࡽࡍゝㄒࢸࢫࢺࡢ࢖ࣥࣃࢡࢺ࡟ࡘ࠸࡚ࠊ࢔
࢘ࢱ࣮࣭ࢧ࣮ࢡࣝࡢㄒࡾࡢศᯒࢆ୰ᚰ࡟ࠊㄽࡌࡓࠋゝㄒࢸࢫࢺࡀ୙㏱࡛᫂࠶ࡿࡓࡵ࡟ࠊࡑ
ࡢෆᐜ࡟ࡘ࠸࡚ᵝࠎ࡞୙ṇ☜࡞ㄒࡾࡀ࡞ࡉࢀ࡚࠸ࡿ࡟ࡶ࠿࠿ࢃࡽࡎࠊཷ㦂⪅ࡓࡕࡣࠊࡑࡢ

1111

根岸 雅史ㄒࡾࢆಙࡌ࡚࠸ࡿྍ⬟ᛶࡀ࠶ࡿࠋၥ㢟࡞ࡢࡣࠊࡇ࠺ࡋࡓ᠈

࡟ᇶ࡙ࡃㄒࡾࡣࠊࢸࢫࢺᮏ᮶

ࡢタィ⌮ᛕ࡟཯ࡋࡓἼཬຠᯝࢆࡶࡓࡽࡋ࡚ࡋࡲ࠺ྍ⬟ᛶࡀ࠶ࡿ࡜࠸࠺ࡇ࡜ࡔࠋࡔ࡜ࡍࢀࡤࠊ
ࢸࢫࢺࡢ㏱᫂ᛶࢆ㧗ࡵࡿࡇ࡜ࡣࡁࢃࡵ࡚㔜せ࡛࠶ࡿ࡜⪃࠼ࡽࢀࡿࠋ
࡜ࡾࢃࡅㄝ᫂㈐௵ࡢồࡵࡽࢀࡿ௒᪥ࠊࢸࢫࢺ㛤Ⓨ⤌⧊ࡣࢸࢫࢺࡢ㏱᫂ᛶࢆ㧗ࡵࡿࡇ࡜࡟
ཬࡧ⭜࡟࡞ࡗ࡚࠸ࡿࡢ࠿ࡶࡋࢀ࡞࠸ࠋࡋ࠿ࡋ࡞ࡀࡽࠊࢸࢫࢺ㛤Ⓨ⤌⧊ࡣࠊࡑࡢ♫఍ⓗ㈐௵
࡟ᇶ࡙ࡁࠊࢸࢫࢺࡢ㏱᫂ᛶࢆ㧗ࡵࡿດຊࢆࡋ࡚࠸࠿࡞ࡅࢀࡤ࡞ࡽ࡞࠸ࡔࢁ࠺ࠋ࡞ࡐ࡞ࡽࡤࠊ
ㄗࡗࡓࢸࢫࢺ⌮ゎࡣࠊㄗࡗࡓᏛ⩦ࢆಁ㐍ࡋࠊࡑࡢࢸࢫࢺࡢࢫࢸ࣮ࢡࢫࡀ㧗ࡅࢀࡤ㧗࠸࡯࡝ࠊ኱ࡁ࡞♫఍ⓗᦆኻࢆ⏕ࢇ࡛ࡋࡲ࠺࠿ࡽ࡛࠶ࡿࠋ
References
Alderson, J. C., & Hamp-Lyons, L. (1996). TOEFL preparation courses: A study of washback.
Language Testing, 13(3), 280-297.
Chalhoub-Deville, M. (2009). The intersection of test impact, validation, and educational reform
policy. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 29, 118-131.
Fulcher, G. (2010). Practical language testing. Hodder Education.
Fulcher, G., & Davidson, F. (2007). Language testing and assessment. London, NY: Routledge.
Hughes, A. (2003). Testing for language teachers. Cambridge University Press.
Muñoz, A. P., & Álvarez, M. E. (2010). Washback of an oral assessment system in the EFL
classroom. Language testing, 27(1), 33-49.
Watanabe, Y. (1996). Does grammar translation come from the entrance examination? Preliminary
findings from classroom-based research. Language Testing, 13(3), 318-333.
ᮡᮧ೺୍㸬(2012)㸬ࠗࡓࡔࡢࢧ࣮࣐ࣛࣜࣥࡀ᫬㛫ࢆ࠿ࡅࡎ࡟༙ᖺ࡛ TOEIC ࢸࢫࢺ࡛ 325 Ⅼ
࠿ࡽ 885 Ⅼ࡟࡞ࢀࡓࣛࢡࣛࢡຮᙉἲ࠘㸬࢔ࢫࢥ࣒㸬

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JACET Kansai Journal, 16, 13-32. (2014) ©JACET Kansai Chapter
ISSN 1880-2281

Printed in JAPAN.

The Effects of Output-oriented pre-task vs. Input-oriented pre-task
Before a Dictogloss Task
Ayako Hirano
Kyoto Sangyo University
ABSTRACTThe purpose of the current study is to examine the effects of two different cases of tasks on passive
voice acquisition and learners’ attention during the each task; an output-oriented pre-task andDictogloss (OT task), and an input-processing based pre-task and Dictogloss (JT task). Dictogloss is
one of the Focus on Form (FonF) tasks, consisting of five steps, and the efficacy of the task onlearners’ grammar acquisition has been reported (Swain, 1995, 2000; Kowal & Swain, 1994, 1997;
Lapkin & Swain, 2000). The study was conducted on 46 EFL learners, divided into two groups overtwo months. The data collection methodology included a grammar test, reconstructed Dictogloss
texts, and student pair talk during the reconstruction process in Dictogloss. Data were quantitatively
and qualitatively analyzed. The results indicated that OT-task had more favorable influence onlearners’ passive voice acquisition, and that learner attention to grammatical forms varied acrosstasks. Furthermore, it was identified that OT-task led students to pay more careful attention to
English input during the Dictogloss task. Lastly, the implications of these findings are discussed inrelation to Swain’s output hypothesis.
Key words: output, dictogloss, pre-task, focus on form

I. INTRODUCTION
There is common agreement among second language acquisition (SLA) researchers andlanguage teachers about the gravity of improving learners’ grammatical accuracy. To date, SLA
researchers have conducted numerous studies on grammar teaching and emphasized the importanceof input (Krashen, 1985; VanPatten, 2007), output (Swain & Lapkin, 1995; Swain, 1995; Storch,
1998; Izumi, 2002; Song & Suh, 2008), interaction (Long, 1983), and noticing (Schmidt, 1990,
1993, 1995). Swain (1995, 2000) claims that output, as well as input, is indispensable in second
language learning. Moreover, language teachers have been encouraged to employ classroom
activities which require students to focus on form within a meaningful, communicative context(Doughty & Williams, 1998; Williams, 2005).
This study is motivated by my own personal experience with pushed output at an interpreter
training school and previous grammar teaching experience. In the present study, pushed output isdefined as a language output produced by stretching learners’ interlanguage (IL) to meet
communicative goals (Swain, 2000). A typical training activity at the interpreter school is the oraltranslation task. In this task, interpreter students first listen to a recorded lecture or speech while13

Ayako Hirano

taking notes. They then orally translate what they heard into a target language (e.g., A Japanese
lecture is translated into English). Afterwards, the teacher presents a model translation. Through theprocess of oral translation, I always noticed the gap between my interlanguage and the target
language (TL). Because the model translation was provided immediately after my own translation
attempt, I was able to pay great attention to the words I had found difficult to translate. Since thisprocedure positively worked to improve my English, I came to believe that the oral output task must
be useful for all language learners.
Later, as an English teacher at a vocational language school, I found my students in TOEIC
preparation class needed to demonstrate grammatical accuracy. I was adopting some FonF tasks
which were used in grammar teaching. Among FonF tasks, Dictogloss seemed suitable for use in
my class because previous research has shown the efficacy of the task for grammar acquisition(Swain, 1995, 2000; Kowal & Swain, 1994, 1997; Lapkin & Swain, 2000; Lapkin, Swain, & Smith,
2002; Shak, 2006; Qin, 2008). However, Nabei (1996) reports one drawback: When learners cannot
understand the first input, they abandon completing the task. Thus, the comprehensibility of the
input determines the success of the Dictogloss task.
Given that learners’ initial understanding of the text is essential in Dictogloss, I thought ofproviding my students with a Japanese translation of the target text. Additionally, I thought having
students do the oral translation activity before Dictogloss would be more effective. Consequently, I
came to think of two tasks: an output-oriented task, which consists of an oral translation activity
before Dictogloss, and an input-processing based task, which consists of Japanese translation
support before Dictogloss. As far as I am aware, however, there is little research examining theeffects of the two tasks. Therefore, I decided to investigate the effects of both tasks. To this end, I
designed and implemented an experiment.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
1. Output and Noticing
Swain (2000) maintains that output is indispensable for second language learners to“complete grammatical processing needed for accurate production” (p. 99). She emphasizes that
input alone is not sufficient for language learning, especially in terms of accuracy. Her claim stems
from her research that took place in the context of French immersion programs in Canada. By
observing children who had spent years in French immersion programs, she found that the children
had a level of competence in the second language (L2) that fell short of native-like abilities. She
hypothesizes that what was lacking for them was sufficient opportunities for language use, and thenshe argues the importance of output.
Kowal and Swain (1997) note that output plays four important roles: It (a) provides theopportunity both for meaningful practice of one’s linguistic resources and for developing
automaticity in their use; (b) provides the opportunity to test hypotheses- in other words, to try outmeans of expression and see if they work; (c) prompts responses from speakers of the target
language that can provide learners with information about the comprehensibility of their utterances;
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The Effects of Output-oriented pre-task vs. Input-oriented pre-task Before a Dictogloss Task

and (d) forces the learner to move from semantic processing to syntactic processing. The threefunctions of output stated by Swain are the noticing triggering role, testing the learner’s hypothesis /interlanguage role, and reflecting on the learner’s own output role (Kowal & Swain,1994, 1997;
Lapkin & Swain, 2000; Lapkin, Swain & Smith, 2002).
Schmidt (1990) emphasizes that noticing is the necessary and sufficient condition forconverting input to intake. He also notes that this requirement of noticing holds true for all aspectsof language such as lexicon, phonology, grammatical form, and pragmatics. Consequently, the key
factor is how language teachers can effectively draw learners’ attention to language forms. Previous
research has shown that Focus on Form techniques favorably work to draw learners’ attention to thetarget language items, and the effectiveness of these techniques has been proven (Izumi, 2009).
2. Dictogloss
Focus on Form (FonF), firstly characterized by Long (1991), refers to a range of pedagogicalinterventions that seek to attract and direct learners’ attention to specific formal aspects of thelanguage code in the context of meaningful language use. The FonF approach seeks to briefly shiftlearners’ attention to linguistic code features as problems occur in the context of an otherwise
meaning-focused lesson (Ortega, 1999; Long & Robinson, 1998 ).
The present study employs a FonF task called Dictogloss or Grammar Dictation, which was
originally introduced by Wajnryb (1990). She claims that the procedure encourages learners toreflect on their own output. The original Dictogloss procedure consists of five steps: (a) A short,dense text is read (twice) to the learners at normal speed; (b) while it is being read, the learners jot
down familiar words and phrases; (c) then, the learners work together in small groups to reconstruct
the text from their shared resources; (d) each group of students produces its own reconstructedversion, aiming at grammatical accuracy and textual cohesion; and (e) the class analyzed andcompares the final versions (Wajnryb, 1990, pp. 5 – 6). In her explanation of Dictogloss, Wajnryb
argues that “through both the task of reconstruction and the following error analysis, students refine
their understanding of the language they have used” (p. 5). To date, a number of studies have
proven the favorable effect of Dictogloss for developing learners’ grammatical accuracy (Swain,
1995, 2000; Kowal & Swain, 1994, 1997; Lapkin & Swain, 2000; Lapkin, Swain, & Smith, 2002;
Shak, 2006; Qin, 2008).
3. Pre-task
The idea of employing pre-task activities has become prevalent in grammar teaching (Ortega,
1999; Park, 2010). According to Richards (2002), the goals of pre-task activities are (a) to provide
language support that can be used in completing a task, (b) to clarify the nature of the task so thatstudents can give less attention to procedural aspects of the task and hence monitor the linguistic
accuracy of their performance while carrying out the task. He proposes some pre-task activities
such as pre-teaching certain linguistic forms, reducing the cognitive complexity of the task, andgiving time to plan the task (pp. 161-162).
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3

Ayako Hirano

For a pre-task activity, which gives time to plan the task, Richards (2002) proposes supplying
schemata, vocabulary, and language forms that students can call upon while completing the task.
This means that providing vocabulary and translation in the L1 for the model text that will bepresented in the L2 in the main task can serve as a pre-task that functions to allow planning time.
Also, because this pre-task supports students’ comprehension, it is considered an input-processing
based task. Furthermore, a pre-task that provides translation in the L1 of the model text can deal
with a drawback on Dictogloss that was reported by Nabei (1996), as I mentioned earlier. She statesthat the difficulty of comprehension could hamper the success of the task.
In terms of another pre-task activity aimed at reducing the cognitive complexity of the task,
Richards (2002) suggests providing students with a chance for prior rehearsal of a task. As an
example, he proposes a simplified version of a pre-task similar to the one the learners will carry out.
In this regard, when the task goal is to reconstruct a model text in the L2, the pre-task can require anoral translation of the model text from the L1 to L2. In this way, the pre-task reduces the cognitive
complexity of the main task. Also, because this pre-task requires “pushed output” from the students,
it is considered an output-oriented task.
Inspired by previous research on the impact of pre-tasks on IL development (Ortega, 1999;
Richards, 2002; Park, 2010), I thought of a pre-task that provides students with text meaning intheir L1 before Dictogloss. In addition, I thought of another pre-task that requires students to orally
produce their own translation in the L2 after listening to the meaning of the text in the L1. It is
predicted that these two kinds of tasks will trigger students’ noticing two times. Consequently, thepresent study examines two types of cases. The first is an output-oriented task: an oral translation
activity before Dictogloss (OT task); and the other is an input-processing based task: Japanesetranslation support before Dictogloss (JT task). Two specific research questions are addressed in thisstudy.
(1) Do the OT task and the JT task promote language learners’ acquisition of English passive voice
constructions?
(2) Does the reconstruction process in Dictogloss contribute to learners’ negotiation of a target
form? More specifically, what do the students notice and discuss during the reconstruction process?
The research question contains one term that need to be defined prior to the study:acquisition. Several researchers distinguish between two types of acquisition: acquisition as theinternalization of new forms, and acquisition as an increase in control over forms that have alreadybeen internalized (Ellis, 1997; Bialystok & Sharwood Smith, 1985; de Bot, 1996; Lyster, 2004). In
the present study, I apply the latter definition, an increase in control over forms that have alreadybeen internalized.
 III. METHOD
1. Setting and Participants
The data were collected in three intact, credit-bearing TOEIC classes, which I taught at avocational school in Japan. The participants were 58 EFL learners (50 women and 8 men) aged 18
16

The Effects of Output-oriented pre-task vs. Input-oriented pre-task Before a Dictogloss Task

to 26. Their nationalities were Japanese (46), Chinese (9), Korean (2), and Thai (1). Theinternational students’ Japanese proficiency was regarded as advanced, as all had passed Level 1 or
2 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) before enrolling at the school. All participants’
English proficiency was considered intermediate, based on their TOEIC scores taken in July,
ranging from 405 to 795 (average 633). They were divided into two groups, an oral translation
activity group (OTG) and a Japanese translation support group (JTG). The OTG consisted of one
first-year class and one second-year class, and the JTG, one first-year student class. The data of
those who were absent from more than two treatment sessions or who did not take the pre- or posttests were discarded. In addition, the data of the triad were removed. Thus, the final analysis
considered 46 students, 27 (5 international students) in the OTG, and 19 (6 international students) in
the JTG.
2. Research Schedule
The study was carried out in a 90-minutes class from October to December 2011, over a
period of about two months. The study consisted of two practice sessions, a pre-test session, four
treatment sessions, and a post-test session. A research schedule for this study can be seen in Table 1.
At sessions 1 and 2, the students underwent two practice sessions and completed practice
Dictogloss 1 and 2. During the two practice sessions, the students were provided instruction on how
to operate an IC recorder. In session 3, they were given a pre-test consisting of a grammar test anda pre-Dictogloss test.
Subsequently, from sessions 4 through 7, students were given treatment and carried out
Dictogloss 1, 2, 3, and 4. During the four treatment sessions, each dyad recorded their interaction
with an IC recorder. After the treatment sessions, in session 8, the students were given a post-test,
which was the same as the grammar test given in session 3.

Session

Date

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

10/18, 10/26
10/25, 10/28
10/27, 11/2
11/8, 11/9
11/15, 11/16
11/24, 11/25
11/29, 11/30
12/1, 12/2

Table 1. Research scheduleIC
Test
recordingżżpre-testżżżż
post-test

Activity
Practice Dictogloss 1
Practice Dictogloss 2
Treatment Dictogloss 1
Treatment Dictogloss 2
Treatment Dictogloss 3
Treatment Dictogloss 4

3. Target Form
The target forms in this study were English passive voice constructions (e.g., I was
introduced to a manager) and perfect form (e.g., I have lost my key. / I had lost my key). The reason
for selecting these forms derives from the results of a term-end test in the previous year. The test
17
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Ayako Hirano

was taken by 210 students enrolled in TOEIC classes at the vocational school where I was teaching.
The results indicated passive voice and perfect form were their weak points in terms of grammaticalforms. In the present study, however, the coefficient of reliability of perfect form in the grammar
test results was relatively low (pre-test, Į = .35; post-test, Į = .71). Therefore, the results of perfectform in the grammar test are excluded in the study.
4. Material
This study utilized three kinds of materials: (a) grammar test, (b) pre-Dictogloss text, and (c)four Dictogloss texts.
4.1 Grammar Test
The grammar test was administered as pre- and post-tests to assess the participants’productive ability of the passive voice. The sentences were taken from Grammar in Use
Intermediate (Murphy, 2009) and 600 Essential Words for the TOEIC (Lougheed, 2008). The test
consisted of 20 independent questions: 10 passive voice questions and 10 perfect form questions. At
the end of each question, the dictionary form of a verb was given. The students were directed to fillin the blank by changing the given verb form into one that fit grammatically within the sentence.
Blanks in the passive voice questions were expected to be filled in with the target form, be + thepast participle verb form.
10 perfect form questions out of 20 questions were excluded when the test was scored.
Students received two points for each correct passive voice form; therefore, the maximum score
was 20. The answers were classified into three types: (a) correct be + past participle, (b) correct be+ past participle with wrong tense, and (c) wrong form. Type (a) answers were scored as 2, type (b)as 1, and type (c) as 0. As for type (a), no deductions were made for minor mistakes such as a
misspelling (e.g., If the bills [are not payed] in five days, the company will seek damages.) or a third-person-singular error (e.g., Office branches [is located] throughout the metropolitan area).
There was a one-month interval between the pre- and post-tests. The same form and sameorder of the questions was used for the both tests. The reliability of the pre- and post-tests were
acceptable (pre-test, Į = .72; post-test, Į = .72).
4.2 Pre-Dictogloss Text
A pre-Dictogloss text was used as a pre-Dictogloss test employed before the treatment toassess each student’s ability to conduct Dictogloss. The text was taken from Crown (Sanseido,2007), an English textbook for second-year high school students. The pre-Dictogloss text comprised
six sentences and the topic was Ayers Rock. The students were provided a sheet with a word list thatwould appear in the model English, and then instructed to individually reconstruct the model text
after listening to it.
4.3 Dictogloss Text
The four Dictogloss texts used in the treatment sessions were taken from Grammar Dictation(Wajnryb, 1990), which consists of three levels, pre-intermediate, intermediate, and advanced (p.
18The Effects of Output-oriented pre-task vs. Input-oriented pre-task Before a Dictogloss Task

20). Four texts at an intermediate level were chosen for the study. The topics of the texts were
natural phenomena, technology, job satisfaction, and housing and the law (See Appendix 1). The
texts comprised five or six sentences. A CD was prepared as the listening material for the preDictogloss and Dictogloss texts. In the recording, a female American English teacher read all the
passages at a natural speed.
Qualities of students’ reconstructed texts for the pre-Dictogloss test and Dictogloss 1, 2, 3,
and 4 were assessed according to the same criteria. An accurate use of the passive voice (be + past
participle) and perfect form (has/have/had + past participle) was scored as 1, and wrong forms werescored as 0. No deductions were made for a misspelling, third-person-singular errors, or tense errors
in either passive voice or the perfect. The maximum score of the pre-Dictogloss text was 2 for thepassive voice, and 2 for the perfect. The maximum scores of Dictogloss 1, 2, 3 and 4 were 4, 2, 1
and 3, respectively, for passive voice, and 1, 2, 2, and 4, respectively, for the perfect.
I removed the reconstructed texts written by triads and dyads containing learners who were
not part of the study. Subsequently, 46 pre-Dictogloss texts and 68 reconstructed texts covering
Dictogloss 1, 2, 3, and 4 were analyzed.
5. Procedure
The treatment session consisted of six steps. Figure 1 shows the overall procedure. At Step 1
in Figure 1, all students were given a sheet with a word list. The word list shows content words thatappear in the Dictogloss text.

step

OTG

JTG

1

Word check

Word check2

Listening to Japanesetranslation

Listening to Japanesetranslation

3

Oral translation
Japanese эEnglish

Listening to Japanesetranslation

4

Listening to English
model text x2

Listening to English
model text x2

5text reconstruction

text reconstruction

6

feedback

feedback

Figure 1. Two groups’ steps of the treatment
After the students studied the words in class, they listened to a Japanese translation of the
19
7Ayako Hirano

model text at Step 2, as shown in Figure 1. Then, the two groups engaged in different activities.
The OTG listened to the Japanese translation one more time and orally translated it from Japanese
to English. On the other hand, the JTG listened to the Japanese translation again but were not asked
to provide an oral translation. From here on, the two groups performed exactly the same activities.
Students listened to an English text twice and then collaboratively reconstructed the text in pairs.
During the reconstruction process at Step 5, the pair interactions were recorded. Afterwards, they
checked their answers by comparing the model text provided in class by the teacher. The same
treatment procedures were repeated in the following three treatment sessions. I arranged for every
student to write the reconstructed text of the group in the two practice and four treatment sessions.
For example, in the first and third treatment sessions, students sitting on the left side were assigned
to write the text, and in the second and forth, ones sitting on the right side were assigned to do so.
The treatment took between 30 and 40 minutes and was conducted once a week.
6. Language Related Episodes (LREs)
The recording of pair-interaction at the reconstruction stage in Dictogloss (Step 5 illustrated
in Figure 1) was transcribed using Storch’s (2002) transcription conventions (See Appendix 2).
Swain and Lapkin (1995) define a language related episode (LRE) as follows:
any segment of the protocol in which a learner either spoke about a language problem he/she
encountered while writing and solved it either correctly or incorrectly, or simply solved it (again,
either correctly or incorrectly) without having explicitly identified it as a problem (p. 378).
Following their definition, I examined the transcripts and identified any learner utterancesthat indicated the learners encountered or recognized a linguistic problem. I then traced the verbal
exchanges until I recognized a learner utterance that suggested they either solved their problem(successfully or unsuccessfully) or abandoned trying. The stretch of the exchanges from theidentification of the problem to the end of the discussion is considered one LRE.
After coding all transcripts, I examined the target problem of LREs. There were three main
problems: passive voice problem (PV- LRE), perfect form problem (PF- LRE), and other problem(O-LRE). O-LREs included issues related to determiners, word order, plural or singular, verb form
except for passive voice or perfect form, tense, lexis, prepositions and linking words.
Example 1 shows a PV-LRE. In utterance 96, S1 confirmed that the learners should use
passive voice. Then, in utterance 97, S2 agreed. They resolved the problem, thus ending theepisode.
Example 1
94 : S1: ࡇࡗࡕࡣぬ࠼࡚ࡿࠋ/ Some people are affected. /    ( = I remember this part. / Some people are affected. / )95 : S2: / some…/
20

The Effects of Output-oriented pre-task vs. Input-oriented pre-task Before a Dictogloss Task

96 : S1: / are affected- /ࠊࡸࡗࡓࡼࡡ㸽ࡇࡇࠊཷ
ཷࡅ㌟ࡸࡗࡓࡼࡡ㸽( = / are affected - / Am I right? This sentence was passive voice, wasn’t it?)
97 : S2: ࠺ࢇ࠺ࢇࠋࡑ࠺ࡸࡗࡓࠋ
( = Yes, yes. That’s right.)(All the Japanese utterances are translated by the author)
Further, as I examined the dialogue, I found students referring to Japanese translation
provided during the pre-task stage. Although their reference to Japanese translation is not exactly alinguistic problem, it appeared important evidence. This is because their reference indicates they
paid attention to language in order to carry out the reconstruction task. Thus, I coded the students’reference to Japanese translation as a JT-LRE. Example 2 illustrates a JT-LRE. In utterance 172, S4
confirmed a Japanese translation. S3 told S4 Japanese translation and then they composed an
English sentence, thus ending the episode.
Example 2
171: S3: sense of directions… ((a correct word is dissatisfaction))
172: S4: ᪥ᮏㄒࡢព࿡ࠊఱࡔࡗࡅ㸽( = What was the Japanese translation?)
173: S3: / ୙‶ࡢ…୙‶ឤ /ࠊ ࡸ࠿ࡽࠊከศ/ sense of direction / ࠿࡞ࠊࡗ࡚ᛮࡗ࡚ࢇࡅ࡝ࠋ
( = /dissatisfaction…..dissatisfaction / , so, maybe / sense of direction / , I thought.)
174: S4: / sense of…/.࠿࠶ࠋ
( = / sense of…/, I see.)(All the Japanese utterances are translated by the author)
LREs may contain more than one LRE as in Example 3. This example shows a JT-LRE isembedded in a PF-LRE. These were independently coded and counted as one JT-LRE and one PFLRE. In utterance 96, S3 asked whether the learners should use the past tense or the perfect; as aresult, this episode was categorized into a PF-LRE. Further, in utterance 98, S3 uttered Japanesetranslation to make sure which form they should use. This is the trigger for a JT-LRE. In utterance
99, S4 said they should use “have” because the sentence includes a phrase “7 years.” In utterance
100, S5 reconstructed the sentence, thus ending the episode.
Example 3
94: S5: they…[୺ᙇࡍࡿ]( = / they…/ /claim /.)95: S6: [୺ᙇࡍࡿ]( = /claim /.)96: S5: / claimed? they have claimed? /( = / claimed? they have claimed?)
21
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Ayako Hirano

97: S6: ࠺ࢇࠊ/ they /( = Yes, /they /.)98: S5: ୺ᙇࡋࡓ㸽୺ᙇࡋࡲࡋࡓࠊࡗ࡚ゝࡗ࡚ࡓࡗࡅ? ࡓࡔࡢ୺ᙇࡋࡲࡋࡓࠊࡸࡗࡓࡽࠊ/claimed / ࡛…࠸࠸࡜ᛮ࠺ࡅ࡝ࠋ
( = claimed? claimed? What did the model say? If the model said just “claimed ((past tense)),” I
think we can use / claimed /.)99: S6: 㸵ᖺࡸࡗࡓࡽࠊ/ have / ࡕࡷ࠺࠿࡞㸽࠸ࡿ࠿࡞㸽( = ((a phrase)) seven years requires / have /, I suppose. Should we use it ((have)) )?
100: S5: / have / ࠸ࡿ㸽㸵㸵ᖺࡶࡢ㛫ࠊ࠶ࠊ࡛ࡶࡑࢀࡣࠊ㸵ᖺࡶࡢ㛫ࠊ㢗ࢇ࡛࠸ࡓ࡜୺ᙇ
ࡋࡓࠋ( = Do you think we need / have / ? Seven years, for seven years, well…. but…it…, they claimed
they have asked … for seven years.)(All the Japanese utterances are translated by the author)
The LRE categorization was checked for inter-coder reliability. Another experienced
English teacher from the same vocational school coded 10% of the data. She received detailed
instructions before coding. The inter-coder reliability was good (r = .97). All disagreements wereresolved through discussion.
IV. RESULTS
1. Effectiveness in promoting EFL learners’ acquisition of English passive voice constructions
In order to answer this question, (a) grammar test results and (b) the results of reconstructed
texts that were employed as a pre-Dictogloss test and Dictogloss 1, 2, 3, and 4 were examined. First,
grammar test results are scrutinized. The descriptive statistics for the grammar test are shown in
Table 2. In order to confirm the homogeneity of the two groups’ passive voice proficiency levels
before the treatment, an independent t-test was conducted on the results of the pre-test. The t-test
showed there was no significant difference at the .05 probability level between the OTG and JTG, t= -.37, p = .71.
Table 2. Descriptive Statistics for the Grammar Test (maximum score: 20)
PretestPosttest
Mean (SD) Mean (SD)OTG (n=27)
8.8 (4.6)
11.4 (5.1)
JTG (n=19)
9.4 (5.4)
9.5 (4.6)
Subsequently, an independent t-test was conducted on the each of the groups’ gaps between
the pre- and post-tests. Table 3 indicates the results of the t-test. This t-test compares the twogroups’ differences between the pre- and post-tests (Haebara, Ichikawa, & Shimoyama, 2001;
Yoshida, 2006; Yamada, Sugisawa, & Murai, 2008). According to the t-test, there was a significant
22

The Effects of Output-oriented pre-task vs. Input-oriented pre-task Before a Dictogloss Task

difference, t = 2.34, df = 43, p < .001, and the effect size was between medium and large, d = 0.7.
The results illustrate that the OT task more effectively promoted language learners’ acquisition ofpassive voice, in comparison to the JT task.
Table 3. The t-test on the Two Groups’ Gaps between the Pre- and Post-tests
Mean (SD) t-value
p-value
Effect size (d)OTG (n = 27)
2.56 (2.4)
2.33.001***
0.7(medium-large)
JTG (n = 19)
0.16 (4.6)***p<.001
Second, I examined the results of reconstructed texts that were employed as the pre-Dictogloss
test, and Dictogloss 1, 2, 3, and 4. Because the maximum scores for the pre-Dictogloss text andDictogloss 1, 2, 3, and 4 texts were different, each text was scrutinized on the basis of whatpercentage was scored. On the pre-Dictogloss test, the passive voice and perfect form each had amaximum score of 2. In the passive voice results for the pre-Dictogloss test, the OTG scored 69 %,and the JTG, 63 %. These results indicate there was no significant difference between the OTG and
JTG on passive voice. In the perfect form results for the pre-Dictogloss test, the OTG scored 59 %,and the JTG, 71 %. The results show that the JTG scored better than the OTG on perfect form. The
results of the pre-Dictogloss test are shown in Table 4.
Table 4. The Results of Reconstructed Texts for Pre-Dictogloss Test
Score
37/54
OTG
ratio*(69%)(n = 27)
0.69
SD
Passive
Voice
Score
24/38
JTG
ratio
(63%)
(n = 19)
1.3
SD
Score
32/54
OTG
ratio
(59%)
(n = 27)
1.2
SD
Perfect
Form
Score
27/38
JTG
ratio
(71%)
(n = 19)
1.4
SDNote. SD: standard deviation; ratio*= score / maximum
Subsequently, the results of the Dictogloss 1, 2, 3, and 4 were examined. In each treatment,
the number of students who attended the class varied. In addition, the maximum scores for passive
voice and perfect form for Dictogloss 1, 2, 3, and 4 changed. Hence, the maximum scores of eachtreatment for the OTG and JTG were determined by multiplying the number of dyads who attended
the treatment session by the number of questions for passive voice and perfect form, respectively.
Then, each group’s text was scrutinized on the basis of what percentage was scored. After the
maximum scores covering Dictogloss 1, 2, 3 and 4 were calculated, each group’s overall percentage
23
11

Ayako Hiranoof correct answers covering Dictogloss1, 2, 3 and 4 were tallied for passive voice and perfect form
respectively. Table 5 illustrates the results of reconstructed texts.
Table 5. The Results of Reconstructed Texts for Dictogloss 1,2,3 and 4
Dictogloss1
Dictogloss2
Dictogloss3 Dictogloss4
Total
19/30
82/102
Score
37/44
18/18
8/10
O
(63%)
(80%)
ratio*(84%)(100%)
(80%)
T
0.60
0.83
0.98
0.00
SD
G
10
10
40
n**
11
9
Passive
Voice
20/24
49/68
Score
14/24
11/12
4/8
J
(50%)
(83%)
(72%)
(ratio)
(58%)
(92%)
T
0.50
0.71
0.75
0.37
SD
G
8
8
28
6
6
n
18/20
38/40
82/89
Score
9/11
17/18
O
(90%)
(95%)
(92%)
(ratio)
(82%)
(94%)
T
0.46
0.4
0.39
0.31
SD
G
10
10
40
11
9
n
Perfect
Form
Score
4/6
8/12
13/16
24/32
49/66
J
(ratio)
(67%)
(67%)
(81%)
(75%)
(72%)
T
0.47
0.87
0.48
1
SD
G
28
6
6
8
8
n
Note. ratio*= percentage of correct answers; n**= number of dyads
As for the results of passive voice, the OTG scored 80 %, and the JTG, 72 %. Regarding
perfect form, the OTG scored 92 %, and the JTG, 72 %. These results indicate the OTG performed
better than the JTG on both passive voice and the perfect.
These results obtained from the grammar test and reconstructed texts indicate that the OT task
has a tendency to promote learners’ acquisition of English passive voice in comparison to the JT
task.
2. What the students notice and discuss during the reconstruction process
In order to answer this question, the percentages of the four types of LREs produced by the
OTG and JTG were examined. Among 420 LREs identified among the OTG’s pair discussions, 67(16%) were discussion on perfect form while 25 (6%) were on passive voice. They also made 63
LREs (15 %) in reference to Japanese translation models provided in the pre-task. In other words,
the OTG focused more on perfect form than the other target form, passive voice, during thereconstruction process in Dictogloss.
On the other hand, among the 360 LREs that the JTG produced, 106 (30 %) LREs wererelated to Japanese translation models provided during the pre-task stage. Approximately similar
numbers of LREs (33 or 11 % and 27 or 9 %) were produced in reference to the target forms,
perfect form and passive voice, respectively.
Other LREs (O-LREs) include issues related to determiners, word order, plural or singular,

24

The Effects of Output-oriented pre-task vs. Input-oriented pre-task Before a Dictogloss Task

verb form except for passive voice or perfect form, tense, lexis, and prepositions and linking words,
as mentioned earlier. O-LREs were 63 percent of the total produced by the OTG and 46 percent of
those produced by the JTG. The results are juxtaposed in Table 6.
Table 6. Ratio (%) and Sum of Four LREs in Each Group
Passive voice
Perfect form Japanese translation
Other(PV-LRE)(PF-LRE)(JT-LRE)(O-LRE)
Ratio (Sum)
Ratio (Sum)
Ratio (Sum)
Ratio (Sum)
6% (25)16% (67)
15% (63)63% (265)

OTG(n*=40)JTG
9% (27)
11% (33)
34% (106)46% (140)(n*=28)Note. n*= total number of dyad’s interactions covering Dictogloss1, 2, 3 and 4

Total
Ratio (Sum)100% (420)
100% (306)

Careful examination of O-LREs revealed that some students in OTG alone made interestingutterances. As in Example 4 I will present later, the OTG participants appeared to make a linguisticcomparison between what they thought the language should be and what they thought they heard in
the English model in the Dictogloss text. Since learners’ verbal protocols during the reconstruction
process are evidence of learners’ attention, I identified such a segment as a “comparison episode.” A
comparison episode starts when a student indicates he/she felt discrepancies between what he/shethought the form was (during oral translation in the pre-task) and what he/she heard in the English
model of the Dictogloss. The comparison episodes are embedded in LREs dealing with a linguistic
problem such as verb form, prepositions, and determiners.
Example 4 illustrates a comparison episode. In utterance 26, S8 says she thought “why?,”which represents that she noticed a discrepancy between her IL and the model English bycomparing them.
Example 4 (O-LRE: verb form)
23 : S7: ࡛ࡶࠊ/ bark / ?
( = However, was it / bark /?)24 : S8: ࡑ࠺ࡸࡡࢇࠋ࡛ࡶࠊࡇࡇࡣ / bark / ࡋ࠿ゝࢃ࡬ࢇ࠿ࡗ࡚ࢇࠋ
( = Yeah, it was ((weird)), but the model said only / bark /.)25 : S7: ࠶ࡗࠊࡑ࠺࡞ࢇ㸽( = Oh, really? )26 : S8: ࠺ࢇࠊ࡞࡞ࢇ࡛ࡸࢁࡗ࡚ᛮࡗ࡚ࠊࢃ࠿ࡽࢇ࠿ࡗ࡚ࠋ
( = Yes. I thought “Why ? ,” but I didn’t have any idea. )(All the Japanese utterances are translated by the author)
Example 5 presents another comparison episode. In utterance 196, S14 explained that during
the second listening pass, she carefully paid attention to places where she had missed words on the25
13Ayako Hirano

first attempt. However, she thought the model English said still / at /. This is indicative that she
found a difference between her IL and the incoming English on the first attempt by making acomparison. Furthermore, it demonstrates how she carefully paid attention to the incoming speechon the second attempt in order to check her hypothesis or IL.
Example 5 (O-LRE: preposition)
189 : S13: ⪺ࡁྲྀࢀࡓ㸽( = Were you able to catch the word? )190 : S14: ࠼ࠊ࡞ࢇ࠿ࠊ඲↛⪺ࡇ࠼ࢇࡃ࡚ࠊ/ a / ࡜ࠊ/ at / ࡗ࡚⪺ࡇ࠼࡚ࠋ   (= Well, I couldn’t catch it at all, just…/ a / or / at / …)
191 : S13: / at? /192 : S14: ࡑࢇ࡞ࢇࠊࡑࢇ࡞ࢃࡅࠊ࡞࠸ࡸࢇ࠿㸽/ ຍ࠼࡚㸽 / ࠾࠿ࡋ࠸ࡸࢇࠋ
( = That can’t be it, don’t you think so ? / Additionally? / It sounds weird. )193 : S13: ࢃ࠿ࡽࢇࠋ
( = I have no idea. )194 : S14: ࠼㸽࡜ᛮࡗ࡚ࠋ2 ᅇࠊ⪺࠸ࡓࡸࢇ㸽( = I thought, “What?” We listened twice, right? )195 : S13: ࠺ࢇࠋ( = Yes. )196 : S14: 1 ᅇ┠࡛⪺ࡇ࠼࡬ࢇ࠿ࡗࡓ࠿ࡽࠊ2 ᅇ┠ࠊࡕࡻࡗ࡜ὀពࡋ࡜ࡗ࡚ࢇࡅ࡝ࠊ࡝࠺⪺࠸࡚ࡶ / at /ࡗ࡚⪺ࡇ࠼࡚ࠋ( = I missed catching it on the first attempt, so the second time I carefully listened to it((to identify the word )), but it still sounded / at / .)(All the Japanese utterances are translated by the author)
These results show that (a) the reconstruction process of the Dictogloss task did notencourage the OTG to discuss target forms as much as expected, (b) during the reconstruction
process, what the learners talked about the most were language problems other than target forms,
such as plural or singular, prepositions and determiners, (c) the OTG talked about perfect form more
frequently than passive voice, (d) the JTG tried to recall the meaning of Japanese translation during
the reconstruction process, and (e) during the reconstruction process, five OTG learners compared
their IL and the model English in Dictogloss, and discussed the discrepancy between their IL andthe model English.
V. DISCUSSION
The findings for the two research questions reveal that the OT task is as an effective pre-task
for acquisition of passive voice when it is conducted before Dictogloss in comparison to the JT
task. As I mentioned earlier, acquisition in the present study is defined as an increase in control overforms that have already been internalized (Ellis, 1997; Bialystok & Sharwood Smith, 1985; de Bot,
26

The Effects of Output-oriented pre-task vs. Input-oriented pre-task Before a Dictogloss Task

1996; Lyster, 2004).
The findings in this study support the output hypothesis (Swain, 1995, 2000; Kowal & Swain,
1994, 1997; Lapkin & Swain, 2000; Swain & Lapkin, 1995, 1998, 2001) and noticing hypothesis(Rutherford & Sharwood Smith, 1985; Schmidt, 1990, 1993, 1995). As I presented in the result
section, the OTG gained better command of English passive voice after the OT task, an oraltranslation pre-task and Dictogloss. The OT task, an output-oriented task, provided the OTG with
opportunities for noticing language features several times. According to the output hypothesis, oneof the functions of output is the noticing/ triggering role, which facilitates the second language
acquisition.
The noticing hypothesis states that learners’ attention to the specific language form isnecessary for learning; therefore it was expected that frequent PV-LREs would be observed if the
OTG participants had learned passive voice. The grammar test results indicated the OTG’s better
performance on passive voice. Yet, the OTG participants did not produce as frequent PV-LREs as
expected. These contradictory findings could be explained when we consider the task procedures
and the data collection process in this study. The OTG participants were actually given two output
opportunities; thus two noticing opportunities. Being an output task, the OT task in the pre-taskstage could have required the students to pay attention to language before they actually heard theEnglish model in Dictogloss. Their attention to linguistic forms during this pre-task stage could
have enhanced their understanding of the forms at the main task stage, Dictogloss.
As I presented in Example 4 in the result section, some OTG participants made comparison
between what they thought the form should be (based on their own English translation attempt
based on Japanese cues) and what they heard in the model passage during Dictogloss. If the form isrelatively easy and salient to process, they could have successfully learned the form during the oraltranslation task stage before Dictogloss. Thus, they did not have to discuss the form with the partner
during the reconstruction stage at which LREs were collected. There is a possibility that the OTG
resolved many passive voice problems at the oral translation pre-task stage and students did nothave to produce PV-LREs. This data collection process might have resulted in the contradictory
findings, infrequent PV-LREs but the better outcome in the grammar test by the OTG. Of course, afuture research is necessary to confirm this hypothesis by collecting data during the oral translation
pre-task.
Although the OTG made infrequent PV-LREs, it did not mean that they generated infrequent
LREs in general; in fact, they produced as many as 67 PF-LREs (16%) in contrast to PV-LREs (25or 6%).The results may be closely related to the Japanese linguistic feature, more specifically,
which language form is salient from the standpoint of Japanese. As I have mentioned earlier,passive voice could have been salient to the students because the same feature exists in the Japanese
language. Previous studies showed (Leow, 1997; Lyster, 2004; Park, 2010) that salient language
form or feature is more likely to attract a foreign language learner’s attention than less salient one;thus, the OTG learners could have paid attention to passive voice in the earlier stage of the wholetask and produced infrequent LREs. On the other hand, perfect form does not exist in Japanese27
15

Ayako Hirano

grammar and is a difficult tense concept for Japanese EFL learners. The OTG members similarly
had the opportunities to notice linguistic problems in using perfect form at the oral translation stage
and to notice the appropriate use of perfect form in the English model in Dictgloss. Unlike passive
voice, the students discussed the perfect form problems during the reconstruction stage ofDictogloss. The different degrees of the OTG learners’ discussion on the two target forms could
have stemmed from the level of difficulties. It means the salience of the linguistic features from theview of Japanese.
Comparison episodes in which a student compared his/her own attempt of translation with theincoming model speech were found only in the data of the OTG dyads. These episodes show thatthe reconstruction process in the OT task provided these OTG members with opportunities to reflect
on their own attempt and notice the difference between their IL and the model English. Student 8 in
Example 4 mentioned that she thought “Why? ” after listening to English (line 26). Her utterance
illustrates that Student 8 reflected on her translation attempt and noticed a discrepancy between her
IL and model English by comparing them. In other words, learners’ discussion during thereconstruction process in Dictogloss is influenced by the linguistic resources that learners have.
Because the OTG students were given opportunities to think of English translation based onJapanese cues, the OTG paid careful attention to English input during Dictogloss. Student 14 in
Example 5 clearly claimed that she listened to the English passage even more carefully at thesecond time (line 196). The OT task provided the OTG students with L1 cues and incomplete L2 aslinguistic resources before they listened to L2 input in Dictogloss.
On the other hand, LREs produced by the JTG students revealed that Japanese cues provided
during the pre-task made them rely heavily on meaning comprehension; subsequently they tried totranslate the L1 meaning into English during the reconstruction process. Because the JTG
participants were given only L1 meaning as resource, it is likely that they did not make best use of
L2 input provided in Dictogloss.
The entire set of findings suggests that the OT task can favorably enhance the effects ofDictogloss, the main task of the present study. Dictogloss itself promotes learners’ noticing of
language forms and incoming English in the Dictogloss text. Considering the characteristics ofDictogloss, the OT task, an output-oriented pre-task, seems to increase the efficacy of Dictogloss.
VI. CONCLUSION 
This study explored the impacts of two cases of tasks, OT task and JT task, on acquisition ofpassive voice and learners’ attention. The findings suggest that compared with the JT task, the OT
task has a tendency to promote learners’ acquisition of English passive voice. In addition, an outputoriented pre-task and an input-processing based pre-task function differently in terms ofmanipulating learners’ attention during the task. In this regard, I believe that my study sheds lighton the importance of a pre-task. A well-thought-out pre-output task can promote the efficacy of themain task.
This research contains several limitations. The first limitation was the participants’ L1. Even
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The Effects of Output-oriented pre-task vs. Input-oriented pre-task Before a Dictogloss Task

though Japanese translation was used in the task, Japanese was not the L1 for some participants.
There was no choice but to include non-Japanese participants in order to keep appropriate sample
sizes. The non-Japanese participants’ Japanese proficiency was proven to be relatively high, but
Japanese was their L2, not L1. Therefore, this issue should be addressed in future research. Anotherissue concerns learner variables such as personality or learning style. In terms of LREs, previous
research has examined the effects of personality, for instance, dominant, passive, or strong (Storch,
2001, 2002). Park (2010) reports that if one member of a dyad is form-oriented while the other ismeaning-oriented, and the former dominates the latter, the meaning-oriented learner might produce
more LREs than he/she normally would. Future studies should eliminate these personal variables asmuch as possible. In addition, future studies should put a longer interval between pre- and post-tests
in order to eliminate the possibility of a practice-effect variable.
I hope that the findings and implications of the current study will be beneficial to English
teachers as well as EFL learners who are searching for an effective activity for acquiring English
passive voice.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my gratitude to anonymous reviewers for their useful comments.
NOTE
This article is based on the author’s unpublished master thesis submitted to the Graduate School of
Foreign Language Education and Research, Kansai University, Osaka, Japan.
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Appendix 1: A Text Used in Dictogloss 2
1. The Earth is only a tiny part of an endless universe.
2. Many secrets in the universe are waiting to be uncovered.
3. Over the last twenty years, enormous amounts of money have been invested in space exploration.
4. This policy has been criticized by some people since the beginning of the space race.
5. Certainly it is impossible to halt the race.
6. However, this issue should be fully debated.
Appendix 2: Transcription conventions( )nonverbal sound, e.g., (laugh)(= )English translation of Japanese expressions…(multiple periods)  short pause, between 0.5 and 3 seconds
xxx
words/ phrases difficult to decipher
italics
word/s pronounced with emphasis[
beginning of simultaneous/overlapping talk (end of over lapping talk isindicated by )]!
an exclamation mark denotes a sharp rise at the end of a word or phrase?
a question mark denote a sharp rise at the end of a word or phrase“”
quotation marks denote that the participant is reading the given text
(e.g., instructions, text given in the editing task)
Woronly part of a word is pronounced; i.e., utterances are cut off or unfinishedw-o-r
the speaker is spelling out the word(( ))comments made by the researcher to describe other phenomena,
e.g, ((writing))

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JACET Kansai Journal, 16, 33-49. (2014) ©JACET Kansai Chapter
16
ISSN 1880-2281
Printed in JAPAN.

Using the Novelization of the Movie, Dead Poets Society
in an EFL Reading Course
Cheena Fujioka
University of Marketing and Distribution Sciences

ABSTRACTThis article describes the use of the novelization and tasks which were developed for a reading EFL
course at the university level. For this purpose, the novelization of the American movie, Dead Poets
Society (Kleinbaum, 1989), was utilized for the academic year. Along with viewing the movie,
various types of graphic organizers were used for assigned tasks in order to assist the students’comprehension of the content of the story and the characters and to encourage empathic reactions
and critical thinking skills of the students. This authentic literary text was used throughout the year
to illustrate a sense of achievement as well as to arouse a sense of community among the students
and the teacher through sharing their personal emotional reactions to the plot, characters, and thepoems which appeared in the story. The class survey that was conducted at the end of the year
resulted in positive feedback for the method of using a novelization with the movie for enhancing
empathy and critical thinking skills among the students.
Key words: novelization of a movie, content-based literature instruction, poetry, graphic organizers

I. INTRODUCTION
Traditionally in Japan, English had mostly been taught with Western classical ormodern literature at the university level. Yet, up to the 1990s, English education shiftedt o a m o r e p r a c t i c a l , c o m m u n i c a t i o n - o r i e n t e d o n e i n a n e ff o r t t o r e s p o n d t ocommunication needs in the real world. However, in recent years, student motivation for learning
English seems to be declining in many EFL classrooms in Japan. Japanese educators in higher
education remain challenged to develop materials and methods which strive to motivate theirstudents. In such a difficult time, reviving the use of literature (in content-based EFL) can offer
motivating, effective materials for teaching Japanese students, along with the implementation ofextensive reading that has been recognized and is expanding nation-wide. Despite some arguments
against its pedagogical value, the gradual restoration in teaching L2 with literary texts has been
evident in more recent years (Carter, 2007; Hismanoglu, 2005; Maley, 2001). This is due to thecharacteristics of literature providing L2 learners with “valuable authentic material,” “culturalenrichment,” “language enrichment,” and “personal involvement” (Collie & Slater, 1990, pp. 3-6),
as long as the literary text is well-selected, relevant and is based on L2 learners’ level of English

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Cheena FUJIOKA

proficiency. Hence, in this paper, literature-based instruction using the novelization of an American
movie, Dead Poets Society (Kleinbaum, 1989), is examined as an effective teaching medium,
hoping to raise L2 learners’ empathy and critical thinking skills as well as overall English
proficiency in a university EFL classroom.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Three models of teaching literature
According to Carter & Long, Lazar (as cited in Clandfield, n.d., p. 2), there are the following
three models that can be used to teach a literary text in the language classroom:
The cultural model
views a literary text as a product. This means that it is treated as a source of information
about the target culture. It is the most traditional approach, often used in university courses
on literature. The cultural model will examine the social, political and historical backgroundto a text, literary movements and genres. There is no specific language work done on a text.
This approach tends to be a quite teacher-centered. (p. 2)
The language model
aims to be more learner-centered. As learners proceed through a text, they pay attention to theway language is used. They come to grips with the meaning and increase their generalawareness of English. Within this model of studying literature, the teacher can choose tofocus on general grammar and vocabulary (in the same way that these are presented in course
books for example) or use stylistic analysis. Stylistic analysis involves the close study of thelinguistic features of the text to enable students to make meaningful interpretations of thetext—it aims to help learners read and study literature more competently. (p. 2)
The personal growth modelis also a process-based approach and tries to be more learner-centered. This model
encourages learners to draw on their own opinions, feelings and personal experiences. It aims
for interactions between the text and the reader in English, helping make the language morememorable. Learners are encouraged to “make the text their own.” This model recognizes theimmense power that literature can have to move people and attempts to use that in theclassroom. (p. 2)
Regarding the reading course that is going to be described below, it seems to fit the personal
growth approach the most as it focuses on connecting L2 learners and the text emotionally. In
addition to this, there seems to be a little element of the language model, while paying someattention to the complex language and literary expressions such as metaphor in the text.

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Using the Novelization of the Movie, Dead Poets Society in an EFL Reading Course

2.2 Why incorporate a movie into a novel?
In this course, a novelization is utilized as the course material. According to Longman’s
Advanced American Dictionary (2000), a novelization is defined as “a story that was originally
written as a movie or television program before being written as a book” (p. 991). Brown (2005),
however, warns educators of the quality of novelization, compared to novels that are later made into
movies. She claims that novelization generally has limited quality as a literary work, even though
they usually follow the plot and add detail. Nevertheless, reading an intriguing story along withviewing the original movie is assumed to be an enjoyable and motivating educational experience forL2 learners, particularly when the movie is well made and highly acclaimed like the one used in thiscourse. As for incorporating visual media such as movies into novels, Kasper (2000) notes thatthese movies are particularly significant for lower level L2 learners as “they present graphic, visual
illustrations of key critical thinking concepts, thus helping to consolidate and reinforce learning by
making the subject matter more concrete” (p. 111). Furthermore, they challenge L2 learners “tomatch images elicited from the printed texts with visual representations on the screen, further
engaging them in critical thinking tasks” (Kasper & Singer as cited in Kasper, 2000, p. 111). Withthe use of the movie, it is hoped that lower level students in particular can keep up with the novel
and would feel less anxious about the complexity of the language in it.
2.3 Why use graphic organizers?
An important educational tool used by the author was the graphic organizers such as thechapter organizer (see Appendix A). They were continuously used in conjunction with the reading
assignments throughout the course. In the U. S., graphic organizers are often seen and used in
education at all grade levels including college and its textbooks. According to Lane (1999), “theterm graphic organizers refers to a body of graphic representations of information” and they may
take the forms of “graphs, diagrams, or illustrations; however, graphic organizers are commonly left
blank for students to fill in” (p. 19). One typical example of a graphic organizer is a Venn diagram,which consists of two overlapping circles in the middle to show the differences and similarities(overlapping-middle part) between two people or topics. McKnight (2010) notes that they are
significant and effective pedagogical tools since they can organize content and ideas and also
facilitate learners’ understanding of the information they have newly acquired. Furthermore, bypresenting material through the visual and spatial modes and reinforcing what they are taught inclass, using these organizers helps students internalize their learning (McKnight, 2010). Dillon andJohnson et al. (as cited in Lane, 1999) regard graphic organizers as useful devices in terms ofenhancing cognitive competence of students by assisting them to comprehend, absorb, and reveal
their ideas. In other words, through the use of graphic organizers, teachers can assist their students
to develop their critical thinking skills as well. Based on the author’s extensive teaching experiencesin reading, using graphic organizers appears to be an effective teaching strategy for students at all
proficiency levels. Lane (1999) points out, by developing students’ critical thinking skills, “the335

Cheena FUJIOKA

general proficiency levels, performance, and motivation of students can be improved” (p. 19).
When introducing these graphic organizers to students, it is necessary that teachers first demonstrate
how they work by showing an example or initiate one with students on the board, letting themfinish it on their own or in pairs/groups.

III. COURSE DESCRIPTION
3.1 Students
The students were sophomores majoring in sociology and psychology at a private university inOsaka, Japan. Two sections of a reading course were involved in two continuous semesters (spring
and fall) of the academic year 2010. The class met once a week for 90 minutes. In one of the classes,
42 sociology majors enrolled in the spring semester and 29 in the fall semester. In the other, 44
psychology majors enrolled in the spring semester and 30 in the fall semester. These student
numbers include several students who dropped out from each class during the semesters. The
students were evaluated based on: attendance (20%); participation/classroom behavior (20%); pop
quizzes/skit (20%); homework assignments (20%); final exam (20%).
3.2 Course material and its purpose
For this course, the unabridged novelization of the American movie, Dead Poets Society(Kleinbaum, 1989), was used throughout the academic year. The story is set in a rigid, college
preparatory, all-male boarding school in Vermont, U. S. A. in the late-1950s, where a new English
teacher, Mr. Keating, totally changes his students’ lives with his message of Carpe Diem (“seize theday” in Latin, which actually means “live life to the fullest”). The novel consists of 15 chapters andis 166-page long. According to Yohan (n.d.), this title is suitable for L2 learners who have 470 on
the TOEIC or the pre-second grade of the EIKEN test (in practical English proficiency) in Japan.
While reading the story, a portion of the original film, Dead Poets Society (Schulman & Weir,
1989), was shown twice each semester (totally four times to show the entire movie in the academicyear) to help students comprehend the content and to develop empathy. The Japanese title of themovie is “Ima wo Ikiru,” which literally means “live this moment.” The movie starring Robin
Williams as the charismatic English teacher, Mr. Keating, won the Academy award for the best
script with several more nominations such as the best film and best actor in 1989.
The reasons for selecting this particular novelization are: (1) since the characters are close to
the students’ age, they are more likely to empathize with the characters, setting, and plot; (2) it isfull of words/dialogs (including the excerpts from the poems written by some of the most influential
poets such as Walt Whitman and Robert Frost) that are touching and thought-provoking; (3) it has
strong, positive messages to readers; and (4) the original movie earned the best script for that year’s
Academy Awards. Therefore, though the movie was released more than two decades ago, the story
is still expected to appeal to students today due to its universal themes: Carpe Diem and friendship.
The following lessons aimed: (1) to enhance students’ empathy, critical thinking skills, and36

Using the Novelization of the Movie, Dead Poets Society in an EFL Reading Course

overall reading skills, while appreciating authentic expressions and dialogs as well as poetry used in
the story; (2) to help them think deeply of the significance of Mr. Keating’s lesson, Carpe Diem,and of what learning really is about; and (3) to appreciate and find empathy with the characters whoare students in the story. Due to the limited English proficiency of the students and the complexityof the text and poems, the instructional language was both English and Japanese. However,Japanese was always used to explain complicated things such as the poems, setting, characters, andcultural background of the story. Students were encouraged to write in English in theirworksheets/graphic organizers as much as possible except a few organizers which allowed them towrite in Japanese.
3.3 Teaching procedure
3.3.1 Course design
The lessons using the continuous two semesters were conducted in the following manner:
1. Before each class meeting, assign students to read one/two chapters of the novel that would becovered in class, and to fill in the table of the chapter organizer (see Appendix A) which
consists of the characters, setting, and plot for each chapter. In order to check the reading
assignments, give them three pop quizzes on the content of the material using wh-questions
each semester.
2. With emotion, read the story aloud to the students and also ask for some volunteers or call on
students to read it aloud. Although it takes time to do so from each lesson, reading aloud should
be included for low or intermediate level L2 learners, in particular. This is because reading thestory aloud to students is crucial as it incorporates listening, an essential component of language
acquisition (Seda, Liguori, & Seda, 1999). Richard-Amoto (1996) has pointed out that it is often
beneficial for students to hear the portion of the story read aloud by the teacher or others. She
contends that students need to hear the intonation, the pauses, the rhythm, and the pronunciationof the words. Interestingly, Krashen (1997) claims the significance of being read aloud:“Teachers should also be adept at reading aloud to students; even older students can get ‘hookedon books’ when they hear part of the story read to them” (p. 26).
3. Every time that a few pages of the story are read aloud, first check students’ reading
comprehension by asking some factual questions regarding the setting, characters, and plot.
Then, ask a few inferential questions to check their interpretations of the content. Additionally,
discuss the content, characters, and cultural background with the class, while welcoming theirpersonal reactions (as well as those of the teacher) to them in order to deepen theirunderstanding and to encourage empathy.
4. After finishing each chapter, call on students and let them share what they wrote in the chapter
organizer, which was assigned as homework in the previous week. Then, write a sample of theplot on the blackboard so that they can compare to theirs.
5. Begin each class with having a student summarize orally what they read in the previous week,537

Cheena FUJIOKA

so that they can recall and reinforce what they read and learned, and get ready for the newdevelopment of the story. Add some key points in the summary if the student fails to coverthem.
6. Hand out the Japanese translations of all the poems which appeared in the story. To analyze anddiscuss poetry in class over the two semesters, select nine excerpts of the poems which areparticularly inspiring for students such as Robert Herrick’s “To the Virgins, Make Much ofTime”, Walt Whitman’s “O Me! O Life!” and Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “Ulysses”. These excerpts
are crucial throughout the story as they “are used almost like biblical scriptures to encourage, tomotivate, to comfort, to teach and to give directions on coming to terms with oneself andothers” (Grunert, 2008, p. 4). Due to the main character, Mr. Keating’s passion and enthusiasm
for teaching poetry as well as the plot constantly dealing with the problems and growing painsof adolescents, students are more likely to become interested in the power of poetry (Grunert,
2008). Have each student read them aloud and interpret the content in pairs/group before
discussing as the whole class.
7. Before submitting the homework assignments described below, have them exchange their works,
share them in pairs, and write their comments on the worksheets. It is educationally beneficial
for them to see different perspectives of their peers and to share theirs with others since theyoften get themselves stimulated by doing so.
8. Show a portion of the movie after reading that part of the novel so that they can view the entire
film in one year (two viewings each semester). Show the movie with the English subtitles sothat students can recognize the identical dialogs as the novel, spoken by the native English
speakers and enhance their listening skills as well.
9. Toward the end of the fall semester, divide them into several groups of 5-6 people and let themrole-play a scene/scenes where they like to make a skit in English from the novel for about 10
minutes. Voting for the MVP for the best group in class might be motivating. When announcing
the class award in the following week, read aloud some comments from peers.
10. When finishing reading the story and watching the last quarter of the movie, have the final
discussion regarding the movie, characters, and their feedback as the whole class as long as timeis permitted.
3.3.2 Tasks
For enhancing students’ comprehension of the story and empathy toward the characters
and/or the story, the following tasks were developed by the instructor. Due to the limited time of theclass, these tasks using different graphic organizers except #9 were assigned as out-of-class work in
the following order:
1. Chapter organizer (see Appendix A)
Aims: to enhance comprehension, skimming, scanning, summarizing, writing
Students organize each chapter by filling in the characters, setting, and the plot in the table. In

38

Using the Novelization of the Movie, Dead Poets Society in an EFL Reading Course

order to demonstrate how to do the chapter organizer, together as a class, the instructor writes
the information from the first chapter on the board. Assign them to do the rest of the chapters as
the weekly assignment so that they can prepare for each lesson.
2. My favorite teacher
Aims: to develop empathy, critical thinking skills, writing
Students choose one unforgettable teacher whom they have encountered in their lives. Eachstudent writes the following information about that teacher in the organizer: where and when thestudent met this teacher; what subject he/she taught; and what made him/her so special.
3. Character chart
Aims: to enhance comprehension, scanning, summarizing

4.

5.

6.

7.

Students organize the information of all the main 16 characters in the table. Next to eachcharacter’s name, enter the page on which he/she appears first in the story and some brief
information on whom he/she is in the story including his/her job and characteristics.
Character relationship chart
Aims: to enhance comprehension, scanning, critical thinking skills
As a bonus-point-task, students draw the chart of the character relationship using all the main 16
characters and labeling each character to show how each character is related to one another.
Character emotional development (see Appendix B)
Aims: to enhance comprehension, scanning, writing, and empathy
Students select two characters among Mr. Keating, Neil, Todd, Knox, Charlie, Cameron, Meeks,and Pitts that they are interested in. Draw two line graphs in different colors showing the two
characters’ emotional changes in each chapter (cover chapter 1-8 for spring semester and coverchapter 9-15 for fall semester). The vertical axis shows the characters’ emotional changes while
the horizontal axis indicates the chapters. Put two graphs in one chart to show the emotional
differences in two characters, and write down the reasons briefly for each chapter in the graphs.
Students may use a computer to draw the graphs.
Impressive quotes from the novel
Aims: to enhance comprehension, writing, critical thinking skills, and empathy
Since this story is full of words/lines that are touching, have them choose their favorite quotes
once each semester. The organizer is divided into five columns: page number, who said, theirfavorite quotes (each student quotes them), how this made them feel, and buddy’s comment(from a classmate who read it).
Casting Dead Poets Society
Aims: to develop critical thinking skills and to enhance empathy, personalization
Students pretend to be the executive producer of the Japanese movie/drama, Dead Poets Society.
Each student picks suitable actors/actresses for the characters and writes down the specificreasons for the choices in the table. The soundtrack music to be used in the movie/drama should
also be chosen.
739Cheena FUJIOKA

8. Poetry Response (see Appendix C) (partially adapted from McCloskey, M. L., & Stack, L. 1996,
p. 135)
Aims: to develop analytical skills, critical thinking skills and to enhance empathy
Students select their favorite poem used in this story and interpret it in Japanese as it would be
too complex for them to discuss poetry in English. Each student writes her/his personal responsein the following order in the organizer: the page number where the poem used in the story; thename of the poet; the title of the poem (if available); the impressive lines from the poem; what
the student liked about this poem; what she/he thought about: the words, the subject and the way
the words sound; what the poem reminds her/him of; and what the poem makes her/him think
about.
9. Comparing and contrasting the movie and the novel
Aims: to enhance listening, empathy, and to develop critical thinking skills
While watching the movie, let them write the elements that were close to the original story on
the left side of the table and those that were different on the right side of the table. They decide
how many stars they would give to the movie and write some comments on the movie in thetable. This can later lead to the whole class discussion sharing students’ perspectives of themovie.
10. Skits/role-playing (group project including the script)
Aims: to enhance comprehension, speaking, empathy, personalization
Give them at least one month before the skits: each group is required to get together to practiceoutside the class and to submit the script on the day of their performance to the instructor.
Students may add their original lines in their skits imagining the characters’ feelings in theparticular scene if they like. Encourage them to use the narrator or some theater props, and towear some costumes in order to make their skit more effective. Let them write down each
student’s role in making the skit such as the director and the typist in the script as well as thenames of the characters they’re acting so that each student shares the responsibility for the groupwork.

IV. COURSE OUTCOMES
4.1 Questionnaire and the results of the questionnaire
In order to investigate the educational effectiveness of this course, on the final day of thecourse, a Likert-type self-report questionnaire with one open-ended question in Japanese developedby the instructor (see Table 1) was given to the students who had taken this course for the academic
year. The 16 items of the questionnaire were conducted with a five-level modulated response scaleranging from “strongly disagree (1), disagree (2), neither agree nor disagree (3), agree (4), andstrongly agree (5)”. Students chose the number (1-5) which indicates their opinion for each question.
Items 1-3 investigated the students’ motivation for reading a novelization as well as theeffectiveness of viewing the movie. Item 4 revealed whether the students could empathize with any

40

Using the Novelization of the Movie, Dead Poets Society in an EFL Reading Course

characters in the story. Item 5 focused on whether the students felt they improved their criticalthinking skills and imagination. Items 6-11 focused on the degree to which the students felt they
improved their reading, listening, vocabulary, grammar, and knowledge of American culture. Items
12-14 were about the impact of literature: reading a novel and poetry on the students. Items 15-16
investigated the benefits of doing a skit (role-play) in groups. The last item, 17, was an open-ended
question regarding their personal feedback about this course. In the two classes, a total of 47
students participated in the questionnaire, and every student (except one who failed to answer item
13) answered all 16 multiple-choice items. As for the last item of the open-ended question, morethan half of the students (26 out of 47 students) in the two classes responded. Microsoft Excel wasused to organize and analyze the data.
The following table shows the results of the class survey on this course. The 16 items of thequestionnaire were divided into 6 elements by the categories of the question items as follows:
motivation for reading a novelization (3 items), effect on empathy (1 item), effect on criticalthinking skills (1 item), effect on L2 and culture (6 items), effect of literature (3 items), and effect of
doing a skit (2 items).

941Cheena FUJIOKA

Table1. Distribution of Item Responses
Percentage of Students Selecting Option
Item Category and Number
Motivation for reading a novelization
1. Reading a novelization of a movie was interesting for me.
2. I felt a sense of achievement after reading the original literary text
throughout the year.
3. Watching the movie was helpful for me to understand the story.

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

M

SD

0.0%

0.0%

17.0%

34.0%

48.9%

4.31

0.75

2.1%

4.2%

14.8%

29.7%

48.9%

4.19

0.99

0.0%

0.0%

0.0%

19.1%

80.5%

4.80

0.39

0.0%

4.2%

12.7%

40.4%

42.5%

4.21

0.83

0.0%

6.3%

21.2%

51.0%

21.2%

3.87

0.82

0.0%

17.0%

25.5%

46.8%

10.6%

3.51

0.90

4.2%

25.5%

46.8%

21.2%

2.1%

2.91

0.85

0.0%

17.0%

21.2%

42.5%

19.1%

3.63

0.98

4.2%

4.2%

12.7%

63.8%

14.8%

3.80

0.90

6.3%

23.4%

51.0%

14.8%

4.2%

2.87

0.89

0.0%

10.6%

12.7%

55.3%

21.2%

3.87

0.87

4.2%

31.9%

23.4%

25.5%

14.8%

3.14

1.16

0.0%

17.0%

23.4%

40.4%

19.1%

3.61

0.99

4.3%

19.5%

19.5%

36.9%

19.5%

3.47

1.14

8.5%

6.3%

19.1%

34.0%

31.9%

3.74

1.22

6.3%

10.6%

23.4%

40.4%

19.1%

3.55

1.11

Effect on Empathy
4. I could empathize with a character/characters while reading thestory.
Effect on Critical Thinking Skills
5. Through this course, I think my critical thinking skills andimagination have improved.
Effect on L2 and Culture
6. Through this course, I think my reading skills have improved.
7. Through this course, I think my listening skills have improved.
8. I could understand the movie with the English subtitles and/or
get the dialogue.
9. Through this course, I think my vocabulary including colloquial
expressions and slang has increased.
10. Through this course, I think my English grammar has improved.
11. Through this course, I think my knowledge of American culture
has increased.
Effect of Literature
12. Through this course, I became more interested in reading poetry
in English.
13. Reading a novel can make a significant impact on my life, ormake my life change.
14. Reading poetry can make a significant impact on my life, ormake my life change.
Effect of Doing a Skit
15. Doing a skit was helpful for me to understand the content and thecharacters of the story.
16. Making a skit in a group and role-playing a scene/scenes from thenovel were helpful for me to improve English skills.

Note. The response options were: (1) strongly disagree, (2) disagree, (3) neither agree nor disagree, (4) agree, and (5) strongly agree.

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Using the Novelization of the Movie, Dead Poets Society in an EFL Reading Course

The first category of the question items (Items 1-3) indicates students’ motivation for reading
a novelization as well as its benefits. Reading a novelization of a movie was viewed as interesting(Item 1) by 82.9% of the students who answered agree (4) and strongly agree (5). The sense ofaccomplishment after reading an unabridged literary text throughout the year (Item 2) received
78.6% of the students’ agreement. Watching the movie helped the students understand the story(Item 3) gained the most agreements 99.6% from them with the highest mean of 4.80 of all. The
overall mean of these question items was 4.43, which shows using a novelization with the movie
motivated the students to learn L2 in an EFL classroom.
The second category of the question item (Item 4) shows the lessons’ effect on fostering
empathy. 82.9% of the students empathized with a character/characters in the story well. The result
implies that the lessons using this particular novelization was effective for developing empathy inthe students. Selecting a literary material that students can empathize with is crucial so that they
will be motivated to learn L2.
The third category of the question items was about the effect on developing critical thinking
skills and imagination (Item 5). Importantly, 72.2% of the students agreed that they enhanced theircritical thinking skills and imagination through this course, which was one of the main objectives
for this course.
The fourth category of the question items (Items 6-11) indicates the impact on their L2
learning as well as their knowledge of American culture. First, the improvement on their listening
skills and grammar (Items 7 and 10) received low agreements of 23.3% and 19% with the means of
2.91 and 2.87. On the other hand, the improvement on their reading skills (Item 6) was better
recognized; 57.4% of the students’ agreed. Remarkably, the increase of their vocabulary, including
colloquial expressions and slang (Item 9), gained 78.6% favorable counts with a mean of 3.80. As
Gareis, Allard, and Saindon (2009) have pointed out, authentic literature can provide great
opportunities for vocabulary development. According to their study, through reading novels
possessing words related to memorable characters and plots, L2 learners find vocabularydevelopment easier than through regular textbooks or other texts. The course was not particularly
designed for improving their English proficiency. It centers on helping students understand thecontent and on their personal growth as a human beings. Therefore, these outcomes were somewhat
expected except for the positive impact on their vocabulary improvement. Interestingly, eventhough the novel was fairly complex, 61.6 % of the students understood them and/or the dialogues
when they watched the movie with the English subtitles (Item 8), which was better than it was
expected. This would be due to watching the movie after the students studied the content. There
were many scenes where the actors were speaking almost the identical dialogues as written in thenovel. Additionally, the increase of the knowledge of American culture (Item 11) received 76.5% of
the students’ agreement. The overall mean of this section was 3.43, which implies the lessons were
somewhat effective, but not a great deal in terms of improving English proficiency.
The impact of literature on the students is shown in the fifth category of the question items
1143Cheena FUJIOKA(Items 12-14). As for increasing their interest in reading poetry in English (Item 12), 40.3% of thestudents responded favorably, which indicates the difficulty of reading poetry in L2. However, morethan half of the students were aware of the power of literature; 59.5% and 56.4 % of them
responded positively that reading a novel and poetry could make a difference in their lives (Items 13
and 14) respectively. The total mean of this category was 3.40, which implies a moderate impact ofusing literature on the students.
The last category of the question items is on the effect of doing a skit (Items 15 and 16). The
effectiveness of doing a skit in groups on understanding the content of the story and the characters(Item 15) and on improving their English skills (Item 16) counted 65.9% and 59.5% of positive
feedback respectively. The total mean, 3.64, shows that doing a skit among groups was somewhat
beneficial for the students.
As the last item, 17, was an open-ended question regarding their personal feedback to thiscourse, it is not summarized here, but described below in the next section. Additionally, Figure 1
shows the overall results of the effects of the lessons in each category based on the class survey.

Figure 1. Overall results of the effects of the lessons
4.2 Results of the open-ended question
For the last item 17, the students were asked to write down their personal feedback regarding
the course and/or the novel. 26 students out of 47 responded: The positive feedback was 20, theneutral was 5, and the negative one was 1. Here are some actual comments from the students who
responded positively translated from Japanese into English by the instructor:
 Even though the novel was rather difficult, I was into the story as we went on reading it.
 I am grateful that you chose this novel as the text. There were many scenes
where I could empathize with the characters, and I could learn various thingsfrom this story.
 I looked for the actors on the Internet when we finished reading the story, since44Using the Novelization of the Movie, Dead Poets Society in an EFL Reading Course

I became so interested in the story.
 I felt a great sense of achievement throughout the year. I really appreciate it.
 Thanks to the skit, I could cooperate with my classmates that I usually didn’t
talk to, and I could understand the story even more.
4.3 Student responses to graphic organizers
As for the tasks using various kinds of graphic organizers, each organizer seemed to be very
effective to help the students to organize what they just read and learned, to comprehend the content
of the story and the characters, to develop empathy, and to foster their critical thinking skills andimagination. Due to the limited time to cover the whole novel in one academic year (26 lessons
totally), these tasks needed to be assigned as homework to each student. Chapter organizer (seeAppendix A) was helpful for the students to keep track of the setting and the plot while reading thewhole story. This novel’s main character is a charismatic teacher, so at the beginning of the lessons,it was productive to let the students share their unforgettable teacher that they had encountered intheir lives through My favorite teacher. Since there are many different characters, organizing each
one’s characteristics in Character chart seemed to be helpful for the students. In addition to thistask, the students optionally could draw a Character relationship chart (sokanzu) on their own todeepen their understanding of the characters’ relationships to one another. Many of them submitted
their charts, which revealed their creative abilities in making their own graphic organizers andunderstanding the relationships among the characters. Character emotional development (seeAppendix B) is a task which was done throughout the year; the students kept track of the two
characters’ emotional changes in each chapter that they chose by drawing the line graphs. This
continuous task seemed to make them empathize with the two characters more and comprehend
them better. This story is full of touching lines said mostly by Mr. Keating such as “Lads, there is agreat need in all of us to be accepted, but you must trust what is unique or different about yourself,even if it is odd or unpopular” (Kleinbaum, 1989, p. 87). The students shared their impressive
quotes at the end of each semester by filling in Impressive quotes from the novel. This was a great
opportunity for them to look back on what they read, to savor the language, and to enhance theircritical thinking skills. To share their favorite quotes in pairs seemed to encourage their empathic
reactions even more. Casting Dead Poets Society was the task that stimulated their imagination andthe students enjoyed doing it and sharing the work with the peers and the class. Poetry response(see Appendix C), one of the last tasks, was the one that allowed the students to answer in Japanese,while the other tasks needed to be completed in English or in English as much as possible. Even
though most students had not read poetry in English before, they definitely appeared to enjoy
reading the selected excerpts of the poems from the novel as shown in their work. Therefore,amazingly they could deeply interpret the poems that they liked and show their empathy andappreciation for reading poetry through this course. Comparing and contrasting the movie and thenovel while watching or right after watching it, encouraged them to watch the movie critically.
13

45

Cheena FUJIOKA

Actually watching the characters in the movie appeared to involve them more emotionally in thestory and deepen their overall understanding. Lastly, Skits seemed to work well to let themempathize with the characters by actually acting their roles and deepen their understanding at theend of the year, as supported by the results of the class survey. This also gave them an invaluable
opportunity to cooperate with one another in groups and to feel a sense of accomplishment.

V. CONCLUSION
This paper has presented content-based literature instruction using the novelization of theAmerican movie, Dead Poets Society (Kleinbaum, 1989), as a motivating teaching medium for auniversity reading course. The overall student performance including assigned tasks, attitude toward
the lessons, and class survey illustrated that the use of the novelization along with the movie inteaching reading is effective. Tasks using various graphic organizers and role-play skits were usedin this course to integrate the four skills of English, and to increase the students’ critical thinking
skills and build their capacity for empathy. Most interestingly, by using a novel that has a plot andcharacters that the students can relate to throughout the year, a strong sense of community seemed
to have been created in the language classroom. This led the students to be engaged even more
emotionally in the story until the last despite the complexity of the language of the text (including
the poems). The use of the excerpts of the poems written by renowned poets also appeared to beeffective to inspire the students and draw them into the story. Amazingly, several students expressed
a little sadness over completing the story on the last day commenting such as, “I will miss Mr.
Keating.”
On the other hand, as the focus of the instruction was on the comprehension of andappreciation for the content of the materials, not on measuring improvement of English proficiency
by these lessons, the students were not tested to measure the effect of these lessons to improve theirEnglish proficiency. In order to measure the effectiveness of such a content-based literature
instruction on students’ English proficiency, a separate research study would be required.
Today, selecting a motivating material for less motivated university students is challenging ina reading classroom. As shown in this paper, carefully-chosen authentic literature can be effective
teaching material for them. If a movie of the novel is available, it will assist students to comprehend
the text and encourage empathic reactions. If the movie does provide these advantages, it will also
reduce their anxiety and frustration to understand the second language and culture, and will makethe whole learning process more enjoyable. As a result, it is likely that their reading combined withsuccessfully including the movie will together give them more intrinsic motivation. Additionally,
Stephen Krashen (1997) gives educators a wise advice on selecting a reading material:
In selecting what students will read, I think that teachers should consider their own interests
as well. The teachers’ enthusiasm (or extreme distaste) for a book will add a charge to theteaching, and make it much more interesting. The goal is to find texts that are interesting forboth students and teachers. (p. 23)

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Using the Novelization of the Movie, Dead Poets Society in an EFL Reading Course

Finally, as Christopher Brumfit states, by teaching literature, educators can introduce L2 learners to“such a serious view of our world” and initiate them “in the process of defining themselves throughcontact with others’ experience” (as cited in Carter, 2007, p. 3) and thus, educators’ task is basicallyto create the environment which makes this contact in the best ways they can (Carter, 2007).
Hopefully, the power of literature will inspire not only students but also educators to keep striving
and to live their own life to the fullest.

NOTES
1. This paper is a modified version of the oral presentation given at the JACET Kansai Chapter
conference at Osaka University on June 16th, 2012.
2. The question items of the class survey were translated from Japanese for Table 1.

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Carter, R. (2007). Literature and language teaching 1986-2006: A review. International Journal ofApplied Linguistics, 17, 3-13.
Clandfield, L. (n.d.). Teaching materials: using literature in the EFL/ESL classroom.
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Collie, J. & Slater, S. (1990). Literature in the language classroom: A resource book of Ideas andactivities. Cambridge: CUP.
Gareis, E., Allard, M., & Saindon, J. (2009). The novel as textbooks. TESL Canada Journal, 26 (2),
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Grunert, R. (2008). Seize the day: The “cape diem” scene from Dead poets society as
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Appendix A
Task 1: Chapter Organizer
Chapter Organizer: Dead Poets Society

Chapter

Characters

Setting

Plot

1

Gale Nolan, John Keating, Todd

- Chapel ofHeadmaster Nolan makes a speech at the entrance

Anderson, Knox Overstreet, Charlie

Welton Academy,

ceremony. Later, he talks to a transfer student,

Dalton, Richard Cameron, George

Vermont, U. S. A.,

Todd Anderson and then Neil Perry before their

Hopkins, Neil Perry, parents,

1959 (fall)parents take off.

Mr. McAllister, Dr. Hager, Nolan,- Nolan’sNolan assigns the juniors extracurricular

Neil, Todd, Cameron, Knox,

inner officeactivities. As they head toward their dorms, NeilCharlie, Meeks, Pitts, Mrs. Nolan- Dorm of W. A.

approaches Todd and introduces himself to his

Alexander Carmichael, Jr.
2

new roommate. Later, Neil’s buddies come to his
room and meet Todd for the first time.
3

Mr. Perry, Neil, Todd, Meeks,- Neil &Todd’s

Mr. Perry, Neil’s father, suddenly shows up at his

Charlie, Knox

dorm room

room and tells Neil to drop the school annual infront of his buddies. Neil gets upset, but he can’t
resist his father.

48

Using the Novelization of the Movie, Dead Poets Society in an EFL Reading Course

Appendix B
Task 5: Character Emotional Development

Appendix C
Task 8: Poetry Response
Poetry Response Form
Page # the poem used in the story:

Name of the poet:

Title of the poem (if available):P. 41

Walt Whitman

O Me! O Life!

Impressive lines from the poem:“Answer. That you are here---that life exists and identity; That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.”zWhat did you like about this poem?
I like the strong message from the poet . . . .

zWhat did you think about: the words, the subject and the way the words sound?

zWhat does the poem remind you of?

z

What does the poem make you think about?

17

49

JACET Kansai Journal, 16, 50-70. (2014) ©JACET Kansai Chapter
ISSN 1880-2281

Printed in JAPAN.

A Rasch Analysis of Grammatical Difficulty: What Influences Item Difficulty?
Atsuko Nishitani
Kyoto Sangyo University
ABSTRACTThis study investigated the difficulty order of 38 grammar structures obtained from an analysis ofmultiple-choice items using a Rasch analysis. The participants were 872 Japanese university
students, whose TOEIC scores ranged from 200 to 875. The difficulty order of the 38 structures was
displayed according to their Rasch difficulty estimates. This study also demonstrated the difficultyof writing items testing the knowledge of the same grammar point that show similar Raschdifficulty estimates. Even though the vocabulary and the sentence positions were carefully
controlled and the two items looked parallel to teachers, they often displayed very different
difficulty estimates. A questionnaire was administered concerning such items, and the students’
responses suggested that they seemed to look at the items differently than teachers and what they
notice and how they interpret what they notice strongly influences item difficulty. Teachers or testwriters should be aware that it is difficult to write items that produce similar difficulty estimates andtheir own intuition or experience might not be the best guide for writing effective grammar test
items.
Key words: Rasch analysis, grammar, multiple-choice items, difficulty order

I. INTRODUCTION
Communicative language teaching has been popular for approximately three decades, and therole of grammar teaching in the L2 communicative curriculum has been questioned (Purpura, 2004).
However, researchers such as Canale and Swain (1980), Larsen-Freeman (1982), Canale (1983),
Bachman (1990), and Bachman and Palmer (1996) have included grammatical knowledge as animportant component of communicative competence in their models. Developing and measuring
learners’ grammatical knowledge should not be abandoned because “knowledge is always
fundamental to developing a skill” (Haladyna, 1999, p. 7), and “[w]hat learners can do withlanguage is to a very considerable extent dependent on what language they know” (Ellis, 2008, p.
18).
Although tests of learners’ grammatical knowledge are widely administered, the relative
difficulty of different grammatical structures has not been investigated or established yet (DeKeyser,
2005; Ellis, 2006). As DeKeyser (2005) pointed out, few researchers have compared the difficultyof a wide range of grammatical structures. After the morpheme studies in the 1970s and 1980s,

50

Atsuko NISHITANI

most of the studies on grammar difficulty were mainly focused on single grammar points, such as
negatives, interrogatives, and relative clauses, and few researchers have investigated which negative
form is acquired before which interrogative form and vice versa. Although Ioup (1983) and Ellis(2006, 2008) compared a number of different grammatical structures, Ioup only looked at six typesof subordinate clauses, and Ellis focused on the difference between implicit and explicit knowledge
rather than the difficulty of each structure per se, and the interrelationships among different
grammatical structures were not discussed. Processability theory (Pienemann, 1998, 2003) predicts
the difficulty order of different grammatical structures, but it is based on ESL learner data and not
on EFL learner data. Also previous researchers who tried to verify the assumption of processability
theory mostly used speech data. Baten (2010) analyzed data gathered with fill-in-the-blank items,
but only examined German cases. In other words, the interrelationships among different
grammatical structures have been discussed relatively little (see Nishitani, 2012 for a literature
review), and thus, language testers tend to write grammar items based on their intuition or generaland vague perception of difficulty of different grammatical structures, which is obviously
unsatisfactory (Ellis, 2001).
In sum, the difficulty order of a wide variety of grammatical structures needs to be establishedin order for language testers to design efficient and reliable grammar tests. An empirically validated
order can allow testers to avoid relying on their own intuition or experience of testing whenchoosing grammatical structures for a grammar test.
II. PURPOSES OF THE STUDY
The first purpose of this study is to investigate the difficulty order of different English
grammatical structures using multiple-choice items, which are frequently used in high-stakes tests
in Japan. The dichotomous Rasch model is used to determine the difficulty of each grammaticalstructure and to construct an empirical hierarchy of difficulty.
The second purpose of this study is to investigate the issues that occur when attempting towrite two items testing the same grammar point that have similar difficulty estimates.
More specifically, the research questions that guide this study are as follows.
1. What is a hierarchy of grammatical difficulty when tested in a multiple-choice format?
2. To what extent is it possible to create two items measuring the same grammatical point that have
similar difficulty estimates?
III. METHODS
1. Participants
A total of 872 Japanese university students, 442 male and 430 female students, participated inthis study. Of the 872 students, 461 were first-year students, 332 were second-year students, 52
were third-year students, and 27 were fourth-year students. Three hundred and four students were2
51

A Rasch Analysis of Grammatical Difficulty: What Influences Item Difficulty?

majoring in English or other faculties that have a curriculum stressing English. Their TOEIC scores(n = 121) ranged from 200 to 875 (M = 509.18, SD = 148.47), and their TOEFL ITP scores (n =172) ranged from 313 to 543 (M = 418.28, SD = 45.05), which suggests that the participants’
English proficiency was mixed, ranging from false beginners to advanced proficiency learners.
The grammar tests used in this study were administered to intact classes at six universities in
Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, and Nagoya, where the teachers who agreed to cooperate with this study wereteaching. The participants were asked for permission to use the data for research purposes. All of
the participants gave their permission to do so. The six universities were large, co-educational,
private universities, whose hensachi (deviation value) ranges from 47 to 60.
2. Instrumentation
In order to investigate the difficulty of different grammatical structures, five tests wereadministered. Each test had two or three parallel forms that were made up of items testing the samegrammatical structures; however, different lexis was used in the sentences testing the same structure.
The assumption was that the two or three sentences would have the same or similar Rasch difficulty
estimates. Cobb’s (2011) Vocabprofile was run to check the lexical composition of the tests. The
results indicated that 88.3% to 90.8% of the vocabulary used was within the first high frequency
2,000 words of English, which Japanese students are supposed to learn before graduating from highschool. The items that did not work on Test 1 were revised and tested on Test 2. The items that did
not work on Test 2 were revised and tested on Test 3. Test 4 had new items, and the items that did
not work on Test 4 were revised and tested on Test 5. All of the tests used a multiple-choice format
with one correct answer and three distractors. All items were scored dichotomously. Table 1
presents a brief description of the tests used in this study.

Test
1
2
3
4
5

Table 1. Description of the tests
Number of forms Number of structures First 2000 words
2
21
89.4%
2
15
89.0%
3
6
89.0%
3
17
90.8%
2
11
88.3%

3. Procedures
All the tests were timed in the sense that the participants were told how much time wasallotted for each test. The time allotted for each item was set at 30 seconds, which is often said to be
the maximum response time for grammar items on the TOEIC test. This amount of time shouldhave been sufficient for most of the participants to answer the items, particularly for those that
included easier vocabulary than the TOEIC test.

52

Atsuko NISHITANI

A pilot study was conducted prior to this study. After 278 grammar items in a multiple-choice
format taken by 1,409 university students were analyzed using a Rasch analysis, pairs of items thatwere testing the same grammar point in a similar way (i.e., having a blank in the same position in
the sentence) and that had similar Rasch item difficulty estimates were extracted. The average of the
two Rasch difficulty estimates for each pair were calculated, and the difficulty order of 21
grammatical structures was tentatively established. The items were revised to predominantly
include the high frequency vocabulary of English so that they would act as a purer measure of theparticipants’ grammatical knowledge and their ability to identify the correct answer would not be
influenced by their lexical knowledge.
Test 1 was administered at three universities in Kyoto and Nagoya. Each form consisted of 30
items: the 21 structures mentioned above, and nine items from the other form (i.e., nine items from
Form A were included on Form B, and vice versa), which were used as anchor items. In otherwords, out of 42 items written for Test 1, 18 items were administered to all the participants. A totalof 265 participants took either Form A (n = 129) or Form B (n = 124) of the test. Twelve
participants, who happened to be in two classes where the test was administered, took both forms.
The participants were given 10-15 minutes to complete the test. The data were combined using the
18 anchor items to place the items from the different test forms onto a common scale using the
Rasch model. Note that the 12 participants who took Form A and Form B answered the anchor
items twice. If they answered differently on the two test forms, those answers were excluded fromthe analysis.
The Rasch analysis was conducted using the WINSTEPS computer software, version 3.71.0(Linacre, 2009). First, the infit mean-square statistics for each item were examined to determine
whether they were in the range of the mean ± twice the standard deviation of the mean squarestatistic. According to McNamara (1996), infit statistics are the most informative, given that they
are focused the fit of the most typical observations, and “for n sizes of 30 or more, the [acceptable]
range is the mean ± twice the standard deviation of the mean square statistic” (p. 181).
Next, the difficulty estimates for each pair of items designed to measure the same grammar
point were examined to determine whether they had similar estimates. According to Linacre (2011),“when we want to say ‘Item A is definitely more difficult than Item B’… their measures need to be
more than 3 S.E.s [standard errors] different.” In this study, however, a 2 S.E. difference was usedas the criterion to ensure that the two items had similar difficulty estimates. The pairs that did notmeet the 2 S.E. criterion (i.e., 15 pairs) were revised and tested once again in Test 2.
Test 2 was administered in two classes at a university in Osaka. Each form was made up of 15
items, and of the 30 items, six items were also on Test 1, so they were used as anchor items. The
participants took both forms of the test with a two-week interval separating the administration of thefirst and second test form. To avoid the possibility of an order effect, one class was given Form A
first, and the other class was given Form B first. Because some students were absent either the first453

A Rasch Analysis of Grammatical Difficulty: What Influences Item Difficulty?

week or the second week, the number of students who took both forms, only Form A, and only
Form B was 48, 2, and 5, respectively. The test takers were given 5-8 minutes to finish the test. The
test results were analyzed with the dichotomous Rasch model, and six pairs were revised andretested in Test 3.
Test 3 was administered at one university in Kyoto. Each form was made up of six items, andof the 18 items, three items were the same items as on Test 2, nine items were revised, and six were
newly written. The participants (n = 51) took all three test forms at one-week intervals and were
given 2-3 minutes to finish the test. To avoid an order effect, the order of the forms (Forms A, B,
and C) was randomized. Thus 16 students took the tests in the order of ABC, 9 students in the orderof BCA, 12 students in the order of CAB, 8 students in the order of CBA, and 6 students in theorder of BAC. Out of the 51 participants, 48 had taken Test 1 also; thus, the data gathered fromthose students were used as anchors when combining the data from Tests 1, 2, and 3. Afterobtaining the results from Test 3, the combined data of Tests 1, 2, and 3 were analyzed using thedichotomous Rasch model. They all had difficulty estimates within the 2 S.E. criterion; thus, further
revisions were unnecessary.
Test 4 was administered at three universities in Osaka, Kobe, and Kyoto. Each form wasmade up of 30 items: an additional 17 structures selected from the pilot study and 13 anchor items
from the previous tests. The participants (n = 242) were given 10-15 minutes to finish the test. The
number of participants who took Forms A, B, and C was 82, 79, and 81, respectively. The data fromthe three forms were combined using the anchor items. Again, after obtaining the data from the Test
4 administration, a Rasch analysis was conducted on the combined data of Tests 1, 2, 3, and 4, and11 pairs were revised and retested in Test 5.
Test 5 was administered at three universities in Osaka and Kobe. Each form was made up of
22 items: 11 revised items and 11 anchor items from the previous tests. The participants (n = 289)
were given 7-11 minutes to complete the test. The number of participants who took Form D andForm E was 131 and 158, respectively. The data were combined using the anchor items. A Raschanalysis was conducted not only on the data from Test 5, but also on the combined data of Tests 1, 2,
3, 4, and 5 using one-step equating. Two items with similar Rasch difficulty estimates were selected
for each grammatical structure, and the mean estimates of each pair were calculated to examine thedifficulty order of 38 grammatical structures.
Then a questionnaire was administered at a university in Kyoto in order to ask the participants(n = 38) for explanations as to why some incorrect responses could be chosen over the correct
responses.
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
1. Difficulty order of 38 structures

54

Atsuko NISHITANI

Research question 1 is “What is a hierarchy of grammatical difficulty when tested in a
multiple-choice format?” Table 2 shows the means of difficulty estimates of 38 pairs of structures.
As the Wright map (Figure 1) and Table 2 show, the subjunctive was far more difficult than theother grammatical structures, followed by the relative pronoun which (as opposed to where), and an
adjective after a be-verb and an adverb. On the other hand, present perfect was the easiest, followedby past tense. Note that this table should be read with care. Because the mean is the average
estimate of two items and not the difficulty estimate of the example item listed in the table, the itemin one column is not necessarily more difficult than the one below. For example, Item 19, You need
to be (active) when you participate in a discussion, is listed above Item 38, Peter felt (happy) when
he heard he passed the test. However, their difficulty estimates were .63 and .80, respectively,
which is opposite to what the table indicates. It is interesting to note that adjective items werespread out in terms of difficulty, and an adjective immediately after a be-verb was easier than the
one after a be-verb and an adverb. Items of parts of speech seem to be influenced by sentence
position. Further details are reported in the next section.
Table 2. Mean Difficulty Estimates of 38 Structures (from Most to Least Difficult)
Item Structure
ExampleMean
21
Subjunctive
Tom has suggested that his classmates (be)2.775
invited to the party.
30
Relative pronoun which (vs.
My cousin will move to New York, (which)
1.520
where)
is one of the biggest cities in the world.
18
Adjective: be adverb ( )Most of the people who lost weight found
1.370
that the raw food diet was especially(beneficial).
37
Past perfect
By the end of last week, Linda (had written).980
10 essays on Japanese culture.
20
Present tenseThis book (tells) how I have worked with
.870
difficult people who complain about
everything.
19
Adjective: be ( )You need to be (active) when you participate.605
in a discussion
38
Adjective: sensory verb ( )Peter felt (happy) when he heard he passed.590
the test.
34
S-V agreement
The products you can order from the store.570(are) listed in the catalogue.
10
Adverb: S ( ) V
The manager (periodically) blamed the.410
economy for his section’s poor performance.
32
Future tense
The next meeting has been scheduled for.395
next Monday, and a new project (will be)then.
7Conjunction: ( ) SV, SV.
(Because) she lost her English textbook, she.385(only one conjunction in the choices)
had to buy another one.
6
55

A Rasch Analysis of Grammatical Difficulty: What Influences Item Difficulty?

11

Passive + Present tense

12

Conjunction (when there are two
or more conjunctions in the choices)33

Causative -ed

27

Noun: SV ( )6Adverb: be ( ) adjective

14

22

Adverb: be ( ) past
participle
Past progressive (withanother past tense verb in thesentence)
Subject pronoun

31

Preposition (vs. conjunction)

35

Present participle: noun ( )1

Noun: article ( ) preposition

3

Past participle: be ( )4Possessive pronoun

36

Past participle: noun ( )29Relative pronoun that

24

Adverb: SVO ( )5Adjective: ( ) noun

8

Base form: to ( )2Reflexive pronoun: by ( )9Infinitive: VO ( )17The highway will be closed for maintenancethis weekend. We are sorry for any
inconvenience that (is caused) by theclosing.
Ms. Lee changed the sales policy (while) she
was the director of the department.
It is necessary to have your speech(checked) by a native speaker.
The owner has checked (locations) for
franchise stores.
Eating only apples to lose weight seems tobe (seriously) wrong.
The babies’ hands have been (cleanly)
washed by their mothers.
When we saw Jason in the cafeteria, he (wasbuying) sandwiches for lunch.
In order for Ms. Jackson to win the game,(she) has to practice harder.
(Despite) his age, my grandfather tried toclimb Mt. Fuji.
People (waiting) for the next bus should buy
a ticket first.
The company plans to build a factory for the(production) of a new model.
A new energy policy seems to have been
(agreed) on by EU leaders.
Although Internet shopping is easy andconvenient, there still are people who areworried about using (their) credit cards
online.
In this area, there are a lot of buildings(designed) for older people.
My sister sold the car (that) ran on bothelectricity and gasoline.
You should understand the textbooks(completely).
Ms. Taylor is known as a strict teacher andalso as an (attractive) person in the city.
In order to (act) the role of Romeo, he will
have to go on a diet.
Ms. Ford said she used to take care of fivedogs by (herself) before getting married.
He told his assistant (to attend) the party
because he didn’t want to make a speech
there.

56

.365

.360
.355
.285
.225
.220
.110
.005
-.025
-.105
-.115
-.120
-.195

-.260
-.335
-.380
-.385
-.455
-.605
-.690

Atsuko NISHITANI

15

Noun: verb adjective ( )Our new computer will offer high(performance) when the new operating
system is installed.
16
GerundMy brother has improved his English by(listening) to rock music.
28
Verb: S ( ) O
According to the report, India (creates) thecheapest car in the world.
26
Relative pronoun who
Students (who) want to pass the test should
study at home too.
25
Object pronoun
If students wish, the final grade will beemailed to (them) in a week.
13
Past tense (with keyword such as
The baseball players (took) a bus to Tokyo
last year)
last month.
23
Present perfect (with since)
Jennifer (has lived) in Osaka since she
moved from L.A. in 1998.
Note. Correct answers are shown in parentheses.

-.950
-.950
-1.040-1.230-1.260-1.585-1.710-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Persons with
| More difficult items
more grammatical |knowledge|
4.######
+
|
|
.
|
.
|
.####
|
.
T|
.
|
3
.
+
|
21-2B
###
|
21-2A
#
|
.######
|
.##
|
.
|
#
S|
2
.##
+
.###########
|
|T
.###
|
.#########|
30-4A 30-4C.#####|
18-1B 18-2A.#|.#######|
37-5D
1 .########+.#####
M|S
20-2A 20-5D 37-4B
.##
|
38-4A
.######|
10-1A 19-2A 19-3C 34-4C###|
11-1A 32-4B 34-4A.######|
12-1A 12-1B 14-5E 27-5D 33-4B 33-5E 38-4C 6-5E 7-5D.###|
7-5E 10-2B 11-1B 27-4A 32-4A.####|
1-2A 14-1B 17-2B 17-3C 35-4C 6-1B0.####
+M 22-4A 22-5E 31-4A 31-4C#|
3-1A 3-1B 36-4A 4-1A.######
S|
29-4B 35-4B 4-1B 5-1A.#|
1-1B 24-4B 24-5D 29-4C 36-4B 8-1B##|
2-1A 5-2B 8-1A 9-1B######
|
2-1B
.
|
.#
|S
15-2A 16-5E 9-2A
-1.##+
16-5D 28-5D 28-5E
.
|
15-3C

8
57

A Rasch Analysis of Grammatical Difficulty: What Influences Item Difficulty?

##
#
.
.#

|
25-4B 26-4B 26-4C
|
25-4A
T|
13-3C
|
13-3B 23-4B
|T
23-4A
.
|
-2
+
|
.
|
.
|
.
|
|
|
|
-3
+
Persons with
| Easier items
less grammatical |knowledge|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Figure 1. Wright map for the 38 pairs of items. Each "#" is 6 persons. Each "." is 1 to 5 persons. M =Mean; S = 1 SD; T = 2 SD.

2. Difficulty order within the same grammatical category
Adjectives
There are four adjective items. Table 3 shows their mean estimates and mean S.E.s. Using
the 3 S.E. criterion, their difficulty levels can be expressed as item 18 > items 19 and 38 > item 5.
Items 18 and 19 indicate that an adverb after a be-verb makes the item far more difficult thanplacing an adjective immediately after a be-verb. This could be because adverbs are not explained
explicitly in junior and senior high school textbooks, and thus less familiarity with adverbs might
confuse some students and make answering item 18 difficult. On the other hand, placing an
adjective immediately before a noun was the easiest.

Item
18
19
38
5

Table 3. Difficulty Order of Adjective Items
Sentence Position
Mean Estimate Mean S.E.
be adverb ( )
1.370
.175
be ( ).605.170
sensory verb ( )
.590
.270
( ) noun
-.385
.160

Adverbs
There are four adverb items, three of which were sentence-internal adverbs and were foundto be more difficult than a sentence-final adverb. Table 4 shows their mean estimates and mean
S.E.s. The difference between items 4 and 24 is slightly smaller than 3 S.E.s, but bigger than 2 S.E.s.
If we use the 2 S.E. criterion, the difficulty levels of these four items can be expressed as items 10,
6, and 4 > item 24, which means that sentence-internal > sentence-final.

Item

Table 4. Difficulty Order of Adverb Items
Sentence Position
Mean Estimate Mean S.E.

58

Atsuko NISHITANI

10
6
4
24

S( )V
be ( ) adjective
be ( ) past participle
SVO( )

.410
.225
.220
-.380

.135
.195
.195
.250

Nouns
There are three noun items, and Table 5 shows their mean estimates and mean S.E.s. Using
the 3 S.E. criterion, their difficulty levels can be expressed as items 27 and 1 > item 15. It isinteresting to note that both items 27 and 15 require test-takers to place a noun in an object position,
but the presence of an adjective makes the item much easier. In answering item 15, students might
not perceive the noun as occupying an object position but rather as something occurring after anadjective.
It is also interesting that both items 15 and 5 (discussed in the adjective section) had the samestructure, the combination of an adjective and a noun, but placing a noun after an adjective (item15) was easier than placing an adjective before a noun (item 5). Their difference in estimates isslightly within 3 S.E.s but more than 2 S.E.s. In other words, item 15 was considerably easier thanitem 5.
Item
27
1
15

Table 5. Difficulty Order of Noun Items
Sentence Position
Mean Estimate Mean S.E.
SV( )
.285
.225
article ( )
-.115
.160
S V adjective ( )
-.950
.240

Tense
There are six tense items. Table 6 shows that the past perfect and the present tense items weredifficult and the past tense and the present perfect items were easy when tested in a multiple-choice
format. It is unsurprising that the past perfect was the most difficult, as it is conceptually difficult
for Japanese students, who often have difficulty distinguishing it from the simple past tense. The
present tense, which is the first tense taught in junior high school, was difficult for the Japanese
students in this study. In my own experience, many students use the present progressive when thesimple present tense is appropriate. With item 20, the students might have had difficulty choosing
the present tense because there were no adverbials such as today and every day in the sentences. In
addition, item 20 had the present perfect tense in its subordinate clause, and this might haveconfused the students and influenced item difficulty. Similarly, item 32, which assessed knowledgeof future tense, did not include adverbials such as tomorrow or next month, and had the present
perfect tense in the other clause in the sentence. This might have increased the difficulty of this item.
On the contrary, the items assessing knowledge of past tense (item 13) and present perfect (item 23)
were relatively easy. The present perfect is difficult for Japanese students, and they often avoid
using it. However, in this test both past tense and present perfect items had keywords such as last
1059

A Rasch Analysis of Grammatical Difficulty: What Influences Item Difficulty?

and since in the sentences, which might have made the items much easier. In sum, the presence orabsence of keywords such as last, next, and since appears to influence the difficulty of tense items.

Item
37
20
32
17
13
23

Table 6. Difficulty Order of Tense Items
Tense
Mean Estimate Mean S.E.
Past perfect
.980
.230
Present.870.170
Future.395.200
Past progressive
.110
.220
Past
-1.585.405
Present perfect-1.710.415

Relative pronouns
As Table 7 shows, there were only three relative pronoun items. Using the 3 S.E. criterion,
their difficulty can be expressed as item 30 > items 29 and 26. The difference between items 29 and26 was more than 2 S.E.s but less than 3 S.E.s. It is unsurprising that item 30 was the most difficult.
When choosing a relative pronoun, Japanese students usually look at the noun immediately before
the blank, because they are explicitly taught to do so in their junior and senior high school English
classes. Because item 30 had a city name such as New York as an antecedent, many students chose
where instead of which. Item 26 was the easiest, as the participants simply chose who when theantecedent was a noun referring to people. The relative pronoun that (Item 29) was more difficult
than who, for two possible reasons: (1) Japanese students tend to learn that which is the relative
pronoun to use when an antecedent refers to a thing, and that is an alternative; and (2) Japanese
students often confuse what with that. In short, the difficulty order of these three relative pronoun
items seems the same as the order that would be predicted by Japanese teachers of English.

Item
30
29
26

Table 7. Difficulty Order of Relative Pronoun Items
Relative pronoun
Mean Estimate Mean S.E.
which (vs. where)
1.520
.160
-.335
.330
that
-1.230.425
who

Pronouns
There were four pronoun items (Table 8). Using the 3 S.E. criterion, item 22 was moredifficult than item 25. If we use the 2 S.E. criterion, the difficulty of the four items can be expressed
as items 22 and 4 > item 2 > item 25. It is surprising that the subject pronoun item was moredifficult than the object pronoun item. It might be because the students misunderstood it as arelative pronoun item. The blank was in the middle of the sentence, preceded by an infinitive phrase,
and thus the presence of a noun before a blank could have confused the students. It is also
surprising that the reflexive pronoun item was easy. However, this could be because the students

60

Atsuko NISHITANI

only knew it as a set phrase by oneself. If a reflexive pronoun were required immediately after averb, the item might have been more difficult.

Item
22
4
2
25

Table 8. Difficulty Order of Pronoun Items
PronounMean Estimate Mean S.E.
Subject pronoun
.005
.230
Possessive pronoun
-.195
.180
Reflexive pronoun
-.605
.175
Object pronoun-1.260.355

Infinitives and gerunds
There were two infinitive items and one gerund item (Table 9). Because they were within a 3
S.E. difference and there was only one pattern of gerund items, it is inappropriate to suggest thatgerunds are easier than infinitives. It was surprising that item 8 was the most difficult of the three
because I expected that placing a basic form of verb after in order to would be something students
could do easily. However, 19% of the students who answered item “In order to (act) the role ofRomeo, he will have to go on a diet.” and 21% of the students who answered item “In order to(write) a good essay for your English class, you will need to follow some rules.” chose a gerund forreasons that are not clear. Therefore, I administered a questionnaire and asked 38 university
students attending the same school as many of the participants in this study if they could explain thereason(s) for this incorrect response. Their explanations provided some insight into the choice of thegerund:࣭I thought that to is always followed by a noun.
࣭I thought that to was a preposition and -ing was appropriate.
࣭After the blank are a noun and a comma, and a subject and a verb follow. So I thought that
it was a participle construction and -ing was correct.
Table 9. Difficulty Order of Infinitive and Gerund Items
Item
Infinitive / Gerund
Mean Estimate Mean S.E.
8
Infinitive: to ( )
-.455
.210
9
Infinitive: V O ( )
-.690
.245
16
Gerund: preposition ( )
-.950
.240
Prepositions and conjunctions
There were three preposition and conjunction items, all of which required the students todistinguish between the two grammar points (Table 10). They were all within a 2 S.E. difference;
thus, it can be concluded that prepositions and conjunctions can be of similar difficulty regardless ofthe number of the prepositions or conjunctions in the choices.

12
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A Rasch Analysis of Grammatical Difficulty: What Influences Item Difficulty?

Table 10. Difficulty Order of Preposition and Conjunction Items
Item
Preposition/Conjunction
Mean Estimate Mean S.E.
7
Conjunction: 1 conjunction in
.385
.195
choices
12
Conjunction: 2 or more
.360
.130
conjunctions in choices
31
Preposition: 1 preposition in
-.025
.295
choices
2. Problematic items in the multiple-choice tests
There were two problematic items used in the multiple-choice tests, present tense (item 20)
and an adjective after a sensory verb (item 38), which had two possible answers. The example items
were as follows:
20-2A:
This book ( ) how I have worked with difficult people who complain
about everything.
(a) told(b) tells(c) telling(d) had told
38-4A:

Peter felt ( ) when he heard he passed the test.
(a) happily(b) happiness(c) less happily(d) happy

The expected answers for 20-2A and 38-4A were (b) tells and (d) happy, respectively, but (a)told and (b) happiness were also possible. I noticed that item 20 had two possible answers before
administering Test 2, but I left them as they were because I assumed that Japanese students who
have received formal instruction in classroom would apply the knowledge of tense agreement andwould not choose the past tense when the subordinate clause uses the present (perfect) tense. In fact
more students chose (b) tells (n = 174) than (a) told (n = 70) for item 20-2A, for example, and their
Rasch average ability measures were 1.91 and .96, respectively, which suggests that students withmore grammatical knowledge chose the present tense.
I did not notice that two answers were possible for item 38 until after administering Test 4,
the test that contained the items. I also examined the results of the Rasch analysis for this item andfound that more students chose (d) happy (n = 43) than (b) happiness (n = 18) for item 38-4A, forexample, and their average ability measures were 1.38 and .43, respectively. Again it was found thatstudents with more grammatical knowledge chose the expected answer, an adjective. However,these items could have had different difficulty estimates if they had had only one possible answer.
3. Writing two items testing the same grammar point
Research question 2 was “To what extent is it possible to create two items measuring thesame grammatical point that have similar difficulty estimates?” I first thought that items testing thesame grammar point would show similar difficulty estimates. However, when conducting the pilot
study, I discovered that the vocabulary used and the position of the blank in the sentence influenced

62

Atsuko NISHITANI

the difficulty considerably. Therefore, when writing the items for this study, I used high frequency
vocabulary and had two parallel forms for the same structure in the same sentence position but
using different lexis, so that the two items would be more likely to have similar difficulty estimates.
However, in Test 1, which consisted of 21 grammatical structures, only six pairs of items showedsimilar difficulty estimates. The 15 pairs that did not meet the 2 S.E. criterion were revised so thatthey were more similar and they were tested once again in Test 2. Still, six pairs did not show
similar difficulty estimates, and they were revised again to be even more similar and retested in Test
3. The revised items had difficulty estimates within the 2 S.E. criterion. However, note that Test 3
had three parallel forms for each structure, and the three items measuring each structure did notnecessarily show similar estimates. Table 11 shows the items for six structures that finally met the 2
S. E. criterion after being revised twice and tested in Test 3. Note that the difficulty estimates in thetable were from a Rasch analysis of the combined data of Tests 1 to 3. Notice how the difficulty
estimates changed based on slight revisions to the items.
Table 11. Difficulty Estimates of the Items Measuring Six Structures Revised Twice Before
Meeting the 2 S.E. Criterion
Structure
Test Item
Difficultyform
estimate
Infinitive:
1A
Ms. Johnson wanted the students (to work) hard and finish the-1.14
VO ( )
project by next Tuesday.
2A
Ms. Johnson told the students (to study) hard because they
-1.02
didn’t get a good score on the last test.
1B
He told his assistant (to attend) the party because he didn’t-.78
want to make a speech there.
2B
He asked his assistant (to attend) the party because he didn’t.30
want to make a speech there.
3B
He asked his friend (to go) to the party because he didn’t want-.55
to make a speech there.
3C
Mr. Kondo wanted his children (to clean) the room because-3.12
they didn’t have space to sit down.
Past tense
1A
Gasoline prices (increased) last month when the war broke out-1.33
in oil producing countries.
2A
Because of the war last year, the oil companies (increased) the.59
price of gasoline by 20 yen.
3A
The oil companies (increased) the price of gasoline by 20 yen-.86last year.
1B
According to news reports yesterday, a drunk driver (caused)-.90
an accident that resulted in five deaths.
3B
A drunk driver (caused) an accident in Kyoto yesterday.
-1.92
3C
The baseball players (took) a bus to Tokyo last month.
-1.31
Adverb: be 1A
The hotel owner told the local newspaper that all the rooms
1.07( ) ppwill be (beautifully) decorated by an Italian designer.
2A
The rooms of the new hotel will be (beautifully) decorated by
1.55
a famous designer from Italy.
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A Rasch Analysis of Grammatical Difficulty: What Influences Item Difficulty?

3A
1B
2B
3B
3C
Noun: verb 1A
adj ( )
2A
1B
2B
3B
3C
Past
progressive

1A
3A
1B
2B
3C

Adjective:be ( )

1A
2A
3A
1B
2B
3B

The rooms of the new hotel have been (beautifully) decorated
by a famous designer from Italy.
The image of Japanese cars has been (greatly) damaged bywrong reports in the news media.
The image of Japanese cars has been (greatly) damaged bysome wrong reports in the news.
The image of Japanese cars has been (greatly) damaged by anews reporter from the U.S.
The walls of the old house have been (quickly) painted by acollege student from Paris.
Our new desktop computers promise high (performance)
while using less power than old models.
Our new computer will offer high (performance) when the
new operating system is installed.
The company has enjoyed the great (popularity) of its portablemusic player and online digital media store.
The company has enjoyed great (popularity) since its portablemusic player was introduced.
The company will enjoy great (success) when its new
television is introduced.
Tom will get a fast (promotion) when this new project isfinished.
When I spoke with Amy on campus, she (was having)difficulty finding a job in design.
When I met Amy on campus, she (was drinking) coffee with afriend.
Jason (was buying) sandwiches when we saw him in thecafeteria.
When we saw Jason in the cafeteria, he (was buying)
sandwiches for lunch.
When I called Michael at home, he (was cooking) dinner forhis children.
Children who play outside need to be (careful) and should nottalk to strangers.
Children who play outside need to be (careful). They should
not talk to strangers.
Children need to be (careful) when they play outside.
The bed was too soft, so we had to sleep on the floor in order
to be (comfortable).
The hotel room where we stayed used to be (comfortable).
They also served a good breakfast.

.49
-.14
.01
-.71
-1.92
-.82
-1.00
.65
1.85
1.32
-1.58
1.53
-.55
-.11
-.09
-1.09
-.54
.22
.22
-.97
-.93

Students need to be (comfortable) when they make a speech.

-.71

3C
You need to be (active) when you participate in a discussion.
Note. Correct answers are shown in parentheses.

.11

Infinitives

64Atsuko NISHITANI

Test form 1B had He told his assistant (to attend) the party because he didn’t want to make aspeech there. In Test form 2B, told was simply changed to asked, and then the difficulty estimates
increased from -.78 to .30, which was more than a 2 S.E. difference. This suggests that asked ismore difficult in some sense than told. In Test form 3B, assistant was changed to friend, and thenthe difficulty estimates decreased from .30 to -.55, which is again more than a 2 S.E. difference.
This is understandable because friend is a higher frequency and more familiar word to the students,
although the word assistant is used as a loan word in Japan.
The difference between 3B and 3C is also surprising. These two items appeared to be quite
parallel when I wrote them, but their difficulty estimates were -.55 and -3.12, respectively, which ismore than a 3 S.E. difference. Is it because of the familiarity of the situation? Is the situation ormeaning of cleaning a room more familiar than going to a party and making a speech, and thus
influenced the difficulty? Neither going to a party nor making a speech seems difficult though.
Therefore, I also asked about these items to the 38 students mentioned above. Once again,
their explanations provided a measure of insight into the responses:
࣭We are more familiar with want to than ask to.
࣭I thought that was omitted after ask and his friend was a subject in the that-clause. So I    thought a verb should be chosen.
࣭I thought that it is strange to have two tos before and after go as in to go to so I didn’t think 
to go was correct.
࣭I thought to in the to the party was the to to make ask to so I thought to go was incorrect.
࣭I didn’t understand the meaning of 3B. I didn’t understand the relationship between a party
and a speech.
Past tense
Comparing the past tense items on Forms 1A, 2A, and 3A, the difficulty estimates changed
from -1.33 to .59 and to -.86. The difference between both 1A and 2A, and 2A and 3A were morethan 3 S.E.s. In other words, 2A was significantly more difficult than 1A or 3A. This might bebecause a keyword such as last year appeared before the blank. 1A had a keyword immediately
after the blank, and 3A had one at the end of the sentence. It might have been easier for the students
to identify such keywords after the blank. This possibility also applies to the difference between 1Band 3B. Their difference was more than 2 S.E.s, and it might be largely because 3B was much
shorter and simpler than 1B, but it is also important to note the position of the keyword yesterday:
1B had one before the blank, and 3B after the blank.
Internal adverbs (between a be-verb and a past participle)
The difficulty estimates of the items on Forms 1A, 2A, and 3A were 1.07, 1.55, and .49,
respectively, and the difference between 1A and 2A was more than 2 S.E.s, and the difference
between 2A and 3A was more than 3 S.E.s. Although 2A was shorter and simpler than 1A, 2A was
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A Rasch Analysis of Grammatical Difficulty: What Influences Item Difficulty?

more difficult. The difference between 2A and 3A was only the tense used (i.e., the future form will
be was changed to present perfect have been in 3A), and although present perfect is usually moredifficult for Japanese students, 3A was significantly easier. I asked if the 38 students had an
explanation for this, but I received only two possible reasons:࣭In 3A, it is easy to see the present perfect verb and because a blank was in the middle of thepresent perfect form, it is easy to choose an adverb.
࣭I automatically think that a noun or an adjective should follow will be.
Comparing the items on Forms 3A, 3B, and 3C, which looked quite parallel, their difficulty
estimates were surprisingly different: .49, -.71, and -1.92, respectively. The difference between 3A
and 3B was more than 3 S.E.s, and the difference between 3B and 3C was more than 2 S.E.s, andthe difference between 3A and 3C was more than 3 S.E.s. Why was 3A significantly more difficult
than the other two? Is it because of the words decorate and designer? Japanese college student
should know both words, but it is possible that the students did not recognize the spelling ofdesigner although it is commonly used as a loan word in Japanese. On the other hand, it isunderstandable that 3C was the easiest because it had the easiest vocabulary and meaning. I asked if
the 38 students could explain the difficulty difference of these items as well. Their responses are as
follows:
࣭We rarely see or use beautifully but we often see and use quickly. We tend to choose words
that are familiar.
࣭The meaning of 3C was easiest to understand.
࣭When reading 3B, I translated damaged as the noun damage and thus thought that an
adjective should be in the blank.
Nouns (after a verb and an adjective)
The difficulty estimates of the items on Forms 1B, 2B, and 3B were .65, 1.85, and 1.32,
respectively. The difference between 1B and 2B was more than 3 S.E.s, and the difference between
1B and 3B was more than 2 S.E.s (and barely missed 3 S.E.s). In other words, 1B was significantly
easier than the other two items, even though the sentence was longer. This might have occurredbecause 2B had a since-clause, and 3B had a when-clause, which might have caused the sentences
to look more complicated and confused the students. To confirm my assumption, I asked the 38
students about this as well, and I received several insightful comments:
࣭1B was the easiest because there is an article the before the blank, which made it obviousthat we should choose a noun.
࣭1B was the easiest because of is after the blank. This made it obvious that we should choose
a noun.
࣭2B and 3B consisted of two S + Vs and looked difficult.

66

Atsuko NISHITANI࣭2B and 3B had a passive verb at the end, which made it difficult to understand the meaningof the sentences.
The difference between 3B and 3C was also significant. The difficulty estimate of 3B was
1.32 and that of 3C was -1.58, which was more than a 3 S.E. difference. Again the items on Test 3
were created to look quite parallel, and both success and promotion should be familiar to thestudents. The suffix –tion in promotion might have made it easier for the students to recognize it asa noun. Explanations provided by the 38 students, which partially confirm my assumption, are as
follows:
࣭3C has an article a before the blank, which makes it easier to choose a noun.
࣭Promotion is easily understood as a noun because of –tion, but it is difficult to know thenoun form of succeed.
࣭When memorizing, we use the same Japanese translation for success and succeed and thus
it is difficult to know which one is a noun.
࣭I thought that succeeding was a noun form of succeed.
࣭3B has a verb enjoy so I thought that -ing was the correct answer.
Past progressive tense
The difficulty estimates of the items on Forms 1A and 3A were 1.53 and -.55, respectively,
and the difference was more than 3 S.E.s. This could be because having difficulty was a much moredifficult concept than drinking coffee. Also some students might have learned that the verb havecannot take the progressive. In fact, slightly more than 50% of the students who answered this item
chose either has or has had. This is why I changed it to drinking coffee when revising the item for
Test 3.
Adjectives (after a be-verb)
The difficulty estimates of the items on Forms 1A, 2A, and 3A were -.54, .22, and .22,
respectively, and the differences between 1A and 2A, and between 1A and 3A were more than 2
S.E.s. Comparing 1A and 2A, 2A consisted of two short, simple sentences, but 2A was found moredifficult. Comparing 1A and 3A, 3A was shorter but more difficult. I asked the 38 students forpossible explanations, but they were unable to provide plausible answers. I received only twoplausible comments.
࣭In 2A, the blank appears at the end of the sentence, so I thought that an adverb thatmodifies the be-verb should be used.
࣭3A has when after the blank, which made it difficult to decide what word to select.
Comparing the items on Forms 3A, 3B, and 3C, whose estimates were .22, -.71, and .11,
respectively, the differences between 3A and 3B and between 3B and 3C were more than 2 S.E.s;
thus, 3B was much easier than 3A and 3C. It is possible that the word comfortable was easier than
18
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A Rasch Analysis of Grammatical Difficulty: What Influences Item Difficulty?

careful and active despite the lack of any clear reason why that should be so. The concepts in thethree sentences do not seem difficult either. I cannot think of any possible explanation for this.
Therefore, I asked the 38 students; their comments partially confirmed my assumption:
࣭Among the choices of 3B, comfortable was most well known, so many students chose it
based on their familiarity with the word.
࣭Because comfortable has the suffix -able, it is easily recognized as an adjective.
࣭Among the choices for 3C, I did not know which one was an adjective.
V. CONCLUSION
This study established a tentative difficulty order of 38 grammatical structures when tested
in a multiple-choice format. It also demonstrated the difficulty involved in writing multiple-choicegrammar items testing the knowledge of the same grammar point that would produce similar Raschdifficulty estimates. Slightly different wording sometimes changed the difficulty estimate
significantly. Even though the vocabulary used and the sentence positions were carefully controlled,
the items often displayed quite different difficulty estimates. As discussed above, the students
seemed to look at items differently than most teachers, and what they notice and how they interpret
what they notice strongly influenced item difficulty. In the meantime, teachers or test-writers should
be aware that it is difficult to write items that produce similar difficulty estimates. Especially when
making college entrance examinations in Japan, teachers are usually required to make multiple
forms, and thus they should be careful to produce forms of similar difficulty; otherwise, one form
can be considerably more or less difficult than another and thus be the cause of unfairness to somestudents.
VI. LIMITATIONS
The first limitation concerns the testing format. Multiple-choice tests are utilized in thisstudy, as they are predominantly used to measure grammatical knowledge on entrance examinations
and placement tests in Japan. Thus, the results of this study might not apply to different testing
formats, particularly tests that elicit on-line data (e.g., speaking tests), or tests that measureproductive knowledge of grammar.
Second, a limited number of grammatical structures are focused on in this study. To
investigate the difficulty order, 38 structures were examined, and two items were selected as
representatives of each structure. Assessing 38 structures, or two items per structure, is insufficientbecause (a) there are many more structures in the English language and their difficulty remains
unknown, and (b) if the difficulty of one structure is determined, more than two items testing thestructure should show similar difficulty.
Third, the difficulty of some items was unexplainable. Although I asked 38 university
students, I still do not have a plausible explanation for why Children need to be (careful) when they68Atsuko NISHITANI

play outside. is more difficult than Children who play outside need to be (careful) and should nottalk to strangers., for example. Interviewing more students could provide useful information as towhy one is more difficult than the other.
The fourth limitation concerns the items included in the multiple-choice tests. Two items
had two possible answers. Although more students and students with more grammatical knowledge
seemed to have chosen the expected answers, their difficulty estimates could have been different if
there had been only one possible answer. Although these items were proofread by a native speakerof English, these problematic items were not detected beforehand. In order to prevent suchproblems, more teachers should proofread test items before administering them.
Finally, multiple-choice test items are affected by many factors, especially the distractors.
When students are more familiar with the words used as distractors than the correct answer, they
may choose the distractor. When they mistakenly notice the collocational links between words usedin the sentence and a distractor, they may choose the distractor. For example, in The company will
enjoy great (success) when its new television is introduced., those who noticed that enjoy takes agerund form might have chosen the distractor succeeding, which was an unintended result. Again
careful writing of distractors is necessary when writing multiple-choice items. These limitations
should be addressed by future researchers.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments. This study waspartially supported by KAKENHI (Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) 22520596).
NOTEThis study was orally presented at JACET Kansai Chapter 2012 Fall Conference held at Kyoto
Sangyo University on November 24th, 2012.
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JACET Kansai Journal, 16
16, 71-89. (2014) ©JACET Kansai Chapter
ISSN 1880-2281

Printed in JAPAN.

Figurative Interpretations Demonstrated by Three Language Groups:
English, Chinese and Japanese1)
Masumi Azuma
Kobe Design University (Emeritus Professor)
ABSTRACTThis paper describes a study that investigates the cognitive aspects of the interpretations of figurative
expressions among different native language groups (English, Chinese and Japanese). The term ‘figurative
expressions’ refers to ‘hiyuteki hyogen’ (ẚ႘ⓗ⾲⌧) in Japanese, the expressions of which in this study include
metaphorical and metonymic expressions originating in Japanese and in English. The study aims to discoverprominent cognitive aspects of figurative interpretations using an author-designed test. The test items feature
both universal concepts and non-universal or specific concepts, i.e., culture-bound features originating in
English and Japanese. The features and their effects on the understanding and interpretations of figurative
expressions are considered; the causes and effects of cognitive prominence (e.g., analogy, schematic
knowledge and mental images) used for interpretations, together with the influences of the knowledge
generated from the participants’ mother tongues on figurative interpretations, are analyzed and discussed using
the test results and interviews with participants. The analogical reasoning or logical thinking, image schematicfunctions, and cultural elements, including the knowledge generated from the participants’ mother tongue, areevidenced. The study aspires to contribute to language teaching, for example, avoidance or alleviation of
miscommunication in the understanding and use of figurative expressions in different languages.
Key words: metaphor, analogy, culture, universality/specificity

1. INTRODUCTION
Every language has its own unique features of figurative expressions. Some features may be rooted in thecharacteristics of the language itself or in cultural traits. This study investigates the figurative/metaphoricalinterpretations demonstrated by three different mother-tongue groups, with a view to identifying problems
with figurative/metaphorical interpretations possibly caused by the schematic, cultural knowledge generated
from a mother tongue and/or other cognitive factors and to alleviating such misunderstanding andmiscommunication.
Regarding understanding and interpreting, both of which are inseparable in mind, thought andperformance, this study takes the following view: understanding figurative meanings refers to perceiving orcomprehending the expressions figuratively, whereas interpreting figurative expressions concerns construing,
clarifying and/or explaining the meanings figuratively.
II. BACKGROUND
Linguistics and its disciplinary areas have long been contributing to language education; however, it
could be beneficial for more attention to be paid to the theory and mechanism of metaphor and its application,
meaning those who are engaged in language education may deeply consider the cognition of language andthe relation of language to brain, mind and body (Gibbs, 1980, 1994, 1999; Gibbs & Colston, 2012; Lakoff
71

Masumi AZUMA& Johnson, 1980, 1987, 1999, 2003; Lakoff & Turner, 1989; Langacker, 1986, 1991, to name just a few).
With regard to the situation of figurative studies in Japanese, in the Meiji Era (the middle of the 19th
century), literary figures revived the study of rhetoric and took significant notice of figures of speech. Since
then, rhetoric has long been studied in depth, but it is only recently that figures of speech (especially,
metaphor, metonymy, personification and onomatopoeia, etc.) have attracted people’s attention regarding the
aspects of language and cognition. Since the 1970s, in line with the development of cognitive science, inJapan, too, the number of studies in cognitive linguistics has increased to keep pace with research in theWestern world. This development has led Japanese researchers to take an interest in the application of
metaphor study to language education but not as much interest as in the study of metaphor per se in cognitive
linguistics (Kusumi, 2007; Nabeshima, 2011; Taniguchi, 2006; Yamanashi, 1988, to name just a few).
The small number of studies or practices to take advantage of the theory of metaphor in foreign language(FL) education in Japan is due to the language environments: learners start learning an FL (mostly English)
from a basic level during late childhood to early adolescence and move through an intermediate level to anadvanced level at a near adult age. In general, figurative learning in an FL is thought to be an issue thatshould be dealt with at the most advanced level. In a situation like the one in Japan, it is quite natural forteachers to emphasize basic content when teaching English; therefore, only a few qualitative and quantitative
studies have sought to investigate EFL learners’ performance regarding the use of figurative English
expressions. Due to the limited number of studies in Japan, this study tends to resort to resources in the fields
of applied and cognitive linguistics in the Western world. Although limited, a strong implication comes from
Kuroda (2007); Kuroda & Nozawa (online, 2012) imply the importance of cognitive knowledge (‘frame’)for understanding metaphors, and Taniguchi (2011) also inspires research into metaphor.
The Western world abounds with research, for example, on metaphor awareness (Deignan, Gabrys &Solska, 1997 and Boers, 2000); and on metaphorical competence (Charteris-Black, 2002; Johnson & Rosano,
1993; Littlemore, 2001; Littlemore & Low, 2006; Low, 1988). Of such research, the most relevant to thisstudy is Charteris-Black (2002), who investigated the comparison of figurative phraseologies of English andMalay with Malay native speakers who had learned English as a second language (ESL). His study
concluded that figurative units that have an equivalent linguistic form and equivalent conceptual basis are theeasiest to understand, the most difficult being those that have an equivalent linguistic form but a different
conceptual basis (ibid.).
This study also involves language and culture; therefore, it would be better to look at the research on
metaphor and culture, for example, metaphor in culture (Kövecses, 2005), and in English (subtitled Meaning
and Culture) (Wierzbicka, 2006), and then to consider the association between analogy and strategy(McCarthy, 2001; Oxford, 1990, 1996). Kövecses (2005) argues conceptual metaphors vary culturally andwithin cultures, and that the causes on which universality and variation in metaphor depend include
embodiment (p. 293). He claims that the cognitive processes that human beings use are universal but that
their applications are not. Wierzbicka (2006) covers a wide range of meanings of English words from otherlanguages that involve specific cultural connotations; however, there is no reference to Japanese expressions.
Oxford (1990, 1996) classifies the systems of learning strategies in general, among which those most
relevant to this study are analyzing and reasoning in cognitive strategies and guessing intelligently incompensation strategies.
As for metaphor interpretation processes and metaphorical ability, Littlemore (2008, pp. 201-204) points
272Figurative interpretations demonstrated by three language groups:
English, Chinese and Japanese

out associative fluency, analogical reasoning and image formation as the processes involved in metaphor
interpretation and word concreteness, with contextual clues and cognitive style as factors likely to affectone’s ability to use metaphoric extension strategies (the term used in Littlemore, 2008 and elsewhere, is‘metaphoric’, while the term in the author’s study is ‘metaphorical’). The definition of metaphoriccompetence (ibid., p. 201) is one’s ability to perceive and create a metaphoric relationship between different
concepts.
The author’s past study, which investigated aspects of the metaphorical competence of Japanese EFL
students, evidenced a strong correlation between EFL students’ knowledge of English vocabulary and their
metaphorical competence in English (Azuma, 2005). It was also noticed in the same study that someinvestigation into the cultural influence on figurative interpretations generated from mother-tongue
knowledge and into the involvement of logical and schematic elements employed in interpretation isnecessary.
III. METHODOLOGYAs Winner (1988, p. 47) cautioned, there is ‘no “pure” measure of metaphor comprehension’. It is adelicate problem, and so it is difficult to make a test for figurative measurements. However, to examine
figurative interpretations, measurement instruments are necessary.
The methods used in this study were collecting numerical data and finding some cognitive aspects by(paper-based) testing, and confirming the contents of interpretations by interviewing participants. Afterseveral experiments and a pilot test, Metaphor Cognition Tests (MCTs) were designed. The tests comprised amultiple-choice type test and a descriptive type test. The multiple-choice type test consisted of 15 items, with
4 options each item: 4 items shared concepts in Japanese and English; 6 items featured English concepts; 5
items conceptually (and semantically) different in Japanese and English. It was a collateral test but aimed tomeasure and examine participants’ interpretations quantitatively and to ensure the homogeneity of variances
between the Japanese and Chinese groups. The idea behind the grouping of items was similar to that of thedescriptive type test. The descriptive type test, the main test, consisting of 40 items, aimed to discoverinterpretative aspects qualitatively, focusing specifically on the relationship between the wordings and/or
concepts of expressions and interpretation phenomena. Further details are given in Section III.1.
Quantitative analysis was conducted using SPSS 15E, while qualitative analysis was made by attentive
reading of the given answers on the test paper, where participants were asked to write figurative meanings,
and using (unstructured) interviews, where interviewees were asked individually about the schemas they
employed, the strategies they used, such as their utilization of mother-tongue (NL) knowledge and drawing
images in their mind when they encountered the expressions, and in the case of non-ENSs, linguistic
problems. Participants were recruited in America, Australia, Britain, China and Japan in 2007-2012.
Research questions (RQs):
RQ1 What kinds of cognitive aspects are prominent in the interpretations demonstrated
by three different native-language groups (English, Chinese and Japanese)?
RQ2 What are the causes and effects of successful and unsuccessful interpretations?
III.1. The Metaphor Cognition Test (MCT): descriptive type test
373

Masumi AZUMAIn the MCT descriptive type test, there are 40 test items of idioms, proverbs, and figurative expressions,of which a majority of the Japanese and the English expressions are (metonymic) metaphors that are
frequently and/or emphatically used in daily life (e.g., on television, in newspapers or in daily conversations)(Appendix). The test was devised to obtain sufficient quantitative and qualitative data; however, in reality it
was hard to fulfill the two antimonic requirements of quality and quantity, like ‘getting fish in troubled
waters’. Although there is Deignan’s (2005, p. 118) indication of the content of a text for a figurative test, theauthor compromised by using test items of short and medium lengths considering the time andmental/physical stress for participants, with one or two words for the short items, phrases for the medium
length items; and (short) sentences for the longest. The nature of these kinds of test items may result in
limitations to this investigation: one limitation is the test items being for testing, i.e., tests for a test-sake,while another limitation is giving insufficient information regarding the target expression, and therefore,
insufficient figurative stimuli.
These 40 test items are classified into two major groups: Groups A and B. Group A consists oflinguistically and conceptually shared items among the three languages, i.e., the wordings and concepts ofthe expressions existing in these languages; therefore, a universality group, while Group B consists oflinguistically and conceptually (though slightly or largely) different expressions, originating in Japanese andEnglish; therefore, a non-universality or specificity group. For the verification of Chinese expressions tocontrast with Japanese expressions, three Chinese academics assisted the non-Chinese NS author. The items
that had perfect consensus were chosen to belong to Group A. For example, item 1 Time is money in GroupA shares the concepts among the three languages, and the wording (in translation) is exactly the same;
whereas item 23 to cast a shrimp to catch a bream in Group BJ is originated in Japanese. It shares theembedded concept that makes it possible to stimulate the human analogy of large size contrasting small, but
the wording ‘bream’ is likely to be problematic for non-NSs. If a bream, ‘tai, 㪉’, is not understood to meana valuable white fish as is served in Japanese cuisine, the expression may not be interpreted successfully.
Group BE includes expressions originated in English. Item 19 My sides split and Item 20 to spill the beans
may well be interpreted by English NSs, but may cause some interpretive problems by non-ENSs. Thus,
some test items purposefully conceive ambivalent elements with the expectation of soliciting
similar/different interpretations from English, Japanese and Chinese NSs. These features of the provision andclassification of the test items may give a skew to the investigation, but those features may also give a clue
for finding out interpretative tendencies or aspects of figurative interpretations in different languages, such as
linguistic, schematic and cultural aspects in the interpretations of figurative expressions that originated indifferent languages.
The MCTs were presented in English; therefore, there was a presumable problem of translating theJapanese expressions into English. The translation of test items of Japanese origins took the method of literalor “raw” translation2). Figurative expressions usually take a broad translation, i.e., using a literal paraphrase oran equivalent figurative expression in English; for example, item 31 a horse out of a bottle gourd appears in
a Japanese-English dictionary (Masuda, ed., 1988, p. 501) as ‘Unexpected things often happen’. The broadtranslation makes the meaning clear, but it loses a delicate nuance or vivid imagery and makes the original
expression non-figurative. This study takes an unprocessed (“raw” because it is in its natural state) measureof translation in order to preserve original nuances.
In the appendix, an item is laid out in the list, where the item number is preserved from the actual test and474

Figurative interpretations demonstrated by three language groups:
English, Chinese and Japanese

an expression in English, the corresponding expression in Japanese, and its abbreviation and a Chinese
expression (Group A) are listed.
Groups BJ and BE include the expressions that originated in Japanese and in English respectively. Some
items are shared between the two languages, e.g., item 18 (Group BJ) You and I are united with a red thread
is shared by Japanese and Chinese, but not by English, whereas there are items in the groups that are notshared (either slightly or greatly) among the three languages. However, some may possibly be understood
linguistically, e.g., item 24 I need to pick your brains. A majority of the items were hypothesized to create agreat (or small in some cases) difference between English and non-English interpretations. There are otheritems hypothesized to create a great difference between English and the other two languages, i.e.,
culture-bound items, for example, item 25 Tim must be soft in the head to do such a thing.
III.2. Scoring of the answers and correctness ratio
Scoring of the answers took the following procedure: two raters (a British metaphor researcher and theauthor) set up an appropriate boundary of interpretation for each item and allocated one point for a correct
answer or null for an incorrect answer. If there was any discrepancy between the two, they discussed theissue until they reached an agreement. After this procedure, the correctness ratio for each item was calculated(a hundred was the maximum; a zero was the minimum), and it was used for data analysis throughout thisstudy. The use of the correctness ratio was intended to obtain an independent value of an individual item’sinterpretative performance by participants.
III.3. Participants
The participants were 100 English native speakers (hereafter ENSs: 31 American ENSs (AmE hereafter),
32 Australian ENSs (AuE hereafter) and 37 British ENSs (BrE hereafter) aged 18 to 65; 72 Japanese native
speakers (hereafter JNSs who majored in English in Japanese universities) aged 18 to 24; and 96 Chinese
native speakers (hereafter CNSs who majored in English in a Chinese university) aged 18-22. None of the
non-ENSs had had any experience of living in English-speaking countries for more than a year. The numberof interviewees was 90 (56 ENSs and 34 JNSs).
IV. COLLATERAL ASPECTS OF PARTICIPANTS
The participants in this study consisted of three different NL groups, and the ages of the three ENS
groups had a wider range than those of their counterparts. The counterpart groups belonged to different Asian
language groups, namely, Chinese and Japanese. Hence, we will first look at several collateral aspects in thefollowing sections before we go into the main discussion.
IV.1. Statistical examinations of the ENSs
First, we will examine the homogeneity of the three ENS groups and the feasibility and reliability of thetest items, using the results of the MCT multiple-choice type test. The mean and std. deviation of the 100
ENSs were 95.2 and 6.1 respectively, in which those of 32 AmE, 31 AuE and 37 BrE comprised 95.8 and
5.3, 93.1 and 8.0, and 96.6 and 4.3 respectively; the homogeneity of variance for the ENS groups did notshow a significant difference [F (2, 97) = 3.03, p = .053] (Ș2 = .05); the feasibility of the test items was
ensured by non-parametric tests; and the reliability (.981) was given by the Cronbach Į coefficient. Next is
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Masumi AZUMA

the examination of the MCT descriptive type test. The ENS participants were from three regional areas; inother words, they spoke three different variations of English. It was possible to take advantage of this factwith regard to the regional similarities/differences and interpretative aspects of figurative expressions in an
English context as a whole, which could be utilized as a benchmark and an index for non-ENSs. In contrast, theChinese and Japanese participants could provide their primitive figurative interpretations. The presentation of
the test in English gave a greater advantage to the ENSs than the non-ENSs. The correctness ratios of themultiple type of the ENSs vs the non-ENSs were 95 vs. 59.
With regard to the regional similarity/difference among the three ENS groups, the Pearson correlation
between the three ‘Englishes’ is very strong as shown in Table 1. This result regarding the feasibility of thetest items is remarkable, because if there was a chance for the JNSs, for example, to use the kinds ofexpressions featured in this study in communication with the ENSs, there would be no major interpretative
difference among the ENSs.
Table 1 Correlations between Australian, British and American ENSs (no. of items: 40)
Measures
31 AuE
37 BrE
32 AmE

31 AuE
—
.97**
.96**

37 BrE

32 AmE—.97**—

Note. **㻌 p< .01

IV.2. Statistical examinations of the non-ENSs
Here we will examine the equality of the two groups of non-ENSs, and consider whether or not thehomogeneity of the variances is guaranteed, by using the MCT multiple-choice test of 15 items on the JNSs
and CNSs. The mean and std. deviation of the 72 JNSs were 8.61 and 1.84 respectively and those of the 96
CNSs were 9.15 and 2.11 respectively. In the Descriptive Statistics, the means were slightly different
between the two groups; however, the ANOVA showed there was no significant difference between thegroups [F (1, 166) = 2.95, p = .088] (Ș2 = .02). The results indicate that the equality of the two groups issubstantially ensured.
A reliability examination is easier to run for a quantitative test; however, a reliability examination of thedescriptive type test may not be as easy or suitable as would be the case with the multiple-choice type,because the descriptive type test includes test items that present complex problems, such as the inclusion of
expressions of different origins and presumably delicate interpretative differences among languages;
therefore, these complex interpretations should be looked at qualitatively.
IV.3. Differences in gender, age and major (English major or non-English major)
Classification according to gender and majors formed two separate groups. The results of the
independent-samples-t-tests for gender showed no significant differences between the scores for male andfemales. However, the results for English and non-English majors showed differences, with the English
majors’ scores being higher. Note should be taken of the indication by Gibbs & Colston (2012, p. 277)
regarding tendency of female to avoid miscommunication when using figurative expressions.
676

Figurative interpretations demonstrated by three language groups:
English, Chinese and JapaneseConcerning age groups, there were two age groups for the non-ENSs: one was under 20 years old and theother was 21-25 years old. There was no significant difference between the scores for the two groups. In thecase of ENSs, they were put into five groups as shown in Table 2. The table shows the averages of thecorrectness ratios. From these results, we can draw a line between the groups under 25 and those over 26
years old. The older generations’ correctness ratios were higher.
Table 2 The averages of the ENSs age groups
age
-20
21-25
correctness ratio average 74.8
76.7

26-30
78.6

31-40
78.5

4178.8

V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONFirst, we will take a holistic view of the results, such as the strategies used in interpretations that may
relate to cognition, item features in the MCT as measurements, and contextual support or surrounding
information in the items. This discussion will answer part of RQs 1 and 2.
V.1. An overview of the results
Strategies used in interpretations
The interviews investigated what kinds of strategies for interpretation the participants utilized in theiranswers. In the interviews, firstly, general questions were asked, such as why the interviewees had writtensuch answers, and secondly, the interviews focused on the kinds of strategies employed for interpretations:analogical reasoning or logical thinking, images or pictures drawn in their minds (i.e., activation of images orimage schemas), and the use of knowledge generated from the participant’s mother tongue. Among thesestrategies in general, because analogical reasoning functions as a fundamental interpretation and is related to
the whole cognition, it is hard to identify single strategies. Hence, the following two outstanding categories
are focused on in the investigation: resorting to conceptual schemas, that is, such schemas as are rooted in or
generated from the knowledge of a mother tongue and culture (K stands for this category); and activation ofimage associations (i.e., visualization) (V stands for this category).
The overall phenomena shown in the MCT descriptive type indicate that, in general, the threenationalities seemed to utilize their general knowledge or schemas (cultural and/or knowledge generated
from the mother tongues) in the interpretations of the items, especially that of the shared wordings andconcepts. Table 3 summarizes the results of strategies (excluding three items, 14, 17 and 24, which showedlarge discrepancies in the correctness ratios between the ENSs and the non-ENSs). A further investigation
into these three items is delineated later.
The strategies most often used were those of resorting to general knowledge or schemas and of image
association. In the interviews, the ENSs and JNSs said that they initially searched for similar expressions intheir mother tongue and associated the meanings with each other. If they could not resort to knowledge of
their mother tongue, they went back to literal meanings or searched for connotations. When these strategies
failed, they guessed figurative meanings using a clue derived from a part of the expression. If this failed, theygave up answering. They commented that another strong device for interpretation was image association.
They visualized or pictured independently, or used as a clue either previously known images or instantly
activated images (ad hoc imagination) generated from the mother-tongue knowledge. This proved to be a
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Masumi AZUMA

successful strategy, which was especially useful in metonymic expressions or for those expressions having
clear images. Some JNSs said that they translated the expressions into Japanese and attempted to deduce themeanings, by decomposing a whole expression into its constituent parts or by combining (re-composing) thewords into an expression, in other words, a strategy using a part-whole relation to the expression.
Table 3 Strategies used in interpretations (no. of items: 37)
NSgroups100ENSs
72JNSs96CNSsstrategies: K, K+V, V contributing to the correctness ratios
K (19 items)
K+V (10 items)
V (8 items)
79.2
54.3
85.4
41.9
60.6
49.6
41.8
37.8
34.1
Notes: K: knowledge; V: visualization; K+V: the combination

Effects of item features
The features of the linguistic, cultural and schematic characteristics embedded in the MCT’s 40 items
may have contributed to the correctness of the interpretations. Four categories were formed as features:[Feature 1] shared wordings and concepts and different origins; [Feature 2] with/without context (sentence,phrase or word); [Feature 3] nature of universality or specificity (i.e., image clearness, culture-boundedness,
idiomaticity); and [Feature 4] S-T (source-target) relation. In addition, in the case of CNSs, Chinese
knowledge may have affected their interpretations so Chinese knowledge was also examined [Feature 5].
The values of these features were calculated by scoring items with each item being given one point
maximum. Graph shows the four features in common (excluding [Feature 5]). The graph shows that theGraph: Effects of item features
F1con
/ori
0.8
0.4
F4 S-T

ENSs100
JNSs72
CNSs96F2
contxt0

F3
uni/speeffects of F1, F2 and F3 were greater than those of F4. As the differences may look small in the graph, aRegression analysis was conducted. The 100 ENSs’ R2: .355, and Standardized Coefficientsȕ indicatedpositive in F1, F2, F3 and negative in F4. The R2: .355 of the ENSs did not necessarily mean that it was low;
it may have indicated that the participants did not rely on a single feature but may have taken into account all
the features of the item. The 72 JNSs’ R2 : .496, and Standardized Coefficientsȕ indicated positive in F4 but
negative in F1, F2 and F3. The results were opposite to those of the ENSs. This may have indicated that they
878

Figurative interpretations demonstrated by three language groups:
English, Chinese and Japanese

had more of a tendency to rely on S-T or the part-whole relation. They may have attempted to interpret theexpressions using some clues in them; for example, they tried to find out the meaning from parts of thewords or a combination of words they knew. Finally, the 96 CNSs’ R2 : .748, and Standardized Coefficientsȕ
indicated positive in all of F1 to F4, and positive in Chinese knowledge, so they may have utilized all ofthese features.
Contextual effects
Table 4 summarizes the results of the contextual examination, i.e., whether or not items are presented
with surrounding supports. It can be deduced from the results of the ENSs that the contextual support iseffective to some extent, but the nature of the expressions, for example, the wordings and concepts andorigins of the expressions, contributed to the interpretations. The non-ENSs’ interpretations were also betterin the sentence-based items and the phrases than in the word-based items, except for the items that originatedin their NLs. The lowest-scoring interpretations were the items that originated in the other languages. It canbe seen from the results that if the expressions share the wordings/concepts between English and their NLs
and if they are used in context, misinterpretation in communication may be reduced. However, it is necessary
to investigate further what expressions share wordings and concepts among languages and it is possibly
better to build database of such figurative expressions.
Table 4 Contextual effects

㻌㻌㻌㻌

item no㻌㻌㻌㻌context

no. of items

100ENSs

72JNSs96CNSssentence

11

1,3,7,8,9, 10, 26, 28, 29, 30, 33

91

68.8

77.1

phrase

3

2,4,5

94.7

46.3

31.6

word

1

15

91.6

16.7

48.9

㻌㻌

ave

㻌

㻌㻌

91.8

60.8

61.7

Group B (BJ)

sentence

4

11,12, 18, 25

37.7

46.9

17.5

phrase7

21,22,23, 31, 32, 34, 35

29.8

59.9

17.5

word

0

ave

㻌

㻌㻌

32.7

55.2

17.5

Group A㻌㻌Group B (BJ) sentence㻌㻌8

17,19,24, 27, 36, 38, 39, 40

92.6

31.3

33.2

phrase4

14,16, 20,37

90.3

4.9

12.2

word(s)

2

6,13

87

13.2

25.6

ave

㻌

㻌

91.2

21.2

26.1

V.2. Figurative interpretations of the MCT items
The following sections discuss more of the qualitative and quantitative results of the interpretations
revealed in the MCT items to answer RQ 1 and the causes and effects revealed in the interpretations toanswer RQ 2.
Overall phenomena in the interpretations of the MCT 40 items
Table 5 summarizes the results. As a whole, the ENSs showed high correctness ratios in the items sharing
wordings/concepts (Group A, universality group) and in the items with English origins (Group BE), but
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Masumi AZUMA

showed low ratios in items with non-English origins or meanings (Group BJ). One of the reasons for thehigh correctness ratios of the ENSs may have been due to the presentation of the test. The ENSs’ mothertongue, English, might have linguistically, semantically and schematically favoured ENSs. Taking thiscondition into consideration, the average of nearly or over 60 percent for the correctness ratios of the
non-ENSs should be evaluated as being sufficiently high. The JNSs possibly took advantage of theirknowledge of Japanese in the interpretations of the items of Japanese origin but not in the items of English
origin. The CNSs also seemed to apply their general, schematic knowledge to English and Japanesemeanings. Their interpretations were successful in Group A, compared with those of BJ and BE.
Table 5 The averages of the 3 language groups
Group A (universality)
Group BJ
groups15 items
11 items
100ENSs
91.8
32.7
72JNSs
60.8
55.2
96CNSs61.7
17.5(answers in Japanese meanings)

Group BE
14 items
91.2
21.2
26.1
(answers in English meanings)

Interpretation conformity/nonconformity or disparity of Group A
In order to identify the cognitive aspects, such as the linguistic, semantic, and schematic aspects(including the effects of mother-tongue knowledge), the logical thinking, and the cultural influence, thenumerical results are viewed from high to low correctness ratios, with the focus on: interpretation conformity,
nonconformity, and other phenomena.
Conformity issues in Group A are as follows: While a majority of the ENSs achieved a more than 90%
correctness ratio in Group A, one item obtained a correctness ratio (hereafter abbreviated as cr in brackets) of
only 53.6. That was item 7 At the age of 96, she set out on a journey to her husband. It is based on aconceptual metaphor and used as a euphemism. Furthermore, the age 96 in the expression was expected toassist interpretation, but the reality was different: the correctness ratio of the three NS groups were not ashigh as expected; the ENSs’ correctness ratio (53.6cr) was not higher than that of the CNSs (77.1cr) and only
slightly higher than that of the JNSs (48.6cr). The answers resulted in equity between literal and figurativeinterpretations. On the contrary, the reason for non-ENSs having taken the journey figuratively is that thisexpression is very popular and familiar in their languages, and the popularity and familiarity of theexpression would have assisted them in making a successful interpretation.
Among the 15 items in Group A, the perfect conformity of the correctness ratio obtained not only by the
ENSs but also by the non-ENSs was for item 1 Time is money. The polarity, easy vocabulary, and clear S-T
relation of this item certainly contributed to the high correctness ratio even for the non-ENSs. A similarly
successful interpretation was found in four items: 28 He is my right arm, 3 We are at the crossroads, 10 We
could feel electricity between us, and 8 She was only saved from falling under the train by a hair’s breadth.
Each of these expressions was embedded in a sentence that provided a certain amount of information, astrong S-T relation and a clear image (confirmed in the interview). Another item 5 to slip through one’s
fingers attained a 58.3% correctness ratio in the CNSs and JNSs. Since the item was presented as a phrase,using one stimulus (slip through) paired with the other stimulus (fingers), participants could take advantage
1080Figurative interpretations demonstrated by three language groups:
English, Chinese and Japaneseof this pairing or collocation and of the clear image of the phrase (confirmed in the interview). This indicatesthat if the test items had some clue or information, interpretations would be easier. These are the cases thatprovided the fields3) fairly sufficiently. The case of slip through was one such, but there is another case that
we should take note of, that is, the case of 4 a bolt from the blue. The ‘bolt’ in this item was paired with ‘theblue’, and the meaning was thought to be shared between Japanese and Chinese. However, the correctness
ratios of the two NS groups showed a difference (JNSs: 56.9cr; CNSs: 16.7cr). No specific causes for the
CNSs’ figurative interpretation can be clarified at this stage, but their notes mentioned in the test referred to a
vocabulary problem: the word ‘bolt’ was unfamiliar to Chinese EFL learners.
High and medium conformities in the three language groups were revealed in two items: 30 You’ll needa strong stomach if you are going to be a surgeon (ENSs: 99.1cr; JNSs: 69.4cr; CNSs: 69.8cr) and 26 It isbetter to tell a white lie than to lose a friend (ENSs: 97.9cr; JNSs: 79.2cr; CNSs: 97.9cr). Item 30 is based on
the container metaphor and embodiment schema. It seemed that these characteristics led to a successful
understanding; although the word in the Chinese expression is liver instead of stomach, both organs arelocated in the middle of the body. In Asian thinking, the liver is a container of guts and the stomach is anothercontainer of physical/mental strength. Such cultural knowledge, the contextual support (the sentence-baseditem) and the utilization of analogy may have assisted the participants’ successful interpretation. However, it
must be noted that in this expression, again, there was a linguistic and grammatical problem for some EFL
learners: the latter part of the expression was taken to mean physically going to the doctor. This influenced
whether participants gave a correct interpretation. The other expression, the word ‘white’ in item 26, sharesthe concept, image, and culture of the colour among the three languages. This characteristic led to a
successful interpretation.
Medium correctness ratios (slightly more or less than 40%) were found in the interpretations of 15
brainwave (CNSs: 48.9cr; JNSs: 16.7cr) and 29 He has a keen mind (JNSs: 44.4cr; CNSs: 31.3cr). A
majority of participants interpreted item 15 brainwave literally. Participants gave no specific cause, when
asked in the interviews. A possible cause is that item 15 brainwave was presented as a word level item, i.e.,
stand-alone, in the test; therefore, it was literally taken to mean brainwaves as seen in a medical brain test.
This is a warning regarding the research method. One of the other problems was the word ‘keen’ in item 29
He has a keen mind. It was found in the interview that this word was unfamiliar to EFL learners. Similar
prominent phenomena among the non-ENSs that showed a big discrepancy from the ENSs were found infour items: 4 a bolt from the blue, 15 a brainwave, 2 to bear fruit, and 22 double-tongued. Some causes forthe low correctness ratios found in the answers and confirmed by the interviews were vocabulary andgrammatical problems (all 4 items) and a trend influence (e.g., item 4 being interpreted by the JNSs as thetitle of a popular song, ‘blue lightning’ 㟷࠸✄ጔ). Those participants who had a small vocabulary had atendency to resort to intuition or tended to apply to intepretations the knowledge they already had (Azuma,2005). One such example was ‘bear’ and ‘fruit’ in item 2 bear fruit. The item was decomposed into two parts,‘bear’ and ‘fruit’, not collocated in a true meaning nor grammatically correct, which led to misunderstanding,such as ‘a bear’s food’ or ‘endure eating fruit.’ The medium correctness ratios in the ENSs but fairly low
ratios in the non-ENSs were obtained in item: 33 He is a weak worm (ENSs: 63.4cr; JNSs: 52.8cr; CNSs:
40.6cr).
Interpretation conformity/nonconformity of Group B
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Masumi AZUMA

Here, the conformity issues are also viewed according to the correctness ratios of the items. The
correctness ratios of the JNSs were high for those items with Japanese origins, those of the ENSs were highfor the items with the English origins and those of the CNSs were high for some items with Japanese origins
and for others with English origins, that is, midway between the other NS groups. Now we will focus, in linewith high-low correctness ratios, on the following points: branching-off phenomena in interpretations;linguistic, analogical and schematic problems in interpretations; and linguistic, schematic and culturalproblems.
Regarding high-low correctness ratios, one phenomenon common to the ENSs and the JNSs is that thefrequently used conventional expressions in their NLs led to fairly high correctness ratios; the others showed
individual aspects. Seven items are selected to represent phenomena typical of all three NSs for discussion,that is, those with medium or high correctness ratios: 18 You and I are united with a red thread (BJ), 36
Curiosity killed the cat (BE); and the items showing large discrepancies: 21 a frog in the well (BJ), 34 a cryof a crane (BJ), 20 to spill the beans (BE), 19 My sides split (BE), and 37 to kick the bucket (BE).
For item 18 united with a red thread (the Japanese origin), the JNSs’ correctness ratio was 100. This item
gives the JNSs’ highest correctness ratio, and at the same time, the non-JNSs’ branching-off phenomenon.
The field and the situation sufficed for a relation schema and a bonding material to be used. The expression isso popular in Japanese communication as to be abbreviated to ‘akai ito, ㉥࠸⣒’ ‘red thread’, referring to thedestined bonding of male and female. The Chinese expression is ‘⣚⣒’ ‘hon shen’ which connotes the samebonding as in the Japanese expression; however, there are some debates in Chinese about the bonding
material: thread, string or rope. The choice of the word for translation in the MCT may have influenced the
CNSs’ interpretations (43.8cr). The bonding meant by the Japanese expression is so delicate that the fine andthin texture of a thread is the best choice as a translation. The correctness ratio of the ENSs was not
extremely low (37.4); their interpretation of this expression is quite interesting, because we can see
analogical thinking and cultural influences functioning in the interpretations. The word ‘united’ indicates a
relationship between the characters ‘you and I’, and some kind of relationship is expressed by ‘a red thread’.
These two words (red and thread) must have logically made the interpreters aware of the existence of a
relationship; however, in the case of the ENSs, their logical and cultural inferences of ‘a red thread’ led them
to a branching-off phenomenon: one branching-off resulted in a blood connection, i.e., a family relationship,
which was inferred from the association of ‘red’ with ‘blood’, and the other branching-off resulted in a love
relationship because it was inferred from the association of ‘red’ with ‘passion.’ Similar branching-off
phenomena were found in ten items in Group B (items 11, 12, 16, 18, 20, 21, 31, 32, 34 and 40) and twoother items (items 14 and 17).
Other high-low correctness ratios can be discussed for item 21 a frog in the well (BJ). This phrase is apart of the whole proverb ‘A frog in the well does not know the ocean’. Had this item been presented in its
entirety, the ENSs’ correctness ratio would probably have been high. However, since a part was quoted fromthe whole, they interpreted it as meaning an environmentally harmful thing (a frog) was in the drinking
water; hence, the interpretation referred to contamination. This is an example of how logical thinking worked.
This popular expression shares the same wording and concept in Chinese and Japanese; therefore, were thenon-ENSs’ vocabulary sufficiently large, it would be understood without fail. Next is item 34 a cry of acrane (BJ), which refers to an authoritative voice (㭯ࡢ୍ኌ); this is often used by Japanese journalists, forexample, ‘Everything was determined by the president’s cry of a crane’. The JNSs’ correctness ratio (61.1)
1282Figurative interpretations demonstrated by three language groups:
English, Chinese and Japanesewas much higher than that of the other groups (the ENSs: 1.1; the CNSs: 0). The analogy the ENSs used in
the interpretation was scientifically and culturally true up to a point: the interpreter commented in theinterview on the nature and quality of the vocal sound a crane emits from its beak as a crane has a long beak,and so a sound emitted from such a long beak would be sonorous, penetrating, and reach the heavens. This isexactly what this expression is all about.
Typical linguistic, analogical and schematic problems of conventional English expressions are revealedin such items as 20 to spill the beans (BE) and item 19 My sides split (BE). The conventional expressions
have rigid meanings, and it is hard for non-NSs to infer the meaning either from parts or from the whole, orother clues. The correctness ratios of the ENSs (97.8 for item 20 and 88.6 for item 19) make a clear contrast
to those of the JNSs (4.1 for item 20 and 0 for item 19) and those of CNSs (13.5 for item 20 and 1.04 foritem19). Details of the answers are as follows: the CNSs’ incorrect answers for item 20 were varied, andsome indicated no knowledge of the words in the item, whereas the JNSs’ incorrect answers for the same
item converged on ‘dropping beans’ and ‘spreading troubles’, as inferred from the image of small things likebeans scattering (31.9% of the JNSs), and ‘mamemaki’, ㇋ᧈࡁ, a spring event to get rid of evils (27.7% of
the JNSs). Only 1% of the CNSs made an interpretation similar to that of the JNSs. The interpretation wasquite logical until a branching-off occurred. In summary, the JNSs interpreted the expressions using logicalthinking or by associating the expressions with Japanese culture.
Regarding literal and figurative connotations, the following phenomenon was found in item 19 My sides
split: the element ‘sides’ (as a container) was interpreted figuratively by the ENSs, but literally by most of the
JNSs; the action ‘split’ shared the interpretation. The CNSs’ answers to item 19 varied: a number of theparticipants commented about having no knowledge of the meaning of the words used in the expression; afew provided an answer. Unique interpretations were found in the JNSs’ answers, ranging from ‘splitting of agroup to which they belong’ (18.1% of the JNSs) to ‘clothes broken on both sides, because of, for example,
getting fat’ (6.9% of the JNSs). Only 4.2% of the CNSs provided an interpretation that was similar to that of
the JNSs. One of the reasons for interpreting ‘sides split’, in the case of JNSs, was influenced by a Japanesekatakana word ‘saido, ࢧ࢖ࢻ’ as in my ‘side’ meaning my ‘group’ or my ‘team’; hence, the JNSs took ‘sides
split’ to mean ‘my group split’. This interpretation is a typical compensation example of applying themother-tongue knowledge when the participants did not know the true meaning.
Another unique result was found in item 37 to kick the bucket (BE). The correctness ratio of the ENSs
was high (81.1), while those of the non-ENSs were 1.3 (the JNSs) and 12.5 (the CNSs). The CNSs’correctness ratio for this item was higher than that of the JNSs, but this does not indicate that the CNSs’correctness ratios were always higher than the JNSs’. The level of the correctness ratios varies from item toitem. Those who had learned figurative meanings in an English lesson or on their own could respondcorrectly. The JNSs’ incorrect answers focused on the idea to ‘kick a bucket (container)’ (44.4% of the JNSs)
and ‘going wild’, as in ‘venting of one’s anger’ meaning to ‘get angry’ (19.4% of the JNSs).
The above results suggest that cognitive similarity among the NSs may be feasible in gaining an
understanding of the expressions to a certain extent; however, there is a line beyond which different
mother-tongue users cannot attain a correct interpretation only by linguistic or cognitive ability. Cultural
knowledge and schematic flexibility may help improve understanding.
Interpretation of culture-bound expressions
13
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Masumi AZUMA

There are several items that specifically examined the tendencies of different NSs as confusable
expressions: 17 to pull someone’s leg(s), 25 Tim must be soft in the head to do such a thing and 14 to come toa head. It was assumed for these culture-bound expressions that participants possibly tended to rely on theschematic knowledge generated from their mother tongues. As hypothesized, the tendencies shown in theinterpretations generally reflected the meanings in participants’ mother tongues. Table 6 shows that the ENSs
interpreted the expressions in accordance with the English meanings but not the Japanese meanings. There
must have been a reverse phenomenon in the other two NSs. However, some CNSs’ interpretations tended
toward the Japanese meanings; others, who knew the English meanings, interpreted the items according to
the English meanings. Of course, some JNSs also interpreted them according to the English meanings; theysaid in the interviews that they thought they were expected to give the English meanings because the test waspresented in English. The interpreters’ considerations might have influenced the answers, but we can takethis phenomenon to suggest interpretative ambivalence or an ambivalent element of choice. In short, thesethree nationalities utilized their familiar knowledge and employed previously known schemas in theirinterpretations.
Item 17 to pull someone’s leg(s) (the singular ‘leg’ is used in the original English expression but a pluralform was used in this study due to the two ‘legs’ of a human body) means to ‘joke’ in English, while theJapanese expression means to hinder or obstruct someone’s action or performance, as in ‘I pulled my team’s
legs’ to mean ‘I pulled down my team’s progress’. The Chinese informants also indicated that this term wasused in the same way in Chinese as in Japanese. Superficially, the interpretation looked different; therefore,
misunderstanding may occur in daily use. However, as a figurative expression, we can find a notion ofhindrance lying at the bottom, that is, ‘joke’ refers to taking an utterance as being of null value as in the ENSs’
interpretation, while hindrance in the JNSs refers, also, to taking a null action.
Item 25 soft in head also has contrastive meanings: a negative meaning (stupid, empty brain) in English,
and a positive meaning in Japanese (flexible thinking) and in Chinese (optimum).
Item 14 to come to a head means to come to a crucial point in English, whereas its similar Japanese
expression, ‘atamani kuru’ is often used to mean ‘get angry’, where blood reaches the brain as if heatedvapour were rushing up to the top of the body and exploding. The stimulus used in this expression shares
between English and Japanese the sense of something coming to a critical point. However, the actual
linguistic meanings differ. Some of the CNSs took the meaning in the Japanese way.
Table 6 Conformity/nonconformity of culture-bound items
BJ/BE
17pull leg(s)25soft in head
14come to headave

E meaning
100ENSs
96.8
94.8
88.4
93.3

72JNSs
8.8
7.1
1.8
5.9

96CNSs
12.5
22.9
3.1
12.8

J meaning
100ENSs
00
00

72JNSs
75.2
80.5
72.6
76.1

96CNSs
44.8
12.5
39.6
32.3

In brief, there was a large difference between the interpretations of the ENSs and those of the non-ENSs:
the CNSs’ interpretations took an in-between position, and a good number of the CNSs tended to take the1484Figurative interpretations demonstrated by three language groups:
English, Chinese and JapaneseJapanese meanings. Understanding of some Japanese figurative expressions seems to be feasible among the
CNSs. However, in an actual discourse, conventional meanings take priority; therefore, users must follow theconvention.
The figurative expressions that had similar wordings but different meanings were hypothesized to haveinterpretation nonconformity, and therefore, were problematic in cross-cultural communication. However,conceptually, the understanding/interpretation of culture-bound expressions, such as items 18 united with a
red thread and 31 bottle gourd can be feasible to a certain degree with our intuition, logical thinking and/or
linguistic/cognitive ability. It is better to take note again that if the conceptual knowledge about stimuli was
weak or different from NSs’ own, the interpretations would be varied.
VI. CONCLUSION
Human cognition shows humans’ vast and profound capacity for thought and action. This capacity is
wisely and flexibly used in many ways when treating familiar and unfamiliar matters. It is also used in theinterpretation of figurative expressions, as evidenced in the results of this study.
The prominent cognitive aspects found in the three language groups (RQ1) are summarized as follows.
The familiar expressions used in Group A were fairly successfully interpreted by the different NSs; however,
the results also suggest some problems, where misinterpretation occurred among the non-ENSs, who were
especially affected by their linguistic knowledge or inclination, and Groups BJ and BE provided varied
results.
Analogical capacity was manifested in the interpretation of both the familiar and unfamiliar expressions.
One of the examples of an expression that was successfully interpreted was item 10 We could feel theelectricity between us. For interpretation, an analogy of the nature of electricity was activated and mapped
onto the relationship of the two. Another example is of the ENSs’ low correctness ratio for the expressions
with Japanese origins, but the analogy utilized in item 34 a cry of a crane was remarkable, as stated earlier.
Although the correctness ratio of this item was very small (1), the analogy used in it exemplified humancognition.
Idiomatic, figurative and metaphorical expressions have a formulaic structure, and the true meaning isrooted in the specific language. Users must observe such rigid formulae. This is one of the hardships that
EFL learners face. As a strategy for understanding idioms and figurative expressions, it was found in thisstudy that the participants relied on their intuition and general knowledge, and on knowledge generated fromthe mother tongue in some cases. In other cases, some of which overlapped with the former, they made useof some clues residing in the expression, e.g., images arising from the expression or a part-whole relation of
the expression. However, an ambivalent effect may also reside in the utilization of intuition or mother-tongue
knowledge alone, as revealed in the ENSs’ interpretations of the expressions that originated in a different
language and in the non-ENSs’ interpretations of some items (represented by item 14 to come to a head).
Analogical reasoning is a very useful device for understanding figurative expressions. Nonetheless, this, too,has an ambivalent effect; for example, some items are understood by way of analogical reasoning to a certain
degree, after which there is a possibility of a branching-off phenomenon, as revealed, for instance, in theinterpretation of item 18 you and I are united with a red thread. In other words, analogical reasoning or
logical thinking was successful up to a certain point, but after that, a branching-off occurred leading
ultimately to an unsuccessful interpretation. In addition to this phenomenon, some of the misinterpretations
15
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Masumi AZUMAin Group B were due to linguistic problems, especially of the non-ENSs, such as items 19, 27, 38 and 39. An
example (39 getting cold feet) shows the JNSs resorted to a phrase they knew: ‘catch cold’.
With regard to schematic and cultural effects, which were discussed earlier regarding the issue of item 18,
we cannot get rid of cultural influence (and mother-tongue knowledge) when processing languages.
Mother-tongue knowledge and culture are lodged in our body and mind and remain there. They are
beneficial, but, at the same time, can have an ambivalent effect. A deliberate utilization of these benefits may
expand our cognitive activities.
The causes and effects for the successful and unsuccessful interpretations (RQ2) are summarized asfollows. From the results of Group A, if the wordings and concepts of the expressions are shared between
languages, analogy and schematic knowledge may also be shared; therefore, there may be fewer problems in
the interpretations. If the wordings of the expressions are shared but not the concepts, the interpretations may
be affected either by analogy, schematic knowledge or cultural elements. This may cause a slight or a serious
problem. One suggestion resulting from the study is regarding the need for caution about expressions having
specific cultural traits and/or having similar wordings but different meanings. Another suggestion is to use
figurative expressions with contexts.
This study attempted to investigate the aspects of figurative interpretations using the measurements thatcombined the concepts underlying language with the wordings exemplifying the concepts. We have foundthe interpretation conformity/nonconformity was possibly caused by innate individual cognitive abilities
such as intuition and/or logical thinking, or analogy, and immune/external influence such as mother tongue
or culture. Both had positive and negative effects on figurative interpretation.
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NOTES
1) Part of this study (data collection of JNSs and ENSs and research at the earlier stage) was funded by JSPS
KAKENHI ((C) 18520469). The data collection of CNSs was assisted by an academic in Hunan University,
China. The author is grateful for their assistance.
2) Figurative expressions with Japanese origins in this study are translated literally (raw translation). There
are arguments regarding the translation of figurative expressions, especially the pros and cons of literaltranslation (Dagut, 1976; Dobrzynska, 1995; Kellerman, 1986, 1995; Newmark, 1985, 1991; Nida, 1975;
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Wright, 1999). The raw translation was used in this study to preserve the original figurativeness. As shown in
the results, some raw translations were feasible (see Azuma, 2012).
3) The field is defined as the subject matter, or informational content, of the text (Deignan, 2005, p. 119).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The author would like to express her gratitude to the JKJ reviewers for their useful comments.
APPENDIXMCT Groups: test items, meanings/comments on specific items and abbreviations used in discussion
Group A 15 items (Note: C in brackets stands for Chinese.)
1. Time is money. ᫬ࡣ㔠࡞ࡾ(C: ᫬㛫அ㔠㖹)
2. to bear fruit ᐇࢆ⤖ࡪ 2bear fruit (C: ⋓ᚓᡂᑵ)
3. We are at the crossroads. ᡃࠎࡣ༑Ꮠ㊰࡟(ᒃࡿ) (C: ೴ฟᢔ)4. a bolt from the blue 㟷ኳࡢ㟦㟫 (C: ᬕኳ㟦㟫)
5. to slip through one’s fingers ᣦࢆࡍࡾᢤࡅࡿ (C: ᚘᣦᑤ⁀㏨)
7. At the age of 96, she set out on a journey to her husband. (ኵࡢチ࡬)᪑❧ࡗࡓ(C: ୖ㊰)
8. She was only saved from falling under the train by a hair’s breadth. 㛫୍㧥࡛ (C: ༓㕙୍㧥)
9. The Mayors have been distinguished doctors for generations. It runs in the blood. ⾑ࡢ୰࡟ὶࢀ࡚࠸
ࡿ (C: ᰿῝ᖏᅛ)
10. We could feel the electricity between us. 㟁Ẽࢆឤࡌࡿࠊࣅࣅࢵ࡜ឤࡌࡿ (C: ᭷゙㟁ឤ)
15. a brainwave ⬻Ἴࠊ㟋ឤ 15brainwave (C: ⬻㟁Ἴࠊ㟋ឤ)
28. He’s my right arm. ⚾ࡢྑ⭎ (C: ᚓຊຓᡭ)29. He has a keen mind. 㗦ᩄ࡞▱ᛶ (C: ᛮᝳᩄᤩ)30. You’ll need a strong stomach if you are going to be a surgeon. ୔ኵ࡞⫶ (C: ‘⫢’ࢆ౑ࡗࡓ⾲⌧ࡣ࠶ࡿ)
33. He is a weak worm.ᙅ⹸ (C: ⑓⹸)Group B (Note: The items of BJ & BE marked with * indicate a large interpretation discrepancy
between English and Japanese.)Group BJ 11 items
11. I cannot sleep with my feet turning toward him. (ᙼࡢ࡯࠺࡟)㊊ࢆྥࡅ࡚ᐷࡽࢀ࡞࠸࡯࡝ᜠࡀ࠶ࡿ
(owe him a great deal)
12. Prime Minister made iridescent remarks on the matter. ⋢⹸Ⰽࡢ (ambiguous)
18. You and I are united with a red thread. 㐠࿨ࡢ㉥࠸⣒࡛⤖ࡤࢀ࡚࠸ࡿ (destined to be united)
18united with a red thread
21. a frog in the well ஭ࡢ୰ࡢ⺶ (one who does not know the world)
22. double-tongued ஧ᯛ⯉
23. to cast a shrimp to catch a bream ⼎࡛㪉ࢆ㔮ࡿ
25. Tim must be soft in the head to do such a thing. * E: 㢌ࡀ✵ࡗࡱ/ J: 㢌ࡀᰂࡽ࠿࠸ (flexible
thinking) / C: similar to J. 25soft in head
26. It is better to tell a white lie than to lose a friend. ↓ᐖࡢბ (C: similar to J. ၿពⓗბ)
31. a horse out of a bottle gourd ⎭⟸࠿ࡽ㥖 (surprise) 31bottlegourd
18
88Figurative interpretations demonstrated by three language groups:
English, Chinese and Japanese

32. to wet eyebrows with saliva ┱ၚ (doubtful)
34. a cry of a crane 㭯ࡢ୍ኌ (authoritative voice)
35. the carp on a cutting board ಋᯈࡢୖࡢ㩾Group BE 14 items
6. a body blow ࣎ࢹ࢕࣮ࣈ࣮ࣟ
13. a loose tongue ࡺࡿ࠸⯉ࠊࡋࡲࡾࡢ࡞࠸ཱྀ
14. to come to head* E: ࡛ࡁࡶࡢࡀ⮋ࡴࠊ㔜኱࡞ᒁ㠃࡟࡞ࡿ / J: 㢌࡟᮶ࡿ (angry, blood comes tohead) 14come to head
16. to be off one’s head ⌮ᛶࢆኻ࠺
17. to pull someone’s leg(s)* E: ෕ㄯࢆゝ࠺ࠊ࠿ࡽ࠿࠺ / J: ㊊ࢆᘬࡗᙇࡿ (obstruct) / C: similar to J
17pull leg(s)19. My sides split. ⬥⭡ࡀ๭ࡅࡿ࡯࡝➗࠺ࠊ኱➗࠸ࡍࡿ
20. to spill the beans ⛎ᐦࢆ₃ࡽࡍ
24. I need to pick your brains. ▱ᜨࢆ೉ࡾࡿ
27. You have bought yourself a white elephant. No one will stay in this house. ↓⏝ࡢ㛗≀
36. Curiosity killed the cat. ዲወᚰ᪲┒ࡣ᛹ᡃࡢඖ
37. to kick the bucket ࡃࡓࡤࡿ38. Since Andrew started his own business, he has been making money hand over fist. ⣲᪩ࡃ኱㔞࡟
39. Simon is getting cold feet about advancing you the money. ᛧࡌẼ࡙ࡃ 39getting cold feet
40. What does it matter what your uncle thinks of you? He only visits you once in a blue moon. ⛥࡟ࡋ࠿
㸦᮶㸧࡞࠸

19
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