Topic Prominence in Japanese EFL Students' Existential Constructions

Bibliographic Data

ID4501668
AuthorsMiyuki Sasaki (0000-0001-7915-3752, University of California, Los Angeles, corresponding author)
Year1990
Volume40
Issue3
Pages337-367
Publication date1990-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguage Learning (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0023-8333 • E-ISSN: 1467-9922
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-1770.1990.tb00667.x
OpenAlexW2010587262
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited8

This paper investigates Japanese speakers' interlanguage constructions of English existential sentences with a locative sentential topic. Written sentences produced by four different levels of learners were compared. The investigation focuses on the following two issues: (1) the effect of learners' proficiency level on the degree of topic prominence in a relatively free writing task (Test 1) and (2) the effect of elicitation on production of target-like constructions (i.e., the subject-predicate structure) in a controlled writing task (Test 2). The results of Test 1 indicate that there was a general shift from topic-comment to subject-predicate structures as the students' proficiency increases. Interactions were also observed between the degree of topic-prominence and the location of the sentence in the students' writing tasks. The results of Test 2 suggest that although some students did not use the target-like structure in Test 1, this does not mean that they cannot use it under other conditions. The implications of these results are discussed

Existentialism · Interlanguage · Linguistics · Locative case · Predicate (mathematical logic) · Sentence · Subject (documents) · Task (project management) · Test (biology) · Computer Science · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Psychology