ERIC ED423672: Texas Papers in Foreign Language Education: Contemporary Issues in Foreign and Second Language Learning and Teaching, 1998.

122 Pages·1998·1.7 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
ED 423 672
FL 025 473
AUTHOR
Carpenter, Mark, Ed.; Armstrong, Scott Collins, Ed.; Bao,
Charlene, Ed.; Coberly, David, Ed.; Wells, Terri, Ed.
TITLE
Texas Papers in Foreign Language Education, 1998.
Contemporary Issues in Foreign and Second Language Learning
and Teaching.
INSTITUTION
Texas Univ., Austin. Foreign Language Education Program.
ISSN
ISSN-0898-8471
PUB DATE
1998-00-00
NOTE
121p.; For individual articles, see FL 025 474-479.
PUB TYPE
Collected Works
Serials (022)
JOURNAL CIT
Texas Papers in Foreign Language Education; v3 n2 Spr 1998
EDRS PRICE
MF01/PC05 Plus Postage.
DESCRIPTORS
Book Reviews; Cognitive Style; College Entrance
Examinations; Contrastive Linguistics; Discourse Analysis;
Educational Trends; English; Foreign Countries; Heritage
Education; Higher Education; Individual Differences;
Intercultural Communication; Japanese; Language Research;
Language Teachers; *Language Tests; *Linguistic Theory;
*Neurolinguistics; *Pragmatics; *Second Language
Instruction; Spanish; *Teacher Role; Testing; Trend Analysis
IDENTIFIERS
Arizona State University; Brazil; University of Arizona
ABSTRACT
The collection of articles on second language teaching and
learning includes: "Cross-Cultvral Discourse Pragmatics: Speaking about
Hearsay in English and Japanese" (N6ouko Trent); "An Investigation of Student
Opinions and Educational Experiences in Spanish for the Heritage Speakers at
Arizona State University and the University of Arizona" (Theresa Reber,
Kimberly Geeslin); "Authentic Foreign Language Testing in a Brazilian
University Entrance Exam" (Rosana M. F. Cardoso); "Changing Teacher Roles in
the Foreign Language Classroom" (Francis Johnson, Marion Delarche, Nicholas
Marshall, Adrian Wurr, Jeffery Edwards); "Neurolinguistic Applications to SLA
Classroom Instruction: A Review of the Issues with a Focus on Danesi's
Bimodality" (E. G. Kim-Rivera); and "A Test for Learning Style Differences
for the U.S. Border Population" (Armand Picou, Rebecca Gatlin-Watts, James
Packer). A book review is also included. (David Coberly) Individual papers
contain references.)
(MSE)
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Volume 3
Number 2
Spring 1998
Articles
NOBUKO TRENT Cross-Cultural Discourse Pragmatics: Speaking about Hearsay in
1
English and Japanese
33
THERESA REBER and KIMBERLY GEESLIN An Investigation of Student Opinions and
Educational Experiences in Spanish for Heritage Speakers at Arizona State University
and the University of Arizona
51
ROSANA M. F. CARDOSO Authentic Foreign Language Testing in
a Brazilian
University Entrance Exam
FRANCIS JOHNSON, MARION DELARCHE, NICHOLAS MARSHALL, ADRIAN
71
WURR, and JEFFERY EDWARDS Changing Teacher Roles in the Classroom
91
E.G. KIM-RIVERA Neurolinguistic Applications to SLA Classroom Instructions: A
Review of the Issues with a Focus on Danesi's Bimodality
105
ARMAND PICOU, REBECCA GATLIN-WATTS, and JAMES PACKER A Test for
Learning Style Differences for the U.S. Border Population
Review
117
Reading Development in a Second Language:
Theoretical, Empirical, and Classroom
Perspectives
(Reviewed by DAVID COBERLY)
Foreign Language Education Program
The University of Texas at Austin
Texas Papers in Foreign Language
Education
(TPFLE)
Editors:
Mark Carpenter (Editor in Chief), Scott Collins
Armstrong, Charlene Bao,
David Coberly, Terri Wells
Editorial Committee:
David Clark, Cynthia Fraser, Christine
Jernigan, Youngwoo Kim, E.G.
Kim-Rivera, Ellen Luna, Sherry Marx, Charles
Nelson
Editorial Advisory Board:
Zena Moore, Charles Nelson
Faculty Advisor:
Zena T. Moore
TPFLE is the official journal of the Foreign
Language Education Program
of the University of Texas at Austin.
Publication of TPFLE has been made possible
by a grant from
the RGK Corporation
Foreign Language Education Program
The University of Texas at Austin
3
Texas Papers in
Foreign Language
Education
Contemporary Issues in
Foreign and Second Language
Learning and Teaching
Spring 1998
Number 2
Volume 3
Foreign Language Education Program
The University of Texas at Austin
4
Contributors:
ROSANA M. F. CARDOSO earned her Master's degree in Foreign Language Education
from the University of Texas at Austin. Her areas of interest are foreign language
assessment, measurement and evaluation, and simultaneous interpretation.
DAVID COBERLY is a Ph.D. student in Applied Linguistics at the University of Texas
at Austin. Formerly an economist, David now devotes his time to the study of
how languages are learned and whether instruction in metacognitive strategies and
formal linguistics improves foreign language performance.
MARION DELARCHE is a lecturer at Tokyo Women's Christian College. She is
interested in project-work and intercultural studies.
JEFFERY EDWARDS received his M.A. in TESL/TEFL from San Francisco State
University in 1991. He now lives and works in Japan.
KIMBERLY GEESLIN is completing her Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition at the
University of Arizona. Next fall she will begin a lectureship in the Spanish
Department at Stanford University. Her research interests include the application
of theoretical linguistics to second language acquisition and sociolinguistic issues.
FRANCIS JOHNSON is a professor of English as a Foreign Language at Kanda
University of International Studies in Japan. His research interests include self-
directed learning and L2 reading.
NICHOLAS MARSHALL is a doctoral student at Macquarie University. His research
focuses on materials development for autonomous learning.
JAMES PACKER, Associate Professor of Finance at the University of Central Arkansas,
has written over 40 articles and papers on investments, corporate finance, and
economic history.
ARMAND PICOU is Associate Professor of Finance at the University of Central
Arkansas. He shares with his coauthors an interest in studying means to enhance
the retention of students. He has published several articles on topics related to
student performance.
TERESA REBER is a third-year student in the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Second
Language and Teaching at the University of Arizona. Her research interests
include the evaluation of language teaching.
E.G. KIM-RIVERA is a Ph.D. student in Applied Linguistics within the Foreign Language
Education Program at the University of Texas at Austin. Her interests include the
application of neurolinguistic research to second language learning and teaching.
NOBUKO TRENT recently received her Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from the Foreign
Language Education Program at the University of Texas at Austin. Currently she
teaches Japanese at the Austin Community College.
REBECCA GATLIN-WATTS is Assistant Professor of Information Systems at the
University of Central Arkansas. She teaches communication and technology
classes at the graduate and undergraduate level. Her research interests include
predictors of academic success, multimedia in education, and gender
communications.
ADRIAN WURR is a doctoral student at the University of Arizona. He has research
interests in experiential language learning methodology.
5
Cross-Cultural Discourse Pragmatics: Speaking about Hearsay in
English and Japanese
NOBUKO TRENT
Every language has different systems for expressing third-party infor-
in some languages grammar rules stipulate how to d o
mation. While
this, in both Japanese and English the degree of indirection or direction
as hearsay
use to express information
is
a speaker should
obtained
genuinely a pragmatic language issue. One may observe that English
speakers tend to express hearsay information in more direct forms than
to the
Japanese speakers. Cross-cultural discourse analysis, in relation
that English and
territory, revealed
concept of speaker's information
Japanese have different pragmatic rules for dealing with hearsay in-
The issue was analyzed from both cultural and linguistic
formation.
viewpoints. Implications for foreign language instruction are also sug-
gested.
INTRODUCTION
For foreign ,language teachers, how and when to incorporate the prag-
matic aspects of the target language, that is, how to use the language properly
in real-world situations, is always a difficult issue. Although there are a num-
ber of ways to define pragmatics, in this paper, I will use Levinson's defini-
tion, which says that pragmatics is "a functional perspective of language use
that attempts to explain facets of linguistic structure by reference to non-
linguistic pressures and causes" (Levinson, 1983). One view concerning the
scope of pragmatics proposes that a pragmatic theory is part of performance
and does nothing to explicate the linguistic structure or grammar (e.g., Katz,
1977; Kempson, 1975). Another view argues that pragmatics and grammar
cannot be separated since sometimes aspects of linguistic structure directly en-
code the features of the context; therefore, pragmatics may cover both context-
dependent and context-independent grammar (e.g., Levinson, 1983).
The latter view, which I consider realistic, suggests that all aspects of
foreign language ue can be considered to be pragmatics. Context-dependent
additional in-
grammar, which is often called "discourse grammar," is not
formation to descriptive sentence-level grammar, but essential knowledge
required to be a competent speaker of a language. In actuality, however, I ob-
classes in particu-
serve that foreign language teachers focus, in novice-level
lar, most often on context-independent grammar. This likely happens because
(1) teachers think that context-dependent grammar will be learned appropri-
ately after the basic context-independent grammar is sufficiently understood;
and (2) theories of pragmatics are not easy to teach due to teachers' lack of
knowledge of the rationales of pragmatic use of their native language.
Texas Papers in Foreign Language Education
2
The teachers' lack of focus on
in
grammatical
thus,
restriction;
target language discourse grammar
these languages expressions of in-
might often facilitate the students'
formation source reflect a speaker's
misunderstanding
pragmatic
of
subjective judgment.
meanings of utterances in a given
this
beginning
Before
re-
speech situation. Students may in-
search, I had the impression, as a na-
terpret what they hear in the foreign
tive Japanese speaker, that English
language in the pragmatic system of
speakers sounded somewhat deci-
their native language and may also
sive and very certain regarding in-
speak in the same manner, which
formation about other people or
may not be appropriate in a given
other people's events. For example,
social context of the target language.
suppose one of my American stu-
Eventually, systematic occurrence of
dents said to me in Japanese, "In
inappropriate pragmatic behavior by
New Orleans, during Mardi Gras,
foreign language speakers can lead to
there is no place to stay unless you
"ethnic stereotyping" (e.g., Scollon,
make a reservation two months in
advance." I would naturally under-
1988).
The issues of communicative
stand that she had been to New Or-
misunderstanding due to differences
leans during Mardi Gras and was
in pragmatic requirements of differ-
speaking from her own experience.
ent languages, such as speech acts,
However, this may not actually have
have been investigated, while some
been the case. She may have based
phenomena have not yet had suffi-
her utterance on something she
cient attention. My topic for this pa-
heard which she believed to be true.
per, the
cultural/linguistic
differ-
This happens often enough to raise a
ences between Japanese speakers and
question: Do students transfer the
American English speakers in han-
pragmatic use of their native lan-
dling third-party information
(in
guage (English) into their target lan-
short, hearsay) has never been stud-
guage (Japanese)? If so, what is the
ied as an independent issue.
difference in these two languages in
In some languages, a speaker
about hearsay? Based on
talking
is grammatically required to clarify
these thoughts, my research ques-
the source of information. For ex-
tions are these:
ample, in the Tuyuca language, spo-
ken in Brazil and Columbia, mor-
1. How differently do native
phological
forms
the
verbal
English speakers and native
of
tense/person suffix function to indi-
Japanese speakers talk about
cate the source of information (e.g.,
information to which they do
"visual," "senses other than visual,"
not have direct access?
"hearsay," "assumed," "apparent")
on which the speaker's proposition
2. What is the implication
of
is based (Barnes, 1984, discussed in
that difference, if any, to for-
Palmer, 1986). Neither English nor
eign language teaching?
has
similar
Japanese
kind of
a
7
Hearsay in English and Japanese
3
the proper sentence form, sentence-
BACKGROUND
ending form in particular, for each
In this study, I analyzed dis-
utterance. The basic argument of his
course data in light of research done
theory was empirically confirmed ly
by Kamio (1979, 1985, 1987, 1990,
Trent (1993).
1994) and Labov and Fanshel (1977).
Kamio's theory is insightful
in that it gives an explanation for
Kamio's Theory of Territory of In-
the observable dominant usage of
formation
indirect forms in Japanese spoken
Kamio proposed the idea that
discourse. Kamio applied this theory
speakers distinguish
Japanese
be-
to English also and argued that in
tween different kinds of information
English there are only two kinds of
different
belong
which
to
information from the viewpoint of
(1) infor-
"information territories":
(1) informa-
information territory:
the
to
belongs
which
mation
tion that belongs to the speaker's in-
(2) information
speaker's territory,
formation territory, and (2) informa-
which belongs to the hearer's terri-
tion that does not belong to the
tory, (3) information which is shared
territory.
information
speaker's
by both parties' territories to differ-
Thus, for English speakers, the the-
(4) information
ent degrees, and
ory argues, it only matters whether
which belongs to a third party. He
or not the speaker has direct access to
proposed that speakers use syntacti-
the information. The theory denied
cally and morphologically different
English speaker's awareness of a
sentence structures according to the
information territory in which an
milieu
information"
"shared
be-
tween the speaker and his hearer,
utterance falls. In this argument, in-
and thus seems overly simplistic.
direct sentence structures indicate
Yet, Kamio did expect both English
that propositional
information
is
not within the speaker's informa-
and Japanese speakers to be structur-
ally indirect when using third-party
tion territory. That is, the speaker
information. However, based on the
does not
primary,
socially
have
authorized access to the informa-
of
behavior
linguistic
observed
I speculated
tion; thus, these sentences will be
of Japanese,
learners
speakers use
expressed with phrases such as I
direct
that
English
forms to express third-party infor-
like, may,
heard, it seems, it looks
mation more often than Japanese
and apparently'. From the concept of
speakers do.
that
idea
this
"linguistic evidentiality," these ex-
felt
I
might lead to a more realistic theory
pressions are generally based on in-
about English speakers' psychologi-
direct evidence (e.g., "reported" and
cal concepts of third-party informa-
"inferred") rather than the evidence
tion in contrast to those of Japanese
of direct experience (e.g., witnessing;
speakers.
see Willet, 1988; Chung and Timber-
lake, 1985).2
Labov and Fanshel's Theory
In summary, Kamio argued
Labov and Fanshel's view was
that Japanese speakers determine the
it proposed a
informative in that
owner of the
about
information
similar concept of information cate-
which they are speaking and choose
8
Texas Papers in Foreign Language Education
4
gories for English. Labov and Fan-
hether a certain event is 0, AB, or
shel (1977) analyzed "therapeutic in-
D. The speaker's subjective decision
terviews" between mental patients
is assumed in this process.
and their psychotherapists. In doing
This exercise of subjectivity is
so, they categorized the
initiation
very interesting. In a certain culture,
from the psychotherapist into five
how much subjectivity are people
event categories: A-, B-, AB-, 0-, and
allowed to exercise
to determine
which linguistic forms they use?
D- events:
The social norm for the degrees of
which
A-event:
acceptance of speaker subjectivity
Events
to
speaker (A) has privi-
must be different from language to
leged access.
language,
including
and
English
Japanese. If American speakers han-
Events to which hearer
B-event:
dle third-party information as eve-
has
privileged
rybody-knows events more
often
(B)
knowledge.
than Japanese people do, we might
be able to conclude that American
of pragmatics allow more
AB-event: Knowledge
which
is
rules
speaker subjectivity than those in
shared by A and B.
Japanese.
0-event:
which
Second, Labov and Fanshel
Events
are
known
everyone
used the concept of "knowing" (as in
to
present and known to
"events which are known to be
be known.
known" to somebody). Kamio ar-
gued that "knowing" is not a lin-
D-event:
Events
which
are
guistically useful concept (1990, p.
known to be disputable.
195). Although he did not clarify this
concept in detail, I believe it has to
do with the fuzzy borderline be-
As to A-events and B-events,
Labov's and Kamio's views are al-
tween knowledge and belief in rela-
most identical. Labov and Fanshel
tion to the truth. We cannot always
0-events
acknowledged
be sure whether we know a certain
and
D-
events as two different categories,
thing, or if we simply believe it is so
while Kamio treated third-party in-
based on some credible information
formation as one category. In Labov
source. This is a philosophical ques-
and Fanshel's view, it seems that
tion' which brings up an interesting
whether the event is thought to be
issue, namely, that the actual truth
known or disputable makes a differ-
value of what we talk about possibly
does not matter much so far as we
ence in English speakers' acceptance
of what they heard.
believe what we hear.
There are some issues we can
An informant actually replied
raise regarding their analysis. First,
to the question of why he used a di-
rect form when talking about the
the border between 0-events and D-
events can be very fuzzy. On this
President's affairs by stating "Well,
point, the authors claimed that one's
knows
now
President
everyone
"pragmatic presupposition" decides
Clinton had affairs with his aides."
9
Hearsay in English and Japanese
5
This logic goes as follows: "If a
cer-
DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
tain event is an open-event, I be-
lieve it is true." Therefore, it seems
Data Set 1: Quantitative Analysis
that 0-events may tend to form our
The occurrences of direct and
beliefs, and also our belief of a cer-
indirect sentence forms from the
tain event may decide which lin-
speaker's utterances about hearsay,
guistic forms we use, no matter what
i.e., information which the speaker
the truth actually is. In this sense,
cannot access directly, were counted.
Labov and Fanshel's categorization
Therefore, utterances about informa-
is also insightful in analyzing Eng-
tion which was obtained through
lish hearsay discourse, although it
direct experience as well as utter-
may not be applicable to Japanese
ances of "epistemic judgment" such
discourse of third-person informa-
as opinions and speculations were
tion.
ignored. Utterances of hearsay
com-
prised only ten to twenty percent of
DATA COLLECTION
each discourse. Indirect forms
are
I interviewed four native Eng-
sentences that include some linguis-
lish speakers (three females and
one
tic property which indicates that the
male) and three
native
Japanese
speaker
gained
the
information
speakers (two males and one female)
from some means other than direct
an average of sixty minutes each re-
experience. The unit of analysis here
garding a variety of topics. Topics
is basically a sentence. It is often ar-
were selected to elicit information
gued that a sentence is not an appro-
which
the
informant
obtained
priate unit of discourse (e.g., Schif-
through hearsay. Main topics used
frin,
however,
this
since
1987);
were (1) famous figures, such as
study's main focus is on the sentence
President Clinton, Hillary Clinton,
forms, considering a sentence as a
Anne Richards, George Washington,
unit is inevitable. Japanese is struc-
Japanese Princess Masako, and Japa-
turally an SOV language in that a
nese Empress Michiko;
(2) people
verb phrase (VP) comes at the end of
whom the informant respects; (3)
each sentence. Primary attention was
celebrities, such as movie stars, mu-
paid to the forms of each VP ending
sicians, and authors whom the in-
a sentence. Sometimes combined
formant likes; and (4) places which
sentences were counted as one unit,
the informant has never visited, but
and so were some phrases due to
would like to visit.
strong cohesiveness.
The informants are all uni-
Table 1 is the result of the
versity graduate students or univer-
quantitative analysis of the Japanese
sity employees, whose ages ranged
speakers, and Table 2 is that for the
from their 20s to 40s. I obtained fifty-
English speakers. "Unclear" items
four lengthy discourses in total from
were utterances which were incom-
seven informants.
plete, so that it was not possible to
discourses
All
were tape-recorded and transcribed.
determine the type of sentence struc-