Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Acquisition of Aspect in a Second Language: a Bidirectional Study of Learners of Japanese and English

在Gita Martohardjono博士的指导下，Alison Gabriele女士将为她的博士论文进行一系列关于日语和英语第二语言学习者体习得的实验。本研究的目的是调查第一语言的语法特性在多大程度上帮助或阻碍第二语言习得。第二语言学习者所面临的最大挑战之一是成功地理解时体标记。当时态将一个特定的事件置于时间中时，体指的是一个事件的内部时间属性，例如一个事件是否正在进行或是否已经完成。 在一项对照实验研究中，日语和英语的课堂学习者将在三个领域进行测试，这些领域编码了体概念：语法形态（例如，进行体+ing），复杂谓词（例如eat the pizza up中的粒子up）和时间副词（例如yesterday）。 实验的双向设计将有助于深入了解母语在第二语言习得中所起的作用。 在不同水平的熟练程度（从中级到近母语）的学习者将被测试，以找出在发展的学习者成功地解释这些结构的点，以及是否体是最终完全习得在第二语言习得。这一研究对语言教学和第二语言习得理论都具有重要意义。 本研究将深入了解第二语言学习者如何获得意义，他们的知识与母语者的知识有何不同，以及为什么这一语言领域如此难以获得。该项目的成果可以用于制定有效的日语作为外语教学的指导方针。最后，该项目将启动纽约市的纽约市立大学研究生中心与日本仙台的宫城学院女子大学之间的持续合作，一半的实验研究将在那里进行。

Under the direction of Dr. Gita Martohardjono, Ms. Alison Gabriele will conduct a series of experiments for her doctoral dissertation on the acquisition of aspect by second language learners of Japanese and English. The goal of this research is to investigate the degree to which grammatical properties of the first language aid or impede second language acquisition. One of the most difficult challenges facing a learner of a second language is successful interpretation of markers of tense and aspect. While tense places a particular event in time, aspect refers to the internal temporal properties of an event, such as whether an event is ongoing or whether it has been completed. In a controlled experimental study, classroom learners of both Japanese and English will be tested on three areas in which aspectual notions are encoded: grammatical morphology (for example, the progressive be+ing), complex predicates (such as the particle up in eat the pizza up) and temporal adverbs (such as yesterday). The bidirectional design of the experiment will provide insight into the role the native language plays in second language acquisition. Learners at different levels of proficiency (from intermediate to near-native) will be tested in order to find out at what point in development learners successfully interpret these structures, and whether aspect is eventually fully acquired in L2 acquisition. This research is significant for both language pedagogy and the theory of second language acquisition. This study will provide insight into how second language learners acquire meaning, in what ways their knowledge differs from the knowledge of native speakers, and why this domain of language is so difficult to acquire. The results of projects such as this one can be used to develop guidelines for effectively teaching Japanese as a foreign language. Finally, this project will initiate a sustained collaboration between the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City and Miyagi Gakuin Women's University in Sendai, Japan, where half of the experimental studies will be conducted.