Long-term Modification of Language Proficiency in Japanese Students Overseas : Effects of Age and Early Education in Second Language Learning

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The main purpose of this study is to analyze the acquisition and maintenance processes of L1 and L2 proficiencies when native speakers of Japanese have been exposed to English environments for a long term. To examine "age effects" and " early education effects", we executed a series of surveys in each family unit, and got subjects of various ages, for example, from students in elementary schools to their parents.In our original plan, the American team (Project leader : Prof.James Emil Flege, University of Alabama) was in charge of surveys in the United States ; the Japanese teams were in charge of those in East Japan (Tsuneo Yamada, National Institute of Multimedia Education) or West Japan (Reiko A.Yamada, Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International, ATR-I).Each survey consisted of 1) experiments on the speech perception of English and Japanese sounds, 2) experiments on the production of Japanese and English sounds and 3) achievement tests on Japanese and/or English subjects. Test 1 and Test 2 were carried out in FY1998 and FY1999 by the American team ; Test 3 was done 3 times since FY 1998 by sending by mail from the Japanese team.In both Japanese adults and younger students, perception and production of English speech were not dramatically changed in these two years. Although detail analyses have not finished yet, this result suggested drastic improvements in speech perception and production of English by Japanese learners need their longer stays in L2 environments. In addition, questionnaires clarified various socio-cultural and psychological troubles that Japanese families met in the United States. We think it is necessary to continue this annual survey in order to clarify the whole acquisition and maintenance processes of English speech by native speakers of Japanese.