Carol Rinnert

High school student perceptions of first language literacy instruction: implications for second language writing

Abstract The overall goal of this study is to clarify the nature of Japanese students’ first language (L1) writing experience and instruction in high school to help university second language (L2) English writing teachers understand their students’ needs. Building on the results of a previous large-scale questionnaire study of Japanese (N=389) and American students (N=66), this interview study attempts to gain insight into Japanese L1 literacy instruction in high school through individual students’ experiences. The questionnaire study had indicated that Japanese high school language classes provide significantly more instruction in reading than writing and significantly less emphasis on writing than American classes. However, analysis of the data from in-depth interviews (N=21) presented here reveals a more complex picture. Most notably, many Japanese high schools provide intensive writing instruction and practice, outside of regular Japanese classes, to help increasing numbers of individual students prepare for essay writing on university entrance exams. The results of the study call into question the common assumption that Japanese high school students receive little training related to L1 writing. The findings suggest specific ways for teachers to draw on students’ strengths in terms of their literacy background to help them bridge the gap between their L1 and L2 writing skills.

Differing Perceptions of EFL Writing among Readers in Japan.

This quantitative and qualitative study investigated perceptions of English compositions among four groups of readers (N= 465) in Japan. Analyses of evaluative criteria and readers comments yielded the following clear parallel results: Whereas inexperienced English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students attended predominantly to content in both judging and commenting on compositions, more experienced EFL students and nonnative English teachers showed greater concern than the inexperienced students did for clarity, logical connections, and organization. The experienced groups perceptions tended to be more similar to the perceptions of native English-speaking teachers than those of the inexperienced EFL students. This tendency suggests that there is a gradual change in Japanese readers perceptions of English composition from preferring the writing features of their first language (L1) to preferring many of the writing features of the second language (L2). The results imply that the particular kind of evaluation and feedback students are asked to provide on their peers writing should vary according to the amount of L2 writing awareness and experience they have acquired.

Requestive hints in Japanese and English

Abstract The analysis of elicited questionnaire judgments and naturally occurring data on Japanese and English requests revealed an apparent contradiction between the perception of decontextualized hints (except for the very formal Japanese hint) as relatively impolite and the high frequency of actual use of hints in a university office setting. Further analysis of requestive hints using Weizmans (1989) categories showed that Japanese hints are generally more opaque than English hints. These findings suggest that Blum-Kulkas (1987) notion of politeness as a balance between pragmatic clarity and avoiding coerciveness is affected by contextual (i.e., standard vs. non-standard situations) and cultural variables. At the same time, the results also point to the need to determine how ‘off-record’ requestive hints may differ from ‘on-record’ hint-like request formulations (Brown and Levinson, 1987). In addition, the finding that the use of requestive hint formulations apparently serves to build solidarity in a standard situation in different ways in the two cultures suggests that the idea of simultaneously achieving less coerciveness and less distance by means of the same strategy should be further explored cross-culturally.