入国児童の言語生活調査 : 語彙を中心として

The Actual Use of Vocabulary by Young Japanese Language Learners in Japanese Primary School Life

Nuibe Yoshinori

広島大学日本語教育学科紀要

Bulletin of the Department of Teaching Japanese as a Second Language , Hiroshima University

The present article aims to study how useful and important to school life the 620 words selected by the author are felt by young Japanese language learners from Brazil, Peru and so on and by Japanese school children in the elementary school at Kannabe Town in Hiroshima Pref in mutual verbal communication. The data were elicited from them through the questionnaire: how useful and important to daily school life they feel each word. Each word was ranked: 0 is not useful or important at all, 1 is slightly useful and important, and 2 is very useful and important. The mean scores of all the words were calculated. Young Japanese language learners showed the most useful and important 59 words; Japanese school children also felt that 35.9 percent of them had been very useful and important. As for the least useful and important 19 words, 64.9 percent of them were overlapped.

Accordingly, about 64 percent of the most useful and important words were different but about 35 percent of the least useful and important words were different. As for the most useful and important words, young Japanese language learners have needs different from Japanese school children to a great extent. Seven of the most useful and important words were shared: asobu, sansuu, gakkoo, kokugo, kyoo, enpitsu and shukudai. The thirteen least useful and important words were similarly shared: kooin, gishi, bukkyoo, teiryuujo, gaka, oka, jimushitsu, waakubukku, keikan, ten'in, inaka, ferii and ragubii.

The vocabulary list had some problems. One of them was that several useful and important words had been missing like 'toire.' Secondly, the younger hildren in the lower grades had more difficulties in answering the questionnaire, which may have lessened reliability in the research. Thirdly, the vocabulary list focussed on BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills), not on CALP (Cognitive Academic Learning Proficiency). Young Japanese language learners have much more needs for CALP in their school life.

Education [ 370 ]

広島大学教育学部日本語教育学科

[ISSN] 1341-5298

[NCID] AN10364361