The authors of this study created the following original online materials (lessons): (1) Independent 'listening, ' 'speaking, ' 'reading, ' and 'writing' portions; (2) online grammar explanations and instructions in multiple languages, enabling learners to learn on their own. Over the course of five years, the authors developed, tested, and put into effect a dual site system, comprised of an 'administrative site' and a 'user site. ' The former is used to house and manage content, while the latter, as the name suggests, is geared towards actual learners of Japanese. Concurrently, the authors translated the complete Japanese version of the lessons into Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, and English. Finally, the authors also created an additional Japanese version to be used as an instructor handbook

The purpose of this project is to investigate methods to utilize the Balanced Corpus of Contemporary Written Japanese (BCCWJ) for Japanese language education. We have completed the following three tasks :(1) construction and analysis of a corpus of Japanese teaching materials;(2) compilation of a Japanese collocation list and construction of a database for basic grammar and basic vocabulary for Japanese education;and (3) development of tools to utilize the BCCWJ for Japanese language education

The purpose of this study is to examine how native speakers (NSs) of Japanese who are not teaching the language to learners evaluate the linguistic performance of non-native speakers (NNSs). Findings from this study, together with ones from previous studies on the topic, will be disseminated to teachers of Japanese so that : (1)they can identify a list of items which receive NSs' attention in learner performance, and prioritize their instruction in the classroom based on the tendency ; and (2)teachers can become aware of the items which receive NSs' positive evaluation and promote their teaching of the items.By creating syllabuses and curriculums based on the tendency found in NSs' evaluation of NNSs' linguistic performance, teachers can help their learners to focus on the items which tend to receive NSs' negative evaluation.This study is significant in that it can propose the reconsideration of the order of introducing linguistic items to learners, which has often been determined based mostly on teachers' personal experience and/or textbook writers' intuition

本研究では、研究留学生のための作文教材開発に関する基礎的研究として、次の5点を行った。a) 学会の全国大会予稿集掲載論文(計856本)を第一次資料として収集した。b) 「『約、およそ、ほぼ』など概数をあらわす語」、「接尾辞『〜化』」、 「結果、考察、分析、結論、仮説」の3つについて、それぞれを含む文を抜き出し「ファイルメーカープロ(クラリス社製)」を使って、Macintosh社製パーソナルコンピュータ上にカード型データベースを構築した。c) このデータベースを分析した結果、次の知見が得られた。・ 「約(n=433)」 「ほぼ(n=283)」用例数に対して「およそ(n=12)」の用例数が少ない・「おおよそ」には名詞用法と副詞用法のどちらもみられるがその省略形とされる「およそ」には副詞用法しかみられない。・ 「約」はほとんどが数値に接続するが、例外的に「半〜」という名詞に接続する。・ 「おおかた、おおむね、だいたい」が論文にも使われている。d)以上の知見を、平成10年度北海道大学留学生センター日本語・日本語教育講演会『コーパス言語学と日本語教育』のパネルディスカッション「学会抄録コーパスを利用した日本語研究」において発表した。e)上記を含めた結果を用いた作文教材を作成し、現在試用中である

1. The database (final version) of the materials obtained by Oral Proficiency Interview has been completed as planned, and is being offered to the public for L2 acquisition research.2. In addition to the above OPI database, members of the project at each institution have individually collected longitudinal and cross-sectional data which, together with the OPI data, have proved to be extremely valuable.3. The results of the investigation of the data above have been published or presented at conferences overseas as well as in Japan. The research topics cover many areas and stand out both in terms of quality and number. They are phonetics, phonology, writing system, grammar, discourse, theme writing, socio-linguistics, and loan words. This project has undoubtedly improved the quality as well as the scope of the research on acquisition of Japanese as a Second Language, both cross-sectional and longitudinal, theory construction and verification of hypotheses.4. However, we have been unable to expand our acquisition research into such areas as pragmatic competence, socio-linguistic ability, and socio-cultural knowledge. Neither have we been able to posit a comprehensive acquisition model or theory based on the results of this research project. Therefore, in the study to be continued we would like to construct such a comprehensive model/theory that explains acquisition of Japanese by accurately describing the process of acquisition, explicating the first language transfer, and exploring universals in second language acquisition.5.20 papers written in the three year period were selected and printed in the Report(404 pages) and distributed to academic and research institutes and individual researchers

The purpose of this study is to analyze the difference in discourse structures of conversation models on making requests. 23 model conversations were taken from different levels of Japanese textbooks and analyzed. The viewpoints are; 1) the complexity of the discourse structure itself, 2) the complexity of combinations of different types of discourses, 3) the effect of the contents in making requests or relationship between participants in the conversation, 4) non-stereotyped discourse structure in making requests. It is suggested that the discourse structures of intermediate or advanced level textbooks are more interactive and more complex than beginning level.

This study investigates ordinary Japanese speakers' evaluation of Japanese learners' pronunciation. The results show that; (1) attention given to pronunciation items as compared to grammatical and discourse ones was limited; (2) consideration given to articulation and accent was to an even lesser degree than that of pronunciation; (3) by comparison, a greater attention given to sentence-final intonation, volume of voice and tempo was apparent.

外国語（主として英語）が日本語の体系に外来語として取り込まれる際に適用される日本語化規則の習得過程を調べるために、「英単語を見て、日本語の外来語としてかたかなで、表記する」という調査を実施した。本稿では、このうち、米国の大学で日本語を学ぶ初級学習者（60名）を対象とする調査の結果を取り上げ、単語末の[t]、[d] の開音節化について考察した。語末に[t/d]をもつ調査語（5語/4語）に対する解答がどれだけ一貫しているかによって、被験者を3つのグループにわけ、分散分析を行った。その結果、各グループ間には1%水準で有意差が認められ、正答であれ誤答であれ解答に一貫性がみられる被験者は、開音節化規則全体の得点も高いことが検証された。これは、日本語学習者にとっての外来語の習得というものが、個別的な単語の暗記－即ち語彙数の増加－ではなく、日本語化規則の体系を自己の中に構築しながら進んでいくプロセスであることを意味している。This study focusses on the question of how learners of Japanese syllabify English word-final [t/d] in Japanese loanwords. A test requiring 48 English words to be rendered in katakana was conducted with 60 native speakers of English enrolled in elementary Japanese classes. Three groups of subjects were identified on the basis of their responses. Answers were processsed by personal computer. A statistically significant difference at a level of 1% was found between the three groups, and subjects who answered consistently, whether correctly or incorrectly, were shown to score highly on all syllabification rules. This finding shows that the acquisition of loanwords by learners of Japanese does not proceed through word-by-word memorization, but through the construction of a system of Japanization rules.

In the Japanese intensive course at Hokkaido University, we use role play as a test for measuring learners' conversation ability. We showed the video of six of these role plays to two Japanese native speakers and ask them what points of learners' performance particularly caught their attention. In this paper, we report and discuss the results of this survey.

Teachers of Japanese and ordinary Japanese speakers were compared for their viewpoints of evaluation on Japanese learners' performance in conversation when watching the same role-play. Both similarities and differences were found in their viewpoints of evaluation. Some aspects of ordinary speakers' viewpoints may be useful for the development of Japanese language conversation syllabuses.

Koike et al.(1998) pointed out that, what developing syllabuses and materials for elementary conversation class, it is necessary to ask ordinary Japanese people what they think are important features of conversation. In this follow-up study we report results from interviews in which we asked two advanced learners to comment on elementary learners' performance during role-play tasks.

What should be taught in elementary conversation class? We have developed the materials that train the automanouse communication ability for elementary Japanese learners. These teaching materials consist of teaching items for communication and role-play cards. In this paper we report the process and porpose to develop these teaching materials.

This paper reports on effects of conversation class using the role-play cards for elementary Japanese learners. In conversation class, learners have a conversation according to the instructions on the role-play cards without any model conversation. Through the class activities, we will make the following points: 1) without any model conversation, learners take a natural step in process of invitation, 2) to choose an appropriate expression from various grammar items according to the situation is still difficult for learners, 3) what is called an expression of invitation (V-masenka) is not always appeared conversation of invitation.

This study focuses on the question of how Japanese learners create an open syllable to adapt English words into Japanese loanwords. A test consisted of 48 English words required them to spell out in katakana, and it was conducted on 17 non-English native speakers who enrolled an elementary Japanese class. From the findings, it is concluded that the rules considered "marked" from a phonological point of view can be also treated as "marked" from an acquisition point of view. It is also suggested that the variation among the subjects of this study reflects a longitudinal process of the acquisition of Japanese.

What should be learnt in Japanese composition class? In this paper, we report the composition materials and class activities for elementary Japanese learners. Then we will make the following points : 1) in composition class, quality and quantity of information should be examined, 2) to do this kind of activity, the reader and text-type of learners' composition should be restricted. The above points are also helpfull to evaluate learners' composition.

If reading is not a passive perception, but an active comprehension, which includes switching of reading-mode, extensive reading should be given for elementary level learners. From this point of view, we have developed extensive reading materials for elementary Japanese learners. Through the class activities, most of learners' evaluation indicated these materials are challenging and useful.

日本語学習者が、外国語が外来語として日本語にとりこまれる際の日本語化規則を習得する過程を調べるために、初級の日本語学習者（17名）を対象に、「英語を日本語の外来語としてかたかなで表記する」という48の英単語からなる調査を実施した。学習者の回答をパーソナルコンピュータ上でデータベースに入力し、正解率、誤答例などを日本語化規則ごとに出力した。本稿では、このうち、開音節化に関する規制をとりあげ、考察する。開音節化規則の平均正解率は56.43%であり、音韻に関する規則の中で、もっとも高かった。しかし、「かたかなで表記する」という調査方法そのものが、開音節化と直結しているため、学習者が本当の意味で日本語の音韻体系の習得に成功しているかどうかについては、本調査の結果からは判断することはできない。次に、開音節化規則が適用された36語、延べ55箇所（=チェックポイント）に対する回答に基づいて、S-P表を作成し分析したところ、次の3点がわかった。1）17名の学習者は、開音節化規則について等質と考えられる。2）問題項目としての開音節化規則も、ほぼ等質と考えられる。しかし、[t / d / dʒ / tʃ / m] の開音節化規則については、異質であることが観察される。3）前舌母音に後続する[k]、[tʃ / dʒ / ʃ / θ ] 、音節末の[ŋ]、音節末以外の[p]、[u] が添加される[t]、は習得しにくい。以上のことから、音韻論上の制約、また、年代的に古い外来語などにしか適用されない生産性の低さ、などの点で、開音節化規制において例外といえる規則は、習得の面においても、習得しにくい、言い換えれば、有標（marked）な規則であることが示唆される。また、本調査の被験者間にみられた習得の傾向が、縦断的な習得のプロセスを反映しているとすれば、日本語学習者は「基本的な開音節化規則→子音による例外規則→語彙による例外規則」の順で、開音節化規則を習得していることが推測される。This study focuses on the question of how Japanese learners create an open syllable to, adapt English words into Japanese loanwords. A test consisted of 48 English words required them to spell out in katakana, and it was conducted on 17 non-English native speakers who enrolled am elementary Japanese class. The answers were fed into a personal computer, from which I generated a Student-Problem Score Table (S-P table). Through careful observation of S-P table I identified the following three points: 1) In spite of the differences of their native languages, answers of 17 subjects in this study have same features. 2) Though most of rules about creation open syllables have same features, the rules related to consonants [t / d / dʒ /tʃ / m] were different. 3) It is possible to say that the rules on the following consonants are hard to acquire to Japanese learners: [k] which is followed the front vowels, [tʃ / dʒ / ʃ / θ], [ŋ] which placed at the end of syllable, [p] which placed head or middle of syllable and [t] which follows [u]. From these findings above, we may say that the marked rules considered "marked" from a phonological point of view can be also treated as "marked" from an acquisition point of view. It is also suggested that the variation among the subjects of this study reflects a longitudinal process of the acquisition of Japanese.