FUJIWARA; Yumi

Kyoto Pharmaceutical University, 5 Nakauchi-Cho, Misasagi, Yamashina-Ku, Kyoto 607- 8414, Japan

It is frequently mentioned that using articles is a notably high barrier for Japanese EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners to overcome because the English article system (EAS) does not exist in Japanese. Therefore, Japanese EFL students often resort to rote-memorization in learning EAS. Relying on rote-memorization, as often seen in traditional learning/teaching methods, makes it more challenging to fully grasp purposes of the EAS. Multiple prior studies have attempted to elucidate the mechanism behind the acquisition of English articles, yet many aspects remain unclear. Cognitive Linguistics (CL), which grew out of work done in the 1970s, is a multidisciplinary approach to language study that came into being in the 1980s and views grammar not merely as a set of formal rules but as something closely related to meanings in written contents. A variety of research and experimental efforts have been made to apply this theory in practical teaching environments. Many of these report that applied CL has a high potential to serve as a foundation for new teaching strategies. Therefore, in learning English articles entangled with complicated rules, it is expected that the CL-based instruction makes it easier for learners to understand the meaning behind grammatical structures, contributing to better comprehension of grammatical concepts. This survey attempted to assess the current state of Japanese EFL learners’ understanding on English article usage and evaluate their feedback on this newly introduced teaching approach. The research involved 46 university students enrolled in grammar courses at a university in Japan, and the participants were categorized into two levels of proficiency based on CEFR level. First, their understanding of articles was examined with a gap-filling test and then the CL-based teaching method was incorporated as part of a class activity. A questionnaire was also administered at different stages of the experiment to investigate first whether the differences in proficiency were connected to the comprehension of articles, then which aspects of articles were hard to understood, whether there were differences in trends based on proficiency, and what they thought of this teaching method. The results showed the group with higher proficiency understood articles better, and the participants seemed to have more difficulty selecting the right article based on the noun phrase type, which varies with the degree of proficiency. Additionally, post-experiment questionnaire results showed that many of them found this teaching method more beneficial and effective than the traditional one.