初級韓国人日本語学習者の誤用からみたテ形の習得様相

Abstract

The –te form of verbs is commonly recognized as one of the most difficult items to acquire for beginners of Japanese. This is because Japanese verbs are conjugated differently in accordance with their endings. Also, for verbs ending with –ru, learners need to judge whether the verb is “Godan” class or “Ichidan” class. Many studies of –te form have been conducted; however, most of them were not qualitative but quantitative, exploring whether different verbal endings affect the acquisition of the –te form through a statistical approach. These studies show that the level of difficulty in acquiring the conjugation of –te form varies according to verbal endings. In order to apply the results of quantitative research, we need to study the –te form conjugation more qualitatively including the analysis of learners’ errors. This study aims to reveal the conjugation rule of the –te form which learners have before they acquire accurate conjugation. I conducted a study in which learners changed the base form of 80 verbs to the –te form. The results of error analysis indicated the following: 1. Learners make a variety of mistakes right after they learn and practice the –te form; however, they acquire much of the conjugation of the –te form around the time they reach the upper beginner level. 2. Learners often make mistakes with verbs ending with –mu, -bu at the beginning of the beginner level, but they acquire these earlier than other verb types. 3. Mistakes of –iru, -eru (“Ichidan” class) are few compared to other verb types at the beginning of the beginner level. However, these are difficult to acquire completely because a distinction must be made from –ru (“Godan” level).