文章基本信息

标题：Acquisition of English Grammatical Features by Adult Japanese EFL Learners: The Application of Item Response Theory in SLA Research
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作者：Kenichi Yamakawa ; Naoki Sugino ; Hiromasa Ohba 等
期刊名称：Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching (e-FLT)
电子版ISSN：0219-9874
出版年度：2008
卷号：5
期号：1
出版社：National University of Singapore
摘要：Although the last couple of decades have seen great theoretical developments in Second Language Acquisition (SLA), many studies have focused on single grammatical features, and have assumed interrelationships among features are granted by a given linguistic theory. One of the weaknesses of the grammaticality judgment task, the most common measurement tool in SLA, is its reliability. Since the data obtained from different studies are sample- and test-dependent, it is difficult to compare the findings. In order to compensate for this weakness, we employ IRT (Item Response Theory) to equate the data from different grammaticality judgment tests. Since the parameters of IRT models provide a theoretical justification for equating scores, comparison of acquisition among different grammatical items on the same scale is possible with a high degree of reliability. Approximately 1,200 adult native speakers of Japanese learning EFL in Japan participated in our study. These participants were given grammaticality judgment tests in order to examine acquisitions of various English grammatical features such as unergative verbs, unaccusative verbs, psych verbs, relative clause constructions, wh-question constructions, to infinitives, and dative alternation. On the basis of our findings, we discuss the appropriateness and benefits of using IRT in SLA research, and explore interrelationships among these grammatical features in participants’ acquisition process.