L2 Written Production by Japanese Learners of English

Abstract

This paper presents part of the results of a learner corpus study of English spoken and written performances by Japanese native speakers. For the current study, the written data from 80 participants were used. Their English written production was examined based on Processability Theory (PT; Pienemann, 1998, 2005; Bettoni & Di Biase, 2015) as well as on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR; Council of Europe, 2001). Results demonstrated that there was an implicational pattern in the acquisition of English L2 grammar by the Japanese learners as predicted in PT. It was also shown that there was a linear connection between second language (L2) development as found in PT analysis and L2 proficiency levels as measured by the CEFR rating, while a statistically significant difference was not found.