While acquiring a second language, learners may encounter challenges and difficulties in effectively carrying out verbal communication in the second language. Mastering the apology speech act is a challenge for L2 learners. The objective of this study is to identify the apology strategies utilized by individuals learning the Japanese language, as…

Describes the phonological analysis of Japanese speakers learning English as a foreign language. Analysis was carried out at a phonemic level and reflects learners' performance in the target language at a specific stage of interlanguage. A non-comprehensive comparison between the English and the Japanese sound systems was made and the so-called…

This article reports major findings of a longitudinal, naturalistic study of the acquisition of English as a second language by a five-year-old Japanese girl. The emphasis is on empirical findings rather than on any particular theoretical orientation. (Author/POP)

Discusses the amount of influence that a learner's native language has on the acquisition of a second language. Suggests that some important properties of a learner's interlanguage (IL) can be predicted, as shown by the different IL rules that Cantonese and Japanese use in dealing with English word-final voice contrasts. (Author/MES)

A language typology based on common errors made in pronunciation of English by speakers of other languages is presented and discussed. The classification system was developed from the concept of interlanguage, the intermediate step between a language learner's native and target languages, and the notion that interference in learning a new language…

Examines the word-final, voiceless, stop-sibilant clusters formed by the attachment of -z morphemes to verbs and nouns in the speech production of Japanese learners of English. Reduction is the favored production strategy, but epenthesis is also used. Noun attachments are subject to less error than are verb attachments. (Author/LMO)