An analysis of position of however in a sentence by Japanese learners of English

DOI IR Web Site

Bibliographic Information

Other Title
  • 日本人英語学習者による文中でのhoweverの位置の分析
  • ニホンジン エイゴ ガクシュウシャ ニ ヨル ブンチュウ デ ノ however ノ イチ ノ ブンセキ

Search this article

Description

An adverb, however, could be placed in various positions in a sentence. Some dictionaries and grammar books indicated that in writing, it was common to use however in the middle of a sentence. The data from JEFLL Corpus showed that most of the Japanese learners of English wrote however at the beginning of the sentence. This study found that they overused it at the beginning of the sentence and underused it in the middle of the sentence. By comparison, the native English speakers used it more often in the middle of the sentence. One of the possible reasons for this was Japanese interference. 　In this research, the Japanese middle and high school English textbooks were studied. The research revealed that however was mostly used at the beginning of the sentences throughout those textbooks. In summary, the Japanese students might be influenced by those textbooks. As a result, the students preferred to put however at the beginning of the sentence. It would be beneficial to teach the students about the various functions of adverbs including however to enhance their writing skills.

Journal

Keywords

Details 詳細情報について

Report a problem

Back to top