「中上級日本語学習者の作文過程における辞書使用―辞書使用の詳細を可視化するデータベース作成に向けて―」
Dictionary Use by Pre-Advanced Japanese Learners for Written Compositions:
Building a New Type of Compositions’ Database to Record the Processes and Details of Dictionary Use
The purpose of this paper is to investigate pre-advanced Japanese language learners' dictionary use during composition writing by making a sample of a new type of written compositions' database that records and visualizes the processes of learners' dictionary use in detail.
The procedure of the investigation is as follows:
(1) The processes of 4 study participants using dictionaries while writing were recorded and monitored by a video camera.
(2) Interviews were performed following (1), in order to clarify the details of dictionary use, while re-playing the recording.
Samples of the database include information such as at which parts of the compositions dictionary use occurred, for what purposes, and which types of dictionaries were used. The results of the searches, factors considered when selecting expressions, and if further searching was also performed was further clarified and noted.
It was found through the investigation that the following two points were important regarding both dictionary use and building the database.
First, this type of new database can show the details of processes of dictionary use, including cases that do not appear in the compositions themselves because the writers did not choose to adopt the expressions even after exploring the dictionaries.
Second, follow-up interviews can function as an opportunity to make the dictionary users aware of their own procedures in using dictionaries. Thus, the first step of training learners in the skills they need to use dictionaries effectively might lend the support to them to become conscious about their own processes of dictionary use.