Exploring the Potential of Subtitled Foreign Media for the Learning of Conventional Expressions by Shayna Lodge A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics and Discourse Studies Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario © 2016 Shayna Lodge ii Abstract Subtitled media have been found to be a beneficial tool in the acquisition of second language vocabulary, particularly for beginner-level learners. The present study follows up on Koolstra and Beentjes’ (1999) suggestion that subtitled media may also be helpful in learning expressions and their associated contexts. Six beginner-level learners of Japanese as a foreign language (JFL) were taught the same thirty conventional expressions taken from a subtitled Japanese television drama – a control group without pragmatic instruction and a treatment group viewing the drama while taking note of form, meaning, and context of the expressions, as per Schmidt’s (1993) noticing hypothesis. All participants were tested prior and subsequently with an oral discourse completion task (ODCT) and interviewed regarding their experiences. The results suggest that utilizing a target language television drama may be more beneficial than traditional methodology in multiple ways for learners both immediately and long-term. Keywords: L2 pragmatic competence, conventional expressions, subtitles, Japanese as a foreign language (JFL) iii Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank Professor David Wood, my supervisor. Thank you so much for your guidance from the first seedling of an idea to this completed graduate thesis. Your belief in me inspired my perseverance and I always felt a sense of renewed confidence after meeting with you. I am also indebted to Mr. Mike Barker, who generously provided his technological expertise for the ODCT on Moodle. Thank you also for allowing me to use the computer labs and booking my classes for me. I really appreciate it. Thank you also to all my volunteer participants and especially to my first and recruiter-of- sorts, “Jason.” I know you all sacrificed time and effort to take part in my study and I could not have done it without you, so thank you very much. I would also like to extend my gratitude to Kaori-san and Ken-kun for their input on Japanese pragmatics and the testing prompts. As well, I would like to thank Sowka-Sensei for lending her Japanese language resources and of course for teaching me Japanese throughout my undergrad degree. 本当にありがとうございました。Thank you also to Azuma-Sensei and Yoo-Seonsaengnim for your understanding, allowing me to balance my responsibilities as a researcher, TA, and student. And finally, thank you to my family and friends for your support and encouragement. Sometimes I felt like I was surrounded by my own cheering squad, and I truly am touched by your faith in me. Thanks especially to my mother for her eagle-eyed corrective feedback. Love you always. iv Table of Contents Abstract................................................................................................................................ ii Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................. iii List of Tables ...................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... ix List of Appendices ................................................................................................................ x Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background and research questions......................................................................................1 1.2 Organization of the present study .........................................................................................3 Chapter 2: Literature Review .............................................................................................. 4 2.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................4 2.2 Subtitle and SLA studies .....................................................................................................5 2.3 Pragmatics and pragmatic competence ............................................................................... 11 2.4 Conventional expressions .................................................................................................. 13 2.5 Politeness and formality in Japanese .................................................................................. 15 2.6 Rationale for teaching conventional expressions ................................................................. 16 2.7 Schmidt’s noticing hypothesis ........................................................................................... 19 2.8 Interlanguage ................................................................................................................... 21 2.9 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 24 Chapter 3: Methodology .................................................................................................... 26 v 3.1 Study design overview ...................................................................................................... 26 3.2 Participants ...................................................................................................................... 27 3.3 Procedures ....................................................................................................................... 31 3.3.1 The preparation period ......................................................................................................... 31 3.3.2 The treatment period ............................................................................................................. 36 3.3.3 The culmination period ......................................................................................................... 42 3.4 Sources of data ................................................................................................................. 45 Chapter 4: Results .............................................................................................................. 48 4.1 Findings ........................................................................................................................... 48 4.2 Group-level findings ......................................................................................................... 48 4.2.1 At the onset ............................................................................................................................ 48 4.2.2 Following the treatment period ............................................................................................. 51 4.2.3 Over time ............................................................................................................................... 57 4.3 Individual-level findings ................................................................................................... 62 4.3.1 Louis ...................................................................................................................................... 62 4.3.2 Brad ....................................................................................................................................... 66 4.3.3 Jason ..................................................................................................................................... 68 4.3.4 Victor ..................................................................................................................................... 72 4.3.5 Shawn .................................................................................................................................... 74 4.3.6 Idina ...................................................................................................................................... 76 4.4 Summary ......................................................................................................................... 78 Chapter 5: Discussion......................................................................................................... 80 5.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 80 5.2 Interlanguage development................................................................................................ 82 vi 5.3 What learners need to know in regards to conventional expressions ..................................... 90 5.4 Formality judgments ......................................................................................................... 94 5.5 An examination of the drama method ................................................................................. 97 5.6 Frequency and saliency ................................................................................................... 101 5.7 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 103 Chapter 6: Conclusions ...................................................................................................