Earticle

The purpose of the current study was to examine the effect structure difficulty may have on the type of knowledge representation L2 learners draw on in different measures of linguistic knowledge. To this aim, word monitoring task (WMT), elicited imitation task (EI), timed grammaticality judgment test (TGJT), untimed grammaticality judgment test (UGJT), and metalinguistic knowledge test (MKT), each consisting of an equal number of easy and difficult structures, were employed. The results of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) demonstrated that the easy items of GJTs, irrespective of time condition, tap into the construct of automatized knowledge and the difficult ones of EI, TGJT, UGJT, and MKT into explicit knowledge. Additionally, in all the tests the participants’ performance on the easy items significantly differed from that on the difficult ones. Therefore, it can be concluded that structure difficulty is a contributing factor in discriminating different knowledge types and has a pivotal role in learners’ use of linguistic knowledge.

본 연구는 《国际中文教育中文水平等级标准》의 어법 등급 체계를 기준으로, 2022 개정 교육과정에 따른 고등학교 《중국어》 교과서 6종의 문법 항목 분포와 배열 양상을 분석하고 문법 배열의 난이도 전개 구조를 고찰하였다. 분석 결과, 교과서에 제시된 문법 항목은 1-2급 수준에 집중되었으며 특히 1급 비중이 높게 나타났다. 또한 문법 항목 수의 증가는 난이도 상승과는 직접적인 관련이없었으며, 난이도는 상위 등급 문법의 포함 여부에 의해 결정되는 것으로 나타났다. 단원별 배열에서는 전반적으로 후반부로 갈수록 난이도가 상승하였으나 일부 교과서에서는 비선형적 변동이 확인되었으며, 난이도 기울기와 배열 안정성 지표를 통해 교과서 간 차이가 확인되었다. 이러한 결과는 교과서 문법 배열이 초급 수준에 집중되어 있으면서도 출판사별로난이도 전개 방식에서 차이가 나타남을 보여주며,향후 교과서 설계에서 난이도 전개의 체계성을 고려할 필요가 있음을 시사한다.

This study examines the distribution and sequencing of grammar itemsinsixhighschoolChinesetextbooksdevelopedunderthe2022 revised curriculum, based on the grammatical grading system of the Chinese Proficiency Grading Standards for International Chinese Language Education. The study further analyzes the difficulty progressionstructureofgrammarsequencing. The results show that grammar items are largely concentrated at level 1 and 2, with particularly high proportion at level 1. In addition, the number of grammar items is not directly related to an increase in difficulty; rather, the overall difficulty is determined by the inclusion of higher-level grammar items. At the unit level, the difficulty generally increases toward later units, although non-linear fluctuations are observed in some text books. Differences among textbooks are also identified through indicators such as the difficulty gradient and sequencing stability. Thesefindingssuggestthatwhilegrammarsequencingintextbooks tendstofocusonthebeginnerlevel, therearenotabledifferencesin the patterns of difficulty progression across publishers. This study highlights the need to consider systematic difficulty progression in futuretextbookdevelopment.

Tsuda Sokichi (津田左右吉), Okawa Shumei (大川周明), Minoda Muneki (蓑田胸喜). What they have in common is that they aimed to find the identity of their nation through the foreign ideas of the East and West. Tsuda Sokichi perceived the individual to be a limited being and maintained that the current desire or intention of such an individual had to be understood in relation to the state history. Okawa Shumei put importance on identifying how individual recognition appeared from the phenomenon of history in order to achieve objectivity. Minoda Muneki stated that things that existed innately in the past should be accepted as is, since individual recognition has no subjectivity. The logic of these three diverged at this point. Tsuda Sokichi focused on examining the transformation of concept of the East. He denied the created East and insisted on the creativity of Japanese culture. Okawa Shumei divided the East and West, and proposed a theory of creativity concerning Japanese culture, which had come to establish a new culture through interaction with Chinese and Indian cultures. Minoda Muneki adopted the theory that cultural exchange led to either the preservation or extinction of cultures, and asserted that, throughout Japan’s exchange with other eastern cultures, the innate cultural traits of Japan had not been lost from ancient times. These three adopted different theories and methodologies, but all had arrived at the notion of ‘individual subjectivity’ through independent realization.

Factors that affect the degree of difficulty in test items - Focusing on context structure - The current study surveyed 58 Japanese language learners to investigate factors that affect the difficulty of test items. focusing on the one of the question types of JLPT, i.e. sentence order questions. The result shows that, empirically, there can be a difference in difficulties between questions at a similar level estimated. Specifically, it was revealed that following facts affect the difficulty : whether or not a clue from a preceding sentence or succeeding sentence can play a crucial role in the question and whether or not a target item in the question is the first element in the sentence.