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The present study investigated the effects of instruction on the use of the definite article the by Japanese learners of English by implementing two instructional treatments that varied in the extent to which they emphasized identifiability and accessibility. One instructional treatment, referred to as the traditional (TR) treatment, emphasized the linguistic/semantic notion of identifiability in which the serves to identify the referent. The other instructional treatment, operationalized as a mental space (MS) treatment, emphasized the cognitive notion of accessibility whereby the serves to mark an access path to the referent. The purpose of the comparison was to assess which types of metalinguistic information might be most effective for helping L2 learners of English to understand specific definite article usages. Three computer-assisted language learning (CALL) lessons averaging from 1.5 to 2 hours each were given individually to 83 Japanese learners of English, 42 in the TR group and 41 in the MS group. Counterbalanced versions of an article test were administered as a pre-test (Time 1), an immediate post-test (Time 2), and a delayed post-test (Time 3). Both groups exhibited significant increases at Time 2, which were maintained at Time 3, while the between-group comparisons showed that the MS group significantly outperformed the TR group at both Times 2 and 3. The different treatments had differential effects depending on the article types, with the MS group performing especially well on the most difficult conceptual usages.

This article reports on a study investigating the role in second language (L2) learning of ethnocentrism, cultural and personality traits, and acceptance of values and beliefs expressed in myths and proverbs. Although scholars have conjectured that these factors may play an important role in L2 proficiency, there has been very little empirical investigation of this issue. In our study, 108 adult Japanese living in North America were asked how much they agreed with or accepted statements expressing ethnocentric views about Japanese culture and language that described their shyness, inwardness, and groupist tendencies and that indicated certain Japanese values and beliefs as expressed through myths and proverbs. Three sets of variables were tested: (a) participants’ ethnocentrism, (b) willingness to acknowledge certain cultural traits as being characteristic of Japanese as a group, and (c) willingness to accept the validity of Japanese-oriented myths and proverbs. The participants’ responses on these variables were correlated with their levels of English proficiency as measured by a cloze test, a self-rated ability sacle, and a self-rated performance scale. It was hypothesized that the higher the participants’ responses on these variables, the lower their proficiency levels in English would be. Results suggest that these cultural traits and beliefs play a role in L2 learning but provide little evidence for an effect of ethnocentrism as the term is commonly defined.