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Article http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/er.2025.04.013

A Study on the Features of Conversational Repair Among Chinese Learners of Japanese

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Anqi Yang

College of Foreign Languages, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou 350007, Fujian, China.

*Corresponding author: Anqi Yang

Published: May 15,2025

Abstract

This study employs a corpus of conversations by Chinese learners of Japanese to investigate the features of conversational repairs from three perspectives: unguided, self-guided, and other-guided. The findings indicate two primary outcomes: (1) The most frequently used type of conversational repair is the unguided type. This may be because beginner learners of Japanese, whose second language proficiency is still low, do not yet have sufficient ability to monitor their own knowledge and make self-repairs; and (2) The least frequently used type was the other-guided type. This may be related to the nature of task-based conversations, where the main goal is to complete one’s own part of the conversation. As long as the content is understandable, learners tend not to actively guide or correct the other speaker, even if they notice grammatical or lexical errors in the other person’s speech. It also reflects the unilateral subjectivity characteristic of beginner learners. Therefore, how to effectively enhance learners’ interactive subjectivity while completing communicative tasks is also a topic worth further discussion at present.

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How to cite this paper

A Study on the Features of Conversational Repair Among Chinese Learners of Japanese

How to cite this paper: Anqi Yang. (2025). A Study on the Features of Conversational Repair Among Chinese Learners of Japanese. The Educational Review, USA9(4), 470-474.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/er.2025.04.013