AN EXAMINATION OF INTERNAL CONVERSATION PROCESS BETWEEN NATIVE SPEAKER NONNATIVE SPEAKER

The purpose of this paper was to reveal internal conversation process between native speaker/nonnative speaker. In order to investigate internal conversation process, 53 items concerning conversation rules were collected from 6 graduate students. 103 volunteers who taught Japanese language were asked to rate the importance of each item in three given situations; 1) conversation with a Japanese for entertainment, 2) conversation with Japanese language learners (in Japanese language) for entertainment, and 3) conversation with Japanese language learners (in Japanese language) for Japanese language practice. By factor analysis of the rating scores, 7 conversation rules were identified. The results of ANOVA of mean factor score indicated that the importance of each rule varied with social context: (a) goal of conversation, (b) Japanese language proficiency of learners and (c) length of Japanese language teaching.