Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.32728/tab.16.2019.6
Teaching Japanese passive sentences at the beginner level with an attempt to overcome problems in their usage
Divna Glumac
Abstract
In textbooks for the beginner level which have been used in Japanese language teaching at the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade, passive sentences are introduced through the structures of sentence types. The conclusion is that a situation can be expressed by using either active or passive structure, but there is no further explanation for this linguistic non-economy. Consequently, we find a lack of understanding, and no use, or at least no adequate use of passive sentences at higher levels of language competence. One of the reasons for this might be interference of learners’ mother tongue, in which the passive sentence might exist, but whose use is reduced or not widely spread. Another reason might be that the use of passive structure is defined only on the sentence level, without taking the wider context and the discourse level into the consideration. In this situation the need to explain these structures and their use within the context of the higher category arises, that is, the category of verbal voice. The aim of this research is to examine, using the example of a special class, how students understand the use of the Japanese passive sentence when explained from the viewpoint of voice, and how such an approach can help overcome the problem of mother tongue interference in the use of the passive voice in Japanese as well as in translation from Serbian to Japanese. In addition, some of the postulates of translation theory are pointed out in class. Afterwards, the students are assigned the task of group discussions on the use of the passive voice in the offered examples, after which they were asked to independently translate the sentences in which the passive is used in Japanese, in both directions, in written form. For those tasks we used sentences taken from the literary corpus. The instructor analyzes the collected data in the form of written translation, comparing it with a literary translation.
Keywords
voice; Japanese passive; direct passive; indirect passive; discourse; subject; perspective; point of view; empathy; hierarchy
Hrčak ID:
228768
URI
Publication date:
29.11.2019.
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