Acquisition Order of Semantics of English Preposition by Japanese EFL Learners

Abstract

English preposition has been regarded as a difficult grammatical category for EFL learners to acquire. Image-based instruction is widely recognized as effective teaching methods for them, but it is pointed out that the methodology has some issues. One of them is that the previous studies on the instruction does not consider the acquisitional order of the semantics of English prepositions by EFL learners. The current study, which assumes a knowledge-driven approach, explores how the result of our survey validates the "unidirectionality hypothesis" in Japanese EFL learners' prepositional acquisition, and we conclude that they acquire meanings of English prepositions in a more irregular way than assumed in the literature.