How Well Can Japanese ESL Students Draw Inferences from English Sentences?

Abstract

One of the skills ESL (English as a Second Language) students must learn is the ability to draw inferences from English sentences. This study compares the ability of Japanese ESL students and that of native speakers of English to draw two types of inferences, namely presuppositions and entailments, from English sentences containing factive and implicative predicates (Kiparsky and Kiparsky 1970, Karttunen 1971).

Keywords

• English language-- Study and teaching Japan