Why SO Many Errors? : Use of Articles by Japanese Learners of English

English articles are not easy for Japanese learners to master. Although they are categorized as local errors, it is often said that article errors are fossilized for most Japanese. Nevertheless, understanding the system of article use is a key to learn the way native speakers of English realize the world in language. In this paper, the actual use of English articles by Japanese university students will be analyzed using ICLE Error-Tagged Japanese Sub-corpus and reasons for the erroneous use will be explored. In addition, some ideas on more effective ways for teaching Japanese students how to use articles appropriately will be proposed.4KJ00004722787departmental bulletin pape