On the Use of Verbs by Korean Learners of Japanese

This research investigates what types of verbs are found in the Oral Proficiency Interviews of 30 Korean learners of Japanese, whose proficiencies of Japanese vary (Superior, Advanced, Intermediate and Novice). The data was analyzed using a morpheme analysis program, 'ChaSen'. The following inference can be drawn from the results of the study : (1) The number of types and tokens of verbs increase as the learner's proficiency level goes up ; however. more advanced learners repeatedly use the same verb, as can be explained by the greater difference between the number of types and tokens. (2) Learners at the higher proficiency level make use of the same verbs repeatedly, e. g., 'iu', 'suru', 'omou', 'aru', 'naru'. It seems that difference in usage of these verbs influences the learners' language acquisition process. (3) Learners start with using verbs which are used by learners at all levels, and more verbs are added on as the proficiency level goes up. So we can claim that there is a natural order in acquiring verbs