@article{oai:tamagawa.repo.nii.ac.jp:00001180,
 author = {Sakellarios, Marc. D. and Price, Gregory},
 journal = {The Center for ELF Journal},
 month = {Apr},
 note = {This paper has sought to demonstrate negative language transfer resulting from
non-English loanwords in the Japanese language. Prior to conducting our
experiment, we theorized that some L1 interference may result from the use of
katakana for these borrowed words, which potentially leads to some students not
knowing which loanwords are English, and which are of non-English origin. To
test this theory, a double-blind randomized experiment was conducted among 83
university students at Nihon University’s School of Pharmacy. Subjects were given a
vocabulary test containing five questions; one with descriptions of the English words
only, and the other with descriptions and the katakana counterparts. Our aim was to
test whether students given the katakana would assume it to be English. Compared to
the control group (mean score=1.551 out of 5), the group with access to the katakana
counterparts scored significantly lower (mean score=0.738). An unpaired t-test of
the results was conducted, and the result showed a significant difference between
the two groups (p = 0.0018). A follow up survey was conducted of 144 students
from Tokyo University of Science and Nihon University’s School of Pharmacy to
see if students could identify the origin of common non-English loanwords. Of the
loanwords tested, 80.56% of students incorrectly identified one or more of the words
to be from an English-speaking country. This supported the hypothesis that students
may not be able to discern the origin of Japanese loanwords.},
 pages = {1--10},
 title = {Enhancing Intelligibility in ELF by Focusing on the Origin of Katakana Loanwords},
 volume = {3},
 year = {2017}
}