ABSTRACT
Although Japanese students learn English for at least 6 years, some for 13 years, they are far from fluent. Among the four basic English skills, i.e., listening, reading, speaking and writing, this paper tries to shed light for improving the students’ writing skills.In order to explain the differences in thinking between Japanese and English speakers’ minds, we take on one of the most fundamental Japanese verbs suru (literal English translation do) and analyze how the usages of suru are translated into English, and vice versa, i.e., how English verb do is translated into Japanese (for example how do the dishes is translated into Japanese). Also, we consult various data sources such as COCA corpus (Corpus of Contemporary American English). This study shows the correspondence between Japanese suru (lit.do) with its English counterparts, and also between English do with its Japanese counterparts. Through showing the above correspondences, we will try to show some instances on the difference between English and Japanese speakers’ way of thinking, and propose a better way of teaching English writing to Japanese English learners.
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