This study will serve as a previous step taken for offering “Syllabus for building Sociolinguistic competence”, in which the conversation extracts from Japanese textbooks being used in University were reflected and analyzed. The important implications are as follows.
(1) 60.2% of cases are impossible to discern what the characters’ relationship is, while 39.7% are discernable through the context.
(2) Places of conversations taking place are not detailed as 71.1% of the total.
(3) In the case of conversational patterns and topics appearing in textbook, the conversation form, conversational partners taking their turns, takes up 83.3%, whereas one-side Q & A form, one side asking question to the other and yet not vise versa, is shown only 16.7%. And more than 60% of topics are adopted from places and everyday staff regardless of the conversation patterns of textbooks.
(4) As for the formality level of conversations in textbooks, DesㆍMas forms are found the most as 82.5%, followed by non-DesㆍMas form employed partly as 11.0%, and then non-Des form and non-Mas form are seen, accounting for 4.5%. Finally level shift as in DesㆍMas form into non-Desㆍnon-Mas (that is, from more formal form to less formal form and vise versa) comes out as merely 2.0%.
Inflecting the status quo the above, it brings us to a point at which we need to consider the further issues as follows.
(1) It is necessary that the relationships between the characters in conversation involve the degree of acquaintance, closeness, hierarchy as well as their genders in more detailed fashion. Especially, just not simply revealing surname and given name for suggesting genders, more male and female languages should be imbedded in conversation in an appropriate manner, leading to more learning experiences. Furthermore, when it comes to degree of closeness, there should be a list defining clear and accurate descriptions such as “very close or not that close” And, last but not least, there is the need that we consider and create a balance in terms of social or age-related hierarchical relationship.
(2) There is the need to increase opportunities to practice the gaps of Japanese expressions depending on where conversations take place in the public place or private place, not to mention the specific place name.
(3) It is assumed that the adjustment in using DesㆍMas form or non-DesㆍMas form is significantly critical in accordance with conversational partners so that their usages may be appropriate.