The language awareness and communication competencies of young people in modern Japan : the results of a questionnaire

According to the early work of Noam Chomsky competence is described as a speaker-hearer’s knowledge of the language and an idealized capacity to acquire language which is superior to performance (language in actual use). In this paper, competence is differentiated from awareness and is regarded not as an idealized capacity, but as a set of skills and general theoretical knowledge which can be acquired gradually by learner through his/her education and experience. The results of the fieldwork conducted in 2013 in Kansai and Kanto regions entitled Nihon no wakamono no gengo ishiki to komyunikēshon ni tai suru ishiki (Japanese Youth’s Language Awareness and Awareness Toward Communication) was supported by the analysis of Internet resources and analysis of online and paper dictionaries of wakamono kotoba (‘youth language’), kyampasu kotoba (‘campus language’) and gyarugo (‘gals words’). The survey was divided into two parts: First Language Awareness and Second Language Awareness.