@article{oai:ksu.repo.nii.ac.jp:00001323, author = {コール, サイモン and COLE, Simon}, journal = {京都産業大学論集. 人文科学系列}, month = {Mar}, note = {This study looks at the use of rhetorical questions by freshmen learners of English at a Japanese university. Part of a broader project examining English learners’ argumentation, using a corpus of transcriptions of video recordings of student discussion, the study investigated whether learners used rhetorical questions. It then used Conversation Analysis to investigate how they used them and to examine evidence of any problems that they posed for comprehension. The study found that rhetorical questions were produced by a minority of students, primarily those with experience of studying English in a second language (ESL) context. The paper discusses why this might be so. It was found that the rhetorical questions were principally used to challenge prior assertions, and to elicit commitments to common starting points from antagonists which could be used against their arguments in the discussion. Some, albeit limited evidence was found of comprehension problems resulting from rhetorical question use.}, pages = {54--72}, title = {日本人英語学習者と修辞的疑問}, volume = {42}, year = {2010} }