Target Language Use in Communicative English Lessons: The Emotional Perspective

Lessons for developing students' communication skills have been recently introduced to university English education in Japan, and the lesson format has become student-centered. As lessons are given in English and students have more opportunities to practice speaking in English, there are likely to be controversies over the proper balance between the use of the target language (TL) and the first language (L1) in EFL classrooms. However, no clear consensus concerning the relationship between these has been reached yet. The present research investigated the factors that were related to TL/L1 use among Japanese university students. A questionnaire containing background information and a five–point Likert scale of anxiety was filled in by 252 students. Following this, individual interviews with five students were conducted. The results revealed that while the advantages of L1 use for the students were reported, the students had negative feelings about their use of the L1 due to decreasing the contact with the TL and/or increasing peer and self–pressure. Therefore, students should gradually become accustomed to English–only instruction in an unthreatening environment.  

Uncovering Culture Inside the Classroom: A Look at Language

Agar (1994) coined the word languaculture to highlight the inseparability of language and culture. He explained the connection by suggesting that culture is something that “happens” when people are learning to communicate in another language. In this paper, languaculture is presented as a natural learning process that may be exploited for classroom use. First an outside-the-classroom languaculture journey is described using images from archaeology: discovery, excavation, analysis, and archiving. This process is then explored as a way to enrich foreign language education inside the classroom. Although time and curricular constraints of English education in Japan often make it difficult to add culture to lesson plans, the lexical elements themselves can be used as effective tools to help students uncover culture. When culture does happen, students will have an opportunity to deepen their vocabulary knowledge and further develop their appreciation of difference. Agarはlanguacultureという造語をつくり出し、言語(language)と文化(culture)の切り離せない関係性に焦点をあてた（1994）。文化とは人々が別の言語で伝えることを学ぶ際に「起こる」ものであることを示すことで、この関係性を説明している。本論では、Languacultureを実際の教室で利用することができる自然な学習プロセスとして、紹介している。はじめに、教室外でのlanguacultureの過程を、発見・発掘・分析・記録保管といった考古学のイメージを用いて論じている。次に、このプロセスの教室内での外国語教育を豊かにする可能性について探っている。日本では英語教育に充てられた時間とカリキュラム上の縛りがあるために、普段の授業計画に文化の項目を上乗せするのは容易ではないが、語彙の学習そのものが、学生が文化を掘りおこすのに効果的な手段となりえる。実際に文化が「起こる」とき、学生は自らの語彙知識を深め、さらに文化の違いを認識する力を伸ばす機会を手にするのである。

Engaging the World From the English Classroom

Many professionals who have been involved in university English education in Japan have wondered how to foster students’ active engagement with the rest of the world from the classroom. In this paper the author describes a classroom-based project to help students lower their inhibition towards using English and motivate them to improve their English skills through a special focus on connecting to the world in their daily life. Students chose one available foreign snack as representative of a nation, researched the country or the product, and conducted poster presentations to share their findings with peers. Worksheets were provided to scaffold students’ language, research, and presentation skills and enable them to successfully complete the project. A post-instructional questionnaire revealed that this simple project had a positive impact on various affective variables, especially on students’ interest in other countries and cultures, their desire to communicate in English, and their motivation to improve English communication skills. 本研究は、日本人大学生の国際性に関わる情意面の開発により、英語使用への意欲を高め、通用性のより高い英語を身につけさせるためのプロジェクト型の教材開発を目的としている。この目的を具体化した教材の導入により、学生の国際性と英語使用に関しての情意面の変容を検証した。プロジェクトは、学生が身の回りにある外国のお菓子を選択し、その国やその商品について調べ、小グループによるポスター発表を行う活動から成る。活動の特徴は、一斉授業形態の授業においても学生の情意面に配慮し心理面での不安を低くする点、学生が自らの生活と外国とのつながりを体験を通し実感し、学生個々の経験や興味関心などの個性が現れる発信型である点である。実験授業後、活動を体験した学生へのアンケート調査を実施し、プロジェクト型活動の有効性を調査した。

English Education at Elementary School in Japan

This paper aims to discuss the implementation of English education in elementary school in Japan. What challenges faced by the implementation of English education in elementary school. This paper reviewed some articles and book chapter regarding teaching English at elementary school in Indonesia and Japan, and the principles of teaching English to young learners (TYL). First, it provides an overview of the characteristics of young learners and challenges faced by teachers in the teaching English to young learners. Second, it will briefly describe the history of English education in Japan, followed by the discussion of the present implementation of English education at elementary schools. Finally, it relates the discussion of English education at elementary school to Indonesian context.Key Words; English Education, Elementary School, TYL

Emerged challenges for English education in Japan

Although Japanese students study English for 6 years as one of mandatory subjects in secondary school, they often demonstrate little success with it when they enter higher education. Many students come to university with emotional baggage, or negative thoughts on learning English. These negative functions may be associated with the beliefs that students develop before they come to university. These learner beliefs serve to determine the future behavior of students and hinder or enhance the learning process, thus, it may be effective to investigate the beliefs that limit student motivation and the characteristics of those negative beliefs. While many researchers still depend on the Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) (Horwitz, 1987) questionnaire to determine explicit beliefs, alternative approaches, particularly those designed to reveal implicit beliefs and emotions, can be helpful for understanding when and how it is appropriate for teachers to intervene in the promotion of learning. A new trend in belief studies uses visual outcomes such as drawings and photographs. Such visual accounts have rarely been used as research tolls in the study of language learning and teaching in Japan. In this note, the method of eliciting learners’ unconscious beliefs via drawings and interpretation of the drawings is discussed.