FortheLanguage
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INTHISISSUE

From
theEditor

2

Features
Cullen and ,Morris:A Case for the Use ofJapanese ih College English Classes

4

Head and Okumura: Building AutonOf Y by,Monitonmg St dents ' Private Voluntary Study 10(Research Report

14)

VrerJer: A

o-operative, Task-based Approach15
to Curricu/u Design

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21
Communication
Cullen and Morris : Conversati0n Flow. Plans 23

It is simply a fact that most of
the time you can't find theright words till you know
Professl1111
Development
exactly what you are sayi.ng,
Tomei: Tf:Jeever -widening gyre : the job search
but you can't know exactly
25 what you are sayi.ng until you
Conterence
Reviews
Da Silva: AERA Annual Meeting
27 find the right words. The
consequence is that you must
Wanner: International Congress of Cogntive
28 start by writing the wrong
Sciencemeanings in the wrong words,
Book
Review
but keep writing till you get
Da Silva on Dornyei : Teaching and Researching
29 the right meanings in the
Motivationright words. Only at the end
31
Cvberpipeline,
bvStevesnvderwill you know what you are
saJ!lng.
Research Report32
Peter Elbow
J•n Association
forLanguage
Teaching
CollegeandUniversttv
Educators
SpecialInterest
Group
RetailPriceforNon-Members:¥100/$1

Wl•ter2001:v111m19,ISSII 3

D• CIE•

11a1 .c11111r
111ersTo provide a forum fo~ heW}>resentationand discussion of research, ideas andAims:
curriculum activities of broad interest to College and University Language Educators.

11111 al lrtlcles Saa1111:
Prolesslonal
Development
APA referencedarticles with a focus on language

Features1-2000 words on further education and gaining
employment.

education and related issues at tertiary level of up
to 2,000 words

Criterialerleawrearllcles
andPerspecuve• considerationof issueslikelyto be perceived Opinion
650
words;
longer, coordinated,point-counterpointby college and university educators as relarticles
arepossible.
evant to languageteachingin Japan• well designedand well reportedempiricalre- Contact section editor Keith Ford, jf6k-ford @asahi-net.or .jp
search.
• writingthat situatesissueswithinthe context Reviewsof relevant previous work, while refraining reviews of books, textbooks, videos, presentations/from quoting for ..-------=------=------:----------=----,
workshops, films, etc. 600
words, 1500 words forthe sake of quoting
scholarlyreview essays.
• thought-provokApril 15, July 15, January15
Contac.t section editor: Stevening theoretical(Deadlines: Feb 25, May 24, Nov 18)
Snyder, snyder@phoenix.ac.jp
papers, provided clear pracCVberplpeline
tical implicationsare fore-grounded.descriptionsof websitesthat might prove useful for
language teaching and professional development;
From
theChalkface
length depends on how many sites are reviewed
classroomapplications,techniquesand lessonplans, Contact section editor: Steven Snyder , snyder@phoenix.ac .jp
usually up to 1000 words.

Approximate
Publication
Dates:

Focus
onlanguage

Contact section editor : Andrew Obermeier,andrew@kyokyo-u.ac.jp

a column in which the writer may ask/answer
commonquestionsaboutlanguagethat are of interestto teachers and learners. 250-600 words

Research
Digestsummaries of research published in universityinhouse publications,of broad interestto collegeand
universityeducators

lcolWledgement

Many thanks to Keith Ford, Juanita Heigham, HughNicoll, Andrew Obermeier and Stephen Ryan forNews & Announcement s, Andrew Obermeier, andrew@kykyo-u.ac .jp proofreading this issue. Their care and attention wasinvaluable, and any remaining errors are the editor's .
All other queries to Michael Carroll, carroll@andrew.ac.jp1111c1rC1111ct1111r• 1t11111rllll:
EIICllllvlBlart

Feel free to contact board members about your SIG

Alan Mackenzie, CUE SIG Coordinator and On CUE Layout:
Keisen University; 2-13-10-102 Sugesengoku, Tama ku, Kawasaki
s hi , Kana gawa ken, 214-0006 , Tel / Fax : 044-949-6690;<asm@typhoon .co.jp >Tim Mickles, Publicity Officer: Moriminami-Machi , HigashiNada-Ku, Kobe, Hyogo-Ken, 658-0011; E-mail:<elhefe@suite.plala.or.jp >Suzanne Jensen, Publicity Officer: Tokai University FLC,
1117 Kitakaname Hiratsuka , Kanagawa Ken, 259-1292;<sujen@gol.com>

Phil McCasland, Treasurer: c/o Soda, 3-5-25 HamaguchiHigashi Suminoe-ku, Osaka, 559-002; E-mail:<mccaslandpl@rocketmail .com>

OnCUE
Edhorlal
AdVlsor,Board:

Andrew Obermeier , Program Chair: Kyoto Univer sity of
Education; 1 Fujinomori-cho, Fukakusa, Fushimi-ku, Kyoto-shi, 6128522, tel: (075) 644-8240; E-mail : <andrew @kyokyo-u .ac.jp>

Gregory Hadle y <hadley@nuis.ac.jp >, John Small <spiri @boreas.dti .ne.jp>,
Keith Ford <jf6k-ford @asahi-n et.or.jp>, Keith Lane <k1aned6 @yahoo .com>,
Paul Hackshaw <hackshaw@hiei.kit.ac .jp>, Roger Pattimore<pattimorc @hotmail.com>, Stephen Ryan <ryans @se itoku.ac .jp >, Kay
Hammond <kayhammond @compuserve.com >, Joseph Falout<falout@penta.ge .cst.nihon-u.ac .jp >Juanita Heigham , Membership Chair : Sugiyama Jogakuen
University; 17-3 Higashigaoka-motomachi , Chikusa-ku , Nagoyashi, 464-8662, <jheigham @lit.sugiyama-u.ac.jp>
Michael Carroll, Publications Chair/On CUE Editor: St Andrews University, 1-1 Manabi-No , Izumi-shi, Osaka-fu , 594-1152
Tel/fax: (075) 78 1-3456; E-mail: <carroll@andrew.ac.jp>1

Wl•ter2001:v111m19,Issa, 3

IICIE

Fra• lbeEdita,

..
--..
.-..
-...
•
-

-

McCafferty rides off into the sunset to concentrateon his Doctorate,hard on the heels of Steve Snyder,also finishingoff Doctoralstudies,and Hugh Nicoll
leaves CUE behind in his quest to scale the dizzyheights of JALT nationalas membershipchair. We
wish all of them the very best for the future.Andrew
Obermeier becomes the new Program chair, Phil
McCaslandtreasurer,JuanitaHeighammembershipchair, and Tim Micklas and Suzanne Jensen joint
publicity chairs.
Michael Carroll, Editor

In the final On CUE of volume 9, we bring
together three topics that have figured frequentlyin
discussions at recent conferences. Ellen Head andEiko Okamura, following up on the theme of the2001 conference, look at the role of teachers inmonitoringtheir students' developingautonomyanddescribetheir investigationinto how 'good learners'
differedfromothersin theirlevelsof autonomy.James
Venema both looks forward to the coming
conference and builds on the last one in his paper
on a curriculum innovation in his institution. He
tackles the problem of how to encourage
autonomouslearningin a structuredway, in the kindof large mixed-ability classes that are so common
here in Japan. Our third feature article, by Brian
Cullen and John Morris, considersa perennialissue
in monoculturalclasses: how much of the students'
first languagecan and should be used?His findings
are surely of interest to most of us, and deserve
further discussion.Responses to this article,as wellas any others, will be appreciativelyreceivedby theOpinion and Perspectives editor, Keith Ford.
1bis issue sees a responseto ChristopherKelen's
featureon journal writing(Vol. 9, 2). StephenDavies
arguesthat Kelen's emphasison fluencyand content
at the expense of form does a disserviceto students
in that it may encourage them to believe that
accuracy is not important. Kelen responds to thiswith a renewed plea to take a broader view oflanguageuse.
As well as the regular sections 'From the
Chalkface', 'Cyberpipeline', and book andconferencereviews, this issue sees some changes in
the Professional Development section. Debra
Pappier and Steve Weinkle, after two years ofediting various sections of On CUE, are moving on
to other things. Their contributionto On CUE will
be very much missed. Debra was behind several
initiatives during this period, including the idea of
the Professional Development section itself From
this issue, Joe Tomei will be contributinga regularcolumn on job and related issues, starting with aguide to searchingfor full-timeuniversitypositionsin Japan.
Finally, many thanks to all the people who
volunteeredtheir help at the CUE AGM. There is a
new line-up of executive officers, as Eamon

Tbe3rdCUE• inicanlerence:
Curriculu•
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PanOfthe2002PanSIG
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atKvotoInstituteofTechnoloo
Mav11thand12th2002
Preparationsare well under way for the 3,ctminiconference. 1bis year CUE has collaborated with
the Bilingualismand Testingand EvaluationSIGs in
the 2002 Pan SIG conference in Kyoto . The
deadline for submission and pre-registration has
closed, but please feel free to turn up on the day.
The theme of the conference, Curriculum
Innovation, is timely. Tertiaryinstitutionsin Japan
are in a stateof rapidchangeas the decliningbirthrate
catches up with the generationleaving school now.
We hope that this conferencewill allowus to explore
both the difficultiescreatedby this situation,and theopportunitiesit may provide.
Papers, rountables and workshops addressing
issues of diagnosing and proposing solutions tocurriculumproblems, implementingand evaluatingchanges, and exploring the effects of curriculum
change on teachers and students will be presented.
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Scope:
Ideas,
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FuturePlans• Whatweretheresultsoftheevaluati
atcurriculum
innovations
hasvouronitutioncarriedoutinthelastfewvearsP • Whatcourseofactionwasdecided
wisvourinstitution
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OnCUE

Winter2001:v11umI9,Issue3

I Case11,thelse 11JapaneseinClasses.. cI11eIeEnglish-.---..

Brian Cullen and John Morris
Nagoya Institute of Technology

By their nature, foreign language classes introduce
a conflict between the use of the mother tongue andthe foreign language. True communicationcan usually
be carried out more effectively in the mother tongue,
but in the foreign language classroom teachers andstudents create an artificial environment where theforeign language is used for communication purposesin order to gain proficiency. This gain in proficiency
represents the long-term target of using the foreign
language in natural communicative situations, and its
benefits are easy to comprehend for students, but
the short-term problems of communicating in aforeign language are often highly frustrating. In thisconflict, students often wonder why they should
communicate in a foreign language when it would
be much easier to use the mother tongue.
In Nagoya Institute of Technology, this issue has
gained importance for two reasons. Firstly , somestudents have complained that their teacher uses toomuch Japanese in English class. On the other hand,
others have complained that they cannot understandtheir teacher's English and wish that the teacher
would use more Japanese .
This paper describes a study which attempts tounderstand these student remarks to allow us to geta better overall view of the amount of Japanese thatshould be used in college English classes. In orderto establish overall student preferences for the useof Japanese in English classes , We decided toreplicate a study carried out by Burden (2000)
which investigated the same issue. A questionnaire
consisting of 15 items was used to establish thestudents' preferences for the use of Japanese in theclassroom. The first three questions of thequestionnaire address the primary issues of the study.
Question one addresses the important matter ofwhether an English teacher in a Japanese university
should know Japanese or not. The answer to thisquestion has implications for both classroom practiceand administrative matters such as the hiring ofteachers . Question two asks the students whether

the teacher should use Japanese in the classroom.
The answer to this question obviously depends onquestion one because a teacher who does not know
Japanese cannot use it, but despite this dependence
the two questions address two entirely different
issues. It is quite possible (and common in practice)for teachers to have lived a long time in Japan andto be highly fluent in Japanese, yet not speak any
Japanese in class for pedagogical reasons. Question
three asks whether students should use Japanese in
the classroom . The remainder of the questions
address these primary issues in more detail,particularly question 2, by looking at in whatcircumstances it may be appropriate for the teacher
to use Japanese.
The study uses a questionnaire identical to the
one that Burden used in his study. This in turn wasloosely based on Prodromou (1994). The questions
may be seen below in Table I where the student
answers are also tabulated.
One important limitation to note about thequestionnaire is that students had a choice of only 2
answers to each question, 'yes' or 'no'. This is ofcourse a very simplistic way oflooking at each issue,
since in many cases, a student will feel that it depends
on the circumstances. Many researchers use a five
point Likert scale which allows students to selectfrom among a range of answers from 'Strongly
Agree' to 'Stro ngly Disagree' for surveys of thistype. However, my own experience, and also thatof Burden, suggests that most Japanese students
dislike taking extreme positions and regard thecentre option as a safe middle ground (and the one
requiring least effort) resulting in a very long seriesof non-committal answers. I should note that theque stionnaire is not intended to be a pr~ci se
sta tistical
instrument.
Apart from theoversimplification introduced by only having two
answers, there was no attempt made to ascertain
the reliability or validity of the survey. The purpose
is merely to determine students' attitudes towards
4

Wl•ll r 2111:1111• 1 9, 111113

IICll
the use of Japanese in the classroom in a general
sense and to make practical administrative andteaching recommendationsbased on these.
The.surveywas earnedout duringEnglishclasses
in the department of language and culture by 3teachers in 10 classes with a total of350 students.
Two of the teacherswere nativespeakersof English
and the other was a Japanese teacher of English
with native-speaker competence in English. The
survey took about 10 minutes for the students tocomplete, includingtime to write any comments at
the end of the paper. Students were encouraged toask questions (in Japanese or English) about any
item they did not understand.
All the papers were collected and the results of
the questionnairewere tabuJatedto give results foreach class individually and also an overall result.
The comments were read and reference is made tothem in the discussionbelow. In the study therewere

a total of 350 students and 10 classes. For the
purposes of analysis and discussion,I have divided
these into three groups. The two largest classes(almost half the students in the study) and one
smaller night class (for students who had graduatedfrom technical high schools) were at a much lower
level than the other classes. These three classes are
termed 'Low Level' in the discussion below.
Conversely,the two smallest classes were the ones
with the highest level and motivation.These classes
were elective classes for third and fourth year
studentsand are called 'High Level' for the purposesof this study. The remaining five classes were at alevel between these other groups, and are called'Intermediate' .
A summary of the resuJts of the questionnaire
for thesethreegroupsis shown in Table 1. This tablegives the percentages of students in each category
who answered 'yes' to each question.

Table I: The percentages of students who answered 'yes' to each question in the survey
Low

Int

Adv

All groups

I .Shouid the teacher kno w Japanese?

98

93

78

93

2. Shou ld the teach er use Japan ese in class ?

72

41

35

54

3. Should the stud ents use Jap anese in class ?

52

46

25

46

4. Explaining new words

75

61

20

63

When should the teacher use Japanese in class?
5. Exp laininggrammar

79

50

18

60

6. Giving instructions

53

34

23

42

7. Talking about culture

42

20

10

29

8. Talkingaboutt ests

72

51

45

60

9. Expla ining class rules

59

35

23

45
39

I 0. Explainin g why the stu dents are doi ng something

54

31

5

11. Explaining Japanese/Englishgrammardifferences

79

54

45

64

12. Test ing th e students

39

34

20

35

13.Checkingforunderstanding

48

39

23

41

14. Relaxing the studen ts

63

42

43

52

15. Crea tinghum anco ntact

44

37

33

40

100

100

100

100

n= l63n= l4 7

n=40

n=350

Low

Int
88

Adv

AUGroups

72

87
73

Table 2: Summl![Yof Burden (2000}
I .Shouldthetea che rknowJapane se?

89

2. Should theteacherus eJa panese in class?

83

63

41

3. Should the students use Japane se in class?

75

72

69

73

n= l50

n=64

n=39

n=290

5

-.----..

Winter20C?1:
111um19,ISHl 3

01CUE

.-.

--

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generally use Japanese in the classroom, translatingSh•ldlheteacherlmowJapanese?
a single English word into Japanese for the students

In every class, the students consistently stated astrong preference for teachers who know Japanese.
The total number of students who filled in thequestionnaire was 350, and 93% of these stated apreference for a teacher who knew Japanese. This
figure holds for students in lower and intermediateclasses, and even in high level classes the rate was78%. Although the question did not address thelevel of Japanese required, this is a very important
finding. From low level to high level students, there
was little variation in this response, so it is clear thatstudents feel more confidentin a learningenvironment
in which the teacher knows their native language.
Even if the students had not expressed this verystrong preference for teachers who can speak
Japanese, we should note that such teachers haveseveral obvious advantages over those who do nothave any knowledge of the Japanese language orculture. Firstly, discipline and administration
problems can be easily resolved without severe
frustration for both the teacher and student. In
addition, there is no need to call in other teachers oroffice staff to deal with every little query that theteacher does not understand. For example, students
often enquire about attendance or registration issues.
If the teacher understands enough Japanese, they
can help the student themselves or direct them tothe appropriate office. Secondly, a teacher who
knows the students' mother tongue is often able toidentify where errors such as inappropriate use of aword or grammatical structure are likely to occur
as a result of interference from the mother language.
Knowing Japanese allows the teacher to point out
the source of the error to the student and thus direct
him onto the correct path. Thirdly, knowledge ofJapanese is evidence that the teacher has gone along
a similar learning path to the one which the student
is now ta.king.This experience can allow the teacher
to empathise with the learner and reduce frustration
at the blocks and reversals that occur along any
normal learning trajectory. In addition, the student
is likely to have a greater respect for a teacher who
has gone through the language learning process thanfor a monoglot. Indeed, it seems almost paradoxicalto have a foreign language teacher who doesn't
know any foreign language. Fourthly, a knowledgeof Japanese can be immensely useful in many small
ways in the classroom. Even if the teacher does not

can save minutes of awkward explanation which
disturb the flow of the lesson. If an individual student
or group of students is having problems with anactivity, the teacher can reiterate the instructions inJapanese for their benefit without addressing thewhole class again. Finally, some knowledge of theJapanese language is a very good indicator ofknowledge of Japanese culture. Few student bodies
throughout the world have the same homogeneity
as Japan. This homogeneity leads to certain patterns
oflearning and teaching which will be most effectivewith groups of Japanese students. By knowing theJapanese language and its inherent culture, teachers
learn to recognize what will be effective for thegreatest number of students.
Although we have pointed out the advantages
that knowledge of Japanese can bring to a teacher,
we are not suggesting that teachers should use a lotof Japanese in this classroom. The greatest
advantages spring from comprehension of Japaneserather than its production. It is important toremember that the main reason native speakers ofEnglish are employed in Japanese education is thatthey can use English in a natural fashion. To use
Japanese excessively in the classroom is to denythis very reason and in our view, Japanese should
be used very sparingly indeed. Understanding ofJapanese is a great asset, and a few words ofJapanese from the teacher can be helpful; but
overuse of Japanese is detrimental to the goal oflearning English.

ShouldJapanesebeused?
Moving back to the questionnaire, the answer
to the question whether teachers should use
Japanese in the classroom varies according tostudent level. Overall, 54% of students believe thatJapanese should be used by the teacher in somecircumstances in the classroom , and 45% of
students believe that the teacher should not use
Japanese. The highest support is in the low-levelgroup. As was expected, lower-level students prefer
the teacher to use more Japanese in the classroom.
While a huge majority of these students (98%) feelthat the teacher should know Japanese, 72% believethat the teacher should sometimes use thisknowledge . This falls to 41 % for the intermediate6Winter2111:••=-=1119,
Issue3

IICUE

students and again falls to 35% for the advanced
students.This is clearlyrelatedto the languageabilityof the studentsand their level of confidencein being
able to understand spoken English. In the low levelgroups , ahnost all of the student comments were
written in Japanese while the advanced group wrote
them almost exclusivelyin English. This indicatesa
further lack of confidence on the part of students
in the low-level classes in their own ability tocommunicateeffectivelyin English.
Most classes, even low-level ones, arecurrently held primarily in English and the student
comments add an additional perspective to theresults of the questionnaire. In Japanese, many
students wrote comments such as "This class isvery easy to understand", "If we really don't
understand, the teacher should use Japanese", and"please explain only the test and homework inJapanese". These kinds of comments indicate that
low-level students are not having real problems inunderstanding, but merely want to confinn theirunderstanding. In other words, the problem is
primarily a lack of confidence rather than lack ofability. Perhaps then, the role of Japanese in lowlevel classes should be to instill confidence instudents by summarizing important points inJapanese after going through them in English. We
will return to this discussion of teacher use ofJapanese below by addressing specific areas where
the students feel that it would be beneficial.
Question three in the questionnaire is the only
one that addresses student use of Japanese. Evenin the low-level class, 48% of students felt that theyshould not use Japanese. This rises to 54% in theintermediate level and 75% in the advanced level.
This is clearlyat variancewith the actual situationin
the classroom where most students will use at least
a littleJapanesewhileengagingin pairwork.In somecases, the main role of the teacher turns out to be awatchdog prowling around to see that only English
is spoken! Without more questions addressing thisissue in detail, there is not enough data to explain
this variance satisfactorily,but common sense andour own experienceremindus that we are not always
able to live up to our own expectations. Indeed,
the spirit is strong but the flesh is weak.
What is a reasonable stance to take towards
student use of Japanese in the classroom? This
clearly depends on the activity in question. For
example, a group grammar exercise could be
1

conducted entirely in Japanese if the sole objective
was the acquisition of that grammar point.
Conversely,a free-rangingconversationpracticemay
be best conductedentirelyin English.A teacher who
demands 100% English in every activityis denying
our students a chance to help each other in theirnative tongue and risks student frustration directed
at the activity or teacher. Usually, a balance can be
struck between the use of Japanese and English,
allowing students to use an occasional word orphrase in Japanese if it helps to keep the momentumof an English-use activity. In accordance with theresults of this questionnaire, the actual percentage
of Japanese used will depend on the level of theclass, but an experienced teacher who knows
Japanese will usually be able to keep this balanceand ensure that a good learning environment iscreated without an excess of frustration. One
additional point that emerges out of this discussionis the value of dividing studentsinto differentclasses
by level. The current academic year is the first timethat a placement test was used to place students
into first-year classes rather than allowing them tochoose their own teacher under the traditional
registrationsystem. The large variance in responses
between classes in different levels validates the useof this placement system. While dividing students
into classes according to level, it also to somesignificant extent divides them according to theirpreferences and learning styles.

WhenshouldJapanesebeused?
The remaining questions in the questionnaire
address the areas of teaching where the students
feel that the teacher should use Japanese.Since morethan half of the total number of students(and a muchhigher proportion at lower levels) support the useof teacher Japanese, it is important for us todistinguish these areas. Despite the different
perceptions of students about Japanese usage in the
differentlevels, each group gave the highest priority
to the same issues.For example,the five areas whichwere given the greatest emphasis were explaining
new words (Q4), explaining grammar (Q5),explaining differences between Japanese grammar
and Englishgrammar(Q 11), talkingabout tests (Q8),and relaxing the students (Q14). The actual
percentages specified by each group were different,
but because of these shared preferences, we will

-•

,I!
:
...

OICUErefer to the overall figures of the combined groups
in the discussionbelow.
The highest support for teachers' use ofJapaneseis for the explanationofnew words (63%)
111~ and the explanationof the differencebetweenEnglish~ and Japanese grammar (64%). These answers are• in agreement with the discussion above which
pointed out that a quick translation of a word orgrammar point into Japanese can save considerable
time and frustration. The students as well as theteacher recognize that this frustration can be
detrimentalto languagelearning.Of course, lengthy
Japanese explanations may be counter-productive
because they reduce the amount of time spentengaging the target language.Indeed, it is probably
true to say that the pedagogicalvalidityof a Japaneseexplanation decreases as it increases in length. In
traditional grammar-translation teacher-centeredclasses, the teacher spent long periods of time
explaininggramamarpoints or vocabulary.It is now
generallyrecognizedthat this type of class does notlead to the acquistition of communicativecompetence, and the standard in modem language
teaching has been to create student-centeredlearningenvironmentswherethe studentshave many
opportunities to use the target language in at least
partly communicativesituations.The high support
for Japanese in these areas should not be interpreted
as student support for a return to grammartranslationmethodology.This is clear from the many
student comments such as: "When I can't find theword that I want to tell,I'd like the teacherto answer
my questionwhich is "I don't know how to say __in English". Students want to use English forcommunication and see Japanese explanations ofgrammar and vocabularyas a quick prop which canfaciliatecommunicationwithout disturbingthe flowof this communication.This ties in well with the point
made above that studentsprefer teachers who know
Japanese. Without a knowledge of Japanese, thisprop is simply not available.
Another item with high support for the use ofJapanese was talking about tests (60%). This is nota surprising finding. Tests are an important part ofassessment and determiningwhether a student will
get credit or not for a course.Creditsare the currencyof choice in a universityand it is only reasonableto
be sure that students know how they will be tested.

-...

Winter2001:VIIDIII9,ISSlll 3

I have heard numerous horror stories about
studentswhostudiedhard for a test, only to find thatthey had misheard the teacher instructions andstudied the wrong items. If there is any doubt thatstudents may not understand their reponsibilities
exactly, then we are under an obligation to use
Japaneseto make the matterclear.Arathersurprisingfindingwas the high supportfor Japanesein relaxing
students (52%). Do students feel anxiety in an allEnglishenvironment?Tsuihas writtenformany years
on how student anxiety can be detrimental to thelanguage learning process (eg. Tsui 1996). She haspointed out that a high-tensionclassroomcan makestudents afraid to speak out, especially if there is aperceptionthat an incorrectresponsewill be harshly
judged by the teacher.In the modem communication
classroom,it is clearly importantthat we encourage
students to speak out and get plenty of practice inusing the foreign language without fear of censure.
As has been repeatedly pointed out by teachers,
mistakes are a neccessary element in developing
languagecompetence.Bearingthis and the students'
answersin mind, perhapswe shouldconsciouslyuse
Japaneseat times to relax the students.One possible
practicalapproach is to use a few words of Japaneseat times when it is clear that studentsare enteringan
anxiety phase. For example, if a teacher asks astudenta questionand the studentis gettingflusteredbecause they do not know the answer, a few wordsof Japanese to help the student or simply alleviate
the tensionmay be useful.Foreignteachersmay havethe somewhat disturbing, but nonetheless usefulexperience that anything they say in Japanese canbe foundto be amusing! Indeed,imperfectJapanese
may also have the positiveresult of conveyingto thestudentsthe fact that even imperfectforeignlanguage
abilitycan be a highly useful communicativetool.
It is interesting to examine which areas thestudents felt that Japanese was not to be used.
Culture (29%) is the lowest figure and this perhaps
reflects the growing awareness of students that
language and culture are strongly interrelatedandthat culture should be explained in English to thegreatest possible degree. Establishing humancontact(40%) was also a low figure indicatingthat
studentsget to know theirteachersufficientlythroughthe medium of the foreignlanguageand that they do
not need to exclusivelyuse Japanese to have8

Wl•t•r 2001:11111119, ISSll 3

OaCIEmeaningfulcommunication.Checkingunderstanding Japanese language and culture(41%) and givinginstructions(42%) were also quite 2) Classes should continueto be dividedby level tolow. I have often heard non-nativeteachersexpress
take accountof the differentpreferencesbetween
concernthat the students would not understandthe
low-leveland high-levellearners.
purposeof activitiesor how to carry them out if the3) The teacher should use Japanesemore in lowerinstructionswere not given in Japanese. But theselevel classes than higher-levelones.
relatively low figures show that students do not in4) Japaneseshouldbe spokenonly after Englishhas
general have problems with understanding
been used and primarily to instill confidence inclassroom instructionsin English and lend support
students that they have understood what theto the use of English in carrying out classroom
teacher
said.
activities,even by non-native speakers.
As was stated above, this study was a replication 5) Japanese should be usually only used in the fiveareasof explainingnew words,talkingabouttests,of one carriedout by Burden.UnlikeNagoyaInstituteexplaining differences between English andof Technologywhere all the studentsare majoringin
Japanese grammar, and relaxing the students.
technical subjects, his study included a large
Even this usage should be kept as short as
proportionof studentsmajoring in English,law, andpossible.
comparative culture. Despite this difference, theresults of the current study and Burden's study are
similar in respect of questions 1 and 2, though References
Burden's studentswere more inclinedto want to use Burden, P. (2000). The use of the students' motherJapanese themselves. The results of the first three
tongue in monolingual English "conversation"
classes at Japanese universities.The Language
questionsare summariz.ed
in Table2. As in the current
Teacher, 24, 6, 5-10.
study, there is very high support for teacher
knowledgeof Japanese.The level of supportfor this Prodromou, N. (1994). Mixed ability classes .
declines as the level of the class rises,just as in the
London: Macmillan.
current study. Furthermore, the highest support Tsui, A.B.M. (1996). Reticence and anxiety inamong Q4-l 5 was for the same five areas discussed
second languagelearning.In K.M. Bailey & D.
above,ie. explainingnew words,explaininggrammar,
Nunan (Eds). Voices from the language
talking about tests, explaining differencesbetween
classroom. (pp. 145-167) Cambridge: CUP.
English and Japanese grammar, and relaxing thestudent.This similarityimpliesthat thesepreferences
may be relatively widespread among Japanese
students.

Conclusions
Havingestablishedthat studentsin NIT and othertechnicalcollegesare likely to be more comfortablewith teachers who understand their own language,
what practical conclusions can we draw? Indeed,should we not question whether the students'
preference may actually mitigate against language
learningby preventingthem fromfacingthe ambiguity
which is an essential part of the process? Indeed,
we shouldaddressthis issue,but as teachersoflarge
classes with one predominant preference, we musttake this into account at both the teaching andadministrative level. I can identify five solid
conclusionsthat emerge from this study.
1) Teachers should have some knowledge of
9

The ideas put forward by Brian
Cullen and John Morris may strikea chord with many teachers inJapan. What are your views on theuse of Japanese in the English
language classroom? If you'd liketo respond to this article, address
your comments to Keith Ford,
Opinion and Perspectives section
editor, at<j f6k-ford@asahi-net.or.jp>-.----..
Ill

IICUE

Winter2001:111nm,9,1ss113

B1ildin1
lut111• 1bl 111it1rin1
Studv-.-.. Students'Private,Voluntarv
Ellen Head and Eiko Okumura---

Kobe Women's University

Alearner-training
perspecuve: We hoped that monitoring would motivate
students to do self-study. We also wanted to know--learning
toleamEnglish"
about what students were doing, in order to makerecommendationsto them. At the beginning of the
Learner autonomymeans the developmentof an project, we believed that 'good learner' strategies
attitude in which the learner is willing to take could be taught to weaker students. We expected
responsibilityfor their learning" (Wenden, 1991,p. that the 'good learners' would use a variety of58). Each student's use of English outside the strategies,and put in more studytime,more regularlyclassroom,whether for study or communication,is than the others. We also believedthat frequentshort
recognised as an important factor in their learning. study sessions were more effectivethan infrequent
Evidence from many sources suggests that "good long sessions. However, the data from our student
learners" have particular strategies, for example questionnaireschallengedsome of our assumptions.
The aim of this paper is to investigatethe effects of
Rubin (1975, p 41) claims that "generalcharacteristicsof the good languagelearner ...include monitoringself-study,and to give an accountof thesuch out of classstrategiesas seeingout opportunities data relating to our students' self-studyover a three
to use the language for communication". Pickard month period.
found that his students were able to select the kindof self-study activities they needed: "many of thesubjects in the study had recognized weaknesses intheir linguisticproficiencyand had taken measures
Our universitydividesthe firstyear studentsusing
to remedy them." (1996, p 157)
a placement test based on the Universityof Hawaii
listening test. The highest scoring students aregroupedtogether and the remainingstudentsare put
In order to investigatethe value of these ideas in
into
three
mixed abilitygroups.Some of the students
our own teachingsituation,the first year studentsat
our university were offered a study skills course selected as 'high ability' reported longer studyduring which their voluntary study was monitored periods than did students in other classes. The
by the teacher. Studentswere required to hand in a numbers concerned were small: six out of nineteen
record sheet each week giving the date, duration members of the high-ability class, reported study
and materialsused In the first year of the experiment, periods of 2-3 hours or over 3 hours, compared
monitoring was found to have a positive effect on with only two out of the remainingfifty five. A total
the students' self-study. (Okumura and Wilson, of fourteen out of nineteen members of the high2001.) The next year, three classes (out of four) ability group were spending over an hour on selfwere asked to hand in voluntary study records for study, compared with fifteen students out of fiftyone semester, from October to December. Since fivefromthe otherclasses. We had differentreactions
one group was not monitored,we were in a position to this: Head felt that it was surprising.But Okumura
to do a comparative study. Students from all four suggested that it reflects the fact that students needclasses were requiredto fill in a questionnaireabout to make a lot of effort and put in a lot of time inorder to succeed.
their self study at the end of the semester.

Dosuccessful
learners
shareanv
panicular
studv
patterns?

10Winter2001:v11a• 19, 10113

l • CUEIn terms of frequency of study and engaging inparticularactivitiesthere was no marked difference
between the high-ability class and other classes.
About half the top group admitted to studyingonly
before a test. This was rather disappointing since
we were hoping to show that 'slow and steady'independentstudy would bring the best results.
However there was one area in which the highability group seemed different from the otherstudents.In responseto the question, "How has yourattitudeto learningchanged during the past year?",many of the high-abilitystudents made comments
which suggested that they were becoming moreautonomouslearners,for example:
Before -I felt I had to do it. Now, I want to doit.
Members of other classes also made comments
showing that they were gaining confidence andfamiliaritywithEnglish.
If things go on like this, I'm afraid 3 years
from now I will be speaking English byaccident. Simple English will pop out of mymouth like "Good morning" at everyday
level.
On the whole, though, even the positive
comments from other classes tended to show lessconfidencethan those of the high-abilitygroup:
Now I'm not so nervous when someone
speaks to me in English. I have got used toEnglish.
When we looked for a correlation between thestudentswho kept meticulousrecords of their selfstudy, and ability,we found that in fact it was often
the weaker students or the less confident students
who wanted to keep a record and appreciated theteacher's interest and reassurance.

Thevalueofdoingrenecuvewriting
inl1
Students were told at the outset that theircomments could be in Japanese or English. Manyof the studentswho were monitoredby an Englishonly-speakingteacher chose to write in English, orchanged to writing in English during the term.
Howevertheir commentswere constrainedby theirlevelof English."Difficult"or "Easy" was often the
only comment. . Some students wrote in Japanese,but there was a time lag beforethey receiveda reply(in English) due to the need to wait for atranslation. It was noticeable that the comments ofthe students who chose to write their feedback inJapanese (in the class monitored by a Japanesebilingual teacher) wrote a lot more and were able
give a clearer account of their learningprocess.

Whatwastheprocess
ofdialogue
betweenstudent
andteacher?
We would like to look at three students in moredetail. These students were chosen because theywrote more in their self-studyrecords than the otherstudents.Two were from classestaughtby a bilingual
Japanese teacher and one from classes taught by a
non-Japanese speaking teacher. One student wasfrom the "high-ability''group.We interviewedthem
after one year to ask if keepingthe record had madeany long-term difference to their study habits andawareness of their language learningprocess. Theinterviews were done by telephone, in Japanese.
Students were asked the followingquestions:"Canwe quote your records?" "Was record keeping
useful?", "Did you study more while keeping arecord?","Did it changeyour studyhabitsin the longterm?", Would you recommend it to otherstudents?", "Would you like to continuekeeping arecord?"TheSbldent
wholoved
wriUngMari started writing a journal as a task for thewriting class. She loved writing and continued towrite voluntarily for about 30 minutes a day. Her
test scores were rather weak for reading and she
had difficultylisteningtoo: she couldnot understandthe native speaker teacher as well as some of herclassmates. Howevershe was an enthusiasticrecordkeeper. From 4th October to 12th November she
wrote logs in Japanese, but she then changed toEnglish. This suggestsa growing confidence,whichis also reflected in her comments written in thelearninglog.The commentsgivenare for consecutive
days from December 4th 2000.
Writing in English is very difficult.
I don 't know what I writing in my journal.
I think my journal like a book.
I could writing a lot in my journal.
The student's comments, "I don't know what I
11-.---..
-

01CIE-.----..

Winter2001:11111119,1s1113

writingin myjournal"followedby "I thinkmyjournal finished.
like a book" suggest she may have reached a level
where she was not distracted by negative beliefs Theactive
learner
about herself as a language learner, and where her
Haruka used a wide variety of strategies of theown story came to absorb her like a novel. At the"good learner". She made opportunities to use
end of the year she expressed some worries to her
English sociallyby talking to Chinese studentsand
student advisor:
writing a card to her (Japanese) friend in English.
She also set her own goals, for example,
I am thinking of going over Kiso Eigo
textbook from high school this summer. Is it too
My next goal is to write a page in English inlate to re-establish my basic English?
15 minutes.
The following summer she kept a record of her
She kept her record in Japanese. This enabledindependentstudy,on her own initiative. We could
her to give a detailed account of her studies. The
see this as a small success: Mari's experience ofteacher was able to respond with detailed advice,recordkeepingin the classhad givenher a tool which
as in example1.
she coulduse independentlyeven after the class was
Example 1: Extract from Haruka's learningrecord with teacher's comments
Date

Self-studyactivity,time

Teacher'scomment

9/11 Tried to sing along reading lyrics but
difficulttolisten to English song even thoughreading. Then I realized - I started writing
English pronunciation in katakana

Later you could put it into the IPA

27/ 11 Conversation: 2 hours with Chinese
students.I asked how they studied
ipronunciation. In China they read paying
attention to each individal sound but inJapan I thought that as long as you canread no one pays attention to individual
sounds.

Ask the teacher
to check
yourpronunciation. English uses awider rangeof t ne so you have toraiseyour voicehigher and lower thanJapanese.

One year later, Haruka commented:
Of course writing a log made me study more.
You have to write something in the log, so you
have to do something.

Therecordasa placetoaniculate
whatcan'tbesaidaloudYukari, a studentfrom the "top" class, was often
self-criticalin the log:

Asked whether it had made any difference toher study habits, she said ,Not so much, but I still listen to songs more
slowly and note the difference between thesounds and the written form of the words.

December 8th:
I got the result of Eiken. I couldn't pass but I
think that's a fair evaluation of my present levelof English ....... I don't have real power in English.
I'm not serious.
12l1CUE

WIiler2001:VIIUlll9,ISHl 3

Whathappened
tothesecond
vear
students
when
thevwerenolonger
being
monitored?

Sometimes the log was used to negotiate therelationship with her teacher following a difficult
experience in class. Y ukari commented,

Today I gave my answer to the teacher [inpronunciation class} which didn't answer thequestion exactly . My answer was rather
vague. I am always seeking in my heart somehelp from the teacher
The teacher replied,

It's not only your fault. The teacher's questions
could be vague or the teacher could
misunderstand your comment or could bewrong. Don't be reserved. Don't hesitate toask /comment. Language learning could takea long time. I admire your analysis andobservation ...
In the follow-up interviewYukari said that keeping
a log had made her study more and helped her toorganise her study, but she hadn't continued do~gvoluntary study. She liked getting the teacher's adVIce
and getting her questions answered. She would
recommend it for other students but, "it depends on
character''.

wasthereadifference
betweenthegroup
thatwasnotmonitored
andtheothergroups?
Overall, the unmonitored group responded to theend of year questionnaire in a similar way to thegroups that were monitored. The frequency, length,
and content of outside class study did not appear tohave been affected by the need to report to theteacher. However, some students took the record
keeping very seriously, and these students seemed
to have benefited , according to their reports wheninterviewed. The process of monitoring may be
worthwhile for the qualitative enhancement of thestudent's study skills and motivation . One student
from the non-monitored class commented:

I would like to have more outside class study
pushed . Like elementary school. You get seals
when you make a report of outside class study.
13

In the second year classes, the A classparticipated in the self-study record keeping projectin academic year 1999-2000. The B Class did not.
Neither class received any reminder about self-study
during academic year 2000-2001. In the end of yearquestionnaire, six out of nineteen members of the Aclass reported doing self study weekly or more often,
compared to only one member of the B class. This
result could indicate that these six students had kept
up their self-study habit from first year. When weanalyzed the specific kinds of self-study activities
done , we also found a bigger variety of activities
done by the A class students. However thedifference between A and B classes could be due
to other factors such as individual temperamentrather thanto the study skills monitoring. When wecompare first and second years, the frequency ofoutside class study is noticeably lower for second
years.

.-.

--

.-..

Conclusion:
Abalance
ofguidance
andfreedom,
acdvidesandrenecuon
This study found that although there were somedifferences between successful and unsuccessful
learners, in tenns of their study habits their differenceswere small. Since the numbers of students involved
were also small, there are few generalisations to be
drawn therefore . However, according to students'
own self evaluations, there was evidence that thosestudents who kept learning records experienced anincrease in confidence and motivation, particularly
those who wrote at least sometimes in Japanese.
It may be that keeping a log by itself is insufficient
as a means of motivating large numbers of students.
Imaginatively set homework, though, can provide a"scaffold" for voluntary self-study. By giving students
homework of different kinds e.g. listening to theircourse-book CD, asking survey questions to aclassmate in English, we can give students more
options for their self-study . Giving points for the
students' own choice from a menu of self-study
activities, might be more motivating thanexpecting
students to keep a log for its own sake.

Wllllr2001:1111• 19, ISSll 3

hCIE

.-.

--

.-..

We considerReflectivewritingto be vital to theprocess of learner-development,but this does nothave to be linked to self-study logging since it canbe pursued in different ways, Learning journals
written in class are an equally suitable place forstudents to develop reflective skills. We plan toimplementsome of these ideas in the comingyear.

Research
1e11rts

Shimada, K (1998) Item analysis of amultiple-choice rational cloze test.
Momoyama Gakuin University Research
Okwnura,E. and Wilson,M. (2001)'Introducing Institute, English Review, 13, pp 3-16.
a Self-StudyProgramme', Bulletin of the Facuity
The basic unit of any test is the test item. In
of Literature, Kobe Women's University, Vol. 34,
order to make a test better, we need to identify
pp
Pickard, N. (1996). 'Out -of-class language weak items and modify them. The purpose of thisinvestigationwas to identifyarid
comparethe weaklearning strategies'. ELTJ 50,2 ppl51-157
items
of
a
cloze
test
by
classical
test theory andRubin, J. (1975) 'What the good language
item
response
theorymeasurement
learner can teach us.' TESOL quarterly, 9, 1 pp
A four-optionmultiple-choicerationalcloze test
41-51
was
developed. Accordingto the range of context
Wenden, A. ( 1991). Learner Strategies forforclosures,words deleted were categorized into
Engelwood Cliffs, NJ:
Learner Autonomy.
two types: higher order and lower order items.
PrenticeHall.
Item difficulty,item discriminabilitywith sample
separation,and point-biserialcorrelationwere used
for classical test theory analysis. As for item
responsetheory analysis,PROX wasemployedfor
the Rasch one-parametercalibrationof test items.
It was found that some items were acceptedby"The a1m ofclassical test theory analysis, but rejected by theitem response analysis, and others were judged as
weak by the classical test theory analysis but
individuals to continue considered to be acceptable by the item response·
analysis.In order to ascertainwhetheritemdifficulty
their education"
was ordered according to the level of context
required for closure, higher order and lower order
items were compared. The analysis showed thatJohn Dewey
higher order items were not always more difficultthat lower order ones. It is suggestedthat this may
be because the multiple choice format encourages
wild guessingso that the difficultylevel of any one
item is determinedby whatoptionsare given. Since
itemdifficultycorrelatedmoderatelywithitemmisfit,
it is suggestedthat random guessingincreaseswith
Research Reports
increasingdifficulty.

References

education is to enable

Do you know of papers published in youruniversity's in-house reasearch bulletin thatmight be of interest to CUE readers? lfso,
please send an abstract to the Editor, Michael
Carroll <carroll@andrew:acjp>
14

O• CUE

Wl•ter2001:VIIU• l 9,ISSUI3

I C111erative
Tasl-llased111r11ch
11s1111111s
1esi11
James Venema
One of the challenges of teaching at Japanese 2) Studentsselectedtopics from the textbookrelated
universitiesincludes the effectiveuse of classroom
to present interests,themost popular unit being
time with larger,mixed level "conversation"classes.
one on travel.
In my own classes I have come to rely on a task 3) Not unexpectedly, the results indicated a widebased methodology, incorporating aspects ofvariationin levelsand apparentmotivation. Somecooperativegroup learning. Task based learningis
questionnaireswere filled in in quite some detail
unique not in the introduction of tasks into thewith evident thought and care while others wereclassroombut the predominantrole accorded themcompleted with only the briefest of barely
in overallsyllabusconstruction.Task based learning
coherent comments.
puts the emphasis on the learning process and4) Students tended to perceive themselves as
designatesthe task itselfas the unit of coursedesign.
relativelyweak in listeningand speaking.
In essencethe distinctionbetweenmethodologyand
syllabus design is obscured. Cooperativelearning
svllabus:
Aselection
oftasks
providesa basis for learningin groups and includes The
two aspects,positiveinterdependenceand individual On the first day of class a brief syllabusdescription
accountability(see Johnson & Johnson, 1999),that
was handed out to the students as follows:
applyto task designin particular.The formerensuresthat, by virtue of task design, studentsactivelywork
The course will concentrateon developingyo
together to complete the activity. The latter holds
nglish skills within the business context. We ·each student in the group responsible for their
oncentrate on three broad skills which are central,personal contributionto the group. This paper will
ut not unique, to the languageof business.
focus on the flexible applicationof these principles
in a classof economicsmajorsat a nationaluniversity) Using English to accomplish a specific purpos
in Japan.
or task.
) Using English to socialize.
Thestudents) Exchanging information clearly and succinct/
The class, which met once a week for ninety
in English .
minutes,includedforty studentsfrom the facultyof
economics. However the fact that students wereDuring the course you will be working togeth
economics majors in no way determined that theynaseries of businessrelatedtasks in groups whic
were actively considering a business career. In a"llprovide the basis for assessment. Some of thestudentquestionnaire,carriedout in pairs on the firstks I will ask you to do will include:class, students gave information on themselves,
includingtheir English laP_guage
study background,estimatedEnglish level, and future plans. Students I) Research a present corporation.
also indicatedtopicsfromthe textbookin whichthey) Work together to come up with a propose
had a particular interest. The results indicated theventure company.
following:) Research the history of a particular product.
) Work together to come up with a propose
1) Few students felt they would have need of
new product.
''businessEnglish"skills in the future.
15-.---..
-

Wlltlr 2801: ¥111• 19, lnll 3

IICIE
In fact the course did deviate from the tasks
outlinedabove with number 3 omittedand replacedwith a task on describing Japanese objects. The
tasks were selecte d on the basis of threeconsiderations.The firstconsiderationreflectedtheneed for findinginterestingand motivatingactivities
not neces.5arily
relatedto any specificfuturelanguageuse. Given the fact that few expressed the
expectation of usingEnglishwithina business context
in the near or distant future the selection of tasks
moved away from addressing specific business
English needs (i.e. conducting meetings, phone
conversations etc.) to a selection of tasks with arecurringbusiness theme. The second consideration
was choosing tasks that lent themselvesto in-classpresentations. Eventual public performance wasseen as key in encouraging focus on form andaccuracy.As Willis (2000) notes:"By challenging learners to communicate incircumstanceswhere accuracy matters(e.g. making
a public presentationof their ideas or findings), sothey feel the need , at a prior planning stage, toorganize their ideas clearly and to check that theirlexicalchoices,theirgrammarand pronunciationare
accurate" ( p. 7).
The third consideration reflected the need for asample of discourse which the students could use
as a model. In this class the primary source of suchdata was the textbook whose activitiesoften served
as a launching pad for the tasks.

---.-..

Thetasks
Crucialto the developmentof the course was
the design and implementation of the group tasks
and two such tasks will be describedin more detailhere. The first was the company proposal task.
After being given time to work on a company
proposaltogether(in class and for homework)eachgroup was divided into "listeners" and ''presenters"
at random with the latter moving around the class"selling" their company proposal. The groups thenmet to discusswhat the "listeners"had heard and to
decide where to invest a theoretical 10,000 dollars(omitting their own company). Each group was
evaluatedon a written descriptionof their company
proposal handed in to the teacher, by how muchinvestment they managed to attract from otherstudents, as well as the clarity, logic and detail in
their writtenjustificationof their investmentchoices(againevaluatedby the teacher). A secondexample

was a task involvingtraditionalJapaneseobjects.
Students were asked to work together to write andmemorize descriptionsof five objects. Once,every
group had completedthe activitya member of eachgroup was selected at random (to ensureindividual
accountability)to present their descriptionin frontof the class, at which time other groups were asked
to guess what the object being described was.
Feedback on the coherency of the description wasprovidedby the ease with which other studentswere
able to guess the object. Feedbackon the language
structure was provided by the teacher, who noted
errors and put them on the blackboard for analysis
once every group had completed the task, and bycorrectionson a written form of the activityhandedin the next class.

Effective
group
work
Perhaps more importantto the learning process
than the final product of the task is the process
involved in gettingthere. Of particularimportance,and oftenmost difficultto monitor,is that the students
work towards completion of the task in the target
language. While a strict English only rule wasestablished in the first class, the size of the class, thelack of mobilityin a crowdedclassroom,the mixed
levelsof the students,and the simultaneouswork often differentgroupsmade enforcementof this rule apracticalimpossibility.Certainaspectsof taskdesign(personal accountability)ensured that each student
in the group was responsible for being able toverbalizein Englishthe finalproduct,but the question
remains regarding their contribution to thedevelopmentof that final product.

Thematerials
The textbook (Hollet, 1996) had been selected
almost a year prior to the onset of the course when
all that was known about the class was that it would
consistof Economicsmajors. The main strengthsof
the text had alreadybecomeevidentfromits previous
use as a resource: breadth and depth of coverage
includingintrinsicallyinterestingexercisesthat oftentranslated well into classroom activities. The
limitationsof the text withinthe contextof the classin questionsoon becameapparent. Firstlythere wassimply far too much to cover. In fact less than aquarter of the units were touched in any way, eachof them in a superficialmanner,as only text activities
16

I

l

Wiater2001:1111• 19, 1ss113

81CIE

most closely related to the tasks the students IJs
your individual performance on the course
were asked to perform were selected. Another 1) higher than that of the overall groupproblem occurred as a result of the mismatch
performance?
between the tasks highlighted in the text and the 2) the same as your group?
classroomtasks the studentswere asked to perform.
3) below that of the overall
group
This was most apparent in the first task in which
performance?
studentswere asked to present a company proposal.
The activitiesselectedin the text were presentations Please explain:of large existing corporations causing confusion intense (with a task that, as a future proposal,required
language referring to future intentions or plans) inWhile students were asked to rate theiraddition to mitigating the suggestion that students individual performance relative to the rest of theirlimit their own company proposals to feasible and own group the wording was apparently unclear as
realisticventures. A furtherproblem was the result many students interpretedthe question to mean theof a mismatch between the task based syllabus and performance of their group relative to others. For
the grammar exercises offered in the book. The this reasonthe self assessmentfeedbackwas difficult
students in fact needed more consciousnessraising to interpret unless clarified by student comments.
grammar instructiondealing specificallywith errors In the end most students within groups were given
commonly occurring in the tasks as they unfolded. identical grades unless their performance on theinterview warranted a higher grade.
A second question asked for an evaluation of
FinalExam
A final group oral exam was held at the end the course:
Overall the group project system (workin!
of the semester. The exam for the course focused
together in groups on projects) used in this clas
on two tasks (the company proposal and newis:product idea) in which the teacher singled outI) a good system
individual students in the group for questions.
Studentswere not told beforehandwhich of the tasks 2) an OK system
would be selected. Time was extremelylimited(less3) not so good a systemthan ten minutesper group) so it was primarilyused
to identifyhigher achieversin the groups rather than 4) a bad system
to assignindividualgradesto each of the participants. Comments:
This worked as a counterweightto a grading system
in which all membersof the group receivedthe same
Overall the course was very highly evaluatedgrade for task work performed as a group.
Information on these "higher achievers" was then with 27 "good" ratings and 13 "ok" ratings. The
used, along with the final self evaluation, to select fact that there were no poor evaluations in a classcerta· students for higher grades than the overall of 40 could mean students were reluctant to do sogroup performance would warrant. Students who on a handout with their name on it (despite teacher
did not perform as well on the finalexam were given assurances). Yet the written comments seemed tothe benefit of the doubt, receiving the same grade give credence to the high ratings:
In English class of Japan, there are few groupas their partners(assumingthey had met a minimum
system. So I'm not use to studying in likeattendance requirement).
this system, and I hesitated taking part. But
thisstyle is effective style.
Student
Evaluations
Studentswere asked to fill out a self evaluation
and a course evaluation immediately after the final
exam. The self-evaluation included the following
questions:
1J

At this class, I could get the ability to speak
English and express myself. And it is .
important to cooperate with members andto describe our own opinions and good ideas.
This class gave me lots of abilities .

-...
-•
...

Wlltlr 2111: 1111• 19 , ISSHI

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--

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By working together in groups on projects
we can help eac h other and think about the
project together. This is impossible if this classis one person system.

3) More time should be spent on monitoring andfacilitatinggroup interactionsand task work. In
addition time should be set aside to teach social
and linguisticskills necessaryfor effectivegroupcooperation.
One studenttouchedon the difficultyin assigning 4) In order to provide time for focus on language
structure and effective group interaction theindividualgradeson the basis of group perfonnance:
number of tasks should be limited emphasizing
depth rather than breadth of coverage.
I think the merit is four people give different
idea, so our product and our company are
While there remains room for improvementthe
more better than the product which think bymyself. But this demerit is the evaluation of "cooperativetask-based"syllabus approach proved
an effectiveway of facilitatinglearningin large,mixed
individual performance is partial.
level classes typically the bane of the conversationteacher.
Despite steps taken to identify students that
contributed more than their "fair share" to group
tasks it seems clear that assessing individualHollet, V. ( 1996). Business Objectives. Oxford:
performance by the performance of the group has
Oxford UniversityPress.
its disadvantages. It does seem, though, that fromJohnson, D. & Johnson, R. (1999). What makes
the students' perspective the advantages outweighcooperative learning work. In Kluge, D. ,the disadvantages.
McGuuire, S., Johnson, D., and Johnson., R.
(Eds.) Cooperative Learning. Tokyo:JALT.
Willis, J. (2000). A holistic approach to task-based
If the course was evaluated simply on the basis
course design. The Language Teacher. 24, 2,of being able to get the students to speak and7- 11.
produce in class than it must be considered aresounding success. Students were outspoken in
the classroom,worked together on tasks with often
impressiveresults,and evaluated the course highly
upon completion. However furtherquestionsremain
about the quality of the learning that took place.
Beneficial innovations would likely include thefollowing:
1) More care needs to be taken in the selection ofmaterialsthat complement the tasksof the course.
Willis (2000) suggests that " you begin byassembling a set of language data on topics ofinterest to your learners." (p. 8) Given adequate
time this would indeed be a more beneficial
startingpoint than an all purposemulti skills textbook.
2) In orderto avoid fossifuationand undueemphasison fluency, at the expense of accuracy, task
Lawrence
related grammar instruction could be further
Stenhouse
incorporated into the classroom process. In atask base approach this would probably take theform of post task consciousnessraisingactivities.

References

Conclusions

Curri culum:'a systematic set or elations b et w ee nparticularpeople ,objects, events andcircumstances. '18

l • CIE

Wl•ter2011:1111• 1 9,ISSll 3

In the last issue of On Cue (Vol 9, 2), ChristopherKelen underlinedthe importanceof giving students
the opportunityto write freelyinjournals withoutbeing constrainedby the demandsof accuracyand
academic form and structure.In this OP column, Stephen Davies takes a critical view of Kelen'sargument,which is followedby Kelen's reply.

-.---.
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u111,111
Writill:111s111s1II
Cllrist11111r
11111
Stephen J. Davies,
Miyazaki International College
Kelen's claimthatjournalwritinginvolvesstudents academic writing if they produce work that makesin "making meaningmatter'' is uncontestable;there little or no sense; content then becomes impossible
are undoubted benefits in allowing students to to evaluate since languageuse is so inaccurate.Put
express themselves freely, many of which he simply, my worry is that students who write
summarises in his paper. However, some of his extensivelyin journalsand do not have their writing
claimsneed to be examinedmore critically.First,he corrected may come to feel that accuracy is of nostates that ''unconstrainedproductionof text by the importancewhich is, of course, simplynot the case.
Kelen ' s comments about the 'therapeutic'
studentwill help, in thiscase,to developproficiency."
But what exactlyis 'proficiency'in terms of writing functionofjournal writingalso need to be examinedand how will unguidedwriting foster it? I'd like to carefully.A literalreadingof "a writingcure"suggests
offer this simple definition:proficiencymeans the the conventionalmeaningof 'therapeutic',which isability to produce accurate, fluent and meaningful 'healing' or 'curative.' If we understandtexts. By 'accurate' I mean writing that is free of 'therapeutic' in this way, it would imply that his
errors of surface level grammar, punctuation and journal writers are (a) sufferingfrom some form ofsyntax . It should also show an awareness of illnessand (b) that this can be curedby their writing.
rhetoricalorganisation. Getting studentsto produce Is he suggesting,for example, that schizophrenics
a lot of free writing may well promote fluency but or manic depressivesmight be best treated by free
this is, I contend, very often at the expense of writing in journals? If not, then what does he mean
accuracy. Can we really call writers of inaccurate by talkingaboutjournalwritingas a formof therapy?
The answer appears to be that writers andtexts proficient?
Another related concern is that learners, after teacherstake on specificroles in the journal writing
extensive journal writing, may begin to feel that process. The teacher becomes a "listener-advisor''
accuracy, as defined above, is of less importance and studentsare givenunique opportunitiesfor selfthan fluency and meaning. But perhaps we should expression.Journal writing provides a "vehicle forremind ourselves that, of all the writing genres, the expressionof personality." Thisinteractionfosters
academicwritinghas the higheststatusand thatmany a closenesswhich is not usuallypart of conventionalof our studentswill be evaluatedon their ability to classroom settings,enablingteachers to read about
produce academic theses. Academic writing is their students' problemsand to offer them advice informulaic, prescriptive and requires accuracy; as the form of written feedback.This process appears
such it differsmarkedlyfrom the free-writingethos to be what Kelen actually means by 'therapeutic.'of anything goes as long as writers "learn to mean However,he seems to refer again to the more literalthroughthe processof makingmeaning."Difficulties psychologicalinterpretationwhen he writes about
may arise for our students when they attempt the "counselingopportunities"of the journal. Surely
19!!

Wlltlr 2811:1111• 19, ISSll 3

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there is a differencebetween claimingthat journals word wrong is one mark less. Whose laziness isgive studentsa chance to write abouttheirproblems, reflected in this (non-native teachers' ) set-up?
and, on the other hand, implyingthat such a writing Teachers don't want to have to mark more so they
process can be psychologically healing?
organise for students to write less. The beauty of
Finally, it has to be said that studentjournals are journal writing- of any fluency-focused,extensive
often very interesting for teachers to read because writingdemand- is that it breaksan irrationalnexus
they can give us unique glimpses into our students' between the student' s capacity to write and theprivate lives and inner worlds. But, to restate my teacher 's capacity to mark. It's healthy for the
first point, there is a danger that contentcan assume student to write more, much more, than the teacher
a primacythat makes focuson formseem irrelevant could reasonably be expected to mark.
Getting students to writejournals is a good idea for
And then, there's the means by which you get
many of the reasons that Kelen gives; however, Rat absorbed and deaf to the world. It has partly toallowing them to continue to make errors will not do with leaving him alone, leaving him to his own
make them proficientwriters and may ultimatelybe devices.At least that is a phase in the cycleof writingin general, not merely in the process of learning todoing them a disservice.
write. Which brings us to the cure. I'm interested inwriting- and in imaginativework in general - as a
TakingthePledge
fortheCure:aworld therapy. Bringing non-natives into your
Quick
DefenceandModest
language is the most excitingpedagogicassignment
Proposal
I can imagine.The Englishlanguageisworth entering
Christopher Ke/en, English Department, because it's the world language. One of the reasons
University of Macau, China it gets to be the world language is that it is open to
fonns of expressionand ideas which are foreign to
The rat pushed the paper away from him it, forms which wilt under the glare of ceaselesswearily, but the discreet Mole took occasion correction. There are tasty and nasty historicalto leave the room, and when he peeped in reasons which bear reflection too.
again some time later, the Rat was absorbed
Ah, yes, the past. When Davies writes that "ofand deaf to the world; alternatively scribbling all the writinggenres, academicwritinghas the highest
and sucking at the top of his pencil. It is true status" he means that, as an academic,he can't helpthat he sucked a good deal more than he but feel that his way with words towers over that of
scr ibbled; but it was joy to the Mole to know Tolstoy and Shakespeareand the rest of their bandthat the cure had at least begun.
of uncouthexperimenters.This kind of grandstanding
Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
demeans the professionof scholar in general.It also
undermines the imaginative- if often well concealed
Is communicativelanguageteachingan elaborate - processes by which subjects enter languages.
plot against a language teacher's 'natural'
Davies accusesme of pathologisingthe language
responsibilities for marking? I'll gloss over the learner as someone needing to take a cure. I candigression into the discouraging effects of being assure him that the freedom and openness and'wrong, wrong,wrong' all the time by merelysaying reflexive play I'm recommending are as necessarythat the ferocityof prescriptive rigourin a Hong Kong to the teacher as they are to the student. Think ofhigh school classroom may not be fully appreciated them as preventive if you like: they help to makeby those fortunateenoughneverto have experienced possible a healthy life with words.
it Having served a few years in a Japanese highThe sad fact is there are too many people in thisschool, I think I'm in a position to make a fair professionwho can't play with a metaphor without
comparison.
getting it by the throat and shaking the black and
The extremity of the Hong Kong situation, as I whitelifeout of it In that act of violencetheynaturally
pointed out in my paper, extends to discouraging miss the point that there wasn't that kind of truth
the student from writing one word past a notional there to begin with.
limitbecausean extra word may be wrong and everyls the accuracy industrya plot by accountantsto
21

II CUE

Witter2111:v11um1 9,ISSll 3

crush the creative life out of language learning? I
propose that we on the teachingside of the flowchart
devote a little less of our preciousbodily fluidsto theknowledge of how right we are, and that we devote

a little more of ourselves to meeting our students on
terms which are mutually agreed. I propose that wegive a little more credenceto the therapeuticvalue ofcreative effort in general.

----.--.
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u

IIC : lllidill Brealdl• I in
c1•• 1nicati11•

Pino Cutrone
Nova Intercultural Institute
Summary: In speaking a foreign language,there aretimes when learnersdo not know what is appropriate
to say, or are unsure what the response will be ifthey use phrases they think are appropriate.
Communication breakdown often results from thisinsecurity. Teachers can help learners overcome
these communication breakdowns. One way to do
this is to teach conversationalrepair strategies fromthe beginning of a course. By using phrases such as"pardon me", "I don't know", and "what does X
mean" naturally in the classroom,learnerscan cometo realize for themselves that these strategies are
beneficial in allowing the conversationto continue
with no harm done and no face lost.
Students: This technique is valuable to students
of all ages and all levels,but especiallylower levels.

control over their learning. For example, by asking
teachers for help in the classroom, rather than
waiting to be directed, learners are actively taking
steps to acquire new knowledge and skills).
Procedure: When a communication breakdown
occurs in the classroom the teacher refers thelearnerto the help sheet. For example, in the courseof a lesson, a student of mine did not understand aparticular word (the word was prevent). Although
I could guess by her facial expression that she did
not understand, I did not explain it immediatelybut
moved on to the next phase of the lesson. I later
took out a copy of the help sheet and instructed
her to ask me the question "What does prevent
mean?" When thistype of situationarisesagain,she'll
either ask me the question readily, or I'll refer her tothe help sheet again.

Materials: Studentsare given a help sheet, listing
Reflections: The critical time in employing thisrepair strategies suitable for various types oftechniqueis the first time a breakdown occurs .
communication breakdown (see below).
Learners may not be used to taking such an active
Time Required: Some time will be required to role in their learning and may take while to catch
introduce the concept, and the method of use, but on to what the teacher is trying to do. They may be
thereafter the technique is best used when the need uncomfortableasking teachers questions directly orarises naturally in the classroom. It should not take admitting that they do not understand, as thesepractices may be incompatible with the educational
more than a minute each time.
norms of their own culture.
Rationale: Communication often breaks down
I have experienced great success with thisbecause learners are unsure of what to say inparticular situations. Hence, we should teach them technique in my classroom. I think the main criteria
what to say in these situations.As well,thistechnique for success are patience and resolve. The techniqueencourageslearnerinvolvementin thattheyhavemore will only be effective if the teacher gives the learnera21

Wl•ter2001:ltlam, 9,ISSH3l • CIE----..--...
.-.
...

a chance to repair the breakdown by themselves. Variations: Teachers can focus on whatever set
1bis may mean extending one's toleranceof r silence) phrases they think meet the needs of their students.
and if it is repeated each time the need arises I often find myself altering my help sheet below tonaturally.
better suit the changing needs of my students.

uHelp Sheet•

Finding out about meaning

Saying You don 't UnderstandWhat does __mean?
What's another word for ___?
What's the opposite of ___?
What's the difference between __andI can ' t understand .
(Could you give me an example?)
I'm not sure what you mean.
I'm not quite with you.

?

Asking about Pronunciation

?

Does

mean _______How do you say __(in English)?
How do you pronounce ___?

Finding out about appropriateness
What should I say when ______
When can say _______In what situation could I?
?

Asking/or the written form?

Asking someone to repeat something
Could you repeat that more slowly please?
I beg your pardon.
Pardon me.

Saying you don't know
I'm sorry I don't know.
I'm not sure.
I have no idea.

Could you write ___How do you spell ___down please?
please?

Finding about the correctness
Is it correct to say ___?
Can I say ___?
Is this sentence correct: ___Which sentence is correct?
orGiving yourself time to think
Just a moment please.
May I think about it for a moment.

ifypu
have
a---~lassroom
i~eathat's worked,.•.-+ :->r_,. --,'\.
.. ~,or o_Tletha( didn't work butfrom whichyou learnedsomethingabout teaching,22?

w:•ter2001:1111• 1 9,111113

l • CUE

Conversation
Flow
Plans
Brian Cullen and John Morris,
Nagoya Institute of Technology-----.-..
uu
In teaching English conversation in Japan,
most teachers eventually come to realize that one of
the biggest difficulties for Japanese students is not
the construction of individual sentences, but rather
the production of naturally flowing conversations.
Many textbooks attempt to teach specificconversation strategies to help learners cope withthis difficulty. For example, Nice Talking With You(Kenny & Woo 2000) teaches strategies such as
Changing the topic, Ask to hear it again, and Asking
for an explanation. Many Things (Kelly & Kelly,2000) teaches Asking the same question, Giving
additional information , and Follow-up questions .
These strategies are highly useful, but learners require
constant practice for them to become an integral
part of conversation habits. Most of the textbooks
which offer these conversation strategies do notprovide enough activities to recycle them to the point
where they become automatic . This short article
presents a very simple technique which teachers canuse to recycle these strategies in every lesson.

conversation strategies. In other words, conversation
analysis shows us which conversation strategies arebeing used and how these strategies control turntaking. Using this information from conversation
analysis and an understanding oflearners' difficulties,
textbook writers can choose the most appropriate
strategies for inclusion.

Conversauon
Flow
Plans
However, we can go further than this. Insteadof just extracting the conversation strategies from a
conversation, we can actually use them to reverseengineer conversations. We can tell learners to carryout their conversation following a series of
conversation strategies; We will call this series a
Conversation Flow Plan (CFP). Using this, they cancreate conversations which are similar in structure
but vary in content. The structure is similar because
the tum-taking is the same in each conversation. An
example will make this clearer.

Roots
ofConversation
Strategies
The appearance of conversation strategies intextbooks is the culmination of many different trends
in language-teaching such as learner autonomy andcognitive learning theories. However, we can also
regard them as a product of discourse analysis, andin particular, as a product of the work inconversation analysis carried out by Sacks andothers (eg. Sacks et al. 1974). When we analyse
conversations, it becomes clear that conversation
has a structure, even when the speakers themselves
are unaware of it. Conversation is structured uponturn-taking-<leciding who is going to talk next. It
is possible to describe the transcription of aconversation with labels such as "Asking for an
explanation" or "Asking the same question". Theselabels are, of course, the names of particular

Example 1
A: Ask a question
B: Answer giving additional information
A: Follow-up question
B: Answer+ Ask the same question
A: Answer
In the classroom, following this CFP , theexchange between two students might be as follows:
A: Which high school did you go to?
B: I went to Tokonama senior high school. It wasa very big school.
A : How many students were at the school?
B: There were two thousand students. How
about you?
A: I went to Shiroyama high school.

23•Winter2001:1111• 1 9,ISHI 3

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-

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1,1

u

•

By followingthis very simpleCFP, studentsknow conversation habits.
exactly what is expected of them and will begin tohave conversationswith a more natural flow.
This technique can easily be extended to higherKelly, C. & Kelly, L. (2000).Many Things. Selflevel students by using more abstract conversation
published.
Information(available
at:strategies.
<www.ManyThings.org>.)
Kenny, T. & Woo, L. (2000).Nice Talking With
Example 2
Tokyo: Macmillan LanguagehouseLtd.
You.
A: Greeting
Sacks, H., Schegloff, E. A. & Jefferson, G.
B: Greeting + Ask for news(
1974).
A simplest systematics for the organisation
A: Explain a problemof tum-takingfor conversation.Language, 50, 696B: Ask for further information+ Shadow

References

735 .

Some people might argue that calling 'Greeting'a conversation strategy is stretching the name too
far,so a more inclusiveterm such as ' dialogueblockurther examples of CFPs can be found i' could be used. Whatever you decide to call them,withinthe constraintsof the plan,higherlevelstudents Cullen 's forthcoming textbook Humanity an
now have a largedegreeof freedomwhile stillgaining Technology, to be publish ed by Intercom Press,
ukuoka this year.
valuable practice in structuringtheir conversations.

11111CFPIIn 1111
cl111r11m
Once teachers are familiar with the concept of
the conversation flow plan, it is simple to write aquick plan on the blackboard which is suitable for
their students. These can make use of conversation
strategies found in the textbook or new ones can be
introduced gradually. I like to use shorthand forseveralof the most common strategies.For example,"Question"becomes"Q", "Answer givingadditional
information" becomes "A+" and "Follow-up
question" becomes "F/lY'. Use ofthis shorthandis
shown in example 3.

If you have a classroom
idea that's worked,
or one that didn't work but
from which you learned
something about teaching,

Example 3
A:Q
B:A+

why not write it up for'From the Chalkface '?

A: F/U
B: A & How about you?
A:A+

Send submissions toAndrew Obermeier

Canclusion<andrew@kyokyo-u.acjp>

Obviously, outside the classroom, learners will
not normally have a plan to follow, so a CFP is aclassroom learning technique. It gives students anopportunity to conciously apply the conversation
strategies sufficientlythat they may have a chance
to become an automatic part of the learner's
24

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Winter2001:111111119,ISSll 3

Thiever• illllill 11r1:theilll
searchJoe Tomei
Kumamoto Gakuin University
if you just really aren't sure, you should be talking
to people about this. Why? There are several
reasons. The first is because knowing how otherpeople deal with their situations will make you abetter faculty member. The second is that getting
plugged into this network will make you more
attuned to problems that may arise. The last is that
The1111search 111,1111111111 everyone, bar none, who looks for a job says thatthey could have started earlier. Do not feel thatd111111 111
somehowthe loyalty you show by not looking for aFirstof all,get involvedin helpingotherpeople job is going to help you stay in your position.
find jobs and talk to people about jobs and
One way to look at the job search in Japan issituations. I say this partly out of my own self- to consider your professionallife and development
interest, in that JALT'sjob informationcenter (the as if it were speaking a language. The ability to doJIC) which is both an ongoing column in The well in the job search can be seen as a specificsubLanguage Teacher and a part of the annual skill within that ability,akin to giving a presentation
conference, is under my position as Director of in the language,a specific skill that is supportedby
Membership, and we could always use volunteers. a range of other, more general skills. Studentsoften
But it's not just that. So many job-seekers get so think that by memorizing the presentation, andwrapped up in the job search that they lose track of ignoringthe other skills,they can get by. Sometimes
their own goals and needs. The job search should they can, by brute memorization and a willingness
not be viewed as a process akin to having your to ignorethe wider context.The same appliesto theappendix removed. Instead, it should be viewed as job search.If you lurch fromjob searchto job search,a logical part of your personal development.
without examining what personal qualities are
Understandingwhatpossible situationsare out there, importantin being an educator,you are just like thepassingonjob informationto others,lookingat your student who stays up all night writing theirown situation,and trying to identify your strengths presentation on their palm so as to get a passing
and weaknessesare what the job search is all about. grade without putting in the work during the rest of
And these things don't stop when you get a job. In the year.
this era of three to five year non-renewable term R1111rch,
111chln1,11r11c1,and
limits,I often see a pattern of people who intensely
look for a job in the last year of their contract, find 1111011111111111
In English-speakingcountries,the universityjob
something, then disappear from the network. It isreallyhard work gettingyourselfused to a new work is often describedas being based on three supports:
environment,copingwithnew procedures,and filling research,teaching,and serviceto the universityand
out new forms. But a neglectof the network means the community.Much ink has been spilled on howthat in three to five more years, you are going to be the first leg of research takes precedence overat square one again, and people are going to be teaching and service. Transferringthat model overless willing to help you the second time around. here, the first point I would add is that for theAlso, even if you are not currentlylooking for a job, foreigner,a fourthleg, that of Japaneseability,needs
to be added. Simply as part of your professional
if you think that you may be in the future, or even

Even though the tertiaryjob market in Japannow qualifiesas its own circle of hell, that does notmean that people are going to stop going into it.
But, unlikehell,thereare peopleleaving.Thiscolumn
cobbles together a number of points that thoselooking for a universityjob may wish to consider.

•

25

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IICIE

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---

--.---.

development, learn Japanese. Doing this not only
makes you a more attractive candidate, it also wid~
the circle of jobs that you can apply for. Even if
your Japanese is only passably fluent in listening andspeaking, there will be advertisements that say '2
years experience outside Japan and/or native-l~e
proficiency in English advisable, or for a native
speaker of English, experience teaching in Japan ~dbasic Japanese proficiency' . Yes you are competmg
against Japanese for the position , so you've got to
accept that it ' s going to be difficult. But many
universities have had poor luck with employing
Japanese who have done graduate school overseas
and know little or nothing about the Japanese
university bureaucracy . Tip the scales by knowing
how things work, both for you and for others.
Wordell, in 'Politics and Human Relations in theJapanese University', (1993) , writes 'Gi:en ~hepolitical and cultural milieu of a Japanese umvers1ty,
it is wise for the foreign teachers not to foolthemselves into thinking that they are really
important.' (p. 153) 8 years later, what the tightened
job market means is that even though ~e culturalmilieu has not changed, itis now increasmgly a partof one's professional development in Japan to makeoneself important. The work of Japanese faculties
is exploding. Some of it is merely reactive, se~g
up committees to try and look as though som~~gis being done about the problem. But some of 1t~
have a huge impact on the institution and, even 1f
you are in a tenn-limitedposition now, the experienceof being involved in these changes may help you ,not immediately, but 5 years down the road. Thebalance to achieve is to do work that will not makeyou feel taken advantage of, but will make adifference. And while it is true that the four areasthat need to be dealt with, research, teaching ,service, and language ability are discrete, one should
not overlook the possibility that all of the legs canbe combined into a solid, integrated base. For
example , examine what you do in the classroom,
relate it to the literature and write it up for the school
in house journal, referred as the kiyo. This isespecially important if you have developed asyllabusand materials for a class. While these articles
shouldn't be taken as sufficient in and of themselves,
when you embark on the job search, they allow
thesearch committee to have an idea of how you
will fit into their program.

Wllllr 2111:11111119, ISSll 3

Practicalities
The first place to check for jobs is at http://
jrecin.jst.go.jp / , formerly NACSIS. Though there
is a password, searching for positions does not
require one. By law, all jobs at national universities
must be advertised here and it is 'strongly
recommended'for private and prefectural
universities. Many of those relating to English
teaching are also advertised in Eigo K youiku.
Each job advertisement will have its own
detailed application specifications, many specifiyingthat the university's own proforma had to be used,
and others simply detailing the headings required A
few have English language application forms, but thegreat majority are in Japanese. There is, thou~, anEnglish language search page atjrecin .) In addition,
English language publications such as The Japan
Times sometimes ha ve job advertisements, as ofcourse does The Language Teacher.
Most application procedures include a
resume, academic activities record (publications ,presentations and so on) , and many ask for somekind of essay (Views on teaching English in Japan;
Semester plan for teaching reading/writing etc; Therole of CALL in English education; and so on.) These
are often asked for in Japanese. Most ads also callfor at least 5 publications , and actual copies of 3-5,
often with a Japanese synopsis of each one (usually
200 but up to 1000 in some cases). Even if you are
not looking for a job, preparing your publication s,
writing Japanese summaries, taking the essay topics
and starting to write essays that you can put inJapanese is time well spent. Often , the job will
indicate a speciality , but if you see an essay aboutteaching reading or writing , or something related tocomprehension, this generally means that the schoolis also interested in someone teaching the four skills.
In the next column , I will try to discuss how topresent your teaching experience in a way thatmakes you more employable .

1111,anca
Wordell, Charles (1993) 'Politics and Human
Relations in the Japanese University' in Wadden ,Paul. Handbook for Teaching English at JapaneseColleges and Universities. pp . 145-155. Oxford :Oxford University Press.

26

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Wl•ter2001:1111• 1 9,ISSll 3

Thel • ericanEll1cati1na1
Research
Association's
1111alleetin1,April10 •.
.
-14,2001,Seattle.
..

---

Reviewed by Dexter Da Silva .E
Keisen University :The American Educational Research Association(AERA) held its 82nd Annual Meeting from April
10 - 14 in Seattle, at the Washington State
Convention and Trade Center, the location of the
WTO meeting that drew the world's attention, and
TESOL's Annual Convention 4 years ago . The
13,000 participants stretched Seattle's hotel
capacity to its limits, and were challenged by the 5
packed days of multiple-choice sessions on theconference theme: "What We Know and How We
Know It."
AERA has 12 divisions covering areas such as:
Curriculum Studies, Learning and Instruction, andSocial Context of Education. It also has over 100
SIGs (Special InterestGroups) ranging from specificresearch areas (such as Research on Giftedness andTalent, Research in Social Studies Education, andResearch on the Education of Deaf Persons), totheoretical topics (e. g. Foucault and Education, John
Dewey Society, Systems Thinking in Education),and practical areas (Computer Applications in
Education, Stress and Coping). SIGs of relevanceto EFL teachers and CUE members are too
exhaustive to list but would include: Second
Language Research, Bilingual Education Research,
Language and Social Processes, and Motivation in
Education.
The siz.eof the conference prevents it from staging
plenary sessions, or Opening and Closing
Ceremonies, though five special presentations spread
across the convention, and the Presidential Addresson the third day served to provide participants witha sense of togetherness and inclusiveness. President
Catherine Snow's address, in particular, tackled theconference theme head-on, and using examples fromChild Language Development, argued for theimportance of balancing experiential knowledge
with empirical knowledge. The recent attack onbilingual education in the US was an example sheused to show where the wealth of empiricalknowledge was ignored, and influential individuals'
experiential knowledge given precedence.
The variety of presentation-types itself was
remarkable. These included poster sessions, fireside chats, round tables (many small round tables
for 7-8 participants, in a large room with a different
topic for discussion at each table), symposia,
performances, paper sessions and single presentation
sessions.
Size and variety alone does not a worthwhile
conference make, and this one is definitely not for
those looking for teaching techniques, nor for those
who dislike huge conferences. However, theconvention in general was very strong on researchand theory, with a host of well-known authors andresearchers attending and presenting. It is a usefulconference for those EFL teachers seeking to
expand their horizons, or looking to the wider fieldof education to instruct their teaching and research.
For me these included the areas of motivation in
education and the special needs of first-year
university students.
In terms of my particular main interest,
motivation, the conference started off with a bang.
Many of the big names in this area were inattendance at the first session I attended, 'Goals,
Motives, and School Achievement: Toward an
Integration', a symposium consisting of Martin
Covington, Paul Pintrich, Andrew Elliot, and Judith
Harackiewicz, with Carole Ames as discussant.
This session set the stage for several days ofintensive learning, as I came away with a number of21

Wl•t•r 2001:V1l1• 1 9,IU•l 3

IICIE
inspiring quotations ("Goals are motives withmaindeadlines." Martin Covington), with new ideas(the possibility that goals have neuro-physiologicalbases, and therefore may be resistant to change) ,and with as many questions as when I entered theroom (the one being: Why do performance goals
showgreater achievement results than mastery goals,
when we 've been pushing the latter as superior forthe past decade?).

----.--.
-•..
u1bis may have been a highlight for me but thequality of presentations was consistently very high,and made the trip from Tokyo more than worthwhile.

I returned to Tokyo one day before the start of
the new university academic year with renewed
academic curiosity, and the pledge to attend again
in the future,though this may not always be possible
given the timing (early April) every year. Dates, andvenues, for the next five years:
2002 , April 1-5, Ne w Orleans ;2003, April 21-25 , Chicago ;2004, April 12-16, San Diego ;2005, April 11-15, Montreal ;2006, April 8-12 , San Franci sco.
AERA's website address is: http://www.aera .net

ThiThird1111r11ti1111
C111r1ssII
Clllilill SCillCIS,1111S126-31,
2001,Bliiill, Chill
Reviewed by Peter Wanner
Kyoto Institute of Technology
The Third International Congress of Cognitive
Sciences conference in Beijing China was very
successful bringing together scholars from over 20
countries. Social activities were organiz.edwell andconveyed many features of Chinese culture. All
participants were invited to the Beijing Opera, an
active and invigorating performance of three plays.
The hotel was withinclose proximity to many scenic
spots like Tian'amen Square, the Palace Museum,and other places such as museums. The last day ofthe conference, many visitors joined a tour of theGreat Wall and the Ming tombs.
This review will describe a summary ofconclusions attained at the symposium for"Cognitive Science in Education" Mitchell J. Nathanpresented a preliminary
study of teacher
development and instruction relationships. His
findings suggested that teachers with higher
knowledge content are not always the best teachers.
He maintained that a certain degree of pedagogicalknowledge is necessary tosuccessfully help students

fully comprehend their material. SeakminKang andhis colleagues extended Nathan's proposition
showing the effects of explanation contexts on
declarative knowledge acquisition. Their results
confirm that the experience of explanation is abenefit to declarative knowledge acquisition. Other
presentations addressed metacognitive processes inforeign language reading. These provided insight
into processes such as read-aloud analysis. Finally,
the remaining presentations provided examples of
education strategies and their effectiveness. 1bis
symposium introduced a good overview of current
research and theories of education in cognitive
science today .
For further details on any of these areas refer tothe published proceedings:
Proceedings of the Third InternationalConference
on Cognitive Science. 2001 . Press of USTC;
Beijing, China. ISBN 7-312-01284-1 lB-28

28

Winter2001:, ••••• 9,ISSll 3

l1CUE

T1achin1
andRes1archin111ti1ati11

---

zonan
Dtimvei.
london:lonuman.
l2001I¥2490.
ISBN:
D-582-38238-6.
a 295. •Reviewed by Dexter Da Silva, .:Keisen University :In a new series, edited by Christopher Candlin ending with Heckhausen and Kuhl' s Action Control
and David Hall, the Applied Linguistics in Action Theory which focuses on the time dimension ofSeries, Zoltan Domyei haswritten a very important motivation. This makes a distinction between
intention formation and implementation, and has
book for teachers.
Domyei hasbeen one of the leading forces in the influenced Domyei's own recent theory. The third
decade-long movement to expand the research chapter, concerning motivation theories in foreign
agenda of motivation in Foreign/Second Language language learning, starts from the prelude to
Learning. His first publication in the area (Domyei, Gardner's Socio-educational Model, continues to1990) along with Crookes and Schmidt (1991) its recent expansion, and ends with Domyei andprovided the impetus and momentum for renewed Otto's recent process model.
interest in the area, and for the 'debate' carried on
The second section, Motivation and languagein the Modem Language Journal between those teaching, attempts to bridge the gap between theory
calling for research in the area to go beyond the & research on the one hand, and practice on the
Gardnerian-dominated research tradition (Domyei, other. It starts with ideas introduced from general
1994a, 1994b; Oxford, 1994; Oxford & Shearin, education, and includes techniques and strategies
1994),and Gardner himselfalong with his colleagues that can be applied to the classroom , both from
(Gardner & Tremblay, 1994a, 1994b). Gardner has Domyei's own work, and from other frameworks .
since expanded his model (Gardner, Tremblay, & The section ends with two aspects of motivation that
until recently have been ignored: teacher motivation
Masgoret, 1997) and continues to do so.
Since his foray into the field, Domyei has followed and student demotivation.
The third section, Researching motivation, is
up on his call for developing the concept, and has
been prolific at doing just that. He has conducted most relevant to those intending to undertake
research in the area of group dynamics, motivation research in motivation, or to understand the research
as a process, levels of motivation, and attempted to on a deeper level. It looks at some of the problems
import from educational psychology importan t inherent in motivation research , the main
related concepts. In this reader-friendly book, he methodological considerations, and the various types
compiles this previous work, and extends it to of research, both quantitative and qualitative, which
produce the most comprehensive work in this have been conducted in the area.
important area, which, prior to Gardner's work in
The final section, Resourc es and further
the 70s and 80s, had been largely ignored. The book information, provides guidance in the form ofis divided into four sections:connections with other topics and areas in the social
The first section, What is motivation, is divided sciences, and lists of a variety of very useful
into three chapters. The first one looks at the main resources.
challenges to research on motivation. These include
The book's format , with numerous quote andthe issues of how conscious are our motives, the concept boxes , makes it very accessible to therela tive importance of cognition vs affect, the novice reader in the area of motivation, but it also
importance of the immediate environment or context, provides advanced readers with a broad and inand the ideas that motivation neither exists in depth account of motivation in foreign language
isolation, nor is it a fixed state. The second chapter learning.
covers the important theories of motivation in general
With the publication ofTeaching and Researching
psychology, such as expectancy-value theory, Motivation, the concept of motivation will now
attribution theory, self-efficacy, and goal theories, become more accessible for teachers, and hopefully
29

IICIE

---

-•..
...

Wllllr 2001:11111119, 111113

the area will rightfullytake a more importantrole inforeign/second language learning theory andresearch. Domyei also should now be in greater
demand to address audiences of teachers andresearchers around the world.
At ¥2,490, the book is about half the price ofmost teacher referencebooks in Japan.There is also
a companion website for the book and the series asa whole (www.booksites.net/alia),which includesa
longlistof forthcomingtitlesin the series. If Teaching
and Researching Motivation is representative of
these futurebooks, then this new serieswill become
a dominantfeatureof readinglistsin TESOUApplied
Linguisticsprograms.

References
Crookes,G., & Schmidt,R. W. (1991). Motivation:
Reopening the research agenda . Language
Learning, 41, 4, 469-512.
Domyei, Z. (1990). Conceptualizingmotivation in
Foreign-languagelearning.Language Learning,
40, 1, 45-78.

Domyei, Z. (1994a). Motivation and motivating in
the Foreign language classroom. The Modern
Language Journal, 78, iii, 273-284.
Domyei, Z. (1994b).UnderstandingL2 motivation:
On with the challenge! The Modern Language
Journal, 78, iv, 515-523.
Gardner, R., & Tremblay, P. F. (1994a). On
motivation: Measurement and conceptual
considerations.The Modern Language Journal,
78, iv, 524-527.
Gardner, R., & Tremblay , P. F. (1994b). On
Motivation, research agendas, and theoreticalframeworks. The Modern Language Journal,
78, iii, 359-368.
Gardner , R., Tremblay, P. F., & Masgoret, A.
(1997).Towardsa full model of secondlanguage
learning:An empiricalinvestigationThe Modern
Language Journal, 81, iii, 344-362.
Oxford, R. L. (1994). Where are we regarding
language learning motivation? The Modern
Language Journal, 78, iv, 512-514.
Oxford, R. L., & Shearin, J. (1994). Language
learning motivation: Expanding the theoreticalframework. The Modern Language Journal,
78, i, 12-28.

raiectsIra• he_Universill
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Wla:•r2081:1111• 1 9,ISSll 3

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C1b1r1i11lin1
Steve Snyder
Kyushu University of Health and Welfare
user, there are piles of fonts, converters and otherlinuuisrssonware:
products.
hllP://wwwJinuuistsoftware.com
For those of you out there that have tried to find
IPA fonts or programs such as TwinBridge, here isa web site that you should know about. The
Linguist 's Software site is betterknown to language
researchers and translators , but if your researchinterestoccasionallyrequiresspeciallanguagefonts,
or if you have other special, cross-languageneeds,
then this site can help you. In my own case, I waslooking for IPA fonts and System Commander
software when I ran across this site.
This is not a low cost site and you have to deal
with them through the mail; on the other hand, thesite provides very helpful information about theseproducts. Also, the Linguist's Software site hascomprehensive listings of products for both Macsand PCs.
So, what are TwinBridge and System
Commander? These are products for PC usersTwinBridge enables writing in Japanese and otherdouble-byte languages on an English Windows
operatingsystem,whileSystem Commander allows
you to boot to different hard drives or partitions atstartup. TwinBridge was the rage in Hong Kong
several years ago when it first came out, because it
made using English and Chinese on the same PC
convenient. The Japanese version was popular inJapan, but Japanese-version Windows has
dominatedthe market. Still,there are PC users who
would prefer to have an English operating system
and also be able to writing in Japanese and access
Japanese dictionaries- TwinBridge is a productthat can do this (something Mac users have beenable to do for sometime).
Other people want to be able to switch between
English-version Windows and Japanese-version
Windows- System Commander lets you choose
between operating systems. System Commander
is not limitedto Windows, you can select whatever
operating system you have available. For the Mac

31

Much has changed since September 2001, andall of us have been caught up in the drama of what
has happened. Here are some sites that provide arather differentview from the major media.

AistorArab:
httP://www.salon.com/books/
leature/2002/01/08/alphabet/index.html
This is a listing of contributionsfrom Islam andthe Arab world to what many call "Western
Civilization." The listingtakes four pages. Simple,'yes', but a clear challengeto the ''unwarrantedsenseof superiority" that many westerners have adopted.
This is just one of thousandsof mind-openingpages
availableat Salon.com.Giventhe rhetoricthese days,"A is for Arab" is good reminderhow deep the debt
of industrializ.edcountriesis to Islamic heritage.

ArtsandLenersDailv:
htQJ://www.aldaHv.com/
For those looking for a contrast of opinions on
world affairs, let me again recommend the Arts andLettersDaily http://www.aldaily.com/.This site uses
a newspaper motif to present links on news, books
and opinion. Links to major news services areprovided, but links to a broader range of ideas andopinions are also provided.

ZNet:
http://www.nau.orunNET.hbn
For a progressivecritiqueof world affairs a mustsee site is ZNet at http://www.zmag.org/ZNET.htm
where you can find postingsby such luminariessuch
as Noam Chomsky and Edward Said. ZNet is an
outgrowth of Z Magazine, and is dedicated to socialchange. The web site is certainly controversial to

--.-.
...-.
-

...
..
-.-.
.-..-.
-.-.

-

some- its mail list has the distinctionof recently
being banned by America Online/Compuserve.
The web site is a lot more than commentaryand
articles- there numerous news watch groups(including one on Japan), a learning section withessays and guides, interviews, and links. There isalso a wonderful"Quotes Archive" with gems suchas this one by James Baldwin,

Wl•ter2011:1111• 1 9,111113
and Dostoyevsky's

Nothing is easier than to condemn theevildoer, nothing is harder than tounderstand him .

Taken together, Arts and Letters Daily and
ZNet can providenot only a contrastof views,
but also a way of researchingcurrent eventsand social trends.

Please send site
recommendations
and

It is very nearly impossible ...to become an
educated person in a country so distrusifulof the independent mind,

11111nas111,
P.andWballev,
T.l2000J.Acquiring
a multlcoltlral
1111111
tbr101bblllllDII CIISSIS:• 1m111mastudents DI thl lr1nt llnl
•111101111111,ra1a1a1rersn,
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1n111111aon11
Callllll.,,,,,,, 21,.. 29-84.
In this paper, we use the model of theMomoyamaGakuinUniversity(Osaka, Japan)Doµglas College (New Westminster, Canada)
programin Japaneseand Eng]ishto illustratetheadvantagesof the two-waybilingualapproachto

Ano1heradvanmgeof bilingualprogramsis
they bring learners into regular contact wit
representativesof the targetculture,giving
them thechance to experience a more authentic cultura
milieu. In addition,bilingualprograms,by usifi
languagelearning ··studentsas peer teachers,validatethose students'
The program,launched in 1992,is based on a ownknowledge.Beingableto share their gen
simple contract between Japanese learners of knowledgeof their own countryand culture wi
Englishand Canadianlearners of Japaneseto the others, hones their sense of awareness while
effectthat ''If you help me leam yourlanguage,rn increasingtheir sense of responsibilityas teachers.
help you leammine". By allowing the stUdentsto Finally,the nature of the bilingualprogrammakes it
spend sustained periods oftime together in both much easierfor the studentsto developfiiendsbips
structuredandunstructured
learning situations,the with oneanother.
programhas the advantageof enablingthem to
A questionairedistributedto participatingES
develop not only language skills but also a students revealedthat the programwas perceived
multiculturaloutlook,within the broader skill of by almo&all of them as a total experience,one
intereulturalcommunicativecompetence.
brought both linguistic and socio-cultura
Homogeneousgroups of ESL students tend to enlightenment,profoundlychangingtheir cul
have a high degree of 'communicativeinertia'. perceptionsas well as bringingthem unprecedented
Bilingualprograms, in which peers rather than a linguisticconfidence. In this sense,it may be saidto
formalteacheract as the students' primary source havebeen an exercisein creatingan environmentinof information,provide a stimulusto learn,create which educationin its originalsense- bringingout
more authenticmotivationthan can be had in a students' essentialnature and contnbutingto theirteacher-<Xmtredetas.worn,and encouragestudents personal growth- couldtake place.
to speak eachothers' languages morereadily.·
32

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