EMBRACING THE CHALLENGE: ACTIVITIES FOR
DEVELOPING PARTICIPATION IN THE EFL CLASSROOM
Mathew Hollinshead
Shibuya Makuhari Junior and Senior High School
ABSTRACT
A common complaint heard from English teachers in Japan is that their students areunwilling to participate actively in class due in large measure to fears surrounding
mistakes. Over time, I have devised numerous activities designed to promote a morepositive and participatory mindset in class. These activities are based on threefundamental principles: English is a set of skills that can be improved throughpractice; mental tools exist that will allow students to participate in class without
requiring them to completely eradicate their fears; and a more accepting andpositive approach to mistakes is necessary for success. This article discusses three
specific activities that were introduced into the classroom in an effort to promote
this mindset and to achieve more active participation from students. Student
reflection journals and survey results are analysed in order to discuss the validity ofthese principles and the success of their application.
Keywords: learner autonomy, participation, growth mindset, mistakes
INTRODUCTION
For teachers entering a Japanese EFL classroom, unforeseen challenges in relating to theirstudents consistently arise. In fact, “many U.S. teachers who teach … in Japanese colleges
encounter difficulties in dealing with their Japanese students, due in part to the gap between
culturally influenced teacher-held expectations and student participation patterns” (Saito &Ebsworth, 2004, p. 111). Japanese students are often viewed by their teachers as being passive,
unwilling to contribute, and excessively concerned with errors (Cohen, 1995). However, suchblanket characterisations have been seen by scholars as extremely reductive and therefore as
problematic (Holliday, 2003, 2006; Kubota, 2018). It is enough to say that reticent or
unmotivated learners are likely to be widely encountered across teaching contexts (Little, 2007).
While this paper demonstrates the effectiveness of several activities carried out in a Japaneseclassroom, it is my belief that the activities will be broadly applicable across contexts andregardless of cultural norms and values. Therefore, a more constructive way to look at the
problem is through the lens of learner autonomy and empowering learners to take more active
control of their learning.
After analysing student reflections over several years, using journals, interviews, classdiscussions, observations, and a range of other various informal methods, one word in particularseemed to appear to me with distressing regularity: fear. All too often students spoke of feelingafraid of making mistakes, of feeling a degree of vulnerability such that they were significantly29impeded in their efforts to communicate in English. Clearly such levels of fear arecounterproductive to effective learning, and any measures that allow students to gain backcontrol of their learning from this fear can be viewed as beneficial.
In an effort to counteract this prevailing reticence among students, I began to introduce a rangeof activities—derived from sports, philosophy, business, and psychology—into my classroom.
Below is a summary of three such activities.
LITERATURE & RATIONALE
Holec (1981) defined learner autonomy very simply as “the ability to take charge of one’s own
learning,” (p. 3) but Benson (2007) conceded that there is some difficulty in nailing down acompletely comprehensive definition. Despite this difficulty, Little (2007) noted that Holec’s
notion of the learner taking charge of their own learning can be seen to be the common threadthat runs through the literature and says that, “language learner autonomy is not an optional
extra, sometimes required by the way in which learning is organised, but belongs at the very
centre of language teaching theory and practice” (p. 27). In his effort to more closely examine
learner autonomy, Benson (1997) broke it down into three separate versions. ‘Technical’ versions
involve the student simply in learning outside of a classroom and independent of a teacher.
‘Psychological’ versions view autonomy as centred on attitudes and abilities which allow thelearner to take more control over their learning. Finally, ‘political’ versions focus on control overthe processes and content of learning.
However it is conceived in detail, Pennycook (1997) warned that teachers seeking to “encourage‘learner autonomy’ universally, without first becoming acutely aware of the social, cultural andpolitical context in which [they are] working, may lead at best to inappropriate pedagogies andat worst to cultural impositions” (p. 44). Littlewood (1999) agreed, saying that teachers “need tomatch the different aspects of autonomy with the characteristics and needs of learners inspecific contexts” (p. 71). Benson’s three versions therefore add a subtlety to the concept oflearner autonomy that significantly broadens the scope for the aforementioned matching ofdifferent aspects of autonomy to the characteristics and needs of different learners andcontexts. In particular, the psychological version centred on attitudes fits well with the activities
discussed below.
All of the various tasks introduced into the classroom revolved around three key principles: 1)
English as a set of skills able to be improved with practice; 2) practice will create various levelsof anxiety and even fear in students, therefore tools for pushing past this fear will be helpful; andfinally, 3) practice entails obstacles and the potential for failure and, therefore, how the students
conceive of obstacles is vitally important. These principles were derived from a number of key
sources and texts. It should be made very clear, however, that none of the activities outlined
below should be seen as a pure representation of the beliefs of the authors of those texts. The
principles and activities discussed here are the author’s own, inspired only by the sources stated,but not representing them.
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The tasks summarised below represent the three foundational tasks created to establish eachof the principles in the minds of the students. Each task operates in two stages. The first stage
is concerned with consciousness-raising and involves a one-off exercise to introduce theprinciple to the students. Following this, students are required to carry out an ongoing task
throughout the semester that hopes to reinforce the principle and bring about some lastingchange in mindset and behaviour.
Task 1: Mindset
Dweck (2017), in her book Mindset, wrote of two mindsets—the fixed mindset and the growthmindset. A fixed mindset involves believing that one’s own qualities and traits are set andunchanging. For example, one has a fixed IQ, a fixed moral character, or a fixed language
learning ability. This mindset induces a strong need for people to prove themselves, particularly
in relation to others, as each quality is linked indissolubly with a person’s identity. She observes,“every situation is evaluated: Will I succeed or fail? Will I look smart or dumb? Will I be accepted or
rejected? Will I feel like a winner or a loser?” (Dweck, 2017, p. 6). This threat to identity often
induces one to avoid situations that might challenge one’s sense of identity.
Alternatively, a growth mindset is based on the belief that one’s initial abilities and aptitudes are
merely a starting point. They are “things you can cultivate through your efforts, your strategies,
and help from others. Although people may differ in every which way . . . everyone can change
and grow through application and experience” (Dweck, 2017, p. 7). This obviously does not meanthat everyone can be a Mozart or Einstein, merely that each person has an unknown potentialthat they can actively take steps towards achieving. It also relieves much of the burden of having
to prove oneself to others. Indeed, why waste time trying to prove how wonderful you are when
you could be learning and improving?
Task 2: The 5-Second Rule
The next step was to acknowledge that students might find this new effort to practicefrightening. Previous students had written and spoken regularly of feeling significant degrees offear. The goal of the next activity was to provide students with a mental tool which would help
them to push through their anxiety. Robbins (2018) claimed that whenever one has an impulse
to act on a goal, they must physically do something within five seconds or inhibitions will takeover and the impulse will be lost. The way to ensure action is to use what she calls the 5-second
rule. One begins counting backwards from five and upon hitting “1-go!” they must pushthemselves into action. She claims that, “this is how you do the hard stuff – the work that you
don’t feel like doing, or you’re scared of doing, or you’re avoiding” (Robbins, 2018, para. 10).
Task 3: Obstacle as Goal
The third principle aims to introduce students to a new more constructive approach to obstacles
and challenges. Lickerman (2012) claimed that, “all of us have the capacity to make use of any
circumstance, no matter how awful, to create value” and we do this “not just by reframing
adversity . . . but by actually overcoming it” (pp. 91–92). Likewise, Frankl (1946/2008) said that,“what man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather a striving and struggling for aworthwhile goal” (p. 10). Finally, Maxwell (2013) urged readers to see that “mistakes are not31failures. They are proof that we are making an effort. When we understand that, we can moreeasily move out of our comfort zone, try something new, and improve” (p. 80). The key idea isthat mistakes are to be welcomed. To live in a state of mistake-free perfection really indicates astate of mistake-free failure. Mistakes, discomfort, embarrassment, fear: these tell us that weare engaging with our current limits, our goal being to push ourselves past them.
CONTEXTThe students to whom the activities were given consisted of two Freshman English classes who
met four times weekly. The total number of students was 41 (20 in one class and 21 in the other).
Many of the students exhibited marked reticence in class and an obvious unwillingness tocommit errors. They were also often reluctant to use direct speech to the point that it became ajoke in both classes that the words ‘maybe’ and ‘almost’ were prohibited when asked a yes/noquestion. Such behaviour had been a recurring feature of classes which I had previously taught
and is not uncommon in Japanese EFL classrooms (Saito & Ebsworth, 2004). It was to address
such issues that the following exercises were devised.
The activities were introduced over one semester of the Freshman English course. Students
completed three reflection journals at equal intervals throughout the semester where they wereasked to share their opinions on the various activities. At the completion of the semester, thestudents were then asked to complete a survey which provided a more quantitative summary of
their attitudes towards the activities.
THE TASKS
Task 1: Mindset
Stage OneIn small groups, students were asked to discuss the following questions:
1) Which club were you a member of in high school? (If you were not in a club, what wasa hobby/sport/activity that was important to you?)
2) What things did you do to improve your abilities?
3) Were you the best player/member in your club?
4) Did this affect your motivation and efforts to improve?
Following this, the class discussed the answers to each question. Through these discussions I
attempted to draw the students’ attention to the fact that in their club activities (most answers
centred on sports, music, and art) the road to improvement lay through practice. None of thestudents claimed to be the best participant in their club, but likewise, very few claimed to be
adversely affected by this fact in their willingness to practice. I then asked the students to think
about learning English in the same way. They had all studied English for six to seven years atjunior and senior high school, and yet in previous classes most students had claimed that theway to improve their English was through further study. I asked them how many soccer players
had become the best through reading about soccer? How many cellists had become the best32

through studying the cello? I encouraged the students to think of practice as being the next stepon their way to mastery (or at least improvement) of English. The students must not compare
themselves to others, but rather to themselves the day before. This was how they were tomeasure their abilities. The students were then told that beginning in the next class they would
be given the opportunity to try this mindset through a continuing activity.
Stage TwoAt the beginning of most subsequent classes, students were required to make pairs. I thenprovided them with a topic about which they were to talk for between two to five minutes. Some
topics were intended to be easy and to gently lead the students into the task (examples being‘travel is the best education’, ‘my greatest fear’, ‘my dream vacation’), while others wereintended to stretch their abilities and therefore to be much more challenging (examples being‘fire’, ‘peanuts’, and ‘the colour purple’). As the students grew more confident and able overtime, the time limit was gradually increased.
Task 2: The 5-Second Rule
Stage One
Students were given a short reading that explained the 5-second rule (see Appendix). Aftercompleting the reading, students discussed with a partner the following questions: How would
you explain the 5-second rule to someone? Please brainstorm some possible ways you could use
the 5-second rule when learning English. For example, “I could use it to get started doing myhomework”. Finally, through a class discussion, all of the ideas for question 2 were gathered onto
one document available to everyone on a digital platform used daily for class materials.
Question 1 was plainly designed to check comprehension of the reading, but the priority of thisexercise was to activate students towards thinking of ways they might use the rule to aid theirlearning. Types of answers for question 2 included: when wanting to ask a question in class;when I want to give my opinion but feel afraid; when I am afraid the other students will think I
am wrong; when I want to use English outside of class, for example talking to a foreigner; when
I don’t want to go to class.
Stage Two
As part of regular assessment, students were required to submit a reflective journal each month.
They reflected on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. The prompts for each of the four weekly
reflections were the same. For this activity, students were asked to look back at the shareddocument the class created and to reflect on where they had the most difficulty taking action.
They were then challenged to make use of the 5-second rule at least once a week in trying to be
more active in these areas. They also had a new prompt added to the weekly reflections in theirjournals: “Please describe one example of when you used the 5-second rule this week.”
Task 3: Obstacle as Goal
Stage OneA high number of students had spoken of their shortcomings in English and how anxiety had
played a role in inhibiting their ability to communicate. A class discussion was initiated, and33

students were made aware of the widespread and common nature of anxiety among students,
especially among freshman students. Then, students were encouraged to share theirexperiences of fear and anxiety when learning. Finally, students were shown a visual
representation of anxiety and possible interaction with it (see Fig. 1). Students were asked toconceive of their anxiety in different situations as a precursor to improvement. Without this kindof discomfort there can be no improvement as the discomfort indicates that they are in theprocess of improvement and learning, but only if they are aware of this fact and make use of it.
Fig. 1. Trying to Learn Without Challenges
The things I

The things I can’t
do

can’t do

The things I cando

The things I
can doStage Two
The second part of this activity again involved the students writing in their reflective journals.
This time the prompt was only given once, in the monthly reflection: “Please describe an
example of one ‘failure’ you experienced in your language learning this month. In what way canthis experience be seen as something positive which you can use in your future learning?” Theaim of this activity was to get the students to reflect back on their learning experiences with agrowth mindset. I wanted the students to view the obstacles they encountered as triggers forlearning and therefore a positive experience.
STUDENT RESPONSE
Mindset - Practice Discussions
Task 1 centred on mindset and instilling a belief in students that English was a set of skills that
could be improved through practice. To that end, practice discussions were implemented at the
beginning of each lesson. All names used are pseudonyms.

The discussions, predictably, proved a significant challenge initially. For example, in the firstreflection journal of the semester, in response to the question, “what is the most difficult thing34

you learned this week?,” Mie wrote, “I think the most difficult thing is conversation in English
with classmate. I’ve never talked 3~4 minutes in English”. Likewise, Ryota said, “The hardest partwas talking in English. I only talked in Japanese about the topic that I couldn't speak well in
English. . . . It's hard to say what you want to say in English.” However, when asked at thecompletion of the semester whether students felt that these discussions had helped to improvetheir speaking skills, a large majority of respondents felt that they had helped a lot.
Fig. 2. Improvement Through Practice Discussions

Do you think that the practice discussions havehelped you to improve your speaking skills?
11%
They have helped a lot
They have helped a little
They have not helped
They have been unhelpful
89%

The practice discussions were conceived of as a tool to help students to encounter theircommunication limits and to expand them through their own efforts (see Fig. 1) and were
therefore specifically not designed as fluency activities. As Nation and Newton (2009) haveargued, one of the requirements of fluency activities is that they should not require the learnerto engage with unfamiliar content, but by design, many of the discussion topics introduced inclass did require students to do this. As a possible consequence of this, the number of students
who answered that the discussions had helped them a lot to feel more confident when speaking
English was significantly less than those who felt that it had helped to improve their skills. While
the proportion of students who claimed that the discussions had not helped them at all was
extremely low, the decrease in this majority was notable.
A representative comment was made by Ami in journal 3, who said, “The most difficult thing thisweek was warm up discussion. Recent topics are getting more difficult, but I am not able toclarify my opinion more than before. In other words, I can no longer relax.” Yuna said, “Warm up
discussion was the most difficult. The difficult topic was confused me again and again. I tried to
my best, but I was not able to think deeply and express my opinions.” Clearly, the elements ofconfusion and an inability to relax have the potential to negatively impact on confidence or atleast hinder its growth. One possible conclusion to draw from this is that treating the practice
discussions more explicitly as fluency activities might have the potential to encourage the35growth of confidence in students and subsequently to improve participation, the ultimate driverbehind all of the activities listed here.
Fig. 3. Increased Confidence Through Practice Discussions

Do you think that these discussions have helped
you to feel more confident when speaking English?
2%

They have helped a lot

36%

They have helped a little
They have not helped
62%

They have been unhelpful

The 5-Second Rule
Student responses to the 5-second rule activities were similarly positive. When asked whether
the 5-second rule was a useful tool for learning English, 96% of respondents claimed that, to agreater or lesser degree, it was. Risa, in journal 3, said of the 5-second rule, “I used this rule foranswering teacher question… I felt a little afraid of failure, but I think I was able to announce myanswer openly. The frequency of answers has increased compared to April.” Naomi said:
I used the 5-second rule when I spoke up in FE class. First, I hesitated to say. But I
remembered I regretted when I didn’t say before. So I tried to say. After this class, I felt
really good! I felt deeply it was important to try anything.
Similarly, Kae wrote:
Before finishing class, Matt asked us ‘Do you have any questions?’ but, I couldn’t raise myhand because I became shy. So, I asked one question after finished this class. . . . I wantto master 5-second rule to be able to use without become shy.
What stands out on reading reflections of this kind, is the repeated mention of terms like “shy”,“hesitate”, and “afraid”. Clearly, the students are not claiming to have conquered their fear.
What these responses indicate is that the 5-second rule is acting as an efficient tool to help thempush past it and into a more active style of participation. The students recognise andacknowledge that fear remains. However, they now have at least one tool to deploy against it.

36

Fig. 4. The 5-Second Rule as a Tool to Improve English Skills

Do you think that the 5-second rule is a useful tool
to help you to improve your English skills?
2%

2%

41%

Yes, it is very helpful
Yes, it is somewhat helpful
It is not helpful

55%

It is unhelpful

Just how useful the 5-second rule was to students is reflected in the fact that all respondents
claimed to use the tool at least once a class, with approximately 10% claiming to use it four ormore times per class. However, a 100% positive response in any survey should prompt a scepticaleye and one caveat needs to be acknowledged. Clearly, the possibility of participant bias exists
in these statistics. Very plausibly, some students could have been attempting to provide the kindof answer that they suspected the teacher would want. However, the positivity and detailprovided in many of the students’ journals as they reflected on their use of the rule provides
some reasonable degree of immunity against such a charge. In one example, Momoka wrote:
I used this rule when I made a presentation. I could answer and ask some questions in thispresentation. I tried to help the group members or answer positively from otherclassmates questions. I could not do like this thing until now. But, I could do it. This thing
was my big growth. 5-second rule let me be positive. So, I will use it when I start new
things or encourage myself.
Also in Journal 3, Nobu wrote:
In the first class of this unit, I was able to tell my opinions well. Because I used 5-second
rule. I think it’s very very very useful. And if I use this, I can be positive and active! So, I
will continue to use this many times when I speak and study English.

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Fig. 5. Use of the 5-Second Rule

How often do you use this rule to help you when
you are studying in class?
10.6

4 or more times per class (onaverage)

25.5

2-3 times per class (on average)
Once per lesson (on average)
I don't use it
63.8

Obstacle as Goal
As mentioned earlier, a general unwillingness to make mistakes, particularly in front of peers, isa relatively deeply ingrained characteristic of many Japanese students. The students’ responses
to the activities over the course of the semester have proven that these activities are certainly
not a panacea for this attitude towards mistakes. In fact, at the completion of the semester,
approximately 15% of students stated that their comfort in relation to making mistakes
remained at about the same level it had been at the beginning of the semester. For example,
Mahiro spoke very honestly when asked, “Compared with the beginning of the semester, areyou more comfortable or less comfortable making mistakes?” He responded, “I think little bit
more comfortable than before. But almost the same. I’m depressed because everyone speak
English very well than me. So I should make an effort to have confidence myself.” Yurina also
felt that not a lot had changed when writing, “I think comfortable compared with the begging of
the semester. And it may not change much but it has grown a little.”

38

Fig. 6. Comfort Level with Mistakes

Compared with the beginning of the semester, areyou more comfortable or less comfortable making
mistakes?

14.9
I feel much more comfortable
42.6

I feel a little more comfortable
I feel about the same

42.6

I feel less comfortable

However, when asked how likely they were to participate in a group discussion in class, over 60%
of respondents answered that they were much more likely to participate with only 2% answeringthat the likelihood was about the same as at the beginning of the semester. This appears
consistent with the results obtained from the questions concerning the 5-second rule. Again,
students are not uniformly claiming to have banished their fears around making mistakes. A
large minority even claim to have made little or no progress in this area. But what many of thesestudents are demonstrating is a willingness to participate despite their fear.
Of students who claimed to feel much more likely to participate, a representative commentcame from Miyu, who said:
At the beginning of this class, I was always afraid of making mistakes. I also felt
embarrassed when I made a mistake. But I could find that it was a big mistake. I learned
that making mistakes can improve my English. That is very positive. So after realizing
this, I decided to try anything. And I'm no longer afraid of making mistakes. By making
mistakes I can learn a lot of new things. And I can develop the ability to speak English
positively. After I learned them, I really happy to make mistakes. So, in and out of thisclass, I tried to speak English as possible as I could. And now, I really love to speak.

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Fig. 7. Changes in Group Discussion Participation Levels

Compared to the beginning of the semester,
how likely are you to participate in a group
discussion in class?
2.1

Much more likely
36.2

A little more likely
About the same
61.7

Less likely

In addition to this, of the 98% of students who said they were more likely to participate in a group
discussion, approximately 78% of them said that the class activities had helped a lot in allowing
them to feel this way.
Fig. 8. Have Freshman English Activities Helped with Increased Participation Levels?

If you have become more likely to participate in classdiscussions, how much do you think thatthe activities in Freshman English have helped you to feel
this way?
21.3
They have helped a lot
They have helped a little
They haven't helped
78.7

40

While it is important to acknowledge certain factors which might affect the validity of thesefindings (among them the potential for participant bias), it is nevertheless possible to venture anumber of tentative conclusions from these results. First, students were overwhelmingly
positive in their response to the practice discussions. They not only understood the rationale
behind the discussions but claimed to see improvements in their own speaking performanceover the course of the semester because of them. However, there appeared to be some minor
impact on confidence in reaction to the more challenging discussion topics. Therefore, it might
be beneficial in the future to treat these discussions more explicitly as fluency exercises with allthat implies regarding the discussion content.
Second, the students were likewise very positive about the 5-second rule, with extremely highrates of use being reported. While they were not asked the question specifically, practically no
students claimed in their reflection journals that the rule had been instrumental in overcoming
their fear of failure. Rather, what many students reported was that the rule was effective in
helping them to participate in spite of their fear. They were able to use it as a tool to overcome
their fear.
Finally, while a significant number of students claimed to have experienced no change in theirconscious willingness to make mistakes, a very large majority reported a significantly increased
willingness to participate in group discussions, while an even larger majority credited the classactivities with helping them in some measure to achieve this. One interesting possibility
surrounding this emerged through the three reflection journals, which was not a factor in theoriginal design and implementation of these activities. Many students reported positively on theatmosphere created in the class by the regular acknowledgement and acceptance of mistakes.
They said that while much fear remained, they did feel supported by their peers and that theenvironment was very positive.
CONCLUSION
The class activities reported here were designed with three principles in mind: English as a set ofskills able to be improved with practice; practice will create various levels of anxiety and evenfear in students, therefore tools for pushing past this fear will be helpful; and finally, practiceentails obstacles and the potential for failure. Therefore, how the students conceive of obstacles
is vitally important. Feedback from students in response to these activities has been extremely
positive and appears to confirm the validity of the principles and the success of their application.
Students spoke often of the benefits of their change in mindset, a newfound willingness toparticipate in class being one of the most important. The positive response from students tothese activities suggests a more autonomous approach taking hold that can assist students inwhat Holec (1981) termed “taking charge of their own learning”.

REFERENCES

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APPENDIX
The 5 Second Rule is simple. If you have an instinct to act on a goal, you must physicallymove within 5 seconds or your brain will kill it.
The moment you feel an instinct or a desire to act on a goal or a commitment, use the Rule.
When you feel yourself hesitate before doing something that you know you should do, count 54-3-2-1-GO and move towards action.
There is a window that exists between the moment you have an instinct to change and yourmind killing it. It’s a 5 second window. And it exists for everyone.
If you do not take action on your instinct to change, you will stay stagnant. You will notchange.
But if you do one simple thing, you can prevent your mind from working against you. You canstart the momentum before the barrage of thoughts and excuses hit you at full force.
What do you do?
Just start counting backwards to yourself: 5-4-3-2-1.
The counting will focus you on the goal or commitment and distract you from the worries,
thoughts, and excuses in your mind.
As soon as you reach “1” – push yourself to move.
This is how you push yourself to do the hard stuff – the work that you don’t feel like doing, or
you’re scared of doing, or you’re avoiding.
That’s it. 5 seconds is all it takes.
If you don’t act on an instinct within that 5 second window, that’s it. You’re not doing it.

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