Impact Objectives• Develop a can-do list which charts language proficiency scale in elementary
school English to enhance children’s autonomy and self-efficacy• Understand what motivates students and develops their autonomy orself-efficacy and then use that to encourage their learningA ‘can-do’ evaluation tolearning foreign languages
Professor Emiko Izumi is collaborating with Professor Naoyuki Naganuma, Professor Mitsue Allen-Tamai,
other professors and elementary school teachers on a project that seeks to study Japanese children’s
self-evaluation and performance-based assessment, and promote learning through can-do scales and lists

Professor EmikoIzumi

Professor Naoyuki
Naganuma

Professor Mitsue
Allen-Tamai

What type of studies are underway by
your team as part of the Japan Society for
the Promotion of Science Grant-in-Aid for
Scientific Research project?
We are currently evaluating and developing
the can-do list we have created, which charts
language proficiency scale, in elementary
school English to enhance children’sautonomy and self-efficacy, to foster theirability to think, to make decisions and toexpress themselves and cultivate an attitudeof proactive learning. Of course, there aremany co-investigators and collaboratorsthat work at other institutions - there are
currently 14 people working on the research.
We consider it to be unique in the sense that
researchers and practitioners are united in
conducting research with one aim, while
going back and forth between theory andpractice.
Can you outline the role of your collaboratorsand the value they bring to the project?
There are eight collaborative researchers
from Hokkaido to Kyushu, and six
xx www.impact.pub

elementary school teachers involved.
They have all worked in various national,
public and private school types. They
have a common interest in teaching andevaluating English education, as well as in
the autonomy and growth of students andteachers. There are various specialties suchas English pedagogy, psychology, language
acquisition, child English and literacy
education. I am in charge of the overall
research summary, Naganuma is in chargeof statistics and evaluation, and Allen-Tamai
is in charge of literacy development. Allother members are in charge of their specificareas of specialties and expertise, thedevelopment of evaluation scale, while theelementary school teachers perform on-sitepractice, collect data and present findings at
academic conferences. Everyone has a goodworking relationship with each other, and we
all inspire one another in effective ways.
Have you faced any challenges in your work?
COVID-19 has presented challenges, in thatoutsiders are not allowed to enter schools
and classrooms. Face-to-face meetings arealso prohibited which makes it difficult for
the research team to get together. Of course,
we continue to hold online meetings, but
because we cannot meet with the children, it
is difficult to address any issues or evaluate
progress. We are working to develop fiveareas of can-do and performance tasks

according to the newly published textbooks
authorised by the Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports, Science and Technology(MEXT) this year that will help us overcome
these challenges, but we expect the project
to properly resume once the pandemic
threat has abated.
How are you hoping to develop thisresearch?
English education has become a subject inelementary schools since last April, and fullscale English education using the textbooks
has just begun. This will increase anxiety
in teachers regarding how they will teachand evaluate the children’s achievement,
so we expect that lessons and evaluations
will be improved by utilising the activity
design and evaluation scale that we havedeveloped. In fact, good practices andresults have been shown by our researchso far. It is also necessary to explore theability to think, judge, express and learn
that is required along with the knowledge
and skills of language. We would like toexplore the development of study skills
and proactive attitude towards learning,propose further evaluation methods andcontinue verification. Ultimately, we wantto understand what motivates students anddevelops their autonomy or self-efficacy andthen use that to encourage their learning. l

Engaging with foreign
language learning
A team based within the Graduate School of Education at Kwansei Gakuin University has created anevaluation scale to help teachers of foreign languages ascertain their achievement and help children takeownership and support their learning

The Common European Framework ofReference for Languages (CEFR) has been
issued by the Council of Europe, andautonomy is in the context of European
education and autonomous learners arebeing developed using can-do statements,
or descriptors, and the European Language
Portfolio (ELP). They have been shown to
be extremely effective at helping teachersand students design and practice teaching,learning and assessment to facilitate learning
foreign languages.
Professor Emiko Izumi, based within theGraduate School of Education at Kwansei
Gakuin University in Japan, leads the teamthat started to create such a can-do evaluation
scale and has continued research for many
years while developing their research
participants and contents. One of the chiefaims is to connect elementary and juniorhigh schools, with a view to promote thelearning motivation of children and students
through language activities and a can-do
evaluation scale that enhances self-efficacy andautonomy. ‘In order to evaluate what students
are able to do using English, it is important toconduct performance-based assessment usinga rubric,’ outlines Izumi. ‘We have made thoseevaluation scales publicly available as tentativeplans, some of which have been put intopractice. Their effectiveness will be qualitatively
and quantitatively verified.’

A LANGUAGE PROFICIENCYEVALUATION SCALE
The team behind the development of thecan-do evaluation tool is composed of 14
individuals with different backgrounds,
including researchers and teachers in schools.
Izumi is working alongside Professor Naoyuki
Naganuma and Professor Mitsue AllenTamai. Naganuma’s areas of expertise include
language learning motivation and language
testing theory, while Allen-Tamai has extensive
experience in English education as a university
teacher and has also taught English to toddlers
and children.
The can-do lists that the team have developed
are primarily concerned with a language
proficiency scale that they want to specificallyuse in elementary school English. ‘It isnecessary to draw a profile of what kindof language communication activities canbe done and what kind of communicativecompetencies are developed, and not in theoverall level in the process of creating theevaluation scale,’ explains Izumi. ‘So far, inEnglish education in junior high school andsenior high school, can-do lists have beencreated and used as an achievement goal,
but it has not been introduced in elementary
schools yet.’
However, given that foreign language subjects
were introduced in 2020, the team are intent
on using a new approach that will help learn

English. ‘The can-do scales that the team has
been working on are user-oriented, with theaim of developing a set of performance-related
scales that help to describe what learners canactually do in the particular foreign languagetasks,’ highlights Izumi. ‘Of course, theultimate goal for anybody learning a foreign
language is to develop a functional use of that
language, but the team want each individual toconceptualise their personal goals in the hopethat they will be able to motivate them andvisualise their progress over a period of time.’
CAN-DO STATEMENTS
The can-do statements are incorporated
into classroom activities and containfour graded specific scales: they use selfevaluation consisted of four grades describing
the process of learning, teaching anddevelopment; they clarify the objectives of theactivities involved; they prepare possible steps
that every child can aim for, adjust their own
learning and set their own goals and do theirbest to achieve; and they share the objectivesof the activities with the children, so they canunderstand why they are being asked to dowhat they are being asked to do. ‘Our viewis to encourage children’s learning, support
the learning process and foster an idea of
autonomy - it is easier to learn something
when you are engaged in the process yourself,
as opposed to merely doing something you
are being told to learn,’ comments Izumi.
www.impact.pub xx

A can-do statement would indicate how
confident or proficient a student is atachieving a certain specific foreign language
activity. There are answers including: it is still
difficult; I can do it with help of teachers orpeers, etc. (scaffolding stage); and I can do it
by myself; I can do it much better (challenging,or self-actualisation stage). Naganuma saysthat by collecting students’ self-evaluation
data based on such developmental scales andbecoming more aware of what they can do,
the teacher is able to better adjust and prepare
lessons and decide the most suitable flow ofactivities. ‘This prevents teachers prescribing

In a classroom setting, goals, teaching andevaluation should be integrated, but by
thinking in backward design, the quality of thelesson changes, making teachers concretely
image children’s performance, which changes
the instructions and their attitudes. Ultimately,
the team believe that this will help teachersconnect instructions and evaluations,
make lessons more enjoyable and easier tounderstand, thereby increasing the satisfactionlevel of children and enabling them to engage
with learning in an autonomous and more
persistent manner.

The answers to the can-do statements provide a history oflearning and development
and sticking to ideal goals at the same time asencouraging students to actively participate
in the evaluation of their own abilities,’ heobserves. ‘Importantly, the answers to thecan-do statements provide reflections onlearning and development, where students
can look back and be aware of what they havebecome or are becoming able to do, can gain asense of achievement and prepare themselves
to overcome and achieve required real-world
tasks in the future.’ He explains that the useof the can-do scale is effective for enhancing
teacher autonomy as well as learner autonomy,
and thus both teachers and students will growby self-regulation through monitoring andreflection on classes.
DESIGNING METHODSThe team’s work signals an important blend of
English pedagogy, applied linguistics, second
language acquisition, psychology and crosscultural communication, and the team arehoping to fill in some knowledge gaps in thecourse of their research. ‘In practical researchof English education, not only in elementary
school but also in secondary and tertiary
education, since teaching and learning aresometimes considered prior to evaluations,evaluations itself tend to be postponed, sowe strongly feel the need of the backward
design of teaching, learning and evaluations,’comments Izumi.
xx www.impact.pub

Izumi and the rest of the team believe thatstudents can play a leading role in their own
learning and build better relationships with
their teachers and peers. They are aiming forpractical research based on actual classroom
situations, but not only the support ofindividual teachers, but also the improvementof education of the entire school and region.
‘Allen-Tamai developed an effective literacy
program for an elementary school, which
enhanced students’ English learning andmotivation,’ explains Izumi. ‘Thus, the whole
region adopted her programme. The teamhas also contributed to the wider community
by providing several symposiums a year andworkshops for creating can-do scales all overthe country.’
The can-do list and evaluation examples thathave been specifically developed are compiledin the form of a booklet every year and are also
published online so that anyone can refer tothese and use them for practice. The team is
hopeful that their findings will make significant
contributions to English education which
may relate to the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development’s (OECD)
Education 2030 framework and better-quality
education for the sustainable development
goals (SDGs). l

Project Insights
FUNDING
Japan Society for the Promotion ofScience (JSPS), KAKAENHI Grant-in-Aidfor Scientific Research (B) Grant number
18H00690
RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS
Kwansei Gakuin University, Kyoto
University of Education
CO-INVESTIGATORS
Professor Ryuichi Yorozuya (Hokkaido
University of Education), Professor
Naoyuki Naganuma (Tokai University),
Professor Mitsue Allen-Tamai (AoyamaGakuin University), Part-time lecturer
Mayumi Tabuchi (Ritsumeikan University),
Associate Professor Aki Ota (Beppu
University Junior College), Associate
Professor Aiko Kurokawa, (TezukayamaUniversity), Associate Professor Hiroyuki
Kato (Gifu Shotoku Gakuen University)
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS
Atsuko Morimoto (Tezukayama ElementarySchool), Rie Hatai (Showa Elementary
School attached to Showa Women’s
University), Takayo Shimazaki (Osaka
Municipal Hajo Elementary School), TakuYamakawa (Kyoto Municipal Kujotonan
Elementary School), Chisato Matano(Momoyama Elementary School attachedto Kyoto University of Education), Tatsushi
Oe (Kyoto Municipal Dodo ElementarySchool)
CONTACT DETAILS
Professor Emiko Izumi
Principal Investigator
T: +81 798 52 4376
E: emiko@kwansei.ac.jp
W: https://kaken.nii.ac.jp/grant/KAKENHI
PROJECT-18H00690/
W: http://www.izumi-lab.jp/easel.html