Editors:
Kim Bradford-Watts
Robert Chartrand
Eric M. SkierMessage from the editors
The 10th Annual Pan-SIG Conference, held at Shinshu University, Matsumoto, Japanover the weekend of May 21st and 22nd, 2010 was a resounding success with teachers
and researchers attending from across Japan and a number of other countries. We would
especially like to thank Mark Brierley and the conference committee for their efforts,
which resulted in a professional, but friendly, atmosphere at the site.
The 2011 Pan-SIG Proceedings may be considered a window onto the conference forthose who were unable to attend, or those who would like to revisit a particularly
impressive presentation. Collected herein are 20 papers representing the excellent
scholarship in evidence at this year’s Pan-SIG Conference. We hope you find the papers
in this volume as interesting as we have. We are looking forward to working withsubmissions from presenters at the upcoming 11th Annual Pan-SIG Conference to beheld at Hiroshima University on June 16-17, 2012.
Lastly, we wish to dedicate the Proceedings to Mr. Matthew Walsh, who very sadly
passed away at far too young an age on October 6th, 2011. Matt was co-editor for the
9th Pan-SIG Conference Proceedings and was slated to have been lead editor of thisvolume. In addition to being a first-rate teacher-researcher, he was a wonderful humanbeing with a big heart and an infectious smile. He will be missed terribly.
Kim Bradford-Watts
Robert Chartrand
Eric M. Skier2

Table of Contents
1. Feedback on the Tenth Annual Pan-SIG Conference 2011
Mary Aruga

5

2. Three types of reader: Activities for motivation in Extensive Reading
John Bankier

15

3. Intercultural communication in teacher training
Samuel James Crofts

39

4. Teaching and testing fluency
John Campbell-Larsen

57

5. Fluency development through skill transference
Brian Cullen and Sarah Mulvey

68

6. Using Chaos Theory as a path to language fluency
Eric Fortin

80

7. Transfer Appropriate Processing: Establishing a basis for application in the SLA
classroom
Nathaniel French

93

8. Challenging mainstream thinking of fluency: Its definition and assessment
Donna Fujimoto108

9. Testing-A boon or a bane on the path to fluency?
Andrew Joseph Lawson

116

10. Language learning spaces: Creating a communicative classroom
Tonya M. Kneff

128311. Language policy in Japan: Shifting paradigms
Michael Mondejar, Joël Laurier, Linamaria Valdivia, Bill Mboutsiadis and Edward
Sanchez

149

12. Encouraging fluency through poster presentations
Jennifer Morgan

166

13. Multinational workshops on technical issues create fluent English global technicalleaders (GTL)
Keunyoung Pak, Kazunori Fukuchi, Motomu Takeshige, Atsuko Shigihara, Motoko
Takeuchi, Kiyoshi Iida, Yoshikatsu Kubota, Mika Owada, Dinil Pushpalal, and PeterJohn Wanner

179

14. Python in the class-Tools to help you teach fluency
Malcolm Prentice193

15. Prepared presentations improve student sense of potential for progress
Ryan Richardson

202

16. The role of graphics in business English textbooks
Cameron Romney and Leon Bell210

17. Developing institutional relationships through ER
David Ruzicka and Mark Brierley

220

18. Masculinity and the desire to acquire English
Todd Squires

235

19. Elementary school English: Collaborate English lessons with subject area themes
Takano J. Kambara, Y. Suzuki

247

20. Speaking fluency across performances of the 3/2/1 activity
Alex Wright263
4

Feedback on the Tenth Annual Pan-SIG Conference 2011
Mary Aruga
Shinshu University
Reference Data:
Aruga, M. (2012). Feedback on the Tenth Annual Pan-SIG Conference 2011. In K.
Bradford-Watts, R. Chartrand, & E. Skier (Eds.), The 2011 Pan-SIG Conference
Proceedings. Matsumoto: JALT.
Abstract
The Pan-SIG conference is an annual collaborative effort of the Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
within the Japan Association of Language Teachers (JALT). This article describes a first effort
at gathering feedback on it for two purposes: to obtain input to help presenters in their future
presentations and to provide suggestions for improving future conferences.
分野別研究部会年次大会(Pan-SIG conference)は全国語学教育学会（ＪＡＬＴ）内分野別研究部会による協同の取り組みである。ここでは、それに関しての初の調査について記述するもので、二つの目的がある：プレゼンターが今後のプレゼンテーションをより良くするための情報を得ること、及び今後の年次大会運営をより良くするための提案をすることである。

Key words
conference feedback, Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT), Pan-SIG,
presentation feedback, conference management
The Pan-SIG conference is a collaborative effort of the Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
within the Japan Association of Language Teachers (JALT). The theme of the tenthannual conference in 2011 held at Shinshu University’s Matsumoto campus was "Paths
to Fluency". Participating SIGs included: Business English (BE), Bilingualism (BL),Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL), Critical Thinking (CT), College andUniversity Educators (CUE), Extensive Reading (ER), Framework and Language
Portfolio (FLP), Global Issues in Language Education (GILE), Japanese as a Second
Language (JSL), Junior and Senior High School (JSHS), Learner Development (LD),5Life Long Learning (LLL), Material Writers (MW), Other Language Educators (OLE),
Professionalism, Administration and Leadership in Education (PALE), Pragmatics(PRAG), Study Abroad (SA), Task Based Learning (TBL), Teaching Children (TC),Teacher Education (TED), Testing and Evaluation (TEVAL) and Teachers Helping
Teachers (THT), in conjunction with the Shinshu Chapter of JALT.
This first attempt to gather feedback on a Pan-SIG conference was made fortwo main reasons: to provide input to help presenters in their future presentations and toprovide suggestions for improving future conferences. Feedback forms (see Appendix
1) were provided in the conference packets; these were to be filled out and collected by
student assistants at the site exit. Data was gathered also through Surveymonkey
post-conference. While over 200 participants attended the conference, feedback wasreceived on only 35 of the approximately 120 sessions, from 16 participants (hardcopy:
ten, Surveymonkey: six).
Participants were asked to rate each presentation they attended on a four-point
Likert scale according to whether it was: engaging, easy to follow, beneficial to theirteaching and had a good balance of practice and theory. A box was included for “goodpoints/suggestions” about each presentation. At the end of the survey was a space forcomments/suggestions about the conference as a whole including logistics such as
payment/registration, venue and PR.
The feedback directed to individual presenters was sent directly to eachpresenter and to the program chair. Eight presenters responded positively to the
feedback, saying that it was “welcome” and “useful”, while one presenter commented
that the low number of replies rendered it “statistically insignificant”. If a presenter
received only one reply which happened to be extremely negative, it could be not only
skewed, but demoralizing. It was also noted that the forms could have been madeclearer, especially when one presenter made more than one presentation. One presentersaid it would be good to know ahead of time what would be done with the feedback.
Suggestions from the presenters for improving the lack of response included:
1) have presenters bring their own feedback forms to distribute and collect at theirpresentation, 2) have volunteer staff (who could double as timekeepers) distribute andcollect forms at each presentation and put them into envelopes which would be handed
to the person in charge, 3) make sure the importance of the forms is stressed at the
opening ceremony and at each plenary and 4) announce that a certain amount of money
6

would be donated to a charity for each form submitted. Implementation of suggestions
1) and 2) could be left to the discretion of the presenter.
Concerning the conference as a whole, 18 of the 25 who offered comments
praised aspects such as organization, presentations, venue (good location; the compact
site facilitated more networking), party (on-site), bus service (good directions), food,staff and website. All of the eight emails sent to the Pan-sig committee provided
positive feedback for similar reasons, with the plenaries, presentations, and staff(friendly and helpful) receiving especial praise. Six comments included issues to beaddressed or suggestions for future conferences:

Panels should have a moderator to ensure that each panelist has a chance to speak
and to keep the discussion on course.



There were too many presentations with too few attendees.

There were some discrepancies in the handbook.

The presenters went over time, making it difficult to get to the next presentation ontime or to set up for one’s own presentation. There should be timekeepers who
could also run for help in the event of an equipment breakdown.



There was no place to sit and talk or read programs. One participant was looking
for refreshments, in vain.



Hopefully the Pan-Sig Proceedings will be online in a more timely manner than lastyear.

Another issue brought up was the low attendance of teachers from local schools.
As regards to pre-conference procedures, it was suggested that vetting
guidelines should be stricter and presentations should be labeled to make it easier forparticipants to tell at a glance what kind of presentation it would be (e.g. getting ideas
for classes, developing ideas for language teaching or interacting with other people).
Lastly, for the benefit of future conference planners, especially in terms of
publicity, Appendix 2 shows how attendees found out about the conference andAppendix 3 the survey used to obtain the results (courtesy of Rory Rosszell).
My thanks go out to all those who have taken the time to contribute feedback andsuggestions.

7Biodata
Mary Aruga is a lecturer at Shinshu University, Tokyo University of Science, Suwa,and Honan College. Her interests include pragmatics, cross-cultural communication,
content-based learning, and motivation.

Appendix 1: Feedback form (to cover both sides of a piece of A4 paper)
The 10th Pan-SIG Conference – Questionnaire
We would appreciate a few minutes of your time to give helpful feedback to presentersand ensure the quality of future conferences.
Presentation/Speaker:

No

Good points/suggestions:

Yes(Pleasecircle)Engaging

1

2

3

4

Easy to follow

1

2

3

4

Beneficial to my teaching

1

2

3

4

Good balance of practice and

1

2

3

4

theoryPresentation/Speaker:

No

Good points/suggestions:

Yes(Pleasecircle)Engaging

1

2

3

4

Easy to follow

1

2

3

4

Beneficial to my teaching

1

2

3

4

Good balance of practice and

1

2

3

4

theoryPresentation/Speaker:

No

Good points/suggestions:

Yes (Pleasecircle)8Engaging

1

2

3

4

Easy to follow

1

2

3

4

Beneficial to my teaching

1

2

3

4

Good balance of practice and

1

2

3

4

theoryPresentation/Speaker:

No

Good points/suggestions:

Yes(Pleasecircle)Engaging

1

2

3

4

Easy to follow

1

2

3

4

Beneficial to my teaching

1

2

3

4

Good balance of practice and

1

2 3

4

theoryPresentation/Speaker:

No

Good points/suggestions:

Yes(Pleasecircle)Engaging

1

2

3

4

Easy to follow

1

2

3

4

Beneficial to my teaching

1

2

3

4

Good balance of practice and

1

2

3

4

theoryPresentation/Speaker:

No

Good points/suggestions:

Yes (Pleasecircle)Engaging

1

2

3

4

Easy to follow

1

2

3

4

Beneficial to my teaching

1

2

3

4

Good balance of practice and

1

2

3

4

theory9

Presentation/Speaker:

No

Good points/suggestions:

Yes(Pleasecircle)Engaging

1

2

3

4

Easy to follow

1

2

3

4

Beneficial to my teaching

1

2

3

4

Good balance of practice and

1

2

3

4

theoryPresentation/Speaker:

No

Good points/suggestions:

Yes(Pleasecircle)Engaging

1

2

3

4

Easy to follow

1

2 3

4

Beneficial to my teaching

1

2

3

4

Good balance of practice and

1

2

3

4

theoryPresentation/Speaker:

No

Good points/suggestions:

Yes (Pleasecircle)Engaging

1

2

3

4

Easy to follow

1

2

3

4

Beneficial to my teaching

1

2

3 4

Good balance of practice and

1

2

3

4

theoryPresentation/Speaker:

No

Good points/suggestions:

Yes(Pleasecircle)Engaging

1

2

3

4

Easy to follow

1

2

3

4

10

Beneficial to my teaching

1

2

3

4

Good balance of practice and

1

2

3

4

theoryPresentation/Speaker:

No

Good points/suggestions:

Yes(Pleasecircle)Engaging

1

2

3

4

Easy to follow

1

2

3

4

Beneficial to my teaching

1

2

3

4

Good balance of practice and

1

2

3

4

theoryAny other comments/suggestions concerning payment/registration, venue, PRor other aspects of the conference?

Thank you very much for your feedback!
Appendix 2

11

Appendix 3
How did you become aware of the Pan-SIG2011 conference? - Other (please be as
specific as possible)
Member of committee ;-)I am on the committee
I presented at the last PanSig conference
Too many drinks with XXXX
Went to last year's conference
Word of mouth via MASH and JALT friends prior to any of the above official channels
I am the XXXXX Program Chair
Word of mouth
Personal communication with co-presenter
It happens every year

12

Pub
Can't remember, but probably a JALT or JALT sig mail list.
friend who is also a JALT member
email announcement
My friend informed me about the conference.
via a JALT member who is a friend of mineworking for the PANSIG as a commitee menber
A friend told me about it.
fellow teacher
As I attend most years and did last year I just sort of knew
from colleagues at XXXX University - Tokyoa colleague
I am a comittee member, so I know this conference☆
JALT Conference in Nagoya
Through colleagues
Colleagues at XXXX College
I was invited to sit on a panel discussion
A friend mentioned it
The linguist list
I've been aware of it since 2002 - now it is half-instinct to attend.
Since I live in Matsumoto, I was aware of the initial offer to host the conference at theEBM.
Former Colleague
Probaly all of the above. Been going for years.
An email message from XXXX
I wish ELT Calendar were one of the choices above. www.eltcalendar.com, conference
listing and call for papers listing, ELT Calendar twitter, and XXXX on facebook
planning member
Committee member
XXXX, a colleague.
The handbook of the JALT conference in Nagoya, November 2010
Attend regularly so googled it13

I help run the XXXX thing!
facebook
A colleague on the organizing committee
FriendXXXX asked me to the Pan-SIG
EBMs (attended as JSHS SIG Coordinator)
Presentation partners
a colleague
Colleague
Jalt mailing list

14

Three types of reader: Activities for motivation in Extensive Reading
John Bankier
Soka University
Reference data:
Bankier, J. (2012). Three types of reader: Activities for motivation in extensive reading.
In K. Bradford-Watts, R. Chartrand, & E. Skier (Eds.), The 2011 Pan-SIG Conference
Proceedings. Matsumoto: JALT.
Abstract
In order to help teachers think more clearly about motivational issues in Extensive Reading(ER), this paper aims to separate out common problems into three theoretical types of learner:
those who enjoy reading in the L1 but do not participate in ER, those who participate in ER but
whose beliefs about learning adversely affect their chances of success, and finally those learners
who are not interested reading at all. The characteristics of these types are first defined,
informed by the work of Dörnyei (2005; 2009), Wigfield and Guthrie (1997) and Mori (2002),
making particular reference to Mori’s four factors in reading motivation. Three activities arethen described, each of which targets a particular type of learner and aims to increase theirmotivation through drawing on group cohesion, challenging learners’ beliefs about language,and using the intrinsic value of reading to counter beliefs about reading efficacy.
多読（ER）の動機付けに関する論点を教師がよりはっきりと考えられるように本稿は頻繁に起こる問題を以下の 3 つの理論上の学習者タイプに分類することを目的としている。母国語での読書を楽しむが多読に参加しないタイプ、多読に参加するが学習に対する信条が成功の可能性に負の影響を与えているタイプ、リーディングに興味を全く持たないタイプ。Dörnyei (2005; 2009)、Wigfield and Guthrie (1997)、Mori (2002)を参照して、
まずこれらのタイプの特徴が明らかにされる。特に Mori (2002)のリーディングに対する動機付けの４つの要因について言及される。次に３つのアクティビティが説明される。
それぞれのアクティビティは、特定のタイプの学習者に焦点が絞られ、集団の団結力を利用したり、学習者の言語学習に対する信条に異議を唱えたり、リーディング効果の信条に対抗するためにリーディングに内在する価値を使ったりすることで彼らの学習意
欲を向上させることを目指している。

Keywords: Extensive Reading, motivation, demotivation, learned, reading efficacy,
15

activity
多読、動機付け、意欲喪失、学習性無力感、リーディング効果、アクティビティ

Motivation has a huge impact on second language learning. In Extensive Reading (ER),motivation is especially relevant, as learners will be expected to do much of the workoutside class and in their own time (Waring, n.d.; Waring & Takahashi, n.d.). As aresult, a key factor in a successful ER class is the extent to which learners are motivated
to read, enjoy reading, and read appropriate books. Demotivation in ER is a particularissue, and I will later present examples of how even learners with an interest in L1
reading may be demotivated during ER. This paper is informed by the motivational
theories of Dörnyei (2005; 2009), Wigfield and Guthrie (1997) and Mori (2002), andfocuses on three theoretical types of learner. These types were derived from experienceof recurring issues relating to lack of ER motivation, and form the basis of three
activities designed to target specific aspects of learner motivation in relation to thesetypes.
Teaching context
The activities described in this paper were designed for adult learners with a typical age
range of 18-27. The students were enrolled on a two-year language program at a foreign
language college in Japan (gaikokugo senmongakkou). The nationalities of the students
were divided between 60% Japanese and 40% international, of which the majority were
Korean, followed by Chinese, with a small number of other nationalities such as
Colombian, Mongolian, Russian, and Brazilian. The teachers in the program wereexperienced overall but did not have experience in teaching extensive reading. In
particular, teachers found it difficult to motivate students to read within therecommended boundaries of ER, such as the number of books read and their level.
Indeed, many first year students were initially skeptical of the value of the program (seeWilkinson, 2009); however, a survey we conducted at the end of the second year
indicated that the vast majority of students had been very happy with the program andenjoyed it. Despite this, the motivational issues meant that the program was not as
successful as we might have hoped (see Bankier, 2011).
In terms of available resources, the number of books was limited at first but
was expanded significantly in the second and third years of the program. The students
16

had access to the complete Cambridge Readers series, the majority of the Oxford
Bookworms series, and a large number of Penguin Readers, as well as some books fromother publishers. All in all, the ratio of books per student was around 3:1. Shortage ofbooks was generally not an issue that students commented on, but the shortage ofparticular genres of books was. In the first year of the program, we particularly lacked
many non-fiction books and genres such as science fiction; by the second year, theseissues had been partly addressed, but there was still a lack of variety in the materials,
with a focus on thrillers, romance and abridged classics (perhaps a weakness of thegraded reader series we had chosen). The activities described in this paper were
designed to be used for all levels of first- and second-year students on the program, withthe exception of the lowest level first-years.
A review of research into motivation in reading
Motivation in learning another language has often been conceptualized in terms ofintegrative and instrumental orientations (see Sturgeon, n.d., for a comprehensive
review). Instrumental motivation refers to the practical value of learning a language,
while integrative motivation refers to the learner’s desire to learn due to a personal
interest in its people and culture (Lambert, 1974, cited in Gardner & MacIntyre, 1991).
Integrative motivation, however, has come under criticism in recent years (Dörnyei
2009; Mori, 2002; Ushioda, 2011), as an increase in the use of English as aninternational language has been seen as having deemphasized the role of cultural
integration. Instead, instrumental and integrative motivation have been shown to bestrongly related (Dörnyei & Csizér, 2002, citied in Ushioda, 2011).
In an attempt to deal with the concerns relating to the integrative/instrumental
model of motivation, Dörnyei (2005; 2009) presented a new theory, the L2 Motivational
Self System, which “explicitly focuses on aspects of the individual’s self” (Dörnyei,
2009, p. 9). Dörnyei’s theory is grounded in the concept of possible selves, in whichlearners are seen as looking forward to future achievement or a future conception ofthemselves. This can be related to the idea of the good reader: the extent to whichlearners see themselves as readers or the extent to which they see value in becoming areader in the future.

17

Motivation in reading
While there is plenty of research showing achievement gains from ER, Mori (2002) andApple (2005) both comment on the paucity of research into motivation in L2 reading.
Mori, therefore, utilizes the framework developed by Wigfield and Guthrie (1997),
which was developed for native-speaker child learners, based on expectancy-value
theory (Mori, 2002), specifically the extent to which learners’ beliefs and attitudes
affect their success. Apple (2005) summarizes Wigfield and Guthrie’s components as:competency and efficacy beliefs, achievement values and goals, and social aspects. That
is to say, reading motivation is affected by how well learners believe they read, thevalue they attach to reading books, and how they are influenced by their peers or thesocial environment.
Mori (2002) adapts these components to L2 reading into four factors. Firstly,
intrinsic value of reading refers to students’ enjoyment of reading for its own sake, suchas the degree to which learners became immersed in reading. Secondly, extrinsic utility
value of reading refers to the instrumental value of reading, such as being able to read
English newspapers or magazines or getting a job which uses English. Thirdly,
importance of reading is linked to the idea of integrative motivation, in terms ofbroadening one’s world view, for instance. Finally, reading efficacy refers to thelearners’ beliefs about their reading ability, such as past experiences or past grades.
From the results of the research she conducted into the four motivational factors, Moriconcludes that the motivation to read is not “independent of general motivational
constructs” (p. 101). In other words, motivation in reading was similar to motivation in
general; as a result, it is “rash to label students as either motivated or not motivated toread” (p. 101). A student who was particularly motivated to read was more likely to be
motivated in general; therefore, it is more helpful to view learners in terms of motivatedor not motivated students, rather than readers. This correlated with the findings of
Wigfield and Guthrie (1997), who found that intrinsic motivation predicted the amountand breadth of reading.
Learners beliefs about all four of Mori’s factors are particularly shaped bytheir past experiences, and my experience suggests that this can have a significant
negative, as well as positive, impact on reading motivation. What learners expect fromlanguage learning will have been developed before they begin learning, and learners’
beliefs will have been shaped by their past experiences (White, 1999; Gabillon, 2005).
18

This is particularly relevant in terms of how students approach L2 learning, and affects
what strategies or approaches they are likely to adopt. Lack of success in L2 learning isfrequently connected to the strategies learners use, and these strategies change as
learners become more proficient (Tar, n.d.). Learners may believe they do not possess
the necessary skills, and this belief will affect “the choices they make, the effort they
put forth, their inclinations to persist at certain tasks, and their resiliency in the face offailure” (Zeldin & Pajares, 2000, cited in Gabillon, 2005, p. 242). Thus it is importantfor ER activities to take into account learners’ beliefs, and for teachers to be aware of
how these beliefs may affect students’ performance and achievement.
To summarize, Mori’s (2002) four factors focus particularly on how learners’
beliefs about the value, usefulness, and possibility of success in reading affectmotivation, as well as on the intrinsic enjoyment of reading which is a common goal for
ER programs. I will now describe the three types of learner that I developed, and how
these types are related to Mori’s factors and other research into motivation in reading.
Three types of reader
Through conversations with teachers and students on our language program, it became
apparent that motivation was an issue which required greater focus. Simple action
research was conducted in the form of interviews with teachers on the extensive reading
program; the interviews were initiated either by the author or by teachers themselves in
response to particular motivational issues on the program. The interviews were informal
and conducted over the course of the academic year. Teachers were asked how many
books their students were reading, whether the students were reading books of theappropriate level, and whether students were having difficulty selecting books. Teachers
were also asked to give their opinions on which students were succeeding on the
program, which were struggling, and if any students were significantly lacking inmotivation. As I had been teaching on the program myself since the outset, my
experiences also informed the results.
A number of important recurring the issues arose. These included common
problems such as students not reading enough books, students reading books
considerably below their level, and students who found that the books in the librarywhen not suitable for them for various reasons. Particularly in upper level classes, what
I would view as a less common problem emerged: students who were asking to read19

books considerably above their level, such as ungraded fiction or even native-level
content textbooks.
The following three types of reader represent a concrete way to look at theseparticular motivational issues. While the types are theoretical, the motivational issues
which they represent are very real. It is my belief that putting a label on some of theseissues makes it easier for teachers to think in terms of the underlying motivations
behind student behavior. That is to say, instead of “This student is complaining thebooks aren’t good enough”, we can think in terms of “This student considers herself tobe someone who knows what a good book is,” for instance. This may have a significant
impact on how the teacher approaches motivation; I would argue it makes it easier tomotivate a student intrinsically rather than extrinsically (through pressure from gradesor other exercises of teacher power) when one has a clearer idea of where his or her
beliefs may come from.

Bookworm
In many ways, an ideal ER learner is someone who has an existing interest in readingand has already established a lifelong reading habit. These learners have strong intrinsic
motivation to read, and learners who are motivated intrinsically often feel enjoyment or
satisfaction in learning (Sakai, 2007). However, an open question in ER research iswhether or not L1 reading habits transfer to L2. My experience is that, generally, theydo. Learners who read in their L1 are more likely to enjoy reading for its own sake, as
in Mori’s (2002) intrinsic value of reading. Furthermore, I would also argue that theselearners often feel that reading is something they have been and are likely to be
successful at, in terms of Mori’s factor of reading efficacy.
However, not all beliefs about learning necessarily produce positive effects.
For example, a motivated learner who has learned in the past using grammar-translation
methods may be reluctant to adopt a new approach (Gabillon, 2005). In the same way, alearner who has enjoyed reading a particular type of material in a particular way in thepast may be reluctant to read a different type in a different way. For instance, prolificreaders who prefer non-fiction in their L1 may be reluctant to read fiction in the L2.
Readers who prefer gritty crime stories are reluctant to read romance. Those who
gravitate to classics and works of high art may struggle to engage with populist fiction.
20

These issues, of course, can be dealt with by an extensive library with a wide variety ofmaterials (Waring, n.d.); however, I would argue that there are a number of benefits toreading a wider variety of materials, including the possibility that, for example, thestudent who only reads L1 non-fiction may come to enjoy fiction.
A further issue beyond book selection is that some learners may reject theidea of simplified materials entirely. I agree that graded (or simplified) readingmaterials have authenticity, which means that the focus is on communicating a message,
with learners able to understand and enjoy the text. However, it is in the nature ofgraded materials that they are not authentic, which means that they lack some of thecomplexity or nuance of ungraded materials (Nation & Deweerdt, 2001). For the
majority of learners, this is not an issue; however, I discovered that some learners foundreading graded materials in the L2 demeaning in a sense. If the books are perceived as
being clichéd, generic, or simplified, some learners respond by rejecting graded readers
entirely. A revealing comment from one student in his ER feedback was “The books in
the library are too cheap.” A fairly motivated L1 reader, he was referring to thetendency for many graded books to exhibit overly familiar or clichéd themes or styles.
These learners then may ask if they can read their own ungraded fiction, or in otherwords books which are authentic in the strictest sense. While I would argue it isappropriate to allow students who are not yet ready for ungraded materials to read asmall amount which hold very strong personal interest (perhaps one or two books asemester, assuming 15 books a semester), certainly no valid extensive reading program
can continue if students are taking part in intensive reading.
Furthermore, it is my experience that some learners who consider themselves
to be good L1 readers feel anxiety when reading in the L2, which can be defined as athreat to the individual’s self-conception (Saito, Garza, & Horwitz, 1999); the learner’s
self-conception is that they are a good reader, but they may not be a good reader in theL2 or in ER. This threat can be countered by espousing a lack of interest in, or rejectionof, the program. Similarly, learners who are fluent when reading in the L1 are often
considerably less so in the L2. This may manifest itself in learners reading books which
are too easy; however, my experience suggests that it is more likely to manifest itself in
learners picking books which are too difficult, and thus maintaining the image of beinga good reader. This creates further motivational issues related to reading books above
one’s level, as explained in detail below. Therefore, while many intrinsically motivated21

readers are successful at ER, a minority of hard to please but otherwise keen readers doexist. My experience is that this vocal minority can have a disproportionately negative
effect on the community as a whole: to be told the books one is reading are cheap,
overly simple, or not real books can be demotivating to other students. This isparticularly the case when these statements come from the bookworms of the class.
Readers who read to learn
While many learners read through an enjoyment of reading, the results of our ER
feedback survey showed that a large number of students were reading primarily to
improve their English. These students were motivated by the extrinsic utility value ofreading (Mori, 2002). This type of instrumental motivation can be very effective(Gardener & MacIntyre, 1991), yet it has the potential to conflict with the goals of ER
and its role within the language curriculum in two important ways.
Firstly, instrumental motivation is connected to particular environmental
factors, such as an intention to work overseas or study abroad. If these future goals were
to be removed or negated in some way, the instrumental motivation or utility value ofreading would disappear. This contradicts one of the main tenets of ER, namely thatlearners develop a lifelong reading habit in the L2. It is important that students arereading not only for these instrumental reasons if we hope to encourage real enjoyment
in reading.
Secondly, learners who are motivated to improve their English may be lesswilling to stick within the bounds of ER. A continual issue we faced was persuadingthese students to read books below their level, as instrumentally motivated students
were generally focused on the amount of vocabulary, structure or content they could
learn. In ER programs, learners should not be reading books with less than about 98%
coverage, or one word in fifty unknown (Nation, 2001), and should ideally encounter no
unknown items at all (Nation & Deweerdt, 2001). If learners insist on reading books inwhich they know less than 98% of the words, which are too grammatically or
narratively complex, or which include topic areas that are beyond their abilities, there
will be a number of negative results. Firstly, learners will not improve their reading
speed as much, which is an important goal, as they will be focused on new vocabulary.
Secondly, the effort that learners put into ER is not always apparent: reading moredifficult books does not necessarily result in large vocabulary gains. Therefore, when22

learners put in this effort to read difficult books, the results may be disappointing,particularly when compared to deliberate forms of learning (Nation & Wang, 1999).
This is demotivating, with learners less likely to attribute success to effort. Learners
may well be less likely to choose extensive reading as opposed to deliberate forms oflearning in the future. Finally, if learners read books that are too difficult, they are lesslikely to understand them and therefore less likely to connect with them in an enjoyable
and authentic manner (Nation & Deweerdt, 2001; Waring & Takahashi, n.d.), leading toless enjoyment and a lower likelihood that the learners’ idea of the intrinsic value ofreading will be increased. As a result, it is important to motivate readers who read tolearn away from reading difficult materials, and towards reading more easily
comprehensible texts for pleasure.
Book-phobe
Both of the above learner types can be said to represent misplaced motivation. That is tosay, these learners may be motivated, but past experiences and beliefs about learningand reading influence their motivation in a potentially negative direction. The third typeof learners are not motivated to read, and this belief is carried over from their L1
reading as well as L2 language learning experiences. While these learners may see some
instrumental value in learning or may understand the importance of reading, theirbeliefs affect their view of reading efficacy, and they do not take any intrinsic
enjoyment in reading. Simply, they do not like to read, and are disconnected fromliteracy in general (Guthrie & Davis, 2003). As Mori (2002) states, it does not seem tobe the case that a large proportion of readers lack motivation in reading alone. Rather,
these learners may lack motivation in language learning in general.
Such learners may suffer from learned helplessness (Noels, Clemént &Pelletier, 1999; Dörnyei, 1994, both cited in Sakai, 2007), in which learners feel that it
is impossible for them to achieve success in language learning, caused by their pastexperiences of lack of success. While doubtless many students will not haveexperienced extensive reading before, many students certainly will have experienced
reading in their L1 and intensive reading in English. This is an extreme form of thereading efficacy that Mori mentions.
A further factor affecting book-phobe learners is anxiety. In contrast to Mori’s(2002) conclusions relating to the interrelatedness of reading motivation and motivation23

in general, Saito, Garza, and Horwitz (1999) found that L2 reading anxiety may be a
separate concept from L2 anxiety in general. For some learners, reading can be a threat
to their self-image, leading to a withdrawal of effort (Guthrie & Davis, 2003).
Furthermore, Gardener and MacIntyre (1991) found that anxiety was significantly
related (negatively) to achievement. For many students on our program, reading a large
quantity of books was extremely daunting, particularly as it was a required aspect of thecourse. Learners may have experienced anxiety in past situations, such as in high school
L2 intensive reading classes, and this will have significant effects on their current
beliefs about reading efficacy.
Summary
Table 1 gives a summary of the three types. Beliefs about learning refers to theparticular features of this type of learner which may motivate their behavior, shown interms of the possible positive and negative manifestations of these characteristics.
Table 1. Summary of the Types of Learner
Bookworm

Readers who read to learn

Book-phobe

Beliefs about

Reading in the L1 is enjoyable

Reading is a way to learn vocabulary

Reading in any

learning

Consider themselves

and improve grammatical knowledge

language is notknowledgeable about literature or

Reading in English is not forenjoyable

readingenjoyment

Would prefer towatch, films or TV
shows, howeverdifficult

Positive

Becomes immersed in reading

Read a large number of books

manifestations

Potential to develop a lifelong

Motivated to progress to slightly

habit of reading

more difficult books

Negative

Unwilling to read books which

Read books which are too difficult;

Read a small number

manifestations

are “too easy” or appear

possible negative image of ER

of books

inauthentic

Motivation is dependent on

Read books which

instrumental utility of English

are too easy

24

None apparent

Representative“The books in the library are“I can learn new words from the“I’m not good atstudent

cheap”

books”

reading in Japanese”

comments“Why can’t I read my own
psychology textbook?”

Note: The above comments are paraphrases of student views rather than actual
discourse.
Three activities
As mentioned above, the three types of learner were derived from motivational issues
which emerged in the course of the extensive reading program. The primary goal ofdefining the three types was not theoretical, but was as a way of thinking about theseissues in a more systematic way. The goal was then to develop some activities which
could be used in class to motivate these types of learners. Rather than focusing on thenegative manifestations of their beliefs in learning in a combative way, the activities
aim to draw on other aspects of motivation. Specifically, the activities draw on the ideaof group cohesion (Clément, Dörnyei, & Noels, 1999), challenging learners’ beliefs
about language learning (White, 1999; Gabillon, 2005), and giving learners power over
ER to counter beliefs about reading efficacy. The activities are geared towards one of
the three types respectively but are intended to benefit all students. All tasks take theform of unfocused tasks (Ellis, 2003), in the sense that there is no particular grammar or
vocabulary focus. Language development is not the goal, and the intention was for thetasks to be used with a variety of levels.
Book swap (Bookworm)
One of the reasons why learners who normally enjoy reading may respond poorly to ER
is that they do not see a connection between their L1 reading habits and the books thatare available. To give an example, the learner quoted earlier who thought the books in
the library were cheap was unaware of many of the titles and genres available. As
Nation and Deweerdt (2001) comment, while there certainly are some poorly written
graded readers available, many graded readers are very well written. My impression
was that the aforementioned learner’s beliefs about what constituted books or literature
were interfering with his ability to see the value in graded readers. This activity (see25Appendix) is a way for bookworms to think more objectively about their reading habits
and preferences and potentially to give voice to their ideas about what constitutes agood book. It is hoped that this will make it easier for these learners to see theconnection between L1 reading and ER.
Students first perform a rating task. The students are asked to think about
what kind of books they read and enjoy: this could be in either the L1 or the L2. Thismay help to gain a measure of objectivity. Secondly, the students are asked to think ofbooks they have read and enjoyed from the extensive reading library. This section,
while it may certainly help bookworms, is primarily geared at readers who have beensuccessful in ER to prepare them for the next task.
For the third task, the activity also makes use of group cohesion (Clément,
Dörnyei & Noels, 1994), which has been shown to “significantly contribute to
motivation in a foreign-language classroom context” (Julkunen, 1989, cited in Clément,
Dörnyei & Noels, 1994, p. 423). As mentioned above, some learners had a dismissive
attitude to extensive reading materials; however, the majority of students in ourparticular context enjoyed extensive reading, and read a large number of books. In thiscommunicative task, students briefly interview each other about their reading
preferences and then recommend a book to their partner. The goal of this task is fordemotivated students to be motivated by other students who have read and enjoyedgraded readers. The focus is shifted from student and teacher to student and student. As
group cohesion is a powerful factor, learners may be more willing to take suggestions
and recommendations from their peers. It is hoped that this activity will lead learners toinvestigate books they may not have otherwise read. It is also much harder to bedismissive of a book which your friend has recommended to you.
To further strengthen group motivation, a follow-up task consists of a peer
book report: if a student reads a book that has been recommended to him or her, they
can complete the report and give this to the person who recommended the book, rather
than the teacher. By shifting the focus from the teacher to peers and the group, thisactivity is intended to make these reluctant readers more invested in the program.
Reading is like… (Readers who read to learn)
As mentioned above, readers who read to learn may be neglected at times, as theirstrong motivation does not cause problems in the classroom. However, if the students
26

are not reading extensively (i.e. enjoyable and comprehensible books at 98% vocabulary
coverage or higher) they will not enjoy the same language development opportunities asother students, and are less likely to develop a good habit of reading in English. Truax(2010) describes the value of explaining the purpose and value of reading to learners;
while her focus is primarily on middle school readers who are reluctant to read at all, forextensive reading not only the purpose, but the method is important. Simply explaining
to learners the value of extensive reading is not always effective, as it can be counteredby the argument “Yes, but if I read more difficult books, I can learn more.” This activity(see Appendix) focuses on using learners’ existing knowledge to draw parallels between
other learned and automatized skills. I elected to focus on the idea of fluency, rather
than the separate issue of vocabulary frequency, as it is easier to draw these parallels.
Consisting of a communicative task followed by discussion, in total this activity is aform of consciousness raising (Ellis, 1991; Willis & Willis, 1996); rather than being
told the value of fluency reading, students need to discover it for themselves throughtheir own thought process.
For the first part of the pre-task stage, each learner in a pair brainstorms a skill
that they have learned, such as making origami, playing a sport, or using a cash register.
They then discuss this with a partner. This helps to build interest and prepares students
for this difficult topic (Ellis, 2003).
The learners will now have thought about the best way to go about learning
their particular skill and some of the things that they did while learning it. In the second
part of the pre-task stage, learners imagine their partner wants to learn the skill they
have chosen, and make a simple timetable. It is hoped that learners will focus on a small
number of key skills, followed by large amounts of practice. For instance, a learner who
had chosen to teach origami would necessarily spend some time on the basic techniquesof folding and basic shapes, before allowing plenty of time for his or her “student” topractice.
In the main task stage, in a communicative role-play, learners take roles ofstudent and teacher and explain their timetable to their partner, with their students
asking questions to clarify. At this stage, it should be evident that any schedules which
are particularly tough and do not allow time for practice will need to be altered.
The main motivational element comes in the post-task phase. Learners havebeen encouraged to think about the value of improving skills by doing not only things
27

which are new and difficult but things which are not new, but have not been fully learnt.
Learners are then asked to discuss the issue of fluency and practice, and finally are
given a model of reading in English. By this stage, it is hoped that some learners will
have had a eureka moment, as they realize the connection between, for example, hours
of simple baseball practice and hours spent on ER.

This activity provides a way forlearners to be gently encouraged to read books of an appropriate level, rather than being
discouraged to read books they want to. Possible follow-up activities could include asimilar activity which is focused on vocabulary frequency.
Compare a book (Book-phobe)
Both of the two of above activities can have a positive impact on very reluctant readers;
however, some learners do not feel they can contribute to discussions about reading, andare already reading easy books. It is often necessary to use a wider variety of strategies
to motivate these learners. As mentioned above, book-phobes may feel that they are
unlikely to be successful at reading based on ideas about reading efficacy, and may feeldisempowered and helpless in the face of huge amounts of text. As these learners may
be disconnected from literacy in general, this activity (see Appendix) aims to use theiroutside knowledge by providing a non-reading-based reference point for ER, as well as
giving them some measure of control over their reading and evaluative process.
Even though book-phobes may not read very much in their L1, that is not to
say that they do not have any interest in anything. In the first communicative task,
learners have the option of thinking about either a film, a topic area, or a story theyknow in Japanese which also has a graded reader. Many extensive reading series, suchas those produced by Penguin, offer movie tie-in titles and titles about famous people,
such as David Beckham or Daniel Radcliffe. Series such as by the Ladder Series (ラッダーシーリズ) from IBC Publishing, and Heinle Cengage’s Footprint series, offer
non-fiction titles for students who have a particular interest or knowledge in certain
topic areas, such as economics, travel, or the environment. Finally, as well as a large
number of well-known fairy stories, the Ladder Series offer English translations ofJapanese folk tales and classics of Japanese literature such as I am a Cat by Natsume
Sōseki. Using learners’ existing knowledge provides a reference point for reluctant
readers.
In a follow-up task, literary criticism is used as a means for learners to gain28

some power over the reading process. I would argue that, while students should
certainly enjoy most books they read, there is nothing wrong with students not enjoying
books and being critical about them. Indeed, for book-phobes, not enjoying a book islikely to be the default response. Not all graded readers are excellent; some may not be
as good as the films they are based on, some may contain factual omissions or errors,
and some may miss out on important aspects of the original stories (at least from somelearners’ point of view). For learners who are disenfranchised from the extensive
reading process, criticizing books in this way, and allowing students a voice to criticize
books, can be a way to engage with ER.
The task, therefore, consists of a variation on the standard book review:
learners assess how similar the book is to the source material, and questions encouragethem to compare them critically in terms of which was better or what they wouldchange about the book. This activity can be assigned to all students, or to specificstudents; an additional step would be for the teacher to provide some feedback on thestudent’s criticism or for students to discuss their criticisms together. As well as being
able to obtain a degree of power through criticizing the book, it is also hoped thatlearners may find books which they do enjoy.
Conclusion
This paper has provided a description of three theoretical types of learner. These types
have been devised as a way of focusing on particular aspects of motivation. The three
key issues which I have found to create the most significant problems in ER are
students not reading enough or having a poor attitude to books available; students
reading books which are too difficult and seeing reading purely in terms of its
instrumental value; and students who are not reading enough and are simply notengaged with extensive reading. The three main ways I attempted to address theseissues were making use of group cohesion to make reluctant readers more invested in
the program; using learners’ existing knowledge to raise consciousness of the value ofreading fluency; and giving very reluctant readers a reference point in their own existingknowledge, as well as allowing them greater power over the evaluative process.
These three activities present a small sample of some of the motivational
techniques which can be used in extensive reading. I hope that the three types of learner
will also give teachers a reference point when thinking about motivational problems,29and that the activities presented can go some way to solving these problems.
Biodata
John Bankier began his teaching career in Japan, before moving to New Zealand in2005 to complete his CELTA and gain practical experience teaching students from awide variety of nationalities. He returned to Japan in 2006, and worked for a foreign
language college in Tokyo while studying for his M.S. Ed. TESOL at Temple
University, Japan campus. In 2009, he took up a new position at Soka University,
Tokyo, where he now works on the award-winning International Program. He also
works at Jissen Women's University, and is currently preparing a proposal for his PhD.

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Nation, I. S. P. and Wang, K. (1999) Graded readers and vocabulary. Reading in a
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32

Appendix: Activities
Activity 1: Book SwapWhen	
  you	
  read,	
  what	  kind	  of	
  stories	
  do	
  you	  prefer?	
  Mark	
  an	
  X	
  on	
  these	
  scales.	
  You	  can	
  mark	  more	  than	
  one	  X	  if	  you	
  like.	
  Example:	  	  Familar	
  to	
  me	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
  

x Learn	
  something	  new	  

	   I	  mostly	
  like	  stories	
  that	  teach	  me	
  something	  new	
  about	  the	
  world,	
  history,	
  culture,	
  
etc.	
  
	
  
Exciting	
   	
   	
  

Relaxing	  	
  Historic	   	
  Modern	  	  Comedy	   	
  Tragedy	  	  Familar	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   	
   Something	  new	
  
to	
  me	
  

	
  

Realistic	   	
  Fantastic	
  

	
  

Compare with your partner
Now think of four books you have read from the extensive reading library. Check yourrecord if you can’t remember the title. Choose some words from above to describe thebooks.
	  Example:Gandhi (biography): Historic, realistic, a little familiar to me, very slow, a mix of
comedy and tragedy

33

1:	
  _______________________________________________________________________________________	
  _______________________________________________________________________________________	
  
	
  
2:	
  _________________________________________________________________________________	
  ____________________________________________________________________________________	
  
	
  
3:	
  _________________________________________________________________________________	
  _______________________________________________________________________________________	
  Recommending Books
Useful	  language:	
  
What	
  do	
  you	  recommend?	
  

	
  

	
  

It’s	
  exciting	  /	
  relaxing	
  

	
  

	
  

	
  

It’s	
  a	
  mix	  of	
  historic	
  and	  modern	  Thanks	  for	  the	  recommendation	
   	
  	
  

	
  

It’s	
  partly	
  familiar	
  but	  a	
  little	
  new	
  

	
  

	
  

I’ve	
  read	  it,	
  but	
  thanks	
  anyway	
  	
  Title:	
  _________________________________________________	
  Title:	
  _________________________________________________	
  ___________________________________________________	
  ___________________________________________________	
  Recommended	
  by:	
  _____________________________	
  Recommended	
  by:	
  _____________________________	
  Because:	
  ________________________________________	
  Because:	
  ________________________________________	
  ___________________________________________________	
  ___________________________________________________	
  Title:	
  _________________________________________________	
  Title:	
  _________________________________________________	
  ___________________________________________________	
  ___________________________________________________	
  Recommended	
  by:	
  _____________________________	
  Recommended	
  by:	
  _____________________________	
  Because:	
  ________________________________________	
  Because:	
  ________________________________________	
  ___________________________________________________	
  ___________________________________________________	
  34

Title:	
  _________________________________________________	
  Title:	
  _________________________________________________	
  ___________________________________________________	
  ___________________________________________________	
  Recommended	
  by:	
  _____________________________	
  Recommended	
  by:	
  _____________________________	
  Because:	
  ________________________________________	
  Because:	
  ________________________________________	
  ___________________________________________________	
  ___________________________________________________	  	  Follow-up Book Report
	
  

1.	
  Title	  Dear	
  __________________________________________,	
  2.	
  Your	  opinion	
  Thanks	  for	  recommending	  _______________________________________1	
  to	
  me._________________	
  ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2.	
  If	
  you	
  liked	
  that	  book,	  I	
  recommend	  _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________3.	
  Thanks,	  ____________________________	
  

35

3.	
   A	
   book	
   you	   recommend	
  which	
   you	   think	
   your	
   partner	  will	
  like	  Activity 2: Reading is Like…
Think	  of	  3	  things	
  that	  you	
  can	  do	
  well.	
  Example:	
  play	  basketball	  or	
  piano,	  make	  okonomiyaki,	
  do	
  origami,	
  use	  an	
  electronic	
  cash	  register.	
  	
  Discussion	
  questions:	
  
•

How	
  long	  did	  it	
  take	  you	  to	
  become	  good?	
  

•

What	
  did	
  you	  have	  to	
  learn?	
  

•

How	
  did	
  you	
  practice?	
  

•

What	
  was	  the	
  hardest	
  thing	
  to	
  learn?	
  

•

What	
  did	
  you	
  spend	  most	  time	  practicing?	
  

•

Who	
  helped	
  you	  to	
  learn?	
  Choose	  one	
  thing	
  you	
  can	  do	
  well.	
  You	  are	
  going	
  to	
  make	  a	
  schedule	
  for	
  your	  partner	
  to	
  
help	
  them	  learn	
  this.	
  Decide:	
  1)	
  What	  you	
  need	  to	
  learn	
  Example:	  different	
  types	
  of	
  basketball	
  shot,	  different	
  styles	  of	
  origami	
   	
  
2)	
  How	
  important	  each	  thing	
  is	
  to	
  learn	
   	
  
3)	
  How	  much	  time	  you	
  need	  to	
  practice	
  each	  thing	  	
  Weekly	  schedule	
  to	
  learn	
  _______________________________________	
  
	
  
	
  

Mon	
  

Tues	
  

Weds	
  

Thurs	
  

Fri	
  

Sat	
  

Sun	
  

Morning	
  

	
  

	
  

	
  

	
  

	
  

	
  

	
  

	
  

	
  

	
  

	
  

	
  

	
  

	
  

	
  

	
  

	
  

	
  

	
  

	
  
	
  
Afternoon	
  

	
  
	
  
	
  

Evening	
  

	
  
	
  
	
  

	
  
Introduce	
  your	  partner	
  to	
  their	
  schedule.	
  36

Useful	  language:	
  You	
  need	  to	
  focus	
  on	
  …	
  

	
  

	
  

Why	
  will	  I	
  spend	
  four	  hours	
  on...	
  On	
  Monday,	
  you’ll	
  spend	
  four	  hours	
  practicing	
  …	
   Why	   is	
   passing	
   the	   ball	   important?	
  You’ll	  spend	  the	
  most	  time	  practicing	
  passing	
  the	
  ball	  because	
  …	
  Discussion	  Do	
  you	
  agree	
  with	  the	
  below:	
  •To	
  improve	
  something,	
  we	
  need	  to	
  focus	
  on	
  it.	
  

•

When	
  we	
  learn	
  something,	
  we	
  need	  to	
  spend	  most	  of	
  the	
  time	  practicing	
  difficult	  things.	
  

•

It	
  is	
  important	  to	
  build	
  up	
  in	
  small	
  steps.	
  

•

If	
  something	
  is	
  more	  difficult	
  or	
  complicated,	
  it’s	  probably	
  more	  useful.	
  	
  Reading	
  in	
  English	
  Most	
   people	
   in	
   sports,	
   music,	
   cooking,	
   teaching,	
   or	
   many	   other	
   things	
   agree	
   that	   to	
  improve	
  something,	
  we	
  need	  to	
  focus	
  on	
  it.	
  When	  we	
  learn	
  something,	
  we	
  need	  to	
  spend	  most	
   of	
   the	   time	
   practicing	   the	   basic	
   things.	
   It	
   is	
   important	   to	
   build	
   up	
   in	
   small	   steps.	
   If	
  something	
  is	
  more	  difficult	
  or	
  complicated,	
  it	
  doesn’t	
  mean	
  it’s	  more	  useful.	
  It’s	  better	  to	
  learn	
  and	
  practice	
  basics,	
  as	
  well	  as	
  to	
  learn	
  new	
  and	  difficult	
  things.	
  
•

Is	
  this	  the	
  same	  when	
  studying	
  English?	
  

•

How	
  about	
  when	  reading	
  in	
  English?	
  

Read	
  this	  passage	
  and	
  make	  2	
  pieces	  of	
  advice	
  for	
  reading	
  in	
  English:	
  
	
  
	
   	
   	
   In	  the	
  same	  way	
  that	  we	
  need	  to	
  spend	  lots	  of	
  time	  learning	
  the	
  basic	
  origami	
  patterns,	
  we	
   need	   to	
   spend	
   a	
   lot	   of	
   time	
   doing	
   basic	
   reading.	
   We	
   need	   to	
   spend	
   as	
   much	
   time	  practicing	
   common	
   and	   basic	
   basketball	
   shots	
   as	
   we	
   do	
   learning	
   more	
   advanced	
   shots,	  otherwise	
   we	
   won’t	
   be	
   able	   to	
   play	
   a	
   game.	
   When	
   we	
   read,	
   we	
   need	   to	
   do	
   lots	
   of	
   easier	
  reading	
  so	
  we	
  can	
  get	
  used	  to	
  reading	
  smoothly.	
  We	
  can	
  also	  do	
  more	  difficult	  or	  advanced	
  reading	
  as	
  well,	
  but	  if	  we	
  only	  read	  difficult	
  books	
  then	  we	
  won’t	
  be	
  able	  to	
  read	  well.	
  1.	
  __________________________________________________________________________________	
  2.	
  __________________________________________________________________________________	
  
	
  

37

Activity 3: Compare a Book
Choose a book from the library which you are already familiar with. It could be:a) There’s a film of this book which you have seen (e.g. Pirates of the Caribbean,
Gandhi)b) You know something about this topic area (e.g. An Introduction to the Japanese
Economy, 100 Keys to Love)c) You’ve read or know the story in Japanese (e.g. Long Ago Stories of Japan, I am aCat)
Discussion questions:•

What happens in the story? (Don’t give away the ending!)•

Did you like this story / topic?

•

Choose one:

What did you think about the characters?/What are some important points for this topic?
•

What did the story teach you?

•

Choose one:o How easy would it be to make this story into a film? Why?
o How easy would it be to explain this topic in simple English? Why?
o How easy would it be to translate it into English? Why?

Now read the book and complete this report---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Your name: __________________________Date: ___________________________
Book title: _________________________ Author:____________________________
1 = not at all / 6 = a lot
1. Did you enjoy the book?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1

2

3

4

5

6

3. I enjoyed the graded reader more

1

2

3

4

5

6

4. I would like to read a book like this again

1

2

3

4

5

6

2. How similar was the book to

the film

your idea of the topic area
the Japanese story?

How was the book different to what you imagined?
__________________________________________________________________
What would you change about the book?
_____________________________________________________________
38

Intercultural communication in teacher training
Samuel James Crofts
Xi’an Jiaotong Liverpool University
Reference Data:
Crofts, S.J. (2012). Intercultural communication in teacher training. In K.
Bradford-Watts, R. Chartrand, & E. Skier (Eds.), The 2011 Pan-SIG Conference
Proceedings. Matsumoto: JALT.
Abstract
Instances of intercultural communication are comprised of more than linguistic competency
alone, and it is only sensible that foreign language instruction reflects this. It is therefore vitalthat language teachers are aware of the issues surrounding intercultural communication, and it iscertainly useful if they are good intercultural communicators themselves. With this in mind, thisstudy looks at the intercultural communicative competence of Japanese and non-Japaneseteachers in a joint training seminar. For the study, 124 participants from such a seminar weresurveyed with a questionnaire including both closed and open response questions. The results ofthe study illustrate some of the problems in communication between Japanese and non-Japaneseteachers at the pre-tertiary level, and lead to a number of recommendations to improve futureseminars of this kind.
異文化間コミュニケーションとは言語学的能力だけでないため、外国語教授法がこのアイディアを表すことは常識的。従って外国語教師は異文化間コミュニケーションに関する課題を意識することが重要であり、教師自身も上手に異文化間コミュニケーションを行えることはもちろん有用。これを考えつつ、本研究は研修会に共に参加した日本人及び外国人の外国語教師の異文化間コミュニケーション能力について調査する。調査においては、小・中・高等学校に勤めている１２４名の参加者が多肢選択式質問及び自由記
入式質問を含むアンケートに回答した。調査結果は、現場の状況は複雑かつ日本人の教師と外国人の教師の間には、まだ異文化間コミュニケーションに対する改善の余地はずいぶんあることを表す。

Keywords: Intercultural communication, intercultural communicative competence,
joint training seminar, teacher education
39

There exists a wealth of academic material on intercultural communication, with anumber of scholars trying to identify exactly what factors decide the success or failureof an intercultural communicative event. Recent literature on the subject has highlighted
the importance of context; and questions such as where an interaction takes place aswell as the backgrounds and relationships of those involved are increasingly seen as key
in understanding how instances of intercultural communication occur. However,
perhaps as a result of the economic benefits at stake, a large proportion of research into
intercultural communication so far has been directed at the business arena (Fujio, 2004;
Miller, 2001; Tanaka & Sugiyama, 2010). This paper on the other hand, focuses on the
education sector, specifically in the training of Japanese and non-Japanese teachers ofEnglish in Japan.
Inspired by personal experience of marked differences between the reactions ofJapanese and non-Japanese participants to joint training seminars, this study explores
aspects of both teacher education and intercultural communication. Starting with a brief
review of literature relating to both areas, the primary aim of the paper is thepresentation of a small-scale study which illustrates the reactions of Japanese andnon-Japanese participants to an in-service training seminar conducted in English. Aftera discussion of the results of the study, the paper concludes suggesting a number ofmeasures to improve future sessions of this type.
The research presented in this paper is guided by two central questions. The firstis how Japanese teachers of English receive a reflective approach to teacher training
based on group discussion, and the second is how an intercultural, English only
environment affects Japanese participants’ experience of this training. Throughout the
paper, discussion will relate to one or both of these central questions.
Teacher education
In the education sector, just like in other professions, in-service training is an integral
part of professional development. However, the way in which it is best carried out is thesource of lively debate and no consensus upon a single desirable approach to teacher
training exists. Although this lack of consensus pervades the entire teaching profession,
Crookes (2003) takes a particularly pessimistic view of the situation for language
teachers, suggesting that within the profession, there is a lack of support for40

professional development in many of the administrative structures that employ language
teachers.
Despite such pessimism, in-service training is not completely lacking from theprofessional lives of language teachers as the two-day training seminar discussed laterin this paper illustrates. Consisting of a keynote speech followed by a series ofpresentations and workshops, the seminar discussed in this paper follows a reflective
approach to teacher training through group discussion. The following paragraphs
explore the reflective approach in more detail, looking in particular at criticisms andweaknesses of the model.
In their seminal work of the professional development of language teachers,
Richards & Farrell (2005) discuss workshops as a format of teacher training,
characterising them as hit or miss affairs that depend heavily on adequate preparation.
Workshops are commended for having the potential to develop collegiality amongst
teachers, increase motivation, and provide practical classroom applications. However,
the writers also highlight the importance of participation, and assert that for workshops
to be successful, it is essential that participants contribute equally and actively.
Given the importance of active participation, it is perhaps worth consideringsome of the factors that may discourage it. Sowden (2007) suggests that self-analysis,
which forms such a central part of reflective training, can threaten people’s security andself-image, ultimately leading to an unwillingness to contribute. Moreover, in a groupsetting, participants can feel a significant amount of pressure. Hatton and Smith (1995)
add that participants’ unfamiliarity with certain styles of training can also increase
feelings of vulnerability. There is unfortunately no quick formula to counteract thesefeelings, though Crookes (2003) does suggest that good interpersonal relations among
teachers can assist in successful reflection.
It is probably fair to say that reflection through group discussion suits certain
personalities more than others; Rodgers (2002) sums up the type of people it suits asenthusiastic, confident, open-minded and responsible. Whilst this may be true, there arefurther considerations to be made in groups that are comprised of people from different
cultural backgrounds. Farrell (2001) highlights linguistic competence as a key factor in
the ability of people to participate in reflective discussion, highlighting the enormous
difficulties faced by people who are asked to collect thoughts, reflect upon them, andthen articulate them in a language other than their own. The magnitude of this point41

cannot be underestimated and is central to the thesis presented in this paper.
Those who do not fit the template of an ideal candidate for reflection, or those
who lack the linguistic competence to fully participate in group discussion can feel
marginalised by reflective training. The potential therefore exists, especially inculturally diverse training groups, for marginalisation to extend to whole groups ofpeople. This can relate to linguistic ability or personality, but also, as Crookes (2003)
suggests, relate to experience, with a majority of teacher training programs targeting the
beginning teacher and therefore being of less use to more experienced participants.
Based on the brief discussion above, it appears that there are a number ofideal conditions for successful reflective training to take place. First of all, a clear
opportunity for reflection must be set aside in terms of time and place. Secondly, though
it is impossible to decree that participants are enthusiastic, confident and open-minded,they should be as familiar with each other as possible, and as comfortable as they can bein expressing opinions in front of each other. The final condition relates to avoiding themarginalisation of participants or groups of participants, steps should therefore be taken
to minimise the difficulties that participants may have in expressing themselves
linguistically. Achieving this final condition is easier said than done, especially inmultilingual groups. The following section explores this area in more detail, focussing
upon intercultural communication between Japanese and non-Japanese people.
Intercultural communication
Successful intercultural communication involves a number of factors, of which
linguistic competence is only one. Indeed, even a high level of ability in a foreign
language cannot guarantee successful communication with a native speaker of that
language. Of course, successful communication is a subjective term and linguistic
ability can improve one’s chances of intercultural communicative success. However,intercultural communication is made up of an array of competencies and the
responsibility for making successful interactions ought to be shared between
interactants rather than simply the linguistic ability of non-native speakers.
For people communicating across cultural barriers, there are a number ofchoices the need to be made, first among which is what language to use. Tanaka &Sugiyama (2010) assert that language choice affects the security and freedom ofparticipants in an intercultural communicative event, and can empower or disempower42

them accordingly. Hofstede (2001) also looks at language choice, and suggests that agreat deal of literature on intercultural communication comes from monolingual authors
who underestimate the power of language. Indeed, as Hofstede asserts, “it is almost
impossible to grasp the importance of language if one has not struggled with learning
one or more foreign languages” (p. 245).
In a recent study on language and power in business discourse, Tanaka andSugiyama (2010) analyse a number of interactions between Japanese and non-Japanese
professionals. Their study illustrates that Japanese people, when interacting in their own
language, tend to use a number of culture specific, confrontation-avoidance strategies.
Spencer-Oatey (2001) suggests that such strategies may be motivated by a culturaltendency to ascribe more importance to one’s relationship to others, than to how exactly
one projects oneself. Problems occur however, when the confrontation avoidance
strategies that typify Japanese language meetings are applied in English language
meetings, where cultural norms suppose a more open approach to discussion (Tanaka &Sugiyama, 2010).
Analysing Japanese-American workplace relations, Miller (2001) concludes
similar results, outlining a number of misunderstandings that result from culture specificcommunicative strategies. Miller’s study focuses in particular on expressing negative
assessment, and highlights a number of problems, including the ambiguity of theJapanese word “chotto,” and the inability of many participants to recognise the subtle
prefaces and hesitation markers of each other’s languages. In a separate work, Tannen(1989) suggests that unlike in Japanese, a positive value is attached to novelty of
expression in English and therefore, in trying to make themselves stand out positively,
English speakers may use a range of non-standard expressions, which can in practicehave the opposite effect to that which was intended. A similar rule applies to humour,with Hofstede (2001) observing that what is considered funny is highly culture specific.
The study
With the two previous sections in mind, this study explores how interculturalcommunication and reflective training are carried out. The study looks at a training
seminar carried out in Nara, Japan, comprised of both Japanese and non-Japaneseteachers, and conducted entirely in English. The study contrasts the experience ofJapanese and non-Japanese participants, and focuses in particular on future directions
43

for the simultaneous training of Japanese and non-Japanese language teachers.
Two research questions underpin this study; the first is how applicable areflective approach to teacher training is in a Japanese context, and the second is how
Japanese participants’ experience of such teacher training is affected by an intercultural,
English only environment. This section aims to bring the two areas together, with asmall scale study of a teacher training seminar based on a reflective model of training
and conducted in an intercultural, English only setting.
In trying to explore two variables at the same time, the research becomes moredifficult. Ascribing responsibility for any observations to either of the two variables
being explored is not an exact science and therefore results can be less clear. However,the choice to attempt such a study is justified in light of the links between a reflective
approach to training English teachers in Japan and the presence of participants from a
non-Japanese background.
Context
Each year, a two-day seminar is held at the Nara Prefectural Institute for Educational
Research. The seminar invites Japanese Teachers of English (JTEs) as well as AssistantLanguage Teachers (ALTs) who are first language speakers of English from various
countries, to come together and discuss a range of professional issues. According tointerview data with the consultant in charge of organising the event, the aim of theseminar is to give an opportunity to both ALTs and JTEs, “so that they may share theirexperience from working together (sic) and discuss other team teaching related mattersin order to find ways… to enhance English education in Nara.” (A.Hasegawa, personalcommunication, February 7th, 2011)
The seminar is mandatory for all participants, with ALTs required to attend thefull two days and JTEs required to attend at least one of the two. As the seminar takes
place while the school term is in progress, not every JTE in the prefecture can attend but
at least one representative from each prefectural school in Nara is obliged to be present
for at least one of the days. ALTs and JTEs from all levels of the prefectural education
system attend, including elementary, junior high, and senior high school teachers. The
significance of this concerns elementary teachers; and particularly the fact that teachersat this level vary immensely in terms of their English ability.
The first day of the seminar begins with a keynote speech, before participants
44are broken into groups, which then revolve through two presentations, the first of which
is hosted by representatives from CLAIR (the national body that represents government
sponsored ALTs in Japan), and the second of which is designed to help teachers withelementary lesson planning. The second day consists of four workshops related to eitherclassroom pedagogy or the professional relationship between ALTs and JTEs. Fromthese four workshops, participants are required to attend three. All presentations andworkshops are conducted entirely in English.
Methodology
This section outlines the design of the study, including the sampling frame andmeasurement device. The data presented is the result of a non-experimental approach to
the two research questions proposed earlier. The choices made with regard to design are
justified in light of work by Nunan (1997), who cautions that a number of practicalproblems are often associated with this sort of research, primarily in terms of time andaccess to participants.
Although the theoretical population for this study could be defined as every JTE
and ALT in Japan, such a sample is beyond the scope of this study. The accessible
population therefore, are the 184 participants of the seminar, all of whom were surveyed.
From these participants, 124 responses were collected and make up the sampling frame
for the study.
In order to identify differences between the reactions of Japanese andnon-Japanese participants, a group administered questionnaire was used as the primary
instrument. Potential language issues were dealt with by the provision of Japanese
language questionnaires for participants who were not comfortable responding in
English, and both versions are available as appendices to this paper. Participants were
not asked to include their name on the questionnaire, but were asked to include the levelat which they teach as well as for how long they had been working in their current job.
All participants were assured of their anonymity prior to being given thequestionnaire and the questionnaire was also deliberately short in order to combat
fatigue effects. Even with these measures in place however, it is accepted thatquestionnaires are less than perfect instruments for measuring opinion and phenomena
such as acquiesce bias and the halo effect can affect results. A critical eye is therefore
required when making any conclusions based on such results.
45

The first three questions took the form of simple statements, with participants
asked to indicate the extent to which they agreed. An interval level of measurement wasused to give some idea of the depth of feeling and following research suggesting atendency among respondents to look for median answers in questionnaires (Rian, 2007);
a middle value was not included. The first statement aimed to assess impressions ofintercultural communication between ALTs and JTEs. The second statement was
intended to evaluate how well a reflective method of training had achieved the stated
aim of the seminar. The third statement was designed to give an overall impression ofparticipants’ reactions to the seminar. Finally, a fourth open question was included togive participants a chance to express what they were unable to convey in their responses
to the first 3 questions.
Results
The data was entered into a database to allow ease of comparison. The Japanese
language responses were then translated into English. Finally, in preparation for a
discussion about the results of the open question at the end of the questionnaire, thesampling frame had to be reduced as 124 potential responses produced too much
qualitative data to realistically be analysed in the available time. In order to maintain abalanced view of participants’ opinions, the responses that appear in appendix 2 werechosen using a stratified random sample where first, those who had not responded weretaken out, and from those that had responded, 10 ALT and 10 JTE responses werechosen at random.
Descriptive statistics
Question 1
I improved my knowledge of cross-cultural communication
Yes

Somewhat yes

Not so muchNo

ALT (72)

17

40

10

5

JTE (51)

14

29

4

4

Total (123)

31

69

14

9

46

Question 2
I improved my skills in team teachingYes

Somewhat yes

Not so muchNo

ALT (73)

27

31

9

6

JTE (51)

8

36

6

1

Total (124)

35

66

15

8

Question 3
I found the seminar useful and informative
Yes

Somewhat yes

Not so muchNo

ALT (68)

30

32

5

1

JTE (50)

15

29

3

3

Total (118)

45

61

8

4

Inferential statistics
Perhaps the most striking element of the quantitative data is the inclination forparticipants, both Japanese and non-Japanese to agree “somewhat” with each statement.
Indeed, in each case, the number of participants that agreed “somewhat” with thestatement was larger than the other three options combined. Whilst critics may point tothe ambiguous nature of the word “somewhat” and object to its inclusion as an option,
the data may also be interpreted as a reflection of complex feelings towards the seminar,
and the fact that participants found both positive and negative aspects in theirexperience.
Despite the tendency to agree “somewhat” with the statements, closer inspectionof the data does reveal a disparity between the proportion on ALTs and JTEs that
responded with an emphatic “yes” when asked to agree or disagree with the statements.
The proportion of emphatic “yes” responses between ALTs and JTEs to question 1 wasquite similar (23.6% and 27.4% respectively), indicating a degree of dissatisfaction
from both groups with regards to their experience of intercultural communication. There
were however, marked differences with questions 2 and 3. In question 2, whereparticipants were asked if they improved their skills in team teaching, 36.9% of ALTs
responded “yes” compared to only 15.6% of JTEs. This suggests that the content of the47

seminar was more suited to non-Japanese participants, though it must be considered that
24 ALTs were in their first year of the job and were therefore perhaps more likely to
improve their knowledge.
The 3rd question assessed the overall impression of the seminar, asking
participants if they found the seminar useful and informative. Again here, the proportionof ALTs indicating an emphatic “yes” was 44%, greater than the 30% recorded from
JTEs. This statistic reaffirms the conclusion that overall, the seminar was a morepositive experience for non-Japanese participants than for Japanese participants. Clearly,
it is difficult to speculate about reasons from statistical data alone; however, whenviewed in conjunction with answers to the fourth question, inferences can begin to bemade about specific problems.
The data captured by question 4 does not imply any cultural incompatibility
between Japanese participants and reflective group discussion, indeed the group formatof the seminar was not once cited by participants as a problem. However, comments
such as “every seminar I feel the same thing, ALTs’ speed is too much for me” and “I
want ALTs to understand that not everyone is a native speaker” do suggest that an
English only environment can make life difficult for Japanese participants. Further tothis, complaints were also raised about the lack of interaction between ALTs and JTEs
away from organised workshops, with remarks including “I had no chance to speak orinteract directly with an ALT” and “I did not get much from the ALTs outside of theclassroom.”
Interestingly, alongside these assessments from Japanese participants, anumber of similar sentiments were echoed in the sample of responses from
non-Japanese responses, including “I felt the JTEs were heavily ignored” and “it was
too ALT focussed.” The responses of non-Japanese participants were on the whole morepositive though, with comments also including “Thank you very much for an excellent
seminar” and “I thought they were all practical and well done.” While it is of course
risky to make assumptions from the subjective opinions of such a small number ofindividuals, they do provide useful insights into why the quantitative results look theway they do, and the value of these comments should not be underestimated.
Inferential Statistics, according to Trochim (2006), are an attempt to reachconclusions that extend beyond immediate data. Given this aim, it is perhaps useful toreflect upon the questions posed at the start of the paper. Negative comments from48

Japanese participants concerning their interaction with non-Japanese participants could
be interpreted as suggesting that there are some aspects of Japanese culture that makes
reflective discussion problematic. However, evidence of such cultural incompatibility is
inconclusive at best, and further research is needed to substantiate such a claim. What isbeyond doubt is the presence of language specific problems related to the delivery andcontent of English language material throughout the seminar.
It is argued that for such training sessions, a reappraisal of communication
strategies from non-Japanese participants could bring a number of benefits. Reflecting
Firth’s (2009) call for the promotion of communication strategies above foreign
language ability, it is clear that non-Japanese participants in seminars such as this needto take account of the linguistic difficulties faced by their Japanese colleagues, andmodify their communication strategies accordingly. Of course, communication styles
differ across cultural boundaries; however there is no clear cultural reason why
reflective training cannot work with Japanese Teachers of English, especially if their
non-Japanese colleagues are willing to make efforts on the linguistic front.
Recommendations
In light of the results of this study, a number of recommendations are made for futureseminars of this kind. First, given the seeming lack of awareness from non-Japaneseparticipants about the linguistic difficulties faced by their Japanese colleagues, anexplicit discussion on the subject of intercultural communication is recommended.
Perhaps as a part of, or perhaps instead of a keynote speech, issues such as the positionof English as a lingua franca should be addressed. Alongside this, specific problems
faced by speakers of English as a foreign language should be covered as well as an
explanation of the type of communication strategies available to overcome suchdifficulties.
A second recommendation concerns steps to further lower the affective barrierscaused by language anxiety. This is to ensure that Japanese translations are available forpresentations and also to allow a limited amount of Japanese language use in discussion.
Although this may risk alienating non-Japanese participants (many of whom have little
to no Japanese ability), it may also have the effect of bringing the problems faced by
Japanese participants into sharper focus, and hopefully convincing non-Japaneseparticipants to modify their linguistic behaviour accordingly. To micro manage the49amount of Japanese spoken in each discussion is unrealistic; common sense should
therefore be the guide.
Underpinning each of these recommendations is Sowden’s (2007) suggestionthat real intercultural communicative competence can only really come about after aperiod of living within a culture. Non-Japanese participants all live in Japan and haveopportunities every day to meet Japanese people and hone their intercultural skills.
Japanese Teachers of English on the other hand, despite their language training, simply
do not have these opportunities and can therefore perhaps be forgiven for feeling moreanxiety as a result of the pressures of intercultural communication. These suggestions
are not intended to make life easy for Japanese participants at the expense of
non-Japanese participants, what they do intend to promote is a more culturally neutral
environment, in which all participants can communicate.
Conclusion
This paper set out to investigate the effects of two aspects of teacher training sessions
for Japanese participants. The first was the applicability of a reflective model of teacher
training in the form of group discussion, and the second was an intercultural, English
only environment. Academic opinion on both areas was explored, and a number ofconclusions were reached. Firstly, that successful reflection in a group environment
relies on the provision of ample opportunity, as well as the minimisation of affective
barriers and the ability to avoid marginalising certain participants. Secondly, withregards to intercultural communication, identification with other interactants is seen as
especially important and steps should be taken to foster positive identification. Finally,
the emerging position of English as a lingua franca suggests a rethink of who carries the
responsibility for communication in intercultural exchanges, with problems being
conceptualised less as the result of linguistic incompetence of non-native speakers andmore of a failure of the communication strategies of all participants.
These ideas informed the design of a small-scale study that set out to further
investigate the central questions posed by the paper. A training seminar based on areflective model of training, conducted in English and comprising participants from anumber of cultural backgrounds was studied and the reactions of Japanese andnon-Japanese participants to the seminar were measured. The results of the study
suggest that whilst a reflective approach to training is not necessarily a problem for50

Japanese participants, a number of aspects of intercultural communication can make life
difficult and therefore, strategies ought to be developed to overcome this. In line withrecent research from Firth (2009), it is suggested that responsibility for managing
communication strategies is borne by all participants, not simply non-native speakers ofEnglish, it is therefore recommended that steps be taken to create a more neutral
environment, one where real intercultural communication can take place, as Sowden(2007) suggests, a “border zone… which all parties can meaningfully inhabit, andwithin which everyone can interact on equal terms” (p. 306).
BiodataSamuel Crofts teaches at Xi’an Jiaotong Liverpool University, Jiangsu Province, China.
References
Crookes, G. (2003). A Practicum in TESOL. Cambridge: CUP.
Farrell, T.S.C. (2001). Tailoring Reflection to Individual Needs: A TESOL Case Study.
Journal of Education for Teaching, 27(1), 23-37.
Firth, A. (2009). The Lingua Franca Factor. Intercultural Pragmatics, 6(2), 147-170.
Fujio, M. (2004) Silence During Intercultural Communication: A Case Study.
Corporate Communications, an International Journal, 9(4), 331-339.
Hatton, N., & Smith, D. (1995). Reflection in Teacher Education, Towards Definition
and Implementation. Teaching and Teacher Education, 11, 33-49.
Hofstede, G. (2001). Cultures Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviours,
Institutions and Organizations Across Nations. London: Sage.
Miller, L. (2001). Negative Assessment in Japanese-American Workplace Interaction,
240-54, in H. Spencer-Oatey (Ed.), Culturally Speaking: Managing Rapport throughTalk across Cultures. London: Continuum.
Nunan, D. (1997). Research Methods in Language Learning, Cambridge: CUP.
Rian, T. (2007). Attitudes towards English and English Learning at three rural Japanese
Middle Schools. MA. Dissertation, University of Birmingham. Retrieved August 22,
2011, from; http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/Thesis/Thesis-Rian.pdf.
Richards, J.C., & Farrell, T.S.C. (2005). Professional Development for Language
Teachers. Cambridge: CUP.
Rodgers, C. (2002). Defining reflection: Another look at John Dewey and Reflective
51

Thinking. Teachers College Record, 104(4), 842-866.
Sowden, C. (2007). Culture and the Good Teacher in the English Language Classroom.
ELT Journal, 61(4), 304-310.
Spencer-Oatey, H. (Ed.). (2001). Culturally Speaking: Managing Rapport through Talk
across Cultures. London: Continuum.
Tanaka, H., & Sugiyama, A. (2010). Language, power and politeness in businessmeetings in Japan, 170-85, in P. Heinrich & C. Galan (Eds.), Language Life in Japan:
Transformations and Prospects. Oxford: Routledge.
Tannen, D. (1989). Talking Voices: Repetition, Dialogue, and Imagery inConversational Discourse, Cambridge: CUP.
Trochim, W.M.K. & Donnelly, J.P. (2006) The Research Methods Knowledge Base.
Cengage Learning.

52

Appendix A
ア	
  ン	
  ケ	
  ー	
  ト
	
  県立教育研究所では受講された方のご意見をお聞きし、教育課題や受講者のニーズを踏まえた研修会の企画と開催に努めています。お手数ですが、以下の項目にお答えください。
研修会名

平成２２年度外国語指導助手中間期研修会

	  あなたの校種及び教職経験年数について、該当するところに○を付けてください。
校	
  	
  種
幼小中高特

教	
  職	
  経	
  験	
  年	
  数
６年未満６年以上11年未満 11年以上
16年未満 16年以上21年未満 21年以上

この講座を受講する前と比べて、ご自身でどの程度向上されたと思われますか。該当するところに○を	  付けてください。
１

異文化コミュニケーション

に関する知識・理解がＡ	  十分に深まった	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  Ｂ	
  概ね深まったＣ	  あまり深まらなかった	
  	
 ２

ＡＬＴとのティームティーチング

Ｄ	  深まらなかったに関するスキルがＡ	  十分身に付いた	  	
 Ｂ	  概ね身に付いた	
  	
 
	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
 
Ｃ	
  あまり身に付かなかった	  	  Ｄ	
  身に付かなかった３	
  この講座の内容は今後の教育活動に活用できるものでしたか。
	
  	
  	
  Ａ	
  活用できる	
  	
  	
  Ｂ	
  ほぼ活用できる	
  	
  	
  Ｃ	
  あまり活用できない	
  	
  	
  Ｄ	
  活用できない４	  この研修会全体の感想についてお書きください。

53
	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
 

EvaluationSheet
Thank you for attending the ALT Mid-Year Seminar. Please fill in the evaluation sheet so we
can improve future seminars.
Name of Seminar	 JET Programme Mid-Year Seminar 2010 (DAY 1)

Please circle your school type and contract year.
Your School TypeElementary, JHS, SHSYour Contract YearFirst,

Second,Third,

Fourth,Fifth

Please Circle your evaluation for each subject.
１ I improved my knowledge ofIntercultural Communication

.

	
  	
  	
  	
  Ａ	
  Yes	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  Ｂ	
  Somewhat Yes
	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
 
Ｃ	
  Not so much	
  	
  Ｄ	
  No
２

I improved my skills in

Team-Teaching

	
  	
  	
  	
  Ａ	
  Yes	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  Ｂ	
  Somewhat Yes
	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
 
Ｃ	
  Not so much	
  	
  Ｄ	
  No
３	
  Did you find today's seminar useful and informative?
	
  	
  	
  Ａ	
  Useful	
  	
  	
  Ｂ	
  Somewhat Useful	
  	
  	
  Ｃ	
  Not so Useful	
  	
  	
  Ｄ	
  Not Useful４	  Do you have any opinion on today's seminar?

54.

Responses to question 4 from the sample frame
Appendix B
Responses To Question 4 From The Sample Frame
JTE
1. Every seminar I feel the same thing, ALTs speed is too much for me
2. I want ALTs to understand that not everyone here is a native speaker
3. It has been a long time since I spent an entire day using English, I would like to join
again
4. I had no chance to speak or interact directly with an ALT
5. The workshops are too long, and I have to leave my school for this, I also have todeal with the term exams and it is very tough.
6. I felt that ALTs had lots of power and enthusiasm
7. I felt this has little help for Elementary teachers
8. Mr Tsuji’s presentation was a little too fast so I could not follow, it was good training
overall.
9. I did not get much from ALTs outside of the lecture
10. This seminar is only in English. So there should be another seminar set up for
Elementary Teachers.

55

ALT
1. Excellent 2 day seminar, I really enjoyed it and found it very useful. I learnt someinteresting skills and new ideas. Thank you very much for an excellent seminar.
2. It was good, though I do not think it is OK for JTEs to sleep during presentations,presenters should also slow down and use easier English for the benefit of JTEs
3. I thought they were all practical and well done
4. There should be a greater emphasis put on JTE participation; both in presentations
and in group work
5. It is hard to express my true feelings about my personal experiences about teamteaching when I have my JTE sitting right next to me
6. Today better than yesterday because there was more JTE involvement
7. I wish my JTE could have attended because I found the seminar helpful. It would
help them understand how to use me better in the classroom
8. Useful to know some people have similar thoughts about frustrations encountered,particularly in the internationalisation section. Useful/practical – good team teaching
advice9.

It was too ALT focussed, not enough about team-teaching

10. I felt JTEs were heavily ignored. These workshops were heavily geared towards
ALTs and JTEs probably didn’t get much out of it… I want to hear their opinions more

56

Teaching and testing fluency
John Campbell-Larsen
Momoyama Gakuin University

Reference Data:
Campbell-Larsen, J. (2012). Teaching and testing fluency. In K. Bradford-Watts, R.
Chartrand, & E. Skier (Eds.), The 2011 Pan-SIG Conference Proceedings. Matsumoto:
JALT.

Abstract
This paper outlines an approach to teaching and testing fluency among university level Japanese
students of English. The author argues that fluency can be taught and tested, despite thecomplex and seemingly subjective nature of what constitutes fluency. It is suggested thatfluency may be better understood in terms of its opposition to the notion of “disfluency.” In
addition to items which students should incorporate into their speaking, equal weight should
also be given to items and behaviours that students should actively avoid incorporating into
their language. Fluency consists of both the presence and absence of certain items andbehaviours. Evaluating the fluency of students is subjective, but there are ways to give broad
brush stroke descriptions of fluency based upon the presence and absence of certain items andbehaviours. Moreover, students can achieve levels of fluency with limited language resources
by fostering autonomy in student speaking.

Keywords: Fluency, disfluency, autonomy

In a Japanese context, spoken fluency often has a very low priority in course aims,
curriculum design, and lesson content. Students often display very low levels of spoken
fluency, falling silent in response to questions, making brief, often one-word utterances,embedding English language utterances within Japanese language markers, anddisplaying an overarching concern for sentence-level grammatical accuracy, to mention
57

a few recurrent behaviours. Confusion, extreme hesitancy, frequent abrupt topic
changes, and lack of cohesion from speaker to speaker seem to be the common
denominators of much student spoken output. In an attempt to address some of theseconcerns, this paper will discuss some of the core concepts of fluency and also
investigate the concept of disfluency. The paper will then mention the centrality of
autonomy in promoting spoken fluency and describe evaluation procedures for testing
spoken fluency.
The concept of fluency
The concept of fluency is difficult to define in comprehensive terms, “...even incommon usage, ‘fluency’ is difficult to define, though it is a term which has been used
for a long time with reference to language teaching” (Brumfit, 1984, p.53). Even acursory glance at the literature on fluency reveals that it is a multi-component concept.
Filmore (1979), Brown (2003), and Richards, Platt, and Platt (1992) all deal with arange of components that constitute the core of the concept of fluency. The
multi-component, holistic, and partially subjective nature of fluency may hinderattempts to “tease out the empirical foundations of fluency” (McCarthy, 2010, p.2) andmay even lead to an abundance of “vacuous definitions” (Heike, 1985, in McCarthy,
2010, p.2). Clearly, broad categories can be intuited, such as speaking speed, length ofutterances, smoothness and so on, whilst other categories may be less open to intuition,such as use of smallwords (Hasselgreen, 2004), discourse competency (Canale &Swain,1980), backchanneling devices, and so on. The presence of such elements in a
speaker’s output may be refereed to as fluency markers.
It is interesting to note that the word fluent is widely used in ordinary,
non-technical language—the opposite term in non-technical language is simply not
fluent, which is a simple negation. This may suggest that non-fluency as a folk concept
simply posits the lack of certain elements in the speaker’s performance, that is, thespeaker has simply failed to learn enough items of the target language, or be able toutter them quickly enough. It seems reasonable to assume that learners may alignthemselves, however unconsciously, with this view of language fluency. This
deficiency of skill or knowledge may, however, only be one side of the coin. There may
also be certain elements which, by their presence in a speaker’s verbal output,
contribute to a sense of disfluency, that is to say, there may be elements that can be58

described as disfluency markers. Again, as with fluency markers, some of theseelements are more open to intuition than others. For example, extremely slow speaking,frequent unconscious resort to L1 vocabulary or use of L1 fillers and discourse markers
will clearly signal some lack of proficiency, but other features are not so obvious.
Mistranslated and over-applied backchanneling phrases (e.g. “Is that so?), or poorly
formed discourse (e.g. stating “Finished” to signal a conclusion to a narrative, as
opposed to a more typical Labovian coda) can also contribute to a sense of disfluency.
(Perhaps significantly the word “disfluency” or “dysfluency” is not found in moststandard dictionaries. Richards, Platt, and Platt (1992, p.141) use the word “dysfluency”
to refer to speech affected by disorders such as aphasia. This is not the sense in which“disfluency” is used here.)To sum up, fluency might be thought of as, on the one hand, a critical mass offluency markers, few, if any of which are essential as individual components as long as
the absence or low frequency of one element is offset by sufficient presence of otherelements. Balanced against this is the presence of certain disfluency markers, none ofwhich by their very presence will render the language output disfluent but, in
combination, may have a cumulative effect on judgements of fluency, even if fluency
markers are well integrated in to the speaker’s output. What precisely constitutes thecorrect balance and interplay of elements necessary to arrive at an assessment of fluency
will have an element of subjectivity to it, and may vary from L1 to L1, from context tocontext and from speaker to speaker, but can, it is argued here, be assessed in a more orless systematic fashion.
Some elements of fluency and disfluency: The Japanese context
As mentioned above, perceptions of fluency have a subjective aspect, but by reviewing
lessons and student output it is possible to identify some recurrent fluency markers (bytheir presence or absence) and also some common disfluency markers, whilst concedingthat such a list is inevitably incomplete and subjective. The following criteria have been
selected from reflective assessment of lessons through analysis of teaching journals,
review of video and audio recordings of student performance, and comparative analysis
of audio-visual recordings of English native speaker interactions. Some of the major
elements which emerged were;59•

Shortness of turns. In many cases students habitually resort to single word
responses to what are basically phatic questions.

•Word by word progress of sentences, lacking any sense of chunking, andshowing strong focus on producing grammatically perfect sentences.

•

Prolonged silences. Both within turns and between turns, multi second silences
are common.

•

Frequent, abrupt topic changes.

•

Inability to sustain discourse for extended periods.

•

Frequent use of Japanese language discourse markers/fillers. (etoh, anno, de andso on)•

Complete or near complete absence of English discourse markers andsmallwords (Well, You know, I mean, etc.)•

Unconscious (or semi-conscious) use of L1. Sometimes single words,
sometimes whole phrases or sentences.

•

Poor discourse awareness. Students may terminate turns by saying “Finished,”
ask only transactional questions, or fail to provide any balance of subjective andobjective content in responses.

•

Frequent use of Japanese response/backchanneling styles (So, so, so; Ah; Hai,
hai, typically prolonged or exaggerated) or simple repetition of the interlocutor’s
final word.

Analysis of spoken language
The following table shows the occurrence of six factors in student speaking. Of a
total of 14 students, 13 were native speakers of Japanese and one was a native
speaker of Chinese. Each group consisted of two or three members. The students
engaged in unplanned free conversation in English with each other for five minutes.
The conversations were video recorded by the teacher. The six factors were selected
to highlight both the presence and absence of English and Japanese language items.
It is readily conceded that other factors that contribute to impressions of (dis)fluency
were present, and the picture below represents an impressionistic overview rather
than a comprehensive attempt to account for all possible fluency and disfluency
markers. (See appendix 1 for an explanation of terms.)

60

Group JapaneseJapanese

EnglishShort

Repetitions SilencesNo.

languagestyle

Discourse

Answers

utterances

reactionsMarkers.

1

6

3

0

2

4

13

2

4

16

0

4

9

4

3

18

16

0

1

7

5

4

8

0

2

2

1

2

5

9

5

0

1

0

7

6

9

4

2

0

12

4

Total

54

44

4

10

33

37

(+2
seconds)

Group (4), which comprised a native Japanese speaker and a native Chinese speaker,
had a low occurrence of disfluency markers. Unsurprisingly, the native Chinese speaker
did not use any Japanese response styles or make any responses in Japanese (although
he is an accomplished speaker of Japanese), neither did he make any Chinese language
utterances. Data from other classes also supports the observation that non-native
Japanese speakers refrain from utterances in their own L1 and also seem to effect a
reduction in the L1 usage of Japanese interlocutors. It seems to be the case that Japanese
speakers have difficulty avoiding certain L1 behaviours, especially in spoken interaction
with other Japanese L1 speakers. Although “…the use of pair and group work is the
only available basis for naturalistic behaviour in conversational interaction in class”(Brumfit, 1984, p.87), prolonged practice with other Japanese speakers seems to run therisk of entrenching disfluency markers.
Centrality of autonomy.
Autonomy, like fluency, has a number of varying definitions, and is used in different
senses in different contexts.
It should be emphasized that there is no canon for concepts such as autonomy andindependence in the field of applied linguistics. These are problematic concepts

61because they carry with them meanings from other discourses. (Benson & Voller,
1997, p.2)
Nonetheless, in language learning, the canonical definitions (E.g., “The ability to takecharge of one’s learning” [Holec,1981, p.3]) cluster around the concept of students
having various

degrees of control over various aspects of their learning, deciding forthemselves what they will learn, or how they will learn, at what pace, and so on. These
concerns primarily see the students as learners, that is, acquirers of knowledge that they
did not previously have. In terms of the development of fluency in the classroom, it may
be useful to see students as doers, that is, people who are trying to use their existinglanguage resources to best effect to achieve real world communicative goals. Autonomy
in doing is the sense in which autonomy is here used.
It also seems clear that spontaneity is one of the key factors in determinationsof fluency. Extensively prepared, rehearsed, and memorised speaking may include
fluency markers and avoid disfluency markers, but the lack of spontaneity would renderthese absences or presences moot. Recitation is not fluency. Rather, real time andunfolding language use, with an essentially unpredictable direction is the framework
within which judgements of fluency may be made.
Student speaking has to include this central element of autonomy and spontaneity inorder to move towards fluency, and yet many instances of productive activity remove
key choices from the students. For example, a teacher may give directions for a
speaking activity in the following manner: “Ok, in your pairs, talk about your weekend
for five minutes. OK, go.”By many standards this is a very free production activity, with no instructions as
to using particular vocabulary or grammar, solving problems, accomplishing tasks or
the like. However, on a deeper level, such an activity undermines the very spontaneity
and autonomy that is superficially being promoted. The teacher controls the group size,
conversation topic, initiates the conversation of which he/she is not a participant anddetermines duration. Many students in the Japanese context (in the author’s experience)
would view this instruction as direction to talk about the weekend and only the weekend,(and fall silent if the topic exhausts their language resources), speak in groups of two
only, and await the teacher’s order to cease speaking. Such exterior control (either tacit
or explicit), exerted by a non-participant precludes the practice and development of such
key skills as naturalistic conversational onset, topic selection and shift, entry and62departure of other participants mid-conversation and so on.
Autonomy in doing
Autonomy in doing requires among other things, the students to self initiate speaking,without explicit instruction from the teacher, and to sustain the interactions without any
teacher input.
It is vital that the teacher make the goals of this approach clear from the outset.
“Telling students about the aim(s) of a particular activity helps them to identify withthese aims and hence feel more responsible for the outcome” (Scharle & Szabo, 2008,
8) and also “Teachers who adopt pedagogic approaches without explaining their reasonsfor doing so are denying their learners access to valuable information.” (Cotterall, 1995,
223-224)
In several long term projects the author has habituated students to fall naturally
into conversation with partners immediately after the class register has been taken. No
verbal or physical signal is given, and the students have also been habituated tocontinuing the conversation until they themselves decide to terminate, and then request
the teacher to “start teaching.” Such free talk is often initially perceived by Japanese
students as an abrogation of the teacher’s responsibilities, and is often greeted initiallywith confusion, and can lead to “...a phase of relative anarchy typified by uncertainty of
purposes” (Breen & Mann, 1997, 143) including extensive L1 use. However, as
students become accustomed to this style of lesson, naturalistic English conversation
started to establish itself as the norm, and use of L1 diminished. The length of time thatstudents could sustain English (or mostly English) interaction also increased
substantially. In three separate semester long projects, classes of students meeting in 90
minute classes three times a week for 15 weeks initially sustained conversation in
English for approximately 5 minutes at the start of the term, before lapsing into
Japanese or falling silent. By the end of the semester, this had extended to, on average,
50 minutes. In reviewing the teaching journal, it was noted that on certain occasions thestudents spoke in English for the full 90 minutes of allotted class time. This tended tooccur when the class was held under abnormal conditions, such as on a national holiday,
a make up class held on a weekend, or a large number of students were absent becauseof a festival. It appears that if the students conceived of the class as in some sense not a
proper lesson, they felt more able to use the class time solely for the purpose of63

conversing in English.
Assessment
As mentioned above, judgements of fluency will be to some extent subjective in nature.
As was also noted, fluency judgments are based not only on the presence of certain
elements in a student’s speaking, but also the absence of other elements. That is,training for fluency involves not only teaching the students to actively engage in certain
behaviours, it also requires the students to actively avoid certain other behaviours. The
assessment of fluency must measure both what is there and what is not there. Thisrequires a combination of additive marking and subtractive marking, as well as anelement of impression marking. (See Underhill, 1987, pp.100-103 for a more detailed
description of these terms)
In order to incorporate both of these aspects in assessment, the author has conductedassessments of spoken English as follows:•

A passing grade of 60%.

•

Students are instructed to speak to a partner in a naturalistic way for a set
time period. The teacher will act only as a monitor.

•

The starting level for all students is 60%, that is, a “pass.”•

Points will be gained for certain acts, such as use of discourse markers
and smallwords, use of chunks, appropriate discourse structuring, active
strategising to resolve communication breakdowns and so on.

•

Points will be deducted for certain acts, such as use of L1, protracted
silence, inappropriately short answers, use of L1 backchanneling systems,
failure to use (appropriate) smallwords, or failure to use them at theappropriate time, and so on.

•

No points will be deducted for grammatical or lexical errors.

In this system, all a student has to do in order to achieve a passing grade is avoid
engaging in certain behaviours. Higher grades may be achieved by engaging incontent-rich, appropriately structured and marked discourse. No sanction is placedon grammatical errors as grammatical imperfections actually provide a venue for64honing the strategic skills that native speakers also utilise. This point must be
stressed repeatedly to students.
The criteria for the test must be made explicit to the students, and practice tests
are carried out with increasing frequency as the test date approaches. During the test,
the teacher monitors the conversations and keeps a tally of plusses and minuses ofthe speakers’ performance. Although impressionistic and subjective to a certain
extent, it has been found that actual tallies of fluency and disfluency markers, andthe balance or imbalance thereof, to some extent reflect overall, subjective,
impressions of students’ fluency. That is to say, students judged impressionisticallyas more fluent tended to have a higher occurrence of fluency markers against
disfluency markers, with the opposite being so for less fluent students. It is of course
possible that prior expectations led the teacher to unconsciously weight the scoring
one way or another, but the creation of an impression of fluency and eagerness toparticipate and interact may also be a fluency marker in itself.
Conclusion
The achievement of fluency in a foreign language need not be seen as the distantend goal, to be arrived at only after mastering vast amounts of lexis and grammar. It
is entirely possible for people with quite limited language resources to engage inmore or less fluent spoken interactions with others, both native and non-native
speakers of the target language.
The view of fluency presented here is that certain linguistic behaviours enhance
perceptions of fluency, and certain other behaviours enhance perceptions ofdisfluency. Students can me made aware of these behaviours by overt teaching, andmust then be given extensive and repeated opportunity to engage in extended
discourse using English. Monitoring and feedback by the teacher can graduallyweed out the disfluency markers and promote greater use of the fluency markers. A
concrete set of criteria can be applied to judgements of students’ speaking for the
purposes of assessment. Such assessments based on observation of both presence
and absence of certain concrete and clearly understood phenomena help to give an
empirical basis for teaching, learning, and assessing spoken fluency.

65

Biodata
John Campbell-Larsen has taught English in Japan for 17 years. His interests
include spoken language, discourse and teaching methodology
References
Brumfit, C. (1984). Communicative methodology in language teaching. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Breen, M.P., & Mann, S.J. (1997). Shooting arrows at the sun: Perspectives on apedagogy for autonomy. In P. Benson & P. Voller (Eds.), Autonomy andindependence in language learning (pp.132-149). Harlow: Pearson Education
Brown, J.D. (2004). Promoting fluency in EFL classrooms. In T. Newfield (Ed.),
Conversational fluency: Ideology or reality? Proceedings of the JALT Pan-SIG
Conference, Kyoto, Japan, 2003. Tokyo: Japan Association for Language Teaching.
Canale, M., and Swain, M. (1980). Theoretical basis of communicative approaches
to second language teaching and testing. Applied Linguistics 1, 1-47
Cotterall, S. (1995). Developing a course strategy for learner autonomy. ELT
Journal, 49(3), 219-227.
Fillmore, C.J. (1979). On fluency. In C.J. Fillmore, D. Kempler, & W.Wang (Eds.),
Individual differences in language ability and language behaviour (85-101). New
York: Academic Press.
Hasselgreen, A. (2004). Testing the spoken English of young Norwegians: A studyof test validity and the role of “smallwords” in contributing to pupil’s fluency.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Holec, H. (1981). Autonomy in foreign language learning. Oxford: Pergamon
McCarthy, M.J. (2010). Spoken fluency revisited. English Profile Journal, 1(1),pp. 1-15.
Richards, J.C., Platt, J., & Platt, H. (1992). Longman dictionary of language
teaching & applied linguistics. (2nd ed.) London: Longman.
Scharle, A., and Szabo, S. (2000). Learner autonomy. A guide to developing learner
responsibility. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Underhill, N. (1987). Testing spoken language: A handbook of oral testing
techniques. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

66Appendix 1•“Japanese language utterances” refers to Japanese words, phrases or wholesentences uttered during ongoing English expression. Expressions that were(in the judgement of the researcher) both conscious and unconscious were
included.

•“Japanese style reactions” refers to non-lexical utterances such as “ah” “eh”
and so on. They are typically prolonged, and often have sharply risingintonation.(In Japanese these are termed aizuchi.)•“English Discourse Markers” refers to “fillers” and “smallwords” such as“Well,” “You know,” “I mean,” “Like” and so on.

•“Short answers” refers to single word or single sentence utterances that givethe answer to a question, but do not satisfy the interactional demands of thesituation, conveying a sense of over-literalness in response to the question oreven evasiveness.

•“Repetitions” refers to the simple repetition of the speaker’s last word, with
no apparent pragmatic function.

•“Silences” refers to a period of silence that was, in the teacher’s subjective
judgment, “awkward.”

67

Fluency development through skill transference

Brian Cullen
Nagoya Institute of Technology
Sarah Mulvey
Nanzan University
Reference Data:
Cullen, B., & Mulvey, S. (2012). Fluency development through skill transference. In K.
Bradford-Watts, R. Chartrand, & E. Skier (Eds.), The 2011 Pan-SIG Conference
Proceedings. Matsumoto: JALT.
Abstract
Japanese students studying English find it difficult to achieve a high level of fluency, yet whenchallenged to improve their abilities in clubs and jobs outside the English classroom, students
are generally more willing to apply great effort in learning new skills. In contrast, the average
student's attitude towards learning English usually displays much lower levels of motivation andeffort. Similar to the development of linguistic fluency, acquiring extra-curricular skills requires
the development of a knowledge base, effective strategies, and motivation. This paper examines
how successful strategies used to learn extra-curricular activities could potentially be transferred
to language learning and also shares an activity in which students considered an extra-curricular
activity that they had learned successfully and applied the results to their own English learning.
日本人学生達は、英語学習において高度な流暢さを習得することに対して	
  すぐに限界を覚える。
しかしながら、そんな学生達に限って、課外である普段の生活の場面で英語能力の向上の必要性に直面するとき、「難しい！」と英語講師に気軽に頼ることは容易ではない。
他の色々な活動と比較して、英語への進歩は熱意と達成感が欠落している。それは言語の流暢さ、基礎知識の発達を要求する特別教育課程、効果的戦略と熱意に類似する。
このプレゼンテーションは～特別教育課程による戦略はどうやって語学学習を潜在的に転進してきたか～を考慮している。
この発表者達は、生徒たちが熟思した成功法にて学習した特別教育課程活動をここで披露します。そして、それらを自己の英語学習成果にご利用下さい。

68

Keywords: Motivation, skills development, strategies, skills transference
As most teachers in Japan quickly recognize, the majority of Japanese students studying
English find it difficult to achieve a high level of fluency. Yet, when challenged to
improve their abilities in clubs and jobs outside the English classroom, these students
don’t resort to the excuse familiar to English teachers: “It’s too difficult.” Instead,students often devote themselves to their clubs or bukatsu wholeheartedly, become
highly motivated in these activities and are willing to apply massive amounts of effort.
As Cave (2004) notes, school clubs act as effective communities of practice which
employ a model of learning similar to apprenticeship. Through constant imitation andrepetition, these clubs effectively socialize students into powerful values and behaviour,while simultaneously promoting intense emotional attachment and group spirit. This is
the kind of description that most language teachers would like to be able to apply totheir own classroom, but students generally show much less motivation in their learningof English than at their clubs.
Apart from motivation, the sheer amount of effort that students apply to theirclubs or part-time jobs is clearly responsible for the aquisition of skills in these
extracurricular activities and would facilitate a much higher level of fluency if it wereapplied to language learning. While teachers recognize this, it is clear that students also
realize this themselves, for as has been pointed out by Brown (2003) and others,
Japanese students believe that achievement is caused by effort and only minimally byability.
Bukatsu is not the only extra-curricular activity where we see thisphenomenon of high motivation and high effort outside the classroom. A similar
amount of motivation and applied effort is also apparent in students' part-time jobs. In
our language classrooms, we have many students who work two or three different
part-time jobs which total up to 20 hours per week. While the money earned from thesejobs is undeniably important, the students also report much greater satisfaction frompart-time jobs than from their study. Again, we see huge effort and motivation toward
extra-curricular activities that is not usually shown in the language classroom.
It is perhaps not only language classes that suffer from this lack of motivationand effort. Indeed, a simple walk down the corridors of a Japanese school or university
and a look through the classroom door or windows will quickly reveal that many69

students are asleep during classes and that the teacher carries on as if this were perfectly
normal. In contrast, a walk beside the sports ground or the archery ground, or meeting a
student at their part-time job, quickly reveals that students are wide-awake and active.
So in most cases, it is not just the language class that is the problem, but rather thedifferent environments of the curriculum and the extra-curricular activities. Indeed,
English is generally rated higher than other subjects in surveys at our universities, sowhile the problem is less about language learning than about studying in general, thediscussion in this paper will keep the discussion within the limits of EFL.
Similar to the development of linguistic fluency, acquiring extra-curricularskills in part-time jobs or in clubs requires the development of a knowledge base,effective strategies, and motivation. This paper examines how successful the way of
thinking and learning that is used in learning extra-curricular activities could potentiallybe transferred to language learning. We also share an activity in which students thought
about an extra-curricular activity that they had learned successfully and then applied theresults to their own English learning.
Rationale
Much of our thinking in this paper has been influenced by the field of neuro-linguistic
programming (NLP), which suggests that the way of learning one skill, i.e. a learning
strategy, may be transferable to learning another skill (e.g. Dilts, 1998). By examining
the process of how a skill is learned, rather than just the ‘content,’ NLP suggests that it
is possible to ‘model’ that learning process and then apply that process or learning
strategy to other things that a person wants to learn.
While we often look at the problems that students face in the classroom andtake a remedial approach to teaching, NLP also suggests that it is more useful to look at
how excellent performers succeed, rather than looking at how people are failing. In thefield of ELT, this assumption was explored in great depth by Rubin (1975) in a study ofwhat constitutes a good language learner. One of Rubin’s important findings was that
good language learners are willing to experiment with different learning methods, andthen choose those that work best for them. The good language learner also notices how
other people learn the language and try out their methods to see if they are effective forthem. Through the activity presented in this paper, students in our classrooms got
opportunities to hear about other learning styles and to think about their own learning
70styles outside the langugage classrom, subsequently opening themselves up to thepossibility of different learning methods.
People use different approaches in learning a skill successfully compared towhen they learn something less successfully. Thinking about these learning strategies isa type of meta-cognition activity which can help students to realize how success in one
area of their lives may be transferable to other areas of their lives. More specifically,
thinking about the best ways to learn English can help our students to achieve higher
levels of fluency.
Our approach differs to Rubin in one important aspect. She aimed to distill thecharacteristics of the good language learner by examining a large number of students
who achieved success. While this is an extremely valuable approach and one which has
resulted in important findings, NLP is interested in the subjective nature of reality. In
other words, while successful learners of a language can certainly share characteristics,
it is the successful learning style of the individual learner that will be most effective forthat person. One simple example is that one learner might be primarily visual and learn
well through pictures or looking at someone else doing a task. Another learner could be
primarily auditory and learn best by listening to instructions. By identifying the natureof their personal successful learning strategies, a learner is able to potentially tap in toexactly how they can learn best in any situation.
Activity design
Based on earlier research into successful learning (Cullen, 2009) and some ideas fromthe field of NLP, we started out with three basic questions (1-3). As we prepared andcarried out preliminary piloting, other important issues emerged and these were also
included in the activity. These issues and related questions are shown in Table 1, below.

71

Table 1. Issues and questions used to focus meta-cognition
Meta-Cognition Focus

Example Question

What do you need to know?

1. What information do you need to learn?

How do you do it?

2. What skills do you need to learn?

Who are you in that situation?

3. What personal characteristics do you need to learnit?

Using what?

4. What resources do you need? Time, money,
friends, books, software, …?

Why?

5. What was your motivation? Extrinsic or intrinsic?

What’s the evidence?

6. How did you know that you had learned
successfully? Someone else told you? You felt it
yourself?

How long?

7. How much time did it take?

What feedback while learning?

8. How did you feel?

	
  Carrying out the activities
In the sections below, we discuss the activities that we carried out with students to help
them to perform this meta-cognition which allowed them to become more aware of theirown personal learning styles. Subsequently, they could later apply this learning style tothe study and acquisition of English. We carried out these activities with a total of 264
students at two universities. The students were a mixture of English majors andnon-English majors and proficiency in English ranged from very low to very high.
Step 1. Thinking about learning an extra-curricular activity successfully
To show students what we wanted to do, we started out by explaining something that
we had learned successfully. Table 2 gives the example of learning to play the guitar.

72

Table 2. Teacher example of learning successfully

What is something you learned successfully: Playing the guitar
When did you learn it? 16 years old (and I’m still learning!)
1.

What

Chord shapes; fingerpicking patterns; chord patterns

information/knowledge did you

for songs that I wanted to play; the names of eachneed to learn?

guitar string

2.

What skills did you need Holding the guitar; Making chords; how to hold andto learn?

use a pick; keeping rhythm: stringing a guitar; tuning
a guitar; bending notes; sliding; barre chords, etc.

3.

What personal

Patience; hard work; a love of music

characteristics did you need tolearn it?
4.

What other resources did I had time because I wasn’t working; Many of myyou have to learn it?

friends played and taught me riffs; I had books; tapes
to listen to and copy; I had enough money to buy a
guitar.

5.

What was yourIt was fun; my friends were playing too; I love music.

motivation for learning it?
6.

How did you know that My friends and family enjoyed hearing me play. I

you had learned it successfully?

could play more songs than before. I got paid to playin bars.

7.

How much time did ittake to learn it?

When I was in university, I practiced several hours aday. I played at every chance available. It took me
years to feel that I was good. I am still improving.

8.

How did you feel while It was always fun for me.

you were learning?

After explaining our own example of “Learning Successfully” (guitar playing), we gave
the “Learning Successfully” handout to students and asked them to think aboutsomething that they had learned successfully outside the classroom, such as a club73

activity, a sport, a hobby, or a part-time job. In order to carry it out as a usefullanguage-learning activity as well as a useful meta-cognition activity, we gave students
some time to think about the questions and then we had them form pairs to interview apartner and write down their partner’s answers. The students then shared the resultswith the whole class or in groups. The questions were the same as those shown in Table2.
Step 2. Thinking about learning English successfully
The next step was to have students think about learning English successfully. This was
carried out in the following lesson in most cases. For the “Learning English
Successfully” activity, the questions were phrased as shown in Table 3.
Table 3. Learning English Successfully
1. What information/knowledge do you
need to learn English?
2. What skills do you need to learn?
3. What personal characteristics do you
need to learn English?
4. What other resources do you have tolearn English?
5. What is your motivation for learning
English?
6. How will you know that you havelearned English successfully?
7. How much time does it take to learn
English?
8. How do you feel while you arelearning English?
Again, the activity was carried out in pair interviews, and the students later shared theirresults in groups and with the whole class. For several higher level classes, we also74asked students to do a further meta-cognition activity by writing 200 words of advice
for someone else on how to learn English. These advice papers were posted on the wallsof the classroom, and the students spent some time with a pen and notebook, writing
down the advice that their peers had shared.
Preliminary results
At this point in time, we consider this research to be a pilot study and not all the data
has yet been analyzed. However, some interesting preliminary results have alreadyemerged and these are outlined below.
•

Lower-level learners generally chose sports as the activity at which they weresuccessful. In contrast, many higher-level learners chose other activities such as cooking
or musical instruments. Out of the total number of students (n=264), the highest numberof learners (49%) considered that they had achieved successful learning in a sport. Thiswas followed by a musical instrument (21%) and cooking (9%).
•

Other examples of successfully learned activities were quite diverse andincluded English speech contest, housework, walking by hands, dancing, chemistry andbiology, selling cakes, tea ceremony, ballet, and calligraphy.
•

The students really enjoyed the activity and apart from its meta-cognitive

value in raising awareness of personal learning style, it is clearly a motivational activity
which generated a lot of active and engaged language use.
•

Learning was generally stated to be more successful when an activity wasconsidered to be fun or intrinsically motivating. “Hard” is acceptable when the level of
fun is high. To a large extent, this explains the motivation and effort exerted in clubs
and jobs, and adds weight to the argument that language classrooms need to be
intrinsically motivating.
•

Although we have not fully analyzed the data, metacognition about anothersuccessful activity appears to have been very useful because it was clear that students
were referring to the previous successfully-learned activity when they started thinking
about learning English successfully.
•

Sharing ideas in group discussion was very useful and helped students tobecome more aware of other learning styles.
•

Higher level English speakers were better able to describe how they achieved

success. The lower level students, in turn, could gain insight into their higher level75peers' ability to achieve successful language learning and begin to see it as something
they could model. This supports the assumption of NLP that we may need to ask
excellent performers of a skill in order to get useful responses.
The 200 word essays written by the higher level students were also useful and provided
good advice for learning English.
•“Learn lots of vocabulary.” (very common response)•“Practice grammar thoroughly.”•"Practice your pronunciation.”•“Be active and positive.”•“Have curiosity.”•“Be patient.”•“Talk with other people in English.”•“Overcome embarrassment.”•“Making mistakes is natural.”•“Watch foreign films.”•“Enjoy English to learn English (if you hate it, you won’t improve).”•“Grammar can be dull, so watch a movie or choose your favourite English

book.”•“Search the Internet for your favourite musician’s lyrics – you can learn

informal English.”•“When I learned tea ceremony, I had to learn the names of objects first. These

were the basics. I had to do the same for English. Learn the basics. Without knowing thebasics, you cannot start anything. For tea ceremony, I needed patience and a love ofJapanese culture. I needed the same for English. The most important thing is having aninterest.”•“No matter how much you love English, you will feel disgusted or a lack ofconfidence at least once. It takes a long time. You cannot become good at English all at
once.”•“You need to have good supporters, for example, your friends and teachers.

With your supporters, you can keep on.”•

“Listen to the radio in English or read The Japan Times.”•“You need resources plus personal characteristics.”
76•"Study English every day."•“Find a place where you can speak English.”•“Your memories while you were in a foreign country may be useful tomotivate you to continue learning English.”•“You have to repeat your learning many times.”•“Make a suitable environment and prepare necessary things such as text books

or dictionaries in order to learn English. Suitable environment means a place where you
can concentrate on studying.”•“Keep up your motivation to improve your English skills.”•“I think vocabulary is the most important thing to learn because if you haveperfect grammar or your reading speed was very fast, without vocabulary you still
couldn’t understand what sentences mean.”•“Depends on which one you want to learn, speaking fluently or writing inproper grammar, how you have to study will be different.”•“When I get tired of studying English, I watch dvds in English to get

confidence and to be eager to study again. Just have fun continuously, and don’t be shy
to speak English.”•“Finally, English is English, it is actually impossible to translate English into

Japanese so just feel English as English then it will be easier to learn it.”•“If you want to be able to speak fluently, the best way is to go to a country

where people speak English.”Improvements to the Pilot StudyIn the process of carrying out this study and while sharing it with participantsat the conference, it became clear that the current research can be improved invarious ways, and we plan to carry out the study again in an improved form.
•

It has become clear that learning is context-dependent and that theenvironment needs to be specified, so it would be useful to add a question such as:“where did you learn it, who did you learn it with?”•

Many students followed the teacher example too closely and gave a musicalinstrument as their successfully-learned activity. Others followed the oral suggestion ofa sport. In order to encourage a wider range of fields in which successful learning might
have taken place, in future we plan to give a better list of sample skills (written as well77

as explained orally). These could be drawn from the “Other” student examples in thispilot study.
•

In order to extend the meta-cognition, students could also be asked to elicit askill that they failed to learn and notice the differences between the answers. This does
not match the NLP idea of looking at successful exemplars of a skill, but could certainly
provide insight.
•

Some students explained how feedback was useful to them as part of thelearning process and it may be useful to add a question asking what specific kinds of
feedback was useful to them when they learned successfully.
•

In this study, although the questions in the learning successfully activity andthe learning English activity were very similar, in future it would be useful to makemore explicit links between learning the extracurricular activity and learning English.
For example, students could identify similarities and differences between the two
activities and determine what could usefully be applied to the situation of learning
English.
•Currently there is considerable research being carried out into Can Do

statements, and this activity could potentially be linked to one of the Can Do
frameworks.
•

Since this activity was used as a language-learning activity as well as ameta-cognition awareness-raising activity, we carried it out entirely in L2. However, themeta-cognition part of the activity could probably be improved by adding L1
brainstorming in order to generate richer ideas.
•

While the length of the activity needs to be kept fairly short, some additionalquestions which could be included are:•

What did you do to maintain the skill in the activity over time?

•

How did you change as a result of learning this activity successfully?

Conclusion
This study has been a preliminary attempt to apply some of the ideas of NLP andmeta-cognition to the Japanese EFL classroom, particularly in identifying usefullearning strategies by modelling the success students have with their extra-curricular
activities. It has shown great promise and we plan to investigate this area further. We
would like to thank the participants at the PanSig conference for their thought-inspiring78

feedback and we welcome any further feedback on this paper from researchers orteachers who would like to develop this idea further. Feel free to use this activity inyour own classroom environment. Your feedback after the activity would be muchappreciated. Both authors can be contacted at the e-mail addresses provided at the endof this paper.
BiodataDr. Brian Cullen is an associate professor at Nagoya Institute of Technology. He has
authored and edited many EFL textbooks and research articles. His current researchinterests include learner autonomy, neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), materials
design, and L2 creativity. He is a master practitioner and trainer of NLP. Moreinformation is available at <www.briancullen.net>.
Sarah Mulvey is an instructor at Nanzan University in Nagoya, Japan. Her current
research interests include learner development, creative writing, and gender issues.
Sarah can be contacted at: <sarahmulvey@yahoo.ca>.
References
Cave, P. (2004). Bukatsudo: The educational role of Japanese school clubs. The Journalof Japanese Studies, 30(2), 383-415
Cullen, B. (2009). The L2 Songwriter. In B. Tomlinson and H. Masuhara (Eds).
Research for Materials Development in Langauge Learning: Evicence for Best Practice.
New York: Continuum International Publishing Group.
Dilts, R. (1998). Modeling with NLP. Capitola, California: Meta Publications.
Rubin, J. (1975). What the“ good language learner“ can teach us. TESOL Quarterly,9(1), 41-51.

79

Using Chaos Theory as a path to language fluency
Eric Fortin
St. Mary’s College, Kurume, Fukuoka
Reference data:
Fortin, E. (2012). Using Chaos Theory as a Path to Language Fluency. In K.
Bradford-Watts, R. Chartrand, & E. Skier (Eds.), The 2011 Pan-SIG Conference
Proceedings. Matsumoto: JALT.
Abstract
Chaos theory, otherwise known as complex systems theory, which has been implemented inmathematics and the natural sciences to account for the effects of interactions of various factors
in order to understand and predict phenomena such as hurricane formation, has only recently
begun to be explored for possible applications within the social and cognitive sciences,including language learning. This paper will first introduce the history and dynamics of chaostheory, and then observe how it has been applied to language learning. The author’s personallanguage-learning and language-teaching experiences related to the theory will then be
introduced. The paper will conclude with proposals for implementing chaos theory into acomplex systems model that can hopefully be applied to language learning both inside andoutside the classroom.
無秩序論または複雑な制度論は台風などの現象を理解・予報できて、いろいろな要因の総合作用の影響を説明するために、自然科学や数学に実行されていますが、その理論は語学勉学を含めて社会・認知科学に応用するために探検されるのは最近ばかりである。
本検討は無秩序の歴史・動力学から初めて、その理論は今まで語学に応用されているかを紹介して、そして本著作者は自分の無秩序と関係がある語学勉教・教授の経験を現す。
最後に教室内外で応用されられるため、無秩序論が複雑な制度の模型で実行できるための定義に終わる。

Keywords: chaos theory, complex systems theory, non-linearity, second language
acquisition
キーワード：無秩序論、複雑な制度論, 無次方程式、第二言語習得

80

Chaos theory—history and dynamics
Chaos theory, or complex systems theory, is a field of study in mathematics that has
been applied in various natural sciences to attempt to explain the apparent randomness
that is often found in nature. The theory asserts that sensitivity to initial conditions often
leads to dramatically different outcomes in the long-term. If all the initial factors are
known and accounted for, the outcomes are theoretically deterministic. However, theinfinite number of initial factors, coupled with the infinite variety of interconnections
and evolving relationships between those factors, serve to make long-term prediction
generally impossible (Wikipedia, 2011).
Although precedents of what later formed some of the basic attributes of chaos theory
made their appearance in the 1880’s under the name of ergodic theory (Wikipedia,
2011), the theory really became formalized in 1960, when a meteorologist named
Edward Lorenz accidentally stumbled upon the importance of sensitivity to initialconditions. He had been working on weather prediction models. For one particularmodel the starting value for a curve sequence was .506127, and a corresponding pattern
was computed for a given time interval. Later, when he wanted to view the pattern again,
he entered the starting value as .506, dropping the seemingly insignificant last three
digits to save time. What he found was that, although in the short term the curve
patterns of the two equations were identical, they began to diverge after a certain
interval (Grae’s blog, 2008). With time the outcomes of the two models became very
different, which in the world of weather could potentially be as great as the difference
between a clear sky and a rainstorm. (Figure 1 illustrates the two patterns, which begin
to separate about one-third of the way into the figure.)
Figure 1: Lorenz’s weather prediction experiment. (Ian Stewart, Does God Play
Dice? The Mathematics of Chaos, p. 141, cited in grae’s blog, 2008)81

This “sensitivity to initial conditions” aspect of chaos theory gave rise to the notion of
the “butterfly effect,” whereby the flap of a single butterfly’s wings in Brazil could
influence the formation or lack thereof of a hurricane in Florida (Wikipedia, 2011). The
implication is that in order to accurately predict future weather, one would need to take
into account all of the potential weather factors, including not only atmospheric pressure,temperature, and wind speed and direction, but also all movements of all butterflies,
birds, icebergs, solar flares, etc., which would be an unfathomable if not impossible
task.
As Lorenz continued with his experiments into his new discovery, he cameupon another key aspect of chaos theory, which is non-linearity. Prior to the observationof chaotic behavior, only two kinds of order were known, a steady state, in which
variables never change, and periodic behavior, in which the system goes into a loop that
repeats itself indefinitely. What Lorenz found was that some systems show spiralpatterns over a period of time, with each loop either expanding or shrinking; then breakout into a random pattern; and then settle again into another spiral pattern. As opposed
to linear systems, which show sequential, cause-and-effect properties, non-linear
systems exhibit non-sequential and thereby non-predictable properties, in which
variables influence each other dynamically, creating new variables which in turn goback to affect the original variables (Wikipedia, 2011). Harshbarger (2007) uses a dropof water to illustrate the two systems. In a linear system, we can calculate a drop ofwater released in a vacuum to determine where and how long it will take to fall,
whereas “in a non-linear, dynamic system such as inside a hurricane, the number ofvariables and potential interactions among those variables make determining its
movement unpredictable.” Larsen-Freeman (1997, cited in Hadidi Tamjid, 2007)
explains non-linear systems as feedback sensitive, in which the effect isdisproportionate to the cause, meaning that “a cause of a particular strength may not
result in an effect of equal strength, for example, a rolling little stone can trigger anavalanche.”
Lorenz called the factors that lead to recursive spiral patterns as “strange
attractors” that create a temporary order within a chaotic equation. These attractors act
like triggers that cause an equation to repeat itself in a near mirror image-like pattern.
However, since the equation never actually overlaps, the recursive loop looks more likea spiral or whirlpool. In meteorology, an example of a strange attractor might be the82formation of an eye in a hurricane. It may not be possible to accurately predict when or
where a hurricane will form, but once formation begins, it is possible to predict that aneye will form. Each eye is slightly different from other hurricane eyes, but the processof eye formation is similar. However, the chaotic aspect reappears when trying topredict a hurricane’s exact direction and strength beyond a day or so. This is due to theemergence of other factors that serve to break the spiral, at least until the next strange
attractor is encountered.

As Larsen-Freeman (1997) asserts, complex/chaotic systems“behave orderly until a critical point, in which they go chaotic. Following this chaotic
period, they may become orderly again. (Figure 2 shows Lorenz attractors, where initialfactors cause single spirals to form around strange attractors, represented by the small
black holes, after which secondary spirals appear, creating double spirals or figureeights.)Figure 2: Lorenz attractors (Wikipedia, 2011)

Another name in the development of chaos theory is the biologist Robert May,
who worked on models for animal population predictions using equations of growth rate
value changes. He observed that at low growth rate values the population would settle
down to a single number, represented by a single steady curve, but that at higher values
the curve bifurcated to give two possible populations that alternated from year to year83

(grae’s blog, 2008). The bifurcation point represents a key factor, such as an alternating
wet and dry climatic period, that might not affect animal populations with slow growth
rates, but might dramatically influence population growth at a higher rate. At evenhigher values each curve would then bifurcate again to give four possible population
values. Finally, at very high growth rate values, chaos would appear. However, even
within the chaos, small mirror images of the patterns of the original and subsequently
bifurcated population curves can be seen. (Figure 3 shows May’s bifurcation diagramfor his population equation, with the region of chaos represented by the gray region on
the right.)
Figure 3: May’s population equation bifurcation diagram (Wikipedia, 2011)

One final important name in chaos theory that should be mentioned ismathematician Helge von Koch, who created the so-called Koch curve. Koch set out todemonstrate that within a finite area, such as a circle, a line of infinite length can be
drawn. He did this by beginning with a triangle, and then adding a triangle to the middleof each of the bases. Each time triangles were drawn atop existing bases, the84circumference of the figure, represented by a line, would lengthen. This could
theoretically continue ad infinitum (grae’ blog, 2008), although the sizes of the triangles
would quickly decrease to microscopic size. (Figure 4 shows some stages of the Kochcurve.)
Figure 4: Koch curve (James Gleick, Chaos – Making a new science, p. 99)

The following properties summarize the main criteria of chaotic systems: 1)
Sensitivity to initial conditions, 2) Non-linearity, 3) Attractor states, and
4) Recursiveness (self-similarity). The next section describes how these properties canbe seen to exist in the field of language learning.
Main elements in language learning
According to Harshbarger (2007), language learning involves a number of elements.
Although the following elements are explained in an apparent linear order, it must be
remembered that all of the elements influence each other at different stages of language
learning.
Engagement- feeling some desire or incentive to learn. Although this element isgenerally acknowledged to be of vital importance at the beginning of language learning,
it is important to recognize that learners’ interests and language learning needs change
continually over time.
85

Noticing- detecting patterns based on feedback and other input. Noticing is influenced
by the sensory and cognitive abilities of the learner, as well as variations in learning
styles.
Making sense- trying to determine the significance or usefulness of the patterns towhich the learner is exposed. This element is in perpetual flux; learners may feel thatsomething makes sense or is correct at some point, and then proceed on that assumption
until new information causes a re-evaluation of its correctness.
Organizing- sorting meaningful information into categories. This ability, which varies
among individuals and even within one individual over time, may tend to facilitate
memory.
Applying- using the information obtained for some purpose. This element may or may
not involve output; it could also result from passive observation of the teacher or otherlearners.
Incorporating- making what has been learned a part of the learner’s identity. Thiselement relates to competence and automaticity of language production.
If these elements were truly linear, language instructors could teach aspects of language
learning such as grammar and vocabulary in a sequential manner, moving from one stepto the next until the incorporation element is achieved. (Figure 5 illustrates this learningtendency sequence in its linear form.)
However, a true understanding of language learning as a dynamic system thatinvolves interactions between each element at different stages of the learning process
would be better illustrated by the diagram in Figure 6.

86Figure 5: A Linear Model of Language Learning (Harshbarger, 2007)

Figure 6: A Dynamic Model of Language Learning (Harshbarger, 2007)

87

Harshbarger goes on to summarize the following attributes of this model of language
learning:
1. It is non-linear.
2. It has limited predictability and only general directionality.
3. It is subject to many variables that have complex interactions.
4. It is difficult to control.
5. It is susceptible to influences and contextual conditions.
6. It is unfathomable – teachers’ insights into what is going on with eachlearner, including observed behaviors and test results, are at best indirect,
partial, and temporary.
Chaos theory and second language acquisition
Regarding the similarities between chaotic systems and second language acquisition,
Larsen-Freeman (1997) emphasizes that language learning is dynamic, self-organizing,and feedback sensitive, and that these attributes can be seen in the ever-changing
character of learners’ internal L2 grammars. She argues that second language
acquisition reacts to external input, and its entire organization changes with the new
input, constantly reorganizing to obtain equilibrium. In addition, the non-linearity of theprocess is shown by the way a student learns the grammatical tenses. The student learns
the simple present, present progressive, and simple past, and may do very well in
implementing those tenses accurately in conversation. Then the teacher introduces thepast perfect, and the student may suddenly become less proficient in using the simple
past due to this new distracting input. Hopefully at some point the student will be able
to accommodate the new input into his/her awareness of how the system works. In otherwords, in second language acquisition there are orderly periods followed often by chaos,and then order is restored through interactions with others. Larsen-Freeman asserts thatin addition to providing fresh light on second language acquisition phenomenon, chaostheory underscores the importance of details, discourages simple cause-and-effect–based theories, and reminds teachers to focus on a student’s holistic understanding of alanguage rather than on atomistic learning of specific aspects of the language.

88Personal teaching experiences with the non-linear element of language learning
Learning experience
An understanding of the dynamic aspect of language acquisition has helped me
overcome personal disappointments that I have experienced in my personal study oflanguages. As an example, in my study of Japanese, I learned of the existence of two
kinds of adjectives, so-called -i adjectives and na adjectives. I first learned the -i
adjectives, and I learned that to express the idea of “I think that (noun) is …(adjective)”,the adjective comes first, followed by the particle to, and then the verb omoimasu(think) is added. So taking an -i adjective such as kawaii (pretty, cute), to say somethingis pretty Japanese say “(subject + subject/topic particle) + kawaii to omoimasu.” I wasdoing well for a while, making all kinds of sentences with different -i adjectives, and I
received compliments from my Japanese friends about my good usage of the language.
Then I learned the na adjectives, which require the addition of the copula da between
the adjective and the particle to. So in a sentence using the na adjective such as kirei(pretty), to say something is pretty Japanese say “(subject + subject/topic particle) +kirei da to omoimasu.” Again I became proficient at making sentences with various na
adjectives for a while. However, this recently-learned grammar device of adding the
copula da after the adjective became a distraction, and I felt myself wanting toconsistently use this recently-learned grammar aspect with all adjectives, thereby
making ungrammatical sentences like “(subject + subject/topic particle) + kawaii da toomoimasu.” My Japanese friends were surprised at how “bad” my Japanese was
becoming, saying that I had spoken so well before and asking me what had happened. I
now realize that I had fallen into a period of chaos due to the influence of the new input.
Fortunately, as Larsen-Freeman predicted, order was eventually restored in my Japanesestudy, and I now only very rarely confuse the two types of adjectives.
Teaching experience
I discovered a similar phenomenon in the beginners’ French language class that I teachfor first-year college students. One aspect of French grammar is that all nouns are either
masculine or feminine, with corresponding masculine and feminine articles for singularnouns. Although my students have always had problems at the beginning of the coursewith trying to associate masculinity or femininity with inanimate objects, after intensive
drilling and practice, most of the students could use nouns with their proper articles
89quickly and accurately. Then, assuming that they had understood the masculine andfeminine aspects of nouns and had memorized the gender of a few common nouns, I
went on to introduce another grammar feature such as a verb conjugation. I was
surprised to find that the students, by concentrating so much on this new input, soon
forgot which nouns were masculine and which were feminine, in spite of having “learnt”
them thoroughly. This resulting period of chaos following one of order had frustrated
both me as the teacher, who felt disappointed in the students as well as my own teachingability, and the students themselves, who thought that they had been progressing in theiracquisition of French, only to discover that they were regressing to an earlier phase of
their study. However, now, with an appreciation of the complexity of learning and theinevitable presence of backtracking stages throughout the learning process, I feel lessfrustrated, as I now have an expectation that students will regress at certain points. I also
do not fail to tell my students that they will not fail to progress in their study in the longterm despite occasional lapses.
Implications of a complex systems model
It can be argued that if learning is so chaotic and unpredictable, teaching must therefore
be pointless. However, Harshbarger (2007) argues that although “complex systems are
difficult to control, they are subject to influences. The exact impact of these influences
cannot be predicted, but general trends can be expected over time. Predictions ofcomplex systems and ways to influence such systems’ outcomes are also getting betteras more is learned about complex systems behavior.”
Regarding impacts on language instruction and teaching behavior, an explicit
implementation of revolutionary and innovative methods of instruction may notnecessarily be needed. Students still need to be encouraged, provided with input, given
explanations, tasks, and feedback. Examinations and other assessments also willcontinue to be required by school administrators. However, an enlightened
understanding of the complex, dynamic nature of learning should lead to a deeper
understanding and lead to more effective learning over time. Some of the fundamental
changes that Harshbarger sees happening with the adoption of a dynamic systems modelof learning are:
Emphasis on individual learning processes. Instead of standardized materials,
teachers will focus on providing an input-rich environment with varied, interesting90

activities that can increase the chances of triggering individual students’ interests andmeet their unique needs. This has already started to become evident with the appearanceof student-centered education and the concepts of multiple intelligences and learning
styles.
Use of teachers as resources and models. Rather than viewing teachers astransmitters of information, they will become models that encourage students,
strengthen their learning abilities, and promote such learning that has as much meaning
for the students as possible.
Holistic engagement levels and proficiency over time as the basis of program,teacher, and students’ assessment. Measurement of learning outcomes will bebased on long-term goals. Students will also be assessed by student-based motivational
behaviors such as class participation, amount of reading accomplished, length of journal
entries, and self-evaluations of personal attainments vis-à-vis their original goals.
Conclusion
It may take some time for the application of chaos/complex systems theory to become
ingrained in the minds of social and cognitive science practitioners such as language
teachers due to its seemingly pessimistic view that systems like language instruction areless linear and therefore less predictable than most educators feel comfortable with.
After all, as educators we want to be able to control what our students learn, and wewant to feel that we have had a hand in their success. However, I believe the greatest
value of chaos theory is that it would help educators to understand why some teaching
methods work for one student or class but not for another, or why an activity had
worked well for a particular class at the beginning of a semester but failed completely
with the same class toward the end of the semester. If language instructors becomeaware of the potentially significant influences that seemingly minor factors might exert
on an individual student, class, or learning environment, they may be able to anticipate
potential problems to a certain extent; and even if problems cannot be imagined,
instructors will at least be better able to adapt to changing circumstances and havealternative methods or activities prepared just in case. They would also almost certainly
feel less frustrated with themselves and their students with the knowledge that
previously unnoticed and/or unpredictable factors might have been involved in the poor
results of an examination or the failure of a particular class activity.
91Biodata
Eric Fortin is currently working for St. Mary’s College in Fukuoka. His researchinterests include cognitive science, individualized language instruction, and curriculum
development.
References
Gleick, J. (1987). Chaos: Making a new science. New York: Viking Penguin.
grae’s blog (2008). Chaos Theory: A brief introduction. [Online] Available:<imho.com/grae/chaos/chaos.html>.
Hadidi Tamjid, N. (2007). Chaos/Complexity Theory in Second Language Acquisition,
Novitas Royal, 1(1), 10-17. [Online] Available: <novitasroyal.org/tamjid.pdf>.
Harshbarger, B. (2007). Chaos, complexity and language learning. Language Research
Bulletin, 22. [Online] Available:<scribd.com/doc/3017595/Chaos-Complexity-and-Language-Learning>.
Larsen-Freeman, D. (1997). Chaos/complexity, science, and second language
acquisition. Applied Linguistics, 18(2), 141-155.
Wikipedia (2011). Chaos theory, [Online] Available:<en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory>.

92

Transfer Appropriate Processing: Establishing a basis for application in the SLA
classroom
Nathaniel FrenchShowa Women’s University, Kanagawa University
Reference Data:
French, N. (2012). Transfer Appropriate Processing: Establishing a basis for applicationin the SLA classroom. In K. Bradford-Watts, R. Chartrand, & E. Skier (Eds.), The 2011
Pan-SIG Conference Proceedings. Matsumoto: JALT.
Abstract
Research in transfer appropriate processing (TAP) began in the field of cognitive psychology asa theory of memory retrieval in 1977, and has since been tested and proven multiple times.
Although the idea of TAP has been heralded in multiple works of SLA since the 1980s, noattempt to date has been made to establish guidelines for its use in the SLA classroom. This
presentation will therefore begin by covering important TAP literature in cognitive psychology
and SLA, and will continue on into the development of guidelines to be used in the constructionof TAP based classroom language learning activities. This presentation takes the stance that
there are two rules of applying TAP in SLA: that learning must occur, and that the processes ofthe lesson must coincide with the processes of the learning objectives. These rules will then be
exemplified in two TAP deficient domains of SLA.

Keywords: Pedagogy, TAP, SLA, classroom activities
Transfer appropriate processing (TAP) is an empirically proven theory of learning inwhich learner performance on a given examination is dependent on the closeness inrelation between the processes involved in the learners' study and the processes required
for the examination (Blaxton, 1989; Franks, Bilbrey, Lien, & McNamara, 2000; Morris,
Bransford, & Franks , 1977). This theory has many possible applications in second
language acquisition, and might potentially provide the theoretical backgroundnecessary to significantly improve both the efficiency of lessons created and thelearning/automatization speed of second language students (Lightbown, 2008;
Segalowitz, 1997; Segalowitz & Lightbown, 1999; Spada & Lightbown, 2008).
Although TAP is commonly mentioned in cognitive psychology literature,93

TAP does not have nearly the same representation in the literate of second language
acquisition (SLA). This article will therefore proceed to outline research done withrespect to TAP in cognitive psychology as well as highlight previous SLA literature
which has made mention of TAP. It will continue on to provide insights into yet
unrealized applications of TAP with regard to SLA.
TAP in Cognitive Psychology research
The original research conducted with regards to transfer appropriate processing wasdone by Morris, Bransford, & Franks (1977), and consisted of three separate
experiments which tested the lexical memory performance of learners. In the firstexperiment, students were divided into different groups, with half of the groups
assigned the learning of a target word’s semantic appropriateness, and the other half
assigned the learning of words which rhymed with the target words. The groups werethen formed into new groups so that each group consisted of an equal number ofstudents from the previous groups. Each new group was then tested by either thesemantic or the rhyme based test. While Morris, Bransford, & Frank’s original
hypothesis was that the learning of a word’s semantic orientation (deep processing)would outperform the learning of rhyme words (shallow processing) in both tests, it was
concluded with 99% confidence that students who studied semantics did better on thesemantic tests, and that students who studied rhymes did better on the rhyming tests.
The remaining two studies were very similar to the first, and reconfirmed with 99%
confidence that the processes involved in learning play a significant role in students’performance on tests.
Subsequent TAP research in cognitive psychology has been conducted by
Blaxton (1989) and Franks, Bilbrey, Lien, & McNamara (2000). In order to fully
understand Blaxton’s research, one must first understand the reason why her research
was conducted. Jacoby (1983) had previously found dissociation between recognition
performance (memory performance involving studied data) and perception performance(memory performance involving cues or priming which leads to a change in reactiontime). Jacoby’s findings were significant because they showed that, instead of
perception memory being more “general” and therefore less likely to preserve
information, both perception memory and recognition memory were equally useful instoring information, but that the information recorded with respect to each type of94

memory was inherently different. In response to these findings, Blaxton (1989)
conducted her research in search of the possible explanations for this dissociation.
Blaxton hypothesized that there were two possible reasons for Jacoby’s results, the firstof which was that there are separate memory systems for different types of learning(such as the dichotomy between semantic and episodic memory, or between implicit
and explicit memory) (Tulving, 1972; Graf & Schacter, 1985), and the second being
TAP, which suggested that the dissociation was the result of the differing closeness ofprocess between learning and testing. Blaxton concluded after three separate
experiments that TAP was able to describe the differences in recognition and perception
performance found as a result of different types of study. Furthermore, the separate
memory systems hypothesis failed to explain the results as there were discrepancies
found within the same memory system which, if correct in theory, should be affected in
the same way. Moreover, Blaxton suggested that in addition to Jacoby’s (1983) and her
own study, TAP could also be applied to the other dissociations found in memory
literature (Clarke & Morton, 1983; Hashtroudi, Ferguson, Rappold, & Chrosniak, 1988;
Jacoby, 1983).
In the paper by Franks, Bilbrey, Lien, & McNamara (2000), the object of
research focused primarily on the dichotomy between same-task conditions (activities inwhich the processes involved in acquisition and testing are the same) and cross-task
conditions (activities in which the processes involved in acquisition and testing aredifferent). In all thirteen experiments conducted, it was found that same-task conditions
always lead to the greatest reduction in response time. As well, it was also found thatcross-task conditions lead to significant, although smaller, reductions in all experiments
except one, in which no significant reduction was measured. These research findings are
significant because not only do they once more show the potential of utilizing TAP, butalso because they show that cross-task conditions can still lead to an increase inperformance even if the increase is not as large as the increase found with same-task
conditions.
TAP in Second Language Acquisition literature
Of the literature that exists, the first article involving TAP to cross over into SLA wasby Durgonuglu and Roediger (1987). This study was very similar to Jacoby’s (1983)
and Blaxton’s (1989) research in that it measured the learning of vocabulary withrespect to free recall and lexical priming, although it was the first paper to do so through95

the use of bilingual priming. After that, TAP was touched upon very briefly by one
other bilingual priming article (Basden, Bonilla-Meeks, & Basden, 1994), but did notoccur in other types of SLA literature until it started receiving brief mention of its
potential benefits to language learning in a string of articles beginning in the mid to late
1990s (Segalowitz, 1997; Segalowitz & Lightbown, 1999; Spada & Lightbown, 2008).
To date, there is only one piece of literature in the SLA field which delves
deeply into TAPs potential affect on SLA (Lightbown, 2008). While Lightbown’s paper
does not introduce research or show specific applications of TAP in SLA, it does cover
many topics, and comments upon the apparent links between TAP and levels ofprocessing, form-focused instruction, and form-meaning connections. One referenced
article of note in Lightbown’s paper is that of Trofimovich’s (2005) study on bilingual
priming. In this article, Trofimovich divided students into three groups, and had eachgroup study a set of vocabulary words. The first group was instructed to just listen to
the words, the second group was instructed to think about the word’s pleasantness (andto therefore think more deeply about its meaning), and the third group was instructed tofocus on the quality of the recordings. The students then listened to a recording, andwere instructed to repeat the words prompted as quickly as possible. While all groups
benefitted from priming in L1 situations, and were therefore able to repeat the studied
words faster that non-studied words, only groups one and three benefitted from priming
when studying L2 words. Trofimovich reasons that this finding is evidence forlimitations in student processing capacity, as when the students’ focus was drawn to the
aspects of a word’s meaning in their L2, it resulted in a statistically insignificant change
in response time when students pronounced studied words versus non-studied words. If
Trofimovich’s theory proves to be true, then the reason for why cross-task conditions(activities in which the processes involved in acquisition and testing are different) do
not lead to the same amount of learning that same-task conditions (activities in which
the processes involved in acquisition and testing are the same) do can at least be
partially explained by the insufficient processing capacity of learners.
Although the papers written on the topic of TAP in SLA literature up to thispoint have represented a large step for TAP into the field of SLA, there are manyquestions left unanswered. Among the most pressing of these questions are: what are
the factors which determine whether an activity provides same-task conditions or not in
an SLA learning situation? Additionally, how can TAP be applied to current activities
96

in SLA to make them less cross-task and more same-task?
Guidelines for the creation of same-task conditions in SLA
There are two primary rules for the creation of same-task conditions in SLA. The first isthat the processes involved in learning must match the processes of the desired learning
objectives. If the processes do not match, or if there is no process overlap increase, thenthese activities will continue to be labeled as cross-task, and will not take full advantage
of TAP. The second is that learning must occur. If learning doesn’t occur, then there
will be no knowledge gain to be transferred into the target learning objective.
The first rule
To clarify some of the possible ambiguity in the rules listed above, let us examine theserules with respect to language teaching in order to ascertain the depth of their impliedmeaning. Beginning with the first rule – that the processes involved in learning mustmatch the processes of the desired learning objectives – one possible complication ininterpreting this statement can come from the difficulties inherent to defining learning
objectives. To simplify this issue, I will proceed to generalize objectives by the
headword associated with the tasks involved. For example: composing a letter andcomposing a thesis will both be labeled “composing,” and editing a letter and editing athesis will both be labeled “editing.”
Another problem is correctly defining the terms same task activity and crosstask activity. To clarify, a same task activity is an activity in which students learn
through the use of the same process as the process listed in the objectives of the lesson.
This means that when the objective of learning is composing, students must learn
through the act of composing. When the objective of learning is speaking students must
learn through the act of speaking. In contrast, a cross task activity is an activity in which
students learn through the use of a different, yet similar, process to the process listed in
the objectives. An example of a cross task activity would be the use of editing to learn
composing, or the use of repeating or modifying to learn speaking.
The second rule
As with the first rule, the second rule – which states that learning must occur – can be
subject to interpretation ambiguity, so it must be clearly stated before further steps can97

be taken. The first issue requiring clarification involves checking to see if one’s students
are indeed learning. As there is no universal method of testing, one is confronted withthe problem of deciding what platform should be used in order to correctly evaluate
one’s students’ progress. Since the object of TAP is to promote learning through sametask-ness, the platform to be used to evaluate students becomes obvious. Composing
should be evaluated by having students compose literature, and speaking should be
evaluated by having students speak. In addition, there is no implied necessity of an
exam to evaluate students. Composing can be evaluated by reading a student’s written
output, and speaking can be evaluated by listening to a student’s spoken output.
Another complication in interpreting the second rule involves the creation oflessons through which students learn. In response to this, let us look to hypothesis
testing (Gass, 2003; Swain, 1995, 2005) which has shown that students develop
hypotheses about the target language and then proceed to test and revise thesehypotheses based on feedback provided by the instructor. As such, there is a necessityof giving feedback within the mantra of the second rule. Fortunately, since one isalready evaluating students’ learning as much as possible, giving feedback to students
on the results of the evaluation is a very simple thing to do. Furthermore, giving
feedback to learners can be done in a variety of ways, and depending on the lesson
objectives, instructor feedback might not be necessary. If, for example, the objective of
the class is to improve students’ communicating (or speaking with disregard to
pragmatics, word-choice, pronunciation, and grammar), then the simple act of thelearners’ peer speaking partner nodding in confirmation that meaning has been
conveyed will suffice to fulfill both the evaluation and feedback requirements of rule
two.
Using these rules together
Coupling these two rules together, it can be seen that one must first have students
participate in a situation that allows for the use of a process corresponding to theobjective process. After this activity, the teacher then evaluates the students and gives
feedback. The teacher then has the students redo the entire activity from scratch so thatlearning is conducted within the target process and does not occur within the confines ofanother process. After this has been completed, the teacher will once again evaluate andgive feedback, and then repeat this formula until he/she is satisfied with the student’s
98

progress.
Same-task activities in SLA
Grammar while writing
Many problems with the recent methods used to improve students’ grammar whilewriting have been highlighted in Truscott’s (1996) critique on grammar correction in L2
writing. Truscott states that the explicit correction or marking of students’ mistakes,
followed by the students’ revision of their work, leads to little or no improvement in
students’ grammar usage in subsequent writing endeavors, citing Hendrickson (1978),Krashen (1992), Leki (1990), and Semke (1984) in support of his claim, and mentions
order of acquisition and pseudo-learning as potential reasons for this phenomenon.
In response to Truscott’s claims, some SLA researchers have since supported
the theory that previous research on corrective feedback was too broad in its attempt tocorrect all of the students’ errors, and have argued instead for the limitation of feedback
given to specific grammatical patterns (Ellis, Sheen, Murakami, & Takashima, 2008).
To support this theory, there has been subsequent research which has shown that
restricting the feedback given to specific grammatical forms can lead to significant
improvement in students’ grammar while writing (Bitchener, 2008; Bitchener & Knoch,2008). However, it has also been mentioned that, “L2 writing scholars, and especiallyteachers, would respond that written [corrective feedback] that focuses only on one or
two specific errors will not address students’ accuracy issues comprehensively enoughbecause student writers tend to make a broad range of written errors” (Ferris, 2010, p.
192). It can therefore be concluded that the creation of a new approach to improvestudents grammar while writing – one that both leads to significant improvement in
subsequent writing, as well as addresses a vast majority of a students’ writing issues – isnecessary.
It can be seen that while current methods of corrective writing feedback follow
the second rule of same-task conditions (that feedback is given and learning occurs),
they do not follow the first rule (that the processes involved in learning match those
involved in the activity objective), i.e., editing or revising is not composing.
As a replacement to these cross-task activities, I recommend the following two
same-task activities. Nation (2009) mentions a teaching activity called “blackboard
composition” which is a writing activity with origins in Kenyan secondary school99

English classrooms (Radford, 1969). Nation (2009) summarizes the activity as follows:
To make a blackboard composition the whole class works together. The
teacher of the learners suggests a subject and a rough plan for the composition.
Members of the class raise their hands and suggest a sentence to put it thecomposition. If the sentence is correct it is written on the blackboard. If it is
not correct, the class and the teacher correct it and then it is written on theboard… When the whole composition is finished, the learners read it and thenit is rubbed off the blackboard. The learners do not copy it in their books
before this. Then the learners must rewrite it from their memory (pp. 99-100)
In this description it can be seen that both the teacher and the students partake in therevision of the blackboard composition as it is being composed. This highlights the needfor teacher feedback, which in turn serves to fulfill the requirement of rule number two
in same-task activity creation. Furthermore, it can be seen that instead of copying thecomposition into their books, the students rewrite the composition from memory. This
step is very important, and is the key factor in having the students learn while engaging
in composition.
The only downfall of blackboard composition is that while it might touch upona number of grammatical problems shared between students, it will not necessarily help
students with more abstract, individual grammatical problems. Therefore, once students
are no longer benefitting from blackboard composition, it is recommend that teachers
turn to a modified version of the stereotypical classroom composition session. First, theteacher would have the students compose 1-2 paragraph works as they would per a
normal writing assignment. Afterward, the teacher would then mark and correct thegrammatical mistakes of the students. However, instead of following these corrections
with the students’ revision of their work as normal, the students would read theteacher’s notes, take notice of their mistakes, and then put their first draft out of sightbefore rewriting their composition from memory.
Segmental pronunciation while speaking
Research into the improvement of students’ segmental pronunciation while speaking
has run into many problems as current data suggests that learner aptitude, as opposed tomany other factors including instruction or training, remains one of the primary100

determinates in the adult onset learners’ acquisition of second language phonology(Ioup , 2008; Ioup, Boustagui, El Tigi & Moselle, 1994; Novoa, Fein, & Obler, 1988;
Schneiderman & Desmarais, 1988). However, that is not to say that instruction does nothelp the improvement of pronunciation, as research into the instruction of contrastive
drills (such as minimal pairs), word lists, and sentence level work combined withfeedback leads to statistically significant increases in learner pronunciation ability(Bongaerts, Planken, & Schils, 1995; Elliott, 1995; Major, 1987; Moyer, 1999).
Regardless, while evidence has shown that it is possible for adult learners to achievenative-like pronunciation (Ioup, Boustagui, El Tigi, & Moselle, 1994; Moyer, 1999;
Bongaerts, Mennen, & Van der Slik, 2000), there is “no study documenting a link
between pronunciation instruction and the elimination of a foreign accent” (Derwing &Munro, 2005, p.384).
One potential explanation for the deficiency in segmental pronunciation
instruction is that while instruction in the areas of contrastive drills, word lists, andsentence level work combined with feedback satisfies the second rule of creatingsame-task activities, it does not satisfy the first rule, as these activities do not containthe same processes as free conversation. As a result, students have been limited to
exclusively cross-task activities, which have not given them the scope of potential
instances of phonology learning necessary to achieve native-like pronunciation.
Unfortunately, Trofimovich’s (2005) study on bilingual priming provides evidence thattrying to have students focus on communicating meaning while simultaneously having
them focus on the correct pronunciation of words might overload their working memory.
Therefore, instead of recommending a purely same-task activity, I will introduce andargue for the utilization of an activity which is more similar in process to free speechthan the previous methodology of contrastive drills, word lists, and sentence level work.
To begin this introduction, Dickerson and Dickerson (1977) provide data thatJapanese second language learners of English make a measurable difference in thepercentage of pronunciation mistakes of the phoneme /r/ when engaged in threedifferent situations of output: word lists, dialogue reading, and free speech. Results
showed that students made the most mistakes in free speech, a smaller amount of
mistakes in dialogue reading, and the least amount of mistakes in word list readings.
Complementary to these findings, Labov’s (1966) research on the pronunciation of /r/
for native speakers of English in New York found that the frequency of a speaker’s
101

pronunciation of the /r/ phoneme was able to be separated by both social class andspeech style. As seen in figure 1, reading style is once again closer than word list
reading to free speech in terms of /r/ production across all social classes. Furthermore,
Labov observed an occurrence of hypercorrect speech (an overuse of a prestige
language feature when asked to focus on it) in the lower-middle class. While thisincreased the lower middle class’s production of /r/ while reading word lists andminimal pairs, it did not increase their production when engaged in reading style, formal
or casual speech. This then provides further evidence that the reading of dialogue or

Figure 1. Post Vocalic [r] for range of social groups and five styles in New York.
Source: Labov (1966, p. 160).
texts aloud is closer in process to free speech than the reading of word lists or minimal
pairs. In light of this realization, it is rational to make the assumption that teaching ofsegmental pronunciation to students through the reading of dialogue or texts aloud willproduce more transfer into correct pronunciation while speaking than the teaching ofsegmental pronunciation through word lists and minimal pairs.

Even though the evidence listed above suggests that the teaching of pronunciation
through the reading of texts will lead to a greater improvement in phonology acquisition
than previous pronunciation instruction, teachers must still be conscious of both102

same-task condition rules. While it is a given that feedback is a necessary component of
this style of instruction, it is essential that teachers do not allow students to continue
reading the next sentences in the text after problem words are said correctly, as thelearning in this type of instruction takes place in single word utterances and not in thecontext of the text. Instead, once the student is able to say the word correctly, theteacher should guide the student to a place in the text one or two sentences before theproblem word, and have the student re-read the section until the problem word is readcorrectly in running speech.
Conclusion
Although current research in TAP suggests that same-task activities are the mostefficient method of study, the underlying trend of multiple instances of TAP research isthat cross-task activities, although less potent, still result in the improvement of testscores in nearly all situations (Blaxton, 1989; Franks, et al., 2000). This is a crucial
observation when discussing TAP, because it shows that same-task activities are notnecessary for learning, but instead act as a way to increase learning speed andefficiency.
Although there are many different situations in which TAP can be applied in
SLA, the three domains discussed in this article were only chosen because of their lackof TAP representation. In light of this, it is recommended that teachers take it uponthemselves to create their own same-task activities, and as long as the two rules ofsame-task activity creation are followed, then the ability to apply TAP to situations in
SLA is as limitless as the teacher’s imagination.
In conclusion, TAP is just now beginning to be applied in the field of SLA,
and as such it might experience many changes in the years to come as teachers
experiment on its effects and report back their successes and failures. As such, I eagerly
await the future research of TAP in SLA, and hope that the findings of these articles arewell received.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Eton Churchill of Kanagawa University for the time he has spentand the suggestions he has given throughout the process of writing this paper.

103

Biodata
Nathaniel French is a part-time lecturer at Showa Women’s University and Kanagawa
University. He specializes in the automaticity of grammar and pronunciation in learner
output.
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Second Language Writing, 17(2), 69-124.
Bitchener, J., & Knoch, U. (2008). The value of a focused approach to writtencorrective feedback. ELT Journal, 63(3), 204-211.
Blaxton, T. A. (1989). Investigating dissociations among memory measures: Support
for a transfer-appropriate processing framework. Journal of Experimental Psychology:
Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 15, 657-668.
Bongaerts, T., Mennen, S., & Van der Slik, F. (2000). Authenticity of Pronunciation in
Naturalistic Second Language Acquisition: The Case of Very Advanced Late Learnersof Dutch as a Second Language. Studia Linguistica, 54, 298-308.
Bongaerts, T., Planken, B., & Schils, E. (1995). Can late learners attain a native accent
in a foreign language? A test of the critical period hypothesis. In D. Singleton & Z.
Lengyl (Eds.), The age factor in second language acquisition (pp. 30-50). Clevedon,
UK: Multilingual Matters.
Clarke, R., & Morton, J. (1983). Cross modality facilitation in tachistoscopic word
recognition. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 35A, 79-96.
Derwing, T., & Munro, M. (2005). Second language accent and pronunciationteaching: A research-based approach. TESOL Quarterly, 39, 379-397.
Dickerson, L. & Dickerson, W. (1977). Interlanguage phonology: Current research andfuture directions. In S. P. Corder & E. Roulet (Eds.), The notions of simplification,interlanguages and pidgins (pp. 18-29). Paris: Actes du 5 une colloque de Linguistique
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Durgunoglu, A.Y., & Roediger, H.L. (1987). Test differences in accessing bilingual
memory. Journal of Memory and Language, 26, 377-391.
Elliot, A. (1995). Foreign language phonology: Field independence, attitude, and the104

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530-542.
Ellis, R., Sheen, Y., Morakami, M., & Takashima, H. (2008). The effect of focused andunfocused corrective feedback in an English as a foreign language context. System, 36,
353-371.
Ferris D. (2010). Second language writing research and written corrective feedback in
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Franks, J. J., Bilbrey, C. W., Lien, K. G., & McNamara, T. P. (2000).
Transfer-appropriate processing (TAP) and repetition priming. Memory & Cognition,
28, 1140-1151.
Gass, S. M. (2003). Input and interaction. In C. Doughty & M. H. Long (Eds.),
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Graf, P., & Schacter, D. (1985). Implicit and explicit memory for new associations innormal and amnesic subjects. Journal of Experimental Psychology; Learning, Memory,
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107Challenging mainstream thinking of fluency: Its definition and assessment
Donna Fujimoto
Osaka Jogakuin University
Reference Data:
Fujimoto, D. (2012). Challenging mainstream thinking of fluency: Its definition andassessment. In K. Bradford-Watts, R. Chartrand, & E. Skier (Eds.), The 2011 Pan-SIG
Conference Proceedings. Matsumoto: JALT.
Abstract
There is no clear definition of fluency which everyone agrees upon. This paper challenges theway that the term is used because it has never been clearly differentiated from the concept ofproficiency. The writer also challenges the assumption that proficiency and fluency arequantitative measures that belong to an individual. In fact, evaluation procedures fail to take
into account the fact that speaking is a co-constructed activity. Leaving out the listener changes
the assessment outcome profoundly. While teachers cannot control the way major testing
companies operate, they can control how they assess their own students. The writer suggests
using a group oral evaluation and explains the rationale for it. Teacher resistance to this idea isreported and counter arguments are given.
流暢についての主流な視座への挑戦：その定義と評価
すべての人が合意する流暢についての明確な定義は、現在のところ存在していない。本論文
は流暢という文言の利用のされ方を考察するものである。なぜならば、それは、熟達という概念と明快に区別されたことが無いからである。報告者はまた、熟達と流暢とは個人に「属する」
量的計量であるという仮定を、再考しようとするものである。実際のところ、評価の過程は、話すこととは相互に構築される活動であるという事実を考慮するということに、失敗している。聞く人を無視した場合、それは、評価の結果に甚大に影響するのである。教師が主流のテスト
会社のやり方を操作することは不可能である反面、自身の生徒・学生の評価において操作を工夫することは可能である。報告者は、グループ活動における口頭の評価について提案し、その合理性を説明するものである。そして、この提案に対する教師側からの抵抗について報告し、反論を展開する。

Keywords: Group oral evaluation, fluency, proficiency, speakers and listeners

108

The term, Fluency
What do we mean by fluency? Fillmore (1979) notes that a fluent speaker a) can easily
fill time with talk; b) has a quality of speech (more than quantity) that is coherent,
complex and dense; c) knows the appropriate thing to say in a variety of contexts, i.e.,
has pragmatic and affective skills; and d) has control over the aesthetic functions oflanguage, i.e., being creative and imaginative and able to use puns, jokes or metaphors(p. 358). However, for second language learners, perhaps it might be better to refer tothe ability a) to speak smoothly and easily, b) to speak quickly and naturally, c) to thinkin the language, and d) to compensate for any lack in lexical or structural components.
In reviewing the research (see Campbell-Larsen, this volume), it is clear that
there is no definition of fluency that everyone agrees upon, and this presents a problem
for practitioners and researchers who want to work on improving and assessing student
fluency. Without a clear definition, it is impossible to operationalize fluency, anecessary step in research and assessment. One of the reasons for this difficulty is thefact that proficiency and fluency are often conflated or used interchangeably (Schmidt,
1992). Yet an informal poll I conducted of language teachers at the conference showedthat many claim there is a distinct difference, even though the two areas overlap
considerably. Some teachers felt that proficiency demands accuracy while fluency does
not always do so, i.e., a student can make a number of grammatical or lexical errors, butwhen it does not interfere with the flow or the meaning, then it would not lower the
judgment of their fluency.
Questions about fluency
As a follow-up to this informal poll, I would like to pose the following questions forconsideration: Is it safe for fluency and proficiency to be used interchangeably? Where
does accuracy fit in? Do speed and lack of hesitation count more for fluency and less forproficiency? Is fluency more of a speaking performance while proficiency includes
speaking and all the other skills? Does personality play a role more in fluency and lessin proficiency? Could fluency be a subset of proficiency? Or is it the other way around?
Can fluency affect proficiency? Should the two be treated separately or are they
inherently overlapped? Should we assess fluency? If so, how?
Neither of the plenary speakers at the conference defined how they were using
fluency. It is quite likely that participants were not even aware of the possible meanings
109

of fluency, and, in general, many people were probably using fluency simply as a
non-technical term (Schmidt, 1992). One purpose of this paper is to draw the reader’sattention to the need for a clear definition of fluency—a technical term that can be
operationalized so that, in the future, we can all be on the same page. As long as people
are aware of which term they are using—the technical or the non-technical—it will not
be a problem. What I object to is the case when people treat fluency as if it were alreadywell-defined and well-documented.
Another misconception
There is yet another misconception that I believe was not addressed at any length at theconference. The constructs of fluency and proficiency were, by and large, viewed as aperformance or competence measure belonging to an individual speaker. This is a faulty
premise from which to work. We all know that when people speak, there is almost
always a listener (or listeners) who at any moment can become the next speaker. The
listener role is extremely important, and most people will agree that speaking is
co-constructed and a joint action.
Looking back in our field, there have clearly been many influences that haveled us to the understanding that social discourse is co-constructed. One major
contributor was the shift in our field to communicative language teaching in the 1970s
when it was realized that in order to learn and use a language, learners need to be able tointeract meaningfully with others. Teaching methods, materials, and class activities
changed significantly. Another significant shift was best articulated by Firth andWagner (1997) who criticized the field of second language teaching and learning,
complaining that it was too heavily biased towards a cognitive and mentalist view, andthat the field should include social, contextual, and emic perspectives.
There were a number of research areas where many had been pursuing suchwork well before the 1990s. Most of these originated in the fields of anthropology,
psychology, and sociology, and they include the work of language socialization (Ochs& Schieffelin, 1987; Schieffelin & Ochs, 1986), sociocultural theory (Lantolf, 2000;
Tharp & Gallimore, 1988; Vygotsky, 1962), and Conversation Analysis (CA) (Sacks,
1992; Sacks, Schegloff, & Jefferson, 1974; Schegloff, 1988). In the 1960s, Goffman(1964) made many astute observations about how behavior is socially organized andthat there are rules that govern interaction which are not always through linguistic110means.
It seems that despite all that we have learned, our underlying beliefs about
testing still remain heavily individualistic and cognitive, reflecting the clear and strong
influence of psychometrics. McNamara and Roever (2006) have done an admirable jobof explaining the need for and challenges of including a social dimension to language
testing. It remains to be seen if any headway can be made especially in an environment
where language proficiency testing is such a big business.
However, as teachers we do have control over how we assess our own students.
This is where awareness can be raised. First, if we conduct an interview, the relationshipis clearly asymmetrical. There is not only a power-distance differential but also an
unequal distribution of opportunities for turn taking, for making topic changes, and forasking questions. This does not reflect the real world, which is ultimately what we wantto know as far as how our students will perform. In addition, this setup is inherently
unfair and needlessly stressful to the students.
Research has shown that interviewers, no matter what strategy they use, cannot
keep completely neutral. The examiner talk can have a significant effect upon theperformance of the examinee. Brown (2003, 2005) investigated the role of theinterviewer in oral proficiency interviews and found that participants who scored higher
had interviewers who seemed generally supportive. These raters selected familiar andpersonal topics and mainly elicited descriptions. They structured the sequence of the
topics beginning with one or two closed questions where the topic and backgroundinformation were brought up, then followed with requests for elaboration. Thisapproach tended to lower the challenge to the candidate. The interviewers gave regularfeedback in the form of news markers, echoes, assessments, and reformulations, andthese displayed interest and understanding. They also tended to use slower rates ofspeech, clearer enunciation, and more exaggerated pitch and intonation levels.
In contrast, the examiners who had lower scoring candidates brought up topics
which were less personal and, in addition to eliciting description, also asked for
speculation, argument, and opinion. The questioning was less explicit, involving closed
questions and statements. They were less successful in eliciting further talk when theyused minimal tokens, such as “yeah?” rather than asking directly for elaboration.
Interestingly, when all the raters viewed the more facilitative style, they reacted
negatively and felt that the other style was more appropriate. I believe this reaction111

displays an influence of positivist research and psychometric testing, where
investigators must remain completely neutral. This is impossible. In the classroom, no
teacher can be completely objective—and they do not need to be.
What classroom teachers can do
To get around the asymmetrical relationship, I suggest peer-to-peer or group oral
assessments. I make it a regular practice to evaluate group discussions, and I use themas low-stakes testing. In other words, the activity is treated as a homework score rather
than a final class score, and by increasing the frequency, students will be able to havedifferent members in their groups. This gives them several chances to make
improvements. By evaluating students speaking in a group, it also saves time both forclass activities and teacher evaluation. Group oral assessment is fair, practical, andefficient.
Some may be skeptical upon hearing about this idea, and may criticize the factthat I give the whole group a score, meaning that every member gets the same score.
When I do this, I can focus NOT on individuals, but on the quality of the groupinteraction. After all, it is a socially constructed activity and what students produce
should be the target of the assessment. It is impossible to give a fair score to eachindividual, but it is possible to make a judgment of the discussion itself.
You might imagine a possible case in which one or more students might not
say anything, and there may be strong objections to these students getting the same
score as the others. I counter with the following: First, if you observe carefully, often
the silent student is still doing something—s/he is engaged as can be seen by the gaze,nods, and facial expression. Second, if one or more of the students does not contribute,the score will reflect that. If in another group everyone spoke but the discussion was
dominated by one speaker, then this group would not get high marks. The scoreindicates the actual group’s work and it is not a reflection of separate individuals.
In my classes I have the other students evaluate the group discussions alongwith me, and the students being assessed get the average of their classmates’ score andmy score. Student-made scores are often very similar to mine, and sometimes evenstricter than my own. Students take this work seriously. They have no problem focusing
on the discussion, and they see nothing strange about assigning a group grade. It is truethat some students are good at keeping a discussion lively and interesting, and their112

classmates may have an advantage by being placed in the same group. This happens,
but to try to keep things balanced, the group discussion is scheduled more than once. By
doing so, the students also become familiar with the task and, even though they arebeing evaluated, they begin to treat it as just as another class activity.
I can understand teacher resistance to evaluating in a completely different way.
It has taken me several years to come to this particular approach. It was not somethingthat I read about or was taught. Over time I came to many realizations about what thestudents were actually doing. These new insights came about through being immersedin the micro-analysis of small group discussions using CA. As Goffman (1964) noted,“Face to face interaction has its own regulations; it has its own processes and its own
structure, and these don’t seem to be intrinsically linguistic in character, however often
expressed through a linguistic medium” (p. 136). Being a language teacher, I previously
focused only on the language being produced, but by doing C.A research, I began to see
the action and interaction taking place that Goffman was writing about. I began to see inminute detail the real work that the students were involved in—constructing a
discussion together.
Conclusion
I am calling for a rethinking of the definition of fluency. In order to help our students
improve, we need to specify what exactly fluency involves. I am also calling for a major
shift in how classroom teachers assess their students. Teachers should not just examine
the language produced, but should focus on both the speaker AND the listener. They
should look at the actions of student interaction. This means taking into account theappropriacy of both what they say and what they do, and inevitably this widens ourscope to include sociopragmatics as well.
Pondering the actual meaning of fluency has pushed me to challenge myself. It
has made me think about how I have previously used fluency, so now I am more awareof when it is being used technically or not. I have welcomed the doubts and objectionsof fellow teachers to my call for a different kind of student assessment. It has forced me
to think more deeply about classroom assessment. I hope that others will also think
more deeply about what we do as teachers, to see and understand our students in aclearer and real way.

113

Biodata
Donna Fujimoto is Professor at Osaka Jogakuin University where she teaches English
and Comparative Culture Studies. Her research interests are CA and Pragmatics.
References
Brown, A. (2003). Interviewer variation and the co-construction of speaking proficiency.
Language Testing, 20(1), 1-25.
Brown, A. (2005). Interviewer variability in language proficiency interviews. Frankfurt:Peter Lang.
Campbell-Larsen, J. (2012). Teaching and testing fluency. In K. Bradford-Watts, R.
Chartrand, & E. Skier (Eds.), The 2011 Pan-SIG Conference Proceedings (pp. 57-67).
Matsumoto: JALT.
Fillmore, C. (1979). On fluency. In C. Fillmore, D. Kempler, & W. S-Y. Wang (Eds.),
Individual differences in language ability and language behavior (pp. 85-101). New
York: Academic.
Firth, A., & Wagner, J. (1997). On discourse, communication, and (some) fundamental
concepts in SLA research. The Modern Language Journal, 81(3), 285-300.
Goffman E. (1964). The neglected situation. American Anthropologist 66, 133-136.
Lantolf, J. (Ed.). (2000). Sociocultural theory and second language learning. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
McNamara, T., & Roever, C. (2006). Language testing: The social dimension. Oxford:
Blackwell Publishing.
Ochs, E., & Shieffelin, B. (Eds.) (1987). Language socialization across cultures.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sacks, H. (1992). Lectures on conversation. (Edited by G. Jefferson). Oxford:
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Sacks, H., Schegloff, E., & Jefferson, G. (1974). A simplest systematic for theorganization of turn-taking in conversation. Language, 50, 696-735.
Schegloff, E. (1988). Discourse as an interactional achievement II: An exercise inConversation Analysis. In D. Tannen (Ed.), Linguistics in context: Connecting
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114

Schmidt, R. (1992). Psychological mechanisms underlying second language fluency.
Tharp, R. G., & Gallimore, R. (1988). Rousing minds to life: Teaching, learning, andschooling in social context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Vygotsky, L.S. (1962). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

115

Testing—a boon or a bane on the path to fluency?
Andrew Joseph Lawson
LETS—Lawson English Teaching Solutions
Reference Data:
Lawson, A.J. (2012). Testing—a boon or a bane on the path to fluency? In K.
Bradford-Watts, R. Chartrand, & E. Skier (Eds.), The 2011 Pan-SIG Conference
Proceedings. Matsumoto: JALT.
Abstract
So many Japanese learners of English focus their studies on preparing for a particular English
language test. Is this an effective usage of their precious time and energy? This paper seeks toconsider this issue, taking into account the differing long-term objectives of individual students.
It also examines the growing role of so-called ESP Tests in guiding students down the path tofluency within a specific field of expertise relevant to the individual’s needs.
This paper examines the concept of fluency, and considers the impact of testing on thedevelopment of learners’ fluency. It specifically focuses on students’ perceptions of some of thebetter-known tests, in terms of their awareness of the particular test, the perceived benefits oftaking it, and the impact upon the learners’ use of study time.
英語を勉強する日本人の多くは、ある特定の英語テストに重点を置いている。それは彼等の貴重な時間とエネルギーを費やすのに有効な方法と言えるのだろうか。この論文は、各生徒の長期的目標は異なっていることを考慮に入れながら問題を追求している。また、各ニーズに関連する専門分野で流暢に話せるようになる方法を示しながら、益々大きくなる'ESP'テストの役割を分析している。
この論文は、流暢さとは何かの概念を分析し、学習する者達の流暢さの成長の度合いがテストにどう影響するのか考察している。そして、あるテストの著名度、そのテストを受けることの利点、若者達の勉強時間に与える影響について、生徒達がどう考えているかに焦点を合わせている。

Keywords: Student objectives, ESP Tests, fluency, testing116

In a discussion of how testing affects learner fluency in English, it seems pertinent tobegin by considering the very notion of fluency, and what it actually means. Crystal(1987) provides a rather succinct definition: “smooth, rapid, effortless use of language”(p.421), while Brumfit (1984) describes fluency as “natural language use whether or not
it results in native speaker-like language comprehension or production” (p.56).
But surely such definitions of fluency within our context are overly simplistic.
Consider the 50 words comprising the entire text of Green Eggs and Ham (Dr. Seuss,1960), arranged in alphabetical order:a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs,
fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me,mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there,
they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, you
It is reasonable to assume that one could learn to recite them in a rapid, smooth manner,without a great deal of effort. But would it be natural? Can language use be considered
natural if it fails to result in comprehension or production at a level which approximatesthat of a native speaker? It is doubtful whether the average listener would be engaged bylists of random words for a sustained period. Lennon (2000) states that: “a good
touchstone of acceptable fluency is the degree to which listener attention is held” (p. 34).
Some pillars of vocabulary, grammar, and pragmatic competence are required to build
effective fluency.

Diagram 1. The “pillars of fluency”
It must also be acknowledged that a speaker’s level of fluency varies according to the
topic of the dialogue, and a combination of surrounding factors, not least one’s own
117knowledge of and enthusiasm for the topic, as well as the intended audience. Given the
difficulties in defining fluency, there is no clear consensus on the manner in which it
should be assessed. This makes the task of assessing the impact of testing on thatfluency particularly problematic.
A Study of Student Awareness and Perceptions of English Assessment
A small-scale survey study (see Appendix) was conducted to examine student
awareness and perceptions of five of the major English tests taken in Japan. It also
asked for information on the tests taken, reasons for doing so, activities undertaken in
preparation for the tests, and student impressions of how test preparation impacted on
the development of English abilities. While no definitive conclusions can be drawn
from the resulting data, it does highlight a few interesting issues.
Table 1. Attitude toward type of examination

The most obvious point is the glaring lack of recognition of two of the tests.
The vast majority of participants in the study had never even heard of either the
BULATS or IELTS exams. Despite the IELTS website’s claim that it is the mostcommonly taken test for those wishing to gain an English qualification for the purposesof immigration or access to higher education, with 1.4 million candidates annually(http://www.ielts.org/), 45 out of 53 survey respondents were entirely unfamiliar with
IELTS. The recognition of BULATS was even lower, with 49 of the 53 participants
completely unaware of it. Cambridge University ESOL clearly still has some way to go118

in reaching all of its potential Japanese customers.
Among the 53 participants, there was a far higher recognition of the TOEIC,TOEFL, and Step EIKEN tests. Given the fact that the EIKEN was created at the behestof the Japanese Ministry of Education, and the TOEIC was conceived by a Japanese
team (led by Kitaoka Yasuo), it is unsurprising that they are better-known in thiscountry. TOEFL has been used as a benchmark for the English ability of Japanese
students seeking entry to U.S. colleges and universities since the 1960s, and gains more
exposure from its connection to the TOEIC (both tests being administered by ETS). 25of the respondents recorded a favorable impression of the TOEFL, but only 1 of the 53
had actually taken it, and that was over 10 years ago. Thus, the students’ experiences oflanguage assessment are clearly dominated by the STEP, and to an even greater degree,
TOEIC tests.
Cost is a significant factor in students’ attitudes towards tests. The relatively
high cost of taking the TOEFL was mentioned in responses (USD210, or about
JPY16,000 at time of writing, according to
http://www.cieej.or.jp/toefl/toefl/testfee.html). The only negative comment given about
IELTS concerned the high cost of the test (currently JPY24,765, according to
http://www.eiken.or.jp/ielts/english/fees-payment.html). Many respondents approved of
the gradual incline in the cost of taking an EIKEN test, as one’s level increased. Several
positive remarks about the TOEIC commented on its affordability compared to otherinternational tests. There were also two respondents who expressed a negative attitude
towards the TOEIC on the grounds of its cost, but both appeared genuinely surprised tolearn that taking the TOEIC is in fact now less expensive than either the EIKEN Levelpre-1 (JPY6000) or Level 1 (JPY7500), the fee having been reduced to JPY5565 in
September 2009.
Students appeared to be less concerned that the prime reason for the relative
affordability of the TOEIC was that it was only an MCQ test of listening and reading,and that taking the separate TOEIC Speaking and Writing Tests (SW) would incur an
additional JPY9,975 fee. Further enquiries into thoughts on the TOEIC SW revealed asubstantial number were completely unaware of its existence. Among those who wereactually familiar with it, reactions ranged from ambivalence to revulsion. Many felt that
it was an unnecessary expense, as prospective employers were only interested in a
TOEIC score in the form of the single 3-digit number. Others expressed a belief that it119was a wonderful idea in theory, but it would be too traumatic for them. Paradoxically,
several students commented that never having had to take a speaking test is what madethem always enjoy English conversation far more than grammar, reading, or any of theother things they had been forced to study over the years. Thus, by omitting a speaking
component, it could be argued that TOEIC was actually promoting fluency among thisparticular group! Indeed, respondents’ attitudes towards the TOEIC were generally
favourable. Comments included:•“TOEIC can get me a job”•

“TOEIC is very important on my resume”•“TOEIC is international”•“TOEIC is most important score for Japanese to prove English skill”•“If I can get good TOEIC score, I can enjoy speaking many countries’ people”•“A high TOEIC score is my dream!”

When asked to elaborate on her TOEIC dream, the student in question explained thathaving a 900+ TOEIC score would give her confidence in her own ability, and a belief
that she was a good English speaker. Attitudes to the EIKEN were more mixed, as
shown in Table 1.
Table 2. Attitudes to the EIKEN Test
Positive

Negative“It’s very useful for students to challenge for“EIKEN is for children”

EIKEN”

“It’s kind of a kids’ exam”

“Students can do at their school”

“EIKEN is only in Japan”“It has different levels for higher or lower

“EIKEN is not so serious”

learners”

“EIKEN study was boring”

“It’s not so expensive for mothers to pay for”

“Big companies don’t care so much about“Students must pass a speaking test too.



EIKEN. TOEIC score is better”

That’s very good”

“I don’t trust EIKEN scores so much”“The test gets more difficult as we get older”

“EIKEN is good, but not for adults”

“If I want to go to another country, EIKEN
score is not so useful”

120

Judging by the completed surveys, the EIKEN is often perceived as being a children’s
test. Several comments alluded to this. EIKEN is also considered by many to be a rather
parochial test, of some value in Japan, but practically worthless overseas. This isperhaps an unfair or outdated way of thinking, as STEP have had considerable successin their efforts to attain more widespread recognition of EIKEN scores among overseas
learning institutions. Nevertheless, follow-up discussions revealed a common consensus
on an ideal English qualification path – take the EIKEN to Level 3 by high school, andthen graduate to the more adult TOEIC. Take the TOEIC on a regular basis during
one’s college years and beyond, until reaching the desired score.
The ways that most students claimed to prepare for the TOEIC or EIKEN wereremarkably similar. Test-preparation texts were used by every student in order tofamiliarize themselves as much as possible with the style of the test. The need to
improve reading speed was a common theme, as was listening practice at test speed.
Despite the existence of an EIKEN speaking test at the higher levels, every EIKEN
candidate admitted that they only worried about preparing for that, if or when theypassed the initial reading and listening component.
The question regarding the direct impact of these tests on one’s language skill
development proved very difficult for respondents to answer. Even when invited toexpress their thoughts in the L1 (Japanese), they fared little better. After directing
students to consider their prime motives for studying English, and then how the tests
helped them to realise their goals, coherent responses were STILL quite scarce.
Some student comments:•

Imposes an immediate incentive to study•

Provides a widely-recognised English language qualification•

Gives a sense of achievement•

Enhances confidence•

Develops vocabulary•

Provides opportunities to review grammar structures•

Improves reading speed•

Improves listening skills
Several of those surveyed were hoping to find work at, or related in some way
121to, the nearby Narita International Airport. Many of them seemed to see a TOEIC scoreas a key that would unlock the door to employment in an English-speaking environment
where they would be able to then go on and further develop their language skills. In
terms of test preparation actually having an impact, a large number of students said that
simply having an upcoming test forced them to actually study, rather thanprocrastinating or doing all the other things that people would generally rather do.
The prevalence of the final two comments listed here seems to imply a tacit
acknowledgement by some students that the TOEIC does not actually assess one’s
speaking or writing abilities.
Confluence
Much of McCarthy’s recent work is on the English Profile programme, seeking toincorporate empirical evidence of the spoken language into the increasingly influential
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). McCarthy refers
to fluency as a key concern, and attacks the monologic bias of our current approach to
spoken fluency. In addition to automaticity and a familiarity with a substantial numberof chunks, he states that “fluency also involves the ability to create flow and smoothness
across turn-boundaries” (2010, p.1). McCarthy also provides corpus evidence of what
he calls confluence, the joint production of flow by more than one speaker.
So if we can accept the importance of confluence, it seems reasonable toassume that a test of one’s oral language ability would include at least some element of
two-way communication. Neither of ETS’s flagship products do so. Of course, thestandard TOEIC has no speaking component whatsoever, but even the TOEIC Speaking
Test involves only one-way communication. The BULATS, IELTS and EIKEN all
involve actual face-to-face dialogue, but they are far from being comprehensive tests offluency. Indeed the examiner’s ability to engage in the joint production of flow isseverely restricted by the explicit instructions they are under, to keep to the script.
Furthermore, BULATS now also offers an online speaking test which involves test
takers making oral responses to standard, automated prompts. This significant new
development appears to run contrary to McCarthy’s views.

However, given the practicalities of testing, and the inherent difficulties involved in creating a val
since their inception. There have been significant content revisions, including the
introduction of a writing component to the TOEFL in 1986. A greater number of122

validity studies are being conducted. Can-do lists have been created in attempts totranslate respective scores and successes into checklists of what tasks examinees should
be capable of doing in the target language.

Attempts are being made to map scores to

the CEFR, illustrated in Table 3.
Table 3. Approximate comparison of test scores

Looking more specifically at the most commonly taken of the tests, the TOEIC
has been developed significantly in recent years. The price has been reduced
substantially. Steps have been taken to employ more realistic language in its reading
and listening scripts, as well as a variety of different native English-speaker accents.
The most fundamental changes occurred in 2006, with the introduction of a redesigned
Listening and Reading Test, as well as the new optional Speaking and Writing Test.
There are also a greater number of validity studies available to the public now (ETS,2010).
So, given these changes, and the positive attitudes towards the TOEIC among
survey respondents, are professionals in the Japan-based TEFL industry unjustly criticalof a test which was taken by around six million people in 2010(www.ets.org/toeic/institutions/listening_reading/about)? Is the notion of a large
volume of learners with high TOEIC scores and a complete lack of communicativecompetence, no more than an outdated urban myth? The TOEIC Can-Do Guide(Chauncey Group International, 2000: Appendix B) does make some interesting,123

detailed conjectures regards the likely speaking and interactional capabilities of an
examinee with a listening score in the 355-425 band.
Returning to McCarthy’s notion of confluency, it is debatable whether it ispossible to draw any worthwhile conclusions about an individual’s interactional skills
from a listening test. A series of professional encounters over the past 12 months
provided some interesting case studies:-

A senior partner in a Tokyo law firm is frustrated by hiring young lawyers
who graduated at the top of their class, who are then sent to study at one of
the most prestigious law schools in the USA, at the company’s expense.
Despite each having a TOEIC score above 850, the vast majority are
ill-equipped to deal with their overseas studies. Even those with a high
TOEFL score fared little better.

-

The human resources manager of a large hotel is responsible for hiring staff
with English abilities which allow them to serve the large volume of guests
from overseas. He considers the applicant’s TOEIC score to be the primaryfactor in assessing English communicative competence, yet is often
disappointed in their actual ability to perform in front-line positions such asbar, restaurant, gym, bell desk, front desk.

Both of the above professionals were aware of the EIKEN, but felt that it was more of achildren’s test, and considered even a high-level qualification to be of less value than a
TOEIC score. Again, neither was familiar with BULATS or IELTS, nor with the
TOEIC SW.
Despite the law and hospitality industries being so being different, these two
professionals currently utilize the exact same assessment in order to grant or deny career
opportunities. In doing so, they share a common problem. Each requires a method ofassessment far more specific to the particular field of expertise. None of theaforementioned tests would provide accurate assessment of the skills required toparticipate fruitfully in classes at Harvard Law School, or to take care of a boisterous
international crowd in a busy bar on a Saturday night. Yet, as a consequence ofcorporate politics, short-term planning, and current fiscal realities, neither is in aposition to install a genuinely suitable program of instruction and assessment.
These examples are by no means isolated cases. Returning to the learners who
responded to the initial survey, it is hardly surprising that most view the attainment of a124higher TOEIC score to be a crucial step in furthering their career ambitions. It would bechurlish for EFL educators to refuse to acknowledge this, and to fail to provide students
with support in their attempts to prepare for such a test.
Assessment of English for Specific Purposes
But in the longer-term, there must be a continued growth in Assessment of English forSpecific Purposes (AESP). While assessment could (and should) include more than astandard formal test, a lack of effective evaluation is likely to render an ESP program
ineffective. Shohamy (1993) makes the salient point that in an educational system
where formal tests have such a prominent role, it is only if something is tested that it isconsidered important. This appears to be particularly true of Japan, and reflects thecurrent reality throughout the educational system, from the High School Senta Shiken(so important that it affects all prior learning), to the recently introduced English
curriculum in elementary schools (no testing, therefore considered by a significant
number of homeroom teachers to be a pointless nuisance, and a distraction from more
fundamental issues, according to comments made to the author in informal discussions).
Perhaps the changes which Ozaki (2010) and Murphey (2004) are calling for would
have a wider impact on English assessment at all levels.
But the increasing need for more robust AESP is global, and according toTratnik (2008), ESP examinations are “gaining more and more attention, and are
becoming an indispensable tool in the modern educational society” (p.13). In addition toassessing a candidate’s knowledge of the specialist vocabulary in the field, it is crucial
that these also function as tests of pragmatic competence (i.e. the ability to implement
one’s knowledge in order to achieve effective communication). Perhaps then, testing
will genuinely assist the learner on the path to fluency, in whatever particular context heor she seeks to attain it.
Biodata
Andy Lawson has been living and teaching in Chiba for 14 years. He has worked in avariety of contexts, with students ranging from 4 to 84 years old. Research interests
include bilingualism, testing and pragmatics, and he continues to develop his unhealthyfascination in argumentation and disagreement strategies, preferably in the bar-room
context.
125References
Brumfit, C. (1984). Communicative methodology in language teaching: The roles offluency and accuracy, Cambridge: CUP.
Chauncey Group International. (2000). TOEIC Can-Do Guide. Princeton, NJ: The
Chauncey Group International.
Crystal, D. (1987). The Cambridge encyclopedia of language. New York: CUP.
Dr. Seuss. (1960). Green Eggs and Ham. New York: Random House Books for Young
Readers.
Educational Testing Service (ETS). (2010). The Research Foundation for the TOEIC
Tests: A Compendium of Studies. Princeton, NJ: ETS.
Lennon, P. (2000). The lexical element on spoken second language fluency. In H.
Riggenbach (Ed.), Perspectives on fluency (pp. 25–42). Ann Arbor: University ofMichigan Press.
McCarthy, M. (2010). Spoken fluency revisited. English Profile Journal, 1, 1-15.
Murphey, T. (2004). Participation, (dis-)identification, and Japanese university entrance
exams’. TESOL Quarterly, 38(4), 700-710.
Ozaki, S. (2010). High-stakes tests and educational language policy in Japan: An
analysis of the National Center English Test from the viewpoint of education forinternational understanding. TESOL Journal, 2, 175-188.
Shohamy, E. (1993). The Power of Tests: The Impact of Language Tests on Teachingand Learning. The National Foreign Language Center, John Hopkins University.
Tratnik, A. (2008). Key issues in testing English for Specific Purposes’. Scripta Manent
4(1), 3-13

126

Appendix127

Language learning spaces: Creating a communicative classroom
Tonya M. Kneff
Nagano Prefectural Board of Education
Reference Data:
Kneff, T.M. (2012). Language learning spaces: Creating a communicative classroom. In
K. Bradford-Watts, R. Chartrand, & E. Skier (Eds.), The 2011 Pan-SIG Conference
Proceedings. Matsumoto: JALT.
Abstract
Though learning can occur in any spatial situation, research on school environments suggests a
strong relationship between learning and learning spaces. Yet, this relationship is often
overlooked when designing a classroom. Conventional classrooms tend to support ateacher-centered approach, with an emphasis on teaching rather than learning, and do not
encourage much student-to-student interaction. Using research from a myriad of academic
disciplines, along with learner-centered models of classroom design, a communicativeclassroom was created for first-year senior high school oral communication classes. The
purpose of this classroom was to provide a positive learning environment that promoted
student-to-student interaction and communication. In addition to a research review on learningand the physical environment, this paper explains the design and implementation of thisclassroom and provides an analysis of student reflections on their time in it.
いかなる場においても学びはできるものであるが、学習と学習空間との強い関係性が学
校教育環境に関する研究において述べられている。しかしながら、この関係性は教室配置を考える上でしばしば見落とされることがある。一般的な教室では教員が中心に位置
し、学ぶことよりも教授することに重点を置き、生徒同士お互いに意見を出し合い学び合うということにはそれほど力を入れない傾向がある。多くの学問分野からの調査によると、高校一年生対象の意見交換を主とした授業において、学び手を教室の中心に置く
ことで活発に意見を出し合う雰囲気が生まれたという。この教室の目的は生徒間同士の意見交換やコミュニケーションを促し、積極的に学ぶ環境を与えることであった。	
 学びと物理的環境に関する研究に加え、このレポートでは教室配置とその実践方法についての説明、そしてそこに関わった生徒の感想を分析したものがまとめられている。

128

Keywords: Learning spaces, communicative approach, student-centered classes,
classroom design
When you think of a traditional high school classroom space, what comes to mind? It is
likely that many of us imagine students sitting in rows of desks, facing a chalkboard,and listening intently to the teacher’s lecture. Yet, the way we think about learningspaces is evolving. Many researchers, academics, and teachers are questioning thenotion that a traditional classroom is the best means of facilitating learning.
Prior to the creation of the communicative classroom discussed in this paper, theschool’s English oral communication (OC) classes were held in the traditionalclassrooms. These rooms were always laid out in standard rows, with students facing
front and appearing ready to listen to the teacher’s lecture. OC classes are not as
frequent as other English classes (writing and reading, for example), and as the OC
instructor, there was often a feeling of unfamiliarity with the environment. Uponwalking into the classroom, there was a sense of entering borrowed space, in which its
own rules and expectations prevailed. Trying to convince students that OC classes weredifferent and that student-to-student interaction was valued meant challenging thestudents’ prior beliefs about English learning, as well as their roles in the learning
process.
As Marchese (1998) points out, “the existence of prior beliefs can be a major
impediment to subsequent learning,” and these beliefs “turn out to be especiallyimpervious to classroom-based instruction” (p. 8). In order to provide an opportunity toreform learners’ beliefs about classroom space, and to remove this personal sense of
intrusion, a learning space for the sole purpose of oral communication was created. The
intention was to provide a learning space situated outside the conventional classroomthat used design and layout to encourage students to speak, provided a variety of readily
available tools, and felt more comfortable than the traditional classroom.
The impact of the physical environment
Research on learning spaces suggests that classroom space is more than just a room inwhich to house students. In the field of education, Strange and Banning (2001) suggest“although features of the physical environment lend themselves theoretically to all
possibilities, the layout, location, and arrangement of space and facilities render some129behaviors much more likely, and thus more probable than others” (p. 15).
Environmental psychologists also espouse the notion that space impacts behavior andcan lead to feelings both positive and negative (Graetz & Goliber, 2002; Tanner, 2008).
Barker and Wright (1951) observed children in specific environmental conditions andfrom this study, they concluded that behavior could be predicted more accurately fromknowing the environmental setting than from knowing the characteristics of theindividual.
As a result of their findings, Barker (1968) coined the term behavior settings,
which are situations where the setting or environment results in particular patterns of
behavior. Churches, museums, sports arenas, and classrooms are all examples of spaces
where certain behaviors can be expected. Take, for example, the behaviors exhibitedwhen inside a cathedral or a temple. We can expect a certain degree of conduct, such as
hushed tones, slower movements, and pauses for reflection. Even if one had never beenin such a place before, the patterns of behavior exhibited by others would serve as a
powerful model. When we apply this principle to learning spaces, we can see thatclassrooms communicate as well. They are full of expectations that define the roles of
those in them and lead to predictable patterns.
Space, therefore, is not neutral (Monahan, 2002; Strange & Banning, 2001). As
Rapaport (1982) states, the environment “thus communicates, though a whole set ofcues, the most appropriate choices to be made: the cues are meant to elicit appropriate
emotions, interpretations, behaviors, and transactions by setting up the appropriate
situations and contexts” (pp. 80-81).

The cues themselves do not dictate behavior, but

may make a particular behavior more probable. Consider a conventional high schoolclassroom with rows of desks facing the front. The expectations are clear: when theteacher speaks, students are to be quiet and pay attention. Roles are also clearly defined:
the teacher, standing at the front, is responsible for imparting knowledge while students
are responsible for receiving the information, taking notes as necessary, and responding
when prompted. Though one may argue that these are associated with good or
high-level academic classrooms, the point remains that even in a class where students
are not following the accepted rules of classroom behavior, the rules still exist.
The arrangement of such a classroom is said to be teacher-centered as teachers
have control over the material presented, the questions posed, and the type of interaction(Makitalo-Siegl et al, 2010). From a learning perspective, teacher-centered classrooms
130are more likely to promote passive learning in that the learner’s role is mostly to listen
and remain quiet. Information moves in one-direction, from teacher to student, withlimited (if any) student-to-student interaction.
Research on physical environments and learning
Research indicates that classroom design affects students’ general behavior andattitudes (Horowitz & Otto, 1973; Sommer & Olsen, 1980; Weinstein, 1977). In her
review of research of the physical environment of the school, Weinstein (1979)
concludes that while “the physical environment of the conventional classroom has little
impact on achievement…there is considerable evidence that the classroom environment
can affect nonachievement behaviors and attitudes” (p. 598). Such behaviors include
satisfaction, social interaction, attendance, participation, and positive attitudes. In a
more recent study, Tanner (2008) concludes that design variables (movement andcirculation, large group meeting places, day lighting and views, and instructional
neighborhoods) do correlate with student achievement; however, these variables apply
to the school facility at large, not only the classroom environment.
Studies on traditional classroom layouts have determined that the front andcenter of a classroom is the area where most verbal interaction occurs (Adams, 1969;
Adams & Biddle, 1970; Koneya, 1976; Sommer, 1967). Adams & Biddle (1970) refers
to this area as the “action zone” (see Figure 1). Though Weinstein (1979) determinesthat research on layout of desks (rows, horseshoe, circular—see Figure 2) show only
minor differences with respect to verbal interaction, she also points out that little
research on this specific issue has been done. Regardless, experience and observation
would suggest that classroom layout is one of many factors that impact
student-to-student interaction.
Figure 1 – Action zone131

Figure 2 – Desk arrangements

Row layout

Cluster layout

Horseshoe layout

Circular layout

It has been shown that a pleasant aesthetic has a positive effect on inhabitants ofa room and that a “cheerful” setting helps students persist longer on tasks (Maslow &Mintz, 1956; Santrock, 1976). Though more research is needed, it is possible that
positive attitudes may ultimately lead to greater achievement (Weinstein, 1979).
Furthermore, educational goals beyond achievement, such as fostering positive feelings
for learning, might be more attainable in comfortable, aesthetically pleasing classroom
spaces (Weinstein, 1979). Consequently, Weinstein proposes that research on seating
arrangements showing positive effects on students’ attitudes (Horowitz & Otto, 1973;
Sommer & Olsen, 1980) might be a result of the “greater aesthetic appeal of thealternative classrooms rather than the different seating arrangements” (p 583).
Essentially, classroom space matters.
Shifting paradigms
Teaching and learning
In the last ten years, many academics and researchers have written about theparadigmatic shift in the way learning and teaching is approached (Barr & Tagg, 1995;
Gardner, 1983; Makitalo-Siegel et al, 2010; Van Note Chism, 2006; Wenger, 1999).
The shift is from a teacher-centered, passive learning approach, to a student-centered,active-learning approach. Barr and Tagg (1995) define the former as the Instructional
Paradigm where the intention is to “deliver instruction” and the focus is on “teaching”(p. 13). Conversely, the Learning Paradigm shifts the focus to student learning, ineffect redefining the roles of students from passive knowledge receivers to active
knowledge seekers and constructors. Cornell (2002) relates the shift in teaching andlearning paradigms to the move from an “industrial economy” to a “knowledge
economy” (p. 33).
The learning paradigm is rooted in social constructivism, and stems from the
Dewey-based notion that one learns by interacting with the surrounding community and132

the world at large (Oxford, 1997). Vygotsky also acknowledged that learning is a social
process, and that knowledge is constructed as a result of communication with others(Vygotsky, 1986).
Learning spaces
A new way of thinking about learning spaces emerged through “built pedagogy” or“architectural embodiments of educational philosophies” (Monahan, 2002). Built
pedagogy suggests that space and pedagogy are interrelated. Graetz (2006) explains thatphysical environments can have strong emotional impacts on learners, affecting bothcognition and behavior. He states,
Environments that elicit positive emotional responses may lead not only toenhanced learning but also to a powerful, emotional attachment to that space. It
may become a place where students love to learn, a place they seek out when
they wish to learn, and a place they remember fondly when they reflect on theirlearning experiences. (Graetz, 2006, p. 6.2)
Moreover, Cornell (2002) states, “The environment should be a place people want to be,
not a place they have to be. They should be motivated by fun and enjoyment as much as
by a desire to learn” (p. 41).
Clearly researchers agree that new approaches to learning spaces are needed, yet,despite reviews of educational theories, shifts in teaching and learning paradigms, anddifferent approaches to language teaching, classrooms have not really changed.
McGregor (2004) states that even in a world of change and diversity, educational
institutions as spaces for learning “exhibit physical, organizational, and social
arrangements that have changed relatively little in the last 150 years” (p. 13). Further,
Schratenstaller (2010) concludes, “all those endless discussions on education and all
those numerous curriculum changes have not led to a substantial reform of theclassroom” (p. 18). Compare, for example, a traditional classroom from the Meiji Era(Figure 2) with one from 2011 (Figure 3). The layout still supports a traditional learningand teaching paradigm – one whereby teachers posses and transmit knowledge, andstudents listen and learn.

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Figure 2 – Classroom of the Meiji Era (The Old Kaichi School House, Matsumoto,Japan), 1876

Figure3–Classroom

of

today

(Nagano,Japan),

2011

Applying new thinking to the conventional classroom
Changing the classroom environment allows the possibility of different rules. A
learner-centered environment that provides for student-to-student interaction throughclassroom arrangement presents a different approach to language teaching. It’s a morecommunicative approach where students are encouraged to cooperate and collaborate(for an overview of cooperative and collaborative language learning, see Oxford, 1997),
134

and where the teacher’s primary role is more of a facilitator. This change inenvironment can lead to a change in student and teacher expectations, as well as to achange in attitudes and feelings toward the subject. Of course, as Sommer and Olsen(1980) point out, “Introducing a new physical form requires people to change
established patterns of behavior. Within an academic institution, it is easier to plan acity on the moon than to change a single classroom” (p. 3). The creation of acommunicative classroom is an attempt to challenge the established patterns of behavior.
The classroom implications of this shift in teaching and learning paradigms are
summarized in Table 1.
Table 1 – Comparing classrooms
Conventional Classroom

Communicative Classroom

Focus

Teacher-centeredStudent-centered

Learning

Passive or surface learning

Active or deep learning

Interaction

Individual with some pair work

Collaborative, interactive & cooperative

Space

Functional

Emphasis on environment

LayoutRows of desks facing the front

Flexible classroom arrangement

Learning Style Auditory & visual learning styles

Variety of learning styles

Design and layout
Dittoe and Porter (2007) argue that learning theory (active and collaborative learning,interaction) should be the basis for design as new ideas on space as a means to enhancelearning emerge. Classrooms should be both flexible and fluid, with moveable furnitureand space for student movement. Flexible furniture allows for a variety ofconfigurations to support different instructional endeavors. Hunley and Shaller (2009)
also suggest that furniture should be flexible and portable, and that space should allow
for rearrangement.
Hunley and Shaller’s study (2009) of learning spaces on college campuses
shows “that academic engagement was encouraged by learning spaces that werecomfortable, open, flexible, and appealing to the emotions” (p. 30). Another interestingfinding is that students’ perception of the traditional and experimental rooms was basedon their past experiences. Students who began classes in a traditional classroom
considered it acceptable. However, students who began in the experimental room and135

then switched to the traditional room rated the latter negatively (Hunley & Shaller,2009).
Vaughan (1991) describes a good classroom—“one that enhances the mysterious
process called learning, in which one has a sense of well-being, in which easyinteraction most frequently occurs” (p. 12). He describes how changing the teaching
space also led to a change in teaching practice, and consequently a more effective andexciting classroom experience. In effect, “good rooms enable good teaching” (p. 12).
Creating a communicative classroom
MethodFor the purpose of this paper, a communicative classroom is defined as a classroom thatuses space, layout, and design to create a positive learning environment that promotes
student-to-student interaction and communication. Space is the actual room where oral
communication classes are held, layout refers to the arrangement of classroom furniture,and design refers to the aesthetic elements such as color, texture, shapes, furniture, anddecorations (see Tables 2 & 3). An unused room (a former language learning lab) in an
academic high school was transformed using principles of built pedagogy (Monahan,
2002), user-centered design (Cornell, 2002), and characteristics of ideal learning spaces(Creekmore, 1987; Dittoe & Porter, 2007; Krovetz, 1977; Montessori, 1912; Sommer &Becker, 1971; Van Note Chism & Bickford, 2002). The room was completed in time forthe start of the 2011-2012 school year. All first year OC classes were held in thisclassroom for a total of eight sections (242 students).
Table 2 – Design elements of a communicative classroom
Room

Furniture

Comfortable

Comfortable

Safe

Safe

Flexible (adaptable & reconfigurable)

Adjustable

Appealing (aesthetically pleasing, engaging)

Attractive

Freedom of movement

MobileVariety of space (unobstructed free space, individual & Functional
small group learning spaces)

learning)

136(facilitate

Density

Intuitive

Temperature

Technology capable

Lighting

User-centered

Noise

Compressible

Table 3 – Design objectives of a communicative classroom
Promote interaction
Support different teaching & learning configurations
Support different learning styles
Foster a sense of community
Allow space for individual & group learning
Allow space for formal and informal learning
Provide access to technology
Display student ideas & work
This paper serves as a reflection of classroom atmosphere from the perspectiveof the teacher and the students. It is autoethnographic in nature due to the fact that theteacher and researcher are one (for an overview of autoethnography, see Ellis &Bochner, 2000). Teacher reflections were recorded after each class. Student
perspectives were drawn from student journals. The last five or ten minutes of eachclass were reserved for students to write in their journals. They were encouraged towrite about the class, the activity, the room, the subject, or about themselves. They were
not asked to explicitly compare classrooms. Since this paper is dealing with classroom
space, comments about student lives and general activities (“I like rock music. How
about you?”) were not included in the analyses. Given the English level of the students,
the journal entries range from a sentence (“Today’s class was interesting.”) to a shortparagraph. Comments were compiled from four sections (each with four class periods
for a total of 16 classes) chosen at random, and analyzed to get an overall student
impression. No personal information was recorded, and even though initially the data
was divided by class, the final results are a combined total. There is no way to trace
which student made which comment due to the fact that so many of the student
comments are written in a similar sentence structure using the same, limited vocabulary.

137

Also, the general comments have been condensed by category and scale, further diluting
the actual comment and removing any possible trace of a particular student’s writing or
speaking style.
It is important to note that there are a number of components to consider in aclassroom, such as the layout and design, the interaction of students and teachers,
pedagogy, group dynamics, etc. As a result, it is difficult to point to one feature as theprimary explanation for a particular phenomenon. To determine the role classroom
space has in affecting communication and attitude in an English language class would
require control for variables that are inextricably linked. To suggest that a cluster layout
formation promotes student-to-student communication without taking into considerationgroup dynamics of the class at large and the group in question would ignore otherpotential variables. To determine that the cluster formation was truly the cause ofincreased communication, one would have to also show that factors such as the teacher,the activity, or the students’ motivation to learn had no bearing on the increase.
Consequently, this paper does not attempt to point to one variable as the cause of one
particular phenomenon but to show that a number of factors working at the same time inthe space of a classroom may contribute to increased interaction and communication, as
well as to a positive environment.
The room
The standard classroom in this school contains an average of 38 desks (see Figures 4a &4b). The average space between two desks side by side is 61.4cm, and front to back is
58cm. When arranged in the row format, the average space between a desk and the backwall is 81.2cm. There are two blackboards, one in the front of the room and one in theback, though the former is the one mainly used in instruction. The room is on average
7.4m wide and 7.6m long. There is about 6.8m wide and 2m high of window space.
Classes have a wooden platform about 2.3m long and 78cm wide just under theblackboard, allowing the teacher to stand higher (24.5cm) than the students. Mostclassrooms also contain between one and three bookshelves, a locker, 2 extra desks anda podium, in addition to a variety of waste disposal bins.

138

Figure 4a– A standard high school classroom

Figure 4b – A standard high school classroom

The communicative classroom is a much bigger room at 9.25m wide and11.15m long. There are 38 desks, though the average class size for OC is about 30
students. When arranged in the cluster or group format of 3 groups of 6 desks and 5groups of 4 desks, the smallest space between any desk and a wall is 1.5m (see Figure5). The closest any two desks are together is 63cm (though there is also a height
difference of 15cm), but the range of closeness is between 70 and 140cm. Also includedin the room are 6 desks (used to display materials), and a long teacher’s control panel
desk (which is bolted to the floor). One wall is covered entirely with windows (like theconventional classrooms). There is also 8.5m by 2.5m of unobstructed free floor space139

(see Figure 6).
Figure 5 – Proximity to the wall in a communicative classroom

Figure 6 – Floor space in a communicative classroom

Results
Upon analysis of student comments, four overarching categories have been catalogued:a) class comments, b) activity comments, c) subject comments, and d) teacher
comments. There were 57 comments about other students (for example, “I learned about
Jo today”), but such comments were not included in the main categories due to the factthat not all of them could not be ranked. For each category, four main scales were used:
1) Very positive (fun, exciting, very interesting, very good), 2) positive (good, OK), 3)
140

combination (difficult but interesting), and 4) negative (difficult, hard). With the subject
comments, however, a separate scale had to be employed to encompass the variety ofcomments made. This scale is as follows: 1) Positive (I like English), 2) goal-oriented (Iwant to study English more), 3) combination (I don’t like English but…), and 4)
negative (I don’t like English). Also, it is important to note that a single student entry
could contain a variety of categories and ranks. As a result, individual journal entries as
whole units were not ranked.
The data shows student feelings toward the class, the activities, and the subject,
and to some degree, toward the teacher and the students (see Figure 7). 82% ofcomments about the class were very positive, while another 10% were positive (seeFigure 8). The combination comments were very interesting because even though somestudents expressed dislike for one category, they showed positive feelings towardanother: “I don’t like English but I could enjoy this class. I want to like English.”
Similar feelings were expressed toward the activities: “Batsu game is very hard. But it
made me happy. I want to it again!” and “Today was a kuisu [quiz]. I could do manyquestions. It was very difficult, but very happy.” In some student entries, a number offeelings were expressed: “Today’s class learned how to interview. English is difficult
but very fun. I think that learn English more.” Though five class responses were ranked
negatively, there was not a comment that explicitly expressed dislike for the class oractivity categories. Rather, the comments included terms such as “difficult,” “hard,” or“so-so.” For example, “‘Guess Who was very difficult. Because question is difficult.
But Harry [Potter] is cool.’”
Figure 7 – Student responses by type and rank141

Figure 8 – Class comments by percentage

With respect to the subject, there were only eight negative responses, and out of
those eight, only two explicitly stated, “I don’t like English.” Though there were
responses that expressed dislike, they were positive about other aspects (see Figure 9).
Some data also revealed student goals. Of the comments about English, 40% weregoal-oriented (see Figure 10), which exhibits their desire to learn the subject. As one
student wrote, “I don’t like English, but I want to like English through Tonya’s class.”
Many of the goal-oriented comments mentioned speaking: “I want to speak with myfriends and you!” and “I want to talk in English more.” Goals were not always
student-focused, however, as one student expressed a goal for the teacher: “I feeldifficult to speak and listen in English. I want you to speak English slowly.”
Figure 9 – English comments by rank142

Figure 10 – English comments by percentage

Discussion
The results show that students had an overwhelmingly positive response to oral
communication classes. Interestingly, most responses that expressed dislike for the
subject still had a positive response to the class or activity. It is difficult to say withcertainty that the room caused these positive feelings, but as previous research onclassroom spaces shows, it is still an important factor. Moreover, the student comments
demonstrate that with 92% of class comments being either very positive or positive thestudents’ experience when in the communicative classroom is compellingly favorable.
They enjoy coming to class and talking with their peers and teacher. They also enjoy theactivities. However, it should be noted that there is no data to compare the students’feelings in a communicative classroom with feelings in a traditional classroom. It is
possible that incorporating elements of a communicative classroom into the traditionalclassroom could yield similar student reactions.
From the perspective of the teacher, having a space just for English, withfreedom to rearrange and decorate as necessary, provided a safe and pleasant teachingenvironment. In fact, one Japanese teacher of English stated, “This feels like yourclassroom! You seem very comfortable here.” The communicative classroom was
exempt from the rules that mandate other classrooms, specifically with respect to thelayout and focal points. Desks could be moved, students could move around, and theclass could be addressed from any place in the classroom. With the underlying
assumption that space is not neutral, this classroom was designed to communicate its
143purpose as a place where interaction is encouraged. Though the space still functioned asa classroom, the furniture was used more flexibly, the room was much less dense, therules were unconventional, and the aesthetic was more of a priority. Specific designprinciples were employed, such as the use of color, images, and posters; maintenance of
free wall space; availability of open floor space; and proximity of student cluster groups,
to create an environment that made both the students and teacher feel comfortable, safe,and part of a community.
Additionally, the activities worked in conjunction with the layout to increase
student-to-student interaction and collaboration. The primary layout of the classes wasoften in cluster layout formation, and students were encouraged to work together. In fact,
they often turned to other students with questions rather than to the teacher. This
reinforced the notion that the teacher is not the sole proprietor of knowledge of thesubject; the students are as much of a resource to each other as the teacher. Access to
the language was provided in a variety of mediums that did not require teacher approval
for use. Wall space was covered with useful expressions, dictionaries were readily
available, and whiteboards, worksheets, or PowerPoint slides provided models should
the students require them. The latter could also be used in a traditional classroom, but
the conventional layout and the fact that teachers must carry all their materials withthem from class to class makes such practices less likely.
This paper, though reflective, provides data and analysis of the perspectives of
the teacher and her students when the classroom space is designed specifically topromote communication. It is an important first step in determining how the classroom
affects both the student and the teacher experience. Even though this data on its own
does not prove that the classroom was the influential factor, systematic research that
includes a number of schools and teachers, as well as a comparison of feelings andattitudes in different rooms over a longer period of time could provide further insight. If
more studies like this were done with similar results, it would provide further evidence
that the classroom design and layout positively impacts the student experience.
Conclusion
The physical environment is an important part of both learning and teaching. The
environment can have an impact on students with respect to motivation, learning styles,
comfort, and anxiety. Moreover, space and pedagogy are connected as the classroom144

can affect teachers with respect to pedagogical choices and limitations.
As Taylor (2009) found in her study of how studio space affects teaching andlearning, even the teacher who preferred lecture-based, teacher-centered traditional
lessons found herself adapting to a non-conventional classroom space and using theresources available. This study does not suggest that all teachers will change theirteaching style if the classroom space permits it, but it does suggest that teachers, eventhose who are comfortable maintaining the teacher-centered approach, can adapt. In
addition, it is important to point out that just because the space supports ateacher-centered approach, does not mean that teachers cannot manipulate the space toserve their pedagogical needs. On the contrary, teachers can easily modify the space bychanging the layout during class time. In most junior and senior high school classrooms
in Japan, the desks are not bolted to the floor and as a result can be moved into any
number of formations. Adapting whatever space one has to encourage morecommunication and student-to-student interaction may be the key to a morecommunicative classroom. In addition, it could make the classroom a better learning
environment by promoting positive feelings toward English, thereby increasing student
motivation. More importantly, it could give the students a real opportunity to use thelanguage, making English more meaningful, rather than just another subject to study.
Acknowledgements
This paper would not have been possible without the advice and assistance of Danee
Pye and Dan Whitehead.
Biodata
Tonya M. Kneff is currently an English language teacher in Nagano, Japan. Her researchinterests include learning spaces and peace education.
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Language policy in Japan: Shifting paradigms
Michael Mondejar, Joël Laurier, Linamaria Valdivia, Bill Mboutsiadis and Edward
Sanchez
Teachers College, Columbia University
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Abstract
Language policy in Japan is undergoing a major paradigm shift. Starting this April, fifth andsixth graders in public schools will begin taking compulsory English classes. By 2013, allsecondary-level English courses are to be taught exclusively in English. The success of the newpolicy hinges on how prepared teachers are in incorporating its features into their classrooms.
Unfortunately, many instructors lack sufficient knowledge of the policy changes; among more
informed educators, there seems to be little confidence in effectively applying the guidelines totheir teaching contexts.
This paper addresses these issues by raising awareness of the language policy revisions
and exploring how they can be successfully implemented in classrooms. To this end, literatureon historical and current perspectives of Japanese foreign language policy will be reviewed.
Leading experts in ELT have been interviewed, and their insights on how educators can prepare
for the imminent changes will also be examined.
日本における言語政策は、目下、大きなパラダイムシフトの下にある。今年 4 月からは、公立学校の 5 年生と 6 年生で英語教育が義務化される。また 2013 年までには、すべての中学校の英語の授業が、英語のみを用いて教授されることになっている。この新しい政策の成功は、教師たちがいかによく準備し、その特色を授業に取り入れうるかにかかっている。しかし残念ながら、多くの教師たちは、政策変化に関する十分な知識をもっていない。より情報を得ている教師たちのなかでも、ガイドラインを実際の授業に有効に適用しうるという自信を備えている者は、ほんのわずかしかいないようである。
このプレゼンテーションではこれらの問題点について外国語教育改訂に関する問題意識を喚起し、またこれらの改訂がクラスルームでの活動においてどのように効果

149

的に実行され得るかについて探るものである。この目的のために、日本における外国語
教育方針を過去、そしてまた現在の観点から扱う文献を再考する。ELT の分野における主導的な立場の専門家にインタビューし，現場の教育者達が目前に迫った改訂に対してどのように備えるべきかについての彼らの見識にも考察を加えるものである。

Keywords: Language policy in Japan, language policy revisions, course of study,
elementary school, junior high school, senior high school
To maintain its competitive edge in the global marketplace, Japan has looked outward
for solutions. The Japanese foreign language education system is in the midst of a major
overhaul. With calls for change coming from every sector of society (Butler, 2007), theMinistry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) has had the
difficult task of elaborating an educational policy that brings internationalization to alllevels of the educational spectrum in areas that have been historical mainstays.
This year marks the implementation of the new courses in English as a Foreign
Language (EFL) that MEXT had revised in 2008 and 2009 (Yoshida, 2009). The new
Course of Study (CoS) aims to provide Japanese school children with a moreheightened sense of internationalization (Fujita-Round & Maher, 2008). From its onset,
it is clear there are weaknesses with the implementation of the new CoS. Theseweaknesses add to and highlight the already existing difficulties within the foreign
language teaching context in Japan. The improvements to be made will be left to
educators on the front line to deal with. However, the problems are more institutionaland community-based, and not so much related to the simple implementation of policy.
MEXT’s lack of clarity in disseminating its educational goals needs careful
examination. This critical point must be analytically illustrated and, as such, is theimpetus for this collaborative research, as presented by five candidates in the Master ofArts (TESOL) at Teachers College Columbia University, Tokyo. This paper reviews the
backdrop to the educational reforms, presents reactions to the changes, and offers
recommendations from a variety of standpoints. Furthermore, it aims to create a
dialogue amongst educators, administrators, policy makers, and learners to establish acommunity that promotes a positive culture of English language learning in Japan.

150

An overview of the Japanese teaching context: Four major factors regarding EFL
education
The following section will review four major factors influencing English education in
Japan: The heavy emphasis on the grammar translation method (yakudoku), thewash-back effects of university entrance examinations, the effects of existing workplace
conditions on teachers, and pre- and in-service teacher training.
Yakudoku was the first method introduced to foreign language learning in Japan,
and was originally used to translate Chinese characters into Japanese (Suzuki, 1975). It
is a historically-entrenched method for learning to read languages by translating thetarget language word-for-word and then reordering the translation to match Japaneseword order. With yakudoku, the teacher’s main tasks are to explain the meanings oftranslations in Japanese, give examples of similar translation options, and correct
students’ translations (Kakita, 1978; Tajima, 1978). As an EFL instruction technique,yakudoku has not been without criticism. It is a technique that is not based in pedagogy(Richards & Rodgers, 2001), and yakudoku’s use does not cultivate communicative
language skills (Prator & Celcia-Murcia, 1979; Brown, 2007). Despite the emphasis of
MEXT policies on developing communicative English curricula, the use of yakudoku,
including the quantity of grammar and translation exercises taught in secondary schoolclasses, is still prevalent.
It is speculated that the reason behind the heavy emphasis on yakudoku in
EFL instruction is pressure to teach for the university entrance exams. University exam
preparation, also called juken, has a major influence on teachers’ practices (Gorsuch,
2000; Yoshida & Naganuma, 2003). Given that English is tested on these exams,
English education at the secondary level has almost entirely focused on juken and, byextension, yakudoku (Kikuchi, 2006). Juken has a wash-back effect (Watanabe, 1997) inwhich teachers must drop their own educational beliefs in order to conform to teaching
the accepted approach that best prepares students for success in the high-stake entrance
examinations (Underwood, 2010). Consequently, despite longstanding criticism,
yakudoku in EFL education in Japan remains the perceived best method or “key tosuccess” in juken (O’Donnell, 2005, p. 302).
While teachers may believe that yakudoku is geared towards preparing students
for entrance examinations, the reality may be different. A recent study comparing theEnglish reading section of the National Center Test (NCT) with MEXT-published151

senior high school (SHS) textbooks reveals that the NCT is significantly more difficult
than preparatory texts. Also, reading sections of the test demand that students be trainedin a number of reading skills other than translation (Underwood, 2010). According toBrowne (1998), students are spending too much time studying unnecessary
lexico-grammar, rather than simply focusing on high frequency vocabulary necessary
for reasonable comprehension of texts (Nation, 2001). In other words, such heavyemphasis on grammar-translation may in fact be hindering students from better successon the entrance examinations.
Workplace conditions also have an enormous impact on English educational
practices. According to O’Donnell (2005) and Taira (1982), teachers are often saddledwith heavy extra-curricular and administrative workloads, limiting the amount of timethey can allot towards lesson planning and incorporation of communicative
methodologies in their teaching. Other conditions which limit the integration ofCommunicative Language Teaching (CLT) practices in instruction include: (1) large
class sizes; (2) an increasing range of student language proficiency; (3) administrative
pressure to keep pace with curricula and use MEXT-mandated materials; and (4)demands from students, parents, and school staff to prioritize juken over practicalEnglish instruction (Cook, 2009; O’Donnell, 2005). Finally, educators are often under
tremendous peer pressure to conform to school norms and teaching practices(O’Donnell, 2005; Sato & Kleinsasser, 2004; Willis, 2011). These workplace conditions
compound and create a school environment that reinforces current teaching practices
and inhibits the introduction of new instructional methods into the classroom.
Also to be considered is the amount of pre- and in-service teacher training. Most
English teachers in Japan major in English literature and receive minimal practicalexperience teaching communicative English (Nishino & Watanabe, 2008). Once they
become teachers, they have little time to dedicate themselves to improving theirteaching practices. While many teachers may take part in CLT courses and workshops,
their working conditions and peer pressure often compel them to disregard any
instructional innovations to their teaching practices (Fanselow, personal communication,
April, 19, 2011). Some researchers even argue that such entrenchment of instruction is a
result of a sociological condition that is resistant to change (Hino, 1988; Sato &Kleinsasser, 2004).
These problems in English education in Japan have led to calls for reform from152

the corporate sector, politicians and the general public (Butler, 2007). In order to deal
with these issues, MEXT has implemented a new Foreign Language Course of Study(CoS), which will be reviewed in the following section.
	  The new foreign language Course of Study
Since April 2011, all public school fifth and sixth graders in Japan have begun taking
mandatory foreign language lessons. These lessons are officially designated as activities,
and are held once a week. During these activities, students learn English words andphrases by engaging in basic interaction, singing songs, and playing games. The
purpose of these activities is not to help learners acquire structural and meta-linguisticknowledge; instead, it is to help them form a foundation for later acquisition of English,
motivate learners, and help them become more aware of cultural, communicative, andlinguistic differences between Japan and other nations (Yoshida, 2008; 2009).
Foreign language education at the secondary level will focus on acquisition ofEnglish basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS) in junior high school (JHS)
and cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) in SHS. Curricular goals andobjectives at the secondary level are unchanged from previous iterations of the CoS. An
extra hour of language lessons will be added per week, and all English classes are
expected to be conducted in English. Otherwise, the curriculum in JHSs will beunchanged when the new policy guidelines go into effect in 2013 (Yoshida, 2008;2009).
On the other hand, the SHS national English curriculum has undergone revisions.
Starting in 2013, the English I & II and Oral Communication I & II classes will be
replaced. In their stead, learners will begin taking mandatory Communication English
I-III classes aimed at fostering CALP integrated (reading, writing, listening, andspeaking) English skills. Students will also be able to take English Expression I-II
courses, optional CALP classes where they can improve their discussion, debate, andpresentation skills. Also available are the optional Communication English Basic, aremedial bridge between JHS and SHS, and the BICS English Conversation course.
According to Yoshida (2008), this last class is controversial because teachers may
relegate English use solely to this class, therefore undermining the intended promotionof English as the language of instruction in all English classes.
The remainder of this paper will highlight recommendations on addressing the153

successful implementation of the new CoS guidelines according to literature andinterviews compiled by the researchers.
Recommendations on successfully implementing the new language policy
guidelines
Research for this paper has yielded many recommendations on how to successfully
implement the new CoS guidelines. These recommendations can be categorized into
seven broad groups: (1) developing competencies of Japanese teachers of English, (2)revising assistant language teacher standards and hiring practices, (3) improving
communication between educators and administrators, (4) incorporating a World
Englishes perspective, (5) creating agency and communities of practice among
educators and learners, (6) revising university entrance exams, and (7) supporting more
English-immersion education programs.
Developing competencies of Japanese teachers of English
Language proficiency is a critical asset for EFL instruction, where many instructors are
non-native English teachers (Andrews, 2007; Kamhi-Stein, 2004). In order to obtainteaching certification, Japanese teachers of English (JTEs) are required to have aminimum TOEIC score of 550 (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science andTechnology [MEXT], 2006), which is equivalent to the B2 level in the Common
European Framework of Reference (CEFR) and is far below the score of 785 requiredby higher education and corporate institutions (Educational Testing Service [ETS],
2008). In other words, certified JTEs only need to have basic knowledge andcomprehension of English and be able to use it in simple, everyday situations. However,less than 50% of secondary school teachers have met this requirement (MEXT, 2006).
Mandating that all pre-service and in-service teachers meet a higher English proficiency
standard, perhaps even having CALP in English, would greatly improve English
education in Japan.
Several scholars have also discussed the critical importance of improving preand in-service training of JTEs (Amaki, 2008; Masataka, 2006; Sekiya, personalcommunication, April 17, 2011; Tanaka, personal communication, May 13, 1011;
Willis, 2011). They recommend including training in CLT and integrated skills
practices, as well as making clear connections between teacher theory and practice in154

training coursework. Suggestions from literature and interviews also include
lengthening the period of English teaching practicum and emphasizing more
self-reflection and action research during and after the training period.
Standardized benchmarks upon which the above recommendations could bebased in practice have been put forth. Nakata (2010) suggests adapting the Classroom
Language Assessment Benchmark (CLAB) in the Japanese foreign language instruction
context to improve teacher training and classroom practices. The CLAB utilizes abattery of criterion-referenced writing and speaking tests to qualify potential teachers’
linguistic abilities as well as observations to assess their use of classroom language.
When used as a tool for professional development, Nakata found that the CLAB helped
teachers-in-training improve their language proficiency, their ability to assess classroom
English, and their self-awareness of strengths and weaknesses in teaching practices.
Kiyota has also put forth a different set of standards for JTE training (Jimbo, Hisamura,& Yoffe, 2010; Kiyota, personal communication, May 11, 2011). In a 5-year study
involving 35 Japanese university scholars conducting research in Europe and the UnitedStates, Kiyota and his colleagues developed 74 precise descriptors for both pre- andin-service teacher self-assessment and for integrating the CEFR European Portfolio forStudent Teachers of Languages (EPOSTL) into the Japanese foreign language education
context (Jimbo, Hisamura, & Yoffe, 2010, pp. 89-94). Developing pre- and in-service
training programs around these benchmarks could have a significant positive impact on
preparing JTEs to meet the standards put forth in the most recent CoS.
Revising Assistant Language Teacher standards and hiring practices
Assistant language teachers (ALTs) are prevalent in Japanese secondary language
classrooms, and play an integral role in the country's English education (Fujita-Round& Maher, 2008). However, according to Ohtani's (2010) study of the Japan Exchange
and Teaching (JET) Program, many native-speaker ALTs have minimum education andpedagogic qualifications and training when they begin teaching. On top of this,contracts are common for ALTs (usually one to three years for JET program ALTs),
often resulting in high turnover rates for these types of instructors. These issues often
saddle schools with a lack of consistency and professional and contextual experience inEnglish instruction.
There are several possible solutions to the problems outlined above. One such
155

solution is to mandate English-teaching certification (e.g. Certificate for English
Language Teaching to Young Learners [CELTYL]) and a longer, more effective
pre-service training period for ALT candidates. It may also be beneficial to lengthen thecontract terms for ALTs in order to provide consistency in classrooms and retain
teachers with experience. Another recommendation is to utilize more English-speaking
Japanese ALTs trained by nonprofit organizations (NPOs) such as Japan-Shogakko
Instructors of English (J-SHINE) (Sakai, 2011). This particular group of certified
teachers can more easily communicate with Japanese classroom instructors, and may be
more familiar with the learners and learning context than their native-speaker
counterparts. Yet, English-speaking Japanese ALTs still appear to be underutilized in
the current education system. Finally, Japanese Boards of Education in Japan could hire
ALTs directly instead of relying on dispatch agencies to deploy teachers to their schools,
as has been done in Saitama City (Semans, personal communication, June 19, 2011).
This enables school districts to set their own standards for teacher hiring and training,and maintain open lines of communication between ALTs and school staff. Open
communication is crucial, because it helps integrate ALTs more into their respective
school communities and could aid in the retention of these teachers.
Improving communication between educators and administrators
Educators and scholars have noted that there is often limited communication exchanges
between JTEs and ALTs (Amaki, 2008; Ohtani, 2010), amongst JTEs (Sato &Kleinsasser, 2004), and between teachers, administators and MEXT (Plaza, personalcommunication, May 1, 2011; Sakai, 2011; Schirmer, personal communication, March
10, 2011). Such a lack of communication can have a negative impact on disseminationof information regarding CoS guidelines, not to mention coordination of curricula
standards and teaching practices. Thus, maintaining open communication between all
stakeholders in the education network is imperative (Sakai, 2011; Semans, personalcommunication, June 19, 2011).
Open communication between JTE-ALT team-teachers is especially important.
Nakai notes that the nature of ALT contracts poses a legal barrier that hinders directcommunication between ALTs and Japanese school staff (Sakai, 2011). ALTs
sometimes cannot talk to JTEs inside and outside of the classroom. As mentioned
before, the Saitama City school board has circumvented this issue by hiring their ALTs
156

directly. In their schools, unimpeded lines of communication exist between
native-speaker ALTs and Japanese staff, which are further maintained by regularmeetings between involved parties (Semans, personal communication, June 19, 2011).
Open communication can be further fostered by encouraging JTEs and ALTs todevelop proficiency in English and Japanese respectively, as well as incorporatingintercultural awareness and team-teaching modules in teacher training programs (Amaki,
2008; Carless, 2006; Ohtani, 2010). Scholars have also advocated providing moreclarity on the individual classroom roles of JTEs and ALTs (Amaki, 2008; Ohtani,
2010; Sakai, 2011) as well as equal partnership and contribution in team-teachingpractices (Fujimoto-Adamson, 2010).
Incorporating a World Englishes perspective
As highlighted earlier, many JTEs lack sufficient English proficiency in terms ofpractical application of the language. However, JTEs who are proficient in the language
may still have low confidence in their English abilities because they harborsocio-psychological and cultural beliefs that they can never attain native-level facility in
English. Thus, they believe that they cannot be effective language role models (Fukada,2011). One possible solution to these issues of confidence is incorporation of a World
Englishes perspective in English education in Japan (Brown, 1993; Brown & Peterson,
1997; Matsuda, 2003). Given the global proliferation of English and the rise toprominence of many different varieties of the language, this would result in a "world
view...[that is] more consistent with the sociolinguistic realities of the spread of English
as an international language" (Brown and Peterson, 1997, p. 44).
At the practical level, incorporating a World Englishes perspective could entail
integrating World Englishes courses into JTE and ALT training programs (Brown,
1993; Matsuda, 2003). Jenkins (1998; 2002) also suggests basing English curricula oninternational intelligibility, i.e. an English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) core andaccommodation strategies, which would be more universal, teachable and learnable thanpresent curricular content. In terms of meta-theory, such a shift would involve revising
notions of the L2 speaker as an inferior communicator, interlanguages, and errors. JTEs
would also be encouraged to become exemplar negotiators of English as a mutuallycommunicative medium, instead of striving to emulate a native-speaker model (Firth,
2009; Tanaka, personal communication, May 13, 2011). Yoshida has noted that the157ideal model for Japanese L2 learners of English is the JTE communicator, not the native
speaker (Sakai, 2011). Observing JTEs negotiate meaning in English withnative-speaker ALTs could motivate learners and inspire them to participate more
actively in English lessons.
Creating agency and communities of practice among educators and learners
One critical way of ensuring that educators embrace MEXT policies and take ownershipof their own professional development is to create agency and Communities of Practice(CoP) (Tanaka, personal communication, May 13, 2011). Agency refers to an individual
or group's capacity to act in a particular socio-cultural context, as well as regulate theiractions vis-à-vis their environment (van Lier, 2008). In the foreign language teachingcontext in Japan, this entails instructors becoming active participants in their education
communities and their own professional development. One way this can be done is byforming or joining a CoP, or a group of people who share an interest, a craft, and/or aprofession and are dedicated to working together to collectively improve theirknowledge and skills in that particular area (Wenger, 2006).
An example of a CoP formed by stakeholders with agency is the Meisei Summer
School Project (MSSP) at Meisei University (Fukada, personal communication, May 4,
2011; Tanaka & Ogane, 2011). In the MSSP, Japanese university students collaborate
with international NPO-sponsored volunteers to plan and teach language lessons toelementary and JHS learners. These transnational partnerships motivate the Japaneseparticipants to actively utilize and negotiate their English skills in an authentic context
as well as develop an identity as a member of a cooperative team. Agency is not always
created individually but is fostered and strengthened by members working together in agroup. These collaborative teams in the MSSP are examples of CoPs which connectclassroom learning (internal) to real-world applications (external), and foster continuinginterest in learning beyond the schooling period (Wenger, 2006).
The Institute for Research in Language Teaching (IRLT) is an example of a CoP
dedicated to promoting successful classroom implementation of language policy
guidelines. This Kanto-based organization of elementary, junior high, and senior highschool JTEs, as well as pre-service teachers, holds monthly meetings where they view
MEXT-circulated video recordings of model English lessons. Members constructively
critique the lessons and freely engage in teaching practice discussion and idea sharing.
158

Encouraging the formation of similar CoPs nationwide at the local and regional level
would aid teachers in implementing the new CoS guidelines into their classrooms, aswell as provide instructors with a forum to freely share instructional practices with theirpeers.
Revising university entrance exams
In an effort to make university entrance exams more effective in assessing English
communicative proficiency, MEXT’s National Center for University Entrance
Examinations (NCUEE) added a listening component to the NCT in 2006 (Murphey,2006). Since then, more universities have begun incorporating listening sections in theirindividual entrance exams (Sekiya, personal communication, April 17, 2011) as well as
oral interviews and/or presentations (Tanaka, personal communication, May 13, 2011).
However, problems such as widespread lack of oral test components and invalid test
quality analysis continue to draw criticism from scholars as well as impede effective
implementation of new CoS guidelines.
One recommendation is that the government start a College Board of working
professionals that will oversee validity and assess standards of entrance exams, working
in tandem with juku (cram school) test specialists (Murphey, Kato, & Fukuda, 2010).
Another suggestion is to remove non-practical subjects (e.g. Classical Chinese Poetry)from entrance exams to lighten the juken load on test-takers (Iino, personalcommunication, Feb 17, 2011). An interview to measure speaking ability could also be
added to more tests (Watanabe, personal communication, March 27, 2011). Increasing
the ratio of listening and extended-production writing items on more exams would makethem more valid (Fukada, personal communication, May 04, 2011). Finally, Murphey etal. (2010) recommend encouraging universities to include high school records,
extracurricular activities and other achievements in their admissions process, instead of
relying solely on the exam results of applicants. These improvements would go a long
way towards promoting the new CoS guidelines and making English education at thesecondary level more effective.
Supporting more English-immersion education programs
One element of reform that has shown signs of success is the immersion education
system. Gunma Kokusai Academy (GKA) is a private K-12 school in Ota, Gunma. Its159

creation stems from former Prime Minister Koizumi’s educational reforms. Designatedas a Special Zone School that allows it to deliver its curriculum primarily in a language
other than Japanese, GKA is the first of its kind. The school is in its infancy stages,
having only opened in 2006, but already results show that the English immersion
system at the institution is successful. Not only is the immersion component helping
students learn a new language, but the initial results are promising. In the 2007 National
Achievement Test, GKA students obtained a mean of 80%, outperforming the national
average by 17% (Gunma Kokusai Academy Elementary School Newsletter, July 22,2011). According to Matsuzawa (2009), the school’s first year junior high school
students (grade 7) boasted average TOEIC scores of 477 points, higher than the averagescores for university freshmen majoring in English or English literature. This is an
exceptional feat considering that the main language of instruction at the school is
English and the national tests are all in Japanese. This achievement mirrors findings
made by Cummins (2009) in a study of French immersion education in Canada, where“students gain fluency and literacy in French at no apparent cost to their English
academic skills” and “usually students require additional time to catch up in English
spelling but by grade 5 there are normally no differences in English test performance
between immersion students and comparison groups whose instruction has been totally
through English” (p. 34). The research suggests that immersion education programs inJapan could produce fluent English-speaking Japanese with no adverse effects on their
L1 Japanese language abilities. Thus, it may be beneficial for MEXT to increase theamount of English-immersion opportunities for future learners.
Conclusion
As a result of dissatisfaction with the current state of English education in Japan, the
MEXT recently revised the Foreign Language Course of Study. Successful integrationof the new CoS guidelines hinges on many factors. The continued success of the CoS
and its directives lies in empowering stakeholders in English education, such as students,
parents, educators, and administrators. MEXT language policy would be more effective
if the seven recommendations offered in this paper are carefully considered andimplemented in future reforms, thus creating a community that promotes a positive
culture of English language learning.

160

Acknowledgements
We would like to thank John Fanselow, Yoshifumi Fukada, Gregory Glasgow,
Masakazu Iino, Yoichi Kiyota, Tim Murphey, Taron Plaza, Richard Schirmer, Joseph
Schaules, Yasushi Sekiya, Brad Semans, Hiromasa Tanaka, and Masatoshi Watanabe.
This project would not have been possible without their insights and assistance.
Biodata
Michael Mondejar is an oral communication, academic writing, and test preparation
EFL instructor at Kanagawa University in Yokohama. His current research interests arelanguage policy, CALL, and cooperative learning. He is also an MA in TESOL
candidate at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Joël Laurier is a teacher at Gunma Kokusai Academy. He is a Cooperative Learning
crusader whose research interests include autonomy, bilingualism, sociolinguistics, andlanguage policy in education. He is an MA in TESOL candidate at Teachers College,
Columbia University.
Linamaria Valdivia is an EFL instructor teaching oral communication courses at Oin
Gakuen Junior and Senior High School in Tokyo. Her current research interests include
teacher development, learner autonomy, Montessori education, and cooperative learning.
She is also an MA in TESOL candidate at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Bill Mboutsiadis, MA in TESOL candidate (TC Columbia) has worked in Canada,
Slovakia, Greece, and Germany, and presented in the Philippines. He has been an
instructor in the English Language Program-University of Toronto since 1996. He ischair of CALL-learning at Meisei University and is a high school TESL certified
educator.
Eddie Sanchez is an MA in TESOL student at Teachers College, Columbia University,
specializing in technology and language learning. He has worked many years in Korea
as a language teacher and now teaches in Japan. His current research focuses on teacher
training, particularly in response to the new MEXT guidelines.

161

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Encouraging fluency through poster presentations
Jennifer Morgan
Meisei University, Tokyo
Reference Data:
Morgan, J. (2012). Encouraging fluency through poster sessions. In K. Bradford-Watts, R.
Chartrand, & E. Skier (Eds.), The 2011 Pan-SIG Conference Proceedings. Matsumoto: JALT.

Abstract
Poster presentations are a popular task-based activity in EFL classrooms. They offer learners
multiple opportunities for development over the four skills, and encourage deep engagementwith content as students research information for their posters. Oral fluency can be specificallytargeted when learners deliver repeated presentations under time pressure during poster
carousels and the 4-3-2 speaking activity. Poster projects on global issues actively encourage
students to acquire language and knowledge necessary to communicate their ideas and opinions
about social issues, to think critically, and so develop as world citizens. A recent poster project
had the author’s sophomore students reporting on volunteer fieldwork and associatedsocial/environmental problems. As a result of the project and the linked skills tasks therein(specifically the

4-3-2 speaking activity), students became not only more fluent speakers

about their chosen topic, but hopefully more fluent thinkers about various important issues intheir world today.
ポスタープレゼンテーションはＥＦＬの授業で人気のある作業ベースのアクティビテ
ィです。それは学習者に４つ以上のスキルの向上のための多様な機会を与え、またより深く研究内容について考えることを促します。会話の流暢さは学習者が Poster Carouselと the 4-3-2 speaking activity の最中に時間の制約のある中で発表する時に特に目標とされます。グローバルな問題を取り上げたポスタープロジェクトは、社会問題についての彼らの意見を伝えるために必要な言語と知識を身につけることを促し、批判的に考えることで国際人として彼らを成長させるのです。最近のポスタープロジェクトでは２年生の学生達がボランティア野外活動とそれに関連した社会問題および環境問題について
取り組みました。そのプロジェクトと関連したスキル課題（特に the 4-3-2 speaking
activity）の結果、学生は選んだ題材について流暢に話す人になっただけではなく、今日の彼らの世界における様々な大切な問題について、より流暢に「考える人」なりました。

166

Keywords: Poster presentations, task-based activities, four skills, 4-3-2 activities,
global issues, fluency

Fluency development is undoubtedly one of the key goals for second language learners
and teachers alike. Nation (1991, 2009) and others suggest that a well-balanced
language course should dedicate about one quarter of the class time to fluency
development across the four skills. Fluency goals need to be balanced with accuracy
goals, and indeed ought to be considered as an integrated component of language(Kellem, 2009). In terms of developing oral fluency, classroom language tasks andactivities should ideally incorporate several features including repetition, preparation,
time pressure, and familiarity with language and content (Kellem, 2009; Nation, 1991).
Oral poster presentations, now commonplace in EFL classrooms (Bayne,2005), along with the linked skills tasks that scaffold the target task, can neatly
encompass the above oral fluency development criteria. Such speaking presentations
can not only improve oral proficiency, but careful topic choice and timing of engaging
themes within a classroom syllabus can also lead to knowledge fluency. When students
are guided to research information or recycle language about familiar and interesting
topics such as local/global issues, they must engage deeply with content, personalise
their final product and so effectively expand their overall world knowledge.
This paper will describe a sophomore global issues poster project, its fluency
goals, and a sample lesson sequence. Firstly, EFL speaking fluency will be defined withregard to the literature. Secondly, the rationale for poster presentations or projects will
be discussed in terms of the author’s teaching context and learning goals and thepedagogy underlying poster presentations. Finally, a sample lesson cycle, using atask-based approach, will illustrate how pre-task activities provide scaffolding, the4-3-2 minute speech activity (Maurice, 1983, Nation, 1991) pushes speaking fluency,
and poster carousels offer increased oral output (Bayne, 2005). Post-task activities
encourage reflection about content and skills learnt.
Oral fluency for language learners
With regard to defining oral fluency, or speaking skills, Brown (2003) and otherssuggest several defining characteristics of speaking fluency for second language (L2)167

learners. These include being able to speak at length, appropriately and coherently on a
topic, and being able to be creative and imaginative with language use, similar to anative speaker (Fillimore, 1979, in Al-Sibai, 2004). Language learners who can speakwith natural normal pauses, intonation, stress, and interruptions are arriving at L2
fluency (Richards, Platt, & Weber, 1985).
In addition, fluency ought to be seen as complementary to, rather than in contrast
to accuracy (Brown, 2003). Traditionally, there may have been an emphasis on accuracy
in grammar, vocabulary usage, and pronunciation (Richards et al, 1985), and in
high-stakes testing contexts such as TOEFL and IELTS examinations, accuracy isessential. However, nowadays even in these contexts, fluency is also being assessed, notjust the user’s speech fluency but also their ability to use communicative strategies(Brown, 2003). How then can language teachers assist their learners to effectively
develop their speaking fluency?
For classroom speaking tasks and activities to effectively assist fluency
development, Nation (1991) outlines four essential criteria, and Kellem (2009) proposesa very similar checklist of seven principles for developing oral fluency in the classroom.
For Japanese learners in the EFL context there may be limited exposure to, or
opportunities available for, students to communicate in the target language. Moreover,when students only meet once a week for a 90-minute class, it is even more crucial forfluency building activities to be well-planned. Kellem’s (2009, p.9) seven principles toconsider when designing and carrying out fluency development activities are:1.

Incorporate repetition

2.

Increase speaking time3.

Prepare before speaking

4.

Use familiar and motivating topics

5.

Ensure appropriate level6.

Impose time limits

7.

Teach formulaic sequences

Nation (1991) reiterates the above by explaining that an effective fluency activity
should be firstly, meaning-focussed where learners are trying to produce or understand amessage. Secondly, learners are dealing with easy, familiar material - be it recycling
known vocabulary, using familiar grammar structures, or talking about familiar168information or topics. Thirdly, there also needs to be pressure for the student to go
faster, such as activities where speakers are pushed to speak faster, in decreasing timeframes. Finally, there needs to be opportunities for repetition of the activity, to allow a
good quantity of speaking output.
During classroom poster presentations, the poster carousel format (Bayne, 2005;
Nakamura, 2008), can be utilised, which neatly meets Kellem’s (2009) and Nation’s(1991) criteria for useful fluency building activities. As a variation, teachers could also
introduce the 4-3-2 minute speech activity (Maurice, 1983) which adds a decreasingtime factor to push the presenter to speak faster (and make better communicativedecisions) at each turn. For this activity, Nation (1989) instructs teachers to have pairsor two lines of students. One side “A” students speak on a known easy topic for four
minutes, while “B” students simply listen actively, nod, and do not interrupt. The
teacher calls stop, and the “A” line moves along one. There is now a new partner or
listener, and the “A” students tell the same information again, but this time they have totry and do it in 3 minutes. The sequence is repeated a third time in 2 minutes. For lower
level classes, it may be more effective to try 3-2-1.5 minute speeches initially until
students’ language proficiency and speaking confidence increases.
Some research has shown that learners did indeed make improvements in fluency,
accuracy and complexity during the 4-3-2 activity. Students increased their speed ofwords per minute; there was a decrease in hesitations, errors and repeated items; andthere was an increase in sentence complexity (Arevart & Nation, 1990 in Nation, 1991).
Lynch and Maclean (2000, in Nakamura, 2007) found that students benefitted
from the repetition of their speeches during the poster carousel. There was evidence ofattention to both language and content in their self-corrections (accuracy) and overall
linguistic improvements (fluency).

Nakamura’s own study (2007) showed student

gains in fluency with regard to increased speech rates and a decrease in pauses andrepetitions. Additionally, informal survey findings (Morgan, 2010) after both carouselsessions and the 4-3-2 activity reveal that students felt they could speak more fluently
by the third turn. In the earlier turns, they were focussed more on remembering
language and content (Kellem, 2009), but in the final turn they felt able to speak “morenaturally”, “not stopping and looking at my notes”, “I could tell my information more
quickly” (Morgan, 2010).

It appears that after task repetition students were able tospeak at length and without pauses, on a familiar topic, and could be creative and169

imaginative with their language use. So there were gains in fluency as defined byBrown (2003) and others as a result of task retrial and time pressure.
Poster presentations in language classrooms
Context and learning goals
The author’s sophomore speaking and listening course meets only once a week for 90
minutes. At the start of the new academic year the students’ levels ranged from highelementary to pre-intermediate level English. Most seemed to be fairly hesitant speakers,
some were demotivated learners, and all tended to rely strongly on written notes whenrequired to speak in class, whether it be a simple report back after an activity, or for alonger presentation project. Additionally, most students were simply unable to talkquickly or at length on many topics, particularly on common world issues topics(environment, poverty, war, racism, gender issues). Two of the learning goals for the
speaking-listening course are “to develop learner’s oral fluency… and to develop
general knowledge of global issues” (Meisei University, Communication IId syllabus
notes, 2009).
The author usually scaffolded productive activities with plenty of brainstorming
time, mind-mapping, sentence writing, and rehearsal to allow students to generate andplan their ideas before leading up to oral productive tasks (Ellis, 2006). This has
enabled students to ultimately produce something orally at the end of a session.
However, a lot of time was needed to allow learners to retrieve vocabulary, generatecontent, and speak fluently about any topic at length. It seemed crucial to get students
working faster, speaking faster, and basically making better use of the mere 90 minutes
available each week.
In about Week 6 of the course, the textbook “Impact Issues” had a unit about
environmental problems and the class seemed very interested in these themes.
Additionally, a good proportion of the class had recently participated in volunteer
fieldwork abroad during their holidays. It seemed a good opportunity to have thosestudents report on their fieldwork experience with international non-profit volunteer
organisations (NPOs) to their class mates. An assessment task was jointly agreed on,which was a poster project about an NPO or fieldwork program and a related global
problem. The students would have opportunities to develop their speaking confidence
and fluency in the context of a poster presentation project. The aim was to help students
170make the leap from their written material to fluent English speaking. The project would
allow the class to recycle vocabulary, concepts, and content from the textbook unit.
Moreover, the global issues theme encouraged these young adults to expand their world
knowledge, increase their critical thinking and move towards active world citizenship(Cates, 1990). During the project, students taught their peers about real fieldwork
experiences and English communication opportunities with NPOs in India, Zanzibar,
and Mexico. The classroom became a collaborative learning environment, where bothteacher and students became co-learners (Murphey & Jacobs, 2000). The project was
20% of their final grade.
What are poster presentations?
Similar to the use of posters in academic or business conferences, L2 poster sessions
have learners presenting information on a large format poster, which includes keywords
and pictures about a chosen topic (Shrosbree, 2010). L2 posters topics can be as simple
and personalised as “My Hometown” or “Celebrations in my Country”, or they can be
more demanding research topics such as “Democracy and Human Rights”. The poster
itself provides a speaking prompt for students’ oral presentations and a visual aid for theaudience. Thus the poster scaffolds the authentic communicative activity for students ofdiverse levels. It provides for different learner styles—creative students often excel. It isa hands-on language activity, providing visual language reminders, both productively
and receptively. Posters can be hand-made or computer-designed using PowerPoint.
Students must complete some of the project work outside of class with the majority of
preparation work carried out during class time to allow for monitoring group work andproviding assistance, depending on learning goals and time constraints.
Styles of poster presentations
There are various styles of poster presentations with different learning purposes andbenefits to fluency (Jost, 2005). Firstly, students can present to small, intimate groups
with their tables/desks rearranged to suit. Early on in the year, this can be lessthreatening than presenting in front of the class. Later though, learners can be required
to present in front of the class in pairs and groups. Sometimes the public forum of frontof class presentations provides rigour and challenge to the speakers. In the NPO topic
class, two of the Japanese fieldwork teachers were invited to attend the presentation
171

sessions, which added support, prestige, and motivation for the students to perform wellin English. Finally, there is a poster carousel session in which half the class act as
speakers who are stationed by their posters which are displayed around the classroom
walls. The other half of the class act as listeners who visit each poster station, and listen
and interact in a more natural fashion to the various presenters within a given timeframe. As students are simultaneously presenting or listening, carousels make great useof class-time and student-on-task time.
All styles of presenting can and should include repetition (2-4 times), with theteacher ideally assessing a student’s best or final performance. The audience should also
have a listening task to complete which can be part of their overall assessment grade forthe project.
As outlined earlier, inclusion of the 4-3-2 activity aims to push learners’ retrieval of
language and content—they have to speak faster and more fluently to present theirmessage in a shorter time frame each at each turn. The audience is also pushed to focus
on the message and process information more quickly. Fluency can be targeted throughcareful choice and design of the presentation format.
A rationale for including poster presentations in a language syllabus
Poster presentations provide learners with rich opportunities for multiple skills
development (Jost, 2005; Shrosbree, 2010). Firstly, the oral presentation or speechdelivery is an authentic speaking activity. The speaker interacts with the audiencethroughout, responding to listener’s questions, comments, eliciting a response to theirinformation in real time. Secondly, the presentation is an authentic interactive listening
activity where the interlocutor responds, clarifies, questions, and processes language
and ideas in real time. Thirdly, there can be a strong writing component depending on
your learning goals. Students can be required to write abstracts or write their speeches
for you to edit and then assess. They can be required to write summary note-cards, andthey must write keywords to summarise their information on their posters. Fourthly,
students carry out research for their topic. They conduct a classroom survey, followedby Internet research to find key facts and pictures about their topic, guided by theteacher’s worksheet. They must organise and prioritise this information.
Finally, in group work students develop skills related to social interactivity andlearner autonomy (Murphey & Jacobs, 2000). They must negotiate with partners or172

group members to plan and assign project tasks. They have to collaborate aboutorganising their topic information and pictures, and about poster design and creation.
They need to practice their speeches outside of class, and commit to meetings anddeadlines. Throughout this they have the chance to individualise their learning
processes and the final product. Thus it can be said that poster presentations encompass
multiple tasks before, during, and after the poster sessions.

When learners repeat theiroral presentations during poster carousels or 4-3-2 activity, there is plenty ofopportunity for fluency development. Well-designed communicative tasks allow
learners to develop multiple language skills, not just oral fluency, which reflect theclass’s syllabus goals and learning objectives.
A sample lesson sequence
The author takes a task-based approach (Ellis, 2006) to the poster project classes wherelinked skills activities are central to the task cycle. Even though the target task focuseson speaking, clearly the learners will get practise over the four skills during thefollowing communicative tasks (Nation & Newton, 2009).
In the pre-task phase (Ellis, 2006) students variously work alone, in pairs, orgroups planning for their posters. Firstly, they practise speaking, listening, and writing
when carrying out a class survey about volunteering. Next they write notes as theycollate their findings and brainstorm topic ideas in groups. Then they focus on readingwhen they do a matching task—they have to match well-known Japanese andinternational volunteer organisations with a global problem. After the survey andmatching task learners choose their research topic—a specific NPO and relatedsocial/environmental problem. Lastly, they must read, paraphrase and write whilecollecting research information and preparing short speeches about their topic.
Students are helped to clearly understand the task goal by viewing learner samples
or a teacher model of past posters. When students carry out the above communicative
tasks, they review and recycle known language and ideas, and the more familiar thecontent, the more fluently they can talk about their topics. During these preparation
lessons, groups are assigned, worksheets distributed to guide Internet research, andpresentation guidelines (with assessment criteria, deadlines, homework tasks) are
explained. Here also the posters themselves are constructed—a creative andcollaborative process—another opportunity for languaging about content and so173increasing familiarity with the topic.
Just before the task performance stage, the learners review presentation
language (Shrosbree, 2010), rehearse their speeches with posters and cue cards, and any
audience listening tasks are explained. Listeners might have to complete note-taking
tables, or ask the speaker a question using question prompts on paper strips, dependingon the class level and goals. Such tasks encourage active listening and authentic
interaction between speaker and interlocutor, depending on the style of presentation.
Furthermore, Bayne (2005) recommends preparing the class about “positive behaviours
by presenters and audience” (p. 89).
The during-task phase needs to be managed well by the teacher in terms of time
limits, classroom dynamics, and arrangement. Poster presentation sessions are usually adynamic, energised, and even noisy, learner-centred communicative event where allparticipants are involved in meaning-making. Students therefore need to be clear about
their roles and constraints during poster carousels or the 4-3-2 activity. The teacher too
needs to be prepared with a user-friendly marking rubric as she moves about theclassroom monitoring and evaluating multiple concurrent presentations.
In the post-task phase, learners are encouraged to reflect on the poster
presentations through self-evaluation and peer-evaluation. Students could complete bestposter votes, post-it positive comments on posters, short written reports about their
topic, and self-evaluation forms. Reflection on the task process, task performance, andfuture improvements helps learners develop metacognitive strategies of planning,monitoring, and evaluation (O'Malley & Chamot, 1990). Peer evaluation encourages amore student-centred classroom, develops learner reflective skills, and hands some
control for assessment back to the students. The teacher gives immediate general
feedback on task performance (positive comments, tips for future improvement), which
is followed up with individual written assessment in the next class.
Assessment
It can be claimed that poster presentations offer students a fair means of assessment of
their language skills and work done. Teachers usually schedule poster projects at theend of a cycle- completing a textbook unit, or at midpoint or end of a term. Student
posters sessions then provide summative evaluation of work done, content learnt,
language skills acquired, and should reflect the textbook contents and syllabus
174objectives. Students are able to produce their best performance after they have had timeand support to prepare information, practise skills, and give repeat presentations. The
teacher evaluates their final performance; this is a fairer means of assessment than
one-shot oral interviews or exams. Both teacher and peers can observe that best
performance and offer comments and feedback to inform the student’s final grade forthe presentations. Features of both fluency and accuracy can be evaluated using atransparent speaking rubric, along with a grade for group participation, effort, and goal
achievement. These should reflect the performance criteria outlined in the presentation
guidelines.
Discussion
Referring back to Kellem’s (2009) and Nation’s (1991) features of useful fluency
activities, it can be said that each of the tasks present in the entire poster presentation
project contribute in some way to developing learners’ speaking fluency or expanding
their global knowledge. Firstly, there is focus on meaning in the pre-task survey, thematching task, and later during the presentations. Secondly, there is task repetition andtherefore plenty of speaking output in the poster carousel format and 4-3-2 activity.
Importantly, students choose their own specific topic in groups which is motivating, andthere is ample time for preparation of content and language so they are dealing witheasy, familiar material when they deliver the actual presentations. Task outcomes andassessment criteria are designed to suit the class level, so learning goals are achievable
but challenging. Time limits are imposed whether semi-controlled for the carousel, or incontrolled decreasing intervals for 4-3-2 minute speeches. Finally, learners practise theformulaic sequences for giving oral presentations and so are more able to take control of
their audience, poster, and message.
After the presentations, students were asked to answer an informal questionnaire
about how they felt about their poster projects. The aim was to get learners to reflect onand notice how or whether poster sessions were useful for language learning, and togather feedback to inform future assessment tasks. Students were also asked to reflect
and comment specifically on the 4-3-2 activity. Responses to the poster project werepositive overall (Morgan, 2010):•“I think I feel more confident about speaking in front of class…keywords
helped me remember my ideas”
175•“Poster project was fun and benefited me because I could learn muchinformation about my topic”.

•“I could learn about world’s problems… my partner taught me about childlabour’s fieldwork”•“I could organise my ideas in my head each time better… in the carousel”•“I had to speak faster each time, I tried to relax and just say my ideas…notcare the mistakes”•“I felt more relaxed each time I gave my speech”•“Actually, I could remember almost information at the final time…I could
just look at my partner and speak”

Learners enjoyed aspects of the project such as conducting research, planning
information, group work, and developing confidence about speaking to an audience.
They shared personally transformative experiences and improvement in English
proficiency from their fieldwork abroad (see also Decker, 2010). A few were motivated
to continue their research in their Japanese seminar class, and think more deeply than
before about global issues and on-campus volunteer activities available to them.
Students were challenged by the 4-3-2 activity, and certainly each time they do thisactivity (which is used regularly in this class) they seem to get better at it, developing
speaking fluency, speed, clarity, and confidence all round.
Conclusion
Poster presentations are a useful inclusion in any language syllabus. Various styles ofpresentations are available and suit different learning purposes and contexts. Although
speaking fluency is a significant goal in this activity, poster presentations also offer rich
opportunities for development across the four skills while learners of all levels
participate in task-based group work. Poster projects are student-centered, allowing for
more meaningful communication, and often provide opportunities for practicalextra-linguistic skill building.
During the pre-task planning lessons students prepare content and language for theirposters and rehearse speeches which contribute to increased fluency when they carryout the target task, giving a presentation. In the poster carousel format and for the 4-3-2
activity, the features of task repetition, increased output, time pressure, and focus on the176message are all present which enables learners to make measurable gains in oral fluency,
language accuracy and sentence complexity.
When timetabled thoughtfully throughout a language syllabus, poster
presentations can become a highlight in the classroom learning community. Students
have opportunities to choose their own topics and personalize their learning process andfinal product, so they are often more motivated to prepare well, cooperate with groupmembers, and perform to a higher standard than usual. With transparent performance
criteria, the presentation is a tangible achievement goal in which students can showcase
their linguistic, creative, and academic skills. Poster presentations in their various forms
are an effective way for language learners to develop their speaking fluency as well as
their ability to fluently engage with relevant global issues as active world citizens.
BiodataJennifer Morgan is a guest lecturer in the International Studies Department at Meisei
University, Tokyo. Her current research interests are materials development forunder-motivated students and writing portfolios.
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178

Multinational workshops on technical issues create fluent English global technicalleaders (GTL)
Keunyoung Pak, Kazunori Fukuchi, Motomu Takeshige, Atsuko Shigihara, Motoko
Takeuchi, Kiyoshi Iida, Yoshikatsu Kubota, and Mika Owada
Sendai National College of Technology, Japan
Dinil Pushpalal and Peter John Wanner
Graduate School of International Cultural Studies, Tohoku University, Japan
Reference Data:
Pak, K., Fukuchi, K., Takeshige, M., Shigihara, A., Takeuchi, M., Iida, K., Kubota, Y.,
Owada, M., Pushpalal D., & Wanner, P.J. (2012). Multinational workshops on technicalissues create fluent English global technical leaders (GTL). In K. Bradford-Watts, R.
Chartrand, & E. Skier (Eds.), The 2011 Pan-SIG Conference Proceedings. Matsumoto:
JALT.
Abstract
This paper highlights the innovative English educational project of Japanese National Collegesof Technology (KOSEN) in which 45 selected students among Advanced Courses of Sendai
KOSEN, through official English tests, aims to foster fluent English global technical leaders by
maximizing global competitive advantages on the basis of a new academic-industrial
cooperation network. This project also provides strong motivation in the students who have
English discussions through setting up multinational workshops with interaction of foreign
graduate students from the Graduate Schools of Tohoku University, and by giving tasks ofEnglish presentation or debate on global technical issues for 2 years. Through annual
evaluations of project, some of the students get further advantages; 1) to participate in a global
leadership training program, 2) to be a presenter in an international conference, and 3) to attend
overseas field surveys.
本論文では日本の国立高等専門学校(KOSEN)で試みた革新的な英語教育プロジェクトを紹介する。本プロジェクトは公式英語テストで選ばれた 45 名の仙台高専専攻科生を国際競争力の高いグローバルテクニカルリーダーとして育成することを狙いとしている。多国籍のワークショップを形成し東北大学大学院に在学する多くの留学生と一緒に、
グローバルなテクニカルイシューを論題とする英語プレゼンおよびディベートをトー179

タル２年間行うことによって、学生に英語討論に積極的に参加するための強い動機づけを提供する。プロジェクトの年間総合評価を通して選抜されると、以下のような更なるチャンスを得られることも学生モティベーション向上に寄与する; 1) 国際的なリーダ
ーシップトレーニングへの参加（2）国際会議での発表（3）海外フィールド調査に参加できる。

Keywords: global technical leader, academic-industrial cooperation, multinational
workshop, English presentation, English debate, global competitive advantage
キーワード：	
 グローバルテクニカルリーダー、産学連携、多国籍ワークショ
ップ、英語プレゼンテーション、英語ディベート、国際競争力	 	
 In Japan, when students are in middle or high school, English education focuses on thetesting of grammar and translation for popular high school or university entrance
examinations. The aim then changes to the study of English to achieve higher scores oninternational English tests such as TOEIC or TOEFL. The kinds of educational methods
employed by Japanese English teachers develop sufficient reading and translation skills,
but students do not generally learn to communicate verbally. The results of thisimbalance can be observed clearly in the case of topic discussions that requirenegotiation or debate over controversial issues. 	
 On the other hand, National Colleges of Technology in Japan (KOSEN) have avery clear goal to nurture practical, well-trained engineers in from 5 years to a
maximum of 7 years. It is therefore possible to work effectively in an industrial
company right after graduation. Since their educational purposes are mainly set on
technical knowledge, the students must study a special core curriculum very different
from other high schools and universities (see Figure 1).
Many Japanese companies already know and trust how KOSEN students aretechnically well-trained for industrial workplaces, so they offer annual recruiting of
employees directly related to KOSEN and, furthermore, KOSEN is proud of their nearly
100% students post-graduation employment rate. This rate includes the percentage ofstudents who matriculate to higher-level schools, such as universities or national
graduate schools, however, it is a remarkable rate in our modern economy which has
problems of high youth unemployment. These successful results come from perfectly
matching educational purpose and social needs.
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Figure 1. Educational system of Sendai KOSEN and GTL Project
The problem that KOSEN students encountered was a lack of practical English
communicative abilities with respect to both speaking and writing in international
workplaces, and they exhibited less interest in global issues because most of theirprevious English classes had focused on grammar and translation during the lower
grades, and TOEIC or daily conversations in the higher grades. Listening skills could be
developed through TOEIC or conversation classes, but most of the vocabulary they had
encountered related not to technical issues, but to economics or concerns of their daily
lives. Therefore, with this kind of educational background in KOSEN, the students facevery high hurdles to communicating in practical English in their professional
workplaces.
Until recently, KOSEN focused their educational goals upon nurturing notglobal leaders, but well-trained engineers for Japanese industrial companies. However,
our modern society requires more internationally-minded human resources, discussed in
more depth later in the paper.

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New challenge of Global Technical Leader (GTL) Development Project by Sendai
KOSEN
Educational Enrichment and Enhancement is provided through numerous experiencesthat challenge a student’s mind. Providing a responsive environment through the formof communication of the educator as well as the materials and facilities that areavailable are key tools to enhancing higher educational values. Likewise, English
Education is enhanced through providing a highly interactive and creative environment.
Our challenge to solve those problems above, described in this paper, is possible as away English teachers can enhance their English classrooms so that students will
maintain a challenging and stimulating environment at all times.
Thus, we designed this totally different style of English program as aninnovative educational challenge at KOSEN in order to foster both English
communicative abilities and competitive advantages through deep understanding of
global issues, because KOSEN must change the educational goal from nurturing
regional engineers who work only in Japan to developing global technical leaders, since
the Japanese Industrial Association already relies on a huge global network. Therefore,
many Japanese engineers are in a position to teach their technical knowledge andknow-how to other engineers in developing countries.
Also, we specially focused on KOSEN Advanced Course students, nurturing
English presentation or debate skills for global competitive advantages and fostering a
deep-understanding of global issues, specially designed for engineering students ofnational colleges of technology in Japan.
We called this challenge of fostering the Global Technical Leader (GTL)
Development Project (see Figure 2). This program aims to develop each student’s
global competitive advantages, targeting initially the acquisition of applicable English
communicative oral skills.
To stimulate student motivation for English communication, we employ astutors multinational graduate foreign students studying at the nearby national graduate
schools. These students are non-native English speakers, but are fairly fluent in English.
They lead 3-6 member group discussions on various global controversial issues. For
their final grades, students of the project gave English presentations using Power-Point
slides to increase interest for both presenters and the audience. Through the wholeprocess of this development project, the students developed their communicative skills
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at a remarkable pace, especially in preparing presentations and expressing opinions inEnglish. One unique feature of this project is that in the development stages, students
interact with international students from other countries, but they speak in English
during their preparation time throughout the classes. Another unique feature is adding
domestic field trips in English to various global companies located in Japan.

Figure 2. Global Technical Leader (GTL) Development Project Outline
Environmental crisis requires focusing global concerns on educational goals
Another aspect to bear in mind is that many Japanese companies, industrial productmanufacturers especially, have grown to be remarkable global companies, so they have
moved their branches or factories out of Japan. At the same time that industrial
development supports our modern convenient lifestyle, we are facing an enormous
environmental crisis including features such as climate change, desertification, acid rain,
and resource exhaustion. We have to find a solution across national borders.
The blueprints for high-level educational goals of many countries are now
changing their focus to international cooperation to find common solutions with better183

understanding about responsibilities. Therefore, developing both English
communicative abilities and also a global mind is very important in order to find better
solutions. This has become one of the top priorities of our educational responsibility toraise reliable social participants for sustainability, based on the three concepts: social
values, environmental issues, and economic crisis. See Figure 3 below.
Furthermore, this urgent social requirement has resulted in higher recruiting
standards for workplaces, including Japanese major industrial manufacturers, so that ahigher demands have been placed on their employees to have strong English
communicative abilities for presentations, and debates or negotiations, especially withrespect to communicating their knowledge on global concerns.
Therefore, the English educational goal in KOSEN must change to develop
human resources able to meet the strong social expectations above, applying them to
KOSEN students, but it is nearly impossible to immediately change the teaching styleand materials for classes taught by Japanese English teachers, especially since they are
not used to professionally teaching global issue debating or presentations in English. So
we formed the academic- industrial cooperation network.

Figure 3. GTL multinational workshops on global issues
One of the most effective language teaching methods is building humanrelations in the target language, and students’ motivation to learn becomes higher when184

they learn something interesting from their teachers and peers. We organized for tutors
who are almost the same age as our students, but are professional foreign students who
exchange opinions or give presentations in English. Moreover, these students areknowledgable about global sustainable issues since they all belong to the International
Post-Graduate Program in Human Security, at Tohoku University, studying for amasters or doctorate-level degree. This is a recent program aiming towards sustainable
societies and conducted by the 4 graduate schools teaching 4 major issues: humansecurity and environment, human security and society, public health sciences for humansecurity, and food and agriculture for human security. The diversity of tutors’
nationalities and research areas ensure that GTL students are exposed to sufficientknowledge and develop a great interest through each multinational workshop with tutors
as per the schedule illustrated in Table 1. Examples of discussion topics and students’opinions can be found in Appendix 1.
There are three types of Multinational workshops: English presentations, group
discussions, and fieldwork. All topics of each activity are closely related to global
issues and sustainability. Table 1 shows the annual GTL program details of the firstbusiness year, 2010 and will assist your understanding about the whole process of thisproject to develop the global competitive abilities of GTL students.
Conclusion
This paper describes the introduction of the GTL Project in 2010 and progress was
described. There was evidence of highly remarkable improvement of the students’motivation and enhanced presentation abilities during the First GTL English
Presentation Contest hosted by Sendai KOSEN, Hirose Campus in December 2010 toselect participants for the overseas field survey. There was a sense of pleasure andsurprise on the part of the students to become so interested in the multinational
discussions on various global issues, and enjoyment of the strong trust built among GTL
members, especially between the students and the foreign tutors.
When the multiple disasters unfolded on and after March 11, 2011, however,
we faced the difficulty of handling an overseas survey that had been planned for March
22-26, 2011. The whole schedule was cancelled due to continuing strong aftershocks.
We could at last start the new semester of 2011 in May and rushed into the second yearof the GTL project program with much anxiety, but the students still showed a strong185

willingness to join the program and to exchange their opinions very seriously withtutors about nuclear power generation systems under the theme of energy issues.
This paper maintains that the unique support system developed in the main school inJapan can be used while learning global leadership education in domestic universities,
international universities, and technical colleges.
Table 1. The annual schedule of 2010 GTL programs

The global technical leadership development project, conscious of global
issues and including the extension of English abilities, supports KOSEN education indeveloping richer human resources with global competitive advantages of benefit to186international business and to academia over the coming generations and aspiring
towards sustainable development.
BiodataKeunyoung Pak, Kazunori Fukuchi, Motoko Takeuchi, Kiyoshi Iida, and Yoshikatsu
Kubota teach English at the Sendai National College of Technology (Sendai KOSEN)
Motomu Takeshige, a vice president of SNCT, teaches Information System
Engineering.
Atsuko Shigihara is a researcher of GTL Project at Sendai KOSEN.
Mika Owada was an assistant of GTL Project and now works for JICA.
Dinil Pushpalal and Peter John Wanner teach English & Human Security Issues at theGraduate School of International Cultural Studies, Tohoku University.
Reference
Pak, K. (2011). Annual Report of Global Technical Leader Development Project.
Sendai: Sendai National College of Technology

187

Appendix 1. Discussion topics and students’ opinions
Examples of student opinion on global issues 	
  	
  	
  	
  （Nov.10th,2010）
Multinational Workshop Report (1)* Share your opinions about the following four different global issues on environment,
energy, resources and social responsibilities with multinational members.

1. Global Warming
In 1990, USA emitted 36.1% of world carbon dioxide emission. And other advanced
countries followed USA such as EU 24.2%, Russia 17.4%, and Japan 8.5%. As thematter of fact, 70% of the CO2 emission was from U.S., EU and Japan at that time.
That’s why Conference of Parties(COP3) was held and Kyoto Protocol fixed numeral
target on the reduction of CO2 emission In 1997, as much as Japan - 6%, USA - 7%,
EU - 8%.
But after COP3, some developing countries such as China and India also joined
those huge CO2 emission countries. Now, China emitted more CO2 than USA but they
don’t have any duty to cut their CO2 emission. What do you think about it? And what
can we do for it as future global technical leaders?
OPINIONS ① “We, advanced countries have more responsibilities.”I think this is the serious problem. But I think developing countries don’t haveto worry about the problem because it is caused by advanced countries. One of thesolutions I think is that we provide the environmental technologies to developing
countries. And as soon as possible, we can change developing countries toadvanced countries. Next, every advanced country (the number will be larger thanthe past) gets along with each other. Then we all try to solve the problem withhigh technology. (Shinsuke)We should not avoid the responsibility from Kyoto Protocol. So we should
cooperate with neighboring countries. I think this neighboring connection must be
involved some developing countries and advanced countries. My idea suggests theneighboring countries develop the technology hand in hand. (Yuki)

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

I think environmental problems often come with dynamic economic growth.
We cannot simply blame China because we had been emitting huge amount of
CO2 before them. The best way is to provide some alternative ways other thanemitting CO2, something like nuclear power, a hybrid car and so on. (Takumi)

OPINIONS ② “Developing countries also have responsibilities.”I think that China also should reduce their CO2 emission. We should develop
technology more environment-friendly than now (e.g. Energy which doesn’t emit
CO2, electromobile vehicles, etc.) (Shin)

The countries which have the great amount of carbon dioxide emission have
responsibilities for trying to reduce it. And one of the things we can do is to use
clean energy more and more. (Motoki)Of course, we (advanced countries) should reduce emission of CO2. And I thinkdeveloping countries should reduce, too. Especially, China and India are huge CO2
emission countries. We should give developing countries our technology of
reducing CO2. (Tatsuaki)

OPINIONS ③ More interesting and distinguished commentsI think that although they are developing countries, should reduce CO2 emission.
We should think our living standards down for environment on the earth. As the
GTL project, we must understand the present situation on CO2 emission anddevelop expression skills to appeal our understanding to other people. (Takanori)We should reduce CO2 emission and developing countries should reduce, too. So
we should develop CO2 reduction technologies such as “Clean coal technology”.
And we should give developing countries CO2 reduction technology.
(Yuta, Takumi, Tatsuaki)I think that many countries are doing something wrong on their present national
policies against carbon dioxide emission. Because they don’t try to use the merit ofa new technology. So, I think it is important that advanced countries support thetechnology related to CO2 reduction to developing countries.	
  (Saki)

2. Energy Supply in Japan and Middle East Countries

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The self sufficient rate of energy supply in Japan is 4%. We import most of the power
generation resources such as coal, oil and natural gas. That’s why the concept of“best-mix approach of power sources” has been promoted in Japan. (“Best-mix of
power sources” means balanced use of various kinds of power sources.)
In this approach, nuclear power generation is becoming a concern in Japan as oneof the ideal and main future power sources from its stable fuel supply, low prices andenvironmental effect on CO2 emission reduction but it still has the big problem ofendless radiation issues and waste disposal treatment process.
Do you think we need to increase nuclear power generation to decrease the use offossil fuel because of its high CO2 emission?
OPINIONS ① “Yes, we need to promote nuclear energy.”Yes, we do. Because nuclear power generation can generate huge energy, anddoesn’t emit CO2. Of course, it has some problems about safety, the radiation wasteor etc….
But we still think nuclear energy is better than using fossil fuels. We should use
nuclear power until finding new ways of power generation. (Yuta, Takumi,
Tatsuaki)Yes, I do. Nuclear electric power generation tends to be thought dangerous but it
is safe enough after passing some processes. And I think the government must
explain about nuclear power generation more and get understanding andcooperation. (Takanori)I think we need to increase nuclear power generation. Because it generates more
power and emits lower CO2 emission than using fossil fuel. But it is dangerous leakof radioactivity. We should handle it carefully. (Takaaki)

OPINIONS ② “It is hard to answer.”I partly agree with this idea because nuclear power generation is dangerous to
use uranium. But, if an accident occurs, we might be exposed to radiation. On theother hand, it can produce very big energy. So, increasing nuclear power seems to
be a good way for stable energy support. (Yoshinobu)

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In contrast, Middle East countries such as Saudi Arabia are changing their fuel export
from oil to solar energy. And Japanese major companies, SHARP and KYOSELA, arein the top place to produce and sell solar power generation equipment and also otherJapanese construction companies joined to build their huge power plants. What do you
think the cause of difficulty to change power sources in Japan is?
OPINIONS ③ More interesting and distinguished commentsMiddle East countries such as Saudi Arabia having much oil as fossil fuelresources are suitable for the development of clean energy because the daylight
hours are long. Also, because the country is large, it can be concerned with thewind power development as one of plural clean energies.

Japan depends on importing most of energy resources. In addition, the daylight
hours are short, and clean energies such as the wind power or the solar power are
not usable effectively because the country in not large. Therefore, we should use
the energy such as terrestrial heat or wave force. (Ryo)Japan relies on nuclear and thermal power to generate most of domestic electric
power: But these energies are limited. And nuclear power is very dangerous.
Whereas clean energy like solar power is safe and it doesn’t have limited. But I
guess solar power is not enough to make up for domestic electric power. I propose
to change clean energy for domestic electric power in a phased manner. (Shuya)I suggest three main reasons. First, Japanese daytime is too short. Second,
Japanese amount of sunlight is not enough. Third, other power sources are more
efficient compared with solar power in Japan. (Masato)We don’t have enough land to build those solar power generation facilities. Solar
power depends on the weather so much in Japan. It costs high to set up solar panels
for our own houses. Many problems exist. I think it’s difficult to change powersources. (Yoshinobu)

3. Food and Water
Japan imports a lot of food products from many other countries all around the world. To
grow these agricultural products, a great amount of water is used in export countries.
For example, one bowl of “gyu-don” needs two tons of water. On the other hand, in

191

export countries, water shortage and desertification became the most serious problems.
How can we live all together in peace and harmony?
OPINIONS：More interesting and distinguished comments
Firstly, we should have a clear perception of the problem because many people
don’t know as the matter of fact. Second, Japan doesn’t stop import a lot of foodproducts from many other countries. But Japan considers a plan for volume of“importing food”. In addition, Japanese country and company go round prevent
desertification. (Saki)My idea has two points. First, we can get on the development of biotechnology.
For example, the banana opened up a like the cactus that can grow without hugewater in Philippines. Second, when Japan imports a lot of foods, products frommany other countries, Japan can exports Japanese water. So, Japan has much waterthat is very safe to drink and to water the garden and farm goods. That is Japan
trade imports for exporting water. (Yuki)

I think that it is necessary to increase production in own country. We should
carry out the work which reduces the number of food discarded. We need todevelop the system which provides the country under water shortage. And it is also
useful to develop food which withstands long. (Shin)

We have two main suggestions. First, Japanese government should make a policythat supports farmer food production. Second, Japan should give the importcountries the technique of making water and solution for serious problems. (Yuta,
Takumi, Tatsuaki)

4. Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) means each company’s responsibility to society.
All companies are required to make their final decisions with considering the requests
by stakeholders (including customers, investors and society). Since ecologicalconsciousness has been growing, CSR is now one of the important factors which affectthe social reputation and responsibility. What kind of idea do you have on CRS for yourfuture duty as global technical leaders?

192

OPINIONS：Interesting and distinguished comments onlyWe need to be conscious of CSR. Sometimes companies ignore it to make moremoney. They think benefit and CSR are tradeoff. I partly agree it. But we have to
break its concept by using our technologies as global technical leaders. (Tomonori)One important thing is not to product too much production. If people don’t needthose products, those are thrown away. We must reduce too much things. Otherwise,
many resources became impaired. This is very dangerous for our future on existing
limited resource on the earth. And too much products in advanced countries areneeded by developing countries. For example, the used car in Japan is needed bysome developing countries (India, Thai, etc.). We should make the cycle of the loopwith each country to reduce products. (Yuki)

This international cooperation is important to the world. And global technicalleaders have to communicate with many foreigners in various companies aroundthe world. So we need to inform them about ecological consciousness. (Saki)I think CSR is nothing but just usual thing that companies should be aware of.
They exist for people after all, I believe. To talk with stakeholders is the crucial partof their responsibility. (Takumi)

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Python in the Class – Tools to help you teach fluency
Malcolm Prentice
Kanagawa University
Reference Data:
Prentice, M. (2012). Python in the Class – Tools to help you teach fluency. In K.
Bradford-Watts, R. Chartrand, & E. Skier (Eds.), The 2011 Pan-SIG Conference
Proceedings. Matsumoto: JALT.
Abstract
This article describes two cross-platform computer scripts – one written to help simplify the
vocabulary in a text for classroom use and one to extract information from a corpus of student
writing – and outlines their relevance for fluency. The resources used to create these scripts –the programming language Python and the Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK) – are thenintroduced. Throughout, it is argued that teachers who deal with large amounts of text formaterials design or needs analysis can benefit from learning how to use these or similar tools,
for when there is no existing program or the existing program is not quite right. Everything
described is free to download, use and adapt.
本研究は、まずＯＳに関係なく使えるパソコンのクロスプラットフォームのスクリプ
トを２つ作成した。１つはクラスで使うテキストのボキャブラリーを平易なものに書き換えるスクリプト、もう１つは筆者のライティングのクラスで生徒が実際に書いたエッセイの情報から作成したコーパスのスクリプトである。それらが fluency(流暢性)にどのように関連しているのか考察する。これらのスクリプトを作成するにあたり使用したリソースは、プログラミング言語の	  っ Python と NLTK(Natural Language
Toolkit)である。クラスで使う資料作成のために膨大な数の語彙を扱い、生徒のニーズを分析する教師にとって、これらのプログラミング言語やそれと似たプログラムの使い方を学ぶ事は利益になる。 どのプログラムを使用するかは問題ではない。上に挙げたプログラムは無料でダウンロードすることができる。それらのプログラムを自分で使いやすいように変更して使用することは有益である事を提案したい。

194

Keywords: CALL, Corpus, Scripts
Teachers, materials writers, and course designers sometimes need to use computer
programs for processing text – to handle concordances, collocations, word lists, student
corpora, and so on. However, as the needs of each teacher vary, existing programs canhave small issues and gaps when applied to a specific task. When this happens, the user
could contact the program’s designer and hope for a future revision, but they are more
likely just to tolerate the issues. For some things a teacher might want to do, anappropriate tool may not yet exist.
Compare this to textbooks, which can also have small issues and gaps whenapplied to a specific classroom, and which (for some ESP target contexts) may not exist.
In this situation, rather than contacting the publisher or tolerating the problem, teachers
can just start writing their own worksheets.

This article aims to convince readers thatknowing the basics of a programming language can give teachers the option of writing
the computer version of a worksheet - a “script” - if none of the available programs arequite right, or if none can be found for the task.
The point is illustrated below using two example scripts, chosen for theirrelevance to the conference theme of fluency, which it is hoped readers find useful inand of themselves. The scripts are described in the following two sections, then the final
section argues that learning to write a script is an approachable task which can give aclearer understanding of words like “collocation” or “sentence” while increasingtransparency and control in research.
Instructions for downloading the scripts are given, and everything mentioned isfree to use, modify, and share. To use these scripts, Windows users will need to install
two other free resources: the programming language Python (http://www.python.org)
and the Natural Language Toolkit (http://www.nltk.org). Mac and Linux users need
only install the Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK), as their systems come with Python
installed.
Example Script 1: Text Grader
Teachers and material writers sometimes need to write or adapt text to a certain readinglevel - for use in class, in entrance exams or in graded readers. The relevance of gradedtext for the conference theme (fluency) is its use in extensive reading or listening, as
195

large amounts of level-appropriate message-focused practice are important fordeveloping fluency (Nation, 2006; Dörnyei, 2009).
An important step in grading texts is limiting the vocabulary in some way,
which is the purpose of this first script. I found, when co-editing graded texts with anexperienced Japanese teacher of English, that a native speaker’s intuitive sense of aword’s frequency is not a particularly good measure of which words a Japanese student
can be expected to know. Looking for a more systematic approach, threevocabulary-profiling tools were tried - Range, LexTutor and AntWordProfiler – but each
had issues when applied to this task. The remainder of this section outlines the problems
encountered and describes a script written to combine the advantages of the three tools
while attempting to avoid the issues.
Each of the three existing tools can mark a text to indicate whether each word is
or is not in a set of given word frequency lists. All three can be set to grade vocabulary
according to whether it comes from the first or second thousand word families on the
General Service List (West, 1953) or from the Academic Word List (Coxhead, 2000).
Each tool draws on the same set of lists, originally created for the first of the tools - see<www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/staff/paul-nation.aspx> for details. While this four-level split(GSL1, GSL2, AWL, offlist) is not as fine-grained as that offered by commercial
graded reading texts, highlighting words by level does give a better idea than instinct
alone of which words need attention in editing. The split may not be especially usefulfor junior high school students still working their way through GSL1 level words, but it
is appropriate for the target context—university English majors who tested well on the
GSL level words but are still working on the AWL. Each tool also has an option orversion that instead allows users to mark the text using lists taken by Nation (2006)
from the British National Corpus.
The first tool tried was Range (<www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/staff/paul-nation.aspx>),
as it is the best-known tool for grading vocabulary. Unfortunately it is designed foranalysis rather than editing - it capitalizes the text and inserts the grades as numbers,
making the results difficult to edit and use. There is no Mac version, and non-ANSI(non-Windows) text files have encoding problems—for example quotemarks (“”) are
misread as strange character strings (¬Äì). However, one very useful feature of Range
missing from the two programs described below is the filter list—the ability to define alist of tokens to be excluded from marking, a feature which makes the target (low196frequency words to be considered for replacement) more visible. In Range, the provided
list contains names, but it might also include technical vocabulary that has been taught
in class and that students are expected to know.
The second tool tried was the website Lextutor (<www.lextutor.ca/>). A tool
available on this site accepts text pasted into a box on the page, then highlights thewords in various colors by GSL/AWL or BNC level. This is designed for editing(highlighting on the right, editing box on the left), and works quite well. However, theediting function has a stated limit of 2000 words and there is no filter list. The fact thatit requires Internet access might itself be an issue for some, and using it for high-stakes
exam texts would be unwise. Also, 21 different BNC lists are marked and the colors
used can get confusing – for example BNC lists 5, 9, 12, and 16 are all marked invarious shades of pink.
Finally, AntWordProfiler (<www.antlab.sci.waseda.ac.jp/software.html>) was
tried. This tool was almost perfect, with clear highlighting and the ability to directly edit
the marked text—in the end, this program was used under Windows to help grade thefirst text that needed to be simplified. However, there were still issues—no filter list,
some encoding issues, and the Mac version (1.200m) kept crashing on longer texts.
The problems described above are not fatal, and most are only problems becauseof the author’s choice of operating system. However, for regular use a tool should
preferably do exactly what its user wants. In this case, the requirements were for a crossplatform, encoding-safe, offline-available tool for inline editing of opened, pasted or
typed-in texts of any length. The tool should ignore web addresses (some of the tools
above count “com” and “http” as words), use a filter list and maybe later have a few
extra features. In other words, it should ideally be a worksheet written for the purpose
rather than someone else’s textbook.
The solution is hosted at <code.google.com/p/malc-text-grader/> and is free todownload. It does everything in the list of requirements above, and recent versions haveadded extra features such as readability indices, information on average sentence length,
and collocation tools.
The program is still in development and there remain issues to solve. None ofthese prevent the program from working as intended, but users might want to makesome changes. For example, as mentioned above, the lists used are appropriate foruniversity English majors, but not if a more detailed split of the first thousand-word197

families is needed. The benefit of open-source software licensing is that everyone is free
to use the script as a starting point, modify the functionality or change the lists used.
The final section of this article will argue that doing so is not an impossible task, and go
into more detail about the advantages of open-source software. The next section first
gives one more example.
Example Script 2: First Five Words
A colleague wanted to know how students in his writing class were starting theirsentences, and to compare their language choices with those of more advanced learners.
He needed an alternative to hand-compiling a list of the first words of each sentence in
90 essays, and because no tool known could do this, the author offered to write one. It isavailable at <code.google.com/p/first-five-words/>
The script processes around 100 essays/second, producing three filtered CSV
files for 3- 4- and 5-gram sentence starters (where “gram” is defined as any token
including punctuation). The methodology and results are described in detail elsewhere(Prentice, 2012), but here briefly are the top five 3-gram and 5-gram sentence startersfrom two essay collections.

Top 3-grams

Top 5-grams

For example ,On the other hand ,In addition ,First of all , I

However , I

Let freedom ring from the

Of course ,There are a lot of

When I wasThis summer , I went

Table 1: Top 3- and 5-gram sentence starters from 90 prize-winning Japanese
university essays currently comprising the Near Peer Student Competition (NPSC)
corpus (see Prentice, 2012)

Top Uppsala 3-grams

Top Uppsala 5-grams

I think thatIn this essay I will

I do notOn the other hand ,198

I believe that

It was what they had

When it comes

As a matter of fact

It is notWhen it comes to reading

Table 2: Top 3- and 5-gram sentence starters from Uppsala Student English corpus(Axelsson & Berglund [Eds.], 2001)
The relevance to fluency is that sentence starters like “As a matter of fact” are aform of formulaic sequence. These re-usable chunks of language, retrieved as wholes
without the overhead of processing individual words into utterances, are linked toincreased speech fluency (Wray, 2002; Segalowitz, 2010), and while I can find no direct
evidence it seems reasonable that the same applies to writing. Boers, et. al. (2006) foundthat formulaic language can be learned through enhanced exposure, but as Shin andNation (2008) suggest in their study of collocations, the most common word
combinations may be worth explicit learning and teaching. The top ten 3-grams fromthe essays above start one in twenty of the 3,500 Japanese student sentences and one in
fifty of the 54,000 Uppsala student sentences (spread across a much wider variety ofgenres), and so may well be worth having attention drawn to them in a writing class.
Frequency alone is not a very good definition of formulaicity (Wray, 2002; Read
& Nation, 2004) - for example combinations like “According to NAME, the” areoverlooked because the name changes each time. Also, in small corpora like thoseabove, some phrases can be pushed into a high rank by a whole class doing the same
essay topic (“It was what they had”) or repetition for emphasis in a single essay (“Letfreedom ring from the”). However, frequency is a necessary start, and a definite
improvement over analyzing hundreds of sentence fragments by hand.
There are three practical applications: comparing students’ progress in using
taught language by comparing essays from the beginning and end of a course,
identifying target language in a native or advanced learner corpus, and comparing
student with target corpora as part of a needs analysis.
There are a number of reasons why using a Python script to do this kind of task
is a good idea—above all, flexibility for individual needs. Imagine a teacher who wants
a class-specific list of target phrases—for example to include only essays tagged asformal in a target corpus, and filter out results that are on a list of phrases already taught.

199

Imagine this teacher wanted to repeat the process with 3-4 different genres per semester
per writing class. By hand this would involve an impractical amount of file shufflingand list sorting, but adapting the “First Five Words” script to do it would take a few newlines of code and then about five minutes for each new search.
With the first script described above (malc-text-grader.py) the aim was to showthat there is an alternative to simply tolerating the issues that come with using tools
designed by others. Here the aim is to show that there is also an alternative when no tool
exists.
“OK, maybe it is useful. But I'm not a programmer!”
All a beginner really needs to know is how to install a program and how to type - therest is about learning a language. Who better to do that than the readers of this article,
who are almost certainly experienced language teachers and learners?
Conclusion
If teachers need to analyze a large amount of text but no tool exists, or if a tool exists
but is not quite what is wanted, then taking the time to learn the basics of Python and
NLTK will pay off in terms of transparency, control, and a more explicit understandingof language. The tools created can help with research, material creation, course design,and needs analysis in a range of areas, including fluency.
Biodata
Malcolm Prentice is an Associate Professor in Kanagawa University, with researchinterests in CALL, Teacher Development, and the role of memory in language
acquisition.
References
Axelsson, M.W., & Berglund, Y. [Eds.] (2001). The Uppsala Student English Corpus(USE): 1,489 essays written by 440 mostly Swedish university students of English.
Retrieved from <http://ota.ahds.ac.uk/headers/2457.xml>.
Boers, F., Eyckmans, J., Kappel, J., Stengers, H., & Demecheleer, M. (2006). Formulaic
sequences and perceived oral proficiency: putting a Lexical Approach to the test.
Language Teaching Research, 10, 245-261.
Coxhead, A. (2000). A new academic word list. TESOL Quarterly, 34, 213–238.
200

Dörnyei, Z. (2009). The Psychology of Second Language Acquisition. Oxford:OUP.
Nation, P. (2006). How large a vocabulary is needed for reading and listening? The
Canadian Modern Language Review, 63, 59-82.
Prentice, M. (2012). A method for extracting information from a student corpus using
Python and the Natural Language Toolkit. Studies in Language (神奈川大学 言語研究), 34. Available: <klibredb.lib.kanagawa-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/10487/10252/1/言語研究 No.34-03.pdf>.
Read, J., & Nation, P. (2004). Measurement of formulaic sequences. In N. Schmitt (Ed.),
Formulaic Sequences, (pp. 23-35). Amsterdam: John Benjamin.
Segalowitz, N. (2010). Cognitive Bases of Second Language Fluency. New York:
Routledge.
Shin, D., & Nation, P. (2008). Beyond single words: the most frequent collocations in
spoken English. ELT Journal, 62(4), 339-348.
West, M. (1953). A General Service List of English Words. London: Longman.
Wray, A. (2002). Formulaic Language and the Lexicon. Cambridge: CUP.

201

Prepared presentations improve student sense of potential for progress

Ryan Richardson
Kansai University, Department of Psychology
Reference Data:
Richardson, R. (2012). Prepared presentations improve student sense of potential for
progress. In K. Bradford-Watts, R. Chartrand, & E. Skier (Eds.), The 2011 Pan-SIG
Conference Proceedings. Matsumoto: JALT.

Abstract
This paper examines the findings of an initial qualitative study into how students
perceive their achievement and progress in learning English following the conclusion ofa year long, once a week course focusing on writing and presentation. The findingspresented examine students' self reported perceptions of changes in various aspects of
their understanding of and ability to use English for classwork and communication in amore general sense. Though this is very much a preliminary study, the findings suggestthat some lower level students may find the preparation of presentations helpful ingetting beyond a reluctance to speak and their views of English being beyond theirability.
本論文は、通年の週 1 回のライティングやプレゼンテーションに重点を置いた授業の結果から、学生が英語学習における成果や進歩をいかに理解しているかについての初期の研究成果を述べている。この研究結果は授業での取組みのための英語を使用する能力と、より一般的な意味でのコミュニケーションにおける彼らの理解力の様々な側面での変化を学生が自らの認識を評価したものを示したものである。しかしこれは非常に準備段階の研究である。この研究結果は、英語を話すことにあまり乗り気でなかったり、英語は自らの能力を越えているという見解を持っていたりする低いレベルの学生たちに役立つプレゼンテーションの準備を見出せるであろうことを提案している。

Keywords: Presentations, writing, lower achieving students, student confidence,
empowerment

202

That language learners may take very different paths to accomplishing their language
learning goals or requirements is apparent when a student or teacher reflects on theirclassroom experiences. Different individuals in the same class often appear to progress
at very different rates. Nonetheless, teachers and students often seem to behave as
though this is some sort of anomaly reflecting a personal failing on the part of thosefalling behind and that actually all should progress together as a group along a path set
by the materials and activities used in class. After having studied in even the most basic
classes together for a year or so however, students begin to become arranged into a kindof achievement based hierarchy—some students move ahead of others while some fallbehind. For whatever reason or reasons these different achievement levels have formed,
the levels will likely stay in place for long periods if not their whole learning career(Holt, 1984; MacIntyre, Noels, & Clement, 1997; Plucker, et al., 2004; Trautwein,
Ludtke, Marsh, Koller, & Baumert, 2006). By the time university level English
language learners in Japan matriculate, they have become more or less set in theirrespective tier of learners likely based on their past performance, streaming and grading
and other more personal issues (Dörnyei, 2005). They often seem to accept this as theirproper ability level and are more or less resigned to staying in that artificial, often
self-perpetuating, level. In order to counteract this acceptance of different achievement
expectation tiers, instructors of those in the lower achieving tiers should endeavor tofind a way to help the students progress to a level more in line with those on a higher
achieving path.
Dörnyei (2005) shows that there are likely many causes of student
achievement differences, but one point that seems apparent is that different levels ofstudents appear to have different views of the language being studied. Higher level
learners appear to have achieved a willingness to use the language more freely forcommunication. Whatever the reasons for the higher achievers' success, the lower level
learners, by the time they reach the university level, seem to view the language learning
environment differently. Higher level classes generally have been shown in initialstudies to view communicative activities more positively than lower level classes who
generally view more structured activities such as grammar study, more positively (SeeBrown, 2009; Horwitz, 1988; & Richardson, 2011). This suggests that getting students
to a point where they feel more positive about using the target language incommunicative based activities will certainly be desirable.
203Getting students to the point where they feel more comfortable using thetarget language for communication has long been a key point for teachers though it is
not always recognized as such (Liu & Littlewood, 1998). Teachers often complain of
student reluctance to speak or participate in class activities. Informal discussions on the
topic have offered many theories as to why Japanese students don't talk as much as theteacher feels is appropriate, including:the students are lazy or spoiled

the school system prepares students for top-down instruction and therefore passive
learningclasses where few or no students fail cause complacency

lack of recognizable value for young learners in a largely monolingual country

Though any, or in fact all, of these reasons may be the cause in particular cases, what
seems to be less frequently suggested is that some lower achieving students are notaccustomed to, or comfortable, speaking without a set pattern for practice. This may beless connected to student achievement or experience with discussion or conversation
based activities than one might expect but is likely connected to the learners' perceptionof their own competence in the language in question being used and learned (MacIntyre,
Noels, & Clement, 1997). Learner perception of their own competence appears to be, inat least some cases, a self-fulfilling notion, but may be overcome with the rightcombination of activities to help learners overcome their own self-limiting concepts.
BackgroundThe classes that provided the data for this study were two sections in the second of twoconsecutive years of first year writing and presentation classes at a major private
university in central Japan. The two classes were held third and fourth periods on
Mondays during the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 school years. The basic requirements forthese classes were vaguely set by the College of Letters though the particular methodsby which each class would meet the requirements were to be decided by the instructor.
The streamed classes of roughly 32-35 students were the 16th and 17th of around 30
classes, with scores of roughly 350 to 380 on the institutional form of the TOEIC test
administered to students upon entrance to the university.
The classes were required for each student within the department so the204students were not necessarily eager to take part in the class, although a small number
reported high motivation to improve their English, both in face to face discussions andin writing at different points during the class. Many others, however, reported areluctance to speak and a low motivation to study English overall. Some also reported
having a bad image of English, prior to the discovery of the positive results that led tothe implementation of this study. Many of the students reported having such a negative
image of English following high school that they had chosen a different primarylanguage of study, such as Spanish, Chinese, Korean, French, or Italian.
In the classes themselves there was a rather aggressive curriculum planned
according to the instructor's somewhat literal understanding of the course requirements.
As these classes were described as writing and presentation classes, it was decided thatstudents would prepare written scripts of presentations each week for homework andthen give the presentations to small groups of students in class the following week.
During the 15-week semester, students were required to prepare 10 presentations withthe first given in class in the second week. The presentations for the first half of thesemester had no assigned time or word requirements though the script was graded on
the simple scale of 100% for satisfactory completing, 50% for limited effort, and 0% forlittle or no effort. In the giving of the presentations students worked generally in groupsof 3 or 4 which resulted in approximately 8-10 presentations being given at any one
time. The presentation scripts, the student essays essentially, themselves were collectedeach class and returned generally the next class, with corrections of mistakes suggested
though students understood that English was not a part of the rather simple grading
criteria mentioned above.
The final 3 classes of each semester were devoted to final presentations. In thefirst semester these presentations were PowerPoint or some other comparable computer
software based presentations. Each student was required to give a 3-5 minutepresentation based either on a re-write of one of the previous presentations they had
given during the semester or an original presentation. Presentions were graded on suchaspects as body language, voice, overall content, time requirement, and visual aids. In
the second semester, students gave poster presentations 5-7 minutes in length. Up to 8
students presented at a time, with each presenter giving their presentation a minimum offour times.
In the final class each semester, the students were required to turn in a205

portfolio of their completed work. As a part of their portfolio they were required to
re-write three of their presentations, one of which could also be used as their final
presentation if they so chose. The re-written version was expected to show
improvements in grammatical features and to have been lengthened, although grading
was again based on the amount of work that was apparent, rather than on the correctnessof the English used. Also included in the final portfolio was the student’s response to an
open-ended question requiring students to comment on how they felt they had improved,
as well as how they felt they could and would like to improve in the future.
Data collection and summary
The data used for this initial study were taken from the student portfolios that wereturned in at the end of the second year of these classes. The primary data point came in
the form of the open-ended question for which students were to report on their feelingsof their own progress. As this was not initially intended as research of any kind, theopen-ended questions created a difficulty for systematic analysis of the data. When theportfolios were collected, they were divided into four groups, as shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Classification of comments in open-ended question about progress
Classification
Focus of comments1
Not commenting adequately on own progress in any way
2
Talking about only their goals for the future
3
Focusing on their continuing problems
4
Discussing an improved sense of their ability to use English in a variety of ways
The fourth group was the largest, with 25 students.
The comments provided in the responses were again divided into 3 basic areas:
overcoming difficulty, increased confidence, and personal empowerment. Brief
examples of student comments, paraphrased or edited to correct mistakes or limit theability to identify individual students, illustrate the discussion below. An example of acomment that reflects a sense of progress in overcoming difficulty is “When I started
this class it was difficult to write my ideas... but after doing it each week I got a lot
better.” Other students indicated an increased level of confidence using English, such as
the student who wrote “I was always shy speaking English, but I gained confidence
after speaking each week.” Some students report feelings that reflect changes inpersonal empowerment, as in this comment, “Being able to prepare my speech gave me
206

a chance to speak my ideas more clearly,” or another example from a student (which
may indicate another concept but which was finally included in the personal
empowerment category) being, “I didn't like English before but now I really think
English is fun.”Discussion
At the outset of this discussion a few caveats indicating the limitations of the study
should be brought forward. The study is too small to be viewed as in any way
conclusive or broadly generalizable. Instead this initial study may be seen as somethingof a starting point for future research in this area. A causative relationship between thepractices discussed here and the results of the student comment sheets could not beestablished at this level of research but the two factors do appear to correlate over thetwo years that the classes were taught. Other research factors such as control groups
should be introduced, and more specific and stringent forms of questions or otherinvestigative tools need to be included to strengthen the validity and reliability of thefindings. Discussions and the initial analysis of similar classes suggest that suchresearch may well support the initial results presented here.
Having acknowledged these caveats, it is likely that these results indicate arather counterintuitive fact that may help teachers of students otherwise reluctant tospeak in classes. Students gain confidence in their speaking by having time to prepare
their presentations (Liu & Littlewood, 1998). Although this may be considered less thanideal because students spend a lot of time reading, especially early in the course, it islikely beneficial for students of lower to middle levels who may be more reluctant tospeak as a result of their perception of themselves as being less competent in the target
language (MacIntyre, Noels, & Clement, 1997). The presentation-essay assignments
were creative works in that the written part of their presentation was in their own words,
albeit at a much slower pace than a discussion might be. This type of assignment gavethe learners numerous opportunities to organize and prepare their thoughts in the second
language. This seems to have given the least confident among them a sense of security,
one that many second language classes requiring them to speak simply don't provide.
For example, students report taking time to check grammar and vocabulary whileworking on the written part of the assignment, and this made them more comfortable
when speaking.
207

This type of class also likely increases in-class speaking time overall. As mostteachers will likely attest, students are hesitant to speak when it is required that they use
only the second language. Less confident students can be expected to speak even lessthan other students. Students having organized their thoughts ahead of time changes
these lower-to-mid level classes from those likely to have at worst a smattering ofEnglish conversations to a situation in which many students are expressing their own
thoughts for 3-5 minutes per student and listening to other students speak English eachclass as well. Other in-class speaking activities also appear to increase as the course
goes on, although a more systematic study of this aspect of the class is necessary inorder to confirm this observation.
Students find the activities beneficial and many view them positively in theend. By the end of the year, many, although certainly not all, students view thepresentations and writing assignments positively, as indicated in their portfolio
comments. Students recognize the fact that they are able to write much longer
presentation scripts in much less time by the end of the year and the number ofgrammatical and lexical errors decreases. As students see this happening, partly due tothe requirement for them to keep their homework assignments for the entire semester inorder to complete the portfolio requirement, they frequently report a sense ofaccomplishment and progress which may be lacking in a discussion class. The
requirement for each student to speak in every class exposes students to the activity of
speaking, which they may have been able to more or less avoid in other classes. From
repeated exposure to preparation for discussing their thoughts and feelings on topics,
many students achieve a sense of comfort in speaking English which they report neverbefore having felt in an English class.
Conclusion
This initial analysis provides an introductory look into the positive outcomes of a class
that, on the surface, may not appear likely to be successful in improving student
achievement in any extraordinary way. The results show, however, that a majority ofstudents found the writing and presentation activities to be beneficial and empoweringand even, in some cases, more fun than they had expected from an English class. This
indicates that students can benefit from presentation classes in unexpected ways. Giving
students the opportunity to prepare their thoughts in advance and to express these208thoughts in presentation form may be a useful step in encouraging previously lower
achieving students a chance to move to a more confident, more competent use of thetarget language. Getting students to the level where they converse in a second language
often seems like a never ending struggle, but it may, perhaps, require only a new
beginning, not focused on traditional activities, but on giving presentations.
Biodata
Ryan Richardson teaches at universities in Kansai. His current research includes
comparing teacher and student views of effective language learning and culturaladjustment.
References
Brown, A. V. (2009). Students' and teachers' perceptions of effective foreign language
teaching:

A comparison of ideals. The Modern Language Journal. 93(1), 45-60.

Dörnyei, Z. (2005). The psychology of the language learner: individual differences insecond language acquisition. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbuam Associates.
Holt, J. (1984). How children fail. Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, Ltd.
Horwitz, E. K. (1988). The beliefs about language learning of beginning university
foreign language students. The Modern Language Journal, 72, 283-294.
Liu, N., & Littlewood, W. (1998) Why do many students appear reluctant to participate
in classroom learning discourse? System 25(3), 371-384.
MacIntyre, P.D., Noels, K. A., & Clement, R. (1997). Biases in Self-Ratings of Second
Language Proficiency: The Role of Language Anxiety. Language Learning, 47(2),265-287.
Plucker, J. A., Robinson, N. M., Greenspon, T. S., Feldhusen, J. F., McCoach, D. B., &Subotnik, R. F. (2004). It's not how the pond makes you feel, but rather how high you
can jump. American Psychologist, 59, 268-269.
Richardson, R. (2011). Comparing student and teacher views of effective language
teaching practices. OnCUE Journal, 4(3), 243-262.
Trautwein, U., Ludtke, O., Marsh, H.W., Koller, O., & Baumert, J. (2006). Tracking,grading, and student motivation: Using group comparison and status to predict
self-concept and interest in ninth-grade mathematics. Journal of Educational
Psychology, 98(4), 788-806.
209

The role of graphics in business English textbooks
Cameron Romney
Momoyama Gakuin University
Leon BellMomoyama Gakuin University
Reference Data:
Romney, C., & Bell, L. (2012). The role of graphics in business English textbooks. In K.
Bradford-Watts, R. Chartrand, & E. Skier (Eds.), The 2011 Pan-SIG Conference
Proceedings. Matsumoto: JALT.
Abstract
An analysis was conducted of several business English textbooks produced by major ELT
publishers to determine what possible role graphics, e.g. photographs and illustrations could
play in the texts. The results show that most graphics are merely decorative and serve little if
any substantial pedagogical role.
教科書における写真やイラストの果たす役割を究明するために、主要な ELT 出版
会社が製作したビジネス英語の教科書数冊の分析が行われた。その結果、たいていの写真やイラストは単なる装飾に過ぎず、仮に教育的役割を果たしていたとしてもその度合いはとても低いということが判明した。

Keywords:

Textbooks, Business English, graphics, pedagogy

Recently our department, the Centre for Foreign Language Education at Momoyama
Gakuin University, has instituted a price limit on the cost of textbooks that can be
assigned for undergraduate compulsory English as a foreign language classes. The
rationale for this price limit is that as the cost of education continues to rise in Japan(Education and Family Income, 2010) students and their parents are seeking more value
for their money. Therefore, the cost of texts for courses such as compulsory English
needs to be cheaper. In our experience, often the most expensive course books also hada large number of full color graphics. Due to the issue of expense, we wondered whatrole these graphics played in learning, if they did – how, and how much students
benefited from them.

210

Levin (1981) created an eight-point typology to describe the pedagogical
functions of graphics in instructional texts. His purpose in creating this typology was toillustrate and further delineate the different instructional purposes for including graphics
in educational texts and attempt to measure their effectiveness. It should be noted that
his typology was not intended to be used exclusively for language learning texts.
Levin’s eight functions are: 1. decoration, 2. remuneration, 3. motivation, 4. reiteration,
5. representation, 6. organization, 7. interpretation, and 8. transformation. Levin felt thatthe first three functions (decoration, remuneration and motivation) had no pedagogicalvalue and in a later paper, with Anglin and Carney (1987), he combined them into asingle category and called them “text-irrelevant” (p. 53), meaning that the graphics were
not related to the text and did not have a learning function. Misanchuk (1992)
interpreted Levin’s 1981 typology in a similar way and further reduced the functions to
two general categories of decorative and instructional, with the first three (decoration,
remuneration, motivation) being decorative and the last five (reiteration, representation,organization, interpretation, and transformation) being instructive.
With respect to ELT texts, Hill (2003) conducted a survey of images in British
ELT texts. He sought to describe the current situation of images in ELT materials andwas first only concerned with color vs. black and white images, illustrations vs.
photographs, and the subject of the images, e.g. people, places, things, actions, etc.
Through the course of his research, he decided to additionally focus on the function ofimages as either “use” or “decoration” (p. 176). He was able to determine that 45% ofimages in the two books he looked at were useful and 55% were decorative.
Levin’s typology (especially as interpreted by Misanchuck) and Hill’s researchaligned with our, albeit anecdotal, observations that while some of the graphics found in
textbooks have a learning function, many do not. Furthermore, in our experience we feltthat business English (BE) textbooks seemed to have even more decorative graphics
than useful ones. As one of the faculties at our university requires that teachers
specifically use BE materials, we decided to conduct an investigation of graphics in BE
textbooks to determine if they had a decorative or instructional function.
Methodology
Similar to Hill (2003) we were interested to see how many of the images being used incommercial business English (BE) textbooks available in Japan had an instructive211

purpose. Unlike Hill (2003) who only surveyed two course books, we decided toanalyze as many BE textbooks that we could find in order to get as much data as
possible. We went to the reference center in our department and accessed all of thebusiness English titles available. This included multiple editions and multiple levels ofdifficulty for some titles and as these series texts seemed to be graphically similar we
did not include more than one text of a series. We did, however, include both the coursebook (Johnson, 2006) and skills book (Barrall & Barrall, 2006) for the Intelligent
Business series because these books are intended to be used together, so we counted
them as one text. In total we were able to look at fifteen business English textbooks.
Like Hill (2003) we began by counting graphics in the texts. Winn (1987) madea distinction between pictorial representations, e.g. photographs and illustrations andfigural representations, e.g. graphs and charts. As we were interested in graphics, wecounted all of the pictorial representations: photographs, illustrations, and maps
contained in the text. We did not count any figural representations: charts, graphs, logos,
or any other visual that was primarily text based. Additionally, we did not count icons,
as these are included in texts for organizational purposes, not instructional ones
(Misanchuck, 1992); they are not part of the content of the text, but part of the accessstructure of the text (Waller, 1982). Building on Misanchuck’s notion of icons as“sign-posts indicating the location of certain materials” (p.115), we defined an icon as agraphic used to indicate the type of activity, for example an image of a pair ofheadphones used to indicate a listening activity.
When counting the graphics, we assigned one of two possible categories to theimage: it was either 1) decorative or 2) instructional. To determine the category weasked the following question: Are there written instructions in the text on how to use thegraphic? If the answer was yes, then we determined that the image was instructive. If no,then we determined that the image was decorative. Misanchuk (1992), citing Levie andLentz (1982) noted that, “while students may look at the pictures that accompany text,
they ... don’t actually use them to learn unless told to do so” (p. 249). This is further
backed by Morrison, Ross, and Kemp (2006) who said, “simply placing an illustrationin the instruction [text] does not guarantee that the learner will examine the illustration”(p. 182) and Sless (1981) felt that students, unless told otherwise, would treat images inthe text as decorative. Therefore, the only way that we could determine to an absolutedegree whether the graphic was instructional or not was by determining if the graphic212

had instructions for what the student was supposed to do.
Results
In total we ended up looking at 2265 graphics in 15 business English textbooks. (Please
see the appendix for a complete list of the titles analyzed.) Of these, we determined that
610, or 27%, of the graphics were instructional and 1655, or 73%, of the graphics were
decorative. The results are summarized in table 1 below.
Table 1
Instructional and decorative graphics totals
Instructional

Decorative

Total

Images

610

1655

2265

Percent

27%

73%

100%

Of the fifteen books analyzed, only two, Business Venture (Barnard & Cady,2009) and Business Start-up (Ibbotson & Stephens, 2005), had more instructional
images than decorative ones. The remaining 13 texts contained mostly decorative
images and one text, Quick Work (Howlett, 2001) had only one instructional image; allof the remaining 60 graphics were decorative. These results are summarized in the
figure 1 below.
Business	
  Start-­‐up	
  Get	
  Ready	  Oxford	  Business	
  English	
  Intelligent	
  Business	
  Instructional	
  English	
  for	  Business	  Decoration	
  In	
  Company	
  Market	  Leader	  Quick	  Work	  0%	
   20%	
   40%	
   60%	
   80%	
  100%	  Figure 1. Data summary213

When compared to Hill (2003), our study covered 89% more texts and 85%
more graphics. Hill found 45% of the images were instructional and 55% were
decorative. The results of our study showed a 27% to 73% ratio of instructional todecorative graphics. These results are summarized in table 2 below.
Table 2Current study compared to Hill (2003)
Texts

Total Images

Yes

No

Hill (2003)

2

411

185

226

Current Study

15

2265

610

1655

Hill (2003)

-89%

-85%

45%

55%

Current Study

89%

85%

27%

73%

Discussion
Although our goal in conducting this analysis was to describe the current situation ofgraphics in BE textbooks, upon collecting and reviewing the data we were left with anumber of questions about what the data meant. Turning to these questions:
Is there a third category?
We noticed that some images we classified as decorative seemed to be more than justdecorative. This left us wondering if there wasn’t a third category that we should haveconsidered, namely graphics that, while not having a concrete instructional purpose,
directly correlated to the subject matter or functions being presented in the text. For
example, in Business Venture 2 (Barnard & Cady, 2009) the students are asked to readabout two British entrepreneurs and the text includes a photograph of these real life
people.
Following Levin’s (1981) typology, graphics such as these would most likely be
assigned to category 5, representational. Levin, Anglin, and Carney (1987) define
representational pictures as pictures that “reinforce the major narrative events” (p. 55)
and Anglin, Vaez, and Cunningham (2004) clarify this as graphics which, “represent the214actors, objects, and activities happening in the text” (p. 875). Certainly graphics of thepeople, places, objects, etc. that students are reading and talking about would havelearning value as they made the language task more concrete by acting as what Smith(1997) calls a “virtual realia,” even though they did not have an instructional value, i.e.
the graphic did not include instructions for how the students were to use the graphic.
Does it really matter?
Most graphic design literature discusses the aesthetic functions of graphics to increase
the visual appeal of documents, but not their communicative function or in the case ofcourse books, their educational function (Misanchuk, 1992). Evans, Watson, andWillows (1987) note that the majority of decisions about graphics are not made byauthors, but are left to the designers and that decisions about graphics are being madefor aesthetic purposes not for educational purposes. In our investigation, we cameacross many small, unobtrusive images that may not have any effect on the way theteacher or student uses the text and in these cases it may not matter. However, we also,with surprising regularity, came across large graphics, some of which used more spaceon the page than the language task or teaching point. Often these images dominated theentire page, dwarfing the language being presented. We felt that these graphics domatter and this lead to an additional question.
Can these large dominating graphics be a distraction?
Often times these large decorative images left us wondering if the students might spend
more time looking at the image than focusing on the task itself. Evans, Watson, andWillows (1987) had similar concerns and reported that graphics can be “too striking andtoo engaging” (p. 93) causing students to pay more attention to the images instead of thelearning tasks. This concern was also raised by Clark and Lyons (2011), as well as
Peeck (1987).
Why do publishers include so many decorative graphics?
Our final question leads us back to Levin’s typology. His second reason for including
images in instructional texts was for remuneration, i.e. to increase the sales of the book.
This was also confirmed by Bell and Gower (1998) who stated, “...that they [publishers]
gave more attention to first impressions the material would make (the ‘flick’ test) than215

its ... usability” (p. 125). Therefore, it can be assumed that publishers feel that including
a large number of graphics will make the book more attractive and thereby increase
sales. Evans, Watson, and Willows (1987), report that in interviews with publishers it
was clear that, “in the minds of those interviewed that illustrations, particularly coloredillustrations, increase sales” (p. 92).
Conclusion
Whether or not students and teachers are served by the large number of decorativegraphics found in business English textbooks and whether or not they justify the
expense is beyond the scope of this study. We only sought to capture data in order todescribe the current situation as a first step in a larger conversation about the role, if not
worth, of graphics in ELT materials, but it is an interesting question. Perhaps Prowse(1998) put it best:
It would be interesting to compare the reactions of learners ... to today’s highly
designed full colour course books. Does the expenditure of so much time andmoney increase the effectiveness of learning, or merely ensure that one book ispurchased rather than another? To what extent is a fashionable design a barrierrather than an aid to learning(p. 141).

We leave it to future researchers to tackle that question.
Biodata
Cameron Romney first came to Japan in 1998 and has taught in a number ofeducational environments since then. He holds an MA in Applied Linguistics from the
University of Colorado at Denver and his main area of research is visual communicationand L2 learners. In 2011 he was a Sr. Adjunct lecturer in the Center for Foreign
Language Education at Momoyama Gakuin University in Osaka, Japan.
Leon Bell has worked in tertiary education in Japan for the past 5 years. He holds an
MA in Applied Linguistics from the University of Queensland, Australia and CELTA
certificate. His research interests include World Englishes, CALL, and visualcommunication.

216

References
Anglin, G. J., Vaez, H., and Cunningham, K. L. (2004). Visual Representations andLearning: the Role of Static and Animated Graphics. In D. Jonasse (Ed.) Handbook of
Research on Educational Communications and Technology (2nd ed., pp. 865-916).
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Barrall, I., & Barrall, N. (2006). Intelligent business skills book. Harlow, Essex: Pearson
Education Limited.
Barnard, R., & Cady, J. (2009). Business venture 2 (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Bell, J., & Gower, R. (1998). Writing course materials for the world: a greatcompromise. In B. Tomlinson (ed.) Materials development in language teaching (pp.
116-129). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Clark, R. C., & Lyons, C. (2011). Graphics for learning. San Francisco: Pfeiffer.
Education 38% of family income: poll. (2010, November 21). The Japan Times Online.
Retrieved from http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20101121b1.html
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psychology of illustration, volume 2: Instructional issues (pp. 86-115). New York:
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Hill, D. A. (2003). The visual element in in EFL course books. In B. Tomlinson (Ed.),
Developing Materials for Language Teaching (pp. 174-182). London: Continuum.
Hollet, V. (2001). Quick Work. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ibbotson, M., & Stephens, B. (2005). Business Start-up 1. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Johnson, C. (2006). Intelligent business coursebook pre-intermediate. Harlow, Essex:
Pearson Education Limited.
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(1992). Preparing instructional text: Document design using

desktop publishing. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications.
Morrison, G. R., Ross, S. M., & Kemp J. E. (2006). Designing effective instruction.
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Educational Communications and Technology Journal, 30. 195-232.
Levin, J. R. (1981). On functions of pictures in prose. In. F. J. Pirozzolo & M. C.
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Wittrock (Eds.), Neuropsychological and cognitive processes in reading (pp. 203-228).
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Levin, J. R., Anglin, G. J., & Carney R. N. (1987). On empirically validating functionsof pictures in prose. In D. M. Willows & H. A. Houghton (Eds.), The psychology ofillustration, volume 1: basic research (51-85). New York: Springer-Verlag.
Peeck, J. (1987). Role of illustrations in processing. In D. M. Willows and H. A.
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Appendix: List of Textbooks Analyzed
Barrall, I., & Barrall, N. (2006). Intelligent business skills book. Harlow, Essex: Pearson
Education Limited.
Barnard, R., & Cady, J. (2009). Business venture 2 (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Blackwell, A. (2001). Global Links 2. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
Buckingham, A., & Whitney, N. (2002). Passport to work. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Cotton, D., Falvey, D., & Kent, S. (2002). Market leader new edition. Harlow, Essex:
Pearson Education Limited.
218

Dignen, B., Flinders, S., & Sweeney, S. (2004). For work and life English 365 students
book 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hollet, V. (2001). Quick Work. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Grant, D., & Hudson, J.

(2009). Business result intermediate. Oxford: Oxford

University Press.
Ibbotson, M., & Stephens, B. (2005). Business Start-up 1. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Johnson, C. (2006). Intelligent business coursebook pre-intermediate. Harlow, Essex:
Pearson Education Limited.
Knight, G., & O’Neil, M. (2002). Business explorer 2. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
O’Brien, J. (2007).

English for business. Boston, MA: Thompson Heilne.

O’Driscoll, N., & Pilbeam, A. (2003). Big city level 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Powel, M. (2002). In company intermediate, 2nd edition. Oxford: Macmillan Education.
Vaughan, A., & Zemach, D. E. (2009). Get ready for business student book 2. Oxford:
Macmillan Education.
Wallwork, A. (2002). Business Vision student’s book. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

219

Developing institutional relationships through ER
David Ruzicka and Mark Brierley
Shinshu University
Reference Data:
Ruzicka, D., & Brierley, M. (2012). Developing institutional relationships through ER.
In K. Bradford-Watts, R. Chartrand, & E. Skier (Eds.), The 2011 Pan-SIG Conference
Proceedings. Matsumoto: JALT.
Abstract
This paper will present an overview of some of the triumphs and set-backs that have punctuatedthe seven-year history of a project to promote extensive reading (ER) in a former national
Japanese university. For several years, ER was an integral and compulsory part of the main
general English course. We discuss the institutional framework supporting the ER programmeand describe how we have developed other kinds of cross-institutional support for ER bybuilding relationships horizontally, outside the hierarchy of the curriculum, with both the libraryservices and with developers working in e-learning.
この論文は、ある地方の国立大学で７年にわたり多読（ER）プログラムを推進した際に経験した成功と挫折を概観したものである。最初の数年間、ER は総合英語コースの主要部分を占め、必修であった。先ず、ER を支えた制度的枠組みを論じ、次に、いかにして、カリキュラムの上下関係を超えて、図書館のサービスや e ラーニングを研究開発している人たちと、横のつながりを構築するにいたったかを説明する。

Keywords: Extensive Reading, institutional support, library services, e-learning
For the past seven years, since 2005, we have been involved in a project to promoteextensive reading (ER) as a method of second language acquisition in a Japanese
university. This paper is an attempt to tell the story of this project in terms of a set of
relationships. More precisely, the aim is to explore how our interest in ER became acatalyst in the emergence of collaborative relationships between teachers and various
other groups within the university. To some extent, the central theme of the analysis we
present here focuses on the conflicts and the mutual interests which bind individuals to220the institutional framework in which they have to work. Organizing the account into alinear progression is problematic because of the inevitably high degree of overlap. For
example, our relationship with the library has developed as a result of the books wehave been able to purchase with research funds obtained through our collaboration withthe e-learning centre.
In essence, the challenges that we faced fall into two broad categories, one to dowith the practical issues of managing the material resource constituted by the books,
and the other to do with questions of human resource management.
The success of any extensive reading programme will depend, obviously, on
having access to the requisite reading material, which in the SLA context, initially atleast, means graded readers. Ideally, one should aim to create an environment as rich inresources as that proposed by Krashen (2004) where he conjures up the image of thesuper-library. The problems we encountered in trying to grow this forest of texts from adesert are doubtless typical, but here too we shall try to recount our experiences in a
way that allows us to analyze how the institutional structures in which we foundourselves constrained and enabled the choices we made.
Relationship I: The University Bookshop
Students buying books and ownership
One of our most important institutional partners throughout the evolution of the ER
programme has been the University Coop Bookshop. Like many former national
universities in Japan, the on-campus bookstore belongs to the national Coop chain andas such is run according to a set of operating practices that are beyond the control of theindividuals that we dealt with in our local branch. On the whole, the bookshop functions
more as a warehouse than a retailer. Its principal task is to process the orders that it
receives from teachers for the texts that they have decided their students will use eachterm. This means that for the most part the bookshop buys copies of books that it knows
it is guaranteed to sell; and because it usually buys large numbers of the same title it
expects to be able to return any unsold stock to the publisher.
Many of the problems we encountered in the first two years of working with thebookshop to supply our students with graded readers had to do with the fact that, rather
than the teacher ordering, say, thirty copies of the same textbook, each student wasordering a different title. In the first instance, we faced two main issues, both extremely
221straightforward: how to find the funds to buy the books and then where to put them. We
began with no institutional support and hence no funds. We had little choice, therefore,
but to begin by asking the students themselves to buy graded readers. Students areinvariably required to purchase textbooks for their English courses, and the cost of one
graded reader was considerably less than that of the coursebooks that students areusually required to buy. What was different was that we wanted the students to share thebooks with each other and then at the end of the course to donate them to our nascentlibrary. Neither of these goals were particularly difficult to achieve. Students wereasked to read the books they had bought and then to give them to the teacher, who
initially kept the books in a box, from which students could choose another book.
In our context there are two distinct groups who have chosen the books which havebeen purchased: students and the teachers running the project. The most immediateadvantage of getting the students to choose and buy the books is that it gives them asense of ownership of the whole project. After all, students rarely find themselves in theposition of being able to choose their textbooks; these choices are invariably made by
their teachers. At the same time, though, the students’ choices were not entirely
unconstrained. They were only permitted to choose titles from the levels at which theteachers had determined it was appropriate for them to be reading.
In 2007, and for the next two years, we persuaded the bookshop that it was easierthan taking individual orders from hundreds of students to take one large, complex bookorder from us, then display the range of books on their shelves for students to choose
from. While still allowing a great deal of choice for students, this increased our controlof the books that students would buy, and that would end up in our pool of books.
Choosing levels
Our sense of which levels were appropriate for our students evolved over the course of
the first couple of years of the programme. In the first instance, we simply guessed andsteered the students towards the first and second levels of the series produced by the
major publishing houses: Oxford Bookworms, Penguin Readers and Cambridge
Readers. At a later stage, and especially after making use of the tests developed by the
Edinburgh Project on Extensive Reading (EPER), we came to the conclusion that alowering of expectations was in order and we began to build up our stocks of starter
level books. Table 1 shows our students’ results on the EPER Extensive Reading test222

(see Brierley, 2007). We were also influenced in this decision by the reaction ofProfessor Kunihide Sakai to the disproportionate numbers of what he pointed out wereunrealistically high-level readers. This is just one instance of the invaluable advice wehave received over the years from Professor Sakai, whose enthusiasm and wisdom havebeen a constant source of inspiration. (See, for example, Sakai & Kanda, 2005).
Table 1. Student Scores on the EPER Extensive Reading Test.
Score onExtensive
Reading Tests

EPER
Level

% A class % B classstudents

students

(131)

(81)

Equivalent Oxford /Cambridge Level51 and overAbove D

13.7%

2.5%

Level 3

42-50

D

23.7%

3.7%

Level 2

28-41

E

38.9%

48.1%

Oxford level 1

27 and less

Below E

22.9%

43.2%

Penguin level 1

Relationship II: The English Department
Learner autonomy and task-based learning
If we had to point to just one pedagogical concept underlying our decision toincorporate ER into our syllabi it would be that of learner-centred teaching. Long before
becoming interested in ER we had been experimenting with task-based group work andstudent-generated content. Our sense of the educational environment in which most
students have been immersed in the period prior to university was of an institutionalsetting that afforded few opportunities for self-expression. Extensive reading, which
generally entails leaving the choices about what books are read to the students rather
than to the teacher, seemed to us to offer a ready-made framework through which topromote learner autonomy. At around the time that the ER programme was getting off
the ground in 2004, we even hosted a two-day conference on learner-centred teaching.
In the first two years of the ER project, when the numbers of students were still
relatively small, we experimented with ways to use the initial purchase of the books at
the beginning of the term as a classroom activity in its own right with teaching goals
that went beyond the immediate objective of augmenting our stock of graded readers.
With the generous cooperation of the sales representatives of Oxford and Penguin wewere able to obtain a supply of catalogues sufficient to allow every student in a class of223

thirty to select the book they wanted from a perusal of the catalogue. This in itself
proved to be an interesting reading activity for the students, not least because, probably
for the first time for most of them, they were being asked to read in English in order tomake a choice that would reflect their own individual interests and that had as its goal
the acquisition of a concrete object: the book. In short, it was not only a clearly definedtask-based activity but a real task, one in which the students, albeit to the fairly modest
tune of 600 yen, were investing their own financial resources.
We also organized the students into groups for this activity, which allowed themboth to discuss their choices and learn together how to decode the information in the
catalogues, and also to practice from an early stage in the development of the class’ssocial dynamics how to take collective responsibility for completing tasks. This
involved choosing a group leader charged with collecting money from the groupmembers and submitting the order to the university bookshop. The core of the activity,
however, involved intensive listening practice for the students as the teacher instructed
them how to go about achieving the goal of the lesson. Some areas of the task werecomplex and involved the students in processes of negotiation with each other. They
were told, for example, to make sure that no two people in the group chose the same
book. In addition, they were also expected to come to grips rapidly with the terminology
used to designate literary genres and to learn how to judge the contents of a book on thebasis of the cover artwork and brief summary supplied by the catalogue. It would havebeen difficult to measure the motivational value of all this, but as far as giving thestudents a sense of ownership of the project this was clearly one of the high points of
the last seven years.
One of the key transitional moments in the development of the programme
occurred in 2005 with the start of a new 5-year cycle in the curriculum. The previous
year, the University had taken the unprecedented step of creating a new position for an
English specialist who would concentrate on developing a new curriculum. The result
was a menu of new English courses from which the University’s eight faculties would
choose those they felt best met the needs of their students. The most popular course
turned out to be the Comprehensive English course for which half of the faculties opted.
This was to be a rigorously standardized course that entailed teachers all using the samematerial, created by a committee of teachers. We became deeply involved in thedevelopment of this course and were able to make extensive reading a central
224component.
The most immediate consequence of these developments was that there were now
over a thousand students for whom ER was a mandatory part of their English
curriculum. We also benefitted from funds available for curriculum development. Someof this money was used for buying graded readers for the Library and for the
booktrucks; some was used for staff development projects, including two invitations toProfessor Sakai to give talks to teachers on ER pedagogy.
To some extent, the inclusion of ER in this radical new curriculum was a poisoned
chalice. While this launched ER into prominence at the beginning of the five-year cycle,
ER was targeted in the inevitable criticism towards the end as the next five-year cycle
loomed with its own radical changes.
Assessment
The most contentious area with regard to the teacher-student relationship clearly had to
do with assessment. This is a subject on which we have already published several
papers (see Brierley, Wakasugi, & Sato, 2009; Brierley, 2010; Brierley, Ruzicka, Sato,& Wakasugi, 2010; Brierley, Kubota, & Uchikawa, 2011).
Relationship III: The ERS Project
Around the same time that the Sogo Eigo course was being developed, the University
began to invest in expanding its e-learning facilities and we started to collaborate withthe e-learning support team in order to experiment with ways to use the BlackBoard
learner management system (LMS) to provide teachers with an online spreadsheet
through which grades for shared classes could be combined according to a standardized
procedure.
As ER was a central pillar of the curriculum, it was decided to add an ER
component to the standardized assessment. Initially, students were given points for eachbook report they submitted, with one point for each report and a further point depending
on how convincingly the report demonstrated that they had read the book. This seemed
to be unfair both within and between classes as different levels of books were ofdifferent lengths, and teachers’ evaluation of books reports ranged from the awarding offull marks for every report from every student, to a strict grading of the quality of thestudent’s writing (see Brierley & Ruzicka, 2008).
225

As a result, we changed from counting books to counting words. This presented achallenge to teachers, who were given lists of word-counts for books, and provided withforms on which students could keep a record of their reading. We also began to develop
the ERS (Extensive Reading System), an online system with the immediate aim ofadding up how many words each student read quickly, easily and, hopefully, accurately(Brierley, Wakasugi & Sato, 2009). Teachers were encouraged to use the online system,
although some preferred to continue using the paper-based systems that they had
invested a lot of time getting used to. Around this time, an institutional shift moved
control of e-learning from the Centre of General Education to the IT department of theEngineering Faculty. The LMS was switched from Blackboard to Moodle, and teachers
had to learn a new system, into which they were required to input an ever-changing setof assessment criteria.
As well as mechanically counting books, the online system also enabled us to keep
track of which books students were borrowing, simplifying the elaborate classborrowing systems that had been developed. In addition to word counts, the system
could record students’ comments on books, and make these available not only to theteacher, but also to other students. We believed this would create a sense of community,
allowing students to identify themselves with a large body of reading peers.
As far as the IT department were concerned, ERS provided a software development
project for a team of graduate students that has gained and lost members each year. It
also provided a basis for a successful kakenhi project that has brought further
government funds into the IT Department and the Language Centre.
The ERS has been through three versions. The first included student book records
and word counting, with student totals sent automatically to the relevant grade sheet in
Moodle. Version 2 saw many improvements in terms of user interface and graphics, andthe addition of community functions. A book recommendation system was added toshow students what other people who had read the same books were reading. Version 3,
currently in development, has attempted to move the system onto a Social Networking
System (SNS) platform, so that built-in community functions may be used rather thanbuilt from scratch.
Although the relationship with the IT department and its graduate students provides
mutual benefit by giving teachers a system that will help them, and giving the IT
department a real-world project with a large body of users, the agendas of the teachers226and technicians are quite different. Software development is inevitably atime-consuming process, punctuated by small steps forward and occasional lurches
backwards, and beset by cures that will cause ills elsewhere. As far as users areconcerned, close to 100% perfection is required (illustrated in figure 1). Teachers want
the system to work when they log in, and they want their students to be able to use it
without encountering problems. As far as developers are concerned, the most interesting
part of the development cycle is at the beginning. Research papers are written about
design and not debugging.

Figure 1. The perfection curve relating software development with desires ofdevelopers and desires of users.
As each version has been introduced, teachers have wanted many of the functions toremain the same, while the developers have wanted to add new functions. For theteachers, the notion of communities is one of groups of people, while for developers it
suggests functions within software.
While the relationship with software engineers has been developing, the systemfailed to meet its full potential as many teachers preferred not to use computers, andinstead opted to use paper-based systems that they had developed, customized and227

incorporated into their classroom management routines.
The ERS provided virtual solutions to many problems. However, books are real
objects. While we believed the computer system would solve our problems with
depleted stock, in fact we lost even more as it was being implemented. We suspect thiswas due to too much faith in the computer system’s ability to solve our problems withbook administration, and a failure to maintain the existing paper-based systems, and alack of communication with the teachers who were expected to act as librarians.
Relationship IV: The library
In this section we first look at the development of our own library, and then show how
we collaborated with the university library.
Booktrucks
If Professor Sakai was able to offer us an assessment of our “library” it was due in partto the fact that our books by this stage were no longer housed in cardboard boxes but on
purpose-built “booktrucks” making it possible to see at a glance that there was a
preponderance of level one and two books, and very few starters. By this point, we hada small fleet of these mobile delivery units, all thanks to the generous development
funds intended to facilitate the introduction of the new five-year cycle in the curriculum.
In all we purchased some half a dozen booktrucks, not quite enough to enable every
teacher to have their own truck at all times, but enough to raise our profile. There isnothing like a roomful of tastefully pastel-coloured new hardware to enhance yourvisibility and motivate your colleagues, who, instead of having to lug their CD-player
and computer to the classroom, could now sail off down the corridor behind a
resplendent mobile library with all their gear neatly stowed next to an appealingly
colourful array of graded readers. We were also able to influence the administration toallocate classrooms in the same building as the room where the booktrucks were stored,
which had an elevator, so that the books did not need to take journeys across campus.
Books in the classroom
In our eyes, the point of the booktrucks, besides boosting our image, was to provide ameans of delivering books to the classroom. From the earliest stages of the programme,
we had always felt that it was important that the students should be choosing the books
228they wanted to read in the classroom with the participation both of their peers and theteacher. To this end, we recommended that teachers take the books off the booktrucks
and lay them out on the desks, grouped by publisher and level, so that students could
browse and move among the books more easily, rather as if they were in a bookshop.
Most teachers, we suspect, chose to ignore this advice and preferred to keep the bookson the booktruck.
Those of us, however, who did allow the books to spill out from the containment of
the booktruck found that there were a number of activities, besides that of simply
allowing the students to browse, that could be constructed from the raw material of thebooks. Getting the students themselves to lay the books out, for example, gave them an
opportunity to become more familiar with the range of titles and with the differences
between the lists of the various publishers. Another ploy was to ask a group of students
to arrange the stock according to genre, which taught them to think critically about what
we mean by genre and to find ways of categorizing books which seemed to exhibitfeatures of more than one genre.
The funds which accompanied the introduction of the new curriculum in 2005 alsomeant, as we have said, that we were able to spend university money on books.
Nonetheless, it was not possible to supply over a thousand students with graded readers
without also continuing to get the students themselves to buy and donate books to theprogramme. Initially, we continued to get students to choose the books themselves from
catalogues during the orientation lessons. Later, as our relationship with the University
bookshop developed, the catalogues became unnecessary and we no longer needed to
devote a whole class to students choosing books.
The problem of attrition and the security of the library
There are some preliminary remarks that need to be made here concerning cultural
attitudes to reading matter. Japan is a very print-rich nation with a high literacy rate.
The circulation of national newspapers is enormous, with the Yomiuri Shimbun
reckoned to have the largest circulation of any newspaper in the world (Wikipedia gives
a circulation of over 14,000,000 in 2002 for the morning and evening editions
combined). Books, magazines and newspapers are affordable and read in vast quantities.
Indeed, printed matter is so readily available that the Japanese often appear toundervalue it, viewing reading matter as disposable. This has had two consequences for229

our project. In the first place, it has meant that whenever we have asked students toshare the books they bought or to donate them to some communal store, they have done
so apparently without complaint. They do not, it would seem, become particularly
attached to the books we ask them to buy. On the other hand, though, this has alsomeant that they sometimes fail to value the books enough to be able to remember toreturn them to us after they have borrowed them.
During the booktruck phase of the programme, and indeed even before that, we
experimented with various systems for keeping track of books. We designed and printed
borrowing sheets and gave each teacher a file with sheets customized for each of theirclasses. The booktrucks were colour coded and teachers allocated a particular stock ofbooks so that they would feel more responsible for making sure that their particularsection of the library was well looked after.
Here again, some of us discovered that we could exploit the necessity of recording
the students’ borrowing as a pretext for group-oriented activities. Perhaps the mosteffective procedure entailed giving a different group of four students every week thetask of laying out the books and ensuring that their peers signed their books out
correctly.
All told, these measures proved relatively successful during the period in which
ER was a mandatory component of the standardized curriculum. However, as resistancetowards the imposition of a centrally planned programme grew and the various
prescriptions began to be dismantled, teachers who were skeptical with regard to thevalue of ER were able to remove it from their syllabus. Where previously the fact thatsome thirty or so teachers were all doing roughly the same thing had bred a certain
sense of community and shared responsibility, the erosion of this state of affairs and theemergence of a situation in which it was sometimes difficult to know who was doing
ER and who wasn’t, now made the task of monitoring the movement of the books lessfeasible. At the end of the year, we found that rather than maintaining a steadily
growing library, we had lost hundreds of graded readers. This was the chief reason why
we decided to deposit the bulk of our stock of books in the University Library.
By this stage, we had already developed a good relationship with the Librarybecause we had been using university funds to buy graded readers to be deposited not
only in the main Library on the central campus but also in the outlying campuses. Apartfrom the fact that, evidently, the acquisition of reading material suited to the students
230needs is a major part of the Library’s remit, there are two specific factors that
contributed to the success of our collaboration with this institution. Firstly, a part of the
Library’s acquisition policy entails the soliciting of recommendations from academic
faculty. As far as we know, however, the lists of books received from teaching andresearch staff falls short of the budget that the Library needs to spend. As a result, theLibrary is always highly appreciative of any guidance that might help it to decide how
to meet its expenditure targets. This might seem to have little bearing on the books that
we have either donated to the Library or else purchased for them with the University
funds we have received. In fact, though, simply demonstrating to the Library that there
is a keen interest among both students and teachers in having access to as large aselection as possible of graded readers has meant that when we have recommended that
the Library also employs some of its own funds to acquire ER texts, ourrecommendations have been welcomed.
The second factor here is that the Library is also strongly committed to finding
ways to increase student uptake of their services. In recent years, there have been somedismal statistics in this regard, suggesting that the average first-year student wasborrowing just one book a year. In these circumstances, it is hardly surprising that the
Library looks favourably on our decision to deposit our graded readers on Library
shelves and to encourage students to borrow them as often as they can. From the
Library’s point of view, low-level graded readers, produced to be read quickly and inlarge quantities, offer an affordable solution to the problem of how to improve their user
statistics. And for us, having the graded readers in the Library, which is tireless andsomewhat draconian in chasing up students who fail to return books, has meant that weneed no longer fear that our laboriously accumulated treasury of reading matter is goingto dissipate due to student negligence. It might also be that the ER programme has
meant that students who would normally never have visited the library now do soregularly, and may also have begun to borrow other kinds of books.
The university has several campuses, although all first-year students are on thecentral campus and use the central library. Central library borrowing figures for themonth of June 2010 show that of the ten most borrowed books from Economics
students, who spend all their years in the central campus but are involved with the
Extensive reading programme for just one semester in the second year, four were
graded readers. For faculties where students move to a different campus from the231second year, the central library borrowing figures are even more impressive: five of the
top ten books borrowed by first-year Engineering students are graded readers, and ER
books made up nine out of the top ten books for Education Faculty first years.
While most of the readers are now in the library, some starters have been kept on
book trucks because some teachers continue to want to take books into their classrooms.
These books are used by students who have no book for reading sessions, and for
activities relating to reading, such as measuring reading speed.
During the last seven years, the supply of books has gradually been removed fromthe classroom, initially as student book orders gave way to teacher book orders, andthen as the library of books moved from our book trucks to the university library. Alongwith a great sense of relief among teachers at the reduction of responsibility—they nolonger needed to be booksellers or librarians—this change was accompanied by a senseof loss. In spite of the utilitarianism of the status quo, the processes of choosing books,
whether from catalogues or book trucks, and the fact that these processes took place inthe classroom, gave ER a sense of importance and meaning that we must now find new
ways to create.
Conclusion
If there is a single thread that runs through the tangled skein of our narrative, it is that of
the teacher’s authority. From the outset, our interest in learner autonomy was always onsome level a challenge to the value attached to the figure of the teacher in Japanesesociety. Our experience of trying to manage a standardized curriculum provided us withinvaluable insights into teachers’ deep-seated need for autonomy and their instinctive
resistance to any infringement on their freedoms on the part of external authorities.
As a method of language acquisition, ER is in a sense the last word in learnerautonomy. Taken to its logical conclusion, it ought to render the teacher obsolete. As
Krashen (2004) observes:
We don’t need return business in the language education profession. Our
goal in foreign language pedagogy is to bring students to the point where
they are autonomous acquirers, prepared to continue to improve on theirown. (p. 6)

232

It is all too easy to imagine how resistance to ER among teachers in Japan might arise
simply because it is perceived, even in its earliest phases, as gesturing towards asituation in which the learner no longer depends on the teacher’s authority.
Our ultimate goal is to create a comprehensive self-access, self-study package thatwill take the learner from zero to fluency entirely through a process of reading forpleasure. With this goal in mind, the important relationships for the future are with thelibrary, which can provide books, and IT engineers who can deliver the tools that canconnect readers to suitable reading materials, and enable them to engage with acommunity of readers.
Biodata
David Ruzicka and Mark Brierley teach at Shinshu University and have been involved
with the ER programme there since 2005.
References
Brierley, M. (2007). Extensive reading levels. JABAET Journal, 11, 135-144.
Brierley, M. (2010). Implementing a university Extensive Reading programme: The
need for teacher autonomy. In 2010 KETA Joint Conference and ETAK International
Conference: Creativity and Diversity in the Implementation of a New English Paradigm
in the EFL Context (pp 179-183). Korea: ETAK.
Brierley, M., Kubota, Y., & Uchikawa, S. (2011). Using online student data to assess
graded readers: Preliminary results. In K. Bradford-Watts, E. M. Skier, & M. Walsh(Eds), Pan-SIG 2010 Conference Proceedings (pp 12-30). Kyoto: JALT.
Brierley, M., & Ruzicka, D. (2006). Extensive reading in Shinshu University: Rationale,
management and motivation. Journal of Educational Research, Shinshu University, 2,
3-26.
Brierley, M., and Ruzicka, D. (2008). Selling ER: Investigating factors in classroom
management that affect reading performance. Journal of Humanities, Shinshu
University, 2, 223-238.
Brierley, M., Ruzicka, D., Sato, H., & Wakasugi, T. (2010). The measurement problem
in Extensive Reading: Students’ attitudes. In A. M. Stoke (Ed.), JALT2009 Conference
Proceedings (pp 641-650). Tokyo: JALT.
Brierley, M., Wakasugi, T., & Sato, H. (2009). An online system for assessing extensive
233

reading. In A. Stoke (Ed.), JALT2008 Conference Proceedings (pp 1047-1057). Tokyo:
JALT.
Krashen, S.D. (2004). Applying the comprehension hypothesis: Some suggestions. 13th
International Symposium and Book Fair on Language Teaching. Retrieved from<www.sdkrashen.com/articles/eta_paper>.
Sakai, K., & Kanda, M. (2005). Kyoshitsu de yomu eigo hyaku-man go: Tadoku jugyou
no susume [Reading a million words in English in the classroom: How to proceed with
an ER class]. Tokyo: Taishukan Shoten.
Wikipedia. Yomiuri Shimbun. Retrieved 20th October, 2011 from<en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yomiuri_Shimbun>.

234

Masculinity and the desire to acquire English
Todd Squires
Kinki University
Reference Data:
Squires, T. (2012). Masculinity and the desire to acquire English. In K. Bradford-Watts,
R. Chartrand, & E. Skier (Eds.), The 2011 Pan-SIG Conference Proceedings.
Matsumoto: JALT.
Abstract
What is the relationship between gender and the acquisition of a second and foreign language?
How does the acquisition of a foreign language relate to the learner’s identity? Withinmainstream L2 motivation research, these questions of gender and identity have yet to beadequately addressed. This is particularly troubling since in the past five years interest in
identity and the L2 self have been the most highly written about topics in the field. The reason
why researchers have avoided the topic of gender and motivation is due in large part to therestrictions of the privileged methodology, psychometrics. This paper introduces an alternative
approach to gender and motivation based in psychoanalysis and Marxist theory. Data from a
discussion between three men is introduced and discussed to highlight the ways in which they
construct their masculinity in regard to the acquisition of English.
ジェンダーはどのように第二言語習得に関わっているか。その習得過程はどのように学習者のアイデンティティに影響があるか。第二言語学習におけるモチベーション研究は、
主に社会心理学に基づいてきたが、この二つの問題は今まで明白にしていない。なぜなら、主流モチベーション研究方法は心理統計学が優先されているので、ジェンダーというのはただ男性か女性かその性的二形に限られている。本論文は、精神分析学やマルクス主義により人々が歴史的・社会的・経済的に構成されているかを考察する。ジェンダ
ーも社会的に構成され、多様性があると論じる。英語習得する欲動と男らしさの密接な関わりが男のディスカッションで互いに構成されるデータを紹介して分析する。

Keywords: Language acquisition, masculinity, gender and identity

235

The decentered subject and desire
Gender: Not just another individual difference
While the influence of input and output on second and foreign language (L2) acquisition
is to a certain extent easy to model and observe through experimental procedures, things
such as the interrelationship between gender, class, and social status and their influenceon the desire to acquire an L2 may better be approached by using tools from otherdisciplines (See, for example, Atkinson, 2011; Norton, 2000; Norton Peirce, 1995;
Pavlenko & Blackledge, 2004; Pavlenko & Lantolf, 2000; and Pavlenko et al., 2001).
The ability of psychometrics to adequately explain the role of gender in motivation isparticularly problematic, given that major studies which make claims about gender
within the hypothetical construct of motivation tend to reduce gender to biological sex,
and thus fall into the dual traps of simplifying gender as the possession of a certain
genital configuration and reinforcing or repackaging stereotypes about men and women.
(See, for example, Baker & McIntyre, 2000; Corbin & Chiachiere, 1997; Dornyei &Clement, 2001; Ehrman & Oxford, 1989; Mori & Gobel, 2006; Oxford et al., 1993;
Warden & Lin, 2000.)
This paper introduces the author’s own approach to understanding the complex
and interconnected relationship between gender, subjectivity, and the desire to acquire a
foreign language (in particular English) as it is produced and maintained by individuals
and groups through discourse. After briefly introducing the most relevant theoreticalbackground that informs this approach, a section of conversational discourse will be
introduced and analyzed.
The gendered subject of desire
For Lacan (2006), the psychical coexistence of the unconscious and the conscious
highlights that the subject is decentered. Agency is animated by the unconscious. As
such, it is the unconscious that is the motor energizing the individual in his/her desire,the primary function of which is what Lacan calls a “want-to-be” (manque-à-être). Thisfeeling of incompleteness is formed in the Imaginary when the young child—who hasto this point experienced his/her body as fragmented and lacking control—recognizes
his/her independence from the Mother. Unfortunately, this epiphany also brings with ita realization of loss, and the pain of the separation from the mother provides the catalyst
for action as the subject endeavors to fill this hole in his/her self.
236

What comes between the individual and his/her attempt to recapture thisillusory image of wholeness is language. Within the Symbolic Order (the sign system oflanguage) the individual becomes a socialized being by taking up a subject position.
Language, Lacan argues, alienates us, but at the same time language is necessary for us
to become subjects. While the accession to language bestows upon the individual aplace in the world in relation to other individuals, these positions have no a priori
relationship to us; rather we must fit ourselves into them in order to function associalized beings. Thus, although we want to think of ourselves as unique andahistorical beings, this is never possible because it is language that has alreadyconstituted us before our births and sets horizons upon the way that we can interact withother people.
Althusser (1972) reads the Lacanian subject within the framework of Marxist
theories on the modes of reproduction. In particular, he argues that it is the function ofideology to reproduce the relations of production, and it is through ideology that social
structures are reproduced thereby ensuring that there is a continuation of the relations
between individuals that favor one group economically, politically, and socially overothers. The process of submission of the individual to ideology is called interpellation,by which Althusser means that the main function of ideology is to create subjects;
however, the real power of ideology is its ability to constitute the very organizations,institutions, and practices that permeate our daily lives, beginning with the family andextending to legal, cultural, and educational institutions. Since ideology so completely
pervades all aspects of our public and private lives, it invisibly influences the ways inwhich we interact with others and reflect upon our own actions and desires. Thus,
ideology has two opposing functions: it is the signifying system that allows us toarticulate our subjectivity, but in doing so we become complicit in maintaining thepower of privileged classes and the status quo.
For Lorber (1994), gender is also a social institution that neither originates inbiological differences between two sexes nor is it based upon sexual reproduction.
Instead, she argues that gender is a social structure that traces its genesis back to thedevelopment of human culture. Being an institution, gender “establishes patterns of
expectations for individuals, orders the social processes of everyday life, is built into themajor social organizations of society” (p. 1); and as such, gendered subjectivities areclosely entwined with ideology in the apparatuses and practices associated with them.
237

Thus, doing gender entails two important points for us. The first of these is that
individuals are born into a gendered world in which his/her horizons of subjectivity aredelimited. A child’s world is gendered from the outset, and he/she is raised in culturally
specific gendered ways. Second, as he/she becomes an adult he/she may (or may not)behave, speak, consume in a manner that reproduces existing gendered subjectivities
that are created by institutions and their associated ideologies that ensure theperpetuation of inequalities between groups in society.
Thus, gender ought to be seen as an ongoing process that is grounded in thematerial world, encompassing both the physical (biological sex, the body, and sexuality)
and the social (how gender roles are constructed, regulated, and maintained by society,groups, and individuals) (Connell, 2009). For Lacan, subjectivity is gendered in both the
Imaginary and Symbolic orders. In the Imaginary, the subject sees itself as lacking
something that will make it complete, and that object of desire is seen as being part of
the Other (prototypically the mother). Masculine structure, the one with which thispaper is concerned, is defined simply by the “non/nom du pere,” or the “no/name of the
Father” by which he enters the Symbolic. The homophony in French tethers twomeanings, both of which are essential aspects of the subject’s accession to the realm of
language and ideology. This Lacan explains in a rereading of Freud’s Oedipus complex.
What comes between the subject and his desired object is the symbolic Father. This“‘no’ of the Father” is the prohibition against taking the mother as his sexual object.
The Symbolic is also where the individual takes his place as an always-already madesubject, and the “name of the Father” refers to how the child takes the name that was
waiting for him before birth, giving a place for him in society but also setting limits on
his desires and actions for fulfilling those desires.
In Lacanian psychoanalysis, sexual difference is defined by the relationship of
the subject to the Other and the symbolic and this difference is psychical rather thanbiological (Ragland, 2004). For Lacan the two neuroses, obsession and hysteria,
represent the prototypical masculine and feminine structures respectively. In the mostextreme form of the masculine structure, the obsessive-compulsive, Fink (1997) argues,“[d]esire is impossible in obsession, because the closer the obsessive gets to realizing
his desire…the more the Other begins to take precedence over him, eclipsing him as a
subject. The presence of the Other threatens the obsessive with what Lacan calls
aphanisis,i his fading or disappearing as a subject” (p. 124). For the238

obsessive-compulsive, the urge is to remove or annihilate the Other thereby removing
the Other as an impediment to taking the object. Although when taken to excess
obsession will be come debilitating to the individual, even for the normal individual
there will always be the tension between the underlying structure of desire and societal
rules and norms setting limits upon behavior.
Summary
By recognizing that gender is not a closed set of two complementary biological sexes
but rather a complex psychical and social phenomenon, we can overcome thelimitations of the view that gender is a strict biological dimorphism to whichmainstream L2 motivation research is bound because of its intractable devotion tocognitive science and psychometrics. Seen from this position, we must on the one handacknowledge that the desire to acquire English is no different from any other type ofdesire since all desires originate in the same place with the same underlying structure,
while on the other hand English has socioeconomic and cultural meanings that impinge
directly upon subjectivity in the way that it permeates society at various levels.
Co-constructing a masculine desire to acquire English
Background and research procedures
The data presented here is drawn from a guided discussion between three men in a
pre-departure EAP program in Osaka. The group was given a set of questions to guidetheir discussion. The discussions (approximately 45 minutes in length) were in Japanese.
The audiotaped discussions were later transcribed for close analysis.
Data
In the section of the discussion under consideration here, the three participants are
responding to a question that asked them about their future goals with regard to theirstudy of English. Takayuki takes the first turn and talks about his goal of working in thevisual arts.
[…] They have a great impression, posters that you gaze at, like that, andmovies, the trailers for movies, the trailers, there are movies that you feel,“Wow! I really want to see it,” aren’t there? That kind of movie, I want tomake them and communicate with people. […]239

Making the trailers for movies, Takayuki explains, has the ability to make people feel,“Wow! I really want to see that.” English will be useful for studying abroad, since hesees America as being more technically advanced, and to get the same skills in Japan hewould have to study at a technical school (which usually do not include English in the
curriculum). Takayuki sums up his desire to acquire English as being able to “make thethings I want with Japanese sensibility to make foreigners say, ‘Wow!’”
Yasunari takes the second turn and begins by speaking at length about his bad
relationship with his family, a situation that increasingly worsened as his performancein high school deteriorated. Even now in the EAP program, he says that his family andothers mock him for not being able to speak English.
[…] My goal is to show them.” My father said repeatedly, “Quit school!”
Really, he did, because I didn’t study. So there were rather a lot of times that
we fought. About the future, recently with my father [we’ve fought about] thefuture. “What will become of you in the future?” Like that, he’s started to talklike that. […] It’s just that he started [to learn English] two or three years ago,
but…
Hiroyuki: Your father
Yasunari: Yeah, two or three years [ago] he started, somehow, for his job. It’s
that he uses English. But it’s not that his English is good. Like Indians,
somehow, and Arabs. Normally, he’s speaking in Japanese, Japanese, “ai amu
a suchuudento,” like that. It’s like that. You can’t understand it. If you only
hear that kind of English, you can’t come to understand it. It’s not perfect, andas he speaks like that I’m laughing at it. He’s thinking, “I’m really cool,” likethat. Well, my father has gotten a bit older and well, it’s not easy for him.
Like that.
Yasunari’s goal of acquiring English is for people who have had a bad opinion of him tolook at him as being cool, and by doing so he will be able to show them that theirassessment of him was wrong. Foremost among his detractors is his father who has
predicted that Yasunari will probably quit the program because he is not studying hard.
At this point Yasunari begins to talk about his father who began studying English a few
years earlier. In Yasunari’s estimation, his father speaks with stereotypical Japanese
pronunciation and no one could learn English listening to that kind of English.
Yasunari’s father seems to think that his own speaking skill is cool. In the end, Yasunari240

comes around by admitting that he wants to make something of himself and show filial
piety toward his father perhaps out of pity that his father at such an age is just now
fumbling about with English.
The final response to this discussion question is given by Hiroyuki. Hiroyuki
begins to answer the question directly by saying that he just wants to go to university
abroad and graduate without any difficulties. At this point, Hiroyuki abruptly begins totalk about his childhood dream of becoming a policeman.
Hiroyuki: […] As for me, as for English, in the future, uh, English, somehow,
anyway, as for my objective now, my objective now is to, anyway, uhh,
university, be able to go to a university […] Of course, since long ago mydream was to become a police officer, a police officer, somehow, a normal,
not like the koban over there, that type of police officer, somehow, but aposition that is involved with international crime. Even in Japan, really. I
want to get that kind of position and somehow, I want to confront evil, likethat. […] For the time being, somehow, somehow, I aspire to be a police
officer, since long ago, since I was in elementary school I’ve longed to be one,of course, I want to be one, a police officer that is, a police officer.
Sensing that Hiroyuki is straying from the point, Yasunari nudges him back by asking
him how being a policeman relates to acquiring English, and through an interestingexchange the two are able flesh out a way in which being a policeman would require theuse of English, namely working in the international office. Hiroyuki then relates a news
story about an arrest of members of a Korean gang in Tokyo and muses that he, too,would like to be in on the arrest of criminals who upset peaceful neighborhoods.
Yasunari comments that working in such circumstances could be difficult, if not
life-threatening.
Hiroyuki: It probably is, right? I want to try to shoot a gun. If you’re a man, if
you’re a man, if you’re a man one time, well, even if you don’t become apolice officer, you can shoot one in Korea, when I went there recently, wellthere was a place where you could shoot a gun. I didn’t shoot one, but it wasthat there were places where you could shoot them. Shooting ranges, anyone,
if you are over 18. That too, anyway, guns, well, I have an interest in them.
It’s not that, but one time I want to shoot one, like that. I think in my life, yousee, America, well, if I go to university [there], of course and I graduate from241the university, a big, somehow, I think it will be a big plus for me, I…
Yasunari: It will, it will.
In the several lines that follow, Hiroyuki talks about acquiring English as aopportunity to improve himself and then maybe even taking time off from being a
policeman to join the Overseas Youth Cooperative. Hiroyuki laments the current stateof Japan and the fact that even though Japan is a peaceful nation, he himself has notexperienced a “rich” (yutaka) life. After Takayuki agrees with this, Hiroyuki talks at
length about his current study habits expressing that he often wastes time, ends up
watching TV instead of buckling down to his studies and procrastinates with his
homework assignments, contrasting himself with other, hardworking students. In theend, Hiroyuki sums up that he wants to be able to really speak English and experienceother cultures abroad. In other words, as Hiroyuki concludes, he wants to be able use
English to study international relations. As he and the other two men come to agreement,
they all want to “make use of it” or “become alive” (ikashitai).ii
Analysis
As developed in their discussion, the object of desire, English, the idea of using English
as a tool to achieve other objectives is pronounced and reminds us that one of the key
findings of mainstream L2 motivation research suggests that male learners tend to
exhibit more instrumental orientations in contrast to their female counterparts. Thus, thedata here seem to support this conclusion, however, interpreting the reasons why thisshould be the case is beyond the scope of psychometrics. Here, the interpretation will
suggest that while multiple masculinities exist in Japanese society, the hegemonicversion of masculinity continues to be a powerful force for institutionalizing genderconstruction.
In post-bubble Japan, much ado has been made of establishing equality
between the sexes, primarily by enacting laws that make it easier for women to join andremain in the labor force. Likewise, laws and company practices have allowed men to
spend more time at home to participate in the raising of children. In consequence,increasingly liberal attitudes toward gender roles are held by more and more men. At
the same time, however, the core of what may be called a hegemonic masculinity
remains relatively unchanged. To be recognized as a “man” in society entails twothings: having a steady, full-time job and being married with children. Thus, man is242

associated with work, and woman is associated with the home. (Tanaka, 2009). Thisgender division of labor is part and parcel to patriarchal societies produced undercapitalism, wherein man’s own productivity by the mediation of tools is contrasted tothat of women, and it is used to dominate women’s less superior, and thus, less valued
productivity (Mies, 1998).
In the foregoing discussion between the three men, each appropriates aspectsof hegemonic masculinity in describing how they would like to change in the future.
For Takayuki, his primary goal is his work and being recognized by others (particularly
foreigners). English, though the initial object of desire, is only important insofar as itpart of a larger desire to gain recognition. While Takayuki echoes the conventionalmasculine ideal of work as being one’s reason for living (ikigai), his expressed desire to
grab the attention or control the gaze of others is a striking reminder that within Lacan’s
psychoanalytic theory the subject’s desire is to be the desire of the Other (le désir del’Autre); it is the subjects attempt to fill the lack in it’s own being by becoming what the
Other desires. The other two men in the discussion also speak to the importance of workin becoming men and the role that English acquisition plays in facilitating that. Within
the hegemonic version of masculinity, masculine desire is to make use of English toprop up or actualize elements of what is still widely thought essential to becoming andbeing a man in Japanese society. Yet, in the discussion we witness that the object ofdesire is continually slipping behind or under other objects. This is accomplished mostdramatically by Hiroyuki when he draws upon perhaps the most stereotypicallymasculine occupation, the policeman, which seems to hold ultimate power over life anddeath as symbolized in the gun. As Hiroyuki emphasizes, “If you’re a man…” you haveto shoot a gun at least once, although he himself had yet to do so.
In his follow-up interview, however, Hiroyuki confessed that his expressed
dream of becoming a policeman had no direct relevance to his current career goals, andin fact after he left the EAP program he went to the United States and studied to get apilot’s license, his actual long-held dream. How canonical images of masculinities
become wound up in the co-construction of masculinity through conversation reveals
how true desire become displaced and frustrated when subjects take upon the task ofcreating public selves with objects of desire that are legitimated by dominant ideologies
and the subject positions that are created by them. I would argue that what Lacan (1998)
calls the fundamental fantasy is what is at the core of each of the man’s desire. For
243

Lacan, the subject is plagued by anxiety that his pleasure or enjoyment (jouissance) isnever enough; there is always tension between satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Just
when we think we possess our object of desire we feel that we are still dissatisfied.
Masculine structure of desire consists of turning the Other into an object (objet a) andmistakenly thinking that it can fully satisfy our desires.
In the discussion, Hiroyuki sums up what this desire is, namely to “addsomething” (purasu ni naru) to their lives. This idea of something missing returns
repeatedly throughout the conversation. Takayuki reveals that what he desires is to have
his work recognized by foreigners. In other words, not only does he want to be desiredby the Other in possessing something which the Other desires and will grab theirattention, but he also yearns for that to complete him and make him into his imaginary
image. Yasunari echoes this desire in a mutated way. Clearly Yasunari harbors a lot of
aggression toward his father whom he figures as directing his behavior. Recall, thatYasunari sees his father as both pushing him to study as well as at the same time ascommenting that Yasunari will give up. This object of desire, English, is thenappropriated by Yasunari as a way of taking power away from his father. They bothwant the same object of desire, but the father’s attempt at getting it is portrayed by
Yasunari as incomplete: his father will only ever be able to speak English as if it wereJapanese (i.e. with stereotypical Japanese pronunciation). Thus, Yasunari is caught in abind between desiring what his father wants (assuming the desires of the Other is aninevitable aspect of the formation of desire) and denying that object to his father. The
unresolved rivalry between Yasunari and his father and Yasunari’s inability to separate
from his father’s desire led Yasunari into a cycle of failure (conflict with father figures
such as his bosses at part-time jobs and his teachers) and violence. Eventually, Yasunari
left the school and never went to study abroad. Finally, Takayuki’s desire became
summed up in this dream he pulled out from the lexicon of hegemonic masculinity.
Conclusion
Obviously in an era when higher education is becoming increasingly accessible due tothe declining birth rate, educators will have to deal with increasingly diverse
populations of students. Moreover, as English is tied closely into the discourse of
globalization and overall improvement of tertiary education, it will be important tobetter understand the complex interrelationship of gender and the desire to acquire244

English. At the present, English and the particularly gendered desire to acquire English
is inextricably linked to the patriarchal society as it is reproduced within institutions,advertising and the media, and hegemonic masculinity is an integral part of theideological fabric of the culture and its reiteration through private discourse and lived
experience helps to ensure the reproduction of gender and class inequalities.
Biodata
Todd Squires is an associate professor in the Faculty of Law. His research interest is in
the social construction of gender and acquisition of foreign languages.
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York: Routledge.
Baker, S., & McIntyre, P. D. (2000). The role of gender and immersion incommunication and second language orientations. Language Learning, 50, 311-341.
Corbin, S. S., & Chiachiere, F. J. (1997). Attitudes toward and achievement in foreign
language study. Educational Research Quarterly, 21(1), 3-13.
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------------------------------------------------------Endnotes:
1

In psychoanalysis, aphanisis is the disappearance of sexual desire. Recall that in Lacan’s theory the
subject is constituted in the Imaginary Order precisely because she/he realizes that he/she has a lack thatprevents him/her from being a whole. Thus, without desire there can be no subject.
2

In the original Japanese, this verb could also mean “look cool” or “look great,” both of which echovarious opinions that all three men have expressed throughout the discussion.

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小学校英語：教科とコラボレート！	
 ～やさしい英語で教科をテーマに～	 Elementary school English: Collaborate English lessons with subject area themes	 	
 Nozomi Takano
Sophia University
Junko Kambara
Meikai University
Yoko Suzuki
Musashino University
Reference Data:
Takano T., Kambara, J., Suzuki, Y. (2012). Elementary school English: Collaborate
English lessons with subject area themes. In K. Bradford-Watts, R. Chartrand, & E.
Skier (Eds.), The 2011 Pan-SIG Conference Proceedings. Matsumoto: JALT.	
 Abstract
Since the beginning of 2011, the implementation of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports,
Science and Technology (MEXT) mandate for extensive, in-depth, elementary school English
Education in Japan's public schools has been taking place, the goals of which are "to foster
communication ability" and, in a larger sense, "to foster the attitude and capability required in a
global society." Actually, many elementary schools started their own communication-oriented,
English curricula, based on topics derived from everyday experience familiar to students before
2011. However, much pedagogical research has revealed that these programs are often
perceived by students as being too easy, boring, and irrelevant. As one respondent to aquestionnaire said, “it's boring when we do nothing but play games.” These studies also indicatethat the tendency for students not to take communicative English classes seriously increases as
they progress through their education.
As an answer to this problem, we suggest that “content” is the culprit, and should bechanged to keep pace with the cognitive development of the student. The underlining concept ofthese lesson plans is Content-Based Instruction (hereafter CBI) within the framework of foreign247

and second language teaching pedagogy. CBI is an instruction of teaching and learning content
through a foreign/second language in school settings. Pedagogically speaking, CBI can be
categorized as a subordinate pedagogy of Communicative Language Teaching (hereafter CLT),
both of which share a common concept: a language is most successfully learned when a learnercommits to understanding and communicating within a meaningful context. A focus of CLT ison interaction in communicative settings through a target language. For example, asking “Do
you like apples?” when a topic is favorite fruit or stating "I want to be a scientist,” in responseto the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” The purpose here is to enhance
student communicative competence and to familiarize them with those target sentences. On theother hand, a focus of CBI is on learning content through the target language rather thanlearning the language (English, in this case).
Considering the situation, however, it does not sound realistic to directly introduce CBIinto the Japanese public elementary school context. Needless to say, CBI instruction requires
particular teacher training and techniques in addition to the standard instructional knowledge ofteaching English as a foreign or second language. This means that it would be difficult to findteachers who can teach using a CBI approach. Thus, we created simplified content-related
lesson plans to extract some of the features of CBI so that any homeroom teacher would
consider them easy to do, and at the same time, students would learn subject matter throughEnglish. For example, students will not just learn expressions regarding their favorite fruit, butwill also learn what type of nutrients their favorite food has and what ingredients the foodcontains, or in what country the food is produced, etc. All of these topics and themes are either
selected from the elementary school 5th and 6th grade level textbooks, or chosen from relevant
themes to match their cognitive/grade levels. In this chapter, three lesson plans are introduced as
exemplars.
公立小学校の５・６年生の授業に、2011年度から正式に英語の授業が加わった。実際にはそれ以前からすでに英語活動を始めている小学校も多くあり、それらの多くでは日常的場面を想定したコミュニケーション重視の英語活動が主に行われている。筆者らは、学校の英語は簡単すぎる、ゲームや歌ばかりでつまらない、学年が上がるにつれて英語活動の質を変えていく必要がある、という現場からの声を聞き、高学年の英語の授業では、児童の知的なレベルに合った内容を盛り込まないと英語への興味を維持させることは難しいのではないかと考える。そこで、Content-Based Instructionにヒントを得て、シンプルな英語表現を学びながら、同時に高学年の教科内容についても理解を深めることが出来る指導案を作成した。これらは教科内容と英語活動をコラボレーションさせるこ

248

とによって、高学年で学ぶべきレベルの内容に設定されている。本稿ではその具体例を紹介し、３つのサンプル指導案を示す。	
 Keywords: Elementary school, content-based instruction, materials development

１．はじめに	 	 日本の公立小学校では 2011 年度から、５・６年生のカリキュラムに正式に英語の授業が加わった。文部科学省の指針によれば、「コミュニケーションの素地を養う」こと、
また「国際社会で求められる態度・能力の育成」がその大きな目標とされている（文部科学省、2008）。英語を教えるのは基本的に担任であるという方針であるため、高学年の担任教師からは、何をどうやって教えればこの目標にあった英語の授業ができるのか、といった困惑の声も聞こえている（ベネッセ教育研究開発センター、2010）。実際には2011 年度以前からすでに英語活動を始めている小学校も数多くあり、そのような小学校ではほぼ共通して児童の日常的場面を想定したコミュニケーション重視の英語活動が行われているようである（バトラー・後藤、2005）。しかし、原（2010）の報告によると、学校の英語活動は簡単すぎるとか、ゲームや歌ばかりでつまらないと感じている
児童もいて、特に一年から英語活動を行っているような学校では、高学年においてそれが顕著である。これを改善するためには、学年が上がるにつれて授業の「質」を変えていく必要があるのではないか、つまり、高学年の英語の授業ではより児童の知的なレベルに合った内容を盛り込まないと、児童の英語への興味を維持させることは難しいのではないかと考えられる。研究者らによると（例えば、Genesee, 1994; Grabe & Stoller,

1997;	
 渡辺＆池田＆和泉,	
 2011）、英語は学習者にとって「意味のある文脈」で使われるときに最も身につくとされるが、小学校で英語を教える際には、児童の認知的な発達が著しいという点を考慮に入れ、高学年にとっての「意味のある文脈」とは何かを考えることが必須となる。	
 そこで、筆者らは、内容重視教授法 Content-Based Instruction (CBI)にヒントを得て、日本の小学校高学年レベルに合わせた指導案と教材を作成した。本稿では、どのようにして CBI を日本の小学校英語に組み入れることが可能かを考察し、具体的に 20 個の指導案の例を示す。続いて、その 20 個の中から 3 つの指導案をサンプルとして紹介する。	
 	
 ２．内容重視教授法をどう取り入れるか	 
内容重視教授法 Content-Based Instruction (CBI)とは、広義には、学習者が教科などの内容を外国語・第二言語で学ぶことにより、その教科や内容について理解すると同時

249

にその外国語・第二言語をも学習する指導法である（Briton, Snow & Wesche, 2003,

Met, 1999）。CBI には、内容と言語のどちらに比重を置くかによって様々な形態があり、例えば、Total/partial immersion のような内容中心型(Content-Driven)では、言語より教科内容の学習の方が優先され、 Content-related FLES (Foreign Language in

Elementary Schools) programs のような言語中心型(Language-Driven)では、教科内容
より言語学習が優先される(Met, 1999)。CBI は、現行の小学校英語が多く取り入れて
い る コ ミ ュ ニ カ テ ィ ブ 	  ラ ン ゲ ー ジ 	  テ ィ ー チ ン グ Communicative Language

Teaching (CLT)の枠組み内にあり、意味のある内容を理解したり伝達したりするときに最も外国語が習得されるという考え方に基づいている点では共通している（和泉,	 2009;	 Wesche & Skehan, 2002）。CLT の特徴は、コミュニケーションの場面での言語使用を重視することで、例えば食べ物をテーマに	
 “Do you like apples?”	
 といった質問をしたり、将来の夢をテーマに	
 “I want to be a teacher.”	
 などと言う活動をする。ここでねらいとしているのは、会話能力をつけること、および、会話表現の習得である。これに対して、CBI では、教科の内容とその教科に関連した言語表現をコミュニケーショ
ンを通して同時に習得することに焦点があてられる。「英語を学ぶ」というより、「英語で学ぶ」という考え方である。従って、小学校で学ぶ児童にとっては、数字や計算式を使う算数、実験や観察から学ぶ理科、デモンストレーションやサンプルを見ながら習得する実技教科（家庭科、図工、体育等）は特にわかりやすく、最適な材料となり得る。	
 ただ、CBI をそのまま現在の公立小学校の英語活動に取り入れ、教科内容を英語で教えることは現実的にはなかなか難しい。第一に内容学習の指導を英語でできる教師の確保が困難である。第二に、教科内容（例えば小数の掛け算）を日本語でも理解していな
い児童になぜわざわざ英語で学ばせるのか、難しすぎるのではないか、という疑問が教師や保護者の間から出ることは必至である。実際、我々が小学校教師に CBI の導入を持ちかけるとまず投げかけられるのがこの疑問である。このような日本の小学校現場の現状を踏まえ我々は、シンプルな英語表現を学びながら、同時に高学年の教科内容についても理解を深めることが出来るような、CBI のエッセンスを取り入れた指導案を作成した。例えば、“Do you like apples?”と好きな食べ物について質問する表現を学んだ後に、その食べ物がどの食品群に属し、どんな栄養価があるのかという家庭科の内容とコラボレーションさせたり、その食べ物が日本のどの地方の農産物か、あるいはどんな国から輸入している食品かという社会科の内容とコラボレーションさせることによって、高学年で学ぶべきレベルの内容に設定した。現在 20 個の指導案を作成済みで、その目次を参考資料１に示す。	
 250

３．指導案サンプル	
 指導案はすべて、3 時限または４時限（１時限は 45 分）で完結するように構成されているが、進み具合や各クラスの状況等によって時限数を増やしたり、減らしたりすることも可能である。また、授業始まりの挨拶やハローソング、前回の復習、質問タイム
や終わりの挨拶など、毎回行う活動はそれぞれの教師のやり方に任せて、この指導案では割愛してある。本稿では、20 個の指導案の中から、「1 インチって何センチ？」、「聖徳太子はいつの時代の人？」、「これは誰の曲？」の 3 つをサンプルとして、簡略に以下に紹介する。実際の指導案には、児童の発話・教師の発話・準備すべき教材が示された
上、参考資料・指導上の注意点・難易度の調整例・練習のためのゲーム方法・ワークシ
ート・絵シート・フラッシュカードなどが添付されている。	
 	
 3-1「１インチって何センチ？」（6 年生向け） 	
 日本ではメートル法が使われてるが、身の回りには、ＴＶ画面や自転車や車のタイヤなど、インチで測られているものがある。この授業では児童が自分たちの腕の長さや手の大きさといった体の部位を測りながら、インチとセンチの関係を把握し、インチという長さの単位に馴染むことがねらいである。また、センチからインチに換算をするための小数の掛け算を英語で行い、英語での少数の言い方、掛け算式の言い方を学ぶ。目標
表現は、“My arm is twenty inches / fifty centimeters.”	
 (私の腕は 20 インチです/50 センチです。) “Two point five times two is five.” (2.5×2=5)で、目標語彙は、小数（zeropoint one [0.1]から ninety-nine point nine [99.9]まで）である。	
 授業の流れは、1 時限目に zero(0)から ninety-nine(99)までの整数を復習した後、少数の言い方 zero point one から ninety-nine point nine までを練習する。慣れてきたら、ワークシートを使って少数の掛け算を解き、“Two point five times two is five.”などと答え合わせをしながら、教師の後に続いて目標表現をリピートする。2 時限目は、インチで示される身近な品目例を見て日本でもインチが使用されていることを認識した後、周りの様々な物をインチとセンチで実際に測る活動をする。その際、インチとセンチの定規をそれぞれの児童が作成する。3 時限目は、2 時限目に作成したインチとセンチの定規を使って、自分たちの体の部位を測り、“My arm is twenty inches / fifty centimeters.”と言いながらワークシート（参考資料２参照）を埋める。４時限目は、まとめとして、少数の掛け算を英語で言いながら解く練習をし目標表現を定着させる。	
 	
 3-2「聖徳太子はいつの時代の人？」（6 年生向け）	
 日本の歴史を英語で説明できるようになることは、グローバル社会に生きる子供たち251

にとって大切なことだと考える。日本の歴史上の重要人物がどの時代に活躍したのかを知ることを内容学習のねらいとし、それを英語で言えるようになることと、He (彼)とShe (彼女)の意味を理解し使うことが出来るようになることが言語学習のねらいである。目標表現は、“This is Murasaki Shikibu. She lived in the Heian period.” (これは紫式部です。平安時代の人です。)で、目標語彙は、時代名（the Asuka period [飛鳥時代],

the Edo period [江戸時代] など）である。	
 授業の流れは、1 時限目に英語で時代名の言い方を練習する。絵カードを見ながら、
例えば	 “This is Horyu-ji. What period is this?” (これは法隆寺です。何時代ですか？)という質問に、“The Asuka period.” (飛鳥時代です。)と答える。2 時限目は、歴史上の人物のカードを見ながら、“This is Tokugawa Ieyasu. Did he live in the Heian period or

the Edo period?” (これは徳川家康です。平安時代の人ですか、江戸時代の人ですか。)というやり取りで目標表現を練習する。3 時限目は、教師が“This is Himiko. She lived in

the Yoyoi period.” (これは卑弥呼です。弥生時代の人です。)と言って卑弥呼のカードを黒板の右側に貼り、“This is Shotoku Taishi. He lived in the Asuka period.” (これは聖徳太子です。飛鳥時代の人です。)と言って聖徳太子のカードを黒板の左側に貼る。他にも、女性のカードを右に男性のカードを左に貼って、He と She の違いに気付かせる。
4 時限目は、インフォメーションギャップゲーム（参考資料３参照）などを行いながら、
目標表現を定着させる。	
 	
 3-3「これは誰の曲？」（5・6 年生向け）	
 音楽鑑賞をしながら、世界で有名な歴代の作曲家の名前と代表作を学ぶ。また、クラシック音楽以外にも、児童に人気のある流行曲や、教師の思い出の曲なども加えながら楽しく音楽鑑賞を行うことが内容学習のねらいである。同時に、音楽ジャンルについて認識し、それを英語で言えるようになることと、make (作る)の過去形 made (作った)と do (する)の過去形 did (した)が使えるようになることが言語学習のねらいである。目
標表現は、“Who made this?“ (これは誰が作りましたか。)という質問文と、それに対する答え“Taro did.“ (太郎君です。)で、目標語彙は、音楽ジャンル（classical music [クラシック音楽], rock'n roll music[ロックンロール]など）である。	
 授業の流れは（参考資料４参照）、1 時限目に“I made this. Taro made this. Who madethis? Jiro did?” (これは私が作りました。これは太郎君が作りました。これは誰が作りましたか。次郎君ですか。)という教師とのやり取りから目標表現を理解する。続いて、最近人気の音楽を聴き、誰の曲かをあてる。例えば、「Home」を聴いて、“Who made this?”という質問に“Angela Aki did.”(アンジェラ・アキです。)と答える。2 時限目は、ベー252トーベン、シューベルトなどの歴代作曲家とその代表作「運命」「Ave Maria」などを一致させた後、イントロゲーム（例えば、「ジャジャジャジャーン」と歌って“Who madethis?”ときき “Beethoven did.”と答える）で目標表現を定着させる。3 時限目は、2 時限目に学んだクラシック音楽を聴き目標表現の復習をした後 classical music、次に「ハリーポッターと謎のプリンス」のテーマ曲や「もののけ姫」等人気アニメのサントラ等
を聴き sound track music と、目標語彙を練習する。時間的に余裕がある場合には 4 時
限目として、世界の民族音楽を聴いてどこの国の音楽かを当てる活動を加えても楽しい。
また目標表現を“Who composed this music?”(これは誰が作曲しましたか。)に置き換えたりして、目標表現の難易度を調整することも可能である。
	
 ４ ． お わ り に 	
 以上、教科内容と英語活動をコラボレーションさせた指導案を紹介した。これらの指導案は多くの小学校現場で試し、改善し、より効果的で使いやすいものにしていく必要がある。具体的な課題としては、以下が挙げられる。(a)内容を充実させようとすると語彙の難易度が上がり過ぎたり、日常語からかけ離れたものが混ざってしまうことがある、(b)英語表現を教科内容に合わせると複雑な文になってしまったり、逆に単純な英語表現を使うと不自然なものとなってしまうことがある、そして(c)教科についての知識が浅い教師が授業を行うと、活動が一般的なコミュニケーション重視の英語活動と変
わらなくなってしまうことがある。今後これらの問題を様々な角度から考察し、出来るだけ平易な英語表現を用いて、内容についての知識を得たり思考したりできるような指導案にしていくことを目標とする。また、我々が作成したこれらの指導案を参考に、現場の教師自身が独自の環境に合ったオリジナルの指導案を作成できるよう、ティーチャートレーニングにも力をいれていきたい。	
 	 Biodata
Nozomi Takano, Junko Kambara, and Yoko Suzuki are members of the Kyocola Study
Group, which studies Content-Based Instruction methods/materials for Japaneseelementary school English classes.
	
 
参考文献	
 
和泉伸一	
 (2009)『「フォーカス・オン・フォーム」を取り入れた新しい英語教育』	
  東
京：	
 
大修館書店	
 253

原真奈美	 (2010)	
 教育の現場から.	
 ベネッセ教育研究開発センター.	
 第２回小学校英語に関する基本調査（教員調査）,	
 第一部,	
 解説提言４	  情報取得日 2011 年 8 月
31 日 http://benesse.jp/berd/center/open/report/syo_eigo/2010/pdf/data_04.pdf
バトラー・後藤・裕子（2005）『日本の小学校英語を考える―アジアの視点からの検証と提言』	
  東京：三省堂	
 ベネッセ教育研究開発センター	 (2010)	
 第２回小学校英語に関する基本調査（教員調査）
情報取得日 2011 年 8 月 31 日	
  http://benesse.jp/berd/center/open/report/ syo_eigo/

2010/index.html
文部科学省（2008）小学校学習指導要領解説	
  外国語活動編	
  情報取得日 2011 年 8 月
31

日	
 

http://www.mext.go.jp/component/a_menu/education/micro_detail/__icsFiles/
afieldfile/2009/06/16/1234931_012.pdf
渡辺良典、池田真、和泉真一	
 (2011)『CLIL（内容言語統合型学習）上智大学外国語教
育の新たなる挑戦,	
 第１巻	
  原理と方法』	
  東京：上智大学出版	
 Brinton, D. M., Snow, M. A., & Wesche, M. B. (2003). Content-based second language
instruction. Michigan Classics Edition. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan
Press.
Genesee, F. (1994). Integrating Language and Content: Lessons from Immersion.
NCRCDSLL Educational Practice Reports. Center for Research on Education,
Diversity and Excellence, UC Berkeley. Retrieved August 31, 2011, fromhttp://escholarship.org/uc/item/61c8k7kh
Grabe, W. & Stoller, F. L. (1997). Content-based instruction: Research foundations. In
M. A. Snow, & D. M. Brinton (Eds.), The content-based classroom: Perspectives
on integrating language and content (pp. 5-21). NY: Longman.
Met. M. (1999). Content-based instruction: Defining terms, making decisions. NFLC
Reports. Washington, DC: The National Foreign Language Center. Retrieved Nov.
19,

2011,

from

http://www.carla.umn.edu/cobaltt/modules/principles/decisions.html
Wesche, M.B. & Skehan, P. (2002). Communicative, task-based, and content-based
language instruction. In Kaplan, R.B. (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of applied
linguistics, (pp.207-228). New York:Oxford University Press.

254

参考資料１	
 （参考資料 1－4 では、ターゲットとする英語の日本語訳は省略する）	
 
	
 
１．

国語「漢字の部首は何？」	
  目標表現：“Can you make a word?” →“Yes, I can.

/ No, I can’t.”	
  目標語彙：person, hand, tree, car, shell など漢字の部首	
 ２．

算数「計算ピラミッド、できるかな？」	
  目標表現：“What’s nine plus eight?”→“It’s seventeen.”	
  目標語彙：99 までの整数	
 ３．

算数「1 インチって何センチ？」	
  目標表現：“My hand is five inches / thirteen

centimeters.”	
  “Two point five times two is five.”	
  目標語彙：99.9 までの少数	
 ４．

算数「展開図を探せ！」	
  目標表現：“Is this a cube, too?” →“Yes, it is. / No, it

isn’t.”	
  目標語彙：立体、身の回りの物	 ５．

理科「どっちが重い？」	
  目標表現：“Which is heavier, the pen or the pencil?”→“The pen is heavier.”	
  目標語彙：文房具	
 ６．

理科「月を観察してみよう！」	
  目標表現：“What moon phase is this?” →“It’sa full moon.”	
  目標語彙：月の形	 ７．

理科「火星に月は何個あるかな？」	
  目標表現：“How many moons are there?”→“There are two moons.”	
  目標語彙：惑星	
 ８．

理科「卵を産むの？」	
  目標表現：“Frogs lay eggs. True or false?” →“It’s true.”	
 目標語彙：動物	 ９．

社 会 「 北 海 道 で は 何 が で き る か な ？ 」 	
  目 標 表 現 ： “What does Hokkaido

produce?” →“Onions.”	
  目標語彙：野菜・果物	
 １０．社会「すしネタはどこから来るの？」	
  目標表現：“Where is this from?” →“From

Croatia.”	
  目標語彙：魚介類名	
 １１．社会「地球規模で住んでいるところを見てみよう！」	
  目標表現：“Asakusa is inTokyo. Tokyo is in Japan. Japan is in Asia.”	
  目標語彙：大陸名	
 １２．社会「世界遺産をたずねよう！」	
  目標表現：“Where do you want to go?” →“Iwant to go to the Taj Mahal in lndia.”	
  目標語彙：世界遺産と国名	 １３．社会「聖徳太子はいつの時代の人？」	
  目標表現：“He lived in the Asuka period.”	
 目標語彙：時代名	
 １４．社会「日本の地形を知ろう！」	
  目標表現：“Have you been to the Lake Biwa?”→“Yes, I have./No, I haven’t.”	
  目標語彙：地形	
 １５．家庭科「どんなものを食べているんだろう？」	
  目標表現：“Do you like tofu?”→“Yes, I do./No, I don’t./So-so.” “Which group is tofu?” →“Yellow group.”目
255

標語彙：食品	 １６．家庭科「お掃除、やってみよう！」	
  目標表現：“Let’s sweep the floor.” →“OK!”	
 目標語彙：教室の備品	
 １７．図工「色を組み合わせて飾りを作ろう！」	
  目標表現：“What is the color if you

mix red and yellow?” →“It’s orange.”	
  目標語彙：色	
 １８．図工「絵の感想を言ってみよう！」	
  目標表現：“What do you think of this picture?”→“I think it’s beautiful.”	
  目標語彙：感情を表す形容詞	 １９．体育「ボールゲームを楽しもう！」	
  目標表現：“Nice batting! Good job! Catch!

Stop!”	  目標語彙：スポーツの動詞	 ２０．音楽「これは誰の曲？」	
  目標表現：“Who made this?” →“Taro did.”	
  目標語
彙：音楽のジャンル	
 256

参考資料２	
 How many inches?

How many centimeters?

Let’s measure!

体の部分をインチとセンチではかってみよう！	
 	
 Name（	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  ）	
 
	
 
友達と体の部分の長さをはかりっこしてみよう！はかったら、インチとセンチで記入しましょう。	
  （手や足以外にも、首	 neck、頭	 head、髪の毛	
 hair、ウエスト waist な
ど、色々な部分の長さや幅をはかってみよう！）	
 	
 My arm isinches/centimeters.
257参考資料３
聖徳太子はいつの時代の人？	
 
	
 

Name	
  （	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  ）
友達に質問して、歴史上の人 物 名 とその人が生 き た 時 代 名 をうめましょう。
聞き方：	  “Who is this?”
答え方：	  “This is Himiko. She lived in the Yoyoi period.”

人物名：

人物名：

人物名：

Himiko
生きた時代：

Ganjin
生きた時代：The Yayoi period

人物名：

生きた時代：The Nara period

人物名：	
  	
  	
 

人物名：

Minamoto Yoritomo
生きた時代：

生きた時代：The Kamakura period

258

生きた時代：

人物名：

人物名：

人物名：

生きた時代：

生きた時代：

Oda Nobunaga	
  	
  	
 
生きた時代：The Azuchi-Momoyama period

イラスト	  蒲原青子259

参考資料４	
 指導案サンプル(抜粋)	
 	
 「これは誰の曲？」	
 対象	
  ５年生、６年生	  	  	
  関連教科	
  音楽	
  	
  	
  時限数	
  ４５分×３回	
 ねらい	
 １．有名な作曲家の名前と代表作を一致させることができる。	
 ２．音楽ジャンルの種類を知り、英語で言える。	
 ３．Made と did を使って、“Who made this?” “Taro did.”のようなやり取りができる。	
 
目標語彙	
 
音楽ジャンル：classical music(クラシック音楽),	
 rock'n roll music(ロックンロール),	 soundtrack music(映画音楽),	
 POP music(ポピュラー音楽)	
 
目標表現	
 

“Who made this?”	
 (これは誰が作りましたか。)	
 →	
 “Taro did.”	
 (太郎君です。)	
 
授業の流れ	
 1 時限目：目標表現の意味を理解し、質問に答えられる。音楽鑑賞をする。	
 
児童	
 

教師	
 

準備する物	
 目標表現を練習

目標表現を導入する。	
 

手作りの物、する。	
 自分の手作りの物を見せ、”I made this.”と言う。

図工の作品

	
 

太郎の作った工作を見せ、”Taro made this.”と言う。	
 

など	
 

	
 

次郎の作った工作を見せ、”Who made this?”ときく。

“Jiro?” と 答 え 	
 る。

“Oh, Jiro did?”と次郎に確認する。

	
 

	
 

次 郎 :“Yes.” と“OK. Jiro made this.”と言う。

答える。	
 

同様に他の児童が作った工作を見せ、誰の物かをきく。	
 音楽を聴く。	
 スマップの「世界に一つだけの花」をかけ、“ Do you CD&CD ﾌﾟﾚ“SMAP!” と 答 know this song? Who is singing?”ときく。

ｰﾔｰ、又はえる。

	
 

PC&Youtube“Yes. Who made this?”ときく。

作家のﾎﾟｽﾀｰ“Makihara?” とや CD ｶﾊﾞｰな260

“Yes. Makihara did.”と答える。

答える。

ど	
 

アンジェラ・アキの「Home」をかけ、“Who made this?”“Angela Aki?” ときく。 	
 “Yes, Angela Aki did.”と did を強調して did を付けると答える。

“AngelaAki ことに気付かせ、リピートさせる。	
 did.”とリピート ハリー・ポッターの映画音楽をかけ、“Who made this?”
する。

ときく。	
 

“Harry Potter!”

ジョンウイリアムズの写真をみせながら“Yes. John

“John Williams Williams did.”と言う。
did.” と リ ピ ートする。	
 同様にして、児童に人気のある曲を使って練習する。	
 ２時限目：目標表現を使える。クラシック音楽家とその代表作を一致させられる。
児童

教師

準備する物

作曲家名と肖像画の顔をﾍﾞｰﾄｰﾍﾞﾝ、ｼｭｰﾍﾞﾙﾄ、ﾓｰﾂｧﾙﾄ、ﾁｬｲｺﾌｽｷｰの作曲家の肖一致させる。

肖像画を見せ、作曲家の名前を導入する。 像画・写真（作曲家名の発音には重点をおかない）

ﾌﾗｯｼｭｶｰﾄﾞ

作曲家名と代表作品を知「運命」の頭の部分をかける。その後、“ｼﾞCD&CD ﾌﾟﾚる。

ｬｼﾞｬｼﾞｬｼﾞｬｰﾝ”と歌って、 “Who made ｰﾔｰ、又はthis?”と質問する。（答えが出てこなけれ PC&Youtube
ばﾍﾞｰﾄｰﾍﾞﾝの肖像画を見せてヒントを与“Beethoven did.” と 答 え

える。）

	
 

る。
「Ave Maria」の最後の部分をかける。"
ｱｰﾍﾞﾏﾘｰｰｱ”と歌って、“Who made this?”“Schubert did.”と答える。 ときく。

「白鳥の湖」の頭の部分をかける。"ﾀｰﾗﾗ“Tchaikovsky did.”と答え

ﾗﾗﾗｰﾗﾗｰ“と歌って、“Who made this?”と

る。

きく。

「トルコ行進曲」の頭の部分をかける。”“Mozart did.”と答える。

ﾀﾗﾗﾗﾗﾝ	  ﾀﾗﾗﾗﾗﾗﾝ	
  ﾀﾗﾗﾗ	  ﾗﾗﾗﾗﾗﾗﾗﾗﾗﾝ”と261

歌って、“Who made this?”ときく。
目標表現を練習する。

“ｼﾞｬｼﾞｬｼﾞｬｼﾞｬｰﾝ.”と歌う。

“ｼﾞｬｼﾞｬｼﾞｬｼﾞｬｰﾝ”とリピートする。
“Beethoven made this.”と言う。
“Beethoven made this.”とリピートする。
“ｱｰﾍﾞﾏﾘｰｰｱ”と歌う。
"ｱｰﾍﾞﾏﾘｰｰｱ”とリピートする。
“Schubert made this.”と言う。
“Schubert made this.”とリピートする。
同様に、「白鳥の湖」とﾁｬｲｺﾌｽｷｰ、「トルコ行進曲」とﾓｰﾂｱﾙﾄも行う。
イントロゲームをする。
“Who made this? ｼﾞｬｼﾞｬｼﾞｬｼﾞｬｰﾝ.”とき“Beethoven did!” と 答 えく。

る。
同様に他の曲もメロディーを歌って行う。
グループでイントロゲー

4 人位のグループを作る。

ムをする。
ﾘｰﾀﾞｰ：“Who made this?
ｼﾞｬｼﾞｬｼﾞｬｼﾞｬｰﾝ”
ｸﾞﾙｰﾌﾟ：“Beethoven did.”同様にして他の曲も行う。
リーダー役を途中で交代させる。

262

Speaking fluency across performances of the 3/2/1 activity
Alex Wright
J.F. Oberlin University

Reference data
Wright, A. (2012). Speaking fluency across performances of the 3/2/1 activity. In K.
Bradford-Watts, R. Chartrand, & E. Skier (Eds.), The 2011 Pan-SIG Conference
Proceedings. Matsumoto: JALT.

Abstract
There has been to date insufficient research on improving fluency in terms of learning a new
language. Studies have been undertaken to examine whether reading fluency can be improved
with instruction but despite the success of these experiments no similar studies have been
performed with regard to improving spoken fluency. The following study measured theimprovement in fluency of one learner in terms of words per minute spoken and number offilled pauses over 10 performances of a 3/2/1 repeated talk task. All of the talks were recorded
and then transcribed for later analysis. The result was that the student’s number of words spoken
increased substantially and the number of filled pauses decreased substantially. These findings
indicate that oral fluency can be improved with appropriate instruction and are consistent withsimilar studies on reading fluency.
新たに言語を学んでいく上での流暢さについての研究はまだまだ不足している。指導を受けることによって、外国語を読解力が向上するということについての調査は為されているが、話す能力についての同様の調査は為されていない。下記の調査では、一人の外国語学習者を取り上げて、十回に渡り、３、２、１の会話タスクを行った。一分間に話す言葉の数と、フィラー（言葉と言葉の間に入る沈黙）の数について改善が見られうるかを示している。調査中の会話はすべて後で分析できるように録音し、話された言葉はすべて記録した。結果として、被験者の話す単語の数は劇的に向上し、沈黙の数は劇的に減少した。この結果は口語での流暢さは、読解力の向上の調査結果と同様に、適切な指導のもとでは改善されるということを示している。

Keywords: Vocabulary, fluency, Extensive Reading263

Fluency is a little understood phenomenon in second language acquisition. It can be
defined as the “ability to fill time with talk” (Fillmore, 1979). It can be said that learners
demonstrate fluency when they speak with ease and without holding up the flow of talk(Nation & Newton, 2009). A study by Rossiter (2009) into the nature of listener’s
perception of fluency indicates that these may be fair definitions. Her study found that
¾ of raters’ negative ratings of speaker’s fluency were owing to hesitations and slow
rate of speech. Many hesitations indicate that a speaker has difficulty in formulating
their message, and a slow rate of speech holds up the flow of communication. Rossiter’s
study also indicates that although aspects such as speed and number of hesitations aremost important to ratings of fluency, there are other factors involved, including
accuracy and, most importantly, pronunciation. Although fluency is not limited tospeech rate and pauses, increasing rate of speech and reducing pauses can greatly
contribute to perceptions of fluency.
There are several reasons why learners and teachers should care about fluency.
One obvious reason to care about fluency is that a fluent speaker will be able tocommunicate their message faster. Fluency skill may also reduce stress in delivery as
well as create positive feelings of mastery. Lee (1999) suggests that one reason students
may not participate in class may be because, rather than lacking motivation, they lackfluency in English and feel insecure about speaking. In addition to these factors spoken
fluency can help keep listeners engaged (Rossiter, 2009) and may direct listenerattention away from deficiencies in other areas (Lennon, 1990). Fluency may be key tolistener perception of the speaker’s language skill as well as important for maintaining
social relationships by maintaining the interest of the listener. For all these reasons thewriter believes that the development of fluency is a vital aspect of foreign language
instruction.
If fluency is important than how do students achieve it? There are threefactors that are believed important for an activity in order to develop a learner’s fluency.
The first is that the activity should be meaning focused, that is to say, the learner’sinterest is in the communication of a message. The second qualification is that thelanguage items and ideas involved in the activity are all within the learner’s previous
experience. The final qualification is that the activity pushes learners to perform at ahigher than normal level of performance (Nation & Newton, 2009). A study of reading
fluency demonstrated that it is possible to improve learner’s reading fluency over time.
264

Learners participated in reading, which fulfilled the above criteria, and improved theirreading speed by an average of 52% (Chung & Nation, 2006). These gains were steadyover a period of weeks and made with less than 3 hours of time spent on the actual
activity of speed-reading.

It seems likely, based on this study, that improvement influency is possible for the other skills of speaking, listening, and writing if appropriate
training is applied.
This study investigates the 3/2/1 activity, which is a variant of the 4/3/2
activity first developed by Maurice (1983).

In performing the activity students are

assigned a topic to speak about and then given a few minutes to organize their thoughts
without taking notes. The students must then speak about the given topic for 4 minutes.
The learners then repeat their talk to someone else in only 3 minutes, and finally repeat
it in 2 minutes. This activity is designed to promote speaking fluency and meets thecriteria for fluency development as described above. The activity is meaning focused
because the speaker is trying to communicate a message to the listener. The language iswithin the learner’s previous experience because they know about the topic and have
had time to prepare prior to speaking. The fact that each delivery must be done withincreasing speed pushes the learners to higher levels of performance.
Research on he 4/3/2 activity has shown that this activity has a lot of potential
to improve fluency. In a study of 6 learners, increases in rate of speech were recorded
from the first telling to the third telling (Nation, 1989). The increases in speed ranged
from 4 to 77 percent. The study also found modest increases in accuracy from the firstdelivery to the third delivery. A larger study of 20 subjects showed similar findings.
Rate of speech from the first delivery to the last delivery increased by an average of
21.5% and the number of hesitations per 100 words decreased by 22% (Arevart &Nation, 1991). The 4/3/2 activity is clearly effective in increasing fluency from delivery
to delivery of the same material. What remains to be seen is if this activity produces
gains over time, extending beyond the single activity. This study aims to discover if
gains in fluency from activities like the 4/3/2 activity can carry over between separate
performances of the activity.
MethodThe participant in the study was a 24-year-old Japanese woman. She currently lives
with her boyfriend who is British and uses English to communicate with him but not for265

anything else. She has not undertaken any formal assessment of her English in the last 5
years but she completed a fashion course at a university in England. Although shecompleted the coursework for her course in English, she did not receive any formal
English language training at university. In talking with the participant it is clear that she
cannot speak with a high degree of fluency and grammatical accuracy but is fully
capable of communicating what she is thinking. A holistic evaluation of her language
ability based on speaking to her would put her in the upper intermediate range.
The activity chosen in order to improve the participant’s fluency was the 3/2/1
activity. The 3/2/1 activity is the same as the 4/3/2 activity except that instead of 4
minutes then 3 minutes then 2 minutes, the learner has 3 minutes then 2 minutes then 1
minute to deliver their talk. The 3/2/1 activity was selected for this study because it wasconsidered an excellent activity for improving fluency. In evaluating a task for fluency,
3 criteria must be considered (Nation 2009). The first is that the activity must be
meaning focused, and the 3/2/1 activity is meaning focused because the learner iscommunicating a story to a listener. The second criterion is that the activity involves
language items known to the learner. In the case of this experiment, the difficulty of thelanguage required was well within the learner’s knowledge. The third criterion is that
there is pressure for the learner to go faster. The 3/2/1 activity provides pressure for thelearner to tell their story faster and faster, so it meets this criterion.
The 3/2/1 activity was chosen over the 4/3/2 activity because it was felt that 4
minutes was too long to talk about the material provided. The 3/2/1 activity was also
selected because completion of the story was not relevant to the evaluation of thelearner’s performance in this study and so it was not a problem if the learner ran out oftime.
The texts used for this experiment were the first 10 of the 25 speed-reading texts
designed to improve student reading speeds (Quinn, Nation, & Millet 2007). These texts
were chosen because they were written within the first 1000 most common words of the
English language and so were well within the language ability of the participant. The
texts were also chosen because they were of the same length—550 words. The
uniformity of length and difficulty were thought to be important to the design of thisstudy. If the participant delivered a talk on a text significantly harder or longer thananother, their fluency might vary because of the nature of the text rather than theirability.
266

The experiment was administered over 3 sessions over the course of 3 weeks.
The first 2 sessions were 1 hour in length and covered 4 texts each. The final follow up
session was 30 minutes long and covered 2 texts. In administering the experiment theparticipant was given a text to read and was instructed that they would be asked tosummarize the text 3 times in decreasing time intervals. The participant was given 8
minutes to read the text and prepare to speak about the text. The participant was allowed
to take notes and was provided with scratch paper, but was not allowed to look at theirnotes during the actual summary of the story to ensure that it was being composed inreal time. The participant summarized each text 3 times: first for 3 minutes, next for 2
minutes, and finally for 1 minute. The participant was not stopped at any time during
the delivery of their summary and no interaction took place between the participant andthe instructor during the summary. All summaries were recorded on a high quality
digital recorder.
All of the texts were transcribed, including filled pauses. The texts were thenmeasured according to 2 criteria. The first criterion for analysis was the number ofwords spoken. This was then used to calculate number of words spoken per minute.
False starts, where the learner said one or several words and then started over, were also
taken into account. Words which were part of a false start were not included in thenumber of words spoken. The second criterion for analysis was number of filled pauses.
Whenever the student said something like “um” or “uh,” it was counted as a filled
pause.
Results
The following are the results of the analysis of the transcripts. Information on the
average number of words per minute for each telling of the summary is included aswell as information on the number of words per minute spoken as well as filled pauses
for each delivery of the summary.

267

85

Words per minute

80
75
70
65
60
55
50
1

2

3

Performance #Figure 1.1 Average words per minute for each telling of the summary
As we can see from the graph the average number of words per minuteincreased greatly for later performances of the summary of the text. In the one minutetelling of the text the participant spoke an average of 80.6 words per minute comparedto the first telling where the participant spoke an average of 65.62 words per minute.
That is an improvement of nearly 23% in speed.

120

Words per minute

110
100
90
1st
2nd
3rd

80
70
60
50
40
1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Text #

Figure 1.2 Words per minute spoken on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd delivery of each text summary
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The chart above shows that for each delivery of the summary, the learner’sscores improved from the first to the final text. The graph shows that although the trend
is for improvement overall, there are some deliveries varying greatly from the trend.
From the first to the last text for the first performance, rate of speech increased from61.67 words per minute to 75.1 words per minute, which is an improvement of about
22%. From the first to the last text for the second performance, rate of speech increased
from 62.5 words per minute to 97.5 words per minute, an improvement of 56%. From
the first to the final text for the third performance, rate of speech increased from 67
words per minute to 96 words per minute, an improvement of 43%.

Filled pauses per 100 words

14
12
10
8

1st
2nd
3rd

6
4
2
0
1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Text #

Figure 1.3 Number of filled pauses per 100 words on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd delivery of eachtext summary
Figure 1.3 shows that the number of filled pauses per 100 words spoken
decreased from the first to the final text. Although the trend shown by the graph istoward fewer pauses, the number of pauses per 100 words is erratic from the first to thefinal text, with sudden increases and drops. From the first to the last text for the first
performance, the number of filled pauses/100 words decreased from 9.73 to 6.7, adecrease of about 31%. From the first to the last text for the second performance, thenumber of filled pauses/100 words decreased from 8.8 to 4.1, a decrease of about 53%.
From the first to the last text for the third performance the number of filled pauses/100
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words decreased from 5.97 to 2.08, a decrease of about 65%.
Discussion
The results of this study confirm that fluency improves upon repeated delivery of thesame talk. The results of a previous study indicate that words per minute increase by
21.5% after repeated deliveries (Arevart and Nation 1991). This study found that words
per minute increased by an average of 23% after a third telling, which is similar to the
speed increase described by Arevart and Nation. This indicates that students will likely
improve their speaking speed by around 20 percent by the time they retell a story twice.
When learners retell a story, they have become familiar with the ideas they are going to
express, so they only have to deal with the language in order to express their ideas. It is
more difficult to speak fluently when you must think about what you are going to say inaddition to how you are going to say it.
The research question was “Can fluency gains from a repeated telling activity
like 4/3/2 within an activity carry over to future activities?” The results indicate that theanswer is yes. Both indicators of fluency, words per minute and filled pauses, showed
improved performance by the final text. Although the participant improved on
performance in delivering a summary of a text for the 3/2/1 activity, it does not seem
likely that the participant could improve her actual speaking fluency so drastically oversuch a short period of instruction. The increases in fluency may have been a result ofeither increased confidence with the task, or increased familiarity with the task. The
student may have improved her strategies for organizing her ideas before she spoke,
which would lead to improved fluency. Summary of a text is a specific task, and thelanguage required to summarize a text is, consequently, not representative of all
language. Summarizing a text may involve somewhat limited grammatical forms andexpressions compared to the general use of English. It is possible that the learner wasable to improve her fluency of the use of the forms required to summarize a text,
leading to improved fluency.
The improvements the student made were not smooth increases but were
somewhat erratic. There are two possibilities for this. One is that performance variables
like concentration and confidence varied between deliveries. The other is that the natureof the task was more demanding for some deliveries and less demanding for others. If
the second possibility were true, it would mean that some texts were more difficult than270others, or that the student had more background knowledge of some texts. However,this does not seem very likely, because there is a large variability of performance within
the same text. Sometimes one performance of a text spikes down when the otherperformances of the same text remain high. If some texts were indeed more difficult, orthe student had less background knowledge of them, we would expect scores for all
performances to be decreased. The fact that spiking improvements or decreases influency were not constant for all performances of a text indicates that performancevariables like concentration varied between deliveries.
This study has limited generalizability because of the scope of the study. The
study did not collect enough data points to be statistically significant. In order for the
results of this study to be generalizable more participants would be necessary. If thisstudy were repeated with more participants it would be helpful if the participants were
measured over a longer period of time. Due to the strong variability of performancefrom delivery to delivery, it would be necessary to collect data from many different
times in order to ensure that improvements were not a result of other variables not
relevant to the experiment.
A further limitation of this study is that the participant delivered the same talk tothe same audience member three times. In an ideal situation, the participant would
deliver the same talk to three different audience members in order to improve the
incentive of the speaker to focus on communicating their message. Future studies
should take this into account where possible.
Further research is necessary to improve our understanding of fluency. The
nature of fluency and how it develops has not been well researched up to now. A larger
study is needed to confirm that fluency gains from one activity can carry over to othersimilar activities. It would be also interesting to see whether fluency focused training
can improve a student’s fluency in a wide variety of situations, or whether fluency gains
tend to remain only in the type of activity in which the students are trained. It has beensuggested that fluency development activities should meet the criterion proposed by
Nation (2009). Further research is imperative to determine if activities meeting thesequalifications can improve fluency across a range of situations better than activities that
do not meet these qualifications.

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Conclusion
Fluency is still a poorly understood phenomenon. Previous studies have shown thatfluency can be reliably improved for reading speed (Chung & Nation, 2006) but nostudies have shown if speaking fluency can be reliably improved over time. The resultsof this study indicate that the participant improved her performance in terms of words
per minute and number of filled pauses from the first to the final text.
Possible factors contributing to these results include: increased confidence,
improved planning strategies, increased familiarity with the activity, or improved accessto the necessary vocabulary and grammatical structures. It is not possible to rule out thepossibility that any improvements in fluency observed over the course of this study
were the result of variables, such as amount of rest or the ability to concentrate,irrelevant to actual improvements in language ability.
Further research into fluency is necessary in order to properly understand how it
develops. The results of research into reading fluency and the results of this study
suggest that fluency gains in speaking in one activity can transfer to future
performances of a similar activity, but without further research, it is impossible toknow.
BiodataAlex Wright is an instructor at J.F. Oberlin University and Jissen woman's University.
He earned his M.S.Ed TESOL degree at Temple University Japan.
References
Arevart, S., & Nation, I.S.P (1991). Fluency improvement in a second language. RELC
Journal, 22(1), 84-94.
Chung, M., & Nation, I.S.P. (2006). The effect of a speed reading course. English
Teaching, 61(4), 181-204.
Fillmore, C. J. (1979). On fluency. In C.J. Fillmore, D. Kepler, & W.S-J. Wang, (Eds.),
Individual Differences in Language Ability and Language Behavior. New York:
Academic Press.
Lee, G. (1999). Positively interdependent: Developing oral fluency via task design.
JALT Applied Materials: Cooperative Learning. (117-125). Tokyo: Japan Association
for Language Teaching.
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Lennon, P. (1990). Investigating fluency in EFL: a quantitative approach. Language
Learning, 40, 387-417.
Maurice, K. (1983). The fluency workshop. TESOL Newsletter 17(4), 29.
Nation, I.S.P. (1989). Improving speaking fluency. System 17(3), 377-384.
Nation, I.S.P., & Newton, J. (2009). Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking. New
York: Routledge.
Quinn, E., Nation, I.S.P., and Millett, S. (2007). Asian and Pacific Speed Readings for
ESL Learners. English Language Institute Occasional Publication No. 24. Wellington,
New Zealand: University of Wellington School of Linguistics and Applied Language
Studies. Retrieved from<victoria.ac.nz/lals/about/staff/publications/paul-nation/Speed-reading-whole.pdf>.
Rossiter, M. (2009) Perceptions of L2 fluency by Native and non-native speakers ofEnglish. The Canadian Modern Language Review 65(3), 395-412.
Appendix 1: Sample transcriptions, 2 of 10 parts
Part 1, Performance 1, 3 minutes
It was a one of one of um..village story uh in pacific ocean in somewhere island in
pacific ocean um the first para paragraphtalking about um the climate and weather isquite warm place and from april to November no no less rain and and sometimes cold
wa cold wind but still warm warm place and al um so many islands in the pacific ocean
but uh the uh al almost people come from asia because of them uh them similarity ofthem la language and the second from second paragraph they focus on a day of one ofvillage, we don’t know bacific uh ba specific place but and the they talking about view
first like um it um began in the morning and sun go up and sun go up and in and uhmans goes fishing and babies lay down in the in the shade and womens washing clothes
and uh and talking about food sometimes uh going to fishing means they are eating fish
and they have got have got lots of garden making vegetables and in uh in house ahold… old ladies talking with baby and talking and the babies lady lay down next ofthem and on 12 oclock in the sun is really high and temperature gets highest point andpeople people escape to shade in the house and fisherman comes comes back from sea
and put down all um fishes they got, and they going to finish

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Performance 2, 2 minutes
its its about life in pacifics ocean, one of

one of pacific ocean village the uh thatvillage located in uh pacific ocean. Pacific ocean have got so many um so many island
but they used to belong in asia because of their language is have got ssss… somesimilarity. An.. that Paragraph focus in one of village. That village is warm huh less rainsome time cold wind but still warm place and um in the morning in the morning guys
going to fishing and ba babies laying down in in uh in shady house and ga… woman
going to wash clothes in the sea and old woman sitting down in the in in shade under
the under the tree maybe and then babies lay down next of them. And suns going up to
suns going up to up highest point, and uh people escape from sun because of too hot anduh mans coming back from see and uh put all
Performance 3, 1 minute
this is uh this is uh story about one of one of island in pacific sea. That village is locatedin warm and less rain. Ha ha located in pacific sea that climate is less rain really warmand not and sometimes cold water but still warm. The day started fish mans going tofishing and baby laying down woman go to washing clothes to the sea and old uh oldladies sitting down under the under the trea and baby lay laying downPart 2, Performance 1, 3 minutes
its about jaism Jainism, I say jaism anyway and its this is uh religion and its in India andcompare with budhism Jaism isn’t famous but its quite one of very important aspects ofIndian religion and I don’t remember when they started but there is uh guy calledmo…ok I say mobidin mobidin he born in quite rich family he’s he from when he was 3
years old he traveled around the world uh he left ho left house when he was 30 years old
and then traveled around the world 30 years and bit being as as teacher and there arelots of followers at that time and he died 72 years old and that place is quite importantfor followers and at the time uh jaism isn’t uh famous but one of quite famous um kingfoll.. followed jaism and after that they they split to parts of to parts and one one is one
is go to one is s ah one is move to north india because of people… people don’t haveenough eat and people are hunger and one of one of parts follows him and to to there isdifference between them but and so many similarity wearing white clothes and uh somany same way they they believe same thing and they think jaism think every life every
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thing have got life bees and bees plants stone everything have life so you cant hurtthemselves and that’s uh for example if you see bees you cant hurt because of they have
got heart and its crime if you if you hurt them
Performance 2, 2 minutes
its about jaism jaism is one of the um religion in India and uh compare with uh comparewith budhism jaism isn’t huge but its quite its still one of important aspects of Indian
religion, and uh in mobidins

he… mobidin started this religion he he he born in one ofquite rich quite rich family in India and he when he was 30 years old he left home andhe traveled around with a teacher and over 20 years he traveled around all over India
and he when he died uh he died 72 years old and that place is quite important forfollowers and after he died one of famous king follows followed jaism and and um afterthat um jaism became quite famous quite big and separated 2 parts and one part going tonorth north side of India and about still between two parts they still have got similarity a
lot they wearing white clothes and believing in same thing and they they believe thebelieve uh all life all everything have got life bees ground water air
Performance 3, 1 minute
this is uh one one of religion from jaism in India jaism is quite famous ah uh and quite
big aspect of English ah no Indian Indian religion. Mobidin started this religion he heand he um 30 years old 30 years he was he was traveling around all India as teacher andso many followers and when he was 72 years old he he dead that place he dead is quite
important for followers and after that king, quite famous king um followed him andjaism separated 2 parts inbetween one part275