The 2016 PanSIG Journal
Innovations in Education

Edited & Published by JALT PanSIG
Proceedings Editor-in-Chief
Gavin Brooks
Doshisha University

Layout and Design by
Gavin Brooks

Message from the editors:
The 16th Annual PanSIG Conference was held at Meio University in Nago, Okinawa on
May 20-23, 2016. The theme of the conference was, “Innovations in Education.” This was acollaborative effort from 26 Special Interest Groups (SIGs) within the Japan Association for
Language Teaching ( JALT). The conference was highly successful and participants were able toattend presentations on a variety of topics from a wide spectrum in the fields of language teaching
and learning.
This journal represents the second edition of the annual PanSIG Journal which includes a
selection of papers from the conference. With a blind peer review process and dedicated reviewing
and editing committees, along with motivated and professional authors, the quality of the papers
submitted to the 2016 PanSIG Journal were consistently very high. This year’s conference saw oneof the largest submissions of papers that we have seen for a PanSIG publication. The final papers
that were selected for inclusion in the 2016 PanSIG Journal are a representative effort from theconference in Nago, Okinawa and 45 papers from a number of different SIGs on a diverse rangeof topics were accepted for publication in this year’s volume. These include papers that focus
on both research topics and teaching practices and serve to highlight the effort and creativityof the participants of the conference and the members of the SIGs involved. The quantity ofpresentations and published papers from the conference are increasing year by year and show the
professional determination of talented individuals who have shared their thoughts and insights
on teaching languages. We are honoured and proud to have been a part of this process.
We would like to thank all of the contributors for submitting their papers for this publication.
We are also very grateful for the readers of the papers who suggested changes to the authors andcontributed to the high quality of this volume. The success of these proceedings is a cumulative
effort from a large number of individuals. We hope that you will enjoy reading the papers in theseproceedings and that you can gain some insight for your professional development.

Gavin Brooks
November 1st, 2017

ii

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

The 2016 PanSIG Journal
Editorial Advisory Board

Yusuke Arano

Robinson Fritz

Chiba University

Nagasaki University

Baikuntha Bhatta

Tetsuya Fukuda

Kanagawa University

International Christian University

Michael Bradley

Jean-Pierre Joseph

Okinawa Christian Junior College

Tokyo Woman's Christian University

Debbie Broadby

Harumi Kimura

Nanzan University

Miyagi Gakuin Women’s Univeristy

Gavin Brooks

Oliver Kinghorn

Doshisha University

Kansai University

Josh Brunotte

Paul Mathieson

Aichi Prefectural University

Nara Medical University

Jonathan Buck

Tanya McCarthy

Rikkyo University

Kyushu Institute of Technology

Jeffrie Butterfield

Steve McGuire

Kanagawa University

Nagoya University of Arts

Brian Cullen

Jeffrey Morrow

Nagoya Institute of Technology

The Prefectural University of Kumamoto

Timothy Doe

Katherine Thornton

Kwansei Gakuin University

Otemon Gakuin University

The 2016 PanSIG Journaliii

Erina Ogawa

Robert Taferner

Reitaku University

Hiroshima University

James Owens

Brenden Van Deusen

Kanda University of International Studies

Nagasaki International University

Mathew Porter

Richard Walker

Fukuoka Jo Gakuin Nursing University

Reitaku University

Jacob Reed

Brett Walter

Kanda University of International Studies

Hiroshima University

Vicky Richings

Vikki Williams

Kwansei Gakuin University

Aomori University of Health and Welfare

Cameron Romney

Brent Wright

Doshisha University

Kanazawa Institute of Technology

Arthur Rutson-Griffiths

Larry Xethakis

Hiroshima Bunkyo Women's University

Kumamoto University

Sharon Sakuda

James York

Kanda University of International Studies

Tokyo Denki Universityiv

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

ISBN 978-4-901352-55-0
The 2016 PanSIG Journal
Selected papers from the 2016 PanSIG Conference
Innovations in Education
Nago, Okinawa, Japan

JALT Central OfficeUrban Edge Bldg 5F, 1-37-9 Taito, Taito-ku, Tokyo 110-0016, Japan
http://jalt.org/
http://www.pansig.org/

The 2016 PanSIG Journalv

Table of Contents
Literature and Language Teaching: Bridging EGAP and ESAP
Armstrong1

Why Do My Bilingual Kids Never Bloody Swear?
Bradley

10

Student Sleep Patterns and Learning Outcomes
Brunotte & Broadby

18

Developing the Rikkyo English Discussion Corpus
Buck

25

How Repair Becomes Explicit
Butterfield

31

Visualizing Vocabulary Using Google Images
Campbell-Larsen & Romney

37

Investigating Young Learners' L2 Pragmatic Competence in Telling Uncomfortable Truths

46

Chiba
Lights, Camera, English: Developing Language Through Media Production
Clark

55

Fostering Equal Representation for Democracy in the Classroom
Cook, Laurence, Hill, Ashurova, & Edwards

62

Helping Students to Develop Skills for Setting and Achieving Goals
Cullen & Backwell

71

Fluency Development Activities and Language Change
Doe

81

L1 in the Classroom: Does It Have a Role?
Freeborn & Gondree

87

Momentum Towards Foreign Language and Intercultural Development
Fritz & Miyafusa

93

Total Immersion: VR Headsets in Language Learning
Hastings & Brunotte

101

Vocabulary Learning Using Music and Digital Devices: Classroom Research at an International
SchoolHo

111

Avoidance of Assessment in EFL classroom
Izutani

117

Lexical Coverage of the TOEIC
Kanazaki

126

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The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Reading Strategy Instruction to EFL University Students: Its Influence on Frequency of Strategy
Use and Proficiency
Kawakami

134

Can Speaking Drills Promote Ideal L2-speaking Images?
Kawashima

145

Back-to-the-Future Essays Come Alive
Kimura151

Improving Spoken Anecdotes Through Error Correction and Task Repetition
Marshall157

Exploring Language Learning Advisors’ Practical Knowledge: A Taxonomic Perspective
McCarthy165

Effectiveness of Peer Review by Non-Native English Users
Mondejar

174

Effects of Short-Term Study Abroad on L2 Motivation
Moritani & Manning

183

Creating English for Tourism Programs Using a CLIL Format
Morrow

194

To Skype or not to Skype? Revisited: Chi-squared Analysis Confirms Positive Influence of Skype
Exchanges
Ockert200

Educational Manga: Deceptively Educational
Ogawa

208

The Language Learning Effects of a Short-Term Study Abroad Program
Otsu & Satake

217

The Benefits and Challenges of Using Google Forms With Extensive Reading
Owatari-Dorgan, Roberge, & Van Deusen

225

We Created New, Deeper Meaning: The Use of Transformed Practice Activities in a Literacies
Classroom
Owens

231

So Many Words, So Little Time: Implementing a New Method for Teaching Vocabulary in a
Literacies Course
Owens & Reed

242

Developing EAP Materials: A Data-Driven Learning Innovation
Parsons

252

Benchmarking to Determine International Activities for a Nursing Program
Porter264

The 2016 PanSIG JournalviiConsiderations for Using Images in Teacher Made Materials
Romney273

Multisensory Stories: Promoting Engagement, Motivation, and Generalization
Sakuda283

Negotiation of Meaning Through Fantasy Sports
Silsbee289

Measuring 1st and 2nd Year Student High Frequency Word Knowledge
Stubbe & Nakashima

298

Foreign Language Output and Tasks in Synchronous Computer-Mediated-Communication
Takase306

Can the Website and App VocabularySpellingCity.com Help Japanese University Students’
Motivation and Build Their Vocabulary?
Torbert314

Basic Tutor Training Through E-learning
Tsukayama & Kuckelman

321

Screen Versus Paper
Walker329

Elementary Teacher Education in Japan: How Can We Help?
Walter342

Creating Conditions for Collaborative Learning in the Language Classroom
Xethakis351

Board Games and Foreign Language Learning: Rationale and Framework Development
York

360

All materials in this publication are copyright © (2017) by JALT and their respective authors.

viii The 2016 PanSIG JournalLiterature and Language Teaching:
Bridging EGAP and ESAP
Matthew I. Armstrong
Kyushu University
matthewarmstrong japan@gmail.com
During a period of curricular change at a national university in Japan, instructors were asked todevelop English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP) courses which built on the foundation
English for General Academic Purposes (EGAP) courses to help improve students’ language skills
for effective participation in the global arena. The aim of the new ESAP courses was to meet the
specific needs of students through particular disciplines which emphasized critical thinking. This
paper describes a course which was developed using an authentic literary work of W. Somerset
Maugham. The paper concludes by suggesting literature as an effective method of bridging EGAP
and ESAP.
日本の国立大学では、先生は新しいカリキュラムのためのESAPコースを開発するよう求められました。目的は、EGAP基礎コースの知識を増やして、
グローバルな文脈における学生のコミュニケー
ションを改善することでした。新しいESAPコースは、学生の特定の学習ニーズを満たし、批判的思考を強調しなければならなかった。本稿では、ウィリアム・サマセット・モームの本物の文学作品を使用して開発されたコースについて説明します。著者は、EGAPとESAPを結びつける効果的な方法として文献を提案している。

In today’s world of second language (L2) learning,
English is considered to be the default medium foracademic, scholarly and scientific communication
in a global context. One of the main concerns for L2
learners after having attained a certain language levelis how to further increase their skills. Where beginner
L2 learners tend to experience a drastic learning
curve, once they have achieved a level where they are
comfortable with conversation on familiar topics, thelearning curve begins to plateau (Rowntree, 1981; Xu,
2009). In order for students to improve their English
skills, it is thus important to add a component thatchallenges their current stage of linguistic competence.
English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP)

research has shown that an effective method of helping
learners to advance their proficiency level is shifting
the focus from studying the rules of the language torelating language learning to specific personal needs
and interests (Strevens, 1988; Dudley-Evans & St.
John, 1998). Hutchinson and Waters (1987) state that
“ESP is an approach to language teaching in which
all decisions as to content and method are based on
the learner’s reason for learning” (p.19). Whereas
similarities can be found between English for General
Academic Purposes (EGAP) and ESAP in theory,
ESAP in practice should acknowledge and emphasize
the specific needs and goals of the language learner.
For the past few years, the undergraduate program
had been experiencing vast curricular reform andArmstrong, M. (2017). Literature and Language
Teaching: Bridging EGAP and ESAP. In G. Brooks(Ed.) The 2016 PanSIG Journal (pp. 1-9). Tokyo,
Japan: JALT.

teachers were expected to offer more challenging
and varied ESAP courses in order for students togain a deeper and broader understanding of specificknowledge areas. As such, teachers were asked to
The 2016 PanSIG Journal

1

Armstrong
create syllabi to match the new curricular goals. EGAP,
as taught to the freshman students, focused mainly on
the acquisition of general language skills. The aim of
the more advanced ESAP courses was for 2nd to 4thyear students to acquire content in greater depth in aparticular discipline while centering on language skills
appropriate to the content. ESAP was thus considered
to be an ascension of the EGAP courses in that it
helped students to have a deeper understanding of how
the general skills worked within specific situational
contexts
Using literature in the EFL classroom has
been gaining interest over the past two decades
as communicative language learning in Japanesetertiary institutions has become more pronounced(Yoshimura, 2007). As attention continues tobecome more focused on preparing students forthe global arena, literature has become an attractive
and innovative option for EFL instructors to meetthis ideal while at the same time, actively engaging
students with learning materials (Bibby & McIlroy,
2013; Laskar, 2007; Okumura, 2009; Teranishi, Saito,& Wales, 2015). This paper describes the curricularapproach taken by the researcher who developed an
ESAP course. The aim of this course was to introduce
students to advanced-level content which veered awayfrom general textbook topics toward materials written
by L1 English speakers for L1 English speakers. By
introducing students to authentic materials, it waspossible for the learners to see, understand and absorb

Figure 1. Ascension from EGAP to ESAP.

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language used in an authentic context. In this way,
students were forced to activate their prior knowledge,
expand inter/intra cultural awareness and improveskills of analysis to comprehend the new materials.

Contextual overview
This research took place at a national university
in Japan. Participants in this study were eightundergraduate students taking a 2-credit elective
course. The ESAP courses were the most advanced
courses offered by the English department, thus it was
important that the syllabus was challenging, reflected
the wider academic needs of the learners, fosteredcritical thinking skills and where possible, promoted
intercultural awareness. The specific pedagogical aimof the course was to improve discussion, presentation
and reading skills through an in-depth focus on aliterary work. For this course, the reading material
selected was W. Somerset Maugham’s “The Razor’s
Edge”. In addition to the 90 minutes of classwork each
week, students were required to complete an extra
4.5 hours of out-of-class learning which included
reading the text and preparing a short presentationand discussion questions for their classmates. It was
thus expected that this course would attract only themost motivated learners who sought to advance theirlanguage learning skills from the foundation EGAP
courses to ESAP.
The eight participants who signed up for thecourse were 2nd to 4th year undergraduate students.

Bridging EGAP and ESAP, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 1-9
Four students were taking the course for credit andfour non-credit students were taking the course simply
to maintain their English proficiency level. This study
focuses results on the four credit students as they wererequired to fully participate in the course and take thefinal examinations.
There was one main question which guided theresearch:•• How can literature be exploited in the EFL
classroom to improve and advance specificlanguage skills and promote critical thinking?
Literature in this study was considered to be any
authentic piece of writing that had value, in literarycircles, as art and not just entertainment. W. Somerset
Maugham’s “The Razor’s Edge,” was selected because
it provided interesting reading content and thecomplexity of vocabulary was deemed to be acceptablefor L2 learners to read and comprehend. Further, it
reflected different values and aspects of young men
and women in a changing society (the lost generation)
which helped students to make interesting cultural,social and historical connections to contemporary
issues. This allowed for more critical discussions aboutfamiliar themes and global issues as well as broader
explanations of society as a whole.

Applying theory to practice:
Curriculum development
Using an adaptation of Graves’ (2000) frameworkof course development, the researcher put together adesign for the new ESAP curriculum. Four areas wereconsidered in detail:1. Needs analysis
2. Goal setting
3. Course content
4. Assessment

Assessing needs
In creation of an ESAP curriculum, research literature
has emphasised to some degree the importance ofneeds analysis and goal-setting. For Bojović (2006),
the foundation of ESAP starts with the question: whydoes this learner need to learn a foreign language?

(p.487). The answer determines the immediate
learning need which then dictates the content of thecurriculum. The first step in the process of curriculum
development therefore, was to help students identify
their central learning needs. Questions asked toparticipants were:
1. What do you hope to improve by taking thiscourse?
2. What are your current L1 reading habits?
The needs analysis identified specific goals suchas wanting to understand writing structure, read longsentences, deliver an effective presentation, and react
spontaneously to peers during discussions. A wider
goal that students thought would help prepare themfor life after graduation was increasing interculturalawareness by broadening their views about theworld. Identifying students’ learning needs andincorporating them into the syllabus was thus central
in helping to develop and shape a course that was
relevant to students’ future lives and could help sustain
motivation throughout the semester. In a sense, thistype of negotiation would likely enhance enthusiasm
for improving reading and speaking achievements as
the learners were allowed to be part of the decisionmaking process. Students were then made aware of theinstitutional expectations of the course in terms of theweekly workload in and out of the classroom.

Formulating goals and objectives
Table 1 illustrates the three approaches of teaching
literature to EFL students which were considered to be
the central factors in determining the course content:
Cultural, language and personal growth (Bibby &McIlroy, 2013).
It was decided to take a more learner-centred
approach and use the personal growth model as it
encouraged students to examine the material closely,
form opinions based on their own personal feelings
and life experiences, use interaction to make learning
more meaningful, purposeful and memorable, andevaluate their learning progress. The personal growthmodel also connected with the concept of conducting
a needs analysis as part of the underlying philosophyof the ESAP course.

The 2016 PanSIG Journal3

Armstrong
Table 1
Considering Focus During Curriculum Development
ApproachDefinition

1. Culture• The understanding and appreciation of different cultures and ideologies together
with the development of perceptions of feelings and artistic forms (Carter &Long, 1991)• Literature should be seen as invaluable resource of motivating material and as abridge to provide access to cultural background (Lazar, 1993)• Literature provides learners with authentic, pleasurable and cultural material (Hall,2005)

2. Language learning• Emphasises language as the medium to teach specific vocabulary and language
structures (Carter & Long, 1991)• Literature encourages language acquisition, expands students’ language awarenessand interpretation abilities (Lazar, 1993; Short, 1996)• Literature provides a good model for good writing (Parkinson & Thomas, 2000)• Improves vocabulary expansion and reading skills (Hall, 2005)

3. Personal growth• Engaging with the reading of the literary text, appreciating and evaluating culturalartefacts and in broader terms, the understanding of society, culture and identity
within that social matrix (Carter & Long, 1991)• Literature educates the whole person (Lazar, 1990)• Literature enhances the psycholinguistic aspect of language learning as it focuses
on form and discourse processing skills (Hall, 2005)

Conceptualizing content
In this category, the researcher considered the typeof learning material and how the students would
contribute to the course. Instead of using an EFL
textbook, authentic materials were selected by theteacher and students (Table 2).
Research in L2 acquisition states that as students
will one day face authentic language outside theclassroom, it is beneficial if they are exposed togenuine language inside the classroom (Stern, 1992;

Widdowson, 1983). Daskalovska and Dimova(2012) write that advanced learners in particular
benefit from authentic literary texts as they not onlyoffer opportunity for discussion, but also motivate as
students appreciate that they are reading a literary text
in its original form. This position is also supported
by Ur (1996). In practice, each week the students
presented on a specific part of the story, facilitateddiscussions in groups and then considered specificaspects of their performance for improvement. The

Table 2Student and Teacher Selected Learning Materials
AuthorW. Somerset
Maugham4

Teacher selected story
The Razor’s Edge

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Student selected stories forcomparative analysis

Author

The Little Prince

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Narcissus and Goldmund

Herman HessThe Sun Also Rises

Ernest Hemingway

Bridging EGAP and ESAP, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 1-9
choice of materials thus promoted both quality
discussion and self-reflection. Toward the end of
the semester, the four credit students presented
their choice of self-selected stories to the teacher for
approval and explained their rationale for selecting thematerial as well as the type of comparative analysis thatwould be conducted. In this way, the teacher could
ensure that each student chose a different literary workand that it would stimulate a quality discussion.

Assessment
Students were assessed throughout the semester
on weekly presentations, guided discussions andself-reflective practices. The course culminated in
a comparative analysis of two literary works (The
Razor’s Edge / student-selected work) in the format of
a 20-minute student-led presentation and discussion.
The evaluation sought to identify whether the student
was capable of thinking critically about underlying
cultural, social and historical themes, could concisely
present their ideas in an oral presentation and lead a
critical discussion. A self-assessment in the final class
was done as a short, written reflection. Students wereasked to consider three points:
1. If the way they read/immersed themselves in books
had changed
2. If they had achieved their learning goals; and3. Which area of their performance they thought had
developed the most.
Curriculum assessment was also carried out at
the end of the semester through discussions with acolleague who was teaching a similar literature course.

The instructors first examined the reflective reports
written by students to see if the course had met
expectations and needs. Following this, the instructors
discussed reflective notes written on lesson plansto see if objectives had been achieved and how thecurriculum could be improved in the future.

Discussion: Literature as a bridge
between EGAP and ESAP
Discussions about the curriculum highlighted three
specific areas which assisted in elevating student
learning from EGAP to ESAP:
1. Student-centred learning
2. Meaningful input/output
3. Meeting wider objectives.

Student-centered learning
The student-centric learning syllabus was essential in
helping students focus on individual learning needs.
Table 3 illustrates the distinguishing characteristics
between the EGAP and ESAP courses as it related tothe student-centric classroom.
Authentic materials had intrinsic educational value
to the students as they could reflect on current world
events through a comparison of time periods. Weekly
discussions, in many cases, showed that students hadvaried interpretations about similar events in the text.
Seeing a particular event from different perspectives
not only helped students to see themselves as
individuals, but also understand and accept that there
was more than one way of viewing the world.

Table 3Distinguishing Between EGAP and ESAP: Student-centric Learning
EGAP

ESAP

1. Prescriptive lessons: lesson target
decided by the teacher based on theuniversity’s set curriculum
2. Usually teacher-directed goal-orientedclassroom
3. Focus on specific educational goals

1. Student-centric learning: Students take responsibility forselecting own discussion materials
2. Interactive/active learning space: Socially constructed meaning
through student-led discussions and idea-sharing
3. Focus on student training: Students charged with doing
content reviews themselves by identifying key moments in eachchapter and providing a summary of their thoughts

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Armstrong

Meaningful input/output
The interesting nature of literature was a motivating
factor for students as they were able to imagine
journeys to a different time and place, access different
cultural, social and historical backgrounds and discuss
complex themes. As literary texts often have multiple
levels of meaning or can be interpreted in various
ways, becoming actively involved in unravelling thetext became a meaningful task. Widdowson (1983,p.33) once stated,
It’s not easy to see how learners at any level can
get interested in and therefore motivated by adialogue about buying stamps at a post office.
There is no plot, no mystery, there is no character;everything proceeds as if communication nevercreated a problem. There’s no misunderstanding,there’s no possibility of any kind of interaction.
What happens is that learners simply mouth thesentences of their parts, and you don’t actually getthem interested in what they are doing.
In order to participate in a productive and criticalclassroom discussion, students should thus be given
meaningful content that will expand their world-view,provide pleasure and stimulate their minds. Table 4shows the distinguishing characteristics between the
EGAP and ESAP courses as taught at the university.
Meaningful input encouraged critical thinking
skills as students were able to ask questions thatfacilitated meaningful output. Some examplesof themes which were critically discussed by

students in comparison with The Razor’s Edge weredisillusionment; finding meaning in a meaningless
life; rites of passage; superficiality; status and legacy;
conflict between one’s quest for material things andone’s quest for understanding of the self and theuniverse; and the individual’s life quest and how eachjourney is different. Countries visited throughout
this journey which students found interesting were
America, France, Germany and India. Students werealso interested in identifying and making culturalcomparisons with familiar museums, churches,
palaces, monasteries, foods, currencies, economic
events of the time (such as the Great Depression)and prices of goods. These were some of the areasof wonderment for the students as they soughtmeaning in the text. Further, they could have a senseof achievement after discussions in the realizationthat they could comprehend genuine language, lead a
critical discourse and make connections to the wider
world. In this way, student learning went beyond thestudy of the language learned in EGAP courses.

Meeting wider objectives
A final consideration when designing the curriculum
was that the course would have an impact on students’
immediate and wider goals. Table 5 shows thedistinguishing characteristics between the EGAP
and ESAP courses as it related to students’ wider
objectives.
Students’ central needs as stated in the needs
analysis were mainly to improve their discourse andreading skills. Their development was seen in two

Table 4
Distinguishing Between EGAP and ESAP: Meaningful Input/Output
EGAP

ESAP

1. Teaching to a one-size-fits-all test format
2. Every teacher taught from the same textbook.
Same general skills course taught yearly leading, inmany cases, to teacher stagnation and/or boredom
3. Assessment practices followed mainly textbook
reading and listening comprehension exercises;
vocabulary tests and strategy training.

1. Authentic materials introduced a different,
surprising world in the form of a story. Texts were
written by native speakers for native speakers
2. New materials selected by students dissected
and discussed which led to student and teacher
motivation.
3. Assessment practices focused on students’interpretations and analysis of their own chosen
text.

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The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Bridging EGAP and ESAP, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 1-9
Table 5Distinguishing Between EGAP and ESAP: Wider Objectives Being Met
EGAP

ESAP

1. Teach foundation language skills to betested within the classroom

1. Teach intermediate to advanced meaning-focused skills to be
used outside the classroom

2. Cognitive skills with little extension
3. Skills learned connected to gaining a

2. Metacognitive skills: Testing critical thinking skills: Meaning
extended with a connection to personal and cultural

course credit and not wider goals
4. Equal balance of skills. Language

experiences
3. Transferability or application of skills such as problem-solving

structure and skills taught in isolationand thinking critically about specific aspects of learning tofuture language-related goals
4. Student language learning needs more selective based on
future goals. Focus on specific skill to meet needs. L2 taught
according to the context of the student’s real-world goal

ways. First, students were more communicative as they
became motivated by the stories, especially throughsharing thoughts and ideas of characters and themes,
as well as by agreeing or disagreeing with classmatesand providing support for their ideas about character
motivations and story outcomes. Second, students’approach to reading was also more critical in that theytended to look for what was implied or below thesurface rather than simply reporting on the different
stages of events in the story. Figure 2 demonstrates
how students became more critical in their questions.

With regard to transferability of skills, two of thecredit students stated that they were able to advancetheir language skills which would help them to feel
more confident in unfamiliar settings; and the othertwo students who were advancing to graduate school
felt that the discussion skills practiced would help them
to be less fearful of responding to impromptu questionsat international conferences. For all students, they wereable to move beyond general conversational skills andtopics (movies, hobbies, weekend plans, holidays, etc.)
to discussing academic content at an advanced level.

Figure 2. An illustration of students’ development in asking critical questions.

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7

Armstrong

Conclusion
In order for students to increase language skills, it isimportant to challenge current levels, view language
as having deeper meaning and account for immediate
and future language learning needs. Whereas EGAP
gave students a solid foundation in the study oflanguage forms and strategies, ESAP, using literatureas the content, was able to focus more closely on theuse and meaning of the language as well as assist in
the holistic development of the student. That is, as
the students underlying language learning needs weretaken into account, they became more involved in
the communication process by appreciating different
viewpoints, their world-view broadened throughmaking connections with varied country’s cultures,history and society and their interest in the language
was stimulated on a deeper, more meaningful level.
The author thus concludes that the use of literature in
the EFL classroom is an effective method of bridging
EGAP and ESAP as well as helping learners advanceto a higher level of language proficiency.

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Rowntree, D. (1981). A dictionary of education.
London, England: Harper & Row Publishers.
Short, M. (1996). Exploring the language of poems,
plays and prose. Harlow, England: Longman.
Stern, H. H. (1992). Issues and options in language
teaching. Oxford, England: Oxford University
Press.
Strevens,1988. ESP after twenty years: A re-appraisal.
In M. Tickoo (Ed.), ESP: State of the Art (pp.
1-13). Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Centre.
Teranishi, M., Saito, Y., & Wales, K. (2015).
Literature and language learning in the EFL
classroom. London, England: Palgrave Macmillan.
Ur, P. (1996). A course in language teaching: Practiceand theory. Cambridge, England: Cambridge
University Press.
Widdowson, H. G. (1983). Talking shop: Literatureand ELT. ELT Journal, 37, 30-35.
Xu, Q. (2009). Moving beyond the intermediate EFL
learning plateau. Asian Social Science (5)2, 66-68.
Yoshimura, T. (2007). Literature’s role in the English
education: A practical report on the use of shortstories to improve reading and writing. Journal of
Literature in Language Education, 1, 62-70.

Bridging EGAP and ESAP, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 1-9

Author’s Biography:
Matthew Armstrong holds an MA in Curriculum Development and has taught at Kyushu
University in Japan since 2006. His research interests are using Literature in the L2 classroom,
Peer-review in Academic Writing, Learner Psychology and Curriculum Development. He canbe contacted at matthewarmstrongjapan@gmail.com.

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

9

Why Do My Bilingual Kids Never Bloody Swear?
Michael Bradley
Okinawa Christian Junior College
mbradley@ocjc.ac.jp
This paper considers why the elder two of the author’s four (bilingual Japanese/English) children
almost never imitate their father’s habitual bad language. This state of affairs may well contradict
Krashen’s theory of comprehensible input. Drawing on transcripts of conversations he recordedwith the children over the course of a year and a half, the author wonders whether there has
been sufficient input of swear words for the children to pick up on. He also considers the limited
opportunities the children have for English output generally, the relative absence of swearing intheir dominant language, and their consciousness of taboo language, as other possible factors.
本 稿は、なぜ 、筆 者の2 人の子ども（ 日 英バイリンガル）が 、父 親の習 慣 的な罵り言 葉を模倣しないのかについて考察する。
ここで提示する事例は、Krashenの理解可能なインプット（comprehensible input)の理論に矛盾しているようである。1年半にわたる筆者と子どもたちとの会話スクリプトをとおして、子どもたちが罵り言葉を習得するのに十分なインプットがあったのか、分析する。
また、子どもたちが英語をアウトプットする機会が限られていること、および、優勢言語による罵り言葉がほとんどないこと、
タブーな言葉という意識があること、
そして可能性のあるその他の要因について考察する。

A while ago an English friend remarked on thefrequency with which I swear, curse and generally
blaspheme. Perhaps it’s an Irish characteristic. Indeed,
the most highbrow newspaper in my homeland, The
Irish Times, recently ran a feature about the joy of
cursing.
A friend who moved to the UK about 20 years
ago, reported that, owing to strange, disapproving
stares, he had to curb his cursing ways when he got
off the flight and felt it necessary to catch up once
on Irish soil and in the correct company… But
there are occasions that really do call for a goodold swear. (Logue, 2016)
As the journalist indicated, it does seem that
there is more bad language on the western shores ofBradley, M. (2017). Why do my bilingual kids neverbloody swear? In G. Brooks (Ed.), The 2016 PanSIG
Journal (pp. 10-17). Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

10

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

the Irish Sea. However, even if the Irish are relatively
relaxed about swearing, it’s not something I set out
to do in front of my children but sometimes it slips
out. What’s unexpected, is that my two sons andtwo daughters (whom my Japanese wife and I are
trying to raise bilingually,) almost never reproduce
the offensive language. On the face of it, this would
seem to contradict Krashen’s theory of language
acquisition. “Studies provide consistent evidence that
we acquire language and develop literacy primarily
from understanding what we read and hear, that is,when we obtain comprehensible input.” ( Jarvis &Krashen, 2014, p.1). If that is the case, shouldn’t mychildren be understanding and indeed imitating all of
my comprehensible input, including the reprehensible
portions? I should make it clear from the outset that
this question came about after I had already begun
researching my children’s bilingualism. Swearing was
not the original focus of the research and as such thispaper should be regarded as an early study that invites
questions, (as much as answers them), and invites

Why Do My Bilingual Kids Never Bloody Swear, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 110-17
other researchers to follow up on the questions posed.

Respondents’ Language Background
In order to investigate this apparent conundrum I
decided to examine the corpus I’ve collected of mytwo older children’s English. Over the course of a year
and a half, I recorded Malachy and Mariko once aweek when I drove them to their elementary school.
The journey takes around 25 minutes. Often, this is
the only time they’ll speak English during the school
week – they attend a Japanese medium school, speak
Japanese with each other, their friends and the restof the family. They did attend one-hour-long English
lessons twice a week after school with a native speakerteacher for about a year during the recording period.
The classes were small, only 3 or 4 students in total, but
unfortunately the lessons were frequently cancelled.
Malachy and Mariko hear some English athome – my wife and I always talk English together,
I sometimes read them stories in English and they
regularly watch American movies and TV – but they
don’t often produce it. At weekends I consciously try
to engage them in English but the conversation often
slips into Japanese, particularly since the younger two
siblings rarely produce sentence length utterancesin English. I don’t speak Japanese to the children,and seldom speak it in front of them. If Malachy andMariko speak to me in Japanese, in theory I just ignore
them. In practice such a strategy generates too much
ill feeling, so if I understand what they’re saying I try
to respond in English without commenting on theirlanguage choice. Occasionally my frustration at theirreluctance to use English does boil over and I beratethem for using Japanese. On the other hand when they
do have something they want to tell me, Malachy andMariko will switch quite naturally to English.
In the six years we have been living in Japanthe children have visited Ireland with me on fouroccasions, for an average of three weeks at a time. Both
Malachy and Mariko were born in Ireland. We moved
to Okinawa when they were 4;6 and 2;10 respectively.
Effectively, we are rearing our children while mostly
using the one person, one language approach.

Data
I recorded my morning chats with Malachy andMariko (using a Zoom voice recorder) between
September 10th 2014 (when they were aged 8;11
and 7;4 respectively) and December 2nd 2015. An
excerpt from one such conversation can be found in
the Appendix. On those occasions when the children
were reluctant to engage in conversation, we played
games of 20 Questions (where one person thinks of an
object or creature, and the others have to guess what it
is by asking only yes/no questions.) Often the children
lapsed into Japanese when addressing each other but
when talking to me, by and large, they used English.

Results
Whilst I had long wondered if my children were
getting enough English input per se, latterly I became
worried that they might be getting too much of aparticular kind of input - swearing. However when
I read through the transcripts, there were only two
incidences of me using bad language during this period(see below) and there are no cases at all of the children
reiterating any taboo language on tape.
The context for the following extract from
November 3rd is that I had inadvertently driven over aflower pot which had been left on the driveway outside
our house.
03/11/2014
Noise of a bangME* (Angrily) What’s that? What the fuck? Wholeaves things on the road?
MARI* I didn’t
ME* Don’t leave things on the road. I know you
didn’t leave that but other days I’ve come andthere have been bicycles and other things andyou can’t….(They laugh)
It’s not funny. You can’t see them Marichan.
MAL* What is that?
ME* That was a flower pot, put in the bloody way
In this December 12th extract I had just turned
out of a small side street onto a major multilane road.
Having misjudged the turn, I ended up in the wrong
lane facing the oncoming traffic.
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Bradley
02/12/2015
ME* ..oh wrong lane…oh shit…(beeping noise
indicating my car is reversing) …oh, Daddy’s
bad…
MARI* yes (giggling)..
MAL* yes, you’re bad.
I made a total of 52 recordings during this period– though I confess that some weeks I forgot to recordand other weeks I recorded more than once. However
if school holidays are discounted, it averages out at
about one recording per week. Clearly, a couple ofinstances of swearing over the course of 16 months
is not much input for the children to pick up on,
especially when the profanities were different on eachoccasion. But just because I don’t curse much when I’mbeing recorded, doesn’t mean that I always choose mywords so carefully. When I am speaking to the children
during the school run I know that I am being recorded
and at some level therefore, decide to moderate mylanguage in keeping with the observer’s paradox.
Off–mic, I definitely swear more. I am conscious that
I regularly take the Lord’s name in vain, particularly
when driving. I also know with near certainty that,with just one exception, I’ve never heard Malachy or
Mariko repeat any of this bad language.
The one time I did hear the children swear was
in January 2016. We were at home and I had just,somewhat violently, banged my head on an extractor
fan in the kitchen/living room. Annoyed (in part fromthe fact that I hadn’t learned from previous collisions),
I reacted by shouting “Fuck You!” All four children
were in the room at the time and they looked up when
I yelled. The youngest immediately, gleefully, gave
a passable imitation of what he’d just heard and theothers followed suit. (I tried to rescue the situation bypretending that I’d actually said “Thank You” but they
were clearly skeptical.) After a few seconds the foul
mouthed chorus petered out and I haven’t heard anyof them utter that, or any other expletive since.

Discussion
So why did they imitate me on this occasion andnot on others? I initially thought it may have been
because the youngest (at the time aged 3;8) was a

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great mimic and that the older children had, to somedegree, lost that skill. In other words I thought thatyounger children acquired new words more easily thantheir elders. This assumption is contradicted however
by O’Grady (2005) who states that while children
between two and six acquire on average ten new
words a day, by age six they “go on to learn as many as
twenty new words per day over the next several years.”(p.8). Perhaps then the reason for my 3 year old’s
enthusiastic repetition wasn’t so much because his
powers of language acquisition were superior to thoseof the other children. Perhaps it had more to do withthe fact that he was the only one who didn’t realize theword was taboo.
Compared to native English speaking children, my
children’s relatively chaste language choices are a little
unusual. According to Kristin and Timothy Jay (2013)“children’s acquisition of a taboo lexicon and taboo
etiquette are normal language phenomena that occur
in the context of normal cognitive and socioculturaldevelopment” (p.472). Their paper which focused onwhite middle class children in New England foundthat by the time youngsters had entered primaryschool, most had around 42 taboo words and phrases.
Children often acquire swear words from theirparents but it’s not clear at what stage they begin toappreciate the taboo nature of these words. As Jay andJay point out more “systematic study of child swearing
is needed to document the ages of emergence of taboo
language use and changing value” (ibid p.460). It does
seem though that once children begin to understandthe purpose of swearing, they become reluctant toreproduce it in front of their parents. Perhaps they feela need to practice such language with their peers first.
Since my children don’t fraternize with other English
speaking children, they don’t have any opportunities
to experiment with bad language, and perhaps that is
why they don’t acquire it. “Learning to understand alanguage requires that you have had opportunities tohear it. Learning to speak a language implies that you
have had opportunities to speak it. These opportunities
are vital.” (De Houwer 2009 p.95) If this hypothesis- that my children don’t swear because they can’t try
it out with friends - is true, then we should expect
Malachy and Mariko to repeat other non-standard

Why Do My Bilingual Kids Never Bloody Swear, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 110-17
language that I use, language which doesn’t carry any
taboo and which they could use unselfconsciously infront of their father. Below are examples of some of the
Irish colloquialisms which pepper my speech.
12/01/2014
ME* Ok people I’ve got another 20 questions foryouse
20/10/2014
ME* But Mari chan you know the shovel outside,
the blue one, sure that’s very big.
10/03/2015
ME* You got a very weak one when Malachy had
it but you were only a wee baby maybe twomonths old
01/12/2014
ME* Ach Marichan…parrots, millions of them.
About 70 million
15/12/2014
ME* Aye, so what are you doing now?
In our recorded conversations I used youse(meaning you plural) three times, sure five times,
wee three times, ach twice and aye once. With the
exception of “wee” however, there are no examples inthe transcripts of Malachy and Mariko reproducing
any of these words. Mariko used wee on threeoccasions (two of these were in the same conversation
on 19/03/2015) but maybe this is because my wife
also frequently uses wee in her English conversation.
02/03/2015
MARI* And it’s a wee bit small
19/03/2015
MARI* Yeah.. but Daddy Choa doesn’t like nato but
if you eat nato with rice maybe em, there’s ricein it so maybe there’s no nato’s taste a wee bit
Since the children don’t repeat any of the idiomatic
language I use (with the exception of wee), irrespectiveof whether it is taboo or not, it is difficult to accept

the hypothesis that Malachy and Mariko don’t swear
because they haven’t had any opportunities to practice.
They have had opportunities to use other non-taboo
colloquial phrases in their conversations with me but
they never took them.
Perhaps the primary reason why my children
don’t use bad language is simply that there is a lackof input. This seems plausible given that according to
De Houwer (2009) “there needs to be a lot of input”
for children to become bilingual (p.94). However
O’Grady (2005) says that “children are able to learn
a new word after hearing it used only once or twice.”(p.50) Perhaps this apparent difference of opinion
can be explained by the fact that O’Grady is talking
primarily about monolingual children while De
Houwer is speaking about bilinguals. It does seemthat when it comes to a bilingual child’s weakerlanguage, hearing a particular word a couple of times
is probably insufficient to prompt acquisition of
the item. As Suzzanne Romaine notes in her book
Bilingualism (1995), “A very common outcome to the‘one person- one language’ method was a child who
could understand the language of both parents, but
spoke only the language of the community in which
they lived” (p.186.) Perhaps my children’s failure toimitate my language, my bad language as well as mygood, should be seen in this context. There simply
hasn’t been enough input, nor have there been enoughopportunities for output either.
Apart from paucity of input there may be otherreasons why my children eschew bad language.
According to Jay and Janschewitz (2008) “The main
purpose of swearing is to express emotions, especiallyanger and frustration” (p.267). But just because mychildren don’t swear it doesn’t mean they never venttheir frustrations. During our recorded conversations
when they became upset they would often resort toJapanese phrases, or their literal English translations,to show displeasure, as shown in the three examples
below.
08/12/2014
ME* I’ve got a 20 questions Mariko
MARI* iya da (I hate it)

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13

Bradley
14/01/2014
MAL (to me) * Urusai (Be quiet!)
15/12/2014
ME* Marichan, have you got your seatbelt on?
MARI* Daddy warui (Daddy is bad)
But if Malachy and Mariko only insult me inJapanese, why don’t they use something a bit stronger?
Why don’t they swear at me in Japanese? Maybe thereason is that, as one Japanese lady Tomomi quoted
in Dewaele (2010) says, “in Japanese we don’t reallyhave swearwords” (p.124). The same claim is madeby De Garis and Sakai (2009 p.45) and whilst one
may quibble with such an assessment it is undeniable
that much less swearing happens in ordinary Japaneseconversation compared to Irish ones. And this may
be another reason why my children don’t curse in
English. If their dominant language was Italian or
French or German, rather than Japanese, they may be
more inclined to copy my swearing in English. The
reason being is that many European languages containcognates of English swear words, and those that don’t
often have direct equivalents for many of the English
expletives. However, my children are probably never
exposed to any direct Japanese equivalents for the
profanities which I use. Certainly, I have never heard
their mother swear in either Japanese or English.
There are then a number of possible reasons why
my children don’t swear. A limited amount of input
would seem to be the chief cause but perhaps we should
also consider the limited opportunities they have for
output. Furthermore, the fact that they hear little orno swearing in their dominant language, Japanese, is
probably also a factor. It is however too early to draw
any definitive conclusions – I have been recording thechildren for less than a year and a half and I guess I
really won’t know how successfully they’ve acquired14

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

English, for several years to come. I hope I may beable to offer a more definitive hypothesis for theirlack of swearing once I have collected and analyzed
significantly more data. Of course in the interim
they may have come to embrace profanity, as teenage
rebellion activates the passive knowledge of swearing
which they must surely possess.

References
De Garis, F., & Sakai, A. (2009). We Japanese. Oxford,
England: Routledge.
De Houwer, A. (2009). Bilingual First Language
Acquisition. Bristol, England: Multilingual
Matters.
Dewaele, J.M. (2010). Emotions in Multiple
Languages. Basingstoke, England: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Jarvis, H., & Krashen, S. (2014). Is CALL obsolete?
Language acquisition and language learning
revisited in a digital age. TESL-EJ, 17(4). 1-6.
Jay, T., & Janschewitz, K. (2008). The Pragmatics ofSwearing Journal of Politeness Research. Language,
Behaviour, Culture. 4(2), 267-288
Jay, K. L., & Jay, T. B. (2013). A Child’s Garden ofCurses: A Gender, Historical, and Age-Related
Evaluation of the Taboo Lexicon. The American
Journal of Psychology, 126, 4. 459-475 Illinois:
University of Illinois Press Stable.
Logue, P. (2016, March 27). Proper cursing can betherapeutic – I swear. The Irish Times. Retrieved
from http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/patrick-logue-proper-cursing-can-betherapeutic-i-swear-1.2583163
O’Grady, W. (2005). How Children Learn Languages.
Cambridge, England: Cambridge University
Press.
Romaine, S. (1995). Bilingualism Oxford, England:Blackwell.

Why Do My Bilingual Kids Never Bloody Swear, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 110-17

Author’s Biography:
Michael Bradley has been teaching English in Okinawa since 2010, having spent the previous
decade working as a BBC Northern Ireland journalist. His TEFL career began in Greece in
1989. He’s also taught in Italy and at Niigata University. He holds an MSc in Applied Linguistics
from Edinburgh University. mbradley@ocjc.ac.jp

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15

Bradley

Appendix
Transcribed excerpt of recorded conversation 19/03/2014.
ME*

And Marichan why, why did you want to find Yuki Sensei? Because you?

MARI*

Because I, I spilled a,MAL*no, dropped

MARI*

a something, dropped a ..dropped (says something in Japanese I don’t catch)ME*

You dropped a tissue?

MARI*

No, no, no (repeats the Japanese phrase) like katsu… like katsu but inside there’s there’s…..at		

inside there’s onions in

MAL*

No, it is a katsu

ME*

Oh OK

MARI*

and I dropped that one butME*on the floor?

MARI*

Yeah but there was nobody….nobodyME*

to clean it up?

MARI*No, no, no, nobody was

MAL*interrupts in JapaneseMARI*no, nobody was, wasMAL*interrupts in Japanese

MARI*…chigau ano….yasumi… was not…

ME*oh, nobody was off

MARI*

Nobody was off so…

MAL*

So what about le, le, you’ll le, you’ll be go like less…so what about le…

ME*

Oh one person didn’t get, I see….Were you giving out the food, Marichan?

MARI*

A wee bitME*

You were helping to give out?

MARI*

No, but I was giving the, the, the chopsticks to everybody and I try to give to Koryu but, but I		bump into Koryu’s, Koryu’s table and the ??? katsu was, right, nearly fell off

ME*

It was on the edge, was it?

MARI*

Yeah

16

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Why Do My Bilingual Kids Never Bloody Swear, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 110-17ME*

and it did fall off ?

MARI*

um

ME*

Aww. And why did you go looking for Yuki Sensei then?

MARI*

Because teacher said Yuki sensei have it, maybe

ME*

Has another one?

MARI*

Yeah

ME*

ahhh, ok. So did you find her in the end?

MARI*

Hmm

ME*

And did she give you a new one?

MARI*

Hmm

ME*

she did? That’s good. So everybody was happy….Who…The person whose katsu fell on the floor			were they angry or crying or?

MARI*

No

ME*

I think in May chan’s school they would be crying wouldn’t they?

MAL*

No, cause you’ll give it, so you’ll give it to who drop it

ME*

Aye, I know but at first they don’t know that you’re gonna get the new one…. so nobody was			absent, nobody was off school

MAL*

No, you’ll give it to the person who, that will, it fall…that..

ME*

When you say “give it”, do you mean the new one or the one that fell?

MAL*

No, you’ll give it to, to, what do you say?

ME*

The person…

MAL*

Who fell, make it fellME*Ah, who made it fell, aww, so Mariko because Mariko dropped it, so Mariko has to take it. Is			that what you mean, yeah?

MAL*

Hmm

ME*

but it was an accident

MARI*

But Daddy, really Daddy I didn’t, I but Sione said I didn’t do it. Sione said Sione saw some boy

			push me and I…

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17

Student Sleep Patterns and Learning Outcomes
Josh Brunotte

Deborah Lea Broadby

Aichi Prefectural University
JoshBrunotte@gmail.com

Nagoya College
DebbieBroadby@gmail.com

Research has consistently demonstrated that lack of sleep negatively affects cognitive andassessment performance, mood, and classroom behavior. But many questions remain about thetrue sleep habits of Japanese students. This study examines student sleep habits, reasons attributed
for sleep choices, and these behaviors’ potential effects on classroom success. Students’ predictions
and self-reflections on sleep behavior will be explored, as will measurements of student sleep overan academic year. Suggestions for how universities might encourage healthy sleeping habits, as wellas the potential benefits for students when better sleep is attained will also be discussed.
調査によると睡眠不足は認識力、教育評価、気分、授業態度に悪影響を及ぼすことが一貫して示されています。
しかし、日本人生徒の実際の睡眠習慣について多くの疑問が残ります。
この調査では生徒の睡眠習慣とその理由、
そして授業での成果にどう影響しているかを分析しています。生徒の睡眠習慣に対する予想と内省を述べ、一年を通して生徒の睡眠量の測定も示しています。大学側が生徒に対して規則正しい睡眠を促す方法の提案と、健康的な睡眠を得ることでどのようなメリットがあるか示しています。

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle involves a balanced
sleep-wake cycle. A number of crucial physiologicalactivities happen during sleep, including some that
impact the ability to process and retain information.
Recent findings reveal that peaceful sleep at night can
improve learning abilities (Simon, 2012), and thatcertain phases of sleep are significantly associated withmemory reinforcement in the human brain (Wilhelm,
et al., 2011). This study focuses on the sleep habits offemale Japanese university students, and what affectsleep may have on their physical and mental wellbeing,
as well as academic success.
Exploring how poor sleep habits may adversely
affect students’ academic performance at the tertiarylevel was an important basis for this study. In addition
to our research aims of measuring the extent of thisproblem among Japanese university students andBrunotte, J., Broadby, D. L. (2017). Student sleep
patterns and learning outcomes. In G. Brooks (Ed.),The 2016 PanSIG Journal (pp. 18-24). Tokyo, Japan:
JALT.

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The 2016 PanSIG Journal

probing their explanations for their sleep behaviors,
we also sought evidence from existing studies on how
poor sleep behavior can negatively impact classroom
success, the combination of which may empower
instructors with the data necessary to help augment
this behavior in their student populations.
Many researchers have used an instrument called
the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) to measure
in detail both the length and quality of participants’sleep. Baert, Omey, Verhaest, and Vermeir (2015)
measured the sleep quality of over 800 university
students before fall exams and correlated their PSQI
scores with the results of those assessments. Whatthey found was a strong indication that higher levelsof sleep quality correlated with higher exam scores, tothe extent that a difference of one standard deviation
higher on the PSQI meant an average increase of
4.85% on assessment scores. This kind of direct link
between students’ sleep behaviors and classroom
performance further strengthens the argument that
there are real consequences for sleep-related choices.
Although we did not use the PSQI for this particularSleep Patterns and Learning Outcomes, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 18 - 24
study, we have put it to use in our next set of datacollection, and hope to present on our findings using
this instrument soon.
In addition to the findings of Baert, et al., the teamof Liu, Verhulst, Massar, and Chee, (2015) found thatsleep loss has the potential to dull a person’s cognitive
abilities and make stress less manageable, and sleep
deprivation has also been linked to poor attention,
memory, and problem-solving skills (Chiang, 2013).
How sleep affects mood and motivation is also
crucial in establishing a clear picture of how thesebehaviors affect students’ mental and physical states.
Rosen, Gimotty, Shea, and Bellini (2006) investigatedchanges in the sleep habits of medical interns, as well
as explored psychological issues that arise due to sleep
deprivation. Their results indicate a strong correlation
between long-term sleep deprivation and higher rates
of depression and burnout. These findings provide
further evidence that psychological well-being is also
at risk when student populations fail to get sufficient
sleep.
But what length of sleep is ideal for students at theuniversity level? While there are differences between
individuals and across ages in regard to recommended
lengths of sleep, a consensus in the literature isthat sleeping around 8 hours a night can increase
productivity in day to day activities (Youngstedt &Kripke, 2004). For our population, the National Sleep
Foundation in the United States recommends young
adults between the ages of 18 to 25 sleep between 7 to
9 hours a night (Hirshkowitz, 2015).

Research Questions
Our objectives for this study concerned a range ofsleep-related issues, from measuring the length of sleepin our population over an academic year to exploring
the reasoning attributed to sleep behaviors, as well as
investigating students’ reflections on how sleep affects
academic performance.
1. What are the sleep habits of tertiary-level Japanese
EFL students?
2. How accurate are students at assessing their own
sleep behavior?
3. What justifications do students provide when
asked to explain their sleep choices?

4. In what ways do students believe their length ofsleep affects their academic performance?

Methods
The study was conducted in three separate phases
during participants’ first academic year at university. In
the first phase, a survey was administered to incoming
freshmen beginning their spring semester. The goalof Phase 1 was to have participants estimate theircurrent lengths of sleep (at that point), and provide
some predictions on how their sleep behavior wouldchange during university, in addition to asking aboutother sleep-related issues. In the second phase, weekly
surveys were administered to students throughout
their spring and fall semesters (a total of 30 weeks).
Phase 2 was our attempt to measure the lengths of sleep
our students were getting week to week and produce adata set from which we could draw conclusions about
the actual sleep habits of this population. In the third
phase, a survey was administered to students at theend of their first academic year. In Phase 3 we asked
participants to again estimate their lengths of sleep
and reflect back on their sleep changes over their firstyear of university, as well as asking about other sleeprelated issues.
The surveys were written in the students’ L1 andincluded a range of questions regarding their sleeping
habits. A mixed methodology was employed for datacollection, including numerical, binary “Yes”/”No”
responses, and open-ended items used in each survey.
Both paper and electronic collection methods wereused over the three phases.

Participants
The participants were English Communication majors
from a 2-year college in central Japan. All participants
were female and their L1 was Japanese.

Results
Phase 1In this initial phase conducted at the beginning of the2015 academic year, 170 participants responded to thesix-item survey.
Item 1: “On average, how much do you sleep each
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Brunotte & Broadby
day?” The mean calculated for this item was 5.76 hoursof sleep per night for all respondents. This number
translates to an average of 5 hours and 46 minutesof sleep per night as estimated by the participants.
Although not a direct measurement of how long thesestudents sleep, this estimate was used to gauge howlong the students believe they sleep and was used asa basis for comparison to the actual lengths of sleep
measured in Phase 2.
Item 2: “Do you think that is enough sleep?” “Yes”
responses were measured at 34.12%, “No” responses at
65.29%, and 0.59% of participants did not respond to
this item.
Item 3: “Is getting enough sleep important toyou?” “Yes” responses were measured at 99.41%, and“No” responses at 0.59%.
Item 4: “In high school, how regularly did you
nap in class?” Participants were asked to use a 4-point
scale to estimate their napping frequency. Responses
were “Often”, “Sometimes”, “Only occasionally”, or“Never”. “Often” responses were calculated at 19.41%,“Sometimes” at 32.35%, “Only occasionally” at
32.94%, and “Never” at 14.12%.
Item 5: “Do you believe how much you sleep
at night affects your studies?” “Yes” responses were
measured at 96.48%, “No” at 1.76%, and 1.76% ofparticipants did not respond to this item.
In addition to the Yes/No responses, participants
were also asked to explain their choices in writing.
Some sample explanations for “Yes” responses to Item
5 included:“If I’m sleepy, I can’t remember what I’ve learned.”“My ability to think completely changes.”“If I sleep enough I can work hard at studying.”“I’m always sleepy anyway, so if I don’t sleep
enough, that gets worse.”
Unfortunately, none of the participants who
responded “No” to this item provided an explanation
as to why they didn’t believe sleep length affected theiracademic performance.
Item 6: “Do you think your sleep habits willchange as a college student?” “Yes” responses were
measured at 81.18%, “No” responses at 17.06%, and1.76% of participants did not respond to this item.
Some sample explanations for “Yes” responses to item

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The 2016 PanSIG Journal

6 included:“The time I come home will be later, and the time I
wake up will be much earlier.”“I will have a part-time job, my circle, and I will
hang out with friends at night.” [There were 25
mentions of part-time jobs among respondents in thissection]“I have to do my makeup and other things.”“My life rhythm will change.”
Some sample explanations for “No” responses to
Item 6 included:“Daily habits don’t easily change.”“My sleep rhythm is already set.”“From a young age, I have gone to bed early.”“I fall asleep quickly.”

Phase 2Throughout the second phase of our study, we
collected data once a week over the 30 weeks of the2015 spring and fall semesters from 156 participants.
A total of 1746 entries were recorded over this period.
Phase 2 was the main data collection phase of ourstudy and allowed us to measure students’ length ofsleep by asking them to report once a week on how
long they had slept the night before the survey. The
results showed a mean sleep length of 5.78 hours pernight over the two consecutive semesters (translating
to an average of 5 hours and 47 minutes per night).
Although this data collection method only sampled
the students’ sleep one night per week, our thinking
was that students would be able to more accurately
report on their lengths of sleep if asked only about
the previous night. More on the possible limitationsof this collection method will be explored in the
Discussion section.
One startling finding is that, among theparticipants, only 25% had slept for 7 or more hours
on average, which indicates a high rate of sleep
deprivation when compared to the 7-9 hours per night
recommended for this population (Hirshkowitz,2015). Explanations provided for lack of sleep
included: homework responsibilities, part-time jobs,
time with friends, inability to sleep, entertainment
priorities, and other reasoning related to school, social
activities, and work.

Sleep Patterns and Learning Outcomes, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 18 - 24

Phase 3
The final phase of our study was conducted in the final
week of the 2015 academic year, with 94 participants
responding to this five-item survey. The goal of thisfinal step was to have participants reflect back on
their first year in university and gauge how and why
their sleep behaviors may have changed, as well as how
sleep has affected their academic performance. Similar
to Phase 1, this was not a direct measurement of thestudents’ sleep patterns, but instead an estimation on
the part of the students and a request for explanations
as to their behaviors.
Item 1: “On average, how much do you sleep
each day?” For all respondents, a mean of 5.64 hoursof sleep per night was measured (translating to an
average of 5 hours and 38 minutes per night). This isa drop from the participants’ estimation of 5.76 hours
observed in Phase 1, and less than the actual length ofsleep (mean = 5.78 hours) that we measured during
the 30 weeks of the 2015 academic year.
Item 2: “For you, do you think that is enoughsleep?” “Yes” responses were measured at 26.60%,“No” responses at 68.08%, and 5.32% of participants
did not respond to this item. This is a drop of 7.52%

in “Yes” responses from Phase 1, also indicating an
increase in self-reported sleep deprivation at the end of
their first year of university.
Item 3: “How often do you nap in class as a college
student?” Using the same 4-choice format from
Phase 1, the responses were as follows: “Often” at
15.96%, “Sometimes” at 34.04%, “Only occasionally”
at 43.62%, and “Never” at 5.32%. Although fewer
students in Phase 3 stated they “Often” nap in class ascompared to Phase 1, fewer students also respondedwith the “Never” choice, indicating a greaterclustering among the center choices. Notably, nearly
95% of respondents stated they engaged in napping
behavior at some point during university, supportingthe concern that this is a widespread problem at thetertiary level. More on this issue will be explored in
our Discussion section.
Figure 1 illustrates the different responses
concerning in-class napping in high school (reported
in Phase 1) and in their first year of university(reported in Phase 3).
Item 4: “As a college student, do you believe youramount of sleep per night has affected your studies?”“Yes” responses were measured at 31.91%, “No”

Figure 1. Comparison of high school and college napping frequency.

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Brunotte & Broadby
responses at 67.03%, and 1.06% of participants did
not respond to this item. This is a drop of 64.57%
in “Yes” respondents from Phase 1, and one of themost startling findings of this study. The written
explanations for “Yes” responses followed similar
patterns to what we observed in Phase 1. Sample
explanations for Item 4 included:“On days I sleep, I can better remember what I
learn.”“My grades have gone up.”
“I sleep more in class.”“I’m not sleeping enough, so my concentration has
gone down.”
We will explore possible reasons for this drop inconcern in our Discussion section. Once again, no
written explanations were received from students whochose the “No” response for this item.
Item 5: “Have your sleep habits changed since
becoming a college student?” “Yes” responses were
measured at 67.02%, and “No” responses at 32.98%.
In Phase 1, 81.18% of participants predicted their
sleep habits would change, so this indicates a 14.16%
drop in “Yes” responses since the initial survey. Somesample explanations for “Yes” responses to Item 5
included:“The time I go to bed has become later than
before.”“I never come home before midnight because of
my part-time job.”“I wake up earlier, so my amount of sleep has
decreased.”“I’m busy so my sleep has become irregular.”
For this phase as well, none of the participants
provided explanations for their “No” responses. We
plan to investigate this further in our future studies.

Discussion
When comparing our findings to the 7 to 9 hours of
sleep per night recommended by the National Sleep
Foundation in the US (Hirshkowitz, 2015), we
believe that we have found sufficient evidence that theparticipants in this study suffer from a lack of sleep,with an average of 5.78 hours per night measured overthe 2015 academic year (n=156) during our direct
measurement in Phase 2.

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The 2016 PanSIG Journal

On the other hand, the participants on average
were seemingly able to accurately assess theiramount of sleep, with an average of 5.76 hours anight estimated by the participants in Phase 1. The
measured length of sleep (average 5.78 hours a night)
was only a 0.02 hours (1.2 minutes) different fromtheir initial estimation of the sleep length average.
This accurate estimate seems to imply that students
are conscious of the sleep choices they are making
when comparing their initial estimation (Phase 1)
with our measurement of their sleep lengths (Phase2). However, one limitation may be that students did
not accurately report on their sleep lengths in Phase2, perhaps in an attempt to present the authors withfavorable findings, although this would not seemto be the case with the overall short lengths of sleep
reported by the students during the data collection
phase. Again, the once-a-week format of reporting
sleep length was chosen in an effort to gain accurate
reporting, with the thinking that people are able torecall their sleep times from the night before andtheir wake times on the day of the surveys within areasonable margin of error. Independent measurementof the actual sleep lengths of participants would, ofcourse, be beneficial, but how this may be attained
without pervasive methods is still an open question.
More accurate methods of collecting health data suchas this need to be explored in future studies of thiskind.
For the items concerning sleep’s effect on academic
performance, the shift in “Yes” responses from Phase 1
to Phase 3 was surprising. At the beginning of the year,
over 96% of the students believed that their length ofsleep had some influence on their classroom success.
Many students indicated that their memory ability,
concentration, in-class napping and other importantfactors for learning changed depending on their lengthof sleep. However, when asked again at the end of theschool year, the rate of “Yes” responses dropped toaround 32%. This extreme drop in concern in regard
to sleep’s effect on academic success was not expected.
Due to the lack of explanations for “No” responses
to this item in Phase 3, further study is required tounderstand this shift in concern.
Another issue raised by this study was theSleep Patterns and Learning Outcomes, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 18 - 24
seeming pervasiveness of in-class napping behavior byuniversity students (with around 95% of respondents
reporting having napped in class during their first year).
Although napping during class time as a widespread
problem may not surprise many instructors, this study
gives evidence beyond just the anecdotal that this isindeed a problem that exists and requires some typeof response. The next step in addressing this issue will
be to find the root causes of in-class napping behavior,and further explore how this behavior might beeliminated in the classroom.
Ultimately the question can be raised of how
best to promote positive sleep habits among thispopulation, especially with this evidence indicatingwidespread sleep deprivation. We don’t expect ourfindings indicating sleep deprivation among EFL
students in Japan will come as a surprise to many
instructors, however, we believe that the results wehave obtained as to the extent of the problem, as wellas the students’ own words on why this behavior exists,
will be beneficial in starting to combat this problem.
Although individual instructors can make this effort,
the argument could be made that this is a policy issue
that should be addressed at an administrative level.
But what measures might be effective or even possible
in Japan? Baert, et al. (2015) make a case that all
tertiary-level students can benefit from intervention
and health education, and have demonstrated thepositive effect better sleep can have on assessmentscores and student health. Could the sleep behaviors ofJapanese university freshmen be modified by limitingclassroom workloads or placing restrictions on parttime work and club activities? Barring measuresthat alter students’ freedom of activity outside theclassroom or instructor freedom regarding the volume
of coursework, a strong case can be made that, at aminimum, health education targeting sleep behavior
should be provided to address these issues. With thosemeasures in place, perhaps pervasive sleep deprivation,
in-class napping, and other detrimental behaviors

could be reduced.

References
Baert, S., Omey, E., Verhaest, D., & Vermeir, A.
(2015). Mister Sandman, bring me good marks!
On the relationship between sleep quality andacademic achievement. Social Science & Medicine,
130, 91-98.
Chiang, Y.C. (2013). The effects of sleep on
performance of undergraduate students working
in the hospitality industry as compared to those
who are not working in the industry. Graduate
Theses and Dissertations. Paper 13060. Retrieved
from http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/13060
Hirshkowitz, M. (2015). National Sleep Foundation’s
sleep time duration recommendations:
methodology and results summary. Sleep Health,1(1), 40-43.
Liu, J. C., Verhulst, S., Massar, S. A., & Chee, M.
W. (2015). Sleep deprived and sweating it out:
The effects of total sleep deprivation on skinconductance reactivity to psychosocial stress.
Sleep, 38(1), 155-159.
Rosen, I. M., Gimotty, P. A., Shea, J. A., & Bellini,
L.M. (2006). Evolution of sleep quantity, sleep
deprivation, mood disturbances, empathy, andburnout among interns. Academic Medicine, 81,
82-85.
Simon, H. (2012). Sleep helps learning, memory.
Harvard Health Blog. Retrieved from http://
www.health.harvard.edu/blog/sleep-helpslearning-memory-201202154265
Wilhelm, I., Diekelmann, S., Molzow, I., Ayoub, A.,
Molle, M., & Born, J. (2011). Sleep selectively
enhances memory expected to be of future
relevance. Journal of Neuroscience, 31(5), 15631569.
Youngstedt, S. D., & Kripke, D. F. (2004). Long sleep
and mortality: Rationale for sleep restriction.
Sleep Medicine Reviews, 8(3), 159-174.

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Brunotte & Broadby

Authors’ Biographies
Josh Brunotte is an associate professor at Aichi Prefectural University. He is currently
undertaking research in the field of CALL and the use of virtual reality in the classroom, as wellas health-related behaviors and their effect on classroom achievement. He can be reached at
JoshBrunotte@gmail.com

Deborah Broadby holds a M.A. in TESOL from the University of Tasmania. She teaches at
Nagoya College and several other universities in the Nagoya area. Her research interests focus
on the relationship between learners’ health habits and learning outcomes. She can be reachedat DebbieBroadby@gmail.com

24

The 2016 PanSIG JournalDeveloping the Rikkyo English Discussion Corpus
Jonathan Buck
Rikkyo University
jbuck@rikkyo.ac.jp
The Rikkyo English Discussion Corpus (REDC) is a small-scale corpus of learner English
containing fourteen hours of Japanese learners of English classroom discussions. In development
for three years, the purpose of the corpus is to provide data for research, inform curriculum design
and for use in teacher training. This paper explains its development from data collection to coding.
It also looks at the first REDC research (Opitz, 2016) and the implications of it on the corpus.
Finally, it outlines the future of the REDC. The author hopes that this paper would raise awarenessof the corpus as data resource and provide insight for any researchers considering building a spoken
corpus of learner English.
立教英語ディスカッションコーパス（REDC）
は、日本人の英語学習者による14時間の英語のディスカッションのクラスをまとめた小規模なコーパスである。作成に3年間を費やした本コーパスは、研究データの提供、
カリキュラムデザインについての情報提供、教師研修での利用を目的としている。本稿では、データ収集からコーディングまでについて述べる。
また、REDCについての最初の研究（Opitz, 2016）に触れ、本コーパスについての考察を検討する。最後に、REDCの今後について述べる。本稿により、本コーパスがデータ資源として広く認知され、英語学習者の会話コーパスの作成を検討している研究者への手助けとなれば幸いである。

The development of corpora has allowed researchers
to reveal linguistic traits by analyzing large amountsof language data. Analyses which seemed nearly
impossible previously can now be performed simply andaccurately by computers making data more empirical(McEnery & Xiao 2001). It has had a noticeable
effect on language pedagogy and methodology.
Leech (1997) notes that corpora research influencesmaterials development and language assessment while
language students are being encouraged to use corpora
themselves as part of self-guided learning. Compared
to written corpora there are fewer spoken corpora
because they are time-consuming to transcribe andcode. As a result spoken corpora tend to be smaller
than written ones, which means it is more difficult tofind significant patterns which are revealed in written

corpora analysis. (Adolphs & Knight 2010). Results
can be just as revelatory though. Biber et al. (1999)
compared spoken and written English corpora toshow the differences in their lexis and grammar. Shinand Nation (2008) used corpora to show the mostfrequent spoken English collocations. While muchresearch that affects language teaching uses native
speaker spoken corpora to find a target English, there
is far less research using learner corpora. Muller (2005)
built a learner corpus of native and non-native English
speakers describing a Charlie Chaplin film to examine
the use of discourse markers. Gotz (2015) used theLouvain International Database of Spoken English
Interlanguage (LINDSEI) to look at frequent errors
in German learners of English. Nevertheless, this fieldremains under-developed and any opportunity to add

Buck, J. (2017). Developing the Rikkyo English
Discussion Corpus. In G. Brooks (Ed.), The 2016
PanSIG Journal (pp. 25-30). Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

to this should be taken.
As a response to the lack research into learnerspoken corpora (LSC) the Rikkyo English Discussion
Corpus (REDC) is being developed as a resource for
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Buck
future research of learner spoken English (LSE). This
paper explains the design and methodology of the
corpus while discussing some of the considerations
made in its development. I will examine thefirst published research using the REDC and its
implications on the design of the REDC. The paper
finishes with an outline of the future plans for the
REDC.

What is the REDC?
At Rikkyo University all freshmen students are
required to take two English Discussion classes(EDC), in the Spring and Fall semesters. It is askills-based communicative language class wherestudents are taught discussion skills and are given
an opportunity to practice these skills in extended
discussions. On average, the classes have eight students
and in the discussion groups three to five students(usually four) talk about a particular topic for sixteen
minutes. The main purpose of thecourse is to develop
students’ fluency. The EDC courses also complement
the students required English reading and writingclasses (Hurling, 2012).
Due to the fact that there was a large numberof learners of English all discussing the same topics
week-by-week, a colleague (Timothy Opitz) and I
approached the faculty academic coordinators with
the idea of collecting audio recordings of a large
amount of discussions to build a language learnercorpus. The main purpose would be to provide datafor research, resources for staff training and aid in
future curriculum and materials design.

DesignThe EDC is a unified curriculum where all students
discuss the same topics and are taught the same
discussion skills such as asking for opinions, giving
reasons, etc. The student topic is semi-controlled,
as students are given the goal of discussing the twoquestions but their own content is unrestricted withinthat topic. As the topic remains the same the output of
the students varies. Thus it made sense for the corpus to
be designed to look at the frequency of linguistic acts.
McEnery & Hardy (2011) note that corpora should26

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

be designed in a way that avoids the possibility for
researchers to select certain parts to draw favourable
conclusions. Rather, corpora should have a single setof data where everything is randomly selected. As
such it was important that the data for the REDC
represented a random set of students. However, there
were some restrictions in achieving that random
selection. Due to university policy and the nature of
the permissions needed to record, transcribe, andanalyse participants’ speech, we decided that it would
be better to record data from two sets of classes: myown and my colleague’s. This was not a big problem,
as we could still record fifty-two discussions per week
over two fourteen-week semesters. However, it would
be an immense task to record and transcribe that muchdata. Our test run of transcribing one hundred andforty minutes of discussion took around twenty hours
to complete. As a result of this a new data collection
schedule was created to make a large amount of data
achievable for two people to transcribe.
Data collection was set to occur six times over
the academic year. My colleague and I would recordten discussions each week. The participants recorded
were selected randomly from the classes each week
but a range of levels of classes were selected by the
researchers based on the students English level test
which is taken upon entering the university. Basedon recommendations by Adolphs & Knight (2010),
every participant in every class signed a Consent toRecord and Transcribe form regardless of whether
they were recorded. Participants were made awarethat transcribed data may be distributed but theiranonymity would be protected. Audio recordings
would be kept until the REDC research ceased. The
data collection used voice recording equipment. Data
collection occurred between April 2014 to January
2015. 766.42 minutes of discussions were recorded
and transcribed.

Transcription
As Detey (2012) highlights, there is no standard
approach to transcription for corpora. Secondly,
researchers often create corpora with a specific idea ofwhat they wish to research. In the case of the REDC,
the data were collected and transcribed before aDeveloping the REDC, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 25-30
research hypothesis was adopted. As audio data were to
be retained so that they could be adapted in the future,
the first transcribed data were written in a simple
transcription form using CHAT (see MacWhinney,2000 for an explanation of its functions). CHAT was
selected due to its intuitive and simple design, whichallows various linguistic analysis including mean
length of utterance and generating word frequency
lists. The CHAT system is also designed to analyse avariety of speech and it is connected to the CHILDES
database of various spoken corpora, thereby allowing
future comparative research.
The first transcription took around nine months
to transcribe and finalize, ultimately producing sixty
fourteen-minute data sets. Below is an annotatedsample transcription showing the metadata
and linguistic phenomena included in the firsttranscription.
Figure 1 is a sample of this data and shows the typesof linguistic phenomena which were transcribed. Bytranscribing reformulation and retraction, a researcher
could examine interlanguage (e.g. Chiang & Mi, 2011
for a similar study). Repetition data are often used inresearch into functional meaning (e.g. Lyster, 1997).
One of the main issues encountered duringtranscription was finding a consistent approach for
defining a single speaking utterance. In speech analysis,
there is difficulty knowing where an utterance begins

and ends (Levelt, 1989). In the case of the first REDC
transcription, utterances that did not follow English
lexical/grammatical conventions often caused debate.
This was particularly common with the transcriptionof backchanneling (reactions). In the table below,
there is a short extract highlighting the issue.
In this extract (Figure 2) one of the coding single
utterances. This extract has five utterances (units).
It opens with participant MS3 asking the otherparticipants to comment and then follows on withadditional questions for confirmation. FS1 gives asingle reaction. MS3 checks for confirmation witha single reaction with rising intonation. Then FS2
gives three single reactions in short succession which
are transcribed as one utterance. Now in this case,the three reactions in succession performed the same
discursive function as FS1’s single reaction. It seems
that speakers of English have a tacit idea of single
utterances however in the case of transcribing them it
seems that it is based on the transcribers opinion. Thiswas due to the fact that there was no specific research
purpose at that time for the corpora. Lampert andErvin-Tripp (1993) highlights that researchers should
develop their own theory of how speech should bebuilt with a corpora based on what they wish toresearch. Though this was the initial transcription
where there was opportunity to re-transcribe at later
point not having a specific reason for transcribing

Figure 1. Sample of transcribed data.

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Buck

Figure 2. Sample of transcription of English reactions.

hindered this stage of development.
Personally, the process of transcription wasa stimulating experience. EDC assessment isformative, where students are given grades based on
their discussion performance. By transcribing myown students’ language output, I became aware of
performance issues I had not noticed before in class.
This in turn had a positive effect on my own lessons
plans.

Exploring the data
After the transcription stage, initial analysis of
the students’ data was performed. Word lists weregenerated and compared between the different levelsof classes, gender, and against the homework reading
upon which the class discussion was based. MLU
data highlighted some of the issues of transcription,
including that a reassessment of the transcription wasneeded before proceeding with any research related tothe topic. A Discourse analysis of function language
use produced some interesting tentative data about
the course curriculum, highlighting that the target
language were being taught had a strong effect on
production of content within the discussion. In otherterms, the data suggest that some indicators of spoken
fluency changed positively throughout the course.
Finally, the data from my classes and the data frommy colleague’s classes were compared. The EDC has
a unified curriculum, but how the classes are taught
are at the discretion of the instructor.. As such, we
considered how our students’ performances differed.
This led to the first REDC publication (Opitz, 2016).
My colleague and I had a different approachto teaching backchanneling to EDC students. My
colleague used choral repetition cards separated into
four functional types. This was a response to Cutrone’s(2010) idea that backchanneling in Japanese is more

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The 2016 PanSIG Journal

frequent but has less variety compared to English.
He suggested that this feature continues in Japaneselearners of English’s interlanguage. The purpose
was to increase the variety of backchanneling toshift students’ output to more native-like responses.
Opitz (2016) found that students who received
weekly choral repetition drilling showed an increasein the quantity of backchanneling. However, using
Type Token Ratio (TTR) analysis as an indicator of
backchanneling diversity, he (Opitz, 2016) found no
significant difference between the choral repetition
class and the control group.
The study did highlight the issues with variables
when doing research using the REDC. Firstly, theREDC is a very small spoken corpus (around 48,000
words), and in the case of the Opitz (2016) study
this meant that individual participants had an effecton overall performance. He noted that in the control
group from one week 50% of the use of ‘yes’ occurredin one class and that 23% of ‘yes’ usage from that weekcame from one student. Secondly, other variables
such as motivation, class topic, cognitive weight andstudents trying to meet class performance goals may
all affect results.

Limitations
There have been a few issues with the development
and use of the REDC which has caused research to
been delayed. Firstly, by using audio recording tocollect data sometimes caused issues in identifying the
speaker in some cases. If a project like this was to beundertaken again, audio/visual recordings would be
preferable. Another issue is that the REDC no longer
represents the current EDC curriculum. Since the datacollection period some of the discussion topics havebeen changed or replaced so its usefulness to EDC
curriculum writers has been diminished. In light ofthese two limitations, the REDC is also less usefulthan expected as a tool for teacher training.

Recommendations
For anyone wishing to develop their own spoken
learner corpus there some points worth noting basedon my experience of developing the REDC. Firstly,
before undertaken data collection it is essential toDeveloping the REDC, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 25-30
have a clear idea of what you are investigating. In thecase of the REDC, we collected data before knowing
exactly we would use it for research. Though this is notnecessarily a negative point in corpus development
though it meant that we spent an extensive time
considering how to transcribe data. This meantthat transcription often stalled and data had to betranscribed again. Much of this could have been
avoided if we had agreed on a research focus before
undertaking the data collection and transcription.
Secondly, CLAN is an extremely useful programfor people who are trying to take their first steps inbuilding a spoken corpus. It has an easy-to-understandinterface and can be used to perform a wide-range offunctions. Finally, practice transcribing and design
your transcription period based on how much you
can do. Transcribing data is a long, sometimes tedious
process so for someone who is trying to build theirfirst spoken corpus it is important to start small.

The future of the REDC
Opitz and myself have initiated two more studies
using the REDC which look at backchanneling andmeasurements of fluency. Both studies need extensive
recoding of the data though lessons learnt from thefirst transcription have made the approach morestreamlined. Some of the tentative results did suggestthat students were getting more fluent. MLU andlexical diversity measurements show that students
were speaking for longer and using a wider rangeof words. This suggests the purpose of the classes as
being achieved. These results were done as part ofthe exploration process of checking that coding wascorrect for the CLAN program and as such should
be taken cautiously. The author that there were slightdrops in some performance measurements in the
Lesson 12 stage of the Spring Semester. This evidence
was used to support feedback on curriculum design.
The author concluded that Lesson 12’s discussion
topic (What makes people happy?) was possibly was too
challenging for most students to generate ideas. This
brief overview of early results has provided inspiration
for future research. There are plans to expand the
REDC to include native speaker discussions of thesame topics to provide comparison data.

Conclusion
The development of the REDC has been a longprocess. Firstly, despite being a small-scale spoken
corpus, it took two people around eighteen months
to collect and transcribe the data, and another year to
produce its first publication. Though time-consuming,
it created a unique set of data for future research into
spoken fluency. Future publications will have learnt
from the issues of the original transcription process
and hopefully will begin to show the worth of the longlabour of its development. I would highly recommend
other researchers to develop their own spoken
corpora. Many institutions in Japan have speakingfocused curricula that focus on developing fluency.
Spoken learner corpora research can offer a different
perspective how fluency is measured thus having a
positive effect on future curriculum design. Future
spoken corpora research into linguistic features suchas word-frequency, lexical variation and lexical density
will shed light on the meaning of spoken fluency.
Potential findings would affect how instructor would
teach spoken English and would inform assessment of
speaking skills. As a researcher I look forward to seeing
more spoken corpora research as it would add to thisgrowing field of research.

References
Adolphs, S., & Knight, D. (2010). Building a spoken
corpus. In McCarthy M and O’Keefe A (Eds.),
The Routledge handbook of corpus linguistics (pp.
38-52). New York, NY: Routledge.
Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., &Finegan, E. (1999). Grammar of Spoken andWritten English. Harlow, England: Longman.
Chiang, S. Y., & Mi, H. F. (2011). Reformulation:a verbal display of interlanguage awareness ininstructional interactions. Language Awareness,
20 (2), 135-149.
Cutrone, P. (2010). The backchannel norms of native
English speakers: A target for Japanese L2 English
learners. Language Studies Working Papers, 2,28-37.
Detey, S. (2012). Coding an L2 phonological corpus:
from perceptual assessment to non-native speech
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29

Buck
models: An illustration with French nasal vowels.
Developmental and Crosslinguistic Perspectives inLearner Corpus Research, 4, 229-250.
Götz, S. (2015). Tense and aspect errors in spoken
learner language: Implications for language
testing and assessment. In M. Calies & S. Götz
(Eds.), Learner corpora in language testing
and assessment (pp. 191-215). Amsterdam,
Netherlands: John Benjamins
Hurling, S. (2012). Introduction to EDC. In T. Doe,S. Hurling, M. Livingston & T, Moroi (Eds.)
New directions in teaching and learning English
discussion, 1, 2-9. Tokyo, Japan: EDC.
Lampert, M., & Ervin-Tripp, S. (1993). Structured
coding for the study of language and interaction.
In Edwards, J. and Lampert, M. (Eds.) Talking
data: Transcription and coding in discourse research(pp. 169–206). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Leech, G. (1997). Teaching and language corpora: aconvergence. In A. Wichmann, S. Fligelstone, A.
McEnery and G. Knowles (Eds.). Teaching andLanguage Corpora (pp. 1-23). London, England:
Longman.
Levelt, W. J. M. (1989). Speaking: From intention to
articulation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

McEnery, T., & Hardie, A. (2011). Corpus linguistics:
Method, theory and practice. Cambridge, England:
Cambridge University Press.
McEnery, A. & Z. Xiao (2010). What corpora canoffer in language teaching and learning. In E.
Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook of research in second
language teaching and learning (Vol. 2, pp. 364379). London, England: Routledge.
MacWhinney, B. (2000). The CHILDES project:
Tools for analyzing talk: Volume I: Transcription
format and programs, volume II: The database.
Computational Linguistics, 26(4), 657-657.
Müller, S. (2005). Discourse markers in native andnon-native English discourse. Amsterdam,
Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing.
Opitz, T. (2016). The Efficacy of Drilling
Backchannels in a CLT Context: A Corpus
Analysis of Japanese ESL Learners In J. Lesley,
M. Livingston, M.Y. Schaefer & D, Young. (Eds.)
New Directions in Teaching and Learning English
Discussion (pp. 200-209). Tokyo, Japan: EDC.
Shin, D. & Nation, I. S. P. (2006). Beyond single
words: The most frequent collocations in spoken
English. ELT Journal, 62(4), 339–48.

Author Biography
Jonathan Buck is an instructor in the Centre for English Discussion at Rikkyo University. His
research interests include spoken learner corpora, assessing spoken fluency and teaching EAP
speaking skills. He is currently doing research into spoken fluency and disfluency using the
Rikkyo English Discussion Corpus.

30

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

How Repair Becomes Noticeable
Jeffrie Butterfield
Kanagawa University
jeffriebutterfield@gmail.com
Previous conversation analytic research (e.g., Butterfield, 2016) has demonstrated that repair
sequences may be one potential site in which learning occurs. However, learning may only occur
if the trouble source speaker notices that their utterance has been repaired. Some researchers(e.g., Schmidt, 1990) argue that noticing is an essential condition for second language learning
to occur. The present study investigates an interactional environment and linguistic resource thatare conducive to making repair noticeable to the trouble source speaker. It explores the possible
reasons repair does not go overlooked and also examines the ways that trouble source speakers
demonstrate that they understand that their utterance has been repaired.
既存の会話分析の研究(e.g., Butterfield, 2016)では修復シークエンスは学習が行われ得る場であるということを示した。
しかし、トラブル源の話者は自分の発話は他者に修復されたということに気づかなければ、学習が不可能かもしれないのだ。第二言語の学習としての必須条件は「気づき」と主張する研究者(e.g., Schmidt, 1990)がいる。本稿ではトラブル源の話者にとって修復が明白になる相互行為の環境や言語的なリソースを検証する。
また、修復が見逃されない理由を探り、
トラブル源の話者は自分の発話が修復されたことを理解しているということを示す方法を検討する。

In the field of conversation analysis (CA), repair
refers to the “practices for dealing with problems or
troubles in speaking, hearing and understanding thetalk in conversation” (Schegloff, 1997, p. 503). Repair
is not limited to fixing errors or mistakes, rather, it
is also a resource that is used by interlocutors when
there is a problem of intersubjectivity, which is how
interlocutors demonstrate their understanding ofeach other’s actions (Schegloff, 1992). In this paper,
I use the word ‘repair’ to denote the practices usedby participants to address intersubjectivity issues
as well as the correction of errors. Repair consists of
two basic components: a repair initiation and a repair
proper, which can be thought of as the solution to the
problem.
This study examines an interactional environment

and linguistic resource used by teachers that help repair
to become noticeable and therefore “recognizable
as repair” (Lerner & Kitzinger, 2015, p. 62) to the
producer of the trouble source. They are: (a) when ateacher joins a conversation between two students
to perform repair, and (b) when a teacher uses thephrase, “you mean.” Schmidt (1990) argues that
noticing is an essential condition for second language
learning to occur. By this, he means that learning
only occurs when learners are consciously aware of
the input. Previous research (e.g., Butterfield, 2016)
has shown that repair sequences are sites in whichlearning can occur. This study is significant because if
repair sequences can be sites in which learning occurs,and noticing is an essential condition for learning tooccur, then identifying environments and linguistics

Butterfield, J. (2017). How repair becomes noticeable.
In G. Brooks (Ed.), The 2016 PanSIG Journal (pp.
31-36). Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

resources that help learners to notice their mistakes
should be of extreme importance to language teachers.
All of the repair considered in this study concerns
problems of speaking by students. Sometimes repair
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31

Butterfield
is initiated by a student, the speaker of the trouble
source, or by a teacher. Other-initiations of repair
have varying strengths in regards to their ability tolocate a trouble source and stronger repair initiators
are preferred (Schegloff, Jefferson, & Sacks, 1977).
Sometimes other-initiated repair and other-repair do
not clearly locate the trouble source, and go overlookedby the trouble source speaker. This study explores thepossible reasons repair does not go overlooked andalso investigates the ways that trouble source speakers
demonstrate their receipt of the repair. Koshik (2005)
points out one way that language teachers get students
to notice and self-repair their problematic utterances isby repeating students’ utterances in the previous turnwith rising intonation. This study also discusses othermethods that teachers use to show students that theirutterance has been repaired.

Methods
The data used in the present study come fromapproximately sixteen hours of interaction in auniversity language lounge, which many Japanese
universities have been creating in recent years in orderto provide a place for students to practice and learn
English. The interaction was audio-video recorded
and was transcribed according the transcription
conventions developed by Gail Jefferson (See Atkinson& Heritage, 1984). In the transcripts the teachers arelisted as T1, T2, and so on, and the students are listed
as pseudonyms such as TK and RS.

Analysis
This section explores an interactional environment inwhich repair is made noticeable to the speaker of thetrouble source as well as a linguistic resource deployedby teachers which demonstrates to students that theirutterances have been repaired. I will first discuss how
repair becomes noticeable when a teacher joins a
conversation between two students to do repair.

Teacher Joins a Conversation Between Two
Students to Do Repair
One way that repair becomes noticeable is when athird party, who is not a recipient of the talk at thatmoment (Goodwin, 1981), joins a conversation to
do repair. In this section, I examine how a teacher’ssudden participation in a conversation between two
students engaged in an activity to do repair draws
attention to the repair, therefore making it noticeable.
In both of the examples in this section, the speakers of
the trouble sources receipt the repair by repeating it.
In the following extract (Extract 1), the students,
TK and RS, are doing an activity in which one student
describes a job and the other student is supposed toguess what that job is. The interaction begins with TK
asking RS “do you have >many money<?”
RS responds to TK’s question with “ah” and anod in line 02. TK treats RS’s response as insufficient
as shown by his pursuit of an answer by apparently
recycling the same question from line 01 in line
04. But before TK is able to fully produce the word
“many”, RS responds with “many money”. This is

Extract 1
01
TK:
02
RS:
03 		
04
TK:
05
RS:
06
TK:
07
T2:
08
TK:
09
RS:
10
TK:
11
RS:
12
TK:
13
RS:
14
TK:
15
RS:
16
TK:
17 		

32

do you have >many money<?
ah ((nods))(1.4)
do you have ma-==many money
many hu- moneyºmuch moneyºah mu- much money do you have much money? [much money[ºmuch money°
much money ha ha ha sorry ha ha ha sorry
hn:: yesyes
yes
yes yes
yes
oh
(2.6)

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How Repair Becomes Noticeable, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 31-36
followed by TK saying, “many hu- money”, which
T2, the teacher, acting here as overhearer (Goffman,1981), repairs with “ºmuch money°”, produced in aquiet voice. Schegloff (2000) points out that otherinitiations of repair occasionally do not occur in theturn just subsequent to the trouble source when theparticipant who is not a recipient of the talk initiates
repair. In this extract, T2 is not a recipient of the talkand it is possible that he is withholding his repair until
he sees if the recipient of the talk will initiate repair
or not. After TK does not initiate repair, T2 joins theconversation and deploys an other-initiated otherrepair. In line 08, TK states, “ah mu- much money
do you have much money? much money”. RS also
produces the phrase “much money” in the following
line in overlap with TK’s final “much money”. In line
10, TK again repeats “much money” and apologizes
for his perceived mistake with “ha ha ha sorry ha ha
ha sorry.” In the following turn, RS answers TK’s
reworded question with “hn:: yes.”, which also works
as a repetition and clarification of his positive response
in line 02. In this interaction, two students are engaged
in an activity and T2’s participation in the activity is
not required. Nonetheless, his sudden intervention in
the interaction to do repair has become the focus of
RS and TK’s attention. T2 orients to “many money” asbeing problematic as demonstrated by the fact that hejoins the conversation to do repair.
Both RS and TK demonstrate their receipt of
the repair by repeating “much money”. TK does thisin line 08 when he reproduces his question, replacing
the words “many money” with “much money” and RS
indicates his receipt in the following line by repeating“much money”.
Similarly, in the next extract (Extract 2) two
students are having a conversation and even though
the teacher is not a recipient of the talk, he suddenly
joins the interaction to perform repair.

The interaction begins with HN asking TY, “where
have you been (.) to?” In line 02, TY responds with“uh England Australia Austria Canada eh:: Czecho”,
and this is followed by a 1.4-second gap. Schegloff etal. (1977) point out that occasionally other-initiations
are performed slightly after a trouble source turn ispossibly complete and that this sometimes resultsin the next turn being somewhat delayed. They also
state that when a gap follows a trouble source turn, it
creates an additional opportunity for the speaker of
the trouble source to initiate repair. This extract is an
example of one such case. Following the problematicturn, there is a 1.4-second gap, in which TY could
self-initiate repair. Schegloff et al. (1977) also assertthat these additional opportunities for self-repair
are often taken by the speaker of the trouble source.
In this extract, however, the speaker of the trouble
source does not use the opportunity to do self-repair.
Following the gap, T2 performs other-initiatedother-repair, stating, “Czech Republic”, and after hesays “Czech”, TY repeats “Czech”, but because it was
produced in overlap with T2’s “Republic”, he recycles“Czech” again, which is followed by “Republic”. T2’s
participation in the conversation, the location of theother-repair, the turn subsequent to the trouble source,
as well as the isolation of the repaired utterance help
to make it clear that the previous utterance is being
repaired. Also, because the repaired utterance does
not contain rising intonation, which could be seen asa providing confirmation of the previous utterance,
and the fact that it is slightly similar to but different
from the previous utterance locates the trouble source
and makes the repair stand out. Although T2 is not arecipient of the talk, because his turn does not containcontinuers or receipt tokens, which often come after
non-problematic utterances, it serves to demonstrate
to the producer of the trouble source that his utterance
is being repaired. TY demonstrates his receipt of theExtract 2
01
HN:
02
TY:
03 		
04
T2:
05
TY:
06
T2:

where have you been (.) to?
uh England Australia Austria Canada eh:: Czecho(1.4)
Czech [Republic[Czech Czech Republic Germany and Switzerlandoh

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Butterfield
repair by repeating the repaired utterance.
Bolden (2011), in a conversation analytic study,
demonstrates how a participant who is not the
producer of the trouble source is sometimes selected
to perform repair. She explains that the speaker who
initiates repair “interjects the repair initiation into theongoing course of action in such a way as to not breakits contiguity” (p. 245). In the two examples from mydata presented above, the teacher is not a recipient of
the talk, but interjects to perform repair, thus stopping
the progressivity of the interaction. In the language
lounge, it is the teacher who controls the interaction
and therefore has the right to alter the interaction.

Teacher’s Use of “You mean”
In this section I explore one phrase that teachers use
to demonstrate to students that their utterance has
been repaired. Repair initiations differ in their abilities
to locate trouble sources (Schegloff et al., 1977).
Phrases such as “you mean” serve to mark the words
that precede or follow as a repair proper. Schegloff
et al. (1977) provide evidence that other-correction
can be downgraded through the use of uncertainty
markers such as “I think” and “you mean” and byvarious types of questions. In the extract below, theuse of “you mean” demonstrates to the speaker of thetrouble source not only that their previous utterance
is problematic, but also that what precedes is possibly
the more appropriate word or expression.
Prior to the interaction examined in Extract 3, T1
instructed the students to ask each other what they didon the weekend, which they finished doing. After that,the teacher selected students one by one to explain
what their partner did on the weekend. The extract

begins with YK reporting about her partner TK, “onSunday he went to Yokohama?”, while looking at TK
as if to confirm that what she is saying is correct.
TK confirms that YK’s sentence is correct in line
02, stating, “yes”, after which YK continues explainingthat TK went “with his friends” and “they went tokaraoke and Doutor” in lines 03 and 05. TK again
confirms that her statements are true in lines 04 and06 with “yes” and “yeah”. YK attempts to continue
her turn in line 07 with “and,” but begins laughing
and in the next line TK states, “hanging in- hang inhang in”, which is followed by YK repeating “hangin”. In line 10, after briefly laughing, TK continues
his turn with “Doutor in Doutor. I hang there with
my friend”. T1 then performs other-initiated otherrepair on TK’s utterance with “hung- hung out? youmean”. Schegloff et al. (1977) comment that one way
to initiate repair is through the use of “you mean.”
They found that other-correction consisting of “youmean” and modifications marked by uncertainty“is not asserted, but it is proffered for acceptance orrejection” (p. 379). Benjamin (2012) investigated
the use of “you mean” to initiate repair and focusedon how it is used to perform understanding checks
in cases where the repair initiation is not produced
immediately after the turn containing the repairable.
The examples that he presents differ from this extract
in that the repair initiation occurs immediately after
the turn that contains the trouble source. They are
similar because the use of “you mean” serves to locate
the trouble source for its speaker. The isolation of thetrouble source, the rising intonation on the word “out”
as well as the phrase “you mean” help to illustrate to
TK that his utterance is problematic.

Extract 3: 1-1-23:15
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13

YK:
TK:
YK:
TK:
YK:
TK:
YK:
TK:
YK:
TK:
T1:
TK:
T1:

on Sunday he went to ((looks at TK) Yokohama?
yesfor hn with your with his friendsyes
hn: uh he went to- uh they went to karaoke and Doutor (looks at TK)
yeah
and hh ha ha hahanging in- hang in- hang in
ah hang inha ha ha ha Doutor in Doutor. I hang there with my friend
hung- hung out? [you mean
[hang out [hang out hang out[hung out okay

34

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How Repair Becomes Noticeable, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 31-36
Since “hung out” is produced with risingintonation, it requires a response from TK, which heprovides in line 12, stating, “hang out hang out hangout”, showing that he was unable to hear that T1 issaying “hung out” and not “hang out”. Schegloff (1997)
argues that “some turns are hearably or analyzably
produced as ‘repeats,’ even if in one or more respects
they actually fail to reproduce (either in whole or inpart) their apparent, nonetheless, retrievable target”(p. 525). Although TK’s “hang out” is not an exact
repeat of T1’s “hung out”, it is a repeat attempt andtherefore can be treated as a receipt through repetition.
Because the first “hang out” is produced in overlap
with T1’s utterance, “you mean”, he has to produce itin the clear to make sure that it is heard. TK’s second
production of “hang out” overlaps with T1’s “hungout” in line 13 and the third time he produces it,“hang” is said in overlap with T1’s “okay”. This “okay”
seems to be an acknowledgement of TK’s attempt tocorrectly repeat the repaired utterance. Although TK
is unable to produce the words “hung out”, T1 decides
to let the mistake pass (Firth, 1996) as shown by his
acceptance of the previous utterance with ‘okay’ andhis lack of repair.

Discussion
This study investigated an interactional environment
and linguistic resource used by teachers which help
to make repair noticeable to the trouble source
speaker. In all of the examples in this study, students
demonstrated their understanding that their utterance
had been repaired by repeating the repaired utterance.
This study was an attempt to use CA to show how
repair can be made noticeable to second language
learners, which is extremely important because, as
Butterfield (2016) demonstrates, repair sequences canbe potential sites of learning. However, learning may
only occur if the student notices that their utterance
has been repaired. By understanding various contexts
and resources which help to make repair noticeable tothe trouble source speaker, teachers can help students
to notice that their utterance has been repaired, which
may be one step in the learning process.

References
Atkinson, J. M., & Heritage, J. (Eds.). (1984).
Structures of social action: Studies in conversation
analysis. Cambridge, England: Cambridge
University Press.
Benjamin, T. (2012). When problems pass us by:
Using “you mean” to help locate the sourceof trouble. Research on Language and Social
Interaction, 45(1), 82-109.
Bolden, G. (2011). On the organization of repair in
multiperson conversation: The case of “other”selection in other-initiated repair sequences.
Research on Language and Social Interaction.
44(3), 237-262.
Butterfield, J. (2016). Repair sequences as potentialsites of learning. In G. Brooks, M. Porter, D.
Fujimoto, & D. Tatsuki (Eds.), The 2015 PanSIG
Journal (pp. 31-37). Tokyo, Japan: JALT.
Drew, P. (1997). ‘Open’ class repair initiators in
response to sequential sources of trouble inconversation. Journal of Pragmatics, 28(1), 69101.
Firth, A. (1996). The discursive accomplishment of
normality. Journal of Pragmatics, 26, 237-259.
Goodwin, C. (1981). Conversational Organization:
Interaction between speakers and hearers. New
York, NY: Irvington.
Goffman, E. (1981). Forms of talk. Philadelphia, PA:
University of Pennsylvania Press.
Koshik, I. (2005). Beyond rhetorical questions:
Assertive questions in everyday interaction.
Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins.
Lerner, G. H., & Kitzinger, C. (2015). Or-prefacing in
the organization of self-initiated repair. Researchon Language and Social Interaction, 48(1), 58-78.
Schegloff, E. A. (1992). Repair after the next
turn: The last structurally provided defense
of intersubjectivity in conversation. American
Journal of Sociology, 97(5), 1295-1345.
Schegloff, E. A. (1997). Practices and actions:
Boundary cases of other-initiated repair. Discourse
Processes, 23(3), 499-545.
Schegloff, E. A. (2000). When ‘others’ initiate repair.
Applied Linguistics, 21(2), 205-243.

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Butterfield
Schegloff, E. A., Jefferson, G., & Sacks H. (1977). The
preference for self-correction in the organizationof repair in conversation. Language, 53(2), 361382.

Schmidt, R. (1990). The role of consciousness insecond language learning. Applied Linguistics, 11,
129-158.

Author Biography
Jeffrie Butterfield is a doctoral student at Kanagawa University. His research interests include
conversation analysis, second language acquisition, and language teaching.

36

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Visualizing Vocabulary Using Google Images
John Campbell-Larsen

Cameron Romney

Kyoto Women’s University
joncamlar@hotmail.com

Doshisha University
romney.cameron@gmail.com

Learning the vocabulary of a foreign language is a major task facing the language learner. In
addition to the scale of the task, it must also be recognized that vocabulary often encodes cultural
viewpoints and values and that it is often difficult for learners and teachers alike to tease out these
aspects when seeking to define vocabulary in the classroom. In addition to using meta-language
to explicate vocabulary, the increasingly digitized and connected world we live in affords us an
opportunity to exploit the visual resources available on-line, namely, using image searches tovisualize vocabulary. Visualization can help overcome issues such as circularity and obscurity indefinitions and also reveal nuanced cultural perspectives that are embedded within words that aresupposedly synonyms. This paper details the results of image searches for common words such asplay, scold and drugs and their Japanese counterparts. The results reveal multifaceted differencesin cultural perspectives of these words. In addition to helping with vocabulary acquisition,comparison of images can, it is suggested, develop critical thinking skills and exploit the increased
visual literacy of 21st century digital natives
外国語学習者にとって、外国語の語彙を習得することは大きな課題である。課題の規模の大きさに加え、語彙は往々にして文化的視点や価値観を含んでおり、授業内で単語の定義を求める際にそれらの要素を引き出すことは学習者にとっても教師にとっても難しい場合が多いということも認識
しなければならない。語彙について詳説するためにメタ言語を使用する他に、
よりデジタル化しより繋がってきている我々の住む世界のおかげで、
オンライン上で入手可能なビジュアル資源、即ち語彙を視覚的に説明するための画像検索機能を活用する機会が我々には与えられている。視覚化をすることにより定義の堂々巡りや曖昧さ等の問題を避けることが可能になり、
また、同義語と推定される単語間における文化的視点のニュアンスも明らかにすることが可能となる。
この論文では「遊ぶ」「叱る」「いじめる」等の一般的英単語と対応する日本語について行った画像検索の結果を詳細に記している。結果を見るとこれらの単語に対する文化的視点の多面的な差異が明らかとなった。画像比較をすることにより、21世紀のデジタルネイティブが語彙を習得するのに役立つだけでなく、彼らが批判的思考能力を開発し視覚リテラシーを向上させることに役立つと示唆している“We are intensively visual creatures, and we live ina world that is largely oriented to sight.” Kandel,
2015, p. 238.

Campbell-Larsen, J., Romney, C. (2017). Visualizing
vocabulary using Google Images. In G. Brooks (Ed.),The 2016 PanSIG Journal (pp. 37-45). Tokyo, Japan:
JALT.

We live in a visual world, and one that is getting more
and more visual. It was estimated that in the year 2015
alone one trillion photographs were taken (Heyman,2015). Our students are, with constant access to themedia-rich Internet, just as comfortable deriving
meaning from pictures as they are words (Lai, 2010)
and this is not just because of the explosion of digital
media. Our dominant sense as human beings is visual(Stokes & Biggs, 2014) and according to the VARKThe 2016 PanSIG Journal

37

Campbell-Larsen & Romneysurvey of learning styles, learning with multi-media
is one of the most often self-reported learning stylepreferences (Fleming, 2016).
This begs the question: How can teachers put
images to use in the language-learning classroom? In
this paper, the authors argue for using the image searchfeatures of Google to help students understand crosslanguage and cross-cultural semantics and therefore
acquire vocabulary.

Vocabulary Acquisition

will easily satisfie (sic) one of the truth of this, it
being so obvious to observe great store of words in
one language which have not any that answer them inanother” (Locke, 1690/2008, p. 275).
Despite this understanding of the noncorrespondence of vocabulary at the interface of any
two languages, the default setting in many second/
foreign language learning environments is to deal
with words as if they did indeed have a relationshipof synonyms, or at least very near synonyms. Manylearners will have compiled vocabulary lists where
the foreign language word is written in one column
and the corresponding (or supposed corresponding)word in the learner’s L1 is placed in the adjacentcolumn (Folse, 2004). This putative one-to-one
correspondence is just one way in which words canrelate across linguistic boundaries. The following
section categorizes the range of possible relationships.

One of the main tasks confronting a learner of aforeign language is the acquisition of an adequate
amount of vocabulary of the target language. The
total vocabulary of any given language is vast andeven native speakers of a language do not know every
word in their language. Clearly learners of a foreign
language must be selective in what words they acquire.
It would seem to be a commonsense approach to
introduce learners to high-frequency words in theCategories of Relationshiptarget language and for learners to then gradually The first and most obvious category is a simple one-tomove towards more specialist and lower frequency one relationship. The word snow in English is a straight
vocabulary items, or perhaps focus on language that synonym for Schnee in German and 雪 (yuki) in
is relevant to a particular field of specialization such Japanese. This may be termed as an ‘x=y’ relationship.
as medical, engineering or legal vocabulary (Nation,
The second category is the case where a single
2001).
word in one language is covered by a number of other
The acquisition of vocabulary seems to be a words in another language. An example of this is thehumdrum affair, mainly placing strains on the memory Japanese word 乗る (noru) which is used to refer toof the learner and not taxing the higher, analytical conveyance by transport. In English this word can bemental processes. Indeed, Pinker (1994) explains: translated as get on, get in, take, go by, ride and so on.
“Unlike the mental grammar, the mental dictionary English conceptualizes the action differently in suchhas had no cachet. It seems like nothing more than cases as ‘get on the train,’ ‘get in the car,’ ‘ride the bike’
a humdrum list of words each transcribed into the and the like, whereas Japanese would use the verb 乗る
head by dull-witted rote memorization” (p. 226). This (noru) in all of these cases. In a counter example wherenaïve view of vocabulary acquisition supposes that Japanese makes distinctions that are not attended tocomplexity and difficulty are features of rare, abstract by English speakers, the verbs for wearing clothing
and technical vocabulary and that the high frequency vary in Japanese depending on the item of clothing. 履
vocabulary used in quotidian exchanges poses no く (haku) is used for shoes, socks, jeans, skirts, etc., 着
intellectual challenge to the learner.
る (kiru) is used for shirts, jackets, blouses, coats etc.,
However, this view is mistaken. When dealing and かぶる (kaburu) is used for hats, caps, helmets,with vocabularies of different languages it has and all kinds of headgear. In English, the catchall verb
long been recognized that assuming a one-to-one is wear. One simply wears a hat, a jacket, jeans, boots,correspondence between words of different languages and so on in English.
is an understandable but ultimately incorrect
A further category of relationship is that of lexical
standpoint. “A moderate Skill in different languages gap. That is, a word in one language simply does not

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The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Visualizing Vocabulary Using Google Images, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 37-45
have any equivalent in the other language. This ismost clear in referring to material culture that is
specific to the language in question. The sporran of
Scottish national dress has, unsurprisingly, no direct
equivalent in Japanese. Similarly, the Japanese practiceof removing shoes before entering a home finds
expression in the word for a place to remove shoes,
i.e. the 玄関 (genkan). The English language does nothave a specific word for this, with hall, lobby and porch
not really expressing the meaning of 玄関 (genkan). In
the authors’ experience, English speakers resident inJapan readily incorporate the Japanese word into theiractive English and Japanese vocabulary. While many
assume that this category of lexical gap is common, it
is in fact rare and infrequent (Folse, 2004).

Culture and Language
The vocabulary of any given language is bound up withthe culture of the speakers of that language. As Sapir(1949) notes, “vocabulary is a very sensitive index of
the culture of a people” (p. 162). This theme was taken
up by Wierzbicka (1997) who states “…what applies tomaterial culture and to social rituals and institutions
applies also to people’s values, ideals, attitudes andto their ways of thinking about the world and ourlife in it” (p. 2). Although vocabulary dealing withspecific items of material culture is generally accessible
to students of any language, some of the underlying
attitudes that are implicit in seemingly innocuousand supposedly culturally neutral vocabulary may be
more difficult for learners to identify. In other words,
lexis from two different languages, which seem, on thesurface to represent the same underlying conceptual
matrix, may have deep dissimilarities. It is these
connotations of words that can vary by culture (Folse,
2004), so that even a concrete noun like ‘truck’ would
bring to mind different items for different people. An
American speaker might imagine a large pick-up truck
and a Japanese speaker might imagine a small kei-classtruck. What is more, native speakers of a language
may be unable to recognize the culturally specificviewpoints that are encoded in words of their own
language. A rural speaker’s positive connotations of atruck as a vehicle with high utility might clash with
an urban resident’s view of a truck as an impracticalnuisance. Images can be used to demonstrate thesetypes of differences.

Images in Language Learning
Using visuals to teach language is as old as language
learning itself (Wright, 1976) although prior to themodern age it consisted mostly of realia and sketchesdrawn by the teacher (Corder, 1966). Although there
are various ways that images can be used for language
teaching one of the most common is to help students
learn vocabulary (Bush, 2007).
Visual depictions of people, places, things, ideas,etc. are so commonly used in language teaching thatmany teachers and students take them for granted(Goldstein, 2008), but as Hack (2014) notes,“language teachers tend to employ images solely for
their denotative content without considering what
connotations they contain for themselves and for the
students” (p. 53). A teacher choosing an image of atruck might be unaware of their own biases of trucks
and choose an image that shows them in a positive
light, like the hypothetical rural resident alluded
to above, or in a negative light as the previously
mentioned urban resident.

Words and Images
One of the traditional problems with definitions isthat defining words by means of other words can leadto problems of obscurity or circularity. (See Goddard,
1998.) The development of a natural semantic metalanguage by Wierzbicka (1996) has attempted tocircumvent these problems, but still relies on words todescribe other words. In addition to lexical accountsof meaning, images may also be a valuable resourcefor examining some of the aspects of meaning(s) that
may inhere in a particular word. Specifically, images
are often used to clarify descriptions and/or to portray
ambiguous lexical items (Folse & Chien, 2003), andit has been proposed that pictures can be successful
in helping students acquire vocabulary because of thedual coding theory that has shown that people havebetter retention of information when processed bothvisually and textually (Mayer, 2009)
However, despite the long history of illustrated
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Campbell-Larsen & Romney
dictionaries and picture dictionaries for language
learners, images have generally not been utilized formore abstract investigations of meaning. As Sousanis(2015) explains:
Traditionally, words have been privileged as
the proper mode of explanation, as the tool ofthought. Images have, on the other hand, long
been sequestered to the realm of spectacle andaesthetics, sidelined in serious discussions as mere
illustration to support the text—never as equal
partner (p. 54)
Investigating the meanings of words throughcomparisons of multiple examples in image corpora
such as Google Images, is, it is proposed here, a usefuladdition to the repertoire of cognitive tools that canbe utilized in language learning, specifically for lexical
items that have a one-to-many or a more nuanced
meaning than a simple one-to-one relationship.

Distinct Meanings Revealed by
Images: Three Examples
When instructing students on vocabulary meanings
many assume that all words fall into the ‘x=y’
relationship. However, many words that appear tohave a straightforward relationship, often have a morenuanced meaning that is culturally bound and is
not conveyed by a simple ‘x=y’ relationship. Google
Images can serve as a good resource to double-checkthe dictionary equivalents and to see if the ‘x=y’
relationship is valid. What follows here are three
examples of Japanese and English word pairs, withsupporting images, that on first glance appear to belexically equivalent, but are revealed not to be so by
scrutiny of their supposedly equivalent images. These
examples illustrate the kinds of nuances that may bebetter explicated by images rather than traditional
vocabulary learning activities.

Play vs. 遊ぶ (asobu)

Google Images
Bush (2007) was a strong advocate for using digital
images in language learning classrooms as a way tocontextualize the language and to provide cultural
information not readily available in textbooks
and other learning materials. However, he feltthat the practical issues of collecting images andthe organizational issues of storing, indexing andretrieving digital images were too great to make theuse of digital images practical. Google Images largely
solves these issues. Where Bush (2007) advocatedfor teachers to make regular trips to countries where
the target language is spoken, take photographs, andorganize them into collections themselves, Google
Images allows teachers to search, find and accessimages made by members of the target culture andlanguage. It is a practical, simple and efficient way ofaccessing images. While not envisioned for language
learning, Google Images can be thought of as a visual
corpus of language.

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The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Anyone that has spent time speaking English withJapanese adults will probably have encountered theiruse of ‘play.’ For example, one might ask, “what did you
do last weekend?” and the response may be, “I went toOsaka and played with my friends.” This, of course,
does not fall on the ear well as it sounds awkward andunnatural. Most likely, this is a ‘translation’ error. They
are taking a perfectly reasonable sentence in Japanese,“友達と大阪に行って、遊びました” (tomodachi to osaka
ni itte, asobimashita) and translating it to English. It
is assumed that play is the equivalent English word of
遊ぶ (asobu). Looking up 遊ぶ (asobu) in a bilingual
dictionary, the top referent is almost always play. Few
will look beyond the top definition, nor will theydig into the usage notes to discover that play is anappropriate translation of 遊ぶ (asobu) when speakingof children and certain games and sports, but not ofgeneral adult recreational activity.
However, by comparing the results of Google
Image searches of both play and 遊ぶ (asobu), thedifference can be quickly and easily ascertained. A
search of play yields images almost exclusively ofchildren playing. 遊ぶ (asobu) on the other hand,yields images of both children playing, and adults

Visualizing Vocabulary Using Google Images, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 37-45

Figure 1. Play vs. 遊ぶ (asobu). Image on left: Four children are playing by Martin, 2015. In public domain. Imageon right: クリスマス＆忘年会 by kontenten, 2013. Available under Creative Commons (CC BY-ND 2.5).

was late for my part-time job and my boss scolded me.”However, scold is a relatively unusual word in spoken
English. A search of the British National Corpus(Davies, 2004-) only revealed 57 instances and morethan half were from prose fiction. Image searches for
scold reveal pictures that primarily show an interaction
between an adult and a child, often a parent or teacher
remonstrating with a child. The search for 怒られる
(okorareru) brings up images that show an adult-toadult interaction, usually in a workplace situation.
Figure 3 shows two typical images that come up in a
Scold and 怒られる (okorareru)
One common translation of the Japanese word 怒 Google Images search for the two terms.
Critical thinking must be applied whenる (okoru), especially in its passive form, 怒られる
(okorareru), is scold. Japanese speakers of English may scrutinizing paired images. For example, many of therely on this translation to produce sentences such as “I scold images show the recipient of the scolding taking
engaging in leisure activities such as picnics, parties,
and drinking alcohol. Figure 1 shows two typicalimages that come up in a Google Images search forthese words.
Additional searches of more appropriate
expressions such as hang out or enjoying with friends
can yield more fitting images of young adultssocializing. Figure 2 shows two typical images foundin a Google Image search of these items.

Figure 2. Hang out and Enjoying with friends. Image on left: Friends/Students/Freshers Hangout in Restaurant by
Adam S., 2013. Available under Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0). Image on right: Max and Dani enjoying time withfriends by Wonderlane, 2011. Available under Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0).

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

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Campbell-Larsen & Romney

Figure 3. Scold vs. 怒られる (okurareru). Image on left: Mother and Daughter Arguing by Lorelyn Medina, 2014.
License purchased from shutterstock.com. Image on right: 上司に怒られる by DesignEXchange, 2007. Licensepurchased from 満タン WEB.

a resistant stance towards the scolder, shouting back,putting their fingers in their ears, or other ways ofshowing a negative stance towards being scolded. By
contrast, the 怒られる (okorareru) images frequently
show the recipient as passive, nervous, and submissive.
Encoded within these images may be culturally
derived notions of who has the right to scold whom
and what attitude the recipient of emotively expressed
negative evaluation should adopt. Figure 3 shows thesedifferences.
Using an additional image search for expressions
such as yell at or tell off reveal more appropriate
adult-to-adult interactions and can help speakers tomake more suitable utterances such as, “I was late formy part-time job and my boss yelled at me,” or “I waslate and my boss told me off.” Figure 4 shows example
images found by searching these expressions.

Drugs, Medicine and 薬 (kusuri)
Another pair of words with the potential for mismatchare drug(s) and 薬 (kusuri). If a speaker were to produce
a sentence such as, “I went to the doctor and he gave
me some good drugs” it would not sound too awkward
as it could be implied that they were making a joke.
However, a sentence like, “I have to eat something because
I need to take my drugs” could cause miscommunication
as it could be implied that they were taking an illegal
substance. A more appropriate word would be medicine

Figure 4. Yell at and tell off. Image on left: Boss shouting at female employee sitting at desk in office by Andrey
Popov, 2016. License purchased from shutterstock.com. Image on right: Man told off by woman by Terence
Mendoza, 2015. License purchased from shutterstock.com.

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The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Visualizing Vocabulary Using Google Images, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 37-45

Figure 5. Drugs, medicine and 薬 (kusuri). Image on left: Drug paraphernalia by Cartagene, 2015. In public domain.
Center image: Medicine display by Mark Buckawicki, 2013. In public domain. Image on right: かぜ薬 by kimubert,
2013. Available under Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0).

and a Google Image search of the terms, drugs, 薬(kusuri), and medicine could illustrate the different
usages. Figure 5 shows images found by searching thesethree terms on Google Images.

Conclusion
Images are a powerful tool that can be used in
the language-learning classroom to help students
understand the often subtle and nuanced meaningsof lexical items and how the meaning of so-called
equivalent words can vary from their L1 and thetarget L2. Using the image search features of Google
Images are a way for teachers to access large numbersof images, including a large number of images made,tagged and posted to the internet by highly proficientusers of the target L2. These images include cultural,contextual, and connotative information not readily
available in the language-learning classroom and cancreate a deeper, more nuanced level of understanding
and provides an opportunity for students to criticallyreflect on their own culture and how it relates to theculture of the target language.
The varying contexts of language teaching andlearning preclude a detailed discussion of the exact
ways that teachers can use paired image searches
in their particular classroom contexts. This paper
hopes to raise awareness of the value and importanceof using images for language learning and cultural
understanding and to inspire teachers to find new
ways to use images with their students.

References
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Corder, P. S. (1966). The visual elements in language
teaching. London, England: Longman Group Ltd.
Davies, M. (2004-) BYU-BNC. (Based on the British
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Fleming, N. D. (2016). Research & Statistics [weblog
post]. Retrieved from http://vark-learn.com/
introduction-to-vark/research-statistics/
Folse, K. (2004). Vocabulary myths. Ann Arbor, MI:
The University of Michigan Press.
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Folse, K., and Chien, Y. (2003). Using L2 Researchon Multimedia Annotations to Evaluate CALL
Vocabulary Materials. Sunshine State TESOLJournal 2, pp. 25-37.
Goddard, C. (1998). Semantic Analysis: A practical
introduction. Oxford, England: Oxford
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Hack, B. (2014). Teaching (with) visuals: Somethoughts on images and the EFL classroom.
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kyōikukenkyūsho nenpō [The world of words:
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wiki/File かぜ薬_(10818540605).jpg.
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photo/show/1190304/194668788.
Lai, A. (2010) Teaching with images. The innovative
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Martin, C. (2015). Four children are playing withtoys [digital image]. Retrieved from http://www.
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Medina, L. (2014). Mother and daughter Arguing

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shutterstock.com/pic-201349532
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com/pic-141854653
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Stokes, D., & Biggs, S. (2014). The Dominance ofVisual. In D. Stokes, S. Biggs, & M. Matthen(Eds.), Perception and its Modalities (pp. 350378), New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Wierzbicka, A. (1996). Semantics: Primes anduniversals. Oxford, England: Oxford University
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Wierzbicka, A. (1997) Understanding cultures
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Wonderlane. (2011). Max and Dani enjoying
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Visualizing Vocabulary Using Google Images, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 37-45

Author Biographies
John Campbell-Larsen has taught EFL in Japan for the last 21 years. He holds a CELTA and an
MA in TESOL from Birmingham University. His research interests are conversation analysis,
methodology for teaching the spoken form of English and cross-cultural communication. He
is associate professor in the Department of English Studies, Kyoto Women’s University, Kyoto,
Japan.

Cameron Romney has taught ESL/EFL in both the United States and Japan for the last 19
years. He holds an MA in Applied Linguistics from the University of Colorado at Denver anda graduate certificate in Instructional Design from the University of Wisconsin Stout. His
primary research interest is how the visual elements of language learning materials contributeto, or detract from, learning. He is an assistant professor in the Global Communications Facultyof Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan.

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Investigating Young Learners’ L2 PragmaticCompetence in Telling Uncomfortable Truths
Akiko Chiba
University of Hong Kongakikocm@gmail.com
L2 pragmatics knowledge is regarded as a key factor in the development of language learners’communicative competence. Despite abundant literature in interlanguage pragmatics worldwide,
past studies have primarily addressed adults, leaving young learners underrepresented. As
pragmatics, or knowledge of contextual language variation, is especially difficult to master inforeign language acquisition, the onset of L2 pragmatics instruction should be investigated. In
response to this lack of research in younger learners’ L2 pragmatics, this study investigated English
pragmatic strategies for “telling uncomfortable truths” with three elementary-age learners. The
results raise the question of the suitable age for incorporating pragmatics into language programs.
Furthermore, while some pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic competence was observed, thelearners failed to derive intended meanings from implicatures, suggesting an order of emergence inpragmatic development.
第２言語での語用論的知識は、学習者の外国語コミュニケーション能力の発達において重要な役割をもっている。
しかし、中間言語語用論の研究が世界的に盛んに行われている今日、大半の研究が大人を対象としたものであり、年少学習者の語用論研究が極めて少ないのが現状である。外国語の語用論的能力の習得が特に困難である点を考慮すると、第２言語語用論の指導開始時期に関する研究が不可欠であると思われる。従って、本稿では３人の小学生学習者を対象に「言いにくい真実をどう伝えるか」をテーマに英語語用論的能力の調査を行い、語用論的内容を外国語教育に効果的に組み込むにはどの年齢が適しているのかを考察する。
また、本研究では参加者が言語
語用論的能力と社会語用論的能力を示したにもかかわらず、含意表現の意図を読み取ることはできなかった。
これにより、語用論的能力の習得には何らかの順序が存在するとの推測が可能であると考えられる。

Recent recognition worldwide of the importantrole played by L2 pragmatic knowledge has led
to increased research in interlanguage pragmatics(Kecskes, 2013; Taguchi, 2012). Yet past studies havepredominantly dealt with adult learners, leaving young
learners underrepresented (Lee, 2010). As pragmatics,
or knowledge of contextual language variation, is
Chiba, A. (2017). Investigating young learners’ L2
pragmatic competence in telling uncomfortable truths.
In G. Brooks (Ed.), The 2016 PanSIG Journal (pp.
46-54). Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

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especially difficult to master in foreign language
acquisition (Cohen, 2008; Ishihara & Cohen, 2010),
the onset of L2 pragmatics instruction should be
investigated. Examining L2 pragmatic development
in younger learners will help researchers and educators
derive more effective ways to teach pragmatics tovarious age groups.
Among limited literature on young learner’s
pragmatic development, Rose (2000) investigatedthe pragmatic development of 7, 9, and 11 year-old
learners in Hong Kong, which included discourse
completion tasks (DCTs), oral production tasks, andYoung Learners’ L2 Pragmatic Competence, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 46-54
verbal protocols with scenarios authentic to young
learners’ lives. Although some pragmalinguistic1
development
wasevident,sociopragmatic2
development was not observable. Savic’s (2015) studyof request strategies at varying developmental stages inyoung Norwegian EFL learners yielded similar results,
where sensitivity to social power was demonstrated inlinguistic production but sociopragmatic development
was not clearly confirmed. Lee (2010) investigateddevelopmental patterns of pragmatic comprehensionin 7-12 year-old students in Hong Kong using
multiple choice and verbal protocols and reportingthat indirect speech acts were problematic for the
younger participants, suggesting that matching literalmeaning with contextual clues and intended meaning
may emerge between early to middle childhood.
With regards to interventions, past studies
adopted awareness-raising activities and explicit
instructional approaches as effective methods forteaching L2 pragmatics. Awareness-raising activities
on contextual language use drawn from Schmidt’s
noticing hypothesis (Schmidt, 1990) showed successin enhancing understandings of L2 pragmatics (Rose,
1994; Eslami-Rasekh, 2005), as did the explicit
approach with metapragmatic information in making
the target pragmatic features more salient (Rose, 2000;
Takimoto, 2008).

The Study
This cross-sectional study investigates young learner’existing knowledge of English pragmatics. The speech
act of “telling uncomfortable truths” was selected
because it is a face-threatening act relevant to theparticipants’ age, where the speaker’s positive face

might be challenged when they are forced to reveal aninconvenient truth. The knowledge of such strategies
will likely benefit the young participants.

MethodTwo 90-minute lessons were conducted by the author,
four days apart. The author examined instances ofparticipants’ pragmalinguistic and sociopragmaticcompetence through an awareness-raising approach,combined with explicit instruction. These pragmaticsfocused lessons were carried out in English.

Participants
The three participants were Japanese girls living andstudying in Hong Kong: 10-year-old Saki and Kanako(all names are pseudonyms), and 8-year-old Chika.
Kanako and Chika are sisters. Upper primary-age
children were selected due to their relative emotional
stability and their linguistic ability to understandcomplex language structures (Bucciarelli, Colle, &Bara, 2002). While such children are still developingin many areas, including cognitive, emotional,
physical, and linguistic domains, children older thaneight are thought to be linguistically and cognitively
mature enough to “use language to talk about
language” (McKay, 2006, p. 6) and possess social
awareness of how to act in various contexts (Cameron,2001). Since pragmatic strategies involve complex
processing, including analyzing speakers’ intentions,listeners’ interpretations, and contextual factors, theseparticipants were selected on the grounds of being
older than the supposed lower limit of eight.
All three participants attend Japanese primaryschool in Hong Kong, where one 40-minute English

Table 1
Information About the Participants
Name

Age

English ProficiencySaki(10 years old)

Near-native level (all four skills).

Kanako(10 years old)

Speaking/listening (advanced). Writing (low intermediate). Grammatical errors often
observed in speech.

Chika(8 years old)

Speaking/listening (advanced). Writing (low intermediate). Grammatical errors
prominent in speech.

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Chibalesson is offered every day. Table 1 shows their English
proficiency.
As Saki received formal instruction in both
Japanese and English in her previous school, shedeveloped foundational skills in both. Kanako andChika’s lower proficiency in writing compared to
speaking can be explained by their school’s English
curriculum, where oral communication is the focus
and writing instruction is not emphasized. Although
they speak English at home, they have few chances touse it in writing.
Due to the participants’ age, parents’ consent
for video recording and publishing of findings was
obtained prior to the lessons.

Target Structure
Traditional speech act theories do not accountfor sequential strategies for telling uncomfortable
truths, or more generally, making confessions. Since
uncomfortable truths are typically followed byapologies, combined sequential strategies have beensuggested as part of a general confession pattern. This
study adopts Trosborg’s (1995) apology strategies for
Steps 3-8 of the sequence:
1. Prepare the listener
2. Tell the truth
3. Apologize?
4. Explain how it happened?
5. Give reasons?
6. Make promise?
7. Show regret?
8. Offer to fix the damage?
A set of possible expressions were provided for
Steps 1 and 7 as pragmalinguistic tools. In classdiscussions, the learners were asked whether Steps
3-6 were necessary in various scenarios and why thereasons were (or were not) required.

Data collection
Since visual narratives can be a rich L2 cultural
source (Ishihara & Chiba, 2014) and image, text, anddiscussion can interact to shape pragmatic meanings(Chiba, 2012), the participants read picture books

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and watched a cartoon about the theme of confessing
and apologizing. The learners then engaged in
discussions about the context and reasons for thecharacters’ behaviors. Testing instruments included
five oral DCTs and six role-plays. Both sessions werevideo recorded for later analysis.

Findings
DCTs
Although the two older learners demonstrated
appropriate responses in pragmalinguistic andsociopragmatic terms, frequent instances of pragmatic
failure were observed in Chika’s responses. The
example below shows the difference between Chika
and Kanako’s responses to the same prompt:
Dialogue 1
Scenario: You borrowed your friend’s DVD
but accidentally cracked it. The DVD was newand had your friend’s favorite movie, which she
received as a Christmas present.
Chika: I’m super sorry. I’ll bye [sic] you another [sic] DVD for you. I will bring it next
week.
Kanako: I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to crack
it. (Give reason). I will pay for a new one. And
can you still be my friend?
Although Chika expresses her apology with theintensifier “super” and offers to fix the damage, sheshows no regret or concern or gives a reason for theincident. In contrast, Kanako’s response shows thatthe act was unintentional, gives a reason, offers repair,and expresses concern for continued friendship.
Chika’s lack of pragmalinguistic competence also
demonstrates a lack of sociopragmatic competence
because interactants are normally expected to use
various strategies when apologizing for a high-stakes
mistakes, as in this case.

Role-plays
A similar result was obtained for role-plays. The
example below compares Chika’s with Saki’s response.
The teacher plays the mother’s role:Young Learners’ L2 Pragmatic Competence, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 46-54
Dialogue 2
Scenario: You wanted to try your mom’s
earrings on while she was out. You put them onand checked yourself in the bathroom mirror.
Suddenly, one of the earrings came off andwent down the drain. What will you tell yourmom when she comes home?
Chika: Hi, I accidentally dropped yourearrings down the drain. I’m sorry. [smile]
Teacher: You dropped my earrings?
Chika: I’ve always wanted to put on for years
and years and finally I had the chance…
Teacher: While I was gone?
Chika: Yeah! Well, next time I won’t do it.
Teacher: But it’s gone. There is no next time.
Chika: I’ll buy you another one. I’ll buy you acheap one.
Saki: Umm… Mom, I have some terrible news.
Teacher: Oh… ok.
Saki: While you were out, I saw your earrings
and they were so beautiful I had to try them on.
And I went to my mirror and then looked atmyself and then suddenly one earring slipped
off my ear and went down the drain. I’m really,
really sorry about it [hands holding together
and pleading look].
Teacher: Oh… Oh, where’s the other one? You
still have the other one?
Saki: Yeah, it’s right here.
Teacher: Oh… okay. Well, how, how did… did
it go down the drain?
Saki: Yeah, I tried to get it, but I couldn’t get it.
Teacher: Oh, dear.
Saki: Sorry… [3 sec.]
Teacher: Okay, well. Thank you for telling me
the truth. Let’s call the plumber.
Compared to Saki’s approach, with its preparatoryline and profuse apology, Chika’s response lacks
linguistic strategies, such as a preparatory moveand an expression of regret. Moreover, multiplesociopragmatic rules are violated in Chika’s response asa smile is inappropriate when apologizing for damage
one caused as is such a curt apology for the degree ofthe offense. By contrast, Saki’s linguistic strategies andapologetic gestures demonstrate her sociopragmaticcompetence through equally appropriate approachand language. Likewise, Kanako’s sociopragmaticcompetence was demonstrated through anotherprompt:Dialogue 3
Scenario: Asking a friend to rearrange aplaydate.
Teacher: Would you use strategies for
preparing the listener?
Kanako: Yeah, but I wouldn’t go too far.
Teacher: You wouldn’t go too far. Why not?
Kanako: Cuz it’s just a playdate [smile].
This highlights her understanding that different
degrees of seriousness require different strategies.
As rearranging a playdate is not equal to confessing
an uncomfortable truth, a strategic sequence was
unnecessary here.

Class Discussion
The discussion was beneficial as learners
collaboratively engaged in shaping sociopragmatic
meanings for various target expressions, especiallywhen determining politeness levels in the Formality
Judgment Tasks (see Appendix), where learners wereasked to label formality levels for various expressions
on a continuum:
Dialogue 4
Teacher: [Pointing to the formal end of thecontinuum on Chika’s handout]
So, who would use this kind of expression?
Saki: Royals.
Teacher: Royals? [laugh] Would you use them?
[6 sec.] Would you use the, um, expressions on
the left hand side? The formal side?
Chika: Mmm, not much. Only like when you
are meeting someone very special.
Teacher: Oh, ok. Who would that be?
Chika: I don’t know.
Teacher: Then, who would use the expressions
on your right side to.
Saki: My friend [taps Kanako]. “No prob”
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Chiba[waving at Kanako]
Kanako: Friends, family, known guests.
The discussion also demonstrated learners’
knowledge of cultural differences in language use
between Japanese and English. The following is anexcerpt from a discussion of formality levels in thelanguage used with Japanese teachers:
Dialogue 5
Kanako: In my school, like when you’re having
fun with your [ Japanese homeroom] teacher,
Saki Yeah, yeah…
Kanako: We, we just use tango.
Teacher: tamego? [equal status language]
Kanako: tamego.
[…]
Kanako: During class, I probably use the left
side. [of the continuum – formal language]
Teacher: The keigo? [formal language withhonorifics]
Kanako: Yup.
Teacher: How about to Mr. Daniel [English
teacher from the UK]?
Kanako: [Pointing at casual end] This side[smile]Teacher: This side? Always? In class, outside ofclass?
Kanako: Yeah.
Teacher: How’s that?
Kanako: I don’t know. Cuz he is an easy person
to talk to.
Teacher: [To Saki] Do you agree?
Saki: [nods]
This example illustrates these learners’sociopragmatic knowledge about differences inlanguage forms depending on context (during classversus breaks with the Japanese teacher) and in social
distance between Japanese and English cultures.
During the class discussion on useful strategies,
Kanako pointed out that it is preferable to prepare
listeners directly by saying “I have some bad news”
rather than using indirect warning of the forthcoming
unfavorable news:

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Dialogue 6
1 Teacher: [Reading from handout] “Umm,do you have a minute? I have to tell you
something.”
2 Saki: Or “I have something to tell you.”
3 Teacher: Yup.
4 Kanako: Marry me!
All [laugh]
5 Chika: Will you marry me [giggling]?
6 Teacher: That’s not, that’s not necessarily
a bad news, right? But that’s true, you arepreparing the listener…
7 Kanako: Yeah, but “I have to tell you
something” is like “what is he going to tellme?” So, you need to say “I have some bad
news,” is probably the best way, because like…
8 Saki: Yeah. Maybe it’s something good.
9 Teacher: Oh, so they might expect good
news? So, to prepare them for the negativenews…
10 Chika: I have some bad news. Would you
marry me?
All [laugh]
11 Teacher: … It’s better to say it upfront?
12 Saki: Yeah.
13 Kanako: Yeah [nods]
14 Teacher: You think? Oh, okay. Interesting.
Interesting.
Turn 4 by Kanako was unexpected by the
instructor because it revealed clear sociopragmatic
failure, violating the sequential rule behind telling
uncomfortable truths. Although the instructor
tries to rationalize it (Turn 6) by saying that one ofthe purposes for the lead-in is to grab the listener’s
attention, Kanako quickly takes over to explain herview in that the direct strategy should be used (Turn7).

Discussion
Pragmalinguistic development was prominent for
Saki and Kanako in all in-class testing instruments.
Examining the structure of their responses showedthat explicit instruction regarding target structures
had direct effects on their linguistic choices. However,Young Learners’ L2 Pragmatic Competence, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 46-54
both learners had previous L2 sociopragmatic
knowledge in addition to knowledge acquired
during the lessons. Both also revealed knowledge ofsociopragmatic differences between Japanese andEnglish in formal language use, due perhaps to theirbilingual and bicultural upbringing in cosmopolitan
Hong Kong.
In contrast, although Chika participatedenthusiasticallyinclass
discussion,
herpragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic knowledge were
not observable during lessons. This discrepancy inoutcome may be due to the age difference, especiallygiven that Chika and Kanako were exposed to priorintercultural experiences, leaving the age gap as themain variant. Although seemingly trivial, a two-year
difference can have a large impact on many facets ofchildren’s development, such as L1 and L2 linguisticcompetence, L1 and L2 pragmatic competence, life
experience, analytical competence, attention span,interest in topics, etc. Discussions of sociopragmaticand pragmalinguistic matters require experience andanalysis of cultural differences in both L1 and L2
communities. However, young children may not be
developmentally ready to participate in such tasks. For
Chika, unsuccessful outcomes of pragmatics-focused
activities may result from her developing linguistic andcultural knowledge, added with a lack of pragmatic
experience due to her age. Although no study has
systematically compared the rate of age-related
development in factors contributing to pragmaticcompetence, these findings suggest that the mostsuitable age for implementing pragmatic elements into
language programs may lay between 8 and10. Studies
of age variables will help determine young language
learners’ readiness to absorb complicated linguistic
phenomena such as pragmatic knowledge.
As for the different perspective for the preparation
move in Dialogue 6, following reasons may explain
Kanako’s rationale:
1. Lack of cognitive maturity needed to understandnegative implicatures;
2. Lack of sociopragmatic knowledge that indirect
forms are preferable to direct forms in facethreatening speech acts;
3. Personal preference.

Although language learners often have difficulties
comprehending implied meanings (Bouton, 1994;
Zufferey, 2015), it is unclear which of the above reasons– or a combination of them – led Kanako to conclude
that this preparatory move was not a suitable preconfession warning. Given that Kanako demonstrated
her sociopragmatic competence in formality levels
and contextual language varieties in DCTs, role-plays,
and the class discussion, her incorrect interpretationof the preparatory move suggests that there may
be a sequence in the acquisition of sociopragmaticcomponents. That is, knowledge of implicatures may
emerge after learners have acquired politeness rules.

Conclusion and Implications
This study investigated L2 pragmatic competenceof eight and ten-year-old children through various
elicitation interventions. This small-scale study
should not be generalized to a larger populationof English learners, however, the findings indicatethat L2 pragmatic failure in younger learners can betraced to developmental limitations as well as thelack of life experience, suggesting that the earliest
stage for them to fully grasp the content may be
the upper-primary years. In contrast, exposure to
linguistic and cultural diversity from early age seems
to suggest higher awareness to linguistic and culturaldifferences in pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic
behaviors. Additionally, Kanako’s misinterpretationof implicatures in Dialogue 6 serves as a reminder tolanguage educators that, even though the importanceof learning conversational implicatures is wellestablished, it is rarely taught in ESL/EFL classrooms(Bouton, 1994). Investigations of the developmentof implicatures and other indirect speech acts inyoung learners’ L1 will help determine suitable waysof presenting these in foreign language program,so that young learners may develop as functioning
communicators. Furthermore, the study highlighted
the lack of research in this area and calls for more
empirical research in L2 pragmatics development inyounger learners. Further investigation on the sequenceof L2 pragmatic development across speech acts andages will assist the advancement of instructional
methods and materials for this population worldwide.
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ChibaAcknowledgement
My sincere gratitude goes to the young participants inthis study.

Notes
1. Linguistic component of pragmatics.
2. Social and cultural component of pragmatics.

References
Bouton, L. F. (1994). Conversational implicature
in a second language: Learned slowly when notdeliberately taught. Journal of Pragmatics, 22,
157-167.
Bucciarelli, M., Colle, L., & Bara, B. G. (2002).
How children comprehend speech acts andcommunicative gestures. Journal of Pragmatics,
35, 207-241.
Cameron, L. (2001). Teaching languages to young
learners. New York, NY: Cambridge University
Press.
Chiba, A. (2012, June). Expanding the repertoire of L2
polite requests: Pragmatics development throughpicture books. The case of the Japanese elementary
school children in Hong Kong. Data presented
at the JALT PanSIG conference, Hiroshima
University.
Cohen, A. (2008). Teaching and assessing L2
pragmatics: What can we expect from learners?
Language Teaching, 41(2), 213-235.
Eslami-Rasekh, Z. (2005). Raising the pragmaticawareness of language learners. ELT Journal,
59(3), 199-208.
Ishihara, N. and Cohen, A. (2010). Teaching andlearning pragmatics: Where language and culture
meet. England: Pearson Education Limited.
Ishihara, N., & Chiba, A. (2014). Teacher-based orinteractional? Exploring assessments for children’s
pragmatic development. Iranian Journal of
language testing, 4(1), 84-112.

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Kecskes, I. and Romero-Trillo, J. (2013). Research
trends in intercultural pragmatics. Berlin,
Germany: De Gruyter.
Lee, C. (2010). An exploratory study of theinterlanguage pragmatic comprehension of youngleaners of English. Pragmatics, 20(3), 343-373.
McKay, P. (2006). Assessing young language learners.
New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Olshtain, E., & Blum-Kulka, S. (1985). Degree ofapproximation: Nonnative reactions to native
speech act behavior. In S. Gass & C. Madden(Eds.), Input in second language acquisition (pp.
303-325). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
Rose, K. R. (1994). Pragmatic consciousness-raisingin an EL context. In L. Bouton & Y. Kachru(Eds.), Pragmatics and language learning,
Monograph Series 5 (pp. 52-63). Urbana, IL:
Division of English as an International language,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Rose, K. R. (2000). An exploratory cross-sectional
study of interlanguage pragmatic development.
Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 22:27-67.
Savic, M. (2015). “Can I very please borrow it?”
Request development in young Norwegian EFL
learners. Intercultural Pragmatics, 12(4), 443-480.
Schmidt, R. W. (1990). The role of consciousness insecond language learning. Applied Linguistics,
11(2), 129-158.
Taguchi, N. (2012). Context, Individual Differences
and Pragmatic Competence. New York, NY:
Multilingual Matters.
Takimoto, M. (2008). The effects of deductive andinductive instruction on the development oflanguage learners’ pragmatic competence. Modern
Language Journal, 92(3), 369-386.
Trosborg, A. (1995). Interlanguage pragmatics:
Requests, complaints, and apologies. New York,
NY: Mouton Gruyter.
Zufferey, S. (2015). Acquiring pragmatics. New York,
NY: Routledge.

Young Learners’ L2 Pragmatic Competence, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 46-54

Author Biography
Akiko Chiba teaches EAP courses at Centre for Applied English Studies at the University ofHong Kong, where she is also enrolled as an EdD student. Her areas of research interest include
L2 pragmatics for young learners, pragmatic strategies in ELF communication, and instructional
pragmatics for English language teachers. She can be reached at akikocm@gmail.com.

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

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ChibaAppendixStudent handout for Formality Judgment Tasks in apologies.

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The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Lights, Camera, English: Developing Language
Through Multimedia Production
Kevin Charles Clark
Ritsumeikan University
kclark@fc.ritsumei.ac.jp
This article focuses on the conception, implementation and evaluation of a volunteer multimedia
production program titled Lights, Camera English. This program was designed to engage students
in practical English communication with each other through the unique fusion of English study
and acquisition of media production skills. Both Japanese university students and study abroad
students worked together in creating a variety-style television program broadcast on campus. Joint
projects were also done, creating promotional videos for other English programs and university
events. Students took part in a variety of video production elements including acting, script
writing, audio, videography and video editing. After one year, participants were interviewed on
their impressions of the program. While there were some negative impressions related to workload
and time constraints, most impressions were positive. Students answered that the program madethem more comfortable with using English and also deepened their interest in learning media
production skills.
この記事は、「Lights, Camera, English」というマルチメディア作品の創造、実施、評価に焦点を当てています。
このプログラムは英語の勉強とメディア制作技術の習得の融合で実用的な英語コ
ミュニケーションをできるようにするため作成しました。日本の大学生と留学生は一緒にキャンパス
で様々なTV番組を作成しました。他の英語のプログラムや大学のPVも作成しました。生徒たちはビ
デオ編集のために演技、台本作成、ビデオ撮影、
ビデオ編集など、様々なことに取り掛かりました。
一年後、参加者にこのプログラムについてインタビューをさせてもらいました。作業量と時間不足と関係ある消極的な返答が少しあったけれど、
ほとんど良い印象でした。生徒たちは、
このプログラム
で英語を使うことをもっと心地よくなり、
メディア制作技術を学ぶことにもっと興味が沸いたと返答しました。

In many cases, a correlation between an increase inlanguage acquisition and frequent use can be seen
(Diessel, 2007). In addition, practical applicationof language skills acquired has often proved to bean effective way to promote maximum retention(Gilmore, 2007). Unfortunately for English
enthusiasts in Japan, the country falls firmly into
Clark, K. C. (2017). Lights, camera, English:
Developing language through multimedia production.
In G. Brooks (Ed.), The 2016 PanSIG Journal (pp.
55-61). Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

the category known as the “expanding circle”, which
is found in Kachru’s (1990) Model of Concentric
Circles. This is a group of countries that have very
limited exposure to English. Building on Kachru’s
model, McKenzie (2008) revalidated Kachru’s
findings and noted that Japan in particular continues
to be an anomaly in both English use and ability,
despite its position as a superpower with numerous
international ties. For Japanese students, it can often
be difficult to find opportunities to use English in apractical setting outside the classroom. With theselimitations in mind, the media production program
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55

ClarkLights, Camera, English was created. This contentbased extra-curricular program attempts to offset
the limitations stated above by providing frequent
opportunities to apply English to a practical activity
with the tangible production goal of creating videos
in English to present to the university community.
Doing project-based learning in the program puts astrong emphasis on acquisition of language, content
and skills simultaneously (Beckett & Slater 2005). The
program aims to provide a more balanced exposure
to the four skills of speaking, listening, reading andwriting. In addition, through unexpected obstaclesin the projects, students are forced to improvise andmake changes to their plans, encouraging creativity
and additional input into tasks (DÃ­az-Rico, 2004).
This article will explain the conception andimplementation of the Lights, Camera, English
program and explore how similar programs can becreated as well as the key points to consider for asimilar program to function efficiently. In addition, theauthor will evaluate the effectiveness of the program
based on feedback from both participants andviewers of created content. Aspects of Lights, Camera
English that have potential for improvement in futureapplications of the concept will also be outlined.

Conception
The Lights, Camera, English program was
implemented at a private university in Japan. The
program was open to all departments at the university
and all grades. It was first conceived to address theneed for additional extra-curricular English programs
to compliment the English language courses alreadyin place at the university. The program was designed
to serve two functions. The primary function of the
program was to involve students in the production of atelevision show through the use of English, developing
their English language abilities in a practical setting
while simultaneously acquiring media production
skills. This ranged from ideas and requests being
submitted by viewers of the show, to having regular
cast members on the show and a program staff
consisting of students involved with idea development,
video/audio production, writing, and editing. While
the program was in its infancy the program director

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was solely responsible for the creation of the firstvideo. Students who were interested in contributing
in some way after the first video was shown wereencouraged through promotion materials distributed
through the university’s English department to join
the program. This resulted in a gradual but steadyincrease in participants. Promotion for the program
was also done through collaboration between Lights,
Camera, English and other clubs/events, creating
videos promoting these other organizations.
The secondary function of the program was toprovide students interested in English with visual/auditory learning entertainment through the medium
of a monthly video in a variety show format. These
videos contained a variety of segments including, but
not limited to:•• graded reading books presented in movie format•• interviews•• modern culture study•• subtitled music videos•• university English club activity promotions•• quiz game questions on material presented•• conversation related to material shown•• interaction between English students participatingin activities using practical English
The initial goal for the program was for thesevideos to range from 20 to 30 minutes. They would be
released either monthly or each semester based on thesize of each project and student participation. Videos
would be given to the university staff in standard
DVD format to be played in a variety of locations on
campus during the lunch period, specifically thosewith many English students. While English students
were the target audience, Japanese subtitles were also
added to videos to make the content more accessible
to the general audience on campus. These locations
would be decided at the discretion of those responsible
for managing each area of the campus. Each new DVD
would be released and played each lunch period until
the next episode was released.
This program was designed to be open to any
student attending university who was interested,regardless of English ability. The maximum numberof participants was 15 students. This included not
only Japanese students but those studying abroad

Developing Language Through Multimedia Production, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 55-61
at the university from other countries as well. The
program was set up in this way to encourage authentic
interaction between members during group work
activities, which is ideal in a practical communication
setting (Fushino, 2010). Having native English
speakers and ESL learners from other countries in
the program provided an opportunity for Japanese
students to interact outside of the traditional JapaneseEnglish speaking community and experience a moreauthentic English interaction.

Implementation
Resource Availability and Selection
When planning the implementation of a media
production program, there are several questions thatneed to be addressed. The initial point that must
be considered is that although English language
development is the goal, methodology is primarily
content-based. As with any content-based English
course, it is important for the instructor to not only
have command of the English language, but to have atleast a general understanding of the content itself as
well (Kasper, 2000). In this case the content is media
production. In the case of Lights, Camera English thecontent is more specifically videography and the useof video editing software. It is at this early stage ofplanning that the organizer must consider what kindof media production equipment and editing software
is available, and what the organizer feels comfortableusing. While someone with a background in media
production may feel comfortable using professional
grade equipment and editing software such as Adobe
Premiere or Final Cut Pro to create large, elaborate
videos, it is neither necessary nor even recommended
in many cases. Unless the instructor plays a primaryrole in production and editing, the students will be
the ones expected to learn how to film and edit. It is
important to remember that the media production
aspect of the program, while important, is not themain focus of program, merely the process being
used to encourage English language development.
Therefore, software and equipment that strikes abalance between being easily accessible to the students
and being sufficient for creating the desired type of

media is ideal.
Another key resource to consider is a workspace
for the program. Ideally a room dedicated to theprogram should be used, as setting up and tearing
down equipment can be extremely time consuming.
Another major problem that can arise when sharing aworkplace with other people is noise. When recording
dialog, unwanted background conversation can often
find its way into the audio tracks. Students may alsofeel embarrassed to record themselves in front of nonparticipants. Having control over the conditions of
the room is ideal. If having a dedicated room is not
an option, scheduling recording around when theroom will be used by others is also a viable option. If
the only option is to use the room at the same time asothers, participants can still work on other aspects ofproduction such as meeting, planning, script writingand editing.

Adapting to Student English Ability
The other important consideration is the type ofstudents that will be joining the program. In theLights, Camera, English program there was a wide
range of English abilities. While some students
struggled with even basic greetings, others were nearfluent. In particular, there were many students that
had strong reading and writing abilities but were poor
speakers. One way of adjusting the difficulty of the
program material is by choosing an appropriate theme
for the video. For example, creating a subtitled video
version of a book such as a graded reader requires
little real-time speaking skills. A project like this canbe done at the students’ own pace, focusing more
on reading and writing than oral communication.
In contrast, doing a video involving interviews withEnglish speakers outside the program requires a highlevel of oral communication skills and the ability
to improvise and interact smoothly in real time. In
mixed level courses, it can often be difficult to assignlevel appropriate tasks to a group of students. Thiscan be dealt with by having several tasks at various
difficulty levels for each student (Taguchi, 2007). The
nature of a media production program lends itself
perfectly to this type of group. There are a variety ofactivities involved in creating videos, each with its own
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Clarkunique tasks and level of difficulty. Within the Lights,
Camera, English program, there were several different
jobs available, each focusing on a particular aspect of
creating a video. When entering the program, students
were given a list of available jobs with a descriptionof each job and what skills were required to completetasks. Some students chose to take on jobs thathighlighted their strong points while others chose jobs
that utilized English skills they were weaker in in orderto strengthen them. The following is an outline of themain jobs available to students in the Lights, Camera,
English program, as well as some of the difficulties
that members of each group expressed in a qualitative
survey that was given to the fifteen participants:
Director: The most involved role in the program,
this person is responsible for overseeing projects
from start to finish and making decisions based on
input from other members regarding the direction ofprojects (This is usually the role the instructor takes on.
However, in a well-organized program this role could
be given to or shared with a student that has both highEnglish and media production ability, in addition to
being able to make a large time commitment).
In the case of Lights, Camera, English, the author
acted as the director. The most difficult aspect of thisjob was coordinating the efforts of all the members.
Because of the large division of work between
members it was challenging to ensure that each groupcompleted their assigned tasks by the deadline decided
upon. When a group did not have their portion of
the project ready, it often prevented others fromcompleting theirs because they needed the groups
completed portion of the project to move forward. For
example, if the writing group did not have the script
completed before the scheduled recording day, theactors couldn’t prepare ahead of time which delayed
recording. When there was a delay, scheduling for latertasks in many cases had to be completely rescheduled.
As each group depends on the others to complete theirtasks, delays had a ripple effect that impacted all theother tasks. It is recommended that delays like this are
anticipated, and a buffer of additional time is placed in
the schedule to compensate for these setbacks.
Writing: Members are typically involved mostly
in pre-production writing scripts. Targeted English

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skills are mostly reading and writing, although oral
communication skills are also used interacting with thedirector and other writers. For some projects writers
might interact with actors during script readings.
Media production study as a writer is primarily
learning how to write scripts and narratives. Very little
video production and editing skills are required.
In feedback received from the writing group,
the largest obstacle faced was revising scripts due toproblems that occurred during shooting. For example,
when an actor had trouble with lines due to difficulty
the writing team would need to adjust the script
to compensate. In other instances, if an actor was
unavailable on the day of recording than lines had tobe reassigned or changed. This was often a cause ofdelay during the scheduled recording times.
Production: These team members are responsible
for recording using video cameras, microphones, andother equipment. The production team members alsointeract with the editors when providing footage. Oneof the least demanding jobs in terms of English ability,
this job is initially learning how to use equipment.
This can be done through English tutorial videos andreading.
Feedback from production group members
pertained especially to using the equipment. In the caseof Lights, Camera, English, equipment was borrowed
from the AV center at the university. While in somecases equipment such as cameras and microphones
could be taken out without a reservation, this wasoften not the case. When unexpected delays occurredand schedules needed to be changed, equipment
was sometimes unavailable. This would set backproduction even further. This problem could of course
be remedied by having dedicated equipment for the
program. In instances when equipment availability is
an issue, using commonly available technology such as
smartphones for video production would resolve thisproblem.
Actors: As the people in front of the camera,
usually a high level of English, specifically oral
communication ability is required. Actors are involvedin the reading of scripts and speaking in front of thecamera in both scripted and unscripted situations.
Sometimes actors will also work with editors doing

Developing Language Through Multimedia Production, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 55-61
voiceovers. Other English tasks for actors can include
shadowing movie scenes, practicing lines, and learning
acting techniques in English.
While there few negative comments from actors
in the survey, one complaint was that they often didn’t
have time to practice their lines due to delays from thewriting group. Again, this problem could be reduced
by providing a buffer of additional time between tasks
in case of delays.
Editors: Editors are responsible for postproduction, editing the footage taken by the
production team members. Similar to production,a high level of speaking ability is not required,although listening ability should be high enough tocommunicate effectively with other members duringediting. Besides communication with other members,
primary English study is input intensive, interfacingwith editing software and learning editing techniquesthrough listening to and reading tutorials.
Of all the groups in the program, editors had themost time-consuming tasks. Fortunately, most editing
took place outside of scheduled program times.
Editors did remark that sometimes ideas suggested bygroup members were made without realizing the timecommitment involved by editors. This often resulted
in editors having to put in an unanticipated amountof work into editing some of the projects. An exampleof this was the introduction created for the program,
involving numerous quick cuts between video clips
introducing the cast of the show. Although thesequence was only several seconds, it required days ofediting to complete. The author highly recommends
that a representative for the editors be present duringidea conception to veto any ideas which may involve
overly complicated editing requirements.
Subtitles: This is one of the last jobs that happensat the end of post-production. The people who do
subtitles have a single goal: listen to what is said in thevideo, and effectively translate English to Japanese forthe editor to add as subtitles. Japanese subtitles wereadded because the videos were created to be viewed
by other students on campus and they were used soviewers could better understand the video content. The
English content in this job is almost entirely listening
and writing. This job can typically be done outsideof the programs normal meeting hours, making it an
ideal choice for students with busy schedules.
Difficulties voiced in this group were mostly
regarding having difficulty hearing what was being said
in some of the videos. While most spoken English in
the videos was scripted, projects involving interviews
had people answering questions. Sometime due tobackground noise or bad audio levels it was sometimes
difficult to hear what was being said. The author
recommends providing those in charge of subtitles
with copies of all scripts and ensuring that extra careis taken during the audio recording of unscripted
sections. One suggestion is having students use theaudio recording feature on their phones during
unscripted sections in addition to conventional
recordings. Modern smart phones typically have noise
filtering capabilities to some extent and can offer analternative recording to use for cross referencing later.
While in Lights, Camera, English these jobs
were all implemented in this manner, they can beeasily modified to work in programs of varying scaleand English ability. Based on student ability, certain
aspects of the program such as meetings and the use ofediting software may be done in the students’ L1.

Scheduling and Workflow
One of the major constraints encountered in thisextra-curricular program was time. Because theprogram is outside of the students’ regular course load,
scheduling issues can often arise with participants.
This can be especially problematic when certain tasks
cannot be done without a certain individual, such as
the recording of a scene where a single participant’spresence is required for the group to complete thetask. To minimize this constraint, scheduling was done
during regular meetings once a week. Participants
were asked to bring their availability for the next
week to these meetings and the required tasks for theimmediate future were scheduled around conflicts.
While having all members come to all program
activities would have ensured an efficient timetable,
it was impractical due to the quantity of tasks anddivision of work. For example, the participant incharge of editing did not need to be present for script
writing. Script writers did not need to be present for
The 2016 PanSIG Journal

59

Clarkrecording and editing. It is by this division of work
load that projects were done with a minimal timecommitment from members.
In addition, time frames for projects varied
greatly depending on the size of the project and theparticipants’ availability. When participants could
meet three or more times a week, small projects could
be completed on a monthly basis. If students could
meet only once or twice a week, a semester project wasa more viable option.
Another crucial aspect to both scheduling andoverall production was workflow. Having worktransfer smoothly from one job group to the next
was essential in using time efficiently. When program
participants were creating videos, they followed a
specific workflow (Figure 1).
In this way, the various groups knew not only theirjobs but who to pass on completed tasks to. Using
file sharing software such as Dropbox and Google
Drive, students could pass on data to the other groupmembers seamlessly. There was also a slight overlapof the areas in the workflow, indicating collaboration
between members of each area when a problem or
confusion is encountered. Once a composition was
finished pre-production began for the next project.

Evaluation
After the completion of a full year of the Lights,
Camera, English program, the fifteen participants inthe program were interviewed individually regarding
their experience. Feedback was also received fromviewers of the shows who were not members of the
program. Interviewees were asked for both theirpositive and negative impressions of the program.
Among the participants, there were several
common answers. All the participants said that they
enjoyed the program and felt that it helped them
become more comfortable with using English. They
also agreed that they liked learning English throughmedia production as a group and had developed
an interest in studying media production further.
The most common negative comment was that the
program was sometimes too time consuming due to an
unanticipated workload as a result of choosing projects
that were on too large a scale. Sometimes whenbrainstorming ideas for projects, plans that seemed
reasonable at first proved to be overambitious in regard
to both the required time and video editing skills. In
these cases the amount of work required to successfully
finish the project as planned was not realized until
after production started, forcing the group to makeunplanned changes in order to complete projects. Thiswas usually due to a lack of understanding of the media
production methods involved. In future projects, it isrecommended that more time is spent by the teacher
to ensure the students have a thorough understandingof what is required to accomplish certain types ofprojects. In addition, it is advisable to have the teacher
work closely with students during idea conception toensure that the projects are not too difficult.
Viewer impressions were mainly positive, citing
the production value being high considering the

Figure 1. Workflow for media production in the Lights, Camera, English program.

60

The 2016 PanSIG JournalDeveloping Language Through Multimedia Production, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 55-61
program’s resources. Viewers who did not speak
English were grateful that videos were subtitled inJapanese. Negative impressions were mainly regarding
sound, citing instances where it was difficult to heardialogue due to background noise. This was mainly
attributed to a shared space during some projects
when conversation and ambient noise interfered withsound recording. Having a dedicated recording area
or moving to different locations when possible could
remedy the problem.
Based on the author’s experience with the program
as well as the impressions of participants, the Lights,
Camera, English program seems worthwhile tocontinue and develop further. Future application
could also extend the explored program concepts toregular university course work. Time in the classroom
could be used to plan and evaluate projects in groups.
More time-consuming aspects of video production
such as recording and editing could be assigned as
homework. Considering the flexibility of the program,it can be modified easily for implementation at otherinstitutions. With the correct modifications, students
with varying degrees of both English ability and media
production skills can participate in a similar media
production based English program.

References
Beckett, G. & Slater, T. (2005). The projectframework: A tool for language, content, andskills integration. ELT Journal, 59(2), 108-116.
Di­az-Rico, L. (2004). How project-based learning
imitates life and video games. Essential Teacher:Compleat Links, 1(4).
Diessel, H. (2007). Frequency effects in language
acquisition, language use, and diachronic change.
New Ideas in Psychology, 25(2), 108-127.
Fushino, K. (2010). Causal relationships between
communication confidence, beliefs about group
work, and willingness to communicate in foreign
language group work. TESOL Quarterly, 44(4),700-724.
Gilmore, A. (2007). Authentic materials andauthenticity in foreign language learning.
Language Teaching, 40(2), 97-118.
Kachru, B. B. (1990). World Englishes and applied
linguistics. World Englishes, 9(1), 3-20.
Kasper, L. F. (2000). Content-based college ESL
instruction. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
McKenzie, R. M. (2008). The complex and rapidlychanging sociolinguistic position of the English
language in Japan: A summary of English
language contact and use. Japan Forum, 20(2),267-286.
Taguchi, N. (2007). Task difficulty in oral speech act
production. Applied Linguistics, 28, 113-135.

Author Biography
Kevin Charles Clark is a full-time contract instructor at Ritsumeikan University. His researchinterests include Computer Assisted Language Learning, Learner Development, and Media
Studies.

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

61

Fostering Equal Representation for
Democracy in the Classroom
Melodie CookDavid Laurence

University of Niigata Prefecture
cookmelo@unii.ac.jp

Chubu University
laurence@isc.chubu.ac.jp

Glen Hill

Umida Ashurova

Obihiro University of Agriculture andVeterinary Medicine
glenahill@gmail.com

Nanzan University
uzfemida79@yahoo.com

Cynthia Edwards
Hokkaido Musashi Women’s Junior College
pbj5jo@hmjc.ac.jp
What does it mean to create democracy in the classroom? How do we encourage collaboration andensure equal representation to enable dynamic classroom interactions? We all struggle to find ways
to nurture a variety of perspectives and establish and maintain a well-rounded environment forour students. This paper, divided into four sections, showcases a variety of teachers’ successes andchallenges in creating innovative activities to encourage a wider variety of voices and perspectives.
教室に、デモクラシーを生み出すことは何を意味するだろうか。教室内のやり取りを活発にするためには、どのように生徒間の協力を促しながら、平等な表現の機会を確保できるだろうか。私たちはみな様々な価値観を育て、生徒にとって均衡のとれた環境を作り、それを維持するための方法を見つ
けようともがいている。本論文は４者の意見で構成されている。教師が生徒の幅広い意見や視点を育む革新的な活動を作り出す際、経験した成功体験と失敗談を紹介する。

In this paper, the four main presenters, (Ashurova,
Edwards, Hill, and Laurence) attempt to show what
it means to create democracy in the classroom. Each
speaker, coming from a different background, reveals
how all teachers struggle to find ways to nurture avariety of perspectives and establish and maintain wellrounded environments for our students. Although eachpresenter focuses on a different aspect of democracy, a
Cook, M., Laurence, D., Hill, G., Ashurova, U. &Edwards, C. (2017). Fostering equal representation for
democracy in the classroom. In G. Brooks (Ed.), The
2016 PanSIG Journal (pp. 62-70). Tokyo, Japan:
JALT.

62

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

common thread that ties their presentations together
is that democracy in the classroom entails a movementaway from needs of instructors towards those of theirstudents. This paper is divided into four sub-themes,presented in the same order as they were at the PanSIG
conference. David Laurence begins by addressing theeffects of the culture/capital gap, between teachersand students, Glen Hill presents a system of extensive
reading that meets learners’ needs, Umida Ashurova
reveals the effectiveness of a less teacher-centred
approach in teaching vocabulary, and Cynthia
Edwards shows how using Japanese-style democratic
methods in the classroom can result in more effective
learning for students.

Democracy in the Classroom, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 62-70

Part One: The Capital Gap
The population of 18-year-olds in Japan has fallen by
roughly half over the past 25 years, meaning that the
proportion of the age cohort attending university has
doubled to more than 50% (Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, 2012;
Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs andCommunications, 2014). Increased competition
between universities for a still-shrinking poolof potential students leads to an increase in theinfluence of market forces and the commoditizationof education. At the classroom level, as universities
are forced to expand recruitment deeper into thepool of potential students to meet their quotas, more
students are admitted who are less well-preparedfor university academically. However, the effects on
actual practice as a result of demographic change may
be farther-reaching than a lack of students’ academic
preparedness.
This expansion of recruitment means, put simply,
that students from a much wider range of academic
and socioeconomic backgrounds are being afforded
the chance to attend university in Japan today
than ever before. This means that more students
are attending university with less cultural capital(non-financial social assets—knowledge, skills,
education, relationships, and so on—that promotesocial mobility). Differences in cultural capital canhave a large effect on academic success, in particular,
persistence and transitions between different stagesof study (Wells, 2008; Yamamoto & Brinton, 2010).
But more importantly for day-to-day teaching practiceis the effect differences in cultural capital can have on
equity in the classroom.
Gaps in cultural capital between students in theclassroom is an important issue. Some students will bebetter equipped than others to succeed, and even in asingle classroom the difference between “haves” and“have-nots” will mean that different students might
have profoundly different experiences, based solely
on their ability to take full advantage of the resources
a university is able to offer. But more difficult to see
is how educators experience and deal with thesedifferences between our students. Most university
educators will have come from quite different contexts

than the students they teach—those of us who are
not Japanese will be approaching higher education
with preconceptions based on our own educational
backgrounds, but we are also likely to come fromdifferent contexts in terms of access to education,and may not be aware of the changes described earlier
that this brings to a higher education system. More
importantly, most university instructors have a great
deal of cultural capital—we have higher degrees, arelikely to come from backgrounds that value education,and may well view the resources and soft skills that
cultural capital gives us as completely unremarkable.
All too often in higher education one hears educators
framing issues with students that likely stem at leastin part from cultural capital issues—effective time
management, social norms surrounding interactions
with teachers, attitudes towards education and thelike—as moral failings, labeling students as “badstudents,” “lazy,” or “rude,” when many of thesestudents are simply from backgrounds that have notequipped them with these basic skills.
Thus, as university-level educators in Japan today,
we must be aware of, and sensitive to, the potential
gap between our own social, economic, and academic
backgrounds and those of an increasing number of ourstudents. We must be aware that more and more of ourstudents will not know how to be successful university
students, simply as a result of their backgrounds. We
must be aware of the possibility that we may favor
students with more social capital, and be prepared
to work to help less-privileged students overcome
their capital deficit, in ways that may be at odds withtraditional ideas about what a university professoris. Higher education has changed profoundly overthe past twenty-five years, and we must be preparedfor changes in our students, and in our self-image asuniversity-level educators.

Part Two: Mandatory Reading for All
Students around the globe do not read much forenjoyment, and Japanese students are no exception. For
example, in-class surveys administered at my national
university clearly showed that prior to enteringcollege, students tended to read predominantly
comics in Japanese and virtually nothing in English.
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63

Cook, Laurence, Hill, Ashurova, & Edwards
In an effort to conform to standards at Hokkaido
University, which now shares courses with my own
institution, a recent curriculum change in 2014 raised
the number of credits per course from one to two
while simultaneously reducing the number of courses
required. Thus, students must now take only three
English courses, (composition, oral communication,or reading), and two of them are usually in the sameskill in the first year.
Two credits required more homework in all threecourses. We had limited time to redo syllabuses, andwe thought that all students should be exposed to as
many of the same English skills as possible despite theabove restriction. So, we designed online listening,
vocabulary, and reading for everyone. Moodle allows
students to work at their own pace, so students had
freedom to choose when to do the work. Results fromearly in this action research are outlined below withrespect to extensive reading (ER).
ER was implemented via online Moodle quizzes
that test general comprehension from graded readers(Robb, 2008, 2010). Based on previous years’ reading
results, all students now are designated with a starting
reading level (RL) according to major (veterinary
medicine vs. agriculture) and whether they had taken
the entrance exam. Suisen students, that is, those whoenter on recommendation status instead (Breaden,
2013, pp. 36-37) did not. Part of this is shown in

Table 1. Although we expected all students to do ER,
we were not as strict in guidelines with students who
opted not to take the reading course.
In each semester, students were allowed to take one
online Moodle quiz per 24 hours and set their own
weekly pace. Teachers suggested two to three books per
week to meet the maximum target. However, becausesome students are known to put off ER until the endof the semester, and because that is a time of stressand final exams, the final month’s settings in Moodle
permitted one quiz every 3 days. If students had read ata steady pace, there would be no need to cram heavier
reading into that period. The suisen students began
ER at a lower RL, with shorter books, thus they weredisadvantaged from the start in achieving the final
target goal. Therefore, the last month’s settings wereleft unchanged for them, and they could continue witha book per day. These two aspects of Moodle settings
display fairness to all students.
Since the inception of the 2014 curriculum,
reading results have been tracked. The number ofstudents who reach the targets has increased in all
courses, as evidenced by records compiled from
Moodle history. Also, in the first two semesters,
reading skills students understandably showed a
far greater percentage who achieved the minimum
target than composition and communication course
students, perhaps because reading course students

Table 1
Reading Breakdown
Min word target% of grade

Max word target% of grade

English I:
Communication & Composition

55,0001%

100,000
10%

English I:
Reading Skills

80,0005%

125,000
25%

English II:
Communication & Composition

55,0001%

125,000
10%

English II:
Reading Skills

80,0005%

150,000
25%

English III:CALL English & Current English & Technical Writing

60,0001%

150,000
10%

Course64

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Democracy in the Classroom, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 62-70
had greater intrinsic desire to read and had sustained
silent reading (SSR) in every lesson (Pilgreen, 2000).
The third semester has a different course series, with achoice of technical writing, CALL, or current topics.
Although the same ER program was used, and despite
their prior experience, students showed a far greater
reluctance to read than in previous semesters. This
problem in third semester may be due to different
course grading than in the first year, which makes it
easier for students to skip the special homework. We
found they overwhelmingly avoided ER over the othertwo, perhaps because of the length of time needed.
Students enter university and change from ahighly structured teacher-dominated lifestyle to one
where they are allowed to make their own decisions.
They need freedom in order to manage their busy
schedules and to choose books that interest them. ER
encourages that freedom, but curriculum designs stillneed customization to make ER work and to makestudents aware of the benefits.
Ongoing efforts to improve this curriculum
include activities that all universities should consider.
For example, we are looking into ways to improveorientation about Moodle prior to the first lesson.
The university has a student peer support group,and teachers do their best to encourage students totake advantage of it when they show signs of weakreading ability. Also, student feedback surveys areadministered every semester so that the ER program
can be improved, and some of the data are shown tostudents so they understand certain ER policies. To
be sure English teachers and science content teachers
are equally aware of student needs, regular reports onreading progress are sent to the vice-president, and afaculty development (FD) presentation was conducted
to explain various aspects of the English courses andstudent results in ER. Finally, English teachers incourses other than the Reading Skills course haveexperimented with SSR whenever possible, even if it
lasts only 5-10 minutes.

Part Three: Beliefs about Vocabulary
Learning
I believe that democracy in the classroom starts withteachers putting themselves into learners’ shoes andreflecting on the experiences they once had as learners.
Analyzing our stories of success and failure and thensharing those experiences with students can help usteachers create better classroom environment. These
could then become the classes in which we, teachers
are on the same path with our students and where thestudents feel comfortable to ask questions or to saythat they have not fully grasped the meaning of certain
vocabulary item or grammatical pattern.
We all were once students, and our teaching is oftena reflection of how we were taught. As an apprentice ofthe strict socialist educational system over the periodof ten years, my observations as an EFL learners wereas follows: one teacher controlled forty students, one
textbook was the source of information over a numberof years, one order of grammatical structures andvocabulary items was decided by the government, andnot much flexibility was allowed in any of the above.
As someone who was taught that there is one and only
answer to any question, I was eager to find the one andonly and certainly the most appropriate answer to thefollowing questions:
1. Why do speakers of English write more letters but
pronounce fewer sounds (e.g. clothes, biscuits,acquaintances)?
2. Why do people in England and in the UnitedStates spell words differently (e.g. center vs. center,favor vs. favour)?
3. Why are words with the same suffix ‘al’ sometimes
nouns and sometimes adjectives (e.g. ‘cultural’ and‘local’ are adjectives, but ‘principal’ and ‘editorial’
are nouns)?
4. How come the word ‘decade’ means ‘10 years’ inEnglish whereas in Russian ‘dekada’ refers to ‘10days’ only?
5. Why is it wrong to ask the question ‘How do you
call it?’ when the question ‘How do you say it?’ isperfectly fine?
6. Why is the greeting ‘How do you do?’ never used
after the very first encounter and is replaced by‘How are you?’ although most of the time ourconversation partners want to know about thethings we ‘did’ and not our current feelings andconditions?
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Cook, Laurence, Hill, Ashurova, & Edwards
Now, with the teaching experience of more than
15 years and after the constant search for correct
answers or at least appropriate explanations, I cansay that I have some answers to the questions above.
Studying the history of English language and theinfluences it had from other languages in European
region was useful; this gave me the answer to my firstquestion on discrepancies in spelling. Further studies
in the field of sociolinguistics and various academic
articles on varieties of English and its spread aroundthe world provided the answer to the second question.
After several years of using the language with fluent
and native speakers of English, I have learned tocontrol and avoid fossilized mistakes (e.g. difference
in meaning between English ‘decade’ and Russian‘dekada’). And, last but not the least, the field of corpus
linguistics offered answers the questions five and six.
This search for right answers made me realize that
there are many questions with multiple answers andthere are different sources we can refer to. One of thethings the learners may find useful in abundance of
information is a step-by-step guidance from teachers,
i.e. former learners, the people who have been there
before and who have tried to answer those questions.
With this idea in mind, I planned a semester-longcourse with vocabulary instructions where specificfeatures of words were introduced step-by-step anddifferent teaching resources were employed. The
table in the Appendix presents a detailed summaryof vocabulary features focused, materials used, inclass activities conducted, and homework assigned
to my students, who were non-English majors taking
a compulsory reading class at a private university inJapan. The resources included textbook, newspaperand online articles, short stories, and graded readers.
The features covered were pronunciation, parts ofspeech, definition, collocations, and usage of thetarget vocabulary. The students worked in open andclosed pairs, and in groups of three and four. Recyclingof student-selected vocabulary was encouraged
by assigned homework and group discussions insubsequent classes.
In every class I shared a story from my own
language learning history and wrote on the board
the questions I used to ask as a learner. Gradually the66

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

students started to share with peers their concerns
related to vocabulary acquisition. Although it took
the students three or four lessons before they could
ask me the questions or share their stories, by thesecond half of the semester we had a classroom where
the questions “Why do they say it that way?”, “Whywouldn’t they use this word instead?”, and “How comethis word is more frequent than that one?” could beheard frequently.

Part Four: Democracy at Work in
the University Classroom Japanese
Style
College freshmen, educated in the traditional
Japanese system, are expected to adapt to unfamiliargroup formations, norms, and methodology based inWestern teaching tradition in English classes taught
by native-speaker (NS) teachers. They are required toparticipate actively and speak frankly with multiple
partners and the NS teacher. Students often fall silent
when pressured into face-to-face arrangements with
unfamiliar partners or when confronted by the teacher
with spontaneous direct questions (Anderson, 1993a).
This approach flies in the face of the shared learning
experience of the Japanese students. However, byadapting classroom procedures and approaches basedin students’ earlier learning training, NS teachers
can create a positive learning environment in which
students can engage and thrive.
The dominant Western classroom interaction
style, in contrast to the Japanese classroom model,
places the teacher at the hub and relies on thedyad—two speakers acting at the same time—playedout by a student with the teacher as the primaryconversation partner (Mehan, 1979; Cazden, 1988).
Since communication goes through the teacher, who
is also the main source of information, students areconnected to the teacher individually with limited
interaction between peers. The Japanese classroom,with up to forty children, typically has them seatedin clusters of six. Peer to peer interaction is the focus,
setting the teacher outside the student circle in a
supportive facilitator role (Anderson, 1997; Cook,
1999).

Democracy in the Classroom, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 62-70
Having observed successful Japanese learning
environments from nursery school through highschool, I adapted an approach in which students,
in large classes, have equal chances to speak andcontribute. They work within a familiar social
framework, called han, using formalized classroom
interaction routines that they have known sinceelementary school (Lewis, 1989; Anderson 1997). For
the duration of a 15-week term, self-selected groups
work together completing tasks and assignments,
serving as partners, mentoring and supporting eachother. The members bond and develop a strong senseof responsibility for their group’s success (Tobin, Wu& Davidson, 1989).
Initially, students learn classroom procedures andmake six-member groups. Sitting together, they learngroup and leader roles, then choose their first weekly
leader who conducts a simple discussion. Instructionin presentation techniques and respectful audiencebehavior follows, and they experience the discussion/presentation cycle: The teacher initiates the discussion;
students exchange opinions and summarize them;group leaders present outcomes; everyone turns theirbody towards the speaker to listen and react withsupportive body language and applause; the teacher
takes notes and makes corrections (Cook, 1999).
Throughout the semester, this format is frequently
used, for example, for short warm-up discussions using
target language or to solicit ideas for pronunciation
lessons, as well.
The group leader must write a report reviewing
lesson content and learning activities, includingcomments about the level and the group’s participation.
At the next class, the leader reads the report. The groupthen peruses it and suggests edits to reach a consensus.
In this way, the entire group is engaged and shares
responsibility for the report, an important record of
the lesson and vehicle for feedback.
Before adopting this approach in large freshmanoral English classes, I found most students remained
unengaged and reluctant to participate, often resortingto speaking in Japanese or sitting in embarrassed
silence. Students account for their behavior by saying‘I’m shy’ or ‘We Japanese aren’t good at English’.
However, working in a style that exploits students’ pastlearning training, the walls of silence have fallen. In therole of facilitator and referee, I have become a more
effective teacher for them. Student feedback reports
show they are comfortable going back to working in
han and taking a central role. In this way, they havecome to experience democracy in the classroom.

Conclusion
As the above sections have shown, democracy in theclassroom can be borne out by teachers being aware ofdifferences in cultural capital between themselves andtheir students, by adapting curriculums to address gaps
among students and ensure that all receive equitable
treatment, by starting their teaching processes from thesame point of view as their students, and by organizingclassroom interactions in ways that are familiar to
students. What these authors, who represent diverse
teaching situations, reveal is that democracy is
attainable in our classrooms, as long as we are preparedto move away from our beliefs about language teaching
and what we think our students need, to the realitiesof language teaching in our classrooms in Japan andthe true needs of our students.

References
Anderson, F. E. (1993a). The enigma of the college
classroom: Nails that don’t stick up. In P. Wadden(Ed.). A Handbook for Teaching English at
Japanese Colleges and Universities (pp. 101-110).
New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Anderson, F. E. (1997). First-language socializationand second-language learning. Proceedings: The
8th International University of Japan Conference
on SLR in Japan 1997 (Niigata, Japan), pp. 36-54.
Breaden, J. (2013). The organisational dynamics ofuniversity reform in Japan. London, England:
Routledge.
Cazden, C. B. (1988). Classroom Discourse: The
Language of Teaching and Learning. Portsmouth,
NH: Heinemann.
Cook, H. M. (1999). Language socialization in
Japanese elementary schools: attentive listening
and reaction turns. Journal of Pragmatics, 31,
1443-1465.
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Cook, Laurence, Hill, Ashurova, & Edwards
Folse, K. (2004). Vocabulary myths: Applying second
language research to classroom teaching. Ann
Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Huang, F. (2012). Higher education frommassification to universal access: A perspectivefrom Japan. Higher Education, 63(2), 257-270.
Kalache, A., Barreto, S. M., & Keller, I. (2005).
Global ageing: The demographic revolution
in all cultures and societies. In M. L. Johnson(Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of age and ageing.
Cambridge, England: Cambridge University
Press.
Kennedy, N. (1990). Policy Issues in Teacher
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Equality, and Political Control. University Park,
Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University
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Mehan, H. (1979). Learning Lessons: Social
Organization in the Classroom. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press.
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, andTechnology. (2012). Daigaku no nyuugakutei’innyuugakusha suutou no sui’i [Changes inuniversity recruitment quotas and numbersof new students] [data file]. Retrieved fromhttp://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/shingi/
chukyo/chukyo4/siryo/attach/__icsFiles/
afieldfile/2012/06/28/1322874_2.pdf
Pilgreen, J. L. (2000). The SSR handbook. Portsmouth,68

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NH: Heinemann.
Robb, T. (2008). The reader quiz module forextensive reading. In M. Thomas (Ed.) Selected
Proceedings of the Thirteenth Annual JALT CALL
SIG Conference 2008. New Frontiers in CALL:
Negotiating Diversity (pp. 109-116). Tokyo,
Japan: Panurgic Publishing.
Robb, T. (2010). Getting them to read outside ofclass: Let Moodle be the enforcer. MEXTESOLJournal, 34(2), 1,7.
Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs andCommunications. (2014). Nenreibetsu jinkou(Taishou kyuunen \~ heisei 24nen) [Population
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Tobin, J., Wu, D., & Davidson, D. (1989). Pre-Schoolin Three Cultures: Japan, China, and the U.S. (pp.
188-221). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Wells, R. (2008). The effects of social and cultural
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Yamamoto, Y., & Brinton, M. (2010). Cultural capitalin East Asian educational systems: The case ofJapan. Sociology of Education, 83(1), 67-83.
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Democracy in the Classroom, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 62-70

Authors’ Biographies:
Melodie Cook has been teaching at the tertiary level since 1992. Her research interests include
entrance examinations, and teacher education in Japan. She is a Professor at the University of
Niigata Prefecture and has worked on the editorial board of JALT Journal and is program chairof Niigata JALT chapter.

David Laurence has been teaching English in Japan since 1996, and at Chubu University
since 2008. He is currently a doctoral candidate in the University of Liverpool’s Doctorateof Education - Higher Education program, and this presentation stems from the topics he isresearching there.

Glen Hill has been teaching English in Japan since 1998, including four years in high schooland 10 years at university. His research interests are extensive reading, technical writing, ESP,and career English, all for science students. He relies on his own scientific background tounderstand his students’ needs.

Umida Ashurova is originally from Uzbekistan and has been teaching English in Japan forthe last ten years. She currently works at English Education Centre of Nanzan University. Her
research interests include integration of self-access into curriculum and theory and practice ofEnglish as a lingua franca.

Cynthia Edwards has been teaching English in Japan since 1979 and has been a JALT member
since 1984, serving as the Reading Committee chair and for many years as a reader. Her researchinterests include learner development and self-directed learning and she focuses her energy onorganizing intercultural exchanges.

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textbooknewspaper articles

online articles

short stories

graded readerspart of speechdefinition

collocations

usage

Reading material

pronunciation

Vocabulary feature

The 2016 PanSIG Journal
vocabulary with the help of online dictionary
bringing 3 copies of quiz to classstudents in pairs read the text out loudstudents give definitions to the words in bold at the same timeteacher gives a list of words from short story
teacher writes synonyms and antonyms for some on the board
students think of synonyms and antonyms for other words
students share information in groups

teacher gives a chart with ‘have’
teacher explains briefly about phrasal verbs and collocations
students work in pairs and add more words to the chart
students share information with another pair of students
students compare their ideas with the full chart from teacher

reading the same book with a partner
making a poster on the contents of bookmaking word-webs for 5 key words bringing 2 copies of word-web to classreading the same story in a group
writing a summary and highlighting collocations
making a quiz on collocations in story
bringing 4 copies of quiz to classchoosing and reading an article
making a mind-map on article making a definition quiz on the target

teacher elicits target vocabulary from the online article
teacher briefly explains common features in defining words

students confirm the definitions of target vocabulary in groups

visiting the website www.breakingnewsenglish.com

choosing and reading an article from newspaper provided by teacher
making discussion questions
making a word-tree (words in the same family) for two/three key words
bringing 2 copies of word-tree to classgoing through the words in Units 1-3
making comprehension questions
checking IPA symbols with dictionary
making a quiz with IPA symbols
bringing 1 copy of quiz to class

Assigned homework

students brainstorm the words related to topic

teacher elicits suffixes for nouns, verbs, and adjectives
teacher categorizes the words on the board
students work in pairs on newspaper slips
students highlight words and guess their parts of speech
students share information in groups
students confirm answers with teacher

teacher briefly explains International Phonetic Alphabet
students read an article in the textbook
students write dictation on a target vocabulary in the text
students guess the spelling of words written in IPA symbols

In-class activities

Cook, Laurence, Hill, Ashurova, & Edwards

Appendix

Interactive Vocabulary Activities for Reading Classes

Helping Students to Develop Skills for
Setting and Achieving Goals
Brian Cullen

Ben Backwell

Nagoya Institute of Technology
cullen.brian@gmail.com

Nagoya City University
benbackw@gmail.com

This paper explores the process of helping students to develop skills for setting and carrying out
goals in their academic and non-academic life. It may be of interest to researchers and teachers
working in the areas of developing learner autonomy and critical thinking. The paper offers several
learning activities that students have used successfully to carry out goals such as sports success,overseas study, raising TOEIC scores, and other personal goals. The learning activities are divided
into two distinct groups: setting goals and carrying out goals.
この論文は生徒が学術あるいは非学術時における人生の目標を定めたり達成したりする為のスキ
ルを得る際のプロセスを探るものです。学習者が自主的かつ客観的な考えを持つ為の方法を探っている研究者や教育者にとっては興味深いもと思われます。
この論文は生徒がスポーツにおける成功、留学、TOEICの得点を上げる、
その他個人的な目的を達成できるよう幾つかの学習アクティ
ビティーが。
このアクティビティーはゴールの設定と達成の２つの異なった分野に分かれています。

Much has been written about the importance oflearner-autonomy (e.g. Pemberton, Li, Or, & Pierson,
1996). There has also been growing awareness of theneed for students to develop better critical thinking
skills in both the ESL classroom and across the wholecurriculum (Atkinson, 1997; “Critical thinking
essential”, 2016). More recently, influential educators
are calling for greater personalization, creativity, andrelevant skills to be integrated into education to engage
and support a generation of young people who havegrown up with computers and do not engage well withtraditional curricula (e.g. Robinson & Aronica, 2015).
It is clear that personalized learning activities
which promote learner autonomy and critical thinking
are useful for language education in Japan, yet there
has been little discussion of how this kind of activity
can be integrated into classes. In this paper, we offer
Cullen, B., & Backwell, B. (2017). Helping students
to develop skills for setting and achieving goals. In G.
Brooks (Ed.), The 2016 PanSIG Journal (pp. 71-80).
Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

some learning activities and ideas. More specifically,
we focus on learning activities for setting and achieving
goals because we believe that this promotes autonomy,
critical thinking, personalization, useful real-world
skills, and creativity. In accord with Robinson’s
encouragement to bring creativity into education(Robinson & Aronica, 2015), we use many stories in
our teaching, and so we will begin by sharing a story
which offers a useful metaphor for our work.

A Metaphor
Once upon a time there was a rather frazzled harethat was always running round, constantly stressed yet
really not getting much done at all. Eventually, a friend
recommended a good therapist who happened to bea tortoise and who was highly-regarded for helping
people to both relax and to be more productive.
The hare sat down with the tortoise (this wasrather difficult to arrange because the hare was notgood at sitting still and kept challenging the tortoise toa rematch of some race held long ago) and the tortoise
was finally able to ask the important question, “What
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Cullen & Backwell
do you want?”“What do you mean, ‘what do I want?’”, said thehare. “I just want to stop these problems and worries
and slow down.““I see, and when you have solved all your problems
and worries, and you are able to slow down, what doyou want?““I don’t understand,“ said the hare. “I don’t knowwhat I want and even if I did, I am never able to getwhat I want.““Ah.” said the tortoise. “I think that may be thereal problem. If you were able to learn how to identify
what you want and then learn how to really achieve
those goals, do you think that would be useful?”“But can someone actually learn skills to set andachieve goals?” asked the hare.
And you are probably curious about how thestory ends, and it’s good to be curious because like ourstudents, that probably means that you are interested
in what comes next. We will come back to that story
later. In the meantime, we would like to briefly discuss
the importance of goals and goal-setting.

The Importance of Goals
The ability to set and achieve meaningful goals
in our lives is one of the primary determinants ofour happiness and success. Sir Ken Robinson, aninternationally recognized leader in the field of
education, creativity, innovation, and human potential
has been viewed on TED talks by more than 40
million people. Robinson (2015) argues that there are
four core purposes of education: personal, cultural,social and economic: “As I see it, the aims of education
are to enable students to understand the world aroundthem and the talents within them so that they can
become fulfilled individuals and active, compassionate
citizens”(p. xvii). Robinson believes that of these four
important purposes of education the single mostimportant is the personal. His education revolution“is based on a belief in the value of the individual, theright to self-determination, our potential to evolveand live a life fulfilled”(p.xvii). In other words the true
purpose of education is to help each student become
the person they want to become.
One powerful way to bring this kind of self-

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determination in the classroom is to teach our students
real-world skills for setting and achieving goals, skills
that can be used far beyond their current classes. As
teachers, we can do something to help students achieve
their own goals, either academic or non-academic,
and help them lead a life moving towards potential
and fulfillment. Below, we introduce some of thelearning activities which we have developed and tested
extensively with students over the last five years.
Our learning activities are divided into 2 types:
1. Identifying worthwhile, exciting goals and2. Learning the skills, attitudes and knowledge toactually take sustainable action and achieve thegoal.
The learning activities follow a task-based learning
approach (Ellis, 2003; Willis & Willis, 2008).
Students’ goals are self-chosen and self-concordant,
therefore the tasks are personally meaningful andintrinsically motivating.
Again following the thinking of Robinson (2015)
and other proponents of learning across the curriculum,
we take an integrated skills approach by including thefour skills of language learning with speaking, listening,reading, and writing into all lessons.
A key point in our learning materials is thatthey follow the principle of dogme or being
content-free (e.g. Thornbury, 2011). Dogme creates
personalized learning because students supply thecontent themselves. In this case, students create thereal material of the lessons by inserting their own
goals into the structure of the learning activities,
thereby generating self-motivation to attend classand be engaged. In this sense students have increased
autonomy in their learning and are more likely tomobilize their resources.
It is when students mobilize their own internaland external resources that they really learn. All too
often in the classroom, the Ministry of Education,
administration, and teachers impose their ideas about
what constitutes important topics onto the students
and then “motivate” them with the threat of a test.
In our approach, however, the situation is reversed.
Whatever is important to the student is the mostimportant thing. If a student wants to focus on soccer
then soccer is the most important thing. If anotherSetting and Achieving Goals, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, ppages 71-80
student wants to focus on their TOEIC score thenthis is the most valued topic. From our experience,
when teachers take this approach then the students seethat the teachers value what is important to students,
and in turn the students start to give the teachers what
is important for teachers.
Furthermore, students don’t just do the work for theirteacher more sincerely. They also listen to other students
and work collaboratively with other students at a deeper
level because they understand the topic is genuinely
important for their classmate. Intrinsic motivation is at
the core of our work and success in the classroom. Froma student perspective, the difference between wanting tostudy and being forced to study can be described by themetaphor: “Do you want to be chased by a tiger or do
you want to chase a beautiful butterfly?”

Goals of Learning Materials
We used the following learning materials with
university students at three different universities
with first, second, and third year students. Using the
TOEIC test as a measure of language proficiency,
these students were spread over a wide range from as
low as 350 to as high as 900. The smallest class size was
7 students and the largest was 32 students. The twomain goals of our course were:
1. Improve students’ English using a four-skills
task-based approach, which is personalized andintrinsically motivating.
2. Help students to develop and use skills in setting
and achieving goals.
Our lessons are based on the structure shown
below. These are designed to cover approximately one
semester of work in a university class.
In the next two sections, we will focus on the two
important areas of goal setting and goal achievement.
There are examples of these activities in the appendiceswhich show how to scaffold and integrate them into
lessons.

Setting Goals: Sample Activities
We teach a series of three lessons designed to help
students to identify and set goals effectively. These
activities are our own original materials with someinfluence from traditional coaching tools.
1. Dream
Students learn to think about their dreams in
useful ways that bring fantasies closer to reality.
The key point is that it is important to have a
dream and the key question is: How motivated are
you to achieve your dream?
2. The Wheel of Life
Students learn and practice a great tool called theWheel of Life. They use this to consider all theimportant areas of their lives, how to keep them inbalance, and how to identify goals in each area. An
example is given below.
3. Make Clear Goals
Students learn and practice the SPECIFY model,
a tool for setting goals that are measurable andachievable. This builds on the earlier learning
activities as they gradually learn and practiceskills to become more clear and specific in their
aspirations. An example of the SPECIFY process
is given below.

The Wheel of Life
Too often, we are like the hare in the story of the
tortoise and the hare, running from place to place,trying to solve problems. The Wheel of Life is a great
tool for helping students to take an inventory of thecurrent state of different areas of their life and thenlater to use this to identify goals in these areas. Figure
1 shows the eight areas representing the different areasof life: Career, Amour, Money, Personal Development,
Health, Environment, Relationships, and Enjoyment.
To use the Wheel of Life, students simply workwith a partner to identify the level of satisfactionin each area. Below is the basic exchange between
students using The Wheel of Life. We wrote simple
model sentences on the board and the students usedthem to carry their own conversations. The higherlevel students were able to expand considerably on thebasic language. We also modelled the process with ademonstration in front of the class.
A:
B:
A:

How satisfied are you in the area of “Career”?
About 70%.
I see. 70%.
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Cullen & Backwell

Figure 1. The Wheel of Life.

As can be seen, the language used is relatively
simple and students record the answer by writing asimple percentage. For example, a student might rate
the area of health at 80% and money at 50%.
In the second part of the activity, students are
asked to identify two or more areas that they would
like to change. For example, they might want tochange their level of satisfaction in the area of money.
Again we practiced simple supporting language before
the activity.
Example:A:
Which two areas would you like to change?
B:
Money and health.
A:
I see. Money is at 50%. What would you liketo change it to?
B.
I’d like to change it to 90%A.
90%. I see.
In the third step, students ask questions like:“what do you need to do to go from 50% to 80%?“
This naturally leads to goals emerging from the Wheelof Life activity. There is a fuller transcript of a Wheelof Life activity in Appendix 1.

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The SPECIFY Process
Many students start off with rather vague goals, andthe purpose of this activity is to help them to set amore specific and achievable goal. For example, “Iwant to have more money” is vague whereas “I wantto earn 20,000 yen more per month” is a much more
specified and achievable goal. Other examples ofstudent goals and the areas of Wheel of Life fromwhich they emerged included:•• “Visiting the United States with friends”(Enjoyment)•• “To get a good job.” (Career)•• “To be a person who can give everyone love.”(Amour)•• “To be down to earth”(Personal Development)•• “To live a life with no regrets.” (Enjoyment)
As can be seen, most of these goals are vaguelystated and can benefit from a process to make themmore specific and achievable.
For this, we use the SPECIFY model (Bolstad,2002). One of the advantages of SPECIFY is that it
encourages people to think about additional aspects of
their goals such as ecology (how it fits into their life),
their resources for achieving the goal, and the first stepSetting and Achieving Goals, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, ppages 71-80
that can be taken towards the goal. We find it to be an
active model which students quickly learn and use in
their own lives.
The key questions for the SPECIFY process
are shown in Table 1 and a full transcript of ademonstration is available in Appendix 2.

Achieving Goals
In the section above, we introduced sample activities
for helping students to identify and set goals. The next
step is taking action so that they actually achieve thesegoals. Table 2 shows a list of learning activities to help
students to develop these skills.
Below we give one example of how we transformthese important concepts into classroom and learning
activities.
One important tool we use with our students is the
90 Day Action Plan. This is an activity where students
break down a big goal into a list of actions to be takenover the next 90 days. The 90 Day Action plan breaks
down bigger goal and makes it more immediate andurgent. This urgency in turn boosts energy levels.
Here is a sample action plan for a student who
wanted to increase her TOEIC score by 100 points.
1. Find and buy a suitable TOEIC textbook thisweek.
2. Study from it 3 hours a week.
3. Identify at least 2 TOEIC questions to ask her
English teacher each week
4. Take a practice test after the first and second
month.
5. Take the real test at the end of the 90 day period
and increase her score by 100 points.
The important point about the action plan issetting clear achievable actions and then just likethe wise tortoise in the old fable, move slowly andsteadily towards achieving these actions. It also makes
learning more meaningful and enhances motivation
and autonomy. Each week, students are given time toreview their actions, outcomes, and any changes to theplan.
As can be seen from the example of the 90 day
action plan, we believe that students need support andnew skills to achieve their goals. At the start of thecourse we often see students accelerate quickly towards

their goal. This rate of progress at some point will leveloff, climb again level off, and climb again. At times
students may not feel like they are making progress
and therefore other skills, attitudes and knowledge
developed in the course include habit analysis. Perhaps
more importantly we identify good practices andhabits which help us move towards our goal. Such
practices included in our book are: practicing an
attitude of gratitude, affirmations and visualizations,role model presentations, building a team to support
you, and helping others achieve their goals. Finally,
throughout the course we share stories with ourstudents. These stories are chosen or designed to offer
wisdom and support about working towards goals,
and that reminds us of an unfinished story.

Concluding Story
Meanwhile, the tortoise and the hare were still sittingin the tortoise’s therapy room where the hare had justsaid that he didn’t know what he wanted or how to getit.
“Ah” said the tortoise. “I think that may be thereal problem. If you were able to learn how to identify
what you want and then learn how to really achieve
those goals, do you think that would be useful to you?”“But that’s not something that can be taught, canit?“, said the hare. “I mean, can someone actually learn
skills to set and achieve goals?”
And the tortoise said,“Yes, you can. You can indeed learn to set andachieve goals.”This is what we do with our students, and as thecomments in Appendix 3 show, our students love it.
Using the ideas presented here, we have found thatstudents are intrinsically motivated to use English
as they learn valuable life skills to set and achievegoals. Through a written test, we were able to checkthat students had memorized the basic steps of theprocesses and the reports that we assigned to higher
level students showed that they were actively applying
the tool in their lives. If more people learned how to
set and achieve their goals in this way, we believe thatit could lead to great positive change in the world, one
little goal at a time.

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Cullen & Backwell
Table 1
SPECIFY Activity Learning Worksheet
Steps

QuestionYour Answer

Elicit Goal

• What is your goal?

1. Sensory-specific• What date would you like to achieve it?
• Imagine achieving your goal. What do you see,hear, and feel?

2. Positively stated• Is the goal positively stated? If not, ask yourpartner to say it in a positive way.

3. Ecological• What will you gain when you achieve your goal?
• What will you lose?e.g. money, free time.

4. Choices increase• Does this goal increase your choices? (a good goalincreases our life choices)

5. Initiated by self

• What do you need to do to achieve your goal?

6. First step

• What is your first step? (something you can dotoday)

7. Your resources• What are your resources? (find at least 4 resources)

Table 2
Achieving Goals: Sample Activities
Goal

Sample Activity

1. Take Action• Students learn about action plans and begin to chunk their goals down into
small, scheduled actions. They create a 90 day action plan which can be revisited,
revised during the rest of the semester.

2. Learn From Mistakes• Students think about their mistakes and identify what they have learned fromthem. This is an important resiliency strategy to develop as all people facesetbacks and make mistakes in achieving their goals.

3. Habits 1: The Outer
Game• Students examine their own habits and consider which habits are helpful or
unhelpful in achieving their goals. They are encouraged to identify and create
new positive habits that support their goals.

4. Habits 2: The Inner
Game• Thinking patterns, beliefs, and the ability to use visualization and positive
language are all important in achieving goals. Students practice useful techniques
and also write a gratitude diary.

5. Role Models• Students learn about the importance of role models and identify role models who
are relevant to their goals.

6. Your Goal and Other
People• No-one achieves a goal completely alone. In this section, students learn about
different personality types and consider the type of people who are helpful or ahindrance.

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Setting and Achieving Goals, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, ppages 71-80

References
Atkinson, D. (1997). A critical approach to criticalthinking in TESOL. TESOL Quarterly, 31(1),pp. 71-94.
Bolstad, R. (2002). Resolve: A new model of therapy.
Carmarthen, Wales: Crown House Publishing.
Critical thinking essential in global environment(2016, December 19). The Japan Times. Retrieved
from http://japantimes.com.
Ellis, R. (2003). Task-based language learning andteaching. Oxford, England: Oxford University
Press.
Pemberton, R., Li, E.S.L., Or, W.W.F., & Pierson, H.
D. (1996). Taking control: Autonomy in language

learning. Hong Kong, China: Hong Kong
University Press.
Robinson, K., & Aronica, L. (2015). Creative Schools:
The grassroots revolution that’s transforming
education. NY, New York: Penguin Books.
Thornbury, S. (2011). Afterwards: Dogme forbeginners: The autonomy of the group. In Irie,
K. & Stewart, A. (Eds.). Realizing autonomy:
Practice and reflection in language education
contexts (pp. 257-265). Basingstoke, England:
Palgrave Macmillan.
Willis, D., & Willis, J. (2008). Doing task-basedteaching. Oxford, England: Oxford University
Press.

Author Biographies:
Brian Cullen is an Associate Professor at Nagoya Institute of Technology. His research interests
include creativity, positive psychology, and music in the classroom.

Ben Backwell is a lecturer at Nagoya City University. His teaching and research focus on thebenefits of positive psychology for students and its application both within and beyond theclassroom.

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Cullen & Backwell

Appendix 1
Wheel of Life Demonstration
A:B:

I’d like to take you through an activity called the Wheel of Life. And this will help you to look at yourwhole life and see if each area is in balance.
So we have these eight areas: career, amour, money, personal development, health, environment, yourrelationships, and enjoyment. So if we start off in the area of Career. How satisfied are you in the area ofCareer?
You mean a percentage?
Yes, a percentage. A number from zero to 100 which represents your level of satisfaction.
Zero would be completely dissatisfied and 100 would be totally satisfied.
Well, my career is 55%.
55%, great. And how about in the area of Amour. Amour is a French word that means love.
Amour. I’d say 60%.
60%. I see. And next, how satisfied are you in the area of money?
I’d say… 75%.
75%, and what about in the area of personal development.
I would say 80%.
80%, right. And in the area of Health? What is your level of satisfaction now?
Health… let me see. So getting enough sleep, getting good food, nutrition, exercising enough, all thatkind of thing. I’d say 80%.
80%. Right. And in the area of environment… meaning your house, the places where you live and work.
The town or city where you live.
I’d say that needs a bit of work. Maybe 40%.
40%, great. And in your Relationships… your relationships with the people you work with, your friends,
even your family.
I’d say that’s pretty good. I’d say 80.
80. And how about Enjoyment, your overall enjoyment of life.
I’d say 75.
75%. OK. Thanks. We will come back to that in a minute.
OK, Ben, what I see is that you are 55% satisfied with career, 65% in the area of amour. 75% in money.
80% in Personal Development, 80% in Health. 40% in Environment, 80% in Relationships, and 75% in
Enjoyment. Is that right?
That’s right. Thank you.

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B:
A:
B:
A:
B:
A:
B:
A:
B:
A:
B:
A:
B:
A:
B:
A:
B:
A:
A:

Setting and Achieving Goals, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, ppages 71-80

Appendix 2
SPECIFY Demonstration
A:
B:
A:
B:
A:

B:

A:
B:
A:

B:
A:
B:
A:
B:
A:
B:
A:
B:
A:

B:
A:

B:
A:

B:

First of all, we need to hear your goal. What is your goal?
I want to go to Italy. I saw a program on TV last week and it looks so great.
OK. That’s great. So the ‘S’ in SPECIFY stands for Sensory. And the first question is:
What date do you intend to have this goal by?
I will do it by the end of August next year.
Great. That’s nice and clear. Now, let’s continue with the second part of ‘Sensory’.
Put yourself in the situation of having it. Step into your body at that time.
What do you see/hear/feel when you have it?
I see pizza in front of me on the table in Rome. I can smell the pizza. Now I can feel myself picking it
up. And wow, it tastes so good. I can hear the people around me speaking Italian. And there are someAmerican tourists speaking English. I feel excited and alive!
What will you say to yourself when you achieve your goal?
“Wow, I did it, I’m in Italy!”The ‘P’ in SPECIFY stands for ‘Positively Stated’.
Your goal is “I want to go to Italy.” That is already positively-stated, so it is fine.
Sometimes people say things like “I don’t want to stay at home for my vacation”. That is negatively stated.
It could be positively stated as:“I want to travel during my vacation.”
I see, that makes sense.
Right, let’s move onto the third step. ‘E’ stands for ‘Ecological’. In other words, does it fit into yourwhole life well?
OK.
What will you gain?
I will meet interesting people and improve my English.
And what will you lose?
Well, I guess that I will need to spend money and I won’t be able to go to my university club so much.
Right. Next step. ‘C’ stands for Choices Increase. I think this is quite important.
How does this goal increase your choices?
I am able to visit more countries and speak more easily. I think it will also give me confidence ineverything.
Just three more steps to go. ‘I’ stands for ‘Initiated by Self ’. You’ve got to take actions yourself, not just
wait for other people!
So what do you personally have to do to achieve this goal?
I need to save 150,000 yen or ask my parents to help me financially.
OK, now we are getting down to details, aren’t we?
‘F’ stands for ‘First Step.’
What is your first step?
Oh that’s easy. I need to get on the Internet today and find plane ticket prices.
Finally, ‘Y’ stands for ‘Your Resources’. Resources include things like time, money, friends, family, theInternet and so on.
What are your resources?
I have time. I have some money. And I can get information on the Internet. And I have my English
classes.

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Cullen & Backwell

Appendix 3
Student Feedback
This student feedback is from second year students at several Japanese universities who used these learningmaterials in the previous year. We have included this feedback to show how students became very engaged in thelearning materials.
•• “Thank you very much for teaching me the goal activities. I really think that this class will be the best English
class in my life.” Mamoru•• “Your lecture on goals is very important for my job hunting. Every day I felt happy after your classes.” Erina•• “Our course finished 6 months ago but I still use the resilience strategies you taught us. They help me throughthe difficult days.” Honoka•• “Your class was very interesting and unique that I’ve never had before. Not like normal class at university
which is so boring. I loved your teaching style.” Minako

80

The 2016 PanSIG JournalFluency Development Activities and Language Change
Timothy Doe
Kwansei Gakuin University
timdoe@hotmail.com
Repeated narrative activities have been shown to lead to development in learners’ spoken fluency,
and could also impact other aspects of output. However, few studies have looked at the how thecomplexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) features of language produced in these activities mayvary across performances or change over time. This study investigated the differences in CAF
measures made by 20 Japanese university students who completed a 3/2/1 speaking activity overan academic semester. Results indicated that while gains in most measures remained relatively
stable, the accuracy measures fluctuated and appeared to be influenced by the tasks’ topics.
繰り返された談話アクティビティーは、学習者の会話の流暢さの発達につながることが証明されており、また他のアウトプット面へも影響する可能性がある。
しかし、これらのアクティビティーで、言語の複雑性、精度、流暢性(CAF)の特徴が生み出される方法に目を向けたいくつかの研究は、能力によって異なる、あるいは経時的に変化するかもしれない。
この研究は、一学期を通して3/2/1スピーキングアクティビティーを行った、20名の日本の大学生によって作られたCAF方法による相違点を調査した。結果は、ほとんどの方法での進歩は比較的安定して残ったものの、精度測定は変動し、タスクのトピックに影響されることが現れた、ということを示した。

For language learners with few opportunities to use thetarget language they are studying, developing speaking
fluency can be a formidable challenge. While recent
developments in studying the complexity, accuracy,
and fluency (CAF) of learner output have resulted
in more attention from researchers (Housen, Kuiken,& Vedder, 2012), there are still very few studies thathave shown how teachers can develop learner fluency
in classroom settings. The 4/3/2 speaking activity(Maurice, 1983), where learners repeat the same speech
three times under increasing time pressure (beginningwith a four-minute delivery and ending with a twominute delivery), is one of the few classroom activities
that has been shown to be associated with long-term
development of speaking fluency (De Jong & Perfetti,2011). However, while this study showed the activity
to be an effective means of developing fluency, whether

complexity and accuracy were affected by the fluency
gains was not investigated.
This had led some researchers (Boers, 2014; Thai
& Boers 2015) to question whether the 4/3/2 (and its
shortened version the 3/2/1) speaking activity could
be harmful for learners’ interlanguage development,
as learners may proceduralize incorrect forms oflanguage through being encouraged to repeat thesame information in their deliveries. Some support
for this argument can be seen in Thai and Boers(2015), the results of which showed that learners did
not make any improvements in their accuracy whenparticipating in a 3/2/1 speaking activity. The study
however, was cross-sectional in nature, therefore it
cannot be determined if learners repeated the sametypes of errors in subsequent speaking tasks. This
study, therefore seeks to address the following researchDoe, T. (2017). Fluency development activities andlanguage change. In G. Brooks (Ed.), The 2016 PanSIG
Journal (pp. 81-86). Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

questions to investigate how the CAF factors oflearner output may change across subsequent versionsof a 3/2/1 speaking task:
1. To what degree do gains made in the CAF of
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Doe
spoken language vary across different 3/2/1 tasks
over time?
2. To what degree do learners repeat the same kindsof grammatical errors in different 3/2/1 speaking
tasks over time?

Methods
The participants in this study were 20 first-year
university students who were taking a compulsory
English discussion skills class at a private university
in Tokyo. These classes were limited to a maximum
number of 9 students per class. Data from Lessons
3, 8, and 12 were used for the study, as by Lesson 3,
students had become accustomed to the 3/2/1 tasks,
and Lessons 8 and 12 approximately marked the
middle and end of the semester respectively. The topicsof the lessons were “Should Japanese Students Study
Abroad?” (Lesson 3), “Which Is More Important:
Traditional or Popular Culture?” (Lesson 8), and“Gender Stereotypes” (Lesson 12). The 14-weekcourse had a set format for each lesson, beginning with
controlled and semi-controlled practice of functional
language phrases, leading to interactive discussion
activities, and concluding with a 3/2/1 speaking task.
Students were instructed to relate the contents of
their longest interactive discussion (16 minutes) inthe 3/2/1 speaking task. The class was split into twogroups for this discussion, and to keep the 3/2/1 task
meaning focused, students spoke to members of the
discussion group in which they did not participate.
During the 3/2/1 speaking task, the participants
speech was recorded on an IC recorder, and therecordings were then transcribed by the researcher,
who also coded the transcripts for the complexity,
accuracy, and fluency measures.
While there are a multitude of CAF measuresavailable to researchers, in order to compare the resultswith those of previous studies, it was decided to use thefluency measures of mean length of run (the average
number of syllables produced between pauses greaterthan 0.25 seconds) and the average pause length,
following De Jong and Perfetti (2011). Additionally,a comparison of changes in the mean length of run
and average pause is more informative than a solemeasure of fluency, such as speech rate which was used82

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

in Thai and Boers (2015). This is because increases
in the speed of speech may also entail longer pauses,
or vice-versa. To measure complexity, the numberof clauses per AS-unit was used, as this measure wascreated to account for many of the unique featuresof spoken language (Foster et al., 2000). Finally, twomeasures for accuracy were chosen: the ratio of errorfree clauses to total clauses, following Thai and Boers(2015), and the number of words per error, following
Tonkyn (2012), which found it to be a good indicatorof accuracy changes in spoken performances of second
language learners in a short-term study.
For the fluency measures, the length andplacement of pauses was determined using PRAAT
software following the procedures outlined in De Jongand Perfetti (2011), and syllable counts were obtained
from an online syllable counter (http://syllablecount.
com). For the complexity and accuracy measures,reformulations and repetitions were deleted fromthe transcripts following the procedures in Foster,
Tonkyn, and Wigglesworth (2000). Finally, AS-units(a measure of the degree of subordination used in atext) were determined following the guidelines inFoster et al., (2000).

Results
Research question one investigated the degree towhich learners gains made in the CAF of spoken
language vary across different 3/2/1 tasks over time.
The results from repeated-measures ANOVA analyses
indicated that learners’ performance on these tasks
were quite similar to the findings made in Thai andBoers (2015), as while significant gains in fluency weremade across all three deliveries in all three lessons,
there were no significant improvements in either
complexity or accuracy (Table 1), although in mostcases, change was in a positive, albeit insignificant
direction. Across the three lessons however, the gains
remained relatively stable, as there were no significant
differences between any of the CAF gains made in theindividual lessons (Table 2).
The second research question investigated thedegree to which learners repeated the same kinds ofgrammatical errors in different 3/2/1 speaking tasks
over time. Although the results in Table 2 indicatedFluency Development Activities and Language Change, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 81-86
Table 1Means, Standard Deviations, and p Values of the CAF Speaking Measures During the 3/2/1 Activity in Lessons 3, 8, and 12
Lesson 3 Deliveries
3 minutes

2 minutes

1 minute

M (SD)

M (SD)

M (SD)p

Mean length of run (syllables)

3.69 (0.87)

4.01 (0.84)

5.01 (1.18)< .01

Average pause (seconds)

1.34 (0.36)

1.14 (0.25)

0.94 (0.23)< .01

Clauses per AS-unit

2.00 (0.44)

2.21 (0.97)

2.15 (0.57).33

Error-free clause ratio

0.51 (.09)

0.54 (0.21)

0.53 (0.16).80

Number of words per error

8.52 (3.48)

9.94 (5.46)

11.25 (9.78).12

Lesson 8 Deliveries
3 minutes

2 minutes

1 minute

M (SD)

M (SD)

M (SD)p

Mean length of run (syllables)

4.58 (0.92)

4.60 (0.93)

5.36 (1.17)< .01

Average pause (seconds)

1.25 (0.33)

1.03 (0.25)

0.82 (0.17)< .01

Clauses per AS-unit

1.59 (0.34)

1.70 (0.55)

1.85 (0.76).15Error-free clause ratio

0.53 (0.11)

0.55 (0.14)

0.53 (0.20).83

Number of words per error

9.65 (3.86)

10.23 (4.62)

13.29 (10.47).16

Lesson 12 Deliveries
3 minutes

2 minutes

1 minute

M (SD)

M (SD)

M (SD)p

Mean length of run (syllables)

3.33 (0.64)

3.73 (0.83)

4.38 (0.99)< .01

Average pause (seconds)

1.23 (0.26)

1.04 (0.19)

0.86 (0.18)< .01

Clauses per AS-unit

1.81 (0.56)

1.91 (0.54)

1.96 (0.71).36

Error-free clause ratio

0.44 (0.14)

0.47 (0.17)

0.51 (0.22).14

Number of words per error

7.73 (4.01)

7.68 (3.35)

9.36 (4.03).07

Table 2Means, Standard Deviations, and p Values of Gains in CAF Speaking Measures from the Third to First Delivery of the
3/2/1 Activity in Lessons 3, 8, and 12
Lesson 3

Lesson 8

Lesson 12

M (SD)

M (SD)

M (SD)p

Mean length of run (syllables)

1.31 (0.67)

1.08 (0.84)

1.0 (0.58).34

Average pause (seconds)-0.40 (0.24)-0.42 (0.28)-0.37 (0.16).65

Clauses per AS-unit

0.15 (0.43)

0.27 (0.65)

0.15 (0.58).65

Error-free clause ratio

0.17 (.15)-0.01 (0.22)

0.64 (0.16).47

Number of words per error

2.73 (7.54)

3.63 (10.73)

1.64 (2.97).74

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Doe
that there were no significant differences in theaccuracy measures, a closer analysis of the types oferrors revealed some distinct patterns in the types oferrors made (Table 3). As the data for these error types
broke the assumption of normality, non-ParametricFriedman’s ANOVA were conducted for each of theerror types, and Wilcoxon tests were conducted forpost-hoc tests with Bonferroni corrections made forlevels of significance (Field, 2009).
The number of noun phrase errors did not
significantly differ across the three lessons, χ²(2) =5.2, p = .74. The number of verb phrase errors did
significantly differ across the three lessons, χ²(2) =32.5, p > .01. Wilcoxon tests were used to follow up
this finding with a Bonferroni correction of 0.167
applied. Results indicated that the amount of verb
phrase errors were significantly lower in Lesson 3 than
Lesson 8 (T = 1.5, p < .01, r = -0.49), and Lesson 12(T = 2, p < .01, r = -0.48). The number of syntacticalerrors also significantly differed across the threelessons, χ²(2) = 27.1, p > .01. Wilcoxon tests were used
to follow up this finding with a Bonferroni correctionof 0.167 applied. Results indicated that the amount ofsyntactical errors were significantly lower in Lesson 8than Lesson 3 (T = 0, p < .01, r = -0.51), and Lesson
12 (T = 12, p < .01, r = -0.45). Finally, the number oflexical errors also significantly differed across the threelessons, χ²(2) = 24.3, p > .01. Wilcoxon tests were used
to follow up this finding with a Bonferroni correctionof 0.167 applied. Results indicated that the amountof lexical errors were significantly lower in Lesson 12
than Lesson 3 (T = 11, p < .01, r = -0.45), and Lesson
8 (T = 2, p < .01, r = -0.50).

Discussion
The results of the first research question indicatedthat in terms of gains in CAF measures across thelessons, learners’ performance remained relatively
stable. While this result may be unimpressive in thatno significant developments were observed, there are
two important points to take consideration of. Firstly,
the topics of the tasks became more complex as thesemester progressed. In Lesson 3, the topic was highly
personalized, as students were able to relate their own
interests in studying abroad. The topics in Lesson 8

84

The 2016 PanSIG Journaland 12 could be argued to be more complex in thatlearners had to discuss social issues that involved
a variety of different factors. This increase in topic
complexity could account for the lower gains in the
fluency measures for Lessons 8 and 12, as learners
may have had to devote more attention to generating
content for their speeches. Secondly, the fluency gains
in each lesson indicated that proceduralization may
be taking place (Towell, Hawkins, & Bazergui, 1996),
in that there were significant increases in the mean
length of run and significant decreases in the average
length of pause. Therefore, although there were no
significant differences in the fluency gains made overtime, there is some evidence to suggest that learners
may have been able to automatize some aspects of
their language production abilities. Several studies
have shown experimental groups transfer their fluency
gains to other tasks (Ahmadian, 2011; De Jong &Perfetti, 2011, however, a second measure of speaking
would be necessary to determine whether the learners
in this study were able to do so. This will be focused on
in a follow-up study.
Results of the second research question indicatedthat there were significant differences in the kinds oferrors made in each lesson. These findings suggest thatthe kinds of errors made by learners may depend on
the topic around which questions are based on. The
only category of errors which showed no significant
differences were noun phrase errors, which is perhaps
unsurprising given the difficulties that Japaneselearners of English face in mastering article and plural
usage rules (Butler, 2002). An example of how a
topic may influence accuracy levels in output can beseen in the final topic “Gender Stereotypes,” which
resulted in the highest amount of syntactical errors.
During their speeches many students made errors withcomparisons, “men have pressure than women,” andprepositions “pressure to men.” While these errors
may be disconcerting, they do not lend support to theclaim that learners may be proceduralizing incorrect
language forms during the 3/2/1 speaking task (Thai& Boers, 2015), as the errors that occurred at the
beginning of the semester differed greatly from those
produced in later lessons. This suggests that levels of
accuracy in these activities result from an interaction

Fluency Development Activities and Language Change, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 81-86
of the individual’s current knowledge of the language
system and the lexical and grammatical forms required
to complete the task. It does not appear that learners
were simply automatizing the language forms theyused in a linear fashion.
The results of this study have contributed to theresearch on task repetition by showing that whilelearner gains appear to be relatively stable acrosstime, the type of errors made by learners fluctuatedand appeared to be influenced by the topics of theirspeeches. However, several limitations need to be
pointed out. Firstly, the study was conducted ina specific context with a relatively small group oflearners, and whether these findings can be generalized
to other groups of learners remains to be seen.
Secondly, the study was carried out over a relatively
short period of time, and furthermore, the learners
involved had very limited opportunities to use English
during this time (as most reported they did not speakin English outside of the discussion class), which
could have impacted the learners’ abilities to makeclear developments in their speaking abilities. To learn
more about how task repetition can influence learners’
interlanguage, it is desirable for more longitudinalstudies to be conducted in order to learn more about
how this variable can affect speech development.

References
Ahmadian, M. J. (2011). The effect of ‘massed’ task
repetitions on complexity, accuracy and fluency:
does it transfer to a new task? The Language
Learning Journal, 39, 269-280. doi:10.1080/095
71736.2010.545239
Boers, F. (2014). A reappraisal of the 4/3/2
activity. RELC Journal, 45, 221-235.
doi:10.1177/003368829102200106
Butler, Y. G. (2002). Second language learners’
theories on the use of English articles: An analysisof the metalinguistic knowledge used by Japanese

students in acquiring the English article system.
Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 24,
451-480. doi:http://dx.doi.org.libproxy.temple.
edu/10.1017/S0272263102003042
De Jong, N., & Perfetti, C. A. (2011). Fluency
training in the ESL classroom: an experimental
study of fluency development andproceduralization. Language Learning, 61, 533568. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9922.2010.00620.x
Field, A. (2009). Discovering statistics using SPSS. Los
Angeles, CA: Sage.
Foster, P., Tonkyn, A., & Wigglesworth, G. (2000).
Measuring spoken language: A unit for all
reasons. Applied Linguistics, 21, 354-375.
doi:10.1093/applin /21.3.354
Housen, A., Kuiken, F., and Vedder, I. (2012).
Complexity, accuracy, and fluency: Definitions,
measurement, and research. In Housen, A.,
Kuiken, F., & Vedder, I. (Eds.), Dimensions of L2
performance and proficiency: Complexity, accuracy,
and fluency in SLA (pp. 1-21). Amsterdam,
Holland: John Benjamins.
Maurice, K. (1983). The fluency workshop. TESOL
Newsletter, 17, 429.
Thai, C., & Boers, F. (2015). Repeating a monologue
under increasing time pressure: effects on fluency,
complexity, and accuracy. TESOL Quarterly.
Advance online publication. doi: 10.1002/
tesq.232
Tonkyn, A. (2012). Measuring and perceiving
changes in oral complexity, accuracy, and fluency:
examining instructed learners’ short-term gains.
In Housen, A., Kuiken, F., & Vedder, I. (Eds.),
Dimensions of L2 performance and proficiency:
Complexity, accuracy, and fluency in SLA (pp.
221-246). Amsterdam, Holland: John Benjamins.
Towell, R., Hawkins, & R., Bazergui, N. (1996). The
development of fluency in advanced learnersof French. Applied Linguistics, 17, 84-119.
doi:10.1093 /applin/17.1.84

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Author Biographies:
Timothy Doe teaches in the School of Policy Studies at Kwansei Gakuin University. His
research interests are focused on exploring methods to evaluate and develop learner output inspeaking and writing classes. He can be reached at timdoe@hotmail.com.

86

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

L1 in the Classroom: Does It Have a Role?
Paul Freeborn

Eric Gondree

Ritsumeikan University
paulfreeborn@yahoo.com

Nagoya University of Foreign Studies
ericg@nufs.ac.jp

A long-running controversy has surrounded the topic of what role L1 can take in the EFL
classroom and the extent to which it should be avoided or used. What part, if any, can L1 playin helping learners to acquire English in a foreign language situation? This paper focused on areview of research on the topic, and examined the implications of that research for the classroom.
The preponderance of present thinking is that an appropriate use of L1 can prove beneficial in
helping students to improve their understanding of the TL. This paper will argue that the practiceof excluding the use of L1 is unsupported by research and explore ways to use L1 in the EFL
classroom.
EFLクラスルームにおけるL1の使用が如何なる役割を成し得るか、如何にL1を使用すべきか避けるべきかという議論は、長期に渡り続けられている。L1に役割があるとしたら、外国語シチュエーシ
ョンで英語習得する学習者の支援において、如何なる役割を果たすか？ 本レポートは、
このトピックのリサーチの再考察に焦点を置き、そのリサーチのクラスルームに対する影響を分析した。現在の考えで優勢なのは、L1の適切な使用は学生のTL理解を向上させる支援として有益だというものである。本レポートは、L1使用の除外がリサーチで支持されていないことを主張し、EFLクラスル
ームにおけるL1の使用方法を探求する。

One enduring area of debate in the field of foreign
language teaching is what role a learner’s native
language (L1) can play in the classroom. Whether or
not the exclusion of students’ L1 can lead to effective
language learning deserves careful considerationin light of the existing literature on the matter.
Indeed, much research suggests that the occasionaluse of students’ L1 may create a more effective andwelcoming classroom while knowledge of the student’s
native language can be an asset for students andteachers alike. Although the question of L1 in SLA
has received enough attention to not be considered aparticularly new or unusual issue, the issue still raises
controversy and causes friction.

Freeborn, P., & Gondree, E. (2017). L1 in theclassroom: Does it have a role? In G. Brooks (Ed.), The
2016 PanSIG Journal (pp. 87-92). Tokyo, Japan:
JALT.

The Argument for Exclusion of L1
Several theoretical objections have been raised tothe use of students’ L1 in foreign language teaching.
Many of these theories developed in the context of
an inclination to distance language-teaching from theGrammar-Translation method which relied too heavily
on L1 and failed to teach language for communication(G. Cook, 2001). Consequently, many teaching
methodologies from the twentieth century regard
L1 as counterproductive. One of the most influential
teaching theories is the Comprehensible Input
theory, in which language acquisition is driven by
exposure to understandable TL while L1 is irrelevant(Krashen, 1982). Other prominent teaching
methodologies such as the Direct Method (Harbord,1992) and the Communicative Approach Method(Pennycook, 1994) saw L1 as a source of interferenceor error-generation. The use of L1 has therefore been
discouraged in many modern paradigms of language
The 2016 PanSIG Journal87

Freeborn & Gondree
teaching.
Many arguments favoring the TL-only position
rely on studies which support the idea of a richuse of TL during language instruction and show
direct, positive correlations between the amount of
input and learner achievement (Larsen-Freeman,
1985; Lightbown, 1991). The use of L1 seemingly
deprives students of opportunities to experience asmuch of the TL as possible (Ellis, 1984). Some EFL
teaching contexts mean that students have limited
opportunities to practice outside of class so finite classtime should maximize their exposure (Burden, 2000).
In such situations, the teacher may be the main, or the
only, source of TL so it is reasonable to wish to use
as much TL as possible (Turnbull, 2001). Althoughthese arguments caution that TL should be used to thegreatest possible extent in class, they do not argue foroutright L1-exclusion.
For certain stakeholders in a school, a
policy of L1-only teaching may seem intuitively
attractive (Thornbury, 2006) so that an Englishonly environment may be a marketing point or an
expectation among students and parents (Yphantides,2009). Additionally, policies favoring English-only
teaching may be a fixture of national curricula. For
instance, Japan’s most recent MEXT EFL curriculum
states English should be the language of English
instruction (Tahara, 2012). Despite these arguments,
evidence supporting the efficacy of L1-exclusion in
SLA is limited.

The Argument Against Exclusion of
L1 in the EFL Classroom
Rules excluding a student’s L1 may raise difficult
issues of power, authority and cultural insensitivity
in the classroom (Auerbach, 1993). Some researchers
suggest that policies to exclude L1 mainly serve theinterests of native-speaking English teachers (Raschka,
Sercombe, & Chi-ling, 2009) and global publishersof educational materials (Skutnabb-Kangas, 1999).
Because of these concerns, L1-exclusion practices
deserve careful consideration. In contrast, perhaps
the greatest point in favor of L1 in the classroom
is that teachers and students both perceive value

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The 2016 PanSIG Journalin teachers who have knowledge of the languagesof their students (Burden, 2000; Norman, 2008;
Schweers, 1999; Storch & Wigglesworth, 2003) andhaving a knowledge of students’ L1 can help teachers
understand the appropriate ways to use it (Lardiere,2012). The argument against L1-avoidance rests uponfour practical points: reducing students’ affective
filters, reinforcing student understanding, enhancing
classroom management and alleviating difficulties
inherent in forbidding students’ L1.
First, the use of learners’ L1 may lower students’affective filters by reducing anxiety, stress andembarrassment which can result from being unable
to communicate before one’s peers (Brown, 2000;
Meyer, 2008; Nation, 2003). Some scholars suggestthat a judicious and occasional use of L1 in teaching
can help to build rapport, improve cooperation andconvey teacher respect for students’ identities (Brown,
2000; Hopkins, 1998, von Dietz & von Dietz, 2007).
An ability to communicate in students’ L1 can also
demonstrate empathy, evince a teacher’s willingness
to learn new languages, create levity and boost classmorale (Barker, 2003; Ford, 2009; Schweers, 1999).
Second, the impact of L1 on SLA is readily
evident, such as the extent to which students use
their native grammar to construct the grammar of
a new language, in addition to using it as their basisof understanding equivalencies in new grammaticalstructures (Lardiere, 2012). L1 provides the basis for“noticing,” in which learners analyze comparisons
between their current knowledge and the target
language (Ferrer, 2005; Swain & Lapkin, 1995).
L1 also appears in language-learning through codeswitching, “a natural and purposeful phenomenon
which facilitates both communication and learning”(Eldridge, 1996, p 310). Finally, L1 may be the mosthelpful means to explain TL idioms (Rodriguez &Winnberg, 2013) and foreign cultural contexts (vonDietze & von Dietze, 2007) which can add depth tolearning.
Third, L1 serves a pragmatic function by aidingclassroom management. It can be used to provide
students with feedback on their performance inclass and address students’ requests for clarification(Shimizu, 2006). L1 can assist in discussing

L1 in the Classroom, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, ppages 87-92
classroom goals (Ellis, 1984) and explaining teaching
methodologies (Holthouse, 2006; Meyer, 2008).
L1 can also be used to help to guide in-class tasks,
handle discipline and provide instructions for testing
and assessment (V. Cook, 2001). Due to its role inclassroom management, L1 can help teachers increase
the amount of time devoted to English because
students can more quickly understand assignments,
instructions and methods.
Finally, a classroom policy forbidding the use of
students’ L1 can create a number of problems in both
implementation and unanticipated outcomes. The
difficulties and conflicts created by enforcement of
L1-exclusion is a recurring theme in the experiencesof individuals who have attempted to do so (Atkinson,
1987; Butzkamm, 2008; Ford, 2009; Hall & Cook,
2013; Harmer, 2001; Hawkins, 2015; Holthouse,
2006; Raschka et al., 2009; Shimizu, 2006; Yphantides,2009). A number of researchers have remarked that
despite all attempts to ban L1, it will still be present
in bilingual dictionaries (Kelleher, 2013), note-taking(Koren, 1997) and as a fixed feature in students’cognition (V. Cook, 1999). The reality is that L1 will
persist in the classroom regardless of what rules are inplace to discourage it and that a more comfortable andhumane language classroom will view L1 as a resource
which can be managed productively. To disallow L1 isto deny students a tool for learning.

Principled Inclusion of L1
A case can be made that a carefully selective use of
L1 in the classroom is an appropriate supplement toteaching. Naturally, the use of L1 in SLA should be
limited and relevant to the teaching situation but thequestion of when and how requires further researchand opinions on the matter differ. For instance, anearly proponent of using native language for SLA,Atkinson (1987) suggested that L1 be relatively
constrained and used in accuracy-oriented tasks, suchas showing misleading differences in meaning between
two languages. In contrast, Butzkamm (2003) argues
that L1 can be appropriate in a broader range ofsituations. Carson and Kashihara (2012) recommendthat students participate in creating guidelines for L1
so they can feel that their preferences will be respected.

Additionally, use of students’ L1 should ideally be
purposeful and aligned with the learning objectivesof the class while not being overused (Ellis, 1984;
Nation, 2003).
How much and when to use L1 appropriately may
depend upon a variety of factors. A key consideration is
the makeup of students in the class. In situations where
teachers are working with a class containing students
from different L1 backgrounds, L1 use by the teacher
would be highly impractical and socially problematic.
In EFL contexts where the teacher is working withstudents who share the same L1, these issues areless of a concern. It is certainly more appropriate touse L1 with younger, lower-level learners because
they will be using their native language as the basis
to understand a new language (Harmer, 2001) but
more advanced learners also seem more capable oftransferring pragmatic strategies from L1 (Maeshiba
et al., 1996 as cited in Bardovi-Harlig, 2012). Rigbom& Jarvis (2009 as cited in Lardiere, 2012) recommend
a strategy of teaching grammar to lower-level learners
by focusing on the similarities between L1 and L2
to aid understanding. Carson and Kashihara (2012)
argue there is an inverse relationship between student
language proficiency and a desire for L1 support withstudent desire for L1 declining as student ability
and confidence increases. This inverse relationship iscomplicated by the fact that higher-level students may
also demand L1 support when using more challenging
materials.

Implications for the Classroom
There are many English-teaching activities which
can harness students’ L1 (Deller & Rinvolucri,
2002). Teachers may employ L1 to use class time
more efficiently by quickly defining unfamiliar, lowfrequency vocabulary that might require lengthy L2
explanation (Ur, 2011). For instance, through thetechnique of sandwiching, L1 can be used to confirm
student understanding of terms with a low disruption
to class flow (Butzkamm, 2008). Sandwiching involves
introducing a new word in the TL, glossing it briefly inthe students’ L1, and then repeating it again in the TL.
When the teacher must explain challenging linguistic
concepts, new vocabulary, errors or difficult grammar,
The 2016 PanSIG Journal

89

Freeborn & Gondreeusing students’ L1 may also be a time-efficient meansof conveying the content (Burden, 2000; V. Cook,
2001; Hall & Cook, 2013).
Students may utilize L1 to more effectively engage
in L2 classroom learning. One example is the use ofbilingual dictionaries to look up new vocabulary. L1
can be used in activities such as peer discussions, cloze
texts, and narration jigsaws (VanderHeijden, 2010).
Students’ L1 also appears in collaborative and groupwork activities, such as situations where students work
together to solve a translation problem or brainstorm
ideas (Atkinson, 1987; Scott & de la Fuente, 2008).
Students may be allowed to use L1 when discussing
the meaning of an intensive reading passage andconfirm their understanding in pair or small-group
discussions. This allows the students to more readily
identify differences between the linguistic features of
the TL and their L1. Teachers can confirm student
understanding in the TL, by asking a student to
explain to the class (in the TL) or by doing sothemselves. Students also benefit from using L1 while
collaborating to prepare group presentations andgroup projects. Conversely, the use of L1 should be
discouraged in activities intended to develop fluency(such as reading graded readers or conversation
based speaking activities). In this case, the use of L1,even with the intention of confirming meaning or
understanding, detracts from fluency-building. It isalso advisable to discourage students from using L1
in situations where they are already capable of saying
what they wish to say in the TL.

Conclusion
In conclusion, although a rich use of English should
obviously command the major focus of attention
in an effective English language classroom, policies
trying to accomplish this by forcing exclusion of L1
are not feasible to implement, possibly detrimental
and unsupported by research. In contrast, there are
multiple reasons to believe there is a positive role fora careful use of learners’ L1 in SLA. Although there
are many ways a teacher can focus on teaching a TL
without resorting to using students’ native language,
an occasional and reasonable inclusion of L1 can help
to boost student understanding, reinforce language

90

The 2016 PanSIG Journalacquisition and improve class management. A working
knowledge of students’ L1 can therefore be seen as
an asset in the classroom, a tool to augment teachingeffectiveness and a resource to enhance learning
outcomes.

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Author’s Biography:
Paul Freeborn is a full time lecturer at Ritsumeikan University in Kusatsu, Japan. He has alsotaught English at Konan University in Kobe and in the United States. He has an MA in English
Literature from California State University, Long Beach and a MA in TESOL from Fresno
Pacific University. paulfreeborn@yahoo.com

Eric Gondree is a full time lecturer at the Nagoya University of Foreign Studies in Nisshin,Japan. He has also taught English at Konan University in Kobe and at SUNY Buffalo in the
United States. He has an MBA and an MA in TESOL from SUNY Buffalo. ericg@nufs.ac.jp

92

The 2016 PanSIG JournalMomentum Towards Foreign Language
and Intercultural Development
Robinson Fritz

Sumiko Miyafusa

Nagasaki Universityrob-fritz@nagasaki-u.ac.jp

Showa Women’s University
miyafusa@swu.ac.jp

How can university foreign language programs integrate language learning and interculturaldevelopment? This paper will introduce the Ideal Intercultural Self framework, an innovative
framework developed by the authors that allows learners to create, reflect and re-evaluate their own
foreign and intercultural development goals. The framework places an emphasis on the process ofdeveloping and achieving goals, and it explicitly recognizes that the limited period of study should
be used as a way to gain momentum towards intercultural development. To test the framework,a mixed-methods pilot study was carried out at a Japanese university that asked participants tovisualize, draw and write their future goals at the beginning of the period of study, then re-evaluate
their own goals at the end of the period of study. The framework, the results and implications of
the study will be presented in this paper.
大学の外国語教育プログラムではどのように異文化理解を育成することができるだろうか。本稿では、学習者が外国語と異文化間で達成させたい目標を自ら作り、振り返り、
そして評価するような理想的な異文化間での自己育成について紹介する。
この構想は、学びの成長過程や達成したい
目標に焦点をあて、学習者が限られた期間で異文化理解について学ぶ意欲を向上できるかについて調査する。本研究は、データを質的と量的な側面から分析したパイロットスタディである。日本の大学生にテーマに沿って思い描いた事、将来の目標などを学期の最初と最後に書いてもらい自己評価をした資料を分析している。本稿では、主に研究で活用したフレームワーク、研究結果や関連事項を述べている。

The Ideal Intercultural Self framework (IIS framework)
is a motivational classroom approach developed by theauthors to essentially allow learners to create their own
foreign language (FL) and intercultural development
goals, and promote an individual and life-long attitude
to development. To test if the IIS framework can allow
learners to develop certain aspects of interculturalcommunicative competence (ICC), the authors
carried out a one-semester pilot study. The intentionof this research is to contribute an innovate approach
Fritz, R., & Miyafusa, S. (2017). Momentum towards
foreign language and intercultural development.
In G. Brooks (Ed.), The 2016 PanSIG Journal (pp.
93-100). Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

of integrating FL and intercultural development forJapanese FL education

The Key Theories Influencing the IIS
Framework
Crucial to the development of the IIS framework has
been the perspective that learners are multifaceted anddynamic individuals with personal FL and interculturaldevelopment goals. Three main areas have encouraged
this view; ICC and the intercultural speaker; acomplex sense of self; and the L2 Motivational Self
System. The notion of ICC, a set of cognitive, affective
and behavioral skills that support effective andappropriate intercultural interaction (Bennet, 2015),
informs the IIS framework on what factors need to be
The 2016 PanSIG Journal

93

Fritz & Miyafusa
developed for intercultural interactions. In addition,
the concept of intercultural speaker (i.e. Byram, 1997)
further advises the IIS framework on the mindset
needed for successful intercultural interactions. Theintercultural speaker has “…a willingness to relativize
one’s own values, beliefs and behaviors, not to assume
that they are the only possible and naturally correctone, and to be able to see how they might look fromthe perspective of an outsider who has a different setof values, beliefs and behaviors” (Byram, Nichols, &Stevens, 2001. p.5). Also, Byram (1997) maintains thatone becomes an intercultural speaker from meaningfulclassroom instruction, life experiences, or knowledge
gained outside of the classroom. Furthermore, theIIS framework is influenced by certain ICC theories
that approach learners as individuals, acknowledge thesignificance of affective factors and place an emphasis
on a life-long process of development where no peakcan be reached (i.e., Byram, 1997; Deardorff, 2006,
2011; Liddicoat & Scarino, 2013).
The IIS framework also considers learners
as multifaceted and dynamic individuals. This
derives from their own set of self-perceptions thatare dependent on context, co-constructed frominteractions and influenced from their own unique life
experiences (Liddicoat & Scarino, 2013). Moreover,an individual’s affective and behavioral factors areseen as the driving factors that allow learning anddevelopment (Williams, Mercer, & Ryan, 2015).
Motivation is one of these vital factors and it playsa large role in building up and maintaining the
momentum towards reaching goals. Therefore, the L2
Motivational Self System (Dörnyei, 2009), a concept
recognized for L2 learners to create and maintaingoals, is further evolved to included the (inter)culturaldimension and inform a motivational classroom
approach for the IIS framework.

The Ideal Intercultural Self Framework
The IIS framework informs a two-semester syllabusthat integrates FL and intercultural development.
The main purpose of the framework is for learners tocreate momentum and reach their own goals after theperiod of study. The name “Ideal Intercultural Self ”
comes from combining the concepts of intercultural94

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

speaker (Byram, 1997) and the Ideal L2 self (Dörnyei,2009). In addition, the authors define IIS as anindividual’s future vision of personal goals and hopes
related to becoming an intercultural speaker. As ICC
development is viewed as a life-long endeavor, theIdeal Intercultural Self is a state that is continuallyreviewed and re-evaluated. This places a focus onunderstanding and valuing the process of becoming,
over achieving the final product. Dörnyei’s (2009)
concepts of Ought-to L2 Self and Ideal L2 Self arealso used in the IIS framework, but Dörnyei’s notionof L2 Learning Experience is extended to consider
the individual’s previous experiences (inside andoutside of the classroom) and the local, national andglobal socio-cultural factors that have influenced theirindividuality. The structure of the IIS framework(Table 1) is based on Dörnyei and Hadfield’s (2013)
six-component motivational programme.
The classroom approaches, methods and outcomesof the IIS framework have been influenced by aconstructivist approach to teaching and humanistic
psychology. These approaches view learners as
individuals who make their own reality and therefore
require learning to be personalized (i.e. Williams et al.,2015). In addition, Deardorff ’s (2006) Process Modelof ICC (hereafter known as PM) is used to separate
internal and external outcomes and it provides acomprehensive method towards the choice of syllabus
content of each semester. The first semester focuseson the individual aspects of the PM (i.e. required
attitudes, openness and curiosity) and learners
creating and re-evaluating their IIS. The second
semester centers on the interaction componentsof the PM (i.e. ethnorelative view, empathy andeffective communication). Learners gradually learn
the responsibilities and obligations towards obtaining
their IIS and develop a roadmap to achieve it. Also,
revisiting earlier steps is encouraged as this allows
further reflection and re-evaluation.

Methods
In this ongoing pilot study, a case study design was
carried out at a Japanese university where one of theauthors of this paper works at. An elective English
content-based class (sixteen 90-minute sessions)Momentum Towards Development, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, papages 93-100
Table 1The Ideal Intercultural Self Framework
Internal outcomes

External outcomes

Semester 1

Learners visualize their
IIS, then gradually reflect
and revisit their own IIS
during the semester. The
syllabus raises awarenessand knowledge on theindividual aspects of ICC(Deardorff, 2006).

Learners develop anunderstanding ofindividuality. They alsoacquire and evolve theright attitudes to develop
their own IIS.

Learners understandthat the development,or lack of, internal
outcomes have afundamental effect on
their external outcomes.

Semester 2Classroom approach &methods

Key strategy

Learners become awareof the challenges andresponsibilities of attaining
their IIS. The syllabus
focuses on fostering
sustainability, flexibility,
adaptability and anunderstanding of theinteraction aspects of ICC(Deardorff, 2006).

Learners create aroadmap for achieving
their IIS after the course
has finished. They areable to evaluate self in
relation to others.

Learners have a better
understanding of
how to communicate
effectively withinintercultural situations.

1. Create thevision2. Revisit thevision3. Verify thevision4. Keep thevision alive
5. Self evaluate
the vision

was chosen, as all of the students were planningto study abroad in the following school year. The
group consisted of seven participants (four female
and three male) who were second grade economics
undergraduates. Furthermore, their most recent
TOEIC scores ranged between 635 and 450 (average542). Data was collected at the start and end of thefirst semester and the hope was that the intervention
would show participants to develop a certain level of
ICC.

Syllabus
The textbook “Identity” (Shaules, Tsujioka & Iida,
2004) was used as a basis for the syllabus. Topics
included identity, values, culture shock and culture
in language. Also, extra content was created todevelop awareness of motivation, individuality,
the interdependent relationship of classroom andindependent learning. A variety of learner-centeredpedagogy (i.e. discussions, multimedia, experiential
activities) was used to satisfy a wider range of learning

preferences. In addition, course evaluation involved
class participation, homework and a weekly selfreflective journal.

Data Collection Instruments
Deardorff (2011) suggests a mixed-methods approachto understand the complex and dynamic nature ofintercultural development. The data collection was
inspired by visual and narrative methods (i.e., Dörnyei& Hadfield, 2013; Dörnyei & Kubanyiova, 2014)
and quantitized for further analysis. Dörnyei (2007)
maintains that data transformation, or quantitizing
data, allows certain salient qualitative themes to be
numerically represented. Participants were asked tovisualize, write and draw their first Ideal Intercultural
Self in the second class of the semester (before receiving
instruction), then revise and re-evaluate their IIS in
the fifteenth class. All participants used an ipad miniand the Notability application to do this. Notability is
an application that allows users to freely draw, write orinsert media (photos and internet images). At the timeThe 2016 PanSIG Journal

95

Fritz & Miyafusaof the study it was free to download from the Japanese
iTunes application store. All participants emailed theirfirst and second IIS as a pdf to the main instructor.
In both instances, the technique of visualization(Dörnyei & Hadfield, 2013) was used for participants
to imagine their own future IIS.
The hypothesis was that the second pdfs
would show a certain ICC development, therefore
demonstrating an initial build-up of momentum. In
addition, to understand their second IIS pdfs betterand to support their claims, all participants wereasked to write about their development and elaborateon their words and images. The participants were
explicitly told that these research tasks would notcontribute towards course evaluation. For quantitative
analysis of the pdfs, a five-point rubric scale (seeappendix) was designed by using the individual traitsof the PM.

Results
All participants produced first and second IIS pdfs
and were checked independently by each researcher(see Table 2 and 3). Researcher 1 was the instructor

and Researcher 2 had no prior contact. If no evidenceof a particular category was found, the lowest score(1) was awarded. Also, the average scores of thefirst and second pdfs were calculated to prove thereliability of this study. A Pearson’s correlation test
was carried out using SPSS. The inter-rater correlation(r = 0.91, p = .000) showed a similar evaluation fromboth researchers, this suggested reliability and that
Researcher 1’s familiarity with the participants did
not cause bias. Also, a one-tailed paired sample t-test
was conducted to evaluate if the post-test mean (M =2.80, SD = .86) was higher than the pre-test mean (M= 2.21, SD = .75). This also indicated a positive result,t = 5.39, d.f = 7, p < .01. These results suggest that theintervention allowed most participants to develop theindividual traits associated with the Process Model.

Analyzing the Participants Data
The participants expressed their IIS pdfs with a varietyof personal photos, images, drawings and writing. The
low scores in Table 2 and 3 indicate pdfs with future
visions and goals that were too superficially explained,or participants with a lack of ICC. This was more

Table 2
Researcher 1’s Evaluation
Knowledge andComprehension

Required Attitiudes

Curiosity

CulturalDesired internal andexternal outcomes

Knowledgeof culturalandselfworldview
Respect Openness Discovery awareness frameworks Empathy

Flexibility

AverageFirst Last First Last First Last First Last First Last First Last First Last First Last
Participant A

4

5

4

4

4

5

3

3

1

2

2

4

3

4

3.0

4.0

Participant C

2

3

3

3

3

4

1

4

1

2

1

2

1

2

1.7

2.7

Participant K

1

2

1

3

1

2

1

1

1

2

1

2

1

2

1.0

2.0

Participant M

1

1

1

1

2

2

1

1

1

1

2

2

2

2

1.4

1.4

Participant S

2

4

3

3

3

3

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

2.3

2.6

Participant T

2

3

3

5

2

4

1

2

1

2

2

2

2

3

1.9

3.0

Participant Y

5

5

3

4

3

4

3

3

3

2

4

4

4

4

3.6

3.7

96

The 2016 PanSIG JournalMomentum Towards Development, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, papages 93-100
Table 3
Researcher 2’s Evaluation
Knowledge andComprehension

Required Attitiudes

Desired internal andexternal outcomes

Knowledge
Curiosity
andCulturalself-

of cultural
worldview

Respect Openness Discovery awareness frameworks Empathy

Flexibility

AverageFirst Last First Last First Last First Last First Last First Last First Last First Last
Participant A

4

5

4

4

4

4

3

4

1

3

3

4

3

4

3.1

4.0

Participant C

2

3

2

3

3

3

3

3

1

2

2

3

2

2

2.1

2.6

Participant K

3

2

3

2

2

3

2

2

1

2

2

3

2

2

2.1

2.1

Participant M

1

1

1

2

1

2

1

2

1

2

1

2

1

2

1.1

1.7

Participant S

2

4

3

3

3

3

2

3

1

2

2

2

2

2

2.1

2.6

Participant T

2

3

3

5

3

5

3

4

1

2

2

2

2

2

2.3

3.1

Participant Y

5

4

3

4

3

4

3

4

2

3

3

3

3

4

3.1

3.7

indicative of the first pdf results, as most of the second
pdfs demonstrated a deeper explanation of future
visions and indicated a relative development of ICC.
Also, the participants’ writings verified a developmentof the individual traits of the PM (i.e. curiosity andopen-mindedness). However, the second pdfs showeda lack of awareness about how participants relate tocultural worldview frameworks (i.e. history, others

values and beliefs). Due to constraints of space, theparticipants’ writings cannot be shown and the results
section will focus on participant A’s pdfs. Participant
A showed the most improvement and produced a richamount of data.
For Participant A’s first pdf (Figure 1), bothresearchers awarded the same score for all categories,
except Empathy. Both researchers agreed that the

Figure 1. Participant A’s First IIS Pdf.

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Fritz & Miyafusa

Figure 2. Participant A’s Second IIS Pdf.

degree of critical writing and self-reflective styledemonstrated a certain amount of ICC associatedof ICC, participants developed an awareness andimportance of these components i.e. attitudes

to the individual traits of the PM (i.e. openness,
respect and curiosity). However, the researchers also
concurred that the participant showed a lack of deep
understanding on how to achieve their own goals.
Moreover, the scores awarded by both researchers
for Participant A’s second pdf (Figure 2) revealed a
relative development of ICC and a more complex
understanding of how to achieve their IIS. The words
and images demonstrate a greater developmentof (cultural) self-awareness, respect, curiosity anddiscovery. Also, re-evaluation of their IIS has caused
Participant A to have new attitudes towards foreign
languages and value the need to develop their own“inside motivation”. Lastly, their end of semester
writings supported this as more evidence was given
regarding how the course had positively developed
their attitudes towards learning English andintercultural communication.

related to respect, curiosity and open-mindedness.
In addition, using the pdfs to visually represent goals
to become the Ideal Intercultural Self was useful
to most participants. Most participants stated thatthe pdfs helped to document development and reevaluate goals. The authors also remarked that the pdfs
allowed a better understanding of individuality andindividual goals. Therefore, the theory, structure andclassroom approach of IIS framework seemed to workin this pilot study. However, the authors realize thatthe results of this pilot study are limited at this stage,
due to the small sample size and the on-going natureof this study. Nevertheless, the framework and study
have demonstrated an innovative way to comprehendand appreciate the many variables influencing FL andintercultural development. Moreover, the results fromthis study will allow the IIS framework to be further
developed and hopefully, this will promote moreinnovate and effective classroom approaches for FL
and intercultural development.

Conclusion
The analysis of the results suggest that the intervention
allowed most participants to develop a relative
amount of ICC, indicating that the IIS framework

Bennet, J. (2015). The sage encyclopaedia of

has allowed them to build up their momentum
towards future development. As the structure of
the IIS framework was influenced by the individualcomponents of Deardorff ’s (2006) Process Modelintercultural competence. Thousand Oaks,
CA:Sage.
Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and assessing interculturalcommunicative competence. Clevedon, England:98

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

References

Momentum Towards Development, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, papages 93-100
Multilingual Matters.
Byram, M., Nichols, A., & Stevens, D. (2001).
Developing intercultural competence in practice.
Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters.
Deardorff, D. K. (2006). Identification andassessment of intercultural competence as a
student outcome of internationalization. Journalof Studies in International Education, 10(3), 241266.
Deardorff, D. K. (2011). Assessing interculturalcompetence. New Directions for Institutional
Research, 149, 65-79.
Dörnyei, Z. (2007). Research methods in applied
linguistics. Oxford, England: Oxford University
Press.
Dörnyei, Z. (2009). Motivation, language identity andthe L2 self. Bristol, England: Multilingual matters.
Dörnyei, Z., & Hadfield, J. (2013). Motivating
learning. Edinburgh, Scotland: Pearson
Education Limited.
Dörnyei, Z., & Kubanyiova, M. (2014). Motivating
learners, motivating teachers. Cambridge,
England: Cambridge University Press.
Liddicoat, A. J., & Scarino, A. (2013). Intercultural
language teaching and learning. Chichester,
England: Wiley-Blackwell.
Shaules, J., Tsujioka, H., & Iida, M. (2004). Identity.
Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Williams, M., Mercer, S., & Ryan, S. (2015).
Exploring psychology in language learning andteaching. Oxford, England: Oxford University
Press.

Author’s Biography:
Robinson Fritz has over ten years teaching all ages in Japan and he is presently teaching at
Nagasaki University. Also, he is currently pursuing a doctoral degree related to intercultural
education. His academic interests include intercultural education, communication, motivationand psychology. He can be contacted at rob-fritz@nagasaki-u.ac.jp.

Sumiko Miyafusa is currently teaching reading and writing in English and a career related classat Showa Women’s University. Her interests are intercultural communication competence andsocial linguistics. She is researching how study abroad experiences of undergraduate students
influence their language skills and intercultural competence. Her address is miyafusa@swu.ac.jp

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Appendix

100 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Total Immersion: VR Headsets in Language Learning
Chris Hastings

Josh Brunotte

Aichi Shukutoku University
christopher.robert.hastings@gmail.com

Aichi Prefectural University
JoshBrunotte@gmail.com

Virtual Reality is about to change the world. Researchers predict that ownership of virtual reality
devices will reach 38 million by the end of 2020. This technology will undoubtedly transform
our lives, but how might it be positively incorporated into the language classroom? In this paper
readers will be introduced to the recently developed Google Cardboard VR headset and how it canbe used to develop language learning tasks and materials. The pedagogical benefits and limitationsof the technology will also be discussed.
バーチャルリアリティ（VR）
は世界を変えようとしています。研究者たちは2020年までに3800万ものVRの装置を人々が所有すると予想しています。
この技術は私たちの生活を確実に変えることで
しょう。
しかし、
どのようにして語学のクラスで効果的に利用すれば良いでしょうか。
この調査では近年開発されたグーグルカードボードVRヘッドセットを紹介し、どのように語学タスクや教材に発展させることができるかを説明しています。
この技術の教育的利益や技術的限界についても述べています。

This paper is relevant to the theme of the 2016 PanSIG
conference, “Innovations in Education”, for two
reasons. Firstly, the Google Cardboard (Google, 2016)
virtual reality (VR) headset (henceforth referred
to as “Cardboard”) discussed in this paper is in theauthors’ opinion an educational innovation worthyof attention and investigation by EFL practitioners.
Secondly, innovation of language learning tasks andmaterials using the Cardboard was the initial idea
behind the proof of concept VR-info-gap-lesson
demonstrated in the workshop presented at PanSIG
2016 entitled “Total Immersion: VR Headsets in
Language Learning” upon which the paper is based.
The term VR loosely means any kind of computergenerated virtual environment and the hardware used
to display it to a user and allow them to manipulate
and navigate the environment. This technology,
valued for its ability to give a first-person perspective
Hastings, C., & Brunotte, J. (2017). Total immersion:
VR headsets in language learning. In G. Brooks (Ed.),The 2016 PanSIG Journal (pp. 101-110). Tokyo,
Japan: JALT.

suitable for experiential and constructivist learning,has been used to train fighter pilots (Gigante, 1993),
doctors (Seymour et al., 2002), and English language
learners ( Jung, 2002). At this point, it is important
to distinguish between immersive and non-immersive
VR (Chen, 2009). Immersive VR uses hardware
such a headset that covers a user’s eyes to fill their
entire field of vision with a virtual environment andcreate a stereoscopic 3D effect. Other hardware may
include gloves that allow the user to interact withthe virtual environment by picking up objects. In
contrast, non-immersive VR could be something as
simple as a desktop PC; the monitor displays the 3D
environment and the mouse and keyboard allow theuser to interact with it. Both of these types of VR
have been used in English language training, with
non-immersive VR such as the 3D multiuser virtualenvironment (MUVE) Second Life being the morecommon (Peterson, 2012). Immersive VR, such as
the use of the cave automatic virtual environment(CAVE) to allow learners to shop and interact withother shoppers in a virtual Wal-Mart has up until
this point not been widely adopted by educational
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Hastings & Brunotte
institutions ( Jung, 2002), because as Schwienhorst(2002) states, “high-end technology remained too
expensive, too cumbersome, or too unreliable” (p.
222). Now, Cardboard may be set to change that byoffering an immersive VR experience that is portable,
affordable and accessible. In fact, the Cardboard isalready being used in K12 institutions for general
educational purposes (Yap, 2016). In addition, weare aware of anecdotal use of Cardboard in private
language schools in Japan.
In this paper the authors aim to introduce
Cardboard to EFL teachers by describing: recent
CALL developments, advantages of using Cardboard,
applications in a lesson, considerations for material
development, and overall benefits and limitations of
the technology.

Recent Developments
Recent innovations in the hardware and software
components of virtual reality have made using thistechnology in the average classroom now possible.
Leading this effort toward low-cost VR hardware
is Google, whose recent creation of Cardboard
has allowed for the most accessible virtual reality
experience to date. Cardboard is priced at ten dollars
in the US (around one-thousand yen when soldin Japan), and as the name implies, is created from
actual cardboard, along with two lenses and an input
mechanism. Cardboard is used in conjunction withsmartphones, allowing mobile devices to supply thesoftware required. The smartphone screen divides
into two side-by-side images, resolving into one whenviewed through the Cardboard lenses, which allows
for three-dimensional pictures and video to be possible
as well (Pierce, 2016). Interacting with software isdone through the use of a push button (which taps thephone’s screen) or a magnetic slider on the side of theheadset.
If an instructor wishes to use virtual reality
in the classroom, both the hardware and software
components need to be readily available. With the
low cost of Cardboard, supplying a class with headsets
is now feasible in many situations, but because of theneed for smartphones to run the software for each
unit, students will be required to provide the bulk

102 The 2016 PanSIG Journalof these devices. But how ubiquitous is smartphoneownership in Japan? According to the Hakuhodo DY
Group (2014), over 88% of respondents in Japan aged
15 to 19 reported carrying a smartphone. It could beargued that this is a high enough threshold for the useof VR technology in many Japanese classrooms.
But which of all the applications available for
Cardboard and other headsets is most immediately
useful for the language classroom? Althoughapplications have to be chosen carefully to fit thecriteria for a particular lesson, Google Street View isfree-to-use software that lends itself well to the tasks wewill describe in this paper. Street View is a componentof Google’s global mapping effort, and features streetlevel views of cities around the world. VR support
has been added since the introduction of Cardboard
for many smartphone systems, and by using the input
component of the headset, students can move throughthe panoramic pictures as if physically moving througha space (Lopez, 2015). Many indoor locations suchas museums and other spaces are now also available
through Street View, which also lend themselves tovarious activities in the language classroom.

Advantages of this Technology
Researchers who have studied the intersection oftask-based language teaching and computer-assisted
language learning principles have argued that the“advent of technology is pushing researchers to
broaden their conceptualization of tasks” (Lai & Li,
2011, p. 9). The question should therefore be addressed
as to what aspects of virtual reality can provide real
benefits to language pedagogy, and specifically what
advantages Cardboard and Street View may hold.

Access to Real Locations
Although current language textbooks may use
information from real locations for navigation tasks,
many of these are in the form of two-dimensional
maps. One advantage of Street View is that students
experience these locations from the perspective ofa person occupying that actual space, adding animportant element of realism. This is beneficial froma pragmatics standpoint in that navigating throughVR Headsets in Language Learning, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 101-110
that space is simulating movement (and corresponding
language use) in an authentic setting. Since one goalof many instructional techniques (e.g. CLT, TBLT)
is modeling real-world language use, the first-person
perspective this technology provides is helpful for
creating a realistic experience for the student (Hood,
Elwood, & Falout, 2009).

The Immersive Nature of VR
The benefits derived from students becoming
immersed in a VR experience are richer than just simply
the novel nature of this technology. The excitement
may help motivate students to engage in a task, andadditionally, the fact that visual input is coming solely
from the VR device means fewer distractions exist
that cause students to get off task. Whether this focus
encourages increased levels of interaction and output
is an area in need of further exploration.

Preparation for Study Abroad
Another advantage exists when working with students
preparing to study abroad. One use for Cardboard
can be preparing these students for the locations they
are about to experience, virtually placing them in thespaces in which they will soon physically reside. Using
Street View to walk around a study-abroad campus
can help them prepare not only psychologically,
but practically as well. Using this technology to findimportant buildings, or even to practice navigating
the area around a homestay family’s residence has
pragmatic benefits, and could possibly reduce levels ofanxiety these students experience. One student statedto the authors following these types of preparation
activities that, “Being able to actually [virtually] walkaround there helped me feel less nervous.”

Developing Materials for Cardboard
The idea behind the workshop came from anexperiment in imagining how Cardboard might
be used in a face-to-face communicative languagetask. This was challenging, as VR user interaction iscommonly non-verbal human-computer or humanhuman interaction at a distance. Inspiration camefrom the VR game “Keep Talking and Nobody

Explodes” (n.d.). In this game, one player wearing a VR
headset tries to defuse a bomb while communicatingwith another player not wearing a VR headset who
is reading from a bomb defusal manual in the sameroom. Readers may recognize the description of thegame as a gamified information-gap task.
It soon became clear that Cardboard and Street
View would be appropriate tools to innovate an
information-gap task, such as the kind used to practicelanguage associated with directions. That is to say,instead of using two maps with small differences tocreate the information gap, one learner would use
Cardboard and try to find their way to a destination
while being guided by another learner using a 2D
map. The information gap created by the headset
and 2D map allows for meaningful oral production
and practice of language relating to giving directions.
There is also a significant “wow” factor experienced
by the user of the headset, which ideally would leadto greater task engagement and production of target
language. However, considerations such as giving
learner pre-tasks and scaffolding language were
included in an attempt to move beyond the “wow”
factor and meaningfully integrate the technology intoa pedagogically informed lesson (Murray & Barnes,2009).

Appropriate Task Type
When designing tasks for VR, it is important toconsider the differing experiences of students using aheadset and those who are not. If paired in this way(one headset user, one or multiple students using othermaterials), the input students receive can be markedly
different. Until this point, information gap tasks
have relied on differences in visual and other types ofmaterials to allow students to “engage in functional,
meaning-focused second language (L2) use and gain
access to input for learning” (Pica, Kang, & Sauro,
2006, p. 302). With the introduction of a VR headset
into this task type, a physical barrier is now placed
between what each student sees, further separating thetypes of input each student can access. We can now go
beyond simply asking students to “restore portions ofincomplete maps and charts” (Pica, et al., 2006, p. 302).
The first-person perspective information available
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Hastings & Brunotte
within Street View and the information accessible toa student viewing a 2D map can be differentiated insuch a way that each participant has to interact withthe other to complete a navigation task. There is anadded benefit that the headset user cannot glimpse
over to materials used by the partner due to the visual
separation provided by the VR experience, helping tofurther widen the “gap” necessary for this type of task.

Tasks Within the Lesson
To develop and extend the proof of concept
information-gap task, it was decided that it wasnecessary to situate the task within the context of alesson (see Appendix). This would allow the language
necessary (describing buildings for initial orientation,
giving directions and clarifying directions) for the final
communicative information-gap task using Cardboard
to be introduced to learners through other pre-tasks
that build on each other. It also serves the dual purposeof familiarizing learners with the real-world locations(e.g. the streets of London) they would experience
seeing with Cardboard and the appearance of the
2D Google maps used to guide the headset user. The
lesson was designed for a 90-minute university classwith 1st and 2nd-year English language majors inmind (specifically false beginners).
The lesson was entitled ‘Lost in the City’ andaimed to introduce and practice several functions oflanguage related to giving and following directions on
the telephone (the headset would simulate this). These
functions were chosen as they would be necessary tocomplete the final information-gap task using the
Cardboard and are common language functions,which are often taught in English language learning
textbooks. The lesson was comprised of four tasks,
including the final communicative information-gap
task that made use of Cardboard. The three tasks thatlead up to the final task repeatedly required learners to
use the language necessary for the final task, as well as
introduced the three discrete functions. To complete
the tasks, learners were required to use a variety ofreceptive and productive skills in order to maximize
retention of the target language.

104 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Considerations for Material Development
When designing materials for virtual navigation
tasks, the authors ran into several obstacles. For
example, when designing maps students use to
guide VR headset-using partners through a space,
it is helpful to narrow down the area to a small subsection within a city. The reason a large map may be
unsuitable is that the amount of detail necessary to
guide a partner using Street View is rather extensive– street names, landmarks, and other informationmust be incorporated into the 2D map. Too large an
area, or too small a level of detail will leave the student
providing direction unable to properly guide theirVR-using partner, or confuse the student as to where
his or her partner currently is within the map. Further
complicating this issue is the fact that due to lowfidelity images found within Street View, many street
names and other signage are illegible for those viewing
the VR image.

Discussion
There are various possible applications for Cardboard
in the language classroom: as an engaging way tointroduce content to prime learners for discussion
activities, as a tool to use in language learning tasks,
and as a way to reduce anxiety pre-departure to
studying abroad. Moreover, all those applications canbe achieved with just Street View. As more softwareis developed for Cardboard, the diversity of English
learning applications will increase. Some researchers(Maftoon & Taie, 2016) even predict that in the
future, whole language learning curriculums will be
VR-based.
The exciting, immersive, and affective qualities ofthe medium are what make it so suitable for education.
Our learners’ responses to the technology so far havebeen overwhelmingly positive. Here are some selected
comments from the authors’ ongoing research:“When I looked at the city, I suddenly felt I was
there. It was good to experience the atmosphere.”“It was fun!”“Walking around virtually made me feel lessnervous [about studying abroad].”However, the technology is not without its

VR Headsets in Language Learning, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 101-110
drawbacks and limitations, which teachers must also
be aware of in order to best apply Cardboard to theclassroom.

Further Considerations
Several students we have worked with reported
feelings of queasiness or motion sickness whenusing Cardboard, so a negative physical reaction bysome may be expected. In a survey we administeredfollowing a series of these VR headset activities over
several weeks, one student said, “When I put on
Cardboard I got a little dizzy and even felt a bit sick, sousing it for a long time might be difficult.”
The fragility of these low-cost headsets should
also be mentioned. Perhaps as a result of the materials
used in production, the lifespan of a single headset
is not long. Cardboard is easily broken, and having
to purchase new headsets regularly may become afinancial burden.
Another consideration in terms of monetary issues
is the necessity of students providing smartphones
for use in these headsets (a Bring Your Own Device
policy). Although we state findings that around 88%
of Japanese students carry these devices, that also
implies over one in ten students does not. How toaccommodate these students is an important factor inthis type of lesson planning.
A final consideration is sudden changes infunctionality within an application. A recent
update to Google Street View on Apple devices has
inadvertently made it impossible to move within
the maps using some headsets. Errors in software or
updates may make activities suddenly impossible toimplement, so care should be taken to retest hardware
and software compatibility often.

References
Chen, J. C. (2009). Theoretical bases for using virtual
reality in education. Themes In Science andTechnology Education, 2(1), 71-90.
Gigante, M. A. (1993). Virtual reality: Definitions,
history and applications. In R. A. Earnshaw, M.
A. Gigante, & H. Jones (Eds.), Virtual Reality
Systems (pp. 3-14). London, England: Academic

Press.
Google Cardboard. (n.d.). Retrieved July 8, 2016,
from https://vr.google.com/cardboard/
Hakuhodo DY Group, Smart Device Business Center.
(2014). Findings from analysis of the 9th surveyof 1,000 smartphone users across Japan. Press
release, (9th Survey). Retrieved from http://www.
hakuhodody-holdings.co.jp/english/news/pdf/
HDYnews20140411en.pdf
Hood, M., Elwood, J., & Falout, J. (2009). Student
attitudes toward tasked-based language teachingat Japanese universities. Asian Journal of English
Language Teaching, 19, 19-47.
Jung, H. J. (2002). Virtual reality for ESL students.
The Internet TESL Journal, 3(10). Retrieved fromhttp://iteslj.org/Articles/Jung-VR
Lai, C., Li, G. (2011). Technology and task-based
language teaching: A critical review. CALICO
Journal, 28(2), 1-24.
Lopez, N. (2015, October 12). Google Street
View adds virtual reality support. NextWeb.
Retrieved from http://thenextweb.com/
google/2015/10/12/google-street-view-addsvirtual-reality-support/
Maftoon, P., & Taie, M. (2016). Language curriculum
planning for the third millennium: A future
perspective. International Journal of English
Linguistics, 6(4), 41-51.
Murray, L., & Barnes, A. (2009). Beyond the “wow”
factor - Evaluating multimedia language learning
software from a pedagogical viewpoint. In P.
Hubbard (Ed.), Computer Assisted Language
Learning: Critical Concepts In Linguistics (pp.
379-390). Oxford, England: Routledge.
Peterson, M. (2012). EFL learner collaborativeinteraction in Second Life. ReCALL, 24(1), 2039.
Pica, T., Kang, H., & Sauro, S. (2006). Information
gap tasks: Their multiple roles and contributions
to interaction research methodology. Studies inSecond Language Acquisition, 28(2), 301-338.
Pierce, D. (2016, April 14). Inside Google’s plan
to make VR amazing for absolutely, positively
everyone. Wired Magazine. Retrieved fromhttp://www.wired.com/2016/04/google-vr-clayThe 2016 PanSIG Journal

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Hastings & Brunottebavor/
Schwienhorst, K. (2002). The states of VR: A
meta-analysis of virtual reality tools in second
language acquisition. Computer Assisted Language
Learning, 15(3), 221-239.
Seymour, N. E., Gallagher, A. G., Roman, S. A.,
O’Brien, M. K., Bansal, V. K., Andersen, D.
K., Satava RM. (2002). Virtual reality training
improves operating room performance: Resultsof a randomized, double-blinded study. Annals ofSurgery, 236(4), 458-464.
Keep talking and nobody explodes. (n.d.). Retrieved
from http://www.keeptalkinggame.com/
Yap, M. C. (2016). Google cardboard for a K12 social
studies module. Learning Design and Technology
690, Retrieved from https://scholarspace.manoa.
hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/40604/1/LTEC690-Yap-Scholarspace.05.04.16.pdf

Author’s Biographies:
Chris Hastings is an instructor at Aichi Shukutoku University, Nagoya University of Foreign
Studies, Nanzan University and Nagoya College. His main research interests are game-basedlearning and CALL. He can be reached at christopher.robert.hastings@gmail.com

Josh Brunotte is an associate professor at Aichi Prefectural University. He is currently
undertaking research in the field of CALL and the use of virtual reality in the classroom, as wellas health-related behaviors and their effect on classroom achievement. He can be reached at
JoshBrunotte@gmail.com

106 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

VR Headsets in Language Learning, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 101-110

Appendix

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

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Hastings & Brunotte

108 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

VR Headsets in Language Learning, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 101-110

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Hastings & Brunotte

110 The 2016 PanSIG JournalVocabulary Learning Using Music and Digital Devices:Classroom Research at an International SchoolPeter Silvan Ho
The College of New Jersey
peterhoashiya@gmail.com
Music class has historically been viewed as a less important subject studied in school (Paynter
2002). However, this perspective has to be revised as the recent emphasis of cross curricularteaching with all subjects increases. Concepts that are common to multiple subject areas could
be taught numerous times during each separate subject period (Wiggins & Wiggins, 1997). This
paper is based on a classroom cross-sectional observational study that describes the innovative
combination of Music and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for vocabulary
learning and deeper comprehension. Students demonstrated better understanding of vocabularycomprehension through their musical compositions. With the inclusion of digital devices, theteaching and learning are enhanced for both students and teachers.
音楽の授業はしばしば重要性の低い科目として学校で扱われている (Paynter 2002)。
しかし、
近年の複数の科目の中に共通する概念を識別することの重要性が強調される中、このような概念は改めなければならない。複数科目に共通する概念は各科目で繰り返し教えることができる(Wiggins & Wiggins, 1997)。本稿は、音楽とデジタル機器を利用した革新的な語彙学習を目的とした教室での断面観察研究に基づいています。生徒たちは音楽のサウンドスケープを通してより深い語彙認知を示しました。
デジタル機器を使用することにより、教授することと学習することが生徒と教師の両方にとって強化された。

Music class has historically been viewed as a lessimportant subject studied in school (Paynter, 2002).
Paynter (2002), reports: “Time was when we were
content to accept music as a relaxation from therigours of seemingly more demanding subjects. Paynter(2002) further states this reason to study music is
not acceptable in today’s curriculum. Curriculum
approaches are moving away from acquiringknowledge as an education towards an applicationof knowledge with critical thinking skills while
collaborating with others. This paper is not justifying
Music in the curriculum but as evidence for its use in a

multifaceted approach towards teaching and learningand the openness to use different technologies tofacilitate vocabulary learning in students.
The positive effects of cross-curricular teaching
and learning are entering education curriculums.
Students need to use different methods of thinking tobe successful in their endeavours and for substantial
learning to occur. (Kerry, 2010). Kerry (2010) remarksthat integrated learning styles of each student can be
met and the need to make connections in learning canalso be made. Teachers and “stakeholders” in Northern
Ireland, reported positive effects towards’s revised
curriculum changes towards cross-curricular teaching

Ho, P. S. (2017). Vocabulary learning using music anddigital devices: Classroom research at an international
school. In G. Brooks (Ed.), The 2016 PanSIG Journal(pp. 111-116). Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

(Greenwood, 2013),
Information and Communications Technology(ICT) is a term that refers to all equipment,(computers, mobile phones, tablets etc.) applications
The 2016 PanSIG Journal

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Ho
and services that involve communication. ICT inmusic education is growing and changing musicteaching in classrooms. When ICT is incorporated
in student learning, students engagement andmotivation increases (Savage, 2007). Andrew Mercer(2008) writes that ICT is well represented in manymusic education institutions around the worldfrom the U.K., Canada, U.S., and Scotland (Mercer,2008). Case studies implementing ICT in the Music
classroom from pre-school to high school have been
published, demonstrating their research findings as
positive and well received by students. (Crawford,
2009; Panagiotakou & Pange, 2010; Savage, 2012;
Southcott & Crawford, 2011).
Comparatively to Music, ICT has already beenused extensively in teaching second language learners.
For them, learning vocabulary and being able to usethem properly are one of the basic blocks of English
sentences (Chen & Chung, 2008). Also, students are
expecting ICT to be a part of the learning and haveshown positive attitudes towards using them (Ali,
Mukundan, Baki, & Ayub, 2012).
A study by Yeh and Wang (2003), investigatedthe effects of using multimedia devices and addressing
different learning styles of students. Their data revealed
that most participants benefited from using them andwas generally effective in learning new vocabulary(Yeh & Wang, 2003).
In general, there is increased use of ICT in Music
education and teaching for multi-language learners.
For international schools this has been a growing
reality for many teachers. Teachers are strongly
encouraged to incorporate ICT into their lessons to
be more effective teachers.
The questions that were asked in this researchstudy were, would Music be effective for elementary
students in enhancing vocabulary learning. If so,then would there be any difference in demonstrating
their learning between using real instruments ordigital instruments. The influence that emerges fromthese answers would change the perception of Music
as a subject and also increase the practice of crosscurricular teaching for students.

Participants
Three different classes were used for the purpose ofthis classroom research. Each class was a Year fiveclass from three different school years. Each class had
on average 17 students and was a mix of students ofvarying English abilities, including some ESL students.
For this study, the groups are named 2014, 2015, 2016
respectively.
The Music Specialist teacher for this school and theYear 5 classroom teacher were the educators involved
for cross-curricular teaching with the researcher being
the Music Specialist teacher.

Activity Description
Outer space was the common topic between the Musicand Topic subjects. Recognizing this cross-curricular
opportunity, the Music specialist teacher and the Year
5 class teacher worked together to enrich the learningof outer space. In their Year five classrooms, students
were learning about planets, Greek mythology, stars,
the solar system, astrology etc. The vocabulary in thisTopic was generally science based words such as: axis,
rotation, observation, investigation, galaxy, whitedwarf, etc.
The Music activity was called Planetary Moods
and is based on Gustav Holst’s orchestral suite, The
Planets. In The Planets, each movement was named
after a planet and corresponding astrological character.
In the activity, students are given a fictional planetwith particular characteristics and they are to compose
a soundscape that would portray their planet. A
soundscape is a combination of sounds that creates thesensation of experiencing a particular environment.
These planet characteristics are the vocabulary that isbeing studied and measured in this paper. The musicalobjectives were to compose a soundscape and explore
the timbre of different instruments. This activity
was 20-25 minutes once a week over seven weeks.
At the end of the unit, the students perform theircompositions for their classmates, teacher and parents.

Materials
The first two groups used real instruments to compose
their soundscapes while the last group were given

112 The 2016 PanSIG JournalVocabulary Learning Using Music and Digital Devices, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 111-116
iPads. Most of the instruments used were rhythm
sticks, tambourines, hand drums, sand blocks, wrist
bells, claves and shakers. Other instruments included
xylophones, glockenspiels and hand-bells. The
software application Garageband was used to compose
their soundscapes on the iPads.

MethodEach class was given the same method of instructions
and introduction to the activity as follows. In every
lesson, students listened to one movement from The
Planets and then discussed the music as it related to
the name of the planet. The names of the planet werealso discussed, reinforcing class learning of Greek
mythology and astrology. Only in the first lesson
when the activity was introduced, students wererandomly grouped together and would work in thesegroups for the entire unit. Then, six fictional planets
were assigned randomly to each group.
The planets characteristics are:
1. Calm and peaceful
2. Stormy and wild
3. Hot and fiery
4. Cold and icy
5. Desolate and bleak
6. Eerie and spooky
Performing and working in a group is a key
skill for their musical development and also was an
approach for each member to understand their planet’s
characteristics collectively. Students collaborated
in their groups to identify sounds to fit their planet
characteristics. Students were given flexibility to learn
any new vocabulary. They may consult the specialist
teacher and/or find images from the Internet. Then,
students choose instruments and if necessary, receive
assistance from the teacher. Next, students composed
and practiced their soundscapes for a performance.
Students using iPads had to learn how to use
Garageband and how to set up a “Jam Session”. A “Jam
Session” is a function of Garageband, which allows thestudents to connect with several iPads and record theirsounds onto one iPad. . The specialist teacher was alsoavailable to assist students using the iPads. From here,
they composed and created a soundscape digitally on
the iPad. The finished composition was played backfor a performance and follow up discussions withthe group and individual was made for individual
assessment.

Criteria for Vocabulary
Understanding
Students were required to understand thewords associated with their planet and use goodunderstanding of musical elements. The applicationof this knowledge through a good soundscape would
adequately demonstrate vocabulary understanding
and music understanding.
This assessment was a combination of a rubric andformative assessments of the group work (see Table 1).
There are three categories of assessment were emerging,developing and mastering.

Results and Analysis
The researcher analyzed each soundscape in eachyear group (see Table 2). All of the soundscapes,
demonstrated at least a developing level ofunderstanding of the vocabulary words. However,in comparing real instruments and iPad madesoundscapes, most of the students using iPads
composed a better understanding of the planet
characteristics through their final composition. 4
out of six groups using iPads, clearly composed amastered level soundscape. For the students using
real instruments, 5 out of 11 groups performed adeveloping level soundscape.
There were interesting observations that areimportant for this study. Firstly, most of the vocabulary
to describe the fictional planets would have been learnt
for a Year 5 student as compared to the vocabulary
learnt in the Topic subject. Therefore, groups withpreviously learnt vocabulary, real instruments or
iPad groups, began their compositions during thefirst lesson. For the other groups, explanation ofthese meanings were required. The teacher provided
pictures and other examples of music to help convey
the meaning of their vocabulary. Essentially, thesegroups had less time to compose their soundscapes.
The effectiveness of Music to teach vocabulary would
be better studied if all planet characteristics were
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Ho
Table 1
Rubrics of Assessment Grades
Emerging

Developing

Mastering

Vocabulary Criteria• Composition portrays
some basic relation to
the vocabulary meaning

Music Criteria• A variety of sounds used • A variety of sounds used
• Few sounds are used
• Tempo is steady• Tempo changes occur• Tempo is erratic• Loud or soft sounds used throughout composition appropriately and with• Soft, loud sounds used
control
only
appropriately• Soft, loud, crescendos and• Rhythms are simple and• Rhythmic patterns are
decrescendos usedplayed imprecisely
used and maintained with • Complex rhythm used
• Overall composition
controland played with control
performed with little
structure, confidence and • Overall composition is • Overall composition
purposeperformed with structure is performed withand purpose
confidence and purpose• Composition is related • Composition is related
mostly to the vocabulary
mostly to the vocabulary
meaningmeaning and also
contains nuances of the
vocabulary meaning

Table 2
Grades Assessed to the SoundscapesYear Group

Calm andpeaceful

Stormyand wild

Hot and fiery

Cold and icy

Desolateand bleak2014

No group

2015
2016

masteredmastereddeveloping

developing

developing

masteredmastereddeveloping

masteredmastereddeveloping

developing

masteredmastereddeveloping

masteredmasteredsimilar in their difficulty level for a Year 5 student andall groups had the same assistance given by the teacher
or other resources.
Secondly, students using real instruments, spent
most of the activity time exploring different sounds ofan instrument and then deciding what sounds to use.
Although this is a meaningful part of composition,
there would not be enough time to complete theactivity. The teacher would assist these students intheir decision process through guided questions. The
sounds that could be chosen from the Garageband
application were less numerous and easier to choose.
This also affected the research, as the teacher would
endeavor to have the same amount of time given to allgroups in composing their soundscape.

114 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Eerie andspookyThirdly, students using real instruments had
to contend with physical skills needed to play the
instruments and generate the sound they wanted intheir compositions. Additional time was needed for agroup to play cohesively and with the musical elementsthat they wanted in their compositions. Therefore,
students may not have been skilled enough yet to playthe instruments as composed to fully demonstrate
their understanding of their planet’s characteristics.
Students using iPads did not have similar
struggles as the real instrument groups. The software
itself automatically performed tempo and timbre
musical elements. Students only needed to choose an
instrument and then rhythmically input these sounds
into their compositions. They could devote more

Vocabulary Learning Using Music and Digital Devices, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 111-116
attention towards the content of the composition andconsequently received immediate feedback in theircomposition. This was very important for students asthey could build momentum in their understanding
and make changes to create a good soundscape. The
largest obstacles for these students were technicaldifficulties, network connectivity and generally
needed time to explore the capabilities of Garageband.
The two groups in 2016 at the developing stage,
had an understanding of their planet characteristics
but had difficulties working with iPads. These groups
were not as proficient using an iPad or Garageband
and were delayed in their compositions. There were
network difficulties where their iPads and could notconnect together in the “Jam Sessions”. Often thegroups would not be able to place their sounds exactly
where they wanted in their composition nor compile
different parts together in the software. These groups
were delayed and prevented them from creating thecomposition they fully envisioned. For future studies,
experience with using iPads and Garageband is needed
to improve student efficacy and ensuring the classroom
has sufficient Internet and networking capabilities
to connect iPads would generate more success in thecompositions.

Conclusion
The first research question of whether Music iseffective in enhancing vocabulary learning, is apositive one. Students have demonstrated that using
a musical medium to apply their understanding of
new vocabulary is possible. For the second researchcomparative question, students benefited more fromutilizing digital devices than real instruments in thisactivity.
There were distinct differences between the sounds
composed by real instruments and digital devices.
With the digital compositions, the quality of sounds
chosen and combined were much higher than thereal instrument compositions. Musically, the digitalcompositions were always in tune and synchronicity.
Real instrument compositions were dependent on
the playing skills of the students and used classroom
instruments. Therefore, students with iPads produced
rich sounding, better quality compositions toportray their planet and were able to apply theirunderstanding of the words they were given. Students
with real instruments, may have had the same levelof understanding, but could not apply it as well. In
addition, the use of digital devices meant that theirwork was recorded, saved and ready to be manipulated
immediately for the next practice, or lesson. Students
with real instruments did not have that same benefit.
The implications for this activity are various
nuances of vocabulary could be better taught throughmusic and imagery. Students are engaged throughout
the learning process and are creating a context to apply
new vocabulary that includes an emotional response.

Suggestions for Non-Musical
Educators
Non-musical educators are encouraged to use thisactivity in their classrooms to teach vocabulary to theirstudents. This is a practical and realistic experience forstudents that will provide a good platform to learn
new vocabulary. This space theme is an example, as
educators are encouraged to adapt the activity to theirclassroom. Composing a soundscape individuallyis possible with a digital device as well as assessing
individual learning. Learners can focus on the meaning
and application of a work because their digital device
would automatically do some Musical skills. It is also
encouraged that educators are familiar themselveswith the particular software and hardware issues of theclassroom. Also, educators will need to plan out how
much time can be taken for this activity. Finally, theircompositions need to be performed to give closure to
their work and share the learning.

References
Ali, Z., Mukundan, J., Baki, R., & Ayub, A. F. M.
(2012). Second language learners’ attitudes
towards the methods of learning vocabulary.
English Language Teaching, 5(4), 24–36. http://
doi.org/10.5539/elt.v5n4p24
Chen, C.-M., & Chung, C.-J. (2008). Personalized
mobile English vocabulary learning system basedon item response theory and learning memory
cycle. Computers & Education. 51,(2). 624-645.
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http://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2007.06.011
Crawford, R. (2009). Secondary school musiceducation: A case study in adapting to ICT
resource limitations. Australasian Journal of
Educational Technology, 25(4), 471–488.
Greenwood, R. (2013). Subject-based and crosscurricular approaches within the revised primary
curriculum in Northern Ireland: teachers’
concerns and preferred approaches. Education
3-13, 41(4), 443–458. http://doi.org/10.1080/0
3004279.2013.819618
Kerry, T. (2010). Cross-curricular teaching in
the primary school: Planning and facilitating
imaginative lessons. New York, NY: Routledge.
http://doi.org/10.4324/9780203840276
Mercer, A. (2008). ICT in Music Education: 2008
ISME Conference. Canadian Music Education /Musicien Educateur Au Canada, 50(1), 48.
Panagiotakou, C., & Pange, J. (2010). The use of
ICT in preschool music education. Social and
Behavioral Sciences, 2(2), 3055–3059. http://doi.
org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.03.464
Paynter, J. (2002). Music in the school curriculum:
why bother? British Journal of Music Education,

19(3), 215–226. http://doi.org/10.1017/
S0265051702000311
Savage, J. (2007). Reconstructing music education
through ICT. Research in Education,
78(1), 65–78. Retrieved from http://www.
ingentaconnect.com/content/manup/rie/2007/00000078/00000001/art00005
Savage, J. (2012). Moving beyond subject boundaries:
Four case studies of cross-curricular pedagogy
in secondary schools. International Journal of
Educational Research, 55, 79–88. http://doi.
org/10.1016/j.ijer.2012.07.004
Southcott, J., & Crawford, R. (2011). Theintersections of curriculum development:
Music, ICT and Australian music education.
Australasian Journal of Educational Technology,27(1), 122–136.
Wiggins, R., & Wiggins, J. (1997). Integrating
through Conceptual Connections. Music
Educators Journal, 83(4), 38–41.
Yeh, Y., & Wang, C. (2003). Effects of multimedia
vocabulary annotations and learning styles on
vocabulary learning. CALICO Journal, 21(1),131–144.

Author’s Biography:Peter Silvan Ho works as a specialist teacher of physical education and music at St. Michael’s
International School. He is motivated in using ICT in the classroom and is currently interested
in longitudinal classroom research and student development. He can be contacted at:
peterhoashiya@gmail.com

116 The 2016 PanSIG JournalAvoidance of Evaluative Responses in EFL Classroom
Ritsuko Izutani
Osaka University
rizutani@gmail.com
EFL teachers’ explicit positive assessment (EPA) of EFL students may inhibit learning (Waring,2008). According to Waring, EPAs signal or infer the closure of a turn-taking sequence, and so
it is crucial to investigate whether task-specific use of EPA promotes or inhibits learning. This
study examines the ways in which an EFL teacher provides learning opportunities to learners
without EPA. Through a detailed analysis of classroom interactions in a Japanese junior highschool EFL classroom, the study demonstrates how a teacher succeeds in co-constructing learning
opportunities with students by utilizing television to display questions and answers and thus
positioning herself as a navigator for her students.
EFL教師の明示的な肯定評価(EPA)は学習を妨げる可能性がある(Waring, 2008)。WaringによればEPAは順番交代の連鎖の終了の合図や示唆となるため、タスク固有のEPA使用が学習を促進するのか妨げるのかを調べることは重要である。本研究はEFL教師がEPAを用いずに学習
機会を学習者に提供する方法を検討する。日本の中学校でのEFL教室における教室相互行為を詳細に分析することで、本研究は教師がテレビを質問や回答の提示に使用することにより学習者と学習機会を共同構築し、自らを学生たちのナビゲーターとして位置付けている方法を提示する。

In Japanese public junior high school, teachers must
use the appointed grammar-centered textbooks
following the guidelines of Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports and Science Technology (MEXT).
Additionally, they must make term tests according
to those textbooks. As a result, the syllabi of English
lessons in junior high school are grammar centered.
This leads to difficulty for teachers to cultivatecompetence of students for interaction in English witha grammar-centered syllabus, textbooks, and exams
because constant assessment needs to be done in thissort of learning environment.
In language classrooms, it is said that one-thirdof all teachers’ moves is “rating,” which means when
they are “replying” to students, teachers are not truly
replying—they are evaluating. According to van
Lier (1996), “the student’s response is hemmed in,squeezed between a demand to display knowledge
and a judgment on its competence”(p.151). Thereare cases where even positive assessments suppress
opportunities for voicing (Waring, 2008). As a result,assessment may lead to a passive attitude of learners
that teachers always possess correct answers, andall learners should do is to wait for the answers to
be displayed. In that case, is there any way that EFL
teachers can co-construct learning opportunities withlearners without assessing their answers?
There are a number of L2 classroom discourse
studies (Bushnell, 2008; He,2004; Hellermann,
2007, 2008; Ingram & Elliott, 2014; Käänta, 2015;
Markee, 2015; Mori, 2002, 2004; Seedhouse, 2004;
Walsh, 2013; Wong & Waring, 2009). Among them
are studies on assessments of the third position ofturn-taking in teaching, including Seedhouse andIzutani, R. (2017). Avoidance of evaluative responses in
EFL classroom. In G. Brooks (Ed.), The 2016 PanSIG
Journal (pp. 117-125). Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

Supakorn (2015); Kasper (2013), who interviewed
oral proficiency test takers; and Waring’s (2008)
turn-taking sequence. These studies are in either thetarget language environment between English native
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Izutani
speaking (NS) teachers and non-native (NNS) learners
or in the EFL environment between NS teachers and
NNS university-level learners. However, there are notmany studies on EFL classroom interactions between
an NNS teacher and NNS students in elementaryor junior high school. For example, Ishino (2016)
describes a Japanese teacher’s practical knowledge inEnglish lessons at a public Japanese junior high school.
In Japan and other EFL countries, English education
starts at a much younger age between elementary or
junior high school, Therefore, this study examined thefollowing research questions:
1. How do Japanese teachers co-construct learning
opportunities without assessing students’ answers
or initiating repairs in EFL classrooms withJapanese junior high students?
2. How do they position themselves as facilitators ornavigators rather than assessors?
In this research “co-construct” refers to joint
verbal actions between a teacher and students ofcreating conversational sequence. “Assessing students’answers” refers to evaluative responses to students’answer in conversational sequences in the classroom,
not to grade students with tests or exams. Additionally,
the term “facilitator” is defined as a role to explicitly
display relevant knowledge and help students
understand correct answers while “navigator” as theone to implicitly guide them through complicatedEnglish grammar knowledge.

Methods
Research design
For the research design framework, the following
points were taken into consideration: study purpose,
perspective, data source, sampling, participants,
relation, relevant position, prior knowledge, analytic
method, and ethics. The overall purpose of the study
is to develop an understanding of interactional
competence in second language classrooms. The
perspective is that of constructionists. The data
source is naturally occurring conversations in an EFL
classroom, and data sampling type is ideal-typical,
which will be explained in the following section ofdata. Participants are an EFL teacher and her students

118 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

engaging in question-answer activities. The relation
between the teacher and the researcher is that of
ex-colleagues with the same national background.
A relevant position is that this class is frequently
observed by professional teachers. The researcher hasprior knowledge of the language lessons for junior highschool students from thirteen years’ experience as an
EFL tutor for elementary, junior high, and high school
students and four years’ education at graduate school
specializing in teacher education in Japan. For analytic
methods, I use conversation analysis (CA) (the CA
transcription convention is shown in the Appendix).
As for ethics, an informed consent agreement was
signed and exchanged between the researcher and theteacher.

Data
The data are a video recording of an English lessonof some Japanese junior high school class conductedin both English and Japanese. For the purpose of thestudy, lessons rich in interaction between teachers andstudents were necessary. This particular teacher waschosen as the researcher based on her microteaching,which produces much interaction. She has 13 years’
experience in English teaching at a Japanese juniorhigh school and agreed to cooperate with the research.
The class consisted of 28 Japanese students in thesecond grade with a Japanese homeroom teacher. In
Japan, one homeroom teacher, who is in charge of
only one class and responsible for his/her students,
is appointed to each class. Homeroom teachers haveshort meetings at the beginning and end of the day
and even meet parents to gain some knowledge about
the home environments of their students.
The duration of the video data is 52 minutes. It wasrecorded with two cameras in November 2015. One
camera was set at the back of the classroom to record
the movement of the teacher, and the other camera
was set in the back right corner of the classroom on
top of the tall closet to obtain a bird’s eye view of the
movement of students.
The verbal behaviors of the teacher and students
were transcribed in detail by the researcher according
to CA conventions (Appendix). Further, non-verbal
behaviors were transcribed if they were relevant to theAvoidance of Evaluative Responses in EFL Classroom, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 117-125
analysis.

Lesson Context
The class starts with routine greetings. The teacher
subsequently walks around the classroom to check
students’ homework, which is a translation of one
section from their textbook (Figure 1) and the answers
to comprehension questions. While checking, amonitor in the front left corner of the room reads
the correct Japanese translation so that students cancompare their answers with the correct ones. Students
repeat the original English sentences of this section
from the monitor after the teacher. Following thesepractices, the teacher lets students read the samesentences in pairs before starting the question andanswer activity (Figure 2).
Teaching flow is as follows: 1) During the firstquestion and answer activity, it is clarified that when aquestion is asked with “is,” the answer to the question
should be answered with “is.” 2) During the second
question and answer activity, it is clarified that whena question is asked with the “how many + noun+verb” pattern, the answer to the question should beanswered with the “number + noun + verb” pattern.
This study focuses on interactions between the teacher
and students during the second question and answer
activity.

Figure 1. A selection from the textbook.

Figure 2. Questions for the question and answer activity.

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Izutani

Results
Co-construction of Learning Opportunities
By withholding the display of the correct answer, theteacher waits and invites other answers. This implies
that the answers are not one hundred percent correct(Figure 3).
In line 638, a student (SA), with a hesitation mark“e::to” (=well), reads his answer to the question “Howmany people live in Midori City?” He starts with “it’s,”which is grammatically incorrect and includes number“suri::sauzando” (=three thousand). The teacher(T) does not assess his answer; however, she merely
displays acknowledgement by repeating his answer(line 639) and nodding (line 640). Immediately, sheshifts her gaze to SB and calls his name “Hashida(pseudonym) ku:n” (line 640). SB understands thiscall as allocation of his turn and answers using “it’s”
and the number “three thousand” (line 641). T does
not assess his answer either but only acknowledges
the situation by repeating and offers the next turnto the next student (SC) by calling his name “So(pseudonym)-kun” explicitly with “do:zo”(=please)(line 642). After SC answers without “it’s” and with
the number “three thousand “(line 643), T accepts
his answer with “oka:y” and explicitly asks for otherFigure 3. Teacher withholds the correct answer.

Figure 4. Teacher divides answers into two categories.

120 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

answers by “hokano kotae no hito imasuka” (=Are there
anyone with different answers?) (line 644).
The teacher divides students’ answers into two
categories (Figure 4); thus, the teacher and students
co-construct opportunity learning for the difference
between grammatically correct answers and somewhat
meaningful and convenient answers.
In line 645, another student (SD) volunteers
to offer her answer with “hei” (=yes). T quickly
accepts this offer with “hai” (=yes), “ja” (=then) andallocates the next turn to SD with “do:zo”(=please)(line 646). SD reads her answer on the subject “about
three thousand foreign people,” the verb “live,” andpropositional clause “in Midori city” (line 647). In
line 648, T repeats SD’s answer with the emphasis on
the subject and “ah” at the beginning. However, as in
Figure 3, T does not assess her answer. An unidentified
student affiliates SD’s answer (line 649), and anotherunidentified student suggests the pronoun “there” inplace of “in Midori City” (line 650). In line 651, T
divides students’ answers produced so far into two
categories: “it’s de kotaeteiru hito” (=those who answer
with it’s) and “Yasaka-san ba:jon” (=Miss Yasaka’s
version).

Avoidance of Evaluative Responses in EFL Classroom, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 117-125

Positioning as Facilitators or Navigators
By using the monitor as a tool to display the correct
answer (Figure 5), the teacher differentiates theformal assessment from her own and therefore avoids
positioning herself as an assessor.
In line 654, T dramatically demonstrates thecorrect answer on the monitor with 1.2 secondsof silence and the interjection “ja ja:n” (=Ta-dah).

Without interval, SD sees the screen and shouts“yossha:i” (=Got it) (line 655), which shows that her
answer corresponds with the answer on the monitor.
In line 656 and 657, the monitor sounds the correct
answer and the unidentified student shouts quietly“ye::i” (=Yeah) (line 658).
Moreover, by co-constructing a scale ofoccasioned correctness1 (Figure 6 and Figure 7) and

Figure 5. Teacher uses the monitor to display the correct answer.

Figure 6. Teacher creates the scale of correctness 1.

Figure 7. Teacher creates the scale of correctness 2.

The 2016 PanSIG Journal121

Izutani
letting students follow the route of learning, theteacher positions herself as a navigator rather than afacilitator. The term “facilitator” indicates a positive
attitude of helping students produce correct answers
by explicitly showing relevant knowledge, while theterm ‘navigator’ indicates the disposition of giving
learners opportunities to produce their own answers
by navigating their way through complicated (forJapanese) English grammar forests.
In line 666, T slowly explains that the question
does not ask “kazu wa nandesuka” (=what is thenumber), following a silence of 0.7 seconds (line667); however, T does ask “nannin no gaikokujinnga” (=how many foreign people) “live in Midori
City” (line 668). Three unidentified students seem torespond to her utterance with “kangaete mi” (=think
about it) (line 672), “three thousand dakedo mo:”(=although it is three thousand) (line 674). Fromline 675 to 677, T confirms the most necessary partsof the answer with students by repeating “ichiban” (=the most) (line 675) “kotae naakanno”(=necessary
to answer) (line 675, 676) twice and pointing to theanswer on the display with “kore”(=this) and saying“zettai” (=absolutely).
In 679, T uses “ichiban” (=the most) again and“pa:fekuto na” (=perfect) “nagasa” (=length) to
explain the correct grammatical structure of theanswer. T switches codes from Japanese to English
and from English to Japanese to demonstrate theoriginal question “nannin no hito ga” (=how many
people), “live in” and “desuka” (=indicating questionform) (line 680). T demonstrates the correct answer,
nonetheless, and never says anything to reject either
category of answers in line 651. Therefore, it seems
that the scale of correctness is created here with which

Figure 8. Teacher affiliates with second category.

122 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

students can evaluate their answers.
Moreover, she affiliates herself with the second
category of students’ answers (Figure 8).
In line 660, T says quickly, “it’s de kotaetaku
naruyone” (=I would like to answer with it’s), andin line 664, T repeat its with a change at the end“narunnda kedo::” (=would like to do it but). With
them, T both displays affiliation with the second
category and implies negation of it at the same time.

Discussion
For the present study, two research questions wereposed. Regarding the first one (How do Japaneseteachers co-construct learning opportunities
without assessing answers or initiating repairs in EFL
classrooms with Japanese junior high students?), in
the previous section of the study results, I showedthat the teacher skillfully avoids assessing students’answers, invites various answers, divides them into two
categories, and makes the scale of correctness.
Regarding the second query (How do they
position themselves as facilitators or navigators rather
than assessors?), the teacher displays affiliation withthe students’ grammatically incorrect answers, which
she puts in the second category. Displaying affiliation
with the second category means disaffiliation withthe monitor, which sounds like the formal, rigid,
grammatically correct answer. The monitor soundis made using a CD, a supplementary material of
the textbook appointed by MEXT. Therefore, thepedagogical focus of this particular lesson is onteaching the “number + noun + verb” pattern to thequestion “how many + noun+ verb” pattern. However,by showing affiliation to the second category, which
seemingly does not match the pedagogical goal, theAvoidance of Evaluative Responses in EFL Classroom, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 117-125
teacher admits that the responses of students using“it’s” is “natural” and understandable. Therefore,
the scale of correctness created here turns absolute“correctness” into “occasioned correctness” inherent toa grammar-centered language classroom.

Conclusion
In this study, the focus was on how the teacher
succeeds in co-constructing learning opportunities
and positing herself as a facilitator or navigator rather
than an assessor. I mentioned at the beginning of thispaper, assessment may lead to a passive attitude among
learners that teachers always possess correct answers.
The results indicated that a teacher overcomes thiscontroversial situation by inviting several answers,
dividing them into different categories, displaying
affiliation to both categories, and allowing somelatitude concerning the correctness. The findings ofthis study suggest that continuing analysis on EFL
classroom interactions would help EFL teachers foster
positive attitudes of their students and allow them tobetter understand the importance of a role of teachers
as navigators.

Notes
1. I owe this point to my discussion with Yusuke
Okada.

References
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language classroom. Applied Linguistics, 30(1),49-69.
He, A.W. (2004). CA for SLA: Arguments from the
Chinese language classroom. Modern Language
Journal, 88(4), 568-582.
Hellermann, J. (2007). The development of practices
for action in classroom dyadic interaction: Focus
on task openings. Modern Language Journal,
91(1). 83-96.
Hellermann, J. (2008). Social actions for classroom
language learning. Clevedon, England:
Multilingual Matters.
Ingram, J., & Elliott, V. (2014). Turn taking and‘wait time’ in classroom interactions. Journal of
Pragmatics, 62. 1-12.
Ishino, M. (2016). Describing a teacher’s practicalknowledge using conversation analysis. Japan
Journal of Educational Technology, 40(1).13-22
Käänta, L. (2015). The multimodal organization ofteacher-led classroom interaction. In C. Jenks& P. Seedhouse (Eds.), International perspectives
on ELT classroom interaction (pp.64-83).
Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan.
Kasper, G. (2013). Managing task uptake in oral
proficiency interviews. In S. Ross & G. Kasper(Eds.), Assessing second language pragmatics(pp.258-287). Basingstoke, England: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Markee, N. (2015). Giving and following pedagogicalinstructions in task-based instruction: An
ethnomethodological perspective. In C. Jenks& P. Seedhouse (Eds.), International perspectives
on ELT classroom interaction (pp.110-128).
Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan.
Mori, J. (2002). Task design, plan, and developmentof talk-in-interaction: An analysis of a small
group activity in a Japanese language classroom.
Applied Linguistics, 23(3), 323-347.
Mori, J. (2004). Negotiating sequential boundaries
and learning opportunities: A case from aJapanese language classroom. The Modern
Language Journal, 88(4), 536-550.
Richards, K. (2006). ‘Being the teacher’: Identity andclassroom conversation, Applied linguistics, 27(1),51-77.
Roulston, K. (2010). Reflective interviewing: A guideto theory & practice. London, England: Sage.
Seedhouse, P. (2004). The interactional architectureof the language classroom: A conversation analysis
perspective. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Seedhouse, P., & Supakorn, S. (2015). Topic-as-script
and topic-as-action in language assessment andteaching. Applied Linguistics Review, 6(3), 393413. doi: 10.1515/applirev-2015-0018
van Lier, L. (1996). Interaction in the language
curriculum: Awareness, autonomy andauthenticity. London, England: Longman.
Walsh, S. (2013). Classroom discourse and teacher
The 2016 PanSIG Journal123

Izutanidevelopment. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh
University Press.
Waring, H. Z. (2008). Using explicit positive
assessment in the language classroom: IRF,

feedback, and learning opportunities. The
Modern Language Journal, 92(4), 577-594.
Wong, J., & Waring, H.Z. (2009). ‘Very good’ as ateacher response. ELT Journal, 63(3), 195-203.

Author’s Biography:
Ritsuko Izutani is a PhD candidate of Osaka University, graduate school of Language andCulture. Her research interests are EFL classroom interaction, applied conversation analysis,
discourse analysis, dialogism, and activity theory. Further information about her research can befound at https://sites.google.com/site/ritsukoizutanishomepage/

124 The 2016 PanSIG JournalAvoidance of Evaluative Responses in EFL Classroom, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 117-125

Appendix
Transcript Notations[

Overlapping utterances(2.0)

Timed silence within or between adjacent utterances()

An uncertain hearing of what the speaker said(( ))Scenic description and accounts(.)

A short, untimed pause=

Latching that indicates no interval between adjacent utterances.

Falling intonation (e.g., sentence final)°°

Quieter than surrounding talk££Utterance fringed with laugh:Prolonged stretch＿

Stressed syllable↑↓

Marked change in pitch: Upward or downward<>

Utterance is delivered at a slower pace than surrounding talk><Utterance is delivered at a quicker pace than surrounding talk/Phenomenon occurred simultaneously

ItalicizedUtterance in Japanese

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

125

Lexical Coverage of the TOEIC
Masaya Kanzaki
Kanda University of International Studies
kanzaki-m@kanda.kuis.ac.jp
This study investigated vocabulary coverage of the Test of English for International Communication(TOEIC) to determine how much vocabulary is needed to understand 90%, 95%, and 98% of
the words used in the TOEIC Listening and Reading test. Using the Range program (Nation& Heatley, 2002) with Nation’s (2012) British National Corpus and Corpus of Contemporary
American English word family lists, 328,186 running words from 34 TOEIC practice tests
created by the Educational Testing Service, the developer of the TOEIC, and published in Japanor South Korea between 2005 and 2014 were analyzed. The results showed that the first 2,000
word families plus proper nouns (PNs), marginal words (MWs), transparent compounds (TCs),
and abbreviations (ABs) provided 91.52% coverage, the first 3,000 word families plus PNs, MWs,
TCs, and ABs provided 96.79% coverage, and the first 4,000 word families plus PNs, MWs, TCs,
and ABs provided 98.24% coverage.
本研究では、Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC)のリスニング・リー
ディングテストにおいて使用されている90%、95%、98%の単語を理解するために必要な語彙量を探るため、TOEICの語彙カバー率を調べた。Nation (2012)のBritish National Corpus とCorpus of Contemporary American Englishのワードファミリーリストと共にRangeプログラム(Nation & Heatley, 2002)を使い、日本と韓国で2005年から2014年の間に出版されたTOEICの開発元のであるEducational Testing Serviceが作った34のTOEIC練習テスト中の328,186
語の分析を行った。研究結果は、初めの2,000語（ワードファミリー換算）と固有名詞（PNs）、重要でない語（MWs）、明らかな複合語（TCs）、
そして略語（ABs）
では、91.52%のカバー率、初めの3,000語（ワードファミリー換算）とPNs、MWs、TCs、ABsでは、96.79%のカバー率、初めの4,000語（ワードファミリー換算）とPNs、MWs、TCs、ABsでは、98.24%のカバー率になることを示した。

According to the Institute for International BusinessCommunication (2016), the administrator of all
Test of English for International Communication(TOEIC) programs in Japan, 2,556,000 people
took the TOEIC Listening and Reading test in the
country in 2015. Since the TOEIC attracts such alarge number of test-takers in Japan, investigating the
vocabulary demands of the test is worthwhile witha view to helping leaners who are preparing for the
TOEIC to set vocabulary learning goals.
Kanzaki, M. (2017). Lexical coverage of the TOEIC.
In G. Brooks (Ed.), The 2016 PanSIG Journal (pp.
126-133). Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

126 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Some studies that investigated how much
vocabulary is needed for comprehension of a language
have suggested that 95% or 98% coverage is required(i.e., learners need to know 95% or 98% of the words
in a text to understand it). For example, Laufer (1989)
suggested that 95% coverage is needed for reasonablereading comprehension of an academic text; Hirsh
and Nation (1992) suggested that 98% coverage isnecessary for reading novels for pleasure; Hu andNation (2000) suggested that 98% coverage is needed
to understand a fiction text. The figures of 95% and
98% have been widely accepted as the benchmarks for
lexical coverage required for comprehension, above
which reasonable or adequate comprehension can beLexical Coverage of the TOEIC, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 126-133
achieved, and some studies that examined necessary
vocabulary size for understanding a certain text used
one or both of them (e.g., Chujo, 2004; Nation, 2006;
Chujo & Oghigian, 2009; Webb & Rodgers, 2009a,
2009b; Kaneko, 2013).
In terms of setting vocabulary goals for those
preparing for the TOEIC, adding another benchmarkthat is lower than the widely accepted 95% coverage
would be helpful since leaners have different levels ofEnglish ability and different target TOEIC scores;
aiming for 95% coverage might be too ambitious forsome learners and a lower coverage may be sufficient,
depending on the target score. Therefore, this study
includes 90% coverage as a benchmark in addition to
95% and 98%. The figure of 90% was used becausesome studies reported that a moderate level ofcomprehension was achieved with 90% coverage. For
example, Hu and Nation (2000) reported that the
average score for the multiple choice questions was
9.5 out of 14 with 90% coverage, whereas the averagescores were 12.24 and 10.18 with 100% and 95%
coverage, respectively; Bonk (2000) reported thatamong participants with a lexical coverage of 90% or
higher, 87% of them showed “good comprehension”
during a listening task (p. 27); Schmitt, Jiang, andGrabe (2011) suggested that “learners can still achieve
substantial comprehension” (p. 35) with 90% coverage
on a reading task; van Zeeland and Schmitt (2013)
reported that there was no significant difference inscores on a listening comprehension test between the
90% and 95% coverage groups.
In addition, the lexical coverage necessary forchoosing the correct answers on the TOEIC is lower
than that needed to comprehend a piece of writing
or audio recording adequately. One reason for this isthat the TOEIC includes questions that do not test
listening or reading comprehension. For example,
some grammar questions can be answered without
knowing the meaning of the sentence.
Another reason is that some comprehension
questions can be answered correctly without having
to understand everything that is heard or read. For
example, if test-takers are able to catch some key
words in a conversation, they can guess where theconversation takes place or who the speakers are.

Similarly, some reading comprehension questions canbe answered with a detail mentioned in a single line ina passage.
Assuming that a lower coverage may be sufficient
to choose the right answers on the TOEIC comparedto that necessary for full comprehension of a text, thisstudy was conducted to determine the vocabulary
size needed to understand 90%, 95%, and 98% of
the words used in the TOEIC. The inclusion of the
90% benchmark makes this study unique since, tothe author’s knowledge, no vocabulary study of the
TOEIC has investigated this threshold.

MethodA mini corpus of 328,186 running words was createdusing 34 TOEIC practice tests generated by the
Educational Testing Service (ETS), the developer of
the TOEIC, and published in practice test books inJapan or South Korea between 2006 and 2014 (seeAppendix for the publication titles). The TOEIC
corpus was analyzed using the Range software program(Nation & Heatley, 2002) for vocabulary analysis with
Nation’s (2012) British National Corpus (BNC) and
Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA)
word family lists.

Materials
In order to build a mini corpus, several people were
hired to type the listening transcripts and written texts
of 34 TOEIC practice tests. They were paid 10,000
yen to type one practice test into a Microsoft Word
document, and the present author proofread each test
and corrected errors.
The decision was made to use only the ETSgenerated practice tests on the grounds that they areclose to the actual TOEIC and that some non-ETS
practice tests are dissimilar to the actual TOEIC interms of content, vocabulary, length, and the wordingof questions, even though they follow the same format.
These elements in the practice tests were excluded
from the corpus: directions for each part; instructionallines, such as “Look at the picture marked number
one in your test book” and “Go on to the next page;”question numbers; letters for answer choices; andThe 2016 PanSIG Journal

127

Kanzaki
introductory lines for conversations, monologues, andreading passages, such as “Questions 41 through 43
refers to the following conversation” and “Questions
176–180 refer to the following letter.”Once all the digital versions of the 34 practice tests
were compiled in a single Microsoft Word document,
some modifications were made so that the text would
be compatible with the Range program. First, thehyphens in all hyphenated words, except e-mail, were
removed by using the “find and replace” function of
Microsoft Word. For example, self-service and semiannual were changed to self service and semi annual.
This was necessary because the word family lists usedwith the Range program do not include hyphenatedwords and hyphenated words are classified as Not in
the lists in Range output. Also, e-mail was changed toemail in all cases because the word is not hyphenatedin the word family lists.
A.M. and P.M. are often used in the TOEIC;
however, the Range program treats a period as the endof the preceding word and therefore counts A.M. as A
and M, and P.M. as P and M. To avoid this, A.M. wasreplaced with AM, and P.M. with PM. The problem
here is that AM is the same as the first person singularpresent form of the verb be and so the 228 AMs werecounted as am, as in I am, because Range is not casesensitive. The 347 PMs were counted as PM under thelist of abbreviations.

Analysis
The Range program was used to analyze the TOEIC
corpus. This software program compares “a text against
vocabulary lists to see what words in the text are andare not in the lists, and to see what percentage of theitems in the text are covered by the lists” (Nation,
2005, p. 2). Analysis results are shown in a table thatindicates how much coverage of a text each wordfamily list provides. In this study, the BNC/COCA
word family lists were used in conjunction with theRange program. There are 29 word family lists in total.
Twenty-five of these contain word families based on
frequency and rage data; the first two lists “were madeusing a specially designed 10 million token corpus”(Nation, 2012, p. 1) with a high proportion of spoken
English, and the remaining 23 lists “were made by

128 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

using COCA/BNC rankings” (Nation, 2012, p. 2).
The first list contains the most frequent 1,000 wordfamilies and the second list contains the next mostfrequent 1,000 word families, and so forth. The wordfamilies in the lists were created in accordance withthe criteria for level 6 set by Bauer and Nation (1993),
which includes all the affixes and inflections fromlevels 2 through 6.
The four additional lists are of proper nouns,
marginal words (e.g., ah, oh, and letters of thealphabet), transparent compounds, and abbreviations,
respectively. The TOEIC uses many proper nouns,
such as the names of people, products, places,
companies, and streets, and 2,459 proper nouns thatwere not originally in the list of proper nouns wereadded to the list so that the Range program could
count them as proper nouns. Learners do not needto know the meanings of proper nouns; recognizingthem as proper nouns is sufficient. Therefore, theproper nouns were treated as known words in thecalculation of lexical coverage in this study.
Apart from letters of the alphabet, marginal words
appearing in the TOEIC corpus are ah (twice), hm/
hmm/hmmm (13 times), oh (102 times), uh (3 times),um (twice), and wow (once). They were used in waysthat do not hinder comprehension and were therefore
treated as known words.
Nation and Webb (2011) set the following criteria
for transparent compounds:
1. Each of the parts had to be able to occur singly….
2. It had to be possible to make a sensible definitionof the word using the two or more parts of thecompound word….
3. Ideally, the definition should be made using noother content words, but in quite a few cases, one
other content word and occasionally two othercontent words were allowed…. (p. 138)
Nation and Webb (2011) suggested thattransparent compounds “should be assumed tobe known by learners who already know the highfrequency words since they are made up of known
parts and the meaning of the parts is closely related tothe meaning of the whole” (p. 138). Thus, transparent
compounds were treated as known words in this study.
Some abbreviations have meanings. However,Lexical Coverage of the TOEIC, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 126-133
the TOEIC uses abbreviations in such ways that do
not hinder comprehension. The five most frequent
abbreviations in the TOEIC corpus are PM (351),
www (116), org (43) as part of a website address
or email address, UK (35), and CA (33) as part of a
postal address in California (frequency counts shownin parentheses). Even if a learner does not know themeanings of these abbreviations, it will not interferewith comprehension. Therefore, abbreviations weretreated as known words.

Results
Table 1 shows the percentage of word families at
each 1,000-word level that appeared in the TOEIC
corpus, the number of word families at each 1,000word level that appeared in the TOEIC corpus, andthe cumulative coverage, with and without PNs,
MWs, TCs, and ABs. The most frequent 1,000
words accounted for 75.67% of the total tokens in
the corpus, and when the percentages for PNs, MWs,
TCs, and ABs were added, the coverage reached80.31%. The word families in the second 1,000-wordlist accounted for 11.21% of the total tokens in the
corpus, which made the coverage of the most frequent
2,000 words surpass the 90% benchmark with 91.52%
coverage. The word families in the third 1,000-wordlist accounted for 5.27% of the total tokens in the
corpus, which made the coverage of the most frequent
3,000 words surpass the 95% benchmark with 96.79
coverage. The word families in the fourth 1,000-wordlist accounted for 1.45% of the total tokens in the
corpus, which made the coverage of the most frequent
4,000 words surpass the 98% benchmark with 98.24%
coverage. For the fifth and subsequent 1,000-wordlists, coverage at each level dropped to below 1%.

Discussion
The results show that the most frequent 2,000 wordfamilies plus PNs, MWs, TCs, and ABs provided
91.52% coverage of the TOEIC corpus, the mostfrequent 3,000 word families plus PNs, MWs, TCs,
and ABs provided 96.79% coverage, and the mostfrequent 4,000 word families plus PNs, MWs, TCs,

and ABs provided 98.24% coverage. The 2,000, 3,000,
and 4,000 word families could be good vocabulary
learning goals for different levels of learners. For
example, learning the most frequent 2,000, 3,000,
and 4,000 words could be good learning goals forintermediate learners aiming for a score of 700 on the
TOEIC, upper-intermediate learners aiming for 800,
and advanced learners aiming for 900, respectively.
It should be noted that among the 1,000 wordfamilies at each level, not all of them appeared in the
TOEIC corpus; 55 word families in the first 1,000
list (e.g., church, gun, kill, mad, and penny), 186 in thesecond (e.g., army, cheat, divorce, evil, and wicked),
210 in the third (e.g., abuse, addict, alien, bible, andcommunist), and 488 in the fourth (e.g., assassin,bastard, ego, exile, and fraud) did not appear. Thismeans that 939 out of 4,000 word families were not in
the TOEIC corpus, which implies that learning a little
more than 3,000 words is sufficient to achieve 98%
coverage. Also, among the 3,000 word families, someof them must appear more frequently than others.
Thus, analyzing the frequencies in the TOEIC corpus
in detail and creating a frequency-based word list will
help learners efficiently learn vocabulary needed for
the TOEIC.
Lastly, the results indicate that, as far as vocabulary
is concerned, the TOEIC is a learner-friendly examwith a large proportion of high frequency words. By
solving questions in a TOEIC practice test, learners
repeatedly encounter high frequency words and are
therefore likely to learn them. Preparing for the TOEIC
may therefore help learners acquire high frequency
words, which is an essential part of learning English.

Acknowledgements
The author wishes to express his gratitude to Emeritus
Professor Paul Nation of Victoria University of
Wellington for providing the Range program andvocabulary resources for free on his website. The author
also appreciates Mitsuo Hirahara of Kanda Universityof International Studies for his help in translating thetiles of the South Korean TOEIC books. This study
was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number
25370727.

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

129

Kanzaki
Table 1
Percentage amd Number of Word Families Appearing at Each 1,000-Word Level

Word list

Percentage (%)

Word families

Cumulative
coverage (%)

Cumulative
coverage + PNs,
MWs, TCs, andAbs (%)

1,000

75.67

945

75.67

80.31

2,000

11.21

814

86.88

91.52

3,000

5.27

790

92.15

96.79

4,000

1.45

512

93.60

98.24

5,000

0.65

360

94.25

98.89

6,000

0.40

282

94.65

99.29

7,000

0.17

162

94.82

99.46

8,000

0.24

141

95.06

99.70

9,000

0.05

91

95.11

99.75

10,000

0.03

53

95.14

99.78

11,000

0.02

44

95.16

99.80

12,000

0.02

28

95.18

99.82

13,000

0.02

26

95.20

99.84

14,000

0.01

26

95.21

99.85

15,000

0.01

22

95.22

99.86

16,000

0.01

15

95.23

99.87

17,000

0.01

9

95.24

99.88

18,000

0.00

10

95.24

99.88

19,000

0.00

4

95.24

99.88

20,000

0.01

11

95.25

99.89

21,000

0.01

9

95.26

99.90

22,000

0.00

8

95.26

99.90

23,000

0.00

3

95.26

99.90

24,000

0.00

2

95.26

99.90

25,000

0.00

3

95.26

99.90

PNs

3.58

4303

MWs

0.15

23

TCs

0.65

352

ABs

0.26

84

Not in the lists

0.08

NA

Notes. PNs = proper nouns; MWs = marginal words; TCs = transparent compounds; ABs = abbreviations.

130 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Lexical Coverage of the TOEIC, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 126-133

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The 2016 PanSIG Journal131

KanzakiAppendix
ETS-generated TOEIC practice test books used for making the TOEIC corpus
Title[English translation]

Number of
tests

Year ofpublication

Publisher

Country

TOEIC Tesuto Shin Koshiki Mondaishu[TOEIC Test: New Official Practice Tests]

2

2005

IIBC

Japan

TOEIC Tesuto Shin Koshiki Mondaishu Vol. 2[TOEIC Test: New Official Practice Tests Vol. 2]

2

2007

IIBC

Japan

TOEIC Tesuto Shin Koshiki Mondaishu Vol. 3[TOEIC Test: New Official Practice Tests Vol. 3]

2

2008

IIBC

Japan

TOEIC Tesuto Shin Koshiki Mondaishu Vol. 4[TOEIC Test: New Official Practice Tests Vol. 4]

2

2009

IIBC

Japan

TOEIC Tesuto Shin Koshiki Mondaishu Vol. 5[TOEIC Test: New Official Practice Tests Vol. 5]

2

2012

IIBC

Japan

ETS TOEIC Test Gongsik Munjejib Vol. 5[ETS TOEIC Test: Official Practice Test Vol. 5]

2

2013

YBM

South Korea

ETS TOEIC Test LC Gongsik Siljeonseo 1000[ETS TOEIC Test: LC Official Test Simulation
Practice Book 1000]

10*

2013

YBM

South Korea

ETS TOEIC Test RC Gongsik Siljeonseo 1000[ETS TOEIC Test RC Official Test Simulation
Practice Book 1000]

10**

2013

YBM

South Korea

ETS TOEIC Jeonggisihom Gichulmunjejib
LC+RC 1200[ETS TOEIC: Questions Used in Actual Tests
LC+RC 1200]

6

2014

YBM

South Korea

ETS TOEIC Test Gongsik Siljeonseo LC+RC
1000[ETS TOEIC Test: Official Test Simulation
Practice Book LC+RC 1000]

5

2014

YBM

South Korea

TOEIC Tesuto Shin Koshiki Mondaishu Vol. 6[TOEIC Test: New Official Practice Tests Vol. 6]

2***

2014

IIBC

Japan

Notes. IIBC = Institute for International Business Communication.
*Listening tests only.
**Reading tests only.
***One of the two tests is the same as a test in ETS TOEIC Test Gongsik Siljeonseo LC+RC 1000, and thus
the test was used only once for the corpus.

132 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Lexical Coverage of the TOEIC, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 126-133

Author’s Biography:
Masaya Kanzaki teaches at Kanda University of International Studies. His research interests
include vocabulary acquisition, language testing, and corpus linguistics. He can be reached at
kanzaki-m@kanda.kuis.ac.jp.

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

133

Reading Strategy Instruction to EFL University Students:
Its Influence on Frequency of Strategy Use and Proficiency
Mutsumi Kawakami
Tokyo Denki University
mutsumik@mail.dendai.ac.jp
Orchestrating strategy use is considered one of the most important factors for success in foreign
language learning. This paper describes an empirical study exploring the effect of explicit reading
strategy instruction to 49 mixed-proficiency EFL university students. Results of the study show
three measured differences in the effect between higher (HP) and lower (LP) proficiency students:(1) as a result of reading strategy instruction, HP students employed reading strategies more
frequently than LP students, and showed greater improvement in their English proficiency; (2)long term instruction seemed to improve their English proficiency; and (3) compared to LP
students, HP students tended to appreciate top-down processing on texts in order to understandcontent.
ストラテジーの体系的な利用は、外国語学習の成功にとって最も重要な要素の一つである。
この論文では、49名の習熟度の異なるEFL 大学生に対する明示的なリーディングストラテジーの指導の効果を検証した研究について述べる。本研究の結果は次の三つの主要な習熟度レベルによる差異を示している。 (1) リーディングストラテジー指導の結果、より熟達した学習者は初心者よりも頻繁に様々なストラテジーを使い、英語力も伸びた。(2) 長期のリーディングストラテジー指導は英
語力を上達させたようだ。(3) 熟達度の高い学習者は、初心者よりもtop-down式の読解法の価値を認める傾向にあった。

The use of language learning strategies is one of themain individual differences that make second andforeign language learning easier, faster and more
successful. Early research on second language learning
strategies focused on the investigation of characteristics
of “good language learners” (e.g., Rubin, 1975; Stern,1975). These results motivated teachers to instructtheir students in the use of learning strategies. A
number of studies investigating the efficacy of strategy
instruction on a variety of skills provided positive
evidence in the 1980s and 90s (Dadour & Robbins,
Kawakami, M. (2017). Reading strategy instruction to
EFL university students: Its influence on frequency ofstrategy use and proficiency. In G. Brooks (Ed.), The
2016 PanSIG Journal (pp. 134-144). Tokyo, Japan:
JALT.

134 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

1996; O’Malley, 1987). However, studies attempting
to demonstrate the relationship between learning
strategies and proficiencies have shown mixed results.
Kern (1989) taught cognitive strategies for reading
comprehension to university students studying Frenchin the U.S. He found that the instruction had positiveeffects on the learners’ reading comprehension
capability. O’Malley (1987) examined the effectsof training on the metacognitive strategies for threedifferent tasks in academic English: vocabulary
learning, listening to a lecture, and making a brief oralpresentation to other students in an ESL context. The
results of his study showed positive effects on listening
and speaking efficacy, but not vocabulary acquisition.
With support from other areas such as selfregulatory learning in educational psychology(e.g., Tseng & Schmitt, 2008; Zimmerman, 2002),

Reading Strategy Instruction to EFL Students, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, ppages 134-144
more empirical evidence on the efficacy of strategy
instruction has been found over the last 15 years. Ikeda
and Takeuchi (2003) taught strategies for English
reading comprehension to different proficiency
students in a Japanese university. They found that
explicit intensive strategy instruction helped increase
the students’ strategy use and they retained it for fivemonths. They also found that the effectiveness of thestrategy instruction differs in the frequency of use, andthe degree of improvement between lower and higher
proficiency students. Higher level students gained
more benefits from the instruction than the lower
students did.
The effects of strategy instruction appear to differ
depending on a number of variables such as student
proficiency, learning style, beliefs about learning, theirculture, motivation, and the learning context.
In order to reinforce individual differences, recent
SLA research and pedagogy agree on the importanceof facilitating self-regulation for continuous learning.
In his self-regulatory theory, Dörnyei proposes a
process of learning in which learners set their learning
goal, generate and carry out subtasks, and review theirstudy (2012). It is necessary to teach less proficient
students learning strategies to help them gain control
over their learning and become self-regulated learners.
The current study aimed to explore the effects ofstrategy instruction on different proficiency English
learners at a university in Japan. Data regarding theirevaluation and application of the strategies was alsocollected.
The research questions addressed were:
1. Does strategy instruction have any influence on
their English proficiency? Are there any differencesin the effectiveness between English proficiency

levels?
2. Are any differences observed in the efficacy of the
instruction depending on the length of instruction?
3. Does English proficiency level have an influence on
the evaluation and use of strategies taught? How
did the students perceive the strategy instruction?

Methods
Participants
The participants were 69 university students inthree intact classes from science and engineering
departments. They were first year students enrolled
in a compulsory English course that took place oncea week for 15 weeks a semester. These three classes
were assigned as a treatment higher proficiency group(TH group), a treatment lower proficiency group(TL group), and a comparison group (COM). The
participants in the TL group were of lower English
proficiency than those who were in the TH and the
COM groups. The reading sections from TOEIC
Bridge practice tests (Educational Testing Service,
2007, 2008) were employed to determine their English
proficiency three times: at the beginning of the springsemester, at the end of the spring semester and at theend of the fall semester. Both the TH and COM
groups were considered CEFR A1- level students andthe students in the TL group were at CEFR A2- levelbased on the TOEIC Bridge practice test scores. A
breakdown of participants’ details is shown in Table 1.

MeasureThe data collection instruments used in this study werea reading section from a TOEIC Bridge test to assessparticipants’ grammar and reading proficiency, and a

Table 1
Breakdown of Participants at the Beginning of the Spring Semester
TOEIC Bridge reading score
Group

Male

Female

Total

M

SD

TH

30

0

30

33.4

4.5

TL

16

2

18

22.2

3.7

COM

18

3

21

31.5

3.8

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

135

Kawakami
5-point Likert-scale questionnaire regarding reading
comprehension strategies taught in class. The reading
section in a TOEIC Bridge test was composed of twoparts: thirty grammar questions and twenty reading
questions. The questionnaire was distributed at theend of each semester. Participants rated each strategy
from 1 (not used at all) to 5 (always use), based on
how often they used each strategy. An interview was
also conducted in order to identify their attitudes
towards strategy instruction and their actual strategy
usage at the end of each semester.

Procedure
The students in the TH and TL groups were taught
a strategy for reading comprehension in each classfor two semesters in 2015. The COM group had thesame explicit strategy instruction as the TH groupin only the fall semester in 2015 to see difference ofefficacy in the length of strategy training. The TH
and COM groups used the same textbook for reading
and a supplementary textbook for vocabulary usage
to cope with the TOEIC Bridge test. The TL groupused a reading textbook and a fundamental grammar
textbook. For the spring semester, seven reading
strategies were taught based on the textbook and someprior research on strategy training (Ikeda &Takeuchi,2006) as shown in Table 2. A different strategy wastaught in week 3, as the two treatment groups used a
different textbook and instruction should be based on
the textbook. Eight kinds of strategies were taught toboth TH and COM groups and seven strategies were
taught to the TL group in the fall semester. As shownin Tables 3 and 4, the different kinds of strategies werechosen to teach to the lower proficiency students inthe fall semester. This is because results of the interview
after the treatment in the spring semester showed thatthe lower proficiency students preferred and usedstrategies to understand texts at the sentence level.
Explicit strategy instruction was integrated into
reading activities based on the framework presented in
Chamot (2004). First, the teacher presented a strategy
for reading comprehension (presentation). Afterbeing instructed as to the purpose and the procedureof the strategies explicitly (explanation), the students
in both treatment groups read the textbook using thestrategies (practice). They were then asked to evaluate
their own strategy use (self-evaluation). Finally, theyread a different text using the strategy taught in theprevious lessons in order to review it (expansion).

Data Analysis
The reading score gains for TOEIC Bridge test
were analyzed using a t-test to examine the effect ofstrategy instruction on proficiency between TH and

Table 2Strategies Taught to the TL and TH Groups in the Spring Semester
Week

Reading Strategy

1

Using the title and subtitle to get the gist of a text

2

Identifying and skimming the topic sentence in each paragraph to understand the outline of the passage

3

Using visual aides to help better understanding of a text (TH group)
Identifying pronouns to understand the cohesion in a text (TL group)4

Scanning a text by using keywords in the title and the attached questions to understand the detail of a passage

5

Classifying information by using chart to understand the connection among ideas and information

6

Identifying reasons by paying attention to discourse markers (e.g. because of, owing to, etc.)

7

Summarizing each paragraph after reading

8

Review of strategies introduced from the first to seventh week

136 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Reading Strategy Instruction to EFL Students, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, ppages 134-144
Table 3Strategies Taught to the TH and COM Groups in the Fall Semester
Week

Reading Strategy

1

Identifying supporting ideas with examples to understand the writer's ideas

2

Using definitions to find meaning (e.g., dashes, parentheses, commas, and quotation marks)

3

Annotating text to focus on the most important information

4

Understanding pronoun reference to understand the cohesion in a text

5

Understanding exact vs. approximate numbers

6

Paraphrasing sentences to write a summary and understand comprehension questions

7

Creating an outline summary to organize information in a text

8

Reviewing strategies introduced from the first to seventh week

Table 4
Strategies Taught to the TL Group in the Fall Semester
Week

Reading Strategy

1Parsing sentences into phrasal groups to grasp the main components of each sentence2

Understanding prefixes

3

Guessing unfamiliar words from the context

4

Understanding suffixes

5

Identifying the main idea

6

Using keywords to answer comprehension questions of the text

7

Reviewing strategies introduced from the first to seventh week

TL groups. Additionally, one-way ANOVA followedby post-hoc analysis using the Bonferroni correction
test was employed to analyze an effect of strategy
instruction within-group factor on their English
proficiency as the number of the participants was
relatively small but scores were normally distributed. In
addition to the analysis of English proficiency scores,
descriptive analysis of the data from the questionnaire
was referenced and the follow-up interviews weretranscribed.

Results and Discussion
A summary of the descriptive statistics for the TOEIC
scores is shown in Figure 1 and Table 5.

The first research question concerns the influenceof strategy instruction on the students’ English
proficiency. A t-test was employed to examine
between-group effects. The results show that the
TOEIC score gains of TH and TL groups were notsignificantly different in either posttest 1 or posttest
2, although both groups increased their scores on
the reading questions from the pretest to posttest 1
and posttest 2. A small effect size was found in thescore gains in posttest 2 (t = .83, p = .41, d = .25).
Examining these results, the short-term reading
strategy instruction taught in the spring semester wasof little benefit to the treatment groups, regardless of
their proficiency level.
The 2016 PanSIG Journal

137

Kawakami

Figure 1. TOEIC Bridge score changes in three tests.
Table 5
Descriptive Statistics of TOEIC Bridge Test
Posttest 1(α=.89)Posttest 2(α=.89)M (SD)

M (SD)

Total

33.4 (4.5)

Grammar

Pretest (α=.89)
Group

TH

TL

Gain1

Gain2

M (SD)

M (SD)

M (SD)

35.3 (4.3)

36.8 (4.2)

2.0 (4.3)

3.5 (4.7)

19.3 (2.7)

20.9 (2.3)

20.6 (3.0)

1.6 (2.5)

1.4 (3.0)

Reading14.1(3.2)

14.4 (3.3)

16.2 (2.2)

0.4 (3.1)

2.1 (2.9)

Total

22.2 (3.7)

24.0 (6.0)

24.5 (3.7)

1.8 (6.5)

2.3 (3.5)

Grammar12.3 (3.5)

13.4 (4.4)

13.2 (3.2)

1.1 (4.4)

0.9 (4.2)

Reading

9.9 (2.1)

10.6 (2.8)

11.3 (1.9)

0.7 (3.8)

1.4 (2.7)

Total

31.5 (3.8)

32.9 (4.9)

35.6 (3.5)

1.4 (4.3)

4.1 (4.8)

Grammar18.1 (2.5)

19 (2.9)

20.2 (2.9)

0.9 (2.3)

2.1 (3.4)

Reading

13.4 (2.4)

13.9 (3.3)

15.4 (2.2)

0.5 (3.4)

2.0 (3.0)

n

30

18

COM 21

Note. Possible scores are from 0 to 30 for the grammar test and from 0 to 20 for the reading test

The second research question is concerned withthe difference in the length of strategy instruction on
the students’ English proficiency improvement. All
groups increased their reading scores from the pretest
to the posttest 2. One-way ANOVA was employed
to identify the differences within groups. There was asignificant main effect of three tests (TH: F (2,58) =138 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

8.11, p = .01, partial η2 = .22; TL: F (1.47, 24.92) =1.66, p =.021, partial η2 = .09; COM: F(2,40) = 9.46,
p = .00, partial η2= .32), therefore, a post-hoc multiple
analysis with the Bonferroni correction test was also
applied. The results of post-hoc analysis show that the
TH group significantly increased their scores fromthe pretest to posttest 2 (p<01) while the TL groupReading Strategy Instruction to EFL Students, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, ppages 134-144
increased their scores by a smaller amount for the same
period of time than TH group (p< .05). In order to
identify within-group effect on the reading questions
and the grammar questions in the reading section, thesame set of statistical procedure was employed. The
TH group significantly increased their scores on both
the grammar and the reading questions with a large
effect size (Grammar: F (2,58) = 5.18, p = .009, partialη2 = .15; Reading: F (2,58) =8.12, p = .001, partial η2= .22). The significant score gains on reading questions
were found from the posttest 1to the posttest 2 (p =.01) while ones on the grammar questions were foundbetween the pretest and the posttest 1 (p = .005).
Furthermore, regarding the COM group, although
they increased their scores on reading questions, theone-way ANOVA followed by post-hoc multiple
analysis with the Bonferroni correction test confirmedthat a statistically significant difference in the score
gains was not found on the reading questions but
found on the grammar questions in the fall semester. In
summary then, long term reading strategy instruction
seemed to help the higher proficient students, while
it seems to take more time for the lower proficient
student to benefit from the instruction. Moreover, theimprovement of grammatical competence might havefacilitated reading comprehension.
The difference in the frequency of strategy use wasanalyzed between two conditions: after the treatmentin the spring semester and after the treatment in thefall semester to investigate the efficacy of explicit
strategy instruction on the use of strategies. Figuresin Appendix 1 illustrate the changes in the frequencyof strategy use. In most of the figures, the TH groupincreased their frequency of strategy use fromposttest 1 to posttest 2, yet usage decreased in the
COM group. The COM group only increased thefrequency use of the strategy taught in week 7, whichis “summarizing each paragraph”. This is because
they were encouraged to summarize their textbook
as homework. Furthermore, an interview after thefall semester implies that students in COM grouptend not to have paid attention to some strategies
they learned at high school such as skimming topic
sentence for a gist of the text and scanning a text byusing keywords because they were not encouraged touse in class. These results indicate that explicit strategy
instruction seemed to help sustain the frequency ofstudents’ strategy use. With regard to the strategies
taught in week 5 and 6, the frequency of use in boththe TH and COM groups decreased whereas the TL
group remained steady or increased. The TL students
thus seem to prefer to use visuals, graphics and signal
words to understand texts.
In order to answer the third research question
on the efficacy of instruction to different proficiency
students on the evaluation and use of strategies, twovariables were analyzed by a non-parametric MannWhitney U test between the TH group and the TL
group because the number of students were relatively
small and imbalanced for a parametric test. Firstly,
the difference in the frequency of each strategy usagetaught in the spring semester was analyzed. There
was a significant difference in the strategy taught inweek 2, “identifying the topic sentence to understandthe outline of the text.” The results of the interviews
provided a number of reasons for this difference
between the higher and lower proficiency students.
The lower proficiency students tended to have learned
English by memorizing the translation of a wholesentence in high school and tried to understand a text
from its first line, without paying attention to the mainidea of the text. They seemed to stick with familiar
learning conventions they had constructed early on,
rather than applying the new strategies. Moreover, thelower proficiency students who achieved a large gainin TOEIC Bridge test score used the scanning strategy
taught in week 4, whereas those who attained only aslight increase (or decrease) tried to read the text fromthe first line. The difference in the students’ perception
on strategy instruction was also analyzed by a nonparametric Mann-Whitney U test. Significant
differences were found in the evaluation of strategies
taught in week 2, 4, 5, and 6 of the spring semester.
As seen in Table 6, the higher proficiency students
appreciated the usefulness of top-down processing atext (such as scanning and skimming) more than thelower proficiency students did.
Table 7 displays the students reported frequency
use of the strategies after instruction in the springsemester. With regard to frequency of strategy use,
The 2016 PanSIG Journal

139

Kawakami
Table 6
Difference in Evaluation of Strategies Taught Between Higher and Lower Proficiency Groups
TL

TH
Week

n

1

32

4.6

0.5

25

4.4

2

32

4.6

0.6

25

3

32

3.9

1.0

4

32

4.3

5

32

6
7

M

SD

n

M

SD

z

U

p

0.7

-0.8

356

ns

3.8

0.9

-3.2

220

p<.001

25

4.0

1.0

-0.9

349

ns

0.6

25

3.8

0.8

-2.6

253

p<.01

4.3

0.7

25

3.8

1.0

-2.3

269

p<.01

32

4.6

0.6

25

3.9

0.7

-3.4

208

p<.001

32

4.4

0.7

25

4.2

0.9

-0.9

348

ns

z

U

Table 7
Difference in Frequency Use of Strategies Between Higher and Lower Proficiency Groups
TL

TH
Week

n

1

32

3.8

1.1

24

3.8

1.1

-0.4

360

ns

2

32

3.7

1.0

24

3.0

1.2

-2.4

244.5

p<.05

3

32

3.1

1.1

24

3.4

1.2

-1.0

324.5

ns

4

32

3.3

1.0

24

3.5

1.1

-0.8

339

ns

5

32

3.4

0.9

24

3.2

1.1

-0.7

347

ns

6

32

3.8

0.9

24

3.4

1.1

-1.0

327.5

ns

7

32

3.4

1.0

24

3.5

1.1

-0.5

358

ns

M

SD

n

both groups tended to use the strategies less than theyevaluated themselves, as seen in Figure 2.
There was a large gap between students’ evaluationand frequency use of strategy. In order to analyze thegap within groups, Wilcoxon signed-rank test was
carried out. A significant difference was found in bothgroups as shown in Table 8.
Comments written in the questionnaire in
response to the strategy instruction implied thatmost of the students in the TH and TL group
appreciated the usefulness of the strategies taught inclass. There were many positive comments regarding
strategy training. “It was fun and interesting to learn
the reading strategies” accounted for 38% of the

140 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

M

SD

p

total comments. “The reading strategies helped meunderstand the text easier” made up 16%, and 13%
responded “I benefited from the strategy instruction
because I’ve never learned reading strategies”. Students
in the TL group also gave positive responses tostrategy instruction. Furthermore, many students
in the TL group appreciated the importance of thestrategy taught in week 1, using the title and subtitle
to get the gist of a text. In summary, students in both
treatment groups appreciated the usefulness of thereading strategies.
With regard to frequency of strategy use, thehigher proficiency students tried to identify themain idea of a text more frequently than the lower

Reading Strategy Instruction to EFL Students, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, ppages 134-144

Figure 2. Treatment groups’ evaluation and use of strategy.
Table 8Results of Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test: Gaps Between Evaluation and Usage of Strategies

TH(n=32)

TL(n=25)

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Z

-3.57

-4.2

-2.96

-4.03

-3.81

-3.3

-4.13

-2.84

P

0**

0**

.003**

0**0**.001**

0**.005**

r

.66

.78

.55

.75

.71

.61

.77

.58

Z

-2.693c

-3.34

-2.94

-1.54

-2.68

-2.19

-3.31

P

.007**.001**.003**.124.007**.028*.001**

r

.53

.67

.59

.31

.54

.44

.66

Note. *p<.05, **p<.01.
proficiency students. Furthermore, the students inboth treatment groups did not use any strategies as
frequently as they evaluated themselves as doing.
Supplementary interviews after two semesters of thetreatment discovered that the TH students tended
to have had explicit instruction in reading strategies
for university entrance exams, such as scanning for
details to answer comprehension questions. However,they often had little awareness of when to use themin other contexts and an unclear understanding ofother strategies that they learned for the first time.
Additionally, some students in the COM groupmentioned that they consciously used the taught
strategies because the teacher encouraged them todo so in their own reading opportunities. O’Malley(1987) noted that “the transfer of strategies to newtasks may be extremely sensitive, requiring continuous
prompts and structured directions until the strategies
become autonomous” (p.143). It seems that thestudents need to have more opportunities to practiceusing the strategies they learned in class until they can
select them appropriately and have confidence using
them with new texts.

Conclusion and Teaching
Implications
The current study aimed to explore the effects ofintegrating explicit strategy instruction on the
improvement of reading proficiency in English. The
findings from the current study suggest that reading
strategy instruction leads to improvement in both
The 2016 PanSIG Journal

141

Kawakami
lower and higher proficiency students but higher
proficiency students benefit more. Furthermore,
explicit reading strategy instruction retained thefrequency of strategy use for six months, and shortterm strategy training would be of benefit to higher
proficiency students if they employ the strategies
taught. Both lower and higher proficiency students
appreciate the usefulness of the strategies but the latter
positively evaluate a greater variety of strategies than
the former. Higher proficiency students also seem to
use top-down processing strategies more frequently.
There were a few limitations with the present
study. Firstly, the number of participants in thegroups was rather small. Hence, larger sample sizes
should be collected in a longitudinal study to verify
the results. Secondly, learning style, which is one ofthe prominent variables affecting a student’s strategy
use, was not considered. As Ellis (2008) states,
the choice of strategies would differ depending onlearning style, motivation, and socio-cultural factors.
Learning style should have been investigated when
considering the use of learning strategies. Lastly, theparticipant’s reading proficiency was measured by the
TOEIC Bridge test, which mostly required the test
takers to use scanning and skimming strategies. Other
instruments should be developed to assess all thereading skills taught in class (such as summarizing andidentifying the main idea of the text).
Keeping these limitations in mind, the results ofthe current study provide us with some pedagogicalimplications. One suggestion is that the kinds ofstrategies taught in class should be considered tomatch the learner’s proficiency level. Lower proficiency
students need to learn bottom-up processing skills
for reading, such as analyzing parts of speech andalso top-down strategies that require less cognitive
load such as using the title and subtitle to get thegist. Another implication is that strategy instruction
should include opportunities for the learners to reflect
on the strategies they used in each task. This process
would help learners consider the choice and use of
appropriate strategies for a given task, resulting inthem becoming more self-regulated learners.

142 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

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Reading Strategy Instruction to EFL Students, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, ppages 134-144
Tseng, W., & Schmitt, N. (2008). Toward a modelof motivated vocabulary learning: a structural
equation model approach. Language Learning,

58(2), 357-400.
Zimmerman, B. J. (2002). Becoming a self-regulated
learner. Theory into Practice, 41(2), 64-70.

Author’s Biography:
Mutsumi Kawakami is a lecturer at Tokyo Denki University. Her research interests include
second language acquisition, strategy instruction, and task-based language teaching

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

143

Kawakami

Appendix

144 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Can Speaking Drills Promote Ideal L2Speaking Self Images?
Tomoyuki Kawashima
Gunma University
tkawashima@gunma-u.ac.jp
A 10-month-long intervention study was conducted to examine the effects of speaking activities
in class on the development of the Ideal L2-speaking Self images. A total of 110 first-year seniorhigh school students read aloud, practiced the repeating of, and recited the texts whose meanings
were familiar to them during regular English class hours. Positive changes were observed during
the experiment in Standard Scores of the participants in national standardized English proficiency
tests and their oral performances. The questionnaire with twelve six-point Likert items adopted
from Taguchi, Magid and Papi (2009) was administered as pre- and post- tests. A paired T-test was
run, and the change in ratings over time was compared. The results were contrary to the teachers’
expectations. The rating of all three factors, i.e., Ideal L2 Self, Ought to Self, and Attitudes toLearning English, dropped after the experiment. Possible reasons for this unexpected results are
discussed.
授業中の英語を話す活動が、L2を話す理想の自己の形成に及ぼす効果を確かめるため、10ヶ月の介入実験が行われた。高校1年生110名が、授業中に内容が分かった英文の音読やリピーティ
ング、暗唱を行った。期間中、模試偏差値や英語による発表に向上が見られた。Taguchi, Magidand Papi (2009)から採用した6点のリッカート法12項目の質問紙を、事前と事後に実施し、対応のあるＴ検定を用い評定の変化を調べた。結果は教師の予想に反するもので、L2を話す理想の自
己、義務自己、英語学習に対する態度の3要因ともに後退した。
この想定外の結果について、複数の理由が検討された。

In Dörnyei’s motivational self-system model,
motivation is redefined as the desire to achieve
one’s ideal language self by reducing the perceived
discrepancy between one’s actual and ideal selves(Csizér & Dörnyei, 2005). Dörnyei and his associates
added another concept of “ought-to L2 self.” The“ought self ” originally represents the attributes people
believe that they ought to possess such as sense ofduty, obligations, and responsibilities (Dörnyei &Csizér, 2002). The distinction between the “ideal
self ” and the “ought self ”, according to Csizér andDörnyei (2005), stems from the two dimensions of
instrumentality. They claim that instrumental motives
with a promotion focus (e.g., to learn English forthe sake of professional advancement) are related to
the “ideal self ”, whereas instrumental motives with aprevention focus (e.g., study in order not to fail thetest) are part of the “ought self ”.
Although Csizér and Dörnyei (2005) mainly referto the self-system of English learners in Hungary, it
could be argued that the importance of having clear
image of a possible self or ideal L2 self is applicable

Kawashima, T. (2017). Can speaking drills promote ideal
L2-speaking self images? In G. Brooks (Ed.), The 2016
PanSIG Journal (pp. 145-150). Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

to other learners in EFL contexts. For instance,
Yashima, Zenuk-Nishide and Shimizu (2004) claim
whether or not they can visualize “English-using
selves” clearly is a key to success among Japanese
The 2016 PanSIG Journal

145

Kawashima
university English learners. These arguments provide
practical implications for language teaching. In otherwords, there is a growing expectation that teachers
help students develop their ideal L2 selves in as clear,concrete, and achievable a way as possible on a regularbasis. As a potential pedagogical approach, the effectsof speaking-focused activities on developing Ideal L2speaking Self images were examined in this study.
Classes integrating four language skills areencouraged at senior high schools by the Ministry of
Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology(MEXT). Although MEXT introduced oral
communication course to senior high schools in 1993
(Nishino, 2008), teachers were unwilling to change
their conventional teaching (Yoshida, 2003). This isbecause teachers feel they are primarily responsible
for preparing their students for grammar- or readingoriented entrance examinations (Sakui, 2004).
The introduction of a listening component in the
preliminary university entrance exam, Center Test, in2006 made a small difference. Teachers started sparing
certain amount of time for listening practice in classas preparation for entrance exams. However, very
limited time has been spent on speaking and writing
activities. In such a language learning context, it can be
hypothesized that the lack of experiences of speaking
English has made it difficult for students to visualize
English speaking selves and that ample opportunities
to speak English in class will help them attain clearer
Ideal L2-speaking Self images. This research was
designed to verify this hypothesis.

Methods
Three teachers in charge of six classes of students
discussed the syllabus of the course and decided
to give speaking-focused activities. The course wasoffered to 240 1st-year students at a public senior highschool as part of the regular English lessons of English
Communication I. Speaking-focused activities were
held throughout the 1-year-long course. The activities
consisted of reading aloud or repeating of the texts of
the authorized textbook, monthly recitation of thetext by individual students in class, monthly semistructured interview by an assistant language teacher,

146 The 2016 PanSIG Journaland group performance named “Speak Out!” once
every 4 months. By holding these activities, teachers
aimed to tell students that memorization could create
the base for oral production, and that they would have
only to recycle the English they memorized when they
speak English.

Reading Aloud and Repeating
To assist student reading comprehension of the
textbook and to shorten the time to check student
comprehension, a Japanese translation of the textbook
with blanks was provided as a worksheet before
the class. By using the worksheet, they were able tospend more time on reading aloud and repeating tointernalize the English they had understood. Teachers
spent 15-20 minutes on these speaking activities in the
50-minute-long class.

Recitation and Free Talk
As the second speaking-focused activity, students
recited part of the textbook in class. The texts were
100 words long, and students made a recitation on aregular basis about once a month. In a weekly teamtaught lesson, 10 students made a recitation. Aftera Japanese teacher gave comments on a student oralpresentation, the student went out of the classroom
to have a talk with the assistant language teacher inthe corridor. The teacher asked questions about the
textbook and had a free conversation.

“Speak Out!”
In order to give students more chances to use theEnglish they had memorized, a special event called“Speak Out!” was held at the end of each school term.
Students were divided into groups of five and theychose one lesson from the textbook lessons. Then,each group prepared the script of a talk show. One
student became a moderator and the remaining four
students played the roles of the guests invited to thetalk show. The guests should be someone or somecreature appearing in the lesson. Students were told torecycle as much English in the textbook as possible inpreparing their scripts.

Ideal L2-speaking Self Images, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 145-150

Positive Changes during the Intervention
There were two changes in the course of study:
the improvement of academic score in national
standardized proficiency tests, and the improvementof student recitation. All the students sat for the
Shinken Test, which was a standardized proficiency
test for high school students going to universities. It
was administered nationwide three times a year by a
private educational corporation and gathers 300,000
to 400,000 test takers for each test administration. The
results of the test were used to judge the relative abilityof the students among prospective rivals all over Japan.
The test results provide test scores and Standard Scores(SS). The Standard Score, called “hensachi” in Japanese,shows how apart the ability of the test taker is fromthe average of the whole test takers. The average SS of
the participants in this research (N=118) was 60.3 intheir first English test in July 2014 and the standard
deviation was 7.7. In their third test given in January
2015, the average SS rose to 62.2 and the SD was
7.4. The paired t-test indicated that the 1.9 difference
between the two test administrations was significant[t(111)=3.56, p< .001]. Moreover, the reduced SD
in the third test clearly showed that students at all
proficiency levels improved their SS in six months.
The other positive change noticeable to the teachers
was the improvement of recitation. The improvementof student performance in fluency and confidence,
though impressionistic, was observed. The numberof unnecessary pauses or rephrasing decreased andtheir performance became more fluent. Moreover, theteachers found that students became more confident
in speaking English and that the increasing number ofstudents seemed to be enjoying speaking English.

Data Collection and Analysis
The questionnaire was adopted from Taguchi, Magidand Papi (2009). In their study, the test items wereadministered to 1586 Japanese as well as 1328 Chineseand 2029 Iranians. For this study, a total of 12 items
were selected in order to elicit three factors, namely, six
items for Ideal L2-speaking Self, four items for Oughtto L2 Self and two items for Attitudes to Learning
English. All items except for one (Factor 1, Item 4)
were chosen from the items administered to Japaneseparticipants in the Taguchi, Magid and Papi (2009)
study so that it would make comparisons possible.
However, two items for Attitudes to Learning English
were omitted because they were judged to have limited
relevance to this study. Students answered the degreesof their agreement/disagreement with respective
statements on a six-point Liker scale. The pretest
was administered in the regular class period in April
2014 before they started speaking-focused activities,
and the post-test data was collected 10 months laterin February 2015. By the second administration,
students had given recitation six or seven times andexperienced two “Speak Out!” The 240 students were
evenly divided into six classes based on the results ofentrance examinations. For a technical reason, data
was collected from half of 240 students in three classes.
Furthermore, the data of eight students was excluded
because they failed to attend both data collection
sessions, making the final number of the data available
for the analysis 112. To analyze whether there was asignificant change in three factors, a paired t-test was
run on the data of each test item.

Results
The means of 12 test items in the pretest and post-test
are tabulated in Tables 1, 2, and 3. In order to avoid
Type I error, the Bonferroni adjustment was madefor the number of comparisons. For instance, in thecase of Factor 1 which was elicited by six items, theadjusted alpa level of .0083 was adopted for the 5%
significance level (.05 / 6 = .0083) and .0017 for the
1% significance level (.01 / 6 = .0017) to test each of
six comparisons for significance. The far right columnof each table has the means of the rating when theidentical test items were administered to Japanese
university students by Taguchi et al. (2009).

Factor 1: Ideal L2-speaking Self
The mean of the rating of five test items dropped in
the post-test. However, the only significant difference
was found in the negative change of Item 3 “I imagine
myself as someone who is able to speak English”[t(111)=3.51, p< .0017]. Compared with the rating
by Japanese university students, the present sampleof high school students agreed slightly more strongly
The 2016 PanSIG Journal

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Kawashima
Table 1
Ideal L2-speaking Self
Test Item

pre

post

sig

cf.

1 I can imagine myself living abroad and having a discussion in English.

3.16

2.95

*

2.90

2 I can imagine a situation where I am speaking English with foreigners.

3.75

3.45

*

3.70

3 I imagine myself as someone who is able to speak English.

3.80

3.43

**

3.76

4 I can imagine myself speaking English as if I were a native speaker ofEnglish.

3.03

2.76

*

-

5 Whenever I think of my future career, I imagine myself using English.

3.00

2.91

3.33

6 The things I want to do in the future require me to use English.

3.68

3.73

4.55

pre

post

Note. ** = p< .01
Table 2Ought to L2 Self
Test Item

sig

cf.

1

I study English because close friends of mine think it is important.

2.93

2.72

2.51

2

I have to study English, because, if I do not study it, I think my parents
will be disappointed with me.

2.53

2.32

2.22

3

Learning English is necessary because people surrounding me expect

2.52

2.35

2.59

3.80

3.90

2.50

Test Item

pre

post

sig

cf.

1

I find learning English really interesting.

4.56

4.29

*

4.32

2

I always look forward to English classes.

3.91

3.40

**

3.65

me to do so.
4

My parents believe that I must study English to be an educated person.

Table 3
Attitudes to Learning English

Note. ** = p< .01with the statement that they can imagine themselvesliving abroad and having a discussion in English. On
the other hand, the group of high school students did
not imagine themselves using English as clearly as their
university counterparts did, and high school students
disagreed more strongly with the statement that thethings they wanted to do in the future would requirethem to use English.

Factor 2: Ought to L2 Self
The rating of the factor “Ought to L2 Self ” went

148 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

down. Participants rated all test items but one morenegatively in the post-test. They disagreed to a greater
extent with the statements that they had to study
English due to the external expectations of their closefriends and parents. However, the rating of Item 4
went up from 3.80 to 3.90. The analysis determined nostatistically significant difference. In comparison withthe rating by university students, the Ought to L2 Self
factor was rated slightly more highly by high school
students (Test Items 1, 2, and 4). Especially Item 4
showed a wide gap in the rating between university

Ideal L2-speaking Self Images, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 145-150
and high school students.

Factor 3: Attitudes to Learning English
Attitudes of high school students became significantly
more negative to learning English after the experiment.
Participants disagreed more strongly to the statement“I always look forward to English classes” in the posttest and the difference reached the significance levelof 1% [t(111)= 4.57, p< .005]. Likewise, significantly
stronger disagreement was expressed to the item
“I find learning English really interesting” after theexperimental lessons [t(111)=2.55, p< .025]. The
original attitudes of high school students measured
in the pre-test were slightly more positive to learning
English than the attitudes of university students.

Discussion
The results show that students who had attended
speaking focused lessons for ten months visualized
their future selves less clearly as an English speaker.
Several reasons could be possible as to why Ideal L2speaking Self images did not grow among them. One
reason might be the timing of data collection. Initial
excitement at the start of a new high school life might
have helped students to overestimate themselves in thepretest. This is supported by the fact that the rating ofsome test items in the pretest was much higher than
the rating by university students. The Japanese sample
in the Taguchi et al. study consisted of 319 English
majors and 1180 non-English majors. The sample
had a higher ratio of English majors than the actual
percentage in society. Considering Ryan’s (2009)
research findings that indicated a significant difference
for Ideal L2 Self between Japanese non-English major
university students and English majors, it could bespeculated that the rating of Ideal L2-speaking Self was
higher than the average rating by general university
students. However, the rating of some items in thepretest was even higher than in the Taguchi et al.
study. Therefore, if the intervention had started laterin the academic year and the first data collection had
been delayed, the rating might have been lower.
Another reason may be concerned with students’high sense of aspiration. Although the improvement ofEnglish ability was proved by the test results and they
became able to speak English more fluently, students
might not be fully content with their own progress. The
central theme of Dörnyei’s conception within an L2
motivational self system is the equation of integrative
motivation with the ideal L2 self (Csizér & Dörnyei,2005). However, participants in this study might nothave recognized L2-speaking Self explicitly. The survey
shows two characteristics of the students. Comparedwith their counterparts in universities, they weremuch strongly influenced by their parental belief thatstudying English is necessary to be educated (Factor 2:
Ought to L2 Self, Item 4). At the same time, they did
not perceive as clear a need to use English in achieving
their goals as university students did (Factor 1: Ideal
L2-speaking Self, Item 6). These findings suggest thatparticipants were not fully aware of the need to use
English and that they studied English simply because
their parents told them to. Dörnyei (2009) argues
that “the Ideal L2 Self is an effective motivator only
if: the learner has a desired future self-image; which iselaborate and vivid; which is perceived as plausible andis in harmony – or at least does not clash – with the
expectations of the learner’s family…” (p. 18, emphasis
original). In light of these conditions necessary toactivate the Ideal L2 Self, it could be argued that L2speaking Self did not become an elaborate and vivid
future self-image for participants in this study.
Reasons related to pedagogy might be possible
too. Despite the teachers’ emphasis that reading aloud,
repeating, and recitation had much in common withimpromptu speech, students might have differentiatedthe former with the latter. Therefore, when asked ifthey could speak English, they underestimated theirspeaking abilities. Still another reason might be thatstudents did not enjoy the speaking-focused activities
so much as teachers thought students did. Although
their English speaking abilities improved, theymight not have been satisfied with the way teachers
conducted the class. A positive relationship between
anxiety and English proficiency level is reported forJapanese university students by Brown, Robson and
Rosenkjar (1996). They found that students in thehigh proficiency group were the most anxious. As
shown by the SS, participants in this study had highThe 2016 PanSIG Journal

149

Kawashima
English proficiency levels. This might suggest thatthey had higher levels of anxiety as well. Asked if they
liked it or not, many students might have answeredthat they did not like recitation. Speaking in frontof the class might have been a stressor strong enoughto negate the sense of satisfaction toward their own
achievements. One more possible reason might be thatthe change in Ideal L2-speaking Self images might not
be linear. Instead, the change might be curvilinear. It
may become more difficult to attain Ideal L2-speaking
Self images in the course of development. Then withsome continued efforts, it might become easy again togain Ideal L2-speaking Self images. My review of theliterature reveals that few longitudinal studies of Ideal
L2-speaking Self have been documented.
Although this research could not verify the
hypothesis that ample speaking experiences would
help leaners to attain Ideal L2-speaking Self images,
the results of this study suggest the need for more
longitudinal studies of Ideal L2-speaking Self withfrequent data collection.

References
Brown, J. D., Robson, G., & Rosenkjar, P. (1996).
Personality, motivation, anxiety, strategies,
and language proficiency of Japanese students.
University of Hawai’i Working Papers in ESL,
15(1), 33-72.
Csizér, K., & Dörnyei, Z. (2005). The internal
structure of language learning motivation and its
relationship with language choice and learning
effort. The Modern Language Journal, 89(1), 1936.
Dörnyei, Z. (2009). Motivation and the vision of
knowing a second language. In B. Beaven (Ed.),

IATEFL 2008 Exeter Conference Selections (pp.
16-22). Canterbury, England: IATEFL.
Dörnyei, Z., & Csizér, K. (2002). Some dynamics
of language attitudes and motivation: Resultsof a longitudinal nationwide survey. Applied
Linguistics, 23(4), 421-462.
Nishino, T. (2008). Japanese secondary school
teachers’ beliefs and practices regarding
communicative language teaching: An
exploratory study. JALT Journal, 30(1), 27-50.
Ryan, S. (2009). Self and identity in L2 motivationin Japan: The ideal L2 self and Japanese learnersof English. In Z. Dornyei & E. Ushioda (Eds.),
Motivation, Language Identity and the L2 Self
(pp. 120-143). Bristol, England: Multilingual
Matters.
Sakui, K. (2004). Wearing two pairs of shoes:
Language teaching in Japan. ELT Journal, 58(2),155-163.
Taguchi, T., Magid, M., & Papi, M. (2009). The
L2 motivational self system among Japanese,
Chinese and Iranian learners of English: A
comparative study. In Z. Dörnyei & E. Ushioda(Eds.), Motivation, Language Identity and the L2
Self (pp. 66-97). Bristol, England: Multilingual
Matters.
Yashima, T., Zenuk-Nishide, L., & Shimizu, K.
(2004). The influence of attitudes and affecton Willingness to Communicate and second
language communication. Language Learning,
54(1), 119-152.
Yoshida, K. (2003). Language education policy inJapan? The problem of espoused objectives versus
practice. The Modern Language Journal, 87(2),291-293.

Author’s Biography:
Tomoyuki Kawashima is Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Health Sciences,Gunma University. Prior to the present job, he taught English to high school students for 25
years. His research interests include pedagogical applications of World Englishes in the English
language teaching and affective factors in speaking English.

150 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Back-to-the-Future Essays Come Alive
Harumi Kimura
Miyagi Gakuin Women’s University
kharumi@mgu.ac.jp
This is an exploratory qualitative study investigating how writing a “back-to-the-future” essay
and revising it helped an L2 learner to envision a clear and elaborate ideal self-image and actively
exert agency on behaviors she believes to match the image she has of her ideal self. In this paper, I
focus on a former university music major who continues cultivating visions for her future throughcomposing essays, pretending she is her future self, and writing as if looking back on her past. The
analyses demonstrated that “back-to-the-future” essays can be a motivating tool and a powerfulself-guide. In her first essay, she envisioned her future ideal self, while in the second she mappedout pathways to her ideal. It is important for teachers to urge learners to continue revisiting andrevising their essays to keep their vision alive and transform it into action.
この研究は「未来から見た自分史」
を書き改訂する過程が、第二言語学習者の長期的動機づけにどのような効果を生むかを調査するものであり、音楽専攻の大学課程修了者1名を対象としたケー
ススタディーである。
このタイプのエッセイは学習者の未来へのビジョンを明確に具体的に表現したものとなるため、第二言語習得過程でセルフガイドとしてより効果的であると考えられる。一作目
は自分が成長したいと切望するイメージを描き、二作目はその姿を実現するためのより具体的なプランを練り上げている。
「未来から見た自分史」
は学習者自身が折に触れて振り返り改訂していくことが重要であり、教師はその過程をサポートすべきである。

For the past several decades, L2 motivation researchhas experienced more than a few theoretical phasessuch as the social psychological period and thecognitive-situated period. Currently, a vision-based
approach is gaining popularity in conjunction withthe theoretical development of the L2 motivational
self-system (Dörnyei, 2009; Dörnyei & Kubanyiova,
2014). Visions, or mental simulations, have dual
functions—cognitive and motivational (Paivio, 1986).
In mentally simulating their future, people createa goal, make plans to achieve the goal, and try out
various strategies in the process of trying to achieve
the goal. This is the cognitive function. At the sametime, people are energized through envisioning their
possible future selves of having attained the goal. Thisis the motivational function. These two cognitive andmotivational processes are likely independent but
complementary.
Possible selves (Markus & Nurius, 1986) have been
defined as “the future-oriented aspects of self-concept,”(Oyserman & James, 2009, p. 373) and work as futureself-guides, which reflect present challenges andpossible changes for the better. As such, envisioning
future possible selves can have important implications
for current decision making that will affect future
goal pursuit and influence future outcomes. Whenpeople clearly depict and imagine elaborately detailed
desired future self images, they feel the images to becloser and identify with them to a greater degree, thusincreasing motivation to pursue the benefits and self-

Kimura, H. (2017). Back-to-the-Future essays comealive. In G. Brooks (Ed.), The 2016 PanSIG Journal(pp. 151-156). Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

improvement goals (Perunovic & Wilson, 2009).
Dörnyei and Kubanyiova (2014) suggest thatteachers can motivate their students by having themproduce narratives in which L2 learners develop
The 2016 PanSIG Journal

151

Kimuratheir visions as competent L2 users. That is, learners
imagine they are now successful L2 users and write
an autobiographical story in relation to how they
have progressed. This retrospective narrative or future
history, referred to as a “back-to-the-future” essay inthis study, is more powerful in spurring the desire foraction as well as impelling learners toward that action
than a forward-looking essay expressing abstract futuregoals (Dörnyei & Kubanyiova, 2014).
In an empirical study, Whitty (2002)
demonstrated that back-to-the-future essays wereeffective in helping L2 learners develop their successful
learner identities. However, generating a vision with asuccessful self-image does not automatically translate
into actions that actually lead to stretching a learner’s
skills. Approaching a desired long-term goal requires
a commitment or a prolonged process of engagement(Libby & Eibach, 2009). Dörnyei and Kubanyiova(2014) compiled a list of nine conditions for such
images to enhance actual practices: (a) the learnerhas a strong desire to become the imaged self; (b) agap exists between the present self and the desiredself (Higgins, 1987); (c) the future self is not withineasy reach; (d) the future self is conceived as plausible;(e) the image is rich in specific details; (f ) the image
acts as a roadmap toward the goal, accompanied byprocedural strategies; (g) the future self is in harmony
with other aspects of his/her self-concept; (h) theimage is activated regularly; and (i) the ideal self image
is counterbalanced by a feared self-image. Under these
conditions, in theory, visions described in back-to-thefuture essays have the potential to motivate learning
behaviors.
Furthermore, both the visions that learners create
and the strategies they use to implement them may
be modified or transformed. However elaborately
formulated the initial visions, it is likely that revisions,manipulations, or changes will inevitably occur at leastin some cases, or at least to some extent. Also, an ideal
L2 self does not stand alone. As condition (g) states,
this self should be compatible, and even interactive,
with other aspects of the learner’s self-concept.
Different life goals and motives operate in parallel in a
dynamic but coherent system of self-concept (Mischel

152 The 2016 PanSIG Journal& Morf, 2003) and the L2 self can be stretched or
bent into different shapes. These multi-dimensional,
malleable, and dynamic characteristics of learners’
self-concepts, including their idea L2 selves have yet
to be explored in SLA, to the best of my knowledge.
Furthermore, no study has investigated whether
the above-mentioned conditions are appropriate
prerequisites for enhancing learner vision.
In this single case study, I examine how an L2
learner established and nurtured her possible selves in
two essays that were written a year apart. In exploring
this overall research question, I set up the following
specific research questions, which are in line with theconditions.
RQ1 from Condition (a) (envisioning desired
future selves): To what extent has the learner
maintained or modified the desired future image?
RQ2 from Conditions (b), (c), and (d) (plausible
goals and fantasy): How has she managed the balance
between plausible goals and fantasy?
RQ3 from Conditions (e) & (f ) (breaking downa career path into more manageable tasks): How havethe strategies she employs been developed, changed, orabandoned?
RQ4 from Condition (g) (compatibility withother possible selves): How compatible is her desired
self-image with other aspects of her self-concept?
RQ5 from Condition (h) (regular activation ofdesired future selves): How has she been negotiatingwith her future visions?
RQ6 from Condition (i) (ought-to self or feared
self ): How does her future ideal self relate to her
ought-to self or feared self ?

Methods
Participant
The single participant of this study is a university
graduate called Ryo (pseudonym), who majored inmusic and participated in a government-funded, shortstudy abroad program in 2013 (Hayashi, Kimura,
Kumagai, Morris, & Tashima, 2014). She was 22 years
old when she wrote the first essay and 23 when she
produced the second.

Back-To-The-Future Essays Come Alive, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 151-156

Procedure
In July 2015, I asked Ryo to compose a back-to-thefuture essay in which she pretends she is her future self
10 years later, writing the essay as if she were looking
back on her past. I defined the essay as a life history
looking backwards from the future (miraikara-mitajiubun-shi, in Japanese). She composed her essay in her
free time and submitted it in September 2015. In May
2016, I asked Ryo if she would like to revise her backto-the-future essay and she agreed. For this request,
she produced a visual representation of her plan for
the next 10 years, which she called a mind map, as
well as a follow-up essay in June 2016. I call this visual
representation and essay her second essay.
I also conducted informal interviews three times
in her native language, Japanese. The first of thesewas before she composed her first essay ( July 2015),
the second was before she composed the second essay(May 2016), and the third was after she finished her
mind-map and follow-up essay ( July 2016). Eachinterview was about 30 minutes long. The interviews
were collected as secondary data to supplement the
essay data.

Analysis
The data along with the visual representation werecoded for different themes and different future selves(Dörnyei, 2009). Some of the themes and future selves
were embedded in episodes, or small stories (Bamberg,
2006). In Bamberg’s idea, small stories are situated inlonger narratives such as life history or biography andwriters’ different identities are being negotiated inconstructing small stories.

Results
The First Essay
Ryo composed a 2,698 character-long “back-to-thefuture” essay in Japanese. The essay was divided into
six sections: (a) introduction, (b) study abroad, (c)music performance, (d) teaching music, (e) businessand international activities, and (f ) conclusion. Eachsection was about 400 characters long. Ryo took

the third person perspective in picturing herself(Libby, Shaeffer, Eibach, & Slemmer, 2007), thus,
she pretended that a 32-year-old Ryo was writing a
letter to a 22-year-old Ryo, just like she was writing a
letter to a longtime good friend, or a younger sister.
For example, she started her essay with “Hello!” andfinished with “Write to you again later!” The images ofher future selves, including her musician selves and L2
selves, were depicted in the narrative from a somewhat
outsider perspective, with a few small stories as if they
had actually happened in her life and inspired her tomove forward. In her letter-style essay, she constructeda coherent success story and in so doing, encouraged
her past self, writing that she had made the rightdecision back then. For the purpose of achieving thegoals in her field, her L2 selves studying abroad andperforming in foreign languages worked together withher successful musician selves, such as a singer self, acontestant self in auditions, a music teacher self, andan entrepreneur self, among others with reference tospecific names of contests, musicians, concert halls,
and the name of her fictional music school. In writing,she used technical terms such as a special role given to
opera soprano singers—soubrette—and a shortenedname of a concert hall, Sei-bun, for Seinen Bunka
Hall. These terms effectively demonstrated that she
was writing to a “buddy.”

The Second Essay
For her second essay, Ryo drew a colorful roadmap
with relevant procedural steps toward her futuregoals, accompanied by a short follow-up essay of 543
characters long. On the roadmap, there were steppingstones toward her ideal selves, that is, detailed plansto achieve her goals. In the second essay Ryo activatedand explored most of her future selves. However, she
did not refer to her entrepreneur self. This revised
essay turned out to be a forward-looking essay rather
than a backward-future history. Although her L2 self
was described less explicitly in this revised essay, it was
implied that she would need relatively high L2 skills intaking lessons in English and studying abroad in orderto achieve her ideal musician self.

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KimuraDiscussion
Envisioning Desired Future Selves (RQ 1)
Ryo clearly describes her desired future selves in thefirst and second essays. As a classical singer, she isperforming in recitals and concerts. She is interested inearly music, specifically the Renaissance and Baroqueperiods. She wrote that the decision she made 10 years
ago was the right one—that is, she would pursue a
career in music instead of taking the first available job.
Some of her plans were concrete. For example, shereferred to specific pieces she sang in her concerts—
requiems by Mozart and Faure. She named her music
school, Ensemble ♪, and made a list of what her
students could learn in the school.
She said in the second interview that when writing
this essay, she visualized herself performing andimagined hearing the orchestra playing behind her
in a concert hall. “It (the image) came naturally,” sherecounted. In her image, she wore a dress she actually
owned and saw familiar faces in the audience.

Plausible Goals and Fantasy (RQ 2)
Conditions (b), (c), and (d) require that the learner
negotiate a delicate balance between a sheer fantasy
that cannot possibly translate into goal-pursuing
behaviors and an overly realistic goal that will notboost aspirations. Neither end possesses significant
motivational capacity or mobilizes potential for
writers to move in a desired future direction. In thefirst essay, Ryo imagined herself as a highly successful
musician. Although this image was likely closer tofantasy or daydreaming and her aspirations are overoptimistic and out of touch with reality, it helped inher visionary journey toward mapping out a pathway
to success as she defined it. In the second essay, herideal self undertook a reality check and became moregrounded in realistic expectations: she did not write
about herself as an invited singer at a concert held in arenowned concert hall, for example. However, insteadof becoming disillusioned and abandoning her goal,in her second essay, she clearly described her musician
self, as well as her high L2 skills. That is, Ryo was
taking lessons in an English-medium academia andsinging in several European languages. It appears that

154 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

the imaginary successful musician self in her first essay
provided a significant potential impact on the actionplans described in her second essay.

Breaking Down a Career Path into MoreManageable Tasks (RQ 3)
Ryo’s second essay constituted a timeline or a setof action plans with step-by-step, short-term goals
along the way and charted the progress towards her
long-term goal. She operationalized her life goals as amusician and a successful language user. Her steppingstones were concrete with names of lessons, seminars,
sessions, teachers, and other performers. In particular,
her action plans for 2016–2017 (her immediate
future) were color-coded and tangible. The 2016 plans
were made into a monthly schedule and seemed to
be specific tasks that required completion in order toreach the goal or the prerequisites needed for entry
into more special music and language training.
This specificity posed a clear contrast with her
first essay, in which notions about the ways to achieve
her life goal were fuzzy. The differences between thetwo essays demonstrated how Ryo had negotiated theabove-mentioned balance between a daydream andher reality. She planned her route toward her ideal selfand sketched out an outline or a blueprint to make it
happen in her second essay.

Compatibility with Other Possible Selves(RQ 4)Neither of Ryo’s ideal musician selves nor her L2 selves
stand alone. In her imagination, she is singing andtaking lessons in her native and foreign languages,
depending upon the songs she practices, the country
she studies in, and the teacher who gives her lessons.
She said in the third interview that when taking lessons,she would like to understand what her teacher says
to her “directly,” not through interpreters. Her ideal
musician self is likely to be a competent multilingual
self. The third interview happened to be conducted amonth before she planned to take singing lessons froman English-speaking teacher in Yamanashi. I asked if
she anticipated any problems in communicating withthe teacher in English. She replied that she was notBack-To-The-Future Essays Come Alive, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 151-156
worried but excited by the opportunity.

Regular Activation of Desired Future
Selves (RQ 5)
The roadmap Ryo produced as her second essay
became her action plan, with stepping stones on thepathway toward her desired self. She put the roadmap
on the wall in front of her desk and continued to revise
it with a repertoire of appropriate plans, scripts, andstrategies. She said in the third interview, “The ideas(for the action plans) were already in my mind, andsome were already ongoing, but putting them on paper
made me think clearly about what I need to do in thenext few years.” It appears as though she experienced
her future goal in her first essay (the end state) andthe journey toward the goal in the second essay (theprocess).

Ought-to Self or Feared Self (RQ 6)
Ryo did not write about her ought-to self or feared
self, but alluded to the undesired state, and she made it
clear that she did not want to end up being perceived
as lacking ability, unqualified, or indecisive. She wrote
her first essay a few months after she failed a graduate
school entrance examination. She wrote, “Back then,I was disappointed (at the results) and sunk into low
spirits, but since then I’ve been supported by many
people and I came all the way (to become a successful
musician). Her feared self that must be avoided was
the past self, mourning her failure and never returning
to a challenging and competitive life as a musician.

Conclusion
In this case study, I demonstrated that writing “backto-the-future” essays helped the participant toconstruct and cultivate her vision as a professionalmusician and as an L2 user. The results of this study
supported the nine conditions for the motivating
capacity of future self-guides. As her essays andinterviews demonstrated, Ryo refused to let her
vision fade. Instead, she expanded it into a plausible
life goal accompanied by specific short-term subgoals: “[T]he energy released by the vision needs tobe channeled into constructive behavior” (Dörnyei &Kubanyiova, 2014, p. 99). It is likely that because Ryo
communicated with her goal, successfully personalized
it, and maintained an active vision, her second essay
evolved into an elaborate action plan (Libby & Eibach,2009). Although one case study does not translate to agolden route of successful “back-to-the-future” essay
writing—and there are many different ways to use
these types of backward essays to motivate learners—I
recommend that teachers not only have their students
construct their visions, but revisit and revise them as
Ryo did and continues to do.

Acknowledgements
I am grateful to my participant, Ryo, for her contribution
to this study. I would also like to offer my sincere thanks
to the two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful
feedback regarding the earlier versions of the article.

References
Bamberg, M. (2006). Stories: Big or small: Why do
we care? Narrative Inquiry, 16(1), 139–147.
Dörnyei, Z. (2009). The L2 motivational self system.
In Z. Dörnyei & E. Ushioda (Eds.), Motivation,
language identity, and the L2 self (pp. 9–42).
Bristol, England: Multilingual Matters.
Dörnyei, Z., & Kubanyiova, M. (2014). Motivating
learners, motivating teachers: Building vision in
the language classroom. Cambridge, England:
Cambridge University Press.
Hayashi, B., Kimura, H., Kumagai, H., Morris, J. F.,& Tashima, Y. (2014). The bridge for tomorrow:
Miyagi Gakuin and the KAKEHASHI Project.
Bulletin of Miyagi Gakuin Women’s University,
118, 69–89.
Higgins, E. T. (1987). Self-discrepancy: A theory
relating self and affect. Psychological Review, 94,
319–340. doi: 10.1037/0033-295X.94.3.319
Libby, L. K., & Eibach, R. P. (2009). Seeing the links
among the personal past, present, and future:
How imagery perspective in mental simulation
functions in defining the temporally extended
self. In K. D. Markman, W. M. P. Klein & J.
A. Suhr (Eds.), Handbook of imagination andmental simulation (pp. 359–372). New York, NY:
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Libby, L. K., Shaeffer, E. M., Eibach, R. P., &Slemmer, J. A. (2007). Picture yourself at thepolls: Visual perspective in mental imagery
affects self-perception and behavior. Psychological
Science, 18(3), 199–203. doi: 10.1111/j.14679280.2007.01872.x
Markus, H., & Nurius, P. (1986). Possible selves.
American Psychologist, 41, 954-969. doi:
10.1037/0003-066X.41.9.954
Mischel, W., & Morf, C. C. (2003). The self as a
psycho-social dynamic processing system: A
meta-perspective on a century of the self in
psychology. In M. R. Leary & J. P. Tangney(Eds.), Handbook of self and identity (pp. 15–43).
New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
Oyserman, D., & James, L. (2009). Possible selves:
From content to process. In K. D. Markman, W.

M. P. Klein, & J. A. Suhr (Eds.), Handbook ofimagination and mental simulation (pp. 373–
394). New York, NY: Psychology Press.
Paivio, A. (1986). Mental representations: A dual
coding approach. New York, NY: Oxford
University Press.
Perunovic, W. Q. E., & Wilson, A. E. (2009).
Subjective proximity of future selves:
Implications for current identity, future appraisal,and goal pursuit motivation. In K. D. Markman,
W. M. P. Klein & J. A. Suhr (Eds.), Handbook ofimagination and mental simulation (pp. 347–
358). New York, NY: Psychology Press.
Whitty, M. (2002). Possible selves: Exploring theutility of a narrative approach. Identity: An
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2(3), 213–230.

Author’s Biography:
Harumi Kimura teaches at Miyagi Gakuin Women’s University in Sendai, Japan. She earned
her doctorate from Temple University. She studied L2 listening anxiety in her doctoral study,
and her academic interests include second language acquisition, learner development, learner
psychology, multilingualism, and cooperative learning

156 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Improving Spoken Anecdotes ThroughError Correction and Task Repetition
Paul Anthony Marshall
TEVAL & LD SIGs
Paulanthony.marshall@gmail.com
This presentation details the researcher’s experimentation with a procedure designed toencourage improvements in university students’ spoken production. After recording students’spoken anecdotes, the teacher provided a list of errors and elicited corrections individually. The
students then listened to their own recording with the errors and corrections in front of them.
It was hypothesized that the procedure would enable students to ‘notice’ their own errors andthat this would lead to them not being repeated. Students’ spoken production before and after
the procedure was analysed for improvements or changes, and questionnaires were provided to
students for feedback about the procedure.
この発表は研究者による大学生のスピーキング能力の向上を促進するために作られた手順を用いた実験について述べている。学生の会話を録音した後、教員は間違いと、その修正が書かれた紙を個々に与える。
その後、学生はその紙を目の前に置きながら自分たちの録音を聞く。実験前後の学生のスピーキング活動は、学生に自分のミスに気付かせることを可能とするもの、
そして、間違いを繰り返さないようにさせることができると仮定された。

The biggest challenge for many of my university
English language students is in spoken fluency. While
speaking and listening classes provide some remedy tothis situation, practice opportunities are very limited
due to large class sizes and the small percentage of
foreigners in Japan with whom to practise speaking
English. This situation led me to search for methods
to help students to improve the quality of their spoken
production, in terms of accuracy and fluency. This
project took place over a ten-day period, focusing on
two students recording their own two-minute spoken
anecdotes. It aimed to answer the question “Can
improvements in spoken anecdotes be encouraged
through student self-assessment and task repetition?”

Marshall, P. A. (2017). Improving spoken anecdotes
through error correction and task repetition. In
G. Brooks (Ed.), The 2016 PanSIG Journal (pp.
157-164). Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

Relevant Research
A great deal of research has been carried out into
students ‘noticing’ their spoken errors. However, very
little has been written about providing written corrective
feedback on students’ spoken production. The reason
for this is presumably that students are usually taught
in classes and therefore, teachers can rarely focus sucha large amount of attention on individual students.
Schmidt and Frota (1986) detail two kinds of ‘noticing’that are necessary for acquisition:
1. Learners must attend to linguistic features of the
input that they are exposed to, without which
input cannot become ‘intake’.
2. Learners must ‘notice the gap’. That is to say, makecomparisons between their current state of theirdeveloping linguistic system, as realized in their
output, and the target language system, available as
input.
Thornbury (1997) suggests that language teachers
encourage noticing, by focusing their learners’
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Marshallattention on the distance to be covered between
their current level of inter-language and their target
language. He goes on to explain that corrective
feedback can be a second type of ‘noticing’.
Turning to the correction of students’ speaking,
Swain’s (1985) output hypothesis claims that in orderto improve their spoken accuracy, learners must be
pushed to modify their problematic utterances. Lyster
and Ranta (1997) identified six different ways thatteachers react to students’ errors: explicit correction,
recasts, clarification requests, metalinguistic feedback,elicitation, and repetition. The study found thatrecasts were the most commonly used, but that they
were the least effective. Elicitation was found to be themost effective form of spoken corrective feedback interms of leading to successful uptake.
Exact repetition of a task was the focus of a study(Bygate, 1996) which analysed two performances by
one subject who was shown a video extract and thenasked to retell the story. The task was repeated without
warning three days later. Bygate found that this formof repetition led to some improvement in fluency andaccuracy, and a marked improvement in repertoire– for example, a 75 per cent increase in subordinate
clauses. He argued that these findings supported the
hypothesis that during the initial task the learner
was concerned primarily with heuristic planning ofcontent, and was under pressure of time when seeking
the linguistic resources to communicate it. On thesecond attempt, the content of the task being morefamiliar, she was more concerned with giving attention
to the linguistic formulation.
There are some possible differences that could
result from task repetition. For example:
we might expect performance to be more fluent interms of pausing and speed of words per minute.
This is because all things being equal we would
expect that doing the task a second time would
involve less planning work. Also it is likely to havea different form: because the task has already beenformulated previously, we can expect fewer false
starts and self corrections (Bygate, 1996, p. 138).
As a result of my background reading into the

158 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

literature, and due to practical reasons, I concluded
that it might be effective to provide my students
with written corrective feedback on their spoken
production and then elicit corrections. The use of
written error correction is beneficial in the sense that itleaves students with a record of errors and corrections,whereas spoken error correction does not do this.

Participants
The two students who participated in this study wereboth female Japanese nationals and full-time studentsof International Culture at Shizuoka University of Art
and Culture (SUAC). They were both twenty years
old and were very motivated to improve their spoken
production due to their intention to study abroadin the near future. Both students had a reasonablelevel of fluency but there was certainly potential
to improve this further. They also both had what I
considered to be ingrained errors in certain aspectsof their pronunciation. Their lexical and grammaticalaccuracy was also of a reasonable level but with room
for improvement. The errors produced by thesestudents in all aspects of their spoken production areminor in the sense that they almost never impede
communication; the essential meaning that they try
to convey almost always gets across to the listener butwith varying levels of ‘exactness’.

Aims & Method
This procedure was designed to improve fluency byallowing students to repeatedly listen to themselves
speaking. It was thought that familiarity with the task
would allow students to increase in confidence and totherefore become more able to speak comfortably andcomprehensively.
It was hoped that pronunciation could be improvedby directly providing students with some form of error
correction. The teacher/researcher would then also
have to model and drill the correct forms. Students
would then be asked to listen to the recording ofthemselves speaking while looking at these errors.
In addition to being provided with error correction,
learners’ pronunciation might be indirectly improvedby hearing themselves speak.

Error Correction and Task Repetition, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 157-164
It was believed that grammatical and lexicalaccuracy might also be improved through theprocess of the teacher/researcher directly providing
error correction and eliciting corrections, and thenstudents re-listening to their own spoken production
while reading through a written record of errors andcorrections.
The combined result of improvements in fluency,
pronunciation, and grammatical and lexical accuracy
should lead to an increase in the quality of thelanguage produced.
This study took place during five one-to-one
lessons over a period of ten days. The two students andI embarked upon an intensive preparation schedule
to improve their spoken production. During eachof the five sessions, students were given a topic andone minute to prepare to speak for two minutes. The
topics and format of this task were borrowed frompart 2 of the IELTS speaking exam. The students
were asked to record themselves speaking, using theirmobile phones. While the students spoke, the teacher/researcher listened and noted down any errors inpronunciation, lexis and grammar. After each recorded
performance, they were provided with a list of errors
to which the researcher elicited corrections (Appendix
1). Students then listened to the recording at homewith the errors and corrections in front of them.
It was hoped that this procedure would enable
students to ‘notice’ their own errors from one practicesession to the next, and to a greater extent from the
beginning to the end of the five sessions, and that
this may lead to them not being repeated. It was also
hoped that the task repetition involved would benefit
students in terms of fluency. Topics were not repeated.
In order to allow analysis of any changes in students’spoken output, I recorded the first and final spoken
anecdotes produced by each student out of the seriesof five, on a separate phone. In addition, I created aquestionnaire (Appendix 2) for students to completeat the end of the study, which encouraged them toreflect on the process, and whether or not it had led to
improvements in their spoken production.

Results
Analysis of Students’ First and Final
Spoken Performances
I input examples of language produced by the students
during the first and final spoken performances, into a
Thematic Chart. An example of which is provided below.
(Table 1). Due to limitations of space, the full analysis of
students’ spoken performances cannot be displayed here
in a thematic chart. Thematic charts are an effective way
to compare sets of data. In this case, it allowed changes,
patterns, similarities and differences to be identified
between language produced during the first and final
performances, and between the two students.
Student A produced 165 words in two minutes
during the first performance and 150 words during thefinal one. However, the researcher noted that her rateof speech seemed quicker during the final performanceand also that there was more interconnection between
sentences. That is, coherence and cohesion of the
spoken text as a whole, increased. Although there
was some interconnection between sentences during
the first performance it was unnatural and disjointed(examples of unnatural interconnection between
sentences are underlined and italicized, and examples
of more natural interconnection between sentences
are underlined in Table 1). She self-corrected several
times in both performances. Possible reasons for thisinclude increased confidence, increased ability due topractice, and increased self-awareness.
Regarding retention of corrected errors, student
A repeated some of the same errors in the final
performance despite being provided with error
correction for these after the first performance. The
clearest example of this was with the use of the present
simple instead of past simple when talking about thepast. Non-improvement in errors which were pointed
out also occurred with omitting articles, but the rules
surrounding articles are notoriously complex and cantake a lifetime to master.
Furthermore, there were many instances wherestudent A was corrected on her pronunciation after
the first performance and yet continued to make thesame error in the final performance. Pronunciation
errors can become ingrained and are also considered
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160 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

150 words
in 2 mins

165 words
in 2 mins

****

Name

to go. (were, places, had)…so that part I hate my hometown.

grammarsometimes teachers from other countries taught me English.

I have studied English for 14 years.
When I entered the elementary school when I was 6 years old,

When I was junior high school student. (no article)
But there are no place to hang out with my friends, so I have

It is located east of Shizuoka.
My parents should go Shizuoka for work.

Have (had)A lot of class of him.
He played the saxophone really well.
Students loved this teacher and I loved this teacher too. (noreferencing)
Go (went)
University of music.

For all people.

All people.
Writer (artist)

I’m a student of university.
Someday I’m want to be English teacher.
Some class I don’t want to take it but I have to take forgraduation so I should take it.
That is the only thing I hate to be a student.
Almost all I am free.
I prefer to spend time with my friend than be alone.
When I was junior high school student.

GrammarExcited / exciting (selfcorrected)
Study myself.
I would like to introduce mymusic teacher.
I met him for second grade.
He is really good voice.
Table manner.

Vocabulary

connected sentences.
Self-correction ofPace of speaking isquicker. More inter-

Quite low thinking
time. Fairly quick andfluent.
Occasional selfcorrection.

Fluency

Table 1Distinctive Features of the Organizational Structure of Three Participating Universities

similar.
Ago (agew)

Parents (pawents)
Walk/work soundJob (jowb)

because…

Yes, I think they should
charge entrance fee

I wanted to hang out with
my friends a lot.

me.
Not only English, butanother kind of language.
Yeah. Last week I met
him…

For (ow)…and I also study…
Of (ow)
Someday, I want to…
So (o-e-w), so I think,…
ChildfoodHang out with my friend.
Langage (no gwage) …so I can learn English
Talk (towk)
and Portuguese fromTaught (towt)
customers.
People (pee-pow) …so it’s not enough for

Pronunciation

Natural Language
Strategy

MarshallError Correction and Task Repetition, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 157-164
by many researchers to be extremely difficult, if not
impossible, to rectify. Unfortunately, there were no
obvious instances where the student produced thecorrect version of a piece of lexis or grammar which
she had been previously corrected on. However, there
were many errors which appeared during the first
performance but were not repeated during the final
performance.
Student B showed a great deal of improvement influency and understanding. She produced 117 words
in two minutes in the first performance, and 173
words in the final performance. Also, having paused
for long periods before answering, and requesting
repetition of the question during the first performance,
she answered quickly and did not pause or ask for
repetition during the final performance.
Student B produced a variety of errors in the first
performance, for which corrections were elicited.
Some examples of these are incorrect referencing“Parks… its… its”, countable / uncountable nouns “Somany delicious food there”, and incorrectly formed
past tense “We can learned”. Unfortunately, in the
final performance, similar errors were produced. One
example is that referencing was non-existent rather
than wrong, meaning that student B repeated the samenouns instead of replacing them with pronouns suchas ‘it’ or ‘them’.
In a similar way to student A, student B also failed
to correct errors in pronunciation which were pointed
out. It is possible that this is because they have become
fossilized and are produced automatically while thestudents’ minds are focused on the content of what
they are saying. Perhaps a pronunciation-specificprogramme would be necessary to correct such errors.
To briefly explain this, the processing of information
involves a shift from controlled to automatic
processing. This is called ‘automatisation’, and occurs
when certain information is accessed repeatedly. A
good analogy of automatisation is playing the guitarand singing. When someone first learns the guitar, ittakes a great deal of concentration to form each chordwith the fingers. An experienced singer/guitarist canfocus mostly on singing and form the chords almost
subconsciously. However, according to Mitchell andMyles (2004): “Automatized sequences are stored

as units in the LTM…however, once acquired, suchautomatized skills are very difficult to delete or
modify” (p. 101)

Final Questionnaires
Both students were very positive about the procedurein the feedback they provided on their questionnaires.
Both students A and B said that the technique
was helpful because it made them aware of errors
and allowed them to fix them. Student A said thatthe technique helped her with fluency, grammar,
vocabulary, and pronunciation, whereas student B
specified grammar and pronunciation. Student A
mentioned that being able to discuss the errors withthe teacher was helpful. Student B suggested that morelanguage input would have helped. Both students said
that listening to themselves repeatedly is beneficial.

Conclusion
Overall, it appears that this procedure was constructive
and beneficial for all involved. Very real improvements
were made throughout the process in some areas,
although to what extent these were due to the error
correction and listening technique which was utilized,
is impossible to determine. However, this study
involved only two participants and covered only fivesessions, and therefore generalizability is very limited.
Of course, the act of focusing on a task andrepeating it several times should, in itself, encourage
improvements in the quality of task performance.
In order to really determine to what extent error
correction played a role in the improvements thatwere observed, a further experiment which includes acontrol group would have to be conducted.

Reflection on Findings
I will continue to use a similar procedure with students
in the future where realistically possible, because I feelthat they will benefit from the feedback loop which
incorporates practice, error correction and applyingthat error correction to a subsequent performance ofthe task. Of course, this will depend greatly on timeand logistical factors because the procedure is not very
economical in terms of utilizing a teacher efficiently
as a resource. I believe that providing written error
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Marshallcorrection for spoken errors proved to be somewhat
effective in this instance. The process of eliciting
corrections, and then allowing students to take theseaway and notice the errors while listening to recordingsof themselves was, in my opinion, one of the mainstrengths of this procedure. In terms of improvements
to the method, I will attempt to take on board student
B’s suggestion to provide more language input, but inpractical terms this might be time-consuming.
This procedure or an adapted version could be
utilized to encourage improvements in a variety of
spoken production tasks; I plan to experiment with
providing written error correction for spoken errors forpronunciation, grammar, and lexical choice separately
in future research. It would also be interesting andvaluable to experiment with the correction of treatableversus non-treatable errors in the procedure followed
during the current study.

References
Bygate, M. (1996). Effects of task repetition:
Appraising the developing language of learners. In
J. Willis & D. Willis (Eds.), Challenge and change

in language teaching (pp. 136-146). Oxford,
England: Heinemann.
Lyster, R., & Ranta, L. (1997). Corrective feedback
and learner uptake: Negotiation of form incommunicative Classrooms. Studies in Second
Language Acquisition, 19, 37-66.
Mitchell, R. and Myles, F. (2004) Second language
learning theories, London, England: Oxford
University Press.
Schmidt, R., & Frota, S. (1986). Developing basic
conversational ability in a second language: A
case study of an adult learner of Portuguese. In
R. Day (Ed.), Talking to learn (pp. 237–326).
Rowley, MA: Newbury House
Swain, M. (1985). Communicative competence:
Some roles of comprehensible input andcomprehensible output in its development. In S.
M. Gass, & C. G. Madden (Eds.), Input in second
language acquisition (pp. 235-253). London,
England: Newbury House.
Thornbury, S. (1997). Reformulation andreconstruction: Tasks that promote ‘noticing’.
ELT Journal, 51(4), 326-335.

Author’s Biography:
Paul Anthony Marshall is from Manchester in the UK and is currently an English Lecturer at
Matsuyama University in Ehime, Shikoku. He is also an IELTS speaking examiner. His researchinterests include criterion-referenced assessment, formative assessment, and the use of video andaudio recordings for task improvement.

162 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Error Correction and Task Repetition, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 157-164

Appendix 1

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Marshall

Error Correction and Task Repetition

Appendix 2

Appendix 2

Student Self-Assessment Form
Extended Speaking (90 seconds)
Assess yourself while listening to yourself:
1. How long did you speak for?
2. Was your speaking fast, normal, or slow?
3. Did you describe details (for example sounds / colours / feelings)?
4. Did you use sequencing words for each part of your story (First, After that, Next, Finally)?
5. Score your own speaking 1 – 4 (1= strong, 2 = not too bad, 3 = not too good, 4 = weak)
Fluency: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4
Grammar (level and accuracy): 1 / 2 / 3 / 4
Vocabulary (level and accuracy): 1 / 2 / 3 / 4
Pronunciation: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

6. Can you think of more to say about this topic?

7. How can you improve your performance on this task the next time you do it?

164 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Exploring Language Learning Advisors’ Practical
Knowledge: A Taxonomic Perspective
Tanya M. McCarthy
Kyushu Institute of Technology
mccarthytanya.m@gmail.com
The credibility of any professional should be based on degree of knowledge and experience.
Credentials in many cases however, are determined solely by academic degrees, publications
and/or memberships to professional organizations. For professionals involved with Language
Learning Advising (LLA) however, there is a significant need to acquire background and up-todate specialized knowledge on various aspects of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) as well as
counselling practices. The “standard of knowledge” which represents current practices in LLA(knowledge domains, skills, values) has not been fully examined or detailed in current LLA
literature. This research thus aims to identify and compile current standards of knowledge, whichreflects LLA-in-action.
専門家の信頼性は、その知識と経験の量に基づくべきです。
しかし、時には専門家の資格情報が学位、出版物、専門機関のメンバーシップだけに基づいています。
ランゲージ ラーニングアドバイザ
ーは、SLAとカウンセリングとしての知識を必要としています。 知識の標準はまだ知られていません。研究の目標は、
ランゲージ ラーニングアドバイザーの知識を識別することです。

For decades, considerable attention has been placedon understanding practitioner knowledge within
academic, research and business circles as practitioners
rely on their repertoire of knowledge to engage
effectively in various professional situations. This
wealth of knowledge is typically accessed automaticallyand practitioners usually do not reflect on how or why
specific aspects of knowledge were utilised. However,
if asked, the practitioner, in most cases, is able toprovide a rationale or reconstruct a reason for thedecision and the type of knowledge that was required
for the particular situation. Various studies have been
conducted across many fields in order to ascertain
the underlying knowledge that is required to operate
effectively within specific working environments.

Examples can be found in traditional disciplines suchas nursing (Cash, 1995); lifelong learning ( Jarvis,
1992; Rollett, 2001); cognitive therapy (BennettLevy, 2006); teaching (Calderhead, 1988, 1996; Lave,
1988; Schön, 1983; Zanting, Verloop & Vermunt,2003); and more recently, but less frequent, in the
newer field of Language Learning Advising (LLA)(Gremmo, 2009; McCarthy, 2016; Thornton, 2011).
Knowledge has been a challenging term todefine and has taken on various forms dependingon the nature of the profession. Terms to define
the different types of knowledge are for example
theoretical, technical, tacit, deliberate, reflective,
practical, procedural, personal, explicit or implicit(Alavi & Leidner, 2001). This paper focuses on thebasic day-to-day knowledge used by advisors to help

McCarthy, T. (2017). Exploring language learning
advisors’ practical knowledge: A taxonomic
perspective. In G. Brooks (Ed.), The 2016 PanSIG
Journal (pp. 165-173). Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

them effectively handle not only familiar situations,but also unique and sometimes unexpected events.
Henceforth, it is referred to as “practical knowledge.”
Having a taxonomic perspective of this practical
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165

McCarthy
knowledge makes it possible for it to be categorized,
stored, distributed, analysed and applied to various
situations by both novice and expert advisors. In
essence, such a taxonomy would create a situation
where novice practitioners would have a kind of‘ready-to-use’ databank of essential knowledge.
This paper thus tries to make explicit a taxonomyof knowledge gathered over eight years from within
three very different tertiary institutions. Through theresearchers own practical experience, interviews withpracticing advisors in these tertiary institutions andrecorded data of advising sessions, learning advisors’
practical knowledge were accessed. The aim of thispaper was to capture relevant information and make itavailable to practicing advisors in an accessible format
to be shared. The emphasis was on identifying advisors’
knowledge-in-action (Schön, 1983, 1987) rather thantheoretical knowledge gained from reading researchbooks and articles. The distinguishing characteristic ofadvisors’ practical knowledge was that the knowledge
was situated in practice.

Research Overview
This study was situated across three separate
universities with unique Communities of Practice(CoPs) and organizational cultures, thereby making
it possible to do a comparative analysis of practicalknowledge employed during advising sessions. The
three university were:
1. a private liberal arts university
2. a private science and technology university
3. a national university
Table 1 is a breakdown of the organizational
characteristics of the three universities.
Data were gathered from the Self-Access Learning
Centers (SALCs) operating at each institution. The
researcher was directly involved with advising in thefirst two institutions over a period of six years. Data
were gathered through a combination of self-reflective
reports, interviews and knowledge data recorded on
an excel spreadsheet from the team of advisors. The
excel spreadsheets at the private institutions included
what was discussed during the session (language skill
and problem faced) and the advice given to solve theproblem including resources. Monthly reports fromthe national university identified the type of advice
that was being sought in the SALC. As this centre had
been running for only two years and had not yet fully
set up a database for recording student information,
the researcher relied on interviews with the staff toclarify data presented in the monthly reports.
In-depth interviews were conducted with sevenpracticing advisors at the liberal arts university andfour practicing advisors in the national university.
Advisors were asked specifically about the type ofTable 1Distinctive Features of the Organizational Structure of Three Participating Universities
Private science and technology
Private liberal arts university
university

population 2,000-3,000 students
various language departments:
English, Chinese, Spanish,
Korean2,000-3,000 students
various science and technology
departments: Engineering, IT,Intellectual Property

National university
12,000 students
wide range of departments:
Humanities, Medical Sciences,
IT, Engineering

SALC

Opened 2002. Full-time
Opened 2014. Full-time
Opened 2012. Part-time student
learning advisors, administrative learning advisor/teachers,
advisors and administrative staff.
and student staff.
administrative and student staff.

CoP

Advisors had previous
experience as EFL/ESL
teachers; Professional
development program

166 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Advisors had previous
Student staff were doctoral
experience as EFL/ESL
candidates at the university andteachers. No official professional worked as part-time advisors. No
development training program official training programPractical Knowledge, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 165-173
Table 2
Practical Knowledge Structures: The Taxonomy in Detail
Practical
knowledge

Private Liberal Arts University

Science and Technology
University

National University

Language Learning Speaking: fluency, pronunciation;
Speaking: fluency,
Listening: comprehension, strategies, pronunciation;
speed
presentation
Reading: speed, strategies,
Listening: comprehension
comprehension;
Reading: technical articles
Writing: grammar, structure,
Writing: abstracts
expressions;Vocabulary: technicalVocabulary: idioms, collocations,words
word families;
Grammar: specificGrammar: specific grammar in context grammar in context

Speaking: fluency;
presentation, speeches
Listening: comprehensionof long listening, speed
Writing: essays
Reading: comprehension
Vocabulary: colloquial
language, everyday
expressions, idioms

Test-taking

TOEFL, IELTS, TOEIC, EIKEN,FCE.

TOEFL, TOEIC.

Study abroad (andfuture career)

Application letters, entry requirements Pre-departure survival
to various countries, career advice,
English: speaking andresumes, interview, challenge of living listening
abroadClass-related

Homework and assignments: speaking Homework and
Homework andjournal, proofreading essays, research assignments: graded reader assignments: essays andreportspresentations

Casual Chat

Students redirected to yellow sofa

Consultation room duties

Main part of advisor duties

SDL

8-week SDL Module, students own
self-study plans

SDL worksheets, specificlearning advice

Independent grammar
and reading-based CALL
program connected to maincurriculum

Affective issues

Confidence and motivation; personal Personal issues (lonely
issues (family problems, failing, worries students, no friends)
about the future, disagreements withteacher)X

Resources

How to find, how to use for specificlearning goals

How to select graded
readers and test-taking
materials

X

CALL

How to use the SALC equipment andcomputer software

How to use the SALC
equipment

X

Research

Teacher and student research:
proofread, evaluate

Teacher and student
scientific research:
Proofread papers andabstracts, presentation
practiceX

Organizational
structure andservices

SALC service’s rules, regulations, staff in charge, operational hours;
student staff employment; PR tour groups; SDL program

TOEIC, TOEFL

Real-word advice fromstaff who had a history ofoverseas education

SALC staff; hours ofoperation; schedule

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McCarthy
advice students typically asked for in a particularsituational context and the type of advice given. In
this way, common knowledge types could be listed
and categorised. In the private science and technology
university, the researcher used self-reflective reports
and excel spreadsheet data from advising sessions of
the three advisors.
Drawing on the different CoPs, a taxonomy was
first created for each institution and then combined togive an overall picture of advisors’ practical knowledge(Table 2). The exploration into advisor knowledge
is thus based on a study of practicing advisors whose
fundamental role is to provide language learning
advice to students on a wide variety of topics

Language Learning Advising andPractical Knowledge
Research literature has presented LLA as situatedsomewhere between classroom teaching and holistic
counselling (see Mynard & Carson, 2012). It is
not a profession which easily lends itself to direct
observation of practice. Indeed, the practice is one
in which the advisor and learner typically engage ina one-to-one dialogue in a private setting. Effective
advising entails having the relevant knowledge to
guide the learner through the necessary steps to being
a self-directed learner. As such, the nature of LLA
requires that the advisor have sufficient knowledge
about various aspects of the EFL classroom such as
second language learning theories, learning strategies,
language acquisition, cultural norms and institutional
expectations.
Several suggestions have been provided within the
research literature as essentials for practicing advisors.
Gremmo (2009), for example, speaks about thenecessity of multidisciplinary expertise of linguistics,
psychology and language didactics. In detail, she breaks
knowledge down into three components: knowledge
about the nature of language, knowledge about thelanguage learning process and knowledge of thespecific self-directed language learning scheme within
the professional organization. Two specific areas ofexpertise also considered to be of importance to LLA
are first-hand experience in teaching and learning a

168 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

second language and an understanding of language
learning strategies (Mozzon-McPherson, 2001; Riley,1997). There is a growing number of studies which
are contributing to our overall understanding of theknowledge dynamics of LLA (Kato & Mynard, 2015;
McCarthy, 2016; Mynard & Carson, 2012); however,having a taxonomy of shared practical knowledge
would further show the specific knowledge strands
that would be beneficial for advisors to access.

Taxonomic Perspective of Advisors’
Practical Knowledge
The three universities were located in different
prefectures across Japan. Student needs, goals andlearning objectives for the most part were also
completely different. The common factor between
these institutions was the SALC, which employedstaff in the form of learning advisors to assist students
with their language learning. Practitioner knowledge
varied within these institutions, however there weresome overlapping types of practical knowledge. The
following discussion illustrates the specific knowledge
dynamics at each university.

Private Liberal Arts University
The wider goal of many students at this liberal arts
university was to work in a global industry setting
such as tourism, international trading or a Japaneseorganization with international branches, which
required use of a foreign language. Study abroad
programs were a popular option and many students
needed to gain high scores in specific international
examinations to qualify for these programs. Detailed
information was collected from students in a userfriendly excel sheet format in a shared folder that wasaccessible to all advisors. Advisors were thus able to see
notes from their colleagues of main topics discussedwith learners, the specific problem area and the advice
given. This form of knowledge sharing system served
two purposes: reviewing what was already known or
gaining new knowledge. Figure 1 is the breakdownof advisors’ practical knowledge over 6 years (20062012).
The four major categories were class-related

Practical Knowledge, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 165-173

Figure 1. Practical knowledge at a liberal arts university.

matters (22%), language learning (20%), casualchat (19%) and self-directed learning (15%). Class-professional development self-reflective notes. Figure
2 is the breakdown of advisor knowledge types over 2

related matters generally included questions about
homework or class assignments such as getting
feedback on essays or helping with students’ speaking
journal. Within language learning, how to improve
speaking was the area in which students sought
advice most frequently at 42%. This indicates theimportance of oral communication for liberal arts
students. With regard to casual chat, advisors gaveassistance, but explained that there were two services
already in place for speaking practice. As LLA is
focused on the self-discovery aspect of learning, daily
conversation practice was not considered to be partof the advisor’s responsibilities. It was thus importantthat the advisor had knowledge of the institutionalrules and regulations in order to redirect students tothe appropriate support area. SDL strategy awarenesswas also a major part of advising as the institution had
implemented a SDL program which was connected tothe main language curriculum.

years (2012-2014).
Casual chat (at 37%) again played a central role in
the advisors’ daily responsibilities as students sought
more opportunities for speaking practice. The othermajor categories in which advisors assisted learners
were test-taking (28%), SDL (17%) and language
learning (14%). Advising engineering students on how
to improve their TOEIC score was a major part of
the job as gaining a high score was a requirement for
many companies post-graduation. This meant that theadvisor had to be familiar with all aspects of the test
as well as test-taking strategies. SDL advice was mostly
connected to students who came to the SALC tocomplete the Independent Learning Worksheets. Thesestudents were typically performing weakly in language
classes and came for advice on which SDL worksheets
they should do to gain extra points. Within thelanguage learning category, speaking and readingwere equally important for students as students
needed assistance with how to read lengthy scientificarticles and do effective presentations at domestic andinternational conferences.

Private Science and Technology
University
The wider goal of students at this university was towork in the engineering industry which required
specific technical use of a foreign language. Data
were gathered mainly from the shared online excel
spreadsheet of advising sessions and the researcher’s

National University
Students at the national university had varied goals
as there was a wide cross section of disciplines. All
students were non-English majors and required
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169

McCarthy

Figure 2. Practical knowledge at a science and technology university.

English for very different purposes, thus thecurriculum was largely focused on English for Generalbringing students to the SALC. However, advisors
also commented that students sought advice on test-

Academic Purposes. Figure 3 is the breakdown of thepractical knowledge advisors required over the brief
period that the SALC had been open (2012-2014).
This SALC had not yet designed a comprehensive
system of recording information, so data werecompiled from monthly reports and interviews.
According to the usage statistics report, similar tothe other universities, casual chat (76%) was the mostpopular reason to visit the SALC. During informalinterviews with the advisors, it was explained thatdaily conversation practice was the main attraction

taking (12%), language learning (8%) and to a lesser
extent, study-abroad (4%). With regard to test-taking,students wanted advice mainly about the TOEFL
test as many planned to do a study-abroad program,but advisors also had to be prepared to give advice
on the TOEIC test for students who had not got therequired score for their job-hunting. For language
skills, advisors reported that students mostly asked foradvice on essay writing, the major part of the first-year
language curriculum.

Figure 3. Practical knowledge at a national university.

170 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Practical Knowledge, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 165-173

Common Knowledge Structures ofAdvisors-in-Practice
Clear distinctions were thus seen between theuniversities based on the special characteristics
and nature of the organizational structure, butcommonalities in practical knowledge were alsoprevalent. Figure 4 illustrates the common practicalknowledge identified in the three universities. There
were two basic areas of commonality among thethree universities, language learning and test-taking
skills, with SDL playing an important role in the
two universities which had a similar organizational
structure. Class-related matters also played an
important role among the three universities.
Although commonalities were evident between thethree institutions, within these common knowledge
structures existed a myriad of knowledge strands; forinstance, language learning skills were comprised ofvarious parts such as specific learning techniques;
recognition of language structure, appropriate
resources for self-study; and how to self-evaluate
progress. For test-taking, advisors not only needed
to be up to date with current testing policies, butalso thoroughly understand the test, test-taking tips,
techniques to improve specific sections and question
types, time-management strategies and how to control
anxiety. Self-Directed Learning played a major rolein two of the three universities because of the builtin SDL system and employment of trained advisors.

Although there was some advising on SDL practices at
the national university, it was not as pronounced dueto the employment of untrained graduate and doctoral
students as the main support staff. Class-related
advising was the final area of commonality between
the three universities which showed that advisors alsoneeded to be familiar enough with the institutionwide curriculum in order to direct students to the best
services.
Figure 4 is thus indicative of the absolute basic
knowledge which a novice advisor should possesswhen first starting out in his/her language advisorrole. Table 2 is a more thorough indicator of thedepth of knowledge an advisor needs to possess inorder give relevant, meaningful advice to learners invarious situational contexts. In essence, the advisor
needs to always be cognisant of and draw upon various
knowledge strands at any moment of the session inorder to effectively guide the learner through thereflective dialogic process. This means continuously
keeping up-to-date with current ideas in SLA research
as it relates to language learning strategies, being
aware of any changes in external examinations, andresearching appropriate learning materials for specificlearning problems. With regard to SDL, it is essentialthat advisors continue to share philosophies about best
SDL practices and develop a system within the SALC
to help learners understand how to create and evaluatea unique learning plan that meets specific needs,

Figure 4. Basic practical knowledge of Language Learning Advisors.

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McCarthy
goals, learning habits and time available for self-study.
Having an understanding of institutional goals, thewider curriculum, SALC services as well as technicalknowledge of SALC and classroom equipment areother forms of practical knowledge that the advisor
would frequently require. Added to this taxonomy is
the knowledge of how to assist learners who are facing
motivational issues and have low self-esteem and anawareness of counselling skills to be more mindful inactions and approach.

Conclusion
Because advising is so strongly situated in the lived
experience of the learner and advisor, gatheringknowledge data advisors use in varied contexts isimportant to identify the relevant practical knowledge
that reflects each context more accurately. Although
the three participating institutions had uniqueorganizational cultures, there were commonalities
reflecting the minimal practical knowledge thatwould benefit all practicing advisors. Implementing
an institutional system of a shared knowledge basewould further strengthen the CoP. Knowledge about aprofession and knowledge gained through professional
practice are quite different as it is the knowledge thatis processed through professional activities that usually
dictates choices and actions during the decisionmaking process. Knowledge serves its best purpose
when it is gathered, stored and made available to all,but especially to incoming practitioners. By frequently
updating and recording knowledge frameworks as
new knowledge is gained, a culture of knowledge
management would be developed. This would ensurethat knowledge would continually be passed on to
all members of the immediate and wider CoP. In thisway, each individual would benefit from the sharedknowledge collected over years, and the institution
would avoid a loss of knowledge which typicallyoccurs with staff turnover. To conclude then, in termsof LLA, by creating a strong culture of knowledge
management, not only would benefits be seen in
individual institutions, but collaborative partnerships
outside of the culture of practice would be encouraged
which would inevitably help to grow and expand theprofession.

172 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

References
Alavi, M., & Leidner, D. (2001). Review: Knowledge
management and knowledge management
systems: Conceptual foundations and researchissues. MIS Quarterly, 25, 107-136.
Bennett-Levy, J. (2006). Therapist skills: A cognitivemodel of their acquisition and refinement.
Behavioral & Cognitive Psychotherapy, 34(1),57-78.
Bou, E., & Sauquet, A. (2005). “Knowing” in the
consulting practice: Exploring knowledge,
people, context and tools in action. In A. F.
Buono & F. Poulfelt, (Eds.), Challenges andissues in knowledge management (Research inManagement Consulting Series, vol. 5) (pp.
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Calderhead, J. (Ed.). (1988). Teachers’ professional
learning. London, England: Falmer Press.
Calderhead, J. (1996). Teachers: Beliefs andknowledge. In D. C Berliner & R. C. Calfee(Eds.), Handbook of Educational Psychology (pp.
709-725). New York, NY: Macmillan.
Cash, K. (1995). Benner and expertise in nursing: A
critique. International Journal of Nursing Studies,32(6), 527-534.
Gremmo, M. (2009). Advising for language learning:
Interactive characteristics and negotiation
procedures. In F. Kjisik, P. Voller, N. Aoki, &Y. Nakata (Eds.), Mapping the terrain of leaner
autonomy (pp. 145-167). Tampere: Tampere
University Press.
Jarvis, P. (1992). Learning practical knowledge. In H.
Morris Baskett & V. Marsick (Eds.), Professionals
ways of knowing: New findings on how to improve
professional education (pp. 89-96). San Francisco,
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Kato, S. & Mynard, J. (2015). Reflective dialogue:
Advising in language learning. New York, NY:
Routledge.
Lave, J. (1988). Cognition in practice: Mind,mathematics and culture in everyday life.
Cambridge, England: Cambridge University
Press.
Mozzon-McPherson, M. (2001). Language advising:Practical Knowledge, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 165-173
Towards a new discursive world? In M. MozzonMcPherson & R. Vismans (Eds.), Beyond
language teaching towards language advising (pp.
2-17). London, England: CILT.
McCarthy, T. M. (2016). Exploring inner speech
as a psycho-educational resource for language
learning advisors. Applied Linguistics.
doi:10.1093/applin/amw001
Mynard, J., & Carson, L. (Eds.). (2012). Advising inlanguage learning: Dialogue, tools and context.
Harlow, England: Pearson Education.
Riley, P. (1997). The guru and the conjurer: Aspectsof counseling for self-access. In P. Benson &P. Voller (Eds.), Autonomy and independence
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England: Longman.
Rollet, B. (2001). How do expert teachers view

themselves? In F. Banks, & A. Shelton Mayes,
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Schön, D. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How
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Schön, D. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner:
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Thornton, K. (2011). Learning strategy sheets:
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Author’s Biography:
Tanya M. McCarthy is an Associate Professor who has been working in the field of EFL since
2002. Her professional interests lie in the areas of curriculum development, learner autonomy
and self-reflective professional development. She can be contacted at mccarthytanya.m@gmail.
com.

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Effectiveness of Peer Review by Non-Native English Users
Michael MondejarInternational University of Japan
mjm2229@iuj.ac.jp
This exploratory study examines the effectiveness of non-native users of English in providing peer
feedback on graduate-level research papers. Six non-native English-speaking graduate students
first completed an initial task of critiquing a sample introduction from a research paper. They
then reviewed and provided feedback on drafts of the Masters theses of their peers. Half of theparticipants reviewed theses in the same academic discipline as their own, while the other half were
provided theses from a different field. Reviewers also conducted individual conferences with writers
to provide supplementary commentary and critiques. In addition, all participants took part in anexit interview with the researcher to report on their experience with the project. The researcher
found that non-native users can indeed provide effective feedback on graduate-level research papers
in a peer review system, provided such a system takes several factors into consideration.
本研究は、大学院レベルの研究論文についてピア・フィードバックを非英語母語話者が行なう有効性を検証した探索的研究である。
6名の非英語母語話者の大学院生は、研究論文の導入部のサン
プルを批評するタスクを最初に行なった。
その後、お互いの修士論文の草稿を読み、フィードバックを行なった。受講者の半数は自分と同じ専門分野の論文を担当し、残りの半数は異なる分野の論文を担当した。
また、批評や解説を補足するために論文執筆者と査読者は個別に話す場を持った。
加えて、すべての参加者が本研究者の行なう出口インタビューに参加し、本プロジェクトでの経験を報告した。本研究では、非母語話者はピアレビューシステム上で大学院レベルの研究論文に効果的なフィードバックを実際に提供できることを明らかにし、このようなシステムに考慮すべき点がいくつかあることを示した。

At the graduate school in which this study took place,the vast majority of students come from ESL or EFL
countries. The culmination of these students’ graduate
studies is writing their Master’s thesis in English (theirL2), a very challenging project for many students given
its scope and their linguistic backgrounds. Despite
their receiving guidance from respective supervisors
and English language faculty, many students feel that
there should be more channels they can pursue when
they require further assistance with their writing.
One potential tool for providing learners withadditional support in thesis writing is peer review. In peer

review, students take on the responsibilities normallyassumed by a trained teacher, tutor, or editor and provide
feedback on a colleague’s composition (Hansen & Liu,
2005). A summary of the benefits of peer review for both
reviewers and writers appears in Table 1.
Despite these benefits, peer review has drawn strong
counter arguments. Research has shown that instructors
often question the effectiveness of peer review due
to concerns about learners’ cognitive and linguistic
capabilities in their L2 ( Jacobs, Zinkgraf, Wormuth,
Hartfiel & Hughey, 1981; Teo, 2006). Student
reviewers tend to focus on sentence-level problems

Mondejar, M. (2017). Effectiveness of peer review by
Non-Native English users. In G. Brooks (Ed.), The 2016
PanSIG Journal (pp. 174-182). Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

rather than on content and organization (Leki, 1990).
Learners also express doubts about the quality of peer
feedback (Brindley & Scoffield, 1998; Orsmond, Merry& Reiling, 1996). Finally, some researchers (Carson &174 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Peer Review by Non-Native English Users, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 174-182
Table 1

Benefits of Peer Review (Liu & Hansen, as cited in Kustati & Yuhardi, 2014, p. 84)
Benefits for reviewers

Benefits for Writers

1. Gain insights for their own work from reading theassignment of others;

1. Refine their ideas as a result of the feedback theyreceive;

2. See other approaches to an assignment or otherperspectives to an issue;

2. Focus on writing as a process that emphasizes
editing and revisions;

3. Become familiar with important aspects of theassignment as they use the rubric or criteria toperform their review;

3. Develops a better sense of audience;

4. Improve their ability to read a paper critically

4. Improve their work before it is submitted forgrading;

5. Strengthen their communication skills, especially inrespect to critiquing and providing feedback;5. Motivate them to produce higher-quality work,
since they know their peers will be critiquing it.

Nelson, 1996; Rollinson, 2005) have indicated thatpeer review carries a cultural bias and can disadvantage
students from collectivist cultures.
Thus, in this exploratory study the researcher
examines the effectiveness of non-native English
users in reviewing research papers written by fellow
graduate students; this is to determine whether a peer
review system utilizing non-native reviewers could be
implemented at tertiary institutions and graduatelevel programs.

introduction to review with no guidelines on how
to complete the task. This was to compare reviewers’
individual approaches, and their capabilities inaddressing content, organization, language, andstylistic issues on a common task. Feedback provided
by participants were categorized and coded forcomparative purposes. The initial introduction can befound in Appendix A.
Next, reviewers were given the first draft of an
ID Master’s thesis written by one of their peers.
Each thesis was reviewed by a participant with thesame academic background as the writer (ID) and
one from a different field (PM or IR). Like theinitial task, reviewers were provided with very few
guidelines to follow; this was done to examine how
previous educational experience and other factors
affected the review approach of participants. However,participants were required to provide written feedback
to the writers, and then conference individually withthem to give additional commentary. Reviewers were
given one month (May 2015) to complete both ofthese tasks, to allow the writers sufficient time toreview the feedback and make changes to their theses
before the final submission date.
After collecting reviewers’ written feedback,individual conference recordings, and timesheets, theresearcher conducted exit interviews with all participantsMethodology
Six participants were selected from a pool ofapplicants to review the research papers of their peersin this study. Participants were selected based on theirlanguage proficiency and their program of graduate
study. Three of the reviewers originated from an ESL
country, the Philippines, and had strong language
skills; the other three came from EFL countries(Indonesia, Mongolia, and Sri Lanka), and were muchless confident in their English proficiency. Three of thereviewers were studying international development(ID), two were members of the public management
program (PM), and one was in the international
relations program (IR) at the graduate school where
the study took place.
Each reviewer was initially given a sample thesis

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Mondejar
in June 2015. During the exit interviews, participants
were asked to reflect on their performance as reviewers,
provide rationale for the approaches they took while
reviewing, and make suggestions to the researcher
on how improvements in the thesis review process at
the university could be improved. Conferences andinterviews were transcribed and analyzed.
Table 2 summarizes the backgrounds and rolesof participants, the allocation of theses, and timereviewers spent on the project tasks. Note that while
participants provided the researcher with written
permission to publish their personal data, theresearcher elected to protect their identities by using
pseudonyms for their names in this study.

Results
In this section, the approaches each participant took
in reviewing the initial introduction task and theirallotted thesis, as well as the effectiveness of theirapproaches, are summarized (based on feedback
quantity and quality, and interviews).

Magedara
For the initial introduction task, Magedara provided
direct corrections and a summary of generalsuggestions. In his corrections, he addressed 20% of

the language (total of lexis and grammar errors), 10%of the redundancy, and 33% of the organization issues
in the introduction. He noted that the introduction
contained the three “moves” of a create-a-research
space introduction (Swales, 1990), and summarizedorganization and redundancy issues in his suggestions.
When queried about his approach to this task, hereported that he lacked confidence in his language
skills, and therefore focused more on organization. He
was more comfortable commenting on organization
because he had received prior academic writing
training at our university.
Magedara took a different approach whenreviewing Shein’s thesis. This time, he provided only
a summary of general comments, where he focused
almost exclusively on strengths and weaknesses of
the research content (i.e., the research question, data,
and model). He did this at Shein’s request, but also
cited his lack of confidence in his language skills as
another reason for concentrating more on content.
Interestingly, despite studying in the same programas Shein, Magedara stated that he was not familiar
with her research model. Therefore, he felt obligatedto devote a significant amount of extra time doing
background research on her methodology to provide
more effective feedback.

Table 2

Participant Backgrounds, Roles, and Time Spent on Tasks
ParticipantNationality

Role

Thesisreviewed

Same programTime spent
reviewing (hr)Magedara

Sri Lanka

Reviewer

Shein

Yes

12.0

AlaizaPhilippines

Reviewer

Shein

No

4.0

KemalaIndonesia

Reviewer

RahmadNo

4.0

MariselPhilippines

Reviewer

RahmadYes

15.0

MinghanMongolia

Reviewer

Ye

Yes

5.0

Crisanto

Philippines

Reviewer

Ye

No

21.5

Shein

MyanmarWriterRahmadIndonesia

WriterYe

MyanmarWriter

176 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Peer Review by Non-Native English Users, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 174-182
Table 3Results of Initial Introduction Task
Participant

Magedara

KemalaMariselMinghanTotal Errors*

Lexis

0.00 (0)0.29 (5)0.76 (13)0.41 (7)1.00 (17)Grammar0.26 (17)0.45 (30)0.88 (58)

0.55 (36)1.00 (66)

Redundancy

0.10 (1)0.20 (2)0.80 (80)0.10 (1)1.00 (10)Organization

0.33 (3)0.00 (0)0.11 (1)0.11 (1)1.00 (9)Citation

0.00 (0)0.00 (0)0.40 (2)0.00 (0)1.00 (5)Style0.00 (0)0.50 (2)0.50 (2)0.00 (0)1.00 (4)Mechanics

0.00 (0)0.00 (0)0.67 (2)0.00 (0)1.00 (3)Total Corrected**

0.18 (0)0.34 (39)0.75 (86)0.39 (45)1.00 (114)

Notes. Figures in table represent percent of errors corrected, followed by total number of errors corrected in parentheses.
* = Total number of errors of each type		** = Total number of errors corrected by each reviewer

AlaizaKemalaAlaiza did very little error correction in the firsttask; instead, she highlighted high-frequency errors
related to transitions, grammar, and punctuation inher feedback. As someone with an English teachingbackground, she stated she preferred this approach topromote language improvement and retain the “voiceof the author” in the composition. “Overhauls” would
lead to a paper that “is not written by him [or her]anymore.”As for the thesis, Alaiza provided both direct
corrections and a summary of general comments to thewriter, Shein. Her corrections mostly applied to surface
forms, but she addressed some flow, paragraphing, andredundancy issues as well. According to Alaiza, she
was comfortable commenting on academic writing
conventions due to past educational experiences
as a learner and a teacher; she also picked up sometechniques inductively through researching for her
own thesis. Alaiza also remarked that, because she andShein studied in separate programs and had different
academic backgrounds, she suggested that Shein write“in layman’s terms” to make her research accessible to awider audience.

Kemala provided direct corrections and commentaryon high-frequency errors in the initial introductiontask. She addressed 41% of the language, 20% of theredundancy, and 50% of the stylistic issues in the
introduction (See Table 3). She also noted it lacked
proper support (i.e., citations) in places, but did notmark those places in her feedback.
For the thesis review, Kemala provided somedirect corrections pertaining to language and stylistics,
but also gave Rahmad explanation for common
errors. Based on her own studies, she also noticed
some content and organizational issues in the thesis;
she requested more explanations for findings ofpast literature and other unfamiliar concepts, andsuggested moving some functional text to different
parts of the thesis (e.g., the research limitations fromthe introduction to the conclusion). Because she
studied in a different program than Rahmad, most of
Kemala’s feedback focused on language and stylistics;
however, some of the feedback was rejected because it
clashed with the advice of the writer’s thesis supervisorand his own experience with academic writing.

MariselMarisel provided extensive corrections on the initial
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Mondejar
introduction task. She addressed 85% of the language,
80% of the redundancy, 11% of the organization, 40%of the citation, and 50% of the stylistic issues in the
introduction (see Table 3). Marisel reported that she
had received robust training in English and academic
writing conventions while in high school and college;
therefore, her exceptional performance is to be
expected.
In the thesis review, Marisel also provided
extensive direct corrections on lexis, grammar,
mechanics, and flow-related errors. She also provided
comments when citations, explanations, definitions(of technical terms), rationale, or other critical text
was missing, or when clarification was necessary. The
thesis writer, Rahmad, noted that Marisel provided
better language feedback than Kemala due to her
stronger language background, and also helped him
greatly with technical issues, stylistics, and formatting.
However, despite studying in the same program as
Rahmad, Marisel did not check his research model,
commenting that “since [his supervisor] alreadychecked his model, I don’t need to.”MinghanMinghan provided only direct corrections on the firsttask. She addressed 50% of the language, 10% of theredundancy, and 11% of the coherence errors in thetask (see Table 3). Unlike other reviewers, Minghan
mentioned that she did not notice any major issues
with the organization of the introduction.
In her review of Ye’s thesis, Minghan addressedminor errors pertaining to inflections, paragraphing,redundancies, and stylistics. She particularly focusedon writing style, and summarized many of theseissues in a general commentary. However, much ofher feedback was rejected by the writer because her
stylistic suggestions clashed with those provided by
Ye’s supervisor. In addition, Ye mentioned that she
received Minghan’s feedback too late for her to makesignificant adjustments to her thesis.
Another issue that arose was Minghan’s lackof feedback on the content of the thesis, despite
sharing the same academic field as Ye. Minghan cited
her unfamiliarity with the research backgroundand methodology, and her belief that this was the

178 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

responsibility of the supervisor, as her reasons fordoing this.

Crisanto
Of all of the reviewers, Crisanto made the mostchanges to the initial task, going so far as to rewrite
most of the introduction. He justified this by statingthat rewriting the paper in a certain way would convey
the writer’s ideas in a clearer manner, and therefore
result in a better grade. He also said that the writer
could learn from his rewrites because “when you are
beginning to write something, you tend to adopt thestyle of other writers first. Then, you tend to develop
your own style.”
Crisanto spent a significant amount of timereviewing and providing comprehensive feedback on
Ye’s thesis, addressing content, organization, language,
and stylistic issues surgically, and giving generalsuggestions for common errors. Again, because he andthe reviewer studied in different programs, his feedback
was geared towards his strengths (i.e., language andorganization). But peer pressure (i.e., knowing Ye
personally) drove him to conduct his own research on
the thesis topic and comment on some content-based
issues, like where additional explanation, analysis, andsupport (i.e., citations) were needed.

Discussion
Based on the results of this study, it seems that nonnative users of English can indeed provide effective
feedback on graduate-level research papers in a peer
review system, even in a relatively unstructured one,as was the case here. However, implementing sucha peer review system should take several things into
consideration:

Provide Prior Training in Academic
Writing Conventions
Because the ESL reviewers had received extensive
writing training in their high school and university
education, they were able to provide effective feedback
on more sophisticated rhetorical constructs like
support for ideas, flow, and organization. Interestingly,
two of the reviewers with EFL backgrounds

Peer Review by Non-Native English Users, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 174-182(Magedara and Kemala) were at times just as effective
in noticing these constructs. Thus, it seems that evenlimited training in academic writing conventions cansignificantly improve reviewers’ ability to address
issues related to content and organization. This is
in line with previous studies (Berg, 1999; Carson &Nelson, 1996; Leki, 1990; Lockhart & Ng, 1995).

Select Multiple Reviewers for Each
Research Paper
Selecting reviewers with high language proficiency isnecessary, since they seem to be the most capable interms of noticing and correcting language errors (Block,1992). However, it also seems important to writers thatthesis reviewers are able to critique the content of theirwriting. Both Shein and Ye asserted that feedback on
their methodology and results were priorities, eventhough two of the reviewers (Marisel and Minghan)felt that reviewing research content was the obligationof the writer’s supervisors, not their own.
Selecting a reviewer from the same academic
background as the writer was also no guarantee that heor she could provide effective content-based feedback.
Even though Magedara and Minghan studied in
the same program (ID) as Shein and Ye respectively,
they could not provide adequate commentary on
content without conducting their own research on
the background and methodology of the respective
studies. Thus, it seems that learners who are selected
for peer review should be drawn from students whoshare the same specific research interests as the writers.
Despite this, there seem to be advantages inpairing reviewers and writers from different academic
backgrounds. As was the case with Alaiza, this mayhelp the writer explain unfamiliar concepts moreclearly and make their writing more accessible to awider audience.
Taking all of this into account, an ideal solution
seems to be allocating multiple reviewers to aparticular paper; one who can comment on language
and organization, one on research content, and one
from a different academic background.

Avoid Feedback on Stylistics
In this study, feedback on writing stylistics (e.g., verb

tense preference, citation/reference formatting) was often
rejected. Because stylistics vary across and even within
academic fields, it might be best if reviewers refrain fromproviding feedback on this aspect of writing.

Utilize Relationship Dynamics between
Reviewers and Writers
Peer pressure seemed to have a strong effect on thequantity and quality of feedback provided by reviewers.
Crisanto, Magedara, and Marisel, all of whom spent asignificant amount of time reviewing their respective
theses (see Table 2), reported that personally knowing
the reviewer drove them to conduct their own
research and familiarize themselves with the thesis
methodologies in order to provide better feedback to
the writers. Thus, there seem to be distinct advantages
in asking learners to review the compositions of people
with whom they have a closer relationship, instead of
more distant or anonymous colleagues.

Promote Frequent Communication
between Reviewers and Writers
From the results of the study, it seems evident
that reviewers should communicate with writers
before they begin reviewing their research papers todetermine and better meet the needs of each writer.
The more successful reviewers seemed to be moreproactive in contacting their writers ahead of time andtailoring their feedback to fit their writer’s priorities.

Avoid Scheduling Conflicts between
Reviewers and Writers
Conflicting schedules between reviewers and writers
was a persistent issue in this study. According to twoof the writers (Shein and Ye), they were able to better
utilize comments from reviewers who submitted their
feedback early (i.e., before thesis defense and submission
deadlines). Reviewers who provided later feedback totheir writers reported that one of the main reasons forthe delay was that they also had to complete their own
theses simultaneously with this project. On the other
hand, reviewers who provided early feedback reported
that they had already completed their theses by the time
this project commenced; thus, they could devote more
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Mondejar
time and effort to the thesis review. Selecting reviewers
whose schedules are relatively free and can commit
themselves to providing feedback to writers in a timely
manner appears to be a paramount concern.
Even though several useful lessons regarding
implementing peer review among non-native English
users, particularly at the tertiary and graduatelevels, can be gleaned from this exploratory study,
this research is not without limitations. Utilizing
a more structured research model, with more peer
review guidelines for participants to follow, as well
as a larger number of participants in the study, could
provide more robust results. Incorporating reviewers
from and/or research papers written for less-related
fields, such as business administration or e-business,
could also lead to participants following different or
innovative approaches in providing feedback to peers.
However, such concerns are beyond the scope of thecurrent paper.

References
Berg, E. C. (1999). The effects of trained peer
response on ESL students’ revision types andwriting quality. Journal of Second Language
Writing, 8(3), 215-241.
Block, E. L. (1992). See how they read:Comprehension monitoring of L1 and L2
readers. TESOL Quarterly, 26(2), 319-343.
Brindley, C., & Scoffield, S. (1998). Peer assessment inundergraduate programmes. Teaching in Higher
Education, 3(1), 79-90.
Carson, J. G., & Nelson, G. L. (1996). Chinese
students’ perceptions of ESL peer response groupinteraction. Journal of Second Language Writing,5(1), 1-19.
Hansen, J. G., & Liu, J. (2005). Guiding principles
for effective peer response. ELT Journal, 59(1),31-38.
Jacobs, H. L., Zinkgraf, S. A., Wormuth, D. R.,
Hartfiel, V. F., & Hughey, J. B. (1981). Testing
ESL composition: A practical approach. Rowley,
MA: Newbury House Publishers, Inc.
Kustati, M., & Yuhardi, Y. (2014). The effect of thepeer-review technique on students’ writing ability.
Studies in English Language and Education,
1(2), 71-81. Retrieved from http://www.jurnal.
unsyiah.ac.id/SiELE/article/view/2671/2514
Leki, I. (1990). Coaching from the margins: Issues
in written response. In B. Kroll (Ed.), Second
language writing: Research insights for theclassroom (pp. 57-68). Cambridge, England:
Cambridge University Press.
Lockhart, C., & Ng, P. (1995). Analyzing talk in ESL
peer response groups: Stances, functions, andcontent. Language Learning, 45(4), 605-651.
Orsmond, P., Merry, S., & Reiling, K. (1996). The
importance of marking criteria in the use of peer
assessment. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher
Education, 21(3), 239-250.
Rollinson, P. (2005). Using peer feedback in the ESL
writing class. ELT Journal, 59(1), 23-30.
Swales, J. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic
and research settings. Cambridge, England:
Cambridge University Press.
Teo, A. K. (2006). Using a peer assisted writing
activity to promote ESL/EFL students’ narrative
writing skills. TESL Journal, 7(8), 12-25.

Author’s Biography:
Michael Mondejar is an Assistant Professor at the International University of Japan, Niigata.
His research interests include academic writing instruction, computer-assisted language
learning (CALL), and cross-cultural pragmatics. He has received his MA in TESOL at
Teachers College, Columbia University.

180 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Peer Review by Non-Native English Users, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 174-182

Appendix A
Initial Introduction Task for Reviewers
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1. Introduction
Education is one of the most important roles of the intellectual, professional, human resource development,
and sustainable development for everyone and every country. Especially, efficiency and quality education are
more needed in developing countries. Indonesia is the biggest country among the developing countries of the
Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the most populous Muslim-majority country of theworld. Indonesia has officially six religious declared by Ministry of Religious Affairs of Indonesia. There are
Muslim, Protestant, Catholic, Hindu, Buddhism, and Confucianism. 88.22 percent are Muslim, 5.87 percent
are Protestant, 3.05 percent are Catholic, 1.81 percent is Hindu, 0.84 percent is Buddhism, and 0.21 percent isother religious of Indonesians according to 2000 census of UNSD Demographic Statistics. However, education
attainments of Muslim are lower than the effect of Protestant, Catholic, and Hindu. This is an important topic
for this research because Indonesia government is working the Education for All (EFA) National Plan of Action
for education sector according to UNESCO report (2000-2015).
Education is related to economic development of the nation. To get the multi-sectors improvement of
the nation, it needs to promote its human resource development. Moreover, human resource development
is the most important pillar of fundamental structure of every country. So, most of developing countries arestrongly driving to increase their human resource development. Blackburn, S. (1999) found that every citizen
shall have the fundamental right to obtain educational attainment according to the 1945 Constitution of the
Republic of Indonesia (1945). However, Indonesia has still dropped out of schooling of children. Hashim andLanggulung (2008) found that Islamic religious schools have many weak facts because of curriculum, budget,
poor management and lack of aid.
The effect of religious on educational attainment is the main question that gets one of the most attentions
among researchers and policy makers. Though Indonesia has 88.22 percent of Muslim, their educational
attainment was not having high level. Previous studies have stated that According to Jones (1976), mostof Christians had higher level of educational attainment and they had political and administrative power inIndonesia. In addition result was also found by Little. Angela W. and Green Andy (2009) that development
education is altered to sustainable development in the globalization trend and that make economic development
and human resource development of the countries.
Most studies on educational attainment have employed the years of schooling as education data. However,some studies have used the level of education attainment. In addition, though the effect of religious on
educational attainment has been studied widely in developed countries, there has been a limited research focus
on Indonesia, the developing country.
The studies of this research only use from longitudinal data of Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS) which
has more than 5000 samples. The results from this paper will provide the knowledge of the religious backgroundon Indonesia educational attainment; in addition, Indonesia education reform and policy makers may findthe advantages and disadvantages if they reform education policies. That will get not only the improvement ofeducation circumstance but also human resource development of Indonesia.

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Mondejar
1.2 Research Objectives
The main objectives of this research paper are to analyze the effects of Buddhism, Catholic, Hindu, Islam,and Protestant on educational attainment in Indonesia and to compare among the effect of Islam and the effectof other four religious: Buddhism, Catholic, Hindu, and Protestant. The studying of this research paper isimportant for Indonesia government and people because this study is related to human resource development of
the nation.
1.3 Paper Organization
The rest of the chapters of this paper are organized as follows: Chapter 2 describes the background ofIndonesia education system. Chapter 3 provides the previous related literature review and empirical studies.
Chapter 4 shows the data and the econometric model specification including variables that are used in this paper.
Chapter 5 explains the results and discussion of empirical. Chapter 6 is the last chapter concludes the study andoffers its finding and recommendation.

182 The 2016 PanSIG JournalEffects of Short-Term Study Abroad on L2 Motivation
Hiroshi Moritani

Craig Manning

Hiroshima University of Economics
hiroshimoritani0@gmail.com

University of Shimanec-manning@u-shimane.ac.jp

This exploratory study examined how four-week study abroad (SA) programs influence students’motivation to learn English. It monitored 34 participants using surveys and interviews before andafter a four-week SA program. Quantitative analysis revealed that participants’ motivation wasenhanced in several areas, including their desire to learn English, ideal L2 self, and willingness tocommunicate. On the other hand, qualitative analysis showed incompatible results in some aspects.
The study also found that the students’ L2 anxiety shifted to a beneficial form of stress, focused on
improving communication ability rather than on assessment results and potential criticism. Upon
returning from SA, students could only envision repeating similar experiences again in the future.
As such, the authors discuss the need to strategically improve students’ willingness to communicate
and suggest increasing students exposure to more varied situations while abroad.
本探索的研究では、4週間の海外研修が英語学習の動機づけにどのように影響するか検証した。34人を対象に質問紙調査とインタビュー調査を実施し研修前後の変化を捉えた。量的検証の結果、学習動機づけは学習意欲、理想L2自己、コミュニケーション意欲といった側面において向上が見られた一方、質的検証では、いくつかの点について量的検証とはいくぶん異なる結果を示した。
また、L2不安については、
テスト結果や否定的評価に対する不安からコミュニケーションに関する不安へと質的な変化が見られた。海外研修帰国後の学生は、研修先で滞在したことだけを将来も繰り返せるとしか想像できなかった。
そのため、筆者らは計画的に学生のコミュニケーション意欲を高め、学生の海外滞在中に積極的に幅広い場面を経験させることを提案する。

Universities in Japan have tended to react positively
to government attempts to enhance student mobility,
as evidenced by the large increase in the numberof Japanese students studying abroad (SA) basedon a Memorandum of Understanding between
higher education institutions ( JASSO, 2011, 2016).
Many universities promote these short programs
as a means for students to enhance their resumes
before job hunting. Hence, the cultivation of
positive attitudes as global citizens, including better
cultural understanding, increased global perspective,
confidence, and enhanced self-awareness, is arguably

more important than actual language improvement
for these programs. This current study aims to add
insights into the psychological benefits that fourweek SA can offer students, especially towards second
language (L2) learning motivation.
Though SA has demonstrated a positive impact
on various L2 skills (Kinginger, 2008), the actual
outcome often does not meet initial expectation heldby students and teachers (Freed, Segalowitz, & Dewey
2004; Segalowitz, et al. 2004). Also, longer periodsof studying abroad are generally more effective for
language development than shorter ones (Dwyer,2004). One assumption derived from previous studies

Moritani, H., & Manning, C. (2017). Effects of shortterm study abroad on L2 motivation. In G. Brooks(Ed.), The 2016 PanSIG Journal (pp. 183-193).
Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

is that the immediate linguistic benefits attained
from one-month SA programs are usually not great.
However, the psychological aspect of language
learning may be positively influenced.
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Moritani & Manning
Over the last decade, there has been a lot of
discussion about motivation theory. At present,
motivation theory centers on the perception of self
(Dörnyei & Ryan, 2015). Dörnyei (2005) proposed
the L2 Motivatonal Self System and explained that L2
motivation occurs as a desire to reduce discrepancies
between one’s current self and his or her future
self. The central concepts of this system are ideal
L2 self, ought-to L2 self, and learning experience.
Ideal L2 self is the idealized mental representationof oneself as a L2 speaker, and ought-to L2 self is a
representation of self that meets others’ expectationand obligation by others such as parents, teachers, andfriends. In his framework, these selves work as “future
self guides”(Dörnyei, 2014, p.8). The other strong
influence on motivation is the learning experience.
Since SA is an extraordinary opportunity for most
students to gain new learning experiences, changes arelikely to occur in their future self-representations andmotivation, such as learning intention and attitudes
toward English classes.
This study also explores the changes in otherrelated affective factors discussed in the literature of
motivational theory. Instrumentality is one of themand is the motivation to study English for pragmatic
benefits. Instrumentality promotion refers to themotivation for positive pragmatic benefit such asgetting a good job and instrumentality prevention
refers to the motivation to avoid negative outcomessuch as failing exams. The former is connected toideal L2 self and the latter is connected to oughtto L2 self (Taguchi, Magid & Papi, 2009). Other
affective factors such as L2 confidence, L2 anxiety andattitudes toward English speaking community havebeen investigated in relation to the validity of the L2
motivational self system (Papi, 2010; Papi & Teimouri,
2012; Ryan, 2009; Taguchi, Magid & Papi, 2009).
Therefore, this study also assesses the changes in these
psychological constructs. One last psychologicalconstruct that this study tries to explore is Willingness
to Communicate (WTC) (MacIntyre, et. al.,1998). In order to attain a certain level of English
communicative ability, increasing WTC in a second
language is a minimum condition and is “a suitable
goal of L2 learning” (MacIntyre, et. al., 1998, p.558).

184 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Research demonstrates that it positively correlateswith L2 motivation and negatively correlates with L2
anxiety (Hashimoto, 2002; MacIntyre, et. al., 2002).
Aubrey (2011) suggests that reducing L2 anxiety
is one of the five conditions to enhance WTC. He(2011) states that teachers are in a position to adjustclassroom conditions harness students’ dormant
WTC to optimize students’ interactions. Aubrey(2011) also proposed to make sure students are readyto interact with each other, to have students findmaterials and activities that are relevant and engaging,to have students to understand why they are studying
the way they are, to foster student interest in foreign
people, places, and things, and to actively reduce
student anxiety.
Using the psychological constructs discussed
above as motivational variables, this current study
explores how four-week SA programs influence
students’ motivation to learn English.

Methods
The study was conducted using a mixed methods
approach with 34 Japanese university students
participating in four-week SA programs. The
participants were all Japanese and non-English majors.
The participation in the SA program was of thestudents’ volition and none of them had been abroad
before. Self-assessed language proficiency conducted
before SA revealed that 17 of them rated A1 andthe other 17 students rated A2 on the CEFR-J scale(Tono (ed.), 2013). Fifteen students participated ina program held in Hawaii in February and March,
2015, and nineteen different students participated in a
program in California held in August and September,2015. In both programs, students participated as asingle group. All participants had English classes in themorning and extracurricular activities in the afternoon
during the week. They also did homestays withEnglish-speaking families for the entire month abroad.
A total of 34 participants were included in
the quantitative study. A set of questionnaires wasadministered twice in order to monitor for any
motivational changes before and after the SA. The
questionnaire employed a 6-point Likert scale (1=strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3= somewhat disagree,Short-Term Study Abroad and L2 Motivation, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 183-193
4=somewhat agree, 5=agree, 6=strongly agree).
Japanese was used for the instruction and questionnaire
items. The survey adopted validated questionnaire
items from previously studies (Papi & Teimouri, 2012;
Ryan, 2009; Taguchi, Magid & Papi, 2009, Yashima,2009). The motivational variables measured included
37 items in the following ten categories,(1) Learning intention (hereinafter, LI: 3 items)(2) Attitudes toward English classes (hereinafter,
AE: 3 items)(3) Ideal L2 self (hereinafter, IS: 3 items)(4) Ought-to L2 self (hereinafter, OS: 3 items)(5) Instrumentality promotion (hereinafter,
PRO: 3 items)(6) Instrumentality prevention (hereinafter,
PRE: 3 items)(7) L2 confidence (hereinafter, CON: 4 items)(8) L2 anxiety (hereinafter, ANX: 4 items)(9) Attitude
towardEnglishspeaking
community (hereinafter, EC: 3 items)(10) Willingness to Communicate (hereinafter,
WTC: 8 items).
A wide range of the motivational variables wasmeasured with only three or four items. This isbecause the primary purpose of this exploratory study
is to identify motivational variables that should be
deeply investigated in a follow-up study. The valueof Cronbach’s alpha was not calculated because eachcategory had too few items.
The survey was conducted in transit while
departing to and returning from SA. In order to
identify which motivational variables would change
after the SA program, the data obtained were subject
to a paired t-test, using SPSS version 19. Although
it is regarded as multiple t-testing, the significancelevel was set at 0.05 because this study focuses on thechanges in each motivational variable respectively. The
value of Cohen’s d was calculated to see the effect size
when there was a statistically significant difference.
The definition of effect sizes used was small: 0.2 ≤ d <0.5, medium: 0.5 ≤ d < 0.8, and large: 0.8 ≤ d.
The qualitative study included eight participants,
three female and five male, from the group that went
to California. Structured interviews were conductedindividually before and after SA. The purpose of thisinterview was to investigate their learning experiencesin the past and during the sojourn, their ideal L2 self
images, and causes of L2 anxiety. The pre-programinterviews were administered one month before
departure and the post-program interviews were one
month after returning from SA. The interviews lasted
approximately 30 minutes each and were conducted inJapanese by one of the authors, who is a native speakerof Japanese. Audio recordings of the interviews weremade and later transcribed for the analysis. Qualitative
Content Analysis technique (Mayring, 2014) was used
to summarize the interview data and the summary
was translated into English by the Japanese author.
This analytical technique reduces lengthy interview
responses to their core contents and groups themaccordingly.

Results and Discussion
Descriptive statistics were obtained from both preand post-SA questionnaires. The paired t-test revealed
that seven out of ten motivational variables measured
in the study showed a significant difference (Table 1).
Statistically significant differences were foundfor LI, AE, IS, CON, ANX, EC, and WTC while
the differences for OS, PRO, and PRE were notstatistically significant. The participants in this study
became more positive toward English learning afterSA, as evidenced by increases in LI and AE (LI:
pre=4.07, post=4.52; AE: pre=4.16, post=4.57).
Improved score on IS indicates SA experience gavethem an enhanced self-image as an English speaker(IS: pre=3.61, post=4.38). They gained confidence
to master English (CON: pre=4.04, post=4.66).
Although all of these improvements showed medium
effect sizes (LI: d=0.57, AE: d=0.53, IS: d=0.63,
CON: d=0.65), the post survey scores themselves
were not very high. In other words, these variables
were positively influenced by SA, but the influence
might not have been strong enough. Their anxiety level
decreased (ANX: pre=4.76, post=4.10, d=0.64), butthey still felt relatively high anxiety after SA. Although
they had previously held positive impressions of people
in English-speaking communities, their impressions
became even more positive (EC: pre= 4.99, post=
5.44, d=0.62). Their WTC improved from 3.49 to
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Moritani & Manning
3.97 with small effect size (d=0.49) and the post score
was still below 4.0, which means the participants werestill hesitant to use English after SA. The scores on
OS were just below the mid-point of the scale (3.5)
and showed no change. Two kinds of instrumentality
were higher than the mid-point but there were nosignificant changes before and after the SA program.
The qualitative study was undertaken to explain
the quantitative results more in depth. One-on-one
interviews with eight students before and after SA
were carried out. These interviews focused on thelearning experience, mental self representation as
an English speaker, and anxiety about English. The
following limited samples are used to illustrate how
the interviews were examined.
First, the participants expressed complicatedfeelings toward English learning (Appendix 1). Sevenout of eight participants had their first contact withEnglish at an early stage in life and they expressedenjoyment at using English:“I went to English conversation class when I
was an elementary school student and I liked it.”(Participant A, B, and D)“I had English activities at elementary school andliked it.” (Participant C and G)
Two participants expressed positive attitudes
toward English, whereas five of them commented thatthey started to hate studying English at some point
during their formal education, mostly due to a strongemphasis on assessment as suggested in the summaryof comments:“I came to hate English because I was forced
to study for exams in junior high school.”(Participant A and B)
Presumably they had difficulty studying English
at junior and senior high school, but they also seemed
to have positive memories connected to English as alanguage:“I liked English but hated English classes in juniorhigh school.” (Participant G)

Table 1
Descritive Statistics and Paired t-test Results on Pre- and Post- survey
Pre-survey

Post-survey

Mean

SD

Mean

SD

diffs

t

df

p

Effectsize (d)

LI

4.07

0.82

4.52

0.73

0.441

-3.313

33

.002*

0.57

AE

4.16

0.84

4.57

0.70

0.412

-3.253

33

.003*

0.53

IS

3.61

1.12

4.38

1.13

0.774

-5.343

33

.000*

0.63

OS

3.33

1.10

3.21

1.28

-0.119

0.681

33

.501

0.10

PRO

4.48

0.80

4.78

0.81

0.303

-1.836

33

.075

0.38

PRE

3.96

1.48

3.84

1.29

-0.117

0.856

33

.398

0.09

CON

4.04

0.95

4.66

0.99

0.625

-4.216

33

.000*

0.65

ANX

4.76

0.82

4.10

1.20

-0.662

3.406

33

.002*

0.64

EC

4.99

0.73

5.44

0.71

0.449

-4.037

33

.000*

0.62

WTC

3.49

0.97

3.97

1.01

0.481

-2.822

33

.008*

0.49

Notes: N=34, *p <.01

186 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Short-Term Study Abroad and L2 Motivation, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 183-193
They would not have participated in a SA programthat required English if they do not like English at all.
Perhaps these participants held complicated feelingboth with positive and negative emotion on English
before the SA program. As a result of this complex
feeling, their pre scores on both LI and AE were notvery high, 4.07 and 4.16, respectively. After the SA
program, they expressed enjoyment at being able touse English:

Four participants expressed their past or current
hope and desire even though the question was if they
can imagine themselves speaking English:“I liked using English and learning something elsewith it.” (Participant A, B, and C)

Since the fact that these participants expressed
their mental image with hope and desire and in fact
did not have specific examples of situations, it can bepresumed that their mental image was not strong. In
other examples, three of them did not have English
speaking self images at all:Two participants mentioned that they liked thesmall class sizes where they had to use English:“I liked the small size class.” (Participant F and H)
One of the participants further explained,“I want to use English in regular classes in Japan,
but no one around me is willing to speak English.
So, I compromise in Japan. But, in America, all myclassmates tried to use it.” (Participant B)
This comment shows that some students actuallywant to use English in classrooms in Japan, but they
feel negative peer pressure there, which makes themreluctant to use it. However, this was not the casewhile studying abroad. It is likely that scores on LI, AE
and even CON improved because of this new positive
learning experience.
The second point that the interviews tried toreveal was the changes in their mental self image as
an English user. In a quantitative study, their score
on ideal L2 self improved from 3.61 to 4.38 with amedium effect size (d=0.63). The change occurred but
the score itself was not very high. The summary of theinterview comments showed the changes (Appendix2). Only one participant out of eight commented thatthe participant can imagine oneself speaking English,
but the situation was that the participant onceencountered:“I have imagined speaking with ALTs, but I can’t
do it.” (Participant H)“I wanted to communicate with foreigners in
English before.” (Participant C)“I want to become capable of having a daily
conversation.” (Participant B)“I never imagined myself to become someone
being able to speak English.” (Participant A, D,
and E)
Even these participants successfully created theirEnglish speaking self image after the SA program:“I want to become able to speak English.”(Participant A)
However, as mentioned earlier, it was expressedwith hope, it is highly probable that their images were
not very activated. Another participant imagined
speaking English at a university and workplace
without concrete examples. One of the participants
seemed to represent their reality:“I can imagine what I have experienced in asojourn.” (Participant G)
Even though all the participants successfully
either created their English speaking self image
or strengthened their images, their image lacked
concreteness and specific examples. There is a highpossibility that their ideal L2 self images were notvivid nor elaborate enough to work as a “future self
guides” (Dörnyei, 2014, p.8) even though the score
on ideal L2 self improved after the SA program. This
could result from one of the disadvantages of studying
The 2016 PanSIG Journal

187

Moritani & Manningabroad as one group. It is hard to imagine that they
speak English to each other on a daily basis after they
get back to their home university. It is simply awkward
for them and they can only imagine themselves ina sojourn speaking English at homestays and local
stores. Another potential factor that prevented theparticipants from becoming more capable of imagining
English speaking self is the fact that professionals that
require English are still limited in Japan even though
English ability might help to get a better job as aqualification. If this is the case, it is reasonable that
PRO score did not increase significantly after the
SA program. In this respect, it is critical not only to
immerse students in the target language environment
but also to give students opportunities to relates their
future and experiences of using English in a sojournso that they can create plausible L2 future self, which
Dörnyei and Ryan (2015, p.92) list as one of theconditions for self-image to work as a strong motivator.
As indicated in the quantitative analysis of thisstudy, the participants’ anxiety level decreased eventhough the anxiety level is still high. Changes in thekind of L2 anxiety were also observed in the interview
data (Appendix 3). Prior to SA, some students
expressed general classroom related anxiety or anxiety
regarding linguistic knowledge and skills:“I have fear of being pointed by a teacher. I had afear of failure.” (Participant C and D)“I am anxious about grammar, pronunciation, andlistening.” (Participant A)
Presumably, the anxiety of these kinds was caused
by a strong emphasis on the accuracy in classroom
praxis they experienced in their formal education. On
the other hand, five out of eight participants expressed
communication related anxiety in the post-programinterviews:“I am anxious about not being able to convey what
I want to communicate.” (Participant B, C, E, andG)
Perhaps students still feel linguistic and skillrelated anxiety, but they now believe that successfulcommunication is more important than avoiding
errors. In other words, they now believe they should

188 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

feel linguistic anxiety for the sake of improving
communication, but not for potential negativeevaluations by others or themselves.
Based on the findings of this study, strategies
to improve WTC should be considered andimplemented to make such short-term SA programs
more beneficial for students. The participants in thisstudy became capable of imagining an English speaking
self, but their images were not very clear. One of theparticipants commented that they could imagine what
they had already experienced. This type of comment
implies that they need more experiences in situations
that require English so that they can elaborate theirEnglish speaking self. In order to do so, the programs
should provide more opportunities. At the same time,
students could also become more willing to interact
with people using English. It was good to observe theimprovement of WTC in this study, but the score wasstill not high (pre=3.49, post=3.97). Moreover, WTC
should be increased before they actually go studying
abroad to experience more because four weeks does
not seems to be long enough to greatly enhance WTC,
as shown above. The authors of this paper recommendthat certain strategies be implemented to improvestudents’ WTC before SA in regular classes, such asbuilding trust between students, allowing for personal
choice when selecting topics and individual goal
setting are among the techniques that can be used.
Before putting students on task, it is important to taketime and explain the main objectives of the course andhow the activities will help them achieve that objective.
Perhaps further stimulating their curiosity about theculture and people in a sojourn would enhance their
WTC. In addition, making efforts to enhance all
students’ WTC in Japanese classrooms could reduce
the negative peer pressure mentioned by one of theparticipants in this study. These recommendations are
consistent with previous findings by Aubrey (2011).
The results of the current study show that the need to
implement these suggestions is still present.

Conclusion
This study was undertaken to explore the psychologicalbenefits that four-week SA programs can offer students
in terms of L2 learning. The mixed method approachShort-Term Study Abroad and L2 Motivation, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 183-193
used provided the authors with the opportunity
to understand the SA benefits more deeply. The
results from the quantitative analysis indicated theimprovement of motivational variables measured,
whereas the findings from the qualitative analysis
prevented them from overestimating the quantitative
results and led to a more accurate understating of
the SA benefits. Since this study was an exploratory
study, a wide range of psychological variables wasinvestigated, using only three or four question items.
Now that potential benefits of SA have been identified,materials and procedures to enable more accurate andmore in-depth analysis can be employed in the futurestudies.
Even with the limitations mentioned above, thefindings of this study imply that the participants’motivation to learn English was enhanced after the
four-week SA programs. This was probably facilitatedby the enhancement of attitudes toward English
classes. Ideal L2 self improved, though it is still limited.
L2 anxiety shifted to a beneficial form of stress,
focused on improving communication ability rather
than on assessment results and potential criticism. It
is hoped that the findings of this study will encourage
SA organizers to make better efforts to improve WTC
in order to enhance these short programs.

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Authors’ Biographies:
Hiroshi Moritani is Lecturer at Hiroshima University of Economics. He has experiencein teaching both English as a foreign language and Japanese as a second language at thetertiary level. His current research interests focus on teacher cognition and L2 motivation.
hiroshimoritani0@gmail.com

Craig Manning has been teaching and researching at the University of Shimane for over ten
years. His research interests include motivation and various types of learning communities. His
professional goal is to make learning more enjoyable and effective. He welcomes opportunities
for collaboration. c-manning@u-shimane.ac.jp

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Short-Term Study Abroad and L2 Motivation, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 183-193

Appendix 1
Interview responses about English learning experiences
Pre-program interview

Post-program interview

Participant A

I went to English conversation class when I was anelementary school student and I liked it.
I came to hate English because I was forced to
study for exams in junior high school.

I liked using English and learning
something else with it.

Participant B

I went to English conversation class when I was anelementary school student and I liked it.
I came to hate English because I was forced to
study for exams in junior high school.

I liked using English and learning
something else with it.

Participant C

I had English activities at elementary school andliked it.
I came to hate English because I study to answer
questions in junior high school.

I liked using English and learning
something else with it.

I went to English conversation class when I was an
Participant Delementary school student and liked it.
I liked English because of the teacher influence injunior high school.

I liked group work and liked to say
my opinion.

Participant E

I liked English because I enjoyed games in English
classes in junior high school.
I had no special feelings toward English because it
was just answering questions in high school.

I had a lot of speaking opportunities
and I liked it.

Participant F

I went to English cram school when I was anelementary school student.
I always liked English, especially speaking.

I liked the small size class.

Participant G

I had English activities at elementary school andliked it.
I liked English but hated English classes in juniorhigh school. I study English to answer questions.

I liked to think about America inEnglish.
The contents were very practical.

Participant H

I went to English cram school when I was anelementary school student.
I studies English for exams.

I liked the small size class.

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Moritani & Manning

Appendix 2Interview responses about ideal L2 self
Pre-program interview

Post-program interview

Participant A

I never imagined myself to become someone
being able to speak English.

I want to become able to speak English.

Participant B

I wanted to use English at work before.
I want to become capable of having a daily
conversation.

I want to talk to foreigners proactively
when they come to Japan.

Participant C

I wanted to communicate with foreigners in
English before.
I wanted to use English at work.

I want to talk to foreigners not only inJapanese but also English when they need
help.

Participant D

I never imagined myself to become someone
being able to speak English.

I can imagine myself speaking English at auniversity and workplace.

I never imagined myself to become someone

I can imagine myself having a daily
conversation and talking with store clerks.

Participant E

being able to speak English.

I will not use English on a daily basis in
the future, so there is no future image.

Participant F

I wanted to work overseas vaguely before I
became a high school student.

I want to get a job that requires English.

Participant G

I can’t imagine myself to become someone being
able to speak English, but I want to become
capable of having a daily conversation while
studying abroad.

I can imagine what I have experienced ina sojourn.

Participant H

I have imagined speaking with ALTs, but I can’t
do it.

I want to become able to speak English
with foreigners.

192 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Short-Term Study Abroad and L2 Motivation, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 183-193

Appendix 3Interview responses about L2 anxiety
Pre-program interview

Post-program interview

Participant A

I am anxious about grammar, pronunciation,and listening.

I am anxious about not being able tocontinue conversation.

Participant B

I hate studying.

I am anxious about not being able toconvey what I want to communicate.

Participant C

I have fear of being pointed by a teacher. I had
fear of failure.

I am anxious about not being able toconvey what I want to communicate.

Participant D

I have fear of being pointed by a teacher. I had
fear of failure.

I am anxious about listening.

Participant E

I am anxious about not understanding English
passages, especially listening.

I am anxious about not being able toconvey what I want to communicate.

Participant F

I am anxious about being tested on grammar.

I am anxious when I do not know how to
respond.

Participant G

I am anxious about listening.

I am anxious about not being able toconvey what I want to communicate.

Participant H

I can’t speak and write.

I am anxious not being able to speak due
to lack of grammar and vocabulary.

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Creating English for Tourism Purposes
Programs Using a CLIL Framework
Jeffrey Stewart Morrow
Prefectural University of Kumamoto
jeffmorrow@pu-kumamoto.ac.jp
In Asia, the impact of tourism on GDP has been remarkable for the past decade, and the industry
may contribute up to 9.2% of worldwide employment by 2020. This being the case, effective English
communication has become a necessary skill for tourism employment. In order to facilitate theneeds of tourism employees, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programs could
be instituted to increase metalinguistic awareness and communicative competence in contentbased situations, where information must be understood and communicated. This paper focuses
on using a CLIL framework to develop effective English programs for tourism programs in Asia.
アジアにおいて、観光産業のGDPへの影響はここ10年ほどで着目されるようになっており、2020
年までにこの産業が世界全体の雇用の9.2％を占めることになると予測されている。
そのような状況のため、効果的な英語コミュニケーションは、観光産業での雇用のための必須なスキルとなると言える。観光産業従事者のニーズに対応し、情報の理解と伝達が要求されるコンテンツベースの状況におけるメタ言語認識と伝達能力の向上のため、Content and Language Integrated
Learning（CLIL）
プログラムが導入された。本稿では、アジアの観光プログラムに向けた効果的な英語プログラムを開発するために、CLILフレームワークの利用に焦点を当てる。

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is
using language to learn, and learning to use language
along with content. It is competence-based educationfor employability, mobility, and growth for practical
purposes. This makes it perfect for English in tourism
worldwide. To this end, effective English for tourism
programs should be administered following a CLIL
paradigm. CLIL can be thought of as an approach, but
it is also a theoretical concept and a paradigm, which
can be transformed into an effective framework forlearning and teaching English for tourism. For many
years, content teachers were content teachers andlanguage teachers were language teachers. However,in Europe especially, CLIL originated from a need toMorrow, J. S. (2017). Creating English for tourism
purposes programs using a CLIL framework. In
G. Brooks (Ed.), The 2016 PanSIG Journal (pp.
194-199). Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

194 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

combine both content and language together to maketeaching more effective for employment purposes,
and has proven to be quite effective in that realm. The
demand for English language learning and speaking
has grown exponentially, and therefore, most countries
will be learning English for communication purposes
in many facets in the upcoming decades, especially for,during, and within tourism.

CLIL Background
CLIL is largely an approach to teach new content
material through a foreign or second language, whichhelps students learn both content and language. Bothcontent and language are of course intertwined;
perhaps it is not enough to teach language forthe sake of language itself, as language has many
practical uses in employment in such fields as
healthcare, economics, politics, trade, and tourism.
In fact, globalization, economic development,English for Tourism Purposes Using a CLIL Framework, The pages 194-199
and environmental sustainability have all becomebuzzwords of the 21st century and have given rise to
the need to communicate both locally and globally
through intercultural activities. Globalization requires
governments and agencies to communicate acrosscountry borders, and developing economies must beable to access important market and trade information.
All countries must share information regarding
environmental protection. The demands of politics,
education, and society, therefore, have allowed CLIL
to become a popular approach to modern language
education.
Coyle, Hood, and Marsh (2010) give two main
reasons for the recent uptake of CLIL. Reactive
reasons are those in which human policy takes aleading role in determining aims of education andimplementation of language. A language may be
adopted as a medium of communication at thesecondary and tertiary levels and then also become aunifying language of business and politics. Proactive
reasons are those that purposefully enhance not only
language learning, but also strengthen bilingualism.
This being the case, CLIL has sociological roots. In
fact, CLIL can focus on intercultural ideas by allowing
people to share information on a widespread basis
not available in one-language settings. This, in turn,opens the door for developing further understandingof global connections, technological advances, andhuman lives. In the 1950’s Europe discussed the needfor multilingualism for advancing the economy,
and in the 1970’s the European Education Council
argued the need for teaching beyond the traditionalclassroom methods. This paved the way in the 1980’s
for the teaching of foreign languages to more school
age children in more than one language. The spreadof foreign language teaching prompted the CLIL
approach to be taken more seriously. CLIL then grewthroughout the European community. From the late1980’s, another way CLIL became an educational
initiative stemmed from the need to educate young
people about environmental protection through CLIL
learning modules, which focused on environmental
studies in English (Coyle et al., 2010).
In the 1990’s, CLIL became even more prioritizedand the European Council recommended to schoolsthat CLIL should be standardized throughout theentire European community. By the mid1990’s, CLIL
was sought after by parents wanting their children tohave some kind of socio-economic advantage (Coyleet al., 2010). Global dependence has meant that
communication and the ability to use a lingua franca
have become almost a prerequisite for individual
promotion, upward mobility, and success (British
Council, 2016). CLIL could therefore be especially
useful in the EFL classrooms that require teachingof a particular type of content such as science, math,or history. Effective learning has been seen in the
many diverse classrooms of late; however, students
need to be academically connected to their languageuse. Students must develop academic knowledge andskills with access to the target language, within which
particular knowledge is contained and evaluated(Crandall, 1994). CLIL allows teachers to enhance
integrated language skills without focus on structured
grading.

CLIL, CBLT, and ESP
Two other methods that share some basic theories
with CLIL are: 1) Content-Based Language Teaching(CBLT), and 2) English for Specific Purposes (ESP)
training. The CBLT approach focuses on teaching
one or two academic subjects in the target or second
language, and is taught largely in immersion settings.
CBLT as immersion, or the approach to use only thetarget language in teaching has been utilized in many
countries for decades. A plethora of immersion models
are based on the Canadian immersion system thatbegan as an experiment in Quebec where French is
the L1 of 80% of citizens. English speaking Canadianparents were proponents of the movement to ensurethat their children had the French language skills
necessary to live and work in Quebec (Lightbown,2014). Hong Kong has been using English to teachone more two mainstream courses in schools evenafter it was returned to China in 1997. Malaysia
had the educational objective to teach math andscience in English to secondary students since 2003;
however, problems occurred when it was difficult tofind teachers with adequate proficiency to teach two
subjects, and the decision was made in 2009 to return
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Morrow
the subjects to the teaching of Malay. This decision wasprobably based on the low effectiveness with which
the CBLT setting trained students for examinations(Gooch, 2009). Regardless of the problems faced with
CBLT in the past, there have also been many successes,
such as CBLT for minority students, which is different
for majority students in that learning a new language
is not optional. In this case, CBLT helps students
participate fully in socioeconomic circles that areimportant within any community.
CLIL, on the other hand, is a composite of bothlanguage and subject learning (Lightbown, 2014);
the difference is that most learners of CLIL havealready learned their content in their L1. CLIL
can more readily assist teachers in teaching global
communication because learners especially indeveloping regions need to achieve the best results inthe shortest amount of time possible. Although thelanguage functions differ from country to country,
the goal of learning a language quickly is of utmost
importance. CLIL advanced because the balance
between the social environment and the language usedin that environment has allowed CLIL to become an
approach that focuses on both language and content at
the same time.
English for Specific Purposes, or ESP, focuses onteaching the language of professional communication
one needs to know in order to carry out a particular
job or a particular task; word lists and vocabulary may
highlight the ESP-based classroom. There are two main
offshoots of English purposes that fall under the ESP
umbrella; these are English for Academic Purposes(EAP) and English for Occupational Purposes (EOP).
Within these fall such purpose English as English for
Medical Purposes, English for Business Purposes, andEnglish for Legal Purposes (Dudley-Evans & St. Johns,
1998). The methodology of ESP may not differ muchfrom general English, and while ESP must take into
account some content in order to teach appropriately,
the underlying goal of ESP is not always content;
the ESP teacher can facilitate learning throughtextbooks. In some cases, content does not enter into
ESP teaching at all (Tarnopolsky, 2013); however, if
a teacher is also a materials provider, he or she adapts
or creates appropriate material when nothing suitable

196 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

is available. This requires the teacher to become moreof a consultant who has deeper knowledge (DudleyEvans and St. John, 1998). Integrated ESP teachingdoes focus on both the content and language of aparticular professional situation, and as such, thelanguage learning and learning the content of afuture profession are linked and contribute to one
another. While CBLT and integrated ESP (including
EAP, EOP, EMP, EBP, and ELP) focus specificallyon language for professional development throughvocabulary and task-based teaching, there is only one
approach perhaps that fully links situational content
with one or two languages also in context, and thatapproach is CLIL.
Tourism has an obvious need for face-to-facecommunicative content training in functionalsituations dictated by needs. The tourism expansion has
created new job opportunities for employees; however,tourism employees must be able to communicate
effectively in every face-to-face situation. Face-toface employees with ample communication skills candrastically influence the perceptions of guests because
it is this communication that the guest will remember.
To assist employees with better communication for
their livelihoods, English language teachers andEnglish program developers should create more
effective CLIL programs for enhanced employment inand better income tourism. There is a need for better
English among tourism employees in developing
countries for both more stable employment andincreased incomes.

Elements of an Effective CLIL
Tourism Program
It goes without saying that some tourism employees
could be deficient in communicating in English due
to low English proficiency. Thus, CLIL programs
can help employees learn tourist destinations, travel
procedures, and guiding techniques in English
through using the language triptych: language oflearning, for learning, and through learning (Coyle,2010). The triptych can be utilized well by teaching
through role-play activities. This is because using
everyday examples can highlight the language andEnglish for Tourism Purposes Using a CLIL Framework, The pages 194-199
conditional nuances involved in dramatic, real-life
communication, which often accompany tourism.
Tourism employees can be taught to communicate insuch situations by presenting not only simple spoken
language, but language of learning, for learning, andthrough learning.
In any situation language is functional, dictated byneeds of that particular situation. Addressing language
needs of a particular situation, therefore, can bepracticed in task-based lessons in a CLIL environment,
which can also be accomplished in tourism role-playsituations. This also allows teachers and students tofully focus on content involved in learning such tasks
as hotel check in, explanation of amenities, and guest
payment. Learning is lexical, not grammatical, so
learning should be based on tasks, rather than on rotememorization.
These kinds of task-based lessons can be adopted
in a CLIL lessons if planned properly. In order tobegin preparing for any CLIL lesson, there are certain
considerations one must take into account, outlined
by Coyle et al. (2010): the 4C’s of lesson planning.
The four C’s are:1) Content. This area asks what the purpose of the
topic is, and how to proceed with tackling thecontent that is to be learned.
2) Communication. This facet is concerned withwhat language will be communicated throughthe lesson.
3) Cognition. Cognition focuses on the type ofthinking skills that will be initiated.
4) Culture. The culture component assists indeveloping intercultural understanding. Allof these can be combined together within
the preparation for the lesson in this CLIL
framework.
Much of CLIL is centered on Bloom’s taxonomy(Bloom, 1956) in which there are different
domains that assist in the learning process: 1)
creating, 2) evaluating, 3) analyzing, 4) applying,5) understanding, and 6) remembering. Bloom’s
taxonomy has been transferred to CLIL classroomsof late. The taxonomy premises that learning is best
done not as rote memorization, and using the above
domains in content rich instruction can promote

higher forms of critical thinking. Learning of any
content must involve the language associated with thecontent; in this case teachers can use tourism content
to teach tourism communication, and during tourism
communication training using English, other aspectsof communication can be taught as well: pleasantries,or the communication of greeting, and taking careof guests’ needs in an open and professional manner;prediction, or the skill of understanding what theguest may require on first glance; and purpose or
the communication that will assist the traveler inobtaining what he or she needs.
Dramatic activities work well in teaching tourism
English using CLIL because CLIL teaches bothcontent and language for use in situational problem
solving, discussion, and negotiation of meaning.
English for tourism using a CLIL format could
utilize real-life dramatic activities such as role-play.
Role-play, in fact, is used quite extensively in tourism
English training. Hillyard (2015) has discussed some
useful process conventions in drama. Those include:
improvisation (unscripted, unrehearsed scenes),teacher in role (the teacher taking on a character role
within a drama), tableau (where the students assemble
into pictures expressing a certain situation), thought
tracking (whether the teacher freezes the scene, taps
the students on the shoulder and asks them to speak
the characters’ feelings), narration (the teacher tells
the story and the students listen with closed eyes or
pantomime the actions), mapping, writing in role (incharacter students write about a thoughtful scene in
the drama), meetings (the teacher and students meet
together discussing information), trials (where one
or more people in character are interrogated or act
as jurors),and hot seating (where a students or group
questions or gathers information from others).

An Example of a CLIL Tourism
English Activity
At this juncture, the author will describe an effectivemodel for tour guides using an extensive reading andexplanation activity under the CLIL framework. In thisextensive reading model, the class is separated into two
main groups, the tour guides and the tourists. The tour
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Morrow
guides are given a reading passage about a well-known
tourist destination with which they have contact andshould have knowledge and experience. Each reading
contains a number. They are to read the explanation
and remember certain specific points. These points
will be used later to explain the destination to tourists.
The tourists randomly choose a number and then areprovided with sample questions to ask the tour guideregarding the destination. The tourists approach thecorresponding tour guides and ask questions relating
to their destination, such as historical significance,
origin, and unique features. The tour guides are taught
to study and practice using a two-fold approachbased on some of the points detailed above from
Bloom’s taxonomy: evaluating the reading they are
undertaking, analyzing the important parts that could
be relayed to tourists, and applying what they have readto the situation. In turn while practicing, tour guides
are taught to: evaluate the tourist situation, including
needs of the tourist; analyze what the tourist may wantto know and what kind of communicators they are;and apply what they know about the destination while
relaying pertinent information. Administration of thiskind of lesson also includes emphasis on the four C’s ofeffective CLIL lessons: content, as can be found in theextensive readings by the tour guides; communicationin which the guides and the tourist practice effective
questioning and explanation, cognition, which focuseson evaluating and analyzing the knowledge of theguides and the needs of the tourists, and culture, where
the culture of the destination is provided taking thecultural aspects of the tourists and guides into account.

Conclusion
Effective use of English is essential for tour guides andthose working in and around the tourist industry. To
this end, effective training using a CLIL framework
for language learning could help tourism employees
communicate more fully and confidently, combining
both essential content and language to go with thecontent. Using the four C’s of lesson planning within
the language triptych, combined with the effective
communicative competency activities, effective lessons
under a CLIL framework can be created with real-life
implications.

198 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Effective CLIL Tourism programs should include:•• Key integrated vocabulary and phrasal knowledge
relating to tourism and to particular destinations;•• Role-play activities focusing on using the language
to learn new facets of communication;•• Extensive reading in the target language to prepare
for explanation of tourist destinations;•• Teaching of prediction activities for front desk
employees and concierges to be able to discern
particular guests’ likes, desires, and needs.
The four language skills can also be practiced in a
CLIL for tourism English program:
Listening practice for comprehending guests’questions, comments; extensive reading practice can beincorporated to learn and explain tourist destinations,along with background information; and speaking
practice can be included to relay info to guests where
the focus of the lesson is on fluency, not accuracy.
Writing practice is also incorporated to recycle
grammar when speaking to travelers and is essential for
all tourism employees.
CLIL training can help learners integrate content
with language during meaningful practice, such asthat found in face-to-face communication. CLIL style
English training can help young labor force members
have a chance to enter the work force and have better
employment leading to higher incomes, a higher
standard of living, and a brighter future.

References
Anderson, L.W., Krathwohl, D.R., Airasian, P.W.,
Cruikshank, K.A., Mayer, R.E., Pintrich, P.R.,
Raths, J., Wittrock, M.C. (2001). A taxonomy
for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of
Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objective. New
York, NY: Pearson, Allyn & Bacon.
Bloom, B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of educational
objectives. Handbook I: Cognitive domain. New
York, NY: David McKay.
Coyle, D., Hood, P., & Marsh, D. (2010). CLIL:
Content and language integrated learning.
Cambridge, England: Cambridge.
Crandall, J. (1994). Strategic integration: Preparing
language and content teachers for linguisticallyand culturally diverse classrooms. In J. E. Alatis

English for Tourism Purposes Using a CLIL Framework, The pages 194-199(Ed.), Georgetown University roundtable on
languages and linguistics. Strategic interaction andlanguage acquisition: Theory, practice, and research(pp. 255-274). Washington, DC: Georgetown
University Press.
Dudley-Evans, T. & St. John, M. (1998).
Developments in English for specific purposes, amultidisciplinary approach. Cambridge, England:
Cambridge.
Gooch, L. (2009, July 8). Malaysia ends use of English
in science and math teaching. The New YorkTimes. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com

Hillyard, S. (2015). Drama and CLIL: The powerof connection. In S. Roman & J. Nunez (Eds.),
Drama and CLIL (pp. 25-46), Bern, Switzerland:Peter Lang.
Lightbown, P. (2014). Focus on content-based language
teaching. Oxford, England: Oxford University
Press.
Tarnopolsky, O. (2013). Content-based instruction,
CLIL, and immersion in teaching ESP at tertiary
schools in Non-English speaking countries.
Journal of ELT and Applied Linguistics, 1(1),1-11.

Author’s Biography:
Jeffrey Stewart Morrow is an Associate Professor of English at the Prefectural University of
Kumamoto, Kumamoto, Japan, where he researches English ability in employment and income
in tourism. Recent publications include: An Effective ESP Program Design for Enhanced
Employment and Income in Tourism: the Case of Siem Reap, Cambodia.

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

199

To Skype or not to Skype? Revisited: Chi-squared Analysis
Confirms Positive Influence of Skype Exchanges
David Ockert
Toyo University
ockert@toyo.jp
This paper reports the survey results of a group of students (n = 29) at an elementary school inJapan who engaged in 3 computer mediated communication exchanges with native speakers ofEnglish elementary school students in Australia. The participants had statistically significant
increases in their desire to engage in foreign language activities (p < .01); international posture (p< .01), motivation (p < .01), and desire to visit foreign countries (p < .05). In addition, the effectsize measures and statistical power numbers are very encouraging. Furthermore, these parametricresults are further supported by a non-parametric chi-squared test of independence of the 6variables before and after the Skype® interventions. The chi-square results support the effect sizeand power results. The results and implications are discussed.
オーストラリアの英語小学生のネイティブスピーカーとコンピュータ媒介通信交換に従事日本では小学校の生徒のグループの調査結果が提示されています。参加者は外国語活動に従事することを自分の欲望の統計的に有意な増加があった（p < 0.01), 国際姿勢（p < 0.01)、動機た（p <0.01), および外国を訪問する欲求た（p < 0.05) また、
これらの項目のグラス「Δ効果の大きさ対策は以下のとおりです。
これらの結果は非常に有望であり、調査項目に学生からのフィードバックに関連して説明されています。
さらに、
これらのパラメトリック結果は、Skype（登録商標）介入前後の6変数の独立性のノンパラメトリックカイ2乗検定によってさらに支持される。カイ2乗結果は、
エフェ
クトサイズとパワー結果をサポートします。結果と含意について議論する。

The results of an examination of the effects ofmultimodal computer mediated communication(MCMC) use in a Japanese elementary school EFL
class are reported in this paper. One class (n = 29) used
the Skype® online video software to communicate witha group of elementary school students in Australia
on three separate occasions. This paper builds on
previously reported research (Ockert, in press, 2016,2015a, 2015b; Ockert & Tagami, 2014) by providing
the effect sizes, which are calculated in comparison
Ockert, D. (2017). To Skype or not to Skype?
Revisited: Chi-squared analysis confirms positive
influence of Skype exchanges. In G. Brooks (Ed.), The
2016 PanSIG Journal (pp. 200-207). Tokyo, Japan:
JALT.

200 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

with a control group, the statistical power, and a chisquared (χ2) analysis of student responses to questions
on the 6 affective variables. This group of students
really enjoyed the language exchange experience using
Skype®, which resulted in an increase of affective
variables, including foreign language activities (FLAs),
confidence, motivation, willingness to communicate(WTC), and international posture (IP). These six
were chosen to compare their relationship before andafter the exchanges since they are of interest to theresearcher and colleagues.

MCMC EFL Studies
In the JEFL learning situation, studies involving
computer-mediated communication (CMC) in
FL learning have shown the benefits to students

To Skype or not to Skype? Revisited, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 200-207
of Japanese and English (Saito & Ishizuka, 2003).
Furthermore, Freiermuth and Jarrell’s (2006) research
on WTC and online chat has shown that a computer–mediated environment provided a more comfortableenvironment compared with a classroom learning
setting. This resulted in the improvement of student
WTC. In a study to promote student EFL motivation,
confidence, and satisfaction, Wu, Marek and Yen(2012) used Internet-based MCMC. In their study,
EFL students in Taiwan interacted ‘live’ with a native
speaker of English (NSE) in America and student
motivation, satisfaction, confidence, and performance
improved as a result.

MCMC Studies and Skype
In the JEFL learning situation, the use of Skype®
enabled students at schools in various regions aroundthe world to communicate (e.g. Takiguchi, 2002). The
results show that real-time, in-class communication
with students in foreign countries using a videoconferencing system (e.g. Skype®) improved student
interest, concern, and desire. Additionally, studies
with elementary students have shown that correlations
between Skype®-based FLAs, motivation, IP,
confidence, WTC, and interest in foreign cultures/ desire to travel overseas are high (see Ockert &Tagami, 2014).

Foreign Language Activities
Research conducted in EFL environments has shownthat a combination of a learner’s personality (trait
motivation) and situation specific (state) motivation
contributes to EFL motivation ( Julkenen, 2001). In
other words, task motivation depends on the generalmotivation of the learner combined with how they
perceive the task. In Japan, Nose (2006) reported that‘games’ was the most interesting activity amongst his
students, who gave three reasons why: 1) an increase ofinterest as a result of talking with an NSE; 2) listening
to a foreign language; and 3) an increase of awarenesstowards communication, i.e. the necessity of English
to communicate with foreigners.

Affective Variables in EFL
L2 Learner Motivation
Researchers have reported on increased motivation asa result of CMC in several studies (e.g. Wu, Marek &Yen, 2012). There are various reasons, including theresult of exposure to stimulating and authentic learning
contexts, of collaborative work in a less-threatening
environment (Friermouth & Jarrell, 2006), and oflearners’ perceived feeling of having control over theirown learning (Warschauer, 1996). This aspect of CMC
motivation will be explored in more detail below andare the basis for the exchange activities used in thisstudy. A recent study by Oga-Baldwin et al. has shownthat the instruction in elementary schools supports
foreign language learning motivation (Oga-Baldwin,
Nakata, Parker, & Ryan, 2017). The use of Skype® inthe classroom is a supplementary intervention thatbolsters the foreign language curriculum / instruction
in elementary schools.

International PostureWithin the Japanese EFL ( JEFL) context, Yashima(2000) found that English seems to represent
something broader than people from the US or Britain
in the minds of young Japanese learners. She refers toa generalized international outlook or IP defined as an“interest in foreign or international affairs, willingness
to go overseas to stay or work, readiness to interact
with intercultural partners, and…a non-ethnocentric
attitude toward different cultures” (p. 57). Therefore,
this identity with ‘foreignness’ possesses aninternational outlook and the attendant attitudes todifferent cultures and foreigners that are non-Japanese(Yashima et al., 2004). Her work forms the basis for
examining the relationships among IP, L2 learning
motivation, and L2 communication confidence inan L2 before and after the Skype® exchanges in thepresent study.

L2 Self-confidence
MacIntyre and his associates (Donovan & MacIntyre,2005) identified a concept, which they have labeled‘perceived communicative competence’. In JEFL
studies, Yashima (2002) found a positive, causal
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201

Ockertrelationship between motivation (which wascomprised of two indicator variables, desire andintensity) and communication confidence (comprisedof two indicator variables - communication anxiety,aka nervousness, and perceived communicationcompetence) in the L2, which led to WTC. In
addition, Yashima et al. (2004) found that selfconfidence in communication in an L2 to be essential
to be willing to communicate in that L2.

Willingness to Communicate
In the JEFL literature, Yashima and her associates(Yashima et al., 2004; Yashima et al., 2009) haveconducted research on WTC in the JEFL context
in relation to several affective variables, including,language learning orientations and motivations(Yashima, 2000), student WTC (Yashima, 2002)
and the influence of attitudes and affect on WTC
and second language communication (Yashima
et al., 2004). They concluded, “Self-confidence incommunication in an L2 is crucial for a person to bewilling to communicate in that L2” (p. 141). Online
chat has been shown to support student motivation ina small-scale study by Reinders and Wattana (n = 9;2011). Similarly, the Skype® intervention used in thisstudy also shows an improvement in WTC.

Desire to Travel Overseas
Clément and his associates (see Clément & Krudenier,1985) reported on the desire to travel overseas andthe desire to make friends with members of an L2target community. Students’ desire to spend time
abroad is related to instrumental motives (e.g. future
employment) and socio-cultural motives such as adesire to make friends (Clément, Dörnyei, & Noels,
1994). Kramsch and Andersen (1999) commented
that com­puters and the Internet seem to realize
the dream of every language teacher – to bring thelanguage and culture as close and as authentically as
possible to students in the classroom.

The Study
Hypotheses
The use of the Skype® video software to communicate

202 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

with students in Australia will increase the affective
variables of the experimental group toward English
language learning. The affective variables examinedin this study are: desire to engage in foreign language
activities, IP, motivation, communicative confidence,
WTC, and desire to visit foreign countries.

MethodParticipants
All of the students who participated in the study werein the 5th grade of a Japanese elementary school andwere 10-11 years old. The classes were evenly divided
for gender. There were two classes (N = 58) with theexperimental group (n = 29) utilizing Skype® threetimes for 30 minutes each, and one control group (n= 29).

Materials
The survey was in paper form and in Japanese. The
questionnaire items use a six-point Likert-type scale
from1 (Completely Disagree) to 6 (Completely Agree).
The data was put to a correlation analysis and principal
component analysis (PCA) using statistical software(SPSS 18) and these results were reported in Ockert(2015a). The significance level was set to .05 for all of
the items.

Procedures
The survey was administered in class to students in
April and again after the final Skype® exchange. The
exchanges lasted about 30 minutes each. The students
introduced themselves, sang songs, and answeredquestions in the target language.

Results and Discussion
Quantitative Results
The six items’ descriptive statistics and correlations forthe first iteration of the survey are provided in Table
1 for reference (Ockert, 2015a). As can be seen, all of
the correlations with FLAs are statistically significant.
This evidence demonstrates that the use of FLAs canhave an influence on the other 5 affective variables
investigated.
The Control Groups’ M and SD Before andTo Skype or not to Skype? Revisited, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 200-207
Table 1The Control Groups’ M and SD Before and After the Intervention (n = 29)
FL Activities

International
PostureMotivation

Comm.
Confidence

WTC

Desire to travel

Before4.00 (1.62)

3.74 (1.61)

3.52 (1.72)

2.67 (1.62)

3.22 (1.60)

4.74 (1.83

After

4.00 (1.69)

4.04 (1.32)

4.48 (1.42)

3.30 (1.51)

3.63 (1.74)

4.74 (1.91)

Difference

0.00

0.30

0.96*

0.63

0.41

0.00

Effect Size

na

na

0.68

na

na

na

Power

na

na

.58

na

na

na

Note. *p < .01
After the Intervention (n = 29)The results of thedifferences for the groups’ M and SD before and after
the intervention are presented in Table 2 for reference(Ockert, 2016). First, the statistically significant
increase of .96 (p < .01) in the FLA results is similar toefficacy of the study? Cohen (1992) offers suggestions
for effect size measures: 0.2 indicates a small effect;0.5, a medium effect, and 0.8 indicates a large effectsize (p. 159). Since this intervention used a pre-post
experimental design, the effect sizes were calculated

that found by previous researchers in the JEFL learning
context (e.g. Tagami, 2010). In addition, the notably
large increase in IP after the intervention is possibly themost outstanding result. The increase of 1.17 points ona six point scale, and statistically significant at the p <.01 level, this clearly indicates a meaningful increasethat an effect size measure can verify. The statisticallysignificant increase (p < .01) for Motivation of .93 also
deserves further scrutiny. However, one of the goals of
this experiment was to improve the students’ interest in
EFL, and this result confirms that interest increased asa result of the intervention.
What do these increases mean regarding theaccordingly. As shown in Table 2, the Glass’ delta
effect size measures are: FLAs = 0.83; International
Posture = 1.06; Motivation = 0.80; and Desire totravel overseas = 0.54. Based on the above-mentioned
method for interpreting their value(s), these effectsizes are very desirable and support the efficacy ofthe study, demonstrating that the results are notby random chance and are, in fact, meaningful.
Furthermore, the statistical power results tell us theprobability that the experiment would yield similar
results if repeated (Soper, 2016). Therefore, the FLA
results indicate a 77% probability; IP 95%; Motivation
74%, and the Desire to travel overseas results indicate

Table 2The Experimental Groups’ M and SD Before and After the Intervention (n = 29)
FL Activities

International
PostureMotivation

Comm.
Confidence

WTC

Desire to travel

Before3.14 (1.70)

3.31 (1.84)

3.17 (1.70)

3.45 (1.40)

3.34 (1.86)

4.45 (1.77)

After

4.10 (1.16)

4.48 (1.10)

4.10 (1.16)

3.41 (1.38)

3.90 (1.24)

5.07 (1.14)

Difference

0.96**

1.17**

0.93**

-0.04

0.56

0.62*

Effect Size

0.83

1.06

0.80

na

na

0.54

Power

.77

.95

.74

na

na

.65

Note. **p < .01; *p < .05
The 2016 PanSIG Journal203

Ockerta 65% probability of similar results in a subsequent
experiment.
How are we to judge the effectiveness of the Skype®
exchanges? First, the statistically significant increase of.96 (p < .01) in the FLA results is similar to that foundby previous researchers in the JEFL learning context.
This supports the theoretical basis for the use of Skype®
as an intervention to improve student interest in
English-language based FLAs. In addition, the notably
large increase in IP after the intervention is possibly themost outstanding result. The increase of 1.17 points ona six point scale, and statistically significant at the p <.01 level, this clearly indicates a meaningful increasethat requires further research to verify.
If it can be shown that a similar intervention can
provide positive results, the research results presented
herein will be supported. The statistically significant
increase (p < .01) for Motivation of .93 is very good
news. One of the goals of this experiment was toimprove the students’ interest in EFL, and this result
confirms that the students’ interest increased as a resultof the intervention. The students reported an increasein their reported Desire to travel overseas (0.62) whichis statistically significant at p < .05. Perhaps moreinterventions over a longer period of time would
alleviate this issue. Future studies could be conductedto help answer this question.
As a result of a professional critique by
Ferriera (2017), the author chose to use a χ2 test of
independence on the data from the instrument results
before and after the Skype® interventions. For theχ2, the lower score indicates similarity of response
between the items for the pre-Skype data, as can beseen in Table 3..
It should be noted that the control group showed
only a statistically significant change for motivationin the pre-post survey results. Therefore, the resultspresented here help confirm that the Skype® had apositive influence on the experimental students’ affect.
Also, the students who participated in the Skype®
exchanges responded to the survey items in a more
distinct manner after the exchanges when comparedwith the pre-intervention results.
Furthermore, the high χ2 values in Table 4 tell usthat at the very least, the students responded to each
item in a more ‘specific’ manner after the interventions,and the low p values confirm this. Also, none of theparticipants chose option 1 for Strongly Disagree for
IP and Desire to travel abroad – a clear indication that
their affect was positively influenced by the Skype®
exchanges. While these results are very encouraging,
the author would like to note that they are those of anintervention and the author does not advocate the useof Skype® in lieu of native English speakers (NESs) inthe classroom.

Conclusions
How can educators engage learners in the learning
process by utilizing Skype® or other systems as a means
to capture interest and foster learning or at the very
least increase student interest in EFL learning?. There
are several reasons why learners may lose interest in
learning another language: time pressure; the fact that
their friends do not use the language; boredom; they
see no future use for it; and other interests, to name afew. However, the use of recent technological advances

Table 3
Experimental Group Chi-square test Results Before the Skype Exchanges
FLAs

IP

Mot

CC

WTC

D to travelχ2

1.828a3.241b

1.828a12.586a3.069a11.172b

df

5

4c

5

5

5

4d

p = .872

p = .518

p = .872

p = .028

p = .689

p = .025

p levelNotes: a. The expected frequency of 6 cells (100.0%) is 5 or less. The minimum value of the required cell frequency is 4.8.
b. The expected frequency of 0 cells (0.0%) is 5 or less. The minimum value of the required cell frequency is 5.8.
c. The df is 4 since no participants responded to option 3 on the scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree).
d. The df is 4 since no participants responded to option 2 on the scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree).

204 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

To Skype or not to Skype? Revisited, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 200-207
Table 4
Experimental Group Chi-square test Results After the Skype Exchanges
FLAs

IP

Mot

CC

WTC

D to travelχ2

17.552a10.483b17.552a11.345a10.931a19.793b

df

5

4c

5

5

5

4d

p = .004

p = .033

p = .004

p = .045

p = .053

p = .001

p levelNotes: a. The expected frequency of 6 cells (100.0%) is 5 or less. The minimum value of the required cell frequency is 4.8.
b. The expected frequency of 0 cells (0.0%) is 5 or less. The minimum value of the required cell frequency is 5.8.
c. The df is 4 since no participants responded to option 1 on the scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree).
d. The df is 4 since no participants responded to option 1 on the scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree).

such as the Internet provides an interesting alternative
to traditional educational approaches.
The use of an in-class Skype® exchange with NESs
of a target language provides several positive outcomes
for the students involved. As this study shows, theJapanese students report an increase in five of the six
affective variables surveyed. They report an increase
in interest in FLAs, which are related to English,
foreign countries (different cultures), a desire to study
more in order to communicate in English, a desire tocommunicate with foreigners in English, and a greater
desire to go overseas at some time. What are someof the benefits of introducing live, video MCMC
exchange experiences for young EFL Japanese learners?
It is possible to use video communications as a means
to teach English by using such exchanges as a foreign
language activity as a motivating intervention.

Acknowledgements
The author thanks Tatsuto Tagami for organizing
the Skype® exchanges and the data collection, and theeditor and reviewers for assisting to bring this paper topress. Any errors are the author’s.

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The 2016 PanSIG Journal

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Ockertexchanges on Japanese elementary students’affect. Accents Asia, 9(2).
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Author’s Biography:
David Ockert’s teaching interests are in critical thinking, reading comprehension, writing, andhe researches the influence of technology on affect, specifically motivation, confidence, anxiety,and willingness to communicate. A test item writer, he has worked at SHARP®, teaches parttime at the National Defense Academy, and works for the Japan Olympic Committee withyoung athletes in preparation for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

206 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

To Skype or not to Skype? Revisited, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 200-207

Appendix
The student survey
English translation of the questionnaire items using a six-point Likert-type scale from1 (Completely Disagree) to
6 (Completely Agree).
1. I like foreign language (English) activities.
2. I want to know more about foreign countries (different cultures).
3. To communicate in English, I want to study more.
4. I have confidence to communicate using simple English.
5. For myself, I want to communicate with foreigners in English.
6. I want to go overseas at some time.

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207

Educational Manga: Deceptively Educational
Erina Ogawa
Reitaku University
eogawa@reitaku-u.ac.jp
This paper examines how 67 Japanese university students viewed, by questionnaire, an educational
manga textbook: what they particularly liked and did not like about it, their first impressions (andchanges to them), and their preferences in textbook style, price, and size. Two main points may
be noted from the results of this study. First, the majority of these students (particularly those in
the lower English proficiency level group of the two class groups) preferred educational mangato traditional textbooks. Second, first impressions of educational manga can be deceiving. Somestudents changed their opinion regarding its difficulty and others who initially perceived it not to
be study material changed their minds after studying with it. Educational manga may be facing abarrier to language classroom use if it does not appear to be educational.
この論文では、教育マンガ教科書の特に気に入った点とそうでない点、第一印象とその後の変化、教科書の好みのタイプや値段やサイズについて、67人の日本人大学生のアンケート調査の結果を報告する。
この調査では、二つの大きな結果が見られた。一つは、大半の学生（特に２クラスの内、英語能力の低いレベルのクラス）
は一般の教科書で学ぶより、教育マンガ教科書で学ぶ方がより良いと感じた。
もう一つは、教育マンガは第一印象とは違うことが多い。学生の中には難易度に対する意見を変えたり、また初めは勉強らしくないという印象を持っていた学生も学び終わった後自分の意見を変えたりした学生もいた。教育マンガが教育的とは思われない場合、語学教室でこのような教材が使われない理由となっているかもしれない。

Educational manga (Ogawa, 2013), along with graphic
novels (Monnin, 2010) and manga textbooks (Uchida,
Orita, Kunigami, Terano & Yoshikawa, 2012),
belong to the comic genre, which provide “range
and versatility with all the potential imagery of film
and painting plus the intimacy of the written word”(McCloud, 1993, p. 2121). As explained in Ogawa(2014b), the use of “image literacies” (Monnin, 2010,
p. 123) is not uncommon in the language classroom.
They have the desirable features of visual stimulation(Wolfe, 2010), improved student understanding(Uchida et. al., 2012) and improved learning throughheightened attention (Cary, 2004) stemming fromthe inherent emotional intimacy. It may be easier for

educators to accept visual materials like educational
manga into their classrooms when they consider that
The Newsom Report of 1963 encouraged English
teachers to use comics (Mouly, 2010) and that, if
history had been different, it may have been books
instead of video games that were met with resistancefrom educators and others ( Johnston, 2005). In fact,
Short and Reeves (2009) suggest that materials such as
educational manga can be effective education tools and
Lee and Morrall (2006) have developed a computerbased English learning tool inspired by manga.
While educational manga have the potential toaccomplish some educational aims better than the
traditional textbook, what is the reality of using them in

Ogawa. E. (2017). Educational Manga: Deceptively
educational. In G. Brooks (Ed.), The 2016 PanSIG
Journal (pp. 208-216). Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

the language classroom? The author and her university
lecturer colleague had previously collaboratively
designed an educational manga textbook for theirstudents to learn about the job-hunting process in

208 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Educational Manga, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 208-216
English. This textbook begins by talking about work,
then describes step-by-step how to write an English
resume, and finishes with the topics of interviews
and networking. They designed the textbook using
the software program Microsoft Publisher, with thestoryline and characters (drawn in draft form) primarily
devised by the colleague while the author focused on
the learning activities (see Ogawa, 2014a). Please notethat the particular version (see Appendix A for a samplepage) used in this study was simplified by the author
to better meet the needs of the particular participantsin this study and is based on the earlier collaborated
version described in Ogawa (2013). As in preceding
publications, this paper also reports on the impressionsof students who used an educational manga textbook
for the first time. However, it examines different
aspects. It follows on from two JALT publications:Ogawa (2013), which was a preliminary study of theuse of educational manga in the Japanese university
English language classroom and Ogawa (2014a), whichanalyzed its activities or tasks. It is also preceded by
Ogawa (2014b), which demonstrated (through theexamination of pre- and post- surveys) that students did
perceive educational manga to be both a desirable and auseful medium for study and that students could learncontent material through them, as well as an analysis of
the advantages and disadvantages of using educational
manga as educational materials in Ogawa (2017). In
turn, this paper examines how students ranked various
aspects of their textbook, what they particularly liked
and did not like about it, their first impressions (andchanges to them), and their preferences in textbook
style, price and size.

Methodology
In January 2014, a questionnaire (see Appendix B for
an English translation) was distributed by the author
to 67 students she taught in her two second-year
English classes for the 2013 academic year of Business
Administration students in a central Tokyo university.
The questionnaire, which along with the responses wasin the students’ native Japanese, consisted on one side often Likert-type questions on a scale of -5 (not at all) to

5 (definitely so). This particular type of scale, althoughunusual, was deemed to be meaningful for the students
and less likely to result in the middle number being
repeatedly chosen. The other side asked respondents:(1) to list three advantages and three disadvantages of
educational manga compared to traditional textbooks,(2) to list three impressions they first had of the textbook
and to indicate whether or not those impressions hadchanged, and (3) to state which type of textbook they
preferred, what advice they had for publishers of manga
textbooks, and what they considered an appropriate
price. The textbooks were provided without cost to thestudents, but were of low print quality and were merely
stapled together down the center.
Due to the mix of quantitative and qualitative
data, different methods of analysis were used. Means
were calculated for the ten quantitative questions on
the first side of the questionnaire in order to provide acomparative measure between the questions. However,further analysis was not considered worthwhilesince the study was of a small scale. All 67 students
completed every question in this section except forthe second question (one student failed to indicate
a response and therefore it had an n value of 66).
Likewise, mean averages (for each class and the total
sample — all of which were the same when rounded
to the nearest yen) were calculated for the textbook
price. Percentages were calculated for the textbook
preference question.
Analyzing the qualitative data was more
complicated as the respondents wrote freely
without pre-determined categories in order for
the question design not to lead the answers in any
particular direction. Therefore, data categorization
was conducted after questionnaire collection, bylisting all of the comments together and grouping
them into similar themes. The advice/requests for
publishers mainly related to specific details of thisparticular textbook (e.g. characters’ hairstyles, qualityof drawings, etc.) and therefore are excluded from thisreport due to being irrelevant. However, comments
regarding the compact size of the textbook were
included as this would likely be relevant to othereducational manga.

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

209

OgawaResults
How Good Is Educational Manga as a
Textbook?
The first side of the questionnaire listed ten questions andrequired respondents to rank (from -5 to 5) how muchthey agreed with each of them. The mean responses foreach of these ten questions are shown in Table 1.
As is evident in the table above, every question
received a positive average score that was higher thana 2 on the scale. The highest score was achieved by thequestion asking whether the students enjoyed using
manga in class (3.40). The next highest score indicatedthat these students considered textbooks like thisto be better than traditional textbooks (3.16). The
lowest score went to the question asking if students
believed that their English improved after using
the textbook (2.24), which perhaps was more of an
indication of the students’ limited confidence rather
than their impressions of the textbook (although
this is inconclusive from these results). Although noquestions received negative scores, the average score
was also comparatively lower for the question regardingwhether the respondents learnt new English grammar
and vocabulary after using the textbook (2.28).

Advantages and Disadvantages
When asked to list advantages of educational manga,
the following three reasons were quoted the mostoften: “It’s fun” (or something similar), “It’s manga(and therefore it’s interesting)”, and something along
the lines of “It’s easy to understand” (see Figure 1).
First, 26 students wrote comments which were placed
into the first category. Second, 24 stated that it beinga manga was an advantage, with several students
clarifying that being a manga was an advantage
because it was interesting. Third, 18 students stated
that, compared to traditional textbooks, this textbook
was easy to understand and placed that comment in
the “Advantages” column of the survey form.
The top disadvantage by a clear margin was the factthat some of the pictures were unclear. This comment
was made by 54 students and will be addressed laterin this paper. Other disadvantages noted were that
this particular textbook was all in English and lacked
Japanese (8) and that there was limited opportunity
for study of grammar (12).

First Impressions and Changes After Use
Respondents were asked to list three first impressions
they had of their educational manga textbook and toindicate whether or not that opinion changed after

Table 1How Good Is Educational Manga as a Textbook?

Question (n = 67 unless otherwise indicated)

Mean

Good way to study about job hunting

2.31

Good way to study English (n = 66)

3.09

English improved after textbook use

2.24

Like English more after textbook use

2.51

Better than traditional textbook

3.16

Enjoyed using manga in class

3.40

Story and characters were good

2.93

Enjoyed participating as manga character

2.85

English conversation skills improved after textbook use

2.55

Learnt new English grammar and vocabulary after textbook use

2.28

210 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Educational Manga, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 208-216

Figure 1. Advantages and disadvantages of educational manga.

using the textbook in class. Since multiple answers
were requested, results in this section are given inSome (17) students commented that the pictures were
substandard and these students remained of the same

numerical form only (number of responses) andnot percentages. They are also illustrated in Figure
2. Many students (29) thought their new style of
textbook looked interesting and they did not change
this opinion after using the textbook. Some students(15) thought it did not look or feel like study material
and about half (7) of these students changed theirminds after using the textbook. Some (18) thought it
looked difficult but they all changed their minds afterusing the textbook. Conversely, others (13) thought
it looked easy and eight of them changed their minds.

opinion after using the textbook.

Preferred Textbook TypeOut of 62 students (five students did not answer thisquestion), 49 (79%) preferred to use educational
manga. This compares to 13 students (21%) who
preferred a traditional textbook. The dominance ofpreference for educational manga is evident when
visually depicted, as in Figure 3. It should be noted
that, although there were not large discrepancies
between the English abilities of the students from

35
30
25
20
Changed15

Didn't Change

1050Interesting

Not like
study

Difficult

Easy

Bad quality

Figure 2. First impressions and changes after use.

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

211

Ogawaeach class, 85% of the students in the class with thelower level of English proficiency who answered thisquestion stated that they preferred educational manga,compared with 71% of students from the higher class.
Some interesting comments were made regarding
this question. Below are some selected quotations
explaining why these respondents chose an educational
manga over a traditional textbook, translated into
English from the original Japanese: “It’s fun to learn
and I am motivated to try to understand”, “Because,
I never want to see a traditional textbook again”, “I
can let things sink in without the feeling of resistanceto usual textbooks”, and “From the perspectiveof someone who is bad at English, a manga-type[textbook], compared with a rigid textbook, gains myinterest and even makes me want to study”. However,for a minority of students “Manga is not interesting.
It’s difficult to understand” or “Conversation isdifficult for someone like me with limited grammaticalknowledge to understand. But, I don’t think manga is
entirely inappropriate because its wide entrance makes
it easy to enter”.

Discussion and Conclusions
Two main points may be noted from the results of thisstudy. First, building on from the results of Ogawa(2014b), which found that students found educational
manga to be a desirable learning medium, this study
found that the majority of these students preferrededucational manga to traditional textbooks. Thiswas particularly true for the students in the lower
English proficiency level group of the two class groups.
The main reasons appear to be because it is easy tounderstand and fun to read — two aspects which
may appeal more to students with limited English
ability. Other appeals included that in this particular
textbook they could take part in the story as a manga
character, as well as the innate appeal of manga (exactly
what respondents meant by this is unclear). The
overwhelmingly most common negative point wasthat of the pictures not being of good quality. Since
this was due to it being a draft textbook with poor
quality printing, the pictures were not always clear.
Therefore, this reservation can be dismissed as a reason
not to use educational manga of professional quality
since it would not be an issue in such a case. Despite
this limitation, the average indicated price preference
was approximately 840 yen. A textbook of professional
quality would be expected to demand a higher price. It
should be emphasized that the results presented in thisstudy indicate that, after using an educational manga
textbook, students indicated that such a textbook: wasenjoyable to study and to participate in as a manga
character, had good characters and storyline, was agood way to study about job-hunting and English,
enabled them to learn new grammar and vocabulary
and to like English more, improved their English
conversational and other skills, and overall was better
Traditional
textbook-higher
class, 13%

Educational
Manga - lower
class, 47%

Traditional
textbook-lower
class, 8%

Figure 3. Preferred textbook type.

212 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Educational
Manga - higher
class, 32%

Educational Manga, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 208-216
than a traditional textbook.
Second, in some cases, first impressions ofeducational manga textbooks can be deceiving. For
example, at first some students thought it looked easy
and approximately half of this number changed theiropinion after using the textbook. On the other hand,
many students thought the textbook appeared to bedifficult but did not think so after using the textbook.
Perhaps of most interest is the fact that many students
at first thought that their educational manga textbook
did not look like study material, but about half of themchanged their minds after actually studying with it. It
is possible that this impression that educational mangagives by not appearing to be educational may act as abarrier to the introduction of educational manga in
the language classroom.

Notes
1. Bold and italics as in the original but text
decapitalized from the original comic format.

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2012. Tokyo, Japan: Japanese Society for
Artificial Intelligence.
Wolfe, P. (2010). Brain Matters: Translating research
into classroom practice (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA:
Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development.

Author’s Biography:
Erina Ogawa is a New Zealander who teaches English and Global Human Resources courses
at Reitaku University. Along with articles on educational manga, she has published on student
belief, strategy use, and confidence in English language learning. Erina also has several articles
concerning multicultural identities, particularly regarding multicultural youth, as well as theinternationalization of the cultural identities of Japanese university students.
The 2016 PanSIG Journal

213

OgawaAppendix A
Sample Page of Educational Manga Used

214 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Educational Manga, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 208-216

Appendix B
English Translation of Japanese Questionnaire Form
Job Hunting: Resume and Interview Skills Textbook Survey
A. Please answer the following questions by circling a number from -5 (Not at all!) to 5 (Definitely so!)
1. This textbook is good for studying about job-hunting.
-5

-4

-3

-2

-1

0

1

2

3

4

5

0

1

2

3

4

5

0

1

2

3

4

5

0

1

2

3

4

5

2. This textbook is good for studying English.
 -5

-4

-3

-2

-1

3. My English improved from using this textbook.
-5

-4

-3

-2

-1

4. I like English more by using this textbook.
 -5

-4

-3

-2

-1

5. I like this textbook better than traditional textbooks.
-5

-4

-3

-2

-1

0

1

2

3

4

5

0

1

2

3

4

5

0

1

2

3

4

5

0

1

2

3

4

5

2

3

4

5

2

3

4

5

6. I had fun studying in class with manga.
-5

-4

-3

-2

-1

7. The story and characters were good.
-5

-4

-3

-2

-1

8. It was fun being a manga character.
-5

-4

-3

-2

-1

9. I understand English conversation better from using this textbook.
-5

-4

-3

-2

-1

0

1

10. I learnt new words and grammar by using this textbook.
-5

-4

-3

-2

-1

0

1

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

215

OgawaB. Please fill in the chart below.
Please write three advantages and three disadvantages of this textbook, compared to a traditional textbook.
Advantages

Disadvantages

1.

1.

2.

2.

3.

3.

Please write three first impressions of this textbook. After using the textbook, did your impression change?
First Impressions
1.

After Using Textbook
Changed / Didn’t Change

2.

Changed / Didn’t Change

3.

Changed / Didn’t Change

C. Please answer the following questions in as much detail as possible:
Which would you choose, a traditional textbook or a manga textbook? Why is that?

Do you have any opinions or requests to give a manga textbook publisher?

What price is right for this textbook?
Thank you very much!
Erina Ogawa

216 The 2016 PanSIG Journal¥..............

The Language Learning Effects of a ShortTerm Study Abroad Program
Rika Otsu

Masao Satake

Iwaki Meisei University
rika.otsu@iwakimu.ac.jp

msatake@dance.ocn.ne.jp

This study investigates the effects of short-term study abroad programs on language learning of
the participants by comparing a case study of Tokiwa University with previous studies which
also examined short-term study abroad programs in Japan. In Japanese academic years (AprilMarch) 2014 and 2015, twenty one students from Tokiwa University participated in a “4-weekConversation & Culture Program” at the University of California, Irvine Campus in the U.S.
The findings show that a study-abroad experience, even a short-term program, can enhance
participants’ motivation to learn the target language, as well as to improve their actual language
proficiency. The participants’ overall language test scores increased approximately 10% as previous
studies have shown. However, unlike previous studies, there was no significant difference inlistening scores, which was expected to improve and affect the overall score the most. Anotherfinding is that the lower-level participants improved more than the higher-level participants.
この研究は、短期海外留学プログラムの効果を言語学習の観点から検討するものである。
ここでは、短期海外留学プログラムに関するこれまでの日本の大学における事例研究を振り返りながら、水戸市にある常磐大学の事例をみていく。常磐大学は、米国カリフォルニア大学アーバイン校の付属英語学校で実施される「4週間の会話と文化プログラム」に希望学生をほぼ毎年引率している。2014年度と2015年度には合計21名の学生が参加し、現地で英語や文化を学んできた。研修前後の英語のテスト結果やアンケートから、参加者は1ヶ月のプログラムでも英語への自信や英語力を向上させたことがわかった。英語力全般の伸びは、先行研究が示したリスニング力向上によるものではなかったが、同じように10％程度確認できた。他にも、英語力の下位群の伸びが上位群より大きかったという結果は、一部の先行研究が指摘しており、常磐大学の事例もそれに加わることになった。

According to a survey conducted by the Japan Student
Service Organization ( JASSO, 2016), the number ofJapanese university/college students studying abroadhas been increasing in recent years. That number
nearly doubled from 36,302 in academic year 2009
to 81,219 in academic year 2014. The JASSO’s survey(2016) also reports that short-term study abroad
Otsu, R., & Satake, M. (2017). The language learning
effects of a short-term study abroad program. In
G. Brooks (Ed.), The 2016 PanSIG Journal (pp.
217-224). Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

programs, with a length of stay of less than a month,
have been increasing. In academic year 2009, about
46% of the students were on short-term study abroad
programs, and in academic year 2014, the number had
reached about 60%.
The probable reason students decide to study
overseas is to learn a foreign language as theyexperience a foreign culture. Many short-term study
abroad programs include a homestay experience,
language instruction at school, and exchanges withlocal students. Participants also visit various places
and join local events to deepen their understanding of
The 2016 PanSIG Journal

217

Otsu & Satakethe particular culture. Through these opportunities,
participants expect to improve their language skills,
broaden their cultural point of view, and growpersonally.
In this article, we will focus on the question:
How effective is a short-term study abroad programfor participants in their language learning? First we
review previous studies that discussed study abroad
programs by Japanese universities and colleges, andthen we investigate a study abroad program to the
University of California, Irvine Extension (UCI) in
the U.S. conducted by Tokiwa University in academic
years 2014 and 2015.

Previous Studies on Short-Term
Programs
Although many studies have been made on study
abroad programs over the past years, very few havefocused on study abroad programs of less than amonth. This section concentrates on such a shortprogram and summarizes what effects have beenfound.
To examine the language learning aspects, two
methods are used in previous studies. One is aquestionnaire survey that examines participants’subjective evaluation of their language learning.
The other is objective testing, in which language
tests are given and the results are analyzed. Somestudies compare the test scores before and after theparticipants’ study abroad experience, and somecompare the participants’ and non-participants’ testscores.

The Effects on Language Aspects
Previous studies based on subjective evaluation showthat most participants felt that their general English
skills had improved or that they had gained confidence
in using English (Bunno & Sugimoto, 2000; Furuya,
2005; Kobayashi, 2004; Matsuda, 2007). These
reports indicate that listening ability is considered
their most improved skill.

218 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

As for previous studies based on objective
evaluation, we have referred to ten case studies, andsix of them report a score difference between the pretest and post-test. The others (Kimura, 2006; Kuno,
2011; Otsuka, 2009; Sabet, 2007) compare the scoresof participants with those of non-participants. In thisstudy, we take the former six studies and investigate
how much participants’ language ability improved
through a short-term study abroad program.
Table 1 shows the length of stay, the numberof participants and test types in the six studies
respectively. It also indicates the rate of increase of
averaged scores of the pre- and post-tests that theparticipants took, rounded off to one decimal place.
Since some tests measure particular skills while others
do not depending on the test type, only listening
scores and overall scores that are relatively common aretaken into consideration. The results of other skills arereported altogether as “Others.” Red characters meanthat there was a significant difference (at p < .05).
As shown in Table 1, only Nonaka (2005)
reports no significant difference in both the overall
and listening scores, while other studies report the
opposite results except the study by Taura. et al (2009)
which only takes listening scores into consideration.
Furthermore, the rate of increase of the participants’
overall averaged scores was between 6.4% and 11.7%,
and the rate of increase of their averaged listening
scores was between 8.5% and 15.2%, which was
higher than any other skill. This indicates that theparticipants’ subjective evaluation of their listening
ability matched their objective evaluation.
An interesting finding related to the objective
evaluation in Nonaka (2005), Nonaka (2008),
and Yoshida & Kodera (2009) is that lower-levelparticipants’ groups improved more than higher-levelparticipants’ groups. They divided participants into
groups according to their pre-test scores, and thencompared each group’s averaged scores with their posttest scores. Their results show a significant differencein lower-level groups and higher-level groups in theoverall score and in the listening section.

Language Learning Effects of Short-Term Study Abroad, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 217-224

A Case of Tokiwa University(Academic years 2014 and 2015)
A Short-Term Study Abroad Program to
the U.S.
Tokiwa University’s short-term study abroad
program to the U.S. begins with seven preparatory
workshops before actually going abroad to the “4week Conversation & Culture Program” at UCI, andone meeting after coming back to Japan. The sevenworkshops provide instructions for survival English,
travel tips, homestay manners, and the assignment ofa group project which participants do during their stayin the U.S. On the first day at UCI, participants are
assigned to a class (B1 class= Beginning level, B2 class=
Beginning+ level, C class= Intermediate-low level, Dclass= Intermediate level, E class = Intermediate-highlevel) according to their proficiency test results.
The participants take two classes for about threehours each day from Monday to Friday. One class isto practice mainly reading and writing, and the otherclass is to practice mainly listening and speaking.
The participants are also given an opportunity to
do some activities with UCI students, which iscalled “Conversation Partner” (CP) for three hours
twice a week. A UCI undergraduate and three orfour participants are grouped together to enjoy
conversation, do their favorite activities, like playing
pool, or going shopping.
Participants in academic years 2014 and 2015 didother things in their free time. They worked on theirgroup project of interviewing the UCI students on
campus and making a report on their project. Anotherthing was to visit a Japanese class to talk about
Japanese culture and communicate with local students
learning Japanese. Some participants also visited a
local Japanese school for bilingual children and playedwith the children learning Japanese. On the weekend,
most of the participants actively went out for fun, forinstance, going to the beach, a mall, or Disneyland.
Regarding the homestay, they could choose if they

Table 1
Studies Based on Objective Evaluation with Pre- and Post-Tests
Sojourn term Participants
Overall score
Author (Year)(weeks)(number) Test type Increase rate (%)

Listening score
Increase rate (%)

OthersIncrease rate (%)

Kobayashi(1999)

3-4

31

ITP
TOEFL

6.4

8.5

10.8

Nonaka (2005)

3

51

TOEFL

0.1

2.3

-1.23

Nonaka (2008)

3

29

TOEIC IP

7.8

12.7

0.5

Taura, et al(2009)

3

20

TOEFL

NA

11.0

Only listening
measured

Yoshida &Kodera (2009)

2

15

CASEC

11.7

Understanding specificinformation (15.2)
Understanding general
information (13.1)

9.3

Kimura (2011)314

Eiken STEP

9.9

11.2

2.34 (Significant
difference confirmed
not in the Grammar& Vocab. Scores, but
in the Writing score)Note. Yoshida & Kodera (2009) does not contain detailed statistical data, so authors conducted a t-test using
the participants’ score data (pp.115-117) to confirm significant differences in the overall score and listening(understanding specific information).

The 2016 PanSIG Journal219

Otsu & Satake
wanted to stay alone or with a peer.

The Effects on Language Learning
Two kinds of questionnaire surveys were conducted inorder to observe the participants’ subjective evaluationon language learning. Also, the results of the
proficiency tests that UCI conducted at the beginningand the end of the program were analyzed in orderto observe the participants’ objective evaluation.
UCI usually conducts the proficiency test, Michigan
English Language Institute Testing (ELI Test), onlyat the beginning of the program, but the ELI Test wasdone again at the end of the program for the purposeof our study in academic years 2014 and 2015. The ELI
Test consists of a listening section (L) of 20 questions,and a section on grammar, vocabulary and reading(GVR) of 80 questions, for a total score of 100.
Figure 1 describes the subjective evaluation andreveals five points. 1) most of the participants felt that
their general English skills had improved. 2) about
90% of the participants felt that their listening skills
had improved. 3) almost 80 % of the participants feltthat their speaking and reading skills had improved.
4) almost half of the participants thought that theirwriting and vocabulary skills had improved, however,less than half of the participants thought that theirgrammar skills had improved. 5) all the participants
felt that their strategic skills for communication had
improved.

These results were similar to the previous studies
introduced above. Staying in an English-speaking
environment and learning English in communicativeclasses that the participants rarely experience in their
daily life may have contributed to giving them a lot ofEnglish input as well as forcing them to use English
to survive. As for vocabulary and grammar skills, theparticipants did not seem to have time to use theirfamiliar learning techniques such as translating every
line of the textbook into Japanese, and answering
vocabulary, grammar, and reading questions on paper.
It may have been difficult for students to follow the
rapid flow of English conversations. One participant
said that when he was in the U.S., he tended to focus
on learning listening and speaking skills more than on
the mechanics of grammar.
Figure 2 shows the participants’ attitudes about
English learning. Almost all the participants cameto like English, and around 85% of the participants
came to have confidence in their English use andtheir ability to handle English-only classes. This is anamazing result since at the beginning of the program,participants were so worried about communication in
English that they frequently depended upon one of
the authors who accompanied the participants’ groupin academic year 2014 for guidance and support.
The objective evaluation for all the participants isshown in table 2. It is the result of the ELI Test for all
21 participants of the 2014 and 2015 programs. The

Figure 1. Participants’ subjective evaluation of their English learning.

220 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Language Learning Effects of Short-Term Study Abroad, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 217-224

Figure 2. Participants’ attitude toward language learning..

averaged scores and standard deviations (SD) of eachgroup as well as of all the participants of the pre- andgroup. The rate of increase for the B1 class is morethan twice that of the rate of increase for the B2 andpost-tests are shown. Both the overall scores and the
GVR scores between the pre- and post-tests show asignificant difference. Also, the lower-level group’s (B1class) GVR and overall scores, and the middle-levelgroup’s (B2 & C classes) GVR and overall scores show
a significant difference. Significant differences areindicated in red.
In summary, the rate of increase of the averaged
overall score of all the participants was 13.7% and it ishigher than any previous study. Secondly, the overall
increase in score is not due to their listening, but due
to the increase in the GVR score. It differs from theparticipants’ subjective evaluation and what previous
studies show. Thirdly, the rate of increase of the lowerlevel group is higher than that of the higher-level

C class. This is similar to some previous studies thatshow lower-level classes exceeding higher-level classes
in their improvement.

Conclusion
The purpose of this project was to investigate theeffectiveness of a short-term study abroad, throughreviewing collected results from previous studies andexamining a case study done by Tokiwa University.
Research results concluded that the overall test score
has increased approximately 10% in both previous
studies and Tokiwa University’s case. The reason that
Tokiwa University’s case was slightly higher thanprevious studies might be the length of stay. Tokiwa
University’s program was one or two weeks longer

Table 2
ELI Test Results (Academic years 2014 and 2015)
B1 (n=9)
L

B2 &C (n=8)

GVR Overall

L

GVR Overall

D &E (n=4)
L

Total (n=21)

GVR Overall

L

GVR Overall

Pre-test

6.11 23.44 29.56 8.00 35.38 43.38 11.25 50.50(1.05) (5.53) (5.70) (1.93) (4.31) (3.78) (1.89) (7.19)

Post-test

7.56 30.33 37.89 9.00 39.88 48.88 10.75 50.75 61.50 8.71
37.8 46.57(3.50) (5.24) (7.22) (2.56) (5.51) (6.81) (3.40) (10.44) (13.72) (3.23) (9.92) (12.06)

Increase rate (%)

24.6

29.5

28.0

4.7

12.7

12.7

-4.4

0.6

61.75 7.81 33.14 40.95(9.00) (2.44) (11.45) (13.32)

-0.5

11.5

14.5

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

13.7

221

Otsu & Satakethan other study programs.
Besides the overall test score, Tokiwa University
participants also improved their GVR scores, while
participants in previous studies reported listening
improvement. Lastly, Tokiwa University’s case study
showed that the lower-level group improved more as
some previous studies also show.
Those improvements may have been influenced byeach participant’s personal experience, from an uneasy
beginning to gradual competence. They asked forhelp frequently at the beginning of the program andsometimes grumbled, but they never gave up joining
everything the program provided, and found ways tostay positive. Such an attitude may have contributed
to their positive evaluations both subjectively andobjectively.
The group difference may be explained in thefollowing two ways. The first is that in the lower-levelclass students learn very basic English compared withthe higher-level class. So, in such a short term, it may
be easier for lower-level participants to acquire new
basic language skills than the more complex language
skills required of higher-level participants. The second
is the affective filter hypothesis proposed by Krashen(1985) in which the lower-level students are not able
to exercise their full ability at the beginning, but
once they get used to the learning environment, their
growth can be great.
Whether short term or not, a study abroad
program provides wonderful opportunities forparticipants to improve language skills; somethingthat cannot be gained in one’s own country. The
following will be crucial to the success of a shortterm study abroad program: instructions before
traveling, support from schools both in Japan andoverseas, information exchange between schools,
careful preparation of activities, and choosing quality
host families. More students will study abroad in thisincreasingly globalized world in the future, especiallyin short-term study abroad programs. These programs
should continue to be valued and demanded.

Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the Japan Students Services
Organization ( JASSO) for permission to extract a

222 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

part of the effects on participants’ language learningfrom our paper in the JASSO’s web magazine,
Ryugaku Koryu (Otsu and Satake, 2016). Sincere
appreciation is extended to the staff members at theInternational exchanges and language learning centerof Tokiwa University and to UCI Extension, to Taku
Sato who gave us advice on the statistical data for thisstudy, and to Frank Tuck who proofread our paper.
We would also like to acknowledge all the cooperationof our students who participated in the study abroad
program.

References
Bunno, M., & Sugimoto, A. (2000). Tandaisei notanki amerika kenshu no koka ni kan suru
kenkyu: Amerikajin no sutereotaipu to eigoryoku
no jiko hyouka he no eikyo [The effects of theshort-term overseas study on junior college
students’ stereotype of American and selfevaluation of English ability]. Hiroshima daigaku
ryugakusei kyoiku,4, 69-82.
Furuya, N. (2005). Evaluating a short-term study
abroad program. Bunka josi daigaku kiyo. Jinbun/
shakai kagaku kenkyu, 13, 19-30.
Japan Student Service Organization. (2016). Kyoteito
ni motoduku nihonjin ryugakusei jokyo chosa[Survey of Japanese students studying abroad
based on agreements]. Retrieved from http://
www.jasso.go.jp/about/statistics/intl_student_s/
index.html
Kimura, K. (2006). Eigoken taizai ga gakusei noeigoryoku ni oyobosu eikyo: Tanki gogaku
kenshu ni yori eigoryoku wa kojo suruka [Theinfluence of studying abroad on language
proficiency: Do short-stay programs in English
speaking countries affect students’ English
proficiency?]. Shobi gakuen daigaku sogo seisaku
kenkyu kiyo, 12, 1-20.
Kimura, K. (2011). Daigakusei no kaigai tanki kenshu
heno ichikosatsu: risuningu to raitengu ni shoten
wo atete [How effective the short-term studying
program in an English-speaking country is forJapanese university students: Focusing on thelistening and writing proficiencies]. Shobi gakuen
daigaku sogo seisaku kenkyu kiyo, 21, 17-30.

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Kobayashi, K. (2004). A study on the functions ofstudy-abroad programs as an effective meansof English education in Japan. Meikai daigaku
gaikokugo gakubu ronshu , 16, 11-36.
Kobayashi, T. (1999). Kaigai tanki gogaku kenshu
de eigoryoku wa donokurai nobiru monoka[To what extent will Japanese EFL learners’
English proficiency improve in intensive English
programs abroad?]. Otaru shoka daigaku jinbun
kenkyu, 97, 83-100.
Krashen, S. (1985), The Input Hypothesis: Issues and
Implications, New York, NY: Longman
Kuno, H. (2011). 3 shukan no tanki kaigai gogaku
kenshu ga daigakusei no eigonoryoku ni oyobosu
koka ni tsuite [Effects of a short-term (3-week)
study abroad program on the English proficiency
of four-year college students]. Hokkaido bunkyo
daigaku ronshu, 12, 127-145.
Matsuda, Y. (2007). Tanki kaigai kenshu no igi
to sono jizen kenshu ni tsuite: Gakusei nohokokusho to anketo chosa no kekka kara
[Significance of short overseas study program andits preparation: The result of the questionnaires
and the reports]. Nagoya bunri daigaku kiyo, 7,
45-50.
Nonaka, T. (2005). Kaigai gogaku kenshu no koka
sokutei [Assessment of homestay program].
Niigata seiryo daigaku tanki daigakubu kenkyu
houkoku, 35, 7-12.
Nonaka, T. (2008). Kaigai gogaku kenshu no koka
sokutei (2) [Assessment of homestay program(2)]. Niigata seiryo daigaku tanki daigakubu
kenkyu houkoku, 38, 43-49.
Otsu, R., & Satake, M. (2016). Tanki kaigai gogaku
kenshu ha dorehodono koukaga arunoka –tokiwa
daigaku no baai – [How Effective is a ShortTerm Study Abroad Program?: A Case of Tokiwa
University], Webu magajin “Ryugakukouryu,” 65,
16-24.
Otsuka, K. (2009). Ibaraki kogyo koto senmon
gakko ni okeru kaigai tanki gogaku kenshu no
gengogaku teki kyoiku koka kensho: 2 nenkanno deta bunseki kara [Verification of learning
effects on short study abroad programs at Ibaraki
National College of Technology]. Ibaraki kogyo
koto senmon gakkou kenkyu ihou, 44, 23-30.
Sabet, M. (2007). Are Study Abroad Programs
Effective? Seigakuin daigaku ronso, 20(2), 177184.
Taura, H., Horii, K., Manishi, T., Okada, H.,
Shimizu, D., Kashimoto, M., & Tonari, S. (2009).
Nyujirand tanki gogaku eigo kenshu no koka
ni kansuru ichikosatsu [A report on a threeweek intensive English programme at Massey
University, NZ]. Gengo bunkagaku kenkyu (Gengojouhou hen), 4, 1-22.
Yoshida, S., & Kodera, M. (2009). Tanki kaigai
gogaku kenshu ga kosen gakusei no eigoryoku
ni motarasu koka [Effects of short-term overseas
study of English on the students’ English
learning] Fukui kougyo koto senmon gakkou
kenkyu kiyo. Jinbun shakaikagaku, 43, 111-122.

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

223

Otsu & Satake

Author’s Biographies:
Rika Otsu is currently teaching English and other related subjects at Iwaki Meisei University
in Fukushima prefecture. Her research interests include motivation, collaborative learning,training university students to read English picture books aloud to children, and short-term
study abroad programs.

Masao Satake at the time of writing was teaching Economics and International Economics at
Tokiwa University in Ibaraki prefecture. His main research areas are international economics
and environmental economics. Due to his interest in globalization and to his own study abroad
experience in Australia, he is interested in study abroad programs at Japanese universities.

224 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

The Benefits and Challenges of Using
Google Forms With Extensive Reading
John Patrick Owatari-Dorgan

Luc Roberge

Nagasaki International University
jpdorgan@niu.ac.jp

Nagasaki Junior College
roberge@njc.ac.jp

Brendan Van Deusen
Nagasaki International University
bvd@niu.ac.jp
Two post-secondary institutions used Google Forms as a tool for the assessment and evaluation ofExtensive Reading (ER). This paper will outline the rationale, procedure, benefits and challenges
of using technology such as Google Forms to evaluate ER. Despite similar teaching contexts, thetwo institutions had very different experiences with Google Forms as an assessment tool. Although
the use of Google Forms did help to attain some teaching goals, it also created new challenges.
2つの高等教育機関において英語の多読の授業の評価にGoogleフォームを利用した。本研究において、多読の評価にGoogleフォームのようなテクノロジーを用いた理由とその手順、さらに、利点と今後の課題について明らかにする。2つの高等教育機関で同様の条件のもと、授業が行われたにも関わらず、Googleフォームの使用について顕著な差異が得られた。Googleフォームを授業目
標の達成に役立たせることはできたが、見直すべき点も新たに発見された。

According to Nation (2009), extensive reading (ER) is
a fundamental component of meaning focused input
and fluency development. Teachers who use ER are
faced with the challenge of how to encourage andassess student reading activity. To that end, teachers
can set reading time benchmarks as a method of
encouraging and assessing student reading activity.
Asking students to keep reading logs is one methodthat can be used to monitor reading time (Schmidt,
2004). Teachers are faced with the obstacle of how tocollect and manage student reading data in an efficientand reliable way. In this paper, the authors attempted
to use Google Forms as the means of collecting
Owatari-Dorgan, J. P., Roberge, L. & Van Deusen, L.
(2017). The benefits and challenges of using Google
Forms with extensive reading. In G. Brooks (Ed.), The
2016 PanSIG Journal (pp. 225-230). Tokyo, Japan:
JALT.

student reading activity information for assessment.
The authors found that collecting data about student
reading time with Google Forms has both benefits
and challenges, which are largely influenced by theteaching context.

Paper-based Reading Logs forExtensive Reading
Collecting data on the time students spend readingis one method of evaluating student ER activity.
Eichhorst & Shearon (2013) provide an example
in the form of student reading logs. The goal of thisapproach was to encourage the development of regularreading habits. Each week, students report the dateand number of minutes spent reading and the total
number of minutes is evaluated based on a time countrubric. The implementation of this system relies on
students completing and submitting paper forms to
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Owatari-Dorgan, Roberge, & Van Deusen
the teacher, who then checks them and returns theforms to the students.
The authors attempted a similar paper-based
method when beginning to implement ER at theirschool; however, they soon experienced problems withusing paper forms for evaluating reading time countactivity. The most frequent problem was students
forgetting their forms at home or losing them. This
prevented teachers from providing scores and feedback
in a timely manner to students. Another problem wasthat students were observed to be filling in their weekly
reading logs in the minutes before the deadline, raisingquestions about the students’ ability to accurately
recall their reading activity. Finally, having access todata about student reading activity can be valuable,
but in a paper-based system that information is limited
to the physical location of the reading log. Thus, suchinformation may not be accessible when it is actuallyneeded, for example, when providing support to a
student. Inputting such data into an online spreadsheet
can be overly time consuming. For all of these reasons,the teachers decided to implement a digital version of
the reading log.

About Google Forms
Google Forms is an online tool that allows for thecollection of survey data from respondents. Eachform has an associated link which can be published or
shared. After filling out the form, data can be stored
in an automatically generated spreadsheet. The creatorof the form has control over the spreadsheet and candecide whether to share the results with respondents.
Setting up a Google Form is a relatively simple processthat can be done by anyone with a Google account.
More information about the process and the featuresof Google Forms can be found at https://www.google.
com/forms/about/.

Rationale for Assessing with Google
Forms
The authors attempted to use Google Forms as anelectronic reading log based on the reasons below:
1. Cost: Using the service has no financial cost.
2. Paperless: The teachers felt they wanted to reduce

226 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

paper waste and eliminate the need to handle, store
and manage paper logs.
3. Efficiency: It was thought that this method would
be time efficient for both teachers and students.
Additionally, students could add a log entry fromanywhere with a computer or smartphone withinternet access.
4. Security: Teachers would have access to a students’reading data at any time. As data is automaticallysaved and backed up in the cloud, logs could not be
misplaced or destroyed.
5. Digital Literacy: If students are exposed to, andhave opportunities to utilize new technologies,
they may subsequently develop their digital
literacy.
6. Monitoring: By logging all reading time, teachers
can monitor reading habits. Furthermore, due tothe sharing functionality, both the teacher and thestudent can have access to the reading data.

Google Forms Data Collection
Procedure
As with most extensive reading, the process ofcollecting student reading data with Google Forms
begins with independent student reading. Aftereach discrete period of reading, regardless of length,
students visit a Google Form (Figure 1) that was
created for them via a private link that was provided
by the instructor on the learning management system.
The Google Form asks the students for some basic
information about their reading activity. For example,
the students are asked the date on which they readand how much time they spent reading. In addition,
the students are asked to write the name of the bookthat they read as well as mark whether they finished
the book during the reading time. Each time a student
completes the form and submits, the Google Form
generates a new line on a private spreadsheet (Figure2) that was automatically created for the student.
The spreadsheet can be made visible to the student
by the teacher. At the end of each evaluation period,
the teacher opens each student’s spreadsheet andtotals the reading lengths reported by the student.
After checking the total reading time reported by theGoogle Forms With Extensive Reading, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 225-230

Figure 1. Example of Google Form used at school 1.

student, the teacher checks the reading time against arubric and assigns the student a score for that reading
period.

Education Context
Google Forms was used with extensive reading at
two schools in rural southern Japan. School 1 is asmall university, and had been practicing ER for one
semester using a paper-based system prior to switching

to Google Forms. ER was used in a reading classes forfirst- and second-year students in an intensive English
program. Prior to entering the program, students had
no experience with ER. First-year classes met twice aweek for 90 minutes; second-year classes met once aweek for 90 minutes. First-year students were given
30 minutes at the beginning of most classes for inclass reading time; whereas, second-year students wererequired to do all of their reading outside of class.
Class sizes ranged from 10-17 students. Students wererequired to read for a certain amount of time eachweek and log their activity using Google Forms.
School 2 is a small community college, andhad not previously implemented an ER program.
As a trial, a teacher from School 2 integrated an ER
component into an existing language course that was
being team-taught by two teachers, one Canadianand one Japanese. The course was offered to first-year
students and instruction was given in both English
and Japanese. Forty-five students were enrolled in
the course and met once a week for 90 minutes fora total of 30 lessons. Students were asked to borrowbooks from library and bring them to class. Students
were given 20-30 minutes at the beginning of eachlesson for silent reading and were asked to read aminimum of 30 minutes a week of their own time.
To the teacher’s knowledge, none of the students had
previous experience with extensive reading.
At both schools, the courses were held in a
Language Lab and as such, all students had access tocomputers and the internet. All students had accessto the reading log with either their phone or througha classroom computer. Much of the course material
was provided to students via an online learning
management system. Moreover, students at bothschools had little experience with online learning andhad never used Google Forms prior to the start of thecourse.

Benefits and Challenges
Using Google Forms to monitor student reading
time had both positive and negative aspects. Teachersand students had access to the log at any time froma variety of devices which was convenient. Teachers
often observed students logging reading time fromThe 2016 PanSIG Journal

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Owatari-Dorgan, Roberge, & Van Deusen

Figure 2. Spreadsheet, generated by Google Forms, containing a single student’s reading log submissions.

their mobile devices at various times throughout theday. Furthermore, Google Forms prevented students
from losing or forgetting their reading logs which was
a common problem with paper forms that school 1 hadexperienced previously. Conversely, it was impossible
for students to forget or lose their logs using theGoogle Forms system. In this respect, Google Forms
was deemed to be effective for managing student
reading data.
In the small class environment of school 1, theteachers were able to actively manage student reading
by providing weekly feedback about reading times in
the form of a weekly assignment. This awareness ofstudent performance allowed the teacher to provide
additional support to students who were not reading
consistently via a brief student-teacher conference. The
large class environment of school 2 made evaluationof reading time much more time consuming for theteacher. As such, the teacher was only able to provide
reading time feedback at the end of the semester.
Given the experiences at school 2, using Google Forms

228 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

for reading time data collection was useful but proved
too time consuming to monitor weekly, biweekly oreven monthly. Thus, Google Forms for assessment
purposes did not help the teachers to provide constantfeedback to the students, especially the ones thatneeded encouragement to read more throughout thesemester. This may or may not be a Google Forms issue
but rather a problem of scale and the teacher timeneeded to provide weekly feedback to many students.
At school 1, teachers also sought to ensure thatstudents were logging their reading times actively
throughout the week rather than completing thereading log at the end of the week immediately prior to
the due-date of the assignment, which was a common
problem with the paper-based system. The teachersbegan this practice out of concern that waiting tocomplete the log may cause students to miss-remember
reading times. Additionally, this type of student
activity could be viewed as suspicious behavior or areflection of poor ER habits. The teachers at school
1 were able to monitor this aspect because each entry

Google Forms With Extensive Reading, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 225-230
submitted via Google Forms includes an automatictimestamp. With this timestamp, teachers at school 1
compared the asserted date of reading with the actual
date and time of logging. If the students were following
the correct procedure outlined by the teacher, thetwo dates should be relatively close. When these twodates were not close, the teachers met with students todiscuss their reading and logging habits. At school 2,
the teachers could not do this because evaluation was
not conducted until the end of the semester.
At both schools, teachers found setting up the
Google Form system challenging. Although creating
a single Google Form is not particularly difficult,creating forms for the entire class could be quite time
consuming since the form must be duplicated, renamed
and shared with each student in the class. Moreover,the spreadsheet with students’ reading results mustalso be shared with each student individually. Basedon the amount of time required, the process of setting
up Google Forms for reading data collection may be
too cumbersome for classes with a large number ofstudents.
Another major challenge for both schools was
the multiple layers of technology necessary to use
Google Forms for reading logs. Students are required
to have email accounts, which many students did not
have, requiring that time be spent on setting this up.
Only this year did school 1 begin providing school
email accounts. Many students at school 2 expressed
confusion and frustration having to log into thelearning management system to find the correct link.
In fact, some students did not keep a log or logged
their time on the example form. As a result of these
difficulties encountered by some students, the use of
Google Forms was somewhat problematic at school 2.
On the other hand, school 1 had a more positive
experience with Google Forms. In general, students
logged consistently and correctly. This may havebeen the result of a concerted effort on the part of
the teachers to train students about how to log at
the beginning of the semester. Moreover, weekly
feedback about time count logging may have helped
re-enforce proper logging practices. Thus, based on theexperiences of the authors, teachers should consider
planning time and strategies to provide support for

students that may struggle with using Google Forms.
Finally, using this method alone for evaluating
reading time, there was some possibility that not all
students were being truthful. Although each form
contained an honesty pledge at the bottom, somestudents may have not been honest in their reports
which can compromise the fairness of the evaluation.
In the case of school 2, the teacher used the reading
time collected with Google Forms as the sole ER
evaluation method. Therefore, it was possible thatstudent extensive reading evaluation did not accuratelyreflect student reading activity. Thus, to limit thispossible evaluation weakness, school 2 decided to use
school 1’s approach in the future. At school 1, students
took a short quiz after completing each book thereby
allowing the teacher to cross-reference reported time
counts with quiz scores. Since cross-referencing thedata proved to be a time-consuming task, the teachers
refrained from actively cross-referencing every
students’ log on a weekly basis. Instead, the teachers
looked for suspicious activity such as unusually longreading times for a single book or uncharacteristic
bursts of reading activity and cross-referenced these
specific incidents. In general, cross-referencing
revealed that students were not following standard
ER practice but were being honest about their reading
activity. This was deemed an effective method of
maintaining the integrity of the time count data and offacilitating a more comprehensive method of assessing
and evaluating the ER portion of the course. The
details of such a system are outside the scope of thispaper, and are a topic for further research. Regardlessof the method used to collect student reading time,
there is an inherent risk of fraudulent reporting by
students. Nevertheless, aggregating all of a student’s
reading time in a single spreadsheet allows teachers
to more readily identify suspicious activity, logging
mistakes or other reasons for concern.

Conclusion
There are benefits of and challenges associated withusing Google Forms to collect student reading data.
As discussed above, the benefits are primarily related
to the efficiency, security and organization of student
reading data. This allows teachers to have a better
The 2016 PanSIG Journal229

Owatari-Dorgan, Roberge, & Van Deusen
understanding of student reading activity, thus
allowing teachers to provide meaningful feedback.
Most of the challenges discussed in this paper are
related to the time and effort it takes for teachers tocomplete initial setup and continuously evaluate. In
the case of having many students, this may be too muchfor a teacher to manage. Although Google Forms is a
useful option for teachers to use for collecting reading
data, the teaching context plays a pivotal role indetermining how helpful it might be in a given class.

References
Eichhorst, D. & Shearon, B. (2013). The Tohoku
University Extensive Reading Manual. Sendai,
Japan: Tohoku University Center for the
Advancement of Higher Education.
Nation, I.S.P. (2009). Teaching ESL/EFL Reading andWriting. New York, NY: Routledge.
Schmidt, K. (2004). Monitoring reading. In J.
Bamford & R. Day (Eds.), Extensive reading
activities for teaching language (pp. 77-79). New
York, NY: Cambridge UP.

Authors’ Biographies:
John Patrick Owatari-Dorgan is an assistant professor in the Department of International
Tourism at Nagasaki International University. His specialties include interculturalcommunication as well as language and cultural exchange. jpdorgan@niu.ac.jp

Luc Roberge is an associate professor in Department of Global Communication at Nagasaki
Junior College. He has a broad range of educational interests. roberge@njc.ac.jp

Brendan Van Deusen is interested in extensive reading and curriculum design. He is assistantprofessor in the Department of International Tourism at Nagasaki International University.
bvd@niu.ac.jp

230 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

We Created New, Deeper Meaning: The Use of
Transformed Practice Activities in a Literacies Classroom
James Emmet Owens
Kanda University of International Studies
james-o@kanda.kuis.ac.jp
In Transformed Practice activities, original texts are recreated in different modes (e.g. spoken to
written) and/or genres (e.g. email to poetry). Students demonstrate both comprehension of theoriginal text’s meaning and the creative ability to make new meanings when reconstructing texts in
new forms. When successful, the activities imply that learners are able to achieve genre awarenessby identifying the key features, affordances and constraints of each mode/genre. In this paper,
the focus is on the genre of narrative, with examples of student work in which they rewrite news
narratives as fairytales, or vice-versa, and reflections on the changes they made.
トランスフォームド・プラクティス演習において、元テクストは異なるモード（例えば口語から文語）やジャンル（例えばEメールから詩）で再作成される。学生はテクストを新たな形式で再構築する際、元テクストの意味の理解と新たな意味の創造の両方を行ってみせる。同演習は、
うまくいった際、学習者が個々のモードやジャンルの主たる特徴、アフォーダンスや制約の特定を通してジャンル認知を成し遂げることを意味する。本研究では、
ナラティブのジャンルに焦点を置き、学生がニュースをおとぎ話（あるいはその逆）に書き換えた例、書き換えの際に与えた変更に対する省察の例を示す。

Transformed Practice (TP) activities are creative tasks
in which learners take an original text and recreate
it in a new form, e.g. in recognition of a different
audience, or to convey a new meaning in some way.
TP forms part of the Multiliteracies pedagogicalsequence, as described by Cope and Kalantzis (2000)
and briefly outlined in the ‘Background to the Course’section below. However, in this paper it will hopefully
be demonstrated that they are creative and worthwhile
activities in their own right that can be used in any
teaching context. TP allows students to be innovative
while engaging in the learning process, and at the sametime confirms that they understand the key features ofcertain types of text.
This paper features a simple example of such an
Owens, J. E. (2017). We created new, deeper meaning:
the use of transformed practice activities in a literacies
classroom. In G. Brooks (Ed.), The 2016 PanSIG
Journal (pp. 231-241). Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

activity, involving a transformation between different
types of written narrative. However, other suggestions
for TP are given at the end, after an explanation of thepedagogy, a description of the task, and an analysis of
two students’ responses to the task.

Background to the Course
At a university in Japan, a new course has been in
operation since 2013. The Foundational Literacies(FL) course utilizes what is termed a ‘Multiliteracies’based pedagogy (New London Group, 1996). ‘Multi’
here on one level refers to “social diversity” (Copeand Kalantzis, 2012, p. 1), opposing the predominant
preference for teaching only standardized formsof language. It also insinuates “multimodality” (p.
2), emphasizing the full range of modes people use
when creating meaning. The inclusion of multimodal
forms of communication in the language classroom isimportant, as the New London Group (1996) notes
that, all modes (textual, audio-visual, spatial, etc.)
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231

Owensinterrelate and interact with one another. Similarly,
Kress (2003) views “language modes” as only a “partof the whole landscape of the many modes available
for representation” (p. 36). The FL course, designed
for first-year university students, attempts to factor theabove into its course design.
The term ‘literacies’ is intentionally plural,emphasizing a “broader view of literacy than…
traditional language-based courses” (New London
Group, 1996, p. 60). Replacing the older Basic
Reading and Writing courses, it integrates both ofthese traditional ‘skills’, and places a greater emphasison the aforementioned multimodality. This ‘linking ofliteracies’ (Hirvela, 2004) hopefully enables students
to more actively participate in a variety of meaningfulcontexts.
The course is designed to help provide learners
with the tools necessary for self-empowerment inorder to participate successfully in what is now oftenlabeled a ‘post-Fordist’ world of ‘fast capitalism’: “…
to develop the capacity to speak up… negotiate, andto be able to engage critically with the conditions of
their working lives” (New London Group, 1996, p.
67). In such a society, a much larger range of skills andthe capacity to interact in many different ways withmany different people are essential. More traditional
pedagogical models that focus solely on the ability
to read and write traditional text formats carry lesspertinence.
The curriculum is genre-based, with students in theadvanced tier studying five main genre-units (Email,Narrative, Product Review, Information Report andEssay). It is hoped that by experiencing a range ofdifferent genres, discourses and rhetoric types, thestudents taking the course will develop a sufficient levelof textual and cultural awareness. It is empowering inas far as studying and understanding a variety of text
types, and the linguistic choices and norms embedded
within them, offers the student the opportunity toreach “new realms of social activity and social power”(Cope and Kalantzis, 2000, p. 129). More specifically,
we wish to instill a sense of ‘genre-awareness’ ( Johns,
2008) in students, such that they are able to recognize,
and thus manipulate for themselves, the key features(register, lexicogrammar, format, etc.) of each genre.

232 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Cope and Kalantzis (2000) suggest aMultiliteracies-led course should follow a suggested
pedagogical sequence, where students first experience‘Situated Practice’, followed by ‘Overt Instruction’and ‘Critical Framing’. Finally, in the ‘Transformed
Practice’ stage, they show they are able to “implement
understandings acquired” (New London Group, 1996,
p. 35) through these earlier stages. It is this last stage
that forms the focus of this paper. Before discussing
the Transformed Practice stage specifically, however,
it is important to discuss more generally the idea oftransformation in semiotics.

Transformation
Transformation is central to modern semiotics, which
views any creative or meaning-making act as “a new
sign… made from existing meaning-resources” (Kress,
2003, p. 40). This suggests that any communicative
act is a form of TP on some level as it creates andcombines what already exists to construct a newmessage. Human beings are “ceaselessly engaged in
representing the world” using “resources which arenever fully adequate to this task”, thus “the process oftransformation is central: that which is not adequate istransformed… into something that is more adequate”(p. 46).
Kress provides some examples to illustrate
how transformation works at the level of grammar
and syntax to alter meanings. One such example
is a historian’s nominalization of the verb ‘invade’,commonly used when discussing white colonization ofAustralia. In this context, ‘invasion’ becomes agentlessand has no object-noun, thus avoiding criticism of
the colonists. He successfully “transforms the existing
resources of the language to serve the directions of his
interest.” (p. 75).
More pertinent to this paper, transformation
also works at the level of genre. Kress compares ajob description, made up of “heavy nominalized…
language” (p. 76), with a “job application” for the same
position. The applicant copies some of the language
used in the description but “uses transformational
means to unmake and move away from” some of thenominalizations towards a “more event-like structure”(p. 77) by employing more verbs and human agency.

Transformed Practice Activities in a Literacies Classroom, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 231-241
It should be noted that Kress makes a distinction
between transformation, defined as “processes
operating within the one mode only” (p. 47), andtransduction – “the shift of ‘semiotic material’… acrossmodes” (p. 36). This paper, however, categorizes bothsets of processes more loosely as transformation.
The New London Group (1996) define“Transformed Practice” as a “Transfer in meaningmaking practice, which puts the transformed meaning
to work in other contexts or cultural sites” (p. 88).
What this can mean in the context of a classroom ishaving students redesign an original text, where text
is defined very loosely as “…any stretch of languagethat functions as a unity…” or “…involves a recognizedlanguage system” (Baker and Ellege, 2013, p. 150)
and can thus include multimodal formats. Suchtransformations can occur across modes. For example,
Stein (2008) explains how children in South Africa
were able to use “performances” and images to “express
certain meanings the words cannot” (p. 78) when it
came to telling stories, and how certain students whose
English writing skills were not necessarily strong were
subsequently able to shine when recreating texts indifferent modes.
By engaging in transformational activities, a senseof authorship is instilled in students, who become
more ‘agentive’ and active in the learning process( Jewitt and Kress, 2003). In moving meaning throughboundaries of genre and/or mode, the key features ofeach become more salient. Witnessing learners engage
in transformational work allows us to appreciate
the array of “meaning-making” (Stein, 2008, p.
44) abilities they are able to manipulate. The task
essentially acts as both an opportunity for the students
to engage in the process of learning and evidence of
this very process.
Thus, TP activities are a regular feature of the FL
course. The remainder of the paper describes one suchactivity and student responses to it.

Transformed Narratives
The Narrative unit is the second unit in the FL
course. A more complete description can be found in
Owens and Johnson (2016). In summary, the students

encounter a variety of different sub-genres of narrativein this unit (blogs, fairytales, personal narratives,news stories, etc.), comparing (for example in terms ofstructure) and contrasting them (such as the different
audiences or styles of vocabulary) with the intentionof enabling the students to acquire a substantial levelof ‘genre-awareness’. They are then asked to complete atask involving transformation.
After reading various news and fairytale narratives,
the students watch a video (Guardian, 2012) inwhich a traditional fairytale (‘The Three Little Pigs’)
has been metamorphosed into a commercial for the
Guardian newspaper posing as a news story. In thisaltered version, the ‘victims’ of the original story (thepigs) become the perpetrators, framing and killing thewolf in order to commit arson and insurance fraud.
A range of ‘real’ social issues is then explored. The
students in groups reflect on the transformations thathave taken place in this altered version, for example
in mode (written text to video) and genre (fairytale
to news narrative/commercial). They also consider
the changes in terms of audience, language, location(time and place), vocabulary and, crucially, meaning.
They are thus able to see clearly how “…the process oftransforming a text… makes it more effective or more
appropriate for a particular communicative effect”( Jones & Lock, 2011, p. 91).
The students then have to complete their own
transformative activity, taking either one of the news
narratives and adapting it into a fairytale, or vice-versa.
Then they write a ‘Reflection’ in which they reflect
on the changes they made and why. What follows is
a description of two examples of student work withrespect to the research question: has the Transformed
Practice activity helped the students to acquire /shown evidence of the acquisition of genre-awareness?
It should be noted that in this example activity,
it is only the genre that is transformed and not themode (i.e. none of what Kress above refers to astransduction). This is in part because at this stage of thecourse it would have comprised too large a cognitive
load for students to undertake, especially considering
time restraints. However, TP activities work well bothacross mode and genre if students have access to theright resources.
The 2016 PanSIG Journal

233

OwensAnalysis
The students who take part in the FL class are
Freshman university students, typically 18 or 19 years
old, based in Japan. Both instances of work described
below were produced by students in the advanced tiercourse.
One student decided to recreate the Japanesefairytale ‘Yuki Onna’ (in which a ghost kills a man
and then marries his apprentice in human guise before
threatening him and vanishing) in the form of a news
story (Appendix 1), while another transformed a news
story about three Mexican fishermen surviving ninemonths at sea into a fairytale (Appendix 2). It should
be noted that the former example of student work also
featured in less detail in an earlier paper (Owens andJohnson, 2016). These two examples are consideredmost pertinent for this paper as they show what are
essentially transformations in opposite directions(news to fairytale and vice versa) and thus are able toillustrate the extent to which students have achieved amore complete sense of genre awareness.
The researcher hopes to demonstrate thisawareness by analyzing the transformed texts and thereflections, focusing specifically on certain areas. Firstof all, a transitivity analysis on both the original texts
and the transformed versions is conducted in order
to examine shifts in semiotic work. Following that isa more specific focus on the changes the learners havemade in terms of vocabulary, content and structure,and their awareness of having made these changes intheir reflections.

Transitivity
Halliday’s (1994) systemic-functional grammar(SFG) helps us understand language as a resource that
construes reality through lexicogrammatical choices.
A more complete explanation of SFG is not possible
here given certain constraints, but a rudimentarysummary is necessary. Halliday describes language ashaving different semantic systems that create meanings
in different ways, which he terms metafunctions, all ofwhich are observable at the clause-level.
The experiential metafunction relates to making
sense of the world, constructing a reality that

234 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

manifests itself through different processes and agentsof those processes. A transitivity analysis focuseson this experiential metafunction, unpacking eachlanguage act by looking at ‘who does what to whom?’in each instance, categorizing the different types ofprocess that occur and the participants. For example,
any verb that implies action is taking place (e.g. ‘She
kicked him’) is termed a Material Process (‘kick’), withthe doer (‘She’) labeled Actor, and the done-to (‘him’)labeled Goal. There are other types of process too,such as Mental (e.g. think), Behavioral (laugh), Verbal(say, report), Relational (be, become) and Experiential(‘there is/are…’).
A transitivity analysis is relevant here because
it helps us understand shifts in semiotic work thatthe learners are making in reconstructing their texts.
Certain genres encompass certain patterns in terms ofthe types of process they typically utilize; for example
we would obviously expect a newspaper report tomake use of more Verbal Processes than a fairytale. If
students, consciously or unconsciously, demonstrate a
cognizance of these tendencies, it could be said to offersome proof that genre awareness has been realized.
Tables 1 and 2 show the results of a basic
transitivity analysis in which the different types ofprocess have been tallied in both the original texts andboth the transformed texts. The top number refers to
the total number of processes of each type present ineach text, while the numbers in parentheses express
these as percentages.
Some meaningful patterns can be observed. 64%of the Yuki Onna fairytale is action-based, conveyed
as Material Processes. This figure is much lower inStudent 1’s news version. Also, proportionally she
makes more use of both Mental and Verbal Processes,
as might be expected of a news story. The student has
successfully embedded much of the Material ‘action’of the original fairytale within Verbal and Mental
Processes in her transformative text. One example
transformation exemplifies this well. The original
sentence from ‘Yuki Onna’ that reads “Then YukiOnna… changed into a white mist, and screaming andshuddering, passed through the smoke-screen, neverto return again,” contains five Material Processes(italicized). The student transforms this language

Transformed Practice Activities in a Literacies Classroom, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 231-241
Table 1

Processes in the ‘Yuki Onna’ fairytale > news story transformation
Process

Material

MentalVerbalRelational

Behavioral

Experiential

Original fairytale(97 processes)

62 (64%)10 (10%)5 (5%)

19 (20%)0

1 (1%)

News transformation(61)

29 (39%)9 (15%)

8 (13%)

18 (30%)02 (3%)

Table 2

Processes in the ‘Mexican Fishermen’ news story > fairytale’ transformation
Process

Material

MentalVerbalRelational

Behavioral

Experiential

Original news story(113)

53 (47%)29 (26%)16 (14%)12 (11%)2 (2%)

1 (1%)

Fairytaletransformation (100)

49

21

9

18

1

2

cluster into one where the action is rooted in both
Verbal and Mental Processes: “A witness said theysaw her leaving the home very quickly with suspicious
behavior.” Crucially, she is conscious of having madethis change deliberately, claiming in her reflection that,“I found that tabloids like to use gossip and rumor to
make their story so I used the neighbors and things
people said to tell the story.”
The opposite pattern is to some extent true inStudent 2’s work, with fewer Mental and Verbal
Processes in her fairytale reworking of the original
news story; however there is no significant increase in
her use of Material Processes.
What can also be seen from both tables is that bothstudents made greater use of Relational Processes eventhough their transformations travelled in opposite
directions in terms of sub-genre. This is probably due
to a greater reliance on simple sentences that use theword ‘be’, as they are both writing in their L2.

Content and Structure
Looking at their reflections, the students show keenawareness of what they are doing in transforming work
across boundaries of genre. For example, in terms ofcontent, they both reflect on the way different sub-genres of narrative should resolve. Student 1 notices
that often in Japanese fairytales there seems to be
no clear resolution of events, and that this form of
narrative had to be transformed to work as a news
story: “In the Japanese story, we never know why theaction happened… so finally I made it into a story thathasn’t been solved… I must make the explanation clear
to the reader.” Student 2 meanwhile is able to recognizethat fairytales need some level of moral significance towork, and thus decided to change the ending of thereal news story by making the rescuers ‘good’ and ‘bad’
fantastical animal-based characters: “We thought thenormal happy story is not interesting, so we change…
we wanted to tell them another morals. Therefore wecreated new deeper meaning.”
The students also demonstrate knowledge ofstructure in their work. Student 1, for example, says
she made deliberate use of “short paragraphs” in her
tabloid version of events. She also decided to use“sub-headings”, which “…can be used in a newspaper
to help the reader.” Similarly, Student 2 describes
how she intentionally structured her fairytale
into “6 paragraphs”: “main theme”, “scene setting”,“complication”, “main events”, “further actions”,“result” and “evaluation”, a pattern she has evidently
noticed works well in the production of folk stories.

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235

OwensVocabulary and Audience Recognition
At the level of lexis, the students also exhibit
appreciation of the distinctive features of different
genres. In explaining her word choices for transforming
a fairytale into a news story, Student 1 commentsthat she “used more conventional style. I took out
literary words for the different newspaper style”. She
illustrates this by way of an example, describing how
she had Yuki wearing Gucci designer clothes insteadof the “dazzling white garments” of the original. Thissame awareness of style and register is demonstrated
in Student 2’s work in the opposite direction. She“changed some modern words to old fashioned words
so that it can sound more like a fairytale.”
She attributes some of these lexical changes toawareness of audience, explaining in her reflectionthat she hoped her story to appeal to “all of ages”, thus
she “mixed formal and informal words.” Student 2
similarly displays an ability to consider her audience,justifying her aforementioned use of short paragraphs
and subtitles in the news story as they “make it easierto read for audience that doesn’t have time – maybe
they are reading on the train to work.”

Image
As the course is rooted in a Multiliteracies-led
pedagogy, it is particularly satisfying to observe thatboth students were also able to voluntarily, without
any prompting, reflect on the use of multimodality
in their own work and in the genres in which they are
writing. Student 1 explains her choice to “put in the
picture… to follow tabloid style. If there is a criminal
the tabloid tries to show them and especially they
like to have pictures of beautiful girls!” Student 2 sees
the use of visuals as equally important in fairytales:“Adding some pictures might look more effective, so
I portrayed two pictures which drawn awful mermaid
face, and three Mexican men running away with akind of shark.” Her decision to add this illustration ofher own accord is explained by her wanting to make a“tremendous impact” on the reader.

236 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Conclusion
The examples of student work and their subsequent
reflections show how they were both able to become
fully aware of and understand the key features,
affordances and constraints of different sub-genres ofnarrative. They have to some extent achieved ‘genre
awareness’. As such, the activity itself forms part of thisprocess of becoming aware, but also helps document
it. Engaging in Transformed Practice both allows
students to become more deeply involved in theunderstanding of texts, and shows evidence of thisunderstanding.
The example used here is a relatively simple one,in which students change one form of story intoanother. However, there are almost limitless ideas forthe classroom application of Transformed Practiceactivities. Moving across boundaries of genre, students
could be asked to change a travel blog into a travel
guide, or construct a dramatic piece of classic theatreout of a dialogue between friends. More simply,
they could reflect on the changes they would needto transform a personal diary into a fairytale, or an
academic essay into an email to a friend, possibly using
textspeak or local dialect.
If time and resources are available, learners mightwant to try altering the mode, too, for example,
reworking a written news report into a news bulletin
made for television. They could equally think abouttransforming written texts into musicals or mimes.
Transformed Practice, in this context, integrates
reading and writing skills, and could be worked tomake use of other ‘literacies’ too. They are also fun
and interactive activities, encouraging students tobe creative and make use of their innate ingenuity byrequiring them to demonstrate their meaning-making
abilities in the creation of new texts from somethingalready in existence.

References
Baker, P. & Ellege, S. (2011). Key terms in discourse
analysis. London, England: Continuum
Cope, B. & Kalantzis, M. (2012). Literacies.
Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University
Press.

Transformed Practice Activities in a Literacies Classroom, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 231-241
Guardian. (2012, February 29). Cannes Lion awardwinning “Three little pigs advert” [Video file].
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=vDGrfhJH1P4
Halliday, M. A. (1994). Functional grammar. London,
England: Edward Arnold.
Hirvela, A. (2004). Connecting reading & writing insecond language writing instruction. Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Press. doi.org/10.3998/
mpub.23736
Jewitt, C., & Kress, G. (2003). Multimodal literacy.
New York, NY: Peter Lang
Johns, Anne M. (2008). Genre awareness forthe novice academic student. Language
Teaching, 41(2), 237-252. doi.org/10.1017/
S0261444807004892
Jones, R. & Lock, G. (2011). Functional grammar in
the ESL classroom. London, England: Palgrave

Macmillan. doi.org/10.1057/9780230297524
Kress, G. (2003). Literacy in the new media
age. London, England: Routledge. doi.
org/10.4324/9780203164754
New London Group (1996) A pedagogy ofmultiliteracies: Designing social futures.
Harvard Educational Review, 66, 60-92. doi.
org/10.17763/haer.66.1.17370n67v22j160u
Owens, J., & Johnson, N. H. (2016). Connecting
reading, writing, and culture through a literaciesbased approach to narrative. In G. Brooks, M.
Porter, D. Fujimoto, & D. Tatsuki (Eds.), The
2015 PanSIG Journal (pp. 133-141). Tokyo,
Japan: JALT.
Stein, P. (2008). Multimodal pedagogies in diverse
classrooms: Representation, rights and resources.
London, England: Routledge.

Author’s Biography:
James Emmet Owens is Principal Lecturer (Research and Curriculum) at Kanda University ofInternational Studies. His main study interests include critical discourse analysis, curriculum
design and systemic functional linguistics.

The 2016 PanSIG Journal237

OwensAppendix A
Yuki Onna news story and reflection
POLICE LOOKING FOR MYSTERY WOMAN: IS SHE THE SENDAI MURDERER?
By Staff Writer: Yuri Saito

Police yesterday were looking for a woman who they think might be very dangerous. She was reported as
disappeared from her family home by a neighbor. Nobody can understand the story of how she has left her
family and police are asking for help with this mystery. According to the reports, the woman is called Yuki Onnaand she has black hair and is very tall. She is usually seen wearing expensive designer-label white clothes.
Mrs. Yuki Onna: Have you seen her?
A witness said they saw her leaving the home very quickly with suspicious behavior. Her husband is very upset.
His name is Minokichi. He is famous in Sendai because he was the apprentice who lost his boss in the famous
accident that was never solved 20 years ago. He now has 10 children. Where has his wife gone?
Nobody could talk with Minokichi yesterday but one of his friends told us he was very happy with his life
recently. However, neighbours told our reporter that they heard a woman screaming and threatening to killsomebody late at night yesterday.
The famous accident happened when Minokichi, and his boss, Mosaku were cutting wood in a nearby forest.
Because of the bad weather they stayed in the business hotel. But the next morning Mosaku was found dead. It
was a very strange story because Minokichi was fine and there were no witnesses. Sources close to the family said
in a rumor that people nearby thought Minokichi had killed his boss during the night.
Big Suspicion
There was big suspicion in Sendai. Did Minokichi steal money from his boss and company? It was neverunderstood the story of their relationship. Minokichi said it was the snow and cold that killed his boss but it wasdifficult to show evidence in court to support this story.
Shortly after this event, Minokichi got married and had many children. He didn’t seem so sad about the death of
his old boss after all. Many people thought so.
Police are thinking there might be a relationship to the disappearing woman and Mosaku. Did he kill her as
well? Is she the murderer? If you have information, please help the police with this terrible story.

238 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Transformed Practice Activities in a Literacies Classroom, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 231-241

Reflection:
1. How did you change the organization?

The story has to be shorter to fit tabloid style. Headline is not full sentences. Sub-headline can be used in a
newspaper to help the reader. I tried to make the story modern with a new police force and fitting the style ofnewspapers of today. In the Japanese story we never know why the action happened and usually fairy tales have areason. This was difficult to decide, and so finally I made it a story that hasn’t been solved. It is difficult to fit thatpart of the story into a new kind of text for me.
2. How did you change the style?
I used more conversational style. I took out literary words for the different newspaper style. For example, in thestory describes her clothes as “dazzling”. But since this is modern times I wanted to use designer-wear, like Gucci.
I also had to break up the story into short paragraphs. This makes it easier to read for audience who doesn’t havemuch time – maybe they are reading on the train to work.
3. How did you change the story?
The story is not a Japanese folk story and so I must to make the explanation clear to the reader. In the folk story
nobody knows why it happened. A newspaper tries to tell the story to be clear. I found that tabloids like to use
gossip and rumor to make their story and so I used the neighbors and things that people said to tell the story.
4. What other changes did you make? Why?
I put in the picture for Yuki Onna to a follow tabloid style. If there is a criminal the tabloid tries to show themand especially they like to have pictures of beautiful girls!

The 2016 PanSIG Journal239

OwensAppendix B
Fishermen fairytale and reflection
The Adventure Of Three Mexican Fishermen
Once upon a time, there are three Mexican fisher men who are all 20s’. One of them likes reading fairy tales and the rest ofthem like it as well. Therefore they desired to see a mermaid in the ocean and intended to journey to see it, so they took their
all stuffs, foods and water. However, it was very hard for them to find a mermaid in the vast ocean and they didn’t have idea
to locate the point where a marmaid was. One year had passed since they traveled on the ocean.
One day, they found a shadow on the big rock . “Look at overthere! “ One of the men said loudly with pointing at it. There
was a beautiful mermaid sitting on the rock. She smiled atthem and they tried getting close to her. At last, they succeededin seeing the mermaid but they couldn’t move because she
charmed them by her beauty. She reached for one of the men’s
face and suddnely pulled him into the ocean. At that time, theylooked at her face and then noticed she has a terrible face withfangs.
Although the other two men tried saving him from her, yetthey failed because she was very strong and they were pulled
together. Therefore their ship turned over.
Under the sea, they were fighting against this awful mermaid. Abruptly, something crossed between the mermaid andthree men so they fled from the mermaid thanks to “something “ They wondered, “what was that!?” then”something” came
toward them and they realized that “something” was a SHARK!! “We will be eaten!! Let’s escape from it” “Er….but the
shark helped us” They argued for a short while. The shark said “ I will take you to your home” At first, they couldn’t believe
it. “Who said?” “It’s me” The shark smiled. “Come on! Grasp my dorsal fin” The marmaid came again but the shark attacked
her by its tail fin. They found the shark kind and accepted its suggestion. The shark swam very very fast with keeping themon its fin.

Hence, the three men arrived at their home. Their relatives and friends had mostly given them up for dead. That’s why they
were delighted with the safe return of three men back. However, the people in this town were surprised at the shark andtried to kill it. Three men said “Waaaaaaaaaait!! He helped and took us here so please don’t kill it, please” Because of thethree men’s persuasion, they didn’t kill him.

240 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Transformed Practice Activities in a Literacies Classroom, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 231-241” I can never thank enough to you, guys….” . Then the shark was shaking and become smaller, no , become a MAN!! “I amreally appreciate to you and I am the prince of another country. Well, I was turned into a shark by God’s magic because I was
wretch and the God said this magic will never be broken unless you change your mind. Now I understand that meaning!”
Eventually, the marmaid disappeared into the ocean with a frustrated look on her face and they lived happily ever after.
Why did the prince not go back to his country? Because three Mexican fisher men asked his father, the king to allowed him
to stay with them and they can enjoy reading fairy tales with the prince from now on.
Deep meaning
The story tells children that what goes around comes around even in the case of good things or bad. That’s why you should
be careful about own behavior and care about everyone else. And Don’t judge people by their appearances.

Reflection of Fairy Tale
1. Contents
We made a fairy tale from the news, about three Mexican fishermen survived. We thought that normal happy story is notinteresting, so we change the beautiful mermaid to kind of monster, and general scary shark to kind shark or real man.
Original news already has deeper meaning, but we wanted to tell them another morals. Therefore we created new deeper
meaning: What goes around comes around even in the case of good thing or bad, and do not judge people by theirappearances or stereotypes. In this story, the prince was very arrogant, so god turned him into a shark. After that, he changed
his mind therefore he could regain his real body. Those morals are still told to this day as a proverb.
2. Organisation
We really wanted to give them impacts, so we put the awful mermaid picture which has a tremendous impact on front of thepaper. As our plan, classmates took on surprised expression when they saw our handout. It makes me satisfied.
There are 6 paragraphs. First one descrives main theme and scene setting. In the second paragraph, three Mexican fishermenfound the mermaid, it is complication. Besides there are also main events. Third paragraph, begin with “Under the sea” isnot fun as Disney, but this is most excited parts. Subsequently,Paragraph 3, 4 and 5 has many main events or further actions.
Final paragraph is begin with “ Eventually”, so there is result and evaluations.
3. Language choices
We wanted to read this story for all of ages. Therefore we mixed formal and informal words,such as spoken languages, anddid not add any difficult words so much. For example, we wrote some spoken language to make reader not boring,keep
excited. Besides, we wrote “ Waaaaaait!” in the paragraph 4 as a informal word in order to express an urgency. We guess
those device makes reader fun and attract. In addition, we changed some modern words to old fashioned words so that it
can sounds more like a fairy tale.

The 2016 PanSIG Journal241

So Many Words, So Little Time: Implementing a New
Method for Teaching Vocabulary in a Literacies Course
James Emmet Owens

Jacob Reed

Kanda University of International Studies
james-o@kanda.kuis.ac.jp

Kanda University of International Studies
reed-j@kanda.kuis.ac.jp

Enabling students to acquire large numbers of academic words in what is already an intensecourse is obviously a challenging undertaking. Members of a project group at a Japanese university
therefore decided to pilot a creative, efficient and effective strategy for doing this that involved
games, novel forms of testing, mnemonics and retrieval exercises. This strategy was tested with twoclasses in the last academic year, and initial feedback suggested that the approach is promising. In
this session, we will provide background and rationale to the approach and offer examples fromthe pilot that highlight the ways that these activities are being integrated into the course, and thedegree to which we feel they have been successful.
学生に、授業の課題の他に大学英単語の習得を課すことは容易なことではない。某大学の教員研
究グループではこの度、独創的で効率が良く、なおかつ効果的なゲームや言葉遊び、小テストを含む画期的な方法を試験的に授業で取り入れた。
この方法は、二つの講義で今学期試され、得られたフィードバックは期待できるものであった。当セッションでは、プロジェクトの背景と概要のほか、講義に取り入れられた数々の方法にスポットライトを当てて詳しく紹介する。

Vocabulary - and in particular the types of vocabularythat are most pertinent to students in any given setting- is often taught in ineffective ways (Folse, 2004).
Recognizing vocabulary learning’s importance in SLA
was the first impetus for this study. The second was aneed to refine and improve the vocabulary-learningcomponent of one core freshman course taught at our
institution: Foundational Literacies (FL).
Given that there were several issues plaguing thecourse in its original format regarding the vocabularylearning component, teacher-researchers set out tocreate a new method, which would adhere to thenew departmental curriculum, empower students
Owens, J. E., & Reed, J. (2017). So many words, so
little time: Implementing a new method for teaching
vocabulary in a literacies course. In G. Brooks (Ed.),The 2016 PanSIG Journal (pp. 242-251). Tokyo,
Japan: JALT.

242 The 2016 PanSIG Journalmore, and be theoretically justified. In other words,
the current research is interested in examining the
vocabulary learning outcomes of the new method,
exploring the benefits of word meaning retrieval inanother class, and inquiring as to whether or not
students in the course preferred the new method. Thispilot study is the result of that initial effort.

Background to the Course
The Foundational Literacies (FL) course at Kanda
University of International Studies is a relatively new
and innovative course. It utilizes a Multiliteraciesinformed pedagogy, as inspired by the New London
Group (1996), focusing on the use of multimodality
in class and symbolic competence (Kramsch, 2006).
For more detail about the design of the course see
Owens and Johnson (2016). Its core objective is theacquisition of “genre-awareness” ( Johns, 2008, p. 238)
and textual-awareness across a range of modes andSo Many Words, So Little Time, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 242-251
formats. Thus the curriculum follows a genre-based
structure.
Originally, the vocabulary component (which
accounts for 10% of students’ total grade) was set up
to complement this emphasis on genre. The course ismade of several units, each corresponding to a different
genre. Words from each unit appearing in the academic
word-list were used in vocabulary tests taken uponcompletion of the unit. The tests were multiple-choicebased, created by the teacher, and taken by students
via Moodle (a classroom management system). Whilst
advantages to this form of vocabulary-testing included
reinforcement of the vocabulary learnt on the actual
course, there were several disadvantages. For example,
the tests for each unit were inconsistent in size, creatinga very uneven workload for students at various stagesof the course. The tests were also very time-consuming
to create. Moreover, it could be argued that only taking
tests at such disparate long intervals is too random
and therefore ineffective. We decided to implement a
new form of vocabulary teaching that would be moreenjoyable and interactive for the students, and where
the tests would be shorter and more frequent.
Additionally, it was argued that it would
constitute a more effective use of class time if students
had wider access to a more generalized set of academic
words than simply vocabulary appearing in the course
materials. Related to this, the course designers also
had to consider institutional goals. One such goal isto enable students to achieve high scores in certain
English-speaking proficiency tests e.g. TOEFL,
in order for them to be eligible for scholarships toforeign universities in English-speaking countries. An
additional aim of the FL course is therefore to help
with student acquisition and retention of academic
vocabulary. Specifically, it was felt the New Academic
Word List (NAWL) would be most relevant.

The Pilot
The New Academic Word List (NAWL)
The 963-word New Academic Word List (NAWL) isessentially an updated and greatly expanded versionof the Academic Word List (AWL) (Coxhead, 2000)
which was created as an academic complement to“common, everyday language,” or core vocabulary.
Core vocabulary was defined as being words on
the General Service List (GSL) created in 1953 byMichael West (West, 1953). In other words, itemson the AWL do not appear on the GSL. The NAWL
words are drawn from a much larger corpus, and,in the same way that the AWL was created with the
GSL in mind, the NAWL was cross-referenced with
the New General Service List (Browne, Culligan,& Phillips, 2013). The NGSL draws from a corpus
approximately 100 times the size of the original GSL(273 million vs. 2.5 million), which arguably increases
the reliability of the list by ensuring that “corevocabulary” does not appear on it. Furthermore, when
the NGSL/NAWL are compared to the GSL/AWL
against an academic corpus of 288 million words, the
NGSL/NAWL combination provides approximately
5% more coverage of the corpus and mastery of bothlists provide about 92% coverage of overall coverage
versus 87% for the GSL/AWL (Browne, Culligan, &Phillips, 2014).
It was felt, however, that requiring students tolearn an additional 963 words was too ambitious, giventhat the course is already very dense and intense interms of workload and materials. A more realisticallyachievable goal of the 500 most frequent words fromthe NAWL was set.
The authors decided to pilot the new method of
vocabulary teaching/testing with the first 250 of thesewords in Semester 2 of the 2015-6 academic year. It was
initially piloted with just two classes to test anothervariable: one class also experienced retrieval exercises(see below) and one class did not. Furthermore, someclass time with both classes was spent on familiarizing
students with useful vocabulary acquisition techniquessuch as mnemonics and other useful strategies to help
students ‘know’ the word rather than just ‘memorize’
its meaning, the latter being a habit which seems to be
an unfortunate consequence of Japanese high school
language education.
Thus, the pilot can be said to consist of
essentially two parts: the testing itself, and a very
basic examination into the effectiveness of retrieval
exercises.

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243

Owens & Reed

Theoretical Consideration of Retrieval
In order to maximize the potential for participants
to learn target vocabulary items, this pilot study
took retrieval into consideration. In particular, wedrew upon a plethora of findings from educational
psychology that suggest and empirically confirm thatlearning followed by retrieval or review can have asignificant impact on a learner’s ability to retain theinformation over the long term (Cepeda, Vul, Rohrer,
Wixted, & Pashler, 2008; Karpicke & Bauernschmidt,
2011; Leitner, 1972). Within SLA, this psychologicalphenomenon extends to learning vocabulary ina foreign language (Bahrick, Bahrick, Bahrick, &Bahrick, 1993; Goossens, Camp, Verkoeijen, Tabbers,& Zwaan, 2012).
In their 2008 study, Cepeda et al. attempted todetermine the ideal gap between the introductionof items to be learned, review sessions, and a posttest. Their findings suggest that the ideal gap changes
depending on primarily the length of time that alearner desires to retain the information (i.e. over many
years, a few months, or only a week) (pp. 1100-1101).
While Karpicke and Bauernschmidt (2011) foundthat there was no significant difference in learning
gains between three relative spacing paradigms, theirresults also confirm that repetition and retrieval aid
long term retention.

Student-centered Testing and Test Creation
In order to increase the motivation of the students andmake the testing more interactive, especially in a coursethat claims to have done away with more traditional,
dry methods of language teaching, the actual processof testing itself needed to be more student-centered.
Thus it was decided that students should actuallyparticipate in the test creation process itself. Below is a
description of the entire process.
In the first week of a 15-week semester, an example
test created by the teacher-researcher (see Appendix)
was given to students. Students took these tests ingroups, in what could be called a ‘pub quiz’ format
i.e. they sat in groups and discussed each question
amongst themselves before settling on one answer. The

244 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

students were informed that this was just an example
test and that it would have no impact on their final
grade.
The test itself featured a variety of different
multiple-choice based question types (collocation,
gap-fill, guessing from context, definitions…etc.),such that the student was encouraged to develop
deeper word knowledge (Nation, 2013). After the
test, students identified these different types and formsof the questions from the example. At this point,
students were given a list of the selected most frequent
250 NAWL items, separated into 10 sub-lists of 25
words each. Students were then put into 5 groups.
Each group was asked to focus on two sub-lists eachand told they had to create a test themselves using 10of the 25 words from each list and the various different
question types they had identified in the example test.
These tests were submitted to the teacher, to checkand ‘clean up’ if necessary, and then taken by the wholeclass, roughly once a week (e.g. the test for List 1 wastaken in Week 2, the test for List 2 was taken in Week
3…etc.)
In each case, the teacher told the students inadvance which sub-list would be tested next lesson
without revealing exactly which 10 words would
appear. Thus, they were encouraged to study themeanings of all the words in each list.
Each week, the tests were taken in the same ‘pub
quiz’ format, so that each group worked together
both in the creation of the tests and in actually taking
them. They thus shared the same grade. Additionally,
the use of Moodle was scrapped in favor of using
paper handouts for the tests. The mark at the end of
the semester, out of 100, was used as their Vocabulary
grade (10% of the whole course) and replaced the oldgenre-based, Moodle method.
The advantage of this student-centered method isthat it instills in the student some form of ownershipover the test-taking process. The ‘pub quiz’ format
encourages competition, so that students aredeliberately making the tests more difficult and thus
study harder but in an environment that is arguably
fun, more engaging, and therefore induces less anxiety.

So Many Words, So Little Time, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 242-251

Methodology
Participants / Research questions
Two classes featured in the Semester 2 pilot: Class
A and Class B. Both classes were from the advancedtier of the FL course. They were therefore of similarages (Freshman students) and levels. Both classes had
experience of the old vocabulary-testing method in thefirst semester.
Class A experienced follow-up retrieval exercises,
where students were asked to recall the meaning ofpreviously studied English words one week after
taking each test. Teachers used a variety of different
exercises to this effect, most of them ‘fun’ activities,
such as word sort, concentration or using mnemonics,
typically taking not much longer than 15 minutes ofclass time. The variation in what activities were used
could be seen as another limiting factor (see below)
but it was seen as essential to allow teachers creative
freedom in their own lessons. The very fact that some
sort of retrieval took place was seen as more important
than precisely what form the activity took. By contrast,
Class B did not have experience any retrieval activities.
Both classes took a ‘pre-test’ at the beginningof the semester (see below), and then took the sametest at the end of the semester. In addition to the preand post-tests, students were also asked to complete
a survey asking them to appraise the new method bydirectly comparing it to the old method.
Our research questions were thus:
1) Did the new method have any significant
impact on the retention of academic vocabulary? Thatis, was there a significant difference between pre- andpost-test scores (taken in Week 1 and 15 of a 15-weeksemester)?
2) Did the class that had experienced retrieval
make significantly more gains than the class that didnot?
3) Was the new method rated more favorably thanthe old by students?
If the answer was affirmative for all questions, theintention would be to roll out the new piloted method
across all FL classes in the following academic year.

The New Academic Word List Test
The test used in the pilot to determine vocabularyknowledge gains was a truncated version of the
NAWLT (Stoeckel & Bennett, 2014). The creators of
the test explain that the New General Service List Test(NGSLT) was created based on the same principles
and design as the Vocabulary Size Test (VST)
developed by Nation and Beglar (2007), and it is tobe assumed that the NAWLT made in conjunction
with the NGSLT was developed according to the same
specifications.
The entire NAWLT contains forty questions,twenty of which correspond to the first half of thelist, and twenty to the second half. However, because
the pilot study did not set out to teach the entire 963
words on the list, the validity of the test would bethrown into question if used as is. To remedy this, theresearchers created and administered a sub-set of thetest that contained only those items that were bothon the NAWLT and in the target 250 words in thepilot study. In this way, the original forty item test was
reduced to ten items which was used as both the pretest before the pilot began and the post-test at the endof the 15-week period.
The results of the pre-test were not shared withstudents until the end of the pilot to avoid students
remembering which items were on the test, which
would clearly call the test results into question.

Results / Discussion
Quantitative Results of the Tests andDiscussion
The results of the participants’ pre- and post-tests arereported in Table 1 along with standard deviations
and effect sizes. Test scores were out of 10 points andare reported as a percentage for clarity.
To determine whether or not there were any
significant differences between the pre- and posttests, a paired-samples, two-tailed t-test was used.
As the results in Table 1 indicate, the mean scoresof both groups improved to a significant degree (p <0.05). Additionally, calculation of Cohen’s d showsa medium effect for the group with retrieval, and asmall to medium effect for the group without retrieval
The 2016 PanSIG Journal245

Owens & Reed
Table 1Results of Pre- and Post-Tests
GROUP

Pre-Test Mean Post-Test Mean
Score and SD Score and SD

Avg. SD

Significance Value p <0.05 (t-test)dClass A (Retrieval)

68%, 1.47

77%, 1.62

1.54

0.025229*

0.56Class B (No Retrieval)

64%, 1.57

72%, 1.89

1.73

0.024123*

0.45

Notes: d = Effect size Cohen’s d; Significance Value = t-test result* = p < .05(Cohen, 1988).
To conclude the quantitative results, Welch’s t-testof unequal variance with two tails was used in order
to explore the possibility of significant differences
between the two groups’ test scores. No significant
differences were found between the pre-tests (p =0.394667) or the post-tests (p = 0.379177) at the p <0.05 level.
One of the goals this pilot study set out toaccomplish was to add to the body of researchsuggesting that retrieval is an effective strategy forlearning and retaining vocabulary over the long term
(Bahrick et al., 1993; Goossens et al., 2012). Rather
than employing tightly controlled experimental
conditions lacking ecological validity, this pilot
study hoped to provide empirical data supporting
the notion of retrieval in a non-experimental, actionresearch based classroom setting. This was partiallyto see whether the effects of retrieval would be strong
enough to account for potential gains in the testscores. Looking at the test scores alone, one can seethat both of the groups’ improved significantly overthe course of the semester-long pilot study. However,
it is impossible to attribute said improvement to any
one aspect of the class, including the retrieval.
On the other hand, one can conclude several
things about the data: the fact that the groups did
improve and to what comparative degree they did so
both within- and between-groups. The two final t-tests
that were performed comparing the between-groups
differences between pre- and post-test scores showednon-significant differences. Based on this, the research
can safely conclude that the participants started atroughly the same knowledge level of the words on thetest. The results further help to illustrate that both of

246 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

the groups improved their scores to approximately
the same degree. This also indicates that the retrieval
activities did not seem to benefit the retrieval group to
any significant degree.

Qualitative Results of the Surveys andDiscussion
In the survey, both classes were asked to state theextent to which they agreed/disagreed with a seriesof statements appraising the new method, sometimes
in direct comparison with the old method. Answers
were multiple-choice, ranging from ‘strongly disagree’(weighted as 1 point) to ‘strongly agree’ (4 points). In
effect this meant that an average score ranging from 1
to 2.49 would imply an overall negative appraisal ofeach statement, and 2.51 to 4 would suggest a positive
assessment. No middle-option was available as ananswer, as Chen, Lee and Stevenson (1995) suggestthat Japanese respondents have a tendency to choose‘no opinion’ if given the opportunity.
The statements that received average scoressuggesting positive appraisal across both classes, inorder of highest to lowest, can be seen in Table 2.
Only one statement received a score suggestingnegative appraisal (see Table 3)Student-answered surveys carry an inherent
limitation in what they can suggest as learners are
not necessarily the best placed to know what qualifies
as effective. Nevertheless, it seemed appropriate toask for their opinion given that part of the rationale
for making changes to the vocabulary component of
the course was student dissatisfaction with the oldmethod.
As can be seen from the two tables, most aspectsof the new method received positive appraisal.

So Many Words, So Little Time, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 242-251
Table 2
Positive Appraisals
Statement

Average weighted
score

Taking shorter tests every week was preferable to taking longer tests at the end of every unit

3.34

Reviewing the vocabulary in Freshman English classes helped/would have helped us to retain
the vocabulary

3.09 (2.92/3.2)

Having the students prepare the tests rather than the teachers is a better idea

3.03

I feel like my vocabulary has improved more this semester as a result of the 2nd method

2.81

Overall, the 2nd method was overall better than the 1st method.

2.72

I would have liked more time in class spent on practising / revising useful vocabularystrategies

2.72

The choice of vocabulary (NAWL) that we studied in the 2nd method was more relevant
than in the 1st method (directly from the course)

2.69

Using paper rather than Moodle is easier

2.66

Table 3
Negative Appraisal
Average weighted
score

Statement
Taking the tests in groups was more effective than taking them individually

Despite the results of the test (comparing A and B)
suggesting no significant benefit, students clearly favor
the retrieval activities. They were also mostly positive
about the weekly smaller tests, students preparing thetests themselves, the overall progress that they felt they
had made as a result of the newer method, the use of
paper instead of Moodle, and the use of the NAWL.
They were, however, negative about the grouptesting format. Invited to comment on their answers,
this dissatisfaction seems to come from a sense that
more confident students did not wish to share a gradewith ‘weaker’ students, who in turn felt that sharing
a grade with ‘stronger’ students meant they were lessmotivated to study hard for themselves.

Limitations
The researchers were able to isolate the betweengroups retrieval variable in the classroom, but further

2.16

exposure to the vocabulary outside of the classroom
is impossible to account for. This is one distinct
disadvantage of action research conducted in classroom
settings. Moreover, the retrieval activities used were
not controlled, and their various incarnations were left
to teacher discretion; one teacher’s retrieval activities
might be more effective than another’s. The amount of
uncontrolled variables in such settings are legion, andtherefore nothing concretely scientific can be asserted
concerning the participants’ improvement in relation
to retrieval, the new testing method, vocabulary study
strategies, teaching style, or any other factors.
Additionally, it was felt in hindsight that the pre-/post-test itself was imperfect. It featured just 10 questions
and only tested receptive knowledge of meaning, notproductive knowledge of form, meaning and use.
One final limitation is the survey results. While
the students did give mostly positive appraisals of
the new methods, these results could be subject to a
The 2016 PanSIG Journal247

Owens & Reeddegree of acquiescence bias due to the nature of therelationship between the researchers and the students(i.e. the researchers are one of the students’ teachers),or the nature of the response items themselves. In
other words, extrapolation of these results should be
exercised with caution.
The need for continuous improvement of the
vocabulary component of the FL course and theseperceived limitations provided the impetus for asecond pilot.

Conclusion and Future Actions
Considering the limitations of the pilot alongwith prior research into the subject of vocabularyacquisition and retrieval, it is still much too early tomake any strong claim based on our pilot study about
retrieval or the new testing method that was employed.
Nevertheless, the survey results suggest that students
favor the piloted method of vocabulary-testing over
the old. Whereas the old technique was laborious
and in fact not used by some teachers as a result, the
new method engages students more and is more likely
to have a positive effect on their retention of usefulacademic vocabulary.
We are introducing a new approach towards
vocabulary teaching and testing in a new course toimprove on what was there previously, and to that
extent we seem to have been relatively successful. In
terms of future research, we intend to carry out a new
pilot with some adjustments: we will utilize a more
effective pre- and post-test, we will trial the pilot witha larger number of classes to obtain more reliable
results, and we will discard the use of group-testing infavor of a method that encourages students to work
towards their own vocabulary grade. This new pilot
will be administered during the 2016-7 academic year.

References
Bahrick, H., Bahrick, L., Bahrick, A., & Bahrick,P. (1993). Maintenance of foreign language
vocabulary and the spacing effect. Psychological
Science, 4(5), 316-321.
Browne, C., Culligan, B. & Phillips, J. (2013). The
New General Service List. Retrieved from http://

248 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

www.newgeneralservicelist.org
Browne, C., Culligan, B. & Phillips, J. (2014). The
New Academic Word List. Retrieved fromhttp://www.newacademicwordlist.org
Cepeda, N. J., Vul, E., Rohrer, D., Wixted, J. T. &Pashler, H. (2008). Spacing effects in learning:
A temporal ridgeline of optimum retention.
Psychological Science, 11, 1095-1102.
Chen, C., S. Lee & H.W. Stevenson. (1995). Responsestyle and cross-cultural comparisons of rating
scales among East Asian and North American
students. Psychology Science, 6, 170–175.
Cohen, J. (1988), Statistical Power Analysis for the
Behavioral Sciences, (2nd ed.) Hillsdale: Lawrence
Erlbaum.
Coxhead, A. (2000). A New Academic Word List.
TESOL Quarterly, 34(2), 213-238.
Folse, K. S. (2004). Vocabulary myths: Applying second
language research to classroom teaching. Ann
Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Goossens, N. A., Camp, G., Verkoeijen, P. P., Tabbers,
H. K., & Zwaan, R. A. (2012). Spreading thewords: A spacing effect in vocabulary learning.
Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 24(8), 965-971.
Johns, A. M. (2008). Genre awareness for the novice
academic student. Language Teaching, 41(2),237-252
Karpicke, J., & Bauernschmidt, A. (2011). Spaced
retrieval: Absolute spacing enhances learning
regardless of relative spacing. Journal of
Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, andCognition, 37(5), 1250–1257.
Kramsch, C. (2006). From communicativecompetence to symbolic competence. The
Modern Language Journal, 90, 249-252.
Leitner, S. (1972). So lernt man Lernen: Der Weg
zum Erfolg [Learning how to Learn: The way
to success]. Freiburg, Germany: Herder Verlag
GmbH.
Nation, I. S. P., & Beglar, D. (2007). A vocabulary size
test. The Language Teacher, 31(7), 9-13.
Nation, I. S. P. (2013). Learning vocabulary inanother language (2nd ed.). Cambridge, England:
Cambridge University Press.
New London Group (1996) A pedagogy of

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multiliteracies: Designing social futures.
Harvard Educational Review, 66, 60-92. doi.
org/10.17763/haer.66.1.17370n67v22j160u
Owens, J., & Johnson, N. H. (2016). Connecting
reading, writing, and culture through a literaciesbased approach to narrative. In G. Brooks, M.
Porter, D. Fujimoto, & D. Tatsuki (Eds.), The
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Japan: JALT.

Stoeckel, T. & Bennett, P. (2014). The New
Academic Word List test. Retrieved
from https://static1.squarespace.com/
static/518f0086e4b05913b69dcc3c/t/5576a22b
e4b0da9c0363669c/1433838123803/NAWLT.
pdf
West, M. (1953). A General Service List of English
Words. London, England: Longman, Green andCo.

Authors’ Biographies:
Jacob Reed has been living and teaching in Japan since 2013, most recently at Kanda Universityof International Studies as a lecturer. His primary research interests include vocabularyacquisition, gamification, and gesture.

James Emmet Owens is Principal Lecturer (Research and Curriculum) at Kanda University ofInternational Studies. His main study interests include critical discourse analysis, curriculum
design and systemic functional linguistics.

The 2016 PanSIG Journal249

Owens & Reed

Appendix
Example test
1.
a.
b.
c.
d.

He has a large repertoireCollection of skills
Kind of weapon
A long list
A good reputation

a.
b.
c.
d.

To drive a car legally, you must __________ a driver’s license.
integrate
adapt
obtain
audit

a.
b.
c.
d.

The most appealing _________ of the company for me is the salary.
limb
aspectobjection
regime

a.
b.
c.
d.

Define: Theorem
A statement that can be proven
Something that makes a change
A thin covering of tissue
A state of balance

a.
b.
c.

The northern country is dominant.
dangerous
sensitive
horizontald.

powerful

a.
b.
c.
d.

a finite _______
book
resource
hair
leader

a.
b.
c.
d.

Choose the sentence that makes the most sense.
The dog infected its water happily this morning.
The captain’s shirt was infected with color.
The poor woman was infected with a disease.
The governor gave an infected speech to the city.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

250 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

So Many Words, So Little Time, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 242-251
8.
a.
b.
c.
d.

The proposition was foolish.
idea
generalization
criterion
discourse

a.
b.
c.
d.

Define: impact
A quality of something
A striking effectA system of government
A statistic

a.
b.
c.
d.

Choose the sentence that makes the most sense.
His test answers were accurate, so the teacher failed him.
The man’s description was accurate, so they didn’t understand him.
If a shooter is accurate, they hit the target most of the time.
He played the game accurately, so he lost.

9.

10.

The 2016 PanSIG Journal251

Developing EAP Materials: A DataDriven Learning Innovation
Daniel William Parsons
Kwansei Gakuin University
daniel1124@kwansei.ac.jp
This paper outlines the application of a materials development framework in order to embeddata-driven learning activities into a first-year undergraduate writing course. Data-driven learning
can promote student autonomy, and here it is considered as an innovation that is intended toreplace the usual methods of vocabulary study in the classroom. Both data-driven learning andregular vocabulary learning techniques are evaluated. The materials created are evaluated for theireducational value in terms of students’ learning gains on vocabulary tests, students’ self-efficacy
towards task performance, and students’ attitudes towards the tasks. Results show that students
find DDL much more difficult, and have less confidence in some aspects of task performance,
despite higher scores on immediate post-tests. Suggestions are made on how to adjust the materials
and the teaching.
本稿は、大学一年生のライティングコースの中にデータ駆動型学習を含めるため、 教材開発枠組の応用を一つ述べる。
データ駆動型学習は、学習者自主を促し、通常の英単語の指導方法を置
き換える目的として、指導方法のイノベーションであるとも考えられる。本稿では、
データ駆動型学習の活動も通常の英単語の活動も評価される。単語テストのスコアー、
データ駆動型学習のタスクと通常のタスクのパフォーマンスに対する自己効力感、タスクに対する態度により、作成した教材の評価を述べる。
データ駆動型学習を通じた試験のスコアーが向上する証拠があるにもかかわらず、
学習者は、
データ駆動型学習のほうが通常の勉強より非常に難しく思い、
タスクパフォーマンスの
幾つかの面に対する自信を失うことがわかる。作成したデータ駆動型学習の教材や指導をどのように改正すろかを提案する。

Undergraduates majoring in STEM subjects in Japan
present challenges to materials developers and teachers.
One of the biggest challenges is to create materials
which motivate learners who have traditionally been
regarded as having low motivation (Hill, Falout, &Apple, 2012). This report outlines an experimental
approach to evaluating materials creation which aimed
to improve the motivation and vocabulary learning oflearners in a first-year undergraduate writing course.
Parsons, D. W. (2017). Developing EAP materials: A
data-driven learning innovation. In G. Brooks (Ed.)
The 2016 PanSIG Journal (pp. 252-263). Tokyo,
Japan: JALT.

252 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Data-driven learning (DDL) has been shown topositively affect learner motivation (Hadley, 2002), so
a DDL approach is compared with a more traditional
dictionary based approach.
Tomlinson (2013a) points out that materials
development should include an understanding of theconditions that can promote language learning. DDL
is a pedagogical innovation which has been shownto enhance learning (Chujo, Anthony, Oghigian,& Uchibori, 2012) and benefit the developmentof student autonomy (Flowerdew, 2012). During
DDL activities, learners are guided throughmaking hypotheses about many salient features oflanguage, including word meaning, phrasal patterns,

Developing EAP Materials, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 252-263
collocations. They do this through a condensed
reading (Gabrielatos, 2005) of concordance lines.
Concordance lines are the “data” which provide
evidence for learners’ hypotheses, and any revisions
in their hypotheses. In this way, the students act likeresearchers of language (Bernadini, 2004; Johns,
1986). Thus, DDL activities are student centered andpromote their autonomy. As Dornyei (2001) suggests,
a focus on student autonomy can improve learnermotivation.
DDL materials were developed around aframework offered by Jolly and Bolitho (2011).
The framework is a network of procedures which
includes the identification of need, exploration ofneed, contextual realisation of materials, pedagogicalrealisation, production, student use, and evaluation
against agreed objectives.

MethodJolly and Bolitho (2011) acknowledge that teachers
will not apply the framework in a linear fashion.
However, for logical presentation, each step is outlined
below in the order provided by the authors.

Exploration of need
Students’ levels ranged from high beginner to
low intermediate, and none of them had had any
experience with data-driven learning. They werescheduled to write on two topics: globalization andthe Internet. To understand the range of vocabulary
required, short articles on the topics were selected fromstudents’ reading texts and graded readers mandated
by the curriculum to create a small pedagogical
corpus (Willis, 1998). This corpus was scanned into
the KeyWords program on the Compleat Lexical
Tutor (Cobb, n.d.) website. This program generated
a list of topic specific vocabulary, such as “effect”,“include”, “avoid”, and “impact”. This was correlatedwith a corpus of first and second year undergraduate
students’ writing collected over three years. 15 words
which were either not common in students’ writing,or used with mistakes, were isolated for study: effect,
problem, include, prevent, avoid, impact, damage,likely, difficulty, decide, cause, means, suggest, such as,without. Thus, one objective of the DDL materials wasto improve learning of these items.

Contextual realisation
DDL is often associated with learners searching forwords in computers, generating their own concordancelines and using the data to make hypotheses about
language. However, the students were members of adepartment whose TOEIC averages were the lowest
in the university. Their classes were mixed proficiency,
and this “hands-on” approach was considered too
difficult for them. Gilquin and Granger (2010) pointout that the learners’ levels should affect decisions
about the mode of presentation in DDL. Therefore,
printed worksheets containing concordance lines wereprepared. This allowed me to simplify concordances tomake language points more salient.

Pedagogical realisation
For each word studied a three-step DDL task was
created. Step 1 (translation) involved translating asentence from Japanese into English. This elicited the
key word and generated hypotheses of its use basedon students’ current knowledge. Step 2 (exploration)
involved condensed reading of concordance lines,
and was guided. For example, students were asked to
notice what adjectives collocated with the key word,
and were asked to infer phrasal patterns. To reducethe complexity of the task for the mixed proficiency
groups, only ten concordance lines were chosen fromthe pedagogical corpus. Step 3 (paraphrase) involved
paraphrasing an English sentence. Which aimed toencourage students to apply their observations from
Step 2 to a novel context.
DDL requires the exploration of language. For thisto succeed, students need to be active in their learning.
One way to promote this is through interaction.
Sociocultural theory (Wertsch, 1998) suggests that thecognitive load during learning can be shared among
students working in groups. Furthermore, Estling
Vannestal and Lindquist (2007) have observed thatstudent motivation increases when working on DDL
activities in groups. Therefore, tasks that promote peerinteraction were designed.
To encourage the students to interact more, theThe 2016 PanSIG Journal

253

Parsons
activities were designed as a game in which students
worked in pairs. Each pair was allocated 10 points.
For each step in the DDL task, they could gamble
some of their points. If their answers were correct,
they received back double the amount they gambled.
If their answers were incorrect, they lost the points.
Students were also given a time limit of 10 minutes
per word to complete the three steps. This prevented adiffusion of responsibility and encouraged a fast-paced
sharing of ideas.

Production
Appendix A provides an example of the worksheet
created for the three DDL steps. All the informationneeded to complete the DDL tasks, including theconcordance lines, was contained in one sheet.

Student Use
One sheet was given to each pair of students. They
collaborated to complete the tasks on the worksheets
and score more points than other pairs of students.
The teacher ran through one worksheet with thestudents together. After this, the students completed
each worksheet without teacher input. Every 10
minutes, the teacher provided feedback and checkedanswers.

Evaluation
Because the DDL activities were an innovation to
replace the current vocabulary study methods, the
DDL method needed to improve motivation and leadto greater learning. To evaluate this effectively, it isnecessary to compare motivation and learning under
DDL with motivation and learning under traditional
dictionary use. Boulton (2010) provides a descriptionof a quasi-experimental design which is adapted here toevaluate the difference in learning gains between DDL
and dictionary use. However, to be a valid comparison,
the procedure of the dictionary methods was adapted
to include the same three steps as DDL: translate –explore – paraphrase. An example dictionary-based
worksheet is given in Appendix B. While this itself
constitutes new materials development, the timespent developing dictionary based worksheets was

254 The 2016 PanSIG Journalmuch shorter than DDL based worksheets. Therefore,
measurement of learning also allows a valid costbenefit evaluation of materials creation for the teacher.
Following Boulton (2010) in the experimental
setup, 15 words were split into three sets of 5 words,
with set 3 being the control items. Two writing classes
were chosen, Class A (nA = 20) studied sets 1 and 2
under DDL and dictionary methods respectively, andclass B (nB = 16) studied sets 1 and 2 under dictionary
and DDL methods respectively. One set was studied
each week, and the control set was not studied.
Students in the two classes were informed that the
vocabulary learning activities were being observed andthey gave permission for their work to be analyzed forresearch purposes. The students were told that theirability to use these words in their writing would not
impact on the assessment of their paragraphs, but wereasked to do their best to learn the words.
Students were given a pre-test of the 15 words
one week before the DDL activities and told thatthey would be studying these words in the following
two weeks. The pre-test consisted of 30 TOEIC part
V questions, two questions per item. Immediate posttests for each week’s activities provided feedback tostudents and the teacher. The immediate post-tests
consisted of two TOEIC part V questions per item,
10 questions in total. A final post-test was held one
week after the activities. This provided insight into thelong-term learning gains. This test also consisted of 30
questions, which were different from the pre-test andintermediate post-tests.
To measure motivation, students completed two
surveys to compare the DDL and dictionary methods.
The first was a self-efficacy survey. Bandura (2006)
states that self-efficacy is concerned with the belief
an individual has in their ability to achieve successin a task. He claims that self-efficacy is an importantfactor affecting the motivation of learners (Bandura,
1989). The survey asked students to rate their ability
on a scale of 0 – 100 (0 = not at all confident, 100= extremely confident) to perform tasks both under
DDL and dictionary methods.
The second survey asked students to rate theirperceptions of the ease, usefulness, enjoyment, andwhether or not the activities were a good use of time

Developing EAP Materials, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 252-263
for both DDL and regular methods. Each item was abi-polar scale from 1 to 10, with, for example, 1 = easy,
and 10 = difficult. Appendices C and D contain these
two surveys respectively.

The results of the quasi-experimental evaluation oflearning and motivation are reported here.

per test). The items used in the DDL and dictionary
methods also show no significant difference (p = 0.34
and p = 0.84 respectively). This is not surprising giventhat no opportunity to recycle vocabulary learning
was included in the activities.
There is no significant difference between items
under DDL methods and items under dictionary
methods.

Pre-test

Pre-test vs Immediate Post-test

Results

A t-test was run to compare the scores on items to
be studied under DDL with items to be studied
with dictionary methods. This gives insight into
whether students in both conditions have equivalentknowledge of all the items. The results were: MDDL
= 6.22 and Mdic = 6.08, t = 0.26, df = 69.79, p =0.79. This means there is no significant difference instudents’ knowledge of these words before the DDL
and dictionary activities.

Pre-test vs Delayed Post-test
Table 1 shows no significant difference (p = 0.78)
between the scores on the pre-test and the delayed
post-test for the control items (total 10 questions

Table 2 shows the t-test results comparing the pretest scores with the immediate post-test scores under
the DDL and regular methods. There is a significant
difference between the pre-test and immediate posttest means for the DDL method (p = 0.0003), butthere is no significant difference for the dictionary
method (p = 0.19).

Self-efficacy survey results
The self-efficacy survey asked students to compare
their ability to perform tasks through a DDL methodwith their ability to perform tasks through dictionary
use. Table 3 shows the results of the comparison. Thereis a significant difference in self-efficacy for questions 2

Table 1Pre-test and Final Post-test Scores and The t-test Results
Items

Pre-test mean

Delayed Post-test mean

Paired t-test

Control

6.72

6.58

t = 0.28, df = 69.49
p = 0.78

DDL method items

6.08

6.52

t = -0.95, df = 66.81
p = 0.34

Dictionary method items

6.22

6.11

t = 0.19, df = 69.83
p = 0.84

Notes. df = degrees of freedom, t = t-test value

Table 2
Pre-Test and Immediate Post-test Scores and the t-test Results
Items

Pre-test mean

Delayed Post-test mean

Paired t-test

DDL method

6.08

7.92

t = 3.85, df = 68.1
p = 0.0003

Dictionary method

6.22

6.83

t = 1.31, df = 62.23
p = 0.19

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

255

Parsons
and 5. The difference in question 2 shows that students
are more likely to feel confident finding patterns under
the dictionary method than DDL. The differencein question 5 shows that students are more likely tofeel confident translating sentences from Japanese to
English when studying under the dictionary methodthan DDL.

Perceptions Survey
Table 4 shows the perceptions of students towards

the DDL and regular methods. There is a significant
difference in perception of ease, with students finding
DDL activities to be much more difficult. Similarly,
students find the dictionary methods to be more
useful and a better use of time. However, both types ofactivities are perceived as equally fun.

Analysis
What follows is an analysis of the data collected as partof the evaluation stage in Jolly and Bolitho’s (2011)

Table 3Means, Standard Deviations and Paired T-test Comparing Students’ Self-efficacy Toward DDL and Dictionary Methodsof Learning
MDDL

SDDDL

Mdic

SDdic

1. If I know the meaning of a key word in advance I can find themeaning

73.5

22.01

77.25

20.0

2. Even if I don’t know the meaning of the key word in advance, I can

55.38

t-test, p = 0.2

quickly find a pattern.
3. I can find a pattern by collaborating with my classmates.

20.92

66

21.3

t-test, p = 0.008*
77.25

16.94

76.75

19.79

t-test, p = 0.77
4. I can find a pattern even without the collaboration of my classmates.

56

25.20

60.88

23.1

t-test, p = 0.07
5. I can accurately translate Japanese to English by using the key word.

54

22.74

62.25

20.06

t-test, p = 0.007*
6. I can easily write a paraphrase by referring to the concordance lines /dictionary information.

59.5

7. I can score well on TOEIC Part V questions after studying
concordances lines / dictionary information.

50.38

24.17

63.75

20.96

t-test, p = 0.07
23.87

50.38

23.86

t-test, p = 0.07

Note. * = significant

Table 4Students’ Perceptions of the DDL and Dictionary Methods of Learning

1 = easy, 10 = difficult

MDDL

SDDDL

Mdic

SDdic

6.08

1.87

4.15

2.00

t-test, p = 0.0000016*
1 = useful, 10 = not useful

3.6

2.32

2.53

1.80

t-test, p = 0.005*
1 = a good use of time, 10 = a waste of time

3.38

1.69

2.73

1.45

t-test, p = 0.002*
1. 1 = fun, 10 = not fun

3.15

2.10

3.63

t-test, p = 0.19
Note. * = significant

256 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

2.33

Developing EAP Materials, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 252-263
framework.

the mixed proficiencies of the students in the class, it is
not surprising that some students find DDL difficult.

Learning gains
No significant gain in scores for the control items is
expected, because these were not studied. However,there is no significant gain in mean scores for the items
studied under both dictionary and DDL methods
between the pre-test and the final post-test. This is
likely due to the lack of activities between weeklyclasses for recycling vocabulary. Furthermore, students
were not required to use the words in their paragraphwriting until after the final post-test.
The immediate post-test means under the DDL
method show a significant gain over the pre-test.
This is possibly due to the design of the activities andtests. The tests were designed to assess specificallythe patterns that were made prominent in the DDL
exploration and paraphrasing activities. On the other
hand, the dictionary method did not require students
to make hypotheses about language rules as part of thetask, and students were instead provided with rules,
possibly making them less salient.

Discussion
Students in this research tended to find DDL difficult
and not as useful as dictionary study methods.
Even though they scored better on the post-test
immediately after the DDL method of study, they did
not feel they could do better than after studying under
the dictionary method. This contradiction tentatively
suggests a cognitive overload on the part of somestudents who found DDL much more difficult thanusing dictionaries. The factors that probably impacted
on the perceptions of lower proficiency students
are: complexity of the task; number of concordancelines; unfamiliarity of the tasks. In fact, Clarke,
Howard and Early (2006) point out that when tasks
become too complex, and too novel, they can have ademotivating effect. Nonetheless, students believedthat they could perform better when collaboratingwith their classmates and when working with familiar
words. This implies that the collaborative nature of theactivities was a success.

Motivation
Even though students scored significantly higher with
the TOEIC Part V questions on the immediate posttest under the DDL method, there was no difference instudent confidence doing DDL and using dictionaries.
This can probably be explained by a much higher
perceived difficulty with DDL tasks. Furthermore,
students feel much more confident at finding patterns
when they do not know the meaning of a word under
the dictionary study method (question 2 on the selfefficacy survey). This probably signals that students are
comfortable in the familiar territory of the dictionary,in contrast to the unfamiliar DDL. This is supportedby the observation that students are much more
confident accurately translating Japanese to English
after studying with the dictionary method. In the open
feedback, one student wrote: “I think DDL is easy forpeople who understand some English, but it is difficultfor people who don’t”. This contrasts with othercomments that the pacing of 10 minutes was good,that the activity sequence helped them to think, andthat this was a fresh way to study vocabulary. Given

Conclusion
In this report, an evaluation comparing DDL
materials with dictionary-based materials showed thatstudents unfamiliar with DDL tended to prefer thedictionary methods, even though the DDL methods
had a greater impact on their test performance. Pair
collaboration during the activities provided students
with more confidence to do the activities, and this hasroom for development, such as by providing space forpeer feedback and grading. In fact, by including theconcordance data as part of feedback data, it might bepossible to encourage students to demonstrate to eachother the value of a DDL approach, and thus improvetheir motivations towards it. Finally, the creation of
the DDL materials was time-consuming, with only
immediate benefits in gains, and no long-term gains.
Long-term gains could be improved by including
homework tasks. The time invested could then havegreater return in learning.
In sum, many DDL studies have not provided a
The 2016 PanSIG Journal257

Parsonsstrong description of how their materials were created,making studies difficult to compare. Furthermore,
DDL studies tend to be laboratory style studies, andnot suitable for the classroom. This author hopes thatteachers will see the value of developing DDL activities
through a materials development framework, such as
Jolly and Bolitho’s (2011) framework, and bring DDL
into the mainstream of teaching.

References
Bandura, A. (1989). Human agency in social
cognitive theory. American Psychologist, 44(9),1175–1184.
Bandura, A. (2006). Guide for constructing selfefficacy scales. In F. Pajares & T. Urdan (Eds.),
Self-efficacy beliefs of adolescents (pp. 307–337).
Greenwich, Connecticut: Information Age
Publishing.
Bernadini, S. (2002). Serendipity expanded:
Exploring new directions for discovery learning.
In B. Kettermann & G. Marko (Eds.), Teaching
and learning by doing corpus analysis (pp. 165182). Amsterdam, Holland: Rodopi.
Boulton, A. (2010). Data-driven learning: Taking
the computer out of the equation. Language
Learning, 60(3), 534-572.
Chujo, K., Anthony, L., Oghigian, K., & Uchibori,A. (2012). Paper-based, computer-based, andcombined data-driven learning using a web-based
concordance. Language Education in Asia, 3(2),132–145.
Clarke, R. E., Howard, K., & Early, S. (2006).
Motivational challenges in highly complex
learning environments. In R. E. Clarke & J.
Elen (Eds.), Handling complexity in learning
environments: Theory and research (pp. 27–42).
Amsterdam, Holland: Elsevier.
Cobb, T. (n.d.). Compleat Lexical Tutor. Retrieved
July 30th, 2016, from http://www.lextutor.ca
Dornyei, Z. (2001). Motivational strategies in thelanguage classroom. Cambridge, England:
Cambridge University Press.
Estling Vannestal, M. and Lindquist, H. (2007).
Learning English grammar with a corpus:

258 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Experimenting with concordancing in auniversity grammar course. ReCALL, 19(3), 329350.
Flowerdew, L. (2012). Corpora and language
education. Hampshire, England: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Gabrielatos, C. (2005). Corpora and language
teaching: just a fling, or wedding bells? TESL-EJ,
8(4), 1–37.
Gilquin, G. and Granger, S. (2010). How can datadriven learning be used in language teaching?
In A. O’Keeffe & M. McCarthy (Eds.), The
Routledge handbook of corpus linguistics (pp.
359–370). New York, NY: Routledge.
Hadley, G. (2002). An introduction to data-driven
learning. RELC Journal, 33(2), 99–124.
Hill, G., Falout, J., & Apple, M. (2012). Possible L2
selves for students of science and engineering.
In N.Sonda, & A. Krause (Eds.), JALT2012
Conference Proceedings (pp. 210-220). Tokyo,
Japan: JALT.
Johns, T. (1986). Micro-concord: A language learner’s
research tool. System, 14(2), 151–162.
Jolly, D., & Bolitho, R. (2011). A framework formaterials writing. In B. Tomlinson (Ed.),
Materials development in language teaching, (2nded., 107–134). Cambridge, England: Cambridge
University Press.
Tomlinson, B. (2013a). Developing principledframeworks for materials development, in
B. Tomlinson (Ed.), Developing materials forlanguage teaching, (2nd ed., 95–118). London,
England: Bloomsbury Academic.
Tomlinson, B. (2013b). Materials evaluation, in
B. Tomlinson (Ed.), Developing materials forlanguage teaching, (2nd ed., 21–48). London,
England: Bloomsbury Academic.
Wertsch, J. V. (1998). Mind as action. Oxford,
England: Oxford University Press.
Willis, J. (1998). Concordance in the classroom
without a computer: Assembling and exploiting
concordances of common words, in B. Tomlinson(Ed.), Materials development in language teaching,
44-66. Cambridge, England: Cambridge
University Press.

Developing EAP Materials, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 252-263

Author’s Biography:
Daniel Parsons taught at Kwansei Gakuin University before moving to International Universityof Japan. His research interests include incorporating technology into language learning andmethods of formative assessment.

The 2016 PanSIG Journal259

Parsons

Appendix A
An example of a Data-Driven Learning worksheet.

260 The 2016 PanSIG JournalDeveloping EAP Materials, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 252-263

Appendix B
Example of a dictionary based worksheet.

The 2016 PanSIG Journal261

Parsons

Appendix C: Self-efficacy Survey
When you studied concordance lines, you worked with your classmates to find patterns from some example
sentences. If you tried to study with concordance lines again in the future, how confident would you be from 0(not at all confident) to 100 (very confident) to do the following activities:
1. Find patterns if you knew the meaning of the key word in advance: ____________
2. Find patterns if you did not know the meaning of the key word in advance: ____________
3. Find patterns by collaborating with your classmates: ____________
4. Find patterns even without the help of your classmates: ____________
5. Use the key word to accurately translate a Japanese sentence into English: ____________
6. Paraphrase an English sentence by referring to the concordance lines: ____________
7. Correctly answer TOEIC part V questions after studying concordance lines: ____________
When you studied key words in a dictionary, you worked with your classmates to find patterns from someexample sentences. If you tried to study with the dictionary again in the future, how confident would you befrom 0 (not at all confident) to 100 (very confident) to do the following activities:
1. Find patterns if you knew the meaning of the key word in advance: ____________
2. Find patterns if you did not know the meaning of the key word in advance: ____________
3. Find patterns by collaborating with your classmates: ____________
4. Find patterns even without the help of your classmates: ____________
5. Use the key word to accurately translate a Japanese sentence into English: ____________
6. Paraphrase an English sentence by referring to the dictionary: ____________
7. Correctly answer TOEIC part V questions after studying with a dictionary: ____________

262 The 2016 PanSIG JournalDeveloping EAP Materials, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 252-263

Appendix D: Perceptions survey
Studying with concordance lines was:easy

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

difficultuseful

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

not usefula good use of time

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

a waste of timefun

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

not funeasy

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

difficultuseful

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

not usefula good use of time

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

a waste of timefun

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

not funStudying with a dictionary was:The 2016 PanSIG Journal263

Benchmarking to Determine International
Activities for a Nursing Program
Mathew Porter
Fukuoka Jo Gakuin Nursing University
portermathew@hotmail.com
First, this paper describes the challenges faced by Japanese hospitals as they deal with increasing
numbers of foreign patients and current efforts by Japanese nursing programs to prepare nursing
students to care for these patients. It then describes a benchmarking activity undertaken to identify
the range of international activities offered by Japanese nursing programs, which were then used
in a market research survey with first-year nursing students to measure interest and likelihood ofparticipating in potential programs. Finally, this data was used to create short-, mid-, and longrange programming goals for a newly created international affairs committee at a nursing university
本稿ではまず、国際患者が増える上日本の病院が直面する課題や国際患者に適切なケアができるような看護師を育成する看護系大学の取り組みを説明します。
そして、看護系大学が提供する国
際交流活動をベンチマーキング活動で明確し、そのデータを市場調査で諸国際交流活動に対して
1年次看護学生の関心度と潜在的な活動に参加可能性を測定しました。
このデータを踏まえた短期、中期、長期的なプログラミングの目標を新たに成立された国際交流委員会で使用されました。

Nursing education in Japan is not immune from recent
trends in Japanese higher education to develop a global
workforce, reflecting the need for skilled nurses able toparticipate in the international research community,
contribute to international relief projects, and provide
effective care to the growing number of foreign
visitors and residents in Japan. When attending to thegrowing number of foreign patients, nurses face several
linguistic and cultural challenges. Mitsubishi UFJ
Research & Consulting (2012) conducted a surveyof 507 Japanese hospitals examining their experience
treating foreign patients. Problems stemming from alack of foreign language proficiency among medical
staff members was indicated by 93% of the hospitals,
followed by a lack of multilingual signage and forms(60%), and problems with cultural differences (52%).

Similar results were found by Nomura ResearchInstitute (2016) which conducted a survey of over
2,500 hospitals asking about their handling of foreign
patients during the previous year. Trouble dealing withforeign languages and cultures (including signage,
forms, and meals) was indicated by 72.7% of thehospitals and the lack of doctors and nurses who could
speak a foreign language was cited by 71.7%.
In 2010, the Japanese government identified
medical tourism as one area of potential economic
growth and began issuing visas for medical stays
in July 2011. The total number of medical tourists
is unknown, but according to the above surveys,
makes up only 1-2% of foreign patient visits. Despite
resistance from hospitals, the Japanese government
is keen to increase the number of medical tourists
seeking medical exams and treatment in Japan. Saito

Porter, M. (2017). Benchmarking to determineinternational activities for a nursing program. In
G. Brooks (Ed.), The 2016 PanSIG Journal (pp.
264-272). Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

(2011) visited seven hospitals at the forefront of
medical tourism and interviewed staff to identify
challenges facing Japanese hospitals as they accept
more foreign patients. Among the challenges he found

264 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

International Activities for a Nursing Program, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 264-272
were insufficient language support, particularly thelack of expert medical interpreters on call; cultural
misunderstandings related to differences in hospitalsystems, customs, and culture; medical disputes,
especially related to payment; and trouble involving
Japanese patients.

Globally Minded Nursing Education
Nursing programs at higher education institutions
that serve populations in multicultural societies
have included coursework to help prepare future
nurses to provide for patients with diverse cultural
backgrounds. Leininger established the field oftranscultural nursing (2001) as she developed atheory of cultural care along with accompanying
research methods and clinical practices. The central
purpose of transcultural nursing is the discovery andexplanation of “diverse and universal culturally basedcare factors influencing the health, well-being, illness,or death of individuals or groups” so that “culturally
congruent, safe, and meaningful care” (Leininger,
2002, p. 190) can be provided to patients of diverse
or similar cultures. To help achieve this goal, nursing
students today in places like the US, Canada, andAustralia are expected to develop cultural competence.
Cultural competence has been defined many ways,
with one influential example develop by CampinaBacote (2002), who proposed a model which “views
cultural competence as the ongoing process in which
the healthcare professional continuously strives toachieve the ability and availability to work effectively
within the cultural context of the patient (individual,family, and community) (p. 181) by developing theinterdependent constructs of cultural awareness,
cultural knowledge, cultural skill and cultural desire
while seeking out cultural encounters.
Beginning in 2008, Japanese nursing programs
were encouraged to include coursework to help
students gain broader cultural understanding, leading
to the creation of kokusai kango, or international
nursing, courses. Although Nakagoshi, Mori, Tanaka,
Nomura, and Joho (2014) describe international
nursing education as similar to the field of transcultural
nursing, their survey of 72 international nursing
programs showed that international nursing in Japanis still undefined and lacks specific learning outcomes.
Kubo, Yamanouchi, and Hiruta (2016) reviewed 20
research reports on international nursing education
between 2007 and 2015 and found a lack of a sharededucational philosophy and learning goals, concludingthat the international nursing programs reviewed
were still at the trial-and-error stage and in need of acommon competency model to improve international
nursing education.

International Activities of JapaneseNursing Programs
As Nakagoshi, Mori, Tanaka, Nomura, and Joho(2014) point out, Japan is not a multicultural or
multilingual society, which is an influential factor
causing Japan to lag in its efforts to develop astandardized approach to international nursing
education, this despite the growing number ofinternational patients in Japan. Therefore, rich,multidimensional encounters with people of different
cultural backgrounds must be offered to Japanesenursing students to help them develop cultural (andlinguistic) competence. Although little comprehensive
research exists about the international activities ofnursing programs, a study by Cardenas, Nishito,
Tsukinoki, and Kobayashi (2013) found that 28 of
42 member schools of the Japan Society of Private
Colleges and Universities of Nursing had some kindof study abroad or foreign training opportunity forstudents. These opportunities were described as lessthan one month long by 22 schools and saw a wide
range of participants, from 1 to 123, with 20-30
participants being the most common response (9schools). They also identified challenges to establishinginternational activities within nursing programs,
including limited human and financial resources,
language barriers, lack of interest among faculty andstaff, and curriculum restrictions.

Benchmarking the International
Activities of Nursing Programs
The project described below was undertaken to
identify the range of international activities offeredto nursing department students and create a
The 2016 PanSIG Journal

265

Porterbenchmark to guide the work of a newly establishedinternational affairs committee. Benchmarking in
general has been defined and used in a wide variety
of ways in business, industry, and, from the 1990s,
higher education. Benchmarking in higher education
is a methodological approach for identifying
improvements and informing decision-making basedon intra- and inter-organizational comparisons.
Edith Cowan University defines benchmarking as the“systematic process of comparing products, services,
processes and outcomes with other organisations or
exemplars, for the purpose of improving outcomesby identifying, adapting and implementing bestpractice approaches” (as cited in Scott, n.d.). Schofield(1998) recommends seeing benchmarking in higher
education on a spectrum from “the production andpublication of data and performance indicators...
designed for comparative analysis and use” to “processdriven quality improvement programmes” (p. 18). As
Booth, Melano, Sainsbury, and Woodley (2011) show,
benchmarking can be used as a “tool for continuous
improvement” through projects and partnershipsthat provide decision-makers with useful data andevidence-based targets for improvement.

Benchmarking Methodology
Benchmarking is a systematic process that can beundertaken using a variety of methods, such as Hacker& Kleiner’s (2000) 12-step method or Booth, Melano,
Sainsbury, and Woodley’s (2011) 9-phase process.
What these and other methods have in common
is their similarity to the Deming Cycle (or PDCA
Cylce). The Deming Cycle consists of four phases:
plan, do, check, and act. The benchmarking project
begins with a planning phase in which benchmarking
arrangements, targets, partners, techniques, andtimeline are identified, leading to the creation of abenchmarking plan. This plan is carried out and thenthe results are analyzed and shared, so that a plan ofaction can be developed. Finally, that action plan is
implemented.

Plan and Implementation
Due to the lack of international activities at our
school, this benchmarking activity was conducted to

266 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

provide a starting point in the process of developing
successful and effective international activities for asmall, women’s university consisting of a single nursing
faculty. The focus of the activity was to identify thevariety of programs offered by nursing programs toestablish what types of international activities newstudents might expect from their nursing institutions.
This would then allow our university to consider
providing programming at a level that is common
to comparable nursing programs. The attributes
considered when choosing benchmarking targets canbe seen in Table 1. Data about international activities
was gathered by examining existing programs asadvertised to potential students on university websites.
In light of the school’s small size and othercharacteristics, benchmarking targets tended to be
recently established nursing universities with similar
student intake and hensachi (a measure of a school’s
selectivity) and located in the same or comparably
sized metropolitan areas. The attributes of the fivetargeted institutions and their international activities
are described in Table 2.

Analysis
From the information gathered, I identified four
categories of international activities: (1) those taking
place in English-speaking countries, (2) those taking
place in other countries, (3) field work, and (4)domestic opportunities for international exchange.
The types of activities are listed in Table 3. Althoughno nursing programs advertised an English camp for
their students, I was familiar with successful camps
and decided to include it to measure student reaction.
Market research. The international activities
identified in the benchmarking activity were then used
in a market research survey to better understand ourstudents’ attitudes towards various programming options.
Methodology and participants. An 8-question
survey about international programming was createdin Japanese using Google Forms. The first question
employed branching logic and separated respondents
interested in international activities from those notinterested. A link was shared with all 118 first-year
students in Moodle at the end of the first semesterand valid responses were received from 75 students

International Activities for a Nursing Program, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 264-272
Table 1
University Attributes
Attribute
Location

Benchmarking Target

FJGNU

same or different prefecture

Fukuoka

metropolitan or rural arearural suburb

Organization

single faculty or nursing faculty at a comprehensive university

single faculty (nursing)Typepublic or private

privateFoundation

less than 10 years or greater than 10 years

less than 10 years

Students

coeducational or single sex

women

intake capacity

100

similar or higher or lower

49

Hensachi(63%). A translation of the survey can be found in the
Appendix.

ActionResults. Interest in international activities wasreported by 59 respondents (79%) and interest in
short-term language course abroad by 58 of those
respondents (93%). Those interested in international
activities were most interested in and most likely
to participate in short-term programming in an
English-speaking country which included tours of
medical facilities. They were also highly interested
in and highly likely to participate in English campswith foreign students or foreign simulated patients.
Respondents were interested in medical-related
training in developing countries, but less likely toparticipate in those activities. Conversely, respondents
were less interested in lecturers by foreign guests, butwere likely to participate in them.
Concerns. Over 80% of respondents preferred
programming that included a homestay, and just overhalf desired a chaperone. Respondents also preferred
traveling with classmates rather than alone. Openresponses included concerns about cost and English
training prior to participating in the program. Students
who were not interested in international activities
were almost unanimous in their lack of confidence
using English. Additional reasons included not being
able to see the value of international activities to theircareer choice and placing priority on learning in andabout Japan.

made up of reporting results of the data-gathering
process and making recommendations. Based on theanalysis, I created three goals: a short-range goal toestablish a program that meets basic expectations
for an international activity conducted by a nursing
university and that would have a high likelihood of
succeeding; a mid-range goal of developing an English
camp with foreign nursing students who would visit
our school for 3-5 days, stay with students’ families,
and participate in a variety of friendship-building
and nursing-in-English activities; and a long-range
goal of helping students to build confidence using
English by creating an English bulletin board with
games and expressions, an English podcast, andvoluntary conversation classes. I presented my analysis
and recommendations to the International Affairs
Committee and received approval from the committee
chair to move ahead on the short-range programming
proposal. Meanwhile, I began implementing my longrange goal immediately.
Short-range goal. Choosing a destination for ashort-term language course can be difficult becauseof the large number of choices available. Making
a poor choice can leave students dissatisfied and
impede future programming. I choose to approacha university in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia to

The final stage of the benchmarking process is

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

267

55

50

51

51

50

Kyoto College ofNursing

The Japanese Red Cross
Kyushu International
College of Nursing

St. Mary’s College

Seinan Jogakuin
University

Hensachi

Kobe City College ofNursing

Name

268 The 2016 PanSIG Journal
1994

2006

2001

2014

1996

Founding

90

100

100

50

100

Capacity

Table 2Attributes of Benchmarking Targets and Descriptions of Their International Activities

Sister schools and partnerships in a variety of English-speaking
countries and Asia. Will issue credit for participating in study abroadat other schools.

Nursing / Coed /PrivateComprehensive /Women / Private

Three sister schools (one in the US and two in Korea). Overseas
study trips to observe health care education and facilities. Overseas
practical experience and training in Korea, Philippines, Thailand.

Nursing / Coed /PrivateInternational Nursing elective course includes trip to Switzerland
and Germany that includes hospital visits and practical experience.

Sister school in the US. Overseas study programs. Two-weekprogram in the US limited to 10 people. Cost: 300,000-338,000
yen plus other expenses. Site visits, Nursing English, home stay,participation in nursing class.

International Activities

International symposium with international guests. Study abroadas part of third-year International Health and Nursing course.
Many sister universities, including the US, but focusing on Southand Southeast Asia. Partner school in New Zealand offers Nursing
English course and site visits.

Nursing / Coed /PublicNursing / Coed /PublicType

PorterInternational Activities for a Nursing Program, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 264-272
Table 3
International Activities of Nursing Programs
1

English-speaking countries

1.1

Short-term language course (3 weeks)

1.2

Short-term language course with hospital visits (3 weeks)

1.3Long-term language course (5 months)

1.4Long-term language courses with hospital visits (5 months)

1.5

Completing a nursing degree abroad

2

Other countries

2.1

Short-term language course (3 weeks)

2.2

Short-term language course with hospital visits (3 weeks)

2.3Long-term language course (5 months)

2.4Long-term language courses with hospital visits (5 months)

2.5

Completing a nursing degree abroad

3

Field work

3.1

Health-related field work in a developing country

3.2

Non-health-related field work in a developing country

4

Domestic opportunities for international exchange

4.1

Guest speakers giving health-related seminars

4.2

English camp using foreign simulated patients (1 week)

4.3

English camp with foreign nursing students (1 week)

establish a two-week language course for our students
with visits to health-related facilities. The program
includes homestays and a bilingual chaperone fromthe university will accompany the students during
the entire period. This university was chosen because
I was already familiar with their programs from myprevious position at another Japanese university
where students had returned highly satisfied and more
motivated. Furthermore, the university in Brisbane
also has a highly ranked nursing program with a stateof-the-art simulation center, and our university had
just completed construction on a new simulation
center. This similarity could help create ties between
our faculties in the future. The initial explanatory

meeting drew 50 students and 22 students submitted
applications for the program. The program begins inMarch 2017 and will include pre-departure training
and orientation sessions.

Conclusion
Although this project only examined a handful ofthe over 200 nursing programs in Japan, the lack ofemphasis placed on international activities was striking
in comparison to non-nursing faculties in Japan. One
limitation of this study is the small number of schools
it examined, but these schools provided a muchneeded, objective starting point for administrativedecision-making. The study was also limited to
The 2016 PanSIG Journal

269

Porter
programming information found on websites, which
can be unreliable. In the future, I hope to partner withteacher-administrators at other nursing institutions
and collaborate with them to create benchmarks andfind innovative ways to improve international activities
for our nursing students.

References
Booth, S., Melano, A., Sainsbury, H., and Woodley,
L. (2011). Articulating and comparing standards
through benchmarking of assessment. The 10$th
Annual Australian Quality Forum, 38-47.
Campinha-Bacote, J. (2002). The process of culturalcompetence in the delivery of healthcare services:
A model of care. Journal of Transcultural Nursing,13(3), 181-184.
Cardenas, X., Nishito, T., Tsukinoki. R., Kobayashi,
T. (2013). A survey on international activities
in the nursing education of private colleges
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Daigaku Kango Kenkyu Zasshi, 3, 147-156.
Scott, R., (n.d.). Benchmarking: A literature review.
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Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Leininger, M. (2002). Culture care theory: A major
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Nursing, 13(3), 189-192.

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Mitsubishi UFJ Research & Consulting. (2012).
MURC seisaku kenkyuu repooto. Wagakuni
ni okeru gaikokujin iryou no genjyou ni tsuite:
Gaikokujin kanja no ukeire ni kansuru ankeeto
chousa” no kekka yori. [Policy research report:
Present state of medical treatment of foreigners
in Japan - Results of a survey regarding theacceptance of international patients]. Mitsubishi
UFJ Research & Consulting. http://www.murc.jp/
thinktank/rc/politics/politics_detail/120829.pdf
Nakagoshi, R., Mori, K., Tanaka, Y., Nomura, A.,
and Joho, T. (2014). The Present Situation andChallenges Facing Internationalization of Basic
Nursing Education System in Japan. Ehime
kenritsu iryou gijitsu daigaku kiyou, 11(1), 9-13.
Nomura Research Institute. (2016). Heisei 27 nendo
iryou gijitsu/saabisu kyotenka sokushin jigyou(kokunai iryou kikan ni yoru gaijin kanja ukeire nosokushin ni kansuru chousa) houkokusho [Reporton the project to create a medical skills andservice hub (Survey regarding the promotion of
accepting international patients) 2016]. Nomura
Research Institute. http://www.meti.go.jp/meti_
lib/report/2016fy/000519.pdf
Saito, H. (2011). Gaikokujin ukeire no sai ni
kangaerareru mondaiten wo akaraka ni suru
kenkyuu [Research to clarify potential challenges
when accepting international patients]. H. Endo(ed). Kokusai iryou kouryuu (gaikokujin kanja noukeire) he no taiou ni kansuru kenkyu. [Research
related to the handling of international medical
exchange (treatment of foreign patients)]. Tokyo
Women’s Medical University. http://www.twmu.
ac.jp/Basic/int-trop/_userdata/sympo_h26.pdf
Schofield, A. (1998). Benchmarking: An overview
of approaches and issues in implementation.
In Benchmarking in higher education: A study
conducted by the Commonwealth Higher
Education Management Service (pp. 12-31). Paris,
France: United Nations Educational, Scientific,
and Cultural Organization.

International Activities for a Nursing Program, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 264-272

Author’s Biography:
Mathew Porter has worked as an assistant professor at Fukuoka Jo Gakuin Nursing University
since 2015. He is co-founder of the Japan Association for Nursing English Teaching ( JANET),
through which he hopes to work with other nursing English teachers to better prepare future
nurses to care for foreign patients.

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271

Porter

Appendix
1. Are you interested in international exchange?
Yes (Go to question 2)
No (Go to question 7)
2. This is a list of programming related to international exchange conducted at other universities. Rank each
item on a scale of 1-4, where 1 is “not interested” and 4 is “interested”.
[Items from Table 3]
3. Next, think about your desire to participate in the programming choices. Rank each item on a scale of 1-4,
where 1 is “I don’t want to participate” and 4 is “I want to participate.” Positive answers do not obligate you
to participate in programs if they are offered in the future.
[Items from Table 3]
4. Are you interested in short-term overseas language study courses?
Yes (Go to question 5)
No (Go to question 6)
5. What do you think are necessary options for a short-term overseas study course? (Multiple response)
Chaperone
Homestay
Going as a group
Going alone
Other (enter a response)
6. Do you have any remarks for the international affairs committee?

7. Please explain why you are not interested in international activities.

272 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Considerations for Using Images in
Teacher Made Materials
Cameron Romney
Doshisha University
romney.cameron@gmail.com
Teacher-writers creating handouts for their classrooms should be concerned with the visualelements of the document (Romney, 2006) including how they use images. This paper proposesa three category, four purpose typology of images in language learning materials. Images can be
decorative, strongly or weakly supportive, or instructional. Decorative images help materials
achieve impact and make materials less intimidating. Supportive images help establish context
and can activate a student’s schema on the topic. Instructional images require the student to use
the image to complete a learning task or activity. This paper also discusses other concerns whenteachers add images to their handouts and includes examples of teacher made handouts using
images.
授業内で使用する配布物を作成する教師は、どのように画像を使用するかを含め、文書のビジュア
ル的要素に注意を払わなければならない (ロムニー, 2006)。この論文では言語習得用教材における類型論において3つのカテゴリーと4つの役割が存在すると提唱する。
それらは、画像は単なる装飾用である場合、教材の趣旨を強力に、
あるいはやや補足している場合、そして説明用の場合である。
この論文ではも教師が配布資料に画像を追加する際のその他の懸念事項についても説明します。画像を使った教師の例が含まれています。

Anything that the learner can see in the classroom,
or in the act of learning, is a visual element (Corder,
1966), but beyond the physical components of theclassroom, or realia imported into the classroom, themost common visual elements are images (Corder,
1966), which include drawings, illustrations, andphotographs (Hill, 2003). Winn (1987) made a
distinction between pictorial representations, i.e.
images, and figural representations such as charts,
graphs and diagrams which, while visual, the primarymeaning is conveyed through the text, albeit textthat has been organized visually. Because figuralrepresentations are primarily text they are notdiscussed here. This paper is primarily concerned withimages as photographs and proposes a new typology of
how images are used in language learning materials to
help teachers understand how to incorporate images
into self-produced materials.
Images have been used to teach language since thevery beginning of language learning (Wright, 1976),
although they may have been largely sketches done by
the teacher on a blackboard (Corder, 1966) and not
the plethora of images found in modern coursebooks.
Images are in fact so ingrained into the language
classroom that most teachers, and indeed learners, takethem for granted (Goldstein, 2008). Furthermore,
today’s students expect visually rich learning materials(Brinton, 2014), overwhelmingly prefer the use ofRomney, C. (2017). Considerations for using images
in teacher made materials. In G. Brooks (Ed.), The 2016
PanSIG Journal (pp. 273-282). Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

visuals in class (Ezzedine, 2011), and often have a lower
opinion of materials that are not visually appealing(Hutchinson & Waters, 1987). This is likely because
students are accustomed to using learning materials
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273

Romneythat make use of images (Lai, 2010). It is therefore
important that teacher-writers consider the use ofimages in any and all materials that they make.

Reasons for Using Images
In general, there are three main reasons to use images
in language learning materials. First, one of the main
benefits of images is that they help language-learningmaterials achieve impact. Tomlinson (1998) defines
impact as, “when the learners’ curiosity, interest
and attention are attracted” (p. 7) and he notes thatmaterials with an attractive presentation, specificallythose that use images, are more impactful. He goeson to say that visually attractive materials with lots ofimages also help the learner feel at ease, and feeling atease is beneficial for learning. Norman (2004), while
not speaking of language learning materials, notesthat attractive things make people feel good, and that
positive emotions are a key component for any kind oflearning to take place.
Secondly, images are a channel for students toactivate their prior knowledge, or schema, on a subject
or topic of a lesson (Brinton, 2014). It is beyond thescope of this paper to discuss the finer points of thecognitive processes of memory, but from the cognitive
perspective learning is seen as connecting prior orexisting knowledge (schemata) with new information
to create new knowledge (Wallace, 2001) and pictures
are an easy way to bring a student’s existing knowledge
to the forefront. While this is most often discussed interms of the teaching of reading, images can also set
the context for which the language will be presented(Wright, 1989), and can focus learning outcomes for
so-called productive skills.
Finally, images provide students with agency, or
choice, meaning that students are able to control how
they do a language learning activity. For example, if
multiple images are presented, they can choose theimage that speaks most to them (Keddie, 2009). But
even when presented with a single image, students
can focus on a particular element or aspect of theactivity that they choose. Even something as simple
as changing the order of steps in an activity or only
doing part of the task can engage a student. Text based
activities often do not allow this type of flexibility

274 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

as instructions are usually presented in a rigid andstructured way. Reading must begin at the beginningof the first sentence of the first paragraph and proceed
in a predictable fashion. With images, students canstart at the top or the bottom or the left or the right.
There are no rules. This kind of choice is seen as a key
component for learner autonomy and motivation forlearning (Dörnyei, 2001).

Ways Images are Used in ELTMaterials
The main concern that researchers have focusedon with regard to images in educational materials,
including ELT materials, has been whether or not theimages have a purpose and serve learning or whether
not they are merely decoration (Hill, 2003; Romney& Bell, 2012; Romney, 2012; Romney & Bell, 2014;
Roohani & Sharifi, 2015; Romney, 2016).
In an attempt to clarify how images function
in educational materials, Levin (1981) proposeda typology for images found in textbooks. His
typology, refined in 1987, proposed five functions
for all kinds of graphics, both pictorial and figural,used in textbooks regardless of subject. His typology
consists of: decorative, representative, organizational,
interpretive, and transformative. While not speakingof language learning materials specifically, his typology
has been applied to ELT coursebooks. Romney (2012)
looked at three general English course books andapplied a modified version of Levin’s (1981) typology
and was able to find example images for each of thefive functions except for transformative, including asignificant number of decorative images, 18%.
Hill (2003) looked at two textbooks published in1998 and, not using Levin’s typology, coded images
as either decorative or useful. In his study, he foundthat 45% of the images were useful and 55% were
decorative. Another binary study using Hill’s (2003)
coding was done by Roohani and Sharifi (2015) andfound that around 8% of images in coursebooks theysurveyed were decorative. It is important to notethat neither Hill (2003) nor Roohani and Sharifi(2015) defined what they meant by useful and did notindicate how they made a determination for assigning

Considerations for Using Images in Teacher Made, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 273-282
a function to images.
Romney and Bell (2012) did a similar study withbusiness English textbooks, again using a binary coding
system similar to Hill (2003), and identified images as
either decorative or instructional. Unlike Hill (2003)
their rationale was that if an image had instructions
to the student and/or teacher it was instructional,
anything else was decorative. Using these categories,
they found that 73% of the graphics in the coursebooks
they investigated were decorative and only 23% were
instructional. They felt, however, that the binary coding
was too simple and it seemed that there was a third
category between decorative and instructional. They
followed up their research in 2014 with a second study
that looked again at the graphics that they previously
identified as decorative and assigned them a role basedon Levin, Anglin, and Carney (1987) typology. In thisstudy they were able to reduce the number of graphics
coded as decorative from 73% to 25%.

A New Typology
In an advertisement for a yet to be published e-book,
Jones (n.d.) proposed three categories for images in
ELT materials: decorative, supporting and central.
As the e-book remains unpublished, it is impossible
to know exactly what she means by each category.
However, based on what Jones’ three-category typology
might be, and the author’s previous work with business
English coursebooks, it is proposed that images in ELT
coursebooks could be classified into three categories
with four roles. Images can be decorative, supportive,
both weak and strong, or instructional.
Each of the three categories in this proposed
typology relates to the reasons for using images aslisted above. Decorative images help learning materials
achieve impact; supportive, both strong and weak, help
activate schema and provide context, and instructional
images provide agency.

Decorative Images
Decorative images are images that do not contributeto language learning in any direct fashion. Clark
and Lyons (2011) note that decorative images areirrelevant to learning goals and outcomes. It iseasy to dismiss these images as unnecessary or even
distracting. However, as noted above, these images
can achieve impact and put the students at ease
(Tomlinson, 1998). Therefore, while not directly
contributing to learning, these types of images mayhelp attract a student’s attention and perhaps motivatethem to participate in learning.
Another possible reason for including decorative
images in ELT coursebooks is to help them pass
the “flick test” (Bell & Gower, 1998, p. 125) or the“30-second evaluation” (Byrd, 2001, p. 422). That
is to say, if a teacher, when flicking through thecoursebooks finds it attractive, they are more likely
to adopt the book for use in class. While this may
not be an ideal situation, a teacher choosing a book
based on a quick impressionistic scan of the contents,
does not seem unrealistic. Decorative images aremost likely to be found on the textbook cover, unit orchapter introductions, as well as headers and footers.
While teacher-writers creating materials for their own
classrooms do not need to be concerned with otherteachers performing the flick test, they should consider
that students are likely to perform a similar 30-second
evaluation of the materials which can influence theirimpressions of the usefulness of the materials.

Instructional Images
Instructional images are images that the students use
to complete a learning task or activity. One of themost common instructional uses of images in language
learning materials is having the students match animage to language. For example matching a list of
vocabulary items to an image of the item. An exampleof this kind of matching exercise can be found in
Empower B1+, Unit 6B (Doff et al., 2015). Anothercommon example includes information gap activities
where the students look at two similar, but slightly
different images, and describe them to each other inorder to identify the differences. An excellent example
of an information gap activity can be found in Unit 16
of Communication Spotlight Starter (Graham-Marr,
Moran, Reynolds, & McNeese, 2009).

Supportive Images
Supportive images are images that supportive theThe 2016 PanSIG Journal

275

Romneylearning, but unlike instructional images, the students
are not directed to use the image when completing atask, activity or exercise. Instead the image supports
the learning by offering context or by providing
another channel for information reception otherthan the text itself. For example, if students wereasked to read an article describing the life and careerof a Hollywood celebrity, a supportive image of thecelebrity may be included along side the text. One of
the main functions of a supportive image is that they
offer a way for the students to activate their existingknowledge on a subject, or schema, that enables themto more deeply understand or communicate on thesubject, or to place the learning task within a cultural,geographic, local, or time context.

Weak vs. Strong Supportive Images
Not all supportive images are they same in the degree
to which they support learning; some are more
supportive than others. For example, in Smart Choice
1, Unit 9 (Wilson, 2007) students are asked to read ashort article about Rome and accompanying the text is
a map showing the location of Rome in Italy, as well as
an image of the Coliseum, the Vatican and the Forum— all discussed in the text. These images strongly
support learning because they provide the studentwith another modality for understanding.
In contrast, weakly supportive images provide
limited clarification, expansion or reiteration of thetext and do not allow students to activate schema ina meaningful way. Business English coursebooks are
littered with common instances. For example, thestudents may have to listen to an audio recording of abusiness meeting and in the textbook is an image of ageneric meeting room with people dressed in businesssuits. While an image like this does provide somecontext to the audio recording, a business meeting, as
opposed to friends chatting over coffee, the meaning thatthe students need to take away from the recording relates
to the content of the conversation, not the location inwhich the conversation is happening. The image provides
more information about the setting than the content
and is therefore weakly supportive. An image more
related to the topic of the conversation would provide
more support and therefore be strongly supportive. For

276 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

example, in Business Venture 2, (Barnard & Cady, 2009)
the students are asked to listen to a business meeting
whose purpose is to discuss the relative merits of three
types of cars. Instead of an image of a business meeting,images of the three cars being discussed are included andare therefore strong supportive images.

Suggestions for Teacher-writers
When creating materials for their classrooms, whether
they are supplements or core materials, teacher-writers
should be aware of the visual elements of the document
they are producing (Romney, 2006) and should takegreat care when choosing images. The best and mostuseful images are those that are instructive. Thesetypes of images are those that the student must use toaccomplish the language learning task or activity. It isbeyond the scope of this paper to list, let alone discuss
all of the possible instructional ways that images canbe used in language learning, (see Keddie (2009) andGoldstein (2008) for up-to-date lists of ideas), but a
few comments can be made.
Corder (1966) notes that there is a difference
between talking about images and talking with images.
Talking about images, that is to say describing theircontents, is by far the most common use of images
in ELT materials (Romney, 2016). Talking withimages on the other hand, uses images to stimulate
conversation and/or to focus a discussion on a topic.
This might include activities such as having thestudents look at an image and discuss their personal
experience with the topic (Keddie, 2009), theirknowledge of the topic (Goldstein, 2008), and/or
their emotional reaction to the image (Wright, 1989).
If a teacher-writer wishes to include an image, butdoes not have a specific task or activity in mind forit, then it is best to use a strong supportive image. An
image that helps the students remember or connect
what they already know about the topic of the activity,
or an image that helps communicate ideas or abstract
information can be beneficial. Images that specifically
represent the topic, for example images of common
traditional Japanese cooking, might stimulate ideas
and serve to help the students talk about their favorite
home cooked meal.
However, teacher-writers should take care with

Considerations for Using Images in Teacher Made, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 273-282
weakly supportive and decorative images because
using too many images can be a distraction (Peek,
1987; Misanchuck, 1992) and can overload a student’s
cognitive processes (Clarke & Lyons, 2011).

Example Teacher-writer Handouts
with Images
The following examples are of supplementary
handouts made to accompany the textbooks inthe English Firsthand series (Helgesen, Brown, &Wiltshier, 2010a, 2010b, 2010c) and are shown todemonstrate how images can be used to enhanceteacher made materials. Please see Romney (2015) fora description of pedagogical considerations behindcreating these handouts.

Instructional
Figure 1 shows a supplementary handout used toaccompany Unit 2 of English Firsthand Success(Helgesen et al., 2010b). The unit is on clothing andfashion and in this handout students are asked tolook at eight different photographs of London street

Figure 1. Handout using instructional images. Photographs by Juanjo Zanabria Masaveu, 2012, available under
Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0) via flickr.com.

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Romney
fashion and describe the clothing to a partner. The
partner will then identify the image in question andcheck the box indicating that they have understood andthat their partner was successful in communicating.
This is an example of using images for instructional
purposes and provides agency to the students to not
only choose which images to describe, but also allows
them to choose which elements to focus on. They
could focus on only the footwear, or only jackets, etc.

Strong Supportive
Figure 2 shows a supplementary handout created toaccompany Unit 3 of English Firsthand 2 (Helgesen
et al., 2010c). The theme of the unit is on travel andin this handout students are asked to come up withrecommendations of places for tourists to visit inJapan. Along the top of the handout are four imagesof famous tourist locations in Japan and are included
as examples to stimulate the students thinking and

Figure 2. Handout using strongly supportive images. Photographs (left to right): Tokyo Blue Hour byiwillbehomesoon, 2012, (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0); Torii Gates by Neil Duckett, 2009, (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0); Torii at theFushimi Inari Shrine by unertlkm, 2008, (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0); Blue hour at Kenrokuen by arcreyes [-ratamahatta-],
2012, (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) available under Creative Commons via flickr.com.

278 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Considerations for Using Images in Teacher Made, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 273-282
activate their existing knowledge of popular tourist
areas. They are strong supportive images because they
are actual locations that the students could use tocomplete the activity.

Weakly Supportive
Figure 3 shows a supplementary handout createdto accompany Unit 2 of English Firsthand Access(Helgesen et al., 2010a). In the unit students learn andpractice basic actions and for this additional activity
students first read a series of example sentences abouta fictional university student in the United States andthe things she can do. The students then write theirown sentences and tell a partner. The handout includes
a generic photograph of the university student. It
weakly supports the learning as it humanizes theexample sentences, but does not stimulate the student’s
thinking and does not help them come-up with theirown ideas.

Other Considerations
Beyond the primary concern of how the image will

Figure 3. Handout showing a weakly supportive image. Photograph by CollegeDegrees360, 2012, available under
Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0) via flickr.com.

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279

Romney
contribute to learning, there are a few other issues thatteacher-writers need to be aware of. First, where tofind images. It would be impossible to discuss all of thepotential sources of images, as images are easy to findthese days (Keddie, 2008), but teacher-writers should
be aware that Google Image searches are not the only
source. Dedicated image sharing sites like flickr.com
and professional images sources such as iStockphoto.
com are also available.
If the images are to be included into handouts thatare to be printed, the images should be at least 300 dpi(dots per inch), as images with lower dpi do not havesufficient resolution to be clear and easy to discern inanalogue form (Dickerson & Hillis, 2016). Images
that are to be displayed electronically need only have aresolution of 72 dpi, and many images on the Internet
found with Google Images are lower resolution inorder to make them load quicker.
Additionally, most images are copyright. In
general, teacher-writers creating materials for their own
classroom use in Japan are able to use copyright images
under the educational copyright exemption (Romney,2014), but there are three important caveats. First, theteacher-writer must be using the materials at a MEXT
approved, non-profit school. Juku and Eikaiwa
schools do not qualify for the exemption. Secondly,
the image cannot be from existing language learningmaterials. For example, teacher-writers cannot use
scans of images from a picture dictionary, etc. Lastly,
the materials created using the image can only be usedin the teacher-writer’s own classroom and cannot be
distributed in any way. This includes writing materials
for publication, including internal publication
within their department or school, sharing themwith colleagues, and posting them on the internet,
for example on an ELT materials sharing website
such as eslprintables.com. Finally, while not strictly
related to copyright, images need to be attributed.
Taking someone else’s words or ideas without giving
them credit is plagiarism, and taking someone’s image
without giving them credit is the same.

Conclusion
As students these days are comfortable working
and learning in a highly visual world (Lai, 2010),

280 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

and as they expect visually rich materials (Brinton,2014), it is important that teacher-writers do theirbest to incorporate images into their materials. By
understanding the purposes of how images influencelearning, teacher-writers are better able to makedecisions about what kind of images to use, and how
to integrate them in to their materials.

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textbook supplements. In P. Clements, A. Krause,& H. Brown (Eds.), JALT2014 Conference
Proceedings (pp. 425-432). Tokyo, Japan: JALT.
Romney, C. (2016, July 2). The purpose of images in
The 2016 PanSIG Journal281

Romney
ELT textbooks revisited. Paper presented at The
14th Asia TEFL International Conference and11th FEELTA International Conference, Far
Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok, Russia.
Romney, C., & Bell, L. (2012). The role of graphics
in business English textbooks. In K. BradfordWatts, R. Chartrand, & E. Skier (Eds.), The 2011
Pan-SIG Conference Proceedings (pp. 210-219).
Matsumoto, Japan: JALT.
Romney, C., & Bell, L. (2014, August 15). Is a picture
really worth a thousand words? Functions ofimages in business English textbooks. Paper
presented at AILA World Congress 2014,
Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre,
Brisbane, Australia.
Tomlinson, B. (1998). Introduction. In B. Tomlinson(Ed.) Materials development in language teaching.
(pp. 1-24). Cambridge, England: Cambridge
University Press.
unertlkm. (2008). Torii at the Fushimi

Inari Shrine [digital image]. Retrieved
from https://www.flickr.com/photos/
kimtimnashville/2406775417/
Wallace, (2001). Reading. In R. Carter & D. Nunan(Eds.) Teaching English to speakers of otherlanguages. (pp. 21-27). Cambridge, England:
Cambridge University Press.
Wilson, K. (2007). Smart choice 1. New York, NY:
Oxford University Press.
Winn, B. (1987). Charts, graphs, and diagrams in
educational materials. In D. M. Willows & H. A.
Houghton (Eds.), The psychology of illustration,
volume 1: basic research (pp. 152-198). New York,
NY: Springer-Verlag.
Wright, A. (1976). Visual materials for the language
teacher. London, England, Longman Group Ltd.
Wright, A. (1989) Pictures for language learning.
Cambridge, England: Cambridge University
Press.

Author’s Biography:
Cameron Romney has taught ESL/EFL in both the United States and Japan for the last 19
years. He holds an MA in Applied Linguistics from the University of Colorado at Denver
and a graduate certificate in Instructional Design from the University of Wisconsin Stout. His
primary research interest is how the visual elements of language learning materials contribute to,or detract from, learning. In 2017 he was an assistant professor in the Global Communications
Faculty of Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan.

282 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Multisensory Stories: Promoting Engagement,
Motivation, and Generalization
Sharon Sakuda
Kanda University of International Studies
sakuda-s@kanda.kuis.ac.jp
Stories are an important part of human history. People use stories to pass the time, communicate
their emotions, connect with others, or explain events. However, some individuals cannot easily
access the meaning of stories, especially those with profound and multiple learning disabilities(PMLD) and second language learners. Changing storytelling into a multisensory experience byincorporating the five senses gives students a way to understand a story and more effectively learn
vocabulary. This paper describes the important elements of multisensory stories, and provides waysthat educators can incorporate them into the curriculum.
物語は人間の歴史において重要な部分である。人々は物語によって感情を伝え、他人と繋がったり、事象の説明などをおこなう。
しかし、最重度・重複学習障害者、及び第二カ国語学習者などの一部の個人は物語を容易に理解できない。
その場合、物語を五感を取り入れた体験へと変えること
により、学習者は物語を理解し、より効果的に語彙を学ぶことができる。本論文では多感覚物語においての重要な要素について説明し、また教育者がそれをカリキュラムへと取り入れる方法を紹介している。

People love stories. Young and old alike revel in thedevelopment of plots, the anticipation of twists
and turns, and the satisfying denouement of a goodtale. Stories communicate emotions and values, andconnect humans to one another. We tell stories toconvey our happiness, sadness, or frustration witheveryday events. Before writing was invented, oral
stories were how time was spent and how histories
were preserved:
Storytelling is an age-old tradition that has existed
since the dawn of time and in every culture. It ismany things to many people. It is entertainment,
a way of passing on a culture’s history, or a way ofteaching to both the young and old. Storytelling is
Sakuda, S. (2017). Multisensory stories: Promoting
engagement, motivation, and generalization. In
G. Brooks (Ed.), The 2016 PanSIG Journal (pp.
283-288). Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

art. (Lambe, 2002 as cited in Winnett, 2010)
We are exposed to stories through multiple
modalities: television, movies, books, and music,
among others. Whether verbal or visual, simple orcomplex, stories help us to connect to one another,communicate our emotions, and understand the world
around us.
Yet for some, a story can be incomprehensible
because the meaning of the words or pictures is
inaccessible. Individuals with profound and multiple
learning disabilities (PMLD) have difficulty
comprehending language and thus process sounds
more slowly than typically developing individuals.
They do not easily understand visual representationsof language such as pictures as symbols for real objects,
or letters and words for verbal language (Cummings,2015). These circumstances render traditional picture
books and storybooks uninteresting or impractical.
Similarly, students learning an additional language
The 2016 PanSIG Journal283

Sakudamay not have all the tools or strategies needed toaccess the meaning of storybooks. If the vocabulary
or grammar of a story is too difficult, or a story’s plot
or culture is unfamiliar, students may have difficulty
relating to the story or understanding it.
One way to unlock the meaning of a story is
to provide these students with alternative ways tocomprehend the print and audio of a storybook.
Incorporating the five senses (sight, sound, smell,taste, and touch) transforms an ordinary tale into a
multisensory experience. Multisensory stories provide
students with ways to access language beyond sightand sound. They give students a chance to experiencelanguage by encouraging personalization of learned
language and generalization into different situations
outside the classroom. This paper aims to prove theeffectiveness and value of multisensory stories in asecond language classroom, and to provide educatorswith suggestions of how to incorporate multisensory
stories into their own classroom.

Storytelling in the Classroom
In the elementary school classroom, students not only
engage their imagination through storytelling, butalso learn appropriate communication, and acquire
new vocabulary and grammar. New vocabulary or
grammar is learned in context, rather than by rotememorization. Instead of learning words in lexical
sets or through quizzes, students use their creativity
and intellect to follow and understand a story. Theiremotions become invested in the act of learning as
they make sense of the story’s meaning and wait to
discover the ending.
Because stories and storytelling are so valuable tothe development of children, they are often the core of
the curriculum in elementary schools. For example, it iscommon for students to visit the school library where
they are able to relax and enjoy “story time”, sitting
on a carpet surrounding an adult who fascinates with
their voice and the vivid pictures of a book. Learners
are able to practice the art of weaving an engaging talewith their own form of storytelling during “Show andTell” presentation sessions. Structured storytelling
programs encourage language acquisition of the L1,
proving that dedicating time to reading and listening

284 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

to stories is a worthwhile activity to increase students’vocabularies (Speaker, Taylor, & Kamen, 2004).
In Japan, elementary school homeroom teachers
may include English storytime into the curriculum,
possibly asking the Assistant Language Teacher (ALT)
to narrate the story. The goal may be to familiarize
students with the rhythm and pronunciation ofEnglish, and while learners may enjoy the pictures andthe reader’s enthusiasm, the language barrier prevents
them from fully understanding and engaging with thestory.

In Regards to the ALT
According to the Japan Exchange and Teaching ( JET)
programme handbook (2013), in Japan, elementary
school 5th and 6th graders (ages 10-12) are required
to study a foreign language for at least 45 minutes eachweek. The goal of this time is to familiarize students
with foreign languages and cultures. Typically, an
Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) will visit anelementary school to help teach English to 5th and6th grade students, anywhere from once a week, toevery other month. Depending on the location, the
ALT will also teach English lessons to the younger
grades as well. ALTs are encouraged to play games,
incorporate fun activities, and teach categories such asanimals, colors, and body parts (Carter & Rose, n.d.;
JET Programme, 2013).
With the presence of the foreign English teacher
so infrequent, students may come to view the ALT as
something of a celebrity guest. Students sometimes
may not understand why the ALT has come to theirschool and do not know how to respond (Beal &Cook, 2003). The abundance of games in English
lessons could be said to be encouraging the idea that
English is entertainment, something exotic reserved
for special occasions, rather than a language used forcommunication.
It is best for teachers to help students understandthat English, like all languages, is used for expressing
emotions and connecting with others and that they,
too, can use it to convey their personal thoughts orpreferences. Too often, students are asked to race toidentify colors or body parts, or to play a game, simply
to enjoy English, a situation which does not giveMultisensory Stories, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 283-288
students much opportunity to practice using language
in an authentic way. Students need to learn how to
use English to communicate. Through practicing
various ways to articulate their thoughts through amultisensory experience, students are more likely togeneralize what they learn in the language class into
other areas of their lives. In the author’s experience,for example, one student was taught the word “rain”
through a multisensory story, then said “rain” without
prompting when walking outside in the rain during
a fire-drill. Learning through multiple modalities
creates opportunities for learning to not only be fun,but practical and valuable.
Many elementary school teachers in Japan are
not specially trained to teach English. Often, ALTs
are asked to create the lessons and curriculum, evenwith 5th and 6th graders who use the Hi, Friends!
textbook (Beal & Cook, 2003; Carter & Rose, n.d.;
JET Programme, 2013). Team-teaching between
the homeroom teacher and the ALT is also highly
encouraged. Multisensory stories are an ideal activity
to bring into such an environment. ALTs may havemore time to create stories or sensory items, and cantheoretically find books that connect with topics
that students are learning in other classes. In English
classes, ALTs are often already asked to read dialogues,
sentences, or words aloud so that students can hearnative English pronunciation. Therefore, ALTs could
act as the narrators of the story, while the homeroom
teacher helps with the sensory elements. In such
example scenarios, with two teachers cooperating to
execute a sensory story, stimuli can be incorporated
more effectively while students enjoy the storytelling
experience.

Multisensory Stories
Making Storytelling an Experience
Learners have many ways of intaking and processing
information effectively. Educators often take this into
consideration and find creative ways to present newmaterial in a way that appeals to these learning styles.
Many classrooms incorporate sight and sound using
Total Physical Response (TPR), chants, or songs.
Frequently, the sense of touch will be alluded to witha game of “Simon Says” or “Color Touch” wherestudents listen to directions from the teacher, thenattempt to touch the correct body part or color. These
activities, while exciting and fun, arguably neglect theexperience aspect. Students may touch different bodyparts, or different colored objects in the room, but
the experiential feeling slimy sunscreen, a soft scarf, or
cold water transforms learning into a novel experience.
Multisensory stories are unique in that they
incorporate an extra two senses (smelling and taste),
whereas strategies like TPR only include sight, sound,and touch. They were created for individuals with
PMLD, to give learners tools to access the meaning andemotions of a story. Those with PMLD usually have alimited comprehension of language and sometimes
have underdeveloped social skills (Whinnett, 2010).
Unlike traditional picture books, multisensory
ones include something to feel, something thatmakes a sound, or a smell. These elements encourageinteraction with the story and stimulate a response
from learners. Incorporating sensory items also
encourages appropriate social skills, such as turntaking and engaging with peers (Cummings, 2015).

Learning New Vocabulary
Most textbooks introduce new vocabulary in what
are traditionally seen to be logical groupings, such as
lexical sets (e.g. black-white-blue, mother-father-sisterbrother), free associates (e.g. classroom-blackboard) or
opposites (e.g. big-small, tall-short) (Nation, 2002).
A learner will try to memorize “black” while studying“purple”. This strategy can cause confusion, as students
sometimes struggle to connect the spoken word to thecorrect color and then to the written word. Nation(2002) explains that when two words are strongly
related and have similar features, learners have moredifficulty associating each word with its correct
meaning. Little to no context or background gives
students little choice in strategies to make meaningfulconnections, leaving students with rote memorization
as their only tool to learn new vocabulary.
To avoid this confusion, Nation suggests presenting
words in “normal communication situations, not incontrived, language-focused activities” (p. 8). A story
is an ideal communicative activity that presents new
The 2016 PanSIG Journal

285

Sakudavocabulary in such an everyday manner. Students
are thus able to learn new words in context, rather
than simply memorizing. Further, some words in a
textbook vocabulary set occur more frequently incommunication than others. Students frequently learn
the colors together, but “white” is more commonly
used, compared to “orange” (Macalister, 2016;
Nation, 2002). Higher frequency words are “corevocabulary” and “make up about 75-80% of the words
we use everyday” (Parker, 2015). Focusing on higher
frequency words arguably gives students more useful
vocabulary.
Knowing core words such as “I,” “want,” “yes,”or “no” gives students more power and agency
in conveying and understanding messages. Core
vocabulary is used across a range of situations, while
lower-frequency fringe vocabulary is a larger group of
words that are situation-specific. Fringe words, suchas “banana”, “lightning”, “blue”, or “plate”, are used lessoften in conversation, but learning these encourages
engagement and motivation. Multisensory stories
use and emphasize core vocabulary, or the words thatare used most frequently in communication, while
also using some fringe words. It is argued that a mix
of fringe and core vocabulary is needed as learners
acquire language because core vocabulary increases
communication agency while fringe vocabularyincreases personalization of messages (Prentke RomichCompany, 2016). While there is no single definitive
list of core words, various lists have been made(Prentke Romich Company, n.d.; Zangari, 2013), andare valuable tools in helping teachers identify which
vocabulary they should focus on in a story or unit.

Principles of Multisensory Stories
For use with individuals with PMLD, multisensory
stories have a few principles for the format, structure,and stimuli, as well as in the way the story is read.
According to these principles, the book should be
7 pages or less, use a neutral color, have one or two
sentences printed on the page with no word overload
and stimuli should be limited to one per page andbe age appropriate. The storyteller should use an
expressive voice, read sentences exactly, and present
stimuli in the same way each time the story is read

286 The 2016 PanSIG Journal(Whinnett, 2010). These principles encourage active
engagement and provide necessary structure forthose with various learning disabilities. However, fortypically developing students, these principles should
serve as guidelines and less rigidity may be required.

Using Multisensory Stories in the
Language Classroom
Choosing Stories and Materials
Unfortunately, few multisensory stories withcorresponding manipulatives (real world objects ormaterials that learners can manipulate, e.g. sunscreen,a scarf ) are currently available for purchase as acoordinated set. Bag Books (2016) provides stories
and complementary multisensory materials, which
can be useful if schools have the budget for them.
However, a more convenient and less costly alternative
for teachers is to adapt existing material to incorporate
the principles of multisensory stories. Simple
storybooks with pictures can be used, but it is best
if teachers look for books with fewer words on eachpage. Wells (2005) also provides a few multisensory
stories, available as PowerPoint presentations.
One advantage to using storybooks that are
already available is that these can be connected to a
topic that students are learning in a different subject,or to the time of year. If students are learning aboutcloud formations or weather patterns in science, Messy
Morgans Messy Weather (Wells, 2005) is a perfect
story to explore different types of weather vocabulary
in English. In summer when students crave fruit andice cream, The Watermelon Seed (Pizzoli, 2013) isa fun way to explore what happens to a seed that isswallowed. In Japan during marathon season or school
festival preparation, when students are often exhausted
from practices, The Napping House (Wood, 2000) is arelaxing book to calm students.
To incorporate the senses, everyday items arereadily available for students to touch, smell, or taste(if appropriate to the setting). For Sheldon Snail’s
Sunbathing Session (Wells, 2005), items such as
sunscreen, sunglasses, and a bag are usually easily
attainable, if not already laying around in a teacher’shouse. A bottle or cup of lemonade still appeals toMultisensory Stories, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 283-288
student’s sight, touch, and smell, even if school rules
prohibit the drinking of it. With a little imagination
and a short trip to the store, teachers can have an entire
set of sensory items to match a storybook.

Choosing Vocabulary
It is recommended that teachers select a few new
vocabulary words (a mix of core and fringe words) in astory for students to focus on. Teacher who choose touse existing storybooks (not necessarily multisensoryones) can find guidance in core vocabulary lists
online, such as those provided by Zangari (2013).
Educators can use these lists to choose stories andbooks with a higher number of core vocabulary words.
Furthermore, instead of choosing random words fromthe story to focus on, a core vocabulary list will help
teachers to choose words that are used more frequently
and will give students tools for more agency in creating
meaningful communication.

Reading a Multisensory Story
When reading these stories, it is best for the narrator
to read the text as is, so students can associate
the phonetics of English with the letter spellings.
Deviation from the written text might hinder theletter-sound or word-pronunciation association.
Narrators are encouraged to read the story slowly withexpression, so students can become accustomed to
the rhythm and sound of English. An expressive voice
will also help to engage students in the story. Finally,
it is important for narrators to give students time toprocess the sounds and message of each page. This canbe done by moving the picture in a half-circle so each
person can see it, while watching students’ faces tocheck for signs of comprehension or confusion.
For each line or sentence, it is recommended
that teachers emphasize the chosen vocabulary
word. They can show the corresponding item orplay the corresponding audio as they say the word.
After reading the sentence and connecting the new
vocabulary word with the chosen sensory item, it issuggested that teachers allow students to experience
the corresponding manipulative. In a classroom withmany students, this can be done in rounds, where twoor three students have the opportunity to experience

one item, and the next set of students can experience
the following item, rotating through the class so alllearners interact with the story. After reading thestory, teachers can complete comprehension checks
to give students a chance to sense a different item
than one they had experienced before, for example,
asking students, “Do you want to wear the scarf or thesunscreen?”

Conclusion
Multisensory stories are a valuable tool that can beincorporated into every elementary school language
classroom. They are highly motivating, communicative,
and customizable. Educators can choose and matchstories to content that students are currently learning,
and use readily available materials. Students encounter
vocabulary in context, and thus could be said to learn
words that are used more frequently and follow thenatural development of language. Therefore students
become more effective in communicating personal
thoughts or emotions. Multisensory stories build
engagement and motivation, helping students to feelcompetent and powerful. Engagement promotes
generalization of language, thus students can broaden
their use of English to other spheres of their lives anduse it for real communication.

References
Beal, R. & Cook, N. (2003). Things to consider
regarding the ALT. Retrieved fromhttp://www.gifu-net.ed.jp/kyoka/eigo/
CommunicativeEnglish/04-15Things%20to%20
Consider%20Regarding%20the%20ALT1.htm
The Bridge School. (2013, May 2). Core and fringe
vocabulary. Retrieved from https://bridgeschool.
org/transition/strategies_success/core_fringe.
php
Carter, J. & Rose, E. (n.d.). Teaching English
in elementary school. Retrieved fromhttp://kumamotojet.com/documents/
TeachingEnglishinElementarySchool.pdf
Cummings, S. (2015, August 15). Multi-sensory
storytelling: telling a story with emotions notwords [Web log comment]. Retrieved fromThe 2016 PanSIG Journal

287

Sakudahttp://www.cilip.org.uk/blog/multi-sensorystorytelling-telling-story-emotions-not-words
Dodd, B., Holm, A., Crosbie, S., & McIntosh,
B. (2006). A core vocabulary approach for
management of inconsistent speech disorder.
Advances in Speech-Language Pathology, 8(8),220-230.
JET Programme. (2013). English in elementary
school. Retrieved from http://jetprogramme.
org/wp-content/themes/biz-vektor/pdf/
publications/2es.pdf
Macalister, J. (2016). Applying principles in language
teaching: A neglected aspect of course design?
[pdf ]. Retrieved from http://camtesol.org/
Download/2016/2016%20CamTESOL%20
Featured%20session%20( John%20Macalister).
pdf
McCarthy, M. (1999). What constitutes a basic
vocabulary for spoken communication? Studies inEnglish Language and Literature, 1, 233-249.
Multi-sensory bookshop. (2016). Retrieved fromhttp://www.bagbooks.org/bookshop
Nation, P. (2002). Learning vocabulary in lexical sets:
Dangers and guidelines. TESOL Journal, 9(2),6-10.
Parker, R. (2013, May 25). Join together core andfringe vocabulary [Web log comment]. Retrieved
from http://praacticalaac.org/strategy/jointogether-core-fringe-vocabulary/Pizzoli, G. (2013). The watermelon seed. New York,
NY: Disney-Hyperion.
Prentke Romich Company. (n.d.) 100
frequently used core words. Retrieved
from https://aaclanguagelab.com/
files/100highfrequencycorewords2.pdf
Prentke Romich Company. (2016). Core vocabulary.
Retrieved from https://aaclanguagelab.com/
resources/core-vocabulary
Speaker, K., Taylor, D. & Kamen, R. (2004)
Storytelling: Enhancing language acquisition inyoung children. Education. 125(1), 3-14.
Wells, P. (2005). Sensory stories. Retrieved fromhttp://www.portlandcollege.org/curriculum/
resources/
Whinnett, J. (2010). Promoting active engagement[PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://arcuk.
org.uk/scotland/files/2010/11/PAMIS-Storytelling-presentation-pdf.pdf
Wood, A. (2000). The napping house. New York, NY:
Harcourt Children’s Books.
Young, H. & Lambe, L. (2011) Multi-sensory
storytelling: For people with profound andmultiple learning disabilities. PMLD Link.
23(68), 29-31.
Zangari, C. (2013, December 16.) AAC vocabulary
lists. Retrieved from http://praacticalaac.org/
praactical/aac-vocabulary-lists/

Author’s Biography:
Sharon Sakuda is a lecturer of English at Kanda University of International Studies. Her
research interests include heteronormative language, empathy in the classroom, and helping
learners with different needs. She has taught students of all ages in various settings, including
two years as an ALT in Aomori, Japan.

288 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Negotiation of Meaning Through Fantasy Sports
Steven Silsbee
Josai International University
silsbee@jiu.ac.jp
This paper presents survey data from an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) class using an
online fantasy sports league as the primary course component. The goals of the study were to(a) determine students’ perceptions regarding how effective fantasy sports were in facilitatinginteractive negotiation, and (b) which functions of negotiating meaning were most used. In thelast class, students completed a twenty-six item, four-point Likert survey which reflected the goalsof the study. Each response category was assigned a numerical value which allowed for quantified
results to be obtained, thereby showing to what degree students agreed with each item or theirperceived frequency of use. Responses showed that students agreed to a fairly high degree that
fantasy sports facilitated negotiation of meaning. Students also responded that clarification was
the most used function of negotiation of meaning, followed by comprehension and confirmation,
respectively.
この論文は、ESP（＝English for Specific Purposes）
クラスにおいてOnline fantasy Sports
League（＝OFSL）
を利用し、のちに学習者に対し実施したアンケート結果について述べている。
この研究目的は、A）
OFSLを利用した学習がどのように相互交渉に役立ったか、
また、
B）
どの機能が
その意味交渉で最も多く使われたか、について学習者の見解を結論づけることである。最後に行った授業で、研究目的を反映する26の質問からなるリカート法評価を実施した。
これらの質問には、それぞれ4つの回答選択肢を与え、学習者がどの程度同意したかを定量化された数値に置き換え示している。
この結果、学習者から、”OFSLを利用した授業が相互交渉に役立つ”という極めて高い評価が得られ、またそれには”明確化機能”が最も多く使われたと回答された。筆者は、
この研究について、今後も厳密に研究と理解を続けていく必要があると述べている。

Games are ubiquitous in the L2 classroom. As
Yolageldili and Arikan (2011) point out, their use
extends beyond fun and entertainment, allowing
learners to use language in new and exciting ways.
Games provide learners with the chance to negotiate
meaning and become better communicators(Lazaro & Azpilicueta, 2015). Gaudart (1999)
praises simulations and role-playing games aspotent techniques for L2 practice. Technologicaladvancements have made it possible to look at games
in an entirely new light. Teachers can take a productSilsbee, S. (2017). Negotiation of meaning throughfantasy sports. In G. Brooks (Ed.), The 2016 PanSIG
Journal (pp. 289-297). Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

not made for language acquisition and use it forexactly that purpose.
There is almost no literature relating fantasy sports
to language learning, but current technology makes it
possible to implement a fantasy sports program into
the L2 classroom. The purpose of this study was toconnect fantasy sports to the field of L2 learning by
answering the following research questions:
1. Did students perceive the fantasy sports course tobe effective for interactive negotiation?
2. Which functions of negotiating meaning did
students perceive to be most prevalent whenengaged in fantasy sports activities?

The 2016 PanSIG Journal289

Silsbee

Fantasy Sports
Online fantasy sports are simulation/role-playing
games where participants assume the role of manager
of a virtual team based on actual players from a given
sport. Using a fantasy sports website, managers draft
real players to create a team. Teams play in weekly
matchups against other teams within an organizedleague. Team performance is evaluated depending on
the real-game statistics of players in set categories (e.g.
home runs, stolen bases, etc.). Statistics are tracked
and calculated by the website. At the conclusion ofeach weekly matchup, teams are awarded one point foreach category in which their team outperformed theother (wins), as well as one point for each category inwhich the other team performed better (losses). New
matchups are scheduled and the process is repeatedfrom scratch. Wins and losses are accumulated
throughout the season, eventually crowning a league
champion.
There is a growing literature examining thesocialization aspect of fantasy sports. Shipman (2009)
states that fantasy sports cultivate social interaction
due to the direct communication needed to play
the game. He explains that while the Internet has
reduced much of the need for the social interaction
once required before the arrival of computers, online
leagues offer features which can aid face-to-facecommunication.
In their interviews with fantasy sports enthusiasts,
Howie and Campbell (2015) found that among
long-term players, heightened social interaction wasa principal motivational factor for playing the game.
Those findings, supported in multiple studies, showthat social elements do indeed have a strong influenceon the decision to engage in fantasy sports (seeRuihley & Hardin, 2011; Ruihley & Billings, 2013,
Schirato, 2012).

Negotiation of Meaning
Long (1985) stresses that in order to make input
comprehensible, there needs to be some kind ofinteractional modification. In other words, somekind of negotiation of meaning (NoM). It would
therefore make sense for ESL/EFL teachers to create
opportunities for students to negotiate meaning.

290 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

In their study comparing how non-native speakers(NNS) comprehended English directions when
given premodified input or interactionally modified
input, Pica, Young, and Doughty (1987) foundthat comprehension was aided by repetition andconfirmation of the message, and advocated a teachingapproach whereby students are held more accountable
for their understanding of the conveyed message. In
order to promote accountability, they suggest thatteachers should create tasks which facilitate checking
for understanding, confirming what is being said, andasking for clarification.
Even when tasks are designed for NoM, othervariables may decrease the chances of negotiation
occurring. Pica and Doughty (1985) found that whena NNS interacted with another NNS, there were moreinstances of negotiation than when a NNS interactedwith a native speaker (NS). This could be a result of
the NNS assuming that the NS would understandwhat was being said (Rees, 1998) or simply a lack ofconfidence on the part of the NNS.

Methods
ParticipantsParticipants in this study were 26 first-year Japanesemale students at a university in Japan. The students
were enrolled in a fifteen week English for SpecificPurposes course focusing on sports-related content.
The course was limited to students who participated ina sports program at the university. While levels varied,a majority of the students demonstrated low-levelmotivation and language ability. Students met once aweek in a CALL classroom for ninety minutes, withadditional time each week spent meeting in groups
outside of class.

Course Overview
The central element of the course was an online fantasy
baseball league. Using the Yahoo! Fantasy Baseballwebsite (https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/),
students monitored and managed their teams. In thefirst session, the class was divided into eight groups,
with three or four students per group. As a time-saving
measure, the teacher created the league, rules, andNegotiation and Fantasy Sports, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 289-297
categories to be tracked. Each group was given a preregistered Yahoo! Fantasy Baseball account along witha fully drafted fantasy team. Students were then free tomodify their teams as they saw fit.
The first three weeks of classes focused on orienting
students how to navigate and use the website, as well
as how to play fantasy baseball in general. During thistime, students also learned and practiced language
skills related to NoM (Table 1).
The remaining weeks involved students managing
their teams, discussing player performances, andnegotiating with other team managers about possible
trades. In the final class, team managers gave oralpresentations about how they managed their teams
and how their teams performed.

Data Collection and Instruments
Data was gathered using a modified version of
the survey used by Silsbee (2016). A paper-basedquestionnaire translated from English into Japanese
was administered during the last twenty minutes ofthe final class. There were 25 responses from the 26
students taking the course. The survey consisted of 26
items, 10 of which related to negotiation of meaning(Appendix). Items were adapted from the question
types established by Rossett (1982) and Patton(1987).
7 of the 10 items related to NoM asked students
to rate each item based on their level of agreementwith the item. 3 questions asked students to rate thefrequency of their use of specific negotiation functions(clarification, comprehension, and confirmation), as
described in Pica’s (1987) study.
A four-point Likert scale was used to measureitems. Items measuring level of agreement allowed
responses ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly
agree.” Items measuring frequency of use ranged from“never” to “a great deal.”

Data Analysis
Following the analysis technique found in Silsbee(2016), raw response scores were assigned a numericalvalue (Table 2).
The raw score for each response was multiplied by
the value assigned to that response. For example, anitem with 4 “Strongly disagree/Never” responses, 16“Disagree/Rarely” responses, 3 “Agree/A moderateamount” responses, and 2 “Strongly agree/A greatdeal” responses, would have an adjusted score of
53 (4x1+16x2+3x3+2x4). Once the scores were
adjusted, a scale was put into place to measure degreeof agreement and frequency of use (Table 3).

Table 1
Language Skills for Negotiating Meaning
Clarification

Comprehension

Confirmation

Moves by which one speaker seeks
assistance in understanding theother speaker’s preceding utterance

Moves by which one speakerattempts to determine whether
the other speaker has understoodMoves by which one speakerseeks confirmation of the other’s
preceding utterance throughthrough questions

a preceding message.

repetition, with rising intonation,of what was perceived to be all orpart of the preceding utterance.

Ex:“Could you repeat that?”“Excuse me?”“What did you say?”“What do you mean?”“I don’t understand.”Ex:“…right?”“…okay?”“Do you understand?”Ex:
A: My pitcher can’t play today.
B: He can’t play?

From T. Pica (1987). “Second-language acquisition, social interaction, and the classroom.” Applied Linguistics, 8, 3-21.

The 2016 PanSIG Journal291

Silsbee
Table 2
Numerical Values for Response Choices
Response

Discussion
Value

Strongly disagree/Never

1

Disagree/Rarely

2

Agree/A moderate amount

3

Strongly agree/A great deal

4

Table 3
Scale for Adjusted Scores
Score

Degree of agreement/frequency of use

80 or higher

High

70-79

Moderately high60-69

Moderate

50-59

Moderately low

Below 50

Low

Results
Results for items measuring degree of agreement(Table 4) were fairly consistent, showing moderately
high to high agreement for all but one item. Items 8,
11, and 14 all scored a high degree of agreement withscores of 81, 90, and 87, respectively. Items 2, 3, and
10 scored moderately high in agreement, with scoresof 74, 74, and 78, respectively. Item 5 scored 49,
representing a low degree of agreement.
For the items measuring frequency of use of
specific negotiation functions (Table 5), Item 24,
which asked how often students felt they negotiatedto clarify meaning, scored 94. This was highest among
the negotiation items, indicating that the class by
and large felt they used clarification language a great
deal throughout the course. Item 25, with a scoreof 58, showed that use of negotiation for checking
comprehension was moderately low. Item 26, which
received the lowest score for the negotiation items(48), signified low use of negotiation for the purposeof confirmation.

292 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Trends and patterns emerged from the results, which
help to address the two research questions. Whatfollows is a reconstruction of the survey items andhow they relate to the research questions.
Research question 1: Did students perceive thefantasy sports course to be effective for interactive
negotiation?
When talking with other students about the game,students strongly felt they asked many questions toachieve an understanding of what was being said (Item11). Similar feelings were reported when asked if otherstudents engaged in the same manner (Item 14). These
questions mirror each other, with Item 11 addressing
the role of listener and Item 14 as speaker. The factthat these two items scored similarly makes sense andstrengthens their response reliability. If students felt
they were asking a lot of questions, then it seems logicalthat they would be hearing a lot of questions as well.
The same argument can be made for the items asking
about comprehension checks (Items 2 and 10). Here,students agreed to a moderately high degree that they
checked to make sure the listener understood theirmessage. They also felt other students reciprocatedthis behavior.
Early in the course, students had many
opportunities to practice language and skills which
would help them to negotiate meaning. This might
be the reason why students strongly agreed to Item 8.
Although students responded that they had learned
the phrases and skills, it does not necessarily mean
they were capable of using them. Direct teaching ofNoM, as pointed out by Sato (2005), might raiseawareness, but does not guarantee that students will
engage in such interaction. This could explain why
students scored moderately high in agreement rather
than high when asked if they can use English betternow to help them understand what someone is saying(Item 3). The students may have felt they “learned” thelanguage and skills for negotiated interaction, but stilllack the confidence to use them.
Bower and Kawaguchi (2011) found that students
are more likely to negotiate meaning in order solve
communication problems than they are to correct
mistakes. Factors such as not catching the error, aNegotiation and Fantasy Sports, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 289-297
Table 4
Results for Items Measuring Degree of Agreement
M

SD

Adjusted
Score11) When playing fantasy baseball, I had to ask other 3.60
students many questions to understand what they were

.81

90

4%

8%

12%

76%

14) There were many instances where the person I was 3.48
talking to had to ask me questions because he could
not understand what I was saying

.77

87

4%

4%

32%

60%

8) I learned English phrases and skills that help me tounderstand someone if I am having problems.

3.24

.72

81

0%

16%

44%

40%

10) When playing fantasy baseball, I often checked
to make sure the other person understood what I was

3.00

.91

78

8%

16%

44%

32%

2.96

.97

74

12%

12%

44%

32%

3) I can use English better now to help me understand 2.96

.73

74

0%

28%

48%

24%

.73

49

28%

48%

24%

0%

M

SD

Adjusted
Score

1

2

3

4

24) How often did you use these phrases:“What did you say?”“Could you repeat that?”“Excuse me?”“What do you mean?”“I don’t understand.”

3.76

.52

94

0%

4%

16%

80%

25) How often did you check to see if the person you
were talking to understood what you were saying?

2.32

.80

58

12%

52%

28%

8%

26) How often did you repeat what someone had said
to check if your understanding was correct?

1.92

.81

48

36%

36%

28%

0%

Item

1

2

3

4

saying.

saying.
2) When playing fantasy baseball, the person I was
talking to would check to make sure I knew what hewas saying.

what someone is saying.
5) I used the phrases I learned in class if I thought
another student had made an English mistake.

1.96

Table 5Results for Items Measuring Frequency of Use
Item

The 2016 PanSIG Journal293

Silsbeereluctance to correct another student, or as Kotter(2003) suggests, not wanting to appear too proficient,may have affected student performance when it cametime to correct errors, thus resulting in a low degree ofagreement to Item 5.
With the exception of Item 5, all items in thisgroup scored either moderately high or high inagreement. This falls in line with Porter’s (1986)
findings that interactive negotiation is high between
NNS because the lower quality of input requires morenegotiation.
Research question 2: Which functions ofnegotiating meaning did students perceive to be mostprevalent when engaged in fantasy sports activities?
It is not surprising that the frequency of use forclarification items (Item 24) was reported as high.
Clarification language, or “classroom English,” isfrequently taught to students. Such phrases can befound in the back of most textbooks, and they are
fairly simple to remember and use.
Negotiating for comprehension (Item 25) was
reported as being moderately low. Although thelanguage forms themselves are easy, using them mightprove a bit more difficult for the low-level learners inthis study.
Confirmation use (Item 26) was reported as low.
As mentioned earlier, most interactive negotiation by
NNS focuses on communication difficulties rather
than error correction. However, like comprehension,even when error correction is not the reason for using
confirmation skills, the complex nature of their use
may be above the skill level of the students.

Conclusion
Fantasy sports both need and promote social
interaction. Although not designed for L2 learning,
current technology allows for their implementation
into the L2 classroom. The inherent nature of thegame allows for interactive negotiation. The data fromthis study shows that students agreed to a fairly highdegree that a fantasy sports league can be an effective
technique for interactive negotiation. Further datashows that students believed that NoM was mostoften achieved by means of clarification, followedby comprehension and confirmation functions,

294 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

respectively.

Limitations
Since Likert Scale data offers only absolute response
choices, the true feelings of students, which fall within
a much wider spectrum are not truly represented.
Additionally, student responses may be influenced
by how students think the teacher wants them torespond. Finally, there is the possibility that responses
were inaccurate due to the respondents’ inflated
perceptions of self-efficacy.

Future Considerations
This study was solely meant to collect and analyze
students’ perceptions regarding their use of NoM
within a fantasy sports course. Further study could
analyze the tasks students were asked to do andevaluate them in terms of existing literature. Focusing
on how students improved in their ability to negotiate
meaning is another area that deserves attention.

References
Bower, J., & Kawaguchi, S. (2011). Negotiation of
meaning and corrective feedback in Japanese/
English eTandem. Language Learning &Technology, 15(1), 41-71.
Gaudart, H. (1999). Games as teaching tools forteaching English to speakers of other languages.
Simulation & Gaming, 30(3), 283-291.
Howie, L., & Campbell, P. (2015). Fantasy sportssocialization and gender relations. Journal of Sport& Social Issues, 39(1), 61-77.
Kotter, M. (2003). Negotiation of meaning andcodeswitching in online tandems. Language
Learning & Technology, 7(2), 145-172.
Lazaro, A., & Azpilicueta, R. (2015). Investigating
negotiation of meaning in EFL children with very
low levels of proficiency. International Journal of
English Studies, 15(1), 1-21.
Long, M. (1985). Input and second language
acquisition theory. In S. Gass, & C. Madden(Eds.), Input in second language acquisition (pp.
377-393). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
Patton, M. Q. (1987). How to use qualitative methods

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in evaluation. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Pica, T. (1987). Second-language acquisition,social interaction, and the classroom. Applied
linguistics,Â 8(1), 3-21.
Pica, T., & Doughty, C. (1985). Input and interactionin the communicative language classroom:
A comparison of teacher-fronted and group
activities. In S. Gass, & C. Madden (Eds.), Input
in second language acquisition (pp. 115-132).
Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
Pica, T., Young, R., & Doughty, C. (1987). The
impact of interaction on comprehension. Tesol
Quarterly,Â 21(4), 737-758.
Porter, P. A. (1986). How learners talk to eachother: Input and interaction in task-centereddiscussions.Â In R. Day (Ed.), Talking to learn:
Conversation in second language acquisition (200222). New York, NY: Newbury House.
Rees, D. (1998). The Negotiation of Meaning in EFL
Learning in the Language Laboratory. ASP la
Revue du Geras, (19)22, 283-310.
Rossett, A. (1982). A typology for generating needs
assessments. Journal of Instructional Development,
6(1), 28-33.
Ruihley, B. J., & Billings, A. C. (2013). Infiltrating
the boys’ club: Motivations for women’s fantasy

sport participation.Â International Review for theSociology of Sport, 48(4), 435-452.
Ruihley, B. J., & Hardin, R. L. (2011). Message boards
and the fantasy sport experience. International
Journal of Sport Communication, 4(2), 233-252.
Sato, K. (2005, October). Teaching and Learning
Communication Strategies: From a Sociocultural
Perspective. Paper presented at the Second
Language Research Forum at Colombia University,
New York, NY. Retrieved from http://www3.
nufs.ac.jp/\~yoshi/paper/SLRF%2005%20.doc.
Schirato, T. (2012). Fantasy sport and media
interactivity. Sport in Society, 15(1), 78-87.
Shipman, F. M. (2009, April). Blending the real andvirtual in games: the model of fantasy sports. In
Proceedings of the 4th International Conference
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ACM.
Silsbee, S. (2016). EFL students’ perceptions on
the use of online fantasy sports. St. Andrew’s
University Research Institute Bulletin, 42(1), 143166
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learners. Online Submission, 10(1), 219-229.

Author’s Biography:
Steven Silsbee is an assistant professor at Josai International University. His areas of interest
include Computer Assisted Language Learning, comparative cultures, and using role-playing
and simulations as language learning activities.

The 2016 PanSIG Journal295

Silsbee

Appendix
English Version of Student Response Survey

Question1)

I enjoyed playing fantasy sports.

2)

When playing fantasy baseball, the person I was talking to would check tomake sure I knew what he was saying.

3)

I can use English better now to help me understand what someone issaying.

4)

I did not like fantasy baseball because it was too difficult to learn.

5)

I used the phrases I learned in class if I thought another student had madean English mistake.

6)

The teacher helped me if I didn’t understand something about the game.

7)

I think the teacher enjoys fantasy sports.

8)

I learned English phrases and skills that help me to understand someone if
I am having problems.

9)

I felt a fellowship with my co-managers.

10) When playing fantasy baseball, I often checked to make sure the otherperson understood what I was saying.
11) When playing fantasy baseball, I had to ask other students many questions
to understand what they were saying.
12) Fantasy sports gave me many chances to talk to other students.
13) I would like to take another English class which uses fantasy sports.
14) There were many instances where the person I was talking to had to ask
me questions because he could not understand what I was saying.
15) I would like to play a different fantasy sport (e.g. soccer, basketball, etc.).
16) The website was convenient to use for playing the game.
17) It would be too difficult to play a fantasy sport without the Internet.
18) Fantasy sports is a good way to learn English vocabulary19) Given a choice between playing fantasy sports and using a textbook, I
would choose fantasy sports.
20) There were times when I needed to talk to a specific person.
21) The English I used when playing fantasy sports can be used in othersituations.
22) I feel more confident in my ability to play fantasy sports now than when
I started.
23) Playing fantasy sports improved my attitude toward studying English.

296 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Strongly
disagreeDisagree

Agree

Strongly
agree

1

2

3

4

Negotiation and Fantasy Sports, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 289-297

Question

Never

RarelyModerate
amount1

2

3

A greatdeal
424) How often did you use these phrases?:“What did you say?”“Could you repeat that?”“Excuse me?”“What do you mean?”“I don’t understand.”25) How often did you check to see if the person you were talking tounderstood what you were saying?
26) How often did you repeat what someone had said to check if yourunderstanding was correct?

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

297

Measuring 1st and 2nd Year Student HighFrequency Word Knowledge
Raymond Stubbe

Kousuke Nakashima

Kyushu Sangyo University
raymondstubbe@gmail.com

National Institute of Technology, Ariake College
nakacy8587@hotmail.com

First and 2nd-year low and high proficiency university students (n=199) were given an English-toJapanese translation test of 20 loanwords and 20 non-loanwords. Items were randomly selectedfrom each of the university’s 1st and 2nd-year second semester compulsory vocabulary lists; for a
total of 80 tested items. All 40 of the tested words in the 1st-year second semester wordlist arefrom the 1K level of the JACET8000 word frequency list; all 40 of the tested words in the 2ndyear second semester wordlist are from the 2K level of the JACET8000. In addition to testing thewords studied during the school year 2015 to 2016, the second year students were tested on thewords studied in their first year. First-year students’ knowledge of words they would encounterthe following year was also measured. Overall, students were able to provide at least one correcttranslation for 44 of the 80 tested items (55%). First-year students scored higher on the 1st-year
words than the 2nd-year students, and vice versa for the second year words. However, the only
statistically significant difference was between the 1st- and 2nd-year low-proficiency students, andonly on the 2nd-year words.
初級及び上級レベルの英語運用能力を有する大学1・2年生（n=199）
を対象に、英単語の和訳
テストを行った。採り上げた英単語は、対象者の大学において必須語彙リストから無作為に抽出した。1年生と2年生のリストから40語ずつ（それぞれ借入語と非借入語を20語ずつ）計80語抽出した。1年生のリストはJACET8000のK1レベル、2年生のリストはK2レベルである。
これらの語彙リ
ストは2015年度版のものである。2年生にとっては、昨年度に学習した語彙を含む。1年生にとっては、来年度に学ぶ語彙を含む。概して、学生たちは80単語中44単語(55%)について少なくとも1つは正しい日本語訳を示した。1年生は、1年次で学ぶ英単語に関しては2年生よりも良い成績を示した。同様に2年生は、2年次で学ぶ英単語について1年生より良い成績を示した。
しかしながら、習
熟度の低い1年生と2年生との間で、2年次の英単語に関してだけは結果に大きな差異があった。

Leading vocabulary researchers agree that meaningrecall L2 to L1 translation tests are an acceptable
method of assessing the most important component ofvocabulary knowledge, the form-meaning connection(Laufer & Goldstein, 2004; Nation, 2001; Nation& Webb, 2011; Schmitt, 2010). Furthermore,translation ability from L2 to L1 has been identified
as a strong indicator of which words students canactually understand while reading (Waring & Takaki,2003). Translation tests are recognized as a valid,reliable method of assessing students’ demonstrable
vocabulary knowledge. Such tests are often used as acriterion measure to check the reliability of Yes-No

Stubbe, R., & Nakashima, K. (2017). Measuring 1st
and 2nd year student high frequency word knowledge.
In G. Brooks (Ed.), The 2016 PanSIG Journal (pp.
298-305). Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

test results. According to Eyckmans (2004) “asking
participants to provide mother-tongue equivalentsof the target language words was the most univocal
way of verifying recognition” (on a prior Yes-No

298 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Measuring Students' High Frequency Word Knowledge, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 298-305
test; Eyckmans, 2004, p. 77). In a series of studies
involving beginner to advanced level students,
Eyckmans (2004) reported translation test (Dutch to
French) means ranging from 46.5% through 59.4%.
Half of the items in these translation tested werelow (3K and 4K) frequency level words. Laufer andGoldstein (2004) reported passive recall (L2 to L1
translation test) means averaging 54.1% for 30 words
each from the 2K, 3K and 5K levels as well as 30 fromthe Academic Wordlist (Coxhead, 2000). Studying
loanwords and non-loanwords across all eight levelsof the JACET8000 ( JACET Basic Word Revision
Committee, 2003) with beginner to intermediatelevel students, Stubbe and Hoke (2014) reported
translation test scores of 28.6%. At least 50% of theitems tested in these studies were low-frequency (3K+ level) words. This study aims to measure beginner to
low-intermediate students’ translation ability of highfrequency, 1K and 2K words English words, at least
half of which the participants had already studied at
this university.
The aim of this study is to measure and comparest
1 -year and 2nd-year university students’ translation
ability of solely high frequency (1K and 2K) words.

Methodology
Participants and Class English Proficiency
LevelsA convenience sampling of eight classes taught by thewriters and other English teachers at this institution
was used in this study. The participants (n = 200)
were all 1st and 2nd- year university students enrolled
in mandatory English classes. In addition to testing
the 40 words studied during the second semester ofthe 2015-16 school year, the second year students (n =91) were tested on 40 words studied in their first year
to measure retention. First-year students’ (n = 109)
knowledge of words they would be encountering intheir 2nd year was also measured. Thus roughly 54%
of students were tested on 40 words that they had
yet to study at this university. One 2nd-year student
had a translation score more than two standard
deviations (SD) below the test mean and so his results
were deleted from the data as an extreme outlier, assuggested in De Veaux, Velleman, and Bock (2008),
leaving 199 participants (109 1st-year students and 90
2nd-year students).
Classes with two levels of English proficiency took
the translation test: low-level classes, where all students
had scores equivalent to TOEIC Bridge scores below
100 on their most recent KSU Listening and Reading
test; and high-level classes, where all students had
scores equivalent to TOEIC Bridge scores above 119
on their most recent KSU Listening and Reading
test. Mid-level classes, with scores between 101 and
119, were not available for testing. In total there were
97 low-level class students and 102 high-level classstudents. Breaking the participants down by year andproficiency level yielded 56 Low - 1st year, 41 Low - 2ndyear, 53 High - 1st year, and 49 High - 2nd year students.

Test Preparation and Coding
An English to Japanese translation (L2 to L1) test of
80 high English frequency items was prepared. Twenty
loanwords (LWs) and 20 non-loanwords (NLWs) wererandomly selected from each of the two compulsory
vocabulary wordlists of Kyushu Sangyo University(KSU). An equal number of LWs and NLWs wereselected because Daulton (2008) reports that about
50% of the most frequent 3000 words in English are
LWs. All English instructors are expected to teach 10
lists of 40 assigned words over 10 weeks each semester,
for a total of 1600 word over the two years. Each week
students are required to enter each of the 40 assigned
words in their vocabulary notebook and teachers are
expected to quiz the students on 15 of these 40 words
in the following class.
For the present study the 40 items selected fromthe 1st-year wordlist were all 1K words, and the 40
items selected from the second year wordlist were all
2K, according to the JACET 8000 frequency levels.
In the translation test each item was presented as anindividual word, without context. For each of the 80
tested items participants were requested to provide
two different meanings in Japanese, if possible. Twoblank lines followed each of the tested items, one
for each meaning, for example: “trust ____________________”. This was done in order to allow
students to demonstrate that they do know a correct
The 2016 PanSIG Journal299

Stubbe & Nakashimameaning for the tested item even when an incorrect
meaning is the first to be recalled, as often happens
with loanwords. Some of the items had only one
meaning, but these were also followed by two blanks,
so as to not alert the participants of the single meaning.
Following the second blank line, the following five
bubbles appear: 0 1 2 J B. Students were instructed
not to mark these bubbles. They were included toallow for coding by the test markers, as follows: 0
represents one answer only which was incorrect; 1
represents one correct translation; 2 represents twocorrect translations; J represents a loanword error
where the Japanese usage is not found in English;
and, B represents both translations are incorrect.
As this study is concerned with measuring student
word knowledge, i.e. determining whether a correcttranslation is known, all 2s (2 correct translations;see Table 1) were tabulated then recoded as 1s (onecorrect translation) prior to analysis. Regrettably, thistranslation test was created too late in the semester topre-test student knowledge of the 80 tested words.

Test forms were subsequently marked manually by oneof the authors. Prior to this marking, 37 of the 199
test form (18.6%) were randomly culled then copied.
These 37 (a randomly selected number between
20 and 40, 10%-20%) copies were also marked bya different KSU English instructor. This was doneto assess the reliability of the ratings by the primarymarker. This percentage is larger than the 10% remark
rate reported in Pellicer‐Sánchez & Schmitt (2012).
Interrater agreement between the two raters wasfound to be high at 94%.

Results
After presenting the raw results, descriptive statistics
for the translation test will be presented, followed
by a comparison of LW and NLW results, as well
as a breakdown of results by 1st-year versus 2nd-year
students. Finally translation test results will be broken
down by student English proficiency level (low versushigh) and student year, item LW status and wordlist
year. Table 1 presents the raw results of the translation
test for the 199 test-takers on the 80 tested words.
In 46.7% of reports student provided one correcttranslation, and in 8.4% two correct translations
were given. Blanks, or no translation provided for theword, accounted for 27.3% of total reports. Loanword
errors (coded J), resulting from usages in Japanese not

Testing and Marking Procedure
The translation test was taken during regular classtime and took students about 15 minutes to complete.
It was a pen and paper test completed individually,
without any aids (textbooks, dictionaries, etc.) Testing
took place during December 2015 to January 2016.
Table 1
Translation Test Raw Results
Code

Reports

Percentages

1

7441

46.7%

2

1333

8.4%

0

2401

15.1%

J

310

1.9%

B

94

0.6%

Blanks

4341

27.3%

Total (199 X 80)

15920

100%

Note: n = 199, k = 80 items; 1 represents one correct translation; 2 represents two correct translations; 0 represents
one answer only which was incorrect; J represents a loanword error where the Japanese usage is not found in English; B
represents both translations are incorrect; and Blank represents no answer given.

300 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Measuring Students' High Frequency Word Knowledge, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 298-305
found in English, accounted for 1.9% of reports. Bothtranslations were found to be incorrect (coded B)
occurred with only 0.6% of reports.
Table 2 presents the descriptive statistics for thetranslation test. For these statistics the single anddouble correct answers were combined (2 re-codedas 1) and all Js, Bs and Blanks were combined with
the incorrect translations (all re-coded to 0). Overall,
students were able to provide at least one correcttranslation for 44 of the total 80 items (55%). With
scores ranging from 8 through 72, the amount ofvariance is high. Consequently, the SD rate of 21%
is considerably higher than the 10.4% rate foundin Eyckman’s study (2004, p. 81). The reliability(Cronbach’s alpha) is also high at 0.96.
Table 3 presents the scores for the 40 loanwords(LWs) versus the 40 non-loanwords (NLWs). As
expected, student knowledge of LWs was better than
NLWs with means of 23.5 and 20.6, respectively. A
t-test revealed that the difference was statisticallysignificant (t = 9.95, df = 198, p < .001). An effectsize test found a medium-small effect (d = .33; Cohen,
1988 suggests that an effect size of .2 is small and .5 ismedium).
Table 4 presents the results broken down by

wordlist. The 1st-year wordlist had a mean of 27.1
(67.7% of the 40 items), while the second-year
wordlist had a much smaller mean at 16.92 (42.3%).
Remembering that the 1st-year students (who madeup 54% of the 199 test-takers) had yet to encounterthe second-year wordlist, this drop in mean score isnot surprising. As the difference in means was muchlarger than with the LWs versus NLWs, a t-test wasdeemed unnecessary. The effect size of 1.16 supported
this decision (an effect size of 0.8 was deemed large by
Cohen, 1988).
Table 5 breaks down the results by student year.
The 1st-year students’ mean of 42.8 (of 80) is not
significantly less than the 2nd-year students’ mean of
45.6 (t = 1.14, df = 196, p = .25). An effect size test
found a very small effect (d = .16), confirming that thedifference between the means of the 1st and 2nd-year
students was not statistically significant.
As mentioned above, two proficiency levels ofstudents participated in this study. Table 6 presents
the scores for the 1st-year and 2nd-year low-level
students and high-level students. The tested items
have also been broken down by loanword status, andwordlist (1st or 2nd-year). Perhaps surprisingly, the 1styear NLWs had a higher score than the 1st-year LWs

Table 2
Descriptive Statistics: Translation Test Results (n = 199, k = 80)
Statistic

Translation Test

Percentage

Mean

44.09

55.1%

SD

16.85

21.1%

Low-High

8-72

Reliability.96

Note: SD = standard deviation; reliability = Cronbach’s alpha; the “2” code from Table 1 was recoded as “1” and the codes“J” “B” and “BLANK” were recoded to “0” to allow for this analysis.

Table 3
LW Versus NLW Results
LWs

NLWs

Mean

23.5

20.6

Percentage

58.7%

51.5%

SD

8.1

9.3

Note: k = 40 items per wordlist

The 2016 PanSIG Journal301

Stubbe & Nakashima
Table 4First Year Wordlist Versus 2nd-Year Wordlist Results
1st-Year Wordlist

2nd-Year Wordlist

Mean

27.1

16.9

Percentage

67.7%

42.3%

SD

9.0

8.6

1st-Year Students

2nd-Year Students

Mean

42.8

45.6

Percentage

53.5%

57.0%

SD

16.6

17.4

Note: k = 40 items per wordlist

Table 5First Year Student Versus 2nd-Year Student Results

Note: k = 80 items per wordlist

for both the 1st-year and 2nd-year high-level students.
With all other LW-NLW comparisons the LWs
scored higher. Compared to the high-level 1st-year
students, the high-level 2nd-year students retained theirknowledge of the 1st-year LWs and NLWs reasonably
well. The same can be said for the low-level 2nd-year
retention of the 1st-year LWs, but not for the NLWs.
A one-way ANOVA determined that there weresignificant differences between the means reported
in Table 5 (F (15, 780) = 112.7, p < .001). Post hoc
analysis was conducted using a series of t-tests (seeTable 7) to determine if significant differences existed
between the 1st and 2nd-year low-level students, as well
as for the high-level students, for any of the 8 item
categories listed in Table 5. A Bonferroni adjustment
for these t-tests changed the alpha significancelevel from .05 to .006 (.05 / 8). Only with the lowlevel students and only on the 2nd-year LWs andespecially the 2nd-year NLWs means were the t-test
results statistically significant (p = .004 and .002,
respectively).

Conclusion
This study utilized an L2 to L1 translation test tomeasure student knowledge of high-frequency English
words. Fifty percent of the tested items were from

302 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

the 1K level of the JACET8000, the other 40 werefrom the 2K level. Two groups of university students
participated: low-level English learners and high-level
learners. Each group was comprised of 1st-year and 2ndyear students. Whereas the 1st-years had only studied
50% of the tested items at this university (40 items),
the 2nd-years had studied all 80 items.
Overall students (n = 198) were able to produce
a correct translation for 55% of the tested words.
Perhaps not surprisingly, loanwords were better
known than non-loanwords (m = 23.5 versus 20.6 of
the 40 items). As all test-takers had studied the 1styear wordlist, while only 45% had studied the 2nd-year
list, the former wordlist was much better known thanthe latter (m = 27.1 versus 16.8 of the 40 items each,
respectively).
In a final analysis, each wordlist was broken-down
into loanword and non-loanword scores for the 1st-year
versus the 2nd-year students. As would be expected, the1st-year students out-performed the 2nd-Year students
on the 1st-year wordlist items. However, the differenceswere not significant, which suggests that the 2nd-year
high-level student retained their knowledge of the 1styear LWs and NLWs quite well. The low-level 2nd-year
students also seem to have retained their knowledge ofthe 1st Year NWs, but the same cannot be said of theMeasuring Students' High Frequency Word Knowledge, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 298-305
Table 6
Translation Test Results by Student Level and Year, and Item LW Status and Wordlist Year
Student Level - YearN size1Yr LWs

1Yr NLWs

2Yr LWs

2Yr NLWs

Low - 1st Yr

56

10.9

10.0

5.6

2.8

Low - 2nd Yr

41

10.6

8.9

7.7

4.6

High - 1st Yr

53

16.7

17.4

12.4

10.6

High - 2nd Yr

49

16.2

17.0

13.5

10.8

Note: 1Yr LWs denotes the 20 LWs from the 1st-yearr wordlist, 2 Yr NLWs denotes the 20 NLWs from the 2nd-year wordlist.

Table 7t-tests of the Differences Between 1st-Year Student and 2nd-Year Student Results by Proficiency Level and Item Category
Student Level - Item
Category

Difference Between the 1st and2nd-Year Student Meanst-statistics

Significanced

Low - 1LW

0.3

t = 0.47, df = 85, p = .64

NS

.10

Low - 1NLW

1.1

t = 1.04, df = 76, p = .30

NS

.21

Low - 2LW

2.1

t = 2.96, df = 71, p = .004

SIG

.63

Low - 2NLW

1.8

t = 3.27, df = 73, p = .002

SIG

.71

High - 1LW

0.5

t = 1.14, df = 99, p = .26

NS

.21

High - 1NLW

0.4

t = 0.67, df = 93, p = .51

NS

.16

High - 2LW

1.1

t = 2.02, df = 99, p = .05

NS

.41

High - 2NLW

0.2

t = 0.38, df = 89, p = .74

NS

.07

Note: 1LW denotes 1st-year wordlist LWs, 2NLW denotes 2nd-year wordlist NLWs; NS denotes not significant, SIG denotes
statistical significant; d denotes Cohen’s d; a 2 sample t-test, assuming unequal variance, was used for each test; significancealpha was set at .006 following a Bonferroni adjustment (.05 / 8).

1st-year NLWs.
Contrary to expectations, the 1st-year NLWs were
better known than the 1st-year LWs by both years’ highlevel students, but not the low-level students. As forthe 2nd-year wordlist, the 2nd-year high-level students
scored only slightly (and not significantly) better
than the high-level 1st-year students who had yet to
study the 2nd-year wordlist at this university. This may
suggest that the 2nd-year high-level students require
greater motivation concerning their vocabularyacquisition. Also contrary to expectations, the only
significant improvement was with the low-level 2ndyear students who scored considerably higher on the
2nd-year LWs and especially the 2nd-year NLWs thantheir 1st-year counterparts. However, as the 1st-years
scored only 5.6 and 2.8 out of 20 for the 2nd-year LWs
and NLWs, respectively (Table 5), significant gains
on these low scores might be expected. The 2nd-year
student scores of 7.7 and 4.6 out of 20 for these LWs
and NLWs, though better than the 1st-year student
scores, are not impressive.

Limitations and Future Research
As mentioned, the translation test for this study
was created too late to allow for a pre-test before
commencing the vocabulary programs, so actual
learning could not be measured. Future researchshould include a translation pre-test of the tested items,
The 2016 PanSIG Journal

303

Stubbe & Nakashimataken before the first week of vocabulary instruction,
to allow for measurement of the gains made by boththese groups of students. Future research should also
investigate ways of better motivating 2nd-year English
classes to learn the 2nd-year wordlist.

References
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the
behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum.
Coxhead, A. (2000). A new academic word list.
TESOL Quarterly, 34, 213-238.
Daulton, F. (2008). Japan’s built in lexicon of Englishbased loanwords. Clevedon, OH: Multilingual
Matters.
De Veaux, R., Velleman, P., & Bock, D. (2008).
Stats: Data and models. Essex, England: Pearson
Education Ltd.
Eyckmans, J. (2004). Measuring receptive vocabulary
size. Utrecht, Holland: LOT (Landelijke
Onderzoekschool Taalwetenschap).
JACET Basic Word Revision Committee. (2003).
JACET list of 8000 basic words. Tokyo, Japan:

Japan Association of College English Teachers.
Laufer, B., & Goldstein, Z. (2004). Testing vocabularyknowledge: Size, strength, and computer
adaptiveness. Language Learning, 54(3), 339-436.
10.1111/j.0023-8333.2004.00260.x
Nation, I.S.P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in anotherlanguage. Cambridge, England: CUP
Nation, I.S.P., & Webb, S. (2011). Researching andanalyzing vocabulary. Boston, MA: Heinle.
Pellicer‐Sánchez, A., & Schmitt, N. (2012). Scoring
Yes-No vocabulary tests: Reaction time vs.
nonword approaches. Language Testing, 29(4),489-509.
Schmitt, N. (2010). Researching vocabulary.
Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan.
Stubbe, R. & Hoke, S. (2014). Comparing Yes/No
test correction formula predictions of passive
recall test results. The 2013 Pan-SIG Conference
Proceedings, 72-78.
Waring, R., & Takaki, M. (2003). At what rate dolearners learn and retain new vocabulary fromreading a graded reader? Reading in a Foreign
Language, 15(2), 130-163.

Authors’ Biographies:
Raymond Stubbe holds an M.A. in Applied Linguistics and TESOL from the University ofLeicester, England; and a B.Ed. from the University of Victoria, Canada. He is presently a fulltime at Nagasaki University but was a full-time lecturer at Kyushu Sangyo University during
this study. His research interests include vocabulary acquisition and testing

Kousuke Nakashima holds a Ph.D. in Language and Culture Studies from Kyoto Universityof Foreign Studies (2014). He has work for Kyushu Sangyo University as a full-time lecturer.
Presently he is an assistant professor at National Institute of Technology, Ariake College.

304 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Measuring Students' High Frequency Word Knowledge, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 298-305

Appendix
Tested items and wordlists
Item

Wordlist

Item

Wordlist

Item

Wordlist

Item

Wordlist

ball

1LW

afraid

1NLW

chief

2LW

afford2NLW

contact

1LW

as

1NLW

credit2LW

belong

2NLW

cost

1LW

because

1NLW

defense

2LW

blow

2NLW

energy

1LW

begin

1NLW

department

2LW

east

2NLW

finish

1LW

build

1NLW

desk

2LW

fund

2NLW

letter

1LW

by

1NLW

direct2LW

further

2NLW

major

1LW

deep

1NLW

duty

2LW

hang

2NLW

mistake

1LW

heat

1NLW

extra

2LW

hide

2NLW

national

1LW

keep

1NLW

fresh

2LW

knee

2NLW

phone

1LW

know

1NLW

income2LW

length

2NLW

pound

1LW

meal

1NLW

mail

2LW

lovely2NLW

private

1LW

nearly1NLW

marriage

2LW

mostly2NLWquality

1LW

often

1NLW

medical

2LW

none

2NLW

round

1LW

once

1NLW

partner

2LW

pour

2NLW

series

1LW

or

1NLW

physical

2LW

row

2NLW

station

1LW

teach

1NLW

score

2LW

salt

2NLW

study

1LW

to

1NLW

section

2LW

settle2NLW

subject

1LW

true

1NLW

security

2LW

shoe

2NLW

take

1LW

well

1NLW

sugar

2LW

smoke

2NLW

training

1LW

with

1NLW

text

2LW

unless2NLW

Note: 1LW denotes 1st year loanword; 1NLW denotes 1st year non-loanword; 2LW denotes 2nd year loanword; 2N+W
denotes 2nd year non-loanword

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

305

Foreign Language Output and Tasks in Synchronous
Computer-Mediated-Communication
Nami Takase
Shizuoka University of Art and Culturen-taka@suac.ac.jp
This issue of whether or not the language used in synchronous computer-mediated communication
resembles that of spoken language has been a subject of debate, and study results have differing
variables, such as task types, which have not been considered in results comparisons. The present
study compared the language outcome of three different cognitive tasks: interview, narration, anddecision-making. The results revealed that the total number of words used was significantly higher
in chat room than in face-to-face tasks. However, there were no significant differences in lexical
diversity. With regard to the level of words, more complex words were used in the chat room
narration task compared to other tasks.
SCMC（コンピューターを媒介にした瞬時性のコミュニケーション）
では話し言葉と類似しているかという議論がされてきた。研究結果も様々で、要因としてタスクタイプが考慮されていないことがあげられる。本研究は認知負荷の違う3つのタスク、インタビュー、ナレーション、意思決定(Foster &Skehan,1996)による産出言語の結果を比較する。産出言語量については、対面活動と比較した
場合チャットの方が顕著に多いことが明らかになった。語彙の多様性には差がみられなかったが、語彙のレベルはチャットにおけるナレーションタスクが他のタスクタイプに比べて高いことがわかった。

Computer-mediatedcommunication(CMC),
which involves using computers as the medium ofcommunication, has shown great potential for use
in foreign language-learning classrooms (Salaberry,2000), and there are two different types of CMC:
synchronous computer-mediated communication(SCMC) and asynchronous computer-mediatedcommunication (ASCMC). SCMC takes place inreal time, such as in chat rooms, while ASCMC,
which uses tools such as e-mail, involves time delays.
The present study analyzed the text from threedifferent tasks carried out in SCMC and in face-toface communication, with the aim of identifying thedifferences and similarities between the performanceof second-language (L2) learners in face-to-face andchat room environments by examining the total
number of words produced and their lexical diversity.
The results of previous studies have shown thatinteractions using SCMC, particularly chat room
conversations, resemble face-to-face interactions interms of the standard features of spoken language.
Studies of chat rooms have focused on linguisticcompetence (Blake, 2000; Pellettieri, 2000; Sotillo,
2000; Warschauer, 1996) and patterns in interactions
and discourse markers (Lee, 2002; Smith, 2003).
However, as chat room exchanges are based on thewritten form, written features, such as high accuracy

Takase, N. (2017). Foreign language output and tasks
in synchronous computer-mediated-communication.
In G. Brooks (Ed.), The 2016 PanSIG Journal (pp.
306-313). Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

compared to oral speaking tasks, are also emphasized(Takase, 2015).

306 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Foreign Language Output And Tasks In SCMC, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 306-313

Chat Text as Spoken Language
Chat room exchanges are considered to be similar
to spoken language in terms of total word counts,
frequency of the use of pronouns, and the mechanismsof output. The word counts are equal to or greaterthan those used in tasks carried out in spoken
language (Beauvois, 1998; Kern, 1995; Warschauer,
1996). Yates (1996) also pointed out that pronouns,
particularly first-person pronouns, and auxiliary verbs
are used as frequently in chat room conversations as
they are in spoken language.
Payne and Whitney (2002) stated that participantsin chat room exchanges follow the same output
mechanisms as they would if they were speaking. The
process of speaking face-to-face involves going throughthe steps of forming a concept and a topic, selecting the
vocabulary, and pronouncing the words. According toPayne and Whitney (2002), the process for chat room
output is similar, except that the thought process used
for pronunciation is omitted. Therefore, the output
process in online exchanges involves one fewer stepthan is required for face-to-face output, which eases
the cognitive load. In chat room discussions, theinherent features of chat rooms support learners toactively participate in the exchanges. Participants
who are shy or afraid of making mistakes when they
speak have an equal opportunity to join in, allowing
them to express their true feelings in a less-threatening
environment (Beauvois, 1998).

Chat Text as Written Language
Although chat resembles oral output in many ways, itremains a written form of communication. Previous
studies have found that the language used in chat text
is lexically and syntactically more complex than thatused in face-to-face oral tasks in a foreign language
classroom among non-native learners (Pellettieri,
2000; Salaberry, 2000; Yates, 1996) - it resembles
written language. Pellettieri (2000) asserted that, as
students can see the output, they are more likely tospot their errors and be more accurate than they are inface-to-face spoken interactions. In addition, learners
will pay more attention not only to the meaning of
the words, but also to the grammar in chat exchanges,
which also promotes accuracy. In a study of acquisition

of Spanish verb endings, Salaberry (2000) observed
greater accuracy in chat texts than in face-to-facecommunication. In Yates (1996) corpus-based study
on CMC, speaking and writing tasks, he found thatchat text was the second highest in type-token ratio
and word densities, after writing tasks.
However, others (Beauvois, 1998; Kelm, 1992;
Kern, 1995) have found that accuracy is likely tosuffer in chat interactions. Kern (1995) observed thatchat exchanges focus on communication, rather thanon form and accuracy. It has been stated that several
variables, such as the differences between CMC,
teaching instructions, and task type (Kern, 1995;
Blake, 2000), affect the result. The present study
focused on one of these variables, task type, and how it
relates to the output of language.

Task Types
Task types play an important role in language
production. Matsumura (2012) defined task activities
as those in which the target language is used in anatural setting to complete the final goal. Learners
can have meaningful exchanges by participating inspecific activities. Blake (2000) studied three different
task types in CMC, namely, jigsaw, information gap,
and decision-making tasks, to identify the relationshipbetween tasks and negotiation of meaning. He foundthat jigsaw tasks resulted in greater attention to thelanguage form and a higher number of negotiationsof meaning than did the other tasks. Blake (2000)
speculated that this was a result of the difference in thetask structure and the amount of information gained
from each task.
Takase (2015) compared the language producedin face-to-face and online exchanges by measuring
and comparing the accuracy achieved in face-to-faceinterviews, narration, and decision-making tasks
with that observed in chat rooms. It was found that
all the tasks undertaken in the chat rooms showed
higher accuracy than those completed via face-to-faceexchanges. In contrast, when comparing the results
obtained from face-to-face interviews, narration, anddecision-making tasks, Foster and Skehan (1996)
observed that the accuracy was not the same in all
three tasks done in face-to-face when complex tasks
The 2016 PanSIG Journal

307

Takasewere used. In face-to-face task activities, a tradeoff
effect occurs between the complexity and the accuracyof the tasks. This leads to a lower accuracy rate fordecision-making tasks, which are considered to havean intense cognitive load. However, Takase (2015)
reported few effects on the accuracy results relating totask type in chat room; even if the cognitive load of
the task increased no significant difference in accuracy
was observed.
It is necessary to further investigate how the output
of face-to-face and chat text exchanges are different
under task types in terms of vocabulary. Analyzing thequantity and quality of the words used in face-to-faceoral tasks and online tasks will help in understanding
how these two modes can be similar to, or different.
Our study aimed to analyze the total number of words
produced and the linguistic diversity in face-to-faceand chat text communication in different task types.
The two main research questions were as follows:
1. Which mode (face-to-face or text chat) produces
more words?
2. Are there differences in linguistic diversity between
face-to-face and chat room tasks?

Methods
Participants
A total of 127 students, all of whom were freshmen
undergraduates and non-native English speakers,
participated in this study. The ratio of males to females
was 1:3, and the range of TOEIC Bridge scores wasfrom 80–146 (TOEIC 200-400). The study was
conducted during English communication classes.

Tasks
All of the tasks were completed during class time at the
beginning of the first semester of the academic year,
and everyone in the class participated. Three tasks,
namely, interview, narration, and decision-making,were carried out using face-to-face communicationand online chat. The participants were paired, andeach pair chose a different task from each mode.
Neither of the tasks had a time limit; participants
were told only to complete the task. In the face-toface activity, the participants were asked to record the

308 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

conversation. In the interview task, the participants
asked their partners why they use the Internet and forwhat purposes, and then they discussed the advantages
and disadvantages of Internet use. In the narrationtask, the pairs carried out an information gap activity,in which the participants were required to complete
a comic strip by listening to their partner and asking
questions about missing pieces of information. Finally,in the decision-making task, the pairs had to decide
what they should do in the case of an emergency; this
scenario was supplied to them by the teacher.

Analysis Used
With the exception of any pairs that experienced
technical problems, all the data were collected andused in the analysis. The face-to-face interactions
were transcribed, and the chat logs were downloaded.
Symbols and emoticons were not counted as words.
Spelling errors in the chat logs were corrected, andany messages that had come from the software weredeleted. Japanese words were labeled “J” and were notcounted as part of the total number of words.
A two-way analysis of variance was used for further
statistical analysis of the total number of words used
and the linguistic diversity between the two modes ofcommunication. The letter “n” refers to the number ofpairs.
The level of vocabulary was examined using the
AntWord profiler program (Anthony, 2014) and theRANGE and FREQUENCY programs (HeatleyHeatley, Nation, & Coxhead,2002). The words usedfrom the text were then compared with the word lists
from the RANGE software, which is based on the
British National Corpus. The word lists were composedof 6 levels, which were created according to frequency
on A General Service List of English Words and The
Academic Word List (as cited in Heatley et al., 2002).
A chi-square test of independence was performed to
examine the relationship between the modes (face-toface and chat) and the level of vocabulary.

Results and Discussion
Total Number of Words
A comparison of the averages of the total number

Foreign Language Output And Tasks In SCMC, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 306-313
of words used within each mode revealed that
all of the chat room tasks produced more words
than were produced in the tasks using face-to-facecommunication (Table 1 and 2). According to theanalysis, there were significant differences between
the chat room tasks and face-to-face tasks (F (1, 92) =46.6093, p=.000).
Research question 1 examined whether there weredifferences in the total number of words produced in
the face-to-face and chat room exchanges. The results
showed that the chat rooms produced more words
than the face-to-face communication in all tasks; thiswas consistent with the results of previous studies(Beauvois, 1998; Kern, 1995; Warschauer, 1996),
which found that learners attempted to substituteparalinguistic cues, such as eye contact and gestures,with vocabulary , which increased the total number ofwords they used.

Linguistic Diversity and Level of
Vocabulary
The moving-average type-token ratio (MATTR)
was adapted to measure linguistic diversity(Table 3).
Covington and McFall (2008) stated that the MATTR
can measure the type-token ratios independently of
the text size, which is important given the fact thatthe chat room tasks were associated with a higher
word count. As Table 4 illustrates, a comparison of theresults of the MATTRs for the face-to-face and chatroom exchanges revealed no differences between thetwo modes.
Level of vocabulary was measured to compare
the complexity of the vocabulary that was used in thetasks. Table 5 shows the percentage of words that wasused in each level. Base level 1 is a list of words that
includes the 1,000 most frequently used words of the
English language. Base level 2 includes the second

Table 1
Total Number of Words
Mode

Task Type

n

Mean

SD

F2F

Interview

1459.8571

25.6691

F2F

Narration

14

44.4286

16.3647

F2F

Decision Making

14

67.142934.1712Chat

Interview

1782.8235

19.5647

Chat

Narration

17

158

79.799Chat

Decision Making

17

134.9412

46.2824

Table 2ANOVA results with Total Number of Words
SourceSS

df

MS

F-ratiop-valueeta2

p.eta2

Mode

106852.4182

1106852.4182

46.60930***0.32770.6164

Task Type18166.5387

29083.2694

5.11350.009**

0.05570.1499Mode
x Task Type31514.1516

215757.0758

8.87060.0004***

0.09670.2342s x Modex Task Type

103027.4398

58

1776.3352

Total

330559.2473

92

3593.0353

Notes. F2F= face-to-face; SS=sum of square; df = degree of freedom; MS= mean square ***p < .001

The 2016 PanSIG Journal309

TakaseTable 3
MATTR(Moving-Average Type-Token Ratio)
Mode

Task Type

n

Mean

SD

F2F

Interview

14

3.2716

1.901

F2F

Narration

14

3.1601

1.8919

F2F

Decision Making

14

3.52892.3517

Chat

Interview

17

2.95811.6637

Chat

Narration

17

3.56242.6054

Chat

Decision Making

17

3.92762.4354

Table 4ANOVA results with MATTR
SourceSS

df

MS

F-ratiop-valueMode

0.608110.6081

0.05170.8218

Task Type5.851522.92572.3638Mode
x Task Type2.60922

1.30461.054

s x Modex Task Type71.788158

1.2377

Total

422.9659

92

4.5975eta2p.eta2ns

0.00140.00180.1031ns

0.01390.07540.3551ns

0.00620.0351

Notes. F2F= face-to-face; SS=sum of square; df = degree of freedom; MS= mean square

Table 5
Word Type % in Base levels
SourceF2FInterview

F2F
Narration

F2F Decision
Making

Chat
Interview

Chat
Narration

Chat Decision
MakingBasewords 1

60.92

64.56

80.51

73.93

62.8

76.28

Basewords 2-16

15.52

12.96

12.28

14.02

22.2

14.41

Words not in the list

23.56

25.32

7.2

12.06

15

9.29

1,000 most frequently used words, etc. All of thewords from base levels 2–16 were added to compare
the result with level 1. The use of proper nouns andfirst-language vocabulary was not included in the anyof the base level lists. The analysis of the distribution of
vocabulary use at different levels, revealed a significant
difference between the narration tasks in the face-toface and chat environments (X2 (1, n = 15)=3.8886, p= 0.04861), as shown in Table 6.

310 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

With respect to research question 2, no significant
differences were found in the MATTR results. This
is not consistent with Yates (1996), who stated thatthe type-token ratio is highest in written language,
followed by CMC, and then spoken language.
The differences between the latter result and theresults of our study derive from the variation in themeasurement scale. Yates (1996) used a type-token
ratio measurement by Chafe and Danielewicz (1987),

Foreign Language Output And Tasks In SCMC, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 306-313
which is affected by the length of the document. In
addition, the tasks in our study were different fromthose in the study conducted by Yates (1996), and this
could also have affected the results.
As Figures 1 and 2 show, the complexity ofvocabulary used in the narration task was higher
than that used in other tasks. This suggests that moredifficult words were chosen in chat narration thanin other tasks. Blake (2000) found that the jigsaw
task attracted greater attention to language form,
and instances of negotiation of meaning were more
numerous than in other tasks. Narration tasks, suchas the one used in the present study, resemble jigsaw
tasks, in which participants must exchange a certain
amount of information in order to complete the task.
The results of the narration tasks in the present study
indicate that that task type was effective in encouraging
participants to challenge themselves to use more
complex vocabulary. In further research, it would beinteresting to examine why the chat room tasks innarration showed increase in the use of complex words
and not in interview and decision-making tasks. The
use of words not on the list, such as native language andproper nouns, may have affected the result. With regard
to the interview tasks, it is easy to assume that theparticipants used proper nouns in their exchanges as
they were discussing their individual experiences of thesummer. In the decision-making tasks, it is likely thatparticipants needed to rely on their first language, as
they were required to provide reasoning, which might
have been challenging. Although it is not clear why it
was possible for the participants to use a higher levelof vocabulary in the narration task in the chat room,chat rooms did not afford an environment for theparticipants to communicate in their native language,as it is obvious if someone is doing so. Moreover,additional time for output allowed the participantssufficient time to choose the optimum vocabulary.
The present study showed that chat-room tasks
produce more words than do face-to-face exchanges.
Since there was no significant difference between thetwo modes in the MATTR, there was no difference inthe variety of words chosen. However, the narration
tasks completed in the chat room used higher levelwords compared with the face-to-face tasks.

Figure 1. Type % on Level 1 Words.

The 2016 PanSIG Journal311

TakaseFigure 2. Type % on Level 2-16 Words.
Table 6
Chi-squared result on type% between Level 1 and Level 2-16 Words
SourceX-squareddfp

F2F Interview, Chat Interview

0.309811

0.5778F2fF Narrarion, Chat Narration

3.8886

1

0.04861

F2F Decision Making, Chat Decision Making

0.694561

0.4046*

Notes. Df=degree of freedom; *p < .01

Conclusions and Future Research
The present study examined the differences in the
total number of words, the linguistic diversity, andthe level of vocabulary to assess whether online tasks
in chat rooms resemble or differ from spoken tasks.
Compared with the face-to-face exchanges, the tasks
carried out in chat rooms produced a greater numberof words. However, there were no differences inlinguistic diversity. A higher level of words was usedin the narration task conducted in the chat room,
according to the word lists. This suggests that tasks inchat rooms could foster greater linguistic output thanface-to-face communication, where learners cannot
rely on gestures or other cues. As exchanges in chatrooms are simultaneous, the variety of vocabularyused in the conversations resembles the features of

312 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

spoken language. In future research, it would be worth
exploring why certain tasks can maintain the level of,or use higher level, words in chat rooms comparedwith in face-to-face tasks.

References
Anthony, L. (2014). AntWordProfiler (Version 1.4.1)[Computer Software]. Tokyo, Japan: Waseda
University. http://www.laurenceanthony.net/
Beauvois, M. H. (1998). Conversations in Slow
Motion: Computer-mediated Communicationin the Foreign Language Classroom. CanadianModern Language Review/ La Revue Canadienne
Des Langues Vivantes, 54(2), 198–217.
Blake, R. (2000). Computer mediatedcommunication: A window on L2 Spanish

Foreign Language Output And Tasks In SCMC, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 306-313
interlanguage. Language Learning & Technology,
4(1), 120–136.
Chafe,W.,&Danielewicz, J.(1987). Properties of
spoken and written language. In Horowitz. R.,&
Samuels, S. Jay (Ed.), Comprehending oral andwritten language (p.83-113). San Diego, CA, US:
Academic Press.
Covington, M., & McFall, J. (2008). The MovingAverage Type-Token Ratio (MATTR). LinguisticSociety of America, 35(8), 16–19.
Foster, P., & Skehan, P. (1996). The Influence ofPlanning and Task Type on Second Language
Performance. Studies in Second Language
Acquisition, 18(03), 299–323.
Heatley, A., Nation, I.S.P. and Coxhead, A. 2002.
RANGE and FREQUENCY programs. http://
www.vuw.ac.nz/lals/staff/Paul_Nation
Kelm, O. R. (1992). The Use of Synchronous
Computer Networks in Second Language
Instruction: A Preliminary Report. Foreign
Language Annals, 25(5), 441–454.
Kern, R. G. (1995a). Restructuring classroom
interaction with networked computers: Effects
on quantity and characteristics of language
production. The Modern Language Journal,
79(4), 457–476.
Kern, R. G. (1995b). Restructuring classroom
interaction with networked computers: Effects
on quantity and characteristics of language
production. The Modern Language Journal,
79(4), 457–476.
Lee, L. (2002). Synchronous online exchanges: a studyof modification devices on non-native discourse.
System, 30(3), 275–288.
Matsumura, M. (2012). Tasuku wo katusyousita
eigojyugyouno dezainn [ Designing English

classroom using tasks]. Tokyo, Japan: Taishukan.
Payne, J. S., & Whitney, P. J. (2002). Developing L2
oral proficiency through synchronous CMC:
Output, working memory, and interlanguage
development. CALICO Journal, 20(1), 7–32.
Pellettieri, J. (2000). 4 Negotiation in cyberspace:
The role of chatting in the development ofgrammatical competence. In M. Warschauer &R. Kern (Eds.), Network-based language teaching:
Concepts and practice (pp. 59–86).Cambridge,
England: Cambridge University Press.
Salaberry, M. R. (2000). L2 morphosyntactic
development in text-based computer-mediatedcommunication. Computer Assisted Language
Learning, 13(1), 5–27.
Smith, B. (2003). The use of communication
strategies in computer-mediated communication.
System, 31(1), 29–53.
Sotillo, S. M. (2000). Discourse Functions andSyntactic Complexity in Synchronous andAsynchronous Communication. Language
Learning & Technology, 4(1), 82–119.
Takase, N. (2015). Online chat katsudou niokeru
gaikokugogakushuu no tasukuto sannshutugenngo
no seikakusa [Tasks in foreign language learningand accuracy of output in online chat activities].
Bulletin of Language Education & Techonology
Chubu Chapter, 26, 53-62.
Warschauer, M. (1996). Comparing Face-To-Face andElectronic Discussion in the Second Language
Classroom. CALICO Journal, 13(2-3).
Yates, S. J. (1996). Oral and written linguistic aspectsof computer conferencing. In S. C. Herring (Ed.),
Pragmatics & beyond new series (Vol. 39, p. 2946). Amsterdam, Netherland: John Benjamins
Publishing Company.

Author’s Biography:
Nami Takase has been teaching English in Japan for more than ten years at junior and seniorhigh schools, universities and companies. Her research interests include CALL and task-basedlearning.

The 2016 PanSIG Journal313

Can the Website and App VocabularySpellingCity.
com Help Japanese University Students’
Motivation and Build Their Vocabulary?
Anthony C. Torbert
Kobe Gakuin University
3tony@ba.kobegakuin.ac.jp
This small study was done over a period of six weeks in the hopes of determining whether the very
popular United States-based VocabularySpellingCity.com website would be helpful for students
in a communication English class. The website is designed to provide students with spelling andvocabulary practice, and instructors can upload their own lists and use the online management
system to track the students participation. After being given a list of 50 words related to the
textbook, one class was given access to the website, and two classes were told to study as theynormally do. The expectation was that the students with website access would be more motivatedto study the vocabulary, as the gamification aspect would enhance their enjoyment. In reality,
although very adept at using Japanese technology and apps, there were a number of challenges andin the end only half of the target group used the website frequently. While scores on the weekly
quizzes did go up over time, in the end it is difficult to say whether the website had any meaningful
effect.
このちょっとした研究は、非常に人気のある、米国ベースのVocabularySpellingCity.comのウェブサイトを使ってコミュニケーション英語クラスの学生のための参考になるかどうかを、 6週間にわたって行われました。
コースブックに関連した50個の単語のリストを与えた後、 1クラスは、
ウェブサ
イトを使って勉強し、２つのクラスは、通常どおりに勉強するように言いました。予期していたことは、ゲーム感覚で勉強するウェブサイトを使って勉強する学生の方が、やる気を起こすだろうということでした。実際には、非常に日本の技術やアプリケーションが浸透しているにもかかわらず、多くの課題があり、最終的には、半分の生徒達だけがウェブサイトを利用して勉強しました。毎週小テストを行い検証しましたが、最終的には、
ウェブサイトを使って勉強する方が良かったかどうかを 言うのは難しいです。

Although English as a Foreign Language (EFL)
teachers are often given the task of teaching‘communication’ classes, all soon realize that it is
impossible to have such communication withouta basic vocabulary. Carter (2001) believes that
Torbert, A. C. (2017). Can the website and app
vocabularyspellingcity.com help Japanese university
students’ motivation and build their vocabulary? In G.
Brooks (Ed.) The 2016 PanSIG Journal (pp. 314-320).
Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

314 The 2016 PanSIG Journal“learning words is seen by many as the main task (andobstacle) in learning another language” (p. 17). He
suggests that for lower level learners it is necessary
to teach vocabulary, and once they reach a certain
level of proficiency they are able to begin to build
their vocabulary through ‘incidental’ contact withwords. He notes there are a number of vocabulary
learning hypotheses, but beginners can benefit fromrote memorization and explicit learning. Carter(2001) declared that “learning words is seen by manyas the main task (and obstacle) in learning anotherHelping Japanese Students’ Build Their Vocabulary, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 314-320
language” (p.47). Other authors also emphasize theimportance of explicit learning and that it produces
better retention than incidental exposure, especiallyfor lower level learners (Crow, 1986; File & Adams,
2010; Kang, 2015; Moskovsky, Jiang, Libert & Fagan,2015).
Going back forty-five years ago, Croll (1971) also
pointed out that “teaching vocabulary is undoubtedly
one of the English teacher’s most difficult tasks” (p.
378). While lessons can be uninteresting for students,
a good vocabulary is critical in order to sufficiently
describe their ideas and feelings. In the 1970s, like
Japan today, rote memorization was the norm andafter the exam definitions were often forgotten. For his
program, he considered it important to teach words
in such a context that the students could relate to themeaning on a personal level. After creating a system
where extra study earned extra points, he discoveredthat the students least in need of the extra credit werethe most likely to do the extra work. Later in the term,
however, other students began to build their own lists
and raised their level of motivation as well (Croll,1971).
This situation still continues, and amongst
Japanese students creating flashcards and memorizing
words is one of the most popular strategies for learning
vocabulary. According to Little and Kobayashi (2014),
even when presented with a number of options, lower
level learners rely on the methods they learned early
on in middle school and preferred to use homemadecards to learn scientific terms. Nation (1998) mentions
spaced repetition is important, and Allum (2014)agrees, but notes that many students may overestimate
their ability and not recycle the words they should
be reviewing. Most Computer Assisted Language
Learning (CALL) systems, especially those that
require a premium paid membership, are designed tokeep tract of successes and failures and will continue torecycle vocabulary for a period of time. Nation (1998)
suggests instructors make students aware of theirsuccesses and teach students how to monitor theirown progress, however a good CALL system can dothis for them. Of course whether a student continues
to use the system itself once the semester is finisheddepends on motivation.

The history of vocabulary teaching is a longone, and Smith (1969) referred to a problem which
continues to vex students today, that of getting
too much framework and not enough content. He
makes the important point that “structure without
a vocabulary is not language”, and there is a need toteach at least basic vocabulary before students can be
expected to go off on their own and enrich it (p. 531).
He notes tests can help to motivate students, but thatstudents prefer correcting their own work (especially iftheir scores are not high). He also suggests using wordcards that are portable and easy to study anywhere(this is long before the smartphones were imaginable).
While he understands the value of extensive reading,he comments that foreign students do not have thedecades to read that native speakers have, and explicit
instruction is one way to enhance the speed of theirlearning.
The importance of vocabulary cannot be
overstated. According to Dickinson, Flushman, andFreiberg (2009), if native English speaking children are
not given sufficient vocabulary support and explicit
teaching at an early stage, there is a good chanceless motivated or at-risk students will be further
disadvantaged later on. Although this is not directly
related to an EFL situation, the parallel is striking.
Today Extensive Reading (ER) is looked uponby many as a way to build vocabulary, but as Dimas(2011) realizes, for lower-level students more explicit
teaching through the use of word lists is necessary. In
his study, students found a word study notebook (lists
with their own definitions written) to be helpful tokeep track of their learning and understand meaning,but they still found it difficult to recall words for use inconversation.
As technology begins to play a bigger part inlanguage teaching, instructor and student competence
become more and more important. Benson (2011)
suggested that those who thrive with CALL are those
who are comfortable with technology and alreadyhave high levels of autonomy. He was critical of thefact that just as students may see learning a language
as a way to boost their marketability in the job market,
online content providers see learners as a way to boost
their bottom lines. Benson notes that the effectivenessThe 2016 PanSIG Journal

315

Torbertof CALL is still generally unproven, and the fact thatmuch of the world does not have access to or cannot
afford premium content means the potential for a
gap between those well-off and those struggling willcontinue. For these reasons it is important to realize
CALL can be a tool that may help some students, yetmake others so uncomfortable that less learning isaccomplished overall.
When it comes to vocabulary, CALL often
takes one of two approaches. The first is to teachspecific vocabulary to learners, and the second takes
a more holistic approach and expects learners tomake vocabulary gains by working with authentic
materials (Levy, 2006). One key issue is to make surethe initial experiences learners have with CALL are
not overwhelming, and that the technical challenges
do not dissuade them. Levy and Stockwell (2006)
recognized that mobile technologies had the potential
for solving scheduling problems regarding computerlabs, however they suspected the smaller screens might
keep use limited. Of course at that time screen size
might have been a concern, however mobile phone
screens have grown substantially since then, not tomention the boom in various size tablets.
Whatever the method of instruction used, an
important key to whether learners succeed is their own
motivation. Robertson (2012) stated that students use
a constructionist view to “make sense of the world
through problem solving and social interaction”(p. 126), and that an important part of building
independent thinking and autonomy was to give
students room to learn on their own and with peers.
Bresnihan (2016) also noted that for students to havea good discussion about a particular topic, it is often
necessary to present them with reading materials that
expose them to new and necessary vocabulary and to
give them time to prepare. Instructors are often trying
to follow a given syllabus, but since every learner has
her/his own pace, it is necessary to build in time toallow those who require it more time to digest what
has been presented. L. Dickinson (1987) notes that
self-instruction and self-access can be a significant
part of learning, as it can reduce “competition” and“inhibition” (p. 27). She says that in the end, the actual
learning must be a done the student on their own, as no316 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

one can learn vocabulary for another. Working the way
one does best is important, and Ellis (1997) suggeststhat learners are usually aware of what strategies workfor them, be it speaking the words aloud, thinking
about the context or writing them down repeatedly.
He notes that “instrumental motivation” is importantfor many language learners, as they see their success as
leading to concrete improvement and opportunities in
the future (p. 75).
While some improvements have been shownfor students using online vocabulary improvement
systems such as the website WordEngine, there remainquestions as to how much is possible. In one study,
students who used the site for one hour made greater
gains then those who only did extensive reading,however there did not seem to be a significant gain
if the students used the WordEngine site for twohours (McLean, Hogg, & Rush, 2013). Although
instructors and developers might be excited by new
tools, it is up to the students to put in the time andfully concentrate on the task, rather than simply click
the buttons. Through using colorful sites with plentyof ‘rewards’ such as badges, sounds and characters may
at first look motivating, Baierschmidt (2013) warns
that some aspects of gamification of language cancause distractions and take away for potential gains inlearning.

Methodology
Teaching Context
This study was conducted across three sections of acommunication English class at a private university inJapan. All the students were native Japanese speakers
and non-English majors, taking a 90-minute classonce a week. The make-up of the class was 33 males
and 20 females, all of whom were either 19 or 20 yearsof age. A few of the students had recently returned
from a three-week study tour to English speaking
countries and were very enthusiastic. Many others
were motivated to improve on their language skills,
but a fifth of the class were still false beginners, having
struggled to write more two or three sentences in a ten
minute freewriting exercise at the beginning of thecourse. These students typically take the class hopingHelping Japanese Students’ Build Their Vocabulary, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 314-320
to get a passing grade that can fulfill their foreign
language requirements, and according to annual
surveys given by the instructor, have no expectation ofusing English once they graduate.
The textbook used in this class takes a multi-skill
approach, but the driving force behind it is interesting
content for discussion. There are plenty of pictureswith opened ended discussion questions, short (50100 words) reading passages, and a supplemental
DVD for viewing.

Procedure
A word list of 50 key vocabulary words, 10 each fromthe upcoming 5 units of the textbook, was createdusing the lists provided in the back of the textbook.
The words were ‘target’ vocabulary, highlighted inbold in the textbook, and students were provided
with an English definition of the each word. This list
was handed out to students in Classes A, B and C on
week one. The instructor went over the pronunciationof each word and students quizzed each other on themeanings for about 10-15 minutes. The class thenproceeded with the unit in the textbook that included
the words in context.
Classes B and C were asked to study the first set often words for a quiz the following week.
Class A was also asked to study for a quiz thefollowing week, but they were also given a password
and a demonstration on how to log into the
VocabularySpellingCity.com website and how to findthe assigned activities. The website was chosen because

the instructor already had purchased a license for 30
students and had sufficient number remaining tocover the entire class. Due to participation levels, theapp group was further split into two groups, app andnon-app (see Discussion). The assignment consisted of
ten teacher-selected activities, which would review the
10 target words’ pronunciation, spelling and meaning
in a variety of ways (cloze, matching, hangman etc.).
Students were told the teacher would be monitoring
their progress.
The quiz itself was a simple ten-item quiz consistingof five randomly chosen words from the units’ list,
which the students were asked to define, and fivedefinitions from the list where the students were asked
to produce the word. The students peer-corrected theerrors once the quiz was done. Allowances were madefor simple spelling mistakes (up to 2 letters), as long as
the word was recognizable as an answer. The instructor
double-checked the scoring to make sure the peers haddone so accurately.
At the end of the course the students were givena brief feedback survey and told they could write ineither Japanese or English.

Results
The scores for the first quiz were quite low, but
increased dramatically the second week (Figure 1).
They tailed off the third and fourth weeks and by thefifth week there were hardly any differences in scores.
For the 30 question final exam (a review of all fivevocabulary lists from quizzes) scores were again quite

Final Test
26.0
25.0
24.0
23.0

Final Test

22.0
21.0
20.0

Class A (non-app Class A (app, n=7)
n=11)Class B (n=18)

Class C (n=17)

Figure 1. Final test results.

The 2016 PanSIG Journal317

Torbert
close, between 22.4 and 25.3 (Figure 2).

Discussion
The initial study had intended to discover whether
having access to a customized word study program
online would improve student test scores. Given that
only half of the students actually accessed the website
more than once, it made sense to split Class A into
two, an “app group” of seven and a “non-app group” ofeleven. The app group did score a total of 30.5 versus
just 28.2 for the non-app group, but given this was outof a possible total of fifty, and given Classes B and C
also scored more (34.9 and 33.0 respectively), it can besaid the app access did not play an appreciable role in
improving their scores.
All the classes were asked to report on the amountof time they spent studying for the quizzes and test.
While a few put ‘zero minutes’ as an answer, theaverage was 17 minutes for the quizzes and 65 minutes
for the test.
Class A was also asked to complete a form asking
those who had used it what their impressions were,
for those who did not, what had dissuaded them.
The students were permitted to write the feedback inJapanese if they desired.
For those using the app, comments were “It helpedme” (four responses) and “It helped me to pronouncewords” (one response) and one person said, “I enjoyed
the personalized study”. One student who used theapp consistently said it was better to write and study

the words on paper and then use the website. Another
who used it each week nonetheless said he preferredwriting down the words on paper. Regarding those
who did not use the app, the most frequent commentwas “It was too troublesome” or “I forgot”. Most of
the content of the website itself is available via both
mobile devices and computers, but the majority of thestudents chose to use their phones, of which 100% of
the class own.

Conclusion
Although the level of vocabulary was high beginnerand generally appropriate for the students, theystruggled to learn the English words and their English
definitions, especially in the beginning (quiz one).
For many students, most of the vocabulary testing
they have in previously demanded they match English
words with Japanese translations. Having quizzes that
required them to match English words with English
definitions was challenging for many at first, but
after some experience they soon improved. This wasreflected both in the weekly tests and the final exam.
Having prior exposure to the vocabulary appeared togive the learners more confidence in the class to use
the words they encountered in the textbook activities,
be it reading aloud or answering questions from theirpeers.
The fact that over half the students were resistantto the website/app showed that they are slow to change
learning styles, even when encouraged/pushed by the

9.0
8.0
7.0
6.0

Class A (non-app=11)

5.0Class A (app, n=7)

4.0
3.0

Class B (n=18)

2.0Class C (n=17)

1.0
0.0
Q1 (M)Q2 (M)

Figure 2. Week by week quiz results.

318 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Q3 (M)

Q4 (M)

Q5 (M)

Helping Japanese Students’ Build Their Vocabulary, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 314-320
teacher. The website itself has an all English interface,
and while this may add to the authentic experience oflearning vocabulary and spelling the same way young
native speakers do, the reality is that such an interface
may have been intimidating and dissuading to thestudents. For example, there were minor technicalchallenges; one student tried to log into the teach page
instead of the student page, and then took two weeks
to report that they had had difficulty. For a small
percentage of the students it seemed the website was
helpful, and one went as far as to access it for the test,
even though that was not part of the assignment.
Given that the students are mostly high beginner,
non-English majors, it is hard to know how a more
motivated and experienced cohort might perform. It
would perhaps be worthwhile for instructors to havestudents create their own vocabulary lists (something
the settings allow) and see whether they progress at afaster rate.
As education technology becomes moreavailable, there are now a host of other sites
besides vocabularyspellingcity.com, and it might
be worthwhile looking into such sites in order todetermine what kind of format works best with a givenclass or set of objectives. Quizlet offers similar features
to vocabularyspellingcity.com, plus designated articles
with accompanying vocabulary work. A similar site ismemrise.com, which allows teachers to create groups
and monitor students. WordEngine is a site that offersa free vocabulary level test, and then a paid program
designed to focus on filling in the gaps in a particular
students’ knowledge. It has a Japanese interface, unlike
quizlet and memrise, which some students may be
more comfortable. One drawback to all such systems
is that many of the most desirable features require an
ongoing subscription, and if students are already being
asked to purchase a textbook for class, the question of
cost may be an issue.

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instruction in an English content-area coursewith university student teachers: Whencomprehensible input needs to be comprehended.
Gist Education and Learning Research Journal, 5,84-103.
Ellis, R. (1997). Second language acquisition. Oxford,
England: Oxford University Press.
File, K. A. & Adams, R. (2010). Should vocabulary
instruction be integrated or isolated? TESOL
Quarterly, 44(2), 222-249.
Kang, E. Y. (2015). Applying L2 vocabulary researchfindings to classroom teaching. Columbia
University Working Papers in TESOL & Applied
The 2016 PanSIG Journal319

Torbert
Linguistics, 15(2), 39-41.
Levy, M. & Stockwell, G. (2006). CALL dimensions:
Options and issues in computer-assisted language
learning. New York, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
Little, A. & Kobayashi, K. (2014). Vocabulary
learning strategies of Japanese life science
students. TESOL Journal, 6(1), 81-111.
McLean, S., Hogg, N., & Rush, T.W. (2013).
Vocabulary learning through an online
computerized flashcard site. The JALTCALL
Journal, 9(1), 79-98.
Moskovsky, C., Jiang, G., Libert, A. & Fagan, S.
(2014). Bottom-up or top-down: English as

a foreign language vocabulary instruction for
Chinese university students. TESOL Quarterly,49(2), 256-277.
Nation, P. (1998). Helping learning take controlof their vocabulary learning. GRETA English
Teachers Association of Andalucia, 6(1), 9-18.
Robertson, M. (2012). The truth of the tale:
Reconceptualizing authority in content-basedteaching. In K. S. Irie, A. (Ed.), Realizing
autonomy: Practice and reflection in language
education contexts (pp. 125-140). Hampshire,
England: Palgrave Macmillan.
Smith, P. (1969). Teaching Vocabulary. The Modern
Language Journal, 53(8), 531-537.

Author’s Biography:
Anthony C. Torbert has been teaching in Japan for over 20 years. He is interested in teaching
global issues and culture. Given the extremely limited exposure his students have to English, hetries give them as much live input in the target language as possible.

320 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Basic Tutor Training Through E-learning
Junko Tsukayama

Meghan Kuckelman

Meio University
j.kasamura@meio-u.ac.jp

Meio University
m.kuckelman@meio-u.ac.jp

An effective tutor training program is essential to developing peer tutors with the knowledge
and skills necessary to provide academic support at university learning centers. Meio University’s
Language Learning Center (LLC) utilizes a tutor training program based on its certification fromthe College Reading and Learning Association (CRLA). One of the challenges of tutor training
at the LLC is that all training is conducted in English in a workshop format. In order to make surethat all tutors retain the training content, the LLC implemented an e-learning review system. This
paper describes the e-learning system and shows that a majority of tutors found it useful to thedevelopment of their tutoring knowledge and skills. It also suggests future improvements to thesystem and notes the importance of flexibility when evaluating written responses.
効果的なチュータートレーニングは、高等教育の学習センターにおける学習支援に必要な知識と技術向上を提供する効果的なトレーニングが不可欠である。名桜大学の言語学習センター
（ＬＬＣ）
は、
ＣＲＬＡ
（Ｃｏ
ｌ
ｌ
ｅｇｅ Ｒｅａｄｉｎｇ ａｎｄ Ｌｅａｒｎｉｎｇ Ａｓｓｏｃｉａｔｉｏｎ）認定免状を基にしたチュー
タートレーニングを実施している。
ＬＬＣのチュータートレーニングはすべてワークショップ形式を英語で行っているため、チューター間のトレーニングの理解度に差が生じている。
これらの差を解消するため、
ＬＬＣ独自の復習用eラーニング教材作成を試みた。本文は、その教材（システム）作成の実
践と試験的に教材を使用したチューター達から実際にワークショップトレーニングの復習に役立ったという結果を得たことの実例を紹介している。同時に、今後のＥ－ラーニング教材活用の改善策と記入式の問題解答作成における柔軟さの重要性を述べている。

The Language Learning Center (LLC) was establishedin 2001 at Meio University in Okinawa to provide
students a space for self-study, homework completion,and tutoring. Each semester, the LLC employs anaverage of 14 student tutors. Typically, about half
to two-thirds of these tutors are full-time Japanese
students, while the others are either full-time
international students or short-term study abroad
students. All, no matter their country of origin, areexpected to have achieved Eiken Grade 2 or equivalentEnglish test scores.

Tsukayama, J., & Kuckelman, M. (2017). Basic tutor
training through e-learning. In G. Brooks (Ed.) The
2016 PanSIG Journal (pp. 321-328). Tokyo, Japan:
JALT.

CRLA Membership and the ITTPC
In 2002, the LLC joined the College Readingand Learning Association (CRLA), an Americanorganization that provides support for professionals
involved in learning support services. As a part of this
support, CRLA provides international certification fortutoring programs. The LLC was the first university
in Japan to receive the International Tutor Training
Program Certification (ITTPC). The ITTPC
requires that tutor training programs meet certain
requirements for training topics, assessment methods,
and number of tutoring hours. In order to meet one
aspect of these training requirements, LLC tutors
meet once a week for a 60-minute training workshop.
Quantifying the tutors’ progress through the training
program has proven difficult, especially as English
language abilities vary from student to student. In
The 2016 PanSIG Journal

321

Tsukayama & Kuckelman
this paper, we present our solution to this problem:an introductory intensive day of training followed byan e-learning review system in conjunction with ournormal weekly training workshops. Our hypothesisis that integrating an e-learning review program intoa workshop-based tutor training program can be aneffective way of ensuring that tutors of various skill
and language levels retain important training content.

Literature Review
Tutoring Centers and Tutor Training
Programs
Since university enrollment has become more universal
in Japan, universities face the issue of supporting
students with varying academic levels and learning
styles. Tutoring centers with peer tutoring systems haverecently become a popular way to provide this support(Ishige, 2014; Tsukayama, 2011; Watanabe, 2014).
The quality of a learning center is determinedby the tutors’ own qualities, such as their tutoringknowledge and skills (Gier, 2003; Ishige, 2014).
However, some tutors might have poor tutoringknowledge and skills from not having had good pastrole models or experiences with tutoring, which mightlead to confusion during actual tutoring situations(Ishige, 2014). So, “a good training session can
simplify the complexity to a manageable level” (May,2003) and also gives tutors more confidence andincreases their problem-solving skills while developing
tutoring knowledge and skills (Ishige, 2014).
Learning support related associations suchas CRLA and the National Association for
Developmental Education (NADE) have createdcertificate systems for tutor training programs in orderto standardize the quality of tutoring and learning
support skills across universities (Watanabe, 2014).
These kinds of centers have been functioning atuniversities for around forty years (CRLA), and now
there are many learning centers with peer tutoring
programs. This kind of program has insured thatmost tutors receive the basic or standardized tutoringknowledge and skills necessary to effectively support
learners (Suzuki, 2011).

322 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

E-Learning
In addition to the challenge of training students withvarying tutoring skill levels, the LLC’s program faces
the added challenge of the students having varying
levels of basic language comprehension skills. One of
the most important ways that institutions, whether atthe university level or a center like the LLC, can deal
with such a student population is through flexibility,
such as by creating multiple assessment measures (deKleine & Lawton, 2015). Since some tutors have adifficult time understanding all the content in theworkshop training sessions, review is necessary inorder for them to master basic knowledge and skills.
Goda and Yamada write that drill type questions arean effective review style for remembering task-basedlearning (Goda, 2012; Reigeluth, 2012), and an
e-learning review after workshop training has beenshown to be an effective retention tool since it uses
a text-based review to drill students on their learned
knowledge and skills.

Content
The LLC’s Tutor Training Program
The LLC’s tutor training has traditionally been
conducted as one hour of a two-hour weekly meeting.
Each week, two to three tutors, including both anexperienced and a new tutor, prepare the content of
the week’s training topic, which has been decided
upon in advance in order to follow the certification
requirements of the ITTPC. All training sessions at
the LLC are conducted in English. The content of a
training session consists of three parts: presentation/lecture about the topic information, discussion, androle play. Assigned trainers must do research and collectdata for the training session using books, journals,
handbooks, websites, or past training materials.
The ITTPC actually requires a certain numberof training topics according to each level. In orderto obtain the Level 1 certification (L1 or Certified),
eight training session topics must be completed. Thenfour more sessions will be added at Level 2 (L2 or
Advanced) and Level 3 (L3 or Master). This makes atotal of 16 training session topics. The topics of eachsession are shown in the chart below.

Basic Tutor Training Through E-Learning, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 321-328

New Intensive Training
Historically, these topics were covered over the courseof a semester, with one and sometimes two topics
covered a week. In the 2nd semester of 2015, however,Topics 1, 3, 4, and 5 were condensed into a day-longintensive training. Many of the ideas for the content ofthese intensive training topics were introduced fromthe book Peer Tutor Training (Tanigawa, 2014). This
new intensive training was held jointly with Meio’s
Mathematical and Science Learning Center (MSLC),
which was established in 2007 following the modelof the LLC. The MSLC’s tutor training program has
been conducted separately from the LLC’s since its
content needed to be in Japanese. However, basic
tutoring knowledge and skills are certainly common to
all the tutors, and so the two centers joined together

for the initial training. Though the LLC’s regulartraining sessions are conducted in English, thisintensive training was conducted in Japanese so as toprovide support for all the centers’ tutors.

Creating a New E-Learning Review
ProgramSince weekly training sessions have been conductedin a workshop format in English and most of thebasic training was now being given in one day as anintensive training, some tutors were having a hard time
understanding and then remembering all the material.
Thus, we decided to create an e-learning tutor training
review system to help tutors review their basic
knowledge at their own pace. A trial was conductedat the LLC and the MSLC from September 2015

Table 1ITTPC Tutor Training Topics
Tutor Training Topics

1. Definition of Tutoring & Tutor Responsibilities (L1)
2. Basic Tutoring Guidelines (L1)
3. Techniques for Successfully Beginning & Ending a Tutoring Session (L1)
4. Assertiveness and/or Difficult Students (L1)
5. Role Modeling (L1)
6. Setting Goals/Planning (L1)
7. Communication Skills (L1)
8. Referral Skills (L1)
9. Use of Probing Questions (L2)
10. Cultural Awareness and Intercultural Communication (L2)
11. Identifying and Using Resources (L2)
12. Tutoring in Specific Skills or Subject Areas (L2)
13. Training and Supervising Other Tutors (L3)
14. Group Management (L3)
15. How to Tutor or Deal with Target Populations (L3)
16. The Role of Learning Centers in Higher Education (L3)
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Tsukayama & Kuckelman
to February 2016. The materials were created usinga Learning Management System (LMS) that wasprovided by the Chieru Company.
E-learning offers two primary benefits for boththe LLC as a whole and the individual tutors. First,
by collecting data on the tutors’ knowledge and skills,
LLC faculty and staff can revise and adjust the tutor
training program to more effectively manage theirdevelopment. Second, the e-learning review sessions
allow tutors the chance to reflect on their tutoringskills quietly, without the pressures of a workshop
training session conducted in their second or third
language.
The LMS provided by Chieru on a trial basis
to Meio for this project was called Glexa. Threeexperienced undergraduate tutors created the training
content in the summer of 2015 with the help of astaff member. During this time, the students and staff
received ICT training from Chieru. From September
27 to November 15, 2015, 31 LLC and MSLC tutors
completed the e-learning review program.
The questions in the e-learning review materials
were created according to the content of the intensive
training sessions and the book Peer Tutor Training(Tanigawa, 2014). Questions were presented in several
different forms: multiple choice, matching, and shortanswer, the last of which required the students towrite their responses. One of the examples is shown
here from the training topic Definition of Tutoring
and Tutor Responsibilities. Question 2 reads: “Pleasechoose the correct definition of a peer tutor.”
A. Mainly gives advice and support for students’college life.
B. Mainly gives academic support for the students.
C. Mainly a person who is in an equal position toother students and gives academic support to them.
D. Mainly a person who is in an equal position toother students and gives advice and support for
their college life.
The correct answer is C. In the intensive training
workshop, tutors learned that a peer is someone inan equal position to those around them and that atutor is an academic supporter. After finishing each
unit, tutors submitted their answers and then could
check their results. Incorrect answers included an

324 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

explanation of the correct answer to help tutors
understand the material more fully.

Results
All tutors were asked to take an online survey after
finishing the e-learning review in order to determine
its effectiveness. The survey contained 11 questions
answered using a five-point scale. There were also somequestions that asked the tutors to write comments
explaining their choices. The full text of this survey canbe found in the Appendix. Even though 31 tutors (14LLC, 17 MSLC) completed the e-learning reviews,
only 19 tutors (8 LLC and 11 MSLC) took the survey.
In order to collect more accurate data in the future,
this number certainly needs to be improved.
Tutor responses to Question 7 on the survey
indicate that more than half of the tutors (80% for
the LLC, 60% for the MSLC) feel it was very useful orsomewhat useful (see Figure 1).
Questions 4, 8, 9, and 10 asked tutors to identify
both positive and negative experiences using thee-learning materials, and then to explain their answers.
All the comments were grouped into categories
according to their content (see Tables 2 and 3). Tutors
wrote their comments in either English or Japanese.
When quoting from the tutors’ answers below, original
English, including mistakes, was retained in order toconvey authentic responses.
Positive comments like “a good review” and “[ithelped] not to forget” were categorized in Review was
helpful. Comments like “review anywhere” and “easyto reach” were categorized in Benefits of online. Tutors
generally felt that the e-learning materials were usefulfor their review, which was our primary goal in tryingout the e-learning materials. The other frequently
mentioned benefit was that the review could becompleted anywhere and anytime because of its online
format.
Because of the novice IT skills of the LLC and
MSLC’s tutors and staff, the e-learning system was
set up to accept only the most exact sentences orwords for written answers, which eventually led to afew LMS problems. Comments such as “e-learning
required exact the same answers and did not accept
the sentences that were correct in meaning” wereBasic Tutor Training Through E-Learning, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 321-328

Figure 1. LLC and MSLC survey results: Question 7
Table 2
Positive Comments About the E-learning Review System
Positive comments

LLC

MSLC

TOTAL

Review was helpful

6

10

16

Benefits of online

2

1

3

Other

2

1

3

Total

10

12

22

Table 3
Negative Comments About the E-learning Review System
Negative comments

LLC

MSLC

TOTAL

LMS

5

7

12

Question was too complicated

6

1

7

Difficult vocabulary

4

1

5

Technical problems

0

3

3

Lack of information

1

1

2

Other

3

1

4

Total

19

14

32

categorized as LMS. Comments like “I did not really
understand the questions” and “there was unsure
answers in questions” were categorized in Question
was too complicated. Comments like “The language

usage was a bit too formal” or “The questions were too
difficult to understand …” were categorized as Difficult
vocabulary. Several tutors struggled with the difficultyof the Japanese vocabulary and grammar used in the
The 2016 PanSIG Journal

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Tsukayama & Kuckelman
questions, which may be due to the lack of experiencein test design on the part of the tutors and staff. Thisparticular problem affected the LLC tutors morebecause several of them were international students.
In summary, although we received more negative
comments than positive comments about thee-learning review program, overall, students rated
the program positively, specifically in regard to
deepening their understanding of their tutoring skills
and knowledge, as we can see in their responses above
to Question 7. Most of the negative comments werein relation to problems associated with the novice
levels of IT knowledge and test design in our tutors
and staff. These problems can be easily remedied withmore training in future versions of the system.

Conclusion
Although there is not firm evidence demonstratingthat the e-learning review program affected tutoringknowledge and skills in practice, overall, tutors feltthat it helped their review of the workshop-based
training sessions. Our results from this first trial also
produced some meaningful and helpful suggestions
for developing the e-learning materials in the future.
Regarding the issue of the LMS not accepting
written or fill-in-the-bank answers that deviated fromthe answer provided by the test-makers, these question
forms need to be more flexible, for example by basing
them around keywords or having staff check eachanswer so that tutors will not have to memorize exact
answers. As for the language difficulty in the e-learningmaterial, the Japanese grammar and vocabulary willneed to be revised to be simpler for both Japanese andinternational students.
One added benefit of our program is that sinceadvanced tutors use the LMS to create the review
material, they are able to develop their own ICT
skills while sharing their tutoring knowledge andskills. LMS can also provide various tools for making
different ways to test tutors’ skills. One example is atool to make movies. Though it was not introduced
this time, it could be an effective way to show both
good and bad models in actual tutoring situations.

326 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

References
De Kleine, C., & Lawton, R. (2015). Meeting theneeds of linguistically diverse students at thecollege level. Executive summary and paper
commissioned by the College Reading & Learning
Association. 2-36. Retrieved from http://crla.
net/images/whitepaper/Meeting_Needs_of_
Diverse_Students.pdf.
Gier, T. (2003). Tutoring: An integral part of alearning/reading/writing centre. In S. DeeseRoberts (Ed.), CRLA tutor training handbook.
College Reading and Learning Association.
Retrieved from http://www.lsche.net/?page_
id=4526.
Goda, Y., & Yamada, M. (2012). Research trends
and applied learning theories of e-learning indevelopmental education outside of Japan.
Journal of the Japan Association for Developmental
Education, 7(2), 19-29.
Ishige, Y. (2014). Reasons that peer-tutors arenecessary for a learning-support centre. Journal of
Developmental Education, 9(2), 40-45.
May, M. S. (2003). Training tutors through tutor role
analyses. In S. Deese-Roberts (Ed.), CRLA tutor
training handbook. College Reading and Learning
Association. Retrieved from http://www.lsche.
net/?page_id=4526.
Reigeluth, C. M. (2012). Instructional theory andtechnology for a postindustrial world. In R. A.
Eiser & J. V. Dempsey (Eds.), Trends and issues
in instructional design and technology (3rd ed.),
Boston, MA: Pearson.
Suzuki, K., Mima, N., & Yamauchi, Y. (2011). How
to support learning other than improving qualityof college lecture. Japan Society for Educational
Technology, 11(1), 181-186.
Tanigawa, H., & Ishige, Y. (Eds.) (2014). Peer tutor
training. Kyoto, Japan: Nakanishiya.
Tsukayama, J. (2011). Introduction of internationaltutor training program certificate and its effects
on tutors and learning support. The Meio
University Bulletin, (20), 63-69.
Walker, Luann. (2016). Learning support centers andinternational tutor training program certification:
An interview with Rick A. Sheets. Journal ofBasic Tutor Training Through E-Learning, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 321-328
Developmental Education, 39(2), 20-22.
Watanabe, H., Suzuki, K., Toda, S., & Goda, Y.
(2014). Development and formative evaluationof tutoring guidelines. Journal of Developmental
Education, 9(2), 47-58.

Watanabe, Y., Noda, K., Suzuki, K., & Mima, N.
(2014). Towards development of a learning
support system with peer tutoring. Research
Report of Japan Society for Educational Technology
Conferences, 14(1), 289-294.

Authors’ Biography:
Junko Tsukayama is an Assistant Professor of English in the University Center for Liberal
Arts Education at Meio University and has managed the Language Learning Center (LLC) for
twelve years. Her research is on peer tutoring and university learning centers.

Meghan Kuckelman is an Associate Professor of English Literature at Meio University in
Okinawa, where she is the Associate Director of the Language Learning Center. Her research ison Language Poetry, comics, and phenomenology.

The 2016 PanSIG Journal327

Tsukayama & Kuckelman

Appendix
Survey about your e-learning experience
Please choose best answers for your ideas.
Q1. How many times did you have problems with the online training?
None 1 to 3 times
4 to 7 times
more than 7 times
Q2. How difficult did you feel it was to answer the questions?
100% 80%
60%
50%
40%
20%
0%
Q3. Which questionnaire form did you feel was difficult? (Multiple choice)☐☐ Fill-in-the-blank☐☐ Writing☐☐ Multiple choice☐☐ Matching
Q4. Why was the form in the previous question difficult to answer?
Write your answer
Q5. Which training had the hardest content?
Write your answer
Q6. How much time did you take for each chapter?
10 to 30 min. 30 min. to 1 hour
1 to 2 hours

more than 2 hours

Q7. How useful do you think the e-learning training has been?
Very useful Somewhat useful Neutral Not very useful Not useful at all
Q8. Please write the reasons for your answer to the above question.
Write your answer
Q9. Please write the positive points of training through e-learning.
Write your answer
Q10. Please write down the negative points of training through e-learning.
Write answers
Q11. Comments
Write your answer

Note: All questions were used in the LMS survey used for the e-learning training review

328 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Screen Versus Paper: Perceptions of ScreenBased Reading versus Paper-Based Reading in
Supplementary Extensive Reading (SER) Programs
Richard John Walker
Reitaku University
rwalker@reitaku-u.ac.jp
This paper presents the perceptions of 70 English Language majors who practiced paper-based andscreen-based Supplementary Extensive Reading (SER) over one year at two Japanese universities.
Students from four (two Reading and two non-Reading) courses practiced paper-based SER in
semester one and screen-based SER in semester two (using online website, Xreading.com). An
overall preference for screen-based SER is investigated through questionnaire responses andperformance data. Insights into differential responses from first and second years, between genders,and between students from different contexts are considered as are reasons for the continued
strong support for paper-based SER. Implications of this research may interest departmental
course co-ordinators and influence future research programs.
本稿では、日本の2つの大学において、約1年以上の間、70人の英語専攻の生徒が、紙ベースおよびスクリーンベースでの〝補足多読”（SER）
を行ったことを示しています。4つのコース（内2つはリーティングコース、残り2つはリーディング以外のコース）の生徒達は、前期に紙ベースのSERに参加し、後期にスクリーンベースのSER（Xreading.comのウェブサイトを使用して）に参加しました。
スクリーンベースのERに対する生徒達の全体的な選好については、
アンケートの回答およびパフォ
ーマンスデータを通して調査されます。紙ベースのSERのサポートを継続する理由があるとして、1年目と2年目、男女間、違うコースの生徒達の間での回答の相違に関する洞察は考慮されています。本研究の意義は、部門別のコーディネータの関心と今後の研究計画へ影響を与える可能性があることです。

Extensive Reading (ER) programs are now
acknowledged to hold significant benefits for language
students. In a meta-analysis, Nakanishi (2015, 6)
suggested ER research show they can “improvestudents’ reading proficiency”. Others, such as Grabe(2009, 328), claim long-term and large-scale ER
improves “abilities in several other language areas”.
Often the focus of a course, ER also plays graded but
Walker, R. j. (2017). Screen versus paper: Perceptionsof screen-based reading versus paper-based readingin supplementary extensive reading (SER) programs.
In G. Brooks (Ed.) The 2016 PanSIG Journal (pp.
329-341). Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

supplementary roles, and this paper is concernedwith students who participated in what the author
calls Supplementary Extensive Reading (SER). SER
remains an ER program and aims for Waring &McLean’s (2015, 164-165) four essential elements in
ER: reading with fluent comprehension, reading inlarge volume, reading over extended time-periods,
and reading long, meaningful texts. These texts can beeither paper-based or screen-based books.

Paper-based books
Until recently, ER programs used paper-based booklibraries of graded readers (GR) that were built-up withThe 2016 PanSIG Journal329

Walkerfinancial backing from institutions. Effective programs
tend to follow four conditions that are outlined in
Robb and Kano (2013, 245): i) ER is used in a varietyof courses, ii) students are held to account for theirreading, iii) teachers assess student performance withease, and iv) books are easy to manage and access.
These four conditions make ER programs easy toparticipate-in because books are easier to obtainand responses are completed in a smooth manner.
However, it is notoriously difficult to satisfy them all.
A student can falsify claims about the number of pages
he or she has read and it is possible to write a response
based on information from the front and back cover.
Because of this, many teachers have wondered how
to make ER programs more transparent and easier totrack or observe.

Screen-based ER books
Screen-based (e-books or digitised) books are still new
to ER, but in 2014 a pay-to-access online library of
GR texts, Xreading, became available. The following
year Milliner and Cote (2015) reported on theiruse of it with university students. They found thatstudents had a positive perception of reading e-books
on smartphones, but that it didn’t necessarily lead toengagement with the texts (p.408). They counselledpotential teacher-users to take an active and ongoingrole in guiding, instructing and supporting the service.
After all, the smartphone is still widely perceived asa medium for casual or fun activities. A call to use
it for educational purposes acts to confront priorexpectations. Screen-based books, therefore, are aconvenient but largely unproven ER medium; paperbased books, however, are proven as an ER medium,yet may have become inconvenient.
Non-ER reading specialists such as Naomi Baron
have warned of negative effects associated withreading on digital devices. They include reduced
concentration, reduced possibilities of rereading text,
poor memorisation, and the loss of the emotional
connection formed with paper texts (see Baron, 2015).
More worrying for ELT students, Mangen et al. (2013)
showed how reading on screen-based media led to
weaker comprehension of texts. However, despite her
reservations, Baron forecasts digital reading to soon

330 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

dominate certain genres and called for research on
meaningful uses of screen-based technology (p. 233).
Some of these studies suggest that the performanceof younger generations when screen-based reading issimilar to that of paper-based reading. In their study
on text comprehension and memorization, Porion,
Aparicio, Megalakaki, Robert, and Baccino (2016)claimed screen-based reading to be “comparable” topaper-based reading; Norman and Furnes (2016)
showed it need not damage metacognitive regulation,
and Tveit and Mangen (2014), in a study on teenagers,
described how a majority (and especially males andreluctant readers) already preferred screen-based
readers. Crucially though, they found that ‘avid
readers’ still preferred print.

Research Questions
This exploratory research sought to discover student
perceptions of SER after four groups spent the
spring semester doing print-based reading and thefall semester doing screen-based reading. It utilises
responses from a Likert-scale questionnaire (seeAppendix A) and student performance data to shedlight on the following questions:
1. Are students happy to do ER?
2. Which medium do students believe helps themconcentrate more?
3. Do students prefer to take SER books out of a
traditional or an online library?
4. Is Xreading useful for university students?
5. Where did students do their reading on Xreading?
6. Which medium would they choose again: paper orscreen?
Research question 1 concerns SER with both
media. Questions 2, 3, and 6 necessitate comparison
between media. Questions 4 and 5 focus on Xreading.

Context
70 English Language majors from two universities(hereafter university one and university two) and
four separate courses practiced paper-based SER
between April and July 2015 and screen-based SERfrom September to January 2016. One first year
class and one second year class were taken from both

Screen Versus Paper, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 329-341
universities. University one students were enrolled
in non-Reading courses; university two students in
Reading courses. Questionnaires were administered to
students immediately after the program’s completion.
Table one details the respondents in each course anddivides them by gender. Females outnumbered malesby almost two to one. The asterisk next to each classdenotes a level within the institution. One denotes
low-level and two denotes high-level. Three courses
were deemed high-level; the Discussion class fromuniversity one was deemed low-level.
Semester one: Paper-based SER. In thepaper-based programs, university one students
were requested to read ten or more SER books andhandwrite responses to them before the end of thesemester. Their responses were used in four in-classbook talks and submitted for grading at the end of
the semester. University two students followed adepartmental requirement to read 300 or more pages
and follow the same book talk and written response
program. Course content for university one courses
focused on discussion or writing skills while university
two courses focused on intensive reading of American
literature. SER was an external (yet crucial) part ofthese courses, but only essential data was retained by
the teacher.
Semester two: Screen-based SER. In summer
2015 the author decided to use Xreading in semester

two. Unlike with print-based ER, the screen-based
product, Xreading, automatically provides statistics
on several variables. Six variables concern us here:
the number of books read, the number of words read,average book levels, time spent on a text, reading speed,and comprehension-based quiz scores. Descriptive
data for these variables is in Appendix B. It shows thatfive times more Writing students (from universityone) read over 15 books on Xreading than they did on
paper. The university two first-year Reading class readthe most books (an average of 24), read the highest
average number of words (24,608), spent the longest
time reading (3 hours, 17 minutes), and read thehighest average level of text, 2.14. (There are 8 levels
which suggests they read comprehensible texts that
could be read without need for translation.) For the
final two variables, the second-year Academic Readingclass had the highest average reading speed (182 words
per minute) and the second-year Discussion class
scored the highest average quiz score (74.6%).

The Questionnaire
The Likert-scale questionnaire contained 33 statements
in four sections: ER at this university, Assessment &Post-Reading Activities, Paper-Based & Screen-BasedER, and Online ER – Xreading. It was adapted from
Dornyei and Taguchi (2009) with the statements

Table 1
Questionnaire Respondents Divided by University and Gender
Male

FemaleTotal

Discussion (Year 2) *

5

9

14

Writing (Year 1) **

6

11

17

University 1(31)
University 2
Reading (Year 1) **

5

15

20

Academic Reading (Year 2) **

8

11

19
(39)

Total

24

46

70

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

331

Walkeranswerable via a six-point scale that ranged fromstrong agreement to strong disagreement. Before
answering, students were informed of the sections
and asked to query anything they did not understand.
Having practiced paper-based reading in semester one
and screen-based reading in semester two, they werethen instructed to close their eyes and reflect on theirexperiences with both media. The teacher reminded
them of his neutrality for paper and screen in SER
before instructing them on how to answer each question.
Students were given 15 minutes to complete it.

Discussion
Statements relevant to the six research questions are
discussed below.
1 Are students happy to do ER? Students fromboth universities unanimously stated that all English
majors should have the chance to do ER. Table two
below shows that 69 out of 70 students believed that

all English students should have the chance to do ER.
A majority of students also agreed that ER
improved their confidence in other English skills(see table 3), with a similar number agreeing thatthe minimum reading target of 15 or more books
was suitable (see table 4). Unexpectedly, students in
Reading courses expressed slightly more enthusiasm
for ER than those in non-Reading courses.
2 Which medium do students believe helps
them concentrate more? A surprising find of thisquestionnaire was that a slight majority of students
believed they could concentrate more when readingon screen than on paper. With the understanding thatconcentration is a precursor to comprehension, theirperception runs counter to studies such as Mangen
et al (2013) who claimed paper-based reading led tobetter comprehension. Tables 5 and 6 both show thata very slight majority of SER students believed they
concentrated better when doing screen-based reading.

Table 2All English (Major) Students Should Have the Chance to Do ER
strongly
disagreea little agree

agreestrongly
agree

5

7

1

Writing3

122

Reading5

8

7

Academic Reading

5

7

7

18

34

17

Discussion

disagreea little
disagree

1

Total

1
Disagree: 1

Agree: 69

Table 3
ER Improved My Confidence in Other English Skills
strongly
disagreedisagreea little
disagreea little agree

agreestrongly
agree

2

2

7

2

1

Writing

4

10

Reading

2

9

5

4

Discussion

2

Academic Reading

1

2

10

4

2

Total

3

10

36

11

9

Disagree: 13

332 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Agree: 56

Screen Versus Paper, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 329-341
Table 4The Aim to Read 15+ Books in Semester 2 Was Suitablestrongly
disagreedisagreea little
disagreea little agree

agreestrongly
agree

1

4

2

4

2

5

6

2

3

8

3

8

Discussion
Writing1

Reading1

Academic Reading

1

1

2

9

5

4

Total

2

3

11

25

13

15

Disagree: 16

Agree: 53

Table 5
I Concentrate Better When Reading Books on Paper
strongly
Discussion

a little

strongly

disagreedisagreedisagree

2

3

7

1

3

2

5

6

8

4

4

2

Writinga little agree

agree

agree

2

Reading2

Academic
Reading

1

4

5

3

3

3

Total

5

8

23

9

14

11

Disagree: 36

Agree: 34

Table 6
I Concentrate Better When Reading Books on a Screenstrongly
disagreedisagreea little
disagreea little agree

agreestrongly
agree

Discussion

1

2

2

3

5

1

Writing

2

5

4

5

1

Reading

1

3

5

4

3

4

Academic Reading

3

3

1

5

6

1

Total

7

13

12

12

19

7

Disagree: 32

This result merited further investigation. Firstly,
by excluding the low-level Discussion class from mycalculations, I re-calculated table 6 and found that 32
high-level students agreed that paper-based reading
helped them concentrate better (as opposed to 24
who disagreed). This suggests that a small majority ofAgree: 38

higher-level students believed they concentrated betteron paper. Secondly, by focusing on male respondents, it
was discovered that lower-level males were more likely
to believe they concentrated better on screen, and thatthree times more males in high-level classes claimed
to concentrate better when reading with paper (seeThe 2016 PanSIG Journal

333

Walker
Appendix C). Overall, preferences are equally divided
but there is a suggestion that lower level students– especially males - believe they concentrate better
when reading on screen than on paper. This echoes thefindings of Tveit and Mangen (2014).
3 Do students prefer to take SER books out ofa traditional or an online library? Tables 7 and 8
reveal students to have a slight preference for taking
books out of an online library. Once again, the lower
level Discussion class distort the picture. By excluding
data for this class, higher-level students gave equal
support to both systems.
4 Is Xreading useful for university students?
Table 9 shows almost unanimous support for the useof Xreading with university students. Although a few
high-level Academic Reading students disagreed, themajority see a place for Xreading. Given such backing,it is important to find out where, when and with what
students it can be best used.

The support for Xreading is all-the-moreimpressive as the website went offline due to atechnical problem in late 2015. Table 10 suggests thisprevented students from reading more books. Even so,
the vast majority unequivocally believe XReading is a
useful resource.
5 Where did students do their reading? Students
today live hectic lives and balance many responsibilities.
Their need for effective time-management skills isessential. Quite possibly, due to the sheer convenienceof having a library on a smartphone, in SER programs,
students are more likely to read screen-based texts thanpaper-based ones. Unsurprisingly, as tables 11 and
12 show, a majority used Xreading when travelling;a larger majority, though, used it at home or in theirrooms. This suggests that both smartphones andcomputers were used. More specific details about theirreading habits needs to be discovered in future studies.

Table 7
I Like Taking Books Out of a Traditional Library (Offline)

Discussion

strongly
disagree3

Writing

disagreea little
disagreeagreestrongly
agree

a little agree

2

8

1

3

2

5

3

4

Reading

2

1

7

4

3

3

Academic Reading

2

3

6

5

2

1

Total

7

9

23

15

8

8

Disagree: 39

Agree: 31

Table 8
I Like Taking Books Out of Xreading’s Online Library

Discussion

strongly
disagree3

Writing

disagreea little
disagreeagreestrongly
agree

a little agree

2

8

1

3

2

5

3

4

Reading

2

1

7

4

3

3

Academic Reading

2

3

6

5

2

1

Total

7

9

23

15

8

8

Disagree: 32

334 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Agree: 38

Screen Versus Paper, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 329-341
Table 9
Xreading Can Be a Useful Resource for University Students
strongly
disagreedisagreea little
disagreeDiscussion

a little agree

agree

4

5

strongly
agree

Writing

1

5

7

4

Reading

2

4

7

3

Academic Reading

1

3

2

4

5

1

Total

1

3

5

17

24

8

Disagree: 9

Agree: 61

Table 10
Problems With the Site Stopped Me Reading More Books
strongly
disagreedisagreea little
disagreea little agree

agreeDiscussion

2

1

2

5

2

Writing1

3

4

Reading1

Academic Reading

1

Total

5

strongly
agree

8

4

6

2

6

3

1

3

3

3

1

5

15

10

19

8

Disagree: 25

Agree: 45

Table 11
I Used Xreading When Travelling Around (e.g. On the Bus, Car or Train)strongly

a little

strongly

disagreedisagreedisagreea little agree

agree

agree

Discussion

4

1

2

4

2

1

Writing

2

4

1

1

3

6

Reading

1

5

3

6

5

Academic Reading

4

3

1

1

8

2

Total

11

8

9

9

19

14

Disagree: 28

6 Which medium would they choose again:
paper or screen? The questionnaire concluded byasking students which medium they would choose in a
future SER program: paper or screen? Table 13 showsthat almost two out of three students chose screenbased ER, which included a majority from three out of

Agree: 42

four courses. Students from the best-performing group(Reading) and the lowest-level group (Discussion)
gave Xreading strongest support. Of equal significancewas the Writing course students who preferred paper.
This higher-level class included avid readers whose
liking of a traditional library is evident in Table 7.

The 2016 PanSIG Journal335

WalkerTable 12
I Used Xreading When at Home or in My Roomstrongly
disagreedisagreea little
disagreea little agree

agreestrongly
agree

Discussion

4

1

2

4

2

1

Writing

2

4

1

1

3

6

Reading

1

5

3

6

5

Academic Reading

4

3

1

1

8

2

Total

11

8

9

9

19

14

Disagree: 28

Agree: 42

Table 13
Medium Students Would Choose in the Future
Paper-based

Screen-based

Discussion

3

10

Writing

107

Reading

4

16

Academic Reading

8

11

Total

25

44

Conclusion

References

An overall preference for screen-based reading from70 English Language majors strongly indicates its
great potential with ELT students. Indeed, as Shimada(2017) recently suggested, in a study with Japanese
students using TOEIC materials, students at Japaneseinstitutions may now prefer web-based materials overpaper-based materials. In this study, it was discoveredthat first years read more screen-based books thansecond years, but that higher-level students weremore likely to choose a paper-based book than lowerlevel students. It also appeared that lower-level males
preferred screen-based reading, which may be becausea majority believed they could concentrate better withthis medium. Inferential analysis of data from this andother studies is needed to confirm any age, gender andproficiency-based preferences. Follow-up research will
focus on a more controlled look at student preference
and performance over one year of mixed media SER
from Reading and non-Reading-based courses.

Baron, N. (2015). Words onscreen – The fate ofreading in a digital age. New York, NY: Oxford
University Press
Dörnyei, Z., & Taguchi, T. (2009). Questionnaires
in second language research: Construction,
administration, and processing. New York, NY:
Routledge.
Grabe, W. (2009). Reading in a second language:
Moving from theory to practice. Cambridge,
England: Ernst Klett Sprachen.
Mangen, A., Walgermoa, B.R, & Brønnicka,
K. (2013). Reading linear texts on paper
versus computer screen: Effects on reading
comprehension. International Journal of
Educational Research. 58, 61–68
Milliner, B., Cote, T. (2015). One year of extensive
reading on mobile devices: engagement andimpressions. In F. Helm, L. Bradley, M. Guarda,& S. Thouësny (Eds.), Critical CALL –Proceedings of the 2015 EUROCALL Conference

336 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Screen Versus Paper, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 329-341(404-409). Padova, Italy: Research-publishing.
net.
Nakanishi, T. (2015). A meta‐analysis of extensive
reading research. TESOL Quarterly, 49(1), 6-37.
Norman, E., & Furnes, B. (2016). The relationshipbetween metacognitive experiences and learning:
Is there a difference between digital and nondigital study media? Computers in Human
Behavior, 54, 301-309.
Porion, A., Aparicio, X., Megalakaki, O., Robert,
A., & Baccino, T. (2016). The impact of paperbased versus computerized presentation on text
comprehension and memorization. Computers in
Human Behavior, 54, 569-576.
Robb, T., & Kano, M. (2013). Effective extensive
reading outside the classroom: A large scale
experiment. Reading in a Foreign Language,25(2), 234.
Shimada, K. (2017). Textbooks or e-learning?

Learners’ preferences and motivations in a
Japanese EFL classroom. The Language Teacher,41(2), 3-8
Tveit, Å.K., & Mangen, A. (2014). A joker in theclass: Teenage readers’ attitudes and preferences
to reading on different devices. Library &Information Science Research, 36(3), 179-184
Walker, R. J. (2016). Three steps towardauthenticating the practice and research ofExtensive Reading at a Japanese university. In
M. Gobert (Ed). Proceedings from the Third
World Extensive Reading Conference (pp. 87-98).
Dubai, United Arab Emirates: Extensive Reading
Foundation.
Waring, R., & McLean, S. (2015). Exploration of thecore and variable dimensions of extensive reading
research and pedagogy. Reading in a Foreign
Language, 27(1), 160-167.

Author’s Biography:
Richard John Walker is a lecturer in the Department of Foreign Languages at Reitaku
University. He recently collaborated on the textbook, Academically Speaking, for Perceptia
Press, and has published papers on CLIL, discourse analysis, and material writing.

The 2016 PanSIG Journal337

Walker

Appendix A
Questionnaire
To answer a question you should tell me how much you agree or disagree with a statement. Do this by drawing
around a number from 1 to 6. Try and answer all of the statements
Strongly disagree

DisagreeA little (slightly)
disagree1

2

3

A little (slightly)
agree

Agree

Strongly agree

4

5

6

Example:(e.g.) If you strongly agree with the following statement, write this:I like reading very much

1

2

3

4

5

6

About meCheck the below box which applies to you
Male

FemaleSection 1 EXTENSIVE READING (ER) AT THIS UNIVERSITY
1.

All English (major) students should have the chance to do ER

1

2

3

4

5

6

2.

Doing ER improved my confidence for other English skills (e.g:Conversation, Reading, and Writing)

1

2

3

4

5

6

3a. Since April 2015 I think I spent too much time doing ER

1

2

3

4

5

6

3b. Since April 2015 I think I spent too little time doing ER

1

2

3

4

5

6

4a. ER is best used with 1st Year English majors at this university

1

2

3

4

5

6

4b. ER is best used with 2nd Year English majors at this university

1

2

3

4

5

6

5a. There were enough interesting books in the library for me in semester 1

1

2

3

4

5

6

5b. There were enough interesting books on XReading for me in semester 2

1

2

3

4

5

6

Section 2 ASSESSMENT AND POST- READING ACTIVITIES1.

The aim to read 15+ books in semester 2 was a good and suitable one

1

2

3

4

5

6

2.

It was OK that the teacher did not always check my writing and quizzes

1

2

3

4

5

6

3a. I like handwriting a response more than answering an online quiz

1

2

3

4

5

6

3b. I like answering an online quiz more than handwriting a response

1

2

3

4

5

6

4.

1

2

3

4

5

6

5a. I liked keeping a journal (or written responses) in semester one

1

2

3

4

5

6

5b. I liked not keeping a journal in semester 2. It was better to do quizzes

1

2

3

4

5

6

If I ‘notice’ a word that I do not fully understand, I keep a note about it ajournal338 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Screen Versus Paper, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 329-341

Section 3 PAPER BASED AND SCREEN-BASED E.R
1a. I concentrate better when reading books on paper (more) than on a screen.

1

2

3

4

5

6

1b. I concentrate better when reading books on a screen (more) than on paper.

1

2

3

4

5

6

2a. I think reading books on paper is more convenient than (reading) on a screen. 1

2

3

4

5

6

2b. I think reading books on a screen is more convenient than (reading) on paper.

1

2

3

4

5

6

2c. I think reading books on paper and on screen are equally convenient for me

1

2

3

4

5

6

3a. I like taking books out of a traditional library (offline)

1

2

3

4

5

6

3b. I prefer to take books out of an online library (e.g. Xreading)

1

2

3

4

5

6

Section 3 PAPER BASED AND SCREEN-BASED E.R
1

Xreading can be a useful resource for university students

1

2

3

4

5

6

2.

Xreading has 8 levels of books. It needs more low level (level 1 and 2) books.

1

2

3

4

5

6

3.

Problems with the site stopped me reading more books.

1

2

3

4

5

6

4.

I used Xreading when travelling on the bus, car or train…

1

2

3

4

5

6

5.

I used Xreading when at home or in my room

1

2

3

4

5

6

6.

I had problems with instructions on Xreading

1

2

3

4

5

6

7a. It was easy to read over 15 books on Xreading

1

2

3

4

5

6

7b. I regularly read on XReading (one book every 1 or 2 weeks)

1

2

3

4

5

6

CONCLUDING COMMENTS
If you had the chance to use either paper-based or screen-based Extensive Reading again - which would you
choose? Paper-based ER or screen-based ER?
If you had the chance to use either paper-based or screen-based Extensive Reading again - which would you choose?
Paper-based ER or screen-based ER?
Paper-based ER

Screen-based ER (Xreading)Write ‘yes’ in the box of your choice

Write a few words to explain your decision. This can be in English or in Japanese. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The 2016 PanSIG Journal339

Walker

Appendix B
1. Percentage-based performance data for university 1
0-4 books

5-9 books

10-14 books

15+ books

Semester 1* (paper)

16%

41%

32%

11%

Semester 2 (screen)

6%

23%

6%

65%

Semester 1* (paper)

5%

31%

47%

16%

Semester 2 (screen)

19%

31%

13%

38%

Writing (1st Year)

Discussion (2nd Year)*This does not include four books read ‘in-class’ to raise awareness of ER.

2. Raw data from XREADING FOR SEMESTER TWO
Tables on 1 Average Number of Books Read, 2 Average Book Level, 3 Average Words Read, 4 Average Minutes
Spent Reading, 5 Average Reading Speed, and 6 Average Quiz Score

340 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Appendix
C2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 329-341
ScreenVersus Paper, The
Appendix
C for the statement: “I concentrate better when
1. Male responses (excluding Discussion
students)
1. Male responses(excluding
Discussion
reading
books onpaper.” students) for the statement: “I concentrate better when readingbooks on paper.”Male responses* to"I concentrate better when reading books on paper."(*excluding Discussion class)
20
15
10
5
0

Writing

Readingagree

Academic Reading

TOTAL

disagree16

The 2016 PanSIG Journal341

Elementary Teacher Education in
Japan: How Can We Help?
Brett Raymond Walter
Hiroshima University
brw201@hiroshima-u.ac.jp
Elementary school teachers in Japan have for over fifteen years now been working alongside
Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) from all over the world. Although there has been a large
amount of research on the interaction between these ALTs and Japanese Teachers of English( JTEs), the research has broadly looked across all levels of English instruction and seems to havefocused on problems that arise between these two groups of teachers. Even though much of thisdata reveals cultural differences as being one of the major underlying causes of conflict, little isdiscussed about how we in the field of teacher education can make steps toward preventing thisconflict. This paper will share data on pre-service elementary teachers’ awareness of and exposure
to diverse cultures at one Japanese university and discuss the implications this data has on the
future of elementary education teacher training and the need for multicultural education.
日本では15年以上小学校の教師が外国語指導助手（ALT）と一緒に働き続いています。
このALTと日本人外国語担当教員（JTE）の相互作用について多くの研究がありますが、こういう研究がだ
いたい一般的に小・中・高学校全部の英語教育、
そしてこのALTとJTEの相互作用の問題の確認
しかしてない。
この研究で多くの問題が文化の違いで発生することが分かったのにあまりにもどうやって我々教員養成の分野の会員がこの問題を防止できるかっていう話が進んでないんです。本
論文が本研究で日本にある大学で初等教育の学生の種々の文化の知ることそして直接の経験について集まったデータを発表して、初等教育・教員養成の将来と多文化教育の必要さに対する含蓄を論議します。

The topic of Japanese Teachers of English ( JTE) andforeign Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) relations
and team teaching has been discussed for years in Japan.
Further, with the recent inclusion of required English
classes in the elementary curriculum, this discussion
has branched out to include elementary Homeroom
Teachers (HRT) and their ALT counterparts. In termsof research that has been done on the topic, there
have also been many articles exploring the difficulties
between ALTs and HRTs (i.e. Leonard, 1999; Ohtani,
2010; Tsuido, Otani, & Davies, 2012) and articles

explaining studies on HRT and ALT interactions (i.e.
Amaki, 2008; Muller, 2015).
Many of these articles (Amaki, 2008; Tsuido,
Otani, & Davies, 2012) designate a lack ofcommunication as a common difficulty faced on bothends, as it may often be the case that “low English
proficiency levels among staff English teachers leadto a lack of confidence in speaking English in class,and in the collaborative creation of team-teachingplans with ALTs” (Amaki, 2008). Further, as Ohtani(2010) states, it is often the HRT’s inability to fully

Walter, B. R. (2017). Elementary teacher education in
Japan: How can we help? In G. Brooks (Ed.) The 2016
PanSIG Journal (pp. 342-350). Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

communicate in English combined with the ALT’s
inability to do so in Japanese that lead these teachers tosimply stop trying to communicate.
There is, however, another source of conflict

342 The 2016 PanSIG JournalElementary Teacher Education In Japan, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 342-350
between these ALTs and HRTs. In his book, Leonard(1999) invited both JTEs and ALTs to write him withdifficulties they were experiencing while working
with their team teaching counterpart, and while
communication was also mentioned, the majorityof the issues involve a misunderstanding or lack ofknowledge about each other’s culture. Some of thesedifferences in culture included the use of vacation days(or lack thereof ), issues of privacy and private space,issues surrounding gender equality, and perceived“cold” work environments; all of which led to somebreakdown in HRT and ALT relationships. Tsuido,
Otani, and Davies (2012) found similar responses inpart of their research focusing on ALT frustrations,listing ten situations in which some cross-culturalcommunication problems arose. Such problems
include working on Saturday, uncomfortable silencein their HRT counterparts, invasion of privacy inthe form of personal questions and public expressionof views on ALT morals, and an indirect approachto problem solving; many of which can be attributed
simply to a breakdown in understanding of culture on
both the HRT and ALT end.
Things have become more complicated since themandatory inclusion of elementary English lessons
due to the changing role of elementary ALT and
HRT lesson responsibilities and expectations. In thepast, ALTs were often left to teach English classeson their own (Ohtani, 2010). Indeed, at first “mostelementary school teachers [were] not trained to teachEnglish, and so there [was] a need to bring ALTs intoelementary classrooms” (Tsuido, Otani, & Davies,
2012, p. 50). As time has passed, however, universities
have begun training their pre-service elementaryteachers to create English lessons and take the lead
during elementary English classes. How then are thesestudents being prepared to work with an ALT? In aneffort to avoid cultural conflicts, it would make sense
to have HRTs who are aware of differences in culturesfrom their own. Although an awareness of culture
does not equate to full understanding of the culture,
it can at least serve as a flag for teachers to recognize
from where the potential conflict originates.
This paper summarizes the data from 40
elementary education student responses concerning

their exposure to other cultures, their perceptionsof the elementary school ALT and the role thoseindividuals take, and perceived potential difficulties
and concerns these students have looking forward
to when they begin working as a HRT. Students
responded to a questionnaire given to them by theirinstructors after one of their usual lectures. These
responses give some light into what future HRTs arelearning about potentially working in a multiculturalenvironment.

Research Questions
In order to get a better view of how students in teacher
training programs at a Japanese university are being
prepared to work in a multicultural environment, thefollowing questions were developed. First, what kindof exposure do these students have to cultures outsideof their own? Second, how do these students perceive
the culture and role of the ALT in an elementary level
English class? Third, what do these students see as
potential difficulties for when they become HRT and
begin working with an ALT?

MethodDesignA survey questionnaire was given to the students toinvestigate student concerns about working with ALTs
when they begin working at an elementary school,
student perceptions of what an ALT is, and student
experience with and exposure to individuals from adifferent cultural background from their own. The
questionnaire was designed by the author to provide
both quantitative and qualitative data, including 20
Likert scale items rating from 1 to 6 (“strongly agree” to“strongly disagree”) and 9 open ended questions. Not
all items designed for the questionnaire were analyzed
for the purposes of the current study, as will be evident
in the analysis of the data in the Results and Discussionsection below. The questionnaire was administeredin Japanese to avoid language based problems andto maximize the number of responses collected. The
Japanese version of the questionnaire (Appendix A)
was checked by a mother tongue Japanese speaker
before it was distributed to the participants. Further,
The 2016 PanSIG Journal343

Walterthe questionnaire was given by the Japanese instructorof the course, and participants were not given details
about the nationality of the researcher, to avoid any
influence on participant choice of answers.

Participants
As this was the first iteration of the current study,
the questionnaire was only given to three classesof students majoring in elementary education at auniversity in Hiroshima prefecture. The students
were in a course focusing on curriculum development
taught completely in their native Japanese language.
The questionnaire was given to students in their classes
with directions to return completed questionnaires
to a sealed box located in the university. Names andstudent ID numbers of respondents were not collected.
The questionnaire was given to 120 students, but there
was only a total response rate of 33% (n=40).
Of the 40 respondents, 20 were male and 20 werefemale. The majority of respondents were in theirsecond year of schooling (n=31), with considerably
less third year (n=6) and fourth year (n=3) students.
Respondents’ ages ranged from 19 years to 24 years old.
As part of the background information, respondents
were asked to rate their own levels of English ability.
The majority of respondents rated their English ability
levels as a beginner (n=17) or intermediate (n=18).
The remaining levels included no English ability(n=4), advanced (n=1), and fluent (n=0).

Results and Discussion
As stated above, a total of 40 students from the initial
120 students returned their surveys (a respondent rateof 33%). The following section explores participant
responses in relation to the three research questions:what kind of exposure do these students have to
cultures outside of their own; how do these students
perceive the culture and role of the ALT in anelementary level English class; what do these students
see as potential difficulties for when they become
HRT and begin working with an ALT?

Student Exposure to Foreign Cultures
The data for this research question came mostly from344 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

the qualitative, open ended questions on the second
half of the questionnaire, but one Likert item provided
some data on participant exposure specifically to
ALTs. The item stated, “I really enjoyed lessons with
ALTs when I was in school.” This item was to beanswered only by those participants who had ALTs inany primary or secondary educational setting. Of the
40 respondents, 36 answered the question (Strongly
Agree, n=17; Agree, n=15; Slightly Agree, n=3;
Slightly Disagree, n=1), indicating that the majorityof the participants have been exposed at least to someforeign culture at some point in their lives.
For more detailed data, participants were asked
to answer these qualitative questions: “Have you
spent any time outside of Japan? If so, why and for
how long,” and “Do you have any friends from othernationalities, or have you spent time with someone
from another country?” In response to the first set ofquestions, 54% of participants responded that they
had spent time outside of Japan. Only 3 respondents
spent more than a month outside of Japan, while themajority of respondents were abroad for only 1 to 2
weeks (n=7). Reasons provided for the time abroad
included sightseeing, involvement in a school trip,
involvement in some type of study abroad or homestay
program, and a baseball tournament.
In response to the second set of questions, 45%of respondents indicated that they had friends fromother nationalities or had spent some time withsomeone from another country. As, in the previous
question, some respondents had indicated that they
had spent time in a study abroad or homestay program,
this data is not surprising. Indeed the majority of
responses explaining this interaction indicated asmuch. One respondent did state that they had a“haafu,” or multiracial, friend in school, but that friend
spoke only in Japanese. Although this data does showthat many of the participants have some exposure
to a culture besides their own, the limited time andtype of interaction suggests that participants did notnecessarily learn much about these other cultures.

Student Perceptions of ALTs
The data for this research question was collected fromboth Likert responses and short answer responses toElementary Teacher Education In Japan, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 342-350
the open ended question requesting participants todescribe in as much detail as possible what their imageof an ALT is. The Likert items listed in Table 1 show
student responses in regards to how they perceive
the role of an ALT in an English classroom and forEnglish instruction in general. The final question
below designating student preference between a
Japanese English teacher and foreign ALT in their
future classrooms was also included to determine
how strongly the respondents felt about the foreign
nationality of the assistant teacher.
The data provided in Table 1 shows that the
majority of respondents felt that lessons with ALTs areimportant, but the role of the ALT is somewhat strictly
defined. The majority of respondents (65%) agreed
that the ALT is only helpful in the classroom itself,
and that these ALTs are present to provide models
of native pronunciation (82.5%) rather than to teachnative-level grammar (30%). As for the nationality of
the ALT, the majority of students preferred a foreign
ALT (82.5%) over a Japanese teacher of English.
The qualitative question in relation to this topic
asked respondents to describe in as much detail as
possible their image of an ALT. A large percentageof the respondents (42.1%) described the ALT in
their responses as a cheerful “mood-maker.” Other

commonly found words to describe an ALT included“fun,” “fresh,” “native,” and “amazing.” As to the ALT
as a co-worker, very few responses considered this
aspect of the ALT, but those that did seemed to focus
on the fact that these individuals are assistants. One
response given stated that “dependent on the Japaneseteacher (homeroom teacher), the quality [of the ALT]
changes. It depends on if the homeroom teacher andstudents can draw out the good in the ALT.” Another
responded stated, “in terms of their teaching, they
are certainly not professionals and many are ordinary
people.”Student Concerns and Predicted
Difficulties
The final research question explored what elementaryteachers-in-training see as potential difficulties forwhen they become HRT and begin working with an
ALT. The respondents provided this data in response toa question on the qualitative part of the questionnaire,asking them what their concerns were about working
with an ALT. As is expected, and seen in the research
explored above (Tsuido, Otani, & Davies, 2012;
Ohtani, 2010), over half of the respondents to thisquestion (65.8%) described communication issues
as one of their largest concerns. Respondent lack of

Table 1Student Perceptions of ALT Roles (N=40)
Strongly
agree

Agree

Slightly
agree

Slightly
disagreeDisagreeStrongly
disagree

1. Lessons with ALTs are importantfor English learning.

22(56.4%)

17(43.6%)

-

-

-

-

2. ALTs are only useful in helping
with classroom English lessons.

7(17.5%)

11(27.5%)

8
(20%)

13
(32.5%)

1(2.5%)-

3. The main role for ALTs in theclassroom is to provide models
of native pronunciation.

7(17.5%)

15(37.5%)

11(27.5%)

4
(10%)

2
(5%)

1
(2.5%)

4. The main role for ALTs in theclassroom is to teach native-levelgrammar.

-3(7.5%)

9(22.5%)

4
(10%)

15
(37.5%)

9(22.5%)

5. I would prefer a Japanese English
assistant over a foreign ALT.

--

7
(17.5%)

10
(25%)

11
(27.5%)

12(30%)

The 2016 PanSIG Journal345

Walterconfidence in their own English ability (with 52.5%of respondents self-evaluating their English ability at a
beginner level or below) was reflected in such concerns
as “will [the ALT] understand my Japanese” or “My
English ability is nonexistent.”
Participant concerns did go beyond simply theability to communicate, however, as some respondents
seemed concerned about issues of control during theEnglish lesson. Although in many instances in the past
the ALT in the elementary classroom was given therun of the curriculum and lesson planning (Ohtani,2010), the inclusion of English in the elementary
curriculum means that at least some universities areteaching students of elementary education how to plan
for lessons in English, and it seems that some students
are expecting to have full control of these lessons.
Comments such as, “I’m worried about whether or not
the ALT will be well engaged with the way the lessons
I have designed are planned” and “whether or not wewill be able to make lessons together, the leadershipbalance” show a shift in student expectations for theroles of the HRT and ALT during future English
lessons.
Although there was no comment on concerns
about possible clashing of cultures causing problems,participant responses to one Likert item show thatthe topic is not completely ignored. The item stated,“I feel it is important to learn about other culturesin order to teach English with an ALT,” and 97.5%
of respondents agreed to some degree with thisstatement. This suggests that these future HRTs areaware that knowledge of another culture is important,but do not understand to what degree this knowledge
can be used.

Limitations and Implications
There are some limitations to this study which
are mostly in relation to the participants. The firstlimitation is in relation to the number of respondents
to the questionnaire. Although the response rateof 33% was not terrible, there were still only 40
responses. A higher percentage of responses may
have been possible if the teacher had time to give andcollect the questionnaires in class. It would benefit
the significance of the data and any future iterations

346 The 2016 PanSIG Journalof this study to attain closer to a 100% response rate.
The second limitation is that the survey was only given
to elementary teachers-in-training at one university inJapan. To get a broader understanding these students’opinions from a national viewpoint, more data must
be collected from an assortment of universities acrossa fuller range of prefectures in Japan. The collection of
the current data was also proven to be difficult, as theprocess for getting approval for the disbursement of
the questionnaire involved clearing quite a bit of “redtape” from the university administration. This waspartially the reason why more data was not collected.
Finally, a possible third limitation to the study involves
the Japanese version of the questionnaire itself.
Although the Japanese version of the questionnaire
was checked by a native Japanese speaker, it is possiblethat participants could still figure out that the items
were developed by a non-native Japanese speaker,
potentially affecting their choices when responding to
the questionnaire.
As the current data suggests, many of theseelementary teachers-in-training show an interest inother cultures through their short trips abroad andrecognize the importance of knowing about othercultures as it relates to working in a multicultural
setting (as seen in the 97.5% affirmative participant
responses to the Likert item of “I feel it is importantto learn about other cultures in order to teach English
with an ALT.”). There is a need in these students forknowledge about other cultures, suggesting that theywould benefit from the inclusion of some sort ofmulticultural education course in their curriculum.
Further, exposure to other cultures, whether throughinclusion in international conferences or local
workshops, would help these students to broaden theircultural experiences beyond these short trips abroad.

Conclusions
This paper investigated the beliefs of elementaryteachers-in-training who are preparing to become
HRTs at local elementary schools and teach English
lessons alongside an ALT. In order to do this, threeresearch questions were developed and data wasanalyzed in relation to them. The first question
explored the kinds of exposure these students have toElementary Teacher Education In Japan, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 342-350
cultures outside of their own. It was determined thatthese students have very limited exposure to othercultures, and any trips outside of Japan were mostly
over a very short period of time for the purpose ofeither sightseeing or a short study abroad/homestay
program. The second question asked how thesestudents perceive the culture and role of the ALT in anelementary level English class. The responses indicatedthat many students saw an ALT as a cheerful, fun
individual who would need guidance, as they are notnecessarily professional educators. Finally, this study
explored what it is that these elementary teachersin-training see as potential difficulties for when they
become HRT and begin working with an ALT. Most
respondents reported communication issues as theirlargest concerns. Although there was little mentionedof culture differences causing problems, it wassuggested that the lack of this type of response may be
because of a lack of knowledge in differences between
Japanese and other cultures. This was supported by avery high percentage of respondents indicating thatthey thought it was important to know about othercultures to successfully work alongside an ALT.

References
Amaki, Y. (2008). Perspectives on English educationin the Japanese public school system: The viewsof foreign assistant language teachers (ALTs).
Educational Studies in Japan: International
Yearbook, 3, 53-63.
Leonard, T. J. (1999). East meets west: Problems
and solutions understanding misunderstandings
between JTEs and ALTs. Tokyo, Japan:
Taishukan.
Muller, S. E. (2015). The Japanese elementary school
foreign languages program from an ALT’s
perspective. In G. Brooks, M. Grogan, & M.
Porter (Eds.), The 2014 PanSIG Conference
Proceedings (pp. 122-133). Miyazaki, Japan:
JALT.
Ohtani, C. (2010). Problems in the assistantlanguage teacher system and English activity at
Japanese public elementary schools. Educational
Perspectives, 43(1&2), 38-45.
Tsuido, K., Otani, M., & Davies, W. (2012).
An analysis of assistant language teachers’
perceptions of their working relationships withJapanese teachers of English. Hiroshima Studies in
Language and Language Education, 15, 49-64.

Author’s Biography:
Brett Raymond Walter is a Lecturer for the Graduate School of Education at Hiroshima
University. He received his Master’s in Elementary Education and his PhD in Curriculum andInstruction, majoring in Second and Foreign Language Education at Florida State University.

The 2016 PanSIG Journal347

Walter

Appendix A

AppendixA
Questionnaire

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´ô·,の結果よって学業成績等において不利益を被ることは決してありません。
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等で発表する予定ですが、それによって個人が特定されたり、個人の情報が漏えいしたりすることも決してありま どうかご安心下さい。
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The 2016 PanSIG Journal349

Walter
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350 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

,@VEXKÝ=#9©r%[Creating Conditions for Collaborative
Learning in the Language Classroom
Larry Xethakis
Kumamoto University, Faculty of Engineering
lxethakis@gmail.com
Collaborative learning is more than just a collection of pair and group work techniques. Effectively
employing collaborative learning requires that teachers re-conceptualize their classroom as a‘created’ space. This space is designed by the teacher to create the kinds of learning opportunities
that make collaborative learning an effective pedagogical tool. This paper describes the use oftechniques grounded in collaborative learning theories to bring about two of the necessary
conditions for successful collaborative learning — group cohesion and scaffolded interaction – ina university ESP classroom. As a result, there was better cooperation between students and greater
engagement in a group design project.
コラボレーティヴ・ラーニングは、単にペアワークとグループワークの合作と思われがちであるが、実際はそれ以上ものである。効果的なコラボレーティブ・ラーニングを行うためには、教師が「教室」という場を「創造された場」
として再概念化する必要があるとされている。教師がこの「創造された場」を構築することで、コラボレーティヴ・ラーニングを効果的な教育的手段として用いることが可能となる。
この研究では、コラボレーティブ・ラーニングの場が奏効するために必要な２つの要素である「グループの結束力」と、「相互作用の促進」の二つを用い、
コラボレーティヴ・ラーニングの技術を適用することで、結果として工学部の大学講義において生徒間のより良い強調と、優れた設計
プロジェクトへと繋がったため報告する。

Pair-work and group activities are an accepted partof most teachers’ practice. Working in pairs or small
groups, learners can act as mediators who help to
explain new ideas or information (Gillies, 2003), serve
as a pool of resources, as a source of motivation and abase of support as well as helping to facilitate language
learning (Dörnyei, 1997). Yet, as Gillies (2003) notes,“placing students in groups and telling them to work
together” (p. 45) does not always end up in learning oreven positive interaction.
The motivation for this study came out of an
English for Special Purposes course for architectural

students in a Japanese university. In one portion of
the course, the students work in groups to create anarchitectural design and present it to the class. While
the majority of the students enjoyed the project andfound it worthwhile, there were difficulties in somegroups that did not seem to interact or cooperatevery effectively or with some members who did notseem engaged in the group or the project. This led
to the question of how to increase engagement andcooperation in the groups and among the members.
Collaborative learning and its range of techniques,
such as the jigsaw, think-pair-share or the three-partinterview, aimed at getting students to interact in a

Xethakis, L. (2017). Creating conditions forcollaborative learning in the language classroom. In G.
Brooks (Ed.) The 2016 PanSIG Journal (pp. 351-359).
Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

group, seemed to offer a way out of this situation.
However, as Abrami, Chambers, Poulsen, Korous,
Farrell, and d’Apollonia (1994) found, teachers often
neglect to put into place one or more the important
The 2016 PanSIG Journal351

Xethakis
aspects of collaborative learning.
To effectively employ collaborative learning in
the classroom, teachers need to re-conceptualize
their classroom as a ‘created’ space - one that has been
designed to create the kinds of learning opportunities
that make collaborative learning an effective
pedagogical tool (Oxford, 1997). Berkeley, Cross, andHowe (2004) state that in a collaborative classroom,
teachers “purposefully create a learning environment
in which students interact with each other” (p. 29) andthey make the intentional design of learning activities
the first feature of collaborative learning.
The purpose of this study was to attempt to createsuch a space in the teacher-researcher’s classroom
and, using theories underlying collaborative learning,
to design a collaborative learning environment.
Widdowson’s (1990) framework for pedagogic
mediation was employed as the means to guide thedevelopment of principles grounded in professional
knowledge but adapted to fit the context of theteacher-researcher’s classroom (the process ofdeveloping these principles is described in Xethakis,2016). These principles guided the design andimplementation of activities aimed at creating
conditions for successful collaborative learning in theclassroom. The effectiveness of these principles and thecollaborative learning techniques employed were thenassessed by means of classroom observation, teacher
journals and student surveys. This paper focuses on
the use of these activities to bring about two of these
conditions.

Condition 1: Creating a CohesiveTeam
One of the most essential conditions for collaborative
learning to succeed is motivating students to work as agroup (Cohen, 1994), ensuring that they feel that they
are part of team and “working together in a coherent
group,” (Scrivener, 2012, p. 85). Working in a cohesive
group provides several benefits to students, including
higher L2 motivation (Clement, Dörnyei & Noels,
1994), and a greater likelihood of active interaction
between students (Levine and Moreland, 1990).
Figure 1 summarizes the procedure and techniques
used to create a cohesive team in this study.
An important factor in creating a sense ofcohesion in a group is establishing a zone of comfort
and a good relationship between group members,
and one good way of doing this is for learners to sharepersonal information (Dörnyei, 1997). Both Dörnyei

Figure 1. Collaborative learning techniques and aims in creating a cohesive team.

352 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Creating Conditions for Collaborative Learning, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 351-359
and Berkeley, et al (2005) recommend the use of icebreakers for this purpose. The three-part interview is acollaborative learning technique that is well suited forthis purpose (Berkeley, et al, 2005). In this techniquea group of four students is broken into pairs. The pairsinterview each other, and then switch partners andrepeat the process.
In this study, this technique was used to create asense of cohesion by having the students discuss six
prompts to find things they had in common, such as afavorite food, a place they would like to travel to, or an
activity they enjoyed. All four members then used thisinformation to come up with a team name based on
those things all four team members had in common.
The goal of creating a team name encouraged the
beginnings of a sense of rapport between teammembers, as shown in a classroom observation,
While a few of the students weren’t very outgoing,
the large majority of the students began talking witheach other using the questions prompts on the sheet.
There was a lot of conversation and interaction.
There were a lot of smiles and laughs as well, so
the students seemed to be enjoying the activity. The
groups worked together to find common points foreveryone in the group, and coming up with groupnames went very quickly (less than five minutes).
(Note 1-1)
While the ice-breaker helped to establish a rapport
and a sense of cohesion, the overall purpose of this firstclass was to have the students discuss their ideas, decide
on an architectural design and discuss some of its basic
characteristics (size, location, access, etc.). This would
then serve as a basis for more detailed discussions in
the following classes.
Levine and Moreland (2004) note that for groups
to work together creatively, the members of the groupneed to be motivated to share their ideas and feelthat their ideas are useful to the group, they must
communicate their ideas, and the group as a wholeneeds to take the time to consider the ideas and cometo a consensus. To encourage this, the think-pair-sharetechnique was employed. In the ‘think’ stage of thisactivity, the students are given time to consider ananswer to a question or problem individually. Next, thestudents discuss their answers in pairs or small groups.
This is the ‘pair’ stage. After voicing their opinions
and hearing those of their partner, the students then‘share’ their opinions with the larger group. This
activity allows students to try out their response ina more low-risk situation before ‘going public’ withthem, increasing students’ willingness to express
their opinion. Allowing the students to practice theircomments first also tends to increase the quality of
response (Barkley, et al, 2005). These features of theactivity are especially important in a language learning
context where student anxiety is always a factor.
In this class, the students were given twelve
choices to consider for their design project. They
were asked to pick three and write out their reasonsfor choosing each. The students then paired-up withanother member of their group, reading their choices
and reasons while their partner listened and gave
simple feedback on their ideas before changing roles.
This process gave the students the time to prepare ananswer and the opportunity to rehearse the answer
before contributing to the more high-stakes wholegroup discussion.
The effect of the think-pair share technique inbuilding a sense of comfort can be seen as well,Some of the students were hesitant to start talking totheir partner. However, after the first partner had
read their first or second choice, the pairs seemed
to relax and there was more physical interaction(Bodies moved towards each other, heads began tobob up and down). By the end of the task most of thepairs were talking more freely. (Note 1-1)
The outcome of these two techniques on theclosing group discussion, where it seemed that theteams came together better and were more willing toshare their preferences with each other, was noted in ajournal entry,
I saw many of the students willing to read out theirchoices (as opposed to just showing their sheets) andthis may have been a result of the earlier activities.
There were lots of people turned around in their
The 2016 PanSIG Journal353

Xethakis
seats (tough to do in this classroom, so if they do it
they must be interested in talking with each other).
In all the groups the students were involved in theprocess and really working as groups, with lots ofinteraction, talking about design ideas, and asking
other members opinions. (Entry 1-1)
In addition to the teaching journal and classroom
observation, a short survey was given to the students
at the end of class to gain their point of view of on theactivities. The results (See Appendix, Table 1) showedthat the students enjoyed the activities overall andthat they also felt that the set of activities helped themwork better in their groups.

Condition 2: Scaffolding
Interactions
For collaborative learning to succeed, teachers alsoneed to consider how the students are expected tointeract in each activity – a simple give and take of
information or a more open exchange with a moreelaborated discussion – and also the interplay between
task, interaction and learning (Cohen, 1994).
McGroarty (1992) discusses the distinction
between one- and two-way tasks in this context. Oneway tasks, where one student speaks, the other listens
and then they switch roles, can provide learners withmore practice in extended speaking and listening. This
may give them greater confidence in their ability to
express themselves as well as understand others. The
think-pair-share task discussed above is can be seen
as an example of this. Two-way tasks, such as a jigsaw
activity, where learners interact with partners, sharing
information to complete a task, are suitable whenmore substantial interaction is expected.
Cohen (1994) adds two additional dimensions
to the conception of tasks adopted in this study –the level of cooperation required and the degree ofstructure found in the task. Low-cooperation tasks
merely require students to share information, as in astandard information-gap. High-cooperation tasks
require students to work together to plan and makedecisions in order to complete the task. The jigsawlike activity below is an example of this type. Tight

354 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

structure in a task includes explicit instructions
or procedures, designated roles for students and adefinite answer, whereas in loosely structured tasks theprocedures for reaching a solution are not so clearlystated and there may not be a single correct answer.
In this study, the ultimate aim was for the
students to engage in a loosely structured, highcooperation, two-way task – discussing and making
decisions about aspects of an architectural design. To
do this, the students’ interactions in each class werescaffolded, through a series of activities moving fromone-way, low-cooperation tasks, with tight structures
to a loosely structured, highly cooperative group
discussion. Figure 2 shows an example of how this wasdone in a class where students decided the layout of
their groups’ designs.
First, the students engaged in a tightly structured,
low-cooperation activity – describing the position ofseveral shapes while their partner attempted to draw
an identical picture – to help them build confidence intheir ability to explain locations.
The effect of the tightly structured one-way tasks
on the students’ degree of comfort and confidence isshown in the following observation:
The fun involved in the confusion of drawing thepartner’s picture gained the students’ interest andthe level of noise rose as it went on. Many students
were actively gesturing, trying to explain where
things were in the pictures, with the focus on getting
the picture right rather than getting the language
perfect. There was laughter and chatting as they
did the activities and a lot of laughing when they
compared pictures. (Note 1-3)
The next task – where students had to draw aquick sketch of their own house and then describe it totheir partner – was similar, if a bit looser in structure,to the first task in level of cooperation and direction ofcommunication, however it moved the content of theexchanges closer to the discussion activity.
The students then worked together as a groupon a jigsaw-like task to fill in locations on the floor
plan of a design using the different clues they hadeach been given. The nature of this activity provided

Creating Conditions for Collaborative Learning, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 351-359

Figure 2. Class activities and their role in scaffolding students’ interaction.

an opportunity for two-way interaction between
group members with a lesser degree of structure,
as well as introducing and providing students with
an opportunity to practice language for expressing
opinions about location, which they could use
in planning their designs later in the class. It was
hoped that this would allow the students to focus
on understanding how the language related to anarchitectural design, rather than on understanding thelanguage itself, as well as allowing the students to use
the language more easily in their discussions of theirown designs.
Another comment from the teaching journal
shows the overall effect of scaffolding on the groups’
interactions:
There was a continued level of interest and focus
throughout the class and the amount of interactionin the groups – asking for opinions, talking aboutideas and no one person doing a majority of the work
– shows that the pair-work and jigsaw-like activities
contributed to the group work on the design project.
It seemed that the movement from simple to more
complex practice allowed the students to use more
English in their group planning and five of the six
groups were focused on doing their project with lotsof talking, gesturing for explanations, nods andsmiles in their interactions. (Note 1-3)
The results of the in-class survey (See Appendix,
Table 2) also showed the students felt that the pairwork and group activities helped them to work on
their project, and that working in their groups on theirproject and interacting with the other group members
helped them to learn English.

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Xethakis

Discussion and Limitations
Barkley, Cross, & Howe (2005) stress the importanceof designing tasks and structuring procedures toactively engage students and effectively employ
collaborative learning. The series of activities discussed
above helped to create conditions for successful
collaborative learning by encouraging cohesion
among the members of a team and scaffolding theirinteractions through the intentionally designed
progression of the activities, moving from simple
forms of one-way, highly-structured, low-cooperationinteraction to more complex, two-way, ‘ill-structured’(Cohen, 1994), high-cooperation forms. These
activities were focused on a specific group project,however, by re-conceptualizing the use and aims ofcollaborative learning activities, as well as conventional
pair and group activities, in their own classrooms,
similar progressions of activities could be employedby teachers to improve student cooperation andinteraction, as well as building confidence (McGroaty,1992).
While this paper has shown the use of these
activities in creating conditions for collaborative
learning, some limitations should be noted as well.
First, all the students were in the same department
and have had many classes together. The cohort-likenature of the students might have predisposed them
to working as a group, after overcoming some initial
hesitancy. Because of this, and the fact that the study
deals with only a single group of students, future
research should examine the use of intentionallystructured collaborative learning in other classrooms.
Moreover, though the overall levels cooperationand interaction improved greatly, there were stillgroups that didn’t gel completely and this might behelped by more time for team-building. Prichard,
Stratford and Bizo (2006) suggest that even ninety
minutes of team-building training can provide longerterm benefits.
It should also be noted that while many of theinteractions between group members were carriedout in English, a large part of the group discussions
took place in Japanese, so it is difficult to say if thetechniques employed in this study helped to improve
the students’ English abilities. That being said, the356 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

primary aim of this study was to improve the qualityof interactions and level of cooperation between groupmembers and so this was considered an acceptabletrade-off considering the overall level of the students.
(For an example of activities to enable student
discussions in the context of a group project, see
Fushino, 2010.)

References
Abrami, P. C., Chambers, B., Poulsen, C., Kouros,C., Farrell, M., & D’Apollonia, S. (1994).
Positive social interdependence and classroom
climate. Genetic, Social, and General Psychology
Monographs, 120(3), 329-346.
Barkley, E. F., Cross, K. P., & Howe, C. (2004).
Collaborative learning techniques: A handbook forcollege faculty. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley &Sons.
Clément, R., Dörnyei, Z., & Noels, K. A. (1994).
Motivation, self‐confidence, and group cohesionin the foreign language classroom. Language
learning, 44(3), 417-448.
Cohen, E. G. (1994). Restructuring the classroom:
Conditions for productive small groups. Reviewof Educational Research, 64(1), 1-35.
Dörnyei, Z., & Malderez, A. (1997). Group dynamics
and foreign language teaching. System, 25(1),65-81.
Fushino, K. (2010). Let’s try cooperative learninggroup projects! In A. M. Stoke (Ed.), JALT2009
Conference Proceedings. (pp. 359-369). Tokyo:
JALT.
Gillies, R. M. (2003). Structuring cooperative group
work in classrooms. International Journal of
Educational Research, 39(1), 35-49
Levine, J. M., & Moreland, R. L. (1990). Progressin small group research. Annual Review of
Psychology, 41(1), 585-634.
Levine, J. M., & Moreland, R. L. (2004).
Collaboration: The social context of theory
development. Personality and Social Psychology
Review, 8(2), 164-172.
McGroarty, M. (1992). What can peers
provide?. Georgetown University Round Tableon Languages and Linguistics (GURT) 1991:

Creating Conditions for Collaborative Learning, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 351-359
Linguistics and Language Pedagogy: The Stateof the Art, (pp. 40 – 55). Washington, DC:
Georgetown University Press.
Oxford, R. L. (1997). Cooperative learning,collaborative learning, and interaction:
Three communicative strands in the language
classroom. The Modern Language Journal, 81(4),443-456.
Scrivener, J. (2012). Classroom management
techniques. Cambridge, England: Cambridge
University Press.
Prichard, J.S., Stratford, R.J. and Bizo, L.A., (2006).

Team-skills training enhances collaborative
learning. Learning and instruction, 16(3), 256265.
Widdowson, H. G. (1990). Aspects of language
teaching. Oxford, England: Oxford University
Press.
Xethakis, L. J. (2016). Bringing theory into theclassroom: Widdowson’s framework forpedagogic mediation in individual practice. In
G. Brooks, M. Porter, D. Fujimoto, & D. Tatsuki(Eds.), The 2015 PanSIG Journal (pp. 205-213).
Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

Author’s Biography:
Larry Xethakis lectures in the Faculty of Engineering at Kumamoto University. His researchinterests include collaborative learning, student engagement; English for special purposesand vocabulary learning; pedagogy and the role of theory in practice; teacher autonomy andconceptions of practice.

The 2016 PanSIG Journal357

Xethakis

Appendix
Results from In-class Student Surveys
Table 1:Student replies regarding activities aimed at creating a cohesive team. (n=22)
Q1: Was today’s class interesting or boring(M=4.36)

It was boring.

It was OK.

It was interesting.

1

2

3

4

5

—

—

3

8

11

Q2: Do you think your group project is interesting?
It was boring.

(M=4.36)
It was OK.

It was interesting.

1

2

3

4

5

—

1

1

9

11

Q3: Did you enjoy doing group and pair work today?
It was boring.

(M=4.14)
It was OK.

It was interesting.

1

2

3

4

5

—

—

4

11

7

Q4: Did today’s class help you to enjoy working in your group?
No, not at all(M=4.14)It helped some.

Yes, a lot.

1

2

3

4

5

—

1

3

10

8

Q5: Did working in a group help you to learn English today?
No, not at all(M=3.50)

It helped some.

Yes, a lot.

1

2

3

4

5

—

3

11

2

6

Q6: Did you use English a lot today?
No, not at all(M=3.36)
I used some English

Yes, a lot.

1

2

3

4

5

—

4

10

4

4

358 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Creating Conditions for Collaborative Learning, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 351-359
Table 2:Student replies regarding activities aimed at scaffolding interaction. (n=18)
Q1: Was today’s class interesting or boring?
It was boring.

(M=4.06)
It was OK.

It was interesting.

1

2

3

4

5

—

—

6

5

7

Q2: Did today’s pair and group work help you to do your project?
No, not at all.

(M=3.83)

It helped some.

Yes, a lot.

1

2

3

4

5

—

—

7

7

4

Q3: Did working on your project today help you to learn English?
No, not at all.

(M=3.89)

It helped some.

Yes, a lot.

1

2

3

4

5

—

—

5

10

3

Q4: Did working in a group help you to learn English today?
No, not at all(M=3.89)

It helped some.

Yes, a lot.

1

2

3

4

5

—

—

7

6

5

Q5: Did talking with the members of your group help you to learn English?
No, not at all(M=3.61)

It helped some.

Yes, a lot.

1

2

3

4

5

—

2

6

7

3

Q6: Did you use English a lot today?
No, not at all(M=3.33)
It helped some.

Yes, a lot.

1

2

3

4

5

1

2

8

4

3

The 2016 PanSIG Journal

359

Board Games and Foreign Language Learning:
Rationale and Framework Development
James York

Jonathan deHaan

Tokyo Denki University
yorksensei@gmail.com

University of Shizuoka
dehaan@u-shizuoka-ken.ac.jp

This article discusses the rationale and design of a teaching methodology that utilizes the numerous
communicative features of modern board games to help develop practical communication skills
in low-level EFL learners. We introduce, firstly, the particular constraints of the teaching context
in which the methodology aims to be implemented, and, secondly, the definition and potential
language learning affordances of board games based on affective and cognitive factors. Following,
we provide a detailed account of our preliminary framework with rationale and clear guidelines forclassroom implementation at each stage.
本論文では、低レベルのEFL環境でコミュニケーション能力を向上させるため、ボードゲームの様々な対話力を養う特徴を活かす教授法の理論的根拠や開発を紹介します。 最初に本教授法が用いられる環境を紹介します。
そして、
ボードゲームの定義と学習への好影響の可能性を認識(cognitive)や感情(affective)の要因を拠点として説明します。
その後、本教授法の開発の背景となる第二言語習得理論や他の「ゲームを使った教授法」
を紹介します。最後に、他の教員が簡単に使用できるように本教授法を紹介します。

Since 2003, the Ministry of Education, Culture,
Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in Japan has
been encouraging stronger focus on the developmentof practical English communication skills for students
in junior high school, high school, and to a lesser
extent university (Ministry of Education, 2003; andMinistry of Education, 2014). The Ministry’s goal is totransition away from traditionally taught passive skillsof reading and listening toward an increased focus on
speaking and writing, so that students may “assertively
make use of their English skills, think independently,
and express themselves” (Ministry of Education,
2014, p. 3). MEXT is thus calling for improvementsin pedagogy design, particularly through interaction,
proactivity, and cooperative learning strategies.

Introduction - What Are “Modern” Board
Games?

York, J., & deHaan, J. (2017). Board games andforeign language learning: Rationale and framework
development. In G. Brooks (Ed.) The 2016 PanSIG
Journal (pp. 360-371). Tokyo, Japan: JALT.

automatically, and the game provides an extensive ingame tutorial to scaffold play.
The mechanics of modern board games differ
significantly to those of earlier titles such as Monopoly

360 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Firstly, board games may be defined as those games
which are played via the mediation of physicalcomponents (boards, cards, dice, pawns, etc.). In
order to play such games players are required to reada rulebook beforehand. Players are also in chargeof progressing the game state themselves, which isusually achieved by manipulating the position of thephysical components, or by providing information
regarding any changes in the game state through verbal
interaction (face to face communication). Such games
are thus almost invariably multiplayer activities. Thisis a stark contrast to video or mobile games, the games
students are usually most familiar with, where AI
controls rule management, the game state is updated

Board Games and Foreign Language Learning, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 360-371
or Risk (see Nicholson, 2008 for a discussion ofmodern games’ lack of player elimination, more playerinteraction, less luck-driven play and multiple paths
to victory). In this study we focus on two genresin particular due to their affordances for language
learning. These are cooperative strategy games and social
deduction (sometimes referred to as hidden role) games.
As the name suggests, cooperative strategy
games put the players against the board game itself
in a cooperative endeavour. Players have to work
together to overcome a shared goal whilst avoiding or
preventing obstacles that the game presents to them.
Cooperative board games often give each player aunique role giving all players equal importance indetermining the outcome of the game. A typical gameof this genre is Pandemic (Leacock, 2007). Players are
disease prevention specialists attempting to eradicate
diseases as they spread throughout the world. The
game board is a map of the earth, players are pawns
that may travel from city to city, and the diseases are
represented by one of four different coloured cubes(See Figure 1).
The particular affordances for language learning
alluded to in the previous paragraph is exploredin more detail below, but one other reason for the
inclusion of cooperative games is that competition

has been shown to increase cognitive load and lower
attention (Nebel, Schneider, & Rey, 2016).
The typical play style of a social deduction gameis to find a traitor amongst a group of players. The
primary way of achieving this is by discussing what
information each player has about others in the group.
After a time limit has been reached, players vote on
who they think traitor is, and the game (or round)ends with that player revealing their role. This genre
was chosen due to the central communication-driven
gameplay mechanic. Games in this genre therefore
represent typical jigsaw information gap activities
used in task-based language teaching (TBLT). Jigsaw
tasks have a number of positive learning benefits suchas promoting the negotiation of meaning as learners’
exchange information to complete the task (Skehan,2003). It is generally difficult to know a player’s role,and players are encouraged to work diplomatically or
lie in order to become victorious.
As a concrete example of a team-based social
deduction game, One Night Ultimate Werewolf(Alspach, 2014) is a short (five-minute) gameconsisting of the Werewolf team and the Villager team.
Players are assigned to a team by player cards which are
distributed to players face down (see Figure 2).
Players assigned to the Villager team must findFigure 1. A game of Pandemic underway in class.

The 2016 PanSIG Journal361

York & deHaan

Figure 2. Player cards from the game One Night Ultimate Werewolf (Bezier Games, nd).

and lynch a werewolf at the end of the game to be
victorious. Alternatively, if they lynch a player fromtheir own team instead, the Werewolf team win.
This game features a number of characters on the
Villager team that have the ability to secretly gather
information regarding other players during a pre-playphase. In this way, information may be collected before
play and then shared with the group orally during
play in order to make a prediction as to which player
is possibly a werewolf. Examples of how information
may be divided between players can be seen in Table
1. The werewolves must divert attention away fromthemselves by spreading misinformation. Thus, theonly mechanic for progressing gameplay is to converse

with other players in order to gain information or
divert attention from oneself.

The Potential Benefits of BoardGames
Pedagogically, the link between prevalent language
learning methodologies such as TBLT and digital
video games has been made by a number of researchers(see Purushotma, Thorne & Wheatley, 2008; Sykes& Reinhardt 2013; Sykes, Reinhardt & Thorne2010). Whether these claims transfer to the use ofboard games is yet to be explored. However, Sykes(2014) introduces the similarities between gameplay(not necessarily unique to the digital domain) andTable 1
Example Character Abilities in One Night Ultimate Werewolf
Character

AbilitySeer

May look at another player’s card.

RobberMay exchange their own card with another player and look at their new role.

Troublemaker

May switch two other players’ cards.

362 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Board Games and Foreign Language Learning, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 360-371
tasks including clear goals, goal-oriented activity,
authentic and meaningful contexts, learning by doing,
opportunities for interaction, and negative feedback.
Following, numerous empirical studies have shown
the benefits of gameplay for both L2 acquisition (Gee,2012; Peterson, 2012) and in the affective domain,such as in improving motivation and willingness
to communicate (Reinders & Wattana, 2015). The
following section highlights the affective and cognitive
benefits of using board games in such contexts with aparticular focus on how gameplay closely matches
TBLT methodology.

Learning Rules Before Play
Board game rulebooks introduce key concepts,
vocabulary, and grammatical structures encounteredduring gameplay, and may be referenced to assist in
resolving breakdowns in communication regarding
rule clarifications. Preparing to play in this way may
also help reduce cognitive overload during play as theprocedure is scaffolded to facilitate the developmentof passive skills before active skills (i.e. reading andlistening skills targeted in the pre-play phase before
speaking during gameplay). Thus, from a TBLT
approach, the rule book acts as a priming tool (seeWillis 1996) for students to become familiar with
relevant vocabulary and grammar before play. Reading
the rulebook and watching gameplay related videos
can be considered pedagogic tasks (PTs) that work
as simpler, scaffolded tasks to prepare learners for asubsequent target tasks (see Long, 2014). The target
task in this case being the board game play session.

Social, Player-directed Play
Zagal, Rick, and Hsi (2006) write, “In contrast [tovideo games], the nature of board games implies atransparency regarding the core mechanics of the gameand the way they are interrelated. This transparency
makes them more accessible.” With board games,
then, players are active agents in progressing
gameplay, solving rule disputes, and ensuring all playerinteractions are aligned towards the game’s goal. The
type of interaction is archetypical of Long’s (1983)
Interaction Hypothesis (where interaction acts asa tool for progressing one’s interlanguage). Taking

cooperative games as a concrete example, they provide
the tools for creating novice-expert discussions
as learners have different strategies, intellects andambitions within the game. Such games, like othergroup problem-solving or puzzle-solving activities
used in the language classroom, promote interaction
between players and social, collaborative learning.
Interaction contributes to language acquisition inaccordance with the Interaction Hypothesis (Long,
2014), helps to generate comprehensible input(Krashen, 1985) and instances of negotiation formeaning (Pica, 1994), and, finally, pushes learners
to produce comprehensible output which enables
learners to develop communicative competence in thelanguage (Swain, 1985). Novice-expert interactions
or scaffolding and the collaborative constructionof knowledge are concepts in sociocultural theory
and have been shown to provide the opportunity forlearning (for example see Donato, 1994).

Framework Overview
Our model is made up of three distinct stages: 1) Preplay, 2) Play, and 3) Post-play. This loosely resembles
Willis’s traditional TBLT model (1996) where
gameplay is considered the main task of the lesson.
Unlike the TBLT model which is designed to be fullycompleted in a single class session however, there are
multiple Pedagogic Tasks (PTs) (Long, 2014) or, as
Sykes & Reinhardt (2011) refer to them “wraparound
activities” to support and build on the main task ofgameplay at the pre- and post-task stages (Table 2).

Pre-play (Extracurricular activities)
The model starts with students learning the game
rules and familiarising themselves with the game. Thisprepares them for the play by exposing them to target
vocabulary and grammatical structures that will beneeded during gameplay. There are a number of reasons
for requiring students to learn game rules before class.
Firstly, this allows more class time to devote to playing
and thus active, oral communication as seen in the
educational model known as the flipped classroom(Herreid & Schiller, 2013). This also relates to thegoal of MEXT to promote communication during
The 2016 PanSIG Journal363

York & deHaan
Table 2
Framework Overview
SectionLocation

Task

1.1

Outside of class

Learn game rules

1.2
1.3

Create comprehension questions
In class

Comprehension check

2.1

Play the game

2.2

Debriefing

2.3

Repeat the game (if possible)

3.1

Focus on form

3.2

Written reportclass time. Secondly, making students responsible forlearning the rules themselves, is likely to make themmore active during the gameplay phase (Crookall &Oxford, 1990).
Part 1.1: Learn the rules. Board games areoften highly thematic, containing some advanced
vocabulary. For example, see the below text as an
example of how to set up the game Pandemic. The firststage is a reading activity to familiarise learners withtarget vocabulary, game theme, and game rules.
Place the infection rate marker on the leftmost “2”space of the Infection Rate Track. Shuffle the Infection
cards and flip over three of them. Put three disease cubesof the matching color on each of these cities.
Having read the rulebook as a group, students arethen directed to find and watch videos related to thegame in order to solidify their understanding. Seeing
an expert introduce game rules or model gameplay
actions provides benefits such as presenting correct
pronunciation, conversation examples, and the ability
to check hypotheses regarding rules. Popular video
hosting sites like YouTube feature a number of channelsof experts introducing game rules (see Figure 3).
From a multimodal perspective to learning,
different media have specific affordances andconstraints in what they can express. Therefore,
providing a visual representation of the written rulebook provides a different representation that scaffolds
the original reading activity (see Jewitt, 2014; Kress,

364 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

2010).
Part 1.2: Create comprehension questions. The
final extracurricular activity is for learners to create 10comprehension questions regarding the game rules.
Taking the board game Pandemic as an example, acomprehension question could be:
Q: How many actions do you get on your turn?
A: 4

Pre-play (Classroom Activities)
Part 1.3: Comprehension check. Learners create
their predetermined groups. Using the comprehension
questions they wrote before class, the group reconfirms
their understanding of the game rules. This provides
learners with the opportunity to check their own
understanding as well as others in a collaborative,
structured, pre-play activity.

Play
Part 2.1 Play the game. Games are selected based on
their ability to encourage communication between
players as outlined in the introduction (Additionally,a list of appropriate games can be seen in Appendix
1). All wraparound tasks are designed to prepare
learners for gameplay, the most demanding part of theframework where students attend to all four language
skills while also concentrating on the progression of
the game and game rules. During play, learners areencouraged to write down any new words or phrases

Board Games and Foreign Language Learning, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 360-371

Figure 3. A screenshot of a Dead of Winter gameplay guide (Watch It Played, 2014).

they hear as well as linguistic items that they wereunable to produce in English. This rapid focus on form
activity during play allows learners to focus on fluency
and game progression instead of their linguistic
shortcomings, notes are then referenced in a post-task
activity.
Part 2.2: Debriefing. Crookall and Oxford’s(1990) book on the use of simulations and games inlanguage learning contexts links debriefing to thedevelopment of critical thinking skills in language
learners and for allowing them to relate their gameplay
experience to reality. In the case of language learningthen, we ask students to engage in retrospection
regarding difficulties they had during play. Such
retrospection may help to elucidate any language
problems they had, or help them consider theconnection between certain gameplay elements andcourse goals and objectives (Peters & Vissers, 2004).
For instance, without the linguistic knowledge of how
to make requests, and the pragmatic knowledge of how
to speak to a figure of authority, learners realise that it
is very difficult to become successful at the trade-based
game Sheriff of Nottingham (Halaban & Zatz, 2014).
Debriefing thus allows learners to see the connection
between their success (or failure) in board games andtheir communicative competency.
Part 2.3: Repeat the game (If possible).
Depending on the length of the game, students may

get the opportunity to replay a number of times during
the same class. For example, the social deduction gameSpyfall (Ushan, 2014) has a fixed time limit of eightminutes allowing for multiple play sessions during
one class period. Students may want to ask their peersor their teacher for help, or consult their dictionaries
in order to better equip themselves for subsequent
play sessions. Task repetition has been shown tobe beneficial to learners in improving linguistic
fluency and accuracy at a variety of levels of language
proficiency (Bygate, 1996; Lynch & Maclean, 2000) as
well as having stronger effects on language acquisition
than planning alone (Skehan, Xiaoyue, Qian, & Wang,2012).

Post-play
Part 3.1: Focus on Form. At this stage, we shift focus
from fluency to accuracy. The teacher leads a session
looking at linguistic forms. Alternatively, as is often
the case with TBLT, instructors may wish to create afocus on form section based on observations during
the play session (Ellis, Basturkmen, & Loewen, 2002).
As a concrete example, students in this context were
found to rarely, if ever, use will during gameplay toemphasise their volition. Such as:
I move here.
I will move here.
Part 3.2: Report and reflection. Learners are
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York & deHaan
required to complete one of three different reportsheets. The sheets promote students to focus on
different aspects of gameplay (see Appendix 2) fromlinguistic, critical, and reflective perspectives. In
our context students alternated the worksheet they
completed after each gameplay session. This accuracyfocused activity thus matches the typical post-play
report phase as seen in Willis’s TBLT framework(1996). The worksheets were inspired by those usedin the Brooklyn Game Lab, a progressive afterschool
club teaching literacy skills through gameplay (http://brooklyngamelab.com).

Conclusion
With the above model, we have laid out our argument
for how games, and more specifically board games,
may be utilized in a pedagogic framework to foster
oral communication and student engagement in lowlevel EFL contexts. The model resembles a traditional
TBLT model with pre-, during- and post-play tasks.
It is structured to support learners’ language needs
throughout with a focus on both language learning
skills (speaking, reading, etc.) as well as requiring
students to reflect and think critically about their
gameplay sessions, the linguistic properties of games,
and how gameplay language may be transferable tosituations outside the classroom context.
Parallels may be drawn between our model andSykes and Reinhardt’s Explore, Experience and Expand
model (2011), as they both centre on harnessing games
into language learning contexts. However, our modelfeatures an increased focus on supporting low-level
learners, and immediate, face-to-face communication
during gameplay.
Future work regarding this model is to carryout empirical research on its learning benefits. Datais currently being collected regarding students’
perception of being taught this way including aquestionnaire designed with measures to explore
which elements of the framework students spent themost time on, which they thought were extraneous,and possible framework adjustments for further
implementation. Following on from the frameworkrefinement stage, we plan on exploring the discourse
patterns of learner gameplay in order to understand

366 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

what exactly they need instruction on in order toparticipate fully with this methodology. Our goal is
to create appropriate materials at the post-task phase
based on observations of student utterances during
gameplay.

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Author’s Biography:
James York is an assistant professor at Tokyo Denki University where he conducts researchon the use of games in low-level language learning contexts. He is also a PhD candidate at the
University of Leicester (UK). His PhD research is an investigation into the potential of virtualworld tasks as a way to improve beginner learners’ oral proficiency. James is also the founder of
Kotoba Miners, an online language learning community which uses Minecraft as a domain forteaching.

Jonathan deHaan is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of International Relations at the
University of Shizuoka. He studies media and methods that contribute to language and literacy
development. The University of Shizuoka Game Lab operates afterschool programs, a charity,and various public events around games.

368 The 2016 PanSIG Journal

Board Games and Foreign Language Learning, The 2016 PanSIG Journal, pages 360-371

Appendix 1: Game suggestionsGame name

Genre and mechanics

Possible learning outcomes

One Night Ultimate Werewolf

Social deduction
Team based cooperative

Question formation
Confirmation checks
Conditionals

2 Rooms and a BoomSocial deduction

Past tense
Question formation
Conjunctions (because, so)Pandemic

Cooperative

Asking for advice
Giving opinions
Conditionals

Resistance: Avalon

Social deduction

Imperatives
Conditionals
Past tense
Confirmation checks

Sheriff of Nottingham

Pragmatics
Negotiation
Conditionals

Spyfall

Social deduction

Question formation
Vocabulary building

Codenames

Cooperative
PuzzleVocabulary building
Decision making

Burgle Bros.

Cooperative

Asking for advice
Giving opinions
Conditionals

Dead of Winter

Cooperative

Asking for advice
Giving opinions
Conditionals
Confirmation checks

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Appendix 2: Report sheets

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