Creating an online opportunity for longer speaking turns practice forJapanese University EFL Learners
Andy Rushton
Abstract
It is generally accepted that the overwhelming response of Japanese University TEFL educators to
COVID-19 has been to rely on the cloud-based video conferencing service ZOOM to deliver realtime English oral communication lessons. While it is appreciated that a synchronous, simulated,conversational framework resembling a real classroom environment surely has its merits byproviding necessary teacher contact, does this always mean that time is utilized efficiently online
for the provision of extensive L2 practice for large university classes with diverse ranges of ability
and motivation? An intuitive decision, formed predominantly by experience of teaching lower
ability Japanese EFL learners, favored the asynchronous alternative FLIPGRID, a website used toenable video-discussions on a message board. In this way, Japanese EFL learners were given theopportunity to practice longer speech turns. In future online teaching contexts, it is anticipatedthat a combination of synchronous and asynchronous approaches would provide the necessarybalance of motivation and opportunity to enable sufficient student L2 development.
1. Introduction - the need to go online
The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has had a significant impact on society at large. In the
educational context, starting in early 2020, universities and schools closed their classrooms toprevent COVID-19 infection. Consequently, teaching online using computer mediatedcommunication (CMC) became the solution to ensure the continuance of students’ education,
despite many educators, including those in Japanese EFL, being unfamiliar with an online mode ofteaching. ZOOM, the online video conferencing platform, very quickly became a buzzword of thetimes as the mainstream media utilized it to maintain social distance in the pandemic whenreaching out to its pundits and commentators. Educational institutions followed suit and there
seemed to be an unspoken assumption that ZOOM would also meet their needs by providing an
online platform for lessons. For a while, it seemed that teaching online and ZOOM weresynonymous. Moreover, it was generally expected that a teacher could just deliver educational
content (i.e. teach lessons), but do it online via ZOOM instead.
It is not difficult to imagine how the transition to ZOOM for a one-way flow, lecture style approachto teaching, could be facilitated. However, the issue with ZOOM for Oral Communication EFL
teachers, with the obvious communicative nature of their classes, is clearly the sufficient
production of student L2 oral content denoting language practice. Furthermore, how such language
production could, within the real-time parameters of a 90-minute lesson, with a large number of－ 41 －

students of varying levels of motivation be efficiently produced (i.e. minimizing “silent” waitingtime and disruptive L1 chatter), whilst being comprehensively monitored with effective
individualized feedback. To address the above mentioned conditions, it is necessary to explore thevarious CMC options available when considering an online educational environment. Perhaps themost influential factor, however, and one which impacts all others, is synchronicity.
2. Now or later - the question of synchronicity
Oral communication online lessons utilizing oral CMC can be classified by the degree ofsynchronicity into synchronous and asynchronous modes. Synchronous CMC (SCMC) occurs inreal-time, face-to-face with little or no lag time and facilitates interpersonal speaking, examples
include ZOOM and SKYPE. Asynchronous CMC (ACMC), on the other hand, has a long lag timeand may fit a more presentational style of speaking. The longer lag time of ACMC allows moreplanning before any speaking occurs, whereas SCMC is more spontaneous. Crookes[1] (1989)
discovered that learners who had planned what they would say produced more varied vocabulary
and more complex grammatical structures as well as providing more detail. ACMC allows learners
to evaluate their own performance which increases their own self-awareness of skills that need to
be developed more. If necessary, the performance can then be revised and re-recorded allowing
learners the benefit of showing what they consider to be their best effort. SCMC could be argued tobe better for improving speaking proficiency as it is essentially face-to-face communication, but it
is a difficult task for less proficient EFL learners, (Ono et al,[2] 2015). In fact, for less confident L2
speakers, ACMC may even offer a preferable option to speaking in a classroom context. According
to Pop et al,[3] (2011), the factors of learners’ personality differences, learning and response rate,
motivation level, and level of language proficiency which impact the ability of a student to speak infront of others in class are effectively avoided in an ACMC environment.
3. To ZOOM or not to ZOOMAs mentioned above, ZOOM, an example of SCMC, had become the almost go-to solution for online
teaching. With any teaching method or approach, the context in which it will be used isparamount. Knowing the generally lower ability level with its often accompanying low motivationof the students at the university in question, ZOOM, it was decided, would not be a long term(whole semester, at any rate) solution. And “long term” is the key point here. At first it would be anovelty for students (and teachers) alike, but after the second, and third lesson, and on to the endof the semester what would be happening? Low confidence in ZOOM was fueled by the prevailing
anecdotal warnings from other teacher acquaintances: reports of students not turning on theircameras, looking at smartphones through each session, and the big no-no in any oral
communication class, using L1 (in this case, Japanese), when in ZOOM breakout rooms away fromthe eyes and ears of the teacher. Taking into consideration the teaching context at hand, it was
decided that ZOOM would be a mediocre solution if an efficient use of L2 speaking time and clear－ 42 －

feedback was hoped for. An alternative tech solution which was easy, fun and attractive to use
with which students could practice their English in an efficient way was therefore required.
4. FLIPGRID - an ACMC alternative to ZOOMFLIPGRID is a website for teachers to create "grids" or message boards on which tasks are set up
for students to post video responses that appear in a tiled grid-like display.
The grids are then shared with a class, and can hold an unlimited number of topics with each topic
supporting any number of responses. Topics can be text-based or include varied visual resources
such as photos, videos, Giphy, emoji, or other attachments. Student privacy is protected bycustomizable security settings.
Students respond to tasks directly via the FLIPGRID app or website with any mobile or tablet
device camera, or by uploading a previously recorded video. Student responses vary in length
between 15 seconds to five minutes, depending on the maximum time set by the teacher tocomplete the task appropriately. Students can also record replies/responses to classmates’ videos.
Each “Grid” can be customized with various features including feedback with the rubric set by theteacher.
5. FLIPGRID Vs ZOOM - why FLIPGRID would be better in the given context
5.1 Willingness to communicate
As already noted in Pop et al,[3] (2011) various factors exist which inhibit classroom L2 production
with lower level learners. Among Japanese university students, communication apprehension
exists in both Japanese and L2 (English) (McCroskey, Gudykunst and Nishida, [4]1985).
Hardworking students with high test scores are frequently believed to be reticent due to their fearof making a mistake in English in public, and in order to avoid this embarrassment favor silence
instead (Matsuoka, Matsumoto, Poole,[5] 2014). This may be part of the greater Japanese
educational milieu, most likely shaped by cultural beliefs originating from Confucianism and its
effects on interactional behavior, which stymie students’ willingness to communicate in English,(Matsuoka 2009; [6] Yashima,[7] 2002).
5.2 Longer speaking turns
When Japanese students do communicate, their utterances are often minimal and perfunctory at
best. They frequently limit L2 communication to single words, sentence fragments, or maybe
disjointed short sentences. Therefore, Japanese speakers of English in the EFL classroom require
practice to develop spoken language at the level of text, in other words, longer speaking turns.
Notably, the main factor in creating longer texts is to aim for more cohesion between sentences.

－ 43 －

Japanese learners of English at the university level have a declarative knowledge of discourse
markers and connectors, however, due to a lack of practice opportunity, they are unable to usethem well in real time spoken interaction. With FLIPGRID, learners can take time to plan a longer
speaking turn, with a timing requirement preset by the teacher to push learners to produce longer
turns, which as already noted by Crookes, [1] (1989) is beneficial. At first this text may be writtenout and just read aloud, but this should only be a first step allowing learners to be acclimated toseeing themselves speaking English on FLIPGRID. Learners should be soon encouraged to speak
more freely, probably with the aid of notes to guide their speaking. Typically lower ability students
might write out the text in full and then highlight keywords which form the notes. Just using thesenotes, learners attempt to speak as smoothly and as grammatically accurately as possible. As
FLIPGRID allows students to record (and importantly re-record) themselves, this serves assufficient practice before actually uploading their best performance of the set task. The practicethat is carried out is task-focused and time efficient allowing for improvement in fluency,
especially.
5.3 Feedback
In addition to efficient use of time, monitoring and feedback (input) is also crucial to language
development. In the lesson context of a ZOOM “break-out room”, it is impossible to provide
consistent overall class or individual monitoring of students’ interactive L2 production because theteacher is only able to enter one room at a time. Anecdotal evidence describes learners drifting
away from the task and inevitably slipping into L1.
5.4 FLIPGRID feedback feature
A central feature of FLIPGRID is the teacher’s ability to give direct individualized private
feedback. The teacher creates a feedback rubric on which to rank students' performance, which inthis particular case was grammar, pronunciation, fluency and content, with each descriptor rated
out of five. This, therefore, made it easy to create a percentage for grade weighting for each task
the students engaged in.
In addition to the above descriptors FLIPGRID has a 1024-character text box, giving the teacher
the advantage of pinpointing specific aspects (e.g. grammar or pronunciation) to provide
individualized feedback. To provide such detailed feedback, on every utterance if necessary, is
impossible in a large classroom, or ZOOM break-out room. Also with Japanese students who areincredibly sensitive about being given feedback, the individualized and private nature of the
FLIPGRID feedback system suits the average Japanese learner who craves one-to-one teacher
feedback ([8] Oxford & Anderson, 1995).

－ 44 －

5.4 FLIPGRID response videos
One criticism of FLIPGRID, as with any ACMC, could be the lack of real time conversational
exchange. With FLIPGRID, however, students are able to create response videos to other students’initial task response videos. It is therefore possible for a time-delayed spoken exchange to becreated. Admittedly, this is not a real time conversation, however, it is another opportunity forstudents to engage in long speaking turns with the opportunity to plan what they will say. As
previously noted, such planned exchanges are more accurate, grammatically complex, lexicallyvaried and detailed.
6. Flipgrid lessons – using a textbook
All Oral Communication courses at the university in question used Cutting Edge, Third Edition,
published by Pearson Longman, using levels Starter through to Pre-intermediate.
The textbook listening sections were used with additional teacher-made supplementary exercisesand delivered by Google Docs links via email. As is often the case, EFL textbook listening exercises
provide grammatical or thematic input for subsequent speaking tasks. With this in mind, thetextbook semi-controlled speaking tasks were often used as presented, requiring minimal
adjustments to make them appropriate for FLIPGRID.
For the first two lessons, teacher demonstration videos, providing a model version of eachcompleted speaking task was uploaded. This contained appropriate language to successfullycomplete the task, as well as adhering strictly to the expected content length.
6.1 Textbook lesson idea
Cutting Edge, Third Edition, Elementary, Unit 8’s grammatical focus is past simple andthematically partly based on “An evening in or out”. After engaging in a listening task involving
three people talking about their past experiences, of evenings spent in or out, both good and bad, atextbook speaking task is presented in as follows:

Using Flipgrid, students can use both the Useful language and the contextualized phrases from theaudioscript to make their own short video about their own evening in or out, in this case between
30 seconds to one minute. When the video was uploaded other students were encouraged to leave
responses - including both comments and questions to their classmates’ videos. In this way, ameaningful dialogue could be practised, albeit asynchronously.

－ 45 －

6.2 Non-textbook lesson idea
There are commercial English language examinations, such as IELTS, which contain a long-turnspeaking part. Part 2 of the IELTS speaking test requires the candidate to speak on a topic for
between one to two minutes using a cue card to guide the talk. Such an example might look like
this:Using the textbook topic or theme, the teacher can create a short task using a similar frameworkas the above. Or alternatively, if no suitable theme or topic exists within the textbook, then a shortvideo on a selected topic can be chosen along with the formulation of appropriate listening andcomprehension exercises. A good source for these 2-3 minute videos was the YouTube channel,
Great Big Story [9]. Ideally, the teacher would transcribe the text of the video to provide
appropriate listening tasks, for example, comprehension or a cloze. Using the theme, a topic task
similar to an IELTS part two speaking task shown above can be constructed. One example of sucha video was “Vintage radio repair man” about a man, who as the title suggests, repairs andrestores old transistor radios. With this material, learners completed comprehension questions anda listening cloze with the following speaking task:

The final Note regarding timing and delivery was added to ensure all students produced sufficient,appropriate quality material.

－ 46 －

7. FLIPGRID learner reactions
Overall the FLIPGRID style classes were received favorably by the learners as attested by theiranecdotal feedback and near 100% participation level throughout the semester. Some students had
remarked, perhaps a little negatively, that Flipgrid required more involvement as it had beennecessary to record and re-record their videos multiple times until they reached a level they had
been satisfied with before uploading them. This repeated focused practice coupled with the morecomprehensive preparation time are key factors in ensuring fluency and communicativecompetence are given sufficient opportunity to grow.
There was, however, one first-year class, which had not actually physically met each other or theteacher and were understandably curious to do so. Towards the end of the semester, they
requested a ZOOM session. However, during the ZOOM session, even though it was a high-levelclass containing students of native or near native ability, students were noticeably reticent toengage in conversation (both with the teacher and other students). Maybe if more frequent contact
with the teacher had been provided earlier this reticence to communicate might have diminished.
The importance of frequent teacher contact for Japanese learners should not be overlooked asreported in Oxford R. and N. Anderson [8] (1995). It would most likely be more beneficial to find away of incorporating more “teacher contact” time, especially with students who had no never met
each other or the teacher, in person. Other students participating in FLIPGRID lessons, whoalready knew the teacher and each other, were happy to take advantage of its asynchronous
format which allowed them more flexibility with balancing their studies with out-of-university
responsibilities. Nevertheless, more teacher contact would no doubt be desirable throughout an
online course.
8. The Future – combining FLIPGRID and ZOOMIn the future, it could be beneficial to combine FLIPGRID and ZOOM. With ZOOM it is preferredto split the class up into smaller groups so the teacher can participate directly in a conversation
with the students. After all, Japanese students prefer to practice their English by listening to andspeaking with a native English speaker ([8] Oxford & Anderson, 1995). To do this, an 18-student
group could be split into six groups of three, with 90-minute lesson being split into three sections of
30 minutes each. This could be available alternatively for students, so one week they upload a
FLIPGRID video then the following week via ZOOM they speak to the teacher about the same
topic as well as receiving feedback on their English in the FLIPGRID video.
Alternatively, the whole class could have a short session on ZOOM with the teacher who outlines
the task to be completed on FLIPGRID, perhaps modelling the task and providing language asnecessary. The initial part of such a ZOOM session could also include generalized feedback for theprevious lesson’s task. Such a combination would provide the opportunity for learners to be pushed－ 47 －

to produce longer turns on FLIPGRID while receiving the necessary teacher contact on ZOOM as ameans of sustaining motivation and providing feedback.
While it is hoped that online lessons will not solely be the standard way of delivering EFL content
in the future, if or when such an occurrence does happen, the teacher will be more prepared as tocreating the optimal environment for L2 growth by uniting both synchronous and asynchronous
computer mediated communication with both ZOOM and FLIPGRID.

－ 48 －

References[1] Crookes, G. (1989). Planning and interlanguage variation. Studies in Second Language

Acquisition, 11, 367–383.
[2]Ono, Y., Onishi A., Ishihara M. & Yamashiro M. (2015). Voice-based computer mediatedcommunication for individual practice to increase speaking proficiency: Construction and pilot
study. In Zaphiris P. & Ioannou A. (eds.), Learning and collaboration technologies. LCT 2015.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 9192. New York: Springer.
[3] Pop, A., Tomuletiu, E.A., & David, D. (2011). EFL speaking communication with asynchronous
voice tools for adult students. Procedia: Social and Behavioral Sciences, 15(2011), 1199–1203.
[4] McCroskey, J. C., Gudykunst, W. B., & Nishida, T. (1985). Communication apprehension
among Japanese students in native and second language. Communication Research
Reports, 2, 11-15.
[5] Matsuoka, R., Matsumoto, K., Poole, G., & Matsuoka, M. (2014). Japanese university
students’ willingness to communicate in English: The serendipitous effect of oralpresentations. Journal of Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics, 18(1), 193-218[6] Matsuoka 2009, Japanese College Students’ Willingness to communicate in English.
Kohn: Lambert academic Publishing.
[7] Yashima, T. (2002) Willingness to communicate in a second language: The Japanese EFL
context. Modern Language Journal 86, 54-66.
[8] Oxford R. and N. Anderson, (1995) A cross-cultural view of learning styles. Language Teaching
28,4:201-215[9] Great Big Story (YouTube Channel) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCajXeitgFL-rb5-gXIaG8Q－ 49 －