Minding the Gap between Japanese University Students’ Expected and Actual English Use

抄録

Upon starting their English studies at university, Japanese students often have limited experience of English classes taught in English and unrealistic expectations of how they will perform. In order to support this, two surveys were conducted: one administered to 210 first-year elementary and pre-intermediate students within their first week of study at an international university in Japan, and one administered to their instructors two months afterwards. The first survey inquired about the amount of English-medium instruction received in high school and their expectations about an English class with a native English-speaking instructor. Findings showed that students received most of their high school English instruction in Japanese. Nonetheless, most students believed that they would be able use to English only in class with little or no Japanese support. The second survey, administered to five native English speaking teachers (NEST) of the students from the first survey revealed that the students used English much less than they had expected and relied on Japanese translation much more often than they had expected. It was found that students had a tendency to overestimate their ability to cope with an English Only class environment. The implications of these findings are discussed in regards to creating language use guidelines that more realistically reflect the language abilities of students.