Abstract
High proficiency English skills are difficult to cultivate in the current Japanese system, which focuses on acquiring linguistic knowledge and language skills.
In this small study, I utilized an approach involving classroom orientations to address the issue of engendering and developing independent thought among high school students. I examined secondary education in one private and one public school in the US, and also used interviews and a questionnaire to obtain direct feedback from students who experienced both the US and Japanese school systems.
My observations of the US schools indicate that many students in such environments ̶ which incorporate collaborative discussion sessions- possessed cognitively demanding communication skills, which also helped them to improve their critical and analytical abilities. This system, which appears to be modeled after both Cummins’ CALP-based and “Vygotskian” approaches, utilized materials that were sufficiently demanding, from a cognitive perspective, to require students to think deeply enough that they use higher-order thinking abilities. Vygotsky argued that developmental processes are advanced by the process of learning. Hence, if learners are exposed to concrete, contextualized ideas relating to facts they already know, they would, via the types of collaborative discussion sessions I observed, be better able to acquire higher levels of English proficiency. This type of child-adult and peer-peer cooperation, which is consistent with the “Vygotskian” concept of “the zone of proximal development,” is regarded by many as a valuable path to developing a child’s reasoning ability.
Higher-level English language development in Japan would necessitate cognitively challenging academic content that is better integrated into the curricula and classroom orientations that are challenging enough to motivate students to learn. This, in turn, would also help students to improve their critical and analytical abilities. Reading and writing abilities appear to be more important in language education than previously thought, especially in terms of language development and higher thinking processes. For example, given the chance to write organized papers based on classroom discussions, Japanese English language learners can be exposed to such processes and may be able to improve their critical and analytical abilities and so improve their language skills.
