This article emphasizes the importance of recognizing psycholinguistic knowledge as a subcomponent of communicative competence. By critically reviewing the discussion on the traditional notion of communicative competence, it is claimed that what is responsible for the internal realization process of an utterance is psycholinguistic competence rather than linguistic competence. The failure to distinguish the two competences is explained in terms of Chomsky's approach to language study. It is also stressed that the operative smoothness of psycholinguistic competence is a performative aspect of the competence and, thus, must be kept apart from the competence itself. The implications of this argument to second language learning are also presented, especially in relation to the problems peculiar to initial second language learners.

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Foreign learners of English often find listening to English more difficult than reading it. This paper reports an experiment conducted to analyze this comprehension gap between listening and reading for Japanese learners of English. It has been found that the learners can understand about twice as much English in reading as in listening. It has also been found that the gap between listening and reading tends to increase as the learners advance in their learning. Furthermore, it has been found that the gap is greater among slow learners than among good learners. Several implications for English language teaching in Japan are presented at the end.

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Many students can do shopping in English, but how many of them can discuss in English? When people from different countries try to solve conflicts or collaborate in joint projects, how many of Japanese students will be able to join the discussion? Obviously, the age has come when ordinary Japanese must negotiate with foreigners, whether at home or abroad. In spite of its importance, teaching English discussion has been considered almost impossible in Japanese senior high schools, mainly because of the following reasons : (a) Content limitation : "Students don't have much content to discuss, therefore cannot even discuss in their native language." (b) Linguistic limitation : "Students cannot even introduce themselves in English. How can they discuss in English?" The purpose of this paper is to propose remedies for these two limitations. The proposed remedies have been tested with satisfactory results in the actual classrooms, even toward students of lower proficiency. This article deals with how to generate student's discussion in high school English. Here "discussion" is defined as "consideration of a question in open usu. informal debate : argument for the sake of arriving at truth or clearing up difficulties." (Webster) Discussion ability is considered one of the most important goals of foreign language education because of the following reasons : (1) As the modern world becomes increasingly complex and internationalized, more and more importance is placed on discussion and negotiation for solving conflicts or getting over differences. If people wish to gain respect in international societies, they need to be able to contribute in discussions. (2) A time has arrived when ordinary Japanese must negotiate with foreigners whether in Japanese or in other languages. "Negotiating" will be one of the major functions of language teaching here in the near future. (3) Students should not delay practicing real use of the target language until they have "mastered" the language, othewise most students will never have a chance of using the language.

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This article describes some techniques used in classes in Japanese as L1 and how they can be effective in classes in English as L2 where they may not be well known. Firstly three techniques used in teaching a poem in Japanese are illustrated. These techniques were applied to two L2 reading classrooms, with the result that intensive reading was facilitated and learners' attitude improved. Next, teacher talk, especially in questions and directions, was examined because of the importance in carrying out a technique of the words actually spoken by teachers. A particular example of teacher talk from a class in L1 social studies was adapted and applied to an L2 reading lesson. Finally, the importance is emphasized of an organization to gather, improve and share teaching techniques.

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The main purpose of the present study is to test the hypothesis : "The hint properly focused on a predicate verb is effective for reading comprehension." The rationale for the hypothesis is based on four theories : Ausubel's Cognitive Learning Theory ; Skinner's Operant Conditioning Theory ; Memory ; and Fillmore's Case Grammar. In order to test the hypothesis, two experiments were designed and conducted. Experiment 1 : We examined to see what would happen if we used the hint which was supposed to promote reading comprehension. The hint showed how to read effectively. It was organized with its focus on the predicate verb. The results indicated that such a hint played a positive role in reading comprehension. Experiment 2 : We conducted further experiment to confirm the results from Experiment 1. We made use of the same materials used in Experiment 1, but one of the experimental procedures was different from that used in Experiment 1. The results confirmed the conclusion obtained from Experiment 1. Our hypothesis was supported by the present experiments, though with different degrees of statistical significance.

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There are many factors which affect reading comprehension. While vocabulary has long been the center of interest in reading research, background knowledge has also been studied very extensively in recent years, leading to the development of reading comprehension theories. In studies on L2 reading, vocabulary and background knowledge seem to have been treated as distinct factors, whereas in reality, they are closely interwoven. This paper discusses the need for harmonious development of vocabulary and background knowledge for successful comprehension, the breakdown of harmony and its manifestation as various reading problems, and the differing effects of such problems on reading comprehension.

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This paper consists of two studies. The first study describes the composing activities by Japanese learners of English in terms of revising strategies. The result shows that poor writers tend to focus on surface level of writing such as spelling, grammar, etc., whereas good writers focus on meaning. The second study investigates the effects of 'global consciousness', i.e. good writers' composing strategy, on students' writings. As a result, the writers who were given the instruction of 'global consciousness' earned significantly higher scores than the writers directed to write without the instruction. Furthermore, contrary to our expectation, the writings of poor writers' improved not only in coherence and clarity, but also in usage as a result of the instruction.

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The purpose of this research is to analyze English IIB textbooks especially in terms of the readability of texts and to provide English teachers with some objective data for selecting a IIB textbook for classroom use. First, all the 29 IIB textbooks published in 1988 were examined in order to find out overall characteristics. Next, the readability of eight IIB textbooks was analyzed by using 'Ghost Writer', a computer software based on the Fry Readability Formula. The results of the analysis indicate that the readability levels of 121 reading materials in eight textbooks range from 2nd grade to college level.

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MEF (Monbusho English Fellows) first began coming to Japan more than 10 years ago. Since then the name has changed from MEF to JET (Japanese Exchange Teaching Program) and the number of AETs (assistant English Teachers) has steadily increased every year. For the first few years of the MEF program, AETs were used primarily to sing English songs, introduce new games, and explain foreign culture. Because the JTEs (Japanese Teachers of English) had no experience working with AETs, there was very little "team teaching" done. As JTEs become more comfortable working with AETs, it becomes increasingly important for the JTEs to use the AETs effectively. This requires giving the students a chance to actually communicate with the AET. Obviously, simply placing the AET and the students in the same room together will not in itself lead to effective communication. It is the JTE's responsibility to create the proper enviroment. In my case, I have made use of sentence-combining exercises. Sentence-combining exercises give the students practice thinking and writing in English as well as an opportunity to commuunicate directly with the native speaker. Once the students have completed the sentence-combining stage, I, using the same grammar pattern, give them the opportunity to create and communicate their own ideas. This is called information gap. There are various ways to use the following research. I hope that you can find a way that is effective for your situation.

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This report firstly considers some general thoughts about team-teaching in general : in its introduction, it raises various points which should be considered by Japanese Teachers of English (JTEs) when engaging in team-teaching activities with their Assistant English Teachers (AETs). Secondly, it casts a brief glance over what various people have written about the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program (me). The main body of the report is an evaluation and explanation of the approach to teamteaching taken by teachers at Takefu Higashi High School in Fukui Prefecture. The concluding section contains reflections upon that school's philosophy towards improving its students' ability in English, especially in the field of oral communication.

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Very few people are against the aims of the JET program, that is, promoting the internationalization of Japan and improving English teaching. However, teaching English with AETs is no easy task. JTEs and AETs tend to attribute the difficulties to different causes. Many JTEs consider the main source of the failures of team teaching to be the lack of qualifications of AETs. Many AETs are not licensed teachers, but they are here to work with JTEs as assistants within the system of Japanese education and not to teach alone in the classroom. AETs may not satisfy JTEs in terms of teaching experience and expertise but they are native speakers of English and invaluable representatives of their respective English speaking cultures. In this paper the writer will discuss ways of making the most of these characteristics while evaluating how AETs are received by students as well as JTEs.

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"Internationalization" is a catch word in every field in Japan now. The wave of internationalization is coming towards high school education, too. This article examines first the degree of our students' interest in intercultural understanding. Next the process of law amendment towards the present situation will be mentioned where students are able to leave Japan and study abroad more easily. Then, including the influence of this amendment, the number of high school students who have studied abroad, their motivations and objectives to do so, their contributions to intercultural understanding and to English teaching and so on will be reported upon through the results of a survey I conducted in high schools in Ehime Prefecture..

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The key goal in foreign language teaching is intercultural communication as fusion of intercultural understanding and communication. The key goal can be divided into several subgoals for convenience sake. The cultural aspects of language study should be interwoven with other phases from the beginning stage of learning English. The aim of this paper is to show the importance of intercultural understanding and vocabulary learning in intercultural settings. The cultural aspect is taken into account in the denotative meaning of words as well as in the connotative meaning. To attain the main goals of vocabulary learning three developmental strategies are shown : semantization, internalization, and exploitation.

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In the field of computerized English teaching, whether CAI, CALL or CMI, there arises the problem of representing numerical data in a form which can be easily grasped by both students and teachers. This is because the amount of accumulated data becomes so huge that it sometimes is very difficult to discover the tendency hidden in the data. In this article, some ways of graphically representing numerical data already installed in the CMI system developed by the author are reviewed, and the possibilities of a new method called Chernoff Faces, introduced to deal with the problem of representing the results of questionnaires, are explored.

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The purpose of this paper is to examine one of the most salient properties of the Japanese language in an attempt to place the interference effects from the mother tongue in a more proper perspective. First, the Japanese language is examined in terms of borrowed words-in particular those from English. Such an analysis indicates that the Japanese language possesses a very flexible surface whereas exclusiveness characterizes the structure inside. In this study, the particular double standard is called the protection mechanism of the mother tongue. Second, how the dual structure innate in the mother tongue will affect the learner is discussed. It is shown that the Japanese tend to regard the mother tongue as the language as opposed to one of languages owing to this particular structure. The other side of the coin is that the same people view foreign languages as somewhat inferior to their own. Concludingly, this paper emphasizes the importance of increased awareness of linguistic egalitarianism, which has been blurred by the interference effects from the mother tongue.

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