This study aimed to clarify the differences between successful and unsuccessful Japanese high school EFL listeners in terms of the explanatory factors of listening. A total of 74 students, who were in the first year at a Japanese high school, were given 7 tests measuring their listening proficiency and abilities on 6 factors. The correlations were calculated, and it was indicated that sound change recognition (SCR), aural word recognition (AWR), working memory (WM), and inference / prediction (I/P) were the important factors. On these factors, the differences among the different proficiency groups were analyzed. The results showed that differences appeared between the High and the Low groups for all the factors, between the Mid and the Low groups for WM, and between the High and the Mid groups for SCR, AWR, and I/P. It was also found that the differences between the High and the Low groups were the biggest for SCR, followed by AWR, WM, and lastly I/P. From these results, some pedagogical implications were explored, targeting the intermediate/low level listeners respectively.

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The present study aims to empirically and longitudinally investigate the effects of extensive reading on Japanese EFL high school students with respect to their reading and listening comprehension, and their lexical and grammatical knowledge. The participants chose and read English graded readers outside the class for about eight and a half months and took six kinds of skill and knowledge tests before and after the extensive reading program. The results show that extensive reading of approximately 50,000 words improved the reading comprehension and speed significantly, regardless of the students' level of reading comprehension and speed before the program. Extensive reading also significantly increased the students' word recognition. On the other hand, spelling, grammar, and listening did not improve significantly.

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Numerous studies on retelling have been done in the first language reading area, but there has been relatively little research done in the area of second language reading, where the effect of retelling may be more influential. The present study focuses on retelling effects on narrative comprehension by intermediate and advanced level Japanese learners of English. Attempts were made to examine (a) whether or not retelling facilitates reading comprehension, (b) the effect of language proficiency on retelling performance, (c) how retelling performance reflects the text importance level, and (d) whether or not additional readings can enhance retelling production. The results of this study suggest that the effects of retelling vary with learners' language proficiency and that retelling reflects the level of text importance, regardless of the individual proficiency level. In addition, the results indicate that comprehension is promoted with additional readings. These findings suggest the importance of retelling as an active procedure which aids reading comprehension.

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Japanese university EFL students (N=103) read a narrative passage and an expository passage, engaging in one of the three while-reading tasks (outlining, embedded questions, and control), in either of the two text presentation conditions (with or without foreknowledge of the upcoming recall task). They recalled the content of the passages immediately after reading and one week later. The analyses of immediate recalls showed a significant interaction between the text presentation condition and text type. It suggests that foreknowledge of the post recall task facilitated participants' recall performance with the expository text. A significant interaction between the task and text presentation effects was found on the delayed recall. It suggests that the control (read-only) condition is the most advantageous for recalling the expository text when participants have foreknowledge of the upcoming recall task, while the outlining activity is the most effective when they are not informed of the post task. These results may suggest that warning participants of the existence of a subsequent retention task can invoke intentional learning, which overrides the effects of elaborating processes of the learning tasks.

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The main purpose of this study is to investigate abilities that are necessary for Japanese EFL learners to become fluent speakers of English, and to suggest strategies for better speaking instruction. First, the study presents the models of speech production by native speakers, non-native speakers, and Japanese EFL learners, and identifies what is needed for Japanese EFL learners to speak fluent English, taking into account characteristics of the Japanese language. Among the important abilities needed for speaking, the focus is placed on lexical and grammatical competence. Second, the study describes a research conducted to examine how lexical and grammatical competence might contribute to speaking proficiency. The study has revealed that the receptive competence, lexical or grammatical, did not contribute very much to the participants' speaking proficiency, while the productive grammatical competence made a large contribution. Finally, by way of conclusion, two suggestions are presented for teaching Japanese EFL learners how to speak in English; implementing Japanese-English translation drills focusing on inter-Japanese which can easily be translated into English, and fostering among learners flexibility in English sentence construction.

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It is generally observed that while Japanese-speaking learners of English feel they can pronounce cat and cap easily, they cannot easily pronounce mat and map. This article argues that the reason for this general observation may lie in the differences of applicability of the Japanese contracted sounds kya ([kjæ]) and mya ([mjæ]) in English pronunciation: while [kjæ] is readily applied in pronouncing cat and cap, [mjæ] is not easily applied in mat and map. This article also argues that the difference of applicability between these Japanese contracted sounds is caused by the differences in distributional variety of these respective sounds in Japanese: while [kjæ] has a rich variety, [mjæ] has only a limited variety. Based on this reasoning, it can be hypothesized that applicability of the [mjæ] sound in English pronunciation can be raised by practicing the sound with its increased distributional variety. Results of this practice through a quasi-experiment with Japanese university students are reported in this article showing the favorable but limited effects of the practice.

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In writing classes at Japanese high schools, accuracy has traditionally been regarded as more important than fluency, and learners have concentrated more on accuracy rather than fluency in order to obtain high scores in the accuracy-oriented written tests. However, in improving learners' communicative skills, fluency is becoming more and more important. This study investigated the relationship between accuracy and fluency in high school students' writing, and also considered the influence of the teacher's direction on learners' writing. Results showed that there was a positive correlation between accuracy and fluency, and that direction encouraging students to write fluently was more influential on their writing than that encouraging them to write accurately. Based on these findings, pedagogical implications and suggestions are presented for the teaching of writing.

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This study examined Japanese university students' knowledge of English articles. Specifically, the study investigated (a) Japanese university students' knowledge (i.e., accuracy) in their usage of English articles, (b) their meta-cognitive knowledge (i.e., confidence) in their usage of English articles, (c) the relationships between accuracy and confidence, and (d) the relationships between English proficiency and accuracy. Results showed that Japanese university students' knowledge varied in accuracy among the three types of articles: definite, indefinite, and no articles. Definite-articles were most properly used, while the accuracy in the usage of no articles was the lowest. It was also found that accuracy in the use of English articles was correlated with English proficiency and confidence. These results appear to suggest that (a) Japanese university students with higher English proficiency had more accurate knowledge in their usage of English articles, and (b) they used English articles with accurate meta-cognitive knowledge to a certain extent.

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This study investigated the degree to which L2 learners of English possess implicit and explicit knowledge. Two types of tests, one without hints and one with hints, contained the same 12 erroneous sentences. Twenty-eight Japanese university students were first provided with tests without hints, directed to underline the erroneous parts of the 12 sentences and asked to correct the errors. Then, the participants were given tests with hints (i.e., underlining of errors) and asked to correct the errors. They were also asked to write relevant rules upon which they had based their corrections. The results showed that the participants corrected errors significantly better than they provided correct rules, indicating that they possessed implicit knowledge of the targeted rules. However, it was also revealed that Japanese learners of English seem to have less implicit knowledge than German learners of English (Green & Hecht, 1992). Another finding was that the participants corrected more errors in a test with hints than in a test without hints. In other words, underlining of errors in a test affected the participants' performance. Furthermore, I argue that tests with underlined errors may overestimate levels of implicit knowledge.

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The essence of pedagogical grammar is that the rules should be simple. It also needs to specify the order of presenting the pedagogical rules as well as the method of presenting them. A quasi-experimental study was conducted from the perspective of pedagogical grammar in order to examine (1) the effect of the two teaching approaches (old vs. new approach), (2) the effect of the instructional order of English articles rules (either the definite / indefinite distinction comes first or the count / uncount distinction comes first) on Japanese high school learners' acquisition of the English article system. The new approach emphasized the uniqueness teaching the definite / indefinite distinction while the old approach did not. The new approach presented the dual nouns in the contrastive environment while the old approach did not. The results of the present study showed a significant effect of every treatment on the use of the indefinite article. It also found a significant effect of teaching the definite / indefinite distinction when the referent is countable. The study also showed that it was significantly better to teach the count / uncount distinction earlier than the definite / indefinite distinction.

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This study investigated the relationship between learners' vocabulary size and reading comprehension of academic texts. A reading comprehension test based on the TOEFL and an online receptive vocabulary size test were administered to 175 pre-intermediate Japanese EFL university students. The findings showed that (1) TOEFL texts could actually be considered academic, (2) 5000 to 5500 words of the JACET 8000 basic words covered 95% of the words used in the TOEFL reading section, (3) the estimated vocabulary size of 6500 is needed to score more than 60% on the reading comprehension section of the TOEFL, and (4) there were no strong relationships between vocabulary knowledge and reading sub-skills. This paper argues that the relationship between learners' vocabulary size and reading success is not so straightforward.

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This study examines the relation between word difficulty and word frequency, focusing on university student's lexical knowledge at low-frequency levels. Close to 300 freshmen and sophomores were given a multiple-choice vocabulary test, which included 200 target words sampled from two dictionaries. The major findings are as follows: first, university students correctly answered 59.7% of the target words on a vocabulary test, which ranges from 1,000 to 14,000 word levels. Second, the percentage of correct answers is linearly related to word frequency only at high-frequency levels. Third, word difficulty loses its linear relation to word frequency at the 8,000 word level. The nonlinear relation, it is claimed in this study, is ascribable to hardly discernible differences in frequency of two adjacent words at low-frequency levels. Thus, it is suggested that a vocabulary of 8,000 word families may serve as a reasonable goal of vocabulary teaching in general courses in English.

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This study explored the constructs of consolidation Vocabulary Learning Strategies (VLS) of Japanese EFL learners, and examined its relationship with the use of vocabulary in writing. The participants in the questionnaire survey were 463 Japanese EFL students from the first grade in senior high school through to freshmen in university. Descriptive statistics showed the tendency of VLS usage that changed over a period of learning experiences. A factor analysis of the VLS questionnaire indicated that they were classified into the following four strategies different from previous studies: organization, rehearsal, note-taking, and language exposure. Previous studies identified the organization strategy as the one that influences the performance in the target language. In this study, however, the language exposure strategy was the only one that seemed to influence the number of indexes in writing by the 62 high school third grade students. It was concluded that classroom instruction, enhancing the language exposure strategy, should be more encouraged, and VLS usage and its relationship with the proficiency in the target language should be further examined by revising the questionnaire.

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Effective methods for vocabulary instruction based on the model of vocabulary growth have not yet been proposed. The present study investigated how three types of lexical networks (paradigmatic, syntagmatic, and phonological) are developed. Experiment 1 used learners' reaction time to measure link strengths between two words. The results showed that phonological networks develop first, followed by syntagmatic and paradigmatic networks. Based on the findings of Experiment 1, Experiment 2 hypothesized that the effects of three types of cue (paradigmatically, syntagmatically, and phonologically related words) on retrieval of newly learned words differ according to encoding conditions. The results showed that: (a) all types of cue were effective in retrieval of known words; and (b) phonologically related words were the most effective cues in retrieving unknown words. However, close examination of unexpected responses revealed that a disadvantage of providing phonologically related words in vocabulary instruction was that it could impede the use of semantic information.

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Communication strategies (CS) are important skills or devices to compensate for breakdowns and to enhance communication. CS are also crucial because they provide interactional modification of input and output to second language learners. The teachability of CS, however, is a debatable issue among researchers. This study aims at surveying the effectiveness of teaching CS; whether CS can be taught more effectively explicit instruction or implicit instruction. A strategy intervention project was planned and 15-minute training sessions were carried out in English lessons for six consecutive weeks. Participants were 46 Japanese university students who were divided into three groups: two experimental groups (EX1, EX2), and a control group (CO). In EX1, CS were taught explicitly to raise awareness, while presenting phrases and practicing them in communicative tasks. In EX2, only communicative tasks were implemented without explaining CS, although participants could refer to CS expressions printed on handouts. Before and after trainings and 3 months later, participants had two kinds of communication tasks. Data were collected and analyzed by the results of communication tasks, transcription of recorded pair conversations, and questionnaires. In conclusion, explicit CS instruction was shown to be superior among the three groups and participants' awareness of CS use was improved.

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The purpose of the study is to survey Japanese senior high school English teachers' perceptions of their own communication strategy (hereafter CS) use in English, their views in relation to the necessity of providing CS training to their students, and their perceptions of the actual instruction they provide in class. The questionnaire items used a five-point Likert scale and were based on the CS list of Celce-Murcia, Dornyei and Thurrell (1995). Each item involved three components: (1) How often does the participant use a particular CS as a language user? (2) How necessary does the participant feel it is to teach the CS as a language teacher? (3) Does the participant believe he/she actually teaches the strategy explicitly in class? The survey involved the participation of 120 high school teachers. There are two major findings: (1) The above three components are closely related to one another; (2) CS training is not practiced in class as much as expected. In addition to the statistical analysis, qualitative data in the form of comments on CS use and instruction made by 39 teachers were also summarized.

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By using filler-gap sentences, the present study aimed to explore how sentence-internal structural factors (i.e., syntactic features of the filler and the length of the filler-gap distance) induce L2 working memory (WM) cost. We used six types of experimental sentences: sentences with three types of syntactic features (i.e., subject and object WH-questions and whether questions) and two versions of the filler-gap distance (i.e., long and short versions). The results showed that Japanese EFL learners as well as L1 readers find object-relative sentences more difficult to process than they do other syntactic types of sentences. On the other hand, the short distance between the filler and its gap does not improve language processing performance, which is not in line with the results of the L1 studies. It was also found that the participants with a large WM capacity performed better than those with a small WM capacity. This suggests that for Japanese EFL learners, in the processing of filler-gap sentences, syntactic information maintained in WM is a more important factor than the distance over which syntactic information is held in WM.

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There has been much research conducted to compare open-ended and multiple-choice tests from the viewpoints of construct and difficulty. However, almost no studies have examined the effects of question types in relation to test formats. Through two experiments, this study investigated how question types influence the difficulty of these two test formats. The results of Experiment 1 showed that question types affected item difficulty in open-ended tests; more specifically, thematic questions were the most difficult, followed by inference questions, and paraphrase questions were the easiest. In contrast, the result of Experiment 2, in which the same tests were conducted in the multiple-choice test format, revealed that item difficulty did not differ significantly by question type. In addition, we found that predictability of the results of the multiple-choice test was low compared to the open-ended test. Comparison of these two experiments suggested the importance of choice in the multiple-choice test. Close examination of choices indicated that overlap of words in correct choices and the text influenced the item difficulty.

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The aim of this study was to investigate whether attractive distractors differed by proficiency level in the multiple-choice sentential gap-filling test. In each item, apart from one correct choice, three distractors were prepared: a distractor which had a paradigmatic relationship with the correct answer, a distractor which had a syntagmatic relationship with a word in the context, and a distractor which had no relationship with either the correct answer or the context. The result of a chi-square analysis demonstrated that the lower group was attracted more to distractors with no relationship, but the upper group was likely to select syntagmatically-related distractors. In terms of distractors with paradigmatic relationship, there was no difference among proficiency groups, which was supported by low discriminability of paradigmatically-related distractors. These results provided an implication that using distractors with a syntagmatic relationship with the context or with no relationship makes tests more effective.

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The purpose of this study is to reveal the effects of English learning experiences outside school on children who have English classes at school. The participants consisted of 944 students (258 third, 233 fourth, 197 fifth, and 256 sixth graders) of Japanese municipal public schools. According to the results of a MANOVA, students who studied in after-school English classes (called "the experienced group" in this study) thought less of their own perceived competence in English (PCE), and had less willingness to read, write, and speak in English when they will become junior high school students (WTRWS) than did the students in the inexperienced group. This is amazing evidence which goes against the supposed benefits of studying outside school. The implications will be explained.

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Two groups of Japanese EFL learners were tracked and compared in their English communicative skills at three phases of secondary education: 7th, 9th, and 11th grades. One group learned English for three years in elementary school (ES) whereas the other did not. Quantitative analysis showed no statistical differences between the two groups at any of the three phases, suggesting that long-term effects of teaching a foreign language in elementary school (FLES) may not be expected. Qualitative analysis showed that FLES may produce mixed results. Some FLES students are willing to put efforts into language learning, whereas some others seem to have the perception that acquiring basic oral communication skills is the ultimate objective and do not seem to be motivated to go beyond that level. Thus, this paper suggests that FLES can be something of a double-edged sword.

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The purpose of this paper is to show that a series of short segments taken from one commercial film can be successfully utilized to teach oral communication. Although films are often used in language classes, mainly for their motivational effect on learners, film-based college English textbooks designed to teach oral communication are still limited, and, for most teachers, the use of films, such as in film-based dictation exercises, only plays a minor and supplementary role in the oral communication classroom. In this study, film-based teaching materials, based on a functional syllabus, were created from the film "Pretty Woman." Important characteristics of the main activities and curriculum organizing principles are described in detail, and the results of actual implementation are discussed, based on data from lesson observations and questionnaires. The results of the learners' evaluation of the class reveal that film-based communication significantly increased their motivation and interest in the class. Finally, the study suggests more film-based communication textbooks, especially designed for high beginners and pre-intermediate learners with low motivation to study English, should be created.

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This paper reports the practice of English language teaching for the first year university students in a listening class, intending to cooperate classroom teaching and individualized learning. A Web-Based Training (WBT) system is involved in order to overcome some problems which will be easily observed in the classroom teaching. Since each learner has different aptitudes, a certain instruction may be effective for some but ineffective for the others. It is true that instructions should be flexible so as to balance out the students' aptitudes. However, as far as a teacher controls the lessons, there still would be some difficulties for students to commit themselves to learning. Therefore, the present courses are planned to utilize the WBT system, named Gyuto-e, for the purpose of involving students into self-learning. Three kinds of questionnaires, which investigate learner beliefs, learning motivations, and vocabulary learning strategies, are conducted in the beginning and the end of the course. A hierarchical cluster analysis reveals the fact that the TOEIC test scores show there seem to be the positive tendencies compared with the students in other classes as well as that there are successful and unsuccessful learners who seem to show some particular tendencies of learner factors.

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This paper reports the current attempt to develop English language proficiency benchmarks (Can-Do lists) suitable for students at Ehime University. A survey was conducted in order to create the educational and achievement goals for the university's General English Education courses and the standards for assessing the level of achievement of those goals. This paper focuses especially on the benchmark of the writing course and describes the concrete procedure by which it was established. If we set appropriate achievement goals and assessment standards we can decide on assessment standards and methods that conform to them. Once such standards and methods have been decided, we can use them as the basis for developing more effective teaching methods. Thus, this paper will be a beneficial source of information for both language educators and curriculum designers who intend to create more appropriate educational and achievement goals for their students and improve methods of teaching and evaluation suitable for them.

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