This study investigated the effect of using the "bilingual format"--the format in which L2 text is printed side by side with its L1 translation-on L2 reading proficiency development. In an experiment on 28 Japanese EFL learners, the format was contrasted with the more common situation of reading monolingual texts with the help of bilingual dictionaries. The two ways were collated in terms of (1) reading comprehension, (2) reading speed, and (3) incidental vocabulary learning. How learners' proficiency and the text's readability relate to the above comparison was also explored. The results indicated that compared to using bilingual dictionaries the bilingual format enabled learners (1) to comprehend the material more accurately, (2) to read through the text more quickly, and (3) to acquire the vocabulary items just as efficiently. In particular, the format was shown to enhance comprehension when learners at a certain proficiency level read texts at a certain readability level, and to facilitate lower proficiency learners' vocabulary learning. The implications for the classroom are discussed.

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Repair work is recognised as an valuable component of effective teaching and learning in the foreign language classroom. The primary objective of this study is to observe and understand how repair work is carried out in an EFL classroom in a Japanese setting. In this paper, a total of eight extracts from one English language lesson are analysed based upon four patterns of repair work. It is revealed that this distinction of repair work, though useful and relevant, is not sufficient for a comprehensive explanation of the present EFL classroom. In order to make a more detailed sequential analysis of repair work, therefore, the perspective of language functions is proposed. This new description of repair work is found particularly relevant to detecting what is missing in the L2 classroom and enhancing teachers' awareness of teacher-student interactions.

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Considerable numbers of studies have treated the issue of the acquisition of anaphora relations in second language (L2) acquisition. Most of the studies have tackled the issue in terms of Chomskyan approach to syntactic analysis of language. It should be noted, however, that such studies have been carried out without referring to semantic/functional properties of language. This article takes a standpoint that the semantic/functional analysis, as well as the syntactic analysis, is required to give a successful account of the acquisition of anaphora relations. It is indicated, through learner's behavior observed in some experiments, that anaphora options are controlled not only by syntactic constraints such as Principle A・B・C but also by semantic/functional conditions such as theme/rheme distinction and strong/weak causality. This article also addresses itself to how the learner's syntactic and semantic/functional knowledge can be located in a L2 acquisition model proposed in the past, by which it is stressed that an adequate explanation of anaphora acquisition will not be possible without due consideration of an interaction between the syntactic and semantic/functional knowledge.

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Since most Japanese preschool and school children trying to learn English are exposed to English only for about an hour a week, we are convinced that it is more effective for them to learn not only through aural-oral practices but also with the assistance of reading. We experimented on one group of children who had studied English for about two years with the aural-oral approach and reading instruction. For a month each they covered two stories, one through reading and the other through listening. When they were asked to reproduce the stories while looking at the pictures, they performed better after reading instruction than after aural-oral practices. Furthermore, even seven months after the experiment they showed better retention of English in reproducing the story they had learned through reading instruction rather than the story through aural-oral practices. This case study has proved that assuming aural-oral practices have been provided for some time, learners with limited exposure to English can better retain their English in their short-term and longer-term memories with the assistance of reading.

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Any attempt at enhancing learners' communicative abilities and activating their grammatical knowledge should be bi-directional. In other words, pseudo-communicative activities should be designed to promote grammar and vice versa. In this paper I shall consider this bi-directional exchange from the down-to-earth perspective of junior high school English language education in Japan, discuss the features of reception and production in a grammatical syllabus, and make a prospective methodological proposal, analyzing the actual instruction procedures of the passive voice in classroom both from cognitive and affective dimensions. The teaching procedure which employs the productive phrase as a basic unit will have certain implications for the instruction of communication strategy and syllabus design.

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The present research is concerned with assessing intercultural communication competence (ICC) of Japanese high school students in communicating with Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) in the English classroom. This was done on the basis of previous research in which I have conceptualized ICC (Moriizumi, 1996). I undertook the survey for both students and ALTs by utilizing the self-perceived Intercultural Communication Competence Scale (ICCS). The survey mainly revealed the following results. First, many items in the ICCS showed the significant differences between the students' present and desirable level of competence perceived by the ALTs. Particularly, compensation strategy and communication initiative showed the greatest gaps. Second, I found that students who contacted ALTs more held greater competence in several components of ICC. Finally, the results confirmed that ALTs who stayed longer in Japan expected less from students in a few components. Taking the findings into consideration, I made pedagogical implications for oral communication in intercultural interaction with ALTs in English classrooms.

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The Japanese Government introduced "The Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program" in 1987, and one of its major aims in this program is to innovate English language instruction. In order to achieve this aim, more than 4000 native speakers of English are invited to English classrooms here as Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) as of 1995 and they are expected to "team teach" with Japanese Teachers of English (JTEs). This program certainly gave fresh impetus to raising JTEs' awareness that English is not a mere skeleton of grammar but a living spirit as a means of communication. We must admit, however, that there has been little research examining ALTs' perception of cultural problems, particularly problems they encounter at school settings. This paper, focusing on school-related problems, first attempts to grasp cultural problems ALTs are faced with as well as their solutions through a questionnaire survey and then discusses how we can build cross-cultural understanding between ALTs and Japanese teachers.

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Differences between cultures are most noticeable when cross-cultural miscommunication takes place. However, current English textbooks, although they include a lot of factual cultural information, do not include enough examples of situations where there are possibilities of pragmatic miscommunication. This paper attempts to place in context major developments in cross-cultural pragmatics and to discuss the feasibility of applying these to English language teaching. Referring to some studies on cross-cultural speech act realizations, first, the present study reviews the research into pragmatic transfer by Japanese learners of English. Secondly, it examines whether the English textbooks used in senior high schools in Japan adequately illustrate examples of authentic pragmatic interactions. Finally, this article suggests how the results of cross-cultural pragmatic research can be applied to the designing of teaching materials to facilitate the development of cross-cultural awareness and communicative competence in English.

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The present study describes how two groups of Japanese EFL learners, Proficient Japanese (PJ) and Non proficient Japanese (NJ), differ in their production of durational inter-stress intervals (ISIs). To improve their production ability rhythm instruction is designed and administered to the learners once a week for three months. Pre and Post Tests are given after and before the instruction. As a result PJ produces shorter duration of ISIs of the sentences in the tests than NJ. The shortening rate of ISIs for PJ, however, is lower than that for NJ (PJ, 8.5%; NJ, 14.0% ). These results show that the rhythm instruction is effective for improving Japanese learners' production ability, especially for NJ to compress stressed vowels in ISIs, which PJ had already acquired. On the other hand, neither PJ nor NJ is fully acquired the ability in compress unstressed vowels in ISIs yet. The present study also suggests that rhythm instruction should be given to the learners at earlier stage of learning.

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This paper seeks to investigate the problem-solving strategies used by skilled and less skilled Japanese EFL readers when they encounter unfamiliar words. A study was set up and conducted in order to answer the following two research questions: [1] whether perceived use of vocabulary problem-solving strategies is different between skilled and less skilled readers, and [2] whether L2 readers with almost the same level of vocabulary and grammar knowledge read more skillfully or less skillfully because their strategy use is different. For each of the two research questions, two groups of readers (skilled and less skilled readers, skilled and less skilled readers with almost the same level of vocabulary and grammar knowledge) were selected based on their scores on three different language tests given consecutively to 291 Japanese university freshmen. Retrospective verbal report data on the readers' strategy use were collected by means of a questionnaire. The results show that there are several differences of perceived strategy use between skilled and less skilled readers and between skilled and less skilled readers with almost the same level of vocabulary and grammar knowledge. Pedagogical implications of the study are discussed.

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The purpose of this paper is three-fold: (1) to discuss the significance of connectives in expository text comprehension, (2) to analyze the status quo from the viewpoints of both students' understanding of connectives at the text level and the frequency of connectives in their main reading materials, and (3) to explore task-based instruction by which students can acquire a working understanding of how to utilize connectives appropriately for expository text comprehension. Although the significance of connectives in expository text comprehension has been widely discussed among researchers, little attention has been given to the teaching of connectives not at the sentence but rather at the text level. Therefore, it is no exaggeration to argue that the pedagogical value of this paper, if any, consists in attempting to explore the instruction of connectives at the text level and furnish systematically graded tasks which are based on a principled framework.

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In recent years, the necessity of communicative English lessons for college students have been emphasized. In reality, however, Japanese English instructors are still facing difficulties in introducing the methods which focus on students' interaction in English. A survey of college non-English major students found that their learning experiences, learning styles and attitudes are the main reasons for resisting an active communicative approach. Therefore, we need to introduce a dynamic approach to change learners' attitudes and to motivate them to communicate in the target language actively. Presumably, an answer to this issue can be found in the simulation activities. This article focuses on a simulation activity which deals with common airport situations. The effectiveness of the methodology is examined through surveys taken before and after the students participated in the simulation.

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Translation is one of the oldest and most-frequently-used techniques in second language testing. There are, however, arguments against the use of translation as a testing technique. In this paper, we will first briefly analyze the disadvantages and advantages of translation tests, and then discuss the data obtained from our research on the process of rating translation. 'Translation' can be defined as 'act of expressing the meaning of an expression in another language' or the 'product of translating.' It can be classified in terms of direction and languages involved. Since there are two languages involved in translation, there are two possible directions, i.e. from the native (first) language (L1) to the target (second) language (L2), and from L2 to L1. In this paper we will exclusively refer to the latter. Specification of the languages involved is also important. It is fairly understandable that there would be differences between translation from, say, English to German and that from English to Japanese, since English and German are linguistically closer to each other than English and Japanese. In this paper we will limit ourselves to the discussion of translation from English to Japanese.

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