This study investigated the improvement in L2 listening proficiency through the extensive viewing of cartoons and the degree of audiovisual input that facilitated this effect. Japanese university students (n = 33) watched an authentic American cartoon, Regular Show over four months. Listening tests were conducted before, during, and after the experiment. In Week 1, the participants took a vocabulary size test and Listening Test A. From Weeks 2 to 15, they watched up to 16 episodes with English captions. Listening Test B was administered in Week 9 and Listening Test C in Week 15. The scores of Listening Tests B and C were higher than A (63.2% vs. 63.6% vs. 54.7%). However, there was no significant difference between B and C. In addition, the participants who watched seven or more episodes increased their scores on B from A. This study suggested that L2 listening proficiency improved during the early stage of the experiment but reached a plateau afterward. Moreover, this innovative study measured the amount of audiovisual input needed for improving L2 listening skills, finding that the participants who received over 17,000 words improved their listening proficiency.

Second and foreign language research has investigated how learners process and comprehend written texts. In recent years, eye tracking has gained prominence as a method that allows for the collection of rich data during natural reading. Nevertheless, there is still a shortage of benchmark data for the eye movement behavior of second and foreign language readers, including Japanese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). To address this need, this study aimed to gather extensive eye-tracking data from Japanese EFL learners during passage reading and depict the typical patterns of their global eye movement behavior. In this article, we report the descriptive statistical information of the six passage-level eye-tracking measures: number of fixations, total reading time, mean fixation duration, mean saccade length, skipping frequency, and regression frequency. Additionally, we examined how these measures were associated with text difficulty and learners’ English reading proficiency. The results indicated that more readable text and higher proficiency were associated with a small number of fixations, shorter total reading times, and less frequent regressions, supporting the cognitive validity of the eye-tracking data collected. The eye-tracking data presented here are made openly available for further research on EFL reading.

Zoltan Dörnyei’s 2001 works on second language (L2) motivation inspired many subsequent studies. Despite systematic reviews and meta-analyses, most focus on English-language articles from international journals, emphasizing quantifiable indicators like effect sizes, which yield limited pedagogical implications. This study fills the gaps by reviewing 82 motivation-related articles from three domestic journals between 2002 and 2021, categorized as theoretical or practice-oriented. Bibliographic data, participants, research designs, and analytical methods were quantitatively coded while educational implications were gleaned via qualitative meta-analysis. Findings mainly showcase studies on university students with lesser emphasis on younger learners. Quantitative methods were predominantly used, followed by mixed methods, while qualitative methods were scarcely employed. Studies favored enhancing motivation over theory exploration. Recommendations included recognizing individual differences, nurturing learning environments, and sustaining motivation. This review highlights advancements and challenges in domestic motivation research, endorsing a holistic approach to learner factors in educational practices. It offers key insights for future theory and practice, promoting wider exploration of educational implications and emphasizing the need for a more diverse and inclusive approach in L2 motivation studies.

Since 2009, Japanese high school English teachers have been required to teach English using English, and 46% of the teachers reported using English as the primary language in the classroom. Although oral repetition and input-seeking have been regarded as effective vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs), no research has examined whether these VLSs have a positive correlation with learners’ lexical proficiency even after the classroom language changes. This study examined the relationship between VLS use and vocabulary test scores among learners who had been taught English in Japanese (i.e., J-taught) or English (i.e., E-taught). Data from 295 high school graduates were analyzed, showing that while association and self-management strategies were positively correlated with vocabulary scores in both groups, oral repetition and input-seeking strategies were positively correlated with vocabulary scores only in the J-taught group. Cognitively complicated VLSs such as association and imagery strategies were more commonly used by the E-taught learners. These results provide a basis for understanding how J- and E-taught lessons affect Japanese-speaking English learners’ lexical development and learning styles.

The purpose of this study was to establish whether Japanese college students having different vocabulary sizes would group a set of English words into clusters differently, representing the ways lexical items are organized in their L2 mental lexicons (ML). Two participant groups, 26 college students with a large vocabulary size (LARGE) whose mean vocabulary size was 6,761.5 and 26 college students with a small vocabulary size (SMALL) whose mean vocabulary size was 5,042.3, by means of the Vocabulary Size Test (Nation & Beglar, 2007), carried out three sorting tasks of 24 words (four semantically connected word clusters of six words) chosen respectively from nouns, adjectives, and verbs. Permutation tests showed that lexical items in all the word classes were represented in a significantly different way between the two groups, while the difference in nouns was almost significant (p = 0.0508) after correcting for the number of iterations of the test. The difference between the LARGE and SMALL groups was largest in verbs, then in adjectives, and smallest in nouns. Identification of the cluster numbers in the group dendrograms revealed that the LARGE group established four or five organized lexical clusters in all the word classes, but the SMALL group established none in the adjective and verb classes. Pedagogical implications for teaching vocabulary are proposed.

Drawing on data from the International Corpus Network of Asian Learners of English (Ishikawa, 2013, 2018) that are categorized by English proficiency level, this study identifies a developmental trend in learners’ ability to differentiate between countable and uncountable nouns. Full mastery of noun countability is generally achieved at advanced proficiency stages. Accuracy rates indicate that the zero article is the most effectively used, particularly in the context of general references, supporting prior research on first language acquisition. The definite article follows in the accuracy of its use, trailed by the indefinite article. These findings align with Takahashi’s research of 2020, which outlines a developmental trajectory from recognizing general (nonspecific) versus specific references, followed by distinguishing between definite and indefinite articles and then discerning countable from uncountable nouns. Contrary to the Fluctuation Hypothesis (Ionin et al., 2004), fewer errors are observed when the criteria for specificity and definiteness do not overlap, while an increase in errors is observed where these criteria overlap. These results throw the validity of the Fluctuation Hypothesis into question, and this will lead to the exploration of pedagogical implications.

Although performance tests are indispensable in English language education to assess and develop students’ communication ability in English, large-scale English achievement test results have revealed that more than 10% of Japanese students tend not to respond to writing and speaking items. This research aims to investigate relationships between the non-response rates and the content-and item-specific factors as well as test-takers’ English ability using the 977,250 test-taker data from the junior high school English test of the 2019 National Assessment of Academic Ability. The non-response rates of the items for productive skills tended to be higher than those for receptive skills. The non-response rates of skill-integrated items were high at more than 20%. The non-response rates of single-skill items in the writing section were lower than 12%. The non-response rates for speaking tended to be higher than those for writing for the highest English-level students. The lowest English-level students tended not to respond to gap-filling items assessing accuracy in language use and constructed-response items to express their opinions. The correlation coefficient between the correct-response rates and non-response rates in multiple-choice items was higher than those in the brief-constructed and constructed response items. Ways to lower the non-response rates in English tests are discussed for each English level.

This article reports a meta-analysis of image-schema-based grammar instruction in the context of English language teaching in Japan. Researchers have been interested in image-schema-based grammar instruction applying insights from cognitive linguistics, and many studies have reported results supporting their empirical effects on grammar and vocabulary learning. However, the results have not been systematically integrated, and the effects of moderators such as (a) participants’ school types, (b) experimental designs, (c) target grammatical structures, and (d) learning modes have remained largely unexamined. Using meta-analyses with systematically selected 33 and 39 unique sample datasets reported in 13 original articles (N = 1,106) out of 184 articles that met the criteria, the present study found positive evidence supporting the effects of image-schema-based grammar instruction: Δ = 1.13 with its 95% CI of [0.89, 1.36] for the pre-post comparisons and Δ = 0.36 [0.24, 0.48] for the group comparisons. In addition, the results of meta-regression analyses suggested that the effects of moderators are still unknown. Educational implications and suggestions for further research are also discussed, particularly in light of the aptitude-treatment interaction (ATI), with a cautious interpretation of the results.

Enhancing spelling proficiency is crucial for confident written communication in English. This study investigated and compared the three spelling test formats among 210 Japanese EFL learners: single-word dictation (SWD), multiple-choice (MC) without Japanese (L1) translation (MC−), and MC with L1 translation (MC+). The primary aims were (a) to compare the performance of the three test formats to identify an effective initial step for assessing the spelling knowledge of Japanese EFL learners and (b) to quantitatively examine learner responses to L1 translation in MC tests using text mining. Overall, the results demonstrated that both MC tests consistently outperformed the SWD format. When the results were stratified based on estimated vocabulary size, it was found that the presence of L1 translation did not significantly affect learners with larger vocabulary sizes, but it significantly improved the performance of learners with smaller vocabularies. Moreover, MC+ effectively differentiated between learners in the middle and lower levels. In summary, MC+ emerged as an effective initial assessment tool for identifying Japanese EFL learners who need support in spelling acquisition. This study offers valuable insights into assessing spelling knowledge among Japanese EFL learners and underscores the practical and preferred benefits of multiple-choice testing in educational contexts.

Previous studies have revealed the positive effects of productive retrieval practice (i.e., form retrieval) on foreign vocabulary learning. Several studies have also shown the importance of contexts, and researchers have demonstrated the effectiveness of different sentences on vocabulary learning. However, little is known about the effects of using sentences in productive retrieval practice. Therefore, this study examined the effects of sentential contexts on intentional vocabulary learning with productive retrieval practice from the perspective of differences in parts of speech (nouns/verbs), an important factor that affects vocabulary learning. Thirty-four Japanese participants retrieved the word forms of the target words several times. They learned English words in three learning conditions: (a) no sentence (no context), (b) the same repeated sentence (1-context), and (c) different sentences (4-context). Three tests were administered after each learning condition: form recall, meaning recall, and meaning recognition. The results showed that the effects of the sentences varied with the word types and test formats. The use of sentences did not significantly affect the learning of nouns except during the meaning recognition test, whereas the example sentences led to more learning gains of verbs on all the tests. These findings indicate the benefits of productive retrieval with sentences in learning verbs.

Not a few first-year senior high school students perceive senior high school English textbooks as significantly more difficult than junior high school English textbooks. The purpose of the current study is to identify factors contributing to the gap between junior and senior high school textbooks, by an analysis focusing on noun phrases (NPs) with postmodification that are known to be difficult for Japanese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners to acquire. The results indicate that (1) the number of sentences containing the target NP structures dramatically increases from the 9thgrade textbooks to the 10th-grade textbooks, that (2) this substantial increase is primarily associated with structures introduced in junior high school, not in senior high school, and that (3) the increase of NPs postmodified by prepositional phrases is most pronounced of all the target structures. These findings suggest the possibility of NPs with postmodification being a crucial factor to the gap experienced by many first-year senior high school students. Some pedagogical implications for Japanese senior high school EFL classrooms are discussed.

Since advances in Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) tools have made virtual exchanges readily available in educational settings, eTandem has been gaining traction as a means to provide practical experiences using English and different cultural exposure to students. This study aimed to understand how two CMC modalities such as Padlet and Zoom may affect EFL learners’ speaking anxiety, Willingness to communicate (WTC), and International Posture (IP). In six to eight eTandem sessions, nine undergraduate Japanese university students and eight undergraduate Australian university students exchanged their languages online. Students carried out a conversation using Japanese in the first 10 minutes and using English in the other 10 minutes. Data were collected using a 10-item questionnaire on speaking anxiety, an 8-item questionnaire on WTC and a 20-item questionnaire on IP. Open-ended responses and participant reflections were also analyzed to gain further insights. Results showed significant effects on reducing speaking anxiety, enhancing WTC and IP of participants with regard to eTandem. We found that screen-sharing and chat functions that ICT offers were employed by the pair effectively so that they could understand each other better, and consequently, helped reduce the Japanese students’speaking anxiety, increase WTC and IP.

This paper reports two-year practitioner research conducted at a school for the deaf. By making teaching materials that contain English sentences with katakana written above them in order to show their pronunciations, the second author attempted to promote language-use activities of listening and speaking. In Period 1 (July 2021 to September 2021), he started to create the teaching materials using katakana but wondered whether hearing-impaired students and teachers really needed them. The results of questionnaires showed that the need for them high. With the help of volunteers, he created teaching materials for Grades 7 to 9. In Period 2 (September 2021 to March 2023), the second author conducted and improved English lessons using the katakana teaching materials. By changing the teaching procedures as well as using the katakana teaching materials, he was successful in increasing the time for listening and speaking. In Period 3 (April 2023 to July 2023), based on the suggestions made by the first author, the second author further tried to make activities more communicative. The analyses of lessons suggest that the students expressed their ideas more often and had more chances to listen to the teacher’s ideas. Overall, katakana teaching materials were found to be effective in promoting language-use activities of listening and speaking and in facilitating students’ motivation.

Since critical thinking (CT) has been recognized as essential in the information society, it is necessary to cultivate CT skills through English education even in contexts where English is learned as a foreign language (EFL). This study examined the effects of group discussions on the development of CT skills. In order to foster CT skills, planning and opinion revision were included in the discussions. Sixteen Japanese university students participated in group discussions for approximately three months, and improvements in their CT skills were investigated. In addition, a questionnaire was administered to survey participants’ perceptions of the group discussions. The analytical results showed that group discussions were effective in developing CT skills. The questionnaire results also indicated that planning encouraged students to form logical opinions. However, opinion revision did not significantly improve CT skills. In sum, these results indicated that the group discussions fostered logical thinking skills, but did not effectively encourage reflective thinking skills. These findings provide suggestions for designing more effective group discussions for cultivating CT skills.