This study aims to develop film-based course materials for lower-level Japanese EFL learners in medical-related disciplines. The use of a film that closely relates to learners’ majors has the potential to motivate them further in their studies of both language and their chosen field. In addition, it may assist with meeting the needs of teachers, who have to tackle complex medical issues in English classes as part of interprofessional education. Thus, this study examined various medical-themed films, and course materials were developed based on one such film, Patch Adams. The premise of the film is a medical student casting doubt on the medical system and treating patients with humor. Considering the low English proficiency level of the target learners, an accompanying course management system was also created using Moodle to facilitate their learning and provide various types of hints for the exercises. An experiment was conducted to verify the effectiveness of the materials; the results revealed that the use of a medical-themed film was effective in improving the listening abilities of lower-level learners as well as in motivating them. The design structure of the material and the implications of the findings are also described in the study.

View full abstract

Although movies have been suggested as a useful resource for teaching World Englishes, there have been no studies exploring the issues arising from using movies for this purpose. One cause of concern in using movies to teach World Englishes is the issue of validity. Since movies are works of fiction with actors performing their roles, the language and issues depicted in the movie may not be realistic portrayals of actual situations. This paper, therefore, attempts to assess the validity by analyzing an example case. Questionnaires were administered to the local viewers about the 2003 Korean movie Please Teach Me English which depicts Korean English. Forty-six Korean university students watched the movie and completed the surveys about English education and sociocultural issues presented in the movie. The results demonstrate how eliciting opinions from a relevant audience can help fill the gap between fiction and reality, offering a more balanced view. Thus, this survey method can serve as one way to reinforce the use of movies. Furthermore, it is hoped that sharing this type of survey results and developing a movie database will contribute to the teaching of World Englishes.

View full abstract

The primary purpose of this paper is to guide Japanese teachers of English (JTEs) to teach English through English (TETE) successfully by demonstrating a specific approach to increase their speech comprehensibility. This project is another attempt to illustrate the benefits of the Colloquial English Grammar (CEG) Typology Framework (revised by Kobayashi, 2015). First, the status quo of English classes in Japanese junior and senior high schools is explored in order to examine the extent to which TETE is practiced, which is illustrated with data from previous studies and a new survey involving university freshmen which includes an analysis on the possible causes of JTEs’ inaction to speak English. Second, the traits observed in various types of modified speeches are reviewed in tandem with an illustration of a comprehensive way to make speeches more comprehensible by incorporating ten selected CEG features into two speech scripts. Lastly, specific ways for achieving successful teacher talk and teaching comprehensible speeches through the CEG incorporation are proposed.

View full abstract

The purpose of this report is to explain how the course has been designed and conducted with the main materials of movies, songs, and TV drama series in the English class for the fourth-year students of National College of Technology, Kumamoto College, Yatsushiro Campus for six years. The main aims of this course are to improve English skills through understanding and reading aloud the materials such as essays on movies, dictating the lyrics of songs, brief scenes from movies and dramas, to improve TOEIC score, and to build vocabularies. Movies, dramas, and songs are effective media that allow students to engage both in learning everyday English and TOEIC test. Considering how the students of National College of Technology are expected to attain in English and communication field in their careers, the author is encouraging students to broaden their cultural viewpoints that lead to lifelong interests and learning.

View full abstract

This practical report proposes one effective teaching method with movies to achieve the course goals of intercultural understanding based on the DMIS of Bennett (1986a, 1986b, 1993) and GIDC of Wilkinson (2007). In this study, the movie used was As Good As It Gets (1997), and the precise course goal was to address American social issues. Participants were 103 university students in four classes who watched the movie and wrote a summary while completing three types of worksheets related to the following: 1) racism, 2) the gap between the rich and the poor, or 3) both themes simultaneously. Many students who worked on the third worksheet noticed more than two social problems described in the movie, whereas the others concentrated only on the single point analyzed on their worksheet. The results suggest that educators should not only set a course goal according to where their students measure on the DMIS and GIDC, but should also indicate more than two issues in order to stimulate students’ intellectual curiosity towards different cultures.

View full abstract

Along with global concerns in English communication, we focus on effective and useful negotiating and arguing strategies for ESL learners, more specifically on complaint speech act sets. The aim of this research is to analyze discourses of complaint uttered by Japanese students learning English as a second language, to investigate their characteristics and to develop teaching materials for the improvement of their argumentation skills through Screen English. Based on our findings, we propose teaching materials by which ESL learners train themselves to speak more logically and acquire appropriate communication strategies.

View full abstract

English wh-phrases are divided into two major categories in school grammar in Japan: the interrogative pronouns (who(m), whose, which, what); the interrogative adverbs (when, where, why, how). However, such a categorization is only made to capture the basic properties of the wh-phrases, and it is argued in this paper that what and why have several usages that cannot be explained by the categorization. A peculiar usage of what appears when it co-occurs with the verb care: in this case, what behaves like an adverbial phrase and gets the interpretation of why. As for why, it differs from other wh-phrases in that it can make a unique stripping sentence: Why-Stripping. Importantly, these types of what and why both imply speaker’s emotion, such as anger, annoyance or surprise; and such discourse-related information is confirmed more effectively in movies rather than in novels. This is because, compared to written English, conversations in movies provide us with rather informative evidence such as symbolic facial expression and/or an unusual way of talking. Thus, employing movie data, this paper also argues that movies are convenient learning/teaching tools to foster better understanding of the wh-phrases in English.

View full abstract

This paper examines the characteristics and functions of lexical bundles in American TV dramas, and concludes that TV dramas can be appropriate and accessible materials for teaching English to non-native speakers if the drama series is based on a deeper understanding of its characteristic lexical bundles and drama characters. The method used was correspondence analysis, a statistical technique designed to analyze simple bidirectional and multidirectional tables bearing some correspondence between rows and columns. The study showed that correspondence analysis is capable of revealing characteristic lexical bundles and signature components of some TV dramas. The findings demonstrate that the characteristic expressions of the TV drama Friends signify surprise and annoyance; Lost and Prison Break, arrogance; Desperate Housewives, apology; and Ugly Betty, ignorance and gratitude. Each expression becomes a central aspect of the TV drama idiom.

View full abstract

Yukihiko Tsutsumi has directed films that portray Japanese speakers of English. The main language of the films is Japanese, while English is used occasionally to add comical effects to the scene. Tsutsumi is a successful director of entertainment films but his films often address social concerns in a humorous fashion. Among more than 40 films Tsutsumi has directed, Eigo ga Nanda (1988), ! [ai-ou] (1991), Ren'ai Shashin (2003) and Ginmakuban Sushioji! New York e Iku (2008) contain especially a notable amount of English. The present paper analyzes the English lines used in these four films and argues that the use of English by the Japanese characters in these films can be seen as one way to indirectly address serious topics concerning the social structure. Cross-linguistic humor produced by the use of English assumes the high status of English in Japanese society and reflects some ambivalent feelings of Japanese speakers toward the global language.

View full abstract

A case study is presented to foster the critical intercultural competence of students in an undergraduate course taught using CLIL-inspired methodology. Further, this study analyzes factors involved in critical intercultural competence and identifies obstacles to such competence in the Japanese context. As obstacles to critical intercultural competence, two cultural hegemonies, namely, Western imperialism and Japanese nationalism are investigated. Using an undergraduate course entitled “Comparative Cultural Studies I” at the University of Nagasaki taught in 2013 and 2014, the study considers the educational benefits of including Hollywood and Japanese cinema to assist learners overcome such obstacles. The paper outlines the objectives of the course and provides the definitions of key concepts, namely, Orientalism and Occidentalism. Based on the course design and methodology, the case study discusses the significance of using films in CLIL classes to enhance critical intercultural awareness.

View full abstract