The purpose of this study is to fur ther validate a new questionnaire based on selfdetermination theory (SDT) in the Japanese EFL context. SDT has frequently been applied in L2 motivation studies in Japan, although most such studies have used or adapted a single questionnaire (Hiromori, 2006a) and yielded mixed results, both in line and out of line with SDT. Such outcomes have highlighted the sample-dependent nature of the questionnaire (Agawa & Takeuchi, 2016a). In an effort to tackle this problem, Agawa and Takeuchi (2016c) sought to develop a new questionnaire. They adopted several measures to examine and ensure the validity and reliability of the new instrument, the results of which suggested success in developing the new questionnaire. Yet the new instrument requires more tests using different samples to examine its validity in the Japanese university EFL context. To this end, this study collected data from a different sample from that used for questionnaire development; 444 Japanese university EFL learners responded to the questionnaire. The results of a confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling indicated that the new questionnaire was valid in a different population, showing that it is less sample-dependent and more versatile than the conventional one.

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This study investigates student motivation in an English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) environment at a Japanese university within the frameworks of self-determination theory and the L2 motivational self system. It explores (a) relationships between motivational regulations towards EMI, motivation to learn English, and motivation to learn content; (b) factors that influence motivational regulations towards EMI; and (c) different tendencies between a high motivation group and a low motivation group. The results indicate that attitude towards learning English and the ideal L2 self strongly influence intrinsic motivation in EMI,supported by perceived competency when compared to motivation to learn content. Significant differences were identified between the high and low motivation groups in their understanding, EMI self-study time, and motivational factors. These results imply that students who have a positive attitude towards learning English, imagine their ideal selves as English speakers, and have higher perceived competency are more motivated in EMI. Finally, educational implications and suggestions for future research are provided.

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This study investigated the relationships between students’ goal attributes, intrinsic motivation, and self-efficacy in extensive reading (ER). Two questionnaires (goal and motivational scales) were administered after 130 university students engaged in 12 weeks of ER activities. The goal scale included three important attributes, namely goal specificity, difficulty, and commitment as based on the goal-setting theory (Locke & Latham, 1990, 2002). Furthermore, the motivational scale included intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy. It was hypothesized that goal specificity, dif ficulty, and commitment affect students’ intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy in ER. Structural equation modeling was used to clarify the relationships between the goal attributes and the motivational variables. The results showed that goal commitment directly influenced both intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy and that goal difficulty only directly influenced intrinsic motivation. However, goal specificity indirectly influenced both intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy. Furthermore, from the perspective of individual differences, cluster analysis was conducted to reveal more detailed relationships among the variables. The results indicated that four cluster groups were identified. Each group’s characteristics were then compared and it turned out that one of the cluster groups set too difficult goals and hence lowered their self-efficacy. Finally, educational implications for ER integrating goal setting were discussed.

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Success on the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) is of value to many Japanese learners of English for academic and occupational purposes. Since this high-stakes test measures examinees’ receptive knowledge, setting an accurate vocabulary-size target is crucial as research suggests that knowing 95 – 98% of running words in a text is necessary for adequate comprehension in listening and reading. The present study developed upon Chujo and Oghigian’s (2009) study. A lexical frequency profile was created for twelve sets of listening and reading test papers derived from official TOEIC practice tests. Given that senior high school students in Japan are supposed to acquire vocabulary of 3,000 word families, findings of the present study argue that there is a lexical-size gap that test takers with this vocabulary size should fill. It is suggested that an additional 1,000 word families and 2,000–3,000 word families are necessary to yield 98% coverage on the listening and reading tests respectively. Pedagogical implications focusing on how to fill the gap are discussed in detail.

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This study investigated the difficulty rankings of English prefixes among Japanese adult learners of English (JLEs) and proposed six graded prefix difficulty rankings for facilitating teaching of vocabulary. The idea of the rankings was originally proposed by Bauer and Nation (B&N) (1993). They worked out a set of seven prefix ‘levels’ based on the criteria of frequency, regularity, productivity, and predictability of the affixes (prefixes and suffixes) for all English language learners. However, since B&N’s (1993) levels have not been demonstratively examined, it is not clear if their difficulty levels are valid. Therefore, this study attempted to find out whether B&N’s (1993) levels of prefixes suitably reflected the prefix difficulty rankings of JLEs. A test designed to assess knowledge of 22 English prefixes was given to 135 JLEs. The results showed that the findings partially overlapped with B&N’s (1993) difficulty rankings, but had some crucial discrepancies as well. The authors thus propose alternative rankings for JLEs based on the results. They also discuss possible factors affecting the rankings, and tentatively conclude that the effect of loanwords from the English language would be a primary factor, as indicated in Daulton (2008, 2009) and Mochizuki and Aizawa (2000).

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An eye-tracking experiment examined whether and how situational instruction that directs readers to mentally visualize texts supports EFL readers’ maintenance of global coherence during reading. A total of 49 Japanese university students read narrative texts containing character traits (e.g., junk food lover/vegetarian) that were either consistent or inconsistent with character actions (e.g., ordering a cheeseburger) in target sentences presented later in the texts. They were instructed first to read for understanding and next to mentally visualize the texts in order to understand the situations in the texts while their eye movements were recorded. The results showed that readers paid more attention to character information when reading under the situational instruction, which consequently led to the construction of elaborated situational mental representations. Due to such increased attention and enriched situation models of character information, the situational instruction led readers to detect global inconsistencies in texts. In contrast, global inconsistencies did not affect look backs into distant prior information. Taken together, these findings confirm that the situational instruction is an effective way of promoting EFL readers’ situation-model construction and maintenance of global coherence.

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Acquisition of second language vocabulary requires such a large amount of input that determining how frequently new words should be introduced is important for teachers. Results from an experimental approach could not identify the frequency of input required for learners to efficiently acquire target words because of uncontrollable linguistic and individual factors. A corpus-based approach only showed whether representative words to be learned were included in certain textbooks or not. A new approach applies a computation model based on statistical language analysis, which can be a powerful tool to simulate learners’ vocabulary growth from textual input. This preliminary study used models of reading-oriented word knowledge that simulated learners’ vocabulary growth based on Latent Semantic Analysis. The knowledge models were assessed using Eiken vocabulary test items of varying difficulty. Latent growth curve modeling demonstrated that response accuracy increased as a result of incremental textual input and varied depending on test item difficulty. In addition, the productmoment correlation coefficients between the knowledge models provided evidence of substantial vocabulary growth from an unsophisticated vocabulary to one similar to adult knowledge. These findings indicate the applicability of statistical language analysis in estimating the input quantity needed for vocabulary acquisition.

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A total of 245 students (115 male and 130 female) at a career college (senmon gakko) of foreign languages in Japan completed a questionnaire regarding instruction and instructor personality. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether the relations between instructional and personality ratings and the overall evaluation of course varied by the student background characteristics, namely proficiency in English and gender. This study also investigated whether the students’ instructional and/or non-instructional ratings predicted their general evaluation of course. The results of the study revealed that male students rated significantly higher than female students on one instructional factor, interest in class, and one personality factor, neuroticism. This study also observed that instructional factors significantly predicted the overall evaluation while none of the non-instructional factors, namely proficiency, gender and perceived teacher personality, did.

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In recent years, the number of applications of synthesized speech software in the English language classroom has increased. The use of text-to-speech (TTS) synthesized technology is expected to shed light on the dearth of spoken English input for learners in Japan. However, it still remains unclear whether synthetic speech has similar learning effects to natural human speech for effectively learning a second language. This study investigated auditory word priming in 80 Japanese English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. Vocal repetition data was used to measure perceptual learning. The results revealed that by focusing more on a perceptual dimension, (1) there was significantly greater learning when natural human speech was used. However, when synthetic speech was used, (2) the lower proficiency group showed a sufficient level of learning. Also, when synthetic speech was used, (3) significantly greater learning occurred within the higher proficiency group when the focus was more on a higher-level dimension (i.e., a semantic dimension). Further research is required to apply the results to English language education in Japan, although the results support the application of synthetic speech as an effective tool to increase perceptual learning in Japanese EFL students.

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