The “First JACET Summer and English Education Joint Seminar” held at Kyoto in August 2018 had a classroom research theme framed by the following three questions: Why revisit classroom research now? Who are the practitioners? How might we approach classroom research now? This paper explores these three questions about language classroom research by raising some of the key issues in the English language teaching field about publication (engagement in research) related to practice and the uptake of ideas in published research (engagement with research). A primary focus of this paper is on the relevance to classroom practitioners of articles published in prestigious journals in the ELT field. The paper concludes with suggestions for closing the gap between what researchers write for consumption and what second/foreign language teachers want to consume in terms of research on teaching.

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Practitioner research will continue to be regarded as second-class academic inquiry unless it distinguishes itself from standardized scientific research. This paper clarifies the epistemological concepts of complexity, meaning, plurality, and empowerment, among others, to show how the former type of research is different from the latter. It elaborates on the case of Tojisha-Kenkyu, a community-based study of mutual help for those who are concerned with personal difficulties, to demonstrate an example of practitioner research that embodies sufficient theoretical understanding of the four concepts. We argue that, with practitioner research, language teachers should return to the tradition of the humanities with a renewed awareness.

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Drawing on the distinction between societal and educational motivations in L2 learning suggested by Gardner (2010) and extending this duality to learners’ perceived needs for English (PNE), this study explores the causal relationship involving dual motivation types and dual senses of need for English with EFL learners. Data collection from Japanese and Korean college English learners followed by SEM analyses (with 310 Japanese and 330 Korean participants) found that intrinsic reasons for learning English and societal PNE impact both societal and educational motivations significantly across the two groups. Educational PNE, in contrast, showed only negligible impact on either type of motivation, casting doubt on the motivational effectiveness of classroom-generated need for English. A subsequent multi-group SEM analysis found that intrinsic reasons play a significantly greater motivational role with the Japanese than with the Korean participants. The Korean participants, on the other hand, demonstrated a greater role of societal PNE than the Japanese counterparts. These are discussed to reflect the enjoyment-based English learning and teaching in the Japanese university and the relatively large social demand for English competence in Korean culture.

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Drawing on English for medical professionals, Ushioda’s L2 motivation theories (a person-incontext relational view; complex dynamic systems theory), and spirituality, this study implemented a language teaching methodology for nursing-majored medical students. In verifying its pedagogical impacts, the following points were examined and explored: (1) transformation of L2 learning strategies, (2) enhancement of perceived self-and-identity-focused L2 use capability, and (3) emergence of solid mindset deriving from personal belief and sense of values. College students of nursing (N = 73) participated in the study, aiming at maturing themselves as a would-be professional nurse. In this engagement, four-layered contextualization was implemented utilizing a semester-long English course (15 class periods), in which students endeavored to develop their self-and-identity-concerned English learning strategies and language use. They also created a self-determined message to represent their inner spiritual growth arising from well-fostered belief and sense of values. In (1) and (2), results of quantitative analyses indicated positive improvement. For (3), text analysis scrutinizing the content of the created messages witnessed healthy self-development as professional nurses. Regarding the methodology, positive responses were elicited from the participants, together with changes of their English learning style and the role and use of the English language.

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The present study aims to set vocabulary size targets for high-stakes English tests to be used as part of university entrance examinations in Japan from the 2020 academic year. This was done by profiling lexical frequency levels of seven candidate tests: Cambridge First, EIKEN, GTEC, IELTS, TEAP, TOEFL, and TOEIC. Assuming that marginal words, transparent compounds, and abbreviations do not impede test takers’ comprehension, it took the most frequent 2,000 to 3,000 word families from Nation’s British National Corpus and Corpus of Contemporary American English word family lists to account for 95% of running words appearing in listening passages of the samples. With respect to reading passages, the most frequent 2,000 to 5,000 word families were necessary to yield 95% lexical coverage. If 98% coverage is desired, then the most frequent 3,000 to 5,000 and 3,000 to 8,000 word families were required for the listening and the reading texts respectively. The present study also compared vocabulary size targets for reading comprehension passages derived from the current and the previous versions of Cambridge First. Vocabulary demands of the updated and the previous versions of TOEIC were also compared. It is suggested that vocabulary size to achieve 95% coverage in reading passages of the current version of Cambridge First is equal to that for the previous version. Results of the present study also indicate that vocabulary size targets to yield 95% and 98% coverage in the current version of TOEIC are identical to those for the previous version.

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This paper reports two forms of cooperative learning (CL) of English language teacher education (ELTE) (CL-ELTE) in Content-based Instruction (CBI), and examines their effects on university students’ beliefs regarding cooperation and motivation relevant to ELTE. One CLELTE in CBI was a mandatory lecture-type course taught mainly to sophomores (n = 65), using a sandwich-style CL, where student group talks were placed between the teacher talks. The other was a selective seminar-type course for juniors and seniors (n = 15), where student presentations and group talks were the main tasks. The participants’ beliefs and motivation were surveyed using a 6-point-Likert-scale questionnaire before and after the teachings, and were analyzed mainly with analyses of variance. One result was that the two forms of CL-ELTE in CBI made the students significantly less individual-oriented and significantly raised their intrinsic motivation for listening. Another was that CL in the seminar-type course improved their intrinsic motivation for speaking and need for relatedness more greatly than the other.

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In various educational contexts worldwide, there is often a delicate balance between coordination and teacher autonomy. However, research suggests that there is not a happy medium that is suitable to all schools. This is because program-specific context variables influence the effect of various management styles. A recent study demonstrated that Japanese English programs tend to have more teacher autonomy and less coordination than US-based English programs. However, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has been striving to increase standards. This study evaluates the effect of context variables on levels of coordination and teacher autonomy in English-language programs in Japanese high education. The results suggest that the context variables which tend to promote coordination are somewhat lacking in Japan. Nevertheless, certain context variables, including external pressure and feasibility, did influence levels of coordination in Japanese programs.

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This article describes a meta-analytic review of the current research on adopting the self-determined dimensions of correlations in the context of Japanese EFL learners. A literature search of published articles identified three main research foci: (a) the development of instruments that assess the concurrent and construct validity of intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, (b) an examination of the simplex pattern of regulated elements of extrinsic motivation through investigating the relevance of the self-determination continuum, and (c) the integration of Noels et al.’s (2000) concepts of language learning orientation with the simplex-ordered structure described by Deci and Ryan (1990). A meta-analysis of seven published articles supported the existence of a self-determination continuum from external regulation to introjection and identification. In addition, this article also demonstrates how meta-analysis can be combined with structural equation modeling (MASEM) to address a motivation-appraisal model for Japanese EFL learners, and a path analysis of corrected effect sizes supporting the effects of simplex-ordered matrices between adjacent types of regulations as a developmental continuum of self-determination (Ryan & Deci, 2000). The results are discussed with reference to the assumptions of self-determination theory, Ryan and Deci’s (2000) organic integration theory, and theories of language learning orientations.

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Extensive reading has been widely popular at various institutions and indeed, many studies have demonstrated the contributions of extensive reading to learners’ L2 improvement. Although the benefits of extensive reading to language acquisition have been researched in depth, its relation to or effect on the affective domain is less well understood. Therefore, this study explored one affective factor, reading attitude. The present study investigated frameworks for L1 (Japanese) and L2 (English) reading attitude, the effect on extensive reading on L2 reading attitude, and the influence of L1 and L2 reading attitude on extensive reading. Two hundred and five first year students in Japan at an institute of technology, known as “Kosen” participated in this study. Four L1 and three L2 attitudinal factors were measured before extensive reading instruction, and after the 10-week extensive reading experience the three L2 factors became four, which had a framework similar to L1 reading attitude, while two factors identified as comfort and anxiety were enhanced. The results also showed attitudinal factors categorized as intellectual value and comfort to be possible indicators of performance in extensive reading. These findings indicate the importance of understanding learners’ reading attitude and the beneficial effects of extensive reading to learners’ attitude toward reading.

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English pronunciation has mostly been taught through either the intuitive-imitative approach (IIA), using listen and repeat or the analytic-linguistic approach (ALA), using phonetic alphabets and charts of the vocal apparatus. These approaches may be effective for some learners, but not for learners who have difficulties in oral mimicry and coordination ability. In addition, some researchers have argued for an approach that uses the learner’s L1, i.e., kana transcription, called the L1-pivotal approach (L1A). This paper studies the pedagogical effects of the three approaches for the instruction of English /ɹ/ and /l/ to 54 Japanese EFL students (47 students in the final analysis). Each group (IIA, ALA, and L1A) received 20 minutes of treatment using the respective approach to practice the target sounds. The learners’ performance was recorded in pre- and post-test sessions and rated by both native and non-native speakers of English in terms of intelligibility of pronunciation. Analyses of pre- and post-tests demonstrated that, whereas the three approaches had similar effects on the students’ development of /ɹ/, the L1A group revealed significant improvement in the acquisition of /l/. A questionnaire also revealed that the L1A alleviated their cognitive load more than the others.

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Past L2 reading research showed that L2 readers have difficulty understanding multiple dimensions (e.g., the protagonist, causal, and intentional dimensions) of situations in narrative texts. However, the cause of such processing difficulty is not fully understood. Addressing this gap, we conducted an eye-tracking study to specify reading processes in which Japanese EFL readers’ processing difficulty with multiple situational dimensions is rooted. Forty Japanese graduate and undergraduate students read narrative texts while their eye movements were recorded. The texts had information on either the protagonist, causal, or intentional dimension. It was found that the participants had significantly longer first-pass reading times and total reading times for the causality texts than for the protagonist and intentionality texts. These results indicate that (a) the causal dimension poses greater processing difficulty than the other two dimensions, and (b) the causal dimension difficulty affects both early- and late-stage processes. These findings together indicate that EFL readers’ processing difficulty with different situational dimensions emerges at more basic-level linguistic processes than assumed in past L2 research. We discussed the findings with reference to a theoretical account of text comprehension and proposed theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical implications.

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Critical thinking ability is a generic ability that should be developed through both English and Japanese language educational curricula. However, there has been no attempt to test this ability for Japanese EFL learners. Thus, we have developed a multiple-choice-items test called the English Critical Thinking Test (ECTT), which measures not only English ability but also three subcomponents of critical thinking skills: logical thinking (consistency), analytical skills (which we name analysis), and drawing appropriate conclusions using inductive and deductive reasoning (inference). The target level of the test is from A2 to B1 level of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). To evaluate the validity of the test, we built a validity argument based on the framework proposed by Chapelle, Enright, and Jamieson (2008), which consists of six inferences (domain definition, evaluation, generalization, explanation, extrapolation, and use), and examined eventually 22 items, using item analysis, factor analysis, multidimensional scaling, and correlational analysis. As a result, three factors of “Consistency & Inference,” “English ability & Consistency,” and “Analysis & Calculation” were extracted and the ECTT moderately correlated with the English Proficiency Test (EPT) (r = .43), which provides support for the ECTT measuring English proficiency as well as critical thinking skills.

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