As machine translation becomes increasingly prevalent among English language learners, its potential impact on learning outcomes requires careful examination. While it is still too early to fully assess the long-term effects on students' academic performance and English proficiency, there is a need to explore the relationship between the use of machine translation and its underlying factors. Previous research indicates that learners who exhibit high self-efficacy and have specific learning objectives tend to adopt strategies that involve deeper cognitive processing, which eventually leads to higher academic performance. This study examines the effects of self-efficacy and learning objectives across four key dimensions to assess machine translation usage behavior. Usage frequency serves as an indicator of introduction of a machine translator, while perceived benefits reflect the orientation of its usage. Additionally, editing behavior and the number of words input into the machine translator are analyzed to gauge the level of cognitive processing involved. The findings suggest that self-efficacy significantly influences usage frequency and perceived benefits among learners with low self-efficacy, whereas learning objectives have a stronger impact on those with high self-efficacy. Furthermore, those with high self-efficacy showed the tendency to choose the usage behavior which involves a deeper level of processing.

A student’s willingness to communicate (WTC), often recognized as the degree of eagerness to participate in class, is an essential factor for success in second language (L2) learning. The concept of WTC is complex since it incorporates linguistic, psychological, and educational dimensions, as well as social, contextual, and individual variables. Considering that there are homerooms and a variety of opportunities for students and teachers to interact at Japanese high schools, it is not difficult to imagine that teachers significantly impact students’ emotions and WTC. However, few studies have been conducted to see the effect of teacher intervention on students’ WTC in the context of Japanese high schools. Therefore, this study aims to explore the complex and dynamic nature of WTC in a Japanese high school EFL classroom, with a focus on teachers’ roles and how they can influence learners’ L2 WTC. As a result of questionnaires, classroom observation, self-reports, and interviews, this study clarifies the essential roles that teachers can play in the Japanese high school EFL classroom. Specifically, teachers’ WTC-focused instruction utilizing Motivational Teaching Strategies (MotS) can promote learners’ desire to communicate (DC), and by focusing on the individual learners’ needs, teachers can enhance learners’ L2 WTC in the classroom.

Japanese universities are increasingly establishing writing centers in response to a rising demand for writing support in higher education. While previous research has primarily focused on tutoring dialogues and tutor development, there remains a lack of empirical studies investigating how writers change through repeated use of writing centers (WRC). This study addresses this gap by employing a longitudinal case study to explore the qualitative changes in the English writing of two students who repeatedly used the WRC. Specifically, we analyzed their written products at the beginning and end of their WRC usage through content analysis, focusing on seven aspects: overall structure, paragraph structure, argumentation, grammar, vocabulary, notation and layout, and citation formats. Additionally, semi-structured interviews were conducted, and the data obtained from them were used as supplementary data for the study. Both students demonstrated improvements in overall structure, paragraph structure, argumentation, and citation format across writing contexts and tasks. The students had little knowledge of structure at first but learned to organize their writing better and gradually applied their newfound skills through repeated use of the WRC. We concluded by discussing the relationship between the observed changes and the support provided by the WRC.

This paper explores college students’ subjective evaluations of the significance of Grammarly and their experiences with it. We conducted semi-structured interviews with five students from a department offering semester(s)-abroad programs and nudging its students to use Grammarly to develop their academic writing skills. The research questions were: (1) how the informants rated Grammarly and why they gave it this rating, and (2) how they used Grammarly. Four of the five informants found Grammarly conducive to improving their writing, as it provides them with instant feedback and suggestions/advice on their drafts. Their narratives suggest that they have continuously and spontaneously used Grammarly, especially at overseas institutes, and have customized its various settings as per their preference and needs. One informant expressed a negative view of Grammarly, stating that she was often dissatisfied with Grammarly’s feedback and recommendations, as they misinterpreted her points, and thus she was concerned about over-reliance on AI. If Grammarly is to be incorporated into writing classrooms, instruction and assessment should be designed to strike a balance between these two opposing attitudes among students.

Even though English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has recently received notable attention in English language education, ESP material development has not progressed sufficiently except in a few fields. One of the under-researched fields is ESP for sports fans. This study attempts to uncover characteristic words in a football (soccer) magazine by utilizing a corpus and to reveal the words that learners wishing to gain football-related information in English should learn. To achieve this goal, a characteristic word list from a football magazine corpus created by the authors was compared with the vocabulary list of the New JACET 8000, a norm frequency vocabulary list for English learners in Japan. Consequently, 472 characteristic words in a football magazine were identified and 169 words that readers of English football magazines in Japan are recommended to learn were determined. These words included football terms (e.g., winger), words commonly used in sports (e.g., defender), words related to winning or losing (e.g., defeat), words related to medical care and body parts (e.g., injury), transfer market words (e.g., loan), business words (e.g., partnership), and words to describe performances of teams and players (e.g., stunning).