This meta-study on cooperative learning (CL) in English language teaching (ELT) outside Japan examined: (a) how much CL in ELT is used in EFL contexts; (b) whether it is effective in improving English proficiency; and (c) which skills it can improve. Peer-reviewed papers (n = 112), published since 2010, were chosen in the ERIC search, and analyses one and two were performed respectively with the most-read 50 papers and with 30 quantitative studies that ran statistical tests. Consequently, it was shown that CL in ELT is used in 18 EFL countries, mainly at the tertiary stage. Also shown was its efficacy in the improvement of English skills and proficiency in the between-group (d = 0.82) and within-group (r = 0.50) studies, suggesting its effectiveness in the development of speaking and vocabulary skills.

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As part of a research considering a support system for preventing child safety hazards, we conducted a survey investigating child safety hazards in home economics classes and the contributing factors as well as teachers’ requests for support. Our findings revealed that teachers of home economics recognized factors contributing to safety hazards and expressed pressing requests for budgetary measures, intended to control the safety of facilities and equipment, and staffing as aid for hazard prevention. Despite recognizing the risks and hazards within the classroom settings of home economics classes, teachers have been conducting their classes daily, experiencing anxiety amid the reality that these requests will not be accommodated. Responsibility for the prevention of hazardous situations occurring during home economics classes should not be borne solely by the teachers in charge, but rather should be shared with the administration, administrative staff, and entire teaching staff, thereby improving the classroom environment in home economics classes.

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The purpose of this study was to clarify what and how beginning teacher educators learned from their experiences as guidance advisors in physical education lesson study (PELS). The focus of the study was the process of participation in Lesson Study of two beginning teacher educators (graduate students enrolled in a doctoral program) and one experienced teacher educator (four years of experience as a physical education (PE) teacher, followed by fifteen years as a university teacher). Qualitative research methodology was employed to collect and inductively analyze the six items of qualitative data that were collected. The results showed that beginning teacher educators (1) learned outside of the ‘study’ stage and in the ‘Between’ domain among the four stages of Lesson Study, and (2) learned in the process of participating in PELS through the encouragement and collaborative activities of veteran and other teacher educators.

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The present study explores motivational strategies of two university English instructors through interviews, using motivational strategies presented by Dörnyei (2001) as a guideline. Interviews are conducted to reveal whether differences between interviewees' motivational strategies impact the results. In these interviews, only the class taught by one instructor displays significant improvements in intrinsic motivation and three psychological needs described in self-determination theory. The interviews with the two instructors demonstrate that the strategies used by the instructor whose class showed significant improvement might have been more suitable for participants than the strategies used by the other instructor. However, further investigation is needed to discover whether the seemingly superior strategies would also be effective for students at other levels.

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This case study on two university students aimed to find individual differences within the learners' use of listening strategy during a spoken-English word recognition task. The two first-year female students completed (a) a general English listening test, (b) a word-recognition task, (c) a retrospective interview on listening tasks, and (d) questionnaires about the use of listening strategy and the participants' personality traits. Results showed that the learner who tried to listen and recognize words from phonetic information was more likely to recognize words correctly, while the learner who tended to use background knowledge to understand the material that she heard was likely to misrecognize words. Word-recognition success appeared to be related to listening strategy preferences and use. Further research is required to reach a generalized conclusion and apply these results to teaching practices.

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