In an attempt to develop some can-do statements of EFL beginners that can serve as part of a comprehensive framework of reference for the English language, this study examined listening, reading, and writing skills of 101 incoming junior high school (JHS) students who learned English in elementary school (ES). The participants took a sample test of YLE (Cambridge Young Learners English Tests) Starters, which is used on a global basis. The results showed (a) that they can understand short dialogues on familiar subjects both in spoken and written forms, especially when assisted by nonverbal cues and redundancy of information, (b) that they seem to be tolerant of ambiguity, understanding messages that contain unfamiliar words or phrases, and (c) that they can copy spellings of basic words, although spelling them correctly without models can be challenging. Based on these findings, the researcher raises three issues that should be discussed for the purpose of establishing continuity between English language teaching in ES and the JHS counterpart: (1) how to strike a balance between encouraging non-verbal communication and cautioning against excessive dependency on it, (2) how to strike a balance between the development of some degree of ambiguity and the awareness of language forms, and (3) how reading and writing, which the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology insists should be excluded from ES English language activities, should be incorporated in a way that is appropriate for the cognitive levels of ES pupils.

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The present study aims to demonstrate how the estimation of vocabulary size might be affected by two neglected factors in vocabulary size tests. The first of such factors is randomization of question sequence, as opposed to the traditional high-to-low frequency sequencing. The second factor is learners' confidence in choosing the correct meaning for a given target word. A new online vocabulary size test was developed for the purpose of the study with the two factors in mind. The results of the test revealed that (a) randomizing question sequence did not have significant effects on the score of the vocabulary size test and (b) even though the learners who had a mastery level of 8000 words showed higher confidence in high frequency words than the learners with smaller vocabulary did, such confidence faded as early as 4000 frequency level of JACET 8000. The findings are discussed in detail in terms of the scale or the length of vocabulary size tests as well as the need for incorporating confidence in the estimation of vocabulary size.

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This study aims to examine if Japanese college students can improve their writing skills by using Criterion, an automated essay evaluation program, over a semester. The first and last essay assignments submitted online by 25 students were statistically compared in terms of fluency (essay length), accuracy (error counts), and quality (lexical richness and organization). The results revealed that the students were able to produce markedly longer essays, using more discourse elements and locating them in the appropriate places, but that there was little change in their grammatical accuracy or lexical richness over the 13 weeks. It was concluded that Criterion, to some extent, may lend itself to long-term improvement in student writing, but that it should not take precedence over classroom instruction. Based on the findings, some pedagogical suggestions are given to those who are thinking of integrating this new technology into their classes.

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This study examined the immediate and lasting effect of attending a two-week study abroad program at Ibaraki National College of Technology (INCT). Participants of this study were 69 2nd year students at INCT including 35 students who participated in two-week Sydney Study Abroad Program (SSAP) and 34 students who did not took part in SSAP. In order to examine how participants change their English communication skills, the CASEC (Computerized Assessment System for English Communication) test was administered as a pre-test and post-test before and after SSAP. Questionnaire of English Use Anxiety (EUA) and English Class Anxiety (ECA) adopted from Kondo (2005) were administered as a pre-test and a post-test before and after SSAP. Each CASEC score and the result of EUA and ECA were analyzed with ANOVA. The EUA and ECA were factor-analyzed prior to ANOVA in order to examine whether the scales fit this study. The results of CASEC showed that the students did not receive positive effects on participating in SSAP. On the other hand, the result of anxiety questionnaire indicated that the students who took part in SSAP reduced their anxiety by attending SSAP.

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This study describes the development of productive vocabulary used in English essay writings of university students in Japan. Estimated vocabulary size is chosen as an index to describe the development. The results indicate that learners whose vocabulary size exceed 3000 significantly improve in their writing in quantity. Learners whose vocabulary size exceed 4500 also write significantly longer in 20 minutes compared to those with less vocabulary size. The results also indicate that it seems difficult to estimate the quantity of writing from vocabulary size, but there is a necessary condition, though insufficient, between them. That is, no learners below 3500 vocabulary size write more than 200 words, and no learners below 4500 vocabulary size write more than 350 words within 20 minutes. On the other hand, the results indicate that it is partially possible to estimate the quality of writing from vocabulary size -- a significant relationship is found between vocabulary size and part-of-speech used in writing. Learners use significantly less nouns while they use more pronouns, conjunctions, and articles when their vocabulary size exceed 3000 and 4500. In sum, the study implies that 3000 and 4500 vocabulary size are threshold levels in the process of the development of productive vocabulary.

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The main purpose of this study is to examine the validity of peer assessment (PA) in high school education, compared to that of teacher assessment (TA), so as to make assessment of speaking performance more practical. The validity of PA is also examined in terms of students' English proficiency levels and in relation to varied PA group size. In order to reach these goals, research was conducted with approximately 80 Japanese high school students, and the data was statistically analyzed. Based on the current approach to validity (Chapelle, 1999), the validity of PA is examined from three perspectives: concurrent validity, face validity, and reliability. The results of this research strongly suggest that the validity of using PA to evaluate student's speaking performance is similar to that of TA. Considering the students' English proficiency, a difference in validity was observed, but it is considered to be quite small. Furthermore, in relation to PA group size, there is a tendency that PA grows more valid as group size increases. Based on these findings, some practical implications are suggested.

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The purpose of this study is to explore how junior high school students develop visual recognition of the Alphabet. The participants were first-year students at a public junior high school in Japan. An uppercase letter was presented in 500 milliseconds, and then its lowercase letter and a distracter letter were presented on the screen. They were told to press an arrow-key pointing to the matching lowercase letter as accurately and as quickly as possible. Their reaction times were recorded almost every three months (April, July, October, and February). The Alphabet was divided into five groups according to the first reaction times measured in April: Slowest, Second slowest, Third slowest, Fourth slowest, and Fastest. An analysis of variance was administered to detect the differences among the five reaction times. The reaction time of the letter "D" was much slower than the others and was excluded from the analysis. The results showed that the slowest group was slower than the other four groups throughout the experiment. As a pedagogical implication, it is suggested that classroom teachers have to pay more attention to Alphabet recognition by focusing on the differences between uppercase and lowercase letters when they introduce the Alphabet to EFL students with a background in different writing systems.

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The present action research is a unique attempt in that junior high school students performed a storytelling in English for elementary school children. This practical-minded research asked three questions: (a) What kinds of activities are possible for junior high school students in preparation for the storytelling performance, which would integrate four English skills? (b) How much can elementary school children understand of the story told to them? (c) What is the significance of storytelling activities for both elementary school children and junior high school students? Twelve ninth graders participated and performed for fourth graders. The ninth graders went through various activities in order to prepare for the storytelling performance, which required four skills in English. The degree of comprehension on the part of the elementary school children was measured after the performance. As a result, it was proved that children have a capacity to understand a story even though they do not know every individual word used in the story. In the preparation stage, the junior high school students enjoyed expressing their ideas, discussing them with their peers, and collaborating with each other; in other words, they enjoyed being in a "learning community," which was clearly reflected in their reflection sheets. Also they learned how to rewrite a story on their own based on the original, with the audience in mind. In conclusion, storytelling is an effective activity in terms of language learning, building confidence in students, and creating a learning community in school.

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