This study aimed to reveal a) whether the Five Sentence Types (FST) contributes to improving the proficiency level of Japanese learners of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) and b) how their parsing of English sentences varies depending on their understanding of FST. The FST has long been a cornerstone of English Language Teaching (ELT) in Japanese secondary schools, and it is believed to represent five major sentence types in English, based on the form of the main verb and the predicate that follows. Little research, however, has been conducted into whether or to what extent the FST contributes to L2 development, and how differently EFL learners parse English sentences according to the FST. A total of 570 university or college students, mainly the first- or second-year students, participated in this study in response to an originally constructed “Basic Grammar Test” (BGT) of 36 items. Cluster analysis identified five different groups among the 570 students who share the parsing, and two-way ANOVA showed that interactional effect was found between skills (i.e., listening and reading) and groups. The simple main effect was statistically significant on reading proficiency but on listening proficiency, suggesting that the FST may contribute to enhancing reading proficiency but listening proficiency. The results of multiple comparison, however, showed that the effect is limited since statistically significant difference was not necessarily found across the groups. Correspondence analysis revealed that Japanese learners of EFL have difficulties in recognizing transitive verbs followed by an object, particularly when the object is to-infinitive and that-clause. Resulting discussions explore how FST instruction should be incorporated into ELT at the secondary and tertiary levels.

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This study examined the genres (text types) required to be written as writing tasks in Japanese university entrance examinations according to the framework of classification used in Watanabe (2016). Based on the results, this study clarified which genres are not frequently required to be written in university entrance examinations. This study also explored the characteristics of the genres that are not frequently required to be written in entrance examinations. The findings were: 1) seven genres were not frequently found in entrance examinations, such as “discussions” and “explanations”; 2) these infrequent genres were found to be consistent with many of the genres required for academic writing; and 3) those genres have some characteristics that can become obstacles from the viewpoint of the feasibility of entrance examinations such as time constraints. Based on these results, this study presents some approaches to designing various types of writing tasks that require the examinees to write the genres that are not frequently required to be written in entrance examinations.

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In response to the statements written in the Courses of Study for junior high schools (MEXT, 2017) and senior high schools (MEXT, 2009) that English lessons, in principle, should be conducted in English, the present study investigates beliefs of Japanese junior and senior high school teachers of English about their uses of codeswitching in their classrooms between English (L2) and Japanese (L1). It also identifies factors that have influenced their beliefs. Five teachers participated in semi-structured interviews while watching videos of their own lessons. For data analysis, they were divided into Macaro’s (1997, 2001) categories of theoretical positions, i.e. the Maximal and Optimal Positions. The results revealed that one of the teachers seemed to have adopted the Maximal Position whereas the rest appeared to have taken the Optimal Position. Factors that had influenced their beliefs varied. Considering the findings that their beliefs about codeswitching and factors were different from teacher to teacher, this article proposes that a departmental guideline about codeswitching be established in each school. Future research is suggested based on the limitations of this study.

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Collaborative speaking tasks affect vocabulary learning. In particular, the negotiation of words (i.e., negotiating form or meaning of words) during a task facilitates the acquisition of productive vocabulary knowledge. Many studies have examined task taxonomies and the effects of task characteristics. Few studies, however, have examined differences in the effects of task characteristics on vocabulary learning. The present study, therefore, investigated the effects of decision-making tasks—a type of communication task—on learning productive vocabulary. Japanese EFL students (52 high school and 19 university students) were given a text related to the task topic and instructed to discuss the topic in English for 15 minutes. A modified vocabulary knowledge scale was used before and after the task to measure the vocabulary knowledge acquired. Task output was also analyzed to examine the relationship between word engagement and the learning of target words. The results suggest that decision-making tasks can support the learning of unfamiliar words.

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The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of elementary school English education programs (ESEEP) first implemented in the 2000s. I examined this issue from an evidence-based policy approach, rather than a second language acquisition perspective. In other words, I employed a research design that ensured internal validity and external validity, both of which are a prerequisite for obtaining reliable evidence although they have generally been disregarded by the previous work on ESEEP. Based on this design, I examined whether the implementation of ESEEP has achieved its stated goals, by analyzing questionnaire data from nationally representative 2,967 junior high school students (provided by an open data archive). Based on structural equation modeling, I estimated causal effects of respondents’ ESEEP experience on their English language skills, intercultural awareness, and positive attitudes toward English learning. The result suggests that the ESEEP experience did not have any substantial impact. This result, I argue, can be considered as counter-evidence against the current policy reform on ESEEP, and thus suggest that the government, and pro-ESEEP researchers as well, should provide further evidence that indicates the effectiveness of ESEEP if they attempt to maintain the policy.

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This study examined the effect of teaching synthetic phonics to schoolchildren for a year in the real classroom situation of Japanese elementary school. Participants were 205 Japanese schoolchildren ranging from 2nd to 6th grade. They were given 35 short lessons of synthetic phonics, and were taken two kinds of test three times a year: non-word repetition test and decoding test. As a result, the score of non-word repetition test got significantly higher from time to time. On the other hand, their decoding scores didn’t improve from time 1 (April) to time 2 (July). Therefore, teachers started to take more time for “blending activity” from September, in order to help children to read words, combining sounds they had already learned. Then, the decoding scores came to be significantly higher at time 3 (February). Some limitations and the outlook for the future research were discussed at the end of this paper.

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This review explores changing trends in the field of English education in the Kantokoshinetsu Association of Teachers of English (KATE). The method was informed by a systematic review and Mizumoto, Urano, and Maeda’s (2014) study. A sample of 272 articles published between 1985 and 2017 in KATE Journal was collected and coded for research types, target sample levels, research purposes, data types, and the statistical analyses conducted. It also assesses the words characteristically appearing in KATE Journal articles to investigate the trends in research themes over time. The results point to both similar trends and trends that differ from those reported in previous reviews (e.g., Hirano, 2011; Mizumoto et al., 2014; Stapleton & Collett, 2011; Terasawa, 2010). This review seeks to generate an understanding of the impact of changing trends in English education by collecting representative aspects that have been reported in the literature of KATE Journal. Based on the findings, we make several suggestions for producing high-quality studies as a basis for future papers published by that journal.

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This study explores how collaborative dialogue occurred among nine English language learners in a university writing class. Classroom discourse was analyzed qualitatively and the paper highlights the functions of reciprocal questioning with “open-ended question starters”, such as “what” and “how,” spoken in Japanese within three small groups. Findings reveal that: 1) while both “what” and “how” questions were expressed, the students did not consider “how” questions, until they obtained answers for their “what” questions; 2) “how” questions promote deeper thoughts among students than “what” questions; 3) both questions ultimately provide the teacher and students with new knowledge; and 4) collaborative dialogue in small groups enables the students to share their uncertainty. The paper concludes that regardless of how intentionally the teacher listens to students’ interactions, it is difficult to engage in each group’s processes. This suggests that a model explaining discourse pattern in collaborative learning within a foreign language class will be beneficial, thus providing implications for classroom practice design.

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In high school English education in Japan, teachers tend to focus on what to teach, and little attention is paid to how much of the language knowledge they have taught is actually acquired by their students. What is taught in junior high school is a basis of what students learn in high school. Unfortunately, however, little is known to what extent Japanese high school students acquire what they have learned in junior high school. This study is a follow-up study of Kanatani et al. (2017), which examined over 5000 Japanese high school students’ acquisition of English which was learned in junior high school. Six Junior-High-School English (JHSE) tests including Rapid Reading, Listening, Dictation, Translation, and Picture Description tasks were administered to 77 Japanese high school students. The results of the JHSE tests were reported as well as the relationships among the tests and to the scores of the university entrance exam. The performance on the dictation task was significantly correlated with the other five tests most strongly, suggesting that the dictation task can most validly assess the English proficiency that is based on what is taught in junior high school. Furthermore, significant positive relationships were found between the JHSE test scores and the scores of the entrance exam. The dictation score predicted students’ performance on the university entrance exam most strongly.

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