The present study aims to examine what writing strategies Japanese university EFL students would exhibit when producing summaries under two different conditions. Under Condition 1, the students read an expository essay and summarized it by referring to the original essay. Under Condition 2, they read the same essay but wrote a summary without referring to the original text. Each student’s summary written under the different conditions was analyzed by considering two major summarizing strategies, that is, (1) selecting main ideas while deleting peripheral information, and (2) paraphrasing original words, phrases, and sentences. The results of the analysis showed that, when the students wrote summaries under Condition 1, they tended to include both the main and peripheral ideas; they also tended to use more syntactically complex sentences but to adhere to the expressions of the original text. However, when they produced summaries under Condition 2, they focused on the main ideas and attempted to rephrase those ideas in their own words, part of which resulted in less sophisticated expressions with more grammatical errors. These results suggest that different contexts exert different effects on the students’ summary production.

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The purpose of this study is to understand how the presence of support networks affects skill development among Japanese English teachers. An online survey, consisting of 21 questions, was conducted from the beginning of July to the end of August 2019. 197 English teachers, from all over Japan, with various degrees of experience participated in the study. Among these were teachers from elementary school, junior high school and high school. The survey took into account each teacher’s workplace, school type, and job classification, their individual English proficiency, English teaching skills, and their capacity to partake in on the job teacher training. Data on age and gender were also recorded. The results show that, the more teaching experience an English teacher has, the greater their ability to teach becomes. There is a positive correlation between English teaching experience and English teaching ability. On the other hand, we found that overall English language abilities did not improve accordingly. The survey suggested that, new teachers who have access to guidance from experienced English teachers, whether at their schools or outside, displayed greater teaching ability than those without such support. However, the same was not true for veteran teachers. According to the findings from this study, it seems that collaboration among English teachers should be encouraged, in order to provide practical and social support for novice teachers. Also, it would be useful for English teachers to have access to reliable individuals who are readily available to advise novices thus allowing them to improve their lessons in real-time.

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Numerous studies have investigated the relationships between the variability in second language acquisition and cognitive individual differences, such as language aptitude and working memory, and have found correlations between them. For instance, Artieda and Muñoz (2016) found that the language aptitude components needed for successful second language (L2) learning may differ based on L2 proficiency levels. The present study investigated the relationships between language aptitude, phonological working memory (PWM), and L2 proficiency for L2 beginner learners. In addition, it also examined which aspect caused the most variance in L2 proficiency from among the language aptitude components and PWM for L2 beginners. The participants in this study were exposed to a form-oriented instruction. The language aptitude was measured by the LLAMA test. The results showed that the language aptitude suggested to be related to explicit learning and PWM was associated with L2 proficiency. However, the language aptitude suggested to be related to implicit learning was not associated with L2 proficiency. Moreover, PWM explained the most of the variance in L2 beginners’ proficiency among variables.

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The purpose of this case study is to explore if the use of Skype-based video chat will 1) improve the speaking skills and 2) reduce students’ speaking anxiety by comparing the effects of scripted or unscripted English-speaking groups. One of them has time to prepare for the story line of the illustrations while the other must come up with a story on the spot right after the sessions start. Data were collected using an eight-item questionnaire, which was developed based on Motoda (2000). The questionnaire was administered to four undergraduate students before and after eight Skype-based video chat lessons. The participants’ speaking ability was tested twice (pre- and post-tests) using picture storytelling tests. They recorded their experiences in journals and they took part in an interview during the practice. Results showed that compared to the scripted English-speaking group the unscripted English-speaking group substantively improved their fluency and complexity on the post speaking test. In addition, the anxiety of the unscripted English-speaking group was greatly reduced compared to the scripted English-speaking group. This study suggests that improving EFL learners’ speaking skills and reducing anxiety by giving many opportunities to practice speaking English impromptu via Skype-based video chat lessons is important in foreign language learning.

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By the revision of the Course of Study in high school, which will be valid from 2022, civics subjects as well as English ones will be largely restructured (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, 2018a). The present paper reports how English Expression I lessons collaborate with the new civics subject “public.” Focusing on having and expressing one’s own opinions on school affairs, and speaking and writing fluency development, 242 1st graders in one Kanagawa Prefectural public high school worked on various English tasks from summer vacation to December. From the analyses of the final writing test, it was found out that the students became fluent writers of English and succeeded in conveying their own ways of thinking in English, objectively. Also, the present paper gives an approach as an example of developing high school students’ English fluency with long term perspectives.

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MEXT’s ongoing educational reform of foreign language education places a greater emphasis on the English language, with the focus being on improving English skills over different domains and fostering a positive attitude towards communicating in English autonomously. However, understanding the factors surrounding language choice in a given context has rarely been a topic of focus in English classrooms. Hypothesizing that the lack of awareness about language use and users in intra-national communication leads to students having an overly simplistic view of English as an international language, we explored how Japanese high school students make decisions about language choice when interacting with non-East-Asian-looking people in Japan. Focusing on language use and users in Japan, the lesson unit observed students’ perceptional change regarding their choice of language through discussions. The unit challenged students’ uncritical way of viewing English as an international language, nurturing a nuanced understanding of English’s role as an international language so that students would be able to better choose which language they should use according to their situation, allowing them to become more understanding and respectful of the people they interact with in their future intra-national communication.

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Since the revision of MEXT's curriculum guidelines in 1989, the importance of "communication" has been emphasized for English subject. In an attempt to improve the learners' communication skills, PPP (Presentation, Practice, Production) has been employed in English classes at Japanese high schools. However, in recent years, TBLT has been gaining more attention because it gives the learners chances to communicate using a similar cognitive process to that of real-world communication. Since most classes are conducted based on the particular textbook they are using, the communication activities in the books are likely to affect the learners' communication abilities. In this paper, adopting the concept of "task-like" (Willis and Willis, 2017), the "task-likeness" of the communication activities found in the high school textbooks will be examined. Based on the results, some ideas to enhance the "task-likeness" of class activities are suggested.

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