A common issue in second language (L2) learners is a lack of vocabulary and background knowledge. Narrow reading—a subset of extensive reading—is a way to deal with these difficulties. However, little is known about the effectiveness of narrow reading of expository texts with audio input. The study aims to explore how effective narrow reading with audio is in learning on vocabulary knowledge through expository texts. Fouty-two Japanese high school students read three theme-related expository graded readers with audio. Thirty target words were then selected from the material. The frequency of occurrence of the target words was from 1 to 32 times. The experimenter devised two test forms that assessed the following vocabulary knowledge: spelling, aural meaning, written meaning, and use. The results showed that these aspects were gained to a significant extent. Specifically, the knowledge of aural meaning and spelling improved more than the skills of written meaning recall and the use of the target words. The findings imply that the combination of narrow reading with audio has a positive influence on vocabulary knowledge— specifically, the aural aspects of vocabulary knowledge.

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[in Japanese]

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This paper aims to identify the characteristics of English language teaching (ELT) research in Japan. For this purpose, this study analyses conference abstracts from five domestic ELT associations (CELES, JACET, JALT, JASELE and KATE), two international ELT associations (AsiaTEFL and TESOL International Association) and Association for Japanese Language Education. Instead of interpretive coding techniques commonly used in previous studies, this study employs text mining-based content analysis to process a huge dataset for international and interdisciplinary comparisons. The Structural Topic Model analysis of over 7,000 abstracts reveals that domestic ELT associations (i.e. CELES, JASELE and KATE) in Japan tend to focus more on language analysis (e.g. grammar, cognitive mechanisms) and less on socially contextualised frameworks (e.g. language learner identity) than international ELT associations. In addition, researchers in the domestic ELT associations tend to employ frameworks that assume the Japanese education system but pay less attention to phenomena outside of this system. Based on these findings, this paper discusses the future directions of analysing academic trends in ELT.

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Researchers from various academic fields have paid close attention to mindsets for many years, and second language acquisition is no exception. Previous studies in SLA introduced language-specific mindsets by developing the Language Mindsets Inventory scale to examine language learners’ mindsets. Although a Japanese version of this scale has already been developed, there may be room for improvement in terms of its translation and validation. The current study aimed to develop a more refined Japanese version of the scale through a careful translation process and a thorough examination of its reliability and validity. Participants in the current study were 179 EFL university students in Japan. Results of the reliability analysis showed that the new Japanesetranslated scale with 12 items was highly reliable. Confirmatory factor analysis also showed that the four-factor model had a good fit and further evidence was added by examining the convergent, discriminant, and concurrent validity. The outcomes of the study imply that mindsets may not transcend subject areas which suggest the development of skill-specific mindset scales.

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This study examined the factors that influence on junior high school students’ motivation for learning English. The study was conducted in the form of a survey, with data being collected from 427 students. They answered the questionnaire when they were in 6th grade in elementary school (Time 1: T1) and in 1st grade in junior high school (Time 2: T2). As the result, it was revealed that the level of motivation in T1 positively affected that in T2. Besides, self-efficacy in T1 was related to interest in T2. Different patterns of relationship were observed between T1 and T2 regarding how perceived goals affect their motivation. It was also suggested that classes aiming at acquiring knowledge and skills and understanding other cultures in T1 would help students maintain their motivation after entering junior high school.

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The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of explicit grammar instruction regarding the subordinate conjunctions if and when for Japanese learners of English (JLEs). In particular, this study focuses on their semantic differences that seem to be confusing to JLEs. Since if and when seem to satisfy all the conditions Shirahata (2015) proposed for the effectiveness of explicit grammar instruction, it can be assumed that explicit instruction promotes the acquisition of the semantic differences between the two conjunctions. For data collection, out of the 102 university JLE participants, 58 received three explicit instruction sessions, each of which was held once a week for three consecutive weeks. JLEs’ comprehension was examined through grammatical judgement tests administered before, a week after, and 11 weeks after the instruction session. The results show that the explicit instruction was effective, and the aftereffect was maintained at least for 11 weeks after the last instruction session. Accordingly, the results indicate that the assumptions proposed by Shirahata (2015) are valid in case of the conjunction acquisition whose meanings can be indistinguishable.

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Student success in Foreign Language Studies (FLS) in fifth and sixth grades is predicated on the learning outcomes of Foreign Language Activities (FLA) in third and fourth grades. Though FLA has been taught for a few decades in elementary schools, teachers still report a lack of confidence in teaching FLA. Unfortunately, teacher training is limited by time constraints, and thus, it is crucial that training focuses on areas that are most necessary. Gaining a deeper understanding of teacher experience in FLA potentially provides input for these training necessities. This study analyzed data collected from teacher responses to surveys over four different stages of FLA. Each cross-sectional survey was implemented to measure teacher experience of FLA. Survey data revealed teachers’ confidence in FLA has slightly grown over time, but with the introduction of FLS, teachers currently feel their language and teaching skills are insufficient to prepare students for FLS. They also reported a lack of (1) time to prepare for lessons and (2) know-how to team teach. From our interpretations of these survey results, we suggest that in-house training connected to teachers’ daily teaching practices could be more efficient and effective for in-service teachers.

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One of the challenges in English e-learning is maintaining engagement1 and persistence. Learners may experience fatigue from the monotony of solitary study. This study aimed to explore the factors that motivate university students to eagerly engage in English e-learning.2 The purpose of this study is not to establish the generalizability of e-learning motivation for English learners, but rather to gain an in-depth understanding of a specific engagement. Data was gathered through interviews with three students who exhibited exceptional engagement in a high volume of online assignments. A thematic analysis within the framework of Self-Determination Theory's three psychological needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) identified three key themes: (1) approaching intrinsic motivation, (2) alternatives to conventional English language competence, (3) necessary sense of distance in personal relationships. The study found that assessment in e-learning that focuses on not only performance and test scores but also learning efforts (study time) may have the potential to motivate certain learners. Additionally, the study highlights the need for e-learning to provide different scaffoldings to accommodate each learner's sense of relatedness, as the degree of necessity of personal relationships varies depending on each individual learner.

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It is known that some preferences for verb subcategorization structures are observed in native English speakers’ language use. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether such preferences are reflected on English textbooks, which are arguably one of the main sources of input for Japanese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. In this study, we analyze to what extent 56 different verbs are used with (1) direct objects, and (2) sentential complements (with and without the complementizer that) in a textbook corpus, which consists of 15 series of Japanese senior high school English textbooks. After calculating the frequency of each structure, comparisons are made with the results of Roland et al.’s (2007) study, which analyzed the British National Corpus. The results show that although the distribution of the verb subcategorization structures in the textbooks is strongly correlated with that in BNC, differences in the use of some verbs between the two corpora are also revealed. Additionally, it is indicated that compared to BNC, the textbooks contain a lower percentage of sentential complement structures and include more sentential complement structures with the complementizer that. Some pedagogical implications toward vocabulary instruction in Japanese EFL classrooms are also discussed.

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The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology administered an English test including listening, reading, writing and speaking sections for junior high school students in the 2019 National Assessment of Academic Ability. The National Institute of Educational Policy Research reported the test results including the correct response rate and the non-response rate of each test item. The brief-constructed items and the constructed items in the writing and speaking sections tended to show higher non-response rates. The purpose of this research was to find a relationship between the non-response rate of each test taker and his/her attitude toward learning English and to find a relationship between the non-response rate of each school and its learning environment and attitude toward teaching English. This study analyzed the response data of 977,250 test takers and 7,988 junior high schools. The results indicated that third-year junior high school students with a higher non-response rate tended to have a negative attitude toward English learning and the English activities conducted in the classroom, and tended to show a lack of a basic knowledge of English structures. The schools with a lower non-response rate tended to use English and to provide advanced activities in the classroom. Ways to decrease the non-response rates in the English test are discussed.

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This study examines how foreign language education curriculum policies were formed in local Japanese governments utilizing the Experimental School Projects in Special Zones for Structural Reforms in the 2000s. This project relaxed national curriculum regulations and played an important role in the diffusion of English learning in elementary schools across Japan. However, few studies on the detailed circumstances of foreign language education in these governments are available. The main results are as follows: (a) Most of the cases focused on elementary school English education. (b) Most local governments began foreign language education classes in the first grade, but there were also cases of implementation beginning in other grades. (c) The specific subjects, hours of study, and the subjects that were omitted varied from one to another. (d) The local governments’ goals for the project varied from those closely related to foreign language education to those considering societal impacts, and their characteristics tended to differ depending on the name of the subjects. (e) Some of the goals seem to be influenced by national policy or by the specific circumstances of each locality. These results clarify the diversity of foreign language policies in local Japanese governments, which has not been sufficiently revealed in previous studies.

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The purpose of the current study is to reveal what makes senior high school English textbooks more difficult than junior high school English textbooks. As a result of three different analyses, it was revealed that (a) the difference in mean sentence length between the textbook for 9th grade and 10th grade is larger than the differences between other grades, (b) most of the sentences in senior high school English textbooks are written with grammatical features introduced at junior high school (above 80%), and that (c) multiple grammatical features introduced at junior high school simultaneously appear in one sentence. These findings indicate that it is not grammatical features introduced at senior high school that make the textbooks difficult for senior high school students: rather, the gap between junior and senior high school textbooks might be due to the fact that the texts of the senior high school textbooks contain many sentences with junior-high-school-level grammatical features that most senior high school students do not fully acquire. Some pedagogical implications toward senior high school EFL classrooms are discussed.

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In the new foreign languages Course of Study for junior high schools (MEXT, 2017a), Japanese is considered as having an auxiliary role. This study aims to explore the trends of the test items requiring examinees to answer in Japanese (mediation items) in the latest public high school entrance examinations. Moreover, by comparing the examinations across Japan, the study tries to reveal how the treatment of mediation items has changed over a decade with the discussion about curriculum revisions. It was found that approximately half of the prefectures set mediation items in their most recent examinations. Although no significant changes regarding the mediation items were found due to the revisions, the percentages of the prefectures that provided those items have been decreasing by slow degrees. These items measure examinees’ abilities to explain in Japanese or translate into it. Since many studies, including the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (Council of Europe, 2020), claim that humans engage in mediation activities in real-life situations, this study suggests that fostering mediation skills be added to a future Course of Study as one of the learning objectives and that those abilities be measured on the entrance examinations across Japan to equip students with the required skills in authentic educational and social contexts.

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This paper intends to make a critical review of Written Languaging (WL). Since the concept of languaging was introduced as “the process of making meaning and shaping knowledge and experience through language (Swain, 2006, p. 98),” a growing number of empirical studies on languaging have been conducted to discover its effectiveness on language learning. Recently, there have been more and more empirical studies on WL. Some practical reports on WL have been published within and outside of Japan. However, little research has systematically reviewed these studies. The present study reviews 25 empirical studies and 4 practical reports from 2009 through 2022. Most of the studies have focused on the effects of WL on accuracy. Different kinds of Written Corrective Feedback (WCF) have been given to learners, followed by WL. Learners were given an opportunity to process the WCF more deeply, which led to the improvement of the learners’ writing accuracy. I point out several limitations of the previous empirical studies and suggest the implementation of WL in English classes in Japan.

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This study conducted lexical analyses calculating the rate of vocabulary overlap between “Eigorian,” a Japanese educational TV show, and English textbooks used in Japan. Five episodes of “Eigorian,” available on the NHK for School website, were compared with English textbooks for elementary school students. Some pairs consisted of one episode of “Eigorian,” and one textbook unit with the same target expressions was compared. The highest rate of vocabulary duplication was found between “Eigorian” and the fourth-grade English textbook. By unit, those featuring the target sentence “How are you?” had the highest overlap rate. “Eigorian” is most suitable for fourth graders because of the overlap of vocabulary and learning concepts. “Eigorian” can thus be a valuable tool for students showing the situations where target expressions are used.

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This study conducted short oral interaction practices repeatedly to low-skilled English learners in a high school and examined its effectiveness. The new Course of Study in foreign language education states that when designing a language activity, “functions of language” should be concerned. Thus, several functions of language were chosen, taking into consideration participants’ English proficiency level, and were taught through the practice. The data were collected by four methods: recordings of learners’ utterances in pre and post-speaking tests, a survey, learners’ essays, and a teacher’s diary. As a result of the analyses, it was indicated that many participants improved their speaking fluency and ability to state reasons, enjoyed the practice, and recognized the development of their speaking skills. Furthermore, the teacher was satisfied with participants’ attitudes and performances during the practice. On the other hand, participants’ abilities to ask questions and use backchanneling expressions were not developed significantly.

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This article reports on a teaching practice that implemented the same speaking tasks three times with Japanese high school students and explores its effects on their utterance fluency. The students were given a 1-minute impromptu speaking task at the beginning of each English lesson throughout one term. After engaging in 10 different topics in 10 lessons (one task per lesson), they were given the first task again and thus repeated the same tasks three times. The results showed that the average number of spoken words in each task went up significantly, suggesting the effect of task repetition on the participants’ fluency, regardless of the differences in topics. However, despite the three-time task repetition, some students produced fewer words in the third round than in their first round. A close examination of their products revealed that those who tried to convey different ideas in the third round from their first one tended to have lower fluency. The study recommends that teachers ensure students build on their previous performance when repeating tasks to enhance fluency.

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