In this short paper, I will outline what the CLIL approach to foreign language instruction is and what benefits can be obtained by adopting this approach to English teaching in Japan. To clarify how CLIL can be applied in English-language classrooms, I will use a lesson taken from a MEXT-authorized high school English textbook and illustrate how to adapt the lesson by incorporating the idea of "soft CLIL", where the aim is not so much on specialized subject learning, but on language learning with a substantial focus on meaning and skill development. Students will engage in multiple rounds of activities centered on the reading materials, first focusing on rough ideas about the reading content, and gradually shifting attention to details and forms, and finally going beyond the reading to relate it to topics of wider scope and greater relevance to the students' own lives. It is expected that students will become active participants in class and develop greater autonomy and sense of responsibility in their own learning.

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Extensive Reading (ER) has been spreading in many schools and more and more teachers are trying to implement ER into classrooms these days. On the other hand, they frequently face worries and misunderstandings of students, parents, and/or colleagues. School teachers often find it difficult to persuade them because they cannot show them enough evidence. In order to support those ER instructors, this research first reveals that 1) both total word count read and average wpb (words per book) have positive correlation with English proficiency tests and that 2) average wpb has stronger correlation with test results than total word count read. This study may be able to provide ER instructors some tips for guiding ER practitioners properly.

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This study examined two different sources of self-efficacy information, cognitive self-modeling and self-persuasion, derived from learners' direct authentic experiences, together with Bandura's (1997, p. 86-106) traditional sources of self-efficacy information, vicarious experiences and verbal persuasion. The results demonstrated that self-persuasion can become a significant predictor for both in-class and out-of-class self-efficacies. Furthermore, this study investigated whether the amount of speaking experiences could influence students' speaking self-efficacy. The result of an independent t-test revealed that there is a significant difference in in-class/out-of-class self-efficacies and self-persuasion between students who have had more speaking practice and those who have not.

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