The committee was organized within the Kanto Chapter of the Language Laboratory Association of Japan in February, 1971. It aims to make recommendations, suggestions and advice not only on the rationale of the language laboratory but also on the method, materials, equipment, operation and administration for those teaching a foreign language in kindergartens, primary schools, secondary schools, colleges and universities in Japan. The content of the recommendations are to be revised and supplemented each year. The committee consists of the following members: Hiroyoshi Hatori (Tokyo Gakugei University), Masaya Kaneda (Nagoyagakuin University), Sutesaburo Kohmoto Meijigakuin University), Hiroshi Suzuki (Tokyo University), Tatsuro Ishikawa (Kunitachi Senior High School of Tokyo-to), Shoji Shibasaki (The Junior High School Attached to the College of Education, Chiba University). This report is the findings of the committee which met five times during 1971. No description of the suggested standards are given here since such descriptions admit of no condensation.

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The recommendation made by the Central Council on Education emphases the training of practical abilities in foreign language education. Language laboratory facilities are widely spreading as one of the powerful means to meet the needs of effective and efficient ways of teaching foreign languages. However, the definition of language laboratory is not quite clear. In this paper, the first chapter deals with the definition of language laboratory from the technical and the theoretical point of view. It includes the following discussions. 1. The background which has helped the development of the language laboratory. 2. The place of the language laboratory in foreign language education. 3. The basic functions of the language laboratory. 4. The classification of language laboratory facilities. The second chapter presents the analysis of language skills, that is, audio-lingual skills and visual skills. The discussion is centered on the problem, which skills are most effectively trained by the language laboratory. The analysis is attempted, as in the following order. 1. Language skills. 2. Audio-lingual training of language skills. A. Development of aural-perception and aural-comprehension abilities in English. B. Development of ora-production ability in English In the third chapter, teaching materials in the language laboratory are discussed in detail. As it is mentioned in the first chapter, teaching materials constitute an important part in the language laboratory system. The main points of discussion are as follows. 1. The theoretical background for preparing teaching materials. 2. Some practical methods in preparing teaching materials. A. Patterns in presentation of teaching materials. B. Patterns of drills to be used in teaching materials. The audio-lingual skills will be trained economically when the most suitable types of teaching materials for each teaching target are provided in the language laboratory. This theme, the Language Laboratory and Teaching English on College Level, is not completed by the above discussion. It should be followed by a series of studies on class-organization, effectiveness, evaluation and administration.

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Ever since the language laboratory has come to be used in foreign language teaching, various problems it involves have been taken up for discussion in books, professional journals and at academic conventions. But our subject, that is, the lab run on what is called the library system, seems to have been one the least discussed since the advent of the lab. In order to make more effective use of the lab in language teaching in colleges and universities, we should not cling to the traditional system of class periods: one class lasting 90-100 minutes with the attendance requirement of once a week. Instead, we should keep the lab open the whole school day so that the students may get access to it whenever they want to, no matter whether the practices in the lab are compulsory or optional. During the late summer vacation we sent a questionnaire to 38 universities in Tokyo (excluding junior colleges) with the questions centering on whether they are running the lab more or less along these lines. The result of which was not quite satisfactory, though that was due largely, we must confess, to the inappropriate phrasing of the questions themselves. Bu we hope even this limited survey may give you some idea of the way the lab is generally run in this country. Of course this type of operation of the lab has its merits and demerits. Bu4t taking both of them (merits and demerits) into consideration, and from our own experience of a few years of running the lab on this system, we may safely say that this certainly is one way of running it worth trying at any university.

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Teaching English conversation via open circuit television contains somewhat different problems compared with teaching via the language laboratory. The audience is not captive; most of the viewers have had more than three years experience studying English through the "grammar-translation" method. Under these circumstances, the opportunity to use English is rare. One cannot expect to create a "total submergence" Englishspeaking situation only through television when the television program last only 30 minutes in a 24-hour day. A new method of teaching English conversation to Japanese adults via TV was proposed by NHK producers in 1967. This method is called the "Psycho-motivational method" or "Hassobetsu" in Japanese. One of the greatest differences between Japanese and English is word order. An important idea marker, such as a judgement, or desire, or a request, occurs at the end of the expression in Japanese-whereas, it comes first in English. (e.g. I think... to omoimasu; I want... ga hoshii.) This word order makes word by word translation almost impossible. The mis-coding of one's intention is a very common error by Japanese using English or vice-versa. This mis-coding is often, unfortunately, interpreted as an indication of rudeness or timidness in the user. In order to shorten the process of translation, teaching several sentence openers, each corresponding to the essential moods in communication (psycho-motivation), seems effective. This also helps by limiting the number of expressions to be memorized by the learner. Most conventional English conversation textbooks teach, English expressions of a similar group such as, "Please..." "Will you...", "Could you..." in various situations such as at a railroad station, in a bank, at a restaurant, etc. The student's job is to memorize as many situations (or rather, I would say places) and the typical dialogs used there. If the place differs, the expression differs. This is uneconomical. (If the conversation always goes exactly as in the textbook, it will be OK. But as any tourist well knows, this is not always so.) Teaching one sentence opener in each category should suffice for beginners of English conversation. Although there are limitless psycho-motivations in man's thoughts, the following items should be almost sufficient for beginners whose native language is Japanese. A-1 Perception, Sense I feel... A-2 Judgement I think... A-3 Desire I'd like to... A-4 Plan, Volition I plan to... A-5 Proposition Let's... A-6 Polite Request Please... A-7 Advice, Suggestion You might... The above-mentioned seven items constitute the largest category "Indication of one's intention" (subjective A). In contrast to this is "Inquiring of the listener's intention" (subjective B). Aside from the subjective categories A and B, there are also objective categories "C, Communicating objective information and situation", and "D, Inquiring of Information and Situation". Additional categories are "E, Set expressions", and "F, Simple responses", all the sub-items for which are listed below.[table]A new curriculum is developed using the frequency of the occurrence of sentence openers as a guiding principal. This approach can be supported by ideas from four areas of educational theory: 1) Ideas in "the movement for a modern curriculum" support the plan of arranging teaching materials according to practical requirements rather than for reasons of academism. 2) Ideas in the school of neo-behavorism hypothecate the theory that the more frequent the sentence openers, the easier the sentence pattern will be for learners to grasp. 3) Techniques of descriptive grammar can be used in correcting statistical data in the frequency of recurrent sentence openers in natural conversation

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There has been an increasing demand in the business circles of this country for solid teaching/learning materials designed for the beginner to acquire the basic structures, vocabulary, and usage of English business letter writing. An attempt has been made by Prof. Teruhiko Suzuki of Doshisha University and the present writer to develop an introductory course for Business English, with an extended use of some of the theories and latest findings of the Audio- Lingual Approach and the Multi-Sensory Method in the area of foreign language acquisition. This taped material consists of two major parts: (1) International Business Letters, and (2) Programmed Drills of Basic Forms of Business Englih. The letters, which are divided into three sections, present various international business situations covering from 'Making Accommodations for an Overseas Visitor' to 'Request for Opening of a Letter of Credit'. The letters are recorded on tape with space where breath grouping takes place in the reading of a sentence. Three types of drills follow each letter. The drills are designed to provide the learner with an opportunity for complete mastery of the basic structures and their application in creative business communication situations. All basic structures, taken from the body of the letters, are those frequently seen in business writing. The first type of drill is simple repetition of the basic sentence. The second type is grammatical substitution. By substituting the cue words and phrases provided, the learner is expected to be able to use the basic sentence in new situations as well as deepen hi understanding of its structure. An example of this drill is shown below. The revised List may affect your future marketing program. a. new regulation b. trade agreement c. political change d. joint venture plan e. import restriction law The third type of drill is contextual substitution, in which the learner is expected to increase his power of expression by rephrasing the basic sentence with similar expressions in given context. We believe this will serve as a step to enable the learner to carry on better commujiication in the target language. The following is an example of this drill. If you need any additional information concerning these changes,. please let us know. a. please write us. b. please inform us. c. please drop us a line. d. we would be delighted to hear from you. All the drills are taped with proper models and pauses necessary for four-phase audio-lingual practice. The Japanese notes in the text will help those learners where no instructor is available to teach them.

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Dr. Lado published his Test of Aural Perception in English for Japanese Students in the present form in 1957. It has been highly esteemed as a sort of forerunner in the field of aural perception analysis for Japanese students learning the English language. There are, however, some places where criticisms and improvements should be made. We call the test Lado Test hereafter. We redivided twenty five items of Lado Test, though actually twenty three, into four sections: [A], [B], [C], and [D]. (cf. Appendix III).[h], 9 [n] : [〓], 12 [〓] : [〓] (low-back), 14 [〓] : [s], and 17 [〓]: [z] . [B] contains four items with sound contrasts. They are 5 [m] : [〓], 16 [g] : [〓], 18 [〓] : [〓], and 19 [e] : [〓] . But these contrasts are to be called easily reformable. (cf. Appendices I and II). [C] has six items. They are 2 [〓] : [i] , 7 [〓]: [〓] , 8 [〓] : [t], 11 [s] : [〓], 23 [〓]: [〓], and 25 [〓] : [〓] . All of them are not only remediable but distinguishable with little difficulty. Items in [A], [B], and [C] are all obviously, though with more or less different degrees, effective and appropriate in the respect of aural perception diagnosis. Improvements are to be performed on the five items, actually seven in all, in [D] . 10. [i] : [e] . Experiments say that productive distinction of these two sounds is difficult but perceptive distinction is not. 13, 21, and 24. A problem of aural perception in these items is 'a consonant cluster or combination confused with the same consonants separated by vowels.' However no specific principle is formulated nor is the reason why three items instead of one are necessary given here either. 15. [d] : [〓]. The four examples are imperfect. To differentiate these two sounds is rather easy anyway. 20. The exact same thing as in 15 can be stated. 22. [z] : [〓] . There are four cases in combining two voiced fricatives [z] and [〓] and two voiced affricates [〓] and [dz] . They are [z] : [〓], [z] : [dz], [〓] : [〓], and [〓] : [dz] . Lado Test has two of these, 18 [〓]: [〓] and 20 [z]: [〓]. The latter one especially could have better examples. A few words as general remarks on Lado Test. 1. Lado Test attempts rather forcibly to complete the form of one hundred examples. 2. It contains no contrasts of vowels in unstressed syllables, diphthongs and consonant clusters particularly difficult for Japanese students. As a compensation for our criticism on [D] as well as for the above mentioned remarks, seven practical suggestions are given. 1. [w] confused with [r] . 2. [m] confused with [n] . 3. [dz] confused with [z] . 4. [d] confused with [〓]. 5. [n] confused with [nd] . 6. [〓〓], [z〓], [t〓], and [n〓] are suggested as the most. difficult consonant clusters, orally and aurally, for Japanese students. We have to consider that they quite frequently occur in the environments accompanied with 'the', 'they', 'that', and 'there.' 7. [ou] confused with [〓] Aural perception test can be likened to a scale to weigh a baby. Weighing must be followed by feeding nourishments. Hence results of testing are to be applied and utilized for more effective methods of remedy.

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One of the most specific characteristics of Language Laboratory, especially of what we call Full Laboratory, is found in its use for comparison drills. Listen-Repeat-Compare type is most widely used for recorded materials for LL education. This is also known as Four-Phase-Drill, in which students are to listen to the model statements, repeat them, compare them with their own repeated statements, and make necessary corrections. This type of Four-Phase-Drill is based upon the assumption that the students are able to correct and evaluate their own drills by comparing them with the model. The result of the questionnaires made in July, 1971, shows that out of 150 freshmen majoring in English Literature at our university 86 per cent of them say that they can recognize their mistakes by comparison and 57 per cent of them say that they can correct those mistakes for themselves. We can, however, hardly believe their statement, because we often find by monitoring in LL that some of the mistakes that should be noticed are not corrected but repeated again and again. We have, therefore, recognized that there is a difference between students' own evaluation and that of ours. The purpose of our study is to clarify students' own evaluation in connection with Pre-Lab Instruction. The reason why we have taken up this problem in connection with Pre-Lab-Instruction is found in this that two major types of lessons used in LL are classroom type and library type, and the difference between the two is based on whether it has Pre-Lab Instruction or not. Subjects: 103 freshmen majoring English Literature. 72 per cent of them say that they are very much interested in practical (conversational) English. Experimental Lessons: Four classes are prepared assorted by Pre-Lab Instruction and monitoring. Class A has neither Pre-Lab Instru4ction nor monitoring. Class B has both of them. Class C has only monitoring and Class D has only Pre-Lab Instruction. Class B and D get 35 minutes' oral Pre-Lab Instruction before LL drills that last for 20 minutes. Test: Students were to repeat ten short model sentences taken from new part of "Adventures in English", an English teaching movie. This test was given to all the four classes before and after LL comparison drills. This test has been recorded and evaluated by two instructors. Their average marks are used for making the following tables. Table 1 shows the result of the test of significance of a mean difference between the average marks of Pre-Test and Post-Test given to the 20 students who have had no Pre-Lab Instruction. Table 2 and 3 show respectively the compared data of the average marks of Pre-Test and Post-Test given to those students who have had Pre-Lab Instruction and those who have had no Pre-Lab Instruction. Table 4 shows the result of Analysis of Variance. Conclusion: 1. Those students who have had no Pre-Lab Instruction apparently make progress by LL comparison drills in their ability of speaking English. Their total marks, however, are much lower than those of the students who have had Pre-Lab Instruction. 2. Whether or not a student makes progress in speaking English by means of LL drills has nothing to do with his present ability of reading or writing English.

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It is four years since Tokai Ulliversity introduced the LL system utilizing cassette tape recorders in the lessons. The LL system must be simple in operation and of good quality to provide long service. The simpler the operation, however, the more complicated the mechanism, which decreases the longevity of the system. The cassette tape recorders satisfy the former condition and enable smooth communication between teachers and students without undue trouble in handling the instruments. Some have doubts on the utilization of cassette tape recorders in the LL system, because, in their opinion, cassette tape recorders are not as good as conventional open-reel recorders. In a last few years, however, the quality of cassette tape recorders and cassette recording tapes has become better and more refined. Nowadays we don't think that cassette tape recorders are of lower quality in comparison with open-reel ones for LL apparatuses. After four years of using cassette tape recorders, we come t& the following conclusions: Cassette tape recorders are the most suitable in the LL system since they are more efficient, easy to operate and art very compact.

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