本稿では，小学校第3学年の児童がタブレットを使用して，チャンツを録音する・聞く・振り返る活動の様子，指導する教師の実践，活動中の児童の意識調査，英語母語話者による児童の発話の評価結果を報告する。実践は，2021年2月から3月に3クラス96名を対象として行った。2月に第1回目，3月に第2回目の録音と質問紙調査を実施した。使用したチャンツは『Let’s Try 1』Unit5のWhat do you like?である。第1回目の録音前に2回ほど視聴・練習し，児童自らがiPadを用いてチャンツを録音した。録音後，質問紙（6項目・4件法）に回答し，自由記述欄に感想を記入した。その後，2回授業を行いそれぞれ導入時に2回練習をして，第1回目と同じ手順で第2回目の録音を行った。同様に質問紙にも回答・記述した。主な結果は以下の3点にまとめられる。第1に，録音時は9割の児童が楽しいと感じている一方，4割程度の児童は緊張感を覚え，4割程度は自分の発話を否定的に捉える児童がいた。しかし同時に，9割を超える児童は，自信を無くした状態で留まるのではなく，下手だったから次はもっと頑張ろうと前向きな気持ちを持っていた。第2に，児童の内省を通して，自己肯定感や学習意欲を高める指導の重要性が再認識された。第3に，英語母語話者は児童の発音をおおむねわかりやすいと捉えていたが，ある程度の日本語訛りを感じていた。

日本人英語学習者にとって効果的なスピーキング指導を考えるうえで，どのようなスピーキング活動をした場合に，どのようなスピーキング・パフォーマンスや英語情意面の向上が期待できるのかに関する知見を得ることが必要である。本研究では，英語初級レベルの大学生を対象に，3カ月間にわたり4コマ程度の絵を用いたストーリーテリング活動を実施し，情意面とスピーキング・パフォーマンスの変化を調査した。その結果，情意面ではストーリーテリング活動に対する意欲や英語を学ぶ楽しさの喚起，能力認知の向上，英語や学び方への気づきが見られた。学習前後のスピーキング・パフォーマンスは，6コマの絵で示されたストーリーを語るテスト1と自分の思い出ストーリーを語るテスト2を用いて，発話量および語彙の複雑さ，構造の複雑さ，正確さ，流暢さ，ナラティブらしさ（結束性・詳細さ）の5項目で分析した。その結果，発話量と語彙の複雑さはいずれのテストにおいても大きく向上し，構造の複雑さはテスト2のみ小程度の向上，正確さはテスト1では大きな向上，テスト2では小程度の向上が見られた。流暢さはいずれのテストにおいても伸びておらず，指導の効果は見られなかった。ナラティブらしさについては，いずれのテストにおいても，つなぎ語の数や種類が少しずつ増加し，テスト1では形容詞の数や種類，副詞の数も中から大程度の変化が見られた。

Summary writing in the first language (L1) of a text written in the second language (L2) has been used to measure L2 reading comprehension. A variety of scoring criteria for the summary writing task have been suggested and employed in previous studies, examinations, and classroom assessments. An inconsistency in the scoring may lead to misperceptions among test-takers about the intended performance of the summary task. Therefore, the present study examined the perceptions of summary writing among Japanese English as foreign language (EFL) university students, and the relationship between performance and the perceived appropriateness of the summary writing task. A total of 68 students participated in the study. They read an English (i.e., L2) passage and summarized it in Japanese (i.e., L1). Then, they answered a questionnaire about the perceived appropriateness of the scoring criteria for the summary writing task. The results showed that Japanese EFL university students judged that the amount of important information should be adopted as the scoring criteria of the task. However, their perceptions did not influence their performance. These findings suggest that the students should be made aware of the ideal performance criteria, so that they can work on a summary writing task with correct perceptions of the intended performance.

Reading-to-write (RTW) tasks have been used as integrated writing tasks because of their academic authenticity, even in Japanese classrooms. In the context of classroom assessments, accessibility to feedback and a rating scale (e.g., ease of interpretation and use) are the most important aspects. However, RTW assessments have the inevitable problem regarding the difficulty of scoring, which can influence their efficacy and feasibility in the classroom. Therefore, this study develops a classroom-oriented rating scale for RTW tasks, that is, an analytic empirically derived, binary-choice, boundary-definition (EBB) rating scale, and revises the EBB scale in a preliminary investigation using many-facet Rasch measurement (MFRM) analysis. In total, 28 writing performances elicited from an RTW task were scored by 10 raters, including four raters who participated in EBB development. The results of the first MFRM analysis showed that the first EBB rating scale functions appropriately under only two criteria. Based on these results, the first EBB was partially revised and analyzed. The revision solved the problem of the first EBB detected in the first analysis; however, several unsolved problems remained, thus suggesting room for the improvement of the present EBB rating scale.

The revised Course of Study for upper secondary schools, which was implemented in fiscal 2022, newly emphasizes the importance of spoken interaction and improvisation. In this paper I take up the issue of text authenticity and analyze dialogues in the textbooks now and those used in the late 2000s, when a more relaxed education policy was introduced, from the viewpoint of to what extent they reflect characteristic features of authentic dialogues. The results of the comparison revealed that (1) generally speaking, the dialogues of both recent and older textbooks reflect the nature of authentic conversation in terms of lexical density, (2) the dialogues of recent textbooks still have not adopted some features of authentic conversation (e.g., false starts and terminal overlaps) and they became rather worse in the adoption of repetitions and latching, and (3) though not to a sufficient degree, some improvement has been made in the frequency of hesitation devices and back-channels, and the variety of the former also increased. These results indicate a necessity for the textbooks to adopt more and a wider variety of features of authentic conversation in the dialogues.

The syllable is a basic unit of the English language. For young Japanese learners of English, whose L1 comprises morae rather than syllables, a clear explanation of what a syllable is can help the perception and production of English speech. Despite this, there is a paucity of research regarding syllable instruction, and what research there is can give conflicting ideas on when and even whether syllables should be taught. In this paper, we attempt to clarify the issues by reviewing the literature concerning syllable instruction, and by examining the way syllables and the phonemes that make up the syllables are covered in authorized Japanese junior high school English textbooks. We conclude that there is insufficient explanation of syllables and phonemic symbols in the textbooks, especially concerning the relationship of syllables with grammatical features such as comparatives, and we recommend measures to improve pronunciation teaching which include phonemic and syllable instruction.

本研究の目的は，青森県内小学校が令和3年度に行ったスピーキングパフォーマンス評価の実態と課題を明らかにし，その解決策を探ることである。調査の結果，課題として，パフォーマンス評価が指導者と児童が個別に行うテスト形式ではなく全体で行う言語活動の見取りを代替としている場合が多いこと，パフォーマンステストの回数が指導者によって大きな差があること，評価計画やルーブリックの作成率が低く計画的かつ適切な評価が行われているのかという懸念があること，パフォーマンステストの評価で重視する観点は発話内容やジェスチャー，表情などの非言語的方略，声の大きさや聞き取りやすさなどが上位で，発音やプロソディはあまり重視されていないこと，テスト機会や場所の確保の問題，正確で公平な評価への不安等が挙げられた。このように，指導者によってパフォーマンス評価の実施に大きな差があり，評価が適切に行われていないと推測される現状は，今後児童の英語力や意欲・態度にも差が出ることにつながる懸念があるため，その改善が急務であり，その解決策として，小学校教員が実際にパフォーマンス評価の経験を積む等，教員の資質・能力の向上を図る実践的な研修が有効であると考えられる。併せて，学校や教育委員会もパフォーマンス評価の時間や場所を確保できるよう労働環境の改善を図る解決策を講ずる必要があると考える。

The present study aimed to determine whether two types of summary writing instruction (text-focused vs. content-focused) could improve the summary writing of Japanese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. Following the pre-test, three weeks of summary writing instruction were administered in two groups. The post-test was conducted one week later. Subsequently, the delayed post-test was conducted one month after the post-test. The statistical analysis of the pre-, post-, and delayed post-test revealed that both groups significantly improved from pre- to post-test and from pre- to delayed post-test. Although there was no significant difference between the two groups, the scores for summary writing tended to be higher for content-focused instruction than for text-focused instruction. Thus, it can be concluded that these results have great potential to help Japanese EFL learners summarize information in expository text.

It is widely accepted that implicit knowledge is unconscious knowledge while explicit knowledge is conscious in second language acquisition. A controversial problem of implicit/explicit knowledge is how these two kinds of knowledge are related to each other (i.e., interface issue). In order to solve this problem, the measures of implicit/explicit knowledge are needed to be developed. The present study focused on the three design features (time condition, modality, and stimulus type) of the grammaticality judgement test (GJT). By incorporating comprehension questions into GJTs, the present study attempted to make learners focus on ‘meaning’ while engaging in grammaticality judgement tasks. It conducted analysis of variance (ANOVA) and principal component analysis in order to examine how the three design features affect learners’ performance in GJTs and explore how each feature is related to implicit/explicit knowledge. The results showed that the modality feature taps the purest implicit/explicit knowledge of the three design features. The results also indicated that scores on grammatical stimulus sentences of GJTs may not reflect learners’ pure grammatical knowledge.

This study examines the practice of an elementary school foreign language class which was developed from a viewpoint of multicultural coexistence. The class was designed and practiced by the university students studying in the elementary school teacher training course, taking advantage of what they had learned from a study trip in Singapore that focused on how to have a successful multi-cultural society. In the context of accelerated globalization, the number of children with foreign roots and cultural diversity is expected to increase further in Japan, therefore the importance of multicultural education in schools is brought forward. Based on the awareness of the described situation, this paper aims at clarifying the significance of English classes with perspectives of cross-cultural understanding and explores the learning of university students who designed and conducted the aforementioned elementary English class. In addition, another purpose of this paper is to obtain concrete suggestions on education for multicultural coexistence in elementary school foreign language education. This is a practical study as part of a seminar activity with the university students who will be responsible for elementary foreign language classes in the future.

This pilot study was designed to help prepare students for their independent lives at university and thereafter with regards to financial knowledge. In order to meet the needs of learners who may not have a high level of English competency, a CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) approach was adopted. CLIL attempts to bridge the gap between language skills and subject-based learning. The current project engaged students in practical tasks related to the theme of money. Specifically, the instructors aimed to help learners make sense of the economic system and their role in it. Over the course of 10 weeks, the instructors introduced a number of basic financial topics such as investing and budgeting while providing ample support for language needs. The learners participated in individual, pair, and group tasks to become familiar with the subject matter and demonstrate their knowledge. At the end of the course, students gave a presentation on a money topic of their choice to deepen their understanding. Preliminary findings suggest that students enjoyed learning about money, and found topics covered in class to be relevant to their daily lives.

本稿では，学級カリキュラム・マネジメントによって，資質・能力を教科横断的な視点で育むことを通して，外国語科の特質に応じた見方・考え方が豊かに育まれることの実証を目的としている。カリキュラム・マネジメントとは，カリキュラムを中心に，子供の学びの経験をよりよいものに改善していくアプローチである。つまり，児童が課題を達成するという自らの目的意識とその必要感に基づいて，探究的・協働的に取り組み，課題の達成を通じて自分の成長を実感できる学習活動の展開を支えるものである。授業実践では，総合的な学習の時間における学習目標を達成するために外国語科での課題を児童と共有し，伝えたい内容や伝え方について学びを進めた。サモア人とのコミュニケーションを図ろうとすることを通して，他者に対する配慮や言語材料の使用場面に意識を向けている児童が多く，主体的に言語活動に取り組む中で外国語によるコミュニケーションにおける見方・考え方を豊かにすることに有効であることが示唆された。

The purposes of this paper are to use the Total Physical Response approach to teach English songs to first graders in an elementary school, and to examine how they understand the meaning of the words of the songs. The words of the English songs which we taught are familiar to all the children. We tried to have a fifteen-minute lesson in each class every day for about one month.

This research was carried out from October 27th to November 20th in 2020, and thirty-two first graders participated in the lessons. Its content was based on a meaning comprehension test in accordance with the English words of the songs used in the lessons. An analysis of the data by the paired two-way ANOVA method showed that there was a significant difference between the before and after results in the meaning comprehension of the students. In general, their meaning comprehension ability had improved after one-month of instruction. In particular, they understood the meaning of the words of the English songs with their actions through the Total Physical Response approach.

The Total Physical Response approach may be one way to teach English to children in the lower grades.

This study aimed to identify the educational effects of pair-work applications for Japanese English as a foreign language (EFL) learners enrolled in English classes at a Japanese university. The classes were conducted for 15 weeks during the first semester of 2022. In every class, students participated in an English-speaking activity involving 60-minute conversation sessions. The researcher taught the classes and analyzed data collected from pre- and post-tasks respectively conducted in April and August. The study’s participants comprised 10 Japanese EFL learners who were third-year engineering students at a Japanese university. The data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The results demonstrated improved English fluency in the participating students. More importantly, the English classes motivated students and inculcated a more cooperative attitude in them. Short practice sessions performed during ordinary English classes at a Japanese university were quite effective in enhancing the English fluency and communication skills of Japanese EFL learners.

In medical and scientific fields, especially, undergraduates have little time for overseas study. Emphasizing glocal benefits, our university and local businesses developed highly subsidized short-term international PBL programs. While, culturally, “small town” means something different in Japan than Hawai`i, we contrasted these cultures through various programs designed for mutually beneficial learning experiences. This paper analyzes the effect that participating in such programs has had on their lives and experiences based on questionnaire responses and interviews of participants, now working or in graduate programs. Using the respondents’ own words, the authors describe how the PBL impacted their lives. The authors further discuss lessons learned and offer suggestions, and a template, for other university educators in a position to create similar projects for their students.