The present study examines the use of EFL CALL materials in a limited self-study environment by students enrolled at Kumamoto University (the facilities were available from 9 am. to 5 p.m. weekdaysi, and evaluates this environment from the perspective of language development, and from the learners perspective towards the environment. Student attitudes were elicited from questionnaires asking how the students themselves felt about the environment, and how they felt that it could be improved. The feedback from the students suggested that the ovenchelming majority of learners found the CALL environment useful, but that they would prefer to have more access to the materials from both on and off campus. Our analysis of the CALL laboratory usage revealed that the first-year students spent more time using the CALL facilities than the second-year students and the difference found in CALL usage between first-year and second-year students was statistically signficant English language proficiency was measured by an English proficiency test called - at both pre- and post-treatment stages, and the results of the - analysis demonstrated significant gains in grammar reading and vocabulary but a small and not statistically significant decrease in listening. Furthermore, comparisons with the data obtained by mock TOEIC tests at both pre- and post-treatment stages showed a marked increase in all areas. Implications of the results of the study for teaching are discussed.

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The purpose of this study is to examine (a) whether students’ TOEIC scores will increase as they gain higher English proficiency measured by -, a surrogate English proficiency test and (b) how and what kind of factors (such as individual, faculty, and year) affect their scores most. The target group is students in a Japanese national university from nine departments, sampled from school year 2011 to 2015. To explore the objectives, we generated hierarchical Bayesian models to estimate the tendency and differences together. We obtained the following three results. First, students’ TOEIC scores rise as their English proficiency improves. Second, the three factors affect the TOEIC scores. Finally, the similarly-proficient students with lower TOEIC scores raise their TOEIC scores more than those with higher scores if the students improve their own proficiency. We conclude that the students’ TOEIC scores will improve if the students raise their proficiency. Moreover, if we judge their English proficiency in terms of their TOEIC scores, we should consider the three factors carefully.

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Second language learning is likely to be successful under the conditions which are similar to those present in first language acquisition. Content-Language Instruction (henceforth, CLI) offers learners with opportunities where they focus on meaning rather than form and engage in meaningful use of the target language. It seems to help learners achieve high level of English proficiency. However, is it also effective for learners with low English proficiency? The purpose of the present study is to clarify whether learners with low English proficiency accept CLI favorably and whether CLI encourages them to improve their English proficiency. Twenty-one undergraduates were employed as the participants. They took a course taught by the author. The course consisted of 16 lessons, focused on meaning rather than form and incorporated collaborative learning activities regularly in class. To evaluate how their English proficiency had changed over the course, they took - in the 2nd (henceforth, Time 1) and 16th (henceforth, Time 2) lessons. To evaluate how they felt about the course, a questionnaire was given at Time 2. The results are: 1) the participants accepted CLI with regular incorporation of collaborative learning activities favorably and 2) their English proficiency went up slightly. It is then discussed that CLI with regular incorporation of collaborative learning activities is a promising pedagogy which would lead learners with low English proficiency as well as those with high English proficiency to develop their interlanguage system while increasing their motivation to learn English.

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The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of phrasal listening practice on Japanese college students' listening comprehension. The subjects were 48 Japanese nursing college students who participated in the five sets of the phrasal listening practice. Before and after the participation, listening comprehension tests were conducted to examine the improvement in listening skills. The subjects were categorized into three groups^ the higher group (N=12), the middle group (N=23), and the lower group (N=13). The results showed that significant progress between the pre-test and the post-test was observed in each group although there was no significant difference between the middle and lower group in the post-test. According to the survey by a questionnaire, 75% of the higher group and 69.2% of the lower group students found the efficacy of the phrasal listening practice while the positive response by the middle group students remained at 52.2%. These findings suggest that the phrasal listening practice could be both possible and desirable for the improvement of listening skills of Japanese college students and that further research in the appropriateness of speech rate on listening materials and the relationship between pauses and segmentation would be desirable.

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Scores of English certificate exams have been drawing increasing attention as one of the indexes for English learning activities. The certificate exams can evaluate proficiency of test takers objectively. However, the exams are usually expensive to take, making it difficult for students to take ones frequently. If students’ proficiency based on certificate exams’ result can be estimated by using learning outcomes of English course, their objective proficiency can be assessed without additional cost. This study used learning outcomes of 76 students in a public university in Ishikawa. Their learning outcomes (weighted average scores of mid-term and final exams, assignment average scores, assignment average study hours, times of assignment submission) in an English reading course in 2018 fall semester and reading scores of TOEIC Bridge in February of 2019 were used for discriminant analysis. A model using weighted average sores of mid-term and final exams and assignments average scores yielded 89.04% accuracy to classify the students into upper and lower groups. The threshold of the two groups are set on 80 % correct score of TOEIC Bridge reading scores. The results also showed a necessity to give students appropriately calibrated assignments on regular basis.

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The purposes of this research are to report a remedial English course to all freshmen (n=818) at a university and to investigate the relationship between goal-setting, performance-attribution, and self-efficacy qualitatively. The course was designed to enhance self-regulated learning employing self-regulated learning cycles. As to goal-setting, higher goals implied higher self-efficacy as a result of more accurate self-evaluation and monitoring. The lower goals students set, the lower self-efficacy they might have.

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This study reports reading survey results collected from 137 science and technology majors at a Japanese university. Reading is one of the most necessary skills for academic and vocational success, as well as personal growth for science and technology majors, but their English reading ability tends to be limited. For this reason, extensive reading (ER) instruction is in demand. However, the author found that students struggle with reading in general more than reading specifically in English when they start ER. Therefore, this study aims to examine science and technology students’ reading habits and attitudestoward reading in both Japanese and English to improve ER instruction in English. The survey results suggest that 1) science and technology majors have less positive attitudes toward English than arts majors, 2) 70 percent of them perceive reading in Japanese favorably, but the percentage drops to 50 percent for reading in English, and 3) their attitude toward reading is lower for English than for Japanese. Given these results, ER teachers should promote students’ intrinsic motivation, reduce the load of reading in English, introduce intercultural issues through reading, and build a reading community for more successful ER education.

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This paper describes how reading strategy instruction affects the reading strategy use and English ability of Japanese EFL college students. For 30 minutes of each class during the first semester of an English course, 45 lower-intermediate proficiency EFL college students were instructed in four major reading strategies: phrase reading, inferring referents, inferring unknown words, and understanding main ideas/summary. A reading test and a questionnaire to examine the frequency of strategy use were conducted before and immediately after the instruction. The findings revealed significant differences in frequency of strategy use between the instructed group and control group, although there was no significant differences in reading ability between them. Further analysis of instructed strategy use showed that frequency of inferring referents and identifying main ideas/summary had increased significantly. Other strategies such as activating background knowledge, paying attention to images/pictures, and grammar rules were also frequently used.

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The present study aims to clarify the effects of study abroad (SA) duration and predeparture proficiency on the second language (L2) progress of Japanese students of English. As a first step toward this goal, studies on SA of one month or less (short-term), of more than one month to less than six months (middle-term), and of six months or more (long-term) were reviewed extensively. Next, 31 studies, all of which reported SA students’ pre- and post-test scores, were selected, and effect sizes of the students’ L2 gains were generated to allow for further comparisons among the three lengths of SA and among three proficiency levels based on their pre-test scores that were carried out by means of a meta-analysis method. The results showed that the magnitude of the effect of long-term SA was more than twice as great as that of middle-term SA and more than four times as great as that of short-term SA. The second factor analyzed in this study, students’ predeparture proficiency, did not seem to be an influential predictor of L2 gains. However, further analysis revealed that there was an interaction between the two factors, and low proficiency students tended to attend shorter-term SA programs.

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This paper describes how explicit instruction in reading strategy affects Japanese EFL college students' strategy use and English reading abilities. Thirty-six intermediate proficiency EFL college students were instructed in five reading strategies, namely, phase reading, identifying referents, inferring unknown words, understanding signal words, and identifying main ideas and topic sentences. Instruction lasted for ninety minutes once a week during English classes provided over a four-month period. Presentation, exercises, mini-tests, and portfolios were provided to the participants. A general reading test and a questionnaire on the frequency of reading strategy use were conducted prior to and immediately after the four months of instruction in an experimental group and a control group. Moreover, in the experimental group, a pre- and post-reading strategy test was administered and additionally, a thinking-aloud protocol was used to determine the effects of the instructed strategies. Findings revealed that frequency of strategy use, but not reading ability, differed significantly between the groups. The strategy test revealed there were differences of gains in score among the five strategy sections. Students' awareness of strategy use was markedly increased by the instructed activities. In terms of reading attainment through strategy use, some strategies may be more difficult to acquire than others.

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This study investigated the effects of remedial feedback in paragraph writing utilizing a self-regulatory cycle to improve self-regulated learning ability and English writing abiliy of Japanese university students. Concerning self-regulated learning ability, which has four categories, there were significant differences in Self-Efficacy (t=4.16, p<.01), Use of Metacognitive Strategies (t=6.40, p<.01), and Anxiety (t=2.21, p<.05), while there was no statistically significant difference in Intrinsic Value. In view of the students' evaluation, Expression, Structure, Content, and Grammar and Vocabulary, there were statistically significant differences in all categories. Moreover, significant differences were found in the investigation of the number of words used, sentences used, and t-units. In addition, a lot of protocol data showed the effects of this study as well. From these analyses it could be said that students were able to acquire self-regulated learning ability and to improve their English writing ability through remedial feedback utilizing a self-regulatory cycle.

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The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of instruction in self-regulated learning strategies on English writing revision by Japanese university students. Regarding activating four processes of English writing revision, there were significant differences in Task Definition (t = 2.75, p < .05), Evaluation (t = 2.32, p < .05), and Modify Text/Plan (t = 2.97, p < .01), while there was no statistically significant difference in Strategy Selection. In addition, a revision test revealed that finding local errors (t = 2.62, p < .05) and correcting global errors (t = 3.14, p < .01) were significantly improved, while finding global errors and correcting local errors were not improved. Moreover a significant difference (t = 4.32, p < .01) was found in the investigation of the teacher's evaluation of paragraph writing. Free written reflections showed the effects of this study qualitatively as well. From these various aspects of analysis it could be surmised that instruction in self-regulated learning strategies is effective in activating the process of English writing revision and improving the ability of English writing revision.

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