This study compared the Test of English as a Foreign Language (

) Internet-based test (iBT) with the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) in terms of the contents of the test and scale and history of the test. Although the two tests appear similar as they both have the same four sections (reading, writing, speaking, and listening sections), these two tests do not necessarily measure the same abilities. After the comparison of the iBT and the IELTS section by section, we found that the IELTS is better than the iBT in the reading, listening, and speaking sections, and that the iBT is superior to the IELTS in the writing section. We also found that the iBT is much more popular than the IELTS in Japan, although the opposite is true worldwide. We considered why the iBT is dominant in Japan and suggested measures to make the IELTS the dominant one in Japan, considering that the IELTS is superior in terms of including tasks that simulate daily life tasks. These measures would increase the number of IELTS test centers, reconsider American-oriented thinking of Japanese people, encourage educational institutions to recommend the IELTS more strongly to students, and decrease the IELTS’s test fee.

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This study investigated the relationship between learners' vocabulary size and reading comprehension of academic texts. A reading comprehension test based on the and an online receptive vocabulary size test were administered to 175 pre-intermediate Japanese EFL university students. The findings showed that (1) texts could actually be considered academic, (2) 5000 to 5500 words of the JACET 8000 basic words covered 95% of the words used in the reading section, (3) the estimated vocabulary size of 6500 is needed to score more than 60% on the reading comprehension section of the , and (4) there were no strong relationships between vocabulary knowledge and reading sub-skills. This paper argues that the relationship between learners' vocabulary size and reading success is not so straightforward.

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This paper employed the lexical coverage construct, defined as the percentage of words in a text that a reader understands (Laufer & Ravenhorst-Kalovski, 2010, p. 16), to establish a) the vocabulary size needed to achieve adequate comprehension of the (ITP) reading section and reading passages taken from two EFL textbooks, and b) whether the EFL textbooks provide opportunities for vocabulary instruction sufficient to achieve specific reading comprehension targets; in this case, a reading comprehension level of approximately 50%-55% (at the intermediate level) and 65% (at the upper-intermediate level) on the (ITP). Using the RANGE software package and employing 95% and 98% lexical coverages, the results pointed to a gap of at least 2,500-4,000 word families between reading texts and the two EFL textbooks. At 98%, the gap was approximately 6,000 word families. It was concluded that the two textbooks do not provide sufficient vocabulary instruction for students to meet the lexical demands of the reading comprehension targets. The implications of this for textbook selection and vocabulary instruction are discussed.

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The present study investigates whether or not grammaticality judgment tests reflect a learner's linguistic competence. The results of this experiment on grammaticality judgment showed the following: 1) On our grammaticality test, learners with high scores on a -type pre-test did better than those with low scores on the -type pre-test, notably showing that the former are stronger than the latter with Universal Grammar (UG) items. 2) Those with high scores on the -type pre-test apparently make grammatical judgments more frequently based on their theoretical knowledge of grammar than those with low scores. 3) In making judgments, those with low scores more frequently utilized the strategy of guessing, as opposed to those with high scores. Finally, several other issues related to this study are mentioned for continued research which can help prove grammatical judgment tests to be a valid method of measuring a learner's competence and creativity of the learner language, i.e., Interlanguage.

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The relationship between reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge has been examined in many studies. However, few studies so far have distinguished the vocabulary knowledge in isolation and in context. Addressing this point, this study considered two types of vocabulary tests: Mochizuki (1998) Vocabulary Size Test (VST) and vocabulary items, and tried to clarify the relationship further. Adding to this, we classified question types in the reading test and examined each relationship with two types of vocabulary knowledge in order to differentiate reading items by the level of reading comprehension. The results of Experiment I suggested that regardless of the presence or absence of context, there was no significant difference between the correlation coefficients of the two vocabulary tests and Reading scores. In addition, no correlation coefficients were significantly different in any question type, remaining the issue about whether the vocabulary tests in context and without context really differ or not. For the sake of investigating this point further, the word inference test was newly introduced in Experiment II to examine what knowledge or ability the two vocabulary tests measure. The results revealed a large overlap between VST and vocabulary items. It suggests not only VST but also vocabulary items which present target items in context tend to measure isolated vocabulary knowledge. Pedagogical implications for vocabulary testing and recommendations for further research are also discussed.

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The purpose of this research is to develop an English learning system that makes effective use of chat. To learn a foreign language, it is essential to expose a child to it for a long period of time and to maintain motivation for learning. Focusing on the fact that Japanese people spend much more time using chat than the average of OECD member countries, we decided to use a chat app as an English learning system. This system has an English writing function and a conversation promotion function. If a user is having trouble creating an English sentence when sending a chat, the English writing function can easily create the sentence using its translation and template functions. The conversation promotion function provides topics to two users and proposes a simple reply to a user who is having trouble finding an answer during a conversation. The results of our evaluation show that conversation can be promoted by easily creating English sentences using the topic provision and template functions.

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Clearly, most students and their financial supporters hope to spend as little time as possible in an EAP programme and to enrol for content classes as soon as possible. However, from a pedagogical perspective there may be disadvantages to exiting an EAP programme too quickly. This paper focuses on the benefits of spending a longer period in EAP in relation to reading skills, by comparing the reading sub-skills of students who have already spent one semester or more in the EAP programme with others who enter the programme and are placed at the same level, in order to determine any advantages that might be offered by spending a longer period of time in the EAP programme. Overall, the results show no clear superiority in language proficiency for one group over the other at the time of entering EAP level 3. The new students had significantly higher reading section scores and total vocabulary size, whereas the continuing students were found to have more knowledge of high frequency vocabulary. In terms of Listening and Written Expression section scores, total scores, word decoding speed and knowledge of words at the 1,000 and 4,000 word levels, the lack of statistically significant differences indicates that despite entering the university with a lower proficiency level, one semester of EAP instruction was sufficient to lift up the proficiency level of the continuing students to that of the new students.

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Integrated writing tasks are becoming popular in the field of language testing, but it remains unclear how teachers assess integrated writing tasks holistically and/or analytically and which is more effective. This exploratory study aims to investigate teacher-raters’ holistic and analytic ratings for reliability and validity and to reveal their perceptions of grading the integrated writing task on the Test of English as a Foreign Language Internet-based Test ( iBT). Thirty-six university students completed a reading-listening-writing task. Seven raters scored the 36 compositions using both a holistic and an analytic scale, and completed a questionnaire about their perceptions of the scales. Results indicated that the holistic and analytic scales exhibited high inter-rater reliability and there were high correlations between the two rating methods. In analytic scoring, which contained four dimensions, namely, content, organization, language use, and verbatim source use, the dimensions of content and organization were highly correlated to the overall analytic score (i.e., the mean score of the four dimensions). However, the dimension of verbatim source use was found to be peculiar in terms of construct validity for the analytic scale. The analyses also indicated various challenges the raters faced while scoring. Their perceptions varied particularly regarding verbatim source use: Some raters tended to emphasize the intricate process of textual borrowing while others stressed the difficulty in judging multiple types and degrees of textual borrowing. Pedagogical implications for the selection and use of rubrics as well as the teaching and assessment of source text use are suggested.

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2000年10月よりがCBT（Computer-Based Testing）となり，それに伴いライティングのテストが必修となった。そこで，英語圏に留学を志す学生たちがライティングのセクションで高得点を上げ，留学中に課せられるレポートにも対応できることを目標に，Writing for the Testという授業をインターネットを活かして実践してきた。その取り組みを3つのキーワード，authenticity（真正性），scaffolding（足場かけ），reflection（再吟味）の考え方（三宅，1997［1］）を足がかりに紹介する。

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Objective: This survey was conducted to evaluate changes of students’ English competency as they progress through the academic years, and disclose the effect of outbound exchange programs (OEP) that students can visit oversea universities as an elective course. Materials and Methods: All undergraduate dental students from 1st to 6th year (n = 332), at School of Dentistry, Tokyo Medical and Dental University were invited to participate in the study, and asked to fill out a self-administered questionnaire. As an objective scale of student’s English competency, -ITP scores were used. In total, 236 (71.1%) of students participated. Students were classified into two groups by the participation or absence of OEP. Results: Experience from OEP was associated with improved English competency. Students without the participation showed decline in English competency over time. Self-confidence in English communication coincided statistically with the objective measurement of -ITP scores. Discussion and Conclusions: Exposure to English communication through experience in organized OEP appears to be important for improving their confidence in English communication. Greater exposure to English language for the dental students and exposure to different culture may help development of international perspectives, motivation of students for further study, and influencing their career choice.

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This research aims to identify studentsʼ needs for their perceived success in communication beyond their language classrooms in a private university in Japan. For this purpose, the study investigated studentsʼ interactions in a mandatory subject course, the Multicultural Cooperative Workshop (MCW), whose features closely resemble those of studentsʼ real-world English communication. The data was collected from eight past course-takers and 248 current course-takers through a mixed approach, including interviews, and pilot and main surveys over two semesters in 2017. The research results revealed predominant needs for studentsʼ favorable perception on their communication from the perspectives of objective needs, such as language proficiency level, and subjective needs, including their own perception of speaking fluency, relationships with group members and sense of task achievement. Finally, this research suggests approaches for English teachers to incorporate knowledge of studentsʼ needs for the real-world communication into their classes.

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This paper attempts to establish the country-by-country SILL (Strategy Inventory for Language Learning) norms advocated by Oxford and Burry-Stock (1995). First, a brief description of the SILL, a self-report questionnaire, is provided, and empirical studies indicating its drawbacks are summarized. Then we report an analysis that shows the underlying factor structure of the SILL when administered to 200 college students studying English as a Foreign Language in Japan. In this analysis, the universality of the SILL is challenged, and also, a suggestion is made that not only country-by-country SILL norms but also proficiency level-by-level norms should be established. After the factor analysis, relationships are sought, using a multiple regression procedure, between the factors found and EFL proficiency measured by the . The results provide theoretical implications for further improvement of the SILL (especially concerning the validity issue) as well as for the development of sound strategy training programs in the EFL environment.

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This study examines observable tendencies and statistical associations between lifestyle-related factors and components of social capital, on the one hand, and variables for English language proficiency on the other. A survey was carried out at Doshisha University in July 2017 to collect the pertinent data from the students taking English language courses. The results illuminated that following variables, e.g., were associated with variables representing English language proficiency: (1) preference for music over sports, (2) classification of average weekly minutes spent studying English outside classrooms, (3) whether or not the respondent has family members, relatives, or friends who are good at English, (4) whether or not the respondent thinks that he/she has many friends, (5) whether or not the respondent has friends from other countries with whom English is used to communicate mutually, and (6) the number of days having been abroad. Not only the presence of similarities between language and music, but also the positive effects of specific social capital as manifested in the above-mentioned variables (3), (4), and (5) that promote the exposure to and the use of English language have been suggested, though positive effects of general social capital were not validated in this study. Other lifestyle-related factors of importance that had to be omitted from this paper shall be addressed in future studies.

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