著者

寺沢 拓敬

出版者

関東甲信越英語教育学会

雑誌

関東甲信越英語教育学会誌 (ISSN:21858993)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.27, pp.71-83, 2013-03-01 (Released:2017-07-14)

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This paper examines Japanese workers' needs to use English for occupational purposes, employing a statistical analysis of several datasets from social surveys based on a random sample of the entire workforce in the country. Although many policy makers, business leaders, and English language teachers often emphasize the occupational importance of English proficiency, there has been little research which precisely estimates how many workers are required to use English in their workplaces. Therefore, a secondary analysis was conducted using five datasets with a random sample: Japanese General Social Surveys (2002, 2003, 2006, and 2010 versions) and Working Person Survey (2000). The results show that (1) less than 10% of the respondents use English in workplace, (2) about 40% feel the needs to use English, and (3) the responses vary widely according to their demographic and occupational factors such as type of job, educational background, and firm size. Based on these findings, the paper discusses the validity of foreign language education policies of the Japanese government.

著者

川口 恵子 伊東 田恵 太田 理津子

出版者

関東甲信越英語教育学会

雑誌

関東甲信越英語教育学会誌 (ISSN:21858993)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.29, pp.57-70, 2015 (Released:2017-07-20)

参考文献数

23

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Academic writing has been traditionally viewed as impersonal, but recent corpus-based research has revealed that writers of research articles (RAs) in both scientific and social sciences use first-person pronouns in their RAs for constructing authorial identity. This research focuses on the use of first-person pronouns, powerful linguistic resources to convey an author’s voice. Using two corpora consisting of 21 RAs each by Japanese and native English TESOL researchers, we investigate how first-person pronouns are used to represent the authors in text. We also explore the factors that characterize the Japanese writers’ use of first-person pronouns by referring to the results of a survey conducted on 70 Japanese EFL teachers inquiring about the practice and perception of first-person pronoun use in RAs. The results indicate that the Japanese researchers use first-person pronouns less frequently in their RAs. The further analysis suggests that the low frequency of first-person pronouns may not be caused just by the researchers’ view of academic writing but that different factors such as consideration for the conventions practiced in the discourse community or research methods adopted may be related to the choice of first-person pronouns in RAs.

著者

寺沢 拓敬

出版者

関東甲信越英語教育学会

雑誌

関東甲信越英語教育学会誌 (ISSN:21858993)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.27, pp.71-83, 2013

---

This paper examines Japanese workers' needs to use English for occupational purposes, employing a statistical analysis of several datasets from social surveys based on a random sample of the entire workforce in the country. Although many policy makers, business leaders, and English language teachers often emphasize the occupational importance of English proficiency, there has been little research which precisely estimates how many workers are required to use English in their workplaces. Therefore, a secondary analysis was conducted using five datasets with a random sample: Japanese General Social Surveys (2002, 2003, 2006, and 2010 versions) and Working Person Survey (2000). The results show that (1) less than 10% of the respondents use English in workplace, (2) about 40% feel the needs to use English, and (3) the responses vary widely according to their demographic and occupational factors such as type of job, educational background, and firm size. Based on these findings, the paper discusses the validity of foreign language education policies of the Japanese government.

著者

小菅 敦子

出版者

関東甲信越英語教育学会

雑誌

関東甲信越英語教育学会研究紀要 (ISSN:09112502)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.20, pp.25-36, 2006-03-01 (Released:2017-07-14)

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The purpose of this study is to investigate the developmental features of errors in spoken performance by Japanese EFL junior high school students. The subjects are the same as in Kosuge (2003, 2004), that is, 90 Japanese junior high school students. None of the students have spent more than a month in a foreign country. The students were categorized into three groups of 30 each, according to their English results in the second term of the ninth grade. The spoken data was collected from six face-to-face interviews which were conducted by an ALT from the third term of the seventh grade to the second term of the ninth grade. Grammatical errors in the data were identified and corrected by a second ALT. 'The error rate (error AS-units per AS-unit)' and 'the means of the number of errors' were used to analyze the data. Also each error was categorized to examine what type of error occured. The error rate and the number of errors decreased the most in the first term of the ninth grade. Many errors in articles, prepositions, pronouns, noun plural forms, and the tense were found in the data.

著者

藤森 千尋

出版者

関東甲信越英語教育学会

雑誌

関東甲信越英語教育学会研究紀要 (ISSN:09112502)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.18, pp.41-52, 2004-03-01 (Released:2017-07-14)

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In recent years, three indicators of language proficiency accuracy, fluency and complexity have been receiving great attention in analyzing speech production. However, there are a number of different statistical procedures used in examining each indicator. What methods should be used is an important issue especially when we have cross-sectional research. This paper addresses several problems of the measures for accuracy, fluency and complexity used in previous studies on planning and task type and in a past study held in 2002. In addition, it offers possible measures that we could employ in future research and in classroom language observation.

著者

小湊 彩子

出版者

関東甲信越英語教育学会

雑誌

関東甲信越英語教育学会誌 (ISSN:21858993)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.33, pp.1-12, 2019 (Released:2020-04-08)

参考文献数

24

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This study aims to explore (a) how a demotivated and struggling English learner regained motivation to study and (b) how demotivating and remotivating factors influenced the student’s learning process. A semi-structured interview was conducted with one female college Engineering student who made significant motivational as well as academic improvements after two years of failing English classes. In order to analyze the data from a qualitative point of view, the Structural Construction Qualitative Research Method (SCQRM), developed by Saijo (2007, 2008), was used. Two possibilities can be derived from this interview. First, the student’s perception that her difficulty in understanding learning content is being acknowledged by others without judgment or criticism could influence motivating factors, such as help-seeking, effective study strategy acquisition, an attitude toward learning without fear of making mistakes, and self-efficacy. Second, while these factors might not independently affect the student’s learning attitude and behavior, they seem to be closely related.

著者

川口 恵子 伊東 田恵 太田 理津子

出版者

関東甲信越英語教育学会

雑誌

関東甲信越英語教育学会誌 (ISSN:21858993)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.29, pp.57-70, 2015

---

Academic writing has been traditionally viewed as impersonal, but recent corpus-based research has revealed that writers of research articles (RAs) in both scientific and social sciences use first-person pronouns in their RAs for constructing authorial identity. This research focuses on the use of first-person pronouns, powerful linguistic resources to convey an author's voice. Using two corpora consisting of 21 RAs each by Japanese and native English TESOL researchers, we investigate how first-person pronouns are used to represent the authors in text. We also explore the factors that characterize the Japanese writers' use of first-person pronouns by referring to the results of a survey conducted on 70 Japanese EFL teachers inquiring about the practice and perception of first-person pronoun use in RAs. The results indicate that the Japanese researchers use first-person pronouns less frequently in their RAs. The further analysis suggests that the low frequency of first-person pronouns may not be caused just by the researchers' view of academic writing but that different factors such as consideration for the conventions practiced in the discourse community or research methods adopted may be related to the choice of first-person pronouns in RAs.

著者

大井 恭子 田畑 光義

出版者

関東甲信越英語教育学会

雑誌

関東甲信越英語教育学会研究紀要 (ISSN:09112502)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.22, pp.81-91, 2008-03-01

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The present action research is a unique attempt in that junior high school students performed a storytelling in English for elementary school children. This practical-minded research asked three questions: (a) What kinds of activities are possible for junior high school students in preparation for the storytelling performance, which would integrate four English skills? (b) How much can elementary school children understand of the story told to them? (c) What is the significance of storytelling activities for both elementary school children and junior high school students? Twelve ninth graders participated and performed for fourth graders. The ninth graders went through various activities in order to prepare for the storytelling performance, which required four skills in English. The degree of comprehension on the part of the elementary school children was measured after the performance. As a result, it was proved that children have a capacity to understand a story even though they do not know every individual word used in the story. In the preparation stage, the junior high school students enjoyed expressing their ideas, discussing them with their peers, and collaborating with each other; in other words, they enjoyed being in a "learning community," which was clearly reflected in their reflection sheets. Also they learned how to rewrite a story on their own based on the original, with the audience in mind. In conclusion, storytelling is an effective activity in terms of language learning, building confidence in students, and creating a learning community in school.

著者

木村 啓子

出版者

関東甲信越英語教育学会

雑誌

関東甲信越英語教育学会誌 (ISSN:21858993)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.26, pp.53-65, 2012-03-01 (Released:2017-07-14)

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The purpose of this study is to investigate the changes of the writing proficiencies that occur in participants of a three-week overseas program making use of a STEP test and an essay writing. In order to observe the differences in their essays written before and after the program, not only T-units and Error-free T-units (EFTs) but also "Global-error-free T-units (GEFTs)" (Kimura, 2011) were utilized. The scores of writing section in STEP test significantly increased. Regarding the writing proficiency, their fluency considerably improved, but no progress was shown in accuracy. Aiming to find the affective factors that influenced such changes, a Willingness to Communicate (WTC) scale questionnaire was implemented. Results showed that the participants' WTC scores did not necessarily correlate to their language performances and that those who showed lower WTC scores before the program tended to demonstrate higher improvements in their scores. Another finding was that the significantly different two groups in WTC scores before the program became homogeneous ones after the program, probably because those of the lower group went up through their experiences they had in the overseas country.

著者

藤森 千尋 小泉 利恵

出版者

関東甲信越英語教育学会

雑誌

関東甲信越英語教育学会誌 (ISSN:21858993)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.25, pp.21-31, 2011-03-01 (Released:2017-07-14)

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The purpose of this study is to examine how English teachers evaluate students' speech presentation and whether their holistic ratings have some correlations with linguistic features by objective measures of accuracy, fluency, and complexity, and with students' peer evaluation. The present data employed are (a) transcribed utterances in speech presentation by 21 senior high school students, (b) an ALT's and a JTE's holistic rating scores, and (c) peer evaluation data from the classmates. The results of the study show that the holistic rating scores are significantly in correlation with measures of accuracy (i.e., the number of error-free clauses per clause), and other linguistic features (i.e., the number of words, the number of clauses, and the number of types). The results also indicate that the average of the two teachers' holistic ratings correlate to students' evaluation in attitude and manner of speaking and in accuracy and concision, and that the JTE's ratings correlate to students' evaluation in fluency.

著者

小泉 利恵 栗嵜 逸美

出版者

関東甲信越英語教育学会

雑誌

関東甲信越英語教育学会研究紀要 (ISSN:09112502)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.16, pp.17-28, 2002-03-01 (Released:2017-07-14)

被引用文献数

1

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As a basis for constructing the empirically derived, binary-choice, boundary-definition scales (EBB scales; Turner & Upshur, 1996), this paper examined the characteristics of speech from 80 Japanese junior high school students. Utterances from two monologue tasks were transcribed and analyzed by utilizing 33 objective measures. The results indicated a lack of vocabulary, complex sentence structures, and cohesive devices, as well as scarcity of errors and the inability to give a proper greeting or leave-taking during the self-introduction. Differences also existed between high and low groups in vocabulary, accuracy, fluency, and task achievement. Moderate and strong relationships were found between vocabulary, task achievement, and accuracy, as well as between speaking time and fluency. Speaking ability correlated highly or moderately with vocabulary, task achievement, and accuracy. Errors were produced more as speaking ability increased.

著者

小泉 利恵 山内 逸美

出版者

関東甲信越英語教育学会

雑誌

関東甲信越英語教育学会研究紀要 (ISSN:09112502)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.17, pp.33-44, 2003-03-01 (Released:2017-07-14)

被引用文献数

1

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This study examined how 71 Japanese junior high school students developed their speaking ability over a span of five months. A planned monologue was elicited that required the students to introduce themselves for one minute in English. Utterances from the task were transcribed and analyzed utilizing 1 1 measures that assess vocabulary, fluency, accuracy, and complexity, among others. The results indicated that overall the students significantly improved their vocabulary (the number of pruned tokens and types) and fluency (the number of words per minute). Those who had had higher vocabulary ability expanded the number of words that they used significantly, leading to more T-units, longer speech, and higher EBB scale scores (Koizumi & Kurizaki, 2002a) than those with lower vocabulary ability. Students with lower grammar ability improved their fluency (the ratio of repetitive words) and spoke for a significantly shorter amount of time. Those who had had lower speaking ability expanded their vocabulary (pruned tokens) and fluency (words per minute) significantly, producing more T-units and higher EBB scale scores. In contrast, those with higher speaking ability increased the complexity of their speech (the ratio of subordinating conjunctions) but gained significantly lower EBB scale scores.

著者

瀧口 均

出版者

関東甲信越英語教育学会

雑誌

関東甲信越英語教育学会研究紀要 (ISSN:09112502)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.18, pp.1-13, 2004-03-01 (Released:2017-07-14)

被引用文献数

1

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In this paper I would like to reexamine the result of a previous longitudinal study of the development of speaking skills among Japanese EFL junior high school students. The main purpose of this follow-up study is to prove the core finding of the original to be in agreement with the other cases. The core finding of the original is that in the former period of speaking development, fluency ("speech rate") was ameliorated, whereas in the latter period, only syntactic complexity was improved. This study is a cross-sectional study whose participants consist of 16-7th year students, 16-8th year students, 16-9th year students and 10 adult native Australian speakers. Unlike our hypothesis, the results indicated that "speech rate" had been being improved from early stage (7th year students) to native speakers'. In addition to that, in the middle of the development, the change of syntactic complexity proved to be accompanied. It seems reasonable to conclude that participants would make a change of their spontaneous utterances on the basis of largely "memory-based" into mainly "rule-based" utterances.

著者

柳川 浩三

出版者

関東甲信越英語教育学会

雑誌

関東甲信越英語教育学会誌 (ISSN:21858993)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.32, pp.1-14, 2018 (Released:2019-03-31)

参考文献数

23

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This study aimed to reveal a) whether the Five Sentence Types (FST) contributes to improving the proficiency level of Japanese learners of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) and b) how their parsing of English sentences varies depending on their understanding of FST. The FST has long been a cornerstone of English Language Teaching (ELT) in Japanese secondary schools, and it is believed to represent five major sentence types in English, based on the form of the main verb and the predicate that follows. Little research, however, has been conducted into whether or to what extent the FST contributes to L2 development, and how differently EFL learners parse English sentences according to the FST. A total of 570 university or college students, mainly the first- or second-year students, participated in this study in response to an originally constructed “Basic Grammar Test” (BGT) of 36 items. Cluster analysis identified five different groups among the 570 students who share the parsing, and two-way ANOVA showed that interactional effect was found between skills (i.e., listening and reading) and groups. The simple main effect was statistically significant on reading proficiency but on listening proficiency, suggesting that the FST may contribute to enhancing reading proficiency but listening proficiency. The results of multiple comparison, however, showed that the effect is limited since statistically significant difference was not necessarily found across the groups. Correspondence analysis revealed that Japanese learners of EFL have difficulties in recognizing transitive verbs followed by an object, particularly when the object is to-infinitive and that-clause. Resulting discussions explore how FST instruction should be incorporated into ELT at the secondary and tertiary levels.

著者

山田 雄司 青田 庄真

出版者

関東甲信越英語教育学会

雑誌

関東甲信越英語教育学会誌 (ISSN:21858993)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.29, pp.71-84, 2015 (Released:2017-07-20)

参考文献数

17

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Studies have been accumulated on individual policies related to English language education in Japan or on Japanese society as a determinant of these individual policies. Few studies, however, have ever been done on the discussion in the Japanese Diet, which connects the policies and the society. This is because the society, or the view of the Japanese people, affects what and how to discuss in the Japanese Diet, based on which new policies must be developed. The aim of this study is to investigate thoroughly what and how the actors, who are the participants of the Diet, have discussed English education in the Japanese Diet. For this purpose, we gathered all the statements made in the Japanese Diet about English education from 1947 to 2013, and analyzed the data using the method of quantitative content analysis. We divided the post-war era into four periods based on the number of the conferences mentioning English education and defined five actors. The main findings are: (1) each period has its own prominent topics; (2) there are some words or types of statement more frequently used by each actor. We believe this research will open a new field of study, which would enhance the historical studies of English education.

著者

SATO Yusuke

出版者

関東甲信越英語教育学会

雑誌

KATE journal = 関東甲信越英語教育学会誌 (ISSN:21858993)

巻号頁・発行日

no.35, pp.29-42, 2021-09

著者

小湊 彩子

出版者

関東甲信越英語教育学会

雑誌

関東甲信越英語教育学会誌 (ISSN:21858993)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.33, pp.1-12, 2019

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This study aims to explore (a) how a demotivated and struggling English learner regained motivation to study and (b) how demotivating and remotivating factors influenced the student's learning process. A semi-structured interview was conducted with one female college Engineering student who made significant motivational as well as academic improvements after two years of failing English classes. In order to analyze the data from a qualitative point of view, the Structural Construction Qualitative Research Method (SCQRM), developed by Saijo (2007, 2008), was used. Two possibilities can be derived from this interview. First, the student's perception that her difficulty in understanding learning content is being acknowledged by others without judgment or criticism could influence motivating factors, such as help-seeking, effective study strategy acquisition, an attitude toward learning without fear of making mistakes, and self-efficacy. Second, while these factors might not independently affect the student's learning attitude and behavior, they seem to be closely related.

著者

中田 賀之

出版者

関東甲信越英語教育学会

雑誌

関東甲信越英語教育学会誌 (ISSN:21858993)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.30, pp.1-14, 2016 (Released:2017-07-20)

参考文献数

43

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It is now widely accepted that the concept of L2 motivation is multifaceted, complex, and dynamic (Boekaerts, 1995; Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2011). Yet, the existing L2 motivation literature available to date does not necessarily fully take account of its complex nature. Given this situation, the present paper argues for the potential of complexity theories in its application to foreign language motivation research. This paper begins by briefly reviewing the existing literature of foreign language motivation research. It then argues the rationale for applying complexity theories to educational research. Further, it examines the salient characteristics of complexity theories in light of complexity thinking, based on which it attempts to explore the possible application of complexity theories to motivation research. Finally, the article ends by outlining some possible avenues for motivation research within the framework of complexity theories but also reflecting on some of the challenges facing future research.

著者

寺沢 拓敬

出版者

関東甲信越英語教育学会

雑誌

関東甲信越英語教育学会誌 (ISSN:21858993)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.32, pp.57-70, 2018

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The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of elementary school English education programs (ESEEP) first implemented in the 2000s. I examined this issue from an evidence-based policy approach, rather than a second language acquisition perspective. In other words, I employed a research design that ensured internal validity and external validity, both of which are a prerequisite for obtaining reliable evidence although they have generally been disregarded by the previous work on ESEEP. Based on this design, I examined whether the implementation of ESEEP has achieved its stated goals, by analyzing questionnaire data from nationally representative 2,967 junior high school students (provided by an open data archive). Based on structural equation modeling, I estimated causal effects of respondents' ESEEP experience on their English language skills, intercultural awareness, and positive attitudes toward English learning. The result suggests that the ESEEP experience did not have any substantial impact. This result, I argue, can be considered as counter-evidence against the current policy reform on ESEEP, and thus suggest that the government, and pro-ESEEP researchers as well, should provide further evidence that indicates the effectiveness of ESEEP if they attempt to maintain the policy.

著者

安宅 いずみ 松沢 伸二

出版者

関東甲信越英語教育学会

雑誌

関東甲信越英語教育学会誌 (ISSN:21858993)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.30, pp.167-180, 2016 (Released:2017-07-20)

参考文献数

23

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The improvement of teaching and assessing the skills of writing cohesive texts has been one of the pressing matters for English teachers in Japan. Surveys conducted in 2015 show that most of the Japanese junior high school students do not have enough confidence in their ability to write cohesive English texts and that their teachers find difficulty in teaching the writing skills of such texts (AEON, 2015; MEXT, 2015a). In order to find solutions to the issue, a small-scale research project was carried out in a municipal junior high school for about six months in 2014. A Japanese female English teacher taught 34 second-year students how to write cohesive texts using genre-based writing instruction (GBWI) and genre-based writing assessment (GBWA). The teacher explained the features of the genre and text type of a model text, and her students wrote parallel cohesive texts, first being guided, and then on their own. She used learning, practice and assessment tasks in her teaching-learning and practice-assessment cycles. Other scaffoldings she provided include assessment criteria, self- and teacher-assessment opportunities and conferencing. The results of a questionnaire completed by the students show that they appreciate GBWI and GBWA and that they have more confidence in writing cohesive texts than before.