Attitudes of Japanese Learners of English Towards English Users in ELT Textbooks

Through a combination of questionnaires, focus groups, and class interviews, this study investigated the attitudes of Japanese secondary school students towards the representations of English users and English-language communications appearing in English language textbooks. The results showed a congruence of student preferences for inner-circle (IC) (Kachru, 1985) orientations with the IC-oriented features most commonly found in English textbooks approved and used in Japanese secondary schools. They also revealed how student familiarity with textbooks influences preferences for the ways English users and English-language communications are represented in them. 本研究では、質問紙、フォーカス・グループ、クラス・インタビューを用いて、日本の中学・高校生の英語教科書の中の英語使用者と英語コミュニケーションの描写に対する態度を調査した。調査の結果、生徒の英語圏（inner-circle内心円）(Kachru, 1985) を好む傾向と、日本の中等学校で使用されている文部科学省検定英語教科書に最もよく見られる、英語圏主流を示す特徴に、一致が見られた。また、調査結果は、生徒の教科書に対する慣れや親しみが、生徒の教科書中の英語使用者と英語コミュニケーションの描写方法についての嗜好に、どのように影響を与えるかについても明らかにした。

L2 English Speakers’ Perception of Their English Accent: An Investigation of European and Asian Attitudes

According to previous studies, Japanese learners of English (JLEs) have a negative perception of their own variety of English along with a strong desire to sound native-like. Language attitudes toward L2 (second language) English accents may affect their active participation in English communication situations. The present study is cross-national and investigates whether other L2 English learners from different L1 (first language) backgrounds negatively perceive their own variety of English and English pronunciation as JLEs do. A total of 290 college students in Austria, Germany, Denmark, Malaysia, China, Japan, and Kazakhstan evaluated their own accent by responding to 10 statements on a 6-point scale. By comparing the responses as percentages and the binomial test, the analysis revealed that the Japanese perceived their accent most negatively, followed by the Chinese, whereas the Europeans, Malaysians, and Kazakhs perceived their accents positively to varying degrees. Among the seven countries, the L1 Danish group perceived their own variety as native-like most and non-native accent least, where the JLEs showed the opposite results. On the other hand, the endorsement for native accent was recognized across the countries. Based on the results, I claim that individual socio-contextual settings could have a critical impact on developing distinct attitudes toward one’s own accent among EFL speakers. 

Diagnostic Tests of English Vocabulary Learning Proficiency: Guessing From Context and Knowledge of Word Parts

<p>This thesis looked at the creation and validation of two tests that measure how efficiently English words are learned. Previous studies have created and validated a number of tests that measure the size (how many words are known) and the depth (how well a word is known) of vocabulary knowledge; however, existing vocabulary tests do not indicate how learners can become proficient in vocabulary learning. This research was one of the first attempts to create such tests. A guessing-from-context test (GCT) and a word part test (WPT) were created, because the skill of guessing from context and word part knowledge are teachable and are the most frequently used strategies for dealing with unknown words. The GCT consisted of the following three sections: identifying the part of speech of an unknown word, finding the contextual clue that helps guess its meaning, and deriving the unknown word’s meaning. Each of these three sections was designed to measure each of the important steps in guessing from context that was identified by previous studies. The test was validated using Rasch analysis through data from 428 Japanese learners of English. The results indicated that the GCT is a highly valid and reliable measure of the skill of guessing from context in terms of eight aspects of construct validity (content, substantial, structural, generalizability, external, consequential, responsiveness, and interpretability). Based on the results, two new equivalent forms were created in order to allow a pre- and post-test design where researchers and teachers can investigate learners’ development of the skill of guessing from context. The WPT measured 118 word parts that were selected based on frequency data in the British National Corpus. It consisted of the following three sections: form (recognition of written word parts), meaning (knowledge of their meanings), and use (knowledge of their syntactic properties). These three sections were designed to measure the important aspects of word part knowledge that were identified by previous studies. The WPT was validated using Rasch analysis through data from 440 Japanese learners of English and 1,348 people with various native languages. The results indicated that the WPT is a highly valid and reliable measure of word part knowledge in terms of the eight aspects of construct validity mentioned above. As with the GCT, two new equivalent forms were created in order to allow a pre- and post-test design. For more practical use of the test, the Word Part Levels Test (WPLT) was created by classifying the 118 word parts into three different levels of difficulty. This may allow teachers to quickly examine whether their students need to work on easy or difficult word parts and which aspects of word part knowledge need to be learned. Taken as a whole, the GCT and the WPT are useful measures both for research and practical purposes.</p>

Diagnostic Tests of English Vocabulary Learning Proficiency: Guessing From Context and Knowledge of Word Parts

<p>This thesis looked at the creation and validation of two tests that measure how efficiently English words are learned. Previous studies have created and validated a number of tests that measure the size (how many words are known) and the depth (how well a word is known) of vocabulary knowledge; however, existing vocabulary tests do not indicate how learners can become proficient in vocabulary learning. This research was one of the first attempts to create such tests. A guessing-from-context test (GCT) and a word part test (WPT) were created, because the skill of guessing from context and word part knowledge are teachable and are the most frequently used strategies for dealing with unknown words. The GCT consisted of the following three sections: identifying the part of speech of an unknown word, finding the contextual clue that helps guess its meaning, and deriving the unknown word’s meaning. Each of these three sections was designed to measure each of the important steps in guessing from context that was identified by previous studies. The test was validated using Rasch analysis through data from 428 Japanese learners of English. The results indicated that the GCT is a highly valid and reliable measure of the skill of guessing from context in terms of eight aspects of construct validity (content, substantial, structural, generalizability, external, consequential, responsiveness, and interpretability). Based on the results, two new equivalent forms were created in order to allow a pre- and post-test design where researchers and teachers can investigate learners’ development of the skill of guessing from context. The WPT measured 118 word parts that were selected based on frequency data in the British National Corpus. It consisted of the following three sections: form (recognition of written word parts), meaning (knowledge of their meanings), and use (knowledge of their syntactic properties). These three sections were designed to measure the important aspects of word part knowledge that were identified by previous studies. The WPT was validated using Rasch analysis through data from 440 Japanese learners of English and 1,348 people with various native languages. The results indicated that the WPT is a highly valid and reliable measure of word part knowledge in terms of the eight aspects of construct validity mentioned above. As with the GCT, two new equivalent forms were created in order to allow a pre- and post-test design. For more practical use of the test, the Word Part Levels Test (WPLT) was created by classifying the 118 word parts into three different levels of difficulty. This may allow teachers to quickly examine whether their students need to work on easy or difficult word parts and which aspects of word part knowledge need to be learned. Taken as a whole, the GCT and the WPT are useful measures both for research and practical purposes.</p>

LONGITUDINAL L2 DEVELOPMENT IN THE PROSODIC MARKING OF PRAGMATIC MEANING

This study investigated whether L2 English learners’ prosodic properties in speech acts change as they are immersed in the English-speaking academic community over time, and if so, what individual and contextual factors (proficiency, orientation to language study, and target language contact) potentially affect these changes. Forty-seven Japanese learners of English in an English-medium university in Japan completed a speaking task that elicited two speech acts (request and opinion) three times over one academic year (8 months). Their speech was analyzed for discourse intonational features (e.g., tone choices, prominence ratio, and pitch range). Results showed that all prosodic properties changed over time, although the pace and patterns of changes differed among the properties. Proficiency and language contact significantly affected the change in tone choice, but no other relationship was found between individual/contextual factors and changes in prominence ratio or pitch range.

Deployment of the formulaic utterance “how about∼” in task-based second language classroom discussions

Formulaic speech has long been of interest in studies of second language learning and pragmatic use as production and comprehension of formulaic utterances requires less processing and production effort and, therefore, allows for greater fluency. This study scrutinizes the sequential positions and actions of one formulaic utterance “how about∼” from the participants’ perspective. This conversation analytic study offers a fine-grained microanalysis of student interaction during classroom peer discussion activities. The data consist of over 54 h of video-recorded classroom interaction. Analysis revealed several positions and actions of “how about∼” as it occurs during peer discussions by Japanese learners of English. Emerging from analysis was a focus on how learners deploy this formulaic utterance to achieve various actions within sequences of interaction. Analysis revealed that participants used “how about∼” for (a) explicitly selecting next speaker, (b) shifting topics, (c) proposing a solution, and (d) suggesting alternative procedures. Although the formula was deployed to perform these four different actions, consistent throughout all instances was the disclosure of learner orientation to the progressivity of the task interaction. The findings show how language learners deploy this formulaic utterance in discussion tasks designed for language learning and highlights the pragmatic functions of this phrase.

Acquisition of English Article Uses by Japanese EFL Learners

College-level Japanese learners of English find articles difficult to acquire. To determine which uses of English articles pose the greatest difficulties to this population, the current study examined first-year students’ (N = 178) performance on an article assessment instrument. Results indicated patterns of difficulty somewhat different from those reported by Liu and Gleason (2002), who conducted research on ESL learners from diverse L1 backgrounds. In the current study, participants displayed greater accuracy on uses that could be captured by easy-to-apply rules involving linguistic form (i.e., those consistently marked by specific lexical items, iterative use of lexical items, or grammatical constructions) and lower accuracy on uses captured primarily by semantic rules. The results are useful to EFL teachers in determining which uses of the articles should receive primary focus in instruction aimed at first-year Japanese college students. 英語の冠詞の習得は、大学生レベルの日本人英語学習者にとってかなりの難題のひとつとなっている。本研究は、これらの学習者にとって冠詞のどの用法の習得が最も難しいのかを特定化するために、冠詞を試す測定テストで大学1年生（N＝178）の成績を検証した。結果として、英語以外の言語を第１言語としてもつESL学習者を調査したLiu and Gleason (2002)によって報告された難しさとは幾分異なったパターンが出た。本調査において、被験者は、（特定の語彙項目、語彙項目の反復的な使用、あるいは文法構文といった）言語形式を含む適用しやすい規則によって捉えられる用法では正確さがより高く、他方、主に意味規則によって捉えられる用法では正確さがより低い結果を示した。本研究の結果は、日本の大学1年生の英語教育において、どの冠詞の用法に主たる焦点を置くべきなのかを決定する際に、EFL教師にとって有益となる。

Do not (Just) Think, But (Also) Feel!: Empirical Corroboration of Emotion-Involved Processing Hypothesis on Foreign Language Lexical Retention

Emotion plays important roles in learning, memory, and other cognitive processes; it does so not only in the form of macro-level emotion (e.g., salient affective states and self-reportable motivational currents) but also in the form of micro-level emotion (e.g., subtle feelings and linguistic attributes that are usually processed subconsciously without special attention). According to the Emotion-Involved Processing Hypothesis (EIPH), processing that draws attention to emotional aspects (EmInvProc+) is postulated as a deeper version of semantic processing which has cognitive advantage to facilitate linguistic processing and retention more than non-emotional semantic processing (EmInvProc−). This study empirically investigated whether the EIPH can be experimentally corroborated for learners of a distant foreign language (viz., Japanese learners of English). In the experiment, participants processed visually presented English words that were either positively or negatively valenced under different conditions, followed by the test session in which they engaged in memory tests. Two processing modes were compared (EmInvProc+ vs. EmInvProc−). The dependent variables were correct recall frequency, correct recognition frequency, and correct recognition reaction time. It was revealed that EmInvProc+ was more cognitively facilitatory in making stronger foreign language lexical memory traces than EmInvProc− for all the measures employed in the experiment, regarding both accuracy (correct response frequency) and fluency (correct response reaction time). Therefore, it is implied that EmInvProc+ can be regarded as a sui generis deeper level of processing that is qualitatively distinguishable from mere semantic processing, supporting the Emotion-Involved Processing Hypothesis.

THE EFFECTS OF TALKER VARIABILITY AND FREQUENCY OF EXPOSURE ON THE ACQUISITION OF SPOKEN WORD KNOWLEDGE

Eighty Japanese learners of English as a foreign language encountered 40 target words in one of four experimental conditions (three encounters, six encounters, three encounters with talker variability, and six encounters with talker variability). A picture-naming test was conducted three times (pretest, immediate posttest, and delayed posttest) and elicited speech samples were scored in terms of form-meaning connection (spoken form recall) and word stress accuracy (stress placement accuracy and vowel duration ratio). Results suggested that frequency of exposure consistently promoted the recall of spoken forms, whereas talker variability was more closely related to the enhancement of word stress accuracy. These findings shed light on how input quantity (frequency) and quality (variability) affect different stages of lexical development and provide implications for vocabulary teaching.

Investigating cross-linguistic similarity ratings: A Rasch analysis

A robust finding in psycholinguistics is that cognates and loanwords, which are words that typically share some degree of form and meaning across languages, provide the second language learner with benefits in language use when compared to words that do not share form and meaning across languages. This cognate effect has been shown to exist for Japanese learners of English; that is, words such as table are processed faster and more accurately in English because they have a loanword equivalent in Japanese (i.e., テーブル /te:buru/ ‘table’). Previous studies have also shown that the degree of phonological and semantic similarity, as measured on a numerical scale from ‘completely different’ to ‘identical’, also influences processing. However, there has been relatively little appraisal of such cross-linguistic similarity ratings themselves. Therefore, the present study investigated the structure of the similarity ratings using Rasch analysis, which is an analytic approach frequently used in the design and validation of language assessments. The findings showed that a 4-point scale may be optimal for phonological similarity ratings of cognates and a 2-point scale may be most appropriate for semantic similarity ratings. Furthermore, this study reveals that while a few raters and items misfitted the Rasch model, there was substantial agreement in ratings, especially for semantic similarity. The results validate the ratings for use in research and demonstrate the utility of Rasch analysis in the design and validation of research instruments in psychology.