A University MA Program in Japan- Sample Talks and Abstracts from a mini-colloquium

A UNIVERSITY THAT SHALL NOT BE NAMED "APPLIED LINGUISTICS COLLOQUIUM" 2007

11:00-6:00,
Two rooms with simultaneous presentations 25 minute presentations and a 5-minute break inbetween

Titles

The Relationship between Perceptions of Strategies and Strategy Use in L2 Reading
Hedging and Pronoun Use of Japanese Learners of English in Argumentative Discourse
Which Facilitates a Greater Improvement in Extensive Reading, Listening or Skills-based Reading?
Conversation Analysis and Multi-party Interaction
The Motivational Impact of Introducing Extensive Reading with Classroom Readers
Learning English as an Educator in the Globalized Fitness World
Investigate the Motivations of Avid Readers in an ER Program at a Japanese High School
Narrative Analysis: Coherent Construction of Professional Identity as an EFL Teacher
Japanese University Students’ Reflective Comments on Their Extensive Reading Experiences
Assigning Extensive Reading: By the Page or By the Book?
Two studies on L2 leaning motivational changes: A retrospective survey and introspective casestudy
The Mixed Methods Martini: How Can an Algorithm Taste so Good?
The Place of Placement Tests
Applying Rasch Analyses to Language Testing Data
Using Interviews in the Classroom
Classroom Management Discussion Panel
“I Know You”: How to Establish Rapport in Japanese High School Classes
“Why don’t you send them to the principal?”-- Differing Ideas about Discipline in Japanese high schools
The Bilingual Classroom
Improving Your Extensive Reading Program
Coaching from the Margin Does it Work for Japanese Students?
Japanese High School Students’ Beliefs about Language Learning
Writing Conference Abstracts
Japanese University Students’ Attitudes Towards Instructors’ Use of Japanese in EFL Classes
The Academic Word List and Oral Academic Discourse
Correlation of Students' Preference for Teachers with Their Grades
Student Attitudes toward Autonomy and Groupwork
Enhanced Communities of Practice for Japanese Graduate Students in a L2 Academic Setting

Abstracts

The Relationship between Perceptions of Strategies and Strategy Use in L2 Reading,
This study investigated the relationship between perceptions of strategies and strategy use in L2 reading in the context of Japanese as a second language. A multiple reading comprehension test and pre-test and post-test questionnaires were administered to 122 vocational school students learning Japanese as a second language. Based on the reading comprehension test, high proficiency group and low proficiency group were formed. The relationship of reading proficiency to perceptions and actual use of strategies as well as the relationship between perceptions of strategies and strategy use for each proficiency group were analyzed using A MANOVA and one-way repeated-measures ANOVA, respectively. The results indicated that (1) reading proficiency had significant effects on perceptions and actual use of strategies; and (2) the relationship between perceptions of effectiveness of bottom-up strategies and the actual use was reversed for both proficiency groups.

Hedging and Pronoun Use of Japanese Learners of English in Argumentative Discourse,
Whilst many studies have looked at the realization of common speech acts such as requests and apologies, relatively few have investigated the realization of speech acts used in argumentative discourse. This study draws on the evidence of a 687-turn corpus of upper intermediate and advanced learners at a Japanese university, performing open-ended role-plays. Video tapes of the discussions were transcribed and utterances coded by speech act and its instantiation. In particular, learner use of the pronouns, 'we' and 'you' and hedges were examined. Variation based on gender and between students with some ESL, as opposed to exclusively EFL, experience was also explored. This is a work in progress and final results will be discussed at the colloquium.

Which Facilitates a Greater Improvement in ER, Listening or Skills-based Reading?
This study examines the effectiveness of listening practice versus the effectiveness of skills-based reading practice on participants’ extensive reading performance and reading proficiency. Fifty-seven second-year female high school students from two classes have been participating in extensive reading for one academic year. Both classes have two sessions each week, and one session is used for SSR (Sustained Silent Reading) in the library. In the other session, students in one class practice listening and shadowing and students in the other class have skills-based reading practice besides extensive reading. A Pre-SLEP Test was given at the onset of the extensive reading program and a posttest will be given at the end of the course. The results will be examined using a repeated- measures ANOVA in order to determine which of the two types of practice has a more positive effect on students’ extensive reading performance and reading proficiency.

Conversation Analysis and Multi-party Interaction,
This presentation reports on a study of novice speakers in multi-party interaction using Conversation Analysis. For thenovice it is a formidable task simply to enter the discussion. This study looks closely at Turn Construction Unit (TCU) beginnings, which, according to researchers in Conversation Analysis, are sequence structurally important places. While it is common for language learners to be placed in small groups to practice the target language, little research has been done to learn how learners accomplish this task. This presentation reports on a study of novice speakers in multi-party interaction using Conversation Analysis. The level of language proficiency and strategic competence varies among the
members, and, thus, one noticeable difference is the time leading up to the initial entry into the interaction. Closer examination of this pre-entry period shows a number of interesting micropractices. It is quite common, for example, for participants to display incipient facial expression, gaze shift, lip movement, and preparatory embodied movements. For the novice it is a rather formidable task simply to enter the discussion. This study looks closely at Turn Construction Unit (TCU) beginnings, which according to researchers in Conversation Analysis, are sequence structurally important places.

The Motivational Impact of Introducing Extensive Reading with Classroom Readers
Extensive reading (ER) is widely acknowledged as having linguistic and motivational benefits for L2 learners, but how to effectively introduce the activity to learners has not been thoroughly investigated. This presentation describes a quasi- experimental action research study which examined whether using pre-selected classroom readers would positively impact learner participation and motivation to engage in ER outside of the classroom. Class sets of graded readers were used to introduce ER to an experimental group prior to assigning an extensive reading activity while learners in the control group selected their own readers independently. Student attitudes towards ER were measured with a questionnaire at the beginning and the end of the semester. The results may offer direction for budgetary and policy decisions regarding the use of classroom readers in an ER program.

Learning English as an Educator in the Globalized Fitness World
As a part of larger situated qualitative research, a Japanese woman’s experiences of learning English and encountering other cultures through working in the fitness profession were investigated. The participant went to America with no understanding of English at first. However, she had needs and eagerness to learn information that American fitness organizations provided and to work internationally, which pushed her to learn English. More than 20 years of exposure to American style education and communication with professionals in the fitness field greatly influenced her view of education. Based upon interviews with the participant, as well as findings from observations of her professional activities, this report focuses on three themes: (a) the participant’s situated learning of English, (b) the meanings the participant found in education (c) how her views of education in Japan and America influenced her own child’s education.

The Motivations of Avid Readers in an Extensive Reading Program at a Japanese High School
My research has been driven by this question: What motivates these students to read so much and how do they view reading as part of their overall effort to learn English? The study is still ongoing. I will discuss four of the ten participants in this presentation. This qualitative study takes an ethnographic approach to case study research, data being gathered through observation, multiple interviews, and archival documents over a two-year period. The data have been coded for central themes and are being analyzed using a cross-case analytic approach, providing an organizational framework to explore common and disparate facets of motivation that the participants exhibit. Each participant is being analyzed as a separate case. This paper will look at the next batch that I have finished analyzing.

Narrative Analysis: Coherent Construction of Professional Identity as an EFL Teacher
This study is an investigation of how one male EFL teacher has constructed his professional identity. Data were gathered from several semi-structured interviews, all of which were tape recorded in a classroom at TUJ, Tokyo. The interviewee, Mike (pseudonym) is a male American EFL teacher, aged in his 30’s and currently teaches at a private university in the Kanto area and studies in the TUJ Masters program. The in-depth open-ended life history interviews allow many opportunities for interpreting the participant’s identity. Significant to this case study is how the participant engages in sociocultural and sociopolitical circumstances, constructing his educator identity interactively and dialectically. Life story as experience makes his identity construction meaningful both from whole cognitive process.

Japanese University Students’ Reflective Comments on Their Extensive Reading Experiences
This paper reports on a study looking at the development of Japanese university students’ reading fluency in an extensive reading (ER) course. More empirical studies are needed as more universities have adopted ER in their programs. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of ER on students’ reading fluency. Thirty-four participants read graded readers inside and outside the classroom for 12 weeks. Their reading speed rates were checked at the beginning and at the end of the semester. The applicable data from 27 students was analyzed with a paired-sample t-test. The analysis showed that the students’ posttest reading rate outperformed the pretest reading rate by 30 words per minute (M = 130.81, M = 161.44) (t = -4.476, df = 26, p < .05). The strengths and weakness of ER instruction and pedagogical implications will be discussed by showing diverse students’ reading performances and students’ feedback.

Two Studies on L2 Motivatonal Chianges: A Retrospective Survey and an Introspective Case Study,
I will present two motivational studies investigating motivational changes that occurred in long-term L2 learning history conducted from different epistemological viewpoints and using different methodologies. These studies sought a common goal: to better understand L2 learner motivation. The participants in the first study were approximately 200 Japanese university freshmen. A survey was administered I order to investigate perceived motivational change patterns over seven years since they started to learn English in middle school. The study had two parts: the change of motivation (a chart), and their motivational reasons (a ranking task). All data were retrospectively collected. I will present the statistical results to the following a priori hypotheses: (1) The participants’ motivational intensities have frequently changed since they started English learning; (2) The participants’ motivational intensities were affected by two entrance examinations in their final years of junior high and high school; (3) The patterns of motivational change between high and low proficiency university students differ; (4) The rank order of motivational reasons has changed over time, and; (5) The rank order of motivational reasons between high and low proficiency students differ. I will discuss the patterns of motivational change and reasons of these changes over time. The second study was an introspective case study of my own English learning over 29 years. The analysis focuses on my motivational changes including: (1) the overall motivational trends of my learning, (2) important moments and events in my learning history, and (3) the influence of motivational changes on my acquisition of English. As with the first study, a motivational chart that I retrospectively completed guided the analyses. I will specifically focus on the events concerning my demotivation and remotivation that occurred in my learning history as well as two key contributors to my successes and failures: interest and mediators.
Assigning Extensive Reading: By the Page or By the Book?
Ideally, extensive reading (ER) involves language learners voluntarily reading copious amounts of easy enjoyable material; however, the reality may be that few university students engage in the activity without an external reward such as a grade or course credit. ER target requirements are often based on the number of pages read or on the number of books read. This quasi-experimental study compares these two assignment types to determine any resulting differences in learner motivation or participation. Two groups of students in a university communicative English program were given different ER requirements; one given a page target and the other given a book target. The groups were compared based on the amounts read by the end of the semester and responses to a survey on motivation and attitudes toward ER. The results indicate that book-based requirements offer several advantages over page targets.

Two Studies on L2 Motivational Changes: A Retrospective Survey and an Introspective Case Study
The Mixed Methods Martini: How Can an Algorithm Taste so Good?
Given the inherent difficulty in searching for and explaining the existence (or lack) of law-like or invariant structures within groups and individuals, as well as accounting for variable behavior within both of the aforementioned, a mixed method approach is advocated. The presenters will provide a rationale for the purposes of public scrutiny and critical dialogue to strengthen their approaches to research (in progress) and that of any members of the audience who are giving consideration to pursuing a mixed methods research design. The authors maintain that as long as one is aware of the potential for misapplication i.e. one remains "metacognitive" about fundamental assumptions of methodology in research, a mixed methods approach is both desirable and productive. Our presentation will touch upon philosophy of science, history of mixed methods, and psychology as they pertain to the social sciences.

The Place of Placement Tests
In April, 2006, the presenters employed three placement measures to group first-year college students into four sections of a course in oral communication These measures consisted of the TOEIC test, a self-assessment and an oral interview test. When the self-assessment measure was piloted in the spring of 2005, it was found that there was an incongruity between the TOEIC scores (at that time, the only other placement measure) of some of the learners and how they evaluated their own abilities in English. Not surprisingly, then, some students felt that they had been placed in the inappropriate level of the oral communication course. This contrasted sharply with the results of a preliminary analysis of data from a current student questionnaire, in which most learners indicated great satisfaction with their spring, 2006 placements. Thus, with regard to fair and accurate placements, multiple and varied measures were indicated.

“I Know You”: How to Establish Rapport in Japanese High School Classes, Yoshimi Kimura
(This presentation is the first of a set of three presentations in the Classroom Management Discussion Panel)
Rapport is an important concept in creating a positive learning environment. Rapport is the relationship or connection the teacher establishes with students, a relationship built on trust and respect leading to students feeling capable, competent, and creative. How do teachers create it under adverse circumstances? Implied in this question is that no teaching-learning context is perfect. Despite the presence of imperfect institutions, imperfect people (especially high school students), and imperfect teaching circumstances, the teacher’s approach to establishing rapport is critical. Students look for teacher leadership and guidance, and concurrently, the teachers are charged with the task of inspiring students’ creativity. This presentation explores how teacher attitudes can impart students with a sense of rapport: for a teacher to be able to say, “I know you” to his/her students positively affects students and the classroom atmosphere. In other words, personalized teaching manners foster expressive attitudes in students, aiding second language acquisition.

Applying Rasch Analyses to Language Testing Data
Increasingly, there is a need for program coordinators and language teachers to build and support a case for the reliability and validity of the tests that are utilized in a language program. The Rasch model offers a powerful method for analyzing language tests, and the results can be used to improve testing instruments. The results of Rasch analyses can also inform the reliability and validity of the decisions based on test scores. This study reports the results of Rasch analyses of commercially-produced and in-house English placement tests when used for placement purposes in Japanese universities. The findings indicate that placement into numerous levels of language proficiency might be problematic without modifying current placement tests or changing testing procedures. Implications for placement procedures are addressed, and options for overcoming placement difficulties are discussed.

“Why don’t you send them to the principal?”--Differing Perspectives about Discipline in Japanese
Secondary Schools
(This presentation is the second of a set of three presentations in the Classroom Management Discussion Panel)
The present situation in many Japanese secondary schools sees native Japanese teachers of English teaching in tandem with teachers of English from Western countries. Fundamental disparity in expectations and notions about acceptable learner conduct often results in friction among these culturally separated members of the same teaching staff. The purpose of this presentation is twofold. The first is an exploration of the differences in attitudes, perspectives and practices regarding student behavior and discipline encompassed by Japanese teachers of English and teachers transplanted to Japan from Western cultures. The second purpose is to briefly outline practices and strategies for classroom management that are based on guidelines currently recommended by specialists in general education as well as established thought concerning motivation and student behavior in EFL/ESL classrooms.

Room B: Using Interviews in the Classroom
The following small study is based upon the idea that interviews provide a means for both language assessment and positive washback in high school team-teaching contexts. The question of how accurately each is achieved is researched. In essence, one to one interviews lasting approximately five minutes were done, consisting of three items measured across five areas (listening, grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation & mean length utterance). As well, to provide both a source of comparison and way to support both, as converging results were produced and general comments on the whole pointed to increased desire to study and improve.

The Bilingual Classroom
(This presentation is the third of a set of three presentations in the Classroom Management Discussion Panel)
The ESL classroom, the multilingual EFL classroom and the monolingual EFL classroom differ from one another in many regards. Examination of these inherent differences is crucial to successful pedagogic application of effective classroom management strategies. This presentation isolates and examines the aspect of language use in the classroom and explores ideal applications of L1 and L2. The primary focus is on the monolingual EFL classroom, where the L2 is a minority language. A proposal for experimental research on language use in the classroom and the specific effects of blocking lessons follows.

Improving Your Extensive Reading Program
Starting an extensive reading program is easy enough; simply provide students with a wide variety of graded readers thatare suitable for their level. However, success can be increased by knowing which titles students are most likely to enjoy, how students choose their books, and what are the primary factors that determine why a student will or will not finish their book. The presenter will discuss two research projects that look at these issues. The first study looks at which graded readers first year university students liked the most. Over two thousand surveys were collected in this longitudinal study. The second study examines what criteria the same students used when choosing graded readers as well as the primary factors that determined why a they did or did not finish the book they had chosen. The results of these two studies can be used to enhance any extensive reading program.

Coaching from the Margins: Does it Work for Japanese Students
The article on issues in written response by Ilona Leki (1990) cites different studies on teacher written feedback to student writing. Among those studies are contrasting end commentary with side comments; and contrasting copious response with brief response. In general, results of many of those studies show that teacher comment is ineffective or has insignificant effect on student writing. Furthermore, most of these studies deal with native speakers. In contrast, the study of Fathman and Whalley (1990) shows that specific feedback on grammatical error has a greater effect on the improvement of grammatical accuracy than general feedback on content has on the improvement of content. Given these contrasting results, and in an attempt to address some important issues concerning teacher response on student writing in an EFL context, this study was conducted. Specifically, the study looked into the improvement on student writing bygiving specific comments in the form of questions, and by utilizing what Krashen (1985) called sequenced assignments.

Japanese High School Students’ Beliefs about Language Learning
It is widely acknowledged that learner beliefs can influence how pedagogical approaches are received. However, despite recent curriculum reforms promoting a more communicative approach, little research has been done on the learning beliefs of Japanese high school students. The purposes of this study are to examine the construct of Japanese high school students’ beliefs about learning English and to investigate if beliefs differ by gender. A 39-item five-point Likert scale questionnaire was administered to 292 high school students, and a principal component analysis (PCA) and a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) were run. The PCA showed that the participants’ learning beliefs consist of two conflicting factors: beliefs about a communicative orientation to learning English and beliefs about a traditional orientation. Moreover, the MANOVA indicated that female students scored significantly higher regarding communicative orientation. Based on the results, pedagogical implications will be discussed.

Writing Conference Abstracts
The conference abstract is of importance as it plays a primary role in disseminating new findings and ideas within the academic communities. When the researcher presents his/her research at the conference, it is necessary to get a conference abstract accepted first. However, for the novice or relatively novice researcher, writing a conference abstract, which is commonly required months ahead of the scheduled conference, is likely to be arduous owing to their lack of experience and knowledge. This presentation, then, discusses key issues of writing and submitting a conference abstract. The highlights of the presentation include: introducing the structure of a conference abstract, selecting the title and data, and determining the format and the style of the abstract. Examples of accepted/unaccepted conference abstracts are also introduced.

Japanese University Students’ Attitudes Towards Instructors’ Use of Japanese in EFL Classes
Most EFL teachers in Japan would probably prefer that their students do not excessively use Japanese L1 in the
classroom. How do students feel about their instructors’ use of Japanese? The presenter surveyed 319 university students in order to investigate this question. The results showed that student attitudes differed depending on student level, instructor L1, and purpose for which Japanese was used. Higher level students were found to be less accepting of use of Japanese than lower level students. All students were more accepting of use of Japanese by Japanese L1 instructors compared to use by instructors whose L1 was not Japanese. Students also distinguished between Japanese used to explain linguistic features of English as opposed to its being used for classroom management, with responses indicating that they were more accepting of the former purpose.

The Academic Word List and Oral Academic Discourse
This presentation describes the evaluation of Coxhead’s Academic Word List (2000) by examining the coverage it provides in an oral academic setting. In order to do this, an Oral Academic Corpus comprised of 970,902 running words (tokens) was created. While Coxhead found that the Academic Word List provided 10% coverage of tokens in written academic discourse (2000) the current study finds that the Academic Word List provides only an approximate 3.7% of tokens in oral academic discourse. This difference in coverage provides evidence that non-native speakers of English planning to study in native speakers of English setting would best benefit from fluency training and automization of the 2,000 High Frequency English words (West, 1953).

Correlation of Students' Preference for Teachers with Their Grades
This presentation reports how student preferences for teachers influence their grades. It is hypothesized that (a) the more students like their teachers, the more students like English itself, and vice versa (b) the younger the students are, the bigger the influence is. Additionally, a questionnaire was administered concerning the students' experiences, the trigger by which they come to like or dislike English. The results allow English teachers to become more aware of the significance of their behavior.

Student Attitudes toward Autonomy and Groupwork
I will present the results of a survey that explored student attitudes toward autonomy and groupwork, as related to a collaborative activity developing group internet diaries (weblogs). Participants were 55 students of two communication classes at a private university in Osaka, Japan, held from September 2006 to January, 2007. Working in small groups, the students maintained group weblogs in English. For their class grades, each group was required to make a single weekly blog entry of a minimum length. Groups were responsible for deciding how and by whom these group entries were produced, and on what topics. The survey examined students’ responses to both individual and group autonomy in terms of perceived value in English learning. The survey also explored students’ thoughts and feelings about using weblogs to study English.

Enhanced Communities of Practice for Japanese Graduate Students in a Second Language Academic
Setting
This presentation focuses on an early-stage, case study, action research project. The research intends to assess the improvement in the academic experience of the respondents through the provision of a secure, online venue for discussing course content and voicing concerns related to classroom involvement and. A chief research question asks whether or not the nature of email communication lowers the demand for instantaneous L2 production, thereby increasing available processing time for more effective understanding of classroom discussions, and for cooperative development of strategies for better engagement in their academic community of practice. This research hopefully will address an often-heard concern (e.g. Morita, 2004) that Japanese students learning in an L2-medium classroom are often subjectively or objectively muted in classroom discussions by their native-speaking peers. It is hoped that analysis of the data set will result in findings that will contain both pedagogic and policy import.