This study explores readability and its relationship to the cloze passage performance of EFL students. Fifty reading passages were made into 30-item cloze passages by deleting every 12th word. Each passage was then analyzed for two sets of independent variables chosen to investigate how well they predict EFL Difficulty. The first set was made up of various first language readability indices and the second set was made up of quantifiable linguistic characteristics of the passages, such as the percent of function words, number of syllables per sentence and so forth. Correlational, factor, and multiple-regression analyses indicated that the first language readability indices were only weakly related to EFL Difficulty. However, the analysis of linguistic characteristics indicated clear groupings among the variables. In addition, when the number of syllables per sentence, the average frequency of lexical items elsewhere in the passage, the percent of words with seven or more letters, and the percent of function words were combined, they were highly related to EFL Difficulty. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for the development of an EFL readability index.

Applying CLL Principles to Error Correction (Article in Japanese)
Yokomizo Shinichiro

When teaching a foreign language, the teacher frequently encounters student output that is deviant from the norm of the target language. A significant problem is how to deal with these deviations so that learning is promoted. Many proposals have been made regarding error correction, but there have been few empirical studies to support them. Currently, the extent to which error treatment facilitates learning, if at all, is not clear, and it is even less clear which kinds of treatment are effective. As a result, many teachers provide their students with error correction according to their personal beliefs. However, teachers have to deal with various classroom activities that require different error correction techniques and with learning differences that lead to a variety of errors. As a result, many teachers are inconsistent in their error correction practices during classroom activities, and this confuses students concerning the appropriateness of their utterances. Consequently, error correction guidelines are needed for each classroom activity. The pedagogical focus of classroom activities and the reactions of the corrected students provide a basis for these guidelines. The former appears easier for teachers to grasp, while the latter is more complicated and is related to the students' readiness to be corrected. Anxiety about making errors and being corrected can have a negative influence on students' learning, but it can also be eliminated, or at least minimized, when students are ready to be corrected. But how can teachers prepare students for correction?

One answer can be found in Community Language Learning (CLL). CLL suggests that there are five stages of student growth in global proficiency in the classroom and claims that students at all stages except Stage III are ready to accept error correction. The same stages are also applicable to the student's mastery of linguistic items. When a new linguistic item is introduced, the students need the teacher's full assistance (Stage I). As they practice the new linguistic item, they gain confidence, although they still need the teacher's assistance (Stage II). Later, however, they start to reject the teacher's interruption and assistance (Stage III).

While communicating among themselves without the teacher's assistance, they realize they are making some recurring and/or uncorrectable errors and spontaneously ask for correction (Stage IV). Learners finally master the item but still need occasional refinement and correction (Stage V). Consideration of both the pedagogical focus of an activity and the stage that each student has reached in the process of learning a particular item will provide teachers with guidelines for more consistent and systematic error correction. Based on these considerations, this study presents practical proposals for error correction concerning which errors should be corrected, how errors should be corrected, and who should correct errors during classroom activities.

Local Area Network (LAN) Computers in ESL and EFL Writing Classes: Promises and Realities
George Braine & Miho Yorozu

Local Area Network (LAN) computers, used in writing classes in the U.S. for more than a decade, are now being introduced to colleges and universities in Asia. LANs have been observed to increase the quantity of writing and the degree of classroom interaction by students. However, research does not indicate that LANs are more effective in improving the writing of ESL and EFL students. Further, during peer reviews of papers, a context which usually generates the most collaboration, students in traditional classes have provided more feedback than students in LAN classes. Hence, LANs may be no more effective than traditional classes in improving the writing of ESL and EFL students.

Effectiveness of Different Approaches to Kanji Education with Second Language Learners
Mary Flaherty & Mary Sisk Noguchi

Approaches to teaching Chinese characters as used in Japanese (kanji) to adult second/foreign language learners can be broadly divided into the Whole-kanji method and the Component Analysis method. The Whole-kanji method involves memorizing kanji as units. The Component Analysis method involves breaking the kanji down into components, attaching meaning to those components and memorizing a story which ties the components together. This study examines the effectiveness of the two approaches with subject populations in JSL and JFL settings. Five sessions of each method consisting of instruction in 30 kanji were given to two subject groups. A Short Term Memory (STM) test followed each of the first three sessions, a Long Term Memory (LTM) test was given at the fourth session, and a Post LTM test was given one month later. The Component Analysis method promoted significantly higher retention in both settings. These findings are discussed in terms of depth of processing, learning styles and location of instruction.

Procedural and Conceptual Parallels Between Student and Teacher Product-Driven Writing Projects
Christine Pearson Casanave

In this paper the author describes a product-oriented approach to writing, one that applies equally to students and to teachers who write. In a project activity where the product is to be showcased in a collection of writings, the end product is visualized first, and the writing process is then conceptualized as the strategies and activities needed to reach that end. Other key similarities between student and teacher product-driven writing are that (a) writing is best viewed from a whole-language perspective; (b) error correction is necessary and purposeful; (c) public writing is inevitably assessed; and (d) writing activities and final products are multivocalic. While product-driven writing projects do not suit all teachers and students, they can be adapted and designed to suit many different contexts and purposes.

Intercultural Communication Concepts and Implications for Teachers
Anne M. Shibata

This article explains the concept of intercultural communication (IC), discusses the need to treat intercultural communication classes as a specialty in foreign language education, and examines some of the conceptual frameworks that are useful for teaching IC in Japan. The author focuses on the premise that intercultural training is ultimately transformative and that cognitive training alone is not enough to help students reach the goal of intercultural competence. In addition, this paper examines teacher competencies necessary for IC training in Japan and presents examples of experiential activities that can be implemented in the IC classroom.