Using a Commercially Produced Proficiency
Test in a One-Year Core EFL Curriculum in Japan for Placement Purposes
Brent Culligan & Greta Gorsuch
EFL program administrators have two general testing options for placement
of students: commercially produced proficiency tests or locally developed
tests. This study focuses on the use of a commercially produced proficiency
test (the Secondary Level English Proficiency(R) test) for student placement
in a core EFL program at a private junior college and university in Tokyo.
The research was conducted to judge the degree to which the use of the
SLEP(R) test was appropriate for student placement purposes. Pre- and
post-test results for 538 students were analyzed for item facility, item
discrimination, and item difference indices. It was found that the test
did not appear to "fit" the students nor the program. The authors urge
the adoption of supplemental placement procedures as well as the development
of more program-sensitive tests.
Evaluating Six Measures of EFL Learners'
Pragmatic Competence
Ken Enochs & Sonia Yoshitake-Strain
This study examines the reliability, validity, and practicality of six
measures of cross-cultural pragmatic competence. The multi-test framework
used here was developed by Hudson, Detmer, and Brown at the University
of Hawaii and consists of six tests which focus on the students' ability
to appropriately produce the speech acts of requests, apologies, and refusals
in situations involving varying degrees of relative power, social distance,
and imposition. These measures have previously been tested on native Japanese
learners of English in an ESL context (Hudson et al., 1992, 1995) and
on learners of Japanese in a JSL context (Yamashita, 1996). The current
study administered these tests to native Japanese learners in an EFL context.
Four of the tests proved highly reliable and valid and two of the tests
less so. Furthermore, the tests clearly differentiated those students
who had a substantial amount of overseas experience from those who had
not, a distinction not shown by the students' TOEFL scores.
Massive Input Through Eiga Shosetsu
Michael "Rube" Redfield
This paper introduces a new yet natural way of providing massive amounts
of comprehensible input to learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL).
Learners watch popular contemporary movies in order to internalize the
meanings presented in sounds and images. Then they read the accompanying
eiga shoshetsu (movie tie-in novels) in order to convert meaning into
the target language. In the pilot program using eiga shoshetsu described
here, college learners made significant gains in listening, reading and
vocabulary measures through reading the novels and seeing the movies.
Influence of Personality, L2 Proficiency and Attitudes
on Japanese Adolescents' Intercultural Adjustment
Tomoko Yashima
This research examines whether individual variables, including L2 proficiency
and extroversion, affect the intercultural adjustment process of adolescent
Japanese sojourners. A questionnaire was administered to 139 high school
students studying in the United States for one year and to their host
families. Multiple regression analyses were conducted with self-rated
and host-rated measures of adjustment as dependent variables. Independent
or predictor variables were standardized English test scores, extroversion
scores as measured by a personality type indicator, and several variables
taken from a pre-departure questionnaire. The results showed that extroversion
was a predictor of almost all self-rated measures of adjustment, including
satisfaction with friendship with Americans, relationships with the host
family and school work. English proficiency was a predictor of host-rated
adjustment. A stronger international interest and a less Japanese-centered
outlook led to better academic adjustment and the participants' overseas
experience was shown to positively affect host-rated adjustment measures.
Evaluating Learner Self-Assessment
Colin Painter
This exploratory study examines Pearson product-moment correlations between
learner and teacher-assessment in a CAI (Computer Assisted Instruction)-based
communicative English course for Japanese university students. It also
explores the validation of the program-specific tests used for self-assessment
through correlation of the students' self-assessed test scores with their
TOEIC scores. Although the self-assessment scores did not correlate significantly
with all parts of the TOEIC, significant correlations of self-assessment
were observed with teacher assessment, suggesting the reliability of the
self-assessment procedure.
Raising the Quality of Discourse Using Local Area
Networks in Returnee Classes -
John Herbert
A well-designed computer local area network (LAN) can act as a valuable
tool in the second language classroom. This paper looks at the ways in
which one such LAN has been put to use in a returnee class in a Japanese
university. The paper asserts that the quality of discourse is raised
in the computer-assisted classroom discussion for several reasons. These
reasons include: (a) Students can work at their own pace; (b) many students
can take part in a synchronous discussion; and (c) students are more willing
to self-disclose in a computer-assisted discussion than might be expected
in a traditional oral setting. The results of a series of LAN discussions
conducted in a returnee class, along with feedback from students, are
used to provide analysis of this technique.
The Relationship between Self-Efficacy and Language
Learners' Grades -
Stephen A. Templin
This research explores the hypothesis that students with high self-efficacy:
high beliefs in their capabilities to accomplish a task, will achieve
higher grades in second language classes than students with low self-efficacy.
Seventy-four Japanese high school students were asked to fill out a questionnaire
and indicate by a yes or no response which grades they thought they could
attain. They also rated their degree of confidence as a percentage for
each level. Participants' scores were the total of confidence percentages
for "yes" answers. In estimating reliability, Cronbach's alpha for the
questionnaire and its subsections was .96, .98, and .91 respectively.
A t-test was used to determine if there was any significant difference
between low and high self-efficacy students' grades. High self-efficacy
students achieved significantly higher grades than low self-efficacy students.
A Myth of Influence: Japanese University Entrance
Exams and Their Effect on Junior and Senior High School Reading Pedagogy
-
Bern Mulvey
In discussions regarding the negative aspects of exam "washback effect,"
one example that is invariably mentioned is the exam-pedagogy relationship
ostensibly to be found in Japan. Indeed, it is the supposedly powerful
influence of the various university exams on junior and senior high school
classroom pedagogy and textbook content in Japan that allegedly both perpetuates
inadequate teaching methodologies and frustrates all attempts at reform.
This paper examines the large body of research that calls into question
this traditional conception of a causal relationship between the entrance
exams and junior and senior high school foreign language reading pedagogy
and textbook content, and hypothesizes as to the possible non-exam-related
motivations for the continued use in Japan of seemingly ineffective foreign
language reading pedagogy.