Language learning activities involving time-pressured repetition of similar content have been shown to facilitate improvements in fluency. However, concerns have been voiced about whether these gains might be offset by reduced levels of grammatical accuracy. This descriptive study tracked the oral proficiency of 32 Japanese university students…

The Vygotskian concept of "perezhivanie," or emotional lived experience, was adopted to examine the learner identities of 2 Japanese university students in English language learning. Current studies on language learner identities have given analytic primacy to either psychological processes or social influences. In contrast,…

While written exercises may serve students adequately on tests, the structures they emphasize can remain elusive or difficult for students to master in conversation. Students tend to interpret their difficulty in applying what they have learned as a lack of language ability, and they can quickly lose confidence when speaking. Producing a target…

This is an English communication instruction system designed to teach children basic, easy to remember conversation strategies without the use of a textbook or to serve as a supplement learning system to a textbook. This English communication training method provides learners with concrete language patterns, a broad spectrum of vocabulary and…

Describes a movement in Japan that is taking English teaching from an out-of-context grammar and vocabulary emphasis to a conversational and contextual emphasis. Shows specific approaches that feature student-centered work as opposed to teacher-imposed exercises. (TB)

A course designed to teach survival Japanese language and culture to businessmen and professionals with little time for language study is described. The goals were to teach survival vocabulary and a few basic sentence structures and to develop the learners' pragmatic competence in using them. Portions of a commercial textbook were used for…

An exploratory, longitudinal study was undertaken to investigate how student self-assessment, course evaluation, and student evaluation of teaching can be incorporated into university second language instruction. Three issues were addressed: whether students evaluate themselves differently in first, second, and third year classes in the same…

Articles in this first special focus issue in Cross Currents' 18-year history include the following: "Courses or Resources" (Alan Maley); "Linguistic Pragmatics and English Language Learning" (S. Kathleen Kitao); "Arriving at the Himalayan Range: Language Learning and Teacher Training" (Subhash Jain); "The Fear…

The use of speech or language produced by native speakers in real situations for teaching oral communication skills in the second language classroom is described. Three sample lessons, based on the author's teaching experience in Japan, are presented. All lessons used material called "The Bellcrest Story," produced by the British…

This collection of columns on teaching English as a Second Language in Japan appeared on the English education page of a Japanese English-language newspaper over a period of almost 4 years. Article topics include these: principles of second language learning; differences between language skills; standards of usage; avoiding stereotypes; school…