Studies on Global Englishes (GE)-related pedagogical and curricular innovations emphasize the importance of exposing students to the diversity of English and its users. However, they do not provide direct evidence of changes in students' attitudes. The reliability and validity of existing quantitative instruments for measuring students' attitudes…

A quasi-experimental study investigated the effectiveness of inductive and deductive types of instruction in the acquisition of a complex grammatical structure, the passive voice. The participants were two groups (n = 34) of second-year Japanese students from a vocational school who had three treatment lessons designed for each group embedded into…

The benefits of extensive reading (ER) are well known, yet integrating ER into curricula has been problematic. One factor is the adherence to the principle that students should freely choose what to read, which complicates connecting out-of-class reading with in-class content. Class readers, however, can more easily tie in book content with…

This article focuses upon the Japanese government's decision in 2009 to direct an 'English-only' strategy for English language education in senior high schools from 2013. In the "Course of Study 2009," and more recently again in the "Course of Study 2018," the Japanese government implicitly blames the local grammar-translation…

This article explores Japanese EFL learners' perceptions of face-to-face vs. anonymous peer review in a writing classroom. Albeit few in number, some studies claim that Asian students exhibit difficulty in providing negative feedback because they tend to be hesitant for cultural reasons to criticize others' work. To verify and extend such…

This study investigated the recall of words learned through two deliberate learning techniques, word cards and list learning. While the literature points to word cards as being more effective, Japanese learners of English are seen to prefer list learning, which may indicate unique learning styles stemming from a non-alphabetic L1. To test the…

The use of first languages (L1) in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom in Japanese universities is often a source of robust debate. In recent years, there has been an increase in counterarguments against the L2 monolingual EFL classroom and a strengthening of support for L1 usage. This study examines the views of students receiving…

Since 2010, both universities in which the authors teach have integrated pc-based e-learning or mobile learning programs into several English courses. Students' online performances are evaluated and used in determining the grades for each course. The data accumulated over the years indicates both changing and unchanged e-learning habits among…

Sixty-seven Japanese English as a Second Language undergraduate learners completed one smartphone video production per week for 12 weeks, based on a teacher-selected theme. Designed as a case study for this specific context, data from students' oral performances was analyzed on a weekly basis for their use of the Academic Word List (AWL). A…

This study investigates vocabulary learning strategy (VLS) preferences of lower and higher proficiency Japanese university science students studying English as a foreign language. The study was conducted over a 9-week period as the participants received supplemental explicit VLS instruction on six strategies. The 38 participants (14 males and 24…