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Home Current Issue Previous Issues Print Publications Submissions Guide Alumni Spotlight Workshops Contact Welcome Accents Asia is an electronic, academic journal dedicated to current issues related to English education in East Asia. Accents was established in 2006 by alumni of Teachers College Columbia University, Japan. Accents aims to provide a forum for teachers working throughout East Asia to share their ideas and research with other educators who could most benefit from their important work. Increasingly, graduate students are turning to electronic sources to find reference materials for their own research, and Accents aims to make a meaningful contribution to the wealth of quality scholarly research already available on the Internet. We hope that you join us in this mission to accent English education by sharing your work with educators in Asia - and the world. While much of the research here is by alumni of TC Japan, we welcome research from professionals working throughout Asia. Articles may be viewed individually and APA reference information appears at the top of each article. This journal is completely free and open access. Print | Sitemap Login Accents Asia = ISSN 1948-3503 Home Current Issue Previous Issues Print Publications Submissions Guide Alumni Spotlight Workshops Contact Contact: General Inquiries: [email protected] Editorial Committee: Chris Carl Hale Akita International University, Akita, Japan Jennie Roloff-Rothman Kanda University of International Studies, Chiba, Japan Yaoko Matsuoka Kokugakuin University, Tokyo, Japan Tina Brown Kanda University of International Studies, Chiba, Japan John Peloghitis International Christian University, Tokyo, Japan Christopher Nicklin Rikkyo University, Tokyo, Japan Address: Attn: Chris Carl Hale, Ed.D. Akita International University Yuwa, Akita City, Japan 010-1292 Phone: +81-18-886-5900 E-mail:[email protected] Print | Sitemap Login Accents Asia = ISSN 1948-3503 JALT Yokohama My Share 2018 [Special Issue] Foreword to the Special Issue Brett Milliner, Tamagawa University Using Edmodo as a Social Networking Platform to Enhance Students’ Emotional Connectedness to Learning Lucinda Okuyama & Yusuke Okuyama Asking Open-Ended Questions to Encourage Self-Regulation in EFL Learners at a Japanese University Gota Hayashi Using Cumulative Flashcards and Varied Practice to Increase Vocabulary Retention Claire Bower A Students’ Survey of the Intensive English Course at Ferris University Azusa Sato International Management and Culture in the EFL Environment Samuel Gildart View Special Issue ABSTRACT This Special Issue of Accents Asia is a selection of papers written by five of the presenters. Lucinda and Yusuke Okuyama review the use of the learning app, Edmodo® (edmodo.com) in EFL classrooms. Gota Hayashi introduces open-ended questions as a solution for promoting under-performing language learners’ self- regulation skills. Claire Bower introduces a novel approach to managing student- created vocabulary flashcards. Azusa Sato shares her review of the Intensive English Program at Ferris University (Yokohama, Japan). And lastly, Samuel Gildart argues for greater emphasis on the teaching of culture in Business English classes. Volume 11 Issue 1, February 2019 The Efficacy of Silent Shadowing of Audiobooks on Japanese Second Language Acquisition Michael O. Hora, Hoshi University of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Japan View Article ABSTRACT This paper presents the findings of a longitudinal pilot study to determine whether an autonomous language program consisting solely of Silent Shadowing Training results in noticeable second language learning gains. To test this hypothesis, the author silently shadowed a Japanese audiobook for 200 hours over six months on his daily commutes to work. Language proficiency was monitored by three videotaped interviews conducted in Japanese: a pre-test taken before beginning shadowing training, an intermediary-test recorded at three months, and a post-test at six months. At the end of the experiment, the author’s Japanese language ability was evaluated by ten native Japanese teachers who viewed the videos and completed an online survey. The results provide preliminary evidence that the silent shadowing of audiobooks during daily commutes can be an effective learning strategy in the development of L2 conversational abilities. Implications for classroom and autonomous language learning programs are also discussed. Aspects of Word Knowledge: An Investigation of the Explicit Exemplification of Aspects of Word Knowledge in a Global Textbook used in South Korea. Ross Sampson, Kanda University of International Studies View Article ABSTRACT The term ‘lexical item’ has proved useful in identifying pieces of language which operate as single units. The extent of knowledge required to master these items is more extensive than many teachers and learners may realise. This study aims to learn whether one specific textbook explicitly addresses the full depth of knowledge in activities for its selected lexical items. A framework was developed to analyse the textbook and each unit was examined with a primary focus on the vocabulary sections. Which knowledge aspects in each activity were being exemplified was determined and a count was taken for each. The results reveal that ‘form and meaning’ clearly dominate attention given in activities. A few other aspects (spoken form, written form, word parts) receive some attention but many receive very little or no attention at all. This study advises that the four learning partners (students, teachers, materials writers and researchers) need to be aware of the lexical impact in language and material writers should explicitly address the depth of lexical item knowledge in textbooks Volume 10 Issue 2, December 2018 What Language-Learning Strategies L2 English Learners Use at a U.S. University Library: An Observational Study Jiun-Iung Lei, Central Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan, R.O.C. View Article ABSTRACT Recently, more and more researchers are aware of the need to use qualitative methods for a richer description of the employment of language learning strategies (Griffiths & Oxford, 2014). However, merely a dearth of studies investigated L2 English learners’ strategy use through the qualitative mode—observation. Filling this niche, this study aimed to examine the process of L2 English learners’ strategy use based on an observation. The setting of this study was at the main library of the Indiana University of Pennsylvanian (IUP), which was not only a place for the L2 English learners to study, but also a site where social flows were active. In this productive setting for observation, I took the role of an unobtrusive observer. In order to observe and identify the learners’ strategies, I utilized the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (Oxford, R. L., 1990) as the observation scheme. Eight emergent themes were coded to describe the learners’ behaviors. Five of them could be categorized with SILL taxonomies, while the other three couldn’t. The integration of the themes led to the argument that the L2 English learners at the library are not just regular patrons, but also active language learning strategy users. Inroads to Student Motivation in the Language Classroom: J-Pop Adrianne Verla Uchida, Nihon University, Japan View Article ABSTRACT As English is taught as a foreign language in Japan, the issue of whose English should be taught, how it should be taught and by whom are just a few of the questions that educators must decide when implementing a foreign language program. The answers to those questions then often have a direct influence on the learner and how their identity is shaped through learning English. Additionally, integrating pop culture materials that students are familiar with into the EFL classroom is useful as a means of addressing the concept of “cool” and globalization. This paper will review and draw on the ideas of globalization, identity, code switching and performativity - the way in which we perform acts of identity through cultural and social interactions or performance (Pennycook, 2003, p. 528), previously used to research about hip-hop culture in Japanese language and culture while broadening the focus to include Japanese pop (J-pop) and rock music. It will also examine the recent increase of English used in popular Japanese music and attempt to draw conclusions about the reasons why that is, the effects that it has on Japanese culture, especially in determining what is cool, and how it can be utilized in the EFL classroom Contrasting Pragmatic Elements of L2 Japanese and L2 English Learning: A Closer Look at Refusals and Indirect Opinions Tarin Christopher Griswold, United States Air Force Academy, USA View Article ABSTRACT This paper examines the acquisition of pragmatically correct refusal and indirect opinion strategies by first language (L1) English learners of Japanese, and mirror image pragmatic acquisition of L1 Japanese learners of English. The scholarly evidence seemingly indicates that both L2 learners of English and Japanese can acquire and adopt pragmatically correct refusal and indirect opinion utterances and strategies, either through explicit instruction, or incidentally through target language (TL) immersion environments. Nevertheless, advanced levels of general TL language proficiency do not always appear to correlate to corresponding levels of pragmatic aptitude in the specific areas examined. In fact, pragmatically appropriate speech patterns may often be