thethe languagelanguage teacherteacher ISSN 0289-7938 ¥950 The Role of Translation in Japanese Young Learner Classrooms 3 Rebecca Klevberg Learner Intervention in the Language Classroom 9 V. Michael Cribb Ten Years of Kokusaika: Has progress been made? 13 Judy Yoneoka 10 October, 2000 Volume 24, Number 10 全国語学教育学会 The Japan Association for Language Teaching contents The summer break is behind us, classes are in full swing, and our annual conference is just around the corner! A busy time 1 Foreword for us all, so we’ve carefully selected three articles easily di- features gested over an office lunch! First up, Rebecca Klevberg tack- 3 The Role of Translation in les that thorny dilemma we’ve all faced: how much Japanese Japanese Young Learner should we use in our classes? Following that, Michael Cribb Classrooms describes how teachers can assist learners to develop inter- 9 Learner Intervention in the vention strategies in the language learning process. Finally, Language Classroom Judy Yoneoka brings us the second in her series of articles 13 Ten Years of Kokusaika: on Kokusaika, discussing why students who are being led to Has progress been made? “international waters” are not drinking as expected! a chapter in your life 20 Kitakyushu Also, further back in this issue we’re delighted to introduce a new column, Off the Presses, in which our publishing my share colleagues will be telling us about some of the exciting de- 21 Who Wants to Be a (Grammar) velopments taking place in their companies. In this Millionaire? inaugural issue, James Hursthouse of ELT News takes us on a 22 An E-commerce Webpage Project tour of eigoTown.com off the presses 25 eigoTown.com and ELT News Looking ahead to our November issue, the TLT team is hard departments at work to get it to you all before you head for this year’s 26 Book Reviews conference in Shizuoka. Look out for us at the publications 37 JALT News desk in the Granship Centre. See you there! Malcolm Swanson 37 JALT2000 Conference News 39 SIG Focus 43 SIG News ERRATA 47 Chapter Reports 49 Chapter Meeting Special In the July issue of The Language Teacher we inadvertently stated that JALT2000 featured speaker, Dr Frank Otto, was chairman of 51 Chapter Meetings the ELT Software Store. In fact, Dr Otto is founder and chairman of 55 TLT Job Information Center CALI Inc., the publishers of the ELLIS language-learning courseware. 61 Bulletin Board We apologize for any confusion this may have caused. 62 Submissions 63 Staff List 64 About JALT 47 Advertiser Index 夏期休暇も終わり、クラスは活気にあふれ、そして年次大会も目前に迫って います。私たち全員が多忙を極めるこの時期だからこそ、今月は、オフィス・ ランチの消化にいい三つの記事を厳選いたしました。 はじめに、Rebecca Klevbergの記事では、私たち全てが直面する、どれぐら い日本語を教室で使うべきかという議論の多い問題に取り組んでいます。それ に続くMichael Cribbの記事では、いかに学習者自身の言語学習プロセスにおけ る学習プロセスへの介入ストラテジーの向上を教師が助けられるかについて述 べています。最後に、Judy Yoneokaの国際化に関するシリーズの二回目で は、なぜ期待されているように「国際化」に至らないのかについて議論をして います。 また、新しいコラム「Off the Presses」は、私たちと同じように編集に関 わっている人々が、彼らの会社の刺激的な展開について語ってくれるもので す。第一回目として、ELT NewsのJames Hursthouse氏が、eigoTown.com への旅へと私たちを誘ってくれます。 JALT2000 1 1 月号が発行されるころは、静岡での年次大会が控えています。静岡ではぜ November 2-5 ひpublications deskにお立ち寄りください。 （抄訳 衣川隆生) Granship Shizuoka October 2000 1 2 The Language Teacher 24:10 ecently, more attention has been given to Rebecca Klevberg the use of translation in communicative En- Rglish Language Teaching (ELT), which em- phasizes meaningful use of the target language. However, the basis of the communicative move- ment as the actual “use” of the target language (L2) has been interpreted by some as a reason to shun the mother tongue (L1) completely in the ELT class- room. This is the case with most private Japanese children’s language schools, which firmly maintain an official policy of “No Japanese” in their class- rooms. However, this policy is currently the subject of much debate between corporate offices and teachers in the field because company policy does not acknowledge the pragmatic value of L1 use in children’s classrooms. This paper explores the debate by examining current corporate opinions on the subject, and The Role of compares them to what is actu- ally occurring in some English as a Foreign Language (EFL) class- rooms at one major children’s Translation in school, as reported by both for- eign and Japanese teachers. Fi- nally, some practical, yet theoretically sound applications Japanese of L1 use and translation in children’s ELT, and an experi- mental approach to translation use will be offered. Here the term Young Learner “translation” will refer to the transference of information from the L1 to the L2 and from the L2 Classrooms to the L1. Corporate Views There is currently a huge market for private English lessons for young children in Japan, and many students begin preparing for 日本のコミュニカティブ言語教育（C L T ） higher education by studying in the private sector の教室では、「日本語を使用しないで教え from the ages of three and four. Students usually る」ことが主流になっている。しかし、多 participate in one or two, one-hour classes per week, 数の教師と学校の経営者との間では日本語 with an average of 8-12 other students, often alter- 使用に対する意見が大きく異なっている。 nating between a foreign and Japanese instructor. 年少者（2歳～15歳）の教室での母語(L1)使 To research current views on the topic, inter- 用に関する調査を通して、筆者は、語学学 views were held with representatives from three of 校３校の意見と、日本人教師と外国人教師 the largest children’s private language schools in の教室で実際に行われていることを比較し Japan. All schools require no Japanese language た。その結果、教師が普段L 1 を使用してい ability when hiring foreign teachers, and the use of ることが報告され、年少者へ文法、語彙、 Japanese is strictly forbidden by foreign instructors コミュニケーションストラテジー・学習ス at all companies. Japanese instructors at one corpo- トラテジー、対照分析を教えるときには、 ration are allowed to use Japanese in limited 日本語を使用するという「常識的な判断」 amounts for emergency situations and with very アプローチが提案された。コミュニケー young students (ages 2-6). Translation is also used ションを容易にするために年少者がL1とL2 in the Japanese teachers’ junior high school (JH) を混ぜることを奨励する教授法が提唱され textbooks at the same school for high school en- ている。 trance exam preparation. October 2000 3 Feature: Klevberg When asked the rationale behind the “No Japa- amount of time they spent speaking Japanese ac- nese” policy, one educational director replied: cording to age group (very young learners aged 2-6 or young learners aged 7-15), and in what area they “… for 6 days and 23 hours of the week, our used it most (pedagogical – vocabulary/grammar students live in a Japanese world. instruction, or social - discipline, social conversa- For only one hour a week, they should have an tion, games). The survey results are reported in English intensive lesson. It may be their only Tables 1 and 2 below: opportunity to hear a native English speaker, so why should that native English speaker use Table 1: Japanese Teacher Results Japanese when they could be hearing perfect English?” Estimated Time spent Speaking Japanese Another director also expressed concern that if translation were allowed it would most often snow- Group A – (Ages 2-6) Group B – (Ages 7-15) ball from a few words to entire conversations in the 46% 45.75% native tongue. The same individual further com- mented that once Japanese has been used in the Purpose of Japanese Use classroom, a line has been crossed, and it becomes more difficult to maintain an ‘English Only’ envi- Group A (Ages 2-6) Group B (Ages 7-15) ronment. He also noted: #1 - Discipline #1 - Social Conversation If we are preparing students for a trip abroad or #2 - Social Conversation #2 - Grammar a home stay, how many people that they come #3 - Vocabulary #3 - Discipline in contact with in the US, Canada, or wherever, #4 - Game Explanation #4 - Vocabulary will be able to ‘help’ them in Japanese when they don’t understand? Therefore, I don’t think #5 - Grammar #5 - Game Explanation we should ‘help’ them with Japanese in the Note: In leader priority order of response classroom. Despite the strict policy however, most executives Table 2: Foreign Teacher Results are also aware of the difficulties involved with the “No Japanese” rule and the fact that it is not always Estimated Time Spent Speaking Japanese enforced at the instructor level. One executive ad- mitted that, although translation would be of help Group A – (Ages 2-6) Group B – (Ages 7-15) when explaining difficult vocabulary and grammar, most foreign teachers speak no Japanese so it is not 18% 27% an option. She also noted that “Japanese teachers are instructed not to use Japanese in the classroom. Purpose of Japanese Use However, I know this doesn’t always happen . I Group A (Ages 2-6) Group B (Ages 7-15) sometimes hear them speaking Japanese.” #1 - Discipline #1 - Social Conversation Despite these facts, the policy remains in effect since most companies believe parents wish to have #2 - Social Conversation #2 - Discipline their children exposed to an ‘English Only’ environ- #3 - Game Explanation #3 - Game Explanation ment. One manager explained “Upper management #4 - Vocabulary #4 - Vocabulary feels the customer is paying a lot of money, so par- #5 - Grammar #5 - Grammar ents do not want to hear Japanese being spoken to their child.” The reasoning behind the “No Japa- Note: In leader priority order of response nese” rule appears to be primarily in relation to functional limitations (i.e. low Japanese ability of foreign teachers, or lack of L1 support in “real life” The results above indicate that, despite the “No situations), and marketing or parental influences. At Japanese” policy, a significant amount of Japanese no point in the discussion did a theoretical or meth- is being used in the classroom. All teachers re- odological basis for this rule arise. ported using Japanese some of the time (answers ranging from 20% to 90% with Japanese teachers In the Classrooms and 10% to 55% with foreign teachers) with an To get an idea of the amount and type of Japanese overall average of 45.9% of the time for Japanese actually being used in classrooms, I conducted a instructors and 22.5% of the time for foreign in- survey of 20 Japanese teachers and seven foreign structors.