2017 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Assessing Foreign Language Activity Assistants' perspectives on primary Foreign Language Activities
| Project/Area Number |
16K02952
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| Research Institution | Fukushima University |
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Principal Investigator |
Mahoney Sean 福島大学, 行政政策学類, 准教授 (50292454)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
猪井 新一 茨城大学, 教育学部, 教授 (80254887)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2016-10-21 – 2020-03-31
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| Keywords | 小学校外国語活動 / 外国語活動協力者 / ノン・ネイティブ・スピーカー / 教科 / 英語の非母語話者 / EAA / 外国語活動支援者 / 英語教育 |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
We have completed the analysis of data from the pilot questionnaire. The Principle Investigator first delivered an oral summary of the project background and findings to his Faculty in June 2017. In October, he shared all project findings so far in a well-attended presentation entitled “Japan’s primary school English: 'Successful classes' for non-native English speaking assistants” at the KOTESOL 2017 International Conference in Seoul. A follow-up article, “New assistant types for English Activities in Japan's Primary Schools,” has been accepted for the KOTESOL 2017 Proceedings, and is expected to be published in summer 2018.
We are currently conducting in-depth interviews with non-native English speaking (NNS) assistants, and have accumulated over 20 hours of data from 9 people so far.
The Principle Investigator conducted an additional interview in South Korea with a Korean-American primary school ALT, who teaches first and second grades (not compulsory) in order to help Korean co-teachers gradually take on more English teaching responsibilities in the near future. Her situation very much resembles those of the Japanese assistants interviewed in Japan who are trying to prepare homeroom teachers to lead more classes.
An interview with a Brazilian assistant revealed a comparative lack of English-culture related motivators for studying English in Japan. Timely, readily available Japanese translations of English video games, films, books, and TV shows, combined with large (Japanese) domestic markets in some sense remove a need for pupils to learn foreign languages.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
We have gathered and made extensive notes on recent and historical materials related to teaching English as a foreign language to young learners in Japan and worldwide, and have gained further information at lectures and academic conferences in Japan and Korea. While we have managed to present and will soon publish a paper on our early results, we have yet to confirm the scales and patterns of (Japanese and non-Japanese) NNS assistant employment nationwide.
A large-scale questionnaire, as originally planned, would need to be reasonably brief and yet applicable to all non-native assistants' work situations, which appear to vary more than those of the majority of (native-speaking) assistants whom we’ve surveyed in the past. We also need to establish a minimum volume of class loads or teaching hours, e.g., "teaching at least 10 hours per month," in order to elicit valid, comparable data from respondents. We need further consideration of efficient ways to conduct large-scale confirmations of whether and where (non-native English speaking) assistants are teaching. For example, could research assistants (i.e., university students) help us to call hundreds of individual schools to recruit respondents? We are also considering whether posting an introduction to our research along with a link to an online survey would facilitate the process for schools, potential respondents, and our own goal of reaching as many assistants as possible.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
As mentioned, we are currently deliberating whether a posted questionnaire, a posted invitation to a web-based questionnaire, or an expanded ethnographic approach would be the best course for our main survey, which we plan to launch this academic year. Two or more of these methods may of course also be combined.
We plan to observe classes taught by 1) non-native English speaking assistants with homeroom teachers, 2) those by native English-speaking assistants and homeroom teachers, and 3) all three types of instructors, and hope to make comparisons amongst these groups. We would like to compare classes taught by assistants with varying levels of Japanese language skills as well. Pupil-based questionnaires are also being created.
During the coming year, we will purchase the latest "Gakko Soran," draw up lists of primary schools nationwide, and train student research assistants to help us contact them. We plan to continue interviewing primary school assistant teachers, observing classes, and broadening the geographical range of such activities. The Principle Investigator intends to present the findings from interviews conducted thus far at academic conferences in Japan and overseas. Both researchers will begin making plans for a domestic symposium for non-native English speaking assistants, which we intend to hold before the end of the Project term.
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| Causes of Carryover |
The main reason funds remained were because only the Principle Investigator has managed to travel to conduct interviews with assistants so far.
In FY2018, the investigators intend to conduct more interviews and class observations domestically and to present on newly-acquired data at (at least) one international conference. We also plan to employ research assistants to help us execute the main survey.
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