Preparing English teachers for success with the MEXT guidelines

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K02891
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Foreign language education
• Research Institution: Akita International University
• Principal Investigator: Hale Christoper 国際教養大学, 国際教養学部, 准教授 (40552360)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): SIM Malcolm 国際教養大学, 国際教養学部, 准教授 (00795924) ; 町田 智久 国際教養大学, 専門職大学院グローバル・コミュニケーション実践研究科, 准教授 (40648771)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: Teacher training / English in English / MEXT course of study

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The research progressed well, and we had received cooperation from various elementary and secondary school institutions. The final year of the project saw us provide teacher training in Aomori, Akita, Yamagata and Fukushima. We were able to offer workshops in all prefectures in Tohoku, which was the main purpose for providing this teacher-training. At all workshops, teachers were able to learn effective teaching techniques applicable to the MEXT guidelines emphasizing communicative language teaching. Feedback was positive with many participants indicating they were motivated to change their teaching. We are confident that the teachers experiences will result in meaningful change in their daily teaching practices. Further research will need to be conducted to ascertain the impacts more succinctly.

Free Research Field

Foreign Language education

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

Through post-training questionnaires, focus group interviews and observations of teachers in their own classrooms, we feel confident that this project has had a positive impact on the daily teaching practices of teachers.