2020 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Integrating English Study With the Learning of Basic Principles of Politics and Economics: A Self-Study System for Individuals and Small Groups of Japanese University Learners
| Project/Area Number |
19K00804
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| Research Institution | Meiji University |
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Principal Investigator |
マーク ケヴィン 明治大学, 政治経済学部, 専任教授 (30409429)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
George Johnny 明治大学, 政治経済学部, 専任講師 (10565659)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
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| Keywords | autonomy / complexity / learner English / materials design / critical thinking / identity |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
A wide range of materials and new e-learning techniques are now demonstrable. A considerable set of video materials has been gathered, and we have learned teachniques for quickly transcribing and converting videos of teacher-student interactions into teaching materials. The existing learner corpus has been considerably expanded, and new ways of making use of learner corpus data have been discovered. It is now possible to illustrate for stakeholders in curriculum development possibilities that are not available through conventional e-learning. The project has resulted in a working prototype system that demonstrates the viability of a curriculum based on the principles of 1) more learning and less teaching, 2) a constantly evolving set of materials 3) approaching and developing learners as whole individuals 4) integrating language lerning with thinking skills 5) integrating the learning of introductory politics and economics with language learning.
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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
Online teaching has required considerable adptation but after some difficulties has had a positive impact on the project. tThe most significant change has been the ease with which classes can be recorded on Zoom. It has been possible to automatically transcribe the videos and create subtitles. Another change has been a decision to shift from an emphasis on Filemaker development as a kind of Learning Management System (LMS). Filemaker software is now being developed within the project as a kind of toolkit for rapidly producing a number of types of teaching material, and a commercial LMS is being used and customized with the help of the Filemaker tools. Since making this change the project has been going very smoothly.javascript:onSave();
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
There is a need now to consolidate, polish and continue to expand what has been done so far. While the decision to make use of a commercial LMS has helped the project to move forward considerably, it has also required adapting the types of teaching exercise we had been originally planning to use. We will be continuing to widen and improve the types of self-study exercise that we can offer students. There are still many videos to transcribe, and we need to make greater use of video materials. Considerable work now needs to go into writing up this project, amking it available in English and Japanese, and in paper form as well as online digital materials.
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| Causes of Carryover |
As an educational research project focusing on development of materials and techniques in the course of actial teaching, it was inevitable that the move to online teaching in the pandemic would greatly affect the project. While it delayed the project over the course of 2021, it opened up new possibilties and required revissed planning that has now led to an acceleration of the project since April 2021. The major change has been a new emphasis on deploying a commercial Learning Management System (LMS) and making use of Filemaker in a supporting rather than central role.
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