2019 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Investigating the effective factors to improve Japanese college students' English proficiency: A perspective from students' affective needs
| Project/Area Number |
19K13269
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| Research Institution | Japan University of Health Sciences |
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Principal Investigator |
稲田 貴子 日本保健医療大学, 保健医療学部看護学科, 教授 (70438927)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
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| Keywords | English proficiency / enjoyment / anxiety |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
Purpose of the study: The ultimate goal of investigating students’emotions is to improve students' English proficiency. According to the study report by MacIntyre and Gardner (1994b), low anxiety improves students’performance. Therefore, attention has been focused on how to reduce students' anxiety, and anxiety research has been conducted for a long time. Especially in an environment where English is studied as a foreign language, teachers and students share the same native language so that using the mother tongue may be one of the factors that can reduce anxiety (Rivers, 2011). The movement of positive psychology has recently emerged, and the idea that humans have not only negative emotions but also positive emotions becomes popular. MacIntyre and Mercer (2014) insist that if students enjoy learning, they can lower their anxiety and improve their performance. Thereafter, studies investigating both emotions of enjoyment and anxiety simultaneously are becoming mainstream.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
The experiment could not be performed as planned due to a delay in the Kaken review. As a result, only a pilot study could be performed, which had a major negative effect on conference presentations and manuscript writing for journals. At the university where data will be collected, KAKEN's ethical review was carried out smoothly, but it took a long time for the KAKEN review at the university that do not collect data(the university I work as a full timer). This is why the experiment could not be performed as planned.A pilot study was conducted to explore what a teacher could do to improve students' English proficiency. In this study, the movement of positive psychology was considered and the changes of students' enjoyment and anxiety over one semester were measured. The same questionnaire was taken at the beginning (Time 1) and at the end (Time 2) of the semester. Two groups were also created and compared: one class (EE group) where a teacher used only English (33 students) and two classes (EJ group) (65 students) where the teacher explained in Japanese what students do not understand. As a result, there was no difference in English proficiency improvements between the two groups. This may be because even in EJ group where the help was given in Japanese, the lessons were mostly given in English.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
As a future research, I may need to change the research design. The lessons should be conducted only in English at the university where the data will be collected, therefore it is hesitant to use a lot of Japanese in classes. I am considering adding other factors. For example, 1) adding two measurements such as students' motivation and their self-confidence to the questionnaire, and 2) considering the way of active learning in classes in order to create a control group and compare two groups. For this, it is necessary to reconsider modifying the questionnaire and adding some items in it. It is also necessary to consider what kind of active learning should be performed and which points should be compared in group A and group B, and so on.
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| Causes of Carryover |
The experiment could not be performed as planned due to a delay in the Kaken review. As a result, only a pilot study could be performed, which had a major negative effect on conference presentations and manuscript writing for journals.
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Research Products
(1 results)
