2020 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 |
The ultimate goal is to improve students' English proficiency via examining student emotions. Less anxiety improves student performance (MacIntyre & Gardner,1994). Therefore, research on reducing anxiety has been conducted for a long time. Especially in an English as a foreign language environment, using the mother tongue is considered to be one of the factors to reduce anxiety (Rivers, 2011). In recent years, the movement of positive psychology has emerged, and the idea that human beings have not only negative emotions but also positive emotions has become widespread, arguing if students enjoy learning, they can reduce anxiety and improve performance (MacIntyre & Mercer, 2014). Since then, research investigating both emotions of enjoyment and anxiety simultaneously has become mainstream.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
4: Progress in research has been delayed.
Reason
The experiment was not able to be performed as planned due to the COVID- 19. It is because the school to be conducted the research applied online lessons for the whole year. The questionnaire includes items to measure students anxiety and enjoyment when they speak English in pair/group work in the classroom. Therefore, any data was not able to be collected last year. As a result, only what had been done was to make presentations at conferences and write manuscripts submitting to journals, based on the pilot study conducted in 2019.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
The first semester of 2021 also became an online class due to COVID-19, so I may not be able to collect any data. During that time, I will keep writing manuscripts for submitting journals. In addition, I will change the research design a little bit. I am considering these changes: 1) adding two measurements such as students' motivation and their self-confidence to the questionnaire, and 2) creating a control group and comparing two groups (The group A: to use the point-addition system by raising hands and answering to their teacher's questions vs. The group B: not to use the system), instead of the teacher's language choices.
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| Causes of Carryover |
The experiment was not able to be performed due to the online lessons caused by COVID-19. As a result, what I did in 2020 was to make presentations at conferences and to write manuscripts for submitting to journals, using the data based on the pilot study conducted in 2019.
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Research Products
(7 results)
