Devising teacher talk in English classrooms in Japan to best utilise the target language by teachers

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K13283
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 02100:Foreign language education-related
• Research Institution: National Institute of Technology, Toyama College
• Principal Investigator: Yamamura Hiroto 富山高等専門学校, その他部局等, 准教授 (40734421)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: ティーチャートーク / 語彙指導 / Eliciting / Situational presentation / Checking understanding

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Traditionally, we have mainly heard Japanese explaining English to students in English classrooms in Japan. To foster students' communicative competence in English, we need to increase the amount of English spoken by teachers as well as by students in order to create a quality-rich English classroom. However, teachers have been struggling to use English effectively in the classroom. In this research project, an effective way of using the target language has been proposed incorporating the idea of eliciting, conveying/illustrating meaning, and checking understanding in English. Empirical data was collected in the actual classroom to see how well the method has been implemented with a group of high school students. As a result, with varying degree of difficulty for some words, well-thought-out teacher talk successfully conveys the meaning of target items in English.

Free Research Field

英語教育

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

日本の英語教育では、教師が日本語で英文の説明をする方法が長く広く採用されてきた。近年は、より英語コミュニケーション能力の育成に結びつく英語授業を創造すべく、様々な英語教育改革が推し進められている。そのひとつに、「英語の授業は英語で」という方針があったが、日本人英語教師の英語運用能力の問題や具体的な方法が分からない等、課題が多く、授業中の使用言語について前向きな変化が継続的に起きているとは言い難い。
本研究では、教室で効果的に英語を使用するための具体的な方法を提案し、実際に授業で使用、実証を試みた。その結果、単語によってばらつきはあるものの、概ね提案した方法で意味を伝えることができた。