Addressing Japan's International TOEFL Ranking with an ''English for Liberal Arts'' Curricular Model for Colleges and Universities

2021 Fiscal Year Research-status Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K00714
• Research Institution: Juntendo University
• Principal Investigator: WADDEN Paul 順天堂大学, 国際教養学部, 教授 (00238833)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 小野田 榮 順天堂大学, 国際教養学部, 教授 (00296328) ; 野村 佑子 順天堂大学, 国際教養学部, 助教 (20712954) ; HALE Christopher 国際教養大学, 国際教養学部, 准教授 (40552360) ; アメルズフォート マルセル 順天堂大学, 国際教養学部, 先任准教授 (50771341) ; 城座 沙蘭 上智大学, 文学部, 助教 (70845114) ; FERREIRA Daniel 上智大学, 言語教育研究センター, 講師 (90594094) ; 吉野 康子 順天堂大学, 国際教養学部, 准教授 (50321435) ; 今井 純子 順天堂大学, 国際教養学部, 准教授 (00458506)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: Liberal Arts / TOEFL / CLIL / English Education

Outline of Annual Research Achievements

Liberal arts modules with reading and listening passages (and other language skill-building activities) have been prepared in initial drafts and piloted in six areas: Sociology, Economics, Earth Science, Health and Medicine, Zoology, and Natural History. In 2021, a pilot group of 50 students (three classes) received instruction over 9 months with the modules and achieved significantly higher TOEFL ITP scores than the control group of 160 students (a 24 point experimental group gain versus 14 point control group gain)from April 2021 when they took their first TOEFL ITP to December 2021 when they took their second.

Now, in the second year, the six liberal arts modules used for CLIL instruction are being expanded to 225 first-year students. The six modules are being further expanded, adapted to two student levels (low intermediate/intermediate and high intermediate/advanced) and two additional modules are being written for Art and for Literature. Now in the second year of the grant (2022), approximately 225 first-year students took the TOEFL ITP in April. They are now engaged in CLIL study of the liberal arts modules. On December 23, 2022, they will take their second TOEFL ITP to measure score gain and improvement in academic English skills.

Current Status of Research Progress

3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.

Reason

While the main part of our project has proceeded (creating the liberal arts modules and curriculum building plus a pilot study were completed in 2021)Covid has prevented us from presenting the contents and preliminary results at national and international conferences. We will now begin conference presentations (starting with JALT Pan-Sig in July 2022) and with meetings of all participants and outreach through a variety of organizations.

Strategy for Future Research Activity

As mentioned above, our project is now in full swing with 225 students and further development of our CLIL liberal arts curriculum and our TOEFL ITP pre- and post-tests. We are proceeding according to the original plan outlined in our Kakenhi application.

Causes of Carryover

Due to Corona, we were unable to attend the conferences we hoped to. However, we will begin presentations this year. Therefore, we will incur the following: Conference fees. Translations fees.