The Social Situational Awareness of Japanese Learners of English as a Foreign Language

2021 Fiscal Year Research-status Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K13053
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: ライランダー ジョン 京都大学, 国際高等教育院, 講師 (60610821)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: eye-tracking / pragmatics / video-based assessment / sociocultural contexts

Outline of Annual Research Achievements

Consistent with the initial research proposal for academic year 2022, I completed the design of a set of video-based pragmatic awareness assessments. These I will use as the visual stimulus during data-collection procedures. I started to calibrate these assessments with an accompanying eye-tracker and software that I purchased. Rather than the planned one assessment, I was able to make two, for the purposes of comparison during pilot-testing. The first was a redesign of a preexisting video-based test of pragmatic awareness, and the second assessment design incorporated item randomization and centralized eye-fixation points, both features native to the eye-tracking software. In the second assessment, I worked to improve video quality and clarity. I have been able to perform preliminary calibrations for the screen-based eye-tracker using both of assessment methods. This pilot phase revealed issues with using an assessment of this type with the eye-tracking software that needed to be solved. This was as expected, and developments are currently underway to improve these issues. The fixes for these involve transforming a paper-based portion of the original assessment into a video format. This will allow learner participants to maintain eye-contact on the screen at all times.

Current Status of Research Progress

2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.

Reason

I was able to bring two papers near to completion. Each focused on the use of video-based pragmatic assessment methods on various learner levels using different means of statistical analysis. The focus of these papers was on the viability of video-based assessments of pragmatic awareness in classroom environments and how novel research methods involving eye-tracking can explain still unanswered questions of learner behavior and elements of assessment design. When completed this year, both papers will be submitted for publication. I also started work on a third paper, one that details the data-collection methodology used with eye-tracking research. This paper discusses how and to what degree learners attend to visual elements in various contexts of situated talk and how attending to these features might affect comprehension of speaker meaning and relationship. The goal of this work is to detail a role that eye-tracking data collection and analytic methods can play in explaining learner points of view in second language communication.

Strategy for Future Research Activity

Years 2022 to 2023 mark the planned period of data collection and analysis. The goal is to gather data from a sample of volunteer Japanese learners at the university level. Participants will engage with the video-based pragmatic awareness assessment while their gaze patterns are recorded using the eye-tracking technology. When viewing the stimulus, learners will respond by answering aloud to questions shown on the screen. This will involve reading item prompts, and these are provided in the learner’s native language. The data, therefore, will combine both the eye-gaze patterns as well as item responses on the assessment. These two data streams, along with learner responses to a language learning survey, will constitute the primary data for the project. Potential follow-up verbal reports in 2023 may be added as an additional stream of analyzable data. During the 2021 research period, preventative measures as a result of the COVID pandemic affected the planned training and use of research assistants. Maintaining social distancing within the dedicated research setting proved challenging with an additional person present during data collection. This may result in some deviation to a portion of the 2022-23 data-collection procedure associated with gathering verbal report data (and potentially the use of NVivo). However, I expect this will have no effect on the primary data collection using the eye-tracking technology. In fact, I expect it will simplify the experience for the learners.