Development of a WTC Model for Japanese Elementary School Students: To Bridge the Gap between Foreign Language Activities and English Education at Junior High School

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24520699
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Foreign language education
• Research Institution: Chiba University
• Principal Investigator: Monoi Naoko (山賀尚子) 千葉大学, 教育学部, 准教授 (70350527)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 外国語活動 / 国際的志向性 / 学習意欲 / WTC / 児童用アンケート / 小学校英語 / 外向性 / 自己効力感

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study focused on the effects of the Foreign Language Activities initiated at public elementary school in the year 2011 on elementary school students’ affective changes. Two objectives of this study were to investigate whether the six constituents of adults' WTC (Willingness to Communicate) model would work the same as the constituents of Japanese children's WTC model, and to create a WTC model for children. In the first year of this three-year study, six affective constituents (WTC, international posture, perceived competence in L2, communication anxiety in L2, language learning motivation, and extroversion) were validated as the affective constituents for children and an instrument was created to measure those constituents. In the last two years, the instrument was used on 5th and 6th graders at public school (1,036 participants in 2014, 1,415 participants in 2015) in the Kanto region and a WTC model for Japanese elementary school students was proposed based on the results.

Free Research Field

英語教育