Helping Japanese Public Elementary School Pupils to Learn How to Write and Read through ICT and International Exchange Programs

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24520715
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Foreign language education
• Research Institution: Niigata University of Management
• Principal Investigator: YAMAMOTO Junko 新潟経営大学, 経営情報学部, 教授 (30372832)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): NAKAGAWA Hiroyo 関西外国語大学短期大学部, 英米語学科, 准教授 (70571595) ; SUZUKI Teruaki 新潟経営大学, 経営情報学部, 教授 (60584331) ; YOKOYAMA Hiroshi 新潟経営大学, 経営情報学部, 准教授 (40454219) ; HIGASHIKAWA Teruhisa 新潟経営大学, 経営情報学部, 講師 (70567601)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 英語教育 / 小学校外国語活動 / ＩＣＴ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study aims at helping EFL elementary school pupils acquire literacy skills and examines how they responded to the methods. The three methods were an international exchange program, a learning-through-movie program, ICT programs. To analyze the pupils' answers to open questions, text mining software was used. Few students mentioned literacy learning for this question; however, considering most students regarded the activities as fun, these approaches are thought to be meaningful in helping pupils learn written skills.
An ICT-based EFL study investigated the change of motivation of nine Japanese EFL (English as a Foreign Language) elementary school children who received an educational intervention of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) based activities. Questionnaire results show that participants enjoyed the activities in which mobile devices were employed. Judging from free description data, their motivation level was enhanced.

Free Research Field

英語教育