Are we there yet? Communicative Language Instruction at Muroran Institute of Technology in 2018

In a 2011 paper written about the English curriculum at Muroran Institute of Technology, it was noted that the curriculum had “gone through many changes” as should any curriculum that exists in the everchanging world in which we live. This paper looks at two areas that have evolved greatly here at Muroran since then ? Virtual Exchange (VE) and the use of a Learning Management System (LMS). The paper notes that VE continues to develop and progress throughout the curriculum and posits some reasons why it hasn’t gone curriculum-wide. Even so, it will show that VE should be considered as an important part of any communicative English language and that use of an LMS can assist teachers too.特集論

日英二重言語によるオンライン語学学習交流と英語のみのオンライン語学学習

The use of technology in language classes around the world has become commonplace. Whether it is the teacher using Powerpoint, students using software or mobile devices, or classes participating in online exchanges of some sort, there is now an understanding that technology should play a part in language learning. The Internet makes it even more imperative that technology be a part of the language classroom. Virtual Exchange (VE) has become a powerful means of allowing students to interact with learners in foreign countries and giving them all the benefits that such international collaboration entails. For language learners in countries or regions where there is limited opportunity to interact with other cultures and speakers of the target language (TL) physically, this is a particularly important feature.The European Commission co-financed INTENT project defines VE as technology-enabled, sustained, people to people education programs between geographically distant groups of students where online intercultural exchange, interaction and collaboration with peers occurs, under the guidance of educators and/or expert facilitators. VE is growing in importance throughout the EU and the number of exchanges has increased dramatically. VE is also being developed in the U.S. with the J. Christopher Stevens VE fund set up by the U.S. government to promote this. There are many examples of VE in the U.S. with the Soliya project being particularly well regarded for its promotion of peace. Both Europe and the U.S. are promoting VE because it offers students the chance to interact and develop contacts with students in other countries without the enormous cost of travel. We now talk of virtual mobility because of this fact. It also gives students the opportunity to use the language skills they are learning in class to participate in real world communicative activities in addition to developing intercultural competence. A number of institutions in Asia have also begun doing VE but the scale with which they have been done has been relatively small (Chun, 2014; Helm, 2015). There are many reasons for this that include poor access to a suitable platform, issues with interoperability between institutions, lack of links between faculty within and between different institutions, costs, lack of teacher training and difficulty in assessing such interactions. The benefits of VE in the Asian context are also not as well documented as in Europe and the U.S. and until July of this year, there was still not a community of researchers in the field.In Japan there have been a number of examples of VE. Bower and Kawaguchi’s (2011) VE was notable for its efforts at improving accuracy via peer correction. Harashima et. al. (2014) carried out VE between students in different universities within Japan to good effect because of the use of a learning management system (LMS). There have been others but most have struggled to be inclusive of full departments because of a lack of partner students and teacher training. Ensuring all students in a school have access to VE should be the final goal of such projects if they have been proven to be useful. VE has been shown to increase the level and amount of participation in communicative events, (Pais Marden and Herrington, 2011; Sotillo, 2000); increase the amount of interaction of people with lower power positions (Kern and Warschauer, 2000); improve peer feedback (Bower and Kawaguchi, 2011; Ware and O’Dowd, 2008) as well as increase opportunities to participate in and learn from and about other cultures (Chen and Yang, 2014; Thorne and Black, 2007). It is for these reasons that it should become a part of any communicative language class. Students then have the opportunity to interact in meaningful communication with other speakers of English on a regular basis – something that is not available to the majority of EFL students in Japan, but is extremely useful if such communication is to take place.本論文では、オーストラリアの大学と米国の高校での日本語学習者と、日本の高等教育機関での英語学習者間における、日英二重言語によるオンライン語学学習交流(Dual Language Virtual Exchange DLVE)と室蘭工業大学と他の国内大学の学生とコロンビアやベトナムの学生の英語のみによるオンライン語学学習交流(Single Language Virtual Exchange SLVE)システムを紹介し、実践報告を行う。本論文で開発・実施したMoodleによるVEのオンライン環境について具体的に概用を述べ、カリキュラムに組み込まれた交流課題、学生の投稿例を紹介しながら、オンライン交流の効果的な方法と利点を考察する。活動記録やアンケート調査の結果は、このようなDLVEとSLVE（両方使うとVE）方法が、学習言語使用の量と質、学習動機、他文化理解を高めることを示唆している。国や個々の教育機関では、学習者が達成すべき特定の目標を提示している。米国におけるナショナル・スタンダード、及び、21世紀教育基準は、オーストラリアや日本の基準と多くの点で類似している。これらの国家的基準と個々の教育機関の目標、特にグローバルな視点を持つ学習者を育成する必要性に基づき、当システムを開発した。Bower & Kawaguchi (2011)、Vinagre & Muñoz(2011)の研究におけるオンライン語学学習に共同的かつ総合的な要素を加えることを試みた。VEの目的は学習者に目標言語を使う場を与えること、そして、日本、米国、オーストラリア、ベトナム、コロンビアの文化比較やディスカッションをしながら互いの文化についての理解を深め、語学力向上を促していくことである。しかし、VEに潜在する可能性は知識、言語能力の発展にとどまらない。文化に関する交流課題を選ぶことによって、異文化理解の知識を深めると同時に、目標言語でのコミュニケーション能力に対する学習者の自信の向上につながった。更に、この交流は、ネイティブスピーカーとノンネイティブスピーカーの内容のあるコミュニケーションの機会を最大限に活用する機会を与えるだけではなく、それぞれが属するコミュニティの社会的な一員としての生活技能すなわちライフスキルの向上にも大きく貢献していると考えられる。現システムとその将来についても述べる

Making virtual exchange/telecollaboration mainstream – large scale exchanges

Language educators’ goals include promoting cultural understanding and improving the language skills of their students. Virtual Exchange (VE) is a powerful means to do this. Students in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms often have few opportunities to communicate with other users of English. VE gives them virtual mobility, enabling them to participate in a global community, use English in real world communicative events and become more culturally acclimatized. Though there are many benefits to VE, it is often not easily accessible to teachers. This paper introduces a large scale VE that includes over 1500 students and 53 teachers from 21 institutions in six countries. The paper outlines benefits and drawbacks of this VE, some initial findings on student engagement and participation in the VE, in addition to information on how the project is planned to expand, making it accessible to a larger number of teachers and their students around the world

バーチャルエクスチェンジ : 英語学習者にとって実践的、国際コミュニケーション場の提供

Virtual Exchange enables language learners to communicate via the Internet with learners from other regions and countries. This paper will describe a virtual exchange where over 800 students from Japan, Colombia and one class from Taiwan; used English to communicate asynchronously with each other over a nine week period. Participants exchanged information in English about their lives and cultures through text and video using discussion forums on Moodle. A survey of participants after the conclusion of the exchange revealed that participants found the exchange useful for practicing English and motivating for improving their English language skills. They also felt that they had learnt about the partner country and that their interest in the partner country had increased. The Moodle site used for the Virtual Exchange was found to be relatively easy to use and the exchange was not overly time consuming. This study also identifies some areas to improve future exchanges, while recommending Virtual Exchange as a real communication and language practice platform for students of foreign languages around the world

オーストラリアにおける外国語教育から日本の英語教育と英語教育政策に組み込む案

The degree to which nations and their people are interacting today is unprecedented. It is true that English is generally the language that is used for much of this interaction. However it would be folly for any nation to believe that that language alone would be suffice. For nations to work together, mutual understanding and respect is an obvious essential. To ensure this eventuation, an emphasis on the study of foreign languages, and coessentially the cultures of said languages, is imperative. Australia’s geo-political situation and its history of immigration lend themselves easily to fostering these attributes. Japan on the other hand, has an urgent need for them but, recently, has lacked the ability to incorporate the necessary pedagogy. This paper will look at some of Australia’s policies as well as language pedagogy and compare them to Japan’s. It will offer a number of ideas that could be incorporated into language policy and pedagogy in Japan.特集 海外の語学教育事

ムードルによる国際オンライン学習交流

Telecollaboration has become a powerful means of allowing students to interact with learners in foreign countries and givingthem all the benefits that such international collaboration entails. For language learners in countries or regions where there islimited opportunity to interact with other cultures and speakers of the target language (TL) physically, this is a particularlyimportant feature of telecollaboration. Moodle is an excellent platform on which to run telecollaboration projects because of themany features it includes and this paper will outline how it was used for two different types of successful telecollaborationbetween students in different countries. It will go on to show how the author used Moodle to allow his students, who studyEnglish in a regional university in the north of Japan, to interact with students in several countries thus giving them greatermotivation to use the language they are studying. The students used English in activities that promote cultural awareness anddeveloped all five of the language skills. Moodle’s forum, wiki, questionnaire, quiz and book modules were extensively used topromote online exchange. Data suggests the methods used were beneficial to language acquisition and cultural understanding andwere popular with students. It also shows there are clear differences between the two types of telecollaboration outlined

ムードルにおける大規模なバーチュアルエクスチェンジ

This paper outlines the importance of Virtual Exchange (VE) for the development of cultural understanding in addition to language development in any communicative language course. It proposes a model of ensuring that students in communication classes within Japan can easily be linked with students in other countries via a Moodle based VE. The benefits of the VE, and of using Moodle as the platform for it, are outlined in addition to details of successes and areas to improve the VE model

共同的と協力的なオンライン言語交流

Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) is becoming a popular tool in EFL classes around the world (Levy & Stockwell, 2006; Thorne & Black, 2007). The type used depends on the teacher\u27s situation. When partner classes are available, cooperative language exchange is one option. “Cooperative”, here, means students in each of the countries participating are learning the language of the other partner. The example outlined in this paper is where American students studying Japanese are linked with Japanese students studying English. Collaborative exchange is another option. “Collaborative” means all students are EFL students and thus learn English only. The example illustrated here is where students from Colombia, Viet Nam and Japan worked together to learn English. There are positive aspects and difficulties to overcome with both forms of exchange. This paper will outline some initial findings on which type results in more output from students, in addition to which approach should attain better overall outcomes

外国語として英語教育のオーラルコミュニケーション試験作成

When teaching a communication class, any achievement test that wishes to have construct and content validity should include communication tasks. As there is emphasis on oral communication in the syllabi of most communication classes, again, it should be imperative to include oral communication tasks in any test associated with said classes. Doing so will also ensure positive backwash from the test is attained. In this paper the major differences between oral communication language testing and other forms of language testing will be discussed and a method of oral testing proposed. The pitfalls and benefits associated with oral communication testing are also covered.特集 外国語教

オーストラリア英語の語彙となまりの感想

Australian English is one dialect of the language called “English”. It is quite well known around the world as having unique features but is sometimes mistakenly thought of as being more difficult than other dialects. As with other dialects, there are some aspects of Australian English that may be difficult to understand for a novice English learner, however standard Australian English is as easy to understand as the standard versions of other English dialects. This short essay will introduce some of the regional and broader forms of the Australian English dialect.研究報