Ikuko Ueno

上野 育子

Kwansei Gakuin University Repository

ABSTRACT  Teachers’ and Learners’ Beliefs about the“ALL ENGLISH” Class in the Japanese EFL Context  by Ikuko Ueno  This study investigates the teachers ’ and learners’ beliefs about the Target Language (TL) use only in the class in the Japanese EFL (English as foreign language) context.  The researcher conducted an exploratory study with quantitative and qualitative analyses within a multimethod approach.  The participants as teachers for only NNESTs (non-native English speaking teachers) at universities and university students as learners were examined.   The study was designed to address the following four research questions:   1) What types of beliefs do teachers and learners have about TL (English) use only in the classroom?  2) Are there any differences between the teachers’ beliefs and learners’ beliefs about TL use only in the classroom?  3) How are learners’ beliefs associated with other beliefs about  language learning?  4) Are learners’ beliefs likely to change by experiencing TL use only in the classroom?  If so, how can they be changed?                                                        . In order to explore the participants’ beliefs on TL use only in the class based on these research questions, quantitative research was first conducted statistically.  The participants for this study include teachers and university students. The total number of teachers was 54 (male: 15, female: 39) and that of university students was 234 (male: 76, female: 157, not indicated: 1 ).  There were three parts in the quantitative section: a preliminary survey investigating the learners’ image of TL use only in the class, a pilot survey examining learners’ beliefs with BALLI (Horwitz, 1985), and a main comparative survey study of teachers’ and learners’ beliefs about TL use only in the class.  In the quantitative research, correlational and factor analyses were employed to analyze the data.  Next, in the qualitative section, comments in the questionnaire, reaction papers, pre- and post-class questionnaires about observations, and interview data were examined.   As findings, the results for the quantitative study showed many different sets of beliefs on TL use in the class among teachers and learners.  As a whole, learners expected TL use in the class quite positively, however, teachers seemed to struggle with its use and feel the necessity of L1 (Japanese) use at the same time.  Moreover, although the learners expected TL use only in the class positively, they expected their teachers to use TL more frequently than they do.  In the Japanese EFL context, for learners, “ALL ENGLISH” class means mainly teachers’ TL use in the class. As for the results of qualitative study, it was also confirmed that TL use only in the classroom provided the contrasting image among the teachers and learners showing the different perceptions.  Regarding the changeability of learners’ beliefs, most of these learners’ beliefs changed positively after real experiencing TL use only in the class, which suggested that their negative beliefs came from ambiguous anxiety in the past experience and newly formed beliefs were influenced by the practice of TL use only in the class.  The relation between the learners’ beliefs and classroom practices was endorsed in this qualitative research as well.   In the interview conducted in the final qualitative study, many of the findings were consistent with those of the quantitative research, such as learners’ high expectations for teachers’ TL output in the class and the contrast in attitude toward TL use only in the class between learners holding positive and negative beliefs.  Furthermore, this interview revealed that learners had particular emotional expectations toward NNESTs regarding TL use only in the class.  They expected that a NNEST would understand and share the learners’ feelings much more than a NEST would in the class.  In the Japanese EFL context, learners expect NNESTs to pay attention to their emotional aspects.  These learners’ expectations toward the TL use only in the classroom were different from the teachers’ ones due to the several aspects.  It must be important that each research from different perspectives should be accumulated regarding the belief research in SLA.    

Teachers’ and Learners’ Beliefs about the “ALL ENGLISH” Class in the Japanese EFL Context

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Teachers’ and Learners’ Beliefs about the “ALL ENGLISH” Class in the Japanese EFL Context

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