January 2004  The Japan Association of College English Teachers No. 142

 

FOREWORD

 

Change in the Environment of English Education and JACET's Restructuring

 

Kansai Chapter President   OKADA, Nobuo

 

 The environment of English education in Japan is undergoing drastic change. Thus in 2000 the Prime Minister's Commission on Japan's Goals in the 21st Century came up with a report titled "The Frontier Within: Individual Empowerment and Better Governance in the New Millennium," where it suggested among others that people possess global literacy one of whose basic components is the mastery of English as the international lingua franca and proposed organizing English classes according to students' actual level of competence rather than their grade in school, improving training and objective assessment of English teachers, and so on.

 

     The new Courses of Study that have been implemented since 2002 to cope with the advance of globalization require all students to acquire basic communication abilities. As a result, foreign language education became a required subject at junior and senior high school. Moreover, the new Courses of Study allow foreign language conversation to be performed at elementary schools as part of education for international understanding during the new "Period for Integrated Study."

 

     "The Action Plan to Cultivate 'Japanese with English Abilities'" proposed by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (MEXT) in 2003 clarifies the goals and measures for the improvement of English. Some of them are:

 

(1) Almost all English teachers will acquire English skills (STEP pre-first level, TOEFL 550, TOEIC 730 or over).

 

(2) All English teachers will be given intensive training by the prefectural boards of   education in the five years from 2003 through 2007.

 

(3) Overseas training will be provided for junior and senior high school English   teachers who have gained advanced teaching and English abilities through the intensive training.

 

(4) Studying on courses related to English education at overseas graduate schools will be promoted for junior and senior high school English teachers with high levels of enthusiasm, English abilities, and teaching abilities.

 

  MEXT's Action Plan said of English education at elementary schools that a research committee would be established in 2003 with a view to completing by 2005 an analysis of the results and issues of the practical research conducted at pilot schools, research relating to the characteristics of language acquisition for children, and so on.

 

 The stream of the times has turned out to be faster. English education beyond the scope of the new Courses of Study and MEXT's Action Plan will be implemented at elementary schools in some Special Zones for Structural Reform this year. The city of Nagahama in Shiga prefecture, for example, launched the Special Zone for Hospitality City Planning where English is taught as a regular subject at all six elementary schools in the city.

 

     What MEXT's Action Plan requires of college graduates is that they be able to use English in their work. Each university is expected to establish attainment targets for its students. No concrete plan, however, was proposed to promote intensive training for university English teachers. No goals were set for the university English teachers' proficiency, either. No overseas training nor study at overseas graduate schools were provided for university English teachers. Most aspects of English education at the university level were left untouched.

 

     We have been involved with faculty development, such as improving individual faculty members' course content and teaching methods, developing the curriculum, and so on, especially since the University Council presented a report titled "A Vision for Universities in the 21st Century and Reform Measures" in 1998, but if the primary objective of JACET is to develop English education in Japan, we must restructure, as was stressed by the former President Professor Koike in his essay "Issues to Consider As We Begin the Year 2001" in JACET News , No.127.

 

In addition, due consideration should be given to the former Chubu Chapter President Professor Yamanaka's remark in his essay "Are We Swimming Upstream?" in JACET News, No.128, that JACET's current linking of the central office in Tokyo with its six chapters does not work properly and that the transparency of the office of personnel affairs should be advanced.

 

     JACET is now trying hard to restructure. It was decided at the 2000 JACET general assembly, for example, that the term of office of the president, the vice-president, chapter presidents, directors, and trustees is two years and that they may serve no more than three terms. In my view this change will make as many brilliant colleagues as possible to be able to engage in the management of JACET. Furthermore, the Future Planning Committee is now considering the establishment of the Kanto-Koshin'etsu Chapter, the direct election of the president by all members, the retirement at the age of 70 of the president, the vice-president, chapter presidents, directors, trustees, and other officers. JACET's efforts to change will surely bear fruit.

 

News from the JACET Office

 

Secretary General  Michiko Nakano

 

We all wish you a very happy new year from JACET office members: Michiko Nakano, Ms Arakawa, Ms Ikejiri, Ms Okimoto and Ms Hosaka.  During the festive seasons, JACET had two occasions to enjoy ourselves: the end-of-the year party on the 20th of December and the new-year party on the 10th of January.  JACET future planning committee was held at JACET Office on the 27th and 28th of December.  All the chapter presidents attended the two-day session.  The main topic was about the term of duty for JACET administrative staff and activities in the area of Kanto-Koshinetsu district.  Director Naotake Jimbo chaired the two-day session. All the chapter presidents, including President Yoji Tanabe and Vice President Mamoru Morizumi, had a very heated discussion. Nakano could not attend the second day, due to the food poisoning and flue.  I would like to express my sincere apology for my absence on the second day.  I however felt certain that JACET is moving forward toward Unity and Diversity for our research efforts and for our educational efforts.

 

 

Chapter News

 

<Hokkaido Chapter Report>

 

Annual Chapter Convention

On July 12, the 2003 Hokkaido Chapter convention was held at Fuji Women’s College. In the general meeting, the financial report for the 2002 fiscal year, the 2003 schedule and the 2003 budget were approved. After the general meeting, Yasuteru Ohtani (Honorable Professor at Osaka Univ. and Shiga Prefectural Univ.) gave a lecture entitled, “Reconsideration on language education policy in Japan.” Following the lecture were two research presentations: “Explicit knowledge and communicative competence: a proposal regarding the significance and meaning of grammar instruction” by Ken Urano (Hokkai Gakuen Univ.) and “An outline of JACET 8000 and its use” by CALL SIG, JACET Hokkaido Chapter. The presenter was Tomohiko Oda (Sapporo Univ). After the presentations, a symposium entitled “English education from elementary schools to universities: How should cross-cultural understanding be promoted?” was held. The chairman was Yoshiki Yokoyama (Hokkaido Univ. of Education Iwamizawa); the panelists were Hisafumi Suehara (Sapporo Nisshin Elementary School), Nobuhiro Kamiya (Sapporo Junior High School attached to Hokkaido Univ. of Education), Moemi Kuroiwa (Hokusei Gakuen Senior High School), Akemi Itoh (Fuji Women’s College) and Shoji Mitarai (Sapporo Univ.).

 

Lecture Meetings

On May 18, the first lecture meeting for 2003 was held at Fuji Women’s College. Toshiharu Akiyama (Hokkaido Institute of Technology) chaired a symposium entitled, “Minimum essentials of English in elementary schools.” Panelists were Kaeko Nakamura (Hokkaido Institute of Technology), Sasaki Tomoyuki (Hokkaido Institute of Technology) and Hiroko Miura (Hokkaido Institute of Technology).

On December 18, the second lecture meeting for 2003 was held at Hokkaido Univ. Yuri Nishihori (Hokkaido Univ.) chaired a symposium entitled, “Distance education in foreign language education: Searching for new educational methods in the broadband age.” Panelists were Keizo Nagaoka (National Institute of Multimedia Education), Nozomi Nishinaga (Communications Research Laboratory), Hisayo Lipton Okano (Stanford Univ.) and Dale Harris (Stanford Univ.). 

 

Publications

The JACET Hokkaido Chapter Research Paper Collection (Hokkaido JACET Journal, No.2) will be issued in 2004. Call for papers will be announced in the 17th issue of the Chapter Newsletter, which is scheduled to be issued on March 31.

(Yasushi Kawai, Hokkaido Univ.)

 

 

<Tohoku Chapter Report>

 

The 42nd JACET Annual Convention was held at Tohoku Gakuin University in Sendai from the 4th to the 6th of September in 2003.  The committee members of Tohoku Chapter committed their time and efforts to make it successful.  The Special Seminar organised by Tohoku Chapter on the 4th was the first attempt in the history of JACET annual conventions.

 

With the annual convention at the centre of the 2003 events, Tohoku Chapter held two lectures by inviting honourable professors and two insightful paper presentations.

 

Timeline of the Year 2003

1) June 7  Lecture

    (Co-host: The Tohoku English Language Education Society Miyagi Branch, English Phonetic Society of Japan Tohoku Branch)

   Lecture (1)

 

2) September 4, 5, 6  The 42nd JACET Annual Convention at Tohoku Gakuin University

  The JACET-Tohoku Special Seminars (September 4)

  (1) “Computer Based Language Testing in Practice” (Yoichi Nakamura, Tokiwa Univ.)

  (2) “A Model Debate From A Journalistic Viewpoint” (Koichi Ishiyama, Toin Univ. of Yokohama)

 

3) November 1  Regular Meeting

   Paper Presentations (1)

 

4) December 6

   Board Meeting

   Chapter Meeting

      Report on the 2002 Activities / Accounting (2002) & Budget (2003)/

      Plan about the 2003 Activities / New Board Annual Chapter Convention

      Lecture  (Co-host: Akita　Association of English Studies

                 Support：Akita Prefectural Board of Education

                 Lecture (2) followed by discussion 

 

I.  List of Lectures in 2003

1)“English Teaching in Public Elementary Schools Revisited”

    (Speaker: Yukio Otsu, Keio Univ. / June 7)

 2)“The Recent Foreign Language Teaching Policy and its Background Movement in Japan”

    (Speaker: Ikuo Koike, JACET Special Counsel, Meikai Univ./ December　6)

   “What is Likely to be Neglected in Reformulating English Education in Japan”

    (Discussant: Yoshinori Watanabe, Akita Univ. / December 6)

 

II.  List of Presentations in 2003

1)“Theory of Motivation: Individual Needs and Group Needs”

    (Katsuko Matsubara, Aomori Public College / November 1)

 2)“On Word Meaning Guessing from Dictionary Definitions”

    (Nobuya Itagaki, Miyagi Univ. of Education

     Shingo Katsumata, Narita Higashi Elementary School

     Yoshikatsu Kubota, Sendai National College of Technology / November 1)

 

 JACET-Tohoku Newsletter 25, including reports of the lectures and the paper presentations, is going to be issued in February, 2004.  The preparation for the bulletin of Tohoku Chapter has been made by Yoshinori Watanabe, Nobuya Itagaki, Hitoshi Muranoi and Yasuyuki Sakuma.

 (Masako Sasaki, Akita Univ.)

 

 

<Chubu Chapter Report>

 

Annual Chapter Convention

The annual chapter convention was held at Aichi University on June 7. The

convention theme was "Faculty Development and College Education," and the

key speech was given by Mr. Terumasa Ikeda・Nagoya Univ. on the subject.

Also the symposium was lead by Mr. Shuzo Yamanaka・Nagoya Women's Univ. with

Mr. Tsukasa Horiuchi・Toyohashi Univ. of Technology, Mr. Motohiko Sato・

Aichi Univ., and Ms. Keiko Miyakita・Meijo Univ. as panelists. In addition 9

presentations were given in the convention.

 

Lectures and presentations

1. Date: October 11

     Place: Nanzan Junior College

     Lecturer: Hiroshi Matsusaka・Waseda Univ.

     Subject: Eigo Onsei-no Sugata

2. Date: December 13

     Place: Chukyo Univ.

     Speaker: Yasumi Murata・Sugiyama Jogakuen Univ.

     Subject: Questionnaire on English Usage Abroad

     Speaker: Yuka Shigemitsu・Tokyo Polytechnic Univ.

     Subject: Experimental Conversation between Japanese and American

     Speaker: Sumie Matsuno・Temple University Japan

     Subject: Motivations of Japanese College and University Students for

                      Learning English

 

Meetings

1. Date: April 12

     Place: Chukyo Univ.

     Agenda: Annual chapter convention, JACET Chubu Journal, JACET national

                      convention

2. Date: May 17

     Place: Aichi Univ.

     Agenda: Annual chapter convention, JACET Chubu Journal, JACET national

                      convention,

                      statement of accounts 2002, budget 2003

3. Date: September 20

     Place: Chukyo Univ.

     Agenda: JACET national convention at Chukyo Univ.

4. Date: October 11

     Place: Nanzan Junior College

     Agenda: Theme at JACET national convention at Chukyo Univ., JACET

                      Journal editorial board, JACET Chubu lecture meeting,

                      JACET-Chubu newsletter

5. Date: December 13

     Place: Chukyo Univ.

     Agenda: JACET national convention at Chukyo Univ.

6. Date: January 24, 2004

     Place: Chukyo Univ.

     Agenda: JACET national convention at Chukyo Univ., 2004 JACET Chubu

                      committee members

    

Publications

Newsletter

     JACET-Chubu Newsletter No. 10 (May)

     JACET-Chubu Newsletter No. 11 (November)

JACET Chubu takes pleasure to announce the publication of its first JACET

Chubu Journal.

     JACET Chubu Journal Vol. 1 (November)

 

(Kunihiko Harada・Nagoya Univ. of Foreign Studies)

 

 

<Kansai Chapter Report>

 

Annual Chapter Convention

(1) Spring Convention: Date: June 7, 2003;  Place: Heian Jogakuin Univ.

   Theme: Innovation in English education - What are English Abilities? -

(a) Forum: "English abilities for university students, graduate students, English teachers and company"

Presenters: English Abilities Project Teams: Tsutomu Takeuchi (Kansai Univ.), Yasushige Ishikawa (KUFS), Tomio Fujibayashi (Kinran Junior Col.) and Shinsuke Yoshida (Ritsumeikan Univ.)

(b) Presentations:

- Chair: Shigeo Uematsu (Setsunan Univ.)

Tomoko Tode (Osaka Municipal Taisho Higashi JHS): "Effects of explicit and implicit instructions of the English copula-be for beginning learners"; Alex M. Hayashi (Tokiwakai Gakuen Univ.): "A study of partitionment of one lesson: how to change atmosphere and how to attract attention in class"; Chiharu Iwai (postgrad., Osaka Univ.): "Needs analysis in ESP and University English education - a case study of English education in the Hotel industry -" 

(c) General Meeting

(d) Workshop:

- Coordinator: Shinsuke Yoshida (Ritsumeikan Univ.)

Presenters & topics: Shuhei Kadota (Kwansei Gakuin Univ.): "Methods for L2 lexical processing research"; Hirokazu Yokokawa (Kobe Univ.): "Methods for sentence processing research"; Haruyo Yoshida (Osaka Kyoiku Univ.): "Implications for CALL - from theory to practice -"; Atsuko Kuramoto (Hiroshima Kokusai Univ.): "Working memory and shadowing along with a script"

(e) Symposium: "English ability necessary for enterprise workers"

- Coordinator: Tsutomu Matsuura (Osaka Aoyama Junior Col.)

Panelists: Mikio Aoki (former affiliation: JTB); Yasuhiro Seto (Daikin Industries, LTD.); Koichi Kitsu (Dentsu Inc.)

(2) Autumn Convention: Date: Oct. 12, 2003;  Place: Osaka Women's Univ.

   Theme: Innovation in English education - What are English Abilities? -

(a) Workshop: "Stop unfounded optimism - suggestions from second language

   acquisition research -"

Presenters & topics: Yumi Hato, coordinator (Fukui Pref. Univ.): "Time and money - Neglected factors in SLA research and national policy-making"; Junko Kono (Nara Women's Univ.): "Studying abroad - expectations of Japanese learners and the subsequent reality -"; Kaori Minakuchi (Senri Int. School): "It's not easy to be bilingual - the difficulty of maintaining bilingual ability"; Kimie Ito (Heian Jogakuin Col.): "Overly high expectations regarding the teaching of pre-schoolers - from the perspective of teacher training"; Manami Ojima (Kyoto Univ.): "The stated purpose and the reality of English teaching at primary school level"

(b) Presentations:

- Chair: Yoshio Ohkita (Kwansei Gauin Univ.)

Tomohiro Ogawa (postgrad. Kwansei Gakuin Univ.): "The possibility of I know so."; Midori Takasu (postgrad. Kobe City Univ.): "On the relationship between to-infinitive clause and -ing clause in English"; Toyoko Matsumoto (postgrad. Kobe City Univ.): "Re-examination of objecthood in the double object construction"; Kazuki Iwahashi (postgrad. Osaka Univ.): "Sequence of tenses in subordinate clauses and its exception"

-Chair: Hirokazu Yokokawa (Kobe Univ.)

Kayoko Hatanaka (Wakayama Pref. Higashi SHS): "Enhancing High school students' motivation to read in English through extensive reading"; Kaoru Masago (Kinki Univ.): "Practicing of oral patterns and explanation of theoretical background - possibilities and problems of transcribing pronunciation into KATAKANA in EFL education"; Masayuki Takahashi (postgrad. Kansai Gaidai Univ. & Osaka Pref. Mino SHS): "Exploring home work as self-study in English"

-Chair: Toshio Takahashi (Kansai Univ.)

Kiyomi Yamazaki (Osaka Sangyo Univ.): "The effect of adopting open-book examination in underachieving EFL classroom"; Minoru Moriguchi (postgrad. Osaka Pref. Univ.): "Toward compiling a Japanese-English dictionary based on Japanese corpora"; Chie Tsurii (Momoyama Gakuin Univ.): "Analysis of EFL textbook discourses - lexical density and exchange structure of inverted dialogues"

-Chair: Kyoko Sato (Poole Gakuin Univ.)

Manabu Tamura (Berlitz Japan, Inc.): "A correlation between learners' psychology and English test scores"; Takayo Kawabe (postgrad. Kansai Univ.): "Teaching strategy of writing for ESL and EFL university students in the light of a case study"; Mihoko Sawada (postgrad. Kwansei Gakuin Univ.): "Adult EFL learner motivation - learning English as lifelong learning -"

(c) Symposium: "Recent issues in English-Japanese lexicography and their implications

   for English language teaching"

- Coordinator: Kosei Minamide (Osaka Women's Univ.)

Panelists & topics: Yukio Tono (Meikai Univ.): "Exploring L2 learner corpora for English bilingual lexicography"; Kiyota Hashimoto (Osaka Women's Univ.): "The credibility of frequency results - what corpus survey really tells -"; Mayumi Nishikawa (postgrad. Nara Women's Univ.): "Interjection and discourse marker"; Kenji Sekiyama (Okinawa Univ.): "Japanese students' use of the electronic IC dictionaries"

Lectures

1. Lecture meeting: July 5, 2003 at Ritsumeikan Univ.

Topic: "Learning from the projects on the Internet: social and cultural perspective"

Speaker: Kojiro Asao (Ritsumeikan Univ.)

2. Lecture meeting: Dec. 6, 2003 at Co-op Inn Kyoto

Topic: "On the MEXT's action plan to cultivate Japanese with English abilities"

Speaker: MORIZUMI Mamoru (Obirin Univ.)

3. There were still other meetings held in addition to the above meetings.

Other meetings

SIG meetings and the meetings of Steering Committee (2 times) & Study Planning Committee (4 times) took place.

Newsletter

JACET Kansai Newsletter was published 4 times (No. 19 - No.22). 

(Yukari Tokioka・Osaka Sangyo Univ. / Masumi Azuma・Kobe Geijutsukoka Univ.)

 

 

<Chugoku-Shikoku Chapter Report>

 

November Seminar

   A seminar was held at Hiroshima City University, Hiroshima, on November 1, 2003.

(1) presentations

Cho Shika (post grad., Hiroshima Univ.): "Listening comprehension test in CET Band 4 and 6 in China"; Noboru Toyota (post grad., Hiroshima Univ. ): A relation between communication task and class size in oral communication class - on basis of questionnaire survey "; Michiko Oki (post grad., Hiroshima Univ.): "A perspective on literature teaching"; Daisuke Ikeuchi (post grad., Hiroshima Univ.): "A tentative proposal on article teaching in university-level class - a review from a functional point of view"; Tomoyuki Yokoyama (Hiroshima City Univ.): "Aspects of interlanguage in translation"; Toshiaki Koshino (post grad., Hiroshima Univ.), Tsutomu Umamoto (Hiroshima Prefectural Univ.), Yoshinobu Matsuoka (Yasuda Women's Univ.), Naoko Motooka (Hiroshima Prefectural College of Health Sciences) and Tomoko Nakamura (Hiroshima International Univ.): "A quantitative comparative analysis of English textbooks in the periods of Meiji, Taisho and early Showa"; Koji Konishi (Matsuyama Univ.): "A perspective on English grammar - from a viewpoint of communication strategies"

(2) lecture

Nobuyuki Aoki (Hiroshima City Univ.): "Network-assisted English education reform at university"

（Hidetomo Torigoe・Takuma NCT）

 

 

<Kyushu-Okinawa Chapter Report>

 

 

   In the academic year 2003, we had two general meetings, one chapter

conference and two academic lectures, which are listed in chronological

order:

 

  April 20 (Sun)  Spring General Meeting &  Academic Lecture*

      (lecturer)  Dr. Peter Trudgill (Universit&eacute; de Fribourg )

　　     (topic)  World Englishes: Convergence or Divergence?

　   　  (venue)  Seinan Gakuin Univ

    * Co-sponsored by JACET K-O Chapter & LET Kyushu Chapter.

 

  October 18 (Sat) The 18th Annual Chapter Conference & Fall General

                   Meeting

         (venue)  Ohita Prefectural Art and Culture Junior College

   

  Dec. 9 (Tues)   Fall Academic Lecture**

　　  (lecturer)  Dr. Larry Smith (AIMS)

　　     (topic)  World Englishes, Global Commerce and the Role of the

                  US University

　     　(venue)  Kumamoto Gakuen Univ.

　　** Co-sponsored by JACET K-O Chapter & Institute of Foreign Affairs,

       Kumamoto Gakuen Univ.

 

   Following are activities which are worthy of special mention:

 

                        1. Annual Conference

    On October 18, we had the 18th annual chapter conference at Ohita

Prefectural Art and Culture Junior College, where we had 20 paper

presentations and a symposium. The invited speaker from our Korean

counterpart, PKATE, was Prof. Kyong-Sook Cho (Busan National Univ. of

Education) who read a paper entitled as "Narrow Reading and Language

Development."

    During the lunchtime, we had a business meeting. Then followed a

symposium, which dealt with the reform of English education triggered

by the Ministry of Education's Action Plan to cultivate “Japanese with

English Abilities.” Prof. Kinoshita (Fukuoka International Univ.),

chaired the afternoon main program. After four panelists presented

their views, we had a heated question-and-answer session. The four

panelists were Mr. Kawajiri (Headmaster of Maizuru Jr. High School in

Fukuoka Prefecture), Mr. Imaizumi (Head of the Department of High School

Education, Fukuoka Prefecture), Prof. Ohashi (Ritsumeikan Asia-Pacific

Univ.) and Mr. Hirano (Fujitsu Ohita Software Laboratry). For this

symposium, we had JACET Vice President, Prof. Morizumi (Ohbirin Univ.)

as commentator. He gave us a brief but well-prepared account of the

recent move by the Education Ministry, and made a comment on each

panelist's argument.

   The 18th conference ended in a great success with the financial

support by the 17 philanthropic companies. The 19th conference will be

held at Fukuoka Women's College in October, 2004.

 

                         2. Publication

    The Committee of K-O Chapter Journal is working hard to publish

its eighth volume, which carries five screened articles on English

learning and education. To commemorate its 20th anniversary, the

special issue of the K-O Chapter Newsletter is going to be published

in March. To this anniversary issue, sixty professors who belong to

this Chapter are expected to contribute their articles on English

education and reform at their colleges and universities.     

  

                          3. SIG Activities

   The SIG "East Asia English Education" started its activity by

having the 37th SIG meetings on July 26 (Sat), and held four more

meetings, the last of which ended on December 20 (Sat). The SIG

"ESP" had the 3rd ESP SIG meeting on May 24 (Sat) at Kumamoto Univ.

The SIGs "English & the Computer," and "Innovative Methodology for

English Education" jointly held one-night-two-lecture meeting on

July 13. 

 

 

Monthly Meetings