Inherent Problems Underlying English Learning in Japan
It is often reported that with advanced English language skills being emphasized in the face of an increasingly globalizing society, teaching EFL learners in secondary schools in Japan is challenging for a number of inherent reasons: 1) students lack strong motivation or need to learn English because they do not clearly perceive any intrinsic learning goals beyond studying English to get good scores in high school or university entrance examinations or for studying abroad) (Onoda, 2014); 2) they have limited exposure to or opportunities for using spoken English outside the classroom (Nation, 2013) unless they take speaking and listening lessons online or in language schools; 3) they do not study English extensively because English is learned generally as a compulsory school subject and the number of classroom learning hours is limited (Vázquez, Molina, & López, 2014); 4) practicing teachers have not developed advanced interactional skills of their own, which makes it difficult to facilitate communication-based teaching; and 5) students usually study in large classes (30-40 on average), which makes it difficult for teachers to implement rich classroom interactions in English (Onoda, 2014; Onoda & Miyashita, 2018; Yamazaki, 2006; Sato, 2012).
As a result, Japanese learners of English have not developed advanced English proficiency, especially in terms of interactional skills, including not only fluent and accurate language use but also the critical thinking skills critical to interaction in authentic language use contexts, both of which might instigate and maintain their further autonomous language learning (Borg, 2013; Onoda, 2019a). Moreover, English language teaching in Japanese universities does not appear to help these students improve their English language skills, mainly for the following reasons:
- 1.
Professional Limitations: English classes are taught by teachers whose majors often vary (for example, from second language acquisition to international relations) and who may lack adequate knowledge of teaching techniques or teaching experience;
- 2.
Curricular Limitations: English language teaching is constrained, in most cases with three or four different English subjects offered each week and a lack of balance between meaning-focused input and output, language-focused learning, and fluency development (Nation, 2013; see below for details). This reflects the reality that in university, majors (e.g., economics in the Faculty of Economics) are placed at the core of the curriculum with English classes relegated to the periphery or designed mainly to help students understand their majors when taught in English or to get high scores on tests such as TOEFL or TOEIC with a view to securing good jobs involving English;
- 3.
Scope Limitations: While some universities have introduced English-Medium Instruction (EMI) to teach some majors in English in order to foster the types of “Global Citizens” promoted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT, 2017), as discussed above, typical English language curriculum have not served such a goal and as a result largely failed to improve students' interactional skills to the extent that they could interact effectively with others from diverse backgrounds.
Also worth mentioning is the fact that undergraduate English teacher education programs in Japan are not designed so as to foster effective secondary school English teachers equipped with advanced interactional skills and critical thinking skills (Nishino & Watanabe, 2008; Onoda & Miyashita, 2018; Onoda, Miyashita, & Yoshino, 2017; Yamazaki, 2006). Moreover, there is a lack of research-based inquiries into the underlying causes of this deficiencies, including the lingering effect of the very teaching approaches new teachers themselves have been exposed to. It is no wonder therefore that Japanese secondary school and university learners of English are not expected—let alone guided—to become autonomous, self-regulated learners who can set their own learning goals and are motivated to purse them by using effective learning strategies while regularly reflecting on their learning progress and achievement. This conclusion is especially valid in the area of developing speaking skills, where step-by-step teaching approaches to the acquisition of advanced speaking or interactional skills have not been implemented due to the three major factors listed above. In fact, hardly any systematic English language programs appear to have been designed to progressively improve various aspects of learners’ spoken production, including fluency and accuracy (Beglar, 2017). In the following paragraphs, a promising approach to the improvement of L2 motivation and skills of Japanese university learners is thoroughly discussed.