Learning how to communicate: Teaching Speaking to Japanese EFL/ESL Students
Communication in any language is beneficial to learn. Although it is important to grasp
all language aspects, being able to speak with others is the most important. By knowing the
language, you can better understand a person's culture. Speaking practice has been in most ESL
classroom. However, in some Japanese ESL/EFL classrooms, English conversation is not
stressed enough as it should be. In this paper, I will be investigating how ESL/EFL speaking
skills are taught in Japan. Especially noting on the importance of learning speaking skills,
students motivation and willingness to communicate in a newly learned language, problems with
Japan's current English system in regards to speaking, and strategies on how to better Japanese
EFL students' speaking overall. I especially want to note that this is based on research for
Japanese ESL/EFL students studying in Japan only.
It is important for ESL/EFL students to know all aspects of language learning. The main
four aspects of language learning are reading, writing, listening, and speaking. All of these are
important, but I believe speaking is an aspect that needs to be more emphasized in Japanese ESL
classes. In Thomas Delaney's article, Skeshan discusses six points on how speaking can lead to
acquisition. His six points do not just apply directly to Japanese EFL learners, but for all
language learners.
The first point Skehan makes is speaking generates better input.“Learner output helps
interlocutors fine-tune their speech to make it more comprehensible to the learner.” 1 The back
and forth that is accomplished in conversation makes for better fluency. The language learner
will initiate with output and in order to create better communicative understanding, the
1
Delaney, Thomas. "Quality and quantity of oral participation and English proficiency gains." Language
Teaching Research 16, no. 4 (October 2012): 468
Bouse 1
interlocutor (the native speaker) will simplify his or her speech.
The second point Skeshan makes is speaking forces learners to make syntactic processes.
“Speaking forces learners to attend to syntax instead of just semantic and strategic features.”2 In
speech, speakers need to focus on the correct syntactical order in order to be more
comprehensible to others. Speaking tends to this natural fluency.
The third point is speaking allows learners to test hypothesis.“Speaking allows learners to
elicit feedback on their current inter language.”3 Speaking calls for English language learners to
practice speaking within their own language context. Learners can test concepts that they learned
and figure out the correct and incorrect usages of these concepts.
The fourth point is speaking develops automaticity. “Speaking is the only way in which
‘learners can go beyond carefully constructed utterances and achieve some level of natural speed
and rhythm”4 Learners can slowly pick up intonation and other concepts of language that are
automatic to native speakers. By using automatically, a learner can go from small sentence to big
chunks of discourse.
The fifth point is speaking develops a learner's discourse skills.“Discourse skills, such as
turn-taking, can ‘only be achieved by actually participating in discourse’.” 5Conversation, or
discourse, can only happen by participating in the language. The more that one participates in
conversational discourse, the more successful and accurate a language learner will become
overtime.
The sixth and final point is speaking develops a personal voice. “If learners want to be
2
3
4
5
Ibid
Ibid
Ibid
Ibid
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able to say things that are important to them, they must have ‘the opportunity to steer
conversations along routes of interest...’”6 It takes speaking to a new level. Learning comes alive
in speaking. By using speaking, a student applies what they learned from the textbooks into
conversations with friends and others. Then they can make the language feel like their own. By
developing a personal voice, it gives learners a connection to the target language.
Another important aspect for speaking comes motivation and outside interest of the
language and culture. A student will have better success with the language if there is a reason
behind his or her interest. In one study by Tomoko Yashima, she asked 389 Japanese students
about their willingness for a language learner (a Japanese student) to communicate in English.
Two aspects that can affect the willingness to communicate is motivation and international
posture. International posture is the notion that “some learners are more interested in or have
more favorable attitudes toward what English symbolizes than other learners.”7 There were four
variables in the interest of both motivation and international posture: intercultural friendship,
interest in foreign affairs, intercultural approach-avoidance tendency (“an individual’s tendency
either to approach or to avoid interaction with peoples from different cultures”8), and interest in
international occupation or activities.
The results from this study were interesting, based on the correlation between the
students' motivation and their willingness to communicate. The conclusion was that motivation
alone does not affect the willingness. “...he or she needs to have confidence in his or her L2
6
7
8
Ibid
Yashima, Tomoko. "Willingness to Communicate in A Second Language: The Japanese EFL Context." The
Modern Language Journal 86, no. 1 (March 2002): 57
Ibid, 58.
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communication.”9 Motivation does not work alone, confidence has to be incorporated in as well.
By having both motivation and confidence will be affective for a student's overall willingness to
speak with others. However, what's more interesting is the international posture portion of this
had an affect. “It is not surprising that the more internationally oriented an individual was, the
more willing he or she was to communicate in English.10
Speaking skills are important to hone, however Japan's current education system has a
few issues that interfere with success for students to obtain these skills. In order to fully discuss
the problems, it is best to break it down into a few categories. These categories are the
educational system, students' attitudes toward English communicative teaching, the lack of
communicative teaching in schools, and the small subset of Assistant Language Teachers.
The first problem arises from the Japanese educational system . In Japanese schools,
English is not considered an official academic subjects taught in schools. Schools have the
choice if they want to teach English or not. “Because English is not an official academic subject
in Japan, teachers do not have access to comprehensive preservice or in-service training.”11 In a
country with such a homogenous population, it makes that English is not a required academic
subject. But there should at least some form of training on the subject of teaching English, and
people who are qualified to teach should be the ones hired for the job. Teachers are not always
trained to teach English, in some cases there are Assistant Language Teachers (ALT) to help with
English lessons, but that is not always the case.
The other problem lies in the attitude of the EFL students in Japan. To explain this
9
10
11
Ibid, 62.
Ibid, 63
Goto Butler, Yuko. "What Level of English Profiency Do Elementary School Teachers Need to Attain to Teach
EFL? Case Studies from Korea, Taiwan, and Japan." TESOL Quarterly 38, no. 2 (June 2004): 250
Bouse 4
problem clearly there is a study by Hiromi Saito and Miriam Ebsworth that studies how Japanese
EFL and ESL students viewed their teachers and classroom activities. Both groups of students
were given questionnaires to assess this. According to the data results, although the results were
very close, the ESL students scored higher in all proficiency levels. The proficiency scores
ranked from one to four, level one for beginners and level four for advanced students. For
instance, in regards to speaking, the ESL students scored 2.90, while the EFL students scored
2.42. 12What could be the meaning for the EFL's lower scores? A students attitude towards the
classroom could be a possibility.“The EFL students added that since they found their classes
neither useful nor interesting, they did not mind if professors arrived late and ended earlier.”13
Some of these attitudes results from previous experience in English classes. One
interesting result that came from the study was that, The EFL students preferred to use Japanese
more frequently in their English class, while the ESL students would use more English.“...being
able to use Japanese in the class was viewed as an advantage...The fact that Japanese teachers
were also able to offer explanations in Japanese was also appreciated.” 14This is understandable
for beginning learners, but to get the full effect of speaking English, learners need to slowly
break out of their comfort zone.
Another interesting thing from this study is in the motivations of the students. EFL
students motivations were different. “More EFL students were taking English to fulfill a
requirement while more ESL students needed English for further study or work.” 15 Both groups
had the motivation to learn English, however the groups differed on how they utilized that
12
13
14
15
Saito, Hiromi, and Miriam Eisenstein Ebsworth. "Seeing English Language Teaching and Learning through the
Eyes of Japanese EFL and ESL students." Foreign Language Annals 37, no. 1 (March 2004): 123
Ibid, 117
Ibid, 119
Ibid, 118
Bouse 5
motivation. The EFL students used their English courses just as a requirement, much like how
students at Calvin College view taking language core classes.
This is interesting to note, based on Yashima's study on motivation and the willingness to
communicate. In her study, she links a connection between motivation, international posture, and
communicating. Perhaps these results depend on where the student sees themselves in the future:
being abroad in an English speaking country or living in Japan. Now, what does this have to do
with speaking for Japanese students? Well, a unmotivated student will not practice on their
speaking and therefore will not improve on their speaking. What could be affecting these
students lack of motivation in the classroom.
One factor that affects a students attitude in learning is classroom size (around 40 people
or 50 people).“In part due to large class size (40 or 50 students), the majority of EFL classes in
Japan are still conducted in conventional teacher-centered style.”16 Large classes tend to do
lecture based style class, which is not effective for speaking practice. Large class sizes like this
result in “a close relationship between the students and the teacher is rarely developed”17
However, students did not seem to mind this relationship that they had with their teacher.
The problem with students lack of motivation may be due to what is being taught to them
in English classes. This may be for a few reasons. One reason for this is because of one way
classroom communication. Now what does that mean? This means communication is usually
lecture based communication and communication is given in one way, teacher to student.
“Teachers spent most of the class time involved in teacher-fronted grammar explanations, chorus
16
17
Ibid, 118
Ibid, 118
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reading, and vocabulary presentation.”18 This pattern seems to show up frequently in schools. In
the Saito study, students discussed about the uselessness of their English classes. “Students
complained that translation of written texts from English into Japanese, a classroom still
commonly conducted in Japanese college classrooms, did not promote these skills.”19 This
teaching style is not bringing out anything beneficial for students, some students need a
challenge. Another issue is the lack of communicative teaching in schools. In one study by Keiko
Sakui, teachers were interviewed about their English classes. From these interviews, we learn
that there are two main themes are in the classroom: grammar teaching and communicative
language teaching. To teach both subject, is time consuming for a teacher. So teachers tend to
focus more on grammar than the communicative portion. There are two reasons for this. The
first reason is so students can learn grammatical structures before applying them with
communication. The second reason is for testing purposes.“This practice is understandable when
so emphasis is placed on preparing students for grammar skewed entrance exams.” Because
grammar is emphasized so greatly in entrance exams, teachers believe students do not have
interest in the communicative language teaching. “...students only perceive CLT as fun, with few
educational benefits, whereas grammar focused English instruction is serious test taking
preparation.”20 With the focus on grammar, it hinders teachings on communication and speaking.
As previously mentioned, some Japanese ESL/EFL teachers are fortunate enough to get
assistance from assistant language teacher (or ALT). ALTs are usually native English speakers.
There are benefits in having a native speaker as an ALT, but there are also disadvantages as well.
18
19
20
Sakui, Keiko. "Wearing two pairs of shoes: language teaching in Japan." ELT Journal 58, no. 2 (April 2004): 157
Saito, Hiromi, and Miriam Eisenstein Ebsworth. "Seeing English Language Teaching and Learning through the
Eyes of Japanese EFL and ESL students." Foreign Language Annals 37, no. 1 (March 2004): 117
Sakui, Keiko. "Wearing two pairs of shoes: language teaching in Japan." ELT Journal 58, no. 2 (April 2004): 161
Bouse 7
Most ALTs come from the inner circle countries, such as the the United States, United Kingdom
and Australia. However, only these teachers get hired for ALT jobs. “When asked which variety
of English should be taught in Japanese high schools, one teacher who I interviewed responded
immediately that it was American English, although he occasionally talked about different
pronunciation and vocabulary found in British and Australian English. Varieties from other parts
of the world were not mentioned during this interview...”21 By having a native speaker from an
inner circle country, will differ from the English that a Japanese EFL will use, and the EFL may
look down on their English because of it.“Japanese students unfamiliar with the norms of EIL
may conclude that their own English, which differs from the inner-circle varieties, is
unacceptable”22
In order to better speaking for EFL/ESL students, there are many strategies that could be
utilized in order to remedy these kinds of problems. There are several suggestions on how to
better speaking skills for EFL learners in all levels of schooling (elementary through university).
Some suggestions will be beneficial for students, but some suggestions will be more beneficial
for teachers.
One study, by Yasuo Nakatani, utilizes multiple communicative strategies to facilitate
communication. In Nakatani's study, he wonders if using certain strategies can enhance a
language learner's language skills or not. Nakatani discusses a few types of communicative
strategies. Some strategies were successful, however not all strategies has were successful.
Nakatani used these methods on EFL students, with low speaking proficiency in a Japanese
university setting. I will be looking at two kinds of successful strategies and one strategies not as
21
22
Matsuda, Aya. "Incorporating World Englishes in Teaching English as an International Language." TESOL
Quarterly 37, no. 4 (December 2003): 720.
Ibid, 722
Bouse 8
effective strategy.
The first set of strategies are help-seeking strategies. An English language learner will use
these when they require assistance in communication. Two strategies are “appeal for help” and
“asking for repetition”. Appeal for help was used“when seeking interlocutors' assistance to solve
problems caused by a lack of TL knowledge.”23 (I.e: “I'm sorry. Speak slowly, please.”) 24The
asking for repetition is used differently. Asking for repetition is used “when requesting repetition
after not hearing or understanding what a partner has said”.25 (I.e: “please say that again.”)26
Both strategies are used to seek conversational assistance in different ways. These strategies are
more for the interlocutor to modify their speech.
The other set of strategies suggested was “signals for negotiation”. These are used “in an
attempt to overcome communication difficulties.”27 Three strategies from this category:
Confirmation checks, comprehension checks, and clarification requests. The first strategy is
confirmation checks, which affirms a statement of said by the interlocutor (the native speaker in
this case). (I.e:“You mean there is no bargain tour?”)28 A comprehension check is a response to
show understanding in what has been said to the interlocutor. (I.e: “You see what I said?”)29 The
final of these strategies is clarification request, which the language learner asks for a clarification
of meaning. Example: “What does it mean?” 30The results for this particular set of strategies had
good results from the students involved in this study. The results from these strategies
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
Nakatani, Yasuo. "Identifying Strategies That Facilitate EFL Learners' Oral Communication: A Classroom Study
Using Multiple Data Collection Procedures." The Modern Language Journal 94, no. 1 (March 2010): 121
Ibid
Ibid
Ibid
Ibid
Ibid
Ibid
Ibid
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“...supports the prediction in previous research that these negotiating behaviors enable learners to
gain opportunities to develop their productive capacity in the TL.” 31
There were other strategies used in the study, but less beneficial than the previously
mentioned strategies. For instance, there was one strategy used that made use of the learner's first
language, sometimes it can be used intentionally or unintentionally. An example of this kind of
statement is, “Bargain? I wakaranai...(I don't know.)”32 Although it may be very useful when first
learning a new language, it does not simulate conversation well with a native speaker who does
not know the learner's first language. It is good to use in the beginning, but should be less
frequent as the speak becomes fluent.
All of these previous suggestions are based on strategies that students can use to improve
their speaking. However, I found more suggestions that would be more beneficial for teachers.
One suggestion is for major teaching companies (i.e. Jet, Interac, etc) would hire teachers from
multiple English backgrounds, not just people from inner circle countries. It would encourage
Japanese people that English comes in more varieties than just the American and British
standards. “Such interaction not only creates opportunities for students to interact in English
(which is hard to accomplish in EFL countries) but also shows them that being an EIL user does
not being an NS.”33 It can give them encouragement to Japanese people to practice speaking with
them since non-native speakers usually know more than just the English language, so they would
be easier to relate to Japanese EFL students.
One final suggestion is to create a classroom environment that will encourage both
31
32
33
Ibid, 124
Ibid, 122
Matsuda, Aya. "Incorporating World Englishes in Teaching English as an International Language." TESOL
Quarterly 37, no. 4 (December 2003): 723.
Bouse 10
communication and participation in the classroom. This lets language learners feel more
comfortable to participate and communicate in class. Participation does not lead to immediate
fluency, but it is a step towards that. In Delaney's study, he studied how well participation led to
a positive correlation towards fluency. The results were mixed. “Quantity of participation was
only significantly correlated with a decrease in fluency.”34 As negative as that appears to be,
there are positive aspects found in this study. “On the other hand, a significant relationship was
found between the quality (accuracy and complexity of learners' participation in the discussion
lessons and gains in fluency (speech rate)...”35 By creating an atmosphere that will allow for
communication, will help for more fluency. The quality of communication will out-weigh the
quantity.
In conclusion, teaching English in Japan has to make many improvements. Speaking
skills are important to harness. So far Japan's school system appears to have many weaknesses in
enhancing in conversational practice. However, with programs such as JET and English
conversation schools being implemented throughout Japan, Japan is progressing in improving of
Japanese citizen's English speaking skills.
Bibliography:
1. Delaney, Thomas. "Quality and quantity of oral participation and English proficiency
gains." Language Teaching Research 16, no. 4 (October 2012): 467-82.
2. Goto Butler, Yuko. "What Level of English Profiency Do Elementary School Teachers
Need to Attain to Teach EFL? Case Studies from Korea, Taiwan, and Japan." TESOL
Quarterly 38, no. 2 (June 2004): 245-78. JSTOR.
3. Matsuda, Aya. "Incorporating World Englishes in Teaching English as an International
Language." TESOL Quarterly 37, no. 4 (December 2003): 719-29. JSTOR.
34
35
Delaney, Thomas. "Quality and quantity of oral participation and English proficiency gains." Language Teaching
Research 16, no. 4 (October 2012): 477
Delaney, Thomas. "Quality and quantity of oral participation and English proficiency gains." Language Teaching
Research 16, no. 4 (October 2012): 478
Bouse 11
4. Nakatani, Yasuo. "Identifying Strategies That Facilitate EFL Learners' Oral
Communication: A Classroom Study Using Multiple Data Collection Procedures." The
Modern Language Journal 94, no. 1 (March 2010): 116-36.
5. Saito, Hiromi, and Miriam Eisenstein Ebsworth. "Seeing English Language Teaching and
Learning through the Eyes of Japanese EFL and ESL students." Foreign Language
Annals 37, no. 1 (March 2004): 111-24.
6. Sakui, Keiko. "Wearing two pairs of shoes: language teaching in Japan." ELT Journal 58,
no. 2 (April 2004): 155-63.
7. Yashima, Tomoko. "Willingness to Communicate in A Second Language: The Japanese
EFL Context." The Modern Language Journal 86, no. 1 (March 2002): 54-66. JSTOR.
Bouse 12