Here is a round-up of some recent online news stories that relate to TEFL and EFL in Japan.
1. The Yomiuri newspaper reports that Takeda Pharmaceutical will require a TOEIC score of 730 for job applicants in 2013. It is unusual for companies that are mostly focused on the domestic market to require such a high tested English level (but Rakuten, the online shopping mall company, and Fast Retail/Uniqlo, are going to English as their official company language).
It could be because more and more such companies feel they will be forced to find more markets for their products and services overseas. To be sure, a company as big as Takeda imposing a TOEIC requirement will have the effect of other companies following suit. The ultimate effect, then, would be more and more institutions, faculties and departments requiring it in their entrance and/or graduation requirements.
Full article at link below; brief excerpt follows link.
Takeda to require 730 TOEIC score of new hires
Beginning in 2013, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. will require new college graduates to score 730 or more points on the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) if they want to work for the nation's largest pharmaceutical firm....Takeda's decision likely will influence the recruitment policies of other major companies, observers said.
2. Only 20% of English conversation teachers give classes in English
excerpt:
Only 20 percent of English oral communication teachers at Japanese public high schools were giving classes in English in 2010, far short of the "100 percent" target three years from now....The ratio was also low among teachers for cross-cultural understanding classes included in English language courses, with only 35 percent of them found to be using English....As Japan will introduce new high school education guidelines starting in the academic year beginning April 2013 that basically require all teachers to use English in teaching English classes, the Education...Ministry said it intends to instruct schools to raise the percentages to realize a smooth transition.
3. Language teachers to go to U.S. for exchanges
excerpt:
Japan will beef up people-to-people exchanges with the United States this year by dispatching young teachers of the Japanese language and English to the country, government officials said Friday. Tokyo will launch new programs to send those teachers in the fiscal year starting in April amid concerns that bilateral ties could weaken with declines in the number of Japanese students enrolled at U.S. universities and cuts in the Japanese budget for a project to invite American and other foreign university graduates to teach English at Japanese schools. The government has earmarked ¥500 million in the fiscal 2011 budget to send 100 Japanese teachers of the English language aged 40 or younger to U.S. universities to learn English teaching methods for six months, the officials said.
ELT-J Issue Archive
- ELT in Japan Issue #4 (October 2011) as online readable/downloadable documents
- ELT in Japan Issue #4 (October 2011)
- ELT in Japan Issue #3 (August - September 2010)
- ELT in Japan Issue #2 (March 2010) as online readable/downloadable documents
- ELT in Japan Issue #2 (March 2010)
- ELT in Japan Issue #1 (December 2009) bonus article
- ELT in Japan Issue #1 (December 2009) as online readable/downloadable documents
- ELT in Japan Issue #1 (December 2009)
28 January 2011
Japan far behind in global language of business | The Japan Times Online
Some background for this article: The title of the article seems alarmist. It isn't like Japan just suddenly fell behind. It's more like Japan is a victim of its own success. Japan has a large and varied higher education sector, so its students don't really need to go abroad to get an advanced education in science and technology. Unfortunately for Japan, its main language happens to be Japanese and not English, and Japan's language and culture remain self-sufficient in the fields where it matters like engineering. This makes for an appalling, nationwide inability to internationalize and integrate culturally with the rest of Asia, and if the government wants to encourage exchange it ought to start and fund more exchange programs with the rest of Asia, not the US or other Anglophone countries of the 'West'.
Here is the Japan Times piece at the link below:
Japan far behind in global language of business | The Japan Times Online
Here is the Japan Times piece at the link below:
Japan far behind in global language of business | The Japan Times Online
16 January 2011
Japan's National Center Test, 15-16 January 2011
http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2011/01/japans-national-center-exams-15-16.html
Japan's National Center Exams, 15-16 January 2011
by Charles Jannuzi
University of Fukui, Japan
The National Center Exams are being held over 15-16 January at 706 test centers nationwide (the test centers are usually located at universities and colleges with large enough lecture halls to accomodate test takers). The number of applicants rose again from last year to almost 560,000. This is because more and more universities and colleges are requiring these test scores of their applicants. (Many institutions still hold their own in-house exams as well.) About 80% of the applicants are high school seniors who will graduate this March and proceed on to university in April (April is the start of the school year in Japan).
According to the Ministry of Education (MEXT), the number of universities and colleges using the Center Exam results as part of their admissions requirements is also at a record high of 828 national, prefectural/metropolitan and private institutions. Based on the tests applicants have registered to take, many are aiming to get into teacher certification and nursing programs. Also enjoying a rise in popularity are traditional and new departments in science and technology. This is because more and more high school graduates are worried about the scarcity of jobs and the difficult employment environment that awaits them even after 4-6 years of higher education. Young people want tangible qualifications that will help them find career employment for all the trouble of spending tens of thousands of dollars and years of their time on higher education.
The first day of the exams covers history, geography, Japanese language (Japanese native language arts), and EFL reading/grammar/vocabulary and listening. Other foreign languages, science and maths are covered on the second day. There is a make-up set of exams held on 22-23 January for those examinees who have legitimate excuses for not being able to attend the regularly scheduled tests.
In addition to the usual colds and flus of the season, students on the Japan-Sea side of Honshu (the largest of the main islands of Japan) had to brave winter storm conditions to get to the test sites.
See also last year's article on the exams, as much of what is explained about the exams still applies to this year's:
http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2010/02/over-half-million-take-university.html
Labels: National Center Exam 2011
Japan's National Center Exams, 15-16 January 2011
by Charles Jannuzi
University of Fukui, Japan
The National Center Exams are being held over 15-16 January at 706 test centers nationwide (the test centers are usually located at universities and colleges with large enough lecture halls to accomodate test takers). The number of applicants rose again from last year to almost 560,000. This is because more and more universities and colleges are requiring these test scores of their applicants. (Many institutions still hold their own in-house exams as well.) About 80% of the applicants are high school seniors who will graduate this March and proceed on to university in April (April is the start of the school year in Japan).
According to the Ministry of Education (MEXT), the number of universities and colleges using the Center Exam results as part of their admissions requirements is also at a record high of 828 national, prefectural/metropolitan and private institutions. Based on the tests applicants have registered to take, many are aiming to get into teacher certification and nursing programs. Also enjoying a rise in popularity are traditional and new departments in science and technology. This is because more and more high school graduates are worried about the scarcity of jobs and the difficult employment environment that awaits them even after 4-6 years of higher education. Young people want tangible qualifications that will help them find career employment for all the trouble of spending tens of thousands of dollars and years of their time on higher education.
The first day of the exams covers history, geography, Japanese language (Japanese native language arts), and EFL reading/grammar/vocabulary and listening. Other foreign languages, science and maths are covered on the second day. There is a make-up set of exams held on 22-23 January for those examinees who have legitimate excuses for not being able to attend the regularly scheduled tests.
In addition to the usual colds and flus of the season, students on the Japan-Sea side of Honshu (the largest of the main islands of Japan) had to brave winter storm conditions to get to the test sites.
See also last year's article on the exams, as much of what is explained about the exams still applies to this year's:
Over half a million take university entrance exams in Japan
http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2010/02/over-half-million-take-university.html
Labels: National Center Exam 2011
15 January 2011
Center Exam time in Japan again
Center Exam time in Japan again
This photo, from the Chunichi Newspaper, shows high school students and other test takers, wearing masks (it's the cold and flu season) and mufflers (it's frigid) making their way to a testing station in Nagoya City. Over half a million test takers are braving winter weather and contagious colds and flus to take the multi-subject exam all over Japan this weekend. The Center Exam serves similar purposes for university admissions and placement as the SAT and ACT in the USA.
The comprehensive battery of subject tests has a major impact on English learning because it includes English and English listening tests.
JPN HEO will follow with another post on some basic stats and facts on the all-important Center Exam.
10 January 2011
Teaching English /r/ and /l/ to Asian EFL learners: a lexical approach (Part II)
This is the second part of a series on teaching English /l/ and /r/. The piece published below incorporates the first installment and then discusses possible sequences for teaching English /l/ and /r/.
Teaching English /r/ and /l/ to Asian EFL learners: a lexical approach (Part II)
Charles Jannuzi
University of Fukui, Japan
Introduction
English /r/, /l/ and contrasts between these two categories of sounds are often cited as pronunciation and listening perception problems for a variety of EFL learners, most from E. Asia. The language backgrounds most often associated with these problems are Japanese, Korean, Chinese and some languages of SE Asia (e.g. Thai but also Cantonese Chinese). Other language speakers have also expressed an interest in improving their pronunciation of English /r/ and /l/, including Russian and German EFL learners.
Perhaps the most well-known group to have a problem with the two categories of sounds is Japanese EFL learners. This could be because their native language background creates the most difficult problems to overcome. It could also be because Japan attained affluence before most of the rest of Asia and hired native speakers of English to help teach and model the language. So a lot of information based on knowledge and experience of Japanese and Japanese learners of EFL has been exchanged and discussed in 'global ELT'.
What is the issue for Japanese learners of English?
In the case of Japanese learners of English, just what is the issue? The most common account is based on a simple 'contrastive analysis'. Japanese is said to have one categorical sound (or phoneme) whereas English has two. The Japanese sound is often referred to as a type of [r] that is tapped, flapped or trilled. The Japanese sound never closes a syllable and has a very limited distribution in Japanese. One form of the Japanese /r/ helps to form the syllables used in grammatical inflections (such as verb forms which are suffixes). Also, word-initial Japanese /r/ is limited to words of foreign origin (e.g., ramen, the type of Chinese noodles now a national dish in Japan, or ramune, a soda the name for which seems to be derived from the English word lemonade).
English-speaker descriptions of the Japanese sound or of the Japanese learner of English's sound represent the Japanese sound as variably resembling English /l/, /r/, or /d/ (especially [d] in the middle of a word, like in the word 'middle'). Phonetic descriptions have also said that the American medial voiced [t] of words such as little are quite like the Japanese /r/.
However, it is not really clear how useful a cross-linguistic, contrastive analysis of phoneme inventories is in diagnosing the problems or in helping Japanese learners of English to overcome them. For one thing, the often-read argument that Japanese has only ONE phoneme, Japanese /r/, is arguably wrong. That is because, using structuralist criteria for determining what is and what is not a phoneme, we can isolate at least two Japanese [r] sounds that are distinct: initial [r] in the word rou (candle) from palatalized intial [r] in ryou (dormitory).
It is also misleading to teach EFL learners that there is one English /r/ and one English /l/. That is because they will hear native and fluent speakers of English make a wide array of both sounds in actual speech. In terms of articulation, there is a wide variety within both categories of sounds. Interestingly, the distribution in the lexicon of English [r] sounds strongly parallels English [l] sounds: word-initial (right vs. light), word-initial cluster unvoiced (crime vs. climb), word-initial cluster voiced (grow vs. glow), post-vocalic (fear vs. feel), medial (correct vs. collect), and unstressed syllabic (batter vs. battle).
There is some complementary distribution if we consider clusters: [tr-] as in true but no [tl-], [sl] as in slide but no [sr-], [shr-] as in shred but no [shl] (except some loan words), and [l] can cluster with [r] post-vocalically, as in girl or world, but not vice versa. Moreover, since both of these sound categories tend toward 'vowel-like', it is not surprising that in some cases they might reduce to a vowel or vowel lengthening in some accents, dialects and word contexts (such as post-vocalic [r] in London, Boston and NY Englishes, or the lost [l] of the word chalk).
Given the variety of English /r/ and /l/ sounds and how they parallel each other in the lexicon of English, it is little wonder that EFL learners, even after they have practiced making an English /r/ vs. /l/ distinction, lose the ability when actually communicating orally. Therefore, it is best to teach--over a period of time and through a variety of activities--the full parallel variety of English /r/ and /l/ sounds as found in the most frequent words of the lexicon. A proposed sequence is this: first the variety of English /l/s, then the variety of English /r/s, then /l/ vs. /r/ contrasts in common words, then a follow up on the variety of post-vocalic [r]s in rhotic accents, such as US and Canadian Englishes.
What sequence should be used to teach English /l/ and /r/?
One line of reasoning might say that, since English /r/ is typically the last consonant acquired by native speakers, it might be best to teach English /l/ first to EFL learners because of the inherent difficulties with the English /r/ group of related sounds. A different line of reasoning that might support this first approach might be based on interlanguage analysis. If Japanese has its own /r/ sound, the argument goes, then Japanese learners of EFL would find it easier to differentiate and master English /l/ first. However, as noted above, Japanese /r/ and Japanese learners' interlanguage /r/ and /l/ sounds are often described as sounding more like English /l/ (or /d/ or medial voiced tapped [t]) than English /r/. If all these arguments are considered together, the issue of which sequence to follow starts to look rather difficult to decide.
One compromise might be to conclude that the Japanese /r/ and palatal /r/ are not acceptable substitutes for either English /l/ or /r/ and to start an instructional sequence with English /l/ first. The strongest justification for English /l/ coming first is that even English native speakers acquire /r/ rather late in their language development and this complex set of sounds actually often requires remedial practice.
So one possible proposed sequence of instruction (as a pronunciation segment of a longer class, such as 20 minutes out of a 90 minute class period) is as follows:
First class: English /l/
Second class: Review of English /l/, English /r/
Third class: Review of English /l/, /r/, contrast of English /l/ vs. /r/
Fourth class: Review and revise as necessary
Subsequent classes: Work on problem contrasts within and across the categories (e.g., 'farm' vs. 'firm', 'walk' vs. 'work', etc.).
English /l/ should be taught using the most frequent and useful words of English as possible (and teachers should be prepared to provide an L1 translation in the case of less common words) and should cover the following types of /l/:
Types of English /l/
Then, English /r/ should be taught using the most frequent and useful words of English as possible and should cover the following types of /r/:
In the next part of this series, we will look at actual classroom activities that might be used to teach and practice English /l/ and /r/, both in terms of listening perception and language production.
Teaching English /r/ and /l/ to Asian EFL learners: a lexical approach (Part II)
Charles Jannuzi
University of Fukui, Japan
Introduction
English /r/, /l/ and contrasts between these two categories of sounds are often cited as pronunciation and listening perception problems for a variety of EFL learners, most from E. Asia. The language backgrounds most often associated with these problems are Japanese, Korean, Chinese and some languages of SE Asia (e.g. Thai but also Cantonese Chinese). Other language speakers have also expressed an interest in improving their pronunciation of English /r/ and /l/, including Russian and German EFL learners.
Perhaps the most well-known group to have a problem with the two categories of sounds is Japanese EFL learners. This could be because their native language background creates the most difficult problems to overcome. It could also be because Japan attained affluence before most of the rest of Asia and hired native speakers of English to help teach and model the language. So a lot of information based on knowledge and experience of Japanese and Japanese learners of EFL has been exchanged and discussed in 'global ELT'.
What is the issue for Japanese learners of English?
In the case of Japanese learners of English, just what is the issue? The most common account is based on a simple 'contrastive analysis'. Japanese is said to have one categorical sound (or phoneme) whereas English has two. The Japanese sound is often referred to as a type of [r] that is tapped, flapped or trilled. The Japanese sound never closes a syllable and has a very limited distribution in Japanese. One form of the Japanese /r/ helps to form the syllables used in grammatical inflections (such as verb forms which are suffixes). Also, word-initial Japanese /r/ is limited to words of foreign origin (e.g., ramen, the type of Chinese noodles now a national dish in Japan, or ramune, a soda the name for which seems to be derived from the English word lemonade).
English-speaker descriptions of the Japanese sound or of the Japanese learner of English's sound represent the Japanese sound as variably resembling English /l/, /r/, or /d/ (especially [d] in the middle of a word, like in the word 'middle'). Phonetic descriptions have also said that the American medial voiced [t] of words such as little are quite like the Japanese /r/.
However, it is not really clear how useful a cross-linguistic, contrastive analysis of phoneme inventories is in diagnosing the problems or in helping Japanese learners of English to overcome them. For one thing, the often-read argument that Japanese has only ONE phoneme, Japanese /r/, is arguably wrong. That is because, using structuralist criteria for determining what is and what is not a phoneme, we can isolate at least two Japanese [r] sounds that are distinct: initial [r] in the word rou (candle) from palatalized intial [r] in ryou (dormitory).
It is also misleading to teach EFL learners that there is one English /r/ and one English /l/. That is because they will hear native and fluent speakers of English make a wide array of both sounds in actual speech. In terms of articulation, there is a wide variety within both categories of sounds. Interestingly, the distribution in the lexicon of English [r] sounds strongly parallels English [l] sounds: word-initial (right vs. light), word-initial cluster unvoiced (crime vs. climb), word-initial cluster voiced (grow vs. glow), post-vocalic (fear vs. feel), medial (correct vs. collect), and unstressed syllabic (batter vs. battle).
There is some complementary distribution if we consider clusters: [tr-] as in true but no [tl-], [sl] as in slide but no [sr-], [shr-] as in shred but no [shl] (except some loan words), and [l] can cluster with [r] post-vocalically, as in girl or world, but not vice versa. Moreover, since both of these sound categories tend toward 'vowel-like', it is not surprising that in some cases they might reduce to a vowel or vowel lengthening in some accents, dialects and word contexts (such as post-vocalic [r] in London, Boston and NY Englishes, or the lost [l] of the word chalk).
Given the variety of English /r/ and /l/ sounds and how they parallel each other in the lexicon of English, it is little wonder that EFL learners, even after they have practiced making an English /r/ vs. /l/ distinction, lose the ability when actually communicating orally. Therefore, it is best to teach--over a period of time and through a variety of activities--the full parallel variety of English /r/ and /l/ sounds as found in the most frequent words of the lexicon. A proposed sequence is this: first the variety of English /l/s, then the variety of English /r/s, then /l/ vs. /r/ contrasts in common words, then a follow up on the variety of post-vocalic [r]s in rhotic accents, such as US and Canadian Englishes.
What sequence should be used to teach English /l/ and /r/?
One line of reasoning might say that, since English /r/ is typically the last consonant acquired by native speakers, it might be best to teach English /l/ first to EFL learners because of the inherent difficulties with the English /r/ group of related sounds. A different line of reasoning that might support this first approach might be based on interlanguage analysis. If Japanese has its own /r/ sound, the argument goes, then Japanese learners of EFL would find it easier to differentiate and master English /l/ first. However, as noted above, Japanese /r/ and Japanese learners' interlanguage /r/ and /l/ sounds are often described as sounding more like English /l/ (or /d/ or medial voiced tapped [t]) than English /r/. If all these arguments are considered together, the issue of which sequence to follow starts to look rather difficult to decide.
One compromise might be to conclude that the Japanese /r/ and palatal /r/ are not acceptable substitutes for either English /l/ or /r/ and to start an instructional sequence with English /l/ first. The strongest justification for English /l/ coming first is that even English native speakers acquire /r/ rather late in their language development and this complex set of sounds actually often requires remedial practice.
So one possible proposed sequence of instruction (as a pronunciation segment of a longer class, such as 20 minutes out of a 90 minute class period) is as follows:
First class: English /l/
Second class: Review of English /l/, English /r/
Third class: Review of English /l/, /r/, contrast of English /l/ vs. /r/
Fourth class: Review and revise as necessary
Subsequent classes: Work on problem contrasts within and across the categories (e.g., 'farm' vs. 'firm', 'walk' vs. 'work', etc.).
English /l/ should be taught using the most frequent and useful words of English as possible (and teachers should be prepared to provide an L1 translation in the case of less common words) and should cover the following types of /l/:
Types of English /l/
Word-initial [l]: like, lake, let, lot, low, lamp, leap, last, etc.
Unvoiced cluster [l]: clean, close, clock, place, play, please, slide, slow, slip, etc. Voiced cluster [l]: blue, blow, blood, blame, glad, glue, glow, glass, etc.
Post-vocalic [l] (dark l): feel, fall, fail, call, sale, all, deal, tall, etc.
Medial [l]: follow, hollow, yellow, jello, hello, pillow, filling, collect, etc.
Unstressed syllabic [l]: settle, battle, riddle, middle, puddle, little, tunnel, etc.
[-rl] cluster: girl, world, whirl, hurl, curl, twirl, swirl, unfurl, etc.
Then, English /r/ should be taught using the most frequent and useful words of English as possible and should cover the following types of /r/:
Types of English /r/
Word-initial [r]: right, raise, rise, risk, rose, run, red, road, etc.
Unvoiced cluster [r]: cry, cream, crazy, tree, true, try, pray, praise, prize, three, throw, etc.
Voiced cluster [r]: broom, bring, British, grow, grass, great, dry, draw, dream, etc.
Post-vocalic [r] (reduces to or alternates with 'schwa' in many dialects and accents): car, fear, far, tear, fair, form, farm, dear, hear, more, war, etc.
Medial [r]: correct, Korea, porous, preferring, occurring, recurring, referring, transferring, etc.
Unstressed syllabic [r]: ladder, litter, batter, motor, runner, sadder, madder, heater, etc.
[-rl] cluster: girl, world, whirl, hurl, curl, twirl, swirl, unfurl, etc.
In the next part of this series, we will look at actual classroom activities that might be used to teach and practice English /l/ and /r/, both in terms of listening perception and language production.
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