Order of Speakers
1. Abe Miho | 6. Sato Yuria | 10. Miura Haruka |
2. Shirakawa Miyu | 7. Shimotori Harua | 11. Chiba Shuho |
3. Saito Mana | 8. Goto Taro | 12. Taya Otoka |
4. Aoki Taisei | 9. Saito Anzu | 13. Horie Tsubasa |
5. Okamoto Yuta |
Highlights
Titles and summaries
Note: The summaries were written by Hiroki Oda, Yura Kuroki, Kai Kato and Hiroyuki Nezawa and edited by James Hall
Abe Miho
“A Study of Japanese Work, Yodaka no Hoshi: A Comparative Analysis of the Japanese
Original and English Translation”
Her goal was to compare the Japanese and English versions of Yodaka no Hoshi and find the differences.
It turned out that a direct translation is difficult. Japanese relies on context, while English is more logical. Also, extra sentences were added in the English version, which shows that translation has its limits.
For example, in 4.2.2, the Japanese text uses the word 「一軒」 . This is a length of about 1.8 meters but the English version translates it as 5 feet because Japanese culture is expressed in English.
She found it difficult to find out the reason for these changes.
Shirakawa Miyu
“What Time Should Junior High School English Teachers Talk during Class and
What Are the Effective Instructions?”
Based on her teaching practice, she conducted research on the amount of time teachers speak English in class and how to give instructions efficiently. She observed four lessons taught by three different teachers at the same junior high school and recorded both what they said and how long they spoke. From her records and the teachers’ comments, she concluded that the ideal amount of teacher talk time should be within 15 minutes.
Regarding effective instruction, she categorized teacher talk into four types (Managerial, Material, Skill & System, and Classroom Content) and analyzed them. The analysis revealed that teachers used English for “Managerial” and “Material” instructions but used Japanese for “Skills & Systems” and “Classroom Content” instructions.
Saito Mana
“The Characteristics of English Activities in the Revised and Previous English Textbooks
for Fifth and Sixth Grade in Elementary School”
To analyze the old and revised textbooks by focusing on the language activities, she researched three points, RQ1. How have tasks changed in the revised textbooks?
RQ2. What types of tasks are in the revised textbooks?
RQ3. What should teachers be aware of when teaching with the revised textbooks?
To answer these questions, she uses the tool : TOAs.
She had the following three conclusions.
1: In the new textbooks, there are more specific goals, scans, and situations. Also, the unit plans are similar for every unit.
2: There is a need to make the use of language meaningful.
3: It is important to teach students to be aware of sentence structure through audio materials.
Aoki Taisei
“The Utility of Early Education in Second Language Acquisition”
He conducted this research because he wants to become an elementary school teacher and focused on foreign language activities in elementary schools. He was especially interested in the effects of early education.
He conducted a literature review and a questionnaire. The literature review said that immersion education is effective but difficult to implement in a real school. The results of questionnaire indicated that many people who took English lessons in a cram school felt they were beneficial and necessary.
Okamoto Yuta
“What are some of the effects of retelling activities on writing skills?”
In his teaching practice at a junior high school, he conducted different retelling ways in two classes and compared the effects of using retelling in lessons. In one class, students retold the story using only illustrations, while in the other class, they were given illustrations along with blanks in the text to fill in. This retelling lesson was conducted three times.
The results showed that students were able to retell the story using only illustrations. In addition, when comparing the number of words and the overall length of the sentences written by the students, both classes showed an increase in the number of words after each retelling lesson. However, only the class that used exclusively illustrations showed an increase in the overall length of the sentences.
Sato Yuria
“A Comparative Study of English Translations of Japanese Literature: An Analysis of
Snow Country”
The purpose of this research was to reveal the linguistic features about Japanese and English and the stylistic features of the translation. She used the book ”雪国”.
She focused on some sentences :
- Sentences which omit words from the Japanese version.
The purpose was to tell readers the right meaning, and the author wanted the readers to read it smoothly. - clarify the viewpoint and subject to limit interpretation
In Japanese, there are many ambiguous expressions, for example omission of subjects. However, it is hard for non-Japanese to understand the contents, so in the English version, there are some additional points.
In conclusion, she thinks that there is a limit to translating the whole thing the same because of the fundamental differences between Japanese and English.
Shimotori Harua
” Effective Utilization of English Picture Books in Elementary School Foreign Language
Education”
This was a study analyzing literature on how to use picture books and their benefits. Among her results was that picture books can benefit listening ability and a learner’s vocabulary.
The reason why she chose this theme is that she did not have an experience of teaching English with picture books.
The literature says that effective ways are using books that have some king of surprise, explaining some keywords before reading books, and using gestures.
Goto Taro
“The Effectiveness of Typoglycemia in Evaluating how well English Learners Get and
Understand Vocabulary”
“Taro was interested in knowing if students’ vocabulary knowledge can be assessed through typoglycemia. Typoglycemia is a phenomenon in which people can read a word the letters are jumbled except for the first and last one. He conducted two different tests. The first test required participants to rewrite typoglycemia words to original words and to choose the words of Japanese meanings by reading typoglycemia words. The second test required participants to rewrite both the spelling and meaning of the original words by watching typoglycemia words at moments. As a result, there was a little positive relationship between the vocabulary skills and the ability to read typoglycemia words. In addition, the difficulty of reading typoglycemia words depended on how to replace letters to make typoglycemia words.
Saito Anzu
“Relationship Between Slow Speed and Repetition in Listening Comprehension”
Anzu became interested in this research because she struggled with listening when she was a first-year university student. Her methodology was to conduct a listening test for students and then give them a questionnaire. In one test students listened multiple times, in the other, they listened slowly. She found that repetition was more beneficial for listening comprehension than a slower speed, even though respondents wrote that they preferred a slower speed.
There was also a positive correlation between self-efficacy and the test score.
Miura Haruka
“The Effect of Making Videos with Language Activities on Junior High School
Students’ Speaking Skills
She was curious about the use of ICT in the classroom, so she researched the effectiveness of combining viewing and creating videos of one’s conversation with speaking activities.
She found using videos to be beneficial as a way for students to improve in some aspects of English and obtain speaking models.
Research Methods:
Conduct a class in JHS using videos and then give some students a speaking test.
Analyze the data of the questionnaire of students’ responses on making and watching videos in English classes
Results of the study:
The students did not improve in accuracy. However, the students’ vocabulary and word count improved
Chiba Shuho
“Effects of Learning English by Using Rhythm Activities in Elementary School”
He was interested in teaching English with chants because students told him about their benefits. He researched previous literature about how rhythm activities can affect speaking skills.
In chants, rhyming helps understand words with similar sounds, and chants also lead to an understanding of phonemes. Also, since Japanese has no consecutive consonants, learners are not used to such sounds, but chants help them understand them. Chants also help reduce anxiety and increase motivation for learning English.
Taya Otoka
“A Study of English Movie, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, A Contrastive
Analysis of the English Subtitles, the Japanese Subtitles, and the Japanese Dubbings”
She researched the differences between English and Japanese using the movie “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”. She selected specific scenes from the movie and compared five versions: English subtitles, English audio, Japanese subtitles, Japanese dubbing, and a literal translation of the English subtitles. Through her analysis, she discovered that subtitles follow various rules, making it difficult to directly convey the original text in translation.
Horie Tsubasa
“Teachers’ Perspectives on the Use of Japanese and Translanguaging in the EFL Class “
RQ1: How often do teachers use Japanese in each grade?
RQ2: How do teachers feel about translanguaging?
About RQ1, The answer is the amount of Japanese depends on the grades.
About RQ2, 8 teachers thought translanguaging was effective, but 3 teachers did not.
Also, about whether teachers wanted to use translanguaging in class or not, 6 teachers agreed with the idea, and 5 teachers did not.
He thought that to use translanguaging, it is necessary for teachers to reduce the anxiety they feel about it.
Later, I would like you to tell me what Implications this research has for teaching writing in elementary school.
My opinion is that teachers are not using English sufficiently for classroom context type of communication.
I thought that your discussion was very engaging!
There are some potential differences in the current and former textbooks which are important for teachers to understand.
I think that you are a good public speaker; I would like to know what kind of immersion education you think meets the situation of Japan or whether or not immersion education is not possible
I’d like to know the kind of translation principles you discussed in this study that can be transferred to giving students guidance in JHS.
Good job. I think that your study has some practical applications.
I think you do a good job of explaining what typoglycemia is. Typoglycemia is used to explain how people process text and there is research in cognitive science:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transposed_letter_effect
Good luck!
I am glad that you could do this research and I hope it informs you on good strategies for improving your English listening in the future.
Your recorded presentation went quite well! Your research shows that students are receptive toward using video and there is potential for enhancing fluency and facilitating teacher evaluation
I can tell that you have a positive attitude towards picture books and you summarized the previous research well. I hope you have a chance to test your ideas.
I am curious about what kind of colloquial English learners can learn from watching these kinds of popular movies. I should have asked you, “Are there any expressions from this movie that you would like to teach your future students?”
Good work.
You look very good in a suit!
I hope that you can use this research to generate hypotheses and test them when you are a graduate student.
Also, it would be goof to have some actual dialogues of Translanguaging in action.