Assessing Japanese teachers’ classroom English “internationally”: implications for the development of classroom English language benchmarks in Japan

Abstract

Background: This study aims to develop a low-stakes assessment tool to establish a classroom English language benchmark that Japanese teachers of English can use for their own professional development purposes. To start with, we describe the differences between CLA (Classroom Language Assessment) in Hong Kong and the IDS (Integrative Diagnostic Scale) in Japan with regard to agenda, characteristics, and implementation. Then, we report findings made from both of these assessment types and from a group discussion we had in order to clarify the rationale behind the CLA experts' assessment. Methods: The participants of the present study consisted of two groups: (1) four project members of the IDS in Japan and (2) two CLA raters in Hong Kong. Following an initial assessment of videotaped performances by the IDS developers (based on the IDS benchmark) and assessment of the same videotaped performance by the CLA experts (based on the CLA), a follow-up focus-group discussion between the IDS developers and the CLA experts was held. Results: The results of the study offer some evidence to support the thesis that a classroom English benchmark helps capture aspects of classroom English language proficiency that are indispensable for students' language acquisition. Accordingly, on the basis of the findings, suggestions for further revisions of the IDS were made. Conclusion: The study showed that, with some revisions, the IDS can be an apt professional development tool through which Japanese teachers of English can improve their classroom English proficiency. It also suggested that more research is needed to contextualize the IDS as such a professional tool more fully.

Grammarly and Grammatical Errors Reduction: A Case for Non-Native English Teachers’ Professional Learning

“…Such retraining should be aimed to improve their language proficiency. This particular retraining program have been implemented by a number of Asian countries to push their NNEST to achieve the required English proficiency based on universally acceptable standard such as CEFR albeit with varying degrees of success (Coniam et al, 2017;Nakata et al, 2018;Pham, 2018). The finding also seems to steer towards the retraining of NNEST to improve their General English Proficiency, instead of their Classroom English Proficiency.…”

“…The finding also seems to steer towards the retraining of NNEST to improve their General English Proficiency, instead of their Classroom English Proficiency. NNEST errors in writing showed that they still have problems with their general English and not just isolated to the English used in classroom interaction or the English used in teaching English (Freeman, 2017;Nakata et al, 2018;Pham, 2018;Renandya et al, 2018;Richards, 2017). By providing retraining in General English Proficiency, NNEST will be able to improve their overall English proficiency and became better English user themselves and fulfill their role as proper language models for their students.…”

The Influence of the First Language on the Pronunciation of the Second Language: Taking Consonant r in English as an Example

“…People who often watch Japanese anime will find out that there are many words in Japanese that are borrowed from English and when Japanese pronounce those words or speak English, many of them have accents. It wouldn't be a problem that people speak with an accent unless the accent has an effect on people's comprehension [3]. Native Japanese speakers usually make some the last consonant of the stress and secondary stress in a word voiced and add a /ɔ/ after the voiced consonant.…”

Measuring Teacher Professional Development Learning Activities in Post Covid-19

“…Pedagogical competency has been primary attention while doing professional development programs. In this way, in-service teachers will not overlook the other prominent aspects in teaching comprising instructional goal (Avila Fernandez 2016), knowledge of content (Anugerahwati and Saukah 2010), content presentation (Nurkolis, Warastuty, and Yuliejantiningsih 2020), pedagogical knowledge (Bayram and Bıkmaz 2021), and also assessment skills (Nakata et al 2018) (Ibrahim and Kavlu 2020). In a nutshell, professional MGMP as a teachers' forum is inevitably expected to help teachers mitigate their hurdles in conducting the teaching and learning process daily.…”