An Investigation of Japanese EFL Learners’ actual Practice with ICT beyond the Language Classrooms
Somayeh Fathali, Tohoku University (Japan)
Abstract
Despite the intentional formal learning inside the class which is typically provided by educational institutions with specific and identified objectives, research show that much of language learning can happen in the absence of the conventional classes with the learners’ autonomous use of technologies. However, since how students actually use technologies for language learning beyond the class is neither easily observable nor assessable, it has received little attention and literature lacks enough investigations in this area. Steel and Levy (2013) emphasized that current research in computer-assisted language learning (CALL) largely focuses on the teachers’ practices with the implementation of technologies into their teaching careers and it is not directing us to what the learners are actually doing with technology. Therefore, today’s CALL requires further studies to shed light on the conditions and circumstances that control students’ actual practice with the available technologies beyond the classroom in different regional contexts, especially Asian countries (Thomas, 2017; Steel & Levy, 2013). In Japan, the setting of the present study, in spite of numerous CALL related studies, there is still a serious need for more investigation about Japanese students’ language learning beyond the borders of the actual classroom (Stockwell, 2013; Thomas, 2017).
Consequently, this study tries to gain a holistic understanding of how 205 Japanese undergraduate EFL students of a prominent national university experience and engage with ICT for English language learning beyond the actual classroom. The data has been collected through an online survey, partially drawing on the questionnaires used in similar previous studies, while adopting it to the Japanese context. The questionnaire includes both close and open ended questions which gain information on the frequency of the learners’ use of ICT (a list of technologies classified into information, communication, and discipline-specific technologies) and the learners’ perceptions of the usefulness of discipline-specific technologies. The frequencies and averages will be calculated and presented descriptively. We hope the outcome of this study would reflect current trends of Japanese students’ use of ICT for language learning and would enlarge the scope of technology-enhanced language learning beyond the class in an advanced Asian country.
Keywords |
Computer-assisted language learning, ICT, Beyond the language class, Japanese EFL learners, |
References
Steel, C. H., & Levy, M. (2013). Language students and their technologies: Charting the evolution 2006–2011. ReCALL, 25(03), 306-320. doi:10.1017/s0958344013000128
Stockwell, G. (2013). Tracking learner usage of mobile phones for language learning outside of the classroom. In P. Hubbard, M. Schulz & B. Smith (Eds), Learner-computer interaction in language education: A festschrift in honor of Robert Fischer (pp. 118-136). San Marcos, TX: CALICO.
Thomas, M. (2017). Project-Based Language Learning with Technology: Learner Collaboration in an EFL Classroom in Japan. New York, NY: Routledge.