Teach English in RongjiAwAn Zhen - Yueyang Shi

To the uninitiated, Japan might seem like a country primed to capitalize on the benefits of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). Famously, many of the largest computer and semiconductor manufacturers are based in the country. So it is surprising that Japanese schools are typically poorly furbished with aging devices and insufficient network infrastructure to maintain the kind of ICTs required to deliver a CALL program. On the other hand, increasing pressure from the Japanese Ministry of Education to foster 21st century skills in high school graduates has created an opportunity to forge new progress in the implementation of CALL into English classrooms. This essay will explore the pros and cons of CALL in the context of English language classrooms in Japan. What’s CALL good for? In the unit one (1) materials for this course, the author outlined the various roles of teachers and learners. The Japanese education system, like many Asian counterparts, is typically dominated by classrooms which position teachers as authorities, managers and assessors. But CALL, in provisioning self-paced course content to English language learners allows students to progress at an individual rate. This allows ESL teachers to act as prompters, tutors or facilitators because it frees them to illustrate more complicated structures with further examples or focus their attention on students experiencing difficulty. This freedom is particularly valuable when dealing with large groups of students. CALL also makes it easier to introduce new language in a variety on engaging ways. Unit seven (7) lists some of the methods for teaching vocabulary in the ‘Engage’ and ‘Study’ section of ESA lessons that are readily digitized. The advantages are numerous: timely feedback, repetition, highly visual explanations and algorithm driven (in the case of SRS based applications). While the activation of this acquired language is arguably better carried out face to face, there are several possibilities for undertaking rich tasks which might require students to employ language to effect. Those include online pen pal programs, contributions to online communities or forums and playing simple English games or interviewing native speakers using target structures and language. Additionally, CALL is an excellent facilitator for enhancing the receptive skills outlined in unit eleven (11). Digital reading activities for instance allow students to re-read or re-listen to passages to predict, skim and scan for information. Digital resources can also be easily updated making them current. Also, support mechanisms can be built into activities like reading. For instance, many online reading applications have built-in dictionaries which allow users to search for the meaning of words. Also, in the case of listening, students have more control over the volume and speed of the audio and the number of times it is repeated. Finally, unit fourteen (14) sketches out some criteria for assessing the value of course books and lesson materials. In recent years, many publishers have begun to offer online learning applications for students to revise class content. These may be adapted by teachers to supplement or adapting existing class resources. They provide the dual benefit of reducing the burden on English language students who in Japan are required to carry up to 20 or 30 textbooks between home and school depending on their schedules. What’s CALL bad for? Despite the aforementioned positive applications for CALL to Japanese English learning environments. There are a number of limitations. These have been observed in my experience in situ as a teacher in a conversation school, as an Internet-based language instructor, at a Japanese high school and at a Japanese university. Although CALL provides an excellent context for refining receptive skills, the ability to assess productive skills outlined in unit twelve (12) is very limited. This is because computers are ill equip to creative or unusual responses. On the one hand, listening and reading questions lend themselves readily to multiple choice, true or false style questions where the answer is definitive. But computers, while able to analyse extended writing for grammatical errors, spelling, punctuation or plagiarism, are still not sophisticated enough to comment on creativity, logic, style and expression. This is problematic in the context of Japanese English learning environments as the trend toward assessing all facets of a Japanese student’s English ability are being moved online. It is true that CALL is useful for administering the kind of diagnostic tests and practice tests outlined in unit fifteen (15). If framed correctly, questions can offer insight into student’s progress and grading and feedback becomes less onerous for teachers. Feedback is also timely which adds to the students understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. However, in Japan there is increasing dependence on online general external examinations. In Japan this includes the five main external tests: TOEIC, TEFAL, GTEC, EIKEN and TEAP. This presents a number of issues. Firstly, speaking is often assessed by requiring students to record themselves and sending audio through online systems to unseen assessors. This activity is divorced from all other communicative processes: body language, eye contact, gesture etc. Also, written tasks require students to produce a piece of extended writing in a limited time frame by typing an essay and submitting it through some online platform. This is problematic because Japanese students have one of the lowest rates of exposure to PCs and computers in the OECD. The consequence is that most young people in Japan (preferring smartphones and tablets) have never typed on a computer keyboard. When competing with other English language learners in common tests like online TOEFL this puts Japanese English language learners at a distinct disadvantage. There is no shortage of pioneers working hard to employ CALL in enhancing learning environments at schools and learning institutions across Japan. As for the efficacy of CALL in Japan, it’s not within the scope of this essay to make a definitive judgement. But highlighting some of the detrimental impacts of such learning systems has underlined the importance of finding a balance between emerging technologies in the classroom and traditional face to face instruction and assessment.