Mainly English, Some Japanese: Exploring the Opinions of EFL Students and EFL Teachers on Using Translanguaging in EFL Classrooms in Japan
| dc.contributor.author | Serpas, Gill | |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Nassaji, Hossein | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2023-05-02T16:41:01Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2023-05-02T16:41:01Z | |
| dc.date.copyright | 2023 | en_US |
| dc.date.issued | 2023-05-02 | |
| dc.degree.department | Department of Linguistics | |
| dc.degree.department | School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures | |
| dc.degree.level | Master of Arts M.A. | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | The Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) identified a widespread pattern of low English speaking-ability in Japan. To solve this, MEXT has implemented the "Teaching English in English [only]" approach in Japanese high schools. Many private Eikaiwa language schools in Japan also use this method to teach their students. Despite this, Japan has still yet to see a significant increase in English scores of Japanese high school students. In order to improve Japanese students’ English proficiency level, English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers should try out different teaching methods. Thus far, English teaching methods practiced in Japan either use predominately Japanese (Yakudoku method) or predominately English (Communicative Language Teaching) to teach EFL lessons. Translanguaging is a teaching method that uses all languages in the classroom to teach and learn a new language. This study explored the opinions that EFL teachers and students had on translanguaging in EFL classrooms in Japan. 30 EFL teachers and 37 EFL students completed a questionnaire that asked about Japanese use during English lessons. The questionnaire included sections that asked about (a) demographic information, (b) Japanese use during teacher instruction, and (c) Japanese use during group work activities. The teacher’s questionnaire included a section at the end that asked about the term “translanguaging”. First, descriptive analyses calculated the measures of central tendency on Excel. Next, content analysis was used to determine themes that emerged from the participants’ open-ended questions and categories were made based on these themes. Statistical analysis included Chi-Square tests that calculated the p value for the comparison between the students’ and teachers’ responses. Results suggests that teachers and students think that Japanese use in EFL classrooms is beneficial. However, both groups of participants believed that Japanese would be more helpful during teacher instruction than student group work activities. Further analysis revealed that a higher percentage of teachers than students believed that Japanese could be beneficial during student group work activities. Based on the results, the researcher argues that “mainly English, some Japanese” could be used in EFL classrooms in Japan to help improve students’ English skills. | en_US |
| dc.description.scholarlevel | Graduate | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1828/15100 | |
| dc.language | English | eng |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.rights | Available to the World Wide Web | en_US |
| dc.subject | translanguaging | en_US |
| dc.subject | EFL | en_US |
| dc.subject | EFL in Japan | en_US |
| dc.subject | Teaching English in Japan | en_US |
| dc.title | Mainly English, Some Japanese: Exploring the Opinions of EFL Students and EFL Teachers on Using Translanguaging in EFL Classrooms in Japan | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_US |