EFL Students' Acquisition of Written English Skills after Studying Abroad

Introduction

Thepresentstudy isthefirststageofan action research projectthatevaluatesthe effectivenessoftheEFL program attheEnglishdepartmentofaprivateuniversityinthe Tokyoarea(hereafterreferredtoasPUT).Thisparticularstudyfocusesontheprocessby whichthethird-yearstudentslearnadvancedEFLskills,includingwrittenEnglishskills,in theupper-division skillcourses(Advanced Skills)after studying ESL attheuniversity・s overseas satellite.In this research context,written English primarily refers to reading comprehensionskills,whichthepastTOEICdatahaveshowntobeamajorweaknessofthe targetstudentgroup.Theultimategoalofourendeavoristoexplorewaystointegratethe English languagecurriculaatthemain campusin Tokyoandtheoverseassatellitein the UnitedStatesmoresystematically,sothatthetwoprogramswouldbebettersynchronized andthusfacilitatestudents・secondlanguageacquisition.

Thepresentstudy consistsofquantitativeandqualitativesections.In thequantitative section,theparticipants・improvementinreadingcomprehensionperformanceisstatistically analyzed in the form of a pretest and a posttest. In the qualitative section, their performancein,and reaction to,variousEFL activitiesisobserved and analyzed through classroom observations,andstudents・perceptionsofwhichactivitiesareenjoyableoruseful areprobedthroughunstructuredinterviews.

学苑
英語コミュニケーション紀要 No.858 37～64（2012
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EFL Students・Acqui

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Wri

ttenEngl

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safterStudyi

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Yoshi

masaOgawa,Davi

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satoUsukura

Abstract

Thepresentstudyinvestigatesthedegreetowhichthenew AdvancedSkillscoursesatthe English departmentofa private university in the Tokyo area improve students・reading abilityinEnglishaftertheirstudy-abroadexperience,andthewaythestudentsperceivethe coursesandactivities.Thequantitativestudyshowedthatthestudents・readingcomprehension scoresdid notimprovesignificantly overthefirstsemesterthatthepertinentcourseswere taught,butthattheirscoresdid notdecline,either.Thequalitativestudy suggested that studentstend to preferspoken English oraudio-visualmaterialsto reading comprehension practicewhereassomehigh-proficiency studentsacknowledgetheimportanceofthelatter. Further studieson thesameissuemighthelp theEnglish departmentintegratetheEFL program atthemain campusin Tokyo and ESL programsattheoverseassatellitemore efficiently.

AllEnglishmajorsatPUT,majoringinEnglishlanguage,literature,andcommunication, enrollinanESL program attheUSsatelliteforfivemonths,oneyear,oroneandahalf years,depending on their preference and readiness for intensive ESL training abroad. Beginningin2011,EnglishmajorshavebeenrequiredtotaketwoAdvancedSkillscourses after their return to Japan at the end of their sophomore year.These new courses, Advanced Skill1 and Advanced Skill2,arebelieved to enhancetheEnglish skillsthey acquiredthroughstudyingabroadinadditiontoimpartingsubstantialintellectualcontent. Asthestudents・TOEIC scores(seeTable1)suggest,theESL programsattheUSsatellite havegreatlycontributedtotheEnglishmajors・overalllanguageacquisition,but,thusfar, nosystematicevaluationhasbeenmadetodeterminehow studyingabroadinfluencestheir learning ofspecifictypesofEnglish skills.Knowing moreaboutstudents・perceptionsof, andabilitiestodealwith,specificlanguageactivitiesislikelytohelptheteachersimprove theirteachingandthematerialstheyprepare.OneparticularaspectofPUT Englishmajors・ languageacquisition thatwehavefound worrisomeisthattheirreading comprehension scores in TOEIC are notably lower than their listening comprehension scores.Further, perhapsbecausereading isdifficultforthesestudents,they tend notto likereading in English(andinsomecasesalsoinJapanese)andtoavoiditwheneverpossible.

Asmentionedabove,thePUT・sEnglishdepartmentinauguratedthetwothird-yearskill courses(AdvancedSkills)in2011,mandatingthatstudentscontinuelearningpracticalEnglish skillsafterstudyingabroad.Inthepast,studentshadbeenlefttotheirowndevicestoplan theirEFL study during thethird and fourth years;taking severalelective,content-based English courses was one option thatthe students who wanted to continue working to improvetheirEnglish mostoften chose.Unfortunately,somestudentsseemed to believe that,having studied abroad,they nolongerneeded towork tokeep theirEnglish sharp, and,infact,suchstudents・Englishabilityoftendeclinedovertime.

Whereascontent-basedelectivesarestillavailabletotheupper-divisionstudentsandare

Table1.Participants・TOEIC MeanScores(SD)

2011 2010 2009 4thYear Listening 331.85 (69.38) 322.37 (61.54) 244.42 (67.22) Reading 221.57 (70.00) 211.62 (57.95) 160.78 (52.56) Total 553.43(131.39) 534.46(110.89) 405.19(110.69) 3rdYear Listening 348.08 (58.60) 249.94 (65.00) Reading 252.62 (62.07) 173.22 (48.85) Total 600.70(111.59) 423.16(104.78) 2ndYear Listening 237.99 (59.55) Reading 159.04 (56.29) Total 397.04(105.83)

Note.4th_{-yearstudents,N (2011,2010,2009)＝177,194,207;3}rd_{-year,N (2011,2010)＝172,171;}

regardedasan importantpartoftheEnglish department・scurriculum,thenew Advanced Skillscoursesaredesignedtoengageallthird-yearstudentsinconstantEFL study,which thepaststudents,forvariousreasons,tendedtoneglect.TheAdvancedSkillscoursesare alsoexpectedtoplayamajorroleinbridgingtheESLandEFLcurriculaforPUT students. Thisisthemajorreason thatthesecourseshavebeen chosen asthesiteofthepresent researchstudy.

The177third-yearstudentsin theEnglish departmentaredividedintosix proficiency groups,and the four higher-levelgroups enrollin two Advanced Skills courses (i.e., Advanced Skill1and Advanced Skill2)in which they practiceallfourEnglish skillsby watching videos,reading articles,discussing challenging issues,and writing essays in English.TheinstructorsareallnativespeakersofEnglish.Thetwo lowest-levelgroups enrollintworemedialcourseswheretheystudybasic-levelEnglishskillswithJapaneseEFL teachers.Forlogisticalreasons,thegroupstakingremedialcourseshavebeenexcludedfrom thepresentresearchstudy.

Again,theimmediategoalofthisstudy istoexplorewaystoimprovethequality of theAdvancedSkillscoursesbasedonstudents・in-classperformance,expectations,needs,and weaknesses.Thequantitativesection evaluatesthestudents・gainsand lossesin reading comprehensiontestsandinvestigatesthepossibleeffectsofEnglishproficiencyorlengthof study abroad on their EFL learning.The qualitative section was more emergent and exploratory,probing theparticipants・behavior in classand their perceptionsofvarious languageactivities.

Review oftheLiterature Students・AttitudetowardReadingTasks

OnemajorcharacteristicfeatureofJapaneseEFL learnersisthatthey tendtoprefer auditorymaterialsandorallanguageactivitiestotheuseofwrittenEnglish.PUTstudentsare bynomeansanexceptionregardingthispoint:theirlackofinterestinreadingcomprehension practicehasbeenobservedandinformallyreportedbymanyteachers,andthereisastrong possibility thattheirfailureto investenough timeand effortin thelearning ofwritten Englishhasresultedinthelow readingcomprehensionscoresinTOEIC.

Ogawa(2011)interviewed14third-andfourth-yearEnglishmajorsinaprivateJapanese universityaspartofareview ofhismovie-basedcommunicativeEFLcourseandfoundthat allparticipantshadastronginterestinlearningspokenEnglish.Theytendedtoenjoyspeaking orcollaborativeactivitieseitherinEnglishorintheirfirstlanguage,whereasreadingand writing activities,in general,heldmuch lessinterestforthem.Highly proficientstudents, whohadasolidknowledgeofEnglishgrammar,acknowledgedtheimportanceofgrammatical knowledgefortheiroveralllanguagelearning,buteven such competentstudentsperceived

thelearningofwrittenEnglishasdifficult,painful,orboring,reflectingontheirEFLstudy experiences in junior high schooland high school,which was based on the Grammar-TranslationMethod.Theyhadchosentoentertheiruniversity,hopingthatitsstudy-abroad programswouldprovidethem withsufficientopportunitiesforspeakingpractice.

Gilmore(2011)hasproposed thatproviding authenticmaterials,including samplesof genuine interactions in English or contextualized spoken or written discourses between native speakers,is more effective for Japanese students・acquisition of communicative competencethanusingartificialtextbookscontrivedbytextbookwriters.Healsoexplained howdifferentsubcomponentsofcommunicativecompetencecouldbedevelopedthroughdifferent activities.HisfindingsprovideagreatinsightintothewayJapanesestudentsmightacquire practicalEnglishskills.However,astudent・scommentwhichheusedashisarticle・stitle, ・IPreferNotText,・canalsobeinterpretedasasignthatcontemporaryJapanesestudents, surroundedbyothermeansofobtaininginformation,prefertodispensewiththereadingof textsperse,whetherthey areartificialorauthentic,becausereading generally requiresa differentkind ofknowledgeofEnglish than watching or listening to English;students believe that reading is less enjoyable.The experimentalgroup in his study generally performed wellin theteststhatmeasured communicativecompetences,butthematerials usedin hisprojectwerepredominantly spoken English,andthedemandon reading skills was minimal.Whereas Gilmore theorized that the experimentalgroup benefitted from exposuretoauthenticmaterialsasopposed toartificialmaterials,itispossiblethatthey weremorehighly motivated to participatein thegiven speaking tasksthan thecontrol groupthatwasguidedtoreadmoretexts.Theresultsofhisstudy alsoshowedthatthe experimentalgroupdidnotattainsignificantlygreatergainsinthereadingandgrammar tests;i.e.,theskillslearned in hiscoursedid nottranslateintohigherability in written English.The implication is that the more motivating materials or activities were not necessarilythemoreeffectiveforoveralllanguageacquisition.

Learners・individualcharacteristics and preferences must also be considered for the preparationofappropriateEFLmaterials.Pecorarietal.(2011)investigatedSwedishstudents・ perceptions of the use of Swedish and English textbooks in university courses where instructionwasconductedinSwedish.Englishtextbookswereusedasauxiliarymaterialsso thatstudentsmightincidentallylearntechnicalterminologyinEnglish.Studentsgenerally preferred theuseofL1(i.e.,Swedish)textbooksbecausethey found itdifficultand ti me-consumingtoreadtechnicalmaterialsinEnglish.However,oneinterestingpointwasthat somestudentsidentified benefitsin thelearning ofEnglish technicaltermsand indicated theirpreferenceforEnglishtextbooksevenifitentailedaninvestmentofextratime.

Vidal(2011)comparedtheeffectsofreadingandlisteningactivitiesonSpanish-speaking EFLstudents・acquisitionofacademic,technical,orlow-frequencyvocabularyitems.Vidal・s study revealed thattheparticipantslearned morewordsthrough reading than through

listening,although the highest-proficiency students learned more words during listening than thelower-proficiency groups.Thelower-proficiency studentscould notperceiveand acquire phonologicalpatterns online.The implication is that,in EFL courses that are intendedtoteachoverallEnglishskills,insteadofsimple,spokenexpressionsalone,learners mightlearnvocabularyitemsmoreefficientlythroughreading,althoughrepeatedauditory inputmay contributeto thelong-term memorization ofpartially familiarized vocabulary items.Vidal・sstudyisadditionalevidencethattheteachingofwrittenEnglishisimportant andshouldbeincorporatedintoEFL courses.

EffectivenessofStudy-AbroadPrograms

Thepresentstudy evaluatestheEFL skillcoursesthatfollow theparticipants・stay abroad.Thissectionreviewsafew study-abroadstudiesinordertounderstandtheirpositive and negativefeatures.SomeofthereportsalsoprovideadditionalevidencethatJapanese studentstendtohaveastrongerinterestinspokenEnglishthaninwrittenEnglish.

Manystudiesinthepasthavereportedonshort-term study-abroadprograms,andthe generaltendencyisthattheparticipantslearnsimpleexpressionsorsentencestructuresto dealwith daily tasksbutdo notnecessarily learn to carry outcomplex linguistictasks. Participantstendtoexpresstheirappreciation forsubstantialexposuretospoken English andfrequentopportunitiestoconverseinEnglishduringtheirstayabroad.

Geis and Fukushima (1997),for example,reported the results of a Niigata junior college・ssix-week study-abroadprogram.A groupof24English majors,mostly first-year students,participatedintheESLprogram atalanguageinstituteaffiliatedwithanAmerican universityinIllinois.GeisandFukushimaencountereddifficultiesinmeasuringthestudents・ improvementinlanguageproficiencybecausethelengthoftheirstayintheUnitedStates wasshortandthestandardizedEnglish proficiency testadministeredbeforeandafterthe program (i.e.,TOEFL)wasnotsensitiveto changesin Japanesejuniorcollegestudents・ languageabilities.However,they revealed thatthestudents・attitudein classaftertheir returntoJapanwasmorepositive:thosewhousedtobesilentandinactivehadlearnedto participateactivelyingroupdiscussionsandotherin-classactivitiesinEnglish.

Ishino,Masaki,Visgatis,andKimura(1999)investigatedthedegreetowhich99Japanese studentsgainedconfidenceintheirEnglishabilitiesthroughafour-weekESLstudyprogram. AsinGeisandFukushima・sstudy(1997),Ishinoetal.cametorealizethatgloballanguage tests,suchasTOEFL,didnotaccuratelymeasurestudents・subtleimprovementinlanguage proficiencyafterfourweeksoftrainingandthuschosetoevaluatetheparticipants・perceptions ofwhatthey hadachievedthrough aquestionnairesurvey conductedbeforeandafterthe program and the host families・comments.The results showed that the participants・ confidenceinperformingeasyreal-lifetasks(e.g.,orderingmealsatarestaurantorasking directionsinEnglish)improved,buttheirabilitytodealwithcomplexlinguistictasks(e.g.,

describing Japanese customs or making a farewellspeech in English)did not improve noticeably.

Drake(1997)attendedtothefactthatJapanesestudentsnormallydonotfullybenefit from study-abroad programs because,being reclusive,they do notinteractwith native speakersfrequently enough.Hereportedon asix-week study-abroadprogram designedto integrate19Japaneseuniversitystudentsintothehostlinguisticandculturalcommunityin Alabama,theUnitedStates.Inadditiontoengagingtheparticipantsintask-basedactivities thatinducedactiveoralinteractionsin theclassroom,theprogram administratorsguided them toplanandholdpartiesfornon-Japanesestudents,accommodatedthem inthesame housing facility asnativespeakers,andarrangedforthem tostay with localfamilieson weekends.TheG-STEP,astandardizedtestadministeredattheendoftheprogram,wasnot sensitiveenough tomeasuretheparticipants・linguisticimprovementoveraperiod ofsix weeks,butthestudents・perceptionsoftheESL classesandextracurricularactivitieswere verypositive.

Regarding skill areas, most participants in ESL programs abroad tended to be interested in speaking activities and endeavored to improve their oral English skills. However,Asai(1997)reported thatsomeJapaneselearnersperceived grammarcoursesas importantbecausethey feltthatsolidgrammarknowledgefacilitatedtheircommunication in English.UnlikeGeisand Fukushima (1997)and Ishino etal.(1999)who analyzed the effectsofshort-term study-abroadprograms,Asaiinvestigatedaone-yearprogram・seffect onsecondlanguageacquisition.Sheconductedaquestionnairesurveywith49studentswho hadspentoneyearintheUnitedStatesorAustraliaandalsocomparedtheirTOEFLscores beforeandafterstudyabroad.Thepurposeofherstudywastoassessthecombinedeffects ofexposure to English in naturalistic situations and formalESL training atlanguage institutesin English-speaking countries.TheresultsshowedthattheTOEFL scoresfor48 outofthe49studentsimproved,and 41studentsbelieved thatthey benefited from their studiesabroad.When askedaboutthemostusefulpartofthestudy-abroadprograms,23 studentsreferredtolisteningandspeakingcourses.However,totheresearcher・ssurprise,as many as 10 students answered that they had appreciated the grammar courses as an instrumentformoreaccurateandfluentcommunicationinEnglish.

Another important issue for study-abroad research concerns learners・psychological changesaftertheiroverseasexperiences.Jones(1997)investigatedhow returnees・attitudes towardthesurroundingpeopleorthehostandhomecultureschanged.Jonesinterviewed10 studentswhohadstudiedforfouryearsataCanadiancollegeanddrew upreentrymaps basedontheirperceptionsofcomfortableoruncomfortableadjustmenttothefamilies,work places,and circlesoffriendsaftertheirreturn to Japan.Theresultsindicated thatall studentssufferedpsychologicaldepressionofvaryingdegrees,particularlybetweenfourand sixmonthsaftertheirreturn.SuchreadjustmentdifficultiesmightaffecttheirL2language

learningprocesses.

In another qualitativestudy probing into participants・perspectives,Wilkinson (1998) investigatedfourAmericanstudents・experiencesin,andperceptionsof,aone-monthstudy abroadprogram inFrance.Sheconductedaneight-monthlongitudinalstudy,interviewingeach ofthefourstudentstwicebeforethedeparture,twiceduringtheirstayinFrance,andtwice aftertheirreturn.Theresultsoftheinterviews,supportedbythedatafrom writtensurveys, observations,and documentsrelated to thesummerabroad program,suggested thatthe teacher-initiatedinteractionalnorm intheFrenchclassroom influencedtheparticipants・oral interactionsoutsideofclassandthatthehostculture,which wasbelievedtofacilitateL2 learners・languageacquisition,frustratedtheparticipantstotheextentthattheyperceived thepeergroupsupportandhomecultureenclaveasessentialfortheirlivesabroad.

A review ofthestudiesinthissectionsuggeststhatstudy-abroadprogramsarelikely to expediteEFL learners・languageacquisition through intensiveexposureto thetarget languageandcommunicativeactivitiesinandoutsideofclass.However,differentprograms influence the participants・language learning and their psychology differently,and each individualprogram has its positive and negative features.With regard to the studies reviewedhere,Japanesestudents・reactiontostudy-abroadexperiencesisgenerallypositive becausetheirdesiretospeakEnglish,ratherthanengagingingrammaranalysisorreading tasks,issatisfied.However,iftheirfuturestudiesorprofessionaljobsrequireanabilityto accomplish complex linguistictasks in English,the learning ofmore solid syntacticor lexical knowledge through both spoken and written English might be indispensable. Furthermore,study-abroad experiencescan influenceEFL learners・motivation aftertheir return homeeitherpositively ornegatively,anditisnecessary toanalyzetheirneedsand expectationsprecisely and exploreeffectivewaysto accommodatethem back in Japanese classrooms.

The following research questions guided the present study.The first three were quantitativeresearchquestions.

ResearchQuestion1:Dothethird-yearEFL skillcoursesfacilitatetheparticipants・reading comprehensionasmeasuredbyanin-classreadingcomprehensiontest?

Research Question 2:Istherearelationshipbetween thelength ofstudy abroadandpar-ticipants・learningofreadingcomprehensionskillsinEnglish?

ResearchQuestion3:Istherearelationshipbetweenparticipants・languageproficiencyand theirlearningofreadingcomprehensionskillsinEnglish?

Thequalitativeresearchquestionswereasfollows.

skillcoursesincludingreadingcomprehensiontasks?

ResearchQuestion5:Howcantheparticipants・study-abroadprogramsinfluencetheirattitude towardthelearningofwrittenEnglishaftertheirreturntoJapan?

ResearchQuestion6:Whatarethedifferencesbetweentheparticipants・perceptionsofuseful andenjoyablereadingactivitiesandtheteacher・sideasofusefulactivities?

Method ActionResearch

Thisstudy isaction research focusing on thetwoAdvanced Skillscourses,Advanced Skill1andAdvancedSkill2,offeredtothethird-yearstudentsatPUT・sEnglishdepartment. Eachcoursehad15classsessions,andeachclasssessionlasted90minutes.Theaim ofaction research isforteacherstoreflecton,andanalyze,theirown daily practicein classrooms systematicallysothatproperdecisionscanbemadefortheirfutureteaching(Wallace,1998). Thesearch for solutionsto a problem in a localsituation isemphasized (Krathwohl& Smith,2005),andresearchersstrivetodescribeaparticularteaching contextoraspecific individuallearnerorgroupoflearners(Nunan,1992).Otherimportantelementsofaction research are collaboration among researchers,teachers,or graduate students (Cohen & Manion,1985 as cited in Nunan,1992)and the efforts to reform curricula (Kemmis & McTaggart,1988,alsocitedinNunan,1992).

Anothermajorrationalebehindaction research,applicabletothepresentstudy,isto bridgethegapbetweenacademicresearchandteachingintheclassroom (Burns,2005).We followed theestablished proceduresfor statisticaland qualitativeanalyses.Atthesame time,however,itisourbeliefthatclassroom researchmustbecloselyconnectedtoteachers・ practicesinclass.Teacherscanconductactionresearchstudieswithoutbeingrestrictedby thetraditionalcriteriasuchasrandom selection,generalizability,andreplicabilityandstill acquireknowledgethatisvaluabletothem asboth researcherandteacher.Thus,labeling thepresentstudyasactionresearchwouldbynomeansminimizethevalueorauthenticity of its results.This approach makes it possible to tap a variety of data sources to understandthepositiveandnegativefeaturesoftheactivitiesadministeredinclassandthe students・perceptionsofthoseactivities.

Participants

ParticipantsincludedanativeEnglish-speakingteacher
oneofthethreeauthorsofthis article
and103third-yearEnglishmajorsatPUT.Sixteenstudentswereeliminatedinthe processofdatacollectionbecausetheymissedeitherthepretestorposttestordidnotmark theirstudent-ID numberscorrectlyonthecomputer-scannableanswersheets.Thus,thefinal

N-sizeforquantitativeanalyseswas87.

TheteacherandresearcherhasbeenteachingatPUT forsevenyearsandhasservedas acoordinatorforvariousskillcoursessincehestartedteachingatthisuniversity.Hehas beenappointedascoordinatorofthenew AdvancedSkillscoursesaswell.Thestudents,all female,majorin English languageandliterature,andweremostly 21or22yearsold.As mentioned above,theentiregroup ofthird-yearstudentswasdivided into six subgroups accordingtoEnglishproficiency.Thefourhigherproficiencygroups(N＝103)wererecruited forthestudy;thetwo lowerproficiency groups,who enrolled in remedialcourses,were excludedfrom thestudy.

Onenotablefactorthatmightaffectthestudents・learningofadvancedEFLskillsafter study abroad istheirlanguageproficiency.TheaverageTOEIC scoresforthethird-year Englishmajorsin2011were348.08inlistening,252.62inreading,and600.70total(seeTable1). Thenumberofthird-yearstudentswhotookthe2011test,conductedinFebruary attheUS satellite,was172;fourthird-yearstudentswhohad notparticipated in an overseas ESL program wereexcluded.Anotherfactorthatmightaffecttheirlearning ofadvanced EFL skills is the length oftheir stay overseas.A longer overseas stay mightpositively or negatively influencethestudents・motivation forcontinuing L2studying back atthemain campus,including reading comprehension practice.AsWilkinson・sstudy (1998)suggests, study-abroadexperiencescansometimesweakenlearners・motivation.Forstatisticalanalyses, thestudentswereclassified asfive-month,one-year,and one-and-a-half-yearESL groups, althoughthegroupingbythelengthofstayabroaddidnotnecessarilymatchthegrouping forthird-yearskillclassesbasedontheirproficiencies.

PUT openeditssatellitecampusin theUnitedStatesin 1988asan overseaslanguage training facility foritsstudents,and theESL program prepared forfour-year-university English majors (as opposed to two-year junior college students)came to be known as Five-monthESLProgram (5-Month).WhereasthelengthoftheFive-monthESLProgram has changedovertime,dependingonthedepartment・spedagogicalpoliciesandtheuniversity・s administrativeconstraints,thiscompulsoryprogram
arequirementforallEnglishmajors
is presently five months long.In 2000,PUT started a new long-term program,hereafter referred to as18-month ESL Program or 18-Month,which enrollsa group ofabout30 chosen students(outofapproximately 200)attheUS satelliteforoneand a halfyears. Eighteen-month applicantsmustdemonstratecomparatively high TOEIC scoresand high motivation foroverseasstudiesin thescreening testsand interviews.In 2009,thesame departmentlaunchedaone-yearprogram labeled12-monthESL Program (12-Month)asyet another alternative for students who prefer a mid-length stay abroad or who are not proficientenoughtoenterthe18-monthprogram.Asstatedabove,thelengthofstudents・ stay abroad might influence their learning,or perceptions of,reading comprehension activitiesintheAdvancedSkillscourses.

Fiveoftheparticipantswereaskedtoparticipateinqualitativeinterviews;fourofthem representeddifferentAdvancedSkillsclasses.Thefifth studentwasenrolledin aremedial course,butshewasknownasadiligentstudentwhoperformedwellinothercoursesand wasthusrequestedtoofferherviewsoftheEFL coursesinTokyoandtheESL coursesin theUnitedStates.Thesefivestudentswererecruitedbecause:(a)theywerebelievedtopay attention in class and could express their opinions clearly and (b)one of the three researcherscouldeasilyestablishrapportwiththem.

InstrumentationandProcedure

InordertoanswerResearchQuestions1to3,whichwereconcernedwiththepossible influence ofthe Advanced Skills courses on the participants・EFL learning after study abroad,apretestandanimmediateposttestwereconductedtoassesstheirimprovementin reading comprehension.Thepretest
ashortreading comprehension testwith 21question itemsbased on a TOEIC practicetest
wasadministered atthebeginning ofthespring semesterin 2011toidentify thestudents・basereading abilities.Theimmediateposttest
comprising 22similarquestions
wasadministered attheend ofthespring semesterto measure their possible improvementin reading comprehension after a semester ofEFL training.Theoriginalresearchplanincludedadelayedposttestinthefollowingsemesterto measurethecarryovereffect,butitwasnotimplementedduetotechnicalconstraints.

Theparticipants・scoresonthereadingcomprehensionpretestandposttestwereconverted intoRaschmeasures,andapairedt-testwasconductedtoexaminewhethertherewasany statistically significantdifferencebetween themean scoresofthetwo reading tests(i.e., ResearchQuestion1).

Second,thedifferencebetween each ESL,orproficiency,group・spretestand posttest scoreswascalculatedasanindicatoroftheirimprovementoverthesemester.Twoone-way analysesofvariance(ANOVAs)wereperformedtocomparethedifferentgroups・progress scores(i.e.,theparticipants・improvementinreadingability),assessingtheinfluenceofthe lengthofstudents・ESLexperienceabroad,ortheirproficiency,ontheirreadingcomprehension test scores.The first one-way ANOVA was conducted with the progress scores as a dependentvariableandthelengthofstudyabroadwiththreelevels(fivemonths,12months, and18months)asanindependentvariable.ThiswasbelievedtoanswerResearchQuestion2. Thesecondone-way ANOVA was conducted with the participants・progress scores as a dependentvariableandtheirEnglishproficiencywithfourlevels(thefourskill-grouplevels inwhichtheywereplacedatthebeginningofthesemester)asanindependentvariable.This wasintendedtoanswerResearchQuestion3.

AsregardsResearch Questions4,5,and 6,which wererelated to theparticipants・ reactiontotheactivitiesintheAdvancedSkillscourses,theteacherandresearchercarefully observedthestudents・behaviorin class,keptteachernotes,andanalyzedtheirpositiveor

negativereactionstoeachactivityinclass.

As an additionalapproach to answering Research Questions 5 and 6,unstructured interviews and narrative analyses were conducted to probe the students・perceptions of enjoyableorusefullanguage-learning activitiesand find commonalitiesbetween individual students・ideas.Unstructuredinterviewsaremeaningfulspeechorconversationforparticular researchpurposes(Mishler,1986;Seidman,2006).Itisimportantfortheinterviewerandthe interviewee(s)toengagein collaborativestorytelling andinterpretation,telling new stories andreflectingonthepastrecountingofexperiences(ConnellyandClandinin,1990).

Narrative analysis is the process of analyzing the narrative or story parts of interviewees・ responses. As Polkinghorne (1988) explained, this analysis technique is instrumentalindescribingandreportingdiversehumanexperiencesandmakingconnections between particulareventsin differentcontexts.Carefulobservationsarelikely to provide clearly defined genres into which particular, seemingly unrelated cases of learning experiencesandstrategiesmightfall(Bruner,1996).

Onlyasetofgeneralquestionswasprepared,andoneoftheresearchersasinterviewer guidedthechosenfivestudentstorecountexperiencesinESL activitiesattheUSsatellite orEFLactivitiesatthemaincampus,whichmightreflecttheirideasofenjoyableoruseful activities.Eachqualitativeparticipantwasinterviewedtwice:thefirstinterview wasatthe beginningofthesemesterandthesecondtowardtheendofthesemester.Interestingideas and views thatemerged in the process ofearly interviews were used to generate new questionsforthefollowing interviews,i.e.,eitherwith thesameintervieweeordifferent interviewees.

Thedataweretape-recordedandfullytranscribed,andthenarrativesections(orstories, insteadofmonosyllabicorsentence-levelanswers)wereextractedandanalyzedtodetermine thestudents・perceptionsofenjoyableandusefulreadingcomprehensionactivitiesormaterials. Theteachers・ideas(based on classobservations)and thestudents・ideas(generated from interviews)werecomparedandcontrastedtoexplorethewaystheAdvancedSkillsprogram afterstudyabroadcanbechangedoradjustedforimprovement.

Results QuantitativeResults

Asmentioned above,16ofthe103participantswereexcluded asinvalid casesin the processofdatacollection,buttheremaining87involvednooutlierswhosez-scoresexceeded the±3.29criterion.TheRasch person measuresweretransformedtoresponseprobability units(CHIPS).Thislineartransformationmeantthattheaverageitem difficultywassetat 50CHIPS.Thepretestmeanfortheentiregroupof87studentswas52.05(SD＝3.50),and theposttestmean was52.36(SD＝3.87).Tables2and3display thedescriptivestatisticsof

proficiencygroupsandESL groups.Toourdisappointment,noneoftheproficiencyorESL groupsshowed anoticeablegain overthesemester.Forexample,Group 1・spretestmean (53.75) and posttest mean (53.78) were almost identical, and there was considerable overlappingbetweenthelowerandupperboundsofthe95％ confidenceintervals.Likewise, 18-monthstudents・posttestmean(54.46)waspracticallyidenticalto
orslightlylowerthan
their pretestmean (54.51).The only noticeable gains over the semester were recognized between Group 2・spretestmean (52.07)and posttestmean (53.52)and between 12-month・s pretestmean(50.8)andposttest(51.81),buttheywerestillnotverylarge.

Tables4and5display theparticipants・mean progressscores,representing theextent towhich theirreading scoreshadimproved,ordeclined,from pretesttoposttest.Noneof thestudy-abroadorproficiencygroupsdemonstratedamajorgain.

ESL Group Pretest Posttest

18-month N 15 15 M 54.51 54.46 95％ CI LowerBound 51.88 52.05 UpperBound 57.15 56.87 SD 4.76 4.36 Skewness 0.29 －0.14 SES 0.58 0.58 Kurtosis －1.24 －0.51 SEK 1.12 1.12 12-month N 20 20 M 50.8 51.81 95％ CI LowerBound 49.31 50.36 UpperBound 52.29 53.26 SD 3.18 3.10 Skewness －0.82 0.02 SES 0.51 0.51 Kurtosis 1.90 －0.60 SEK 0.99 0.99 5-month N 52 52 M 51.82 51.97 95％ CI LowerBound 51.02 50.90 UpperBound 52.62 53.05 SD 2.87 3.85 Skewness 0.07 0.85 SES 0.33 0.33 Kurtosis －0.22 1.52 SEK 0.65 0.65

Note.N (total)＝87.18-monthenrolledintheUSsatelliteforoneandahalf years,12-monthenrolledforoneyear,and5-monthenrolledforfivemonths.

SkillGroup Pretest Posttest Group1 N 23 23 M 53.75 53.78 95％ CI LowerBound 52.01 51.81 UpperBound 55.49 55.75 SD 4.03 4.56 Skewness 0.86 0.42 SES 0.48 0.48 Kurtosis －0.17 0.05 SEK 0.93 0.93 Group2 N 20 20 M 52.07 53.52 95％ CI LowerBound 50.58 51.68 UpperBound 53.55 55.35 SD 3.18 3.92 Skewness －0.44 0.36 SES 0.51 0.51 Kurtosis －0.58 －0.08 SEK 0.99 0.99 Group3 N 27 27 M 51.8 51.46 95％ CI LowerBound 50.62 50.30 UpperBound 52.98 52.61 SD 2.98 2.92 Skewness 0.25 －0.18 SES 0.45 0.45 Kurtosis －0.86 0.02 SEK 0.87 0.87 Group4 N 17 17 M 50.12 50.53 95％ CI LowerBound 48.58 48.89 UpperBound 51.66 52.17 SD 2.99 3.19 Skewness －0.85 0.85 SES 0.55 0.55 Kurtosis 3.18 2.41 SEK 1.06 1.06

Note.N (total)＝87.Group1isthehighestproficiency group,andGroup4 thelowest.

Table3.DescriptiveStatisticsfortheReadingComprehensionTests(ProficiencyGroups)

ESL Group N ProgressMean SD 18-month 15 －0.05 4.15 12-month 20 1.01 4.08 5-month 52 0.16 4.46

Note.Progressmeanrepresentsthemeandifferencebetween pretestandposttestscores.

Inthefirststepofthestatisticalanalyses,themeansofthetworeadingtests(pretest and posttest)werecompared by performing a paired-samplest-test.Theresultsindicated thattherewasnostatistically significantdifferencebetween thetwomeans(t(86)＝－.69, p＝.49,r＝.07);thetestfactoraccountedforonly7％ ofthevariance.

In thesecond stage,aone-way ANOVA wasperformed todeterminewhetherornot therewasany significantdifferencebetween themean progressscoresofthethreeESL groups.Theresultsindicated nosignificantdifferenceamong thethreeESL groups(F(2, 84)＝.35,p＝.71,・2_{＝.01),showingthatthelengthofstayabroadaccountedforonly1％ of}

thevariance.

Thethird step ofstatisticalanalysisinvestigated theeffectofproficiency.First,we tried to perform a one-way ANOVA,butLevine・sTestforEquality ofVariancedid not verifytheequalityofvariancesofthefourgroups・progressscores.Thus,aKruskalWallis test was conducted to measure the influence of proficiency on reading comprehension performance.Theresultsshowed no significantdifferenceamong thefourgroups・mean progressscores(N＝87,・2_{＝2.18,p＝.054,r＝.23).However,itisnoteworthy thatthevalue}

wasveryclosetothetargetedlevelofsignificance.

Tosum up,theparticipants・readingabilitydidnotimproveoverthesemestertoany significantdegree,and neitherlength ofoverseasstay norproficiency had a significant effectontheirgainsorlossesintheposttestscores.

Reading:How andWhy

Thethird-yearskillsclassesarefour-skillsclasses.Thisstudy focuseson oneofthose skills,reading,butofcourse,itisneverentirelypossible,eveninclassesthatareostensibly devotedtoasingleskill(astheseclassesarenot),toteachoneskillinisolationfrom others. Thisiseven lessthecasein aclassdevotedtofourskills.In thethird-yearskillsclasses, reading istaughtin differentways,andstudentsareassignedtextstoreadfordifferent purposes.

No textsareused simply becausethey illustratea grammaticalform ora linguistic function or because they introduce particular vocabulary items.These are content-based classes,soalltextsareprimarily chosen fortheinformation they impart.Ofcourse,that

SkillGroup N ProgressMean SD Group1 23 0.04 4.54 Group2 20 1.45 5.92 Group3 27 －0.34 3.17 Group4 17 0.41 3.19 Note.Progressmeanrepresentsthemeandifferencebetween pretestandposttestscores.

doesnotprecludetheirbeingusedtoteachgrammarandvocabulary,andmostteacherswill takeadvantageofsuchopportunitieswhentheypresentthemselves.

Studentsareoften asked to read texts
usually newspaperormagazinearticles
at homeinpreparationforactivitiesthefollowingclass.Teacherswillsometimesgivestudents aspecifictaskortaskstoguideeitherthewaytheyreadthearticleortohelpthem focus on theaspectsofthearticletheteachersfeelaremostrelevantorimportant.Thiscan eitherbeaverbalinstructionsuchas,・Bepreparedtogiveaone-minuteoralsummaryof thearticlenextclass,・ormightbeaprintedworksheetwhich studentswork through as theyreadthearticle.

Othertimes,studentswillbetoldsimplytoreadthearticleand(usually)totakenotes on it.Then they mightbegiven tasksin classtocheck theirunderstanding and,having finished that,do otheractivitiesin which they employ theknowledgethey havegleaned from thearticle.They mightbeasked to summarizetheauthor・sclaimsand to develop argumentseitherinsupportoforinoppositiontothoseclaims.Theywillalmostcertainly usetheknowledgetheyhavegainedfrom thearticleinadiscussionoruseitasthebasis ofapresentation.

Sometimesateachermightassign,forexample,fourdifferentarticles,with aquarter oftheclassbeingaskedtoreadeacharticle.Thenstudentswillgettogetheringroupsof fourwith studentswhohavereaddifferentarticlesandsummarizethearticlesthey have readforeachother.Thentheywouldcombinetheinformationtheyhavesharedtoproduce, forexample,apresentation.

Teachersinthethird-yearskillsclassesarerequiredtobecreativeandinnovative.Thus theaboveareonlyafew ofthewaystheymightusearticlestheyhaveaskedstudentsto readoutsideofclass.

Othertimestheymightaskstudentstoreadtextsinclass.Thesetextsare,ofcourse, generallyshorterthantheonestheyareassignedtoreadathome.Again,thesetextsare used primarily becauseoftheinformation they impart,butusing them in classallows teacherstofocuson reading skillsthateven ourthird-yearstudentsstillneed toreview, develop,andpractice.Thusteachersareabletolimitthetimestudentshavetoreadatext, forcingthem toskim itquicklytogetthegist,ortoscanitforspecificinformationrather than reading thewholearticleslowly andcarefully.When reading athome,studentstend toreadextremely slowly andoften stopevery few linestocheck themeaning ofaword. Sometimes,ofcourse,itisnecessary and appropriateforthem to read in thisway,but activitiesthatrequirestudentstoscan andskim can helpstudentstorememberorlearn thatthereareotherwaysofreadingthatare,inothersituations,moreappropriate.

Ourstudentstendtobebetteratspeakingthanreadingand,therefore,tolikeitbetter. Asmostofthem arenotfluentreaders,reading isnotfun forthem;discussion ofeven challenging topicswith theirfriends,on theotherhand,often is.Thusoneofthegreat

challenges facing teachers of the third-year skills classes is how to make students understand how necessary reading is (that much reading is now done on-line has not changedthis),andalsothatreading can beenjoyable.Sometimes,with alltheotheroften valuable,butalways distracting,forms ofmedia to which students today have access, convincing them to read (again,whetherthey read on-lineoroffisirrelevant),and that readingcanbepleasurable,seemsanimpossiblegoal.Itisneverthelessagoaltowardwhich teachers in the third-year skills classes (and allofour skills classes)need to dedicate themselves.

Interview Results

Theunstructured interviewsinvestigated theparticipants・needsand expectationsfor language acquisition. Their general perceptions of enjoyable and/or useful language activitieswereprobed,butthefocalpointswere:(a)theirperceptionsofESL instructional treatmentattheuniversity・sUSsatellite,whichthethird-yearskilltrainingmightbebuilt upon or related to,and (b)their reactionsto,and perceptionsof,theAdvanced Skills, including written English skills.Pseudonymsareusedtorefertotheparticipantsforthe protectionoftheirprivacy.

Students・PerceptionsofUsefulandEnjoyableActivities

Thefiveintervieweesunanimouslyreferredtospeakingasthemostenjoyableanduseful category of ESL/EFL activity.They allenjoyed English conversations or small-group discussions in the classroom and acknowledged that oral presentations, even though challenging,playedanimportantrolefortheiracquisitionofcommunicativeEnglishskills. Particularly,theparticipantsperceivedtheESL coursesattheUSsatelliteasenjoyableand usefulbecausetheyhadfrequentopportunitiestopracticespeakingEnglishandcouldlearn usefulcolloquialoridiomaticexpressions.

On theotherhand,Akiko,ahighly proficientstudentasevidenced by herscholastic achievementand TOEIC scores,stated thatshehad alwaysregarded reading
aswellas speaking
asan importantskillareabecauseithelpedher:(a)improveherknowledgeof Englishgrammarandenlargehervocabularyand(b)attainhigherTOEIC scores.

Akiko:やっぱりリーディングの読み込みですね。さっと読むのではなく，自分で単語を調べな

がら，ゆっくり一文一文読んでいくというのが，今こちらに帰って来て一番役に立っている し，語彙も伸びたことだと思います。

Akiko:After all,［I believe］ the most important is intensive reading.Instead of skimming overapassageformeaning,Ireadevery sentencecarefully,looking up unknown words.I・vealwaysfeltit・susefulsinceIcameback to Japan,and my vocabularyhasexpanded,too.(AkikoInterview 1)

looking up unknown wordsand analyzing complex sentencestructures.Asisthecaseof manyJapanesestudents,theEFL trainingthatshehadreceivedinjuniorhighschooland highschoolwasmainlybasedontheGrammar-TranslationMethod,anditwaslikelythat she had continued to utilize the analytical,bottom-up reading strategy to improve her knowledgeofEnglishgrammarandvocabulary.Inhercase,herpositiveperceptionofslow butcarefulreading wasstrengthened aftershecompleted herESL studiesin theUnited States and returned to Japan although, as will be described below, she appreciated communicativelanguagepracticeaswell.

Akiko・sattachmenttothebottom-up,analyticalreadingwaspartlyaccountedforbyan instrumentalmotive:i.e.,toimproveherscoresin English testsin schoolorTOEIC.Such instrumentalmotivationisnotuncommonamongJapanesestudents.Izumisimilarlystated thatreading wasan importantskillareabecausestudents・futureprofessionswouldmore likelyrequirethem toreadorwriteemailsandotherdocumentsinEnglishthantoconverse with English-speaking customers or business associates. However, after receiving communicative ESL training, Akiko realized that different purposes require different learning strategies:e.g.,an analytical,bottom-up reading strategy forexplici tgrammar-focused learning and spontaneousconversation and discussion forlearning communicative Englishskills. Akiko:中学・高校の時も，TOEICではないんですが，テストのための英語ってことだったの で，リーディングは重視してたんですけど，大学に入って［アメリカ］留学で（...）のスキ ルクラスで，スピーキングの比重が大きくなってきた時に，リーディングは出来てもコミュ ニケーションを取ることが出来ないんだなってことを思ったので，コミュニケーションって 意味ではリーディングじゃないんだなっていう事に気づきました。

Akiko:In juniorhigh schooland high school,wedidn・ttakeTOEIC,butwealways studied English fortests,and Isetstoreby reading practice.ButIentered the university and took skillcourses［attheUS satellite］,wherea largeportion of classtimewasspentonspeakingtraining.Then,Irealizedthatwewouldn・tbeable to makeourselvesunderstood even ifwecould read English,and communication ［withEnglish-speakingpeople］requiressomethingotherthanreadingskills.(Akiko

Interview 2)

MayumihadexperiencedthesamepsychologicalchangeasAkikodescribed
understanding thenecessityoforalEnglishtraining
whenshestartedreceivingcommunicativeL2training. Thatistosay,someproficientstudentsappreciatedintensivereadingtasksinadditionto, notinplaceof,speakingpractice.

To sum up,the participants seemed to prefer learning spoken English,butserious studentsacknowledgedtheimportanceofcarefulanalysisoflexicalandsyntacticstructures through intensive reading practice.Their beliefthatthe learning ofwritten English is importantpersistedaftertheirESL experiencesabroad.

Students・PerceptionsoftheESL ProgramsattheOverseasSatellite

Asmentionedabove,theparticipantsenjoyedESLspeakingactivitiesattheUSsatellite, whichincludedperson-to-personconversations,smallgroupdiscussions,andoralpresentations in frontofa smallaudience.They also reported thatteachersattheUS satellitehad encouraged them to spend moretimeand energy learning oralcommunication skillsin America wherethey had greaterenvironmentalsupport.Allintervieweesexpressed their satisfaction with person-to-person conversation practice,which normally focused on their daily activities(e.g.,whatthey had experienced on thepreviousday orwhatthey were planning to do later in the day or the nextweekend),because itprovided them with frequentopportunitiesto expresstheirown ideasin English withoutrequiring high-level cognitiveprocessing.Theparticipantsalso feltthatsuch speaking practice,notonly in speaking coursesbutalsoin reading/writing courses,wouldenablethem toconversewith foreignersor,possibly,copewithserviceencountersituationsattheirfuturejobs.

Thetypesofspeaking and listening practiceattheUS satellitevaried.In Mayumi・s speakingandlisteningclass,studentsfirsthadaperson-to-personconversationoninformal topicsasa warm-up activity.Subsequently,theteacherused theassigned textbook and taughtthem,forexample,wordsandexpressionstodescribeone・srelationshipsandlikely interactions with her neighbors.Oralpresentations after reading were also regularly conducted.In addition to classroom activities,students also enjoyed conversations with Americansduring off-campusactivities,asexemplifiedby Sachiko・svisitwith pupilsata localelementaryschoolorIzumi・sfieldtripduringwhichsheandherclassmatesvisiteda localmuseum andlistenedtoatourconductor・sexplanationsin English,which contained novelexpressionsandphonologicalcharacteristicsofalocaldialect.

Akiko stated thatsheperceived thespeaking coursesattheUS satelliteasnotonly enjoyablebutalsoeffective.Herteacher(s)haddeftlysolicitedstudents・ownopinionsona given topicby asking,・Whatdo you think aboutit?・ Theteacher-studentinteractions, consistentlyaimedtogeneratenovelandoriginalideas,motivatedstudentstothinkdeeply aboutethicalorsocialissuesand actively participatein follow-up group discussions.The groupdiscussionsrequiredstudents,first,togatherfactualinformationfordiscussionand, then,tolookupthevocabularyitemstopresenttheirideasexpressly.Akikoperceivedthese tasksasusefulandappreciatedtheteachers・effortstosolicitstudents・individualopinions andengagethem incriticalthinking.

AnotherfactorthathadmotivatedAkikotoparticipatein allcoursework attheUS satellitewasthatreading activitieswereintegratedintoin-classdiscussions.Theassigned reading comprehension tasksfacilitated theacquisition notonly ofsyntacticand lexical knowledgethathelpedthem understandthemeaningsinlocalcontextsbuttrainedthem to infermeaningsatthediscourselevel.Then,in thediscussionsthatfollowed,studentshad opportunities to retrieve and use the words and expressions they had learned through

reading. The reading and discussion topics that she had found interesting included: internationalmarriage,ghostsconnected toHalloween,an Afro-American immigrantwho had arrived in the United States with no knowledge ofEnglish atalland entered an American university threemonthslater,andthelifestory oftheauthorofHarryPotter. Sachiko cited history,religion,marriage,and health assomeoftheinteresting reading topics,and she perceived them to be usefulfor both reading and follow-up speaking activities.

However,itwouldbeoptimistictoassumethatthereadingactivitiesattheUSsatellite helped allstudentsimprovetheirreading skillssignificantly.Afterherreturn from the UnitedStates,SachikotriedtoreadanEnglishnewspaperarticleaspartofherindividual reading practice butgave itup soon because she could nothandle a large number of unfamiliarvocabulary items.Mayumireported that,during theESL program wherethe emphasis was placed on meaning-focused reading,she did not always understand the assignedreading materialsclearly.Thereading activitiesdidnotenlargeherrepertoireof Englishexpressions,either,becausethemeaning-focusedreadingdidnotguidehertoattend tolinguisticforms.Furthermore,Izumiobservedthattheamountofreadingrequiredatthe USsatellitehadbeensmallerthanwhatthefirst-yearcoursesatthemaincampusrequired. (Izumi・sstatementmustbeinterpretedcautiouslybecauseaformer18-monthESL student, whowasnotinvolvedin thisstudy project,hasreportedotherwise.)Individually,students weremoreanxioustofindopportunitiestospeakEnglishanddidnotfullyutilizetheirfree timeforreadingEnglishnewspapers,magazines,orbooks.

Interview dataregarding writing activitiesandgrammartasksattheUS satelliteare scarce,andtheinterviewees・viewsoftheeffectivenessorefficiency ofinstruction in these areasdifferedfrom persontoperson.SachikoreportedthatherteacherintheGrammarand Writingcourseprovidedadequatefeedbackonallofheressaysandjournalsintheform of grammarchecksorcontent-based comments.On theotherhand,Mayumistated thatshe hadreceivedcorrectivefeedbackonlyonjournalsandthattheessayssheandherclassmates hadsubmittedwerenotnormally returned.IzumiindicatedthatherknowledgeofEnglish grammarhad notimproved noticeably during heroneyearin theUnited Statesbecause explicit explanations of grammatical rules were rarely provided. Interestingly, some American teachers who could speak Japanese occasionally explained grammaticalitems explicitlyinJapanese,andIzumifounditveryhelpful.

Weacknowledgethattheseresultssimply reflecttheinterviewedstudents・perceptions andthattheauthenticityoftheirobservations,andofourinterpretations,wouldhavetobe verifiedthroughourfirst-handobservationsattheUSsatelliteandinterviewswithteachers therewhenthechancesmightariseinthefuture.

PositiveandNegativePerceptionsoftheAdvancedSkillsCourses

Fouroutofthefiveintervieweesappreciatedthecompulsory,AdvancedSkillscoursesas greatopportunitiesforbrushing uptheircommunicativeEnglish skills.Immediately after theirreturnfrom theUnitedStates,ESL studentsstartedtheirtwo-monthspringvacation, andMayumireportedthatshehadbeen exposedtovery littlespoken English during the springbreakandthusappreciatedthethird-yearskillsclassesasopportunitiesforpracticing Englishagain.ShefeltmotivatedtostartstudyingEnglishhardinafreshstateofmind.

Mayumi:（少し笑いながら）楽しいです。何か，帰って来てから春休みにすぐ入ってやっぱり 英語を聞くってのが，すごい一気に減ってたので，3年生になってスキル科目があって，や っぱり久しぶりに英語を聞けて，なんかもっと頑張ろうって思いました。

Mayumi:(Slightlylaughingly)Ienjoyitverymuch.Soonafterwecameback［form the United States］,wewereon ourspring break,and,suddenly,wehad very little chancetolisten toEnglish.Then,［when thenew semesterbegan］ Ifound out therewereskillcoursessetupforthethirdyear,too.Ienjoyedlisteningtospoken EnglishagainafteralongbreakandthoughtI・dtryhardagaintolearnEnglish. (MayumiInterview 1)

AkikodescribedherAdvancedSkill1classasabalancedcombinationofreading,small -group discussion,oralpresentation,and essay writing.First,herteachergaveacommon topic,distributedcopiesofanarticle,andaskedtheclasstoreaditbeforecomingbackto classnextweek.Atthenextsession,studentsansweredasetofcomprehension questions, debatedimportantissues,andsubsequentlyhadachancetopresenttheirindividualopinions bysubmittingawrittenreport.Inthefinalstage,onestudentfrom eachsmallgrouporally presentedasummaryoftheirideasinfrontoftheentireclass.

Akikoexplainedthattheclasshadabout30studentsandthatitwasdividedintosix smallgroupsfordiscussion.In otherwords,aboutsix studentsspokepublically on each topic,and shedid notparticularly perceivetheclasssizeto beinconveniently large.The activities in which students engaged were similar to those atthe US satellite,butthe providedreadingmaterialsweresomewhatmoredifficult,andAkikostruggledtoreadthem withadictionaryathand.Hiroko,whostudiedwiththesameteacher,concurredwiththis view.Each in-classactivity took aconsiderableamountoftime,andtheclassusedabout fourclasssessionsoneachpreparedtopic.

Two characteristicfeaturesoftheAdvanced Skill1 coursein which Akiko enrolled deservespecialattention.First,inthiscourse,themembersofeachsubgrouptookturnsin oralpresentation,and,therefore,everyonewasrequired toparticipatein publicspeaking. Second,thereading assignmentsweresomewhatlengthierand moredifficultthan what studentshadreadattheUSsatellite.Akikoappreciatedbothaspositivefeatures,butsome students might have perceived the difficult reading tasks as a burden.For example, althoughHirokoregardedthereadingactivitiesintheAdvancedSkillscoursesasuseful,she

haddifficultiesunderstanding thematerialsthatconcernedunfamiliartopicsandfeltthat lookingupunknownwordsinthedictionarywasalaborioustask.

Hiroko:［アメリカ］にいる時は自分が興味のある映画をずっと選んでいたので，それは楽しめ てやれたのですけど，こっちに帰ってきて出される課題は宗教とか（...）とか，えっとそん な馴染みがないテーマについて読んだりするので，読んでる時にすごい難しく感じてしまっ たり，苦痛に思ってしまったってことがありました。 O:はい。で役には立つと思いますか。 Hiroko:はい，役には立ったと思います。 O:読むことによって，物を書く時に使える新しい単語とか表現とかを覚えますか。 Hiroko:そうですね，読むことによって発話する時にもすらすら出てきたりするので。

Hiroko:Whenwewerein［America］,wewereallowedtochoosemoviesweliked［and writecommentson them］,sowealwaysenjoyedtheactivities.Butback here,the teachersprovideunfamiliartopicssuchasreligionand(...),and,whenI・m reading, Isometimeshavea very hard timeunderstanding thecontentand find thetask painful.

O:Isee.Butdoyouthinkit・suseful? Hiroko:Yes,Ithinkit・sbeenuseful.

O:Doyouthinkyoucanlearnusefulexpressionsorwordstouseincomposition byreadingthem?

Hiroko:Ithinkso.Icanalsoquicklyretrieve［usefulwordsorexpressions］whenspeaking becauseofmyreading.(HirokoInterview 1)

IntheUnitedStates,studentswereofteninstructedtodiscussorwriteaboutfilm clips ordebateon theinformation thattheteacherorally provided.In Hiroko・scase,students wereevenallowedtochoosemoviesoftheirowninterests.Incontrast,theAdvancedSkills coursesatthemaincampusrequiredthem toreadanassignedarticlefirst.Hirokoperceived itasaburdenbut,atthesametime,acknowledgedthatshecouldusetheexpressionsshe learnedwhenspeakingEnglishafterward.

InoneAdvancedSkill2course,theteacherusedmultimediadevicestoshow film clips and engaged students in small-group,or whole-class,discussion on the depicted issues. Akikofeltthatthistypeofinstruction,withtheaidofadvancedaudio-visualtechnologies, wasveryeffectivebecauseitattractedstudents・attentionstrongly.Sachikoagreedthatthe useofmultimediainstrumentsprovidedstudentswith opportunitiesforintensivelistening comprehension practiceon a widevariety oftopicsand allowed them to concentrateon listening asthey werenotrequiredtoeitherlook upunknown wordsin dictionaries.She alsoappreciatedthecontentofavideoclipmorefullywhenshedidnothavetopreparefor afollow-uppresentation.

However,although moreentertaining and effectivein many waysthan pen-and-pencil instruction,thefrequentuseofmultimediadevicesentailedaminordisadvantageaswell. Akikoobservedthatalargeportionofclasstimewasspentonlisteningandthatstudents were not obligated to make extra efforts to speak in class voluntarily.The teacher instructedthem todiscussimportantissueswith・oneortwootherclassmatesaround,・but

shedid notfeelasstrongly pressured to offerheropinionsasin theread-di scuss-and-presentclasswhereeverybodywasrequiredtoperform anoralpresentationafterward.

Someintervieweesexpressed theirdesireformorefrequentopportunitiesforwriting essaysandreceivinglanguage-focusedfeedback.Forexample,Sachiko,theonlypersonwho expressed reservations about the Advanced Skills courses, stated that, although she appreciatedcontributingideasbypostingnotesontheteacher・sblogandreceivi ngcontent-basedcomments,shepersonallypreferredmoresubstantialgrammar-basedcommentsonher writing.

Mayumireferred to another minor problem of an Advanced Skills course.In her AdvancedSkill2class,theteacheroftenguidedstudentstoimproviseashortskitandact it out.The activity was unique and interesting and wellaccepted by many students. However,Mayumiobservedthattheteacherwasextremely enthusiasticwith hiscoaching fordramaticperformanceontheonehandbutdidnotteachasmanyusefulexpressionsas shewantedontheotherhand.Shepreferredtolearnusefulexpressionsthatshecoulduse in likely conversationalsituations abroad,instead ofperfecting her acting skills.There remainsapossibilitythattheteacherwasprovidingusefulexpressionsandMayumimissed them,butherimpression suggeststhatstudents・expectationsdo notalwaysmatch the teacher・steachingpriorityorrationale.

Ata certain classsession in thesameAdvanced Skillscourse,theteachershowed a video clip extracted from YouTube,butthespeakersin themoviespokewith a British accent.Mayumihaddifficultyunderstandingthedialog,buttheclasssessionwasconcluded beforeshehadachancetoconfirm themajorpointsofthedialog.Itappearstobeaminor, isolatedincident,butevensuchminorirregularitiescanconfusestudentsandinterrupttheir languagelearning.

Discussion

ResearchQuestion1waswhetherornotthethird-yearEFLskillcoursesfacilitatePUT students・reading comprehension skills,asmeasuredby an in-classreading comprehension test.Unfortunately,the statisticalresults indicated that their scores did not improve significantlyoverthesemester.Thecoursematerialsandactivitiesmightbemodifiedbased upontheteacher・sobservationandthestudents・perceptionsorpreferenceslearnedthrough qualitativeanalyses.Atthesametime,however,thestatisticalanalysisprocedureneedsto beadjusted in severalways.First,theintervalbetween thepretestand theposttestwas veryshort,whichmighthaveresultedintheinsignificantt-testvalues.Onesemesterisvery shortin thefirstplace,and weadministered thepretesttoward theend,instead ofthe beginning,ofAprilbecauseamajorearthquakethathadhittheTohokuandKantoregions in March affected thetiming ofpretesting.Somestudentswereexcused forbeing absent from classesin April.Anotherpossibleproblem wasthatthenumbersofquestion items

includedin thepretestandposttestweresmall.Wepreparedcomparatively shorttestsin ordernottospendtoomuchclasstime,butitisclearthatagreaternumberofquestion itemsoughttobeincluded.

Ontheotherhand,althoughtherewasnostatisticallysignificantimprovementinreading, neitherwasthereadeclineinstudents・readingability.Thisisimportantbecauseteachers and students in the years before the Advanced Skillscourses were instituted had been painfully awarethatstudents・ability in every skillareatendedtodeclineoncethey were back in aJapaneseenvironment.TOEIC scoresbearthisout.IftheAdvanced Skillshelp them maintaintheskillstheyacquiredintheUnitedStates,theymustbecountedasuccess.

Research Questions2and 3wererelated to thepossibleinfluenceoflength ofstudy aboardandproficiencyonstudents・readingabilityinEnglish.Theone-wayANOVAsand KruskalWallisresultsindicated thatneitherfactorinfluenced students・posttestreading comprehension scores.For our reference,we further proceeded to perform a one-way ANOVA withtheprogressmeansasadependentvariableandproficiencyasanindependent variabledespitethefactthattheassumptionoftheequalityofvarianceswasnotmet.The resultsindicatedthatthestudentsinGroup1performedsignificantlybetterthanthosein Group 4 (F(3,83)＝3.71,p＝.02,・2_{＝.12;Tukey HSD test,Group1 (M＝53.78,SD＝4.56)＞}

Group4(M＝50.53,SD＝3.19),p＝.04).Thus,therestillremainsapossibilitythatthehi gher-proficiency studentsmightbenefitbetterthan thelower-proficiency students.Replication studiesmustbeconductedtoprobethisissuefurther.

ResearchQuestion4wasrelatedtothewaytheparticipantsreactedtotheactivitiesin the third-year EFL skillcourses including reading comprehension tasks.The qualitative interview resultssuggestedthatstudentsgenerallyappreciatethetwonew AdvancedSkills coursesasgreatopportunitiestobrushuptheEnglishskillstheyhadlearnedduringtheir studies abroad.A balanced combination oflanguage activities and an appropriate time allotmentare indispensable for heightening students・motivation for EFL learning,and interesting topicsforreading and discussion seem tomotivatethem toparticipatein the readingandspeakingactivities.Regardingspeakingactivities,thestudentshadenjoyedESL studies atthe US satellite very much and tended to perceive similar EFL activities as enjoyableanduseful.Ontheotherhand,theytendedtoregardthereadingcomprehension activitiesaschallengingintermsofthetargetvocabularyitemsanddiscussionissues.One probablecauseisthattheyhavenothadenoughreadingpracticeyetevenaftercompleting theirstudiesabroad.Wemightbeabletodeterminetheleveloftheirreadingcomprehension ability moreprecisely by experimenting with a greatervariety ofreading materialsand activities.

Itisalsonecessarytokeepinmindthatdifficultyisnotnecessarilyanegativefactor. Ifstudentsfoundtheassignedreadingseasy,thiswouldbeasuresignthattheywerenot learningmuch,eitherlinguisticallyorconceptually.

Research Question 5wasconnected to theway PUT・sstudy-abroad programsmight influencetheparticipants・attitudetowardthelearningofwrittenEnglishaftertheirreturn toJapan.Firstofall,theirmotivation forlearning communicativeEnglish wasgenerally heightened by theirESL studiesoverseas,and theirpositiveattitudehad a lasting effect aftertheirreturn to Japan.Onestudentstated thatshemightfeellike・try［ing］hard again tolearn English・through theAdvancedSkillscourses;thiswasin accordwith the resultsofsomepaststudiesthatindicated thepositiveeffectsofstudy-abroad programs (Geisand Fukushima,1997;Ishino etal.,1999;Drake,1997;Asai,1997).However,their attitudetowardreadingcomprehensionactivitieswasnotequallypositive.Thestudentshad beensoaccustomedtomeaning-focusedreadingactivitiesduringtheirESLstudiesthatthey founditdifficulttocopewithreadingactivitiesthattheyperceivedtobelanguage-focused and struggled to dealwith thereading materialsthatPUT teachersconsidered to beof optimaldifficulty.

In fact,the Advanced Skills courses are theme-based,and it is unlikely that any Advanced Skills teacher was assigning readings with the primary goalof inculcating grammaticalor other linguistic points.The articles provided by the Advanced Skills coordinator are chosen because they provide good,and often controversial,information aboutthetopicunderdiscussion.In theteachers・notesdistributedtoallAdvanced Skills teachers,thecoordinatorwrites:

Thetopics...werechosenbecausetheyare(orshouldbe)ofinteresttoourstudents, becausethey arealwaysimportant,and becausethey areusually,in someform or other,in thenews.They werealsochosen becausethey aretopicsaboutwhich people disagree.Ifthetopicissomething non-controversialthereisvery littletotalk about, andwiththatinmind,Ihavenotonlytriedtofocusoncontroversialtopics,butalso soughtoutmaterialsthattakecontroversialpositionsaboutthosetopics.

Readings,thatis,arechosen notbecausethey contain examplesofthisorthatlinguistic point.They are chosen because they are stimulating tasks on the challenging topics discussedintheseclasses.

Again,whereasthestudentsbasically perceivedtheinstructionaltreatmentattheUS satellitepositively,aslightly worrisomeaspectoftheESL coursesmightbetheintensity
orlack thereof
ofreading comprehension training.A highly proficientstudentstated thatsheconsultedthedictionarymorefrequentlyintheAdvancedSkillscoursesthaninthe ESL courses,andanotherstudentfounditdifficulttofinishthereadingassignments.The readingmaterialsassignedintheAdvancedSkillscoursesarechallenging,butstudentsneed tolearn thatitisonly by being challenged,and challenging themselves,thatthey learn. Someadjustmentsmightbeneeded atboth themain campusand theUS satellite.More first-handresearchontheESL coursesandconsultationwiththeUSfacultymightenable ustoproposespecificideasfortheadjustmentoftheoverallESL andEFL curricula.

Research Question 6waswhatthedifferencesbetween students・perceptionsofuseful and enjoyable reading activities and the teacher・s ideas of useful activities are.One important finding is that the most powerful instruments that teachers employ can occasionallyruncountertowhatstudentshopetodoinclass.Particularly,low-proficiency learnersmay losemotivation forclassparticipation when they feel:(a)agreatamountof classtimeisspenton oneparticularactivity alone,(b)theinstruction ofexpressionsand grammarrulesisnotsufficient,(c)opportunitiesforspeakingordiscussioninEnglishare scarce,or(d)feedbackontheiroralorwrittenreportsisnotsufficient.

ProficientstudentsaregenerallysatisfiedwiththeAdvancedSkillscoursesbecausethey attendtopositiveaspectsofeverycourseoractivityandmakevoluntaryeffortstobenefit from them,compensating for whatever weaknesses individualcourses might have.This tendency resonateswith Pecorarietal.・sreport(2011)on proficientSwedish studentswho werewilling tospareextratimeand efforttolearn English technicaltermsthrough the readingofEnglishtextbooks.However,thecompulsoryAdvancedSkillscoursesaredesigned toimproveallEnglishmajors・languageacquisition,anditisnecessaryfortheteacher,or syllabusdesigner,todesignthem tobebeneficialtothemajorityofstudents,notthemost proficient.Fortunately,asthemostproficientstudentsaregenerally concentrated in the higherlevels,andtheweakerstudentsinthelowerlevels,teachersateachlevelarefreeto developandusematerialsastheyseefit.Thus,itshouldbepossible,andrelativelyeasy,to tailorclassestotheneedsofthatparticularproficiencylevel.

Furthermore,evenminorirregularitiesorincidentscanimpairstudents・motivationfor classparticipation.Oneparticipant・sreaction toBritish English used in avideoclip isa demonstrable example.Native speakers or fluentnon-native speakers tend to take such auxiliary linguistic characteristics as dialectal differences for granted because they understand themeaningsby relying on contextualcuesortheirschemata.However,EFL learnerswhosecommand ofEnglish islimited often havedifficultiesgrasping themajor semantic or pragmatic points,heavily dependent on the bottom-up strategy in their languageuseorlearning.Itisimportantforteacherstobeawarethatstudents・motivation forin-classlanguagelearning can beaffectedmoreseriously by minorirregularitiesthan theymightassume.

Thisisnottoargue,ofcourse,thatanythingthatisdifficultforstudentsbeavoided. Rather,teachersneedtobeawarethattheselinguisticfeaturescanposeachallengeandbe surestudentsunderstandwhyitisworthmakinganefforttomasterthem andprovidethe necessarysupportforthem toovercometheobstacles.A shorttalkaboutthefactthatmost speakersofEnglishdonotspeakwithanAmericanaccentandanintroductiontosomeof thepronunciationsusedby British English speakersthatmightbeunfamiliartostudents mayhaveobviatedtheproblem.

Question5,thereisapossibilitythatstudentsmighthaveapproachedthereadingactivities intheAdvancedSkillscoursesasthoughtheywerelanguage-focusedEFLcourses.Students・ experienceslearningEnglishoftenleadthem tobelievethatexplicitclassroom instructionin grammarandvocabulary istheonly way they can efficiently learn them.Thereisreason todoubtthatthisistrueatany level,butitseemscertain thatthelevelofthestudents enrolledintheAdvancedSkillscoursesmakesitmuchmoreefficient,andalsointeresting, forthem topickupgrammarandotherlinguisticknowledgeinthecourseofmakingsense ofthedifficultmaterialthey processin theclass.Becausethestudentsdo notseethe teachertaking timetoexplicitly teach grammarpoints,they may feelthatthey arenot learning grammar.Teachers,who understand moreaboutlanguageteaching than do the students,know thatthisisnotthecase.

Conclusion

TeachingabalancedcombinationoffourEnglishskills(i.e.,speaking,listening,reading, andwriting)isimperativebecauseEnglishmajorsmustbeguidednotonlytolearnsimple expressions for daily conversations in English but also to build up solid skills and knowledgeofboth spoken and written English and preparefortheirfutureprofessional careers.From theperspectiveofmotivation,greateremphasismightbeplacedonspeaking becauseitiswhatmoststudentsenjoy themost.However,highly proficientparticipants haveacknowledgedthatasolidknowledgeofwritten English isindispensableforaccurate communicationandvocabularylearning.Thus,theteachermightstrivetobalancebetween themajorskillareasandalsoadministerdifferentactivitiestoteachvarioussubcategories oflanguageskills.

Teachers are encouraged to employ their unique teaching techniques based on the expertiseacquiredoutsideofclass,butitseemsnecessarytoreflectonthelevelofstudentsand makesurethatthey areready tofully benefitfrom them.Daily observation ofstudents・ reactiontothegivenactivitiesmighthelpthem makesuchdecisions.Theteachers・burden concerningclasspreparationisheavywhentheyareaskedtoteachanew course,butafew minoradjustmentsmay bemadeforeach following semester,bridging theteacher・sideas andstudents・expectations.

Itwould beidealtodividetheentirethird-yeargroup intosmallerskillclasses(e.g., eightgroups,instead ofthepresentsix)so thattheteacher can providemoredetailed feedbacktoeachstudent.Duetoadministrativeconstraints,thenumberofteacherscannot easilybeincreased,butthefacultymustcontinuetoaddressthisissueasavitalcondition fortheimprovementoftheEFL program atthemaincampus.

Wemustacknowledgeseverallimitationsconcerningourmethodofevaluation.Thefirst limitation isthatwefailed to administera delayed posttest.Ouroriginalresearch plan

includedit,buttheclasseswereregroupedforthefallsemesterbasedonanotherplacement test at the end of the spring,and it would have been extremely difficult and ti me-consuming,ifnotimpossible,tomatcheachstudent・sscoresonthepretestandimmediate posttestin thespring andherscoreson thedelayedposttestin thefall.Nonetheless,the assessmentofa possiblecarryovereffect,based upon a delayed posttest,would bevery usefuland should beadministered in futureinquiries.Itisworthwhileto exploremore accuratetypesofreadingcomprehensionaswell.

Thesecondmajorlimitation isthatthequalitativestudy reflectedonly fivestudents・ perceptionsand ideas.Ouroriginalplan toconductawritten questionnairesurvey on all participantswasaborted atan early stageofthisprojectforlogisticreasons.Follow-up studiesshouldincludeasurveythatinvolvesagreaternumberofparticipantsandquestion items,andthenumberofintervieweesshouldalsobeincreased.

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（小川 喜正 英語コミュニケーション学科）

（デイヴィッド コージー 英語コミュニケーション学科） （臼倉 美里英語コミュニケーション学科）