Teaching English for Academic Purposes (EAP) in Japan

196 Pages·2018·0.23 MB·English

by  Rachael Ruegg

English Language Education
Rachael Ruegg · Clay Williams Editors
Teaching English
for Academic
Purposes (EAP)
in Japan
Studies from an English-medium
University
English Language Education
Volume 14
Series Editors
Chris Davison, University of New South Wales, Australia
Xuesong Gao, University of New South Wales, Australia
Editorial Advisory Board
Stephen Andrews, University of Hong Kong, China
Anne Burns, University of New South Wales, Australia
Yuko Goto Butler, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Suresh Canagarajah, Pennsylvania State University, USA
Jim Cummins, OISE, University of Toronto, Canada
Christine C. M. Goh, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technology
University, Singapore
Margaret Hawkins, University of Wisconsin, USA
Ouyang Huhua, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China
Andy Kirkpatrick, Griffith University, Australia
Michael K. Legutke, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany
Constant Leung, King’s College London, University of London, UK
Bonny Norton, University of British Columbia, Canada
Elana Shohamy, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Qiufang Wen, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing, China
Lawrence Jun Zhang, University of Auckland, New Zealand
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11558
Rachael Ruegg • Clay Williams
Editors
Teaching English for
Academic Purposes (EAP)
in Japan
Studies from an English-medium University
Editors
Rachael Ruegg Clay Williams
Victoria University of Wellington Akita International University
Wellington, New Zealand Akita, Japan
ISSN 2213-6967 ISSN 2213-6975 (electronic)
English Language Education
ISBN 978-981-10-8263-4 ISBN 978-981-10-8264-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8264-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018935127
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Acknowledgements
English for Academic Purposes is a wide-ranging field, and any attempt, such as this
one, to document research and practices in EAP for a nation as large as Japan is
necessarily going to be the product of many hands. As editors of this volume, we are
indebted to the many people, without whose collective efforts, this book would have
been impossible to compile.
We would first like to thank all of the authors of the individual chapters for their
willingness to contribute their time and expertise despite their already busy sched-
ules. There would be no manuscript without you! We’d also like to express our
appreciation to the reviewers, who offered freely of their time and whose sugges-
tions have immeasurably improved the chapters within this volume: Karen Barto,
Catherine Botelho, Irina Elgort, Peter Gu, Susan Meiki, Joanne Mynard, Jim Smiley,
Angela Steadman, and Rob Waring. We wish to offer you our sincerest thanks.
Finally, we’d like to gratefully acknowledge Akita International University for its
cooperation and support in generating and compiling the research described in this
manuscript.
v
About the Authors
Naoko Araki (Ph.D.) is an associate professor in the Faculty of International
Liberal Arts at Akita International University, Japan. Her career as an educational
researcher is focused in the areas of curriculum and pedagogy in additional lan-
guage education. Her research and teaching practice in interdisciplinary
approaches as well as intercultural communication constructs ways of theorising
knowledge, research, and pedagogical effectiveness.
Leigh Yohei Bennett (M.A.) is a lecturer in the English for Academic Purposes
Department at Akita International University, Japan. He has previously taught
English in South Korea, Japan, and the UK. His research interests include the aca-
demic writing struggles of home and international students during their postgradu-
ate studies and corpus linguistics in language education.
Mark DeBoer (M.A.) is a lecturer in the English for Academic Purposes Department
at Akita International University in Japan. His current research examines instances
of interactionist dynamic assessment between learners in online and face-to-face
environments in the emerging field of ecological dynamic assessment. He has taught
in Japan for 20 years.
Patrick Dougherty (Ed.D.) holds a doctorate in education from Northern Arizona
University. An educator for nearly 30 years, he is currently a professor of interna-
tional liberal arts and director of the English for Academic Purposes programme
and foreign language education at Akita International University in Japan.
Naeko Naganuma (M.A.) is an assistant professor in the English for Academic
Purposes programme at Akita International University. Her research interests lie in
the use of technology in teaching second language, second language pragmatics,
intercultural competence, and reading and vocabulary teaching methods.
vii
viii About the Authors
Jo Raphael (Ph.D.) lectures in drama education at the School of Education at
Deakin University, Melbourne. Periods of teaching in Japan have allowed her to
explore drama as a pedagogy in EAL for children and adult learners. Her recent
research interests and publications have been in the areas of drama education, inclu-
sive education, and applied drama and theatre.
Rachael Ruegg (Ph.D.) is a lecturer in the School of Linguistics and Applied
Language Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Her research
interests include instruction and assessment of writing, classroom assessment of
language, learner autonomy, and EMI. She has 17 years of language-related teach-
ing experience, including 11 years in Japan.
Malcolm Sim (Ph.D.) is an assistant professor at Akita International University,
Japan. He has 13 years' teaching experience in Japan and research interests span-
ning a range of fields in applied linguistics and psychology, including second lan-
guage acquisition, pragmatics, learner anxiety, EMI, teacher education, and
curriculum design for culturally diverse learning environments.
Yuichi Tagane (M.A.) is a lecturer for the English for Academic Purposes (EAP)
programme at Akita International University in Japan, specialising in second or
foreign language teaching methods, corpus linguistics, and applied linguistics.
Clay Williams (Ph.D.) is an associate professor in the graduate-level English
Language Teaching Practices Department at Akita International University. He has
taught in Japan for 10 years and has previously worked in Spain, Taiwan, and the
USA. His research interests include cross-script L2 literacy development and cross-
cultural pedagogy.
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Rachael Ruegg and Clay Williams
Integrated Discussion: Innovation via Cross-Cultural Engagement . . . . . 15
Malcolm Sim
Firing the Imagination: Process Drama as Pedagogy
for ‘Melting’ EAP Speaking Anxiety and Increasing Japanese
University Students’ Confidence in Speaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Naoko Araki and Jo Raphael
Word Recognition and Semantic Processing by Japanese
English Learners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Clay Williams
Xreading Versus Paper-Based Extensive Reading: Perceptions
of Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Yuichi Tagane, Naeko Naganuma, and Patrick Dougherty
Increasing Autonomy in Learners of EAP Writing:
An Exploratory Study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Rachael Ruegg
An Exploration of Japanese Students’ Concept and Application
of Critical Thinking in Academic Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Leigh Yohei Bennett
Expansive Learning: Assessment Recapitulates Experience . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Mark deBoer
Developing EAP Materials: Transforming Learning Through
In-House Textbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Rachael Ruegg, Clay Williams, and Naoko Araki
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Rachael Ruegg and Clay Williams
ix
Introduction
Rachael Ruegg and Clay Williams
Abstract While books concerning the instruction of English for Academic
Purposes (EAP) are readily available, there are none focused on the Japanese con-
text. Yet clearly the needs of Japanese students and students studying in Japan will
be different from those in other contexts. The authors of the individual chapters in
this book have all lived and taught EAP in Japan for a number of years. They are
therefore familiar with Japanese learners, the educational and social background
those learners have come from, and how to support them to do the tasks they are not
currently capable of. Moreover, all of the research included in the book has been
conducted in Japan, thus shedding light on appropriate EAP activities within the
Japanese context.
EAP programmes prepare students with more than just proficiency in the English
language; they prepare students with particular skills that are necessary to succeed
in tertiary-level studies in English. In addition to language proficiency, there are a
range of academic skills typically included in the learning objectives of EAP pro-
grammes. These include skills such as critical thinking, logic, note-taking, presenta-
tion, research, and referencing. However, many universities offering English-medium
instruction (EMI) courses or programmes in Japan do not offer EAP instruction and
offer no preparation at all or general language preparation rather than academic
language and skills training.
Akita International University (AIU) is the only Japanese university in which all
classes for which credits are earned are taught in English. AIU is highly ranked
domestically and has become more and more competitive in recent years. Notably,
in the 2016 edition of the Takuetsu suru daigaku [Outstanding Universities]
(Daigaku Tsushin (2016). Takuetsu suru daigaku: Kiyouiku kenkiyuu no arata na
paradaimu ni idomu nijiyuuitsuseiki no furonto ranna [Outstanding universities:
Challenging paradigms in education and research, the front runners of the 21st cen-
R. Ruegg (*)
Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
e-mail: [email protected]
C. Williams
Akita International University, Akita, Japan
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018 1
R. Ruegg, C. Williams (eds.), Teaching English for Academic Purposes (EAP)
in Japan, English Language Education 14, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8264-1_1