The Japanese Student,

the Computer and Language Learning

This papaer was originally published in Showa Women's University "Gakuen" in 1995.

Typical Japanese language student profile (college age):

Respect for teacher as authority (in both knowledge and power).
Hesitant to communicate interactively. (Ping-Pong versus bowling).
Follows instructions exactly (little variation or individualization).
Unwilling to make mistakes, make guesses or ask questions.
Hesitates to respond unless called upon.

Westerners tend to have a conversation like a game of tennis, where the turns rotate back and forth with great frequency. The Japanese normally do not engage in direct responses, but tend to voice their thoughts individually, separately and from the same starting point, much like bowling. (Sakamoto and Naotsuka, 1982, pp. 80-83)

"Anderson (1993) has described four categories of communicative style and how they bear on classroom behaviour of Japanese students learning English. He identifies group-mindedness as the tendency for students to be highly aware of the expectations of their peers. A related category is consensual decision-making, which results in a tentative style of communication interaction. The category of formalized speech-making, according to Anderson, accounts for the reluctance of students to speak unless well-prepared. Finally, listener responsibility means there is a greater obligation for the listener to understand, than for the speaker to explain (p. 107). " (Brine, 1993, p.297)

"Classical" Japanese teachers of English believe:

L1 as a medium of instruction
L1 as a medium of thought
Language is acquired mainly through memorization
Emphasis on translation
Manipulation of language elements as an end in itself
Grammar is a key to L2 learning
Intensive study of L2 material
Stress on correctness
L2 as an object of study
Teacher centered classroom procedures.

(Luppescu and Day, 1990, from Redfield at JALT 1993)

5-point Likert scale results (n=610)

Pair work: 81.5% favor, 5% oppose
Grammar more important than communication : 8% agree 77% disagree
Oral English 95% favor 1.5% oppose learning
Prefer Japanese teacher: 2% favor 86% oppose
Believe yaku-doku is best teaching method: 10% agree 76% disagree

Elective courses were significantly higher than required, but both rejected classical methods. (Redfield at JALT 1993)

Computers and Learning

Computer Assisted Instruction has gone through three main periods of development. Initially computers were used for "programmed learning," based on behaviorist research (Skinner, 1958). This has lead to a modernized version of Computer Based Instruction (Alessi and Trollip, 1985). The initial linear programmed structure has been expanded with branching techniques, allowing for a certain amount of customizing depending on the feedback from learner behavior (Dumslaff and Ebert, 1992).

Computer Based Instruction (CBI) can be characterized by activities such as tutorial instruction, where a simulated "dialogue" is carried on by the computer and the student, by drills, simulations, which imitate some phenomenon such as going to the post office, by instructional games and by tests (Alessi and Trollip, 1985). Problem-solving programs would not be considered a part of CBI.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) enjoyed a period of application to education in the late seventies and early eighties, when it was considered to have great potential. AI systems program the computer to mimic the human decision-making process using logic. These work best "where the problems we are dealing with are very large and somewhat ill-defined." (Littleford, 1991, p. 364)

AI systems use operators such as IF and THEN along with truth statements to operate on a body of knowledge. The system continues asking questions of the user until there is enough information to make a decision. Some of the most common knowledge-based or expert systems work with highly technical, narrowly defined fields that require a lot of memorization and have very explicit processes, such as medical diagnosis or legal advice.

Unfortunately, AI has proved to be very expensive in time and effort (an expert programmer is required with a systems manager and a field expert, such as a doctor) to create this kind of system (Muhlhauser and Schaper, 1992). Educational applications have not attained the expected quality for the investment required, and therefore are still relatively rare. One current hope is to apply this kind of system to writing other systems: Computer Assisted Software Engineering (CASE). Hypertext has used AI on a limited basis to improve weaknesses in navigation, but application here is still rudimentary.

Hypertext is somewhere between these two extremes and offers one of the most viable areas for educational applications (Stevens, 1986). Hypermedia systems can either be geared toward presentation of material or creation and storing of material (Hammond, 1989). This is a crucial distinction in education, the first working in an active way with the more traditionally considered "passive" skills of information processing, that is, reading, listening, understanding and organizing. The second, using hypertext to create material, uses these skills with other, more "productive" skills such as writing, concept grouping and argumentation.

Japanese students don't work well with computers in general because:

General paucity of computers (for personal, unrestricted use) in society.
Writing system makes keyboarding difficult.
Training methods and philosophy for new skills (doesn't fully take advantage of computer's strengths).
Computers seen as mechanism of authority, not the opposite (excepting Otaku, who are not accepted in society).

Hypermedia learning systems do not work well with Japanese language learners initially. The self-guiding aspect of these types of programs is alien to the communicative style most Japanese bring to the classroom. Students tend to feel more comfortable with the earlier drill-type software, but they soon become bored with this. There is a strong parallel to the debacle of the audio language laboratories (of which Japan has the largest preponderance, and of those, less than 25% are being used as they were intended to be). Note that these labs are of the old style, where students operate in unison with the instructor controlling the hardware and all of the interaction is programmed ahead. The newer style audio labs, centering on individual workstations and student control of the material, presentation speed and style, have not made significant inroads into Japanese language teaching.

Japanese women in particular are threatened by computers. In a study by Vasilios Makrakis of the University of Crete, published in Computers and Education in March 1993) he showed very clearly that 15 year-old Japanese women demonstrate the "We can, I can't" phenomenon where students feel unsure of their own individual ability, but as a group feel competent. Not surprisingly, people perceived computer ability rises with the time they spend at computers. Boys see more applicability to their lives for computer use. Boys are often encourages where girls are not. The number of girls in computer-related fields in Europe are going down despite national incentives to the opposite.

Makrakis' hypotheses are that self-perceived computer efficacy is based on:

"perceptions of usefulness of computing skills for one's future careers;
occupational aspirations with respect to computers;
intrinsic motivation towards computers, described as "personal enjoyment' and 'interest in the study of computers';
the association of computers with maths and sciences; "

No gender differences for hypotheses (3) and (4). Both boys and girls indicated low levels of perceived efficacy. Occupational aspirations, usefulness of computers and ease of computers explained most of the difference in perceived efficacy in both boys and girls. Occupational aspirations were the biggest factor for men, but less so for women (as they are less career motivated than men. "Both parents and teachers exerted and insignificant influence on students' engagement in computer learning." Teachers, although they encouraged males more, did not affect self-efficacy measures. Teachers were prevented from more influence by lack of systematic in-service training. Word processing had been found to have a marked effect on the enhancement of self-efficacy and self-esteem in regards to computer use.

An attendee at the 1988 Sloan-sponsored conference on educational hypermedia at Dartmouth made this comment on the technological conservatism of university and college educators: "It took only twenty five years for the overhead projector to make it from the bowling alley to the classroom. I'm optimistic about academic computing; I've begun to see computers in bowling alleys." (Landow, 1992, p.161)

Training for teachers needed. Mombusho matches funds for hardware, but not software or training. US schools have found a 1/3 distribuiton of funding to be the most effective.

Rules of interaction

"Button (1990) has argued that computers cannot engage in conversation because the rules of computation are of a different sort than the rules of conversation. The rules (or programs) that govern computers

are explicitly represented
are causually efficacious, directly engendering the activities they describe, so that
they cannot be violated, and thus
have the force of mathematical laws
The rules of conversation that have been discovered by conversation analysis (Heritage, 1984), on the other hand,
are typically not represented by their users,
are not causually efficacious, but nevertheless
apply uniformly, even when they are violated, and
have the force of social norms.

"...people are said to orient to rules, rather than being governed by them, and rules are viewed as a resource in conversation, not a determining factor."

"But the fact that computers are governed by one sort of rules (programs) does not preclude their orienting to another sort (such as those of conversation analysis)." Chapman, 1992, pp. 531-536)

A model of computer-learner interaction was developed by John Higgins (1988) for Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). He metaphorically postulates two opposed roles for the computer in education, that of Magister and Pedagogue. A Magister is one who:

"wears and academic gown to show that he is qualified in subject knowledge. Visible in his top pocket is his salary cheque, symbolizing the security of tenured appointment. In one hand he holds a handkerchief, symbol of the care and concern which (we hope) he feels for individual learners. In the other he carries a cane, symbolizing the authority to evaluate, praise and censure. In front of him is the book, the symbol of the order of events, the structure which is imposed on him by the syllabus makers and which he will impose on the learners by means of the lesson plan." (Higgins, 1988, p. 13)*

On the other end of a continuum is the Pedagogue:

"a word which originally meant `the slave who escorts the children to school.' So think of a man in sandals and a cheap cotton robe, walking five paces behind the young master. He carries the young master's books for him, but no cane. The young master snaps his fingers and the pedagogue approaches. He answers the young master's questions, recites a poem, translates words, plays a game, or even, if that is what the young master demands, gives a test. The young master snaps his fingers again, and the pedagogue goes back to his place. He hopes he has given satisfaction, since otherwise he may starve." (Higgins, 1988, p.14)

Generational changes happening quickly, curriculum changes will follow their lead, and their desires. Our job is to anticipate those needs and train ourselves to provide instruction, using a new model of teaching, with the computer as pedagogue.

Resources and Cited Literature

Anderson, F.E. (1993) The enigma of the college classroom. In P. Wadden, (ed.) A handbook for teaching English at Japanese colleges and universities (pp. 101-110). Oxford, England, Oxford University Press.

Brine, John. (1993) Learning English on Japan's electronic frontier. Bulletin of the Faculty of Nagoya University of Commerce and Business Administration, Vol. 37, No. 2, March 1993. pp 289-307.

Chapman, David. (1992) Computer rules, conversational rules. Computational Linguistics, Vol. 18, No. 4, Fall 1992. pp 531-536.

Makrakis, Vasilios. (1993) Gender and computing in Japan: the "We can, I can't" paradox. Computers & Education, Vol. 20, No. 2, pp 191-198. Spring, 1993.

Redfield, Michael. (1993) What Japanese college student think about English. Presented at JALT 1993 National Conference, Omiya, Japan, October 1993.

Sakamoto, Nancy, & Naotsuka, Reiko. (1982) Polite Fictions. Kinseido, Tokyo.

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