Effective Factors in Interactions within Japanese EFL Classrooms

要旨

Classroom interactional patterns depend on some contextual, cultural and local factors in addition to the methodologies employed in the classroom. In order to delineate such factors, the focus of classroom interaction research needs to shift from the observables to the unobservables like teachers' and learners' psychological states and cultural backgrounds. This article demonstrates how the attitudes of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) Japanese learners and teachers and other (unobservable) factors influence the classroom interactional patterns. One important factor is the Japanese EFL learners' attitudes towards the role of English within their society; since they do not feel any immediate needs for English use (as a language awareness attribute), they would rather direct their interactions toward `self-expression' and `personal growth' rather than authentic communication. The second factor is anxiety, which inhibits Japanese learners from initiating conversations, raising new topics, and challenging their teachers. The third factor is Japanese culture, which is characterized by valuing indirect speech, face saving, group conformity, reticence, competition avoidance, and preference for teacher dominated classrooms. The fourth factor pertains to Japanese English (JE) as a different form of English which imposes certain interactional patterns like quick turn-taking, more frequent use of repetitions, and backchanneling. The fifth factor is Japanese learners' motivation and disunity in their learning styles. The last factor is concerned with the idea of `willingness to communicate' (WTC) in L2 situations. It is supposed that cooperative learning and critical thinking can promote WTC. Based on these factors some pedagogical suggestions for Japanese EFL context are offered.

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