Action Research

Does practice make a presentation better? 

 Presentation Skills: 反復練習によりプレゼンスキルが上達するか、アクションリサーチを行った。3年生対象の授業で、練習の効果を見るために、ビデオ録画を用いて練習を行った。2度の録画を特定のルーブリックで評価した結果をラッシュ分析したところ、発音と抑揚、自信を持って発表する態度という観点から一定の効果が認められた。

 A study was conducted to investigate whether presentation skills improve through repeated practices. In a course for the third year STEM students, formal practice was assigned; recordings of the poster introduction both before and after the poster session were then assessed by three veteran instructors of the presentation courses using a grading rubric developed for this course. The rubric covered three performance areas: English speaking ability, presentation skills, and poster design. The data collected then underwent Rasch analysis to examine the performance of students, raters, and the grading rubric. Results indicated that the sustained practice correlated with positive linguistic effects in pronunciation, preparation and confidence, and intonation and fluency (Published at JALT International Conference, 2022).

• Presentation slide at JALT 2022

How can authentic materials facilitate learning in ESP classes?

 Reading Skills:ESP教育で専門の内容を英語で読むスキルを向上させるにはどうしたら良いか、実践例をあげて論じた。例えば鍵となる専門用語に焦点をあてる教授法や、translanguagingの手法を用いた指導例を挙げて、英語教員の立場でどのように専門科目内容の目標言語使用を促進できるか検討中である。

 We reported on an ESP program for STEM majors which was designed and implemented at a private university in Tokyo. One of the course objectives is to learn specialized knowledge through reading materials in the field. Based upon the syllabus, instructors facilitated learning with different approaches; An instructor focused on the key academic vocabulary in the text, while another employed a translanguaging approach.  (Presented at JACET Summer Seminar, 2023). We are exploring how to help students learn the target language in the content area.

How can Machine Translation and Generative AI tools help learners in ESP classes?

 2021年度から本研究に携わる中で、学習者は機械翻訳(MT)を普段使用していることが明らかになってきた。もともとMT使用の是非、あるいは使用方法は本研究の対象ではなかったが、アンケートやインタビューを行ううちに、使用していない対象者はいないという実態が見えてきた。そして2023年9月現在、STEM 学生にとって生成AIの使用もデフォルトとなっている感がある。今後はESP教育でそれらを倫理的かつ効率的に取り入れた教育をどのように行うかが議論となろう。

Since the start of the research in 2021, it was revealed that learners use Machine Translation (MT) on a daily basis. Although the question of whether to use MT or how to use it was not the focus of this research. However, surveys and interviews showed that learners do use MT regularly.   As of September 2023, the use of generative AI also seems to have become the default for STEM students. It is of urgent necessity to incorporate these technologies in an ethical and effective manner into ESP education.