CALL English Courses in the General Studies Program:

Introduction

　CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) or CAI (Computer Assisted Instruction) is an efficient and effective method of learning a foreign language. Ito's CALL English courses are designed to provide students with thorough instruction in the four main communicative language skills in English.  They aim to improve both students' communication and comprehension skills in order for them to become proficient users of the English language.  A CALL room or a computer language laboratory provides students in specialized courses with the opportunity for individualized aural/oral instruction and practice.  The Media Center B of Iwate Prefectural University (IPU) has at present four "Gogaku Gakushushitsu" or computer laboratories for learning foreign languages, utilizing a variety of approaches and materials.  Computer assisted language learning is integrated within the teaching program and there are also opportunities for students to use the facilities on a self-access basis.
  Teachers make use of a worksheet (MS Word file) which is based on the textbook and provides further exercises and activities to supplement the course.  The CALL system enables teachers to use multimedia materials as classwork.
  So in Ito's CALL English courses, students can learn at their individual speeds and levels.  Multimedia materials, including some TV news programs and popular English songs, are frequently used in the classwork, and consequently the students remarkably improve their listening skills.  The greatest advantage of using CALL for students is, however, to lead them to learn writing skills more effectively than by using old-fashioned language laboratories.
  This article aims to define the English language education at the university level and to introduce a teacher's CALL English courses carried out in Iwate Prefectural University with a survey to show students' feedback.

I. English Courses Offered by
the University General Studies Program 

  Under the present circumstances at Japanese universities, it is difficult to define English language education at the university level.  However, it can be defined in the following two ways according to Tajino & Suiko (2005): 

  1. English language courses offered by "Zengaku Kyotsu Kamoku"
(the University General Studies Program) as the final stage
after the six-year high school education.  "To understand
other languages and cultures through learning a foreign
language and to develop the active attitude of students to
communicate with other people, and to cultivate their practical
competence of communication in understanding information and
other people's intentions and expressing their own opinions"
("Kotogakko Gakushu Shido Yoryo" [The Course of Study for
High Schools], Chapter 8 Foreign Languages, 1. The Objective,
notified by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science
and Technology in March 1999) (trans. Eishiro Ito)

　The compulsory English courses of first-year and second-year university students, which are taken in the University General Studies Program, can be considered to be very similar to high school English language courses, judging from the objectives.  It can be said that there is no essential difference between them.  However, if one defines a university as "an institution of academic research and education," one would hesitate to accept the above definition. In addition, many university students who take English as a compulsory subject probably expect "to cultivate their practical competence of communication." 

  2. English language courses offered by the University General
 Studies Program as the starting point for faculty or post-
 graduate specialized  education. "University faculties shall
 be centers of scholarship, broadly  imparting knowledge
 while conducting specialist academic research into the arts
 and sciences at a deep level, with the aim of developing
 intellectual, moral and practical  ability" ("Gakko Kyoikuho"
 [The School Education Law of Japan], Article 52).¹

Chart 1

In contrast to the past, Japanese students can go abroad much easier than before thanks to the strong Japanese yen, and can be exposed to English 24 hours a day if they watch bilingual TV programs and Satellite programs.  Moreover, they can access the Internet where English is the most dominant language, write e-mails to unknown people and order foreign books using English very easily.  In the countryside of Iwate where one has far fewer chances to meet foreigners than in big cities, however, teachers need to guide students to the English-speaking world.  According to the 2005 survey, the order in which IPU students have most contact with English is mainly through 1. music, 2. DVDs or videos, 3. the Internet, 4. Professors and 5. TV and radio:

Chart 2. How do you study or have contact with English?
(X=the total number of respondents)

 In IPU, English courses are set as basic subjects for first-year and second-year students as part of "Zengaku Kyotsu Kamoku" (the University General Studies Program).⁴  Therefore all English Expression courses are mixed classes of students from all four faculties; Nursing, Social Welfare, Software & Information Science and Policy Studies.  In Soshin-Chikon, the booklet to commemorate the foundation of the university published in 2000, "General education is put in practice in the whole university system including all the four faculties: It takes four years complementing specialized education,"  "All subjects for general education are courses of 'Zengaku Kyotsu Kamoku' set for the whole university," "General education enriches English language education and promotes students' understanding of intercultural communication through learning a foreign language" (54).⁵  If one tries to carry out the University General Studies Program as it is expected, however, one will soon suffer from undesirable influences:

  1. There are gaps among the average English abilities of the
students of the four faculties.  Particularly there are many
students of Software & Information Science whose English
ability is remarkably low, because they graduated from
technical and commercial high schools where they have taken
 only a few English courses: Such students seem to be
disinterested in English before entering university.

　2. There is a great gap between the attainment target English
teachers set and the expectation of other professors of
professional education.  Non-English professors hope that
students should study hard how to read and write English as
they did in their school days, so that students can read
English writings in each academic field.  It is necessary,
however, to acquire enough knowledge of each field to read
technical writing.  It is far from sufficient to read only
newspapers or other general readers. 

So it is irrelevant to criticize students for not being able to read academic writings very well after finishing English courses.  Many students who have not acquired basic English competence in their high school days, however, want to master the speaking skill first.  It is partly because conversation textbooks and classwork are generally easier in vocabulary and topics than those placing importance on reading and writing.  Students can prepare for the class without taking so much time and looking at their dictionary so often. 
  In IPU, second-year students take an English conversation course "English Expression IV" in the second semester. Until a decade ago, Japanese students used to learn English in the Grammar Translation Method, reading and translating somewhat difficult readers (literary masterpieces, etc.) into Japanese.  The Grammar Translation Method sounds a little archaic these days but it is a necessary method for learning how to read English well.  Needless to say, the translation skill is necessary to introduce foreign books to the general reader.  In fact, Japan is probably the first in the world in terms of the numbers of translations, thanks to the nation-wide spread of the traditional method of learning English.  However, since the Ministry of Education made a great turnabout of English language education to put a premium on the communication skill in 1989, teachers do not take enough time for teaching the translation skill.  In Ito's courses, translation is not regarded as an important skill in classwork, although students are assigned to translate some English sentences into Japanese in term papers and final exams.  Long ago I stopped giving a model translation in the classroom because I feared that students might just try to dictate it word by word without translating by themselves.  Also, the intervenient native tongue is sometimes apt to have a disadvantageous influence on learning a foreign language.  In IPU, English language education is always offered by "Zengaku Kyotsu Kamoku" (the University General Studies Program).  "Eigo Hyogen" (English Expression) is a subject for general education.  According to the present curriculum introduced in 2002, students take four compulsory English courses: English Expression I (focusing on reading & listening skills), English Expression II (reading, listening & writing skills), English Expression III (reading, listening & speaking skills) and English Expression IV (conversation skills) in each semester in the first two years. First-year and second-year students take only one English course a week.
　Before 2002, first-year students took two compulsory English classes a week and second-year students took one compulsory English class a week: The third-year and four-year students who desired to learn more English could take either of the four "Eigo Jiyu-Choko Kamoku" (Open English courses) with no graduation credit ("Reading Newspapers & Magazines," "Listening Overseas," "Viewing Films" and "Writing to Pen-pals") in each semester.  However, the average class size exceeded 50.  Under such bad conditions, there were so many problems, like the physical constraints imposed by large numbers in confined classrooms, difficulty of controlling classworks, individual attention, evaluation and learning effectiveness (Hayes 1997: 108-10). Thus, the present curriculum was employed to make small classes (up to 25) in 2002.  Open English courses became defunct as the number of the applicants remarkably declined.
   In the old curriculum, the big class size and neglecting each student’s English ability had negative effects.  Students were divided into each class by the last digit of the student number.  We could not expect much learning to take place under such circumstances. So we thought that the class size should be less than 25, although the number of English courses first-year students take declined from two to one a week. In addition, we organize all the English classes by the ITP (Institutional Testing Program) Pre-TOEFL scores.  First-year students take the placement test in April after the entrance ceremony and in February after the second semester.  With this reformation, organizing classwork for each class is much easier than before. 
   Especially, English Expression IV focusing on communication has become much easier than before for teachers to manage.  Needless to say, however, one English course a week is far from enough.  Students are now encouraged to study English personally in their free time, using "Gogaku-jishushitsu" (AV-Room for Language Study), etc.
It has been long considered how and to what degree students need to learn English in four-faculty mixed classes.  The following is the common syllabus for all the English classes.  Each teacher is entrusted with the details of teaching.

　

English Expression I (Reading & Listening):
Objective of Teaching: To set the basics on learning English to
enable the students to carry out intercultural communication by
both "understanding other cultures" and "conveying Japanese
culture."  To enable "reading & listening" (understanding) skills
to transpose "writing & speaking" skills (conveying).  The subject
name "Eigo Hyogen" (English Expression) resulted from the full-
fledged radicalization of the objective of learning English. 
"Hyogen" (Expression) is the objective for conveying messages,
and to do so, reading, listening, speaking and writing skills
become the pillars.  The reason why we do not use the
traditional and methodological subject names such as "Eigo
Kodoku" (Reading English) and "Ei-sakubun" (English Composition)
is to establish clear objectives and to incite the students to
diligence.
  In addition, since the training for "expressing" for "conveying
messages" is applied to learn anything in any field, "English
Expression" has the additional role in the broad sense.
*The same objective is also upheld for English Expression II
(reading, listening & writing), English Expression III (reading,
listening & speaking) and English Expression IV (communication).

English Expression I (reading & listening):
Concrete items to attain the Objective: To master how to read
 through the English writing grasping the outline.  Also to
elevate students' well-balanced "reading & listening" abilities
so that they can understand text at the same level of difficulty
by listening as well.

English Expression II (reading, listening & writing):
Concrete items to attain the Objective: To master reading &
listening comprehension skills in English.  Also, to use the
imformation from the text they understand for composition as
well.  Thus, the objective is to attempt to master the well-
balanced skills of "reading, listening & writing."
*The concrete items of English Expression III (reading, listening
& speaking) are the same as above.

English Expression IV (communication):
Concrete items to attain the Objective: To attempt to complete
the sequentially based skills in English Expressions I-III.  To be
accustomed to make an English conversation person to person and
to try to discuss in a group.
(Extracted from Heisei 17-nendo Rishu no Tebiki [The Student
Guidebook for Taking Courses 2005]) (trans. Eishiro Ito)

  As mentioned above, in IPU, we have been carrying out ITP Pre-TOEFL test for first-year students twice a year (in April & February) since 2002, in order to organize all the English classes effectively by the ITP Pre-TOEFL scores.  We currently use the easier one (Level 2: max 500 pts) from the two kinds of ITP TOEFL tests.  The average score of the four faculties is around 375 so far.  According to the result of ITP Pre-TOEFL 2004, the highest average score is 378.58 (Nursing Faculty): Second, 378.13 (Social Welfare Faculty), third, 373.29 (Policy Studies Faculty) and the lowest, 358.17 (Software & Information Science Faculty).  With the result, we organized all the classes: The high-ranking classes included many students of Nursing and Social Welfare, while the low-ranking classes consisted of many more students of Software & Information Science.  Thus, English teachers of course need to consider what materials are to be used and how to motivate students to study English for each different level class. Those are left within each teacher's discretion.  So I seek for the solution in using the CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) system.

II. Pros and Cons of Using the CALL System

　Generally speaking, there are two methods of using the CALL system:

1. Self-teaching CALL: Basically to be based on self-instruction.
   Students can choose when and where they study English
   depending on their individual skills and schedules.
2. Classwork-assisted CALL: Basically to be used in classwork. 
   Students are also encouraged to use a computer to study
   English applying multimedia materials and the Internet freely
   outside the class hours.

　Ito's method utilizes the Classwork-assisted CALL system.  There are four CALL rooms in IPU now: two Windows XP rooms and two Mac OS X.3 rooms.  They are also used for French classes and Spanish classes.  The problem is, however, that there is not enough budget and enough staff for employing the dealers' commissioned self-schooling programs like "e-learning" and creating the original network English learning programs as Waseda University and Hiroshima City University do.  Of course we language teachers appreciate the prescience of the university preparation staff who decided to introduce four CAI rooms for learning languages at the time of the university foundation.  However, it is very difficult to attain some remarkable educational effects only by using CALL rooms.⁶   In March 2003 the old CAI system was replaced by a new system "CaLabo 2000."  It enables the use of both Windows and Macintosh operating systems.  According to the documentation, the new system also enables us to develop the new CALL materials.  However, no teachers have tried it so far because it requires a considerable time spent in the computer room.  To homologize the severe conditions of our CALL system, I often dare to use commercially-produced textbooks which are not specially designed for a computer facility. 
   In 2005, I use five textbooks for six different-level classes.  Of these, I would like to introduce two textbooks, News Watch 4 (NHK BS English News Stories 2005) and ABC World News 7, both published by Kinsei-do in 2005.  I evaluate these two annually-released serial textbooks with the videotape highly, and have long been using them.  First, the scripts of the video tape (listening materials) can be used as reading materials.  Second, the texts are annually updated on the news broadcasted in the previous year with almost the same style.  Third, if not translating, the amount and the relative difficulty of each unit of the textbooks are appropriate for IPU students.  Fourth, the exercises in both textbooks are based on the news topic of each unit.  Fifth, "Discussion Questions" (News Watch) and "Exercise E. Discussion" (ABC World News) have an important role of inviting students to express their own opinions about each topic in English.
　The merit of using the commercially-produced textbooks in the CALL room is:

1. Students can study English at speed determined by their
    individual abilities.
2. Students can download the MS Word file (worksheet) from
    the website to prepare for the class. 
3. During the class time, students can ascertain their level of
    attainment compared with other students via  the "Kyomu-
    techo" (class record system) on the common monitors and
    the front screen, etc.

  Students have no time to take a nap during the classwork, as often observed in university courses in Japan, because they are to submit the file at the end of every piece of classwork.
　　However, as the survey result of 2005 shows, quite a few students feel unsatisfied with the current computer-using instruction system.  Some students of English 204 claim that Ito's CALL English courses require harder work than other teachers, while they do not feel that their endeavors are always reflected in the final grade.  As the result, some students rated "1" or "2" to the question "Do you like the present English class?" and "Is to use a computer for learning English enjoyable?" (see Appendix).  Still, however, the majority of students believed that learning English in the university level is necessary, and that to use a computer for learning English is good for their future (see Appendix).

III. English 104/204

　 English 104 are Ito's courses English Expression I & English Expression II for Class 04.  As mentioned, IPU assigns all the first-year students to take ITP Pre-TOEFL (Level 2) twice a year (in April and in February). Class 04 is the fourth best class of 20 classes.  The average score of Class 04 2004 was 395.00 in April and ten months later in February raised up to 405.04.  Class 04 is the only class among the top ten classes whose average score became more than 10 points higher in February than that in April.⁷  As the students did not learn how to get good marks in TOEFL during the classtime, it can be considered that the average score proves some improvement of students' English proficiency.  At present, the result of ITP Pre-TOEFL test is the only one which enables us to compare the educational achievement with other students of other courses.
　As I take in charge of six English courses both in the first semester and the second semester 2005, I made twelve pages in all for covering all the courses in the website "Atelier Aterui" <http://www.iwate-pu.ac.jp/home/acro-ito/>  Making the website for classwork, I have taken notice of the following points:

1. To make one individual page for each English course.  Students
    can download the files for classwork:  Students are required
    to prepare for classwork, doing the file in advance. "English
    104" suggests Class 04 of "English Expression I" courses. 
    Actually the same textbook continued to be used for "English
    204" for almost all the same students in the second semester.
    However, the students taking "English 204" are supposed to
    access the page of "English 204," where all the announcements
    and important information is provided.  This is because students
    will take individual credit (2 units) for each English course in
    each semester according to current IPU curriculum.
2. To explain the guidelines in the CALL (CAI) room, the instruction
    page "Student Manual" provides useful information for students.

3. As the students taking Ito’s courses access for classwork,
the whole of the website is in English. As you visit, you
will soon notice that the website "Atelier Aterui" excludes
Japanese descriptions except for the very special occasion when
some Japanese letters are needed to explain the unique
Japanese things.

4. There are many pages which introduce aspects of Japanese
    Studies, especially focusing on Iwate and the Tohoku District,
    displaying many related pictures.  This is because these English
    descriptions with pictures can be good examples for students
    for introducing the unique Japanese things, especially things of
    Iwate in English.  This website contents, for instance,  a page
    of Aterui the great hero of Emishi who fought with Tamuramaro
    Sakanoue in Mizusawa, Oshu City for defending their native land
    Isawa more than twelve hundred years ago, a page of Okago
    Christian Martyrdom remains, Fujisawa Town and a page of
    Chaguchagu Umakko Parade, the unique traditional parade from
    Takizawa Village to Morioka.

5. Finally, "Talk with Lissa" is the special English chat program
   (a chatterbot) for IPU students. 

  Once you click "English 104" on the Contents, the course name, class number, the semester opening the course, the location of the classroom and the sign of either "under construction," "in progress" or "concluded."  Beneath those is the brief description of the course and the information of the textbook including the publication data.  The textbook is based on the two TV programs "News Watch" and "What's on Japan" of NHK [Nippon Hoso Kyokai; Japanese Broadcasting Association] S-1 (BS 7), so the link to the official page of "NHK Online" is inserted.  Then, the box beneath contains the MS worksheet of each unit.  Students are supposed to download the file and work on it as much as possible before the class.  Otherwise, they will have difficulty submitting the file after checking the answers with the model answer sheet shown on the screen at the end of the classwork. 
  The audio CD is attached to the textbook of News Watch series, while it is not attached to the ABC World textbook.  So students using the latter textbook can access the audio files (ram files) via the class webpage accessible from any computer inside of IPU. 
  Before the class starts, students sit on their fixed seats, start up the computer, log in with each ID and password, and input each name into the attendance card of CaLabo 2000 CALL system.  Then, double click the file they prepared to open from their individual space of the students' file server (s-file). Now they are ready to watch the video clip of the unit.  After watching it several times and listening to the teacher's explanation and comments on the text and the exercises, they complete work on the file.　 　The teacher walks around students and checks their files on the computer screen giving some grammatical suggestions and other advices for the appropriate answers as much as possible while the "Kyomu-techo" (class record system) is displayed on the common screens to enable students to check their attendance and interrelative grade records (marked A to D) in the classroom.
  Generally speaking, first-year students are not accustomed to using computers yet, so it takes them the first few months to master the basic operation of the computer work.  Until they master it, the classwork is, as it  were, a basic computer course, not an English course, although they also take the formal computer course at the same time.  Fortunately a "Jyugyo-hojoin" (LL assistant) assists the teacher with operating the AV facilities and managing the students' computer troubles, so the teacher can concentrate on teaching English.  The role of a "Jyugyo-hojoin" is very important when using a CALL room and it would be impossible to manage the classwork in a CALL room for first-year students in the first semester without them. 
  After watching the video clip and listening to my explanation and suggestions for the unit, students can take less than 20 minutes to complete the file.  It is almost impossible to finish it without enough preparation.  Additionally in the first semester, they are assigned to give a 5-10 minute self-introduction and have Q&A sessions based on it starting from late May when they are gradually accustomed to computers.   Of course they are frustrated with the classwork until they become experienced.  In "English Expression II" in the second semester, students are divided into some groups (2 to 4 persons each) and engage in "Discussion Questions" using the microphones. It is about 20 minutes before the end of the class that the model answers are displayed through the common monitors.  Students are supposed to check their answers and submit the file through the "SHARE" folder of the "Jyugyo-shien [supporting classwork] server" at the end of classwork.
  There are 20 units in all in the News Watch textbook: One unit makes one section of classwork and ten units are to be completed in each semester.  For the other classworks, two files are provided for each session. The first one is fill-in-blank listening material based on some current hit song. The second one is reading and writing material based on some article from The New York Times or The Japan Times: The students are to read the news story and type their own opinions in English.
  The format of the final examination for English Expressions I & II is the same kind of file provided and collected through the computer network: Translating into Japanese, changing some Japanese sentences into English using the phrases given, and "Discussion Questions" which are considered most important since "the training for expressing for conveying messages is applied to learn anything in any field, English Expression has the additional role in the broad sense."
  The following picture was taken at the time of the final exam of English 104 in July 2005.  It is noteworthy that students do not use any writing instruments and take the exam through the computer screen.

The Final Exam of English 104, 2005 (Photo by Mina Onodera)

Very important to carry out the exam via the computer network is that the access to the Internet must be strictly prohibited during the final exam, because there are numerous sites providing some translation software and other useful information for cheating.  As for other warnings, students are to read through the "Student Manual" page before the exam and "Warnings for Examinees in CALL Rooms" are displayed on the front and common screens during the exam.  However, in Ito's CALL courses, students are allowed to use the MS Word spell checker and the LogoVista dictionary already installed into each computer freely during the exam.  To get a better score, students are encouraged to write as long, coherent and comprehensive answers to the "Discussion Questions" as they can. 

Conclusion

　The foregoing is only one example of Ito's CALL English courses.  Teaching English in a CALL room is still a new method involving trial and error, and Ito's courses have achieved "trial and success" in their own way considering the result of the placement test.
 There are numerous language teachers who tend to give up introducing a CALL system for their courses only because of the financial difficulty.  It is a doubtless fact that the adaptation of a CALL system costs a huge sum of money because it requires not only the building fund of CALL rooms but also the working fund for the maintenance, a rental fee of a commercial web-based learning system or a manufacturer's software and the development of original software, etc.  However, Ito's method of making MS Word worksheets for using the published textbooks for a CALL room is a partial solution for the financial problem.
  Now in the age of the Japanese university reform, the evaluation of each course, the teaching method and its achievement has begun.  English courses should, after all, provide students with enough exercises for learning English, so it is important for teachers to consider how to let them to come in touch with as much English and how to let them use as much English as possible.  To achieve the common objective of the IPU English courses, we have been maintaining the computer-assisted English learning environment which enables students to give efficient opportunities of expressing their opinions and conveying the messages in English with the CALL system and the website "Atelier Aterui." 
  When we visited some universities in Australia in November 1998 and in Germany in January 2000, we heard from many teachers that the computer-based language learning system is normally for advanced learners who can use the language very fluently.  However, in the case of the Japanese universities, where, generally speaking, students have very much higher skills of reading and writing, compared with the other skills of listening and speaking, the condition is far different from those of Australia and Germany.  At first some students feel at a loss under the unaccustomed conditions of using a computer but they soon become inclined to use it rather enjoyably not only for learning English, but also for a variety of their studies and interests.  Using the CALL system, teachers enable them to have efficient opportunities for reading, writing and listening.  The only skill lying dormant is the speaking skill.  However, the problem can be solved with one more device available to the teacher (using microphones to invite students to give their opinions and to discuss the designated topics in public) in a CALL room where many computers make noises.  Ito’s present method of using the CALL system is greatly attributable to continuous feedback from a succession of students since the university foundation year 1998.  Still, it is under improvement and is to be improved little by little reflecting students' feedback.

 

Notes

 *This article is partially based on a paper presented at "Dai-55-kai Tohoku-
Hokkaido-Chiku Daigaku Ippan-Kyoiku Kenkyukai" (The Fifty-Fifth Meeting
of the Association of Universities of the Tohoku and Hokkaido Region for
the Study of General Education), Iwate Prefectural University, September
8, 2005.

1. Cf. "Sorimachi Speaks": <http://www.lec-jp.com/speaks/info_034.html> 
   Accessed: October 19, 2005.
2. Cf. Flowerdew & Peacock (2001: 8-24) and Jordan (1997: 1-19).
3. Iwate Nippo, February 2, 2005:  
   <http://www.iwate-np.co.jp/news/y2005/m02/d02/NippoNews_14.html> 
   Accessed: October 19, 2005.  This report is based on the results of
   the students' own markings.
4. Software & Information Science Faculty has their own English courses
   only for their     faculty students.
5. As for the definition of communication, see Terasawa (2002: 111): "To
   Exchange    information or messages between the sender and the receiver." 
   Cf. also Weaver (1964: 3): "The word communication will be used here in
   a very broad sense to include all of the    procedures by which one mind
   may affect another.  This, of course, involves not only    written and oral
   speech, but also music, the pictorial arts, the theatre, the ballet, and in
   fact all human behavior."
6. Of course the staff knew this when they first introduced the CAI rooms.
   In 1998, the    first year since the foundation, four teachers (Akira
   Mizokoshi, Kan'ichi Itagaki, Adrian Cohen and Ito) developed the CAI
   material "Kenji World" for English Expression IB in the old curriculum,
   which was widely used exclusively in 1998.  The software includes, for
   instance, the vocabulary game "Word Buster" in which players try to
   defend IPU from the erupting volcano Mt. Iwate by shooting volcano
   ash-like English/Japanese words.  It also contains English quizzes about
   Iwate and the original listening materials starring our staff:  It took more
   than half a year to finish it, but we found a big problem soon after
   launching it for classwork: Once students engage in doing the software
   and know the model answers from teachers, they soon circulate the
   answers among them, so that teachers cannot use it in the same class
   again.  It could be possible to replace the questions with new ones,
   but it required much time and enough knowledge about the creating
   software "Director."  It was impossible for us to do it during the
   semester.  "Kenji World"  gradually fell into disuse.  Since then, new
   original English learning software has not  been developed anymore.
7. Class 04 was the only class of the top ten classes Ito was in charge of
   in 2004.

References

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  Accessed: October 19, 2005. 
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  Information  Literacy Book for Learning English).  Tokyo: Taishukan-shoten.
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  Teigen" ("Ch. 1. Suggenstions for University English Language Education").
  Takefuta, Yukio & Masanori   Suiko, eds. Korekarano Daigaku-Eigo-Kyoiku:
  CALL wo Ikashita Shido System no Kochiku  (The Future University English
  Language Education: The Construction of Instruction System Using CALL). 
  Tokyo: Iwanami-shoten.
Tazaki, Kiyotada. 1995.  Gendai Eigo Kyojyu-ho Soran (The Comprehensive
  Bibliography of Modern Instruction Methods of English Language).  Tokyo:
  Taishukan-shoten.Terasawa, Yoshio, ed. 2002. Eigo-gaku Yogo Jiten (Kenkusha
  Companion to the English   Language and Linguistic Terms).  Tokyo: Kenkyu-sha.

Appendix: The Survey for Ito's Six CALL English Courses:

a. The survey was done for Ito's six classes (English 419, English 422, English
   218, English 204, English 214 and English 402) between October 24 (Mon)-27
  (Thu), 2005. 
b. The significant total number of answerers was 108.

Questionnaire for CALL English Courses Class: English _______ Faculty: Nursing/ Social Welfare/ Software & IS/ Policy Studies Sex：Male/ Female (Please circle) 01．Do you like English now? Hate１　２　３　４　５Like (Please circle the appropriate number.) 02．How long do you usually study or have contact with English a week? (Please circle the appropriate number.) 1. Never. 2. Less than two hours in total. 3. Less than five hours in total. 4. Less than ten hours in total. 5. I try to touch English as long as possible. 6. I study English every day. 03．How do you study or have contact with English? (Please circle all the numbers applied.) 1. In the Internet 2. On TV or radio 3. Music 4. DVD or Video (movies, documentaries, etc.) 5. English Language School 6. Friends 7. Professors at University 8. Libraries 9. “Gogaku-Jishushitsu”(AV-Room for Language Study) in Media Center A 10. Others (                                             ) 04．Do you think that learning English is necessary at university? Unnecessary１　 ２　３　４　５Necessary (Please circle the number.) 05．Is the present university English class good for you? Bad１　２　３　４　５Good (Please circle the number.) 06．Is to use a computer for learning English enjoyable? Not enjoyable１　２　 ３　４　５Enjoyable (Please circle the number.) 07．Do you think that to use a computer for learning English is good for you? Bad１　２　３　４　５Good (Please circle the appropriate number.) 08．Do you have a clear purpose for studying English now? If “Yes,” what is it? No１　２　３　４　５Yes (Please circle the number.)  [                                    ] 09．Do you think that studying English is good for your future? No１　２　３　４　５Yes (Please circle the number.) 10. Please write your comments and opinions about this English class if any.

The Classified Total of the Survey:

Questions/Ratings, etc.		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	total
01	Do you like English?	9	37	24	30	8						108
02	How much do you usually study or have contact with English a week?	4	36	52	10	5	1					108
03	How do you have contact with English?	32	26	73	46	3	4	31	7	6	17	245
04	Do you think that learning English is necessary at university?	1	9	17	31	50						108
05	Is the present English class good for you?	5	16	37	28	22						108
06	Is to use a computer for learning English enjoyable?	10	17	40	25	16						108
07	Do you think that to use a computer for learning English is good for you?	4	8	29	35	32						108
08	Do you have a clear purpose for studying English now?	24	32	25	14	13						108
09	Do you think that studying English is good for your future?	0	9	15	32	52						108
10	Please write your comments and opinions about this English class if any.

 

 

 

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Copyright (c) 2006 Eishiro Ito.  All rights reserved.