Project Rationale and Overview (English lessons through Skype)

Rationale: (Convenient, anxiety-free, cross-cultural, content based lessons are best for language learners)

English is taught as a foreign langauge in Japan. As such, Japanese learners of English rarely have the opportunity to use English outside of the classroom.  Many students have expressed dissatisfaction with learning only "textbook English" at conversation schools.

After listening to many of our high school and adult students' hopes, desires, and complaints about language learning, we concluded that given the difficulties and expenses of doing an actual exchange or study abroad program, it would be best for our students to use online programs to meet native speakers. After much thought and exploration, we decided that Skype would be the best tool to enable our students to improve their English abilities. 

Skype is a free internet phone service, through which users are able to freely call each other, chat, and/or have video conferencing. We believe that through Skype, Japanese language learners will be able to communicate in English at their convenience, thoroughly and unobtrusively observe native speakers' facial expressions, as well as write down their feelings when they are unable to express themselves verbally.

Curriculum Overview:

• We believe that knowledge is best acquired  if it is practical and relevant to the learner's life and useable in his or her immediate environment.
• We believe that English teaching in Japan will best serve students if they can gain more from it than a superficial understanding of grammar and vocabulary.
• We believe that exposure to English on a regular basis is key to mastery.

Pedagogical Stance:

• Our curriculum implements content based instruction (CBI) and uses Skype as a tool for instruction.
• Skype will serve as a comfortable learning environment where students can use English at their convenience.
• Our curriculum focuses primarily on "society" and the curriculum is divided into lesson plans which focus on a single cultural or societal topic from various sources, which allows the learner to compare elements of his society to elements of the society discussed in the lesson.
• By directly and frequently interacting with native speakers, we believe that the student's motivation and langauge ability will naturally increase from the lesson content and feedback from the instructor.

• We believe that many students may worry about how they will be assessed during an online lesson as well as how can they receive feedback to improve.
• Through following our lesson plan outline, students will be able to adequately review the materials covered in the previous lessons as well as give and receive feedback from instructors using our methods.

• We believe that students will adapt quite easily to using Skype to learn English as many Japanese students are familiar with how to use Windows and instant messaging/chat programs which are similar to Skype.
• In addition, we have provided a detaled FAQ page for new users who might be unfamilar with Skype or how to incorporate Skype into their English lessons.

• Essential Questions:

           1. How does culture affect our behavior?

           2. How were your instructors' views similar or different from instructors in your own culture?

           3. What do all people have in common?

• Goals

           Students will be able to:

           1. Express themselves appropriately and clearly

           2. Give their opinions on the instructors feedback and provide insight using the vocabulary in 

               every lesson

           3. Talk about differences between Japanese and Western cultures

Supporting Research:

• The following PDF file is written about Skype and a program called Mixxer, which is designed students to find instructors and vice versa. The article does touch on the efficacy of the program (http://www.readingmatrix.com/articles/elia/article.pdf).
• In this article, it is stated that more research is needed to determine the capabilities of Skype as a tool to promote language learning (http://www.chu.edu.tw/~wswu/publications/papers/conferences/06.pdf)

• We believe that the value of this instructional methodology will be assessed from feedback from teachers and students. We have designed a website Master English Japan (www.masterenglishjapan.com) for students and teachers to post feedback on the lessons as well as our curriculum. 

Common Unit Structure:

• Learning will be facilitated through a content-driven cycle. (see the curriculum map).

Action Research Tools:

•  There are three methods to give feedback (listed in the FAQ section below)
•  We would also like to propose theoretical, supplemental programs which would help language learners              

   maximize on their use of Skype.

          

         The program on the left would give students the ability to track their speaking time in the lessons. They would be

         able to review their speaking time in every lesson and would be able to discuss methods to increase their

         speaking time with their instructors (i.e. the most  effective way to make conversations balanced and not one-

         sided).

         

         The program on the right would give students the ability to listen to their previous lessons, record new lessons,

         and track their progress overtime.