The purpose of this study was to explore students' perceptions of individual and collective Digital Storytelling (DS). All participants were non-English major students in Japan. The study goal of the course was to acquire skills and knowledge to present ideas and messages effectively in English with the use of information communications and…

In this pilot study, two second year writing classes at a university in Japan completed two group writing tasks using Microsoft Word and Google Docs. After both tasks were completed, the students (N=45) completed a short survey containing Likert scale items about their preferences when writing under the different conditions. Willing individuals…

Technology is changing traditional views of language teaching and learning, with generational and cultural differences influencing the ways that we interact with it. This paper describes an action research project undertaken at a university in Japan to understand how students use the Internet to prepare written assignments in L2, and the students'…

This article explores how 40 first-year students in a compulsory English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course undertook written tasks during a semester suddenly undertaken online. The university in Japan described here provided on-demand lessons via the Learning Management System (LMS) during the first COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Students prepared…

Two university writing classes (N=49) in Japan completed three writing tasks that focused on marginalised communities utilising Google Drive and TEDxKyoto Talks as part of a writing portfolio assessment. Participants also completed a voluntary reflective survey. The reflective survey results indicated that students demonstrated an increased…

This study aims to analyse the initial use of Digital Storytelling (DS) in primarily asynchronous classes in order to yield results and recommendations for future courses. All participants were students in elective English courses at a Japanese university in Spring, 2020. Due to COVID-19, the courses were redesigned and conducted remotely with the…

Digital storytelling is an educational practice which has attracted the attention of many experts. However, there has been little research on the disadvantages of digital storytelling assignments from the students' perspectives in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education. Addressing difficulties or problems which are likely to occur in…

Seeking to identify and activate the Receptive Vocabulary (RV) of English Language Learners (ELLs), we designed (1) an online five category multiple-choice vocabulary survey that more quickly measures vocabulary knowledge, and (2) an online creative writing task where ELLs chose RV items identified in step (1). While RV items of highly proficient…

This paper reports on a study which investigated the effectiveness of an explicit instruction approach in a Japanese university setting with third-year science and technology students in an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course. The two aims of this study were: 1) to explore changes in students' attitudes and understanding of summary writing,…

The purpose of this study was to explore how a Digital StoryTelling (DST) assignment affected and changed students' motivations for learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in comparison with a StoryTelling (ST) assignment. A course entitled "Information English" was held for Japanese university students at a faculty of information…

The authors present a project that aims at understanding the way language learners write in social media in their every day lives using the target language. How do our students proceed when writing a Social Network Site (SNS) post? What resources do they use for references on word, sentences and text level? By answering these and related questions…

The purpose of this study is to find the effects of using Videoconferencing (VC) as a tool for foreign language instructions in a semester long research study. The research questions focus on the effects of VC (1) on speaking skills, and (2) on general proficiency scores. English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners in a university in Japan were…

Facebook is the most popular social network service (SNS) in the world and a great platform for a link to the world. It can also be used effectively for language learning in EFL environments. However, that is not the case in Japan. The number of Facebook users accounts for less than 6% of the population. This is partly because the most popular SNS…

Research suggests that culturally distinctive first-language rhetorical patterns influence second language composing skills. Frequently, however, these patterns have never been taught formally and are not refined, leaving first-language composing largely underdeveloped. Teaching second language learners to compose often requires attending to the…