Globally, one in three students are now enrolled in private higher education institutions (PHEIs), with the total reaching almost 70 million enrolments. This pattern is similar across a highly diverse Asia: more than 35% of students are enrolled in the private sector, and around 60% of higher education institutions (usually much smaller than their…

This research study provides a case study of how the COVID-19 pandemic affected Japanese university students' views and attitudes on international topics and motivations for living and working abroad. During the pandemic, digital information, including social media, played a prominent role in how these students interacted and kept up with the…

While several studies on study abroad have examined the impact of personal factors (e.g., gender, age, and family environment) on the decision to study abroad, a factor analysis has not yet been conducted on the reasons why some students choose not to study abroad. This paper highlights the role of academic study abroad programs in promoting…

A growing body of vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) studies focuses on accumulating empirical evidence on the relationship between frequency of VLS use and vocabulary acquisition by using the frequency-based measures of VLSs. Our study by contrast, examined which VLSs are perceived as important and useful, and how they are employed by Japanese…

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the education sector worldwide, prompting a swift transition to technology-driven learning solutions. One notable response to this challenge has been the introduction of online versions of study-abroad and international exchange programs. Considering the limited existing research on how English as…

With the growing importance of the United Nations' SDGs, many EFL textbooks addressing the goals have been developed. However, these textbooks generally discuss the applicability of the SDGs in Global South countries, and for university students in Japan, this has resulted in "SDG burnout," as they study the topic but often fail to find…

This qualitative study scrutinised the experiences of intercultural relationship development between international and domestic students at two Japanese private universities, which have contrastive degrees of commitment to internationalisation in regard to stated vision, curriculum, international student enrolment and languages of instruction.…

Plagiarism in academic writing is known to be an issue of concern for educators, administrators, and students alike. Using self-reporting studies and plagiarism detection software, previous research has established that plagiarism in university-level academic writing is relatively common amongst the work of L1 and particularly L2 writers and that…

Over the past 15 years, the L2 motivational self system (Dörnyei, 2005, 2009) has been a dominant framework in the field of second language (L2) motivation. Yet, since the model's introduction, there has been a theoretical discordance between the two components associated with future self-images (the ideal L2 self and the ought-to L2 self) and the…

This study explored how the first language (L1) influences discourse marker use in second language (L2) speech. Some studies (e.g., Liu, 2013; Sankoff et al., 1997) have addressed the issue of L1 transfer of discourse markers in L2 speech, suggesting that non-native speakers' L1 use may influence the frequency and usage of English discourse…

This study expands arguments calling for a more rigorous approach to high-frequency vocabulary list-based learning in EFL learning environments. Test and flashcard item designs were validated through quantitative (midterm and final test) and qualitative (survey) results to explore the impact of digital flashcards designed to build recall-level…

For many teachers and administrators, the degree to which attrition over summer vacation represents a threat to instructed language acquisition remains unclear. In a previous study, Kramer et al. (2019) looked at receptive vocabulary knowledge attrition over summer vacation, found no evidence of attrition using these measures, and called for…

Vocableveltest.org is a testing platform on which users can create on- line self-marking meaning-recall (reading or listening) and form-recall (typing) tests that address a number of limitations of the existing vocabulary level tests and vocabulary size tests. A major limitation of many existing vocabulary tests is the written receptive…

This study applied a qualitative approach and investigated the processes of motivational change through goal setting in extensive reading (ER). The one-year ER program integrating goal setting was introduced in a Japanese university. Interviews were conducted with four selected participants from among 23 students. The results revealed different…

This publication seeks to consider statistics education in Japan while referencing a student paper. The paper to be considered is as follows: "Gakusei no Koudou ga Gakusei Seikatsu Manzokudo ni Ataeru Eikyou" (The Influence of Student Behavior on the Degree of Satisfaction Perceived in Student Life).