Special Research I

Session 5: Study Case in ID Field (3) (Lecturer: Sachi Takahashi)

Please carry out “This Session's Task” after reading and understanding the following contents.

[Introduction]

    I am currently working at Research Center for Higher Education of Kumamoto University, being mainly engaged in developing the general English education curriculum and working on Computer-assisted Language Learning (CALL) education.

    I would like you to “pay more attention to the information outside your interest”. You may gain new viewpoints or think about your problems from different perspectives. You also may broaden your ideas and conduct your study with greater flexibility.

[E-Learning and foreign language education]

    Students in Japan need to keep studying English very hard during long period from junior high school to university (very sorry I don't know much about backgrounds in your countries), so you may think that the research in English education has been well developed until now. Since the end of the Second World War, various teaching methods or approaches have been introduced to the arena of English education. However, we have never yet established a definite and ultimate teaching theory or solution for English education.
    Despite the fact that there are so many e-Learning materials for learning English available commercially or free, most of them are not based on any proven theory. This is partly because most e-Learning materials have been developed for wide-raging users, which would make it difficult to build e-Learning contents to suit different levels or targets. Another reason is that drill type learning has been still popular in English learning. Design, learning ways and contents of e-Learning should primarily be different depending on the levels and targets.

    Concerning the relationship between ID and foreign language education, there has been little research conducted combining theories of foreign language education and those of ID. It is also difficult for us to find e-Leaning materials based on those findings. Most particularly, specialists in English education have hardly used them! Why don't you grow out of the stereotypical idea that drill type learning is the best for learning foreign language, and become a pioneer in leading the research by the knowledge and skills of ID and foreign language education?