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    Taking the risk : students' and teachers' perspectives of English conversation classes in a girls' senior high school in Japan : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1998) Shine, Elva Anne
    This research examined why Japanese students appear reluctant to speak in English conversation classes. From the perspectives of three different groups of students in a girls' senior high school in Japan, it queried the students' motivation, attitudes, aims and expectations, perceptions of themselves as learners, and actual experiences in class. It investigated the kokusai (international) and Japanese teachers of English perspectives' of the students, the conversation classes, and the teachers themselves. A review of the relevant literature suggested that Japanese students were compelled to study English, but had little need to do so. In addition, the participants' culturally different expectations of appropriate learning and classroom behaviors indicated a mismatch between students' and teachers' expectations. The results of this research confirmed that the three different groups of students had different needs, attitudes and levels of motivation. English was the only foreign language offered. Cultural differences in teacher/student classroom practices were found to be involved in students' levels of comfort in conversation classes, and in their confidence in the interactional style encountered in conversation classes. Students with tangible goals were the most willing to adapt to the different classroom culture suggesting that kokusai teachers needed to consider the Japanese students' usual interactional style. The importance of the students' needs and goals, and the cultural differences in educational practices discussed in this research could be studied further investigating the relative benefits of easing the students into a different classroom culture or attempting to operate within a Japanese style classroom culture. The usefulness of gaining the support of Japanese teachers of English in schools in Japan by clarifying the interactional style of English conversation classes is an area of concern.
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    Language learning strategies : a study of strategies used by Japanese adults to learn English in New Zealand, with particular reference to perception and production of difficult phonemes : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Japanese at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2002) Crawford, Masako
    This thesis is an examination of strategies used for learning English by a number of Japanese adults in Wellington, New Zealand. It reports the participants' own perception of their selection and use of strategies, as well as quantitative and qualitative data which I collected in a structured research programme. For the more formal questionnaires I mainly used the 50-strategy version of the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) (Oxford, 1990) translated into Japanese by Ban and Shishido in Oxford (1994). English pronunciation tests consisting of two perception and three production tests were administered to look for any relationship between the use of strategies and the proficiency level of the learners. Three independent judges (all native speakers of New Zealand English) assessed the production tests. I personally conducted in Japanese all the one-to-one interviews (which proved to be most productive of unusual facts and original views), and administered all the pronunciation tests in English. Three of the fifty SILL items were discarded because they were not consistent with the rest of the items in their respective subscales. After the adjustment all six subscales were deemed to be reliable. The scores of the three judges were found to be consistent with each other. The scores of the overall pronunciation test and the adjusted SILL were then analysed using SPSS. The results of the interviews were analysed according to the six subcategories of the SILL. Analysis of participants' performance in the SILL revealed the low use of memory strategies and high and medium use of all other strategy categories. The English pronunciation total scores were found to distribute fairly symmetrically. Significant relationships were found between proficiency in pronunciation and the use of cognitive strategies. The responses to interviews proved that the participants misunderstood some of the SILL questions and that some of the SILL questions were unsuitable to participants with Japanese language backgrounds. The principal conclusion of the research is that each learner chooses learning strategies according to the needs and purposes of their current situation, and that past success and failure influence the choice of strategies. Much of the material may simply reinforce knowledge and experience already widely held, but it is hoped that there may be some facets which may be helpful to those actively engaged as teachers or in research not only in the specific areas of Japanese people learning English in New Zealand but also in the wider context of ESL and EFL.
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    Japanese ESL students' use and perception of English linking and intrusive sounds : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Second Language Teaching at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2016) Wickins, Glenn
    This study investigates the use of linking and intrusive sounds in English by Japanese students studying university preparation English as a Second Language (ESL) courses at a tertiary institution in New Zealand. Such students covet a native-like accent, which in part comes from the ability of native English speakers to resolve the interruptions in the constant stream of language that they are producing. Producing a constant stream of English sounds more “natural” and “fluent”. Native English speakers have options to help them do this, which are called sandhi. This study focuses on six such features of connected speech: linking /j/, /w/ and /r/ sounds which are only pronounced when the following word begins with a vowel; and the intrusive versions of the same three sounds used to remove hiatus (interruptions in the flow of speech) between two vowel sounds. The purpose of this study is to investigate potential links between the usage of sandhi techniques and the current proficiency level of learners to see how teachers can best encourage the use of these “natural-sounding” features. By collecting speech samples from 38 participants and comparing them to the linking patterns of native English speakers as reported by other studies, this study endeavours to draw some conclusions about the usage of sandhi in Japanese ESL students.