THE LONG-TERM EFFECTIVENESS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION AT JAPANESE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

Abstract

This study was an investigation of the effect of English Learning in the Elementary School (ELES) on both English language skills and affective variables. The participants were 145 public junior high school students in Grades 7 and 8; 72 participants received English language instruction once a week in the local public elementary schools in tokku (special educational district), while the remaining 73 participants had not received any English language instruction in their local public elementary schools. Three research questions were investigated: (a) To what degree do the ELES Experienced students and the Non- Experienced students differ in terms of their English listening, speaking, reading, vocabulary, and grammar skills?; (b) To what degree do the ELES Experienced students and the Non- Experienced students differ on the motivational and attitudinal variables?; (c) To what degree do the affective differences between the Grade 7 and Grade 8 results converge or diverge? The Experienced group outperformed the Non-experienced group to a statistically significant degree on the listening test in Grades 7 and 8, on the speaking test in both Grades 7 and 8, except for the Grade 8 story-telling task. The Experienced group outperformed the Non-experienced group on vocabulary/grammar and reading tests, but the results did not reach statistical significance in part because of a lack of statistical power caused by the modest N-size. Unlike previous research findings, no statistically significant differences were found between the Experienced and Non-experienced students for the four motivational and attitudinal variables of Attitudes Toward Intercultural Communication, Attitudes Toward English Learning, Respect for Self and Others, and Reasons for Studying English. Although the conversion or diversion of English skills could not be obtained because different tests were administered to measure the Grade 7 and Grade 8 participants' English skills, the above affective variables did not converge or diverge from Grade 7 to Grade 8.