JAPANESE HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS’ COGNITION OF THE POLICY OF CONDUCTING ENGLISH CLASSES IN ENGLISH AND CLASSROOM PRACTICE

Abstract

Drawing on the elements and processes in language teacher cognition (Borg, 2006), this study was an investigation of how four senior high school teachers perceived the policy of conducting English classes in English, the degree to which they conducted English classes that reflect the policy, and how their educational backgrounds, professional coursework, internal factors in the class, internal factors in the school, and external factors affected their cognition and classroom practice.To investigate the above issues, an instrumental, explanatory multiple case-study was employed. The data were collected from interviews with the four English teachers, the four head teachers of the English departments, members of Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education (TMBE), and two members of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). In addition, two Communication English classes and two English Expression classes the four teachers were in charge of were observed and a questionnaire was administered to the students in each class. The findings indicated that the four teachers had favorable opinions about the policy of conducting English classes in English; however, their opinions were not reflected to a large degree in two of the teachers’ classes and were reflected to a moderate degree in the other two teachers’ classes. The discrepancy between their positive opinions of the policy and their classroom practice was attributed to the influence of their educational background, professional coursework, internal factors in the class, internal factors in the school, and external factors. Major factors that prevented them from reflecting the policy were a lack of appropriate teacher training, the presence of university entrance examinations, and the grammar-focused MEXT-approved textbooks. Major factors that helped their teachers reflect the policy were their positive experiences learning English in English communicatively, study abroad experiences, the measures taken by TMBE, the presence of ALTs and their students’ positive attitudes toward learning English in English. The findings of this study suggest that improvements in pre- and in-service training to teach English in English for communicative purposes, reforms of university entrance examinations, and improvements of MEXT-approved textbooks are essential to the implementing of the policy of teaching English in English.