Why is 'research' in ELT/TEFL/TESOL/AL/SLA so irrelevant?

Glossary of terms for those who are not familiar with this field:

AL=Applied Linguistics (most usually the application of some version of linguistics to second or foreign language teaching and learning)
ELT=English Language Teaching
FL=Foreign Language
FLT=Foreign Language Teaching
LL=Language Learning
SLA=Second Language Acquisition
TEFL=Teaching English as a Foreign Language
TESOL=Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

Why is 'research' in ELT/TEFL/TESOL/AL/SLA so irrelevant?
by Charles Jannuzi, University of Fukui, Japan


While most of the research in support of and about ELT is produced in academia, most actual language teaching and language learning are done outside academia. Even when FLs get taught at universities, the people who often end up with the teaching duties are not in the sort of university posts that are meant for research.

However, I believe the single biggest issue is the institutional approach to science and knowledge which falls under the overwhelming intellectual influences of the past half century. In short, research that is supposed to be in support of ELT is largely irrelevant, invalid and not applicable to teaching and learning because of two academic traditions: structuralism and behaviourism.

Structuralism comprises the linguistic framework for much of ELT, and yet structuralism is an historic relic of linguistics. The linguistic 'units' and 'models' and 'key concepts' of ELT are largely based on structuralist ones (and rather simplistic notions of the structuralist concepts at that). This tends to have a stultifying effect on research because it is considered bad form to question or otherwise problematize the inadequacies of ELT's simplistic versions of structuralist concepts.

The other stultifying inheritance is behaviourism (and little surprise then that most structuralists operated under behaviourist assumptions). Most research in academic SLA (an emergent field from AL that has mostly nothing to do with linguistics now, ironically enough), for example, is based on basically behaviourist preconcpetions about how to elicit 'language learning behaviour' (e.g., mastery of a 'form') from a study's subjects. The interpretation of the results (such as they are) become even more muddled because the researchers typically are not clear about whether they are looking for a psychological/psycho-linguistic OR a sociological insight about the particular population they are using as subjects (often without specifying just what population it was that they were supposed to have sampled in doing their research).

Other deficiencies abound and glare out at the teacher attempting to use SLA research to inform teaching: Very small subject groups, lack of clarity over linguistic concepts that are supposed to underly the research, inappropriate use of statistics, un-normed populations, etc. And yet an often-read, automatic defense of such research is that it, unlike qualitative research, is GENERALIZABLE. Which is simply to beg the question, because such apologists never specify to which population they want to generalize the findings. I would add, however, that I know of absolutely no finding from SLA research that is generalizable to my students, let alone one that generalizes to all of the human race now learning a FL. Moreover, it all gets even more muddled if you go back to the objection over psychological/pscyho-linguistic/cognitive goals vs. sociological ones (in which case, for example, complex differences across cultures, age groups, gender, social class and economic background, etc. become very important).

Most 'research' is done by individuals, groups and networks of people in academic posts. About the only time classroom teachers engage in such activity is when they go back to do a master's or doctoral degree under such academics.

Finally, perhaps the larger issues are the following:

(1) Within a socially delimited field such as 'ELT', what constitutes knowledge and who has the right to claim it as such?

(2) Are experimental and statistical procedures (mostly derived from the field of education's understanding of positivism, empiricism and probability) written up in academic journal studies the most appropriate for developing ELT/FLT and LL in most institutional settings worldwide?

Follow Up: Japan and Egypt to start joint university of science and technology

In follow up to the blog post about the new Japan-Egypt joint university of science and technology (see: http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2009/05/japan-and-egypt-to-start-joint.html), I found the following interesting article from 2008 at a site that reports on science exchange and aid for the developing world. I speculate that the current economic crisis that is DRASTICALLY affecting Japan political economy will only further cripple government finances for overseas aid and educational spending, making the successful start up of new science and technology universities in Okinawa, Malaysia and now Egypt seem EXTREMELY doubtful.

The entire article covers how Japan has tried to step cooperation with both Africa and the Arab world by focusing on Egypt. An excerpt follows the link that goes to the full article.

http://www.scidev.net/en/news/egypt-japan-make-2008-year-of-science-cooperatio.html

>>The two countries will also set up a Japanese science and technology university in Alexandria. The Egypt–Japan University will foster technological and scientific innovation in the African and Arab region by offering undergraduate and postgraduate science and technology degrees, including information and communications technologies, new materials courses and renewable energy technology.<<

QS Asian University Rankings 2009

The methodology is different from the THES/QS global rankings--such that Tokyo University is displaced from the top spot by two universities in Hong Kong. That makes it seem more than a little bit quirky.

http://www.topuniversities.com/university_rankings/asianuniversityrankings/

http://www.topuniversities.com/worlduniversityrankings/asianuniversityrankings/asian_university_rankings_top_200_universities/

http://www.topuniversities.com/worlduniversityrankings/asianuniversityrankings/indicators00/qscom_asian_university_rankings_vs_the_qs_world_university_rankings/

Excerpt of the top ten; see all 200 institutions ranked at the links above.


1 University of HONG KONG Hong Kong
2 The CHINESE University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
3 University of TOKYO Japan
4 HONG KONG University of Science and Tech... Hong Kong
5 KYOTO University Japan
6 OSAKA University Japan
7 KAIST - Korea Advanced Institute of Scie... Korea, South
8 SEOUL National University Korea, South
9 TOKYO Institute of Technology Japan
10= National University of Singapore (NUS) Singapore
10= PEKING University China

Swine flu continues to spread, 4000 schools closed in Japan

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090519/wl_asia_afp/healthflujapanschools

Japan closes 4,000 schools over swine flu fears
AFP

H1N1 Spreads Rapidly Play Video ABC News – H1N1 Spreads Rapidly

Mon May 18, 11:02 pm ET

KOBE, Japan (AFP) – Japan closed more than 4,000 schools and kindergartens, double the previous day's number, to slow the spread of swine flu which has infected 163 people in the country, officials said.

Many people in the affected urban areas were wearing face masks after the western cities of Kobe and Osaka became the first in Japan to suffer domestic outbreaks of the (A)H1N1 virus which spread rapidly through two schools.

A total of 4,043 schools and kindergartens were closed in and around both cities at the request of government authorities, up from some 2,000 on Monday, an education ministry official said.

------------------------------

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090519/wl_asia_afp/healthflujapan_20090519043214


Japan reports 173 swine flu cases, closes schools
AFP

Tue May 19, 12:31 am ET

KOBE, Japan (AFP) – Japan reported 173 swine flu infections and closed more than 4,000 schools, colleges and kindergartens for the rest of the week to slow the spread of the virus, officials said.

Experts warned that infections had probably already spread to other regions including the capital Tokyo, which with almost 36 million people is the world's most populous urban area and the heart of the Japanese economy.

Domestic Cases of H1N1 Flu Hit Schools in Japan

It appears to have started to spread in the Kansai region (Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe) of W. Honshu. Authorities seem to be ready to take drastic measures with school closures. Some universities have posted notices saying that if even one case is confirmed, they will close temporarily.

See these Japan Times articles:

1.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090518a1.html

excerpt:
>>Monday, May 18, 2009

Domestic H1N1 flu cases increase to 42
Large outbreak hits schools in Osaka, Hyogo

By ERIC JOHNSTON
Staff writer

The number of domestic swine flu cases hit 42 on Sunday after 34 high school and college students as well as their family members and teachers in Osaka and Hyogo prefectures were confirmed to have been infected.

The confirmations followed the discovery Saturday of Japan's first eight domestic infections of the new H1N1 flu in Hyogo. A World Health Organization expert said community-level transmission may have begun in Japan, which could lead the WHO to raise its new flu pandemic alert to the highest level of 6 from the current 5.<< href="http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090517a3.html">http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090517a3.html

excerpt:
>>Kobe and Hyogo Prefecture officials announced nine steps they were taking to contain the spread of the virus and calm public fears. These included closing 75 public and private kindergartens, elementary, junior high and high schools, and universities in the city's Higashi-Nada, Nada, and Chuo wards, as well those in nearby Ashiya, until Friday. International schools in the designated wards, including the Canadian Academy, were also closed.<<

Studying at Japanese universities

See this part of the JT online to find out more.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/info/study_in_japan.html

Studying at universities in Japan offers you the chance to broaden your horizons and deepen your understanding of a foreign culture while boosting your Japanese language ability. Enroll today!

For a much longer list of universities and their contact information, see:



http://www.directoryofeducation.net/colleges_universities/byCountry/Japan/

Okinawa Technological Graduate University Shooting for 2012 Start

A proposed 2012 start might mean that this too is a project that is floundering. It seems the Japanese government wants the new institution to bring in a lot of world class researchers with their own money. But if they had their own money, it seems doubtful that most world class researchers would want to move to a rural part of Okinawa Honto, even if it has great natural beauty. Also, the idea of getting businesses to establish themselves in the area before the university is actually up and running sounds dubious at best. Certainly Boston (see the article) is not the model to try and emulate. A better and more realistic model might be how the immediate areas around Japan's other 'universities of science and technology' were developed. The bad news is that those places still feel like the 'sticks' and what got built was done through generous government subsidies. It seems the government has lost that generosity. This project looks to be headed for a disaster, as does the proposed joint Malaysia-Japan university, as yet to be built at some location outside Kuala Lumpur.

As for the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, it's still not too late to re-consider. How about an All Asian College of Hotel and Restaurant Management and Tourism instead?

http://www.japanupdate.com/?id=8870

New graduate school feeling its way toward 2012 opening

Date Posted: 2008-08-15
A steering committee preparing for Okinawa Technological Graduate University’s opening in four years has its hands full, sorting through dozens of issues that include everything from funding to recruiting a world class staff and faculty.

The school is developing its operational framework, and just held a conference in Tokyo to get ideas on how best to merge the concepts of a private university with the necessity of drawing government funding. Some problems are anticipated, university leaders concede, but say the Okinawa Technical Graduate University will be the very best in Japan.

“We’re inviting the top people and excellent professors (to join our faculty and staff),” the steering committee says, “so we need to give them enough of a budget, and need to create rules that are very flexible and give them freedom for study.” The committee is working with the central government and with Okinawa Prefecture to obtain a satisfactory level of funding, and is developing corporate and university rules.

“We don’t give support for nothing,” the government is already cautioning the steering committee. “We are not going to support the university forever, and if the university becomes popular and draws students from all over the world, we need to make this university a private system, education leaders in Tokyo say. They are advising the new school to “study other business schools’ systems, and look to private companies who can invest money or donate money, or the school itself should make the students pay enough to cover the costs for having high grade professors.”

The central government has pledged it is “just helping at the beginning, until the school is on track for economical recovery. After that, the school will have to go by itself.” Education officials say the new school must plant seeds now, because “we need to see results after five years operations, and then look to the future. If nothing comes out, that’s the end of the money.”

The university is supposed to open in 2012. The steering committee is now wrestling with finding 30 professors with outstanding qualifications, and then getting the town surrounding the school set up to handle them. University officials say they new town must attract business-related industries and employees, modeling the community after successful American cities such as Boston.

Japan and Egypt to start joint university of science and technology

It seems very much like the Japan-Malaysia project, with an agreement that kicks the whole thing off and a schedule that sounds far too ambitious. If the project got started in August 2008, one has to wonder, for a start, why it took them over half a year to make a real announcement.

It seems like a lot of universities have signed on 'in support', but it seems doubtful as to whether any organization is really taking on the responsibilities of making sure this gets started in a sustainable way. It's the same with the Japan-Malaysia project.

http://www.mofa.go.jp/announce/announce/2009/3/1189756_1130.html

http://ejust.org/


E-JUST is a joint Egyptian and Japanese university that is based on close 'partnership' between the two governments. The university is targetting 'world class' research and teaching quality with regional and global reach.

The implementation of this pioneer project has started in August 2008. It has been decided to start a postgraduate program in September 2009 in a temporary location in Mubarak City for Science and Technology Applications (MuCSAT) and for the fully fledged operation of both the undergraduate and postgraduate programs to start in September 2011.

Declaration Signing

His Excellency the prime minister Dr Ahmed Nazif has kindly witnessed signing the 'Bilateral Agreement' of E-JUST. The declaration is signed by His Excellency the minister of Higher Education and Research Dr Hany Hilal, Her Excellency the minister of International Cooperation Mrs. Fayza Aboulnaga, and his Excellency ambassador of Japan Mr. Kaoru Ishikawa.

The signing ceremony was held on March the 26th, 2009, at the Smart Village, Cairo. The event is also announced at the MOFA website.

http://ejust.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1&Itemid=42&lang=en

Consortium E-JUST Supporting Bodies

E-JUST supporting bodies are:

* A consortium of 12 top Universities from Japan, and 8 Universities from Egypt, and MuCSAT in Borg el Arab
* An expert team from Egyptian Universities and Industry
* Dedicated Japanese partners from MEXT, JICA, MOFA and other Japanese stakeholders.

Japanese Supporting University Consortium (JSUC)

* Hokkaido University
* Keio University
* Kyoto University
* Kyushu University
* Nagoya University
* Osaka University
* Ritsumeikan University
* Tohoku University
* Tokyo Institute of Technology
* University of Tokyo
* Waseda University
* Kyoto Institute of Technology

Egyptian Supporting University/Research Institutes Consortium (ESURC)

* Cairo University
* Alexandria University
* Ain-Shams University
* Assiut University
* Mansourah University
* Tanta University
* Suez-Canal University
* Zagazig University
* Mubarak City for Scientific Research and Technology Applications

Law schools in Japan need to cut back admissions and improve programs

Law schools in Japan face admissions retrenchments and calls for improvement. Two stories in English-language newspapers here explain:

Law schools in Japan face admissions retrenchments and calls for improvement. Two stories in English-language newspapers here explain:

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20090424TDY02302.htm

excerpt:

>>The number of students to be admitted to 74 law schools throughout the nation will be slashed by about 18 percent during the 2010 and 2011 academic years, it has been learned.

The widespread plans will see a cut in the current total intake of 5,765 students nationwide to between 4,700 and 4,800, sources said, although they added that six schools were not planning any cuts.

It has been pointed out that an excessive number of students at law schools has resulted in a lower percentage of students passing the national bar examination.

A special panel of the Central Council for Education has called for drastic cuts in the number of students allowed to enroll at law schools to improve the quality of education at them.

As the Japan Federation of Bar Associations also has proposed that the intake of students should be cut to around 4,000, it is expected there will be further calls for cuts in the number of law students accepted by schools, the sources said.<<

See full story at Yomiuri online.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ed20090420a2.html

excerpt:

>>Raising the bar at law schools

In April 2004, 68 law schools were established in accordance with the nation's legal reform. Since then, the number has increased to 74. Earlier this month, about 5,800 people enrolled in these schools. Those who have not studied law at undergraduate level will have to complete a three-year course and those who did, a two-year course.

These schools were created to help satisfy a national demand for legal professionals who can provide high-quality services, in particular lawyers. But criticism persists that some of these schools fail to offer high-quality education.

The Japan Law Foundation, the National Institution for Academic Degrees and University Evaluation and the Japan University Accreditation Association have recently evaluated 68 of the law schools and determined that 22 of them have problems with their curricula and teaching methods.

Problems identified include a shortage of basic subjects, a lack of balance between theoretical studies and practical application, a lack of transparency in the evaluation of students' performances in tests and under-qualified teachers.<<

See full story/editorial at Japan Times online.

TEN REASONS WHY ENGLISH LEARNING IN JAPAN FAILS

Here is a list of brief summaries of all the reasons, with links to all ten reasons as they appeared in serial form at the JPN HEO Blog.

http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/03/why-english-learning-fails-in-japan.html

Reason #1: Japan is linguistically and culturally self-sufficient--so most Japanese do not have a pressing need to learn or use English (English is a FOREIGN language).


http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/03/why-english-learning-fails-in-japan_22.html

Reason #2: Japanese is not closely related to English--so it takes longer for beginners to learn how to learn English.


http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/03/why-english-learning-fails-in-japan_28.html

Reason #3: Japanese is not written with an alphabet--this makes literacy for EFL a hindrance to learning the language.


http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/05/why-english-learning-fails-in-japan.html

Reason #4: Learning to read and write Japanese fluently takes away too much time from the rest of the curriculum, including EFL learning.


http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/06/why-english-learning-fails-in-japan.html

Reason #5: Lack of national consensus on foreign language education--most agree change is needed, but it is hard to get agreement on concrete steps.


http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/08/why-english-learning-fails-in-japan.html

Reason #6: The situation at universities--negative washback from entrance exams and the preparation for them at the senior highs.


http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2008/08/why-english-learning-fails-in-japan_29.html

Reason #7: The situation at universities--elite academics, non-elite students, mismatch of expectations, poor results with general education studies.


http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2009/04/why-english-learning-fails-in-japan.html

Reason #8: A lack of EFL programs, specialties, majors, minors, concentrations.


http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2009/04/why-english-learning-fails-in-japan_11.html

Reason #9: The foreign language teaching and learning 'culture'. That is, the overall approach to teaching and learning EFL (and these are collaborative activities) that is specific to Japan.


http://japanheo.blogspot.com/2009/04/why-english-learning-fails-in-japan_30.html

Reason #10: The language teaching 'profession' in Japan. There is a lack of serious and useful teacher training and professional development. In higher education, those who are most often designated to teach EFL courses have backgrounds in literature, linguistics, and teacher training, not actual EFL teaching.