Foreword
We
are happy to present the March edition of
the Asian EFL Journal, an issue that
largely concerns itself with teaching practices
based on sound academic theory. As we prepare
for our second international conference at
Dongseo University in Pusan, Korea in late
April, many of the contributions presented
here are relevant to this year's Task-based
Learning theme as well as to last year's conference
and the continuing theme of competence we
seek to debate through the Journal.
In
the first piece, Ya-Ling Chen provides us
with a detailed and fascinating study of partial
immersion, a theme of last year's conference.
After examining the Influence of Partial English
Immersion Programs in Taiwan on Kindergartners'
Perceptions of Chinese and English Languages
and Cultures, Chen dispels many of the myths
about immersion, providing us with a very
realistic yet positive conclusion. This study
deserves to be seen as essential reading for
anyone considering immersion for a monolingual
and monocultural Asian context.
David
R. Litz & Allison K. Smith provide us
with a useful contribution to research into
a practical aspect of administering cloze
test procedure. Their evidence suggests that
an exact replacement scoring method (ERS)
might be just as reliable as SEMAC (semantically
acceptable scoring procedure). Before rushing
to drop SEMAC for the sake of expediency,
however, readers should carefully consider
Litz and Smith's own recommendations of caution
and the need for corroboration from further
research.
With
a study from Taiwan, Yuh-Mei Chen provides
us with an interesting contribution to our
knowledge on portfolio use, concluding that
portfolios are a useful and successful pedagogical
tool but might not be appropriate for assessment,
a conclusion that should provide food for
thought for those of us who use portfolios
for assessment in other contexts.
Our
fourth contribution is from Darren Lingley
who describes a teaching procedure for developing
intercultural awareness skills in the Japanese
university context. His paper relates theory
to teaching practice, discussing a detailed
example of a failed intercultural communication.
He uses a real-life critical incident in which
public apologies are the central issue to
develop teaching procedures "to help
students cope with culture's impact on language".
The
Asian EFL Journal is about to hold
its conference on the theme of Task-Based
Learning. In-Jae Jeon and Jung-won Hahn gives
us a timely reminder of the fact that theoretical
support for an approach in journals or conferences
is less important than the knowledge, perceptions
and abilities of teachers. Practical problems
of the high-school classroom, for example,
cannot be excluded from curriculum decisions:
"Many Korean EFL teachers retain some
fear of adopting TBLT as an instructional
method because of perceived disciplinary problems
related to classroom practice." Teachers
need to have confidence in the approach they
adopt, but Jeon points out that "one
of the major reasons teachers avoid implementing
TBLT is deeply related to a lack of confidence".
A.
H. Abdul Raof and Masdinah Alauyah Md. Yusof
from Malaysia introduce some aspects of ESP
Project Work which are partially rooted in
a task-based learning approach. They provide
a well-documented example from the world of
ESP for Engineering students that supports
their contention that "language acquisition
would be most effectively facilitated if it
could be embedded with the learners' field
of study or work. Through appropriate pedagogy
for learning, the more the learners are exposed
to real world tasks, the better language users
they will become." Their project-based
approach and the design of activities that
have real-world applications clearly has applications
beyond the field of ESP.
From Japan, Mita, Shirao, Martin, Hatagaki
and Dendo report on the positive impact of
foreign Asian students in Japanese university
EFL classrooms, an initiative that requires
extensive organization but which is potentially
replicable in other Asian contexts. They report
"a positive effect on motivation and
performance that went beyond improving students'
cross-cultural understanding" having
among other advantages "a profound effect
on the strategic competence of the Japanese
students".
While
many of the pieces in this issue have dealt
with practical teaching approaches based on
sound theory, the Asian EFL journal is still
very interested in stimulating debate issues
that affect Asian EFL. The last three contributions
all stimulate thought and potential debate
for future issues.
Mohammad
Ali Salmani-Nodoushan attempts to impose some
order on the often bewildering diversity of
trends and paradigms in circulation in the
field of EFL. He provides us with his summary
of "recent trends" in language pedagogy
identifying three recent aspects of the debate:
"(1) a search for an alternative to method
rather than an alternative method, (2) an
emphasis on teacher autonomy, and (3) an attempt
at principled pragmatism".
In
his paper, Ali Al-Issa from Oman provides
a further angle to add to our knowledge of
the cultural politics of EFL examining the
extent to which Omani EFL is "culturally
and educationally dependant on North America
(USA and Canada), Britain and Australia (NABA)
for its progress and development". Al-Issa
provides a meticulous description of the Omani
situation to support his view and goes on
to suggest ways in which this dependency can
be reduced.
Finally, our opinion piece for this issue
returns to a much-debated theme linked to
our continuing concern with the notion of
competence. In this case the theme is the
kind of competence we are encouraging our
students to achieve. Fenton and Terasawa challenge
the contention made in 2004 by Jarvis and
Atsilarat in the Asian EFL Journal,
in which they took issue with the suitability
of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) methodology
for the Asian context. We would be happy to
publish a response in a future issue.
Roger Nunn
Senior Associate Editor
1.
Ya-Ling Chen. The
Influence of Partial English Immersion Programs
in Taiwan on Kindergartners' Perceptions of
Chinese and English
Languages and Cultures
2. David R. Litz & Allison K. Smith. Semantically
Acceptable Scoring Procedures (SEMAC) Versus
Exact Replacement Scoring Methods (ERS) For
'Cloze' Tests: A Case Study
3. Yuh-Mei Chen. EFL
Instruction and Assessment with Portfolios:
A Case Study in Taiwan
4. Darren Lingley. Apologies
Across Cultures: An Analysis of Intercultural
Communication Problems Raised in the Ehime
Maru Incident
5.
In-Jae Jeon. Exploring
EFL Teachers' Perceptions of Task-Based Language
Teaching: A Case Study of Korean Secondary
School Classroom Practice
6. A. H. Abdul Raof and Masdinah Alauyah Md.
Yusof. ESP
Project Work: Preparing Learners for the Workplace
7.
Kaoru Mita, Mika Shirao, Steven Martin, Yuko
Hatagaki, Gary Dendo. The
Impact of Foreign Asian Students in Japanese
University
EFL Classrooms
8. Mohammad Ali Salmani-Nodoushan. Language
Teaching: State of the Art
9. Ali Al-Issa. The
Cultural and Economic Politics of English
Language Teaching in Sultanate of Oman
10. A.L. Fenton and Y. Terasawa. Paradigm
Lost? A Belated Reply to Jarvis and Atsilarat
from Japan
