TSUTOMU KOGA (RYUKOKU UNIVERSITY)
KATSUYUKI KONNO (Ryukoku University)
RINTARO SATO (Nara University of Education)
KIWAMU KASAHARA (Hokkaido University of Education)
JAMES HALL (Iwate University)

INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNIQUES TO NURTURE ASIAN EFL LEARNERS’ MOTIVATION : METHODOLOGIES AND TEACHING APPROACHES

In this globalized world, we have been able to communicate with others in English in many　different ways such as social media and other online platforms. However, EFL learners are still struggling to motivate themselves to acquire better English skills, and at the same time, English teachers are also struggling to discover effective strategies to teach such unmotivated learners. In the Japanese EFL context, for example, learners remain silent for more than 90% of the class time (King, 2013) and are said to be reluctant to communicate in English (Tomita and Spada, 2013). It is probably not exaggerating to say that similar tendencies can be found in other Asian countries. Therefore, this symposium aims to explore the strategies or factors to enhance learners’ motivational and communication behaviors. We will begin with a discussion which overviews general notions and findings of motivational and communication variables. We will then discuss comprehensive insights into effective instructional techniques to develop learner motivation. These techniques are uniquely tailored for the Asian EFL contexts, highlighting their distinct applicability and potential incompatibility with methods suggested for ESL contexts. This symposium will make it feasible to share experiences and challenges we Asian teachers are confronted with when trying to motivate learners by bridging the gap between theory and practice so that we can come up with better teaching skills to promote motivation.

Tsutomu Koga is an Associate Professor at Ryukoku University, Japan. His research interests include dynamic aspects of individual difference variables, especially motivation, anxiety, and willingness to communicate with attention paid to language of instruction and use of communicative and cooperative activities.

Katsuyuki Konno is an Associate Professor at Ryukoku University, Japan. His research interests include language learning motivation and willingness to communicate, and their effects on language learning behaviors.

Rintaro Sato is a Professor in the Department of English Education of Nara University of Education, Japan. His research interests include intake and output processing, feedback, and negotiation of meaning. He is currently interested in willingness to communicate and teaching approaches in the EFL environment.

Kiwamu Kasahara is a professor at Hokkaido University of Education, Japan. His main academic interests include L2 vocabulary acquisition, testing, and teacher training. He has published articles on vocabulary acquisition and assessment in periodicals such as System, Language Teaching Research, and Language Assessment Quarterly.

James M Hall is a professor of English Education at Iwate University in northern Japan. He has been working in the field of English teacher education for over 20 years. His most recent academic interest is phenomenology as a means of understanding the novice English teacher experience.