In This Issue

 This issue contains three full-length research articles, one Research Forum article, and three book reviews.

 Articles

The first full-length article by Ryotaro Hashizaki, Hirohisa Sekiyama, Yun Xing, and Kumi Wakita offers a study that involves 30 Japanese university students taking part in 11 shadowing training sessions, each lasting 90 minutes per week. The effects of these interventions are explored through pre- and post-intervention testing. The authors pay specific attention to how shadowing enhances second-language learners’ listening comprehension and memorization of multiword expressions. Specific areas of interest in their study include listening comprehension, multiword expression knowledge, bottom-up processing, and repetition speed. They conclude that the optimal number of repetitions depends on the specific learning targets when using shadowing. They also note the possibility that a stage of automating bottom-up processing may exist and form a necessary basis for the improvement of listening skills through shadowing. In the second full-length article, Nate Olson looks at translanguaging practices and investigates how two pairs of Japanese secondary school team teachers implement Soft CLIL. The study reveals complex dynamics in teacher use of Japanese and English, including excessive reliance by teachers on their L1 for translation and explanations, evidence of ‘spoon-feeding’, and limited scaffolding, suggesting divergence from core CLIL principles by the participants. Olson concludes by highlighting the need for ongoing teacher collaboration, training, and communication for effective application of Soft CLIL principles in context. In the third article, by Akiko Fujii and Yoshinori Inagaki, readers can gain insight into the use of standardized speaking assessment as a motivational strategy for EFL learners. Their study is informed by ecological classroom practice and assessment, and motivation theory aligned with the L2 Motivational Self System framework. The authors conclude that speaking assessment, assessment feedback, and goal setting might influence the use of motivational strategies, especially when implemented in conjunction with opportunities for feedback and reflection.

 Research Forum

The Research Forum article by Imogen Custance critically evaluates the role of statistical significance testing in quantitative research. Specifically, the author shines light on issues with significance testing and an overemphasis on p-values in SLA research. Custance encourages researchers to make efforts to better understand the numbers that underlie tests of statistical significance and to report the accompanying descriptive statistics and effect sizes. The author also makes a case for considering the statistical power necessary for conducting specific tests, and the reporting of p-values that are not statistically significant. 

 Reviews

In this issue, we are pleased to offer reviews of books about curriculum design; the link between learner corpus research and second language acquisition; and language support for immigrants in Japan from a multicultural community-building perspective. 

First, Kenneth Charles Lambo reviews What English Language Teachers Need to Know Volume III:  Curriculum, 2nd edition. According to Lambo, what sets this 2nd edition apart from the earlier one is that “the authors have expanded their chapters to address the pressing technological and multilingual challenges facing learners and teachers in today’s English Language Teaching (ELT) education.” Although he points out a few shortcomings of the book in terms of providing novice teachers with explicit background information, overall, he regards the book as essential reading for “educators who aspire to make a significant impact in their field, encouraging them to critically reflect on and enhance the delivery and implementation of their language instruction.” The second review, written by Trevor Sitler is of the book Learner Corpus Research Meets Second Language Acquisition, the goal of which is to “maintain that LCR can greatly benefit SLA ... primarily through studies on L1 transfer and proficiency.” According to Sitler, one of the benefits that educators can hope to take away from this book is that thanks to advances in technology, educators with only fundamental computer skills can try their hand at corpus research. In the end, Sitler stresses that “this book provides a great introduction to SLA researchers who are looking for a fresh perspective on learner language.” In the third review, Karen Masatsugu describes Language Support for Immigrants in Japan: Perspectives from Multicultural Community Building as a “timely book … a collection of papers about Japanese language education for immigrants in Japan, written by Japanese academics, teachers, and volunteers for an international English-speaking audience.” Although noting a few infelicities in English, she applauds the book for “provid[ing] a rich description of attempts to provide language support to immigrants in Japan through community-based language classes and night schools, the challenges faced and still to be overcome as Japan increasingly depends on immigrant labor, and provides a convincing argument for multicultural community building.” As always, we hope that readers will find these reviews helpful.

 From the Editors

We, the JALT Journal editorial team, extend our sincere gratitude to William Simpson who, although having served as Assistant Editor for a short duration, has shared valuable insight and given much-needed support throughout the production of the current issue. Best of luck in your future academic, professional, and personal endeavours, Will. Taking his place is Paul Leeming, whose extensive experience as an applied linguist will undoubtedly help ensure that JALT Journal evolves as JALT’s flagship academic journal, and as one of Japan’s most reputable, bilingual contexts for quality research in applied linguistics. Thank you, Paul, for joining our team. Joe and I very much look forward to working with you. 

The current issue marks my first as Editor. I owe my deepest gratitude to all my predecessors, notably Gregory Paul Glasgow and Dennis Koyama, who made my job over the past few years as Assistant and Associate Editor so much easier and rewarding. I am also very much indebted to Joe Geluso, our current Associate Editor, whose light-speed and entirely unproblematic adaptation to the job shows what it truly means to be a professional. I only hope I can live up to the standards established by those individuals. With the spotlight on those who have made, and will continue to make, JALT Journal the institution that it is, I also feel compelled to highlight the fact that JALT Journal editors, as with all JALT officers, organisers and so forth, are volunteers who devote a considerable portion of their work and personal time to creating opportunities for others to present their ideas and research, thus encouraging development in academic research and professional practice. They do so not for personal or professional gain, nor pride, but rather from hope that through collective effort and willingness to learn, we can all face the challenges of our times. Development in our field is also contingent on burgeoning and experienced scholars of all epistemological persuasions prioritising the transformation—rather than the reproduction—of existing scholarly discourse, to take risks, to embrace the fallibility of academic discourse not as a shortcoming but as a necessary condition for scientific and intellectual development to take place, and to consider the sophistication of existing knowledge in our field as sufficient reward. We, the editors, are honoured to be both spectators and participants in these developments.

JALT Journal remains committed to publishing high-quality research in applied linguistics, especially conceptual and empirically-grounded studies relevant to language education in the Japanese context. We invite readers to read our “Aims and Scope” section at the end of this issue, and consider submitting their research for publication in JALT Journal. We also invite our readership to consider submitting special issue proposals. Specific details on the submission process for special issue proposals are available on the JJ website and are printed at the end of the current issue. Considering that academic journals often serve as contexts for academic debate, thus potentially contributing to conceptual and methodological developments, we would also like to bring attention to our journal’s Point-to-Point section, which offers another opportunity for prospective authors to engage in scholarly debate by commenting on an article previously published in JALT Journal. These 1000-word papers are an important part of the journal’s contribution to the free exchange of scholarly ideas in our field. The original authors are also invited to follow up with a response to the discussion of their work.

— Jeremie Bouchard, Editor

— Joe Geluso, Associate Editor

— Paul Leeming, Assistant Editor