According to self-determination theory, the need toexperience competence is one of a well-recognized trio of basic psychologicalneeds, alongside the need for autonomy and relatedness. Although often assessedat the activity level, the need for competence is met situationally whenlearners feel able to understand and affect the world around them. In languagelearning, this means the feeling of success firstly in the comprehension andthen in the use of the new language. This situated, contextual sense ofcompetence helps to explain the complex and dynamic development of motivationwithin the language learner. In this review, we focus on the need forcompetence as it applies both theoretically and empirically to the study oflearning a new language. Building on scholarship showing that competence needsatisfaction is a powerful correlate of motivation in education generally, wesurvey the evidence for competence need satisfaction as a specific predictor oflanguage learning motivation and achievement. We completed comparisons of competenceneed satisfaction with self-efficacy, self-concept, mindsets, and other abilitybelief comparisons, and tested a comparative model. The model concluded thatthe situated sense of competence was the best predictor of achievement, andthat this could then be used as a potentially reliable tool for self-assessment.We additionally tested a model of self-efficacy / competenceacross language subjects, confirming our previous findings of language transferbetween foreign language and Japanese subjects in junior high school. Competencebeliefs for English as a foreign language had robust longitudinal effects onJapanese language competence beliefs. Attitudes toward Japanese furtherpredicted achievement in Japanese; the same finding held for English attitudesand achievement. Further, achievement in both subjects did not predictattitudes, indicating a localized year-on-year effect; achievement in eachschool year is partially informed by achievement in the previous one, butattitudes were influenced by past attitudes, rather than past achievement. Thisindicates that improving students sense of competence in both language subjectscan have long term benefits throughout the schooling and learning system.The next step in this process will be to see what aspects ofachievement have a direct effect on students’ attitudes and competence beliefs.Future studies assessing learners’ attributions and reasons for experiencingdifficulty, measuring factors such as significant others, learning focusdifficulties, and presentation and media differences are hypothesized to play alocalized role in these attributions. These hypothesized will be tested alongside advances in digital games for learning.

Funding was used to create and refine item response theorymodels of the difficulty of individual English phonemes. Elementary schoolstudents responded to digital prompts. Results indicate an increased difficultyfor both complex vowels and less regular letter-sound combinations (e.g., u, v). Statistical analyses of the cross-sectional results indicated three separate types of phonemes: those with relative parity with Japanese (easier), those with irregular parity with Japanese (more difficult), and those with poor parity with Japanese (hardest). Vowel sounds not represented by common Japanese sounds comprised the largest part of the two more difficult factors, and showed the greatest difficulty across all grades tested. Results indicate the necessity to continuouslyre-assess sound-letter connection difficulties, both for students with readingproblems and for students acquiring initial sound-letter fluency.

This funding was used to investigate the changes inJapanese elementary students’ understanding of sound-letter (phoneme-grapheme)connections over time. Paper based and digital tests were used to assess fundamentalreading skills among elementary students between 3rd and 6thgrades. Cross-sectional investigations into differences indicated a stepwiseprogression in the change in skills; longitudinal follow-ups using paper testsconfirmed these results. Results from these investigations indicated that thecurrent course of study does increase students’ learning, albeit with a dosageso low as to require two years of study to see marginal gains. Following this, expandedlongitudinal tests were conducted to investigate differences between paper anddigital formats. In changing to digital tests, clear differences were observedin student performance. These differences may be attributed to an increasinglyfine-grained assessment of students’ answer patterns afforded by digitalmaterials. Results simultaneously indicate how students develop fundamental Englishreading skills in Japanese schools, as well as ways in which students performusing materials of different media types.

Through the support of this research, my research partners and I have developed a fundamental test of phonemic awareness for use in elementary school English classes in Japanese public schools, and ported that test to a tablet-based web application. We have made the most recent paper available as an open pre-print with the Open Science Foundation’s SocArXiv platform, available at https://osf.io/3xg5n. Further papers are currently being prepared for submission and will be released as public pre-prints. The tests will undergo alpha and beta testing during the 2022-2023 school year. Completion of a working gamified computer adaptive test product is expected by mid 2022.

Through the support of this research, my research partners and I have developed a fundamental test of phonemic awareness for use in elementary school English classes in Japanese public schools. The initial validations for this test are currently under review with international language education journals. We have made the first paper available as an open pre-print with the Open Science Foundation’s SocArXiv platform, available at https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/hdf2s. Further papers are currently being prepared for submission and will be released as public pre-prints. Based on these tests of phonemes, my co-researchers and I are working with programmers to build the front and back-ends of the ICT based test delivery platform. A basic proof of concept version of the software has been developed, and is undergoing further refinement before pilot testing in elementary schools. Completion of a final gamified product is expected by mid 2021. The research was further supported by JSPS Overseas Fellowship Grant S20135.