The aim of the current study was to inform the course design of an elective English news listening course at a private university in Japan. YouTube channels from twelve countries across Asia, Africa, Europe and North America were manually selected by the researcheras a source of in class materials and for course participants to view outside the classroom. To create materials for language-focused learning and assess the vocabulary demands of the videos, transcripts from the channels were extracted using the YouTubeData API and Python, and a corpus of 8,286 video transcripts uploaded in 2021 was randomly sampled to represent the channels. The transcripts were cleaned, and frequency lists were created for adjectives, nouns, and verbs at CEFR B1 level and above. In addition, proper noun and multi-word unit frequency lists were created. An online concordancer was created using the open-source tool ShinyConc , so the learners couldinvestigate the usage of the words in the frequency lists by themselves. A Python script was written to assess the lexical coverage of the videos using the CEFR-J wordlist, and the results suggested that learners may need to be at the CEFR B2 level or above tocomfortably comprehend short news YouTube videos. Suggestions for future research are made in the paper, and Python code and supplementary data are available at the author’sGitHub page (https://github.com/cooperchris17/yt_short_news ).

The 2018 Quantitative Research Training Project offered language teachers based in Japan an opportunity to learn about quantitative research methods, get practical experience doing classroom-based research, and collaborate throughout the process with a group of their peers. Four teachers share their insight from their experience doing this research to inform and encourage other language teachers. Schmidt describes how he overcame doubts to team up with a colleague and move forward with a quantitative study. Takaesu emphasizes the importance of monitoring student response rates to questionnaires to avoid shrinking sample sizes. Connolly writes about the effort and dedication required to complete a study. Cooper highlights how meaningful research can still be done with a small class. Teachers interested in building skills in classroom-based research are encouraged to explore opportunities to get more involved with the JALT community.
2018年の量的研究研修プロジェクトは、日本に拠点を置く語学教師に、量的研究方法について学び、教室での研究を実践する経験を得て、仲間のグループとプロセスを通じて協力する機会を提供した。4人の教師がプロジェクトでの経験から得た洞察を共有し、他の語学教師に情報を提供し、奨励している。Schmidtは、同僚とチームを組み、定量的研究を進めることに対する疑問を克服した。 Takaesuは、サンプルサイズの縮小を避けるために、アンケートに対する学生の回答率を監視することの重要性を強調している。Connollyは、研究を完了するために必要な努力と献身について共有している。Cooperは、少人数のクラスで有意義な研究を行うことができる方法を強調している。教室ベースの研究でスキルを構築することに興味のある教師は、JALTコミュニティにもっと関与する機会を探ることを勧める。

One elective class of 6 students at a small private university in Japan read Sherlock Holmes graded readers for one semester in a reading circle class. Reading circles involve students reading books and having discussions with a specific role, such as the Discussion Leader, Passage Person, Word Master, Summarizer, or Connector. These reading circle roles are explained using examples from students’ written notes, which were made to help them with the discussions. This provides a representation of the kind of oral output instructors may expect if they decide to try reading circles in their classrooms. Comments from the instructor’s reflective log and student surveys are reported to give greater insight into how future reading circle courses could be implemented. It was concluded that this activity may be useful to encourage interest in L2 reading at institutions with no extensive reading program.
リーディングサークルクラスを選択した日本の大学生６人が、一学期に渡り、英語多読本「シャーロックホームズ」の読書に取り組んだ。リーディングサークルとは、ただ単にグループで本を読むだけでなく、Discussion Leader, Passage Person, Word Master, Summarizer, Connectorなどの役割分担を各メンバーに持たせ、会話や討論を繰り広げることである。これらのリーディングサークルの役割については、学生が書いたメモの例を用いて説明するが、このメモは、討論の際に役立つように、学生に書かせたものである。これは、リーディングサークルを授業で実施する場合に、教師が期待するであろう学生の口頭の発言に相当する。リーディングサークルコースを実施する際に、より深く理解できる様、教師の日誌、学生のアンケートのコメント内容をここに報告する。この活動は、 英語多読コースのない大学で英語読書への関心を高めるのに役立つ可能性があると結論付けられる。