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Title: An Investigation of Collaborative Language Teaching and Learning in English Lessons in a Japanese Primary School

An Investigation of Collaborative Language Teaching and Learning in English Lessons in a Japanese Primary School

by Ayano Shino (Author)
©2026 Thesis XVI, 198 Pages
English Studies
Series: Fremdsprachendidaktik inhalts- und lernerorientiert / Foreign Language Pedagogy - content- and learner-oriented, Volume 47

Summary

This book examines collaborative communication among homeroom teachers (HRTs), assistant language teachers (ALTs) and pupils during English lessons in a Japanese primary school, focusing on how they work together to facilitate language teaching and learning. The collected interaction data among the HRTs, the ALTs and the pupils were analysed to reveal what is actually happening in English classes in a Japanese primary school. This book will be helpful not only for primary school teachers but also for policymakers and researchers worldwide who are interested in English education at the primary level in an Asian context, with the aim of ensuring effective English language teaching for young learners.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title Page
  • Copyright Page
  • Contents
  • List of Tables and Figure
  • List of Abbreviations
  • Acknowledgements
  • Chapter 1 Introduction
  • Chapter 2 Literature Review: Sociocultural Theory and Language Learning
  • Introduction
  • 2.1 The Concept of Mediation
  • Recent Research on Mediation in Classroom Interactions
  • 2.2 Zone of Proximal Development
  • 2.3 The Concept of Scaffolding
  • 2.3.1 Expert-Novice Scaffolding
  • 2.3.2 Collective Scaffolding Among Peers
  • 2.4 Languaging: Private Speech and Collaborative Dialogue
  • 2.4.1 Private Speech
  • 2.4.2 Collaborative Dialogue
  • Chapter 3 Literature Review: Classroom Discourse Analysis of Language Learning Classrooms
  • Introduction
  • 3.1 The Definition of Classroom Discourse Analysis
  • 3.2 Rymes’s (2009) Classroom Discourse Analysis Model
  • 3.3 Teachers’ Questioning
  • 3.4 Traditional Interaction Patterns in the Classroom: Sinclair and Coulthard’s (1975) and Sinclair and Brazil’s (1982) Descriptive Model (IRF)
  • 3.5 Non-traditional Interaction Patterns in the Classroom
  • 3.6 The Use of Discourse Markers
  • 3.6.1 Definition of Discourse Markers
  • 3.6.2 Discourse Markers in Classroom Settings
  • 3.6.2.1 Discourse Markers OK and Alright
  • 3.7 L1 Use and Translation in Foreign Language Classrooms
  • 3.7.1 Functions of L1 Use and Translation by Non-native English Teachers (NNETs) in Foreign Language Classes
  • 3.7.2 The Use of Learners’ L1 by Native English Teachers (NETs) in Team Teaching Contexts
  • 3.8 Contextualisation Cues and Cultural Assumptions
  • 3.9 Classroom Discourse and the Use of Face-Saving/Threatening Strategy
  • Chapter 4 Language Learning in Classrooms: Conversation Analytic Approaches to Description
  • Introduction
  • 4.1 Characteristics of Conversation Analysis
  • 4.1.1 Turn-Taking
  • 4.1.2 Adjacency Pairs
  • 4.1.3 Repair
  • 4.2 Characteristics of Conversation Analysis in Classroom Contexts
  • 4.2.1 Adjacency Pairs of Question-and-Answer Sequences in Classroom Contexts
  • 4.2.2 Repair in Classroom Contexts
  • 4.2.2.1 Definition of Repair in Classrooms
  • 4.2.2.2 Other-Initiation of Repair in Classrooms
  • 4.2.2.3 Repair in Language-Centred and Content-Centred Classroom Contexts
  • 4.2.2.4 Summary
  • 4.2.3 Silence in Classroom Contexts
  • 4.2.4 Repetition in Classroom Contexts
  • 4.2.4.1 Repetition in Language Classrooms
  • 4.2.4.2 Repetition in ELF Interactions
  • Chapter 5 Research Design
  • Introduction
  • 5.1 Qualitative Data Collection Methods
  • 5.1.1 Case Study
  • 5.1.2 Ethnography
  • Classroom Observation and Recordings
  • 5.2 Specific Sites for the Current Research
  • 5.2.1 Team Teaching in Japan
  • 5.2.2 English Education in H City
  • 5.2.3 English Education in S Primary School
  • 5.2.4 ALT Meetings in H City
  • 5.2.5 The ALTs in H City Recruited from Various Countries
  • 5.3 Data Collection
  • Chapter 6 Discussion of the Data: Classroom Discourse Analytic Approach
  • Introduction
  • 6.1 Enhancing Interlocutors’ Understanding
  • 6.1.1 The Use of Discourse Markers (by the ALTs)
  • 6.1.1.1 The Definition of Discourse Markers
  • 6.1.1.2 Discourse Markers OK and Alright
  • 6.1.1.2.1 Discourse Marker OK
  • 6.1.1.2.2 Discourse Marker Alright
  • 6.1.1.3 The Combined Use of More than Two Discourse Markers
  • 6.1.1.4 Summary
  • 6.1.2 The Use of Scaffolding
  • 6.1.2.1 Scaffolding Used for Step-by-Step Elicitation of an Answer from the Pupils by the HRTs
  • 6.1.2.2 Scaffolding Used for Marking Critical Features by the ALTs
  • 6.1.2.3 Collaborative Scaffolding Used for Marking Critical Features and Frustration Control by the ALTs and the HRTs
  • 6.1.2.4 Scaffolding by the Pupils’ Translation
  • 6.1.2.5 Summary
  • 6.1.3 The Use of the Interlocutors’ First Language in Deepening Understanding
  • 6.1.3.1 The Use of Japanese by the ALTs
  • 6.1.3.2 The Use of English by the HRTs
  • 6.1.3.3 Collaborative Use of English and Japanese by the Three Parties
  • 6.1.3.4 Summary
  • 6.2 Cultural Sensitivity and Awareness
  • Chapter 7 Discussion of the Data from a Conversation Analytic Perspective: Repetition and Silence
  • Introduction
  • 7.1 Repetition
  • 7.1.1 Repetition for Securing Understanding by the ALTs
  • 7.1.2 Repetition for Encouraging the Pupils to Answer by the ALTs and the HRTs
  • 7.1.3 Repetition for Confirmation
  • 7.2 Silence
  • Chapter 8 Discussion of the Data from a Conversation Analytic Perspective: Repair
  • Introduction
  • 8.1 Self-Initiated Repair
  • 8.1.1 Self-Initiated Self-Repair
  • 8.1.2 A Pupil’s Self-Initiated Self-Repair Trial Combined with the ALT’s Clarifying Other-Repair
  • 8.2 Other-Initiated Repair
  • 8.2.1 Other-Initiated Self or Other Repair Between the ALT and the Pupils
  • 8.2.1.1 The ALT’s Other-Initiated Repair of a Pupil’s Trouble Source Inviting Self-Repair
  • 8.2.1.2 The ALT’s Other-Initiated Other Repair of a Pupil’s Trouble Source
  • 8.2.1.3 The ALT’s Other-Initiated Repair of a Whole Class’s Trouble Source
  • 8.2.2 Other-Initiated Self/Other-Repair Between the ALT and the HRT
  • Other-Initiated Other-Repair with Yes But Strategy
  • 8.2.3 The ALT’s Failure to Understand the Pupil’s Utterance (Failed and Discarded Repair-Sequences)
  • Chapter 9 Conclusion and Implications for Language Pedagogy
  • 9.1 Summary of Findings from the Present Research
  • 9.2 Implications for Primary School Team Teaching
  • 9.2.1 Use of Interlocutors’ L1
  • 9.2.2 How to Cope with Interlocutors’ Irregular Use of English/Japanese
  • 9.2.3 HRTs and ALTs as Language Learner/User Models
  • 9.2.4 Teacher Training with Video-Recorded English Lessons
  • 9.3 Limitations of the Present Research
  • 9.4 Final Discussion
  • Bibliography
  • Appendix
  • Transcription Conventions

List of Tables and Figure

Table 1: Strategies for expert-novice scaffolding by Hammond and Gibbons (2005) and Michell and Sharpe (2005)

Table 2: Functions of discourse markers by Sinclair and Coulthard (1975) and Walsh (2013)

Table 3: Functions of discourse markers (based on Fraser 2009, Liao 2009, O’Riordan & Chambers 2006, Sinclair & Coulthard 1975 and Walsh 2013)

Table 4: Personal Information on the ALTs in S Primary School (2009–2013)

Figure 1: Relationship between the social context, the interactional context and the individual agency based on Rymes (2009)

List of Abbreviations

CA Conversation analysis

DA Discourse analysis

EFL English as a foreign language

ELF English as a lingua franca

ESL English as a second language

FL Foreign language

L1 First language

L2 Second language

NESs Native English Speakers

NNESs Non-native English speakers

SLA Second language acquisition

S Primary School A school where the author conducted data collection

H City A city where S Primary School is located

Acknowledgements

I would like to show my sincere gratitude to the series editors, Carmen Becker, Gabriele Blell and Rita Kupetz, for accepting my manuscript into the series. Their comments significantly improved the quality of the manuscript.

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my doctoral supervisor, Kumiko Murata, for her invaluable guidance and feedback on my doctoral thesis, on which this monograph is based. Her helpful, encouraging and patient supervision has been indispensable to the completion of my doctoral work and this monograph. I would also like to extend my deep appreciation to the examiners of my doctoral thesis, Masakazu Iino, Peter Backhaus and Quint Oga-Baldwin for reviewing the thesis and providing valuable feedback at that time.

I am very grateful to the Japan Society of the Promotion of Science, as the research project was partially supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers 19K20815 and 20K13115. I am also very grateful to the participants of the research project who kindly participated in my data collection: the homeroom teachers (HRTs), the assistant language teachers (ALTs), and the pupils in S Primary School in H City in Japan, where I have investigated English education as a participant observer as well as a teaching assistant since 2009. I also very much appreciate the Board of Education in H City for allowing me to conduct the data collection in S Primary School.

I am extremely grateful to my acquisitions editor, Michael Rücker, at Peter Lang, for his guidance from proposal to final manuscript. Without his invaluable support and patience, publishing this monograph would not have been possible. I am also thankful for all the support and assistance provided by Peter Lang, particularly from Senthil Vadivu N. and Maria Czubaty.

Last but not least, I would like to thank my family for their support and encouragement throughout my research. Their support strengthened me in many respects and helped me accomplish this work. Special thanks go to my son, Akifumi, for drawing the cover picture of this book.

Ayano Shino

CHAPTER 1 Introduction1

With globalisation English use is spreading all over the world (e.g. Crystal 2003; Graddol 2006). In this context, English language teaching (ELT) is one of the most important areas of investigation as English becomes ‘a basic skill’ in a globalised world (Graddol 2006: 72). As the number of young learners increases (see Graddol 2006; Yano 2009), many Asian countries, including Japan, have also started English education in primary schools. For example, in Korea, English education started from the third graders at the primary level in 1997 (Park 2009). Also, China started compulsory English education in 2001 in primary schools from third graders (Graddol 2006). These Asian countries might have affected the introduction of English education in Japanese primary schools. Under these circumstances, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) decided to start English education for the fifth and sixth graders in Japanese primary schools in 2011. Team teaching between HRTs (homeroom teachers) and ALTs (assistant language teachers) has mainly been adopted (Kobayashi 2009; MEXT 2018)2 as a teaching style in English education in Japanese primary schools. This research has originated from a growing interest in how HRTs, ALTs and pupils collaboratively communicate with each other for language learning and teaching during English lessons in a Japanese primary school.

Introducing English education in Japanese primary schools, according to Y. Otsu (2007), Torikai (2007) and Yamada, Y. Otsu and Saito (2009), however, was controversial due to the fact that most HRTs were not trained or experienced enough to teach English, although they were experienced and qualified teachers in all other primary school subjects and could manage pupils well. Y. Otsu (2007), Torikai (2007) and Yamada et al. (2009) further point out that most ALTs had no experience or teaching skills in primary education. Thus, it is of vital importance to investigate what is happening in English education in actual primary school contexts. This is why the present research will investigate how HRTs and ALTs communicate with each other in order to conduct English lessons regardless of their limited experience and/or teaching skills for teaching English at the primary level as well as how they interact with pupils. It is hoped that this investigation will benefit the vast number of primary school teachers who need to cope with this challenging situation, increasingly so, as detailed later.

In the system of English education in Japanese primary schools, which started in 2011, fifth and sixth graders in all public primary schools took Foreign Language Activities3 classes for 35 hours per academic year.4 The main purpose of introducing these activities was to let pupils get used to English through songs, games and so on (MEXT 2010). Under the system, it was also advised that pupils were not assigned to a class by grade or score (MEXT 2014). However, English became a formal subject (Foreign Languages) for the fifth and sixth graders in primary schools in 2020.5 Under the new system, pupils receive English lessons, partially based on the current junior high school English curriculum, for 70 hours per academic year (MEXT 2014).

In this situation, I became interested in the research topic of primary English education while participating in a short-term study abroad programme in the State of Queensland (QLD), Australia in 2006 when I was an undergraduate student in Tokyo. While studying abroad at the language centre, the University of Queensland, I learnt that there were many immigrants in Australia, and that the Australian government puts emphasis on keeping their mother tongue (see Australian Federation of Ethnic Schools Associations 2019, for the details on community language schools). I also learnt that Japanese was also learnt not only as a mother tongue at community language schools, where children of immigrants, international marriage families and permanent residents learn Japanese and Japanese culture, but also as a foreign language in local primary, middle and secondary schools under the Commonwealth Languages Other Than English (LOTE) Program (Queensland Government 2019). Then, I became interested in how Japanese is taught and learnt in Australia. After coming back from the short-term study abroad, I decided to conduct fieldwork on how Japanese is taught and learnt as a foreign language in a unified primary, middle and secondary school in QLD in 2008 where I worked as an ALT of Japanese as a foreign language and English as a second language in 2008, during which I was a master student in Japan. At first, I just participated in Japanese lessons at the primary level as an ALT. However, I was also allowed to join Japanese lessons at the secondary level and English lessons in ESL classes as an ALT. In addition to working in the local school, I also worked in a Japanese language and culture school (community language school) in QLD where children of international marriage families or permanent residents learn Japanese as a mother tongue every Saturday in order to keep their Japanese language ability and get used to Japanese culture.

On my return to Japan, I started wondering how English was taught and learnt as a foreign language at the primary level in Japan, compared with how Japanese was taught and learnt as a foreign language in Australia, and how HRTs and ALTs conduct team teaching as I also worked as an ALT in Australia. I was allowed by the Board of Education to observe English lessons in S Primary School, where English education started from 2007 as a pilot school, and where the present research has been conducted since 2009. After the first observation of English lessons in the school, I heard from some HRTs that they felt anxious about conducting English lessons with an ALT due to their limited English ability, shortage of adequate time for having pre-lesson meetings with the ALTs and lack of teacher training for teaching English. Thus, I decided to investigate what was happening in actual English lessons in Japanese primary schools and how HRTs and ALTs should conduct team teaching for more effective English lessons at the primary level in order to share the results with teachers, supervisors on primary school English education, researchers, policy makers and people who are involved in English education and make use of the findings for more effective English language teaching at the primary level.

Details

Pages
XVI, 198
Publication Year
2026
ISBN (PDF)
9783631941638
ISBN (ePUB)
9783631941645
ISBN (Hardcover)
9783631941621
DOI
10.3726/b23880
Language
English
Publication date
2026 (August)
Keywords
Ayano Shino repair silence repetition interlocutors’ L1 scaffolding discourse markers classroom conversation analysis conversation analysis classroom discourse analysis primary school English education in Japan foreign language education
Published
Berlin, Bruxelles, Chennai, Lausanne, New York, Oxford, 2026. xvi, 198 pp., 1 fig. col., 4 tables.
Product Safety
Peter Lang Group AG

Biographical notes

Ayano Shino (Author)

Ayano Shino is a specially appointed lecturer at the School of Education, Tokyo Gakugei University, Japan. She received her doctorate from Waseda University, Japan, and holds a master’s degree from Waseda University as well as UCL Institute of Education. Her research interests include English education at the primary level, teacher training, classroom discourse analysis and classroom conversation analysis.

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Title: An Investigation of Collaborative Language Teaching and Learning in English Lessons in a Japanese Primary School