Literature Review

In to properly understand problems in the EFL classroom, it is important to consider the nature of the broader sociocultural context.

study. Language learning motivation in Japan has received ample atwide-ranging and have foundations in culture and policy, and stakeEnglish educational policy as being in a permanent state of crisis. This comes as the country has invested heavily in English Education while public schools and universities fail to produce many students with

To understand Japan’s status quo concerning the general Englishful. When comparing Japan to its closest geographical neighbors in terms of TOEFL iBT performance, Japan lags behind the vast majority- nior high school and continued through high school and often into the been introduced as a subject beginning in the 5th grade of elementary -

EFL motivational problems in Japan have diverse origins. One of teachers tend to focus on juken eigovelopment courses, in practice, are actually taught as English grammar to help students develop oral communicative abilities in the target lan- and interests, which contributes heavily to motivational issues in the where university prestige carries more weight than individual achievement in the post-graduation job market, there are not many incentives for university students to apply themselves. In most cases, graduation growth during their time in the university system. In fact, university se- and before they have a diploma in hand. This puts some of the blame for student motivational problems on employers. This practice places enormous institutional pressure on teachers to work with failing students by any means necessary to ensure that failing students graduate, even though they might not deserve it by international standards. Clark or lazy students and having them expelled from the allegedly warm and cozy bosom of the university group is almost impossible, both practical- a moral obligation to address motivational problems in their classrooms. Studies of university lecture courses have found that motivational problems are often teacher-owned issues, and teacher behavior ranging from minor infractions such as tardiness, to verbal abuse or sexual ha- uted to the body of knowledge that shows that teacher behavior can be a prominent source of student demotivation in the sociocultural context - the macro-sociocultural context of the society and its national policies regarding EFL education, as well as the micro-context of the individual classrooms. Teacher-researchers have an obligation to assess student motivational problems in the classroom and to improve the situation. This is made possible through action research.

Educators and administrators continue to struggle with issues of ELL motivational problems in Japan. At the university level there remains a need for EFL departments to evaluate and re-design curricula and methods informed by action research, to better address motivational problems and to better serve student needs. This study seeks teaching method in the context of the EFL presentations class. This new self-awareness and improve motivation, and help students to become - ment is a learner-centered alternative assessment that at its core inwhere EFL students have to produce either written or spoken output. By analyzing their own written or spoken output, students are presented with an opportunity to evaluate and improve their own productive include fostering an active learning environment, promoting student responsibility and ownership, helping students better understand their self-assessment can contribute to increased metacognitive awareness, - ditionally, it is common knowledge in second language acquisition that some factors should be given special consideration by teachers, such- cially when it concerns public speaking in a second language. In sum, self-assessment requires that students analyze their own language out- ment should become one the tools that educators regularly utilize in their ongoing attempt to produce the best possible learning outcomes for students.

In today’s age of technology and learning, PCs, smartphones, and tablet computers can be valuable tools for classroom use. Students can record and listen to themselves or use a survey or checklist to evaluate electronic devices as learning aids that can be used in or out of the lan-sessment approach to language learning in the classroom. However, and to determine MALL’s feasibility in academic contexts where educational resources are constrained.

Methodology

This quasi-experimental practical action research study examinestion with MALL in order to help students become more motivated, gainsentations in English. The primary hypothesis of this study is that by us- ing a student self-assessment approach, students might improve their quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed in order to address the research questions below. This study was conducted by university research guidelines, and a research ethics review was completed before beginning the data collection process. Participants in the study signed a written statement of informed consent, and all survey data was submitted anonymously.

Research Questions

course help students to improve their presentation skills? - nancial or educational resources are limited.

Participants at a public university in northern Japan. They were Japanese citizens of formal English study and they belonged to the Department of Food Industrial Sciences. None of the participants were English majors but were enrolled in the English presentation course to satisfy graduation requirements. The researcher estimated that in terms of oral produc-

Students enrolled in this English presentation course met once through student-centered speaking activities that require them to presentation in English on a topic introduced as part of the textbook material. Students could to choose their presentation topic from the material covered in class. For the presentation test they were also required to use slideware such as PowerPoint. Students were allowed to memorized and that memorization, eye-contact, and audience awareness were strictly graded. Students were also reminded that merely reading from their notecards for the duration of their presentation test would result in a failing grade.

Classroom Procedures

Due to educational constraints, the participants could not be randomly assigned to either the control or experimental groups. The researcher utilized two existing sections of the English presentation course that he taught. One section was randomly designated as the control group and the other as the experimental group. The experimental design for the control and experimental groups can be seen in Figure - pants having one 90-minute class per week. As part of the regular curriculum for this course, the control group would prepare and give a one to two-minute presentation to a group of six to eight students each week during class, every week, for four weeks prior to the presentation student was required to give four mini-presentations to a group of their peers in preparation for the presentation test. Preparation for the group presentations was done each week as homework, and the group pre-

The experimental group completed the same requirements as the control group, except that each week one group would use a tablet computer during the in-class group presentations to video-record their group presentations. Due to budgetary constraints, the researcher was only able to utilize one tablet computer for this experiment. Therefore

Control Group Experimental Group