The Essay On Peer Pressure And Exam Washback In Japanese Education System.

Traditional Grammar Translation Techniques in Japanese Secondary School Education

Discuss about the Relationship Between Social Aspects for Peer Pressure and Washback of Exam.

The aspect of grammatical knowledge as well as the reading skills are important for the Japanese secondary school learners. Nevertheless, there may adhere to the use of traditional grammar translation techniques. In Japan there exists a substantial gap between the MET vision as well as the classroom realities, and the new movement which could afoot resulting to narrowing it. Japan Current foreign language education policy has envisions on the development of the nation practical English communication abilities (Carless, 2005). In this country many of the secondary school English teacher adheres to the traditional grammar method of translation and in most of the cases they lack training in the communicative approach methods. There are demotivating factors which may lead to this, these are individual behavior of the teacher in the classroom, the method of grammar translation that is used by the instructor, the tests and university entrance examinations, the text books that are used on the related issues skills (Duo, 2014). Lastly, it could be memorization nature of the vocabulary that are used.

The teacher beliefs that the CLT influence on the classroom practices as well as the contextual factors. There are inhibiting factors which impede on the use of the CLT such as few opportunities to engage in the use of the face to face communication in English outside the setup of classroom, the accustomed teacher centered instruction, large number of classroom sizes, insufficient number of the ELT and the entrance exams do not likely focus on comprehension (Luong-Phan & Effeney, 2014). It is significant to note there are reforms that have been implemented to encourage the use of the communicative language teachings techniques that are in place within the dominating grammar translation approach.

In research that was done to goal of English education in japan showed that its purpose is for the development of the communicative competency. Further, the participant of the research highlighted that these competencies was not the only education goals that is important to pursue. There advocated that there is need for individual goals in the classroom mattered. Another goal was the need for the student to be prepared for the examination of university. The research that was developed found out that there are various education goals, of which some develops the ability of the students and others overlapped on the school education. The aspect of the peer pressure entails the influence on the observers, who get encouraged to follow on others by changing on their attitudes, values, and behaviors to confirm to those of the influencing individuals. Peer pressure is an important factor in influencing behavior during the learning practices. The peer confirmatory in learning has been pronounced in regards to style, taste, appearance, ideology and the values. It has been associated with the episodes of activities that are common in company of the peers (Mahmoudi, 2014). The classroom practices have been affected by the English proficiency of the students, motivation, expectation and their personal problems. Based on the research done in Japan it shows that teaching has been changed depending on the proficiency of English language and the preferences for communication.  Despite of the students providing certain communicative activities, they quit using them because they thought these activities did not fit on their conditions or perhaps they felt incapable of conducting on the activities to their desired manner (Mondejar, Laurier, Valdivia, Mboutsiadis, Sanchez, Mondejar & Sanchez, 2012). In the environment that are filled in pressure, the teachers are unknowingly acting in ways that demotivate the students. The students are pressuring their teachers in order for them to help them pass the examinations, based on the belief that the purpose of the high school education is vital for preparation of the examinations. Teachers on their part believe that their control issues in the classroom is affecting on their perceptions of the entrance. The changes to the entrance exams in the university are in the wind, some of the observers feels that the universities are constantly under pressure to change on exams they give and the number of the college age students are declining (Pan, 2009). Barriers to apply on the reform orientation training in Japanese EFL classes there was a pressure to conform to the standard of teaching practices, especially grammar translation methodology. On the part of the teachers the intention in the adoption of the reform orientation approach to teach of the grammar is essentially determined by the interaction of all the 3 belief areas (Tayeb, Aziz, Ismail & Khan, 2014). For most part the attitude of the teachers toward the COS 2009 as well as the social pressure causes them to experience unsupportive  referents that are largely controlled by the beliefs especially the ones related on time, training and the knowledge of reforms.

The Impact of CLT Approach on Classroom Practices

Wasback entails to the impact of assessment on the teaching as well as learning. Moreover, it’s the scope to which the presentation and the provision of test influences on how the teachers and the learners perform tasks in order to promote on the learning of the learning. The reforms oriented approach of the teachers is regarded as the expense grammatical accuracy and the knowledge of the grammar and is an important factor in the preparation of UEES. The interesting aspect to the emergence of the qualitative study is related to the focus group and the participant in the interview.  The use of the test can enhance and drive teaching as well as learning. The test impact can have influence on either at the macro and the micro levels. The distinct notions of washback encompasses on various occurrence for example idea of the washback impact that refers to the impact of the test on both the learning and also teaching. Next, the idea of the dimension that is powered on instruction which refers to the concepts that the learning aspect need to be related to testing. Thirdly, it comprises on the curriculum line, which focusses on the relationship between the teaching of the syllabus and testing. Finally, the aspect of the systemic authenticity that combines the tests to the program of the education (White, 2009) .The student related communicative conditions usually impact on the practices of the classroom, and the exam related expectation which may affect these practices either directly or indirectly. Various factors have impacted on the practices of the language such as efficacy of teacher especially in English learning teachers to whom their mother tongue is not the focus on language. The tutor efficacy could be regarded as the beliefs on their functionality to organize as well as implement on the span of measures that is needed to effectively achieve on the a variety of teaching process in a particular context . Over a particular period the Japanese ministry of Education, sport, research as well as technology has been capable of put into practice on the work of reforming the opening assessment of the college as well as endorsing of the utilization of the CLT (White, 2009). Washback has been the most investigated theme in language education particularly in the EFL as well as the ESL contexts. The influence on the learners, teachers along with the course appears to be looked into since separate entity instead of entire although the three components are intertwined in the studying method. Based on the  research on knowledge and skills development in Japan it explored on the impact of the washback in the Japanese framework in which the English language was the foreign, thinks in the necessity of redefining along with conceptualizing the occurrence of washback instead of thinking about in which is positive or maybe negative (Zheng, 2016). Additionally, studies has suggested that when understanding is nearly the final goal of instructing along with the testing since the effective signifies in the accomplishment of the objective, actually test may be regarded as way of instructing and also studying activities. The idea of washback is an inescapable trap from which the individuals cannot really evade because it generally benefits on it is impact from the power of the test themselves (Zheng, 2016). Nevertheless, the facet of washback could be possibly positive, negative or simply neutral and the accountability of most the parties for example teachers, students, and experts.
The instructing studying field is usually the major of the learning environment, the learners as well as the teachers are influenced by the washback. The use of the tests cause problems for the lives of the teachers , impacting on the teaching methods , content of evaluation , attitudes and motivation. Use of the effective strategies should be aimed to provide the teachers with more time for development of the professional. The use of peer planning and observation serve as the reinforcement standards practices these could include the training, advices and the development. It is important to note that teaching is vital but there are other tasks which a teacher has to perform. Teachers though on motivate students, since lack of motivation effects on how they teachers teach English language. Management of the students and having them participate in the activities are the staple means of what teaching entails (Pan, 2009). An example, in tests the Japanese learners of English usually suffers from the national inferiority complex that is reinforced by the reports of TOEFL as well as TOEIC scores that are near the bottom of the international ranking.

The teachers are often the ultimate target around all of these aspects are moving, reciprocally in addition to centrifugally. The effect of the washback to them get to know additional of the educational elements. In the event that the influence of the English dialect test is positive, it means that the efforts which has recently been invested by the teachers on the degree of micro with the other key players for example pupils, and parents are typically operating reciprocally with the learners. Alternatively, in the event that the influence of the English test is negative on  the result it impact on them centrifugally (Al-Jamal & Ghadi, 2008). The student’s conversation with their teachers as well as their encircling learning environment is crucial just a few obtain and offer. 

References

Al-Jamal, D., & Ghadi, N. (2008). English language general secondary certificate examination  washback in Jordan. Asian EFL Journal, 10(3), 158-186.

Carless, D. (2005). Prospects for the implementation of assessment for learning. Assessment in  Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 12(1), 39-54.

Duo, P. C. (2014). The impact of english comprehensive assessment programon Taiwanese Junior High School students’ perceptions of english learning. International Journal of    Research in Social Sciences, 4(4), 554-568.

Luong-Phan, N. H., & Effeney, G. (2014). TOEFL iBT and language learning motivation: An investigation into teaching styles and influential factors for Vietnamese adolescents. International Journal of Research Studies in Language Learning, 4(3).

Mahmoudi, L. (2014). The washback effect of Iranian National University entrance exam (inuee) on pre-university english teaching and learning (Doctoral dissertation, University       Malaya).

Mondejar, M., Laurier, J., Valdivia, L., Mboutsiadis, B., Sanchez, E., Mondejar, M., ... & Sanchez, E. (2012). Language policy in Japan: Shifting paradigms. Teachers College, Columbia University, 149-160.

Pan, Y. C. (2009). A review of washback and its pedagogical implications.

Tayeb, Y. A., Aziz, M. S. A., Ismail, K., & Khan, A. B. M. A. (2014). The washback effect of the general secondary english examination (GSEE) on teaching and learning. GEMA;   Online Journal of Language Studies, 14(3), 83-103.

White, E. (2009). Student perspectives of peer assessment for learning in a public speaking course. Asian EFL Journal, 33(1), 1-36.

Zheng, Y. (2016). Students’ Voices: What Factors Influence Their English Learning and Test Performance?. In Assessing Chinese Learners of English (pp. 219-244). Palgrave Macmillan UK.