In a recent report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), teacher-student time was highlighted as an important variable in good and effective teaching (OECD, 2009). This is perhaps even more important within the realm of foreign language education. However, in Japan, class sizes are quite large, forming an obstacle to the development of communicative competence (Canale & Swain, 1980). A 50-minute communicative English class, averaging 40 students per class, leaves each person with a little over a minute of teacher-monitored speaking time. While there is no doubt that development of language skills through face-to-face communication is best, the realities of school budgets simply do not offer enough time for students to access adequate practice time with the teacher.

Figures 1 and 2: Other ways of conducting individual interviews within large classes

For the past 2 years at Toyama National College of Technology, we have been working on the development of a software-based interactive visual/audio recording system that incorporates facial recognition and audio mapping technology. Our objective is to increase student speaking practice as well as teacher-student time while offering opportunities for self-learning. The ultimate goal is to help our students improve their communicative ability/competency in English and assist them in improving their performance on English oral interview-type assessment tests.

THE NEED

Gradually more and more focus is being placed on English communicative ability within the Japanese educational system and work environment. For many years, it was quite common to listen in on an English class and not hear one English word spoken. Traditionally, the emphasis in Japan was on teaching translation and grammar. However, this trend is changing, as evidenced bythe Japanese Ministry of Education making several revisions to their education guidelines, including an increased number of English lessons in elementary schools, as well as a mandate stating that English classes must now be taught principally in English (MEXT, 2011).

But perhaps more relevant to current postsecondary students and business people are changes being made to the TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) exam. TOEIC has long been both the academic and industry standard within Japan when assessing a person’s ability to communicate in English. A student who wanted to transfer to a university from our college would have to achieve a certain TOEIC score. Likewise, there are set TOEIC scores for admittance to jobs such as flight attendants, office bosses, and ship captains.

Until 2006, this test was composed of reading and listening sections only. The test reflected the educational system by focusing on written communication and neglecting to include a speaking section. But increasingly, assessment tests that contain oral-interview components, such as the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or the new version of the TOEIC test, which includes a speaking section, are becoming a necessity for entrance into Japanese universities and the job market (Powers & Kim, 2009).

OTHER SOLUTIONS

Many commercial software and online products, such as Rosetta Stone and English Central, can help students improve their speaking skills. These are useful products, but for our purposes, these existing systems are either too expensive or inflexible. Most software-based programs are created for individual users and are sold via individual licenses, group licenses, or on a per-PC basis. Though some of these programs would be helpful, unfortunately, as a public school, we are not able to afford them. Furthermore, the audio and video files that are generated cannot be easily [and legally] extracted from the proprietary software. This makes it impossible to manage the content and analyze it for educational purposes.

OUR SOLUTION

Once finished, our interactive visual/audio recording system will add voice and face recognition components. Voice recognition technology will be used for instantaneous feedback and will make the system usable for interview practice. Students will be scored on accuracy as well as speaking speed and response time. Their speech will be compared to a database of acceptable answers with a resulting score generated. This technology still requires much more development, so automated scoring will be used for practice only.

Facial recognition will be used to log in to the system, making the interface more user-friendly. Both the user’s identity and facial direction will be confirmed and monitored, opening up the possibilities for use at home or when the teacher is not able to monitor the student/class.

Figure 3. Current equipment requirements

Upon completion of beta-testing, we feel our program will be beneficial to educational institutions that require oral interviews within a large class environment or over long distances. Whether miles apart, or within a classroom with large numbers, a virtual one-to-one learning environment will be created.

Figures 4 and 5. One-on-one interviews within a class of 40 students

CURRENT SITUATION

We are currently in the second year of the developmental stage of this research project. Each component is being developed separately and our goal is to add the facial recognition component to the system this year, with voice recognition to follow the year after.

Teachers can go to the administrators’ screen to upload their videos and organize them into a number of themes and levels. The length of both the question and the answer times can easily be adjusted. Then students can log in to the system and answer questions in the form of a video, similar to the technology that YouTube uses. In fact, the system itself is most easily described as a two-way interactive streaming Web video site.

The students’ audio and video files are recorded and sent to a server that the teacher can access. The teacher then uses a standardized rubric to score each video. These files can then be kept and accessed by both students and teachers to monitor improvement, and also for quantitative and qualitative analysis.

Without the automation, our interactive visual/audio recording system is still quite useful, but for the teacher the grading time is the same as if individual interviews were carried out. The present usefulness of the system is limited to (a) carrying out interviews between the interviewee and interviewer asynchronously and (b) the creation of a multiyear database for students.

Figures 8 and 9: Other screenshots of admin panel

CONCLUSION

Improving face-to-face communication should be the goal of any foreign language communicative class. Unfortunately, restrictions imposed by time and educational budgets make it impossible for teachers to spend sufficient individual time with students. Our research is not looking to replace face-to-face communication; rather, we are trying to prepare our students for their English proficiency tests or for that important 15-minute interview that will determine their academic/professional careers.

REFERENCES

Canale, M., & Swain, M. (1980). Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing. Applied Linguistics, 1, 1-47.

MEXT (Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology). (2011). The revisions of the courses of study for elementary and secondary schools. Retrieved from www.mext.go.jp/english/elsec/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2011/03/28/1303755_001.pdf

OECD. (2009). OECD Education at a Glance 2009. Retrieved from www.oecd.org/edu/eag2009

Powers, D., Kim, H.-J., Yu, F., Weng, V., & VanWinkle, W. (2009). The TOEIC® Speaking and Writing Tests: Relations to Test-Taker Perceptions of Proficiency in English. ETS Research Report. Retrieved from http://www.ets.org/Media/Research/pdf/RR-09-18.pdf

This work was supported by a KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (22520612) from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

Todd Cooper is an associate professor at Toyama National College of Technology. He teaches a wide range of English courses and has presented on educational technology at conferences in Canada, Japan, Korea, and the United Kingdom. Currently, he is developing an interactive virtual interview system and was recently awarded a grant-in-aid for scientific research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan.  You can find Todd at Facebook: Todd Cooper & Blogger: http://tnctienglish.blogspot.com/