UNDERSTANDING AND OVERCOMING LOW ORAL FLUENCY IN JAPANESE EFL CLASSROOMS: AN INTEGRATED FRAMEWORK

Abstract

Oral fluency in Japanese EFL learners continues to be dismally low despite decades of curriculum reform and greater focus on teaching communicative English. The paper conceptually describes the networking psychological, curricular, and sociocultural obstacles that limit the development of spoken English by Japanese learners. By relying on the empirical results and theoretical frameworks of the willingness to communicate (WTC), language anxiety, self-efficacy, and cultural norms in communication, the discussion shows the effects of affective variables with systemic and cultural factors to prevent classroom participation. The grammar translation and exam-oriented assessment patterns of learning grammar in the curriculum and curricula further restrict a chance to use language in spontaneous conversations, which maintains a cycle of linguistic timidity. Further, the sociocultural values like collectivist values, fear of face as well as demands of linguistic perfection promote communicative inhibition. Combining these dimensions, the paper suggests a conceptual framework, within the framework of which psychological insecurity, restrictive pedagogy, and cultural norms support each other and contribute to low oral fluency. The paper ends with specific pedagogical and policy implications that will lead towards communicative confidence, assessment practice reform, and align EFL instruction with communicative needs of English-medium instruction (EMI) assessment and teaching English in a global setting.