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Background: This small-scale needs analysis study examined content course faculty members' perspectives on English language demands in their courses and their perceptions of the introduction of four-skill English language assessment for university entrance examinations currently being planned as part of a major English education reform in Japan. Methods: This author conducted one-on-one semi-structured interviews with six faculty members in mathematics and earth sciences at a private university in Tokyo to examine (1) the use of L1 and L2 as well as language use activities involving reading, listening, speaking, and writing in English in content courses they were teaching or had taught previously and (2) their perceptions of four-skill English language assessment for student admission. Results: A qualitative analysis of interview results showed various similarities between the two disciplines, concerning the perceived importance of reading ability for satisfactory completion of content courses as opposed to minimal involvement of language use tasks requiring listening, speaking and writing at the undergraduate-level course work, followed by an expansion of advanced academic English demands at the graduate level encompassing all four skills. Moreover, the participants generally supported the proposal to introduce four-skill English language assessment to university entrance examinations in the country. Conclusion: Despite the fairly imbalanced representation of the four skills in the content courses taught by the participants, their views were generally consistent with the proposed direction for the on-going reform of English language assessment for university admission in Japan.

This small-scale qualitative study considers feedback and results reported for two major large-scale English language tests administered in Japan: the Global Test of English Communication for Students (GTECfS) and the Eiken Test in Practical English Proficiency (Eiken). Specifically, it examines current score-reporting practices in student and teacher score reports and supplementary materials as well as students' and teachers' perceptions and uses of reported information. First, to summarize key features of performance feedback provided, two independent judges coded the information that was included as feedback in the score reports and supplementary materials as well as how the feedback was presented for both tests, based on Roberts and Gierl's (2010) test score report analysis framework. Second, 16 students and five teachers at three upper secondary schools (Grades 10-12) in Japan were interviewed to explore how they perceived the assessment results and used them in their learning and teaching. Key study results showed that the documents generally followed principles of good score-reporting practice suggested in previous studies, while student and teacher interviews identified various issues to be considered to improve the communication of test performance feedback to its intended audiences.

The study focuses on the role of different theories when considered together in a foreign language other than English (LOTE) context. Specifically, the study examines (a) to what extent influential second language (L2) motivational theories, when integrated, explain motivation to learn LOTEs, and (b) how the powerful status of English in Japan affects learners' self- and identity-related motivation to learn LOTEs. Survey responses of 250 Japanese learners, who simultaneously learned a foreign LOTE and English as a required language, were analyzed using a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach. The results offer insight into how various coexisting social factors are connected to learners' multiple self- and identity-related orientations, which in turn predict several varied academic consequences (e.g., effort, attitude, and L2 ability). We also confirmed positive and negative interplay of English- and LOTE-related orientations such that the self- and identity-related orientations of the languages will play a competing role (e.g., Csizér & Lukács, 2010). This finding highlights the importance of taking sociopolitical perspectives into consideration in a context where learners learn two languages and one has a specific political presence.