Cultivating Learners’ Capacity for Self–Directed English Learning via EnglishCentral Assignments in Compulsory English Courses

With rapid globalization, it is an urgent task for universities in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context to provide practical English education. Particularly, one that enables students to participate in the global society as well as the global business market. The challenge for these universities is to achieve this goal with limited class hours, and with a lack of urgent need to communicate in English outside the classroom. To achieve the stated goals within these constraints, compulsory English programs at Tokiwa University (where the author teaches English) have integrated a commercial e-learning course called EnglishCentral as a part of the course assessment. Although the students’ efforts towards self- study account for 10-15% of their final grade, engagement with self- study by the author’s students has been relatively low. Witnessing this low engagement with self-study assignments over two years, the author decided to take a more proactive approach; namely, a vision-based intervention (Dornyei, 2009). This paper reports on how the author has implemented the intervention to promote Japanese university students’ self-directed English language learning via EnglishCentral. The report also provides practical implications for educators teaching English in EFL contexts and those who aim to promote self-directed language learning using e-learning platforms.