Watanabe Yoshinori

Washback effects of language testing on instruction
Effects of university entrance examinations on instructions
Washback effects of language assessment on learner motivation
Psychological factors influencing a foreign language learning
Psychological processes of reading English as a foreign language
External factors influencing the use of language learning strategies
Development of teacher certificate examinations
Exploring English teacher competence

In the past quarter-century, I have been investigating various issues relating to foreign language learning and teaching. Most of the research sites where I have been conducting research involve my own classroom with the target of observations being my own teaching and my students. It is virtually impossible, then, to separate my research from my teaching. It would not make sense to do so. My long-standing research or educational interests have been in the role of language assessment and testing in innovating in teaching English as a foreign language. In the process of investigating the issue further, out of curiosity as well as out of necessity, I have become interested in various other related topics, including classroom language development, the role of assessment in motivating language learners, language learning strategies, amongst others. In my own teaching at university, I emphasize the importance of students learning by experiment. By experiment here I mean a type of learning where students learn by getting involved in a variety of activities and tasks, such as oral presentation, micro-teaching and peer-instructions, which are followed by a form of assessing the effectiveness of that experience by the students’ own monitoring. In so doing, I am particularly interested in the role of recall and visualization techniques in checking comprehension.

(Subject of research)
Effects of Criterion-Referenced Assessment on Learners' Motivation
Develpment of a diagnostic assessment system for teachears of English as a Foreign Language