Can mindsets be changed?

Graduation Thesis

Presented to

the Faculty of the Department of

English Language and Literature

Notre Dame Seishin University

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirement for the Degree

Bachelor of Arts

by

Wako Osugi

2016

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Contents Abstract I

Chapter One: English learning and mindsets 1

1.1 Background of English learners in Japan 1

1.2 Mindsets when learning English 2

1.2.1 Introduction – beliefs 3

1.2.1.1 Belief systems 4

1.2.1.2 Prejudice 4

1.2.1.3 Pessimism and optimism 5

1.2.1.4. Motivation 6

1.2.1.5 Summary 8

1.3 Ways to change your mindset 8

1.3.1 Introduction 8

1.3.2 A 'can do' attitude 8

1.3.3 Dummy effect 8

1.3.4 Faking-it 9

1.4 Research Questions 10

1.5 Conclusion 10

Chapter 2: Questionnaire and the Experiment 11

2.1 Introduction 11

2.2 Questionnaire 11

2.2.1 Experiment 12

2.2.2 Method of the First questionnaire 12

1) Subjects 12

2) Test design 12

3) Procedure 13

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2.2.3 Method of the second questionnaire and experiment 13

1) Subjects 13

2) Test design 14

3) Procedure 15

2.3 Results 15

2.3.1 Questions and answers from Questionnaire 1 15

2.3.2 Questions and answers from Questionnaire 2-A, 2-B & the

experiment 23

2.4 Summary 32

Chapter 3 Mindsets’ power on people’s learning 33

3.1 Introduction 33

3.2 Summary of the results 33

3.3 Discussion of the results 33

3.3.1 About Tables 1 and 2 33

3.3.2 About Tables 3 and 4 34

3.3.3 About Tables 5 and 6 34

3.3.4 About Tables 7 and 8 35

3.3.5 About Table 9 35

3.3.6 About Tables 10, 11, 12 and 13 35

3.3.7 About Tables 14, 15 and 16 36

3.3.8 About Tables 17, 18, 19 and 20 36

3.3.9 About Table 21, 22, 23 and 24 37

3.4 Research questions 38

3.5 Implications 39

3.6 Limitations of the Experiments 40

3.7. Further Research 40

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3.8. Conclusion 41

References 42

Appendices 44

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Abstract

This thesis is about the methods using mindsets to improve English

speaking skills. It is known that Japanese English learners tend to feel reluctant

or shy when speaking English. The methods used in this thesis were

considered as ways to make a breakthrough to help break down negative

mindsets and build positive ones.

A mindset is a kind of psychological state for one's way of thinking that is

constructed by experience, education or prejudice. Tacit understanding,

paradigm, belief and values are included in mindsets. This thesis discussed

whether we can change our mindset intentionally and use it effectively to learn

English (especially speaking) or not.

There many kinds of mindsets, and there are some ways to change them

intentionally. Faking-it is one of them. It is pretending to be like you want to be

or acting like you want to act despite a lack of confidence to do so. In this

thesis, some subjects did faking-it, and they spent their time thinking that they

are good at speaking English, and will become a very good speaker for a

month.

As a result, the growth rate of the two groups were not very large, but

almost all subjects from Group F (doing faking-it) and they felt faking-it was a

good way to improve their English speaking skills, and they wanted to continue

this method.

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Chapter 1 English learning and mindsets

1.1 Background of English learners in Japan

These days, many Japanese people learn English and the four fields of

English skills (writing, reading, speaking, and listening) are practiced. It is said

that having a good balance of them is important to improve people's English

ability. But to learn a language learners need to also understand what they are

good at, and not good at.

There is some interesting data about learners' self-evaluation from

English teaching materials companies. Everyday Publishing (2010) conducted a

questionnaire to about 12,000 Japanese people, and found that two in three

people feel that they are not good at English conversation the most. Further

people who feel they are not good at speaking accounted about one third of all

the subjects. Thus we can say many Japanese are not confident about

speaking English. In addition, Sagooo (2012 cited in Tryon) gave a

questionnaire to 100 English learners titled “what is difficult when you study

English?” and found that 79 subjects answered speaking, listening and

pronunciation.

These data suggest that many Japanese people feel they are not

confident with their speaking and listening skills, and they also feel that tackling

them to improve them is difficult.

DMM Eikaiwa (2014 cited in Mynavi News, 2015) gave a questionnaire to

885 business persons about the necessity of learning English. The number of

subjects who answered "I feel studying English is very necessary" was 24.0%,

and "I feel a little" was 37.1%. 61.1% of the subjects feel they need to study

English. While, in a question about their English learning at that time, 72.3%

answered "I don't do anything", and 27.7% answered “I’m studying English

now”. On the other hand, 324 subjects who selected “I feel studying English is

very necessary” and “I don't do anything” were asked “why could you do nothing

nevertheless you need study English?” The answers were “it costs a lot” at

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64.5%, “it is troublesome to walk to school” at 41.7%, “I don't have time” at

35.2%.

Summarizing the above, many Japanese tend to be negative about

studying and speaking English, because of their prejudice so they carry stress

about it. We could say they have a negative mindset like ‘I can’t learn/try (to)

English because of external factors.’

1.2. Mindsets when learning English

Mindset is a default simple idea or concept, a way of thinking that we

have normally. For example, if someone who is poor at any sports were asked

to join a basketball team instead of an injured player, he must think like ‘I can’t

do this, because I’m not good at any sports, and I can’t help because I’m no

good at sports.’ It is one of example of a mindset, and especially, it was one of

negative mindset. People’s orientation to their abilities was discovered by world-

renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck in decades of research

on achievement and success. Dweck (2011) discovered two types of mindset.

They greatly affect not only people’s motivation, but the results. They are a fixed

mindset and a growth mindset.

In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their

intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting

their intelligence or talent instead of developing them. They also believe that

talent alone creates success without effort.

In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be

developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the

starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is

essential for great accomplishment. A growth mindset creates motivation and

productivity in the worlds of business, education, and sports. It enhances their

motivation to effort for achieving their goals.

For example, there are two students, Tom and Mike. Tom has a fixed

mindset, and Mike has a growth mindset. One day, their teacher said to them

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they will get the score A if they became to able to run 50m under 8 seconds by

the end of the year. They have a friend John, he is a very fast runner, and he

got A as he’s the quickest in the class. Then...

Thinking

Tom (fixed mindset) John got A because he has talent for running, but I don’t

have talent for it. I’m wasting my time to practice to run

faster. I give up.

Mike (growth

mindset)

John got A because he worked hard, so I will be able to

run faster like John if I try hard. I’ll start to practice.

Thus we can see two different mindsets that show they a person feels

their abilities are within their control or are out of their control. There are

opinions which say that many Japanese fall into a rigid mindset, and have

overly-pessimistic feelings of themselves and their own future. Many Japanese

might have troubles because of their negative mindsets even when they learn

English, as we saw above.

1.2.1 Introduction - beliefs

1.2.1 Belief systems

The word belief is often used in a bad sense, for example, it can mean

stubborn, in contrast, it also can become the driving force for goals. When some

sport players make their professional debut, or someone wins an election after

repeatedly trying as a candidate while being told that it is impossible by people

around them, sometimes this belief is called success.

McGonigal (2013) in her speech showed us ”how to make stress your

friend.” In this speech, she explains a study about people's beliefs to stress.

This study tracked 30,000 adults in the United States for eight years. The

subjects were asked "How much stress have you experienced in the last year?"

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"Do you believe that stress is harmful for your health?” Then, the researchers

found out who died using public death records. People who experienced a lot of

stress in the previous year had a 43 percent increased risk of dying. But it was

only for the people who believed that stress isn't good for their health. People

who experienced a lot of stress but did not look stressed were no more likely to

die, and they had the lowest risk of dying of anyone in the study. When

someone changes his mind about stress, it can change the body's response to

stress.

In a typical stress response, the human's heart rate goes up, and blood

vessels constrict. Normally, these physical changes are understood as anxiety

or signs that people aren't coping well with the pressure. In the study,

participants learned to view the stress response as helpful for their

performance. Then, when they faced stress, their blood vessels stayed relaxed,

they were less stressed out, less anxious, more confident.

1.2.2 Prejudice

Prejudice is prejudgment, or forming an opinion before becoming aware

of the relevant facts of a case. The word is often used to refer to preconceived,

usually unfavorable, judgments toward people or a person because of gender,

political opinion, social class, age, disability, religion, sexuality, race/ethnicity,

language, nationality, or other personal characteristics. In this case, it refers to a

positive or negative evaluation of another person based on their perceived

group membership. Prejudice can also refer to unfounded beliefs and may

include "any unreasonable attitude that is unusually resistant to rational

influence." Allport (Wikipedia) defined prejudice as a "feeling, favorable or

unfavorable, toward a person or thing, prior to, or not based on, actual

experience".

The above definition is merely negative prejudice. It may also be

considered that people think about the others well even without sufficient

evidence (positive bias). There is one argument that says "The prejudice should

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be defined as the feeling to determine whether hate or love things without any

well-founded." However, the majority of prejudice tends to be negative

prejudice.

“Benevolent prejudice is a superficially positive type of prejudice that is

expressed in terms of apparently positive beliefs and emotional responses.

Though this type of prejudice associates supposedly good things with certain

groups, it still has the result of keeping the group members in inferior positions

in society.” (Wikipedia: Prejudice, 2015) Benevolent prejudice is able to help

justify any hostile prejudices a person has toward a particular group. It is

defined by UK LGB rights charity Stonewall as "expressions of positive views

about minority groups that are not intended to demonstrate less positive

attitudes towards them, but which may still produce negative consequences."

For example, unfortunately, some people think that handicapped people are

pathetic. It may be not a happy thing for handicapped people, but it also make

some people be kind to handicapped people as a result.

In this way, things that tend to be thought as human's bad habit at a

glance sometimes provide good effect on someone's life or view of things.

1.2.3 Pessimism and optimism

Sometimes people think or act pessimistically, and sometimes

optimistically. People who think pessimistically tend to think that “I cannot do it

anyway” “Still no good” “It's not interesting”. Their negative ideas make them

lethargic, and they become to do nothing, then their brain may degenerate

because of a lack of stimulus. On the other hand, when people are optimistic,

they think “I can do it” “There is always tomorrow” “Try again”. It doesn't stop

people's thinking, conversely, it encourages brain's activity. They give different

effects on human's brain.

Fredrickson (2004 cited Howell: Mindsets) at the University of North

Carolina conducted an experiment to research how optimistic thinking

influences the human brain. He separated the subjects into 5 groups, and 2

5

groups watched the movies that is like giving them positive feeling, Group 1

watched a movie that doesn't give them neither positive nor negative feeling,

and the others watched negative ones. After this, the subjects were asked to

write what they want to do when they face to the situation that gives them same

feeling as the movies they watched. subjects were given a sheet printed 20 “I

would like to...”. As a result, subjects who watched negative movies couldn't

write more answers than both of subjects who watched positive and neutral

movies. But, subjects who watched a positive movie could write the most

answers even comparing with the neutral group. This shows positive feelings

encourages someone's motivation to act, and negative feelings demotivate and

probably will affect the efficacy of various people's lives.

1.2.5. Motivation

People do something when they are moved by their motivation. There

are many kinds. They can be separated into these two types firstly, the intrinsic

motivation and the extrinsic motivation.

Intrinsic motivation is the motivation provided by internal curiosity and

interest, and it is a behavior that is not dependent on reward and punishment.

This is especially a common motivation for a child in early childhood due to the

extremely high intellectual curiosity. For example, when a child is addicted to TV

game, the child plays it by his/her inner motivation thinks that “This game is fun”

rather than for reward or to avoid punishment. In addition, when someone sets

the agenda themselves and try to achieve it not only through intellectual

curiosity, and spontaneous thinking that has oneself in center, autonomy that to

solve the problem, and also a sense of capability of resolution to the problem

motivate a human. Generally, acts based on the intrinsic motivation can have a

great effect on people’s purpose. For example, learning based on intrinsic

motivation helps create very efficient learning, moreover, it can expedite

learning continuously. In order to develop this motivation, it is believed that

trying to solve some problem thinking about the situation is challenging or

selective develop intrinsic motivation. Sensibility motivation, curiosity motivation,

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operation motivation, and cognitive motivation are included in the intrinsic

motivation.

Extrinsic motivation is a motivation boosted by obligation, reward or

punishment. “The action” is desired by people in actions based on intrinsic

motivation. On the other hand, action based on extrinsic motivation is done for

achieving some purpose. For example, studying to get high score on tests, or

working hard is action based on extrinsic motivation. Forced extrinsic motivation

is the lowest spontaneous form of extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation and

intrinsic motivation can exist in the same person at the same time, and

especially extrinsic motivation with high autonomy can be thought to be almost

the same as intrinsic motivation.

As well as these two types, there is achievement motivation as a kind of

motivation. Achievement motivation is a motivation that appears when people

try to achieve their goal at high level while being evaluated by others. Adair

(2006, cited in Wikipedia: Achievement Motivation,) says that to understand

what gives people motivation is essential to engage their interest and make

them concentrate to use their power for the tasks. Intention which leads people

to their action is governed by motivation. This motivation is a psychological

need or desire within people, and it does not matter whether it is conscious or

semi-conscious or unconscious. He also says that the main motivation can be

covered by other motivation. Murray considered achievement motivation from

the point of view of achieving requests. And he argues humans have a desire to

try to achieve high targets single-handedly, and supposes that this desire

defines people’s action, then he concluded achievement motivation is

composed of two desires of fear of failure and need to succeed.

Atkinson (1974 cited in Wikipedia Achievement Motivation) considered

that fluid expectations and values from people around you are important not

only for the two elements required of achievement are fear for failure and desire

for success. He argued that the value of success and failure and expectations

of success and failure influence people’s motivation strongly. The way to

consider a factor for one’s failure also influences people strongly in their actions

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leading to achievement. In general, it is believed that these four elements

contribute to this, they are ability, effort, the difficulty of the problem, and the

chance to affect the result of the action. People who have high achievement

motivation tend to consider their result was caused by ability and effort as an

internal factor, in contrast, people who have low achievement motivation tend to

consider their result was caused by the difficulty of the problem and the chance

as an external factor.

1.2.5 Summary Looking at the above, we can see how the ways of thinking or mindset

strongly influence people’s motivation and every action’s results. Next, we will

see some ways to change one’s mindset intentionally.

1.3 Ways to change your mindset

1.3.1 Introduction

There are many ways one can change one’s mindset to improve some

ability or situation. These include motivating someone from changing the way

people think of their ability resulting for someone’s identity and helping

achieving the goal. Other ways include tricking the mind into a new mindset

such as with placebo effects or ‘faking it’.

1.3.2 A 'can do' attitude

People’s “Yes, I can do it!” attitude helps them take definite charge of

their future. Their attitude controls every aspect of their life. It is their attitude at

the beginning of any task that, more than anything else, affects the outcome.

They need to cultivate a strong belief in their ability to cope with whatever life

may bring. They’ll become successful if they choose "Yes, I can do it!" as their

life motto. They’ll always be positive and ready to take on anything.

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1.3.3 Dummy effect

This effect is also called “Placebo effect”, it happens when some

improvement is seen by believing that something such medicine will have an

effect even if people are prescribed a placebo. This improvement not only

appears in the subjective symptoms, but also as an objective improvement that

is measurable. Sometimes its purpose is to get mental stability rather than to

make an improvement in the original disease and the symptoms due to the fact

that you are taking medicine.

This effect does not only appear in medical situations. Researchers in

the University of Glasgow (2015) has done an experiment using placebos. They

told 15 endurance-trained club-level runners that they were being given a new

performance enhancing drug called OxyRBX. It was said to improve oxygen

delivery to the muscles in a similar way to a hormone called recombinant

human erythropoietin (r-HuEPO). Before the experiment, the runners' personal

best times of 10km was 39.3 minutes on average. They self-injected the saline

placebo, thinking that it is OxyRBX over seven days and their 3km running

performances in head-to-head competitions were assessed. The runners

improved their race time by an average of 1.2%.

Participants reported reductions in physical effort, increased potential

motivation and improved recovery after running following the saline injections.

1.3.4 Faking-it

The catchphrase “Fake it till you make it” means to pretend to be

confident so as to be successful when people face a difficult or negative

situation. The belief is that it will transform real confidence. Various universities

have experimented with it, for example, the research at Wake Forest University.

In this research, scientists asked 50 students to behave optimistically during a

15 minutes group discussion, even if they did not feel so. The more students

became confident and energetic, they become powerful and positive. (2011,

Prevention Magazine). Power-Posing was also found to be successful as a

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faking-it method for pretending to be confident and being relaxed and powerful

(Cuddy, 2103). The task asked participants to power-pose for two minutes

before job interviews, presentations. People's testosterone level was boosted

by it, and it makes them more confident.

1.4 Research Questions

The following are the research questions for this thesis:-

1. Do English learners in Japan truly feel they are not good at speaking English

than other English skills? And what is the reason?

2. Does ‘faking-it’ lead to changes in some results of people's activity?

3. Does ‘faking-it’ influence English learners' mind of their self-evaluation for

speaking English?

4. Is ‘faking-it’ effective as a method to tackle speaking training?

1.5 Conclusion

Chapter One discussed two topics. They were the background of English

learning of Japanese concerning ability and feelings. We also looked at some

ways to control human's mind to do something well by intentional

misunderstanding by themselves or other person for the situations. Many

Japanese feel that their speaking skills are not good and they feel some

difficulty on their way to train their English speaking skill. Chapter Two will

introduce a questionnaire and experiment about Japanese's feeling and self-

efficacy for speaking English and the effect of faking-it on their feelings.

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Chapter 2: Questionnaire and the Experiment

2.1 Introduction

English learners in Japan often feel that speaking English is difficult and

sometimes they avoid studying English because of various prejudices,

mindsets, or beliefs. There are some methods which can affect people's minds

or feelings to make their attitude better which were explained in Chapter One. In

Chapter Two, a questionnaire and an experiment about them will be introduced

and explained.

2.2 Questionnaire

The first questionnaire asked subjects about

1) their feelings about their English skills - writing, reading,

speaking, and listening to see whether they have difficulty to speaking

English than the other three skills, and why they think so,

2) experiences that they have used mind changing method to go

along with difficult situations on daily life and English learning.

The second questionnaire (self-efficacy questionnaire1) asked about the

subjects' self-efficacy for their English speaking skill level. Subjects were asked

their confidence level for factors regarding 4 skills, pronunciation, intonation,

fluency, and vocabulary, they are thought important to speak like native

speakers. This questionnaire was answered by subjects who speak English

frequently in their daily life, and they were selected from subjects from the first

questionnaire. These subjects took the experiment, then answered a third

questionnaire. Third questionnaire (self-efficacy questionnaire 2) asked once

more about their self-efficacy.

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2.2.1 Experiment

This experiment was to separate subjects into two groups, Group A

(fake-it) and Group B (No-faking). It can show the difference between these two

groups as looking through their answers of the self-efficacy Questionnaire 1 and

2.

Group A were given tasks to do the ‘faking-it’ method. They were asked

to try to fake being confident speakers of English for a month after hearing

explain of faking-it, and check how much they speak English and try faking-it

during a month. After their challenge, they answered the self-efficacy

Questionnaire 2 to know the change on their self-efficacy level for English

speaking ability from a month ago, and their feelings after finishing the

challenge.

2.2.2 Method of the First questionnaire

1) Subjects

The subjects for first questionnaire who were asked Questions 1~3, were

50 university students in Okayama. They study English at school. Five subjects

were from Okayama university, and 45 were from Notre Dame Seishin

University. Questions 4~14 were answered by 36 students.

They answered about their feelings about their English skills and

experiences that they have used mind changing methods to go along with

difficult situations on daily life and English learning.

2) Test design

They were given 14 questions which asked about the subjects’ feelings

about their four skills of learning English, and their experiences of their

mindsets in daily life and in the situation that they practice or study English. The

aims of these questions are to verify that many people have negative attitude to

train their English speaking skill, and to find out if there are some effects on

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their mindsets in their life or English learning situation. The subjects answered

this questionnaire on the internet using Google Forms.

3) Procedure

First, 50 subjects answered a questionnaire on the internet or paper

sheet and were asked about their feelings for four English skill (speaking,

listening, writing, reading), and their feelings for mindset that they experienced.

Almost questions were answered ‘Yes’ or ‘No’, and some questions required

written answers to analyze their opinions, and to see subjects’ genuine feelings

and thoughts and the results were analyzed.

Questionnaire 2 had 14 subjects who were selected from the first

questionnaire’s subjects. People who were selected as the Questionnaire 2 and

experiment’s subjects are who answered they use English frequently in their

lives.

2.2.3 Method of the second questionnaire and experiment

1. Subjects

The subjects for Questionnaire 2-A, 2-B, and the experiment were 14

university students. They were selected from the first questionnaire’s subjects,

and they are people who use English frequently in their life, because this

experiment need the subjects to speak English as much as possible. Four

subjects were from Okayama university, and 10 were from Notre Dame Seishin

university. Seven were for doing faking-it group (Group F), and other 7 were

doing nothing group (Group N). Group F had three 4th year-students of Notre

Dame Seishin University, and four 4th year-students of Okayama University.

Group N subjects were all 3rd year-students of Notre Dame Seishin University.

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Group 3rd-year students 4th-year students

F (do faking-it) 0 7 (3 from Notre Dame Seishin

university, 4 from Okayama

university)

N (do nothing) 7 (7 from Notre

Dame Seishin

university)

0

2) Test design

There are Questionnaires 2-A, 2-B for Group F, 2-B for Group N, and the

experiment to know whether the faking-it method is effective as a method for

improving people’s English speaking skills, or whether it can change people’s

self-efficacy level for speaking skills.

First, both groups of subjects answered the Questionnaire 2-A that asks

about their self-efficacy for four elements for speaking English of fluency,

vocabulary, intonation and pronunciation. These four elements were chosen

because they were thought to be important factors to aid speaking like native

English speakers and includes an element of growth mindset’s.

After answering, only Group F listened about the faking-it method, and

they were asked to use it to improve their speaking English skills for a month.

They spent a month believing ‘I can speak English well’, and ‘I will be able to

speak English.’ They were also asked to check how much they spoke English

and tried faking-it per day.

On the other hand, Group N’s subjects didn’t hear about the faking-it

method at all after answering, and they were also given check sheet to know

how much they spoke English per day.

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One month later after the experiment finished, both groups were given

Questionnaire 2-B so we could find out how much their self-efficacy had

changed during the month. Group F answered Questionnaire 2-B for F, and

Group N answered Questionnaire 2-B for N. There are some different

questions between former one and latter one.

3) Procedure

All subjects answered the questionnaires on the internet, or paper sheet.

They were asked about their self-efficacy level for English speaking skills, first.

Only Group F’s subjects (faking-it group) who were given explanation of faking-

it method tried this method to improve their skills for a month with checking the

amount of speaking English and trying faking-it method per day. Though Group

N’s subjects were not given any explanation about the faking-it method, they

were given a check sheet to see how much time they spent speaking English

to see if there will be no problem if there is a large difference of time that they

speak English when both Group’s results are compared to each other. After

gathering all the results, they were analyzed to assess whether the faking-it

method is effective for developing English speaking skills or not.

2.3 Results

First, we will look at the data for Questionnaire 1, and then the data for

Questionnaire 2 and the experiment.

2.3.1 Questions and answers from Questionnaire 1

This section presents the data from Questionnaire 1. Tables 1~6 are the

data about the subjects’ feelings for speaking English and training for it.

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Table 1: Rough feeling to speaking English

Yes So so No

Do you like speaking English? 72% 28% 0%

No one answered ‘I don’t like speaking English.’ 72% said ‘Yes’ and 28%

said ‘So so’,

Table 2: Shame when they speak English

Yes So so No

Do you feel a sense of shame when you speak

English rather than Japanese?

60% 16% 24%

Including ‘So so’, almost 85% of the subjects feel a sense of shame

when speak English in spite of they like speaking English.

Table 2a: The reasons for Table 2’s question

Why? Yes, I feel sense of shame when I speak English.:・ I feel ashamed when my feeling and words weren’t received

correctly, but in Japanese, I don’t feel so.

・ I have shame because I’m afraid of making mistakes and

sometimes I can’t come up any words.

・When I speak English in front of many people, I feel ashamed

because I don’t have confidence for my speaking skills especially

pronunciation.

・Because I can’t say well what I want to say.

so, so.:・ I don’t feel shame when I talk to my friends, but I feel shame to

teachers, because I become anxious of my poor speaking skills.

・ I feel shame when I talk to native speakers, but I also feel sense

of superiority speaking English, though I’m in a calm frame of mind

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when I speak Japanese, because I’m Japanese.

Many subjects said they are afraid of making mistakes and they don’t

feel comfortable when they speak English because they are not confident of

their speaking skills.

Table 3: Which skill do you want the most?

Speaking Listening Writing Reading

Which skill do you want the

most?

94.4% 2.7% 0.0% 2.7%

Almost all the subjects want the speaking skill for English the most.

Table 4: Did you hit upon some ways to improve your speaking skill?

Yes No

Did you hit upon some ways to improve your speaking

skill?

80.5% 19.4%

Did you hit upon some ways to improve your listening

skill?

91.6% 8.3%

Did you hit upon some ways to improve your writing

skill?

61.1% 38.8%

Did you hit upon some ways to improve your reading

skill?

58.3% 41.6%

The number of subjects who answered they can hit upon some ways to

improve conversation skills are more than the subjects who answered they can

hit upon some ways to improve writing and reading skills.

Table 5: Is ○○○○○○○○ English difficult?

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Yes, so

much

Yes No Perfectly

No

Do you think speaking English

is difficult?

36.1% 47.2% 13.8% 2.7%

Do you think listening English

is difficult?

13.8% 47.2% 36.1% 2.7%

Do you think writing English is

difficult?

25% 30.5% 41.6% 2.7%

Do you think reading English is

difficult?

11.1% 27.7% 55.5 5.6%

Speaking English was thought to be the most difficult element of these

four skills by the subjects, the second was writing, and the third was listening

near the second.

Table 6: Table 5’s reasons for their answers

Do you think ○○ English is difficult?

Why?

(speaking)Yes, so much:・I’m not good at output.

・It is difficult to speak English with translating from Japanese

at the same time.

・It is difficult to improve speaking skills only with practice by

myself.

・I can’t say what I want to say correctly.

Yes:・Speaking is different from writing and reading, it can’t be

done perfectly by understanding grammar.

18

・I don’t have time to speak English.

・I care pronunciation and intonation overly.

・I can’t speak English happily, because I become anxious

about if I can speak well or not.

・I don’t want to make mistakes in front of native speakers,

and I’m not confident of my speaking skills.

・Japanese don’t want to talk about something in broken

English because they are perfectionism.

No:・People understand my words by atmosphere.

・I make situations that I speak English with friends and

teachers, and I have many situations to talk to native speakers.

・I can speak if I don’t care little things, but if it is needed to

speak carefully, it becomes not easy.

・If the purpose is communication, I can grow up with

experience.

Perfectly No:・It is just speaking, and only courage is needed.

Why?

(listening)Yes, so much:・There are many country which use different pronunciation,

and there are dialect and personal habit.

・It takes long time to get ears to the sound of English.

Yes:・I can’t catch the speed of English, and it takes time to

understand if I could hear the words.

・The pronunciation of English is very different from Japanese.

19

No:・I can be good at it with practicing.

・Human learn listening first, and next to it, learn speaking, so

though listening is thought that it is difficult at first, gradually it

will become a natural thing to listen English sound.

・I can understand the meanings little with translating the

words I knew.

・The more I hear, the more improved I become.

・I’ll get used to listen to English sound with many situations I

face to foreigners.

Perfectly No:・It needs only to deal with a large number.

Why?

(writing)Yes, so much:・It can’t be done without topics as same as speaking, and the

readers distrust my texts if there are many mistakes of spelling

or sentence structure.

・Grammar is difficult.

・It is difficult to learn correct grammar and words even in the

mother language, so I think it is more difficult in foreign

languages.

・I have to be careful at grammar and spelling at the same

time.

Yes:・I don’t have enough vocabulary.

・I think writing something with hands is high-technology that

can be done by only human.

・Mistakes become more easy to be found than speaking,

because they remain on paper or other things.

20

・I overly care about making mistakes, and I can’t write it

smoothly.

・I don’t know if I can write what I want to say, and I can’t

come up any words to use.

No:・It is a bother, but it’s going to be OK.

・It’s OK if I effort.

・I feel it is not difficult if I can understand grammar.

・Maybe we can express our feeling freely if we are careful for

basic grammar.

Perfectly No:・I can write something with words and ways which I know, I

don’t need to think too much.

Why?

(reading)Yes, so much:・I’m poor at understanding ability.

Yes:・I can guess the meanings by context.

・I don’t know the words.

・Though I think it is easier than writing, I also think it is the

second difficult skill thinking the order that humans learn.

・It is impossible to read English if we don’t have high

vocabulary.

No:・We can read as many times until we understand.

・Reading skill can be improved depending on my effort for

memorizing words or grammar.

21

・I can understand the meaning if I can catch the context.

Perfectly No:・Rich vocabulary makes it possible to read sentences.

Tables 7~8 present the data about subjects’ experiences of mindset in

their general life and English learning situations.

Table 7: Is there difference in your motivation or result between when you have

optimistic mind and when you have pessimistic mind for something you do?

Yes No

Is there difference in your motivation or result between

when you have optimistic mind and when you have a

pessimistic mind for something you do?

97.2% 2.7%

Almost all the subjects have experienced the effect of optimistic mind

and pessimistic mind.

Table 8: What happened?

What

happened?

(In daily life)

・I quit because I want to become good at something

immediately, and try to think that it is great if I grow up even a

little from yesterday, then I became to be able to continue

effort with my pace compared with before.

・When I was in the entrance exam season, though I was

very anxious, I tried the exam with strong mind that I can pass

this exam.

・Believing the result will come to me if I keep holding on, I

22

never lose motivation.

・I can play nicely in the games when I did positive thinking.

What

happened?

(In English

learning)

・Believing I can speak English well, I became to do English

conversation actively.

・Believing I can speak English well, I could pass Eiken with

high score.

・To image myself that speaking English correctly, the

presentation went very good.

・I think it is important how I think of something to do, I never

gave up TOEIC believing I can do it.

・I could improved my language skill thinking that anyway I

will try to speak English even though it was wrong at host

family’s home.

・I could performed nicely on Eiken thinking that I just go

there to do normal conversation in different language.

・In fact I needed to study more, but to believe I can do it,

then the score didn’t reduce.

Almost all the subjects feel some difference between when they have

positive thinking and when they have negative thinking in their life.

2.3.2 Questions and answers from Questionnaire 2-A, 2-B & the experiment

This section presents the data from Questionnaire 2 and the experiment.

Tables 9~13 present the data about subjects’ self-efficacy level for

speaking English before the faking-it challenge of both groups, A and B.

Table 9: How long do you speak English in a day?

How long do you speak English in a 0min ~30min ~1h ~2h 2h~

23

day?

Group F 0 0 0 4 3

Group N 0 2 0 4 1

Table 10: fluency confidence level

6. What is your fluency confidence

level when you speak English?

(Before the experiment)

0-

19

%

20-

39%

40-

59%

60-

79%

80-

99%

100

%

Group F 0 3 3 1 0 0

Group N 1 1 3 2 0 0

24

Table 11: vocabulary confidence level

6. What is your vocabulary

confidence level when you speak

English? (Before experiment)

0-

19%

20-

39%

40-

59%

60-

79%

80-

99%

10

0%

Group F 0 2 2 3 0 0

Group N 1 1 2 3 0 0

Table 12: pronunciation confidence level

6. What is your pronunciation

confidence level when you

speak English? (Before

experiment)

0-

19%

20-

39%

40-

59%

60-

79%

80-

99%

100

%

Group F 0 2 2 2 1 0

Group N 3 2 1 1 0 0

Table 13: intonation confidence level

6. What is your intonation

confidence level when you

speak English? (Before

experiment)

0-

19%

20-

39%

40-

59%

60-

79%

80-

99%

100

%

Group F 0 2 2 2 1 0

Group N 1 3 3 0 0 0

25

Tables 14~24 are the data about subjects’ feeling after a month and self-

efficacy level for speaking English after the faking-it challenge of both groups, A

and B.

Table 14: Did you do something special?

Did you do something special to improve your English

speaking ability from last time?

Yes No

Group N 0 7

No one did anything special during the month.

Table 15: Do you feel your speaking ability has changed since the last time I

asked?

Do you feel your speaking ability has changed since

the last time I asked?

Yes So,

so

No

Group N 0 2 5

Two said “so, so” and five said “no.”

Table 16: Why do you think so?

Why do you think so? So, so No

Group N I tried to increase

opportunity to speak

English consciously.

Because I didn't do anything

special. I couldn't try anything

special. I don't have enough

opportunity to improve my

ability.

They think that they can’t improve their skill if they didn’t do anything, and

they might think they need opportunity to speak English.

Table 17: fluency confidence level 2

26

What is your fluency

confidence level when

you speak English?

(after experiment)

0-19% 20-

39%

40-

59%

60-

79%

80-

99%

100%

Group F 0 (0) 1 (3) 2 (3) 2 (1) 2 (0) 0 (0)

±0 -2 -1 +1 +2 ±0

Group N 0 (1) 3 (1) 1 (3) 2 (2) 1 (0) 0 (0)

-1 +2 -2 ±0 +1 ±0

They were calculated in this way, 0-19=10, 20-39=30, 40-59=50, 60-

79=70 and 80-99=90.

Group F:

The average of the first questionnaire was 44.28%, and the average of the

second questionnaire was 64.28%. It increased 20%

Group N:

The average of the first questionnaire was 47.14%, and the average of the

second questionnaire was 52.85%. It increased 5.71%

%: F>N +11.43

Difference of growth width : F>N 14.29%

Table 18: vocabulary confidence level 2

27

What is your vocabulary

confidence level when you speak

English? (after experiment)

0-

19%

20-

39%

40-

59%

60-

79%

80-

99%

100

%

Group F 0 (0) 1 (2) 2 (2) 4 (3) 0 (0) 0 (0)

±0 -1 ±0 +1 ±0 ±0

Group N 0 (1) 0 (1) 6 (2) 0 (3) 1 (0) 0 (0)

-1 -1 +4 -3 +1 ±0

They were calculated in this way, 0-19 as 10, 20-39 as 30, 40-59 as 50,

60-79 as70 and 80-99 as 90.

Group F:

The average of the first questionnaire was 52.85%, and the average of

the second questionnaire was 58.57%. It increased 5.72%.

Group N:

The average of the first questionnaire was 50%, and the average of the

second questionnaire was 41.42%. It decreased 8.58%

%: F>N +17.25

Difference of growth: F>N 14.3%

Table 19: pronunciation confidence level 2

28

What is your pronunciation

confidence level when you

speak English? (after

experiment)

0-

19%

20-

39%

40-

59%

60-

79%

80-

99%

100

%

Group F 0 (0) 1 (2) 2 (2) 3 (2) 1 (1) 0 (0)

±0 -1 ±0 +1 ±0 ±0

Group N 2 (3) 2 (2) 0 (1) 2 (1) 1 (0) 0 (0)

-1 ±0 -1 +1 +1 ±0

They were calculated in this way, 0-19 as 10, 20-39 as 30, 40-59 as 50,

60-79 as70 and 80-99 as 90.

Group F:

The average of the first questionnaire was 55.71%, and the average of

the second questionnaire was 61.42%. It increased by 5.71%

Group N:

The average of the first questionnaire was 30%, and the average of the

second questionnaire was 44.28%. It increased by 14.28%

%: F>N +17.14

Difference of growth: N>F 8.57%

Table 20: intonation confidence level

29

What is your intonation

confidence level when you

speak English? (after

experiment)

0-

19%

20-

39%

40-

59%

60-

79%

80-

99%

100

%

Group F 0 (0) 1 (2) 2 (2) 3 (2) 1 (1) 0 (0)

±0 -1 ±0 +1 ±0 ±0

Group N 1 (1) 2 (3) 1 (3) 3 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0)

±0 -1 -2 +3 ±0 ±0

They were calculated in this way, 0-19 as 10, 20-39 as 30, 40-59 as 50,

60-79 as70 and 80-99 as 90.

Group F:

The average of the first questionnaire was 55.71%, and the average of

the second questionnaire was 61.42%. It increased 5.71%.

Group N:

The average of the first questionnaire was 35.71%, and the average of

the second questionnaire was 47.14%. It increased 11.43%.

%: F>N +14.28

Difference of growth: N>F 5.72%

Table 21: Could you feel you were acting like a native English speaker?

30

3.When you were ‘faking it’,

could you feel you were acting

like a native English speaker?

yes -

very

much

yes so, so no

Group F 0 2 5 0

No one answered “yes - very much.” two said “yes”, and five said “so, so”

Table 22: Do you feel your speaking ability was changed?

4. Do you feel your

speaking ability was

changed from before (as a

result of ‘faking it’) ?

improved

a lot

improved no change decreased

Group F 0 7 0 0

All seven said “improved.”

Table 23: Why do you think so?

Why do you think

so? (Group F)

・I took care of good intonation and pronunciation, then

I became comfortable when speak English.

・Having mind that I can do it well, I could ignore my

mistakes and continue speaking.

・I became a little bit more confident about speaking

English

・The teacher praised me.

They felt their mind was changed more positively than a month before.

Table 24: Do you want to continue this method?

31

Do you want to continue this

method?

Yes Maybe No

Group F 5 2 0

Five wanted to continue it, and two said maybe they wanted to continue

it.

2.4 Summary

Two types of questionnaire and the experiment were reported in this

chapter, as were the profile and the results. The results showed us the subjects’

feelings for learning or practicing some English skills, the experiences that they

felt the effect of intentional changing mindsets when they faced problems, and

the effects of doing faking-it to improve English speaking skills. We also could

see the subjects’ self-efficacy for their speaking skills.

In the next chapter, we will analyze and look at the results more in detail,

and discuss the research questions, further research and so on.

32

Chapter 3 Mindsets’ power on people’s learning

3.1 Introduction

We looked at many kinds of mindset and how to change people’s

mindset consciously in Chapter One, and reported a questionnaire and

experiment about Japanese English learners’ feelings and the change of

people’s mindsets by faking-it in Chapter Two.

In this chapter we will analyze the data of Chapter Two in detail.

3.2 Summary of the results

From the first questionnaire, we could understand the subjects’ feelings

when facing each English skill and the hidden effects of mindset when they

think about their problems. According to the results, they feel speaking English

is difficult for them because of various reasons, though they want it the most.

They also feel the effects of intentional mindsets in their daily life or when

studying English.

From the second questionnaire that was answered by some of the

subjects from the first experiment and the experiment, we could see the

differences of the growth rate between Group F which tried ‘faking-it’ and Group

N which didn’t try ‘faking-it’. The differences were not very remarkable though

the growth rates of Group F were higher than Group N in three of the four skills.

We also knew almost all the subjects from Group F was satisfied with this

experiment as a way to try to improve their English speaking skill, and they

wanted to continue this method.

3.3 Discussion of the results

3.3.1 About Tables 1&2

33

Tables 1 and 2 asked the subjects about their rough feelings about

speaking English, and whether they feel a sense of shame when they speak

English or not.

No one answered “I don’t like speaking English,” but about 80% of the

subjects (including “so, so”) answered they feel sense of shame when they

speak English. Looking at the reasons, many subjects said they are afraid of

making mistakes and they don’t feel comfortable when they speak English

because they are not confident of their speaking skills.

3.3.2 About Tables 3&4Tables 3 and 4 asked “Which skill do you want the most?” and “Did you

hit upon some ways to improve your speaking skill?”

Almost all the subjects want speaking English skill the most, and the

number of subjects who answered they can hit upon some ways to improve

conversation skills are more than the subjects who answered they can hit upon

some ways to improve writing and reading skills.

3.3.3 About table 5&6Table 5 showed speaking English was thought to be the most difficult

element of four skills (speaking, listening, writing, and reading) by the subjects,

the second was writing, and the third was listening near the second. Table 6

showed the subjects’ reasons for why they think something is difficult or not.

First, we will look at the reasons of the subjects who answered speaking

English is difficult, because we knew speaking English was thought that is the

most difficult element of four skills in Table 3.

Looking at Table 4, many subjects who think speaking English is difficult

explained their reasons in such words. They have discontent for the opportunity

and lack of practicing ways of speaking English, they are not good at output,

they are not confident and are afraid of speaking English. Some reasons seem

34

similar to the reasons for the question ‘Do you feel a sense of shame when you

speak English rather than Japanese?’

They might confuse the difficulty and shame of it, and with this thinking,

they put more pressure on themselves, for example, ‘I have to be perfect in

speaking English which is very difficult, and mistakes are shameful thing, so I

have to be perfect’. If they tend to look at the bad side of things at that time, It is

difficult for them to look at their future, in other words, It is difficult to make their

image of success or growth in the future.

We still can see the difference in ways of thinking between the subjects

who answered ‘○○ is difficult’ and who answered ‘○○ is not difficult’ in all four

skills’ answers. The former tend to think about ‘How am I now?’ On the other

hand, the latter tend to think about their growth in the future. It can be seen as

related to fixed mindset and growth mindset. And the reasons also seemed to

be different in this way, the subjects who answered ‘○○ is difficult’ said ‘Xx is

OO (negative words), SO I think xx is difficult.’ In contrast, the subjects who

answered ‘○○ is not difficult.’ said ‘Xx is OO (negative words), BUT I think ▽ , ▽SO xx is not difficult.’ From this we came to know the fixed mindset and growth

mindset’s presence and its effects on the subjects by this question.

3.3.4 About Tables 7 & 8Tables 7 and 8 presented the data about subjects’ experiences of

mindset in their general life and English learning situations. Almost all the

subjects have experienced the effects of optimistic mind and pessimistic mind.

3.3.5 About Table 9

This table shows the amount of times that the subjects speak English in

a day. All of the subjects speak at least 30 minutes in a day. It was the reason

why they were chosen as this experiment’s subjects.

3.3.6 About Tables 10, 11, 12 and 13

35

These tables show Group F and N subjects’ answers about self-efficacy

for their English fluency, vocabulary, pronunciation and intonation skills before

they do the experiment. In fluency and vocabulary, there were not big

differences between Group F and N, but there were differences on

pronunciation and intonation.

3.3.7 About Tables 14, 15 and 16

These tables show Group N’s answers about their one month during the

experiment and their change of English speaking skills. All of them answered

they did nothing special in a month to improve their speaking skills in a month.

There was a question which asked them ‘do you feel your speaking

ability has changed since the last time I asked?’ 2 of them answered their

English speaking skills changed a little from a month ago, and 5 answered their

English speaking skills didn’t change in a month. No one answered clearly ‘yes.’

If there had been more time maybe these results would have been higher.

3.3.8 About Tables 17, 18, 19 and 20

These tables show Group F and N subjects’ answers about self-efficacy

for their English fluency, vocabulary, pronunciation and intonation skills after the

experiment.

Group F’s average of fluency confidence level in the first questionnaire

was 44.28%, and the average of the second questionnaire was 64.28%. It

increased 20%. Group N’s average in the first questionnaire was 47.14%, and

the average of the second questionnaire was 52.85%. It increased 5.71%. The

difference of growth rate was 14.29%, and the difference was 11.43%.

Group F’s average of vocabulary confidence level in the first

questionnaire was 52.85%, and the average of the second questionnaire was

58.57%. It increased 5.72%. Group N’s average in the first questionnaire was

50%, and the average of the second questionnaire was 41.42%. It decreased

8.58%. The difference of growth rate was 14.3%, and the difference of the

number was 17,25%.

36

Group F’s average of pronunciation confidence level in the first

questionnaire was 55.71%, and the average of the second questionnaire was

61.42%. It increased 5.71%. Group N’s average in the first questionnaire was

30%, and the average of the second questionnaire was 44.28%. It increased

14.28%. The difference of growth rate was 8.57%, and the difference of the

number was 17.14%.

Group F’s average of intonation confidence level in the first questionnaire

was 55.71%, and the average of the second questionnaire was 61.42%. It

increased 5.71%. Group N’s average in the first questionnaire was 35.71%, and

the average of the second questionnaire was 47.14%. It increased 11.43%. The

difference of the growth rate was 5.72%, and the difference of the number was

14.28%.

In this way, Group F’s growth rates of fluency confidence level and

vocabulary confidence level were larger than Group N’s growth rates of these

skills’ confidence level, while Group F’s growth rates of pronunciation

confidence level and intonation confidence level were lower than Group N.

From the above fact, we can’t conclude faking-it made Group F subjects’

skills improved.

3.3.9 About Tables 21, 22, 23 and 24

These tables show Group F subjects’ feeling after the experiment. In a

question which asked them ‘could you feel you were acting like a native English

speaker?,’ 2 answered ‘yes,’ and 5 answered ‘so, so.’ It was important to

believe strongly they were native speakers. If they could feel so as they all can

answer ‘yes-very much,’ the results of growth rates’ number might change

largely.

To a question which asked them ‘do you feel your speaking ability was

changed from before (as a result of ‘faking it’) ?,’ all of them chose ‘improved.’

According to the results above, it seems to be true. They felt the effects of

faking-it. Its reasons were, for example, because of ‘having mind that I can do it

37

well, I could ignore my mistakes and continue speaking.’ This subject said she

became to be concentrated on speaking practice, and her skills could grow up

as a result.

To a question which asked them whether they want to continue this

method or not, 70% of them answered ‘yes,’ and the rest answered ‘maybe.’

3.4 Research questions

This section will answer the research questions

1. Do English learners in Japan truly feel they are not good at speaking

English than other English skills? And what is the reason?

English learners in Japan have feelings that they are not as good at

speaking English as the other skills. Main reasons were because they think

they are not good at it, or lack confident of output and speaking skills for

example pronunciation. And we saw the result which said many subjects feel

shame when they speak English in the other question. It might also affect the

subjects’ mind that they tend to think speaking English is difficult. On the

other hand, some subjects answered they don’t think speaking English is

difficult.

2. Does ‘faking-it’ lead to changes in some results of people's activity?

Almost all the subjects felt that they were helped by faking-it (changing

mindsets intentionally). Almost all the subjects felt some difference between

when they have positive thinking and when they have negative thinking in

their life.

3. Does ‘faking-it’ influence English learners' mind of their self-evaluation for

speaking English?

38

The numbers of growth rate of two groups did not differ greatly, but

Group F subjects’ growth rates were higher than Group N in three of the four

skills.

4. Is faking-it effective as a method to tackle speaking training?

Almost all the subjects from Group F felt faking-it was a good way to

improve their English speaking skills, and they wanted to continue this

method, though there were no clear differences in the results from Group N. It

may be important that Group F subjects thought faking-it is a good way, and

they wanted to continue practicing to speak English with this method. Even if

there are no effects, they will believe they are going well because they are

doing faking-it, and they can keep speaking English without giving it up.

Faking it can be looked on as an effective method to train speaking English

skills.

Group N subjects answered and thought their skills did not change in a

month because they didn’t do anything special. They did this way of thinking

because they believe they can’t change anything without doing something

special in spite of their skills in fact changed in a month almost as same as

Group F subjects. It is also an interesting phenomenon.

3.5 Implications

It is very important to keep motivation for studying or learning languages

for language learners because there are many people who quit studying or lose

motivation. In this thesis, we looked at various ways to keep learners’ motivation

by using various mindsets intentionally. They can help learners’ study. The

subjects also answered that they have been helped by self changing of

mindsets in their daily life and when they are in some situations face to English.

And the experiment showed the effects of faking-it that the subject felt

and thought they improved their skills. Almost all of them also said they want to

continue faking-it as a method to improve their English speaking skills.

39

3.6 Limitations of the Experiments

One of problems was irregularity of the data on questionnaire 2-A. About

fluency and vocabulary, they had no problem, but about pronunciation and

intonation, there were large differences before the experiment. Due to this

problem, comparing the results makes making a conclusion difficult.

The second problem was the length of the experiment and times of

questionnaire about their self-efficacy. It seemed the length of the experiment

was a little short to understand or become accustomed to faking-it for Group F.

And it also seemed they should be asked about their self-efficacy level one or

two more times, because we couldn’t conclude the experiment’s effect’s

presence from the point of view of the number of the data, not in the mental

plane.

Third was the difficulty to compare the data of questionnaire 2-A and 2-B.

To compare Group F and N, per groups’ data had to be dealt one by one, but

there were 7 different subjects in both groups.

3.7. Further research We need more time to do the experiment as above. It is because we

couldn't judge whether the change in the self-efficacy level of Group F was due

only to the faking it method in such a short time.

And it was also ambiguous whether the faking-it method affected only the

subjects' mental impression, in other words, the Group F subjects said 'it was a

good way to improve English speaking skills' and did better self-assessment

after the experiment in just belief, or they really improved their skills, or both. Of

course, a positive belief is very important when learning something comfortable,

but there was a need to make clear the effects of faking-it to conclude this

research neatly.

To complement this problem, as one way, third party opinions will have

to be gathered the next time. For example, the subjects' friends' or teachers'

40

evaluation for the subjects' change of speaking skills in a subject will be

required in addition to the subjects' self-efficacy level questionnaire about both

sides, beliefs and real ability. By doing this correction, we may be able to see

the experiment's results or effects more clearly in both sides, belief and real

ability.

To create and verify new methods using the other mindsets is also

interesting. For people who can never have positive thinking way, finding good

ways which this can be done still they have negative minds for their learning is

interesting as well.

3.8. Conclusion

The main ideas of this thesis were Japanese English learners are not

confident of their English speaking skills, and to improve them changing or

using mindsets.

Japanese English learners are not confident of their English speaking

skill because many of them tend to want to be perfect about everything. They

may think that they can do only something which they think 'I can do it perfectly'

or 'I'm confident of it.'

At that time, the experiment's aim was to find out whether using the

faking-it method, and changing their mind from 'I can't do it perfectly' or 'I'm not

confident of it' to 'I will do it well' or 'I don't care if I can't do it perfectly' are

effective to improve speaking skills and to keep going on practice?

As a result of the experiment, we couldn't judge strongly from only the

change of their self-efficacy level questionnaire, but the subjects who tried

faking-it method said they want to continue faking-it method as a way to

practice speaking English.

41

References

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amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are?language=en

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http://www.mindsetonline.com/index. Accessed October 14, 2015

McGonigal, 2013. How to Make Stress Your Friend. TED talk

https://www.ted.com/talks/kelly_mcgonigal_how_to_make_stress_your_friend?

language=en

Mynavi News, スマホで利用可能！MMD研究所がオンライン英会話に関する調

査結果を公開.

http://s.news.mynavi.jp/news/2014/07/30/24. Accessed August 14,2015

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Popova, Fixed vs. Growth: The Two Basic Mindsets That Shape Our Lives.

https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/29/carol-dweck-mindset/ Accessed

October 14, 2015

Tryon, co., Versant対策プログラム.

http://www.tryon.co.jp/vs/sp.html Accessed August 14, 2015

The University of Glasgow, Placebo boosts endurance running performance.

http://www.gla.ac.uk/news/archiveofnews/2014/december/

headline_381164_en.html Accessed October 14, 2015

Wikipedia, Achievement Motivation.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Achievement_Motivation.aspx. Accessed

August 14, 2015.

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August 14, 2015.

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https://www.en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindset. Accessed October 14, 2015

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https://www.en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prejudice. Accessed August 14, 2015

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Appendices

First questionnaire

1. When did you start to learn to speak English? Before elementary school The first half of elementary school The second half of elementary school Junior high school High school

2. When did you start speaking English frequently? Before elementary school The first half of elementary school The second half of elementary school Junior high school High school

3. How often do you speak English in a day at school? 1h、30min　 1~3h　

4. Do you like speaking English? Yes So, so No

5. Do you feel a sense of shame when you speak English rather than Japanese?*

6. What is your fluency confidence level when you speak English? 100％ 80～99％ 60～79％ 40～59％ 20～39％ 0～19％

7. What is your English vocabulary confidence level? 100% 80~99% 60~79% 40~59% 20~39% 0~19%

8. What is your English pronunciation confidence level?

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100% 80~99% 60~79% 40~59% 20~39% 0~19%

9. What is your English intonation confidence level? 100% 80~99% 60~79% 40~59% 20~39% 0~19%

10. Did you hit upon some ways to improve your speaking skill? Yes No

11. Did you hit upon some ways to improve your listening skill? Yes No

12. Did you hit upon some ways to improve your reading skill?

Yes No

13. Did you hit upon some ways to improve your writing skill?

Yes No

14. speaking is Easy A little easy A little difficult difficult

Reason is...15. listening is

Easy A little easy A little difficult difficult

Reason is

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16. writing is Easy A little easy A little difficult difficult

Reason is17. reading is

Easy A little easy A little difficult difficult

Reason is18. Which skill do you want the most?

speaking listening writing reading

19. Is there difference in your motivation or result between when you have optimistic mind and when you have a pessimistic mind for something you do?

Yes No

What happened? (In daily life)

What happened? (In English learning)

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Faking-it Group-F questionnaire 21. How many times did you try ‘faking it' per week?

0 1-3 4-6 7-10 10+

2.When you were ‘faking it’, could you feel you were acting like a native English speaker?

yes - very much yes so, so no

3. Do you feel your speaking ability has changed from before (as a result of ‘faking it’)?

improved very much improved no change decreased

4. Why do you think so?

5. What is your fluency confidence level when you speak English? 100% 80-99% 60-79% 40-59% 20-39% 0-19%

6. What is your vocabulary confidence level? 100% 80-99% 60-79% 40-59% 20-39% 0-19%

7. What is your pronunciation confidence level? 100% 80-99% 60-79% 40-59% 20-39% 0-19%

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8. What is your intonation confidence level? 100% 80-99% 60-79% 40-59% 20-39% 0-19%

9. Did you continue this challenge over 1 month? Yes No

10. Are you continuing this challenge even now? Yes No

11. Do you want to continue this method? yes maybe no

Faking-it Group-N questionnaire 2nameA. Did you do something special to improve your English speaking ability from last time?

yes no

If you chose "yes" on A, what did you do?B. Do you feel your speaking ability has changed since the last time I asked?

yes - very much yes so, so no

Why do you think so?1. What is your fluency confidence level when you speak English?

100% 80-99% 60-79% 40-59% 20-39% 0-19%

2. What is your vocabulary confidence level. 100%

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80-99% 60-79% 40-59% 20-39% 0-19%

3. What is your pronunciation confidence level? 100% 80-99% 60-79% 40-59% 20-39% 0-19%

4. What is your intonation confidencelevel? 100% 80-99% 60-79% 40-59% 20-39% 0-19%

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