There are at present some universities in Japan who give a listening comprehension test as part of the University Entrance Examination. The number is however rather small and the weight given to this part of the examination is relatively small so that the total overall effect is minimal. The use of the test by some of the universities does of course indicate that it can be done. The problem is to have it done by a sufficient number of universities to have an effect on the high school teaching system, and to give enough weight to this part of the examination to make it meaningful.

Because of the need to coordinate the high school teaching system to the university entrance requirements, no change can take place immediately or unilaterally. There must be coordination between the university and the schools. It is therefore recognised that there must first be a tentative agreement in principle that sometime in the future, listening comprehension will be considered important and included as part of the examination system. The university can take the initial position and does not require complete agreement by all schools, only a recognition by several. The university can then initiate an experiment. . . to test the feasibility of giving a listening comprehension test to a limited number of students. The scores would not be used in any entrance decisions. The following year, the procedure could be expanded to involve a larger number of students and to smooth out procedural and technical problems which may have been encountered the first year. Again, no scores would be used in the entrance decision-making. The third year, test results may be applied in the case of ties to the English language majors. During the fourth year, the weight given the listening comprehension score can be increased and used in the entrance decision-making for English majors. By the fifth year of operation, it can be determined if the high schools have changed sufficiently enough to apply the test to a larger portion of the students desiring to enter the university.

A schedule of this nature is required to give the high schools time to shift their mode of teaching. Today, there are a larger and larger number of high school English teachers who can and would like to teach the sound form of English, but who are restrained in their efforts by the need to " teach to the test". By providing an opportunity and an excuse to change their mode of teaching, it is possible that in the next five years more and more high school teachers will take advantage of the opportunity and begin to refocus their teaching toward listening comprehension as at least one of the skills to be learned by their students. It is up to the university to provide the leadership, to take the initiative, and to begin to change the university entrance examination.

The second recommendation involves the process of modeling, or providing an example. It is a truism that most often we teach the way we were taught. We tend to perpetuate the same procedures we observed as students. Even though we may know better we keep the same old habits. Professors who never use English in their own classroom will produce students who become high school teachers who also do not use English in their classroom. In many cases, because of their background, because they are victims of the grammar-translation method, many Professors of English feel that they can not speak the language well enough, so they do not speak at all and salve their conscience by believing the students can not comprehend enough anyway. But the cycle must be broken somewhere. It is sad but true that many professors of a language do not have a good spoken command of the language. This is as true of the American Professor of French literature or German Literature, as it is true of the Japanese Professor of English. But it need not remain so.

The first step is to introduce native speakers into the classroom as soon and as often as possible, either live or on tape, either over radio, or in movies, either for conversation, or simply for listening comprehension. Those Professors who have had travel experiences which give them a comfortable command of the spoken language can give the lectures in English, yet to avoid anxiety in their students can allow their students to respond in Japanese. This type of passive or receptive bilingualism is being tried in Canada with success.²⁴Those professors who still feel uncomfortable speaking English can obtain tapes by native speakers and use them in the classroom. Again discussion may be then done in Japanese, if necessary, but there has been some practice in listening comprehension by all concerned. If the research evidence presented earlier in this paper has any validity, and if the people involved have any experience in at least some form of the language (such as reading), then the two should combine to transfer to all four skills quite rapidly. This is generally the experience of people who have studied a foreign language for a long time and then go to the country where it is spoken. Many feel uncomfortable at first, but after a period of time, a sense of fluency seems to come about. Some of the audio-linguists, and the behavioral scientists would argue that this is because one has the opportunity to practice speaking. The evidence presented in this paper would argue that by visiting the country one has the opportunity, even the necessity of developing one's listening comprehension skills. The fluency in speaking, this evidence argues would rapidly follow. What is being suggested in this paper is that the skill of listening can and should be learned within Japan. Modern technological developments make the need to understand the spoken language more and more urgent, but many of those same technological development also make it more and more possible to achieve a high degree of skill in listening comprehension without ever leaving Japan.

EndNotes

1. "Giscard's use of English, telephone annoys critics" ( article ), Mainichi Daily News, Jan. 19. 1975. p. 2

2. George K. Zipf. Human Behavior and the principle of least effort(New York: Hafner Publishing Company, 1965), p. 19-22