20% Time Project in a First-Year University English Language Class

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  • 大学1年の英語のクラスでの20%タイムプロジェクト

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There are many teachers who complain they have so much material to teach, but there has never been enough time. English teachers are one of them. Often teachers overwhelm the students with vast amounts of information which the teachers desperately hope to share with them (Canagarajah 2006). However, how much information do the students actually wish to acquire? Not many of them are willing to accept all the information presented in front of them. If students are unwilling, it might be difficult to expect true learning. Therefore the student’s willingness to learn would be crucial for their learning as well as the quality, not quantity, of the information. Accordingly, when people are working on something they like, they naturally put more effort and work hard (Dörnyei 2001; Ryan & Deci 2000; Vansteenkiste, Niemiec & Soenens 2006). The 20% Time Project originated from Google’s management philosophy, which encourages the employees to spend 20% of their work time engaging their chosen pet project that their job description did not cover (Juliani 2015). As a result of the 20% Time Project at Google, some innovative products were created such as Gmail, AdSense, and Google News (Juliani 2015). This idea can be incorporated into education in order to reinforce intrinsic motivation, such as curiosity or enjoyment. In this study, the implementation of the 20% Time Project in an English class at a Japanese university was conducted following the examples of the classrooms in the United States, and the observation of students’ responses are discussed as well as the application. Also, this study suggests possible modifications for the future implementation in the language classrooms.

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