A Look at First-Year Students’ English Typing Abilities

Introduction College and university EFL educators in Japan are well aware of the ubiquitous role that computers play at the post-secondary level today. In many ways, Japan stands at the forefront of integrating computerassisted English instruction at the post-secondary level. Whether or not particular colleges or universities provide computers for in-class use in their English classes yet, most post-secondary English programs across Japan now take student access to and use of computers for English course work as a given. Indeed, much of the English language curricula being employed around Japan is tacitly based on students using computers to complete assignments, especially for English writing classes where the use of word processing software has nearly eradicated the more traditional pen-and-paper writing of the past. While the access to computers enjoyed by university students in Japan creates a wide variety of opportunities for course-related tasks, projects, and assignments in English writing classes, it may also be problematic for students hindered by limited typing skills (Berens, 1986; Chapelle, 2003; Johnson & Brine, 2000; Li & Cumming, 2001; van der Linden, 1993). Surprisingly, although typing has long been an