@article{oai:sgul.repo.nii.ac.jp:00000679, author = {Cotter, Matthew J.}, issue = {95}, journal = {札幌学院大学人文学会紀要 : Journal of the Society of Humanities}, month = {Mar}, note = {In Japan, the government and society as a whole is becoming more aware of the necessity to communicate with international markets using English (Neely, 2012). As a result, teaching methods within mainstream education are being reviewed and a push for more interactive based teaching methods has increased. The realization that the average English communicative ability in Japan has been comparatively weak (TOEIC Official Data Analysis, 2006) despite learners receiving a minimum of six years of compulsory English classes, has put current teaching pedagogies under fire as they must be considered as a major factor. Teaching methods that are interactive, oral and action based put the learner into a pseudo-real communicative situation, help not only the acquisition of English communicative abilities but also increase intrinsic motivation for learning. This paper discusses the primary teaching method prevalent in Japan and contrasts this with recently introduced, interactive methods. It supports the position that these interactive methods are of more benefit to the English learner and the position is backed up with three examples of classroom lesson plans where the advantages of using one or more of these interactive methods can be clearly understood., Bulletin, 研究ノート}, pages = {97--110}, title = {Advantages of using interactive English teaching methods in Japanese mainstream English classrooms}, year = {2014} }