Do Students Express Their Actual Opinions in Class?

This paper reports on a study conducted at a private Japanese university in order to determine whether students were expressing their actual opinions (as opposed to false opinions) in English Discussion Class (EDC) and the factors that can prevent students from expressing their actual opinions.A questionnaire was developed and administered to 95 students.A clear majority of students (87%) reported that they did in fact express their actual opinions during group discussion tasks.However, 73% percent of students reported that they did not express their actual opinions in class at least some of the time.The main reasons given were general lack of ability and lack of vocabulary.