Due to rapid globalization, it is becoming an urgent task for Japanese universities to develop the students’ English proficiency. To achieve the goal, universities not only needs to enhance the quality of English class but also engage them with self-initiated English learning. The latter is particularly important for the students to achieve high proficiency as the length of English instruction is often limited. One of the strategies to achieve the goal is to engage learners with self-initiated English learning using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

Aim of this project is to develop pedagogical supports to promote first-year students’ ICT use in self-initiated English learning contexts. To develop the supports, this study examined their prior out-of-class learning practices during high school by conducting interviews and questionnaires. The findings showed that their resource use was limited to dictionaries, cram schools, and paper-based textbooks. The major reason was to ‘focusing on entrance exam preparation’. However, the study found that their insufficient knowledge of online resources or study methods using ICT discouraged them to do so. Thus, the findings highlighted the need to develop their knowledge of online learning resources as well as learning skills using ICT to promote self-initiated English learning using ICT.