Professional Development

Originated by Birmingham MA TEFL/TESL students

Welcome to Learners' Voices 2010!

Last year, we heard from a number of learners and teachers in a wide variety of educational contexts in Japan. This promises to be another exciting and engaging year as we continue to learn more from our learners, hearing their voices, listening to their thoughts, opinions and ideas, and further reflecting upon and innovating our own teaching practices.

In this month's edition, courtesy of Tim Murphey and Yuichi Suga, we listen to the real voice of university students reflecting on their language learning experiences and appealing for meaningful change in English language education in Japan.

Enjoy!

Philip Shigeo Brown
Editor, Learners' Voices

Note
If you would like to contribute to Learners' Voices, please review our Submission Guidelines (http://www.eltnews.com/columns/mash/learners_voices/) and feel free to email me anytime: philza2003(at)yahoo.com

In spring 2009, 30 first year university students in Tim Murphey’s seminar, at Kanda University of International Studies, wrote their language learning histories (LLHs). In the fall, small groups read and analyzed them for motivational and demotivational factors and wrote reports, giving recommendations to students, teachers, and the Japanese government Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science & Technology (MEXT) http://www.mext.go.jp/english/. Then they made the video, summarizing the findings, ventriloquating some Japanese proverbs and sound bites from other famous quarters. They intend to send the report and LLHs to MEXT and the newspapers along with the video link.

Click on the link below to watch and listen to The real voice of Japanese students:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwsZ0KiHhRg

The actual reports (edited by Tim Murphey, Joe Falout, and Maria Trovela) can be downloaded and read freely by clicking on the link below:
Real Voice: Suggestions for Changing English Education for Future Generations from 1st Year University Students

Biography of the Video Co-Producers
Kanda University of International Studies graduate (2009) and movie producer Yuichi Suga co-produced and edited this video on his Mac. Tim Murphey has a history of asking students what they think (1993, 1999, 2002, 2004; Murphey & Arao 2001; Murphey, Chen & Chen 2005; Murphey & Ijima 2006; Murphey, Falout, Elwood & Hood 2009; Murphey & Falout in press).

References
Murphey, T. (1993). Why don't teachers learn what learners learn? Taking the guesswork out with action logging. English Teaching Forum 31 (1) 6-10. Accessed Jan 24, 2010 at http://eca.state.gov/forum/vols/vol31/no1/p6.htm
Murphey, T. (1999). Publishing Students’ Language Learning Histories: For them, their peers, and their teachers. Between the Keys (the newsletter of the Materials Writers SIG of JALT) VII, no.2 p. 8-11, 14.
Murphey, T. (2002). From the horse’s mouth Advice from second-semester Japanese university students to JHS/HS English teachers in Japan. Learning Learning, 9 (1), 2-10.
Murphey, T. (2004). Participation, (Dis-)Identification, and Japanese University Entrance Exams. TESOL Quarterly 38 (4) 700-710 Winter
Murphey, T. & Arao, H. (2001). Changing Reported Beliefs through Near Peer Role Modeling. TESL-EJ. 5(3)1-15. Accessed at http://tesl-ej.org/ej19/a1.html
Murphey, Tim; Chen, Jin; & Chen, Li-Chi (2005). Learners’ constructions of identities and imagined communities. In P. Benson & D. Nunan, (eds.). Learners' Stories: Difference and Diversity in Language Learning. pp. 83-100. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Murphey, T. & Iijima, Y. (2006). University entrance exams, copyright law, academic ethics, and reality. The English Teachers’ Magazine. May pp. 45-47 (In Japanese)
Murphey, T., Falout, J., Elwood, J. & Hood, M. (2009). Inviting Student Voice. Asian EFL Journal, Professional Teaching Articles, Volume 36 pp. 1-25. Accessed May 2, 2009 at http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/pta_Mayl_2009_tm.php
Murphey, T. & Falout, J. (in press). Critical Participatory Looping. TESOL Quarterly.

A recent success story in the classroom

I like singing very much and believe that singing songs has many benefits for language learning. It is easy to make children sing. However, it is getting more difficult to make older students sing. I currently teach university students and while they like to listen to songs they are not very keen on singing.

I remember that I attended a workshop of “jazz chants” several years ago so I decided to use chanting with songs. I chanted the lyrics of the song line by line with the rhythm but without the melody, then I asked students to repeat after me. With this method, more students, especially those who were reluctant to sing, joined in the chorus. It is much easier for them to chant lines than singing, and perhaps, less embarrassing. I used another idea as well to encourage them to chant. Recently in Japan, neuroscience has become more popular. Many books about research on the brain has been published and the word 脳トレ(brain training) is now fashionable. I showed a picture that illustrated what parts of a brain worked when we read aloud. It showed that many more parts of the brain worked actively than when we read silently. I told them “Let’s activate our brain!”

Comment

Sometimes, it is difficult to make Japanese students participate in activities because they are too shy or too self-conscious. You should try different strategies that suit your students’ age, level and personality.

A thought or idea in progress

I enjoyed poster presentations very much at Hiroshima MASH in August 2008. It’s an excellent way to present what you are doing in your classroom. I would like to do such a presentation if there is an opportunity. I have been operating an extensive reading program in my classes for six years. I want to use poster presentation in the program as well. It would be nice for students to have presentations on their favorite books.

From teacher to teachers

When I was teaching the Japanese language in Ireland, I arranged many language exchanges between Japanese and Irish students to get them to help each other. I have also been very lucky to have a lot of exchange partners throughout my studies. I think Japanese teachers and native English speaking teachers should find ways to collaborate more, both in teaching and in research, because we all teach English in Japan. I am wondering how we can promote more collaboration. As for me, if anyone wants to improve their Japanese, or want to know about Japanese traditional theatre I can help.

Kishiko is an active member of the Gospel choir called “Precious Praise”. She also enjoys 読み聞かせ(reading) English books in an elementary and a junior high school. Contact her at nash@sc5.so-net.ne.jp

Editor's note:
I first met Kishiko at JALT2007 when she presented at the Birmingham Graduate Student Showcase. She has done a very interesting study on using Extensive Reading in her classroom over a four year period. She quickly became interested in MASH because she loves interacting with people. We have all learned so much from her perspective as a Japanese teacher of English (JTE) and respect her approach in the classroom. I had the added privilege of being asked to go "typo hunting" in her dissertation and enjoyed it thoroughly.

If you'd like to send in a column about yourself, we are always looking for more Names, Faces & Ideas

Contact Steven Herder at steven.herder@gmail.com or click below to check us out a little further at http://www.mash-collaboration-efl.com/

In this conversation, I asked two university students, Hikari and Akie, about their thoughts and experience of English prior to entering university, as well as their impressions of English classes at university. I then asked their feeling of having the ability to listen and talk to a high-level L2 speaker, and if they believe their experiences helped motivate their learning in anyway. The background and rationale for this is outlined below.

Background and rationale
In 2008, I began instructing in an intensive English programme at a women’s university in Tokyo. The students were all at different levels and it seemed that the lower level students were motivated intrinsically (i.e. one’s own interest, enjoyment, and pleasure), while the higher level students showed more extrinsic motivation (based on the need to attain qualifications, please others, or avoid punishment) (Griffiths 2008). Reflecting on my own language learning experiences, I therefore tried to accommodate my students’ requests, especially the lower level students, to meet L1 persons in the community that interested them to maintain and help increase their motivation levels.

I considered starting an interaction programme with L1 speakers similar to one that I helped administer teaching ESL in my former university’s intensive English programme in Canada. One of the attractions of that programme for L2 students is that all of the intermediate students and above have the opportunity to interview native English speakers in the community that share similar interests with the students, or are in occupational fields that students want to enter. However, I realized that it would not be practical to administer the same sort of programme at the university I instruct at in Tokyo as there is a shortage of L1 English speakers in the various fields that my students have expressed interests in.

As an alternative, I re-thought the interview concept and decided to have the students talk to high-level L2 persons of interest. I first introduced a first grade student, Hikari, to a former student who I taught in Canada, Yumiko, and who works in the airline industry. Hikari showed a high extrinsic motivation level as she expressed a strong desire to pursue a career in the airline industry when she graduates university. Hikari spoke to Yumiko for over an hour mainly in English and talked about the industry that she has her sights set on entering in three years time.

Listen to the interview with Hikari Part 1

Listen to the interview with Hikari Part 2

Recently I used the same L2 student and high-level L2 speaker model again, but changed the concept slightly so that one class of fifty L2 students listened to a high-level L2 presenter, Kanami, who is currently completing her PHD studies in Canada. Kanami spoke of her research at length, but also talked about her English education and the many opportunities that she has been able to take advantage of because of English. This model was used to try to help motivate a larger student audience, intrinsically or extrinsically, in a shorter period of time and in a setting where the students could ask questions of Kanami in groups and thereby decrease the individual pressures of sustaining a longer conversation. Akie, a first year student involved in Kanami’s presentation is not interested in the same field as Kanami, but possesses an interest to travel and speak to many L1 people both here in Japan and abroad.

Listen to the interview with Akie

Your thoughts and ideas
As educators, it is important for us to help our learners stay motivated so that they can maximize their learning, especially when students are studying a language in a setting where exposure to the target language is minimal at best. I would like to invite comments and ideas form teachers on how you motivate your students. In your opinion, are L1 models a better choice than L2 models to help motivate our L2 students? Is it possible, or even practical to try and meet the motivational needs of all our students?

I would like to thank Hikari and Akie for taking the time to answer some questions and share their thoughts. Their comments are certain to be useful to educators when they consider motivational methods in helping heir own students.

Reference
Griffiths, C. (2008). Lessons from Good Language Learners. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Biography
Richard, originally from Winnipeg, Canada, has been living in Japan since 2002. During the last ten years, he has worked as an instructor in an ESL program at a university in Canada, an ALT on the JET Program, a NET and curriculum advisor, and an instructor at two universities in Tokyo. His interests are vocabulary acquisition, SLA, testing, motivation, and teacher training.

Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University’s (APU) multicultural student body is unique in Japan. With approximately 2,500 international students from roughly 80 countries living and studying with Japanese students, the campus offers plenty of intercultural exchange in both Japanese and English. I am currently in my second semester working in the Center for Language Education at APU.

I recently had a conversation with Lina Fang, a second-year student who has lived half her life in China and half in Japan. Lina, cheerful and hardworking, was a student in an intermediate level class I taught last semester. During the interview, we covered topics relating to her impressions of her high school English education and its usefulness to the university English learning context. Lina also talked about her active approach to learning and using English, particularly via online opportunities. In addition, she mentioned her desire to use English beyond her academic career both in social and occupational situations.

Interview Part I
Interview Part II
Interview Part III

The insights gained from this interview can be useful for students, teachers, course designers and administrators alike. This student pointed out that there is a gap between what is taught at the high school level and the skills students find desirable. In addition, Lina mentioned her desire to learn more content-specific vocabulary related to her chosen field of study, and how socializing on the Internet was providing new avenues and motivation for language learning.

This conversation with Lina raises the issue of connectivity and cohesion between secondary and tertiary English education. I would like to invite responses and comments from teachers that can help us identify and provide solutions for any gaps that may exist between these two levels of education. What can high school teachers do to help prepare students for university English course content? And what can university educators do to maximize language skills students acquire in high school?

Thank you very much, Lina, for your time in answering these questions. Thank you for this opportunity for us to share our thoughts and ideas. Thank you valued colleagues and energetic students for your time in visiting this site.

Joe Siegel

Andy Lawson interviews 2 returnee students on their experiences learning English and asks for their opinions on learning English in Japan:

Yui Shinada is a 19-year old student at Airline Business College Narita who spent her 2nd year of high school in New Zealand, and 11-year old Mai Kato lived and attended school in the USA from 4-8 years old. These 2 girls have had very different experiences of learning English.

Yui was a very brave 16-year old, who left her family and friends to spend a whole year in New Zealand, where she used English all day at school, and all evening at home with her host family. She then returned to Japan, where she was able to re-assimilate sufficiently enough to graduate high school, and go on to become a student at Airline Business College Narita.

Interview with Yui

Mai was just 4 years old when her whole family relocated to California. Although she used English at home with her parents, Mai went to a regular English-speaking elementary school for over 3 years. The Mai who returned to Japan in 2006 sounded just like a typical 8-year old Californian girl, and she had far bigger problems reading kanji than she had reading Junie B. Jones books.

Interview with Mai

Reflections
The thoughts which both girls expressed in the interviews were entirely their own. But I found it interesting that they shared many of the same ideas. Both mentioned the frustration of moving from situations where they used English every day, to returning to Japan, and having to seek out sufficient opportunities to use their English in genuine communicative situations.

Yui is fortunate that she has several English Communication classes per week at college, and can take additional Conversation Classes. She can also choose what she wants to watch on her DVD player at home. Clearly highly motivated, Yui makes the most of every chance to express herself in our conversation classes, no matter how complex the subject. She is the youngest member of the class by several years, yet feels confident enough to play an active role in all discussions, and ask enough difficult questions to keep the teacher on his toes!

For Mai, the situation is more difficult. Her parents are highly-supportive and encourage her efforts to maintain her English language skills. She has English class at elementary school several times per week. But Mai is unique among her classmates and siblings. While they are at the stage of learning the ABC Song, and how to say whether or not they like apples, Mai is trying to remember what simple predicates and compound sentences are. She relishes the few ‘activities’ in class, where she has a chance to actually put her English to use, rather than repeating basic vocabulary or ‘chanting’ in parrot fashion. At home, there is little opportunity to do so either, as her English skills far exceed those of the rest of the family. Even choosing to watch cartoons in English is rarely an option, given the presence of a strong-willed monolingual 7-year old sister and 3-year old brother.

The challenge for me to is to decide how best to spend the one hour per week that Mai comes to private class. This is a challenge which I relish as Mai is a great student. I’m also delighted to say that she recently passed level Pre-2 of the STEP Eiken!

Your thoughts
Have you ever taught a returnee student? I would love to hear any comments or advice from your experience of teaching returnee students, particularly regarding some of the unique challenges it presents, and how best to deal with these. These are students with enormous potential, and we, as educators have a responsibility to ensure that we do all that we can to help them fully realize that potential.

Andy Lawson is employed in several institutions, including Airline Business College Narita (ABCN) and LETS Kids, and recently featured in MASH Names, Faces & Ideas.

• Alumni Updates (2)
• Learners' Voices (11)
• MASH Names, Faces & Ideas (12)
• Mark's Bookcase

• The Real Voice of Japanese Students
• Kishiko Nashimoto - Practical and Effective - She gets it!
• EFL learners communicating with proficient L2 persons of interest using L1
• Understanding and filling the gaps in HS and university English education
• Returnees' Learning Paths: Challenges and Triumphs
• A Man on a Mission - Significant and Quantifiable
• Goals - like maps - lead us in the right direction
• A witty man, a wise man, a northern man
• When language learning 'clicks': a JTE and lifelong learner
• Lifelong language learners: What keeps them going?

• Understanding and filling the gaps in HS and university English education
    - Chris Wharton
    - Joe Siegel
    - term paper
  
• A Negotiated Syllabus: Company Classes with a Twist
    - JaneRadriges
    - Phil
    - Phil
  
• A witty man, a wise man, a northern man
    - Chris Wharton
  
• A MASH colleague going all the way!
    - Phil
    - S. Pihlaja
    - Phil
    - J. Schieffer
  
• Lifelong language learners: What keeps them going?
    - Jason Peppard
    - Helen
    - Chris Wharton
    - Matthew Davies
    - Chris Wharton
    - Chris Wharton
    - Andy Lawson
  
• Teaching English in context to promote student autonomy
    - Colin Skeates
    - Mark de Boer
    - Steven Nishida
    - Mark de Boer
    - Jason Peppard
  
• We feed off one another's energy - and Joanne has oodles
    - Phil
  
• MASH International...
    - arlene johnson
    - Vivian Childs
    - Sylvia Smith
    - Phil
    - vimmy
  
• KYOTO JALT MASH '09 on Feb. 22nd
    - Jojo Siegel
    - Julian Pigott
    - Iain Dandy
    - Jean-Paul DuQuette
    - Will Baber
    - Vick L. Ssali
    - Wakana Takai-MacLean
  
• Another Leader in MASH
    - Michael Stout