Professional Development

Originated by Birmingham MA TEFL/TESL students

MASH Collaboration

With Steven Herder, Mark de Boer & Phil Brown

Asuka Publishing Company, where most students are beginners, has had in-house weekly English classes for a few years now. Sachiko Onoda (pictured third from left), an editor of language books (and the class coordinator), generously agreed to be interviewed for this project even though it was her first time to have an interview in English.

Interview with Sachiko Onoda

I am also grateful to Terry Yearley and Colin Skeates who kindly shared their insightful comments and provided invaluable feedback, prompting me to address the following 3 questions:

1. What aspects of the interview may be potentially interesting and useful for other teachers, as well as myself?
A key consideration is students’ reactions to having a negotiated syllabus, and the views of the institution may also need to be taken into account. Unfamiliar approaches and change might be welcomed enthusiastically or met with resistance. At Asuka, three elements appeared crucial: discussion with the class coordinator prior to the course; outlining a clear step-by-step approach to negotiating and designing a syllabus; and, most importantly, the students’ willingness to ‘try something new’.

2. Fostering learner autonomy
A negotiated syllabus offers students the opportunities to become more aware of their goals, select course objectives, and create content that is inherently more motivating as they have greater ownership, autonomy, and self-direction.

3. What do we need to take into consideration when conducting and recording interviews?
There may be a ‘learning curve’ for both the interviewee and interviewer. Accordingly, the main interview questions were discussed 2 weeks in advance so the interviewee had time to prepare answers and obtain feedback on them. Naturally, it takes a few minutes to relax and get comfortable so the first 5 minutes of the interview (which was subsequently cut) focused on basic general questions before moving onto the main topic.

Philip Shigeo Brown
Column Editor, MASH Learners’ Voices

Recommended reading
Johnson, S. (1998) Who Moved My Cheese? London: Vermilion.
Nunan, D. (1997) “Designing and adapting materials to encourage learner autonomy”. In P. Benson and P. Voller (eds.) (1997) Autonomy and Independence in Language Learning, pp. 192-203. London: Longman.

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

• Do Students Read More Research on Learning than Teachers?
• 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

• A Negotiated Syllabus: Company Classes with a Twist
    - JaneRadriges
    - Phil
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    - venancio de Jesus
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• Teaching English in context to promote student autonomy
    - Colin Skeates
    - Mark de Boer
    - Steven Nishida
    - Mark de Boer
    - Jason Peppard
    - Ousmane
  
• Understanding and filling the gaps in HS and university English education
    - Chris Wharton
    - Joe Siegel
    - term paper
  
• A witty man, a wise man, a northern man
    - Chris Wharton
  
• A MASH colleague going all the way!
    - Phil
    - S. Pihlaja
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    - J. Schieffer
  
• Lifelong language learners: What keeps them going?
    - Jason Peppard
    - Helen
    - Chris Wharton
    - Matthew Davies
    - Chris Wharton
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    - Andy Lawson
  
• We feed off one another's energy - and Joanne has oodles
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• MASH International...
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    - Vivian Childs
    - Sylvia Smith
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• 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