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The action-oriented approach (AoA) is a powerful basis to inform teaching, learning, and assessment in the classroom that identifies learners as social agents and focuses on language learning through language use. This paper answers the call for developments that help teachers teach and learners learn in an AoA-informed way. We argue that cognitive discourse functions (CDFs) align with AoA, helping to develop learner thinking by focusing on the learners' use of language. We complement our conceptual discussion referring to the process of developing a self- and peer-assessment tool informed by AoA and CDFs and the initial application of this tool in an advanced academic writing course in a Japanese university with B1 and B2 level students. We discuss how this tool can guide learners' understanding of their writing process and fosters learners' responsibility for deciding how they mobilize their linguistic resources to express particular language functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the potential of learner-initiated exploratory practice (EP), which encourages learners to set their own investigative agenda based on their curiosity-driven puzzles. A case study was conducted in a remedial course for undergraduate students at a university in Japan. Data included student puzzles, posters, and reflective questionnaires. Student investigations of their puzzles remind teachers and researchers of the affordances of learning from learners. The results suggested that, despite their previously disoriented attitudes towards learning English, this form of fully inclusive practitioner research, EP, provides learners with an opportunity to realize their curiosity and reinvigorate their motivation towards language learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the implementation of a language learning project in a Japanese EFL classroom in which the trigger, or motivational energy for involvement, came from interacting with English-speaking international students. The project provided a context to investigate the trajectory of one group's (three learners) sustained engagement across three tasks that formed the subgoals of the project. Data sources include learner diaries, engagement questionnaires, and transcripts of task conversations, which together were used to describe the level of engagement for each learner at key times throughout the project. The findings indicate that engagement is sustained by certain flow-like conditions during tasks (i.e. control, interest, challenge-skill balance), group cohesion among project members, and a growing focus on the long-term goal of the project. The results highlight project design features that teachers should consider when implementing projects with the purpose of engaging students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I discuss ways that Applied Linguistics literature on topics in academic and professional writing can be used in a multidisciplinary graduatelevel EAP class. I focus on three main uses: providing students with information about issues in academic and professional writing; helping them make comparisons of form and style with academic articles in their own fields; and serving as resources for common and formulaic expressions that can be incorporated into their own writing. The paper includes a discussion of the strengths and limitations of this approach in a foreign language setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion of English as a multilingua franca (EMF) positions English within multilingualism, and EMF awareness prepares students to communicate effectively in this multilingual world of mobility. The present paper explores how, if ever, EMF-aware pedagogic intervention influences Japanese students' perceptions of their communicative practices, particularly for English-major undergraduates in L1-shared classrooms. This intervention was made by providing opportunities for participants to engage in EMF and by examining their first-hand experiences and published EMF communication extracts in the classrooms. Empirical data from an open-ended questionnaire demonstrate that multilingual and transmodal accommodation was a way for them to notice and take advantage of global networks, develop capability and confidence in communication, and foster sensitivity to interactants' backgrounds. The data also illustrate the invaluable role of individual multilingual experiences as classroom 'materials', and suggest that discussing these experiences potentially turns L1-shared classrooms into EMF scenarios through foregrounding students' multilingual repertoires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This pilot study explores the apologies Japanese nursing college students thought they would use in their L1 (i.e. Japanese) and their L2 (i.e. English) when bumping into each other. The students completed a questionnaire, the results of which indicated that they believed they should always apologize for bumping into someone. The paper describes apologies students expected to use in both languages and their observations of real-world apologies in Japan and the US. After reviewing differences between their L1 and L2 apologies and their perceived and observed apologies, the paper discusses students’ sociopragmatic, pragmalinguistic, and linguistic discoveries. The findings have implications for instructors who are interested in investigating and teaching the speech act. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Negotiation of language form is thought to engage learning processes by helping learners to notice gaps in their developing L2 and find target-like ways of filling them. Self-transcription, where learners work together to find language errors in recordings of their own oral output, is an awareness raising exercise that encourages such negotiation. This paper examines the problem-solving efforts of a class of Japanese students as they worked on a transcription exercise in English. It describes the various resources they made use of while tackling L2 problems and considers some of the cognitive processes underlying their decisions. This small-scale study shows how these learners effectively negotiated form while working independently of the teacher. Recordings of their discussions reveal a depth of cognitive processing thought to be beneficial to language development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While it is common for teachers to focus on learners’ errors in the EFL classroom, little attention is given to the ‘errors’ that native English speakers make in their mother tongue. This paper reports on a study to assess the reaction of Japanese university students to an activity that primarily required identifying ‘ungrammatical’ forms in audio clips of English NSs. The results of a post-activity questionnaire suggest that exposure to this particular feature of spoken language may make students less inhibited about making errors and thus help to overcome their reticence to speak in class. These initial findings were confirmed in a follow-up study conducted at a second Japanese university. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes ‘mentor development’, a means of collaborative professional development through peer observation that was initiated by the author with 18 peers, all native English speaker EFL teachers at Kanda University of International Studies in Chiba, Japan. It shows how such a programme allows teachers to learn from one another through classroom observations and peer mentoring, where observers practise teacher-educator skills by taking on the role of ‘mentor’ in post-observation conferences. A third colleague attends the post-observation conference with the aim of helping both the mentor and observed teacher reflect on and learn from their interaction during the conference, and to explore the implications these discoveries may have for effective teaching and mentoring. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Situated evaluation views learning as a phenomenon which occurs in socioculturally specific contexts (Bruce and Rubin 1992). Its proponents recognize two forms of curriculum: one is a documented version, which proposes idealized teaching practices across various teaching situations; and the other is a realized version of curriculum implementation in actual classrooms. This paper explores how communicative language teaching (CLT) is understood and implemented by Japanese secondary school English teachers. In order to understand the successes and failures of curriculum implementation, we need to examine it in real contexts. The longitudinally collected data suggest that teachers have difficulty in integrating CLT and form-based instruction, although documented instructional goals imply a smooth integration of the two. Teachers also report that implementation of CLT is not simple because of various situational constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although ostensibly a free and open society, Japan is often seen to be lagging behind in terms of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other (LGBTQ+) rights and understanding of LGBTQ+ issues. This lack of understanding leads to a high degree of invisibility for LGBTQ+ members and a lack of inclusivity in educational curriculums. In this article, the authors document their explorations of introducing both explicit and implicit LGBTQ+ content into university English classes in Japan and their efforts to create a safe and inclusive classroom environment. After reporting on students' reactions and feelings towards these activities, we recommend a varied approach to LGBTQ+ topics in the classroom that we hope will be of use to teachers not only in Japan, but around the world too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the role of language teacher associations (LTAs) vis-à-vis their members, the case of Japan is notable for the apparent disparateness among the more than 50 associations that have formed over the past 90 years. An historical overview reveals that LTAs in Japan have emerged in four distinct waves, and a survey of representative associations from each of these waves clarifies some current differences between the groups. As a theoretical framework in which to explore these differences, we draw on Foucault's concept of power/knowledge, which proposes a hierarchy between those who produce knowledge and those who disseminate or consume it. According to this scheme, the second- and third-wave LTAs are categorized as knowledge producers, while the first- and fourth-wave LTAs are categorized as disseminators of knowledge promoted by the state or marketed by commercial interests. We conclude by considering the implications of these LTA roles for teacher autonomy and professionalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young learners’ use of instructional games in foreign language learning is not yet well understood. Using games that were part of the learning tools for an online assessment, Jido-Eiken, a standardized English proficiency test for young learners in Japan, we examined young learners’ game-playing behaviours and the relationship of these behaviours with learning outcomes. The participants were 3,945 children aged 4 to 12. We found that games that children played with relative frequency tended to share a set of features, including being cognitively demanding, evoking one’s curiosity, offering greater player control, and having multiple players. The frequency of plays decreased as the age increased in many games that we examined, but gender differences were hardly observed. We found different relational patterns between young learners’ game scores and English performance depending on the games and difficulty levels of the assessment. We discuss the implications for instructional game developers and teachers of young language learners. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In order to explore student learning experiences in English language classes, this study employed a qualitative data collection method known as narrative frames, which uses prompts to stimulate written expression of ideas. Data were collected through narrative frames on three different occasions from 36 second-year high school students in a team-taught EFL classroom in Japan, in both English and Japanese. After collecting the frames, individual interviews were conducted with two students from the class and their team teachers to further enquire about their experience, particularly with regard to the use of narrative frames. Findings suggest that the narrative frame technique proved to be a beneficial tool for improving learner autonomy. It facilitated the students becoming responsible for their learning in general, and encouraged them to become more serious about their learning of the English language. Methodological implications for the future use of narrative frames are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article reports on a teacher-talk training course for Japanese primary school teachers, who are preparing to teach ‘communicative English’ for the first time. The article argues that teacher-talk training is important for communicative classes with young students because most of the input and interaction is by default teacher centred. In our course, through a task-based approach including the use of digital recorders for self-transcribing, teachers were able to practise providing rich comprehensible input as well as scaffolding in English through role-playing classroom tasks. The before and after performances of two teachers doing a listen-and-draw task is analysed to demonstrate the importance of training in teacher talk. In concluding the article, we review the participants’ survey feedback for the course. Our hope is that the article provides a convincing argument for teacher-talk training as well as offering a model for similar courses. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this study, 94 university freshmen undertook an authentic, experientially driven media production project at a Japanese university which promotes a target language (TL)-only classroom language policy. The project was staged across six 90-minute lessons and sought to promote culturally and socially relevant task-based activities grounded in the belief that authentic learning can only occur through tasks that result in achievement which is significant and meaningful rather than that which is trivial or useless (Newmann and Wehlage 1993). The project manipulated the on-task language policy of the students by assigning 47 of the students to work under strict TL-only policy whilst the other 47 students were permitted to use both the TL and the native language. General student satisfaction and the specific attributions of both satisfaction and dissatisfaction with the project under both language conditions were recorded through a questionnaire and analysed in relation to attitudes toward the optimal language-learning environment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study was designed to develop a typology of strategies that students use to cope with the anxiety they experience in English language classrooms. The influence of anxiety level on strategy use was also assessed. Findings suggested 70 basic tactics for coping with language anxiety that cohered into five strategy categories: Preparation (e.g. studying hard, trying to obtain good summaries of lecture notes), Relaxation (e.g. taking a deep breath, trying to calm down), Positive Thinking (e.g. imagining oneself giving a great performance, trying to enjoy the tension), Peer Seeking (e.g. looking for others who are having difficulty controlling their anxiety, asking other students if they understand the class), and Resignation (e.g. giving up, sleeping in class). Cognitive, affective, and behavioral strategy types were evident. No significant relationship was found between language anxiety and frequencies of strategy use, suggesting the need for future research on how effectively the observed strategies may be implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]