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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]

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]

The book, The History of the Ouinkai, was published in 1940 as a commemorative project for the 60th anniversary of the Tokyo Higher Normal School for Women (THNSW). The purpose of this article is to illustrate the type of data collected in the surveys and their findings, to explore some of the activities of the association, and to discuss how the Ouinkai alumni association, in collaboration with THNSW, worked with female teachers nationwide. The paper traces some of the multi-norms and multi-roles for female teachers that THNSW promoted and their relation to norms thought to characterise 'ideal' Japanese women. The publication of The History of the Ouinkai was a milestone in Japanese women's education because it demonstrated the Ouinkai's successes in respect of Japanese educational policy for women as well as the leadership that the Ouinkai provided to female graduate teachers, whom it organised with skill. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the close of World War II, Japan’s ouster from Malaya led to the resumption of British control and a new outlook toward political independence. Higher education would play a central role in this complex transition, where the forces of decolonization and nation-building converged with drives toward both interethnic competition and multiethnic cooperation. These tensions stimulated a multiplicity of new rhetorics and new networks for universities and university students. This paper uses the framework of governance to uncover the contrasting rhetorics and networks produced by postwar Singapore’s new universities. By examining their structures and mechanisms of governance, the paper demonstrates how the sudden catapulting of university education to a crucial socio-political position redefined the intersections between education, language, culture, and nation. In doing so, it reveals that these redefinitions forecasted contemporary discourse and mechanisms in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Based on case studies of China and Japan, this study undertakes comparative research on major aspects of university curriculum and instruction-teaching activities of academics, their role in curriculum development, and their perceptions of these activities-between a mass and a universal higher education system. Major findings from the APA (Academic Profession in Asia) surveys administered in the two countries in 2011-2012 with a similar questionnaire provide hard data. However, the study also explores other contextual factors and drivers which might have affected the teaching activities undertaken by academics, their involvement in curriculum development, and their views of relevant activities. The paper argues that, although differences can be found in some aspects of the curriculum and instruction and academics' participation in these activities during the shift from the mass to universal phase of higher education, seen from the two case studies, it is less clear that the differences show the impact of transforming from mass to universal education. The national contextual factors, especially the origins of higher education and ongoing national policies in both countries, appear to play a significant role in how current academics perceived the curriculum development and instruction, and their participation in these activities. More importantly, as fundamental changes do not necessarily occur in all aspects of the curriculum and instruction, as well as the academics' views across universal and mass higher education systems, Trow's research can only be partly applied to the analysis of the curriculum and instruction in both countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interpretation and implementation of ideas about the internationalisation of curricula (IoC) are complicated and multi-faceted. The complex and diverse perspectives on IoC reflect two concepts: ‘internationalisation’ and ‘curriculum’. These concepts embody contrasting perspectives on issues, including the competition-type and cooperation-type approaches to internationalisation, as well as the product and process curriculum models. These two approaches or models tend to go hand in hand while in a state of tension. The aim of this paper is to promote a detailed understanding of IoC through forming a conceptual framework for IoC. This framework proposes four patterns of IoC by linking the two approaches and the two models, and is examined using case studies of two types of Japanese universities. Finally, two assumptions are made for future research and development in the practice of IoC beyond Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes the implementation and evaluation of a year-long reading while listening (RWL) program run for university first-year students at a private university in Japan. The program was developed to give students practice in listening to a large volume of spoken English – a practice that the majority of Japanese students lack. The students in the program (N = 230) practiced RWL and took progress tests using a Moodle module that also kept records of their progress (MoodleReader). The program was evaluated in two ways: by measuring student gains in reading rate, vocabulary recognition, and general English proficiency, as measured by the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), and by investigating student attitudes toward the program itself and the MoodleReader through the use of a 24-item questionnaire. Results of the evaluation showed RWL had a significant effect on reading rate and vocabulary recognition, but not for general English proficiency. Questionnaire results uncovered negative attitudes toward the RWL program and the MoodleReader, and that these attitudes affected the amount of work students completed in the program. The findings suggest that user interface and ease of use are the key factors to consider when implementing such a program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]