Resources
Here is a collection of various resources that represent a sample of projects that I have been engaged in recently. Please feel free to view them at your convenience.
Table of Contents
Here is a post-conference video that I recorded of my plenary talk at JASAL 2023 entitled “Fixing Issues Under the Radar: Student Agency and Leadership in Self-Access Learning Communities”
The abstract for this talk can be found below:
While recognition of the importance of self-access in Japan continues to grow along with the number of self-access facilities in educational institutions, many students are reluctant to come to self-access centers (SACs) or experience considerable anxiety or “rupture” (Zittoun, 2006) when initially trying to use them (Murray & Fujishima, 2016; Mynard et al., 2020). Within Japanese self-access centers in particular, there are a number of sociocultural and ideological factors, such as a stark division between test-focused English (eigo) and English for communication (eikaiwa) (Hiramoto, 2013), that contribute to the insecurity and instability that students may feel when making their first tentative steps into a SAC. Consequently, we often see primarily students with already high linguistic proficiency rather than those with lower confidence or experience with communicative English getting the most out of what a self-access center has to offer. One recent response to these enduring challenges has been the promotion of student-led learning communities (Watkins, 2022). These communities provide students with a balance of autonomy and institutional support so that they may develop their own “tools” or mediational means for negotiating the ruptures that new or potential SAC users face while transitioning between educational worlds. In this presentation, I will draw upon findings from a number of research projects and discuss the often-untapped value of student communities in creating opportunities for leadership, prosociality, and wellbeing among student self-access users. I will make a case for legitimizing bottom-up knowledge (from students) and integrating it with academic theory and professional knowledge in order to build more egalitarian, co-constructed self-access environments that serve the needs of the many rather than the few.
Asia TEFL 2023: Crossing borders: Bridging language learning worlds with near-peer role models
This is a video recording of a presentation from the 21st AsiaTEFL International Conference: Celebrating ELT in Asia – Visions and Aspirations. The presentation abstract can be found below:
English education in Japan is arguably a divided field. While certain settings prepare learners for test-taking through declarative linguistic knowledge (eigo), other settings prioritize communicative use of English (eikaiwa). When transitioning into tertiary education, students often find themselves “back at square one” as the eigo-oriented knowledge developed in secondary education cannot be easily translated to the eikaiwa-focused lessons that they find themselves in at university. This “rupture” is compounded by prevalent ideological presuppositions that disempower Japanese English users by positioning eikaiwa as the possession of the “native speaker.” In this presentation, I will introduce one example of a classroom-based intervention aimed at both bridging the eigo-eikaiwa void and providing learners with concrete proof that competence in eikaiwa was not restricted to “native speakers.” First-year students in three university English conversation classes were given listening activities based on video interviews with near-peer role models (senior students) in which they described their language learning histories. The participants were then asked to answer questions on the interview content and also give free responses about their impression of the senior students. These responses were thematically coded and later presented to the senior students in an attempt to “loop” the positive feedback from their juniors and create an empowering effect for not only the freshmen students but also the role models themselves. In this presentation, I will discuss the results of this simple classroom intervention and discuss the positive potential of near-peer role modeling as a mediational tool to scaffold student transition between educational settings.
Hakuoh LC website and accompanying literature review
Below you can find a link to a website that I created for Hakuoh University’s self-access learning center, the Language Commons (LC). For this project, I organized the creation of a mission statement, mascot, educational materials, collaboratively organized student staff system, and implemented a booking system for one-on-one consultations with staff. I am also including a article that I wrote for the Hakuoh Education Department’s internal journal laying out my rationale for the Language Commons based on a literature review of self-access research in Japan.
Asia TEFL 2022: Building a place to belong: Exploring learner experience in a self-access learning community
Here is a recording of a presentation given at the 20th AsiaTEFL – 68th TEFLIN – 5th iNELTAL Hybrid International Conference in August 2022. The abstract for this presentation can be found below:
Although recognition of the valuable role of communities for social learning within self-access centers (SAC) has been steadily growing over the last decade, relatively little research analyzing student-managed communities within SACs exists to date. This presentation outlines preliminary findings from an ongoing ethnographic study analyzing the community of practice (Wenger, 1998) of a student-led learning community within a Japanese university SAC. Members of the LC, an English conversation community, were observed and interviewed over a one-year period in order to gain insight into the evolving practice of the community and how their individual language learning trajectories shaped and were shaped by the LC. Also informed by findings from a previous pilot study (Hooper, 2020), analysis of the LC to date suggests that its practice is driven by a plethora of internal and external influences. These include the need for an accessible learning environment, desire for membership in an international imagined community of English users, local renegotiation of sociocultural norms, and prevalent language learning ideologies within English language teaching in Japan. The presenter will discuss how these factors impacted individual members’ beliefs and identities, as well as the LC’s functioning as a cohesive group. Furthermore, this presentation will discuss some practical implications stemming from the LC’s practice that may inform SAC staff aiming to cultivate and support student-led learning communities.
JALT 2021: Belonging and Becoming in a Learner-Led Community of Practice
This is a recording of a presentation given at the JALT 2021 conference in November 2021. An outline for this presentation can be found below:
This presentation outlines a study investigating members’ identification with a student-led learning community within a university self-access centre. Interview data from members suggested members’ identities within the community were connected to the comfortable learning environment, an international but imagined English community, and the negotiation of certain sociocultural norms. This presentation will also address practical implications based on the findings of this study for SAC staff aiming to cultivate and support student-led learning communities.
JASAL 2021: Becoming the Paths We Tread: Locating Self-Access in Landscapes of Practice
This is a recording of a presentation given at the JASAL 2021 National Conference based on a study I conducted using Wenger-Trayner and Wenger-Trayner’s (2015) Landscapes of Practice conceptual framework to analyze the learning trajectories of users of a self-access social learning space.
This presentation examines the ways in which two learners’ participation within a social learning space (SLS) in a Japanese university self-access learning center is situated in relation to their lifelong learning trajectories across a broader learning landscape. A primary focus of this presentation is the nature of learners’ involvement in different ideologically-marked communities that they both willingly and unwillingly participate in within Japanese ELL (English Language Learning). Through analyzing these learners’ experiences, I aim to gain deeper insight into the potential roles of self-access social learning spaces within the wider field of English education in Japan.