Presentation on the World Association of Lesson Studies International Conference.

on 29th of November at National Institute of Education Singapore.

Takeshi

SATO

Tokyo

University of

Agriculture and

Technology,

Japan

tsato@cc.tuat.a

c.jp

Pedagogical implication of

“writing back” as a tool for

well-suited English learning in

the global era.

Aim of the study

Background

ELT in Japan

Importance of critical pedagogy in ELT

Writing back and critical reading

Practical strategies for Writing Back

Implementation in my classroom

Conclusion

Contents

We have been facing...

To examine pedagogical implication of

“writing back" in the global era.

1. Aim of the study

Almost no speech community of English but eager to learn Some companies made English as their official

language. (All employees are the Japanese!)

Learning English for “international understanding”(ex. Kubota, 2002).

The Japanese tend to identify English with Anglophone cultures. (Honna, 2000)

Preference for native speaker-modeled English (Seargeant, 2009)

Native speaker fallacy (Phillipson, 1992)

2. Background (1):The status of English in

Japan

When we turn…to…Japan which have little or

no legacy of localized English on the streets,

in offices, or in markets, we would surely

expect to find no such conflicts about

teaching Standard English. (Quirk 1990, p.9)

The Japanese should learn “Standard” English?

Attitude: teacher-centered.

prefer passive or teacher-led language classes.

(Kimura, Nakata & Okumura, 2001)

dislike individual self-expression and critical

thinking. (Kubota, 1999)

Main purpose in literacy class: to accurately decode the

information word by word. (Powell, 2005)

Uncritical acceptance of ELT contents from

Anglophone countries. (Canagarajah, 1999)

although the contents are not related to our life.

Background (2): ELT in Japan

To deal with our preference of native speaker

modeled-English

To enhance learners‟ response to resources or

texts

To use English for our own purpose

Critical Pedagogy as a possible solution

What should we do ?

a range of critical attitudes and skills in the

process of interpreting texts. (Duzzer and

Florez, 1999)

by questioning who, what, why, and how...

(Lohrey, 1998).

turn classrooms into places where the

accepted canons of knowledge can be

challenged and questioned (Pennycook,

1994).

Background (3): The definitions of Critical

Pedagogy

“the way in which non native speakers are

able to appropriate English for their own

creative and critical purposes” (Wallace 2003,

p.70)

“of inverting the relationships between centre

and periphery” (Mair 2003, p.190)

Writing back

…the written word offers [non-native

speakers] the possibility of expressing the

reflecting upon their unique experience as

immigrants and foreigners.

(Kramsch and Lam 1999, p.71)

The availability of writing back

We tend to uncritically apply ELT

methodologies to our local settings...

No best method (Kanagarajah, 1999)

Teachers need to devise pedagogical

strategies to suit our specific classroom

conditions. (Kanagarajah, 1999)

Writing Back in local settings

1. Class

2. Text

3. Task

4. Writing back

3. Pedagogical strategies for Writing back in

Japan

For ESL or EFL students who studied in the

U.K.

Reading a single text students brought

Analyzing the text based on critical questions

„Talking back‟ (Wallace, 2002) through

discussion and speech

Critical Reading CLASS in Wallace (2003)

For Japanese EFL students who study in

Japan

Reading a single text I brought related to our

setting

Analyzing the text based on critical questions

„Writing back‟ to express their own idea

My Critical Reading Class

Class: English Reading consisting of 15

classes in a semester.

critical reading and writing back as a part

of the classes.

Students: 29 Japanese freshmen from the

department of agriculture

Level: upper intermediate, but less motivated

3.1. Implementation in my local setting

Deliberate selection of reading materials

Western-produced textbook remain ethnocentric and give little attention to the sociocultural contexts in which they may be used. (Ellis, 1990)

To pose problems and engage students in dialogue and critical reflection. (Auerbach, 1995)

To select the texts written by literate English (Wallace, 2002)

3.2. How to choose a text

“...literate English, ...most like formal written

English such as we encounter in broadsheet

newspapers, ...I am not talking about

standard or of native speaker English… the

kind of English we admire for its elegance and

eloquence is frequently not produced by those

whose first language it is.” (Wallace, 2002,

105).

What is „Literate English‟?

An article derived from an Australian

newspaper (on 1st of Jan, 2011)

Titled “Sea Shepherd clashes with

Japanese whalers”

“It is the teacher‟s job to investigate and re-

present this reality in problematized form to

the learners.” (Auerbach, 1995:12)

Reading materials

Making tasks and questions based on critical interpretation of the texts:

On what basis is it selected?

Who wrote it and for what purpose?

Whose voice does it represent?

How is its content related to the reality of students‟ lives?

What kinds of responses are expected?

(Auerbach 1995; Wallace 1993)

3.3. How to set up tasks

What is the topic?

Who produces this text?

For whom is this text written?

Why is this text produced?

What do you think about the contents of this

text?

Critical Questions

By answering the question, they could

write back to express their values and

vision. (Pennycook, 1994)

3.4. writing back

Those who are against the Japanese whale hunt.

Subjects of many sentences are “Sea

Shepherd”.

The author tried to use “clash”, “water canon”

and “killing mammals”, but there were few

viewpoints from Japan.

The author had a hostile because of “Japan’s

floating abattoir”.

It is strange to criticize just whale hunt because

they eat cow, pig and sheep as a mammal.

Who produces this text?

Those who do not know the activities of Sea

Shepherd

Lots of descriptions to excuse the activities

of Sea Shepherd.

The author seems to make the readers get

angry about the Japanese whale hunt.

No description of sabotage She Shepherd

did.

For whom is this text written?

To tell readers legitimacy of the activities of

Sea Shepherd’s and enormity of the

Japanese whale hunt.

To criticize Japanese whalers because the

author use passive voice to regard She

Shepherd as a victim.

To stop the Japanese whale hunt

Why is this text produced?

Examples of Write back

This article might claim justice about what She

Shepherd did without any evidence. It is rather

demagogic.

Japan take as many as 100 whales per a year just

for research. Both should find a common ground.

Both are out of line.

This text leads to a misconception that the

activities of Sea Shepherd are correct while those of

Japan are wrong.

I would like Sea Shepard to know researches can

make breeding coefficient of whales increase.

Their comments not only on their answer

sheets but also on their comment sheets.

“…the glosses, comments, scribbles, or

graffiti scrawled by the students…These

glosses will also provide insights into the

attitude of the students towards the

textbook…” (Canagarajah 1999, p.88)

4. Findings: Other form of writing back

Students could write back to express their

values.

not opposition but resistance (Wallace,

1999)

Pedagogical strategies are needed

according to our local settings (Canagarajah,

1999).

The strategies made writing back applicable

to my setting.

5. Conclusion

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Kimura, Y., Nakata, Y., & Okumura, T. (2001). Language learning motivation of EFL learners in Japan: A cross sectional analysis of various learning milieus. JALT Journal, 23, 47–68.

Brown, H. D. (2004) Some practical thoughts about student-sensitive critical pedagogy. The Language Teacher, 28(7), 23-27.

Canagarajah, S. (1999) Resisting Linguistic Imperialism in English Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Duzzer, C. V., and Florez, M. C. (1999) Critical Literacy for Adult English Language Learners. ERIC Digest. Washington, DC: National Institute for Literacy. Retrieved on 25th of May, 2011 from http://www.cal.org/ncle/DIGESTS/critlit.htm

Ellis, D.(1990) Cross-cultural Relevance in EFL Materials Production with Special Reference to Muslim Culture. Paper presented at AILA ‟90.

Fairclough, N. (1992) Critical Language Awareness. London: Pearson Education.

Honna, N. (2000) Eigo ha Asia no Kyoutsuugo (English as a common language in Asia) EigoTenbou (ELEC BULLETIN), 107, p.6-11.

Kimura, Y., Nakata, Y., & Okumura, T. (2001). Language learning motivation of EFL learners in Japan: A cross sectional analysis of various learning milieus. JALT Journal, 23, 47–68.

Kramsch, C.,and Lam, W, S, E. (1999). Textual Identities: The Importance of Being Non-native. In George Braine (ed), Non-Native Educators in English Language Teaching. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

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