JALT International Conference, November 16th to 23rd, 2020
Literature in Language Teaching SIG Forum: Monday, November 16th
5:00 PM – 6:30 PM (90 minutes): Online with Zoom
Forum Chair: Susan Laura Sullivan
Tokai University
Biography: Susan is a co-editor of the award winning anthology, Women of a Certain Age (Fremantle Press, 2018). She holds a Master of Creative Arts, and a Master of TESOL. Her research interests include fostering creativity, autonomy and innovation among learners.
The forum will be a live session featuring a variety of talks by LiLT SIG members:
The Author isn’t Dead, Just a Little Shy: Practical Criticism and Workshopping in the EFL Classroom
Luke Draper
Kwansei Gakuin University
Summary:
Practical Criticism is a method of reading that separates the text from its social and historical context. It observes the Barthesian notion that literary analysis should focus on the language of the text rather than the author’s intention and background. This approach, when applied to a workshop-style classroom activity, allows students to critically discuss the stylistic and narratological qualities of a text without authorial influence and may also encourage aspiring writers to produce content for an audience under the safe veil of anonymity. This talk will briefly introduce the theory behind the practice and argue for its inclusion in lang/lit-centered programs. Action research findings will also be drawn upon as evidence of its pedagogical value.
Biography:
Luke Draper is a PhD student at the University of Surrey (UK). His thesis is on stylistic instruction in the Higher Education Creative Writing classroom and its impact on workshop peer feedback interactions and revisional decisions. He is an Associate Lecturer of English at Kwansei Gakuin University and specialises in writing pedagogy, material development and EAP teaching. He is interested in the potential function of literature in the language classroom and Creative Writing education for non-L1 speakers of English.
Reading to Write, Writing to Read
Cristina Tat
Kwansei Gakuin University
Summary:
This presentation will describe an elective course that has been introduced with the aim of encouraging university students to read for pleasure and to become more actively engaged with texts by developing their writing skills. The required English courses in this EAP program focus mostly on intensive reading and academic writing and students` reading progress is actively tracked through MReader and Xreading. This setup had led to students viewing reading and writing as the necessary “obstacles” they have to overcome in order to pass and very few of them read in L1 or L2 in their spare time. It is hypothesized that through experiencing the process of creative writing, students can develop audience awareness from instructor and peer feedback, and also that they can use short works of fiction to develop their writing skills. It is the instructo
r`s hope that they will become more critical readers by learning to be better writers. The basic outline of the course as well as students` responses to surveys about their reading habits at the beginning and end of the course will be described in the hope of generating discussion and sharing ideas for further course development.
Biography
Cristina Tat is an Assistant Lecturer of English in the School of Policy Studies at Kwansei Gakuin University. She is a graduate of Vassar College and Baruch College Marxe School of Public and International Affairs. Her research interests include extensive reading and comparative education.
Reading about Discrimination and Diversity to Better Understand Ourselves
Regan Tyndall
Sophia University
Summary:
I use my courses (in the Language Education & Research and the English Literature Departments) to engage students in studies of discrimination and diversity, such as that experienced by English-speaking people who are ethnic minorities in different parts of the world. Students explore this through texts such as the novel Obasan by Joy Kogawa and short stories such as “Indian Education” by Sherman Alexie. Aside from the obvious exposure to challenging and authentic English narrative prose, the purpose is to have students reflect on (and speak / write about) how discrimination occurs, what the good and/or challenging aspects of discrimination are, and how these might relate to Japan’s present and future.
Biography:
Regan Tyndall teaches academic skills in English, and English literature, at Sophia University. He holds post-graduate degrees in Education and in English Liter
ature, and is currently a doctoral candidate in Educational Leadership at the University of Calgary (Canada). His research interests include teacher training and professional development for Canadian public school teachers and the internationalization of Japanese university curricula.
Reading “Curious Incident”: Micro Teaching Presentations and Reader Experiences
Tara McIlroy
Rikkyo University
Summary:
In this short talk, I will report on teaching a young adult novel in the university context. ‘The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time’ by Mark Haddon presents a challenge for second language (L2) readers due to its unconventional structure and subversion of genre conventions. The novel is also an example of neurodiverse young adult literature (NYAL), which features at least one adolescent character whose behaviour diverges from societal norms. I will report on course design and implementation, including micro-teaching presentations in which groups created lessons based on the contents of the novel to teach to their peers. The results of teacher and learner reflections suggest that NYAL novels can be empathy machines in the second language (L2) classroom and that real-world activities can positively augment reading experiences.
Biography:
Tara McIlroy is an associate professor at Rikkyo University in Tokyo, Japan in the Center for Foreign Language Education and Research. Her research interests are L2 language acquisition, uses of literature in the language classroom, teacher education and language curriculum design.
Agency Via Cinderella
John Maune
Hokusei University Junior College English Department
Summary:
Cinderella is often seen as sweet—Disney—pap, but the many ways in which woman are stereotyped are staggering: low-lying fruit ripe for Feminist Criticism. It is also a good introduction to the formative power that words can wield when not critically examined. These issues are explored with an in-class reading of a low-level graded reader and a short animation of Cinderella. Students were initially unaware of any oppressive issues in the story, but following some prompting, were able to discern some sexist normative tropes. The lessons learned translate well to other activities and, hopefully, beyond the classroom.
Biography:
John Maune is a professor in the Hokusei Gakuen University Junior College English Department, Sapporo, Japan, where he teaches content-based courses in both biology and literature. He has presented papers at conferences on literature, education, human evolution, and language teaching, covering a wide-variety of topics, ranging from knowing in Shakespeare, brain-friendly teaching hacks, the carnivalesque in Coriolanus, to human nature in Romeo and Juliet.
About the conference theme…
This year’s conference theme is “Communities of Teachers and Learners” and for this year’s LiLT SIG Forum, we are looking forward to receiving contributions that address this theme from teachers who use literature in the language classroom in one or all of these areas:
- Community Members: How are literary texts and literary techniques used to encourage students to develop relationships that enable them to help each other and learn from each other, especially in terms of shared activities and shared information? This usually pertains to process, but also leads up to, influences and goes beyond any production, especially in terms of shared activities and shared information.
- Practice: How does teaching literary texts and using literary techniques over time encourage learners (student members) as practitioners—that is, users of language and literature, and possible creators of literature? In which way or ways?
- Shared domain of interest: What literary texts or literary practices do you employ in your classes to encourage a “shared domain of interest” (Wenger, 2006)? That is, “a mutual commitment to a domain, that holds the community together, developing and accumulating expertise over time” (Stofberg, n.d.). In this case, it might be literature as a general concept, literature as a part of general language teaching, creative writing as a general concept related to literature and language, other ideas you might have.
These questions address the theme of the 2020 International JALT conference. JALT describes itself as meeting “Wenger’s (2006) three crucial characteristics of communities of practice: “shared domain of interest”, engagement in joint activities and discussions, and shared practice. Many people in the JALT community share the same interests of professionally developing as language educators and helping others to develop, with a common goal of improving the educational opportunities of the force that drives this community: language learners. By bringing together people who have different backgrounds and expertise, JALT2020 can move us closer to that goal and help us to make that community thrive.” (2020).
References:
Stofberg, A. (n.d.) Community of practice – A tool for reflection on intercultural learning. Spaces for Intercultural Learning. Retrieved from http://www.intercultproject.com/community-of-practice