ENGLISH-MEDIATED INSTRUCTION @ EUH
Transdisciplinary Action Research for Designing Effective Education Through Scaffolding
「足場かけ」を軸とした教育効果向上のためのクラスデザイン：分野横断的アクションリサーチ
Mediation, Translation, and Transformation with English
英語を教育言語として用いることで生じるさまざまなレベルでの媒介、翻訳、変容に焦点をあてながら、教育改善のための実践研究を行っています。
Purpose
As part of recent internationalization policies and rhetoric, Japanese universities have been increasing English-medium-instruction (EMI) courses. Yet there is little guidance regarding curriculum and instruction for faculty and students whose first language is not English, and this is exacerbated by the tendency for university teaching to be a relatively autonomous and personalized project often characterized by amateurism, autonomy, and isolation. Faculty, then, often rely on hunches and autodidacticism alone. This was the challenging situation that the four of us, the original project members, found ourselves in at a university in Japan with an ambitious policy of balanced bilingualism: one language teacher tasked with preparing students for all their EMI courses and three content teachers tasked with teaching mixed-proficiency EMI courses in science and technology studies, environmental studies, and anthropology, respectively. To engage with the situation and improve our education in the EMI settings, we are currently conducting action research drawing on the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL).
Methods and Participants
Participatory action research (PAR) cycles to design better scaffolding (temporary extra support that leads to independent capabilities) and teaching approaches: Design→ Intervene & Observe→ Reflect→ Design
Instructors: Participation in each other's courses as collaborative planners, observers, classroom assistants (CAs), and reflective discussion partners
Student classroom assistants (CAs): Participation in all stages of action research cycles
Course students: Participation in peer-scaffolding, responding and providing feedback to scaffolding designs, and brainstorming different forms of scaffolding
Arts-based research informed by Brechtian theater and disability studies
Distancing participants and research audiences from taken-for-granted roles and situations to encourage playful curiosity and thinking about problems and alternatives
Making visible the abling and disabling elements of institutions
What we've done
Participatory action research cycles in four courses across three quarters
Follow-up reflective discussions after each lesson with instructors and student classroom assistants
End-of-term discussions and improvisational role-playing to create a productive distancing effect and make situational elements visible from multiple perspectives
Conference presentation video and discussion at the 2022 Teacher Journeys Conference
Conference presentation at the Teacher Development SIG Forum at the JALT 2022 international conference
Workshop planned for July 2023
