Introduction
Introduction: The Beginning of Nagoya JALT Journal and the Summary of
the Journal
Naoya Shibata
JALT Nagoya Publication Chair
It is such a great honour for me to present the first volume of Nagoya JALT Journal finally. We, JALT Nagoya Chapter, have been longing for this moment to have our journal for a long time. At the end of October 2019, when the results of elections to choose new JALT Nagoya officers were released and I was still making my PowerPoint slides for my paper presentation at the JALT International Conference, I luckily had an opportunity to talk with Dr. Joseph Wood and Mr. Dave Scott Bowyer about the future events of JALT Nagoya because Dr. Wood was chosen as the president and Mr. Bowyer as the vice-president at this chapter. Then, we talked about the possible implementation of Nagoya JALT Journal in order to provide many language teachers and learners with potential opportunities to broaden and widen the perspectives of language teaching and learning and contribute to this field. After a while, I stood up as a publication chair and journal editor and was approved by the JALT Nagoya officers. Since then, our project to start a journal has begun. Fortunately and thankfully, all the officers and some members who are interested in this journal helped me a lot and advised me a lot. Without their assistance, it would have been very challenging to release the first journal in the middle of 2020. Moreover, I would also like to dedicate this very first issue of the journal to our late JALT Nagoya president, Mr. Rich Porter, who contributed to this Nagoya Chapter and recommended me to work as an officer for this Chapter. I sincerely hope that this journal will reach him and he would be happy for this publication.
This first volume of Nagoya JALT Journal covers four research papers, one reader’s forum, and one student paper. It explores various research fields, including motivation shifts, complex adaptive systems, factors in codeswitching, and self-assessment using analytic scoring rubrics, community language learning, and individual differences factors in language learning history. All these topics would provide readers with a lot of useful information to learn about language learning and teaching.
First, Joseph C. Wood and Karl Koisegg report findings of research on motivation shift comparing university students and adult learners. This investigation aimed to explore some similarities and differences between these two groups and factors in the motivation shift. As Dörnyei, (2020) highlights, “motivation often behave like a process that unfolds in time and which displays ebbs and flows during its course” (p. 32). Motivation shifts can also have positive and negative effects on learners’ beliefs and their use of learning strategies, and vice versa (Shibata, 2020). Therefore, as the motivational factors to start language learning can noticeably differ from those to maintain the motivation to learn longitudinally (Ryan, 2019), their present study to compare motivation shifts between university students and adults can provide readers with opportunities to consider how language teachers may be able to help learners to keep sufficiently high motivation to learn the target language and engage in inside/outside learning activities.
William N. Kumai delves into some activities from the perspectives of complexity theory and the sociocultural theory. Ortega (2015) mentions that the current second language pedagogy has been noticeably influenced by five main contemporary second language acquisition theory, (1) input processing hypothesis, (2) the skill acquisition theory, (3) the interaction hypothesis, (4) the sociocultural theory, and (5) the complexity theory. For this argument, Sato and Loewen (2019) maintain that although many evidence-based language
teaching instructions and approaches are offered based on all theoretical perspectives, apart from the complexity theory. This research issue illustrates that various teaching approaches and activities still need to be explored and addressed from the viewpoint of the complexity theory. I believe this featured paper can help language teachers to think about some activities based on the theoretical perspectives to foster learners’ language acquisition and contribute to the field of second language pedagogy.
I, Naoya Shibata, explores the factors in the use of codeswitching (CW) in a Japanese university classroom context, based on Sampson’s (2012) six functions. The importance of English-only policy is emphasised in national teaching guideline of English, and it is implemented into many English classes in tertiary educational contexts in Japan. However, as CW frequently occurs in many bilingual and multilingual settings, the use of CW may sometimes need to be approved in language classrooms. Findings of this exploratory research study on factors in CW in a classroom setting indicated that students and the teacher utilised codeswitching in order to foster their language learning and teaching activities, which was consistence with those of Bhatti et al. (2018). Hence, this investigation can be beneficial for language teachers (and possibly administers) to judge which types of CW can help students to engage in their learning activities so that they can maximise their language learning.
Steven Charles examines students’ use of analytic scoring rubrics for second language writing courses. Rubrics are useful tools to assess and evaluate the skills of language learners to speak and write in meaningful communicative settings (Davis, 2015) and should provide an opportunity for both instructors and learners to explore learners’ performance and decide possible methods to facilitate their language skills development (Earl, 2013). However, students need to be able to evaluate their target language performance so as to maximise their learning. In second language writing classes, Lee (2017) states that self-feedback activities can maximise the effects of peer-feedback because student writers can specify which writing aspects they would like their peers to examine beforehand. Shibata (2017) reports that learners perceived the assigned analytic scoring as useful to assess and revise their essays based on the requirements. Hence, although rubric development is also crucial to assisting learners in improving their writing abilities, it is also essential to train second language learners to utilise the assigned rubrics effectively. The research topic that Charles delves into is relevant to second language writing, language assessment, and possibly learner autonomy. It also contributes to second language classroom activities. Hence, this paper will provide language teachers with beneficial information on the practical use of self evaluation/assessment activities along with analytic scoring rubrics.
Thomas Entwistle explores the usefulness of community language learning (CLL) for EFL learners, particularly Japanese university students in their paper. Various factors can facilitate and hinder second language acquisition. Among them, language learning circumstances have a noticeably significant role in second language acquisition. CLL, which was developed by Charles Curran in the 1950s, can provide language learners with occasions to convey their feelings about the target language and learning process (Ali, 2018). This feature illustrates that CLL can also be a helpful approach to establish good rapports between students and instructors as well as among students, which can foster their language learning effectively (Liao, 2014). Furthermore, CLL can help learners to reduce their language anxiety (Koba et al., 2000). Accordingly, although CLL is perceived as a rather traditional teaching approach, it may be necessary for language teachers and curriculum designers in Japan to reflect upon their language classes and reconsider the possible effectiveness of CLL on their students on their English language learning based on these concepts of CLL.
Kento Nakachi reflects upon their language learning based on language pedagogy they have taken and the perspectives of individual differences, such as motivation, and language learning strategies. Both language teachers and students need to understand the influence of many individual difference variables in language classrooms is vital for both teachers and students (Loewen, 2020). It is apparent that this author’s language learning history provides us with one specific case. However, the self-discovery journey based on one university student’s language learning history supports the argument that classroom instructions can form learner beliefs in the use of language strategies (Ellis, 2008; Oxford, 1990; Shibata, 2019) and can help language teachers and researchers, including myself, to value second language learners’ in-depth perspectives of language learning.
JALT Nagoya chapter aims to provide language researchers, teachers, and students in every context with a lot of information regarding language teaching and learning. Nagoya JALT Journal, albeit still budding, has one of the essential roles in accomplishing the objective. This first issue of the journal might be a tiny contribution to the language teaching and learning field. Nevertheless, many a little makes a mickle. I, as a JALT Nagoya Publication chair and an editor, hope to make this journal become as best as I can with you so that we all can help those who are involved in language teaching and learning to broaden and deepen your perspectives of the relevant fields.
References
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Bhatti, A., Shamsudin, S., & Said, S. B. M. (2018). Code-switching: A useful foreign language teaching tool in EFL classrooms. English Language Teaching, 11(6), 93– 101. http://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v11n6p93
Davis, L. (2015). Designing and using rubrics. In J. D. Brown & C. Coombe (Eds.), The Cambridge guide to research in language teaching and learning. (pp. 238–246). Cambridge University Press.
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Ryan, S. (2019). Language learner motivation: What motivates motivation researchers? In J. W. Schwieter & A. Benati (Eds.). The Cambridge handbook of language learning (pp. 409–429). Cambridge University Press.
Sampson, A. (2012). Learner code-switching versus English only. ELT Journal, 66(3), 293– 303. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccr067
Sato, M., & Loewen, S. (2019). Toward evidence-based second language pedagogy. In M. Sato & S. Loewen (Eds). Evidence-based second language pedagogy: A collection of instructed second language acquisition studies (pp. 1–23). Routledge.
Shibata, N. (2017). Improving students’ writing abilities through content-based instruction: Effect of skill integration and use of a rubric. (Unpublished master’s thesis). Nagoya University of Foreign Studies.
Shibata, N. (2019). The impact of students’ beliefs about English language learning on out of-class learning. Relay Journal, 2(1), 122–136. https://kuis.kandagaigo.ac.jp/relayjournal/issues/jan19/shibata/
Shibata, N. (2020). Exploring a language learning history: The journey of self-discovery from the perspectives of individual differences. English Language Teaching and Research Journal (ELTAR-J), 1(2), 8–15. http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/LTAR/article/view/6415