Second Language Acquisition, Cross-cultural Communication and Foreign Language Education
In this seminar, students will discuss and explore the process of second language learning and teaching through studying textbooks and research articles. Students will learn how to conduct research such as how to develop research themes and research questions, how to design research, and data analysis, as well as how to write a research paper. Students will work on their individual studies, giving each other feedback in weekly discussions. Many of the students in this seminar have had experiences living or studying abroad and are proficient speakers of English.
Discussions can be conducted in both English and Japanese, and I am hopeful that both Japanese and international students can improve their English and Japanese proficiency respectively by being in this seminar. We have guest speakers and lectures have been given in English most of the time.
Reference books will be recommended for the new students.
The new students in this seminar are expected to think about their research themes by conducting thorough literature reviews. They will then design their studies, and (ideally) conduct pilot studies.
Those students who continued from last semester will conduct pilot studies and summarise the results.
Themes of previous students' graduation theses include but not limited to:
Teaching English to elementary school students (chants and storytelling).
Usage of CLIL for teaching English to elementary school students.
The effect of group work on English language learning from the perspective of sociocultural theory.
Analysis of Japanese and English conversations by bilingual speakers.
Investigation of the effect of peer learning in speaking tasks with the use of fMRI.
Pragmatic analysis of 'suberi' in 'owarai' (comedy) in Japanese.
Code switching of Japanese and English.
Language and identity.
Study of motivation in English language learning.
The differences between men and women in terms of laughter.
The differences of English sarcasm and Japanese 'hiniku'.
Self-deprecation speech acts by Japanese speakers.
Speech act of compliment by Japanese college students.