Successful intercultural communication in the future is an implicit goal of most foreign language learning and teaching around the world. Intercultural communication in the present, with widely varying success, is what goes on every day in Japan between non-Japanese language teachers and their Japanese students and colleagues. This course will investigate the factors that influence the success of interactions between people who differ saliently in cultural backgrounds. It will broaden the notion of what communicative competence for our students involves, and provide directions for seeking more rewarding relationships in our own intercultural personal and professional contexts.

Two contrasting but complementary approaches to developing intercultural communicative competence and intercultural citizenship will be highlighted in the course. These will provide frameworks to discuss: intercultural pragmatics, politeness, and communication styles; identity and self-concept in communication; ethnocentrism, stereotyping, and ‘othering’; influences of language and culture on cognition; intercultural adaptation, relationships, and conflicts; influences of institutions and media, both traditional and social. Supplementary readings will focus on intercultural communication in Japan and involving Japanese outside of Japan. Another rich source of learning will be the instructor’s and participants’ own experiences and reflections, including the sharing of classroom materials aimed at facilitating intercultural competence.

Course requirements include participation in in-class and online discussions, one or two oral presentations, and an “Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters,” a brief writing task used by the Council of Europe for intercultural training. The form of the final project will be negotiable, but the default choice will be a mini-ethnography structured or adapted from suggestions sketched out by Holliday, Hyde, & Kuhn in the final “Exploration” section of the course textbook.

Please be noticed that students who have taken this course, EDUC 8274, under the name of “Contexts for Content Teaching and Learning” in the past are not able to take this course for any additional credits.

Required Textbook:

• Holliday, A., Hyde, M., & Kullman, J. (2021). Intercultural communication: An advanced resource book for students. (4th ed.). Routledge. (Buy on Amazon.co.jp New Tab / Buy on Amazon.com New Tab)

Technological changes have brought rapid change to all aspects of education, as became abundantly clear as teachers and learners adapted to the demands of online and on demand classes. Digital tools now provide students and teachers with access to a vast amount of information through an expanding number of media platforms. These digital technologies are simultaneously transformative and disruptive. Though often touted as the "answer" to the issue of student engagement, technological tools do not always live up to the early promises. As the language laboratory has given way to the allure of mobile devices, educators need to do more than just add a new tool. They need to make sure that the technology they use leads to classrooms that are digitally rich and pedagogically engaging. This course will explore intersections in media, communication, and language education with the goal of understanding how to ensure that the integration of technology is leading to deeper learning. Topics will include the use of digital tools that aid teachers in completing tasks (record keeping, communicating, testing); the use of digital tools to transform education in ways previously not possible; the possibilities for digital tools to move students to shift their conscious understanding of the wider world; and the adaptation of digital tools developed for business and entertainment by educators. In short, this course will explore both the disruptive and transformative use of technology in second language education.

In addition to course readings, participants will have a mid-term exam, make written responses to issues discussed in the course, lead small group discussions, and either write a research paper on one aspect of the use of media and technology in second language education or use digital tools to create materials appropriate to a specific learner group and discuss these in a materials report.

Required Textbook:

• Chapelle, C. A., & Sauro, S. (Eds.). (2017). The handbook of technology and second language teaching and learning. Wiley-Blackwell. (Buy on Amazon.co.jp New Tab / Buy on Amazon.com New Tab)

A reading packet will be available on TU Canvas. Some readings will need to be obtained from the TU Library, online resources.

The primary aim of this course is to provide a broad overview of contemporary issues in the design of educational curricula. It is hoped that accomplishing this aim will lead participants to develop a clearer understanding of the complexities of designing and implementing foreign language curricula and greater confidence and skill in undertaking such a task.

The main topics to be covered include: 1) the origins of curriculum development, including the philosophical, cognitive, and social foundations underlying educational curricula; 2) options for curriculum design; 3) needs, aims, goals and objectives; 4) the role of tests and instructional materials in the curriculum; 5) providing for effective teaching and teacher training; and, 6) the assessment and evaluation of both students and the curriculum itself.

Participants in the course will lead several small group discussions, write a number of short responses to issues raised in the course, develop a detailed curriculum plan for a specific educational institution or educational context, and take a final test.

Required Textbook:

• Macalister, J., & Nation, I.S.P. (2020). Language curriculum design. (2nd ed.). Routledge. (Buy on Amazon.co.jp New Tab / Buy on Amazon.com New Tab)
• Brown, J. D. (1995). The elements of language curriculum: A systemic approach to program development. Heinle Cengage Learning. (Buy on Amazon.co.jp New Tab / Buy on Amazon.com New Tab)

This course is required for M.S.Ed. students who matriculated in or after Spring 2019. Students are required to register for this course in the semester they take the M.S.Ed. Comprehensive Examination. This course is a Pass/Fail course. If the student is taking the January Comprehensive Exam, the student must register for this course in the spring semester. If the student is taking the May Comprehensive Exam, the student must register for this course in the summer semester. 

Ph.D. students are required to take two 3-credit Research Apprenticeship courses.   
  
If you wish to take an apprenticeship course, you first need to write a 300-400-word abstract of your proposed project (unless you are assisting a professor with one of his or her studies). This abstract should include basic information such as (a) the gaps in the literature you are addressing, (b) the purpose(s) of the study, (c) specific research questions, and (d) your methodology, including information about the participants, instruments, procedures, and the analyses you will perform. You will then need to send the abstract to the advisor you wish to work with (Consult the list of Apprenticeship advisors on the registration form to see who is available), and if the advisor approves your plan, you can then register for the course with that advisor.  

This course is for those Ph.D. students who have passed the Preliminary Examination and working on their dissertation proposal. 

The Ph.D. students are required to take Culminating Courses (6 semester hours overall, minimum 2 semester hours of EDUC 9999). Culminating Courses: Preliminary Preparation Course (EDUC 9994), Dissertation Proposal Design Course (EDUC 9998) and Doctor of Education Dissertation Course (EDUC 9999).  

Minimum 2 credit hours of EDUC 9999 are required for the Ph.D. students. 

Students wishing to register for this course should obtain permission from the professor and complete the registration process during the registration period. 

EPSY8827 will review and consolidate the designs and research methods introduced in the two previous quantitative research methods courses. The syllabus will be expanded to include other research designs and novel analysis techniques such as event history analysis, causal modeling, mediation analysis, multi-level modeling, structural equation models, and longitudinal research methods using latent growth models. 

Students will have the opportunity to expand and augment their research design and analysis repertoire with downloadable software such as JASP and R. Multilevel models will be used to assess the influence of contextual factors on both groups and individuals in classroom settings, and binary outcomes will be examined for experimental psycholinguistic models. R will be used to model fixed and random effects for various language learning experiments such as those using grammaticality judgements or reaction times as outcomes. JASP will be used to construct structural equation models and longitudinal latent growth curve models with individual differences covariates tested as predictors of growth and change. Causal modeling with JASP will be introduced as well as R Packages using directional acyclic graphs for conceptual model building. Practice data will be provided for all analysis methods.

Required Textbook:

No textbook required. Handouts will be used for this course.  

The goals of this course are twofold. The first goal is to develop a level of expertise in language assessment that allows course participants to serve as a leader, trainer, and resource person in the implementation of high quality assessments for admission, placement, diagnostic, and achievement assessments. The second goal is to develop practical skills in the construction and validation of language performance and affective measures so that their use can be defended for research and/or high stakes testing. The first aim involves reading in the area of language assessment, supplemented by class lectures and student-led discussions. The second goal is approached from the perspective of Rasch measurement theory and involves the use of the Winsteps and FACETS software packages. Participants will (a) lead and participate in small group discussions of the course readings, (b) analyze and interpret test and survey data using data sets supplied by the instructor, and (c) produce a course project in which an assessment instrument is conceptualized, designed, piloted, analyzed, and interpreted. The course project will be based on an instrument designed to measure (a) a major language skill such as listening, speaking, reading, or writing; (b) a sub-skill such as pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary, or; (c) an affective variable such as motivation, anxiety, or self-efficacy. Participants should plan a means of data collection so that they can gather data, conduct a Rasch analysis, and write up the paper before the end of the course. Participants are requested to read Units A1-A5 in Fulcher and Davidson and Chapters 1-4 in Bond and Fox before the first class session.

Required Textbook:

• Fulcher, G., & Davidson, F. (2007). Language testing and assessment: An advanced resource book. Routledge. (Buy on Amazon.co.jp New Tab / Buy on Amazon.com New Tab)
• Bond, T. G., Yan, Z., & Heene, M. (2021). Applying the Rasch model: Fundamental measurement in the human sciences. (4th ed.). Routledge. (Buy on Amazon.co.jp New Tab / Buy on Amazon.com New Tab)

Task-based Language Teaching: Applying Research to Practice by Dr. Nicole Ziegler, University of Hawaii at Manoa, U. S. A., will be conducted by 3-hour online Zoom sessions for four days: Saturday, May 14, Sunday, May 15, Saturday, May 21 and Sunday, May 22 from 10:00 to 13:00 (JST).  Students taking this seminar for credit must attend all four days. Students can add/drop this seminar course by 14:00 on Saturday, May 14.

The pre sign-up (or course registration for those who are taking this seminar for credit) is required for anybody attending the public session on Saturday, May 14 from 10:00 to 13:00. The sign-up process must be completed through "Distinguished Lecturer Series Seminar Sign-Up Form" that is available on TUJ Grad Ed website. The sign-up deadline is Friday, May13 at 12:00. The public session Zoom link will be provided to those people who completed the online sign-up (or course registration) process by18:00 on Friday, May 13.

Research investigating task-based language teaching (TBLT) has grown during the past few decades, with findings demonstrating the efficacy of this pedagogical framework for second language (L2) learning and development (e.g. see Chong & Reinders, 2020; Keck et al., 2006; Mackey & Goo, 2007 for reviews). Grounded in the interaction approach to SLA (Mackey, 2020), which posits that language learning occurs during conversational interaction through negotiation for meaning, corrective feedback, and opportunities for noticing and modified output production, TBLT can provide learners with an ideal psycholinguistic environment facilitative of L2 learning.

Beginning with an overview of the theoretical foundations of TBLT, this seminar will introduce participants to various practical and empirical issues in task-based learning and teaching, including key components of task-based program design. Research findings on task features, including complexity and sequencing, and how these might be applied to the L2 classroom, will also be discussed. This seminar will then explore the role of technology in task-based contexts, including the affordances offered by different modalities, and the practical classroom considerations associated with the implementation of technology-mediated tasks. Next, participants will be guided through a hands-on workshop to adapt and create task-based materials for teaching or assessing student development and performance. Directions for future research will also be addressed.

Enhancing the Authenticity of Oral Skills Instruction with Pragmatics by Dr. David Olsher, San Francisco State University, U.S.A., will be conducted by 3-hour online Zoom sessions for four days: Saturday, July 2, Sunday, July 3, Saturday, July 9 and Sunday, July 10 from 10:00 to 13:00 (JST).  Students taking this seminar for credit must attend all four days. Students can add/drop this seminar course by 14:00 on Saturday, July 2.

The pre sign-up (or course registration for those who are taking this seminar for credit) is required for anybody attending the public session on Saturday, July 2 from 10:00 to 13:00. The sign-up process must be completed through "Distinguished Lecturer Series Seminar Sign-Up Form" that is available on TUJ Grad Ed website. The sign-up deadline is Friday, July 1 at 12:00. The public session Zoom link will be provided to those people who completed the online sign-up (or course registration) process by 18:00 on Friday, July 1.

Teaching authentic oral communication skills can be greatly enhanced through the application of pragmatics research on language use as well as research on the teaching and learning of pragmatics in variety of language learning contexts. This course will introduce two key areas of pragmatics with special relevance to teaching oral communication, speech acts and conversation analysis, along with pedagogical principles and practices for integrating research findings into oral communication skills lessons.  Drawing on primary research, teacher resource materials, and samples of teaching materials developed by language teachers, this course will equip participants to apply research findings and pedagogical theory to the evaluation of published textbooks, adaptation of existing materials, and design original lessons. 

The course will begin with samples of authentic interaction in order to introduce the fields of speech act research and conversation analysis, look at selected samples of commercial teaching materials to introduce the kinds of questions language educators may want to ask about the authenticity and usefulness of such materials.  Questions of when and how the goal of discourse authenticity fits with pedagogical purposes and cultural contexts of education will round out the introduction, including issues of lingual franca English and whose social and cultural norms apply.

The second phase of this course will provide more background on insights from research on speech acts analysis, hands on engagement with data samples, and an introduction to reading published research for pedagogical purposes.  The third phase will provide more background on insights from research on conversation analysis, hands on engagement with data samples, and with an introduction to ways to approach published research for pedagogical purposes.

The fourth phase will explore pedagogical principles and practices supported by research and introduce samples of pedagogical tasks that engage learners in reflection on L1 cultural norms, noticing pragmatic features of video and transcripts, reordering conversations, making pragmatic judgements, and role-playing scenarios. The final phase will introduce a flexible model for pragmatics-based oral skills lessons, applied via a hands-on lesson planning activity.  The course will wrap up with a look at applying pragmatics to the evaluation of a textbook lesson and identifying opportunities to enhance the teaching of oral communication.  A final project will ask participants to draw on several course readings and draw from them in writing an evaluation and proposal for enhancing a lesson in a textbook of their choice.