Dr. Yuichi Suzuki (Waseda University, Japan)

Practice and Automatization: Bridging ISLA Research and the Classroom

Does practice make perfect? While practice was once dismissed as mechanical drills, the 21st century has witnessed a major reconceptualization of this term. In this seminar, we move beyond mindless “parroting” to a modern and more productive definition of practice as “specific activities engaged in systematically and deliberately” to develop robust knowledge and skills in a second language (DeKeyser, 2007; Suzuki, 2023).

We will explore how this systematic practice leads to automatization. Automatization involves fine-tuning and restructuring of knowledge encompassing lexis, grammar, pronunciation, and pragmatics, which allows learners to progress from effortful processing to fluent communication skills.

The course navigates from theory to pedagogical practice with the following three main research domains:

• Cognitive Foundations: Examining Skill Acquisition Theory and the interface of explicit/implicit knowledge.
• Optimizing Practice: Applying principles from cognitive psychology (e.g., desirable difficulty, practice distribution, transfer-appropriate processing, cognitive individual differences) to maximize learning.
• Teaching Methods: Application: Critically analyzing the role of systematic practice within Presentation-Practice-Production (PPP) and Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) frameworks.

Finally, we address the research-practice gap. We aim to think of the responsibilities of researchers to produce transparent and relevant work that benefits stakeholders such as language teachers, teacher trainers, and policy makers. Through lectures and discussion of empirical studies, we will explore how to bridge the divide between research and pedagogical practice.

Dr. Rob Waring (Notre Dame Seishin University, Japan)

Pages, Ears, Screens: Making Extensive Input Work in Real Classrooms

The first three-hour open session of this seminar begins by mapping out what a well-designed EFL curriculum should cover across ages and proficiency bands. It then examines how common course structures, tasks, and materials pursue these aims but often fall short for learners. We then show how extensive reading (ER), listening (EL) and watching (EW) can close the gap by supplying sustained input, repetition, and recycling that strengthen form–meaning links, consolidate knowledge and develop fluency which provide a vital base for the productive skills. The factors necessary for a successful ER, EL and EW program will be specified, including text and media selection, scaffolding, and follow up tasks. The limits of ER for specialist topics and higher levels are addressed, with practical strategies for integrating targeted instruction so learning remains efficient and goal aligned.

The participants taking the seminar for credit will then survey the current ER and EL research base to establish what is known and where uncertainties remain. They will be asked to suggest research areas they might prioritize and will analyze sample studies to identify frequent design pitfalls, and derive clear principles for sound methodology. Participants then will sketch feasible experimental or classroom-based designs and suggest ways to improve the design of existing research.

The seminar will then turn to the vital area of writing graded materials to determine how they are written from both story structure and editorial factors to determine what comprises graded material suitable for ER, EL and EW. We will then look at the benefits and restrictions that AI offers when writing these materials and how to avoid some of the pitfalls inherent in using this technology.

Dr. Gary Barkhuizen (University of Auckland, New Zealand)

Exploring Experience in Qualitative Research: A Focus on Narrative Inquiry

This seminar introduces participants to narrative inquiry as a powerful form of qualitative research in the field of language teaching and learning. Narrative inquiry is based on the idea that human experience is best understood through the stories people tell about their lives, practices, and identities. In applied linguistics, this approach has gained increasing recognition for its ability to capture the complex, lived realities of teachers and learners across diverse contexts.

The seminar will draw on authentic data from research on teacher identity, teacher education, multilingualism, and study-abroad to showcase how narratives open up understandings of language education from the perspectives of research participants. The seminar will explore and illustrate various qualitative and narrative methods, such as thematic analysis, writing as analysis, short story analysis, and narrative frames, to discover what they have in common, how they are different, and how we can choose what is most appropriate for our research. Graduate students and other researchers of all levels of experience will benefit from attending this seminar by gaining a clear sense of how narrative and qualitative research is designed, conducted, and analyzed – and also reported. Ultimately, this seminar will invite participants to see language teaching and learning as a lived, storied, and shared experience, one that can be studied in deeply meaningful, reflexive, and human ways.