Greetings,

I hope you have had a good summer.
Our planned meeting on September 22nd is cancelled, as the presenter will not be able to attend on that day.
Our next meeting (a joint one with Aichi University) is on Saturday October 19th.

Title: Contextualizing English as a Lingua Franca (ELF): Assumptions, Aspirations, and Affirmations
Date/Time: October 19th, 2019, 13:00 – 16:30
Venue: Aichi UniversityToyohashi Campus
Research Building,1st Floor
1st- 2nd Meeting Rooms
Fee:
☑ admission free
☑ advance reservations not required

Forum hosts
Laura L. Kusaka: Aichi University
Anthony Young: Aichi University
Leah Gilner: Aichi University
April Eve Day: Aichi University
Daniel Devolin: Aichi University
Peter Lyons: IRHSA, Nagoya University of Foreign Studies
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Abstracts
Curriculum Development at Tamagawa University
Developing inquiry-based ELF-aware teaching materials and assessments for tomorrow’s global citizens.

Yuri Jody Yujobo (Tamagawa University)
Although ELF is gaining momentum, development of teaching materials for ELF-aware pedagogy has been limited. The presenter will examine ways to develop ELF-aware materials and assessments with a focus on having students take ownership of their English by understanding that English is not a monolingual possession of native speakers, but is appropriated by multilingualism in this multilingual world (Ishikawa, 2019). One approach is to focus on developing communication strategies through inquiry-based learning and similar forms of active learning, such as problem-based learning, which may promote critical thinking and creative use of language rather than focusing on the details of language form. Such an approach offers opportunities for students to notice, refine, adapt, and adjust their language with their interlocutors in mind while becoming more ELF-aware, globally oriented communicators.

Blagoja Dimoski (Tamagawa University)
Due to the inherently unpredictable and ad hoc nature of ELF interactions, ELF users employ a host of communication strategies to co-construct meaning and achieve mutual intelligibility (Seidlhofer, 2011). To prepare learners for future ELF encounters, providing them with opportunities to develop these proactive skills in the ELF-aware classroom is essential (Kaur, 2014). To this end, the speaker will discuss examples of materials he has developed, through both explicit and implicit approaches, to promote and assess communicative capability (Widdowson, 2015). He will also report on student feedback and offer his own reflections on the efficacy of the materials and future directions.

IRHSA Reports
Listening as a pathway toward global understanding
Leah Gilner
This report will describe a few instructional tasks designed to raise students’ awareness of the dynamic, hybrid, fluid, and variable nature of communication in general, and global English language use more specifically. Some of the theoretical, empirical, and pedagogical motivations behind each instructional implementation will be discussed and student feedback will be reviewed.

A wolf in ELF’s clothing?
April Eve Day
As ELF becomes more widely discussed and accepted by educators, publishers have begun to roll out ELF textbooks. This presentation will critically analyse one such textbook in order to discover whether it could truly increase both ELF awareness and skills or whether its connection to ELF is merely superficial.

Student feedback on insertional code-switching of Japanese into English – Are you feeling genki?
Peter Lyons
Insertional code-switching has been described as ‘the insertion of a word or phrase into an utterance or sentence’ (Myers-Scotton 2006). A brief study among 20 English-speakers currently living in Japan suggests that it is a common practice among the ex-pat community for a number of motivating factors – yet how do students react to this language use by their teachers? Is it daijoubu or not?
Realm of Intelligibility: Aspiring to affirm and challenge communicative assumptions

Daniel Devolin
Realm of Intelligibility (RoI) is an established state of understanding. As a learning tool, a RoI is an opportunity to examine elements of successful communication, raise expectations of language outside preconceived or prescriptive notions, and cultivate communicatively adaptive and expansive skillsets.

■ Sponsored by The Institute for Research in Humanities and Social Sciences, Aichi University
■ Co-sponsored by JALT Toyohashi