Ryosuke Aoyama will be defending his dissertation proposal on Wednesday, February 28 from 10:30AM to 12:30PM in PCN 1306A, with the option to attend online via Zoom.
Supervisors: Drs. Ryuko Kubota & Meike Wernicke
Supervisory Committee Member: Dr. Anwar Ahmed
Dissertation Title: Co-Constructing Critical Language Awareness Pedagogy: Participatory Action Research Among Japanese EFL Teachers
Abstract:
Previous research has called for a reconceptualization of English in light of a changing sociolinguistic landscape of globalization (e.g., Kramsch, 2014; Matsuda, 2012; Pennycook, 2010; Rose & Galloway, 2019), which requires viewing it as a deterritorialized language free from the so-called target community and culture. This, in turn, necessitates an epistemic shift in English language teaching (ELT) (Canagarajah & Said, 2010; Kumaravadivelu, 2012). Such changes reflect a fundamental social justice imperative in ELT, emphasizing respect for diverse English users with intersectional identities. However, the implementation of sociolinguistically and justice-informed pedagogy has not been readily observed at policy and classroom levels, particularly in English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts such as Japan. Language education in Japan often operates around a skill-based and depoliticized project (Kubota & Takeda, 2021; Takekawa, 2014), distanced from the broader social justice agenda. Under the names of being scientific, practical, and efficient, ELT runs the risk of becoming an apparatus for (re)producing, maintaining, and perpetuating normative (language) ideologies (e.g., native-speakerism, heteronormativity, ethnic nationalism), thus keeping structural (linguistic) injustice in society intact.
This proposed study aims to address this problem through collaborative explorations of enacting critical language awareness (CLA) pedagogy, an approach to language education aimed at activating students’ critical consciousness about language and their social world for transformation and emancipation (e.g., Alim, 2005; Clark et al., 1990; Fairclough, 1992; Shapiro, 2022; Taylor et al., 2017). Employing participatory action research (PAR) methodology (Fine & Torre, 2021; Kemmis et al., 2014; Lenette, 2022; McIntyre, 2008), a small group of high school teachers of English in Japan and I as a teacher-researcher in a Canadian university will collaboratively learn, design, and implement CLA pedagogy in the classroom. In doing so, we aim to align the goal of ELT with broader educational principles, catalyzing language learning for emancipating language learners, espousing diversity, and promoting socially just change. We will ask: 1) How can CLA pedagogy be designed and implemented to transform a traditional skills-based ELT classroom into a reflective learning space where students develop their awareness about language and power? 2) What factors facilitate or hinder the implementation of CLA pedagogy?
As a PAR project, this study foregrounds collaborative meaning-making through observations, reflections, and dialogues among the group members. Thus, evidence for the PAR inquiry will be collected through a collaborative autoethnographic methodology (Chang et al., 2013). The data will include personal memory/recollection, archival materials and current educational artifacts, self-observation, self-reflection, self-analysis, and conversations and interviews. These data will be generated by each participant throughout the PAR process to answer the research questions. It is expected that findings will lead to the creation of context-sensitive professional development resources for teachers (e.g., syllabus design, lesson plans, and activities) and our collaborative reflections will inform future practitioners of both CLA pedagogy and PAR methodology in language education, who wish to enact language pedagogy as a vehicle for socially just change.