Matthew Schaefer

In 2014, the authors of this chapter began an independently-produced podcast, with episodes focused on discussions of language teaching informed by both our classroom experiences and background research. We soon began to appreciate the extent to which these collaborative dialogues played a role in our professional development, and to capture this dynamic we developed the concept of the critical co-presentership. This can be seen as a version of the critical friendship, but one distinguished by its public-facing nature and its spontaneous method of preparation and execution. In this chapter, we seek to explore the concept of the critical co-presentership through a process of duoethnographic reflection. In a duoethnography, two participants draw on their life histories in order to provide complex and nuanced perspectives on a particular phenomenon. Through multiple dialogues, we compare our perspectives on our shared journey as podcasters, and aim to answer the following questions: 1) What is our definition of a critical co-presenter? 2) How has our critical co-presentership influenced our development and teaching practice? We believe that a study of this kind allows us to refine the concept of the critical co-presenter through a deep examination of our experiences in this role. In turn, this will provide readers with an extensive understanding of the benefits of engaging in this kind of unique reflective partnership. We hope this provides impetus for the reader to experiment with more public-facing forms of reflection, which may influence their own, and their audience’s, professional development.

The study looks at the case of a university language center in Japan that administers a compulsory English language course. To provide some level of standardization for the course, and to better meet the educational aims of the center, a content and language integrated learning (CLIL) teaching approach has been set as center policy. The research examines the different conceptions of CLIL that exist among the multiple teachers of the course, how these conceptions were developed, and what implications this has for centers that administer similar courses. Data were collected through one-to-one interviews. A phenomenographic analysis of the data reveals categories of the different conceptions of CLIL and how those conceptions were developed. Activity theory, and consideration of the teaching of the course as an activity system, is employed to consider how the use of a teaching approach policy impacts teachers’ engagement with working on the course. The study’s findings indicate that teachers teaching the same course have different conceptions of the policy-directed teaching approach that they are asked to use. This is partly due to the various ways in which they develop their conception of that teaching approach. These differences are viewed as a contradiction typical of an activity system. A key implication of this contradiction is that it may lead to benefits such as promoting peer interaction and engagement with the course. The deployment of activity theory to consider use of a teaching approach policy within a university center is unique and results in implications for other such centers.

Abstract Students leaving the Japanese secondary education system have typically spent hundreds of hours studying English grammatical structures and memorizing vocabulary lists but relatively little time putting that knowledge to communicative use. This lack of language practice can result in feelings of anxiety when faced with compulsory university courses that focus on speaking skills, such as participating in discussions and debates. This study examines first year Japanese student responses to an end-of-semester survey for a course employing a student-centered approach to developing academic Discussion Skills. The authors analyze students’ comments from an open-ended item on the questionnaire asking for feedback regarding any aspect of the course. The results show that many students reported a journey from initial resistance towards speaking English to feelings of confidence and enjoyment. The features of the course that students identified as lowering this resistance included: the enjoyment that came about through pair and group work with classmates; the cognitive discourse functions that provided scaffolding for taking part in discussion; and the consistent and coherent lesson structure that lowered the cognitive load to allow for more focus on communicating and co-constructing ideas. While this study focuses on the Japanese context, it contributes to knowledge across any language center seeking to help students transition to courses with a greater emphasis on spoken communication.