At a press conference in Japan, an L2-Japanese reporter questioned an L1-Japanese politician. Although the press conference was conducted in Japanese, the politician code-switched to English during their exchange. The reporter challenged the politician's code-switching; a confrontational exchange ensued. The reporter's reaction depicts the…

This paper attempts to establish that there is a correlation between the sociolinguistic identities of high school students and their productive English-speaking abilities. The paper initially explains the basic concept of sociolinguistic identity and refers to various aspects of research into Japanese national identity to analyse how these may…

Although the notion of Global Englishes (GE) has been widely discussed in the literature, few books consider how GE can be translated into educational practice. This book addresses the incorporation of GE into language policy and curriculum, pedagogy and assessment practices, and focuses on a wide range of geographical and language contexts.…

Sociolinguistic and sociocultural features of the source language can be ideally transferred to the target language when the translator's cultural background knowledge has a high overlap with the source language culture. This signifies the crucial role of national cultural distance from the source language society in the quality of translation of…

To examine how participants' different eTandem experiences could be attributed to the way they co-constructed turns, this study analyzed turn negotiation practices of one dyad who engaged in video-mediated interaction between Japan and America. This dyad was chosen for analysis because they expressed the greatest frustration and required a…

This study analyzes the conversational styles of two dyads who engaged in a semester-long, video-mediated telecollaboration between Japan and America. While one dyad expressed the greatest satisfaction and developed the autonomy to continue the project beyond the curricular requirement, the other dyad expressed the greatest frustration, requiring…

The need to recognise English language teaching (ELT) as a site for the interplay of cultural politics and competing discourses has been acknowledged in ELT literature. Writing as an English teacher in Japan, and not unfamiliar over the years with the confluencing of discourses whether relating to neoliberalism, globalisation or other forces…

It is now widely recognized that assessment and the feedback play key roles in the learning process. However, assessment-based learning approaches are not yet commonly practiced in Japan. This paper provides an example of an assessment-based approach to teaching and learning employed for a course entitled "English as an International…

This article examines the ways in which a multimodal text--a YouTube video on globalization and business--was mediated in two English for Academic Purposes (EAP) classrooms, and how these mediations shaped the instructor's and her students' meaning-making in specific ways. I first explore the complex multimodal discourses involved with this…

This paper addresses the problem of cultural and native language interference in second/foreign language acquisition. More specifically, it examines issues of interference that can be traced to a student's native language and that also have a cultural component. To this effect, an understanding of what actually comprises both interference and…

Trinity College Dublin was proud to host, in April 2016, the Second International Conference on Telecollaboration in Higher Education, with the theme "New Directions in Telecollaborative Research and Practice." Over two and a half days, 150 participants offered 95 research presentations, posters, and "problem shared" sessions.…

Describes a 1986 study on the differences in the connotative level of meaning as examined through a survey of foreign and Japanese English teachers in the Kansai area. Results of the survey indicate that teachers immersed in one cultural background may pass along images that do not necessarily correspond to the connotations held in other…

Focuses on the teaching of English as a foreign language (EFL) in Japan and describes Charles Fries' influence in the field, the teaching methods used, and the preservice and continuing education of EFL teachers there. The article expresses the hope that this experience will improve cross-cultural understanding between Australian educators and…

Addressing the common misconception that Japan is a mono-ethnic, mono-cultural, and monolingual society, this article focuses on several areas of sociolinguistic concern. It discusses: (1) the bimodalism of the Japanese deaf population between Japanese Sign Language as native language and Japanese Spoken Language as acquired second language; (2)…

A discussion of the teaching and learning of English as an international language (EIL) makes two proposals. First, the teaching of EIL in Japan should not lead to premature replacement of native English with Japanese English as a model or goal of English education. The change should be in the direction of nurturing communicative competence, and…