Purpose: This study aims to examine the participants' [junior high school students and Master of business administration (MBA) consultants] perceptions and utilizations of the multidimensional place-based resources within the context of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), specifically focusing on its alignment with the sustainable…

Purpose: This research explores the "transformation" ideas of Japanese Lesson Study (LS) and Open Approach (OA) to create and sustain a Thailand LS incorporated OA (TLSOA) model to successfully adapt to the local contexts. Although LS is spreading globally, previous studies have identified several challenges to its implementation.…

This paper examines learners' fluency development in L2 silent reading rate and comprehension. In both L1 and L2 readings, a positive relationship between readers' silent reading rate and comprehension has not been as firmly established as theories might propose. Based on Wallot et al. (2014), the paper indicates the need to look at readers'…

Building upon the recent English-language scholarship (Kawaji, 2017, Miyazawa, 2015; Hiraoka, 2011) on the Japanese pedagogy movement of seikatsu tsuzurikata ("daily life writing," hereafter referred to as DLW), this essay seeks to locate its significance within a broader global context. It is as much a polemic for why DLW should be…

In recent years, Yokohama City, Japan, has seen substantial efforts to address socio-environmental issues. One such effort is the G-30 program, which has helped reduce garbage waste production by 43 percent in 2010, since 2001. The eco-picture diary, an environmental education project, has been identified as contributing to the success of G-30.…

There is a common belief that one could quickly improve their second language proficiency once they reside in the country where the target language is spoken, because they have opportunities to use it constantly in an immersion environment. However, scholars have argued that it may be up to the individual student whether she could effectively…

This article reports a multiple case study that explores the potential impact of Japan's national curriculum for senior high school English as a foreign language (EFL), specifically in relation to the integration of grammar teaching with communicative work, a key component of the curriculum and an area globally underresearched in high schools. The…

Preparing college students to be contributing members of local and global societies requires educators to analyze the capabilities and needs of their students and to adjust instructional content and practice. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was twofold: (a) to explore how classroom approaches designed to facilitate students' questioning of…

There has been a noticeable change of curricula in specialized and technical courses offered in Japanese schools and universities. One of these is the integration of English for general and specific purposes in the dental curriculum. Although a number of studies have assessed the former, very few have assessed English for specific purposes…

On the premise that the learning of a second or foreign language should contribute to, rather than subtract from, the cultural and linguistic resources which a learner already possesses, this paper documents an individual teacher's pedagogically centred challenge to a politically driven and potentially exclusive English-only language policy within…

Informed and inspired by neo-Vygotskian theory, this article outlines a study exploiting a contemporary conceptualization of Wells's (2002) joint activity system model as an exploratory framework for examining and depicting the social-cultural-historical contradictions in second-language (L2) learners' joint activity. The participants were a pair…

Reading fluency has attracted the attention of reading researchers and educators since the early 1970s and has become a priority issue in English as a first language (L1) settings. It has also become a critical issue in English as a second or foreign language (L2) settings because the lack of fluency is considered a major obstacle to developing…

These proceedings contain the papers of the 14th International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age (CELDA 2017), 18-20 October 2017, which has been organized by the International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS) and endorsed by the Japanese Society for Information and Systems in…

"Adult Language Learners: Context and Innovation" presents instructional practices that are particularly successful with adults. Adult language learners are goal oriented and direct their learning to fulfill particular needs or demands: to advance their studies, to progress up the career ladder, to follow business opportunities, to pass…