This article adopts a sociomaterial perspective on ELT materials and illustrates how a mandatory textbook is used as a springboard to create decolonizing relations in the classroom ecology. Sociomaterial perspectives view learning as not the transmission but the emergence of knowledge from embodied relations, which shifts the focus from the…

Private educational activities designed to enhance student outcomes outside the formal schooling system are increasingly referred to as shadow education. In Japan, shadow education traditionally consists of for-profit cram schools or "juku." "Juku" take many forms in Japan, yet their primary function is to offer students extra…

Many scholars and teachers in EFL education should agree that compared with reading and writing, listening has received much less attention. This brief article discusses important gaps existing in EFL listening and overall proficiency development. It presents the case for a greater focus on sounds and actual listening in the classroom and spoken…

In recent years, content integrated language education has taken center stage in Japanese university English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) settings. The emphasis on content has created an opportunity for students to demonstrate analytical thinking, assessment, inference, and problem-solving skills through oral communication activities in English…

We suggest that while Indigenous languages are threatened by capitalist and neoliberal encroachments, responses from applied linguists in the academy can be misguided. To make our argument, we must first define neoliberalism, and examine how the broader neoliberal discourses of choice, competition and the free market have percolated and distilled…

Diary methods have long been used as pedagogic tools in learning, and as part of reflective practice in teacher education, but less often as data collection instruments in educational research. This is in part due to implementation challenges emerging from the time and literacy demands they place on participants. To illustrate the use of diary…

With rapid globalization, it is an urgent task for universities in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context to provide practical English education. Particularly, one that enables students to participate in the global society as well as the global business market. The challenge for these universities is to achieve this goal with limited class…

In this critical essay, Yumi Matsumoto uses the concept of English as a lingua franca to understand multilinguals' communicative practices and to support an alternative understanding of English language use among international students in US university classrooms. The essay draws on two examples of university classroom interactions involving…

The original impetus for the design of our professional development (PD) program came from the first author's interest in PD in general and what makes it effective. We begin our presentation with a brief explanation of the core literature that affected our thinking and then introduce the context in which and for which the PD program was designed.…

As a result of the Japanese Ministry of Education's recent edict that students' written and spoken English should be assessed in university entrance exams, there is an urgent need for tools to help teachers and students prepare for these exams. Although some commercial tools already exist, they are generally expensive and inflexible. To address…

The field of self-access language learning (SALL), which is an established way of supporting language learners outside the classroom through the provision of resources and spaces, spans more than five decades and is currently in a phase that Mynard (2019a) refers to as the 'basic psychological needs and wellbeing' phase. This is a turning point in…

This paper details methods teachers can utilize in a Virtual Exchange (VE) project to maximize development of intercultural communication and linguistic competence. The International Virtual Exchange Project (IVEProject) was born out of a desire to connect students in monocultural classrooms to multiple cultures. The project was started in Japan,…

New technologies often influence the ways in which one shares linguistic experiences. One such technology, Augmented Reality (AR), may initiate concepts used in language learning through digital storytelling. This paper describes an exploratory research project based on Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) AR digital storytelling which investigated…

In Japanese secondary schools, speaking assessment in English classrooms is designed, conducted, and scored by teachers. Although the assessment is intended to be used for summative and formative purposes, it is not regularly or adequately practiced. This paper reports the problems (i.e., lack of continuous speaking assessment, limited speaking…

Research from dual and bilingual education programs shows that the use of a student's home language for reading instruction is one of the most beneficial practices for multilingual learners. Given the plethora of home languages encountered in public schools, how can teachers who do not speak the languages of their students utilize a student's home…