Paper short abstract:

This paper aims to present a draft plan of an initial dyslexia teacher training-seminar, upon identifying teachers' needs and demands. Analysis will be based on a survey to Japanese teachers and questionnaires collected from teacher-training seminars about dyslexia in Europe.

Paper long abstract:

This paper aims to present a draft plan of an ideal initial dyslexia teacher-training seminar, upon identifying teachers' needs and demands towards such a seminar.

Support systems for people with disability and learning difficulties including developmental dyslexia have been well established in many European countries. Obviously satisfactory provision of support to Japanese language learners with dyslexia is required in Japanese institutions in Europe, as well as in institutions in Japan where many European learners are accepted.

In-service/pre-service Japanese language teachers now need to be well versed in dyslexia, as well as in intervention and support methods, so that they can autonomously and appropriately accommodate dyslexic learners from their early stage of learning. Developing teacher autonomy and creating a better collaboration amongst all staff concerned are also important. Provision of initial dyslexia teacher training would promote teachers' awareness towards and basic knowledge on dyslexia.

In our presentation we explore 1) what teachers want to learn at an initial training seminar about dyslexia, and 2) what they might find the most useful. Analysis will be made based on 1) a European-wide online survey concerning support to dyslexia learners in the Japanese language classroom and its follow-up interviews, conducted in summer, 2015, and 2) the results of pre/post questionnaires collected at several initial dyslexia teacher-training seminars held within Europe during 2016-2017 and their follow-ups.

The paper concludes with a remark that promoting dyslexia-friendly teaching methods and classrooms in the era of inclusive education will nurture teachers' ability to make learning more successful for 'everyone' beyond dyslexic learners.

Paper short abstract:

This qualitative research study investigates beliefs, experiences and identity of three novice university lecturers in Portugal, focusing on their difficulties in their workplace and in their classroom.

Paper long abstract:

This qualitative research study investigates beliefs, experiences and identity of novice university lecturers in Portugal, focusing on their difficulties in their workplace and in their classroom. The research participants are 2 lecturers whose native language is Japanese and 1 lecturer who is a native speaker of Portuguese. All of them are novice teachers (part-time lecturers) who have been working for 2 years or less in the field of higher education. For data collection, we used exactly the same as Mukai (2016) who investigated beliefs and identity of novice Japanese lecturers of higher education in Brazil, that is, the online questionnaire which is composed of a written narrative and closed and open-ended questions and the follow-up e-mail. After collecting data, a content analysis (coding and categorization) was done. Three participants commonly pointed out some difficulties associated with classroom management, which were related to student's parallel talk during class time and lack of concentration. Two participants who are Japanese native speakers also mentioned their own Portuguese language ability as a difficulty. "Teaching method", "My own Japanese knowledge", "Student learning" were listed as what they care about at work. As part-time lecturers, they are aware that it will be difficult to change the course design as well as its purposes, but it may be possible to influence learners' motivation and build good relationships with them. It was also realized that they believe that the spirit of mutual assistance among them and their students is important in the classroom, and that enables them to reflect and improve their own way of teaching. In other words, while carefully considering their limits as a novice teacher (Micole, 2007, Ushikubo, 2013, 2014, 2015), like their own teaching skills, knowledge and classroom management, the participants in this study believe that building and keeping good relationships with students may beneficially influence their motivation and learning process.

Paper short abstract:

If facilitation of communication between L2 speakers and not only native speakers were achieved, the borders of the Japanese language would open to new areas of use. The theoretical and practical premises were tested in a case study in Serbia and will be presented in this paper in detail.

Paper long abstract:

Most languages, regardless of the extent to which they are taught globally, are confined within the limitations of the relationship between local L2 speakers and native speakers. However, L2 speakers of a language have their own linguistic identity which they seek to manifest in the language, not exclusively through association with native speakers. This need remains unrecognized if L2 speakers are observed exclusively from the perspective of native speakers. In actuality, L2 speakers compose a new group of speakers with their own linguistic needs. Proof of this is the global use of English, now used more by non-native speakers to communicate with each other than with native speakers. The question is how Japanese might similarly open itself up. The theoretical premises of this paper were tested in a case study conducted in Serbia and will be presented in detail.

The latest research demonstrates that the number of noninstitutionalized students of Japanese is greater that the number of institutionally registered students. Our research has shown that amongst students of Japanese in Serbia the reasons for learning the language is predominantly personal pleasure and the broadening of perspectives, rather that the possible financial benefit. Research has shown that most students do not plan to visit Japan nor do they have direct contact with Japanese people. It might be assumed that the situation is the same in other small countries. However, if they wish to continue their studies, students need to find a way to apply the foreign language. The only way to overcome this problem is to act locally, that is, to provide the circumstances which will facilitate communication between L2 Japanese speakers. In this way, the language would stop being the exclusive property of its native speakers and would venture beyond its borders, entering a wider sphere. To achieve this, it is necessary to examine the needs of L2 speakers, distinct from those of speakers who live in Japan. We offer a method for the examination of these needs and will also present an application of the results of our research.