Paper short abstract:

Being silent is a way of participation, which is often undervalued in language classes despite its potential value for democratic culture. Using an MA Japanese course at an Italian university, the author will explore how the silence was perceived and discuss why valuing silence is challenging.

Paper long abstract:

Being silent is a way of participation, which this study explores. Now, silence is understood as highly complex, dynamic and context-dependent (King 2013). By legitimatising participants at the periphery, legitimate peripheral participation (Lave & Wenger 1991) offers a unique perspective to explore silent participation. Drawing upon the perspective, Morita emphasises that silent students in classrooms can be "engaged with many cognitive, affective, and social activities" (2004, p. 596). Further, silence appears inevitable to perform "skills of listening and observing" that Council of Europe (2016) underlines as a key competence for democratic culture. Nevertheless, undervaluing silence and welcoming overt activeness is still common (Lamb 2013) in the communicative approach era and thereafter (Muto 2013). Understanding how silence is undervalued may lead to valuing the silence and hearing the voices of the silenced. Yet, studies of silence are still scarce especially in Japanese language education in Europe.

Thus, this qualitative case study scrutinises silence observed and interpreted by members in an Italian university MA Japanese course. The course emphasised student self-discovery through dialogue. All members, including eleven MA students, seven facilitators who assisted the students with more familiarity with dialogic pedagogy and the teacher were expected to engage in active oral exchanges throughout the 15 week semester. Using thematic analysis (Nowel et al. 2017), the author explored and triangulated (Flick 2007) observation with video-recordings, the audio-recording of in-group conversations, facilitators' observation notes and student writings to attain holistic understanding of the silence.

The analysis found that silence observed and reported over the semester was often negatively regarded by the members as previously discussed (Lamb 2013) e.g. lack of willingness to think, less degree of interests in other members, low motivation for active engagement, lack of proficiency in Japanese and/or fear of being judged. This study suggests that such an interpretation of silence is influenced by dialogic pedagogy. Intriguingly, the silence was seen as not a group but individual matter. This study concludes by discussing why valuing silence is challenging in classrooms and thus how attempting to recognise its value is crucial for fostering democratic culture in classrooms and then society.

Paper short abstract:

Drawing on notions of Situated Learning and Metrolingualism, this paper explores how language barriers were 'melted' at a multilingual international conference by removing the partitions between rooms. It argues how physical and spatial arrangements can enhance linguistic and knowledge integrations.

Paper long abstract:

In light of an increasing globalized world where policies concerning multiculturalism are being pushed forward in various countries, little attention has been paid to the linguistic integration between speakers of diverse backgrounds. In this presentation, by exploring how language barriers were 'melted' at a multilingual international conference by means of removing the partitions between rooms, we argue how physical and spatial arrangements can enhance linguistic and knowledge integrations.

In a parallel session at an international conference related to plurilingual and pluricultural education in which Japanese, Portuguese and English were the languages of presentations, an attempt was made to remove a partition wall. Sessions in different languages were placed at both ends of the venue and a breakout space was set in the center as a buffer zone to allow free movement. By applying the concepts of Situated Learning (Lave and Wenger, 1991) and Metrolingualism (Otsuji and Pennycook, 2010, Pennycook and Otsuji, 2015), the results from the analysis of a video recording, questionnaires and interview surveys of participants, are as follows.

(1) From the perspective of Situated Learning, two types of feedback were observed: On one hand, the removal of the partition enabled participants to gain some knowledge through 'peripheral participation' of the presentation held at the opposite end of the room while staying in their own session. On the other hand, there were negative opinions such as, "I was annoyed by the voices of other sessions". Some people preferred the same language to be used in the same room.

(2) From the viewpoint of Metrolingualism, the disruption of the one-language one-room/group ideology has been observed: The analysis shows that the removal of the wall 'melted' the conventional statist spatial divisions created by discrete languages and brought about positive 'chemical reactions' and impacts on both sessions. The removal of any physical barriers suggests that removing a psychological barrier builds a sense of community around the shared interests and occupations.

This presentation concludes how the removal of physical barriers can contribute to the integrationist approach to language practice, promote peripheral participation and even motivates 'language' learning.

Paper short abstract:

This study will examine the degree to which FL educational practices in Japan can contribute to new understandings of FL approaches to teaching Japanese in France through the use of narrative analysis of Japanese teachers in France and FL teachers in Japan.

Paper long abstract:

In regards to foreign language (FL) secondary education, there are two primary foundational approaches to instruction: "Palier" in France; and "Gakushū shidō yōryō (Learning guidance points)" in Japan. While both are designed in reference to the criteria of the Common European Framework, they remain quite different. The Palier approach is designed specifically for FL education across two levels of instruction (Palier 1 and 2), of which one of the languages offered is Japanese. This approach also includes cultural aspects as part of its curriculum, with detailed information on the role of language in culture as it pertains to learning and teaching. As an example, in the case of Japanese materials are provided to high school teachers on specific aspects of Japanese culture that may be unfamiliar to FL learners.

Alternatively, in the Japanese Gakushū approach, while materials are listed as being designed for FL instruction, in reality the content is for English as a first language educational contexts. To this end, descriptions and guidelines tend to be abstract for learners and teachers, and neither junior- nor high-school guidelines provide any form of language in culture as part of the curriculum.

Despite their similarities in name, the two approaches in France and Japan vary widely in terms of the concreteness and abstractness of their descriptions and purposes, as well as the degree to which they do or do not integrate culture and language. Because of this, the Palier approach would appear to be a more appropriate approach from the perspective of developing plurilingal and pluricultural competences. However, the degree to which this is true has not yet been thoroughly investigated. This study will therefore examine the degree to which FL educational practices in Japan can contribute to new understandings of FL approaches to teaching Japanese in France through the use of narrative analysis of Japanese teachers in France and FL teachers in Japan. The goal of this study is to compare curriculum practices in Japan and France, where contrasts in approaches may lead to new perspectives on the development of plurilingual and pluricultural competences in Japanese education in France.