Keynote Speakers

  • Ann Jordan (Immediate Past President of AATJ; Laurasian Institution)
  • Tomoko Takami (President of AATJ; University of Pennsylvania)
  • Shinsuke Tsuchiya (Brigham Young University)

Saturday, May 21

Belonging Matters: Now More than Ever

Ann Jordan

(Immediate Past President of American Association of Teachers of Japanese

Laurasian Institution)

The concept of windows and mirrors in education, introduced over thirty years ago, is particularly relevant today as we and our students navigate our way out of the last two years of disconnectedness and through the challenges of a new post-pandemic (hopefully) reality. Windows are a daily part of our teaching of Japanese language and culture, as they give students a lens into the unfamiliar and new. But we should not forget to provide mirrors for our students, for when they see elements of their own identities and experiences, it fosters a sense of belonging that is critical to engagement, motivation, and social emotional health.

The presentation will explore the following: How can we as Japanese language teachers facilitate belonging by giving our students opportunities to look beyond the window to see themselves reflected in the mirror? What are some ways we can create space in our teaching that allows for the discovery, sharing, and celebration of our multifaceted and complex identities? How do we shift the mindset of who “belongs” in Japanese, and how might doing so help to expand the pipeline of Japanese teachers?

Ann Jordan has been a learner and a teacher for almost her entire life at every level from elementary through high school. She retired in 2018 from full-time teaching at Los Gatos High School in California to coach and train teachers across the U.S. in the Japanese Language Education Assistant Program (J-LEAP) and currently serves on the executive board of AATJ as Immediate Past President. Over the years she has been a recipient of various awards, including the California Language Teachers Association Outstanding Teacher, Santa Clara County Teacher of the Year, and the California League of Middle Schools Teacher of the Year. She has served as College Board Advisor on the AP Japanese Language Development Committee and recently joined the advocacy team of the California Language Teachers Association.

 

Saturday, May 21

Multilingual Identity, Oral Narratives, and Mental Health:
Purposeful Incorporation of L1 or Proficient Language in Japanese Language Classrooms and Immersion Programs

Shinsuke Tsuchiya

(Brigham Young University)

Many language programs and teachers strive to follow ACTFL’s recommendation to use the target language for 90% or more of classroom time or use the target language exclusively in immersion programs. While this type of target-language-only policy may be effective in providing comprehension input and opportunities for learners to practice communicating in the target language, many language learners have difficulty acquiring discourse-level grammar without explicit instruction (Bourgerie 1996; Tsuchiya 2022). Moreover, the level of foreign language anxiety (Horwitz 1996) amplified by COVID uncertainties may present mental health challenges for many language learners and teachers in present-day language curriculums. Informed by studies concerning multilingualism and identities (Kanno, 2003; Cummins et al. 2003), the native speaker fallacy in East Asian language contexts (Doerr 2009; Tsuchiya 2016; 2020), the narrative structure and discourse-level features (Labov 1976; Tsuchiya 2022), and foreign language housing (Bown et al. 2011; Mori and Matsunaga 2017; Tsuchiya & Moody 2020), this talk will (1) discuss how language learners and teachers can take advantage of their identities as multilingual speakers, (2) model how to effectively elicit oral narrations based on textbook dialogues, and (3) discuss ways to address mental health in language classrooms and immersion programs.

Shinsuke Tsuchiya is an assistant professor of Japanese at Brigham Young University. He received his Ph.D. in Japanese pedagogy from The Ohio State University and is a practitioner of Performed Culture Approach (Walker and Noda 2010). He has taught Japanese for 15+ years at various settings including college, Missionary Training Center, study abroad, business, and hoshuukoo. His current research projects deal with L2 language teacher training, language immersion programs, and L2 narratives. He is a co-author of the NihonGO NOW! series (Noda et. al., 2020). He practices multilingual education at home by raising trilingual children in Japanese, English, and Chinese.

 

Sunday, May 22

Post-Covid Japanese Language Education: Thoughts on ”Connections” in the Classroom and Beyond(ポストコロナの日本語教育:教室内・外での「Connections」に関する考察)

Tomomi Takami

(President of American Association of Teachers of Japanese

University of Pennsylvania)

The unprecedented situation of the COVID-19 pandemic made us realize that the life we had taken for granted was not the case. Our Japanese language education underwent a significant transformation. It was an opportunity for us to think about what kind of education we should aim for amid such anxious and heartbreaking situations as discrimination and widening disparities.

In this lecture, I will first outline “connections” in the classroom instructions and outside the classroom while introducing my practice and the precedent study discussed in the field of Japanese language education.   In conclusion, I would like to discuss further the significance and possibilities of “connections” based on what we have learned from the COVID-19 situation and the prospects for the future. It is hoped that the discussion is relevant for conference participants and helps each individual reflect on their experience and think of their teaching in the future.

Tomoko Takami is the Director of the Japanese Language Program and a Senior Lecturer in Foreign Languages at the University of Pennsylvania. She holds an Ed.M. from Columbia University and an M.S. from the University of Pennsylvania. She received the 2019 Teacher Award from AATJ, and she currently serves as the AATJ President. Tomoko authored numerous publications on business language instruction, presented papers and keynote addresses, and led workshops on the topic. Her recent works include Powering Up Your Japanese Through Case Studies: Intermediate and Advanced Japanese (2014) and Language Education for Social Future: Critical Content-Based Instruction (2015; co-editor).