Tuesday Onsite Presentation Session 1 Foreign Languages Education & Applied Linguistics

Session Chair: Chaochang Wang

09:30-09:55

68755 | Interrelationship Between Japanese EFL Learners’ Attitudes Toward Japanese Dialects and Japanese English

Arifumi Saito, Utsunomiya University, Japan

This study explores how Japanese EFL learners’ mindset toward their dialects in Japanese (L1) influences their attitudes toward Japanese English, a recognized variety of English from the viewpoint of EIL (English as an International Language). We aim to examine whether Japanese learners’ attitudes toward dialects in Japanese can be a criterion to judge who can accept and practice Japanese English positively. Fourteen participants (Japanese college students) were divided into two groups-Kansai (Western Japan) and Tohoku (Northeastern Japan)-based on the general idea that the Kansai dialect is popular while the Tohoku dialect is not. Students participated in a survey about their dialects, read two articles about English varieties, and wrote their ideas about Japanese English. All the students from Kansai (7) were favorable about their dialects and showed positive attitudes toward Japanese English.

On the other hand, more than half of the students from Tohoku showed an unfavorable mindset toward their dialects due to their low intelligibility in terms of accent and vocabulary. Although the tendency was not as consistent as those from Kansai, the students incline to show positive or negative attitudes toward Japanese English according to their mindset toward their dialects. After all, the result shows that both positive and negative interrelationships can be seen respectively. The findings suggest that the viewpoint can be a benchmark to acknowledge who would agree or disagree with the idea of English varieties and judge whether we should introduce the idea according to the learners’ attitudes toward Japanese English.

09:55-10:20

68018 | The Role of Students’ Linguistic Repertoires in Indonesian English Classrooms: Novice Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices

Risdaneva Risdaneva, Deakin University, Australia

The multilingual turn in English language teaching has led to a paradigm shift, from a monolingual bias towards plurilingual practices. The success of these depends on the interplay of multiple factors. Teachers play an important role in shaping this new paradigm through how they perceive their students’ linguistic repertoires as scaffolding their English language learning and how their perceptions of plurilingual realities inform their practices. The findings reported in this paper form part of my doctoral thesis, which investigates how novice teachers of English in Indonesian contexts navigate their early teaching experiences. My qualitative research project is framed by sociocultural theory and is approached through a single case study with four Indonesian novice teachers of English. The data were collected through initial semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and follow-up interviews. Based on the thematic analysis of the data, the findings indicate that the participants acknowledge the roles of students’ languages within their cultural and social contexts as mediational tools for student learning and as drivers for learner engagement. The implications drawn from these findings are two-fold: an identified need for language teacher education to prepare teachers who are reflective and aware of the potential of students’ linguistic repertoires to enhance English learning, and the need for novice teachers themselves to continue developing as plurilingual agents.

10:20-10:45

68983 | He can be from any Country in Europe: Thai University Students’ Concepts of an Ideal English Teacher

Luke Jobert Earl Vencer Comprendio, Prince of Songkla University, Thailand

Naratip Jindapitak,

Prince of Songkla University, Thailand

Existing research has demonstrated that students' ideas of an ideal English teacher are often influenced by stereotypes about native (NESTs) and non-native English teachers (NESTs) as well as implicit biases regarding race. The latter issue has not been sufficiently explored since most studies dealing with students’ preferences for English teachers are based on explicit elicitation, which may not adequately address racial constructs. Therefore, exploring the racial aspects of the students’ concepts of an ideal English teacher is crucial. In this study, a computer-based image elicitation technique was used to implicitly explore how Thai university students conceptualized an ideal English teacher. The participants (N=83) were instructed to create a 3D facial image of their ideal English teacher using Facegen Modeller and asked to provide a written description. Interviews were also used for illustration and clarification. Findings show that the majority of participants (N=59) chose Caucasian faces, with 19 Asian and 5 Black faces, with many explicitly preferring their ideal English teachers to be a NEST or a Westerner. Analyzed descriptions show five attributes embodying the participants’ conceptions of an ideal English teacher: race, personality, pedagogical quality, linguistic competence, and physical appearance. This study suggests that, although race is not generally accepted in applied linguistics as a reliable criterion for determining a qualified English teacher, in this study, whiteness or nativeness is a crucial component of the idealized English teacher, whether implicitly or explicitly. The study calls for a need to raise students’ awareness of racial bias in English language education.

10:45-11:10

69147 | The Roles of Sociocultural Influences, Learner Attitudes and Learner Engagement in EMI Effects at the Tertiary Level

Chaochang

Wang, Ming Chuan University, Taiwan

The use of English as the medium of instruction (EMI) has become a fast-growing trend in education. However, research results on the effects of EMI on English learning and content learning are inconclusive. Depending on the context in which an EMI program is provided, the effects of EMI can be influenced by factors that are both external to the students and internal to the students. In EMI contexts, only a few studies have been published on socio-contextual influences and learner engagement and almost none on their contributions to EMI learning, including both Englishlanguage development and content learning, with the former defined in Wang (2021) as willingness to communicate (WTC), WTC behavior (WTCB), self-perceived communicative competence (SPCC), and perceived gains in English proficiency. Therefore, the study (1) examined the influences of the socio-contextual level and the individual level (learner attitude and engagement) on EMI learning and (2) established a structural equation model (SEM) to explain the interrelationship of socio-contextual factors, learner engagement, and perceived EMI effects on content learning and English development. The participants comprised 300 junior and senior students studying at 2 different universities in Taiwan offering well-known EMI programs. The study was designed to employ quantitative methods with questionnaire scales for data collection together with inferential statistics and SEM for data analysis. Results show university context and teacher support as well as learner attitude and engagement played important roles in EMI effects. The results have important implications for EMI education, particularly for EMI teachers and decision makers.