Closing Ceremony #1501

Sun, May 16, 15:15-17:00 JST | Webinar

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PanSIG 2021 Panel Discussion

The panel discussion at PanSIG 2021 aims to address the conference theme in relation to foreign language education in Japan. We invited four experts who are teaching and researching in Japan to contribute and discuss this issue from their perspective of research, practice and experience. PanSIG 2021 Panel discussion invited guest speakers are: Fumiko Kurihara (Chuo University), Tomokazu Ishikawa (Tamagawa University), Paula Martinez-Sires (Nihon University), Alexandra Shaitan (JALT Bilingual SIG). Interlocutor/moderator: Mehrasa Alizadeh (Osaka University).

In Japan the insular attitude to one culture one language is often stressed yet Japan has quite a diversity throughout its regions. Japan is an international oriented country, globally connected, with the Japanese passport most valuable to travelling to 193 countries (Japan Times April 16th, 2021). There had been efforts by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Technology Japan (MEXT) to internationalize, globalize its educational system, yet there are still pitfalls regarding the level of foreign language proficiency mostly related to English (MEXT uses foreign languages but this is understood often as English (American English)). At the same time Japanese as a foreign language had been getting more attention, English only programs established to attract students from other countries, foreign scholars were invited teaching Japanese culture, history etc. The integration of a needed workforce from other countries (mostly from Asian countries, South-America) is acknowledged more and more as a demanding task, Japan becoming a tourist spot with more than 30 Million visitors in 2019. This is reflected in the research and topics of many studies and conferences. Namely, JACTFL (Japan Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, 日本外国語教育推進機構) is putting the plurilingual (複言語) and multilingual (多言語) language education in the center of its agenda, backed by the Japan Association of Language Policy (JALP). PanSIG 2021 is a conference organized by JALT Special Interest Groups (SIGs) and this theme was chosen to shed light on JALT as the Japan Association for Language Teaching having many SIGs with topics related to the plurilingual individuum and the multilingual environment (society, classroom), teaching language and languages: Other Language Educators SIG, Bilingual SIG, Global Issues in Language Education SIG, CEFR & LP SIG, Intercultural Communication in Language Education SIG, Learner Development SIG, Teacher Helping Teachers SIG, Japanese as a Second Language SIG, Teaching Young Learners SIG, Study Abroad SIG and more.

Fumiko Kurihara

Chuo University

Fumiko Kurihara holds a MA from Georgetown University and a PhD from International Christian University. She has taught English for more than 20 years in Japan. She also teaches intercultural communication to business-major students at Chuo University. She has edited Government-authorized English textbooks for high school students over 5 years. Her research interests are intercultural approaches to language teaching and material development for intercultural language learning.

Tomokazu Ishikawa

Tamagawa University

Tomokazu Ishikawa is an Assistant Professor at Tamagawa University’s Center for English as a Lingua Franca (CELF) and a postdoctoral member at the University of Southampton’s Centre for Global Englishes (CGE). He has published on ELF, mainly in relation to multilingualism, translanguaging, language attitudes and ideologies, ELT, and EMI. He is a co-author (with Will Baker) of 'Transcultural communication through Global Englishes: An advanced textbook for students' (June 2021, Routledge).

Paula Martínez-Sirés

I’m an Assistant Professor in the Department of International Liberal Arts at Nihon University College of International Relations, where I teach Japanese and English-content classes. My research interests include literary translation, Japanese women writers and translators, and the study of paratexts and cultural referents in translation.

Shaitan Alexandra

Birkbeck College, University of London

Alexandra Shaitan is a Doctoral student at Birkbeck, University of London investigating mixed-race identity in the context of Japan. She has previously published in ‘Mixed Race in Asia” book published by Routledge in 2017. Her co-authored paper “Haafu Identity in Japan: half, mixed or double?” looked at how discourses around mixedness affect the image of Japan as a homogeneous and/or monoethnic race/society.

Mehrasa Alizadeh

Osaka University

Mehrasa Alizadeh is an assistant professor at the Cybermedia Center, Osaka University. She conducts collaborative research on the use of multimodal learning analytics to support learners in face-to-face and remote learning settings. She is interested in immersive learning and virtual reality for language education. alizadeh.mehrasa@lab.ime.cmc.osaka-u.ac.jp

Maria Gabriela Schmidt

Nihon University College of Humanities and Sciences

Sessions / Local and Global Perspectives: Plurilingualism and Multilingualism - Trends and Needs / Closing Ceremony #1501

Sessions /
Local and Global Perspectives: Plurilingualism and Multilingualism - Trends and Needs / Closing Ceremony #1501