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The classroom as a social learning space

Naomi: In our last column in February, we defined a social learning space to be a place where students or learners can come together to learn with and from each other. If you think about a traditional university classroom in Japan, this might be an unfamiliar concept to students. How would you explain it to them or how would you implement it?

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Jim Ronald and Naomi Fujishima discuss Social Learning Spaces

Jim: Hello Naomi, long-time friend, long-time fellow LD-SIG member, with lots of shared or complementary interests in learner development and beyond… But in fact, we rarely get to speak about these things, do we? In fact, I think that we probably talk about food more than anything else! So I’m really looking forward to talking together about various language learning related matters over this year through Talking Points.

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Rachelle: Hi Kay! It’s been a while – as some of our readers may or may not know, I was away for most of the summer; however, I did really enjoy reading the interview you did with Damon and Damien about their website, languagecaster.com.

So a few months back we talked about our summer reading wish list, and I was able to read one of the books on my list, Drive, by Daniel H. Pink. How successful were you with your reading?

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An Interview with Damon Brewster (J.F. Oberlin University) and Damian Fitzpatrick (The Chinese University of Hong Kong)

Kay: Hi Damian and Damon. Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed about languagecaster.com, your Learning English through Football website which I mentioned in this column in August as an example of useful e-learning resources.

Before we get started, could you talk a bit about yourselves? You two share a lot in common. I know that both of you are from UK, your first names start with D and end with N, and you both love football (but only one of you really knows football). But what about your teaching experiences and current work? What about your research interests?

Damian, you previously lived and taught in Japan, then went back to the UK, and now you are in Hong Kong. What differences have you found (or are you finding) across these teaching contexts? Anything shared among university students learning English in these countries?

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Kay: Hi, Rachelle. How was your first semester? I hope you wrapped it up nicely. Now that school is out, it is the perfect time to talk about learning tools students can use on their own. Rachelle, I know you use a lot of online resources in class. What do you recommend to your students to support their learning and help them become more proactive learners? Would you like to share them with me and the readers?

Rachelle: Hi Kay. I can’t believe how fast the semester has flown by! As usual, I didn’t do half the things I wanted to in my classes, but that’s what the second semester is for, right?

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Kay: Hi Rachelle. The end of a busy semester is in sight now, and I’m very much looking forward to it. Although my summer is actually looking rather short but I have so many books left untouched on my shelf, and I’m hoping to read some of them while I’m on the break. So this is not a list of recommended books or review but my semi-professional summer reading list.

The first one is Exploring Japanese University English Teachers’ Professional Identity by Diane Hawley Nagatomo (2012). I’ve known about this book and have been interested in it for the obvious reason that I’m a Japanese university English teacher myself. In my work and research, I have been always focusing on learners. But in the past few years, I had a chance to read a few doctoral dissertations on teacher identity which prompted me to reflect on my own teacher identity. I’m curious to learn the stories of seven female professors and how they developed their teacher identity. So this one is really for my own personal and professional growth.

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