Unlike conventional distance learning, the COVID-19-induced emergency online learning environment has resulted in students experiencing prolonged social isolation and anxiety, thereby creating additional barriers to their motivation to learn. Studying under these conditions influences students' motivation to complete and turn in course-related…

This study presents a case study of academic discourse socialization in a Japanese EFL student in a research seminar course to understand the content of a scholarly book in English. Drawn on theoretical perspectives of language socialization and community of practice, an 8-month case study investigated how the participant was socialized into the…

This study investigated, by means of an ethnographic approach, what exactly occurs when Japanese novice writers are socialized into the undergraduate thesis genre and how the processes differ among disciplines. Data were collected from 10 undergraduate students enrolled in various humanities disciplines at two Japanese universities. The study…

Educational systems endemic of demotivation might signify a stagnating rather than nurturing ecology of learning, due in part to an obstruction in the loops of shared information between the organisms within these systems, i.e., teachers, educational researchers, teacher educators, school administrators, and educational policymakers. Working…

Language policies in Japan have been mainly discussed in the context of national provisions and regulations regarding the Japanese language, or foreign language education. This paper examines the possible emergence of a new national language policy, embedded in a bilateral economic partnership agreement (EPA) signed between Japan and Southeast…

Much of the research on assessing and comparing teacher education has focused on schools of education in westernized contexts. While teacher training programs in East Asia have received comparatively less attention than those in North America, Europe, and Australia, they may also offer practical insight through their similarities and differences.…

The seeming dearth of computer literacy skills amongst Japanese university students has caused much academic interest recently (see for example Lockley, "JALT CALL J," 7(1):93-103, 2011a; Williams, "Stud Humanit Cult," 14:78-91, 2011; Taynton, "Teach English Technol," 12(1):3-19, 2012). One thing all these studies…