2019 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Developing a CEFR-informed Mediation scheme (CEFR-MSfAW) for academic writing (composition) in World Englishes
| Project/Area Number |
19K00808
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| Research Institution | Chukyo University |
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Principal Investigator |
Imig Alexander 中京大学, 国際教養学部, 准教授 (50511143)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
ダンジェロ J・F 中京大学, 国際英語学部, 教授 (70340180)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
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| Keywords | Mediation / CEFR / (text) composition / (cultural) Semantics / Strategies / World Englishes / English education |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
Although research achievements are often used for publicly visible achievements (e.g. publications), the achievements after the first year of research are still modest. But with the acquired (new) version of MAXQDA an in depth analysis of bigger texts quantities is possible. During the writing process textual mentors are giving feedback to the producers of the respective texts. But it is very difficult to store so many information and giving textual feedback is the purpose to support the creation of better texts. But the creation of (semi-)grounded theory for the purpose of a strategy inventory is different. Here are generalized concepts required, but on an empirical basis. And this basis is growing in the program, which is in general the development of a coding scheme, in the moment following 3 different trajectories: textual organization, personal value statements and cultural metaphors. Using word clouds (also known from blogs in the internet) yields the unsurprising result that in the top 25 of all documents the concepts Japan (rank 15), English (rank 17) or Japanese (rank 22) are in top positions. More sophisticated are course concepts like “regional revitalization” (the student’s translation of Japanese term of 地方創生) can be used for the abduction of patterns.
It will be difficult to convince people not believing in cultural concepts, in the existence of these very concepts. However, for giving strategies (CEFR-based) in the art of creating more skillful essays this research could be used in the end.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
Thinking at the concept "big data" one might think at a few data from a lot of different persons, but also a lot of data from a few persons is "big data", because in the ongoing research the process of text production is central. The academic year 2019 showed 14 different text versions, from 15 students, which means 210 different versions (excluded additional documents like e.g. research-schemes of the students as power point documents). The research started at 2018 (for the application), therefore there a now approximately 800 documents to be searched for mediation keywords. This can only done by software, which orders and combines different but similar concepts. For this purpose the software MAXQDA is used. The familiarization-process with the complex software is still ongoing. The plan was to present the research and initial findings at AILA 2020 in the Netherlands. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic the conference is postponed to the year 2021. Now the whole teaching switched to online teaching, which also means that also data from the instruction process can be collected, which would create an opportunity to even more comprehensive set of data for negotiation of meaning and its related concepts.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
Basically the compiling and analysis of the texts will be continued as planned. But the dissemination of results will be different. It is likely that the Covid-19 pandemic will continue and therefore not so many presentations will be possible. Academic articles will not be affected, but highly specialist audience like in AILA and the linguistic deliberations are also very important and (more and more online) presentations will be also important in the future. The online trend will also result in more online solutions for applied linguistics. Therefore the strategy inventory CEFR-informed mediation should be placed online, a solution which was also possible before, but should be given more priority. Another aspect additional audio and video data. Using not only written data, but also additional video and audio data creates more interest for writing centers (and language centers). In the ongoing project only the possibility of additional audio and video data should be explored a comprehensive exploration seems to be too big for this project.
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| Causes of Carryover |
While the Covid-19 Pandemic was effecting our research not in the year 2019, the year 2020 will have to be planned differently. Also the research opportunity of online classes should be used, but will need a shift in the budget.
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Research Products
(6 results)
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[Journal Article] Forword2019
Author(s)
D`Angelo, James
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Journal Title
Konakahara, M. & K. Tsuchiya, English as a Lingua Franca in Japan. Bern: Palgrave Macmillan
Volume: 1
Pages: V-X
Int'l Joint Research
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