2020 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Developing Bilingual Short Stories and Community Literacy Activists
| Project/Area Number |
20K13154
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| Research Institution | Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University |
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Principal Investigator |
SEVIGNY Paul 立命館アジア太平洋大学, 言語教育センター, 准教授 (00611443)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
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| Keywords | bilingual graded reader / Short story / Creative writing / Story editing / Translation / Text simplification / Extensive Reading |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The first-year goal to produce two bilingual graded readers and specify major processes and job descriptions has been completed. The following roles were developed within the Community Literacy Activist (CLA) program: story writer, translator, manager, editor, outreach and copyright advisor, discussion method researcher, and illustrator. Ten student workers were hired and worked to develop these roles. In the first year, outreach and story acquisition procedures resulted in stories/authors being brought in: Vietnam-Week, Indonesian-Week, and Malaysian Week. First story versions were approximately 9,000 word interpretations of the original Multicultural Week Grand Shows. Getting to these first drafts required story team meetings for reinterpreting stage productions to narrative. An existing short story was translated for practice. A Japanese teacher provided translators with tools for determining difficulty level. Additionally, negotiations determined that the target level for the stories should be the upper-intermediate/ pre-advanced in English/ Japanese at Ritsumeikan APU with stories aimed for 3,500 words and 8,000 characters. At this point, authors and peer mentors were trained in concepts regarding text and narrative simplification. Revisions took modeling by editors and time for authors with further consultations. Currently, the Vietnam and Indonesian-Week stories are on set for focus group feedback with learners in English and Japanese starting in June of 2021. Considering the setbacks due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the program is on schedule overall.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
In April of 2020, the first semester of the COVID-19 pandemic emergency remote teaching had begun. Thus, the first obstacles for this research emerged: discussion would have to change from face-to-face to online synchronous discussion through video-conferencing systems. The second obstacle was that all multicultural week grand shows were cancelled for the coming academic year. A provisional online system was designed for moving literature circles online. Three stories and authors were secured to write from existing shows. Besides changing the discussion and meeting format online, due to the extinction of show scripts during the pandemic, a revision to the initial plan has been adopted. The remainder of the student written stories will be written and developed directly as short stories to support Culture Week teams for post-pandemic performances in which these stories can form a basis for developing Grand Show performances. This is the opposite order for the initial three stories. One final obstacle has been managing the timing of translation needs with the availability of translators.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
Completing two more stories in year two will mean completing the Malaysian-Week story and one other. The Malaysian-Week story is almost complete in English. First, we need to hire new translators, illustrators, and at least one more story author. Two more stories have already been acquired at the start of year two: A Sri Lankan and Filipino story. The former story was first a Grand Show, but will need significant revisions as a narrative. The latter is being authored directly as a short story by a leader of the Filipino student society and will help their community develop their grand show performance. This year we will pilot the Vietnam, Indonesian, and Malaysian week stories in focus groups, make revisions and specify illustration plans. Focus groups will run in English and Japanese. Meanwhile we will develop bilingual discussion systems for exchange classes and a learning center. It is also possible that the first exchange class discussions will lead to more story revisions toward the end of the 2021 academic year, but this will lead into the third year for finalizing texts and for developing more refined discussion systems, hopefully in a more clearly post-pandemic world. Finally, we will make a more specific plan for how the stories will be published in order to prepare for the final text design to be completed in year three. Equipment needed will include iPads with illustration and design software, a scanner for collecting focus group data from paper to digital format, and we will use transcription services to change discussion recordings to text.
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| Causes of Carryover |
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, there were severe limitations on travel and thus we would like to postpone travel and presentations to the second and third year. Conferences were either cancelled or moved online, and the fees for those conferences that were run were at a reduced cost due to the emergency remote formats that were uncertain.
I originally estimated 750,000 yen for student wages, but that number is actually lower than what is needed to complete the project. Thus, some of the remainder will help to cover student wages. Also, to complete the illustrations for the stories, I would like to purchase iPads and Pro-create illustrating software. We will also need publishing software and we will be doing data transcription this year.
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Research Products
(4 results)
