2021 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 / Critical literacy / Creative writing / Story editing / Translation / Text simplification / Extensive Reading |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
During the second year, surveys and reflections of all members of the Community Literacy Activist (CLA) team were collected. These were analyzed to determine roles and skill objectives that could be mutually identified by all members of the team. There were four overarching objectives: language ownership, ability to modify language levels in L1/L2, Inclusive facilitation skills, and Intercultural communication. Additionally, a formal definition of Community Literacy Activism as it relates to Citizen Science was drafted. These developments were presented at the Asia Pacific University (APU) Journal of Applied Linguistics 3rd annual symposium (May, 2021), and a presentation at the Association Internationale de Linguistique Applique (AILA) in August, 2021. These preliminary findings were published in an invited report in the Argentinian Journal of Applied Linguistics (Sevigny, Manabe, S. Shankar, & Lim, 2021). A book chapter ‘Revising role-based literature circles in EFL classrooms’ also came out in the book ‘Pedagogical Stylistics in the 21st Century (January, 2022). Additionally, quasi-focus groups for the first three bilingual stories were completed as school-wide, bilingual book club events. Post-event reflection focus groups were recorded. In the fall of 2021, the CLA team launched our official website: studioCLA.org. This website is an Open Educational Resource (OER) that provides public access to our stories, faculty network, and research output.
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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
During AY2021, two more stories were completed. These were the Malaysia focused story and the Philippine focused story. The Malaysian author simplified her 9,000 word version to 5,000 words, and then again to 3,750 words. Editors used online grading tools for the revisions. The fourth story was being written from scratch by a Filipino student leader. The change in approach was necessary due to the cancellation of multicultural weeks in the COVID-19 pandemic. The Philippine story was developed through multiple drafts during AY2021, the author meeting with multiple CLA members and the PI. Writing from scratch allowed for a first draft of 5,000 words. At the same time, early drafts of the fifth story (Sri Lanka focus) were also completed. Additionally, a sixth story author was found to write a Japan-focused story from scratch in Japanese, reversing the translation direction. The pandemic pushed all CLA activities onto Zoom and online formats. All meetings, collaborative work, presentations, and events were held in the Zoom format. In AY2021 the CLA team completed author read alouds to support further refinements to previous drafts. Additionally, trials of Japanese translations with CLA allowed comparison of the English and Japanese versions of the first three stories. In the fall semester, public, bilingual book club events were held for the first three stories. These events were invaluable for reckoning with various factors: English and Japanese grading of texts, expectations for participants, facilitators, administrators, and the approach to scaffolding these discussions.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
During AY2022, the last two stories will be completed. The Sri Lanka story will be completed in English first, while the Japan story will be completed in Japanese first. The stories will be translated in opposite directions. In the spring semester, pilot bilingual book club discussions will be held for the Philippine story and the Japan story on Zoom. Illustrators, new translators, and team managers will be hired to take the project through the last year. Authors are developing illustration plans for their stories and will meet with assigned illustrators. Additionally, a final book formatting team is being assembled to manage the final print design for three versions of the anthology: English only, Japanese only, and the interlinear, bilingual version. These books will be available in a print on demand format. Individual stories will be available free on our website. The first bilingual exchange class pilots will be held in the spring of 2022 between pre-advanced English and Japanese classes. These bilingual lessons will pilot the newly developed discussion systems that developed in the quasi-focus bilingual book club events. The new approach to literary discussion will be presented at at least three conferences during the year and a manuscript describing the new discussion system will be submitted for publication to a high impact journal. By the end of AY2022, the anthology and new teaching manual for bilingual literature circles will be completed.
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| Causes of Carryover |
The pandemic caused a shift in needs for funds. Travel and conferences were all online, but some will be face-to-face this year, so we would like the unused funds from the past years transferred so we can participate in-person. The team would like to travel to Fukuoka for the JALT international conference to demonstrate the methodology and tools to others. In AY2022, qualitative research software is needed to analyze themes in video, audio, and transcripts collected so far. Hiring illustrators, a text and print finalization team, and developing the website to a higher level will be necessary. Publishing the final versions will require additional publishing software and training. The authors' expectations of illustration quality is also greater than I anticipated in the initial application.
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Research Products
(4 results)
