As noted in some of my previous blog posts, I’m conducting a longitudinal research project on second language (L2) teacher learning. The study is in its fifth year now and what was initially my doctorate examining the development of student teachers’ cognitions during a graduate course on pronunciation pedagogy has evolved into a more complex study that follows the long-term learning trajectories of five L2 teachers. As such, the project no longer focuses only on pronunciation instruction, but also explores aspects of professional identity formation, the impact of contextual factors on participants’ cognitions and practices, and the intricate relationship between the teachers’ careers and their personal lives. The study has generated several intriguing findings (which I'm in the process of writing up); at the same time, carrying out the project has allowed me to learn a great deal about doing longitudinal research. Here’s a brief overview of some of the insights I’ve gained in the last few years:

• Gaining the teachers’ trust is the first and most important step in conducting research on teacher learning
• Possessing good social/interpersonal skills is essential
• This type of research requires a high level of flexibility to accommodate teachers’ schedules
• Patience is paramount
• Visiting schools, video recording classrooms, and interviewing teachers is extremely time consuming and can be costly. Grant money and grant writing skills are useful assets
• Teacher attrition is real challenge for longitudinal researchers trying to follow teachers over a prolonged period of time
• Qualitative longitudinal research generates enormous amounts of data
• Substantial efforts and time are required to analyze and understand that data
• Familiarity with and triangulation of multiple research instruments is important to collect rich data
• Depending on the participants’ teaching contexts (e.g., teaching young learners), ethics applications are likely to be tedious
• Analyzing data while planning the next round of data collection is challenging
• Feeling completely overwhelmed at times is normal
• Discussing data with colleagues is a useful means to refine (and conceptualize) some of the findings
• The researcher needs to be ready for teachers to share personal information. This then involves a decision as to what extent and/or how that personal information is disseminated
• Writing up a longitudinal study in 6,000-8,500 words is difficult. The most effective way might be to focus on one particular aspect of the study or on one teacher participant

 
This is just a short list that I put together while waiting for a flight at Sydney airport. Please add any other points if you feel that I’ve missed something.

​I'm giving a talk at e-LINC, Kansai University, on December 7th (18:00-19:30). Info (in Japanese) is available on the Kansai University website at http://www.kansai-u.ac.jp/calendar/archives/2018/12/post_1731.html.
 
The title of my talk is Exploring the Long-term Trajectory of Learning to Teach English through the Lens of Innovative Pronunciation Pedagogy. Granted, this is a real mouthful but as the following abstract outlines, I’m basically presenting parts of my longitudinal research on L2 teacher learning:

In this session I will present research that I conducted on the longitudinal process of learning to teach English pronunciation. The five year study explored student teachers' perceptions of innovative pedagogy during a graduate course on pronunciation pedagogy, and then examined the participants' actual use of innovative pronunciation instruction during the beginning years of their teaching careers. The session concludes with a discussion about implications for L2 teachers and teacher educators.
 
If you're in the area and you feel like spending a Friday evening talking about research, head to Kansai University on December 7. It would be great to see you there! 

At the end of June, I had the privilege of traveling to Vietnam (with several colleagues from UOW) to attend the 2nd Mekong TESOL Conference. Prior to the conference, we were able to spend two days in Ho Chi Minh City, which is, without a doubt, one of the most vibrant and chaotic places I have ever been to. The traffic is relentless and the place never sleeps; yet, exploring the city was fun, and we made sure to include plenty of stops at local coffee shops (love the weasel coffee!). The conference committee then organized a coach for us to travel down to Can Tho where the conference was held. The 4-hour drive through the countryside was stunning, and  spending three days in Can Tho was exciting. I can’t remember the last time I ate that much food, including Pho at the floating market and several enormous lunches and dinners to which we were invited.
 
The conference, with its theme Think Globally, Act Locally, generated stimulating and interesting discussions. It was an ideal venue for local English teachers to explore a wide variety of relevant language teaching and research issues. The ~350 attendees provided some great networking opportunities, too. Unfortunately, the day after the conference I felt pretty crook. The timing was definitely not ideal, as I was scheduled to deliver an all-day workshop at Gaviet Language Center for Vietnamese English teachers on how to teach pronunciation to young learners. In spite of feeling a bit off, the workshop went well, and the participants seemed to enjoy the opportunity to learn about pronunciation instruction. The next day, five of us flew to Phu Quoc Island where we spent four relaxing days. We snorkeled, fished, and explored the island by car (we had a driver). The beaches, the night market, and the seafood were incredible, but the rapid resort development, the simple lifestyle in some of the local villages, and the ever-present garbage lying around were a bit of an eye-opening experience. It made my sore stomach and emerging toothache feel almost irrelevant.

Overall, the 11 days in Vietnam were an incredibly enriching experience. I learned a lot about this fascinating country and its friendly people. I’ll be back, for sure!

I’ve just returned to Australia after spending seven exciting weeks in Japan. Having gained extensive experience and further education since leaving my teaching job in Japan in 2003 has enabled me to observe English education/teaching in Japan somewhat differently and more critically. Having three children attend Japanese public school this year has also provided me with fascinating insights. These are not ground-breaking observations, and they are meant to be factual and not judgmental in nature:

• The English proficiency level of the general population is relatively low because English is treated as a subject in school and not as a means to communicate
• The desire for perfection prevents risk-taking and subsequently hinders L2 acquisition and fluency development
• The widespread testing washback continues to drive teaching and prevents learning English for communicative purposes
• The value of and partial emphasis on indirect communication in Japanese makes it challenging for Japanese students to communicate in English
• Technology continues to be virtually non-existent in many public school classrooms
• Educational reforms are more or less ineffective without adequate in-service teacher training

My 12-year old son is attending junior high school in Japan this year. Even though his first language is English, he is required to sit through all of the English language classes. My wife met with the school principal a few weeks ago to discuss an alternative option, but she was told that there was nothing that could be done. Initially, attending English class seemed to be a total waste of his time, but then I realized that this was in fact quite an interesting context. How often does a kid who is highly proficient in a language need to sit through a beginning level class while his classmates don’t speak the language at all? So, to explore my son's perspective on English teaching at a Japanese junior high school, I’m going to have weekly (5-10 minute) interviews with him. I’m really not sure where this little project is going, but here are a few interesting points he has mentioned so far:

• The Japanese teacher speaks English for the entire 50 minutes, except when she has to explain concepts that are unfamiliar to the children
• The teacher explains new English sounds (vowels and consonants) in relation to Japanese sounds. Flashcards, TPR-based activities, and songs are also used to introduce new sounds. Oral production of new sounds is mostly done through teacher-led drills and repetitions
• Teacher-made worksheets supplement the phonics textbook and the regular English textbook
• Students are asked to curl up their tongue to pronounce /r/ (if you’re interested in how this sound is really produced, you need to take my applied phonology course at UOW)

I may blog more about my son's experience in the near future. For now, if you’re interested in pedagogy at Japanese schools, consider reading this fascinating article written by Scott Johnston, a professor at Osaka Jogakuin University:
 
Johnston, S. (2002). A Japanese 3rd grade classroom: The individual within the group. Childhood Education, 78(6), 342-348.

I'm giving three talks with Amanda Baker at the upcoming TESOL Convention in Chicago, USA (March 27-30, 2018). Here are the session details, including presentation summaries:

Enhancing Learners' Pragmatic Competence Using a Haptic Approach
Thursday, March 29, 2018: 13:00-13:45 
E264 (McCormick Place, Lakeside Center, East) 

• This session provides training in using haptic (movement + touch) techniques to teach speech acts to ELLs. These techniques are used to foreground intonational features (pitch, volume, stress) that can be mapped haptically onto existing speech acts (e.g., apologies, requests) to develop learners’ pragmatic competence.

Pronunciation Teacher Education: Researching a Blended Online and On-Campus Design
Friday, March 30, 2018: 11:30-12:15 
N137 (McCormick Place, North Building) 

• This presentation explores the development of a blended delivery system for teaching L2 pronunciation pedagogy in a TESOL teacher education program. The impact of this system on graduate student learning for both on-campus and online-only students is analysed and implications for teacher education programs are discussed.

Learning to Teach English Pronunciation: From Student to Novice Teacher
Friday, March 30, 2018: 14:00-14:45 
N138 (McCormick Place, North Building) 

• Few studies have examined the connection between pronunciation teacher preparation and actual teaching practices. This session presents a longitudinal study exploring how the practices of novice instructors developed and how that development related to their graduate education. Following an overview of the findings, implications for language teacher education are discussed.

Last weekend, I was fortunate to attend and present at the annual ETAS (English Teaching Association Switzerland) conference in Zofingen. Below are a few brief thoughts about the event:

• Meeting several people I had connected with through Twitter was great
• Presenting at a European conference for the first time was a definite highlight
• The event had a pedaogogical focus with little research being presented (no surprise, given that this was a teaching conference)
• Scheduling fewer concurrent presentations might have improved session attendance
• The overall quality of the presentations was excellent with many of them providing great ideas that teachers can use in their classrooms
• The weather was authentically Swiss: wet and cold, with sleet, rain, and snow (in no particular order)......
• Lunches were free and good + the croissants and coffee in the morning a real treat
• Daniel Xerri’s plenary talk about teacher-based research was stimulating (and relevant to the study I'm planning to conduct next year)
  
• Zofingen was a good choice for a conference location as the town is conveniently located in the center of Switzerland
• Swiss trains are incredibly punctual.....Other than in Japan, I’ve never seen this type of punctuality anywhere else!

I’ve just returned from the Applied Linguistics Conference in Auckland (NZ) where I presented my latest research on learning to teach English pronunciation. Here are a few highlights and thoughts on the conference:

• Second language teacher cognition (SLTC) research is growing enormously. I attended several sessions on studies that draw on SLTC to examine learning and teaching
  
• The network area on the ground floor of the conference building was excellent, with posters presentations being right in that area too
• There was a good session balance between emerging (Phd students) and established scholars
• The plenaries were engaging and thought-provoking. I particularly enjoyed Chris Davison’s talk on assessment literacy
• Unlike other applied linguistics conferences I have attended, the applied part featured strongly with many of the sessions making explicit connections to the classroom
• Task-based teaching in Asia is omnipresent
• Several sessions provided interesting insights into the ongoing challenges and mismatches between government policies and practice
• The food was excellent
• Auckland is an incredibly multi-cultural city
• A trip to Rangitoto Island and up Auckland’s Skytower are both must-do’s to get a sense of the beauty of the city and its surrounding this area
• If you’re into running, Auckland is perfect for hill training (the area has more than 50 volcanoes)
• The many beautiful urban parks (with huge trees) provide plenty of space to relax
• Auckland’s vibrant craft beer scene was an awesome way to wind down after a full day of conferencing