A Pilot Study of Emotions of Writing in L2: Unpacking the Felt Sense of an EFL Writer

This study explores one EFL writer’s emotional aspects towards writing in second language (L2) through verbalizing her felt sense using the Thinking at the Edge (TAE) approach. Data collected include the participant’s autobiography of learning English, TAE-based reflective worksheets, and an individual interview. To analyze the data, thematic analysis (Boyatzis, 1998) in a qualitative method was employed. The findings reveal that the participant showed difficulty in expressing herself clearly in English and remained apprehensive about using English words and expressions properly. However, she realized the importance of English writing, which has promoted her creating a sense of confidence and writing proficiency. This study indicates that the findings obtained by the TAE approach will enhance the importance of seeking learners’ psychological engagement with writing in L2 in a qualitative manner

Implications of the Course of Study Reforms on English Language Teaching in Japanese Secondary Schools: Toward Teaching English as an International Language

Many universities in Japan have been offering the teaching certificate programs to train highly qualified teachers. Even though graduate schools have set up programs for more disciplinary courses for English language teaching (ELT), few have been developed at the undergraduate school level. Thus, pre-service English teachers can only learn about ELT pedagogical issues in English Teaching Methodology courses. Moreover, ELT in Japan still adheres to a principle of English speakers’ norms and aims for native speakers of English for communication partners. Since English has become an international language or a lingua franca in the globalized society, prospective English teachers must recognize the growing importance of English language variations to teach English as an international language. This paper focuses primarily on pedagogical issues to teach in English methodology classes in accordance with the future reforms of the teaching-training program. To do this, discussions include revision of the Communicative Language Teaching approaches and application of World Englishes into ELT at the secondary school level

Suggestions for the Teaching of Writing: From Students’ Reflective Narratives of English Writing

Narratives have emerged in the area of second language (L2) writing and have played a key role as a proper research method. Reflective narratives have identified significant benefits by analyzing the writer’s experiences and insider perspectives in depth. Furthermore, stories shared by writers have validity in enriching their understanding further about personal realities and unraveling interpretive accounts with a critical eye. However, few studies demonstrate the findings of writing problems that students encounter and offer suggestions for teaching writing based on students’ experiences and practices of writing in English utilizing their detailed reflective narratives, especially in EFL contexts. This study focuses mainly on broadening possibilities for writing approaches suitable for teaching contexts as teacher development. The data analysis employed the categorization of 15 Japanese EFL undergraduates’ reflective narratives in three phases: the careful reading of all sentences in their reflective accounts of writing in English, the development of a temporary coding system, and the evaluation of the reliability of the coding system. The research findings show that the participants referred to the further importance of written structures (e.g., topic sentences and thesis statements), reader awareness for English writing at the university level, and joint work in the writing classroom. Suggestions for teaching writing are discussed in conforming to the findings of the students’ reflective narratives

Emotional Studies of Second Language Writing: Focusing and TAE Methods

Emotions regarding second language (L2) writing have been examined using qualitative methods. Current research has explored how L2 learners present emotions about experiences and specific events through writing using qualitative approaches. However, such investigations have only explored the learners’ emotions through the lens of the textual level. Emotions involve complex feelings and sense, and equally, the writers have unspeakable feelings. To better understand the feelings that can be difficult to articulate, the Focusing (Gendlin, 1978) and Thinking At the Edge (TAE) (Gendlin & Hendricks, 2004) methods can be applied to emotional studies of L2 writing as an innovative tool. This paper focuses primarily on emotional studies of L2 writers. It reviews the author’s pilot study of Japanese EFL (English as a foreign language) writers, and their felt sense of writing in English employing TAE methods. Finally, this paper provides research implications for emotions in L2 writing

Constructing Writer Identities in a Japanese EFL Setting

This paper explores how Japanese English language learners construct their writer identities as college students. Specifically, this study examines the autobiographical narratives of five college-level English language learners, describing their activities and experiences of writing classes in high school and college. This present study shows that the participants have constructed their writer identities, negotiating their past and present practices of writing in school. Finally, this paper discusses implications for teaching writing in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) settings in Japanese higher education