Students’ Narrative Journeys in Learning Communities: Mapping Landscapes of Practice: Positive Pedagogical Praxis

The Positive Pedagogical Praxis Series

The Positive Pedagogical Praxis Series is edited by Tim Murphey and focuses on practical activities, procedures and principles that can create more profound learning in a variety of ways. The books are written in a teacher-friendly style and seek to provide teachers with ways to implement profound ideas into their classrooms. The books could be used for in-service training, professional development workshops and teacher-development.

https://www.candlinandmynard.com/ppp.html

Titles in the series

Learner-Controlled Tasks for the Autonomy Classroom: A Teacher’s Resource Book by Christian Ludwig and Lawrie Moore-Walter [LINK]

Voicing Learning by Tim Murphey [LINK]

ConversationStrategies and Communicative Competence by Christian Jones [LINK]

The Big Beasts of English Grammar: An Exploration of Form and Function in Conversations by Christian Jones and Graham Burton [LINK]

Students’ Narrative Journeys in Learning Communities: Mapping Landscapes of Practice by Daniel Hooper [LINK]

Praise for this book

Daniel Hooper’s work is a compelling and compassionate exploration of self-access learning communities in Japanese English education. His detailed analysis and storytelling bring the personal journeys of students to life—making this an invaluable resource for educators and researchers alike. With practical implications and heartfelt student narratives, Hooper encourages us to reconsider how we support learners through transitions. This book is a must-read for those passionate about learner autonomy and transformative educational spaces.

Takaaki Hiratsuka, Ryukoku University, Kyoto, Japan

As an avowed ‘pracademic,’ Hooper presents us with a highly accessible text which will offer much to both teachers and researchers. In his presentation of students’ engagement with self-access learning spaces, and the active and transformative role these students play in making these spaces autonomous safehouses for language learners, Hooper’s book reminds us of the importance of listening to and learning from our students.

Robert J. Lowe, Ochanomizu University, Tokyo, Japan

This engaging and eminently readable monograph foregrounds the narrative journeys of three Japanese learners of English as they construct and finetune a localized university community in which they can use and learn English autonomously. Unearthing the often-conflicting beliefs and reframings of these people in light of their past experiences, local constraints and affordances, and memberships of different social groups, Hooper’s work will be of interest to anyone hoping to support learners’ autonomy as they transition between different educational and life contexts.

Richard Sampson, Chuo University, Tokyo, Japan

Acknowledgements

First and foremost, I would like to thank the stars of this book, Kei, Sara, and Tenka (pseudonyms). I was privileged to be able to learn about their hopes, fears, difficulties, and triumphs. I deeply respect them all and I thank them from the bottom of my heart for the trust they put in me by agreeing to share their stories.

I also owe a great deal to my own community of practitioner-researchers who were a constant source of knowledge, encouragement, inspiration, and wisdom. I cannot hope to include everyone, but I wish to acknowledge the powerful impact of these people on my development as an educator and academic: Phillip Bennett, Soyhan Egitim, John Fanselow, Andy Gill, Chris Carl Hale, Natasha Hashimoto, Diane Hawley Nagatomo, Takaaki Hiratsuka, Azusa Iijima, Yuri Imamura, Noriko Ishihara, Daniel Jackson, Satoko Kato, Masaki Kobayashi, Ryuko Kubota, Luke Lawrence, Todd Leroux, Robert Lowe, Phoebe Lyon, Ewen MacDonald, Sam Morris, Tim Murphey, Garold Murray, Jo Mynard, Yuki Namiki, Jacob Reed, Lorraine Reinbold, Hayo Reinders, Jennie Roloff Rothman, Richard Sampson, Ross Sampson, Kazuyoshi Sato, Yasushi Sekiya, Bill Snyder, Clair Taylor, Katherine Thornton, Satoko Watkins, and Kie Yamamoto.

Special thanks go to Tim Murphey and Jo Mynard for supporting me both academically and emotionally while also guiding me in shaping this book into something of value for practitioners and researchers alike.

Finally, my deepest thanks to my family in Cornwall (Joy, Rob, Pete, Tristan, Katie, and Theo) for always being there for me and to my family in Japan (Keiko, Hiroshi, and Ayame) for accepting and looking after me. Above all, thank you to Mayu, Hayato, and Takuma – my team. Without you, I would have achieved nothing. I love you all.

About the Author

Daniel Hooper is an Associate Professor in the Department of English Communication at Tokyo Kasei University, where he teaches courses on English, education, and learner autonomy. He has also been actively involved in the establishment and management of self-access learning centers in two different universities. He holds an MA TESOL from Kanda University of International Studies and a PhD in English Language Studies and English Language Pedagogy from Nagoya University of Foreign Studies. He has lived in Japan for almost twenty years and during that time has taught all ages of students, from kindergarten to retirees, in both public and private educational sectors. He is also currently an instructor in the MA TESOL program at Nagoya University of Foreign Studies where he teaches a course on Sociocultural Theory.

His main research interests include self-access language learning, near-peer role modeling, student leadership, learner identity, learner and teacher wellbeing, and democratic teaching approaches. He is also a keen learner of Japanese and enjoys sharing and listening to stories about the ups and downs of language learning with his students.

Glossary of Key Terms

akogare (憧れ)

According to Goo Jisho (https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp), akogare is a feeling of being strongly drawn to something as an ideal (translation mine). Nonaka (2018) expands on this definition by adding that akogare is particularly a feeling of something being just out of one’s grasp - an ideal that is tantalizingly out of reach (p. 4).

eigo (英語)

Translated into English simply as English. This commonly refers to academic English primarily learned for taking standardized tests rather than as a communicative tool. Classes focusing on eigo generally center around comprehension and memorization of grammatical structures and vocabulary.

eikaiwa (英会話)

Literally translated as English conversation and understood by most people as English for communication. Developing oral English proficiency is the primary goal of eikaiwa-oriented classes. Eikaiwa classes often feature an English-only approach and are predominantly taught by non-Japanese teachers.

eikaiwa gakkou (英会話学校)

Private extracurricular English conversation schools

ibasho (居場所)

Place to be or place to belong

ikoku (異国)

Foreign country   

jouge kankei (上下関係) 

The hierarchical system underpinning senpai/kōhai relationships in Japan. This system defines (senior and junior) relationships in Japanese society based on social status or age (Wang, 2020).

keigo (敬語)

Honorific language in Japanese

kōhai (後輩)

Translated as the companion that is behind (Rohlen, 1991, p. 21) - the kōhai is the junior in a jouge kankei relationship. In exchange for respectful deference to their senpai (seniors), kōhai are given knowledge and socialized into group practices.

ryuugakusei (留学生)

International exchange students

senpai  (先輩)

A senior figure within a jouge kankei relationship. A helpful definition provided by Rohlen (1991) is a person who proceeds or leads, with the implication that those that follow are his or her companions in the same pursuit, career, or institution (p. 21).

yakudoku (訳読)

Literally translated as translate and read, this is a local form of grammar-translation teaching that has been widely used in Japanese English education for just over a century (Noda & O’Regan, 2019).

Abbreviations

ALL Advising in Language Learning

ALT Assistant Language Teacher

CoP Community of Practice

EFL English as a Foreign Language

ELT English Language Teaching

IRD Intentional Reflective Dialogue

L1 First Language

L2 Second Language

LG The Learning Group (a learning community and the focus of this book)

LoP Landscape of Practice

NPRM Near-Peer Role Model

SALC Self-Access Learning Center

SLA Second Language Acquisition

SLC Student-Led Learning Community

SLS Social Learning Space

TESOL Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

Foreword

Garold Murray

Who doesn’t love a good story? From one of the first forms of narrative we experience as a child—fairy tales—to one that summarizes the life we have lived—obituaries—stories are a pervasive and, indeed, an essential aspect of our daily lives. Stories entertain, inform, instruct and transmit much of our cultural heritage. Through the various modes of narrative, we not only learn about other people and our world, but also about ourselves. Cognitive psychologist Jerome Bruner has argued that Self is the product of stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. According to Bruner, narrative plays a crucial role in identity construction: we make sense of our lives through narrative. Therefore, what better way to understand the impact of an event, a construct or a relationship on an individual’s life, or sense of self, than to ask them to narrate how they experienced the phenomenon?

While stories undeniably play a key role in our lives, what is not always clear is how collecting stories can be considered research. In other words, how can stories be a basis for academic inquiry? Stories can serve as research data when they are analyzed from the perspective of a body of literature, and this process yields insights that can inform practice, theory building and further inquiry.

Daniel Hooper’s insightful book, Students’ Narrative Journeys in Learning Communities: Mapping Landscapes of Practice, provides an outstanding example of this process. In order to appreciate any story, we need information about the background and the setting. Understanding this, Daniel begins by explaining the dichotomy that characterizes English foreign language education in Japan, the divide between the traditional grammar-translation methods and the more recent advent of communicative approaches. He then describes the social learning space and the learning community within it, which lie at the heart of his study and around which the stories turn. Having set the scene, Daniel outlines the theoretical framework through which the stories that follow will be analyzed. The insights gleaned from his careful analysis of the individual stories, as well as a cross-story analysis, serve as the basis for chapters that examine not only the pedagogical implications for self-access centres as social learning spaces but also language classrooms. In addition to being of interest to self-access centre workers and classroom teachers, this book offers support to researchers new to narrative inquiry by providing a template to guide their investigations regardless of geographical location or learning context.

This book is not only insightful; it is also timely. It appears at a time when self-access language learning is flourishing in Japan—and other parts of the world—as more and more institutions of higher learning are recognizing the importance of learner autonomy and self-direction both inside and outside the classroom. Along with the expanding development of self-access language learning centres comes the need for a greater understanding of the learning possibilities they offer and the impact these opportunities might have on students’ language proficiency, their language classroom engagement, and their lives. Daniel’s book provides both inspiration and encouragement to educators interested in pursuing these lines of inquiry.

Like many of the readers to whom this book will appeal, Daniel is well-positioned to carry out this research. He has spent nearly two decades teaching English as a foreign language, and during seven of these years, he has worked in self-access centres. He has taken a leadership role in establishing two centres and supported the academic community through his engagement with the Japan Association for Self-Access Learning. It was through his involvement with this organization that I became acquainted with Daniel and gained an appreciation of his work. Over the years, Daniel has been a keen advocate for learner autonomy in and beyond the classroom and for student-driven initiatives in learning centres. In my opinion, there is a need for more research from educators like Daniel, who have first-hand experience meeting students’ needs in these facilities on a daily basis.

In the final analysis, this is a book about change. The author calls for change: change that overcomes the divide between the traditional ways of teaching English in Japan, i.e., the grammar-translation method, and the communicative approaches favoured by non-Japanese teachers; and change that offers support to learners as they transition from one of these educational environments to the other. He entreats educators to empower students so that they might actively participate in affecting these changes. The book exudes optimism for the future of English language education in Japan as Daniel and like-minded educators continue to work with learners as partners in their learning, apply what they learn from their students, and document these experiences so that other educators, researchers and, ultimately, learners—no matter where they are in the world—might benefit vicariously.

Chapter 1: Introduction

In Students’ Narrative Journeys in Learning Communities, I explore the personal stories of students as they transition between different landscapes of English education in Japan. Drawing on my experiences in self-access learning centers (SALCs) and foreign language classrooms, I explore how students adapt their skills, identities, and expectations when entering new learning environments. By focusing on student-led communities, this book highlights the voices of learners often overshadowed by traditional teaching approaches. My aim is to challenge educators to rethink how we support students through these transitions by listening more closely to their experiences.

What is the Book About?

This book is about the journeys students take as they navigate the divide between exam-driven and communicative language learning in Japan. I focus on the stories of three university students whose experiences offer insights into how learners adjust to new learning communities and develop their language skills. Through their narratives, I discuss the importance of student agency and the role that self-access centers can play in supporting these transitions. By blending practical examples with academic theory, I hope to encourage educators to reflect on how we can better support students during periods of change.

Who is This Book For?

This book is for language educators, advisors, and researchers who are interested in learner autonomy, student-led communities, and the ways we can support students in navigating educational transitions. If you work in a self-access learning center, foreign language classroom, or any environment where students are adapting to new ways of learning, I believe this book will offer valuable insights. My hope is that it will encourage you to listen more closely to the voices of your learners and reflect on your own practices.

Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.

Arnold Bennett

Why This Book?

One inescapable reality in all of our lives is change. We may move house, start a new job, meet a new friend or lose touch with an old one, notice our first gray hair, discover a new interest, or develop new skills. Some of these changes may be intentional, such as fulfilling a long-held dream to enter graduate school, whereas others may sneak up on us and turn our world upside down. No matter the change, adjusting to it is rarely a simple affair. These shifts in our lives require us to recalibrate the way we view ourselves and the world around us in order to make sense of our new environment and state of being. Naturally, education is no exception. Both within formal institutions like junior high schools or universities and more casual settings like reading circles or conversation clubs, new members of these communities engage in a process of feeling out as to how their accrued baggage of knowledge, skills, and identities fit within these new learning habitats. As all of you reading this already know, such transitions are more often than not tricky to navigate and negotiate. We often need guidance, space to make mistakes, allies, and emotional resilience before we are able to find our footing and start to feel like we might