Peerspectives Issue 10

7/27/2019 Peerspectives Issue 10

1/22

PeerSpectives Issue 10, Spring 2013 ! ISSN 2187-1191

1Peer

Spe

ctiv

e

s:

An

exp

lor a

tory

lea

rni

ng

&

tea

ch

in

g

pu

bli

ca

tion

Issue 10: Spring 2013

Kanda University of International Studies

Learning & teaching journeys

We teach who we are (becoming)

Ana Maria Ferreira Barcelos 2

Learner views

My young & strong & beautifulfather!Misaki Kamoda 6

Pre-publishing ideas

Notes towards a practical system ofnarrative analysis!Donald Patterson 7

Original Papers

Working towards more sensitiveperception data: The hot cold scale!Thomas Lockley 9

Using blog post challenges!Tamatha Roman 11

Teachers aversion to video games inlanguage learning despiteneuroscientific support!Tom Gorham & Jon Gorham 14

In the muddle of the data

The Impact of Self-Information asfeedback to socially intelligentdynamic (SINDY) systems!Tim Murphey 19


2/22

PeerSpectives

Issue 10

Established in 2008, PeerSpectivesis anopen access, quick turn around publicationfor all those interested in education ingeneral and cutting edge or experimentalpractice in particular. PeerSpectivesispublished biannually, in Spring andAutumn.

The Journal seeks to encourage morepeering (verb: to treat those we work with,

teach, and learn from as peers and tovalue their points of view) and encouragescontributions from educators, learningadvisors, coaches, mentors and learners;aiming to empower each other to be bettermembers of a global world.

Editorial

Carol Begg

On behalf of the PeerSpectivesEditorialTeam, welcome to Issue 10. From thisissue we have two new additons: DanielleFischer as Coeditor and David Faulhaber,who steps into the role of Copy Editor.Daniellewill be taking over from ThomasLockley who remains a Reader andinvaluable consultant. Cheers, Tom and

welcome to the PeerSpectivesteam, Daniand David.

Following on from the innovations andexciting changes since Issue 9 - theupdated website, ISSN number amongothers - you will have noticed that we haveextended our gentrifications toPeerSpectivesitself.

When the Editorial Team were

brainstorming ideas for our new look, theimages we all agreed on were steppingstonesand pathways: stepping stones into

publishing for educators; followingpathways to new ideas; exploring newavenues for learners, and, as always,helping our peers along these routes step-by-step.

We have an eclectic selection of papers inthis issue encompassing practicalclassroom activities; how the growth wemake in our personal lives can transformour teaching; a beginner-friendly formulafor narrative analysis in the EFLclassroom, and a couple of ways in whichthings that are familiar to us - such asvideo games or the Likert Scale - shouldbe viewed with fresh eyes. Tim Murpheycontinues to explore his Muddle of the

dataand we have a Student viewthat wehope brings a playful smile to your face.

The PeerSpectivesteam welcomescomments and feedback. If you would liketo submit a paper, make a comment or getinvolved, please get in touch (detailsbelow).

Enjoy PeerSpectives Issue 10.


1

Call for Papers

PeerSpectives differs from other journals inthat we focus on short, practical articlesfrom a wide range of contributors. Weparticularly welcome new or challengingideas and reports of innovative practice. Seeour website for more details:

http://peerspectivesonline.org/

This is a double-blind, peer reviewed andnegotiated publication; nothing isautomatically accepted. All articles mustmeet APA standards

PeerSpectives is published biannually, inspring and autumn. The next submission

deadline is June 15th.

Send attached files [email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://peerspectivesonline.org/http://peerspectivesonline.org/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://peerspectivesonline.org/http://peerspectivesonline.org/


3/22

Learning & teaching

journeys

We teach who we

are (becoming)

Ana Maria Ferreira Barcelos

My real concern was and is philosophic:not what we do or what we ought to do,

but what happens to us over and aboveour wanting and doing (Gadamer, 1989,

p.xxviii, my emphasis).

Abstract

In this short article, I talk about howchanges in my personal life have led tochanges in my teaching. Starting from theassumption that we teach who weare (Palmer, 1998), I reflect on how my

teaching has changed due to personaltransformations. Drawing on insights fromdifferent authors in several areas such asSocial Sciences and Education (Bache,2008; Brown, 2012; Claxton, 2008; Day,2007; Morris, 2012; Palmer, 1998), Ihighlight three main areas in which myteaching has changed as a result of theperson that I am becoming: a) playfulnessand improvisation; b) creativity and risk-taking; and c) mindful teaching.

In her new book Daring Greatly, BrenBrown (2012) states:

Who we are and how we engage with theworld are much stronger predictors of how

our children will do than what we knowabout parenting (Chapter 7, Section 1,

parag. 1).

Reading this quote made me wonder if Icould say the same thing about teaching:Who we are and how we engage with theworld (and with teaching) are much

stronger predictors of how our students willdo than what we know about teaching andtechniques. I think I can. As Palmer(1998) puts it: we teach who we are (p.2). The author explains that good teachinginvolves knowing not only our students

and our subjects well, but also ourselves.He goes on to say that if we do not knowourselves well, we cannot know either ourstudents or the subject. According to him,the human heart is the source of goodteaching (p. 3). I could not agree more.

This book has taught me that we teachfrom our integrity and we cannot faketeaching; that is, pretend to be one kind ofteacher that we are not at our core. I

remember when I started teaching Ibelieved I had to be like my past teachersor others at the department. They werestricter and I felt that I was not; I felt that Iwas softer, if I can say this. I did notknow this back then (now I see that I wastrying to teach from my heart) but feltcompelled sometimes to try to fit in. Thereis no other way of being a teacher thanbeing yourself, and that is why we are so

vulnerable. As Palmer (1998) says,teaching is a daily exercise invulnerability (p. 17). This is because inteaching we deal with uncertainties,complexities, messiness, ambiguity,feelings, and emotionsall of which makeus so vulnerable and afraid of failing, notknowing, and not connecting to students.

I would also dare to say that we teach whowe are being and what we are discovering

in our personal lives. I am saying thisbecause my teaching, as well as the way Inow see teaching and myself as a teacher,have been transformed because ofchanges in my personal life. In recentyears my life has unveiled in a way thathas shown me love in different ways.Being in love, resisting loving, letting go,giving a chance to love, learning to acceptlove in my heart have all been recentlessons. Love has transformed me and

helped me learn more about love andabout myself. As I have become moreopen to life and love, so have my interests


2


4/22

and my openness to creativity and differentideas in teaching. It is funny how certainarticles and books just fall into my life andhelp me realize these transformations inmy teaching. The personal transformationsgive rise to new ideas and new readings,

which in turn feed back into my teaching,and this also makes me see myself as adifferent person. Throughout the past fiveyears, my teaching has been undergoing aseries of transformations which I describebelow.

1. Playfulness and improvisation

I have transitioned from a teacher who hasalways had a ready syllabus on the first

day of class (and would panic and feel badif I did not have one) to a teacher who haslearned that it is OK not to have thesyllabus ready on the first day; I now opt toget to know students, brainstorm withthem, vent some ideas, see what theythink, then talk to them about it. As Morris(2012) suggests, I said yes andand (the two rules when improvising withothers: confirm what they say and addsomething) to telling a different story by

allowing myself to improvise and go withthe flow. As I relaxed more into being andaccepting the person that I am, I have alsobecome more playful. This has led me tolook for ways to have a more relaxed andfun class as well. I have added affirmationsongs (Murphey, 2007); action logs andnewsletters with students; articles andtexts that helped them and me to reflectabout language learning; and have reallylistened to and given students morechoices of activities in classes. Morerecently in my graduate classes, I havegiven myself permission to think outsidethe box and have asked students to do thesame. One specific example was askingthem to respond to an academic article inany way they wanted to: using poems,plays, drawings, music, etc. One of thegroups outdid themselves and producedthis wonderful parody of the song Dancing

Queen by ABBA, now called LearningQueen (see YouTube: http://youtu.be/Z6NDvaWv6K0). These actions (and

through the feedback I got from students)have helped me feel like a much moreconfident, relaxing, and fun teacher in myeyes.

2. Creativity and risk-taking

I have transitioned from a teacher who hadalways given tests to a teacher who hasstarted experimenting with not having anytests in favor of alternative forms ofassessment such as learning projects,reading books on self-esteem withstudents, and helping them explore theirown learning processes by inviting them towrite and share their language learninghistories. Creativity is all about taking risks.

Becoming a better teacher involves thewillingness to let ourselves fail, as Morris(2012) put it. When you risk more, you runthe risk of making mistakes, and thus, youhave more chances to learn more andsucceedcontrary to the belief I used tohave that I had to avoid any mistakes andto be right. When I allowed myself to playmore, things became more fun and morerelaxing. This increased the chances ofmore flow and more interesting ideas for

my classes, especially in terms of co-constructing the classes with my studentsand allowing our creativity to emerge inour interactions. Being more relaxed alsohelped me to wonder and read more aboutother areas, which contributed to mypersonal journeys and thus, to myteaching.

3. Mindful teaching

I have transitioned from a teacher whowas so worried with following the plan andgetting to the end of class to a teacherwho now tries to be in the here and now ofclasses (Author, 2010; Schoeberlein,2009) and more present; that is, mindfulof teaching moments, epiphanies, andWOW of teaching (cf. Murphey, 2012). Asa result, I have started thinking of studentsbefore the semester startsbeforeactually seeing them in class. Bache

(2008) calls this a course field: Theenergetic field that holds the cumulativelearning experience of all the students who


3
http://youtu.be/Z6NDvaWv6K0http://youtu.be/Z6NDvaWv6K0http://youtu.be/Z6NDvaWv6K0http://youtu.be/Z6NDvaWv6K0http://youtu.be/Z6NDvaWv6K0http://youtu.be/Z6NDvaWv6K0http://youtu.be/Z6NDvaWv6K0http://youtu.be/Z6NDvaWv6K0


5/22

have ever taken the course with thisprofessor (p. 54). According to him, acourse field begins weeks before theclasses really start (when students arechoosing their courses and registering forthem). When I read this quote and this

book, my approach to my classes startedchanging. Now, I usually send students awelcome email as soon as I know who hasregistered for classes. Before starting anew semester, I also do a specialmeditation on my classes, setting anintention for all of us to learn together andhave a prolific semester. More recently, Ihave started experimenting using a 5-minute meditation in the beginning ofclasses. I first dim the light (our classesare at night) and play some relaxing musicin the background. Then I ask students tosit comfortably in their chairs, close theireyes, relax, and take three deep breaths.After that, I guide them either through abody scan or some mental imagery of nicerelaxing places, or through a gratitude orloving mediation, all of which I am learningmyself by reading and listening to severalmeditation books and webinars1. When

we finish, I sometimes ask students howthey feel, or ask them to share theircomments on the short meditation withtheir colleagues. We then start the class. Iam not a meditation teacher and I am notsuggesting here that every languageteacher should become one. What I havedone with students is what I am learningmyself. I am learning to meditate: to sit stilland let thoughts come and go. It is greatthat I can do this with them since it is a

practice for all of us. As the saying goes,we teach what we need to learn.

The first time I did this, students seemedto like it, as we can see in excerpts from

their action logs2 below:

With the meditation, everything seemseasier and thus I can pay more attention

to class, better enjoy the moment with theteacher, my colleagues and take more

advantage of the teachings in class.

The meditations have been veryinteresting for me since many times I

come to class exhausted thinking of manyproblems and this moment brings mepeace and tranquility to continue. Theclasses become more pleasant and

attractive.

I believe all teachers should do this for I

feel more motivated for classes after themeditation. We could have more time of it

though (about 10 min).

As we can see from these excerpts3,students feel more relaxed and morepeaceful with this quiet time, as we calledit, at the very beginning of classes. Theyalso feel they are able to enjoy classeswith more motivation. For me as a teacher,as well, it has been a great moment to

become more present to the class and tomy students.

Thus, in this moment, I am teaching who Iam becoming. I am becoming morerelaxed, more present, more in tune withmy teaching self, my students, and mysubject. I have become more accepting ofbeing in the moment of chaos, of notknowing, but also of opening up spaces forself-learning, for (self) exploring, forcuriosities and for modeling those attitudesin class for my students. As Claxton (2008)states, Minds are contagious, and, oneof the most powerful influences teacherscan have . . . is not so much what they are


4

1 The Chopra Center (http://www.facebook.com/ChopraMeditation) offers a 21-day-meditation challenge twice a year for free available to anyone who has an

internet connection. Ive done this 3 times and it is amazing.

2 The original excerpts were written in Portuguese and translated into English by the author of this paper.

3 Eleven students wrote their opinions and there was no comment that was negative. The only comments were that we should have more time, that we could have

yoga mats (since they cannot feel very comfortable in those chairs, and I agree). Another student said that she had difficulty visualizing what I was suggesting in

the guided meditation. Despite its success, this semester in 2013, (with the same group), when I started the first class with an intention meditation, I noticed that

one student did not really participate. I sensed he was not enjoying it. I have decided to ask give them a choice to arrive 20 min before class and I will be there to

guide them through a meditation. I felt this would be a way of letting them choose to participate or not.


6/22

teaching, but what learning characteristicsthey are modeling as they do so (parag.16).

The path of becoming a teacher more intune with my heart has been influenced

first by changes in my personal life, whichin turn triggered my search for differentreading topics and books that haveinspired my teaching. In visualizing adifferent self and a different identity formyself, I have begun to risk and exploremore and have started becoming ateacher more in tune with myself, mypassions, and most importantly, my heart!Teaching is, after all, a work of heart! Or,as Palmer (1998) puts it: The human

heart is the source of good teaching (p.3).

As my personal journey goes on, so doesmy reading on topics such as the art ofpossibility and positive change (Zander &Zander, 2000), the passion for teaching(Day, 2007), mindful teaching(Schoeberlein, 2009), the living classroom(Bache, 2008) and cultivating learningdispositions (Claxton, 2008), to name justa few, that have taught me so much aboutliving with complexity. I am not referringnecessarily to chaos theory (though itcould be that, too) but mainly tocontemplative states of mind andconsciousness that have helped merealize learning and teaching are also notknowing and not thinking toohard (Claxton, 2008); they embrace thepossibility of other ways of knowing and

learning that are more intuitive, loving,playful, and most importantly, closer to ourhearts and souls.

In becoming more open to life, love, andemotions, I have started to experiencemore flow in my teaching and in myresearch as well: expressing my voice andallowing myself to write in a different tone,and not being afraid to express my viewsand really let my most profound heartfelt

desires come to the fore, as has happenedwith this article. Now I look foropportunities and invitations around me to

expand myself as a human being and as a(language) teacher. As I do that for myself,I also do it with my students. This is thekind of teacher I am becoming. What kindof teacher are you becoming?

As a transitional being, I find myself in theprocess of awakening, evolving, andbecoming a teacher who is more aware ofherself and of others. One of the mostimportant lessons I have been learning isthat love and passion are not forbiddenwords in EFL teaching, for teaching is awork of love. But whats love got to do withit? Ah, that is a topic for another articleand for more contemplation.

References

Bache, C. M. (2008). The living classroom:Teaching and collective consciousness.NY: SUNY.

Barcelos, A.M.F (2010). Yoga and learningEnglish: being here now. HumanizingLanguage Teaching, 12 (1). Available at:http://www.hltmag.co.uk/feb10/sart04.htm.

Brown, B. (2012). Daring greatly. [KindleDX version]. Retrieved from Amazon.com

Claxton, G. (2008). Cultivating positivelearning dispositions. Retrieved November11, 2012 from http://www.guyclaxton.com/documents/Routledge%20Companion%20to%20Ed%20chapter.pdf

Day, C. (2007, April 30). A Passion forTeaching. Address at General Teaching

Council for Northern Ireland. RetrievedAugust 12, 2012 from http://gtcni.openrepository.com/gtcni/bitstream/2428/11439/1/A%20Passion%20for%20Teaching%20GTCNI%20final%20version1.pdf

Gadamer, H-G. (1989). Truth and Method(2nd revised ed., J. Weinsheimer & D.G.Marshall, Trans.). New York: Continuum.

Morris, D. The way of improvisation. [Videofile]. Retrieved November 24, 2012 fromhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUO-


5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUO-pWJ0riQhttp://gtcni.openrepository.com/gtcni/bitstream/2428/11439/1/A%20Passion%20for%20Teaching%20GTCNI%20final%20version1.pdfhttp://gtcni.openrepository.com/gtcni/bitstream/2428/11439/1/A%20Passion%20for%20Teaching%20GTCNI%20final%20version1.pdfhttp://gtcni.openrepository.com/gtcni/bitstream/2428/11439/1/A%20Passion%20for%20Teaching%20GTCNI%20final%20version1.pdfhttp://gtcni.openrepository.com/gtcni/bitstream/2428/11439/1/A%20Passion%20for%20Teaching%20GTCNI%20final%20version1.pdfhttp://gtcni.openrepository.com/gtcni/bitstream/2428/11439/1/A%20Passion%20for%20Teaching%20GTCNI%20final%20version1.pdfhttp://gtcni.openrepository.com/gtcni/bitstream/2428/11439/1/A%20Passion%20for%20Teaching%20GTCNI%20final%20version1.pdfhttp://www.guyclaxton.com/documents/Routledge%20Companion%20to%20Ed%20chapter.pdfhttp://www.guyclaxton.com/documents/Routledge%20Companion%20to%20Ed%20chapter.pdfhttp://www.hltmag.co.uk/feb10/sart04.htmhttp://www.hltmag.co.uk/feb10/sart04.htmhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUO-pWJ0riQhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUO-pWJ0riQhttp://gtcni.openrepository.com/gtcni/bitstream/2428/11439/1/A%20Passion%20for%20Teaching%20GTCNI%20final%20version1.pdfhttp://gtcni.openrepository.com/gtcni/bitstream/2428/11439/1/A%20Passion%20for%20Teaching%20GTCNI%20final%20version1.pdfhttp://gtcni.openrepository.com/gtcni/bitstream/2428/11439/1/A%20Passion%20for%20Teaching%20GTCNI%20final%20version1.pdfhttp://gtcni.openrepository.com/gtcni/bitstream/2428/11439/1/A%20Passion%20for%20Teaching%20GTCNI%20final%20version1.pdfhttp://gtcni.openrepository.com/gtcni/bitstream/2428/11439/1/A%20Passion%20for%20Teaching%20GTCNI%20final%20version1.pdfhttp://gtcni.openrepository.com/gtcni/bitstream/2428/11439/1/A%20Passion%20for%20Teaching%20GTCNI%20final%20version1.pdfhttp://gtcni.openrepository.com/gtcni/bitstream/2428/11439/1/A%20Passion%20for%20Teaching%20GTCNI%20final%20version1.pdfhttp://gtcni.openrepository.com/gtcni/bitstream/2428/11439/1/A%20Passion%20for%20Teaching%20GTCNI%20final%20version1.pdfhttp://gtcni.openrepository.com/gtcni/bitstream/2428/11439/1/A%20Passion%20for%20Teaching%20GTCNI%20final%20version1.pdfhttp://gtcni.openrepository.com/gtcni/bitstream/2428/11439/1/A%20Passion%20for%20Teaching%20GTCNI%20final%20version1.pdfhttp://www.guyclaxton.com/documents/Routledge%20Companion%20to%20Ed%20chapter.pdfhttp://www.guyclaxton.com/documents/Routledge%20Companion%20to%20Ed%20chapter.pdfhttp://www.guyclaxton.com/documents/Routledge%20Companion%20to%20Ed%20chapter.pdfhttp://www.guyclaxton.com/documents/Routledge%20Companion%20to%20Ed%20chapter.pdfhttp://www.guyclaxton.com/documents/Routledge%20Companion%20to%20Ed%20chapter.pdfhttp://www.guyclaxton.com/documents/Routledge%20Companion%20to%20Ed%20chapter.pdfhttp://www.hltmag.co.uk/feb10/sart04.htmhttp://www.hltmag.co.uk/feb10/sart04.htm


7/22

pWJ0riQ

Murphey, T. (2007). Affirmation songs[CD].

Murphey, T. (2012). Teaching in Pursuit of

WOW!:Two Decades of Musings onMaximizing Learning Potential. Tokyo:Abax.

Palmer, P. (1998). The courage to teach.Boston: Jossey-Bass.

Schoeberlein, D. (2009). Mindful teachingand teaching mindfulness: A guide foranyone who teaches anything. Boston:Wisdom Publications.

Zander, R. S. & Zander, B. (2000). The artof possibility: Transforming professionaland personal life. New York: PenguinBooks.

Learner views

Action Research Student Case Study

Students were offered the choice to do aninterview or to teach a song to someone inthe Sogo III class: Change the world: Oneplayful smile at a time in order to write up acase study. All case studies werecollected and put into a class publicationand all students given a copy (contactPeerSpectives editors, if you would likeone). Below is a sample:

My young & strong

& beautiful father

Misaki Kamoda

I chose my father, Masami to teach a songthat I learned in class. He is 55 years old,and he works at a publishing company. Ichose him for this teaching assignmentbecause he looks tired recently, and also,

he likes to study but dislikes studyingEnglish. So, I wanted him to be relaxedand enjoy learning English with the song.

I selected Are you young? because Ithink that the lyric is so fantastic. And I

believe that the melody of the song makeshim relax. When I heard this song in classat first, I felt happy and comfortable. Thelyric is Young and strong and beautiful, I'mliving an adventure, the world's sofascinating, it makes me wanna cry. It islong but its easy to remember, I think.

First of all, I told him about this assignmentand I sang the song, "Are you young?, forhim. After that, I taught the meaning of the

words. He looked embarrassed but hesaid, Interesting! I'll try to remember withwords meanings. I was glad to hear that.He seemed happy while singing the song,so I asked him to sing with me. We sangthis song together at that time, andenjoyed it! The next day, I asked him, "Areyou young? and, he said only one line,Young and strong and beautiful. Heforgot the other lines but he rememberedthe melody so he hummed it. So, I taughthim the lyric again. He tried to memorizethe song again. And I suggested that hesing it on the train (of course not out loud!)or at break time at his company. The nextday, I asked him, "Are you young?suddenly, he sang the song and he couldsing all of it. Two days later, he asked me,"Do you have another song or thing youlearned in your class?" I was surprised thathe asked but I was really happy to hear

that. And I taught him how to juggle. Imade balls with old newspapers andshowed my juggling. He looked like hewas having fun! He could juggle soon, so Isaid, "Try to juggle and sing the song youmemorized." On starting his singing, theballs dropped on the floor. But he lookedlike he was having so much fun and wasso happy.

After I taught this song to him, he doesn't

look so tired. He has succeeded to learnhow to juggle! And Im really happy that heis interested in learning English. In


6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUO-pWJ0riQhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUO-pWJ0riQhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUO-pWJ0riQhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUO-pWJ0riQ


8/22

addition, he taught my mother how tojuggle too, and she is also smiling. Thistime, I found that songs make us happy,not only the person who was taught it, butalso people surrounded by the person.And teaching something also makes

people happy!! Therefore I think songs andteaching can change the world!

Pre-publishing ideas

This is an abridged version of a paper thatlooks at the use of narrative analysis in theEnglish language learning classroom. The

full paper is a work in-progress and theauthor welcomes comments from thePeerSpectivesreadership.

[email protected]

Notes towards a

practical system ofnarrative analysis

Donald Patterson

If your students are like mine, theyveprobably written a million summaries thisyear and have had more comprehensionquestions thrown at them than they couldshake a stick at. No doubt these are useful

things to do, but recently I have beenwanting to provide them with differentways to analyze texts and, in particular,stories. I would like them to get away frommerely hunting for answers, only skimmingthe surface of the text.

Japanese, Chinese, and Korean universitystudents come to class with years ofexperience of dealing with grammar at thesentence level. What I propose to do is

build on this knowledge to give them thetools to analyze texts at the narrative level.My hope is that by examining narrative

structure they may come to a betterunderstanding of the content itself.

As a starting point in the development ofthese tools, I draw on the ideas ofsemiotician Roland Barthes (1977) and his

essay Introduction to the StructuralAnalysis of Narratives. In the essayBarthes explains that narratives share acommon structure which is open toanalysis (1977, p. 80). He then proceedsto spell out a linguistic structural model.

Barthes begins by distinguishing thesmallest meaningful narrative unit. Hestates that meaning must be the criterionof the unit (Barthes, 1977, p. 88). This

minimal unit of content is referred to as afunctional unit. He then breaks thefunctional units into sub-types dependingon how they function.

In simple terms, those functional units thatsignify states of being are called indices.Indices are the details of a story thatdevelop character traits or setting, butwhich are inconsequential to plotdevelopment. They are further divided into

two types: Indices proper act asindicators of such things as character, afeeling, an atmosphereor a philosophy,while informants serve to identify, tolocate in time and space (Barthes, 1977,p. 96).

Functions, on the other hand, representstates of action. They are also divided intotwo types: The ones that are consequential

to the development of the narrative,Barthes calls cardinal functions, ornuclei; and those more ornamentalfunctions, the ones that occurconsecutively between cardinal functions,he calls catalysers.

At the outset, all of these labels mayappear confusing, so lets consider afamiliar example from literature, in thiscase the opening lines of the well-known

folk tale Little Red Riding Hood (Lang &Ford, 1891, p.51):


7
http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fkanda.kuis.ac.jp&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNHSq454cz6odXl3MXG9QhOPzbmIgAhttp://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fkanda.kuis.ac.jp&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNHSq454cz6odXl3MXG9QhOPzbmIgA


9/22

Once upon a time there lived in a certainvillage a little country girl, the prettiestcreature who was ever seen. Her motherwas excessively fond of her; and hergrandmother doted on her still more. Thisgood woman had a little red riding hood

made for her. It suited the girl so extremelywell that everybody called her Little RedRiding Hood.

One day her mother, having made somecakes, said to her, "Go, my dear, and seehow your grandmother is doing, for I hearshe has been very ill.

Not surprisingly, the first paragraph insetting the scene and introducing the main

character is entirely indicial. The phrases[o]nce upon a time and in a certainvillage are indices of the informant varietyas they locate the story in time and space,albeit vaguely. The rest of the paragraph isrich in indices proper, which serve toindicate the youth, beauty, vulnerabilityand goodness of the girl, all qualities whichwill later be contrasted with those of thebig bad wolf. Then the second paragraph

introduces our first cardinal function: Themothers request for the girl to visit hergrandmother sets the story in motion.

It is unclear how students will react tothese labels; a degree of scaffolding willcertainly be required to turn them intouseful tools for analyzing narrativestructure. However, my hope is that thestudents extensive knowledge of grammar

will help make them seem somewhatintuitive.

My next step is to devise a systematic wayof applying them that is interesting. Somepossibilities include creating word maps ofthe indices, particularly the indices proper,in order to do character studies; orcreating flow charts of the cardinalfunctions and their catalysers to show howthey form sequences. I am particularlyexcited about the role such systems couldplay in showing students the patterns thatrecur within literary genres.

This is still very much a work in progressand I would be interested in hearing howother teachers have incorporated literatureinto their EFL classes and the approachestheir classes have used in analyzing texts.In turn, I hope to report positive results as I

begin the experiment of putting theseideas into practice and my studentsbecome budding narratologists.


8


10/22

References

Barthes, R. (1977). Introduction to thestructural analysis of narratives. Image-Music-Text. (S. Heath, Trans). Glasgow:Fontana.

Lang, A., & Ford, H. J. (1891). Little redriding hood. In The Blue Fairy Book.Longmans, Green, & Company. Retrievedfrom http://books.google.co.jp/books?id=5IUSAAAAYAAJ

Original Papers

Working towards

more sensitive

perception data: The

hot cold scale

Thomas Lockley

The Likert scale has a long anddistinguished history of aiding researchersand academics to collect data. Invented byRensis Likert in the 1930s, it requiresresearch participants to rate the extent oftheir beliefs, attitudes, or feelings towardsthe object of research. The scales oftencomprise 5 points (although manyauthorities, for example Drnyei, advocate

a 6-point scale) and range from stronglyagree to strongly disagree or similar.

The use of Likert scales is so ubiquitousthat it is rarely challenged; indeed, manystudies defend and promote them aboveother data collection options such as theThurstone scale (see, for example,Waples, Weyhrauch, Connell, &Cylberston, 2010; Croasmun &

Ostrom, 2011). However, this author isalso not alone in believing there is aproblem with Likert scales; when being

used to measure perceptions or feelings,they are unable to do so accurately. Whatis meant by this statement is that, forexample, bad to a certain degree for onerespondent may have a totally differentmeaning for another. Without some kind of

norming or standardization of participantsfeelings there is no way of really knowingwhether the participants arecommunicating the same feeling to thesame degree. The data, then, is flawed; asWoltz, Gardner, Kircher, and Burrow-Sanchez (2012, p. 995) found, Commonfrequency response scales and scoringmethods should not be taken to reflectequal intervals of actual frequency.However, researchers (this authorincluded) have continued to use the Likertscale regardless as there seems to be noobviously better replacement available.

After a lot of thought about this over thelast few years during a research project onmeasuring student self-perceptions, thisauthor started to look for alternatives andcame across the visual analog scale(VAS). The VAS involves marking a cross

on a line to indicate feelings orperceptions. It has normally been used inmedicine for patients to indicate theirdegree of pain to a practitioner; the authorwas unable to find any specific instancesof it being used in published social-scienceresearch beyond the experimental phase.

While the VAS renders, in many ways,similar data to the Likert scale, it doesallow that data to be somewhat more

sensitively collected. Instead of five- or six-set points it can allow unlimited gradingand these can be printed on the scale(Figure 1) or not (Figure 2). Funke andReips (2012, p. 322), using a 0-250graded scale, found that VASs allowrespondents to communicate subjectivevalues more exactly and a small numberof response options implicitly conveys themessage that roughly estimated answersare sufficient, whereas a large number of

response options can be understood as aninstruction to maximize cognitive efforts.In their study, statistical correlations were


9
http://books.google.co.jp/books?id=5IUSAAAAYAAJhttp://books.google.co.jp/books?id=5IUSAAAAYAAJhttp://books.google.co.jp/books?id=5IUSAAAAYAAJhttp://books.google.co.jp/books?id=5IUSAAAAYAAJhttp://books.google.co.jp/books?id=5IUSAAAAYAAJhttp://books.google.co.jp/books?id=5IUSAAAAYAAJ


11/22

significantly higher with VASs when

compared to 5-point Likert scales.

Figure 1. A Visual Analog Scale withnumbers (Chatterjee, 2008).

Figure 2. A Visual Analog Scale withoutnumbers (Cox & Davison, 2005).

However, the VAS as it is would seem tosuffer from similar drawbacks to the Likertscale; for example, what is painful for oneperson may be nothing to someone else.Past experience, age, knowledge of pain,and many other factors come into theequation for the individual concerned.There is no conclusive evidence to saythat the VAS is superior to the Likert scale,either. Couper, Tourangeau, Conrad andSinger (2006) found the VAS was no moreaccurate than other scales and, in fact, tobe deficient in that it took longer forparticipants to complete and had highrates of missing data. On the other hand,Funke and Reips (2012) found theopposite; VASs in their study maximizedthe precision of answers and provided

better data. They did not find anydifferences in mean, a higher dropout rate,more nonresponses, or higher responsetimes.

Clearly the jury is out on whether the VASis better than the Likert scale or otheralternatives, and more research needs tobe done. However, if the VAS can beimproved to provide an easily-standardized measurehence rendering

improved and stronger datathen it couldpossibly provide a clearly-better instrumentthan other scales.

Effectively and easily norming a researchpopulation is a challenge; much data iscollected in a hurry and researchers do notwant to take up too much participant timefor fear of wearing them out or losing thementirely. A standard norming session might

take hours and is clearly not practical inmost circumstances. But what kind ofphenomenon does everyone know of andunderstand implicitly? What kind ofmeasurement is everyone in the worldfamiliar with? Temperature: hot and cold.Everyone in the world is, at least to acertain extent, able to conceive of hot and/or cold and how they would feel aboutthemas long as the temperatures arekept within human experience. It doesntmatter that heat is experienced differentlyby different people as they will all know theemotion I am cold even if thetemperature at which people will actuallyfeel this differs for Inuit and Bedouin.Furthermore, association of pale blue-likecolours with coolness and red/orange/yellow-like colours with heat are cross-cultural due to the common humanexperience of seasons, weather, water and

sun; not only a sensual scale but avisually-representative scale is alsopossible if colours are used.

It seems to this writer that the strongestpoints of the VASgreater precision ofdata and wider range of scale, combinedwith the concept of hot and coldmightprovide a solution to the problem ofnorming a population easily and quitepossibly provide better and more-precise

data for social-science research purposes.While this idea has not been tested on aformal research population, it has beenpiloted with individualsboth students andfacultyand so far it seems that everyonehas been able to conceptually understandand use the hot and cold scale (HCS)easily. It does, however, need somerefining before it can be formally piloted infull-scale trials.

The issue is how to refine it: what figures,if any, should be included? For example,using degrees centigrade 0-100 seemed


10


12/22

like a good idea at first, but actually 100degrees is not a comfortable temperatureand neither is 0. One end of the scaleneeds to be comfortable and one enduncomfortable for the data to renderpositive and negative feelings. Perhaps

+25 degrees -25 degrees might workbetter, but this still feels not quite right.Maybe colours alone might be a betteroption?

The purpose of writing this article is, inshort, to appeal for collaborators indeveloping this scale. Clearly it will need agood deal of work to refine, but the goal ofbetter and more accurate perception datais surely a noble one.

Anyone who would like to work with theauthor on this should contact him directlyat the following email address:

[email protected]

References

Chatterjee, H. (2008). Staying essential:Articulating the value of object based

learning. Proceedings of the 7thConference of the International Committeeof ICOM for University Museums andCollections. Vienna: UMAC. Retrievedfrom http://edoc.hu-berlin.de/umacj/1/chatterjee-helen-1/XML/Chatterjee.xml

Couper, M., Tourangeau, R., Conrad, F., &Singer, E. (2006). Evaluating theeffectiveness of visual analog scales aweb experiment. Social Science ComputerReview, 24(2), 227-245.

Cox, J. & Davison, A. (2005). The visualanalogue scale as a tool for self-reportingof subjective phenomena in the medicalradiation sciences. The Radiographer,52(1), 2224.

Croasmun, J. & Ostrom, L. (2011). UsingLikert-type scales in the social sciences.Journal of Adult Education, 40(1), 19-22.

Funke, F. & Reips, U. (2012). Whysemantic differentials in web-based

research should be made from visualanalogue scales and not from 5-pointscales. Field Methods, 24(3), 310-327.

Waples, C., Weyhrauch, W., Connell, A. &Cylberston, S. (2010). Questionable

defeats and discounted victories for Likertrating scales. Industrial and OrganizationalPsychology, 3, 477480.

Woltz, D., Gardner, M., Kircher, J. &Burrow-Sanchez, J. (2012). Relationshipbetween perceived and actual frequencyrepresented by common rating scalelabels. Psychological Assessment, 24(4),9951007.

Using blog post

challenges

Tamatha Roman

Abstract

This article examines the use of blog postchallenges in an English languageclassroom. Based on the course, JapansEnvironmental Impact, students wereasked to complete environmentalchallenges outside of the classroom:activities to be completed on their owntime as a way to bridge lessons with real-world experiences. Additionally, studentswere required to reflect on their experienceby posting on a class blog on Tumblr. This

extended classroom learning providedstudents with a chance to use content-focused English outside the classroom anddevelop autonomous learning skills, aswell as allowed the teacher to informallyassess the effectiveness of her lessons.Through the challenges, it was found thatstudents were able to apply what theylearned in class to the challenges,increasing their self-motivation andwillingness to evaluate their environmentalfootprint.


11
http://edoc.hu-berlin.de/umacj/1/chatterjee-helen-1/XML/Chatterjee.xmlhttp://edoc.hu-berlin.de/umacj/1/chatterjee-helen-1/XML/Chatterjee.xmlhttp://edoc.hu-berlin.de/umacj/1/chatterjee-helen-1/XML/Chatterjee.xmlmailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://edoc.hu-berlin.de/umacj/1/chatterjee-helen-1/XML/Chatterjee.xmlhttp://edoc.hu-berlin.de/umacj/1/chatterjee-helen-1/XML/Chatterjee.xmlhttp://edoc.hu-berlin.de/umacj/1/chatterjee-helen-1/XML/Chatterjee.xmlhttp://edoc.hu-berlin.de/umacj/1/chatterjee-helen-1/XML/Chatterjee.xmlmailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


13/22

Introduction

Teaching English as a foreign language,especially in a monolingual country likeJapan, can be a challenge in that studentsrarely get the opportunity to speak English

outside of the classroom. Without thenecessity of using the language on a dailybasis, it is easy to see the walls of theclassroom as the only place to practicespeaking. However, the classroom alonecannot completely emulate the outsideworld, and often lacks the kind ofspontaneity that occurs when peopleinteract in their natural settings. Therefore,a key responsibility of teachers is to enrichstudents learning process by connecting

the knowledge and skills acquired in theclassroom to situations that arise outsideof the classroom.

Some ways to do this include bringing inguest speakers, using authentic materials(such as movies or music) or organizingfield trips. Another way involves promotingextended classroom learninga form ofhomework or task that students completeon their own time outside of the classroomwhich has relevance to the real world.This type of learning can be beneficial forboth teachers and students. It allowsteachers to assess the impact and studentcomprehension of their lessons. Forstudents, extended classroom learning cansolidify their learning, as they can makereal-life connections. Furthermore,extended classroom learning encouragesstudents to have personal control over

their experiences and complete tasks ontheir own accord, leading to an increase inmotivation and self-reflection.

Blog Challenges

This article will focus on one form ofextended classroom learning used in mythird-year, university-level course in theInternational Communication departmentat Kanda University of International

Studies. Students in this course hadadvanced English skills, having alreadytaken prerequisite courses in Reading,

Writing, International Communication, andMedia English. The course was entitledJapans Environmental Impact, a contentelective focused on developing studentsknowledge on environmental issues thataffect the university, Japan, and the world

as a whole. The class centered on threeaction projects; as a supplement to thecourse and a form of extended classroomlearning, I decided to assign something Icalled blog post challenges, whichcorresponded with the environmentalcontent of the course.

The concept of challenges (specificallyenvironmental challenges) was taken fromthe Otesha Books Teacher Menu (2006),

an environmental workbook designed toengage and empower students to takeaction toward a sustainable future. Eachtopic of the workbooksuch as water,media, and coffeeoffers up a challengefor students to do in or outside of theclassroom. For example, one challengeasks students to wear an outfit that is logoand leather-free. Inspired by thisworkbook, I decided to incorporate similar

environmental challenges for my owncourse.

Students were assigned a bi-weeklyenvironment challenge based on the classmaterial. The class topics were disposablewaste, oceanic resources, clothing, andcosmetics. Therefore, some challenges Iused included the following:

1) Do not use plastic bottles, plastic bags,

or disposable chopsticks for one week.

2) Do not eat any living products from theocean for one week.

3) Carry the garbage you accumulate for24 hours.

4) Wear no makeup to class on Tuesday.

Students completed the challenge on theirtime, by a certain due date. If they feltuncomfortable with the challenge, or couldnot fully succeed in doing it, they wereasked to reflect on why it was


12


14/22

unsuccessful. The challenges offered agood opportunity for my students to payattention to their own environmentalimpact and to reinforce the English thatwas taught in the classroom. That is,students would reuse learned vocabulary,

build new genre-specific vocabularythrough completing the challenges,engage in English conversations about thechallenges, and use critical-thinking skillsto write English reflections on thechallenges.

After completing the challenge, studentswere then required to blog about theirexperience on our class Tumblr page.4This specific blogging site was chosen as

it is free and offers a simple interface thatis easy to teach to English students of alllevels. In addition, students are notrequired to sign-up for an account withTumblr. In my case, students simply addedtheir blog entry by replying to the actualchallenge post itself, created by me. Iftechnology is not readily accessible,teachers may choose to have theirstudents complete reflections in a written

journal.

Students were asked to reflect upon thechallenge, whether it was a success or afailure, based on a number of questionsthat I provided. Some questions included:Was the challenge difficult or easy? Whatdid you learn from completing thischallenge? What do you think thischallenge says about Japansenvironmental impact? Based on what you

learned from this challenge, what can wedo about its related environmental issues?As I did, the teacher may also provide aword limit, or a requirement to read otherstudents blog entries.

Assessment is another option with thereflections. Teachers may choose todevelop a rubric for the written responses,evaluating grammar, content, or use ofnew classroom vocabulary. In my case, I

felt uncomfortable formally grading blog

entries for two reasons: First, thechallenge blogs were meant to be asupplement to the class material, whichwas already graded on other factors.Therefore, I saw the challenges as a wayto encourage autonomous learning without

the pressure of assessment. Second,although I did not formally offer a rubric orassess the entries, certain benchmarkswere expected. Students were required towrite a certain number of words per blogentry. In addition, I took note of commonmistakes I saw throughout each week andused them as mini grammar-lessons in theactual classroom. I also individuallycommented on each blog entry, notinggrammatical, organizational, or content-related errors.

Results

One school year after its launch and 44students later, the environmental blogchallenges were a great success. Thesuccesses were twofold. First, studentsmade connections from the classroom tothese outside challenges. As they reflectedon whether their challenges weresuccessful or not, students used classmaterial (i.e. vocabulary, documentaryclips, jigsaw readings) and critical thinkingskills to support and contrast the ideas intheir entries. Furthermore, Englishdiscussions were sparked in and outsideof the classroom as to what was learnedthrough completing the challenges.Second, students wrote with passion.Even students who were quite introverted

in class found a voice within the classblog. It is sometimes difficult as a teacherto grasp whether or not the class materialis critically understood by your students.However, in allowing time for reflection, Ihave come to realize that students aremore perceptive than they may seem inclass.

Of course, challenges can be created forother contexts. Teachers can connect most

contexts, topics, and student levels to


13

4Tumblr is a microblogging platform and social networking site with over 81 million blogs worldwide (Tumblr, 2012).


15/22

extended learning activities. But whateverthe context, the concept of extendedclassroom can have positive outcomes.With so little time spent in the classroom,many students want and need the extratime to use their second language in a

productive manner. Although they mayseem like homework, challenges can be afun, almost competitive way to enrich theclassroom experience and create long-term connections between what studentslearn in the classroom and other parts oftheir lives.

References

Larsen-Freeman, D. (2003). Teaching

language: From grammar to grammaring.Boston: Heinle & Heinle.

Little, D. G. (1991). Learner autonomy:Definitions, issues and problems. Dublin:Authentik.

Otesha Project. (2006). The Otesha book:From junk to funk. Ottawa, Canada: TheOtesha Project.

Tumblr. (2012). About Tumblr. Retrievedfrom http://www.tumblr.com/about

Skehan, P. (1996). A framework for theimplementation of task-based instruction.Applied Linguistics 17(1): 38-62.

Ushioda, E. (1997). The role ofmotivational thinking in autonomouslanguage learning. In D. Little & B. Voss(Eds.), Langauge centres: Planning for the

new millennium (pp. 39-50). University ofPlymouth, Plymouth, MA: CERCLES,Centre for Modern Languages.

Wu, W. V., & Wu, P. N. (2008). Creating anauthentic EFL learning environment toenhance student motivation to studyEnglish. Asian EFL Journal, 10(4),211-226.

Teachers aversion to

video games in

language learningdespite

neuroscientific

support

Tom Gorham & Jon Gorham

Before he was elected to multiple terms asa widely popular mayor of London, BritishMP Boris Johnson (2006), proclaimed thatvideo games were rotting the brains ofyoung people, stunting the development oftheir literacy skills, and causing them tobecome like blinking lizards, motionless,absorbed, only the twitching of their handsshowing they are still conscious. [Thevideo games] teach them nothing. Theystimulate no ratiocination, discovery or feat

of memory (para. 5). The only evidencethat he offered to support this conclusionwas one recent experience where heobserved a lone 11-year-old playing agame about Vikings. His advice to parentswas to smash their childrens video gameconsoles with a sledgehammer and strikea blow for literacy (para. 13).

Near the end of 2012, New Yorks Museumof Modern Art (MoMA) announced that ithad acquired over a dozen video gamesthat would form the base of a new andgrowing collection of digital games thatwould be installed in its Philip JohnsonGalleries in early 2013. In explaining whyMoMA had made this decision, Antonelli(2012) described the selected games as:

outstanding examples of interactionaldesign [wherein] the scenarios, rules,

stimuli, incentives, and narrativesenvisioned by the designers come alive inthe behaviors they encourage and elicit


14
http://www.tumblr.com/abouthttp://www.tumblr.com/abouthttp://www.tumblr.com/abouthttp://www.tumblr.com/abouthttp://www.tumblr.com/about


16/22

from the players, whether individual orsocial. A purposefully designed video

game can be used to train and educate,to induce emotions, to test new

experiences, or to question the way thingsare and envision how they might be.

(para. 3-6)

The following day after this announcementwas made, another voice emerged,echoing Johnsons contempt for videogames. Art critic Jonathan Jones (2012),opined that digital games are not really art.While it is not particularly surprising to findan art critic criticizing art, it is worth notingthe flippant derision that he leveled atscholars who would dare to even consider

video games, describing them asindividuals or institutions who are almostcertainly too old, too intellectual, and toodignified to really be playing at thisstuff (para. 1), and raising the question,what was a professor doing playing allthese games? (para. 2).

As it turns out, if one takes the time to lookat the empirical evidence, there are manyreasons why teachers should be educatingthemselves about video games and theiracademic applications. This includes bothexplicitly educational games, as well ascommercial off-the-shelf (COTS) games,too (Van Eck, 2006). For example, Shaffer(2006) speaks extensively about a varietyof epistemic games that help people learn.Kahne, Middaugh, & Evans (2009) reportthat teens who have civic gamingexperiences, such as helping or guiding

other players . . . report much higher levelsof civic and political engagement thanteens who do not have these kinds ofexperiences (p. 30). Hirumi (2010) givesmultiple examples of how video gamescan be used to meet curriculum standards,including those set by the National Councilof Teachers of English (NCTE) and theInternational Reading Association (IRA).

From 2000-2006, the Provincial Institute

for Educational Research, Training andExperimentation conducted a large-scalestudy in Italy to see if video game-based

learning could help to counter regionalproblems that primary and secondarystudents were experiencing inmathematics and Italian. More than 1,000teachers and over 10,000 studentsparticipated in the study, designing video

games, playing them, and sharing thegames and the related best practices. Atthe end of the project, they found that thedifference between the experimental groupand the control group was highlystatistically significant. Learning withgames greatly increased the studentsmotivation and their learning outcomes inmathematics and L1 language practice(Wastiau, Kearney, & Van den Berghe,2009b).

After conducting a meta-analysis of theuse of video games and simulations withinthe context of computer assisted languagelearning (CALL), Peterson (2010)concluded that the data providescompelling evidence that participation ingaming and simulation may facilitateaspects of SLA [second languageacquisition] and the development of

communicative competence (p. 89).Corbett (2010) quotes Paul Howard-Jones,a neuroscientist teaching at the graduateschool of education at the University ofBristol, as saying, I think in 30 yearstime, we will marvel that we ever tried todeliver a curriculum without gaming (para.62).

Why do games have a positive effect onlearning? Gee (2008) describes video

games as learning machines (p. 2) andsuggests that good video games arethinking tools. Their deepest pleasures arecognitive. The drug the video gameindustry discovered was learninghumans love it when its done right (p.17). This concept is similar to whatcognitive scientist Daniel Willingham(2009), says about the joys of learning:

We find successful thinking pleasurable.

We like solving problems, understandingnew ideas, and so forth. Thus, we will

seek out opportunities to think, but we are


15


17/22

selective in doing so; we choose problemsthat pose some challenge but that seemlikely to be solvable, because these are

the problems that lead to feelings ofpleasure and satisfaction. (p. 18)

The relatively recent application of brainimaging technology has offeredresearchers unprecedented access intothe inner workings of the human mindduring learning and video game play. Withit, neurobiologists and cognitive scientistsare starting to unlock the brain-basedreasons why games can be such powerfullearning tools. After considering all of theevidence, neurologist Judy Willis (2011)concluded that the popularity of video

games is not the enemy of education, butrather a model for best teachingstrategies (para. 1). She notes theintentional scaffolding, individualizedachievable challenges, incremental goalprogress, and consistent feedback (bothimmediate and cumulative) as factors thatengage players brains by regularly andeffectively engaging and activating thedopamine-reward system. Willis (2011)

masterfully explains this process inlaymans terms:

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that, whenreleased in higher than usual amounts,goes beyond the synapse and flows toother regions of the brain producing apowerful pleasure response. This is a

deep satisfaction, such as quenching along thirst. After making a prediction,

choice, or action, and receiving feedback

that it was correct, the reward from therelease of dopamine prompts the brain to

seek future opportunities to repeat theaction . . . The survival benefit of the

dopamine-reward system is building skillsand adaptive responses. The system isonly activated and available to promote,

sustain, or repeat some mental or physicaleffort when the outcome is not assured. Ifthere is no risk, there is no reward. If there

is no challenge, such as adding single

digit numbers by a student who hasachieved mastery in adding double-digit

numbers, there is no activation of the

dopamine-reward network. (para. 3-4)

Exposure to video games has been shownto increase the activity of peoplesmidbrain dopamine-reward system (Koeppet al., 1988) and a relationship has been

observed between activity in this systemand recall performance (Callan &Schweighofer, 2008). Howard-Jones,Demetriou Bogacz, Yoo, & Leonards(2011) also corroborated these findings.

Despite this evidence of the efficacy ofvideo games in education, there is stillconsiderable resistance to their use inschools (Klopfer, Osterweil, & Salen,2009). The use of electronic games in the

classroom teaching process is not acommon practice in any country (Wastiau,Kearney, & Van den Berghe, 2009b, p. 20).

In 2010, the authors of this articleconducted a paper-based and onlinesurvey of EFL teachers in Asia (n. 51)regarding their attitudes toward, and useof, video games in the EFL classroom. Theaim was to see if the experiences of EFLteachers in Asia reflected the same results

that Wastiau, Kearney, & Van den Berghe(2009b) had found, and if so, to explorethe reasons why video games were notbeing used in classroom teaching. Thepaper-based surveys were distributed atsecondary schools and a college in theItabashi Ward of Tokyo, Japan. Theinvitations to take the online survey wereemailed to some members of the JapanAssociation for Language Teaching (JALT)

with a request to forward it to theircolleagues.

The survey asked for demographicinformation, including age, nationality,school location, and grade level that therespondents teach. Of the 51 respondents,one was Canadian, four were British, sixwere American, nine were Korean, and theremaining 31 teachers were Japanese.Only one respondent (who replied from

South Korea) was not based in Japan. Themajority of the respondents were based inTokyo (n. 48), while there were


16


18/22

respondents from Nagano Prefecture (n.1), Kanagawa Prefecture (n. 2), and AichiPrefecture (n. 1).

One respondent did not give his or herage. The remaining respondents fell into

the following age categories: under 25years old (n. 8), age 25-35 (n. 14), age36-45 (n. 10), age 46-55 (n. 11), and over56 years old (n. 7).

The respondents taught in junior highschools (n. 22), high schools (n. 29),universities/colleges (n. 6), and otherschools including elementary schools andprivate language schools (n. 2). Thesenumbers are greater than the total number

of respondents because some teacherswork in multiple schools.

The survey then asked the respondents ifthey had ever used video games(particularly COTS ones) as part of theirlessons. If they answered in theaffirmative, they were asked to describewhat game system(s) they used and howthe video games were utilized. If therespondents said that they had never used

video games in their lessons, they wereasked why not and given a list of possiblereasons from which they could select asmany as applied to their particularteaching environment. The list of possiblereasons included the following choices:

My school doesnt permit video games.

My school lacks the equipment.

I dont have any interest in video

games.

I believe that video games lackeducational value.

I dont have time to use video games inmy classes.

Video games are not part of thecurriculum that I teach.

I dont know how video games could beused in my classes.

Other (the respondents were given ablank field to add any additional reasons

that were not covered in the previouschoices)

Only two respondents reported experienceusing video games in their lessons. Onesaid that he had his students play Tetrisand Super Bomberman in pairs, with one

partner holding the video game controllerblindfolded and the other partner givingsimple directions. The other respondentreported using Nintendos Game Boy, aSony PlayStation2, and a Nintendo SuperFamicom, but she did not describe howshe implemented the games in herlessons.

On the other hand, the results showed that

96% of respondents had never used videogames in their classes. When viewed inaggregate, the most common explanationsthat were given for not using video gamesincluded:

I dont know how video games could beused in my classes. (41.2%),

My school doesnt permit videogames. (35.3%),

Video games are not part of thecurriculum that I teach. (33.3%)

I dont have any interest in videogames. (31.4%)

But when the survey results are parsed byage groups, an interesting insight can bemade. By age bracket, the most commonlygiven reasons for not including videogames in the classroom were:

Over 56 years old: I dont have anyinterest in video games. (42.9%)

46-55 years old: I dont have anyinterest in video games. (63.6%)

36-45 years old: I dont know how videogames could be used in myclasses. (66.7%)

25-35 years old: I dont have time to usevideo games in my classes. (42.9%)

Under 25 years old: My school doesnt

permit video games. (85.7%)

This data would seem to suggest that


17


19/22

older teachersthe ones who have moreseniority and more influence in shaping theculture of their schools learningcommunitieshave less experience withvideo games. Perhaps because of this,they dont have any interest in learning

more about video games and pursuinginformation about how they can potentiallyhelp their students. One of therespondents to the survey added, Ibelieve the goal of video games and thatof second language acquisition or usageare totally different. On the opposite endof the spectrum, the youngest teachersexpressed interest in the educationalpotential of video games in languagelearning, but stated that their schools didnot permit their use.

The authors of this article agree withWastiau, Kearney, & Van den Berghe(2009b) when they say, the major barrierhas been and still is a lack of knowledge inhow to use [video games]. Teachers aretrained in traditional methods that do notinclude the use of games in thecurriculum (p. 123). More effort should be

made to educate language teachers bothin the positive educational affordances thatvideo games offer, as well as practical andpedagogically-sound ways to include themin their teaching. As deHaan, Reed, andKuwada (2010) demonstrate, if usedincorrectly, video games pose the risk ofhindering foreign language learning byimposing extraneous cognitive load on theplayers. Especially in the case of adaptingCOTS games for the language classroom,

teachers need to have the skills to assesswhether or not a particular game caneffectively aid the students foreignlanguage acquisition.

References

Antonelli, P. (2012, November 29). Videogames:14 in the collection, for starters.Retrieved from http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2012/11/29/video-

games-14-in-the- collection-for-starters

Callan, D. E., & Schweighofer, N. (2008).

Positive and negative modulation of wordlearning by ! reward anticipation. HumanBrain Mapping, 29, 237249.

Corbett, S. (2010, September 15).Learning by playing. The New York Times

Magazine. ! Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/magazine/19video-t.html

deHaan, J., Reed, W. M., & Kuwada, K.(2010). The effect of interactivity with amusic video ! game on second languagevocabulary recall. Language Learning &Technology, 14(2), ! 74-94.Gee. J. P. (2008). Good video games +

good learning. New York: Peter LangPublishing.

Hirumi, A. (Ed.). (2010). Playing games inschool: Video games and simulations forprimary and secondary education.Washington, DC.: The InternationalSociety for Technology in Education.

Howard-Jones, P., Demetriou, S., Bogacz,R., Yoo, J., & Leonards, U. (2011). Toward

a science of learning games. Mind, Brain,and Education. 5 (1), 33- 41.

Johnson, B. (2006, December 28). Thewriting is on the wall - computer games rotthe brain. The Telegraph. Retrieved fromhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3635699/! The-writing-is-on-the-wall-computer-games-rot-the-brain.html

Jones, J. (2012, November, 30). SorryMoMA, video games are not art.TheGuardian. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2012/nov/30/! moma-video-games-art

Kahne, J., Middaugh, E., & Evans, C.(2009). The civic potential of video games.Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Klopfer, E., Osterweil, S., & Salen, K.(2009). Moving learning games forward.Cambridge, MA: The Education Arcade.


18
http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2012/11/29/video-games-14-in-the-http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2012/11/29/video-games-14-in-the-http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2012/11/29/video-games-14-in-the-http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2012/11/29/video-games-14-in-the-http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2012/nov/30/http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2012/nov/30/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3635699/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3635699/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/magazine/19video-t.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/magazine/19video-t.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/magazine/19video-t.htmlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2012/nov/30/http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2012/nov/30/http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2012/nov/30/http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2012/nov/30/http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2012/nov/30/http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2012/nov/30/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3635699/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3635699/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3635699/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3635699/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/magazine/19video-t.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/magazine/19video-t.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/magazine/19video-t.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/magazine/19video-t.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/magazine/19video-t.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/magazine/19video-t.htmlhttp://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2012/11/29/video-games-14-in-the-http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2012/11/29/video-games-14-in-the-http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2012/11/29/video-games-14-in-the-http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2012/11/29/video-games-14-in-the-http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2012/11/29/video-games-14-in-the-http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2012/11/29/video-games-14-in-the-


20/22

Koepp, M. J., Gunn, R. N., Lawrence, A.D., Cunningham, V. J., Dagher, A., Jones,T., et al. (1988). Evidence for striataldopamine release during a video game.Nature, 393, !266-268.Peterson, M. (2010). Computerized gamesand simulations in computer-assistedlanguage ! learning: A meta-analysis ofresearch. Simulation and Gaming, 41(1),72-93.

Shaffer, D. W. (2006). How computergames help children learn. New York:Palgrave/! Macmillan.Van Eck, R. (2006). Digital game-based

learning: Its not just the digital natives whoare restless. !EDUCAUSE Review, 41(2),16-30.

Wastiau, P., Kearney, C., & Van denBerghe, W. (2009a). How are digitalgames used in ! schools?: Final report.Brussels, Belgium: European Schoolnet.Retrieved from http://games.eun.org/upload/gis-full_report_en.pdf

Wastiau, P., Kearney, C., & Van denBerghe, W. (2009b). How are digitalgames used in ! schools?: Synthesisreport. Brussels, Belgium: EuropeanSchoolnet. Retrieved from !http://games.eun.org/upload/gis-synthesis_report_en.pdf

Willingham, D. (2009). Why dont studentslike school?: A cognitive scientist answersquestions about how the mind works and

what it means for the classroom. SanFrancisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Willis, J. (2011, April 14). A neurologistmakes the case for the video game modelas a learning tool. Edutopia. Retrievedfrom http://www.edutopia.org/blog/video-games-learning-student-engagement-judy-willis

In the muddle of the

data

This column is being created to helpresearchers who are in the middle of theirdata-collection and who wish to reflect onthe possibilities and potentials in theirprojects from that sometimes muddledpoint of view. Too often we write papers atthe end of our research and themessiness, doubts, and excitement are notalways seen in the final reports andarticles. In these short reflective articles we

hope to capture some of the thinking onthe fly that might help other researchers aswell. We fully expect them to end with aseries of questions that the researchersare asking themselves.

The Impact of Self-

Information asfeedback to socially

intelligent dynamic

(SINDY) systems

Tim Murphey

Some old and new research (Murphey etal. in progress) is suggesting that groupsof people can positively enhance their liveswhen they receive qualitative andquantitative data about themselves. Thenormal research model is that researchersdo research on a group and then publishtheir research and the group often doesnot know about the results at all. However,with Critical Participatory Looping(Murphey & Falout, 2010), a form of action

research, data from a group is given backto the same group and they are asked toconfirm, contest or add to the findings in


19
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/video-games-learning-http://www.edutopia.org/blog/video-games-learning-http://games.eun.org/upload/gis-synthesis_report_en.pdfhttp://games.eun.org/upload/gis-synthesis_report_en.pdfhttp://games.eun.org/upload/gis-synthesis_report_en.pdfhttp://games.eun.org/upload/gis-synthesis_report_en.pdfhttp://games.eun.org/upload/gis-synthesis_report_en.pdfhttp://games.eun.org/upload/gis-full_report_en.pdfhttp://games.eun.org/upload/gis-full_report_en.pdfhttp://www.edutopia.org/blog/video-games-learning-http://www.edutopia.org/blog/video-games-learning-http://www.edutopia.org/blog/video-games-learning-http://www.edutopia.org/blog/video-games-learning-http://games.eun.org/upload/gis-synthesis_report_en.pdfhttp://games.eun.org/upload/gis-synthesis_report_en.pdfhttp://games.eun.org/upload/gis-synthesis_report_en.pdfhttp://games.eun.org/upload/gis-synthesis_report_en.pdfhttp://games.eun.org/upload/gis-synthesis_report_en.pdfhttp://games.eun.org/upload/gis-synthesis_report_en.pdfhttp://games.eun.org/upload/gis-full_report_en.pdfhttp://games.eun.org/upload/gis-full_report_en.pdfhttp://games.eun.org/upload/gis-full_report_en.pdfhttp://games.eun.org/upload/gis-full_report_en.pdf


21/22

some way. These reflections tend to makethe data richer and more meaningful for allconcerned, and provide the participantsmore agency. Note that scientists dealingwith weather patterns or bird migrationscould not do this because the weather and

birds could not reflect on the data. Thus,self-information as feedback to sociallyintelligent dynamic (SINDY) systems, i.e.thinking and reflecting beings, affordsmultiple possibilities for changing andimproving ones conditions throughgathering and creating further informationof relevance. The information becomes acomponent of change in and of itself.

For example, a few years ago we asked

students what motivated them anddemotivated them in their JHS and HSEnglish education (Falout et al. 2008).According to our data grammar wasranked near the top in both categories.When we gave the results back to thestudents for their further feedback, theyobjected strongly saying grammar was notmotivational. So, we went back to the dataand realized that we had conflated liked

with useful. Many had indeed saidgrammar was useful for their exams, butthey definitely did not like it. This looping ofthe data back to the participants allowedthem to help the researchers report betterdata and understand their students better;and students themselves began to feelmore empowered.

In a later study (Falout & Murphey, 2010)we asked students to tell us their re-

motivation strategies when they gotdemotivated. At the same time, many ofthem said that they were interested inknowing what other students hadcommunicated about re-motivatingthemselves, asking us to feed theirinformation back to them. So, we listed thetop 20 most popular ways that studentsreported re-motivating themselves andreturned them to the students. Their furtherfeedback indicated that they felt

empowered and connected to theirclassmates as well as a sense ofcompetence when seeing their own

strategies listed.

Most recently, we asked students at theend of a survey in April 2012 about theirideal classmates (Murphey, inPeerSpectives #9, 2012) and coded their

feedback (488 responses from students in4 universities) into 16 descriptors. Aroundmid-term in June, we looped the 16descriptors back to them asking threequestions of each descriptor with a 6-pointLikert scale: Is this important? Are yourclassmates doing this?, and, Are you doingthis? They confirmed that the 16 codeswere important (M=5.07), that theirclassmates were doing these things(M=4.09) and that they were doing them

(4.02). When we asked them at the end ofthe survey, simply, What do you think ofthis research? 25% of the students left itblank, but 64% answered positively,allowing us to see that some studentswere already reciprocally idealizing, i.e.thinking how they themselves could bemore ideal classmates (Murphey et al. inprogress).

We believe that individuals are interestedin reflecting on self-information, identifyingwith it, and cherry picking what eachdeems most helpful to them to improvetheir own lives. At times, they also dare totry something new that they think theircohorts are doing that works (cf. near peerrole modeling, NPRMing, Murphey andArao, 2001; Singh 2010).

We are working at present to frame this

study within Dynamic Systems Theory andpreparing it for a presentation at theAmerican Association for AppliedLinguistics (AAAL) in Dallas in March. Irealize that while much of the research indynamic systems refers to nature,machines, and computers, we are talkingabout socially intelligent dynamic (SINDY)systems, people working and studyingtogether and capable of learning aboutthemselves and improving themselves by

doing so. Thus, groups of people (classes,companies, etc.) who receive informationabout what their cohorts are thinking can


20


22/22

use such information to improve their workand lives.

So, the signature dynamics (Dornyei 2009)of a socially intelligent dynamic system (aSINDY System) seem to entail the

following: Such socially intelligent dynamicsystems are capable of

gathering, communicating, and reflectingon data about itself

interacting with other systems andlearning from them, while stimulatingmore feedback.

accepting that in complex systemsimprovements are incremental and at

times negatively oriented. (i.e. their willbe regressions, lapses, and dysfunctionsto deal with)

imagining being in the place of others(theory of mind/body), dreaming,pretending, and playing

agentizing the agents (group members)which at times permits them to striveeven in the face of overwhelmingadversity (Quixotically).

Finally, when individuals sync their agencytogether in groups and teams, they creategroup agency, a form of social capital ofsocially intelligent dynamic systems.

Many thanks to Joe Falout for languagingsome of these concepts out with me overseveral coffees.

References

Note: You can find our JALT 2012 handouton the 16 codes and a bigger list ofreferences at this link: http://www3.hp-ez.com/hp/englisheducation/page3

Dornyei, Z. (2011). Research complexdynamic systems: Retrodictive qualitativemodelling in the language classroom.Language Teaching Online: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/

Falout, J., Murphey, T., Elwood, J., &Hood, M. (2008): "Learner voices:Reflections on secondary education". In:

Bradford Watts, Kim/Muller, Theron/Swanson, Malcolm (eds.) (2008):JALT2007 Conference Proceedings. JALT,Tokyo: 231243.

Falout, J., & Murphey, T. (2010). "Loop it!

Student participatory research". In: Stoke,Alan (ed.) (2010): JALT2009 ConferenceProceedings. JALT, Tokyo: 370380.

Murphey T, Arao H. (2001). Reported beliefchanges through near-peer role modeling.TESL-EJ 5:A1A15.

Murphey, T., & Falout, J. (2010). Criticalparticipatory looping: Dialogic memberchecking with whole classes. TESOL

Quarterly 44 (4) 811-821.

Murphey, T., Falout, J., Fukada, Y., &Fukuda, T. (2012). Group dynamics:Collaborative agency in presentcommunities of imagination. In S. Mercer,S. Ryan & M. Williams (eds.). Psychologyfor language learning: Insights fromresearch, theory and practice (pp.220-238).

Murphey, T., Falout, J., Fukuda, T. &Fukada, Y. (in progress). Socio-dynamicmotivating through idealizing classmates.(submitted Jan 2013)

Singh, S. (2010). Near-peer role modeling:The fledgling scholars educationparadigm. Jan/Feb Anatomical SciencesEducation Anat Sci Educ 3:5051


PeerSpectives

The PeerSpectives team welcomes commentsand feedback. If you would like to submit a paper,make a comment or get involved, please get intouch.

Send attached files [email protected]

http://peerspectivesonline.org/
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/http://journals.cambridge.org/action/http://journals.cambridge.org/action/http://www3.hp-ez.com/hp/englisheducation/page3http://www3.hp-ez.com/hp/englisheducation/page3http://www3.hp-ez.com/hp/englisheducation/page3http://www3.hp-ez.com/hp/englisheducation/page3http://peerspectivesonline.org/http://journals.cambridge.org/action/http://journals.cambridge.org/action/http://peerspectivesonline.org/http://peerspectivesonline.org/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://journals.cambridge.org/action/http://journals.cambridge.org/action/http://journals.cambridge.org/action/http://journals.cambridge.org/action/http://www3.hp-ez.com/hp/englisheducation/page3http://www3.hp-ez.com/hp/englisheducation/page3http://www3.hp-ez.com/hp/englisheducation/page3http://www3.hp-ez.com/hp/englisheducation/page3

Documents

Peerspectives Issue 10