In this issue:

FIVE FEATURE
ARTICLESTWO ON ONLINETEACHING, THREE ON
FACE-TO-FACE
TEACHING

CUE CIRCULARISSUE 12SEPTEMBER

2021

News and articles from the JALT College and University Educators Special Interest Group

Kurume University, in Kurume, Fukuoka

Photo by Alex Cameron

The new “normal”?
At this stage, it’s getting hard to remember what “normal” ever was, isn’t it? Let’s thinkback… classrooms full of maskless faces, pairwork, students mingling, interacting… Not
to mention, of course, heading back to the teachers’ room to discuss it all withcolleagues over coffee or lunch. I for one would feel pretty lost if I woke up into a world
where that was all miraculously back on the cards!
CUE Circular was started with those teachers’-room discussions in mind, as a venue for
writing about the day-to-day realities and practicalities of our work. Well, that’s
something that hasn’t changed! The articles in this issue not only continue that tradition
but once again draw a nice balance between online class and face-to-face class concerns.

CUE CIRCULAR 9/2021

Kristie Collins and Jason Morgan discuss an intervention that got Zoom cameras turnedback on and students enjoying learning together over distance. Meredith Stephens shares
what the last year and half has been like as a teacher who, prior to the pandemic, usedtechnology in teaching only minimally. Richard Ingham shares what he learned when he
had to become familiar with the phonemic alphabet, Glen Hill discusses how students andteachers view English teachers’ roles in preparing students for their zemi classes and howthat informed grammar teaching, and finally Dion Clingwall and Chris Colpitts address
the use of smart devices in writing classes.
I hope you enjoy this issue of CUE Circular.

Steve Paton, Editor

Feature articles
The Great Reitaku Switcheroo: Zoom classes as real—
not virtual—learning experiences

3

Kristie Collins and Jason Morgan

Learning the International Phonemic Alphabet

7

Richard Thomas Ingham
Grammar tidbits offline
Glen Hill

10

Maintaining the student-teacher relationship, and adapting
resources to online teaching
Meredith Stephens

13

Encouraging students to write using mobile devices
Chris Colpitts and Dion Clingwall

15

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Feature articles
The Great Reitaku
Switcheroo: Zoom
classes as real—not
virtual—learning
experiences
Kristie Collins and Jason
Morgan, Reitaku University
Associate Professor Kristie
Collins does research on female
singleness and foreign female
academics in Japanese higher
education.
kristiecollins@yahoo.com
Associate Professor Jason
Morgan studies Japanese
history and political and legal
philosophy.
jmorgan@reitaku-u.ac.jp

In a previous issue of CUE Circular,
James W. Porcaro (2020) noted that theclassroom is not a “stage for a dress
rehearsal for a later performance in the‘real world’…. It is the real world itself” (p.
9). He also reminded us of Betty Azar's
view on grammar-based teaching, where
in a classroom, “communicative practicemeans real people are communicating inreal time about real things in a real place
for a real purpose” (Azar, 2007, p. 7). The
unprecedented shift to online classes
during the coronavirus pandemic has
exacerbated the already-present tendency
to think of education as divorced from“the real world,” unconnected to life
outside of the classroom. While students
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and teachers have been spending moretime online than ever before (seeAndrews, 2020), many students andteachers routinely refer to online classes
as “virtual,” indicating that even as manyof our commercial and social exchanges
move to cyberspace, many of us continue
to see Zoom lessons—the ultimate inhigh-tech connectivity—as ironicallyunconnected from real life.
Like many of our colleagues, we watchedwith growing concern as our students, one
by one, virtually disappeared from virtual
classes. At the beginning of the online
experiment in the early spring of 2020,
most of our students kept their cameras
turned on during Zoom classes. But astime went on, the cameras were turned
off. We lost the vital facial connection
with our classes, already tenuous due tothe electronic medium, and,
subconsciously in many ways, we began torevise our lessons to work around thisnew absence of the face from theeducational experience. In other words,
we began tacitly to accept the bias that theclassroom really is, in the end,superfluous, a kind of backstage to reality,
a dressing room for the real world.
It was at this point that one of us, Collins,
proposed revisiting an idea which had
been in the works before the COVID
disruption: a rotation of instructors
through the five levels of Discussion on
Culture and Society (DCS) classes at our
institution. It was suggested on our
Google Classroom page—which we five3

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DCS teachers use to communicate about
textbooks, technical challenges, and otherclass-related matters—that we takeadvantage of Zoom to facilitate therotation idea that we had left behind in
the planning stages during pre-COVID
times. As a trial, the authors agreed to a
two-teacher class rotation. The results
were heartening, and we believe theexperiment could be repeated, mutatis
mutandis, with similarly positive resultsfor other teachers in a variety of classes.
What we are calling the Great Reitaku
Switcheroo need not be proprietary to us
or to Reitaku—the idea is simple, and theoutcome was too good to keep toourselves.
DCS classes use a common textbook
series, with textbook levels chosen to
match student TOEIC scores andplacement test results. Most DCS classmeetings, whether in-person or online,
are rooted in the textbook lessons. In ourclasses there is, as one would expect froma discussion class, a great deal of
discourse between teacher and students
and, in the breakout rooms, among
students themselves. However, while thetextbooks are excellent and the students
generally participate well using Zoom, thephenomenon of ghosting, or turning off
the camera and disappearing from theexchanges, leaving behind only adisembodied voice to take part incommunication, is almost universal.
Except for two or three brave holdouts,
the rest of the class is visually absent.
In order to break out of this rut andencourage students to return to theclassroom both visually and aurally, we

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decided to switch classes for one day. To
complete the break with routine, we alsodecided to give the textbooks a rest forthat one session. We wanted theSwitcheroo to be a change from routine, achance to engage anew with colleagues
and peers and to overcome the sometimes
disorienting faceless hyper-connectivity of
Zoom. Collins did a film and discussion
lesson on kindness, modified from alesson plan from film-english.com.
Morgan did a lesson, adapted fromanother class he teaches on Japaneseculture, on the hit film Kimetsu no Yaiba.
Collins’ lesson consisted of viewing ashort film, checking comprehension,
discussing themes related to the film, andbrainstorming ways we can perform
random acts of kindness in our everyday
lives. Having students watch the shortfilm ahead of time appeared to have beena good way to ease students into an
unfamiliar environment, especially given
the film’s emphasis on positive
interactions with others. Morgan’smaterials comprised a five-page packet
prepared beforehand using articles fromthe English-language website JAPANForward. The readings were also sharedahead of time, but were native-level andtherefore challenging. Morgan highlighted
key terms in green and went over thewords with the students at the beginningof class to help facilitate learning. Also,
most of the students were already familiar
with Kimetsu no Yaiba, having alreadyseen the movie, read the manga, or heard
about the plotline from friends or on thenews. This greatly enhanced the lessonand subsequent conversation and is4

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something to keep in mind when
implementing a Switcheroo of one’s own.
The lesson started with both classes
gathering in Collins’ Zoom room via a link
shared with both classes in a prior,“regular” session of DCS. Collins andMorgan briefly introduced themselves tothe other teacher’s class, and then Collins
offered a short overview of the
Switcheroo. She emphasized, as had been
agreed, that, as a gesture of courtesy to
the visiting teacher, students wereencouraged to turn on their cameras andleave them on for the duration of thespecial lesson. At the end of thepreliminaries, Morgan shared, via thechat function, the link to his own Zoom
class and asked students to wait for about
thirty seconds before clicking it. Morgan
then left Collins’ Zoom room, started up
his own Zoom session, and then let in thestudents from the joint session as theyeach clicked the link.
What happened next was almost magical.
In both Collins’ and Morgan’s Switcheroo
Zoom sessions, nearly every single
student—all but two with poor wi-fi
connections—turned on his or her
camera. The Zoom session was suddenly
alive with the semiotic richness of thehuman face. Students were nervous at
first. This was apparent by the relative
reticence of the group, and was confirmedby the answers to the survey which Collins
prepared and which the students in bothclasses were asked to fill out later. Soon
after that the classroom was hummingwith interaction. Discussions werevibrant, students were laughing andsmiling, and student uptake of newmaterial was noticeably improved. After
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the classes were finished, Collins andMorgan met in a new Zoom session andwere brimming with enthusiasm over theSwitcheroo, wondering if the students
enjoyed the experience as much as they
had. Fortunately, student satisfaction
with the experiment spoke for itself in thesurvey’s guest lecture reviews:“He told a joke to make everyone laughand said many funny something,” wrote
one student of Morgan.
“Because she laughed a lot and made theatmosphere of the class brighter,” wrote
another of Collins.
And most significantly, another student
wrote:“That was fresh and fun to me. Because it
was a different teacher and teaching
method than usual.”
What we realized through this exercise
was that the visuality of the Zoom
experience is crucial to the pedagogicalvalue of the medium. The Great Reitaku
Switcheroo surprised us, by acting as adeparture from the Zoom norm andtherefore opening up new ways to think
about Zoom as an educational tool. We
expected only to be sharing content—new
lessons—with one another’s classes, butwhat we found was that the students
themselves were also sharing, both by
speaking openly and by opening up thesemiotic field of the human visage forothers to “read” and understand. (Percy,
1981; Bergo, 2011). What is often almost
instinctively relegated to the status ofsecond-class educational experience,
namely the Zoom lesson, confirmed
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instead the primacy of reality inpedagogy, the complete lack of separation
between the classroom and “the realworld”. Social distancing, in other words,
brought our classes together in new andexciting ways and pointed the way toward
an even richer in-person experience
when, as we expect, Zoom sessions
eventually give way again to physicalpresence in shared classroom spaces.
While the past year of online teaching andlearning has presented us all with amultitude of challenges—from internet
connectivity, to new technology, to noisy
pets and family members unwittingly
joining our Zoom classes—we cannot
deny how remote emergency teaching has
also enabled some truly innovative
teaching and learning experiences to takeplace. Whether our DCS classes will be
conducted face-to-face or online thiscoming year, there is no doubt that wewill institute guest lectures as part of ourregular teaching plan, and we hope thatthe other instructors will join us to makefour of the thirty DCS class meetings
Switcheroos. We hope that students andteachers alike can look forward to as
fresh, revitalizing opportunities tointeract with students in a “real” way.

Azar, B. (2007). Grammar-basedteaching: A practitioner’s perspective.
TESL-EJ, 11(2). https://files.eric.ed.gov/
fulltext/EJ1064995.pdf
Bergo, B. (2011). The face in Levinas:
Toward a phenomenology of substitution.
Angelaki, 16(1), 17-39.
Donaghy, K. (2021). Can I help you withanything? Film English. https://filmenglish.com/product/can-i-help-youwith-anything/
Japan Forward association, Inc. (2021,
March 13) JAPAN forward. https://japanforward.com/
Percy, W. (1981). The message in thebottle: How queer man is, how queer
language is, and what one has to do withthe other. Farrar, Strauss and Giroux.
Porcaro, J. (2020). Dimensions of the realworld of the classroom, CUE Circular, 10,8-11. http://jaltcue.org/files/cuecircular/
CUE_Circular_Issue_10.pdf
Sotozaki, H. (2020). Kimetsu no Yaiba[Film]. Ufotable.

References
Andrews, T. M. (2020). Our iPhone
weekly screen time reports are throughthe roof, and people are ‘horrified’. The
Washington Post. (2020, March 25)
h t t p s :/ / w w w .w a s h i n g t o n p o s t .c o m /technology/2020/03/24/screen-timeiphone-coronavirus-quarantine-covid/

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Learning theInternational
Phonemic Alphabet
Richard Thomas Ingham, The
British Council
Richard Thomas Ingham
works for the British Council
at a private university inJapan. His research interests
include pronunciation andpodcasting.
richard.ingham@britishcouncil.or.jp

I was vaguely aware of the International
Phonetic Alphabet’s (IPA) existence prior
to becoming a teacher, havingoccasionally noted some strange-looking
letters in dictionaries. During my CELTA
training more than ten years ago, I
learned of Adrian Underhill’s Sound
Foundations chart (here), which elegantly
lays out the sounds of English indiagrammatic form. Unfortunately, for along time I remained oblivious to the
IPA’s usefulness, until two events caused
me to learn it and then to subsequently
begin actively applying it in my teachingcontext. Firstly, I watched a YouTube
video from Adrian Underhill. In just overan hour, he clearly illustrates theorganisation of the chart, where and how
specific sounds are made, and how thosesounds relate to each other. My second
reason for learning the IPA was due to theCambridge DELTA qualification that I
undertook last year. In order to pass thewritten exam, it was necessary totranscribe some parts of connectedspeech, and this proved to be a good
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reason to finally learn it. Although on a
personal level it was useful for passing my
DELTA test, I hope to relate through thisarticle how learning to read and write the
IPA may also provide a multitude ofbenefits for English learners within
Japan.
Word Level Pronunciation Benefits
Firstly, knowledge of the IPA has helped
my learners with pronunciation at theword level. For example, the word “close”
as a verb (/ˈkloʊz/), and as an adjective(/ˈkloʊs/) are spelt in the same way yet
pronounced differently. I feel that the IPA
provides an excellent medium to visuallydemonstrate these kinds of differences tolearners. I have also used it to highlightthe pronunciation differences between
different “Englishes”. For instance, thepronunciation of the country “Iraq”
differs between British English (/ɪˈrɑːk/)and American English (/aɪˈræk/).
Additionally, I have been able to draw
attention to problematic sounds in myclasses. By way of illustration, thedifference between work (/wɜːk/) andwalk (/wɔːk/) can be particularly taxing
for Japanese learners. A key difference
here is in lip rounding: they are wider in
the /ɜː/ sound of work and more roundedin the /ɔː/ sound of walk. As I learnt more
about pronunciation, I was able to help
learners improve their speaking accuracy
by showing more precisely how specificsounds are physically generated, e.g.,
from the shape of the mouth, position ofteeth and tongue, etc. A further benefit inthis area is that my active use of the IPA
in class has helped to promoteautonomous learning. As learners’
knowledge of the symbols has increased,
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they have been able to sound out the
pronunciation of words in theirdictionaries by themselves. Thus, sincelearning to read and write IPA, I havebeen able to provide several tangible
benefits for learners with theirpronunciation at the word level.
Connected Speech Benefits
Whilst the IPA has clear use at the wordlevel, I feel that this knowledge reallycomes into its own in helping learners
with connected speech. This is somethingthat Japanese EFL learners often struggle
with, as they are often unaware of theways in which the individual sounds ofEnglish are changed in fluent speech.
Increased knowledge of pronunciation
has helped my learners through many
areas of connected speech, for example,
assimilation. Assimilation occurs when asound in one word causes the sound in aneighbouring word to change. Thus, inthe request “Could you give me thatmagazine?”, the /d/ sound in “could'' andthe /y/ sound in “you” are combined tomake the sound /dʒ/ (“Couldja”).
Assimilation occurs with other sounds
and sound combinations, too. For
example, when words that end in a /d/,/z/, or /dz/ sound are followed by a wordthat begins with a /y/ sound, those twosounds will combine. I have found thathighlighting sound changes such asassimilation in connected speech helps
learners to be better able to pronounce
sound combinations, thereby building
their fluency and making their English
sound more natural. Knowledge of the
IPA has been vital in this regard.

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Listening Comprehension Benefits
An additional use of the IPA is throughhelping learners with their listening skills.
A major problem affecting students inJapanese EFL environments is that they
are provided with few opportunities toconverse with native speakers. Learners
are often unfamiliar with how native
speakers really talk, and this can clearlyinterfere with their understanding of
spoken English. This problem iscompounded by the listening materials
frequently used in classrooms in Japanthat are characterised by slow andinauthentic dialogues (Yanagawa, 2016).
As a result, whilst my learners perform
adequately well in standardised listening
tests, they often admit to finding thecomprehension of fluent, rapid speech
problematic. I found that through use ofactivities that involved using the IPA, I
could highlight ways that fluent speakers
really talk, thereby improving mylearners’ listening skills.
Learning the IPA
Despite initial reservations, learning the
IPA was simple. I made practice
flashcards on Quizlet, used an app
designed by Macmillan, and within aweek I had learnt the additional 25
symbols that I needed for transcriptions.
As for my learners, most already had atleast a basic awareness of the IPA,
because they had studied it in junior andsenior high schools. The textbook we usedin class had regular pronunciation
sections, so I made sure to use these as
and when they came up. The students
gradually built on their prior knowledgeof IPA as we proceeded through the year.

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Use in the Classroom
The key benefits for learners were theways in which this readily available yet
underutilized resource was actively
applied in the classroom. I ensured that
we had posters of the Sound Foundations
chart around the classroom, and I also
had a live sound chart on my tablet. With
these two resources, I provided ways tovisually and audibly demonstrate thesounds when needed. With regards topronunciation practice, whilst I adopted
the maxim of “little and often”, I used thesymbols from the IPA in many situations.
For example, use of the IPA was useful for
focused pronunciation on isolated sounds
that the students found difficult. I also
found it particularly useful to support
choral drilling by highlighting elements ofconnected speech. In such cases, I would
write the symbols underneath the English
to highlight areas of focus, for example,
the assimilation mentioned above.
Additionally, I found IPA useful in an ad
hoc fashion for emergent language, or
when I noted pronunciation problems
during speaking classes, thus providing a
useful means to give valuable feedback tostudents on their speaking skills. Finally,
my knowledge was also useful to help
listening through highlighting of
connected speech in listening dialogs. As
an example, I recently demonstrated how
the simple phrase “I don’t know” wasactually spoken as /aɪ dənəʊ/. Overall, I
found many uses for the IPA in myclasses, and the feedback from mystudents relating to its use was andremains very positive.

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Conclusion
In conclusion, I feel that learning the IPA
and applying it in my classes has beenhighly beneficial to my learners. Firstly, it
has helped students with pronunciation at
the level of individual sounds and also at
the word level. Secondly, by focusing onconnected speech, it has enabled learners
to speak English more fluently. Finally, as
an added benefit of increased knowledgeof connected speech, it has also helped
learners to improve their listening skills.
For the relatively short time required tolearn it, I feel that becoming familiar with
the IPA is a very worthwhile investment.
References
Underhill, A. (n.d.). The pronunciation
charts.
https://www.adrianunderhill.com/thepronunciation-charts/
Yanagawa, K. 2016. Examining theauthenticity of the Center Listening Test:
Speech rate, reduced forms, hesitationand fillers, and processing levels. JACET
Journal, 60, 97–115

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Grammar tidbits
offlineGlen Hill, Obihiro University ofAgriculture and Veterinary
Medicine
Glen Hill has been teaching
English in Japan since 1998.
He currently teaches ER andtechnical writing.
glenahill@gmail.com

By the time students begin their studies atuniversity in Japan, they have had at leastsix years of English coursework in juniorand senior high school. Much of it isgrammar-based, and toward the end of
their secondary education, it becomes
more a matter of preparing for college
entrance exams than practicing
communicative English. Regardless, thegrammatical foundations are there,
whether the students are aware of them ornot.
At my national university, whose student
body consists solely of science majors, thecurriculum requires only three courses ofEnglish for graduation. These are
distributed as one course per semester for
the first year and a half of a student’s
university life. A 2015 survey that I
conducted among third- and fourth-year
students showed that about 80% statedthey do nothing to improve or build upon
their English fluency after the mandatory
courses end. This was a disturbing but notentirely surprising result.
The science teachers were also surveyed,and it was interesting to see overlap
between them and the students when
asked what both groups felt the English
teachers should do to help prepare
students for their third- and fourth-year
zemi studies in which they were often
required to read scientific journals (Table1). Teaching scientific terms is unfeasible
because of the variety of non-overlapping
majors. Using scientific texts in class isdifficult at best for students with such lowlevels of English (based on TOEIC scores).
What remains is an ill-defined “basic
English”, something they should havealready received sufficiently prior toentering the university.

Table 1.
Results of an on-campus survey of students and science faculty

What should English teachers do to prepare
students for zemi?

Teachers a(n = 32)

Students b(n = 152)

Teach scientific terms in English

518

Teach basic English and sentence structure3

21

Use scientific texts in class2

36

Miscellaneous

1

32

No response

1245

aVarious course majors, representing ~33% response rateb137 agriculture majors (3rd/4th year), 15 veterinary medicine majors (4th/5th year); overall a 32% response rate

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English courses at the university
constitute separate cohorts (reading,composition, and oral communication) in
the first two semesters, each taught by adifferent teacher. That dynamic makes it
difficult to provide the basic English
training. Each of the three courses has its
own full syllabus of materials, and not allteachers are willing to add to their alreadyfull workload for students. In fall of 2020,
I thought I would experiment with some
supplementary grammar to my secondsemester reading course for freshmen byoffering Japanese-language materials
outside of class.
Based on grammatical mistakes I saw
over the years in homework from the
freshman reading courses and a secondyear writing course, I chose six “grammar
points” (Table 2) that I thought theyneeded and that could be explained easily
with some available Japanese-language
reference books. The explanatory sections
for the grammar points were offered as
online study files a week before a quiz was
given. I did not cover anything in thoseJapanese explanations myself but merely
assigned them with the instruction thatstudents would have a quiz. It was up tothem to review and prepare. Students
were aware that these tidbits of grammar
points would count for part of their final
grade in the course and were not merely aself-study tool.
Quizzes were made using the drills in
Grammar In Use Intermediate (Murphy,2016) as models. They were given online,
during class, on Moodle in the form ofmultiple-choice questions usually with acomputer-controlled timer set for 5-12
minutes (Table 2). The first two quizzes
had no timer, but Moodle logs provided
data on how long students took tocomplete them, so subsequent quizzes
were made with timing constraints thatapproached what most students werecapable of completing.
The grades for the quizzes showed thatstudents did fairly well but had not
perfected their knowledge of thesegrammar points (Table 3), as evidenced
by the range of students with correct
answers (59.2% to 84.7%). An informal
poll during class asked students whether
these grammar points were deemed

Table 2.
Grammar points and quiz settings

2

No. of quiz
questions10Timer(min)*
none

so, such

5

15

none

for, since, while

7

15

5

much, many, few, a lot, a little

11

21

10

still, yet, already, anymore, no longer

12

16

10

too, enough

13

18

12

Grammar point content

Week*-ed vs. –ing adjectives*Schedule when grammar items were assigned, quiz 1-week later; 15-week course schedule

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Table 3.
Scores for each grammar point quiz

Quiz number

Average score/total

Average % correct

1

6.97/1069.7

No. ofStudents*
992

8.88/15

59.2

101

3

11.40/15

76.0

96

4

13.10/21

62.3

95

5

13.56/16

84.7

97

6

14.17/18

78.7

88*Varied with attendance

useful as review from their high schooldays, and the majority (unrecorded) said
yes.
The average scores were neither
extremely high nor low, suggesting thatthe intermediate level of grammar thatwas provided was a suitable one. It is notknown whether students actually studied
the files or merely relied on memory toattempt the quizzes. Moodle contains logs
of whether students visited the link where
the grammar point material was provided,
but it would be a challenging task todetermine a differentiation of scores
between which students did or did notopen the link, and how much time theyspent studying the grammar point.
No follow up was made to ask students
whether they felt this means of
independent study of the materials was
acceptable for reviewing the grammar,
but a similar set of presentations ofgrammar points is underway for freshmen
in 2021, with feedback planned on thatissue and others. Had such a survey been
conducted last year, it is hard to say what

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students’ reactions would be. The year
2020 was a new experience for students
during the coronavirus pandemic. They
were forced to learn technology in allonline English courses as well as most of
their science courses. Furthermore,science teachers generally gave more
homework than usual in order to satisfy
university demands for confirming
attendance. The volume of other online
course work, coupled with the difficulties
associated with learning to use newplatforms, might have affected student
views on being given these grammar
points as self-directed review.
References
Murphy, R. (2016). Maafii no kenburiji
eibunhou [Grammar in use
intermediate]. Japanese bilingual edition.
Cambridge.

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Maintaining thestudent-teacher
relationship, andadapting resources toonline teaching
Meredith Stephens, Tokushima
University
Meredith Stephens is a
professor of applied linguistics.
She researches English language
pedagogy, and has publishedshort stories internationally.
meredithstphns@gmail.com

Prior to the pandemic, I used minimal
technology in my classroom, and I confessto having had an aversion to technology inlanguage teaching. This was because
students complained about online
learning programs featuring traditional
methodologies such as comprehension
exercises, multiple choice exercises, andfill in the blanks. I eschewed such
exercises because I was inspired by
Bruner’s (1996) notion that learning “isbest when it is participatory, proactive,
communal, collaborative, and given overto constructing meanings rather thanreceiving them” (p. 84). No wonder manyof my students tended to dislike online
learning programs; they tended not to
conform to any of the conditions specified
above by Bruner.
I was also influenced by Van Manen(2015), who highlighted the importance ofthe physical presence of the teacher
through eye contact, voice, gestures, and
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presence. He explained that eye contact
on a screen was qualitatively different
from eye contact in person. He compared
the toxic nature of plastic in baby bottles
to that of technology in teaching: “thechemistry in the technology of media andteaching has become toxic for ourstudents” (p. 110).
I was able to witness the benefits of inperson teaching in my classroom, and myobservations seemed to confirm what Van
Manen was arguing. I had my students
regularly change partners as they engagedin pair work. The students would be
paired into Partners A and B, and every
time the conversational topic waschanged, Partners B would moveclockwise around the classroom to thenext Partners A. I would observe theexpressions on the students’ faces as they
engaged in conversation, and many ofthem were animated, engaged, andsmiling. I considered that this was
because their communication was“participatory, proactive, communal,collaborative, and given over toconstructing meanings rather thanreceiving them” as Bruner (1996, p. 84)
specified.
My views changed during the pandemic
when I was forced to abandon in-person
teaching in favour of the Zoom online
platform. Unaccustomed to using online
resources, I had to quickly master thisnew medium. A JALT colleague in Kansai,
Curtis Kelly, kindly sent me some videos
on how to use Zoom, and my daughter sat
at my side during the beginning of eachlesson to help me as I started to use thisnew technology from home.
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My desktop computer, books, and otherresources were in my university office, but
I could no longer gain entry to the campus
from my distant locale. My only guide was
the university’s online syllabi which I
accessed from my laptop at home. I had tofind online teaching resources to matchthe syllabi. Thankfully, I managed to find
free online resources that were evenbetter than those in my office. The British
Council provides a range of resources
covering the four skills, grammar,
vocabulary, business English, and IELTS.
The video zone on their website Learn
English(https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/generalenglish/video-zone) was particularly
useful.

required class, for 15 minutes in every
lesson:(https://www.bbc.co.uk/
learningenglish/english/features/
pronunciation).

These videos are a few minutes induration and are designed to cover upperintermediate (CEFR level B2) andadvanced (CEFR level C1) levels. They
begin with a warm-up exercise, andfeature a video with a transcript. I send
the students the video link a few days
before the Zoom class. During the class, I
play the video first without the transcript
and then with it. Next, we complete thefeatured comprehension exercises. Of
course, I am not a fan of comprehension
exercises, but I concede that spending fiveminutes doing them probably helps
students consolidate new vocabulary.

For my trainee teachers’ class, I use“Classroom teaching tips with The
Teachers' Room” (https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/classroom_teaching). These videos cover
topics such as word stress, error
correction, vocabulary, how to give
instructions, intonation, reading,
dictation, collocations, grammar, songs,
using realia, speaking, listening, writing
and using social media. The presenters
are lively, humorous, and engaging. I
follow up each video with written
assignments asking students to write 100
words summarizing the video and 100
words explaining how they would use
these in their classrooms. In the latter,they have to integrate this with a lesson
from one of the prescribed English
language middle or high school textbooks
from our university teaching library, sothat they can adapt these videos toJapanese pedagogical requirements.

My other preferred online resource isLearning English (see previous link). This
resource covers grammar, vocabulary,pronunciation, news, and business, andhas sections for teachers as well as
children’s stories with audio. I use thepronunciation section with a second-year
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The presenter provides important tips on
pronunciation that learners in Japan are
generally unaware of. The video clips
feature the pronunciation of ordinary
people in city parks and other public
places, and some of them are slowed
down so that learners can easily observe
lip movement. The presenter is animated,
and there is quirky humour at the end of
every video clip. Each lesson concludes
with a simple written explanation tosummarize the featured pronunciation
point.

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Finally, I will explain how I overcame myaversion to technology in language
teaching. My concerns were whether I
could establish and maintain rapport
online. I was less concerned aboutteaching students on Zoom who I had
previously taught in the traditionalclassroom. I was concerned about
students whom I had never met in person.
It has been over a year since I started
teaching this latter group, and I canreport that it is possible to establish
rapport with them. I can see all of thestudents’ faces at an equal distance. I canengage with them in paired discussions atregular intervals in breakout rooms. I
hope I can meet these students one day inperson, but teaching online has notprevented me from establishing rapport.
Also, I concede that technology has givenme speedy and convenient access toquality online resources.
References
Bruner, J. (1996). The culture of
education. Harvard University Press.
Van Manen, M. (2015). Pedagogical tact:
Knowing what to do when you don’tknow what to do. Routledge.

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Encouraging students
to write using mobile
devices
Chris Colpitts, Fukuoka
University, and Dion
Clingwall, Prefectural
University of Hiroshima
Chris Colpitts started in Japanas an ALT 20 years ago and has
spent the last ten years
teaching at Fukuoka University.
chriscolpitts@hotmail.com
Associate Professor Dion
Clingwall’s research interests
include productive vocabulary,oral fluency, and task-type forspeaking assessment.
dclingwall@pu-hiroshima.ac.jp

This short article offers insights into afirst-year Japanese university writingclass where students were not only
allowed to utilize their smartphones (ortablets) but actively encouraged to do so.
This particular lesson approach has beenused regularly by both the authors.
Without question, there exists a range of
opinions on whether students should beallowed to access the internet during classtime. However, regardless of how
individual instructors feel, there is no
debate about the usefulness of language
learning tools currently available online.
An important aspect of these language
learning tools is whether students shouldbe allowed to use mobile devices duringclass time to access online resources andcomplete specific tasks. This article

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argues that one effective approach toclassroom writing tasks is employing a
combination of traditional writing
instruction and web-based technology.
Student expectations andmotivation
Most Japanese university students,
regardless of faculty or department, arerequired to take an English course during
their first (or second) year of study. Thus,
students arrive in writing classes from awide variety of academic backgrounds,
with differing levels of motivation and abroad range of expectations. For example,
some students have no interest in English
but expect and are prepared to complete
homework and write weekly essays, whileothers are excited about English but
assume there will not be much more thana final exam. It is up to the instructor topull together whatever disparate group of
students might arrive in class andmotivate them to write in English andhopefully learn something while doing so.
To that end, we feel that mobile devices
such as smartphones or tablets can play avaluable role in achieving this goal.
Initial class goals
Two of the critical goals of this first-year
Japanese university writing class were toincrease both student motivation andproductive output (as mentioned in the
introduction, both of the authors havetaught this course). Motivation is vital forthe success of a lesson, especially whenhoping to see overall progress and specificwriting skill development. With this inmind, we attempted to increase
motivation using the following
approaches:
JALT CUE SIGi) short, focused, productive writing
tasks: Bursts of an intensive writing
activity is one such effective method wehave found that keeps students energized,
attentive, and productive.
ii) individualization: Having a personal
stake in the content creates genuine andsustained interest and leads to more
personalized writing.
iii) student-generated topics: Based on
student journals (in-class or online
submissions) and classroom discussion,
we suggest topics or themes that thestudents themselves have suggested.
iv) interactive and student-driven/
learner-driven class: The instructor
interacts continuously with students while
they write about an individualized theme.
We have found that this combination ofteacher-student interaction and studentgenerated topics seems to increase
motivation and commitment, as thestudent becomes vested in the task in apersonal, direct manner.
We have found that this combination ofindividualization and learner-focused/learner-generated topics is an effective
way to generate writing exercise content,
based on subject matter drawn directlyfrom the students (in-class discussions,student journals, and free-writing
content). We also suggest that using
student-generated topics also leads to anincrease in overall production (based on
word-level analysis with the word countfeature of Microsoft Word) and anincrease in the range of low-frequency
vocabulary found in the written text
(based on word-level analysis using thefreely available, online lexical analysis site
“Lextutor vocabprofiler”:
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https://www.lextutor.ca/). Furthermore, inthis class students complete writing tasks
every week. In so doing, there is a focus
on production, repetition, and a wide
variety of exercises.
Three-components principle
We now build on the above approaches byapplying what we call the “threecomponents principle”. These
components are intended to create awriting class that fosters progress, flows
more efficiently, and allows students totrack their own skill development.
To begin, the instructor makes clear to thestudents that all tasks consist of threedifferent components. During the firsttwo components, students are rewarded
for taking risks (e.g., using
unconventional phrases or structures),being creative, and using low-frequency
vocabulary. Students’ efforts to express
their ideas and opinions are highly valued
in these tasks.
Although mobile devices are not usedduring the first two stages, they areencouraged for the third component. We
have found that this approach to writing
tasks leads to consistent production of awider range of expressions, an increase in
low-frequency vocabulary, and more
complex grammar usage (e.g., conditional
constructions, relative pronouns, etc.).
The manner in which the devices are used
and which applications the students
choose are up to the students. As
instructors we do however, beginningwith the first class and continuing
throughout the semester, introduce
various applications and websites (e.g.,
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online translators (translate.com, yandex,etc.), grammar practice (Quizlet,
Memrise, etc), and vocabulary acquisition(Praxis, British Council, etc.) among
others.
Now to consider the three writing task
components specifically, here is theirbreakdown:
Freewriting – task component 1
Students choose a topic from among a
range that, beginning in the first class, aretaken from student-generated content
such as journals, classroom discussion,etc. Students write freely about this topic
for a given time period.
Students carry out short, focused,productive writing tasks. They areprovided with specific time limits, 5 to 10
minutes, and are encouraged to write asmuch and as fast as possible (using either
paper and pen if in a regular classroom,
or using the computer if in a computer/
CALL lab). It is important that students
are not penalized for errors, and they are
not allowed to use a mobile device during
this first component. While the students
are writing (in their notebooks), theinstructor walks around the classroom
encouraging the students, answering
questions when asked, and reminding
them that mistakes are acceptable andwill not be graded. Given this short timeframe and no access to a mobile device,
students rely on their productive lexical
resource to write about the topic.
Writing to communicate – task
component 2

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Students revisit their freewriting andattempt to rewrite it with a specific target
audience in mind, intending to adjust thecontent accordingly, and with as muchdetail as possible, specifically verbs,
adjectives, and adverbs.
In this second component, again for 5 to
10 minutes, students are asked to readthrough and then re-write theircomponent one draft. This time, however,they are asked to write for the purpose ofcommunication. This means they need tochoose a target audience and include as
much specific detail as possible. Students
are asked to focus on more precise verbs,
adjectives, and adverbs, as well as tomake notes in their notebook (in English
or Japanese) about terms, phrases, orgrammatical points that they would liketo look up during component three. The
instructor highlights the difference
between general and precise terminology
at this point of the lesson. During thissecond component as well, the instructor
continues to give feedback to thestudents.
Consolidation and expansion – task
component 3
Students then revisit their writing for asecond time and use their smartphones ortablets to update, correct, and edit theirwork.
For this final component, students have
10 to 15 minutes to freely use their mobile
devices. They are encouraged to further
research the topic they have written about
in the first two components and add
content if they would like. Students also
use this time to find words or phrases that
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more accurately describe the point they
are attempting to convey. By waiting until
the third component to use mobile
devices for correcting and editing theirwork, students develop a clear picture ofwhat they would like to say and a better
sense of where their productive English
knowledge is lacking. Throughout thisfinal component, the instructor offers thestudents more specific and detailed
feedback than in the previous twocomponents.
Ongoing feedback
Suggestions, although always brief, begin
with general commentary during the firstcomponent and gradually become moredetailed as the students work through thethree iterations of their papers.
Continuous, corrective feedback helps tobuild a relationship between the
instructor and students while encouraging
them to seek more specific vocabulary
and detailed phrasing. When the allottedtime for part three concludes, students
hand in all versions of their essays (either
handwritten or printed out) for a closer
examination by the instructor, who marks
and edits them accordingly and returns
them in the next class.
Final feedback and supplementaltasks
At the outset of the next class, the essays
are returned to the students followed by ashort discussion about common errors
and general problems. The students arethen given a chance to read through the
instructor feedback and ask questions.
An optional task that has been very
successful in raising awareness of18

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problems within student writing is to split
the class into groups of four or five andhave students give a short summary
presentation of their essay. This summary
reinforces the new expressions, grammar,
and vocabulary within a student’s
accessible L2 knowledge. At this time, theinstructor makes notes, offers
suggestions, and provides further
encouraging feedback.
Justification for this approach
We feel that monitoring in-class writing
provides both instructors and students
ongoing and specific insight into students’
writing skills. Furthermore, by having
students write during class time, we wereable to gain a clearer sense of ourstudent’s ability, level of proficiency, andthe challenge it may be to carry out
writing tasks. Finally, by completing thistask in class we were able to control the
degree to which students utilize theirmobile devices when completing
assignments (unlike with homeworkassignments).
Expanded writing tasks
We have also used this same approachwith larger writing projects. For example,
the blocks of time can be varied for as
long as a particular instructor deems
necessary, or as the task requires. Anotheroption is to carry out a writing task overmultiple classes whereby the instructor
collects the writing at the end of task 1,
and then returns the essay with specific
written feedback in the subsequent class.
Task 2 is then carried out, followed bytask 3 in the next class. For all of thesetasks, clear goals, time limits, andongoing feedback provide the student
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with both support and a framework
within which to work.
Conclusion
These conclusions are drawn from bothour own judgments as well as student
feedback via mid and end of term surveys.
Our experience suggests that writing tocommunicate quickly and efficiently, bothwith and without mobile-assisted
language learning tools creates a greater
connection between the student and theirwriting. Our students are invested in the
topic they are writing about and thus
appear to feel less constrained by lack ofknowledge and less concerned about
making errors. The ongoing andconsistent feedback helps to encourage
and guide our students as they navigate
their topic. Employing a mixed approach
regarding the use of mobile devices
appears to enhance both student writing
and their overall understanding of when it
is most appropriate to use a mobile
device. The errors they produce across thethree iterations of the task function as
useful measuring sticks for the teacher aswell as the students. We as teachers areable to track student progress, whilesurvey feedback from the students
indicates that they feel better able toidentify their own specific areas of
weakness. In this era of mobile devices,
instructors need to recognize the benefits
and allow students the opportunity toe mp l o y t h e s e d e vi c e s w h e n mo s t
beneficial.
References(Although this reference isn’t specificallycited in the article, it is a paper that bothof us have read and referred to when
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developing the online components ofthis writing class.)

CUE Circular
Issue #12, September 2021

Stockwell, G. (2010). Using mobile
phones for vocabulary activities:
Examining the effect of the platform.
Language Learning & Technology,
14(2), 95–110.

A publication of the JALT College andUniversity Educators Special Interest GroupISSN 2432-5570
All rights re se rve dw w w .j a l t c u e .o rg /c u e c i rc u l a r

EditorSteve Paton

Assistant Editors

Dion Clingwall
Mark Howarth

Proofreading

Mary Hillis
Ryan Richardson
Glen Hill

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