In this issue:

CUE AT PANSIG 2018

ARTICLES BY JAMES PORCARO, DANIELNEWBURY, AND RAB PATERSONCUE CIRCULARISSUE 6
AUGUST2018

News and articles from the JALT College and University Educators Special Interest GroupInternational Christian University, in Mikata, Tokyo

Photo by Tetsuya Fukuda

Enjoy the summer break
Welcome to our sixth issue, rounding out two full years of publication.
In this issue you’ll read about the SIG’s activities at this year’s PanSIG Conference inTokyo and find three feature articles on an interesting range of topics. James Porcaro
addresses the concerns of teachers nearing (or beyond!) retirement age, Daniel
Newbury shares a system of student to student feedback that he developed, and Rab
Paterson discusses the need for 21st-century skills to be a focus of any university’sreform program. The regular CUE Careers column is taking a break this issue and will
be back for our November edition with pertinent career advice that connects to thisyear’s JALT 2018 conference theme.
As this edition goes out to members, we’re likely all on summer break. What an ideal
opportunity to pen an article for a future edition of CUE Circular! What comes to mind

as you reflect on the first semester of this year?
What worked? What didn’t? What did you try,
notice, or create? Well-written, practical, downto-earth articles about the day-to-day realities ofteaching in our sector is what CUE Circular is allabout. Your fellow CUE SIG members would love
to read about your experiences, ideas, andobservations.
In the meantime, please enjoy this issue of CUE
Circular.

Steve Paton, Editor
CUE SIG at PanSIG 2018
CUE’s main event at the 2018 PanSIG Conference
was our forum, titled “Integrating non-textbook
tools into the classroom: What do you use? How
do you use it?”As in previous years, we had several presentersgive twenty-minute presentations on interestingclassroom-related topics. Daniel Teuber presentedon Role play using graded readers and movies,
Daniel Velasco showed a unique activity for Using
TV commercials to promote critical thinking andcultural understanding, Kazumi Kato described
her project-based activity for using iPad video
materials for teaching English group discussions,and Justin Pool presented about Menus, movie
clips, and online review websites: Exploring
authentic materials via a restaurant unit. All four
presenters showed the audience innovative ways
to supplement their syllabus or textbook activities
using original materials that engage the students,
get them to think critically about their language
learning, and help them become active learners.

The CUE forum at PanSIG 2018.
JALT CUE SIG

The forum was well attended with around thirty
participants who eagerly listened to thepresentations, asked thought-provoking
questions, and offered useful insights. Altogether,!2

CUE CIRCULAR 8/2018

this year’s PanSIG forum was a tremendous
success for presenters and audience members
alike.
CUE’s table in the SIG tables room also saw a lot of
activity with members stopping by to chat, otherconference attendees seeking information about
the SIG, and discussion about how we can continue
to provide support for our members.
Overall, the 2018 PanSIG Conference was a huge
success both for the PanSIG Conference planningcommittee and for CUE. We hope to continue our
tradition of offering insightful forum presentationsat our 2019 PanSIG forum, which will be held at
Konan University in Nishinomiya. Please look forour call for presenters in late fall.
Wendy M. Gough, JALT CUE SIG Coordinator

Feature articles
Teaching into one’s seventies

4

James Porcaro

Peer feedback through video, LINE,
and a rubric

6

Daniel Newbury

An e-Vangelical approach toprofessional development and 21stcentury teaching
Rab Paterson

JALT CUE SIG

8PanSIG Conference photos by
Jim George(used with permission)!3

CUE CIRCULAR 8/2018

Feature articles
Teaching into one’s
seventies
James W. Porcaro, Toyama
Kokusai Gakuen
James Porcaro started
teaching 50 years ago in
Uganda. He taught ESL in the
USA for many years and has
worked in Japan since 1985.
porcaro@pa.ctt.ne.jp

Now three years after the publication of
my article, “The age factor: Teaching inlater years”, in the OnCue Journal, I
would like to revisit that theme as I
continue my classroom teaching this year
(from April 2018) at the age of 73, almost
as actively as three years ago. Despite
having been forced to retire from myuniversity professorship at 65, I still teachas a part-timer at a university, a juniorcollege, a high school, and a company.
Indeed, I have been lucky to be able to doso. However, there is much truth in theadage “luck is what happens when
preparation meets opportunity.”
Therefore, for those teachers who want tocontinue teaching at the chalkface beyond
the usual age of (forced) retirement, I
would like to offer the following ten
preparation tips that may help you to
successfully meet the opportunity to doso.
1. Love what you do. That is to say, love
teaching students in a classroom. This
JALT CUE SIG

should go without saying. If you feelotherwise, if you lack passion, retire.
Now. Please.
2. Stay healthy and keep fit at normal
weight. Dress well and groom well. Look
professional. In your later years
especially, it is simply a fact of school lifethat your physical appearance must be
appealing, one of vigor, not of a tired,
washed out graybeard. Speaking for men,be clean shaven, and if you still have hairon your head, keep it cut short and neat.
Please believe me: these points about yourappearance and recognized level ofvitality are very important in school
officials’ consideration of offering toextend your part-time contract beyond
the usual retirement age.
3. Make the courses you teach unique andirreplaceable. To do so, throw away any
textbooks you may be using and createand develop all your materials and syllabi.
Own all your courses. Younger, part-time,cookie-cutter English teachers following a
textbook unit by unit are a dime a dozen,
and most school administrators care little
more than to have a warm body in theclassroom. You need to be very special
and make sure everyone knows it.
4. Seek and foster support from school
administrators (deans, principals, headteachers) who will decide to extend yourcontract or not, or who will appeal on
your behalf to higher school officials to let
you continue teaching at their school. Be
sure they know your unique syllabi and!4

CUE CIRCULAR 8/2018

materials, the exceptional way you
instruct in the classroom, and your highratings from students on course
questionnaires. Invite them into yourclassroom, or literally pull them into it (asI have done) if there is an opportunity, toobserve your lessons.
5. Continue to publish, particularly about
your special course work, so that you candemonstrate to your school
administrators (principals, head teachers,deans) that what you are doing is
recognized as exemplary within theprofessional teaching community.
6. Do ongoing narrative reflection to staymentally sharp and acutely aware of what
you are doing and why you are doing it.
Stay highly motivated to achieve youraims and purposes, and be able toarticulate to school administrators very
simply, clearly, and convincingly yourclaim to be permitted to continue
teaching.
7. Learn from skilled workers in otherfields. Look outside the classroom
confines for a broader view andinspiration. From time to time, forexample, I check my brother’s
woodworking blog (http://
www.rpwoodwork.com). He is an
ophthalmologist by trade and a masterwood craftsman by avocation. In a recent
blog he asked his readers, “Who’s
learning?” which led me to ask myself,“What have I recently learned in mypractice?” As one of the blog respondents
bluntly put it, “When you know it all it istime to quit because you are too dumb toknow how dumb you are.”
JALT CUE SIG

8. Seek and accept any offer to teachanything. I have been happily teaching ata couple of places whose offers I could
have declined with good reason(scheduling inconvenience, or unfamiliar
course content requiring a great amountof preparation and effort). Having
accepted the jobs, though, these are now
l o n g - s t a n d i n g , o n g o i n g , a n d ve r y
successful and rewarding parts of myteaching work.
9. Participate in events and projects at theinstitution. Do faculty development
seminars and high school lectures,lessons, or presentations as arepresentative of your college oruniversity. Show school officials not only
your commitment to the school but also
your invaluable contribution to it.
10. Value every lesson you give and yourinteraction with every class and withevery student. This is what it is all about.
As you approach mid-70s, there will not
be many more years left for theseprivileged experiences. Build a bank fullof them to enjoy now and cherish forever.
Good luck!
Reference
Porcaro, J. (2015). The age factor:
Teaching in later years. OnCue Journal,
8(2), 135-142.

!5

CUE CIRCULAR 8/2018

Peer feedback throughvideo, LINE, and arubricDaniel Newbury, Fuji
University
Daniel Newbury’s researchinterests are integrating
technology with language
learning and designing tasks
that balance fluency andaccuracy.
daniel@fuji-u.ac.jp

In class I often use discussion questions,presentations, debates, and other kinds ofopen tasks (those with no predeterminedlanguage goals) so that students have theopportunity to use language in realistic
ways. When carrying out these tasks,
students are free to focus on meaning,with accuracy often becoming anafterthought (Lynch, 2001). This kind ofless-structured approach may result inlanguage that is representative ofstudents’ true abilities, and with a processthat draws attention to accuracy, provides
a holistic approach to language learning.
On the other hand, not attending toaccuracy in open tasks may fossilize
incorrect language structures, as mistakes
may go unnoticed and students
incorporate these malformed structures
into their language repertoire for futureuse (Skehan, 1996).
I’ve asked other teachers about how theyfind a balance between fluency andaccuracy. One response I thought might
be effective is, during small-group
activities, to have one member act as a
JALT CUE SIG

moderator who focuses on the otherstudents’ output and provides relevant
feedback. In many cases this may besufficient, and it is an option worth trying.
I would like to introduce a method herethat works on similar principles and may
be more reliable in helping students catch
more errors in each other’s speaking. Thisis accomplished by supporting the processwith smartphone technology and a rubric.
Rubric-guided peer feedback
activity
Rubric-guided peer feedback, based on
Lynch’s “proof-listening” activity (2001),
is a framework that attempts to harness
our learners’ “book” or declarativeknowledge of English and, through peer
assessment, use that knowledge toprovide classmates with improvementfocused feedback. Three tools support thisprocess: a paper-based rubric, asmartphone equipped with a camera, andthe popular social networking andmessaging application LINE. The rubric
focuses on grammar structures that are
difficult for Japanese learners to master,
as described in previous documentation(Swan & Smith, 2010). The students’smartphones are used to capture their
output, offering the advantages ofmultiple playback and pausing abilities.
LINE is utilized to send other students
text messages, share videos, and otherfiles. One benefit of LINE is that privategroups can be created quickly, and with asimple invitation, the teacher can join thegroup and monitor its progress.

!6

CUE CIRCULAR 8/2018

Prerequisite student role changes
The success of this kind of activity relies
on students putting forth an honest effort
to listen to one another’s output andaccept peer review as directed by the
rubric. To increase the likelihood ofstudents doing this, I investigatedresearch on increasing learner motivation
to engage in small-group activities andfound a short, accessible write-up by
David Gann (2014). He outlines a set offactors that affect student engagement ingroup activities:
1) the concept of interlanguage,2) the relationship between language
competence and performance,3) cognizance and multiple
communication strategies, and4) the Vygotskian concept of the zone ofproximal development (ZPD).
Of these, supporting students’ mentor
role in the ZPD context is most applicable.
The role of the teacher is to provide thestudents with the tools that they can use
to step into the the position of “expert".
The students’ promotion to becoming anexpert/mentor whose job is to focus
critically on a classmate’s language can betenuous if the proper tools are not used toscaffold the process. The rubric equips thestudents with an authority to point out
their peers’ grammatical errors.
Preparation
Prior to the first speaking task, students
made small groups in LINE and invited
me to join their group. Next, we carriedout an activity for learning how to use therubric for peer assessment. For this, I
made a video containing intentional
JALT CUE SIG

errors in which I talked about myhometown. The video was shown one timein class after I had provided the students
with a partially completed rubric to guidethem in focusing on specific errors. I gavethem a short explanation on how to use
the rubric, covering its contents and how
to use the error coding system that it
includes. I shared the video to every LINE
group, and for homework students
watched my video and recorded the errors
using the rubric and the grammar codes.
In the next class, students comparedresults with each other, followed by me
providing them with a list of the errorsthat I had made.
Students’ turnStudents were asked to describe
something about Japanese culture thatthey had knowledge of and personal
experience with. They prepared a shortscript (100-word maximum) andpracticed reading it aloud. Next, theyrecorded themselves presenting theinformation in the scripts, and, since thiswas the first time doing this activity, I
allowed them to use the script (look but
not read) when making their videos. Oncethe students had checked their video andwere satisfied with things likepronunciation, intonation, and general
speed, it was time to upload it to theirsmall LINE group for the assessment task,
which was done as homework. The oneminute time limit was set because this isthe video file upload limit of someversions of LINE.
Outcomes
Success in finding each other’s errors
varied widely. I gauged this by comparing!7

CUE CIRCULAR 8/2018

their rubrics with the errors that I
personally documented from watching thevideos. As a follow-up activity, students
reviewed the rubrics that assessed theirown videos and then re-recorded with thegoal of improving upon the initialattempt. The students watched this final
recording and transcribed it so that I
could get an informal reading on whether
the activity had had the desired effect.
Finally, because the error-detection
exercise produced mixed results, I took
some of the errors that the students didn’t
identify and made an error-detection
worksheet as a follow-up activity. The
success rate in this activity was quite goodand is worthy of future investigation.
Overall, although this activity takes some
preparation, it encourages the students toconsider accuracy using the teacherdesigned rubric and is well supported byreadily available technology.
References
Gann, D. (2014). Increased motivation insmall group discussion through humanist
pedagogy. Critical Thinking andLanguage Learning, 1(1) 10-31.
Lynch, T. (2001). Seeing what they
meant: Transcribing as a route to
noticing. ELT Journal 55(2): 124-132.
Skehan, P. (1996). A framework for the
implementation of task-based instruction.
Applied Linguistics, 17(1), 38-62.
Swan, M., & Smith, B. (2001). Learner
English: A teacher’s guide to interference
and other problems (Cambridge
handbooks for language teachers).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
doi:10.1017/CBO9780511667121

JALT CUE SIG

An e-Vangelicalapproach toprofessional
development and 21stcentury teaching
Rab Paterson, Toyo University
Rab Paterson is a Fellowof The British Royal Asiatic
Society, a Google Innovator,
and an Apple Distinguished
Educator. He is interested
in innovative practices in
education and business.
rab.paterson@gmail.com

In the past few years many language
teaching departments at Japanese
universities have been reforming theirprograms. An analysis of the backgroundto and reasons for these reforms, and thereasons why they are needed, is outwith
the scope of this paper. However, there isa lack of consensus when it comes todefining and understanding
professionalism in teaching and in theway teaching should be approached in the
21st century.
The definition of what constitutes
professionalism in teaching is certainly
not standardised as it is in otherprofessional industries, such as banking
and medicine. This lack of agreement
among teachers becomes further
complicated when the teachers concerned
are from different cultural, educational,
and generational backgrounds, as is thecase in the university sector in Japan.
!8

CUE CIRCULAR 8/2018

This diversity in Japanese universities has
many benefits, such as exposing students
to different views of the world. However,in terms of teachers’ self image as
professionals, along with the diverse
opinions they hold towards
professionalism in general, in many ways
this diversity actually hinders rather thanhelps the efficient teaching of languages
in Japan, particularly if some of thoseviews of teaching are from a bygone age.
This suggests a need for teachers toradically re-examine their roles as
professionals and to develop anunderstanding of professionalism thatembraces 21st-century teaching methods.
This means developing a growth mindset(Dweck, 2007) approach to teaching thatreflects advances in digital literacy, digitalpedagogy (Paterson, 2014), teaching bestpractices, and 21st-century learning skills.
The role of digital literacy and digitalpedagogy in language teaching
curriculums may be contentious forcertain old-style / old-school teachers.
University teachers in Japan (and indeed
elsewhere) are not equally well versed indigital and information literacy and how
best to leverage those competencies intheir classrooms. On the one hand, there
are quite a few teachers that are very
digitally literate and very proficient atusing information technology andteaching information literacy skills intheir language classes. These teachers are
keeping up with evolving trends intechnology as they relate to education in
general and to language learning
specifically. These instructors are
regularly incorporating new techniques
JALT CUE SIG

and technology into their teaching. On theother hand, there are also teachers thatare capable of little more than sending
and receiving emails. The majority ofteachers, however, exist somewhere
between these two extremes.
Those teachers in the first, very digitally
proficient group can be further divided
into two groups. The first are thoseteachers referred to in the title of thisarticle as e-Vangelical professionals, asthese teachers not only possess these 21stcentury skills but openly preach the utility
and desirability of all teachers andstudents possessing them. These teachers
can be seen as being on the cutting edge
as they are educational innovators on theCategories of Innovativeness scale(Rogers & Rogers, 2003), shown in Figure
1.
These teachers strongly argue that their
universities’ educational reforms should
include the provision of classes to teachthese skills to students. Members of thisgroup are usually those that organise
official and unofficial training workshops
and seminars on the theory and practiceof digital literacy tools and techniques in
education. In some respects, these eVangelical professionals are similar toactivist professionals (Sachs, 2003) albeit

Figure 1: Categories of Innovativeness(Rogers & Rogers, 2003)!9

CUE CIRCULAR 8/2018

in a more narrowly focussed way. Their
activism tends to promote digital andinformation literacy, with these
instructors claiming these areas as part oftheir professional responsibility.
The second half of the very digitally
proficient group, which might be referred
to as the e-Volutionary professionals, do
not argue quite as strongly for the
inclusion of digital literacy-based classes,
nor do they set up seminars andworkshops, unlike their e-Vangelicalbrethren. However, these teachers areusing many of the digital literacy tools
and techniques when appropriate in theirclasses, irrespective of the fact that thesetools and techniques are not on any
official curriculum. In this respect, they
have seen the nature of society, teaching,and students evolving in response to theforces of technological change, and haveadapted their teaching accordingly. Thosein this group can be equated to early
adopters depicted in Figure 1.
Those teachers at the laggards end of thescale have taken a very different
professional approach than the eVangelicals and e-Volutionaries. They
have more or less refused to evolve theirteaching methodology and are stillteaching more or less the same way they
have been teaching for the duration of
their careers. Members of this group areshowing a fixed mindset (Dweck, 2007)
rather than the growth mindset of theother teachers mentioned above, as they
are continuing to teach the way they havealways done.

JALT CUE SIG

This stuck-in-the-past approach not only
seems very conservative to me, but also
seems very unprofessional in the extreme,
as no other profession comes to mind thatwould tolerate the application of out-ofdate methodologies and practices by its
practitioners, especially when these are atodds with current best practices. For
example, it is hard to imagine athletes notusing advances in sports science toimprove their performance, scientists
refusing to account for advances in thehard sciences, and computer
programmers or technicians still using
machines and equipment from a bygone
age. Yet in language teaching, this stuckin-the-past approach is evident with someteachers and universities using materials
and approaches that are older than thestudents they teach. Furthermore,teachers with this old-school approach are
doing a real disservice to their current
students, as these past-based teachingapproaches are inadequately preparing
students for their future. It does not seema logical nor progressive way forward for
professional development in the teachingprofession.
This short article is a push for more
professionalism in teaching in Japan’s
universities via the adoption of current
best practices in digital pedagogy by thoseeducators not yet maximising thepotential of what modern 21st-century
technology has to offer.
References
Dweck, C. S. (2007). Mindset: The new
psychology of success (Updated ed.). New
York, NY: Ballantine Books.

!10CUE CIRCULAR 8/2018

Partnership for 21st Century Learning.
(2007). Framework for 21st century
learning. Retrieved from http://
www.p21.org/our-work/p21-framework
Paterson, R. (2014). The learningtechnologists toolkit: An overview ofdigital pedagogies for 21st century
teaching. International Christian
University Language Research Bulletin,
29, 1-14.
Rogers, E. M., & Rogers, E. (2003).
Diffusion of innovations (5th ed.). New
York, NY: Free Press.
Sachs, J. (2003, September). Teacher
activism: Mobilising the profession.
Plenary address presented to the British
Educational Research Association
Conference, British Educational Research
Association, Edinburgh, Scotland.

CUE Circular
Issue #6, August 2018
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 Editor

Dion Clingwall

Proofreading

Mary Hillis
Ryan Richardson
Glen Hill

Submit an article!
What’s happening in your teaching?
What obstacles have you overcome, andhow?
What ideas or opinions do you have that
others might be interested to read?
What have you read, heard, or seen
recently that’s changed your approach toteaching, either in or out of theclassroom?
CUE Circular aims to publish quality,interesting, practical articles about theday-to-day nature of teaching in our
sector.

w w w .j a l t c u e .o rg /c u e c i rc u l a r

JALT CUE SIG!11