Thomas Amundrud
Nara University of Education
I am an Associate Professor of English Education at Nara University of Education. I am also a long-time officer in the Kyoto chapter and currently the chapter President, and I’m a member of JALT’s Diversity and Equity Practices (DEP) Committee. In the Wednesday evening session, I will be speaking alongside other members of the CoC (Code of Conduct) and DEP Committees on how we in JALT can make it a more equitable and inclusive organization. In my Sunday morning presentation, I'll be talking about my ongoing investigation into the multimodal knowledge construction that happens in JTE-led secondary school English classes. This talk will focus on the background and methods being developed for this study through the twin perspectives of SF-MDA (Systemic-Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis) and LCT (Legitimation Code Theory). It will also portray current results and future directions. Hope to see you there!
Sessions
Multimodal Knowledge-Building in EFL
What really goes on in MEXT’s secondary school English Communication classes? The analysis of one teacher’s choices, through systemic-functional theory (SFT) and legitimation code theory (LCT), in their use of space, gaze, and gesture, along with discursive and lexicogrammatical choices in language, can show how they foreclose and create cumulative knowledge building (Maton, 2014). Based upon this examination, the speaker will close with thoughts on possible future directions for research and teaching.
Raising Awareness Through Discussion
The Code of Conduct (CoC) and Diversity and Equity Practices (DEP) Committees aim to broaden JALT’s appeal to a wider community of participants. They will host a roundtable where participants are invited to share experiences in topics including native-speakerism in Japanese ELT; professional development assistance for working mothers and single parents; enhancing solidarity among teachers across employment, gender, and ethnicity; and developing effective classroom activities to teach issues within the contexts of diversity and conduct.