Analysis of University-level Japanese as a Foreign Language (JFL) Classrooms

Abstract

Identity research has been popularized in recent SLA research. However, recent research has challenged this static view and shed light on various other aspects of teacher/learners. This study builds on this recent development and examines three instances where students learning Japanese as a Foreign Language (JFL) at a university in America challenge teacher authority in different ways. This paper employs a Conversational Analysis (CA)-inspired method for analyzing the interactions, as CA allows us to take a closer look at how the participants in a moment-by-moment interaction and provide a close analysis of how the interaction unfolds through talk-in-interaction as well as embodied gestures while the participants come together to co-construct and negotiate meaning in social interaction. As shown in all three excerpts, there is a very clear presence of the institutional teacher-student identities, which the participants never slipped out of these situated identities despite the boundaries of authority being pushed or temporarily handed over. In addition, it seems that class dynamics also play a huge role in setting the tone of the classroom and also sets the capacity for how much the boundaries of authority can or cannot be negotiated.