ASEAN Journal of Applied Languages

USAP-USAP: A Sociolinguistic Examination of Discourses on Transnational Identities among Filipino Migrants in Japan

2024-12-30T04:24:46+00:00

Migrants transition between ways of life in their home and destination countries, negotiating their identities to meet the demands of everyday life and their new domicile. Identity, although exceptionally abstract, fractured, and dynamic, becomes analyzable through the mundane social activity of discourse. The current study looked at how Filipino migrants from various origins discussed transnational identity via spoken discourse termed as usap-usap. Usap-usap in Tagalog means ‘light conversation’ and served as the data-gathering method in the study. The co-construction of transnational identity via usap-usap involved four informants (a highly skilled professional, an educator, a student, and a family member of a Japanese national) who represent different categories of Filipino migrants in Japan. The usap-usap with and among the migrants showed the emergence of a transnational identity, characterized by biculturalism strategies and multilingualism. Biculturalism was reflected by the Filipino migrants narratives describing how they modified their practices vis-à-vis spirituality and religiosity, punctuality, and linguistic differences between the Philippines and Japan. Linguistically, the usap-usap made prominent the flawless switching of the Filipino migrants between Tagalog, English, and Japanese as they contemplated their personal histories and exchanged opinions with one another. It is argued that multilingualism is an illustration of the migrant's multicultural reality, one that allows for the creative meshing of cultural ways from the origin and destination countries. Beyond the current research, the usap-usap served not only as a data-gathering tool for the current research but also as an avenue for the Filipino migrants to introspect, position themselves in relation to others, and co-construct an identity that is, at times, imposed on them by scholarly descriptions. Finally, the study demonstrated that discourse does not only reflect the transnational identity but also actively constructs it and makes it lucid, palpable, and more concrete.

The Potential and Implications of AI-Generated Feedback for Primary School Composition Writing

2024-12-30T04:28:04+00:00

Effective writing instruction requires regular and detailed feedback; however, it is not always easy to provide effective feedback and the provision of such feedback can be taxing for teachers (Bai et al., 2013). Singapore’s Ministry of Education (MOE) has leveraged Artificial Intelligence (AI) – in the form of automated writing evaluation (AWE) systems in language classrooms – to provide basic feedback on students’ writing in areas such as spelling and grammar which will allow teachers to focus on “guiding students in the more complex aspects of language construction, and to develop higher-level skills like creative expression, persuasiveness and tone” (MOE, 2023). In this paper, we are taking a critical and evaluative look in a richly contextualised setting at whether Generative AI (GAI) platforms, such as Gemini, can indeed fill the gap to provide feedback on higher-order thinking skills such as critical thinking, creativity, and organisation (Gupta et al., 2024). We address two research questions: (1) To what extent can GAI provide effective feedback on continuous writing tasks for primary school students in Singapore? (2) What are the potential implications of GAI-generated feedback on writing instruction? In our analysis of feedback patterns, GAI consistently focuses on content and style, suggesting improvements such as richer vocabulary and stronger conclusions, without actually providing clear examples. GAI also exhibits a lack of personalisation, not using personal pronouns or highlighting student strengths. Additional prompts from teachers are required to elicit more granular feedback and a more positive tone. Lastly, while GAI can assess essays based on a given rubric, it struggles with evaluating narrative structure, requiring further teacher guidance. Overall, GAI has the potential to be a valuable tool in language and writing classrooms, offering a starting point for feedback that requires both teacher expertise and teachers’ digital literacy to personalise and refine.

Exploring ChatGPT’s Capabilities in Creative Writing: Can GPT-4o Conduct Rhetorical Move Analysis in Narrative Short Stories?

2024-12-30T04:33:01+00:00

With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, the application of AI in academic research and language education has become increasingly widespread. GPT-4o, a new flagship model that can reason across audio, vision, and text in real time, has been found to offer substantial improvements over its predecessors. However, its capability to analyse rhetorical moves in creative writing remains unclear. This study aims to investigate whether GPT-4o can identify the rhetorical moves in narrative short stories with a focus on language assessment themes, and check the accuracy of the results by human experts. Moreover, the essentiality and frequency of the moves in these stories are reported. Adopting Jiang et al.’s (2024) eight-move model for the annotation of narrative stories, the results indicated that while ChatGPT (GPT-4o) quickly identified rhetorical moves, its segmentation of sentence endpoints differed slightly from human coders, particularly in several moves. However, these differences did not affect the overall range, frequency, or sequence of the moves, suggesting that GPT-4o can still effectively identify moves in narrative short stories. Another finding showed that Moves 1 to 6 were obligatory in all 50 narrative short stories from Tests & Us (Volumes 2 & 3), while Moves 7 and 8 were conventional, with no optional moves identified. As for the occurrence frequency, these stories contain 478 moves, with Move 4, “Complicating the story” being the most frequent, appearing 80 times (16.7%). These findings offer insights into the potential of AI to support textual analysis in creative writing and encourage researchers to explore rhetorical moves in narratives.

Portraying Multiculturalism in Malaysia and Singapore through Murals

2024-12-30T04:36:25+00:00

Malaysia and Singapore are neighbouring countries, which were one country in 1963-1965 but they have vastly different legal frameworks that governs murals. This study compares the image of multiculturalism constructed in murals located in Malaysia and Singapore using a social semiotic analysis to find out whether they portray government-sanctioned messages. The study involved the analysis of six murals, three from Malaysia and three from Singapore. The murals were photographed from October to December 2022. Kress and van Leuween’s (2021) social semiotic visual analysis was adopted to interpret the representational, interactive, and compositional meanings in the murals. The three murals from Malaysian draw attention to diversity of occupations and ethnic groups. There is a contemporary focus featuring young people in “Faces of Future Generation” and “Kini Lebih Gempak”, and a historical focus on past trading activities in “The Mercers”. In Singapore, “National Day Celebration 2022” focusses on the present while “Cantonese Opera” and “Singapore Hawker Heritage” focus on the past heritage. The Malaysian murals reflect ethnic diversity whereas the Singaporean murals have an obvious Chinese presence despite the inclusion of various ethnic groups. The findings indicate that the murals helped to propagate government endorsed messages on national integration and unity.

Meeting-Style Classroom Approach: Enhancing English Learners’ Meeting Competency

2024-12-30T04:38:49+00:00

This study examines the effectiveness of the Meeting-Style Classroom approach in enhancing English communication skills and meeting competency among Japanese university students. Some studies suggest that professionals from various linguistic backgrounds may face challenges with active participation in English meetings, despite potentially high scores on standardized English tests. The Meeting-Style Classroom aims to address this gap by simulating real-world meeting scenarios while allowing for instructor guidance. The study was conducted across three courses at Japanese universities. A post-course survey assessed students’ perceptions of their skill development in areas such as spontaneous speech, opinion expression, and nonverbal communication. Results indicate that while students felt confident in structured speaking scenarios and providing reactions, challenges remained in spontaneous speech and opinion expression. The majority of participants reported improvements in both verbal and nonverbal communication skills. The research highlights the importance of developing “Meeting Competency,” which encompasses Willingness to Communicate, discourse integration, nonverbal communication, and shared leadership. By providing students with practical experience in meeting management and discussion facilitation, the Meeting-Style Classroom approach shows promise in preparing learners for effective communication in professional English-speaking environments. This study contributes to the ongoing dialogue on innovative pedagogical methods for enhancing English communication skills in higher education, particularly in contexts where English is not the primary language of instruction.

Using ChatGPT to Learn Vocabulary in Context – The Case of In-Service Teachers Learning Vietnamese

2024-12-30T04:41:00+00:00

In our research, we aim to refine the use of ChatGPT for independent language learning through action research and a cyclical design that involves continuous feedback and improvement. In the first cycle, five learners (in-service non-Vietnamese teachers at RMIT University Vietnam) studied a set of prompts pre-designed by the researchers. They experimented with a 30-minute Vietnamese-learning chatting session with ChatGPT about a topic of their choice. The provided set included prompts asking ChatGPT to generate topic-specific vocabulary, reading passages, word definitions, and language tests. After the chat sessions, the researchers gathered learners’ reflections about what they had learned and aimed to evaluate the student’s learning through the chat session. Their responses were coded and analysed thematically to identify their attitudes towards using the tool. The primary results suggested that the prompts could be used for vocabulary-in-context learning and have potential for use in language teaching. However, some limitations of ChatGPT have been observed, shedding light on future research on using ChatGPT and similar tools for independent language learning.

Comics as Additional Lesson Material in the Vietnamese GFL Classroom

2024-12-30T04:43:57+00:00

In the context of L2 language teaching, minor changes to teaching material can have significantly positive effects on student participation and on-task attention (cf. Masuhara 2022, Tomlinson & Masuhara 2018, Timmis 2013, Ur 2015). Using comics as learning material has been found to have positive effects on students’ participation and learning outcomes (i.e. Dudzińska, 2013; Öz & Efecioglu 2015; Hoang, 2021; Engelns & Preußer, 2022). This paper presents data and discussion on the implementability and effects of specifically designed comics as additional learning material for a German as a foreign language (GFL) university course in Vietnam. In the past, students’ lack of prior L2 cultural knowledge on advanced level had made interactive classroom activities difficult resulting in teacher-centred instead of student-centred teaching. This motivated the researchers to adapt the lesson material while adhering to curriculum and textbook. The specially designed comics were implemented in two B2 level courses with 51 students in face-to-face and online lessons between April and July 2024. In a mixed-method approach, notes of naturalistic classroom observation, written student productions and follow-up student questionnaires were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. The focus was on effects on student motivation, specific cultural knowledge and vocabulary learning. The paper further discusses the choice of medium and its added value in relation to practicability, effort and feasibility in the Vietnamese university classroom and GFL textbook syllable. The comics showed to be an effective medium to motivate and provide students with sufficient cultural knowledge and vocabulary to actively and independently participate in class. To foster the learning of specific learning outcomes, comics need to be integrated into a lesson plan with other exercises and teacher input. While teachers wish to have more flexibility to include additional materials, support from institutional side is needed to bring more versatile and current learning material to the classroom.

Assistant Language Teachers in Japan: Roles, Teaching Practices, and Classroom Collaboration with Japanese Teachers of English

2024-12-30T04:45:23+00:00

Given the increasing importance of English proficiency in Japan’s educational landscape, it is crucial to better understand the dynamics between ALTs and JTEs, particularly the nature of their collaboration in the classroom. While research has examined ALTs in Japan, few studies have focused on their roles across various educational levels and the practical realities of ALT-JTE collaboration. The purpose of this paper therefore is to look into the expected and actual roles of an ALT in Japanese public schools from early childhood to secondary education. More importantly, it details the language teaching practices of ALTs vis-a-vis their JTEs, or the dynamics of English language classroom instruction between them. It also discusses key issues, talks about their implications, and gives recommendations on how to further improve this teaching dynamic.