PanSIG 2025

Teacher Perspectives on Agency and Autonomy in Sociolinguistics Classrooms

17 May 2025, 13:05

25m

BLDG 8/1F-107 (Kanda University of International Studies (神田外語大学))

Research-oriented Oral Face-to-face presentation College and University Educators B8-107 CUE

Speakers

Theron Muller (Waseda University Faculty of Human Sciences) John L. Adamson (University of Niigata Prefecture) York Weatherford (Kyoto Notre Dame University)

ABSTRACT

This presentation shares a collaborative autoethnographic exploration into how we three researchers integrate student agency and autonomy into our English-medium instruction (EMI) sociolinguistics classrooms. With the increasing prevalence of EMI in Japan, many language teachers are adding content-based classes to their teaching repertoires. While much seminal sociolinguistics research has been done outside traditional, center contexts, many introductory materials may exhibit a center bias. However, as Japan-based EMI sociolinguistics teachers, we feel it important to untether our classrooms from such biases and to encourage students to explore the social significance of language use in their everyday local experiences. This autoethnographic collaboration consolidates and refines those pedagogic strategies to more clearly articulate them and shape our praxis to align with students’ perceived needs. Our research involved first setting themes, or frames, for discussion around agency and autonomy in our sociolinguistics classrooms, followed by an asynchronous writing period of commenting on and responding to our reflections. The resulting text was analyzed as discourse using discourse analytic tools to crystallize themes that showcase how we fostered student agency and autonomy in our sociolinguistics classrooms, including practical examples. We also explore how we adapted our praxis to our students’ perceived interests and needs.

KEYWORDS

collaborative autoethnography
sociolinguistics praxis
English-medium instruction (EMI)