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6 A ‘Monolingual’ Foreign Language Teacher: Kana-sensei’s Initiative

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Plurilingual Education in a Monolingualised Nation
This chapter is in the book Plurilingual Education in a Monolingualised Nation
© 2025 Channel View Publications Ltd, Bristol/Blue Ridge Summit

1096Our next practitioner, Kana Irisawa (Kana-sensei), presents a uniquely interesting case for plurilingual education, particularly in a nation that is described as exceedingly monolingual. In the introductory chapters of this volume, the highly monolingual nature of Japan was highlighted as being an interesting laboratory to consider plurilingual practice, given that much of the research on plurilingualism, translanguaging and plu-ralistic education has been conducted in contexts with a relatively high degree of multilingualism. Kana-sensei engages in plurilingual practices that centre around raising language awareness, and she employs multiple languages in her everyday practice as part of her school’s collaboratively constructed Gengo Bunka (言語・文化: languages and cultures) curricu-lum to achieve her teaching goals. What makes Kana-sensei particularly interesting is that, in contrast to both Yuki-sensei, initially trained in English language teaching and proficient in the language (Chapter 4), and the author, who became a proficient English–Japanese bilingual in adulthood (Chapter 3), Kana-sensei considers herself ‘monolingual’. Nevertheless, Kana-sensei has a clear interest in language itself, and it is in part her own language awareness, developed through her experi-ences of schooling and teacher training, that prompted her plurilingual practice. Kana-sensei is less interested in the acquisition of English as a language itself and more invested in explorations of meaning-making through language – to which plurilingual approaches such as Awakening to Languages (Éveil aux langues: Candelier, 2003; Oyama, 2016) eventu-ally became a part of her didactic repertoire (Cicurel, 2011; Chapter 4).As a teacher trainee, Kana-sensei majored in kokugo (国語: national language), and as a language teaching professional, she capitalises on this background by focusing on her children’s developing competence in their mother tongue, while also incorporating a variety of languages and cultures in her everyday instruction, which she weaves into her school’s holistic peace learning. This chapter explores Kana-sensei’s currere(Pinar, 1975; Chapter 3) through her visual linguistic autobiography, from her formative years and her successes and failures within the school system, through her experiences as a homeroom teacher and initial Part 2: Plurilingual Practices and PerspectivesA ‘Monolingual’ Foreign Language Teacher: Kana-sensei’s InitiativeA ‘Monolingual’ Foreign Language Teacher: Kana-sensei’s Initiative6
© 2025 Channel View Publications Ltd, Bristol/Blue Ridge Summit

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents v
  3. Acknowledgements ix
  4. Foreword xi
  5. Introduction: Monolingualism and Japan 1
  6. Part 1 Monolingualism Colliding with Plurilingualism
  7. 1 Foreign Language Education and Plurilingualism: Global and Local Trends 11
  8. 2 Multimodal Polyethnography in Language Teaching Research 36
  9. 3 Situating the Author: ‘Wearing Both Pairs of Shoes’ 50
  10. Part 2 Plurilingual Practices and Perspectives
  11. 4 From English-Only to Plurilingual Education: Yuki-sensei’s Journey 67
  12. 5 Making the Classroom Multilingual: Yuki-sensei’s Practice 83
  13. 6 A ‘Monolingual’ Foreign Language Teacher: Kana-sensei’s Initiative 109
  14. 7 Pedagogies of Resistance, Peace Learning and Plurilingualism: Kana-sensei’s Practice 123
  15. Part 3 Plurilingual Potentials
  16. 8 Imported Diversity? Plurilingual Assistant Language Teachers 151
  17. 9 Beyond Native-Speakerism: ALTS as more than English Models 172
  18. Conclusion: Implications for Teacher Training across Contexts 190
  19. Appendix A: Themes/ Codes from the School Lunches Project 203
  20. Appendix B: ALTS' Linguistic Repertoires 208
  21. References 209
  22. Index 227
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https://doi.org/10.21832/9781800417700-009

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents v
  3. Acknowledgements ix
  4. Foreword xi
  5. Introduction: Monolingualism and Japan 1
  6. Part 1 Monolingualism Colliding with Plurilingualism
  7. 1 Foreign Language Education and Plurilingualism: Global and Local Trends 11
  8. 2 Multimodal Polyethnography in Language Teaching Research 36
  9. 3 Situating the Author: ‘Wearing Both Pairs of Shoes’ 50
  10. Part 2 Plurilingual Practices and Perspectives
  11. 4 From English-Only to Plurilingual Education: Yuki-sensei’s Journey 67
  12. 5 Making the Classroom Multilingual: Yuki-sensei’s Practice 83
  13. 6 A ‘Monolingual’ Foreign Language Teacher: Kana-sensei’s Initiative 109
  14. 7 Pedagogies of Resistance, Peace Learning and Plurilingualism: Kana-sensei’s Practice 123
  15. Part 3 Plurilingual Potentials
  16. 8 Imported Diversity? Plurilingual Assistant Language Teachers 151
  17. 9 Beyond Native-Speakerism: ALTS as more than English Models 172
  18. Conclusion: Implications for Teacher Training across Contexts 190
  19. Appendix A: Themes/ Codes from the School Lunches Project 203
  20. Appendix B: ALTS' Linguistic Repertoires 208
  21. References 209
  22. Index 227
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