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The goal of dialogic teaching is to position students as active participants who engage in academically accountable talk, but research consistently suggests that a major stumbling block is the teacher’s own interactional style. To explore the issue from an emic perspective, I carried out an action research investigation of advanced proficiency classes for English as a foreign language (EFL) that I taught on the university level in Japan. Data included audiotaped recordings of teacher-fronted whole-class discussions that were analysed qualitatively. I found that the effort to teach dialogically was somewhat successful, but missteps and misguided assumptions about effective instructional strategies were also evident. Findings point to both the complexities of orchestrating active engagement of reticent students within the third space of the second language (L2) classroom, and the critical role of teacher authority to elicit and coordinate student engagement.

The orientation to English among university students in Japan is a complex and shifting amalgam of attitudes and experiences that shape engagement in the classroom. Although research on learner motivation has highlighted the instrumental value of EFL in terms of imagined identity and investment, motivation is also affected by social factors such as Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) policy and teaching practice encountered prior to university entrance. In this paper, I report on a qualitative analysis of orientations among high proficiency advanced students in a 1st-year EFL class at a large university in Tokyo. Findings suggest that paths of study and admission routes varied widely, that a strong commitment to English was coupled with low levels of confidence, and that orientation seemed to shift noticeably after entering university, as students sensed the possibility of attrition and a reduced scope of English study. At the same time, students welcomed the chance to engage with content and build ideas in English as the role of the EFL classroom took on increased importance. 日本の大学生の英語への指向は一様ではなくその態度やこれまでの経験も様々であり、英語の授業に対する意欲も日々変化している。学習者の動機づけに関する研究は、自己効力感や自己投資に関するEFLの手段的価値を強調しているが、動機づけは同時に文部科学省の方針や高校における入試に対する指導法のような社会的要因にも影響される。本論文では、質的分析の方法を用い、東京の大規模なある大学の上級レベル１年生の英語授業における、学生の英語に対する姿勢を分析した。その結果、大学に入るまでの学習経験や入学形態は様々であること、英語に対する学習意欲は高い反面自信があまりないこと、燃え尽きの可能性や学習範囲の狭窄を感じ始め、大学入学後は英語に対する姿勢が著しく変わること等が分かった。しかし同時に英語で意見を構築する機会を好意的に受け入れ、EFLの授業の役割がより重要になる傾向が示された。

I would like to express my appreciation to the informants in my study, Kazuko, Fumiko, and Jiro, whose generous cooperation made this analysis possible. I would also like to thank Michael Meeuwis and Dennis Day for critical comments on earlier versions of this paper, which was originally presented at the International Pragmatics Association Fourth International Conference in Kobe, Japan.

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