Papers by Cameron Smith
JALT Postconference Publication - Issue 2020.1; August 2021, 2021
This paper examines shortcomings in the individualist model of creativity and the implications th... more This paper examines shortcomings in the individualist model of creativity and the implications that has for understanding creativity in second language education. The author first examines why education policies in Japan and around the world currently promote creativity and presents what until now has been the standard approach to understanding creativity. It discusses whether this approach, highly centred on the creative individual, is appropriate for foreign language education and education in general. It then introduces the concept of “participatory” or “distributed” creativity, in particular from the work of Vlad Petre Glăveanu, as offering a possible solution to problems with the individual sociocognitive model. Finally, the author argues that, by bringing in collaboration, increased audience awareness, and “openness to difference” in a “craft” approach to creativity, the distributed model supports genre approaches in teaching and the promotion of collaborative social skills in...
Creative Writing is rarely included in the curricula of English language learners in Japanese hig... more Creative Writing is rarely included in the curricula of English language learners in Japanese higher and further education. However, students’ creative use of language, in particular in literary writing, may serve as an aid to certain aspects of language acquisition (particularly grammar and certain kinds of vocabulary), as well as address issues of communicative competence as English L2 learners move beyond the beginner stage of acquisition. Such tasks also appear to be motivating. !is paper uses examples from texts and classroom activities to show how asking second language students to attempt poetry and #ction can contribute to central parts of their learning.
This thesis examines the introduction of compulsory medical insurance in the Russian Federation i... more This thesis examines the introduction of compulsory medical insurance in the Russian Federation in the 1990s as part of the re-structuring of welfare in the years after communism. The reforms brought in strong decentralisation of governance in comparison to Soviet rule. Minimal national legislation and guidance, subsequent adjustments in the face of implementation problems and a pattern of “negotiated federalism” have led to wide variation in regional systems within Russia. This thesis looks in particular at implementation in two federal units (from 89): Volgograd Oblast’ and St. Petersburg City. In the first part, it considers the decision to introduce insurance in the context of the international health care debate, and examines the relationship between health care reform and broader issues of the “transition” away from communism to the market. Particular attention is drawn to how these two discourses in practice have run contrary to each other. It also documents experimental inte...
PanSIG Journal 2019, 2020
This paper discusses the effectiveness of poster presentations as a teaching methodology in Conte... more This paper discusses the effectiveness of poster presentations as a teaching methodology in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) courses. In the course being described, students are tasked to do research, design and make poster presentations on a topic from each of the themes covered. The authors propose that these presentations provide an opportunity to meet Coyle's four Cs criteria: content, communication, cognition, and culture, and share their own experience of how they have successfully integrated poster presentations as a core activity in classroom learning. Links between CLIL and higher motivational levels are also explored. Finally, the results of an extensive student questionnaire are presented. The questionnaire was designed to elicit the learner's perspective on their experiences researching, preparing and presenting the posters. The results showed a general satisfaction among the students with the process as a means to communicate new information to one's audience. Nevertheless, some of the student responses reveal they miss some opportunities to go beyond content and to improve more on their L2 learning and communication through the processes of research, practice, and presentation.
P. Clements, A. Krause, & P. Bennett (Eds.), Language teaching in a global age: Shaping the classroom, shaping the world. Tokyo: JALT., 2018
This paper looks at references to creativity in key Japanese education policy documents from the ... more This paper looks at references to creativity in key Japanese education policy documents from the Meiji era to the present day, with a particular focus on the postwar and postbubble periods. Supporting " creativity " has become a priority in education policy around the world, including Japan, particularly as a response to globalisation. However, in such contexts it typically remains poorly defined and explained, despite work in other research areas, notably psychology and business studies. In this paper I argue that in Japanese education policy discussions, creativity has typically been cited as a means to recover a suppressed national character or vitality. Conversely, the recently introduced concept of " zest for living " does appear to reflect creativity as understood by creativity research. I argue that the lack of clarity regarding creativity gives educators interested in creativity the opportunity to guide their institutions' response to Ministry pressure for education reform.
In this paper, we discuss the development and introduction of a coordinated compulsory content an... more In this paper, we discuss the development and introduction of a coordinated compulsory content and language integrated learning (CLIL) course at a mid-level Japanese university, focussing on the history and culture of English-speaking countries. We describe the context, philosophy, and development of the course and assessment procedures. As well as considering general issues faced in CLIL teaching, we look in some detail at the issue of student poster presentations. We report some initial student resistance to the authenticity of content learning and presentation in a language classroom. We also discuss how the provision of good models and guided noticing for research and presentation tasks has had a limited effect, and that this approach needs to be supplemented by direct instruction on what not to do. I n this paper, we describe the introduction of a foundation CLIL course in the culture and history of English speaking countries for mid-to low-level university students. We first consider the origins, philosophy, and course design and then the pitfalls and problems encountered, particularly with student poster presentations. We hope it provides a useful case study to inform others designing similar courses. Institutional Context The course described in this paper was introduced in 2015 for the 1st-year intake of the newly renamed Department of English Language and Cultures at Aichi Gakuin University. The change reoriented the department towards the sociocultural study of English-speaking countries or eigoken (a term undefined in policy documents, but which designers of the course discussed here interpreted to include countries typically considered part of Kachru's [1990] inner and outer circles), and brought an expansion in its English language curriculum. To this end, two full-time native English teachers were hired in 2012 and 2014 and tasked with developing the native teacher-taught elements of that curriculum. This involved coordinated core courses in oral communication and culture through English with further limited-elective language courses, involving the management of a small team of part-time teachers. Two favourable circumstances allowed for teacher and curriculum coordination. First, both full-time teachers had previously worked together in a coordinated curriculum programme described in Venema (2008) and so were able to straightforwardly agree on an approach to successful coordination, involving part-time teachers in an ongoing process of feedback and decision-making (including the negotiation of objectives), with time set aside for meetings when this could occur. Second, the teachers were given a great deal of freedom institutionally to develop and manage these classes.
This paper presents the results of a small-scale study into the relationship between Japanese uni... more This paper presents the results of a small-scale study into the relationship between Japanese university students' self-reported creativity and assessments of their English language ability in order to investigate whether previous exploratory results, which suggested relationships between creativity and language learning achievement in terms of fluency and test-based assessment, can be reproduced. I discuss the generally negative results found in this study in the light of recent debates in the field of creativity concerning the generality or otherwise of creativity as a personal attribute and of assumptions about the benefits of creativity. I argue for the importance of viewing creativity as a domain-specific activity and a phenomenon brought out by tasks and settings, rather than as a general personal attribute that varies among individuals.
In this paper I consider how western lay conceptions of creativity and the tendency within educat... more In this paper I consider how western lay conceptions of creativity and the tendency within educational circles to fail to interact with academic research on creativity may lead to intercultural problems for western-born language educators working in East Asian classrooms. I look at the sources of prejudice about East Asian creativity and try to place prevalent western lay conceptions in their historical context. I argue that these lay conceptions provide an unbalanced and culturally specific picture of creativity as a component of modern western individualism and consider specific pitfalls the EFL educator in East Asia may face.
N. Sonda & A. Krause (Eds.), JALT2012 Conference Proceedings. Tokyo: JALT., 2013
In this paper I discuss the basis for investigating the relationship between student creativity a... more In this paper I discuss the basis for investigating the relationship between student creativity and second language acquisition. I then present results from a study looking at the relationship between assessed student creative behaviour (using an adapted form of the Creative Behaviour Inventory) and creative self- efficacy, student performance in initial placement tests, and two speaking tasks from near the beginning and near the end of a semester. The subjects were 58 first-year students in a Japanese university, divided into a higher group and a lower group by initial assessment test. Results suggest that students who are more creative may respond relatively better to more open-ended task-based methods of teaching. They also give some support to the idea that more creative students may do relatively worse in either tests or test-based pedagogies.
The Journal of Literature in Language Teaching 2(1) 11-18, May 2013
Creative Writing is rarely included in the curricula of English language learners in Japanese hi... more Creative Writing is rarely included in the curricula of English language learners in Japanese higher and further education. However, students’ creative use of language, in particular in literary
writing, may serve as an aid to certain aspects of language acquisition (particularly grammar and certain kinds of vocabulary), as well as address issues of communicative competence as English L2 learners move beyond the beginner stage of acquisition. Such tasks also appear to be motivating. This paper uses examples from texts and classroom activities to show how asking second language students to attempt poetry and fiction can contribute to central parts of their learning.
Books by Cameron Smith
Conference Presentations by Cameron Smith
Promoting creativity has concerned Japanese educational policymakers for over 50 years. This pres... more Promoting creativity has concerned Japanese educational policymakers for over 50 years. This presentation reviews the history of this discussion, beginning in the 1960s industrial concern with innovation, then covering encouraging creativity as the 1980s response to juvenile delinquency. From there, it explores the promotion of creativity to combat falling academic standards in the early 2000s and using creativity as a source of new social and economic values following economic stagnation and the 2011 disasters.
JALT2016 Conference: Transformation in Language Education
This paper attempts to assess the findings of a study by testing the hypotheses suggested: does s... more This paper attempts to assess the findings of a study by testing the hypotheses suggested: does self-rated creativity correlate with improvement over time in fluency in a communicative classroom setting? Is there a contrary relationship between creativity and performance in closed-answer tests? How does the ability level of a student mediate this relationship?
JALT2016 Conference: Transformation in Language Education
This paper looks at the introduction of a compulsory co-ordinated Content and Language Integrated... more This paper looks at the introduction of a compulsory co-ordinated Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) university course entitled “Culture through English”. The course was designed to address basic deficits in students’ cultural, historical and geographical knowledge of English-speaking cultures as well as language needs, using concrete accessible topics to anchor awareness of broader themes, direct vocabulary study, and extensive reading. It looks at coordination among teachers, including assessment of content learning and student presentations.
This presentation examines differences in the creativity research literature between East Asian a... more This presentation examines differences in the creativity research literature between East Asian and Western subjects, and draws out classroom implications for western-born language educators working in East Asia. Education ministries around the world, including Japan, are placing ever increasing importance on fostering and enabling "creativity" in students. In EFL in particular, creativity is gaining increasing attention, both as as part of good teaching practice, and also in terms of the relationship between student creativity and language learning success (Albert and Kormos 2011). However, "creativity" is still a poorly examined concept within educational circles (Newton & Newton 2014), and in foreign language education in particular (Dornyei 2005). Within the Asian context, there is a commonplace prejudice, surprisingly backed up by some empirical research (eg Kim, Lee, Chae et al 2011), that East Asians suffer from a creativity deficit, a phenomenon attributed variously to the influence of Confucianism, educational culture, and even Chinese orthography. However, against this is such evidence as recently introduced elements of the PISA test suggesting East Asian teenagers in several countries are currently among the most proficient at creative problem solving. This paper seeks to lay open prevailing western conceptions of "creativity" and creative processes, including formal creativity assessment methods, and examines how they may represent an incomplete picture of the creative process. Therefore, drawing on the literature on creativity across cultural situations, the presentation will seek to show how western-born language educators can reconsider their perceptions of creativity in East Asian classrooms, and alter their practice accordingly.
A short presentation as part of the Literature in Language Teaching Forum. Set in the context of ... more A short presentation as part of the Literature in Language Teaching Forum. Set in the context of the Japanese university classroom, it looks at how the opening of the Song of Hiawatha can raise awareness of rhythm and metre in English, and can act as high-impact entry point into the discussion of cultural appropriation and racism in literature.
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Papers by Cameron Smith
writing, may serve as an aid to certain aspects of language acquisition (particularly grammar and certain kinds of vocabulary), as well as address issues of communicative competence as English L2 learners move beyond the beginner stage of acquisition. Such tasks also appear to be motivating. This paper uses examples from texts and classroom activities to show how asking second language students to attempt poetry and fiction can contribute to central parts of their learning.
Books by Cameron Smith
Conference Presentations by Cameron Smith
writing, may serve as an aid to certain aspects of language acquisition (particularly grammar and certain kinds of vocabulary), as well as address issues of communicative competence as English L2 learners move beyond the beginner stage of acquisition. Such tasks also appear to be motivating. This paper uses examples from texts and classroom activities to show how asking second language students to attempt poetry and fiction can contribute to central parts of their learning.
little more than a feelgood buzzword. Fortunately, in psychology and business studies, “creativity” is a serious
object of research. This presentation looks at definitions and key findings that may challenge common
assumptions.
have been developed over the past four years into a regular full
fifteen week course, in which students of low intermediate level
and above write two fictional stories of, typically, around 2000
words each. The students are both English and non-English majors.
It follows a genre approach to writing, which introduces students
to analysis of story form and provides them with the language
items and techniques to achieve the task successfully. As such,
it begins with effective characterization and plotting, and
progresses to issues of style, symbolism and descriptive impact.
It is derived from both the literature on creative writing
instruction (e.g. Bell and Magrs (eds) 2001), and on creativity
research more generally (e.g. Csikszentimihalyi 1997; Kaufman and
Sternberg (eds) 2010) Participants will plan their own stories
under guidance, and do exercises that encourage the use of
"non-core" (Carter 1997) vocabulary, the use of colour and
imagery to create atmosphere, pacing, and the "showing, not
telling" of the action. Course management issues will also be
discussed. Stories written by students themselves will be
presented as evidence of the approach’s surprising
effectiveness both in terms of length and quality of student
output."
This presentation reviews the teaching methods that were used, samples of student work, possible wider language benefits, and student and teacher feedback.
In the first part, it considers the decision to introduce insurance in the context of the international health care debate, and examines the relationship between health care reform and broader issues of the “transition” away from communism to the market. Particular attention is drawn to how these two discourses in practice have run contrary to each other. It also documents experimental internal market health reform in the Gorbachev era in Leningrad (St. Petersburg), as well as the genesis, formulation and implementation of health insurance at the national level.
The main body of the thesis considers the development of compulsory health insurance in the two research sites, drawing primarily on interview data from 34 interviews with representatives of the main actors within the new system –the municipal administration, parastatal funds and insurance companies – as well as representatives of the health care workforce. Of particular significance is found to be: the impact of financial shortages on the viability of insurance; the extent to which elements of Russian local government reform can undermine regional health care governance; the innovation of decentralisation and the introduction of elements of contract and negotiation in place of vertical command and control structures; and conflict between parastatal health funds and insurance companies. In general the St. Petersburg system was more successful than that in Volgograd. The former was fortunate in its local government structures and in its legacy of institutional reform in health care, but also key policy choices have simplified the systems operation. In Volgograd Oblast’ the system suffers from over complexity, institutional conflict and a lack of clear and effective governance structures.
Using testimony and analysis from Russian newspaper and journal archives these issues are explored across Russia. Regional statistical material drawn from a wide range of sources is employed to consider what might be the main determinants/pre-conditions (economic, political, demographic) in system design.
Drawing five main conclusions in relation to the material above, the thesis additionally argues that “marketisation”, although partly the inspiration for the new system, is unhelpful as an analytical tool; that the main strength of the reforms has been to stabilise health care financing, but that without sufficient funds it may serve to reinforce Soviet-era distributional inefficiencies rather than solve them.