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Volume 36
Professional Teaching Articles
April 2009
Article 1

Formats
PDF

Title
Inviting Student Voice

Authors
Tim Murphey, Joseph Falout, James Elwood & Michael Hood

Bio
Tim Murphey researches into sociocultural theory applications to language teaching. His co-author Joseph Falout researches into motivational variables of teachers and students in EFL contexts. James Elwood is interested in psychometrics in EFL/ESL and puppetry in the EFL classroom and Michael Hood’s research interests include L2 writing and academic literacy acquisition.

Abstract
Inviting, including, and increasing student voice could transform and energize our activities, curricula, methods, and governance in English language teaching (ELT), and could engender a self-fulfilling prophecy of increased learning, student agency, and community consciousness. General education theory provides most of the examples for using student voice. However, we report how such practices can be applied in ELT with our own small streams of research through action logs, language learning histories, student petitions, and surveys. We look closely at 440 students’ appraisals of their English classes in their secondary education in Japan, and propose how it might affect English teaching in Japan were it acted upon. More than surveying student attitudes, we are encouraging students themselves to participate in educational research, deliberations, and decision-making for proactive transformation of their own education. Including more student voices in ELT can increase the value of what we do professionally—teach and learn.

Keywords:
student voice, agency, participatory education, critical pedagogy, autonomy, critical thinking