Papers by Peter F Hourdequin
Ludic Language Pedagogy, 2020
What is this? It's a piece of writing exploring the development of a small international ecolingu... more What is this? It's a piece of writing exploring the development of a small international ecolinguistics pilot project that used Animal Crossing New Horizons (ACNH) as a vehicle to connect university students and researchers in conversation about issues of environmental and community sustainability. • Why did you make it? We wanted to share and make sense of what we tried, what we learned, and we wanted to explore ideas for possible future iterations. • Who is it for? People interested in exploring the use ACNH, or similar games, as a vehicle for meaningful discussion about environmental and social issues. Tweet synopsis Animal Crossing: New Horizons offers the opportunity to think about environmental issues locally and internationally, through the shared experience of developing a thriving island paradise. This article investigates the places, processes, and ecosophies represented in the interactions of student and faculty participants in a unique international collaboration around the game.
Green 2020: Ridge to Reef International Conference on Watershed Management and Coastal Conservation - Proceedings, 2021
This paper examines a work in progress: the development of a table-top board game by a multidisci... more This paper examines a work in progress: the development of a table-top board game by a multidisciplinary team of university educators at a private institution in central Japan. The board game is being designed as an educational tool for exploring a sustainable riverine trade economy that developed at the start of the Meiji era. The game’s central theme is historical human interactions within the Tenryu River ecosystem. Specifically, our game aims to explore links between upstream forestation and downstream flood control that were discovered and applied during the Meiji era in the midst of a flourishing lumber trade in the region. By designing a game that narrates sustainable development from the past, we hope to enrich present-day understandings of riverine ecology and show the value of sustainable river and forest-based economies. Using a single-site case study methodology, this qualitative research paper will focus mostly on interrogating the processes by which our multidisciplinary team of researchers is developing the Tenryu River game. In doing so, we will explore our iterative game design work and highlight the interplay of our cross-disciplinary perspectives of science education, language learning, and environmental design. Finally, we will discuss implications of our study for other teacher-researchers using table-top game design as a vehicle for trans- disciplinary sustainability education.
Ludic Language Pedagogy, 2020
Key points 📍 What is this? A teacher/parent' s reflections on learning opportunities that exist i... more Key points 📍 What is this? A teacher/parent' s reflections on learning opportunities that exist in and around the Nintendo Switch game Animal Crossing: New Horizons 📍 Why did you make it? I am interested in sharing how the game might be used similarly by other parents and also how I might ultimately use the game with students in my work as a university English instructor. 📍 Who is it for? Parents of elementary age children (or above), and teachers at any level. Tweet synopsis Animal Crossing: New Horizons offers useful opportunities for bilingual literacy development and the exploration of important social issues. This article chronicles and reflects on a parent' s journey in and around ACNH with his three children. #games4change #learningthroughplay
Participatory Game Design as Service Learning
Service Learning Research Symposium Report: Introducing educational community activities, 2019
Participatory Game Design as Education for Sustainable Development
SET: Research Information for Teachers, 2018
Author(s):
Peter Hourdequin, Seiji Tani, Tetsuya Bando, and Jirayu Ponvarut
This article discus... more Author(s):
Peter Hourdequin, Seiji Tani, Tetsuya Bando, and Jirayu Ponvarut
This article discusses our experiments to create more engaged participation and build sustainability literacy among students in a voluntary “game lab” on two different campuses of our Japanese university. Though we found the game lab to be a successful vehicle for language learning, community building, and traversing disciplinary boundaries, it was more difficult to engage students with big ideas about environmental sustainability. We reflect on what we learnt from the game lab’s first 2 years at our university’s main campus and how we will further our goals to use participatory game design to promote sustainability education at our new campus environment.
The development of a game-based learning community of practice in a university self-access center: a preliminary research report
Tokoha University Faculty of Education Research Review, 2017
JALT Journal, 2017
For current and future language teachers, a working knowledge of the study of spoken discourse is... more For current and future language teachers, a working knowledge of the study of spoken discourse is essential. As with most academic fields, though, the range of approaches available can seem dizzying to those for whom discourse is not a primary research area. In Spoken Discourse, Jones demystifies the study of how we use speech in society and expands the traditional definition of speech beyond the notion of two or more speakers talking faceto-face to include both material, technological mediations such as YouTube videos as well as the meaning-making, semiotic technologies we use to create, affirm, and challenge identities. In doing so, Jones provides a workable and coherent framework that enables new researchers in spoken discourse, as well as students and teachers in this field, to access and analyze speech and its material effects in the world. To do this, Jones develops what he calls "an analytical approach that focuses on the relationship between spoken discourse and the concrete actions [emphasis in original] we take with it" (p. 183). Jones approaches the study of spoken discourse from the triadic, social semiotic perspective he has developed elsewhere (e.g., Jones, 2012). Accordingly, in this volume, he simultaneously focuses on language above the clause (forming cohesive texts), language in action (performing concrete social goals), and language as a means of creating social worlds mediated by ideology.
The Role of Campus Sustainability Discourse on the Websites of Four Japanese Universities
Journal of Language and Ecology, 2017
This paper explores progressive approaches to literacy through games as modeled by several educat... more This paper explores progressive approaches to literacy through games as modeled by several educational institutions in the New York metropolitan area. After introducing some foundational concepts from the New Literacy Studies (NLS) tradition, the paper examines several game-based models that undergird much of what we learned about pedagogical practice in progressive settings that use digital and board games for a variety of educational purposes. Next we discuss the sites themselves and explore how games fit into different classroom, curricular, and extra-curricular contexts. In a final section, we reflect on the lessons we learned through our New York-area site visits and readings on theory and practice. Based on this, we explore the applications we see for game-based learning in our contexts in Japanese higher education.
This article explores the use of Japanese literature in English translation as a centerpiece for ... more This article explores the use of Japanese literature in English translation as a centerpiece for class
discussion in a Japanese university context. I discuss my use of a contemporary short story—
Philip Gabriel’s English translation of Haruki Murakami’s “Yesterday” (Murakami, 2014)—as a
vehicle for vocabulary development and to stimulate discussion about language and identity in a
third-year English oral communication class. After describing the context of the class and a
profile of its students, I discuss my choice of the story for use in class, summarize the story’s plot
and characters, and discuss the preparations and tasks undertaken by students. Finally, I consider
the success of my experiment based on student feedback and reflexive analysis.
Many conference attendees and organisers are concerned about environmental issues. This paper
loo... more Many conference attendees and organisers are concerned about environmental issues. This paper
looks at actions taken at the 2015 PanSIG conference relating to environmental issues, specifically
considering the carbon footprint of the conference, carbon offsets and conference catering. Travel,
specifically flight, is the main environmental impact of the conference, and carbon offsets are
currently the best mitigation option. Catering is also significant and highly visible, but requires
complex organisation.
This paper explores the use of an online social learning platform to create affordances for Japan... more This paper explores the use of an online social learning platform to create affordances for Japanese university students to discover and share language content for in-class discussions. Since this was my first attempt at using an internet-based platform to supplement and support weekly face-to-face meetings with my university English communication class students, I resolved to examine the experience in the form of an action research study. In this paper, I first discuss my rationale for the decision to use computer-mediated communication to support the development of oral communication skills. Next, I outline the action research questions I set out to answer along with the pedagogical aims of the online component of the course. Finally, I explain my implementation of the project itself-the context and participants, student tasks, and data collection procedures followed by the conclusions and further questions I came to through this research.
An interview with Claire Kramsch ahead of her appearance at JALT 2014.
Dialogic teacher development in the Internet age: tools and opportunities. Explorations in Teacher Education
Explorations in Teacher Education, Aug 2013
Identity and Communities of Practice in Foreign Langauge Learning Contexts
Many SLA researchers advocate the explicit teaching of oral communication strategies (OCS) in the... more Many SLA researchers advocate the explicit teaching of oral communication strategies (OCS) in the foreign language classroom (see, e.g. Nakatani, 2005).
The Longitudinal Development of an Extensive Reading Program in a Japanese University
An Analysis of the Reading and Speaking Sections of a Community English Program (CEP) Placement Test
A Task-Based Approach to Entrance Exam Essay Question Preparation
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Papers by Peter F Hourdequin
Peter Hourdequin, Seiji Tani, Tetsuya Bando, and Jirayu Ponvarut
This article discusses our experiments to create more engaged participation and build sustainability literacy among students in a voluntary “game lab” on two different campuses of our Japanese university. Though we found the game lab to be a successful vehicle for language learning, community building, and traversing disciplinary boundaries, it was more difficult to engage students with big ideas about environmental sustainability. We reflect on what we learnt from the game lab’s first 2 years at our university’s main campus and how we will further our goals to use participatory game design to promote sustainability education at our new campus environment.
discussion in a Japanese university context. I discuss my use of a contemporary short story—
Philip Gabriel’s English translation of Haruki Murakami’s “Yesterday” (Murakami, 2014)—as a
vehicle for vocabulary development and to stimulate discussion about language and identity in a
third-year English oral communication class. After describing the context of the class and a
profile of its students, I discuss my choice of the story for use in class, summarize the story’s plot
and characters, and discuss the preparations and tasks undertaken by students. Finally, I consider
the success of my experiment based on student feedback and reflexive analysis.
looks at actions taken at the 2015 PanSIG conference relating to environmental issues, specifically
considering the carbon footprint of the conference, carbon offsets and conference catering. Travel,
specifically flight, is the main environmental impact of the conference, and carbon offsets are
currently the best mitigation option. Catering is also significant and highly visible, but requires
complex organisation.