William+Armour's+page

A movie I made

Just a little about my work context. I have been a Japanese language teacher since 1981 beginning this long career at a secondary school then after having lived in Japan being appointed to UNSW in 1990. I have taught courses in Japanese language, intercultural communication, Japanese popular culture, and cultural studies. I research about additional language learning and identity issues, second language reading, (gay) masculinity in Japanese comics amongst others. I am interested in constructions of nativeness, in particular the digital native. I use technology in the classroom but I would be accused of merely imposing traditional literacy practices on this use by those who support Web 2.0 and Mindset 2. I guess I am a traditionalist and hey proud of it! I am critical of the move towards positioning technology as a panacea since I remember the promises of the language lab. and how it was going to make language learners fluent. Listening to members of this class takes me out of my comfort zone and that is a good thing. It's good being a student again watching MC do the hard work! And I can see that 'teaching' is hard work.

Outside of work, I watch TV (and I'm anxious that I don't have the technology to receive all the new channels!), take photos with my digital camera (but don't have a blog), travel, garden and sometimes smile.