Short Presentation Hiroshima's Messengers of Peace; On Practical Performative Identity and Student Motivation more

Sat, Dec 18, 17:00-17:25 Asia/Tokyo

Hiroshima City has been working to establish itself as a messenger of peace within international cultural memory. One of the City’s expressed goals is to promote and share a message of peace with other cities around the world. In the 2020-2030 Hiroshima City Plan, they explain this goal as, “…Foster[ing] human resources who can put ideas and methods for building/maintaining peace out into the world” (p. 7). As such, Hiroshima City students are taught from a young age to perform a peace messenger identity for this purpose. In this presentation, performative identity is defined and its practical application in the ESL classroom is explored. Through encouraging the identity, “messenger of peace”, L2 student motivation and abilities improve.