Dr. Damian J. Rivers

Associate Professor [tokunin]

Graduate School of Language and Culture, Osaka University,

Machikaneyama 1-8, Toyonaka, Osaka, 560-0043, Japan

Email: damian.rivers[AT]lang.osaka-u.ac.jp  (2011 - present)

 

Associate Tutor [MA Applied Linguistics & TESOL Programmes]

School of Education, University of Leicester,

21 University Road, Leicester, LE1-7RF, England

Email: djr24[AT]leicester.ac.uk  (2009 - present)

Education

  • Ph.D Applied Linguistics (University of Leicester, England)
  • M.A Applied Linguistics (University of New England, Australia)
  • M.Sc Social Psychology (University of Surrey, England) 
  • B.A (hons) Psychology (University of Bedfordshire, England) 

Research Focus

  • Critical Pedagogies (Esp. the Psychology of Oppression)
  • Democratic Education in Theory and Practice
  • Intergroup Contact Dynamics in Language Education
  • Language Learner Motivation
  • Language Policy and Linguistic Human Rights
  • Multiple Identities in Language Education
  • Nationalism(s), Patriotism(s) and Internationalism(s) of Japan
  • Native-Speakerism and Deconstructing the 'Native-Speaker' Criterion
  • Research Methodologies
  • Social Psychology of Language Education

Recent Research Grants

  • Native-Speakerism and Beyond: Constructing the Vision of the Post-Native-Speakerist Language Teacher [ネイティブスピーカー信仰を超えて]. Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (No: 24520627) (2012-2015). Project members: Principal Investigator (Stephanie Houghton, Saga University, Japan), Co-Investigator (Damian J. Rivers, Osaka University, Japan) and Overseas Co-Researcher Kayoko Hashimoto (University of Queensland, Australia) [$38,000 USD].

Book Publications

  • Rivers, D.J. (in preparation). National Identification and Intergroup Dynamics: English Language Learner Motivation in Japan. 
  • Rivers, D.J. (Ed.) (contracted - in preparation). Resistance to the Known in Foreign Language Education. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Rivers, D.J. and Houghton, S.A. (Eds.) (2013). Social Identities and Multiple Selves in Foreign Language Education. London and New York: Bloomsbury.  LINK

Kanavillil Rajagopalan, State University at Campinas, Brazil:  “This book is a collection of papers that together offer a bold and refreshingly new take on the many trials and tribulations that ELT professionals across the world—all of them, irrespective of where they come from and what credentials they bring along with them—go through as they negotiate their identities and strive to role-play these new identities against the backdrop of what their profession demands and what the public at large expects of them.” 


Ahmer Mahboob, The University of Sydney, Australia:  “This volume challenges a number of key assumptions made in the field of applied linguistics and pushes the boundaries of research on identity in the context of foreign language learning and teaching.”

  • Houghton, S.A. and Rivers, D.J. (Eds.) (2013). Native-Speakerism in Japan: Intergroup Dynamics in Foreign Language Education. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.  LINK

Alan Davies, University of Edinburgh, UK:  "Is the English Native Speaker a political or a linguistic concept? Native Speakerism in Japan persuades us that it is political. Houghton and Rivers have assembled a powerful group of ELT professionals with first-hand experience of Japan and Italy who argue convincingly that native speakerism always has racist and gendered overtones."


Timothy Reagan, Nazarbayev University, Republic of Kazakhstan:  "This excellent book constitutes a significant contribution to the critical study of language education. The concept of native-speakerism, based in an ideology of deficiency as well as an extremely questionable bifurcation of 'native speakers' and 'non-native speakers', is shown to be a far more complex process in which native speakers of English are both empowered and disempowered simultaneously."

Book Chapter Publications

  • Rivers, D.J. (in preparation). Democracy Dictated: Learner Autonomy and Linguistic Prohibition. In D.J. Rivers (Ed.), Resistance to the Known in Foreign Language Education. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Rivers, D.J. (in preparation). Introduction: Conceptualizing the Known and Establishing a Framework for Resistance. In D.J.Rivers (Ed.), Resistance to the Known in Foreign Language Education. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Rivers, D.J. (in preparation). Liminal Identities and Social Integration of the Self-Concept: International Students in the Foreign Language Classroom. In A. Fabricius and B. Preisler (Eds.), Transcultural Interaction and Linguistic Diversity in Higher Education: The Student Experience. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
  • Rivers, D.J. (in preparation). 'Foreigner as Criminal' Discourse and Cultural Essentialism in Japan. In. F. Dervin and R. Machart (Eds.), Culture as an Excuse in Intercultural Communication and Education. London and New York: Routledge.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2013). Implications for Identity: Inhabiting the 'Native-Speaker' English Teacher Location in the Japanese Sociocultural Context. In D.J. Rivers and S.A. Houghton (Eds.), Social Identities and Multiple Selves in Foreign Language Education (pp. 33-55). London and New York: Bloomsbury.
  • Rivers, D.J. and Houghton, S.A. (2013). Identities in Foreign Language Education. In D.J. Rivers and S.A. Houghton (Eds.), Social Identities and Multiple Selves in Foreign Language Education (pp. 1-12). London and New York: Bloomsbury.
  • Rivers, D.J. and Ross, A.S. (2013). Uncovering Stereotypes: Intersections of Race and English Native-Speakerhood. In S.A. Houghton, Y. Furumura, M. Lebedko and L. Song (Eds.), Critical Cultural Awareness: Managing Stereotypes through Intercultural (Language) Education (pp. 42-61). Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2013). Institutionalized Native-Speakerism: Voices of Dissent and Acts of Resistance. In S.A. Houghton and D.J. Rivers (Eds.), Native-Speakerism in Japan: Intergroup Dynamics in Foreign Language Education (pp. 75-91). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
  • Houghton, S.A. and Rivers, D.J. (2013). Redefining Native-Speakerism. In S.A. Houghton and D.J. Rivers (Eds.), Native-Speakerism in Japan: Intergroup Dynamics in Foreign Language Education (pp. 1-14). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2011). The Internationalization of Japanese Higher Education Institutions: Implications for 2012 and Beyond. In C. Ward (Ed.), Language Education: An Essential for a Global Economy: Anthology Series 52 (pp. 237-257). Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Language Centre.

Book Review Publications

  • Rivers, D.J. (in preparation). Rethinking Narrative Identity edited by Claudia Holler and Martin Klepper [John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2013]. LINGUIST List.
  • Rivers, D.J. (in preparation). Asia for the Asians: China in the Lives of Five Meiji Japanese by Paula Harrell [University of Hawai'i Press, 2012]. Asian Studies Review.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2013). English-Medium Instruction at Universities: Global Challenges (Multilingual Matters Series) edited by Aintzane Doiz, David Lasagabaster and Juan Manuel Sierra [Multilingual Matters, 2013]. LINGUIST List <http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?SubID=6977576>.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2013). Developing Criticality in Practice Through Foreign Language Education (Intercultural Studies and Foreign Language Learning Series) by Stephanie Houghton and Etsuko Yamada [Peter Lang, 2012]. Language and Intercultural Communication, 13(1): 113-116.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2012). The Politics of English: Conflict, Competition, Co-Existence (Worlds of English Series) edited by Ann Hewings and Caroline Tagg [Routledge, 2012]. LINGUIST List <http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?SubID=4556670>.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2012). Identity Formation in Globalizing Contexts: Language Learning in the New Millennium (Language and Social Processes Series) edited by Christina Higgins [De Gruyter Mouton, 2011]. LINGUIST List <http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?SubID=4550581>.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2011). Reimagining Japanese Education: Borders, Transfers, Circulations, and the Comparative (Oxford Studies in Comparative Education Series) edited by David Blake Willis and Jeremy Rappleye [Symposium Books, 2011]. Australian Universities Review 53(2): 118-122.

Select Journal Publications

  • Rivers, D.J. and Ross, A.S. (in press). Idealized English Teachers: The Implicit Influence of Race in Japan. Journal of Language, Identity and Education.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2013). Labour Contract Law Amendments: Recruitment Indicative of Change? The Language Teacher 37(1): 68-71.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2012). Modeling the Perceived Value of Compulsory English Language Education in Undergraduate Non-Language Majors of Japanese Nationality. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 33(3): 251-267.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2011). Evaluating the Self and the Other: Imagined Intercultural Contact within a Native-Speaker Dependent Foreign Language Context. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 35(6): 842-852.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2011). Intercultural Processes in Accented English. World Englishes 30(3): 375-391.
  • McMillan, B.A. and Rivers, D.J. (2011). The Practice of Policy: Teacher Attitudes Toward "English-Only". System 39(2): 251-263.
  • Rivers D.J. (2011). Strategies and Struggles in the ELT Classroom: Language Policy, Learner Autonomy and Innovative Practice. Language Awareness 20(1): 31-43.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2011). Japanese National Identification and English Language Learning Processes. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 35(2): 111-123.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2011). Politics without Pedagogy: Questioning Linguistic Exclusion. ELT Journal 65(2): 103-113.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2010). Implicating the Role of Japanese National Identification: National Vitality, Community Appeal and Attitudes toward English Language Learning in Context. Studies in Linguistics and Language Teaching 21: 101-122.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2010). Ideologies of Internationalisation and the Treatment of Diversity within Japanese Higher Education. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management 32(5): 441-454.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2010). National Identification and Intercultural Relations in Foreign Language Learning. Language and Intercultural Communication 10(4): 318-336.

Keynote Conference Presentations

  • Rivers, D.J. (2012, December). The Properties and Parameters of Native-Speakerism in Japan. Invited Keynote Lecture (90-minutes) presented at the JAFAE (Japanese Association for Asian Englishes) Thirty-First National Conference, Bunkyo Gakuin University, Tokyo, Japan.

Select Conference Presentations

  • Rivers, D.J. (2013, June). Native-Speaker Dependency: The Validity of Student Preference. Paper presented at the JAFAE (Japanese Association for Asian Englishes) Thirty-Second National Conference, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2012, December). The Cultural Complexities of Native-English Speaker Teacher Identities. Paper presented at the Fifth Centre for Language Studies International Conference, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
  • Rivers, D.J. and Ross, A.S. (2012, December). Racialized Dimensions of Desirable English Language Teachers in Japan. Poster presented at the Fifth Centre for Language Studies International Conference, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
  • Rivers, D.J., Houghton, S.A. and Petrie, D. (2012, April). Explorations of Native-Speakerism in Foreign Language Teaching. Panel organized and presented at the International Conference on Cultural and Linguistic Practices in the International University (CALPIU 12), Roskilde University, Denmark.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2012, April). Voices of the Voiceless: A Quest for Liberation and Transformation in Context. Paper presented at the International Conference on Cultural and Linguistic Practices in the International University (CALPIU 12), Roskilde University, Denmark.
  • Rivers, D.J. and McMillan, B.A. (2011, August). Exercising Academic Freedom: Pursuing Research in Contentious Areas of ELT. Paper presented at the JACET (Japan Association of College English Teachers) Fiftieth Commemorative International Convention, Seinan Gakuin University, Fukuoka, Japan.
  • Rivers, D.J. and McMillan, B.A. (2011, July). Censorship and Academic Freedom in ELT Research: Implications for Practitioner Motivation. Paper presented at the CUE (College and University Educators) 2011 Annual Conference, Toyo Gakuen University (Hongo Campus), Tokyo, Japan.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2011, July). National Selves and National Others: Motivational Processes in Intercultural Contexts. Paper presented at the CUE (College and University Educators) 2011 Annual Conference, Toyo Gakuen University (Hongo Campus), Tokyo, Japan.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2010, December). The Role of Intercultural Contact in Foreign Language Learner Motivation. Paper presented at the Fourth Centre for Language Studies International Conference, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2010, November). Implicating the Role of Japanese National Identification: National Vitality, Community Appeal, and Attitudes toward English Language Learning in Context. Presented at the Sixth Seminar Session of the Research Institute of Language Studies and Language Education, Kanda University of International Studies, Chiba, Japan.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2010, July). Institutional Power and Nationality-Based Language Policy. Virtual presentation presented at the Tenth International Conference on Knowledge, Culture and Change in Organisations, HEC, School of Commercial Studies, Montréal, Canada.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2010, July). An Analysis of the Global 30 Project: Internationalism in Japanese Higher Education. Virtual presentation presented at the Tenth International Conference on Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations, Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland.
  • Rivers, D.J. and Houghton, S.A. (2010, July). The Peripheralization of Foreign Academics in Japanese Higher Education. Virtual presentation presented at the Tenth International Conference on Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations, Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2010, June). Examining Institutional Language Policy through Learner Empowerment and Awareness. Paper presented at the Sixteenth International Conference of the International Association for Intercultural Communication Studies, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China.
  • Rivers, D.J. and Houghton, S.A. (2010, June). Defending against English Linguistic Imperialism in the International University: Contradictions between Theory and Practice. Paper presented at the Sixteenth International Conference of the International Association for Intercultural Communication Studies, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2010, April). The Internationalization of Japanese Higher Education: Implications for 2012 and Beyond. Paper presented at the Inaugural APEC-RELC International Seminar, SEAMEO Regional Language Centre, Singapore.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2009, November). Towards Optimum Target Language and First Language use through Reflection. Paper presented at the Japan Association for Language Teaching [JALT] Thirty-fifth Annual International Conference on Language Teaching and Learning & Educational Materials Expo, Granship Shizuoka, Shizuoka, Japan.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2009, November). Engaging Students with First Language Supported Materials. Paper presented at the Japan Association for Language Teaching [JALT] Thirty-fifth Annual International Conference on Language Teaching and Learning & Educational Materials Expo, Granship Shizuoka, Shizuoka, Japan.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2009, October). Japanese Evaluations of Accented English Speech. Paper presented at the Fifteenth International Association of World Englishes Conference. Park Lane International Hotel, Cebu, Philippines.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2009, September). The Motivational Factors which Shape Intended Foreign Language Learning Efforts. Paper presented at the Fifteenth International Association for Intercultural Communication Studies Conference, Kumamoto Gakuen University, Kumamoto, Japan.
  • Rivers, D.J. and McMillan, B.A. (2009, September). English-Mainly: Language Choice in Learner-to-Learner Discourse. Paper presented at the Fifteenth International Association for Intercultural Communication Studies Conference, Kumamoto Gakuen University, Kumamoto, Japan.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2009, August). The Provision of First Language Supported Classroom Materials: Help or Hindrance? Paper presented at the Seventh Asia TEFL International Conference at the Twenty-Ninth Thai TESOL Conference, Imperial Queen’s Park Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand.
  • Rivers, D.J. and McMillan, B.A. (2009, July). First Language use and Embodied Completion in the Achievement and Maintenance of Intersubjectivity. Poster presented at the Eleventh Annual International Conference of the Japanese Society for Language Sciences, Tokyo Denki University, Saitama, Japan.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2009, June). From Knowing and Remembering to Analyzing and Researching: The Challenges and Changes Facing Japanese University Freshmen. Paper presented at the Independent Learning Association Conference, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2009, June). The Borderless Classroom: Quick Response Codes and Mobile Tagging. Paper presented at the Independent Learning Association Conference, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong.
  • Rivers, D.J. (2008, December). TBLT from an Experiential Perspective: Student Satisfaction Assessed through the Completion of a Campus Video Project at a Japanese University. Paper presented at the Third Centre for Language Studies International Conference, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
  • Rivers, D.J. and McMillan, B.A. (2008, December). The Function of the First Language in the EFL Classroom. Paper presented at the Third Centre for Language Studies International Conference, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
  • Rivers, D.J. and McMillan, B.A. (2008, November). University Teacher Perceptions of the Communicative Approach to Language Teaching. Paper presented at the Japan Association for Language Teaching [JALT] Thirty-Fourth Annual International Conference, National Olympics Memorial Youth Center, Tokyo, Japan.

Editorial and Reviewer Roles

Media Citations

  • Hospitality Knocks: Probing Japan's Yen for Foreign Exchange. Are Nationalistic and Financial Concerns Driving Internationalisation Plans? by John Morgan. The Times Higher Education (2011, March 3rd). Interview given in response to Rivers, D.J. (2010). Ideologies of Internationalisation and the Treatment of Diversity within Japanese Higher Education. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management 32(5): 441-454.
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