Short Research Papers

The History and Development of a

Self-Access Conversation Lounge
Quenby Hoffman Aoki and Jamie Purdon
Seikei University
Seikei University’s self-access lounge is called English Chat Time (ECT), and sessions areoffered for 30 minutes at lunchtime, using materials such as conversation cards and board
games, or engaging in discussion on a range of topics. An instructor oversees the sessions,which are conducted by two international teaching assistants (TAs). Instructors exhibit awide range of practices ranging from full control and participation to heavy reliance on TAs.
Due to the current pandemic, TA involvement is no longer possible, and the program has
moved online, which presents a new set of challenges. The goal of this project is to criticallyexamine ECT from the teachers’ perspective, looking at the program’s development since
its inception in 2010, and improve the efficacy of ECT sessions through increased student
attendance, improved retention, more teacher engagement during sessions, and morebalanced interaction with students of all speaking levels, in order to create community
among participants outside the classroom.
成蹊大学のセルフアクセスラウンジはイングリッシュチャットタイム（ECT）と呼ばれ、会話カードやボードゲームなどの資料を使ったり、さまざまなトピックについて話し合ったりして、ランチタイムに30分間のセッションが提供される。2人の国際ティーチ
ングアシスタント（TA）によって行われるセッションに、講師が責任を持つことになっている。完全な管理と参加からTAへの大きな依存に至るまで、講師の実践は多様である。コロナウィルス感染により、TAの関与が不可能となり、プログラムはオンラインに移行し、そのために、一連の課題が新たに生じた。本研究の目的は、参加者たちが教室外でコミュニティを築くことができるよう、2010年開始以来のECTプログ
ラムの開発について、その内容を教師の視点から批判的に検討すること、そして、学生の出席率や定着率を向上させ、セッション中の教師の関与を増やし、様々なスピーキングのレベルの学生同士がよりバランスの取れたやり取りをすることによってECTセッションの有効性を高めることである。

4

Development of a Self-Access Conversation Lounge, OCJSI 3, pages 4-14

The purpose of self-access language lounges is to provide opportunities forstudents to practice speaking the vehicular language outside of class in an
informal environment. At the Institute of International Studies at Seikei
University, a private university in western Tokyo. the self-access conversation
lounge is known as English Chat Time (ECT). This paper reflects the first phaseof a tripartite study, courtesy of a research grant from the university. In the longterm, the project will look at ECT from the perspectives of teachers, students,
and international teaching assistants (TAs), but this paper focuses only on theteachers. Since early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has drastically altered thenature of the intended research, and the program has been required to moveonline. The name was changed to Zoom Chat with Teachers (ZCT) in order todistinguish it from the regular face-to-face ECT format. The focus at the timeof this writing is on the program’s history, most recent in-person situations, andpossible future directions. The results of a survey of the instructors, which was
conducted in order to understand the teachers’ perspectives and obtain their
feedback on their role in ECT, will be discussed, and possible future directions
for the program will be suggested.
ECT was started in 2010 with the goal of providing students with
opportunities to practice speaking English outside of class. Learner autonomy
has been a major curricular goal at the university, reflected in the research ofprofessors including Dr. Chika Hayashi (2018) and in required courses suchas “Freshers’ English,” which until the 2019 academic year introduced all firstyear students to ways of learning English independently outside of class time. In
addition to ECT, there is an extensive reading corner in the library, a lunch andbreak room called “Global Square,” and a wealth of online resources. ECT is an
integral part of this focus on encouraging independent learning.
Until 2016, all sessions were one hour long, held during a regular class period
Monday through Friday. Students were asked to pre-register, but walk-ins were
never turned away. Although it was possible to come for 30 minutes (the first or
second half of the session), students rarely availed themselves of this option. In
2017, a trial of 30-minute lunchtime sessions was added. Two 30-minute sessions
were determined equal to a single one-hour session, and most instructors were5

Aoki & Purdonscheduled with a combination of both. By the end of the 2019 academic year, it
was clear that students preferred the lunchtime sessions. This was apparent fromthe substantial increase in attendance.
ECT sessions currently remain 30 minutes long during lunchtime. Until
the end of 2019, they were supervised by a full-time contracted instructor, but
discussion, games, and other activities were facilitated by two international
teaching assistants (TAs). A major unfortunate effect of the pandemic is thatit has become impossible to hire TAs, because the number of international
exchange students has decreased severely. This created a challenge, forcing
teachers to plan and facilitate the sessions alone.
ECT scheduling is carried out in the following way: at the beginning ofeach semester, teachers are asked to state which days and times they prefer to bescheduled for sessions. In any given academic year there are eight to ten full-time
contracted instructors with the job title of Associate Lecturer, or Jokin Koshi
in Japanese. Instructors are required to teach seven 90-minute weekly classes(koma) per semester, plus one koma of ECT. Although the semester is 15 weeks
long, in practice this means each instructor only supervises an average of six onehour sessions of ECT per semester.
The role of the ECT coordinator is firstly to interview exchange students
that are interested in becoming TAs and to check their overall English fluency
and suitability for the position. Not all TAs are from English-speaking countries;
the most recent group in 2019 included TAs from China, France, Germany, andSpain. Their varieties of English are viewed as an asset for the students, but animportant part of the selection process is to ensure that successful candidates haveenough confidence to facilitate conversation in English. The coordinator thenorganizes training sessions for TAs at the start of each semester. The maximum
number of trainees at one time was twenty, and the minimum number was three.
The TAs are paid slightly more than Japan’s minimum wage for each session.
Once TAs are selected, the coordinator schedules instructors for ECT
sessions. After asking their availability and top three schedule preferences, heschedules at least one session each weekday. More sessions may be scheduled per
day at different times if more than one instructor is available. After completion,
6

Development of a Self-Access Conversation Lounge, OCJSI 3, pages 4-14

the schedule is sent to the International Studies Office, where the TAs’ schedules
are arranged. The office then schedules the TAs to pair them with the teachers
and advertises ECT on campus and the university website.
Originally, as was the case at many educational institutions, online lessons
were only expected to continue for a few weeks. However, by the end of May
it became clear that all classes would be taught remotely for the entire springsemester. ECT had been cancelled during the shift to emergency remote teaching,so it was decided that an online equivalent to ECT would be offered in the latterpart of the semester. Due to the extraordinary and stressful circumstances at thetime, teacher participation was not made compulsory. This resulted in only fourof ten teachers taking on the task. The ECT coordinator decided that the nameshould be changed to “Zoom Chat with Teachers” (ZCT) to reflect the fact that
it would be quite different from the regular in-person ECT sessions.
Overall, the teachers’ feedback about the ZCT concept was positive, andcomments ranged from “good” to “fine” to “very different”. Because there wereno TAs, one teacher commented that there was a greater need for instructors
to engage with the students, especially as three of his four ZCT sessions wereconducted with a single student. Also, since all teachers were working remotelyfrom home and only interacted with students in their own online classes, theycommented that they had no way to publicize the sessions except to their own
students. This may have been a major reason for the low attendance rate.

Methods

A survey (Appendix) was conducted in August after the end of the springsemester. An anonymous Google form was sent to current and former full-time
instructors who had facilitated ECT before the pandemic. The survey consisted ofLikert ratings, followed by a free response section for comments. Ten instructors
responded, four of whom participated in the first online ZCT sessions. Afterthe results of the survey were collected, an interview was conducted with the
instructor who had been most strongly involved in starting the ZCT sessions.

7

Aoki & Purdon

Results

This section summarizes the survey results, and the data itself is available uponrequest from the authors. The responses indicated that nine of ten teachers had
a positive attitude toward ECT, although one admitted honestly that it depends
on the individual personalities present at each session and the interaction
among those individuals. When asked whether they enjoy ECT sessions, all the
instructors responded that they enjoy ECT at least somewhat. Also, instructors
are unanimous in feeling happy about facilitating ECT as opposed to being
required to teach an eighth class. Contractual obligations for instructors at otherJapanese universities are often higher, with 12 or even 14 koma per week notunheard-of.
Instructors gave a range of responses regarding their level of involvement in
ECT sessions. Some teachers actively participate in discussions, games, and otheractivities. Some simply observe, which most likely suggests how competently theTAs were managing the sessions and how willing and able the attending students
were to speak up and participate actively. A few instructors offer language
suggestions and corrections.
As stated above, not all TAs speak English as their first language, so it is notuncommon for the TAs to request such help directly, or for students to needhelp understanding the varieties of English spoken by the TAs. This variety is
generally viewed by instructors as a benefit that gives students the opportunity
to become exposed to a range of vocabulary and pronunciation. Indeed, theauthors of this article are from the U.S. and Scotland, and thus both are so-called“native speakers”, but obviously our usage of English differs greatly.
Instructors’ responses to the question, “How much structure and guidance
would you like to have for online Zoom sessions?” clearly indicated that no one
wanted to conduct their sessions according to a prescribed format. However,
the majority were in favor of having guidelines such as an online repository ofrecommended activities and a list of discussion topics. A few stated that theywould rather manage sessions on their own and do not require additionalguidelines or support.
8

Development of a Self-Access Conversation Lounge, OCJSI 3, pages 4-14

Instructor Participation in ZCTMost of the instructors did not participate in online ZCT. Four instructors
agreed to conduct some sessions, and in the fall semester presumably all will be
required to do it, since it is a contractual obligation. This will most likely meanthat instructors who did not participate in the spring term will be scheduled forsessions twice a week. On some days, two instructors will be assigned and will
split the students into two breakout rooms if a sufficient number of students
attend. In terms of research, this will be a shift from teacher to “learning advisor”,
which is a term commonly used in research on self-access learning (Bibby, Jolley,& Shiobara, 2016).

Discussion

By way of reflections and thoughts on the research so far, an important point toremember is that “self-access learning should be truly self-access”, meaning that bydefinition students cannot be required to do it (Cooker, 2010; p. 7). This guiding
principle is stated explicitly to all new instructors at orientation when they startworking. Teachers are encouraged to promote ECT, and new ways to continue
promoting it are being implemented now that the lounge is online. These will be
discussed in more detail below.
One way of encouraging students to attend ECT, mentioned by one
instructor in her comments, is that she allows her students to submit a short
reaction paper about their experience of attending ECT. Students receive points
towards a grade in her class. Thus, they are not awarded points for attending
ECT, but they do earn points for submitting the reaction paper. This is presented
by the instructor as one way among several that students can earn extra points
for using English outside of class. This particular instructor has had a range of
responses from students. One student who was very dedicated and attended
ECT at least once or twice every week even decided to keep an ECT journal for
the whole semester. This served to reinforce his language learning experience andprovided valuable insight into the student’s perspective on ECT.

9

Aoki & Purdon

Current Situation
One issue for teachers and students everywhere during the 2020 academic year
was that the move to online teaching was sudden and unexpected, and mostwere stressed and unprepared. It has been announced by Seikei University thatas a rule, classes are online for the 2020 fall semester, and ZCT has just beenscheduled at the time of this writing. It is expected that it will be better organizedoverall, because the teachers now have some experience and a better idea of how
to use technology to facilitate students’ communication online. (Update andnot part of the original presentation: Classes were undertaken online for the fallsemester and as expected, the organization was smoother and teachers were more
comfortable with the technology, resulting in more interest by students reflectedby an increase in the number of students attending sessions.)
A few possible future directions include, firstly, having all teachers
contribute to a shared repository of materials such as recommended YouTube
videos, discussion topics, and downloadable handouts. Another possibility isusing motivated university students as facilitators, since for now there are still
no exchange students to hire as TAs. The possibility of networking with otheruniversities and conducting joint ZCT sessions has also been discussed between
one teacher and several acquaintances who work at other universities in Japan.
This might be problematic for administrative reasons, except that since ZCT isbeing conducted online, people could theoretically join from anywhere. Finally,in the interest of encouraging independent learning, this can be used as anopportunity to introduce students to online resources that they can self-access,such as websites, YouTube channels, and Netflix shows in order to further theirinterest in the topics covered in the sessions.
When face-to-face sessions eventually resume, we may be able toaccommodate several of the comments which suggested having regular Japanese
students attend TA training, so that TAs can practice in a realistic atmosphere.
Until now, the trainees were asked to pretend to be beginning-level students.
This idea has merit and is worthy of serious consideration, although it will
require some extra planning to implement.
Another valid suggestion was requiring all teachers to attend one or more10

Development of a Self-Access Conversation Lounge, OCJSI 3, pages 4-14

TA training sessions, which would help teachers to understand their roles andclarify what is expected of them. Furthermore, ongoing refresher training for
TAs would prove useful to remind them of what they are being paid to do. Also,
more frequent feedback from TAs through a questionnaire would be helpful,and ways to obtain such feedback will be considered seriously in anticipation of
resuming in-person sessions, whenever that becomes possible. Finally, a better,more assertive advertising campaign and clear signs around the campus would
help direct students to where ECT is being held.

Conclusion

Teachers are generally satisfied with ECT and are happy to conduct ECT
instead of being required to teach an additional class every semester. The
survey generally clarified teachers’ expectations and their perceived roles in
ECT. Teacher involvement in the sessions is largely active, with a wide range ofteaching styles being exhibited even within each session. These different styles
should meet the needs of a wide range of students.
Also, most teachers would generally appreciate some structure and guidance,
probably in the form of an online repository of suggested activities and a list of
prepared discussion topics. Teachers now have more online teaching experience,are more confident conducting ZCT sessions, and will be able to incorporate
technology more effectively even after it becomes possible to hold in-person
sessions on campus. As the saying goes, forewarned is forearmed, and we plan toadopt this as our motto going forward, as we work to meet the language learning
goals of our students even in a changing, unpredictable environment.

References

Bibby, S., Jolley, K., & Shiobara, F. (2016). Increasing attendance in a self-accesslanguage lounge. Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal, 7(3), 301–311.
https://doi.org/10.37237/070306
Chen, A. and Mynard, J. (2018). Student perceptions of the English Lounge
after a layout change. Relay Journal, 1(1), 221–235.
Cooker, L. (2010). Some self-access principles. Studies in Self-Access Learning
11

Aoki & Purdon

Journal, 1(1), 5–9.
Hayashi, C. (2018). Report on the development of learner autonomy in
Freshers’ English: Personal goal setting and learning plans for English
language learning. Bulletin of Seikei University, 51(3). http://hdl.handle.
net/10928/1256

Highly recommended resource

Studies In Self-Access Learning, Kanda University of International Studies.
https://sisaljournal.org/

Author bios

Quenby Hoffman Aoki teaches at Seikei University. She holds degrees from
Georgetown University (Japanese Language) and California State University(Education/ TESOL), and is Coordinator of the JALT Gender Awareness in
Language Education SIG. quenbya@yahoo.com
Jamie Purdon teaches at Seikei University. He holds a master's degree from Aston
University. His research interests include extensive reading, corpus linguistics, andcomputer mediated education. jamie@gol.com
Received: September 17, 2020
Accepted: November 7, 2021

12

Development of a Self-Access Conversation Lounge, OCJSI 3, pages 4-14

Appendix
ECT Questionnaire
Quenby and Jamie are doing some research on how to improve the quality of
ECT sessions and would appreciate your spending a few minutes on answering
the following questionnaire. All answers will be completely anonymous. Thankyou very much for your time. We appreciate your feedback.
1. What is your overall feeling about ECT? *• Very positive• Somewhat positive• Neutral• Somewhat negative• Very negative• Other _____________
2. Do you enjoy attending ECT sessions? *• Yes• Somewhat• Maybe• Not really• No
3. Are you happy doing ECT sessions instead of an extra class (ie 7 classes
and ECT sessions instead of 8 classes)?
• Yes
• No
4. Describe your involvement in the ECT sessions. Check all that apply. *• I actively participate in discussions• I actively participate in games• I actively participate in activities• I tend to just observe and not actively participate• I offer language suggestions and correct student's mistakes• I help TAs and offer them suggestions

13

Aoki & Purdon

5. Do you have any opinions or suggestions regarding ECT?
(free response)
6. How could TA training be more effective?
(free response)
7. Did you participate in online Zoom Chat with teachers this semester?
• Yes.
• No.
8. If your answer to number 7 is yes, how did the online environment affectthe experience?
(free response)
9. As it is likely that we will have to do online Zoom Chat sessions (withoutTAs) next semester, how much structure and guidance would you like tohave for online Zoom sessions?
• I'd like to have a set format (for time, activities etc)
• I'd like to have general guidelines (e.g. a folder of suggested activities,
discussion topics etc)
• I'd rather decide by myself how to manage the sessions.
10. What would facilitate the online experience for you as a teacher?
(free response)14