【Research Brief】

Enhancing Receptivity in EFL Classrooms:
Exploring Teacher Development Opportunities ThroughFollow-up Reflective Diaries
Anna Belobrovy

Abstract
In recent years, reflective practices in education have received plentiful attention
as a powerful learner-development tool in the general and language education
fields. This action research demonstrates ample potential benefits of selfreflective activities in the language classroom from the teacher development
perspective through qualitative analysis of students’ study journals in a speaking
English as a second language tertiary classroom. This study indicates learners’
awareness of their learning progress using journal writing as a medium of selfreflection on their language skill development and overall learning progress. It
provides additional insights into the language learning process, such as learners’
perception of the above, which includes goal-setting ability, learners’ selfanalysis of learning challenges, and self-motivation. The discussion andconclusion sections highlight the embedded potential of the reflective entries
that fulfill a function as a background source for curriculum planning with
objectives and activities adjusted to learners’ needs that, overall, can serve as
stimuli for a deeper and more effective learning process.
Keywords: Learner development, Teacher development, Self-reflection, Learning diaries,
Pedagogical implications

Introduction
It is an active research project designed to demonstrate the benefits of self-reflective
activities in the language classroom from the teacher development perspective through aqualitative analysis of students’ study journals in the English as a foreign language (EFL)
tertiary environment. It offers additional channels to enhance receptivity in the language
classroom through the perspectives of learner reflection.
Research Objectives
The main objective is to explore the ways students’ reflective diaries shed light on
Japanese college students’ learning process by analyzing the nature of the diary entries andtheir contribution to the improvement of pedagogical procedures. To deepen educators’79

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第4巻 （ JOURNAL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH, VOL. 4）

comprehension of the immense role of learners’ involvement in the teaching process throughself-reflective diaries (Little, 2007), which were investigated using a mixed method approach,the following research questions were asked:
1. What is the nature of the reflective journal entries?
2. How can the knowledge gained from diary entries be applied in the planning/teachingprocess?
The diary entries of college Japanese students majoring in English were analyzed basedon the adoption of metacognitive features from Ellis (1999) and Sinclair (1999): analysis of
the subject matter, learner awareness, and learning process awareness.
Theoretical sources indicate a strong connection between the implications of the selfreflective practice and enhanced receptivity to the learning contents in the EFL setting. The
recognition of its significance for learners’ empowerment, encouragement, and responsibility
for learning is undeniable: it can naturally activate engagement with learning material,
deepen comprehension, and reinforce critical and autonomous thinking (Belobrovy, 2018).
This study investigates the additional function of reflective practices, which is enhancing
the receptivity of the material by sustaining teachers’ choices of approach, curricular goals,
and activities. This study was conducted in a higher education context in Japan; however,
the outcomes can be generalized to other such contexts.

Literature Review
Definitions of Reflective Activities in the Literature
Reflective activities are defined as “those intellectual and affective activities that
individuals engage in to explore their experience, which leads to new understanding andappreciation” (Boud et al., 1985, p. 19). According to Dewey (1991), experience-basedreflective activities can potentially serve as a critical role in learner-centered education as aself-activating learning medium imposed at the beginning but appreciated at the end.
Studies by Lew and Schmidt (2011), attempted to prove the existence of connectivity
between reflective activities and enhanced academic performance by adopting the view of
the above as an inaccurate process that improves over time and includes engagement inreflecting on the content of past learning experiences by the learners and leads to potentiallyhigher academic achievements in the future.
Research on Journal Writing as a Self-Reflection Medium
Amulya (2004) emphasizes that written reflection can be a beneficial learning tool for
gaining reflective experiences from the students’ perspective and serving the educators. Park
(2003) includes journals in the range of reflective activities that increase student interest inand engagement with course material, encourage and empower students to take more
responsibility for their own learning, and allow them to have a voice and provide valuable
feedback to the teacher. Such potential can provide irreplaceable information for pedagogicalpractices.

80Enhancing Receptivity in EFL Classrooms: Exploring Teacher Development Opportunities Through Follow-up Reflective Diaries

Metacognitive Learners’ Benefits
Multiple studies throughout the years suggested a correlation between the implementationof prescriptive reflective activities and enhanced receptivity of learning material. Reflective
activities can also help learners increase their metacognitive awareness of their own learningand master successful learning behaviors as a life skill (Sevilla & Gamboa, 2016). Watson(2001) identifies reflective activities as a tool imminent for a performance-enhancing learning
environment where transmitted knowledge reflected upon serves as mutually gained
experience and thus accumulates potential for shortening the distance between the instructor
and the learners. He suggests that reflection offers the learners additional opportunities to“negotiate strategies and alter content” (p. 140).
Implications for the Educators: Pedagogical Benefits
Although learner-related benefits of reflective activities are fully captured in theliterature with strong evidence of their efficacy, teachers’ perspectives have been slightly lessdocumented and implicit.
Reflection is seen as a disguised pedagogical tool that offers insights into language
learning studies to target learner needs (Marefat, 2002). The learners are guided to examine
their own behavior during class, i.e., introspection. If conducted correctly, such information
can serve as an indicator of attitudes, needs, and the learning process, which is vital in theplanning procedures. Cavilla (2017) notes the benefits of the infusion of reflective activities
within the curriculum as they hold the potential to reveal the true meaning of the assignmentat hand and its effectiveness in the acquisition process.
So far, research on reflective practices in EFL has focused on student and teacher
performance (Klimova, 2015), with little attention paid to the potential value of learners’
voices in broader pedagogical functions like curriculum planning. This study exemplifies
student-generated pedagogical implications to maximize the impact of instruction.

Methodology
This study utilizes the qualitative method of data collection and identifies categories ofanalysis revealing the nature of the reflective entries with regard to pedagogical issues ofteaching a course at the university level. The factors explored in the study aimed at improving
teacher–student interaction, enhancing participation, and elevating the effectiveness of thelanguage learning process.
Setting
The study was conducted in a private Japanese university in an undergraduate English
language course targeting listening and speaking skills. Generally, the students enrolled in
the course were second-year English majors. The primary objectives of the syllabus were toincrease the independent ability of students to receive (listen), produce (verbal presentation),and interact in English. To achieve the learning goal and improve the level of production andquality of exposure, the students were engaged in a series of interactive pair and group
activities during the course. A total of 11 student-participants enrolled in the course who had81外国語教育研究ジャーナル

第4巻 （ JOURNAL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH, VOL. 4）scored an average of 500 on the Test of English for International Communication test andhad intermediate levels of reading and writing skills. All the students acquired Japanese as
their first language and had a similar history of English acquisition.
Procedure: Diary Writing
As the literature suggests positive outcomes of self-reflective activities such as diaryand journal writing on the learning process (Amulya, 2004; Park, 2003), I chose reflective
journals as the main source of analysis. Moreover, as the educator was the one to manage
the class and simultaneously engage in the research activities in my case, journal analysis
was the most accessible and feasible data source. The students were instructed to reflect ina freestyle at the end of each session. It was deliberately emphasized that all the selfreflective activities would not be graded. The participants of the study were introduced tothe purposes of the research in class and willingly signed a formal participant consent form
upon the approval of the institution.
Data Collection and Units of Analysis
The method of analysis chosen for this research was inspired by the study on promoting
learner autonomy in the EFL classroom by Chuk (2003), which was centered on learnerreflection. They include elements of metacognitive awareness described by Ellis (1999) and
Sinclair (1999) as a starting point to define, eliminate, and measure learners’ awareness of
the learning process and identify those involving pedagogical implications. Journal entries
were transcribed and analyzed. Each entry was categorized based on the dominant theme of
the content. Influenced by Chuk (2003), the categories of analysis were coded as learners’
awareness (LA), learning process awareness (LPA), and subject matter awareness (SMA) as
shown in Table 1.
LA refers to entries containing pedagogical implications of students’ self-awareness as
learners in terms of attitudes, beliefs, motivation, needs, and learning styles. SMA implied
the entries accommodating students’ awareness of English as a system. LPA featured entries
with students’ awareness of learning process components such as self-assessment, goalsetting, monitoring progress, evaluating activities, and organizing time and resources (Chuk,
2003).
Table 1Categories of Analysis
Awareness
Learner Awareness (LA)
Subject Matter Awareness (SMA)

Learning Process Awareness (LPA)

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ExamplesAttitudes, beliefs, motivation, and learning styles
English as a Subject, recognizing metalanguage andreferring to learning components and skills, speaking
ability, listening comprehension, and others
Self-assessment, goal-setting, monitoring progress,
evaluating activities, and planning time forassignments

Enhancing Receptivity in EFL Classrooms: Exploring Teacher Development Opportunities Through Follow-up Reflective Diaries

Findings
This section offers the answer to the first research question regarding the nature of thediary entries and introduces the findings elicited from the analysis of diary entries. The
outcomes in Table 2 demonstrate the number of weekly entries dominated by one of thecategories—SMA, LA, or LPA—per student over the 15-week course. As this is a small-scale
study, the numerical values showcase the general tendency in a specific context and build anotion of engagement activity patterns but cannot be generalized without large-scale further
research.
Table 2Distribution of LA, SMA, and LPA Categories in Students’ Diaries
Weekly Entries
Dominated byCategory
S1
S2
S3
S4
S5
S6
S7
S8
S9
S10
S11
Total perSemester:

SMA

LA

LPA

Total:

2
1
1
0
4
0
4
3
0
1
2
18
(11%)

1
1
1
0
1
3
2
0
6
2
0
17
(10%)

12
13
13
15
10
12
9
12
9
12
13
130
(79%)

15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
165

As shown in Table 2, LA comments were the least prevalent among the participants,
accounting for 17% of the total. Additionally, three participants did not share any comments
concerning the LA category. The total average of SMA comments accounted for a slightly
higher average of 18%. Similarly, three participants made no comments regarding SMA. The
majority of entries belonged to the LPA with an average of 79%. The numerical values
provide an additional layer of comprehension, add visibility, and can lead to a discussion on
the connections between student-led reflection and teachers’ professional development. As
the numerical values are not sufficient to illustrate the major self-reflective tendencies,
specific examples are given below to create sufficient evidence for the value of enhancing
teaching practices discussed later in the study.
Learner AwarenessLA referred to entries containing pedagogical implications of students’ self-awareness83

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第4巻 （ JOURNAL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH, VOL. 4）of language skill development and learning difficulties recognized before and discovered
through the course. Several entries were identified to include LA comments, with the two
following dominating themes: acknowledging attitude and recognizing success (e.g., I did mybest and I tried to speak well).
Subject Matter Awareness
SMA referred to the entries containing pedagogical implications related to the students’awareness of English as a system. The following themes of SMA comments were identified
in the data:		
1. Awareness of content and language needs
			I only use easy words, need to know more words
		
2. Awareness of delivery skill development
			Could know how to present		
3. Awareness of skill development necessity
			I can’t understand the listening
Learning Process Awareness
LPA referred to the entries with pedagogical implications from the perspective ofstudents’ awareness of learning process components such as self-assessment, goal-setting,monitoring progress, evaluating activities, and organizing time and resources. Three dominantcomponents were detected:
		
1. Monitoring progress			Group work is fun, should continue improve stress of words.
		2. Self-assessment			
I can’t say my opinion, but I wanted to. Not good at speed reading and notgood at grammar.
			Have to make sentences but I can’t. We think about leadership- difficult as I
have no leadership.
		
3. Evaluating activities: feedback on the level of activity engagement.
			Fun - can talk about a lot of things. Class fun - role-playing is interesting.
			Enjoyed-share different opinions with friends. Could discuss many things.
The next section will focus on synthesizing the analysis of the findings and their relation
to the main goal of this study: creating pedagogical implications for teachers’ professional
development.

Discussion and Pedagogical Implications
The limited literature sources indicated that self-reflective practices can be approached
as a powerful tool with educational implications by making general suggestions to incorporate
the above into pedagogical routines (Cavilla, 2017). This study supports the outcomes and84

Enhancing Receptivity in EFL Classrooms: Exploring Teacher Development Opportunities Through Follow-up Reflective Diaries

expands general recommendations into the EFL learning field by offering concreteenhancement strategies based on active research findings.
The results described in the above section indicate that within the specific learning
environment, the students demonstrated a high level of enthusiasm and openness to share
their earnest feedback toward the content of the activities and foresee their possible learningbenefits from the tasks. The pedagogical enhancement opportunities derived from theknowledge accumulated in the study are as follows.
First, as the findings show that the participants were fully aware of their strengths andweaknesses as learners and appeared to be in full control of the learning process in terms ofgoal-setting, self-motivation, and planning, the first enhancement suggestion for the educators
is to allow a high degree of student autonomy by positioning themselves as facilitators. In
this regard, the students might benefit from a guided introduction to self-assessment and peer
reviewing.
Second, concerning SMA, it appears that the learners described themselves as alreadypossessing a steadily functioning language processing system, with a certain awareness of its
components as well as their own language development needs. As these appear pre-existing,educators can focus more on their enhancement and further development by introducing newcollaborative project- and task-based activities.
The third recommendation fell under the category of LA in the diary entries. Given thesmall number of entries as well as the limited range of comments, it appears that this is theweakest awareness of the three among the learners. There is a clear indication that thelearners have limited awareness of their personal role in the learning process. This further
means that even though they are fully aware of its process and subject, they fail to recognize
their language ability and express low confidence and motivation. This may also be thereason that majority of LA entries featured effort rather than success, underlying the necessityof raising students’ self-esteem in the language acquisition process. Therefore, educators canconsider contributing to the adjustment of learners’ goals according to their feedback byadopting language confidence-building strategies in lesson planning by introducing fluencyoriented activities rather than accuracy.
Based on these discoveries, the suggested role of the educator here is to find ways togreatly enhance LA functions through a focus on open-ended and communicative lesson
design. A low LA can be supported not just by shifting the focus of lessons toward fluency
activities but also, as mentioned earlier, by allowing a higher level of autonomy, adopting afacilitating role, and enhancing mutual trust between the learner and educator. In combination
with the high existing levels of SMA and LPA, proposed applications from the data andfurther continuous self-reflection and analysis of students’ comments could bring about new
perspectives, as well as increased language gains for the learners.

Conclusions
This study was designed to contribute to the discussion on the extended benefits oflearner reflection to language lesson planning, an area of high priority (Amulya, 2004; Park,
2003) but is under-researched. The results of this study contributed to a deeper understanding85

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第4巻 （ JOURNAL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH, VOL. 4）of the nature of reflective diaries and identified the pedagogical implications associated withthem. The diary entries revealed awareness in the areas of learners’ motivation, language
acquisition, and learning process management. The case is methodologically replicable andcan lead to pragmatic outcomes that can offer additional insights into the mechanisms ofeducational enhancement of the language teaching process in other higher education
institutions. Future studies can be extended to the influence of technology on the categories
adopted in the study or the evaluation of curricular innovations.

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