LEARNINGLEARNING『学習の学習『学習の学習』』

Newsletter of the Learner Development SIG
ISSN 1882-1103 | LL 30 (1) | Spring 2023

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』30(1)Contents
次目

Greetings and News Updates
挨拶と近況報告

In this issue: Learning Learning, Volume 30, Issue 1
Mike Kuziw
Coordinator’s greetings for Spring 2023
James Underwood

45

Member’s Voices

メンバーの声

Nicolas Emerson7
Ethel Natalia Revello Barovero7
Noelia Bustos & Paula Ferreyro10

Stories of Teaching and Learning Practices
学習・教育実践の成功談・失敗談

From second language educator to second language education researcher: Learning toresearch during volatile times
Samarakoon Mudiyanselage Madhuwanthi Udumbara Kumarihami Samarakoon

11

LD SIG Grant Awardee Reports
LD SIG 研究助成金受

Reflections of JALT 2022: The Case of a Deer in a Village: A Post-Conference Report for Learner
Development (LD) SIG15
Emily Choong
Reflecting on PanSIG 2022
18James Underwood

Research & Reviews
研究&リビュー

Book Review: Duoethnography in English Language Teaching: Research, Reflection andClassroom Application21
Ellen Head

Looking Back報告

5th CEGLOC Conference: Autonomous and Interactive Practices in Language LearningMegumi Uemi, Sarah Deutchman, Rena Shirasagi, Rina Suzuki, Miu Sudo
JALT 2022 Learner Development (LD) Forum
Szabina Ádámku, Akiko Takagi, Eileen Yap

2

25
36

CONTENTS

Looking Forward
今後のイベント

LD SIG Forums 2023
41
PanSIG41
JALT 202345
LD SIG Online Get-togethers
46
Ken Ikeda, Tim Ashwell, James Underwood

SIG Matters

インフォメーション
Learner Development SIG Financial Report October 2022 to March 2023
47
Patrick Kiernan
Writing for Learning Learning48

Learning Learning「学習学習」30(1) | Spring 2023

3

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』30(1)Greetings and News Updates
挨拶と近況報告

In this issue: Learning Learning,
Volume 30, Issue 1
今号についてMike Kuziw

Lerning Learning Lead Editor
mike.kuziw@gmail.com
Spring is finally here and we are happy to bring
you the latest edition of Learning Learning. To
start, this year marks the 30th anniversary of ourpublication. With the help of committed editors,
avid contributors, translators, coordinators,
members of the LD SIG and its executive team,the publication has successfully continued
through the years. We are delighted to sharewith you the work of our SIG which delivers
high-quality, academic and practical sources ofinspiration as it relates to learner development.
The issue begins with Greetings and News
Updates written by James Underwood, the LD
SIG coordinator, updating us on LD SIG related
news since the 2022 Autumn issue of Learning
Learning, including thank yous to the outgoingmembers and welcomes to the incoming
executive team.
We then share four contributions in theMembers’ Voices section with introductions
from Argentina, students Noelia Bustos andPaula Ferreyro, and their professor Ethel
Natalia Revello Barovero and university lecturer
Nicolas Emerson. Their contributions remind usof the diversity of our SIG, which brings together
both students and professionals in the field.
These introductions are followed by our
Stories of Learning and Teaching Practices
section which this time comes from Udumbara
Samarakoon, a doctoral student at Hiroshima
City University, sharing her insights of the
Bilingual Education Project (BEP) in herhome country of Sri Lanka as it relates to thedifficulties brought about by the COVID-19
pandemic. It’s a fascinating insight into
questions posed by aspiring academics.

Our Short Reflective Articles section will returnfor the Autumn issue.
Next, LD SIG grant recipients Emily Choong
and James Underwood share their reflectionsin the Grant Awardee Essay. Emily reflects
on her attendance at the 2022 JALT National
Conference in Fukuoka, while James describes
his experience as an attendee and presenter at
the PanSIG 2022 conference which was held at
the University of Nagano.
Our Research and Reviews section includes a
riveting, eager-eyed review of Duoethnography in
English Language Teaching: Research, Reflection
and Classroom Application by Ellen Head.
The later half of FY2022 was a busy time, which
is summarized in the Looking Back section.
Five submissions take a look at CEGLOC 2022,
followed by a summary of the contributions to
the LD Forum at the JALT 2022 Conference.
The Looking Forward section contains
information regarding the JALT supported
conferences of FY2023, including JALTCALL,PanSIG 2023 as well as JALT 2023.
The issue closes with the Financial Report, by
our treasury representative Patrick Kiernan,
which details the financial health of the LD SIG
from October 2022 to March 2023, which is
being impacted by significant budgetary cuts.
Although three grants were offered in FY2022,
future awards are expected to be reduced.
As always, we continue to depend on
contributions from our readers. We accept
submissions year-round, even those in the
beginning stages of writing. For those interested
in submitting their writing, please refer to theinformation for Contributors at the end of thisissue.
We hope you have a fresh start to the academic
year and wish you all the best in your academic
and professional careers.
Mike Kuziw, lead editor, in the addition to therest of the LL30(1) editorial team:Lorna Asami, Tim Ashwell, Ken Ikeda, Ivan
Lombardi, Hugh Nicoll, Megumi Uemi.

4

GREETINGS AND NEWS UPDATESCoordinator’s Greetings for Spring
2023

James Underwood
LD SIG Coordinator
jamesmichaelunderwood@
gmail.com
Welcome back, everyone! I’m James
Underwood, the new coordinator. Spring isin the air, and with the cherry blossoms thatcome with the energy and excitement of newtransitions, I welcome you back to another issueof Learning Learning. Speaking of transitions,last year at the AGM held in November, there
were quite a few changes in the Learner
Development SIG committee.
First, I would like to recognise the hard workand effort of those committee members who
stepped down. Many thanks to Tim Cleminson
for his work helping to organise LDSIG forums
held at PanSIG and JALTCALL, creating publicity
materials and liaising with Tsukuba University
for the CEGLOC conference. Thank you also
to those members of the committee for all they
have done for the SIG up until they stepped
down in November. Andy Barfield stepped
down from his role as Membership coordinatorto focus on the Learner Development Journal.
Akiko Takagi, Lee Arnold, and Szabina Adamku
stepped down from organising the forums; wewish you all the best of luck. After many years ofservice managing the website, Hugh Nicoll will
also be stepping down; thank you for all yourhard work!
It was, therefore, great also to welcome thefollowing new members to the committee:
Amelia Yarwood (Programs), Emily Choong(Membership), Ivan Lombardi (LL team/LDJ),
Megumi Uemi (LL team), Nicolas Emerson(Website). And welcome back to Eileen Yap
and Rob Moreau (Publicity) and Tim Ashwell(LL team). Thank you also to Mike Kuziw forbecoming the new publications chair.

2023 EVENTSIn 2023, we have two LDSIG forums. The firstwill be part of the PanSIG conference in Kyoto
in May this year. The second will be at the JALTInternational Conference in November this year
at Tsukuba. Participating in the forums is a great
way to showcase how you have explored andfacilitated learner development in and beyond
your classrooms while connecting with LDSIG
members across Japan.
There are also five online get-togethersscheduled for the rest of the year, the first ofwhich will happen on April 23rd. These gettogethers are a great chance to meet with other
LDSIG members, develop professionally, andlearn from others teaching in different contexts
and areas.
As the LDSIG will turn 30 this year, there is apossibility of an anniversary conference at theend of the year. More on this will be publishedlater.

2023 PUBLICATIONS

Issue 6 of the Learner Development
Journal, “Learner Development Beyond The
Classroom”, was released in December lastyear: https://ldjournalsite.wordpress.com/
issues/2022-12-issue-6/. Many thanks to theeditors Isra Wongsarnpigoon, Dominique
Vola Ambinintsoa, Phillip A. Bennett, & André
Parsons, the LDJ steering group, and thecontributors for all your hard work. This issue
features six explorations of learning beyond theclassroom and one practice-based review.
The Autumn issue of Learning Learning will
be published in November, and the call forcontributions will be open until the end of
August. To view previous issues of LL, pleaseview the archives here: https://ld-sig.org/
learning-learning/learning-learning-archives/.
Wishing everyone a productive start to the year!

5LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』30(1)2023 年春のコーディネーター挨拶

2023年春のコーディネイターズグリーティング｜2023
年春のコーディネイターズグリーティング。
みなさん、
おかえりなさい。
新コーディネーターのジェームズ・アンダーウッドです。
春が訪れ、新たな季節の
変わり目のエネルギーと興奮をもたらす桜の花とともに、今号の「ラーニング・ラーニング」発行にみなさんを歓迎いたします。
季節の変わり目といえば、昨年11月に開催された年次総会で、委員会にかなりの変化がありました。
まず、退任された委員の方々の努力と苦労を称えたいと思います。
PanSIGやJALTCALLで開催された
LDSIGフォーラムの開催を支援し、広報資料を作成
し、CEGLOC会議のために筑波大学と連携してくれた
Tim Cleminsonに感謝いたします。
また、退任された委員会のメンバーの方々にも感謝いたします。
アンディ・バーフィールドは、Learner Development Journalに専念するため、メンバーシップ・コーディネーターの役
割を退任しました。
高木明子さん、
リー・アーノルドさん、
サビナ・アダムクさんはフォーラムの運営から退かれましたが、私たちはこれらメンバーの皆様のご健勝をお祈
りいたします。
長年ウェブサイトの運営に携わってきた
Hugh Nicollも退任することになりました。
そのため、以下の新メンバーを委員会に迎えることができたのも有意義な変化でした。
アメリア・ヤーウッド（
プログラム）、
エミリー・チョン（メンバーシップ）、
イヴァ
ン・ロンバルディ（LLチーム/LDJ）、上見めぐみ恵（LLチーム）、ニコラス・エマーソン（ウェブサイト）。
そして、
アイ
リーン・ヤップとロブ・モローの（広報）、
ティム・アッシュ
ウェル（LLチーム）の復帰を歓迎します。また、新出版物委員長に就任したマイク・クジウに感謝します。

Wongsarnpigoon, Dominique Vola Ambinintsoa,
Phillip A. Bennett, & André Parsons、LDJ運営グルー
プ、投稿者の皆様に感謝します。
本号では、教室を超えた学びの探求を6本、実践に基づくレビューを1本掲載しました。
Learning Learning』秋号は11月に発行される予定で、寄稿の募集は8月末まで行われています。
LLの前号をご覧になりたい方は、こちらのアーカイブをご覧ください：https://ld-sig.org/learning-learning/learning-learning-archives/。
皆様が実りのある一年のスタートを切れることを祈っています。

2023年のイベント

2023年には、LDSIGフォーラムが2つあります。
1つ目は、今年5月に京都で開催されるPanSIG会議の一部となる予定です。
2つ目は、今年11月につくばで開催されるJALT国際会議で行われる予定です。
フォーラムに参加することで、教室内外で学習者の能力開発をどのように探求し、促進したかを発表し、日本中のLDSIGメン
バーとつながることができます。
また、今年度中に5回のオンライン懇親会が予定されており、その第1回目は4月23日に開催される予定です。
この懇親会は、他のLDSIGメンバーと出会い、プロフェッ
ショナルとして成長し、異なる文脈や領域で教える他のメンバーから学ぶ絶好の機会です。
LDSIGは今年30歳になるため、年末に記念大会を開催する可能性があります。
詳細は後日掲載します。

Send to lleditorialteam@gmail.com byAugust 31, 2023

#1: a short personal profile of yourself as
a learner and teacher and your interest in
learner development (about 500 to 1,000
words)

学習者・教員としての自身のプロフィールと学習者の成長に関する興味 (約 2,000 字-4,000 字）#2: a story of your ongoing interest in,and engagement with, particular learnerdevelopment (and/or learner autonomy)
issues (about 500 to 1,000 words)

学習者の成長や学習者の自律に関する興味や取り組み (約 2,000 字4,000 字）#3: a short profile of your learnerdevelopment
research interests and how you hope todevelop your research (about 500 to 1,000
words)

学習者の成長に関する研究内容と今後の研究の展望(約 2,000 字-4,000 字）#4: a short profile of your working context
and the focus on learner development/
learner autonomy that a particularinstitution takes and/or is trying to develop
in a particular curriculum (about 500 to
1,000 words)

2023年の出版物

Learner Development Journalの第6号「Learner
Development Beyond The Classroom」が昨年12月に発売されました。
https://ldjournalsite.wordpress.
com/issues/2022-12-issue-6/。編集者のIsra

Call for Contributions toMembers’ Voices | メンバーの声

教育環境の紹介、所属機関やカリキュラムにおける学習者の成長や自律に関する取り組み (約2,000 字4,000 字）6

MEMBERS’ VOICESMembers’ Voices
メンバーの声

Nicolas Emerson
LD SIG Website Manager
nemersonld@gmail.com
I have always enjoyed the social aspect oflearning. I love exploring ideas with others anddeveloping understanding through discourse.
I am fascinated by technology, and how it canbe used to facilitate language learning. The
role of the teacher is changing, and I feel that
educators need to foster learner autonomy andequip students with the capabilities necessary
to thrive as twenty-first-century learners.
In 2004, I graduated from Falmouth University
in the UK with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.
I returned to education in 2009, enrolling on a
1-year PGCE to train as a creative media teacher.
My course tutor had just stepped down ashead teacher of a famously progressive local
secondary school, and I feel fortunate to havelearned under his wise tutelage. He introduced
my cohort and me to the work of educational
theorist Professor Guy Claxton, the Building
Learning Power movement, and the concept of‘learning to learn,’ which significantly impacted
my early pedagogical beliefs.
Following my PGCE, I worked as a supply teacher
in various educational settings, leading to aterm-long placement in a secondary school as
an English and media teacher. Subsequently, I
secured a role lecturing print media and film at a
local FE college. During this period, I completed amaster’s degree in education. My thesis explored
where learning to learn could best be situatedwithin the institution. I piloted a learning skills
program in my classes, guiding students to set
goals and reflect on their learning.
In 2013, I relocated to Japan to embark on a
new chapter in my learning story as an EFL
teacher. With no formal foreign language
teaching qualifications, it took a while for me
to find my feet. My first role in Japan was as anelementary school ALT in an idyllic rural town
in southern Fukuoka. It was a fortuitously softlanding.
I’ve worked my way up through junior highschools, high schools, eikaiwa, junior colleges,
to my current role as a university lecturer andresearcher. In a serendipitous circle of events,
one of my former elementary school students
from my first year in Japan was a student in oneof my high-ability English classes last year. It wasa delightful reminder of my journey as a teacher
in Japan and how far I have come.
Now that I’ve gained nearly ten years ofexperience working as a language teacher, I feelready to re-engage with my academic pursuits.
In an echo of my previous study in the UK, I’mcurrently researching online goal setting andself-evaluation, attempting to understand how
EFL teachers can utilize technology to facilitate
learner reflection. My next project will centeraround collaborative story writing using a web
application that my wife and I are in the processof making. I intend to continue down thisresearch thread, exploring how technology can
support the development of learner reflection,
creativity and autonomy.

Ethel Natalia
Revello Barovero
Universidad Nacional de Tierradel Fuego, Antártida e Islas delAtlántico Sur
erevello@untdf.edu.ar

Knocking on the doors of different
cultures to learn English: Kickstarting
multiculturalism projects in the 21stCentury Classroom

Hello everyone, I’m Ethel. I’m from Argentina
and I was born in Córdoba – it is the second
largest city of Argentina and it lies to the west of
Buenos Aires. In 2010 I moved to Ushuaia -thecapital city of Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islasdel Atlántico Sur province –, three thousand

7

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』30(1)kilometers south from my hometown for working
reasons – I was told that English teachers wereneeded. I have been working as an English
teacher and professor for more than 20 years
now. Although this is a small city in Argentina,
I had to cope with the weather – quite colder
from the rest of the country; I had to learn more
about living here – as a consequence of thesnow and the slopes, there are particular driving
rules I had to learn; and I had to learn about
the different cultures that coexist in this city –people from different parts of the country, andeven from other countries such as Chile, Bolivia
and Dominican Republic, live here. Ushuaia
is surrounded by an awesome landscape andit is promoted as an exotic resort place; it is1000 thousand kilometers far from Antarctica
Peninsula and it is also called the End of theWorld.
I am an online English primary school teacher,too. I teach English to students in the only
Antarctic school in Base Antártica Conjunta
Esperanza: Escuela 38: Presidente Raúl Ricardo
Alfonsín. “This school has a central role in thesocial and recreational activities (…) they work
collaboratively to fulfill their needs” (RevelloBarovero et al., 2021). I share some of theteaching videos in my YouTube channel.
I have been working in the Universidad Nacionalde Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas delAtlántico Sur since it was created. People fromother regions of the country come to study andlive here. I still feel like I am a tourist in this cityand there are still unknown places to visit andtake pictures. At university, I’m eager to develop
cultural competency to help my students
become open-minded, empathetic and inclusive
professionals. In my own practice, I have tried
to develop a positive attitude towards students
with disabilities because I strongly believe thateverybody should have the opportunity to fulfill
their dreams and achieve their goals. There is
still so much to explore in terms of democratic
educational lesson planning, syllabuses andcurricula. Personally, I am fascinated by thinking
about people meeting different cultures
because it fosters creativity, empathy andcollaboration. I am sure this is the first step
towards world peace.

In my teaching, I explore teamwork skills
with informal networks, such as the online
programme CONNECT – a project thatencourages meaningful international virtual
exchanges for students who would never havethe opportunity to interact with each other. I
believe that positive interactions with people
from different cultures improves motivation,
develops confidence and it helps to give senseto their own traditions and customs. Includinginternational interactions in the syllabuses
and teaching design lessons ensures thebuilding up of a society based on peace andmulticulturalism -a humanizing force that gives
a sense of respect, encouraging participationand growth, and allowing students to gain
valuable communication skills, and learn global
citizenship.
I focus my research on English academic literacy
and democratic education. I guess Raeywen
Connell and Paula Carlino are my educational
heroes. Their deep belief in democratic
education and the way they explain it hit a chordwith me. “Education is about creating capacities
for practice – capacities that are both individual
and social.” (Connell, n.d.)This notion of education as a right, and thateverybody should have access to it, mademe realize that English learning is a right andthat learning a language means learning aculture; but this does not mean that I have to
get students involved in a different culture.
Learning a language implies learning our own
culture: learning to talk and write about our own
lifestyle. This provides students with autonomy
and spontaneity. If we take into account thatthrough reading we can have a broader visionof the world, learn about other realities, develop
creativity and critical reflection; learning toread is equivalent to learning to learn, that is,acquiring autonomy in the generation of ourown learning (Revello Barovero, 2021). I believethat teaching English is a means of learning
about our place, history and traditions; thisdepends on what the purpose of teaching isand the values teachers foster in their lessons.
The appreciation of learning how to read, write,
listen and speak in a foreign language helps
students to build a world of active citizenship

8

MEMBERS’ VOICES

through intercultural dialogue and learning
through people from all over the world.
Teaching English from a regional perspectivewith a global vision encourages sustainableeducation. Not only does it include anappreciation of climate and environment issues,
but also biodiversity, sustainable consumptions
and other topics. I include local geography
and environment issues in English lessons,and make students think about their naturalenvironment and how to take care of it. I also
ask them to read about indigenous peoples,
and the way they live nowadays in our society;
it is a way of making them visible -a lot of
people think that there are no more indigenous
peoples in our society. In tourism, students
are asked to prepare a speech about a local
winter resort or a local trekking route and makedescriptions. In the past, students were able
to choose any city from any province or evenfrom any country. Making global issues related
to regional ones is a challenge. It demands a
lot of time for lesson planning. “As teachers, it
must be taken into account that a conflict is an
opportunity to grow since it allows the parties
to learn about differences and to cope withthem” (Rojas Carrillo et al., 2021). Sustainableeducation brings about conflict between
economy and equity; between economic growthand environmental protection. Creating our own
local material for teaching is time consuming
and builds conflict between publishing houses
and teachers. This is also an opportunity to think
about new ways of teaching and learning.
Taking into account the multiculturalism of theFuegian society, and the roots of the university– glocal sustainable education –, I believethat democratic education helps people tobecome responsible citizens, to develop theircapabilities, and to realize their intellectual
potential. In order to accomplish the mission of
the university, I think that the design of English
courses based on different cultural perspectives
and environmental issues can reflect changes
in society and lessons are more attractive.
I concur with Kochoska that changes in theenvironment affect the shifting interests, needs,
the behaviour of students, and their readinessto accept or reject certain ways of learning ormodels of communication (Kochoska, 2007).

REFERENCES

Connell, R. (n.d.) Education. http://www.
raewynconnell.net/p/education_23.html
Kochoska, J. (2007). Civic education and theclassroom climate. Bitola: Faculty of Pedagogy.
Revello Barovero, E.N., Colloca, C.B. (2022).
Academic English Literacy in Geology andBiology Syllabuses. Actas del VI Congresode Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovaciónde la Universidad Internacional de Ciencia yTecnología. https://doi.org/10.47300/978-9962738-04-6
Revello Barovero, E., Ibarra, M.C. & Navarro
Salazar, V.H. (2021). Una educación práctica,
prosocial y creativa en la comunidad fueguinade la Base Esperanza. I Jornadas de Ciencias
Sociales y Humanidades Antárticas JoCSHA(pp. 65-66).
Rojas Carrillo, N. I., Castiblanco Rodriguez, C.
(2022). Conflict Mediators form Early Childhood,a Social Transformation that is Sustained ina Presential and Virtual Education. Actas del
VI Congreso de Investigación, Desarrollo eInnovación de la Universidad Internacionalde Ciencia y Tecnología. https://doi.
org/10.47300/978-9962-738-04-6
Universidad Nacional de Tierra del Fuego,
Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur. (2022). Todo
Noticias. 25 de junio de 2022. La Escuela deIdiomas apuesta a la internacionalización delcurrículum a través de programas de formación
transnacionales en lenguas extranjeras. https://
untdf.edu.ar/noticias/2179

9

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』30(1)Noelia Bustos
Universidad Nacional de Tierradel Fuego, Antártida e Islas delAtlántico Sur

Paula Ferreyro
Universidad Nacional de Tierradel Fuego, Antártida e Islas delAtlántico Sur
We are studying biology at Universidad
Nacional de Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islasdel Atlántico Sur (UNTDF). This university is
located in Ushuaia – the capital city of thebiggest province of Argentina – and English isneeded to become a regular student, although
it is not a requirement. English is the languageof science. Knowing English before taking up
biology is a must. Reading English papers is anactivity included in many subjects and books
written in English about different topics are partof the syllabus of many compulsory subjects. In
our opinion, Academic English has to be taught
at university. As this is not the real situation,
students have to learn on their own. We decided
to take up an optional English Academic course
to learn how to deliver a speech at a conferenceor how to prepare an informal oral presentation.
We have participated in the international
programme “CONNECT”, in which students fromdifferent countries introduced themselves andtalked about culture: food, music, traditions,celebrations, and history. In the programme
we were students from 14 countries and in mygroup we were five students from different
nationalities. It was an interesting experience
because we learnt about celebrations in Ivory
Coast, Mexico, Thailand. And we got to knowthat a country changed its name! Turkey is now
known as Türkiye.
Noelia: I believe that texting messages,
preparing audio messages and reading
messages everyday is a good opportunity topractice and learn English. Studying a foreign

language in isolation is very difficult. Thispossibility helped me to keep in contact withthe language and forced me to learn new
vocabulary, think about how to make sentences;
how to learn new strategies to acquire fluency.
I strongly believe that reflective learning is
an important tool to learn and the help of ateacher is needed. Thinking about the way I
read or write takes time. At times I thought it
was a waste of time. The same happens whenpracticing pronunciation. But after a couple ofmonths I realized that it helped me do somebetter productions. I discovered new ways oflearning new vocabulary and its pronunciationor new sentence patterns. I get really excitedwhen I remember new words, and I can use
them when talking.
Paula: These new experiences provide us withnew tools to learn English. I think that taking
up meetings with people from other countries
and cultures helps the student learn English.
The fact that we participated in the CONNECT
programme helped us too: writing messages,
speaking during the meetings while we learned
about different cultures and practicing ourEnglish was an enriching experience for all thestudents. Definitely, learning and studying ingroups using different tools helps in the path oflearning a new language.

10

STORIES OF TEACHING AND LEARNING PRACTICES

Stories of Teaching and Learning Practices
学習・教育実践の成功談・失敗談

From second language educator to second language education researcher:
Learning to research during volatile times

Samarakoon Mudiyanselage Madhuwanthi
Udumbara Kumarihami Samarakoon
Hiroshima City University
udumbara2010@gmail.com

INTRODUCTION

When Covid-19 and the pandemic-led economic slump caused a major upheaval in Sri Lanka,
it obstructed the execution of my research study, posing unprecedented challenges to accessresources and data collection. Following a reflective narrative, this article recounts the challenges
I encountered, choices I made, and the lessons I learnt as an education researcher when
implementing my research project in Sri Lanka. While these were indeed problems to overcome,they have afforded me more opportunities to develop my knowledge, adaptability and skills as a
researcher and a teacher.
When I started lecturing at a Sri Lankan university as an English as a second language (ESL)teacher, I soon became more interested in the English language learning that occurred in theschool system. Around the same time, I got a scholarship to pursue my graduate studies at aJapanese university. It allowed me to make a systematic inquiry into the field that I am passionate
about, English language education. Being one of the first enrollees in the Bilingual Education
Project (BEP) of Sri Lanka, I always have had the urge to see how this system was functioning
today. I decided to make this the focus of my graduate work.

MY RESEARCH FOCUS: THE BILINGUAL EDUCATION PROJECT

Bilingual Education was introduced into the Sri Lankan education system initially in 2001, via BEP,
and was promoted across selected government schools by teaching a few selected subjects in
English, while the rest were taught in the official mother tongues, Sinhala and Tamil. The expected
outcome was that irrespective of socio-economic and/or regional disparities, students would havethe opportunity to acquire a level of English proficiency adequate for higher education and careeradvancement. Nonetheless, the project is still only available in 732 (7%) government schools, which
remain largely ethno-linguistically segregated. Although there is some useful research on the BEP,
it is limited. Through my research, I sought to understand the within-school education experienceof bilingual learners in Sri Lanka under the auspices of the BEP, with its dual objectives of raising
English proficiency and facilitating social integration.

CHOOSING THE RESEARCH SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS

I believe that to accommodate the individual needs of students and create a setting conducive
to learning, educators should acknowledge the embodied diversity and respect the individualityof each student. Sri Lanka is an ethnically and linguistically diverse nation, hence the largely
ethno-linguistically segregated government school system, as a result of the mother-tongue
instruction policy (Wijesekara et al., 2019). Therefore, to adhere to my wishes as an ESL teacher,and also to validate my methodical choices, I needed to examine how the BEP is experienced

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』30(1)by these ethnically segregated bilingual learners in each different context. Besides, BEP was
implemented to provide equal opportunities for all children and thereby “develop social harmonyand social cohesion in a pluralistic society using English as a link” (MOE, 2016, p. 7). To ensure thatthe experience and views of all ethnicities are well comprehended, I chose three schools to allow
insight into the different school contexts: Sinhala and Tamil, and a mixed ethnic context.
As a researcher and a teacher, another thing I deem crucial is the contribution of language teachers
in delivering the curriculum. Teachers hold firsthand knowledge of what happens in a classroom.
They are the middleman who continuously deals with the administration, education policy andcurriculum designers, parents, and most importantly, the learners. Therefore, to gain a reliable,
in-depth understanding of the phenomenon under study, I decided to choose both teachers andstudents as participants, those who are involved in the BEP.

VOLATILE TIMES: COVID-19 AND SRI LANKAN UPHEAVAL

The detrimental effects of the Covid-19 pandemic remain a challenge for public health, the global
economy, and the workforce in Sri Lanka, with education being strongly affected (Yang et al., 2022).
Implementation of online learning added unexpected stress and confusion for students, teachers,
and parents due to a lack of resources and technological knowledge leaving them exhausted(Lucas, G. N, 2020). It was only worsened when school teachers and principals started protesting
and launched an extensive strike on 26th February 2020, over the lack of facilities and resources to
conduct virtual classes and long-standing salary anomalies. After a year-long closure, the schools
gradually resumed in October, 2021. That is when I decided to proceed with data collection, and I
soon started preparing for the field visits and the interviews.
The scheduled school visits and interviews were scheduled from June to August in 2022. However,shortly after my visit to Sri Lanka, the government declared a fuel shortage and banned the saleof petrol and diesel for non-essential vehicles for two weeks. This led petrol and diesel prices torise dramatically, restricting commuting. For months, Sri Lankans were struggling with prolonged
power cuts and shortages of fuel, food, and medicine. Anger over the government’s handling of
the crisis led to violent protests all around the country and a curfew was imposed periodicallyduring the months of May and June. As a result, schools were again closed for weeks, derailingmy plans. I had to cancel and reschedule the school visits and interviews repeatedly, due to theunpredictability. With no means of transportation and schools being closed for weeks, I struggled to
execute the study.

PIVOTING

As a funded scholar, deferring my research was impossible. Time management was crucial at thisstage. The only resort was to accommodate the situational changes happening in prospective
schools. As we moved into 2022, international travel was open, and schools were opening. Staying
true to the original objectives, after a thorough examination, I decided to adopt an exploratory
phenomenological qualitative research design via a case study, employing semi-structured
interviews.

CONDUCTING INTERVIEWS AMIDST THE CHAOS

There is a wide range of benefits and skills an individual can acquire through any research. When
executing my study, foresight was impossible given the unpredictable nature of events happening
in Sri Lanka. Instead, I had to constantly assess and evaluate the methodical choices I made. Thisnurtured my resilience, having to critically analyse challenges and devise timely solutions. One
such decision made was the choice of participants. The initial idea for understanding the learning
experience in the BEP was to interview randomly selected bilingual students who are currently
in school. However, considering the impact of the pandemic, the prolonged teachers’ strike, andthe socio-economic crisis on current BEP students’ overall experience, the choice of ‘learner’12

STORIES OF TEACHING AND LEARNING PRACTICES

participants was shifted to recently graduated alumnae, as they could still clearly recall theirexperience of the BEP during a time of less disruption.
However, the scheduled visits had to be cancelled repeatedly and at short notice due to the
upsurging socio-economic crisis. At this stage, it was necessary that I again consider alternative
ways of data collection that would still fit the objectives of the study considering the time
constraints weighing on me.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES FOR DATA COLLECTION

Although I was able to undertake teacher-participant interviews face-to-face (though many delays
were experienced), the worsening situation facing all meant that schools became a little reticent
with their involvement and potential participants being harder to access (particularly student
participants). When travelling to field sites and meeting participants were hindered by restrictedcommuting and inaccessibility to fuel, I decided to conduct interviews online, via Zoom. Zoom
allowed me to communicate with geographically dispersed individuals via computers or mobile
devices when meeting in person was a non-viable option, during my stay in Sri Lanka and after
returning to Japan. With regard to participant selection, teacher participants were chosen via
voluntary self-selection sampling. Alumni students, however, had to be chosen via snowball
sampling, as the schools failed to provide contact details of alumni students. While these are viable
alternatives, they may come with advantages and disadvantages, depending on each context.
Thus, I believe it is important that researchers rigorously gauge the methodological fit of thesealternative approaches and tools to their research questions, technical requirements, resource
implications and ethics (Barclay & Garcia, 2020).
As I write this paper, I am currently analysing the interview data with bilingual learners andteachers. The research called for 26 long-form semi-structured interviews. The data set is providing
me with in-depth insight into the bilingual education project. Both students and teachers sensea disharmony and separation among students which they believe occurred when students wereseparated according to medium of education (as bilingual and monolingual). Another cause forthis separation is the perceived superiority and inferiority complex associated with English, whichreflects the ideology that prevails in the Sri Lankan society, that English is a denominator of social
hierarchy. It seems that although BEP was expected to mediate the ethnolinguistic ‘difference’ andcreate collective linguistic habitus for students, student separation as ‘bilingual’ and ‘monolingual’seems to have created a division among learners, regardless of their ethnicity. Apparently, evenafter two decades of implementing the programme, elitism associated with the English language
still prevails, although the BEP was intended to instigate serious attitudinal change towards social
integration. Similarly, another recurrent concern that was shared by most participants is the lack ofEnglish-speaking practice and reluctance/and or difficulty to speak in English. It seems, although
the BEP was implemented to improve English proficiency of students for career advancement
and higher education, the programme has fundamentally failed to improve speaking and inconsequence, past-pupils are now struggling with spoken language competence at work andhigher educational contexts.
The learner/teacher concerns expressed above are crucial to improve language teaching/learningin Sri Lanka. The insight gained from bilingual learners’ and teachers’ experience of BEP allowed
me to recognize gaps in BEP objectives and practice, unfulfilled language needs of ESL learners,
and many more issues. I am now aware of what is expected of me as an ESL teacher, the language
skills and attitudes that need nurturing, the BEP classroom structural changes that are required,to improve the educational experience of all students. The findings will also/or may benefit future
research and iterations of the BEP.

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』30(1)RESEARCH LESSONS LEARNED SO FAR

Education research paves the path to the systematic pursuit of knowledge and facilitates thediscovery of reliable practical solutions to improve or solve issues observed in the classroom
or any learning-teaching environment. Not only does it add value to professional accreditation,
but the constant use of creative analytical skills in tackling issues avail practitioners to become
more reflective and effective as educators. When looking back at my research journey so far, it
is safe to say that despite posing unprecedented challenges, the pandemic and socio-economiccrisis in Sri Lanka have provided me with an invaluable research learning experience. Practising
resilience and adaptability in negotiating with education directors, heads of schools, and teachers
honed my problem solving skills and increased my self confidence. From working solely to meet
institutional criteria, now I feel empowered to act, take on responsibility, and influence professional
and institutional political decisions that I previously was reluctant to do while chairing an academic
department. By contextualising the research project, I now have a wider knowledge of the BEP
policy and practice occurring in the Sri Lankan context. New knowledge acquired through this PhD
research promotes my professional growth and hopefully, will allow me to be proactive and takethe initiative to make or influence change in language-related teaching theory and practice in the
ESL classroom, or the BEP itself.
Teachers feel tremendous pressure every day, and educational institutes, administration, andcurriculum designers must work in collaboration to provide constant support and guidance toeducators. Specially designed programmes like the BEP may require assistance. Amidst all thechaos in Sri Lanka, I sustained a regular, open, and constructive relationship with my supervisor. I
could, thus, make the required adjustments and work effectively despite the obstacles I faced. Not
only is this rewarding for my professional growth, but the new knowledge will contribute greatly tobettering myself as an educator, fostering positive learning and teaching practices and improving
future iterations of English education.

REFERENCES

Barclay, K., & Garcia Garcia, S. (2020). Adapting Research Methodologies in The Covid-19
Pandemic: Resources for research (2nd ed.). The University of Washington. https://earthlab.
uw.edu/2020/07/adapting-research-methodologies-in-the-covid-19-pandemic
Bilingual Education and Trilingual Programmes Branch. (2016). Handbook On Content And
Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). Ministry of Education, Sri Lanka. https://moe.gov.lk/
wp-content/uploads/2020/06/CLIL-Office-Book.pdf
Hayashi, R., Kaushalya, T., & Hewagamage, K. P. (2022, August 5). Sri Lanka: Progress andremaining challenges in online higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic. AsianDevelopment Bank. https://www.adb.org/publications/sri-challenges-online-higher-educationcovid-19
Lucas, G. N. (2020). COVID-19 pandemic and School Education. Sri Lanka Journal of Child Health,49(3), 207–209.
Wijesekera, H. D. (2014). Education as a tool of ethnic integration: Are we successful? SSRNElectronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2438371
Yang, D., Tang, Y. M., Hayashi, R., Ra, S., & Lim, C. P. (2022). Supporting inclusive online higher
education in developing countries: Lessons learnt from Sri Lanka’s university closure. Education
Sciences, 12(7). https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci12070494

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LD SIG GRANT AWARDEE REPORTS

LD SIG Grant Awardee Reports
LD SIG 研究助成金受

Reflections of JALT 2022: The Case of a Deer in a Village
A Post-Conference Report for Learner Development (LD) SIG

Emily Choong
LD SIG Conference Grant Recipientemmchoong@gmail.com“Bagai rusa masuk kampung”1 is a Malay proverb which translates to “Like a deer entering avillage.” The proverb is used in my country, Malaysia, to describe the feeling of being surprisedor amazed when you enter a new place, as deer are almost never seen in residential areas. One
can only imagine how it feels to walk into an unfamiliar environment until they actually experienceit. For example, moving to a new country or joining an event for the first time where you know noone. I was like that deer at my first and last in-person JALT International Conference in Nagoya
2019 before the pandemic hit. At that time, I was a new Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) who
knew little about what such a language teaching conference would entail. I remember being mostly
alone, struggling to make decisions on which sessions to attend, wondering what all the academic
jargon meant, and deciphering the abbreviations of the JALT SIGs’ names (I still do not know morethan half of them).
Not long after the 2019 conference, news of a highly infectious virus sparked the pandemic. You
may remember that many institutions scrambled to move their curriculum online. The following
two JALT international conferences (2020 and 2021) had the same fate. During that virtual period,
I volunteered as a Zoom room host and plenary team member. This was where I got to know
more JALT members and had opportunities to present and attend events from the comfort of myworkspace. Although it was not all a bed of roses because of the inevitable technical difficulties,
I gained a wealth of knowledge from the JALT community and the different practices in language
teaching. Then, I got to know about the LD SIG and became a member.
Fast forward to November 2022 when I attended the 2022 conference at the Fukuoka
International Congress Center. Thanks to the financial support provided by the LD SIG and the
grants committee, this trip marked my second time visiting Fukuoka. I was thrilled to be backknowing that the bustling port city is also home to Dazaifu Tenmangu—the shrine of learning,
culture, and the arts. It is an especially fitting location for a language teaching conference. Meetingpeople whom I have collaborated with online but have not met face-to-face yet was quite anexperience—one that established a unique way of networking given that we have gone past thebarriers of being strangers beforehand virtually. Upon reflecting on the conference, referring to
the Malay proverb, I am relieved to say that I am no longer as lost as that poor deer in the village.
Instead, it is thrilling to be in a community where I am continuously learning new things while
sharpening the skills that I possess.
Among the sessions that I attended, Karen Hill Anton’s plenary truly struck a chord. When the LD
SIG editors first briefed me about this conference report, I was not sure where to begin writing,despite having read some of the previous reports in their publication, Learning Learning. However,Karen’s storytelling skills about her cross-cultural personal journey not only stimulated writing
ideas, but also moved many in the room with her authenticity, and received a standing ovation at
the end. The following day, she told us at her memoir writing workshop that even the little details
1

Pronunciation: /bɑgaɪ ruːsə mɑsəʊk kʌmpɒŋ/ or バガイ・ルーサ・マソック・カンポング.

15

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』30(1)have the ability to bring a story to life, and identity is what makes someone’s story a story. She
reminded me of Elaine Horwitz2, a researcher in language anxiety who “wanted to encourageteachers to be their authentic selves in the classroom” (Gregerson & MacIntyre, 2022). Even
though Karen is not a language teacher herself, there were a great deal of takeaways from her life’s
journey as a writer and coach which can be applied to language learning. For example, the powerof storytelling and utilizing aspects of memoir writing in developing writing skills like structure,
themes, giving your story authority through your voice, and sharing meaningful experiences. These
are the essential ingredients that I would love to use to guide my students in writing not to passtheir exams, but to write for themselves.
If you know anything about my country Malaysia, you should expect food references to be brought
up at some point in this report. This year’s conference theme “Learning from Students, Educating
Teachers—Research and Practice” reminds me so much about food. This reminiscence camefrom Dr. Jim McKinley’s plenary session on supporting the teaching-research nexus, highlighting
the growing divide between researchers and teachers. The light that shines upon real classroom
learning is being dimmed by present innovations and the enterprise, amplified by emergency
remote teaching solutions from the pandemic. Another example is how journal reports written byresearchers are not an entire reflection of the real classroom. My interpretation of his session isabout two different kinds of cooks. Firstly, researchers are like people who cook from recipes—
following specific techniques written by various sources. These days, there are online recipes inwhich there are people who have tried the recipes and alternatives they have found. One can gain
an abundance of knowledge from this interaction and scanning through multiple recipes before
actually making the dish. This sounds strangely like literature reviews and methodology, does it
not? On the other hand, teachers are similar to mothers and grandmothers who cook according
to how they feel. Instead of relying on measuring cups and weighing scales, they are aware of theprocess of cooking itself—the experience, the aroma-filled kitchen, and the ability to adjust flavors
as they go. It is from the heart and instincts in the moment. That is how the classroom is. Teachers
listen to their students and adjust lessons according to their goals. It is not to say that one is better
than the other, but rather that they are complementary if their roles could inform each other andcreate meaningful relationships.
Other than ensuring their students’ success, teachers also strive to establish their own paths in
education. Like the harmony of spices in a pot of curry, it is important to engage in discussion withother teachers, even ones who do not teach the same level of students. That is what I received
when I visited the LD SIG forum. There were many presentations with posters, various teachingcontexts, and new ideas shared. I particularly remember Katherine Song’s presentation on using
Scrabble Go with her students. Scrabble is a game that you can play with your family and friends
to pass the time. How Katherine turned it into a classroom activity involving teamwork to support
autonomy was intriguing. This is not only a meaningful way to involve learners through simple
games, but also to allow them to engage with the language that they are learning. Teachers, as
Katherine shared, can guide students in the game and apply the words learned in another activity
such as making sentences. It is also possible to add additional rules such as only playing words thatyou know the meaning of. I thought this was a good opportunity to introduce pronunciation to add
another layer of speaking skill development. During the reflection before the end of the session,
my group discussed other games that we can bring to the classroom such as Boggle, a word gamewith lettered dice. It brought back a lot of memories from my school days, making me realize that
it is essential that we remember the basics and where we started. Now, with fun board games, we
can involve our learners and support them in paving their own language learning journey.
Besides plenary sessions, forums and official JALT meetings, I also attended some regularpresentation sessions. One of them was Aaron Chao’s who shared about Foreign Language

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LD SIG GRANT AWARDEE REPORTS

Anxiety (FLA) and online learning. Coincidentally, this is what my Master’s research is on, although
speaking anxiety is my focus. Given that the pandemic put face-to-face learning on hold forsome time, institutions like Aaron’s took their exchange programs online. It was interesting to see
how his participants felt in terms of their anxiety levels after they had experienced the program
considering FLA has been widely researched in in-person classrooms and its online sector isstill limited (Resnik, Dewaele, & Knechtelsdorfer, 2022). There were other factors to consider
as sources of anxiety such as being in a cross-cultural environment and the variances between
the class structures. To measure the participants’ anxiety levels, he used the Foreign Language
Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) developed by Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986), which has
been modified for his research context. In FLA, this scale is popularly used among other language
anxiety researchers and has been modified and translated into more languages over the years(Russell, 2020). At the end of the session, I had a short discussion with those in the room about
how the scale needs to be modified to fit more current teaching contexts. Teachers move with thetimes, and even faster when the obstacle comes in the form of a global pandemic. It is through this
discussion that I realize that we are not alone in our fields and that we have support for not only
our students, but ourselves as educators.
After the 2022 conference, I felt a certain fullness that I had been looking forward to since the endof 2019. With that, I would like to thank the LD SIG grants team again for the financial support thatallowed me to attend the conference in-person in Fukuoka. The grant also allowed me to prepare
myself for the conference by purchasing two books that I will forever treasure: The View from
Breast Pocket Mountain by Karen Hill Anton, and Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design by John
W. Creswell and Cheryl N. Poth. My heartfelt appreciation also goes to Ken Ikeda and Hugh Nicoll
from the LD editorial team for their guidance in writing this report. I would like to acknowledge
Gretchen Clark, Namiko Tsuruta and Robert Dykes for providing their valued feedback during
the report writing process. Finally, a big thank you to the conference committee and all theother attendees I have had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with for your enthusiasm,
likemindedness, and friendship. I conclude with two quotes from Karen’s book, which perfectly sum
up the whole experience.
Gatherings of friends and family around the table are my happiest and most satisfying
moments. Good appetites enhance the experience. (Anton, 2020, p. 282)
At some point in my journey, on a day I never noticed, I found a golden thread, athing of beauty that, though it cannot be seen, connects us all. (Anton, 2020, p. 283).

REFERENCES

Anton, K. H. (2020). The View from Breast Pocket Mountain. Senyume Press.
Gregerson, T. & MacIntyre, P. (2022). Elaine K. Horwitz (1950-2022) In Memoriam. The Modern
Language Journal, 106(3). 651-652.
Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M. B., & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety. The Modern
Language Journal, 70(2). 125-132.
Resnik, P., Dewaele, J. M., & Knechtelsdorfer, E. (2022). Differences in the Intensity and the Natureof Foreign Language Anxiety in In-person and Online EFL Classes during the Pandemic: A MixedMethods Study. TESOL Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.3177
Russell, V. (2020). Language anxiety and the online learner. Foreign Language Annals, 53(2),338-352.

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』30(1)Reflecting on PanSIG 2022

James Underwood
Chuo University
jamesmichaelunderwood@gmail.com
During the train ride to Nagano after work, where PanSIG 2022 was to be held, I started to think
about the conference theme - “Reimagining Language Education.” Looking at the conference
introduction in the handbook and on the conference website, I saw that the words “eco-(friendly),”“inclusivity/diversity,” and “ mindset” appeared alongside “hybrid,” which made me think that this“reimagining” would be multi-faceted and went beyond the new way of delivering conferences
and lessons. Extending education to include awareness of how our actions impacted theenvironment was necessary because of climate change. Inclusivity while recognising diversity
was also essential, I thought, in light of the tensions of the last few years. Lastly, I thought teachinglearners to persevere is needed to ensure their success. With these things in mind, I attended theconference, interested in learning more. Looking back at my notes from the conference, three
sessions on Saturday and the LDSIG forum on Sunday stood out.
The first was “Building an EMI Course: strategies for Critical Thinking and Student Efficacy” by
Adrienne Johnson and Cecilia Smith. In this, they explained how to create a positive learning
community, which they thought was essential in fostering group work. One of the ways they did so
was to ask questions such as “What are you looking forward to this year?” and “What is something
you want to challenge?” which their students first shared, then compared the similarities anddifferences between their answers and the groups as a whole. Cecilia and Andrienne also useddialogic feedback, which took the form of validation, encouragement and advice, which was agood model for the students to follow. I learnt a lot from this presentation and was reminded tospend some time creating a learning community from the start instead of rushing into the content.
The second presentation I chose was “Teacher Reflections on a Student-led Group Seminar
Project” by Anna Belobrovy, Ian Hurrell and Travis West. In this presentation, they described how
their students worked autonomously in small groups to create a seminar that presented the for andagainst arguments for a world issue. After the seminar, leaders will gather the participants’ opinions inthe small group discussion, summarising them in a report. What interested me about the course wasthat after they had conducted the seminar in class, the students could participate in an online miniconference that was open to 3 classes in different departments. Although I had had success with thestudents presenting in class, I had not ever had them do so outside, so it was refreshing to see.
The third presentation was “Reframing Mindsets/Attitudes to English Use in Japan” by Ann
Mayeda, which argued that an “English-user” identity could be encouraged in Japan if there was ashift in perspectives. In her talk, she shared contrasts between Nepalese and Japanese children in
their willingness to communicate in English. She observed that while children in Nepal and Bhutan
often came to her to ask questions to practice their English, this was rare in Japan. She thoughtthat perhaps this was because the Japanese children did not identify as English users and, as aresult, were worried too much about making mistakes. She felt it important that English learners inJapan become more involved in their learning, shift their perspectives of their identity from English
learners to English users, and use English to share Japanese culture and values and collaborate
with all English speakers, not just native speakers of English. It was interesting to see the contrasts
between Nepal, Bhutan and Japan in her pictures of the educational environments. Althoughclassrooms in both Bhutan and Nepal were quite resource poor when compared to Japan, thestudents made up for this with their enthusiasm to communicate in English. She argued that one of18

LD SIG GRANT AWARDEE REPORTS

the reasons for these countries’ passion for English was its connections to upward mobility, which
led to its use being normalised. In Japan, in contrast, English ability did not guarantee progression,
and English learners found it hard to develop a clear identity as English users.
The main focus on the next day was the LDSIG forum “Challenging Conventions: Opening up New
Spaces in Learner Development. The forum had a simultaneous in-person and online element.
Unfortunately, as I was attending in person, my attention was drawn naturally to the presentersin the room, and I missed all the online presentations. As I was presenting in the second round,I, unfortunately, also missed Gretchen Clark’s and Greg Roualt’s presentations, which were
happening simultaneously.
Dominique Vola Ambinintsoa Razafindratsimba, with the help of Fanaperana Haingo Rajaonaritiana
and Volatiana Olivia Rasoanindrina via video recording, started the first round of presentations withan enlightening report on how they, as student teachers, sought to overcome the challenges they
faced as they extended their English studies outside their classroom in Madagascar. Jenny Morgan
followed this with her session on “Co-Creating Inclusive Classroom Spaces to Help Students
Envision Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Communities They Belong to.” In this presentation,
she showed how she created inclusivity in her classrooms by first recognising how diverse her
students could be due to their differing funds of knowledge (Gonzales, Moll, et al., 2006), which
she then used as a resource in various sharing activities. As a summation activity, the students
presented how they could take action and encourage diversity and quality in the contexts andcommunities they belonged. Through this presentation, I saw how important it was to respect
the identit(ies) each student brought to the classroom and encourage them to think about how
they could each take action to promote inclusivity in their communities; it was then time for mycontribution to the forum, which focused on one of the courses I taught.
My presentation described how I used the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) as the focusof an intermediate-level academic Listening and Speaking course. In this listening and speaking
class, 24 intermediate-level students worked to improve academic and language skills throughnotetaking, sharing research and combined presentation and discussions. Over two seven-weekcycles, my students would each choose an SDG to research. When they decided which SDG toinvestigate, I encouraged them to choose one that they felt was relevant to their studies and local
communities. During each seven-week cycle, the students would first build their backgroundknowledge, then research the SDG in their local area, interview two people they knew, and thenfinally investigate how local actors were helping to realise the SDG.
To build their background knowledge, I would have the students brainstorm about what they knew
about the SDG. After this, they would use combinations of the words from their brainstorm as
search terms in Google images; and then make a slideshow. In the next class, they would share
this slideshow in pairs, which helped them to build fluency and confidence. After this, I would holda tutorial session on notetaking skills and show the students various examples of notetaking which
they would then assess and comment on in groups. Finally, I would gather feedback from theclass about what they had noticed and comment with the help of a projected image of the shared
example of notes. The students would then make notes on the background information from the“Why it Matters” and “Infographics” available on the United Nations website, which they would thenshare in the next class. After making notes, I encouraged them to write short reflections about what
they had read and then think about what they would research next.
In the next class, I sat the students in groups of four which I engineered to ensure that eachmember researched a different SDG. In two pair-sharing rounds, they would share their notes
to build fluency, confidence and ownership of their SDG as the “expert” on the table. After the
sharing, I would teach the students about collocations and have them select three unknown
words from their notes which they would then make collocation maps with the help of an online

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』30(1)collocation dictionary. At the end of class, I had the students think about their local area concerning
their chosen SDG and brainstorm a list of questions they had. They would then use their questions
to research and make notes for homework, which they would again share in the next class.
In the fifth week, I would hold a tutorial on interview skills, where I would get the students tothink about the objective of their interview, the types of questions they could ask, who they could
interview, and how they would record the information. After brainstorming a list of questions, theywould practice in pairs in English in the classroom and then reflect on improving the interview
process. They would then be ready to interview people for homework. For this, I asked them tointerview two people from different backgrounds, to get a variety of perspectives. I recommend
that, for example, they could ask their mother or father and also one of their part-time job
colleagues. I also stressed that even if they interviewed in Japanese, they must write an English
interview summary.
Over the next week, the students would research what action in their local area was being take. In
the final week, the students got ready for their presentation. I would hold a tutorial on presentation
skills, slide design and referencing to aid this. The students would brainstorm in small groups about
what makes a “good” presentation regarding performance, content and slide design. They could
then see examples of previous students’ slides and work together to note down the good points
in terms of design and how they would improve them. They would then select the information
they would include on their slides. As I wanted the presentation to be interactive, I would require
the students to think of five discussion questions they would ask their small group. In the final
week of the cycle, the students would work in small groups to present their findings and thenlead a discussion on their topic. Each round of presentation and meeting would last 15 to 20
minutes, after which they would complete google forms to give peer feedback on each other’s
presentations.
When designing the poster for the LDSIG forum, I found it hard to design one that maintained abalance between telling my story and learning and sharing it with others. In the end, rather than asingle sheet, I used a set of posters that explored different course elements, which I would thenuse as a launching pad to learn from others. The poster can be found here.
During the forum, people came up to comment and share what they had done with similar contentbased courses. Many of us were working with students on global issues and thought it importantfor students to use English to learn about the issues in society and create a space for them toshare their perspectives, which they would not normally do. We also thought it important for the
students to think about what they could do to improve the situation rather than only find out about
the various actors involved.
Although I had participated in online conferences during the pandemic, it did not compare to being
able to participate in person. There is certainly a different kind of energy given off by many face-toface conference attendees. And it was great to catch up with colleagues and other members of the
LDSIG. As a part-time lecturer without institutional funding, the downside to attending a conferenceis the costs involved, which soon mount up. I thank the LD SIG and the Grants team for funding myparticipation.

REFERENCES

Gonzalez, N., Moll, L. C., & Amanti, C. (2006). Funds of Knowledge: Theorizing Practices inHouseholds, Communities, and Classrooms. Routledge.
United Nations (n.d). Take Action for the Sustainable Development Goals - United Nations
Sustainable Development. United Nations Sustainable Development. https://www.un.org/
sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/

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RESEARCH & REVIEWS

Research & Reviews
研究&リビュー

Book Review: Duoethnography in English Language Teaching: Research,
Reflection and Classroom Application.
Edited by Lowe, R.J. & Lawrence, L. (2020). Multilingual Matters.

Ellen Head
Miyazaki International College
ehead@sky.miyazaki-mic.ac.jp
Narrative understandings were what firstpulled me into the Learner Development SIG.
The possibility of being able to contribute to acommunity of teachers who were also consciousof being learners, gave me hope and inspiration
for my own teaching and also enabled me
broaden my repertoire by learning from others.
The first issue of Learning Learning which I everread featured a piece by Murphy and Chang(2001) entitled “Coco capuccino company andlegitimate peripheralizing: learning throughautoethnographizing ourselves.” The use of thegenre of “written dialogue” showed that one
could write about teaching in a way that was lively
and full of the juice of lived experience. Murphy
was experimenting with scene setting to give apiece a pleasant affect and kinesthetic impact,which is probably why I remember it in contrast to
100s of other articles. The dialogue style allowed
for two points of view to be explored without
foreclosing on one “right” idea. Writing a dialogue, one could give two sides of the question, andthe probing from the dialogue partner often created insights which would not have been had
when writing alone. Once I started dialoguing, I found it was more motivating than other forms ofwriting, since it was driven by the wish to reply to my co-writer. Were these collegial conversations“duoethnography”? It was not a word I had heard before. Ethnography was a room in a museum
which was full of masks and old pots. In my mind those written dialogues were just collegialconversations.
The appearance of a book which puts forward a case for duoethnography to be taken seriously
as a genre of academic writing, is a cause for celebration. As I read the first chapter of Lowe andLawrence’s new book, I was excited to read this quote from Freire:Some may think that to affirm dialogue – the encounter of men and women in theworld in order to transform the world – is naively and subjectively idealistic. Thereis nothing more real and concrete than people in the world and with the world, thanhumans with other humans. (Freire, 1970: 102, In Lowe and Lawrence, p. 1).

21

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』30(1)In a world in which the hegemony of human knowledge and skill is rapidly being challenged by
AI, this is a helpful reminder that our human experience is something we should value. Lowe andLawrence’s clear explanation of duo-ethnography will help any reader who wants to understandhow their collegial conversations could be used as an academic genre. According to theintroductory chapter, the first instance of published work using the term “duoethnography” wasNorris and Sawyer’s 2004 chapter on the hidden curriculum in relation to gender identity. Norrisand Sawyer define duoethnography as “a collaborative research methodology in which two or
more researchers of difference juxtapose their life histories to provide multiple understandings of
the world.” (Norris and Sawyer, 2012, in Lowe and Lawrence, p. 8).
The book consists of three sections. The first section “Duoethnography for ELT Research”, whichis said to be more theoretical and formal, features three papers emerging from encounters
between demographically different “others” across gender and nationality. The issues include
native speakerism, teacher autonomy in teaching critical issues, and tensions between the
personal and the professional in a graduate student/supervisor relationship. The middle section“Duoethnography for Reflection and Teacher Education” consists of more freeform conversations
by colleagues, including a dialogue between an experienced and novice teacher, two colleagues
talking about a neurodiverse student, and a pair who write about their experience as teacher
trainers at a university in Japan. The third section, “Duoethnography For Language Teaching”,
contains chapters describing the principles and implementation of duo-ethnography as a task
for students. Both the authors offer accounts of modules in which students produced written
duoethnographies. In Lowe’s classroom, students researched a concept such as world Englishes ornative speakerism, and wrote discussion question for a partner, alternating face-to-face discussion
with exchanges of written questions and answers to their partner over a four week period, before
performing the resulting questions and answers as a dialogue in front of other students. In
Lawrence’s class students recorded their discussions, then transcribed and created a written paperusing their dialogue as data. One of the resulting papers is included (p. 170). There is a chapter byboth authors together, (Chapter 8, p. 155 Digging Deeper) which offers a “how-to guide” together
with student feedback from Lawerence’s class (Chapter 10) and evidence of language related
discussions during Lowe’s class (Chapter 9), suggesting that these activities were perceived as
helpful and interesting, though challenging for students.
Although the authors say that the first section puts more weight on theory, when reading, I could
not see a huge difference between the blend of theory and practice in the first and middle
sections, other than the first part written by Lowe and Lawrence, which contains the discursive
groundwork positioning duo-ethnography as a genre of academic writing. This does not constitutea problem, since the theory is adequately explained and exemplified. However, the quality of myengagement with the book varied a bit due to lack of diversity in the perspectives in one or two
papers in the middle section. One of the principles of duo-ethnography is that the participants
should offer different perspectives on the issue in question. It is noticeable that the most successful
papers are those in which the two authors are different in nationality and gender. In some of theother papers the authors’ experience has been so similar that they seem to understand each otheralmost too well:
Of course, who you are is how you teach. That’s indisputable. But at the same time,
you’re being a version of who you are. And I think that’s true of how you are as amanager. It’s a version of who I am but it’s not necessarily the entirety of who I am.
(p. 147)
It would be fascinating to know more about the idea of “being a version of who you are” andwhether these two educators ever experienced tensions between the “version” and “the entirety”.

22

RESEARCH & REVIEWS

However the co-author simply comments “That’s really interesting and kind of brings me to my next
point.”It seems that there is a risk in duoethnography that participants understand each other too well.
One wonders what would happen if one of the writers engaged in a dialogue with one of theteachers they manage. In contrast, another paper (Nagashima and Hunter, Chapter 3) describes
teaching social issues from the point of view of a female Japanese teacher and a male UK teacher.
Their different perspectives enable the reader to understand more about the privilege that “native
speaker” teachers experience. The former was given the freedom to decide on his own curriculum
for global issues teaching with the result that he was able to introduce critical issues discussions
into his class and gained some satisfaction from being able to do this. On the other hand, theteacher who was from Japan was forced to teach grammar although she wanted to teach about
feminism and racism. She reflected wistfully that maybe she should not be putting forward a criticalperspective, precisely because it is aligned with her personal view and desire for social change
and so in this sense she wonders if she is “biased”. A second important moment in the paper waswhen she wrote that she wishes those who already are in a powerful position would advocate forthose who are not. The personal writing style can arguably capture things which academic prose
cannot. For example regarding workplace sexism:….most people may think it is a problem but they don’t really do anything. They remain
quiet or they kind of like laugh it off. And they will never call them out….And the more
I encounter those kinds of situations, the more I start to feel like those who are not on
the immediate receiving end of problematic actions or behavior, maybe those who arecloser to the perpetrator, should be able to speak up to them… (p. 63)
This spoke deeply to me, as did the sense of tentativeness which both participants felt aboutteaching critical social issues in a way that is not threatening to students.
Another chapter of great interest was that focusing on students with special educational needs(Kasparek and Turner, Chapter 6 Puzzling about Special Needs in EFL Teacher Development). The
authors focus on a student who did not speak but communicated in writing. They were tasked
by the administration with adapting a speaking class for the student, which they approached
as a collaborative research venture, replacing spoken with written tasks and tempting her withreferences to her favorite anime and chocolate. They raise the issue that communicating a
student’s diagnosis runs a risk of medicalizing what might previously be considered a personal
character trait. In this chapter too, one felt the similarity between participants meant that theytended to speculate rather than engage with lived experience.
My feelings have led me to feel that working with a SEN learner presents professional
puzzles, leading teachers to reevaluate practice once again, prompting teachers tofind innovative ways to deliver lessons, while looking to ensure inclusivity and quality.
(p. 129)
Clearly, the authors are caring people, and to their credit they do end up suggesting that they
could try to “involve the students in action research projects” if they encounter such students
in the future. However there was no mention of the Japanese legislation around special needs
education, which has been developing steadily since 2000 (MEXT, 2012; UNESCO, 2014) andwas probably the trigger for the importance given to the special needs students by their school
administrators. It would have been useful if they could have contextualized the situation in relation
to the required provisions within the university. It would also have been interesting to get a bit
closer to the experience of the student whom they taught. Their paper concludes with a note thatit covers the period up to 2018. Thus they hint that there have been subsequent developmentsin the understanding of neuro-diversity within the ELT community in Japan. Any discussion of23

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』30(1)the awareness of educational special needs in Japan requires a mention of Alex Burke, whose
award-winning poster presentation in 2019 helped to focus on the experience of students who areneuro-diverse (Burke, 2020).
What about the challenge that the writing style of duoethnography is overly self-referential? Breault(2015) suggests that some duoethnographic conversations are transformative, while some arestatic, consisting of “parallel talk” or “theory confirmation”. The emergence of this publication froma group of friends gives it a certain unity and positive energy and excitement but the friendships
between co-authors may result in some pieces in which they simply reinforce each others’ views.
At the same time, the fact that the style is chatty makes the book approachable to read. Aftera busy day at school, I am more inclined to dip into a text which reads “Tom said to Joe” than
“Farrell (2016) comments as follows on Campbell (2014)”. I enjoyed the down-to-earth, readable
style, the efforts at honest reflection and the feeling that reflection is inherently worth sharing. In
addition, the theoretical sections of the book open the way for other conversations, other articles
and other books. “Duoethnography in English Language Education” will be empowering andstimulating, particularly for those who want to find ways to articulate reflective practice and who
gain motivation by co-constructing text with colleagues. What is more, the models of doing duoethnography as an activity with students offer exciting possibilities.

REFERENCES

Breault, R. A. (2016). Emerging issues in duoethnograph. International Journal of Qualitative
Studies in Education, 29(6), 777-794. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2016.1162866
Burke, A. (2020). Neurodiverse Students in Your Classroom. The Language Teacher, 44(3), 31-37.
https://jalt-publications.org/sites/default/files/pdf-article/44.3-tlt-yl.pdf
MEXT (2012). Special Support Education in Japan: Children with Special Needs. https://www.mext.
go.jp/component/a_menu/education/micro_detail/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2012/05/25/1321539_002.pdf
Murphy, T. with Chang, Y. (2001). Coco Capuccino company and legitimate peripheralizing:learning through autoethnographizing ourselves. Learning Learning, 8(2), 20-25. https://ld-sig.org/
wp-content/uploads/2023/01/2001b.pdf
UNESCO (2021). Japan Inclusion. https://education-profiles.org/eastern-and-south-eastern-asia/
japan/~inclusion

Call for Contributions for Research & Reviews | 研究 & リビュー
Send to lleditorialteam@gmail.com by August 31, 2023

#1: reports (of a conference presentation, research project, particular pedagogic practice, andso on, to do with learner development) (about 500 to 1,000 words)

レポート(学習者の成長に関する学会発表、研究 プロジェクト、教育実践など)(約 2,000-4,000 字)#2: reports of research in progress (about 500 to 1,000 words)
研究中間報告(約 2,000 字-4,000 字)#3: book, website, article reviews (about 750 to 1,500 words)
書籍、
ウェブサイト、論文の批評 (約 3,000 字-6,000 字)

24

LOOKING BACK

Looking Back報告

5th CEGLOC Conference: Autonomous and Interactive Practices in
Language Learning

Megumi Uemi
Toyo University
megumiuemi@gmail.com

Report on a Presentation at the 5th CEGLOC Conference: Exploring the Use of a
Learning Log to Introduce Critical Thinking in Remedial Japanese EFL University
Classrooms
INTRODUCTION

The present paper reports on a pilot study that was presented at the 5th CEGLOC Conference,
Autonomous and Interactive Practices in Language Learning, held by the University of Tsukuba,
CEGLOC Committee, in collaboration with the JALT Learner Development SIG and the JALT Ibaraki
Chapter on Dec 3rd, 2022.
The purpose of this online presentation was to share an idea of a teaching tool that I came todevelop as a result of my challenges in working with Japanese EFL students in remedial education.
It is an original teacher-guided learning log with which students reflect upon and share their ideas
about the class content with classmates through pair work activities. My main goal of creating sucha tool was to introduce students to the practice of critical thinking, which I roughly define here
as the skills to think and express oneself clearly and logically. What I shared in the presentation
was only a pilot study in which I started to test how the tool works with students, so the findings I
presented were limited in terms of their scope. However, I hoped that the students’ feedback that I
gained from the study could offer some insights into how teachers incorporate interactive methods
into EFL classrooms in remedial education and allow students to become autonomous learners andcritical thinkers.

REMEDIAL EDUCATION

To illustrate the background of the study, I first started the presentation by clarifying what it meantby the term “remedial education.” As you may know, it signifies a type of education given to thosestudents who need the “do-over” (yarinaoshi) (Ono cited in Chujo et al., 2012) of secondary or evenprimary education.
One may wonder, so in terms of English as a subject, what is the level that requires university
students to do the “do-over”? The Ministry of Education proposed that in theory, by the time
students finish junior high school, they should at least acquire the English proficiency of Eiken
Level 3. In terms of CEFR, this may be equivalent to the level of A1 or A2. For high school students,
Eiken Level 2 or Pre 2 (B1 to B2 in CEFR) are considered as desirable levels for the learners toattain by the time of their graduation (MEXT, 2002).
However, anyone who’s involved in remedial education knows how difficult it is to actually achieve
such goals in reality. According to a large-scale survey, more than 50% of students enrolled at bothnational and private universities (excluding those students who major in English) could only use

25

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』30(1)the English language at the level of no higher than Eiken Level 3 or even Eiken Level 4 (Ono citedin Chujo et al., 2012), although the situation might have seen improvements since the time of thesurvey; however, it may still be difficult for remedial-level learners to fully use, without a mistake,even some of the most basic grammar of the English language.
Several years ago, the media ironically reported that 中学英語 (Chugaku Eigo), the basic English
taught at the junior high school level such as the “be verbs” or the “third singular” has been
intensely taught even at university level (Kameyama, 2015). With this said, I shared that some of
my students in basic level classes, in fact, are challenged in telling the difference between the “beverbs” and the regular action verbs. They seem to not know how to use them correctly, let alone
use them appropriately for communication or maybe even spell them right.
With an era of “All-Entry’’ approaching, as we say “全入時代” (Zenyu Jidai) in Japanese, more
applicants to universities will be admitted to higher education without much screening, and quite
naturally, this will intensify what we already see as the decline of university students’ academic
level (Asahina, 2017; Benesse, 2008; Wanatabe, 2008). More teachers may be confronted with
the needs of those students who are not ready to learn adequately at college level. Given thisbackground, the presentation stressed that we, teachers, may need to adjust our language lessons
with the needs of the academically challenged students and that I hoped to do so in light ofhelping the learners get used to the practice of critical thinking.

CRITICAL THINKING

The presentation then touched upon the definition of critical thinking. I used Bloom’s Taxonomy
as the basis of critical thinking. It categorizes the individual’s learning process into six different
stages known as remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate and create (Anderson &Krathwohl, 2001). In the current literature of CT pedagogy, attention has been paid to develop
students’ higher-order thinking skills (Fujisaki, 2022; Rothman, 2017; Clark, 2019; Finn-Maeda,
2015; Nakagawara, 2015). While these pedagogical undertakings are insightful and deservingof our continuous attention, what I argued was that opportunities to enhance the lower aspectsof the thinking skills have relatively been neglected (Case, 2013; Gary & Clark, 2019). Especiallywith EFL students in remedial education, what I observe is that the students struggle with lowerorder thinking skills—skills to even “remember” or “understand” as shown in Bloom’s Taxonomy(Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001). In the presentation, I paid special attention to what the word
“understand” in Bloom’s Taxonomy signifies. In Bloom’s Taxonomy, understanding requires one
to be able to verbalize ideas and concepts by explaining, summarizing, interpreting, categorizingor paraphrasing (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001). One may think these are the basic academic skills
which students must have as the premise to learn how to think critically or learn at college level.
However, with students in remedial education, these basic academic skills are some of the biggest
challenges, and the lack of these hinder the development of higher-order thinking skills (Uemi,
2020; Uemi, 2019; Uemi, 2018; Nakanishi, 2015). One content analysis of EFL students’ papers
written in Japanese show how much, in fact, students find it difficult to express their thoughts in a
logical, coherent form of essay (Uemi, 2018).
Rote learning, as one may know, has been an integral part of Japanese education, and students
are expected to show their “understanding” through memorization of facts and numbers. We canassume that Japanese EFL learners, regardless of their levels, may not have been brought up
with the proper training of verbalization skills (言語化能力: gengoka nouryoku) during the periodof secondary or even primary education (Lasker, 2007; Dunn, 2015; Smith, 2017; Uemi, 2018).
The presentation highlighted such linguistic aspects of lower-order thinking as the underlying
interpretations of CT. My argument was that the strengthening of these lower aspects is an
essential task for learners in remedial education to become competent, autonomous thinkers in a
fuller term.

26

LOOKING BACKMETHODS

In order to strengthen such basics of CT, what I did was to implement a learning log to help
students guide through the process of expressing their ideas and interpretations about theclass content clearly and logically. In exploring the effect of such a teacher-guided learning log,
I conducted a pilot study with 54 basic English level (CEFR A1 or A2 level) students at a juniorcollege in Tokyo. A teacher research approach (Borg cited in Takana et al., 2019) was adopted
using a mixed methods of quantitative and qualitative data collected from students’ questionnaire
responses. The study was done over an eight-week period within a 14-week semester in threedifferent types of English courses (a test preparation course, a communication course, and a writing
course). The classes met twice a week, allowing for 14 treatment sessions.
As part of a midterm feedback, a Google Forms survey was given to the students (a communication
course: N=16, a writing course: N=26, a test preparation course: N=12). The survey was conductedin Japanese, so that students would understand the intent of the questions accurately. At thepresentation, I shared the following the eight questions translated into English:
1. By using a learning log, I feel that it has become easier to remember vocabulary andgrammar points (Remembering).
2. By using a learning log, I understand the meaning of vocabulary or grammar points
better and I can summarize or explain the lesson content to others in my own words(Understanding).
3. By using a learning log, I feel like I can classify or put together vocabulary and grammar
points by myself (Understanding).
4. By engaging in interactive work with classmates or the teacher using a learning log, I cannow express my questions and thoughts better (Understanding).
5. By engaging in interactive work with classmates or the teacher using a learning log, I feellike I have become more active in participation (Active Learning).
6. By engaging in interactive work with classmates or the teacher using a learning log, I havebecome more motivated towards learning English (Motivation).
7. By engaging in interactive work with classmates or the teacher using a learning log, I havebecome more self-driven towards learning English (Learner Autonomy).
8. Please elaborate on your reflections considering how the use of a learning log may havehelped you with the skills of remembering and understanding the lesson content andincreasing your motivation and awareness as autonomous English learners.
The first seven questions asked the students to evaluate the effect of the learning log on a fourpoint scale (1=Strongly disagree, 2=Disagree, 3=Agree, 4=Strongly Agree), in relation to how thelog helped with the lower-order thinking skills– “remembering” and “understanding” as definedin Bloom’s Taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001) as well as how the learning log helped raiseawareness as active and autonomous English learners. The last question asked the students tofreely comment on the effects of a learning log. A thematic analysis approach (Braun and Clark,
2006; Tanaka, et al, 2019) was taken to identify patterns in the students’ responses in the freewriting section.

LEARNING LOG IMPLEMENTATION

To demonstrate the implementation of the learning log, I showed one part of the learning log I
used in a writing course, one of the three courses I did this pilot study for, in a power point slide(Figure 1). I explained that the students were handed out this learning log as a worksheet for every
lesson. At the beginning of each lesson, I gave an overview of the lesson content, and while I
did that, the students would write down the lesson number, the lesson title, the date, their name,27

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』30(1)and their partner’s name in the upper part of the log as shown in Figure 1. I’d ask students to
say hello to their partner and exchange a few words with each other. The students were always
paired up with a partner, usually the same person, but sometimes with a different one dependingon the situational needs. When the students seemed like they wanted to work with someone
new, I’d shuffle them. When someone was absent, some people worked with a different student
or in a group of three. What is consistent, however, was that pair (or group) work was the core of
all the activities using the learning log; students would be asked to work with their classmatesinteractively and share their answers through dialogue quite often, for almost every item of thelearning log.

Figure 1: Powerpoint slide with a Learning Log sample
What is most interactive may be “Today’s Question for You,” which is a warm-up activity that I did
at the beginning of every lesson. I ask students a question that is relevant to the lesson topic, andthey write down their response in their learning log and share it with their partner in dialogue. They
keep a record of their partner’s answers in the log.
For example, in the writing class, one of the lesson topics was titled “Giving Encouragement.” The
textbook unit included an email written by a Japanese student to give her English-speaking friend
encouragement to do well on an upcoming job interview (Matsui and Hinder, 2017). The question I
asked students in this lesson was “Who gives you the best encouragement in your life?” Students
were shown some example answers with key expressions or useful words to write their own
sentences. The following are some example sentences given to the students:
1. My family gives me the best encouragement in my life. They support me with everything I
do. They always help me whenever I am in trouble.
2. I get the best encouragement from my favorite singer. His lyrics make me feel motivated anddo my best to achieve my goals.

28

LOOKING BACK

Students were allowed to create their own sentences based on the example sentences using a
dictionary. Some of the answers I got from the students were:
1. My friends give me the best encouragement in my life. When I am down, they always supportme.
2. I get the best encouragement from my favorite singer. Her songs are really good and always
make me happy.
3. I get the best encouragement from my favorite dancer. Her dance makes me feel motivatedand I do my best for my goal.
4. My mother gives me the best encouragement in my life. She always helps me whenever I am
in trouble.
5. My parents give me the best encouragement in my life. They always believe and help me a lot.
Students seemed to like this exercise a lot as it gave them opportunities to express themselves
freely in English. I made sure that they not only write down their ideas but also clarify reasons to
support their ideas. They especially seemed to enjoy the exchange of their answers with theirpartner because it enabled them to learn different perspectives and experiences regarding thequestion.
The rest of the items in the learning log varied depending on the themes of the textbook used in
the course. For the writing course, I’ve put “Today’s vocabulary,” “Today’s Key Expression,” “Today’s
Exercise,” and “Today’s Writing” as the items, but these could change depending on what theteacher wants to focus on based on the direction of the course. But what’s consistent is that I ask
students to do most of these activities interactively with their partner, sharing and showing theiranswers or teaching each other about the things that were new or unclear to them. When I’m notexplaining things with my powerpoint slides in front of the class, I’d go around the classroom andhelp pairs individually.

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

What became clear to me from the students’ feedback was that the items in the learning log
gave them a framework of what to pay attention to during the class, helping them to become
more focused, self-directed, and motivated to participate in class activities. With the learning log,
students were able to reflect upon the class content and practice verbalizing their understanding
clearly and logically in communication with their partner. Having a framework and making thelesson as interactive as possible, I find, were the two important factors that made the use oflearning log work well with the EFL students in remedial education.
In the presentation, I shared the following powerpoint slide with Table 1 showing the result ofstudents’ midterm feedback (Figure 2). I’ve put down the keywords to indicate the themes ofthe seven questions asked in the survey (Remember/Summarize and Explain/Classify/Express/
Active participation/Motivation/Learner autonomy). Table 1 shows that nearly 80% of the students
responded positively to each of the seven questions. Not much disparity in the percentages canbe seen across the seven questions, which means that students appreciated positive changes
somewhat equally in terms of all the different keywords.
I have also highlighted some differences, noting that question 2 resulted in a slightly lower
percentage (77.8%) compared to most of the other questions that averaged higher than 85%. Thismay be attributable to the fact that instructions asking students to “summarize” their understanding
were somewhat ambiguous, making them unsure about the improvement of their skills. I could
have been more explicit asking students to summarize a passage in the textbook or a story they
hear from their partner, etc.

29

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』30(1)Figure 2. Powerpoint slide with Table 1
Next, I’ve shared Table 2 as shown in the following powerpoint slide (Figure 3) to explain the twelve
different themes identified from the students’ short responses to the last question, some of which
included responses with multiple themes. The students’ short responses were examined using
a thematic analysis approach (Braun and Clark, 2006; Tanaka, et al, 2019). The twelve themes
were: remembering, reviewing, understanding the class content, improving English, participation,communicative English, test preparation, thinking by myself, concentration, not much change,note-taking, and enjoyable. What these themes indicate is that students found the learning log tobe practical in facilitating various aspects of their learning.
The learning log was surely an effective tool to reinforce their skills to remember the lesson
content (N=15). It also proved to be practical when it came to reviewing for lessons (N=14). Somestudents also felt it made them understand the lesson content more deeply (N=8).

Figure 3. Powerpoint slide with Table 2

30

LOOKING BACK

It is worth noting that two students acknowledged progress in their thinking skills. The following
comments translated from Japanese exhibit a variety of positive feedback from the participants. In
fact, one student commented:
We do “Today’s Question for You” every time, so I felt that my skills to think of what I’mgoing to write about myself have been nurtured (Thinking by myself).
Another student commented:“Today’s Question for You” made us think by ourselves and pay attention to the
key words and phrases used in the exercises, which made it easier to remember(Remembering/Thinking by myself).
Some interesting comments were made under the theme of “participation” and “concentration” aswell. One student said:
Having a tool like this made me participate in class without thinking because I felt likeI had to write something down. Through writing, it has led me to remember important
points naturally (Participation/Remembering).
Another student said:
It has helped me pay close attention to words and expressions I have never hard ofwhen I participate in class (Concentration).
One example of students’ comments about “communicative English” is:I had to think of my own responses to a question and share it with my pair, so I feelthat my communication skills in English have improved (Communicative English).

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONSThe positive feedback from most of the Japanese EFL students implies that the implementationof a teacher-guided learning log may be an effective tool to introduce CT in remedial classrooms.
The current study that I shared in the presentation focused on the development of the lower-order
thinking skills shown as remembering and understanding in Bloom’s Taxonomy (Anderson and
Krathwohl, 2001). Most students expressed that they felt the learning tool had been a practicalmedium to facilitate deeper understanding of the lesson content and raised their motivation andawareness as autonomous English learners. It’s important to acknowledge, however, that some still
felt less inclined to admit they acquired skills to summarize their understanding using their own
words. There is room for improvement in making sure that students feel more confident that theirverbalization skills are being trained properly. Including an activity asking students to summarize ashort passage from a textbook or a story they hear from their partner is one option. As I mentioned
earlier, this is only a pilot study that I started to test what works with students, so the findings I
shared through the presentation are limited in terms of their scope. Nevertheless, I am hoping that
this report of my presentation at the 5th CEGLOC Conference may give some teachers insights
into how we can bring in interactive methods to teach CT to Japanese EFL students in remedial
education.

REFERENCES

Anderson. L.W., & Krathwohl. D. R. (Eds.) (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing:A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives (Abridged edition). Longman.
Asahina, N. (2017, August 3). “Kyouiku konnan daigaku” no amarinimo hidoi jyugyou fuukei [Tooawful class situations at “universities with educational difficulties.”] Toyokeizai Online. https://toyokeizai.net/articles/-/181672?page=231

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』30(1)Benesse. (2008, August 28). “Zennyu jidai no daigaku kyouiku wa dounaru” [What will happen to
university education in the All-Entry-Era?]. https://benesse.jp/kyouiku/200808/20080828-4.html
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology, Qualitative Research in
Psychology, 3(2), 77-101
Chujo, K., Yokota, K., Hasegawa, S., & Nishigaki, C. (2012). Identifying the General English
Proficiency and Distinct Grammar Proficiency of Remedial Learners, Journal of the College ofIndustrial Technology, Nihon University, 45, 43-54.
Case, R. (2013). The unfortunate consequences of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Social Education, 77(4), 196-200.
Clark, G. (2019). Methods for developing expression of critical thinking in small group discussions.
Critical Thinking and Language Learning, 6(1), 1-20.
Dunn, J. (2015). Critical thinking in Japanese secondary education: student and teacher perspectives.
Critical Thinking and Language Learning, 2(1), 28-38.
Finn-Maeda, C. (2015). A Multifaced approach to integrating critical thinking skills in oral communication
classes. Critical Thinking and Language Learning. 2(1). 19-28.
Fujisaki, S. (2021). Nurturing Japanese university students’ critical reading skills in English classes
using a check sheet. Critical Thinking and Language Learning, 8(1), 50-83.
Gay, S., & Clark, G. (2021). Revisiting critical thinking constructs and what this means for ELT. CriticalThinking and Language Learning, 8(1), 110-148.
Kameyama, H. (2015). A Study of Remedial Education at Universities Based Upon the Attitude Survey of
Learners at Tohoku University of Art and Design. Tohoku Geijyutsu Kouka Daigaku Kiyou, 22, 102-110.
Lasker, B. (2007). Critical thought and literature in the Japanese university EFL classroom. The
Journal of Kanda University of International Studies, 19, 159-169.
Matsui. T., & Hinder. P (2017). An Introductory Course in Writing College English E-Mail, Nan’un-Do.
Nakagawa, H. (2015). Critical thinking instruction in ELL classrooms. Critical Thinking and Language
Learning, 2(1). 1-18.
Nakanishi, C. (2015). Shikouryoku wo ikusei suru eigo rimediaru kyouiku wo mezashite. [Toward
English Developmental Education that Fosters Thinking Skills]. Proceedings of 4th Kanto
Konshietsu Conference. Japan Developmental Association. 14-15.
Rothman, R. J. (2017). Expanding the textbook: group projects for promoting critical thinking. CriticalThinking and Language Learning, 4(1), 49-63.
Smith, G. (2017). Building a base: critical thinking skills and a question habit. Critical Thinking andLanguage Learning, 4(1). 1-11.
Tanaka, T., Takagi, A., Fujita, T., Takaizawa, Y., and Sakai, H., (2019). Eigo kyoushi no tameno jissenkenkyuu gaidobokku [A guidebook to teacher research for English teachers]. Taishukanshoten.
Uemi, M. (2018). An analysis of students’ essays based on Bloom’s Taxonomy: The importance ofdeveloping students’ ability to “think, evaluate, and express.” Journal of Kokusai Junior College, 33. 61-82.
Uemi, M. (2019). Probing into the possibility of controlled active learning: relationship between
students’ increased motivation for learning English and the implementation of learning logs.
Journal of Kokusai Junior College 34. 59-79.
Uemi, M. (2020). Reflecting upon an attempt to introduce critical thinking to EFL students inremedial education. Leanring Learning. 27 (2). 21-27.
Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching (n.d), Bloom’s Taxonomy. https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guidessub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/
Watanabe, A. (2008). Zennyu jidai no daigaku kyouiku wa dounaru. [What will happen to university
education in the All-Entry-Era?]. https://benesse.jp/kyouiku/200808/20080828-4.html

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LOOKING BACKOther reflections about the 5th CEGLOC Conference

Sarah Deutchman
Waseda University
sarah.deutchman@gmail.com
In my current position, I teach academic writing and discussion at Waseda University to first-year
political science and economics majors. The course can prove challenging for students as it is an
all-English course, which requires students to write different types of essays and have discussions.
The final assignment is a 1,500-word research paper and a presentation on their findings. For the
research paper students are able to choose their topic. However, many students find the research
paper difficult because it requires paraphrasing and summarizing skills, which means that students
must be able to understand academic articles and books on their topic. This context served as thebasis of the puzzle I presented. How could I help students with the vocabulary load that comes withreading academic papers? For the paper, students must look up any words they are not familiar
with and do research on their own. As a result, I am interested in learning how to develop learnerautonomy. I found this conference interesting because each person could present a puzzle basedon their own context which fostered open communication. Jon Thomas’ puzzle about developing
learners’ autonomy was interesting. He pointed out that learners sometimes did not have a clear
idea of the purpose or aim of an assignment, which made me realize that I am not always clear
about these points. I also thought I should spend more time explaining the importance of thetechniques I try to teach them and the importance of continuing to improve their English skills after
the course has finished.
Additionally, Jon Prevatt’s puzzle about creating an environment where students felt comfortableenough to discuss ideas openly but not too casually where the classroom environment wascompletely lost had me reflect on my teaching practices. In my classes, I try to create anenvironment where students feel comfortable working together on tasks and expressing
themselves in English. However, I sometimes worry that creating a more relaxed atmosphere will
make students not take my class as seriously as their other classes. This could lead to students not
devoting additional time outside of class to work on autonomous skills.
Participating in this forum and learning from my peers in a more relaxed environment was arewarding experience. The teacher workshops were beneficial and made me reflect on myattitudes and teaching practices.

Rena Shirasagi
Keisen University
k21ec034@keisen.ac.jp
Participating in this event made me want to do my best to convey my opinion to others. I
participated in this CEGLOC conference because my teacher introduced me to it and I wanted to
be in an environment where I could speak in English. At first, I was worried whether my English
would be understood by others. Also, I was worried if I could understand the other person in
English. After actually participating, I thought I really need to acquire more English listening skills
and the ability to express myself. It was so difficult for me to convey my opinion to others.

33

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』30(1)My team was four people. Our team members could speak very fluently. And they listened to
my English with all their might. Some of my team members could speak in French. A question
was asked: How to explain to someone from another country and culture about something thatis outside of their experience? We talked about flavors of food, accents, and pronunciation. My
answer is we try to imagine each unknown word’s meaning and guess how to say the words.
Others answered that we should paraphrase it into simpler words and consider the feelings ofsecond language learners. Different intonations of words can cause misunderstandings. For
example, a question in Japanese that can be misunderstood is, “Isn’t this keychain cute?” If you
don’t raise the pitch of your voice at the end, it will have the opposite meaning. It is the same inother questions such as, “Don’t you think it’s delicious?” And so on. So I think talking and explaining
about words is important. At this event, I was not able to speak in English so as to be understoodvery well by the others. But it was fun to hear the stories from various people.
I wanted to become more proficient in English after attending this meeting. I also decided to takean English certification test to extend my listening and reading skills, which I feel are still immature.
I am now working hard on my studies. It was stimulating and fun for me to talk with other people atthis CEGLOC conference.

Rina Suzuki
Keisen University
k21is068@keisen.ac.jp
I wanted to join this CEGLOC conference because I wanted to think about my English problem of
my lack of vocabulary and bad grammar and find solutions. I thought I should go to environments
such as CEGLOC where I must use only English. My teacher and classmates are always trying tolisten to and understand my terrible English at Keisen University. Usually, because my vocabulary
is so poor and I do not know the correct grammar, I almost do not speak in English. I search forimages and use gestures and other means to explain. I am always trying to get people aroundme at Keisen University to understand me. For these reasons I wanted to speak in only English
and listen to faster English at this CEGLOC conference. Joining this conference was so good forme. Our team members were from different countries. Talking with them made me want to learn
languages other than English too. I had only studied English before joining CEGLOC. I tried not tolearn other languages until I spoke enough English. However, now I want to learn other languages
and know about other cultures after I joined the conference. It is because I could meet people
from other countries’, and I spoke a common language, English. As a result of this conference, I
have started learning French and German in English by using an app. It is very exciting because I
can understand French and German words in English and I practice English grammar when I learn
these languages’ grammar.
In my team at the CEGLOC conference, the other members knew about Harry Potter, so webecame excited to talk about Harry Potter and Hogwarts’s student housing. This time was
enjoyable as I am a big fan of Harry Potter. I think famous books and movies have a lot of fans allover the world. I think I can make a friend to talk to about movies and books. I want to know a lot ofthings about movies, anime, and history so that I can easily talk with other people.
Our team also talked about autonomous learning. We talked about how to improve ourautonomous learning and we discussed what is good for autonomous learning, such as whether
flash cards and listening to music is good or bad while studying. For me, if the music is not

34

LOOKING BACKin Japanese or English it’s ok, so I might listen to K-pop or some music in French, or simple
background music. Talking about autonomous learning was fun.
After this conference, I decided to buy a grammar book to study English grammar more. I think I
should find these types of events like this CEGLOC conference to use my English. I am going toEngland during this spring holiday and I will continue to practice the English of Harry Potter that I
love so much.

Miu Sudo
Otsuma Women’s University
b2020232@cst.otsuma.ac.jp
I participated in the 5th CEGLOC conference. My purposes for participating in this conference wereto get some hints for better research, to improve my English communication skills and to share my
opinion connected to my ongoing research topic.
This conference was held online on Zoom. Participants were some foreign language learners,
Japanese students, professors and staff. Both English native speakers and non-native speakers
discussed and shared their own opinions together. I shared my daily habits of studying English.
Some English effect of listening to music while studying” was one of the popular topics discussed
among groupmates.
As for me, I don’t listen to music or news while I study because I can not concentrate on this.
Among my groupmates, they brought up some of their own ideas for listening to music. During acouple of discussion times, we brainstormed our own autonomous learning methods. In addition,
we made a mind map including what we talked about in some groupworks such as our own
recommended music for study or work, study places and some images for learning autonomy at
the same time.
I again realized brainstorming is one of the best ways to carry out collaborative learning.
Incidentally, I have been thinking about efficient ways to organize student opinions since I belong
to the teacher training track at my university. When it comes to a situation of teaching and giving
lectures at school, (or trial lessons as well) I think what teachers need to do is to consider how
students can create and transfer (share) their own knowledge or ideas in collaborative learning.
This is why I realized again about the importance of brainstorming this time.
However, I think I couldn’t expand my topics as I liked. I realized that I need to speak and thinkin English logically. In addition, I had some internet connection problems. At the end of thisconference, I couldn’t say a few words of thanks, so I sent an email to the organizer to say “thankyou” instead. If it’s possible, I would like to participate in this conference face to face so that all
participants can appreciate the effects of discussion and the significance of having a dialogue.
I am thankful to my professor for giving me the opportunity to participate in this great conference. I
am sure that what I learned will influence my next research project.

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』30(1)JALT 2022 Learner Development (LD) Forum
Theme: Reflecting on challenges and achievements in diverse learning environments
Fukuoka International Congress Centre, Saturday, November 12th (12:45 PM – 2:15 PM), 2nd Floor
Lobby

Szabina Ádámku, Akiko Takagi, Eileen Yap
JALT 2022 LD SIG Forum Programme TeamFORUM ABSTRACT

The forum provided opportunities to reflect on challenges and achievements with learnerdevelopment in different learning environments. We examined topics such as the inclusion oflearner development in curriculum reform and syllabus planning, environmental dynamics that
nurture learner interaction and autonowmy, different kinds of learning relationships (for example,
learner-teacher, learner-learner, near-peer), innovative approaches to learner-centred assessment,
as well as key social and emotional aspects of learning. Contributors from diverse educational
contexts were warmly encouraged to take part from elementary through to secondary school andtertiary education, as well as language school, adult learning, and graduate study environments.
Through sharing personal narratives, learning practices, reflections, and/or practitioner research,presentations and discussions explored challenges and achievements with language learning andlearner development from multiple and original angles. Both presenters and participants wereinvited to interactively share their thoughts and reflections at the forum, as well as in the Learner
Development SIG’s newsletter, Learning Learning.

PRESENTATION TITLES AND PRESENTERS

Using stimulated recall to analyse experiential learning: curriculum development for a self-directed
modulePhillip A. Bennett (Kanda University of International Studies)
Yuri Imamura (Tokyo Kasei University)
Challenges and achievements of undergraduate TAs through their hybrid identities
Ken Ikeda, Arisa Minami, Rana Sato (Otsuma Women’s University)
An observational inquiry into a Japanese language support group for students with foreign roots
Michael Kuziw (Jin-ai University)
Empowering university English learners through paired research projects
Sakae Onoda (Juntendo University)
From fax machines to zoom sessions: Keeping the aged engaged in a time of COVID
Steven Paydon (Rikkyo University)
Robert Dilenschneide (Jichi Medical University)
Supporting learner autonomy with online Scrabble
Katherine Song (University of the Ryukyus)
Effective use of self-reflection activities to enhance students’ learning using Socrative as a tool
Yuki Togawa, Naeko Naganuma (Akita International University)

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LOOKING BACK

Establishing an all-day International Saturday School
Michael Wilkins, Frances Shiobara, Louisa Green (Saint Michael’s International School)
Tracing the emotional currents in the construction of one learner’s English L2 identity: A narrative
case study approach
Amelia Yarwood (Research Institute for Learner Autonomy Education RILAE)HIGHLIGHTS

Taking place in a large lobby of the conference center, the LD SIG Forum session reached a lot ofviewers actively initiating insightful knowledge-sharing discussions face to face. There were a totalof 8 amazing poster presentations this time. After a short briefing with the Forum coordinators,
the presenters began to set up their posters on the poster boards before the Forum started.
Throughout the session, participants engaged with each presenter to discuss their work and areasof interest. This was followed by Emily Choong receiving the LD SIG Grant Award (JALT 2022
Conference Participation) for her valuable contributions and achievements. Finally, both presentersand participants had a chance to reflect on the Forum. We believe that the audience and thepresenters came away from the forum with new insights and a range of practice and researchideas to implement or further explore in diverse learning environments.

POST-FORUM REFLECTIONS OR COMMENTS

Emily Choong (Niigata City Board of Education)
This was my first time attending an LD SIG forum. I managed to have a chat with Katherine Song,who presented on Scrabble Go. It was an insightful presentation knowing that a family andfriends game can be turned into a classroom activity to support learner autonomy. I found thisa meaningful way to involve English learners in games that allow them to grow not only their
vocabulary, but also engage with the language in a classroom setting. During the reflection at theend, my group ended up discussing other games to bring to the classroom such as Boggle. This
forum made me realise that there are times where we can go back to basics, such as using fun
board games, and involve our learners in paving their own way through their language learningjourney.
Ken Ikeda (Otsuma Women’s University)
It was great to co-present with my students, Arisa and Rana. I am happy for them that they wereable to convey in their written and oral presentations their hybrid experiences as students andteaching assistants. Although I felt obligated to stick close to my poster, I was fortunate to talkwith a few presenters of other posters. In particular, Katherine Soong told me how she was able
to expand on her poster using Scrabble as a means for inspiring student interaction. She solicited
student reactions after we had shared thoughts at the LD online get-together before the JALT
Conference. I am deeply grateful to the LD Forum organizers who gave their all to ensure ourpresentation was brought into actuality after these past years of being online.
Patrick Kiernan (Meiji University)
I really enjoyed the forum and was reminded of what a great format posters can be for sharing
research and ideas for developing learners. As ever, I could not visit all of the sessions but reallyenjoyed the sessions that I visited and the follow up discussions afterwards. Two that caught myattention were those involving the students and so fitting the theme of the conference and the
SIG. I was impressed to see that Ken Ikeda had managed to bring two of the students from his
project exploring the hybrid identities of TAs. One of these presenters, Rana Sato, explained not
only her role in the project but also how her experience both as a TA and trainer at Starbucks had
helped her decide on a long-term goal of becoming a flight attendant trainer. Phil Bennett also had

37

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』30(1)his student Yuri Imamura join the session which introduced his study of her experiential learning
through the facilities at KUIS. A great opportunity for me to learn from students and teachers alike
and an encouragement to involve teachers. All the sessions looked fantastic though and I’m sorry
not to have heard the details from everyone.
Michael Kuziw (Jin-Ai University)
I had a great time joining the Friday presentation by two presenters who talked about introducing
drama/role playing into the classroom. I want more of these interactive opportunities outside thepresentations and forums (like the Swingball corner). I want to see something in action that draws
me in, as opposed to scanning the presenter list and trying to assess the presentation that aligns
with my interests simply by reading a title or abstract. For future conferences, I suggest setting up
a modified classroom setting, with pre-recorded presentations set up around the convention space
where people can casually gather and observe something appealing, while also interacting withmembers of the same of other SIGs.
Arisa Minami (Otsuma Women’s University)
Our presentation title was “Challenges and Achievements of Undergraduate TAs through
Their Hybrid Identities”. As one of the TAs, I presented my struggles, interesting experiences,
and achievements to the participants. I’ve never experienced poster presentations, but I was
honored that I could present our experiences and achievements in person to some people asundergraduate students. It was a very refreshing, precious, and meaningful experience for me.
Although I didn’t have a chance to see and listen to other presenters’ posters, I talked with a few
presenters and I could learn about some presentations a little bit. When I talked with some otherpresenters and told them about my presentations, they empathised with my experiences andstruggles, and they gave me some useful advice. Also, I could have a deep conversation with
one of the participants about my presentation topic. This experience not only gave me a sense ofaccomplishment but also motivated me to study English more. (Thank you very much for reading
this long comment.)
Naeko Naganuma (Akita International University)
This was my first experience presenting at the LD forum in the form of poster presentations. I was
happy to welcome many people and answer their questions about our research. I really enjoyeddiscussing our thoughts and future directions with peer researchers who came by on the topic of
my interest and was able to develop some new ideas out of the casual conversations during theallocated time. One thing I would suggest if we continued a similar format for the LD forum is tohave 2 rounds of poster presentations, as originally planned, because I wanted to take a closer
look at the other posters, but unfortunately I did not have enough time to do so. Thank you forproviding this opportunity for us!
Michael Wilkins (Kwansei Gakuin and St. Michael’s International School)
Thank you so much. The change of format due to the location was no problem. As a presenter I
only got to talk to one other presenter (Katherine Song) at length but her presentation and poster
were great. The location was good in the sense that we had people wander in and talk to us that
may not have come to the LD Forum if it was in a specific room. I hope to be able to come to Kyoto
on the Pan-SIG.
Amelia Yarwood (Research Institute for Learner Autonomy Education)
The forum was an enjoyable experience in which I was able to share my passion with others. Afterseveral years of online conferences it was wonderful to actually engage face to face with people-to see their eyes sparkle, to have that easy back-and-forth flow of conversation. Personally, I
enjoyed creating and joining opportunities to talk to other presenters before JALT to get feedback

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LOOKING BACK

on our posters and to practice fielding questions. More opportunities to do so would be greatly
welcomed. One thing I noticed about the LD forum presentations was that learner voices weregenerally foregrounded in people’s research/practice. Passing on knowledge is great but I would
love to see more co-constructed, co-analysed research in future classrooms, self-access centersand outside of university contexts.

GALLERY

39

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』30(1)40LOOKING FORWARD

Looking Forward
今後のイベント

LD SIG Forums 2023

２０２３年のLD SIGフォーラム

These are great opportunities to showcase your practice, professional reflections, and researchideas. Even if you are just working through your ideas, this is a chance to present them and get
feedback from informed and supportive colleagues.

教育実践、考察、研究のアイデアなどを発表する絶好の機会です。たとえ、
まだアイデアを練っている段階であっても、この機会に発表し、情報通で協力的な同僚からフィードバックを得てください。

PanSIG

Looking Forward: Sustainable futures in language education
Kyoto Sangyo University, May 12-14, 2023
Vetted Submission Deadline (審査提出期限)
Now closed

Forum Sign-Up Deadline (フォーラム提出期限)
Now closed
Registration
Now open

CONFERENCE FOCUS

From kindergarten to higher education, how will 'the classroom' evolve? How can we prepareteachers to foster the kind of creative and critical thinking that really matters?

LD FORUM TITLE AND FOCUS (フォーラムタイトルとテーマ)

Theme: Learner involvement in developing learner-centered pedagogies and practice
What is it about: This forum will explore the potential benefits of learner involvement in thedevelopment of learner-centered pedagogies and practices. Presenters will explore different
practical, innovative and collaborative approaches to all areas of the teaching and learning
experience, taking into account the voices of learners and their capacity to craft their own future.

41

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』30(1)The LD-SIG forum at PanSIG 2023 will be held on Saturday, 13th May in Room S204 from 4:15pm
until 5:30pm. While the forum itself is only 60 minutes, the additional time will be spent on closingcomments and networking (if desired). Our schedule is available here.

ABSTRACTS

Learner-generated materials for English communication
Ivan Lombardi, University of Fukui
From April 2023, I will teach an advanced English communication course for first-year university
students who plan to study abroad in the anglosphere during their undergraduate years. The
course meets twice a week for a total of 30 times (90 hours). It will follow an exploratory practice
approach in which students work in small groups to create, test, and revise learning materials
based on the actual communicative situations they experience as freshmen (meeting otherstudents, registering for courses, finding accommodation, interacting with the instructors, andother themes chosen by the students). The goal of the course is for learners to reflect on their daily
communicative events and become able to recreate them in English.
Instructor’s involvement or interference in a learner-centred practiceMizuka Tsukamoto, Ritsumeikan University
This is an ongoing study on encouraging students to take ownership over learning through working
in groups. The attempts have encountered various challenges but with some successful aspects.
Through the process, improvements have been made to improve the learning experience for boththe students and instructor. The poster describes how the group work took place in an online
environment, the successes and the challenges that the instructor faced due to her involvement
or lack of involvement in the process. Discussion will extend to what measures could be taken forimprovement.
Applying learner-centred pedagogies to bring DEI content and issues of ethical travel into an“English for Tourism” course
Jennifer (Jenny) Morgan, Sophia University, CLER
In designing content and materials for a university “English for Tourism” elective course, thepresenter wanted to expand on the typical situational roleplays in many “Travel English” textbooks(e.g. How to greet foreign travelers at the hotel) and bring in awareness of diversity, equity andinclusion (DEI) and an ethical traveler’s mindset from the course outset. The presenter will sharematerials and activities that encourage learners to draw on their own rich experiences of diversity
and interests in travel and tourism, and co-create knowledge with their peers through roleplays,
discussion, research and presentations. While developing language skills and expanding theircontent knowledge, students take ownership of their learning and develop a critical understandingof important related issues including ethical travel, DEI, and sustainable tourism in today’s
globalized world.
Preparing for PBL in a First-Year University Classroom
Robert Moreau, Meiji University
Project-based learning (PBL) can be an effective way to create student-centered learning
opportunities. Through the completion of projects, students can not only develop theircommunication skills in the target language, but also grow as autonomous learners throughthe choices they make involving the researching, gathering, and organizing of information. This
presentation explores the initial stages of the introduction of PBL into a first-year university, global
issues classroom using a five-stage framework proposed by Stoller and Myers (2020). During
this poster session audience discussion will be encouraged. It is hoped that through the sharing

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SIG MATTERS

of ideas and experiences using PBL, teachers will be able to consider new ideas for facilitating
learner development in their classes.
Co-Constructing Academic Literacy with Multimodal Conversations
Ellen Head, Miyazaki International College
Academic Literacy is particularly challenging when first year students enter college with a levelaround CEFR A1 or 2, and have to participate in CLIL or EMI courses. In this poster presentation, we
take a look at how a social-constructive approach was used in order to help students develop theirwriting personas and schemas. Lea and Street (2006) point out that academic literacy is not simply
a matter of written products, but entails a complex of abilities and skills. In our course, the textbook
Q Skills for Success (Lynne, 2019) provided the main focus. Students were challenged by the levelof critical thinking demanded by the book, as they did not assume that English classes would
require it. In addition, it was very attractive for them to use digital translation as an alternative tousing a dictionary, and they sometimes translated chunks of text. How could the students develop
the skills of writing and have confidence in their ability while using these resources? It was vital tocreate a conversation spanning various genres including writing and speaking, formal and informal,
digital and non-digital, L1 and L2, in order to authenticate the students’ writing. The poster will use
data from student’s learning journals, feedback questionnaires and paragraphs to address thedevelopment of academic literacy in the first year of their course.
Creative Online Elements for Learner Ownership are Encouraged During Face-to-Face Learning
Stacey Vye, Saitama University
This poster session provides several examples of supportive behaviors that facilitate greater
learner ownership and engagement during remote learning at a university self-access learning
center (SALC). The learners’ preferences for attending the SALC for group advising were analyzed
before, during remote learning online, and afterward when the center resumed face-to-face andonline hybrid sessions. Additionally, the advisors participated in focus group sessions for thesame duration. The focus group identified valuable elements that increased learner ownershipduring online advising because learner engagement strengthened from effective personalization
in a creative digital venue associated with remote learning. As a result, the learner autonomysupportive online strategies are encouraged in a hybrid environment for promoting learnerownership, as detailed in the LD-SIG Forum.
Understanding students’ English speaking anxiety in face-to-face and online contexts
Emily Choong, Utsunomiya University
Language teachers need to be aware of their students’ worries about learning English so thatthe classroom can be a safe place for them. The Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale(FLCAS) has been widely used to measure language anxiety. This presentation talks about how the
instrument was updated to reflect the focus on speaking skills and the changes in English learning
environments due to the pandemic. FLCAS was adapted to address English speaking anxiety inJapanese EFL undergraduates in face-to-face and online learning contexts. The presenter will
discuss the cultural appropriateness and content validity of the instrument. This study hopes toinform language teachers on how to tackle psychological aspects of language learning to create
low-anxiety classrooms in the future.
Supporting student-run SALC Workshops
Katherine Thornton, Otemon Gakuin University
English Cafe at Otemon (E-CO), Otemon Gakuin University’s self-access centre, has always had an
active student volunteer group which supports our activities. In recent years, in addition to working

43

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』30(1)at the counter and organising seasonal events, students have started to plan and implement theirown workshops. Topics include: study abroad experiences, Chinese language and culture, and UK
culture. In this poster presentation I will explain how we have helped students to develop the skills
to run these workshops successfully, and what challenges we have encountered in the process.
Voices from the students themselves will be highlighted to show how they have gained from theseexperiences.
Learning form the learners: Keeping up to date with emerging resources for language learning
beyond the classroom
Jon Rowberry, Sojo University
With the proliferation of apps and online tools for language learning it is increasingly importantthat learners themselves play an active role in identifying resources rather than relying on teachers
and learning advisors for guidance. This interactive poster will present an ongoing project inwhich students make short, slide show videos to introduce their preferred resources for language
learning and explain how they use them. The videos are then made available to peers and futurecohorts of learners. The outcome of the project is that both learners’ and instructors’ knowledge of
popular and emerging resources for language learning is constantly updated. Participants will beable to view some example videos and learn how the project was set up and administered.

LD SIG 30th Anniversary Conference
Theme: Learning for change and action, making a difference for the future
Date/Location: October 21st (Sat) and 22nd (Sun). Venue to be announced (in Tokyo).
Format: Presentations, workshops, and forums for teachers, and poster presentations forteachers and/or their students.
Next steps: The Call for Proposals and Contributions will go out later in April. Watch
Facebook and LD SIG news for more updates!
This conference is being organised in collaboration with two other SIGS (TBA) to celebrate
the LD SIG’s 30th Anniversary. The two-day conference will explore how to encouragelearners to engage in their learning to make a difference in their lives, their local
communities, and beyond. We hope you will mark the dates in your diary and will begin toconsider with your students how you could take part. It promises to be a fun and exciting
event.
テーマ：変化と行動のための学習、未来への変化をもたらすために

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次のステップ: 大会発表の申し込み内容の詳細は4月後半にお知らせする予定です。最新情報はFacebook、LD SIGのニュースにてご確認ください！

学

日時・場所: 10月21日（土）・22日（日）会場未定（東京都内）

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この大会は、LD SIGの30周年を記念して、他の２つのSIGS（未定）と共同で開催されます。この2日間の大会
では、学習者が自分の人生や地域社会に、更にはこれらを超えて変化をもたらすために、どのように自分たちの学習への取り組みを促進していくのかを探求します。ぜひこの機会をお見逃しなく、皆様の学生と一緒のご参加をご検討ください。楽しくてエキサイティングなイベントになることをお約束します。

44

LOOKING FORWARD

JALT 2023

Growth Mindset in Language Education
Tsukuba City, Ibaraki, November 24-27, 2023

The LD Forum is being planned and will be promoted shortly.
Vetted Submission Deadline (審査提出期限)
Now closed
Vetted Submission Deadline
Sunday, May 21, 2023, 11:59pm JST

LD FORUM TITLE AND FOCUS (フォーラムタイトルとテーマ)
Theme: Thinking in different ways: Perspective-taking for growth

Deadline for proposals: Monday, May 1, 2023 | Submit via this Google Form
What is it about: This forum will explore perspective-taking in language learning pedagogies andpractices. At the core of perspective-taking is the consideration of pedagogies and practices thatencourage learners to think about alternative perspectives, and seek new information, ideas and/or experiences. Presenters will explore how this occurs in- and out-of-classrooms, how it canbe encouraged, and the benefits and challenges associated with seeking out and considering
alternative perspectives. Questions that could be tackled are:• What kinds of perspectives should we encourage learners to explore? Why?
• What kind of perspectives have been explored in your language classrooms?
• How can materials and resources be used to explore different perspectives?
• What processes are involved in challenging learners’ current perspectives?
• What benefits do learners gain from taking on novel perspectives?
• How do learners’ past experiences inform their current attitudes toward perspective-taking?
The forum will include practitioner research and practice-related accounts exploring dynamics ofperspective-taking in and beyond language classrooms, and how these dynamics influence, informor inhibit learner development. Perspectives may focus on those from all stakeholders such as, thelearners themselves, language teachers, advisors, and programme directors.
In the forum participants will have opportunities in pairs and small groups to discuss and reflect on
the here and now of collaboration between practitioners and learners.
Where and when: This forum will take place during the JALT 2023 conference on November 24 to
27, 2023 at Tsukuba International Congress Centre, Ibaraki, Japan.
Format: 60-minute poster presentations (individual or small group); in-person.

45

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』30(1)LD SIG Online Get-togethers

Ken Ikeda, Tim Ashwell, James Underwood
LD SIG Officers
The LD SIG online get-togethers are a great way to meet and reconnect with other LD SIG
members and share your experience and puzzles in implementing learner development in yourcourses. These are open to all practitioners who teach in all contexts – not just university, and wehave had members join from all levels of the school system and beyond. The get-togethers usually
happen on Sundays from 2:30-5:00 pm, and four more are scheduled for the rest of this year: April
23rd, May 28th, June 25th, and December 17th.
From the start of this year, we have been experimenting with a new format where one or two SIG
members present briefly about the LD topics they have been recently working on and researching.
In these presentations, members share their research aided by a short PowerPoint presentation of
about ten slides, concluding with discussion questions that form the focus of the breakout sessions
that follow. In these breakout sessions, we discuss our reactions, provide feedback, and consider
how the presentation topic relates to our contexts. We hope this will help us all work together on
our professional development while sparking new ventures and collaborations.
In the January get-together, Rob Moreau gave a short presentation called “Project-based EFL
Classes: Ideas for 2023 research”. In this presentation, he explained what areas the projects
might cover and how best the students might share their work beyond the classroom. In the
February get-together, Emily Choong and Ken Ikeda presented on different topics. Emily’s topic
was “Investigating speaking anxiety in face-to-face and online learning modes among Japanese
undergraduates.” In this presentation, she outlined her MA research, first detailing what learneranxiety was and then how she plans to measure it. Following this, Ken Ikeda presented on“Enabling seminar students to develop proactive academic writing skills including the use ofmachine translation.” In his presentation, he explained his context and then shared some resources
and strategies he is using with his students to get the most out of machine translation. If you wantto know more about these sessions, please access the most recent get-together notes.
If you want to join the get-togethers, watch for the announcements through ld-news@ld-sig.org, theLearner Development SIG Facebook page, or email us at ldsigtokyogettogethers@gmail.com. And
if you are interested in presenting, please let us know as well.
Look forward to seeing you there!

LD SIG Membership SurveyYour feedback is important to the LDSIG, why not share us some insights?
As we kick off a new academic year, we want to hear feedback from members like you. Whatmakes you choose LD SIG as part of your professional development journey?

TAKE THE SURVEYYour honest feedback will help us make LD SIG better for you and everyone in the team. Let’scheer for the more vibrant LD SIG community!
We look forward to hearing from you.

46

SIG MATTERS

SIG Matters

インフォメーション

Learner Development SIG Financial Report October 2022 to March 2023

Patrick Kiernan
LD SIG Treasurer
jalt.ldsig.treasurer@gmail.com
At the 2022 AGM, I reported on the declining SIG finances as a result of ongoing cuts in the budget from
JCO and a return to SIG activities. Based on anticipated expenses for the end of the year, following asimilar pattern of expenditure to this year, and receiving a similarly reduced budget for the financial year
beginning in 2023, I outlined a budget which would result in a significant reduction in funds and require
financial support from JCO’s Development Fund. One of the reasons for the SIGs high level of expenditureis the ¥160,000 allocated for grants. Even though only three grants of ¥40,000 were paid out this year,
this ¥120,000 was a significant expenditure considering that the total income for the SIG was only ¥34,120(¥19,120 JCO grant + ¥15,000 PanSIG). For this reason, incoming Coordinator James Underwood proposed
cutting the grant to ¥80,000 at a committee meeting held on Friday 17th February and a reduction to¥100,000 was agreed on. In the meantime, some anticipated expenses following the AGM have notmaterialized, in part because I have not received receipts from members who are owed money for SIG
expenses. I realize that I should be more pro-active about following up members who are likely to be owed
money for SIG-related expenses, but I would be grateful if you could keep receipts and contact me as earlyas possible when you incur any expenses. All expense payments require a receipt. Since no payments canbe made for previous year’s expenses, all claims must be made by March 31st of the financial year in which
the payment was made. In any case, these two factors mean that we would probably not need to apply fora Development Grant fund simply to keep the SIG afloat, but will do so for the happier reason of supporting
the SIG’s 30th Anniversary event!
Revenues: October 2022 – March 2023 / 収入：2022 年10月〜2023年3月
Events（PanSIG income）/ イベント(PanSIG 収入)
Total revenue / 収入合計

Expenses: October 2022 – March 2023 / 支出：2022 年10月〜2023年3月
Events (JALT expenses) / イベント
（JALT費用）

15,00015,0006,000

Events CEGLOC / イベント
（CEGLOC費用）

22,000Total Expenses / 支出合計

30,000

Balance in bank account / 銀行口座残高

132,724

PayPal account / ペイパルアカウント

25,972Admin. Expenses / 管理費

2,000

SIG fund balance: March 31, 2023 / SIG資金残高：2023年3月31日
Reserve liabilities / JALT本部預け金

200,000

Cash in hand / 現金

7,700

Balance / 合計

366,396

If anyone has any questions or comments regarding LD-SIG financial matters (or expense claims!),
please get in touch with me at the address above.

47

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』30(1)Writing for Learning Learning

Submit your contribution to
Learning Learning 30(2) by『学習の学習』応募規定

AUGUST

31

Learning Learning is the Learner Development SIG newsletter and is published online bi-annually,in the Spring and Autumn. It has a specific ISSN number (ISSN 1882-1103), and features cuttingedge articles in various formats that relate to people’s ideas, reflections, experiences, andinterests to do with learner development, learner autonomy, and teacher autonomy. Manydifferent SIG members contribute to each issue of Learning Learning, and, by doing so, create asense of shared community and learning together. Please feel free to contribute too and makeconnections within the SIG and beyond. Contact the editorial team at lleditorialteam@gmail.com.

『学習の学習』はLD SIGのニュースレターで、年に２回（春と秋）オンライン出版されています（ISSN 1882-1103）。
学習者の成長、学習者と教員の自律に関するアイディア、省察、経験や興味に関連したさまざま形式の原稿を収録しています。
SIGの多くのメンバーが『学習の学習』に寄稿し、共同体の意識を築き共に学習しています。
どうぞ奮ってご投稿され、SIG内でのまたそれを超えた繋がりを築いてください。

CONTRIBUTIONS
寄稿

We encourage new writing and new writers and are happy to work with you in developing yourwriting. We would be delighted to hear from you about your ideas, reflections, experiences, andinterests to do with learner development, learner autonomy, and teacher autonomy.

これまでにない形式のもの、また新しい方々からのご投稿をお待ちしております。
内容についてもぜひご相談ください。
みなさまのご意見やお考え、ご経験、そして学習者の成長、学習者と教師の自律性に関することなど、ぜひお聞かせください。

For more details about formats and lengths (形式と長さ) of writing suitable for Learning Learning,please see below. To upload your writing to the editorial team of Learning Learning, please use
this link. Many thanks.
We welcome contributions for the Autumn issue of 2023, with the pre-publication deadline ofAugust 31, 2023 for Learning Learning 30(2). Ideally, we would like to hear from you well before
the deadline, but in reality, the door is always open, so feel free to contact one of the editors when
you are ready.

FORMATS AND LENGTHS
形式と長さ

Learning Learning is your space for continuing to make the connections that interest you. You
are warmly invited and encouraged to contribute to the next issue of Learning Learning in either
English and/or Japanese. In order to provide access and opportunities for Learner Development
SIG members to take part in the SIG’s activities, we welcome writing in different formats andlengths about issues connected with learner and teacher development, such as:『学習の学習』は会員の皆様に興味ある繋がりを築きつづけるスペースです。
次号の『学習の学習』への日本語（
もしくは英語、及びニ言語で）の投稿を募集しています。
メンバーの皆様にSIGの活動にご参加いただきたく、形式や長さを問わず、学習者および教師の成長に関する以下のような原稿をお待ちしております。

MINI-PROFILES: SHARING YOUR LEARNER DEVELOPMENT INTERESTS

ミニプロフィール：学習者ディベロップメントについての関心の共有

Here SIG members introduce themselves briefly (just 50 to 100 words or more), and write about
what interests, puzzles, intrigues them about learner development, and/or about a particular

48

SIG MATTERS

approach or project, or research that they are doing or plan to do, or simply share a short reflection,
to do with learner development (about 100 words or more)

ここでは、SIGメンバーの学習者ディベロップメント研究に取り組む原動力となる関心や課題とともに短い（200から400字程度）自己紹介をお届けします。
特別なアプローチやプロジェクト、現在進行中の研究やその計画、さらには学習者ディベロップメントの取り組みに関する内省など、それぞれの思いや考えが寄せられています (約200-400字程度以上)

SHORT ARTICLES ON ISSUES TO DO WITH LEARNER/TEACHER DEVELOPMENT
AND AUTONOMY
学習者と教師の成長・自律に関する小論#1: short individual articles (1,200 – 2,500 words)
小論（単著）(約3,600-7,500字)#2: short group-written articles (1,200 – 4,000 words)
小論（共著）(約3,600-12,000字)

REFLECTIVE WRITING ABOUT LEARNING FOR LEARNER/TEACHER DEVELOPMENT
AND AUTONOMY
学習に関する省察 ー 学習者と教師の成長・自律を目指して#1: particular puzzles that you and/or your learners have about their learning, practices,development, autonomy, and so on, and inviting other Learning Learning readers to respond (1,000
words or more)

ご自身や学習者の悩み（学習、実践、成長、自律など）に関して、LL読者と一緒に考えましょう。
(約4,000字)#2: dialogue with (an)other SIG member(s) (1,000 to 2,000 words)
SIGメンバー同士の対話 (約4,000字-8,000字）

stories of learners becoming autonomous (about 500 to 1,000 words)
自律・成長する学習者に関する話 (約2,000字-4,000字)#3: stories of your learning and teaching practices: success and failure (about 500 to 1,000 words)
学習・教育実践の成功談・失敗談 (約2,000字-4,000字)

MEMBERS’ VOICES

メンバーの声#1: a short personal profile of yourself as a learner and teacher and your interest in learnerdevelopment (about 500 to 1,000 words)
学習者・教員としての自身のプロフィールと学習者の成長に関する興味 (約2,000字-4,000字)#2: a story of your ongoing interest in, and engagement with, particular learner development (and/or learner autonomy) issues (about 500 to 1,000 words)
学習者の成長や学習者の自律に関する興味や取り組み (約2,000字-4,000字）#3: a short profile of your learner development research interests and how you hope to develop
your research (about 500 to 1,00 words)
学習者の成長に関する研究内容と今後の研究の展望 (約2,000字-4,000字）#4: a short profile of your working context and the focus on learner development/learner autonomy
that a particular institution takes and/or is trying to develop in a particular curriculum (about 500 to
1,000 words)

教育環境の紹介、所属機関やカリキュラムにおける学習者の成長や自律に関する取り組み (約2,000字-4,000字）

49

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』30(1)LEARNERS’ VOICES
学習者の声

Learners share stories of their learning, reflections on their practices of learning, or report on a
project or research that they are doing or plan to do related to learner development (about 300 to
500 words)

学習者が自分の学習経験、学習の実践についての考察、
または学習者の成長に関連して行っている、もしくは計画しているプロジェクトや研究について報告します。(約1200-2000字程度以上)

RESEARCH & REVIEWS
研究 & レビュー#1: summaries and accounts of new graduate research (1,200 – 2,500 words)
大学院での研究内容の要約やその振り返り (約2,400字-5,000字）#2: proposals for a joint project/joint research (about 500 to 1,000 words)
協働プロジェクト・リサーチの提案 (約2,000字-4,000字)#3: reports (of a conference presentation, research project, particular pedagogic practice, and soon, to do with learner development) (about 500 to 1,000 words)

レポート（学習者の成長に関する学会発表、研究プロジェクト、教育実践など）(約2,000-4,000字)#4: reports of research in progress (about 500 to 1,000 words)
研究中間報告(約2,000字-4,000字)#5: book, website, article reviews (about 750 to 1,500 words)：書籍、
ウェブサイト、論文の批評(約3,000字-6,000字)

FREE SPACE

フリー・スペース#1: photographs, drawings, and/or other visual materials about learner development, and/or related
to learner autonomy
学習者の成長や自律に関する写真、絵、視覚資料#2: activities and tips for learner development/autonomy (about 500 to 1,000 words)
学習者の成長・自律を促す活動やヒントの紹介 (約1,000字-2,000字)#3: some other piece of writing that you would like to contribute and that is related to learnerdevelopment

その他の学習者の成長に関する執筆#4: poems… and much more
詩、その他。

Our publications door is always open, so feel free to contact one of the editorial team when you
are ready at lleditorialteam@gmail.com. Many thanks!

50

THE LEARNING LEARNING EDITORIAL TEAM

Lorna Asami: asami.lornasachie AT MARK gmail dot com (editor)
Tim Ashwell: tashwell AT MARK komazawa-u dot ac dot jp (editor, LD get-together)Ken Ikeda: kodanuki AT MARK gmail dot com (editor, members’ voices, grant awardee
essays)Mike Kuziw: mike dot kuziw AT MARK gmail dot com (editor, members’ voices, research andreviews)
Ivan Lombardi: ivanlombardi dot w AT MARK gmail dot com (editor, layout)
Hugh Nicoll: hnicoll AT MARK gmail dot com (editor, grant awardee essays, webmaster)Megumi Uemi: megumiuemi AT MARK gmail dot com (editor, translator)

Those working on Learning Learning share a commitment to working together in small
teams. We aim to learn together about writing, editing, responding, and/or translating, for
our shared personal and professional development. Some areas where we would like toencourage SIG members to take part and work together on Learning Learning include:• Layout and Design: working on the formatting and preparation of finalised content for
online publication• Members’ Voices (co-)coordinating: contacting news members of the SIG and working
with them to develop their writing in a variety of formats and lengths as a first step totaking part in the SIG’s publication activities;• Looking Back (co-)coordinating: working with contributors writing on events related tolearner development (conferences, forums, get-togethers, workshops, both face-to-faceand online) for publication in Learning Learning;• Research and Reviews (co-)coordinating: encouraging potential contributors to sendin summaries and accounts of research, as well as reviews (of books, journal articles,
materials, or web resources relating to learner development), and working with them todevelop their writing for publication in Learning Learning.
If you are interested in any of these areas of working together (and/or you have other areasof interest) and would like to discuss your interest and ideas, please email the Learning
Learning editorial team: lleditorialteam@gmail.com.
Many thanks.
Learning Learning editorial team