JALT
2004
NARA
Language Learning for Life

Learner Development Forum:
Empowering Learners forClass and Beyond

Heidi Evans Nachi Ritsumeikan
University, College of Information
Science and Engineering
Jodie Stephenson Tokyo Denki University
Amy Fenning Kwansei Gakuin
University, School of Policy Studies
Marlen Harrison Momoyama Gakuin
University
Ellen Head Poole Gakuin University
Lawrence Metzger Osaka Jogakuin
University, Kansai University, Kwansei
Gakuin University, Kobe Jogakuin
University
Yoko Morimoto Meiji University
Stacey Vye Meikai University
Yoko Wakui Rissho University
Masayo Yada Meiji High School
Fumiko Yui Hibarigaoka High School

Reference Data:
Nachi, H. E., Stephenson,J., et al. (2005). Learner
Development
Forum:
Empowering Learners forClass and Beyond. In K.
Bradford-Watts, C. Ikeguchi,& M. Swanson (Eds.) JALT2004
Conference
Proceedings.
Tokyo: JALT.

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The Learner Development Forum has been a part of the JALT National Conference for the last several years. This
year’s 85-minute Forum brought together teachers from primary to tertiary contexts exploring how learnerautonomy can be fostered across the curriculum, both inside and outside of class. Seven presenters shared
their experiences and research in a poster format. After brief introductions from each presenter, participants
had a chance to view posters and talk directly with presenters, after which they had small group discussions
to process themes that emerged from the Forum. This session ended with a brief whole group discussion. This
paper summarizes the presenters’ poster content and reﬂections on participating in the Forum.
学習者ディベロップメントは過去数年間JALT国際会議の一役を担って来ました。今年度の85分間にわたるフォー
ラムでは、学習者の自律性が教室内外でのカリキュラムの中でどの様に促進され得るかを専門的に研究している、小等
教育をはじめ民間教育機関も含むあらゆる場所で教鞭をとる教師達が集まりました。7人の発表者達たちが、ポスターを用いて自身の経験や研究を発表しました。各発表者たちによる簡単な紹介の後、参加者達はポスターを見て回り発
表者達と直接話し合うチャンスを持ちました。
その後フォーラムで浮上したテーマについて少人数に分かれ、最後には全体で、簡単な議論が行われました。
をしました。
この文書は発表者達のポスターの内容及びフォーラムの参加後の考察をまとめたものです。

S

ince the forum format was introduced at the JALT National Conferencein 1998, the Learner Development Forum has been an annual event forsharing current autonomy-related research and work in Japan and abroad.
The Forum typically features four to seven presenters, who present their content
in a poster display or short lecture, along with the audience participants, who haveopportunities to speak directly with the presenters. While the format of the Learner
Development Forum has changed over the years, the presenters continue to bring to
the event a keen interest in sharing and discussing autonomy-related issues. This year,
Forum co-facilitators Heidi Evans Nachi and Jodie Stephenson were very pleased
to bring together presenters from seven different contexts to share their research,
projects, and ideas at the Learner Development Forum.
In this paper, the Forum participants share in their own words the various techniques
and approaches to foster autonomy, along with their thoughts and experiences onparticipating in the Forum. Amy Fenning shows how challenging students to keep theirown gradebooks empowers students and encourages good organization skills. Marlen
Harrison outlines a framework for introducing Internet penpals to increase proﬁciency
and conﬁdence. Lawrence Metzger shows how he used personality typology to raiselearner awareness and scaffold learning processes. Ellen Head demonstrates how
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CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGSJALT 2004 NARA — Language Learning for Life

Nachi, Stephenson, et al: Learner Development Forum: Empowering Learners for Class and Beyond.
combining multiple methods of evaluation provides a richer
picture of self-evaluation processes and outcomes. Yoko
Morimoto’s research analyzes the role of group work inpromoting autonomy. Stacey Vye’s look at young learners’
studying English reveals not only their motivation to learn
English, but their autonomous behavior as well. Finally,
through three case studies, Yoko Wakui, Fumiko Yui, andMasayo Yada examine how monitoring learner development
enhances motivation and autonomy.

Presenters’ Voices: Sharing Their Forum Experiences
Amy Fenning—Students as Keepers of the Grades
Poster Summary
My poster at the JALT 2004 Learner Development Forumwas titled, “Students as Keepers of the Grades.” My
content was based on a strategy I used to lessen my grade
recording in two teaching situations—one at a university
outside of Istanbul and one with an at-risk youth group in
the bridge program of a Seattle-area community college.
Based on readings in student-centered learning and learnerempowerment, I gave up my grade book for these courses.
I gave the students a “logbook” and told them that when
they received any points, be it from me, from a self- or peer
evaluation, from attendance or any source, they would haveto log into their logbook ﬁlling in the following line items:
date assigned, date due, date handed in, homework “slug”—
a journalistic reference to a short name of something—andpoints gained out of points possible. If they lost the logbook,they lost the points because I would have no record.
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Reaction/Reﬂection
First and most importantly on my poster, I made sure that
visitors to my presentation understood that it was a strategy
for record-keeping, not peer-evaluation or self-evaluation.
Self-evaluation was indeed used at both institutions, but selfevaluation points were logged in as any other points. Second,
I clearly and simply displayed the steps to take in setting
up and implementing student logbooks. Additionally I
shared the advantages and disadvantages. Finally, I included
a “sample logbook” on my poster so that visitors could
actually see what I was talking about. As I do not have anyof the past student logbooks, I simply created one from some
old homework I had burned on a CD in Turkey.
During the poster session, the questions were not directed
at me so much as I directed one question at the visitors tomy poster: Would this method work in Japan? Could wetrust Japanese students not to lose anything and to organize
their returned school work into one book? Several lively
discussions ensued about the issue of trust. My visitors werekeen to share their experiences with grade keeping in Japan.
I felt it was an excellent experience for me to learn more
about university life in Japan, about students and trust andlearner responsibility. I learned that a poster presentation is
not just talking, as had been my past experiences, it is truly
asking and listening. It is an exchange of information, not a
one-sided presentation of ideas.

CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGSJALT 2004 NARA — Language Learning for Life

Nachi, Stephenson, et al: Learner Development Forum: Empowering Learners for Class and Beyond.

Marlen Elliot Harrison—Keypal Assignments in
English Language Classes: Interpersonal andPedagogical Aspects
Poster Summary
In this presentation I discussed pedagogical and interpersonal
aspects of keypal email exchange projects currently indevelopment in English language classes at two universities.
Pedagogical aspects included the implementation, perceived
beneﬁts, and development of such projects. Interpersonal
aspects such as the quality of the relationships formed andtheir inﬂuences on learner development were also discussed.
Additionally, I reported on a two-stage pilot study andongoing research project examining these aspects.
My research partner, Dr. Kathleen Kitao, at Doshisha
Women’s College, and I have been interested in the qualityof friendships initiated via email as compared with thoseinitiated face-to-face. Additionally, we have explored how
keypal email exchange projects affect learners’ feelings
about their abilities, attitudes and beliefs regarding English
as a foreign language. More importantly, these projects
have been designed to accentuate independent learning bothduring the school year and thereafter.

The Assignment
Students were instructed to use an internet search engine
to ﬁnd websites where they could locate and contact penpals, or where they could post personal information about
themselves so that others could contact them. Students
reported communicating with a variety of individuals andwere asked to submit at least ﬁve typed and printed emails
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(at least ten sentences each), and at least ﬁve typed andprinted email responses from their keypals.
This project was undertaken by students working
autonomously. Students were not given topics to write
about, nor were students’ emails edited or corrected unlessspeciﬁcally requested by the student. Though non-response
was an issue early in the semester due to computer problems,
website errors or busy schedules, all but three students from
Stage 1 (N=71) and all students in Stage 2 (N=19) completed
the assignment. By giving students the freedom to choose
their own keypals and allowing them to be completely
responsible for email content, autonomy was emphasized.
Overall, students reported that though the project waschallenging, they enjoyed the opportunity to use theirEnglish skills and foster new relationships.

The Study
We surveyed two groups of students on their relationships
and experiences with a keypal they were corresponding
with as part of course assignments. The questionnaire
used in Study 1 included mainly short-answer questions
about four of Parks and Floyd’s (1996) dimensions offriendship, as well as demographic questions and questions
about how long they had been corresponding with theirpartner. The questionnaire for Study 2 was adapted fromthe questionnaire for Study 1, but used a Likert scale tomeasure the dimensions, and included new questions
related to demographics, students’ English skills and skill
development, motivation, opinion of the assignment, etc.
Results indicate that after an average of 5.8 months ofcontact, students felt committed to their relationships (asCONFERENCE PROCEEDINGSJALT 2004 NARA — Language Learning for Life

Nachi, Stephenson, et al: Learner Development Forum: Empowering Learners for Class and Beyond.
evidenced by their statements that they would continue
the relationship after the class had ﬁnished), and that they
had discussed a wide range of topics. Additionally students
reported perceived improvement in their reading, writing andvocabulary skills along with comfort level in communication
with foreigners.
Future research will include case studies with students
who have participated in this project, the addition of acontrol group of students who do not undertake the project,a longitudinal study of the friendships created, as well as
a comparison of students’ attitudes towards their Japanese
friends and their internet keypals.

Reaction/Reﬂection
Presenting at the JALT Forum allowed me the opportunity
to reﬂect on my research and future goals by discussing the
project with colleagues. Suggestions for additional researchwere offered and recommendations on how to begin email
exchange projects were shared. Overall, the presentation
process and the supportive remarks and enthusiastic
responses helped me gain focus as how to best proceed in the
future.

Ellen Head—Self-Evaluation: Illusions and Realities
Poster Summary
This presentation focused on the divergence between
students’ self-evaluations and one teacher’s evaluation ofthem. The students in the study were second year English
majors in an intermediate level oral communication class.
Before and after the course the students were tested using
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a test similar to TOEIC. Various methods of continuous
assessment were used during the course, such as, learningjournals, self- and peer-assessed speaking tasks and recorded
conversations assessed by the teacher. The students’ ﬁnal
grades were based on a holistic self-evaluation which
students were asked to write in their journals. I decided
to explore how my criteria for assessment were affectedby interaction with the students, the extent to which thestudents internalized my criteria, and the long term effects
on the students’ conﬁdence and motivation in cases where I
challenged the students’ self-evaluation.
The data for the poster was drawn from my observations,students’ learning journals, and a questionnaire which wassent to the students one year after the end of the course,
asking about their current level of conﬁdence in relation to
English.

Reaction/Reﬂection
In the ﬁrst semester not all students completed the selfevaluation, but of those that did, two graded themselves
lower and one higher than the teacher did. One student(whom I’ll call Hiroko) wrote: “I think writing is so-so but
speaking is difﬁcult for me. I’m not good at to express my
opinion or feeling by speaking. There fore I can’t decide
what grade do I deserve up to now, but I want to score A.”
In the second semester all students carried out theevaluation. The students’ evaluations concurred with theteacher’s assessment in 22 out of 28 cases. Four students
graded themselves lower than the teacher did, and two
graded themselves higher. The students’ comments from
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Nachi, Stephenson, et al: Learner Development Forum: Empowering Learners for Class and Beyond.
their learning journals showed that they saw the grade
as being primarily concerned with fulﬁllment of their
obligations as members of the class: “I tried to behave
exactly and have lessons regularly. Unfortunately I couldn’t
have a good response. It’s an only thing that I understoodclearly. I will give myself grade B, because I was not enoughto talk in English.”
These quotes show how covert participation came to be
an issue as a classroom dynamic developed in which three
students dominated whole-class activities and two others
spoke only after a wait-time of a minute of more, although
they showed great commitment in terms of journal writing
and preparation for class. Responding to the follow-up
questionnaire, Hiroko wrote: “I gave a hang about thoseevaluation so I tried to talk more. As a result I could talkin English better than before…I tried harder to get goodevaluation. I didn’t want to regret, so I studied harder.”Another student wrote: “If I received praise for the work I
did, though I didn’t think it really good, when the teacher
said it was good, I was happy. (And also the opposite
happened sometimes too.)”Disturbingly, the latter comment suggests respect for,rather than understanding of, the teacher’s criteria. I hopethat more studies will focus on the long-term effects ofvarious kinds of evaluation and assessment, and on ways of“reconciling [self-assessment as a pedagogical tool] with theadministrative, grade-generating function [of assessment]”(Brown, 2001, p. 174).
At the Forum, the discussion in my corner revolved aroundissues related to continuous assessment, performance-based
assessment and self-evaluation. One particularly helpful
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suggestion was the use of video-taped performances and‘Think Aloud Protocol,’ where students watch their video
later and comment on what they were thinking at the time.

Lawrence Metzger—MBTI Personality Typology andLearner Autonomy
Poster Summary
My “Personality Shoji Matrix” was interspersed with theartwork of Peter Max, representing a symbolic abstractionof diversity integrated with harmony. The poster consistedof adapting four old wooden cedar shoji panels to serve as aself-standing display of eight panels divided into 16 sections.
In viewing my poster, participants could take a zig-zag
journey from theory to practice, following diverse aspects ofcognitive development according to a truly learner-centeredindex focused upon lifelong learner autonomy and metacognition.
Implications for classroom use were based upon
research conducted over four years of administering the
MBTI (in Japanese) to 433 students. The MBTI (MyerBriggs Type Indicator—a widely used personality test)
has served to separate students into groups to optimize
collaborative learning in composition and speech classesof diverse proﬁciency levels. The results further informed
lesson plan and curriculum design research, and assistedwith the creation of learner-centered sub-groups withinlarge classrooms taking into account students’ individual
personalities.
After taking the MBTI, each student received a fourletter code indicating their personality type. The JungCONFERENCE PROCEEDINGSJALT 2004 NARA — Language Learning for Life

Nachi, Stephenson, et al: Learner Development Forum: Empowering Learners for Class and Beyond.
Myers-Briggs framework identiﬁes four basic dichotomous
pairs: Energy Flow (Extrovert and Introvert), Information
Gathering (Sensing and Intuition), Decision-Making(Thinking and Feeling), and Lifestyle Planning (Judging
and Perceiving). Bilingual content-based reading handouts
supported students’ understanding of their type, and criticalthinking activities encouraged students to agree or disagreewith their “personality proﬁle” as they constructed their own
approach to learner autonomy.

Reaction/Reﬂection
Both the positive and negative comments and questions
posed by participants were interesting and thoughtprovoking. Participants at the JALT LD SIG mini conferencein October reacted positively to my application of the
MBTI to the ESL classroom. In contrast, I felt that only afew participants attending the Forum at the national JALT
conference in Nara were interested in the MBTI as a useful
tool to be implemented in facilitating learner autonomy.
Several people seemed genuinely interested in how this wasused in the classroom and how intermediate to advanced
students reacted to the content.
Questions which arose touched upon how one could truly
measure the MBTI as enhancing meta-cognitive/metalinguistic awareness and critical thinking. I could only
answer in terms of how interested and intrinsically motivatedthe students appeared to be, learning hundreds of new words
and text-marking the English and Japanese handouts which
they had received pertaining to the material. In the future, I
would like to develop and administer a pre-test and post-testof new vocabulary items to try and measure some extent of
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language learning through this content-based approach. I amin the process of developing a qualitative survey for students
to self-assess the effectiveness of their small type-speciﬁc
learning groups to my in-class observations of an apparent
similarity and compatibility of styles within groups.
Negative reactions existed among a few participants who
dismissed the MBTI as just another type of “blood typing”
generalization or stereotyping of people that simplisticallyreduced the complexity of human cognition and diversity. In
talking with these rather skeptical participants, I appreciatedtheir being candid, but realized that they were operatingout of their own biases without much, if any backgroundknowledge of the extent with which the MBTI has beenused and accepted within professional, educational, andinternational corporate sectors.
I accept those whose reactions against the MBTI andsimilar “tests” stem from critical thinking and a healthy
fear of reductivism. Yet, ironically the testing validity
and consistency research done with the MBTI rivals thatof ETS in the design of the TOEIC and TOEFL tests
which so many seem to accept as a deﬁnitive indicator of
proﬁciency. I would argue that all such tests, ﬂawed asthey are, provide some degree of insight into how far ourlearning development concerning languages has advanced
so far and how much more needs to be done to develop
tests as tools for learning in the future. In the complex taskof striving to construct learner-centered EFL classrooms,
I would recommend the MBTI as a scaffold to constructintrapersonal/interpersonal lexicons worthy of consideration.
I plan to conduct more research on integrating the MBTI
with other surveys of learning styles in the EFL classroom as
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a continuation of my own learning development. I enjoyedparticipating in this forum and learned from so many otherpresenters in the process of tracking effective means offostering the learning development of our students who
accompany us along this interesting journey.

Yoko Morimoto—Looking Back and Then Forward:
Students Report on How They Got "Hooked" andHow It Changed Their Lives
Poster Summary
This was a quite unique presentation in which nine of myformer students and I collaborated in presenting in the formsof posters, a video, and a group oral presentation. All 14 of
the senior students I had taught previously for two years andI collaborated in analyzing what helped make this particularEnglish “class” called EPC (English Proﬁciency Course) into
a “cohesive and autonomous learning group,” within which
students became so autonomous that they themselves started
initiating and executing numerous English projects, such asa mock trial play, a ﬁlm, and a debate tournament, without
requiring much teacher intervention. One of the mostimportant conclusions we drew based on a student-written
questionnaire and several discussions was that the “class”
needed to become a “cohesive group” for autonomous
learning to take place.
Based on our analysis of the group formation processusing some of the “group dynamics” principles, the mostsigniﬁcant event was getting involved in the EPC selection
process. They interviewed each applicant in Japaneseand later got into emotionally loaded debates over whom
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to select, lasting more than 20 hours, and resulting in
confronting their teachers on the conclusion. This required
each student in the group to express their opinions andunderstand and respect others on a profound level, andconsequently led them to become a cohesive group.
Some of our other ﬁndings and recommendations focusedon group work and trust. For example, a paradigm shift inlearning attitudes was necessary to become functional ingroup work. We also found that group work which took
place outside class increased autonomy and motivation.
Another interesting ﬁnding was that the feelings of trustand freedom given by teachers increased their sense of
responsibility. Finally, cultivating personal relationships
between the teachers and students enhanced communicationand promoted mutual respect, leading students to overcome
cross-cultural barriers they had felt with foreign teachers.
The beneﬁts of the EPC were numerous as well. The
EPC helped them not only improve their English, but also
maintain their future goals in terms of their English andcareer development. Moreover, constant opportunities topresent varieties of group projects to others in and outsideclass (i.e. English camps and semi-public presentations)
kept their motivation high in maintaining short-term goals.
Lastly, division of roles and rotating the role of the leader
fostered a sense of responsibility and motivation to support
one another.
To maximize these experiences, group formation,
especially in the ﬁrst year, should take place in classes
held before lunch or dinner as it is easier to socialize after
those classes. Moreover, students should be informed by
the teacher where they are at within their long range goals.
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Students who have used English to achieve their career goals
early in their university life are able to set their long range
career and English goals much earlier than usual.

Reaction/Reﬂection
The most frequently asked questions from the audience tothe students seemed to be about the roles of the teachers.
We also had many comments saying it was helpful for themto listen to the voices of the students “live” and to engage
in discussion with them. Although we very much want
to do this again next year, most of the students will have
graduated. If possible, I would like to present on this topic
with the help of some graduate students.

Stacey Vye—Primary School Aged Students’ English
Language Learning Quest
Poster Summary
My poster examined factors that have motivated a groupof ﬁve primary school third-graders to learn English forthe past three to six years at a community center once a
week. I displayed and highlighted the children’s English
learning experiences using learner self-reﬂection drawings
and two interviews—a clariﬁcation of the drawing and aquestionnaire. By coincidence, I felt fortunate that all ﬁve
learners drew pictures of themselves, so I could display theseself-portraits along with color-coded caption bubbles of thetranscribed interviews in Japanese translated to English,
which helped to exemplify and bring out the children’s
voices about their learning.
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Reaction/Reﬂection
I felt my poster was one of a kind at the Learner
Development forum because it focused on younger learners.
I didn’t get a swarm of participants like some of the otherposters did, but it allowed me to enjoy communicatingwith several people one-on-one about the children andteaching children in general. The people who visited myposter commented that they teach at the tertiary level, andshared either their present or past experiences working withchildren. I got the impression that although teaching children
wasn’t their primary occupation, they had a real soft spotin their heart for teaching and being around children. One
participant said, “Teaching kids is great!” and highlighted
that he wished he could have the opportunity to teach kids
more often. Speaking with participants about children gaveme the opportunity to question if there are many teachers inJapan who would like to teach children, but feel they cannot
in their current situation.
Before participating in this forum, I felt I had overlooked
these young learners’ experiences that have motivatedthem to study English both in and out-of-class, because
I concentrated on my duties as a university lecturer. So
I decided to try to shed light on whether, and to what
extent my students are showing signs of learning English
autonomously. Subsequently, by working on the project, I
was surprised to discover the three boys revealed they arelearning English for communication during their travels in
foreign countries, while the two girls and one of the boys
confessed they are learning English to communicate withforeign people.

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Nachi, Stephenson, et al: Learner Development Forum: Empowering Learners for Class and Beyond.
In addition, I illustrated another revelation by comparing
and contrasting the self-reﬂection drawings of a boy and agirl who started learning English at the age of two who did
not remember when they started learning English, with thethree children who started learning English at the age ofﬁve. The two early learners drew pictures outside of class ofthemselves and their relationship with English, while the threelater learners drew pictures of how they imagined themselves
learning English in the classroom. This was striking to me
because the two groups drew very different pictures. I agreed
with the feedback I got from two participants who commented
that it might be constructive for me to look into comparing
different types of young learners on a larger research scale,based on the self-reﬂection drawings and interviews.
I think because of the support I received from theLD forum coordinators to set up the framework to help
contribute to the development of my poster, and comments
made by the participants, I am now ready to start alarger scale research project in 2005. I have collected
questionnaires and self-reﬂection drawings from ﬁve juniorhigh school students, and ﬁve ﬁrst year university students
who started learning English at a young age. I hope tocompare what these two groups of learners express with thegroup of the primary school students of this study.

content-based teaching, reﬂection, and self-assessment.
We prepared six-page handouts and put up a large paper on
the wall, outlining our theory and showing pictures of ourclasses. The data results for each of us were hung beside thebig poster. We also explained how students took the initiative(Williams, 2001) in discussion, and where they acquired
knowledge according to their interests (Gardner, 1993). We
described the importance of self-assessment (Dickinson,
1987), which develops self-awareness and skills in learningtechniques (Nunan, 1988; Oscarson, 1989), and thesigniﬁcance of reﬂection, which involves students in taking
responsibility for their own learning (Leki, 1991).
Students chose topics we prepared, because we thought
students would get confused if teachers set them freesuddenly. Besides, even small choices can increase theamount or “degree” of autonomy (Nunan, 1997). Students
discussed in pairs or groups, through which they learned
collaboration and responsibility. We gave students chances toassess themselves, which let them realize what learners are
and what they should do, and stimulated them to work harderfor their own goals. In addition, students wrote whatever
they wanted at the end of every class: Questions, requests,
problems, their thoughts about the teacher and methodology,
and other comments about the whole course.

Yoko Wakui, Masayo Yada, and Fumiko Yui—Turning
Our Unmotivated Students On to Autonomy
Poster Summary

Reaction/Reﬂection

Our poster discussed how learner autonomy was fostered,and summarized the results of applying cooperative work,
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It was the very ﬁrst time for us to work together on a
project, and we surprisingly learned a lot. At ﬁrst, we had tonegotiate, which occasionally led to confusion. In the second
stage, we had to learn to cooperate to work for the common
goal. We needed to get consensus to work it out. Though we
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Nachi, Stephenson, et al: Learner Development Forum: Empowering Learners for Class and Beyond.
were struggling in the ﬁrst stage: “orientation, negotiation
and adaptation” (Barﬁeld, 1998) and the second stage:“perception of inner and outer processes” (Barﬁeld, 1998),
we began to realize our development as teachers and thanked
each other for the support and understanding we received.
We shared our reﬂections in the third stage: “dynamic ofexperimentation” (Barﬁeld, 1998). In the fourth stage of“increased awareness” and “cyclical growth” (Barﬁeld,1998), we became aware of things we would not havenoticed if we had done it alone, and felt that we had grownthrough this challenge.
Because we had been working at totally different
institutions, we had to teach each other our different
approaches by clear articulation. We had to open up to eachother to negotiate what we should do for our research. We
were forced to know our own characters more than before
and we also had to talk about the methods we each had
already established as teachers in order to adopt something
unfamiliar to each of us. A little later, we began to try new
things, which might have stimulated our students, too. In
the later stages, we realized we had different perspectives
and interpretations, through which we found those things
that were important to us, which we may not have noticed
otherwise. Thus we have grown, even though it wasstrenuous.
We are going to continue our study on researching
student’s inner voices in the future. We are grateful to theparticipants for sharing a wonderful day with us. All in all,it was an event that was ﬁlled with warmth, enthusiasm, andthe spirit of sharing.

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Conclusion: A Learning Experience for Presenters
and Audience Members
In spite of the various time and room constraints andlast minute hiccups, the feedback from presenters andparticipants at the 2004 LD Forum was very positive.
In particular, audience members were impressed withthe breadth and variety of topics, along with the casual
atmosphere that encouraged discussion, and helped foster
new ties among participants.
This year’s Forum also boasted two new features:
multimedia presentations and student presenters. Presentersengaged audience members through a variety of content
and presentation formats: Posters, video, and art displays
stimulated the senses, stirred the imagination, and fueled
discussion. Moreover, for the ﬁrst time at the Forum,
students from one of the studies accompanied their teacher(Morimoto) to share their own experiences as autonomous
learners, a special attraction that will hopefully continue atfuture conferences.
In many ways, this year’s Forum was a truly interactive
experience. The participants gained information andperspectives from the posters, provided the presenters withfeedback and insights, and had chances to consider how
such ideas might be adapted in their own contexts. Throughpreparing and presenting their posters, the presenters could
learn much about themselves as teachers and researchers,
and come away with new questions and new directions fortheir research. Like learners in a classroom, the presenters
and audience members in the Forum became a community—
one committed to sharing and discussing ways to empower
our learners for class and beyond.
CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGSJALT 2004 NARA — Language Learning for Life

Nachi, Stephenson, et al: Learner Development Forum: Empowering Learners for Class and Beyond.

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