Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): Looking Back

Looking Back 報告
Reflections on Creating Community:
Learning Together, Otsuma Women's
University, December 14, 2014
To see photos of the afternoon: http://ld-­‐
sig.org/creating-­‐community-­‐photos/
In bringing people together to explore
learner development and community
building through discussion and reflection,
our aim was to keep presentations formats
informal and interactive. Creating
Community: Learning Together involved tworounds of digital display and poster
presentations. Both rounds were followedby small discussion and reflection circles
for 30 minutes in pairs and small groups ineach presentation room. In total, there
were 38 poster presentations/digital
displays given by both teachers andstudents, with 48 teachers and 42 students
attending. The whole event finished with aplenary session celebrating the publicationof two new collections of research by the
Learner Development SIG. We would like to
say a really warm thank you to everyone
who supported, presented at, andparticipated in the conference, with special
thanks to the following individuals—KeikoSudo, Martin Mullen, Agnes Patko, Ken
Ikeda, Devon Arthurson, Nozomi Tajima,
Jenny Morgan, Ian Hurrell, Karin Takahashi,and Alison Stewart—for sharing theirreflections on Creating Community:
Learning Together. Thank you, one and all!
Andy Barfield, Ken Ikeda, Fumiko Murase,
and Stacey Vye (Conference Organizers)

みなさまに集まっていただき、ディスカッショ
ンやリフレクションを通して、学習者ディベ
ロップメントやコミュニティービルディングについて研究していただくため、プレゼンテーション形式をカジュアルにそしてインタラク
ティブにする事を⽬目標としました。Creating  Community:  Learning  Togetherでは、デジタルディスプレイとポスタープレゼンテーショ
ンのセッションを２周⾏行行いました。また１周ごとに、それぞれのプレゼンテーションルーム
で、ペアもしくは少⼈人数グループでの、３０分間のディスカッション・リフレクションサーク
ルが⾏行行われました。合計４８⼈人の教師と４２⼈人の学⽣生が参加し、教師や学⽣生による３８ものポ
スタープレゼンテーションやデジタルディスプ
レイが発表されました。そして、このイベント
は、学習者ディベロップメント研究部会（ＬＤ 　ＳＩＧ）による研究成果をまとめた２冊の本の出版を祝う全員会議で幕を閉じました。この会
議の開催に協⼒力力してくださった⽅方々、またプレ
ゼンテーション発表、参加して下さった⽅方々、全ての⽅方々に⼼心から感謝いたします。そしてCreating  Community:  Learning  Togetherに対する様々な意⾒見見をくださり、Keiko  Sudo,  Martin  Mullen,  Agnes  Patko,  Ken  Ikeda,  Devon  Arthurson,  Nozomi  Tajima,  Jenny  Morgan,  Ian  Hurrell,  Karin  Takahashi,  Alison  Stewartには⼤大変感謝しております。みなさん、ありがとうございます！
Andy Barfield, Ken Ikeda, Fumiko Murase, andStacey Vye （会議主催者）

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): Looking Back
Keiko Sudo, Graduate School, Keisen
University

including college students get involved inthese kinds of activities.

I had chances to listen to the following
presentations :Group Discussion
In the second group discussion, I talked with
two university students who sincerely hope to
put their university learning to use at school
environments in their communities. Some
Japanese teachers still teach in a teachercentered way. We agreed that cooperative
learning can be more focused so that students
can decide through autonomy and learn agreat deal from other individuals in many
ways. To find new things from your friends is a
lot of fun and you can expect a very lively
environment with a lot of laughing and active
exchange.

Jenny Morgan’s “Learning together—
researching NGOs and social change”
I found aspects of the pleasure of being ateacher in Jenny’s presentation very
interesting, particularly the aspect of herenjoyment of learning together with her
students. She introduced one of her students
who did qualitative research in an NGO for
elderly people. The elderly people the student
interviewed are still active in society after
their retirements. The student who is notconfident yet with his English did great
research. It means one of Jenny’s goals in her
teaching succeeded—the student is now
hoping to pursue a career with an NGO. I likeher idea of exploring how domestic andinternational chapters work together for socialchange. (Thank you for your tasty andseasonal tree biscuits and chocolate!)
Yukiko Aoyama’s “The living and working
conditions of indigenous people: Struggling forcommunity with the modern world”
When I talked to Yukiko, I felt her sincerity
and her earnest engagement for her topic. I
am sure these feelings stem from her caring
for indigenous people. Her research was well
explored (?) so I learned a lot from her
presentation. I hope she continues researching
this topic and meets many people concerning
this issue domestically and internationally.
Sumika Morita’s “Meguro Children Theatre: A
learning and social community for children's
psycho-social development”
Sumika’s report and research support theimportance of fostering these kinds ofcommunity activities where young and older
people mix and spend time together, even fora short period of time. I was amazed to knowthat even her younger brother was involved inthese activities. I hope many young people,

Impressions
I was able to see that in this SIG, bothteachers and students are in fact creating acommunity with a spirit of “Learning
Together” where both counterparts in a way
bring up interesting and questionable aspectsof their learning and express their honest
feelings and exchange ideas. For example, formy presentation, those who came and listened
to my presentation asked me quite a lot ofquestions and gave suggestions. Whileanswering those questions I slightly becameaware of what I was not sure about, in otherwords I was able to realize the point I was
missing. I think I can include that point in mythesis. It was a big finding for me.
Teachers are learners as well as
students. Is this one of the important concepts
in this LD SIG?
As a Japanese student, the way theconference team organized (?) proceeded theconference was very interesting; theconference was very relaxed, with snacks anddrinking, while it was very systematic in termsof time. The conference team was very warm
and their instructions were very clear in thegroup discussions; therefore, we weresmoothly guided and the discussion was pretty
fruitful. Is this normal at this type ofNewsletter of the JALT Learner Development SIG <ld-sig.org/>

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): Looking Backconference? As a matter of fact, I reallyenjoyed it.
Thank you very much for your sincere
help and support at the conference.
Martin Mullen, Meisei University
I’ve been to quite a few different
conferences, and kind of conferences inJapan, and I’ve heard people say thatdifferent events have different‘atmospheres’… and to be honest, I’ve always
been skeptical of that. They all seem muchthe same to me! So attending the LD
Conference on December 14, 2014 was such apleasant surprise as it really did have a
different, more relaxed, friendly atmospherethan any other I’d been at before in Japan. I
was presenting myself during the second
session, so my comments relate mainly to thefirst session.
Even before the presentations started,
there was a warm and welcoming feel to theevent. Because it is a SIG event, I guesseverybody knew more people than usual,
which helped people to relax.
Throughout the first session, one thingwhich struck me again and again was that
there was a wonderful ratio of student
presenters to teacher presenters. As I
mentioned during the plenary session after
the first round of presentations, conferencesin Japan are usually full of teachers talking
about what students want, what students
need, what students are interested in. Of
course, this is often very well informed, wellintended, and accurate, but it was a breath of
fresh air to get to hear so much from thestudents themselves. It was a great
experience for me as a teacher to hear fromstudents directly, and know what it is thatthey are interested in and what their wants
and needs are.
From the students’ perspective (putting
on my teacher’s hat) I think that it is a very
useful experience for students to see theirteacher from a different perspective. For
students to realize that there is a communityof teachers out there, of which their teacher

is a part, will help them better understandand respect their teachers and where theirteachers are coming from.
Overall, perhaps we don't have enoughopportunities like this where we share ourperspectives in such equal measures. It can bea very worthwhile and perhaps eye-opening
experience for both sets of people. And
through more events like this, where students
and teachers attend and present together—perhaps it can help to bridge the gap that may
exist between the two groups (from both
perspectives).
Agnes Patko, Meisei University
Creating Community: Learning Together was agreat opportunity for both teachers andstudents to meet and learn from each other ina relaxed environment outside the traditionalclassroom setting. This one-day mini
conference met my expectations; that is, I
could take away new ideas of classroom
management and student support. I talked toother teachers about some of the difficulties I
had met in my classes and we sharedtechniques of dealing with them. Yet, themost memorable part of the conference waslistening to and discussing issues with student
presenters.
I remember how anxious I was before
my first conference presentation, even though
I had been teaching for years then, so I wasused to speaking in front of other people.
When I listened to students’ presentations, I
recalled my own experiences of anxiety andtried to be as supportive as I could when I saw
that they got stuck or forgot what they wereabout to say. I was impressed by their courageand preparedness. I got lots of energy fromthem. Let me introduce two student
presentations that were the most interesting
to me.
Students from Tokyo University of
Science talked about how they proposed to
improve the English Lounge sessions.
Originally, they discussed various topics eachtime with the help of the teacher in thesesessions; however, they were not satisfied

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): Looking Backwith this and recommended implementing
debates. The preparation process for thedebates was also outlined in the poster.
Unfortunately, as I arrived only a few
minutes before the end of the round, there
was not enough time for them to finish their
explanation. Still, there was enough time forme to feel their enthusiasm. The question that
arose in me after talking to them is how I
could encourage my students to take suchactions as these presenters on their own
learning processes.
Another interesting presentation wasgiven by a Chuo University student. The topic
was about the rights of indigenous people,
with special attention to the Ainu people inJapan. During my university studies I read a
lot about the Ainu in various books andpapers. However, in Japan I have never heard
about them in the media and when I ask
Japanese people about them they seem to be
reluctant to answer. I do not know if it isbecause it is a taboo, people actually do notknow much about the Ainu or are justuninterested. Thus, this was the first time I
had heard about this issue in Japan. This
presentation made me think about thedifficulties of preserving the culture ofminorities and indigenous people.
The participants at the Creating
Community: Learning Together conference not
only benefited from listening to teachers’
presentations but could familiarize themselveswith various topics that students wereinterested to research and present. I believethat both teachers and students got closer toeach other. Moreover, it was a great
opportunity for students to get to know
students from other universities and talkabout their research interests. I hope that in
the future there will be similar events where
we all can learn together from each other.
Ken Ikeda, Otsuma Women's University
As one of the conference organizers (andpresenters), I had few moments to mingle in
the program itself. So, I felt privileged toattend one of the first round discussions as amoderator. I chose it on the basis of several
students visiting from my university being
there (they are in a teacher training program).
I was surprised that four of them came,considering that I teach them on Saturdays,
and had made no offer of extra credit.
The discussion group was attended by a
lot of students from various universities. I
asked if there were any thoughts about what
they learned from the session. A native English
speaker teacher (Devon Arthurson) responded
first, speaking in Japanese, which reallyhelped usher the discussion to become open
and interactive between teachers andstudents.
Later on, a Japanese teacher (sorry, I
don’t remember her name) asked the students
directly why they would come to a conferenceof their free will. Several students answered
either in Japanese or English. Among them,
one explained he was unable to present at the
JALT National Conference in Tsukuba so he wasglad for the chance to do it here. Another(one of my students) said she came wanting tolearn new things and meet people. She
learned for the first time what “autonomy”
meant. The Japanese teacher was overcomeby the willingness of these students to freely
participate. She broke into tears, leading
another to cry as well. Everyone was moved.
Devon complimented me on the moderation,
but I felt I hadn’t done anything to guide it.
The discussion had moved on its own to create
a community and everyone had learned
something together.
It was truly a magical moment and thisalone made me feel our conference was worth
it all. I felt the walls that separate teachersand students and between themselves(especially between students who likely
otherwise would refrain from meeting due toschool ranking, etc.) had come down
momentarily. We could regard each other as
like-minded and like-motivated participants. I
told my students that what they shared in that
discussion would inspire teachers to teachwith reinvigorated vision for years to come.

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): Looking Back
The only question I have, which may
echo many others, is whether conferences likethis one, where students and teachers dofreely present alongside each other, alreadyexist in Japan. So far it remains unanswered.
Devon Arthurson, Rikkyo University
I felt incredibly privileged to do a poster
presentation about increasing learnerautonomy in the first round of the conferencealong with one other presentation by ateacher and two other presentations by
students. This was the first time I presented
and I was surprised by the positive feedbackother instructors gave me—in addition to theinterest students showed. Immediately I felt I
was in a nurturing environment. Everyone I
meet seemed very eager to share ideas andlearn more from one another.
After the round of presentations, we
had a sharing-circle style session guided by
Ken Ikeda. The nurturing environment
continued as Ken let everyone take time togather their thoughts and ideas before sharing
them. He also encouraged us to speak ineither English or Japanese so that students
would feel more comfortable participating.
Some instructors attending were moved totears as students shared their ideas. It wasevident that the students were interested in
actively taking part in learning and teaching.
Power imbalances between instructors,
students and within universities weredramatically decreased. It was a very special
moment.
The students who presented and those
who attended were incredibly brave to be at
the conference, especially since it was
predominately held in their second language.
The students truly deserve praise for being
there. Many instructors recognized this andtried to put students at ease by encouraging
them and asking for their feedback. Thoughsome questions asked by instructors may havebeen unexpected for students, I am certainthat the students pondered those questions
and were prompted to examine their ideas
about learning more deeply. It is more

important to have students start exploringthese questions than giving concrete answers
about concepts as before that session they
had probably never been asked to consider
such things.
Though I don’t have any directquestions about creating community andlearning together, I hope the success of thisevent can be shared with others in JALT. It is
important that instructors see students as
wanting to be active participants in theirlearning despite the predominantly passive
learning that Japanese students experience.
We as instructors must give students at alllevels of learning opportunities large or small,so they can have involvement.
Nozomi Tajima, Third-year student, Chuo
University, Faculty of Law
It was the first time for me to make apresentation outside Chuo. When Prof.
Barfield invited me to this conference, I felt a
bit nervous, but I thought it was my big
chance to collect various comments on myresearch topic, trafficking in persons (TIP), so
I decided to join.
Actually, many listeners came and left
some comments. Some said the topic wasinteresting, some asked critical questions to
me. For example, I introduced “JKbusiness” (female senior high school student
business) as one of TIP cases in Japan;
however, one listener pointed out that it
contradicted the definition of TIP. In TIP
Protocol, trafficking in persons is defined as“transnational” organized crime. She said JK
business is “national,” and then asked why I
recognized it as TIP. This point is something I
have not considered, so her question gave mea trigger for further research.
Moving on to the presentations, there
were various kinds of topics. Some presenters
had interviews collected from sources. I think
it is very challenging and important; however,sometimes we should be sensitive whencontacting people. For example, if you want
to research about homeless people, do you
directly ask them about their situation? If you

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): Looking Backdo so, it not courteous, letting them shut theirmouths. Another problem of having interviews
tends to be personal. When quoting data frompersonal interviews, researchers should
compare that data with general information.
If there are gaps between them, it isinteresting to research why they happened,
which makes topics more detailed.
In conclusion, this conference gave me
two benefits. One is that the listeners’comments motivated me to preserve in myresearch. The other is that I could meet
people from various fields (other university
students, lecturers, etc.) through listening topresentations and having discussions. Again, I
would like to express my gratitude to Prof.
Andy Barfield for inviting me to this wonderfulcommunity.
Jenny Morgan, Wayo Women's University
At the recent LD mini-conference I gave apresentation (NGOs and Social Change:
Creating a community of student researchers)in the first round. It was exciting to be in aroom with diverse presentation topics butwith the common thread of ‘group-worklearning’ and ‘community-sharing of
knowledge’. We reported on: a community
theatre group, Ainu rights, Tohoku Children’s
Voices (a story project), human-trafficking,student research about NGOs and socialchange, and cheerleading. I was particularly
impressed with the learner presentations ineach room—students had clearly spent a lot oftime and energy (with their teachers)
preparing interesting visual materials in orderto share their individual research projects
with us in English. It was heartening to be in
the minority as a teacher amongst highly
motivated student presenters from various
universities and one high school.
While I certainly picked up usefulclassroom tips from all the presentations I
saw, for me the most useful and relevant
presentation for my own teaching-learning
contexts would have to be Fostering “Active
Listening” Skills in EFL Discussion Classes by
Natalie M. Gravillis, Rikkyo University (thanks

Natalie!). As a teacher, I invariably focus onplanning activities, which have students
practice output and produce language so they
become confident and skillful speakers ofEnglish. However, language use is about
multifaceted communication, having
conversations and discussions, the back andforth of ideas and opinions, making meaning
and building knowledge together. So, learners
need to be able to not only produce language,
but also to react to what they hear, tocomment and agree/disagree; they need toknow how to expand conversations anddiscussions with their classmates—they need
to be active listeners as well as speakers.
One of the specific teacher issues or
puzzles that I described in my own
presentation was how to help my research
students make the most of their ‘peer-sharediscussion’ time so that it is a really focused,
useful and dynamic process (not a one-sided
conversation or monologue). The aim of these
discussion rounds is for students to eachpresent their research notes, then ask eachother questions so that the researcher thinks
more deeply, investigates points more fully,
and so refines their research. Furthermore,
the peer-share discussion process aims tofoster a community of researchers amongst
the class members. My students do come withresearch to share but many have struggledwith expanding their discussions and asking
useful questions which help class-matesdevelop and refine their topics.
In her presentation, Natalie Gravillis
shared a very transparent, dynamic procedure
to help her students develop their “active
listening” skills during discussions by learningand using functional verbal reactions,expressions for agreeing/disagreeing, phrases
for checking understanding and useful followup questions. Right from the start of her
course, she has students practise various
common English reaction expressions; they use
a question ‘grid’ sheet to encourage pairs toengage fully in their discussions and to expand
the conversations about various topics.

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): Looking BackI currently use a simple version of theabove in my English communication courses
and have found the transparent teachinglearning of reactive phrases and follow-up
questions to be largely effective at helping
learners develop natural conversation skills. I
look forward to implementing a more clearly
scaffolded procedure to “active listening” toenrich my research and discussion course thisyear.
The LD mini-conference was arewarding opportunity to exchange ideas withother teachers and witness the ways in which
students are involved in their language
learning processes. For me, creating
community(s) for learning together involves aconstant process of sharing knowledge byasking-speaking-listening, reactingcommenting, adapting-refining and learningteaching together.

activities. According to these principles, good
feedback should:
1. Help clarify what good performance is(goals, criteria, expected standards).
2. Facilitate the development of self-

assessment (reflection) in learning.
3. Deliver high quality information to

students about their learning.
4. Encourage teacher and peer dialogue

around learning.
5. Encourage positive motivational beliefs

and self-esteem.
6. Provide opportunities to close the gap

between current and desired
performance.
7. Provide information to teachers thatcan be used to help shape theteaching.
(Nicol & Mcfarlane-Dick 2006, p. 206)

Making Good Feedback Principles Work
Ian Hurrell, Rikkyo University
In my interactive presentation, I discussed alearner-centered, peer-reflection activity that
I use in an English discussion course that I
teach at Rikkyo University which aims todevelop communication and discussion skills.
In a typical EDC lesson, micro-classes of 7-9
students are presented with a new discussion
skill, such as discussing advantages anddisadvantages of various topics. After
practicing these phrases in controlled
activities, the students attempt to use theseskills in a 10-minute group discussion in groupsof three or four. The students are thenprovided with feedback which they try to act
upon in a second 16-minute discussion.
It has been suggested that selfassessment and peer-reflection are much
more effective in developing a sense ofownership and personal responsibility instudents than teacher-fronted feedback(Birjandi & Siyyari, 2010). Nicol & McfarlaneDick (2006) outline seven useful principles forgood feedback practice, which should beconsidered when designing feedback

Using these principles, I created a peerreflection activity designed to have students
reflect on their discussions and theirperformance of certain discussion skills. In
this activity, students work in pairs to discuss
their performance after a diagnostic 10minute discussion, and ways that they can
improve their performance in the next 16minute discussion. Below is an example of one
peer reflection activity, which focuses on
raising student awareness of how deeply they
considered advantages and disadvantages of
the topics in their discussion.
1. What topics did your group talk about

in your discussion?
2. What advantages and disadvantages did
your group say for each topic?
3. Did discussing both sides of the topic
help you to have a deeper discussion?
4. What could you improve in your next
discussion?
The first question is designed to activate thestudents’ memory of the discussion they justhad (in this case, the advantages and

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): Looking Backdisadvantages of studying abroad) to moreeasily facilitate peer-reflection in theproceeding questions. The second question
has the students reflect on their performanceof advantages and disadvantages in thediscussion. While the third question is moreformative in nature in that it has the students
consider whether discussing advantages anddisadvantages improved the quality of their
discussion. The final question is designed tofocus on closing the gap between current anddesired performance by having the students
decide on ways that could improve theirperformance in the next discussion.
While the students are discussing thequestions in groups, I can walk between themlistening to their reflections and ask questions
if necessary, which allows me to discreetly
address problems with individual students andprovides me with a great source of
information into the various issues thatstudents are having in the class. Finally, after
the students have finished their reflections,
we summarize the key ideas together as aclass, and this is used to generate focus points
for the next discussion.
In presenting this activity, I was able tohave many interesting discussions andconversations with the various audience
members. Many of the conversations centeredaround the level of English necessary forstudents to do these kinds of tasks. To answer
this question, I generally use this activity withintermediate level university freshmen, andhave found that my students can usuallycomplete this activity with few problems. In
addition, as the students develop their
discussion skills, I often observe that they areable to apply these skills to better reflectwith their peers throughout the course.
However, even with my lower level classes,
my students have been able to utilize theirlimited resources at their disposal to reflectwith their effectively with their peers. If welook at the example above, we can see thatthe first and second questions simply require
the students to remember and repeat
examples from their discussions. The third

question is more abstract, and canconsequently be more difficult for lower level
students, but the answer could be as simple as“Yes” or “No”. This will at least give theteacher an idea of how the students feel thatcan be expanded upon by the teacher after
the reflection activity. Finally, the answers to
the final question can be as simple as “I think
we should ask more questions” or “We should
give more disadvantages next time.” In my
experience, even these simple answers help
the students to become more involved in the
feedback process and also provide me withvaluable insight into the students’ attitudes
toward the class which I can use to shape myteaching.
Another question from a conference
participant focused on the quality of thestudents’ reflections. Based on myobservations, I can say that when introducing
these activities, it is useful to provide some
simple examples of what students might say,so that they can have an idea of how to
structure their reflections. However, after
students get used to these peer-reflection
activities, I have found that are able toengage in these activities well and provide
each other with detailed, positive feedback,which I feel has a much greater impact thanpurely teacher-fronted feedback.
Interestingly, with the large number ofstudent presenters attending this event, I had
the rare opportunity to hear their views onthese issues. I was encouraged to hear thatmany of them would like to try this activity
and would also like to have more
opportunities to be more involved incontrolling the course of their learning.
In conclusion, it was a very rewarding
experience to interact with both teachers andstudents all from different contexts andbackgrounds and hear their different views on
this activity. Having done several interactive
presentations at LD SIG events, I am always
struck by how new directions to expand myresearch come out of the conversations with
my audience. Particularly in this presentation,
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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): Looking Backencouraging ‘self-esteem’, which is mentioned
in Nicol & Mcfarlane-Dick’s principles, thefocus should be on encouraging ‘self-efficacy’.
Although I can appreciate that what Nicol &Mcfarlane-Dick (2006) meant by encouraging‘self-esteem’ is that students should feelpositive rather than negative after the
feedback process, the fact that the term ‘selfefficacy’ is not mentioned in these principles
is something that needs to be addressed andI’m now looking further into how this concept
might be incorporated into my feedback
activities.
References
Birjandi, P., & Siyyari, M. (2010). Selfassessment and peer-assessment: A
comparative study of their effect on writing
performance and rating accuracy, Iranian
Journal of Applied Linguistics, 13(1), 23-45.
Nicol, D. J., & Mcfarlane-Dick, D. (2006).
Formative assessment and self-regulated
learning: A model and seven principles ofgood feedback practice. Studies in Higher
Education, 31(2), 199-218.
Karin Takahashi, First-year student, Facultyof Law, Chuo University
When Andy said “Let’s participate in a
conference!” I was very surprised and very
worried about whether I could do it or not. I
had negative thoughts about English and I had
never participated in conferences before.
Although I participated in a conference
for the first time, my mind was very changed.
There were many Japanese and non-Japaneseteachers and students I had never seen
before. I felt covered with an English world. I
felt my mind dance. At that time, I felt that I
might like English.
I presented on my development oflearning and using vocabulary phrases. This is
not studying using vocabulary books. Outsideclass, as preparation each week, we watched
and listened to news and global issues reports,
and wrote down key points and vocabularyphrases. Finally we made vocabulary maps

about different news stories or global issues.
When we used the maps in class, we could
introduce the news or global issue very clearly
to other people. That was the focus of mypresentation at the conference.
I think I could grow by participating in
the conference. The reason is that I could
present with confidence. The first time I was
anxious. But I presented on, and many people
understood my presentation. They not only
understood what I explained, but also they
took pictures of my poster and notebooks. I
was very happy and I got confidence about
English. One of the best growth experiences
for me was that I found it was interesting to
be talking English with people I didn’t know
about my development, my presentation, andmany other things.
The conference was very exciting.
There were new ideas about English educationand new people to meet. I could meet andtalk with the students from other universities
and get to know ideas from teachers. So I
want to say thanks to Andy, the organizers,
and participants. Thank you for giving methese wonderful experiences. I started tothink that I want to study English more. If I
can, I want to study abroad in an Englishspeaking university. That’s my new plan now.
Thank you very much for coming to meet me!
Alison Stewart, Gakushuin University
Creating Community, Learning Together wasexactly the right title/theme for the LD SIG
Tokyo get-together's mini-conference. The mixof students and teachers in every room
worked really well and really did create asense of togetherness that is inspiring to see
and feel.
The posters I saw and discussed werereally high quality: thoughtful and thoughtprovoking. I particularly enjoyed talking to
Huw Davies about Silent Communities—asteachers we seem to worry when students
don't say anything. But if we can see that they
are engaged and interested, if we know they
are listening or reading, perhaps we shouldn't

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): Looking Backworry unduly? Belonging to a community
means participation, but what do we mean byparticipation?
I also had great discussions aboutsustainable motivation and project-learning inelementary schools, undergraduates'
depictions of autonomy, different kinds andmethods of feedback, trafficking of persons,etc., and of course all the conversations on
the sidelines of the conference.
This was a great, festive end to theyear. I'm looking forward to seeing how theideas and synergy from this event will develop
over the next year. And I'm already looking
forward to this year's mini-conference!
********For more information on Tokyo get-togethers,
please go to: http://ld-­‐sig.org/get-­‐togethers/********

Would you like to Join the Learning Learning
Publications team?
Now that we produce Learning Learning as a team, weare always looking for new members to join.
Membership in the team is open to everyone
regardless of publication or teaching experience,teaching context, or nationality. The only stipulationis that you can agree to hold the position for atleast a year (meaning that you will help with next year's
Spring issue 23 (1) and Fall issue 23 (2)).
Currently, we are looking for people who areinterested in filling these positions:• LD SIG Grant Awardees Essay coordinator: liaises
with the grant awardees to encourage and help themto publish their research essays in Learning Learning.
• Review coordinator: encourages potential
contributors to send in reviews (of books, journal
articles, materials or web resources relating to learnerdevelopment) and works with them to publish theirreviews in Learning Learning.
• Looking Back report coordinator: encourages
contributors to report on past events related to learnerdevelopment (which can take the form of conferences,forums, and workshops, both traditional and online)
and works with them to publish their reports
in Learning Learning.
If you are interested in any of these positions andwould like to know more about them, please send me
an email;James Underwood,
Learning Learning coordinator,
jamesmichaelunderwood@gmail.com

Newsletter of the JALT Learner Development SIG <ld-sig.org/>

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