Learning Learning『学習の学習』 23 (1): Grant Reports

LD SIG Grant Reports
LD SIG 助成金受賞報告

JALT 2015: A Reflection
JALT 2015 参加助成金

Bjorn Fuisting フースティング・ビョーン、
Sugiyama Jogakuen University 椙山女学園大学
bjornfuisting@gmail.com
First, I’d like to express my gratitude to the
Learner Development SIG for awarding me theconference grant and I hope that many moreof the SIG members take the opportunity tojoin this year’s JALT conference in Nagoya.
In 2015 JALT’s annual international
conference was returning to what some people
call its "spiritual home" at Granship Arts andConvention Centre in Shizuoka. For me it wasalso a return to the sight of my first ever JALT
conference back in 2009. Since then, theconference complex has gone through a majorrenovation but it felt like it was still "home".
The JALT International Conference is agreat opportunity to catch up with new
research and old friends, see the latest

学習者ディベロプメント研究部会 <ld-sig.org/>materials that have been published, and get
fresh ideas for the classroom. To make themost of the weekend I decided to arrive earlyand join the Welcoming Party on Friday
evening. The atmosphere was friendly andrelaxed, and it was a breeze to get myconference badge and bag. I was set for the
weekend.
Two of my main research interests arePeer Review in writing and Extensive Reading.
I am also interested in bilingualism, but more
on a personal level as I’m keen to know how
best to help my own children develop theirlanguage skills. So these were areas that I
intended to focus on when I was planningwhich sessions to attend. Here are some of myhighlights from the weekend.
Saturday
The first presentation that I had pencilled in
was the Bilingual SIG’s A Discussion on Adding
Biliteracy to Bilingualism. It featured threepresenters who shared their experiences andresults of attempting to bring up their children
biliterate followed by a panel Q&A. Although
all presenters were quite different inapproach, child rearing philosophy, andpresentation style, they each gave valued
insights and helpful advice. One presenter had
been very systematic in the teaching with astructured approach including phonics training,
checking reading speeds, and learning targets.
Another presenter had instead decided tofocus on the children’s interest and build thelearning around that. All presentersemphasised reading to their children andinteraction with family and friends who speak

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Learning Learning『学習の学習』 23 (1): Grant Reports

have a challenge on my hands trying to get myown two children to learn to read and write inmore than one language, but I left the meeting
encouraged by their examples and guidance.
In the afternoon I went to what turned
out to be the most inspiring presentation of
the whole weekend. It wasn’t a presentation
on any research, it wasn’t about teaching orby a teacher, but it was a powerful message
delivered extremely skilfully. The National
Geographic explorer and TED presenter Aziz
Abu Sarah shared his story about growing up in
the occupied territories of Palestine, losing his
brother, escaping from the situation, andeventually returning to start a peace
initiative. Mr. Sarah set up an exchange
program whereby a Palestinian volunteer visitsa school in Israel and an Israeli volunteer goesto a school in Palestine. By talking to thechildren, they aim to help youngsters
understand the other side. Mr. Sarah also
shared footage taken by children in the wartorn Syria as part of a National Geographic
initiative. It was a truly moving and quite
emotional event sponsored by National
Geographic Cengage as part of the launch of a
new TED Talks textbook. I realised that inJapan we are extremely fortunate living in apeaceful society with almost no violence and,on the whole, sufficient food, shelter andeducation available. For my own teaching, thispresentation made me think about how
powerful stories and images can be forprovoking thought and igniting action.
I had to follow this excellent
presentation by doing my own poster
presentation. Poster presentation is my
favourite way of presenting educational
research since it gives you a chance to interact
more with your audience and get immediate
feedback on your presentation. Twocolleagues, Jeremy White and Brett Morgan,
and I have been looking into student andteacher attitudes towards the use of peer
review in EFL writing classes for the last three

years and we were presenting our latest data
in a poster. We had previously looked into
student and teacher attitudes from a mainly
quantitative perspective (White, Morgan &Fuisting, 2014; Morgan, Fuisting & White,2014) but this time we added the qualitative
aspect by including teacher interviews. We
also included another year’s worth of datafrom the students. Some of our main findings
were:• Most students find value in using peer
review• Students don’t feel criticized by peers’comments• Most students don’t worry about hurtingclassmates’ feelings• Most students believe they need to be
trained before undertaking peer review
In the coming year we hope to conclude ourstudy by publishing the findings from thisresearch project.
After having talked to conference goers
for 90 minutes about peer review, my twocolleagues and I finished the day by attending
the Best of JALT awards where the top
presenters from the past year wererecognised. Since JALT is varied in both
geographic location and interests, this annual
award ceremony gives you a chance to see
which presenters have been recognised fromall over the country. It was also a splendid andsocial way to round off the first full day of theconference.
SundaySunday started bright and early as I received
the Learner Development SIG’s Conference
Grant and then attended the Extensive
Reading SIG’s extremely engaging Colloquium
on Defining Extensive Reading. Even though I
have been using ER in my classes, have read a
lot on the topic, and have been involved with
the ER SIG, it is always refreshing to come andlisten to other people’s practice and research.
There were eight speakers sharing both

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Learning Learning『学習の学習』 23 (1): Grant Reports

practical advice and research on ER. One of
the most engaging of these was the educatorand author, Jane Spiro, who showed us thedifference in the process of writing graded
readers compared to other genres of writing.
Her comparison of how the storytelling
differed yet was similar in one of her poems
and one of her graded readers was delightful.
It was clear to the audience that Spiro is an
educator, a researcher and a writer, as well asa keen reader, and I felt that most of theaudience aspired to become more like her.
• Fluent, sustained comprehension of
text as meaning-focused input• A large volume of material• Reading over extended periods of time
• Longer texts that requirecomprehension at the discourse level.
(Waring & McLean, 2015, p. 165)
In addition to these four, however,additional principles listed by Day andBamford (2002) in their Top Ten Principles of
ER may be added depending on the teachingcontext. Not only did this presentation
provide the findings from cutting-edge
research, it also confirmed my own belief
about what is important in ER. In the pastwhen I have tried to adhere to all top ten
principles put forward by Day and Bamford,
they have clashed with the institutional
requirements and with how my students learn.
With just four core principles it makes it much
more practical to implement an ER
programme in a variety of settings and also
adapt it to students’ needs. Next year I will
ensure that my own ER teaching does follow
these core elements but I will not feel forced
to comply with the original list of ten if
certain principles do not suit the institution,
students, or my own teaching preferences. At
the end of the colloquium there was the Great
Graded Readers Give Away when some of the
publishers donated graded readers for the

学習者ディベロプメント研究部会 <ld-sig.org/>teachers to sample and use with theirstudents. I walked away with advice,information, inspiration, and resources.
Conclusion
Overall, I found that it was the informal things
like the international food fair and old friends,
the unexpected things, like the TED-stylepresentation, as well as the stories that stuckwith me. Reflecting on the two days, I was
pleased that I went, that I learnt a few things,
and that I got a couple of leads for improving
my teaching. But mostly, I was pleased that I
got renewed inspiration and energy tocontinue to do my best as a teacher,researcher, and parent.
References
Day, R., & Bamford, J. (2002). Top ten
principles for teaching extensive
reading. Reading in a foreign
language, 14(2), 136.
Morgan, B., Fuisting, B., & White, J. (2014).
University student attitudes towards peer
review in EFL writing: A quantitative
study. Language Education in Asia, 5(1),93-116.
Waring, R., & McLean, S. (2015). Explorationof the core and variable dimensions ofextensive reading research andpedagogy. Reading in a Foreign
Language, 27(1), 160.
White, J., Morgan, B., & Fuisting, B. (2014).
Peer review in EFL writing: Teacher
attitudes. Perspectives 22(2), 20-27.

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Learning Learning『学習の学習』 23 (1): Grant Reports

Aiming for Autonomy: Reflections on
a 36-year career and the 2015 JALTInternational Conference
学習者の自律性を培うためのアプローチ
ー 英語教育の現場における36年間とJALT国際会議2015に寄せる考察

The grant from the LD SIG was thus agodsend as it helped me to see past the
obstacles put in my path by the disaster andour move and refocus my attention on theneeds of my learners. In the following report, I
trace my journey as a critical pedagogue frommy beginnings as a teacher in New Yorkthrough to the new awareness I have gained
about dealing with sensitive issues in myclassroom.
The Road to Critical Pedagogy

Paul Arenson アレンソン・ポール
tokyoprogressive@mailbox.org
In 2012, my wife and I gave up long-term
employment and moved to Kyushu. Since the2011 earthquake and nuclear disaster inFukushima, we had become fearful for oursafety as we were living in a radiation hotspot
along the Sumida River. My new job was very
different to the previous teaching I had done,
where I had been able to pursue learnercentered approaches, and which I had found tobe very energizing. In the new job, I was now
a “trainer” (in the company’s parlance),
drilling my students in exercises designed tohelp them pass TOEIC and be “successful”.
When I tried to do something different andbring the real world into the classroom, myefforts felt clumsy and preachy, and thestudents did not respond well. I felt alienatedin this teaching context and I was unhappy
with the teacher that I felt I was becoming.

Thirty-five years ago as a new teacher at
LaGuardia Community College in New York, Itaught remedial English classes. One day,
Sandra, a young single mother, opened up tome about why she thought she couldn’t write“proper” English: she was, in her mind, stupid.
In fact, her high school teachers used justthose words and she had come to believe it.
At the time, I was using Community
Language Learning-Counseling Learning (CLLCL), a humanistic approach based on the workof Carl Rogers. Part of this involves validating
the learner as a person by using“understanding responses” to discover where
she is (in all senses, both linguistically andsocially) and helping her chart a path thatfacilitates learning. By the end of thesemester, she was writing beautiful essays(even if not 100 percent grammatical!). She
had found her voice.
Over time, I broadened my outlook to
include an awareness of the essential
unfairness that conspires to stop people like
Sandra in their tracks and hold them back.
Sandra was thus my introduction to criticalpedagogy, an approach that looks at thesocial, cultural and political contexts in which
language teaching and learning occurs (e.g.,
Benson, 1997; Pennycook, 1997; see also Scott
Thornbury’s blog, An A to Z of ELT on
Autonomy, Critical Pedagogy, Empowering
Education, Earl Stevick, and Ira Shor)

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Learning Learning『学習の学習』 23 (1): Grant Reports

Teaching in Japan

A Reawakening

When I moved to Japan, I was no longer
teaching inner-city students, but I foundmyself most drawn to those students whobelieved they were stupid and incapable oflearning, “poor learners,” as I had once evenviewed myself in high school math class. Manyof my students with poor self-images werefrom Japan’s hard-to-see but very real
underclass: the working poor, zai-nichi andburakumin, those with developmental
disorders, all but invisible in a society whichcalls itself homogeneous in order to ignore theissues brought about by inequality. Gradually,
it became clear that I needed to bring thisworld into my classroom if language teaching
was to have any meaning to me and for mystudents. Increasingly, critical pedagogy wasadded to the mix, particularly critical media
literacy, and most of my students responded
well to this.
Then 3.11 struck, and our lives wereturned upside down. Moving to Kyushu wastraumatic, as my wife and I had to settle forlow-paid, part-time work, and it became
harder and harder to maintain face-to-facecontact with friends and former colleagues,
let alone pay the bills. Moreover, I felt that myteaching principles were being compromised. I
did not become a teacher in the first place
just to train students to pass standardized
tests. I was sick with anger towards the lives
wrecked by Tokyo Electric and I desperately
wanted to bring that reality into theclassroom. Yet my students resisted myattempts to examine and debate what wasgoing on in Japan (Arenson, 2015). Like aperson whose lover has been wrested from him
by a giant wave, I felt bereft. This was thesituation I was in when I went to the JALTInternational Conference in Shizuoka.

At the conference I attended presentations by
Hugh Nicoll and Andy Barfield on approaching
global issues in the classroom, and I saw how
students were allowed to invest time inselecting topics, choosing and analyzing
research materials and writing about or
discussing what they had learned. In Andy’s
case, for example, scaffolding was provided
with articles that piqued the students’interest, and there were links to previous
student research and note-taking strategies
such as mind maps. This hit a chord because
global issues were no longer working for me in
my classroom of elite engineers.
As a “radiation refugee” whose own
life had been turned upside down by
Fukushima, I have rather firm views on thecomplicity of the government and nuclear
power industry in the disaster. I had beenchoosing materials on controversial issues,
including nuclear power, for my students
without considering that they might see things
differently, especially since among the
products their company makes are components
for nuclear reactors. Talking to Hugh andAndy, I began to understand why my approach
had been backfiring to the extent that a few
students were even hostile toward discussing
any political issues. It was clear that thestudents were picking up on my strong antinuclear views through the songs and videos
that I used in class, and this may haveinhibited them from expressing opinions that
contradicted mine.

学習者ディベロプメント研究部会 <ld-sig.org/>

A Reencounter With Carl Rogers
John Spiri’s talk on mindfulness in theclassroom was also an unexpected reminder ofa philosophy that had inspired me greatly
earlier in my career: Carl Rogers and the useof those understanding responses I firstencountered 35 years ago with Sandra, where16

Learning Learning『学習の学習』 23 (1): Grant Reports

an empathetic teacher simply tries to reflect
back what she thinks the student is feeling.
John took a question about “non-compliant”
students who refuse to cooperate, just coming
to class and sleeping. Rather than get angry at
the student, why not, John asked, try to see
things from your student’s point of view? In hiscase, he simply asked the student if he wastired, thus starting a dialogue that helped him
feel understood and bringing the student backinto the classroom emotionally.
It is easy to be lead astray when one’s
own life events get in the way of seeing
clearly. We must work with the hand we aredealt, and Andy, Hugh and John helped merealign what I was doing in the classroom withthe teaching philosophy I did not want todiscard. I took away from the conference aplan: from then on I would place emphasis on
helping students select a controversial topic,
learn how to paraphrase what the author says,
how to look for contrasting arguments, andhow to develop one’s own point of view. But I
would be careful not to impose my own
worldview on them. I would guide, I would
listen, I would reflect back to them thedifficulties they had in confronting the life
questions they encountered.
Ta-Dah!
In the semester that had just started at thetime of the conference, I provided mystudents with a list of possible research topics,
asked them to add their own, and with them
discussed a variety of research sources withoutsteering them toward the conclusion I hoped
they would reach. I waited for them toencounter the voices of those who write about
the inequalities, the absurdities, theunfairness that is all around them, rather thancall attention to them myself. Some took noteof these voices and still concluded that all iswell. Others said they are not so sure. And a
few even ventured to question the status quo.

I began to enjoy teaching again as I saw thestudents tackle topics that they themselves
had chosen such as the death penalty or free
trade.
I have begun to see my “trainees” as
the people they are and stopped worrying
about whether or not they are critically awareof the issues that affect the world they live in.
It is probably one of the hardest teachingsituations I have ever been in, but, thanks to
my conversations with John, Hugh and Andy,something new is being born.
References
Arenson, P. (2015). What my cousin Joanie
taught me about teaching and learning:
Developing critical media literacy andautonomy in a guided discussion anddebate format. http://gilesig.org/
2015cmlarticle.pdf
Benson, P. (1997). The philosophy and politics
of learner autonomy. In P. Benson & P.
Voller (Eds.), Autonomy andindependence in language learning (pp.
18-34). London: Routledge.
Pennycook, A. (1997). Cultural alternatives
and autonomy. In P. Benson & P. Voller(Eds.), Autonomy and independence inlanguage learning (pp. 35-53). London:
Routledge.

JALT2016: Transformation in Language
Education

Friday 25th to
Monday 28th
November, 2016

Aichi Industry & Labor Center – WINC Aichi
Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan

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Learning Learning『学習の学習』 23 (1): Grant Reports
LD SIG Outreach Grant Report: Visiting
TohokuLD SIG アウトリーチ助成金受賞報告：
東北を訪れてseminar translated essays the Kesen JuniorHigh School students wrote into English. I was
one of them. After we had finished translating
the essays we were assigned, we worked inpairs and checked each other’stranslations. After that, we worked together ina translation workshop. Here we standardized
our word choice, that is, we agreed on ways toexpress certain words. For example, we
agreed to use both tsunami and tidal wave.
We also used a word list sent to us by the
project editors to accomplish this task.
A: What do you feel you got out of thatexperience?

Alison Stewart, Gakushuin University
スチュアート・アリソン、学習院大学
stewart1411@gmail.com
Natsumi Magatake, Gakushuin University
曲竹 夏実、学習院大学
maggy.jpn@gmail.com
As a grateful recipient of a Learner
Development SIG Outreach Grant in 2015, I
would like to thank the Grants Team forapproving my application and thus helping
finance (retrospectively) a trip to
Rikuzentakata in Iwate Prefecture in July
2015, the purpose of which was to clear a path
to publishing a website and bring the LD’s
Tohoku translation project to completion. The
grant paid for the cost of a Shinkansen return
ticket to Ichinoseki for Natsumi Magatake, who
was my graduate student at the time, and who
agreed to accompany me in the capacity of aninterpreter. For this report, I have conducted
an email interview with Natsumi to talk aboutthat experience.
Alison: How did you get involved in the essay
translation project before the trip?
Natsumi: A number of students from our

学習者ディベロプメント研究部会 <ld-sig.org/>

N: I felt that it was difficult to translate thestudents' experience into appropriate English.
We struggled to express certain Japanesephrases like「これからもよろしくお願いします. 」
This sort of means, “Please keep on supportingus”, but not completely. So it was interesting
to think deeply about the meanings ofeveryday expressions and their translation,
especially in the context of these students'
essays.
A: After that experience, you graduated andrejoined Gakushuin as a graduate student,
didn't you? Because we saw a lot of each otherover the following two years, I came to rely on
you very often for help in corresponding by
email with people from Rikuzentakata,especially in the summer of last year.
The translations had all been
completed by the end of the previous year,
and we were ready to launch a website. But atthat point we realised that we didn't havepermission from the children, or rather, since
they were minors, from their parents or
guardians, and so ethically we couldn't
proceed with the website. Of course, weshould have thought about this much earlier
and asked the school to help us get these
permissions right at the time when we agreed
to do the translations. At this point, three
years after the children had written the18

Learning Learning『学習の学習』 23 (1): Grant Reports

essays, it was very much harder. The children
had all graduated from the school and movedon, our main point of contact, Kazutoshi
Musashi, who had been president of the school
Parent-Teacher Association, and who hadsuggested the project in the first place, wasno longer in that role and had no connection
with the school, and the school principal had
also changed. When we contacted the newprincipal, he was not interested in helping us
contact the students to ask for permission.
So it was then that we thought about
traveling up to Rikuzentakata and talking to
the principal in person. We weren't sure whoshould go, but after some discussion andreviewing of schedules, it was decided that I
would go with Caroline Kocel-Ross, who would
be going on afterward on a fieldtrip with heruniversity, and with you, Natsumi.
N: That's right. I went to Kesen Junior HighSchool with you and Caroline as aninterpreter. We met Musashi-san at his new
ramen cafe in the town of Rikuzentakata, thendrove to the new school building, which issituated a few kilometers away from thecoast, and met the school principal, Suzukisensei and his deputy, both of whom had been
recently appointed to their jobs at the school.
We told them about our work and negotiatedwith Suzuki-sensei for permission to publish
the essay. He listened to us kindly and finallyagreed to help us.

Kesen Junior High School

A: Before we went to the school for our
meeting, Musashi-san took us to see the oldschool building, which is now unused. What
were your impressions of the old and newschools, Natsumi?
N: First of all, I was really surprised at how
close the old school was to the sea. So it was
hard to believe the fact that all the students
had survived on the day of the tsunami. In thearea around the old school, there were nohouses where people lived. I heard that thepeople who used to live there have all moved
away because the area was so devastated by
the tsunami, and probably they will nevercome back again. I asked Musashi-san aquestion, “Why don't they come back now?”
He answered that it was taking such a longtime to repair the area and people could not
wait. I was really shocked to hear that...
On the other hand, the students inthe new school were very cheerful and polite.
They said hello once they saw us entering the
new school building. This building was a little
bit smaller than the old one, but it had a warm
friendly atmosphere.
A: I agree, there was a nice feel to the place. I
was very impressed by the new school
principal, Suzuki-sensei, and the care he
expressed for the children and the people wholost so much in the disaster. Of course, I was
also delighted that he agreed to help us trackdown the families of the students who wrote
the essays we translated, and I have to thankyou for the very important part you played inhelping that discussion go smoothly. As aresult, about half of the families sent backpermission for us to publish the essays on a
new website (http://lookingback311.wix.com/
start). Given that nearly three years had
passed since they had written the essays, I was
surprised and relieved that we received somany.
My last question to you is perhaps
more personal, Natsumi. You are starting work

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Learning Learning『学習の学習』 23 (1): Grant Reports

as an English teacher at a high school in
Saitama this April. Do you think that our trip
to Rikuzentakata has affected the way you
think about English teaching and your future
career as an English teacher?
N: This experience will certainly affect myfuture as a teacher. I came to think that thereason for learning English is to have more
opportunity to get and give information. Thatis, if you speak English, you can learn more
about what you want to know. And you cantell more people about what you have learnt.
But this experience also affected me on a
personal level. It is very difficult for most highschool students to imagine how terrible
disasters are because they live in peace. I’dlike them to realize the importance of theirfamilies and their lives.
A: I think that is one of the main things I too
have learned from working on the translation
project and traveling to the area that wasaffected by the tsunami. Even though I
experienced the earthquake in Tokyo on 3.11,
my life returned to normal quite quickly. For
the Kesen Junior High School children, life
would never be the same again. Even today,
five years later, many families are still
suffering from housing, employment, andhealth issues that are the direct result of thedisaster.
It’s been important to me as ateacher and as a long-term resident of Japanto gain some awareness of these problems andto share my concerns with students andothers. I believe strongly in the value ofbringing social issues into the language
classroom, but I sometimes feel that thispractice can be somewhat sterile or distantfrom those issues. The Looking Back 3.11
translation project was one of those rareoccasions where I could feel practically as wellas emotionally connected with the people in
the Rikuzentakata area who were affected by
3.11 and its aftermath, as well as with my

学習者ディベロプメント研究部会 <ld-sig.org/>

students, including Natsumi, who agreed totranslate their words and their feelings. Forme, this has been a high point in my career asa teacher. To other SIG members who may beconsidering doing projects with their students
that aim to make a difference, I offer mywarmest encouragement.

Looking Back: This Past Year After the
Earthquake
震災のあったこの1年を振りかえって
http://lookingback311.wix.com/start

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