JALT学習者ティヘロフメントSIGの会報	 	  context but not use it in a real context. They
tend to be passive learners. They don’t likemaking mistakes and even think it isimpossible to be an English user unless theymaster the language perfectly.
After talking about my insight above, weshared ideas about differences in identity
between an L2 user and an L2 learner. Peter
shared his insight that the English user vs.
English learner might be relevant to fluency vs.
accuracy. Sachiko, who is teaching at an
English conversation school, shared her ideathat her students seemed to have identities as
English users rather than English learners
because they were aiming to study abroad. We
agreed that our group would explore therelationship between self-assessment, learner
identity, socio-cultural aspects and motivation.
I am excited to see how our group research
will develop.
Tomoko teaches English at Kawamura HighSchool. Her current research interests arelistening for acquisition, autonomous learning,
CALL and cooperative learning. She has an
MA TESOL degree from Teachers CollegeColumbia.

Looking	  forward	  今後のイベント	  	  LD	  SIG	  Forums	  in	  2012	  	  2012	 LD	 SIGフ ォ ー ラ ム (6月	  JALT CALL Conference 2012
Konan University, June 1-3, 2012
http://conference.jaltcall.org/2011/jaltcall-2012/
Darren Elliott
LD-SIG Forum CoordinatorT

he JALT LD-SIG will be holding anotherforum at the JALTCALL Conference
2012. JALTCALL 2012 will be held at theKonan CUBE, Hirao School of Management,
Konan University from June 1-3, 2012.
From self-access centres with cassettelibraries to m-learning, technology has played
an important role in learner autonomy inlanguage education. However, CALL activities

52	   LEARNING	  LEARNING	  19(1)	  	  are not intrinsically autonomous and Learner
Autonomy need not make use of educational
technologies. In this forum, we will explore
CALL as viewed through the prism of learnerautonomy, and vice versa, in an attempt to findcommon ground.
Each presenter will give his or her fifteenminute presentation twice (including questions)
within the 90-minute slot, giving participants
the opportunity to see four different
presentations. Of course, visitors are welcome
to join the full session or just come in to see
one or two presentations. We will have shortpresentations on Facebook, CALL in selfaccess centres, e-learning, blended learningand other autonomy / technology-related topics,
from a number of experienced and talented
presenters.
The JALTCALL conference itself is always well
worth attending, with visitors from around theworld and a lively atmosphere. This year, theconference welcomes a true leader in the fieldwith the visit of Dr. Stephen Bax as featuredspeaker.

Nakasendo 2012 Conference
Urawa Citizen’s Hall, June 2, 2012
http://nakasendoconference.com
Robert Moreau
International ChristianHigh SchoolUniversityThe LD-SIG forum this year at theNakasendo 2012 Conference in Urawa,ndSaitama on June 2 promises to be aninteresting space in which participants canshare a variety of ideas on teaching andlearner development. Since December 2011,
members of the LD-SIG have been meeting on
a monthly basis and, in groups, have been
discussing ideas and conducting small-scale
practitioner research in the following areas:collaborative learning, language learning
strategies, self-assessment, and vocabularydevelopment.
In this forum, members of each research groupwill set-up display stations where people canlearn more about what members of each grouphas been working on, ask questions andengage in dialogue on the different topics thatpeople have been exploring so far. Finally,
participants will be invited to share thoughts
and ideas about what they have seen anddiscussed.

Newsletter	  of	  the	  JALT	  Learner	  Development	  SIG	  	  The goal of the forum is to better acquaintconference attendees with the work of LD-SIG,
and also, through the sharing of ideas, allow
participants to take away with them new ideasthat may be useful for their own learning andteaching practices.

JALT	  Pan-­‐SIG	  Conference	  Literacy:	  SIGnals	  of	  Emergence	  Hiroshima	  University's	  Higashi-­‐
Hiroshima	  campus,	  16-­‐17	  June	  http://www.pansig.org/2012/	  LD	  SIG	  Forum:	  Language,	  Literacies,	  Learners	  -­‐	  Development	  Beyond	  the	  Classroom	  	  •
•Outside the classroom is Japan, where English
is typically perceived as a very foreign
language with which our students will havelittlecontact.
Throughrotating
minipresentations, we will report explorations ofdifferent ways of exploiting, or creating, a world
beyond the classroom to challenge thisperception, helping our students become more
motivated, focused, and independent (orinterdependent) language learners. We willaddress these topics: the purposes, planningand running of English camps; language
learner histories and digital comics; media
literacy development; online pronunciation
resources, finding and talking with English
speakers outside the classroom; running
Scrabble contests; and assessing learnerautonomy.	  
Learner	   Development	   SIG	   Forum	  at	  JALT2012,	  ACT	  City,	  Hamamatsu	  October	  12-­‐15,	  2012	  Bill	  Mboutsiadis	  Meisei	   University	   and	   the	   University	   of	  Toronto	  D	  The plan is for this year’s LD-SIG forum is to
involve many presentations exploring howlearner development can be theorized fromdifferent practices, so that overlapping andconflicting definitions and ideologies of ‘learnerdevelopment’ can be discussed ahead of theSIG
holdinga
20thanniversary
retreat/conference in 2013 (more details tofollow in the coming months).
Definitionsandideologies
development may draw from:

Jim	  Ronald	  Hiroshima	  Shudo	  University	  ジム・ロナルド,	 広島修道大学	 	 ear
LearnerDevelopment
members and newcomers,

This year we are proposing to hold a forum on“Defining Learner Development: DifferentInterests”, and we would like to invite you totake part.

SIG

••

oflearner

Different theories of learning and thelearner (e.g. cognitive, constructivist, orsocio-cultural views);
Different areas and tools of, and/or
approaches to, learning (e.g. advising,self-access, self-assessment, collaborative
group-based learning, learning strategies,
vocabulary development);
Different issues and principles to do withinteraction and learner development (e.g.
agency,autonomy,criticality,
differentiation,
identity,
motivation,
narrative knowledging, near-peer modeling,
positioning, scaffolding);
Other discourses of learning anddevelopment.

Each contributor to the forum will present (a)particular case(s) of learning and learner
practices, and also theorize from such cases
about what learner development may mean/is
about within their local context and practice.
Cases may be drawn from classroom learning,self-access learning, outside-class learning, atdifferent levels and ages of education anddevelopment. Cases may also be fully
language learning-based or to do withacademic study, content-based learning, orlearning across the curriculum.
At present we envisage that the forum willfeature simultaneous displays or presentation
corners (poster, laptop, tablet, kamishibai, andso on), with plenty of opportunities foraudience interaction, discussion and plenary
round-up.
Many thanks – we’re looking forward to seeing
you there!

BillLEARNING	  LEARNING	  19(1)	   53