Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 25 (2): Looking Back

Reflections on the Independent Learning Association (ILA)
Conference 2018,September 5th — September 8th, 2018, Kobe, Japan
Maria Giovanna Tassinari

Christian Ludwig

Freie Universität Berlin

University of Education
Karlsruhe

Email:<giovanna.Tassinari@fuberlin.de>
Academics attend conferences for manydifferent reasons: to meet like-minded colleagues
from all over the world, build a professional
network, or present their ideas and work; the main
reasons for us to go to conferences are to expand
our knowledge and keep up with the latest
research. Furthermore, as (language) teachers,
high quality teaching is important for us to grow as
professionals and individuals and to be reflective
and informed is also vital for the success of ourstudents. The ILA2018 conference, Whose
Autonomy? Voices and Agency in Language
Learning, tackled exactly these issues by urging us
to critically reflect on the collaborative anddialogic nature of learning and teaching, and think
about the different voices engaged in autonomous
learning environments from the classroom and selfaccess centres to virtual learning environments.
The conference organisers, Steve Brown, Ann
Mayeda, and Hisako Yamashita from Konan
Women’s University, Kobe, did a tremendous job in
putting together a varied and inspiring programme,encouraging us to appreciate others’ voices and, atthe same time, making our voices heard.
The three-day conference offered everythingfrom the academic programme, including symposia,workshops, talks, and plenaries as well as sharing
and poster sessions. For those who already arrived
on the day before the conference, three annual
JASAL SAC tours provided a unique opportunity tovisit local self-access centers in the Kobe area. Inaddition, the two parallel pre-conference
workshops by Joseph Tomei, Kumamoto Gakuen
University, Towards an L2 metaphor pedagogy:

Email:<christian.ludwig@phkarlsruhe.de>multimodality and the EFL writer and Maria de la
Paz Adelia Peña Clavel, School of Language,
Linguistics and Translation-UNAM, Teletandem
language learning right out of the box, were astimulating way to get started with the conference.
This successful day was concluded by the official
welcome reception on the premises of theuniversity.
The following days offered a diverse conference
programme, including a broad range of topics
related to the conference theme. To mention afew, presentations on learner dialogues, flippedclassroom environments, effective discourse,
collaborative professional development throughdigital media, such as video games, in foreign
language learning, were only some of the many
aspects touched upon during the conference. The
sheer number of presentations would make it
impossible to review each contribution to theprogramme individually and in great detail. In thefollowing, we will therefore concentrate on two of
the plenaries, the student conference, one
workshop as well as one individual presentation
held at the conference, pinpointing the general
direction of the event.
In their joint plenary, A Collaborative
Reflection on Our Professional Journeys with
Learners' Voices, Leena Karlsson and Chika Hayashi
gave an insightful example of how they promote
the development of their learners as teachers andcounsellors. Opening an authentic dialogue withlearners and sharing their own personal stories,
they encourage learners to find their own (inner)
voices (Hayashi & Karlsson, 2018, p. 33) both asNewsletter of the JALT Learner Development SIG <http://ld-sig.org>

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 25 (2): Looking Backlanguage learners and as individuals. In thisrespect, learner development means supporting
learners to start a reflective journey in a creativeand personal way, for example, through life stories,
creative writing or art work, enhancing awarenessof their unique individuality in a “parallel process”
and mutual relationship between learners andteachers as co-learners (ibid.). Leena and Chicka’s
preparation of their talk is a unique example ofsuch a reflective journey as the “textualfriendship” (ibid.) they developed through theirvirtual and textual communication illustrates.

For the first time, JASAL included a student
conference “Learners about Learning”, organised
by Ann Flanagan and Agnes Patko, with the supportof Katherine Thornton, which gave local andinternational students the opportunity to talkabout their own individual learning experiences.
The posters prepared by the students showed avariety of learning pathways and strategies andstimulated a fruitful discussion. The innovative
structure of the conference as well as thededication of both the organisers and students
turned it into a unique experience.

While engaging in this kind of learnerdevelopment, Leena Karlsson and Chika Hayashi
also pursue research, drawing on narrative inquiry
to shed light on how language learning can become
transformative. Their plenary was much more thanpassing on knowledge and raising questions as they
let the audience participate in their very personal“process of re-storying [their] professional pasts aspractitioners, researchers and persons” (ibid.: p.
34).

One of the workshops we would like to describe
here in more detail is the workshop by Satoko Katoand Jo Mynard, who was also the third plenary
speaker of the conference. Language advising is a
powerful tool for learner development. Taking up
the topic, their workshop Practical advisingstrategies for promoting reflective dialogue,
illustrated the principle of their approach toTransformational Advising. Drawing on their longexperience as language learning advisors at theSALC of Kanda University of International Studies(KUIS), they introduced the principles of theirapproach to advising and let the participants
practice some of the strategies to promotelearners’ reflection and metacognition. To support
the learner trajectory from getting started tobecoming aware towards transformation, they
identified four essential steps in the advisingprocess: 1) prompting action, 2) broadening
perspectives, 3) translating awareness into action,and 4) assisting transformation. Thus, the learner isat the heart of the advising process, experiencingthat their voice is important in a personal andprofessional relationship of mutual respect andtrust. Although specific to the advising context,
some of these strategies can also be adopted in theL2 classroom, promoting transformation inlearning.

In the last plenary of the conference, Hearing
Voices: Collectividuals and Agency in the Language
Classroom, James Lantolf introduced the audience
to recent developments in sociocultural theory andto preliminary considerations on how thesedevelopments offer new approaches to language
teaching and learning. Starting with the assumptionthat autonomy and agency can be considered assynonymous, Lantolf stressed that individual
agency is inseparably connected with thesociocultural environment in which it is occurs. As
individuals, we are all formed by the sociocultural
rules we learn to identify from our childhood
onwards. In this indivisible dynamic construct ofindividual activity and society, the socioculturalenvironment is the source of our development asindividuals. Drawing on these premises, Lantolf
advocates promoting L2 agency in the language
classroom through developmental education. From
this point of view, learning and teaching are
inseparably linked in a dialectical continuum,
aiming at a balance between mediating conceptual
knowledge and promoting use of this knowledge toact as authentic individuals in the L2.

The presentation by Yoshio Nakai (DoshishaUniversity), Learner autonomy as sociallyconstructed agency: Eva’s language learning
history, focussed on tracing the Japanese language
history of a student from Hong Kong. The presenter
showed in a very hands-on way how social

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 25 (2): Looking Back
interaction is conducive to the development oflearner autonomy and how the learner herself
attempted to become aware of what Nakai
referred to as her “ideal L2 self” through socialinteraction. The digital media, such as the video
game Doko Roko, used by the student during her
learning process, illustrated the multifaceted rolethat digital media can nowadays play in thelanguage learning process.

motivation during her studies but that interactingwith some of the participants and experiencing thevivid atmosphere at the conference has given her anew push. It is comments like this which show us
how important it is to listen carefully to eachother’s voices. We can only say that we deeply
enjoyed attending such a great event. It was greatto hear so many new voices and to listen to ourown voices from a new and fresh perspective.

In addition to the theoretical and luckily oftenvery practical as well as interactive events, theconference offered a varied social programme,
including a Sake tasting and a dinner at a
traditional Japanese Izakaya. During the final
sharing session, one of the student assistants said
that she had lately experienced a lack ofReferences
Hayashi, C., & Karlsson, L. (2018). A meeting ofhearts and minds.
Learning Learning,25(1), 32-35. Retrieved from http://ld-sig.org/
learning-learning-25-1/

Reflections on ILA 2018
Daniel G. C. Hougham
Hiroshima Jogakuin University
Email: <d.hougham@gmail.com>
This was my first time to go to an ILA
conference, and I thoroughly enjoyed theexperience. In April this year I started a newteaching job, and going to Kobe for ILA2018 was arefreshing break for me ahead of the Autumn
semester. The thought-provoking title of theconference—Whose Autonomy? Voice and Agency inLanguage Learning—had me thinking long and hardabout the meaning of voice and agency and how
important they are within the development ofautonomous learning processes. The way theconference was organised also led me to reflect on
individual learners and how I can help them makechoices and take responsibility for their learning. Ifelt encouraged to find new ways in my work topromote autonomous learning inside and beyond
the classroom.
One of the main takeaways from ILA2018 forme was the importance of advising and reflective
dialogue to help learners develop autonomously. In
her plenary titled Supporting Learning ThroughDialogue Within and Beyond the Classroom, JoMynard talked about the importance of advisingwhich she emphasized is the most powerful tool for
helping students as it can facilitate meaningfullearning beyond the classroom. She touched on
Kato and Mynard’s (2016, pp. 9-18; see also Mynard
2018, p. 28) transformational advising approachthat goes beyond simply giving learners hints andtips: It supports them through a process ofintentional reflective dialogue that aims topromote deeper critical reflection on learning andlead to major shifts in thinking, improvements inlearning, and learner autonomy. Later on in theconference, I attended Kato and Mynard’s
workshop on Practical Advising Strategies forPromoting Reflective Dialogue, where participants
had an opportunity to do some face-to-facepractice advising sessions. Working in pairs, weenjoyed trying out various basic yet very practicalstrategies such as repeating and summarizing
what a learner has said, focusing on the learner’s
tone of voice and words expressing emotions.

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