Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 25 (2): Short Articles

SHORT ARTICLES | 小論
Fostering Reflection: Helping Language Learners (andTeachers) to Take (and Release) Control
Richard J. Sampson
Gunma University, Japan
Email:<sampson@gunma-u.ac.jp>
This short reflective article provides a narrative of my experiences with the implementation of areflection project for English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. The project encourages students toreflect on their experiences and beliefs, and, hopefully, gain more control of language learning forthemselves.

Reflection and learning
For the better part of 20 years, I have been working in education contexts within Japan, from English
conversation schools, to elementary and junior-high schools, kosen (colleges of technology), and finallytertiary education. The work environments in which I have found myself have either encouraged thinking
about teaching and learning, or at least not hindered it. This “thinking about teaching and learning” hasgenerally come in the form of reflective activities conducted with my students or other teachers (see e.g.,
Sampson, 2012, 2016). Reflection has been part of my constant attempts as a practitioner to better
understand the young people with whom I work, and, hopefully, for them to understand themselves a little
better also.
Reflection is thinking about our experiences. One of the common summaries of John Dewey’s approachto education illustrates its importance to learning: We do not learn from experience; we learn fromreflecting on experience. In Dewey’s (1916/1944) reckoning, merely living through experiences is only going
halfway – it is the process of then thinking back on these experiences from which we can truly learn anddevelop. In essence, reflection can be thought of as a systematic, rigorous, disciplined way of thinking,involving a process of experiencing, describing experience, distancing and analysis of experience, andsubsequent intelligent action based on these deeper understandings (Rodgers, 2002). It is a meaning-making
process that can assist learners and teachers to move from one experience into the next with a deeper
understanding of its relationships with other experiences and ideas.
Recognizing a need for change
I began teaching at my current place of work – a small, regional university to the north of Tokyo – justover five years ago. One of my primary roles is overseeing a coordinated English curriculum for 550 first-year
students in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) group. Courses in the curriculum
are largely based around the development of listening and reading skills. In the past few years, thecurriculum has seen marked progress in terms of academic outcomes measured by standardized tests. Thesescores are held up as evidence of the benefits of the curriculum for our students.

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 25 (2): Short ArticlesNevertheless, I have always felt unease at the compulsory nature of these courses. It seems to be taken
for granted that students will want to continue to study English even though it is not their major, or thatthey will have absorbed societal messages about the necessity of English (Sampson, 2017a) to such a degree
that they will persist (meekly endure?) with study. However, no thought is given to the potential lack of selfdetermination in their learning (Ryan & Deci, 2002). For instance, at the commencement of every academicyear, my colleagues and I conducted an orientation session about the compulsory English courses for theentire first-year STEM group. The session was devoted to providing an overview of the "how" of students'
learning at a small scale, without zooming out to any explication of why they were going to be doing this. I
was asked to present parts of this outline, yet I had a strong feeling of "frustrated authenticity" (Vannini &Burgess, 2009), a deep sense of conflict due to acting in ways that ran against my own values. I wanted towork more with learners to examine the interrelationships between their past and present learning
experiences, their evolving identities, and their motivation to engage in lessons and develop as Englishusers. While they were producing scores on tests that satisfied the University's need for measurable
outcomes, what did my students think and feel about the meaning of their English learning?
Over the last five years, as I have become more accustomed to this work environment, I have also
become better able to engage with my colleagues to gradually make changes that help learners to reflect.
We conducted a needs analysis with potential employers of our STEM students (Sampson, 2017b), and now
introduce findings regarding practical uses of occupational English and advice from company managers at
the initial orientation session. I have been using reflective activities in action research with my individualclasses, such as asking learners to reflect on the sources of their feelings when conducting LINE text chatwith students from an Australian university. Notwithstanding, while these small-scale efforts certainly havetheir benefits, I also wanted to further encourage my fellow teachers to have students think more deeplyabout what they are learning, how they are learning, and what difficulties and successes they experience.
And, crucially, at all of these stages, why.
Introducing a pilot reflection project
To this end, I sent out a call to my colleagues in the spring break before the 2017 academic year todiscuss the possibility of using the Moodle online learning management system to provide reflective prompts
for students. Three teachers responded. We commenced the project as a pilot from the spring semester of2017 in nine of our classes. The reflections draw on the recognition of the importance of identity and self inlanguage learning (Dörnyei, 2009). Prompts include such topics as learners’ past experiences with English,
ideas about effective language study and hopes for the actions of classmates, the felt expectations of others
and messages from society about English, and future prospects of English use. At the end of each semester
there is also a more general reflection about students’ experiences in lessons, their perceptions of thereflection project, and their goals for near-future English study.
Over the course of their first year at university, students are prompted to write these eight reflectivepassages as homework assignments. They are given the choice of writing in English or Japanese. Personally, I
encourage my students to write in English, as I feel it important to respect and foster their emerging English
identities. Perhaps due to this nudge, all of my students construct their passages in English, although someinsert an occasional Japanese word here or there. These passages are then brought into the classroom
through interactive activities. For instance, students mingle to find similarities in their past experienceswith English; critically discuss whether they agree or disagree with societal messages about English; choose
a hope for action elicited from their classmates and set it as their goal for a lesson; create short videos
showing a future failure with English and how to overcome this potentiality.

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 25 (2): Short Articles
Some initial feedback
Since piloting, we have found that reflection gives learners a valuable chance to think about themeaning of their English studies, encounter new ideas from their classmates, discover that other students
are motivated to study English, think about their actions in lessons and how they could improve, and topractice writing authentically in English. Here is some feedback we have received from the semester two,2017 reflections (names are pseudonyms):

It was also good that we shared our own idea with each other. Some classmates have ideas which I
did not come up with. I could know those ideas. On the other hand, I could know that most all ofclassmates have enthusiasm about English. Those two points stimulate me. (Moe)

When I wrote reflection project, it was able to teach me the importance of objective view. I
noticed my weakness in English lesson, so I made an effort to overcome the weakness. I also noticedclassmates thought out a method or a way to use English. For example, the one was making a note
while listening to teacher’s words. I thought it might be useful and I sometimes made a note in English.
In addition to them, I was able to review what I learned in the class. In this way, reflection projectreminded me of what I felt in the English class. And more reflection project I wrote, less distresswriting English was. When I was high school student, there was few opportunity to write my reflection
in English so I was happy to have chance to write English now. (Hiro)As these two extracts hint, these reflective activities have provided our students with spaces to makerealizations and connections, some of which might destabilize a current status quo - such as when Hironotices and tries to overcome his weakness in English. Moreover, while we often mistake reflection as
individual introspection, Dewey (1916/1944) argues that it needs to happen in community, in interaction
with others. Sharing affirms the value of one’s experience, allows us to see things anew from theperspectives of others, and provides support to engage and act (Rodgers, 2002). The power of sharing is also
evident in these two extracts from learners, as when it assists Moe to realize that her classmates aremotivated, or prompted Hiro to notice that his classmates "thought out a method or way to use English."Working with other teachers has naturally presented its own challenges and rewards. As the following
comments from my colleagues attest, at times we have struggled to incorporate the project into the regularcurriculum, yet we have also gained insights to students that previously went unnoticed:
I feel very embarrassed that I didn’t read students’ reflections as they wrote them. I was just too busy.
That’s my goal for the second semester. (Terry)
It was really refreshing, to give students a chance to discuss this in class. I could get a feel for what
students are going through. (Brian)
I can tell that the reflection project has had a positive impact on the students and has changed theirperception of the purpose for studying English. …Thank you again for this special gift to our students.
(Brian)Conclusion
As this reflection project is an ongoing work-in-progress, the jury is still out on its effectiveness. Whilethe feedback we have received from participants has been predominantly positive, there are students forNewsletter of the JALT Learner Development SIG <http://ld-sig.org>

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 25 (2): Short Articles
whom the process of writing reflections - whether they be in English or Japanese - is challenging and attimes tedious. Equally, it is my experience that some students find it difficult to understand why they arebeing asked to reflect, and why the related sharing activities take up English class time. These areundoubtedly points that we will need to refine in our rationales at the introduction of the project.
Nevertheless, based on student comments to date, the reflective tasks do seem to assist them to take more
self-determined control of their English learning. From another perspective, the project has prompted
colleagues to try to understand more deeply the learners with whom we are interacting in our teaching.

References
Dewey, J. (1944). Democracy and education. New York, NY: Free Press. (Original work published in 1916)
Dörnyei, Z. (2009). The L2 motivational self system. In Z. Dörnyei & E. Ushioda (Eds.), Motivation, language identity
and the L2 self (pp. 9–42). Bristol, England: Multilingual Matters.
Rodgers, C. (2002). Defining reflection: Another look at Dewey and reflective thinking. Teachers College Record,104(4), 842–866.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2002). Overview of self-determination theory: An organismic dialectical perspective. In E. L.
Deci & R. M. Ryan (Eds.), Handbook of self-determination research (pp. 3-33). Rochester, NY: University ofRochester Press.
Sampson, R. J. (2012). The language-learning self, self-enhancement activities, and self perceptual change. Language
Teaching Research, 16(3), 313–331.
Sampson, R. J. (2016). Complexity in classroom foreign language learning motivation: A practitioner perspective fromJapan. Bristol, England: Multilingual Matters.
Sampson, R. J. (2017a). Openness to messages about English as a foreign language: Working with learners to uncoverpurpose to study. Language Teaching Research, Online First, 1-17.
Sampson, R. J. (2017b). Expectations and dreams: Industry and student ideas about future English use. OnCUE Journal,
10(1), 21–38.
Vannini, P., & Burgess, S. (2009). Authenticity as motivation and aesthetic experience. In P. Vannini & S. Burgess (Eds.),
Authenticity in culture, self and society (pp. 103-120). Farnham, England: Ashgate Publishing.

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