Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 28(2): Greetings And News Updates

In this issue | 本号について
Hello and greetings to all of our readers at Learning Learning. I hope that you will be inspired and encouraged by the
many people who have written for this issue of our biannual online newsletter. I would also like to send out a heartfelt
thanks to my co-editors for their support in my first venture as lead editor. It has been a great experience for me
personally and one of firsthand learner development for sure!
Our Learner Development SIG coordinator, Koki Tomita, will open this autumn issue with our SIG news and afarewell as he hands over the reins to our incoming coordinator, Tim Cleminson. We have so appreciated Koki’s work
here along with his co-coordinator Tetsuko Fukawa in LD with the many events and publications that they haveplanned, directed, and participated in. We will miss their leadership, but are glad to know that our SIG will be in good
hands with Tim.
We have recently restarted a section called “Mini-profiles” for our busy members to be able to share snippets about
what interests, puzzles, and/or intrigues you about learner development. Kayoko Horai wrote to us telling us a bit
about the disruption that the 2019 Kumamoto earthquake and then Covid19 pandemic brought to her personal andprofessional life. We are very thankful that she is safe and glad that she is able to continue to be with us.
In Members’ Voices, Szabina Adamku relates her story of focusing her research interests on learner autonomy andself-regulated learning in her home country of Hungary. Now in Tokyo, she says that she sees similarities in how
language learning is approached in Hungary and Japan. She is presently researching vocabulary learning practices anddoing qualitative studies to discover more about students’ self-regulated learning. Dominique Vola tells us that thebeginnings of her study of learner autonomy with students in Madagascar served as the impetus to earning a Ph.D in
fostering learner autonomy. She is presently at the Kanda University of International Studies, researching advising, selfdirected learning, and in-class reflection. Tim Murphey brings up an important point that teachers should remember
who our students are as they are learning and growing and have all of their future careers ahead of them. He uses theword “partnerism” and highlights works from Riane Eisler that emphasize dependency on one another over having adomineering worldview and agenda. Kaori Suzuki writes about the teacher who inspired her dream to become fluent inEnglish and tells of how she has come to realize the importance of her influence in the classroom to help learners form
their identities as English speakers in a global environment.
In our Free Space, is an article by Tim Ashwell, Andrew Barfield, and Alison Stewart. In 2015, they founded theLearner Development Journal, our SIG’s online open-access annual publication and formed its first Steering Group. As
they consider Inclusive Practitioner Research, they show us new genres and ways of writing with increased
collaboration between author and editor. I hope that you will take up their invitation to contribute your reflections to
the knot of issues at the end of their article which were raised by the participants of the Learner Development Journal
Issue 5 that is to be soon released.
The next section of our 28.2 issue are two special stories about Learning and Teaching Practices. The first is a Zoom
interview by one of our own editors, Ken Ikeda, with Jackson Koon Yat Lee, a university teacher in Tokyo. Keninterviewed Jackson about his conflicted feelings as he learned English and moved from Hong Kong to Canada and thento Japan. Ken comments on how Jackson’s language experience resonates with his own personal experiences andshares Jackson’s reasons for choosing language education as a career. Our second story is by Cecilia Smith Fujishimaand Adrienne Johnson who explain how they have adapted exit cards for use in their online classrooms to ascertain
their students’ progress, feelings, and a sense of the class as a whole. They show us that exit cards are easy to use andinvaluable as a tool to improve the communication between teacher and learner.
Following Learning and Teaching Practices, is Looking Back, where Blair Barr compiled reflections from sixteen
attendees of the Learner Development SIG Forum at PanSIG 2021 on the presentation theme of “Challenges inMultilingual Learner Development.” Another Learner Development event covered in this Looking Back section is theonline Get-Together that was held in July and September. There were reflections from July’s meeting on topics such as
an Exploratory Practice board game by Tim Cleminson and limits of learner autonomy by Ian Hurrell. The September
Get-Together featured such topics as how to encourage learner involvement in hybrid classrooms, CEFR standards, andSMART goals.

学習者ディベロプメント研究部会 <http://ld-sig.org>

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 28(2): Greetings And News Updates
Upcoming events for our SIG for the remainder of the year include the next Get-Together at the end of October(which will have been finished at the release of this newsletter), the annual JALT International Conference fromNovember 12-15 which will be held online this year on the theme of “Reflections and New Perspectives.” Please join
Learner Development SIG members Aya Hayasaki, Gareth Barnes, and Sakae Onoda at the LD Forum on November
13th from 18:30-19:30. Then, on December 12th from 14:00-16:30, we will have a modified version of our annual
Creating Community: Learning Together (CCLT) conference, with this year geared to give our students center stage on
the theme of “Quality of Life and Learning.”
Concluding this issue is our Treasurer’s Report by Patrick Kiernan, with the good news that in spite of a severebudget cut from the JALT Central Office, our SIG has managed to stay healthy and in the black.
I would like to close by encouraging those who are considering writing for us, to peruse our Information forContributors at: http://ld-sig.org/information-for-contributors/ to find the right section for your personal and reflective
story of learner development. The editors here at Learning Learning are ready and willing to help you to tell yourpersonal story of learner development. If you would like to join our group of editors, please send us a message at<LLeditorialteam@googlegroups.com>. We thank you all for your participation and for making this SIG such a vibrant
and warm place to be.
Lorna Asami, lead editor for 28.2, on behalf of the Learning Learning editorial team: Ken Ikeda,
Mike Kuziw, Hugh Nicoll, Koki Tomita, James Underwood
Tokyo, November 2021

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

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 28(2): Greetings And News Updates

Co-coordinators' Greetings for Autumn 2021 |コーディネーター挨拶
Welcome to the fall issue of SIG's newsletter, LearningLearning. Thank you very much to the many people whohave contributed to this issue, working hard with theeditorial team to put together this issue. In thesegreetings, I would like to reflect on our activities since
the last issue and write my farewell to you as a CoCoordinator of the Learner Development SIG.
To begin, I extend my appreciation to each one of themembers and officers who contributed to our SIG
activities throughout the year. Our activities were so
informative and engaging because you made ouractivities worthwhile. In particular, I would like toexpress my appreciation to the contributors (KayokoHorai, Dominique Vola, Nicole Gallagher, Tim Murphey,Kaori Suzuki, Szabina Adamku, Jackson Lee, Cecilia SmithFujishima, Adrienne Johnson, Blair Barr, James
Underwood, Ian Hurrell, Andy Barfield, Patrick Kiernan)
and editors (Andy Barfield, Mike Kuziw, Kento Nakachi,
Yoshio Nakai, Hugh Nicholl, and James Underwood) of
this issue of Learning Learning led by Lorna Asami andKen Ikeda. Thanks for the terrific job, all!
Next, I would like to address my gratitude to allpresenters and members who joined our online forums
and Get-togethers (monthly meetings). We should notforget to appreciate the dedication and commitment of
my fellow officers, Blair Barr, Ken Ikeda, JamesUnderwood, Ian Hurrell for hosting our events. 2021 has
been another challenging year for all of us in the field ofeducation. In the midst of such uncertainties, we needed
to have a place where we could connect to share ourviews and ideas and overcome the challenges that wewere facing. At the 2021 PanSIG Conference in May, we
had 13 presenters (Isra Wongsarnpigoon, Ellen Head,
Akiko Nakayama, Andy Barfield, Alison Stewart, Lorraine
de Beaufort, Kevin Mark, Rita Kelly, Jussi Jussila, Yuri
Imamura, Alex Shaitan, Chie Tsurii, and Kizuna Fuse)
under the theme of Local and Global Perspectives:
Plurilingualism and Multilingualism. In June, we also
held another forum to share our insights on learnerdevelopment at the JALT CALL Conference with thetheme Reimagining Learning Communities Online. For
this forum, the LD SIG had an amazing list of speakers,
which featured Leticia Vicente Rasoamalala, Martin
Mullen, Satoko Watkins, Dominique Vola Ambinintsoa
Razafindratsimba, Gareth Barnes, Lee Arnold, and Yuta
Sato. Please check the following URL for more details ofour online forums. https://ld-sig.org/events/

学習者ディベロプメント研究部会 <http://ld-sig.org>

Now let’s look at the events coming up in the rest of2021. In November, we will have our final forum in 2021
at the online JALT International Conference with thetheme of Learner Development SIG Identities onNovember 13th from 10:45 to 12:15. Join us at https://jalt2021.edzil.la/session/2327. On the same date, we aregoing to have our Annual General Meeting where all LD
members can join and discuss topics regarding the LDSIG.
I imagine a lot of LD members have been looking
forward to hearing updates from us on our annual
signature conference, Creating Community: Learning
Together. After much consideration and discussions
among our officers, we decided to take a break fromholding the event for this year. Instead, we have beenplanning to have a small-scale festival theme meeting forour students. You will hear from us about the event
soon, so please check your email box for the news.
In 2022, we will face a big decline in the number ofofficers. We are looking for volunteers who can work
together to create a wonderful community as CoCoordinator, Program Chair, editors of Learning
Learning, a Learner Development Journal Steering Group
member, and online Get-together team. If you areinterested in taking one or more roles in our SIG, pleasecontact Co-Coordinators at ld@jalt.org.
To close, I would like to thank all the members andofficers who supported me in the total four years of mytenure as a co-coordinator of the LD SIG. The past fouryears have been an incredible journey, and filled with joyand appreciation. In particular I would like to thankAndy, Yoshi, Ellen, Ken, Blair, Tetsuko, Patrick and Hughfor supporting me and sharing a number of great piecesof advice since the beginning of my tenure. Thank you
all! After the November AGM, Tetsuko and I willcompletely step down from the Co-Coordinators roleand support Tim Cleminson, one of the incoming CoCoordinators. Once again, thank you so much for yoursupport. I am looking forward to meeting all at theForum and AGM.
Thank you LD and bye for now.
Outgoing Learner Development SIG Co-Coordinators
Koki Tomita & Tetsuko Fukawa

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