LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』
Greetings and News Updates 挨拶と近況報告

1~5
1
2

In This Issue 今号について
Learner Development SIG News Update LD SIG

近況報告

Getting Connected: Local Get-together Reports from Tokyo, Kansai and Hiroshima
つながりを求めて：東京 ・ 関西 ・広島

6~7

LD SIG Members' Voices メンバーの声

8~11

Utilization of learners’ cultural backgrounds for the promotion of a positive learning
environment in ELL classrooms, Nakagawa, Hiroshi
LD SIG 2014 Research Grant Awardees 2014 年度 LD SIG 研究助成金受賞者
Rejuvenating the spirit and challenging the mind at JALT 2014, Verla, Adrianne
My Family and Other Conceptions of “Clever”, Kocel-Ross, Caroline
Conference Report (JALT 2014 Conference), Sakurai, Yoko

12~18
12
14

Creative Writing
Guidelines for the new creative writing column, Unosawa, Kazuko
Theories of Second Language Requisition, Kocel-Ross, Caroline

18-20

Featured Article フィチャード

21-28

アーテイクルThe Role of Teacher Autonomy in Learner Autonomy, Egitim, Soyhan
29~38

Looking Back 報告
Reflections on Creating Community: Learning Together, Otsuma Women’s University,
December 14, 2014

39~41

Looking Forward 今後のイベント
The stories of our success: Narratives in language development—LD SIG forum at the JALT
Pan-SIG 2015 conference in Kobe
SIG Matters インフォメーション

42~43

Call For Contributions『学習の学習』原稿募集
Financial Report 財務報告
ISSN 1882-1103
NEWSLETTER / SPRING 2015 / LL 22 (1)Learning Learning『学習の学習』 22 (1): In This Issue

In This Issue 今号について
Welcome to the Spring 2015 issue of Learning
Learning, the Learner Development SIG’s (LDSIG) biannual online newsletter. Springtime inJapan is synonymous with new starts and forteachers this usually means new students,
classes, and possibly even schools. These allbring with them opportunities for personal
and professional growth. We hope this issue
reaches you just in time to give you ideas
about encouraging learner development inyour classrooms.

autonomy in his university English classes.

The issue begins with the SIG coordinators,
Alison Stewart and Fumiko Murase, borrowing
the conversation style of our website’s Talking
Points column to report on the latest SIG
developments. This is followed by reports
from local get-togethers in Kansai, Hiroshima,
and Tokyo.

Many thanks to all the volunteers working
tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure thisissue arrived on time: James Underwood andMonika Szirmai for putting the issue together;
Andy Barfield, Christopher Fitzgerald, Stacey
Vye, and Alison Stewart for various editing
and proofreading help they provided; Kazuko
Unosawa for starting the Creative Writing
Column; Yoko Sakurai for her Japanesetranslations; Mayumi Abe and the rest of thetreasury team for working tirelessly tocompile the SIGs financial report; and HughNicoll for the work of uploading this issue tothe LD SIG website.

In the Members’ Voices section, Hiroshi
Nakagawa shares his experiences trying tofoster learner autonomy through the creationof a positive learning environment to help hisstudents become relaxed and engaged. This isfollowed by three submissions from recipientsof grants in 2014: Adrianne Verla and Yoko
Sakurai, who wrote reflective pieces about
their experiences leading up to and at
JALT2014, and Caroline Ross, who shares withus her grant application to inspire more
people to apply for grants and her reflection
on PanSIG2014.

In Looking Back, teacher and student
participants of Creating Community: Learning
Together, which was held in Tokyo in midDecember, share their experiences at what all
have said was a unique and valuable event.
The Looking Forward section contains apreview of the LDSIG forums at PanSIG2015(this weekend) and JALTCALL2015, coming up
on June 6-7 in Fukuoka.

Thank you on behalf of the Learning Learning
team!
Mathew Porter

This issue sees the start of our new Creative
Writing column, which contains a wonderful
poem to make teachers think about theirstudents.
This month’s Feature Article is by Soyhan
Egitim, who writes about the need forteacher development in order to promotelearner autonomy and shares with us some
activities he has used to encourage learner
Newsletter of the JALT Learner Development SIG <ld-sig.org/>

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』22 (1): LD SIG NEWS

Learner Development SIG News Update
学習者ディベロプメント研究部会 近況報告
Alison Stewart & Fumiko Murase
アリソン・スチュアート ＆ 村瀬文子
October 2014 - April 20152014年10月〜2015年4月

Learner Development SIG News
UpdateOctober 2014 – April 2015 9
Alison Stewart & Fumiko Murase
Alison: Hi Fumiko. Thanks for agreeing to do
the news update as a dialogue this time. We
have a great precedent for this in the Talking
Points (http://ld-sig.org/talking-points/))column on the LD website posted each month
this year by Jim Ronald and Naomi Fujishima.
Did you read last month's amazing
conversation about self-disclosure? I canthoroughly recommend it!
こんにちは、⽂文⼦子さん。今回は対話形式で活動報告
を⾏行行うことに賛成してもらいありがとうございます。対話形式のコラムに関しては、学習者ディベ
ロップメント研究部会（以下LD）ウェブサイト上
で今年年度度毎⽉月掲載されているJim  RonaldとNaomi 　
FujishimaのTalking  Pointsという素晴らしい前例例があるのですが、先⽉月号のSelf-‐‑‒disclosure 　（⾃自⼰己開⽰示）についてのすばらしい対話を読みましたか？

Fumiko: Hi Alison, well, it’s good to try
something we’ve never done before. Yes, I
read it, and I’ve got many good ideas for the
new semester! First I have to think of whatembarrassing story I can tell my students...

こんにちは、Alisonさん。そうですね。今までにやった事がないことを試すのはいいですよね。はい。読みましたよ。新学期に向けて、たくさんのいいアイディアを学びました。まず、どの恥ずかしい経験を学⽣生に話すのか考えないといけません・・・。

Alison: The new academic year is just aroundthe corner, and I guess that you, like me, arebusy preparing your courses, planningresearch, and filling out your year plannerwith get-togethers, conferences, and otherevents to keep our teaching batteries
charged. Much of what happens this year isdetermined by what we decide at our Annual
General Meeting, which takes place at the
JALT National Conference. Constrained by amuch shorter meeting time, our last AGM
continued via email for another two weeks
into December, at the end of which we had
passed a new budget and approved all thecommittee team members for the coming
year. We are thrilled to welcome Brandon
Kramer and Stephanie Corwin to theMembership team, Joel Laurier and Blair Barrto the Programmes team, Kris Sullivan andJenny Morgan to the Grants team, Kie
Yamamoto and Tomoko Imamura to the
Publicity team, Rachelle Meilleur to the Web
team, Yoko Sakurai as a shadow editor in the
Learning Learning team, and Agnes Patko andAriel Sorenson respectively to the Tokyo andHiroshima get-together teams.

学習者ディベロプメント研究部会 <ld-sig.org/>

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』22 (1): LD SIG NEWS
Alison： 　新学期がもうすぐ始まりますね。⽂文⼦子

表できる事を嬉しく思います。また、新規委員会メさんも私と同じように、授業準備をしたり、研究計

ンバーを歓迎するとともに、委員会メンバーを辞任

画を⽴立立てたり、ティーチングのバッテリーを充電すすることになりました以下の⽅方々に感謝いたしまる集まり、学会、イベントなどをスケジュール表にす。

書き込んだりと、忙しく過ごしていることと思います。本年年度度⾏行行われることの殆どがJALT年年次⼤大会でKen  Ikeda  とMike  Nix  (ウェブか管理理)、  Stacey  ⾏行行われるLD年年次総会で決定されます。例例年年よりかVye  とMartin  Mullen  (助成⾦金金)、Sayuri  なり短い会議時間だった為、昨年年度度の年年次総会はそHasegawa  とMayumi  Takizawa  (広報翻訳と社会の後2週間をかけて電⼦子メールにより話し合いが続

貢献)、Gretchen  Clark  とMatthew  Coomber  (会けられ、新しい予算案が通過し、新年年度度の委員会メ員)

ンバーが承認されました。Brandon  Kramer  とStephanie  Corwinを会員管理理チーム(Membership)、Joel  Laurier  とBlair  Barrをプロ
グラムチーム（Programmes）、Kris  Sullivan  とJenny  Morganを助成⾦金金チーム（Grants）、Kie  Yamamoto  とTomoko  Imamuraを広報チーム（Publicity）、Rachelle  Meilleurをウェブ管理理
チーム（Web）、Yoko  Sakuraiを学習の学習（Learning  Learning）シャドウエディターとして、Agnes  Patko  とAriel  Sorensonをそれぞれ東京と広島の地域別集会チーム（Get-‐‑‒together）に喜んでお迎えします。

Fumiko: And we are happy to announce our
new shadow co-coordinators, Mathew Porterand Mayumi Abe, who have agreed to take on
the role of the SIG co-coordinators at the
JALT Conference in November this year. While
welcoming new members to the committee,
we would like to thank those who stepped
down: Ken Ikeda and Mike Nix (WebDevelopment), Stacey Vye and Martin Mullen(Grants), Sayuri Hasegawa and Mayumi
Takizawa (Publicity translation and Outreach),and Gretchen Clark and Matthew Coomber(Membership).
⽂文⼦子： 　そして、昨年年度度JALT年年次⼤大会において、共同コーディネーター(Co-‐‑‒coordinators)の役割を引き受けてくださいました、Mathew  Porter  とMayumi  Abeを本年年度度の新しいシャドウ共同コー
ディネーター(Shadow  co-‐‑‒coordinators)として発Alison: We look forward to an exciting year
working with new and old members of thecommittee and to helping to facilitate events,
discussions, and publications that LD members
can participate in and enjoy.
Two events that were LD highlights at the
JALT National were the LD Forum, aninteractive poster session with a record
number (30) of presenters, and the Tohoku
Translation forum, involving residents fromthe Rikuzentakata community as well as someof the teachers, students and editors who
together translated an entire collection of
essays written by junior high school children
about their experiences of 3.11. We are
already looking forward to an equallystimulating JALT National this year where, in
addition to our regular LD Forum, we’ll be cosponsoring Alice Chik, from Macquarie
University as one of the main conference
speakers.
Alison： 　私達は、新規、現委員会メンバーとともに活動する1年年を、そしてLDメンバーのみなさんが参加し楽しめるイベント、ディスカッション、出版物を提供するお⼿手伝いができる事を楽しみにしています。
昨年年度度JALT2014  でのLDのハイライトは2つのイベントでした。1つ⽬目は、過去最多（30）のプレゼン
ターが参加したインタラクティブなポスターセッ
ション、2つ⽬目は、陸陸前⾼高⽥田のコミュニティーのNewsletter of the JALT Learner Development SIG <ld-sig.org/>

3

Learning Learning 『学習の学習』22 (1): LD SIG NEWS⽅方々や、3⽉月11⽇日の震災の経験について中学⽣生に活動に参加しました。48名の教師と42⼈人の学⽣生

よって書かれた作⽂文のコレクションを共に訳してく（！）が参加しましたが、こんなにもたくさんの学ださったエディター、学⽣生、先⽣生⽅方が参加した東北北⽣生が、教師と発表したり話し合っている会議ははじ

翻訳プロジェクトフォーラム（Tohoku  めてでした！これからも、教師と学⽣生が共に学習者

Translation  forum)です。本年年度度のJALT2015でディベロップメントについて話し合える機会を作っは、通常のLDフォーラムに加えて、共同スポンていきたいと考えております。素晴らしい学⽣生ボラサーとしてMacquarie  ⼤大学のAlice  Chikを⼤大会メンティアも含めて実⾏行行委員チームのみなさまに感謝

インスピーカーの⼀一⼈人として招待する予定です。私いたします。特に、この会議を計画し実施していた達は本年年度度の年年次⼤大会も同じように意義のあるもの

だいたAndy  Barﬁeld、Ken  Ikeda、Stacey  Vyeにとなるよう期待しています。

は⼤大変感謝いたします。

Fumiko: Only three weeks after the JALT
Conference, there was the Tokyo Get-Together
mini-conference, Creating Community:
Learning Together, where both teachers andstudents engaged actively in interactive
presentations, discussions and reflections on avariety of issues on learner development andcommunity building in an informal andsupportive atmosphere. There were 48
teachers and 42 students (!) in attendance,and I had never seen that many students
presenting and communicating with teachers
at a conference! I hope we will continue tocreate opportunities for both teachers andstudents to get together and discuss learnerdevelopment issues. We would like to thankeveryone in the Conference team (including
our wonderful student volunteers), and our
special thanks go to Andy Barfield, Ken Ikeda
and Stacey Vye, who worked hard to organize
this conference.

ところで、ミニ会議といえば、会議の最後に新しいSpeaking of the mini-conference, we had alaunch for our two new e-books at the closingof the conference, didn’t we?

された2冊のデジタル本：Andy  Barﬁeld  and  Aiko  ⽂文⼦子： 　JALT2014年年次⼤大会の3週間後に、東京地域別集会のミニ会議Creating  Community:  Learning  Togetherが開催されました。カジュアルなお互いに協⼒力力しあう雰囲気のもとで、教師と学⽣生が学習者ディベロップメントやコミュニティービル
ディングをトピックに、インタラクティブなプレゼ
ンテーション、ディスカッション、リフレクション

2冊の本の発表がありましたよね？

Alison: That’s right, Fumiko, a champagne
toast for Learner Development Working
Papers: Different Cases, Different Interests,edited by Andy Barfield and Aiko Minematsu,
and Collaborative Learning in Learner
Development, edited by Tim Ashwell, Masuko
Miyahara, Steve Paydon and myself, which
both came out in digital form at the end oflast year. We’ve now just received a special
grant from the JALT Development Fund to help
pay for a printed edition of these books.
These are limited editions, so if you would
like to buy a copy, please go to the LD SIG
Publications page (http://ld-sig.org/
publications/) and order your copy now while
stocks last.
Alison： 　そうです、⽂文⼦子さん。昨年年度度末に発売
Minematsu編集のLearner  Development  Working  Papers:  Diﬀerent  Cases,  Diﬀerent  InterestsとTim  Ashwell,  Masuko  Miyahara,  Steve  Paydon  とわたくしAlison  Stewart編集の  Collaborative  Learning  in  Learner  Development 　にシャンパンで乾杯！また、これらの本を印字版で作成する費⽤用を援助する特別助成⾦金金をJALT開発基⾦金金（JALT  Development  Fund）からいただくことができました。限定出版ですので、ご購⼊入を希望される⽅方は、在庫がなくなる前に、LDの出版関連の学習者ディベロプメント研究部会 <ld-sig.org/>

4

Learning Learning 『学習の学習』22 (1): LD SIG NEWS
ページ（LD  SIG 　Publications  page：http://ld-‐‑‒sig.org/publications/)で注⽂文をしてください。

In addition, we’re discussing the possibility ofan annual journal, each one addressing a
special theme. If you would like to know more
about this plan and/or would like to get
involved as an editor and/or author, pleasecontact our Publication team leaders, Tim
Ashwell and/or James Underwood.
また、毎回異異なるテーマを扱う年年次機関紙の可能性も話し合っています。この件について、もっとよく知りたい⽅方、エディターとして、もしくは筆者として関わりたい⽅方がいらっしゃいましたら、出版チーム（Publications  team）のリーダーTim  Ashwell  か  James  Underwoodまでご連絡ください。

Fumiko: Finally, we’ve got some important
news about financial matters. At the
Executive Board Meeting in February, which I
attended as our SIG’s representative, twoimportant motions were passed: a motion toraise JALT membership fees and anothermotion to include a SIG membership as well asa Chapter membership in the increased
membership fee. Although the fee increase isnecessary for JALT to keep going as a healthyorganization and providing services to themembers, none of these motions can takeeffect until they are voted on and approved bymajority of the whole membership at theOrdinary General Meeting in June. Please let
us know if you have any questions or issues
about these financial matters (or anythingelse about JALT) so that we can bring them up
at the next meeting.

website.
最後に、財政⾯面に関していくつか重要なお知らせがあります。まず、私がLD  SIGの代表として出席した２⽉月の執⾏行行役員会で2つの重要な動議が通過しました。1つ⽬目の動議は、JALTの年年会費を上げること、2つ⽬目は値上げされた年年会費にSIG年年会費と⽀支部年年会費を各１つずつ含むというものです。年年会費を上げることはJALTが健全な団体として運営され、会員にサービスを提供し続ける為には必要なことですが、これらの動議は6⽉月の総会(Ordinary  General  Meeting)で投票が⾏行行われ、全会員の過半数によって認められなければ、効⼒力力を発することはありません。これら財政⾯面に関する事で（⼜又はその他JALTに関するどのような事でも）問題や質問などあれば、次の会議で取り上げますので、お知らせください。
また、LD 　SIGレベルでは、私たちのSIG⼝口座に最近変化がありました。積⽴立立⾦金金⼝口座から、現在の⼝口座にお⾦金金を移動しましたが、これは、JALT開発基⾦金金の助成⾦金金に加えて、2つのブックプロジェクトの費⽤用をまかなう為です。ニュースレター、メールリス
ト、ウェブサイトを通して、今後もアップデートをしていきます。
LDSIG Co-coordinators 2015

Alison Stewart

At the SIG level, we’ve recently made changes
to our SIG account: we’ve moved money fromreserves into our current account for covering
the cost for the two book projects, together
with the JALT Development Fund. We’ll keep
you updated on any of these and other news
through our newsletter, mailing list, andNewsletter of the JALT Learner Development SIG <ld-sig.org/>

Fumiko Murase5Learning Learning 『学習の学習』22 (1): local Get Together Reports

Getting Connected: Local Get-Together Reports
from Kansai,Tokyo, and Hiroshima
つながりを求めて：関西・東京・広島
Tokyo Get-together Report: Plans for2015

We also hope to work with you towards
hosting a second CCLT informal conference inDecember.

Our last get-together of 2014 featured theCreating Community: Language Together(CCLT) Conference. We felt blessed because of
the high involvement of both students andJapanese and non-Japanese teachers. For2015 we’ve made plans to have five gettogethers this year at Otsuma Women's
University on April 19, May 24, June 28,
October (TBA), and December (TBA). We hopethat many people will be able to take part inthese meetings this year.
When the three of us met in March todiscuss ideas for the 2015 get-togethers, wereflected on the December event and cameback to questions of creating community. We
felt that it would be interesting in 2015 totake such questions as a common focus forpart of each get-together this year.
Our hopes are that this year’s gettogethers will involve:• working in pairs and small groups aroundpractitioner research into learnerdevelopment issues that interest get-together
participants;• developing together different
understandings of community building;• exploring broader issues to do with critical
approaches to education;• writing reflectively about the different gettogether discussions and learner development
explorations that participants engage in overthe course of the year.

Visit our webpage for more details about
Tokyo Get-togethers. (<http://
tokyogettogethers.blogspot.jp>)

Andy Barfield, Ken Ikeda & Ágnes Patkó

Please join us this year!

LD Get-together Report: Kansai
Brandon Kramer
The Kansai chapter has had some difficulty
getting together over the past year, and could
use your help! If you or anyone you know
would like to help lead the Kansai events send
us a message. Co-coordinators are also
welcome!
A few ideas for possible events include:

学習者ディベロプメント研究部会 <ld-sig.org/>•

Organizing meetings with local area
chapters. Events with the Kobe chapter
have been very successful in the past,
but meeting with Osaka, Kyoto, andNara are also possible.

•

Practical workshops where members
work together to brainstorm solutions
to classroom issues and other questions
related to student autonomy.

•

Holding a workshop as part of anotherevent, either Chapter or SIG-related.

•

A possible online meeting using Skypeor Google Hangouts.

6Learning Learning 『学習の学習』22 (1): local Get Together Reports
In the meantime, keep an eye out for an eventat the Osaka Back-To-School event in April.
If you are interested in helping, please do nothesitate to get intouch! <brandon.l.kramer@gmail.com>

2014 Hiroshima Get-together Report
Jim Ronald
We have not met for our Hiroshima LD gettogethers for two or three months, so our lackof getting together is all we have to report
this time. Which is a shame, as the various
benefits—reminders that this is time wellspent—are so obvious to us get-together
regulars. We share the various learnerdevelopment-related projects or activities weare involved in; share, read, and discuss
papers on learner autonomy or self-directed
learning; talk informally about various work(or not work-) related matters; encourage
each other in various ways; and become closer
friends.
At the same time, I've noticed thatmany of the people who join the get-togethers
are among the busiest people I know: working
on postgraduate degrees, conducting
research, helping with JALT or otherorganizations, with young children... And
working too! As coordinators of the Hiroshima
LD get-togethers, Ariel Sorensen and I both hit
a very busy patch, too, the first three months
or so of this year, and hardly noticed that no
get-togethers were happening. We are looking
forward to starting up again, on the last
Friday evening or Saturday afternoon of May.
If you are interested in joining us, you would
be very welcome! Watch out for details on
Hiroshima JALT's website or contact me, Jim
Ronald, directly: jmronald@gmail.com.

LDSIG Publications Available Online
Collaborative Learning in Learner Development
Published in 2014, and edited
by Tim Ashwell, Masuko
Miyahara, Steven Paydon andAlison Stewart. Twelve
chapters offer a multifacetedand critical new look at thewidely held assumption thatpeople learn best in groups.
Available here.
Learner Development Working Papers:
Different Cases, Different Interests.
Published in 2014, and editedby Andy Barfield and Aiko
Minematsu. Nine chaptersoffer multiple, andunexpected, criticalperspectives on the learnerdevelopment issues that itdeals with. Available online
here or in print here
Autonomy You Ask!
Published in 2003, and editedby Andy Barfield and Mike
Nix. Sixteen chapters ofJapan-based collaborative
research explore learner andteacher autonomy within
Japanese contexts. Available
here >

Learning Learning Archives

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

Issues of Learning Learning
going all the way back to 1994
are now available in PDF
format here:.

7

Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): LD SIG Members’ Voices

LD SIG Members' Voices
LD SIG Members' Voices offers spaces for SIG members to introduce themselves to other membersof the SIG in a variety of accessible and personalised text formats and lengths:• a short personal profile of yourself as a learner and teacher (100-200 words or so)• a short critical reflection on your history as a (language) learner at (a) particular stage(s) inyour life (around 200-500 words)• a story of your ongoing interest in, and engagement with, particular learner development (and/or learner autonomy) issues (around 500-800 words)• a short profile of your learner development research interests and how you hope to develop
your research (around 500-800 words)• a short profile of your working context and the focus on learner development that a particularinstitution where you work takes and/or is trying to develop (about 800-1200 words)• some other piece of writing that you would like to contribute and that is related to learnerdevelopment.
Many thanks to the Hiroshi Nakagawa for sharing his voice with readers of Learning
Learning. We hope other SIG members will also contribute their voice to the next issue of
Learning Learning. If you are interested in doing so, please contact the Members' Voices
coordinator, James Underwood, at <jamesmichaelunderwood@gmail.com>.
“ＬＤＳＩＧメンバーの声”は、ＳＩＧ会員の皆様が他会員の皆さんに向けて多様な形式・文体・長さで、ご自身の考えや活動をご紹介していただくためのスペースです。例えば、以下のような様々な声を歓迎しています：• ご自身の学習者および教育者としてのプロフィールを短く紹介したもの。（約100-200語）• ご自身の（語学）学習者としての経験で、特定の場における逸話を批判的に考察したもの。（約200-500語）• ご自身が現在取り組まれている、もしくは関心を寄せていることで特に学習者ディベロプメント（または学習者の自律）に関する問題についてのもの。（約500-800語）• 学習者ディベロプメントに関するご自身の研究についての短い概要と、今後どのようにその研究を展開していきたいと考えているか紹介するもの。（約500-800語）• ご自身の勤務環境の短い概要と、勤務される特定機関で学習者ディベロプメントに関し注目している、または取り組もうとしていることについて。（約800-1200語）• その他、学習者ディベロプメントに関する内容のもの。
今号の「学習の学習」で、お声を読者の皆様と共有していただきました、Hiroshi Nakagawaさんに大変感謝致します。次号の「学習の学習」でも、他の会員の方々からのお声をお待ちしております。ご興味のある方は、Member’s VoicesのコーディネーターJames Underwood（jamesmichaelunderwood@gmail.com） までご連絡下さい。

学習者ディベロプメント研究部会 <ld-sig.org/>

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): LD SIG Members’ Voices
Utilization of learners’ cultural
backgrounds for the promotion of apositive learning environment in ELLclassrooms
Hiroshi Nakagawa,
Foreign Language Center at
Tokai University,
Hiratsuka,Japan
Hiroshinakagawa@outlook.com
Currently, I am interested in how theknowledge of our learners’ cultural
backgrounds can help us to create a sage
learning community. After several years ofteaching English as a second language in the
United States, I have formed the belief that
culturally diverse students, such as students
from different family and socio-economic
background, are unique and need extra
attention. From my experience, thesestudents are most likely to expand andimprove their pronunciation, intonation,
grammatical, lexical and cultural knowledgeof a target culture through communication
with their peers in a positive and supportive
learning environment. Thus, I have been
examining ways to support my EFL students at
Tokai University and help them succeed tohave a great responsibility for their academic
and social goals.
One of my recent challenges in myreading/writing classes is creating a learning
environment that fosters the students’autonomy. At the beginning of the fallsemester of 2014, I had 8 different classes
each with 30 sophomore students, who hadtaken mainly lecture-style courses before,
and were therefore used to taking a passiverole in their learning by quietly listening,taking notes, and memorizing new vocabulary
and grammatical forms that the teacher
recommended. According to Tomlinson (1999),
EFL learner’s performance can be improvedby working towards creating a positive
learning environment through recognizing
individual learner differences. By working

with these learners and arranging seating
according to their individual needs anddifferences and encouraging them to interact
with their peers by either teaching or simply
helping each other, I started to see positive
results. Students were becoming active
learners, and there was a greater focus oncommunication with each other rather than
only with the teacher. By talking with eachother, students were becoming able to workthrough their misunderstanding and,negotiate meaning. Through this experience, I
realized that if both the teacher and students
work together to construct a cooperative andmotivating learning environment, thestudents are more likely to realize theirlearning goals and rely on their peers more ina way to becoming more autonomous.
Since the fall semester of 2014, I havefocused on creating a positive learning
environment by adapting Paydon’s (2012)
model for developing a motivational learning
environment. Paydon (2012) hypothesizes that
there are 5 levels to classroom motivation:
the first four levels—Structure, Trust,Cohesion, and Performance, focus on building
and strengthening the group. The fifth —Personal Growth— focuses on supporting theindividual’s own development. At thestructure stage, students find theirinterpersonal relationship, which provides thebasic proximity, contact, interaction, andsecurity that facilitates the development oftrust (Paydon, 2012). In order to help
students build trust and feel safe interactingwith each other, I ask them to create apersonal résumé. Each student writes his/herbirthday, interests, hobbies, favorite sports,
and academic goals. Once created, it
provided a way for the students to form andstrengthen peer to peer relationships, as bysimply asking questions about the contents of
the resume they were able to show interest ineach other. In this way, students break thelanguage barrier while speaking English toothers. By creating a friendly social
atmosphere in the classroom, students will,over time, feel more at ease in taking risks to

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): LD SIG Members’ Voices
speak out in English and to share their own
ideas, thoughts, and opinions. This enables
them to move on to the next stage, Cohesion.
The aim of cohesion is to make thestudents feel safe enough to take the risk ofsharing their own ideas, thoughts, andopinions with other members of the group,
not just with those who are in close
proximity. For example, I utilize students’personal information from their résumé andidentify those who have common interests.
Once identified, I group them together. I also
vary their partners and change the seating 3
times during a class in order to provide
several different types of interaction andgrouping configurations in a given lesson withgreat success. By encouraging the students tofeel empathy towards all their peers throughthe sharing of both their similarities anddifferences, the class as a whole is able tobuild interpersonal relationships that enable
them to perform at their best. As cohesion is
the glue that binds a group of people
together, their strong relationship with eachother enables them to focus on motivating
not just themselves but each other, which isessential when moving on to challenging,authentic activities.
Authentic activities help students share
their life experience in discussion activities.
Tomlinson (1999) suggests that when teachers
teach new academic concepts to students it isimportant to consider how the students’
differing socio- economic statuses, cultural
backgrounds, use of the language, and otherpossible factors, affect their learning.
Therefore, I believe it is important to utilize
the students’ life experiences and ideas byhelping the students link them to theirlearning of new terms as they think critically,significantly apply, and emotionally produce
these in a variety of oral communication
activities. For example, in my discussion
activities, I always encourage the students toindividually reflect on what they learnt fromthe stories they have encountered in thelearning materials so that they can constructa personal definition. After sharing these
学習者ディベロプメント研究部会 <ld-sig.org/>

definitions as a group, I then encourage
students to apply what they have learnt sothat they connect these lessons critically with
their own life experiences, which they thenshare with their peers. Littlemore (2012) also
found that schema, the students’ cognitive
framework stimulated by their interests,
helped students organize and interpret
information. Students’ learning styles may
also be shaped by their past learning
experiences and coded differently from theirpeers. My students’ personal résumés containmuch meaningful vocabulary and personal
information relevant to their life experience.
By utilizing the vocabulary in personal
résumés to describe life experience, students
are able to expand their semantic networks toshare with classmates in the discussions,presentations, debates, peer reviewing,commenting, and a variety of other in-classactivities (Dunn, 2012). Connecting existinglanguage ability and new concepts developed
during interaction and mediation with peers
and the instructor helps students learn core
concepts andallows them to fill the language gap(Jenkins, 2012), which resulted in improved
language ability. Thus, by contributing theirown unique examples, each student feels
they have an important role to play in coconstructing the classes’ understanding.
Brandt (1998) explains that second
language learners tend to equate their ability
with outcomes, and motivation becomes moredifferentiated and complex. Therefore, it isimportant for them to share with each otherthe products of their learning so that they can
see the results of their development. Also
when I have them work with students who
have different interests after gathering theirown thoughts and opinions in and outside of
the class, it seems that they develop a moreglobal sense of their second language
acquisition together. Their levels of
motivation may change as they relate both totheir development and learning outcomes.
However, students are encouraged to work
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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): LD SIG Members’ Voices
together to set the goals themselves rather
than having the teacher set them. This leads
to them having longer-term motivation that isdeveloped and sustained through the positive
learning environment.
I believe it is important to promote a
positive learning environment founded on thestudents sharing their backgrounds, interests,
ideas and opinions both with their peers inclose proximity and the class as a whole.
These actions can foster student autonomy.
This is my challenge, to research the specificaspects for learners with different levels ofEnglish proficiency that promote student
autonomy and language acquisition. I would
like to offer this advice to other language
teachers who are interested in assisting thedevelopment of learners’ English proficiency
skills in the same way.

Tomlinson, C. (1999). The differentiated classroom:	Responding the the needs of all learners.
	Alexandria, VA: Association for	Supervision and Curriculum Development.

References
Brandt, B. (1998). Powerful learning.
	Alexandria,VA: Association for Supervision	and Curriculum Development

One Research grant | 研究助成金

Dunn, J. (2012). Utilization of Semantic Networks
in the Teaching of Vocabulary. Language
Education in Asia, 4(2), 175-182. Retrieved
from:<http://dx.doi.org/10.5746/LEiA/13/
V4/I2/A07/Dunn>	

Jenkins, A. (2012). Neuroscience, psychology, andthe teaching of vocabulary, 静岡理工科大学紀要 (20), 65-68,.Retrieved from:<http://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/40019397990>
Littlemore, J. (2012, October). Cognitive linguistics
	and second language learning. Paper	

presented at the meeting of the Japan	

Association for Language Teaching,	

Hamamatsu, Japan
Paydon, S. (2012). Developing a Motivational	

Learning Environment: JALT Learner	

Development SIG: Special Issue of	Learning Learning, 19(2).

LD SIG Grants 2015
YOU CAN STILL APPLY FOR
2 JALT 2015 National Grants
JALT全国大会参加助成金
Deadline ~ 申込締切日
25 August 2015 (2015年8月25日)
Two grants of ¥40,000 each are available
to Learner Development (LD) SIG members
who will attend the 2015 JALT International
Conference and are willing to write a conference
report, or another piece of writing to be
published in Learning Learning after the
conference.

Deadline ~ 申込締切日
1 July 2015 (2015年7月1日)
One research grant of ¥25,000 is open to a
Learner Development (LD) SIG member who iswilling to write an article (1000-2000 words/
3000 Japanese characters) about their research in
Learning Learning.
Two LD SIG Outreach Grants |LD SIG アウトリーチ助成金
Deadline ~ 申込締切日
1 July 2015 (2015年7月1日)
The Learner Development (LD) SIG is offering
two ¥20,000 Outreach Grants to LD SIG
members conducting or leading educationrelated outreach projects or volunteer activities.
For more information please go to:<http://ld-sig.org/grants/>
Or send a quick email to:<learnerdevelopmentsiggrants@gmail.com>

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

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Learning Learning『学習の学習』22 (1): LD SIG Grant Awardees’ Essays

LD SIG 2014 Research Grant Awardees
2014 年度 LD SIG 研究助成金受賞者

Rejuvenating thespirit and challenging
the mind at JALT2014
Adrianne Verla,International Christian
University
averla@gmail.com
Keywords: learning, opportunity, love
letters, new ideas, refresh
When I first heard about the theme for
JALT2014, “Conversations Across Borders” I
was excited. As a theme, I thought that it
would be interesting to see the different
perspectives people have regarding borders
and that the conference would generatemany conversations about borders relating to
not only myself as an educator but also
myself as a learner. I also hoped that I would
leave the conference with a sense of renewal
and excitement to apply what I had learnedat the conference to my various contexts as alearner, researcher and educator.
Back in the winter of 2014 when thedeadline for proposals was approaching, I wasteaching at a public Japanese junior andsenior high school. A co-worker and I decided
that we wanted to attend the conference andtry to present there as well. We submitted a
proposal to present together as well as
proposals to present separately. When I
received the notification that our short paper
presentation and my poster presentation
proposal were both accepted I was ecstatic.
However, my teaching situation had
学習者ディベロプメント研究部会 <ld-sig.org/>

drastically changed. Both my co-worker and I
had left the high school and were teaching atdifferent universities in Tokyo. I had also left
the comfort of a stable position and entered
the world of part-time university teaching. As
is often the case in today’s society, one of thebiggest challenges I faced was money. I really
did not have the means to attend JALT and
my universities did not provide funds to parttime lecturers.
Going back in time to January 2014,
when I renewed my JALT membership, I
decided that I would join a SIG to get more
involved in JALT. After talking with somefriends and remembering from my days in
graduate school at TC Tokyo, I decided to join
the LD SIG because I heard it was an active
and welcoming group. It just always seemedthat my schedule and the timing of LD events
never matched up.
Fast forwarding to last spring, when I
read about the grant for JALT 2014, I reallywanted to apply but, because I didn’t have an
opportunity to participate in any events, orreally know the members, I decided not to.
However, when the deadline was extended, Idecided that I should give it a shot because I
honestly didn't have the funds to attend theconference and I really wanted to go not only
as a presenter but also as a participant.
Thankfully I was chosen as one of therecipients for the 2014 award and had afulfilling experience.
When I arrived at the conference
venue, I quickly found where my poster
presentation would take place later in the
day and proceeded to hear the first plenary
speaker explain about why we need borders.

12Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): LD SIG Grant Awardees’ Essays
Afterwards, I saw my first PechaKucha
presentation sponsored by TED, and then I
had to prepare for my poster session. I wasvery nervous when the poster session began,
but I found that the time quickly flew by
because I was talking about something I wasvery passionate about and wanted to sharewith people. The style of the poster sessions
was very relaxed and it gave me an
opportunity to interact with a variety ofdifferent people from different teaching andlearning contexts. It truly provided me with away to have a conversation that crossed avariety of borders.
While the afternoon seemed to fly byin an adrenaline and coffee induced blur, I
was very impressed by Bill Harley’s session
about music and loved the way heincorporated music in a language that very
few people were familiar with. By the end, as
the whole audience sang together in a foreign
language it really brought home to me thefact that connections between people are thebasis of communication.
It made me really want to get mystudents to understand the idea that we may
not be able to understand 100% of what ishappening around us, or even 10%, whenlearning a new language, but that if you havea desire to communicate with someone, you
can cross the borders created by language
and connect with them. In some of myteaching contexts, this lesson is not a reality
for my students and I hope to help themunderstand that it could be a reality for them
if they would just take a risk and try.
However, the session that had thelargest impact on me was Leslie Turpin’s
workshop Intellectual Love Letters:
Responding to Writing. She had eachparticipant write on an index card and thentrade with someone seated nearby. We thenresponded to their writing by writing them aletter back. It was very powerful to see thewritten words of advice and feedback that I
received and it made me think about the
feedback that I provide to my students when
they submit writing. She also gave us

examples of the lasting impact that her
letters have on her past students. I left
feeling that I would really like to make moreof an effort to provide my own “intellectual
love letters” to my students because, while itis important to help my learners correct theirgrammar and spelling, it is also important tomake them feel like I am taking the time toactually process and connect with them. I
also wonder if, with the proper support andguidance, some of my classes would be able
to write “intellectual love letters” to theirpeers when peer editing. It is something I
hope to pursue in the coming months.
On Saturday night, I had theopportunity to attend the LD SIG dinner andfinally met some of the members while eatinga delicious meal. It was a really great
experience putting faces and names together
and being warmly welcomed into the group. It
was also wonderful to get together withpeople from all across Japan that I would nothave had the chance to meet otherwise.
On Sunday I began the day by attending
Gerry Yokota’s plenary and enjoyed learning
about her research relating to gender andanime as I am also interested in Japanese pop
culture and try to find ways to incorporate it
into not only my research but my classroom aswell. It was a struggle to attend everything I
wanted to on Sunday, but I really enjoyed the
LD SIG’s forum in the afternoon. Some of thepresentations that still stick with me today
were about the student newspaper, the zemigroups that collaborated with different
universities and of course the amazing poet
who closed the forum with her poignant
words.
Finally, Monday arrived and it was easy
to see that there were far fewer people
attending the conference that day. However, I
still found a few presentations that I wanted
to attend and also gave my short paper
presentation in the early afternoon. When I
left the conference, I was exhausted but also
exhilarated from all the presentations that I
had attended and the people I had met. I feltthat I had achieved my original goals ofNewsletter of the JALT Learner Development SIG <ld-sig.org/>

13

Learning Learning『学習の学習』22 (1): LD SIG Grant Awardees’ Essays
becoming refreshed and excited aboutteaching and felt my mind was filled with new
ideas and ways I hoped to incorporate theminto my context. I am truly grateful to the LD
SIG for providing me with this opportunity totake part in the conference and I hope that I
can contribute to the SIG in the future.

My Family and Other Conceptions of“Clever”
Caroline Kocel-Ross,
student of Sophia
university.
<c.jkoross@gmail.com>

The Learner Development
SIG awards grants tofinancially assist people
who might otherwise be
unable to attend
conferences. Application for these grants
includes a written submission detailing why
applicants want to attend the conference andwhy the grant is required. The open nature of
the LD SIG and grants committee may leadsome potential applicants to hesitate, asking“What shall I write?” Each time I confronted
this question, my solution was simple: writefrom the heart. Below is a slightly edited
version of the essay I submitted as my Pan-SIG
2014 grant application. By sharing this withreaders of Learning Learning, I hope toencourage other LD SIG members to be bold,
write from the heart, and apply for thediverse grants on offer.
I believe that every person has
something positive to contribute to society
and that the goal of education should be toprovide a positive environment in which eachindividual can freely explore their talents,
weaknesses, and unknown territories, to learn
what their contribution might be. However,education today all too frequently leans
towards a narrow understanding of what
constitutes “clever”. Dictionary.com defines“clever” as follows:
学習者ディベロプメント研究部会 <ld-sig.org/>

clev·er adjective, clev·er·er, clev·er·est.
1. mentally bright; having sharp or quick
intelligence; able.
2. superficially skillful, witty, ororiginal incharacter or construction; facile:
3. showing inventiveness or originality; ingenious
4. adroit with the hands or body; dexterous or
nimble.

Current popular perceptions of whatclever is, are heavily biased towards
definition one above, linked to academic
ability. This narrow understanding excludes
huge portions of society from cleverness. I
propose that clever is a term that should beapplied to include a significantly wider rangeof skills, including those discussed indefinitions two to four above.
Cleverness is not a fixed and stableentity but is a dynamic and developing
process. Replacing the wonderfully dull,
generic question “What do you do?” with thepresent continuous form “What are you
doing?” would better reflect this fluidity. The
various possible responses to this question are
well exemplified by my brother, a man ofdiverse talents. He studied illustration atuniversity and is a skilled artist andphotographer. He has completed a number of
picture commissions and held an exhibition of
his work in Croatia. He is passionate about
inline skating which has led him to competeinternationally, but more importantly, to his
participation in a worldwide community ofskaters. Recently he chose to devote a
significant portion of time to helping our aunt
complete some long-running DIY projects
around her home. She was thrilled with theresults of their collaboration. In this busy
world of increasingly virtual social networks, I
deeply admire my brother’s willingness tocreate and cultivate shared experiences witha huge variety of people all across the world.
I believe that all four definitions of clever canbe applied to him, perhaps he might even beconsidered ingenious. However, in our

14Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): LD SIG Grant Awardees’ Essays
capitalist and consumerist society it seems
the only term applicable to describe his
wealth of positive and diverse experiences
is…unemployed.
Another aspect of cleverness is thatof practicality and logical thinking. These areskills I see every day in my husband. I am
heavily guilty of taking these attributes for
granted. I simply assume that of course heshould be able to maintain and successfullycomplete any and all repairs, including cars,
computers, bicycles, our neighbour’s hairdryer, the sliding door, the wok handle, my Ipod case, the camera—anything andeverything that makes our lives run that mucheasier. Furthermore, I also fully expect him tohave all the skills and know-how required toconstruct a house, cultivate a farm, and if theworld erupts into total catastrophe, survive.
My confidence in him stems from his
motivation and ability to foresee and avoid
potential problems and constantly adapt to
evolving situations. We are very aware of thedifferences in our ways of thinking and skills
which is precisely why we complement eachother as a team.
Finally, the cleverest person I know
is my mum. Why do I feel so embarrassed tostate this formally in public, as if this honest
view cannot be taken seriously? Is it because
APA guidelines don’t discuss how to formallyaccredit all her hard work? My mum
completed high school in London with a goodnumber of “O-levels” at a relatively highstandard. She never thought she was clever
but at a reunion with classmates over twenty
years later, she discovered her friends had
always thought otherwise. She has a keen
understanding and sensitivity of a wide
variety of social issues, theirinterconnectedness, and history. She also hasa great capacity to enunciate things clearlyand simply, although perhaps not elegantly. Asa child I asked her a very simple question“Why are there wars?” After a few moments,
she replied “money and power”. To this day I
believe her three word explanation.
Moreover, she single-handedly raised threechildren. As I grow older, the more I
understand her outstanding strength andcleverness and the less I can adequately
express it in words. She has always prioritised
our education, making it clear that mybrother, sister and I could be whatever wewanted to be if we put our minds to it.
Though she didn’t attend university herself,
she helped us recognise the value of auniversity education with simple wisdom; “auniversity degree simple widens your options.
Whether or not you choose to use it isirrelevant, but at least you’ll have it”.
Finally, when it came to choosing futurestudies or career plans, she suggested “Justdo what interests you the most.” Her sageadvice and prioritization of education haveled me to the inevitable conclusion that she isindeed the cleverest person I know.
Diversifying our conception of clever
to encompass the skills and attributes
described here could lead to broader talentdevelopment both within education and insociety as a whole. I believe this will improvesociety’s resilience and is essential for thedevelopment of a sustainable society in the
21st century.
I would like to express my deepest
gratitude to the Learner Development SIG forawarding me the grant to attend the Pan-SIG
conference in May 2014. These grants
promote diversity among conference
participants, allowing those of us with noaccess to funding to participate. With mypersonal interest in sustainability, I wasparticularly moved by Professor Nakazawa’s
plenary talk, in which he discussed the wideranging issues that communities of theSanriku coast are facing, such as theseemingly urgent need to constructcontentious sea walls and the Bridge for Hope—a conveyor belt to transport sand from themountains to further inland, to elevate theentire land of Takada town higher above sea
level. This contrasts starkly with the necessity
to provide public housing for refugees still
living in “temporary” housing three years
after the 3.11 disaster. I was also delighted

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Learning Learning『学習の学習』22 (1): LD SIG Grant Awardees’ Essaysthat he discussed the LD SIG’s collaborativetranslation project—with which I am closely
involved—as one positive example of hope.
From a completely different perspective, I
was also inspired by Dr. Paul Hullah’s plenary
in which he argued for the presence ofliterature within English curriculums. Hispresentation led me to pen a rough sketch ofa poem which was later performed at the LD
SIG’s forum at the JALT International
Conference in Tsukuba, November 2014. The
financial assistance of the LD Pan-SIG grant
provided vital support and nourishment as I
continually try to develop my own ideas,
knowledge, and cleverness.
References:Elms, C.E., (1984 – present). Life as motherof threeElms. J.N.K., (1982 – present). Life as one ofthree children, male sibling to twosistersElms. S. K., (1980 – present). Life as one ofthree children, older sister to two
siblings
Ross. J. A., (2007 – present). Life as a couple

JALT 2014 Conference Report
Yoko Sakurai, Aichi University
ysakurai@vega.aichi-u.ac.jp
Keywords: conference
reflection, teaching ideas,
giving feedback, learnerautonomy
I am one of the recipients of
the JALT 2014 Conference attendance grants.
The conference was truly beneficial for myprofessional development, and I would like toexpress my deepest gratitude to all the LD
SIG members for helping me attend theconference. As a grant awardee, I have beenasked to write a report reflecting on theconference experience. I hope that thisreport would show how much I have learned
学習者ディベロプメント研究部会 <ld-sig.org/>

both at and after the conference, and how
much I appreciate the opportunity given by
the LD SIG.
Overview of the Conference:
Attending the JALT Conference was a valuable
experience for me in so many different ways.
First, I was able to attend interestingpresentations and workshops. Some helped
me gain a deeper understanding of teaching
and learning, some gave me new awareness inserving students’ learning as a facilitator,
while others gave me practical activity ideasthat could be used the following day.
Attending the SIG annual meeting and the
Learner Development Across Borders Forumalso offered me a wonderful opportunity to
be introduced to various LD SIG activities, andget to know many of its members. Located inMie, I had never had a chance to go to regular
get-togethers or conferences, or talk with LD
SIG members face to face. I am ashamed to
say that all I had done over the past year as amember was be on the mailing list andreceive emails. I feel making it to theconference finally has got the ball rolling, andgiven me the chance to be more involved in
the LD SIG. I have agreed to work as a shadow
in the Publications team, and have alreadystarted reading email correspondence
between the committee members, andlearning about the publication process. I am
excited about reading more articles andessays written by fellow members who have
similar interests. I also look forward toattending more LD SIG related events, andexchanging thoughts with other people whoare committed to teaching and supporting
students’ learning.
New Awareness in Learner Autonomy and a
Teacher’s Roles“Learning happens when a student’s innerteacher learns through experiences, feelings,
etc, not when a teacher merely transmits
information. Teaching, for me, is creating anenvironment where a student’s inner teacher
can learn on her/his own.” This is a phrase I

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): LD SIG Grant Awardees’ Essays
jotted down when asked to write a shortparagraph about teaching and learning at aworkshop by Leslie Turpin, a professor of mygraduate program. Though it is a brief
description, when I reread the note later on
for writing this essay, I felt this embodied
what learning is for me. I believe my role as alanguage teacher is to help the students
develop the necessary knowledge, attitude,
skills and awareness so that they can become
responsible and autonomous learners whose
inner teachers enable them to learn on theirown.
Leslie’s workshop allowed me todevelop a deeper insight regarding the way ateacher responds to the students’ written
work. She explained how she would takedifferent roles based on the KASA framework
when she wrote responses to her students’reflective essays. The KASA framework,
developed by Donald Freeman, shows four
dimensions of language teaching: Knowledge,
Attitude, Skills, and Awareness (Freeman1989). Leslie proposed that a teacher be an
informant who gives knowledge, a co-explorer
who explores possible attitudes together withthe students, a coach/model who shows how
to develop skills, or a witness who sees
students reaching new awareness. She shifts
her roles depending on her teaching
objectives as well as on the students’ needs.
I became familiar with the KASA
framework through studying in my graduate
program, and I have always kept it in mind
when planning courses and lessons. However,consciously changing my role when writing to
the students was something I had never done.
At the end of my reading class, I often ask thestudents to write two to three sentences of
personal responses. Reflecting on how I give
written feedback to those responses, I havenoticed that much of it has been correcting
errors and writing simple phrases like“greatjob!”, “thank you”, and “interesting points”.
I often played the role of an informant who
only gave the knowledge of correct grammar
and English expressions, and sometimes a
praiser who merely recognized students’ good(or correct) work and their effort. I have done
little to address the other three elements ofthe framework.
Implementation of the New Awareness in
Class
My teaching setting is different from Leslie’s.
With more than 200 students and 12 courses
to teach, it would be difficult to write
paragraphs of messages for each student likeshe does. To explore how the idea can be
implemented into my teaching situation, I
listed things that I would want the students ofmy reading classes to improve or develop by
the end of the academic year. I randomly
chose and read through some of thestudents’ reading responses that were kept in
my office, and saw what I would find or feelafter gaining this new awareness. Through theprocess, I have realized by adding a simple
sentence or question, I could create a lot
more learning opportunities to support theteaching objectives, and help meet students’needs. Besides the knowledge of English
grammar and expressions, for example, I
could give different types of information as
an informant. I could suggest useful websites
and magazines for extra reading, and promote
the students’ understanding of the reading
topic. I could share my own insights so thatthe students could read and examine the text
from a different point of view. My students
and I could also be co-learners of global issues
or different cultures and I could show them
what kind of attitude I try to develop towards
enriching my understanding of the world
through reading English texts, and could ask
them to share theirs. By taking the role of amodel as an English language learner, I could
share my successful experiences of improving
reading skills, or show my positive attitude
towards being more aware of my own culture
as well as learning about different cultures.
New Concept of Writing Comments:
Intellectual Love Letters
Leslie’s workshop has also positively changed
my view of writing feedback to students. She

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Learning Learning『学習の学習』22 (1): LD SIG Grant Awardees’ Essays
compared a teacher’s written responses to“intellectual love letters”, and asked what it
meant to us. After much thought, my current
working definition is that a teacher writes
letters to invite the students to their life-longvoyage of learning. With the teacher’s loveand support, the letters challenge thestudents intellectually so that they can fully
enjoy the voyage. The letters also guide thestudents to develop the necessary knowledge,
attitude, skills, and awareness to become
effective voyagers of life-long learning.
Though it is still a work in progress, this
newly gained concept will surely make theprocess of giving feedback more enjoyable
and rewarding for me.
The LD SIG Forum: Learner Development
Across Borders
Learning about various projects by LD SIG
members and their successful experiences atLearner Development Across Borders was truly
inspiring. I was greatly impressed with theeffort and commitment the presenters madeto improve their classes for the benefit of thestudents. In Japan where many students are
not familiar with the concept of learnerautonomy, deciding on how much structureand guidance should be given by the teacher
and how much autonomy the students areready for is always a challenge for me. My
attempts have not always been successful,and I have to admit that there have beentimes when I second guess myself and feel I
am causing confusion instead of promoting
autonomy. The presenters’ successful
experiences and positive attitude toward
perseverance certainly encouraged me tocontinue working on what I am doing.
The poster sessions were also full of
wonderful activity ideas. One that can beeasily adopted in my classes was the idea ofquizzing on the textbook and course syllabus
by Hana Craig and Jenny Morgan. I am
planning to design similar quizzes and use
them at the beginning of the coming
academic year. Some items on My Learning
Record where students keep their goals,
学習者ディベロプメント研究部会 <ld-sig.org/>

attendance, quiz scores, etc. will also be
added to the version I use in my classes.
These are both excellent ways to promote thestudents’ sense of responsibility andinvolvement in the course.
Students Autonomy in Assessment
Since I teach many reading courses, I went toseveral presentations on teaching reading,where I gained many useful insights. A
presentation by Hongnguyen Nguyen
demonstrated how she combined the
traditional written and oral book reports with
Moodle-based book chats and online recordedbook reports. One thing that I would like totake away from her presentation is offering
students various modes of assessment, andletting them choose how they want to beevaluated. This not only allows students totake more initiative in their learning, but also
to understand their strengths and weaknesses
as language learners. Furthermore, assessing
with online recorded book reports wherestudents record and submit their book reports
on Moodle will be added to my repertoire. I
hope to try it in a third-year university
reading course as a start and see how it works
for my students.
Conclusion
Through writing this report, I further
confirmed that the conference was a truly
meaningful experience for me. I willdefinitely make use of what I have learned,
and continue working to improve myteaching. I feel that I am now morecommitted to furthering my studies in learnerautonomy, and hopefully to making positive
contributions to the field for the
improvement of English education in Japan. I
am also thrilled to meet more LD SIG
members and learn from them.
Reference
Freeman, D. (1989).Teacher training,development, and decision-making.
TESOL Quarterly, 23(1), 27-45.

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): Looking Back

Creative Writing Forum
Guidelines for the new creative
writing column

Theories of Second Language
Requisition

Kazuko Unosawa<k-unosawa@msa.biglobe.ne.jp>

Caroline Kocel-Ross, student of Sophia
university.
<c.jkoross@gmail.com>

In this issue of Learning Learning there is a
new column for creative writing titled“Creative Writing Forum” so that members
can publish their work related to themes
concerning Learner Development. We
welcome pieces ranging from poems to shortstories as well as other forms of creative
writing. As a general rule the maximum length
should be 1500 words. We look forward to
your active participation and if you have any
questions please feel free to contact thecoordinator.
創造的な作⽂文（クリエイティブ・ライティング）コラムへの投稿ガイドライン
今⽉月号の「学習の学習」（Learning  Learning）では、Creative  Writing  Forumというクリエイティブ・ライティングを取り上げた新しいコラムを始めました。これは、会員のみなさんが学習者ディベロップメントをテーマにした作品を発表するためのものです。詩や短い物語など様々な形式のクリエイティブ・ライ
ティングの投稿をお待ちしております。原則として1500語を単語数の上限としています。みなさん積極的にご参加ください。何か質問があれば、お気軽にコーディネーターにご連絡ください。

While there’s much research on second
language acquisition
Far less is said on the topic of imposition
So today I’m taking a fresh position
Sharing theories of second language
requisition.
SLR is characterized by student compliance
Grammar plus vocab, student-teacher reliance
Yes it’s possible that some learning may takeplace here
Through sheer grit and grind, and a healthy
dose of fear
In this classroom, I’m master – forget about
the rest
I’m not here to teach you beyond how to pass
the test
The reality of this exercise is confined tothese four walls
I decide which ones of you are good at English
and which ones of you are fools.
Target 800 words – less than 24 weeks
That kind of pressure really speaks
Volumes about the priorities ofTrue Second Language Requisition;
Empty vessels, cram them with words
No added sugar and 99% context free
Out of 15 new words, you only scored 3?!
You really must improve your English
vocabulary
A 5000 word jigsaw puzzle, finally complete
Three weeks after the test? Mostly obsolete.

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): Looking Back
And just how far are these lessons actuallyeffective
When we look at things from our students’perspectives?
Autonomy? You ask
Then you’re clearly yet to grasp
That the only reason I’m even in your class
Is because I need your grade to passThis is mandatory - I’m not here for me
I’m here because I have to be
So while you roll your eyes at me and mymotivation
I’ll autonomously roll my eyes at this second
language education
Have you forgotten what it’s like to be forced
to sit in a classroom against your will?
Jumping the hoops of the foreign language
drill?
While the weight of the world is as much upon
my shoulders as it is uponYours
And I’m sitting here distracted by what the
future has in store
For meAnd I still don’t know what I want to be
When I grow up.
So forgive me, please
If I don’t live up to your classroom
expectations
And forgive me, please
If I disprove your research dissertation;
You can just call me
An “anonamaly”.

It’s simple logic, one or the otherAs for me? I thank my mother—“It’s good to learn a foreign language,” shetold me“You never know when another language
might come in useful,” she told me
And this I agree.
But that doesn’t mean that everybody
Needs to follow the same path as me.
When we go abroad, we take an adaptor plug
And if we don’t?
Well then we just don’t use the electric plug
An adaptor plug is adaptable
But that doesn’t make it necessarily valuable
In your own goddamn country.
So excuse me please while I remind both you
and meThat languages are only one aspect of thisgreat big tapestry
That we call life
And if you wouldn’t mind entertaining me,
For a moment here
Just imagine with me
Just imagine—
If artistic creativity or musical ability
Were given just half the credence of linguistic
capability
How then might our classrooms be?
What change could this effect in our society?
December 2014

When it comes to SLA
I think the research can lead us astray
Promising gains, so many advantages
From the acquisition of English—I mean—
second languages
When in fact
The only ones of us
Who actually ever learned a foreign language
area) those of us who wanted to orb) those of us who were forced to
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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』22 (1): Featured Article

Featured Article
フィチャードアーテイクルThe Role of Teacher Autonomy in Learner Autonomy
Soyhan Egitim, Tokyo University of Science<soyhanegitim@gmail.com>
Abstract
The goal of this paper is to gain a deeper understanding of the role ofteacher autonomy in the development of learner autonomy. Firstly, thegeneral attributes of autonomous teachers are identified. Next, theteacher’s role in scaffolding and learner support was emphasized throughthe illustration of regular weekly homework assignments and learner goalsetting practices. The conclusion indicates that learner autonomy is an
essential element for successful learning and the teacher’s gradualwithdrawal from the learning process is needed in order to foster
autonomous learning skills in students.
Introduction
The importance of autonomy in learner development has been widely emphasized over the past
three decades. Holec (1981) defined autonomy as one’s own ability to take control of one’s own
learning. If we think about the classroom implications of this definition, we can assume that thecontrol of learning is gradually handed over to students in order to create the right environment
for them to develop their autonomous learning skills. Little (1991) suggests that autonomy can be
developed and deployed in a number of ways and situations, including in the classroom.
In a traditional teacher-centered classroom environment, teachers are perceived as theultimate authority, and it is they who are expected to control and direct the learning process.
Since teachers have the power, they also have the ability to change learners’ perception of theteacher’s role and of their own learning process. Benson (2001) describes autonomy as an
attribute of the learner’s approach to the learning process. The development of this attribute canbe linked to the learner’s ability to reflect on their own learning. Learner reflection involves
linking a current experience to previous learning which is especially important during thelanguage learning process. Since language learners are expected to apply the new language tovarious daily life or classroom situations they encounter, which is how language retention takes
place, their reflection on their own learning becomes essential in their language acquisition.
According to Gibbs (1998),“It is not sufficient simply to have an experience in order to learn.
Without reflecting upon this experience it may quickly be forgotten, or its learning potential islost (p.9).”
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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』22 (1): Featured Article
However, not all learners have an autonomous attitude towards learning a new language.
Some perceive the teacher as the sole provider of the language, which ultimately leads toteacher-dependent language acquisition. One of the challenges many language teachers face issteering learners away from a passive role where they expect the teacher to spoon-feed them the
new language. In order to change this perception, language teachers themselves need to bereflective. Being reflective as a teacher involves the process of self-observation and selfevaluation. Teachers need to think about what they do in the classroom, why they do it and what
benefits learners can gain from that. As teachers continue to adopt this self-observation and selfevaluation, they can become more reflective about their own teaching and guide their students in
the right direction to develop their own reflective learning skills. Once learners begin their own
self-observation and self-evaluation with appropriate guidance from their teacher, they can
gradually learn to reflect on their own learning. One of the effective ways to achieve this in alanguage classroom is to encourage learners to look back over their past experiences and makelinks with their current experience. For instance, if learners are learning how to make requests in
English, this would mean referring to their past experiences of making requests while learning thelanguage. Such practices can help learners gain a better understanding of how to reflect on theirown learning and positively influence their language acquisition process.
Reflective language teaching is a crucial part of learner development and autonomy. As
Voller (1997) stated, “The rise to prominence of learner autonomy as a goal in classroom settings,
in turn, has led to needs for retraining and enhanced awareness both of the importance of theteacher in structuring or ‘scaffolding’ reflective learning and of the complex, shifting
interrelationship between teacher and learner roles in a “pedagogy” for “autonomy” (p.1992). In
other words, if students are to learn to “take control”, the teacher may need to learn to “let go”
even while providing scaffolding and structure.
The teacher’s withdrawal from the learning process occurs partly as a result of their own
autonomy. Thavenius (1990) described teacher autonomy as the teacher’s ability and willingness
to help learners take responsibility for their own learning. His view indicates that teachers shouldreflect on their own roles and adapt to students’ new roles while supporting students’development of autonomy. The realization of this in a language classroom would mean thatlearners need to be allowed freedom to express themselves in order to learn to reflect on theirown learning.
Many teachers consider mistake correction as one of the key elements of successful
language teaching, but sometimes letting learners express themselves without paying muchattention to errors will give them the opportunity to learn from their own mistakes. As a result,learners will have less fear of making mistakes and develop greater confidence in the way theyexpress themselves. Confidence is an essential condition for effective communication giving
learners the courage to take more initiative and challenge themselves. This in turn helps them toarticulate their ideas and feelings using more complex language and, eventually, to develop theability to reflect on their past learning experiences. Benson (2001) emphasizes the role ofreflective learning in autonomy and suggests that the “autonomous learner is essentially one who
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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』22 (1): Featured Article
is capable of reflection at appropriate moments in the learning process and of acting upon the
results (p.95).” This can be an extremely challenging process for some learners. Thus, theteacher’s role in the effective management of this process is crucial.
If teachers themselves know that, in order to enhance language acquisition, learners needto learn from their own mistakes, then, needless to say, teachers will have the responsibility tohelp learners understand this process. Littlewood (1997) identified “Self awareness” as a key
element in fostering teacher autonomy as it leads to a better understanding of ourselves aslearners and professionals, of our strengths and weaknesses. Powell and Powell (2010) claimed
that teachers with high degrees of self-awareness know their strengths and their limits. They areable to make an accurate appraisal of their own talents and weaknesses, they are reflective andare able to learn from experience, they take responsible risks and, when they fail, they treat theincident as an opportunity for growth and learning (p.1991). As Little (1995) concluded “Teachers
are likely to foster growth in their learners if they also know themselves what it is to be anautonomous learner (p.175).”
While students are encouraged to develop their capacity and readiness to control their own
learning, they will eventually reach the point where they will be able to acquire their own
independent learning skills and, consequently, will begin to reflect on their own experiences(Brown, 2001, p. 89-90).
In order to illustrate the role of the teacher in developing learner autonomy, below I havegiven a detailed description of a classroom practice I developed, called “Regular Weekly
Homework Assignment”. I have explained my role as a facilitator in the management of theseassignments and the strategies I implement in order to help my students become more reflective
and autonomous in their language acquisition.
Weekly Homework Assignments
If the aim of a language class is to help students improve communicative competency in English
and take greater responsibility for their language learning, then learners need to be moreengaged in their own learning process and teachers need to provide support and scaffolding forthis. In my own classes, I usually set three major goals with my students before giving themweekly homework assignments:•
Research and discover new target language on your own.
•
Use the new target language in your writing.
•
Use the new target language in spoken communication effectively.
I usually have around twenty students in each class. Firstly, I have my students research thefollowing lesson’s target language using various resources on their own. They can either do it athome or using the university library. One of the key principles of this research activity is that I
make sure to refrain from influencing their findings. As a result of their initial effort, they obtainsome information regarding the target language.
In order to illustrate this activity more clearly, let’s imagine that the following lesson
covers adjectives for personality traits. In the first phase, I expect the students to researchNewsletter of the JALT Learner Development SIG <ld-sig.org/>

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』22 (1): Featured Article
information about the use of those adjectives for homework proir to the following lesson. Somestudents only create a list of adjectives, while some use those adjectives in sentences or list theadjectives with their dictionary definition. There can also be students who combine some or all of
the above approaches. However, in the end, this will help them gain some insights into the target
language.
During the second phase of the homework assignment, students need to use the language inwriting. In the case of adjectives for personality traits, this could be as simple as just selectingsome people from their surroundings and writing about their personality traits. Once they havefinished, they send me what they have written by e-mail, and I send them a reply with feedback.
The feedback allows students to observe their mistakes and revise their usage of the language on
their own prior to the following lesson.
The final phase of the activity takes place in class where students are expected to use thetarget language points in spoken communication. I usually start off my classes with a warm-up
activity in which I put students in pairs and have them talk about their daily routines, past events,
or future plans. This activity usually lasts five to ten minutes. Next, I divide them into larger
groups and then each student makes an oral presentation of their homework assignment to theirgroups.
Below is an example of a homework assignment submitted by a first year science student:
Table 1: Example of Homework Assignment
Personality Adjectives
Positive Adjectivies

Negative Adjectives

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.

Outgoing
Talkative
Sociable
Hardworking
Easygoing
Punctual
Tidy

Shy
Quiet
Unsociable
Lazy
Strict
Tardy
Messy

My best friend is called Naomi. She is very friendly and talkative. She always chats with people forhours. But sometimes she is a little tardy. She often arrives late.

These assignments provide learners with essential training that can gradually help themunderstand the significance of their role in their learning. Once their weekly tasks are assigned, I
step back and refrain from interfering with their research and discovery. This is when theteacher’s withdrawal from the learning process comes into play. My deliberate lack ofinvolvement in the process puts them at the center of their own learning. The only time I am truly
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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』22 (1): Featured Article
present in the process is when I provide correction and feedback, yet as mentioned above, theirfindings remain uninfluenced. This also makes students realize the freedom they have to takecontrol of their own role and encourages them to take greater responsibility for their futureassignments. I believe that learners need to be given responsibility on a regular basis in order tolearn to take responsibility for their own learning.
During the writing phase of the activity, most students choose personally relevant situations
as they generally find it easier to use the language in this way. At that stage, my goal as a teacher
is to help them develop a sense of ownership of the language. This is a vital part of their learning
endevor. In order to help them gain a sense of ownership of the language, I try to allow mystudents the utmost freedom to use the language of their choice. In other words, I refrain fromcorrecting every grammar error they make unless the mistakes significantly change the meaningof their sentences. Since I respond positively to what they say, this in return, gives them more
motivation and confidence for the final stage, which is when they are expected to give an oralpresentation to their peers in class.
Needless to say, determining the amount of error correction depends upon the teacher’s
own judgment and what they expect from learners. However, in my own experience, I find that I
can only determine this if I have an adequate understanding of the learners’ needs andexpectations. Once I surely know that I have this awareness, I can make more accurate judgments
about my own expectations of their learners. If the goal of the teacher is to foster autonomy intheir learners, they may need to allow learners freedom with the way they wish to express
themselves.
It is also important to have realistic expectations from students as overloading them withtasks and assignments may also prove counterproductive. Many of my students have little time to
dedicate to learning English and they may get discouraged by overly demanding tasks. In order tomanage this problem effectively, I give my students a target word count for each writing
assignment. This helps me to determine how much time they are likely to spend on can theirEnglish language study. For instance, if I set the word count limit for 200 and most of them can’t
manage to fulfill the requirement, then I lower my expectations. Through trial and error this canbe easily determined.
Encouraging Learners to Set Their Own Goals
When helping learners to develop their autonomous learning skills, teachers should also encouragethem to make their own learning decisions. Gaining decision-making ability is an important stepfor learners to start setting their own goals. This ability may also reflect positively on theirmotivation. A growing body of research indicates that when students are working on goals they
themselves have set, they are more motivated and efficient, and also they achieve more thanthey do when working on goals that have been set by their teacher (Hom & Murphy, 1983, p.104).
Stiggings and Chappuis (2005) suggest that, by including goal setting and self-monitoring in thedaily classroom routine, a teacher can create a learning environment that increases student
involvement and motivation. Having students set their own goals can be a fairly challenging task
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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』22 (1): Featured Article
for most educators, particularly in schools where learners are accustomed to teacher-directed
learning and perceive goal setting as one of the teacher’s duties.
Rader (2005:124) emphasizes the role of teachers in guiding students to learn how to set
their own goals and lists a set of principles which include:• Decide a time when your goal will be achieved.
• Choose a specific goal and write it down.
• Develop a plan to achieve your goal.
• Visualize yourself accomplishing your goal.
• Work hard and never give up.
In order to evaluate and reflect on the effectiveness of Rader’s principles, I conducted asurvey on 28 Biological Science students during an English language class. I asked all the students
to set a new learning goal following Rader’s guidelines. The table below shows examples of one ofstudent’s goals created in accordance with each principle:
Table 2: Rader’s Principles and Student Goals
RADER’S PRINCIPLESSTUDENT EXAMPLE

Decide a time when your goal will be achieved.

My goal is to learn 90 new English words within
one month.

Choose a specific goal and write it down.

I can achieve this by adding three new words tomy vocabulary everyday.

Develop a plan to achieve your goal.

Firstly, I will keep a new vocabulary notebook.
Next, I will write the definitions of all the new
vocabulary using an English to English
dictionary. Then I will make a sentence using
each word. Finally, I will review the new
vocabulary everyday and use the new words inclass as often as possible.

Visualize yourself accomplishing your goal.

Once I achieve this goal, I will be able tocommunicate my ideas using a wider variety ofvocabulary.

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』22 (1): Featured Article

Work hard and never give up.

I will do my absolute best to achieve this goal.

After filling in the table, all students in class had set a new goal for themselves based on
the above principles. In order to evaluate their initial reaction to their own goal-setting, I
designed an informal survey including three statements:
1. I have found the principles useful for my future studies. (Yes/No)
2. I would like to set my own goals by following the same principles in the future. (Yes/No)
3. I would still prefer my teacher to set my own learning goals for me. (Yes/No)
As indicated in the table below, all students selected “Yes” for the first statement. Thisshows that students were convinced on the effectiveness of the principles in goal setting. Twentyfour students selected “Yes” for the second statement which also means that the majority of thestudents would still like to follow the guidelines when they need to set new learning goals in the
future. Twenty-six students selected “No” for the final statement. This indicates that the vast
majority of the students would rather set their own learning goals and not involve their teachers
in their goal-setting endeavors.
Since I started this goal-setting practice with my students, it has become a regular part of
my classroom routines. Before we start off a new chapter in the course book, I always allow mystudents sometime to set a new goal based on Rader’s principles. As a result, they can develop
their self-awareness and reflective learning skills, which in return, may positively contribute totheir future decision-making endeavors.
Table 3: Survey Results
QUESTIONSYES

I’ve found the principles useful for my future studies. (Yes/No)

28

I would like to set my own goals by following the same principles in the
future. (Yes/No)
I would still prefer my teacher to set my own learning goals for me. (Yes/
No)

24

NO

26

Conclusion
The main goal of this paper was to emphasize the role of teacher autonomy in the development oflearner autonomy. In order to illustrate this theory, I analyzed my own role as a teacher in student
homework assignments and student goal setting. As I have shown, I scaffolded both activities frombeginning to end which appears to be of significant value to learners in helping them to complete
the activities successfully. The teacher’s role as a facilitator here can not be understated. In fact,
it plays an essential part in learner development and autonomy.
During the implementation of both activities I gradually withdraw myself from the learning
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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』22 (1): Featured Article
process and hand the control over to students. As other researchers have claimed, I have also
found that my own gradual withdrawal from the learning process is needed for my students tobecome autonomous. As I illustrated in both activities, I make the utmost effort to reflect on myown autonomy by providing scaffolding and support for learners, which is the result of my selfawareness and reflectiveness. In the future, I aspire to designing more activities to further
promote learner autonomy and gain deeper insights into the role of teacher autonomy in thedevelopment of learner autonomy.
References
Benson, P. (2001). Teaching and researching autonomy in language learning. Harlow: Longman/
Pearson Education.
Brown, H. D. (2001). Principles of language learning and teaching. New York: Longman.
Gibbs, G. (1988). Learning by Doing. A guide to teaching and learning methods. FEUHolec (1981). Autonomy in foreign language learning. Oxford: OUP.
Hom, H.L., Jr., & Murphy, M.D. (1983). Low achiever's performance: The positive impact of a selfdirected goal. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 11, 275-285.
Little, D. (1995). Learning as dialogue: the dependence of learner autonomy on teacher
autonomy. System 23(2),175-81.
Littlewood, W. (1997). Autonomy in communication and learning in the Asian context. Autonomy
2000: The Development of Learning Independence in Language Learning Conference
Proceedings (pp.124-140). Thonburi, Thailand
Rader, L. (2005). Goal setting for students and teachers: six steps to success. The Clearing House,
78(3), 123–126.
Sheerin, S. (1997). An exploration of the relationship between self-access and independent
Learning. In Benson, P. and Voller, P. (Eds.). 1997. Autonomy and Independence in Language
Learning (pp.54-65). London: Longman.
Stiggins, R., Chappuis, J. (2005). Using student-involved classroom assessment to closeachievement gaps. Theory Into Practice, 44(1), 11-18. Retrieved from http://
ati.pearson.com/downloads/tip-pub.pdf
Thavenius, C. (1999) Teacher autonomy for learner autonomy. In D. Crabbe and S. Cotterrall(Eds.). Learner Autonomy in Language Learning: Defining the Field and Effecting change(pp. 159-63). Frankfurt am Main
Voller, P. (1997). Does the teacher have a role in autonomous language learning? In P. Benson and
P. Voller (Eds.). Autonomy and independence in language learning (pp.98-113). London:
Longman.
Powell, D. & Powell, O. (2010). Becoming an emotionally intelligent teacher, New York, Skyhorse
Publishing, Inc.

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): Looking Back

Looking Back 報告
Reflections on Creating Community:
Learning Together, Otsuma Women's
University, December 14, 2014
To see photos of the afternoon: http://ld-­‐
sig.org/creating-­‐community-­‐photos/
In bringing people together to explore
learner development and community
building through discussion and reflection,
our aim was to keep presentations formats
informal and interactive. Creating
Community: Learning Together involved tworounds of digital display and poster
presentations. Both rounds were followedby small discussion and reflection circles
for 30 minutes in pairs and small groups ineach presentation room. In total, there
were 38 poster presentations/digital
displays given by both teachers andstudents, with 48 teachers and 42 students
attending. The whole event finished with aplenary session celebrating the publicationof two new collections of research by the
Learner Development SIG. We would like to
say a really warm thank you to everyone
who supported, presented at, andparticipated in the conference, with special
thanks to the following individuals—KeikoSudo, Martin Mullen, Agnes Patko, Ken
Ikeda, Devon Arthurson, Nozomi Tajima,
Jenny Morgan, Ian Hurrell, Karin Takahashi,and Alison Stewart—for sharing theirreflections on Creating Community:
Learning Together. Thank you, one and all!
Andy Barfield, Ken Ikeda, Fumiko Murase,
and Stacey Vye (Conference Organizers)

みなさまに集まっていただき、ディスカッショ
ンやリフレクションを通して、学習者ディベ
ロップメントやコミュニティービルディングについて研究していただくため、プレゼンテーション形式をカジュアルにそしてインタラク
ティブにする事を⽬目標としました。Creating  Community:  Learning  Togetherでは、デジタルディスプレイとポスタープレゼンテーショ
ンのセッションを２周⾏行行いました。また１周ごとに、それぞれのプレゼンテーションルーム
で、ペアもしくは少⼈人数グループでの、３０分間のディスカッション・リフレクションサーク
ルが⾏行行われました。合計４８⼈人の教師と４２⼈人の学⽣生が参加し、教師や学⽣生による３８ものポ
スタープレゼンテーションやデジタルディスプ
レイが発表されました。そして、このイベント
は、学習者ディベロップメント研究部会（ＬＤ 　ＳＩＧ）による研究成果をまとめた２冊の本の出版を祝う全員会議で幕を閉じました。この会
議の開催に協⼒力力してくださった⽅方々、またプレ
ゼンテーション発表、参加して下さった⽅方々、全ての⽅方々に⼼心から感謝いたします。そしてCreating  Community:  Learning  Togetherに対する様々な意⾒見見をくださり、Keiko  Sudo,  Martin  Mullen,  Agnes  Patko,  Ken  Ikeda,  Devon  Arthurson,  Nozomi  Tajima,  Jenny  Morgan,  Ian  Hurrell,  Karin  Takahashi,  Alison  Stewartには⼤大変感謝しております。みなさん、ありがとうございます！
Andy Barfield, Ken Ikeda, Fumiko Murase, andStacey Vye （会議主催者）

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): Looking Back
Keiko Sudo, Graduate School, Keisen
University

including college students get involved inthese kinds of activities.

I had chances to listen to the following
presentations :Group Discussion
In the second group discussion, I talked with
two university students who sincerely hope to
put their university learning to use at school
environments in their communities. Some
Japanese teachers still teach in a teachercentered way. We agreed that cooperative
learning can be more focused so that students
can decide through autonomy and learn agreat deal from other individuals in many
ways. To find new things from your friends is a
lot of fun and you can expect a very lively
environment with a lot of laughing and active
exchange.

Jenny Morgan’s “Learning together—
researching NGOs and social change”
I found aspects of the pleasure of being ateacher in Jenny’s presentation very
interesting, particularly the aspect of herenjoyment of learning together with her
students. She introduced one of her students
who did qualitative research in an NGO for
elderly people. The elderly people the student
interviewed are still active in society after
their retirements. The student who is notconfident yet with his English did great
research. It means one of Jenny’s goals in her
teaching succeeded—the student is now
hoping to pursue a career with an NGO. I likeher idea of exploring how domestic andinternational chapters work together for socialchange. (Thank you for your tasty andseasonal tree biscuits and chocolate!)
Yukiko Aoyama’s “The living and working
conditions of indigenous people: Struggling forcommunity with the modern world”
When I talked to Yukiko, I felt her sincerity
and her earnest engagement for her topic. I
am sure these feelings stem from her caring
for indigenous people. Her research was well
explored (?) so I learned a lot from her
presentation. I hope she continues researching
this topic and meets many people concerning
this issue domestically and internationally.
Sumika Morita’s “Meguro Children Theatre: A
learning and social community for children's
psycho-social development”
Sumika’s report and research support theimportance of fostering these kinds ofcommunity activities where young and older
people mix and spend time together, even fora short period of time. I was amazed to knowthat even her younger brother was involved inthese activities. I hope many young people,

Impressions
I was able to see that in this SIG, bothteachers and students are in fact creating acommunity with a spirit of “Learning
Together” where both counterparts in a way
bring up interesting and questionable aspectsof their learning and express their honest
feelings and exchange ideas. For example, formy presentation, those who came and listened
to my presentation asked me quite a lot ofquestions and gave suggestions. Whileanswering those questions I slightly becameaware of what I was not sure about, in otherwords I was able to realize the point I was
missing. I think I can include that point in mythesis. It was a big finding for me.
Teachers are learners as well as
students. Is this one of the important concepts
in this LD SIG?
As a Japanese student, the way theconference team organized (?) proceeded theconference was very interesting; theconference was very relaxed, with snacks anddrinking, while it was very systematic in termsof time. The conference team was very warm
and their instructions were very clear in thegroup discussions; therefore, we weresmoothly guided and the discussion was pretty
fruitful. Is this normal at this type of

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): Looking Backconference? As a matter of fact, I reallyenjoyed it.
Thank you very much for your sincere
help and support at the conference.
Martin Mullen, Meisei University
I’ve been to quite a few different
conferences, and kind of conferences inJapan, and I’ve heard people say thatdifferent events have different‘atmospheres’… and to be honest, I’ve always
been skeptical of that. They all seem muchthe same to me! So attending the LD
Conference on December 14, 2014 was such apleasant surprise as it really did have a
different, more relaxed, friendly atmospherethan any other I’d been at before in Japan. I
was presenting myself during the second
session, so my comments relate mainly to thefirst session.
Even before the presentations started,
there was a warm and welcoming feel to theevent. Because it is a SIG event, I guesseverybody knew more people than usual,
which helped people to relax.
Throughout the first session, one thingwhich struck me again and again was that
there was a wonderful ratio of student
presenters to teacher presenters. As I
mentioned during the plenary session after
the first round of presentations, conferencesin Japan are usually full of teachers talking
about what students want, what students
need, what students are interested in. Of
course, this is often very well informed, wellintended, and accurate, but it was a breath of
fresh air to get to hear so much from thestudents themselves. It was a great
experience for me as a teacher to hear fromstudents directly, and know what it is thatthey are interested in and what their wants
and needs are.
From the students’ perspective (putting
on my teacher’s hat) I think that it is a very
useful experience for students to see theirteacher from a different perspective. For
students to realize that there is a communityof teachers out there, of which their teacher

is a part, will help them better understandand respect their teachers and where theirteachers are coming from.
Overall, perhaps we don't have enoughopportunities like this where we share ourperspectives in such equal measures. It can bea very worthwhile and perhaps eye-opening
experience for both sets of people. And
through more events like this, where students
and teachers attend and present together—perhaps it can help to bridge the gap that may
exist between the two groups (from both
perspectives).
Agnes Patko, Meisei University
Creating Community: Learning Together was agreat opportunity for both teachers andstudents to meet and learn from each other ina relaxed environment outside the traditionalclassroom setting. This one-day mini
conference met my expectations; that is, I
could take away new ideas of classroom
management and student support. I talked toother teachers about some of the difficulties I
had met in my classes and we sharedtechniques of dealing with them. Yet, themost memorable part of the conference waslistening to and discussing issues with student
presenters.
I remember how anxious I was before
my first conference presentation, even though
I had been teaching for years then, so I wasused to speaking in front of other people.
When I listened to students’ presentations, I
recalled my own experiences of anxiety andtried to be as supportive as I could when I saw
that they got stuck or forgot what they wereabout to say. I was impressed by their courageand preparedness. I got lots of energy fromthem. Let me introduce two student
presentations that were the most interesting
to me.
Students from Tokyo University of
Science talked about how they proposed to
improve the English Lounge sessions.
Originally, they discussed various topics eachtime with the help of the teacher in thesesessions; however, they were not satisfied

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): Looking Backwith this and recommended implementing
debates. The preparation process for thedebates was also outlined in the poster.
Unfortunately, as I arrived only a few
minutes before the end of the round, there
was not enough time for them to finish their
explanation. Still, there was enough time forme to feel their enthusiasm. The question that
arose in me after talking to them is how I
could encourage my students to take suchactions as these presenters on their own
learning processes.
Another interesting presentation wasgiven by a Chuo University student. The topic
was about the rights of indigenous people,
with special attention to the Ainu people inJapan. During my university studies I read a
lot about the Ainu in various books andpapers. However, in Japan I have never heard
about them in the media and when I ask
Japanese people about them they seem to be
reluctant to answer. I do not know if it isbecause it is a taboo, people actually do notknow much about the Ainu or are justuninterested. Thus, this was the first time I
had heard about this issue in Japan. This
presentation made me think about thedifficulties of preserving the culture ofminorities and indigenous people.
The participants at the Creating
Community: Learning Together conference not
only benefited from listening to teachers’
presentations but could familiarize themselveswith various topics that students wereinterested to research and present. I believethat both teachers and students got closer toeach other. Moreover, it was a great
opportunity for students to get to know
students from other universities and talkabout their research interests. I hope that in
the future there will be similar events where
we all can learn together from each other.
Ken Ikeda, Otsuma Women's University
As one of the conference organizers (andpresenters), I had few moments to mingle in
the program itself. So, I felt privileged toattend one of the first round discussions as amoderator. I chose it on the basis of several
students visiting from my university being
there (they are in a teacher training program).
I was surprised that four of them came,considering that I teach them on Saturdays,
and had made no offer of extra credit.
The discussion group was attended by a
lot of students from various universities. I
asked if there were any thoughts about what
they learned from the session. A native English
speaker teacher (Devon Arthurson) responded
first, speaking in Japanese, which reallyhelped usher the discussion to become open
and interactive between teachers andstudents.
Later on, a Japanese teacher (sorry, I
don’t remember her name) asked the students
directly why they would come to a conferenceof their free will. Several students answered
either in Japanese or English. Among them,
one explained he was unable to present at the
JALT National Conference in Tsukuba so he wasglad for the chance to do it here. Another(one of my students) said she came wanting tolearn new things and meet people. She
learned for the first time what “autonomy”
meant. The Japanese teacher was overcomeby the willingness of these students to freely
participate. She broke into tears, leading
another to cry as well. Everyone was moved.
Devon complimented me on the moderation,
but I felt I hadn’t done anything to guide it.
The discussion had moved on its own to create
a community and everyone had learned
something together.
It was truly a magical moment and thisalone made me feel our conference was worth
it all. I felt the walls that separate teachersand students and between themselves(especially between students who likely
otherwise would refrain from meeting due toschool ranking, etc.) had come down
momentarily. We could regard each other as
like-minded and like-motivated participants. I
told my students that what they shared in that
discussion would inspire teachers to teachwith reinvigorated vision for years to come.

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): Looking Back
The only question I have, which may
echo many others, is whether conferences likethis one, where students and teachers dofreely present alongside each other, alreadyexist in Japan. So far it remains unanswered.
Devon Arthurson, Rikkyo University
I felt incredibly privileged to do a poster
presentation about increasing learnerautonomy in the first round of the conferencealong with one other presentation by ateacher and two other presentations by
students. This was the first time I presented
and I was surprised by the positive feedbackother instructors gave me—in addition to theinterest students showed. Immediately I felt I
was in a nurturing environment. Everyone I
meet seemed very eager to share ideas andlearn more from one another.
After the round of presentations, we
had a sharing-circle style session guided by
Ken Ikeda. The nurturing environment
continued as Ken let everyone take time togather their thoughts and ideas before sharing
them. He also encouraged us to speak ineither English or Japanese so that students
would feel more comfortable participating.
Some instructors attending were moved totears as students shared their ideas. It wasevident that the students were interested in
actively taking part in learning and teaching.
Power imbalances between instructors,
students and within universities weredramatically decreased. It was a very special
moment.
The students who presented and those
who attended were incredibly brave to be at
the conference, especially since it was
predominately held in their second language.
The students truly deserve praise for being
there. Many instructors recognized this andtried to put students at ease by encouraging
them and asking for their feedback. Thoughsome questions asked by instructors may havebeen unexpected for students, I am certainthat the students pondered those questions
and were prompted to examine their ideas
about learning more deeply. It is more

important to have students start exploringthese questions than giving concrete answers
about concepts as before that session they
had probably never been asked to consider
such things.
Though I don’t have any directquestions about creating community andlearning together, I hope the success of thisevent can be shared with others in JALT. It is
important that instructors see students as
wanting to be active participants in theirlearning despite the predominantly passive
learning that Japanese students experience.
We as instructors must give students at alllevels of learning opportunities large or small,so they can have involvement.
Nozomi Tajima, Third-year student, Chuo
University, Faculty of Law
It was the first time for me to make apresentation outside Chuo. When Prof.
Barfield invited me to this conference, I felt a
bit nervous, but I thought it was my big
chance to collect various comments on myresearch topic, trafficking in persons (TIP), so
I decided to join.
Actually, many listeners came and left
some comments. Some said the topic wasinteresting, some asked critical questions to
me. For example, I introduced “JKbusiness” (female senior high school student
business) as one of TIP cases in Japan;
however, one listener pointed out that it
contradicted the definition of TIP. In TIP
Protocol, trafficking in persons is defined as“transnational” organized crime. She said JK
business is “national,” and then asked why I
recognized it as TIP. This point is something I
have not considered, so her question gave mea trigger for further research.
Moving on to the presentations, there
were various kinds of topics. Some presenters
had interviews collected from sources. I think
it is very challenging and important; however,sometimes we should be sensitive whencontacting people. For example, if you want
to research about homeless people, do you
directly ask them about their situation? If you

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): Looking Backdo so, it not courteous, letting them shut theirmouths. Another problem of having interviews
tends to be personal. When quoting data frompersonal interviews, researchers should
compare that data with general information.
If there are gaps between them, it isinteresting to research why they happened,
which makes topics more detailed.
In conclusion, this conference gave me
two benefits. One is that the listeners’comments motivated me to preserve in myresearch. The other is that I could meet
people from various fields (other university
students, lecturers, etc.) through listening topresentations and having discussions. Again, I
would like to express my gratitude to Prof.
Andy Barfield for inviting me to this wonderfulcommunity.
Jenny Morgan, Wayo Women's University
At the recent LD mini-conference I gave apresentation (NGOs and Social Change:
Creating a community of student researchers)in the first round. It was exciting to be in aroom with diverse presentation topics butwith the common thread of ‘group-worklearning’ and ‘community-sharing of
knowledge’. We reported on: a community
theatre group, Ainu rights, Tohoku Children’s
Voices (a story project), human-trafficking,student research about NGOs and socialchange, and cheerleading. I was particularly
impressed with the learner presentations ineach room—students had clearly spent a lot oftime and energy (with their teachers)
preparing interesting visual materials in orderto share their individual research projects
with us in English. It was heartening to be in
the minority as a teacher amongst highly
motivated student presenters from various
universities and one high school.
While I certainly picked up usefulclassroom tips from all the presentations I
saw, for me the most useful and relevant
presentation for my own teaching-learning
contexts would have to be Fostering “Active
Listening” Skills in EFL Discussion Classes by
Natalie M. Gravillis, Rikkyo University (thanks

Natalie!). As a teacher, I invariably focus onplanning activities, which have students
practice output and produce language so they
become confident and skillful speakers ofEnglish. However, language use is about
multifaceted communication, having
conversations and discussions, the back andforth of ideas and opinions, making meaning
and building knowledge together. So, learners
need to be able to not only produce language,
but also to react to what they hear, tocomment and agree/disagree; they need toknow how to expand conversations anddiscussions with their classmates—they need
to be active listeners as well as speakers.
One of the specific teacher issues or
puzzles that I described in my own
presentation was how to help my research
students make the most of their ‘peer-sharediscussion’ time so that it is a really focused,
useful and dynamic process (not a one-sided
conversation or monologue). The aim of these
discussion rounds is for students to eachpresent their research notes, then ask eachother questions so that the researcher thinks
more deeply, investigates points more fully,
and so refines their research. Furthermore,
the peer-share discussion process aims tofoster a community of researchers amongst
the class members. My students do come withresearch to share but many have struggledwith expanding their discussions and asking
useful questions which help class-matesdevelop and refine their topics.
In her presentation, Natalie Gravillis
shared a very transparent, dynamic procedure
to help her students develop their “active
listening” skills during discussions by learningand using functional verbal reactions,expressions for agreeing/disagreeing, phrases
for checking understanding and useful followup questions. Right from the start of her
course, she has students practise various
common English reaction expressions; they use
a question ‘grid’ sheet to encourage pairs toengage fully in their discussions and to expand
the conversations about various topics.

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): Looking BackI currently use a simple version of theabove in my English communication courses
and have found the transparent teachinglearning of reactive phrases and follow-up
questions to be largely effective at helping
learners develop natural conversation skills. I
look forward to implementing a more clearly
scaffolded procedure to “active listening” toenrich my research and discussion course thisyear.
The LD mini-conference was arewarding opportunity to exchange ideas withother teachers and witness the ways in which
students are involved in their language
learning processes. For me, creating
community(s) for learning together involves aconstant process of sharing knowledge byasking-speaking-listening, reactingcommenting, adapting-refining and learningteaching together.

activities. According to these principles, good
feedback should:
1. Help clarify what good performance is(goals, criteria, expected standards).
2. Facilitate the development of self-

assessment (reflection) in learning.
3. Deliver high quality information to

students about their learning.
4. Encourage teacher and peer dialogue

around learning.
5. Encourage positive motivational beliefs

and self-esteem.
6. Provide opportunities to close the gap

between current and desired
performance.
7. Provide information to teachers thatcan be used to help shape theteaching.
(Nicol & Mcfarlane-Dick 2006, p. 206)

Making Good Feedback Principles Work
Ian Hurrell, Rikkyo University
In my interactive presentation, I discussed alearner-centered, peer-reflection activity that
I use in an English discussion course that I
teach at Rikkyo University which aims todevelop communication and discussion skills.
In a typical EDC lesson, micro-classes of 7-9
students are presented with a new discussion
skill, such as discussing advantages anddisadvantages of various topics. After
practicing these phrases in controlled
activities, the students attempt to use theseskills in a 10-minute group discussion in groupsof three or four. The students are thenprovided with feedback which they try to act
upon in a second 16-minute discussion.
It has been suggested that selfassessment and peer-reflection are much
more effective in developing a sense ofownership and personal responsibility instudents than teacher-fronted feedback(Birjandi & Siyyari, 2010). Nicol & McfarlaneDick (2006) outline seven useful principles forgood feedback practice, which should beconsidered when designing feedback

Using these principles, I created a peerreflection activity designed to have students
reflect on their discussions and theirperformance of certain discussion skills. In
this activity, students work in pairs to discuss
their performance after a diagnostic 10minute discussion, and ways that they can
improve their performance in the next 16minute discussion. Below is an example of one
peer reflection activity, which focuses on
raising student awareness of how deeply they
considered advantages and disadvantages of
the topics in their discussion.
1. What topics did your group talk about

in your discussion?
2. What advantages and disadvantages did
your group say for each topic?
3. Did discussing both sides of the topic
help you to have a deeper discussion?
4. What could you improve in your next
discussion?
The first question is designed to activate thestudents’ memory of the discussion they justhad (in this case, the advantages andNewsletter of the JALT Learner Development SIG <ld-sig.org/>

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): Looking Backdisadvantages of studying abroad) to moreeasily facilitate peer-reflection in theproceeding questions. The second question
has the students reflect on their performanceof advantages and disadvantages in thediscussion. While the third question is moreformative in nature in that it has the students
consider whether discussing advantages anddisadvantages improved the quality of their
discussion. The final question is designed tofocus on closing the gap between current anddesired performance by having the students
decide on ways that could improve theirperformance in the next discussion.
While the students are discussing thequestions in groups, I can walk between themlistening to their reflections and ask questions
if necessary, which allows me to discreetly
address problems with individual students andprovides me with a great source of
information into the various issues thatstudents are having in the class. Finally, after
the students have finished their reflections,
we summarize the key ideas together as aclass, and this is used to generate focus points
for the next discussion.
In presenting this activity, I was able tohave many interesting discussions andconversations with the various audience
members. Many of the conversations centeredaround the level of English necessary forstudents to do these kinds of tasks. To answer
this question, I generally use this activity withintermediate level university freshmen, andhave found that my students can usuallycomplete this activity with few problems. In
addition, as the students develop their
discussion skills, I often observe that they areable to apply these skills to better reflectwith their peers throughout the course.
However, even with my lower level classes,
my students have been able to utilize theirlimited resources at their disposal to reflectwith their effectively with their peers. If welook at the example above, we can see thatthe first and second questions simply require
the students to remember and repeat
examples from their discussions. The third

question is more abstract, and canconsequently be more difficult for lower level
students, but the answer could be as simple as“Yes” or “No”. This will at least give theteacher an idea of how the students feel thatcan be expanded upon by the teacher after
the reflection activity. Finally, the answers to
the final question can be as simple as “I think
we should ask more questions” or “We should
give more disadvantages next time.” In my
experience, even these simple answers help
the students to become more involved in the
feedback process and also provide me withvaluable insight into the students’ attitudes
toward the class which I can use to shape myteaching.
Another question from a conference
participant focused on the quality of thestudents’ reflections. Based on myobservations, I can say that when introducing
these activities, it is useful to provide some
simple examples of what students might say,so that they can have an idea of how to
structure their reflections. However, after
students get used to these peer-reflection
activities, I have found that are able toengage in these activities well and provide
each other with detailed, positive feedback,which I feel has a much greater impact thanpurely teacher-fronted feedback.
Interestingly, with the large number ofstudent presenters attending this event, I had
the rare opportunity to hear their views onthese issues. I was encouraged to hear thatmany of them would like to try this activity
and would also like to have more
opportunities to be more involved incontrolling the course of their learning.
In conclusion, it was a very rewarding
experience to interact with both teachers andstudents all from different contexts andbackgrounds and hear their different views on
this activity. Having done several interactive
presentations at LD SIG events, I am always
struck by how new directions to expand myresearch come out of the conversations with
my audience. Particularly in this presentation,
one person mentioned that rather than

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): Looking Backencouraging ‘self-esteem’, which is mentioned
in Nicol & Mcfarlane-Dick’s principles, thefocus should be on encouraging ‘self-efficacy’.
Although I can appreciate that what Nicol &Mcfarlane-Dick (2006) meant by encouraging‘self-esteem’ is that students should feelpositive rather than negative after the
feedback process, the fact that the term ‘selfefficacy’ is not mentioned in these principles
is something that needs to be addressed andI’m now looking further into how this concept
might be incorporated into my feedback
activities.
References
Birjandi, P., & Siyyari, M. (2010). Selfassessment and peer-assessment: A
comparative study of their effect on writing
performance and rating accuracy, Iranian
Journal of Applied Linguistics, 13(1), 23-45.
Nicol, D. J., & Mcfarlane-Dick, D. (2006).
Formative assessment and self-regulated
learning: A model and seven principles ofgood feedback practice. Studies in Higher
Education, 31(2), 199-218.
Karin Takahashi, First-year student, Facultyof Law, Chuo University
When Andy said “Let’s participate in a
conference!” I was very surprised and very
worried about whether I could do it or not. I
had negative thoughts about English and I had
never participated in conferences before.
Although I participated in a conference
for the first time, my mind was very changed.
There were many Japanese and non-Japaneseteachers and students I had never seen
before. I felt covered with an English world. I
felt my mind dance. At that time, I felt that I
might like English.
I presented on my development oflearning and using vocabulary phrases. This is
not studying using vocabulary books. Outsideclass, as preparation each week, we watched
and listened to news and global issues reports,
and wrote down key points and vocabularyphrases. Finally we made vocabulary maps

about different news stories or global issues.
When we used the maps in class, we could
introduce the news or global issue very clearly
to other people. That was the focus of mypresentation at the conference.
I think I could grow by participating in
the conference. The reason is that I could
present with confidence. The first time I was
anxious. But I presented on, and many people
understood my presentation. They not only
understood what I explained, but also they
took pictures of my poster and notebooks. I
was very happy and I got confidence about
English. One of the best growth experiences
for me was that I found it was interesting to
be talking English with people I didn’t know
about my development, my presentation, andmany other things.
The conference was very exciting.
There were new ideas about English educationand new people to meet. I could meet andtalk with the students from other universities
and get to know ideas from teachers. So I
want to say thanks to Andy, the organizers,
and participants. Thank you for giving methese wonderful experiences. I started tothink that I want to study English more. If I
can, I want to study abroad in an Englishspeaking university. That’s my new plan now.
Thank you very much for coming to meet me!
Alison Stewart, Gakushuin University
Creating Community, Learning Together wasexactly the right title/theme for the LD SIG
Tokyo get-together's mini-conference. The mixof students and teachers in every room
worked really well and really did create asense of togetherness that is inspiring to see
and feel.
The posters I saw and discussed werereally high quality: thoughtful and thoughtprovoking. I particularly enjoyed talking to
Huw Davies about Silent Communities—asteachers we seem to worry when students
don't say anything. But if we can see that they
are engaged and interested, if we know they
are listening or reading, perhaps we shouldn't

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): Looking Backworry unduly? Belonging to a community
means participation, but what do we mean byparticipation?
I also had great discussions aboutsustainable motivation and project-learning inelementary schools, undergraduates'
depictions of autonomy, different kinds andmethods of feedback, trafficking of persons,etc., and of course all the conversations on
the sidelines of the conference.
This was a great, festive end to theyear. I'm looking forward to seeing how theideas and synergy from this event will develop
over the next year. And I'm already looking
forward to this year's mini-conference!
********For more information on Tokyo get-togethers,
please go to: http://ld-­‐sig.org/get-­‐togethers/********

Would you like to Join the Learning Learning
Publications team?
Now that we produce Learning Learning as a team, weare always looking for new members to join.
Membership in the team is open to everyone
regardless of publication or teaching experience,teaching context, or nationality. The only stipulationis that you can agree to hold the position for atleast a year (meaning that you will help with next year's
Spring issue 23 (1) and Fall issue 23 (2)).
Currently, we are looking for people who areinterested in filling these positions:• LD SIG Grant Awardees Essay coordinator: liaises
with the grant awardees to encourage and help themto publish their research essays in Learning Learning.
• Review coordinator: encourages potential
contributors to send in reviews (of books, journal
articles, materials or web resources relating to learnerdevelopment) and works with them to publish theirreviews in Learning Learning.
• Looking Back report coordinator: encourages
contributors to report on past events related to learnerdevelopment (which can take the form of conferences,forums, and workshops, both traditional and online)
and works with them to publish their reports
in Learning Learning.
If you are interested in any of these positions andwould like to know more about them, please send me
an email;James Underwood,
Learning Learning coordinator,
jamesmichaelunderwood@gmail.com

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): LOOKING FORWARD

Looking Forward 今後のイベント
The stories of our success: Narratives
in language development—LD SIG
forum at the JALT Pan-SIG 2015
conference in Kobe
Hello to all of you! For those of you attending
the Pan-SIG conference, you are warmly
invited to take part in our LD SIG forum thisyear. PanSIG 2015 will be held at the Kobe City
University of Foreign Studies in Hyogo-ken,from May 16-17, 2015.
This year's LD SIG forum for the PanSIG
conference will focus on the role that
personal narratives can play in making thelanguage-learning process more interestingand enjoyable. As we have always done, theforum will have simultaneous displays andpresentations, with plenty of opportunities foraudience and presenter interaction anddiscussion. This year we will have six great
presentations for your interest andstimulation.
The role of music in building narrative,
grasping metaphor, and achieving
expository reach in L2 writing
Lee Arnold (Seigakuin University) and Joseph
Tomei (Kumamoto Gakuen University)
The narrative is defined as an account ofconnected events, and this presentation willshow how music can be used to aid andinspire learners to create written narratives inthe L2 with cohesion, range, and depth. The
presenters will explore:
1) how instrumental music may aid learners’
construction of meaning and narrative;2) how the metaphoric characterof lyrics may broaden comprehension andproduction of long-form essays.

In conclusion, the presenters willshow, through learner writing samples andlesson materials, how instrumental and vocal
music may provide learners with a foundationand stimulus for both factual and creative
writing.
Use of narrative flags for learners tounderstand and make themselves
understood
Helen Hanae (Toyo University)
When learners process long narratives, telltale
clusters of lexical features flag their attention
to hotspots where they pause to data-mine forgist and high-priority details. Just like datamining bots, even L2 readers and listeners oflower proficiency can use these “flags” tomove efficiently through poorly understoodnarratives. The presenter will examine thetwo streamlined sets of “flag” features(selected through POS tagging and manual
analysis) her learners use for academic/
business reading and listening. She will also
demonstrate how “flagging” Story Dicenarratives and interviews to attract readers’and listeners’ attentions may function to takethem on more easily followed and interesting
narrative journeys.
Sharing my story: learning French throughstorytelling in a French drama school
Yoko Morimoto (Meiji University)
To understand what a language learner may go
through, and to also bring aspects of SLA,
autonomy, neuro-ELT, and positive psychology
into her own learning, the presenter will share
her learning experiences of French to theintermediate level over the last three and halfyears. She will describe the most salient
moments of her experience—joining a French
drama school in Paris, and discovering that her

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 21 (1): LOOKING FORWARD
personal pleasure of open novel reading in her
drama class proved lively and engaging toothers. Through the recounting of such
experiences as a learner, she will sharefurther observations and analysis of what has
most contributed to her progress and what
may be applicable in pedagogical terms to
Japanese EFL university classroom settings.
Who’s holding the reins? Teachers talkabout approaches to ‘teaching’ aboutautonomy
Ann Mayeda (Konan Women’s University)
This presentation examines the threads fromthe narratives of four teachers involved in“teaching” autonomy through a three-year
tutoring course designed to scaffold learners
toward self-direction in setting and achieving
language-learning goals within a university
English department curriculum. These classes
are meant for learners to gain the tools andknowledge necessary in order to increaseautonomy and for the teachers to promoteand support it accordingly. This discussion will
center on two narrative threads—balancing
the processes of discovery towards the best fit
for teachers given their approaches toautonomous learning, and teaching with theincreased understanding of the best fit forlearners at each stage of their studies andlives. The threads seem to indicate a positive
relationship between teachers and learners
when there is a good match between what theteacher offers and what the learners are
comfortable with.
Language identity: from minority situation
to minority situation
Joel Laurier (Toyo University)
As Global English and English as a Lingua
Franca movements grow in their global
appeal, the native speaker model loses its
relevance for language teaching. Much lesstalked about is the teacher as second
language learner, unless it is in the teacher’s
homeland, despite the fact that the majorityof the world’s English speakers are themselves
not “native speakers.” This presentation is a
first-hand account of the presenter himself as
second language learner, in one of Kachru’s
inner-circle countries. It will show the path hetook toward identifying himself as an English
speaker, and how that path became even more
complex as he moved to Japan. His evolving
identity as a bilingual speaker in a minority
situation to a minority situation in a foreigncountry will also be discussed.

A web of connections – learnerautonomy and Web 2.0 LD SIG forum
at JALT CALL 2015 in Fukuoka
Don’t forget our CALL LD SIG forum right on
the heels of the PanSIG! This year’s CALL 2015
conference will be held in Fukuoka at Kyushu
Sangyo University from June 5-7, 2015.
This year’s CALL LD forum will focus on therole that Web 2.0 technology plays forlanguage learners and teachers, withpresentations and discussion on research and/or practices using Web 2.0 over a range ofmotivational, social and political issues
involving learner autonomy. For this forum wehave three lively and interesting presentations
for you.
Transportable identities and social
networks: a reflection on the pros and consof out-of-class communication
Richard Pinner (Sophia University)
Accept or Decline? Some teachers encourage
their students to befriend them on social
networking sites (SNS), while others areunderstandably wary. SNS can form a very
effective way of connecting with students
outside the classroom, engaging their real
lives and identities. It can also create
opportunities for authentic and motivating
communication, not just between classmates
but also within a web of connections withother learners and speakers around the globe.
It could also be a social and ethical minefield.

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): LOOKING FORWARD
When people interact in different social
contexts, they may invoke different
Transportable Identities, which are either“latent or explicit” within the social context
of the discourse (Ushioda, 2011). The
presenter will draw on both publishedresearch and personal experience to reflect on
the use of these types of Web 2.0 technology
and the consequences they pose.
Affordances for intercultural learning
through a Facebook exchange
Alison Stewart (Gakushuin University)

exchange using PenPalSchools.com, a Learning
Management System (LMS) style tool for
managing classroom level exchanges. The
program recently expanded beyond thesecondary level to include use with university
students. Results of the study quantifying theeffects of the digital exchange on student's
intercultural sensitivity development revealed
increases in intercultural engagement andintercultural confidence after a six-weekdigital pen pal exchange. This study
contributes to a growing body of research into
the use of Web 2.0 to connect students inauthentic intercultural communication.

Computer-mediated exchanges offer plentiful
opportunities for language and culturallearning. Facebook is an ideal medium forsuch exchanges because, as the world’s
largest social networking service, it is familiar
to many young adult learners, as well as
because of the ease with which sources of
information, such as text, photographs, andlinks, can be incorporated into dialogue. The
Tokyo-Kota Kinabalu Unilink is a Facebook
exchange between university students inJapan and Malaysia, in which cross-culturalpairs of students share information on given
cultural topics over a four-week period. The
presenter shall identify affordances forlearning in one of the dialogues and consider
some implications for learner autonomy andlanguage pedagogy in university classes.
Developing intercultural sensitivity in ELF
through digital pen pal exchange
Simeon Flowers (Aoyama Gakuin University)
Development of English as a Lingua Franca(ELF) is parallel to development ofintercultural communicative competence. The
Internet in general and Web 2.0 in particularhave created greater opportunities for
gaining practical experience
towards developing such competence. In a
quasi-experimental study conducted at
Tamagawa University's Center for English as a
Lingua Franca (CELF), subjects were enlisted
to participate in a six-week online pen pal
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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): Sig Matters

Call For Contributions
原稿募集
Learning Learning is your space for continuing
to make the connections that interest you.
You are warmly invited and encouraged tocontribute to the next issue of Learning
Learning in either English and/or Japanese.
We welcome writing in different formats anddifferent lengths about different issues
connected with learner and teacher
development, such as:『学習の学習』は会員に興味あるつながりを構築する空間です。次号『学習の学習』への和文(もしくは英文、及び二言語での)投稿を募集しています。形式や長さを問わず、学習者及び教員の発達に関連した以下のようなさまざま文章を歓迎しています:• articles (about 2,500 to 4,000 words)• reports (about 500 to 1,000 words)• learner histories (about 500 to 1,000 words)• stories of autonomy (about 500 to 1,000
words)• book reviews (about 500 to 1,000 words)• letters to the SIG (about 500 words)• personal profiles (100 words more or less)• critical reflections (100 words more or less)• research interests (100 words more or less)• photographs• poems... and much more...
We would like to encourage new writing andnew writers and are also very happy to workwith you in developing your writing. We would
be delighted to hear from you about yourideas, reflections, experiences, and interests
to do with learner development, learnerautonomy and teacher autonomy.

•

論文 (約4000字-10000字)•

報告書 (約2000字-4000字)•

学習者のヒストリー (約2000字-4000字)•

自律性に関する体験談 (約2000字-4000
字)•

書評 (約2000字-4000字) • SIGへの手紙(約2000字)•

個人プロフィール (約400字)•

クリティカル・リフレクション (約400
字)•研究興味 (約400字)•

写真 •詩 その他

これまでにない形式のもの、また新しい方々からのご投稿をお待ちしております。内容について もぜひご相談ください。みなさまのご意見

learninglearningjaltldsig@gmail.com

やお考え、ご経験、そして学習者の発達、学習
者の自律性と教師の自律性に関することなど、
ぜひお聞かせください。

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Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): Sig Matters

Financial Report, 財務報告
SIG fund balance February 28, 2015 / SIG資金残高2015年2月28日
Balance in bank account 銀行口座の残高
Reserve liabilities JALT本部預け金

115,484368,250

Cash at hand （現金）

230

TOTAL

合計

483,964

PLANNED EXPENSES March to December 2015

2015年3月- 12月予定経費

Table rental at JALT 2014／JALT2014 全国大会テーブルレンタル代
Shipping LD materials to the conferences／SIGテーブル用マテリアル送料
LD SIG site cost ／SIGウェブサイト経費
Donation for best of JALT 2014／Best of JALTサポート
1 Research grant／研究助成金
3 National grants／全国大会参加助成金
2 National grants／全国大会参加助成金 (¥40,000 x 2)
2 Outreach grants／アウトリーチ助成金
JALT Pan-SIG conference grant／JALT Pan-SIG 参加助成金(17,000)(30,000)(7,500)(20,000)(25,000)(80,000)(80,000)(40,000)

JALT CALL conference grant／JALT CALL 参加助成金
Co-sponsor a JALT speaker／JALTスピーカー共同支援金-40,000

Get-together room hire／東京エリアミーティング会場費(25,000)

Other miscellaneous / 他の雑費

(20,000)

SUB-TOTAL

小計(40,000)(125,000)(469,500)

PROJECTED REVENUE March to December 2015
Membership 194 members／会費（194名）
SUB-TOTAL 小計

2015年3月- 12月予定収入
291,000
291,000

Projected SIG fund balance December 31st, 2015 / 予定SIG資金残高2015年12月31日
Balance in bank account 銀行口座の残高

105,234

Reserve liabilities JALT本部預け金

200,000
230

Cash at hand （現金）
TOTAL

合計

Mayumi Abe 阿部

305,464

真由美

LD SIG treasurer LDSIG財務 March 29, 2015

2015年3月29日

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