Learning Learning ʲָस͹ָसʳ 29(1): MINI PROFILES | ኼከኴዊኲኀዙወMINI-PROFILES: SHARING YOUR LEARNER DEVELOPMENTINTERESTS |ኼከኴዊኲኀዙወ᧶ⷵ剡劔ኤኀ኶ዊአኴኾዐእ቎ቇሧ቉ቑ栱㉒ቑ␀㦘
« in which SIG members introduce
themselves briefly (just 50 to 100 words or more),
and write about what interests, puzzles, intrigues
them about learner development, and/or about aparticular approach or project, or research thatthey are doing or plan to do, or simply share a
short reflection, to do with learnerdevelopment ...
͐ࡇࡇ࡛ࡣࠊSIG ࣓ࣥࣂ࣮ࡢᏛ⩦⪅ࢹ࢕࣋ࣟࢵࣉ࣓ࣥࢺ◊✲࡟ྲྀࡾ⤌ࡴཎືຊ࡜࡞ࡿ㛵ᚰࡸㄢ㢟࡜࡜ࡶ࡟▷࠸㸦50 ࠿ࡽ 100 ࣮࣡ࢻ⛬ᗘ㸧⮬ᕫ⤂௓ࢆ࠾ᒆࡅࡋࡲࡍࠋ≉ู࡞࢔ࣉ࣮ࣟࢳࡸࣉࣟࢪ࢙ࢡࢺࠊ⌧ᅾ㐍⾜୰ࡢ◊✲ࡸࡑࡢィ⏬ࠊࡉࡽ࡟ࡣᏛ⩦⪅ࢹ࢕࣋ࣟࢵࣉ࣓ࣥࢺࡢྲྀࡾ⤌ࡳ࡟㛵ࡍࡿෆ┬࡞࡝ࠊࡑࢀࡒࢀࡢᛮ࠸ࡸ⪃࠼ࡀᐤࡏࡽࢀ࡚࠸ࡲࡍࠋEmily Choong
Email<emmchoong@gmail.com>

Hello! Apa khabar? My
name is Emily Choong. Thisis my first year in the LD
SIG. I am an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) inNiigata City teaching elementary and junior high. I
am from Malaysia, a country with an
extraordinarily diverse food culture and home tothe tallest twin towers in the world. This English
teaching job made me realise what a blessing it
was for me to have grown up in a bilingual
environment throughout my formal education.
With that, I hope to inspire students to take aninterest in learning through the lens of the world
around them and beyond. In my free time, I can befound drinking coffee somewhere or recording thenext episode of my podcast Cheeky Academics. If
you are interested in collaborating or would like tosay hello, feel free to reach out. Thank you forhaving me in the LD SIG!

Henry Foster
Email <henry@abiloon.com>

Hello everyone, my name isHenry Foster. I have lived andtaught English in the Kyoto areafor nearly 30 years now. I started out at a small
conversation school and have ended up as an
associate professor in the English Department atBukkyo University. Along the way I obtained aMaster of Applied Linguistics degree from theUniversity of Southern Queensland and a Doctor ofEducation in TESOL degree from Anaheim
University. I have always been interested in taskbased learning and teaching because of its focus
on learning by doing and the fact that it places theresponsibility for noticing, selecting, and acquiring
language on the learner rather than on theteacher. I have also always been interested in therole of technology and materials in language
education. In my teaching, as well as in my own
experiences as a language learner and as a
distance student in my master's and doctoral
programs, technology and the internet havealways figured prominently. From these interests, I
naturally found my way to language learnerautonomy, which was the subject of my doctoral
dissertation. I have not had any experience with
self-access centers or language advising per se.
Instead, my present focus is on ways that we canencourage and support the development of learnerautonomy from within the language classroom. I
look forward to meeting, sharing with, andlearning from all of you here in the LD SIG!
For the 2022 Autumn issue of Learning
Learning please send your mini-text or mini-profile
to <lleditorialteam@gmail.com> by 31st of August.
Many thankNewsletter of the JALT Learner Development SIG <http://ld-sig.org>

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Learning Learning ʲָस͹ָसʳ 29(1): ǯ VOICES | ኾዐክዙቑ⭿0(0%(56· VOICES | ኾዐክዙቑ⭿

Exploring the Role of SelfEsteem in Language Learning
Megumi Uemi
Lecturer, Department ofInternational Communication
Kokusai Junior College
Email <megumiuemi@gmail.com>

My first experience of learning a second
language took place in Bangkok, Thailand, where I
spent nearly eight years of my childhood andacquired the basic conversational fluency ofEnglish at an international school. In my lateteens, I flew to the U.S., and began immersing
myself in the American undergraduate andgraduate studies experience and learned to use
English academically. After completing an MA insecond and foreign language education, I returned
to Bangkok and decided that my first experienceof teaching English must take place here, because
this is where I first started my own second
language learning experience. I taught English at aThai government junior and senior high school foralmost five years. A decade has passed since then,and now I teach English at a junior college inTokyo. Looking back at my career as a language
teacher, I must say that teaching English to Thaistudents as a Japanese English teacher stands out
as an exceptionally interesting and eye-opening
educational experience.
After graduating from an MA program in theU.S., I started to work as one of the native English
instructors at a Thai government junior and seniorhigh school to teach both their regular andintensive English programs. Although many
students were rather interested in getting to know
about Japanese manga and anime from an English
teacher like me with a Japanese background,
overall, I was impressed with their attitudes
toward my English lessons. Except for a few not-so-academically-motivated groups, students wereopen and active about learning the language.
They were enthusiastic in getting input, loved
public speaking and were not shy to share theirinterests and passions with other students inEnglish. Most of all, they seemed to enjoy talking
about themselves, maybe in any language, and thiswas indeed helping their English conversations
become more vibrant and enjoyable. Is love for
RQHVHOIRUPRUHSURSHUO\SXWRQH·VKHDOWK\VHOIesteem, an important factor for language learning?
I remember thinking about this question every
WLPH,REVHUYHGP\7KDLVWXGHQWV·DFWLYH
participation in classes. Brown and Marshall (2006)
describe self-esteem in three different categories:
global self-esteem, self-worth, and selfevaluation. While global self-esteem refers to apersonality trait of how an individual generally
evaluates him/herself regardless of time andsituations, self-worth and self-evaluation areaffected by external factors such as events orRQH·VDELOLWLHVUHVSHFWLYHO\:KDWWKH7KDL
students displayed, as I understood it, wasunchanging affection for themselves despite classenvironments or differences in their English
proficiency levels. How does having this type ofhigh global self-HVWHHPLQIOXHQFHRQH·VSURFHVVRI
language learning?
Now I have been teaching English to bothfreshmen and sophomores at a junior college inTokyo for almost five years, and as you canimagine, there is a stark difference between howstudents here react to my English lessons
compared to those back in Thailand. The Japanesestudents are a lot more reserved in classes; theylike to hide their emotions and hesitate to share
their ideas with others in English. They definitely
shy away from public speaking in fear of looking´GLIIHUHQWµRUVRXQGLQJ´LQFRUUHFWµWRRWKHU
people. There could be a million reasons why thetwo groups of students act so differently;
however, could their levels of self-esteem havesomething to do with it? I began to think. Maybeⷵ剡劔ኤኀ኶ዊኴኾዐእ䪣䴅捷↩ <http://ld-sig.org>

9Learning Learning ʲָस͹ָसʳ 29(1): ǯ VOICES | ኾዐክዙቑ⭿simply the Japanese students I teach are notconfident of their English skills. Or maybe because
WKH\DUHQRWLQ´KLJKVFKRROµDQ\PRUHWKH\WKLQN
showing themselves in front of people is
LPPDWXUH,GRQ·WNQRZ%XWZKDW,NQRZIRUDIDFW
is that the Thai students I taught previously did
QRWH[DFWO\VSHDN¶SHUIHFW·(QJOLVKKRZHYHUWheyseemed to care nothing about it. They just said,
whatever it was that they wanted to express liketheir love for K-pop idols or craze for a Netflix
manga series, regardless of the expression being
grammatically correct or made up of smart word
choices. This type of attitude seen among Thaistudents, which one may describe as positive
assertiveness or global self-esteem as Brown andMarshall (2006) described it , isn't observed muchamongst Japanese students. Do their self-esteem
issues have something to do with it?
In 2019, the Japanese Cabinet Officeconducted a survey on the attitudes of youngpeople between ages 13 to 29 in 7 different
countries including Japan. What the study
revealed was that when compared to the youths ofother nations such as the U.S., and South Korea,
Japan shows a lower percentage on those who
maintain healthy self-esteem; they indicate asmaller number of youths with confidence in theirown strengths, self-satisfaction, and effect onothers (White Paper on Children and YoungPeople, 2019). The results showed that thistendency has grown even bigger since the last
survey completed in 2016. So, it has been proventhat Japanese young people have a less positive
perception of themselves in comparison to theirinternational counterparts. Could this be one ofthe factors that affect their ability to speak
English, as the nature of the language requires
VRPHVRUWRI´VKRZLQJµWRRWKHUVZLWKFRQILGHQFH
in other words, self-expression with clarity andpersuasiveness?
Growing up in an English-speaking school inThailand and being educated in the U.S., for bothmy undergraduate and graduate studies, I toowent through a fair number of struggles learning
English as my second language. Although I had
acquired some basic conversational fluency in thelanguage as a teenager, I had difficulty succeeding

academically during the first few undergraduateyears in the U.S., It took me about three years tofinally get the hang of writing a good paper with agood thesis statement and getting an A for it
consistently. I remember being awfully nervous
giving a presentation for my econ or poli sci classjust like my Japanese students are now afraid of
speaking publicly during my English lessons. This
nervousness, however, somehow disappeared after
undergoing intensive reading and writing day after
day for class assignments. I recognized a change inmy voice; it got deeper and stronger as if I hadbuilt up enough confidence to sound more certainof myself in English. I became more comfortablewith giving public speeches and presentations, andexchanging ideas and opinions openly with mypeers became much easier. So, even from my own
experience, it seems there is a connection
EHWZHHQRQH·VOHYHORIFRQILGHQFHDQG/communication skills. Does this mean that having
healthy self-esteem is an essential component of
RQH·VDGHTXDWHDFDGHPLFSHUIRUPDQFHLQ/",IVR
in what ways?
Guban-Caisido (2020) presents an overview
of recent research that explores the relationshipbetween self-esteem and language learning.
According to her analysis, current developmentson the topic concur that self-esteem is a
VLJQLILFDQWIDFWRUWKDWLQIOXHQFHVRQH·VSURFHVVRI
learning a second language. Three correlations
were found in the trends among 20 articles theresearcher investigated to include: self-esteem
and language skills, self-esteem and second orforeign language proficiency, and self-esteem andother emotional variables in language classrooms
such as anxiety and motivation. The study
emphasizes the need for further examination into
the relationship between self-esteem and language
learning to help English language learners handle
their language problems from a psychologicalperspective.
I know I have a lot to learn from theprevious studies like that of Guban-Caisido (2020)
as a starter, but sharing the questions I havedeveloped over the years of my teachingexperiences in two different countries, Japan andThailand, has certainly led me to the role of self-

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

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Learning Learning ʲָस͹ָसʳ 29(1): ǯ VOICES | ኾዐክዙቑ⭿esteem in language learning as a new topic of myresearch interest. I know it is still broad at thisVWDJHDQG,GRQ·WNQRZKRZ,ZLOOILJXUHLWRXW\HW
But reflecting upon my own experience ofacquiring a second language as well as observing
the learning process of the two culturally different
groups of students, my perception is that having ahealthy self-esteem is a crucial element thatHQKDQFHVRQH·VFDSDFLW\WRXVHDVHFRQGODQJXDJH
With this understanding, I am starting theexploration, and I hope a fresh perspective on thematter will lead to a new psychological approach
to English language learning and help students
become confident and effective users of the
English language.
References:Brown, J. D., & Marshall, M. A. (2006). The three
faces of self-esteem. In M. Kernis(Ed.), Self-esteem: Issues and answers (pp. 4²9).
New York, NY: Psychology Press.
Cabinet Office. (2019). White Paper on Childrenand Young People.
https://www8.cao.go.jp/youth/suisin/hakusho.ht
mlGuban-Caisido, D. (2020). Self-Esteem andLanguage Learning: Empirical Evidence
from the Past Two Decades. Journal of Teaching &Learning English in Multicultural Contexts, 4 (2),95-106.

MemEHUV·Voices / ኾዐክዙቑ⭿#1: a short personal profile of yourself as alearner and teacher and your interest in learnerdevelopment (about 500 to 1,000 words) ᧶ⷵ剡劔ዘ㟨❰ቋሺ቉ቑ呹愺ቑኴዊኲኀዙወቋⷵ剡劔ቑ㒟栆቎栱ሼቮ咗✂ (侓 2,000 ⷦ-4,000 ⷦ)#2: a story of your ongoing interest in, andengagement with, particular learnerdevelopment (and/or learner autonomy) issues(about 500 to 1,000 words) ᧶ⷵ剡劔ቑ㒟栆ቧⷵ剡劔ቑ呹㈚቎栱ሼቮ咗✂ቧ♥ቭ俓ቢ (侓 2,000 ⷦ4,000 ⷦ᧥#3: a short profile of your learner development
research interests and how you hope to develop
your research (about 500 to 1,000 words) ᧶ⷵ剡劔ቑ㒟栆቎栱ሼቮ䪣䴅␔⹈ቋ⅙㈛ቑ䪣䴅ቑ⻤㦪(侓 2,000 ⷦ-4,000 ⷦ᧥#4: a short profile of your working context andthe focus on learner development/learnerautonomy that a particular institution takes
and/or is trying to develop in a particularcurriculum (about 500 to 1,000 words)᧶㟨十䜿⬒ቑ俈⅚ᇬ㓏⻭㳮栱ቧኈ዇ኊዂ዆ኽ቎ርሴቮⷵ剡劔ቑ㒟栆ቧ呹㈚቎栱ሼቮ♥ቭ俓ቢ (侓 2,000 ⷦ4,000 ⷦ᧥ⷵ剡劔ኤኀ኶ዊኴኾዐእ䪣䴅捷↩ <http://ld-sig.org>

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