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
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:
clev·er adjective, clev·er·er, clev·er·est.
学習者ディベロプメント研究部会 <ld-sig.org/>

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 ourcapitalist and consumerist society it seems
the only term applicable to describe his

14Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): LD SIG Grant Awardees’ Essays
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
that he discussed the LD SIG’s collaborativetranslation project—with which I am closely

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
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

Conference Report (JALT 2014
Conference)
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 my professional development,
and I would like to express my deepest
gratitude to all the LD SIG members forhelping me attend the conference. As a grantawardee, I have been asked to write a reportreflecting on the conference experience. I
hope that this report would show how much I
have learned both at and after the
学習者ディベロプメント研究部会 <ld-sig.org/>

conference, and how much I appreciate theopportunity 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
jotted down when asked to write a short16

Learning Learning 『学習の学習』 22 (1): LD SIG Grant Awardees’ Essays
paragraph 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
compared a teacher’s written responses toNewsletter of the JALT Learner Development SIG <ld-sig.org/>

17

Learning Learning『学習の学習』22 (1): LD SIG Grant Awardees’ Essays“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,
attendance, quiz scores, etc. will also be
学習者ディベロプメント研究部会 <ld-sig.org/>

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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