Learner Development Journal • Issue 6 • December 2022

Learner Development
Beyond the Classroom
Table of Contents
Introduction

Introduction to Learner Development Journal 6: How We View Learner Development
Beyond the Classroom ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������2
Isra Wongsarnpigoon, Dominique Vola Ambinintsoa, Phillip A. Bennett, & André Parsons

PapersBuilding a Critical Reflective Practice With High School Language Learners������������������������� 13
Ann Flanagan
Extensive Listening in the Time of COVID-19: Supporting Students so They Can Become
Self-Reflective, Independent Learners ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������33
Gretchen Clark
Agency in and Beyond the Classroom: Learners’ Selection of Resources for Self-Directed
Language Learning������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 51
Jon Rowberry
A Case Study of Collaborative Online International Learning Between Finnish andJapanese University Students: Learning and Using English Beyond the Classroom������������67
Chika Hayashi
Beyond the Classroom, Beyond the Track: The Role of English in the Transformation of
Career Perspectives in Three Females in Rural Japan�������������������������������������������������������������������82
Aya Hayasaki
Learning Beyond the Classroom in an EFL Malagasy Setting: Two Student Teachers’
Experiences �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������97
Dominique Vola Ambinintsoa, Haingoarinjaka Fanaperana Rajaonaritiana, & Volatiana
Olivia Rasoanindrina

Review

Some Thoughts on Implementing a New Teaching Approach: A Review of Clarke’s“Exploring Autonomous Learning . . .”�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������114
Mizuka Tsukamoto

Commentary

Space Matters: Language Learning Environments Beyond the Classroom in the PostCOVID World�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������121
Phil Benson & Mayumi Kashiwa
Learner Development Journal • Issue 6 • December 2022

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INTRODUCTION
Introduction to Learner Development Journal 6:
How We View Learner Development Beyond
the Classroom
Isra Wongsarnpigoon, Kanda University of International Studies,Japan <isravw(at)gmail(dot)com>
Dominique Vola Ambinintsoa, Kanda University of International
Studies, Japan <razafindratsimba-d(at)kanda(dot)kuis(dot)ac(dot)jp>
Phillip A. Bennett, Kanda University of International Studies, Japan<bennett-p(at)kanda(dot)kuis(dot)ac(dot)jp>
André Parsons, Hokkaido University of Education, Hakodate
Campus, Japan <parsons.andre(at)h(dot)hokkyodai(dot)ac(dot)jp>
The editorial team for the Learner Development Journal Issue 6 (LDJ) have all known eachother well for some time, and when we came together for this issue, we were awarethat we shared a devotion to supporting the development of our learners in theirlearning beyond the classroom (LBC). Isra, Phillip, and Vola work together as learning
advisors in the Self-Access Learning Center (SALC) at our university, where we aim tofoster our learners’ autonomous learning, which usually involves making the most of theentire worlds they live in. We had also had conversations with André about self-access,advising, and autonomy at various conferences over the past several years, and we had
all completed the learner advising courses offered by the Research Institute for Learner
Autonomy Education. Although we have different experiences and working contexts, ourshared interests and background fueled our excitement to collaborate on this theme.
Our unique experiences with LBC led to productive discussions in which we were able toco-develop the theme and this issue.
We knew that we were all familiar with the topic of learner autonomy and devoted
to fostering it in learners. Still, we realized that despite the growing attention to learnerautonomy in the field, much of the literature and presentations we saw locally tended tofocus on how teachers could promote it within their classrooms. In our work as teachers
and advisors, and additionally from our own life experiences, we knew how much of anindividual’s development as autonomous, agentive, fulfilled learners was engenderedthrough actions taken outside of class, or outside of formal institutions. On the other
hand, as Benson (2011) puts it, “As classroom teachers, we become accustomed to theidea that classrooms are the ‘natural’ place for learning to take place. Out-of-class learning
processes are also often ‘invisible’ to classroom teachers” (p. 8); this passage resonateddeeply with us. We felt that many educators were missing out on opportunities toappreciate their learners’ development outside of the limited periods during which they
were in direct contact. It was therefore our hope that the theme of Learner Development

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Isra Wongsarnpigoon, Dominique Vola Ambinintsoa, Phillip A. Bennett & André Parsons

Beyond the Classroom would allow contributors to undertake such explorations andreaders to reflect on their own learners and contexts.
In formulating our theme, Phil Benson and Hayo Reinders’s work (e.g., Benson &Reinders, 2011; Reinders & Benson, 2017) helped us to frame the focus of the contributions
we hoped to encourage in this issue. They provide a framework (Benson, 2011) for
LBC containing four dimensions: location (i.e., where and when learning takes place),
formality (i.e., the connection between the learning activities and formal organizedcourses or qualifications), pedagogy (i.e., the amount of instruction involved), and locus
of control (i.e., who makes decisions regarding learning). This framework was key in ourclarification of the theme. Particularly, we appreciated the idea that location was not
the only factor in determining LBC (it is, after all, learning beyond the classroom and not
outside the classroom). We also realized that LBC did not have to be totally informal andunguided; Benson’s (2011) clarification that such learning does not preclude the presenceof instruction resonated with us. Furthermore, Reinders and Benson (2017) emphasizethat “LBC does not exclude the classroom but rather CONNECTS WITH it [emphasis in theoriginal]” (p. 563). Indeed, they have identified a need for explorations of how teaching
and the classroom environment can link to LBC (Benson, 2011; Reinders & Benson, 2017).
For LDJ 6, we have hoped that by providing a venue for authors to explore how LBC
connects to their own contexts, whether as teachers, other practitioners, learners, or
researchers, they might discover new insights into how it also connects with learnerdevelopment. These discoveries might in turn lead to future innovations in their(or readers’) support of learners. We also felt this dovetailed nicely with the Learner
Development Journal’s mission of connecting research and practice.

Our Connections to LBC

Having introduced our conception of the issue’s theme as a group, in keeping with our
enthusiasm for narrative exploration and LDJ’s encouragement of expressing personal
voices, we will share each editor’s personal connections to LBC.

Isra

While planning and discussing this issue over the last two years, I have realized the degree
to which, like my colleagues, LBC has been a consistent thread throughout my personal
and professional life. Although I was always fairly successful in language classrooms, when
I got to university, I found it hard to connect my (elective) Japanese classes with my otherstudies and my life; eventually, I stopped studying Japanese in order to focus on my major.
A few years after graduating, I started learning Japanese again informally by focusing on
my personal interests, using music, videos, and the internet; this reignited my enjoymentof the language. After moving to Japan, knowing I had this capacity in me helped me tocontinue my own self-directed learning of the language.
While teaching in Japanese public schools, I found that the classroom environment wasinsufficient in providing access to authentic communicative language or opportunities forstudents to establish personal connections with English. My students who thrived in theirEnglish learning were usually those who sought exposure to language beyond the confinesof the classroom, in their own worlds. When I became a language learning advisor, I wasworking with learners in the inherently “beyond-the-classroom” environment of the SALC,
and I realized how fulfilling it was to help learners discover ways to learn successfully
and take ownership of language in their own lives. Even though they had chosen to study
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languages at a university specializing in international studies, I found that many of thesestudents nevertheless faced obstacles imposed by the requirements of formal study or
mandatory standardized exams; still others held ingrained beliefs that their teachers
knew best and, even when they were not very engaged in the content of their classroom
learning, could find no other alternatives. Through both reflection and learning from theliterature, it became clear that flourishing as a language learner and user hinged on morethan just possessing innate language ability or motivation. Both as a teacher and as anadvisor, I found that the learners who achieved the most fulfillment, and often success,in their learning tended to be those who actively learned beyond the classroom, exploredtheir language environments, and took advantage of the affordances available in them.
Given my experiences as a learner and educator, I hoped that by encouraging explorationof LBC in this issue, I could help both contributors and readers to reach some of the same
realizations.

Vola

My interest in LBC mainly stems from my own language learning experience. I havelearned three languages in addition to the two official languages I grew up with in
Madagascar. Of the three languages, I love English the most. I loved it so much that I
decided to become a teacher of English when I was about 19 years old, even though theprofession of teaching itself was not appealing to me. My goal was to use English as muchas possible, and teaching it was the best way I could imagine to do that, as I lived in acountry where English was barely used. In order to become a teacher, I knew I needed
to work a lot on my English. I was aware that what I learned from secondary school
was not enough to pass the competitive exam to enter the Teacher Training College at
the University of Antananarivo, as only 20 first-year students were accepted for eachdepartment every year. Therefore, I took courses at two different English language centers
for about 2 years in total. The courses were helpful in terms of the development of mylanguage skills. However, I felt that the courses were not sufficient for me to attain someof my specific goals, such as being able to understand the BBC News on TV and on theradio (the only English listening resources I had outside of class at that time), to read
English magazines and newspapers without constantly consulting a dictionary, and tointeract with foreigners. Thus, I decided to take charge of my own LBC.
My English LBC was key to my success in entering the Department of English of the
Teacher Training College, which was the gateway to a career and an adventurous life that
I had never thought I would have. To ensure that I would succeed, I set a detailed weekly
schedule that I had to follow at all costs. This schedule included activities and resources
to use at the language center library and at home, the times allocated to each activity, andthe target language skills involved in each activity. Without the dedication I put into LBC, I
would not have become a teacher of English in the first place and would not have received
scholarships enabling me to further my education abroad. That is why I strongly believein the importance of LBC and of taking charge of one’s own learning, which is referred toas “learner autonomy” (Benson, 2011). In my learning experience, it was only beyond theclassroom that I felt autonomous, as I was in total control of my learning. Therefore, forme, LBC and learner autonomy are very much interrelated.
After receiving my master’s degree in the US, I returned to Madagascar and taught
English in the center where I used to study. After teaching for 5 years, I decided to learn
more about the promotion of learner autonomy, because I realized that many of my4

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students were not autonomous enough in their English learning. In other words, theywould attend classes and do the assignments I gave them, but they would not necessarily
do any extra activities to improve their English. That was how the idea of doing a PhD
focused on learner autonomy came to me. Since then, I have been researching learnerautonomy and promoting it to my students through teaching and advising.
For me, then, the topic of LBC is deeply close to my heart due to my personal
experience. I feel fortunate to have the opportunity not only to be part of the editorial
team of this issue focusing on LBC, but also to co-author one of the articles with two of myformer students, who have the same background as I do, and who share their English LBC
journeys.

Phill

LBC may elicit a spectrum of ideas varying from person to person. This subjective view canbe explained through the concept of Umwelt, which is simply explained as experiencing
our subjective universe while sharing the same environment (Chang, 2009). As in theJapanese proverb 十人十色 [jūnin toiro; 10 people, 10 colors], each individual’s own idea
of LBC is influenced by their learning histories, values, customs, beliefs, and an infinite
number of other variables.
LBC holds a particular place in my learning history, as it is how I would summarize,
for better or worse, the majority of my lifelong learning experience. This is due to mylearning preferences coupled with institutional and structural barriers that I have faced
in my learning journey. I would like to share two very general but personal aspects of my
LBC experience which are in some capacity touched on in this issue. First, in relation tolearning preferences, LBC is something that I have always valued as a learner because
it led to opportunities for hands-on learning in real-life situations. It’s one thing to domath problems in class or homework assignments; however, applying a subject of study(math, language, chemistry, etc.) takes on a new life when using it to solve real-world
problems. Related to this concept, in junior high school, I would help my father do tile
work in people’s kitchens and bathrooms. Although the math was basic, it gave me an
appreciation for how what I was learning in class could be utilized outside of it. In otherwords, LBC helped me understand the value of what was being taught in the classroom.
Another insight is that LBC can provide learners with greater opportunities for selfexpression (e.g., language use, behavior that is taboo in classroom settings, and more
freedom for exploration); I learned how to play instruments and genres of music thatwere not taught in school by starting bands with friends, playing live shows, and recordingalbums. This experience gave me the opportunity not only to learn electric bass andguitar, but to also learn an array of skills ranging from songwriting and music production
to project management and sales.
The second aspect of LBC that connects to my learning history is that it helped mitigate
the effect of barriers that impeded access to in-classroom learning opportunities. Thesebarriers included environmental factors closely tied to social class and more intangible
concepts of cultural capital (Block, 2014; Bourdieu, 1986), such as identity, beliefs,
behaviors, etc. With regards to social class, the barriers I experienced were related tothe cost of access to educational opportunities and lesser public educational resources
relative to the surrounding communities. When discussing issues of cultural capital, access
was also levied institutionally and structurally due to my being part of a racial and ethnic
minority in the United States (e.g., prejudice based on my accent, dialect, hair style, dress,
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and skin color). Although I was never legally barred from educational resources, throughracial profiling, dress codes, and otherizing, learning environments such as libraries,
student groups, and classroom discussions were at times quite unwelcoming. However,through accessing websites, belonging to local music scenes, and learning various skills
at part-time jobs, I was able to gain the skills and knowledge which were paramountin gaining access to and satisfying standardized levels of academic achievement andcertifications.
Lastly, one major factor of LBC which I would like to add is the importance of therole teachers, mentors, and peers all play in LBC, because without the key componentof community, learning, in my opinion, is impossible. Although not a panacea, LBC
opportunities generally allow less expensive options for access to education (e.g., massive
open online courses, or MOOCs) or at the very least opportunities to continue learning at no
additional cost. Further, as practitioners, it is crucial that we support and promote students
in LBC because it allows them to learn in spaces that they find safe, welcoming, and familiarand can mitigate the effects oflearning environments that result in alienation. These are justsome of the many ways LBC can be operationalized as you will see in this issue.

André

As both a language learner and a language teacher, I have always believed in theimportance of LBC. When I first began working at a conversation school here in Japan, I
was asked not only to teach English but French as well. Thanks to this opportunity, I began
reviewing a language I had not studied for a couple of years as my focus had turned toJapanese. Going back to French and basically relearning it to teach my students gave me
the opportunity not only to build my skills once again using a wide range of materials, but
it also allowed me the chance to interact with French speakers online. Later, in order todevelop my language skills further, I decided to take part in a short-term study abroad
program in the south of France. During my time as a conversation school teacher, I alsodecided to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test and would spend hours every
day studying and reviewing kanji, grammar, and vocabulary and practicing reading
and listening using a wide range of resources. Based on my own learning experienceswith both languages, I started encouraging all my students to study or review on theirown using as many resources as they could find, knowing firsthand that just practicing
once a week would not lead to fluency. Indeed, it was during this time that I was able tostrengthen both languages, which was the result of much learning beyond the classroom.
Upon becoming a lecturer, I was able to learn even more advanced Japanese throughmy daily interactions with faculty and office staff and the various paperwork I had to fillout. I still remember having to learn words such as 購入する [kōnyū suru; purchase] insteadof 買う [kau; buy], as that was the vocabulary commonly used in the office. It was also quite
motivating when some of the faculty who had known me before heard me speak Japanesea few years later and told me they were impressed at how much I had improved.
It was also at this time that I opened our university’s first self-access language learning
center to provide students with a space and a variety of resources and services to foster
more autonomous learning. Over the last couple of years, however, I have started to lookbeyond the physical space and have embraced online learning with its wealth of resources
and possibilities. By doing so, I believe I can help remove the barriers that exist in physicalspaces and allow students more freedom to take control over their learning beyond theclassroom.
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It is with this mindset and experience in both my own learning and now supporting mystudents’ learning beyond such physical spaces that led me to participate in this project.
By reading and commenting on the various papers in this issue, I have gained new insights
into this topic as well as learned new ways of possibly helping my students become better
learners beyond such physical spaces.
In our narratives above, we, the four editors, have explained why LBC is important to us
and why we promote it as teachers and advisors. Although our personal and learning
experiences are quite different in terms of interests and contexts, we have all used LBC toattain our individual goals. André, Isra, and Vola’s LBC experiences were especially related
to language learning involving personal interests and motivation. On the other hand, Phill’s
experience shows that LBC is not just limited to language learning but is also necessary forother areas of life. Together, we feel that our experiences as well as our writers’ have helped
to develop this issue into a cohesive unit which readers will be able to relate to.

Development of This Issue

The writing process for the Learner Development Journal differs somewhat from otheracademic publications; this finished product represents the culmination of a 2-year
process. The issue began not with a call for papers, but for proposals for submissions.
Writers initially shared brief proposals for an inquiry they planned to undertake or a
topic they wished to explore more. This allowed for a diverse group of contributions;although some of our authors had their research clearly planned out and were alreadyunderway, others were still working through their ideas. We sought proposals for longer“explorations” as well as for “practice-based reviews.” The latter differed from traditional
academic book reviews in that we were hoping for authors not only to review a book(or a portion of one), but to include reflections on their own practices (as educators,
researchers, or even as learners themselves) and use those reflections as a lens throughwhich to view the piece in question.
We on the editorial team selected a group of contributors we were excited to workwith and grouped them into “response communities,” or small groups within which
the authors could provide feedback to, and share reflections with each other as theirpapers developed. Members of the editorial team also joined each community toscaffold discussions and provide support from a slightly more objective standpoint
for fostering the development of the papers. These communities are a unique featureof LDJ. In line with constructivist theories of learning, we felt through interacting withothers, sharing different perspectives, and coming to understand those perspectives,
writers might re-shape their existing understandings and create new meanings together(see Fosnot & Perry, 2005). That this type of shared learning conforms favorably withconstructivist and sociocultural theoretical perspectives also seemed appropriate for thefour of us as editors, as both theoretical viewpoints play important underlying roles in
the field of language advising (Mynard, 2012), which is a major part of our professional
practices. Furthermore, in Isra’s case, the feedback and interaction with members of hisgroup in the previous issue of this journal (LDJ5) had been valuable in crafting his paper(Wongsarnpigoon & Imamura, 2021).
After the formation of the communities, the authors started commenting on eachother’s proposals using Google Docs and met online in Zoom to share and discuss their
upcoming work with each other in March and April 2021. They then began their writing
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process, sharing their first partial piece of writing within their communities in May 2021,
again commenting on each other’s work in Google Docs and meeting online over thefollowing month. These meetings and comments ideally gave the authors momentum tocontinue their writing during the summer vacation period, after which they submitted afull (or nearly full) working draft in September 2021.
Contributors’ working drafts were each reviewed by two members of the LDJ Review
Network. Authors were asked to select either open (non-anonymous) or double-blind
review. In either case, we attempted to match each author with reviewers who would bewell suited to provide feedback on their paper due to their areas of expertise or previous
research. In the autumn of 2021, the reviewers provided supportive feedback on each
paper, in line with the journal’s and the Learner Development SIG’s goal of helping todevelop the writers and their writing. Similar to the dialogic process of building newunderstandings in the response communities, a key part of this review process was ourdesire to facilitate a constructive dialogue, and as such, we encouraged the authors to
respond to the reviewers’ comments and pose questions of their own.
Using the reviewers’ feedback, the authors submitted revised full drafts in February
2022. Although we on the editorial team had posed questions and given encouraging
comments throughout the process, at this point we stepped in and positioned ourselvesin a more traditional editorial stance. Throughout the spring of 2022, we provided
editorial direction and feedback on all papers; the LDJ Steering Group also gave their own
feedback. We had been present throughout the development of the papers from thestart, and so receiving this feedback from the members of the Steering Group, who werereading the papers with fresh eyes, was highly valuable. After spending the summer of2022 responding to the feedback in revising and writing, the authors submitted their final
drafts in September 2022. Two subsequent rounds of proofreading and final revisions
resulted in the completed finished works you see here.
Throughout this process, as editors, our focus has been on supporting our contributors
in developing not only their pieces but also their own voices as authors of their inquiries
into learning beyond the classroom. The contributors to this issue have varying degrees ofexperience in writing, but it is fair to say that all of the pieces have changed and evolved
during this publication process. As editors, seeing this growth has been one of the mostsatisfying parts of working on this issue. It is also a huge credit to our writers that they
have taken all feedback in the positive spirit of the journal and used it to their benefit.

In This Issue

Reinders and Benson (2017) suggest a research agenda for LBC with several strands.
These include:
1. explorations of settings for LBC (e.g., how it connects with the classroom, or
how learners may tie opportunities for LBC in their own environments with theclassroom),
2.	 the processes involved (e.g., the experience of LBC or the strategies or technology
involved), and3. teachers’ support for LBC (e.g., teachers’ beliefs or how teachers may prepare
learners for LBC)

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We believe that the seven papers assembled in this issue—six longer explorations of LBC
and one practice-based review—each apply to one or more of these strands in various
ways.

Ann Flanagan, “Building a Critical Reflective Practice With High School
Language Learners”

In our first paper, Ann Flanagan explores her efforts to promote critical reflection inhigh school students. She provided support for her learners’ goal setting, and they kept
reflective journals on their learning activities beyond the classroom, as well as on theirprogress towards their goals. Ann examines how two particular students’ reflections
helped them to more closely examine their own study strategies, habits, and resources,
as well as how she was able to foster their reflective practice. She also muses upon thenature of the feedback she can provide in order to improve students’ reflection.

Gretchen Clark, “Extensive Listening in the Time of COVID-19: Supporting
Students so They Can Become Self-Reflective, Independent Learners”

In her paper, Gretchen Clark describes how extensive listening combined with digitaljournal writing helped a group of university students develop their metacognitive skills
and increase their opportunities for listening practice beyond the classroom. Although thepractices she describes were specially designed due to the pandemic when face-to-faceclasses were not being conducted, they can be equally helpful even after the COVID-19
pandemic, as they enable students to gradually develop their autonomy.

Jon Rowberry, “Agency in and Beyond the Classroom: Learners’ Selection of
Resources for Self-Directed Language Learning”
In the third paper, Jon Rowberry describes how two learners in a self-directed learning
course called SDLU take charge of their learning by making use of the affordances forlearning in SDLU. Through the two case studies, Jon shows the differences between theways the two learners selected their resources and the amount of support they neededfrom others. Jon ends his paper by considering some challenges teachers and learning
advisors may have when facilitating self-directed learning courses, and sharing some
unexpected realizations about the two learners’ agency.

Chika Hayashi, “A Case Study of Collaborative Online International
Learning Between Finnish and Japanese University Students: Learning
Beyond the Classroom”

In her paper, Chika investigates the potential for collaboration through an out-of-classonline activity involving students in Finland and Japan participating in a Collaborative
Online International Learning (COIL) project. Using a case-study approach that included
analysis of one of her Japanese students’ exchanges with a Finnish student over fourmonths, and interviews with her student at the end of the project, Chika shows that while
the student was able to work together with the Finnish student, her language learning
anxiety, especially with regards to accuracy, prevented her from fully engaging in the
project. Nevertheless, the project did help the student better understand her needs andaided her motivation. Chika concludes by suggesting some implications for teachersinterested in setting up such projects.
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Aya Hayasaki, “Beyond the Classroom, Beyond the Track: The Role ofEnglish in the Transformation of Career Perspectives in Three Females in
Rural Japan”

In this paper, Aya Hayasaki addresses topics which deserve serious consideration but are
sometimes overlooked in language education, especially in Japan: the barriers imposedon academic and career prospects by inequalities tied to gender, socioeconomic, andregional differences. Aya writes about how project-based language learning beyond theclassroom helped three female high school graduates from rural Kagoshima, Japan tosurmount such constraints. Drawing on Trajectory Equifinality Modeling, Aya discusses
how they were affected by social and educational inequalities, as well as the specificfactors brought about through LBC that helped them to discover their own paths. She also
compares the three women’s circumstances with her own background.

Dominique Vola Ambinintsoa, Haingo Fanaperana Rajaonaritiana, and Volatiana
Olivia Rasoanindrina, “Learning Beyond the Classroom in an EFL Malagasy
Setting: Two Student Teachers’ Experiences”

In their paper, Vola, Fanaperana, and Olivia discuss the importance of learning beyond theclassroom in Madagascar, a context that so far has been little researched. Through theuse of language learning histories (LLHs), they show how one’s interests, not just in thelanguage itself but also in the culture of the places where it is spoken, can help a learnerstrengthen and maintain their motivation to continue studying a foreign language. Basedon their findings, they argue that teachers should consider ways to incorporate suchinterests and strategies used outside the classroom into the classroom, and that teacher
education should include more reflection on student teachers’ LLHs as this can benefit
future teachers’ practices.

Mizuka Tsukamoto, “Some Thoughts on Implementing a New Teaching
Approach: A Review of Clarke’s ‘Exploring Autonomous Learning . . .’”In the final piece, Mizuka Tsukamoto provides a chapter review that explores apractitioner’s approach to teaching a university English class. Mizuka details her
experience implementing similar concepts to those in Clarke’s chapter with the aim ofcreating a student-centered classroom. In reviewing Clarke’s account of her practice andresearch, Mizuka reflects on some of the parallels and differences with her own teaching.
Through this reflective process, Mizuka was able to answer some of her questions aswell as uncover new ones related to creating a classroom that is student centered andfacilitates learner autonomy.

Commentary
Phil Benson and Mayumi Kashiwa, “Space Matters: Language Learning
Environments Beyond the Classroom in the Post-COVID World”

In their dialogic commentary on this issue, Phil Benson and Mayumi Kashiwa discuss
LBC with regard to spaces in the post-COVID world. They explore the conceptualizationof space (see Benson, 2021), learner perceptions of learning environments, and thecomplexity of digital spaces in relation to learning environments both in and beyond
the classroom. Drawing out fascinating connections and questions to do with learner
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development, Phil and Mayumi point readers towards intriguing pathways for future
research on learning beyond the classroom.

Acknowledgements

The editors would like to thank everyone involved in the publication of this journal. We
would first like to thank the reviewers for taking the time not only to check the papers
but also offer valuable comments to the writers. We would also like to thank Stuart
Warrington for his contribution in the initial stages of this journal, as well as Kayoko Horaifor helping to proofread and edit the Japanese abstracts, and Ivan Lombardi for the layout
and design. Next, we would like to express our gratitude to both Mayumi Kashiwa andPhil Benson for their insightful commentary on the issue. Finally, we would like to give a
special thanks to all the contributors for sharing their various experiences with language
learning beyond the classroom. We hope the research herein will offer new insights andopen new venues for research in this ever-expanding and important field.
— Isra Wongsarnpigoon, Dominique Vola Ambinintsoa,

Phillip A. Bennett, and André Parsons
December 2022

References

Benson, P. (2011). Language learning and teaching beyond the classroom: An introduction
to the field. In P. Benson & H. Reinders (Eds.), Beyond the language classroom (pp. 7–16).
Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230306790_2
Benson, P. (2021). Language learning environments: Spatial perspectives on SLA. Multilingual
Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781788924917
Block, D. (2014). Social class in applied linguistics. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/97813
15871141
Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory andresearch for the sociology of education (pp. 241–258). Greenwood.
Chang, R. S. (Ed.). (2009). Relating to environments: A new look at Umwelt. Information Age
Publishing.
Fosnot, C. T., & Perry, R. S. (2005). Constructivism: A psychological theory of learning. In
C. T. Fosnot (Ed.), Constructivism: Theory, perspectives, and practice (2nd ed., pp. 8–33).
Teachers College Press.
Mynard, J. (2012). A suggested model for advising in language learning. In J. Mynard &L. Carson (Eds.), Advising in language learning: Dialogue, tools and context (pp. 26–40).
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315833040
Reinders, H., & Benson, P. (2017). Research agenda: Language learning beyond
the classroom. Language Teaching, 50(4), 561–578. https://doi.org/10.1017/
S0261444817000192
Wongsarnpigoon, I., & Imamura, Y. (2021). Exploring understandings of multilingualism
in a social learning space: A duoethnographic account. In A. Barfeld, O. Cusen, Y.
Imamura, & R. Kelly (Eds.), The learner development journal issue 5: Engaging with themultilingual turn for learner development: Practices, issues, discourses, and theorisations(pp. 74–91). The Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT) Learner Development
Special Interest Group. https://ldjournalsite.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/ldj-1-5-0612.26-web-01.06-updated.pdf
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Introduction to Learner Development Journal 6

LD Journal 6 Reviewers
Andy Barfield, Chuo University, Japan
Alice Chik, Macquarie University, Australia
Simla Course, Akdeniz University, Turkey
Huw Davies, Lancaster University, UK
Donna Fujimoto, Osaka Jogakuin University, Japan
Shu Hua Kao, Chihlee University of Technology, Taiwan
Jo Mynard, Kanda University of International Studies, Japan
Hugh Nicoll, Miyazaki Municipal University, Japan (retired)Louise Ohashi, Gakushuin University, Japan
Ted O’Neill, Gakushuin University, Japan
Colin Rundle, Soka University, Japan
Katherine Thornton, Otemon Gakuin University, Japan
Stacey Vye, Saitama University, JapanLD Journal 6 Japanese Editing and Proofreading
Kayoko Horai, Sojo University, JapanLD Journal Steering Group
Andy Barfield, Chuo University, Japan
Oana Cusen, Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan
Dominic Edsall, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Japan
Tanya McCarthy, Kyoto University, Japan
Layout and Design
Ivan Lombardi, University of Fukui, Japan

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Learner Development Journal • Issue 6 • December 2022

PAPER
Building a Critical Reflective Practice With
High School Language Learners
Ann Flanagan, Ritsumeikan Junior and Senior High School, Japan<ann(at)fkc(dot)ritsumei(dot)ac(dot)jp>
It is rare for language learners, especially young learners, to have the awareness to reflect on their language
learning process. This study examines the use of critical reflective writing journals in high school. It follows
the journey of two female high school students through three stages of critical reflection: reflection-inaction, reflection-on-action, and reflection-for-action. Students were encouraged to practice consistentreflection outside the classroom, writing twice or three times a week. This case study is aimed at exploring
critical reflection, learning beyond the classroom, and motivation. The students applied critical thinking
skills to analyze and modify their own learning. Journaling facilitated a greater sense of self-awareness instudents, which enabled them to identify their own strengths and improve areas of weakness in language
learning. In their view, journals were a valuable resource for studying English. Results support the adoptionof critical reflection practices encouraging students to become more involved in their language learning. In
becoming more responsible for their learning, students begin to make conscious choices about what they
are interested in exploring further while monitoring and evaluating their progress.

言語学習者、特に若い学習者にとって、自分の言語学習過程を振り返る意識を持つことは稀である。
本研究は、高等学校における批
判的省察文ジャーナルの使用について検討する。
4人の女子高校生が、行動に関する考察、行動のための考察、行動中の考察という3つの段階を経て、批判的な考察を行う過程を追ったものである。
生徒たちは、教室外で、週に2、3回書くという一貫したリフレクション
スタイルを実践するよう促された。
この研究の目的は、批判的省察、教室を超えた学習、
モチベーシを探ることである。
生徒たちは、批判的思考スキルを応用して、自分たちの学習を分析し、修正した。
ジャーナルは、生徒の自己認識力を高め、その結果言語学習における自身の強みを認識し、弱点となる分野を改善することを可能にした。
参加者は、ジャーナルが英語学習にとって貴重なリソースとなったという見解を示した。
この結果は、生徒が批判的な省察の実践を採用することが、自身の言語学習により深く関与することを可能にするという仮説を支持するものである。
その過程で、学生は自分の学習にもっと責任を持つようになり、自分の進歩を監視し評価しながら、さらに探究心が刺激されることを意識的に選択するようになるのです。

Keywords

critical reflection, learning beyond the classroom, motivation, journal writing
批判的省察、教室を超えた学習、
モチベーション、ジャーナルライティング

I have been a secondary education teacher for more than 20 years, and one questionthat I ask my students at the beginning of the year is about their goals for the class. Nineout of 10 times, their response is to be fluent in English. This is a lofty goal for students toachieve in less than a year, considering their busy high school life. Fluency, to my students,
means not only speaking and writing quickly but also being able to navigate the target
language to understand, be understood, and express themselves in both oral and written
contexts. However, it is difficult to meet each student’s learning needs when proficiency
levels differ in each class. So, instead of giving students a list of ways to improve theirEnglish proficiency, I began to think of ways for students to take responsibility for theirlearning.
Empowering students, especially teenagers, to take responsibility for their learning is
not an easy task. First, you have to convince them that it is a meaningful activity worth
their time trying. Then, you have to be consistently there for them throughout thejourney, which is not always possible for high school teachers, especially considering theirworkload. I have found that having students set realistic goals is a great way to encourage

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Building a Critical Reflective Practice With High School Language Learners

them to take responsibility for their learning. By setting and achieving goals, students gain
self-confidence and become more willing to keep trying.
I have always practiced critical reflection in my teaching. It is a skill I have developed
over time, and it has helped me be a better teacher, facilitator, and mentor. My journey
as a critical reflective practitioner began with reading books by John Dewey and Parker
Palmer. It continued to deepen through my MA in TESOL at the School for International
Training (SIT, Brattleboro, Vermont). It is there that I learned about the Kolb experiential
learning cycle (Kolb, 1984). I explored what I taught, why I taught the way I did, and how
I could be a better teacher for my students. The late Dr. Steve Cornwell was my advisor
during my teaching practicum, and he worked with me to hone these skills. The Kolb
experiential learning cycle was a powerful tool for me to use to learn about my role as ateacher, discover what and how I teach, learn how I interact with my students and how
they interact with each other, and create better interactive material for my classes. I
believe that having a facilitator is also important because a facilitator can ask questions
to help unlock the answers within the individuals that they work with. In my personal
experience, Dr. Cornwell helped me to summarize my thoughts better by being moreconcise. He also challenged me to go deeper in reflection on various aspects of myteaching. Through reflection, we can see past our sometimes-narrow ways of thinking
that can limit us and lead to exploring new learning methods that may, in turn, facilitatechange (Fook, 2011).
In my own work as a teacher, I wanted to know whether what I did in my own reflective
practice would help students in their journeys to become more proficient in English.
In this paper, I examine whether critical reflection can strengthen students’ motivation
to learn English by helping them analyze, reconsider, and question what and how theylearn. In addition, I explore the challenges I faced when conducting this research. Finally,
I offer some solutions for how I would improve the critical reflection activity in the future.
I hope other educators who are interested in using critical reflection as a supplement
to classroom instruction and who want their students to take more ownership of theirlanguage learning will benefit from the narratives presented in this paper.

Key Themes in This Exploration: Critical Reflection, Learning Beyond theClassroom, and Motivation

In reflective learning, students are encouraged to develop critical thinking skills andbecome aware of their own learning processes. Reflective learning for students involves
reflecting on what they have learned, analyzing their experiences, and finding alternative
ways to improve.
As a problem-solving tool, reflection helps teachers and students understand theirstrengths and weaknesses after an experience. As Dewey (1933) pointed out, “Welearn from reflection on experience, not from experience itself” (pp. 78–79). Looking
reflectively back on past experiences, learners can construct new meanings based on
their acquired knowledge. As a teacher, I believe that learners actively involved in theirown learning have the capacity to create their own learning approaches if they are given
decision-making opportunities. Creating an environment in which learners develop soundreflective practices around such learning opportunities can build confidence and a senseof responsibility for their learning actions.
In this respect, two types of reflection that I find personally meaningful are Schön’s(1983) reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action. The first stage of critical reflection is14

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Ann Flanagan

reflection-in-action. Students who reflect in action are able to reshape situations andactivities they are working on as they unfold, in other words, “thinking on their feet.”
By doing so, students reflect on what they are doing in the moment, leading to a newunderstanding of the experience and a change in the situation. Let us consider a student
who has set aside 30 minutes to study vocabulary. Their task includes listening to theaudio recording and writing the word and example sentences. However, during the study
period, they receive text messages from their friends. At this time, the student has todecide whether to fully engage with the text messages or disregard them. They also needto recognize whether a distraction interferes with their learning or if their approach isproving successful. Making such decisions is a key part of reflection-in-action.
The second type of reflection, reflection-on-action, means to reflect on an experience,
situation, or phenomenon after it has occurred. Students reflect on the situation by
exploring why they acted the way they did, and whether or not they could have acted
differently. The student looks at their overall improvement, or lack of success or progress,
on a specific learning task or goal. After the previously mentioned student studies
vocabulary for 30 minutes, from 9:00 p.m. until 9:30 p.m., they reflect on their experience.
The student decides that this time is not beneficial to study because they were falling
asleep and could not concentrate on the task, so they decide to shift the vocabulary study
time to the following morning.
In the critical reflection process, the next stage is where individuals begin to looktowards future actions. Farrell (2013) identifies this third stage in the reflection process as
reflection-for-action. This is the most difficult for students because they have to anticipate
what will occur in the next task and consider how to improve further or change theircurrent language learning before the task takes place. Examples of students’ reflectionfor-action will be included later in the discussion.
Developing the practice of critical reflection by doing journal writing can be a rewarding
and transforming experience for those who embark on the journey. So, to support
students’ reflective practices, I drew on these three types of reflection (reflection-in-action,reflection-on-action, and reflection-for-action) to guide students in their journal writing(see Figure 1).
Students moved from one stage to the next to look at their tasks from a different
perspective. By moving through each stage in this order, students could go deeper
into their reflection and decide further actions, which Mezirow (1990) refers to astransformative learning.
The students’ language learning is not limited to the classroom, as it can occur
anywhere and at any time. By engaging in learning beyond the classroom, learners
can address some of the limitations of classroom-based learning, such as insufficientauthentic input and output (Nunan & Richards, 2015). The internet, technology, and media
make it easier to use English effectively and authentically in real-life interactions andvirtual social networks (Richards, 2015), and, as Nunan (1991) has pointed out, learners’
application of emerging skills outside the classroom is crucial to developing their second
language. Because high school students spend so much time using their devices to engage
with technology, from games to social networking sites, it can be a source of engagementthat students like. By reflecting on these activities, learners will be able to determine
which activities work best for improving their proficiency. Additionally, they can adapt
different activities based on their reflection to support their goals.

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Building a Critical Reflective Practice With High School Language Learners

Figure 1. Journal Format
The final key theme that I started from is motivation. Motivation helps learners endure
the ups and downs of learning something challenging. Without sufficient motivation,
learners cannot achieve their long-term goals. For this project, I find Dörnyei’s (2001)
conceptualization of motivation at three levels—the language level, the learner level, andthe learning situation level—useful for looking at and understanding learners’ changing
motivation. First, the language level focuses on the student’s learning goals and theusefulness of proficiency in the target language. In contrast, the learner level focuses on
confidence, competence, and self-efficacy (Dörnyei, 1994). Within this level, one might
consider whether students are curious and energized by their learning. Are they selfdetermined in their learning? In separating the levels, Dörnyei believed that each had its
own effect. When initiating this study, within the specific learning situation of this highschool’s English classes, I wanted my participants to have total autonomy in designing
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Ann Flanagan

their own learning plans to improve their English language proficiency while sustaining
their motivation.

Research Focus

As I wanted to explore the critical reflection practice that I use in my daily life to see if
it would impact my students’ language study outside the classroom, I decided on thefollowing questions to guide my research:
1. How does building a critical reflection practice with high school students affect theirlanguage proficiency and motivation to learn a language?
2.	 Do students experience any learning transformations during the critical reflection
process?
I see this research as a case study, which is a common framework for conducting
qualitative research with learners as it lets practitioner-researchers explore “theparticularity and complexity of a single case, coming to understand its activity within
important circumstances” (Stake, 1995, p. xi). The aim of this case study was to develop a
deeper, detailed understanding about the role of critical reflection in students’ language
learning outside the classroom.

Participants, Timeline, and Research Procedure

For this research, I focused on the written journals of two female Japanese high school
students. The two participants, Mika and Aoi (both pseudonyms of their choosing), hadbeen students of mine for 3 years at the start of this research. They had mixed levelsof English ability, ranging from Grade Pre-1 (CEFR B2) to Grade 2 (CEFR B1) on the EIKEN
Test. EIKEN is a test of practical English proficiency taken mainly by junior and seniorhigh school students in Japan. Before participating, students were informed of therequirements of the research project and volunteered to participate by signing a consent
form. They were also told that they could withdraw at any time. Parental consent andschool consent were also granted to participate.

Introducing Aoi

Aoi had been learning English since she was 7 years old. She started to study English
in primary school. Students at her primary school learned English as a tool forcommunication. She had English classes twice a week in the first and second years,
increasing to three times a week until the end of 6th grade. She did not attend a private
English conversation school to support her language learning outside her daily education
at primary school. She participated in a study abroad program in Australia for 2 months
when she was 11. Her English proficiency level at the time of this study was at EIKEN Pre-1,
and her TOEFL ITP score was 530. She wanted to concentrate on speaking, vocabulary,
writing, EIKEN, and the TOEFL IBT. She listened to music and watched American TV
shows with Japanese and English subtitles to study English. Occasionally, she practiced
shadowing with CNN English Express or TED Talks.
If Aoi was not interested in something, she saw no point in studying it. In her responseto the survey question, “What strategies are you using to learn English now?”, she wrote
in English: I listen to music or watch TV, I don’t do it for the entertainment value, but I want tomemorize how words are used and expressions that singers and actors use when using English.

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Building a Critical Reflective Practice With High School Language Learners

Specifically, she hoped to achieve Level 1 on the EIKEN Test, score 6.0 on IELTS, and be
more proficient in English so that she could participate in school-related events in English.

Introducing Mika

Mika had been learning English since she was 12 years old. She passed the third EIKEN
level and scored 368 on the TOEFL ITP. She wanted to focus on reading, speaking, andpassing Level 2 of the EIKEN test. Mika enjoyed playing online games in English. Using
game language to learn English was one of her favorite things. To study these specificEnglish phrases, she kept a vocabulary notebook. On the left side of the paper, she wrote
English sentences; on the right, she wrote Japanese sentences. However, she realized that
this method was not working for her.
Mika had trouble distinguishing certain English phonemes. On her SMART Goal
Worksheet (Appendix A), she wrote: Being able to hear sounds is important when speaking
and listening. I want to hear what the teacher has to say clearly. Her worksheet also conveyed
this: If I could hear all the words in a conversation, I would be able to understand and follow
it and not feel intimidated by participating in conversations. This shows that she wasdeveloping a level of awareness of her transformational journey in critical reflection.
Table 1. Research Timeline
Time period
March 2021•

Phase 1
April 2021–May
2021

•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Phase 2June 2021–July
2021

•
•
•
•
•

Phase 3
August 2021–
December
2021
Phase 4January 2022

18

•
•
•
•

Steps taken
Invitations to participate were sent out to students in the 12th Grade
Global Learning Course and Super Science Global Course
Five students independently volunteered
Parental consent and school permission were granted
Needs analysis questionnaire was administered
SMART goal worksheet was completed
Three aspects of critical reflection were explained (reflection-in-action,reflection-on-action, and reflection-for-action)
Students began journaling at least twice a week (reflection journals
collected every other week)
I provided feedback on their journals to support this type of criticalreflection
Students continued journaling at least twice a week
Peer Groups were introduced to support this type of critical reflection
Reflection journals were collected every other week
I offered feedback in the form of reflective questioning to support themin going deeper into their reflective practice
In July, Padlet was introduced to offer another way to interact in Peer
Groups
I met with students individually to see if they wanted to change their
SMART Goals
Students continued journaling twice a week
Students moved their journaling online due to my being overseas
I met with students individually to get their feedback about criticalreflection

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Ann Flanagan

The project lasted from April 2021 until mid-January 2022, and Table 1 outlines thesteps I took for my research from March 2021 until January 2022 as the project developed
over those 9 months. In Phase 1, I conducted a needs analysis to gather backgroundinformation about my students. I also explained how to fill out the SMART goal worksheet
and do critical reflection journaling, so they could start writing in their journals. To
support their reflection practice, I reviewed their journals and provided feedback. They
continued their critical reflection practice in Phase 2 with the addition of peer groups. To
help students dive deeper into their practices, questions were provided for each phaseof critical reflection. In Phases 3 and 4, students explored different language activities toreach their goals. Through critical reflection, they were able to determine what worked
and what did not. The benefits of critical reflection and the power it has on learning
beyond the classroom became evident to them.
In April 2021, students answered a basic Google Form Questionnaire (Appendix B) about
themselves. The questionnaire was used to gather information about (a) the length oftime they had been studying English, (b) their English proficiency levels (EIKEN and TOEFLITP), (c) the language skills they wished to focus on during the project, (d) the strategies
they use now to study English, (e) the strategies that are not working for them, and (f) theirpersonal goals for this project.
Next, in early May 2021, I met with the students on Zoom to go over what they needed
to do with the SMART Goals Framework. Because we use Google Classroom for our
regular classes, I created a new class, Ann’s Research Group, where I uploaded a SMART
Goal worksheet, an interactive PowerPoint slideshow, and a goal-setting worksheet for
students to complete at home. The students used this framework to help them create
achievable goals. “SMART” is an acronym (O’Neill et al., 2006) for “Specific” (What precisely
is being pursued?), “Measurable” (Has the goal been accomplished?), “Achievable” (Can thegoal be achieved?), “Relevant” (Does this seem worthwhile?), and “Time-Bound” (Can thegoal be completed in a reasonable timeframe?). This framework was used to give students
an organizational structure to work with and a sense of direction to reach their goals.
Students could write their SMART Goals framework in English or Japanese (See Figures
2 and 3 for an example). To make the framework, I used a template found on Southern
Oregon University’s website (OfficeArrow.com, 2008), so that the students would need tothink deeply about their goals and try to identify possible obstacles they might encounterand actions they could take to avoid them.

Introducing the Critical Reflection Journal

In mid-May, I met with the students to show them the format for writing in their reflection
journal. Each student was given a notebook for their journal. Students wrote the date,
independent learning task, time started, and time finished. Then, they had to write areflection-in-action, reflection-on-action, and reflection-for-action. They could choose howoften to reflect, but it had to be at least two times a week, so students could develop
their reflective practice. I collected the journals every other week. In the beginning,
students wrote in their notebooks, but some wanted more flexibility in being able to write
journal entries online. They felt this would give them more freedom to reflect anywhere
and anytime. I accepted either. Students wrote between 14 to 17 journal entries from
Phase 1 to Phase 2. In Phase 3, students were busy with various activities at school andapplications for universities, so there was a slight decrease in journal entries.

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Building a Critical Reflective Practice With High School Language Learners

Figure 2. Aoi’s SMART Goal Worksheet

Figure 3. Mika’s SMART Goal Worksheet
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Ann Flanagan

Throughout the collection periods, I provided feedback. In the beginning, I gave moreguidance about how to write in the journal, especially when they asked questions directly
to me in their journal or in person. Some questions were administrative: Can I give mynotebook to you on Monday instead of Friday? Others were technical questions: Can I type
my journal instead of handwriting it? or Can I slow the audio speed down? However, somequestions were about reflecting: How can I improve my reflecting skills? and How do I ask
myself questions? We also met periodically at lunchtime or online using Zoom for check-ins.
After the summer vacation, I began to write comments such as Can you tell me more? orWhat did you learn? to help them go deeper into their reflections.

Peer Learning and Feedback

It was also important for students to give feedback to each other. Encouraging peerinteraction not only fosters critical reflection and communicative skills but also builds
community (Boud et al., 1999) so that students can use their personal learning experiences
to help each other. In July, I asked students to interact collaboratively with each other on
Padlet, a platform where students can post documents, videos, comments, and audio
to a digital wall. By talking to each other or writing comments on Padlet about problems
they were encountering, students were able to suggest new strategies for each other totry. Some suggestions were to try dictation, read shorter passages, write summaries, andwatch movies (see Figure 4). We often use this platform for our classes and online student
conferences at my high school.

Figure 4. Padlet Interaction
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Building a Critical Reflective Practice With High School Language Learners

Insights from Aoi’s and Mika’s Critical Reflection Journeys

The primary methods of data collection I used were journal entries from the students’handwritten journal notebooks (Phases 1 and 2), which later shifted online in Phase
3. I organized the qualitative data into two categories, oral and written, and appliedinterpretational analysis to the data. This involved a systematic procedure of coding andclassifying the data to explore constructs, themes, and patterns as they emerged (Gallet al., 2005). Here I highlighted consistent themes in the journal, for example, places of
distraction, frustration, and change. In addition, I underlined words of emotion suchas “happy” and “disappointed.” By doing this, I could identify the commonalities anduniqueness of Aoi and Mika’s critical reflection journeys. From here, I present a summaryinterpretation of both students’ critical reflections on their English learning journeys. I
follow this with a reflection on my own learnings and realizations.

Aoi’s Journey

Aoi wrote 17 journal entries from June until the end of September. In her SMART Goal
Worksheet, she expressed a desire to pass Level 1 on the EIKEN Proficiency Exam by
March 2022. Getting a high score on this test is necessary to attend an overseas university.
She felt that the benefits of achieving this goal would be to improve her English skills
and expand her career options after graduating from university. Some of the obstacles
she felt would prevent her from achieving the goal were insufficient time to study orlack of opportunities for output like speaking and writing. When we met in May to goover her SMART Goal Worksheet, she wanted to focus on learning vocabulary, as seenin the Specific Action Steps (see Figure 2). Additionally, according to the needs analysis
questionnaire that was given to students in April, one of her personal goals for thisresearch project was to improve her vocabulary skills.
High school students often study vocabulary by writing the English word and its
Japanese meaning next to it. In June, Aoi started to study vocabulary by using Quizlet (adigital flashcard application). She wanted to review some study cards she had previously
used in her English class. However, when she began studying vocabulary at 9:00 p.m., she
noticed that she became sleepy: While reviewing the vocabulary, I felt drowsy sometimes.
I drank a glass of cold water to shake off the sleepiness. Here she noticed that she had aproblem, and she quickly changed her behavior to continue. As she reflected on theaction: After reviewing the vocabulary, I noticed that I forgot the majority of the words eventhough I have spent a lot of time memorizing, she concluded: I was surprised that how I forgot
the learning of vocabularies even though I could memorize them once. I think it’s better not toleave a long time between reviews. From that point on, she began to study fewer words but
did so more frequently during the week.
A week later, Aoi decided to watch a 20-minute TED Talk video in English. As she waswatching it, she noticed that she could not catch some of the words the presenter wassaying, so she turned on the English subtitles. She continued: Next time I watch a TED talkvideo in English, I should list up the words that I can’t understand and write a summary andopinion. Aoi began to notice that there are different ways to learn vocabulary. She did nothave to use Quizlet only.
In July, Aoi began to write more about her mood: I was not in the mood for studying witha pencil, so I watched Netflix to learn English. Because she had the choice of watching the
program Terrace House with English subtitles, she was able to reflect: I enjoyed watching it,
so I can continue this learning. I was able to see English translations of Japanese people’s daily
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conversations, so I was able to learn English expressions that are easy to use. This shows that
Aoi was gaining a new insight into her learning style. She seemed to be departing from her
SMART goals and choosing resources that do not help her with exam-related vocabulary(see Figure 2). She also spent more time watching Terrace House than she did studying
vocabulary.
Towards the end of July, Aoi’s focus shifted from EIKEN to getting a high score on IELTS,
which was required to enter a competitive program at the university of her choice. In her
journal, she wrote: I’ve been so busy working on my uni application. From today, studying
English is a top priority for me. My goal: HIGH SCORE ON IELTS! Her journal entries reflecteda shift in her learning strategies, too. Figure 5 shows how her tasks became more creativeand seemed to suit her learning style more. This also shows that she is experimenting
with different ways to learn new words. Aoi wrote: I think this method is nice. I enjoyed doing
it. The important thing is to continue.
From September, Aoi once again changed her focus from learning vocabulary to
preparing for the IELTS writing section. Her tasks shifted to reading and memorizing
example answers from the IELTS practice tests. As she reflected on the action: Write what I
remember and highlight the parts I forgot. Must write again and again, she began to develop
a new learning strategy. She further reflected: I hope this exercise will help me with my
IELTS test! But it takes time to memorize. She practiced this strategy for about a month until
she was able to achieve the required score to enter the university program. She added
a time limit to simulate the actual time she would have for the IELTS writing section. She
reflected: I think I did a good job. But next time, I will set a time limit like a test.
Towards the end of September, Aoi took the IELTS test and attained a 7.0 in thelistening section and 6.0 on the other sections. She received an overall score of 6.5 andwas accepted into the university program of her choice. In her journal she wrote: The XXX
program requires students to get an overall 6.5 so I can apply with this result! YAY!
After she gained acceptance into the program, she continued to use Quizlet, but she
also used other tools that interested her such as Netflix, TED Talks, and podcasts tochallenge herself to learn new vocabulary. She remarked: I am happy that my band scoresof listening and reading increased. But I should have practiced speaking more. She further
elaborated: I tried to do my best, but my speaking test ended terribly. . . . I should have beencalmer. I couldn’t say what I wanted to say. I have a week to prepare for the next IELTS, so I will
work harder.
Overall, Aoi mentioned in a written note I received in January that she was happy withher progress and that this style of journal writing really made her focus when she wasstudying. It was challenging, but she could see her overall progress. She enjoyed thefreedom of doing what she liked to do to learn English. She wanted to continue doing thistype of journal writing at university.
Aoi achieved many things during her critical reflective journey. First, she began torealize that watching TED Talk videos and Netflix series motivated her more to learn
English because she was able to listen to natural English. In addition, she began to try
different learning strategies for her vocabulary study, such as drawing pictures andwriting new expressions from English subtitles. Through critical reflection, she was able
to recognize and change her habits when she became distracted during studying such as
being interrupted by friends on SNS or being tired or hungry. She also learned how to getback on track with studying for tests after being distracted by Terrace House. This style ofreflection-on-action helped her transform the way she studied and learned English.
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Building a Critical Reflective Practice With High School Language Learners

Figure 5. Aoi’s New Way of Studying Vocabulary

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Mika’s Journey

Mika also completed 17 journal entries. When filling out her SMART goals worksheet, she
indicated a desire to focus on improving her listening skills. She had difficulty picking up
words when listening to two people speaking in a video, and she felt that it was important
to improve her listening skills in order to have better conversations with foreigners.
This goal was significant to her because she wanted to get involved in politics and she
felt that being able to use English could make diplomatic relations smoother. Some
specific benefits of achieving this goal were to be able to follow conversations betterand to understand news broadcasts in English. Mika wrote that she was afraid of having
conversations in English because at times she misunderstood what was being said.
Mika preferred to do shorter listening tasks lasting no more than 10 minutes. She
mentioned in her journal: I become nervous when I have long conversations. I thought that
it was very important for her to know about her own learning style. She felt that her first
listening task of transcribing a short conversation from Genshin Impact (an open-ended roleplaying game) was too difficult, so she decided to focus on listening materials for children.
Mika began to watch Disney films. She felt that listening to the spoken language waseasier to follow: I thought the words were easy for kids. And very easy to hear. I think Disney isgood teaching material. She reflected: I did a good job today. If this is the case, I can continue.
If it is too long, I’ll lose motivation. But I want it to be a little longer. Here is another exampleof transformation through reflection-on-action. In the next journal entry, Mika mentionedthat she tried to listen to a longer conversation: Today I heard a short conversation from
Tangled. I felt like I could do this. Mika began to gain more confidence as she challenged
herself to increase the amount of time she spent listening to conversations and songs
from Disney films.
Mika also noticed that when she was unable to understand all the words, she wanted togive up: I heard it many times, but thought it was necessary to give up if I couldn’t hear it. Even
though songs can be more difficult to understand than dialogue, she felt: The use of idioms
was easy to remember.
As the song “Speechless” from Aladdin was slow, Mika found it easier to understand.
She felt more confident after listening to it: Today, I heard short music from Aladdin. Thissong is very slow and easy to hear. I thought how to use rhymes was amazing. It is difficult, but
I learned the beauty of English. Until the end of July, Mika continued listening to music in
English. She associated the length of the song with her motivation: The longest song is hard.
The length that does not lose motivation is just right.
After the summer vacation, Mika decided to change from listening to Disney songs
to pop artists such as Adele and Taylor Swift. For these, she slowed the speed to 0.5x
because she felt that she would be able to follow them better. However, she realized that
this did not work because she was used to listening to the song at regular speed: I realizedthat it is important to listen at the speed of a native speaker.
By the end of September, Mika had gained more confidence in her listening skills.
She gained 20 points on her TOEFL ITP score. Mika also felt that critical reflection wasinteresting because it gave her the tools to recognize that she wanted to try more listening
strategies to improve her proficiency. When she began keeping her critical reflection
journal, her choices for resources and tasks sometimes did not match up with herlearning goals. Her main goal was: To hear small words in conversations to follow them better
which would make it easier to solve problems on tests. I’ll be able to hear the news. In a private
conversation with me, Mika said: I never had thought about how to improve my listening
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Building a Critical Reflective Practice With High School Language Learners

skills before doing this critical reflection journal. She was not sure if she would continue thisjournal activity in the future, because English was not going to be a priority. After hearing
this, I began to wonder how I could encourage students to use this type of reflection inany part of their lives, not just their learning.
Through critical reflection, Mika became more confident in using conversational English.
In the early stages, she was frustrated that she could not catch what was being said inconversations used in online role-playing games, so she decided to listen to songs thatwere easy for her to understand. By recognizing the causes and effects of the tasks she
chose and the emotions she felt during the activities, transformative learning took place.

My Learnings and Realizations

Building a critical reflective practice with language learners can be a successful tool forstudents to use outside the classroom. Using the SMART Goal Worksheet (see Figures 2
and 3) helped students to think about potential obstacles such as receiving text messages
from friends or falling asleep during studying that could prevent them from reaching theirgoals. The worksheet also asked students to think of potential solutions to the obstacles
they had written. One such solution was for Aoi to put her phone in her bag, so her
friends did not interrupt her studying.
The key point for students to build a critical reflective practice is receiving guidancefrom the teacher at specific points along the journey. Some students struggle or lose sightof their goals because they feel frustrated that they are not making progress, as in Mika’scase. Aoi, on the other hand, was able to take risks and challenge herself. She asked morequestions: Ann sensei, what do you think about the way I took to improve my writing skills? Do
you have any suggestions? Aoi seemed like she was ready to act on her curiosity by asking
questions, and she was not afraid to seek help when needed. It is important for teachers
to encourage and scaffold this kind of behavior because it could effectively provide
feedback to learners so they can plan the next steps toward attaining their goals andfurthering their learning.
If I could do this research project again, I think I would encourage more feedback
between me and each student as well as between the students themselves. By asking
questions, Aoi was able to go deeper into her reflection compared to Mika. I felt Mika
would have benefited more if we had done more peer reflection. She might have learned
different ways to improve her listening and vocabulary skills from Aoi.
The process of learning another language can be a very emotional experience, as
anyone who has tried it can attest. A key realization that emerged from this exploration
was the level of emotions generated during the reflective cycle. Language learning canbe positively or negatively affected by these different types of emotions. Throughout
their journeys, Aoi and Mika experienced both ups and downs. Some words and phrases
that they used to express their emotions included: “It was easy,” “excited,” “fun to learn
new things,” “YAY!” whereas other entries voiced: “frustration,” “disorganized,” “difficult
to understand,” “want to give up.” It is important to note that students were becoming
motivated to learn as a result of experiencing this range of emotions. Aoi conveyed: I wasvery motivated to study! I could write a nice essay. Mika voiced: I did a good job today. If thisis the case, I can continue. As they continued to examine their activities deeply and makeadjustments to reach their end goals, their learning beyond the classroom was becomingtransformative.

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Challenges and Improvements

I faced several challenges during this exploratory project. I would like to go over somesuggestions for improvement should readers like to try critical reflection practices with
their students. First, it would have been better, in the beginning, to have brainstormed
different strategies for learning the four skills. Brainstorming might have given thestudents more activities to try to meet their goals. Students were able to come up with
their own ideas individually, but it took a long time. Second, providing guiding questions(Appendix C) at the beginning of the study would have helped the students to reflect moredeeply on the strategies they were using and how they could improve their approachto learning. If teachers notice that their students’ depth of reflection is limited, guiding
questions or prompts may help their students to reflect more deeply on their task.
Third, I would provide more bilingual assistance to support students with lower levels ofEnglish proficiency. Three possibilities that come to mind are: (a) bilingual worksheets,(b) individually meeting with the students more regularly, and (c) students writing theirjournal entries in their L1 until they gained more confidence in using their L2. Mika might
have benefited more from this activity if journaling in her L1 had been an option. She
would have been able to dive more deeply into her reflection and perhaps find a stronger
connection with what she was trying to achieve. Another possible change would be to use
a model journal from this project, with permission from the writer, as an example to show
future students how to develop critical reflection practices about their learning.

Conclusion

Learners can examine the strategies that they utilize to study English when they engage
in critical reflective practices. Through reflection-in-action, reflection-on-action, andreflection-for-action, students were able to evaluate their current approaches to learning.
Mezirow (1990) defines critical reflection as an activity that students engage in to analyze
the relevance and appropriateness of their assumptions and beliefs. It enables students
to look at how they are doing things by questioning the usefulness of the tasks andthinking ahead for the next step of action to ensure that learning is taking place. Throughtheir journal entries, it was evident that transformative learning was taking place for Aoi
and Mika.
The practice of critical reflection has always been a part of what I do as a teacher. I
found it insightful and encouraging to be able to use this type of practice with my students
and see how their language learning could also be transformed, as was my teaching
too. Encouraging language learners to develop critical reflective practices beyond theclassroom fosters greater self-awareness by challenging them to question their learning
beliefs, draw conclusions about their learning, and finally decide on actions that willtransform their learning experiences.

Author Bio

Ann Flanagan has been teaching at Ritsumeikan Junior and Senior High School forthe past 24 years. She has an MA in TESOL from the School for International Training(SIT, Brattleboro, Vermont, USA). Her research interests include learner development,
extensive reading, international education, teacher training, and curriculum development.

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Review ProcessThis paper was open-reviewed by Hugh Nicoll and Stacey Vye of the Learner Development
Journal Review Network and by the Journal Steering Group. (Contributors have the option ofopen or blind review.)

References

Boud, D., Cohen, R., & Sampson, J. (1999). Peer learning and assessment. Assessment &Evaluation in Higher Education, 24(4), 413–426. https://doi.org/10.1080/0260293990240405
Dewey, J. (1933). How we think: A restatement of the reflective thinking to the educative
process. Heath & Co.
Dörnyei, Z. (1994). Motivation and motivating in the foreign language classroom. The
Modern Language Journal, 78(3), 273–284. https://doi.org/10.2307/330107
Dörnyei, Z. (2001). Motivational strategies in the language classroom. Cambridge University
Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511667343
Farrell, T. S. (2013). Reflecting on ESL teacher expertise: A case study. System, 41(4),1070–1082. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2013.10.014
Fook, J. (2011). Developing critical reflection as a research method. In J. Higgs, A. Titchen,
D. Horsfall, & D. Bridges (Eds.), Creative spaces for qualitative researching (pp. 55–64).
Sense Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6091-761-5_6
Gall, J. P., Gall, M. D., & Borg, W. R. (2005). Applying educational research: A practical guide.
Pearson Education.
Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development.
Prentice-Hall.
Mezirow, J. (1990). Fostering critical reflection in adulthood: A guide to transformative andemancipatory learning. Jossey-Bass.
Nunan, D. (1991). Language teaching methodology: A textbook for teachers. Prentice-Hall.
Nunan, D., & Richards, J. C. (2015). Language learning beyond the classroom. Routledge.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315883472
OfficeArrow.com. (2008). SMART goal worksheet [Online worksheet]. https://inside.sou.edu/
assets/socsci/Advising__Student_Success/Goal_Setting/ica.SMARTGoalWorksheet.pdf
O’Neill, J., Conzemius, A., Commodore, C., & Pulsfus, C. (2006). The power of smart goals:
Using goals to improve student learning. Solution Tree Press.
Richards, J. C. (2015). The changing face of language learning: Learning beyond theclassroom. RELC Journal, 46(1), 5–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033688214561621
Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Basic Books.
Stake, R. E. (1995). The art of case study research. Sage.

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Appendix A

SMART Goal Worksheet

Today’s Date: ___________ Target Date: __________ Start Date: _________________
Date Achieved: _______________
Goal: ________________________________________________________________________
Verify that your goal is SMART
Specific: What exactly will you accomplish?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Measurable: How will you know when you have reached this goal?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Achievable: Is achieving this goal realistic with effort and commitment? Have you got the resources to achieve this goal? If not, how will you get them?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Relevant: Why is this goal significant to your life?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Timely: When will you achieve this goal?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
This goal is important because:__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________The benefits of achieving this goal will be:__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Take Action!
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Potential Obstacles________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Potential Solutions________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Who are the people you will ask to help you?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Specific Action Steps: What steps need to be taken to get you to your goal?
What?			Expected Completion Date____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 		Completed________________________________

Note. Adapted from https://inside.sou.edu/assets/socsci/Advising__Student_Success/Goal_
Setting/ica.SMARTGoalWorksheet.pdf

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Appendix B
Questionnaire on Personal Goals for Research Project1) Choose your name2) Age3) At what age did you start learning English? (何歳から英語を学び始めましたか。)

4) Are you taking or not taking English lessons outside of school now?（今学校以外で英語のレッスンを受けていますか。
）

5) If you answered, “yes” to question #4. How many days a week do you study English

and for how long? For example: once a week for 3 hours.（質問4で「はい」と答えた方へ。週に何日、どのくらいの時間、英語を勉強していますか？ 例：週に1回、3時間。
）

6) EIKEN LEVEL (英検級）

7) TOEFL ITP SCORE (TOEFL ITPスコア)

8) What skill or skills do you want to focus on this year?（今年重点的に取り組みたい英語スキル
は何ですか。
）

a.	 Listening
b. Readingc.	 Speakingd.	 Vocabularye.	 Writingf.	 TOEFL ITP
g.	 EIKEN
h.	 TOEFL CBT/iBT
i.	 Other9) If you have a specific area that you would like to work on, write it below. (Ex: Debate orConversation)（具体的に取り組んでみたい分野があれば、下に書いてください。例：ディベートまたは

英語会話）10) What strategies are you using to learn English now? (Ex. Listening to music.)（今はどんな戦略で英語を学んでいますか。例：音楽を聞く。
）

11) What strategies did you use to learn English, but did not work? (Ex. Listen to music.)（英語を学ぶためにどのような戦略をとったが、うまくいかなかったのか。
例：音楽を聞く。
)

12) What goal(s) would you like to achieve this year?（今年はどんな目標を達成したいですか。
）
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Appendix C

New Reflection Questions

Before the task
• What would I like to learn today?
• How can I break this task down into manageable parts, so I don’t get distracted?
• How long am I going to work on my goal today? Why?
• What are my goals for today?
• What’s my energy level? How am I feeling about doing today’s goal?
During the task
• What have I learned so far?
• What else do I need to do to finish today’s goal?
• Which parts of today’s goal are easy for me? difficult for me?
• Does my work reflect my effort thus far?
After the task
• What new information have I learned from today’s goal?
• What surprised me about what I learned?
• Where were the roadblocks?
• How did I move through the roadblocks or challenges?
• Does my work reflect my effort thus far?
• Am I proud of my work?
Future• If given the opportunity, one thing I would change about this task is . . . . . .
• How does what I did today compare with previous tasks?
• Have I achieved the goal I set for myself for today’s task? How do I know it?
• Are the goals I set before this task still reasonable? Do I need to adjust them?
• How close am I to achieving my overall original goal?
• In what ways have you gotten better?
• What resources did you use to achieve today’s goal? Which ones were particularly
helpful? Which ones would you use again?

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PAPER
Extensive Listening in the Time of COVID-19:
Supporting Students so They Can Become SelfReflective, Independent Learners
Gretchen Clark, Ritsumeikan University, Japan<gretchen3clark(at)gmail(dot)com>
Due to the spread of COVID-19, universities around the world began making use of online tools such aslearning management systems (LMS) and Zoom. For language teachers, teaching skills such as listening
and speaking proved to be a challenge. This paper describes how an extensive listening (EL) program wasorganized asynchronously for a class of 21 students studying English at a private women’s university incentral Japan. Students were asked to choose at least one audio or video resource from a list provided
by the author and complete a digital listening journal for 21 weeks. In the journal students were required
to document the resource title, website information, a summary, listening problems, and goals for future
journal entries. On the LMS, the author provided feedback to help students navigate listening problems
and choose resources that fit their needs. This paper reports on the experiences of three students
who completed the task regularly. An analysis of their journals and submission practices was used in
combination with semi-structured interviews to understand their listening processes. The students’ stories
provide insight into how the skill of listening is practiced and may be of interest to educators who wish to
introduce EL in their own contexts as an out-of-class activity.
COVID-19の蔓延により，世界中の大学がLMS（Learning Management System）やZoomなどのオンラインツールを活用するようになった。
しかし、語学教師にとって、リスニングやスピーキングといったスキルの指導は難しい。
この論文では、中部地方の私立女子大学で英語を学ぶ21人の学生を対象に、非同期で行われた多聴（EL）
プログラムについて説明する。学生は、筆者が提供したリストから少なくとも1つのオーディオまたはビデオリソースを選択し、21週間にわたりデジタルリスニングジャーナルを完成させるよう課題を行った。
ジャーナルには、教材のタイトル、
ウェブサイト情報、要約、
リスニングの問題点、今後の目標などを記録するよう求めた。
LMS上
では、著者がフィードバックを提供することで、学生がリスニングの問題を解決し、自分のニーズに合ったリソースを選択できるようにした。
この論文では、定期的にタスクをこなした3人の学生の経験を検証する。
彼女たちのリスニングプロセスを理解するために、半構造化インタビューとジャーナル、提出物を組み合わせて分析に使用した。
彼女らの体験談は、
リスニングのスキルがどのように練習されているかについての洞察をもたらし、授業外の活動としてELをそれぞれの文脈で導入したいと考える教育者にとって関心の高いものであろう。

Keywords

extensive listening, teacher feedback, metacognition, journal, LMS
多聴、教師からのフィードバック、
メタ認知, ジャーナル、LMS

Due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing governmental mandates to
conduct class online, the traditional method of language instruction using textbooks, CDs,or handouts became almost impossible. In Japanese universities, online learning meant
fully asynchronous efforts conducted using learning management systems (LMS), suchas manaba (https://manaba.jp) or Moodle (https://moodle.org), or some kind of hybrid
course in which webtools such as Microsoft Teams or the video conferencing software
Zoom were also used. Not only were teachers and students separated physically, but thedigital divide meant all of us had to get used to paperless, digital ways of learning thatwere unfamiliar, slow, and excruciatingly frustrating at times. The pandemic years were
not easy for anyone; however, this period offered an opportunity for both teachers andstudents to try new ways of learning.
Faced with this situation, my department at a Japanese university struggled with how toorganize a listening class that would circumvent technical issues yet also be rewarding for
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Extensive Listening in the Time of COVID-19

the student and easily managed by the teacher. Initially, we decided to have the students
watch and summarize a TED video (https://www.ted.com) weekly under the assumptionthat we would be back in the classroom soon and face-to-face classes would resume
as usual. But as we found, COVID cases rose, and in the end, classes remained online. I
felt we needed to devise better ways to cope with learning online. Our students seemed
to struggle with TED videos, and in many cases the task did not seem to be within theirgrasp. For example, some students submitted “summaries” that consisted of passages
taken verbatim from the transcripts. Any input I gave about writing summaries did notseem to help. At this point, I decided to revamp the assignment, so I looked into extensive
listening (EL) as a possible solution.

The Case for Extensive Listening

Extensive listening can be likened to extensive reading (ER; Waring, 2008). In both
pursuits, learners are exposed regularly to a large volume of language. Also, learners areencouraged to choose texts that are interesting to them. ER and EL differ in importantways, however. First, while it is recommended that the level of text be equal to or slightly
above comprehensibility for ER, due to the ephemeral nature of the act of listening,
researchers have found that aural texts that are equal to or below a learner’s listening
ability contribute more to learning (Waring, 2008). In addition, when practicing EL, the useof multimodal scaffolds, in which learners use transcripts while listening, is recommended(Ivone & Renandya, 2019). Another option is to have learners practice “extensive viewing”
and make use of video resources as well (Renandya & Jacobs, 2016). When viewing,
learners can utilize subtitles and captions to improve comprehension (Ivone & Renandya,2019). These multimodal scaffolds are not generally used with pure ER because the written
text is readily available for the learner to refer to as they read.
Like ER, extensive listening provides many learning opportunities for students. First,
regular extensive listening practice promotes the development of listening fluency(Chang, 2018). Also, listening to samples from different speakers of English helps increase
familiarity and comprehension of a variety of accents (Ivone & Renandya, 2019). In
addition, choosing texts that are similar in topic will increase the number of meetings
with new or unfamiliar vocabulary within a content area (Ivone & Renandya, 2019). Finally,using the myriad of options available online instead of sample audio tracks included witha textbook can have positive effects on learners’ motivation for developing their language
proficiency (Honarzad & Ressaei, 2019). EL is a flexible learning activity as it can be usedin or outside the classroom and in combination with aids such as subtitles or transcripts,
speed controls, or games and quizzes created by website developers.
EL offered the flexibility I felt was necessary for both the students and me. As a newteacher in my department without any first-hand knowledge of the students and theirabilities, I believed that EL would allow each individual student to work at their own paceand level. Additionally, if the students used a journal to document their progress andany problems, I could offer feedback tailored to their needs on the LMS. Through thisindividualized and supportive process, I thought I would be able to teach the students
how to listen and encourage them to think about what they were doing and why, thereby
helping them develop a metacognitive stance to their learning based on their individuallevels.
When researching the role of metacognition in learning, I found that it is considered
to be a driver of successful learning (e.g., Anderson, 2008; Chamot, 2008; Griffiths,
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Gretchen Clark

2008; Oxford, 2011). In fact, Chamot (2005) suggested the effective language learneris a “mentally active learner” and one who aggressively approaches study throughmetacognition (p. 115). For example, successful learners plan for study and allot time
for it (e.g., Anderson, 2008; Wong & Nunan, 2011). Successful learners are also aware ofdifferent strategies (Chamot, 2008) and select those that are appropriate for a given task(Anderson, 2008; Ehrman et al., 2003). They tend to notice any problems that occur during
a learning episode, such as a gap in knowledge or a mismatch of strategy in relation toa task, and address them effectively (Anderson, 2008; Chamot, 2008; Wong & Nunan,
2011). In the field of listening, Goh and Vandergrift (2022) emphasized metacognition as
the driving force for any learner with a desire to improve. Thinking about these different
perspectives, it seemed to me that if I had my learners practice EL with a journal and if
I were to work closely alongside them by offering specific feedback on their progress to
aid in their self-reflection process, I might be able to help them choose suitable listening
resources themselves and give them tools to navigate other out-of-class listening
experiences. In the end, EL with a focus on metacognitive awareness seemed to be asuitable task for learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In this paper, I describe the process I used to introduce EL and highlight the storiesof three prolific listeners who seemed to enjoy the task, made a habit of listening, andachieved some level of success that was meaningful for them. The purpose of this project
was to explore how the learners approached the task and to see if the weekly journaling,combined with my feedback, contributed to a sense of autonomy for each learner.

Participants

The students who were chosen for this research project belonged to the Department ofEnglish Language and Literature at a small private women’s university in central Japan.
All three spoke Japanese as their first language and were members of my second-year
Advanced Listening course, which met once weekly for 90 minutes during the 2021–22
academic year. They were 19-20 years old. I used the Oxford English Listening Level
Test (https://www.oxfordonlineenglish.com/english-level-test/listening) to measure thestudents’ listening levels during the first class. All three students began the project inApril at a listening skill of CEFR level A2, pre-intermediate. For the posttest in December,they scored a higher level at B1, intermediate level. As far as their exposure to English
outside of this project is concerned, the students were exposed to teacher-talk in English
in other classes, in addition to mine. Two of the three participants, Hina (pseudonym)
and Yue (pseudonym), listened to English frequently outside of their university classes.
Hina regularly watched movies and TV shows in English a few times a month. She also
used a mobile application called NativeCamp (https://nativecamp.co.jp/en/) weekly topractice speaking with an English-speaking teacher in real time. Yue frequently listened
to TED talks and textbook tracks to practice pronunciation and intonation outside ofclass obligations. The third participant, Maki (pseudonym), confessed that her only
focused listening practice occurred during my class. These three students were selected
for this study because their scores on the tests improved; they demonstrated a steadyconsistency of journal entry completion; and they also submitted well above the minimum
number of entries, thereby making them prime candidates for exploring the developmentof their listening skills and practices.

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Extensive Listening in the Time of COVID-19

Procedure

Because this project occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, when it was unclear how
the virus would affect the learning environment, I paid special attention to devising
simple, easy-to-do tasks for students who may or may not have had much experience withcomputers and using English-language websites. The procedure for the listening journal
task is explained in this section.

Listening Level Pretest and Posttest

In order to gauge the three students’ levels of listening skill at the beginning of thecourse in April 2021, I used Oxford’s online Listening Test. The students took the test asecond time at the conclusion of the project in December 2021. Instructions were given in
Japanese, and the students took the test individually, using their earphones and mobile
phones during the class period. The 24-item test consists of six short listening passages,
each followed by four multiple-choice comprehension questions.

The Listening Journal

After the initial listening test, I introduced the Listening Journal (LJ) assignment. I explained
the process verbally during the course period and posted the details of the assignmenton the school LMS. It is worth noting that after this initial in-person meeting in April,
COVID forced classes to move online until mid-October, when classes shifted back into theclassroom. For simplicity, I kept the entire LJ project on the LMS. In principle, the students
were to do at least one LJ assignment a week, using a website I recommended, such asNews in Levels (https://www.newsinlevels.com) or TED-Ed (https://ed.ted.com). The full list
is included in Appendix A. I made a screencast to explain how to navigate each site andposted the videos on YouTube so the students could view them before completing theassignment. After watching an online video or, alternatively, listening to an online audio
track, the students completed a one-page journal entry in English using a Word document
template (see the model entry in Appendix B). The students submitted their weekly
journal entries on the LMS for the entire LJ project. I asked the students to complete atleast one journal entry a week for 12 weeks in the spring semester and 9 weeks in the fallsemester to get credit for this portion of the course. However, I also encouraged them tocomplete as many LJ entries as possible in order to maximize their exposure to English. In
addition, to ensure student engagement and accessibility, for the majority of the project,in 17 out of the 21 weeks, I introduced a new website with an accompanying screencast
about how to use it. Students were free to choose videos from the new website that week,
any previously recommended websites, or use another website of their choice. In Week
18 of the project, students were also given an opportunity to share other websites I did
not introduce as an assignment on the LMS message board. Appendix A outlines the listof websites used for this project and other pertinent information, such as the format ofresources (audio or video), any available means of support (e.g., subtitles, speed controls),
and/or supplementary activities (e.g., comprehension tests or games).

Teacher Feedback

For the duration of the project, I acknowledged journal submissions on the university
LMS every week by commenting in English in the ways described in Table 1. I gave
individualized written feedback to each student every week for the two data collection
periods. Nearing the end of the fall semester, based on their comments and performance
36

Learner Development Journal • Issue 6 • December 2022

Gretchen Clarkin the journals, I had a sense that the students now had a grasp of how to navigate thetask, so I devised a document with a flowchart of my advice and ceased providing theindividual feedback. I invited the students to use this document for the final 3 weeksof the project (see the “Problem-Solution” document in Appendix C). The purpose ofthis stage of the project was to encourage independence and provide students with anopportunity to use the implicit knowledge they had gained with my support to tackle any
problems they encountered on their own. They could also use the document if necessary
to decide what action to take.
Table 1. Teacher Feedback
SemesterSpring(April–July)

Fall(September–
December)

Week

Teacher Feedback

1–4

Further instruction was given about how to use the journal if it
seemed a student misunderstood what to do. Brief comments were
given about the chosen video to create a friendly student-teacher
relationship.

5–11

Based on the problems reported in the log, specific advice wasgiven. The number of completed journals was noted.

12

The number of completed journal entries was noted.

13–17

Based on the problems reported in the log, specific advice wasgiven. The number of completed journals was noted.

18

Students recommended resources in the LMS message board.

19–21

The number of completed journal entries was noted. Students
independently used the “Problem-Solution” document to understandlistening weaknesses and make informed, self-reflective choices
about which videos to use in the future.

Data Collection Instruments and Analysis
Organization of the Listening Journal

To understand the learners’ experiences of EL, I asked students to complete a listening
journal (LJ) using Word, and submit their entries on the LMS. The LJ had two components.
First, similar to the journals devised by Bibby (2020) and Gönülal (2020), I asked thestudents to document practical aspects such as the date of completion, which website
was used, the video title and level, a short summary, and to note any new vocabulary theyencountered. In addition, like Schmidt (2016) and Chen (2016), I also wanted to encourage
the students to think about their listening study metacognitively, so I included a sectionin which they indicated any listening obstacles by choosing the corresponding issue froma selection of options listed in Table 2. The learners could also indicate they experienced
no trouble (option 1) and provide another listening difficulty if the designated items didn’t
fit their experience (option 7). The learners also responded to an open-ended item asking
them to surmise their goals for the following week. A copy of a model LJ entry is includedin Appendix B.

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37

Extensive Listening in the Time of COVID-19

Table 2. Possible Listening Problems
Options
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Description
I had no problems understanding the video.
I didn’t know a lot of the vocabulary.
I couldn’t understand the speaker’s accent.
I could understand the words but not the full meaning of the content.
The speed was too fast.
I was not familiar with the topic at all.
Other (Please explain.)

During the data analysis phase, I used several methods to understand the learners’
listening patterns. First, I used the submission data on the LMS to understand how
frequently the students practiced EL. Second, using the journals themselves, I was able
to compile frequency totals for the websites used and the type of problem that was
encountered. Finally, for the open-ended item in which I asked the students to set goals
for the following week’s journal assignment, I reviewed the students’ textual responses,
identified 21 themes, and coded them accordingly. Table 3 lists the 21 goals identified by
the three students.
Table 3. Goals Identified Over the 21-Week Period
Goal
1. accent2.	 change level
3. change website
4. comprehension goal
5.	 concentration
6.	 content focus
7.	 do my best
8.	 make no changes to process
9. increase time on task
10. increase variety
11. longer tracks
12. mid-task change
13. understand in one take
14. pass test quiz
15. repeat task
16. speed goal
17. change strategy
18. study grammar
19. transfer to other skill
20. understand without support
21. vocabulary
38

Hina
1
18
1
2
0
4
1
16
28
1
1
0
5
4
0
2
2
2
1
5
13

Maki
2
25
2
1
1
8
0
12
23
1
3
2
7
0
1
2
3
2
3
3
11

Learner Development Journal • Issue 6 • December 2022

Yue
1
5
0
1
0
3
0
11
21
1
0
0
4
0
0
1
0
2
1
0
11

Gretchen Clark

My Feedback

Following each submission period, I scanned the journals and noted any problems andgoals, crafted individualized feedback for each student, and compiled my comments in
an Excel file to upload into the school LMS. Each comment was in English and between
1–3 sentences long. I uploaded the majority of the feedback before the following week’s
submission due date to help students choose future resources. At the end of the project,
I then downloaded all the comments from the LMS and affixed them to a printed versionof each student’s journal for analysis. During this stage, I was looking for evidence
the students were reading and utilizing my advice to make changes to their listening
strategies, and if so, how.

Interviews

At the end of the project, I invited the three target students to speak with me about
their experiences. Two interviews were conducted on Zoom (Yue and Maki) and one wasconducted in person on campus (Hina). The interviews were recorded and lasted about
30 minutes. The main language in each case was Japanese. The interview followed asemi-structured format to allow for some flexibility to discuss related ideas more deeply(Mackey & Gass, 2016). The core interview questions are listed in Appendix D. All three
students were compensated for their time with a small gift. To analyze this portionof the data, after the interviews had been conducted, I reviewed the conversations,
noted important points that illuminated the students’ experiences with the journal, andtranslated their responses into English myself. An L1 Japanese speaker confirmed theaccuracy of my translations. For this data collection method and all previously mentioned,
I obtained the students’ permission to use the data for research purposes.

Results and Discussion

In this section, I will narrate the results from the interviews I conducted with the threetarget students chosen for this research project.

Interview Participant 1: Hina

Of the 17 resources I recommended, Hina used 12 but favored Listen a Minute (22 entries)
and Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab (15 entries). She wrote a total of 53 entries over theacademic year, submitting a minimum of one entry a week but sometimes as many asseven. As far as how Hina coped with her chosen resources, it seems she encounteredminimal difficulties with comprehension and reported I had no trouble understanding thevideo 39 times. She documented 11 problems in total throughout the period, with I didn’t
understand the full meaning of the audio (6 instances), I didn’t know a lot of vocabulary (3instances) and The speed was too fast (2 instances). As for goals, she reported 107 goals in
total, spanning 18 kinds, with the following four being the most salient: She indicated adesire to increase her time on task 28 times, she decided to change the level of the video 18
times and continue her current strategy 16 times, and finally, she reported a desire to study
vocabulary 13 times.
When cross-checking my written feedback with Hina’s performance, and goal-setting
practices, there was evidence that she seemed to be reading my comments and reflecting
on her approach. For example, in response to her Week 4 entry, in which she recorded
no problems with a Level 4 Breaking News English track, I replied, “If you thought Level 4
was too easy, please listen to a more difficult video.” The following week, she listened to
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Extensive Listening in the Time of COVID-19

both Level 5 and Level 6 videos and noted that the number of unfamiliar vocabulary items
increased with the Level 6 video.
Another pivotal moment occurred in Week 8. She started using Listen a Minute (LAM)
and recording her comprehension quiz score in the goal portion of the journal, often
remarking that she hoped to improve her score the following week. In the interview, when
I asked about her general goal throughout the LJ project, she mentioned that she wanted
to speak English and improve her TOEIC score in order to get a job in the airline industry.
So, it is understandable that scoring high on the LAM comprehension quizzes would be
motivating for her to listen more and more, which she demonstrated by using the quizzes
17 times over the following 4 weeks.
In Week 11, I suggested to Hina that LAM might be too easy for her, as she had indicatedtime and time again that she had no trouble with the content. I encouraged her to try
a different website to challenge herself. In the final week of the spring term (Week 12),Hina tried out two different websites, Storyline Online and Talk English. Her comment
about Talk English showed strong metacognition about her listening process. She wrote,“This video is too short for me, so I try to watch longer videos. However, first time is with
subtitles while second time is without subtitles. These are my favorite point” (Week 12
entry). At this point in the project, she could communicate her desire to increase time ontask and also detail specific aspects of her approach to listening, both of which indicatedshe was aware of her needs and understood what tools she could use and how theysuited her.
Upon returning to classes in the fall, Hina had another pivotal moment. During Week
13, she used LAM again but also commented in the journal, “I choose the more difficult
website for improving my English skills” (Week 13 entry), demonstrating self-awarenessthat the LAM videos are not challenging. I corroborated this feeling and told her directly,“Perhaps Listen a Minute is too easy for you? You had no trouble with it three times . . . .
Choose a more difficult website please.” The following week, she started using Randall’s
ESL Cyber Listening Lab, tried three different levels, and reflected on her ability tocomprehend all three in the “goals” section of the journal. Hina then settled on theadvanced level by saying she thought it “suits [her]” and would use it the following week
(Week 14 entry). In the interview, she explained a bit more about this process: “If I chosea difficult one [and decided] it was impossible, I lowered the level and continued. WhenI get used to it, there is nothing to listen to, so I reverted back to the higher level.” When
Hina stated that there was nothing to listen to, this possibly indicates that she had
acquired the language; the fact that she then chose to increase the difficulty shows sheunderstood that listening to tracks that are at or below her level would not help her withnew acquisition. Finally, when asked if she had any advice for other students practicing EL
with a journal, she said, “Try different websites, [and] find one that suits you. Continue to
use that website and increase your level. If you use many websites, you will get confused
so you should concentrate on one.”Interview Participant 2: Yue

The second student, Yue, wrote 62 entries in total and, like Hina, tended to submit one
a week with occasional spurts of increased productivity. In the first week of the project,for example, she submitted 11 entries. She did not use a variety of sites and committed toonly five of the 17 I recommended. She seemed to enjoy News in Levels the most, using

40

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Gretchen Clark

it two-thirds of the time (42 entries). She sporadically used Breaking News English (11entries) and TEDed (seven entries).
As far as her experience with the aural texts, Yue reported I had no trouble
understanding the video (47 times) most often. She mentioned having trouble withvocabulary (13 times), and then problems understanding the full meaning (2 times). She
indicated nine kinds of goals, with 62 reported in total. Increase time on task was reported
the most frequently (21 times), then continue with my current strategy and study vocabulary(both reported 11 times).
An examination of Yue’s performance and goals compared with my comments revealed
a few points of interest. First, I noted that she wrote she wanted to learn more words but
never translated the words into Japanese in the journal or indicated in the goals section of
the journal when or how she would tackle this task. In the interview, I asked her about her
vocabulary study. Yue admitted she never studied the vocabulary directly. She simply said
that “if they were words I might use in my daily life I decided to remember them.” Whenpressed on this point, she could not explain any further.
I also noted that she tended to use News in Levels heavily and encouraged her to try
out other sites. Her website choice for the following week was usually the same. For
the most part, I felt my feedback was ignored except in one instance: I had noticed thatshe seemed to have copied a summary verbatim from the script on the website andtold her so. In the interview, when I asked if she thought my advice was helpful, she
enthusiastically agreed and mentioned this incident, saying she had made an effort towrite the summary in her own words the following weeks. However, in the interview,
when asked directly if she had used my feedback, of the three participants, she said that
she reviewed my advice the most frequently. This was slightly surprising, since I had notseen any indication that she was reading or reacting to my written feedback in any way as
I mentioned previously. The other two students admitted they read it immediately after it
was posted on the LMS; however, Yue said she read the previous week’s advice a second
time before beginning the following week’s assignment. She also said the “ProblemSolution” document I provided was helpful both for the journal assignment and otherlistening she did on her own. The fact that she did not seem to change her habits or write
a specific goal to address a problem is a bit mysterious but perhaps indicates that she had
a command of her listening practice that was internalized or unconscious.
Furthermore, during the interview, Yue was able to explain her listening process indetail. First, she listened to the track and then practiced saying the phrases. Her goal wasto improve her speaking ability and become trilingual. (Her first languages are Japaneseand Korean, and she wanted to add a third by joining the English department.) Yue statedthat that goal was not necessarily related to any kind of career goal but instead, “If I canspeak well it’ll be a strength, and I’m in the English department so it’s a good chance to
speak properly, so that’s why I am studying.”
Finally, when asked what she would advise future students to do to succeed with thistask, she said, “Don’t do it once a week. If you do it more than once a week it affects yourTOEIC score. My TOEIC improved. If you not only do the assignment but also make a daily
habit of listening to English, you will improve.” Yue’s advice seemed to have paid off, as
she announced her TOEIC score had improved by 200 points over the course of the year.

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Extensive Listening in the Time of COVID-19

Interview Participant 3: Maki

The third participant, Maki, wrote 45 journal entries over the 21 weeks of the project,
maintaining a consistent submission rate of twice weekly. When asked about thispattern during the interview, Maki said that she had made a commitment to this rate ofsubmission. She also had a defined schedule for doing the task. She did one entry during
the actual class time and then another at another time. Unlike Hina and Yue, Maki wasvery good about setting a time to commit to the task regularly. At the beginning of the
project, she tried out in succession the websites I recommended, but in the end, used nineresources in total, favoring News in Levels (21 entries). She used English Listening Lesson
Library Online (ELLLO) seven times and Breaking News English four times. Maki reported
43 difficulties when listening, with I had trouble understanding the full meaning of the audio(21 times), I had trouble understanding vocabulary (13 times) and The speed was too fast (twotimes) as the top three. She indicated I had no trouble understanding the video 69 times.
She reported 112 goals (19 discrete kinds) in total. The most reported goal was to change
level (25 times), then increase time on task (23 times), followed by continue with her current
strategy (12 times), and finally, she felt she should study vocabulary (11 times).
Examining her LJ comments and my feedback, one unique point about Maki was that
her level of listening comprehension seemed to fall between two different levels. For
the first 10 weeks of the project, I responded to this issue by encouraging her to move
up or down a level initially, but eventually suggested she mix the two by saying, “That’s
great that you noticed that the lower-intermediate video was too easy for you and so
you tried a more difficult video. It seems you had trouble with the intermediate one,so perhaps continue listening to the lower-intermediate ones for a while and add in a
few intermediate ones that you are interested in.” In the fall, weeks later, she seemed
to understand this advice and responded that she would “lower the level and graduallychallenge difficult levels” (Week 14 entry). Exchanges of this nature continued for theremaining weeks of the project. During the interview, we spoke about my feedback and its
usefulness. Like Yue, Maki seemed to have internalized the advice I wrote and the advice
on the “Problem-Solution” document (Appendix C) and by the end of the project did notneed to refer to the document to proceed with her listening practice.
Finally, in the same way as Hina and Yue, Maki also improved her score on the Oxford
Online Listening Test from CEFR A2 to B1. However, when asked about any improvements
in her TOEIC score, Maki said there was not a vast difference, but that it was graduallyrising. When asked if this was due to the LJ assignment, she said that she listened toEnglish more because of the assignment, so it was helpful. When asked about her
listening process, she was able to explain her strategy immediately. She said she listened
and took notes once, read the transcript to confirm its meaning, and then listened again,
sometimes as many as five times. As far as advice for future students is concerned, Makisaid, “If you only listen once, you won’t understand a lot of the tracks, so you should
listen to many repeatedly. If you only do the journal once a week you won’t improve. Do
it two to three times a week.” Maki thus seemed to credit her success to this systematic
approach.

Discussion

The main takeaway from examining the extensive listening practices of these three
students is that learning to listen is not a universal process but rather a deeply personal
one. Working alongside the teacher and building their metacognitive awareness, all three42

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Gretchen Clark

students were able to shape their approaches and succeed in several ways, including but
not limited to an improved TOEIC score. All three, aided by the LJ task, created a listening
habit and seemed to understand how to manipulate the tools offered on the website
to help themselves. All three could identify and explain their approach to choosing andutilizing videos and audio files. Each student used the resources in different ways thatwere unique to them. As demonstrated in their journal entries, my weekly feedback
seemed to be helpful; however, I think that perhaps my advice confirmed their previous
knowledge of strategies for choosing videos, or perhaps over time, the advice wasinternalized and eventually woven into their implicit knowledge. In any event, the Listening
Journal project seems to have served its purpose and provided a reason for students topractice the skill of listening outside of the classroom, for the most part without teacher
input, and to learn how to navigate choosing online resources in a purposeful way.

Future Considerations

While these three students seem to have each had a successful experience with EL using
a digital journal, there are some issues to consider for future classes. First, using the
LMS, manaba, to collect journal entries was effective because the LMS organized thejournal submissions by each individual student and then kept them in the Cloud (i.e.,saved online). The students and I could all access the journals easily and did not have toworry about keeping track of a paper journal, which we might have used in pre-COVID
times. Also, feedback could be given quickly and easily by entering comments on an
Excel spreadsheet and uploading it into the LMS system. Unfortunately, however, theExcel spreadsheet allowed for only one comment per student, so this meant there
was one space to comment about the journal assignment regardless of whether the
student had submitted one or seven entries. In this case, the feedback may have been
entirely misconstrued by the student, as it was impossible to understand to which entry
it referred. Finally, concerning the practice of giving feedback itself, regardless of themode of execution, I found it difficult to keep up with the amount of feedback required
per student per week. For this project, I had a total of 21 students, so providing weekly
feedback for all of them was quite time intensive. In this case, it might be prudent tointroduce a “peer” element to the project as suggested by several researchers, including
Chen (2016) and Renandya and Jacobs (2016). Allowing students to support each otherin their EL journeys via Zoom video conferencing might have provided more or different
kinds of support that I, as their teacher, simply could not give due to time constraints.
Looking back at the students’ experience with EL and Listening Journals, I feel that each
student had ample opportunity to explore the vast range of online resources available on
the internet and make good use of the time we spent learning during the unprecedented
circumstances caused by COVID-19 pandemic. The three students I spoke with for thispaper reported that doing extensive listening and using listening journals had been alargely positive experience, which was a satisfying outcome for me as their teacher.

Author Bio

Gretchen Clark is an assistant professor of English in the Department of Business
Administration at Ritsumeikan University, Ibaraki, Osaka, Japan. Her current researchinterests include the role of teacher feedback in language learning, interactional
competence, and accessibility and ELT.

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Extensive Listening in the Time of COVID-19

Review ProcessThis paper was open-reviewed by Jo Mynard and Ted O’Neill of the Learner Development
Journal Review Network and by the Journal Steering Group. (Contributors have the option ofopen or blind review.)

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Appendix A
Week
1

List of Websites Recommended Each Week to Students

Resource
News in Levels
https://www.newsinlevels.
com
English Central
https://www.englishcentral.
com/browse/videos

FormatAudio

Level
Levels 1-3

Video

Beginner A1 (level1 & 2), intermediate
A2/B1 (level 3 & 4),
advanced B2-C2(levels 5-7)

3

TED-Edhttps://ed.ted.com

Video

Advanced

4

English Listening Lesson
Library Online (ELLLO)
https://www.elllo.org

5

Breaking News English
https://
breakingnewsenglish.com

Audio/Video 6 levels: low
beginner (CEFR A1),
mid-beginner (A1),high beginner (A2),
low-intermediate(B1), midintermediate (B2),high- intermediate(C1), advanced (C2)Audio
6 levels, 1-6

6

Learn English with TV Series Video
YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/
channel/UCKgpamMlm872z
kGDcBJHYDg

7

The Fable Cottage
https://www.
thefablecottage.com

2

46

Advanced

Audio/Video Advanced

Learner Development Journal • Issue 6 • December 2022

Features
Transcript, difficult
vocabulary definedin English
Personalized
dictation exercises
and vocabulary
study, ability topause after eachline, speaking
practice activities,
speed controls,
rewind/FF
English CC, otherlanguage subtitles,
speed controls,
rewind/FF
Transcript, grammar
explanation,
keywords withEnglish definitionand pronunciation,
comprehension
quiz; English CC,
speed controls
6 speeds; online
activities (e.g.,
dictation)

Free PDF lesson
with a transcript,
vocabularydefinitions, grammar
explanation, cultural
notes
English subtitles,
speed controls

Gretchen Clark

8

Listen a Minutehttps://listenaminute.com/
index.html
Voice of America
https://learningenglish.
voanews.com
BBC English https://www.
bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/
english/

Audio

Easy

Audio/
Video

Advanced

Video

11

Talk English https://www.
talkenglish.com

Audio

12

Storyline Online https://storylineonline.net

Video

4 levels: lowintermediate,intermediate,
upper-intermediate,
advanced
3 levels: basic,
intermediate,
advanced
Advanced

13

Audio

Advanced

Audio

Easy, intermediate,
difficult

Audio

Advanced

Transcript, listening
comprehension
questions
Speed controls

Audio

Advanced

Speed controls

Audio

Advanced

Transcript

18

British Council Learn
English Podcasts https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.
org/general-english/audioseries/podcasts
Randall’s ESL Cyber
Listening Lab www.esl-lab.
com
BBC Learning English
Drama https://www.
bbc.co.uk/programmes/
p02pc9s1
BBC Radio 6-minute English
https://www.bbc.co.uk/
programmes/p02pc9tn
BBC Radio The English
We Speak https://www.
bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/
english/features/theenglish-we-speak_2022
Student recommendations

19-21

None

9
10

14
15

16
17

Transcript, games:
dictation, word
jumbles etc.
None
Transcript, listening
comprehension
questions,vocabulary andgrammar lessons
Transcript, listening
comprehension quiz
English subtitles,
Japanese subtitles,
speed controls
Transcript, listening
comprehension
exercises

Learner Development Journal • Issue 6 • December 2022

47

Extensive Listening in the Time of COVID-19

Appendix B

Model Listening JournalVideo title
Coronavirus in Royal Family
Video source / level
News in Levels, level 1
Video summary (1-3 sentences)
This video is about Prince Charles and his family. The prince had coronavirus and was inquarantine in Scotland. His mother, the queen, stays at Windsor Castle to stay healthy.
Did you learn any new vocabulary?
Eldest: 一番上
illness: 病気

quarantine: 検疫

Why did you choose this video?
I’m interested in news about the British royal family but also I’m worried about Coronavirus
so I watch news about it every day.
Did you have trouble understanding the video? Why? Write the number(s).
1) I had no problems understanding the video.
2) I didn’t know a lot of the vocabulary.
3) I couldn’t understand speaker’s accent.
4) I could understand the words but not the full meaning of the content.
5) The speed was too fast.
6) I was not familiar with the topic at all.
7) Other (Please explain).

4, 5What is your goal for next week?
I want to listen to at least one video every day. Also, I think I’ll try an elllo.org video next
week.

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Learner Development Journal • Issue 6 • December 2022

Gretchen Clark

Appendix C
Number Problem

Problem-Solution Document
Gretchen’s advice for next time1

I had no problems Choose a more difficult video.
understanding
the video.

2

I didn’t know a lotof the vocabulary.

3

I couldn’t
understandspeaker’s accent.

4

I could
understand theRead andwords but not thelisten atfull meaning of
the samethe content.
time
The speed was
too fast.
Listenwithout
subtitles.
I was not familiar
with the topic at
all.

5

6

Take a memo about new
vocabulary, use a dictionary
to look them up, and try tofind another video about thesame topic.
Turn onthe closed
captions/
Englishsubtitles
and . . .

Listen to another video by aspeaker with the same type ofaccent (Possibly the speakeris the same nationality but
not necessarily . . .)If you answered
Take a memo about difficult
many options
phrases and look them up
2~6, choose an
in a dictionary. Try to findeasier (lower
similar example phrases.
level) video nexttime.
Use the settings to slow down
the tempo or use an app suchas https://audiotrimmer.com/
audio-speed-changer/.
Take a memo about content
keywords/phrases, look themup using a dictionary and try tofind another video on the same
topic to listen to next time.

Learner Development Journal • Issue 6 • December 2022

49

Extensive Listening in the Time of COVID-19

Appendix DInterview questions

1. Did you practice listening in other classes? Which ones? How do you do it?
2.	 What is your favorite way to practice listening to English outside of class?
3. How did you choose a listening resource?
a.	 Did you use only one listening format (video/audio)? Why?
b. What was challenging about choosing the resource?
c.	 Did you ever start a video and then stop and choose another? Why?
4. How did you use the video features or support features (example: subtitles etc)?
a.	 Did you use the English subtitles?
b. Did you use the Japanese subtitles?
c.	 Did you adjust the speed?
5.	 Did you listen to the track more than once?
6.	 Did you do any of the games and quizzes included on the websites?
7.	 Did you ever talk about the journal with classmates? Why/Why not?
8.	 Did you read my advice? Why or why not?
a.	 When did you read it? (as soon as I posted it/ before doing the next journal. . .)b. Did you refer to the advice I gave you in the past at all?
c.	 Do you think my advice was helpful? How? Why/why not?
d.	 How can it be improved?
e.	 Did you refer to the “Problem-Solution” document in the final weeks of the
project?
9. What was challenging about this assignment?
10. What advice do you have for future students who do the journal?

50

Learner Development Journal • Issue 6 • December 2022

PAPER
Agency in and Beyond the Classroom:
Learners’ Selection of Resources for
Self-Directed Language Learning
Jon Rowberry, Sojo University, Japan; University of Reading, UK<jrowberry(at)m(dot)sojo-u(dot)ac(dot)jp>
This paper reports an investigation into how two Japanese EFL learners enacted and enhanced agency
through their selections of resources to support self-directed language learning. The research focused on ashort course offered at the university where I work, which aimed to serve as scaffolding for learning beyond
the classroom. In the course, learners were encouraged to take the initiative for their language study byidentifying needs and goals, implementing learning plans, evaluating methods and materials, and reflecting
on their learning. The project took the form of a practitioner research case study with two learners, Nanami
and Takumi, as they engaged in self-directed learning over a period of 5 weeks. Drawing on multiple sourcesof information, including direct observation, learner reflections, and stimulated recall interviews, the twocases illuminate the unique and complex ways individual learners enact agency as they select and use
resources for self-directed language learning. The data also forced me to question my own assumptions
about the learning behaviours and perspectives of learners in my classes and to reconsider what constitutes
professional expertise in the context of language learning beyond the classroom.
本論文では、2人の日本人EFL学習者が、自主的な言語学習を支援するためのリソースの選択を通じて、どのように学習者エージェン

シーを実現・強化したかを調査した結果を報告する。
筆者が勤務する大学で、教室外での学習のための足場かけとなることを目的とした短期コースに焦点を当てた。
このコースでは、学習者がニーズと目標を特定し、学習計画を実行し、方法と教材を評価し、自分の学習を振り返ることによって、言語学習のイニシアチブをとるよう奨励された。
このプロジェクトは、5週間に渡り、自主学習に取り組んだ
2人の学習者、
ナナミとタクミに焦点を当てた実践的なケーススタディという形で行われた。
この研究は、直接観察、学習者の振り返り、
回想法インタビューなど、複数の情報源を用いて行った。
この2つのケースでは、個々の学習者が自主的な言語学習のためにリソースを選択・利用する際に、どのように学習者エージェンシーを発揮するのか、独特で複雑な方法を明らかにするものであった。
また、
この
データは、
クラスの学習者の学習行動や視点についての著者自身の仮定に疑問を投げかけ、教室を超えた言語学習という文脈で専門的知識を構成するものを再考させるものであった。

Keywords

self-directed learning, learner agency, learning beyond the classroom, learning resources, case study
自主学習、学習者エージェンシー、教室を超えた学習、学習リソース、
ケーススタディWe live in a world which is positively saturated with potential resources for language
learning. However, as any teacher or learning advisor who has attempted to harness
that potential for specific learners or groups of learners well knows, the task of finding
materials which are accessible, stimulating, and personally meaningful is complex, timeconsuming, and often no more than partially successful. How much harder, therefore,
must this task be for those who are not language specialists and may be operating at
relatively low levels of proficiency in the target language? Yet, if we want to enable ourlearners to successfully direct their own learning beyond the classroom, there can be few
more important skills to develop than those of resource selection and evaluation.
For several years, I have worked with a group of colleagues to develop a subcomponentof our university’s EFL proficiency program for non-English majors, known as the selfdirected learning unit (SDLU). SDLU was devised as a bridge between classroom-based
language instruction and language learning beyond the classroom (LBC), and it aims topromote and nurture learner agency in order to sustain our students’ language learning
Learner Development Journal • Issue 6 • December 2022

51

Agency in and Beyond the Classroom: Learners’ Selection of Resources

after they have completed their required EFL classes. One of the biggest challenges formyself, my colleagues, and my learners during the approximately 5 years since SDLU was
initially devised and implemented has been that of finding resources that are appropriate
for the needs, interests, and abilities of individual learners.
This paper reports a practitioner research (PR) case study which investigated how
two of my students, Nanami and Takumi (pseudonyms), enacted agency through theirchoices and uses of learning resources during SDLU. My practitioner status encompassed
my role as curriculum coordinator, responsible for the development and evaluation of
SDLU, and classroom teacher, responsible for implementing SDLU with a particular groupof learners. As well as generating important insights into how and why learners selectparticular resources to support their language learning, analysis of the data forced me toquestion some of my own assumptions and preconceptions about which materials are
suitable for particular people and particular purposes.

Learners’ Selection of Materials

Increased choice in relation to learning materials has long been associated with higher
levels of motivation, enhanced agency, or the fostering of learner autonomy (Ellis &Sinclair, 1989; Grabe, 2009; Mercado, 2015; Nunan, 1999; Reinders, 2010). Despite this,practical constraints of traditional classrooms often made it challenging for teachers tohand over responsibility for choosing learning resources to their learners. More recently,
however, the growth of the internet and widespread availability of electronic devices withwhich to access it, as well as the move towards individualised learning approaches withinmainstream education, have enabled learners to become more involved in decisionmaking. Meanwhile, LBC, in which language learning is associated with a wide variety ofboth physical and online environments, has emerged as a subfield of applied linguistics(Benson, 2017; Reinders & Benson, 2017).
In this emerging context, one of the biggest challenges for learners is the selection of
appropriate learning resources. In addition to materials specifically designed for language
learning such as textbooks, apps, graded readers, and websites, learners also have at theirdisposal a limitless array of materials, conventionally referred to as authentic materials,
which are not specifically designed for language learning but can readily be utilised forthat purpose (Larimer & Schleicher, 1999). These include music, movies, videos, podcasts,
news, and social media and can be freely accessed via personal electronic devices.
The importance of selecting materials which are interesting and personally relevant
has been highlighted in LBC literature. For example, Lin and Siyanova-Chanturia (2015)
suggest that “when EFL learners select Internet television programmes, their individualinterests should have priority over other factors” (p. 154). Meanwhile, Day and Bamford(1998) highlight freedom to choose one’s own materials as a core principle of extensive
reading, Lynch (2009) claims that learners with free choice over listening materials are
more likely to continue learning in their own time, and Chik (2014, 2015) links independent
decision-making in the context of gaming with both autonomy and community. However,other criteria such as the lexical complexity or applicability to real-world contexts are also
important to consider (Lin & Siyanova-Chanturia, 2015; Webb, 2015), and inappropriate
choices of content can have detrimental impacts on learning. For example, Chik (2015)
notes that choice of game genre may severely limit opportunities to acquire vocabulary,
while Lyon and Barr (2019) highlight how learners struggle to select graded readers thatmatch their learning expectations.
52

Learner Development Journal • Issue 6 • December 2022

Jon Rowberry

Language Learner Agency

Language learner agency is an important construct in LBC environments, such as SDLU.
Defined by Ahearn (2001) as “the socioculturally mediated capacity to act” (p. 112), agency
is a multifaceted and complex construct, generally associated with choice and action, butalso encompassing non-visible behaviours, beliefs, thoughts, and feelings (Mercer, 2012).
Benson (2007) suggests that agency be viewed as “a point of origin for the developmentof autonomy” (p. 30), while Gao (2013) emphasises the importance of learners’ reflecting
on language learning choices and processes in order to enhance their agency and develop
autonomy. Therefore, for learning to become truly self-directed rather than, say, mere
homework, it is important to provide opportunities for learners to act agentively andengage in reflective thinking.

Research Objectives

SDLU was devised as an open but supported learning environment which would enhanceagency by encouraging learners to make and reflect on choices about what to learn, as
well as what resources to use and how to use them. However, the extent to which thisobjective is actually realised with our population of learners is difficult to ascertain without
close and careful analysis of particular cases. Therefore, I decided to design a researchstudy specifically to explore how agency was enacted by the students in my classes
through their selection and utilisation of resources.
In attempting to link agency to resource selection, it is important to consider bothlearner reflexivity, that is, learners’ reflective evaluations of the materials, and learner
flexibility in response to the materials, that is, how this thinking influences subsequentchange in actions and beliefs. Thus, the investigation was less concerned with what
resources participants initially selected than with why they chose them, how they utilised
them, and whether they embraced, rejected, or appropriated them for their own goals
and purposes. I hoped that insights into these processes would enable the curriculum
development team to better target SDLU orientation materials and allow teachers toprovide more effective support and advice for individuals and groups of students.

Research Design

Practitioner Research (PR) is defined by Borg (2013) as professionals’ systematicinvestigation of their own practices. PR is ideal for investigating the lived complexities ofparticipants in language learning classrooms (Pinner & Sampson, 2020), and it tends tobe pragmatic and goal-orientated (Baumann & Duffy, 2001), potentially leading directly
to changes in practices. Consequently, PR is consistent with an ecological approach toclassroom research, in which context is viewed as integral to, and inseparable from, theinvestigation (van Lier, 2002). An important term for conceptualizing the interrelationshipbetween individuals and the environment in ecological research is that of affordance(Gibson, 1979). An affordance can be conceptualised as an “action potential” (van Lier,
2004, p. 92), which emerges as we interact with the physical and social world. In thecontext of SDLU, a specific resource such as a book or app, or a particular way of using a
resource, might provide such an action potential. SDLU procedures and materials havebeen designed to create a learning environment which is rich in affordances. However,
not every learner will perceive or act on such affordances, while other unexpected or
unplanned affordances will emerge organically for each learner as they interact with theunit. The goal of this study, therefore, was to track how Nanami and Takumi enacted
Learner Development Journal • Issue 6 • December 2022

53

Agency in and Beyond the Classroom: Learners’ Selection of Resources

agency as they identified and manipulated specific resources as affordances for language
learning in the context of SDLU.

Research Participants

The research site is the university in Japan where I work. The participants for the study
were members of two different second-year classes that I taught during the first semesterof the 2021–2022 academic year. Nanami and Takumi approached the task of choosing
and using resources for self-directed language learning very differently, and I chose tofocus on them partly for this reason. The selection of clearly contrasting cases is a viablesampling strategy in case study research (Duff, 2008), which acknowledges that eachcase offers unique insights. However, it is important to acknowledge that the approaches
adopted by Takumi and Nanami are just two of an almost limitless range of possibilities
and they are not necessarily representative of larger samples of learners.

The Self-Directed Learning Unit

SDLU occupies ten 90-minute sessions, approximately one-third of a compulsory blended
learning EFL class for non-English majors. Originally conceived as a classroom-based,
face-to-face intervention, drawing on the rich technological and physical resources of thebuilding in which the classrooms and self-access learning centre (SALC) are housed, SDLU
had to be reconfigured in a blended learning format due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For
the 2021 iteration of the unit, some sessions were conducted face-to-face, in compliancewith social distancing measures, while other sessions took place asynchronously online.
During the sessions on campus, it was possible for students to borrow materials from theSALC. I conducted a short meeting with each member of the class individually towards
the start of the unit to check whether they understood SDLU procedures and to provide
feedback and support.
The weekly structure of SDLU is shown in Figure 1. At the heart of the unit are fiveplanning-action-reflection cycles, a term taken from Ohashi (2018), who describes a similar
self-directed learning program at another Japanese university. For each of these cycles,
learners spend 15 minutes setting goals, planning what to study, and searching forsuitable materials; 60 minutes implementing their plan; and finally, 15 minutes evaluating
the resources used and writing a learning reflection focusing on the effectiveness of theirplan. Each learner records details of work done in SDLU in their self-directed learning
portfolio alongside their learning plans and reflections. The format of the self-directed
learning portfolio is shown in the Appendix.
After the third cycle, learners have an opportunity to exchange information and ideas
about their self-directed learning with peers. This includes an activity in which they choosea resource or study method that they found particularly interesting or useful and preparea short slideshow video to introduce it to their classmates. Subject to student consent,
these videos also become key sources of information for future cohorts of learners, since
they can be used to orientate incoming students to SDLU. This ensures that suggestions
for resources and how to use them come directly from peers, not just from teachers
or curriculum designers. In addition to these learner-generated materials, further
suggestions for resources are provided via an online space, called Learn Independently, in
our institutional Moodle. During orientation to SDLU, learners are encouraged to explore
these and other resources and to utilise whatever they feel is most appropriate to theirlearning needs and personal preferences.
54

Learner Development Journal • Issue 6 • December 2022

Jon Rowberry

Figure 1. Weekly structure of SDLU

Data Collection

Data collection combined direct observation of class procedures and learner behaviours
with analysis of learners’ self-directed learning portfolios. In addition, stimulated recall
interviews were conducted using the portfolios as the stimulus. Students’ self-directed
learning portfolios are an integral part of SDLU, since they provide a record of work done
and materials used, along with written reflections on each self-directed learning session.
Students are encouraged to write their reflection in Japanese, their L1, although they are
free to use English, or a combination of both languages, if they prefer. Portfolio entries
are submitted electronically via a Microsoft OneNote Class Notebook housed within
Microsoft Teams. The OneNote format allowed students to upload recordings, images,
and documentation, as well as to insert direct links to online resources. Since access toeach student’s OneNote notebook is shared with the teacher, I could access and monitor
their self-directed learning portfolios at any time. A teacher-researcher journal was used
to record my observations, thoughts, and feelings as they arose.
Learner Development Journal • Issue 6 • December 2022

55

Agency in and Beyond the Classroom: Learners’ Selection of Resources

In addition to the data collected naturalistically via observation and learner portfolios,
stimulated recall interviews were conducted to shed further light on participants’ choicesof resources. Interviews were conducted in person at the research site by a Japanesecolleague who is a trained and experienced language learning advisor. Learning advising
typically takes the form of individual interviews in which advisors employ elicitation
techniques adapted from counselling (Mozzon-McPherson, 2007) to encourage learners
to engage in reflective dialogue (Kato, 2012; Kato & Mynard, 2016). Therefore, anexperienced learning advisor is ideally placed to elicit students’ decision-making processes
and perspectives in a non-threatening and productive manner. The participants’ selfdirected learning portfolios served as stimuli for the interviews, with participants asked
to elaborate on their reasons for selecting particular resources and their experiences ofusing them.

Data Analysis

Preliminary analysis of the data was conducted during SDLU even as the data was being
collected. I carefully observed SDLU sessions and wrote memos in my teacher-researcher
journal after each class, as well as while reviewing the self-directed learning portfolios.
This initial analysis of the data allowed me to target specific learners to participate
in interviews. Interview recordings were transcribed in Japanese and translated into
English, then coded in MAXQDA 2020 (https://www.maxqda.com) alongside other data,
including participants’ learning plans and reflections, records of learning resources used,
and written responses to classroom-based tasks associated with self-directed learning.
Although the bulk of both the spoken and written data was originally in Japanese, data
extracts in the sections below have been rendered in English.
In order to operationalize the construct of learner agency, I drew on indicators ofagency proposed by van Lier (2008) and subsequently employed in a study by Vandergriff(2016), such as the ability to initiate learning, formulate personal goals, self-regulate thelearning process, and seek help when needed. For example, I considered the extent
to which participants’ selections of resources were related to their expressed learning
goals, the extent to which they sought out novel resources rather than merely selectingfrom options presented to them, and the extent to which they adjusted their resource
selections based on their experiences and reflections.

Case Description

In this section I will describe Nanami and Takumi’s cases separately, focusing on how they
selected and used resources, and how their self-directed learning behaviours evolved
over the five sessions. Then, in the following section, I will discuss new understandingsthat arose through my consideration of these cases and what implications these have for
LBC-supportive teaching practices.

Nanami

Nanami was a student from the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and, according
to the placement test she took when she entered the university, her proficiency level
for listening and reading was upper A2 of the CEFR (Council of Europe, 2001), slightly
below average for her department, but above average for the university as a whole.
Pharmaceutical science students tend to be highly conscientious, and Nanami was no
exception. Although she described herself in the interview as “not very good at English to
56

Learner Development Journal • Issue 6 • December 2022

Jon Rowberry

begin with,” she attended classes regularly, diligently completed assignments, and wrote
thoughtful and detailed learning reflections.
For the first of the five self-directed learning cycles, Nanami struggled to formulate
learning goals and to decide what materials to use: “At first, I felt it was quite difficult tomake a plan and do it by myself because I’m not good at English.” Following suggestions
given in the Learn Independently Moodle site, she was directed to YouTube as a potential
resource. However, the idea of watching videos on YouTube on her own computer duringclass time ran completely counter to her notion of how students behave in language
classes. She told the interviewer, “If I had a bad attitude there would be nothing to stopme watching other things if I wanted to. I wondered if I should really be using YouTube
in class. I couldn’t do it at first.” In fact, she spent so much time in this first cycle trying toformulate learning goals and find appropriate materials that there was very little time left
for actual study, and it was clear from her self-evaluation and reflection comments thatshe felt the session had gone badly.
Prior to the second planning-action-reflection cycle, I briefly met with each student
in case they needed support. In this meeting with Nanami, I was able to reassure herthat it really was acceptable to use YouTube for self-directed learning. She reported in
her interview, “When I didn’t know what to do, I had a meeting with Jon, and he gave mesome advice about using movies, so I started looking for movies that I liked and using
them for self-directed learning.” Subsequently, Nanami persevered with her focus onaudio-visual resources, and her learning objectives for the second and third self-directed
learning cycles were carefully formulated according to the guidelines for SMART (Specific,
Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals recommended during SDLU
orientation. For example, for Cycle 2 she decided to use English Listening Lesson Library
Online (ELLLO; https://www.elllo.org) to develop her communication skills with the goalof identifying “five phrases that I can use on a daily basis,” then for Cycle 3 she decided
to use the Cake app (https://mycake.me/) to “watch Disney movies and learn words andsentences about different emotions.” In addition to ELLLO and Cake, she experimented
with the Movieclips YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/movieclips), as wellas LyricsTraining (https://lyricstraining.com/), a site for developing listening skills throughEnglish song lyrics, and she evaluated her progress more positively than she had for Cycle
1. However, in her third reflection, she indicated that she was uncertain of the usefulnessof the phrases she had picked up from the source videos, and she again expressed adesire in future cycles to avoid spending too much time searching for suitable resources.
After the third planning-action-reflection cycle, students present resources they haveused to support their self-directed learning in the form of slideshow videos. For Nanami,
watching her classmates’ videos turned out to be a pivotal experience because she wasintroduced to resources which reconciled her desire to use video materials with herneed for a more structured approach to learning than that provided by Cake, ELLLO, orMovieclips. She found the YouTube channel Rupa-sensei (https://www.youtube.com/c/
Rupasensei) particularly useful and used it extensively in the fourth planning-actionevaluation cycle, commenting in her reflection that this session was by far the mostsuccessful yet. However, Rupa-sensei turned out to have been a mere stepping stone
on her learning journey, because for her fifth and final session she moved away fromentertainment media altogether and settled on YouTube content specifically targeting
English for pharmaceutical science. What she seemed to have arrived at, via a rather
circuitous route, was a resource which in many ways resembled the textbook materials
Learner Development Journal • Issue 6 • December 2022

57

Agency in and Beyond the Classroom: Learners’ Selection of Resources

she had grown up with but was delivered in an audio-visual format. In her final reflection
she commented,
In this session, I focused on English words and sentences that I might be able to use
when I work as a pharmacist in the future. This time, I think I was able to plan well andthink about which resources to use. In addition, I learned things that I will be able touse in the future, so I feel that I had a fulfilling learning experience.

Takumi

Takumi was a student in the Department of Nanoscience. According to placement testscores, the English proficiency of nanoscience students is below average for the university
as a whole, but in my experience of working with these students, they do not necessarilylack interest in English or motivation to study it. Although Takumi had been studying
English since the fifth grade of elementary school, his test score placed him at only CEFR
A1 level, and his grades for previous English courses at the university were relatively
low. However, although he occasionally neglected to submit assignments, he attended
regularly and participated actively in class activities.
Unlike Nanami, when it came to self-directed learning, Takumi seemed to have a clear
idea from the outset what he wanted to do, and he wasted no time in applying himself
to it. His portfolio entry for the first planning-action-reflection cycle indicated that hehad spent the first part of the session using Quizlet (https://quizlet.com/) to review
vocabulary related to chemistry before shifting his focus to reading. I was impressed, butalso rather surprised and concerned, to find that he had chosen an extremely technicalarticle from the journal Nature (https://www.nature.com/) entitled “Aziridine Synthesis by
Coupling Amines and Alkenes via an Electrogenerated Dication,” which he had linked tohis portfolio. On reading the article’s abstract I found the text fairly impenetrable. It wascertainly not the sort of material I would expect or encourage elementary level students
to select, and I assumed Takumi would quickly abandon it and look for something moreaccessible. However, when I met with Takumi briefly at the end of the class, it was clearthat he had not given up. In fact, he talked about the article with such enthusiasm that
I soon abandoned my own attempt to guide him towards materials that seemed moresuited to his level.
During his stimulated recall interview, Takumi acknowledged that this kind of
academic text was very difficult for him to comprehend and well beyond the scope of therecommended reading materials or anything his classmates were attempting. However,
he persevered with the same article all through the first three planning-action-reflection
cycles, demonstrating in the process a range of sophisticated reading strategies, including
identifying key vocabulary, summarising the main points in Japanese, and making
judicious use of online translation tools to aid text comprehension combined with use of
the Internet to supplement his knowledge of the content.
Takumi explained to the interviewer that, prior to SDLU, he had not really considered
his goals for studying English and had studied simply to improve his scores in English
tests, an endeavour that had been largely unsuccessful. He noted that the texts hehad used were decided by the teacher and were often either too difficult for him toaccess or were too easy to interest him. He reported that, during SDLU, he felt greatly
empowered by being able to choose the article for himself, and while engaging with thetext, he noticed that he was able to maintain his concentration for far longer than usual.
He also described experiencing a strong sense of accomplishment when he was able to58

Learner Development Journal • Issue 6 • December 2022

Jon Rowberrycomprehend the text: “What I chose was above my level so I had to work really hard, but it
gave me a real feeling of satisfaction when I was able to make sense of it.”As described above, there is a break after the third planning-action-reflection cycle,
in which learners exchange their experiences of SDLU with their classmates. For many
students, including Nanami, this prompted a shift in trajectory as they experimented withmaterials and approaches recommended by peers. In Takumi’s case, however, there wasno such shift. In fact, he failed to submit a slideshow video of his own, though he claimed
this was simply due to forgetfulness rather than reluctance to engage with the task.
In the fourth self-directed learning cycle he did not try out any of his peers’ suggested
resources or approaches, but instead selected a second chemistry article from Nature.
Although the linguistic content of this paper was just as challenging as the previous one,
he reported in his final reflection that he had become less reliant on translation tools
and Internet searches to support his reading. As a result, he was able to make sense of
the text within the two planning-action-reflection cycles, further enhancing his feeling ofaccomplishment.

Discussion

These cases richly illustrate ways in which two learners enact their agency through theirselection of learning materials for self-directed learning. The first thing to note is how
assiduously both Nanami and Takumi applied themselves to the task of finding suitable
resources for their self-directed learning. As their teacher, I was rather humbled by thissince, on reflection, I believe I had tended to underestimate how seriously students in myclass engaged with SDLU. Neither Nanami nor Takumi settled for the recommendations
listed in the SDLU orientation materials; instead, they proactively sought out resourcesthat were personally meaningful and related to their expressed learning goals.
For Nanami, this process was tentative and exploratory as she tried out a wide variety
of different materials and gradually refined her selections. At first, lacking self-confidence
in her English abilities and uncertain about the expectations and procedures associatedwith SDLU, Nanami seemed largely unable to enact agency. Although she later came tovalue the planning-action-reflection process and apply it to other areas of her study, she
was initially rather paralysed by this entirely novel approach. She seemed to agoniseover decisions relating to her learning and was tentative in her selections of materials,
experimenting with various resources without appearing to settle on any of them. She
was immediately drawn to music and movies, but she struggled to find resources thatsuited her learning style or met her learning goals. Her expectations about what learning
entails, perhaps influenced by her previous experience of teacher-directed learning, werein conflict with her desire to use audio-visual materials to address the learning goals she
had formulated. Moreover, as someone who claimed to particularly enjoy studying withfriends, her problems were compounded by limited access to peer support because ofsocial distancing constraints. Consequently, she was initially dependent on resourcessuggested by me or the SDLU support materials, even though she did not feel they werequite right for her. It was only after she had been introduced to the resources that her
peers were using that she was able to enact and enhance her agency.
One of these resources, Rupa-sensei, appeared to serve as a bridge between her desire
for video-based input and her need for a structured approach to learning. Rupa-sensei is
a YouTube channel targeting Japanese learners of English with over 500,000 subscribers.
Rupa himself is an Australian teacher based in Japan with an enthusiastic style ofLearner Development Journal • Issue 6 • December 2022

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Agency in and Beyond the Classroom: Learners’ Selection of Resources

presentation, and his videos present a wide range of content, including tips for studying
English, clips from movies with useful words and phrases highlighted, and dialogues of
conversations with people Rupa meets on the street. It is not difficult to infer why Nanami
might have been drawn to this material. The video content and style of presentation are
engaging, and Japanese support is provided throughout in the form of subtitles. Also, in
his role as “sensei” [teacher], Rupa is very much directing the learning by focusing on key
words and phrases and highlighting pronunciation and other linguistic features.
One might argue that rather than directing her own learning, Nanami had merely
replaced one teacher with another, but even if so, at least it was a teacher of her choosing
rather than one chosen by the institution where she studies. In any case, Nanami did
not settle on this resource for long but further enacted her agency by seeking out more
personally meaningful YouTube content with a specific focus on English for pharmacists.
Again, the videos she chose were highly scaffolded and specifically aimed at Japaneselearners, and as her teacher, I could not help wondering whether this approach wasleading her towards or away from independent learning. Nonetheless, she seemed finallyto have achieved success in aligning goals, resources, and learning behaviours.
Like Nanami, Takumi was motivated by a desire to improve his competence in using
English related to his academic field. At the start of SDLU, he formulated a long-term goal
to improve his ability to read, and ultimately to write, academic texts related to chemistry.
Although operating at a lower level of proficiency than Nanami, he was clearly willing
and able to enact agency as a language learner. He required no reassurance from me orfrom his classmates about the suitability of his selected materials; on the contrary, hechose them knowing that such reassurance was unlikely. However, as he explained in his
interview, he invested considerable time and attention to his search for suitable articles
using keywords and then skimming titles and abstracts to find familiar and interesting
topics.
Having settled on a specific resource genre, Takumi never wavered in his approach. The
fact that he did not seriously consider alternative learning approaches made him seemstrong-willed, if not rather stubborn, but his determination, enjoyment, and tremendous
sense of achievement clearly justified the approach he had taken. It was almost as if he
had long been primed for such a chance to enact his agency and had enthusiasticallygrasped the opportunity. Moreover, while Takumi was unequivocal in his approachto resource selection and did not take up any of his classmates’ suggestions, he was
highly reflective about his learning. For example, he soon noticed neither knowledge ofchemistry, nor English ability alone were sufficient for decoding the texts he had chosen: “I
think it’s important to know the English terminology first, but if you don’t study chemistry
properly, you won’t be able to understand what’s going on when you read.” Consequently,
investment in both these areas simultaneously was key to understanding the articles.
He also said that following the first SDL cycle, he had realised that studying chemistryrelated vocabulary in isolation was time-consuming and of limited value since he rarely
encountered the words he had studied:
In SDL 1, I started out by studying vocabulary first, but this was not efficient because
the vocabulary study took so long that I had little time left over for reading, and few ofthe words I had studied appeared in the text. So next time, I decided to start with thereading and only look up the vocabulary that I needed to understand the text.

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With this shift in approach, Takumi took control of his learning by deciding for himself
which words were important rather than deferring to the predetermined selections
presented in the course materials.

Implications and Realisations

This study has shown how Nanami and Takumi enacted agency through their selection
and use of learning resources for their self-directed language learning in the context
of SDLU. Both were able to identify affordances for learning in the SDLU environment
and used them to enact agency. If, as Benson (2007) and Gao (2013) argue, agency isa precondition of learner autonomy, it seems that both Nanami and Takumi are wellprimed to become autonomous language learners. This is a positive finding for colleagues
responsible for developing and implementing SDLU since it aligns closely with the unit
objectives.
However, a clear implication from Nanami’s case is that, for many learners, theselection of resources for self-directed language learning is tremendously complex andchallenging, even within a supported learning environment such as SDLU. Teachers,
learning advisors, and course designers must tread a fine line between, on the one hand,guiding learners towards particular resources and approaches, and on the other hand,ensuring they do not exacerbate existing learning dependencies, or create new ones. To
make matters even more challenging, the right balance is different for each learner—while
Nanami needed a high degree of support and reassurance, Takumi needed very little.
For many learners, the most productive means of providing such support may bethrough other learners rather than, or at least in addition to, teachers. For Nanami,
watching her classmates’ slideshow videos was integral to her own subsequent
success, even though many of the resources they highlighted, such as Rupa-sensei,
were already listed in the Learn Independently Moodle site. Following the coronavirus
pandemic, SDLU became a rather individual experience mediated primarily by computer
screens rather than by other people and physical objects. However, especially underthese circumstances, opportunities to interact with real or imagined communities oflearners seem extremely important. Such opportunities can be realised in various ways
including presenting orientation materials and procedures in the voices of near-peer
students, encouraging learners to exchange learning resources or strategies, providing
opportunities for learners to troubleshoot problems, and having learners consolidate
their experiences of self-directed learning by producing information to support futurecohorts of learners in the form of videos, webpages, or handouts.
Finally, the data suggests that an intervention such as SDLU can be highly facilitativeof language learner agency in Japanese EFL environments, even for low-level and nonEnglish-major learners. This has important implications for traditional teacher-learnerroles and suggests that we may need to reconsider what it is that constitutes teacher
expertise. In fact, analysis of the data made me realise that I was guilty of holding a
number of preconceptions about my learners that did not stand up to scrutiny. For
example, the quality and depth of reflections written by students such as Nanami and
Takumi, as well as the comments they made during the interviews, made me realise I had
been guilty of underestimating our learners’ engagement and investment in their selfdirected language learning. Furthermore, Takumi’s case forced me to question my beliefs
about which texts are appropriate for which learners. It could be argued that Takumi was
successful in his self-directed learning in spite of, rather than because of, his teacher’s
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Agency in and Beyond the Classroom: Learners’ Selection of Resources

advice and expectations about text selection. While I had assumed that dense texts
with complex grammar and vocabulary would be poorly understood and demotivating,
Takumi’s case shows that text complexity need not be a barrier to comprehension,
particularly given the scaffolding that is now readily available in the form of web-based
tools. Provided they are personally meaningful, engaging with such texts can enhancerather than stifle learner agency.

Limitations and Future Research

One limitation of the study is that it tracks Nanami and Takumi over a relatively shortperiod of just a few weeks and only five planning-action-reflection cycles. The analysis
suggests that both of them are well primed to become autonomous language learners,
but from the point of view of the LBC research community, it is what happens to Nanami
and Takumi after SDLU that is likely to be of particular interest. Investigation of whether,and how, this process occurs would warrant a larger-scale, longitudinal study. Moreover,a further limitation of the study is that it describes the cases of only two learners, andthe differences between them clearly highlight the fact that each learner’s experience isunique. The study would therefore be considerably enriched by including more cases.
In fact, I am currently engaged in a larger-scale doctoral research project which aims toaddress these limitations by focusing on a larger number of cases over a longer period oftime.
Another potential avenue for research would be an investigation of how specific audiovisual resources function as affordances for learning beyond the classroom. YouTube isextremely popular with Japanese students and young people, and the success of channels
such as Rupa-sensei suggests that it has become a productive resource for language
learning beyond the classroom, as well as for entertainment. Studies investigating how
interaction with specific YouTubers or YouTube channels serves to enhance or constrain
language learner agency may contribute significantly to our wider understanding of LBC.
Finally, the current study has highlighted the importance of social interaction, evenin the context of socially distanced or computer-mediated classes. Therefore, researchtargeting how learner agency is enhanced through interactions with a community of(actual or imagined) peers is another promising avenue for future investigation.

Acknowledgements

As well as Nanami and Takumi themselves, I would like to express sincere thanks to mycolleague, Kayoko Horai, who conducted the interviews and whose own reflections on thecases proved invaluable in analysing and interpreting the data.

Author Bio

Jon Rowberry is director of the Sojo International Learning Center at Sojo University in
Kumamoto. He has taught English at schools, colleges, and universities in Japan and the
UK . He has an MA in TESOL from the Institute of Education (University College London)and is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Reading. His research focuses on
language learner agency, self-directed learning, and learner variables.

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Review ProcessThis paper was open-reviewed by Louise Ohashi and Katherine Thornton of the Learner
Development Journal Review Network and by the Journal Steering Group. (Contributors havethe option of open or blind review.)

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Appendix

SDLU Portfolio Entry (Submitted via Microsoft Teams After Each of the Five Planning-ActionReflection Cycles)

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PAPERA Case Study of Collaborative Online
International Learning Between Finnish andJapanese University Students: Learning andUsing English Beyond the Classroom
Chika Hayashi, Seikei University, Japan<c-hayashi(at)bus(dot)seikei(dot)ac(dot)jp>
This paper aims to examine how a pair of Japanese and Finnish university students collaborate through an
original Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) project which was introduced as a completely
out-of-class activity. Using a case study approach, I focus on the Japanese student’s reflection for an
in-depth understanding of her experience of the COIL project over 4 months. The analysis is based on thedata collected through an interview and her actual interchange of email messages and letters with her
Finnish partner student. The results show (a) that the Japanese student embarked on the project with both
expectations of intercultural communication and anxieties about her English proficiency, and (b) that thetwo students co-constructed their own communication styles as they shared personal information anddeveloped empathy and rapport with each other. I also found (c) that the Japanese student’s obsession
with formality and accuracy as well as recognition of her lack of communicative English contributed to thegradual decrease in the number of email messages. However, (d) this helped her to realize her needs andmaintain, even enhance, her motivation to study English. The study also sheds light on the necessity ofproviding well-balanced opportunities for students to learn and use both formal and informal English inorder to encourage better communication.

本稿は、授業外活動として独自に導入した「国際協働オンライン学習プロジェクト」に於ける日本とフィンランドの大学生ペアの協働の過程を探究する。
ケーススタディの手法を用いて、同プロジェクトに4ヵ月間参加した日本の学生のインタビューと実際のやりとり（eメ－ルと手紙）を分析した結果、(a)日本の学生は異文化交流への期待とともに、自身の英語力に対する不安も抱きながらプロジ
ェクトに参加し、(b)日本とフィンランドの学生はお互いに個人情報を共有し、心を通わせ信頼関係を築きながら自分たちのコミュニ
ケーションの形式を協働的に創り上げた。
また、(c)日本の学生の形式と正確さへの執着および英語力の不安により、eメールや手紙の送信回数が徐々に減る傾向が見られたが、(d)同時にそれにより自身のニーズを認識し、英語学習のモチベーションの維持ひいては向上に結びついたと認識していることが明らかになった。
さらに本研究の結果、より良いコミュニケーションを促すために、
フォーマルに加えてカジュアルな英語表現の学習および使用の機会の必要性も示された。

Keywords

Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), out-of-class learning, Japanese and Finnish university
students, learner autonomy, case study
国際協働オンライン学習、授業外学習、日本とフィンランドの大学生、学習者の自律、
ケーススタディThe importance of collaboration has been emphasized in the field of education, andvarious types of collaborative learning have been widely introduced in the classroom at
different institutional levels (e.g., Ashwell et al., 2014; Hmelo-Silver et al., 2013). Regardlessof disciplinary subject area, a majority of the collaborative activities are carried out locally,
mainly within the same class (e.g., Shibley & Zimmaro, 2002) and between or among
several classes (e.g., Hayashi & Banno, 2019), while others are designed to integrate global
perspectives enabling students to interact with peers in different countries (Takeda etal., 2022). Although tandem learning has been widely used in language teaching andlearning for a long time (e.g., Menard-Warwick et al., 2013; Wakisaka, 2018), Collaborative
Online International Learning (COIL) is a new pedagogical approach that connects students
in different countries and provides opportunities for them to interact with peers. COIL
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A Case Study of Collaborative Online International Learning

is generally embedded in the formal curriculum and has been introduced mainly at theuniversity level (Ikeda, 2020). In Japan, an increasing number of universities (e.g., Kansai
University, Nanzan University, and Sophia University) have introduced the COIL approach,and those universities have embarked on this global-oriented project. Many informationand communication technology (ICT) tools such as Skype, Flipgrid, and email can be used
for different purposes within COIL projects, but the primary purpose of COIL is to enhanceintercultural competencies and digital skills while students are engaged in project-basedlearning. In many cases, COIL has been integrated as part of course activities in the formal
learning environment, but it is seldom introduced beyond the classroom. In this researchstudy, I focus on the introduction of COIL project in out-of-class settings. Using a casestudy approach, I examine how a Japanese university student and her Finnish partner
collaborated over 4 months. I also analyze the Japanese student’s reflection on her
experience of the COIL project.

Defining Collaborative Online International Learning

COIL employs various types of ICT tools and enables learners to engage in collaborative
learning across countries. It was first introduced at the State University of New York in
2004. In Japan, Kansai University was the first to participate in the COIL global network in2014 and has since been appointed as the leader of COIL projects in Japan, where a totalof 13 universities have been selected to introduce COIL to classes at their own institutions.
A number of research studies on COIL have been conducted in recent years.
Kodama (2018) reports on her work with a COIL project at San Jose State University,
California, where she incorporated a COIL approach into her Japanese course to provide
opportunities for students to collaborate internationally with Japanese students in
Kagoshima University to learn about Japanese culture. What was unique about this projectis that it included synchronous sessions and was carefully designed so that students
could develop their critical thinking skills as well. At the end of the project, the reflectionsof the students from San Jose State University were overall positive, and some students
maintained close relationships with Japanese students even after the course ended.
Kato et al. (2020) conducted a project-based foreign language learning project between
Shizuoka University and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. They had students
communicate via Skype and collaboratively create their own homepages. Likewise,
Sawasaki and Yokono (2020) introduced a similar project for their Japanese and American
university students to give presentations in English (Japanese students) and in Japanese(U.S. students) based on the information they exchanged about their universities anduniversity life. These two studies used both the students’ output performance andquestionnaires to analyze and compare student cognitive and affective variables before
and after the project. The results showed that the students improved their speaking andwriting skills (cognitive aspects), and their intrinsic motivation (affective component) was
also enhanced.
Although various benefits of COIL have been identified in previous research, many ofthese studies have been conducted only in formal learning environments, and few studies
have focused on out-of-class settings. Moreover, previous accounts have tended not to
examine in detail the processes of interaction for pairs and groups of students. To fill thisgap, the current research study was carried out within an original COIL project that wascompletely based on out-of-class activity. In this study, I examine closely the processes of68

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Chika Hayashi

interaction between a pair of Japanese and Finnish university students who took part in
the project.

Narrative Inquiry

This study looks in detail at the narrative of a Japanese university student (Yuki) together
with her actual exchanges of email messages, a physical card, and a letter with her Finnish
partner (Judy) to explore the following issues (both names are pseudonyms):
1. How did Yuki reflect on the feelings she had before joining the project?
2.	 How did Yuki and Judy collaborate on their mutual out-of-class learning?
3. What problems and challenges did Yuki face during the project?
4. What kind of change did the project bring about for Yuki, if any?

Methods
A Finnish and Japanese COIL Project

An original COIL project was designed by a Finnish colleague at the University of
Helsinki and myself and introduced as a completely out-of-class activity in October
2019. The project’s primary purpose was to provide both Finnish and Japanese students
opportunities to interact with each other through whatever communication tools theychose. My colleague and I could easily imagine that students have different interests andexpectations about these kinds of projects, so the purpose of the interaction was not
specified at the beginning. Each instructor told the students about the COIL project, andthose who wanted to participate in the project signed up for it. Students were encouraged
to choose whatever activity they thought was best, such as book discussions, English chattime, or a pen-pal program. Participation in the project was voluntary, and 20 students(10 Finnish and 10 Japanese) showed interest. The students were paired based on theirEnglish proficiency levels and their preferred means of communication and activities.
They were later informed of their partners’ names and email addresses. Throughout
the process, the instructors did not intervene in any of the communication between thestudent pairs, in order to understand whether and how students collaborate on theirmutual out-of-class learning without scaffolding from instructors.

Participants

Purposive sampling was selected to examine the Finnish and Japanese COIL project. Outof the 10 pairs, the pair of Yuki and Judy, her Finnish partner, was selected because theysuccessfully exchanged messages and engaged in the project over 4 months. Yuki was athird-year Japanese student majoring in economics. When she was a second-year student,
she had enrolled in a special English program that the university offers exclusively forstudents who have high English proficiency levels as well as a strong desire to develop
their English language skills and intercultural understanding. As a representative of theuniversity, Yuki was also sent to Malaysia and stayed there for 1 week to participate in aninternship program in summer 2019. Similarly, Judy was a third-year university student,
and her majors were mathematics and biology. Although both of them were in the same
year, Judy was 2 years older than Yuki.
In this study, my particular focus was on Yuki, who took my elective English course
for one semester. Through looking closely at her interactions with Judy, I expected that
I would examine the details of her out-of-class learning experiences. I also hoped to
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understand better the relationship between her in-class and out-of-class learning throughanalyzing her reflections in the COIL project.

Communication Timeline

Their interaction started with Judy’s email message to Yuki on October 21, 2019, and both
Yuki and Judy communicated regularly until February 5, 2020. Their communication tools
varied, but their primary means of communication was email. They also exchanged aphysical card and a letter, and they had 14 exchanges in total (see Table 1 for details).
Table 1. Interchange Between Yuki and Judy (October, 2019–February, 2020)
No. Date
Sender Communication Tool
Word Count
1
October 21 2019 Judy
Email message
114
2
October 24
Yuki
Email message
161
3
October 30
Judy
Email message
215
4
November 21
Yuki
Email message
134
5
November 27
Judy
Email message
255
6
December 2
Yuki
Email message
134
7
December 3
Judy
Email message
83
8
December 5
Yuki
Email message with a photo of51
a Christmas light display
9
December 11
Judy
Email message with a photo of84
a Christmas light display
10 December 17
Yuki
Email message
52
11
December 20
Yuki
Letter81
12 December 25
Judy
Email message with a photo of202
animals
13 January 8 2020 Yuki
Email message
118
14 February 5
Judy
Letter227

Data Collection

This research was exploratory in nature and employed a case study approach. Morespecifically, it was designed as a single-case study “to gain in-depth understanding repletewith meaning for the subject, focusing on process rather than outcome, on discovery
rather than confirmation” (Burns, 2000, p. 460). With written consent from both Yuki andJudy, all of their actual exchanges through email messages, cards, and letters were used
for the analysis.
In addition to the data from the exchanges between the two, in May 2021 I conducted
an interview with Yuki to serve as a reflection point on her thinking and decision-making(see Appendix for the interview guide). There was a possibility that Yuki had continuously
engaged in the COIL project with Judy even after the English course was over. Theinterview with Yuki was held online on May 8, 2021, one and a half years after the project
had ended. By that time, she had already graduated from the university, and about twomonths had passed since she had started out her career path. The semi-structured
45-minute interview with open-ended questions was conducted in Japanese, and the70

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transcript of the data was translated into English by the author. With Yuki’s agreement, theinterview was video-recorded for further analysis.

Results

In this section, the results obtained regarding the narrative inquiries are explained with
Yuki’s comments extracted from the interview, as well as from her and her partner’s actualinterchanges.

Yuki’s Reasons for Joining the COIL Project

Yuki had mainly two reasons to participate in the COIL project. One is that she wanted to
go to Finland. She had had a chance to go to North European countries with her motherwhen she was a second-year high school student. However, the tour did not include
Finland, but she had hoped to go there. The other reason was to improve her English
skills. According to Yuki, she had started online English conversation lessons on her own
and had taken the lessons on a regular basis for 1 year, but she had decided to quit in
October 2019, which was exactly when the COIL project was announced:
I could not enjoy the online English conversation lessons and was not motivated either,although I took the lesson only once or twice a week. I was about to hate English. I was
about to be bad at and dislike English. . . . I had mixed feelings. I didn’t want to quit,
but the booking system for the online English conversation lessons was troublesome.
Every time I took a lesson, I had to book in advance. The online English conversation
lessons were conducted on a one-on-one basis, but it was like what we call a “formalclass,” and I followed a set of materials with a teacher.
In the above excerpt Yuki expresses her mixed feelings that she had motivation to learn
English but was bothered with the booking system. Moreover, the lesson style, which she
defines as a “formal class,” indicates that it was not flexible nor open to improvisation, andit was set up as originally planned. Coincidentally, it was in October 2019 that I announced
the COIL project between Finnish and Japanese students in some of my classes. It seems
to have been good timing for Yuki, who was reluctant to continue the online conversation
lessons that she had been taking.

Yuki’s Expectations

Yuki acknowledges that her primary expectation was to make friends with her Finnish
partner. When she talked about that, Yuki immediately referred to an international
student from Indonesia that she met in her high school days:
When I was a second-year high school student, one Indonesian student came to myhigh school as an exchange student. We got to know each other and I even went tovisit her in Indonesia. . . . Also, I joined an internship program in Malaysia in summer
2019. Although I stayed there for just one week, I met many Malaysian people andeven took a Malaysian couple I had met there around when they visited Japan for theirhoneymoon.
Given her intercultural experiences, it could be said that Yuki is confident wheninteracting with foreigners and can adjust herself to a new environment. She commented
that she wanted to visit Finland and invite her Finnish partner from the project to Japan.
She had a very clear expectation and could easily visualize that she would be able tomaintain a close relationship with her Finnish partner even after the project, as she was
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A Case Study of Collaborative Online International Learningable to do with her other international friends. At the end of the interview, she briefly
mentioned that she had wanted to improve her English skills through the project as well.
However, her detailed explanation of intercultural communication clearly demonstrates
that her expectations were focused more on the social aspects rather than the cognitiveor linguistic ones. Thus, the COIL project would have been another chance for her to meetand get to know an international student from Finland.

Effect of the Lack of Confidence on Yuki’s Formality

Yuki also had a concern that was based on her lack of confidence in her English skills:
My main concern was about grammar, and I wondered if I could communicate with mypartner with my limited knowledge of grammar. . . . As we had email exchange mainly, I
focused on formality and tried my best to write messages formally.
Email messages are both formal and informal, and they are used differently according to
the purposes and recipients. However, for Yuki, it is obvious that email writing is strongly
associated with formality. Figures 1 and 2 show Yuki and Judy’s interchanges in the firstfew exchanges.
As Yuki explains, the use of the title “Ms.” and full name in the first few messages
exemplify the formality that she was eager to seek. Although all the messages include
emoticons, both the style and content of the messages demonstrate the formality thatYuki emphasized in the interview.
In the very first message, Judy took the initiative and started to negotiate with Yuki
about how to proceed with the project by asking some questions. In response to this, Yuki
answered the questions and also added her self-introduction at the end of her message.
The inclusion of the self-introduction might have worked as an icebreaker for them, andtheir communication style gradually became less formal and more friendly. The formality
was lessened in the fourth exchange when Yuki suggested that Judy address Yuki by her
first name, and from the fifth exchange onwards, they were on a first-name basis witheach other.
Moreover, another change is observed in Yuki’s response to Judy’s questions. Yuki
separated her answers in a question-and-answer format rather than answering inparagraph form. Yuki clearly has considered her own answers as a formal and suitable
way to answer Judy’s questions, while in usual practice, this style would be considered to
be awkward and unsuitable for an informal friendly manner.
According to Yuki, their initial contact started with the premise that they would
send letters to each other. They had already had a mutual agreement and exchanged
their home addresses at the early stage of their interchange, in the third and fourth
entries respectively. Moreover, their questions became more personalized, and theirinteraction was intensified as their interaction continued. In the fourth entry, Yuki asked
follow-up questions about Judy’s future dream to be a teacher, and in response, Judy also
connected Helsinki to Tokyo in the fifth entry. In this way, both Yuki and Judy graduallyco-constructed their own communication style as they shared personal information,
showed empathy, and their different life experiences resonated with each other.

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Figure 1. First and Second Exchanges

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Figure 2. Third and Fourth Exchanges

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Yuki’s Concern: Obsession With Accuracy

Both Yuki and Judy’s first few interchanges demonstrate that they responded to eachother within a few days and actively participated in the project. However, Yuki confesses
that her obsession with accuracy remained strongly in her mind:
It took time to write messages because I had to carefully check my English sentences
again and again. I thought I should write proper English. . . . I felt sorry for Judy because
I couldn’t respond to her immediately. I even felt pressed.
The excitement and enjoyment that Yuki had at the beginning of the project were
gradually transformed to pressure, and this affected the length of her messages, as canbe seen in the eighth and ninth entries.
In the eighth entry, Yuki included a photo of a Christmas light display in Tokyo. In thesame manner, Judy shared a photo of Christmas lights in Helsinki in the next exchange.
Both of them seemed to increase a feeling of closeness by responding and even sharing
the photos that they took; however, the length of their messages, especially Yuki’s, started
getting shorter from the seventh exchange onwards (see Table 1). It should note that Yuki
wrote less than Judy in general, but Yuki’s word count was 143 words on average from thefirst to sixth exchange. On the other hand, she wrote about 50 words in her eighth and10th exchanges, which were the email exchanges. Yuki reflected on the interchange:
I was getting busier because of job hunting. I was tempted to stop writing to [Judy]. . . . I
said that the contributory factor was job hunting, but I might have been trying to makeexcuses for not writing to her due to job hunting. Because these were email messages,
I thought I should write long messages. I have to respond to each question formallywithout any mistakes. That’s why I took such an attitude.
As she talked through her COIL experiences, she admitted that she intentionally tried
to attribute her infrequent contact with Judy to job hunting. However, her explanation
revealed that she had a fixed image that her email messages should always be formal,
lengthy, and error-free. Her strong consciousness of formality gradually forced her to lose
enjoyment in communication, and her enthusiasm changed to pressure instead, resulting
in her writing becoming shorter.

Yuki’s Desire to Learn Casual Expressions

In spite of her strict consciousness towards accuracy, Yuki clearly said that she wanted touse casual English expressions that she had learned in class.
I was thinking of using some expressions I learned in Prof. Hayashi’s class [the author’sclass] like “It is freezing.” I wanted to know those casual expressions. I didn’t want towrite each sentence carefully by checking, “What is the subject in this sentence?” and“What is a verb in that sentence?” every time I wrote the messages. . . . I looked for somesites on the Internet to learn some casual expressions because what I learned in theschool is English for entrance examinations.
Yuki had the intention and willingness to use casual expressions that she had
previously learned in a class that she took with me in the 2019 academic year. Theinterview demonstrates that Yuki still remembered some expressions that she hadlearned 2 years earlier. However, her exchanges did not include any expressions that
she had learned in the class. In Figure 3, both Yuki and Judy wrote about winter in eachcountry, so Yuki could have included “It is freezing” or other expressions related to
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weather or seasons that she had learned in the class. Given the fact that no expressions
were included in her own writings, it could be said that she had not fully developed her
skills to apply what she had learned to a new context. Alternatively, her strong obsession
with accuracy was overwhelming, and this might have prevented her from using theexpressions in a different context.

Figure 3. Eighth and Ninth Exchanges
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Moreover, Yuki refers to the impact of university entrance examinations on English
classes. In general, in their senior high school years, students in Japan have to study hardfor university entrance exams, and this has major impacts on how both teachers andstudents approach English in class. Excessive emphasis on exam preparation can deprive
students of chances to learn casual expressions. In light of this, Yuki’s effort to search for
informal expressions on the Internet showed her strong desire to learn and use thoseexpressions in her writing.

Yuki’s Changes and Her Ongoing Motivation After the COIL Project
Yuki reflected on changes that she had felt through the COIL project:

Unlike TOEIC scores, there are no visible results, but I was happy with the fact that I
could use English and communicate with [Judy] in English. The communication with
[Judy] was different from that of online English conversation lessons. When it comesto online English conversation lessons, a partner is an adult and someone I do not
know. Moreover, he or she is a teacher. However, my partner and I are in the same agegroup, and we have more things in common.
Comparing and contrasting online English conversation lessons and the COIL project,her focus was not on the product but the process, and she concluded that there was aconsiderable difference in enjoyment. As Yuki explains, she might not have expressed
what she wanted to say or made herself understood as clearly as she wished, but the factthat she herself was using English enhanced her self-esteem.
Together with her pure enjoyment in the communication with Judy, Yuki’s realizationof her insufficient knowledge of English and her strong desire to learn casual expressions
in English still helped her to maintain her motivation to study English and boost her
determination to study English, and more specifically, casual English expressions.
Yuki: I still continue to study casual expressions on my own even after the project.
Author: Oh, you continue to study English at your own pace. That is great.
Yuki: I’ve just started to work and cannot spare time as much as I want, though.
Author: By the way, Yuki, if you had another chance to engage in a COIL project, is there
anything that you would like to change?
Yuki: I would like to communicate with my partner through Instagram, LINE, or Zoom.
I thought I had to write a long message in email and letters and respond to eachquestion that Judy asked me one by one. I put myself on guard, and it felt like a chore.
But if I used, say, LINE, it would be easy to communicate.
Reflecting on her regret and frustration that she was unable to respond to Judy
immediately, she came up later with the idea of using Instagram, LINE (a social media
application widely used in Japan), or Zoom. Although Zoom involves video-conferencing,both Instagram and LINE are applications that would enable her to leave a message injust one or a few lines more quickly and casually without the pressure to respond to
her partner. More importantly, she would be able to increase her knowledge of casual
expressions by reading and responding to casual messages, which would consequently
lead her to achieve her ultimate goal of enjoying intercultural communication.

Implications

The Finnish and Japanese COIL project was introduced as a completely out-of-classactivity for two groups of university students. Holding both expectations of intercultural
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communication and anxieties about her English language skills, Yuki embarked on the
project with Judy and mutually engaged in the collaborative activity over 4 months.
Their interaction started in a formal way, but they gradually changed their interaction
pattern as they negotiated, responded, and related to each other. Without the teachers’
guidance and intervention, both of them took responsibility for developing the process ofcommunication between themselves.
Throughout the project, there were three challenges that Yuki had faced. Her desire
to communicate with Judy, her lack of confidence in English, especially regarding casual
expressions, and her obsession with formality and accuracy were intertwined intricately
and gave a huge impact not only on the number of exchanges but also on the length,
content, and format of her messages. Reflecting on my learning and teaching experiencesin junior and senior high school as well as university in Japan (Hayashi et al., 2014),
a majority of students face similar dilemmas and search for ways to overcome suchdifficulties. In order to maximize positive feelings, such as enthusiasm for interculturalcommunication, and minimize negative feelings that students tend to have in learning andusing English, it is desirable to provide opportunities for them to learn casual expressions
and to be aware that there are some differences between spoken and written English. As
Yuki pointed out in the interview, informal English is less emphasized in formal educationin Japan; students have few opportunities to learn and use casual expressions in aformal learning setting. Therefore, it is important to provide lessons or workshops forstudents to learn the difference between formal and informal email writing as an initialstep. As for formal email writing, students tend to learn a specific format together withsome formal expressions commonly used in a formal email message, such as “Dear,”“Best regards,” and “Would you please . . . ?” On the other hand, shortened forms, such as“face-2-face,” “BTW” [by the way], and “SMT” [sucking my teeth], that people use in daily
digital communication can be dealt with as informal email writing. In this way, students
would be able to maintain their awareness of both formality and informality and hopefully
use them properly according to the situation. This would consequently enhance theircommunicative competence.
Another issue to consider is continuity. In this project, Yuki and Judy were considered tobe the most successful pair of all the participants. However, as discussed previously, Yuki’s
written communication gradually decreased. In the interview, she said, “If there werean opportunity for an interim report, our interchange would have lasted much longer.”
For some pairs, intervention or monitoring by teachers could be effective, and it could
work as a motivator, as some students work much better within a framework set up byteachers. On the other hand, others might prefer to construct their own project together
as they establish their own communication styles with their partners. It is important forteachers to judge whether to intervene or not in a project by carefully examining students’personalities and motivation in order to maximize the possibilities for exchanges among
students.
In addition, the results of this case study imply a potential for the COIL project as analternative to conventional study abroad programs. Due to the unprecedented COVID-19
pandemic that started in 2020, most universities around the world were unable to send
their students to their affiliated universities in other countries or to welcome international
students from overseas. In many cases, students who had planned to study abroad before
the pandemic started to postpone or change their plans, and in the worst case, theyeven had to completely give up their long-standing dreams. However, COIL projects can
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enable students to experience intercultural communication even if they stay in their homecountries.
Overall, this study was successful in filling the research gap by exploring in detail theprocess by which Yuki and Judy collaborated in an out-of-class setting. Given the natureof the case study, the results cannot be generalized, but they help us to understandYuki’s experiences and perceptions through her reflection. For further study, it would beinteresting to have Judy reflect on her own experiences through interviews and analyze
her reflections together with those of Yuki to fully understand the experiences that bothof them jointly shared. Moreover, identifying both successful and unsuccessful factorsthat encouraged or discouraged the pairs of students who engaged in the project would
help to identify the necessary support and appropriate guidance for future programs thatprioritize out-of-class student activity and communication.

Conclusion

The original COIL project was introduced and carried out between two groups ofuniversity students in Finland and Japan. The focus in this case study on one Japanese
student’s communication with her Finnish partner student has let us understand thebenefits of introducing a COIL project as an out-of-class learning activity to encouragelearning beyond the classroom. Throughout the project, both Yuki and Judy took initiativeand collaborated without intervention from the instructors; they jointly took ownershipand responsibility for their mutual out-of-class learning. In short, the COIL project helped
to foster collaborative learner autonomy across countries.
In addition, this case study sheds light on the necessity of learning and using bothformal and informal English to foster better communication. In this project, Yuki’s
preoccupation with being formal and accurate in her writing, and her desire to be able
to express her ideas fluently swung like a pendulum within herself. Yuki’s realization ofher insufficient knowledge of English gradually made her lose her enthusiasm for the
project, which was consequently reflected in her increasingly infrequent participation andshorter messages. However, her strong determination to study casual English expressions
increased, and this did not demotivate her or keep her away from English. Rather, it
worked positively and drove her to make an effort to develop her English skills, whichlasted for a further one and a half years after the project was over. Voluntary participationin the COIL project enabled her not only to be aware of her strengths and weaknesses but
also to specify her needs in terms of English skills. Looking to the future, this will hopefully
have long-lasting benefits for her continuing autonomous and lifelong learning.

Author Bio

Chika Hayashi is a professor at Seikei University in Tokyo. She holds a PhD from the
School of Education, University of Nottingham. Her research interests include motivation,
learner/teacher autonomy, teacher education, cultural influences on classroom language
learning, and psychological aspects of second language learning in the classroom. Chika
is particularly interested in exploring learners’ affective components through visual
narratives as well as different methods of scaffolding learner autonomy.

Review ProcessThis paper was open-reviewed by Alice Chik and Donna Fujimoto of the Learner
Development Journal Review Network and by the Journal Steering Group. (Contributors havethe option of open or blind review.)
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References

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Hayashi, C., Modica, G., & Banno, Y. (2014). Co-constructive storying of our journey towardautonomy. In A. Barfield & A. Minematsu (Eds.), Learner development working papers:
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Hmelo-Silver, C., Chinn, C. A., & Chan, C. (2013). The international handbook of collaborative
learning. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203837290
Ikeda, K. (2020). ICTを活用し海外の学生と行う国際連携型の協働学習「COIL」の教育効果と課題 [Theeffect and issues of COIL project using ICT]. JUCE Journal, 171, 20–25. https://www.juce.
jp/LINK/journal/2101/pdf/02_04.pdf
Kato, F., Spring, R., & Mori, C. (2020). Incorporating project-based language learning
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Kodama, Y. (2018). オンラインによる異文化間協働型の日本文化の授業COILの試み: 異文化間で活躍できる人材の育成をめざして [Collaborative online international learning in a Japanese culture
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育 [Japanese Education], 169, 93–108. https://doi.org/10.20721/nihongokyoiku.169.0_93
Menard-Warwick, J., Heredia-Herrera, A., & Palma, D. S. (2013). Local and global identities
in an EFL internet chat exchange. The Modern Language Journal, 97(4), 965–980. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2013.12048.x
Sawasaki, K., & Yokono, Y. (2020, December 6). Japan-US class collaboration using COIL andhow it affects students [Paper presentation]. JAAL in JACET 2020 (online).
Shibley, I. A., Jr., & Zimmaro, D. M. (2002). The influence of collaborative learning on
student attitudes and performance in an introductory chemistry laboratory. Journal ofChemical Education, 79(6), 745–748. https://doi.org/10.1021/ed079p745
Takeda, R., Watanabe, A., & Owada, K. (2022). 日台遠隔共同授業であるGastronomic
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Wakisaka, M. (2018). Face-to-face tandem and etandem: Differences that influence themaintenance of tandem learning activities. Revista Do Gel, 15(3), 42–57. https://doi.
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Appendix

Interview Guide

1. Tell me exactly why you decided to participate in this project.
2.	 How long have you been communicating with your paired partner?
3. How many times in total?
4. How did the exchanges take place?
5.	 Tell me the details of your interactions.
6.	 Are there any expectations that you had before participating in the project? If so,
what are they?
7.	 Did you have any concerns before participating? If so, what are they?
8.	 Was there anything that left an impression on you during the project? If so, pleasetell me about it.
9. Did you have any concerns during the project?
10. Did you experience any changes as a result of the project?
11. Did you try to use or apply what you learned in class during the project?
12. What were your impressions of the project?
13. Is there any reason why you ended the project after 4 months?
14. If you were to resume, how would you like to do it again?

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PAPER
Beyond the Classroom, Beyond the Track: The
Role of English in the Transformation of Career
Perspectives in Three Females in Rural Japan
Aya Hayasaki, Waseda University, Japan<hayaaya(at)gmail(dot)com>
This study explores the process of perspective shifting among female English language learners who
participated in an English project-based learning programme in rural Japan. In Japan, academic achievement
and career aspirations are determined by socioeconomic status, gender, and region. However, in English
language education in Japan, there has not been sufficient research addressing the learning experiencesof individuals considering such social contexts beyond the classroom. Therefore, this study investigates
the reality and potential of English language learning among women living in rural areas. Three female
graduates of a senior high school in Kagoshima Prefecture were purposively selected, and a 90-minute semistructured interview was conducted with each. Trajectory equifinality modelling (Sato et al., 2009) was used
for data analysis. The findings revealed how the three women overcame different constraints, including lackof access to diverse role models and peers, few opportunities to make meaningful connections between
English language learning and real life, and parental attitudes towards investment in language educationand family financial situation. Given the current state of educational inequality, this study represents a
proposal to further the debate on how English language learning can make a meaningful difference to anindividual’s overall life and subsequent career choices.

本研究は、日本の地方において、英語でのプロジェクト型学習プログラムに参加した女性英語学習者の意識変容過程を探索する。
日
本では、学力や進路希望は社会経済的地位、性別、地域によって規定される（松岡、2019）。
しかし、英語教育においては、教室を超えたそのような社会的文脈を考慮した個人の学習経験について十分に研究されていない。
そこで本研究では、地方出身女性の英語学習の実態と可能性を探った。
鹿児島県内の高校を卒業した女性3名を合目的的サンプリングで選定し、それぞれに90分の半構造化面接を実施した。
データ分析には、複線径路・等至性モデル (Sato et al., 2009) を使用した。
結果として、3名の女性が、多様なロール
モデルや仲間との接点の少なさ、英語学習と実生活を有意義に結びつける機会の少なさ、言語教育への投資に対する親の考え方や家庭の経済状況に関する課題など、様々な制約を克服した過程が明らかになった。
教育格差の現状を踏まえ、本研究は、英語学習が個人の人生全体やその後のキャリア選択に意味のある変化をもたらすことをめざし、議論を深めることを提案するものである。

Keywords

learning beyond the classroom, project-based learning, gender, rural context, trajectory equifinality modeling
教室を超えた学習、
プロジェクト型学習、ジェンダー、地方、複線径路・等至性モデル

Japan is a society with educational inequality by international standards: Not only an
individual’s academic ability, but also educational expectations (how far they want to go
in education, such as going to university) and career expectations (what kind of job theywant) are defined by the socioeconomic status (SES), gender, and region of the family
in which they grew up (Matsuoka, 2019a). In particular, environmental factors such as
the availability of learning opportunities beyond the classroom, as well as cultural andhistorical characteristics of the region and school, are thought to contribute to inequalities
in access to and the quality of English language education (e.g., Matsuoka, 2010; Mori, 2018,
Yamamura, 2021). Regardless of their own efforts, young people’s career paths are oriented,
or tracked (Oakes, 2005), within this system of reproducing inequalities (Kariya, 2012).
However, little is known about the mechanisms that enable students from suchdisadvantaged backgrounds to pursue their desired careers, including admission to top-tieruniversities. To build a society in which all people, regardless of background, can have hope82

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for the future and choose a career path from a diverse range of options, it is imperative
to qualitatively examine the why and how of cases that have succeeded in overcoming
the constraints of educational inequalities in a specific context. Therefore, in the present
study, I aimed to gain insights into how to reduce regional gaps in educational andcareer opportunities for Japanese high school students by investigating the potential for
language learning experiences to positively influence their career choices in a particularregional context.

Literature Review
Educational Inequalities: SES, Gender, and Region

According to Matsuoka (2019a), in Japan, SES, gender, and region are often cited as thethree main factors for educational inequalities. In the sociology of education, the degreeof educational inequalities is often discussed based on the 4-year university enrolment
rate, which also accounts for the fact that those with higher education have higher
occupational prestige and income due to such inequalities (Matsuoka, 2019a). Table 1
compares Kagoshima and Tokyo in 2018, the year when the participants in this study
entered college. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (2018),
Kagoshima Prefecture has the lowest 4-year college enrolment rate at 38.85%, less thanhalf that of Tokyo. It is also noteworthy that there is a large gender gap.
Table 1. 4-Year College Enrolment Rate by Prefecture
Female Male
Gender Average
Tokyo
73.17
72.18
72.67
Kagoshima
34.11
43.44
38.85
National Average
50.14
56.31
53.30
Note. Adapted from e-Stat. Tokei de miru nihon [Japan in statistics], Ministry of Internal
Affairs and Communications, 2018 (https://www.e-stat.go.jp/).

Inequalities in Academic Achievement and Educational and Career Expectation

In addressing the factors related to educational inequalities, previous studies have dealt
with not only students’ academic ability but also educational expectations, aspirations,and attitudes of students, parents, and teachers. For example, Katase (2009) investigatedregional gaps in the determinants of high school students’ academic motivation in four
regions of Iwate Prefecture. The study showed that regional gaps in education exist not
only by prefecture but also between prefectural capitals and other regions within thesame prefecture. Matsuoka (2019b) revealed that regional gaps in people’s attitudes
toward education increased from the 1990s to the 2010s. Furthermore, according toMatsuoka, the gaps in cultural capital related to SES partially explain differences in
attitude among individuals and regions. While it is vital to note that SES may be a causeof regional gaps, the issue of regional gaps is more than an economic one, and hereafter
I would rather focus on identifying challenges and possibilities beyond the economic
dimension in rural Japan such as gender roles.

Educational Inequalities and the English Language

In comparison to other subjects, the English language learning environment is particularly
vulnerable to social inequalities. According to Terasawa (2015), the social and family
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Beyond the Classroom, Beyond the Trackenvironments of Japanese people influence their English proficiency, and the English
proficiency gap is also related to the gap in college opportunities (see also Terasawa,
2017). In terms of gender, Kitamura (2020) interviewed Japanese adult women who
work in English to address the gap between the assumption that English can expandand “save” women’s career options and the opposite realities in the Japanese context.
Issues of social inequality surrounding English language education have received more
attention outside Japan, including China (Hu, 2003), Indonesia (Lamb, 2012, 2013), andHong Kong (Yung, 2020). Kubota (2011) cited previous studies that show how English
education has disadvantaged the vulnerable around the world and argues that we should
critically examine the state of English education today, when neoliberal ideas are moreprevalent than ever. In today’s volatile society, where educational inequalities threaten to
widen even further, it is time for both researchers and practitioners of English education
to reconsider whether the diversification of learning methods inside and outside theclassroom is actually stratifying learning opportunities for young people.
It is also worth noting that many studies, particularly in Japan, appear to have separated
the English learner aspect from the individual’s life and focused solely on how to improvelearners’ language proficiency skills in the classroom (Kubota, 2015). This study, on theother hand, sees language learning as a social activity that influences and is influenced byfactors outside of the classroom.

The Study

I first contacted Mr. Matsui (pseudonym), who was organizing “glocal” (global and local)
education programmes for senior high schools across the country, in February 2020. He
was especially enthusiastic about educating young people in Kagoshima Prefecture, where
he was born. At first, I only had an obscure idea of what Mr. Matsui was doing. However,as I learned more about him and previous participants in his educational programs, I
found out that many of the participants in the English-medium project-based learning
programme (hereafter “English PBL”) at Kokusai High School (pseudonym; hereafterKHS) in Kagoshima, particularly girls, had experienced a significant change in their career
perspectives. In this study, I will focus on the trajectories of the participants who statedthat they “achieved a more positive career path” as a result of participating in this English
PBL. The research questions for this study are as follows:
1. What trajectories did the three participants, who achieved positive career outcomesthrough the English PBL, take to reach their final career decisions?
2.	 Did any regional (and other) constraints affect their career decision-making process,and if so, what were they?
3. How did the English PBL help them to overcome such constraints?

Methodology
Research Context and Participants

Located in the southern part of the island of Kyushu, Kagoshima is one of the mostremote prefectures from major cities in Japan. The participants of this research are from
Kagoshima City, the prefecture’s capital city. While Kagoshima City may be considereda relatively privileged environment compared to other areas within the prefecture, thisstudy highlights the challenges that the participants overcame as high school students
from Kagoshima Prefecture. In this sense, I position this study as a case study in one
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Aya Hayasakiof the prefectures most affected by regional and gender inequalities in educational
opportunities.
The three research participants had previously participated in the English PBL at KHS in
Kagoshima City. These three students were purposively selected as they self-identified ashaving changed their post-high-school career to a more positive one after participating inthis PBL. To select the research participants, I asked Mr. Matsui, who had led this PBL, tointroduce me to three past participants. The selection criteria were as follows:
1. The chosen participant changed their previously chosen career path after highschool for positive reasons after participating in the English PBL.
2.	 From Mr. Matsui’s point of view, each of the chosen participants’ overallcharacteristics differed, including personality, academic ability, interests, and family
background.
Table 2 summarises the profiles of the three participants in this study.
Table 2. Profiles of the Three Research Participants

Age
GenderMajor
FamilyPrior overseas
experience
Other characteristics(according to Mr.
Matsui)Momo
20
FemaleIntegrated Sciences

Name (Pseudonym)
Yuki
20
FemaleInternational Liberal
Arts
Father, mother,younger sister

Ai
20
FemaleEconomics

Father, mother,
Father, mother, twin
brother, younger
younger sisterbrother
Homestay in the USA None
None
(2 weeks, age 15)
She was “academically She came from a “low- Her parents werehigh-achieving” andperforming junior high firmly against her“a good role model to school” and was “out going outsidepeers”of touch”
Kagoshima after
senior high school

The three participants had several commonalities: All were female, born and raisedin Kagoshima City (although all three attended elementary and junior high school in
different districts), around 20 years old at the time of data collection, in their third yearof university, and they had completed the English PBL at KHS and joined a study tour to
the UK with the same group. It was after their enrolment into KHS that all three students
learnt that the high school offered a short study tour to the UK. To join the study tour,
they were required to complete a project-based learning programme in English as partof the integrated studies class. Then, upon selection based on document application andpresentation, they could join the study tour. In their second year at KHS, approximately
40 students were selected to participate in this English PBL group while the rest of thestudents in the same grade completed their PBL in Japanese (around 300 students wereenrolled in this grade at KHS); at a later stage, 15 out of these 40 students were selected to
go to the UK.
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My Positionality

The data were analysed in consideration of the reflexivity of the researcher (Sultana,2007). I am someone from Kagoshima Prefecture who experienced constraints as asenior high school student when choosing my own career because of my gender andthe geographical location of my hometown. Thus, to some extent, I position myself as a
researcher with shared identities with the participants, including being a female Japanese
EFL learner who grew up in the same region as them, experiencing similar challenges.
Until my final year of senior high school, I was planning on going to a junior college
in Kagoshima, as it was something my mother had recommended. However, learning
English greatly expanded my own educational and professional opportunities, and as aresult, I went on to a competitive English-medium liberal arts college, which would nothave been an option had I stayed in my hometown. This led me to continuing my studies
in a master’s program at a British university and, currently, in a doctoral program at auniversity in Tokyo, Japan. Space does not allow me to describe the details of my own
story, but my motivation to pursue this research stems from the fact that my own life haschanged dramatically as a result of my English learning experiences. At the same time,
however, I was an outsider listening to these women as an external researcher regarding
KHS and this English PBL programme.

Data Collection

I conducted a semi-structured interview with each participant in Japanese for around
90 minutes. When I reached them, all three participants were studying at universities
in different parts of Japan. I interviewed Momo and Yuki face-to-face in Kagoshima City
during their summer vacation. I interviewed Ai via video call on Zoom as she did not plan
to return home during the summer. Both our cameras were on, and we could see eachother’s faces during the call.
The questions in Table 3 were prepared in advance as an interview guide. The life story
questions were adopted from Irie’s (2022) study on the role of English in older Japaneselearners, developed from McAdams (1988, 1993) and the Foley Center for the Study ofLives (2009). To leave room for exploration of events that I was not aware of but that were
important to the interviewee, I tried to give the interviewee more control over the content
of the interview. I minimised the number of questions I prepared in advance so that theflow of the conversation would be natural, and the order of the questions asked in theactual interviews varied among the three participants.
During the interviews, I made efforts to confirm the meaning of the participants’narratives by paraphrasing or summarising what I thought was important. Later, I readthe transcriptions of the recorded data repeatedly and coded significant events that may
have led to divergent decision-making. A Trajectory Equifinality Modelling (TEM) diagram,which is explained in the Data Analysis section, was created by arranging the events,
choices, and relevant social factors experienced by each participant in chronologicalorder.

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Table 3. Interview Guide
Self-Introduction
About your life from childhood until today• How would you divide your life so far into chapters?
• What is the best thing that has happened to you in your life?
• What has been the biggest challenge (difficulty) in your life?
About going to KHS• What brought you to KHS?
About the PBL• What motivated you to carry out your PBL in English?
• What changes have occurred in you after participating in the PBL?
• If this PBL had been conducted in Japanese, what changes do you think would
have (or not have) occurred?
What do you envisage yourself doing in the future?

Data Analysis

For the analysis, I used Trajectory Equifinality Modelling (TEM; Sato et al., 2009). This
analysis method is suitable for depicting the process of value transformation fromthe existence of actual choice behaviours and outcomes, as well as other theoreticallypossible but unchosen alternatives. In the framework of TEM, the participants andresearcher jointly draw the participants’ trajectories. In this study, the obligatory passage
point (OPP; the point that all the participants go through), the bifurcation point (BFP;
transitioning point), and the equifinality points (EFP; final points reached) were set as in
Table 4.
Table 4. Obligatory Passage Point, Bifurcation Point, and Equifinality Points in This Study
Obligatory Passage Point (OPP)

Bifurcation Point (BFP)

Equifinality Points (EFP)

Entry to KHS

Perspective shifting

Going to the university of
their choice

Participation in the English PBL

In addition to the points mentioned above, I also indicated in the TEM diagrams the past
trajectories and prospects that seemed to be notable turning points in each participant’s
career decisions.

Findings and Discussion
Participants’ Trajectories

First, I attempt to answer the question, “What trajectories did the three participants, whoachieved positive career outcomes through the English PBL, take to reach their final careerdecisions?”

Momo’s Case

Compared to the other two participants, Momo had the most exposure to English
language learning between kindergarten and starting high school. She was also the only
one of the three participants who had travelled abroad before entering high school.
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Beyond the Classroom, Beyond the Track

According to Mr. Matsui, who introduced her to us, she was an “honours student” typewith very high academic ability and had served as head of a sports club. A TEM diagram of
Momo is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Momo’s TEM
Momo had been keen on all aspects of learning, including English, from an early age. Her
mother was an English teacher, and she grew up listening to Western music. When she wasin primary school, she became obsessed with the Harry Potter books in the school library,
and this is where her fascination with the UK began. It was also during this period that her
older brother went to the USA for a short period of study. She challenged herself in speech
contests and English tests and gained confidence in English. When she was in junior highschool, she, like her brother, participated in a short-term homestay programme in a sistercity of Kagoshima City in the USA. Her parents were supportive of what she wanted todo. Momo enrolled in KHS largely because she liked the atmosphere at the school, wherestudents worked hard not only in their studies but also in club activities, and because her
friends with better grades than her applied to KHS. She was dedicated to both her studies
and sports, and her teachers and friends often praised her for her hard work. However, she
was skeptical that they really meant it. Momo was in a science-track class, where there werevery few female students. Momo told me that none of the female students aspired to go touniversities further than the Kyushu area regardless of their academic potential, while themale students wanted to go to more academically challenging universities in Osaka, Tokyo,
and other major cities, all of which are geographically far away, so it would normally costtens of thousands of yen by air or shinkansen (bullet train) just to get there. Even though
Momo was very likely to be accepted into a top university in Tokyo, she originally had nodesire to go there. She was somewhat reluctant about her career prospects and did nothave a clear vision for the future.

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Interestingly, there was an unexpected positive effect from completing the PBL in
English. She felt that although she was hesitant to express her opinions in Japanese, she
was able to “aggressively” seek feedback and make improvements when preparing her
presentation in English. She also realised that she could express herself more freely inEnglish. Furthermore, her success was not limited to the classroom. She presented herwork in English at an international symposium for high school students to showcase
findings from their PBL in Kagoshima and won a prize, which even led her to take part ina larger symposium in Southeast Asia. It was during this time that she made friends withpeople with similar goals in other rural areas of Japan and felt that she could challenge
herself in something she could not have previously imagined herself doing. Being
recognised for her scientific research at this international symposium and meeting otherfemale students devoted to science with similarly high goals from other rural areas inJapan convinced her that “it was okay for me to aim higher.” Momo told me that doing thisPBL in English had broadened her network of contacts and vision for the future. She said
that if she had done the same thing in Japanese, this learning experience would not have
had such a significant impact on her life.

Yuki’s Case

Unlike Momo, Yuki used to dislike studying in general, with little interest in English, until
she entered senior high school. According to her, Yuki came from a “low-performing”
junior high school and was “out of touch [グレていた; gurete-ita].” Although public juniorhigh schools in Japan are based on location, not on performance, this context might
partially reflect the result of the regional difference in people’s attitudes toward education
as in Matsuoka (2019b). Yuki’s life story is arranged in chronological order using TEM as in
Figure 2:

Figure 2. Yuki’s TEM
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From an early age, Yuki was “given a lot of freedom” to grow up in a carefree
environment, under her parents’ (especially her mother’s) educational policy of letting
her do whatever she wanted. She says that the fact that her primary school was verysmall may have been another significant factor in her building a free and open-mindedpersonality. (There are many small-scale schools in Kagoshima Prefecture, including in
the city.) However, taking the Eiken Test in Practical English Proficiency was one of the
few things Yuki was strongly encouraged to do, as her mother believed in the importanceof investing in foreign language learning from an early age. While she is very grateful forthis “free” environment, the freedom she was given led her to hang out with “bad” friends
when she entered junior high school. She calls her experience of those years “empty joy.”At this stage, Yuki had nothing she wanted to do and was thinking of finding a job as soon
as possible rather than going on to higher education. However, she started attending
cram school because she admired her former best friend’s enthusiasm for studying, andas a result, she chose KHS, where many students aim to go on to high-ranking universities.
It was out of curiosity that she convinced her mother to let their family become ahomestay host for an international student visiting KHS from a top university in the UK.
This experience made her feel especially close to the English language and university
students. “I thought overseas university students were people from a distant world,” shesaid, “but I was glad that they spoke to me as fellow human beings and from the same
point of view” (my translation from Japanese). This encouraged her to join the English PBL
and carry out a research project for people with foreign roots staying or living in Japan.
She then started interacting with communities of international students. In this process,she came to realise that “there might be something I could do for society: to support
people from international or mixed ethnic backgrounds who are having difficulties inJapan.” This realisation, in her words, was “meaningful joy.” Beyond that, she met a rolemodel who studied at a Japanese liberal arts college where all lectures were conducted in
English, which she thought was the place for her.

Ai’s Case

According to Mr. Matsui, Ai differed from Momo and Yuki in that her parents were
initially opposed to her going to higher education outside Kagoshima Prefecture due tothe family’s financial situation. However, as the interview revealed, after all her efforts
to convince them, Ai’s parents even allowed her to spend an extra year studying as aronin [浪人] after graduating from KHS, and in the end, she went to a private university
in the Kansai area. Ronin refers to students who, after graduating from junior or seniorhigh school, are unable to enrol in the next stage of schooling and study independently
towards future enrolment. Ai’s TEM diagram is shown in Figure 3.
Ai was the only one of the three who had never really been exposed to English language
learning until she started studying it as a compulsory subject in junior high school. She hasa bright leader-type personality and spent her time in the jazz band in primary school. She
was not good at English in junior high school, but she gained confidence when she was“very much praised by her teacher in an English recitation competition” in which everyone
at school had participated, including her friends who had been taking private eikaiwa(English conversation) lessons outside school. Here, she decided that she might havea talent for English and that “it might be worth committing to it.” Although Ai was “notacademically outstanding,” she had a strong sense of responsibility, was highly trusted
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school. This enabled her to enter KHS through a recommendation from her junior highschool [推薦入試; suisen nyūshi], rather than through the general entrance examination[一般入試; ippan nyūshi].

Figure 3. Ai’s TEM
Ai had worked hard in music up to secondary school and wanted to try something new
at KHS. She joined the English Speaking Society (ESS) because she had been praised for
her English pronunciation in junior high school and because she liked speaking. As for
the English PBL, she said, “I simply wanted to go to the UK, and I also wanted to challenge
myself in various ways as a high school student, so I thought I’d like to take advantageof the opportunity I had.” Then, she took on the challenge of the English PBL and chosea research theme of “revitalising tourism in Kagoshima.” She had the opportunity to talkto people from various backgrounds, including foreign tourists in the city. Below is Ai’s
enthusiastic reaction after I introduced myself and explained the purpose of this researchat the beginning of the interview:
In my PBL, I had many opportunities to try things I had never thought about before orthings I had thought I could not do. As I did these things, saw many new things, andlearned new things, I felt that I didn’t want to stay in Kagoshima. I wanted to know more.
I wanted to know more, and I met people who knew a lot more than I did, and I reallyfelt that I was growing up more and more. I suddenly felt that I needed to think more
about my career path, that I wanted to go out more and think about something moreand expand myself. I feel that my experiences in senior high school were the catalyst
for me to finally get outside Kagoshima and go to university and make a big move inthat way. So, I’m very interested in what you’re doing, Hayasaki-san [the researcher].
In the opening 2 minutes of the interview, Ai revealed how encounters with people who
showed her new worlds and various discoveries during her high school activities made her
realise her potential. At the same time, she developed a certain sense of crisis (“I need to
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think more”), curiosity about her future career, and a desire to become a more proactive
learner. This increased willingness to independently choose her future led her to step“outside Kagoshima.”

My Reflection

After interviewing the three participants, my first impression was that they seemed tobe more powerful and have more access to various resources than I had imagined. In
the first place, these three participants were lucky enough to have the academic abilities
and/or experience in extracurricular activities to be accepted to KHS, which is one of thehighest-level senior high schools in Kagoshima Prefecture. As for my own experience, I
am from a much smaller city, approximately 40 km away from central Kagoshima, and myparents believed it was a “waste of money” to pay for me to attend a cram school. Thisidea seemed to be partly for financial reasons (I had two younger siblings that they had
to support.) and partly because my mother especially believed that “girls don’t need to go
to a 4-year university.” She also did not want me to move outside Kagoshima, much lessoverseas. In this sense, I found my situation closest to Ai’s. Fortunately, in the end, Ai and I
were able to convince our parents to let us follow the paths we chose. Should we think weare just fortunate?
At the same time, the data show some barriers that even these fortunate women had
to break, which they might not have needed to had they been learning in a different
context. I will elaborate on this in the next section.

Undergoing Constraints and Overcoming ThemThis section answers RQ2 (“Did any regional (and other) constraints affect their careerdecision-making process, and if so, what were they?”) and RQ3 (“How did the English PBL
help them to overcome such constraints?”) simultaneously. There were various constraints
on the trajectories of these three participants, three main ones of which are discussed
below.
The first is the lack of encounters with diverse role models and peers. For example,
Momo was in a science class and had no female classmates with similar goals, so she
could not consider going to a university outside Kyushu. However, Momo’s participationin the English PBL broadened her scope for action. As a result, at an international
symposium abroad, she met high school students from other rural areas of Japan who
wanted to go out into the world and test their potential. This encouraged her to believethat she too could aim high. Interestingly, her role model was not from Tokyo or otherurban areas, but “a girl from another rural area.” This may not be directly related tolanguage learning and use, but it does speak to the importance of near-peer role models
as advocated by Murphey and Arao (2001). Similarly, for both Yuki and Ai, the English PBL
provided opportunities to expand their social network, which stimulated their curiosity.
Furthermore, it meant a lot to Momo that experts listened to her seriously and gave
her constructive feedback on the topic of her science project. In this sense, she also felt
emotionally closer to distant role models. Momo’s case shows that even highly capable
learners can find it difficult to take action with a clear vision if they do not have a model toaim for. The English PBL was the igniter of her positive challenge.
Second, few opportunities were available to meaningfully link English language learningwith real life. This concerns the quality of the learning environment provided in andoutside school and extended communities and has a strong link with the current issue’s
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theme, “Learner Development Beyond the Classroom.” For example, when Yuki set out
to take the high school entrance exam, she originally received an “E” grade, meaning that
her chances of entering KHS were very low. Yuki’s junior high school was in a “rough”
area where her classmates smoked cigarettes, and she said that her life would havebeen different in many ways if she had not been inspired to study by her former bestfriend. At KHS, she had opportunities to get to know students from overseas universities,
who spoke to her amicably in Japanese, which they were learning. This made her feelcloser to university students and people from other countries, and she also wanted to
speak to them in their own language, English. With this experience and her open-mindedpersonality, she was able to take advantage of the English PBL as a place to develop herinterests and deepen her understanding of culture and identity.
A third vital factor, as evident in Ai’s stories, is parental beliefs about investment ineducation and about the economic situation of the family. Her parents were concerned
about both financial issues and her academic ability, but she continued to strive for auniversity outside the prefecture, despite their opposition. Through the English PBL, Ai
examined the revitalisation of local tourism (utilising the region’s unique resources) byinterviewing foreign tourists visiting Kagoshima and visiting local businesses. She wanted
to get to know the outside world as she began to wonder what she could do for her
hometown of Kagoshima. Eventually, Ai’s teachers at KHS helped to persuade her parents
to give her a chance to try for a more challenging target university.

Pedagogical Implications

This study has shown that English learning opportunities in the form of PBL, both in andout of school, can be a driving force in changing the career paths of high school students.
English PBL may be a useful tool to make English language learning more personalised forindividual interests. Of course, it makes sense to do PBL in the students’ first language, but
the significance of doing this in English can be found in Momo’s narrative. Expression in aforeign language has the potential to liberate the self more than that in the first language.
Of course, it should be considered that the reverse could also be true, as discussed in
the foreign language anxiety research (e.g., Gkonou et al., 2017; Horwitz et al., 1986).
There is no doubt that conducting PBL in a foreign language is more challenging than ina first language. However, that is why PBL in a foreign language (for the participants inthis study, English) made them feel more challenged and ultimately more accomplished.
Another advantage of PBL is that, in principle, students can choose the topic according totheir own interests, which is not necessarily so in conventional classrooms in the Japanese
educational system, even in English-medium classrooms. This freedom of choice allows
for greater student autonomy and makes learning and using English more meaningful andaccessible.

Limitations and Important Emerging Questions

The data and discussion of the three participants in this study are not representative ofKagoshima Prefecture or the project participants but are only a subset of many cases.
Although this study was an exploratory comparison of three individuals with different
profiles, I hope to collect and analyse data about the learning experiences of more
students on a municipal, school, or project basis in the future. Furthermore, at this stage,
only one interview was conducted for each participant. In future studies, two moreinterviews will be conducted with each participant to further refine the TEM diagrams.
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Many further questions also arose and remain unanswered: Are the students satisfied
with the outcomes of attending university? Are they satisfied with the career options they
are offered upon graduation? What makes a context “rural”—is it something definable, or
should we leave it up to individuals’ interpretation? Ultimately, what constitutes successfor language learners in this context? Is pursuing more challenging educational andprofessional opportunities always the best option? What other forms of transformation
could language learning bring about? These questions will lead to a deeper understandingof under-researched rural or, in a broader sense, local contexts in English education in
Japan and will in turn provide suggestions for learning in broader contexts. It is significant
that this interview-based research, in which learners revisit their past learning experiencesand explore with the researcher social factors behind their decision makings, has led tosuch important questions for the future.

Conclusion

This study explored how high school students in Kagoshima prefecture, which has
one of the lowest rates of students entering 4-year universities in Japan, changed theirperspectives on their post-high school career paths through participation in the English
PBL and what sociocultural factors were involved in this process. The findings revealed
how the three women experienced changes in their perspectives on their interests,
abilities, and future visions through re-telling their life stories. The constraints these
women overcame had both similarities and differences, including lack of access to diverserole models and peers, few opportunities to make meaningful connections between
English language learning and real life, and parental beliefs about educational investmentthat were incompatible with students’ beliefs. Reflecting on the findings and discussion
in this study, I recommend that schools and stakeholders should consider, in accordancewith the characteristics of the region, connecting students with diverse role models,developing learning programmes in which students with diverse academic abilities andlanguage skills can play an active role, and providing equitable guidance and intervention
if necessary, regarding further educational and career opportunities after their learning.
We, as researchers, should continue to inquire how English language learning can makea meaningful difference in an individual’s overall life and subsequent career choices andconduct comprehensive studies that look beyond the classroom.

Author Bio

Aya Hayasaki is a research associate and PhD student at Waseda University, Japan. She
is also a part-time lecturer at Gakushuin University, Japan. She holds a Master of Arts
in Teaching English as a Foreign Language from the University of Birmingham, UK. Her
professional interests include L2 learner and teacher well-being, learning beyond theclassroom, and transformative learning, especially in rural contexts.

Review ProcessThis paper was open-reviewed by Simla Course and Colin Rundle of the Learner Development
Journal Review Network and by the Journal Steering Group. (Contributors have the option ofopen or blind review.)

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PAPER
Learning Beyond the Classroom in an EFL
Malagasy Setting: Two Student Teachers’
Experiences
Dominique Vola Ambinintsoa, Kanda University of International
Studies, Japan <razafindratsimba-d(at)kanda(dot)kuis(dot)ac(dot)jp>
Haingoarinjaka Fanaperana Rajaonaritiana, University of
Antananarivo, Madagascar <rajaonaritianah(at)gmail(dot)com>
Volatiana Olivia Rasoanindrina, University of Antananarivo,
Madagascar <volatianaolivia21(at)gmail(dot)com>
In this paper, the three authors—a teacher and two student teachers (STs)—highlight the importanceof learners’ agency in learning beyond the classroom (LBC), drawing on the STs’ LBC experiences as EFL
learners in Madagascar. Through narrative accounts in the form of vignettes, the STs share their language
learning histories (LLHs) beyond the classroom, identifying their purposes and drives for learning English,
as well as their difficulties, strategies, and successes. The STs’ LLHs underscore the significance of intereststhat fed into their intrinsic motivation to continuously improve their English language skills and indicatethat they were capable of creating learning opportunities and resources in a learning environment that canbe considered as “under-resourced” (Smith et al., 2018, p. 8). The implications drawn from the LLHs include
the idea of integrating into the classroom learners’ interests and strategies beyond the classroom to boost
their motivation and the relevance of using LLHs in teacher education to help STs reflect on their learning
experiences and existing knowledge about learning, as well as understand the importance of consideringand responding to students’ genuine needs and interests. This paper breaks new ground in exploring LBC
and LLHs in that two of the authors are current students identifying themselves as both EFL learners andfuture EFL teachers in a Malagasy context. It also sheds light on how to promote LBC in a context where
resources can be seen as scarce.

本論文では、教師と2人の学生教師（ST）からなる3人の著者が、マダガスカルにおけるEFL学習者としてのSTの教室を超えた学習（LBC）経験をもとにLBCでの学習者のエージェンシーの重要性を強調する。
STは、教室外での言語学習の歴史（LLH）をヴィネット形式の物語で語り、英語を学ぶ目的や動機、困難、戦略、成功などを明らかにする。
彼らのLLHは、英語を継続的に向上させるための内発的動機につながる興味の重要性を強調し、「リソース不足」（Smith et al., 2018, p. 8）とされる学習環境において学習機会やリソースを作り出す能力があることを示している。
LLHから、学習者のモチベーションを高めるために、教室を超えた学習者の興味や戦略を教室に取り入れるという考え方や、教師教育におけるLLHの活用の妥当性などが示唆された。
本研究は、マダガスカル語の文脈の中でEFL学習者と将来のEFL教師を目指す学生が共同執筆しているという点で、非常に独自性の高いものである。
この論文は、
マダガ
スカルにおけるEFL学習者と将来のEFL教師である在校生の共著であり、彼ら自身の言葉によって、その声を直接的に伝える。
また本
稿では、資源が乏しいとされる状況において、LBCをどのように推進するかについても光を当てている。

Keywords

learning beyond the classroom (LBC), language learning history (LLH), agency, intrinsic motivation, interests
教室を超えた学習（LBC）、言語学習史（LLH）、エージェンシー、内発的動機づけ、興味関心

Vola, Fanaperana, and Olivia, the authors of this paper, have three common points ofreference: our home country, our love for English, and the desire to teach it. That loveand desire brought us together in a university in Madagascar in 2018, where Vola wasteaching a course on reflective writing to first-year student teachers, among whom were
Fanaperana and Olivia. At the time of writing, Vola was living in Japan while Fanaperana
and Olivia were entering their third year of teacher training in Madagascar. Despite theLearner Development Journal • Issue 6 • December 2022

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distance, we have kept in touch through email and social media. We decided to write
about learning beyond the classroom (LBC) together because we believe that LBC was
the key to our mastering English in Madagascar, where English classes mainly focus ongrammar, reading, and writing, and where learning resources can be seen as limited.
We also believe that it is especially beyond the classroom that learners can develop andexert their learner autonomy or their “capacity to take control over [their] own learning”(Benson, 2011, p. 2), as they are the decision-makers of what and how to learn. Therefore,
for us, promoting learner autonomy necessarily involves LBC.
Our first aim is to give insights into LBC in an EFL Malagasy context, using the language
learning histories (LLHs) of Fanaperana and Olivia (referred to as “student teachers” or“STs”). By doing so, we give voice directly to students, as this is to our knowledge, thefirst paper co-authored by students in this context. The second aim is to highlight what
we can gain from the LLHs in terms of ways to help learners learn beyond the classroom
and maintain their motivation in and outside class. Our final aim, which is related to thesecond, is to better promote learner autonomy in the Malagasy context and beyond.
We first describe the context followed by a brief background of the STs. Then, we givesome theoretical background and explain the method used for this paper. Next, the STs
discuss the necessity and challenges of LBC in the EFL Malagasy context before describing
and reflecting on their EFL language journeys beyond the classroom through their LLHs.
In addition to their LBC experiences, they reflect on their own future teaching, as they
prepare for their teaching practice. Drawing from the STs’ learning experiences, Vola
finally provides some practical ways in which LBC can be promoted.

Theoretical Background: LBC, LLH, Agency, and Context

LBC is necessary for learners to succeed in their language learning, as the affordances
for learning in the classroom can be limited due mainly to time constraints and thenon-flexibility of the curriculum (Richards, 2015). It can even be argued that most learning
takes place outside the classroom (Benson, 2017). When researching LBC, areas that canbe addressed are the affordances and constraints of the settings, the processes involved,
including learners’ experiences and strategies, and the teacher’s role in supporting LBC(Reinders & Benson, 2017). One way to research learners’ experiences and strategies isthrough LLH writing.
LLH writing benefits both learners and teachers. It enables learners to reflect on theirlearning and to reveal some of the causes of their motivation and attitudes towards thelanguage (Reinders & Benson, 2017). Additionally, LLHs allow both learners and teachers
to know learners’ perceptions and beliefs related to their language learning and their“seeds” of agency (Murphey & Carpenter, 2008), the latter being an important factor in
LBC.
Agency is a significant dimension of learner behavior (Mercer, 2011). In language
learning, it is viewed as a starting point for the development of autonomy (Benson, 2007)
or as a component of learner autonomy. Gu (2009), for instance, includes learner agency
in his conceptualization of learner autonomy, which also includes volition, proactiveness,and self-initiation. Self-initiation is identified as the combination of initial motivation
to learn and effortful behaviors (Nguyen, 2008). Agency is, thus, the characteristic thatenables learners to make the decision to learn and to pursue the learning regardlessof their context. It is undeniable that the context or learning environment influences
learners (Benson, 2021; Benson et al., 2018; Lamb & Murray, 2018), as “all learning is98

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Dominique Vola Ambinintsoa, Haingo Fanaperana Rajaonaritiana, & Volatiana Olivia Rasoanindrinasocially situated and culturally constrained” (Little, 1999, p. 16). However, learners are not
only reactive to the context; they can also shape their learning environment (Bandura,
2008; Benson, 2021; Carter & Sealey, 2000; Mercer, 2011), i.e., they can contribute toimprovements of their own learning environment by exercising their agency, which
explains the importance of agency in LBC. As agency involves self-initiation promptedby motivation, it can be argued that agency is related to interest. Interest is a positive
emotion integrating affective and cognitive components; it is said to be the cause of
self-initiation and persistence (Mynard & McLoughlin, 2020). In LBC contexts, finding
and developing interest is an effective way to maintain and regulate learners’ motivation(McLoughlin, 2020; Mynard & McLoughlin, 2020).

Context: Resources, Languages, the Place of English, and Background of
the STs

Madagascar is among the poorest countries in the world (Osborne, 2016; UNICEF, 2018;
Venart & Reuter, 2014) and can be referred to as “under-resourced” (Smith et al., 2018, p.
8) regarding education. Basic resources in pedagogy and infrastructure are considerably
lacking. Beyond the classroom, libraries (with books) are mostly the only resources
provided by schools and institutions in urban locations. Resources that may be taken
for granted in schools in other countries, such as self-access centers, ICT resources (e.g.,
computers, CD players, unlimited Wi-Fi), or simply any human resources outside classare generally scarce in the Malagasy context. In order to use the Internet, most people,
even those at universities in big cities, go to cyber cafes and pay for limited connections.
However, many Malagasy people can use Facebook, as it is possible to use it on cell
phones at a cheaper price than other Internet services. Nevertheless, such connections
are limited.
Malagasy and French are the official languages, and English is a foreign language. While
French is mainly used as a language of instruction at school and in most administrative
areas, Malagasy is used in everyday life outside school and workplaces. Both languages
are used on TV (e.g., news), and most foreign movies and documentaries are dubbed in
French. In general, English is taught as a compulsory school subject from the beginningof secondary school. What is taught in class throughout the 7 years consists mainlyof grammar rules, reading comprehension, and writing on given topics (e.g., sport,
environment); these skills are also what is assessed at school and in national examinations(at the end of Grades 9 and 12). Teachers often predominantly focus on forms and use
grammar drills. For example, when they teach the passive voice, they only teach about
how to turn the active form into the passive and vice versa but not about when to use
them. English is thus taught as a subject that students must learn for exams, but not as ameans of communication. As a foreign language, its use is mainly confined to the English
classroom.
At university, English is still a mandatory subject but generally remains an academic
subject (consisting of reading and writing) among others that students study topass exams in departments other than English (e.g., French, law, physics). In English
departments like the one where the STs studied, all English skills are taught separately
along with literature, civilization, and other subjects.
Beyond the classroom, private tutoring and English language centers may exist in somecities, but they are not typically affordable for the general Malagasy population. English
clubs created by volunteers (teachers or students) can be found within language centers
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and in a few schools in cities. The aim of such clubs is mainly to enable learners to practice
speaking. However, there are very few of them, and their existence and functionality
heavily depend on the availability of the volunteers leading them, which does notguarantee their consistency (see Vignette 9).
Prior to university, the two STs, Fanaperana and Olivia, had 7 years of English insecondary school, like most Malagasy students do. Having lived in the capital, they havebeen more fortunate than students in other areas in terms of learning resources, as
they can still have some limited access to the Internet and are more exposed to different
media, such as social media and television. Also, they had opportunities to join English
clubs and register at English language centers.
The STs were entering their third year at a teacher training college in Madagascar at thetime of writing this paper. Although they had not had practical teaching experience yet,they had learned about theories of different teaching methods and approaches. In theirfirst 2 years at college, they also attended different courses aiming to help them improve
the four language skills.

Methods

Our aim is to enable readers to hear the voices of actual learners on LBC in their context
and to learn directly from them. We thus chose to use Fanaperana and Olivia’s LLHs inan autoethnographic approach (Ellis et al., 2011) or “self-narratives” allowing readers to“understand the ways in which individuals situate themselves and their activities in theworld” (Barkhuizen et al., 2014, p. 2).
To help Fanaperana and Olivia write their LLHs, Vola provided them with prompts
about activities, settings, times, and views on the effectiveness of their LBC activities. That
first step served as a brainstorming activity in a shared Google Docs document. Secondly,
Fanaperana and Olivia collected evidence of their LBC from several years of learning
English. The evidence included items such as translations of song lyrics, a poster for aplay, and diary entries. While collecting evidence and gradually writing their LLHs, we had
back-and-forth question-and-answer exchanges within the same Google Docs document
for further elaboration and reflection. When Fanaperana and Olivia were satisfied with
their LLHs, we divided them into vignettes to make them easier to read. We were awarethat autobiographical vignettes are said to enable teachers to reflect on their teachingpractices (Ambler, 2012). Though Fanaperana and Olivia were not teaching yet at the timeof writing this paper, writing the vignettes allowed them to reflect on their learning, linkthem to their future teaching, and develop their reflective practice, which is considered“a crucial element of education” and “an essential skill that needs to be nurtured in allteachers” (Farrell, 2019, p. 5). We, thus, believe in the value of LLHs in relation to LBC andto teaching.

The STs’ Views: Necessity and Challenges of LBC in the EFL Malagasy
Context

From our own experiences as students, we can say that LBC is necessary, especiallyregarding speaking and listening skills. What students learn in class is quite limited, as
previously described. As English is taught as an academic subject and is assessed only
through reading and writing in exams, speaking is neglected in class. Students are used
to seeing the language rather than speaking it. Teachers do not even speak English mostof the time, as they think explaining in the mother tongue or in French helps the students
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better than using the target language. That is why most students are not used to listening
to English or using it as a means of communication.
LBC is necessary but also challenging for EFL Malagasy students. The first challenge is
to find time. Students have class from early morning to evening, and at home, they mainly
have time only for their homework and lesson reviewing. Furthermore, LBC requires ahuge amount of independence, which implies that they should be capable of managing
their time. The second challenge is the lack of materials. What they can find in libraries
are mainly grammar books and dictionaries. Most students do not have access to theInternet, which would provide them with different listening resources. Additionally, therarity of resources such as English clubs makes it difficult to practice speaking. The thirdchallenge is to keep motivation. This may be related to the lack of practice opportunities
for students who want to be able to speak English. Also, in LBC, students may feeldemotivated, as there is no one to encourage them and no deadline to push them. Theymay give up easily if they do not have the patience and willingness to make constanteffort. Despite these challenges, LBC is possible if students are determined to learn and to
improve their English skills, as demonstrated in our LLHs in the following section.

The Two STs’ LBC Experiences

In this part of our paper, we share extracts from Fanaperana and Olivia’s LLHs in theform of vignettes so that readers may directly learn from them about their experiences of
LBC. Six vignettes from Fanaperana are first presented, and these are followed by sevenvignettes from Olivia. The vignettes are included in this section without commentary, sothat readers may directly encounter the voices and experiences of Fanaperana and Olivia.

Fanaperana’s LLH
Vignette 1: Learning for the Test

If someone asked me how long I have been learning English, I would answer 7 years. That
was when I started to learn English outside the classroom. In school, English was learned
like some other subjects such as math and history. What did I learn at school? English
grammar rules, some vocabulary, and expressions related to given themes, such as sports
and the environment, which I had to memorize for tests, but which I did not use at all
outside the classroom. What I learned at school aimed exclusively to help me pass exams,
without considering my understanding and the usefulness of such content in my life. I did
not have the opportunity to practice speaking English, which is crucial when learning alanguage.

Vignette 2: Westlife

It was in the first year of high school when I started to learn English beyond the classroom.
My mother bought me a mobile phone with many English songs preloaded in it, such asWestlife’s. I loved their songs as I felt they had some kind of depth. Their voices were so
nice to hear, and the songs reminded me of my childhood when I often listened to them.
However, I did not understand what the songs meant. At that time, I thought if I could
meet Westlife one day, I would like to be able to talk to them. That was when I decided to
get two notebooks: one for the lyrics and one for the translation (see Figures 1 and 2). At
that time, I did not have access to the Internet. Therefore, to have song lyrics, I had to buy
them from a store near my school. Then, I began to translate them into French by using
a bilingual dictionary. Doing the translation activities triggered my motivation to learn
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English. Though the quality of my translation still needed a lot of improvement, it madesense somehow. Translating was particularly useful in terms of learning new vocabulary.
As the vocabulary items were included in songs I enjoyed listening to, it was easier tomemorize them. Furthermore, after the translation, I started to understand what thesongs were about. It was great because I started to sing with the correct words and at thesame time, I felt what the lyrics meant.

Figure 1. Fanaperana’s First Song Translation

Vignette 3: Learning While Having Fun

In the second year of high school, my mother installed the Internet on my mobile phone,and I started to watch videos on Youtube, particularly Westlife’s interviews on talkshows (for example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4DaYeeEl_A). Frankly, I did notunderstand anything, but I just liked watching them having fun. I downloaded many of
their interviews on my phone. The urge to understand what they were saying resulted in
the willingness to learn more to improve my English. I thus decided to engage in otheractivities. From my experience translating lyrics, I understood that I learn best while
having fun. Therefore, I began to read comics in English on MangaToon (a free application
for reading manga and comics) on weekends. Through pictures, I was able to guess themeaning of the dialogues. Furthermore, reading the comics improved both my reading
skills and my vocabulary. I was able to learn simple English expressions that I could use indaily life.

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Figure 2. Fanaperana’s Third Song Translation

Vignette 4: Creating More Learning Opportunities

I discovered that English is an international language. Therefore, I started chattingwith foreigners on Facebook to get opportunities to practice English and learn new
expressions. I also started practicing speaking by myself and with my sister. Then, after
graduating from high school, I decided to attend an English language center because I
thought I needed improvement in my English learning in general, and I would be able tomeet some friends to speak to. I realized that my effort to improve my English speaking
paid off when I was able to enter the center as an intermediate student (after a speaking
placement test). Attending classes at that center influenced my LBC. First, I had friends
with whom I could practice speaking. We decided to speak to each other in English afterclass when we went home. We did not choose to talk about any specific topics, but we just
had free conversations in English. Second, my teacher recommended different websites,in which I was able to read books in epub formats (e.g., https://english-e-reader.net/) andpractice listening (e.g., https://www.esl-lab.com/).

Vignette 5: Willingness to Become a Teacher of English

It was from my improvement and my love for English that I decided to study at the
Teacher Training College to become a teacher of English. Due to the fiercely competitive
examination, I had to study English even harder. Therefore, at home, I watched English
programs, such as BBC News and English movies, which are available on paid TV channels.
I read English books, and I often practiced speaking to myself in order to improve myEnglish speaking skills.
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In college, we rarely had class and hardly spoke in English. Once more, LBC has beena necessity. To improve my reading skills, I read many books. Fortunately, I had an
acquaintance who used to be an English teacher, and she was very pleased to give mesome of her English books (see Figure 3). Reading the books has improved my reading
skills, as one book is about reading many texts with comprehension questions. Other
books, such as classic and detective novels, have enabled me to learn a wide variety ofvocabulary.

Figure 3. Fanaperana’s Book Collection

Vignette 6: Back to Westlife

One day, during the lockdown, I looked through my old downloads, and I watchedWestlife’s interviews again. I was amazed to see how much I was able to understandcompared to 6 years ago, when I first downloaded the videos and had just enjoyedwatching them speaking and laughing without knowing what was funny. At that time, I had
just said to myself that I would understand someday after hard work and a lot of time, andI was right! I realized that thanks to all the listening practice I had done, I was able to makeconsiderable progress.
To sum up, most of my English learning happened beyond the classroom. The simple
desire to understand song lyrics became a great desire to pursue my studies in an Englishspeaking country.

Olivia’s LLH

Seven vignettes (Vignettes 7–13) follow from Olivia below.

Vignette 7: “How to Master English Within Just 10 Minutes,” a Lie!

Excelling at English has always been my goal since I was in junior high school. I used
to admire those English singers and motivational speakers on TV and radio with their104

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accent and fluency. For me, the fact that they could speak English so fast that I could notunderstand anything meant that they had mastered the language. However, I did notknow the steps and challenges the people went through before becoming who they are.
I thought that learning a language would be easy due to the unreal brilliant-sounding
straplines I saw on the Internet saying how to master English within just 10 minutes. It wasonce I committed myself to it that I realized the time and effort required. I will put forward
all my processes during my experiences about learning English beyond the classroom.

Vignette 8: “Practice Makes Perfect”

I am best known as a talkative girl, and I am sure that this behavior has helped me
throughout my study. The first time my love for English appeared, I chatted with English
speakers on Facebook. I always bore in mind what my former teacher taught me, thatpractice makes perfect, and it worked. I could apply what I was taught in class, learned
new lexical items, and had my grammatical mistakes corrected. So, I can say that it was auseful opportunity. At first, I was afraid that they would not agree to text chat with me, but
I pretended to be interested in their stories. Unfortunately, it did not last long, but I was
not discouraged.
When I was home, I tried to simultaneously interpret what my siblings said from
Malagasy to English, and I continued doing that though they were angry. They thoughtthat I was mocking them, and they treated me like a silly girl. I did not care because I only
focused on my goal. I was not good at translating or interpreting at that time, but I havebeen trying my best. It allowed me to increase my vocabulary.

Vignette 9: Motivating English ClubIn my high school, our teacher created an English club, which I joined. The club met once aweek and we had activities such as games, songs, and debates in English. Later, I became
one of the English club leaders and was responsible for creating and leading the activities.
We had opportunities to have native-speaker guests from time to time. Talking to themwas challenging, as I was afraid to make mistakes in front of them, but it was motivating
because I was dazzled by their accents. I said to myself that I shall master this language
at any cost. One lesson I learned from those experiences was to never be ashamed ofmaking mistakes. I knew that none of us was born bilingual and making mistakes was
normal for everyone.
Leading the club was not an easy task, as I constantly had to find new enjoyable
activities to keep the club members interested. Also, I was still a high school student
and had to focus on my studies. Therefore, I had difficulty managing my time. There
were times when I had to cancel club meetings, which resulted in members leaving the
club. Nevertheless, leading the club was helpful in many ways, and especially as a futureteacher, the greatest benefit for me was learning how to talk in front of many people.

Vignette 10: Learning Vocabulary Through Comics and Song Lyrics

Apart from practicing speaking, I read comics on the weekends. I found them funny andattractive, as the pictures were close to reality. I could also learn new vocabulary. The
more words I learned, the higher my desire to learn became. I tried to remember at least
one word a day and used it when I was speaking at the club and in class. I had to makethat effort because I wanted to make a good impression, and that contributed to myself-improvement. My wish to improve my English skills became more and more intense.
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As I like English songs, I checked the translation of the lyrics of my favorite songs on theInternet, not only to understand the songs but also to know more words and expressions.
Though it was an effective way to learn vocabulary, I did not always have the chance to
use them, and sometimes, I was not able to use some words appropriately since themeaning of one word could vary according to the context. From then, I started to doublecheck before using a word to make sure that I used it correctly.

Vignette 11: The Hard Work Paid Off

As I began to gradually refine my skills, I started to watch English cartoons and movies
with subtitles to consolidate my listening skills and to acquire the accent, since I haveindelibly dreamt of sounding native. The big struggle was the fact that I could not focus
on the subtitles and the image at the same time. I was not even able to concentrate on
what the characters were saying. My goal was not achieved then, but I carried on watching
English movies.
Later, when I watched videos of motivational speakers on Facebook, I felt thatsomething had changed as I began to understand what they were saying even without
subtitles. I appreciated their amazing accent and their fluency, and the messages they
conveyed were crystal clear. I realized that all my hard work of translating, practicing
speaking, and learning vocabulary had paid off. And these were all due to the fact that I
like the language itself.

Vignette 12: “Vakivakim-piainana” [hardship]

I recognized the impact of attending the English club when I volunteered to perform ina play (see Figure 4) with my classmates at the university. I had to articulate and speak
aloud. I also learned new vocabulary because my classmates and I had to translate thescripts from Malagasy to English, as the original book, Vakivakim-Piainana, is in Malagasy.
From the collaboration with my classmates, I learned other ways to translate ideas. As weonly had about one month and a half to get prepared, we rehearsed almost every day.
It really contributed to the improvement of my speaking skills because every mistake wemade was corrected by the teacher, whether it was grammar or pronunciation. I learned
to speak clearer and louder and to use body language as well as facial expressions, which
are necessary skills I need as a future teacher. Preparing for and performing the play wasan effective way to improve my English and to have fun at the same time.

Vignette 13: Learning on My Own for Self-Satisfaction

As an EFL student, I understand the importance of and the difficulty with autonomous
learning. There were times when my motivation was low, especially when I saw people
younger than me speaking fluently with an American accent. However, I said to myself,“If I stop now, all my efforts will be in vain, and I will bitterly regret it.” Rather than seeing
the younger people as a barrier, I should view them as a source of motivation to enhance
my strong determination for learning English. Now, I can see the benefits of my devotionin the past through all the improvements I have made. I know the significance of learningwith friends. It took me so many years to be able to speak English. I learned from myexperience that I can be what I want to be, but I must be patient and persevere beyond
the classroom to achieve my goal.

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Figure 4. The Poster for the Play

What to Implement in Our Future Teaching

In the previous section, we described our LBC experiences, including our goals,
activities, resources, and feelings by means of the vignettes. Taking our experiences
into consideration, we will briefly discuss what we would like to implement in our futureclasses.

Fanaperana’s Plan

LBC was crucial for my English learning. That is why I will encourage my future students
to learn beyond the classroom. I will give them assignments requiring personal research,
for example, a reading assignment requiring them to look for unknown vocabulary. I
will also share resources with them where they can learn English effectively, such asuseful websites. Lastly, from my experience, I believe that motivation is very important.
Therefore, I will do my best to enhance my students’ motivation by integrating topics thatinterest them into my lessons. Moreover, I will help them discover their own motivation tolearn English by asking them questions about their interests and future goals and talking
about opportunities they may have if they master English (e.g., future jobs or scholarship
opportunities).

Olivia’s Plan

Just as I did with my own LBC, I will give my students opportunities to link their learningand their interests so that they do not consider LBC as a burden. I will ask them to workin groups and to present topics of their interests for which they have to do some research
and acquire new knowledge using the target language. Moreover, to demonstrate that
English is a means of communication, not just an academic subject, I will create speaking
opportunities allowing for LBC, such as English clubs, drama clubs, or even singing clubs.
Once they master the language, creating opportunities for contests with awards is also a
way to raise their motivation.
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Implications and Conclusions: Vola’s Contribution

The STs’ vignettes remind me of my LBC experiences related to English when I lived
in Madagascar. Like Fanaperana, I translated songs from French into English and viceversa. Also, I valued every resource I could use to improve any of my language skills. For
instance, I remember I had to run home every day so that I could watch the BBC Newson the national television network at 5 p.m., which was one of the very rare TV programs
in English in those days. Like the STs, I agree that those LBC activities were crucial for mylanguage development.
Believing in the importance of LBC and drawing from the STs’ descriptions of andreflections on their LBC experiences, I will present three significant implications in thissection that include ideas on how to promote LBC and learner autonomy to learners andto help learners maintain their motivation in and out of class. As reflection is essential
to develop learner autonomy (Gregersen & MacIntyre, 2014; Little et al., 2017), each
implication includes written and/or oral reflective activities.

Raise Students’ Awareness of Their Interests Related to Language Learning

In writing and reflecting on their LLHs, both Fanaperana and Olivia emphasized that theirinterests pushed their willingness to learn and to seek different ways to improve theirlanguage skills beyond the classroom. They also linked their interests to their learning,which motivated them more. This mirrors the literature on interest as an enhancer ofmotivation and performance (e.g., McLoughlin, 2020; Mynard & McLoughlin, 2020; Silvia,2008). Therefore, it is important that learners are aware of their interests related to thelanguage they learn.
Not all learners have a clear idea of their sources of interests or their language-learning
goals. Apart from the need to pass exams, they may not have any interest in English andmay not realize the potential benefits of knowing English in their lives unless they areprompted to reflect on them. One way to help them reflect would be to have them discussand write those benefits down in class along with activities they are doing or can dooutside class to improve their English. Having students create posters like the one in Table
1 is recommended by Little et al. (2017), as posters serve “an indispensable awarenessraising function” (p. 28).
Table 1. Poster on “Why and how do I learn English”
Why do I learn English?
•
•
•
•
•

talk to people in other countries
for education / a “must”
main language / nearly everybody canspeak it / international language
need it when I grow up / pilot
I like English.

How do I learn English?
watch English / American films
read English (books, newspapers)
speak English when I have to and when I
want to.
via projects
by doing grammar exercises

Note. This table was adapted from Little et al. (2017, p. 28).

Use Available Resources and Create Learning Opportunities

With the STs’ strong motivation driven by their interests, they developed their agency
by using available resources and creating learning opportunities. They understood their
responsibilities to seek learning opportunities in a context where “the target language is a108

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scarce resource . . . and the learner must go out and construct an environment in which it ispresent” (Benson, 2021, p. 97). As they were aware of the lack of speaking opportunities inclass, they looked for ways to practice speaking outside, such as speaking to themselves,
siblings, classmates, and even strangers on social media. Furthermore, they used any
resources they had at hand. Fanaperana, for instance, made use of her favorite songs
to learn vocabulary and to develop her interest in English. Olivia used her siblings as“interpreting resources,” though they might not be seen as obvious resources andapparently did not want to be used as such. The STs thus demonstrated that language
learning resources in various forms can be created or adapted by learners themselves.
The implication would be to help learners think of possible resources around themand share those resources along with strategies they already use. They can be asked not
only to consider accessible resources at school (e.g., library, books, and other materials)
but also to reflect on their interests and hobbies, their daily activities, the people aroundthem, and the places where they usually are, and then, to try to connect those resources
beyond the classroom with their learning. An adapted version of the poster in Table 1 canbe used as a brainstorming tool, which might result in an initial checklist of resources,
strategies, and activities. Later in the academic year, time to share and reflect on learners’
LBC resources and strategies in class is necessary. Sharing can be done through group
discussions or peer interviews making use of the checklist. Learners should be remindedthat their peers are valuable resources.
Teachers can also help learners create learning communities (e.g., speaking clubs) andprojects allowing them to engage themselves. However, teachers should ensure thatstudents make decisions about and feel ownership of the communities and projects. An
excellent example is staging a theater performance, as mentioned by Olivia, in which
she and her peers were responsible for the translation of the play and most of theorganization of the performance.

Integrate Learners’ Own Interests and Activities Inside and Outside Class

The third implication is related to the first two and to the promotion of learner autonomy.
To foster learner autonomy in the classroom, learners’ prior knowledge should beconsidered and integrated (Dam, 2019). This concerns not only their knowledge about thelanguage itself, but also learning strategies and activities they already use to improve thelanguage. As Little et al. (2017) state, “Engaging the knowledge, interests and skills thatlearners bring with them is a prerequisite for getting them involved in their learning. . . . It
is also central to inclusive pedagogy” (p. 161). Encouraging learners to share their interests,
goals, and existing LBC activities with the class and continue using them outside class andgiving them opportunities to use the activities in class are ways to acknowledge learners
as whole beings and enable them to “bring their other portable selves into learning
experiences” (Magno e Silva, 2018, p. 221). In other words, besides being a language
learner, a student is composed of different “selves,” such as a Westlife fan, a tennis player,
a theater performer, and others. If these selves are integrated in their language learning
experiences, learners will find their learning more meaningful, and their autonomy will be
more enhanced (Magno e Silva, 2018).
There are different ways to integrate learners’ interests. One option is to enable themto present the latest news about their favorite singers, sport teams, actors, or anything
they are passionate about once a month. That can be used as a warm-up activity and does
not take much class time. Another option is to allocate time to talk about their interests
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Learning Beyond the Classroom in an EFL Malagasy Settingin groups. If learners like translating songs, they can do that as homework along withpaying attention to some specific grammar points, for instance. Also, asking learners what
activities they would like to do (as a warm-up or closing activity) from time to time can behighly appreciated.

Help Learners Maintain Motivation Through Reflection

Fanaperana and Olivia’s LLHs demonstrate that their engagement to the LBC activities
came from their intrinsic motivation. However, motivation can fluctuate (Dörnyei,2020), and not all language learners have strong motivation. Even Olivia admitted that
her motivation was not always high, especially when she compared herself to otherfluent speakers. To increase her motivation, one way was to think about how much
her persistence had paid off through all the progress she had made. Fanaperana alsomentioned her tremendous listening improvement as the fruit of her persistence. As
Dörnyei (2020) puts it, “the tangible sense of progress has a potent energy-yielding
capacity” (p. 144). It is thus necessary for learners to notice and acknowledge theirimprovement and the outcomes of their persistence so they can maintain motivation.
One way to help learners notice their improvement and effort is having them regularlyreflect on their learning via journal writing and discussions. The checklist mentioned
above can be helpful. Then, a few times a year, there should be opportunities in class
to discuss improvements, other positive points such as enjoyment vis-a-vis language
learning, and updates on sources of motivation or demotivation. Additionally, teachers
should help students highlight their own improvements by giving them individualized
positive progress feedback (Dörnyei, 2020), indicating specifically the effort made.

Writing LLHs in Teacher Education

Through their LLHs, Fanaperana and Olivia were able to identify their purposes and drives
for learning English and notice their difficulties, successes, and strategies and approaches
to overcome the difficulties. They participated in what Nelson and Bishop (2013) refer toas “conversation about teaching and learning to improve [their] practice and concrete
responsive pedagogy” (p. 19). Though Nelson and Bishop refer to collaborative action
research with learners in this statement, it can also be applied to collaborative narrative
writing, involving retrospective reflections and plans for future teaching. Writing
the LLHs also raised the STs’ awareness of the constraints of the classroom; of theirself-empowerment, which they gained from LBC; and of practices they would like toimplement in their future teaching. I would like, therefore, to conclude this paper byoffering a suggestion related to the relevance of writing LLHs in teacher education.
In addition to the introduction and practice of different commonly used teachingapproaches and methods, teacher education should also build on student teachers’
existing knowledge and experiences. Student teachers have rich language learning
experiences, which should be explored and used as resources. Gregersen (2022) states
when referring to student teachers, “Take a look at what people can bring and make thebest of what they brought.” Integrating STs’ learning experiences and existing knowledge
about learning in the planning of their future teaching is a way, firstly, to empower themand help them understand the importance of considering genuine student needs, suchas the establishment of the connection between learning and interests and the provisionof communities and spaces to practice the language. Secondly, such integration will raise
their awareness of their LBC and their own learner autonomy. Thirdly, their experiences
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can serve as personalized and localized resources for future teachers and learners, as
Everhard (2018) eloquently points out:
In order to move forward, it is important to look back, to re-read what others (including
students) have said, for quite often with the passage of time and with our own added
experience, their words take on new meaning and resonance and inspire and impel us
to act. (p. 287)

Author Bios

Dominique Vola Ambinintsoa is a learning advisor and lecturer at Kanda University ofInternational Studies, Japan. She holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics (Victoria University of
Wellington, New Zealand) and a Master of Education in TESOL (State University of New
York at Buffalo, USA). She is a co-managing editor of the Research Institute for Learner
Autonomy Education’s Relay Journal. Her interests include learner autonomy, advising inlanguage learning, and positive psychology in education. In addition to Japan, she has had
experience of teaching English in Madagascar, New Zealand , and the USA.
Haingoarinjaka Fanaperana Rajaonaritiana holds a bachelor’s degree in English teachingfrom Ecole Normale Supérieure, University of Antananarivo, Madagascar. She is convincedthat learning beyond the classroom is the most effective way to learn English and intends
to encourage her students to do so. She is a very independent learner and considers
being aware of that independence as a necessity for her learning process. Her researchinterests include the importance of learning beyond the classroom and learning English
through more interesting ways such as songs, novels, and games. In her free time, shelikes reading books and watching movies.
Volatiana Olivia Rasoanindrina holds a bachelor’s degree in English teaching from
Ecole Normale Supérieure, University of Antananarivo, Madagascar. She is currently a
4th-year student of Business English at the Department of English of the University of
Antananarivo. In the future, she intends to create opportunities for her students to learn
English beyond the classroom to ensure an effective learning environment. Her researchinterests include learning beyond the classroom and learning English through videos,songs, through reading books, and attending English clubs. She also has a particularinterest in translation.

Review ProcessThis paper was open-reviewed by Andy Barfield and Vivien Shu Hua Kao of the Learner
Development Journal Review Network and the Journal Steering Group. (Contributors havethe option of open or blind review.)

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REVIEW
Some Thoughts on Implementing a New
Teaching Approach: A Review of Clarke’s“Exploring Autonomous Learning . . .”Mizuka Tsukamoto, Ritsumeikan University, Japan<mdtsukamoto(at)gmail(dot)com>
This practice-based book review looks at Donna Clarke’s (2019) “Exploring Autonomous Learning: A Teacher’s
Experience and Learners’ Perception” in Autonomy in Language Learning: Getting Learners Actively Involved(Menegale, 2019). This chapter in the book is a reflection on her first attempt to make her class, at theJapanese School of Brussels, more student-centred. In reviewing the chapter, I reflect on my experienceof my first attempt at teaching a semester-long project-based course in relation to some of the key ideas
discussed by Clarke. In doing so, I discuss the concerns, successes, and challenges that we shared and faced
in incorporating a teaching approach that was new to us both. I also take a close look at the methodologythat she used in her study. Finally, I conclude this book review by considering how I would respond to
Clarke’s four questions that she frames her action research with.
本稿はAutonomy in Language Learning: Getting Learners Actively Involved (Menegale, 2019)に収められている
Donna Clarke (2019)の“Exploring Autonomous Learning: A Teacher’s Experience and Learners’ Perception”の書評である。
本書のこの章は、
ブリュッセル日本人学校でのClarke自身の授業をより学習者中心にするための初めての試みについての考察である。
この章を振り返りながら、Clarkeが論じた重要な考え方に関連して、筆者が初めて試みた1学期間を通してのプロジェ

クトベースの授業の経験を振り返ってみた。
私たち双方にとって新しい教育アプローチを取り入れる際に共有し、直面した懸念、成功、
課題について論じる。
また、Clarkeが研究に用いた方法論についても考察する。
最後に、Clarkeがアクション・リサーチの枠組みとして掲げた4つの質問に対して、私ならどう答えるかを考えてこの書評を締めくくる。

Keywords

Japanese university students, learner-centred approach, out-of-class learning, project-based learning, reflection
日本の大学生、学習者中心のアプローチ、授業外学習、
プロジェクトベースド学習、
リフレクション

Donna Clarke’s (2019) “Exploring Autonomous Learning: A Teacher’s Experience andLearners’ Perception” in Autonomy in Language Learning: Getting Learners Actively Involved,edited by Marcella Menegale (2019), is a reflection on her attempt to make her class more
student-centred. Reading it reminded me of when I first taught a semester-long projectbased course in the English Language Programme (ELP) at a university in central Japan.
Like Clarke, at that stage of my career and without a background in education or TESOL/
TEFL, I was unfamiliar with the concept or practice of learner autonomy.
This practice-based book review is an extended reflection on my first attempts toimplement a more learner-centred approach in the classroom, in relation to some of
the key ideas discussed by Clarke. The students’ comments I refer to in this review werecollected on the last day of classes with their consent for the data to be used in any future
research or publication. My notes were recorded on the lesson plans that I prepared in mynotebook for each class and included my classroom observations with comments on how
I might do things differently in the future.

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Mizuka Tsukamoto

Clarke’s Study

Clarke conducted action research when she first attempted to switch from a teachercentred classroom to a more learner-centred one. Her study took place at the Japanese
School of Brussels between April and July in 2011. It was an immersion-style class in which
she spoke in English only, and the curriculum focused on English for travel purposes. The
students were aged between 14 and 15 years of age and met three times a week for 45
minutes. She had a Japanese support teacher in each class, whose role is not specified in
the chapter.
Data for Clarke’s study comprised a diary she kept during her year teaching, learningjournals her students were required to keep, a questionnaire, and several interviews she
conducted with students based on gender and ability. The questionnaire used a 4-point
Likert scale and was submitted to the author by the last day of the term. Clarke writes
that the students were given one week to return it to her. The learning journals were kept
throughout the year, but how frequently they were kept and when they were submitted
are unclear. The interviews were conducted before the questionnaires were collected at
the end of the semester.
Clarke’s discussion is focused on two main concerns she had incorporating
autonomous learning in her classroom: first, the novelty and unfamiliarity of the practice,and secondly, her concern not to impose upon her students a Western form of learning.
These two concerns are elaborated in terms of four central questions that frame herreflections:
1. Could the approach be implemented successfully?
2.	 If she encountered problems with implementation, would she be able to findsolutions?
3. Would the students’ cultural backgrounds inhibit their autonomous learning
engagement?
4. Would the students see the approach as advantageous to their learning?
Clarke’s second concern, that she not impose on her students a Western form oflearning, is based on the notion that autonomy is a concept “central to European liberaldemocratic and liberal humanist thought” (Pennycook, 1997, p. 42). Her concern was
founded in personal observations and literature she had read which stated that Japanese
students, often coming from traditions of obedience to authority, see teachers as
figures who convey knowledge rather than as mentors who facilitate learning (Liu, 2008).
However, Clarke was also guided by other researchers that discussed the possibility ofsucceeding with autonomous learning within a Japanese educational context (e.g., Dias,
2000; Sakai et al., 2010).
Clarke’s two concerns can be related to Dam’s (2019) discussion (also in the same
volume edited by Menegale) regarding the teacher’s role in the classroom. In a teachercentred classroom, the teacher’s role is clear, as they are positioned at the front
instructing the students. However, with a learner-centred approach, the teacher’s role
may be more ambiguous. How much they get directly involved with the students, and towhat extent they address or approach the students, is very much a negotiated practice.
This is challenging for instructors as well as students, although perhaps particularly with
Asian students, who are generally perceived to be more passive and to expect teachers tosimply tell them what to know (Littlewood, 1999; Liu, 2008).
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Clarke does not specify how she organised her classes, nor the methods she used to
implement more autonomous learning, what the students were assigned to do in eachclass, or how this was all different from what she did before. The reader however caninfer from her questionnaire results that the students were able to direct their classroom
learning, for example, choosing which units of the textbook to study, what activities to do,
and which expressions to remember. The students also seem to have been able to choose
their own homework.
Details aside, Clarke found implementing her new learner-centred pedagogicalapproach challenging, but her students responded positively. For example, thequestionnaire results showed that 85% of the students either disagreed or strongly
disagreed that teachers should be responsible for choosing classroom activities, 78% of
the students appreciated being able to choose which units from the textbook to study,
and 69% found choosing their homework to be useful for their learning.
On the other hand, she also discovered that students found working in groups to bea challenge. The questionnaire did not ask for feedback on group work, but responses
from all four interviewees showed that they did not have positive impressions. Clarke
speculates that part of the reason for this may be that students did not have enough time
to experience the benefits of support and feedback from others in their group work.

Clarke’s Action Research Methodology

Clarke’s data collection is unclear on two points, which, if clarified would give more insight
into the strength of her methodology. First, she mentions that her students had one
week to complete and submit the course questionnaires and that the interviews took
place before the questionnaires were due. Therefore, the interviews took place before
the semester had fully ended. Thus, although the students were told that participating in
the interview would not affect their grades, one wonders whether they were comfortable
sharing their thoughts on their teacher’s pedagogy, especially if their feedback may havebeen critical. Furthermore, the questionnaire was administered on a 4-point Likert scale(i.e., strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree), which may have influenced somestudents’ response as it did not provide a neutral option for those who neither agreed nor
disagreed. If Clarke had chosen to use an even number of options on the questionnaire,so as to force the respondents to choose a particular position or perspective, some
explanations might have been helpful for understanding why she did this.
The second point regards whether the students’ learning journals were included intheir grade assessment. Clarke says she asked her students to keep learning journals“throughout the year” (p. 26) but does not specify how often the students were required
to keep them, nor whether she collected them before the end of the semester. These
points are important because keeping a learning journal might seem like a lot of work forstudents if it is not part of their grade, which, in my experience, would discourage many
students from writing their learning journals regularly. The content of the journals mightalso turn out to be superficial and not reflect students’ real views. If the journals were notcollected or checked on a regular basis, some students may even have completed all theirreflections in a short time before submitting them.
A related concern regarding students’ journals is that they were asked to make theirentries in the target language. Citing Dam and Little (1999), Clarke emphasises the value
and appropriateness of using the target language as a way for students to develop theirskills. However, she also writes that her students struggled with their journals because
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Mizuka Tsukamotoof difficulty expressing themselves in English. While I agree with Dam and Little on using
the target language to develop language skills, one wonders what perspectives or insights
the students may have shared were they permitted to write in their first language. Clarke
does of course mention the difficulty she would have had reading the journals in thestudents’ first language, but her comprehension may have been prioritised at the cost of
the content and quality of the students’ feedback.

My First Attempt at Student-Centred Learning

The class I taught involved first-year advanced-level students, who were classified as“advanced” based on the university’s classification. They were aged 18 or 19, and most ofthem had spent some of their earlier years living and studying outside Japan or came froma culturally mixed background. Only a few students, three out of 20, had not experienced
any schooling whatsoever outside Japan. From previous teaching, I was familiar withhaving students work in groups for discussions and presentations, but this course wasdifferent in two ways. First, unlike most of the 90-minute-per-week, one-semester courses
I had taught until then, this course was held twice a week for 90 minutes, and I wasteaching the same group of students for two successive semesters. Second, most of thecourse design was open to my determination including whether to use a textbook and, if
so, which textbook. The only instructions issued by the ELP were that students in the firstsemester were to learn reading skills and writing skills, and in the second semester they
were to practice those skills through project-based learning.
Accordingly, I had more control of the content and schedule in the first semester, given
the students’ need to develop particular skills, and the students had more control in thesecond. Thus, in the first semester, students were directed to complete assigned tasks
on reading, writing, and presentations in each class. In the second semester, by contrast,
students decided which topics they would study and how they would use the time ineach class. Apart from a few deadlines I set for submissions, including a project scheduleand weekly progress reports, groups were free to decide how they would manage theirlearning. My role in the second semester was focused on tracking how well they werecompleting their projects, providing support for identified issues, and occasionally offering
advice to the whole class if a group was encountering difficulties.
At the beginning of the second semester I did not share Clarke’s concerns, as I
assumed that a more learner-centred approach would be welcomed by the students.
This confidence, however, was somewhat misplaced. Although most students actively
communicated with each other and participated in group work, my classroom
observations and the students’ end-of-semester reflections showed some were clearly lostin their classroom autonomy.
For example, Ayaka (pseudonym) showed a considerable change in behaviour fromthe first semester to the second. In the first semester, she actively responded to my
instructions and was never late handing in assignments. She was also usually firstto respond to questions I would pose to the class. In the second semester, I kept myinstructions to a minimum to allow groups to expand their ideas in their own ways andonly ask for guidance when they felt necessary. Ayaka’s work fulfilled the minimum of
my instruction but did not go beyond, and she was far less active in the classroom and ingroup work. In the end-of-semester reflection she wrote, “In the first semester, I felt I waslearning something new from the teacher every week. I don’t feel like I learnt anything
new in the second semester.”
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Some Thoughts on Implementing a New Teaching ApproachOn the other hand, and similar to Clarke’s findings, there were also pleasant surprises.
Kosuke (pseudonym) was a quiet student who rarely interacted with other students inthe first semester. Initially, I had concerns about how he would cope with the second
semester’s student-centred approach. Kosuke, however, not only actively worked on thegroup project, but also pursued his interests and asked lots of questions, both duringclass and via email. In his end-of-semester reflection he wrote how much he had enjoyedworking on the project with his group and that he understood why the first semester had
been taught as it had: to provide him and his fellow students with the necessary skills forthe following semester.
Ayako and Kosuke demonstrate that not all activities or teaching approaches arewelcomed by all students, an issue that most teachers probably face. Dam (2019)
discusses how “letting go and taking hold” (p. 96) is an ongoing challenge for teachers
trying to allow more autonomy for students in learning, both inside and outside theclassroom. Students need leeway to learn in their own ways, but still need guidance in
how to do this: Teachers cannot be completely hands-off. How much teachers should let
go seems even harder when considering work outside the classroom. With group work in
particular, if work is assigned for outside the classroom, then teachers need to monitor
how each individual is contributing, or students may be treated unfairly. One way of
dealing with this is to “let go” of homework assignments and allow students to manage
their course workload themselves.
Clarke’s findings revealed that 69% of her students were happy to be able to decide on
their own homework. Assigning homework or out-of-class learning was not something I
considered in my second semester. Throughout the course, groups worked at their own
pace, managing their project schedules, and deciding what work to do in or out of theclassroom. The amount of homework they chose to do was therefore an uncontrollable
factor for me. Even mentioning work outside of the classroom was not something I
wanted to do, since it might have come across as interference or made some students feel
I did not see them as responsible.
At the end of the semester I found that all groups had managed their projects
successfully and independently. Moreover, one student went far beyond the firstsemester’s standards, teaching himself how to make a website to better present his
group’s findings. I had expected students to make slides for their final presentations on
the basis of the first semester presentation skills they had studied. The student explainedin his end-of-semester comments that he had suggested creating a website to his groupand the group had collectively agreed to it. Making the website may not have helped thestudent improve his English language skills, but the opportunity to discover new interestsand pursue them was invaluable.
This case may be a clear example of how “taking hold” and “letting go” at the righttime can be effective regarding outside-the-classroom work. Indeed, looking back at thestudent reflections I collected, no one referred to the amount of homework they had given
themselves. Reading Clarke’s chapter made me consider, however, whether I should haveconsidered asking the students what they thought about having control over their own
homework. Given the case of Ayaka, for example, I wonder if I sometimes let go of thestudents too much, and whether I should have sometimes held on more.

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Final Reflection: Considering Clarke’s Four Questions

In closing, I return to the four central questions that Clarke uses to frame her reflections
on her action research. In so doing, however, I should note that whilst Clarke’s reflections
are central to her study, mine are speculations based on my notes and the comments I
received from my students. Clarke’s first and second questions concern the instructor’s
discomfort or anxiety in transitioning from a teacher-centred approach to a more learnercentred approach and embracing the idea of instructors “letting go” (Dam, 2019). Her thirdand fourth questions concern the students’ discomfort in becoming more autonomousin their learning. In order for a new teaching method to “work” in the classroom, a certain
amount of confidence is required from both the teacher and the students, in themselves
and each other. Instructors need to have confidence in their ability to use the teaching
method and in the students’ capacity to engage with it. Students, on the other hand, needto have confidence in themselves and in the value of learning in a way they are unfamiliarwith.
For my own part, when designing the course for the second semester, I had confidence
both in the course structure and the students’ ability to autonomously learn. I was also
not concerned about imposing a Western concept on the students nor with finding
solutions if problems arose. This was due to my experience in the first semester, because
most of the students had schooling experience outside Japan, and because I assumed any
problems that arose would be minor.
Kosuke proved that the course could be successful, and his work in the second
semester rewarded my confidence that the students could autonomously learn. Ayaka, on
the other hand, was one of the students who had studied abroad, so my assumption that
she would be prepared for autonomous learning was misplaced. Moreover, my efforts to
help her and other struggling students may not have been enough. The question then iswhether my overall confidence in the course was too strong or not. It could be that somestudents need more preparation before being able to fully benefit from autonomous
learning, or it could also be that some may only recognise the benefits of a learnerautonomy approach afterwards when they later reflect back on their learning experiences.
Conversely, another possibility is that some students may just not be interested inautonomous learning.
In autonomous learning, students need to take initiative in solving their own inquiries.
As the process itself is a learning opportunity for them, it is my continuing hope thatmy students will eventually move away from the teacher-as-guru model to see learning
as an engaged and participatory effort between themselves and me as their instructor.
Therefore, I conclude, as Clarke concludes, that for instructors to organise a moreautonomous classroom, communication with the students so they understand andappreciate the methods used may be required.

Author Bio

Mizuka Tsukamoto (EdD) has been involved in English education at universities in Japanfor over 10 years. Her research interests include learner/teacher autonomy, teacher
education and development, and teachers’ professional lives.

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Review ProcessThis paper was blind peer-reviewed by members of the Learner Development Journal
Review Network and the Journal Steering Group. (Contributors have the option of open or
blind review.)

References

Clarke, D. (2019). Exploring autonomous learning: A teacher’s experience and learners’
perceptions. In M. Menegale (Ed.), Autonomy in language learning: Getting learners
actively involved (pp. 21–39). Candlin and Mynard.
Dam, L. (2019). Developing learner autonomy: From theory to classroom practice. In M.
Menegale (Ed.), Autonomy in language learning: Getting learners actively involved (pp.
89–107). Candlin and Mynard.
Dam, L., & Little, D. (1999). Autonomy in foreign language learning: From classroom
practice to generalizable theory. In A. Barfield, R. Betts, J. Cunningham, N. Dunn, H.
Katsura, K. Kobayashi, N. Padden, N. Parry, & M. Watanabe (Eds.), On JALT98: Focus on
the classroom: Interpretations (pp. 127–135). JALT. https://jalt-publications.org/sites/
default/files/pdf-article/jalt98_0.pdf
Dias, J. (2000). Learner autonomy in Japan: Transforming ‘help yourself’ from threat
to invitation. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 13(1), 49–64. https://doi.
org/10.1076/0958-8221(200002)13:1;1-K;FT049
Littlewood, W. (1999). Defining and developing autonomy in East Asian contexts. Applied
Linguistics, 20(1), 71–94. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/20.1.71
Menegale, M. (Ed). (2019). Autonomy in language learning: Getting learners actively involved.
Candlin and Mynard. https://www.candlinandmynard.com/venice.html
Liu, S. (2008). Student interaction experiences in distance learning courses: A
phenomenological study. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 11(1).
https://ojdla.com/archive/spring111/Liu111.pdf
Pennycook, A. (1997). Cultural alternatives and autonomy. In P. Benson & P. Voller (Eds.),
Autonomy and independence in language learning (pp. 35–53). Longman. https://doi.
org/10.4324/9781315842172-4
Sakai, S., Takagi, A., & Chu, M.-P. (2010). Promoting learner autonomy: Student perceptionsof responsibilities in a language classroom in East Asia. Educational Perspectives, 43(12),12–27. https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/items/e8f65137-9ec9-47a5-ba93bad462d845de

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COMMENTARYSpace Matters: Language Learning
Environments Beyond the Classroom in the
Post-COVID World
Phil Benson, Macquarie University, Australia<philip(dot)benson(at)mq(dot)edu(dot)au>
Mayumi Kashiwa, Kanda University of International Studies, Japan<kashiwa-m(at)kanda(dot)kuis(dot)ac(dot)jp>
Phil:

Mayumi, we have known each other since 2015 when you came to Macquarie
University for your higher degree research. You completed a Master ofResearch (MRes) thesis on students’ conceptualizations of in-class and out-ofclass learning and then a PhD on teachers’ conceptions of students’ learning
environments. It was a privilege for me to be able to supervise your work andI learnt a lot from it. Without meeting you, I don’t think my ideas on language
learning environments would have developed as they did! I have a longassociation with the JALT Learner Development SIG (dating back to a one-day
symposium in Shizuoka in 1995), and you are now working at Kanda Universityof International Studies. I am sure you agree that it is an honor to be asked towrite a commentary on this issue of Learner Development Journal and entirely
appropriate that we should write in the form of a dialogue. The theme of thisissue—learner development beyond the classroom—is “right up our alley,” asthey say in Australia. But if we are to begin by commenting on the theme, I think
I would say, first, that learner development takes place both inside and outside
the classroom and that it is difficult to separate the two. But at the same timelearner development beyond the classroom is often neglected so the focus on
out-of-class learning in this issue is justified. Would you agree?
Mayumi: I can’t agree with you more, Phil! It’s a great honor to be invited to write thiscommentary with you. I truly appreciate the editorial team for giving me thisopportunity. When I started my MRes, your work on the concept of learnerautonomy was particularly inspiring to me as I was curious about how teachers(including myself) can support learners to develop their degree of autonomy,
especially by connecting in-class and out-of-class learning experiences, and how
teachers can help learners make use of the ample learning opportunities andresources that they actually have outside of the classroom. Therefore, language
learning environments beyond the classroom and teachers’ awareness ofthem have become a major research interest for me, and I was very lucky to besupervised by you! Your immense wisdom and insights guided me throughout
my journey to complete my degrees. As you said, learner development beyond
the classroom is often neglected; in particular, the connection between in-classand out-of-class learning has not been given much attention. We should
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remind ourselves of not only the richness of resources and the value of what
the students can do for their learning outside of the classroom, but also thatlearning is seamlessly taking place both inside and outside of the classroom forindividual students. The COVID-19 pandemic actually has reminded us of such a
realization when physical classes were canceled.
In this dialogue, I would like to ask you about your views on the current
world, more specifically, about language learning environments beyond
the classroom in the post-COVID world. Hopefully this will contribute to thefurther discussion on language education in the field. Also, the work from thecontributors in this issue shows that our continuous inquiry into language
learning environments beyond the classroom is invaluable and should be paid
more attention to, now more than ever. (It should be noted that we will use firstnames to refer to the authors in a friendly manner just as this dialogue-format
commentary itself aims to create an open café-like atmosphere. Please prepare
yourself a nice cup of coffee!)First of all, I’m wondering how you would describe the current post-COVID
world. In your book (Benson, 2021), you say, “For all of us, it has been a sharp
reminder of just how much space matters” (p. 140) by pointing out “a very
different world” that we live in now. Indeed, we have all experienced the global
COVID pandemic, and a growing number of researchers have pointed out thestruggles that language learners and teachers faced when classes were turned
to exclusively online (Tao & Gao, 2022). Now, how do you perceive the influenceof the pandemic on the concept of language learning environments beyond theclassroom?
Phil:
That’s an interesting question, because although I wrote most of that bookduring the COVID-19 lockdowns in Australia in 2020, most of the ideas for itwere already laid out by then. The comment that you have quoted was reallyan afterthought, and I was very conscious that the spatiality of language
learning was changing around me in ways that I was too busy to think about at
the time! I guess I thought that everything would go back to normal after the
pandemic. But although we are now more or less “back to normal” in Australia,
I have noticed two longer-term effects. The first is that video conferencing has
been normalized—meeting by Zoom is now a matter of convenience, rather
than necessity. The second is that remote learning has also been normalized
for many students. Universities are doing their best to get students back on
campus, but 10 percent attendance has become normal and lecturers now haveto adapt their teaching methods to “hybrid learning,” where some students
are in class while others are online and some are not there at all. In a broader
sense, COVID-19 has made me think that there are three “worlds” in language
learning. We need, perhaps, to think of the online world as being additional to,and somewhat independent of, the worlds of in-class and out-of-class learning.
Mayumi: The idea of three “worlds” in language learning makes me think of anotherresearch possibility (of ours), of exploring learners’ perceptions of andengagements with their language learning environments while traversing
these worlds! I also experienced hybrid teaching, and it was a really hard task
to deliver a lesson to the students in two different worlds. However, I found it
interesting to see individual differences in attitudes and behaviors towards such
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classes! That was the time I felt that the idea of our “language classrooms” is
now different and challenging as a teacher.
When considering that we now have an additional world of online learning,
how do you see this change of our recognition of language learning andteaching environments in the so-called “post-COVID” era? Van Lier’s definition ofa language classroom, which is “the gathering, for a given period of time, of two
or more persons (one of whom generally assumes the role of instructor) for the
purposes of language learning” (1988, p. 47), sounds okay, but if “the gathering”
refers to a particular physical space where a teacher and students meetface-to-face, it would be no longer applicable since we now have more choices
and flexibility in ways of learning, for example, online/remote and on-demandlessons, in addition to face-to-face classes. When the physical location does
not matter for formal language learning, and the border between a language
classroom and outside of the classroom is less clear, the definition of language
learning beyond the classroom becomes more complex.
Phil:
Exactly! I don’t think van Lier was making a contrast between in-class and outof-class learning in his definition; he just wanted to be as inclusive as possible,
and I feel sure he would have welcomed online spaces into his definition of
the classroom. Van Lier’s definition has always been important to me, though,as a starting point for thinking about how different settings (for him, different
types of classroom) influence learning. For example, I recently taught an online
class where the students watched a video recording of a mini-lecture and thendiscussed the content with me. But most of the students watched the video
recording in their own time; some may have discussed the content with otherstudents, and some would not have discussed it at all! So, the students only
logged in to the class during class time if they wanted to talk to me, or perhaps
wanted to have that social experience of attending class! Before the pandemic,
I would have presented the content “live” in class, all of the students would
have been there, and I would have orchestrated the discussion. I could havedone that in the online class, but there has been a kind of deconstruction of
the physical classroom that made me feel that I should not be imposing that on
students in the online setting.
Mayumi: The complexity of online/digital learning environments is now obvious; formal
learning can even take place in students’ bedrooms while they are browsing
their Instagram stories or watching YouTube videos at the same time. It
seems that students have experienced a lot of challenges both physically andemotionally. I believe that teachers have also found it challenging to adjust
their working styles since their workplaces were not classrooms—it could be aliving room or a café. But still, we had to make our online teaching “engaging”
for students so that the quality of teaching could be maintained. As such,
both students and teachers had to co-construct some particular “space” inthe physically limited environments. Technology was a great survival kit for
both students and teachers. In terms of teaching, Gretchen Clark in this issue
demonstrates the use of digital resources for extensive listening as well as
promoting learner autonomy of university students in Japan during remoteteaching. Teachers’ navigation of efficient use of technology has provided
students with support and in turn self-directed learning beyond the classroom.
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Space Matters: Language Learning Environments Beyond the Classroom in the Post-COVID WorldPhil:

Yes, this has actually been a challenge for teachers and Gretchen’s paper is agreat example of how teachers have been meeting that challenge. What her
paper shows me, especially, is how online teaching can give teachers an entry
point into students’ online learning. We may think of online extensive listening
as one of the main out-of-class activities that students carry out independentlyof teachers, but here is an example of how teaching can reach out into that partof students’ worlds. This would be much more difficult, for example, in relation
to offline extensive listening out in the city.
Mayumi: It’s an interesting point that students’ out-of-class learning has become more
visible to teachers, while it used to be less visible. I believe that teachers’
guidance in practicing extensive listening can also have a positive outcome,in that students’ out-of-class learning can be perceived as the extension of
their in-class learning. As such, teachers’ creativity in utilizing technology toconnect in-class and out-of-class learning experiences seems to enhance thedevelopment of learners! Chika Hayashi’s innovative international online project
collaborating with Finnish schools appears very energizing for the learners,
which allows the students to realize the true meaning of learning a language
through experiencing real communication in English. Her study also shows
positive outcomes in increasing learners’ motivation to learn English further.
I think that this innovative online project demonstrates a great potential andthrough its implementation could create a new dimension of “a language
classroom” at many schools around the world.
Phil:
I think that we can learn a few things from Chika’s project. It seems important tome that Yuki was a voluntary participant and that she had several motivations
for joining the project. It also seems important that the two participants werecollaborating on a task that they were both committed to.
Mayumi: Having said that the conceptualization of language learning settings andenvironments has become more complex, it seems that out-of-class learning forstudents means a lot: from something they do for their own goals and purposes(e.g., preparing for the TOEIC test, using mobile applications which suit theirlearning purposes) to informal and implicit learning such as watching movies inEnglish, and formal classes. Since it seems to be happening at the same place
and the same time, I feel that the locus of control, or how students engage
with the space, seems to be the key to defining their space. In other words,
learner agency plays a crucial role more than ever for individuals to manage ameaningful learning environment in order to survive the uncertain, changing,and complex world.
Phil:
Well, you could say that teachers should not interfere with students’ learning
beyond the classroom, that they should leave that to the students themselves.
But many students do not engage in learning beyond the classroom to theextent that they might because they lack knowledge of what is available in theirenvironments or the capacity to use resources productively. The important
point about Chika’s COIL project is that it creates opportunities for learning
beyond the classroom that learners might not be able to set up themselves.
That is one thing teachers can do. But there needs to be a balance between
the teacher’s role and the students’ agency. Jon Rowberry’s paper in this issue
also identifies selection of resources as a key area in which there needs to124

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be space for learner agency—if learners select their own resources then they
will also need to make their own decisions about how they use them, what
they will learn from them. But this also calls for skills that we associate withautonomy: Students will develop these skills in the practice of learning beyond
the classroom, but teachers can also help. Here, I like Jon’s idea of “scaffolding”
learning beyond the classroom. This is another thing that teachers can do.
Mayumi: I also really like Jon’s paper as it highlights the (new) role of teachers insupporting students to be able to have better control over their own learning.
Nowadays, the learners have ample (or sometimes too many) resources out
there, in particular, the rapid and seemingly endless development of new
mobile or online applications. The students seem to be constantly updating
or changing learning applications while not always having certain learning
outcomes in mind. We cannot catch up with all those new learning materials;
however, the learning skills, to select suitable learning resources for theirlearning purposes and needs, should be reconsidered, guided, and followed up
on by the teachers in the course of language learning.
Another aspect of a teacher’s role beyond the classroom can be support
for the learners’ emotional challenges. At my university, I’ve witnessed many
students who struggle or fail to continue their learning or nearly lose (or havelost) their future career visions mainly because of this world change. I’ve heard
students’ struggles firsthand with comments such as, “Online classes simply
demotivated me,” “I cannot focus on class if it’s online,” and “I couldn’t adjust myself
when university switched back from online to face-to-face classes, and I could notcommunicate with people well. I kind of fell into depression, and it was hard justto come to university.” Due to the cancellation of study abroad programs, somestudents had to give up their precious opportunities to experience studying andliving abroad, which also forced them to change their future career plans. Aya
Hayasaki’s investigation into the experiences of three female learners in rural
Japan also argues that language learning outside of the classroom is certainly
connected or is at least part of the learners’ life process. When students facean environmental change, in this case, a change of learning environment froma face-to-face, traditional sense of the language classroom to online learningin an isolated place due to the world pandemic, I think it’s fair to say thatthe majority of students experienced emotional difficulties in learning. The
adjustment involves significant emotional challenges, and it seems to highlightthe importance of social and emotional support (from peers and teachers) for
the development of learner agency.
Phil:
The need to adjust conceptions of in-class and out-of-class learning, andthe relationship between them was really the original contribution of your
Masters research, which we also highlighted in Kashiwa and Benson (2018).
There you were talking about the transition from “study at home” to “study
abroad,” but I agree that the changes in teaching and learning during COVID-19
represented another kind of transition, and it is interesting to think about whatthat transition involved. You make a good point here that this is an emotional
challenge. In fact, this takes towards the heart of what we mean by a “learning
ecology.” Space is one dimension—we can think of how a person’s language
learning is distributed across a range of in-class and out-of-class spaces—but
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then there is also the time of longitudinal dimension, which Aya captures in
the notion of trajectory. When we use the term “ecology,” we are often thinking
about the ways in which things fit together. So, in the case of language learning
ecology, we are thinking about how spaces of learning fit together in the context
of individual lives, but also how events and processes fit together over time,
how one set of actions in space shapes not only the next set of actions but also
the spatial field in which they take place. I find Aya’s paper especially valuable
because it shows us how language learning can be transformational for thelearner. In my view, language learning “widens horizons” in the literal sense thatit transforms spaces of learning and opens up new spaces of possibilities for thelearner.
Mayumi: That’s right. Such changes do show the dynamics of learners’ language learning
ecologies; adjusting to changes in any aspect of a learning environment can
result in a change of conceptions and lead learners to engage with resources
they perceive. It reminds me of the importance of being a reflective practitioner/
researcher who is aware of the fluid and constantly changing nature of thelanguage learning environments. Mizuka Tsukamoto’s practice-based bookreview, in which she reflected on her own teaching practice by relating to Donna
Clarke’s (2019) classroom action research on a learner-centered approach tofoster learner autonomy, is one example of reflective practice that we can dofor our ongoing professional development. Also, as you pointed out, students’
engagement with resources in the environment matters for the learner’s
development. This talk with you has made me realize that we have to be more
mindful that our students are not experiencing one simple shift/transition
from offline to online, rather, they are traversing multiple learning worlds,
experiencing both benefits and constraints, and also figuring out how to maketheir learning more meaningful.
In terms of research design, the use of the learners’ own reflections proves
to be a great data source for an in-depth investigation as well as a powerfultool for learner development. In this issue, the students’ engagement withresources, and how learners develop their agency beyond the classroom areexamined through students’ self-reflection. For example, Dominique Vola
Ambinintsoa, Haingoarinjaka Fanaperana Rajaonaritiana, and Volatiana Olivia
Rasoanindrina (two of them are students as well as future EFL teachers)
employed language learning histories written by the authors themselves as
research participants. They highlighted the importance of learner agency increating their language learning environments beyond the classroom and thecapacity of utilizing opportunities and resources in the given environment. Theysuggested implementing innovative classroom activities by linking students’interests and learning strategies beyond the classroom, which, in turn, would
boost the learners’ motivation. Ann Flanagan employed journal writing as atool for high school students to self-reflect on their learning outside of theclassroom. She points out the value of critical reflective practice among learners
for raising their awareness of learning beyond the classroom so that they will
be more responsible for their learning. Do you have any recommendations on
designing a new research project?

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Phil:

Yes, these two papers take us into the area of learner histories in different
ways. The first thing I want to say about Vola, Fanaperana, and Olivia’s paper
is that we really need more autobiographical writing of this kind in learnerdevelopment. There is a certain kind of conservatism in academic writing andpublishing that favors third-person research and writing and, therefore, acertain kind of perspective and insight. We need more experimental writingof this kind because it gives us different kinds of insights, coming from themultiple perspectives of co-authorship as well as the learner-teacher-researcher
perspective. We also gain a vivid picture of the development of both a collective
and individual learning ecologies over time in the Malgasay context. Ann’s
paper is an interesting one because it shows us how journal writing can be bothlearning beyond the classroom and a source of data for research. But beyond
that it highlights the crucial roles of reflection and critical self-awareness in thisview of language learning as a spatio-temporal process of “widening horizons.”
In fact, one can spend a lot of time learning a language at school without verymuch changing at all. Development comes from outside stimuli—and this is
why a widening experience of language learning beyond the classroom is so
important—but it also has to be driven from within. As Ann puts it, it is a matterof learners becoming “more involved in their language learning,” and as learners
become more involved, the spaces of their learning are also likely to expand.
Critical reflective writing journals are an excellent tool to foster that kind ofdevelopment. This is yet another thing that teachers can do.
Mayumi: The discussion with you, reflecting on the current language learning andteaching environments and our experiences over the past years, has inspired
me to explore more about space, which both the learners and teachers
co-cultivate in the process of language learning ecologies. I believe that
we should keep in mind that learning involves both positive and negative
emotions. It is also the fact that the learners are traversing complex learning
environments, and their engagement with the resources is crucial in order toadjust themselves to the changes. In addition, it is necessary for the learners to
reinforce reflective practice, and also our continuous inquiry into supporting thelearners’ engagement in learning is needed. I’d also like to ask your views about
the points for a research agenda in the field of language learning environments
beyond the classroom and learner development.
Phil:
Well, this issue of LDJ points to a few directions for a research agenda on learnerdevelopment and learning environments. The two main directions that I see
are concerned, first, with what teachers can do in relation to language learning
beyond the classroom, and, second, how we can move beyond a narrowobservational view of learning environments. On the first question, I find thatthe papers in this issue are sensitive to the potential problem of “interferingin” students’ out-of-class learning. As a matter of perspective, I believe we needto decenter our point of view as teachers. Language learners are not just thepeople we meet in our classes, and these classes are not necessarily the focusof their learning either in space or in time. On the contrary, we are people thatlearners meet at certain points in wider spaces of learning, and at certain points
in their development over time. Language learning is also deeply embeddedin their lives—lives about which only they can speak authoritatively. Too much
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academic research treats the learner that we see here and now as the wholeof the learner; if we shift the center to the spatio-temporal perspective of thelearners, we will understand that our influence is limited. The contributors tothis special issue understand, I think, that we can nudge learners in certain
directions in language learning beyond the classroom, but the rest will be up
to the learners themselves. On the second question, I welcome the range ofperspectives, research methods, and writing styles in this issue and, especially,
the willingness to experiment and explore new areas and dimensions oflanguage learning. This is what the Learner Development SIG in JALT has always
been good at, and long may it continue!
Mayumi: Finally, I’d like to thank you again for sharing your views and experiences.
Having the opportunity to write a commentary with you has been a real honor!
I really enjoyed the chance to exchange ideas in this format, and I appreciate
your contributions to the field! I really hope to see you in person (and work withyou) soon!! I also look forward to your future publications!

Author Bios

Phil Benson is Professor of Applied Linguistics and former Director of the Multilingualism
Research Centre at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. His research focuseson language learning environments and informal language learning beyond theclassroom, and he has recently published the book, Language Learning Environments:
Spatial Perspectives on SLA (Multilingual Matters, 2021). He is also author of Teaching andResearching Autonomy in Language Learning (Routledge, 2013) and has co-edited several
collections of papers on autonomy and out-of-class language learning.
Mayumi Kashiwa is a full-time lecturer in the Department of English at Kanda Universityof International Studies. She holds a PhD and Master of Research in Applied Linguistics
from Macquarie University, Australia, and a Master’s degree in TESOL from the Instituteof Education, University College London. Her research interests include language learningand teaching beyond the classroom, teacher cognitions and professional development,
and narrative inquiry.

References

Benson, P. (2021). Language learning environments: Spatial perspectives on SLA. Multilingual
Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781788924917
Clarke, D. (2019). Exploring autonomous learning: A teacher’s experience and learners’
perceptions. In M. Menegale (Ed.), Autonomy in language learning: Getting learners
actively involved (pp. 21–39). Candlin & Mynard.
Kashiwa, M., & Benson, P. (2018). A road and a forest: Conceptions of in-class and out-ofclass learning in the transition to study abroad. TESOL Quarterly, 52(4), 725–747. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.409
Tao, J., & Gao, X. A. (2022). Teaching and learning languages online: Challenges andresponses. System, 107, Article 102819. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2022.102819
van Lier, L. (1988). The classroom and the language learner. Longman.

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