Editor’s Introduction

Tim Ashwell
Post-Conference Publication Editor
tashwell[at]komazawa-u[dot]ac[dot]jp

Editor’s Introduction
The 18 articles in this Special Issue of Learning Learning were written by teachers and students
who attended the LD SIG’s 30th Anniversary Conference in October 2023. Apart from the two final
student reflections, all the contributions relate to the sessions the writers ran at the conference.
After working hard to prepare their sessions and to present, the contributors worked in peer-support
groups to develop the first draft of their article and then passed this on to four external reviewers
who either responded ‘blind’ to the article, or dialogued openly with the author in accordance withthe author’s choice of review type. Finally, writers received my feedback as they worked towards thefinished article. The process was quite intense and coincided with Christmas, New Year, and the endof term for most people, so I would like to thank all the contributors for their hard work and dedicationin getting everything done on time. I would also like to thank the four external reviewers – Ivan
Lombardi, Amelia Yarwood, Henry Foster, and Lynda-Gay McFarlane, who very efficiently provided
some excellent feedback.
The articles in this Post-Conference Publication are divided into five sections. In the first section,‘Projects Beyond the Classroom’, the main focus of the authors is how to make connections with local
communities and the wider world, often through project-based learning, so that learners can takeaction to effect change. In the first article, Tosh Tachino provides an introduction to the ideas behind
action-oriented language instruction and shows how many of the sessions at the LD30 Conferenceinvolved teachers wanting to challenge their learners to learn from experiences outside the classroom.
Chris Hennessy and Ivan Lombardi have had their students engage in community revitalisation projects
for a number of years now and describe how they have found their students taking ever more controlof their learning as they, the teachers, have gradually stood back. Neil Cowie describes a Master’s levelcourse in which international students have explored how local businesses implement SDG goals andhow practices may relate back to their home communities. In the last two articles, Peter Lutes describes
a development project in rural Cambodia in which English language education will play a key role, while
Kurt Ackermann discusses the potential of Citizen Science projects that will take his students outside
the confines of the classroom to understand better how environmental activism can work in practice.
Richard Walker’s first contribution to this collection provides a bridge to the second section whichbrings together contributions that focus more clearly on ‘Course Development’, specifically courses
at university. In his article, Richard describes how a course grew out of a Model United Nationsgroup he began to advise and how students have either benefited directly from MUN participation
or from the new courses he has developed. Next, Ivan Lombardi reports on what happened when
he handed over control of course design to his students, providing a valuable account of the pros
and cons of a truly negotiated syllabus. In the following article, Adrienne Johnson and Cecilia
Smith explain how they have revised an English-medium seminar course to deepen the academic
research skills their students gain and make them more transferable. In his second contribution
to this volume, Richard Walker argues for the utility of introducing ‘intangible cultural practices’ toundergraduate students, and to round off this section, Sarah Deutchman describes how she has
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introduced vocabulary learning apps to encourage her students to study independently outsideclass hours.
The two articles in the third section, ‘Teacher Research’, are not connected to course development,
but rather deal with topics that have a wider, more universal scope. In his article, Jason Hobman looks
at foreign language classroom anxiety. He interprets the responses his students gave to several
Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale items and makes suggestions about how teachers canspot signs of anxiety and deal with them. In the second article, Darcey Barge draws on her insight
as a former Eikaiwa conversation school teacher to look at how experiences of role conflict and roleambiguity may lead to professional burnout among Eikaiwa teachers.
In the fourth section, ‘Student Presentations’, Kakeru Tojo, Yuiko Asai and Mako Narita showcase
their research and report on what they learned from their LD presentations. Kakeru explains abouta pronunciation evaluation system he designed in the early stages of his Master’s course. Yuiko’s
article reports on field work carried out in Australia to understand more deeply the ways in which
Aboriginal peoples are fighting to protect their rights, heritage and language. And Mako writes
about a project she has been engaged in at university to find ways to reduce food waste and loss.
In the final section, we include three reflection pieces. The first is by Devon Arthurson who evaluates
how a novel LD30 Conference format, “learning café”, worked for her and the participants in hersession. The last two reflections are from two students, Chisato Ozawa and Hiromu Sano, whoattended a conference for the first time. Reading their pieces proves, I think, how worthwhile it wasto celebrate the LD SIG’s 30th anniversary in this way by inviting students to participate and, if theywished, to present.
The range of approaches and reflections contained in this collection is broad and diverse in a typical
LD SIG way, but I believe it is possible to see how all these articles relate in their various ways to theLD30 Conference theme of ‘Learning for Change and Action, Making a Difference for the Future’. Pleaseenjoy reading the inspiring work that LD SIG members are engaged in and discover connections, hints,
or puzzles that help you make a difference for the future.
Tim Ashwell
EditorFebruary 4th 2024

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