LEARNINGLEARNING『学習の学習『学習の学習』』

Newsletter of the Learner Development SIG
ISSN 1882-1103 | LL 31(1) | Special Issue

The JALT Learner Development SIG 30th Anniversary
Conference Post-Conference Publication
edited by Tim Ashwell

Learning for Change and Action,
Making a Difference for the Future

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)The JALT Learner Development SIG 30th Anniversary
Conference Post-Conference Publication

Learning for Change and Action, Making a Difference for the Future

CONTENTS

Coordinator’s Introduction
James Underwood
Editor’s Introduction
Tim Ashwell

46i. Projects Beyond the Classroom

Language Instruction to Change the World: Possibilities for Action-Oriented Language Instruction
in Your Classroom9
Tosh Tachino
Fostering Student Independence Through a Community Revitalization PBL Course
15
Christopher Hennessy & Ivan Lombardi
SDGs: Community Learning in Okayama and the Setouchi Region
33
Neil Cowie
Educational Development in Rural Cambodia
38Peter Lutes
Cooperation to Raise Learner Awareness & Encourage Community Participation
46
Kurt Ackermann

ii. Course Development

Development Sustained: Searching for Fresh Sustenance
55
Richard Walker
I Let a Group of Learners Take Ownership of Their English Communication Course, and THIS Happened!! 62
Ivan Lombardi
Developing Research Skills: Engaging with Japanese Social Issues in an English Medium Seminar
70
Adrienne Johnson & Cecilia Smith Fujishima
Tangible Benefits From Intangible Practices
77
Richard Walker
English Beyond Textbooks: Using Apps to Increase Vocabulary and Overall Proficiency
85
Sarah Deutchman

CONTENTS

iii. Teacher Research

Foreign Language Anxiety in the English Classroom: Towards a Deeper Understanding
Jason Hobman
The Effects of Role Conflict and Role Ambiguity on Eikaiwa Teachers
Darcey Barge

90
96

iv. Student Presentations

Creation of a Technology-Based Pronunciation Evaluation System to Foster Autonomous
Pronunciation Acquisition for Second Language Learners and Enhance Independent Learning 103
Kakeru Tojo
Listening to the Voices of Aboriginal People in Their Struggle for Cultural and Linguistic Revitalization 105
Yuiko Asai
Reducing Food Loss and Waste in Japan: An Environmentally Friendly Approach
108
Mako Narita

v. Reflections

Exploring Our Significance in Our Communities at a Learning Café
Devon Arthurson
My Experience When I Joined LD30 for the First Time
Chisato Ozawa
Excitement and Surprise: My First Experience at the LD30 Conference
Hiromu Sano

Learning Learning「学習学習」31(1) | Special Issue

112
116
118

Coordinator’s Introduction

James Underwood
LD SIG Coordinator
jamesmichaelunderwood[at]gmail[dot]com

Coordinator’s Introduction
The JALT Learner Development SIG’s 30th anniversary conference was held at Gakushuin University,
Tokyo, on October 21st and 22nd 2023. It resulted from collaboration with the JALT Global Issues in
Language Education and the Teacher Development SIGs. Before I explain the theme, I would like toremember those LD SIG members who passed since the 20th anniversary conference, LD20.
In the 10 years since LD20, we sadly lost two dear friends of the LD SIG, Richard Silver and Naoko
Aoki, both in 2018. Richard Silver was heavily involved in the LD SIG committee. He helped organize
the Realizing Autonomy conference and later the 20th anniversary conference, and was SIG
co-coordinator with Andy Barfield from 2011 to 2013. Through LD20 I had the pleasure of meeting
Richard — I was on the website team, and he was one of the conference co-chairs. From the contact
we had during the run-up to the conference, he was supportive and quick to offer solutions to problems
that came up, but it was not until after the conference that we really got a chance to speak face-to-face.
It was great to meet Richard; I still remember the videos he shared that his students made as part oftheir projects. I only later found out about his illness, and thus, his passing came as a total shock.
In the same year as Richard’s passing, the LD SIG also lost Naoko Aoki, one of the founding membersof the LD SIG (alongside Richard Smith). Although we did not have much contact, I remember her
plenary at LD20, “Stories to take home,” which challenged us to share “true” stories about our
teaching that went beyond the cover stories that we sometimes use to portray ourselves as “certain,
expert professionals” (Clandinin & Connelly, 1995, p.15). She encouraged us to share our stories ofpractice with someone near to us, with the intention that we would further develop the stories we told
into written form.
To find out more about both Richard Silver and Naoko Aoki, please see these dedications, “In Memoryof Richard Silver”: https://ld-sig.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Dedication.pdf, and “Remembering
Naoko Aoki Together”: https://ld-sig.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Dedication_Naoko.pdf.
When I took on the coordinator role at the AGM in 2022, I soon realized that the LD SIG would
again reach another milestone. To develop a theme, I met with Andy Barfield to brainstorm ideas.
As we shared ideas, reflected on the events in the world that had happened since 2013, and how
these had influenced our teaching in the classroom, we both agreed that the theme for LD30
should acknowledge how we had, in a sense, re-focused our work with our students from purely
language learning to learning with a purpose. Like many other teachers we knew, we encouraged
our learners to gain knowledge and understanding about themselves or the world around them sothat they could more effectively deal with the challenges they would face in the coming years. This
led to the conference theme, “Learning for Change and Action, Making a Difference for the Future.”
For LD30, the LD SIG welcomed back Phil Benson, Honorary Professor in Applied Linguistics in the
Department of Linguistics at Macquarie University, Sydney, as a plenary speaker, who enthusiasticallyspoke about “Turns, Terms and Reconceptualization in Language Teaching and Learning Research”
as well as held an informative workshop on “Language Learning Beyond the Classroom.” We also
invited two long-time members of the LD SIG, Stacey Vye and Chiyuki Yanase, to give a joint dialogic
LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)4JAMES UNDERWOOD

plenary on “Fostering Learner Wellbeing Through Autonomy: The Role of Learning Communities.”
Stacey Vye also held a workshop on “Autonomy, Creativity and Innovation for Learners and Teachers
Alike.” Not forgetting, of course, Taichi Ichikawa, who was invited from outside the LD community
to share how young leaders worldwide are working hard to realize the Sustainable Development
Goals in their local communities. In addition to these plenary sessions, the conference featured 22
concurrent sessions by teachers and 15 concurrent sessions by students over the two days.
The success of LD30 would not have been possible without the hard work of the conference team,the presenters themselves (and those who supported them), and everyone who came to participate.
Many thanks also to the International Social Sciences Faculty of Gakushuin University, especiallyour site chair Kay Irie, who also managed the registration desk, and Ted O’Neill, who joined theconference team at just the right moment and was on hand to help with any technical problems
during the conference. I would also like to thank Jennie Roloff Rothman of the GILE SIG who did agreat job managing the registration desk and liaising with Phil Benson. And, of course, a big thankyou to Jon Thomas, Ross Sampson, and Jason Hobman of the TD SIG who also contributed at various
points in organizing the conference.
James Underwood
LD30 Conference Chair, on behalf of the LD30 Committee: Andy Barfield, Ken Ikeda, Nicholas
Emerson, Patrick Kiernan, Robert Moreau & Tim Ashwell.
February 13th 2024

REFERENCES

Clandinin, D. J. & Connelly, F. M. (1995). Teachers’ professional knowledge landscape. Teachers
College Press.
Barfield, A., Coomber, M., Cusen, O., Elliott, D., Flanagan, A., Irie, K., Stewart, A., & Thornton, K. (2018).
In memory of Richard Silver. Learning Learning, 25(1), 10–22. https://ld-sig.org/wp-content/
uploads/2018/06/Dedication.pdf
Nicoll, H., with Barfield, A., Chik, A., Cooker, L., Cotterall, S., Head, E., Ikeda, T., Irie, K., Karlsson, L.,
Kjisik, F., Knowles, T., Little, D., Miyahara, M., Murray, G., Nakai, Y., Smith, R., Stewart, A., Tassinari,G., Toogood, S., Ushioda, E., Voller, P., & Vye, S. (2018). Remembering Naoko Aoki together.
Learning Learning, 25(2), 10–14. https://ld-sig.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Dedication_Naoko.pdf

5

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)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 Conference
involved 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
LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)6TIM ASHWELL

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 her
session. The last two reflections are from two students, Chisato Ozawa and Hiromu Sano, who
attended 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 they
wished, 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 the
LD30 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

7

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)SECTION 1: PROJECTS BEYOND THE CLASSROOMi.

Projects Beyond the Classroomii.

Course Developmentiii.

Teacher Researchiv.

Student Presentationsv.

Reflections

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)TOSH TACHINO

Tosh Tachino
Independent Scholar
toshtachino[at]gmail[dot]com

Language Instruction to Change the World:
Possibilities for Action-Oriented Language
Instruction in Your Classroom
ABSTRACT

Action-oriented language instruction (AOLI) is a teaching approach that aims to make language
learning impactful beyond the classroom and contribute to building a better world. Rooted in
the philosophies of Dewey, Decroly, and Freinet, AOLI now uses Common European Frameworkof Reference for Languages (CEFR) descriptors and focuses on realistic, authentic tasks that
foster learner agency and embrace complexity. While challenges exist for implementing AOLI in
Japan, many teachers are already taking steps to address these challenges. This article reportson those efforts presented at the LD30 Conference and other recent conferences, as well as thebrainstorming session that took place during the author’s LD30 Conference session. Throughdiscussions of these ideas, this article provides additional suggestions for bringing AOLI into ourclassrooms and making our teaching more impactful one step at a time.
Keywords: action-oriented language instruction, EFL pedagogy in Japan, SDGs

Many of us wish to make our day-to-day teaching matter more, not only in terms of helping our students
learn but also in terms of making a better world. This wish was reflected in the LD30 Conference theme“Learning for Change and Action, Making a Difference for the Future,” and I attended many sessions
in which speakers presented their efforts to realize this goal. My contribution to the conference and to
this volume is to introduce action-oriented language instruction (AOLI) and suggest ideas to increase
our positive impact on the world through our teaching. To this end this article begins with a descriptionof AOLI, followed by a report from my conference session, along with instructions on how to implement
AOLI in your classroom. Then, the article addresses challenges to implementing AOLI in Japan throughwhat I learned from this and other conferences about what people are already doing in Japan.

ACTION-ORIENTED LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION

Acar (2019) characterizes action-oriented language instruction (AOLI) as having the dual aim ofteaching languages and educating citizens for a democratic society with the emphasis that thefirst aim is subservient to the second. He traces its theoretical grounding to the philosophies ofDewey, Decroly, and Freinet and notes its present practices as most closely associated with theCommon European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). The most recent editionof the CEFR companion document (North, et al., 2022) describes AOLI as having the following
seven characteristics: rejection of a grammar-based linear syllabus, objectives inspired by CEFR

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Language Instruction to Change the World: Possibilities and Challenges for Action-Oriented language instruction in Your Classroom

descriptors, realistic and authentic tasks, learner agency, focus on the task rather than language,
authentic materials with scaffolding, and acceptance of complexity by teachers and learners. Whatthese characteristics mean for us teachers is that we need to start with learners’ lives and what’s
relevant to them, and align their interests with what the world needs. To the extent possible wewant to let the learners take the initiative in choosing their projects and relevant CEFR “can-do”
statements (Council of Europe, 2020) in consultation with us, the teachers. These descriptors
should serve as both language goals and transparent assessment criteria.
Piccardo (2014) emphasizes the use of “authentic materials” in AOLI, but “authenticity” is a deeply
problematic notion. A grammar substitution exercise is a classic case for inauthentic languageuse, but it can be legitimate in the context of an EFL classroom, thus “authentic.” Pinner (2016)
argues that authenticity should be reconceptualized as “a socially mediated and contextually
dynamic process of investment” (p. 8). He sees authenticity in continua as it relates to motivation
and autonomy, and he argues that the material becomes more authentic if it relates to the learnerpersonally as an individual. Following Pinner’s argument, we should choose “authentic” materials
based on how relevant they are to our learners’ lives and to the projects they choose to undertake.
The above description of AOLI incorporates elements of other approaches, such as task-basedlearning (TBL), project-based learning (PBL), content and language integrated learning (CLIL),
service learning, and experiential learning among others. These overlaps exist because they all
arose out of dissatisfaction in the traditional grammar-based language instruction, and they all
share their roots in communicative language teaching.
In the sections that follow, I report what transpired in my session at the LD30 Conference, and I
show how AOLI offers a particular lens to imagine certain possibilities in our pedagogical practices.

POSSIBILITIES FOR ACTION-ORIENTED LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION

During my conference session, I invited the participants to discuss how they could incorporate AOLI in
their current environment in Japan, and they came up with several themes. Peter Chin and Jennie Roloff
Rothman started a lively conversation on fair trade as a theme. Buying decisions are certainly somethingthat contemporary Japanese university students can relate to in their everyday lives, and fair trade isconnected to larger issues of fair pay, labor, and capitalism. But the present practice of fair trade itself
is also problematic, Rothman argued, since the farmers still receive very little of the fair-trade price. A
theme on fair trade within an English class or a CLIL class on business or economics has the potential
to engage learners and transform them to become more critical and responsible citizens, and theiractions could contribute to addressing the problem in the long term. To make the class action-oriented,
however, I suggest incorporating an assignment where the learner must make at least one conscious
buying decision and reflect on that choice: Why did they choose to spend their money there? Where dothey think their money will go? What do they hope that their money will contribute to in the end? The
act of spending their own money would make them realize that our lessons are relevant outside theclassroom and that they can act upon the world through seemingly mundane choices.
Richard Walker raised charity as another possible theme, which also can be taught as a CLIL class inbusiness or economics. Like fair trade, charity is a complex issue, and simply giving money to charity
does not solve all the problems. One can also argue that the root cause of poverty is capitalism or its
present manifestation of it, and charity is a tool used by the beneficiaries of the system to placate theeconomically oppressed and distract their attention from systemic reforms (like wage reforms) or an
outright revolution against capitalism (Ashford, 2018). We can hope that such a discussion may spark
learner interest in charity and help learners think about why charity is needed in the first place andwhat we could do to address the fundamental problems. To make the class action-oriented, I suggest
requiring the learner to donate something, be it money, goods, labor, or time. This assignment canlead to a further discussion on their choices: Why did you choose this charity? What did you choose
to volunteer and why? What did you learn as a result of your action? Would you consider doing it
LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)10TOSH TACHINO

again? Why (not)? I agree with William James (1890), who conceptualized a person’s character as anaccumulation of all the small choices throughout one’s lives. By making our students actually performthese actions that are consistent with their values, we are helping them become the people they
aspire to be.
But how can we design an action-oriented language class for our particular learners who may have
limited language proficiency and perhaps limited world knowledge? North et al. (2022) suggest thefollowing steps:
1. Identify learners’ real-life communicative needs by considering the contexts learners are likely to
encounter.
2. Establish clear and specific goals for the lesson and use the CEFR descriptors to define these goals.
3. Work with learners to create a scenario that simulates a real-life situation.
4. Incorporate specific language skills (e.g. vocabulary, grammar, communicative strategies).
5. Set conditions and constraints for the task.
6. Incorporate assessment tools using CEFR descriptors.
Starting with the learners’ needs and contexts is the key to making the task relevant, but teachers
should consider pushing the learners a little both in terms of their language and their world
knowledge. The CEFR descriptors are often the most useful starting point because they have“can do” statements at all levels. For the sake of example, the following tables are given to show
different “can do” statements for informal and formal discussions for learners in the B2-A2 range.

INFORMAL DISCUSSION (WITH FRIENDS)
Descriptor
Numbers

Levels Descriptions

462

B2

Can account for and sustain their opinions in discussion by providing
relevant explanations, arguments and comments.

465

B1+

Can explain why something is a problem.

471

B1

Can express beliefs, opinions and agreement and disagreement
politely.

473

A2+

Can exchange opinions and compare things and people using simple
language.

FORMAL DISCUSSION (MEETINGS)
Descriptor
Numbers

Levels Descriptions

495

B2

Can contribute, account for and sustain their opinion, evaluate
alternative proposals and make and respond to hypotheses.

B1

Can take part in routine formal discussion of familiar subjects which
is clearly articulated in the standard form of the language or a familiar
variety and which involves the exchange of factual information, receiving
instructions or the discussion of solutions to practical problems.

A2

Can express what they think about things when addressed directly ina formal meeting, provided they can ask for repetition of key points if
necessary.

498

502

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Language Instruction to Change the World: Possibilities and Challenges for Action-Oriented language instruction in Your Classroom

Finding the level-appropriate descriptors allows us to find Krashen’s (1985) “i + 1,” the kind of
language input that learners can manage with scaffolding, and these descriptors should guide us indesigning the language components of the task.
A similar approach can be used for learners themselves. We may lament our learners’ limited life
experience or world knowledge, but we still have to take them as they are. Our job is to push thema little, expose them to the world but only to the extent they can handle. That may not be much, but
we are still helping the learners to push their limit to become what they can be for the time being.
More detailed instructions on how to teach AOLI can be found in the handbook From
Communicative to Action-Oriented (Piccardo, 2014), and a lesson plan template is available online(Piccardo & Hunter, 2021).

ADDRESSING CHALLENGES TO IMPLEMENTING ACTION-ORIENTED LANGUAGE
INSTRUCTION IN JAPANIt is true that there are challenges to implementing AOLI in Japan. Hirose (2022), for example,
argued for the existence of a number of challenges, which can be summarized as the following:
Japan is a high-context, collectivist culture with strong top-down power relationships, and theJapanese are uncomfortable with dialogue-style discussions. In particular, they lack the skill to ask
good, probing questions, fearing that such questions disrupt group harmony.
Whether or not these stereotypically Japanese characteristics are overstated, many of us, language
teachers in Japan, already recognize the need to address these issues, and we are alreadydoing many things to overcome these challenges. At a recent CUE SIG conference, Christopher
Modell (2023) presented little tricks he uses in his classroom to prod his learners to speak up andmake positive contributions, and at our LD30 conference, Dexter da Silva and Ted O’Neil held alearning café to explore how to ask good questions. Adrienne Johnson and Cecilia Smith Fujishimapresented project-based learning that emphasizes developing learners’ critical thinking, especially
their ability to recognize the divergent perspectives of multiple stakeholders (see their chapter
in this volume). Many presenters discussed their work grounded in SDGs. Neil Cowie (see his
chapter in this volume) presented his work on coordinating an international SDG Master’s programthat involved international students visiting local Japanese organizations and reflecting on SDG
practices that could be applied in their home countries.
Also at the LD30 Conference, social activist Taichi Ichikawa narrated his personal journey of finding
his mission to turn the world into one big school and how he set up his organization called World
Road Inc. His most recent book, We Have a Dream (World Dream Project, 2021), is a collectionof aspirations by young people around the world, intended as a textbook on SDGs to be used bylearners around the world. He told us about a global youth movement called “One Young World,”
through which many young people today are trying to make meaningful changes for the better.
Another language textbook that uses SDGs was recently put together by Goodmacher (2023), whoincorporates AOLI. In his chapter on food waste, for example, he asks the learners to make a list offood and drink items they typically throw away (e.g., apple cores) and look into ways to use them (p.
65).
At another recent conference on “Peace as Global Language,” Paul Duffill (2023) inspired us with theidea of teaching peace studies as a CLIL class, and Tom Fast (2021, 2023) described his involvementwith the Japan University English Model United Nations (JUEMUN), which is “an annual, collaborativeand student-organized conference held in the Kansai region of Japan” (Japan University English
Model United Nations, n.d.). Fast’s students researched gender inequality in Japan, and they
drafted resolutions as themselves, i.e. concerned young women who would have to live withgender inequality in Japan. They submitted their resolutions with recommendations to the
Okayama prefectural government, they testified in front of the government officials, and many of
LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)12TOSH TACHINO

their recommendations were actually adopted as prefectural laws in Okayama. This is a perfect
example of AOLI in action.
All these examples show that Hirose’s (2022) obstacles are not impenetrable walls, and at the
LD30 Conference Sylvain Bergeron invoked Parker Palmer’s (2007) “Courage to Teach” to discuss
what it takes for us, teachers, to take the lead in changing the world by involving our students in
SDG projects and encouraging them to go further on their own.

CLOSING THOUGHTS“Language instruction to change the world” is a grand proposition, and there are certainly great
programs we admire that live up to that label. But those big programs may discourage us, thinking
we cannot possibly mount such a grand project. On the other hand, modest and achievable actions
may seem too small to make a difference. When dealing with big issues like helping the world, I
agree with popular author Colin Beavan (2016), who wrote How to be alive: A guide to the kind ofhappiness that helps the world. What’s most important is taking the first step, no matter how small.
The question you should ask is not whether your action will make a difference but whether youraction will make you happy. A simple lesson on giving directions can be turned into a lesson inkindness by assigning a task to actually help someone who looks visibly lost on the street. I know
there are a lot of people who are looking for directions in Tokyo not only because I see them all
the time but also because I am one of them. Think about the times in which you wished someone
had offered you a hand. Could you make an assignment out of that? It will make a difference to that
person—and perhaps to the student too.

REFERENCES

Acar, A. (2019). The action-oriented approach: Integrating democratic citizenship education into
language teaching. English Scholarship Beyond Borders, 5(1), 122–141.
Ashford, E. (2018). Severe poverty as an unjust emergency. In P. Woodruff (Ed.). The ethics of giving:
Philosophers’ perspectives on philanthropy (pp. 103-148). Oxford University Press.
Beavan, C. (2016). How to be alive: A guide to the kind of happiness that helps the world.
HarperCollins.
Council of Europe. (2020). CEFR descriptors. https://rm.coe.int/cefr-descriptors-2020-/16809ed2c7
Duffil, P. (2023, October 29). The “Introduction to peace and conflict studies”: EMI course for the
English language classroom: Utilising a combination of broad and deep standard “content”
disciplinary foundation, Japanese peace tradition, teacher’s practitioner experience, local andinternational case studies, and CLIL scaffolding techniques [Paper presentation]. Peace as a
Global Language International Conference 2023, Akabanedai, Tokyo, Japan.
Fast, T. (2021, January 9). 2020 Model United Nations year in review. Gakka Blog. https://www.ndsu.
ac.jp/blog/article/index.php?c=blog_view&pk=16098961698247791699416f8b6d97fb1af891f661
Fast, T. (2023, October 29). The Model United Nations as a pedagogy of peace [Paper presentation].
Peace as a Global Language International Conference 2023, Akabanedai, Tokyo, Japan. https://www.
ndsu.ac.jp/blog/article/index.php?c=blog_view&pk=16098961698247791699416f8b6d97fb1af891f661
Goodmacher, G. (2023). Positive action: People making the world a better place. National
Geographic Learning.
Hirose, Y. (2022). Action learning in Japan: challenging cultural values. Action Learning: Researchand Practice, 19(2), 165–183.
James, W. (1890). The Principles of Psychology. Henry Holt.
Japan University English Model United Nations (n.d.). Retrieved November 19, 2023, from https://juemun.org/

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Language Instruction to Change the World: Possibilities and Challenges for Action-Oriented language instruction in Your Classroom

Krashen, S. (1985). The input hypothesis: Issues and implications. Longman.
North, B., Piccardo, E., Goodier, T., Fasoglio, D., Margonis-Pasinetti, R., & Rüschoff, B. (2022). Enriching
21st-century language education: The CEFR companion volume in practice. Council of Europe.
Modell, C. (2023, September 16-17). Speak up: Two techniques to increase student engagement
and participation [Paper presentation]. 30th Anniversary Conference of the College andUniversity Educators (CUE) SIG, Toyama, Toyama, Japan.
Palmer, P. J. (2007). The courage to teach: Guide for reflection and renewal (10th ed.). Jossey-Bass.
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CSC605_Research_Guide_English_01.pdf
Piccardo, E., & Hunter, D. (2021, March 9). Bringing the new CEFR companion volume to life in
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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)14CHRISTOPHER HENNESSY & IVAN LOMBARDI

Christopher Hennessy
University of Fukui
hennessy[at]u-fukui[dot]ac[dot]jp
Ivan Lombardi
University of Fukui
ivan[at]u-fukui[dot]ac[dot]jp

Fostering Student Independence Through a
Community Revitalization PBL Course
ABSTRACTThis article describes a recurring Project-Based Learning (PBL) course based on learner discovery
of local issues and community revitalization at the University of Fukui. From 2021 to 2023, PBL
students worked with a local experiential travel organization to promote its activities and thesurrounding area to a domestic and international audience. In the 2021 iteration, students focusedon multilingual promotion using SNS platforms due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. From 2022
onward, learners researched the challenges faced by organizations and institutions in the area andworked with them and relevant government agencies to create multilingual events and promotion
pamphlets. In this article, we will introduce the overall context and the structure of the courseand discuss the development of metacognitive skills and independent action in learners throughlearner perspectives and our own observations.
Keywords: PBL, student independence, learner development, community engagement

CONTEXT

Community revitalization is one of the pillars of the School of Global and Community Studies (GCS)at the University of Fukui. As the official website states, “the revitalization of local economies has
become an urgent task as even local businesses expand into more global activities” (para. 1). As
a response to this call, we developed a project-based learning (PBL) course that investigates theuntapped potential of the Fukui community and introduces lesser-known attractions, experiential
activities, and local revitalization efforts to an international audience. The Educational Goals of
the department mention this as one of the objectives of the GCS program: “We want students tohave the ability to investigate various complex issues involving local community and global society,and train them to be resources with holistic and practical knowhow to engage in problem-solving
and contribute to the development of the local community and the global society” (para. 1). In thisarticle, we will tell the story of how our students developed metacognitive skills and independence
in our PBL course.

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THE ROLE OF PBL WITHIN THE GCS CURRICULUM

Ours is not the only PBL course that GCS students take – in fact, PBL is recognized as a pillar ofour department. All students enroll in PBL courses in their first, second, and third year, with somePBL projects spanning multiple semesters to two years. To emphasize the importance of PBL inthe curriculum, the GCS website states that, “[t]hrough a curriculum centered on Project-Based
Learning, students will understand society in the real world and acquire the independent skills toadapt to changing circumstances while developing critical thinking skills and decision-making forpursuing and solving challenges” (para. 4 [our emphasis]).
In their second year, GCS students can choose which PBL course/project they will join. The course
we co-facilitate is the only one available in the second year involving an English component andaccepts international students in an attempt to capture the spirit of connecting the local community
with global perspectives.

WHAT IS PBL?

Our interpretation of PBL is that of project- rather than problem-based learning. However, our choiceof projects stems from issues that are affecting the Fukui area, in line with the GCS philosophy.
Simultaneously and in tune with the theme of the LD30 conference, we focus on the centrality of
the learners, the interactions among them and other stakeholders, and their efforts leading to thefinal product. Rather than conforming to one monolithic definition of PBL, our approach integrates
underlying concepts in the literature with the context of the department and the area we work in.
We refined our style in conducting PBL over several iterations of the course and experimented
with different balances of facilitator control and learner autonomy, different degrees of scaffolding,and different emphases on skill learning and fieldwork. Based on our previous experiences andobservations, we will introduce two models we believe can support learner independence as
learners develop their projects. Then, we will provide an overview of how we adopted each of thetwo models in previous PBL courses. Finally, we will explain how these influenced the 2021-2022
and 2022-2023 iterations of our PBL – which we call the Deep Fukui project.

THE GENESIS OF DEEP FUKUI: TWO MODELS OF IMPLEMENTATION

Creating a community revitalization PBL course involves ideating a project and the path for it tocome to realization. We think there are two models (and a whole range in between them) thatcan be realistically adopted for a course intended to be relevant in the community while fostering
student growth. While the two models will eventually converge as the learners start engaging in
on-site research and project development, they stem from profoundly different starting points. We
call these two original models, the up-and-running model and the got-nothing model.

THE UP-AND-RUNNING MODEL (2017-2018 PBL)

The “up-and-running model” is designed for learners to have a quick entry into their PBL project.
This is achieved by them joining a project that has already been set up by the facilitators, and inwhich the outcome of the project and external stakeholders have been established in advance.
Here we will break down schematically how we achieved this in one past course.
1. The facilitators create the relationship with the cooperating organizations

The theme of this particular PBL course was 地酒 (jizake, local sake). We found local sake breweries,
restaurants, and shops willing to cooperate in a domestic and international promotion project.
2. Facilitators and learners negotiate the needs of the cooperating organizations

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CHRISTOPHER HENNESSY & IVAN LOMBARDI

We facilitated the first contact between the learners and the organization they chose to researchand promote. This was to ensure that the learners understood the needs of the organization andthe nature and predetermined outcomes of the project.
3. Learners gather information
Working in teams, students visited rice fields, sake breweries, and specialty stores and conductedinterviews on-site to learn more about the cycle of sake production and the issues the industry
faces with the decrease in popularity of sake and dwindling sales.
4. Implement the promotion
Learners collected their findings in two promotional pamphlets (English and Japanese versions)of their production and design (see Artifact 1). They also engaged in public relations regarding
distribution of the pamphlets.
5. Present and review the results
The learners presented their project development and the final product at a large-scale presentation
event at the university before engaging in reflection on their achievements and the challenges they
had faced.

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Artifact 1: Sake x Fukui (2017-2018 PBL pamphlet cover and sample page)

THE GOT-NOTHING MODEL (2018-2019 PBL)

At the opposite end of the spectrum is another PBL style which we refer to as the “got-nothing” model. In
this context, the learners explore a theme – in this example our selection was 体験 (taiken, hands-on
experience) – without a predetermined idea of the issues they will tackle. On the contrary, they findan issue that catches their interest and can realistically contribute something towards. Similarly,
they launch themselves into the project with no previously established contact or relationship.
Below we explain how we implemented this model in 2018-2019.
1. Brainstorming session
At the beginning of the project, the group of learners brainstormed about and researched manytaiken experiences offered in Fukui City and surrounding towns. They identified a number theywanted to promote to domestic and international tourists.
2. Students approach the organizations
After dividing into small teams, the learners selected strategies to make first contact with theirchosen local organization and deliberate on the potential of collaborating towards a promotional
project.
3. Learners gather information
The learners split into small teams to visit the organization they had contacted. There, they experienced
the organization’s taiken (practical experience activity) first-hand and learned about the organizationand its current challenges through interviews with representatives.
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CHRISTOPHER HENNESSY & IVAN LOMBARDI

4. Implement the promotion
Possibly inspired by the final product of the previous PBL iteration, the learners opted to report theresults of their research in the form of a promotional pamphlet in English (see Artifact 2).
5. Present and review the results
As in the previous year, this group of learners presented the final product of their research in presentation
form at the end of the semester. Prior to that, they engaged in self- and peer-assessment to reflect on
the PBL process and final result.

Artifact 2: Fukui Xperience – やってみよっさ (2018-2019 PBL pamphlet cover and sample page).

LEARNER INDEPENDENCE AND THE TWO MODELS

Reflecting on two years of PBL and planning for more to come, we reviewed our approach to PBL
and our roles as course facilitators. This was not an easy endeavor, as we realized that the learners
as individuals, with their diverse personalities, motivation, understanding and acceptance of the19

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Fostering Student Independence Through a Community Revitalization PBL Course

PBL principles are major factors in the success of the project. We also determined that the course
structure and logistics should support the learners’ ability to make decisions freely, take risks, andlearn from their experiences. To achieve this, we found ourselves gravitating towards the got-nothingmodel, which was the foundation for the two PBL iterations introduced in the next section.

THE DEEP FUKUI PROJECT AND COURSE LOGISTICS

We first proposed the Deep Fukui PBL course as a framework that could be filled in with different
yearly projects, all bound together by the common outcome of promoting local Fukui culture andexperiences and providing multilingual PR support for audiences in Japan and abroad. The name
Deep Fukui also encapsulates the essence of a project asking students to bring their research andPR talents to places beyond the well-known tourist spots in Fukui and find local hidden gems.

EXPLORING ROKUROSHI PLATEAU

Both iterations are based on the got-nothing model and have seen two separate groups of learners
engage in the promotion of an experiential travel organization located in 六呂師高原 (Rokuroshi
kōgen, Rokuroshi Highland), a remote location in an underserved area in the 奥越 (Okuetsu) regionof Fukui Prefecture. The learners’ on-site connection is an organization concerned with nature
education and ecotourism, which offers an array of guided forest tours, work-stay programs, andtaiken experiences in direct contact with nature.
Through fieldwork, the students discovered that Rokuroshi Highland used to be a popular resortarea for skiing; now it only has a small number of services, pastures and woods, and stargazing
spots. Most importantly, Rokuroshi Highland is an isolated area with limited public transportation,
which constitutes the main challenge for community revitalization. Even traveling by car entails analmost one-hour ride from Fukui City center (see Artifact 3), and the steep hills discourage many
cyclists. In addition, it is simply not as well-known as other points of interest in the Okuetsu region,
like the Dinosaur Museum in Katsuyama City or the Echizen Ono Castle in Ono City.

Artifact 3: Reaching Rokuroshi Highland from Fukui City.

PBL COURSE LOGISTICS

The two iterations described below share the same syllabus (Artifact 4).

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CHRISTOPHER HENNESSY & IVAN LOMBARDI

This is a project-based learning (PBL) course in which students will work in teams to research and learn
about various local culture and history of Fukui, with the aim of [...] identifying certain challenges in the
promotion both domestically and internationally of a local nature area of the Okuetsu region as well as
creating and implementing solutions for these challenges.
Artifact 4: Extract from the course syllabus
Both PBL courses took place over the course of an academic year. The first semester focuses on
steps (1), (2), and (3) (as described above) and ends with a review and report of the progress. The
second semester resumes step (3) and mostly revolves around steps (4) and (5). The courses areformally scheduled to meet every other week for 180 minutes; however, the meeting times can beadapted to the needs of the stakeholders to allow for fieldwork, appointments with external actors,
and personal schedules. In these two iterations of the Deep Fukui project, the flexible schedulingoften translated into sporadic class meetings, while most of what would be normally considered“class time” was adjusted by the learners to fit the needs of their research and promotion efforts.
Another shared feature of the two courses was two presentations – an in-class interim activity
report at the end of July and a final presentation of the project in a school-wide PBL event in late
January. Despite the similarities highlighted so far, the learners put their unique twist to their PBL
activities and led their projects in different directions as narrated below.

THE 2021-2022 ITERATION

Seven students joined our project-based course in 2021. In the first semester, fieldwork outingsand direct community engagement were limited by COVID-19 restrictions. Therefore, the learners
approached the partner organization via online meetings to learn more about their activities,
challenges, and promotion campaigns. Upon learning that the organization has an Instagram andYouTube presence, the learners decided to leverage social media tools to expand the organization’s
reach in the local and global community among younger people through pictures and short videos of
the taiken experiences offered. At this stage, the group split into two teams, in charge of Instagram
PR and YouTube PR, respectively.
After that, the two teams learned more about how engagement in social media works by analyzing
successful creators and reading about the topic. Once COVID-19 restrictions were removed, thetwo teams planned on traveling to Rokuroshi Highland to join the taiken events themselves andstart a cycle of “experience-plan-implement” seen in Artifact 5.

Artifact 5: The 2021-2022 PBL cycle

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The two teams joined taiken experiences such as bike tours in Ono City, tree climbing, and kayaking
on Lake Kuzuryu to acquaint themselves with the beauty of Rokuroshi Highland and fully understandthe taiken experience. These were also occasions to learn more from the spokespeople of thecooperating organization. Then, informed by their first observations, the learners began planningthe promotional efforts (e.g., identifying their audience and goals, deciding how much and which
content to develop and how to calendarize their social media posts) in a proposal document (sample)
submitted to the partner organization. The two teams submitted their proposals to us first, to which
we gave feedback based on the idea’s feasibility and appropriateness. After this, both groups joined
a taiken experience again to take pictures and video footage for promotional materials.

Artifact 6: PR photos taken by the learners (bicycle tour and tree climbing)

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)22CHRISTOPHER HENNESSY & IVAN LOMBARDI

From late November, the two teams continued their independent work to develop promotional
materials – in this case, selecting/editing pictures and short videos to go on Instagram, andcreating brief videos designed as YouTube Shorts. They also kept constant direct and spontaneous(meaning not facilitated by us) contact with the local organization to ensure that the materials werehigh quality and representative of the organization’s communication style and goals.

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Artifact 7: Social media engagement (Instagram and YouTube teams)
At the end of the second semester, the two teams joined forces to prepare a 30-minute presentation
reporting on their PBL activities and takeaways. The audience consisted of peers, other university
instructors involved in PBL, and representatives of the organization – thus providing closure toa project that left, according to student reflections, all parties satisfied despite the challenges ofremoteness of the area and difficulty in disseminating PR via Instagram and YouTube.

THE 2022-2023 ITERATIONAt the beginning of the first semester, the new group of students – seven initially, which became
five after two international students left to return home – met two student representatives of theprevious iteration to learn about their activities and experiences in the PBL. The new group decided
to continue the project theme from 2021-2022, but change directions by organizing in-person
events and promoting other facilities in the Rokuroshi area targeting younger people.

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)24CHRISTOPHER HENNESSY & IVAN LOMBARDI

Artifact 8: The 2022-2023 group in Rokuroshi

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Fostering Student Independence Through a Community Revitalization PBL Course

While the 2021-2022 PBL learner process could be described as an organic cycle, the activity of
the 2022-2023 learners resembled a tide, surging with force, striking, and receding – a pattern thatthe group exhibited throughout the project.
After experiencing a day in the beauty of the natural surroundings of Rokuroshi Highland (Artifacts
8-9), interviewing the members of the collaborating organization, and brainstorming PR possibilities,
they quickly decided on a plan to create a bilingual pamphlet collating the voices of actual visitors to
the area. Following that, they settled on organizing an event at Rokuroshi Highland capitalizing on
the local taiken activities in the forest (yoga, games, or movie screenings). Lastly, they chose to takeover the social media accounts of the organization to showcase “live” takes of different activities
in the area in all seasons. This was the first surge, decisions taken rapidly that soon transitioned
into the implementation phase. The learners’ drive and goal orientation was so quick and forcefulthat we believed the end goal of this project would be accomplished in a short time. However, thelearners realized the over-ambitious nature of their first proposal and ended up scrapping most ofthese initial ideas.

Artifact 9: The learners making tea out of leaves found in the Rokuroshi Highland woods
LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)26CHRISTOPHER HENNESSY & IVAN LOMBARDI

Recovering from this first setback, the learners became interested in hosting a stargazing eventand planned for their “final ideaI”: promoting Rokuroshi Highland as the destination for a romantic
drive targeting young couples in a series of weekend stargazing events they labeled hoshizora
hammock. However, this idea was scrapped as they could not receive permission from Ono City
city hall. In their third surge, the learners visited Rokuroshi Highland again with the intention offinding suitable locations to host nature-themed events. From their reflections, we learned thatthey had the opportunity to secure the Rokuroshi Walking Center, but were concerned about the
dilapidated state of some of the fixtures. Independently, they decided to inquire with the Fukui
Nature Conservation Center to use the Rokuroshi Walking Center and install new benches thatthey could purchase through local crowdfunding. They were cleared to use the Walking Center, but
not allowed to renovate the outside fixtures. Some progress was made, but yet once more somebacktracking proved necessary.
As summer came and went, the group of learners needed to take definitive action if they wanted
to hold some kind of bilingual/multilingual event. They did so by planning and advertising for two
events to take place on a weekend in November (one on Saturday and one on Sunday). They madea promotion poster and disseminated it in various strategic high-traffic locations in the Okuetsu
area, as well as our university, and also spread the word among their acquaintances. In addition,
they also conducted PR using teasers on Instagram. The first day of the event was quite successful,and the group welcomed, among others, families with children, and accompanied them to thewoods to gather leaves, acorns, and wood chippings to make nature-based craft art (Artifact 10).

Artifact 10: Day 1 of the event

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Fostering Student Independence Through a Community Revitalization PBL Course

The second event on Sunday was compromised in part by awful weather, but the learners still managed
to invite a group of fellow university students, made gel candles together and joined in a cheese-making
taiken experience (Artifact 11).

Artifact 11: Day 2 of the event
After the events and reflection time, the learners decided to resume the early idea of a bilingual
pamphlet to ensure there was an international component to the PBL course. One of the facilitators
managed to secure funding, and the students designed two four-page brochures (one in Japanese,
one in English) that would feature (1) a collage of pictures taken over a year in Rokuroshi Highland,(2) access information, (3) a hand-drawn map of the area with (4) a brief introduction to activities/
facilities in Rokuroshi Highland (see Artifact 12). All pamphlet information was coordinated with therelevant stakeholders.
After the pamphlet was in print in February, the learners began disseminating them to prominent
tourist points inside and outside of Fukui Prefecture (Artifact 13 – circled). They decided which tourist
points to place the pamphlets, obtained permission to display or distribute the pamphlets there, andsent or hand-delivered them.

TAKEAWAYS

In this section, we will talk about the various takeaways we had from conducting this project-basedlearning class. Specifically, we will explain our observations of how activities were planned andimplemented throughout the course by both the facilitators and students, ultimately reflecting on the
independence the learners gained through the course structure. Then, we will share the learners’
voices by referring to qualitative research and analysis we conducted through questionnaires, andthe metacognitive skills we believed the learners gained in both iterations of the courses based on
this research data and our own observations.

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)28CHRISTOPHER HENNESSY & IVAN LOMBARDI

Artifact 12: Hand-drawn map to recommended locations and activities in Rokuroshi Highland.

Artifact 13: Rokuroshi Highland promotional pamphlets on display.

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TAKEAWAY #1: LEARNER INDEPENDENCE THROUGH CLASS ACTIVITY DEVELOPMENT
Over the multiple iterations of this project-based learning course, we have seen an interesting
phenomenon in which learners have taken more control of the activities as the course progresses
throughout the year. For example, in the 2022-2023 iteration of the course, we initially set up thefoundational meetings with the head of the organization in the Rokuroshi Highland area in May
and June. However, as the learners and the head of the organization became more acquainted, we
started to be bypassed as the contacts, to the point that by July we were not notified of meetings. In
fact, this independence by learners in organizing meetings eventually extended to other organizations(government entities) and even the “final product” (events). This shift in agency from us, the facilitators,
to the students reflected increasing independence by the group of learners, which we cautiously
welcomed. While we encouraged them to work directly with the association, we would haveappreciated more updates on major milestones as the ultimate course administrators. A similar
pattern also appeared in the 2021-2022 iteration of the course.

TAKEAWAY #2: COURSE FACILITATORS FOSTER METACOGNITIVE SKILLS, OUTSIDEORGANIZATIONS FOSTER CONCRETE SKILLSAs we had already conducted various iterations of this community-based PBL course since 2017,
we decided to start collecting qualitative data on the students’ perceptions of the course in the2021-2022 iteration. Specifically, we conducted a total of four questionnaires focusing on: (1) the
goals the learners set and achieved, (2) the actual learning outcome they perceived for themselves,(3) their perceptions of the roles of the facilitators and the various representatives of organizations
and what they learned from them, (4) learner descriptions of the various relationships they had
throughout the course, and (5) concrete activities they found useful during the course.
We could discern a number of selective codes based on a socioconstructivist grounded theory modelof analysis (Charmaz, 2014), allowing us to ascertain an interesting set of perceptions held by thestudents. The learners saw the relationship they had with representatives of organizations as one that
fostered concrete skills development (data collection methods, knowledge of the local area, use ofvideo equipment). In contrast, they saw the relationship they had with the facilitators, as one in which
they gained metacognitive skills (time management, project management, problem solving).
Combining these voices, and adding our own observations over the two years of the courses asinterpretative anchors, we have determined a set of metacognitive skills in which we believe thelearners showed considerable development over the year: (1) task orientation, (2) planning, (3)active listening, (4) self-evaluation, (5) self-correction, and (6) independence.
The first skill is task-orientation. This entails learners understanding elements of PBL “philosophy”
as defined by Tyagi and Kannan (2013): a need to know, a driving question, student voice andchoice, 21st-century skills (collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and use of technology),
inquiry and innovation, feedback and revision, and a publicly presented product. In speaking withthe organization, learners understood the needs of the organization, posited their own ideas andreceived feedback on those ideas, ultimately creating different “products” for public consumption(SNS pages, events, pamphlets).
In implementing this PBL philosophy, learners developed the second skill, planning. As mentioned
above, they quickly took control of their own learning by organizing meetings with the outsideorganizations on their own. Their increased ability for planning also extends to the high degree of
coordination needed to plan events and pamphlet/SNS layouts.
The learners also developed the third skill, active listening. This skill was particularly useful forunderstanding and interpreting the needs that the outside organizations had in order to ideate andimplement action in order to help resolve those needs. They identified through initial interviewsin the area that there was a severe lack of public transportation to the area. Furthermore, as they
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developed their respective products, this skill was useful in adjusting the direction of the productas they received feedback from us or the outside organization.
The fourth skill, self-evaluation, was necessary for the learners to recognize when things were goingin the right direction. This was fostered through weekly project journals that they filled in reflecting
and assessing the week’s activities, constantly refining the project through their individual judgment.
For example, early on in the 2022-2023 iteration, the learners went back and forth on what their final
product would be due to considerations such as project originality, concerns about fundraising andthe length of time necessary, and events in January being snowed out. Eventually, they conducted
the events, which they settled on after reflecting on the feasibility of their original plans.
The above two skills dovetail with the fifth skill, self-correction. The learners needed their active
listening skills and self-evaluation skills in order to correct the trajectory of the project based on
both their own evaluations and the evaluations of us and the outside organizations. For example,
when the students realized the local government would not cooperate in creating more public
transportation opportunities, they “corrected” course by planning a drive-and-stargaze event in thearea (This was not implemented due to another similar event already being conducted in the area).
The final gain (and perhaps most important), is independence. Independence was far from an innatecharacteristic of either group of learners. However, in both iterations, we saw a slow build-up of
confidence and development of independent decision-making over time, especially as the learners
started leaving the classroom after the initial scaffolding and immersed themselves in the community
through fieldwork. Already mentioned above, but by halfway through the course learners had alreadybypassed us as the contact points for organizations, and conducted almost all correspondence
directly with multiple private and government organizations to develop their events or SNS content.
By the end of the course, we could appreciate a degree of independent thought and action thatneither needed nor relied excessively on facilitator guidance.

CURRENT AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS

After tweaking our approach multiple times, we came to believe that the got-nothing model is morefunctional to fostering metacognitive skills and independent origination, as exemplified in the 20222023 PBL outcomes. The 2023-2024 iteration of the Deep Fukui project is unsurprisingly based on
this model. In this project, learners work with an organization in Katsuyama City that professionallyengages in many activities to promote the local area (events, shop management, social media
promotion). The learners have only been introduced to the new partner organization and the dozensof activities it is engaged in, so they truly have free choice to mimic the production of one of theseprojects or introduce a brand-new activity in which they will work with this organization.
The biggest challenge faced by the students in the 2021-2023 iterations of the PBL course was
the travel time (for interviews and event coordination). For the 2023-2024 Deep Fukui project,
in working with this organization in Katsuyama City, they are in an area that is relatively close to
the university compared to Rokuroshi Highland, meaning shorter travel time which will hopefullytranslate into a more productive use of the time in project development.
As the project development area has changed, we cannot continue on the same exact research
path following our learners’ revitalization activities in the Rokuroshi Highland area. However, we cancontinue to explore the more abstract ideas we have presented. Specifically, we hope to develop
the idea that the roles of facilitator and outside organization representatives were differentiated andcrystallized throughout the implementation of the course. We are interested in understanding further
the observation that the facilitators focus on metacognitive skills, providing the scaffolding needed
for learners to avoid feeling like they are left on their own without the proper tools, while the content
experts focus on concrete professional skills that the learners need in order to bring their vision and

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the vision of the cooperating organization together and coordinate the efforts that will lead to thefinal project.
Furthermore, we have used our own observations to identify the metacognitive skills developed by
students in a community revitalization project-based learning course: (1) task orientation, (2) planning,(3) active listening, (4) self-evaluation, and (5) self-correction. Another realization we had was thestriking increase of (6) independent action in our students when given the opportunity and tools.
After graduating, many GCS students end up working in local government or for organizations that
contribute to the community, so by developing these skills in working directly with governments andcommunity-centered organizations, they are actively developing the skills they can use from Day
1 in their future careers. We hope to refine our interpretations through observation and qualitative
research conducted in the current iteration of the class. As a further research path, we plan on
monitoring the English language use and development of the learners. Ultimately, in line with theconference feedback and our own subsequent reflections, we hope to develop and share easy-toimplement guidelines for PBL-in-English course design based on our successes and failures.

REFERENCES

Charmaz, K. (2014). Constructing grounded theory (2nd ed.). SAGE.
Tyagi, S., & Kannan, R. (2013). Implementing project-based learning in teaching English toengineering students. English for Specific Purposes World, 14(40), 1–15. http://espworld.info/
Articles_40/Kannan.pdf

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)32NEIL COWIE

Neil Cowie
Okayama University
ncowie2012[at]gmail[dot]com

SDGs: Community Learning in Okayama and the
Setouchi Region
ABSTRACTThis paper focuses on a course called ‘Community learning in Okayama and the Setouchi region’that took place from April to July in 2023 at Okayama University with students from Laos, Taiwan
and Thailand. In the first half of the course, weekly teacher- and student-chosen readings about
SDGs were discussed online in English. In the second half, the class visited three organizationsin the Okayama area that foreground the promotion of SDG related activities in their businessmodels: a garbage recycling company, a fur and leather company, and a bamboo furniturecompany. After each discussion lesson and each site visit students submitted a one-page reflection
on what they had learned and submitted a 1,000-word report describing a problem connectedto their home countries. This paper will briefly describe the course, discuss its successes andchallenges, and make suggestions for the future, including ones made by participants at LD30.
Keywords: SDGs, community learning, authentic learning

I work at Okayama University in the western half of Japan. It’s a large national university with
12 faculties and several different centres. I belong to one of these centres called the Institutefor Promotion of Education and Campus Life. The University has always attracted international
students, especially to the agriculture and science faculties, and in recent years has really tried tofocus on linking courses with the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). One example ofthis is an annual publication of all teacher and student projects that attempt to address one or moreof the SDGs. In 2023 there were over 200 projects uploaded to the university website.
During COVID-19 I was involved in the creation of a new SDGs master’s course which aimed to
attract international students, particularly from emerging countries in Southeast Asia. The languageof the course was English to decrease the barrier of students having to learn Japanese. The course
I was to jointly teach with my colleague, Professor Miyuki Yoshikawa, was aimed at introducing
students to organizations in the Okayama area that were particularly focused in their businessmodels on achieving SDGs.
Professor Yoshikawa has a wide network of contacts in the Okayama area, and she worked
extremely hard to encourage these businesses to allow us to visit them. In 2021, despite theinfluence of COVID-19, she continued to have face-to-face meetings with prospective partners.
When she met up with various organizations, she would open up Zoom on her phone whichallowed me to join in the conversations. These organizations included all kinds of businesses suchas organic farmers and cafes that employed people with learning difficulties. It was a pleasure to

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)SDGs: Community Learning in Okayama and the Setouchi Region

be able to interact with such good natured and open-hearted people who were just the kind ofpeople you would like international students to meet.
However, when the program started in April 2022 no students signed up, probably because of therestrictions on travel and study that were caused by COVID-19. As a result, we had to delay the
project for a year and Professor Yoshikawa had to apologize to the organizations that had agreed
to collaborate with us. Luckily, in April 2023, three students from Taiwan, Thailand and Laos wereable to join us and we could start the course. The rest of this paper will describe this example ofauthentic situated learning and discuss its successes and challenges, including reflections madepossible by participating in LD30.

THE COURSEREADING AND DISCUSSION

Okayama University’s academic year is divided into four terms of eight weeks each. In the first
lesson of the first term in April 2023, Professor Yoshikawa and I met the three students face toface. Som, Nid and Ruby were all women in their 20s who clearly had a passion for social justice
and an acute awareness of inequality, and so I was confident that they would make it an extremely
stimulating course. After the initial introductory lesson, we then met online once a week for the
next seven weeks. At that time this was the most convenient way for us to meet. The aim of theselessons was to become familiar with the SDGs that were pertinent to the businesses that we would
visit later in Term 2.
Each lesson had a similar pattern. I would choose some readings or videos connected to the SDG in
focus and the students would share their own links to materials that they thought were relevant. We
would then discuss these different sources together. As well as choosing materials and facilitating
discussion, I also tried to draw attention to critical issues related to the SDGs. As it turned out I did
not need to do that very much as the students were so independently minded and critically aware
anyway. After the lessons the students wrote reflections on what they had learned, and I gave
comments back. The comments were a combination of feedback on their writing (mechanics, styleand so on) and comments on their ideas and content.
Here is an extract from Ruby’s reflection after a lesson on poverty. This exemplifies the thoughtful
insights and critical awareness that Ruby revealed throughout the course.
Not only children in the poorer countries but also children in the rich and developed
countries, are still facing the situation of hunger and poverty. Though some people
might question if we really can increase children’s learning motivation by offering freeschool lunches. At least we can make children come to school and sit in the classroom,
not just skip school and choose to go to work or do something else. People say that
education is the way to help developing countries build a better future, and I agreewith it. We should let children have a high-quality education and avoid hunger andmalnutrition and have a chance to change their own country’s future. I think it’s one of
the meanings of SDGs too, to make a better world for everyone.

SITE VISITSIn Term 2, we went on three visits to businesses that Professor Yoshikawa had arranged for us tomeet. One challenge of this kind of community learning is that it is quite hard for students (andteachers) to opt out of their other lessons in order to make time for a day trip. As you might imagine
the students had to write letters to other teachers asking for permission to miss a lesson or have analternative exam. A second challenge is transport. The venues were a long way from the university
with little direct public transport, so we needed to go by car. Fortunately, there is a system where
teachers can borrow a university car which is what we did: two teachers and three students. It wasa lot of fun!
LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)34NEIL COWIE

The first visit was to the Hirabayashi Kinzoku recycling company. This is a large company that has
branches all over Okayama. We went to three different types of recycling business: an electricalappliance recycling facility, a community waste facility, and a scrap metal yard. At each placecompany workers explained in great detail how their facility worked, what its contribution to SDGs
was, and then gave us a guided tour. The students were eager to make notes and ask questions of
the staff, with Professor Yoshikawa acting as translator if necessary.
In Japan most people are used to sorting their garbage into different types, but Hirabayashi
Kinzoku took this principle to extraordinary levels by attempting to recycle up to 95% of thematerials they received. The most impressive example of this was at the scrap metal yard wheretiny pieces of metal fragments were collected and stored in huge sacks ready to be sent to asmelting factory.
Here is an extract from Nid’s reflection after this visit.
The waste management laws and trash recycling are two of many things I like about
Japan, together with the strong sense of social awareness. In Laos, due to theabsence of a specific regulatory framework or explicitly defined responsibilities for
waste management, much of this waste is improperly disposed of… Although a lot of
garbage cans are provided, many people tend to take them for granted. Especiallyafter events like festivals, plenty of trash is littered on the ground. It can be said
that, with the relative lack of public responsibility and the reckless consequences ofcurrent practice, Laos needs to put in more effort and raise public awareness about
waste management to achieve environmental sustainability.
This quotation is one example of how students tried hard to connect what they had learned inJapan with their own country. In this instance Laos is compared unfavorably with Japan, but thiswas not always the case, as the students showed how Japan could also benefit from knowledge
from their countries too.
The subsequent two visits took on a similar pattern of explanation, question and answer, and a tour.
In contrast to the large recycling company, the Talabo leather goods company is a family-run homebusiness utilizing skins from boars and deer. The skins are dried in the garden and then dyed andturned into various leather products. The increasing numbers of wild animals such as deer andboar that look for food in populated areas are becoming a problem in some parts of Japan, andpart of that issue is to dispose responsibly of any carcasses that have been culled to limit numbers.
In response, the Talabo company tries to turn waste leather into usable products and be part of acycle of sustainability between humans and animals.
The final site visit was to the Teori furniture company in the Mabi area of Okayama. Teori’s raw
material is bamboo from local forests. Although bamboo can be a terrific resource as a construction
material, it grows quickly and can soon take over hillsides and become unmanageable. Teori istrying to promote sustainable uses of bamboo so that it benefits the local area, rather than it being
seen as a negative weed that has to be controlled or even eradicated. On our visit to Mabi, wetoured three of the company’s facilities: the factory where the bamboo is processed into a woodthat can be used to make furniture; a second factory where the furniture is made; and finally, theshowroom where there are gorgeous examples of the high-quality products that Teori produces.
Here is an extract from Som’s reflection after this visit which illustrates the advantage of embedding
learning in the community.
This site visit was the first time for me to visit a factory. My major is linguistics, so I havenever had the opportunity to visit a factory, and I thought that visiting a factory in Japan
would be a rare occurrence. However, this class was not only a study of descriptive
SDGs, but also a kind of practical training, where I could go to actual places and have

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)SDGs: Community Learning in Okayama and the Setouchi Region

concrete experiences, not only from a textbook. Also, this field trip was a chance to seea business that was designed for the community, and I hope to put my professional
knowledge to use in combination with it in the future.
The final part of the course was for the students to write a short academic report which aimed tolink what they had learned so far about SDGs with issues in their home countries. They produced
excellent work focusing on the impacts of an increase in consumption on economics and theenvironment; the #Metoo movement in Taiwan; and the importance of waste separation in Thailand.
All were extremely well written with many thoughtful and practical ideas about how to increase
ethical and sustainable practices.

REFLECTION ON THE COURSE

Having described the course content I would now like to reflect on three areas: positive aspects;
challenges; and some further thoughts that participating in LD30 prompted.

POSITIVES

I have not had many opportunities within a university context to combine in-class learning with
community visits; so, on a very personal level it was extremely motivating to be part of this new
course. I could be a co-learner with the students which helped develop a closer relationship withthem and also allowed me to find out many new things about the area I am working in. It also
seemed motivating for the students who were enthusiastic in sharing their reflections and learning
about SDGs and thoroughly involved in meeting the Okayama organizations. The organizations
themselves expressed that being able to meet students from other countries was very stimulating
and that they hoped to create more of these opportunities in the future, and that linking with a local
university was a beneficial thing to do.

CHALLENGES

Creating a new course from scratch usually involves a lot of thought and research into materials
and themes. This course however involved the additional challenge of finding community-basedorganizations to collaborate with. Even though Professor Yoshikawa has a great network of community
links, it was not easy for her to set up mutually convenient times to meet. It took a lot of groundworkfor her to arrange these visits. For other teachers thinking of doing this kind of course I would notunderestimate how much effort and time this kind of networking takes. In addition, Professor Yoshikawa
had the unenviable task of having to let companies know that our first iteration would have to becanceled. A second challenge, as mentioned above, is good access to transport. We were able to use auniversity car, but if the numbers of students had been higher this would not have been possible. Thereis a need in organizing this kind of course to be flexible in various ways such as teaching face to faceand online and having different lesson times rather than adhering to just one mode.

LD30 REFLECTION

Taking part in the LD30 conference gave me several opportunities to reflect on the course andthink about it in a different way. Firstly, presenting about the course was a chance to describe
formally what happened and to think about what it meant. I think that normally I would have ended
the course and not thought too much about it until the next time it came around. Similarly, writing
this paper has allowed me to write in a different manner to a research article, and to highlight what
the students and Okayama organizations did in terms of authentic situated learning.
At LD30 I had several conversations with other participants about the course, and one key idea
formed from those. That is, I had not realized how important it is for teachers to help the students tostay in touch with the businesses that they had visited, and to follow up in the future as to whether
the students have managed to include their learning in any actions. If this were done, it could truly
make the project a collaborative and mutually beneficial one.
LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)36NEIL COWIE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My deep appreciation and thanks go to my colleague, Professor Miyuki Yoshikawa; to the three
Okayama organizations that we visited; Hirabayashi Kinzoku, Talabo, and Teori; and finally,to three great students: Thipphavanh Namniyom (Nid), Chen Wen-Hsin (Ruby), and Warittha
Koseeyaumporn (Som).

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Educational Development in Rural Cambodia

Peter Lutes
Kagawa University
lutes[dot]peter[at]kagawa-u[dot]ac[dot]jp

Educational Development in Rural Cambodia
ABSTRACTIn this paper, I describe an ongoing project for economic and educational development on Koh Trong
Island in rural Cambodia. Despite challenges in education and economic growth, the project seeks
to create economic opportunities and reduce youth migration to urban areas by empowering local
youth with essential business skills and English language proficiency by utilizing a local agriculture
product, pomelo, as a driver for economic opportunity. Collaboration with stakeholders from
Cambodia and Japan identified challenges in agriculture and business skills. Moreover, the paper
highlights the pivotal role of Project-Based Learning (PBL) in tailoring language education to meetthe specific needs of the community, enhancing engagement and relevance. The paper concludes
with actionable steps, stressing the importance of funding for sustainability. Despite the existing
challenges, I am optimistic about the project’s potential to support long-term economic growth andcommunity empowerment by addressing language barriers as a fundamental step towards achieving
these goals.
Keywords: project-based learning (PBL), educational development, curriculum, Cambodia

In this paper, I discuss experiences and challenges in the initial stage of an ongoing economic andeducational development initiative in rural Cambodia. Cambodia has faced many issues related
to education, particularly a lack of educators in general in the country. With the lack of a populous
educated class, the low salaries for public educators, and the general lack of government funding(IMF, 2023), Cambodia faces many challenges in developing economic and educational opportunities
for its citizens, particularly in rural areas. As an English language educator, I am keenly aware of
how a lack of communicative ability in English can create a barrier to full participation in the rapidly
globalized and interconnected world. Globalization and technology are also impacting developing
nations and their residents as the gap in access to technology and information increases between
urban and rural settings.
As an individual, I wanted to make a contribution. I believe that by supporting English language
education at the grassroots or community level, I can assist people in gaining access to otherresources and thereby help empower them.

OBJECTIVESThis initial stage was conducted upon the suggestion of the Secretary of State for the Ministry of
Education, Youth, and Sport, who introduced the Island of Sangkat Koh Trong, hereafter Koh Trong
Island, as an area in strong need of economic and educational development. As such, this study
focused on identifying the challenges facing residents and potential areas where sustainableeconomic development could be enhanced by a training program targeting the youth of the island.
LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)38PETER LUTES

However, for many, access to free learning and business resources, such as online courses, YouTube
tutorials, business software, and smart phones apps, a lack of English language proficiency is abarrier. Furthermore, for the islanders, access to an important potential customer base, the expatriate
community, also requires English language communication skills. However, the islanders havespecific goals, which lend themselves very well to Project-Based Learning (PBL). PBL focuses on
specific outcomes, such as building a website, or creating promotional materials, or developing acustomer base, and calls upon educators to provide scaffolding or learning support necessary toachieve the project goals.

BACKGROUND

Koh Trong Island lies in the Mekong River in the rural province of Kratie. It is 223 hectares in sizewith fertile land for agriculture. It is well-known in Cambodia for its unique agricultural product,
a local pomelo fruit. Koh Trong Island consists of two villages, Kbal Koh and Chong Koh, with apopulation of 1,887 and 388 households (University of Kratie, 2021). However, it suffers from ayouth drain, the youth migration to urban areas, with many young people moving to Phnom Penhor the Cambodian-Thai border for work upon completion of high school because of the lack of
economic opportunities on the island. Development of the economic potential of the local pomelo
fruit may be one way to stem the youth drain by providing economic opportunities on Koh Trong
Island.

THE POMELO, CITRUS MAXIMAThe pomelo, Citrus maxima, is a citrus fruit native to Southeast Asia, with its origins believed to be
in Malaysia and Indonesia. The pomelo is widely cultivated in tropical and subtropical areas, and isrecognized for being the largest citrus fruit, comparable to a small melon in size. The pomelo hasa thick, easily peelable green or yellow rind with a milder and sweeter flavor profile compared tograpefruits, with light floral undertones. The texture resembles a grapefruit with easily separable
segments. Nutritionally, pomelos are a valuable source of vitamin C, antioxidants, dietary fiber,
potassium, and other essential nutrients. The pomelo is consumed fresh (Morton, 1987).

POMELO FROM THE KOH TRONG ISLAND

The pomelo from Koh Trong Island enjoys a reputation for excellent taste. However, currently
agricultural practices vary according to the farmer, so quality varies from farm to farm and from fruit
to fruit. Most of the fruit are sold by local farmers in the town of Kratie which is accessible by ferry.
Some farmers use Facebook to sell fruit to residents in the capital city of Phnom Penh, however the
profit from sales to Phnom Penh are similar to that of local sales with shipping and returns eating
into the profit margins.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION AS THE GATEWAY TO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

English language education can act as a gateway for economic development. As outlined below, thisproject took a needs based approach with the goal of developing the basis of capacity for community
centered economic development. Because Koh Trong Island does not have a strong economic
foundation, the lack of ongoing funding for education and economic development is a key issue atthe community level. Therefore, obtaining ongoing free or low-cost access to educational materials,
business materials, and smart applications is critical to continued development and, because there
are no local language (i.e. Khmer language) versions of most of these important tools, developmentof a PBL language program to allow access to these tools is crucial. So it is with this background inmind that I began our fact finding mission.

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Educational Development in Rural Cambodia

STAKEHOLDERS

This ongoing collaborative effort to promote sustainable development and education, engages
various stakeholders in Cambodia and Japan to play integral roles in a shared initiative. Local farmers
and youth from Koh Trong Island will actively contribute by bringing on-the-ground perspectives
to the project. The University of Kratie, with its administration and educators, supports the initiative
through knowledge dissemination and educational outreach. The Ministry of Education, Youth, andSport (MoEYS) in Cambodia, led by Touch Visalsok, Ph.D., the Secretary of State, serves as a key
coordinating entity, aligning educational goals with broader developmental strategies. Meanwhile,
Japan’s involvement includes the research team at Kagawa University’s Faculty of Agriculture andInternational Office. The Kagawa University team consists of two social scientists with experienceand expertise in language, business and entrepreneurship training, and two agriculture scientists
specialized in soil and soil nutrition. Additionally, financial backing from the Takahashi Industrial
Foundation provided crucial resources for the first stage of this initiative.

FACT FINDING

After initial discussions with MoEYS, discussions were held with the Rector and administrative
team of the University of Kratie, followed by discussions with faculty in language education andagriculture. This was followed by visits to Koh Trong Island. At this time, agricultural practices wereobserved at three farms. Interviews were held with two growers: one was a very successful grower
who not only sold pomelo fruit but also sold pomelo cuttings; and the other was fairly unsuccessful
selling fruit to the local market stalls, regularly having to give refunds to the stall sellers.
An analysis of the data collected by the University of Kratie on socio-economic aspects: 1) generaldemographics, 2) job status, family’s income, and expenses, 3) education status, 4) vulnerability andthe 5) environmental conditions was conducted. Furthermore, an in-depth focused interview washeld with the daughter of a local farmer who began using their underutilized resource of pomelo
to fund her university education at the University of Kratie. Following this, discussions were heldwith the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Cambodia Office and the JICA Shikoku
Center to get on site feedback and a better understanding of the funding process through JICA,
respectively.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDGS)

While English language education represents a starting point for this project, an important missionof this project is to encourage sustainable development. As such this project addresses thefollowing SDG’s:
1. No Poverty
4. Quality eEucation
5. Gender Equality
8. Decent Work and Economic Growth
12. Responsible Consumption and Production
15. Life on Land
17. Partnership for the Goals

NEEDS AND CAPACITY BUILDING REQUIREMENTS

Our initial investigation conducted with the University of Kratie identified the following “needs” andareas for capacity building requirements:

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)40PETER LUTES

Agricultural techniques• Vegetable growing techniques and crops• Pesticides usage• Controlling crop pests• Pomelo growing techniques and care
• Processing of Pomelo peel and other harvest waste• Quality control
Business skills• Business planning• Costing (analysis and pricing)• Using computers as business tools• Marketing & Social Media• Customer service
English language proficiencies
Table 1: Desired outcome/targets and target skills
Outcome/targets
Attracting internationalcustomers in Phnom Penh
Specific English language skills
for computer usage
Marketing
Education and AI
Pomelo growing techniquesand careMeeting the expressed needat community level for English
language support

SkillsUsing SNS to advertise in English, responding to customer requests,
negotiating pricing, deliveries and addressing quality problems
Developing English language ability and skills to use open source
software, because few localized versions (i.e. Khmer) of software
are available (esp. freeware)
Describing processes, production, quality control, and food safety in
English to target customers
Developing the vocabulary and communication tools with AI toutilize AI for self-directed learning in English
Developing basic communication and agriculture related vocabulary
to access available experts that speak only English/Japanese
Encouraging the widespread belief that English language skills
will enhance economic opportunities by focusing on language (asdescribed above) that will help empower the community to reach
their goals

English language teaching must address the basic language needs of the community (see Table 1).
Progression in these target areas requires a certain functional level of English language proficiency,
so the development of a project-based learning program is needed. PBL seeks specific outcomesand encourages learners to achieve specific goals, such as developing a webpage, creating
marketing materials, etc., in the target language (i.e. English), by providing scaffolding to support
a self-directed learning process. The desired outcomes can be in fact considered several projects
and therefore PBL lends itself well to help the learners achieve their real life goals in English.

ACTIONABLE ITEMS

Based upon the fact-finding mission, we determined to address the above needs and capacity
building requirements by developing a training program that also includes language learning.

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Educational Development in Rural Cambodia

Table 2: Future steps for program development from 2024 onward
Training target
i. Agriculture training

ii. Breed registrationiii. Business skills
iv. English language
proficiencies

Specific targets• Soil analysis and management• Organic production• Pomelo growing techniques and care
• Processing of Pomelo peel and other harvest waste• Quality control• Identification of the Pomelo from Koh Trong Island• NOTE: will require the cooperation of the University ofKratie with genetic testing to be conducted in Japan, andfinally registration as a new species if gene testing merits.
However, this will be a low priority in the second stage
because of the costs.
• Intensive content-based training (entrepreneurship, utilizing
social media, accounting, etc.) using F2F learning and Videoon Demand• Development of the English language curriculum for theuniversity• e.g. Currently, the university does not have a PBL English
language program, which they have recognized as animportant goal for their curriculum. However, a lack offunding and training of teachers have prevented themfrom developing an in-house program. I will provide
training on how to develop a program that addresses
their needs.
• The International Scientific Communication Program of
the Faculty of Agriculture of Kagawa University will be
used as a model.

Because of the breadth and complexity of the training and the ongoing running costs of training,
the next steps will call upon existing expertise at Kagawa University and the University ofKratie (see Table 2). To increase the expertise, faculty members from the University of Kratie fortraining. To date, one faculty member has already received training funded by the JST Sakura
Science Exchange Program. Furthermore, guest lectures and visits from Kagawa University havecommenced and will continue in the future. We will post Japanese graduate students in agriculture
to teach basic agriculture and science in English and do collaborative research with the Universityof Kratie faculty (pending funding). The research components will require the acquisition of funding
to provide non-destructive sweetness testing equipment and the establishment of a baseline bypolymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis to determine the profile of the “ideal pomelo”. This willallow comparative studies to ensure quality control and can lay the basis for selective breeding of
future crop generations.
These initiatives will be supported through the development of online materials, such as templates
for sales and promotional materials as well as video on demand training (VOD). These will be jointly
developed by Kagawa University and the University of Kratie.

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)42PETER LUTESLEARNER DEVELOPMENT EXPERIENCES

English language education plays an important role in this project (as detailed above), since English
language proficiency will give the young people of Ko Trong Island access to more educational
tools, software and a more affluent customer base. I believe that an important part of developing
specific language training for this project was to understand more about the English language
education in the area, specifically the challenges faced by learners and teachers. To gain a better
understanding of the situation in Kratie, discussions were held and classes observed at a local rural
high school in the Province of Kratie and at the University of Kratie.
Local High School: The high school headmaster requested that I not name the school because
he had given permission for the visit without checking with the school board. Two classes wereobserved, a second year and a third year class. The primary teaching methodology observed was
grammar translation. All teaching was conducted in Khmer. The only English language output wasfrom students reading aloud as a class from the textbook. After class, I spoke with students from thesecond-year class who were the most advanced students in the school and were hoping to go to
Royal Phnom Penh University, the premier university in Cambodia. They could express themselves
in English, but according to them, their communicative ability was due to private tutoring in English
on Skype. They reported that their classes at school were not engaging and the level of the class
was too low for them. They welcomed a chance to interact with a native speaker of English. While I
do not think that being a native speaker of English is related to teaching ability, the students placed
great value on the time that they spent with me. They also said that they were so impressed that any
university professor, let alone one from overseas, would come to their rural school.
The headmaster expressed pride in how much the school was able to do for the students with such
limited resources. He also said it was very challenging because the teacher turnover rate was very
high, and the typical student faced many obstacles in getting an education. Some students walked asmuch as 10 km to get to school. Rains regularly flooded the roads making them impassable on foot.
Many students had to help with farming before and after school and, and in harvest season, many
were unable to attend. He said that except for a few students in the advanced class, most of thestudents would not go on to university. The biggest challenge he faced as headmaster was getting
the students to come and stay in school and he focused on community work involving the parents to
extoll the value of education and gain the parents support for their children to come to school.
University of Kratie: A second-year communicative English class was observed. There were 12
students. Although the teacher had an up-to-date knowledge of teaching methodologies and had
experience conducting Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), she was required to use theselected textbook which relied heavily on grammar exercises, model conversations and scripted
pair work. The students were quite shy while being observed. Consequently, the teacher asked
me if I would like to teach. I conducted an introductory activity that encouraged the students to
ask questions and be active listeners. After teaching questions and practicing interjecting into a
conversation, I told a story with a humorous twist ending. Because the students had interjected
to ask for clarification and repetition, they were able to understand the story and the joke ofthe twist ending. The laughter and enjoyment of the story was the reward. The laugh at theend demonstrated to them that by actively listening, interjecting and questioning, they could
understand a complex story and “get the joke”. This ice breaker helped them relax and led to a
10-minute question and answer session about my home country, Canada. Other than their teacher,they had never met a non-Cambodian. They seemed to be quite pleased that they could use
English to satisfy their curiosity about me.
After the class, I met with the teacher and head of the language program. They said that theirmost pressing need was for modern teaching materials. The university and the students could
not afford to buy textbooks. Although the many English language education publishers turn a

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Educational Development in Rural Cambodia

blind eye to photocopying by schools in Cambodia, the university is not able to permit copying of
copyright materials. The teacher explained that since it was necessary for the program to submit
the education materials to the university and to MoEYS for clearance, she had to use the outdated
materials that were available as the core teaching materials.
In consideration of this, the program head and I considered how we could address the specificneeds for the development initiative. The current educational approach was not successful inmeeting the communicative needs of conducting business in English. Therefore, we concluded
that we needed to use an outcome based approach. Because this project has very specificoutputs targeted, Project Based Learning (PBL) will be a key part of the language education forthis initiative. There are significant challenges in taking a new approach with PBL. Cambodianstudents and educators have not been widely exposed to PBL (Lutes & Nhean, 2022), educationin Cambodia is still very much teacher centered (Em et al., 2022), and PBL will ask the students
to adapt to a new way of learning. However, the specificity of the needs and the focus of thelearners lends itself well to PBL. Researchers have recognized and emphasized the importanceof relevance as a fundamental motivator, and as a positive influence on motivation in classroom
learning (Alessi and Trollip, 2001; Keller and Suzuki, 2004, Dornyei and Ushioda, 2011; Boo et al.,2015). The learners are interested in learning English for developing their businesses and want tofocus specifically on skills that will directly improve their ability to access the expatriate community
in Phnom Penh. As such, a consensus was reached that PBL was the most suitable approach.
As noted above, successfully exposing and acclimatizing the students to this new approach tolearning will be an important factor in the success of this project. Language learner development
will necessitate independent and self-directed learning, and will require support and scaffolding
from the language teachers at the University of Kratie.

CONCLUSIONS AND THE NEXT STAGE

Koh Trong Island has unique agricultural advantages, such as rich soil, adequate rainfall, sufficientsunlight and a high quality parent fruit pool, for the cultivation of pomelo. To enhance its economic
significance, formally establishing and registering this unique plant as a novel breed is an important
long-term goal. This process will involve comprehensive analysis of the farming conditions, encompassing
considerations such as soil and water quality. Providing support with advanced growing techniques is
crucial, along with establishing standards for cultivation and evaluation of food quality. The ultimate goal
is to create a distinct brand, leveraging the existing farmer cooperative. By engaging the local youth inbetter business planning and practices, there is real potential for both economic growth and community
empowerment in the region. However, we are keenly aware of the barriers that exist for this community
because of a lack of English language proficiency. Furthermore, it is important to understand that initiallythe English language goals of the learners may be only to gain access to the market, or to deal withforeign customers. It is these targeted goals that PBL will be utilized to address.
To realize these ambitious goals, there must be a focus in the next stage on obtaining funding.
Currently, funding applications are being planned through JICA, JST, JSPS and internationalfoundations. The following steps will depend on the type of funding obtained and the duration of
the funding. However, I remain optimistic that this project will continue.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

The author declares that he has no conflicts of interest.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author would like to thank funding agencies for their support: The initial stage of the project
was funded by a grant from the Takahashi Industrial Foundation; the researcher training visit was
funded by a grant from the JST Sakura Science Exchange Program. The author would also like to
LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)44PETER LUTES

thank Prof. Masahiro Ogawa and Dr. Tomomi Hasegawa for their thoughtful advice in the planningof this project.

REFERENCES

Alessi, S. M., & Trollip, S. R. (2001). Multimedia for learning: methods and development (3rd ed.).
Allyn & Bacon.
Boo, Z., Dörnyei, Z., & Ryan, S. (2015). L2 motivation research 2005–2014: Understanding a publication
surge and a changing landscape. System, 55, 145–157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2015.10.006
Dornyei, Z., & Ushioda, E. (2011). Teaching and researching motivation (2nd ed.), Pearson.
Em, S., Chin, P., Khan, S., & Nun, N. (2022). Teacher education in Cambodia: Formulae, challenges,
and suggestions for improvement. Jurnal As-Salam, 6, 90–104. https://doi.org/10.37249/
assalam.v6i2.401
International Monetary Fund. (2023). World Economic Outlook Database, December 2023 Edition.
(Cambodia). https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/weo-database/2023/October/weoreport?c=522,&s=NGDPRPC,GGX_NGDP,&sy=2018&ey=2024&ssm=0&scsm=1&scc=0&ssd=1&
ssc=0&sic=0&sort=country&ds=.&br=1
Keller, J., & Suzuki, K. (2004). Learner motivation and e-learning design: A multinationally validated
process. Journal of Educational Media, 29(3), 229–239.
Lutes, P. & Nhean, V. (2022). Language learning beliefs of Cambodian university students: Adaptingclassroom teaching inconsideration of the language learning beliefs of students to increase
engagement and motivation. [Conference session] Presented at the 18th Annual CamTESOL
Conference on English Language Teaching. Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Morton, J. (1987). “Grapefruit: Citrus paradisi”. Fruits of warm climates. NewCROP, New Crop
Resource Online Program, Center for New Crops and Plant Products, Purdue University. https://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/grapefruit.html
University of Kratie. (2021). Preliminary study on socio-economic aspects Sangket Kosh Trong,
Kratie City, Kratie Province.

45

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Cooperation to Raise Learner Awareness & Encourage Community Participation

Kurt Ackermann
Hokusei Gakuen Junior College
k_acker[at]hokusei[dot]ac[dot]jp

Cooperation to Raise Learner Awareness &Encourage Community Participation
ABSTRACTMy interest in incorporating citizen science (CS) into one of my content-based English courses arosefrom a desire to link classroom activity with “real-world” situations and/or activities. The impetus wasless a language learning goal than an inspiration to utilize a platform for bringing my second year
junior college students’ attention to pressing environmental issues, primarily the climate crisis, tofoster both broader awareness of the issues, as well as their agency in addressing them.
Attending the LD30 Conference persuaded me that the language learning aspect can also potentiallybe strengthened through incorporation of techniques such as PBL (project-based learning). Basedon what I learned from the PBL experiences of colleagues at the conference, I have suggested anenhanced approach to exposing students to CS that also facilitates language learning. The paper
ends with some suggestions for projects that could be used with non-science majors.
Keywords: content-based instruction, citizen science (CS), project-based learning, real life research project

For over ten years, I have been teaching a content-based second-year geography course in English(L2) to my junior college English department students. It provides a useful platform for introducing
topics such as the climate crisis, sustainability and sustainable development. However, the scopeand depth to which the issues can be addressed is limited by time, and instruction in L2.
One avenue I am currently exploring is to encourage learners to participate in locally available “citizen
science” (CS) activities. For the most part, these would not be conducted using the learners’ second
language, but their introduction and discussion in the classroom can potentially lead to independent
learner involvement outside the classroom. I can reasonably anticipate positive effects on both theirlives and their local community.
In his presentation at LD30, Robert Moreau introduced project-based learning (PBL) as being basedon the pedagogical principle of “learning by doing” (Moreau, 2023), which resonated with me as mygoal of raising awareness is one best reached by having learners directly engage with activities that
can assist them in better grasping the implications of the concepts they are exposed to in the course.
Although their engagement is not necessarily related to language learning, I think it is important fromthe point of view of cultivating a deeper understanding and appreciation of environmental issues.
Hokusei Gakuen Junior College, where I teach, has offered content-based courses since 1994. Thesemay variously be referred to as content-based instruction (CBI), content-based language teaching(CBLT), or content and language integrated learning (CLIL) courses. Subjects include anthropology,
life science, and geography, amongst others. Every teacher has their own approach. As the instructor
for the geography course, my background in geography and environmental studies allows me
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KURT ACKERMANN

to provide knowledge of the issues and their interconnectedness, though time and the fact thatstudents are non-majors studying in a second language limits how deeply they can be addressed.
Geography is a second-year elective course, though as students are required to take several ofthese electives to fulfill graduation requirements, they may not always take it out of interest in thesubject. I do, however, assume that most are motivated out of interest and I make efforts to provide
activities that they will enjoy. As they are English majors, most of the coursework is carried out inEnglish, but using Japanese (L1) for expansion activities in the community outside of the classroom
cannot be avoided. I also assume that any students participating in activities such as these, which
are not mandatory, will be more motivated in general and should benefit from the further intellectual
stimulation.
My participation in the LD30 Conference served to remind me of the benefits to learner developmentof fostering engagement and autonomy and helped me to develop a better understanding of how
PBL could be applied to my situation.

CITIZEN SCIENCE (CS)As a child growing up more or less in the middle of the forest in rural eastern Canada, observing
nature was a daily routine. Watching the changes occur in our local blueberry field after drainage
ditches were dug nearby and how the once bountiful wild fruit bushes gave way to scraggly spruce
trees gave me an eye for observing cause and effect. Noting the changes brought on by the climate
crisis to my current home in Hokkaido has inspired me to try and use my content-based geography
course for second-year English majors as a vehicle for increasing their awareness of the profoundchanges that will impact their lives in the near future.
Getting out into nature and having firsthand experiences is one of the best ways to see the situation,and I have considered the possibility of some kind of field trip, but the logistics are challenging. As
a result, I have been constantly on the lookout for something that could serve as an opportunity to
expose my students to Hokkaido’s natural environment and also be a learning experience for them.
When I eventually found a project that seemed to be a straightforward participatory activity with little
barrier to entry, I decided to introduce it to my students and to estimate their level of possible interest.
Researching the background of this project called Herpthon, which I detail later in this section, I cameto be aware that this type of activity fell into the category of so-called citizen science (CS), defined ineasy-to-understand terms by Vohland et al. (2021, p. 1):“Citizen science broadly refers to the active engagement of the general public inscientific research tasks. Citizen science is a growing practice in which scientists andcitizens collaborate to produce new knowledge for science and society.”
Although anyone with interest and curiosity can engage with science in general, my interpretation of
the concept of CS is that non-specialists, such as my students, would be able to have their hands-on
interaction with nature become an effective learning experience by contributing to projects run byresearchers or other groups with specific scientific goals.
In a sense, sharing is at the root of CS. Even non-specialists can engage with important scientificresearch in a variety of ways. Members of the general public can help scientists to better use theirtime by assisting with mundane and time-consuming, but crucial, tasks that might otherwise takescientists away from doing what they do best. By becoming involved, citizen scientists can not
only help scientists perform their crucial research more efficiently, but also increase their own
knowledge of the issue, or acquire new knowledge and understanding that they can then further
share with their circle of acquaintances, family, etc. Learners as citizen scientists can be expected
to enrich awareness within and among their current communities, and to join new communities,
which will also benefit from such participation.

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Cooperation to Raise Learner Awareness & Encourage Community Participation

Figure 1 illustrates the three goals that are associated with CS (Kobori, 2022). I feel that these fit inwell with my hopes for what learners will take away from my course. They will likely align with theaims of almost any course as well.

Research

CitizenScience

SocialchangeEducation
Figure 1: Three goals of CS (adapted from Kobori, 2022)
Various studies point to the benefits of participation in CS, even for those who are not initially familiar
with the background of the project, or even science in general. According to Marley et al. (2022),
CS is an example of “real life research projects” (RLRP) which can provide data for scientists while
also increasing the confidence and engagement of students. It is most effective if related to thestudents’ field of study (science majors) but does not have to be. A study by Mitchell et al. (2017),
found that although student participants lost some confidence in the quality of data collected, theexperience can encourage them to improve their data collection approach. In the context of mynon-science major students, I hope for and foresee their increased awareness of scientific issues,
allowing them to engage more proactively in conversations on related topics within and outside of
their current communities.
Although the concept of CS appears relatively easy to embrace, the next challenge lies in identifying
examples of CS that learners can participate in. Quick searches on the internet seem to suggest that
CS projects are fairly common in North America and Europe. In my own teaching situation at Hokusei
Gakuen, in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, options are limited. My approach toward incorporating CS is to
identify projects currently in progress that the students could join with a minimum amount of advance
preparation. As CS projects will have started before my course and continue after it has finished,
student participation will only be transient with regard to the CS project itself, but it can be hoped thatsome of them may be motivated to continue after the course and even after graduation.
Despite a first attempt in the spring 2023 semester, my students have not as yet actually participatedin CS projects. I am planning to use CS projects in my geography classes from April this year (2024),
LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)48

KURT ACKERMANN

so I have spent time trying to find appropriate examples to present to them as options. One activity
that takes place in various locations in or near Sapporo is tree planting. Tree planting may not at
first appear to be an example of CS, since contribution to research is one of the stated goals of
CS. However, the approach to planting trees has evolved from simply getting as many trees in the
ground as possible, with little regard to what varieties were present previously, to reproducing
levels of diversity that would contribute to more sustainable forests as the trees mature.
Participating in ecologically planned tree planting projects can educate the participants, interested
citizens in general, and my students in particular, as to why it is important to not just plant any tree,
but that the selection is part of a scientifically conceived plan to obtain the best results in terms of
ecology, biodiversity and benefits to people as well. Therefore, tree planting that involves monitoring
may also be an engaging type of CS (Idris et al., 2022).
By joining a project that utilizes a platform such as iNaturalist (https://www.inaturalist.org/) for posting
photographs taken by both citizen scientists and expert researchers, the non-specialists can learn
how to take photographs that will be of use to the research in question. For example, many species,
whether animal or plant, are difficult to distinguish on the basis of a single photograph, due tosimilarities in appearance. Photographs that are taken from various angles allow distinguishingfeatures of the subject organism to be identified. Although explanations of these techniques can befound on the platform in various forms, explicit instructions to students from the project coordinators
and/or from the instructor can provide additional guidance and scaffolding.
The popularity of iNaturalist with educators at many levels has meant that there have been instancesof mostly disinterested participants posting inappropriate or non-useful data to the site, causing somefrustration to the community. As a result, a more general app called Seek (https://www.inaturalist.
org/pages/seek_app) was developed and is recommended for projects where learner participation
is mandatory. Unlike iNaturalist, users need not be identifiable, and the anonymity is suitable foryounger learners. This platform can be useful for some educators wishing to engage their learners in
CS from a young age and in situations where participation is required. However, this does not suit myapproach.
My first attempt at interesting my students in participating in CS was an event called Herpthon 2023
(https://koke-koke.com/Kamui/archives/category/herpthon). The name is derived from “Herpetological
Marathon”, and the concept is for ‘teams’ of participants to take photographs of (living or dead)
reptiles and amphibians found in Hokkaido. Participants are also invited to make recordings, forexample of frogs croaking, since photographing them may be difficult. An incentive of sorts existed
in the form of a competition for the best photograph taken during the 2023 iteration of the marathon.
In addition to the fact that there are a limited number of amphibian and reptile species in Hokkaido,
meaning less complexity, the period of the ‘event’ corresponded quite closely to the length of theuniversity’s first semester. I felt that this would also help me to ease into the experience of CS ingeneral. Although a handful of students expressed some interest, in the end none actually took up
the challenge. An earlier start and better explanation may have helped, but the main reaction fromstudents was revulsion at the idea of having any interaction with ‘uncute’ animals such as frogs andsnakes, whether living or dead, so a psychological hurdle to participation exists and I will need tothink carefully about which projects to introduce.
Whether it is photographing amphibians and reptiles for a project such as Herpthon, planting trees in an
ecologically sound manner, or any other activity that contributes to scientific research, understanding orpractical outcomes, there can be various levels of complexity or depth of participation. Haklay (2013, p.
115) proposes four “Levels of participation and engagement in Citizen Science projects” as compiled in
Figure 2.

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Cooperation to Raise Learner Awareness & Encourage Community Participation

Level 4 ‘Extreme Citizen Science’> Collaborative science – problem definition, data collection and analysis

Level 3 ‘Participatory Science’> Participation in problem definition and data collection

Level 2 ‘Distributed Intelligence’> Citizens as basic interpreters> Volunteered thinking
Level 1 ‘Crowdsourcing’> Citizens as sensors> Volunteered computing

Figure 2: Levels of participation and engagement in citizen science projects (from Haklay, 2013)
As they involve less of a deep understanding and expertise on the part of participating students,
Level 1 and Level 2 are of most interest and relevance to my situation. Level 3, involving datacollection, may also be possible as the students gain more confidence in their ability to participate.
However, it seems reasonable to assume that basic data collection of the kind that my students
might engage in, such as photographing animals and recording other relevant information about
them and when or where they were spotted, would be included in Level 1 participation.
Another CS project that may interest my students is the “Hanamaru Maruhana (Bumblebee National
Census) Project”. This project is introduced on Fukuoka University’s Faculty of Commerce, Citizen
Science Research Centre website and may attract more student interest than the “Herpthon”
project. The center identifies it as a good example of a citizen science project that fits into theLevel 1 ‘Crowdsourcing’ category (Haklay, 2013), since participants from around the country
provide photographs they take of bees, and which are used to create a census for bumblebees.
As this appears to be an ongoing project, it may be a good addition to the choices of project for
students, given its relevance to geography topics such as ecosystems and farming/resources.
In Hokkaido, Bombus terrestris, the buff-tailed bumblebee, common in Europe, is classified as a‘designated invasive alien species’ and there is concern that it will displace the native bumblebees,
so participation in the project can raise learner awareness of the situation, its effect on Hokkaido
ecosystems, and also encourage them to think about the consequences for and impacts on
agriculture in Hokkaido. That may also motivate them to create connections between participation in
the activity and their choice of foods to use in a second semester in-class activity where, in groups,
they research locally produced foods to create a ’Hokkaido Breakfast’ and locate the production
regions on a map of the prefecture.

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AND PBL

Although incorporating CS into my course is not a formal example of environmental education, amodel outlining the progression in environmental education from an initial focus on information
proceeding through to action, introduced by Henderson and cited in Jacobson (1999), is a goodsummary of my expectations for the path that learners would follow (Figure 3).
LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)50

KURT ACKERMANN

action↑concern↑
understanding↑
appreciation↑

awareness of program/problem↑little awareness

Figure 3: Awareness-to-action model (adapted from Jacobson, 1999)
Jacobson emphasizes that even as familiarity with the program/problem increases, “…the first few
levels of the hierarchy always should be included in educational programs, even for adolescentsand adults, because the awareness phase of learning remains important and enjoyable for maturelearners,” (Jacobson, 1999, p. 239). I also agree with this philosophy and approach to education on
environmental issues, as it will serve to remind learners of what they should be trying to achieve. The
life experiences of project participants will place them at varying levels of the model from the outset,
but through continual stimulation of awareness and understanding of the environmental issues, allshould be able to make progress rapidly to a stage where they can engage in meaningful action.
Despite having an understanding and image of what an approach based on environmental education
principles entails, before attending the LD30 Conference, I did not have a clear image of how tointegrate a CS project into my course in a structured manner. Attending a presentation on PBL atthe conference given by Robert Moreau introduced me to a possible framework for introducing CS.
In his presentation, Moreau (2023) introduced Stoller and Myers’ (2020) five-stage framework, consistingof preparation, information gathering, information processing, display and reflection. I felt that thiswas something that I could use. Given that I am in the preliminary phase of trying to incorporate
citizen science activities into my course as a complement to the main (assessed) content, I will not
attempt the more advanced stages of display and reflection. In my approach, preparation will involve
introducing the concepts behind citizen science and the background of the projects which will befeatured as options for the learners to engage with. Information gathering and processing at thispoint in time will not be highly structured, nor given overly strong emphasis. Instead, there will be
more emphasis on the experiences directly had by students as they participate in their chosen
projects, and the awareness generated as they come to realize the significance and/or utility of theinformation/data that they are contributing to the project.

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Cooperation to Raise Learner Awareness & Encourage Community Participation

Although the use of PBL in my course seems a good fit, this was my first exposure to it, and noneof my colleagues at my school use it either. It will obviously take some time and research to obtaina clear grasp of how it is best implemented and how to approach using it effectively. As part of
my investigation into PBL, I found the emphasis by McDowell (2017) on “confidence in learning
attributes” (growth mindset, assessment-capable learning and collaboration) and “competence inlearning levels” (surface, deep and transfer) to have strong appeal, and the idea that PBL could
facilitate the cultivation of these in my learners further increased my interest in this method.
Although face-to-face work on tasks and collaboration is a very important skill for learners, it is also
true that some of them find it very difficult to work with others in a face-to-face situation. I haveexperience with a variety of learners who have expressed misgivings about being required tooperate in such contexts. The use of technology, with which many of them are more comfortable
than direct human interaction, may help to alleviate this, as well as enhancing overall collaboration.
I think that finding CS projects that also allow this type of more indirect participation is one way ofaccommodating such learners.
The times that we live in present enormous variety in how we can engage with science and witheach other and as Busch (2013, p. 209) writes, it can be anticipated that introducing learners to
websites or applications which involve them in CS endeavors will, “nurture a collective effort, asense of collaboration and community that is particular to these times” independent of the original
ostensible goal of learning a second language.

CONCLUSION

With all these still-expanding connections being made, I further appreciate the experience of attending
LD30, and even feel excitement at the prospect of bringing all these threads together, whether in mycurrent courses, or in a future course that I may design and teach. The exposure to PBL in particular will
help with how I structure my approach. A project related to ecosystems and invasive species introducedby McDowell (2017), despite being a kindergarten project, convincingly illustrates the suitability of CS
for use in a PBL environment. Activating student interest is an ongoing challenge but exposing themto examples of what their peers are capable of achieving, and also by giving them the opportunity to‘get their hands dirty’ in CS projects, should engage their interest and curiosity. All these experiences
hold the potential to raise their awareness of a range of issues, awareness that they will pass on tomembers of their communities and also engage their capacity to think critically. That to me is a very
worthwhile outcome.

REFERENCES

Busch, A. (2013). The incidental steward: Reflections on citizen science. Yale University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt32bp4r
Citizen Science Research Center (2023, February 8). Shichizun saiensu-tte? Shimin no ironna
kakawarikata wo jirei to awasete goshokai. Fukuoka University, Faculty of Commerce. https://note.com/csrc/n/n92674f9f45e9
Gras-Velázquez, A. (2020). Project-based learning in second language acquisition. Routledge.
Haklay, M., 2013, Citizen science and volunteered geographic information – overview and typologyof participation. In D. Z. Sui, S. Elwood, & M.F. Goodchild (Eds.). Crowdsourcing geographic
knowledge: Volunteered geographic information (VGI) in theory and practice. (pp. 105–122)
Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4587-2_7
Idris, N., Alias, N., Sittrambaram, G & Ishak, M. (2022). Realizing citizen science action in tree
planting with Malaysian school children virtually. International Journal of Geoinformatics, 18(4).
https://doi.org/10.52939/ijg.v18i4.2265
Jacobson, S. K. (1999). Communication skills for conservation professionals. Island Press.
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Kobori, H. (2022). Shimin kagaku no susume: Jibungoto minnagoto de kagaku kyōiku shakai wo
kaeru. Bun’ichisōgōshuppan.
Marley, S. A., Siani, A., & Sims, S. (2022). Real-life research projects improve student engagement andprovide reliable data for academics. Ecology and Evolution, 12(12), Advance online publication.
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9593
McDowell, M. (2017). Rigorous PBL by design: Three shifts for developing confident and competentlearners. Corwin.
Mitchell, N., Triska, M., Liberatore, A., Ashcroft, L., Weatherill, R., & Longnecker, N. (2017). Benefits
and challenges of incorporating citizen science into university education. PLOS ONE 12(11):e0186285. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0186285
Moreau, R. (October 22, 2023). Enhancing student development through project based learning(PBL) [Paper presentation]. LD30: Learning for change and action, making a difference for the
future, Gakushuin University, Tokyo, Japan.
Stoller, F. L. & Myers, C. C. (2020). Project-based learning: A five-stage framework to guide language
teachers. In A. Gras- Velázquez (Ed). Project-based learning in second language acquisition (pp25-47). Routledge.
Vohland, K., Land-Zandstra, A., Ceccaroni, L., Lemmens, R., Perelló, J., Ponti, M., Samson, R., & Wagenknecht,
K. (Eds.). (2021). Science of citizen science. Springer Nature. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-03058278-4

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)SECTION 2: COURSE DEVELOPMENTi.

Projects Beyond the Classroomii.

Course Developmentiii.

Teacher Researchiv.

Student Presentationsv.

Reflections

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)RICHARD WALKER

Richard Walker
Reitaku University
rwalker[at]reitaku-u[dot]ac[dot]jp

Development Sustained: Searching for Fresh
Sustenance
ABSTRACTIn this article, I describe the evolution of Introduction to UN Studies, a four-skills-one-semester course
in which EFL students research, discuss, and present on topics in discussion at the UN on behalfof a Member State. Its evolution is intertwined with my role as Faculty Adviser for a student Model
United Nations (MUN) committee at a Japanese university in Chiba, a role without which there would
have been no course. After observing members of our MUN committee at a student conference inthe USA, I recognised the need for a course that emphasised specific speaking skills. Since 2020,
the course has gone through four iterations and, from 2021, has been taught at a second university
in Tokyo, serving a wider community than the initial group. In my LD30 Conference presentation, I
discussed responses from over 70 students to a survey I administered and sought ideas in my search
for fresh sustenance.
Keywords: course development, faculty adviser, global studies, MUN

DEVELOPMENT ACT 1: DAMASCENE MOMENTS

In late 2018, I was approached by the incumbent Faculty Adviser of my university’s Model United
Nations (MUN) student group and asked to take over in March 2019. Having experience in studying
world politics, I accepted his request and followed his advice. In April 2019, I registered to participate
in the November 2019 student MUN conference in Washington DC. We expected to send eightstudents and chose from a list of countries that required a delegation of that number. Mostdelegations with eight members sat on four committees, and from our choices, the organisers
gave us the challenging and delicate task of representing the Syrian Arab Republic. From May to
November, I gave weekly assistance and advice to students in the MUN group who worked on
topics for four of eight UN committees that students would sit on at the conference (see NMUN 1).
Prior to flying to the US, this advice culminated in the students submitting four position papers to
the conference organisers.

1.1 PREPARATIONS

Preparing students to role-play being a Syrian delegate meant that I had to put them in the unenviable
position of representing Bashar al-Assad’s government – and in a second language, to boot. Thismay have presented an ethical dilemma for some students, impossible and immoral some mightsay, but it was a student role play for a conference in Washington with almost 1000 students fromaround the world. These students had every incentive to learn their lines and rise to their roles. It
was an opportunity to do well in an activity that requires creative thinking and the construction of

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Development Sustained: Searching for Fresh Sustenancenew identities. Factual topics were acted upon in a fictional dimension – on a stage, as it were, in
the USA. We referred to the real world in the full knowledge that it was a simulation.
As the adviser, I assisted and encouraged students to develop the knowledge and language required
to be a Syrian diplomat. They had to understand their topics and discuss ideas with delegatesfrom other countries in DC. My dilemma was twofold: firstly, how realistically should I approachit, and, secondly, how could I prepare them for the language demands they would face? Shoulda faculty adviser consider confrontational claims that were available online and were welcomedby real Syrian diplomats? Maybe not, but in the spirit of the conference (whereby students ‘acted’a role) I counselled them to take realistic positions in their committees - and this helped us to gain
recognition through an Honourable Mention Delegation award, and plaudits for an Outstanding
Position Paper in the General Assembly First Committee - the latter of which required awareness ofgeopolitical realities and having a realistic Syrian position (NMUN-DC 2019).

1.2 THE COURSE: WORKING ON DAMASCENE MOMENTS

After returning to Japan, I considered some Damascene moments that I experienced in DC whenrecognising the need for a course based on researching, discussing, and presenting on topics
on behalf of a Member State. I fully realised the importance of Agenda 2030 and the need toreference SDGs more skilfully when discussing global issues. I was informed that such a course
would have to be of service to a wider community, but, perhaps because the university had won
at least one position paper award at the NMUN (National Model United Nations) tournament inWashington DC for four consecutive years, the proposal for a new course was accepted andimplemented from May 2020. The course focused on contemporary topics, with an emphasis on
how each country could help work towards meeting sustainable development goals while using
activities that optimised discussion. I continued being the faculty adviser to the university MUN
group and now taught Introduction to UN Studies.

DEVELOPMENT ACT 2 – YEAR 1: WHEN HERCULES SEIZED US

Table 1: The course taught at 2 universities (2020 to 2024)
Year
University 1
University 2
English Communication majors
Politics, Economics & Law majors
1 2020 Introduction to UN Studies*(online)2 2021 Introduction to UN Studies*
English C 1** (online)(online)English C 2*** (online)
3 2022 Introduction to UN Studies*
English C 1** (classroom)(classroom)
English C 2*** (classroom)
4 2023 Introduction to UN Studies*
English C 1** (classroom)(classroom)
English C 2*** (classroom)* Elective for English Communication majors** Compulsory for first year Politics and Economics majors*** Compulsory for first year Law majors

I therefore spent the months preceding the start of the academic year 2020-21 planning a new course
to cater for the needs of students in the MUN group and also for those outside the group who wereinterested in the topics. It was designed to focus on discussion skills without the use of a textbook, and I
sought to recycle material from past conferences and use topics from the UN News website. COVID-19,
however, made its fateful appearance and prevented the classes from being taught in person. Despite
this uncertainty, I proceeded to teach the course online and registered the university for the 2020

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)56

RICHARD WALKER

NMUN-DC conference. We were able to plan for what would be an online-only conference inNovember 2020, where we had the challenge of representing the Argentine Republic.
The students who registered for the first iteration of the elective Introduction to UN Studies course
were mainly MUN group members. Class topics were from contemporary UN News items and werechosen because of their relevance to committees that students would sit on at the conference.
Representing countries in small groups, the students researched issues related to a pandemic, anenvironmental issue, and discrimination. The MUN committee had separate weekly meetings where
they could concentrate on their research and issues related to committees they would sit on in theconference (see NMUN 2). There was much cross-pollination between the course and the group,and the course helped to unify the students, which, in turn, helped students focus on the conference.
Student evaluations were based on class performance, vocabulary tests, and written reflections.
In the online conference, students were hampered by Wi-Fi issues. They were unable to use some skills
that we had studied in the course; however, the persistence of the students won them admiration for
their ‘herculean’ efforts. They had researched professionally before the conference, and because of
their erudition eight students won recognition via four Outstanding Position Paper awards (NMUN-DC,
2020). They achieved this through their hard work, but the course had undoubtedly played a major part.
After the first year of the course, the university had won its highest number of awards at NMUN-DC.

DEVELOPMENT ACT 3 - YEAR 2: AND CARACAS FACED SANCTIONS…

Following the MUN group’s success in the student conference, the evening elective Introduction to
UN Studies course attracted more students from the university. I also started teaching the course
at a second university in Tokyo – as a CLIL course titled English C to students from the Faculty ofLaw (and also to Economics and Politics students). Partially because of the increased workload,but mainly because of the global importance of SDGs, I chose to use an SDG-focused textbook(Sasajima et al, 2021) for themes and basic readings of topics that could be used in role plays anddiplomatic simulations. The pattern of the course in 2021 was almost indistinguishable from the2022 curriculum in Table 2 below.
In 2021, however, using Google Forms, I tested students on vocabulary knowledge, something which I
phased out in 2022 in favour of written reflections that students could upload onto the class Google
Classroom site. In class, I designed role plays based around one or more of the SDGs that we hadstudied and followed this with diplomatic simulations that replicated the type of discussions andspeeches that MUN students experience at a MUN conference. Student evaluations were again
based on class performance, vocabulary tests, and written reflections. At the end of the course,
I continued an ungraded experiment that I tried at the end of year one, viz., to get all students(countries) to work together and write a working paper on one topic.
Table 2: Introduction to UN Studies - 2022
Class
1 Introduction. Quiz! Choose a country
2 Your country: culture, history & geopolitics
3 Role Play 1: A Pandemic

Homework
World Factbook data
Presentations
Unit 1 / SDG 1 and 2

4
5
6
7
8
9

Unit 2 / SDG 3
Unit 5- 6 / SDG 6-7
Discussion questions
Role Play prep
Unit 3 / SDG 4
Unit 4 / SDG 5+10

Topic #1 – Poverty
Topic #2 – Health
Topic #3 – Water & Energy
Discussion and reflection
Role Play 2: A Pressing Issue
Topic #4 – Education

57

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Development Sustained: Searching for Fresh SustenanceClass
10 Topic #5 – Gender
11 Topic #6 – Work & Economic Growth
12 Discussion and reflection
13 Preparation for role play 3
14 Role Play 3: An Urgent Issue!
15 Final discussions and reflections

Homework
Unit 7 / SDG 8
Discussion questions
Role Play prep
Role Play prep
Role Play prep
Reflections

As in 2019 and 2020, I registered the MUN group again for the Washington DC conference. In 2021,
we were assigned to represent the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Due to successes in pastconferences, two full-time teachers were scheduled to assist the MUN group committee meetings,
and we prepared ourselves to represent a country with two leaders: President Maduro and Westernbacked President Guaido. It was a fascinating educational assignment, and we had a student
leader who would have (with the use of a fake moustache) passed as a double for Nicolas Maduro!
Unfortunately, we were unable to perform in DC that year: the conference was in-person, and theuniversity’s COVID-era school policies were not revoked in time. We had our costumes; we knew ourlines – but we could not perform that year. In 2021, though, some of the MUN group participated in an
online Harvard Model United Nations (HMUN) conference.

DEVELOPMENT ACT 4 - YEAR 3: A KINSHASA CURTAILMENT

In 2022, the course was taught again in the classroom at the two universities following a return toface-to-face classes after the pandemic. As in the first two years, class one saw students choose acountry to represent. For the rest of the semester, students studied topics through activities that led
to three role plays. Again, the role plays were based on and designed around current global issues
that were in discussion at the UN and, if possible, related to the NMUN-DC conference. Alongside
the use of the textbook, I continued to create worksheets that simplified UN News articles andmade more use of other resources, such as Jeremy Sachs’s annually-updated SDG Dashboard(see Sachs et al, 2023) and various other news databases. Students were now evaluated on classperformance and written reflections. There were no vocabulary tests. Post-course evaluations showedthat students were happy with the course.
In April 2022, for the fourth time, I registered to represent a country at the NMUN-DC conference,
and, because of a student request, we applied and were accepted to represent the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC) at NMUN-DC 2022. Immediately, the student group held weekly
meetings with a focus on the possible committees we would sit on. However, because of issues
related to COVID-19, the student group was unable to secure funds, but having already registered
for the conference, we sought to attend a separate NMUN conference in Kobe (NMUN-Kobe). We wereallowed to do so, but on the condition that some students represent the Republic of Madagascar.
Representing the DRC and Madagascar was a challenge that exceeded our capacity, but the experience
was memorable, and the course was more popular than ever.

DEVELOPMENT ACT 5 - YEAR 4: A FINE FINNISH?

By the end of 2023, the elective Introduction to UN Studies had had four iterations, and the compulsory
same-content English C courses three. They were working better than ever. Introduction to UN
Studies attracted almost 30 students for an evening class, and the English C courses had just overthe same number. It seems that the format (of putting students into country groups) and the topics
that I had chosen were popular. For the fourth iteration, I changed the course textbook to Yoshihara
et al’s (2022) discussion-based SDG text because the text provided a stable and engaging base for

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RICHARD WALKER

a wider group of students. I still designed my own material though and one self-designed activity isreferred to in the Tangible Benefits from Intangible Practices article in this volume.
In November 2023, MUN students from my university were able to participate in the NMUN-DC
conference for the first time since 2020. The impact of COVID-19 had grave financial implications
for the group, but through the determination of students, the group survived. Without my role as
Faculty Adviser for this group, there would have been no impetus to create the course covered inthis paper, and the cessation of the group may have led to the end of Introduction to UN Studies.
If the end was nigh for the group (it isn’t), then the finale was a fantastic one. Fantastic in the senseof extraordinary and exceptional. After registering the university in April for a country that required
four students, the organisers met our request to represent the Republic of Finland. After Syria,
Argentina, Venezuela, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Madagascar – we now had
Finland, the newest member of NATO. Compared to our previous assignments, this was a country
with a broadly similar geopolitical orientation to Japan, but as with all of the above – we had to act.
We had to play a role. We had to rehearse our lines. With the support of many teachers, including
Bladimie Germain and Chelanna White, the students had a great team that helped them prepare.
The university did everything within its power to help us, and with a student crowdfunding campaign(Campfire, 2023), four students and the faculty adviser were able to attend the DC conference inNovember 2023. The students prepared exceptionally well, and their performance was extraordinary.
The four students (or, as I christened them, the ‘Finnish Four’) worked together to make an impact
in discussions and the production of conference Working Papers. They achieved the university’s
best-ever performance in DC (RU 2). The four won a Distinguished Delegation Award for the first time
and three papers were given Outstanding Position Awards (NMUN-DC, 2023). All of these students
had at some point in their university lives taken and/or assisted in Introduction to UN Studies.

THE LD30 CONFERENCE: SUSTENANCE SUPPLIEDIn July 2023, I distributed questionnaires to students from the three courses, and through their responses
I obtained sustenance. Below I shall discuss the findings of the questionnaire and add my comments
together with input from participants at the LD30 Conference. My questions sought to discover if
students were very satisfied, satisfied, or not satisfied. I had been satisfied with the way the course
had evolved, and through discussions at the conference I realised that I unknowingly used manyof John Hattie’s (2012) recommended practices for teachers – such as having high expectations (p.
81), focusing on effect over method (p.83), and working to activate and evaluate learning (p. 86).
I shall now briefly comment on student evaluation of the textbook, the topics, and Google Classroom,
and afterward discuss student satisfaction, role-plays, and speeches in more depth. There was almost
unanimous satisfaction reported for the choice of textbook and topics. 77% of all students were verysatisfied with the topics, which is rewarding as in 2023 I used challenging topics such as anti-gay
laws in Uganda (Madowo & Feleke, 2023) for the class on gender, and the situation in Haiti for theclass on poverty. To make these classes work, I had to make sure students used Google Classroom tocomplete homework before class and after class. This may have been one reason why a majority ofstudents were satisfied (49%) more than very satisfied (44%). Possibly I need to reduce the amount of
homework that I give students.

i. Student satisfaction

I was happy that almost 80% of students from Introduction to UN Studies and an average of 71% of
students from all three courses were very satisfied. I placed a lot of demands on myself in creating
material, and on students in preparing for class and in writing reflections: to see such a positive
response is pleasing. The overwhelmingly positive responses show that the course was worthwhile
for a wider community. The vast majority of students took the course to further their knowledge
and improve their English skills while doing so. They benefited because they studied topics that59

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Development Sustained: Searching for Fresh Sustenancedeepened their understanding of global issues, and in the case of the Politics, Economics, and Law
students in the English C courses this connected to their major studies in Japanese.

ii. Role plays and discussions

I was satisfied with the organisation of role plays and discussions. Before discussion and role plays
began, students worked in pairs on questions based on their homework. Role plays and discussions
began after students had the time to understand the basics. In the case of anti-gay laws referred toabove, the question `How should we respond to anti-LGBTQ laws in Uganda?’ was used as a sourcefor discussions - and for a role play. Students were given up to five ‘sub’ questions that would allow
them to consider their responses. The questions were discussed within country groups at first, and,afterwards, as a role-play, between the country groups. Before the discussions and the role-play,
the teacher encouraged students to consider their country contexts and to use the homework
worksheets together with additional data put on a PowerPoint. Over three-quarters of students werevery satisfied with such role plays and discussions, but I think there is room for improvement by
spending more time attending to questions arising from homework. In other words, I should spend
more time answering the students’ questions following their homework assignments. By doing this,more students will understand the topics more clearly and feel more confident when they move on to
discuss the topic and finally take part in the role-play.

iii. Giving speeches

Speeches followed the discussion and role plays and were based on an opinion that I introduced
about the class topic. For example, in the case of our lesson on anti-LGBTQ laws in Uganda, I informed
the class that the Lao People’s Democratic Republic had a proposal that, while respecting Ugandan
sovereignty, called to protect and promote human rights for all and called for the rescission of
discriminatory laws. Each country had the opportunity to respond to the opinion and create a short‘position speech’. They were informed that they should spend between 30 to 90 seconds on theirspeeches.
The majority of students, again, were very satisfied but 40% were merely satisfied with the speeches– and 1% were not satisfied. The speeches were a part of every role-play class (and sometimes
regular classes) and could be written about in their reflections. To make students even more satisfied,perhaps there is a need to standardise the speech component of the course and enforce total
participation. However, doing that would take away from student agency and make teacher authority
a little too overt: I believe that asking students to volunteer to make speeches promotes student
empowerment.

THE SEARCH CONTINUES

To make the course work, and meet the demands of the student group, there has been pressure toconsider contemporary topics and new situations. This will continue if the course and my responsibilities
continue. However, it has been rewarding to see students thrive and empower themselves in situations
that I helped engender. The courses that I have written have been successful in various iterations,and it seems that the right mix of activities and topics has been used. The cross-pollination between
the course and the student group has been mutually beneficial, but perhaps now is the time to refine
my approach and the activities. I know how to sustain the development of such courses, so perhaps I
am well-placed to teach in a way that ensures that no one is left behind.

REFERENCES

Campfire. (2023). 模擬国連は私達の夢舞台!! [Model United Nations is our dream stage!!], Campfire.
Retrieved January 12, 2024 from https://camp-fire.jp/projects/view/686016?utm_campaign=cp_po_
share_c_msg_mypage_projects_show&fbclid=IwAR2luxX69_L77RgPwsDupkrroiBZ6znk19Pw7S
iE81KfZsoMsJ7WSBfymu4
LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)60

RICHARD WALKER

Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning, Routledge.
Madowo, L. & Feleke, B. (2023). Uganda passed one of the world’s harshest anti-gay laws. LGBTQ
people describe living there as ‘hell’. CNN. Retrieved January 14, 2024 from https://edition.cnn.
com/2023/06/29/africa/uganda-life-for-lgbt-community-intl-cmd/index.html
NMUN 1. (2019). Washington, D.C. 2019 Archive NMUN, Retrieved January 13, 2024 from https://www.nmun.org/about-nmun/conference-archives/washington-dc/washington-dc-2019.html
NMUN 2. (2020). Washington, D.C. 2020 Archive, NMUN, Retrieved January 13, 2024 from https://www.nmun.org/about-nmun/conference-archives/washington-dc/washington-dc-2020.html
NMUN-DC. (2019). 2019 NMUN•DC Awards, NMUN, Retrieved December 1, 2023 from https://www.
nmun.org/assets/documents/conference-archives/washington-dc/2019/dc19-award-posting.pdf
NMUN-DC. (2020). 2020 NMUN•DC Awards, NMUN, Retrieved December 1, 2023 from https://www.nmun.org/assets/documents/conference-archives/washington-dc/2020/dc20-awardposting.pdf
NMUN-DC. (2023). 2023 NMUN-DC Awards, NMUN, Retrieved December 9, 2023 from https://www.nmun.org/about-nmun/conference-archives/washington-dc/washington-dc-2023.html
RU 1. (2020, January 17). 第9期 麗澤模擬国連団体が「全米模擬国連大会」の報告会を開催. Reitaku
University. Retrieved January 14, 2024 from https://www.reitaku-u.ac.jp/news/event/72431/
RU 2. (2023, December 22). 麗澤模擬国連団体 初のDistinguished Delegations賞を受賞. Reitaku
University. Retrieved January 14 2024 from https://www.reitaku-u.ac.jp/news/life/1777045/
Sachs, J. D., Lafortune, G., Fuller, G., & Drumm, E. (2023). Implementing the SDG stimulus.
Sustainable development report 2023. Dublin University Press.
Sasajima, S., Kojima, S., Abe, N., Sato, M., Kudo, T., & Kavanagh, B. (2021). CLIL SDGs: Sustainable
Development Goals. Sanshusha.
Yoshihara, R., Hayashi, C., Itoi, E., Iwamoto, N., Morrell, A. (2022). SDG x Discussion. Kinseido.

61

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)I Let a Group of Learners Take Ownership of Their English Communication Course, and THIS Happened!!

Ivan Lombardi
University of Fukui
ivan[at]u-fukui[dot]ac[dot]jp

I Let a Group of Learners Take Ownership of Their
English Communication Course, and THIS Happened!!
ABSTRACTIn this reflective article I tell the unfolding story of an English communication course for first-year
students at the University of Fukui (School of Global and Community Studies). In this course,
students were given agency and control over the course content and logistics. In the beginning,learners engaged in self-assessment of their spoken English; then, they responded to a survey
inquiring about their language needs and goals and desired focus for the course content. The
results showed that learners wanted to prioritize explicit vocabulary learning and idiomatic
language, with fluency training a close third. The learners then negotiated the course syllabus
and identified topics of interest. Through their decisions, the course was divided into three units
focused on self-expression, conversation strategies, and English for interaction on campus,
respectively. In this account I reflect on learner achievements, their development of agency, andthe challenges and rewards of adopting this approach.
Keywords: EFL, learner agency, learner development, negotiated syllabus

When I presented this story as a poster at the LD30 conference, I received many comments andquestions from a supportive audience of colleagues, so it is only appropriate to thank them here
at the beginning of this extended reflection. One question, in particular, stayed with me, mostly
unanswered, after the conference: Why did I decide to give my students almost full control of auniversity course that I am eventually responsible for? Serendipitously, the kind reviewers who firstread a draft of this piece asked similar questions: What was the spark that got me started on thistrack? What was my inspiration? At this point, it is only fair to try and answer these questions before
narrating the unfolding of my learners’ story.

RATIONALE

I am a passionate language learner and enjoy studying new languages independently. I alsostrongly believe that learning is growth and growth is something we strive for as human beings.
I always hope to share my enthusiasm for learning with my students, but I have not encounteredsuccess in this since my English classes moved first online, and then hybrid, in response to the
COVID-19 pandemic. In the meantime, I have also become increasingly frustrated with the one-sizefits-all approach of the many EFL textbooks I used in the past, which never seemed to cater to theneeds of my students. Furthermore, they tended to guide my teaching to cover what the authors of
the textbooks thought should be learned, rather than what the learners wanted to practice.

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)62IVAN LOMBARDI

In 2023, I had the opportunity to resume having classes in person, which coincided with thestructural change in the English curriculum at my department described below. In the little time I
was given to plan a new English Communication course, I decided to forego adopting a textbook
and instead design a learning experience tailored to the students who would eventually join mycourse. The factors that influenced my decision were my research interest in learning awareness,
past experiences teaching English speaking, and the many ideas exchanged interacting with thetalented colleagues of the JALT Learner Development SIG. However, the fundamental reason
why I decided to give (almost) complete ownership of the course to my learners is somethingthat I understood through the experience of emergency remote teaching: to trust my students
and acknowledge that they are fundamentally competent language learners and, when given theopportunity, can make language learning choices based on what they would like to achieve withEnglish in their future.
I started the semester equipped with little more than hope and expectation, a mostly blank Google
Classroom course page, and a blank syllabus. Then, this happened.

CONTEXTFirst-year students at the School of Global and Community Studies (GCS) at the University of Fukui
take a total of four compulsory English language courses in the spring semester. In 2023, thedepartment offered for the first time four additional workshop-style courses for students desiringa more intensive learning experience. One of these four courses is called English Communication
Workshop – an inoffensive-looking course title that attracted 43 applicants. The students were
further divided into two sections of 22 and 21 to ensure they found themselves in a learning
environment where they could speak English often and consistently. I taught one section of thecourse – or rather I should say that I let the 21 students take control of their learning experience.
This short account is the story of what happened in class and outside and what the students and I
have taken away from this experiment.
The rationale for this course is based on an ongoing KAKEN research project aiming to makelearners more aware of their development as speakers of English through extensive reflection,
progress tracking, and progress review. Some of the fundamental principles of the original
research project that have informed this course design are learner agency, choice, purpose, andaccountability. For brevity and at the risk of oversimplifying, I will define agency as a learner’sability and willingness to play an active role in their learning; choice as the feeling of having control
over equally meaningful options; purpose as the understanding of the goal of a language task
and its connection to a learner’s needs; and accountability as the learner’s acceptance of the
responsibility they take on as a result of being an active influence in their (and others’) learning.
As a preamble to the story, I need to state some of the situational matters that the course designers(that is, the students and I) needed to work with as they are relevant to the course goals ortimeline. First, studying abroad is an integral part of the GCS curriculum, and 20 of the 21 students
expressed a desire to study abroad (one could not, as their status in Japan is already that of an
exchange student); therefore, the overall focus for developing communicative skills in the course
had been predetermined to be “English for campus life,” which is understood as the communicative
ability to interact in English with fellow students, instructors, and university staff members on
academic matters. For the same reason, the course also integrates an academic vocabularycomponent to support the learners’ efforts in achieving the TOEFL score they need to be eligible tostudy abroad. Finally, it is necessary to point out that students enrolled in this course meet 30 times
a semester (twice a week rather than the more common once-a-week format found in Japanese
universities).

63

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)I Let a Group of Learners Take Ownership of Their English Communication Course, and THIS Happened!!

COURSE START AND EARLY DECISIONS

Upon meeting the students for the first time, I offered a brief orientation, including an explanationof the nature of the English Communication course. To avoid talking too long and to ensure that thelearners experienced the four principles of agency, choice, purpose, and accountability from the
beginning of the course, I presented them with a small-scale puzzle informed by previous personal
forays into exploratory practice. For this introductory activity, I asked the students to recall how
they met their new friends one week prior during the university orientation, how they introduced
themselves, and what they talked about. Then, we compared the results of their brainstorming androle-play of spontaneous conversations with a set of typical ‘first encounter’ situations from EFL
textbooks to appreciate their differences. Finally, the learners proceeded to generate a model ’firstday on campus’ conversation in English that sounded as realistic as possible for them.
During the second class meeting, I prompted students to self-assess their English proficiency using
the CEFR-J descriptors for spoken interaction and sustained monologue (Tono & Negishi, 2020).
Accordingly, 10 learners evaluated their speaking abilities at the B1 level, 8 at the B2 level, and 3
at the C1+ level. The average self-assessed proficiency of this group was slightly higher than pastcohorts of students who used the same diagnostic tool for placement in our department. While thisis not a factor I considered in the early phases of the course, in hindsight it may have influenced myconfidence in giving the learners carte blanche. Reassured that the group had a sufficiently highlevel of English to understand what I was asking of them, and why, I let them free to start taking
ownership of the course and make their first decisions on their expected outcomes for the course,
the logistics involved, and the course content.
Using Google Forms, I asked students to rank six options in order of relevance to their language
learning needs. The options were labeled with keywords whose meaning was negotiated inclass before starting the poll (fluency, vocabulary and expression, grammar, “natural English,”pronunciation and intonation, and TOEFL practice). We conducted the poll in class, computed theresults together, and sorted out the three most chosen options. Then, through class brainstorming,
we clarified each focus further to reflect exactly what the learners meant. This brought me torewrite and number the learners’ choices with the purpose of creating statements that could be
easily referenced (although I realize now that the use of ESL/EFL jargon, which I adopted for thesake of precision, may have been inappropriate for the target audience).
Student decision #1: focus on vocabulary-building activities.
Student decision #2: focus on idiomatic language and collocations.
Student decision #3: focus on reducing hesitation and code-switching.
The second week started with the idea of co-constructing a negotiated syllabus (Breen & Littlejohn,2000). I had to contribute more than I hoped for in this activity: talking to the learners, I realizedthat as of the second week of their university enrollment, they were unfamiliar with the idea of asyllabus. Nevertheless, we managed to identify a set of “core features” that they wanted to include
in the course description. As a general sentiment, the learners mentioned that they hoped to (1)learn the kind of English that they could use when studying abroad; (2) become more comfortable
talking about themselves and the things of their immediate interest; and (3) practice communication
strategies to make their English conversation more natural in structure and pace. I accepted thestudents’ idea to build a course on these three pillars and guided them in arranging the goals ina sequence that resonated with the CEFR-J descriptors. This process of brainstorming, in which I
participated in a facilitating capacity rather than actively making suggestions, resulted in a fourth
student decision:
Student decision #4: divide the course into three units.
LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)64IVAN LOMBARDI(self-expression, weeks 1–5; conversation strategies, weeks 6–10, and English for interaction on
campus, weeks 11–15).
Another resolution reached through a common agreement was how to evaluate the effort and resultsof the course. I introduced several assessment methods commonly used in EFL communication
courses to the learners, including presentations, peer evaluation, and self-evaluation. This wascertainly a hard choice to make, not only because the learners did not have any experience being“on the other side” of assessment but also because of the direct effect of their choice on their grades
for this course. Eventually, we settled on experimenting with test-making (as opposed to test-taking).
In other words, learners would be creating tests, quizzes, games, or other activities that could be
used for assessment purposes, that creatively reuse the language they learned and practiced incommunication as part of this course. I would then evaluate their tests based on a set of criteria that I
suggested and the students approved. We also felt that this meta-assessment activity should come at
the end of each course unit; thus, the decision was confirmed and evaluation was planned at the endof weeks 5, 10, and 15.
Student decision #5: conduct assessment through test-making.
At this stage, I intervened with one of the few unilateral decisions of this experimental course andadded an academic vocabulary component, albeit limited to homework tasks. The reason for thiswas to reinforce the learners’ efforts to expand their lexicon by providing more context and recall
opportunities for the academic and TOEFL vocabulary items they learn as part of their English
Reading Workshop; additionally, I thought that more vocabulary would expand the pool of content
that the learners could draw from to create their assessment materials. The group seemingly
understood and accepted this addendum to the course contents; however, I can only speculate
about this since it was never mentioned in learner journals, and only rarely did a few groups use
this specific academic vocabulary in the assessment activities they created.

AGENCY IN FULL SWING

The course developed according to plan until the end of week 10 when something happened that
I did not expect – but thoroughly appreciated. In the poster I presented at the LD30 Conference,
which inspired this account, I used the wording “students and instructor worked together to review
the learners’ original survey answers and make any due amendment to the course syllabus” –which is true but fails to highlight how this idea came from a place of learner ownership of thecourse and true agency – in other words, the learners explicitly asked for an addition to thesyllabus. To be fair, some students had already been commenting that they were not completely
happy with their pronunciation and intonation, especially during impromptu speaking activities.
I made a point to help these learners individually in class, as I routinely do, and offered to give
additional feedback about this in response to their voice-recorded reflection tasks. It was one ofthese students who first approached me as a spokesperson for the group to inquire whether it
would be possible to add a pronunciation and intonation component to the course. I replied that
this was their (the learners’) course, not mine, and their wish was my command – which I recall
leaving the student puzzled. Thus, I followed up with the idea of reviewing the initial course designin light of the learners’ experience in the first ten weeks. We accomplished this through yet anothersurvey, which confirmed the group’s intention of adding explicit pronunciation and intonation
activities to the course:
Student decision #6: add a pronunciation training component.
A question in the latter survey (“Do you feel any change in your ability to speak English compared
to to (sic) the beginning of the semester?”) also revealed an underlying issue that the learners wereverbalizing in various ways, such as:

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)I Let a Group of Learners Take Ownership of Their English Communication Course, and THIS Happened!!

Learner 6: These days I cannot come up with the exact words I want to say and I don’t think that I
am able to make myself understood in English.
Learner 7: Less and less time I stopped talking bacause I didn’t know what I should express inEnglish but sometimes I still don’t know the word and stop.
Learner 8: I understand question’s meaning, but I can’t expression a word I wanna tell groupmembers.
Learner 20: I’m able to say what I want to say more smoothly than before, but I still often feel
frustrated that I couldn’t tell the vocab I want to say.
In the following class meeting, I presented the survey results highlighting how this issue could
be alleviated through specific circumlocution tasks, i.e., “talking around” a word you do not knowor cannot remember (like these ones). I confirmed that the concept of circumlocution was a fairapproximation of what they meant, which brought us to:Student decision #7: practice circumlocution strategies.
I most likely had some influence on this choice, but I believe this was still their decision – I only
helped to identify exactly what they wanted and provided the language needed to talk about it.
A further decision was instead decidedly unilateral, despite it being inspired by a response to theprevious survey question:
Learner 21: Even now, I sometimes react to my partner in Japanese. I really want to use only inEnglish, but I still can’t.
The learner here is referring to their back-channeling, which is something I had previously hoped towork on in class. In fact, while I thought that the ability of this group to start and hold a conversation
in English became remarkable, their emotional reactions to surprising statements and momentsof conversational brilliance maintained a distinct flavor of their mother languages in some cases,
which is understandable and I would argue appropriate; however, in most instances, their backchanneling was completely negotiated in their L1. When I presented this further direction to thelearners, they accepted it seemingly with pleasure and immediately showed increased awarenessand monitoring of their use of back-channeling.

COURSE END

The last few weeks of the course flew by with no particular obstacle or change. We took advantageof the early summer weather to get out of the classroom and learn and practice English for campus
life around the campus – a nice change of pace while we kept focused on following the revisedcourse plan. The learners used the second-to-last class meeting to make their third round of assessment
materials, and we left the final class meeting open for closing remarks, final reflections, and tocelebrate personal achievements, as the learners clearly felt that “something” had happened. The
learners’ reflections, given below in their voices, suggest they perceived appreciable improvementsin their ability to engage in spoken communication beyond the basics, as well as a sense ofaccomplishment and progress of a tangible nature:
Learner 4: I think this course achieved my progress very much because at first, my friends andI were talking about only the topic and we didn’t extend the discussion, but now we talk a lot inEnglish. This is a big change and a sign that everyone understands what we talk more than past. It
was so helpful for us!!
Learner 17: I think it was perfect. At the beginning, I wonder that teacher didn’t taught us so manythings in classes, but after I finished this course, I knew that dealing with myself many problems

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)66IVAN LOMBARDI

and talking and talking is the best way to make progress. From this course, I got a big confidence
about English and I got learn to speak English without hesitation.
Learner 19: This course was very helpful for me to feel progress in communication in English. I think
the conversation of paired work has become more voluminous.It was also good to learn about
natural English.
However, I must point out that the themes found in the learner reflections are not dramatically different
from other courses I taught in the past based on the same fundamental rationale, but where control
over course design and logistics was firmly in the hands of the instructor. For example, there waslittle to no reflection on their own active role in decision-making for the course – which could beargued was the most prominent difference between this and other English language courses
the students were taking in parallel. Equally, when they talk or write about their achievements,
they mention appreciable improvements in speaking fluency, confidence, active vocabulary, andpronunciation. They do not reflect on how they lived up to the challenge of taking control of theirEnglish Communication course. Yet, from the point of view of a privileged external observer, I think
this – the THIS of the title – achievement is their most remarkable. Not having any data to go by,however, I can only present my takeaways in these directions as uncircumstantiated impressions
resulting from my observations.

IMPRESSIONSFirst and foremost, I need to praise the students for being brave enough to accept having “theburden” of agency and choice. They could have refused to engage or requested a more traditional
approach to their English Communication course. Instead, they were soon on board with the ideaof course ownership, were willing to negotiate our mutual expectations, and took their role aslearners seriously, actively working together and thinking about their language goals and needs.
This brought them to ponder about the purpose of their choices and of the class activities that I
prepared for them based on their decisions. In turn, I believe this has given rise to an increased
awareness of their learning and of their progress. This could also explain why this group committed
to working both in and outside of the classroom – they seem to have understood the reason why
certain take-home or on-demand tasks were assigned and how they influenced class activities,
resulting in an unprecedented homework submission rate. In addition, having to work together not
only for regular pair work or group work, as expected in any speaking-oriented course, but also tomake impactful decisions on the direction of their learning, conceivably contributed to a positiveand cooperative class atmosphere.
A positive side effect of adopting this approach is also increased transparency and intellectualhonesty on my part; in other words, having to create class materials based on specific themes andaddressing specific skills and having to make the purpose of each task explicit made me moreaware of what I actually ask my students to do and more aware of what constitutes a realistic result
for such tasks. In addition, this made me question some language task choices I made in the past(from unpopular ones, such as assigning homework for homework’s sake, to popular ones, likeplaying games in class without providing a clear purpose and direct connection to the language
items to practice).

ISSUES

Earlier in this reflective article, I described learner accountability as a learner accepting responsibility
for their action oriented towards their learning and their peer’s learning. Most of the 21 learners
responded very well to this increased accountability – but not everyone. One student, in particular,
did well in the classroom but was inconsistent with out-of-class decisions and work, meaning they,and sometimes the group they worked within, were not able to begin their communicative activities
in class as smoothly, which impacted the group atmosphere at times. Reminding them of their67

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)I Let a Group of Learners Take Ownership of Their English Communication Course, and THIS Happened!!

accountability alleviated the issue temporarily, which suggests at least one learner may not haveunderstood or fully accepted their responsibility as an “owner of the course”.
Two further concerns resulting from this full-fledged foray into learner ownership were due to thenature and logistics of decision-making. In particular, it was sometimes a struggle for the learners
to verbalize what they wanted or needed to focus on, likely because of an understandable lack ofawareness of the language learning processes and terminology. One such example is the common
occurrence of expressions like “natural English” or “native English,” which took some discussion to be
finally understood as idiomatic expression and the use of collocations. Furthermore, group decisionmaking meant learners whose goals diverged significantly from others may have felt their ideas were
underrepresented. A student, for example, reflected on this on multiple occasions, expressing somelevel of frustration as they advocated for a shorter time dedicated to English conversation and longer
time spent on vocabulary learning and quizzes.
While I feel confident in saying that most of the course outcomes, planning, and content were indeed
selected based on what the learners stated, I must also acknowledge that it would not have beenpossible to give more agency and still expect the course to have pedagogically sound structure andoutcomes and make sense as a whole. While I felt comfortable making some adjustments to thestudent decisions to make sure they could be realistically implemented in class, I also had to makea small number of decisions myself (adding a focus on academic vocabulary and back-channeling).
I would have preferred not to intervene at all, guided by the belief that the learners should make allof the relevant choices and have full ownership of the course. In a way making unilateral decisions
felt uncomfortable, as if I was interfering with the students’ construction of their learning experience.
However, I have accepted this by reminding myself that agency needs scaffolding – something I
have learned from some self-directed learning and project-based learning courses I facilitated inpast years (see Hennessy & Lombardi in this issue). In addition, there were no negative mentionsof the instructor’s decisions in the feedback from the learners; on the contrary, the focus on backchanneling was especially appreciated.
Finally, reflecting on this course brings me joy and pride, which is the reason why I decided to narrate
the story of this course at the LD30 conference. However, there were some traumatic aspects to thisapproach. One was the burden of preparing course materials for 90 minutes of class meeting timeand ideally 90 minutes of homework time, twice a week, all without previous preparation and basedon student decisions that sometimes are made in advance and sometimes the night before a classmeeting. On a good day, it would take me two hours to prepare for one class meeting; on a bad day,up to three hours. This piles onto the 180 minutes of class time per week and circa 90~120 minutesof feedback on individual written and recorded learner reflections after each class. This course being
only one of seven I taught in the spring semester probably starts to explain the toll it took. Yet, I neverfound myself questioning why I do this and whether it was worth the effort.
I do not wish for the above to discourage fellow language instructors, however. If your teaching
happens in an environment that has the right conditions (in my opinion these would be a flexible
curriculum and free choice of teaching materials, as well as a group of learners with intermediateor higher proficiency and in a number that you feel comfortable with giving individual weekly
feedback), then I would strongly suggest you try and trust your students with the keys to yourcourse (or start doing so in increments if a full-blown approach sounds too extreme). Facilitating
this course was hard work, but the reward was witnessing my students bloom in front of my eyes
as independent learners. They were happily speaking English in class and they were becoming
more aware of their achievements. I still see more than half of them twice a week as they enrolled
in an EFL discussion course I teach in the fall semester. They are confident and are not afraid to
ask questions, comment on course activities, or request specific discussion topics. They still own it.
THIS keeps on happening.
LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)68IVAN LOMBARDI

REFERENCES

Breen, M. P., & Littlejohn, A. (Eds.). (2000). Classroom decision making: Negotiation and processsyllabuses in practice. Cambridge University Press.
Tono, Y. & Negishi, M. (2020). Kyо̄ zai – tesuto sakusei no tame no CEFR-J risо̄ subukku. Taishukan.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP21K13052.

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Developing Research Skills: Engaging with Japanese Social Issues in an English Medium Seminar

Adrienne Johnson
Shirayuri University
johnson[at]shirayuri[dot]ac[dot]jp
Cecilia Smith Fujishima
Shirayuri University
fujishima[at]shirayuri[dot]ac[dot]jp

Developing Research Skills: Engaging with JapaneseSocial Issues in an English Medium Seminar
ABSTRACTIn this paper we report on a project conducted in a semester-long introductory English-Medium
Instruction seminar in 2023 that aims to cultivate research and analytical skills for students to both
help prepare for their graduation theses and utilize in their lives beyond university. To provide
background, we first contextualize the seminar. We then outline the previous project iteration,
followed by the rationale for updating. We introduce four discrete strategies: building knowledge,
comparing sources, identifying stakeholders, and developing an awareness of underlying issues inindividual stories. To date, students have demonstrated they are able to recognize and potentiallyreconcile different viewpoints. However, identifying broader, overarching concepts that enable
them to connect different stories in other contexts remains a challenge. We conclude by outlining
suggestions for improvement, hoping to provide an example for other teachers aiming to develop
student research skills in similar contexts.
Keywords: EMI, research skills, curriculum internationalization, pedagogy, JapanThe LD30 conference encouraged us to engage with students to enrich their lives and empower
them to be active learners who can make a difference in the world. In this paper, we aim to help
achieve this goal through presenting concrete research strategies utilized in a project conductedin a first and second year English-Medium Instruction seminar class. First, we provide context for
both the project and class within which it takes place. We outline difficulties with past attempts toachieve similar goals, and then explain our rationale for the updated project on which we report
here. We next provide our ideas for the revamped research project, followed by an interim reporton student outcomes and conclude with concrete suggestions for both improvement and broader
application by other teachers.

CONTEXT AND GOALS

The research project in this report was completed by first- and second-year students through twocycles in an introductory seminar class in 2023. Students take a total of four introductory seminars,
LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)70ADRIENNE JOHNSON & CECILIA SMITH FUJISHIMA

which are samplers for the 24-unit “courses” that are available to them in third and fourth year. Course,when used in this paper, will refer to this sense of the word. Our introductory seminar is for Course
I, a course focused on Japan in international society; other courses are focused on language orliterature. The course students choose determines their seminar and required electives for graduation.
In addition to introducing the course, one of the main objectives of the class is to develop students’
academic skills, including research skills, so that they are equipped to take Course I in their senior
years.
In this project, we focus on developing foundational skills to find, compare, and utilize different
information, which ideally enable students to become more media literate, more flexible to better
understand different points of view, and more creative in approaching problem solving. Researchskills at university contribute to their compulsory graduation thesis in fourth year. Strong researchskills also provide students with essential skills for life beyond university through enabling them to“identify a problem, collect informational resources that can help address the problem, evaluate
these resources for quality and relevance and come up with an effective solution to the problem”(St. Louis Community College Libraries, 2023).
At the outset, many students report a lack of familiarity with research, and have difficulty imagining
research as a skill that applies practically to their lives. For example, many do not connect the processof planning a trip, which involves checking times, finding a place to stay, places to eat, and sites tovisit to research skills that have crossover into the classroom. We therefore face both conceptual andpractical challenges in developing research skills in our context.

HOW THE PROJECT HAS BEEN ORGANIZED IN PREVIOUS YEARS

Although students have completed a group research project each semester since we have beenteaching this seminar, this year we changed the task to deepen students’ understanding of research.
Previously, we had given students a research assignment that investigated change in Japan. Students
were tasked with researching a contemporary issue in Japan through a historical lens, examining thepast and present situations and making predictions about the future based on their research. The
objective was having students recognize that change in society is normal, and something to takecharge of rather than to be feared or resisted without consideration. The goal of the project wasworthwhile, and students often found the project interesting, with many making efforts to present
their information well. However, we became dissatisfied with the project for a number of reasons, andfrom this year changed the approach.

THE RATIONALE FOR CHANGING

We decided to change the project primarily because it was not developing students’ ability to think
as researchers sufficiently. The content produced often demonstrated shallow understandings ofthe topics at hand. Rather than expanding the students’ awareness, the project tended to reinforce
students’ propensity to see history as a linear narrative, with events relayed chronologically without
a sense of causation. To illustrate, a typical example might be:‘School lunches originated in Yamagata in the Meiji era and then they became
common in Japan, and it used to be common to have whale meat and bread. Now
there is more variety of food and also now some local governments have problems
because parents don’t pay. In the future, there might be insects in school lunches
because insects have a lot of protein.’Moreover, students did not recognize competing narratives or different perspectives about changes,
nor did they recognize that history is a product of choices and not predestined. Projects commonly
lacked broader themes and concepts, making it difficult to see meaningful connections between thepast, present, and future, as well as between their topics and other changes in Japan or abroad.

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Students’ difficulties were partly a product of shortcomings in the design of the original project, which
did not include explicit steps to ensure that students identified aspects of change and continuity,
nor did it require students to address different perspectives. This made it difficult for students toovercome a kind of historical determinism or “naive realism” (The Decision Lab, n.d.), apparently notuncommon among contemporary university students.1 Although the marking criteria included using
a variety of different sources, the project instructions themselves did not require showing different
or competing perspectives. As such, the use of different sources tended to be superficial rather thana way to broaden understanding of an issue. Description through examples tended to dominate at
the expense of conceptual analysis of change. Additionally, the segmentation into past, present, andfuture commonly resulted in groups allocating one section to each member, resulting in students
researching different aspects independently and an overall lack of cohesion.
Based on these experiences, we decided to overhaul the project entirely and set about reestablishing
our goals, shifting from chronology to breadth of understanding. To help students visualize theexpectations, we provided our own example with a presentation using a contemporary, controversial
news topic. This modeled the final product for students, explicitly presenting the requirements.
Students were also provided with a list of sentence frames that they could use for the presentation.
These provided important scaffolding, as few students had created an English-language, researchoriented presentation before.

CHANGES IN FOCUS

We made five main changes from the original, outlined in the table below:
Previous projectStudents conduct a chronological investigation in
the change of an issue over time

Current projectStudents identify a contemporary, controversial
issue in the news and focus on a range ofperspectives
Focus on past, present, future
Focus on identifying stakeholders andtheir different, competing, and overlapping
perspectives
Requirement to use different sources, but no in-depth Long-term focus on developing the habit ofexplanation or evaluation of the merits of sources using different sources, and different types ofsources and explaining why they chose them
Chronological focus that does not require conceptual A clear focus on identifying the concepts andlinks between events
issues within a story
Loosely structured presentation with accompanying Structured presentation with sentence frames
report.
provided

THE FOUR UNDERLYING PRINCIPLESIn re-making the project, we wanted to foster skills that are applicable to a wide variety of situations
and have students produce work that is more analytical and coherent. To achieve this, we decided
that the project needed a more systematic approach by breaking research skills down into discreteparts, and introducing them incrementally over the semester. This approach is founded on four
research principles.
The first principle is that knowledge is necessary to understand and think critically. Students
are encouraged to read widely to build their knowledge. In the preparatory stage, students are
introduced to the idea of different types of sources. This endeavor is supported by the university
library, which provides student-oriented introductions to accessing books and online databases. At
this stage, we also introduce the merits and demerits of social media, going to experts, and finding1

Our thanks to Ken Ikeda for this insight.

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)72ADRIENNE JOHNSON & CECILIA SMITH FUJISHIMA

the original source of information. Students research a news story from different types of sources
to raise awareness of the way they can be used and their limitations. Noticing the differences
between the ways news stories are told prepares them to question sources.
Having drawn attention to knowledge, the second principle is the importance of sourcing knowledge
from different media in order to get different perspectives on the same issue. We provide examples
with strong contrasts to highlight the importance of this. For example, we compare the Japaneseand Korean government’s respective websites about Takeshima/Dokdo. In a domestic example
of differing views, students compare the front-page reports of the state funeral of former Prime
Minister Abe from six Japanese newspapers. The broad spectrum of opinion helps students
understand the dangers of relying on a single source and impresses the need to research fromdifferent sources and different types of sources and to interrogate the information they find.
Furthermore, providing concrete examples of differences in perspective according to the media
source helps students to understand why clearly referencing information is so important.
The third principle is issues having multiple stakeholders, and the idea of stakeholders having
different perspectives on the same issue. Students can understand this through the hypotheticalexample of an easily imagined campus issue (i.e., potential sales of alcohol on campus). They
can use their own experiences to imagine multiple perspectives on one issue and how different
groups might have different concerns (i.e., those of students compared to staff compared to local
neighborhood residents). Critically, the assignment requires students to look for stakeholders’common interests as well as their points of disagreement. This helps students move beyond
entrenched opinions to a mindset where they can bridge differences, fostering a constructive
mindset for problem solving in the face of conflict and opposing interests.
The final principle is focusing on identifying broader issues within a story. The ability to identify
issues in their targeted news stories helps students apply what they are researching to othercontexts in different times and places. As a requirement of the project, we have students identify
the underlying issues in their story. Issues that they identify may include political concepts, suchas globalization; sociocultural concepts, such as justice, gender, human rights; or environmental
concepts, such as sustainability, pollution, global warming, etc. For example, a group of students
researching the foreign trainee program in Japan may identify a concept such as labor rights, andconnect it to sweatshop labor in Bangladesh, or human rights, through which they may identify
similar issues in the treatment of foreign labor in the Middle East or Singapore. Students may
also identify the issue of immigration and compare the situation of the trainees to those of otherimmigrant groups in Japan, such as foreign students. As trainee labor arises from combining theneed to supplement a declining labor force with providing foreign aid, students may compare
Japan’s system to alternative foreign trainee labor schemes such as the one in South Korea, or
alternative forms of development aid. Drawing out the issues to find comparable stories helps totrain the students to think from a broader perspective and consider their topic more deeply andwith greater connection to the international sphere. This stage is challenging, as students often
lack knowledge of current affairs and are not accustomed to identifying broader issues, let alone
doing so with a view to compare, and therefore still needs refining in design and implementation.

THE PROJECT

For the research project, students are split into small groups (2 or ideally 3 students per group)and choose a news story to investigate. The project is completed as a group in keeping with
Course I objectives to create “a learning community that requires communication, cooperation,and collaboration” (Fujishima & Johnson, 2023, 139). Students have weekly tasks to develop theirunderstanding of the news story, and present their research in the form of an oral presentation in
week 14 or 15 of the semester.

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Students are given a rubric to ensure the objectives of the project are clear. The rubric is split into
two sections: content and presentation. For content, students are required to: (1) identify their topic
and explain its importance, (2) identify multiple stakeholders, (3) identify different perspectives, (4)identify issues that can be connected to other stories, and (5) use different sources effectively. For
presentation skills, students are required to (1) present information in an easy-to-understand way, (2)have good expression and delivery, (3) have good eye contact and engagement with the audience,and (4) have good preparation, fluency, and confidence overall. Importantly, we are judging on
presentation skills and not on English ability (inasmuch as their presentation is understandable). The
reason for not focusing on English is that this seminar is designated as a content class, specificallyseparate from language classes where language proficiency and acquisition are assessed.

OUTCOMES SO FAR

At present, we have only completed one semester with the new project and are in the process of
doing it for a second time. Although the project design can still be improved, students are developinga better awareness of research skills than they did in previous iterations, based on the content of
their presentations and student reflections.
All groups fulfilled the basic requirements of using a variety of different types of sources (for example,
academic articles, mainstream media, social media, and official government websites). All groups
also identified different stakeholders and their perspectives. Most groups were able to find andexplain points of agreement and differences between stakeholders. One factor contributing to most
students achieving these goals is that the project is highly structured. Because the rubric also serves
as a checklist for tasks to do, students are more easily able to see whether they have addressed
each requirement. Most groups were able to identify issues in order to make connections to othercontexts. One group, for example, connected the issue of the coverup of Johnny Kitagawa’s abuse ofminors with the coverup of abuse in the Boy Scouts in the United States. Students verbally expressedsurprise that it was not just a “Japan issue.”Having students able to shift from seeing a news report as just a “story” to being a story with perspectives
to be understood and issues to be analyzed suggests evidence of progress. However, not all groups
were able to make links effectively. Whether students will be able to apply this to future projects inseminar and elective classes within the course remains to be seen.
There has been no attempt yet to quantify student understanding using a questionnaire; however,students have been given project reflection cards which have open questions such as what they
enjoyed, found difficult, and learned about researching through the project. Students’ reflections
show an understanding of the need to source information widely. For example, a first-year student
commented:“I have learned how to gather information from various sources rather than making
decisions based on one article alone” (Student A).
Students show an understanding of the fact that different people have different points of view, andthat consciously considering issues from the perspective of various stakeholders is something they
will be able to apply to future projects (and hopefully life):“I have never thought about anything from the perspective of a stakeholder or that
person until now. This time, I was able to think about stakeholders and research themand learn research topics with various opinions that I couldn’t think of myself, and I
learned that there is also this way of research” (Student B).
At the same time, the reflections also contained comments that showed these strategies were
unfamiliar and challenging for some students: “I struggled to get information from various sources.”(Student C).
LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)74ADRIENNE JOHNSON & CECILIA SMITH FUJISHIMA

In addition to comments about the research aspects of the presentation, students, particularly firstyears, wrote in their reflection cards that they were nervous and lacked confidence to present inEnglish.

FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS & BROADER APPLICABILITY

We have four main ideas for how to improve in the future. First, spend more time on the projectthroughout the semester. If we can rewrite the class materials to integrate the research strategies
of knowledge, sources, stakeholders, and issues more explicitly inside the core class materials
rather than as a separate research project, it would reduce cognitive load and allow more time forstudents to expand their thinking through research.
Second, we could add a questioning component into the project.2 Good research relies on goodquestions. Integrating questioning into the project more explicitly is likely to help students’ overall
understanding of the purpose of research and develop their curiosity. Brainstorming questions
about their news story is also likely to deepen engagement with the project.
Third, we could highlight the transferable skills students develop through the research project.
Greater understanding of the relevance of the task would hopefully lead to increased student
motivation (c.f. Frymier & Shulman 1995) and also help them recognize that they can use the skills
in other contexts.
Finally, we need to consider alternative ways of scaffolding to enable students to gain a deeper
understanding of what they are doing, decrease cognitive load, and shift focus towards skill
development. With more scaffolding, students can potentially focus on developing skills rather thanspending time worrying about how to present, which can be a barrier for learning as noted above.
Overall, this project, which introduced research skills incrementally, has improved students’ ability
to approach research, take account of a wider range of sources, and develop a consciousness
to look from various perspectives, all abilities needed not only in academic contexts but also inlife more generally. Although this paper is a case study of an EMI seminar, educators working
to cultivate similar skills may benefit from engaging in these incremental, concrete-foundation
approaches irrespective of teaching language.
The LD30 conference theme urged us to action by making a difference for the future. The theme
echoes a growing international awareness that education needs to evolve so that it prepares
students to be able to contribute to a rapidly changing world and solve global problems (OECD,2020). In light of this, it is our hope that students will be taught to interrogate complex social issues
from various viewpoints and develop a habit of questioning and looking for more information to bebetter equipped to meet the needs of society. The wide variety of projects shared at LD30 both byeducators and students reaffirmed the importance of coming together to innovate and exchange
ideas. We hope that the project outlined here can be a helpful step to understanding and solving
problems based on a strong foundation of respect, understanding, and a will to improve.

REFERENCES

The Decision Lab. (n.d.). Naive realism. The Decision Lab. Retrieved January 8, 2024, from https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/naive-realism
Frymier, A. B., & Shulman, G. M. (1995). “What’s in it for me?”: Increasing content relevance toenhance students’ motivation. Communication Education, 41(1), 40–50.
https://doi.org/10.1080/03634529509378996
Fujishima, C. S., & Johnson, A. (2023). A practical pedagogical framework for internationalizing thecurriculum: Preparing students for an international society in an EMI course. 白百合女子大学研究紀要,
59, 127–158.
2

We thank our colleague Keiko Hirao for insight on this point.

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Developing Research Skills: Engaging with Japanese Social Issues in an English Medium Seminar

MEXT. (n.d.). Higher education in Japan. Retrieved January 20, 2024, from https://www.mext.go.jp/
en/policy/education/highered/title03/detail03/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2012/06/19/1302653_1.pdf
OECD. (2020). What students learn matters: Towards a 21st century curriculum. OECD Library.
Retrieved January 20, 2024, from https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/d86d4d9a-en/index.
html?itemId=/content/publication/d86d4d9a-en
St. Louis Community College Libraries. (2023, December 20). LibGuides: Fake news & misinformation:
How to spot and verify: Research skills. LibGuides at St. Louis Community College. Retrieved
January 8, 2024, from https://guides.stlcc.edu/c.php?g=648834&p=8782143

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)76

RICHARD WALKER

Richard Walker
Reitaku University
rwalker[at]reitaku-u[dot]ac[dot]jp

Tangible Benefits From Intangible Practices
ABSTRACTThis paper shows how it is possible to help students engage with the topic of intangible cultural
practices in EFL classrooms in Japan, and asserts that the students attained tangible benefits
from doing so. It explains why the topic of intangible cultural practices was used and how theteacher proceeded by providing examples of the activities and giving explanations of how they
were implemented. Tangible benefits were obtained from a two-class focus on three intangible
cultural practices that were candidates for inscription in the United Nations Educational, Scientificand Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The benefits include
consciousness-raising by broadening students’ horizons, furthering cross-cultural understanding,and encouraging solidarity. They also include linguistic benefits such as providing students with theopportunity to develop their vocabulary, use new knowledge in classroom discussions and speeches,
and, finally, by applying critical thinking skills to choose one of three cultural practices to support.
Keywords: CLIL, UNESCO, EFL, critical thinking

This short article looks at the ways in which learners attained tangible benefits – consciousnessraising gains, opportunities to use new vocabulary, and the use of critical thinking skills – froma series of classroom activities that focused on three intangible cultural practices that werecandidates for inscription in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s(UNESCO) lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Since the classes were taught in July 2023, theircandidacy has been decided and all three, i.e. transhumance farming, traditional glass making, andjamu wellness culture (UNESCO, 2023:1,2,3), have been inscribed into UNESCO’s lists. They wereregarded as appropriate topics to use for students taking courses on UN-related issues at two
universities: a group of EFL students from a College of Law faculty in Tokyo, and EFL students froma Foreign Studies faculty in Chiba, Japan.

INTANGIBLE CULTURAL PRACTICES

While UNESCO World Heritage Sites are well-known to most students today, UNESCO’s ‘intangible
cultural practices’ are not. A somewhat unwieldy definition for them is “practices, representations,expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces
associated therewith – that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as partof their cultural heritage” (UNESCO, 2003). If presented in manageable ways in the classroom,
they can be used to raise awareness of ‘practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, andskills’ hitherto unknown to students, and deepen understanding of activities whose importanceare understated and by their very nature are often unseen and unheard. They can do this while
increasing and deepening their vocabulary knowledge, applying and working on their public

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Tangible Benefits From Intangible Practices

speaking skills, and using discussion skills while comparing and contrasting the virtues of specificcultural practices. My intention was that students would use four- skills activities to develop anawareness of being a global citizen and to promote alternative cultural practices to the ones thatare found in commercial media - and to do this all in English.

THREE NOMINEES FROM A CHOICE OF FORTY-FIVE

I therefore decided to teach students about three of the forty-five nominations for inclusion fromthe 2023 Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (ICH1), the results ofwhich were announced at the 8th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguardingof the Intangible Cultural Heritage in Kasane, the Republic of Botswana, in December 2023. The
three I chose are shown in Table 1. They represent separate areas that hold potential interest for
students, and are all topics that lend themselves to discussions and speeches. Doing speeches
would help students develop public speaking skills; preparing reasons for why they would choose
one practice over another would enhance critical thinking skills; and through doing this they would
develop a feeling that they know more about diverse cultural practices.
Table 1: Three practices I chose for class (and their real-world nominators*)
Intangible PracticeCountries that nominated the practice1

Transhumance (seasonal
droving of livestock)

Albania - Andorra - Austria - Croatia - France - Greece - Italy Luxembourg - Romania – Spain

2

Handmade glass production Czech Republic - Finland - France - Germany - Hungary - Spain

3

Jamu wellness culture

Indonesia*A country which has signed the World Heritage Convention can be a nominator. Nominations are submitted to
the World Heritage Centre for evaluation.

WHY WERE THEY CHOSEN?

Transhumance, glass production, and wellness culture were chosen because they provided students
with three different practices – covering agriculture, manufacturing and health. Transhumant
practices were considered worthy of inclusion because these practices have existed for many
centuries in multiple cultures (not just those in the nominators’ territories) and may even be
used to promote sustainable development goals (e.g. SDG 12 on Responsible Consumption and
Production). Handmade glass production was chosen because it is a cultural practice that, aswith transhumant practices, was not expected to be known by students, but is a skill that requires
artistry and teamwork within communities and produces products of beauty. Finally, jamu wellness
culture allowed for recognition of the widespread use of traditional natural medicines made fromherbs and spices which, in this case, is specific to Indonesia, but which reflects skills, values, andpractices found all over the world.

THE LD30 PRESENTATION

The people who attended my presentation at the LD30 Conference were curious about how thesepractices could be introduced and taught in a manner so that students could attain tangible benefits.
Dexter da Silva commented that finding ways to use such topics is worthwhile in environments
where tangible targets for students (perhaps, overly) concern the highly important but primarily workoriented aim of raising a TOEIC score or some other measurable language learning target.
The courses in which these lessons were taught were innovative (within their contexts) in thatthey were designed around groups of EFL students representing a UN Member State (of theirchoice) and doing research around themes in preparation for discussions and speeches. By thetime students were taught the classes on intangible practices, they had represented a single UN
Member State for most of the semester and had researched contemporary UN-related issues to
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RICHARD WALKER

prepare for discussions and speeches on the issues. One of the attendees at my presentation
asked me how, in this context, it would be possible to show tangible benefits. Although I could,of course, see and hear students discussing and presenting issues within class time, the students
got into the practice of sending work before (preparation notes) and after class (written reflections)
onto a Google Classroom page. The practice was followed throughout the course and this is how I
was able to track their progress and evaluate them.
In the presentation, I discussed three questions that concerned the classes on intangible practices.
They were taught at two different universities in the same way. The questions were:
1. How did students prepare before class?
2. What activities did they do in class? and3. What did they produce?

HOW DID STUDENTS PREPARE BEFORE CLASS?

As with previous topics, students prepared by reading and answering questions from a two-page
set of information and doing video activities on the three intangible practices which were madeavailable on Google Classroom (see Table 2 and Figure 1). They knew that proper use of theworksheets would prepare them for class. This expectation was common to both courses: students
were given information to read and questions to complete before the following week’s class.
Table 2: Content of homework given in preparation for class
Page Activity / Content
1234

Reading: (i) What are Intangible Cultural Practices? (ii) Criteria for inscription into the UNESCO
list. (iii) The 3 practices
Reading on Transhumance farming+ link to YouTube video (Preschitz, 2019) with questions
Reading on Handmade Glass Production+ link to YouTube video (Science Channel, 2017) with questions
Reading on Jamu Wellness Culture+ link to YouTube video (OGS, 2017) with questions

Figure 1: Example page

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Tangible Benefits From Intangible Practices

WHAT ACTIVITIES DID THEY DO IN THE CLASSES ON INTANGIBLE PRACTICES?
Lesson one

The lessons on intangible practices covered two lessons. At the end of the first lesson, I introduced
the new topic about Intangible Cultural Practices. The students sat in UN Member States groups(some of which were nominees of the three intangible practices) while I explained the difference
between World Heritage Sites (which can be perceived tangibly) and Intangible Cultural Practices(which are, by name, intangible!) using a PowerPoint. This lent itself to a discussion about Japanesesites and practices that students were knowledgeable about. Students were then requested tolook for sites and practices from the country they represented. They were then put into groups anddiscussed what they had found. Soon after, the students were informed of their homework which
was made accessible on Google Classroom towards the end of class. As usual, I told students thatcompletion of the homework would prepare them well for the output-based activities in the nextclass and also in writing their reflections on the topic.

Lesson two

In lesson two, students were reminded of what we did in lesson one, and then were informed that
we would watch video clips of three intangible cultural practices. If they had done their homework,
they would have been able to discuss the merits and demerits of the practices (with other UN
Member States). Students were reminded to focus on the questions in the worksheets and to
consider which practice their country would prefer to become a UNESCO cultural heritage practice.
They were then encouraged to speak to other groups (countries) and share ideas.
After the discussion, we moved towards the next stage: producing short group presentations tooutline the reasons for their choices. This was often a culminating activity in the class. I remindedstudents that giving a speech was something they could write about in their reflection homework,and as a consequence most students clamoured to volunteer. In the classes on intangible
practices, to speed up proceedings and to assist the less confident, I used one slide to highlight(and remind students about) connections between cultural practices and specific SDG goals (seeTable 3a); and another to provide sets of phrases and hints to help the less confident compose aspeech (see Table 3b).
Table 3a: Connections between cultural practices and specific SDG goals
Intangible Practices

Relevance to SDGs

Transhumance
farmingZero hunger (SDG 2), Good health and well-being (SDG 3), Clean waterand sanitation (SDG 6), Decent work and economic growth (SDG 8),
Sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11), Climate action (SDG 13),
Responsible consumption and production (SDG 12), Life on land (SDG 15),
Partnerships for the goals (SDG 17).

Handmade Glass
Production

Quality education (SDG 4), Clean water and sanitation (SDG 6),
Decent work and economic growth (SDG 8), Industry, innovation andinfrastructure (SDG 9), Sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11),
Responsible consumption and production (SDG 12).

Jamu Wellness
CultureGood health and well-being (SDG 3), Gender equality (SDG 5), Decent
work and economic growth (SDG 8), Sustainable cities and communities(SDG 11), Responsible consumption and production (SDG 12), Life on land
(SDG 15).

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RICHARD WALKER

Table 3b: Language support for speech preparation
Structures used to help students make speeches in class time
- Today, we must choose a Cultural Practice to be inscribed as ______________- (Country name) supports ___________ because _______________________- All of the practices are important because _____________________________- However, we support _____________. We have __ reasons: _____________- Thank you for listening.
By the time this class was taught, students willingly gave speeches: they did not have to be forced
to compose a speech (although the less confident were respectfully coaxed and supported). The
success of their speeches relied upon understanding the content they covered for homework, ondeveloping a position with reference to the country they represented, and on participating actively
in class. Happily, the majority of students completed the homework and were able to give wellresearched speeches.
In previous classes in the course, we had discussed other topics and voted (as UN Member States)on whether we agreed or disagreed with ideas that were raised. In the case of the class on intangible
practices, as chance would have it, there were roughly equal amounts of support for each intangible
practice. This was clear in viewing the class-time speeches and checking the post-class reflections. In
this class, I also confirmed this through an end-of-class vote on which practice should be accepted.

WHAT DID THEY PRODUCE?

In the reflections for this class, students gave support and reflections for all three intangible practices.
Below, I provide an example for each one, explain why I included them, and highlight what I think issignificant. These significant cases highlight tangible benefits from the class, which fall in the realm of
consciousness-raising, vocabulary development, and critical thinking.

Transhumance

In this example, the student expresses an awareness that cultural heritage ‘products’ are in dangerof extinction. This shows the results of the topic alone acting to raise her consciousness. On behalfof Mexico, she selected the practice of transhumance and, in her reflection, explains that she
has also independently researched Mayan heritage sites. Expanding her interest and deepening
awareness of a culture is a benefit, and she goes on to express great interest in such sites andof indigenous cultures in South America. Going beyond what was requested, she goes on to
explain that transhumant culture has been practised in Mexico - something not referenced in theworksheet. She also refers to sustainability, to animal rights, and to veganism - the latter of which ispractised in some transhumant communities.
Student writing 1
In July 19th class, I learned about Intangible Cultural Heritage. I have things that I
learned from this class. Firstly, we searched for tangible and intangible heritage inmy country; Mexico. I’ve never experienced that there are many tangible heritage
sites that represent Mayans’ culture. Particularly, I’d like to visit Teotihuacan andGuanajuato. These two places are amazing pyramids, buildings and scenery. I
definitely feel an emotional and historical vibe from even seeing the pictures. Also, I
got interested in Mayan culture.

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Tangible Benefits From Intangible Practices

Secondly, we searched what Mexico has intangible cultural heritages. I learned that
Mexico has a precious culture about glass production. It was a beautiful production. …
the process is simple but difficult and needs huge power to produce. However, if I hada chance to create it, I’d like to try to make it. Beside that, I learned many intangible
cultural heritage products are exposed to extinction. It’s an urgent issue because
these cultural things represent their own culture and play an important role in theirlife. However, it’s the same situation in Japan. We have to consider this problem
seriously. Finally, we made a speech by ourselves:
Mexico thinks that we have to prioritize and protect transhumance. I have somereasons. First, food is important and essential for our life. We can’t hand down othercultural heritage unless we can’t eat something. It’s kind of like “ An army marches
on its stomach”. Aside from that, we have to keep it sustainable and consider animal
rights issues for our future. Nowadays animal rights issues are becoming urgent at
the same time, people are getting interested in veganism. For these reasons, Mexico
thinks that transhumance is significant so we’d like to prioritize this tradition.

Glass Production

In this example, the student gives a comment on all three intangible practices. As requested, she did
not choose a practice backed by the country she represented, Italy. Her choice of glass production
was chosen because of Italy’s famous stained-glass windows in churches. She uses vocabulary fromthe worksheet - language that students would not be expected to use (eg: droving, blown glass).
In referring to jamu wellness culture she shows understanding of its purported benefits and uses
vocabulary we would not normally expect (eg: indigestion). Her comments on transhumance reveala modern mindset which values convenience over culture (transhumance farming is “hard work” and“we should come up with an easier way”), but she does so using content-specific language (pastoral,
nomadic, droving).
Like the previous student, she wrote about learning many new things and refers to the fact that she(or a member of her team) gave a speech from Italy’s perspective, and for which her group had touse critical thinking skills to deliver a judgment.
Student writing 2
In July 19 class, I represented Italy. We looked at intangible cultural heritages. In thisclass, we watched three videos.
First, we learned about Handmade Glass Production. Traditional handmade glass
production consists of the shaping and decorating of cold and hot glass. I first learned
that the glass is blown, (using) flamework, and cold (work) to work (it) to perfection.
Glass is fragile and difficult to make ….
Second, we learned about Jamu. Jamu is a type of traditional medicine fromIndonesia, and Jamu can cure pain and indigestion headaches. I was surprised when
I first learned about this culture. I thought that this culture could help many people
suffering from illness.
Third, we learned about transhumance. Transhumance is the seasonal droving of
livestock and occurs within and between countries. It is a type of pastoral or nomadic
farming that is based around seasonal movements of livestock between fixedsummer and winter pastures. I was surprised because the farmers do this twice ayear by foot, and horse. This is a lot of work, so I thought we should come up with aneasier way.
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RICHARD WALKER

After that, we gave a speech. Italy talked about glass production. Italians believe inChristianity and there are many churches in Italy. That’s why stained glass, which
is often used in churches in Italy, is important. We thought we should continue and(save) this culture. I know a lot about cultural heritage. However, there were manythings I didn’t know about intangible cultural heritage, so I’m glad I was able to learn
about them. I think cultural heritage buildings and technology are wonderful, so I think
it is necessary to prevent them from disappearing as much as possible.

Jamu Wellness Culture

The final example is shorter than the other two, and also has a different style. It highlights thedevelopment of critical thinking because the writer not only reveals an understanding of thedifference between tangible and intangible heritage, he considers the choices of another country,
Australia - and understands why they chose transhumant farming. Opting not to comment on glass
production, the writer (representing India) explains why his country ‘especially’ supports Jamu
Wellness culture. He is willing to acknowledge another opinion and gives a reason for doing so:
namely, the need for ‘self-sufficient’ cultures in this age of climate change.
Student writing 3
We learned about Cultural Heritage. Cultural Heritage has two things. It is tangible(such as buildings and landscapes) and intangible (folklore, art, language, and work
practices). We learned about three intangible cultural heritage: Handmade Glass
Production, Jamu and Transhumance.
India thinks we need all of them, however, especially, we need support for Jamu,
because India has a lot of infections. Australia supported transhumance, because
climate change may cause food shortages to become a problem in the world in
the future, and this kind of self-sufficient culture will become important. But risingtemperatures have reduced the amount of grass available for grazing, putting thenomads’ livelihoods at risk.
Finally, transhumance helps regions and people to conserve a local identity in anever increasingly globalized Earth. Not only are there tangible reasons to keep thistradition alive, there is also a great potential for cultural, ecological, and educational
purposes, creating interest and increasing awareness.

CONCLUSION

The activities on intangible practices came at the end of a course in which we looked at issues
currently in discussion at the UN (or in UN bodies such as UNICEF). In my position as a faculty
adviser to groups of students interested in topics at the UN, I have developed a lot of knowledge
that I could use to help support the students. Transmitting such knowledge is easier said than done,
but I found that I could teach engaging classes that resulted in students attaining and producing
tangible benefits. There are written attestations that consciousnesses had been changed andthat new vocabulary was being used in output-based activities such as speeches and writingreflections. That this was done with a focus on something intangible pleases me!
If I decide to use this topic again, I can choose some of the topics which are being treated for the2024 cycle of inscription into intangible heritage lists - which include nominations for an Urgent
Safeguarding List or the Representative List, and proposals for the Register of Good Safeguarding
Practices (ICH 2). At the time of writing there are sixty-seven files to consider. A cursory glanceshows there are practices from every continent and include artistic practices, food and drink, and83

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Tangible Benefits From Intangible Practices

rituals (three areas I may look into). With the experience of teaching about three intangible benefits
in 2023, I feel sure I can construct a meaningful study unit around three new ones. I believe thatstudents should learn about authentic practices that are not visible to the majority of the population,
and which have high importance if we are to preserve non-commercial practices with roots in aprevious age.
As this paper has shown, difficult topics such as intangible cultural practices can be used in classwith sets of activities that are written for specific groups of students. They can lead to positive
language learning outcomes. Crucial to its success is making sure that students read about thepractices before class. Being primed for the topics through readings, video links, and questions,the students were ready and able to participate in output-based activities such as discussions andpublic speaking. Key to its success was using tailored material to suit the level of the students andactivities that target four skills.
At the end of my LD30 presentation I asked attendees on ways to attain tangible benefits whenteaching such a topic. Dexter da Silva helpfully mentioned John Hattie’s ‘Visible Learning for
Teachers’ (2012) and after reading the book I believe that I was following some of his goodpractices such as having high expectations (p.81), focusing on the effect of teaching rather thanthe method (p.83), and being an activator and evaluator of learning (p.86). Hattie states thatvisible teaching and learning “occurs when learning is the explicit and transparent goal, when it isappropriately challenging, and when the teacher and the student both (in their various ways) seek
to ascertain whether and to what degree the challenging goal is attained” (p.14). I think I achievedthat in the activities discussed above - and I have tangible proof. However, further readings ofHattie’s book may help me maximise future tangible benefits while teaching this topic – and others.

REFERENCES

Hattie, J (2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning. Routledge
ICH 1 (2023). Examination of nominations for inscription in 2023 on the Representative List of theIntangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (item 8.b on the agenda). Accessed December 1, 2023
from: https://ich.unesco.org/en/8b-representative-list-01325
ICH 2 (2024). Files 2024 under process. Accessed January 13, 2024 from: https://ich.unesco.org/
en/files-2024-under-process-01303
OGS (2020). Jamu: The ancient Indonesian art of herbal healing [YouTube video]. Accessed
December 9, 2023 from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62eD5Q0pnYI
Preschitz, T. (2019). Transhumance - Routes of a disappearing life [YouTube video]. Accessed
December 9, 2023 from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFH77T5BMYY
Science Channel (2017). See how window glass is made the artisinal way [YouTube video].
Accessed December 9, 2023 from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXQMc0jsl2E
UNESCO (2003). Text of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Accessed July 1, 2023 from: https://ich.unesco.org/en/convention
UNESCO (2023a). Transhumance, the seasonal droving of livestock [YouTube video]. Accessed
December 9, 2023 from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8BJfOs7R30
UNESCO (2023b). Knowledge, craft and skills of handmade glass production [YouTube video].
Accessed December 9, 2023 from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2HhU-EJwdI
UNESCO (2023c). Jamu wellness culture [YouTube video]. Accessed December 9, 2023 from:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOiXDAAeIOU

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)84SARAH DEUTCHMAN

Sarah Deutchman
Nihon University

deutchman[dot]sarah[dot]miyoshi[at]nihon-u[dot]ac[dot]jp

English Beyond Textbooks: Using Apps toIncrease Vocabulary and Overall Proficiency
ABSTRACTOn entering university, most Japanese students have had approximately 1,000 hours of exposure
to English, a good way short of the 2,500 hours that are thought to be necessary for reaching highproficiency (Inagaki, 2010). Unfortunately, at the university where I work, many students struggle
with English, holding TOEIC scores below 400 and vocabulary proficiency at the 300-frequency
level of the National General Service List (NGSL). This highlights the need for them to learn aconsiderable number of words to improve their English fluency. Relying solely on classroom
textbooks does not provide enough vocabulary support, as vocabulary should be encounteredmultiple times. As a result, students often do not retain the phrases after their unit tests. Moreover,students at this university often lack the motivation to study outside of class. To address thesechallenges, language learning apps which offer timed spaced repetition were introduced. These
apps enhance word retention and may function as motivational tools to continue learning. These
apps also empower students by demonstrating their ability to reach goals independently.
Keywords: learner autonomy, vocabulary acquisition, language-learning apps

Over the past six years, I have taught mandatory freshman English courses across five universities,
where I have observed notable variations in English proficiency among students. One recurrent
challenge has been the students’ lack of vocabulary, which has affected their language proficiency.
In the past academic year, I conducted an assessment at Nihon University of vocabulary levels
using the Vocabulary Levels test created by Raine and McLean (2019). This involved administering
the National General Service List (NGSL) flemma test for productive typing form recall in Spring
2023 and a parallel evaluation for receptive reading recall in Fall 2023. For the productive recall
test, students see a sentence with one word in Japanese (e.g., He is an 面白い student). The student
would then have to type in the word “interesting”. For the receptive recall test, students see a
sentence that is completely in English with one word underlined. Students have to type in theJapanese translation of the word while paying attention to grammar. For example, students may
see the sentence “This is a free pen.” The student would have to type「無料の」in the text box.
The initial evaluation resulted in an average placement within the first 500 words of the NGSL,
prompting a reconsideration of my teaching strategies, as the level of vocabulary knowledge waslower than expected. The majority of the Spring semester classes centered around textbook use,with the addition of Quizlet study sets, and in-class gaming activities. Based on the results of the
vocabulary tests and classroom observations, in the Fall 2023 semester, I changed my approach

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)English Beyond Textbooks: Using Apps to Increase Vocabulary and Overall Proficiency

dedicating entire class sessions to playing instructional games such as Bamboozle, Quizlet Live,
Wordwall, and tailored board games crafted from the material covered in the textbook. Noticing
occasional gaps in students’ ability to recall phrases and words from the textbook during games, I
introduced educational apps as a supplementary measure, aiming to diversify learning experiences
while retaining a connection to traditional methodologies (e.g., relying solely on textbooks or
students only reading aloud from textbooks in the class).
Subsequently, for the Fall 2023 evaluation, I decided to shift the emphasis towards meaning recall- where students could identify the meaning of the words shown. This decision stemmed from adual curiosity: firstly, whether there would be a change in scores (i.e., the meaning recall test would
be easier for students), and secondly, an exploration of the impact of prevalent instructional tools
such as Quizlet, which primarily facilitate meaning recall through flashcard-based study. I begin witha discussion about the difficulty of becoming proficient in English, followed by an account of myattempts to build students’ vocabulary, and their attitudes to those methods.

DIFFICULTY OF BECOMING PROFICIENT IN ENGLISH FOR JAPANESE UNIVERSITYSTUDENTS

The predominant instructional focus of English at school often revolves around exam-oriented
teaching. This led me to wonder why my students tested into the vocabulary level bands that they
did on both the meaning recall and productive recall tests and how what they learned aligned withestablished vocabulary lists such as the NGSL as it is a frequency-based vocabulary list. If students
had mastered the most frequent words of English, their vocabulary levels should be higher. I also
started to wonder how much time students would need to increase their overall proficiency. Inagaki(2005) posits an estimated requirement of 2,500 study hours for attaining a high level of English
proficiency for Japanese students, with a range of 2,500 to 7,500 hours to achieve a native-likelevel. Consequently, cultivating self-directed learning habits and enhancing intrinsic motivation
becomes crucial if learners wish to become proficient. Initial surveys conducted in class at the
beginning of the semester indicated that students lack the motivation to study English outsideof class, contrasting with a higher motivation to participate in class activities, which is possibly
influenced by grade considerations.
I then began to wonder what sort of materials could be used to inspire students to study more
outside of the classroom. While textbooks serve as valuable study resources, they do not offer
enough chances for students to recall the meaning of the words that they have encountered. WhenI used Fifty-fifty Book One, I noticed that although there were some review units, there needed tobe more recycling of vocabulary. For example, “uncle” appears two times after its initial introductionin Unit 9. However, some of my students had trouble remembering what uncle meant. Recent
efforts by Browne et al. (2023), evident in their textbook “Fast Forward to Fluency”, based on the
NGSL, strive to address this issue by incorporating a recycling approach to reinforce vocabularyretention. However, textbooks fail to provide students with motivation to study English more
outside of class, as I am quite doubtful that any of my students would refer to their textbooks after
the class has finished. This thought is supported by students doing their homework before class or
writing down their classmates’ answers to the self-study sections of their textbook when they feelthat I am not looking.
Additionally, I did not think that their vocabulary levels had improved as a result of the methods I had
used, which was mostly using textbooks and playing some games such as Bamboozle on occasion as
well as using Quizlet during the semester. This is because in some games that were played in class,students were not able to use the vocabulary correctly. For example, in class I play a modified versionof tic-tac-toe, where students can only put an X or an O if they can make a sentence with the word in
the square. Many students asked me what the words meant even though these words were part oftheir Quizlet study sets.
LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)86SARAH DEUTCHMAN

Therefore, it was clear that my methods were not very effective in helping students retain vocabulary
which makes them more proficient speakers. Thus, I thought it was necessary to think beyond only
using the textbook and my methods to expand students’ vocabulary knowledge. As students often
use their phones, I decided to introduce apps as they might get students to practice English outsideof class more effectively to increase their overall vocabulary levels.

EFFECTIVENESS OF APPS FOR VOCABULARY BUILDING

Webb and Nation (2017) stated that spaced-time repetition, presenting words in both isolationand context, and fostering a sense of deliberate learning, contribute significantly to vocabularyacquisition. Apps possess these features, which may be why researchers have found successin increasing learners’ language proficiency. Ahmed et al. (2022) reported increased vocabulary
and grammar development among students using Duolingo, concurrently noting a positive impact
on motivation and reducing learners’ anxiety. Similarly, Nuralisah and Kareviati (2020) observed
success with Memrise in enhancing students’ mastery of vocabulary. The comprehensive study by
Alvarado et al. (2016) further affirmed the efficacy of apps in addressing all language skills whileproviding a practical and engaging rehearsal environment.
Apps also offer motivational incentives such as badges and level progression, framing language
learning as a gamified experience. This gamification aspect not only enhances motivation but canalso transform perceived “dead time”, such as commuting, into productive learning opportunities.
The timed space repetition embedded in these apps aids in recall, and the autonomy they afford to
students helps to compensate for limited class time.

STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TO THE APPS

In the Fall semester, students were introduced to different apps twice. In lesson 5 students wereshown how to use four popular apps Memrise, LingoClip, Duolingo, and Busuu. These apps werechosen as they are free, easily accessible, and familiar to me. I chose apps I have used before incase troubleshooting was needed. I demonstrated how to play the 4 apps in front of the class. I also
talked about how to create accounts and where to download the apps. Students were then placed
into groups where they chose an app to try and help each other if they were having any problems.
Students used the apps for 20 minutes or less and were then given a survey. The students whochose Duolingo played for a shorter time because Duolingo relies on students keeping enoughhearts to continue playing. In the survey, Memrise and Duolingo were the top picks among the
majority of students. Those who opted for Memrise tended to recommend it to their peers and used
it for longer than those who chose Duolingo. This divergence in usage patterns might be attributed to
Duolingo’s heart system, where users need to either purchase more hearts or wait for their “health”
to recover once depleted, leading to some students not recommending the app. Feedback fromstudents revealed that Busuu, Duolingo, and Memrise often begin at a level considered too easy
for some, prompting a desire to test out of the initial levels. Additionally, some students preferredsticking to a single app due to concerns about storage space on their phones. However, the overallsentiment towards the apps remained positive.
In Lesson 14, students were introduced to four additional apps: Innovative Language Learning,
BBC Learning English, Poe-Fast AI Chat, and AWABE. These selections were made based on theiraccessibility and cost-free nature. Notably, BBC English and Poe offer the advantage of starting at
more challenging proficiency levels. Students were also given the option to continue using the fourapps introduced earlier: LingoClip, Memrise, Duolingo, and Busuu. Following a demonstration on
app usage, students were instructed to use the app for 10 minutes and subsequently complete asurvey. Among the choices, 5 students opted for Busuu but stated that they did not like it, indicating
they would not recommend it to their peers. Two students chose LingoClip but they did not likeit. This outcome was somewhat unexpected, considering students can choose to listen to songs

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)English Beyond Textbooks: Using Apps to Increase Vocabulary and Overall Proficiency

they enjoy; however, students did not seem to use earphones which might have influenced theirexperience. On the contrary, 4 students selected Memrise and expressed satisfaction, recommending
it to their classmates. A lone student chose BBC English but did not enjoy it and would not recommend
it. Duolingo was the preferred choice for 7 students, with the majority enjoying it and endorsing it totheir peers, although some perceived it as too easy. One student faced constraints in loading any
apps due to insufficient phone space.
In the Lesson 14 survey, students were also questioned about their continued app usage since
Lesson 5. Of the 20 surveyed students, only 3 reported continued use of the app. These students
favored Duolingo, engaging with it approximately twice a week. Their motivation for studying
outside of class was reported as somewhat moderate, aligning with the broader trend among
students who expressed being only moderately motivated or lacking motivation for English study
beyond class hours.

CONCLUSION

While textbooks play a pivotal role in establishing a foundational understanding for learners striving
for English proficiency, relying solely on textbooks proves inadequate for vocabulary acquisition.
Textbooks are usually used by instructors during class sessions, which fall short of providing
students with a sufficient time frame to cultivate English proficiency. Consequently, students must
actively seek motivation to learn outside of the classroom, to compensate for the time constraints
of in-class instruction.
Therefore, educational apps may be a solution to help with the time deficit and might be able
to help increase proficiency. Moreover, these apps contribute to enhanced retention throughthe implementation of time-spaced learning strategies. However, if students are going to remain
motivated enough to use them, they need to be part of a student’s grade as this survey shows thatmost students are not very motivated to study English outside of class.

REFERENCES

Ahmed, A. A. A., Hassan, I., Pallathadka, H., Keezhatta, M. S., Haryadi, R. N., Mashhadani, Z. I. A.,
Attwan, L. Y., & Rohi, A. (2022). MALL and EFL learners’ speaking: Impacts of Duolingo andWhatsApp applications on speaking accuracy and fluency. Education Research International,
2022, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/6716474
Alvarado, N.C., Coelho, D., & Dougherty, E. (2016). Mobile apps for ELLs: Supporting language
learning with engaging digital tools. Argentinian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 4(1), 43–58.
Browne, C., Culligan, B., & Phillips, J. (2023). Fast forward to fluency 1. Abax.
Inagaki, S. (2005). How long does it take for Japanese speakers to learn English? Language &Culture, 4(4), 19–29. https://doi.org/10.24729/00005949
Nuralisah, A.S. & Kareviati, E. (2020). The effectiveness of using Memrise application in teaching
vocabulary. Professional Journal of English Education, 3(4), 494–500.
McLean, S. & Raine, P. (2019). VocabLevelTest.Org [Web application]. Retrieved from https://www.
vocableveltest.org
Webb, S. & Nation, P. (2017). How vocabulary is learned. Oxford University Press.

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)88SECTION 3: TEACHER RESEARCH

i.

Projects Beyond the Classroomii.

Course Developmentiii.

Teacher Researchiv.

Student Presentationsv.

Reflections

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Foreign Language Anxiety in the English Classroom: Towards a Deeper Understanding

Jason Hobman
Saitama University
jasonhobman[at]icloud[dot]com

Foreign Language Anxiety in the English
Classroom: Towards a Deeper Understanding
ABSTRACTClassrooms can be an anxiety-inducing environment for any student, but a number of students sufferfrom anxiety specific to language classrooms. The Horwitz Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety
Scale may be used to identify the existence of this specific type of anxiety in language classrooms(Horwitz, E., Horwitz, M., & Cope, J. 1986). I administered a Japanese translation of the questionnaire
to 95 university students of which 85 provided valid answers. The answers identified that there may
be a problem with anxiety in my classrooms. This article serves as a reflection on my presentation at
the LD30 conference in October 2023 in which I discussed the concept of foreign language anxiety,showed selected results of my survey, and offered some possible solutions to identifying anxiety inthe language classroom and ways in which teachers can adapt their lessons to be more inclusive of
the most anxious students.
Keywords: foreign language anxiety, learner development, teacher development, action research

Anxiety in the language classroom seems to be an ever-present problem no matter the level of
institution I work at. Learners who are just beginning their studies in English may be anxious about
speaking in front of their peers for fear of embarrassment or ridicule. It might be easy to assume thenthat motivated learners who show great success in language learning may not suffer from anxiety
in the same way. However, from my experience teaching intermediate and advanced learners, as
the demands of the language classroom increase, the fear of embarrassment or ridicule may also
increase, as these students may feel they have more to lose. Having said this, some of my mostenergetic and motivated students have been streamed into the lowest class of their institution, yetstill they openly profess to enjoy English. This paradox has puzzled me for a long time and was thereason I chose to focus on anxiety among language learners towards the end of my postgraduate
studies and, indeed, for the presentation that I did at the LD30 Conference at Gakushuin University
in October 2023. My experience at the conference in some ways mirrors my research. No matter
how many times I present at a conference, I find that there are still some anxious feelings before
every presentation. In this reflection piece, I will first introduce foreign language classroom anxiety
and Horwitz’s foreign language classroom anxiety scale. I will then give a brief summary of the resultsof the foreign language classroom anxiety scale that I administered to 95 of my students followed
by a discussion of the problems that my students appeared to have. I will offer some suggestions on
how to alleviate anxiety in the language classroom and end with my conclusions.

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)90JASON HOBMANFOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM ANXIETYWhen the audience members began to enter the room for my LD30 presentation, I felt anxious at
the thought of making a mistake or not being able to convey my thoughts correctly. This fear ofembarrassment or ridicule seems similar to what my students may feel in the classroom, but thepremise of my research is that there is an anxiety that is unique to or exacerbated by the foreign
language classroom. I began the presentation by introducing the concept of foreign language
classroom anxiety. Foreign language classroom anxiety was defined by Horwitz (1986) as a “distinct
complex of self-perceptions, beliefs, feelings, and behaviours related to classroom language
learning.” From this definition, we can already see that anxiety is a complex emotion, which may be
exacerbated by many factors unique to language classrooms. In practice, I have found (and I am
sure that you have too) that many students stall when it comes to producing language in English
classes, especially when it involves being in front of other people. For this reason, Horwitz (1986),
in the same article that she defined foreign language classroom anxiety, created a corresponding
scale, the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale, of 33 likert questions to determine whether
a learner was suffering from an anxiety brought on by the language classroom itself. The test was
designed to measure the effect of three factors: test anxiety, communication apprehension, and fearof negative evaluation. For the sake of brevity, I can say that test anxiety did not seem to present a
major problem for my students, so I was only concerned with communication apprehension and fearof negative evaluation for this presentation.

DISPLAYS OF ANXIETY IN THE LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

I continued the presentation by introducing how anxiety may be observed. There are certain waysthat anxiety displays in the classroom that may not be obvious at first glance. Gregerson (2005)
identified behaviours in anxious students such as nervous gestures, twiddling thumbs, and self
touching. These could be considered to be signs of anxiety because they are unrelated to andtherefore do not enhance communication. Facial expressions may also give clues as to the anxious
state of students. Students avoiding eye contact and focussing their attention elsewhere might bedoing so to avoid the “threat” of a teacher’s persistent questioning. What seems to be apparent isthat students who are making nervous gestures or avoiding eye contact may in fact be succumbing
to a sort of negative arousal to cope with an unpleasant anxious feeling. Initially, teachers may feelthat students who play with their phones are being rude, but when considered under the concept ofnegative arousal it might be easy to see how they could be showing signs of anxiety. Mobile phones
are quite useful for an anxious student as they give them somewhere to focus their eyes (avoiding
eye contact) and something for them to distract their hands (something to touch). For some students,
this could be a coping mechanism to distract from negative or anxious thoughts and feelings. In myclasses, I have observed some students who show these behaviours, so I decided to administer theforeign language classroom anxiety scale to identify any possible anxiety.

WHAT I FOUND OUT

I administered a Japanese translation of the Horwitz Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale to
95 of my students at two universities in Saitama and Chiba in April 2023. I administered the survey
online using a Google form and I received 85 valid responses. The students are considered tobe beginner level by both institutions, with most having a TOEIC score under 300. Nine students
refused to do the survey, and one result was invalid. From the 33 questions on the FLCAS I chose
to look more closely at three questions for this presentation: Q7, Q11, and Q30. These questions
received the strongest response of the results and give clear insights into the students anxieties
linked to distorted appraisals. The results for these questions can be seen in Table 1. A response of
one suggests a strong agreement, and a response of five suggests a strong disagreement with thestatements in the questions.

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Foreign Language Anxiety in the English Classroom: Towards a Deeper Understanding

Table 1: Selected results from my implementation of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale(based on Horwitz et al. 1986)

Key:
Q7. I keep thinking that other students are better at English than I am.
Q11. I don’t understand why some people get so upset about English class.
Q30. I am overwhelmed by the number of grammar rules you have to learn to speak English.
A short summary of the results suggests that there was an overall anxious feeling among a majorityof students, with a subgroup of particularly anxious students. Further analysis of the results may offersome interesting insights. In response to question seven, “I keep thinking that other students are
better at English than I am,” students responded quite strongly with an average response of two. Thissuggests that a large group of students appraise the abilities of their peers as better than their own.
The mode of this question is 1 which suggests that a not insignificant number of students feel thisvery strongly. What strikes me as interesting about this response is that, if students are not willing to
produce English freely in front of others, they may not be basing their appraisal of others’ abilities onsomething they have seen in class. They might be basing their opinions based on an idea that they
have created.
Question 11 shows that students strongly disagree with the proposition “I don’t understand why somepeople get so upset about English class.” This suggests that many students are well aware of reasons
why some students are anxious during English classes and also that peers are very aware of what isgoing on around them rather than being consumed with their own anxiety. It may also suggest thatstudents are very perceptive of anxious behavioural cues in the classroom, which may be an asset toa teacher who is looking to make the classroom a less anxious environment.
Question 30 provoked the strongest response of the three questions selected for this presentation, thistime with students agreeing that the grammar burden was overwhelming for them. Again, the modeof the results was one, suggesting that there is a particularly anxious group among the students.

REFLECTING ON THE RESULTS

What do these results say about the prevalence of anxiety in my English classrooms? I can say withcertainty that anxiety presents a problem for the majority of my students. However, the degree towhich individual students may be suffering from anxiety and how this impacts their performancerequires further investigation and deeper reflection. I therefore find myself concerned with twoparticular points:
1. Why are students so anxious about the ability of other students when production in myclassrooms is limited?
2. Why are students overwhelmed by the amount of grammar rules in English despite having
undertaken six years of English study?
LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)92JASON HOBMAN

Generally, anxiety is contrasted with fear in that the threat is not usually known, so an inability toappraise accurately may contribute to stress. My initial answer to both these questions, then, isappraisal. Students in my English classrooms appear to be overestimating the ability of others,
overestimating the amount of work required to learn English, and underestimating their own ability. In
short, they do not seem to be able to appraise the situation around them accurately. This introduces
an unknown element to the English classroom and exacerbates anxious thoughts and feelings. The
reasons for this problem may not be readily apparent, but the survey results do offer some insights.
First, let us look at the first question from above. A majority of students showed signs of anxiety
when asked about assessing the ability of other students, but is their appraisal rational? If students
are taking an English class, then we can assume that they are not proficient users of the language,
so they probably do not have the ability to assess another student’s utterances for accuracy. What,then, could students be basing their ideas on? Some students, as well as engaging in coping
behaviours, may actually be constructing ideas about the classroom to reinforce their beliefs.
Perhaps there are confident students in the class who the teacher can rely on to answer questions,and these students are called upon more readily. This may give the perception that those students
are more capable, as they are likely to be praised by some teachers despite their answer not being
absolutely perfect. An anxious student may then develop the idea that these confident students
are more capable than them as a way to avoid volunteering. This has the unintended effect ofstudents not actually being able to measure their capabilities, however, so it may result in a vicious
cycle in which the student continuously retreats from producing in front of others, but also has
fewer opportunities to test their ability and receive feedback. In short, the students may create theidea of themselves as less capable as a coping mechanism, which in turn becomes a sincere belief.
The second question presents an equally puzzling problem. The majority of university students inJapan will have had at least six years of mandatory English education. The universities I work forare both private, and the associated junior high schools and high schools that most of the students
went to have three or four lesson hours in English every week. It is quite plausible that someone
could become a proficient speaker of English with this amount of education, but the students that
I surveyed expressed a strong anxiety towards the amount of grammar rules required to learn
English, suggesting that they were not confident in their ability. Reflecting upon this, I wondered
if the way of teaching can cause students to poorly evaluate what is expected of them. This issomething that is beyond the scope of the FLCAS, but it is an area I have a strong interest in andsomething I wish to pursue by doing further research. Many junior and senior high schools in Japanare known to use a grammar translation approach known as yakudoku which is considered tohelp students prepare for their entrance exams for university. Indeed, the schools associated withthese two universities use this method which prioritises the teaching of complex grammar andvocabulary at the expense of production practice, particularly in terms of speaking. Some students
may indeed see success on the English sections of their exams and may evaluate themselves
highly. Universities in Japan, however, are expected to prepare students for the world of work,so the focus is often on all-English lessons with a non-Japanese teacher and an expectation thatthe students share their ideas in groups or presentations in front of their peers. It might be no
surprise, then, that students feel overwhelmed by the demands of university education if they are
confronted with a completely new style of teaching that expects them to use previously neglectedskills. This mismatch may be a cause of anxiety, as students are no longer able to appraisethemselves by their previous yardstick, causing them to overestimate what is required of them.

SUGGESTIONS FOR ALLEVIATING ANXIETY IN THE LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

Anxiety may be an ever-present problem in language classrooms, but it may not always be easy
to spot, especially if the students are of a different culture to the teacher. The first step in any
intervention might be to identify more noticeable signs of anxiety in the language classroom. This93

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Foreign Language Anxiety in the English Classroom: Towards a Deeper Understanding

may be difficult, but it can improve with practice. If a student appears to be doing something that
may come across as rude or disruptive, give them the benefit of the doubt and withhold judgment.
If students are using their phone, does their facial expression seem interested in what is on the screenor do they appear stressed? Are they interacting with the phone intently or are they just looking fora way to keep their fingers occupied? There may be a very subtle difference between a student
who genuinely does not care and a student who is overwhelmed by the demands of the language
classroom. Also, my implementation of the survey identified that students may be very aware of theanxious feelings of other students, so this may be reflected in the class atmosphere. If students areunwilling to speak, some may interpret this as laziness or an unwillingness to interact. However,this may actually be a sign that students are anxious and might require a little more guidance inwhat they do. Next time, if students are silent in the classroom, maybe it is a sign that students needmore information or explicit instruction for them to be able to appraise the situation accurately and act
accordingly.
There may also be ways that teachers can structure classes over the semester to alleviate anxiety
without direct intervention. Rather than asking students to come straight to the front of the classroom
or to present their answers to a question without preparation, demands could be slowly increased
over the course of a semester. In the first lesson, students could be asked to introduce themselves
while sitting at their seat after being given a generous amount of time to prepare (both the words
and mentally). In the next lesson, they could be asked to stand up at their desk and say a few words.
Demands could be increased gradually throughout the semester until eventually students are comfortablecoming to the front of the class and speaking without preparation.
As my analysis of the results determined that students may be unable to appraise accurately, it may
be useful to help students do this. They may be given five minutes at the end of the class to reflect
upon their progress that day. This can be structured in such a way that students are guided into
assessing the evidence for their assumptions and critically evaluating their beliefs. They could be
asked to answer questions such as “How many times did I volunteer to answer a question in classtoday?” or “How well did I understand this lesson compared to last week?” These simple questions may
offer students a chance to understand that they are indeed making progress and English learning might
be a steep challenge, but perhaps not as overwhelming as they had thought.

FINAL THOUGHTSComing to the end of the presentation, I felt a sense of relief that I had been able to share my researchwith the audience who seemed to have a keen interest in what I had to say. The audience members
were enthusiastic with their questions. One member seemed to have a strong interest in using myJapanese translation of the FLCAS at their own school, which of course I was happy to oblige. The
response to my presentation allayed any anxiety I had at the start of the presentation, and it mademe empathise with my own students in the sense that it is very difficult to put yourself out there in
front of others, especially so when speaking a foreign language. However, putting myself and myresearch out there offered me the chance to meet like-minded and supportive people who helpedme consider my research from different perspectives and undertake the critical reflection that isrequired to become a better researcher. Creating the same supportive space for my students toundertake these challenges, alleviate their anxious feelings, and become more confident learners
is a new priority after this experience.

CONCLUSION

To conclude, the results of my research suggest there is a general feeling of anxiety in my classrooms.
I identified that the students’ inability to appraise themselves and the situation around themselves
accurately may be a primary cause of their anxiety. This may be caused by their previous English
education and a conflict that appears when they enter university. The suggestions I offered involved
LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)94JASON HOBMAN

teachers being more empathetic to students and withholding judgement. Teachers could also stage
activities to introduce anxiety-inducing tasks gradually. The students themselves may also be asked
to think critically about their performance in the classroom at the end of each class to encouragethem to appraise their abilities better. Anxiety may be a common problem in language classrooms,
but if teachers and students adapt, there may be more solutions to the problem than first thought.

REFERENCES

Gregersen, T. S. (2005). Nonverbal cues: Clues to the detection of foreign language anxiety.
Foreign Language Annals, 38(3), 388–400.
Horwitz, E., Horwitz, M., & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign language classroom anxiety. The Modern Language
Journal, 70(2), 125–132.

95

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)The Effects of Role Conflict and Role Ambiguity on Eikaiwa Teachers

Darcey Barge
Rikkyo University
darceybarge[at]gmail[dot]com

The Effects of Role Conflict and Role Ambiguity
on Eikaiwa Teachers
ABSTRACT

Eikaiwa teachers experience workplace issues that can be understood as role conflict and roleambiguity. Role conflict refers to the dueling pressures between roles that can cause poor results
or not being able to finish tasks for one or both roles. Role ambiguity refers to the lack of clarityof a role, which may result in the role not being performed appropriately. Role conflict and roleambiguity have been found to be predictors of symptoms of burnout. In this study, Eikaiwa teachers
were interviewed to examine if role conflict and role ambiguity were present and how symptomsof burnout were connected to these experiences. Results showed that examples of role conflictand role ambiguity lead to Eikaiwa teachers experiencing symptoms of burnout which further led
to their decision to continue teaching or to leave the teaching profession. This study may be usefulfor teacher development in terms of taking action to create a better working environment.
Keywords: role conflict, role ambiguity, teacher burnout, eikaiwa teachers

My first teaching position was at an Eikaiwa school. There I learned the basics in teaching that
included how to handle students of all ages as well as how to teach with different proficiency levels
within the same class. However, I soon realized that working in the Eikaiwa industry was so much
more than being present in the classroom and teaching English. My role as a teacher included
different responsibilities that I was not initially aware of when I started teaching at the Eikaiwa
school. This led to myself feeling burned out and not understanding why I had those feelings. I also
noticed my colleagues exhibiting signs of exhaustion, both physically and emotionally. After leaving
the Eikaiwa industry, those feelings and observations stayed with me and drove my curiosity inwanting to understand more about burnout in teaching. Furthermore, I wanted to understand how
Eikaiwa teacher experiences could contribute to burnout. While reading on the topic of burnout, I
learned about role conflict and role ambiguity and how they can be predictors of teacher burnout.
Research on role conflict and role ambiguity has identified symptoms of burnout in the teaching
field by showing stressors caused by the workplace environment. This has given researchers aclearer picture on how stressors can lead to burnout within the teaching profession. One part of my
MA study was to identify if role conflict and role ambiguity are present in teachers working within
the Eikaiwa industry by analyzing their experience through workplace issues.

UNDERSTANDING ROLE CONFLICT AND ROLE AMBIGUITY

Rizzo et al. (1970) defined a role to be “a set of expectations about behavior for a position in a social
structure” and said expectations are “ascribed to the role by the focal person filling that position or
LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)96DARCEY BARGE

by others who relate to the role or simply have notions about it” (p. 155). A teacher’s role will havedifferent meanings depending on the type of teacher. For example, Eikaiwa teachers can have
responsibilities beyond teaching regarding student recruitment or selling additional school materials
to students that are not shared by primary or secondary school teachers.
Reflecting on my own time in the Eikaiwa industry, I realized that I had more than one role. I was ateacher, an office administrator, a teacher trainer, and a promoter for the company. I found that eachrole in itself had its own set of expectations and responsibilities. I also realized that these roles did
not fit together and created stress because I was trying to not only complete my tasks on time, butalso to do a good job by completing the tasks fully. The stress I experienced was role conflict. Rizzo
et al. (1970) defined role conflict as the “compatibility and incompatibility in the requirements of therole, where congruency or compatibility is judged relative to a set of standards or conditions which
impinge upon role performance” (p. 155).
Another issue I found myself facing was not understanding what my roles were. I knew I was a teacher,but other responsibilities that were expected of me did not fit within the teacher role. Other expectations
included completing administration work by communicating with the head office, promoting the schoolby posting advertisements in mailboxes, or asking students to sign up for additional classes. Whenever I
was asked to take on a new role, I didn’t fully understand what I was expected to do. I would ask myself,what do I write to the head office? Should I be formal or be direct? How do I sell additional classes?
Should I keep asking students to sign up for more classes if I don’t fill in every available class time?
These questions and the lack of clarity are forms of role ambiguity. Role ambiguity is focused into twoparts: (a) the predictability of one’s behavior and (b) the clarity of behavioral requirements which would
serve as a guide to provide knowledge on which behavior is appropriate (Rizzo et al., 1970). I found theirstudy interesting because it also addressed issues regarding organizational and management practices,leadership behavior, satisfaction, anxiety, and propensity to leave the job.

THE EIKAIWA INDUSTRY

The Japanese word Eikaiwa means “English conversation” but also refers to an English language
school in Japan that offers English language classes to both adults and children (Kubota, 2020).
Eikaiwa schools offer language classes to both children, starting as young as 6 months old (AEON,n.d.), and adults. Lessons are offered in private or group formats. The content for each class canvary in terms of topics, but can focus on speaking, listening, reading, grammar and vocabulary(AEON, n.d.; ECC, 2022) as well as helping students prepare for language proficiency tests.

TEACHER EXPECTATIONS IN WORKING AND NON-WORKING HOURS

In a typical 40-hour work week, Eikaiwa teachers are contracted to work a minimum of 25 teaching
hours (AEON, n.d.) to as many as 37 (NOVA, n.d.). Non-teaching responsibilities can include lesson
planning, promoting and selling of company materials, counseling students, making textbook
recommendations, making student progress reports, and cleaning the school. Because planninglessons can be time consuming, teachers are encouraged to practice “good time management skills
and flexibility” (AEON, n.d.). Although books and teaching materials are provided by the school,teachers can be expected to create their own extra materials needed for the classes they will beteaching (Sakamoto, 2014). These materials can include copies of book chapters, vocabulary cards,
and any kind of visual material needed to support the teaching of their lesson (Sakamoto, 2014).
There are instances where Eikaiwa teachers are put under extreme pressure by their schools.
For example one teacher was “required to come up with lesson plans and teaching materials,”making over 2,300 letter and vocabulary cards within a 2-month time span after 10 days of training(Sakamoto, 2014). This particular case was investigated by the Kanazawa Labor Standards Inspection
Office and it was revealed that the teacher had worked an estimated 82 hours at home to create

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)The Effects of Role Conflict and Role Ambiguity on Eikaiwa Teachers

the cards (Sakamoto, 2014). The father of the teacher “applied to the Kanazawa Labor Standards
Inspection Office for recognition that his daughter’s death was caused by her job” (Sakamoto, 2014).
In my experience, I was contracted to work 28-32 teaching hours over a 40-hour work week. Duringcertain times of the year, I had a schedule of 34-38 teaching hours a week. In these cases, I worked
overtime. However, when I asked for compensation, my manager scolded me for making such arequest. Even though I ended up being paid for this work, I was told to explicitly discuss such arequest before actually making it. In addition, I also worked at home because I felt that I had to inorder to prepare for my lessons. This experience made me question my priorities in my role as ateacher and an employee. I needed to complete my lesson plans and to do so, I needed to workovertime. However, I found myself questioning whether I was a good employee if I couldn’t finish
my work within working hours. I also was unclear on the rules of when it is appropriate to ask forovertime compensation. Now I reflect on it and I believe I was experiencing both role conflict and roleambiguity. After reading about role conflict and role ambiguity as well as teacher burnout, I wanted tohelp Eikaiwa teachers by researching and exposing which workplace issues led to experiencing role
conflict and role ambiguity so that teachers can understand how this could lead to teacher burnout.

MY RESEARCH FOCUS

This study was part of a MA thesis I completed in understanding burnout as experienced by Eikaiwateachers. My aims in the MA thesis were to uncover specific stressors related to role conflict androle ambiguity that participants may have experienced during their time working in the Eikaiwa
industry, understand the connections between participant experiences and symptoms of burnout,and highlight the potential causes that have led to their decisions in continuing to work in the Eikaiwa
industry, leave the industry, or quit teaching altogether.
For my MA thesis, I utilized two methods of data collection: a survey consisting of 21 questions anda follow-up interview. The first seven questions of the survey elicited the participants’ backgroundinformation: name (optional), gender (optional), age, country of origin, educational background, andthe number of years of teaching in Eikaiwa and non-Eikaiwa settings. In addition to the participants’
background information, the survey included eight questions regarding their Eikaiwa responsibilities.
The participants rated their Eikaiwa experiences on 5-point Likert scale items 1 being the lowest
rating and 5 the highest. The topics the items covered included relationships with managers,
relationships with co-workers, fair pay, comfortableness at work, and overall satisfaction with theposition. They were also asked to provide any additional information regarding their experience.
The follow-up interview included questions that asked participants to provide further details on their
Eikaiwa experiences. For example, if a participant indicated that they had had poor relationships withmanagers, I would ask them to provide more details and to explain why they rated that topic with a 1.
Fifty-six people who met the selection criteria answered my survey. The selection criteria firstincluded a willingness to be interviewed. Second, they had to have Eikaiwa teaching experience(not, for example, teaching English conversation at a university). Third, they needed to have atleast one year of experience in the Eikaiwa industry. Fourth, I aimed to include non-Japanese andJapanese teachers, so I checked their nationality. Lastly, I considered their answers to the survey
items that were related to possible signs of burnout with a minimum score of 1 on the 5-point Likertscale indicating numerous potential signs of burnout. I calculated their average score across these
items and used it to help identify prospective interviewees. In the end, 10 people agreed—via email
correspondence—to be interviewed. I should point out that three of the survey respondents quit
the teaching field altogether at the time of their interviews, therefore none of the participants werereferred to as teachers in my study.

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)98DARCEY BARGE

THE MAIN ISSUES THE CURRENT AND FORMER TEACHERS EXPERIENCED

I analyzed the experiences of the survey respondents by comparing them to the Maslach
Burnout Inventory (MBI). The MBI is a questionnaire to measure the intensity and frequency of
the three symptoms of burnout which are Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and Reduced
Personal Accomplishment. I also compared experiences to items in a role conflict and role ambiguity
questionnaire developed by Rizzo et al. (1970). The survey respondents showed similarities inexperiencing both role conflict and role ambiguity during their time while working in the Eikaiwa
industry. The respondents also showed signs of experiencing teacher burnout. Here I focus on how
the respondents experienced role conflict and role ambiguity.

ROLE CONFLICT

Role conflict, the dueling pressures regarding the completion or incompletion of the teacher’sroles, appeared when discussing workplace issues for seven survey respondents. Five participants
experienced role conflict when confronted with lesson preparation versus the amount of time within
their working hours to plan the actual lessons. In an interview, one former teacher who had six andhalf years of experience working in the Eikiawa industry said his lessons suffered because of thelack of time he had to prepare while finishing his other office responsibilities. He said that during the
weeks he had 40 lessons, he could not organize his work time efficiently to complete everything.
He explained he felt he was doing something wrong because he could not organize his time very
well. This example showed the conflict that many teachers face about whether to complete office
responsibilities as an employee or to prepare for their lessons in their role as a teacher.

ROLE AMBIGUITY

Role Ambiguity, the unclear expectations within a teacher’s role, appeared when discussing workplaceissues with seven participants. Two survey respondents talked about how their training was focused
only on observing and emulating the lessons of outgoing teachers. They both expressed notunderstanding the teaching expectations before they entered the classroom; they felt unpreparedand uncertain of their roles. Another two participants experienced Role Ambiguity relating to theissue of how to encourage students to purchase additional lessons, on top of the student’s weekly
scheduled lesson, as well as unclear financial goals for the school and the kind of lessons to sell.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE TEACHERS

The participants who had experienced role conflict and role ambiguity had also experienced thethree symptoms of burnout: Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and Reduced Personal
Accomplishment. Schwab and Iwanicki (1982) found in their research that role conflict and roleambiguity can be predictors of symptoms of burnout. In a similar way, participants in my study
experienced burnout because of conflicting roles and unclear expectations. Three participants thatexperienced role conflict and role ambiguity have remained working for the Eikaiwa industry. Twoparticipants who experienced role conflict and role ambiguity have left the Eikaiwa industry, buthave continued to work in the teaching profession. Those who have remained teaching in Eikaiwa
or a different teaching field said the reason they continue to teach, despite experiencing burnout, isbecause they enjoy teaching. Three participants who experienced role conflict and role ambiguity
have completely left the Eikaiwa industry and the teaching profession altogether. Their reasonsfor leaving were that the responsibilities of education were too big, there was too much stress andexhaustion, and in one case they did not have a teaching license to continue teaching outside of
Eikaiwa.

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)The Effects of Role Conflict and Role Ambiguity on Eikaiwa Teachers

FURTHER QUESTIONS AND MY OWN SOLUTIONSMy MA study showed that teachers working in the Eikaiwa industry experienced symptoms ofburnout through workplace issues that correspond with role conflict and role ambiguity. The resultsof my survey showed that teachers experience role conflict, for example, when they are forced tochoose between preparing for lessons or finishing other school responsibilities which can impact
the quality of their lessons. Other workplace issues that can correspond to role ambiguity such as
having unclear expectations regarding an Eikaiwa school’s policy on selling lessons can also leadto teachers experiencing symptoms of burnout. Although some teachers who experienced role
conflict and role ambiguity have remained in the Eikaiwa industry, it is also causing teachers toleave the teaching profession completely.
After completing my study, I found myself asking more questions. If role conflict and role ambiguity
can lead to Eikaiwa teachers experiencing burnout, how can the workplace issues that werediscussed leading to these experiences be prevented? Furthermore, what are some solutions for
Eikaiwa teachers who are already feeling the effects of role conflict and role ambiguity? Although
the respondent’s experiences highlighted some workplace issues that were examples of role
conflict and role ambiguity, I believe there may be other topics that haven’t been explored that also
lead to role conflict and role ambiguity in the Eikaiwa industry. By discussing these other issues,teachers can uncover why they might be experiencing role conflict, role ambiguity, and burnout.
As part of my MA work, I did not discuss possible solutions with the participants. However, after thecompletion of my study, I found that I became more aware of my own workplace issues and how toprevent experiencing role conflict and role ambiguity. One example where I avoided experiencingrole ambiguity was when I was presented with a new employment contract that was unclear
regarding expectations about the role I would be performing. I therefore asked the employer for
more clarity and made sure that the updated clarification was part of the contract so that both I
and my employer were aware of my actual responsibilities. Another example where I navigatedmy way through an experience of role conflict was by acknowledging that I had two dueling roles
within my workplace. For each responsibility, I had to prioritize what I felt was more important andbe confident in my decision when following through to complete different tasks. Prioritizing andalso communicating with my managers about the roles and their expectations helped reduce thepotential of experiencing burnout. These solutions are not going to solve every workplace issue,
but by acknowledging my role(s) and understanding potential problems that can lead to role
conflict and role ambiguity, I have found that I am not experiencing burnout symptoms as intensely
as I was before my study. This does not mean I can avoid burnout completely, but I can have more
control in how workplace issues can affect my well-being.
Although I enjoyed my experience working at Eikaiwa schools, teaching students, and making lifelong friendships with my co-workers, I left the Eikaiwa industry feeling exhausted. Furthermore, someof my former Eikaiwa co-workers are no longer teaching. They explicitly told me that because of theirexperience they no longer want to be in that kind of work environment. I felt sad for future students
who would miss out, because I believe they were good teachers. If current Eikaiwa teachers are
more aware of their roles in the Eikaiwa industry and how it is affecting them, I believe this awarenesscould be one step towards preventing teachers from leaving the Eikaiwa industry.

REFERENCES

Byrne, B. M. (1999). The nomological network of teacher burnout: A literature review and empiricallyvalidated model. In R. Vandenberghe & A. M. Huberman (Eds.), Understanding and preventing
teacher burnout: A sourcebook of international research and practice (pp. 15–37). Cambridge
University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511527784.003

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)100DARCEY BARGE

Kubota, R. (2011). Learning a foreign language as leisure and consumption: Enjoyment, desire, andthe business of eikaiwa. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 14(4),473–488.
Maslach, C., & Jackson, S. E. (1981). The measurement of experienced burnout. Journal of
Organizational Behavior, 2(2), 99–113.
Maslach, C., Leiter, M. P., & Schaufeli, W. (2009). Measuring burnout.
Maslach, C., Leiter, M.P., & Schaufeli, W. (2009). Measuring burnout. In S. Cartwright & C. L. Cooper(Eds.), The Oxford handbook of organizational well being (pp. 86–108). https://doi.org/10.1093/
oxfordhb/9780199211913.003.0005
Mercer, S. (2020). The well-being of language teachers in the private sector: An ecological perspective.
Language Teaching Research, 27(5), 1054–1077. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168820973510
Rizzo, J. R., House, R. J., & Lirtzman, S. I. (1970). Role conflict and ambiguity in complex
organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 15(2), 150–163.
Schwab, R. L., & Iwanicki, E. F. (1982). Perceived role conflict, role ambiguity, and teacher burnout.
Educational Administration Quarterly, 18(1), 60–74.
Teach English in Japan: Aeon - English Conversation School. AEON. (2022, August 11). Retrieved
October 18, 2022, from https://www.aeonet.com/
Teach in Japan. ECC. (n.d.). Retrieved October 21, 2022, from https://eccteachinjapan.com/
Teach in Japan【official】English teacher. NOVA. (n.d.). Retrieved October 21, 2022, from https://nova-holdings.jp/teachinjapan/

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)SECTION 4: STUDENT PRESENTATIONSi.

Projects Beyond the Classroomii.

Course Developmentiii.

Teacher Researchiv.

Student Presentationsv.

Reflections

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)KAKERU TOJO

Kakeru Tojo
Komazawa University
3713101k[at]komazawa-u[dot]ac[dot]jp

Creation of a Technology-Based Pronunciation
Evaluation System to Foster Autonomous
Pronunciation Acquisition for Second Language
Learners and Enhance Independent Learning
ABSTRACTThis article is a reflection about my first attendance at a conference. At the LD30 Conference, I
made a presentation about a study which aimed to explore effective ways to use technology topromote independent learning among second language learners. Specifically, the study focused on
second language learners’ acquisition of understandable pronunciation so that they can speak withconfidence. In my study, I tried to find ways to enhance the ability of second language learners toacquire comprehensible pronunciation independently. The experience of attending this conference
enabled me to understand better what it takes to be a researcher.
Keywords: reflection, education technology, pronunciation evaluation system

I initially did not want to attend an academic conference. However, my perception changed when
I participated and presented my research process in the conference held at Gakushūin University
on October 21st and 22nd, 2023. Being a part of LD30 altered my perspective on research andconference attendance. The purpose of this writing is to share my reflections from my experienceat LD30.
The title of my presentation was “Creation of a Technology-Based Pronunciation Evaluation System
to Foster Autonomous Pronunciation Acquisition for Second Language Learners and Enhance
Independent Learning”. I am deeply interested in both education and technology especially as
world changing inventions such as generative AI are being created today. I enjoy contemplating
how current advanced technology can aid second language learners and the opportunities
technology-integrated education can create for learners’ development. As a graduate student
specializing in media at Komazawa university, my goal was to develop something beneficial forstudents studying English. Although my primary role is that of a student, I also teach English
to adults. These experiences piqued my interest in creating such a tool. As a student myself, I
observed that lack of confidence in pronunciation often hindered my classmates from speaking
their second language during discussions at my university. This led me to believe that having
confidence in pronunciation is a crucial skill in real-life communication, yet not many language
educators in modern classrooms focus on this aspect.

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Creation of a Technology-Based Pronunciation Evaluation System to Foster Autonomous Pronunciation Acquisition

From a teacher’s standpoint, I noticed during listening activities that students struggled tocomprehend words they were already familiar with. This experience emphasized the need forindividualized pronunciation learning opportunities. I dedicated half a semester to developing apronunciation evaluation system. However, as I delved deeper into research and development, I
began losing focus and interest. I found myself more intrigued by observing classroom phenomenarather than solely creating a system. Despite my wavering commitment, I felt obligated to attend
the conference, though I saw little meaning in presenting a poster for a project I had halted. It was
my first conference attendance, which made me question if I was the right person to participate.
The 21st was the day of my poster presentation. Upon completing registration, numerous participants
warmly welcomed me. Contrary to my expectations of a cold atmosphere, I encountered a friendly
environment. Additionally, the presentation style differed significantly from what I anticipated. I had
expected presenters to solely showcase research results while the audience listened passively.
However, at LD30, many presenters encouraged discussions, sharing their teaching experiences
and perspectives to enhance teaching methods. One reason I had initially hesitated to attend
academic conferences was the perceived tendency for participants to be overly critical. However,
the warm atmosphere at LD30 provided hope of gaining ideas from both teachers and students
to further my research. During my presentation, many teachers and students approached me in afriendly manner and engaged with my poster presentation.
Surprisingly, the adjacent presentation focused on the necessity of revamping English educationin Japanese schools to foster inclusivity within society. It aimed to explore potential links between
discrimination, exclusive mindsets, and English education, proposing inclusive teaching approaches
for societal unity. This presentation resonated with mine as the presenter also discussed English
as a lingua franca. It prompted me to question how my system should evaluate pronunciation if
native English speakers couldn’t comprehend English spoken between non-native speakers, yetthey understood each other. Consequently, it became evident that evaluating pronunciation is acomplex task. Additionally, a teacher asked about the criteria I applied. I mentioned three criteria:
accuracy, fluency, and completeness. Subsequently, the teacher inquired if I had additional criteria
to consider. One feature I contemplated for the system was including a function for learners to
perform self-assessment using five criteria, enabling them to identify the pronunciation features
they were confident in. The teacher suggested that while adding more features might enhanceusability, a successful system should remain simple. This advice made me realize that adding
more features increased the system’s complexity, although I aimed to create a tool for students toautonomously acquire understandable pronunciation.
I appreciated the numerous teachers and students who shared their teaching and learning experiences
about pronunciation. One student concurred that a lack of pronunciation skills demotivated students
from speaking aloud. Although I temporarily suspended this project, my interest in education andtechnology remains. This experience prompted me to reassess my current project. Several teachers
discussed EduTech, indicating widespread interest in the coexistence of education and technology.
By the end of the LD30 conference, I found myself rejuvenated by the diverse perspectives
shared. While initially disheartened by suspending my pronunciation evaluation system project,
the discussions reshaped my approach. Conversations about EduTech reignited my passion
for innovative educational technologies, particularly in language acquisition. The conference
underscored the intricate link between education, technology, and societal inclusivity, broadening
my perspective. LD30 wasn’t merely a platform for research presentations; it was a transformative
space for communal learning. Leaving the conference, I am inspired to research more accessible
tools that bridge the gap between technology and effective pedagogy, reaffirming my commitment
to empowering both learners and educators.

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)104

YUIKO ASAI

Yuiko Asai
Chuo University
a21.sj86[at]g[dot]chuo-u[dot]ac[dot]jp

Listening to the Voices of Aboriginal People in Their
Struggle for Cultural and Linguistic Revitalization
ABSTRACTIn my Story Circle at the LD30 Conference, I shared how my process of understanding Aboriginal
people’s cultural and language revitalization in Australia has shifted from fact-based to voice-based
while listening to Aboriginal people’s stories. In my journey of understanding, I concluded thatwhile thinking about Aboriginal people in Australia, we also need to look at the situation around us;
listening will lead us to not just understanding but to supporting indigenous peoples to revitalize
their languages and cultures. In response to my story, participants shared their own perspectives
and experiences. I collected their email addresses, and I am planning to be in contact with themso that we can write up a collaborative short article (1,000 words) together about recognizing
minorities as a first step and getting interested in their situations. I have been listening to Aboriginal
people’s voices, and, after the Story Circle, I realized that it is time for us to look at the issues fromnew angles, one that is voice-based.

MY JOURNEY OF UNDERSTANDING

I acknowledge with respect that Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander peoples from the past to the
future are guardians of the Australian land.
In my Story Circle at the LD30 conference, I shared my journey of understanding of Aboriginal people
and their issues, which included online fieldwork and a visit to Australia. I could reflect on my story
and gain new angles from the audience. I wish to keep deepening my understanding as well as
finding how I could spread my story in an effective way. In this article, I will explain what I shared,
people’s responses to my presentation and how I want to continue my journey.

WHAT DID I SHARE IN MY STORY CIRCLE?
WHY I CHOSE AUSTRALIA

I chose Aboriginal people’s issues in Australia because of my long interest in indigenous people’s
language revitalization. When I was in high school, I first learned about indigenous people in Canada
and assimilation toward them (a process of taking away a culture, including language, of specificgroups of people and making them conform into another culture). It was very shocking for me, andI decided to inform myself more in university. In 2022, I chose Australia in a seminar at university to
deepen my understanding of indigenous people’s issues since it was well known for its indigenous
people.

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Listening to the Voices of Aboriginal People in Their Struggle for Cultural and Linguistic Revitalization

THE HISTORY

Starting the research journey, I found out that Australia had an assimilation policy toward Aboriginal
people. The Stolen Generations is one of the keywords we need to know to grasp the historyof this policy: It describes the Aboriginal people who were taken away from their parents andput into “white” people’s schools to assimilate their Aboriginality. They were prohibited to speak
Aboriginal languages, made to feel negative about their traditions, and dehumanized by having
their belongings, identities, self-control/self-esteem, and basic rights stolen from them. They
even became victims of mass killings (National Museum of Australia, 2018). The ultimate purpose
was to maintain the blood ideology of European people by getting rid of the “blackness” ofAboriginal people. In 2008, the former Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, officially apologized for thepolicy. Nonetheless, in October 2023, in a referendum organised by the advisory body called
the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, people were asked whether First Nations People should berecognized in the constitution, and the majority voted “No”.

PEOPLE’S VOICESAs part of my research process, I listened to video testimonies. One of the speakers was Rita Wenberg(Stolen Generations’ testimonies, n.d.). She has been a victim of the Stolen Generations since she wasthree years old. She has been dealing with many traumas including identity issues and silence. As forher identity, she commented that, “I really thought I was white. If you do go back home, which I did, I
met a lot of, you know, it wasn’t like family. You know, they were my – they tried to make me welcome.
But I just couldn’t fit in.” In my understanding, she meant that although she could finally go backwhere she was supposed to belong, she did not feel she was a member of the family/community.
Also, she talked about her silence: “A lot of people don’t know what happened to me. My daughter
doesn’t even know. I won’t tell the kids, it’s not right for them to know.” Because of the policies that leadto the Stolen Generations, she cannot feel a sense of belonging to her own Aboriginal community, andher experiences are so traumatic that she does not want her children to know her story.
Another person I talked about in my Story Circle was an Aboriginal activist/rapper, DOBBY. He is a
Murrawarri and Filipino man, and addresses today’s issues of Aboriginal people, land rights and theenvironment. For instance, in one of his songs, Walk Away (2022), he expresses what assimilation
has done to his Murrawarri people, but despite the struggles they have been facing, people insociety tell them to, “let it go”. He wants people to listen to what he has gone through and felt asan Aboriginal person, and wants to share with others the situation he and Murrawarri people havebeen put in.

MY FIELDWORK IN AUSTRALIA

While I was doing research in Japan, I listened to different Aboriginal people’s voices. And this led
me to do some fieldwork in Australia for two weeks. In February 2023, I visited Sydney (Gadigallands) and an Aboriginal community on the coast about 90 minutes away by plane. Before goingto Australia, I contacted different organizations and individuals, and arranged several visits andinterviews with local individuals and organizations working for Aboriginal people and communities.
My goal was to listen to people’s strong voices and see their situation with my own eyes so that I
could better understand their perspectives and concerns. Talking with them, I could see how each
Aboriginal person and their ally proactively go to great lengths to revitalize their languages andcultures in their own ways, and pass them down to the next generations.

PEOPLE’S RESPONSES AND MY COMMENTS

For me, people’s reactions to my Story Circle presentation were fascinating, and I am very glad that
I could share about Aboriginal people and their issues, and my journey of understanding. They got
to know about the Aboriginal people and their issues by listening to their voices. Through reflecting
LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)106

YUIKO ASAI

on my presentation, the audience developed their own interests in Aboriginal people and theirissues in Australia as well as ones in Japan.
It seems to me that Rita Wenberg’s voice was very powerful and made the audience contemplate
Aboriginal people’s issues. Koa (pseudonym) responded that she was shocked about her being a
victim of the Stolen Generation, and she commented on Rita’s identity issue (despite her Aboriginal
background, she believes she is European). She realized how much Rita’s experiences of assimilation
have affected her sense of identity even though she is no longer technically under the policy.
Koa’s point of view reminded me of long-lasting impacts of assimilation. She listened to Rita andconsidered the Aboriginal issue from her own perspective. Another participant, Julia (pseudonym)
made a connection to Rita with her own experience. Because of her cultural background/identity,
she sometimes feels excluded from a Japanese community. Rita was relatable for her in this point.
After my presentation, members of the audience expanded their interests to Aboriginal people’s issues
in their own ways. Yosef (pseudonym) mentioned that he did not know about Aboriginal people andtheir issues in general and knew only their existence. He is now interested in their history and if there
are any cases in which people have sorted out their issues. Some of the audience expanded theirinterests to Japan’s case as well, particularly the Ainu. Koa and Yosef shared that they wanted toknow more about Ainu people, their issues, and solutions.
Finally, in a reflection, Julia also mentioned hope for future change of Aboriginal people: Even if one
action is not big, a mass of them can lead to a better situation. We, the participants, and I have seen
the dark history that Aboriginal peoples have had to endure and the languages at risk of dying, yet
we could find a light to a better future for Aboriginal people.

AFTER MY STORY CIRCLE

By doing the Story Circle, I could get new perspectives from people and realize how powerfulpeople’s voices are. It was meaningful for me that I could know what people wanted to understandmore about Aboriginal people’s issues, and how they see the issues through their lenses. Plus, I
was very surprised about reactions from the audiences to Aboriginal people’s voices, especially
Rita’s. People’s voices can be very influential and let people come to realize their situations. I hope
my voice about Aboriginal people and their issues has led you all to ponder the issues and keep
deepening your understanding in your own unique ways.

REFERENCESDOBBYau (May 19, 2022). DOBBY – Walk Away ft. The Merindas (Official Video). YouTube.
Accessed October 20, 2023. https://youtu.be/R9gHqK-BEL8
National Museum of Australia (January 25, 2018). 07: The Stolen Generations. Accessed October
20, 2023. https://youtu.be/aDuxRddyZQY
Stolen Generations’ Testimonies (n.d.). Rita Wenberg. Stolen Generations’ Testimonies Foundation.
Accessed October 20, 2023. https://www.stolengenerationstestimonies.com/rita-wenberg.html
The National Archives (n.d.) Case study 4 background: The rise of the British empire in Australia.
Accessed October 20, 2023. https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/empire/g1/cs4/
background.htm
Turnbull, T. (October 15, 2023). Voice referendum: What is Australia’s voice to Parliament proposal?
BBC. Accessed October 20, 2023. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-62374703
Violata, A. (June 2, 2021). Meet Dobby, the Filipino-Aboriginal rapper calling for environmental
action. SBS Filipino. Accessed October 20, 2023. https://www.sbs.com.au/language/filipino/en/
podcast-episode/meet-dobby-the-filipino-aboriginal-rapper-calling-for-environmental-action/
uf7u4qlnx

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Reducing Food Loss and Waste in Japan: An Environmentally Friendly Approach

Mako Narita
Gakushuin University
minionmaco[at]gmail[dot]com

Reducing Food Loss and Waste in Japan:
An Environmentally Friendly Approach
ABSTRACTThe poster I presented at the LD30 Conference was about reducing food loss and waste. I proposed
one idea on how to reduce food loss and waste in Japan based on two research questions. In mypresentation, I first provided the background of food loss and waste by referring to environmental
damages and the north-south divide, including the differences between food loss and waste.
Second, I explained the past situation of food loss and waste in Japan based on my reading of theliterature. Additionally, I compared the actions that had been taken for food loss and waste in Japanand Europe. Finally, I offered and discussed my idea to deal with food loss and waste in Japan. I
concluded my session by summarizing the main points and talking to the participants about the issue
and actions that could be taken to reduce food loss and waste.

First, let me explain how I decided to work on this project. I have been taking a course in my department
in which we were given an assignment to write a paper about social issues. I took this course toencourage me to work on academic writing which I wasn’t good at. In this course, I decided to search
about food loss and waste. Seeing the actions or policies towards food loss and waste in Japan
made me feel it can be encouraged more. It motivated me to search and think about this issue.
That is why I have done my research about food loss and waste in university focusing on SDG goal
12. Then I had the opportunity to participate in the LD30 Conference, so I decided to share myideas with participants in a poster session.
In my research, I focused on the situation in developed countries to consider suggestions for Japanby setting two research questions:
1. What is the situation of food loss and waste in Japan in comparison to the rest of the world?
2. What can be done to reduce Japan’s food loss and waste?

MY POSTER

In this poster presentation, I proposed one idea on how to reduce food loss and waste in Japan.
The poster is reproduced below. To guide my thinking, I set two research questions which appear
at the top left of the poster. Below this, I then provided the background of food loss and waste byreferring to environmental damages and the north-south divide including the differences between
food loss and waste. Below this, I answered my first question by looking into the current situationof food loss and waste in Japan through my reading of the literature (‘Current Situation in Japan’).
I also compared the actions that have been taken for food loss and waste in Japan and Europe
LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)108MAKO NARITA(‘What Other Countries Do’). Finally, I offered and discussed my idea to deal with food loss andwaste in Japan to answer the second research question. (‘My Connection’ > ‘My Idea’).

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LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Reducing Food Loss and Waste in Japan: An Environmentally Friendly Approach

PCP REFLECTION

I joined the LD30 Conference for my academic experience. In the preparation stage, making a big
poster was a good way to wrap up my research and consider how to convey it to the audience. I
was excited to speak up about my idea at an academic conference for the first time in my life.
On the day of LD30 (day 1, Oct 21), the session time flew by faster than I expected with valuablecommunications. There were both professors and students from various areas of Japan visiting my
poster. There were two memorable episodes during the session.
First, several teachers visited my poster. One of them gave me a comment on my poster that world
food transportation is the third largest CO2 emitter behind China and the US. This was surprising.
In addition to what the professor pointed out, I put two more serious issues caused by food loss
and waste on my poster. The first issue is the damage to natural resources caused by food loss
(freshwater, fertilizers, and croplands). Food waste means disposing of food and natural resources.
The second issue is the difference between developing countries and developed countries. In
response to the section on my poster about waste loss in Japan, another professor asked me why
it is considered serious although the graph in the poster shows the amount of food loss and waste
in Japan has been declining for five years. I explained to him that it is obvious the amount has
been reduced, but I pointed out that there was still 5.22 million tons of waste from households andbusinesses in 2020. This fact shouldn’t be forgiven.
I explained to the teachers two examples from other countries. Denmarks’ supermarkets sell goods
at discounted prices which can no longer be sold in common supermarkets because of the imminent
expiration dates. In France, the law forced supermarkets to give unsold food to charity groups who
suffer from a lack of food. Considering these in mind, I put the idea of carrying extra food products
to places where they are in demand in the vacant space of transportation. For example, on highway
buses, there are spaces to put passengers’ luggage, but there are extra spaces that contain nothing.
Extra food could be carried in these spaces. It can reduce the food that retailers throw away. It’s also
environmentally friendly, not using extra vehicles. At this time, one of the teachers mentioned one of
the actions in Japan. It is called “Second Harvest Japan”. They play a role similar to food banks. So, I
could get new knowledge which stimulates my ideas. The professors admired the fact that I’ve done
research and tried to share in this session. They made me feel satisfied with all my work.
I had another valuable conversation with a student who is also learning English. Looking around myposter, she was interested in my idea to reduce food loss and waste. She told me that is interested
in agriculture, and had some experience learning about farmers. Then she asked whether my idea
could save farmers. From her perspective, one of the serious issues of agriculture is the lack ofsuccessors, people who can take over the running of farms after this generation. We came up with
the idea to carry local crops from rural to urban areas so that people can get to know more about
farmers or production areas. I feel that if customers knew more about the farmers who produce
the goods they buy, they would feel more familiar with them, which would raise people’s interest in
agriculture. We had a nice discussion till the end.
Through my poster session, I learned various kinds of new things, and points of improvement in myresearch, and mostly I enjoyed sharing ideas with people who have different majors, and backgrounds.
It gave me the confidence to try new things in English.
I appreciate it at all.

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)110SECTION 5: REFLECTIONSi.

Projects Beyond the Classroomii.

Course Developmentiii.

Teacher Researchiv.

Student Presentationsv.

Reflections

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Exploring Our Significance in Our Communities at a Learning Café

Devon Arthurson
Hakuoh University
darthurson[at]fc[dot]hakuoh [dot] ac [dot] jp

Exploring Our Significance in Our Communities
at a Learning Café
ABSTRACTA learning café is a presentation format in which the presenter briefly shares about the presentation
topic and then uses most of the time to facilitate discussion with the attendees for further explorationof the topic. As it was the author’s first time to present at a learning café, this reflection paper will
focus on my expectations and the actual experience. I was expecting to be able to discuss all the
prompts I had prepared for the presentation, but in reality the attendees were only able to shareabout a portion of questions related to their communities. Advantages of the learning café format
are that attendees are actively involved in the presentation and have more egalitarian interactions.
Conversely, those positives may be viewed as negatives by those who prefer traditional presenterfocused presentations. For instance, with learning cafés the presenter needs to be more of a facilitator
rather than an expert, responding to what the attendees view as meaningful. The attendees also need
to be prepared to share about the topics and participate actively.
Keywords: learning cafés, presentation styles, self-reflections

In this short-form reflection, I will share my experience facilitating a learning café at the Learner
Development 30 (LD 30) Conference. Though I have presented many times, this was my firsttime with a learning café. Therefore, I will focus more on the presentation format instead of thesession content. To begin, a learning café will be defined. Then I will explain how preparation
for the café differed from preparation for a more traditional presentation. Next, I will detail myexpectations for the café in contrast to the actual experience. Lastly, I will discuss the advantages
and disadvantages of learning cafés.

DEFINITION

According to LD 30’s Conference session page, Collaborative Learning Spaces, a learning café
begins with a short presentation about the topic to prepare the audience members to use themajority of the time for having discussions about the topic, and later to make mini-posters (2023).
In comparison to traditional presentations, the focus in a learning café format is on active audienceinteraction rather than the presenter sharing. When searching online for “learning café”, someresults were related to educational institutions offering computer rooms with support staff, small
group discussions or opportunities for online learning (EdPrepLab, n.d.; Lethbridge College, n.d.;
University of Louisville, n.d.). However, the learner café format at the LD30 Conference has moresimilarities to the World Café Method (2023) which is credited to an American organization using
collaborative group discussions to promote social change. The Design Principles (2023) of the
LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)112

DEVON ARTHURSONWorld Café Method, outline having a clear purpose, creating a safe space, posing a question orquestions relevant to the attendees, ensuring all attendees share their viewpoints through groupinteractions, and ending with a time for reflection. However, the LD30 learner café differed byincluding a short presentation segment. Based on the above, it seemed a learner café should be
audience centered instead of speaker centered, starting with a brief presentation, with most of thetime being dedicated to group discussions about the presentation topic in a comfortable setting forsharing.

PREPARATIONS

The topic of the presentation was about communities and the ways that members’ participation canpotentially solve problems that the community is experiencing. Studying community development
as a social work undergraduate and then community studies as a graduate student, community
has always been important to me. However, at my previous job I began to shift my focus to beinga more efficient classroom manager and forgot my role as a community worker. In April 2023, I
started at a new university and became part of a new community. In preparation for this change, I
realized how I needed to not only focus on being a competent adjunct lecturer, but also a nurturingcommunity member. Since everyone possesses knowledge of their communities, it seemed
like having LD30 attendees share their viewpoints would be preferable to me lecturing aboutcommunity development theories. I was eager to learn more about how others were interacting intheir communities.
To promote discussion in my learning café session, the slides I presented at the beginning included
questions such as “What communities are you a part of?”, “Do you have positive, negative or neutral
feelings about this community?”, “What is your role in your community?”, and “Do you have ideas tomake your community better?” At the former LD 20 conference, I recalled many Japanese students
attending, so I wanted to give them, in addition to the other attendees, enough time to think about
the topic first before the brainstorming sessions started. As a result, I created a worksheet aboutcommunities the participants belong to, issues their communities are experiencing, and possible
solutions to these issues (Appendix A). The attendees completed the worksheet as an individual
brainstorming activity. Next, they shared the contents with others. Then all attendees’ contents wereused for material creation in the form of mini-posters.

EXPECTATIONSMy expectation was that after an icebreaker, I would give a brief presentation containing the samequestions that were mentioned above and that appeared at the top of the worksheet. This would
allow the attendees to write down their answers to each prompt. This would be followed by a group
discussion about the prompts, and then ending in a sharing session about the posters. It seemedthat the mini-posters would be especially meaningful as they would concretely account for all theattendee’s viewpoints from discussions. I felt sure that the session time limit of 55 minutes would
allow for the completion of the above tasks.

REALITIES

Three university professors and one student attended my LD30 session. I shared my slides with theoverview of the following points: 1) Community, 2) Community Role, 3) Challenges, 4) Initiatives, 5)
Exchange, and 6) Thank You. I suggested moving the chairs to make a circle, so that discussions
would be easier. After we had introduced ourselves to each other, I started with an icebreakerby asking everyone to share the beverage they order at a café and where they tend to get thisbeverage. Answers ranged from vending machine coffees for black canned coffees to Starbucks
for seasonal drinks to small craft cafe shops near their workplaces. After the icebreaker, everyone
received the worksheet. I asked attendees to write down their responses and later share theiranswers to “What communities are you a part of?” I expected most would talk about their universities.

113

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Exploring Our Significance in Our Communities at a Learning Café

However, except for the student, the communities discussed were our neighborhood, online, or
religious communities. Next the question, “How do you feel about your community?” prompted
attendees to share how strong or weak they felt their connections were to these communities.
Though one member made mention of belonging to their community for a long time, they felt
uncertain about how others viewed them and, to some extent, felt disconnected. Another member
shared how creating a LINE group gave them a new community to participate in that was uniquefrom the other communities they interacted with daily. It was interesting to hear about ways they
developed and deepened their connections, or openly shared their disconnections and thechallenges faced by their communities. As we took turns sharing and commenting on others’
remarks, 45 minutes quickly passed, and there was little time to directly discuss the roles we haveas individuals in our community, community challenges, and initiatives to combat the challenges.
Subsequently, I was still hoping that the attendees would write down their ideas related to anything
discussed so that they would be able to create the mini-posters. The student did so by writing thecommunity they belonged to and asking if they could keep the paper. The rest of the attendees,
as well as the student, continued sharing about their relationships with their communities for theremainder of the time. Though I had only gotten to the fourth of twelve slides and no mini-posters
were produced, and although I had wanted to learn more about the attendees’ significance in theircommunities, using the time for meaningful conversations in a relaxed setting was much morevaluable.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

There are many advantages to using a learning café at conferences. The first advantage is a morerelaxed setting where audience members can also participate throughout the session, versus a
traditional presentation setting where the audience may only have time to ask questions in the last
few minutes. Besides, there is more time for presenter-attendee and attendee-attendee interactions.
Another advantage is that it gives more opportunities for deeper discussions about the presented
topic and for everyone to share their personal opinions and experience. A final advantage is that thepresenter, who may not be an expert on the presentation topic, acts more as a facilitator - without thepressure of having to offer expert opinions to questions posed by attendees, so for more egalitariansettings, learning cafés are beneficial.
Potential disadvantages will arise if the presenter and the attendees are unfamiliar with learning cafés.
Presenters who lack the skill to facilitate such forums will also affect the outcome. The presenter
needs to create an atmosphere for sharing to take place and activities that allow for that to happen.
One way to address these issues could be to begin with everyday topics to allow for rapport-building
and use more open-ended questions throughout one’s presentation. In turn, the attendees need tobe active at the learning café. This contrasts with traditional presentation settings where attendees, atthe bare minimum, are expected to be quiet and not create any disruptions during the presenter’s talk.
Ultimately, the presenter needs to allow everyone to comment on the topic. Furthermore, the presenter
needs to be more flexible in contrast to the traditional presentation format where adjustments fortime restraints can be done smoothly and covertly. However, if learning café attendees are involved
in deep discussions, the presenter may have to forgo their original program. Nonetheless, despitesome potential difficulties, I think that learning cafés are a favorable alternative to the traditionalpresentation format.

CONCLUSION

Learning cafés are interactive settings for topics to be discussed by not only the presenter but also
the attendees. This style of presentation is ideal for those presenters who seek collaboration andpotentially more meaningful interactions with the attendees. Furthermore, for those presenters who
do not feel comfortable solely in the role of expert and seek to learn from the different perspectives
LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)114

DEVON ARTHURSON

of others, learning cafés are advantageous. However, presenters will need to focus more on facilitating
and the attendees will need to be more active in discussions and material creation. By facilitating alearning café at the LD30 conference, I found that I could learn a lot from the attendees about theircommunities in a more casual setting. Also, I felt less pressure to complete all the tasks I originallyplanned to do.

REFERENCES

EdPrepLab. (n.d.). Learning cafés. https://edpreplab.org/learning-cafes
LD30 (2023). Conference sessions: Teachers. https://ld30.edzil.la/pages/531
Lethbridge College (n.d.). Learning cafés. https://lethbridgecollege.ca/departments/learning-cafe
The World Café (2023). Design principles. https://theworldcafe.com/key-concepts-resources/
design-principles/
University of Louisville (n.d.). Learning cafe. https://louisville.edu/employeesuccess/learningopportunities/learning-cafes/learning-cafes

APPENDIX AEXPLORING OUR SIGNIFICANCE IN OUR COMMUNITIESHow do I view my community? | What is my role in my community?/What can I contribute to my community? |How do the initiatives affect the individual (you) and community (classroom, university, field)? & Whatchallenges do you anticipate for the individual (you) and community (classroom, university, field)? |What can we do as a community to overcome these challenges?

私は自分のコミュニティをどう見ているか？| 自分のコミュニティにおける自分の役割は何か／自分のコミュニティに貢献できることは何か | その取り組みは、個人（あなた）と地域社会（教室、大学、現場）にどのような影響を与えるか。個人（あなた）と地域社会（教室、大学、現場）にとって、どのような課題が予想されるか。
| これらの課題を克服するために、
コミュニティとして何ができるか？

My Community

My Role in theCommunity

Challenges

115

Initiatives

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)My Experience When I Joined LD30 for the First Time

Chisato Ozawa
Shukutoku University
r21015s[at]u[dot]shukutoku[dot]ac[dot]jp

My Experience When I Joined LD30 for the First Time

This was my first time attending a conference like LD30. I feel that I gained a lot of experience and new
knowledge through this conference. In this reflection, I would like to write about the experiences andtwo new things I learned. In particular, I have realized the prejudice I had against people from othercountries, and the importance of clarifying my thoughts. Overall, I will write about my experiences andwhat I have learned.
When I started working part-time at a restaurant after entering university, I had several difficult
experiences when I served foreigners because I could not understand their language. Before attending
the LD30 conference, I had a prejudice against foreigners as being difficult to talk to because of thelanguage barrier. However, when I actually spoke with people from overseas, they were much easier
to talk to than I had expected, as they used gestures and simple words to convey their opinions on thediscussion topics in a way that was easy to understand even for someone like me who is not very good
at English.
It was a good experience because I was able to eliminate my prejudice. By participating in thisconference, I was able to learn that language is not the only way to communicate, and that evenif people are of different nationalities and do not speak the same language, it does not mean thatthey cannot communicate with each other at all.
The second new thing I learned was how to clarify my thoughts. I learned this method from the work
I did during Devon Anderson’s presentation on communication. One of the activities that I enjoyeda lot was expressing my community in colours because I had never thought about my community insuch a way, and the activity helped me imagine and visualise my community. After the presentation,
I answered the question “What can we do as a community to overcome these challenges?” An
action to make a difference for my community is to talk to people in different departments. Throughworkshops on leadership and positive psychology, I learned that it is important to have diverse
perspectives and goals related to those perspectives in order to solve problems.
After attending the conference and thinking for myself about what the theme of this year’s conference,“Learning for Change and Action, Making a Difference for the Future,” was all about, two ideas
emerged. The first idea is to set one’s own goals and take action. I got this idea when I took a workshop
at the LD30 Conference on leadership and “positive psychology”. In this workshop, participants were
given the opportunity to share their problems and desires with others. There, I learned that having
diverse perspectives on things is very important for problem solving. Before attending this workshop,
I had no goals and mostly worked passively. However, after attending this workshop, I feel that I havebeen able to set goals that match what I need to do and what I want to achieve, and I am now able totackle things proactively.
The second idea was the importance of actively communicating with others. The catalyst for this isthat through the LD30 conference as a whole, I was able to talk not only with Japanese nationals
LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)116CHISATO OZAWA

but also with people from overseas and people of the same generation from other universities. It
was through these conversations I was able to gain perspectives and knowledge that I did not have
before.
In response to the conference, I would like to discuss future goals and actions. My goal for the future
is to broaden my perspective. Specifically, I would like to be conscious of eliminating preconceptions
about things and avoiding prejudice and become more accepting of diverse values. As a concrete
action, I would like to communicate more actively. This is because I believe that by talking withothers, I can gain more knowledge and use that knowledge to broaden my perspective. I would liketo work in a welfare-related job in the future, and I believe that I will be involved with people fromall walks of life. Therefore, I believe that this broad perspective will help me to empathise with thevalues and lifestyles of people in various positions and to find solutions that are tailored to eachindividual. Before participating in this conference, I had not been a proactive learner, but joining
the poster presentations by fellow university students, I was inspired by the fact that they had more
knowledge than I did, and it made me want to learn more, not only about English, but also other fields
of knowledge. This was my first time to participate in such a conference and I was very nervous, but it
was a very good experience to increase my motivation for learning.
My hope is that this reflection will encourage readers to think about the prejudices they unconsciously
hold and how to eliminate them once they become aware of them.

.

117

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)Excitement and Surprise: My First Experience at the LD30 Conference

Hiromu Sano
Shukutoku University
h22032s[at]u[dot]shukutoku[dot]ac[dot]jp

Excitement and Surprise: My First Experienceat the LD30 Conference

Joining the LD30 Conference was my first experience of being in an English speaking environment
outside the classroom. Also, it was my first time attending a conference. First of all, when I first heard
the slide show presentation, it was refreshing to see the presenters and all the listeners speaking
English, and I was overwhelmed by the sight of them communicating in English as if it were normal.
However, I was disappointed by my lack of English skills compared to the environment around me,
and I once again felt the difference between me and the people around me.
Next, we participated in a student poster session. It was exciting to see people close to my age
interacting with foreign teachers fluently in English. Listening to each session and coming up withquestions about it was more difficult than I expected, and at first I was doing my best just listening andunderstanding what was written on the posters. However, I thought that I needed to communicate insome way, so I started by asking them in Japanese, “What is the content of this part of the poster?”
After that, I was able to listen to it in English and ask various questions, such as why they decided
to think about this topic. Although it was still difficult to communicate in English, it was a goodexperience for me to be able to discuss the English poster with students from other universities.
Also, the posters were designed in various ways, such as using graphs and tables and making
the text easier to read, and I felt that there were many things to learn other than English. I enjoyedMiki’s poster presentation, ‘‘Young people with no place to stay’’ the most. I was impressed that she
presented social issues concerning young people in Japan. I would like to try the poster session nextyear, so I felt that I would like to use this poster session as a reference.
Finally, we participated in a story circle. I was trying my best to understand the contents of the slides
written in English about ‘’linguistic identity,’’ and when I was exchanging opinions, I was frustrated
that I could only speak in Japanese while everyone else was speaking in English. However, I felt very
happy that we were able to exchange and share opinions.
The reason why I joined LD30 was that I’m not good at English so I wanted to be in an English
environment. This time I took action for change by joining LD30. I felt that the opportunity to exchange
opinions with students other than myself was very important, and it was a valuable experience. Also, I
am now able to talk more actively than before in English. Next, I would like to give my own presentation,
which is my next step next year.

LEARNING LEARNING『学習の学習』31(1)118THE LEARNING LEARNING 31(1) PUBLICATION TEAMTim Ashwell (editor)
Henry Foster (peer review)
Ivan Lombardi (peer review and layout)
Lynda-Gay McFarlane (peer review)
Amelia Yarwood (peer review)

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TO CITE THIS VOLUME:

Ashwell, T. (Ed.). (2023). The JALT Learner Development SIG 30th anniversary conference
post-conference publication: Learning for change and action, making a difference for the
future [Special issue]. Learning Learning, 31(1). https://ld-sig.org/learning-learning/spring2024-volume-31-no-1/