Tuning Freshmen
into Autonomy
Through Studentdirected Language
Learning Projects
Jodie Stephenson
Tokyo Denki University
jodiejs@yahoo.co.jp

Miki Kohyama
Gakushuin University
miki.kohyama@gakushuin.ac.jp
In this chapter, weinvestigate the impact ofLanguage Learning Projects (LLPs) onfreshmen universit)'
students' attitudes, motivation, andEnglish linguistic abilities. We explore what activities students chosefor their projects and why, and suggest ways to improve the LLPs to more adequately meet the students'
needs. For their LLPs, students carried outaproject oftheir choice outside ofclass over a semester. Projects

included watching news programs on TV, writing a diary or reading children's books. LLP handouts
provided ideas foractivities, and some class time was spent to promote discussion of, and reflection on,
goals andprogress. Students had the choice to work independently or asagroup. Atthe end ofthe semester
students gave presentations on their projects. The students' final comments showed that LLPs promoted
reflection onlanguage learning, aswell asincreased motivation andimproved English proficiency.
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Introduction

In Spring 2001, we both took a Facilitating Autonomy in Language Learning class as part of an
MA course at Columbia University Teachers College. In that class we experienced firsthand the
motivating and empowering effects of autonomous learning.The class prompted us to lookat ways of developing learner autonomy in the classes that we teach. Since then, we have been
exploring ways of facilitating and developing autonomy in our teaching situations.
Miki started using Language Learning Projects (LLPs) because there was a limit to what
she could do in class to accommodate the various interests of her students. In her freshmanlistening comprehension classes, she tries, as far as she can, to introduce relevant learning
resources, materials, and media. However, she can only teach 90 minutes per lesson twice a
week, and she feels she must use this time to satisfy the needs of the majority. But what about
the students' individual learning preferences?What about students' bright ideas for learning
English? They have great ideas that are probably of more interest to their age group thanteachers' ideas. Miki wanted to make more use of her students' ideas to enrich her classes

for the benefit of the students and herself. To do this and to help her students become moreautonomous learners, Miki started using the LLPs in her university listening and reading classes
in April 2002.

We see LLPs, in which students plan and carry out their own out-of-class language study, as
one important way of doing this. These projects are intended to give students more control of
their learning. Students set their own learning goals, select learning materials, reflect on theirlearning, and evaluate their progress. At the beginning of the semester, students choose an
activity such as listening to songs, or writing a diary, and they use this activity to study English
either on their own or in groups. At the end of the semester, students make presentations,explaining what they did for their projects and what they learnt. Finally, they give themselves a
grade for their work on the LLP.
This chapter was created as the result of many meetingsat our favorite coffee shop, with Miki
explaininghow she was using the LLP in her classes, and Jodie askingquestions to clarifyand
promote reflection. It was a deep reflective process for us both; a chance to think more deeply
about what students wereactually learningfrom the LLP, as well as to suggest ways of making
the project more valuable for students, and to consider how to adapt LLPs to other learning
situations. We thoroughly enjoyed working together thinking and writing about autonomy, andwe hope that you can savor the essence of our sessions over a cup of coffee or tea.

Acknowledgements

We would like to say a very big thank you to Glenn Farrier who created the original Language
Learning Project.We could not have done this without hisgenerous support and encouragement.
Special thanks also go to Mike Nix and Andy Barfield for their guidance and leadership, to ourcollaborative partners Joyce and Wade, and to everyone else who contributed feedback,questions, and suggestions.Thank you!

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Language Learning Projects
Origins of the Project

Miki initially heard about the LLPs from one of her colleagues. After hearing how much thiscolleague had learned from her freshman Englishclass when she was a collegestudent, Miki asked
to see her notebooks from the class. Impressed by the neatly kept notebooks and the amountof work she had done, Miki wanted to know more about how this class had been taught. So shemade contact with the professor who had taught that class. In response to her questions, he gave
Miki an old photocopy of the Language Learning Projects sheet (see the Autonomy You Ask!
website for Appendix A). He explained that for a semester students could engage in an English
learning activity of their choice, such as watching movies,listening to songs, keeping a diary, or
writing letters. Students also kept journals on their projects and submitted them on a regularbasis. Unfortunately, this professor had not been using LLPs for 6 years. Although he thought the
projects were valuable and effective, he was too busy to read all the journals and givefeedback. So
he gaveMiki the projects to work on and adapt for autonomous language learning.
Miki has now been using these projects for a year in various levels of university classes,
and with students in a number of different departments. She believes that they are acomprehensible and practical way to introduce autonomy to students of English in higher
education. But she has also seen the need to understand more clearly how her students respondto these projects and how she can make the projects into a more effective framework fordeveloping her students' learner autonomy.
Aims of the Language Learning Project

Benson (2001) says that giving students control over one aspect of their learning is the key tofacilitating autonomy, and that is the main aim of the LLPs. In the LLP, students decide what
they learn, who they learn with, and how they learn. They set their own goals, select materials
and activities, plan their learning, and reflect on and evaluate their progress. Through thisprocess, it is hoped that, in addition to improving their linguistic proficiency, students also
gain a better understanding of their individual learning styles and learning preferences, aswell as a better idea of where their linguistic strengths and weaknesses lie. This should lead to
students being better equipped for future language learning, with or without a teacher. LLPs
are projects in which students do their out-of-class language learning, but use some classtime to plan, reflect, and report on them. This chapter presents our collaborative explorationof these issues, focusing on two freshmen classes Miki taught in the spring of 2003.
The Students

The participants in this study were 50 freshmen in two listening classes in the Department ofIntercultural Communication at Gakushuin Women's College, a four-year women's college.
English was a required subject for all freshmen, and each listening class included students
majoring in either Intercultural Communication or Japanese Cultural Studies. Classes werestreamed, and the two classes in this study were in the middle range. The majority of students
were 18-year-old Japanese nationals, with 3 Chinese students also.
The Organisation of the Projects

The students carried out their projects over one semester from April to July 2003 in listening
comprehension classes that met twice a week. Table 1 below gives an overview of the mainstages of the projects.
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Table 1 Outline of the Language Learning Projects
Lesson 1

Teacherexplains the purpose and procedures of the LLPs.
Students set languagelearning goals and select learning activities(this may continue for several weeks).

Lessons 2-6

Students bring materials and work on LLP individually or in groups
in class (30 minute sessions).

Lessons 8,16, 24

Students write journal reflections on LLP.

Lessons 25-30

LLP presentations by students.

Lesson 30

Students complete final reflections on LLP and self-evaluations.

In the first class, after being introduced to the concept of Language Learning Projects,
students decided on their learning goals. They were then asked to read the Language Learning
Project handout (see the Autonomy You Ask! website for Appendix A) and choose one activity
that would help them accomplish their goals. The handout lists different types of activities
and materials to allow for different learning styles and learning goals. Some examples are:listening to the radio or music, reading newspapers, comics or children's books, and preparing
for standardized English exams. If they did not want to use any of the materials or activities
suggested on the handout, students were encouraged to create their own.
Once students had chosen an activity, they got together in groups with others doing similar
activities to further discuss their language learning goals and to plan their study. Students
who had not yet decided on an activity could move around among the groups until theyfound something that interested them. For some this process took a few weeks. Selecting anappropriate activity is important for a successful project, and Miki allowed students to come toher for advice, or speak with their classmates, as well as look around libraries and bookstores
until they found an activity that they were satisfied with.
Next came materials and task selection. These should be matched to goals. For instance, inorder to achieve a TOEIC score of 600, students may practice test-taking skills, listen to TOEIC
tapes, but reading comic books would not help them. Following materials and task selection,
students made study plans, deciding when and how often they would study. These plans were
written down and handed in to the teacher. In order to check that students understood what

to do and had made a start on their project work, some time in class was also dedicated to
LLPs in Lessons 2-6 of the semester. During these sessions, which usually lasted 30 minutes,
students brought in the materials that they had chosen, and worked on their LLP in class. For
some groups Miki provided tapes, videos, and other materials on request. Other groups needed
advice on where and how to obtain resources.

After the five in-class LLP sessions, students continued to work on their projects outside ofclass.They reflected on their progress in class about once a month in self-evaluation journals(see the Autonomy You Ask! website for Appendix B),which Miki collected and reviewed. Miki
did not give feedback on the journals. However,when she noticed students struggling, sheapproached them in person to discuss their progress.
Students gave presentations on their projects in the last five classes of the semester. These
presentations were intended to be a forum for students to exchange ideas and learn from eachother's experience. Each student made a 5-minute presentation on what they did for their project
and what they learnt from it. They could present individually or in groups, but there was a 5— LD SIG 2003 A n t h o l o g y —

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minute minimum for one person, 10 for a pair,and so on. Students were encouraged to focus
on three areas in their presentations: (a) using presentation skills to make their presentations
interestingand easyto comprehend, (b) encouragingthe involvement of classmates during
presentations, and (c) showing how much and what kind of work they did for the LLPs. Before
giving their presentations, students had three 30-minute sessions in class for preparation.
At the end of the semester, students completed a self-evaluation of their learning progress inthe projects, and answered final reflection questions about the LLP, focusing on their reasonsfor choosing their activity and what they learnt from it.
Learning More about the Language Learning Projects
Our Questions about LLPs

As we mentioned earlier, Miki has been using LLPs since April 2002, but hadn't really hada chance to look closely at the types of activities students were choosing for their projects,
and the reasons for their choices. In addition to finding out what students were choosing
and why, we also wanted to know specifically how the projects helped students become moreautonomous learners. We decided to frame our questions in terms of Littlewood's work
(1997), which says that increased autonomy requires increased confidence and motivation as
well as improved skillsand abilities. We also wanted to know the types of problems students
encountered, so that we could find ways to avoid or deal with them in the future. Finally, we
wanted to consider how to improve the project to make it even more valuable for students. So,
in short, we were trying to address the following questions:

1. What activities do students choose for Language Learning Projects and why?
2. How do LLPs influence students' motivation, confidence, and linguistic ability?
3. How could LLPs be improved?
Data

Most of the data for this study came from students' monthly reflection journals and their final
reflections on the LLPs (see the Autonomy You Ask! website for Appendices B and C). Bothjournals and final reflections could bewritten in English or Japanese, as the students wished, but
we found that the comments written in Japanese were much more detailed and provided richer
information than those written in English. In addition to the journals and final reflections, we
also relied on Miki's teaching journal and her classroom observations. Surprisingly, a veryrichsource of data camefrom one group's presentation in which theyasked the class to free-write
messages to Miki in English. In these, manystudents mentionedhow much theylearnedfrom the
LLP and how their attitudes, motivation, and confidence had changed.
Results and Reflections

This section shows the results of the study and our discussion and interpretation. We will
examine the goal-settingsheets, reflective journals, and final essays, looking for answers to theresearch questions above. Wewillfocus on (a) the types of activities, (b) the reasons for choosing
the activities, (c) increases in confidence and motivation, and (d) increases in English ability.
Types of Activities

The range of activities chosen by students is shown belowin Table 2 below. As students could choose
more than one activity, the total number of activities is more than the 50 students in the classes.
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Activity

Number of students

Read a Japanese comic strip and translate into EnglishlTranslate recipes into English and try to cooklStudy for TOEICl

Translate a Japanese restaurant menu into EnglishlWrite letters in EnglishlCreate jazz chantslRead Japanese folk tales in English

2

Listen to English language learning programs on the radio2

Watch news programs on TV

2

Create English crosswords

2

Translate Japanese songs into English

2

Keep a diary in English

2

Read English newspapers

2

Read English children's books and translate into Japanese

3

Read Japanese folk tales and translate into English

4

Watch English movies or television programs

9

Listen to English songs

16

TOTAL

52

We were surprised at the variety in activities, and the creativity displayed by students indevising unique projects not described in the LLP handout. Listening to English songs was by
far the most popular learningactivity (16 students), followed by watching English movies or
television programs (9 students). The next most popular activities weretranslating Japanesefolk tales into English (4 students) and reading English children's books (3 students), while 2
students chose to read English translations of Japanese folk tales. This brings the total numberof students who chose an activityinvolving either Japanese or English children's stories to 9,
which might seem strange. However, remembering that the students are all women who havejust graduated from high school, and who probably enjoy reading cute books and comics inJapanese, it is not such an unusual result.

Studying the chart, we noticed that students preferred 'passive'activities over 'productive/
active' projects. There were significant numbers of students selecting reading and listening
activities. Ten students practiced reading skills, and a total of 29 students chose activities
that involvelistening to English. This maybe because students practiced their reading andlistening skills in their high school English classes more often than their speaking and writing
skills, so they preferred familiar activities, or they chose what they thought they were goodat. On the other hand, students avoided more creative activities. Only 6 students engaged inwriting activities, and none in speaking. Translation probably stands in the middle groundbetween 'passive' and 'creative' on the continuum. Twelve students chose activities that involve
translation, and again we suspect influence from their high school English education, and theeffect of the LLP handout suggesting translation in many places.
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Although this class was actually a listening class, and more than half of the studentschose
activities that involve listening, 23students chose activities that were not directly related tolistening. Students were not instructed to choose something related to listening, and perhaps
these23 students felt that they were getting enough listening practice in class, and used the LLP
to pursue other interests. In any case, it seems that the LLP gave students a chanceto pursue
their own goals for improvingtheir English ability, and this maybe instrumental in maintaining
motivation in a classthat is otherwise not meeting students' personal language learning goals.

Aswell as variety in the types of activities chosen, there was alsoa lot of diversity in how theactivities werecarried out. For example, with listeningto English songs,one student listened to
one songevery 2 weeks, while another studentlistened almost every day. Somestudentslistened
to the songs and tried to write downwhattheyheard, while others read the lyrics the firsttime
theylistenedto the music, and then tried to listen again without the lyrics after they knew what
the song was about.
This variety in activities and their execution reflects the diversity in students' abilities,
goals,and interests. As Miki noted earlier, it is impossible to address this kind of diversity inregular teacher-led classes of 90 minutes, once or twice a week. While we were impressed thatstudents were choosing such a range of activities, we were a little worried when we realizedthat most students had chosen activities from the handout, and had done them in the way thatwas suggested in the handout. On reflection, some of these activities might be too difficult
for freshmen students, as they require quite high level skills, such as translation or dictation.
We realized that we needed to change the original LLP handout (see the Autonomy You Ask!
website for Appendix A) to include examplesof easier activities, and provide more support for
students, by, for example, giving them an idea of the difficulty level of each activity.
Reasons for Choosing Activities

Reading through students' final reflections on the LLP, it was very interesting to see thereasons behind their choices. Whatever their reasons for choosing the activities, it was clearthat all of the activities were relevant and meaningful for students in that they were enjoyable
or interesting, were related to future employment goals, or helped students achieve personallanguage learning goals. Three different categories of reasons seemed to stand out at us as
we sifted through the responses. We classified them as affective, academic, and future-oriented
reasons. All students cited one or a combination of these as rationales for their projects.
Students who chose activities for affective reasons did so because the activities wereinteresting and fun, and were usually things that students enjoyed in their first language.
Activities such as music and movies were usually chosen for affective reasons.
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I chose to read English versions of Japanese folk tales because I was interested in how
Japanese things were explained in English.

•

I wasn't good at listening, andhated it, but listening to music seemed like something I could do.

•

I havelots of English CDs. I love listening to English songs, but hadn'treally paid
attention to listening to thelyrics and trying to understand the meaning. I thought that
this was a good chance to do that.

Among academic reasons for choosing activities, some students stated a desire to increase
their vocabulary, or the number of English expressions in their repertoire, while others wanted
to improve listening skills.
•

I chose translating a Japanese comicinto English because I thought that I couldlearn a
new way of usingEnglish everyday.
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108 _ _-_Stephenson & Kohyama• / chose to watch videos because I wasn't good at listening and Ifelt thatI needed thepictures as well as the sound. I didn't have the confidence to understand just by listening.
• I wanted to write a diary because I could touch English every day. I could also remember
vocabulary, idioms and expressions.

Other students mentioned wanting to do something that was relevant to their major. Manyof the students were majoring in Japanese Cultural Studies, and that may be one of the reasonsthat Japanese folk tales were so popular.
• / chose to read Momotaro (a Japanese folk tale), as mymajor isJapanese Culture andI
wanted to do something Japanese.
A small number of students chose projects that they thought would help them in their
futures, providing them with skills they could use in future jobs, or in their own lives.
•

I chose to translate recipes and try to cook them. It's not thatI'mparticularly interested
in cooking, butI wasn't interested in any of the other projects, either. More than beingfor
academic purposes, I chose it because it was something thatwould beuseful to my daily
life thatjust happened to involve English.

•

In thefuture, I would like to work in themedia and I read newspapers and watch thenews everyday. I wanted to use that in myproject.

•/ likeEnglish and would like to work in a job where I can speak English, and Ifound outthat TOEIC is necessaryfor that, so I chose to studyfor TOEIC.

•

Foreigners often come to theplace I work, and it was inconvenient not beingable tocommunicate with them, so I decided to translate our restaurant's menu into English.

We realized that we might be able to use these categories to assist future students in planningtheir projects. Those students who don't really like English or don't feel used to English could
be advised to choose a fun activity that will not be too much of a burden. This activity could
perhaps be something that they already enjoy doing in Japanese. Students who are already used
to or enjoy English could be challenged to focus on improving a particular skill, again, perhaps
using an activity that they already enjoy doing in their first language. And finally, students who
think they will need English in the future, or who want to use English to accomplish someother goal, could be encouraged to focus on that.
Increases in Confidence and Motivation

As students were responsible for choosing the activities for their projects, they said that they
were motivated to work on them, and most seemed to enjoy doing the projects. At the end of
the semester, many students wanted to continue working on their projects, or they wanted tostart new projects, trying other activities introduced in the presentations.
• / think myEnglish ability has improved through doingmyownproject and throughothers' projects. My listening skills are better than they were. I want to continue thisand
I want to improve more.

Although most students indicated that they were now more eager to study English, only afew students said that they were more confident in their English ability. These students had
a new-found confidence as they had succeeded at something which they never thought theywould be able to do. However, most students said that they did not have more confidence
to use English. Perhaps these students had set learning goals that were too high, or wereusing materials that were too difficult. Or perhaps they need to spend another semester— LD SIG 2003 A n t h o l o g y —io9* Tuning Freshmenon their projects to notice real change. We need more information before we can come toanyconclusions on this issue. But the fact that most students did not experience increased
confidence indicates a problem which needs to be addressed.
Increases in English Ability

For the most part, students felt that they learnt something from doing their project. We noticed
different types of learning: from becoming accustomed to English, to improving a skill, tolearning something about the language learning process.

At the most superficial level, students got used to, or becameinterested, in English, evenif they
didn't feel that their English ability had improved very much.Many other studentsreported a deeper
level of learning, saying that their English ability had improvedin some way. They had learned real
English pronunciation and intonation, or newvocabulary, or improved a particular skill. Or theylearned how to use their time more efficiently, or to make their learning more effective.
• Honestly, I don't know exactly howmuch I have improved, butEnglish doesn'tfeel as
foreign to me now. Even just that is a bigthing for mepersonally.
•/ think that this project was extremely useful. This was thefirst timeI had ever focusedon listening because up until nowI hadonly done grammar or reading. Atfirst it wasdifficult because I didn't have any time to watch videos, but as I started watching,
I couldfeel my listening abilityimprove. Before, English conversation and English
communication were completely foreign to me, but now theyfeel close.

•

My listening ability is better than it was. Now it's easierfor me to understand texts thatare a littlefast or long.

•I think that this project was quite useful. Mylistening comprehension wasn't very good atfirst,
butI think I'm quite good now. 1realize that it's important todo even justa little each day.

Most students felt that their language ability had improved through their projects. And
for some, this increased proficiency stimulated their confidence. There were a few students,
however, who were more discouraged about their language ability after their projects. They
had a more acute awareness of their linguistic weaknesses, and of how far they still had to go.
But, surprisingly, most of these students still had positive things to say about the project, andseemed to develop a clearer sense of how to go about their learning.

• It's difficult tosaywhether this project hada direct influence on myEnglish ability,
however I think that one day thewords andphrases I learned will be useful.
• Keeping a journal in English, although I am able toput sentences together more quickly
than I used to, Ifeel thatI stillhave a long way togo. I think it's necessary tofirst learn
vocabulary and then expose myselfto a lot of expressions.
Sometimes the projects had a flow-on effect to other areas of students' lives. It was easierfor them to understand other English classes, or they paid more attention to English that theyencountered in their daily lives.

• Little by little, I think mylistening ability isdefinitely improving. Inmyreading class, while I
don't understand everything that my native teacher says, I am now able to catch the key points.
•

Because I was focusing on listening toEnglish songs, even when I wasn't working on my
LLP, I would pay attention to the lyrics when I heard English songs, and thatbecame habit.

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Looking Ahead

The students' comments made us aware of the potential impact of the LLP on their confidence
and motivation, linguistic proficiency, and abilityto take control of their learning. However, we
also realized that we could change the LLP to stimulate more effective learning.
i. More Teacher and Peer Support

Some students set unclear or unreasonable goals, chose activities that were too difficult, or relied
on ineffective learning strategies. With more support from the teacher, most of these problems
could probably be avoided, or at least dealt with earlyin the semester, rather than waiting to findout about them in the students' final reflections. At the beginning of the semester, support could
be provided through more careful explanation about goal-setting, and by checking that students
had set appropriate goalsand chosen suitable activities before allowing them to start working on
their projects. Throughout the semester,students could make short, informal oral reports on theirprojects in small groups. These reports could be held once a month, perhaps on the same daythat students write their journal reflections. This would expose all students to different learning
activities before the final presentations. It would also give them the opportunity to talk about
their difficulties and get suggestions and support from their peers.
2. Paper Support: LLP Handout

On the handout of possible activities, givento students at the start of the project (see the Autonomy
You Ask! websitefor Appendix A), many of the activities are quite difficult, requiring high levelskills
such as translation or dictation. Asthese types of tasks are not suited to the proficiency level, or thelearning needs of most freshmen, we want to change the handout so that it includes a wider varietyof tasks, divided into skillsections, and graded according to difficultylevel.
3. Self Support: Notebooks

Students were not required to keep notebooks on their projects,but one student said that she
would be more motivated to study if she had been required to submit a notebook at the end of thesemester. We thought that this might be one way of providing more support for students. It might
help them to be more organized in their learning,and to see their progress, while also allowingthe
teacher to see how much work has been done. Students could be given a set of questions to help
them to reflect on their learning each time, therebycombining the journals and the notebooks.
These notebooks would also be useful when evaluatingstudents. Until now, students have been
evaluated only on their presentations. Forstudentswho don't do well in their presentations,thesenotebooks would also provide the teacherwith an alternative means of assessing their project work.
New Directions

This cycle of thinking and writing about Language Learning Projects has raised new questions
for us. While most students had positive things to say about the project, a handful did notseem to learn much at all. We feel that we could learn a lot by taking a closer look at thosestudents, asking them about their difficulties with the project, and together searching for ways
to overcome those problems.
We would also like to adapt the LLP so that it can be done in class. Miki's students did mostof the work for their projects outside of class. They seemed happy to do this; however, we
realize that not all students have the time, energy, and motivation to do an out-of-class project
which may not be relevant to their major or their future careers.

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Final Thoughts

We had always thought that Language Learning Projects were useful, but this research helped
us see exactly how the projectsenabledstudents to become more autonomous. We now knowwhat we already suspected: Language Learning Projects are effective and worthwhile, and haveenabled students to become more motivated and more proficient, too. Through our researchand coffee shop collaboration, we have developed a much clearer understanding of how tomake the projectsmore effective. It mayseem ironic that projects intended to facilitate learnerautonomy are made more effective by increasing teacher support. However, learning a language
is a complex and dauntingtask, and initially most students don't knowwhere to start (Nunan,
1997). Rather than throwing students in at the deep end, we think that by providing more
support and adjusting as necessary, students will learn more effectively, and ultimately be better
equipped to take control of their learning.

Critical Reader Response iEllen Head

For a project like this to work, the out-of-class element has to be firmly grounded in and connectedto the classroom.This connection between developingautonomy in the classroom and in private
study outside comes across very clearlyin Miki and Jodie's account. Encouraging students to discuss
their plans in groups in class providesspaceand time for students to 'catch' autonomy from eachother. Sharing the experiences in a final presentation gives the whole sequence a climax and a clear
point. It must have been very gratifying when one group of students asked the class to free-write
about the project as a whole.When students are able to take the initiative in this way, they are indeed"better equipped for future language learning, with or without a teacher."
One aspect of LLPs that interests me as a future research area is the impact of this kind ofcollaborative development on how students articulate their goals. I have found that students
tend to either express their goals in terms of activities that they will do, or to describe
very broad goals such as "I want to get better at listening." When a class is able to work on
individualised projects together, as they did in the LLP study, students can refine their goals in
the light of what they learn from other members of the group.

Critical Reader Response 2

Michael Carroll

Reading through the comments made by Miki's students on their language learning projects,
I heard the voices of students I've known. But in Miki and Jodie's case the depth of thought
behind these comments, and the learning that had obviously gone on, made me think again
about how much more my own students may be capable of. What did Miki do to bring her
students to this stage? I think the answer lies in the support she gave them, and the simplicity
and clarity of the program. Absolute autonomy is not easily handled alone. It can often best be
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Kohyamathing. Miki and Jodie show what a delicate balancing act it is for teachers to reconcile students'
freedom of choice with the right level of support, even as they are still fine-tuning that balance.
Another point that strikes me is this: Action research is often described narrowly in termsof seeking solutions to problems. Miki and Jodie, though, have taken an activity that they
intuitively felt was working well, and looked more closelyto confirm their impressions, to findout why it worked, and to look for ways to improve it. This kind of positive classroom researchis just what is most useful to teachers because it gives us a model on which to base explorationsof our own classrooms. I'm already writing LLPs into my Semester II syllabus.
Critical Reader Response 3
Hayo Reinders

It was easy for me to relate to Miki and Jodie's interesting account. Where I work (at the
University of Auckland in New Zealand) over 35%, or over 10,000,of all students are not native
speakers of English. The incredible amount of time and effort expended on them to develop
their language is not nearly enough to assist all of them or assist them sufficiently. Clearly, mostof the work will have to be done by these students themselves.And this, as we all know, is only
possible when students have the necessary skills. Miki and Jodie have found one interesting andstimulating way of developing not only students' language but also their learning skills, theirknowledge about themselves as learners, their learning process, and a whole range of otheraspects of learning a second language.

Interestingly, the use of projects and the way Miki and Jodie have put this into practice are
surprisingly similar to the type of work we do with our students in New Zealand, even though
we do not teach classes. In our Self-Access Centre, we approach learners not as groups but
as individuals, and help them to identify their weaknesses, set goals, and plan their learning.
We also help them to identify suitable resources and activities to participate in, monitor theirprogress, provide feedback, encourage reflection, and offer a range of other types of support.
I wasstruck by how similar this is in some respects to what Miki and Jodie do in their classes.
It shows that the two ways of learning and teaching are not mutually exclusive, and in fact,
share a lot of characteristics. This is exciting, as personally I have always believed in the powerof individualised support as opposed to the one-size-fits-all approach still found in mostlanguage classrooms. Classroom teaching, the way Mikiand Jodie do it, is about developing
the individual in a collaborative, supportive environment. The ideal self-access centre I try todevelop does exactly the same.

Projects such as those described byMiki and Jodie can initially take up a lot of time andeffort,both in terms of preparation and in providingsupport to students. However, they pay
off in increased motivation, student awareness, improved learning, and in a myriad other ways,
sometimes unforeseen, sometimes unseen. In addition, the reflective process which Miki andJodie engaged in when developing and re-developing the projects seems to have been extremely
fruitful. This is the type of reflection wewouldwant from our own students. Perhaps they
can use their 'project' and their way of working on it as a modelfor their students some time?
Finally, projects such as this influence students well beyondthe courseitself. By instilling instudents a viewof language learning and encouraging them to approach languagelearning
as a personal endeavour, students will be better equipped to dealwith future demands ontheir language. Helpingthem develop the skills to carry through a project is surely one way of
supporting them in their future learning. In short: It is time and effort extremely well spent.
— LD SIG 2003 A n t h o l o g y —