Part 3: Inquiry into instructional practices

Critical reflection:

Developing teacher
and learnerautonomy throughjournals and classnewsletters
Jodie Stephenson
Dokkyo University & The
University of Chichester
odie@dokkyo.acjp
About Jodie
I first traveled to Japan as a college student on a one-year exchange program. Ten
years later, I am still in Japan and still learning. When not in the classroom, I cansometimes be found in a yoga class or exploring Tokyo on my mountain bike.
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Acknowledgements

I would like to say a very big thank you to the editors, my collaborative partners andreader responders for their patience, helpful questions and insightful feedback. I
dedicate this chapter to my family and to past, present and future students. May you
all continue to teach, challenge, and inspire me.
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Abstract

This paperexplores theways in which reflectivejournals and class newsletters enhanced learning andsupported autonomy in a range of university English classes over a one-year period. Students wereasked to write their reflections about each lesson injournals for homework. Selected comments fromthejournals were compiled into newsletters anddistributed tostudents thefollowing lesson. Examples
of incidents from three classes are used to show how this journal andnewsletter system raised teacher
and student awareness of obstacles to the learning process and stimulated reflection and dialogue
as well as changes in attitudes and behavior. This isfollowed by a discussion of the benefits of thejournal andnewsletter system from the pointofview of teachers andstudents. This chapter ends withguidelines for teachers who are interested in using a similar system with their students.
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Background"Reflection is intrinsic to learning." (Boud, 1999, p.2)

As a teenager and young adult, I often used a journal to reflect on what was happening in
my life. In it I regularly wrote about my personal goals and relationships, and the events in
my life,but I never used it to reflect on my learning at school or university. And throughout
most of my education, I never had teachers who encouraged me to reflect critically on what
and how I was learning. This changed, however, when I was in graduate school. The tutors ofa course in autonomous learning used various tasks to stimulate critical reflection. Classroom
activities prompted us to reflect on our roles in the class,the nature of the learning process, andour reactions to different learning tasks. For homework, we were required to keep a reading
response journal and a teaching reflection journal, and we shared these reflections with ourclassmates and tutors via email. This constant reflection, I believe, ultimately helped us all tolearn more effectively (Kohyama, Stephenson & Jorgenson, 2002), and these experiences as a
graduate student helped me to realize that not only is reflection intrinsic to learning (Boud,1999), but reflection is indispensable if reallearning is to occur.

In an attempt to encourage critical reflection in the classes I was teaching, I started asking
students to write their comments about the lesson in journals, and I included some of thosecomments in class newsletters like those described by Murphey (1997). There were mixed
reactions to the journals and newsletters. Some students just scribbled a few comments, somestudents frequently forgot to write or submit their journals, and a few students wrote pagesof comments. Some students seemed to enjoy reading the newsletters, while others seemed
to barely glance at them before pushing them aside or putting them away. Aswriting andsubmitting the journals required a considerable investmentof students' time and effort, andreading the journals and compiling the newsletters consumed about one hour of my time foreach class, I began to wonder whether the journals were reallyworth the effort. Did the benefits
justify the time and effort put in?
With this question in mind, I set out to more deeply explore, from the perspectives ofboth teacher and student, the benefits of reflective journal writing and class newsletters.

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What follows in this chapter are some of my discoveries from the first year of using reflection
journals and class newsletters in a variety of English classes in a Japanese university.
I begin this chapter by briefly defining reflection and autonomous learning anddescribinghow these concepts are inter-related. I then describe my teaching context, andthe way in whichjournals and newsletters were used in my classes. Drawing on observationsof three classes, results of questionnaires, and my own experiences using a journal to reflect
on language learning, I next focus on the benefits of journals and newsletters. I conclude bytrying to draw together the lessons learned from this research in a list of guidelines for thoseconsidering using reflection journals and class newsletters in their classes.
Reflection and autonomous learning"In formal educational contexts,the most successful learners are autonomous.. .they
accept responsibility for their learning, [and] they constantly reflect on [theirlearning]." (Little, 1999, p.13)
Before going into the details of the present study, it is helpful to clarify what reflection is,
why it is important, and how it is connected to autonomous learning. According to Boud(1999):... reflection involves learners processing their experience in a wide range of ways,
exploring their understanding of what they are doing, why they are doing it and theimpact it has on themselves and others... .Reflection is intrinsic to learning and occurs
whether it is prompted or not. Informal reflection... occurs all the time; or rather it isoccurring if teachers manage to avoid constructing their own activities in ways which
inhibit it happening, (pp.2-3)
Although learners may naturally reflect on their learning, not all reflection is necessarily
helpful to learning. Successful learners are able to critically reflect in a way that moves themforward in their learning. They are able to identify and overcome problems. This is notnecessarily the case for all learners. For some learners, critical reflection is a skill which has tobe learned and practiced (Robles, 1998). The ability to reflect critically is also an important partof both preparation for and the process of autonomous learning.
Autonomous learners are able take control of all aspects of their learning (Holec, 1981; Benson,
2002), and in order to do this they need to develop greater metacognitive awareness (Sinclair,
2000). In other words, before students can start taking more responsibility for their learning,they need to have the ability to reflect on what, why, and how they are learning. As students
become more autonomous and are more involved in making decisionsabout their learning, they
continue to use this metacognitive capacityto help them to "step back from what they are doing
and reflect upon this in order to make decisions about what they next need to do and experience"(Breen & Mann, 1997,p.135). Reflection, therefore, both helps to prepare learners to take more
responsibility for their learning, and is necessaryas they exercise control over their learning. Thisability to reflect is especially important in formal educational contexts, as Litde (1999) states:
In formal educational contexts the most successful learners are autonomous. That is,they accept responsibility for their learning; they constantly reflect on what they arelearning, why they are learning, how they are learning, and with what degree of success;and their learning is fully integrated with the rest of what they are. (p.13)

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Let us now go on to investigate how the greater cognitive awareness can be developed
through journal writing and class newsletters.
Investigating reflective journals and newsletters
The students

In the year that I conducted the present study, I used journals with nine classes (a total of
approximately 180 students) at a private universityin Saitama, about one hour from central
Tokyo. Allstudents were non-English majors, and the classes were broadly streamed based on
TOEIC scores, and grouped according to year of study and, in all but two classes,major. The
exceptions were two high-level first year speaking classes, which consisted of students withTOEIC scores over 600 points, from four departments. All classes were skill-based—focusing
mainly on speaking, listening, or reading skills—and the total range of TOEIC scores for thenine classes was from 250 to over 700 points. All classes met once a week for 90 minutes.
The journals•

Name :

Partn er's name:•Durin g the lesson I felt:•

I used•I brou ght / didn't bring my textbook.

•

I brou ght / didn't bring my dictionary.

% English.

I understood•% of what Jodie said,

I did / didn't do my homework.

1.

What did you do in class today?

2.

What did you learn today?

3.

What was interesting or useful for you? Why?

4.

What was difficult or not useful for you? Why?

5.

Comments, questions, etc.

Figure 1. Reflection journal template
For the first few lessons of the semester, I printed out the journal templates (Figure 1) on
A4 paper and distributed them to students. Students completed the journals for homework,and submitted them two or three days after the lesson. With the goal of giving students
opportunities for authentic language practice outside of our one 90-minute lesson per week,
I asked them to write their comments in English. I read each journal before I planned thenext lesson, noting common themes, and interesting comments and questions. When time
permitted, I compiled comments and questions from the journals into class newsletters, which
I distributed in class the following week (see Figure 2 for an example). As I did not have enoughtime to compile newsletters for every class each week, and also because there were often notenough student comments in one week to fill a newsletter, most classesreceived newslettersonce every two or three weeks. However,students in the two first-year advanced speaking
classes received newsletters almost every week. In general, these students wrote more in theirjournals than students in the other classes, and the students in one of these classes in particular
took great interest in reading and discussing the newsletters.
After students became familiar with the journal format and the procedure, I no longer—

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prepared copies for them. Instead, they wrote their comments in a notebook, using thequestions on the template as a guide. Notebooks were chosen so that students had all of theircomments in one place and could therefore easily look back over them and note any significant
changes over time.
I did not usually correct any spelling or grammatical mistakes in the journals because I was
more interested in having students communicate their ideas than having them write perfectly.
The preoccupation with university entrance exams in the Japanese education system causes
many students to see English communication as "a never-ending flow of right and wrong
answers. Each word out of the mouth, each word off the tip of a pen is a test" (McCornick,
2001, p.8). I did not want to promote this way of thinking and increase the "fear and negative
emotions" (McCornick, 1997, p.9) that block many students from communicating authenticallyin English. Instead, I wanted to build students' confidence in their ability to use the English thatthey already knew to begin to express their own meanings.
I was teaching at one school and had an officeon campus where students could submit theirnotebooks, and where I could store them until the next lesson, so the notebooks were a feasible

option for me. However, for teachers who are teaching at more than one school, or who do nothave ample storage space on campus, a worksheet or electronic format may be more convenient(Carpenter & Stephenson, 2006).
Class newsletters

When I read through the journals for each class, I took note of comments and questions that
I thought would benefit the whole class. If time permitted, I composed a newsletter withthese comments and questions, and gave this to students in class the following week (refer
to Figure 2 for an example). To protect anonymity and encourage students to write honest
comments in their journals, the authors' names were not included in the newsletters. To boost

students' confidence in their abilityto communicate in English, minimal changeswere made tocomments that were included in the newsletters. Spellingand basic grammatical mistakes werecorrected, but other corrections were avoided where possible.
I sometimes included my responses to the students' comments and questions in the
newsletters, or spent time in the lesson discussing the comments with the whole class, or having
students discuss the comments in small groups. At other times, I just asked students to read thenewsletter on their own either in class or at home.

This particular newsletter shows the range of wide range of topics that students write about
in their journals. We will focus on the newsletters in more detail below.
Stories from the classroom

The following stories, which are taken from threedifferent classes, exemplify the ways is which
the journals and newsletters can help students and teachers to take greater control of what
happens in the classroom.
Class A - A second-year reading class

One student in ClassA complained in his journal that the classroom was uncomfortable—

therewere too manydesks and it was difficult to move around. I had also been feeling that
there were problems with the room,and was wondering whatto do about it. By includingthat student's initial complaint about the desks in the newsletter, a class discussion on the—More Autonomy You

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English 142: Speech Communication

Journal Jottings

Fall Semester - Week 8

Comments on last week's lesson:

Whatdidyou do today?

Today we learned the discussion leader's job. After that we practiced discussion in small groupand 3 topics. We learned some Australian English by watching "Nemo".
Whatdidyou learn today?
1. It's better to start discussingafter we have had time to think about a topic for a few minutes,
because everyone can find his or her opinion.
2. I think it is important to disagree with opinions or to have other ideas. By doing this we candiscuss a topic more deeply. And also we can know different ideas or waysto think.

Wliatwas interesting or usefulfor you?
3. In Ms. Y's class, we pick one person as a discussionleader, so it was very useful to learn how tolead a discussion and I'll use some phrases which I learned today in Ms. Y's class!
4. Good listeners gave me some reaction (for example, "I think so,""That's a good point," "Youmean....?")

What was difficult or not usefulforyou?
5. It's very difficult to smoothly greasethe wheels as a discussion leader because I think that6.

most of us are not used to having discussions in English.
Discussionwas difficult for me. Although we had thinking time, I couldn't respond to mygroup members' opinions smoothly. The discussion time was limited so it made me hurry.

7.

It wasvery difficult for me to make myself understood. My tense feeling stopped me fromsaying my opinion in English.

8.

We tended to say our opinions like a presentation.

9.

I was embarrassed when listeners didn't show an understanding of what I said. Sometimes I
was distressed by their expressionless faces...

10. Our group finished discussing quicklybecause all members' opinions were very much alike.
In that case, what should we do to continue the discussion?

Othercomments or questions

11. I'm gladto have a chance to studyAussie English from myAustralian teacher.
12. There are many international students at this uni. I'd like to be their friend, because it isuseful to talk with them in Englishor other languages. If you know how to contact them,please tell me.
13.

I disagree with last week's comment 13! ("I can't understand what he or she said becauseof grammatical mistakes or lackof fluency") Sure, sometimes we have some difficulty
understanding what someone said,but mostlyit is because of trivial mistakes and we canunderstand what he meant through his expression or gesture. I think it's NOT good to be too
careful about grammar or fluency.

14. Jodie, when you learned Japanese, what was the most difficult grammar point?
15. The English dictionarysaid that 'discuss' means to consider by talkingsomething over, but I
think in this class,we didn't discuss at all.We just stated our own opinions to each other. Realdiscussion is to say my ideas to other students who have differentviews from me, so I think
discussionshouldn't require speaking equally, using basicsentencesand waiting my turn. If
all students are interested in the topic and haveclear opinions, our discussion will heat up!

Figure 2. A class newsletter
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issue was initiated. After considering a few ideas, we first tried rearranging the desks. In theirjournals that week, students commented that the new arrangement was better than the old,but they felt that the room was still too cramped, and it was bothersome for them to have torearrange the desks at the beginning and end of every lesson. Next, we tried moving to a muchbigger classroom which had desks that were bolted to the floor. Although perhaps not ideal,
students agreed that the new room was much more comfortable and we decided to move there
permanently.
In this case, one student's comment about a cramped classroom provided a stimulus for
dialogue in class and through the journals, and then action, and finally a solution was reached.
As the students had been involved in this decision-making, it was a solution that they weresatisfied with.

Class B - A second-year reading class

Each week there were a number of latecomers to Class B's Monday morning lesson. This wasa particular problem as there were no spare desks in the classroom, and the only way to enter
the room was through a door at the front of the room next to the blackboard. When students
came late, they were unable to slip in unnoticed, and they disrupted the lesson as they struggled
to get past other students and find an empty seat. One student raised this issue in her journal,saying that it bothered her that the whole class had to stop every time someone came in late.

After reading that comment in the newsletter,other students expressed similar sentiments.
Wanting to address this issue, I tried to initiate a discussion in class, but this proved difficult.
Only a few students had the confidence and the willingness to express their opinions inEnglish to the class (the class had a mostly English policy). As we were dealing with a touchy
subject, I assumed that some students were also worried about offending their classmates andthreatening the group's status quo. I suggested that we continue the discussion through thejournals, and that week many students who had not spoken up in class took the time to write
comments or suggestions. When they read these comments in the newsletter the following
week, the latecomers were able to realize how their actions affected the rest of the class. One of

the students who had frequently been late even apologized for the inconvenience her tardinesshad causedand promised to change her ways. After a few weeks of dialogue, a solution was
eventually reached when the class as a whole decided that tardy students be required to do
extra homework. The number of tardy students began to decrease, and the atmosphere in theclassroom improved.
Through this dialogue about punctuality, we were eventuallyable to create an environmentthat was more conducive to learning. Students who were annoyed at lessons beinginterrupted
bylatecomers felt betterafter theirfrustrations had been heard. On the other hand, complaints
from their peers helped some latecomers to realize that theiractions had negative consequences
not onlyfor their own learning, but forthe rest of the class aswell, and this was just the pushthey needed to make the extra effort to come to class on time.
Class C-A first-year speaking class

Soon after the first lesson, a student in Class C began to express anxiety abouthisspeaking
ability in hisjournal. He thoughtthat hisspeaking ability was lower than everyone else's
and that he was the onlyone having difficulty in the class. After reading about this student's
insecuritiesin the newsletter, a few of the other students began to share their own anxieties

about the class in their journals. By including these students' comments in subsequent

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newsletters, and bringing it to the attention of the whole class when the newsletters were

distributed, everyone became aware that some students were feeling insecure in class. Realizingthat theywere not alone, the students who had voiced their insecurities gradually began torelax and lower their affective filters.

After initially raising the group's awareness of this issue, I encouraged the class to be patientand understanding, and to think of ways in which they could help each other. Students
were encouraged to recognize their own linguistic strengths and weaknesses, and to look foropportunities to both help and learn from their classmates. We also spent some time reviewing
the course goals and making sure that all students had set realistic expectations for themselves.
In addition, class time was dedicated to practicingcommunication strategies, with a focus onbuilding students' confidenceand skills in communicatingwith words that they already knew.
I feel that my English is better because I always try to speak with English words which
I already know. BeforeI took this class, I didn't think I could talk in English unless I
knew difficult words. (Daisuke)

The journals became a forum for students to record their successes as well as theirdifficulties. Some students reported that using the communication strategieswe had practiced
in class had increased their confidence and improved their speaking ability. Others did notnecessarily feel that their speaking ability had improved, but commented that their anxiety
levelshad decreased and that they were enjoying communicating in English.
Some students were really trying to encourage and support their classmates and this wasreflected in their journal comments. They praised each others' positive attitudes as well as
their speaking skills. When students read these positive comments about themselves in the
newsletters, their confidence was boosted and they were motivated to keep trying hard.
Even when students expressed frustration in their journals, there were often positive results.
The following comment enabled me to identify areas of need.

My partner took a long time to tell me about his newspaper article. I wanted to help
him, but I didn't know how. (Mariko)After reading this comment, we spent some time in class practicing questioning andclarifying techniques, and reporting and rehearsal strategies to build speaking and listening
skills. As they read this comment in the newsletter, anxious students may have been encouraged
to know that their classmates were sensitive to their needs and were actively seeking ways tosupport them.
Unlike classes A and B, whose problems were not directly related to the content of
the class,the problems in Class C were directly related to the content of the class. Somestudents were struggling to keep up, but each of these students thought that they were theonly ones having difficulty. Sharing these comments with the rest of the class through thenewsletter helped anxious students to relax as they realized that they were not alone. Sharing
the comments also enabled us all to begin thinking of ways to build up the confidence andthe skills of all students, in particular those who had voiced their insecurities. This ultimately
fostered a very supportive and collaborative atmosphere in the class.
While the issues raised in the journals in classes A,B,and C were very different, the processeswere
quite similar. Issues were raisedin the journals, discussed in class and/or through the newsletters,
and eventually resolved through dialogue and negotiation. The journals and newsletters:• Encouraged reflection on the learning process and the learning environment
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Provided a non-threatening forum for dialogue and negotiation• Helped raise awareness, on an individual and group level, of factors that werehelping
and hindering learning

Once awareness had been raised, we could then begin to seek ways to overcome theproblems.
In the next section, we will look at the benefits of journal writing and class newsletters inmore detail.

Benefits of the journals and newsletters: The students' perspective
The events in Classes A, B, and C, combined with numerous other incidents in other classes,

convinced me that the reflection journals and newsletters were useful, for both teacher andstudent, but I wanted to know what students thought. Ultimately, if students did not thinkthat writing their reflections and reading the newsletterswere worthwhile, then they would
not put much time or effort into those activities, and would not reap the benefits. I decided
to use questionnaires to find out students' attitudes towards the journals and newsletters.
Did students think these things were useful, and, if so, in what ways? Could they offer any
suggestions for improving the journal system?
The questionnaire

The questionnaires were administered to two first-year advanced speaking classes. These twoclasses were chosen as they had received the newsletters regularly. The questionnaires werehanded out at the end of the academic year, and students were asked to complete them athome and to submit them with their final reports. It was made clear that what students wrote
in the questionnaires would in no way affect their final grades for the class. Out of a total of 40
students in the two classes, 30 students returned the questionnaires.
The results: Journals

The first five questions in the questionnaire focused on the journals. In Question 1, all 30
respondents said that writing reflections about the lesson was either useful or very useful.
Ql. Do you think that writing your comments about the lesson in a journal is useful?
A. Very useful13

B. Useful17

C. Not very useful0

D. Not useful at all

0

Total

30

After selecting the benefits of journal writing in Question 2, students were asked to choose

the biggest benefit in Question 3. For more than one third of the students, the biggestbenefit ofwriting journals was being able to tell the teacher their opinion. The two next popular answers,
with almost half the number of respondents, was reviewingthe lesson and thinking about
behaviour respectively.

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Q2. In your opinion, what are the benefits of writing your own journal comments each week?
A. No benefits

0

B. I can review the lesson

22

C. I can improve my writing skills

17

D. I can ask the teacher questions

14

E. I can tell the teacher my opinion

21

F.I can think about my behaviour

15

G. Other8

Total (multiple answers accepted)

97

Q3. In your opinion, which is the biggest benefit of writing journal comments?
A. No benefits

0

B. I can review the lesson

6

C. I can improve my writing skills

4

D. I can ask the teacher questions

2

E. I can tell the teacher my opinion

11

F. I can think about my behaviour

5

G. Other

2

Total

30

Questions 4 and 5 focused on problems. In Question 4, students indicated any problems
that they had experienced with writing or submitting journals, and in Question 5 they selected
the biggest problem. For seven students, there were no problems with writing journals. For
10 students, the biggest problem was not in writing the journal, but in submitting it. Thesestudents often forgot to submit their journals by the deadline, or found it bothersome to makea special trip to the teacher's office to submit their journals. Eight other students felt that it wasdifficult to write in English or that it took too long to write their comments.
Q4. Do you have any problems with writing journal comments each week?
A. No problems

8

B. It takes too much time

5

C. It's troublesome to go to the teacher's office

5

D. It's difficult to write in English

6

E. I sometimes forget to write my journal

5

F. I sometimes forget to submit my journal

9

G. Other5

Total (multiple answers ok)

43

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Q5. What is the biggest problem for you?
A. No problems

7

B. It takes too much time

3

C. It's troublesome to go to the teacher's office

1

D. It's difficult to write in English

5

E. I sometimes forget to write my journal

1

F. I sometimes forget to submit my journal

9

G. Other

4

Total

30

The results: Newsletters

The next two questions focused on the class newsletters which were compiled from journal
comments. In Question 6, all students responded that they thought reading the newsletters waseither useful or very useful. The most popular benefits of reading the newsletters, in Question
7, were being able to read the opinions of other students, learning new words and expressions,and learning new ways to study.

Q7. In your opinion, what are the benefits of reading everyone's comments about thelesson each week?
A. No benefits

0

B. I can review the lesson

5

C. I can improve my reading skills

6

D. I can read other students' opinions

28

E. I can learn new words and expressions

22

F. I can learn new ways to study

21

G. I can get to know my classmates

8

H. Other0

Total (multiple answers ok)

90

Q6. Do you think that reading everyone's comments about the lesson is useful?
A. Very useful18

B. Useful

12

C. Not very useful0

D.Not useful at all

0

Total

30

This overwhelmingly positive reaction to the newsletters was surprising. I had thought thatwriting the journals was beneficial for students because it allowed them to review the lesson

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while communicating authentically in English. I had not realized that the newsletters were sointeresting and valuable to students, allowing them not only to review the lesson again, but
to exchange opinions, ideas, language, and learning strategies. Although I had not compiled
newsletters each week for all nine classes, after seeing the results of the questionnaire, I resolved
to make newsletters regularly for all classes.
"I'd like to keep this system." (student comment)

Most students were satisfied with the journal and newsletter system as it was, but a few madesuggestions on how things could be improved. As was mentioned above, some students feltthat the biggest problem was forgetting to write or submit their journals. To help avoid these
problems, a few suggested that time be allocated to journal writing during the lesson, or thatstudents be allowed to submit their journals by email.
A few students indicated that the system could be improved by incorporating more teacher
feedback, either in the form of grammatical correction or more global feedback on students'
performance in the lesson. One student commented that providing individual feedback mightserve as an incentive for students to submit their journals.
I think if you have a time, you should write comments for each journal. That way,
probably people can communicate with you and maybe won't forget to turn [theirjournals] in.
Other students suggested that the journal questions be changed or that new questions be
added. As the journal questions were the same each lesson, some students found themselves
writing basically the same answers each week, and not really reflecting on each lesson. To
combat this problem, one student suggested that questions be changed each week to match thecontent of the lesson. Another student suggested that new questions be added to help themreflect on different aspects of the lesson, or on their participation.
I think this journal system is very useful and help us to review [the lesson]. I think it's
better to add more questions. For example, "How did you take part in today's class?" orsomething.
The students have raised some valid points with these suggestions. While I had been
receiving a lot of useful feedback from students in their journals, it seems I had not been giving
them enough feedback in return. Although time restraints prevented me from correcting every
journal each week, I now make it a practice to let students know that all of the comments that areincluded in the newsletters have been corrected. As I try to include at least one comment fromeach student in the newsletters each week, this allowsme to give some feedback to each student
regularly. This method also encourages students to be autonomous in finding their own mistakes.
Benefits of reflection journals and newsletters:
The teacher's perspective
Benefits for students

The journal and newsletter system that I have described here potentially has incredible benefits
for students.

1. Journals and newsletters give every student the opportunity to voice their opinions andconcerns in a non-threatening way

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In some classrooms, only thevoices ofthemost outgoing, confident, or opinionated students
are heard. Reflection journals provide a regular opportunity for all students, including those
who may beverbally reticent in class, to give the teacher feedback, ask questions, makesuggestions, or voice complaints. Moreover, the journals and newsletters are much less facethreatening than addressing the teacher or the class directly.

2. The journals andnewsletters provide a forum for ongoing dialogue andnegotiation
Once an issue has been raised in a journal, theclass cancontinue to discuss that issue throughjournals and newsletters. As the journals aredone as homework, students have ample time tothink about what they want to say and how to sayit.
3. Journals and newsletters help lower affective niters

Writing a journal can have a very cathartic effect. By venting their frustrations or anxieties
about the class in their journals, students can begin to feel more comfortable in class. Affective
filters continue to loweras students realize that they are not the only ones experiencing
difficulties, and that their teacher and classmates are truly interested in what they write.
In addition, because the newsletters do not contain the author's names, students can be assured

that they will not be ostracized because of any commentsthat they havemade. This is perhaps
especially important in cultures like in Japan where importance is placed on group harmony.
4. Journals and newsletters facilitate positive relationships in the classroom
In just one 90-minute lesson a week, it can be difficult for teachers to get to know students
on a more personal level, and likewise,it can difficult for students to build relationships
with other students in the class.The journals and newsletters provide both a forum for the
sharing of ideas and opinions (between all participants), as well as content for meaningful andauthentic discussion about the class. As students can share their anxieties, opinions, difficulties,
and successes with teachers and their classmates, the journals and newsletters help create a
supportive group dynamic. The newsletters also expose students to different opinions anddifferent ways of looking at the world, and help them to realize that often there is not just one
right way. Students begin to appreciate difference more.
5. Journals and newsletters help build language skills and reinforce lesson content
The results of the questionnaire showed that through reading the newsletters, students learn
new words and phrases, and new ways of studying English. In other words, students becomenear-peer role models for each other (Woo & Murphey, 1999).

Furthermore, as students write their journal comments, they are reviewing what they learnedin the lesson and reframing that knowledge (Woo & Murphey, 1999).As they read the newsletters,
they again recall what they did in the lesson, and their knowledge is reshaped by the comments of
their peers, allowing them to come to a deeper understanding of the content studied.
6. Journals and newsletters are forums for authentic communication

When writing their journal comments, students are formulating sentences which communicate
personal meanings. With the focus on drills and translation in many secondary and tertiary
English classes in Japan, students often don't have many opportunities to use English for their

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own authenticcommunicative purposes. However, with the journals, students arewriting andreading (and sometimes also talking) about issues thatare directly related to them, andtheircomments influence what is done in future lessons.

Benefits for the teacher

1. Journals allow teachers to know more about students

Journals allow the teacher to get to knowthe students on a morepersonal level. This canbe difficult when you onlyseestudents for 90 minutes once a week, as is the case in many
universities in Japan. In particular, the teacher can discover the successes, difficulties, andquestions of each student, and can then decide howto respond accordingly.
2. Journals help instill teachers with confidence and motivation
As the teacher receives positive feedback about the lesson in the journals, it increases theirconfidence that what they are doing is interesting and useful for students. As the teacher
becomes more aware of how hard students are trying, it motivates and energizes the teacher tocontinue his or her hard work.

3. Journals provide regular feedback from multiple perspectives

Rather than wait for course-end evaluations, by which time it is too late for teachers to change
anything about the class, journals give teachers feedback that can be used almost immediately.
This regular feedback from multiple perspectives (Woo 8c Murphey, 1999) is of immense
value to the teacher. Instead of relying only their own observations and interpretations ofwhat happened in the lesson, or falling back on their own cultural assumptions, journals allow
teachers to see the lesson through students' eyes (Carpenter & Stephenson, 2006).
4. Journals stimulate teacher reflection

Reading the journals helps the teacher to both reflect on past lessons and to plan future lessons.
Sometimes comments in journals may point the teacher in new directions. Reading a comment
may also inspire teachers to try something new or different.
5. Journals help teachers develop their autonomy and continue their own professional
development

Reading students' journals and compiling the class newsletters can ultimately help the teacher
to develop their own autonomy. Two characteristics of autonomous teachers are that they
use learner needs as the basis for teaching and they are reflective (Hedge, 2001). By reading
journals, the teacher can identify the students' needs and tailor their lessons accordingly. And
reading the journals and compiling the newsletters stimulates teacher reflection about thelesson. Being aware of students' perceptions of the lesson enables teachers to monitor theirown performance, and ultimately develop their own professional expertise (Nunan & Lamb,
1996, cited in Graves & Mackenzie, 1997).

Lessons learned: Guidelines for Journals and Newsletters

Although I have only begun to scratch the surface, this study has convinced me that usingreflection journals and newsletters can have enormous benefits for both teachers and students.

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Critical reflection

I continue to use journals with all my classes, having already made a few adjustments basedon the feedback I received in the questionnaires. I offer the following guidelines to any readersconsidering using or already using journals and newsletterswith their students:

1. Allow studentstime to complete their journals in class, especially at the beginning of thesemester. This lets students know that the teacher feels that reflection and the journals areimportant, and allows the teacher to help students who seem to be having trouble.
2. Ask for students' permission before using their comments in class newsletters or research
papers.

3. If possible, to lessen anxiety about the task and to encourage a focus on communication
rather than correctness, let students write in their first language if necessary.
4. Consider accepting journal submissions electronically. This is especially convenient for
students who have left their journals at home, or for students and teachers who are not on
campus very much.
5. Make it a priority to regularly compile newsletters. The results of the questionnaires
indicate that students feel reading the newsletters is at least as important as writing journal
comments. If it is not feasible to compile newsletters for every class each week, newsletterscan be compiled once or twice a month (Bray & Harsch, 1996).
6. Regularly change or add questions to the journal to focus on different aspects of the lesson.
Using the same questions each week, for a long period of time, may hinder real reflection
as well as some students feeling bored. Change or add questions periodically to help keep
students and the teacher fresh.

7. Include a question about the journals and newsletters in the journals. To promote reflection
on the reflection process itself, include journal questions which ask students for feedback
on writing journals and reading newsletters. To promote dialogue between students, include
space in the journals for students to respond to comments in previous newsletters.
8. Find ways to incorporate feedback on the journals. While much of the feedback thatstudents get on their journals will not be individualized, but in the form of changed
teaching (Woo & Murphey, 1999; Carpenter & Stephenson,2006), some students may
request individualized feedback, either in the form of grammatical corrections, or global
comments on their performance in the lesson.One practical way of including grammaticalfeedback is to only correct all comments that are included in the newsletters.
Final remarks

The present study represents an initial attempt at exploring the benefits of reflection, classnewsletters, journals, and to investigate the connection between metacognitive awarenessand autonomous learning. While much has been written on the subject of reflection journals(e.g. Matsumoto,1996; Bray & Harsch, 1996;Peyton & Staton, 1991; Casanave, 2001), sharing
students' comments through class newsletters is an area which has not really been explored.
The journals described in this chapter ultimately enable teachers to become aware of social,
cultural, and political contexts in which we are working, so that we can avoid inappropriate
pedagogies and cultural impositions as we seek to foster autonomy in our classes (Pennycook,1997). Furthermore, through journals we can get a clear picture of "the implications that [our]choices have for the learners, academically, personally, culturally and politically" (Sinclair, 2000,
p.13). When students' comments are shared with the class through newsletters, it helps to build

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up a common understanding of the learning context, and can stimulate student reflection on
implications that their own choices have — for themselves, their classmates, and their teacher.
Finally, if, as Little (1999) states, successful learners are autonomous and they constantly
reflect on their learning, then as teachers, we are doingour students a great disservice if we
not are actively seekingways to promote greatermetacognitive awareness in our classes.
Stimulating critical reflectionthrough journals and class newsletters also promotes dialogue,
fosters a positivegroup dynamic,and ultimatelyhelpsboth learners and teachers to become
more autonomous.

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Criticalreflection

Critical Reader Response i

Barbara Sinclair

Although the notion of developing critical reflection through the use of learners' reflective
journals is not new to language teachers and language teacher educators, there are, I think,
three issues raised by this paper which deserve special attention: the importance of varying
prompts for reflection in journals; the usefulness of sharing of the learners' reflections in a
public forum (the class newsletters); the outcomes of the reflections and discussion in terms oflearning to learn and developing autonomy.

If we accept that the acquisition of greater learner (and teacher) autonomy depends onthe development of a body of metacognitive knowledge about 1) one's self as a learner andpractitioner, 2) the learning context, 3) the subject matter to be learnt, and 4) the processes oflearning (Sinclair, 2000,2006), it can be seen that reflecting in a journal, with the appropriate
prompts, can be a useful means of focusing on and extending these areas of knowledge. Of
course, simply having knowledge about (or the capacity for) autonomy does not ensure that alearner will take responsibilityfor his/her own progress. In addition, a willingness to do so isnecessary. This willingness will vary from time to time and according to a range of variables af
fecting the learner. One of the problems with askinglearners to keep reflective journals is thatthey quickly tire of making the effort and become bored, or they write the barest minimum
only to appease the teacher. The real value of the journal is easily lost. I, therefore, agree withthe author that it is vital to keep motivation and interest high by varying the kinds of prompts
given to the learners.

A very interesting and important aspect of the author's practice concerns the sharing oflearners'reflections in the class newsletter. In my own experience, sharing in this wayallows
the participants to 'own' their opinions and, therefore, to take greater pains to articulate their
metacognitive knowledge about learning. It breaks down barriers, demonstrates that every
body is different, that allviews are to be respected, and treats the learners as mature, thinking
individuals within a social learning community.
Finally, in developing learner autonomy, it is important that learning to learn activities havean outcome that is useful. The class newsletters provide a stimulus for further group discussion
about learning. In this way, learners are able, in Vygotskian terms, to practisethe articulationof their opinions and experiences in a social setting, learning from each other and consideringsolutions to problems. Such social learning provides rehearsal for individual reflection and ex
perimentation, allowing the learner to develop the ability to think and reason more deeplyand
act with more confidence, readyfor the next cycle of reflection, and for taking greater responsi
bility for their own learning.

All in all, I believe this paper has a great dealto offer the teacherwho wishes to support
learner autonomy, and to learn from his/her learners.

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Critical Reader Response 2

Amanda Bradley

I was immediately drawn into Jodie's chapter because of her topic, "journals," which is also
central to my MAYA chapter. Yet our approaches, procedures, and reflections on the same
topic are quite different, as are the teaching environments we work in. So, much in the same
way as Jodie's students value "being able to read the opinion of others," and as Jodie mirrors
her students' process, and is motivated and energized by it, as a critical reader, I too have beenstimulated to reflect on my journals by reading the details of Jodie's project.

Jodie's clear, simple, and direct style makes reading and retention easy for me andincidentally invites me to bear my own readers in mind in the future. There is an appealing
freshness in her treatment of her topic, and her inclusion of templates immediately enables me
to grasp the specific nature of her project and its scope.

Throughout her chapter Jodie mentions time constraints she is subordinated to in her
teaching. She also has non-specialists and unmotivated students in her class,among others.
This environment is not ideal. In the circumstances, she has decided to help students andteachers "take control" of the classroom by using a prescriptive medium of feedback templates.
In my own chapter, I made the point that "there can be no templates for feedback." However, I
believe Jodie has carefully thought out her own criteria for choosing the materials she creates
for use in her teaching, based on her particular context and approach.
I have occasionally used questionnaires in class,and find it so difficult to create theappropriate questions that I needed to ask the advice of a specialist in research methods. The
crucial question is,"What is the purpose of the questionnaire?" Jodie states that the goal is"giving authentic language practice"outside of the weekly class. I would invite Jodie to further
reflecton this goal, on what "authentic" means and on the extent to which authenticity,
as she defines it, is achieved through that medium. What comes to my mind are affective
considerations, such as whether a student questioned about doing homework will be honest,
feel shame, or other emotions; also, what is actually meant by "difficult" and whether it means
the same for Jodie as for her students, and to what extent responders might feel obliged toplease the teacher, as is often the case.
I am intrigued as to how Jodie's method encourages students to be autonomous in finding
their own mistakes. An explanation here would help. And I would also like to know more about
the relationship between harmony and the need for anonymity. But I am inclined to think they
are complex issues that might merit another chapter on the separate theme of culture.
That being said, Jodie gives her students a second chance to develop their skills
autonomously by reading and discussingthe newsletter that she has painstakingly compiled
for them. Most teachers would not make that effort. This example of cooperative learning, inwhich the heat is taken off the individual, appears to be generative, with the students' wisdom
shining through as they assert their autonomy in the specific suggestions Jodie cites at the endof the process.

I would like to finish by thanking Jodie for her thoughtful work, for the reflections she has
inspired in me, and for her bibliography. I hope my comments will also further Jodie's continu
ing journey along the same road as mine, towards pedagogical autonomy.

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