Looking Back報告Reflections on Creating Community: Learning Together 2 「第2回学習者ディベロプメント研究部会コミュニティの創造：共に学ぶ」についてAgnes Patko, Andy Barfield, & Ken Ikedaパトコー・アグネス、バーフィールド・アンドリュー 、イケダ・ケンCreating Community: Learning Together 2 took place on Sunday December 13 2015 with over 35 poster presentations/digital displays by both students and teachers. Thirty-four teachers, 34 students, and two parents took part. This small-scale, informal afternoon conference offers opportunities for students and teachers to learn together from each other about different experiences, questions and issues to do with learner development. As the final Tokyo get-together of the year, we aimed to keep presentation formats informal and interactive. At Creating Community: Learning Together 2 there were two rounds of poster presentations and digital displays, with each round followed by small discussion and reflection circles for 30 minutes in pairs and small groups in each presentation room. The conference finished with a plenary session where the website for the SIG's 3.1 Children’s Accounts translation project was launched and everybody at the conference had a chance to share reflections and questions about creating community and learning together. We include here five reflections by presenters at the 2015 informal afternoon conference. Our thanks go to everybody who helped at participated in the conference, as well as to Junsei Goseki, Rob Werner, Erina Iwasa, and Shuhei Yamada for contributing their reflections on CCLT2. Learning and Solving Puzzles Through Communicationコミュニケーションを通じて学習と問題解決をするAgnes Patkoパトコー・アグネスAfter the successful informal conference, Creating Community: Learning Together in December 2014, I was looking forward to the second one in 2015. I was glad to see that many people attended and created a friendly and positive atmosphere. Although, as a presenter, I did not get to see other presentations during the first round, I got valuable feedback about my research. I presented about a correspondence project, in which my Japanese students and students from my university in Hungary participated. This was the first time I had presented about it; therefore, besides talking about what and how I was doing with my students I wanted to know what other people thought about it and what they would recommend me to do differently. Questions and comments from the participants helped me to gain deeper understanding of the preliminary results and identify different possibilities for analysis.学習者ディベロプメント研究部会<ld-sig.org/> In the second round I visited several presentations on various topics. I had the opportunity to see both the teacher and student perspectives on different teaching- learning situations and managed to interact with “subjects” of stories of success. I was especially impressed by stories about how students took responsibility for their own learning and how they gradually became more and more autonomous learners. One of the most memorable stories was a first-year female student’s. She had volunteered abroad to help build a house in Indonesia for people who had become homeless after a natural disaster had stricken their region. At first she felt useless there. She could not do hard, physical work nor could she speak much to locals. However, she tried her best to express her feelings in English and it brought her closer to the local community. At this informal afternoon conference I was happy to see that it did not matter who was a teacher and who a student. People treated each other equally friendly, which contributed to a relaxed atmosphere. Presentations and discussion made me think about various factors of teaching and learning. A few questions that came up for me are as follows: * There were a number of presentations by teachers addressing difficulties resulting from students’ lack of motivation in writing tasks (e.g. thesis and home paper). I was wondering whether students’ lack of motivation or unproductivity in writing tasks corresponds to insufficient instruction on academic writing at the beginning of their university studies. Is it a result of students entering university with a low level of active language knowledge, which universities try to improve by providing a greater number of general English language classes than academic skills classes? I also wonder what students think about these questions. * There were several students telling their stories of how they had become more autonomous and learned to make decisions about their own learning. It was great to hear them and I was happy to see students from different universities share their experiences or give each other advice on learning. I wonder if they do the same at their own institutions as well. Do students get a chance (in class or at any kind of events) to talk to their classmates, peers, seniors or juniors about their learning successes? I hope so. If not, where or when should teachers provide space for it? Could students be encouraged to take the initiative in this? I believe that such events can aid the communication, mutual understanding and cooperation between teachers and students; therefore, I am looking forward to next year’s Creating Community: Learning Together event. Learner Development SIG一学生として参加—学会への個人的回顧五関順盛,学習院大学修士1年私は担当教授のスチュワート先生より、11月のJALT国際大会と12月の大妻女子大学でのSIGで自分の研究のプレゼンテーションを行う機会をいただけた。学生としての自分の参加経験を振り返り、自分に起こった変化を出会った発表や参加者の方々を含めて紹介させて頂きたい。今振り返ってみると、11月の学会では予想以上の規模の大きさに圧倒されて、また非常に年齢層が幅広い教師の方々、たくさんの国籍の人々がいて、適応するのに時間がかかった。英語を教えている人々から話を聞く事は自分が望んでいたことではあったが、中々自分から話しかけることが出来なかった。11月の学会が終わったときには大きな安心感を得て緊張感がほぐれた気がしていたので、ある程度ストレスを感じていたのかもしれない。しかしながら12月のSIG学会は規模が小さく、学生も参加者の約半数ほど参加しているのが見え、自分としては無意識のうちに安心感を覚えていたのかもしれない。最初は中々口が開けず、先生方や学生にも話しかけることが出来なかった。しかし、最初のプレゼンテーションのセクションが始まり、Patko先生のポスターで「日本人の学生がハンガリーの日本語専攻の学生と英語でコミュニケーションをとるという形で、ハンガリー人の日本語専攻の学生に対し日本人学生が教えるというポジションをとることができる」という主旨の発表をしていた。学生・教師・年齢などという個々のアイデンティティはコミュニケーションに大きく影響するが、彼女のプレゼンテーションを最初に聞いた事で、私はこの学会ではできる限りのことを他者から学び、自分の学生というポジションに関係なく、できる限り伝えられるようにしたいと考えることができた。参加者の発表では、明治大学の学生が「World Peace Game」という政治的な交渉を英語で行うというアクティビティを紹介していて、学生たちが主体的にゲーム内容を紹介してくれた。彼らは英語専攻ではないということが印象的であった。また、別のセクションでは大学のセミ学生による「SAGEプロジェクト」という発表が非常に学べることが多かったものかもしれない。そのプロジェクトは約20人のゼミの学生が数年に渡り行っているプロジェクトで、高校生、大学生、ビジネスパーソンという3つの完全に異なる存在を繋げようというものだ。これは、なぜ高校と大学、そして社会人というものが離れていなければいけないのかという疑問に挑戦をするようなプロジェクトであり、非常に興味深かった。他の学生達からもユニークで興味深い内容の発表を色々と聞くことができた。発表の中には、マシュー先生の「3.11 Looking Back Together」では2011年から現在までの東北や、震災・電力の様子を発表していた。震災が与えた被害、電力、原発の情報は普段あまり情報として耳に入ってくることではないので、約5年前のできごとであるが、地震や津波のことを思い出し、考えることができた。そして、回顧することの大切さ、これは震災だけに限らず、過去を振り返る事で自分たちは色々なことを学べるのだと改めて感じさせられた。回顧というと、SIG学会では発表のセッションが終わると10分ほど議論をする時間が設けられたが、今思うとなぜ私は積極的に発言をしなかったのだろうかと考える。色々な要素が原因となっているはずだが、後悔をしている時点で自分にはまだまだ足りないところがあると感じた。総合として学生は私を含めてもっと主体的に、積極的に活動するべきだったという点がある。ある時は積極的、主体的に行動ができても、いかに環境の変化によってそれが変化しうるかということの良い例であった。しかし、このように回顧をすることで改善し、次に繋げることができればよいと思えた。私は、「信頼」ということをテーマに発表を行った。普段、関係の中であまり言葉としては意識しないであろうこの「信頼」がどのように先生と学生が捉えているかを調査した。場にいた先生・学生の方々合わせて約30名程度にアンケート回答のご協力を頂いた。私が色々な発表を通して改めて、または新しく「気づき」があったように、私の発表を聞いて下さった先生、学生の人にも同じ「気づき」があれば、私の発表は大成功であると思う。そしてまず何よりも、あの場で私が大事だと思う事を「教える」ことが出来たならば、私の成功であると感じる。今回の12月のSIG学会を終えた時には、 11月の国際大会を終えた時にあった安心感などはなく、もっと多くの人と話したいと言う気持ちになっていた。自分はこのような気持ちになっていたことから、この「コミュニティ」に参加することができて良かったと思った。最後に、学会に参加して疑問に感じた事を2つ紹介。 1.なぜ英語の先生は英語を教えるのか？自分自身で、なぜ英語に関する修士号を取得したいのかを考えるきっかけになった。1つには、英語圏の文化、ヨーロッパやアメリカが好きだということと、英語が好きだからである。また、英語をある程度勉強して使えるようになったことから、世界中の人と話すことが出来るということが素晴らしいと思った。自分が英語を教えるならば、この感覚と経験を他の人にも共有してほしい、そして全く異なる人々から英語を通じて異なる価値観を学ぶ大切さを伝えたい。英語を教える人はそれぞれ英語を教えたいと言う理由を持っているはずである。この学会で私たちは、先生方と生徒たちとコミュニケーションが出来たため、この質問に対する答えについて考えるきっかけを与えてくれたかもしれない。中学校・高校で英語を教える日本人教師がより多く参加して、なぜ英語を教えているのか、そしてその考えをネイティブの先生方と共有することが出来れば、とても有意義になるのではないだろうかという風に感じた。 2.責任感、達成感などのコントロールの所在はどこにあるか？学会で先生方のプレゼンテーションを聞いて、先生方は想像以上に英語を教えるということに責任感を持っているということを感じた。日本の大学生たちに英語を教えるのは簡単なことではないが、先生方が教室で思った様にいかないことを学習者のせいにするのではなく、彼ら自身に責任を置くことで、教育は成り立っている。言い換えれば、教師は教える事を止めるまでは教師、学習者として成長をやめることができない。これは、学ぶ側も同じで、学習者が言語学習の失敗をテスト・教師・教室など周りのものだけの要因・原因していたら学習者自身が変化するのも、学習を成功させるのも難しくなるのではないだろうか。学会では振り返る事の大切さや、態度・心への変化を与える事の大切さを学ぶことが出来た。これは、私自身がこの学会から有意義な行動、そして結果を得ることに責任を感じていたことによって可能だったのではないだろうか。したがって、重要なことは自分に変化を与えることが出来るのは、周りのものではなく、自分自身であると考え直す事である。 Newsletter of the JALT Learner Development SIG <ld-sig.org/>
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Personal Reflection as a Student on the Conference Junsei Goseki, Gakushuin University, Masters 1st year Thanks to my Master’s supervisor Alison Stewart, I had the chance to be involved as a presenter in both the Learner Development Forum at the JALT International conference in November 2015 in Shizuoka and in Creating Community, Learning Together 2 at Otsuma Women University in December 2015. Here I would like to share my thoughts and experiences about the conferences and what I learned from them. In retrospect, the international conference in November was quite overwhelming for me in terms of how huge the scale was and how varied the experiences and backgrounds the participants, so it took a while for me to adapt. I had hoped to listen to people who teach English, but I did not feel confident enough to ask any questions. After the conference was over, I had a feeling of achievement and I felt the pressure on me had gone. The LD SIG conference in December at Otsuma Women University was not that big compared to the international conference, and about half of the participants were students, which naturally made me feel more comfortable. In the first hour, I was there without speaking out and talking to anyone. When the first round of presentations had opened, however, I started to feel that I didn't need to keep silent. At first, I stopped by at Agnes Patko's presentation. She explained the change in Japanese students’ roles and the feeling of confidence they gained by teaching something to Hungarian students who were majoring in Japanese. From her presentation, despite the fact that our different identities, such as age, gender and whether being a teacher or a student, strongly affected me, I was able to be aware again of the importance of challenging these barriers to learn and teach things best. In the section by student presenters, I found many interesting things. The students of Meiji University introduced the “World Peace Game" in which participants negotiate as representatives of each country over political disputes. I was impressed at how passionately they explained the details in English despite the fact that they are not English majors. I was also impressed by the SAGE project. The project attempts to connect high school students, university students and business people, and has developed over several years through the involvement of about 20 university seminar students. It was amazing because in general, high school students do not communicate with university students. Also business people do not usually have any chance of interacting with students. However, members of SAGE have tried to encourage people who belong to the three different groups to blend. Mathew Porter’s presentation, “3.11 Looking Back Together”, reminded me of the days I had volunteered in Tohoku. He talked about the history of the worst disaster in 3.11 in 2011 to the present in terms of tsunami-hit areas, power plants and electricity. As I rarely have access to this information, it was really informative and beneficial, which allowed me to think back the event almost 5 years back. In this section, I believe I learned to think that it is important to have a reflection, not only on the past events like the disaster, but also on what has actually happened to ourselves, because we can learn from making these connections to our own lives and reflecting on them. Speaking about reflections, I was allowed to discuss what we have learnt from the presentations after each round. Looking back, I wonder why I was not active in being open to the discussion. Probably there were many reasons for that, but the point that I feel the regret about is that there were many ways in which I could improve my participation in discussions. The students including me at the conference could have been more active towards the activities at the conference as a whole. I knew that I must have drawn more benefits from the conference about teaching and learning but I actually couldn’t do as I expected myself to be able to do. This kind of reflection, however, allows me to consider what I should have done and could not so that it allows me to have a change myself. At Creating Community: Learning Together 2 I gave a presentation about “trust”, something which we generally don’t think about as a concept in learning, but which is very important in relationships. I asked participants about trust based on relationships, responsibility, awareness, competence and confidence in their teaching and learning in classrooms. I was able to collect about 30 answers from the teachers and students. Just as I found myself discovering new things and reconsidering things I take for granted, I hope I was able to encourage other participants to reconsider their thoughts of trust in their own ways, and in that case my presentation was of great success there. After the SIG conference, as I did when finishing the international conference, I felt that I wanted to have more time to talk with as many different people as I could. For this reason, I was happy to be able to share my time with people there in the CCLT 2 learning community. To close, I would like to introduce several questions I considered after the conference. 1. Why do English teachers teach English? For myself, I wonder why I want to get a MA in English. One reason is I love the culture of Europe and America including the people. Needless to say, I also love the language. Also once I become somehow proficient in English, I get to love to communicate with people around the world.  If I teach English, my answer to the question is that I would like to share this feeling and experiences with other people and to convey the importance of learning different values from very different people. I would like to ask all of English teachers why they teach English. They should have reasons. The conference gives us the great chance of exploring possible answers to this question, because we are all able to communicate both teachers and students where I was able to consider the question. I think there should be a lot more Japanese English teachers of junior and high school at the conference to share their experience with non-Japanese English teachers. 2. Where is your locus of control? Throughout the conference, after listening to teachers' presentations, I felt that if not all but almost all of the teachers are responsible in their teaching. It must be hard to teach English to Japanese university students who are not easily motivated to learn. However, it is likely that a flower blooms when a teacher does not see the failure because of students but because of their teaching. In other words, teachers should not forget to improve as a teacher and as a learner until they stop teaching. That's the way everything might improve. It is true in when we learn something, if we tend to attribute the failure of learning to surroundings such as exams, teacher, classrooms and etc, we might find it hard to change and develop what we should. At the conference I learned a lot of things including the importance of reflection and being responsible for getting meaningful actions and effects from that event. It is always important to think that it is not others who can change me but it is rather I who must change myself and take responsibility for my own learning and continuing development.
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Improving Data Analysis Instructionより効果的なデータ分析指導をめざしてRobert J. Werner, Kanda University of International Studiesワーナー・ロバート、神田外語大学Three students and I presented on our reflections of a process-based course that I taught for the first time in the Spring 2015 semester. I would like to reflect on the data analysis process, which one student focused on in her part of the poster presentation, because it was the one area I felt was not successful during the course. During the presentation and reflection sessions, I received valuable suggestions both from participants and from one of my student co-presenters that I think will help me to improve the activity in the future. The course was a third- and fourth-year elective on social issues, which I had personally developed. It was intended to be a more advanced version of the university’s new first-year curriculum, in which content is learned through various genres of texts, as well as activities where students develop different skills. The processes are repeated throughout the course, so students can improve in areas such as leading discussions, analyzing data, and critical thinking, as they learn the content. In this case, critical thinking mostly involves exploring the course material more deeply through writing original “why” and “how” questions and discussing them in small groups. While this has always been part of the curriculum, the other processes are new. Since the new curriculum has only been taught for one year, the students in my class had never learned in this way. Therefore, the course was experimental, with an eye toward the future. As the name data analysis implies, students analyze their own data, which they create through formulating and asking survey questions. In encouraging students to be autonomous in how they went about the activity, I deliberately did not tell them how to do it (aside from a brief handout). I had incorrectly assumed that everyone knew how to conduct a survey from doing a similar activity in a previous course. (As it turned out, most students either did not remember how to do a survey or had never done it in the earlier course.) In addition, since the task was unfamiliar, they wasted a lot of time trying to get started, and many of them fell behind. In my student Emiri's, conference presentation, she reflected on the data analysis process. In a thoughtful and constructive way, she not only detailed why she felt it did not work well, but also offered a suggestion on how to improve the activity in the future. It was refreshing to receive critical feedback from one of my students, and I also think she had an excellent suggestion. Emiri said that the topic (race relations in the US) was too difficult and that she did not remember how to conduct a survey from her previous course. She suggested that there be a mini data analysis activity, so students can learn how to do a survey and become familiar with the process before having to do it all on their own. There was one moment during the presentation that was especially meaningful in not only helping me to reflect on this activity, but which I was also able to connect to my student's suggestion. One participant talked about a possible problem related to students' familiarity (or lack thereof) with the task type and content, and he drew a small graph with four quadrants to illustrate it. I believe he mentioned the principle it represented, but I cannot recall what it was. Based on my recollection of the conversation, I tried to recreate the graph. However, after trying several possibilities and reflecting on what would best fit, the end result (see Figure 1) differed from what I remembered. In the graph, memory relates to how well students remember the content, and familiarity relates to how comfortable they are with doing the activity. Figure 1. Students’ memory of content and familiarity with an activity . As can be seen in the graph, the upper right guadrant represents students' familiarity with both the activity and the content. On the other hand, the lower left quadrant represents unfamiliarity with both. The activity in its current form was an example of the latter, which goes a long way toward explaining why it did not succeed. After seeing this visual example during the presentation, listening to my student's suggestion, and talking about both in the reflection session, I realized that I could have avoided confusion by practicing the activity (and teaching more about doing a survey) with content students are more familiar with. One such possibility is racism in Japan, as students at this university will have heard about or studied it, and it is also related to the course content. Using more familiar content, I could better structure the activity, explain both why and how to do a survey, provide examples of questions and analyses, and maybe even incorporate some communication strategies (one of the other processes). This way, students would better understand how to complete the activity. It would then be one fewer obstacle when they design a survey on less familiar content, such as racism in the US. l am extremely grateful to my student for making such a wonderful suggestion, which in hindsight should be obvious, but that I overlooked in an attempt to provide freedom and flexibility. I am also appreciative of the participant who drew the graph to illustrate the problem, thereby leading me to see a possible solution. As I combined the two, I had a framework for how to teach the data analysis process next time in a way that will hopefully be clearer and more meaningful for students. Since this type of activity is analytical, students need to learn about and understand how to use different types of skills in order to successfully complete it. My experience in teaching data analysis, reflecting on it, and planning to teach it again has raised several questions, which might be useful for others who are interested in trying a similar activity: * Is it important to teach survey and data analysis skills to high school and university students? Why or why not? * How can teachers effectively prepare students to design a survey and analyze data (including creating and discussing different types of graphs and/or other visual representations of the data)? * What strategies are useful for teaching students how to explain data analysis and survey results to their peers? * In what ways do learners deal with data analysis? Talking With Students and Teachers From Other Universities他学校の学生・教員とのコミュニケーションを通してErina Iwasa, Meisei University岩佐恵莉奈、明星大学CCLT2 was a nice experience for me. It was the first time for me to participate in an informal conference and give a poster presentation. Before CCLT2, I did a presentation in Belarus and it was a kind of formal presentation. So, I couldn’t speak with other presenters and members of the audience. But in CCLT2, I could talk with many people and get a range of advice about my studies. My academic interest is “The Image of 'Sousyokukei Danshi' in Recent Japanese Animation." It is a kind of gender study. So, when I arrived at CCLT2, I was nervous because I thought my focus did not match this conference’s concepts. However, many people were interested in my study and gave me some comments to improve my study by, for example, trying to collect questionnaire responses, and thinking about how I can use the insights from my study in education. I had never talked to students and teachers from other universities so their comments helped me. It was interesting for me to talk with them. At the conference, I could have a good time. Using this experience, I will study more and more, and write my graduation thesis.私は、いままでに二回学会に参加したことがあった。しかし、その二つは一方的な発表形式だった。そのため、今回のインフォーマルな対話形式は初めてでどうやったらよいのか最初はつかみづらかった。しかし、実際にやってみると人の意見を聞きやすく、フォーマルな形よりやりやすく感じた。私の研究はこの学会にはあまり適していないと思っていたが、多くの人が来ては真剣に話を聞いてくれていた。それに加え、たくさんの意見をくれたため、違う視点からも考察できるようになった。これによって、よりよい論文を書いていきたいと思う。また、ほかの学生や教員の発表は私が今まで考えたことのない発表が多く、とても興味深いものがたくさんあった。卒論に関することや、人との関係性、学習方法など多種多様でとても刺激になった。他大学との交流は少なかったため、学生との交流ができてよかったと思う。 Coming to Talk With a Positive Mind挑戦する気持ちを強く学んだCCLT2 Shuhei Yamada, Chuo University山田周平、中央大学I think that motivation is the most important part of this conference. Even if I understand English no matter how much, there is no meaning if not going to talk. Of course, it is bad not to be going to talk English because I can’t speak English well. In the past, I have talked with foreigners. However, I have talked with foreigners when they have asked me how to buy something a train ticket or which train they have to ride. I have tried to talk English. Of course it was in poor English. But, they have tried to understand of my explanation. At that moment, I have understood “I should speak English even if I can’t speak English well." I went to this conference with that mind. And, I thought I had to talk English positively. At time to hear other people's presentations, I was very surprised. Because of most people spoke English very positively. Yes, they were very enthusiastic. Next, I will introduce the contents of my presentation. Students of “Moreau class” tried to keep a “Listening Log.” It is very simple, but slightly serious. We listen 5 English listening resources every week, and summarize it in a note and illustrate by a class. It has raised ability of my listening and talking comprehension. So, we decided to explain it how we accomplished the "growth" in this presentation while throwing in the change of the notebook. At last, the time came that I had to give my presentation. I thought that I have to speak English well. Of course, with very a positive mind. However, I was not able to talk so well. Because of this I could talk with the person I was talking to, but it was not possible for me to talk to other people very much. For the reason, I was scared. To sum up, I am still scared to speak English now. But, this conference and participants told for me that I should talk with courage. It is not good for me to speak English with a shy mind. I can talk positively. I have to challenge myself. Actually, I was able to finish this conference. So, I can talk English with ability of listening and talking from “Listening Log” and have a positive mind from this conference and speaking to foreigners. And, I think that “The most important thing is… never give up." Thank you. Newsletter of the JALT Learner Development SIG <ld-sig.org/>