[ LLL SIG Website ][ LLL SIG Publications ][ This Issue's Contents ]
Volume 6, Issue 2 [October, 2010]
LLL at the Pan-SIG Conference 2010
Osaka Gakuin University
The 9th annual Pan-SIG conference, organized by the Kyoto Chapter with the support of the Osaka Chapter, was held May 22 and 23, 2010, at Osaka Gakuin University with 13 participating SIGs, two plenary speakers and a featured speaker. The LLL SIG sponsored a full slate of presenters and one workshop. Below are brief descriptions of each presentation and the workshop. A more detailed description of the workshop, The Contrast Culture Method Examines a Teacher-Student Conference, can be found in this issue of the newsletter.
Video Journals and the development of self-assessment skills
Colin Skeates, Seisen University
Merging many aspects of diary writing and presentation making, video journals (VJs) provide learners with a powerful platform from which to communicate their stories. This presentation concerns how changes to VJ implementation have lead to a greater usage of reflection activities that have in turn been recycled as data for student essays on learning. An initial rational for implementing VJs and why, from a theoretical perspective, they can serve as a powerful additive to any language curriculum will be discussed. This will be followed by the viewing of several entries. Next, a highlight of changes that have been implemented over a 6 year period will be covered. The creation of scaffolding to further reflection will be emphasized. In conclusion, a discussion will be encouraged on the advantages and disadvantages to life-long learning of students telling their stories through VJs.
Information literacy: A skill for lifelong learning
Susan Gilfert, Kwansei Gakuin University
Information, both good and bad, can be found anywhere. But where can a student find reliable information? The library, of course. But the library is more than that large forbidding building full of books. Most librarians are delighted to show all library patrons how and where to find information in a library, either in print or electronically. By teaming with a librarian, a faculty member can take his/her students to resources hitherto unknown. Teaching students information literacy, in tandem with any research assignment, will improve the quality of the resulting research paper. From the student perspective, the library becomes a treasure chest. Learning to do good quality research work is vital to a successful academic life. Learning how and where to seek good-quality information is a skill students can take from university for the rest of their lives. This work in progress provides attendees with a model information-literacy paradigm.
Enabling lifelong language learning: A case study perspective
Greg Rouault , Konan University
Consideration of recounts from experience recorded in learner narratives is more commonly shaping the profile of teaching and learning decisions. However, accessing such historical perspectives is often overlooked by learners studying independently. This presentation introduces a case study in lifelong learning from the joint perspective of the learner and instructor as advisor. Successful learner practices from the literature in foreign language learning are reviewed briefly. Participants are introduced to a learner who discusses her profile in studying English. A roundtable interview covers questions and answers from the instructor and student on independent study issues such as needs assessment, enabling learners, and setting goals. Quotations are drawn from the student’s learning history, and current projects, including technological applications, are presented as part of ongoing learning initiatives. Resources for self-directed, lifelong learners and teachers working with autonomous practices are covered in a format designed to enhance audience interaction and maximize potential takeaways.
The ability of a deaf Japanese university student to learn English through
lip reading
Jeremy White, Ritsumeikan University
The ability to learn English as an L2 in Japan is usually reserved for the able bodied with an above average motivation level. This however need not be the situation. One deaf Japanese university student has gone against the norm and refused to be labeled or accept this stereotype. Because she is deaf and unwilling to use sign language in her L1, she was not given the opportunity to learn English as an L2 during her primary and secondary education. This student after entering university worked closely with teachers to learn how to lip-read and communicative effectively in spoken English. Through lip-reading and a desire to learn this student was able to become a “normal” member of university English classes, taking listening tests, TOEIC tests, and participating in an American university foreign exchange program for several months. This presentation will follow her progress to date and look at her future using English in the workplace.
Teaching corrective feedback to second language learners: A way to accelerate
proceduralization
Masatoshi Sato, McGill University
The present study investigates the effectiveness of corrective feedback in a peer interaction context by explicitly teaching learners how to provide feedback to each other. Development in accuracy and fluency in oral production and the feasibility of such instruction in classroom dynamics will be examined. Four university-level English classes will either (a) receive feedback instruction (recasts or prompts) and engage in communicative activities, (b) engage in the activities only, or (c) serve as the control group. Development will be measured by monologue and dialogue tasks. Questionnaires designed to investigate learners' perceptions toward peer interaction and corrective feedback will be administered before and after the intervention. Classroom observations will be conducted throughout the experimental period and selected students will be interviewed after the intervention. In addition to the theoretical and methodological frameworks, preliminary findings will be reported in the presentation, including (a) test results, (b) questionnaire results, and (c) observational data.
Japanese university students' assessments of the efficacy of various methods
for out-of-class learning
Michael Parrish, Ritsumeikan University
This study seeks to measure student awareness of ways to learn English outside of the classroom and their opinions of the usefulness of these methods. First, students completed an open-ended reflective questionnaire regarding the methods they thought were good or bad to study English outside of the classroom. They were then asked to rate an additional list of methods, based on student responses from Doyle (2008), using a Likert-item instrument. One goal was to find out which methods students preferred for self-study, and in particular if they were aware of available electronic, on-line, or self-access learning methods. A second goal was to discover whether they rated learning from fellow students or other non-native speakers of English as a valuable method for language learning. Results would be helpful in informing decisions about the kinds of support instructors, self-access tutors and planners might provide according to students' preferred learning styles and the extent to which they could be exposed to alternative self-access learning opportunities in order to encourage and facilitate lifetime English learning.
Is autonomy an effective theory for all levels of students?
Bruce Lander, Matsuyama University
Research so far suggests that those who study a language because they have to, are not as autonomy-conscious as those who do it of their own free will, (Noels, Clement and Pelletier, 1999). This indicates a gap in the research of autonomy, suggesting that only students who have initial interests in English can become autonomous learners. This gives rise to the question; can traditionally unmotivated students become autonomous learners with the correct support and guidance? Rather than focusing on the attributes that autonomy has on the motivated learner, this paper will attempt to prove autonomy is a valid theory in students of all abilities. If students are supported in a way that can adopt self-confidence, self-learning and independence in the form of valuable projects and goals to aim towards, every student has the potential of becoming an autonomous learner.
The contrast culture method: When teachers and students hold divergent
views
Donna Fujimoto, Osaka Jogakuin College; Darren Elliott, Nanzan University;
Salem Hicks, Kyoto Women's University; Shoichi Miyamura, OTC Co.; Anthony
C. Ogden, CET Academic Programs, Osaka Gakuin University: Naoko OKA, McGregor
School of Antioch University; Craig Smith, Kyoto University of Foreign
Studies; Noriko Tanaka, office POSITIVE; Michiko Tomioka, Ryukoku University
The Contrast Culture Method (CCM) is a Special Interest Group of SIETAR Japan (Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research). This group was formed in 1999, and its members further the work of Dr. Edward Stewart, the method's founder. CCM is an intercultural training approach, which had its origins in the 1960s. The group has given numerous workshops and presentations at international and national conferences over the past decade. In this workshop the focus is on problems which can occur when student views do not match with those of their teachers. An underlying assumption is that learning is obstructed when the two parties hold divergent views and expectations. The basic concepts of CCM will be introduced, and participants will be welcomed to engage in this unique experiential approach. The main goal of this workshop is to help raise the awareness of both teachers and learners when they work together.
* Please note that the above descriptions were originally published in the Pan-SIG conference handbook