{"title":"Chinese-as-a-Foreign-Language Learners’ Use of Self-Regulated Learning in Flipped/Blended Learning Environments – A Descriptive Study","authors":"Shenglan Zhang","doi":"10.37237/100205","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37237/100205","url":null,"abstract":"Self-regulated learning (SRL) is especially important in blended/flipped learning environments. This study explored and described the use of SRL in a specific language learning context. It investigated what problems Chinese-as-a-foreign-language learners (CFL) had with their Chinese language learning, whether and how they solved the problems, what SRL strategies they adopted, and what support they needed to gain the maximum benefits from the blended/flipped learning environment. Nineteen CFL learners who were in their second semester studying Chinese in a blended/flipped environment participated in the descriptive study. Self-reported data were collected using WeChat in an individualized exchange format, which was designed to help with data richness, completeness, and accuracy. The results show that students had different problems in learning, and they would benefit if they had the opportunity to learn and incorporate SRL strategies. The areas in which they needed the most help were knowing how to set a goal, how to create a plan to achieve the goal, and how to use different strategies to manage their learning and manage their time. Implications for teaching are also discussed in this study.","PeriodicalId":43678,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41702809","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Review of JASAL 2018 x SUTLF 5 and a Reflection on “Connection”","authors":"Tomoya Shirakawa","doi":"10.37237/100208","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37237/100208","url":null,"abstract":"This is a short report where I reflect on my experience of attending the JASAL 2018 x SUTLF 5 conference. I joined the conference as a presenter and also a recipient of the student grant provided by the conference organizers. At the end of the paper, I will discuss a potential issue based on my experience which I personally consider important to explore.","PeriodicalId":43678,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43622905","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Space, Place and Autonomy in Language Learning by Garold Murray and Terry Lamb","authors":"S. Cotterall","doi":"10.37237/100207","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37237/100207","url":null,"abstract":"Over the years, I have come to appreciate the publication of each new Garold Murray book for obliging me to engage with innovative ideas in the field. Murray’s most recent collaboration with Terry Lamb is no exception. In this collection, the editors have trained their gaze on space and place – phenomena so very ordinary and ubiquitous that many of us may never have reflected on the role they play in learning. Each of the book’s 15 chapters explores, in very different ways, the processes by which spaces are transformed into places for language learning or teaching. According to Carter, Donald and Squires (1993, ix) – “place is a space to which meaning is ascribed”. Think of your favourite café, the spot in your home you go to when you want to read, or the area in the yoga room where you like to place your mat. According to Murray and Lamb, autonomy is a key element in the process of transforming a space into a place.","PeriodicalId":43678,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49422124","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Introduction","authors":"J. Mynard, Diego Mideros, H. Yamashita","doi":"10.37237/100201","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37237/100201","url":null,"abstract":"Welcome to the June 2019 issue of SiSAL Journal which contains four regular papers and three reviews. Coincidentally, three of four regular papers focus on the roles of learners within self-access centres. In addition, one of the conference reviews is by an undergraduate student (Shirakawa) who presented his research at a self-access conference in Japan. Finally, the book review (Cotterall) is for a volume edited by Murray and Lamb that (among other things) explores how learners appropriate and take ownership of spaces for learning. Our observations from conferences and recent papers, including this issue of SiSAL Journal, indicate that student leadership and learner ownership and empowerment are growing areas of development for self-access. We will continue to observe this aspect of our practice with interest.","PeriodicalId":43678,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49183560","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pamela Sigala Villa, Adelina Ruiz-Guerrero, Laura María Zurutuza Roaro
{"title":"Improving the Praxis of Conversation Club Leaders in a Community of Practice: A Case study in a Self-Access Centre","authors":"Pamela Sigala Villa, Adelina Ruiz-Guerrero, Laura María Zurutuza Roaro","doi":"10.37237/100204","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37237/100204","url":null,"abstract":"The role that a conversation club plays in the improvement of foreign language proficiency of its users in a self-access centre varies according to the strategies a conversation club leader applies. This paper reports the changes made by conversation club leaders (CCLs), who formed a community of practice (CoP) under the methodology of Knowledge Management (KM) to become aware of the effective and non-effective practices they employed through recording themselves, sharing their experiences, listening to each other, and analyzing their performance. A total of six conversation club leaders participated in the case study that took place in 2016. The outcome was a series of strategies generated by the CCLs and shared with all new CCLs in the self-access centre.","PeriodicalId":43678,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45776583","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Review of the JASAL 2018 x SUTLF 5 Conference","authors":"Brandon Bigelow","doi":"10.37237/100206","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37237/100206","url":null,"abstract":"On December 15th, 2018, the JASAL (Japan Association for Self-Access Learning) Conference was held in Kumamoto, Japan. Befitting the event’s theme of Making Connections, the conference was jointly hosted by JASAL and SUTLF (Sojo University Teaching and Learning Forum), the flagship event of the NanKyu Chapter of JALT (Japan Association for Language Teaching) at the recently renovated Sojo University. In this article, the organization of the conference is briefly introduced followed by a description of the plenary speaker’s presentation. Additionally, six of the conference’s presentations are summarized, and at the end of the article is a conclusion with the author’s final thoughts.","PeriodicalId":43678,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46761087","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"In-Training Advising Sessions for New Peer Advisors: Impacts and Benefits","authors":"Stephanie Lea Howard","doi":"10.37237/100203","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37237/100203","url":null,"abstract":"This paper will describe the impact a series of advising sessions had on two university students being trained as peer advisors during the first half of a peer advising training course conducted at a self-access center in the Republic of Turkey. The author provides the rationale for developing the peer tutoring program, the selection procedure, and aspects of the training course. The paper will then focus on the learner development that occurred as a result of the trainees experiencing three advising sessions. The paper explores key training experiences, including insights and observations made by the trainer and trainees to illustrate how the development of the peer advisors was affected.","PeriodicalId":43678,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70054986","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Peer-Led Activities at a Self-Access Center in Brazil","authors":"Mariana Maués Barreto","doi":"10.37237/100202","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37237/100202","url":null,"abstract":"A Self-Access Center (SAC) is intended to foster autonomy in the process of learning an additional language. Activities facilitated by students are an excellent alternative for students as they increase their teaching skills and confidence as speakers of their additional language. This qualitative study reports on the experience of two learners who led activities at the Autonomous Learning Support Base (ALSB), a SAC located at the Federal University of Pará in the Brazilian Amazon. The survey application, as well as the interviews conducted with both facilitators, encouraged them to reflect on their roles as SAC facilitators and helped them to overcome inner difficulties and insecurities.","PeriodicalId":43678,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2019-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49100442","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Exploring Facilitative and Debilitative Spaces: A Shift in Focus from Classrooms to Learning Systems","authors":"N. Thomas","doi":"10.37237/100108","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37237/100108","url":null,"abstract":"Physical classrooms are often overlooked in educational research. While teachers, students, materials, and methodologies have all been the foci of studies for many years, research into the spaces in which instructed second language acquisition takes place is, for the most part, absent in the literature. In Thomas (2018a, 2018b), I argued that exploring these spaces and the affordances they provide is a necessary endeavor if we are to offer a holistic view of learning. It should be noted that my discussion of learning spaces refers to formal education settings—classrooms—and not self-access centers. However, I believe that relevant work in the field of self-access learning can indeed inform classroom design in instructed settings. Therefore, I use this work to support my discussion. As a work-in-progress report, this short paper will first describe my work up until this point, and second, explain how my ideas about learning spaces have transformed over time. I will discuss a new direction in which this and other studies may take. This new direction involves viewing classroom spaces as complex language learning systems and harnessing successful strategies students use within these systems to allow learning to take place. This focus on learning spaces as complete systems, as opposed to just their physical characteristics, has implications for how students can be better prepared to learn beyond the classroom.","PeriodicalId":43678,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2019-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43976735","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Chinese Language Learner Motivation: Vision, Socialization and Progression","authors":"Junqing Jia","doi":"10.37237/100104","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.37237/100104","url":null,"abstract":"Echoing Dörnyei and his colleagues’ conceptual discussion of the “L2 Motivational Self System” (Dörnyei 2005, 2009; Muir & Dörnyei, 2013), this paper introduces case studies that examine how vision relates to the long-term motivation of learners of Chinese. The findings indicate: first, the social roles learners expect to play and visualize could affect their learning behaviors and what they consider as motivating learning experiences. Second, it is through meaningful socialization that learners construct and reinforce their motivation to learn. Last, learners’ vision is closely connected with socialization and sense of progression. With a well-established learning mechanism (vision, socialization and progression), learners constantly adjust their expectations, visualize the successful second culture (C2) selves, monitor their own progress, and evaluate their assumptions by interacting with native speakers of the target culture.","PeriodicalId":43678,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2019-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45267765","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}