scholarly journals Developing Song Worksheets for a SALC

2010 ◽  
pp. 129-138
Author(s):  
Simon Cooke
Keyword(s):  
Best Practice ◽  
Materials Design ◽  
Learner Autonomy ◽  
The Self ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Development Team

After receiving the Japanese Ministry of Education’s Best Practice award in 2003, the Self-Access Learning Centre (SALC) at Kanda University of international Studies (KUIS) has continued in its goal of creating materials and resources which aim to engage the learners whilst promoting learner autonomy. The development team has promoted its materials design and philosophy at a number of national and international conferences and in a variety of SLA publications (Kershaw et al., 2010).

scholarly journals Engendering Autonomy and Motivation through Learner Reflection Tasks

2016 ◽  
pp. 129-138
Keyword(s):  
Best Practice ◽  
English Language ◽  
Student Feedback ◽  
The Self ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Authentic Materials ◽  
The Road ◽  
Learning Pathways ◽  
On The Road ◽  
English Language Institute

After receiving the Japanese Ministry of Education’s Best Practice award in 2003, the Self-Access Learning Centre (SALC) at Kanda University of international Studies (KUIS) has continued in its goal of creating materials and resources which aim to engage the learners whilst promoting learner autonomy. The development team has promoted its materials design and philosophy at a number of national and international conferences and in a variety of SLA publications (Kershaw et al., 2010). The team, made up of teachers from the university’s English Language Institute (ELI) are tasked with creating a range of new resources to: a) provide scaffolding/learner training to help learners on the road towards autonomy b) help learners access/use the authentic materials on offer in the SALC c) help learners plan and implement learning pathways d) support the ‘taught’ curriculum of the ELI Following student feedback on using songs and music in the SALC at KUIS, song worksheets were designed, created and successfully added to the materials available to students for self-access study. This article describes the rationale and process of implementing the worksheets in the centre.

scholarly journals Promoting Learner Autonomy and Self-Directed Learning: The Evolution of a SALC Curriculum

2017 ◽  
pp. 169-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jo Mynard ◽  
Rob Stevenson
Keyword(s):  
Learner Autonomy ◽  
Language Learner ◽  
The Self ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Learning Center ◽  
Stages Of Development ◽  
Self Directed Learning ◽  
Directed Learning ◽  
Technical Challenges ◽  
Gradual Approach

If key aims of a SALC are to support learners and promote language learner autonomy, then the curriculum is an important tool in order to ensure that this is being systematically addressed. After explaining the context of the Self-Access Learning Center (SALC) at Kanda University of International Studies in Japan, the authors will briefly describe the self-directed learning curriculum, its evolution, and approaches to its evaluation. The development, implementation, and evaluation of a SALC curriculum is not straightforward as there may be political, financial, and technical challenges. However, with planning, persistence, and a gradual approach, a SALC curriculum can eventually become an integral part of a university program. Although the journey of this particular SALC is far from complete, charting its development so far could provide encouragement for SALC managers elsewhere, whose SALC curriculum may be at different stages of development.

scholarly journals Fostering Learner Autonomy as Agency: An Analysis of Narratives of a Student Staff Member Working at a Self-access Learning Center

2011 ◽  
pp. 268-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atsumi Yamaguchi
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Staff Member ◽  
Learner Autonomy ◽  
The Self ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Learning Center ◽  
Target Community ◽  
Analysis Of Narratives

This study investigates narrative stories of a student staff member working at the Self Access Learning Center (the SALC) at Kanda University of International Studies, Japan in order to discover whether / how her working experiences in the SALC have an impact on her identities especially focusing on her development of learner autonomy as agency. Drawing on four layers of narrative positioning (Wortham & Gadsden, 2006), I will explore: 1) the ways that agency is projected; and 2) how the learner’s involvement in a SALC impacts on her identities. The examination revealed that the learner’s involvement as a student staff member enhanced her agency to access a target community of English in the SALC. Drawing on the Communities of Practice (CoP) framework by Lave & Wenger (1991), I discuss the possibility that gaining voice in the target community might enable a learner to be more autonomous. Finally, this paper addresses the importance of learner involvement in SALCs – not only for the learners involved, but also for other SALC users in order to provide opportunities to activate both agency and autonomy.

scholarly journals A Review of The Plenary Talks on Advising and Self-Directed Learning: Two Important Systems for Learner Autonomy

2021 ◽  
pp. 295-300
Author(s):  
Neslihan Atcan Altan
Keyword(s):  
Interest Group ◽  
Special Interest ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Learner Autonomy ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Self Directed Learning ◽  
Directed Learning ◽  
Education Conference

This paper presents a review of the plenary talks at the Self-Directed Learning and Advising in Language Education Conference, one primarily on advising by Jo Mynard of Kanda University of International Studies and the other on self-directed learning by Lawrie Moore-Walter and Christian Ludwig of IATEFL Learner Autonomy Special Interest Group. It offers a brief overview of both sessions as well as underlining the highlights and the takeaways.

scholarly journals Editorial

Relay Journal ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Keyword(s):  
Best Practice ◽  
Learner Autonomy ◽  
International Studies ◽  
The World ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Research Institute

Welcome to the first issue of Relay Journal which is published by the Research Institute for Learner Autonomy Education (RILAE) at Kanda University of International Studies (KUIS), Japan. We are so pleased to be able to present this new publication to you, specifically established for the purposes of sharing best practice and new ideas in the area of learner autonomy and all related topics. We hope this will become a thriving, supportive and long-lived site for practitioners and researchers around the world. In fact, we hope it will become a community more than anything; a place where we can learn from each other and advance the field, help learners to learn better, teachers to develop new skills and researchers to gain new insights.

scholarly journals Implications of changing from grazed or semi-natural vegetation to forestry for carbon stores and fluxes in upland organo-mineral soils in the UK

2007 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Agricultural Soils ◽  
Relative Magnitude ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Best Practice Guidelines ◽  
Carbon Reservoir ◽  
Mineral Soils ◽  
The Uk

Abstract. In the UK, as organo-mineral soils are a significant store of soil organic carbon (SOC), they may become increasingly favoured for the expansion of upland forestry. It is important, therefore, to assess the likely impacts on SOC of this potentially major land use change. Currently, these assessments rely on modelling approaches which assume that afforestation of organo-mineral soils is "carbon neutral". This review evaluates this assumption in two ways. Firstly, UK information from the direct measurement of SOC change following afforestation is examined in the context of international studies. Secondly, UK data on the magnitude and direction of the major fluxes in the carbon cycle of semi-natural upland ecosystems are assessed to identify the likely responses of the fluxes to afforestation of organo-mineral soils. There are few directly relevant measurements of SOC change following afforestation of organo-mineral soils in the UK uplands but there are related studies on peat lands and agricultural soils. Overall, information on the magnitude and direction of change in SOC with afforestation is inconclusive. Data on the accumulation of litter beneath conifer stands have been identified but the extent to which the carbon held in this pool is incorporated into the stable soil carbon reservoir is uncertain. The effect of afforestation on most carbon fluxes is small because the fluxes are either relatively minor or of the same magnitude and direction irrespective of land use. Compared with undisturbed moorland, particulate organic carbon losses increase throughout the forest cycle but the data are exclusively from plantation conifer forests and in many cases pre-date current industry best practice guidelines which aim to reduce such losses. The biggest uncertainty in flux estimates is the relative magnitude of the sink for atmospheric carbon as trees grow and mature compared with that lost during site preparation and harvesting. Given the size of this flux relative to many of the others, this should be a focus for future carbon research on these systems.

The Implementation of Aspects of Learner Autonomy in Technical English Courses

10.47908/9/9 ◽  
2013 ◽  
pp. 170-178
Author(s):  
Gerhild Janser-Munro ◽  
Tanja Psonder
Keyword(s):  
Learning Styles ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Learner Autonomy ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Individual Autonomy ◽  
Peer Evaluation ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Construction Design

This article reports on two best practice examples which incorporate principles of learner autonomy into two different technical courses in tertiary education. These principles include encouraging active learner involvement, self-reflection and peer evaluation as well as target language use and a focus on individual learning styles. The approach applied has been developed based on real experiences from teaching the General English and Technical English courses as part of the Information Management and Construction Design and Economics Bachelor Degree programmes at the FH Joanneum University of Applied Sciences. The goal of this approach is to move away from frontal teaching and to let students develop their own learning materials, experience the social dimension of peer evaluation and become aware of the importance of addressing the needs of different learner types. Thus, students develop their individual autonomy and at the same time integrate their field-related knowledge with a foreign language.

Foucault’s Care of the Self: A Case from Mental Health Work

2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (11) ◽  
pp. 1485-1504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Randall ◽  
Iain Munro
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
The Self ◽  
Mental Health Workers ◽  
Psychiatric Nurse ◽  
Care Of The Self ◽  
Community Psychiatric ◽  
Everyday Work ◽  
Mental Health Work

This research concerns mental health workers who treat the victims of sexual abuse. The health workers were all part of a forum composed of doctors, counsellors and a community psychiatric nurse, who met to discuss issues of best practice in their everyday work. The research examined how these workers make sense of their work, particularly in terms of how they understand the concept of care and the kinds of knowledge that they use in their work, professional and otherwise. A great deal of scepticism was expressed concerning the traditional medical approaches to caring for the victims of abuse, and as a consequence these practitioners developed pragmatic and exploratory approaches to caring in order to help their clients. Many important similarities exist between the accounts given by the medical and voluntary practitioners of this forum and the insights of Michel Foucault’s genealogical studies of medicine, particularly his analysis of processes of normalization and his later work on the care of the self. This paper provides a re-evaluation of the concept of mental health care in terms of Foucault’s concept of ‘the care of the self’.

scholarly journals Resource Coordination in the Self-Access Learning Center at Kanda University of International Studies for the 2017-2018 Academic Year: Activity, Concept, and Expanding Definitions

Relay Journal ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 178-196
Author(s):  
Curtis Edlin ◽  
Yuri Imamura
Keyword(s):  
Support Staff ◽  
The Self ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Learning Center ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Academic Year ◽  
Resource Coordination

In the 2017-2018 academic year, the Self-Access Learning Center, Kanda University of International Studies moved into a new purpose-built building. This new building has afforded many opportunities to rethink the place of resources in the center, as well as what constitutes resources and how we can facilitate their use. The move has also presented numerous challenges to which advising team and other support staff have had to react rapidly. This report reflects on the tasks and approaches of the two resource coordinators and resource teams for the 2017-2018 academic year. It additionally provides further commentary on our expanding definitions of resources, as well as how they are being approached by resource teams and others, both within the limits of resource coordination and without, and in addition to future directions.

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