Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal, 4(4)

SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 227-235 !

Contents: Volume 4, Number 4, December 2013 Edited by Carol J. Everhard •

Editorial by Carol J. Everhard (227-235)

Featured Articles

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The Management Skills of SALL Managers by David Gardner and Lindsay Miller (236-252)

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Looking Out for English by Brian Tomlinson (253-261)!

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Accessing the Self in Self-Access Learning: Emotions and Feelings in Language Advising by Maria Giovanna Tassinari and Maud Ciekanski (262280)!

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Davids Still Exist among Goliaths: A Story of Modest Self-Access Centre Establishment and Survival in Times of Economic Decline!

by Salomi Papadima-Sophocleous (281-294)

Research Articles •

An Autoethnographic Study of the Use of Mobile Devices to Support Foreign Language Vocabulary Learning by Mark Osborne (295-307)

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Giving Speaking Practice in Self-Access Mode a Chance by Kerstin Dofs (308-322)

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Foundation-level Gulf Arab Student Response to Self-Access Learning by Diane Malcolm and Mohamed Majed (323-338)

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Medics on the Move South Africa: Access to Medical Words by Kris Van de Poel, Christine Fourie and Karen Seberechts (339-352)

Regular Column (Edited by Katherine Thornton) •

Principles: Establishing the Foundation for a Self-Access Curriculum

by Elizabeth Lammons (353-366)

Work in Progress •

Promoting Independent Language Learning Cross-Campus at the University of Leeds through a Self-Access Area by Carolin Schneider (367-371)

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Editorial Carol J. Everhard, (Formerly) School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece Accessing and Accessorising for Self-Access Language Learning As Guest Editor for this special issue of SiSAL, in which the themes are accessing and accessorising for self-access language learning (SALL), it gives me great pleasure to welcome readers, old and new, whether veterans in the field of SALL, or relative novices.

While any journal editor is both facilitated and limited by the range and quality of submissions that are received for a special issue such as this one, my hope from the outset was to be able to bring together a collection in which the various strands and threads of knowledge and experience related to self-access which writers had to offer would weave together to create a web of fabric which would be varied, colourful and aesthetically pleasing and, at the same time, interesting and intellectually satisfying.

My desire for an issue which would genuinely add to our knowledge of self-access, which would highlight some key but neglected SALL areas, and which would be suitably globally representative and geographically diverse in relation to SALL activity, may even have been surpassed.

In the December 2012 issue of SiSAL Journal, edited by Heath Rose, in my featured article, I suggested that it was time to re-think the meaning of the term self-access and of how it is placed in relation to strategic learning and autonomy in language learning (Everhard, 2012). To this end, I talked about the many misconceptions that exist in relation to self-access language learning and offered a historically-based explanation as to why they have arisen. These misconceptions have to some extent been aided and abetted by the ‘mysteries’ which still surround autonomy and the practices which promote it, although, thankfully, we have the likes of Little (1997; 2013) who continues to further our understanding of autonomy and its relationship with self-access. Although cooperation, interdependence and relatedness are nowadays considered to be the key issues for autonomy, to be able to ‘nurture…its unfolding’ (Noels, 2009, p. 302), like Riley (1997, p. 116) and Little (1997, p. 36), I continue to insist that ‘access to self’ is the essential ingredient in the autonomy - self-access mix (Everhard, 2012, pp. 379-380) and this has been my guiding principle in the selecting and arranging of submissions.

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Featured articles I have selected no less than four articles to be featured in this issue. This is not to say that all the submissions were not unique and special in their own way and worthy of prominence, but, rather, these four were spotlighted because they focus on ‘access to self’ in relation to managers, teachers, advisers and learners and the feelings, knowledge, expertise, resourcefulness and resilience which each must draw upon if self-access language learning (SALL) is to succeed, survive and, indeed, be recognised as the science that it is. Recently there has been some debate about self-access and whether, because of technological progress, its end is nigh (Little, 2013; Mynard, 2012; Reinders, 2012). This issue of SiSAL is testament to the fact that ‘self-access’ is alive and kicking and that our aim as teachers, advisers, managers, materials producers and technologists should be not just to ensure the availability of resources to facilitate autonomy and the autonomous learning process, but to ensure that a proper “equilibrium” is maintained between “inner” and “external”, between “human” and “material”, between “cognitive” and “affective” and between “individual” and “social” resources (Allwright, 1990, cited in Everhard, 2012, p. 380). Murray (2009) recognises the difficulties of providing appropriate tools and scaffolding for learners without denying them “opportunities for cognitive growth” (p. 138), while Pang (1994, p. 35) stresses the need to focus on the learners rather than self-access resources as a “physical” entity. All of the featured articles highlight these important points.

In the first featured article, in their usual thorough style, David Gardner and Lindsay Miller draw upon a larger research study they have conducted in Hong Kong, to throw some light on self-access management. They begin by considering the qualities that SALL managers have in common with managers in the traditional sense and then by honing in on six of the original eight SALL managers involved in their study, they establish which skills these managers believe either they or their staff members are able to ‘access’ in order to do their jobs effectively. Gardner and Miller manage to elicit for us through these six SALL managers the skills which are deemed to be essential for their operations to run effectively, and how much can be achieved by ‘access to self’ and ‘access to suitablyqualified others’ with regard to SALL management. The researchers emphasise the importance of SALL management as a Community of Practice (Wenger, 1998), since there seem to be no suitable courses which potential or upcoming managers can take in order to prepare themselves, and much of the knowledge required is gained on the job, making the need for apprenticeship opportunities within the Community of Practice of SALL management a clear necessity (Lave & Wenger, 1991).

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As our second featured article, we are very fortunate to have obtained permission from editor Freda Mishan to reproduce an article by Brian Tomlinson, which will appear in Vol. 16, Issue 1 of Folio, the newsletter of MATSDA, in January 2014. I say ‘fortunate’ because Tomlinson is not in any way restricted by time or place and his ideas emerge from his global experiences as a teacher, teacher-trainer, researcher and materials writer. In this article, Tomlinson, in his own inimitable style, offers an abundance of ideas for activities for teachers and for learners which are, first of all, easily accessible, which are culturally very familiar to learners, are activities which are creative, productive and personally meaningful and involve access to the self and access, engagement and involvement with others. Like Dam (2013), Tomlinson recommends working beyond a coursebook and his suggested activities not only throw light on ways of working towards autonomy, but give a whole new meaning to self-access language learning as it is the learners who create course content through process (Legenhausen, 2013).

In the third featured article, Giovanna Tassinari and Maud Ciekanski remind us of the importance of being able to recognise affective factors in language learning and in language advising. Armed with the awareness and the ability to recognise both positive and negative feelings and emotions, which can act either as an affordance or barrier to learning, the teacher or adviser can recognise affective signals as they arise in a dialogue and can learn to react appropriately and advise accordingly. The researchers offer examples and sample speech categorisations from their ongoing research conducted in France and Germany. As with the Gardner & Miller and Tomlinson articles, we are given examples of access to self and access to others and how this can be exploited to good effect in a self-directed learning and SALL situation.

The fourth article, by Salomi Papadima-Sophocleous, a relative novice to autonomy and the applications and implications of SALL, is included as a useful documentary of the problems involved not just in creating a modest self-access resource, but establishing it as a start-up enterprise in a newly-founded institution of higher education in Cyprus, where normally it would grow and evolve with the institution in line with the needs and demands of its users. Instead, in this case, the resource becomes ensnared within a maelstrom of economic stringency and cutbacks and as is the fate of many SALL resources which we rarely see reported, becomes labelled as an ‘endangered’ species even before it has had time to justify its existence and prove its worth. As one who has personal experience of organizing SALL resources which depend for their existence on cast-offs, begging, borrowing, volunteering and good-will, I can appreciate and identify with Papadima-Sophocleous’s 230

SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 227-235 ! resolution still to establish a professional and well-thought-through service and her determination not to stint on quality despite all the odds militating against it. While longerestablished and more affluent SALL facilities can usually survive the tribulations resulting from sudden re-chanelling or withdrawal of funding and cuts to staffing or their reassignment to other duties, perhaps it is time for us to listen to accounts of the sometimes heroic efforts of those involved (Reinders, 2012) and to see it as our duty, as linguists, to ensure that such accounts are recorded. In this particular instance, we read of the author’s resolve to provide much-needed scaffolding in the form of learning pathways for a diverse language-learning community, despite the prevailing climate of financial and economic uncertainty.

Research articles In the four remaining research articles, we also hear of the practicalities of working in self-access mode, first of all with Mark Osborne who uses himself as the subject on whom he conducts research related to using a mobile app to learn Italian vocabulary. This autoethnographic study provides both Osborne and ourselves with interesting revelations, not only from the points-of-view of teacher, learner, materials designer and technologist, but at one and the same time as provider, receiver and analyst of research data. As self-access moves further beyond the ‘walled garden’ to the ‘public park’, described by Reinders (2012), I believe we will see many more such studies.

We then move on to a more conventional SALL higher education setting, described for us by Kerstin Dofs, and one which brings with it the perennial problem of how to provide for much-needed speaking activities, and do everything possible to encourage hesitant and inhibited foreign-language learners to produce noise, without this in any way disadvantaging or being to the detriment of other SALL facility users. The published materials which are used for speaking skills practice are identified and analysed in detail and useful information is provided about how a bridge is created between the classroom and the facility, with ‘access to others’, namely teachers, SALL facilitators and peers, helping learners to identify useful ‘external’ resources and learning ‘accessories’ and enabling them to find the necessary ‘equilibrium’ between these ‘external’ factors and their ‘inner’ resources. Students become motivated and make good progress both as learners and as members of the learning community and even find the confidence required to enter the community beyond.

Diane Malcolm and Mohamed Majed also provide a useful account of how through skilful facilitation from staff and also from peers, a SALL resource can become meaningful 231

SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 227-235 ! and relevant to its users, who in this case are foundation-level medical students, who are taught through the medium of English. Although troubled by the quandary of whether making self-access compulsory is actually working against the principles of autonomy, paradoxically it seems to have the desired effect, with learners gradually taking on ownership of their learning, of the target language and of the English Development Centre (EDC) and of all the human and material resources placed at their disposal. Awards for taking responsibility for learning and for taking initiatives within the EDC seem to have positive results with students and encourage learners to make full use of the facilities to bring their level of English up to the required standard.

Medical students are also featured in the article describing research in progress by Kris Van de Poel, Christine Fourie and Karen Seberechts. The case described is that of South African students who have received their medical education in Spanish-speaking Cuba, and who then have to be able to function as medical practitioners in an environment where the official languages in use are English and Afrikaans, where the whole approach to medical care is different, and where there can be significant differences in the kind of medical equipment in use. While these students have access to on-line electronic medical dictionaries and a vast array of other resources, a more primitive and low-tech tool, in the form of a pocket-size paper multilingual illustrated dictionary, which the students themselves help to build and expand on has been found to work to good effect. Students can constantly add to this resource with words and phrases from other African languages, drawings and illustrations, as the need arises, providing them with a tool which is essential not only to the success of their livelihood and professionalism, but is also essential to the well-being of their patients – a self-access accessory that doctors in their situation cannot afford to be without.

Regular column The regular column edited by Katherine Thornton, which is unrelated to the special issue themes, is provided by Elizabeth Lammons who gives the latest installment of the evolving story of how the whole team of language advisers at the Self-Access Learning Centre (SALC) at Kanda University of International Studies, Japan were involved in the devising and revamping of their curriculum for SALC Freshmen, with a view to making it more relevant to student needs and therefore more sustainable. The three categories of principles on which the curriculum are based are 1) Format and presentation; 2) Content and sequencing and 3) Assessment. At the core of the curriculum, advisers see an understanding

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 227-235 ! of 1) Socio-affective, 2) Cognitive, 3) Metacognitive and 4) Self-management skills as being essential elements for students.

Work in progress This special issue concludes with a work-in-progress report provided by someone who is something of a rare species in the world of self-access language learning management in that she is a chartered librarian as well as an accomplished language learner. In her report, Carolin Schneider describes the ways in which a self-access area within a U.K. academic community aims to offer an all-inclusive service, by providing on-line, electronic, paper, multi-media and human resources, whether peers, teachers, advisers, volunteer assistants or volunteer language experts, all of which and all of whom aim to help the language learners achieve their learning goals. The services are constantly reviewed and upgraded to ensure that the best resources possible are made available and that everyone is kept up-to-date and informed of initiatives within the university and beyond which can help promote knowledge of the target foreign language, its literature and culture.

This seems an appropriate juncture at which to bring this editorial to an end and to let the authors and you, the readers, take over and interact. I hope you will find reading these submissions as personally rewarding as I have done.

Acknowledgements This special issue would not have materialised without the aid and assistance of a very large group of people. My thanks go to Jo Mynard for allowing me to select and pursue the themes for this special issue and for giving me a completely free reign with regard to selection and arrangement of the contributions. She has been a real guiding star and her excellent organizational skills, professionalism and editorial expertise made the process of guest editing altogether smooth and hitch-free. Thanks also go to her and her team for advertising the issue and ensuring that it was widely- and well-publicised. I am extremely indebted to all those who submitted, to the extent that this issue was over-subscribed and regrettably three articles had to be held over for inclusion in future issues. My particular thanks go to David Gardner, Lindsay Miller, Mark Osborne and Diane Malcolm who participated in the blind peer review process and freely gave of their knowledge, expertise and detailed, useful advice. In addition, despite their heavy workloads and professional commitments, Edith Esch, Garold Murray, Richard Cauldwell, Jonathon Marks, Ilse BornLechleitner and Ruth Wilkinson also willingly gave of their time and assistance with reviewing when called upon and I thank them all most sincerely. Responsibility for any 233

SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 227-235 ! errors or omissions rests solely with me, the Guest Editor, and I apologise for any mishaps or oversights.

Notes on the contributor Carol Everhard was formerly a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, School of English (SOE), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh), from where she graduated with a PhD in 2012 on the subject of autonomy in language learning. Although primarily a language teacher, for most of her adult life she has been involved in resources management and first became interested in self-access in 1983, later taking on responsibility for modest self-access centres at the former Direct Teaching Operation of the British Council in Thessaloniki, Greece and then in the School of English, AUTh. For many years she taught an undergraduate course on self-access language learning in the SOE and was also involved in graduate teacher-training courses. She was Coordinator of the IATEFL Learner Autonomy SIG between 2006-2008 and she continues to be a very active member and promoter of the LASIG. Together with Jo Mynard and Richard Smith, she ‘engineered’ the first IATEFL LASIG e-book, published in 2011 and came to be proudly known as ‘The Woman with the Worms’.

References Allwright, D. (1990). Autonomy in language pedagogy: CRILE Working Paper, 6.

Lancaster, UK: University of Lancaster.

Dam, L. (2013, September). Developing language learner autonomy with a coursebook – how is it possible? Paper presented at the IATEFL LASIG International Conference, Hannover, Germany.

Everhard, C. J. (2012). Re-placing the jewel in the crown of autonomy: A revisiting of the ‘self’ or ‘selves’ in self-access. SiSAL Journal 3(4), 377-391. Retrieved from http://sisaljournal.org/archives/dec12/everhard/ Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation.

Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Legenhausen, L. (2013, September). Learner autonomy as a response to the challenges of educational inclusion. Paper presented at the IATEFL LASIG International Conference, Hannover, Germany.

Little, D. (1997). Autonomy and self-access in second language learning: Some fundamental issues in theory and practice. In M. Müller-Verweyen, (Ed.), Neues Lernen – Selbstgesteuert – Autonom (pp. 33-44). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

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Little, D. (2013). Language learner autonomy as agency and discourse: The challenge to learning technologies. Independence, Newsletter of the IATEFL Learner Autonomy Special Interest Group, 59, 13-15.

Murray, G. (2009). Self-access language learning: Structure, control, and responsibility. In F. Kjisik, P. Voller, N. Aoki, & Y. Nakata (Eds.), Mapping the terrain of learner autonomy: Learning environments, learning communities and identities (pp. 118142). Tampere, Finland: Tampere University Press.

Mynard, J. (2012). Does ‘self-access’ still have life in it?: A response to Reinders.

Retrieved from http://blog.nus.edu.sg/eltwo/2012/06/13/does-‘self-access’-stillhave-life-in-it-a-response-to-reinders-2012/ Noels, K. A. (2009). The internalisation of language learning into the self and social identity. In Z. Dörnyei & E. Ushioda (Eds.), Motivation, language identity and the L2 self (pp. 295-313). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

Pang, T. T. T. (1994). A self-directed project: A critical humanistic approach to selfaccess. In D. Gardner & L. Miller (Eds.), Directions in self-access language learning (pp. 29-38). Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

Reinders, H. (2012). The end of self-access?: From walled garden to public park.

Retrieved from http://blog.nus.edu.sg/eltwo/2012/06/13/the-end-of-self-accessfrom-walled-garden-to-public-park/ Riley, P. (1997). The guru and the conjurer: Aspects of counselling for self-access. In P. Benson & P. Voller (Eds.), Autonomy and independence in language learning (pp.

114-131). London, UK: Longman.

Rose, H. (Ed.). (2012). Special issue on strategies and self-regulation in self-access learning. Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal 3(4). Retrieved from http://sisaljournal.org/archives/dec12/ Tomlinson, B. (forthcoming). Looking out for English. Folio, 16(1).

Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity.

Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

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The Management Skills of SALL Managers David Gardner, The Centre for Applied English Studies, The University of Hong Kong Lindsay Miller, The English Department, City University of Hong Kong Abstract This paper looks at the management skills of SALL managers. It is based on data collected using quantitative and qualitative instruments with six SALL managers in tertiary contexts in Hong Kong. With reference to the literature in the field of management, the paper reviews the data in terms of identifiable management skills. This provides a picture of the skills possessed by these managers and also identifies gaps in their skill-sets. The paper provides a checklist of skills relevant to SALL management which individual managers may find useful, and also discusses the 4 key management areas of leadership, scope, expectations and evaluation.

Keywords: self-access management, training, management skills, leadership, managing expectations, managing evaluation Background Self-Access Language Learning (SALL) has grown and matured into a respectable sub-section of the field of applied linguistics and there is evidence that the number of selfaccess facilities continues to grow (see Gardner and Miller, 2011 for a summary). Given the financial, human and material resources invested in SALL, it is surprising that so little attention has been paid, in the literature, to its management. Management is relevant to SALL at all levels, and in all its variety, from large dedicated self-access centres to smaller implementations in the classroom.

While the general literature on management is extensive, it predominantly deals with management at higher levels, especially in the educational sector. The management of SALL, however, tends to meet the criteria of middle management, and, unfortunately, the literature dealing with middle management is considerably less rich (Busher, Hammersley-Fletcher & Turner, 2007), is less often research-based (Briggs, 2005) and tends to be practical. In a study of tertiary level self-access centres, Gardner and Miller (1997) define the managers they looked at as middle managers because of their liaison functions of maintaining a flow of information between departmental managers and their staff. Briggs (2005) also refers to this liaison role of middle managers in a tertiary setting, while, interestingly, Bennett, Woods, Wise, and Newton (2007) found that secondary school middle leaders manage through interpersonal relationships and collegiality rather than through monitoring. Within educational contexts, middle managers seem to straddle the communities of practice of their departments and those of senior management (Busher et al., 2007). In another study, Gardner and Miller (2013) identify a well-established community of practice amongst SALL "#$! ! !

SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 236-252 practitioners to which SALL managers belong, but they also note a young and emerging community of practice consisting uniquely of SALL managers. Such evidence seems to suggest that the role of the SALL manager is now more clearly defined and is distinct from other roles related to SALL, raising questions with regard to the type of training required for SALL management.

The Role of a SALL Manager To identify the training needs of SALL managers, it is important to understand the skills that they need to access and the role that they perform. This paper examines four key areas of this role: leadership, scope, expectations and evaluation. The importance of these areas emerges from the general management literature (with regard to leadership) and from the SALL literature (with regard to scope, expectations and evaluations).

Leadership and its relationship to management is discussed at length in the literature, but this paper will adhere to the traditional view that managers tend to maintain the status quo and hold their authority by virtue of rank, whereas leaders bring about change and gain authority from respect for their vision (for a fuller discussion on these issues see, among others, Bush, 2011; Jameson & McNay, 2007). Both leadership and management (in the above-mentioned traditional sense) are important parts of what we will hereafter refer to globally as ‘management’.

The scope of a SALL manager’s purview is increasingly wide and variable, and may encompass self-access centres, virtual SALL and SALL within taught courses. This may result in broad and potentially overlapping duties (see Table 1 for a view of the potential duties of a SALL manager).

Table 1. The Potential Duties of a SALL Manager (after Gardner, 2011, p. 187) 1. Maintain a physical location which serves at least part of their user-group 2. Maintain virtual locations which serve their “home” user-group and another less clearly defined user-group 3. Direct (and sometimes connect) users to virtual locations maintained by other organisations 4. Serve: independent users; course-related users; and possibly users who fall into both groups 5. Provide: materials; technology; activities 6. Offer learners: advice, guidance, help, support 7. Integrate with a world-wide web of learning resources

!" Integrate with locally taught courses#

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 236-252 Managing the expectations of stakeholders (students, teachers, heads of departments and senior management) can be a large part of a SALL manager’s role because SALL may not be within the stakeholders’ past experience. This requires the building of face validity (Toogood & Pemberton, 2002) and user confidence (Young, Hafner, & Fisher, 2007), demonstrating effectiveness (Gardner, 2002), recognising teacher-expertise where it exists (Morrison, 2008; Mozzon-McPherson, 2000) and where it does not exist, providing support (Lai, 2011; Lai, Gardner, & Law, 2013).

Managing the evaluation of SALL is a way of monitoring progress, demonstrating success and concomitantly securing, justifying and maintaining funding (Gardner & Miller, 1999; Morrison, 2008), but it is complex (Morrison, 1999; 2006). Nevertheless, from the relatively small amount of discussion in the literature, and from the even less data-based research available, it is possible to identify some specific common areas (see Table 2) concerning the SALL manager’s role.

Managers’ Training Needs Examination of the business and educational management literature shows the importance given to management and the emphasis placed on management training.

Surprisingly, however, there seem to be no specific training opportunities available for SALL managers, nor is there much attention paid in the literature to the need for it. Gardner and Miller (1999) suggest the following ten areas in which SALL managers could benefit from training: managing systems, institutional procedures, financial, appraisal, counselling, evaluation, staff development, negotiation skills, planning, and public relations. While it is clear from the literature (summarised in Table 2 below) that these areas are important for the effective performance of the role of the SALL manager; nevertheless, they remain largely unaddressed. It is for this reason that these areas of potential management training were investigated in the study reported here. The collecting of data directly from SALL managers makes it possible to ascertain the degree to which there is a gap in their training needs.

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 236-252

Gardner & Miller (1997)

Gardner & Miller (1999)

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Facilities (organise/utilise)

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Staff (manage/train/appraise)

!

!

!

!

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Learners (manage/support/train/ advise/monitor/assess)

!

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Learning environment (physical/virtual/comfort/safety)

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Evaluation (systems/materials/staff) Integration with teaching (in-class/out-ofclass/monitoring/support) !

Innovation/change (development/research)

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Financial management (funding/budget/reporting)

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Liaison (departmental/institutional/policy-making)

Mozzon-McPherson (2007)

Gardner (2011)

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Morrison (2008)

Dofs & Hobbs (2011)

Resources (procure/manage/maintain)

Kodate (2012)

Areas:

CIEL (2000)

Table 2. Areas for which SALL Managers May be Responsible

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Methodology The research data, on which this paper reports, were collected using questionnaires, checklists and interviews, from six SALL managers in tertiary contexts in Hong Kong. The data contributed to individual case studies of each manager. The research originally targeted the eight main tertiary institutions in Hong Kong, but the data from two of them were incomplete and are thus not used in this paper.!The data presented here focus on one main area of what was a larger project looking at various aspects of SALL management. Fuller information about the whole project is reported elsewhere (Gardner & Miller, 2011; 2013). !

Although the six participants were clearly identifiable to us as ‘managers’, they were not all identified with this title within their institutions (see Table 3). The self-access centres which these managers were responsible for were often housed within larger academic units (usually Language Centres) and all the managers had additional roles to play within their centres such as, teaching, course-development, and administration. "#$! ! !

SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 236-252 The procedure followed to collect the data relevant to this paper was as follows: Step 1: Step 2: Step 3: Step 4: Step 5: Step 6:

Step 7:

We contacted SALL managers to ask them to participate in a research project into managing SALL. All managers agreed to participate.

We conducted a literature review to ensure we were aware of issues involved in management in general and educational management in particular.

We conducted an open-ended pilot interview with someone who used to manage a self-access centre in a Hong Kong university.

We used our literature review and pilot interview to develop a questionnaire related to the main issues about managing SALL. We sent the questionnaire electronically to each manager with a request to complete and return it to us at their convenience.

We reviewed the completed questionnaires to identify key issues and areas of concern. These fell into general areas relating to all managers and specific issues relating to the individual. We constructed checklists for the former and identified key questions for the latter.

We interviewed each SALL manager using our review of their questionnaire responses as a starting point for discussion. During the interviews we also used the checklists to gather further data on general issues. All the interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed.

The data reported in this paper come mostly from Step 5 and Step 7 of the above

procedure. Step 6 was an important part of the procedure because it allowed us to individualise the interviews (Step 7) on the basis of managers’ earlier questionnaire responses (Step 5) but also to pursue topics relating to all managers. One area of interest we pursued with all managers was that of management skills. We looked for any experience they might have in management before taking on the role as SALL manager, and what types of skills they felt they had needed to develop in order to do their jobs effectively. We also asked if the managers thought there were skills they needed, but currently lacked. It is the data we gathered in this area that are the main focus of this paper.

Data The SALL managers’ responsibilities for human resources (Table 3) are clear in the data from the questionnaires and were further clarified in their interview responses. All of the managers were responsible for running a dedicated self-access centre (SAC) but, as can be seen from the table, each institution had a different approach to how they staffed their SACs. In all cases, managers were responsible for dedicated administrative staff, although the level of this support varied considerably. Managers were also responsible for teaching staff, but this ranged widely from dedicated staff, to part-time and even volunteer staff. It is interesting to note that not all of the people we identified as managers were given "#$! ! !

SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 236-252 the title of ‘manager’, a point we shall return to in the discussion, but all had responsibility for directing and managing staff.

Table 3. Management and Staffing of SACs Manager SM1

Title Coordinator

Teaching Staff 9 staff with additional teaching duties

Support Staff 6 administrative and technical staff 1 technician

SM2

Coordinator

SM3

Manager

SM4

Director

SM5

Coordinator

SM6

Manager

All tutors who work in the Language Centre have to do some SALL related course work 8 language advisors (5 hrs per week) 1 SAC administrative assistant 2 senior language instructors and 2 1 executive officer language instructors 1 technician 2 office assistants 1 personal assistant Graduate assistants 12-15 tutor volunteer advisors 2 administrators 1 part-time technician 8 graduate tutors 2 executive officers 6 teaching assistants 1 part-time technician

The SALL managers were also responsible for facilities management. We have tabulated, for easy comparison, the facilities managed by the SALL managers at the time of interview (Table 4). These data are based on the use of a checklist during the interviews (Appendix 1), further clarification sought where needed, and an invitation to managers to make additions to the checklist if required (no additions were made). It should be noted that SALL provisions change frequently, as student demand and/or resourcing change, and therefore what is presented here can only be seen as a snapshot taken at the time of data collection. It is clear from the table that a wide range of facilities were being managed by all but one of the managers.

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 236-252 Table 4. Facilities Facilities Managed Reception area Audio booths Other forms of audio facility (e.g. MP3 players) Video booths Other form of video facility (e.g. TV/video in common areas) Computers Reading area Writing area Speaking area Quiet area Karaoke facility Consultation with teachers (public or private location) Technical assistance (for students or staff) Catalogue of materials (paper or online) Worksheets (paper or online) Dictionaries Storage area for student records, learner profiles, etc.

Manager’s office Other staff office(s) Store room Consultation room Multi-purpose room(s) Teaching room(s) Group work room(s)

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Given the initial view of the role of SALL managers that emerged from the questionnaire data, we included, in the interviews, an opportunity to collect further data about management skills. We were interested to know more about the extent to which the managers believed they had the skills to cope with managing staff and other resources. To collect these data we used a checklist of management skills (Appendix 2) based on one we had developed earlier (Gardner & Miller, 1999, p. 81) and adapted it to this situation based on our literature review (Step 2 of our research procedure) and the outcomes of an earlier project in a similar context (Gardner & Miller, 1997) which had revealed some need for management training.

In the interview, we gave each manager the checklist and asked them to indicate whether they had the skill, whether someone else in the department had the skill, or whether they thought it might be useful for someone to have the skill. We then used the managers’ responses as the basis for further discussion. A comparison of all managers’ responses to the checklist is presented in Table 5. "#"! ! !

SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 236-252

Table 5. Areas of Management Training

Area of Training Management systems Institutional procedures Personnel management Financial Appraisal Counselling Evaluation Staff development Negotiation skills Planning Public relations

Area Includes: Establishing and maintaining management structures, creating job descriptions, developing reporting procedures, defining roles of committees/working groups How the university functions, committee structures, how the university reports externally Hiring and firing, discipline, reward system Budgeting, tendering, accounting Developing a system of appraisal that can be made public Effective counselling of staff and students, showing staff how to counsel students Of materials, the system Development of staff skills, training programmes for teachers, technical staff and clerical staff.

For negotiation with staff, other teachers, departmental heads, university managers Development plans (long- and short-term), planning for coordination with courses For dealing with visitors, making presentations, representing the institution

Totals

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“I have this skill” “A team member “It would be has” useful to have” SALL Manager SALL Manager SALL Manager 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6

SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 236-252 As can be seen from the table, only one manager, SM4, considered that (s)he had a number of the skills on the checklist. From our discussion with this manager it became obvious why (s)he felt that (s)he had these skills: SM4: Finance, yes. I passed book-keeping and also some… From secondary and tertiary, yes. I passed all of these exams…I have (other) paper qualifications… Management systems, yes, I did management courses at university. Negotiations skills, from the English Department, Yes. …Planning… Public relations, yes public relations…I was an information officer with the government for a year and I got formal training for PR work.

A second manager, SM6, also had specialised training in management (an MSc in human management and training), although (s)he did not tick all of the boxes. This perhaps indicates that (s)he did not feel comfortable handling all the items identified on the checklist.

Three managers said they knew of other colleagues in the SALL team holding specialist management skills. Most went on to say that they would be surprised if anyone in their centres possessed these skills and that most of the skill development of colleagues was based on 'experience'.

In contrast to SM4 and SM6, SM2 thought that (s)he did not possess any management skills as identified on the checklist. This was somewhat strange considering that (s)he was actively involved in managing SALL within the university. However, when we look at the range of facilities SM2 managed, we see that it was limited compared to the other SALL operations.

SM2 maintained that within the institution the power to make changes did not rest with SM2 and that even if (s)he had training it may not help with performance on the job since the decision-making was done elsewhere within the university: SM2: I think that if we have the opportunity that is more important than training, because even if we are trained if we don't have a say then we don't get involved.

Given the opportunity, SM2 would like to be more involved and ticked a number of skill boxes on the checklist which (s)he thought would be useful to SM2 personally, if they were offered.

The most interesting thing about Table 5 is that not all SALL managers had the same skill-set. In our interviews, most managers said that they had !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 236-252 developed their skills through 'trial and error', apart from SM4 who had attended several training courses and had many years of experience in management, and SM6 who had a degree in management. It is also notable that the managers did not tick many of the boxes to indicate whether any of their colleagues had these skills.

This may be because if the SALL manager did not have the skill then they may have thought that no one else in their centre would have such skills, or they may not know what skill set any of their colleagues held. We were also interested to see that although more boxes had been ticked in the third section of the checklist, not all the boxes were ticked. This may be because if the manager or a colleague already had such a skill then it was not considered necessary for any more training in this area, or, as indicated by SM2, the managers may have felt that even if they had training in some of these areas they may not be able to influence change (e.g. hiring staff, or budgeting) as this activity did not lie in the hands of the staff who worked in SALL. In response to our interviews, the SALL managers indicated some areas where they felt they had relevant skills. Once again, the discussion centred around the skills being developed on an ad hoc basis when and if required, and how very few training opportunities seemed to have been made available to the SALL managers: SM1: I picked up most of my skills generally with no formal training.

SM3: “counselling staff” I have had an hour or so on it but it wouldn’t be sufficient training. This is the problem with most of this actually. [reading other items] I guess I haven’t really had training, it’s all on the job. [reading and ticking more] I don’t think I’ve really had any formal training in anything.

SM5: Negotiations skills. Again, I’m sorry, I’d like to think that I have got a lot of experience in negotiation. But perhaps I need an outsider’s perspective. I don’t have formal training.

Discussion In the study reported on here, most managers indicated that they did not receive any significant amount of training related to the needs of SALL management. This may be because: a) there are no suitable training courses available for SALL managers to take; b) the senior management at universities may not think training is necessary, or c) the SALL managers’ commitment to !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 236-252 their work may disguise the need for further training. However, as can be seen from the data collected in this study, most of the managers we interviewed were responsible for the management of a number of other staff, and for a variety of spaces and facilities. It would be difficult to imagine a similar situation in the private sector where someone was given control of such resources without any form of management qualifications or training. The managers in our study did indicate that they thought some form of training for themselves or their colleagues working in SALL would be desirable.

The managers themselves were actually involved in training the staff they managed. As the managers had learned from experience while doing the job, they frequently passed their knowledge on to other colleagues and staff involved in SALL. The managers’ own expertise allowed them to form an emerging SALL managers’ community of practice (CoP) (see Gardner and Miller, 2013 for further discussion on this point). The six managers interviewed in this study were, in fact, ‘experts’ in the field of SALL management and this is made clear by the fact that they knew more about managing SALL than others around them. Given appropriate opportunities, we believe that these managers could contribute significantly to developing a training course for other staff involved in SALL. In this way, apprenticeship, which is an essential feature of a CoP, would be strengthened and this may generate more interest in the management of SALL, and the viewing of SALL management as a form of career development for staff interested in SALL. The current managers were able to identify the most relevant skills they thought their SALL team needed (Table 5). It is interesting to note that the managers did not select all the items on the checklist. For instance, three or more managers did not think it was essential for them or their SALL team to be trained in management systems, appraisal, counselling, evaluation, staff development, negotiation skills, planning or public relations. One reason, as indicated by SM2, is that those working in SALL are often seen as too junior to be involved in more senior level decision-making. It may also be that as each SALL situation is unique, the managers did not think that it was necessary for the SALL team to spend time on acquiring skills which they may not need to use: for instance, if the SALL environment did not offer a counselling service to the students then there would not be any need for staff to be trained in counselling. !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 236-252 Conclusion We have identified four main areas that SALL managers need to be involved in: leadership, scope, expectations, and evaluation. In our study the six managers talked to us about how they were given responsibility for SALL and were expected to lead their SALL team in a variety of ways. Not only did these managers have to take on this leadership responsibility, but they also strived to manage the SALL facilities offered to their students so that the facilities were interesting and accessible. However, leadership is not a natural skill that people possess. We believe that if universities professionalize the role of the managers then their leadership qualities will develop more consistently. The first way to do this is to recognise the role by attaching the title of SALL manager to it. A second approach is to formalize the role by locating it on the salary scale. Thirdly, the role should be identified as a career development opportunity for staff.

Most of the managers we interviewed were responsible for managing people, spaces and facilities. The scope of their responsibilities was impressive and even where they were not given direct control of a budget they were, through this role, managing resources of considerable value. Where staff are given such responsibilities it seems good managerial practice on the part of the institution to provide adequate support and recognition of the role. Most importantly, the SALL managers should be given opportunities to develop their existing skills and acquire such new skills as would enhance their ability to perform the role. With an enhanced skill-set the SALL managers could develop their own role and also prepare junior colleagues to move into the management role in the future. This would be best done through the system of apprenticeship integral to a CoP, the first signs of which we see developing in the context of this study.

With appropriate training, SALL managers are better able to manage the expectations of students, teachers, heads of departments and senior management.

More efficient handling of resources, better understanding of student needs and desires, and a clearer vision for the integration of SALL into the work of the department and the goals of the institution, will all enhance the work of the SALL manager.

Training in the evaluation of systems, people and materials will enhance the SALL manager’s role by improving their ability to monitor staff performance, student progress and the overall success of the learning environment. It will also !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 236-252 encourage experimentation and innovation within the provision of SALL. Such evaluation will also aid the manager in seeking funding for SALL. This paper illustrates, based on interviews with six practising SALL managers, that only two of the managers had formal management training and that there is a lack of relevant training opportunities; however, the managers in this study see management skills as relevant to their work and would welcome training.

If SALL managers were provided with appropriate training, it would enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of SALL within their institutions. We believe that particular attention needs to be paid to the four key areas of the SALL manager’s role; that is to say, leadership, scope, expectations and evaluation.

Notes on the contributors David Gardner is the associate director of the Centre for Applied English Studies at the University of Hong Kong. He has taught at secondary and tertiary levels in France, Saudi Arabia, England, Thailand and Hong Kong, and has consulted on self-access projects in Mexico and Indonesia. His research interests include computer-assisted learning and self-access learning. He is a founding member of the Hong Kong Association of Self-Access Learning and Development (HASALD). David Gardner co-authored, with Lindsay Miller, the book Establishing self-access: From theory to practice (Cambridge University Press, 1999).

Lindsay Miller is an associate professor in the Department of English at City University, Hong Kong. He has been responsible for designing, developing and teaching a wide variety of courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. His main areas of research have focused on self-access language learning, and academic listening. He is a founding member of the Hong Kong Association of Self-Access Learning and Development (HASALD). Lindsay Miller co-authored, with David Gardner, the book Establishing self-access: From theory to practice (Cambridge University Press, 1999).

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 236-252 References Bennett, N., Woods, P., Wise, C., & Newton, W. (2007). Understandings of middle leadership in secondary schools: A review of empirical research.

School Leadership & Management, 27(5), 453-470. doi:10.1080/13632430701606137 Briggs, A. R. J. (2005). Middle managers in English further education colleges: Understanding and modelling the role. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 33(1), 27-50. doi:10.1177/1741143213494189 Bush, T. (2011). Theories of educational leadership and management (4th ed.).

London: Sage.

Busher, H., Hammersley-Fletcher, L., & Turner, C. (2007). Making sense of middle leadership: Community, power and practice. School Leadership & Management, 27(5), 405-422. doi:10.1080/13632430701606061 CIEL Language Support Network. (2000). Managing independent language learning: Management and policy considerations. The guide to good practice for learning and teaching in languages, linguistics and area studies Retrieved from: http://www.llas.ac.uk/resources/gpg/1404 Dofs, K., & Hobbs, M. (2011). Guidelines for maximising use of Independent Learning Centres: Support for ESOL learners. Retrieved from: http://akoaotearoa.ac.nz/download/ng/file/group-7/guidelines-formaximising-student-use-of-independent-learning-centres.pdf Gardner, D. (2002). Evaluating self-access learning. In P. Benson & S. Toogood (Eds.), Learner autonomy, 7: Challenges to research and practice (pp. 6069). Dublin: Authentik.

Gardner, D. (2011). Looking in and looking out: Managing a self-access centre. In D. Gardner (Ed.), Fostering autonomy in language learning (pp. 186-198).

Gaziantep: Zirve University. Retrieved from http://ilac2010.zirve.edu.tr Gardner, D., & Miller, L. (1997). A study of tertiary level self-access facilities in Hong Kong. Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong.

Gardner, D., & Miller, L. (1999). Establishing self-access: From theory to practice. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Gardner, D., & Miller, L. (2011). Managing self-access language learning: Principles and practice. System, 39(1), 78-89. doi:10.1016/j.system.2011.01.010 Gardner, D., & Miller, L. (2013). Self-access managers: An emerging community of practice. System, 41(3), 817-828. doi:10.1016/j.system.2013.08.003

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 236-252 Jameson, J., & McNay, I. (2007). Ultimate FE leadership and management handbook. London, UK: Continuum.

Kodate, A. (2012). JASAL forum: Growing trends in self-access learning. Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal, 3(1), 122-132. Retrieved from: http://sisaljournal.org/archives/mar12/kodate Lai, C. (2011). In-service teacher development for facilitating learner autonomy in curriculum-based self-access language learning. In D. Gardner (Ed.), Fostering autonomy in language learning (pp. 148-160). Gaziantep, Turkey: Zirve University. Retrieved from http://ilac2010.zirve.edu.tr Lai, C., Gardner, D., & Law, E. (2013). New to facilitating self-directed learning: The changing perceptions of teachers. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching!"7(3), 281-294. doi:10.1080/17501229.2013.836208 Morrison, B. (1999). Evaluating a self-access language learning centre: Why, what and by whom? In B. Morrison (Ed.), Experiments and evaluation in self-access language learning (pp. 123-135). Hong Kong: Hong Kong Association for Self-Access Learning and Development.

Morrison, B. (2006). Mapping a self-access language learning centre. In T. Lamb & H. Reinders (Eds.), Supporting independent language learning: Issues and interventions (pp. 73-94). Frankfurt: Peter Lang.

Morrison, B. (2008). The role of the self-access centre in the tertiary language learning process. System, 36(2), 123-140. doi:10.1016/j.system.2007.10.004 Mozzon-McPherson, M. (2000). An analysis of the skills of advising and their implications on the emerging role of language learning advisers. Links & Letters, 7, 118-126.

Mozzon-McPherson, M. (2007). Supporting independent learning environments: An analysis of structures and roles of language learning advisers. System, 35(1), 66-92.

Toogood, S., & Pemberton, R. (2002). Integrating self-access language learning into the curriculum: A case study. In P. Benson & S. Toogood (Eds.), Learner autonomy, 7: Challenges to research and practice (pp. 85-109).

Dublin: Authentik.

Young, J. T., Hafner, C. A., & Fisher, D. W. (2007). Shifting sands: Supporting teachers in facilitating independent learning. In A. Barfield & S. H. Brown (Eds.), Reconstructing autonomy in language education: Inquiry and innovation (pp. 196-208). Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

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Appendix 1 Facilities Checklist Which of the following facilities are currently available as part of your SALL provision?: Reception area Audio booths Other forms of audio facility (e.g. MP3 players) Video booths Other form of video facility (e.g. TV/video in common areas) Computers Reading area Writing area Speaking area Quiet area Karaoke facility Consultation with teachers (public or private location) Technical assistance (for students or staff) Catalogue of materials (paper or online) Worksheets (paper or online) Dictionaries Storage area for student records, learner profiles etc.

Manager’s office Other staff office(s) Store room Consultation room Multi-purpose room(s) Teaching room(s) Group work room(s)

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 236-252 Appendix 2 Areas of Management Training AREA OF TRAINING

INCLUDING

Management systems

Establishing and maintaining management structures, creating job descriptions, developing reporting procedures, defining roles of committees/working groups

Institutional procedures

How the university functions, committee structures, how the university reports externally

Personnel management

Hiring and firing, discipline, reward system

Financial

Budgeting, tendering, accounting

Appraisal

Developing a system of appraisal that can be made public

Counselling

Effective counselling of staff and students, showing staff how to counsel students

Evaluation

Evaluation of materials, the system

Staff development

Development of staff skills, training programmes for teachers, technical staff and clerical staff.

Negotiation skills

Negotiation skills with staff, other teachers, departmental heads, university managers

Planning

Development plans (long- and short-term), planning for coordination with courses

Public relations

PR skills for dealing with visitors, making presentations, representing the institution

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I have training

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A team member has training

Would be useful to have this training

SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 253-261

Looking Out for English1 Brian Tomlinson, Leeds Metropolitan University, U.K. & Annaheim University, U.S.A. Abstract Coursebook activities tend to neglect three vital prerequisites for effective language acquisition i.e. language experience, language discovery and language use. They tend to focus on providing instruction, exemplification and practice in the classroom, and they do very little to encourage learners to achieve language experience, discovery and use outside the classroom. In this article I propose ‘new ideas’ for materials which help learners to gain language experience, language discovery and language use both inside and outside the classroom.

Keywords: language instruction, language practice, language experience, language discovery, language use

‘Nearly 100% of innovation – from business to politics – is inspired not by "market analysis" but by people who are supremely pissed off by the way things are.’ (Gay, 2009).

In the world of EFL materials development I’m ‘supremely pissed off’ with at least two things. Recently in Tomlinson and Masuhara (2013), an ELT Journal review, we investigated six current global coursebooks for adults and confirmed our impression that: 1. EFL coursebook activities tend to neglect three vital prerequisites for effective language acquisition i.e. language experience, language discovery and language use. Instead they tend to focus on providing instruction, exemplification and practice in the classroom.

2. EFL coursebooks make very little attempt to stimulate or help their users to experience or use English outside their classroom. And yet it’s 1

This article is to be published in Folio 16/1, in January 2014. It is reproduced here with the kind permission of the author, Brian Tomlinson and of Folio editor, Freda Mishan. Folio is the journal of MATSDA (the Materials Development Association) which highlights issues in the field of materials development for language learning. Founded in 1993, MATSDA is an international association which brings together teachers, researchers, materials developers and publishers in a joint endeavour to make language learning materials as effective as possible. For more information, go to www.matsda.org

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 253-261 indisputable that no classroom course can provide enough English to lead to sufficient acquisition for most of its learners (see Barker, 2011; Fukuda & Yoshida, 2013). Learners need to look out for English outside the classroom, as I found, for example, from a study of intermediate learners at Bell College, Saffron Walden which revealed that the only ones who improved their communicative competence over a term were the ones who found English outside the classroom by reading newspapers, watching tv, going to the cinema, joining clubs, going to the pub and, most importantly, talking to people in English.

My new ‘innovation’ consists of a proposal for a course called Looking Out for English which: 1. uses an EDU approach (i.e. Experience/Discovery/Use) to provide engaging experience of English, to stimulate learner discovery and to give opportunities to use English for communication (see Tomlinson, 2013b for a theoretical justification of these three requisites for durable acquisition).

2. provides activities which aim to achieve the objectives in 1 above both inside and outside the classroom.

Activities in Looking Out for English I’d like to stress the point again that the activities are for use both inside and outside the classroom and the intention is that the users of the course will spend far more time acquiring English outside the classroom than learning it inside the classroom. Here are some examples of EDU activities: For Providing Engaging Experience of Language in Authentic Use 1. Task free activities (using extracts in the classroom from books, magazines, comics, newspapers, the web, YouTube, TV, adverts, films, the radio, etc. which can be followed up outside class time).

These activities involve the teacher (at the beginning or end of a lesson) ‘performing’ or presenting a potentially engaging authentic text (e.g. a poem, a story, a newspaper article). Those students who were engaged take a copy of the text, experience it again outside the classroom and decide whether to follow up its suggestions for finding and experiencing similar texts outside the classroom. !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 253-261 2. Engaging extensive experience of English in the classroom which can be continued outside of class time (e.g. books, magazines, comics, newspapers, the web, YouTube, TV, films, the radio, DVDs, etc.).

Kanda University in Japan provides such opportunities in the classroom and then provides access to a self-access centre rich in potentially engaging extensive texts. A teacher in Jakarta achieved the same thing, without expense, by encouraging her students each week to take something to read from the class library box and to bring it back, together with a new engaging ‘text’ they had found for themselves. A teacher in Japan did something similar by getting her students to take home a student-recorded text each week and to bring another newly-recorded one as well when they brought it back.

I’ve done it by getting students to select a section from a newspaper to read (e.g. film reviews) and then getting them to write a summary of it (and of the same section from other newspapers) for the class newspaper. I’ve also done it by getting students in Oman to predict what was going to happen in a football match in the Premier League in England and then to watch the match (with an English commentary) on TV that night.

3. Text-driven units of material which start with readiness activities which activate the learners’ minds in readiness for extensive experience of a written or spoken text in the classroom.

After doing response, discovery and development activities in relation to this text the students are encouraged to read further related texts both provided for them and found by themselves. On Target (1994) in Namibia, English for Life (Tomlinson, Hill & Masuhara, 2000) in Singapore and Searching (Fenner & Nordal-Pedersen, 2010) in Norway, are examples of coursebooks which use this approach. See Tomlinson (2003, 2013a) for a detailed description of a text-driven approach.

Making Discoveries about How the Language is Typically Used 1. Research tasks which start in class and continue outside it.

An example of this was an activity I gave a class in which half the students were the ‘some’ group and half were the ‘any’ group. Each group had to find as many examples of their determiner in use in texts I gave them and to put these !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 253-261 examples together to constitute the beginnings of a corpus. For homework, they expanded their corpora from texts they found for themselves and then in class they made and shared generalisations about the functions of the two determiners (for example that ‘any’ is typically marked while ‘some’ is typically unmarked).

Another example was showing a class a video of a British chef getting two celebrities to help him make a chocolate cake, getting the students to make discoveries about the language the chef used to get people to help him and then getting them to find out if this was typical or idiosyncratic by watching TV programmes in which somebody was getting other people to help them (see Tomlinson, 2010).

2. Self-access discovery tasks making use of the environment.

For example, in class I got students to work out the meaning of a sign in Bahasa Indonesia by describing how I made discoveries which helped me. The sign was: Table 1. Indonesian road sign Mobil Cuci Air Panas

I told the students that I saw this by the side of the road when I was stuck in a traffic jam in Jakarta. Every day I passed it and I eventually worked out its meaning after noticing many cars were parked near it and then discovering that washbasins in restaurants always included the word ‘cuci’ in notices above them, seeing that bottles of water in a supermarket all included ‘air’ on the label and being asked by a waitress if I wanted it ‘panas’ or ‘padas’ when I asked for the food to be hot. Once the students had worked out that the sign was advertising a car wash with hot water, I encouraged them to look out for signs in English which they did not understand and then to find ways of working out the meaning for themselves.

3. Blooper activities leading to exploration of the English in the environment.

A sample of amusing and authentic bloopers are collected from the web or from books and presented to the learners who then have to spot the errors and !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 253-261 work out what should have been written. Here are a few examples (see Table 2) taken from advertisements and published in (Hill, 2011): Table 2. Bloopers 1.

1. Crash Courses available for those wishing to learn to drive very quickly.

2. TIRED of cleaning yourself? Let me do it for you.

3. DECORATOR Specialises in inferior work. Immediate attention. Estimates free.

4. Gentlemen Drop Your Trousers Here for Overnight Service The learners share their solutions and are then given a week to collect bloopers in English from their own environment. A week later, the learners in groups put their bloopers together and then present them to other groups to correct.

The learners not only gain experience of English from the bloopers but from all the English they look at to find them. In many environments they can also become much more aware of how much English is available to them outside the classroom.

4. Text-driven units of material which include discovery activities involving focused exploration of a text in class followed by related research outside of class.

For example the learners could be given the expression ‘In case of fire’ and asked in groups to decide where they are likely to see this and what its functions are. The teacher then performs the poem ‘In case of fire break glass’ by Roger McGough (McGough, 2004 ) and asks the learners, ‘Did you like the poem or not.

Why?’ after discussing their answers, groups of learners use the poem to make generalisations about the form and the functions of ‘In case of’ expressions. They are then given a week to collect authentic examples of ‘In case of’ expressions before being asked to put together an ‘In case of’ corpus and to make final conclusions about form and functions. They then write bizarre ‘In case of’ notices to put around the school (e.g. ‘In case of learning jump for joy’; ‘In case of fire carry on sleeping’).

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 253-261 Using the Language for Communication 1. Unstructured learner interaction The learners form a social English club and agree that whenever they meet outside the classroom they will talk to each other in English. They also agree that they will look out for opportunities to introduce their fellow club members to English (e.g. by introducing them to English speaking friends; by letting them know about a drama which is going to be performed in English). For an example of a very successful experiment in encouraging unstructured interaction in a Japanese university, see Barker (2011).

2. Writing booklets about enthusiasms Each learner tells the teacher about their favourite enthusiasm and the teacher helps them to work out a list of contents for a booklet on this enthusiasm.

She also helps them to decide where to find further information about it outside the classroom. The learners spend a number of weeks inside and outside the classroom writing their booklets (using the teacher as a resource when needed).

The learners write an illustrated draft of their booklet and this is then monitored, first of all by a fellow learner and then by the teacher. The final version is then ‘published’ and the learners read each other’s booklets in class and outside of class.

One of my MA students used this approach with elementary level adult learners in London and very impressive booklets were produced (e.g. about restoring antique furniture and about growing vegetables on an allotment).

3. Writing a novel The learners are told to visualise a scene from their home town or village and to see somebody interesting that they know there doing something interesting.

They then write a description of what they can see in their minds and this becomes the first page of their novel. They then spend time inside and outside class writing their novel and using their fellow learners and teacher as resources when needed.

They also read ‘novels’ outside the class for inspiration. When their novels are finished they are monitored by other learners and by the teacher and then ‘published’ for other learners to read. !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 253-261 I used this approach with a class of unmotivated lower intermediate learners in Vanuatu and after ten weeks of writing they each took a 60-80 page novel home to their villages. They also took self-esteem and pride, as well as a muchincreased competence in English.

4. Writing a soap opera The teacher leads a class discussion on soap operas in which opinions are expressed about what a soap opera is, what its typical characteristics are and what makes a good soap opera. The learners, in groups, then come up with a title and characters for a soap opera set in the vicinity of their school. They vote for the best suggestions and the winning group are given the task of writing and recording the first five minutes of the soap opera. A week later, the recording is played to the class and another group is given the task of writing and recording the next five minutes. Each week, a group writes and records and at the end of the term each learner is given a copy of the complete recording. During the term, all the students are encouraged to watch soap operas in English and to go out into the local area and find out as much as they can about it.

I used this approach with a group of upper-intermediate Argentinian students in a small town in England and each group was so determined to succeed that they started asking local people for information and advice and to monitor their scripts for them. This out-of-class interaction was a great bonus, in addition to the increased confidence, competence and self-esteem that they gained.

5. Projects The students are given projects which involve them going outside the classroom to interview people, to research local institutions and to attend local functions. They then compile the information they have gained and present it in the form of a mock TV documentary to the class (and then maybe the whole school).

Examples of such projects would be ‘The Expatriate Community in Istanbul’, ‘Supporters of English Football Teams in Jakarta’ and ‘English Food in Tokyo’.

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 253-261 6. Text-driven units of material which include development activities which involve the learners in writing texts related to the core text of the unit (e.g. continuations, prequels, sequels, different narrator, etc.).

An example of this is when I used Roald Dahl’s poem The Three Little Pigs (Dahl, 1984) as the basis of a text-driven lesson. One of the activities was for the learners to write a short story about Little Red Riding Hood in their town (she’s the main character in the poem). Another activity was to listen to and read the True Story of the Three Little Pigs (Scieszka, 1991) and then decide what they think really happened. Some of the learners then pose as journalists, they interview learners acting as the wolf, the pigs and Little Red Riding Hood and then groups use the interview scripts to write an article called ‘What Really Happened to the Three Little Pigs’. The learners are then encouraged to find and share other versions of the story of the Three Little Pigs (there are many poems, stories and songs based on the story).

Conclusion My conclusion is simple. Materials should stimulate and help learners inside the classroom to acquire English outside the classroom.

Notes on the contributor Brian Tomlinson is a Visiting Professor at Leeds Metropolitan University and a TESOL Professor at Anaheim University. He has worked as a teacher, teacher trainer, curriculum developer, football coach and university academic in Indonesia, Japan, Nigeria, Oman, Singapore, UK, Vanuatu and Zambia and has given presentations in over sixty countries. In 1993, he founded MATSDA (the international Materials Development Association) and he is now President of the association. His many publications include Discover English (with Rod Bolitho), Openings, Materials Development in Language Teaching, Developing Materials for Language Teaching, Research for Materials Development in Language Learning (with Hitomi Masuhara), Blended Learning in ELT: Course Design and Implementation (with Claire Whittaker) and Applied Linguistics and Materials Development.

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 253-261 References Barker, D. (2011). The role of unstructured learner interaction in the study of a foreign language. In S. Menon & J. Lourdanathan (Eds.), Readings on ELT materials, IV (pp. 50-71). Petaling Jaya, Malaysia: Pearson Longman.

Dahl, R. (1984). The three little pigs. In R. Dahl (Ed.), Revolting rhymes (pp. 4147). Harmondsworth, UK: Puffin.

Fenner, A., & Nordal-Pedersen, G. (2006). Searching, 8. Oslo, Norway: Gyldendal.

Fukuda, S. T., & Yoshida, H. (2013). Time is of the essence: Factors encouraging out-of-class study time. ELT Journal, 67(1), 31-40. doi:10.1093/elt/ccs054 Gay, T. (2009, September 15). Re: Must be a mis-quote [Web log comment].

Retrieved from http://www.tompeters.com/dispatches/011241.php Hill, H. (2011). Harry Hill’s bumper book of bloopers. London, UK: Faber and Faber.

McGough, R. (2003). In case of fire break glass. In R. McGough, Collected poems. London: Penguin.

Ministry of Education (1994). On target. Windhoek, Namibia: Gamsberg Macmillan.

Scierszka, J. (1999). The true story of the three little pigs. Harmondsworth, UK: Puffin.

Tomlinson, B. (2003). Developing principled frameworks for materials development. In B. Tomlinson (Ed.), Developing materials for language teaching (pp. 107-129). London, UK: Continuum.

Tomlinson, B. (2010). Helping learners to fill the gaps in their learning. In F. Mishan & A. Chambers (Eds.), Perspectives on language learning materials development (pp. 87-108). Berlin, Germany: Peter Lang.

Tomlinson, B. (2013a). Developing principled frameworks for materials development. In B. Tomlinson (Ed.), Developing materials for language teaching (2nd ed., pp. 95-118). London, UK: Bloomsbury.

Tomlinson, B. (2013b). Second language acquisition and materials development.

In B. Tomlinson (Ed.), Applied linguistics and materials development (pp.

11-30). London, UK: Bloomsbury.

Tomlinson, B., Hill, D. A., & Masuhara, H. (2000). English for Life, 1. Singapore: Times Media.

Tomlinson, B., & Masuhara, H. (2013). Adult coursebooks. ELT Journal, 67(2), 233-249. doi:10.1093/elt/cct007 !

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Accessing the Self in Self-Access Learning: Emotions and Feelings in Language Advising Maria Giovanna Tassinari, Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany Maud Ciekanski, Université de Lorraine, France Abstract The importance of the affective dimension and the role of beliefs, self-efficacy and learners’ voices in language learning are recognized in the literature (Arnold, 1999; Brewer, 2006; Ogasa, 2010). Although emotions and feelings seem to play an important role in self-directed language learning (Bown & White, 2010; Candas & Eneau, 2010), little is still known about how to support the affective dimension throughout the self-directed learning process (Aoki, 1999). Clearly, the cognitive and the metacognitive, the subjective and affective dimensions of learning need to be addressed, in a self-access centre, in order to support learners on their road to autonomy.

Language advising provides the appropriate arena for this. Within the professional and interpersonal relationship between advisors and learners (Ciekanski, 2007), it is easier to reflect on the affective implications of learning and to help learners to cope with them. Ongoing research into emotions and feelings in advising contexts shows that affect and subjectivity occupy a large proportion of learners’ (and advisors’) discourse. This paper makes a case for integrating reflection on the affective and subjective dimensions of learning, both in the research and in the practice of language advising.

Keywords: learner autonomy, language advising, affect, emotions, self-directed learning, self-access language learning

Background Language advising has become an integral part of many self-access centre set-ups and is recognised as a useful way of ensuring the learners’ access to their own perceptions, beliefs and learning experiences, and of facilitating them in their self-directed learning processes. Influenced by the humanistic approach of Carl Rogers, the principles of advising these last few decades have largely focussed on the cognitive and metacognitive aspects of the learning process. More recently, however, as Canagarajah (2003) points out, there has been a ‘social turn’ in the literature, focusing on sociocultural factors and their impact on autonomy (understood as individual construction), and on learning in general. Moreover, the growing interest in the literature on the sociocultural aspects of learning such as learners’ agency, and the embodying of their experiences in individual histories, !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 262-280 open up previously unexplored areas for research on learners involved in autonomous learning.

The increasing interest in the literature on the affective and subjective dimensions of learning places an obligation on us to pay attention to and to integrate these aspects into language advising. What if a learner mentions negative feelings? What if negative emotions are not explicitly mentioned but come to the surface? What if positive emotions prevent learners from adopting a more objective focus on their own learning? We would have to admit that for most language advisors, with a background based more on pedagogy than on psychology, dealing with feelings and emotions presents a challenge.

In this paper we present the first findings of a research study on the role of emotions and subjectivity in language advising, conducted with adult learners and university students in self-access settings in France and in Germany. This study aims both at gaining a better understanding of the complex relations between emotions and cognition in self-directed language learning processes and at helping advisors to focus, at times, on affective aspects in the learners’ discourse and to address them in order to support the autonomization process.

First, we will briefly present different forms of learners’ support in selfaccess centre sets-up and illustrate the traditional approach to language advising.

Next, we will discuss two research studies on affect in self-directed language learning (Bown & White, 2010; Candas & Eneau, 2010), taking into account both their research approach and their findings. Afterwards, we will illustrate our research approach and some preliminary findings which emerged from the discourse analysis of advising sessions with two different learners. Finally, we will draw our conclusions and make some recommendations for a research agenda.

What Support for Learning in Self-access Facilities?

In the literature on self-access language learning (SALL), a distinct shift in priorities can be recognized from an “emphasis on materials and resources” to “access to the self” (Everhard, 2012; Murray, 2011). Little (1997) identifies the necessity, within a self-access setting, of providing the learner with “access to self” in terms of their capacity to apply “to the task in hand those processes of

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 262-280 analysis, planning, reflection and evaluation […] defined as central to the development and exercise of autonomy” (Little, 1997, p. 36).

Besides this move away from the focus on equipping and organizing selfaccess spaces with materials and resources (Gardner & Miller, 1999), a new focus has been emerging on supporting learners in the reorientation required for the change from learning in a teacher-directed mode to learning in a more selfdirected mode. Thus, self-access centres need to be perceived more as “dispositifs d’apprentissage” (self-directed learning facilities), providing, besides materials and resources, opportunities and support for learners engaging in self-directed learning (Linard, 2010).1 This support for learners assumes different forms. Most self-access centres provide study guides, tutors and language advisors, and encourage learners to create learning groups, in order to promote the social dimension of self-directed learning. These supports mostly centre on the cognitive and metacognitive aspects of the learning process: how to recognize one’s learning needs, to define objectives, to choose materials and tasks, to monitor one’s own learning process and to evaluate learning progress (according to Holec’s (1981) definition of learner autonomy).

The traditional approach to language advising focuses on three main areas of supporting learning and fostering learner autonomy, these being: (i) listening to and observing learners’ perceptions / beliefs (about learning, about the language, about themselves) (“écouter et observer les représentations”); (ii) providing conceptual and methodological information (e.g., about language learning, about learning) (“apporter des informations conceptuelles et méthodologiques”); and (iii) providing psychological support (“soutenir psychologiquement”) (Carette & Castillo, 2004, pp. 78–79). However, according to Gremmo (1995, p. 45), providing psychological support may be difficult for the advisors, if learners themselves are not aware of their problems or if they lack motivation. A deeper insight into affective aspects of the self-directed learning process may help advisors to better recognize and address psychological and motivational issues in an appropriate way.

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Linard defines a “dispositif” as “une organisation fonctionnelle systématique d’agents ou acteurs, d’objets, d’informations, d’opérations et d’instruments agencés en vue d’atteindre un but déterminé” (Linard, 2010, p. 29).

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 262-280 Affect in Self-directed Language Learning In spite of the increasing interest in the more individual aspects of language learning, such as motivation, learner biographies, learner voices and identities, in the literature on learner autonomy (e.g. Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2009; Chik, 2007), very few investigations focus on affect in self-directed language learning.

Bown & White (2010) investigate awareness and control of affect in selfdirected learning processes, focusing on self-regulation2 and processing of emotions in three different learners. Their analysis of a series of one-to-one sessions with instructors (native speakers) showed that these dialogues gave rise to strong emotions and that whereas one learner succeeded in regulating his emotions, reframing frustration and focusing instead on what he had accomplished, the two others had to deal with anxiety and frustration, so that they had to sacrifice, at times, their language learning “in order to cope with negative feelings” (Bown & White, 2010, p. 435).

In their investigation, Bown & White identify three steps in the “intelligent processing”3 of emotions in self-directed language learning, which are: (i) the perception stage, in which learners become aware of their emotions; (ii) the stage of reflection on emotions, and (iii) the self-regulation stage, in which learners manage their emotions in order to facilitate learning (Bown & White, 2010, p.

434).

A relevant methodological finding of their research is that in order to investigate self-regulation of affect in self-directed learning, a process-oriented approach is appropriate. Nevertheless, in this field, further investigation is needed which also takes into account the effects of advisor-learner interaction on affect in self-directed learning.

In their investigation of learner autonomy and affect, Candas & Eneau (2010) analyze the learning sessions of learners in self-access mode and interview

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According to Dörnyei’s definition of self-regulation “as a process-oriented construction, focusing on self-regulatory mechanisms, involving regulation of the self by the self, to meet particular goals or manage achievement” (Dörnyei 2005, mentioned in Bown & White, 2010, p. 434), in “selfregulation of affect, the psychological self is involved in overcoming self-doubt, managing different forms of anxiety, or generating positive emotions for example, to enhance learning or achievement. Investigating the self-regulation of affect involves focusing on learner-initiated processes and strategies which manage and change affect in a productive way to enhance achievement” (ibid.).

3 For the notion of “intelligent processing”, see Goetz et al., 2005.

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 262-280 the same learners, focusing, among other things, on affective aspects of learning.

The data they obtained, triangulated with the results of questionnaires which extrapolate learner profiles and learning strategies, give interesting insights into paradoxical attitudes towards affect in the learning process. On the one hand, Candas & Eneau’s findings show how, in spite of learners’ difficulties in verbalizing and reflecting on their emotions, affect has a significant influence on the learning process, independent of the learner’s profile and language competence. On the other hand, whereas the use of affective strategies, such as looking for interesting texts, watching funny videos, avoiding boring and demotivating tasks, or taking into account one’s own mood while learning, occupy a significant place in learning management overall, clearly learners accustomed to other-directed learning, as compared with more self-directed learners, allow pleasure and fun to play less of a role in their learning (since they do not consider tasks generating pleasure and fun to be real “learning tasks”) (“pour les étudiants habitués aux contrôles externes de leur activité, se faire plaisir ne revêt pas un statut de formation” Candas & Eneau, 2010, p. 150).

Based on these discoveries, Candas & Eneau believe that it would be worth rethinking the role of affective strategies in traditional classifications, such as Oxford’s (1990) or Hrimech’s (2000), and to consider including them among the direct learning strategies, beside cognitive and metacognitive strategies (Candas & Eneau, 2010, p. 159).

Both from a research point of view and from a practical one, it is worth focusing more closely on the learners’ difficulty in expressing their emotions while learning and on the way the pedagogical dialogue in advising sessions could help them to deal with this dimension of their learning process.

Language Advising which Promotes ‘Access to Self’ In the manifold panorama of self-access centres all around the world, language advising is defined and practised in many different ways. In some centres it is a mandatory part of a self-directed learning programme, while in others it is an optional service. It may be offered only for a specific language, for example, for English as a foreign language, or as a cross-language service. It can be provided by teachers trained as advisors or by learners’ peers. It can be offered face-to-face or online. !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 262-280 Ciekanski defines language advising as: … a professional as well as an interpersonal relationship that concerns learning in its cognitive and subjective, as well as personal dimensions. … even if advisors share the same professional definition of what an advising relationship is, this definition is constantly renegotiated in relation to the context and to each learner. The notion of collaboration is fundamental to the pedagogical approach to autonomy, and collaborative practices between advisor and learner are encouraged by the very structure of the advising interaction. (Ciekanski, 2007, p. 125) The relationship between advisor and learner is an expert-novice relationship and therefore asymmetric as far as place, knowledge and activity are concerned; however, it is essentially dialogic and interactive. In her analysis of the language advising discourse undertaken on 31 advising sessions between four learners and four expert language advisors4, Ciekanski identifies in all advising sessions: (i) pedagogical sequences, focused on the learner’s analysis of their learning activity, the advisor’s feedback, evaluation, decisions for further learning (between 40% to 60% of the advising time); (ii) organizational sequences, concerning making an appointment, or negotiating about resources, learning partners, etc. (from 25% to 40% of the advising time); and (iii) conversational sequences, consisting of more personal conversations about learning, language and about the learner’s feeling involved in the learning process (between 2% to 25% of the advising time).

Based on these findings, and on several years of experience as language advisors and trainers of advisors, we started to investigate the nature and role of emotions and feelings in the language advising discourse.

Emotions and Feelings in Language Advising: A Research Approach Our research aimed at investigating the role of affect (emotions and feelings) in self-regulated learning processes and at gaining a better understanding of the complex relations between emotions and cognition in autonomization processes. In

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The analysis were conducted in two French self-directed language learning set-ups, the first in a higher education context (Système d’apprentissage autodirigé avec soutien, Université Nancy 2), the second in a lifelong learning institution (Apprentissage en semiautonomie, CNAM1, Paris) (Ciekanski, 2007, p. 111).

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 262-280 particular, we wanted to investigate how emotions and feelings are addressed by learners and by advisors in language advising sessions, in order to help advisors to recognize expressed and unexpressed emotional aspects in the learners’ discourse and to be able to address them in support of the autonomization process.

Since the research is still in progress, we would like here just to illustrate our methodological approach, to offer some details about the corpus we are analyzing and give some insights into initial research findings.

The corpus consists of the transcripts of individual advising sessions recorded in self-access settings in a higher education context (Freie Universität Berlin and Université Nancy 2) and in adult education (CNAM, Paris) for a total of eight sessions, four in German and four in French, with different learners.

These constituted three German students in Berlin, who were learners of Spanish and Italian, and two French learners of English in Paris and Nancy.5 The advising sessions were selected as being representative of different learning situations and different learner attitudes towards their learning, namely: i) adult learners involved for the first time in a self-directed learning program; ii) students preparing for examinations or wanting to improve their written or oral competence; iii) learners experiencing frustration and anxiety, and iv) learners experiencing success and satisfaction with their learning.

The advising sessions were recorded and transcribed taking into account only the oral code.6 On the basis of the transcripts, we conducted a discourse analysis for each session, investigating turn-taking, speech acts, speakers’ attitudes, and interaction.

Afterwards, our analysis focused on the expression of emotions. We took as our starting-point Damasio’s distinction between a) emotions as observable, neurophysiological, transitory reactions to a stimulus, and b) feelings (or emotions) as the non-observable, private experience of emotions (Damasio, 2002, p. 15) and 5

The comparison between the French and the German corpus should illustrate also cultural and intercultural aspects of the language advising discourse.

6 The French advising sessions were video-recorded, the German advising sessions were taperecorded. For the purpose of this investigation only the audio recordings were taken into account; proxemics and mimicry were not taken into account. For the transcription we used transcriber, a freeware allowing aligning texts and audio track (http://trans.sourceforge.net/en/presentation.php), and followed the norms of TCOF (Traitement de corpus oraux en français, ATILF, André et al., 2000) and of GAT 2 (Gesprächsanalytisches Transkriptionssystem 2, Selting et al., 2009). We did not use punctuation or capitals. An excerpt from a transcript can be found in the Appendix.

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 262-280 coupled this with Plutchik’s circumplex of basic emotions (Plutchik, 1980), with some modifications. We first looked at the expression of emotions through direct or indirect verbal reference “ich finde es frustrierend (I find it frustrating)”; “es ist so ein Horror (it’s horrific)”, speaking of an examination, but also on the basis of paraverbal and suprasegmental signals, such as intonation, speech speed, stuttering, laughter, etc. (see Kehrein’s (2002) criteria for tracing emotions in speech).

Finally, we investigated subjectivity in learners’ and advisors’ discourse, especially with regard to the learning process. This was done according to Kerbrat-Orecchioni’s (1980) classification, taking into account only explicit lexical occurrences of subjectivity in the discourse. Kerbrat-Orecchioni distinguishes several types of verbs and adjectives revealing subjectivity. We took into account specifically affective and evaluative terms. Affective verbs and adjectives express the speaker’s feelings or attitudes towards a state of affairs (such as “I love it”, “I am satisfied”, “it’s funny”). With evaluative terms the speaker expresses a personal judgment on an object or a state of affairs (such as “it’s big”, “it’s small”). Kerbrat-Orecchioni distinguishes two kinds of evaluative adjectives: axiological and non-axiological adjectives. Axiological adjectives express a value judgment (such as “it’s crucial”, “it’s nice”, “it’s excellent”).

Some examples which emerged from our corpus are displayed in Table 1.

In our investigation, we took into account all the occurrences of subjective verbs and adjectives both in the learner’s and in the advisor’s discourse, categorizing them according to the typology mentioned above.

Table 1. Affective and evaluative verbs and adjectives Affective adjectives and verbs

“It’s tiring”, “satisfied”, “happy”, “I love it”

Evaluative and non-axiological

“Small exercises”, “it’s rather precise”,

adjectives

“it’s short”

Evaluative and axiological adjectives

“it’s interesting for me”, “it’s a good thing”, “it’s important”, “it’s bad”, “it’s useful”.

A preliminary finding of our research was that the occurrence of subjective and affective discourse depends on individual and contextual dimensions: some learners are more likely to use affective discourse than others. Also, some !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 262-280 advising session contexts are more likely to develop the utterance of affective discourse than others. For the purposes of this article, we offer findings from two sessions from the French and two sessions from the German corpus.

French corpus, learner 1 Learner 1 from the French corpus (FL1), a lawyer, 50 years old, has to deal with international clients and wishes he could work in the UK. He learned English for 7 years, more than 30 years ago. In the first session analyzed (EC27), he has experienced his first self-directed learning session: his main emotions are enthusiasm and satisfaction. In the second session analyzed, the last of the series in his self-directed learning program (EC4), he is very satisfied with his learning conditions and he is still motivated by self-directed language learning. He feels he is progressing in language and in learning and he has developed several learning strategies. In EC2 we found 65 expressions or traces of emotions from FL1 (22 negative and 43 positive) out of a total number of 361 conversational turns, including the advisor’s and the learner’s turns: (e.g. “il est très sympathique (he is very nice)”, “on a discuté de son père (we talked about his father)”, “il est corporate law (he is in corporate law)”, “j’ai appris pas mal (I’ve learned quite a lot)”, “ben disons que je craignais de pas le comprendre (well, let’s say I was afraid I wouln’t be able to understand him)”. In EC48, we found 41 expressions or traces of emotions (6 negative and 35 positive) from FL1, from a total of 135 conversational turns, including the advisor’s and the learner’s turns. Traces of emotion decrease from EC2 (beginning) to EC4 (end of the learning session) from 65 to 40. For some examples, see Tables 3 and 4 in the Appendix.

If we compare positive and negative emotions, FL1 shows more positive emotions than negative ones. The number of traces related to negative emotions decreases (almost 75%) from 22 to 6. We may therefore assume that FL1 feels more secure in his learning and in the advising session. Reporting on learning helps him to self-regulate his learning emotions by reflecting on his language and learning competences.

With regard to subjectivity, the results of the discourse analysis of EC2 and EC4, as displayed below (see Tables 6 and 7 in the Appendix), show that the ‘subjective’ in the discourse was, in each session, more dominant than the 7 8

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EC2 is the second advising meeting.

EC4 is the fourth advising meeting.

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 262-280 ‘objective’, both for the learner and the advisor. However, the proportion of objective discourse increased in the learner’s discourse from EC2 to EC4 (15% to 18%) which is congruent with the advising goals.

German corpus, learner 1 Learner 1 (L1), from the German corpus, GL1, seeks out help from the advising service in order to make a learning plan for preparing for an examination she has already failed twice. L1 expects external, other-directed help from a private teacher, the advisor and/or other persons. She would like to get things done, to be corrected in the right way. Throughout the two sessions she focuses on past negative experiences (in classroom learning at the university, at private schools, with private teachers). She feels frustrated because, having learned the language abroad, she lacks input on academic writing, which is required at the examination. At the same time, she is not capable of describing in detail what her language gaps really are. She keeps reviewing the grammar on her own and finds it frustrating; she does not speak in classroom situations because she feels she is less fluent than her classmates and she is not interested in the topics the teacher proposes. This advising session is defined by L1’s negative emotions and attitude.

Fear, frustration, anticipation and negative expectation, anger with regard to particular teachers and classroom situations, the feeling of being unappreciated by teachers are the most frequently recurring emotions.

L1 expresses annoyance and fear with regard to her upcoming examination (“das ist so ein Horror (it’s horrific)”, “das ist so eine große Hürde (it’s such a big hurdle)”) and frustration about her previous failure and her competences (“ich kann das so wenig (I can do so little)”). She also has a negative perception of herself as a language learner, which frustrates her even more, since she already has a PhD in another subject and she feels her language teachers look down on her.

In the first session (EC1), we found 169 expressions or traces of emotions

by GL1 (154 negative and 15 positive) from a total number of 397 conversational turns, including the advisor’s and the learner’s turns. In the second session (EC2), which took place two weeks after the first session, we found 124 expressions or traces of emotions (97 negative and 27 positive) by GL1 on a total of 381 conversational turns, including the advisor’s and the learner’s turns. For some examples, see Tables 5 and 6 in the Appendix. !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 262-280 Since the two sessions were held within a very short time period, few differences can be observed in the emotional note: negative emotions still dominate; however, positive emotions, such as interest and satisfaction (“das war für mich auch neu, so heranzugehen, und das fand ich eine ganz gute Hilfe (it was for me a new way of approaching it and I found it quite helpful)”) increase and we even found an expression of gratitude (“danke, ja (thanks, yes)”).

As in the case of FL1, in these two sessions, the subjective part of the discourse dominates for the learner (see Tables 9 and 10 in the Appendix) without a significant change (58% in EC1 and 60% in EC2), whereas the adviser’s discourse is mainly objective (40% subjectivity in EC1 and 39% in EC2). It seems that the advisor tries to compensate for the great amount of emotional involvement and bring more objective topics into the discourse, such as specific questions about learning activities, materials and plans.

The advisor’s discourse deserves analysis, too. Our first findings show that the advisors either try to counterbalance a learner’s strong emotions, mitigating frustration or asking for clear examples to explain this, or at times empathize with the learner, echoing his/her emotions.

Conclusions Although specific dialogue between advisor and learner is usually described in the literature as !objective’ discourse, helping learners to develop criteria for autonomous learning and sufficient detachment to describe and analyze the learning situations (see Abé, Gremmo & Régent, 1981), our findings show that the place of affect and subjectivity, both in learners’ and advisors’ discourse, is more extensive than objectivity, partly because of the interpersonal dimension of the advising sessions Moreover, emotions and subjectivity are strongly present even in the pedagogical sequences of advising sessions, when learners report on their learning activities, evaluate learning progress or failure or discuss future learning steps.

Avoiding the personal dimension in advising sessions would be nonsensical; however, many advisers do not feel at ease dealing with the psychological aspects of learning.

It becomes clear from investigation of affect and self-regulation in selfdirected learning that the expression of emotions and subjectivity in language !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 262-280 advising are areas that should be integrated into the research agenda and into the training of language advisors in order to identify ways of supporting the ‘self’, both in self-access and in self-directed learning in general.

Analysis of discourse content in advising sessions offers illuminating insights into learners’ experiences. For the researcher, they provide precious firsthand information, which should be triangulated with other data, such as data from interviews with learners and advisors following the advising sessions or learning sessions, learner biographies and learner logs, within a process-oriented research approach.

Notes on the contributors Maria Giovanna Tassinari established the Centre for Independent Language Learning (CILL) at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany and has been running it since 2005. Her research interests are learner autonomy, advising and multilingualism. Her PhD on “Learner autonomy in foreign language learning: components, competencies, strategies” was awarded with the Bremer Forschungspreis des AKS (Arbeitskreis der Sprachenzentren) in 2011.

Maud Ciekanski is an associate professor at the Université de Lorraine, France and holds a PhD in language education on advising and self-directed language learning from the CRAPEL (Nancy 2). Her current research domains are language advising and technology-mediated language learning. Since 2008 she has been on the Editorial Board of the French journal ALSIC (Apprentissage des Langues et Systèmes d'Information et de Communication).

References Abé, D., Gremmo, M.-J., & Régent, O. (1981). Quand les apprenants ont la parole.

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André, V., Benzitoun, C., Canut, E., Debaisieux, J.-M., Gaiffe, B., & Jacquey, E. (2000). Conventions de transcription en vue d’un alignement texte-son avec transcriber.[Transcription conventions for text-sound alignment with a transcribing-device]. Nancy, France: ATLIF. Retrieved from http://www.cnrtl.fr/corpus/tcof/TCOFConventions.pdf

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Arnold, J. (1999). Affect in foreign language learning. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Bown, J., & White, C. (2010). Affect in a self-regulatory framework for language learning. System, 38(3), 432-443. doi:10.1016/j.system.2010.03.016 Brewer, S. S. (2006). Self-influences and foreign language learning: Towards an agentic theory. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Université Paris X (Nanterre).

Canagarajah, A. S. (2003). Subversive identities, pedagogical safe houses, and critical learning. In B. Norton & K. Toohey (Eds), Critical pedagogies and language learning (pp. 116-137). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Candas, P., & Eneau, J. (2010). Autonomie de l’apprenant et dimensions affectives.[Learner autonomy and the affective dimension] In B. Albero & N. Poteau (Eds.), Enjeux et dilemmes de l’autonomie: Une expérience d’autoformation à l’université [Autonomy : challenges and dilemmas. A university-based experiment in independent learning](pp. 141-167). Paris, France: Éditions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme.

Carette, E., & Castillo, D. (2004). Devenir conseiller: Quels changements pour l’enseignant? [Becoming a counsellor: Changes for the teacher]. Mélanges CRAPEL, 27, 71-97.

Chik, A. (2007). From learner identity to learner autonomy: A biographical study of two Hong Kong learners of English. In P. Benson (Ed.), Learner autonomy, 8: Teacher and learner perspectives (pp. 41-60). Dublin, Ireland: Authentik.

Ciekanski, M. (2007). Fostering learner autonomy: Power and reciprocity in the relationship between language learner and language learning adviser.

Cambridge Journal of Education, 37(1), 111-127. doi:10.1080/03057640601179442 Damasio, A. R. (2002). A second chance for emotion. In L. Nadel & R. D. Lane (Eds.), Cognitive neurosciences of emotions (pp. 12-23). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Dörnyei, Z. (2005). The psychology of the language learner. London, UK: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Dörnyei, Z., & Ushioda, E. (Eds.). (2009). Motivation, language identity and the L2 self. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 262-280 Everhard, C. (2012). Re-placing the jewel in the crown of autonomy: A revisiting of the ‘self’ or ‘selves’ in self-access. Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal, 3(4), 377-391. Retrieved from http://sisaljournal.org/archives/dec12/ Gardner, D., & Miller, L. (1999). Establishing self-access: From theory to practice. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Goetz, T., Frenzel, A., Pekrun, R., & Hall, N. (2005). Emotional intelligence in the context of learning and achievement. In R. Schulze & R. Roberts (Eds.), Emotional intelligence: An international handbook (pp. 233-253).

Cambridge, MA: Hogrefe and Huber.

Gremmo, M-J. (1995). Conseiller n’est pas enseigner: Le rôle du conseiller dans l’entretien de conseil. [Counselling is not teaching: The role of the counsellor in the counselling session]. Mélanges CRAPEL, 22, 33-62.

Holec, H. (1981). Autonomy in foreign language learning. Oxford, UK: Pergamon.

Hrimech, M. (2000). Les strategies d’apprentissage en contexte d’autoformation.

[Learning strategies in independent learning]. In R. Foucher & M. Hrimech (Eds.), L’autoformation dans l’enseignement supérieur: Apports européens et nord-américains pour l’an 2000 [Independent learning in higher education : European and North American contributions for the year 2000]. (pp. 99-111). Montréal, Canada: Éditions Nouvelles.

Kehrein, R. (2002). Prosodie und Emotionen. [Prosody and emotions]. Tübingen, Germany: Niemeyer.

Kelly, R. (1996). Language counselling for learner autonomy: The skilled helper in self-access language learning. In R. Pemberton, E. S. L. Li, W. W. F. Or, & H. Pierson (Eds.), Taking control: Autonomy in language learning (pp.

93-113). Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

Kerbrat-Orecchioni, C. (1980). L’énonciation de la subjectivité dans le langage.

[The expression of subjectivity in discourse]. Paris, France: Armand Colin.

Linard, M. (2010). Réflexions après une visite. [Reflections after a visit]. In B. Albero & N. Poteaux (Eds.), Enjeux et dilemmes de l’autonomie: Une expérience d’autoformation à l’université. Autonomy : challenges and dilemmas. A university-based experiment in independent learning (pp. 2739). Paris, France: Éditions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme.

Little, D. (1997). Autonomy and self-access in second language learning: Some fundamental issues in theory and practice. In M. Müller-Verweyen (Ed.), Neues Lernen, Selbgesteuert, Autonom (pp.33-44). Munich, Germany: Goethe Institut.

Murray, G. (2011). Metacognition and imagination in self-access language learning. In D. Gardner (Ed.), Fostering autonomy in language learning

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 262-280 (pp. 5-16). Gaziantep, Turkey: Zirve University. Retrieved from http://ilac2010.zirve.edu.tr Murray, G., Gao, X., & Lamb, T. (Eds.). (2011). Identity, motivation and autonomy in language learning. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

Ogasa, N. (2011). Gefühle und Lernen im Fremdsprachenunterricht: Der Einfluss von Gefühlen auf das Lernen.[Feelings and learning in foreign language teaching: The influence of feelings on learning]. Frankfurt, Germany: Peter Lang.

Oxford. R. L. (1990). Language learning strategies: What every teacher should know. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Newbury House.

Plutchik, R. (1980). A general psychoevolutionary theory of emotion. In R. Plutchik & H. Kellerman (Eds.), Emotion: Theory, research, and experience: Vol. 1: Theories of emotion (pp. 3-33). New York, NY: Academic Press.

Selting, M., Auer, P., Barth-Weingarten, D., Bergmann, J., Bergmann, P., Birkner, K., . . . Uhmann, S. (2009). Gesprächsanalytisches Transkriptionssystem 2 (GAT 2).[Discourse analysis transcription system 2] Gesprächsforschung Online-Zeitschrift zur verbalen Interaktion, 10, [Discourse research online magazine for verbal interaction]. 353–402. Retrieved from http://www.gespraechsforschung-ozs.de/heft2009/px-gat2.pdf Transcriber [Computer software]. Retrieved from http://trans.sourceforge.net/en/presentation.php

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 262-280 Appendix Table 2. Excerpt from a transcript of an advising session, C1-GL1 C1 6 • wo- womit fangen sie an oder was funktioniert für sie schon gut was brauchen sie {fragend} L1 7 • also ich finde gut funktioniert nichts {atmet aus, lacht} C1 8 • ok L1 9 • aber + • also sagen wir mal es funktioniert bei mi- mir immer gut wenn ich grammatik übungen machen muss • also wenn man vorher äh subjuntivo [lang=Spanisch] geübt hat oder imperfecto indefinido [lang=Spanisch] alles und dann weiss ich was ich machen muss{steigend} C1 10 • mhm L1 11 • dann geht es C1 12 • mhm L1 13 • sobald ich aber jetzt n text schreiben muss dann bringe ich alles durcheinander {betont} • ähm /// • und {gedehnt } + also wenn ich das durchginge dann gehts auch wieder aber + • was oft nicht st- stimmt ist dann condarconcordance [lang=Spanisch] zwischen {atmet ein} + eh eher geschlecht {betont} • und mh + • mh plural singular {steigend} + C1 14 • mhm L1 15 • aber plural singular geht noch aber + aber das ist auch beim sprechen {betont} ganz + i sag mal schlimm < ne > {steigend} C1 16 • < mhm > L1 17 • dann rede ich einfach mal los und dann vergesse ich das

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 262-280 Table 3. Some examples of negative emotions, FL1, EC2 Emotions embarrassment L1 has difficulty to speaking about his learning. It is his very first attempt at reporting and he is not accustomed to this kind of learning conversation, which generates stress and makes him stutter (physical embarrassment). disappointment, frustration apprehension, fear, frustration fear, expectation annoyance, disappointment, frustration

Examples A 75: j'ai fait un petit peu j'ai regardé un petit peu hier j'ai mis des moins des plus en fait euh ce qui m'a euh ce qui m'a euh enfin ce qui m'a comment dire euh ce que je suis bien actuellement c'est Task listening (oui) donc euh A 109 : excusez moi mais il faut que j'enlève mon pull il fait chaud

A 73 : oui je pense que je pense qu'effectivement il a un débit assez assez lent mais parfois dans des dans des explications là je je suivais plus A 167 : et puis là j'ai un manque de vocabulaire et puis après c'est un problème de prononciation A 55 : ben disons que je craignais de pas de pas le comprendre A 51: ben je trouve que je suis très hésitant (hum hum) et que j'ai pas beaucoup de vocabulaire A119 : j'ai eu du mal à suivre parce qu'en fait il me manque beaucoup de vocabulaire

Table 4. Some examples of positive emotions, FL1, EC2 Emotions Examples expectation, interest A 49 : tout à fait et en fait je lui racontais l'histoire d'un d'un cycliste américain que j'ai rencontré euh à Chamonix en en 98 et qui faisait tous les cols d'Europe de plus de 1000 mètres à vélo et qu'en fait l'année-là il avait passé pratiquement tout son temps en Espagne parce qu'il allait devenir prof d'espagnol et non plus prof de français comme on avait parlé de ça acceptance D’accord , tout à fait, oui satisfaction A 59: enfin j'ai pas compris tous les mots mais disons negative expectation que j'ai bien compris je comprenais à peu près tout le le sens des des phrases A 65 : oui parce que comme il est comme il est américain je pensais que j'allais rien comprendre satisfaction, serenity A 113: j'avais l'impression que j'avais rien fait de que j'avais rien fait de concret finalement mais au final pendant trois heures j'ai j'ai écouté satisfaction, joy A 38: oui j'ai appris pas mal de A 40 : il est très sympathique on a discuté de son père / en fait il est corporate law A 127 : ah ben ça c'est bien!

Unsicherheit (insecurity) A 326: j'étais et puis après j'étais un petit peu Zufriedenheit réconforté (satisfaction) !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 262-280 Table 5. Some examples of negative emotions, GL1, EC1 Emotions Examples anticipation L1 3 : ja + und da sagte jetzt frau x da wär ich bei ihnen an der richtigen adresse son arbeitsplan zu erstellen wie man da < vorgehen wird > {leise} L1 209 : ich weiß ja nicht ähm + was sie hiera anbieten {betont} L1 + C1 210 L1: also bieten sie an dass sie ähm dass wir zusammen bücher raussuchen können und sie sagen hier machen sie < die + ne {steigend} > L1 211: ähm machen sie jetzt die aufgaben bis nächste woche {steigend} aber kontrollieren tun sie die dann nicht {betont} {fragend} frustration L1 31: den mach ich grad an der x uni C1 32: ok L1 33: das ist dann nur noch + na in anführungszeichen wiederholung {betont} aber + {leiser werdend} C1 34: aber {fragend} L1 35: {atmet ein} ja ich find den jetzt nicht {betont} so gut L1 39: ich find den eher n bisschen frustrierend {leise} L1 62: das problem ist ja dann meistens immer ich hab dann keine - keine person die das korrigiert {steigend} anticipation, fear L 178: dass + ich mich erstmal nur auf oktober konzentrieren will und dass ich als {klopft auf den Tisch} nee da möcht ich ziemlich gut sein dass ich {klopft auf den Tisch} gelassen in also in anführungszeichen gelassen in die nächste prüfung gehen kann und da äh nicht mehr so ne angst vor habe annoyance, anger L1 7: also ich finde gut funktioniert nichts {atmet aus, lacht} L1 15: aber plural singular geht noch aber + aber das ist auch beim sprechen {betont} ganz + i sag mal schlimm < ne > {steigend} Table 6. Some examples of positive emotions, GL1, EC1 Emotions satisfaction interest

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Examples L1 9: also sagen wir mal es funktioniert bei mi- mir immer gut wenn ich grammatik übungen machen muss L1 265: oder weil ich + mich eigentlich auch für dieses land interessiere {steigend} oder auch für /diese/ {betont} menschen aber halt nicht für meine lehrerin {lacht}

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Table 7. Subjective and objective discourse, FL1-C1, EC2 EC2 FL1 C1

Objective discourse 6 (15%) 16 (41%)

Subjective discourse 34 (85%) 23 (59%)

Total of descriptors 40 (100%) 39 (100%)

Table 8. Subjective and objective discourse, FL1-C1, EC4 EC4 FL1 C1

Objective discourse 4(18%) 6 (41%)

Subjective discourse 18 (82%) 14 (59%)

Total of descriptors 22 (100%) 20 (100%)

Table 9. Subjective and objective discourse, GL1-C1, EC1 EC1 GL1 C1

Objective discourse 164 (42,48)% 108 (59,66%)

Subjective discourse 222 (57,51%) 73 (40,33%)

Total of descriptors 386 (100%) 181 (100%)

Table 10. Subjective and objective discourse, GL1-C1, EC2 EC2 L1 C1

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Objective discourse 129 (40,18%) 121 (61,11%)

Subjective discourse 192 (59,81%) 77 (38,88%)

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Total of descriptors 321 (100%) 198 (100%)

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Davids Still Exist among Goliaths: A Story of Modest Self-Access Centre Establishment and Survival in Times of Economic Decline Salomi Papadima-Sophocleous, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus Abstract In a university setting, self-access language learning centres (SALLC)s are generally created out of the need to support students and other members of the university and extra-mural community to explore and expand their language learning horizons. The nature of SALLCs depends on the needs of each institution and its community. They range from fully self-directed to semi-guided, from virtual online-self-access centres (OSAC)s to real centres, with traditional print, and more contemporary electronic and digital materials.

While much of the research so far has dealt with different aspects of SALLCs, particularly of prominent ones, this article reports on the case of a small-scale SALLC, which was designed and developed, and which has operated, during difficult circumstances. This report describes how despite the administrative and financial constraints faced during the establishment of the host university and language centre, current theories and practices in SALLC were still taken into account. Also, despite these difficulties and the economic constraints being endured by the country as a whole, a number of strategies were implemented enabling the SALLC to be accessible to all students, with a view to promoting both autonomy and lifelong learning.

The data used consisted of field notes collected during the period of operation as well as results from an evaluation of the use of different learning pathways on offer. Finally, the challenges still being faced as the SALLC enters a new period in its development are outlined.

Keywords: modest SALLC design, operational constraints, learning pathways, promoting autonomy Self-Access Language Learning Self-Access Language Learning (SALL) is closely linked to learnercentred approaches in language learning and notions of autonomous learning, selfdirected learning, as well as learning beyond the classroom. SALL is based on the theory that foreign language learners learn better if they have a say in how they learn, for example, when they independently choose the materials or methods from among different resources that are available (Klassen, Detaramanni, Lui, Patri & Wu, 1998). SALL focuses on student responsibility for and active participation in oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own learning (Carter, 1999), but requires the appropriate â&#x20AC;&#x153;learning environmentâ&#x20AC;? (Gardner & Miller, 1999, p. 11) in which this can be promoted. !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 281-294 Self-Access Language Learning Centres (SALLCS) SALL is most often conducted in a self-contained learning environment or Self-Access Centre (SAC) (Cotterall & Reinders, 2001), or a SALLC. Fouser (2003; 2005) outlines five different categories of SALCs: (a) language-laboratory-based: Developed from out-dated language laboratories (b) computer-room-based: Developed from open-access computer rooms or computer classrooms (c) teaching-unit-based: Developed inside a department or programme that offers mainly traditional classes (d) virtual SACs: Developed for use on the Web with no physical location (e) newly-developed: Developed separately from existing facilities to meet a variety of language learning needs.

At the same time, Miller & Rogerson-Revell (1993) describe four types of self-access systems: menu-driven SACs (where learners are trained and are capable of using classification systems, catalogue listings, menu-lists or dropdown menus to plan and implement their learning), supermarkets (where a wide range of materials are displayed for users to browse through and choose from), controlled access (where students are â&#x20AC;&#x153;directed to a specific set of materialsâ&#x20AC;?, with restricted choice and the focus is on activities which supplement work covered in class) and open-access (where use is not restricted and learners of their own accord find material by using the library or SAC classification system, or by generally browsing in the separate EFL or Foreign Language sections, if there are any). These different types of centre and centre systems have different aims, target different end-users and require different human resources for SAC establishment and management purposes. Miller & Rogerson-Revell suggest that the type of SAC or particular self-access system selected should be based on the aims and rationale (whether financial, pedagogical, ideological, prestigious, or a combination of any of those) for setting it up. Decisions also have to be informed by factors such as the way the SAC will affect classroom teaching or vice versa, the type of materials that need to be bought and / or produced for use in the SAC, the sufficiency of resources, the type of layout the centre will have (ibid.), and the form that student self-assessment will take.

According to Cotterall & Reinders (2001), a SAC consists of a number of resources, in the form of readily-accessible materials, activities, and support or !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 281-294 guidance, provided either through answer keys, or through counselling and the use of technology (Dickinson, 1987). SACs are usually located in one place, and are designed to accommodate learners of different levels and learning styles, and who vary in terms of pace of learning, goals and interests. The aim is usually to develop learner autonomy among its users. SALLC learning ranges from fully independent to semi-guided, and can also be online (Klassen et al., 1998). In such an environment, students are given the opportunity to actively participate in their learning rather than receive teaching passively. This environment can provide varied and appropriate modes of assessment. Gardner & Miller (1999) suggest four main modes of administration of assessment of self-access learning (p. 219).

They talk about assessments that can be administered externally by instructors, both in printed or online form or as public examinations, for example diagnostic and summative assessments, collaboratively, by both an instructor and the learner, by learners themselves, or by peers, in which case the learners are encouraged to play a central role in the process of their assessment, for example by awarding themselves scores or grades, and in a form which promotes reflective learning and self-management (Wenden, 1999). According to Klassen et al. (1988), in these student-centred environments, students take responsibility for their own learning, but in order to enable this to happen, Kell & Newton (1997) suggest introducing learning pathways and discuss the important role that pathways can play in selfaccess centres. In their opinion, pathways or routes guide learners in their use of the centres and support students appropriately with regard to level, pace, learning style, interests and goals and they are important in the design and planning of the centre.

Research in Self-Access Language Learning Although the concept of Self-Access Learning and SACs have existed since the late 1960s (Gremmo and Riley, 1995), SALL has, more recently, experienced a burgeoning of interest, but it has taken a while for relevant research to filter through. This has been evident through the recent publication of conference papers, journal articles, the production of a dedicated journal (SiSAL), as well as books and book chapters which seek to explore and better understand this type of learning and investigate different aspects of SALL and SALLCs. Some examples of research areas have been: different types of learner preparation and support (Esch, 1994), methods of monitoring learner progress (Martyn, 1994), !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 281-294 materials design and evaluation (Gardner and Miller, 1994), the role of technology (Morrison, 1999) and, more recently, advising for SALL (see for example Ludwig & Mynard, 2012; Mozzon- McPherson & Vismans, 2001; Mynard & Carson, 2012; Rubin, 2007; Thornton & Mynard, 2012). Research has also considered students’ attitudes towards learning in self-access mode (Klassen et al., 1998), learners’ perceptions of their learning gains (Richards, 1999), efficiency and effectiveness of self-access centres (Gardner, 1999; 2001), improvements in effectiveness through learner training (Cotterall & Reinders, 2001), definitions and measurement of self-access centre effectiveness (Gardner, 2001), approaches to assessment in SALL (Gardner & Miller, 1999; Reinders & Lázaro, 2007); ongoing support in using SACs (McMurry, Tanner & Anderson, 2009), and change in stakeholders’ beliefs in SALL operations (Gardner & Miller, 2010).

The study of existing SALL centres has also revealed that, on the whole, although such centres bear the name ‘self-access’, which implies learner independence, they often serve simply as computer labs or libraries (McMurry & Anderson, 2010). Some are organised in a way that does not go beyond word processing access or other casual use. Many of them tend to provide activities of a traditional nature, such as grammar, vocabulary and sentence formation exercises.

They do not provide systematically designed programmes for students’ specific needs. Students are mainly invited to use materials on their own, often without systematic guidance and training in independent and autonomous learning. Aims and expected outcomes seem to be general, and difficult to evaluate. Moreover, in many cases, facilities or technologies may be out-dated. Another characteristic is also the lack of sufficient and suitably-qualified personnel.

Although many aspects have already been researched, it is evident from a review of the literature that it is mostly the prominent or ‘state-of-the-art’ SALLCS that have been subject to scrutiny (Fouser, 2003, p. 49). It is clear that there is a need for further experimental research in SALLC development and management in less privileged contexts, including what they come up against and how they find ways to survive.

The discussion in this article concentrates on the main characteristics of SALLCS found in the current literature and how and to what extent it was possible to implement elements from them in a small-scale SALLC which was not !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 281-294 only developed during the establishment of its host university and language centre, but also during an economic crisis. Bearing this in mind, the objective of exploring strategies to achieve this task was set. The discussion is based on field notes and on the evaluation of the results from specific learning pathways selected by students during a one-and-a-half year period.

Research and Cooperative and Interactive Language Learning Centre (ReCILLC) The language centres in various universities worldwide are supported by centres of / for autonomous learning that operate and provide services to students and / or academic and administrative staff and the general public. Such centres exist primarily in Europe, North America, Asia and Oceania (for a few indicative examples, see Appendix). In the Republic of Cyprus, only the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT) has a SALLC, the Research and Cooperative and Interactive Language Learning Centre (ReCILLC).

The CUT Language Centre (2007) offers a variety of language programmes: Greek as a mother-tongue course for Academic Purposes; Greek as a foreign language intensive foundation course; foreign language courses in English, Greek, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Russian, at various levels for CUT and visiting Erasmus students.

The need for a SALLC soon became evident. However, this proved to be a difficult goal for two reasons: first, because this had to be accomplished during the early days of operation both of the university and of the Language Centre (LC) (2007); second, because the whole effort was also affected by the financial constraints imposed following the economic crisis, of which the effects, in Cyprus, began to be felt in the year 2012. Due to these constraints, the LC had to produce some strategies in order to make the establishment of the ReCILLC possible, regardless of the aforementioned difficulties.

The first strategy was to include the ReCILLC establishment within the CUT LC director’s ‘Start-Up’ research programme. This meant that the design, implementation and operation of ReCILLC was financed for the first one-and-ahalf years of its existence (January 2011-December 2012) by the ‘Start-Up’ grant received in April 2010. Its aims were to:

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 281-294 (a) offer autonomous learning programmes tailored to the needs of students, academic and administrative staff, and community members; (b) offer access to diverse language learning material in printed, electronic and digital form, in different languages, at various language levels, practising skills (oral, listening and reading comprehension, writing), vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, etc., on topics of personal, social and educational relevance to learners; (c) support students needing extra attention in their language learning; (d) create additional material and establish a digital language learning activity database for the needs of the LC and ReCILLC; (e) establish an applied linguistics research article digital database; (f) provide teacher training; (g) conduct research on related topics.

The second strategy used during the difficult time towards establishing a SALLC was to accommodate it in existing premises. Since January 2011, the ReCILLC has been housed in the CUT LC office building, in a small room and an adjacent office. This area also includes storage and studio facilities for editing and creating multimedia and digital content for the specific needs of the ReCILLC and the LC in general.

The third strategy was to collaborate with the Main University Library. The outcome was the setting up and maintainance of a small Library â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Annexeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in the ReCILLC. This consisted of printed, audio and digital material, organised according to (a) printed and digital language teaching material and (b) material for research in applied linguistics, including the use of new technologies in language teaching. The former were classified thematically, by languages, level and skills and the latter by research areas. An online language teaching material bank for languages taught at the CUT LC was also established and digital activities for all language courses were created by two research assistants in cooperation with LC lecturers. Moreover, an online database of articles from major journals related to language learning (Computer Assisted Language Learning, etc.) was generated and classified thematically by the research assistants. This aimed to facilitate language staff training and research. The database is used and updated by the LCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s academic staff.

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 281-294 The fourth strategy was to equip the ReCILLC from existing funding, namely: (a) LC funding and (b) ‘Start-Up’ funding. A number of computers (PCs and Apple computers) of different types catering for different learning styles and degrees of digital literacy (workstations, laptops, iPods, iPads, netbooks) were provided, from both funds, for student use and materials production. Furthermore, existing LC equipment such as a TV set, furniture (chairs and desks) accommodating up to 15 students, storage and book-shelves, a scanner, a printer, message boards, digital cameras and camcorders were used for the different ELVIICS pathways. There was Internet access and, hence, access to online dictionaries, to digital language learning material databases, to wiki and to Dropbox.

The fifth strategy was to staff the ReCILLC without additional funding.

The administrative and academic supervision of the ReCILLC was carried out by the CUT LC’s director. ReCILLC was operated by the two ‘Start-Up’ research assistants. One acted as the student mentor and the other offered ICT support. The former was a language teaching expert with knowledge of at least two languages, expertise in second language (L2) curriculum development, Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) and experience in SALL. The latter was an expert in developing multimedia educational materials, and in running and setting up SALLCs. These two were systematically supported by the CUT subject librarian on issues of material storage, cataloguing and use, and by the LC director and teaching staff for materials development, ReCILLC operation, etc.

The two ‘Start-Up’ research assistants ran the ReCILLC from January 2011 to December 2012. Further funding for staff could not be obtained, as envisaged earlier, because in December 2012, the general economic crisis in Cyprus worsened, and affected the university budget. However, the LC came up with a sixth strategy in order to ensure the ReCILLC’s smooth operation. This was possible, with the unpaid voluntary work of two academic researchers until the end of the spring semester 2014.

The final strategy was to involve LC academic staff in the development of the ReCILLC and its different pathways. This was considered crucial in (a) the linking of classroom and SALLC practice, (b) the promotion of feelings of ReCILLC ownership by the teaching staff, and (c) its development and operation without extra funding. !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 281-294 The general strategy of including the ReCILLC design, trial, implementation and functioning in the ‘Start-Up’ research project and involving the LC academic staff as amongst its shareholders made its existence and operation possible. While the ReCILLC design was based on current theories in SALL, it was, at the same time adversely affected by the realities and constraints imposed by the severe economic situation in Cyprus. While the design took into account the Cypriot users’ perceived need for a teacher, it was hoped that, eventually, they would all be able to use the centre independently on a self-access basis, according to their CEFR level, related topic, and preferred medium. It soon became apparent that students felt most at ease with a topic-based approach more than any other, so this approach was further explored and exploited since it had proved most successful with students. Based on the theories and practices studied and the context in question, the ReCILLC proceeded in the development of a number of pathways, described below.

The ELVIICS Programme The first pathway was the English Language Voluntary Independent and Intensive Catch-Up Study (ELVIICS). It was tailored to meet the needs of the firstyear CUT students placed at a language competence level lower than the level expected for their compulsory courses. The researcher, research assistants and a language lecturer developed, piloted and evaluated the pathway. The ELVIICS followed a hybrid SA model. It consisted of a digital Pak, containing suggestions for the use of a large number of relevant printed, electronic and digital materials as input, and many accompanying CEFR A1 and C2 activities, all systematically put together. Apart from the resources and the activities, which took into consideration the students’ needs, levels, learning styles and preferred pace, interests and goals, the pathway was also supported by human and High-tech resources (in the ReCILLC using laptops, iPads, iPods and notebooks, or off-campus, using their own devices). The theory and practice of exploiting high-tech and human resources were used to promote autonomy. Students could independently choose to work on the number and type of activities that would help them achieve the required language level. The pathway encouraged them to monitor and be responsible for their own learning, and work at their own pace. The pathway included appropriate forms of assessment. Classroom lecturers and the ELVIICS !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 281-294 team cooperated in order to follow the students’ progress and support the link between their compulsory course and the ELVIICS pathway. In that way, all stakeholders gained some kind of ownership. The pilot data (2011-2012) revealed that students managed to (a) fill the gaps they had in their knowledge of English and attain the levels expected for their compulsory courses, and (b) pass their compulsory English courses. As suggested by students in the programme evaluation, the programme continued to be offered.

ESAP students ORF improvement, with the use of iPod Touch This pathway was designed to improve English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP) and, more specifically, students’ oral reading fluency (ORF), with the use of iPod Touch, thus exploiting High-tech resources and promoting autonomy. This pathway followed the controlled access SA system. The ORF iPod programme was based on students’ needs. It was preceded by training and accompanied by continuous support from their lecturer and the ReCILLC staff. It involved Repeated Reading activities with the autonomous use of iPod Touch. The content and type of activities were derived from the ESAP course and targeted the students’ needs, level, learning pace and style, interests and goals. Results indicated that the students’ ORF, in terms of reading pace, accuracy and expression, improved.

Students with Special Learning Difficulties (SpLD) ORF improvement, with the use of iPod Touch The third pathway modified the ESAP ORF iPod Touch pathway, previously discussed, to cater for the particular needs of students with dyslexia.

This involved Repeated Reading activities which catered for specific SpLD students’ needs related to specific phonemes. Apart from the resources and the activities, which derived from their compulsory SpLD English courses, students received support from their SpLD lecturer and the ReCILLC team. The aim was to cater for the students’ special needs and also to link their special SpLD compulsory course with extra SALL activities. Although this proved to be a more challenging endeavour, which required greater flexibility, because of the particular type of needs, it was successful in catering for the particular ORF needs of these students, including the pronunciation of specific phonemes. !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 281-294 Extended Language Learning In an effort to extend language learning beyond the classroom, link classroom work with SALL, and develop autonomous lifelong learning, a series of activities were developed for the English for Communication and Internet Studies (ECIS) students. These activities constituted online reading and listening comprehension activities, which were created using the Moodle platform, thus exploiting High-tech resources and promoting autonomy. The activities included text and video material accompanied by digital exercises such as multiple choice, true /false, matching, and cloze. Students worked on these activities at home in their own time. This pathway was based on the controlled access SA system. Three language lecturers and an IT officer from the CUT IT services worked with the ReCILLC team on this project. They all implemented this pathway with the students and provided continuous support to them. The results showed improvement in the students’ reading and listening comprehension in English.

Speaking Based on students’ requests, speaking sessions were organised for students to practice in groups. The sessions were facilitated by a mentor, a qualified language instructor who worked on a voluntary basis. The sessions focused on topics covered during students’ regular language classes or other topics of interest to them.

Conclusions SALLCs vary tremendously from university to university in terms of scope, manner of functioning, type of premises, staff involved, materials used, infrastructure and pathways. In the linguistics literature, the SALLCS that are most frequently discussed are the prominent or state-of-the-art facilities (Fouser, 2003). This is an indication of the rarity of research carried out in smaller and more modest SAC operations.

The aim of this article was to contribute to the research conducted in SALLCS and, more particularly, in less prominent or modest ones. The paper has aimed to describe the case of ReCILLC, a small-scale SALLC, the only university SALLC in the Republic of Cyprus. It presented the way ReCILLC was created, and operated, during difficult times: the establishment of the university and that of its LC, which hosted ReCILLC, as well as the broader financial crisis in Cyprus; it !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 281-294 described the strategies followed to overcome administrative and financial constraints and how the CUT LC ReCILLC managed to meet some of its expected outcomes. It describes the ReCILLCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s design and operation, and the systematic development and evaluation of a number of pathways, based on current theories and practices in SALL. The future is still full of challenges: the ReCILLCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s developing profile, its use by more students, the staff and members of the public, the need for more materials, the continuous developments in technology, the growing requirements for its ability to operate on a day-to-day basis, the increasingly demanding overall role of the Centre: all these are issues that need to be further explored. Another issue is that of the relocation of the ReCILLC within the new Language Centre premises in September 2013. Other issues include the continuing enrichment, as well as the security, of the materials residing in the ReCILLC; further involvement and cooperation of LC English lecturers with ReCILLC staff and links with LC programmes; the appointment of two full-time staff when the voluntary staff scheme elapses (June 2014); the systematic and research-informed development of more SALL pathways. These plans reflect the importance given to the LC, the ReCILLC and independent learning by the CUT community. The Republic of Cyprus will continue to go through an economic crisis for the foreseeable future; therefore, the mere existence of the ReCILLC, let alone its growth and development, will continue to be a challenge, and further strategies will need to be found in order to continue SALL within the ReCILLC.

Notes on the contributor Salomi Papadima-Sophocleous is an assistant professor in Applied Linguistics.

Her areas of interest and her research and publications are related to second language teaching, curriculum design, development, implementation and evaluation, Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL), Assessment and Online Testing, Autonomous Learning, Teacher Education, and Language Programme Quality Control.

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 281-294 References Carter, B. (1999). Begin with beliefs: Exploring the relationship between beliefs and learner autonomy among advanced students. Texas Papers in Foreign and Second Language Learning and Teaching, 4(1), 1â&#x20AC;&#x201C;20. Retrieved from ERIC database. (ED 467863).

Cotterall, S., & Reinders, H. (2001). Fortress or bridge? Learnersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; perceptions and practice in self-access language learning. Tesolanz 8, 23-38.

Dickinson, L. (1987). Self-instruction in language learning. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Esch, E. (Ed.). (1994). Self-access and the adult language learner. London, UK: CILT. Fouser, R. J. (2003). Self-access centers (SAC) in university-level foreign language education: Theoretical and practical considerations. MM News, 6(3), 47-69.

Fouser, R. J. (2005). A Self-Access Language Center in Kyoto University?: Problems and Prospects. MM News, 8(3), 49-57.

Gardner, D. (1999). The evaluation of self-access centres. In B. Morrison (Ed.), Experiments and evaluation in self-access language learning, (pp. 111122). Hong Kong: Hong Kong Association for Self-Access Learning and Development.

Gardner, D. (2001). Making self-access centres more effective. In D. K. Kember, S. Candlin, & L. Yan (Eds.), Further case studies of improving teaching and learning from the action learning project (pp. 143-160). Hong Kong: Action Learning Project.

Gardner, D., & Miller, L. (Eds.). (1994). Directions in self-access language learning. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

Gardner, D., & Miller, L. (1999). Establishing self-access: From theory to practice. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Gardner, D., & Miller, L. (2010). Beliefs about self-access learning: Reflections on 15 years of change. Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal, 1(3), 161172. Retrieved from http://sisaljournal.org/archives/dec10/gardner_miller/ Gremmo, M-J., & Riley, P. (1995). Autonomy, self-direction and self-access in language teaching and learning: the history of an idea. System, 23(2), 151164. doi:10.1016/0346-251X(95)00002-2 Kell, J., & Newton, C. (1997). Roles of pathways in self-access centres. ELT Journal, 51(1), 48-53. doi:10.1093/elt/51.1.48

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 281-294 Klassen, J., Detaramanni, C., Lui, E., Patri, M., & Wu, J. (1998). Does self-access language learning at the tertiary level really work? Asian Journal of English Language Teaching, 8, 55-80. Retrieved from http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/ajelt/vol8/art4.htm Ludwig, C., & Mynard, J. (2012). Autonomy in language learning: Advising in action. Canterbury, UK: IATEFL. McMurry, B. L., Tanner, M. W., & Anderson, N. J. (2009). Self-access centers: Maximizing learners’ access to center resources. TESL-EJ, 12(4).

Retrieved from http://tesl-ej.org/ej48/a2.html McMurry, B. L.T., & Anderson, N. J. (2010). Self-access centers: Maximizing learners’ access to center resources. SiSAL Journal, 1(2), 100-114.

Retrieved from: http://sisaljournal.org/archives/sep10/mcmurry_tanner_anderson Martyn, E. (1994). Self-Access logs: Promoting self-directed learning. In D. Gardner & L. Miller (Eds.), Directions in self-access language learning (pp.

65-77). Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

Miller, L., & Rogerson-Revell, P. (1993). Self-access systems. ELT Journal, 47(3), 228-233. doi:10.1093/elt/47.3.228 Morrison, B. (Ed.). (1999). Experiments and evaluation in self-access language learning. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Association for Self-Access Learning and Development.

Mozzon-McPherson, M. & Vismans, R. (2001). Beyond language teaching towards language advising. London, UK: CILT. Mynard, J., & Carson, L. (Eds.). (2012). Advising in language learning: Dialogue, tools and context. Harlow, UK: Pearson.

Reinders, H., & Lázaro, N. (2007). Current Approaches to Assessment in SelfAccess Language Learning. TESL-EJ, 11(3).

Rubin, J. (Ed.). (2007). Special issue: Language counseling. System, 35(1). doi:10.1016/j.system.2006.11.001 Tanner, M., McMurry, B., & Allen, E. (2004, March). Factors influencing autonomous learning by ESL Students. Paper presented at the Deseret Language and Linguistics Society Symposium, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT. Thornton, K., & Mynard, J. (Eds.). (2012). Special issue on advising for language learner autonomy. SiSAL Journal, 3(1). Retrieved from: http://sisaljournal.org/archives/march12/

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 281-294 Wenden, A. (1999). An introduction to metacognitive knowledge and beliefs in language learning: Beyond the basics. System, 27(4), 435-535. doi:10.1016/S0346-251X(99)00043-3 Appendix Self-Access Centres Europe Open Learning Centre, Kings College: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/mlc/olc/index.aspx Virtual Self-access Centre Nottingham, University of Nottingham: http://vsac.cele.nottingham.ac.uk/introduction/ Virtual Self-Access Centre, London Global University: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/language-centre/Self-Access-Centre/ USA Interactive Language Resource Center, University of Miami: http://ilrc.cas.muohio.edu/about/ Language Resource Centre â&#x20AC;&#x201C; University of Harvard: http://lrc.fas.harvard.edu/ Asia Centre for Independent Language Learning â&#x20AC;&#x201C; The Hong Kong Polytechnic University: http://www2.elc.polyu.edu.hk/CILL/default4.htm http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/CILL/ City University of Hong Kong. http://www.cityu.edu.hk/elc/SAC.html Australia and New Zealand http://www.ameprc.mq.edu.au/docs/prospect_journal/volume_19_no_3/19_3_2_A nderson.pdf

Acknowledgements The author would like to thank her research team, namely research assistants Ms Olga Georgiadou and Mr. Yiannis Mallouris, and language lecturers for their valuable contributions to this project, and her colleague Anastasia Peck for editing the text.

Without their help, this project would not have been possible. This research was supported by the Cyprus University of Technology Start Up Grant, allocated to the researcher for the period 2010-2012.

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 295-307

An Autoethnographic Study of the Use of Mobile Devices to Support Foreign Language Vocabulary Learning Mark Osborne, Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning, University of Lancaster, U.K.

Abstract This autoethnographic study involved the author in the dual role of researcher and subject in a self-study language learning episode. The paper describes a foreign language learning experience of using a mobile phone (Apple iPhone) word card application to learn Italian vocabulary. Data from diary entries were analysed and categorised, and the findings show that learning strategies, content, motivation and interface design are prominent themes. The significance of these themes is addressed in the discussion, and suggestions for further research are made. The findings are of value in order to inform the design, development and deployment of mobile device-based vocabulary learning resources for language learners, and are therefore of interest to language educators, mobile device materials designers, developers and publishers, as well as researchers.

Keywords: foreign language learning, vocabulary learning, mobile phone, word cards, autoethnography

Background There has been a resurgence, over the last two decades, in the appreciation of the centrality of vocabulary learning within any language learning scheme (Nation, 2001; Schmitt, 2000; Schmitt, 2010). There has also been a concomitant level of research activity, fuelled by developments in computational linguistics (Schmitt, 2010) into how foreign language vocabulary can best be learned and what aspects of (English) vocabulary should be included in any learning scheme (Folse, 2004; Nation, 2001).

Vocabulary learning can be placed into two complementary categories: incidental and intentional (Nation, 2001). Incidental vocabulary learning can happen when the explicit focus of the learning task is meaning-focussed, e.g. when engaging in reading or listening for general comprehension or pleasure. One of the limitations of incidental vocabulary learning is that it is slow, haphazard and requires large quantities of text to be processed to ensure adequate exposure !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 295-307 (Nakata, 2008). There are also considerable difficulties in guessing meaning from context and learners need to be familiar with at least 95% of the words in a text in order for them to be able to focus on meaning (Nation, 2001). Intentional vocabulary learning is where attention is explicitly focussed on learning (typically new or unfamiliar) vocabulary items. Intentional learning from word cards, using first language (L1) translations of second/additional language (L2/L3/â&#x20AC;Ś/Ln) target items on opposite sides of cards as prompts for recall, has been shown to result in learning that is both fast and secure (Nation, 2001; Folse, 2004).

Nation (2001) notes that computer-assisted vocabulary learning can create the conditions required for effective vocabulary learning, especially when it comes to scheduling when best to re-visit items being learned. This concurs with SĂśkmen (1997), who maintains that vocabulary learning software needs to be designed to take full advantage of the interactive medium as well as being underpinned by sound vocabulary learning theory. Successful learning outcomes, however, are dependent on the learner persevering with the learning task and various factors can influence this. Allum (2004) provides some evidence that the interactive ability of computer-based materials to assess responses and provide immediate feedback can motivate learners and encourage them to work harder at tasks and attempt them more frequently compared to paper-based alternatives.

Whether that motivational effect will continue given the increasing ubiquity of interactive devices is a moot point.

The last 5-10 years have seen an increase in the adoption of mobile devices for learning (Belshaw, 2010). Kukulska-Hulme (2009) notes that mobile technologies are starting to have an impact on learning in general, and, more specifically, language learning. The typical modern mobile smartphone touchscreen is similar (slightly larger) in size to the word card size of "around 5 x 4 cm" recommended by Nation (2001, p. 303). Smartphones can also support rich graphics, high-quality audio, video, and a high degree of interactivity - they are essentially handheld computers. In addition, smartphone manufacturers are building 'ecosystems' that allow (educational) applications ('apps') to be downloaded directly to the phone. Not surprisingly, there have been a number of mobile apps published which are designed to assist foreign language vocabulary learning using a word card approach (Moore, 2011). However, despite the growing adoption of mobile-assisted language learning (MALL), Stockwell !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 295-307 (2007) notes that "there is very little research that looks at how learners themselves use and perceive language learning activities" (p. 366) and Ros i SolĂŠ (2010) argues for an ethnographic approach to researching MALL that "has as its focus the learner experience rather than an evaluation of his/her learning" (p. 137).

Research Design and Methodology The aim of this study was to gain insight into the experience of learning vocabulary, using word cards; thus, placing the author in the position of a language learner. This was so that the author could experience first-hand what it is like to use an interactive word card-based vocabulary learning app on a mobile device, having chosen to learn Italian ab initio. The methodological research approach adopted was autoethnography.

Autoethnography is an ethnography which is focused on the self, where the author of the study is both the informant ('insider') and researcher/analyst ('outsider') and the investigator builds an ethnographic description from an analysis of their own behaviour. Autoethnography is not without its detractors nor is it free of limitations or controversy. McIlveen (2008) acknowledges that autoethnography's most significant limitation is its epistemological status due to the researcher's dual roles as both informant and investigator. Holt (2003) also recognises that the controversy associated with autoethnography is partly caused by the exclusive reliance on the self to produce the research. O'Byrne (2007) notes these criticisms, but frames them within the context of differing paradigms; thus, while the study of self and the use of self-reflective data would be deemed unscientific because it violates criteria of rigour, from a post-positivist perspective, within an interpretive paradigm, other criteria apply. Etherington (2004), while satisfied that any criticisms of autoethnographic methodology have been addressed, warns that these criticisms could be held to be valid if the researcher does not approach the task with the requisite skills and without understanding its purposes and their own motivations. Finally, Cunningham and Jones (2005) point out that if done well, autoethnography can provide insights that with other approaches might be too subtle to elicit: "the challenge is to view oneself objectively, to see oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own worldview as freshly as possible and to then interpret the identified experiences in the light of applicable theory" (pp. 2-3).

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 295-307 The Context of the Study The motivation for this study was to inform the author's professional practice as an interactive materials designer and developer. I am a language educator (English to Speakers of Other Languages), currently involved in the design and development of interactive materials (computer and mobile-based) to support vocabulary learning and have research interests in the field. A native English (L1) speaker, I am fluent in modern Greek (L2), which was learned as a second language in adulthood.

The first task for the researcher-subject was to identify suitable resources to use for Italian (L3) vocabulary learning. I had access to an Apple iPhone 4 for use in the research and so this meant a search for a suitable word card app in the Apple App Store via iTunes. An app was selected based both on the developer's description and on user reviews since there were many similar apps to choose from.

The chosen app presented word cards in three stages: 1. A browse mode to look through, read and listen to the word cards (typically 10-14 in a set), L1 (English) and L2 (Italian) on the front side; 2. See the card with L2 word/phrase on the front and try to recall the L1 then flip the card to see the L1 on the reverse and tap 'Yes' or 'No' according to whether one was correct; 3. See the card with L1 on the front and try to recall the L2 - then flip the card to see the L2 on the reverse and tap 'Yes' or 'No' according to whether one was correct.

Correct answers increase the cardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s score, incorrect answers decrease it.

All cards have to reach a score of 7 before a set is completed.

The app was used on a daily basis (usually 2 or 3 times a day for 10-15 minutes at a time) and various aspects of the experience, both during/whilst learning, and retrospectively (immediate and delayed), were recorded in a diary (paper-based and electronic). The aspects of the experience recorded were not predetermined, but were allowed to emerge in as natural a way as possible. The app was used (and the experience recorded) over a two-week period, which proved sufficient to gain some insight into the initial stages of beginner-level vocabulary learning using digital word cards (although not sufficient time to learn much Italian vocabulary). !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 295-307 Results and Discussion The diary entries were subjected to an iterative thematic analysis to identify key categories and themes, using an approach adopted and simplified from Fereday and Muir-Cochrane (2006). This involved placing each diary entry (or part of entry thereof) under a code label (category) heading in a wordprocessing document. Fereday and Muir-Cochrane define a "good code" as being "one that captures the qualitative richness of the phenomenon" (2006, p. 4). The first instance of a phenomenon had a code label created to reflect its content and the entry was placed under it. Consequent entries were then placed under an existing code label, or had a new code label created for them and were placed under that. This procedure continued until the last entry was processed. The code labels were then reviewed to determine if similar ones existed that could be subsumed under others. For example, "frustration" was subsumed under "motivation"; "memory and retrieval" was subsumed under "learning strategies" to become "learning strategies, memory and retrieval". This process was repeated until a stable set of themes emerged.

The following are the main themes: 1. Learning strategies, memory and retrieval A prominent strategy was a) the keyword technique: [diary entry] "using mnemonic imagery to help remember". This involves finding an L1 word that sounds like the L2 word being learned and then forming a mental image combining the meaning of both words. This technique is well documented in the literature (Folse, 2004; Gu, 2003; Nation, 2001; O'Malley & Chamot, 1990; Oxford, 1990; Schmitt & Schmitt, 1993).

Table 1 illustrates some examples of the use of the keyword technique taken from diary entries. It is interesting to note the use of Greek (L2) as well as English/Greek (L1/L2) combinations to support the learning of Italian (L3).

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 295-307 Table 1. Mnemonic Imagery (adapted from Nation, 2001, p. 311) 1

L3 (Italian) word to be learnt

albergo

Che ora è?

ieri

velocemente

2

3

4

a mental image combining the meaning of the !

L3 word and the meaning of the L1/L2 word

meaning of the ! unknown word (L1)

aluminium & iceberg

A hotel with an aluminium ! frame built out of blocks cut from an iceberg.

! Hotel

Kia-Ora (a soft fruit drink once ! often sold in UK cinemas)

Someone being asked the time (in the cinema) and turning their watch hand to ! check, which is holding a KiaOra drink, which spills on them.

! What time is it?

Greek '!"#$%' ! (yeri) = old people

a rather abstract image of a group of old ! people symbolising belonging to the past

! Yesterday

an arrow made out of cement ! flying quickly through the air

! quickly

L1 (English)/L2 ! (Greek) keyword

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Greek '&"'$(' (velos) = arrow ! & cement

Also interesting is the fact that b) Greek and Italian cognates were also used: [diary entry] "cognates helping (L1 & L2) e.g. Sabato (Saturday) very similar to Greek !"##$%& (savato)", which is another strategy noted in the literature (Thornbury, 2002). However cognates were also seen to interfere with learning on occasion: [diary entry] "cognates interfering, e.g. carte (card) and

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 295-307 Greek !"#$% / karta - using Greek karta rather than carte". Other within-language interference was also noted: [diary entry] "confusing similar sounding forms".

Interference from semantically related items was noted [diary entry] "experiencing interference between items of similar semantic meaning, e.g. 'I'd likeâ&#x20AC;Ś', 'Can youâ&#x20AC;Ś'; days of week". This form of interference has been demonstrated by Warring (1997), who provides clear evidence (perhaps counterintuitively) that initial learning of words from the same semantic sets (e.g. all the colours together) can actually impede learning because learners confuse words within the set with each other (e.g. recalling the word "red" for the colour green).

This phenomenon can be mitigated by the choice of content (i.e., avoid introducing items in semantically related sets).

There was a significant difference in difficulty experienced between c) productive recall (being promoted with the meaning and recalling the word) and d) receptive recall (seeing the word and recalling the meaning) tasks: [diary entry] "recognition OK; struggling with production of some items, particularly phrases".

Nation (2001) reports existing research reflecting this finding and suggests that receptive learning should be performed first. There was also a marked difference in difficulty experienced between items regardless of whether the task was receptive or productive: [diary entry] "finding some items are substantially more difficult [to remember] than others". No explanation or obvious pattern for this can yet be found. It did not seem to be dependent on length of word or phrase, which agrees with Thornbury's observation that "long words seem to be no more difficult to learn than short ones" (2002, p.27).

In Step 1 of the learning in the app, the Italian and English words are presented together and the Italian word spoken, but reading and hearing the words spoken at the same time was [diary entry] "disconcerting"; [diary entry] "closing eyes so as not to read words before hearing them". There is some explanation for this offered by Mayer (2001), who posits a cognitive processing model (not specifically for language learning) with evidence that supplying written and spoken text simultaneously can overload channels and impede learning.

Of course, e) repetition is acknowledged as playing a key role in memorising words (Nation, 2001; Thornbury, 2002), but is usually referred to in the context of reading, writing or speaking. Access to a 'play audio' button !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 295-307 facilitated aural repetition: [diary entry] "playing [audio of] words and phrases repeatedly, 10/20/30 times (massed repetition)". Nation (2001) cites research that suggests oral repetition can enhance retention; however, I used f) silent rehearsal here [diary entry] "internalising pronunciation rather than speaking aloud (would recording facility help?)".

2. Approach, materials and content (the app) I found that the experience is heavily dependent on the quality of the app used. The didactic approach used in the app here was limited and fairly unsophisticated (e.g., no facility for the program to automatically support expanded rehearsal via a programmed algorithm). There was often a degree of uncertainty about how best to do tasks: [diary entry] "not sure whether to learn spelling or pronunciation"; and a general feeling that not enough thought or planning had gone into designing the content and learning experience: [diary entry] "don't have much confidence in choice of words/phrases and where they are leading".

It would have been useful to have been able to edit or modify the content: [diary entry] "felt need to personalise content". For example, [diary entry] "essential information is left out of prompts (e.g., if I wish to say 'I am American' â&#x20AC;&#x201C; there is no indication of which gender is required for the response; same for size (shoes or clothes?)" illustrates frustration at learning two different Italian words for 'size', depending on context, but the prompts for recall not reflecting the distinction and simply displaying 'size'. These may seem minor irritants but their ability to interrupt learning was disproportionately large. Some words (for whatever reason) can be much harder to learn than others and it would have been useful to have had the facility to exclude these from easier-to-learn words and to be able to treat them separately: [diary entry] "would like to put some items in a 'difficult bin' and get on with new easier items".

3. Motivation Motivation was a key issue for me and, despite Allum's (2004) assertion that interactivity and feedback can enhance motivation, it is hard to accept that learners would persevere for any meaningful length of time with this app.

Proportionally, there were a large number of journal entries relating to boredom !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 295-307 and frustration: [diary entry] "tedious, lost concentration"; [diary entry] "frustrated by the some of the longer phrases, really hard to remember". This may partly be due to the fact that the initial learning of new vocabulary can be very hard to achieve (certainly for me), but also that the instructional process used in the app was repetitive and lacking variety: [diary entry] "[learning words] very hard to do"; [diary entry] "bored and frustrated with some difficult to remember items"; [diary entry] "would like more variety in exercises". At times, even dishonesty was resorted to: [diary entry] "found myself cheating [tapping 'yes' I understand] out of boredom and wanting to move on".

I also perceived my feelings of frustration - and the resultant negative effect on motivation - as being due to a sense that not sufficient learning was being achieved: [diary entry] "need to feel learning more". It is quite possible that this was a result of requiring productive recall too early in the learning process, and as Schmitt (2010) notes, vocabulary learning is a gradual incremental process.

4. Device and app interface While the device itself (Apple iPhone 4) was a convenient tool to use, the actual interface of the app interfered at times (e.g., varying button positions to play audio): [diary entry] "interface irritating me (button positions)". The objective should be to make the interface as unobtrusive as possible and to facilitate engagement with the learning content with minimal impedance ("excise") from the interface (Cooper, Reinmann, & Cronin, 2007, p. 224).

Holding the iPhone in one hand and using my thumb to tap was by far the most comfortable option: [diary entry] "much prefer using in one hand in portrait mode". This is in contrast to Knovikoff's (2009) design preference for a twohanded landscape orientation approach using both thumbs.

On a positive note, there was a 'settings' facility which allowed some control over presentation: [diary entry] "turned off L1 (English) voice, (which is) pointless".

Conclusions and Implications for Further Research It would not be possible to claim that this research fills any major lacuna, but arguably it does provide some insight into the experience of using a mobile !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 295-307 app for language learning; however, because the experience is that of one person, and analysed and reported by the same person, one has to therefore exercise caution in deciding what findings could be generalised to others.

O'Malley and Chamot (1990) note that the degree of language learning expertise is a factor that can influence the use of strategies. Ellis and Sinclair's (1989) seminal work illustrates how learner training can be incorporated into language courses. Both Folse (2004) and Thornbury (2002) acknowledge that learners can benefit from strategy training (e.g., mnemonic and key word training), and so it would seem sensible if training in the kinds of vocabulary strategies identified by Oxford (1990), Schmitt and Schmitt (1993) and Gu (2003) could be integrated into vocabulary learning apps.

As well as temporal prompting (as used in spaced rehearsal), geospatial prompting could be investigated as a complementary parameter. Because devices such as the iPhone are location-aware, it would be feasible to set triggers based on geographic position. For example, the app could prompt the user to initiate a learning session when they returned home, thereby relieving the learner of some of the burden of learning management. This could be further refined to include a temporal dimension, e.g., when arriving home after 18:00 but before 20:00 in the evening.

The fact that the app was amenable to casual use while the user was engaged in other tasks (e.g., on sofa while watching TV) probably increased the frequency of use - the phone is typically always nearby/at hand and available for immediate use (a key differentiator compared to other media/modes of delivery).

Motivation to persevere is a key issue with this kind of word card learning.

Belshaw (2010) refers to the "ability of mobile technologies to make learning experiences more inviting, engaging and accessible" (p. 31). There would certainly appear to be scope for a greater variety of interaction types, rather than simple yes/no responses. It also became apparent that some kind of reward system is necessary, as used in games. This is an area that certainly deserves further investigation, structuring the vocabulary learning experience so that it becomes more game-like.

The app was mostly used at home rather than on the move (e.g. on a bus or train, in queues, etc.). I typically used it either in the morning before work (e.g., over breakfast) or after work. Sharples (2010) notes the challenge of getting close !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 295-307 to subjects when researching mobile learning. This is understandable: I would have been an elusive subject for direct observation by others, so autoethnography provided a solution here. This autoethnographic approach could be taken further with a designer/developer/researcher working iteratively to create a resource using feedback from their own learning experience.

Perhaps the overriding message derived from this experience was that it is easy to forget how hard foreign language learning can be, particularly at the beginning stages. It could be argued that such an experience should become an integral part of the (continual) professional development of language learning materials developers and designers. I would agree with Davies (2002), who states that "it is precisely in this process of interaction between ethnographer as self and ethnographer as other that social knowledge of general interest and significance is produced" (p. 189).

Notes on the contributor Mark Osborne is a director and co-founder of L2 (www.L2.co.uk), an ELT epublishing company and the jonMoat consultancy (www.jonMoat.co.uk). He is a PhD candidate on the Doctoral Programme in E-Research and Technology Enhanced Learning at Lancaster University, UK. His professional and research interests include technology-assisted vocabulary learning and the use of iPads in ELT.

References Allum, P. (2004). Evaluation of CALL: Initial vocabulary learning. ReCALL, 16(2), 488-501. doi:10.1017/S0958344004001624 Belshaw, D. (2010). Mobile and wireless technologies review. JISC. Retrieved from http://www.mmiweb.org.uk/mtl/downloads/ jisc-mobile-review.pdf Cooper, A., Reinmann, R., & Cronin, D. (2007). About face 3: The essentials of interaction design. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley.

Cunningham, S. J., & Jones, M. (2005). Autoethnography: A tool for practice and education. Proceedings of the 6th ACM SIGCHI New Zealand chapters international conference on computer human interaction: Making CHI natural, 94, 1-8. doi:10.1145/1073943.1073944

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 295-307 Davies, C. A. (2002). Reflexive ethnography: A guide to researching selves and others. London, UK: Routledge.

Ellis, E., & Sinclair, B. (1989). Learning to learn English: A course in learner training (Teacher's book). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Etherington, K. (2004). Becoming a reflexive researcher: Using our selves in research. London, UK: Jessica Kingsley.

Fereday, J., & Muir-Cochrane, E. (2006). Demonstrating rigor using thematic analysis: A hybrid approach of inductive and deductive coding and theme development. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 5(1), 1-6.

Retrieved from http://www.ualberta.ca/~iiqm/backissues/5_1/pdf/fereday.pdf Folse, K. S. (2004). Vocabulary myths: Applying second language research to classroom teaching. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

Gu, P. Y. (2003). Vocabulary learning in a second language: Person, task, context and strategies. TESL-EJ, 7(2), 1-25. Retrieved from http://www.teslej.org/wordpress/issues/volume7/ej26/ej26a4/ Holt, N. L. (2003). Representation, legitimation, and autoethnography: An autoethnographic writing story. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 2(1), 1-22. Retrieved from http://www.ualberta.ca/~iiqm/backissues/2_1/pdf/holt.pdf Knovikoff, T. (2009). Flash of genius: SAT vocab. In D. Mark (Ed.), iPhone user interface design projects (pp. 111-126). New York, NY: Apress.

Kukulska-Hulme, A. (2009). Will mobile learning change language learning?

ReCALL, 21(2), 157â&#x20AC;&#x201C;165. doi:10.1017/S0958344009000202 Mayer, R. E. (2001). Multimedia learning. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Moore, C. (2011, March 8). ELT needs to get a grip on smartphones. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/mar/08/mobile-learningtechnology-apps-moore McIlveen, P. (2008). Autoethnography as a method for reflexive research and practice in vocational psychology. Australian Journal of Career Development, 17(2), 13-20. doi:10.1177/103841620801700204 Nakata, T. (2008). English vocabulary learning with word lists, word cards and computers: Implications from cognitive psychology research for optimal spaced learning. ReCALL, 20(1), 3-20. doi:10.1017/S0958344008000219 Nation, I. S. P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. !

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O’Byrne, P. (2007). The advantages and disadvantages of mixing methods: An analysis of combining traditional and autoethnographic approaches.

Qualitative Health Research, 17(10), 1381-1391. doi:10.1177/1049732307308304 O'Malley, J. M., & Chamot, A. U. (1990). Learning strategies in second language acquisition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Oxford, R. L. (1990). Language learning strategies: What every teacher should know. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.

Ros i Solé, C. (2010). The fleeting, the situated and the mundane: Ethnographic approaches to mobile language learning (MALL). In G. Vavoula, N. Pachler, & A. Kukulska-Hulme (Eds.), Researching mobile learning: Frameworks, tools and research designs (pp. 137-150). Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang.

Schmitt, N. (2000). Vocabulary in language teaching. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Schmitt, N. (2010). Researching vocabulary: A vocabulary research manual.

London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Schmitt, N., & Schmitt, D. R. (1993). Identifying and assessing vocabulary learning strategies. Thai TESOL Bulletin, 5(4), 27-33.

Sharples, M. (2010). Methods for evaluating mobile learning. In G. Vavoula, N. Pachler, & A. Kukulska-Hulme (Eds.), Researching mobile learning: Frameworks, tools and research designs (pp. 17-39). Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang.

Sökmen, A. J. (1997). Current trends in teaching second language vocabulary. In N. Schmitt & M. McCarthy (Eds.), Vocabulary: Description, acquisition and pedagogy (pp. 237-257). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Stockwell, G. (2007). Vocabulary on the move: Investigating an intelligent mobile phone-based vocabulary tutor. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 20(4), 365-383. doi:10.1080/09588220701745817 Thornbury, S. (2002). How to teach vocabulary. Harlow, UK: Pearson Longman.

Vavoula, G., Pachler, N., & Kukulska-Hulme, A. (Eds.). (2010). Researching mobile learning: Frameworks, tools and research designs. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang.

Warring, R. (1997). The negative effects of learning words in semantic sets.

System, 25(2), 261-274. doi:10.1016/S0346-251X(97)00013-4

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Giving Speaking Practice in Self-Access Mode a Chance Kerstin Dofs, Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology, Christchurch, New Zealand Abstract Finding resources and activities which will interest students and promote speaking in a self-access resource can be challenging. This article describes how the School of English at Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT), Christchurch, New Zealand, works to enable speaking practice in their Language Self Access Centre (LSAC). The activities which students are encouraged to do were produced consequent to research and an examination of good practice worldwide within the field of autonomy in language learning. The article will explore some basic design principles and conditions which were followed with the aim of creating maximal “comprehensible outputs” for speaking (Anderson, Maclean & Lynch, 2004), and, at the same time, creating conditions for these speaking tasks which would optimise development of autonomous language use (Thornbury, 2005). This is followed by an analysis of how the resources provided in a designated speaking area in the LSAC fulfil these principles and conditions, and how they may foster autonomous learning.

Keywords: speaking practice, support, autonomous learning activities, autonomous performance, task design

Speaking Practice: The Rationale Self-access centres (SACs) dedicated to promote language learning typically stock it with resources for all skills, as well as for improving grammar and vocabulary.

Providing resources for reading, writing, listening, and even for pronunciation of discrete vowels, consonants, vocabulary and sentences usually poses no particular problems; however, setting up provision for the development of spoken communication skills in a self-study situation is not as easy. First of all, speaking requires a partner and secondly, some ‘noise’ is unavoidable when practising and this may disturb others who prefer a more quiet study area. Authentic speaking practice, in which students become aware of and understand: purpose, level of formality, appropriateness, and strategies for discussions and conversations, may also be difficult to achieve in a SAC. Nevertheless, improving speaking seems often to be one of the most pressing needs for many of the English as an Additional Language (EAL) learners. Despite its challenges, providing speaking opportunities in a SAC can certainly, as this article will show, be addressed in many ways. !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 308-322 This article will analyse Language Self Access Centre (LSAC) speaking support for students in the School of English, at Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT) in Christchurch, New Zealand. It will firstly outline some theories and ideas around provision of autonomous learning support, and then compare these with the expected outcome of students doing some of the speaking activities offered in the LSAC. The School of English caters for around 400 students per year originating from a range of non-English-speaking countries and educational backgrounds, with the most coming from the Middle East, China, Korea, and Japan. Their reasons for studying English in New Zealand varies a lot, from international students who want to improve their general English for further studies or work in their home country, to immigrants and refugees who have started new lives and therefore need to reach a satisfactory English language level for participation in New Zealand society. Most of them have had very limited previous opportunities of authentic speaking practice in English.

Theories and Ideas With regards to ‘noise’ as a disturbance in a self-access centre, Gardner & Miller (1999) point out that the centres typically accommodate both for individual studies and for small group studies, depending on the learners’ choice, so noise as a result of speaking activities should be tolerated. To reach an acceptable sound level, they suggest the following actions: explain the necessity for noise in speaking to both students and staff members; encourage speaking practice within designated areas; raise awareness amongst the students so they can adjust their sound level if necessary; provide controlled speaking activities (taking turns, etc.); promote reflection on learning, as well as chatting in the target language, and finally, create an environment which discourages students from chatting in their own language.

A range of good practice ideas for speaking emerged from a study conducted by Dofs & Hobbs (2011). These include, for example: conversation clubs or classes run by student peers; focussed speaking practice determined by students’ choice; language exchange schemes; workshops run by staff; language computer software for pronunciation practice, and, most importantly, suitably resourcing a designated speaking area.

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 308-322

Figure 1. Suitably Equipped Language Practice Space at CPIT Anderson, Maclean, and Lynch (2004) argue the case for pushing learners to produce “comprehensible output” (Swain, 1985). To create the necessary impetus for this ‘push’ they suggest the creation of speaking materials based on research and design principles which pay particular attention to five areas: 1. “Comprehensible input” (Krashen, 1981) - learners have to mutually adjust their output to make the interaction and input comprehensible.

2. Conversation involves both knowledge development and problem solving in the target language.

3. Learners need practice in divergent talk, i.e., a common speaking goal is not present (e.g. role plays) 4. Assessments should focus on students’ ability to get the message across and not only on accuracy.

5. Tasks should be repeated with different partners so learners are given a chance to interact with more than one other learner and thereby improve their speaking performance.

According to Anderson, Maclean & Lynch (2004), the materials writer should, when designing tasks for speaking, include scenarios in which the !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 308-322 speakers have different personal goals so that the tasks involve unpredictable interactions and thereby emulate real-life situations. They also state the importance of students’ developing discussion and presentation skills.

Thornbury (2005) believes that when learners gain control over their own learning, they become more confident and develop a capacity to self-regulate their performance, and as a result they may become skilled autonomous performers. He also states that performances under quasi-authentic conditions, for example, with regards to urgency, unpredictability and spontaneity, help boost learners’ confidence and thereby also their development of autonomous language use. He adds that the following conditions for speaking tasks should be met in order to optimise this development: 1. Language production needs to be maximised.

2. Activities should be purposeful, i.e. with clear outcomes.

3. Tasks need to be interactive so learners can notice how their utterances affect others.

4. The level of the language and tasks need to provide a challenge to be overcome by learners.

5. Learners need to feel safe and secure as and when they do speaking tasks; therefore, a supportive environment is important.

Furthermore, Thornbury (ibid) mentions that feedback on accuracy may be needed, or wanted, by some learners, even if the tasks are mainly for fluency practice. He suggests that error corrections can be done in a non-obtrusive way, either after the task is completed or as “repair” and mainly for clarification when mistakes concerning the meaning of words or concepts occur.

Autonomous Learning and Support for Speaking Practice at CPIT The steps taken to enable autonomous learning development at CPIT include classes being scheduled for one hour of self-study time each week during which Learning Facilitators (LFs) are available to guide students in the LSAC. One of the most important LF tasks, on these occasions, is to encourage students to actively take control of their own learning. To this end, students can also make use of some in-house Autonomous Language Learning (ALL) Guides and Individual Learning Plans (Dofs, 2011). The LFs assist students with planning, goal-setting, and choosing tasks to focus on. They also help learners find suitable !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 308-322 resources, both on-line and from the vast number of ready-made adapted resources that the self-access centre holds (see Figures 1 and 2).

Figure 2. A Student Takes Advantage of One of the Listening Posts Provided Moreover, teachers help raise studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; self-awareness about their learning by integrating specific learner training tasks into the language lessons, along the same lines as those suggested in the ALL Guides. The aim is to assist studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; understanding of how to become more autonomous. Thus, training includes student participation in developing transferable skills and strategies for learning, so that they can take on more control and responsibility for their studies, particularly in an out-of-class environment.

This is based on Crabbeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (1999, p. 449) suggestions about giving explicit instructions, when setting tasks in the classroom, to allow for knowledge transfer to self-study situations. In addition, students are also encouraged to share with their peers in class time any examples of good practice which they have found to be effective in their self-directed studies (Brown, 2002 p. viii). In order to bridge the gap between the two study situations, of classroom and self-access centre, this happens just after or before their weekly hour in the self-access centre.

Many students do want to take the opportunity to practise speaking during these self-study sessions and they therefore actively ask for it on their planning sheets. One reason for this preference is that they have not had much speaking practice in their own country, but also they seem to recognise that there is a !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 308-322 chance of receiving assistance with this particular skill in a ‘non-threatening’ environment, with their peers.

Figure 3. The LSAC at CPIT – Examples of Both Modern and More Conservative Study Spaces

Once students have experienced the difference between being more active in the LSAC and being more passive in the classroom, many begin to realise that they learn better when they actively take responsibility for their own learning and language practice (Dofs, 2007).

The Speaking Corner at CPIT When the LSAC was refurbished, in 2008, a conscious choice was made to divide the room up into skills-based learning areas, i.e., for reading, writing, listening and speaking skills, and then with the language systems, i.e., grammar and vocabulary, in the middle, feeding into the skills. This new layout was specifically designed to provide for variations in individuals’ preferred learning styles; for example, offering alternatives between private or group studies, between relaxed or more conventional seating, and between modern or more conservative study areas.

At the outset, the aim was to create a soundproof speaking corner; however, that was not possible within the budget, so the decision was made to make the most of what had been allocated. Today, two screens provided by sets of shelves, define the speaking area in the far corner of the LSAC, so albeit not !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 308-322 sound proof it allows for a reasonably discrete, private, and designated space for making speaking ‘noises’. It is furnished in such a way as to suit individuals, pairs, or small groups of up to four students at a time. There is a small table with a CD player on it and a recording device, a couple of upright chairs, and a couple of comfortable ones (see Figure 3).

In order to make the speaking corner work for authentic speaking practice, the space was also equipped adequately with supportive resources, on the shelves, walls, and divider screens, that students can easily access and make use of without any help. The resources include books, recordings, activities with clear instructions, pronunciation charts, an overview of useful speaking strategies, a self-assessment chart from the European Language Portfolio, and card games as prompts for pair or group practice; however, students often need an introduction, as well as some encouragement, to make good use of these resources. Such needs are dealt with by the Learning Facilitators (LFs), according to students’ learning intentions for any of the skills, by looking at the tick box section, included for this purpose, on the learners’ planning sheets. If more students than one have indicated a need for speaking practice, then the LFs group them together and they show them how certain resources can be utilised (see Figure 5).

This development of speaking support is very much a work-in-progress being modified and adapted as new ideas and experiences unfold. The LFs participate in formalised observations of each other over the year and they keep a reflection diary which then forms the basis of regular development discussions between LSAC staff members around how to give the best possible assistance to students.

Analysis of Activities and Resources To understand more about the usefulness of the activities and resources provided in the LSAC today, a selection of resources are analysed (in Tables 1 and 2) for their contribution to enabling comprehensible output and helping develop the capacity to self-regulate and improve autonomous language use (Anderson, Maclean & Lynch, 2004; Thornbury, 2005). These resources include Audacity - a sound recording application, Conversation Inspirations by Zelman (2009), Conversation Strategies by Kehe and Kehe (2008), Discussion Strategies by Kehe and Kehe (2007), and a question and action card game named AGO by

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 308-322 Butchers (2011). Reflections on the perceived usefulness of these materials in the LSAC are included in the overall analysis.

Table 1. Overview of Resources and the Task Design Principles

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Resource

Comprehensible input

L2 Knowledge development and problem solving

Divergent Monitoring Repeated talk / Evaluation with different peers

Audacity

From websites

Transcribing into phonetic script

N/A

Mostly for accuracy

N/A

Conversation Yes. Students need Inspirations to adjust their output to provide meaningful input for others

Role plays, interviews, talks and discussions all have elements of this

Yes

Peer and selfmonitoring of both fluency and accuracy

Yes, this is possible

Conversation Learning Strategies comprehensible input

Yes. Both problem solving and development of many strategies and skills

Yes

Selfmonitoring as part of adjusting language to the situation

Yes, this is possible

Discussion Strategies

Learning comprehensible input

Yes. Both problem solving and development of many strategies and skills

Yes

Selfmonitoring as part of adjusting language to the situation

Yes, this is possible

AGO Card game

Input at three levels Yes, they learn a of English lot about each other

Yes

Selfmonitoring as part of adjusting language to the situation

Yes, this is possible

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 308-322 Table 2. Overview of Resources for Optimising Autonomous Performance Development Resource

Maximising language production

Purposeful activity e.g. clear outcome

Interactive Level of language and task present a challenge

Audacity

N/A

Yes

N/A for this exercise (can be)

Yes

Yes

Conversation Yes inspirations

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Conversation Yes strategies

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Discussion strategies

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Card games

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

The resources and activities are described in more detail below, along with reflection on their ability to enable comprehensible output and the capacity to selfregulate.

Audacity This free downloadable recording device from the internet, http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ has been very useful for students who wish to check their pronunciation and to practise speaking accuracy. One activity suitable for Audacity suggested in the LSAC is that students: 1. Open up a web site with an audio source, for example, http://www.elllo.org/ 2. Listen to the text as many times as they need to in order to understand the gist 3. Click on the transcript and listen and read at the same time 4. Work with unknown vocabulary 5. Copy the text into this vocabulary highlighter, http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/alzsh3/acvocab/awlhighlighter.htm in

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Safe and secure practice

SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 308-322 order to see which of the words in the text are in the Academic Word List (AWL) produced by Coxhead (2000) 6. Listen and repeat after â&#x20AC;Ś which is shadow listening/speaking 7. Record themselves when reading the same text aloud 8. Compare with the original sound file In this way Audacity is mainly being used for individual pronunciation practice and accuracy performance. Students are also encouraged to self-assess their accuracy by transcribing one part of their own recording into phonemic script, exactly the way they hear the sound, and then checking this with a dictionary. This activity offers a useful challenge as well as knowledge development. The whole activity is purposeful, with the clear outcome of improving pronunciation. Moreover, following the suggested order and techniques above gives students more confidence as they work through the activity, e.g. listening many times and learning unknown vocabulary before making an attempt to speak results in more certainty. Audacity can, of course, also be utilised for pair and small group recordings and then be used with different students each time: however, that is not covered in this analysis.

Conversation Strategies and Discussion Strategies Targeted learning of strategies and skills for holding conversations and discussions is encouraged by providing activities for practice of these life-like speaking situations. As many EAL students have limited speaking experience, particularly in using these techniques, the speaking corner is equipped with some self-study exercises on this topic from the books, Conversation Strategies and Discussion Strategies by Kehe & Kehe (2007; 2008). These resources take learners through a whole set of useful activities which develop strategic conversation and discussion skills. They contain examples and activities on how to: begin a conversation, clarify something, interrupt someone, elicit information, repair conversations, end conversations, gossip, explain something, etc. Students typically work in pairs or small groups. Through their interactions, students get comprehensible input and they also have to adjust their output in order to provide meaningful input for other students. Moreover, these activities are meaningful in that they provide students both with knowledge and with accuracy practice which are useful for later interactions with more authentic exercises for fluency. Some of !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 308-322 the exercises are information-gap type activities so they require divergent talk and skills to deal with unpredictability, thereby offering development of problemsolving skills and L2 knowledge while presenting a suitable challenge at an appropriate level of English. An immediate, but perhaps unconscious, selfmonitoring (Dickinson, 1987) would occur as and when they work through these activities, because they need to make themselves understood and therefore they adjust their language accordingly. These cards also help maximise language production, as knowledge will ultimately be transferred to other practice, or reallife, situations.

Conversation Inspirations The Conversation Inspirations resource by Zelman (2009) provides opportunities to simulate authentic interactions and is mainly for fluency practice.

The activities have been grouped into five different themes: Role Plays, Interviews, Talks, Stories, and Discussions. Students do the activities in groups of two or three choosing a card and following the instructions (see Figure 4).

Role play Scenario: Your friend was supposed to pick you up two hours ago.

He has just turned up. Tell him how angry you are.

Instructions: !

Distribute the different roles within your group. One of you takes the role of the friend who is late, the other one plays the person who was waiting.

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Give yourself 5 minutes to discuss the scenario (in English!) and prepare your play.

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Make notes if necessary

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Act out the scene together

Figure 4. An Example of a Role Play Card In doing the activities, students gain a whole range of useful near-life speaking experiences; they practice divergent talk, solve language problems, and adjust their output to suit the unpredictability, urgency and spontaneity of the interactions. Furthermore, the Role Plays especially have provided an inspiring !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 308-322 and non-threatening activity for many students, as they tend to be less embarrassed by making mistakes when they take on a role than when they have to produce authentic language. Student outcome from this activity relate mostly to fluency; however, students are encouraged to reflect and make notes of any questions and language problems, and to discuss these with LFs or the teacher after the activity. This facilitates development of accuracy and at the same time encourages students to take responsibility for their own progress.

Card games Card games are used as prompts for some speaking activities. The LSAC has recently invested in all three levels of the question and action card games AGO by Butchers (2011). The questions on these cards range between easier ones, with one- or three-word questions for beginners, to longer ones with more difficult language up to an intermediate level of English. There are pictures to help with answers for the easier cards and both pictures and texts for the higher levels. The questions generate a lot of talking and students develop confidence in their speaking skills as they take part in the interactions, based on their own experiences. The cards also give students the opportunity to get to know each other therefore this creates a less threatening environment for speaking and sharing ideas. The main aim is to practise fluency in speaking and evaluation is not encouraged, however, LFs are always available should students want some clarification or feedback on their performance.

Figure 5. An LF with a Student in the Speaking Corner, Demonstrating a Card Game !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 308-322 The cards can be used over and over again with different speaking partners and as students become more confident they can use the more difficult question cards. While some students appreciate using these cards and use them repeatedly, others need more encouragement and reminders to make the best use of them.

Conclusions The analysis described above, i.e. comparing other authorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; theories and ideas concerning learning outcomes with the activities and resources provided in our LSAC, generated very useful information and knowledge about the efficacy of current support, as well as highlighted areas where more or better support is needed. The analysis of this small selection of speaking activities shows that they meet almost all of the conditions for optimising autonomous performance development as outlined by Thornbury (2005), as well as the task design principles needed to push for comprehensible outputs, as suggested by Anderson, Maclean & Lynch (2004). The learners in the School of English at CPIT are most likely to improve their autonomous speaking skills, and they also learn more about how to self-monitor when they engage in these activities.

There are, of course, many other theories and criteria that could be utilised for a similar type of analysis; nevertheless, it is hoped that others working in the field of learner autonomy and language learning will find the process undertaken in this study of use and worthy of replication in their own teaching/learning contexts. This method can thus be recommended to anyone who would like to give speaking practice in a self-study situation a better chance.

Notes on the contributor Kerstin Dofs came from Sweden to New Zealand 13 years ago. Her qualifications include a BA in Education, a Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA) and an MA in Language Learning and Technology, through the University of Hull in the UK. She has worked at CPIT in Christchurch for 11 years, as a lecturer in the School of English and for several years as a Senior Academic Staff member and the Manager of the Language Self-Access Centre for the Department of Humanities.

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 308-322 References Anderson, K., Maclean J., & Lynch T. (2004). Study speaking. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Brown, H. D. (2002). Strategies for success: A practical guide to learning English.

New York, NY: Pearson Education.

Butchers, L. (2011). AGO card game. Kobe, Japan: AGO. Coxhead, A. (2000). A new academic word list. TESOL Quarterly, 34(2), 213-238. doi:10.2307/3587951 Crabbe, D. (1993). Fostering autonomy from within the classroom: The teacher’s responsibility. System 21(4), 443-452. doi:10.1016/0346-251X(93)90056-M Dickinson, L. (1992). Learner autonomy, 2: Learner training for language learning. Dublin, Ireland: Authentik.

Dofs, K. (2007, October). Helping language learners to greater independence – What works? In Carroll, M., Castillo, D., Cooker, L., & Irie, K. (Eds.).

Proceedings of the Independent Learning Association 2007 Japan Conference: Exploring theory, enhancing practice: Autonomy across the disciplines. Kanda University of International Studies, Chiba, Japan.

Retrieved from http://www.independentlearning.org/uploads/100836/ILA2007_008.pdf Dofs, K. (2011). Encouraging autonomous language learning through classroom and language self-access centre initiatives (Unpublished master’s thesis).

The University of Hull, UK. Dofs, K., & Hobbs, M. (2011). Guidelines for maximising student use of independent learning centres: Support for ESOL learners. Christchurch, New Zealand: Ako Aotearoa. Retrieved from http://akoaotearoa.ac.nz/download/ng/file/group-7/guidelines-formaximising-student-use-of-independent-learning-centres.pdf Gardner, D., & Miller, L. (1999). Establishing self-access: From theory to practice. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Kehe, D., & Kehe, P. D. (2007). Discussion strategies. Brattleboro, VT: Pro Lingua Associates.

Kehe, D., & Kehe, P. D. (2008). Conversation strategies. Brattleboro, VT: Pro Lingua Associates.

Krashen, S. (1981). Second language acquisition and second language learning.

Oxford, UK: Pergamon.

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 308-322 Swain, M. (1985). Communicative competence: Some roles of comprehensive input and comprehensible output in its development. In S. Gass and C. Madden (Eds.), Input in second language acquisition (pp. 235-253).

Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

Thornbury, S. (2005). Teach speaking. Harlow, UK: Pearson Education.

Zelman, N.E. (2009). Conversation inspirations. Brattleboro, VT: Pro Lingua Associates.

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Foundation-Level Gulf Arab Student Response to Self-Access Learning Diane Malcolm, English Unit Head, Arabian Gulf University, Bahrain Mohamed Majed, English Development Centre Supervisor, English Unit, Arabian Gulf University, Bahrain Abstract This article describes the role of the self-access centre at Arabian Gulf University (AGU) in helping low proficiency students in our foundation year achieve the skills in English they will need to succeed in our medical college. Studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; previous training and expectations are described as well as some of the practices developed at AGU to monitor and encourage student participation in the centre.

While students have generally responded well to their self-access work in our facility and endorse its role in developing their skills, they have also highlighted some areas for improvement. Although our centre is small and serves a specialized group of learners, some of the issues we face may be similar to those experienced by others in different settings and some of the solutions we have tried to find may be of interest.

Keywords: self-access language learning, low proficiency English learners, selfaccess centres, Gulf Arab English learners Background For around 15 years now, the English Unit at Arabian Gulf University (AGU), Bahrain, has maintained a facility for students to practise their English skills independently. Originally called the Self-Access Centre (SAC), it has more recently been renamed the English Development Centre (EDC). Although our centre serves a small group of learners in the fairly specialized setting of a medical university, some of the methods we have developed to encourage our students to use the facility may be of interest to managers in larger self-access centres and in diverse settings, as their self-access users probably share many of the characteristics of those in the Gulf. While no one learner is exactly like the next, there are certain commonalities these Gulf Arab learners share, based on previous exposure and training, that may shape their attitudes and motivation, affecting their reaction to self-study. Such factors need to be taken into consideration if we are to facilitate their successful engagement with independent modes of learning. As discussed in Gardner and Miller (2011, p. 87), the implementation of self-access learning is necessarily influenced by students and their expectations, so it is imperative to have a baseline understanding of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;where

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 323-338 they are coming from’ in terms of their prior experience in English language learning.

Learners’ Educational Background Tertiary education in the Arabian Gulf region, often delivered through the medium of English, is an ever-expanding growth area, with a large number of new private and public institutions now in existence and many more in the planning stages. In Saudi Arabia, for example, ten new public universities have been established in recent years (Onsman, 2011) and, indeed, huge sums are dedicated to the education sector. To feed their governments’ need for qualified professionals who are also Gulf nationals, high school graduates with good academic records are provided with scholarships to continue their education either abroad or in their home countries. At the same time, in those home institutions where the content is taught through English, there is often a notable lack of English proficiency on the part of students that hampers their progress and presents challenges for their teachers.

Previous school training There are many systemic problems affecting the delivery of successful English programmes in public schools in the Arab region in general, including the Arab Gulf region. These include poorly-trained teachers, outdated methodology, an emphasis on rote learning, teacher-centred classes, inappropriate or inadequate textbooks, minimal exposure to English in class, large class sizes and poor assessment methods (Clarke, 2006; Fareh, 2010; Hozayen, 2011; Rabab’ah, 2002; Syed, 2003). Secondary school classrooms in the United Arab Emirates, for example, have been described as places to memorize textbooks, where English is considered a school subject to be tested rather than a means of communication (Qashoa, 2006). In general, reading is a neglected skill and seen as a ‘pronunciation’ exercise, while the use of libraries or extensive reading programmes are rarely encouraged (Mustafa, 2002, cited in O’Sullivan, 2004). In short, students whose only exposure to English is through public school classes, as is the case for the majority of our foundation students, will have had little exposure to communicative use of the language. They tend to be highly dependent on the teacher telling them what to do, dislike and are unaccustomed to reading for content or pleasure and, in general, take a passive approach to learning. All of !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 323-338 this reflects on their training, or rather the lack of it. However, they will also excel at memorizing, be exam-focused and achievement-oriented and motivated to do well in order to pass into the medical years. Understanding these background factors helps us accept the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; initial response to self-study and put them on the path to becoming more self-directed. For many, being asked to decide what, how, when and with whom to study is a huge challenge but also an opportunity they may never have had before.

In order to bridge the gap to tertiary level English medium education, one solution found in almost all post-secondary institutions in the region is to place students in a foundation programme, largely devoted to improving their English skills and lasting for up to two years, until students are able to reach a benchmark score, such as IELTS 5 or higher, that qualifies them to enter the academic field they wish to pursue. Until recently, we had no foundation programme at AGU to help low proficiency students, perhaps due to the relatively small intake to the Arabian Gulf University medical school (around 120 to 150 students a year); thus, they struggled to pass the first year. To address the high failure rate of first year students with low English proficiency, a foundation year was added. These foundation students are now the heaviest users of our self-access facility.

Setting and students Students seeking admission to the university must take an entrance exam, on the basis of which they are assigned to the foundation course or Year One of the medical college. Foundation students are not taught by AGU faculty, but instructors from a private language school contracted for the purpose. English classes are held at the AGU premises for five hours a day, for two 16-week terms, and a specified number of hours of out-of-class work are to be completed in the EDC. Most of the foundation students come from Saudi Arabia, with the next largest group coming from Kuwait, as well as a few from Oman and Bahrain.

Nearly 100 students have been admitted to this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s foundation programme, a tiny number compared to larger institutions, but one that puts a strain on our limited resources and staff.

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 323-338 The Self-access Facility at AGU Our self-access centre is not a purpose-built facility, but rather an in-house creation, which means we have had to adapt the resources to the space made available. The EDC is currently housed in a space beside the library, with three small classrooms (one of which serves as the office for the supervisor) and a larger outer room. Furnishings come from the university stores, although some were made specifically for the facility, such as the carrels for watching DVDs (See Figure 1). We have no dedicated budget for the centre, which has meant finding alternative ways to provide resources and update them. While the university administration has generally approved our requests for equipment, getting these orders fulfilled involves time-consuming follow-up, on our part, with university staff. Many of the resources in the facility were ‘scavenged’ from conference trips or during vacations, with the hope of getting reimbursed when brought back to AGU, Bahrain. Thus, we have quite an eclectic selection of materials, including a fairly well-stocked graded reader library, many with CDs, DVDS and textbooks. Hardware includes computers with internet access, DVD players and screens, a wall-mounted TV for movie viewing, games and worksheets (see Figures 2 & 3).

Staffing has always been minimal, but a supervisor has always overseen activities in the centre, usually on a part-time basis. When we had no suitable person, instructors took on the role, closing the centre when we had classes or other obligations. Fortunately, for the past two years we have employed an enthusiastic, young Bahraini supervisor, Mohamed, who works closely with the foundation teachers in supporting the students in their self-access study and who has developed a number of activities to encourage their involvement in the centre, as described below. Mohamed is held in high regard by all the students, who respond as much to his personality as to his commitment to improving their English. As a fluent user of English who also shares the students’ own language and culture, he acts as a role model as well as mentor.

Self-access procedures Students are oriented at the beginning of the academic year in groups of 20.

During the students’ tour of the facility, the supervisor explains what material is available, how to plan their time, and gives each student a copy of the EDC rules !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 323-338 and regulations. Each student opens a file (plastic folder) in which all work is to be kept, and students are instructed how to fill out the log sheet to record their activities. The files serve as proof of their efforts and also document their progress.

Students can go back and see their progress or the teachers may show them, through looking back at their own work. The main job of the centre supervisor is in helping students choose from the variety of activities, to keep them progressing and interested. Students' behavior and attitude is also monitored and those who are disturbing others will be asked to leave for the day. The number of accumulated hours in each semester is also monitored. Anyone well below the average is advised to seek further guidance or put some more effort into their work.

Teachers may check their studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; files, make sure the work is properly documented, look for progress markers and give students extra guidance.

Teachers are also responsible for their studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; behavior whenever they bring them to the EDC for special or extracurricular activities related to their class work.

Feedback on their progress may be given through written comments in the file, or more detailed consultations with the supervisor or class teacher.

Figure 1. Students Using Study Carrels in the EDC for Listening and Watching DVDs

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Figure 2. Playing Hangman in the Main Study Area

Figure 3. Watching a Movie on the Wall-mounted TV Incentives and rewards for effort and contributing to improving the facility Several competitions have been arranged to encourage students to keep working independently on improving their English skills. Prizes (book vouchers) are awarded at the end of each year to the top 5 students. Each teacher nominates the top three in their class and the overall winners are given prizes based on the best documentation and the quality of the work contained in their files. The

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 323-338 amount of time logged in self-study work may be taken into consideration when there is a tie, or in cases where it is difficult to choose.

Awards are also given for the best student contribution to the EDC. This competition rewards students who come up with an idea or a suggestion to improve the facility. One student received the award for re-naming the centre the English Development Centre (EDC), as students were being teased about spending time in the ‘SAC’. Another student searched for inspiring sayings and famous quotations, posting a different one on a board each week. The awardees usually come up with simple effective ideas that other students engage with.

Each year, 10 to 12 students volunteer to help out in the EDC and try to make it as friendly a place as possible. They are trained by the supervisor and help in tidying, keeping students quiet, preventing them from misusing the facility and helping them to operate equipment. Involving students in the day-to-day working of a self-access facility as volunteers, group leaders or organizers has also been a feature of some very successful SACs in other settings, such as Japan and Taiwan (Cooker, 2007; Shih, 2007). The best volunteers also receive an award at the end of the year, based on the supervisor’s assessment of their performance and on the amount of assistance offered to him and to the other students. The awards ceremony, hosted by the supervisor, is attended by university administrators as well as students and teachers and always generates a lot of interest and enthusiasm (see Figure 4).

Further incentives for students include an honours board containing the names and pictures of the top students for each year, and opportunities to visit offcampus museums and historical places in Bahrain, where they are tasked with assignments by their teachers involving reporting back on the activity. These reports are considered in their self-access work, with the added bonus that off-site visits help to promote the centre as they are reported in both the university and local press. “Celebrating success” has also been recognized in other SACs as an important motivator to keep up student enthusiasm, for example, in Uzbekistan, where centre users’ achievements and suggestions are also shared with their peers (Gorevanova & Gulyamova, 2008-2009).

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Figure 4. Students Getting Awards for Self-access Work and Contributions

Figure 5. A Discussion Group in Progress in One of the Small Classrooms Discussion groups are a popular extra feature of self-access learning (see Figure 5). Discussion groups of 3 to 7 students for half-hour or one-hour sessions are booked in advance at a specified time in the centre. Students choose the topic, while the supervisor acts as moderator, advising about language errors, such as pronunciation and grammar. Student-nominated topics are arranged a day ahead, with the moderator beginning with a question, while students continue with prepared questions of their own, each participant stating an opinion at least twice. !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 323-338 Discussions may also follow a movie or documentary viewing, in which participants discuss different aspects of the film, such as the plot, characterization, cinematography and the message conveyed. This may then be related to real-life situations students are familiar with and have opinions about.

Since the foundation was established, many former foundation students have passed to Year One. Some of these ex-foundation students choose to act as tutors for current foundation students, finding out their needs and designing activities to help them through tutorials arranged in the centre, with the input of the supervisor, and often using its materials.

Assessment of Self-access Language Learning (SALL) In order to gauge studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; response to working in the EDC, this year a short questionnaire was designed and administered to students who had completed foundation and been accepted into Year One of the medical phase (see Appendix).

The 5-point Likert scale questionnaire was distributed in class by Year One English teachers and collected at the next class meeting. The questionnaire contained five questions related to the benefits to the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; English skills from working in the EDC. One question related to the amount of support and feedback given by the EDC supervisor and class teachers about how to use the facility, while the last two concerned their reaction to the requirement to complete a specified number of hours in the EDC and whether they recommended it to all students. The response rate was quite high, with 45 out of 68 students returning the questionnaire. An overwhelming majority of students (93%) endorsed the role of the teachers, and especially the EDC supervisor, in helping and guiding them in using the EDC. Highly positive results were also obtained for the questions relating to the benefits of the EDC in improving their English skills (86% of respondents agreed); in learning new ways to improve their English (84% agreed) and helping them manage their English learning outside of class (71% agreed). In addition, 80% of respondents agreed they would use the ways for learning English practised in the EDC, in future. However, fewer students (60%) felt they had become more confident in using the language from their EDC experience.

Opinion was much more divided concerning whether EDC hours should be compulsory, with a slight majority agreeing (53%, versus 23 % who said they

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 323-338 should not). On the other hand, a significant majority (84%) agreed they would recommend the EDC for all students who wanted to improve their English.

The questionnaire also included two open-ended questions, one asking what the students felt was the biggest benefit gained from working in the EDC, while the other asked what they did not like about it. Nearly all students wrote a response to the first question, while several also responded to the second. The activity most endorsed by students was discussions with the supervisor for improving speaking skills. The next most beneficial activity reported was reading.

Others felt all their skills had improved, including their writing and listening. One student commented, “It helped us to improve and know how to study…without any helps from the teacher.”

On the other hand, the most frequent negative comment concerned the distraction created from noise made by other students, as well as the crowded conditions in the centre. Student suggestions included adding more and newer resources, and more than one commented on how boring it was to have to complete a specified number of hours. One comment was “EDC is really helpful place for people who want to learn but there is nothing excited to do in (it). I really want to ask the person who is responsible of the EDC to make it more fun place.”

Discussion Positive aspects of the self-access work From the students’ generally favourable comments regarding the role of the EDC in helping improve their English skills, it appears our centre is scoring well on this aspect. Students also seem to have got the message about their improvement being dependent on their own efforts, rather than the teacher telling them what to do. Many have also embraced the concept of reading as more than just a text to be memorized, but a means of improving vocabulary, writing skills and even study skills. One described reading in the EDC as being “training for sit(ting) and study for more than one hour”.

As medical students traditionally spend many hours a day poring over texts, this experience will be helpful for their future studies. Student active involvement in the centre is another positive result. Many opportunities are presented for students to better the environment in the EDC and take on some responsibility for their own and others’ learning. Although not all are confident !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 323-338 about their ability to use English for communication, the highly positive response to discussion groups shows that many students have now gained the ability to “speak in English for a long time” as one put it, and deal with a variety of topics, something which is far from their high school experience. In addition, they have gained the opportunity to “be social with other students” as one remarked, a skill that will stand them in good stead as they share the demands of medical school in the coming years.

Negative aspects of our centre In an earlier article in this journal, Lucy Cooker (2010, pp. 7-8) described her principles for self-access, these being: self-access learning should be fun; learners should be involved in contributing to the centre, the learning environment should be comfortable for its users and perhaps most importantly, the facility should be truly ‘self-access’, i.e., students should not be required to use it. While I believe our centre has fulfilled the first three principles to varying extents, the issue of requiring students to attend is one I have struggled with since we established the centre. Are we interfering too much in student decision-making by asking them to provide and document evidence of their work, and by stipulating that they must spend a specified number of hours working in the centre in a given term? In providing some options such as discussion classes, are we actually managing their learning for them? In other words, are we really helping them become more independent, or are they still relying too much on their teacher/SAC supervisor to direct their learning? The line between providing support and making decisions for learners is one that is easy to cross, as student expectations based on their former training and the learning context are hard to ignore. In this aspect, students using our centre might benefit from counselling in learning strategies and self-assessment of their learning through modules or courses along the lines of those described in Kelly (1996) and Cooker (2010). On the other hand, the danger of providing too much support, especially when delivered as a required element of a formal course, in so-called independent learning, has also been noted.

This may lead to students “going through the motions” to complete the requirement, without ever having the opportunity to experiment with their own pathways to learning (Morrison, 2009).

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 323-338 Perhaps we can take reassurance about the current limitations of our facility from Gardner and Miller (1999), who point out that there are many different types of centres which evolve according to the needs of the learners.

Among the examples they give (p. 53), ours can be categorized as something between a study centre and a drop-in centre. This is because it complements studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; classroom work, on the one hand, as the supervisor works closely with foundation teachers to augment their classroom materials and skills, and, on the other, it is a place where students can choose the activities they want from the materials available and according to their own interests and needs. The only difference is the stipulation that a certain number of hours be completed during the term. This requirement came about in the early years of the centre to draw students in, as there was little hope then of the ones most in need of supplementing their meagre English skills attending voluntarily. Once they were persuaded (or coerced) to visit the centre, resources such as graded readers and English language videos were a revelation, and they enthusiastically worked their way through what we had to offer, while many engaged the supervisor of the day in conversations, and pressed for more speaking opportunities which we tried to arrange. Whether they would have continued to come without being required to is debatable, but we suspect it would have been much more difficult to appeal to students without attaching some reward in the form of marks, given their prior training and expectations (Malcolm, 2000).

Areas for improvement The fact that our facility is lacking in the provision and updating of appropriate materials that can maintain student interest is tied to the relatively low profile the EDC has maintained so far, and the fact that we have no dedicated budget or official status as a university entity. To change for the better, we need to win greater administrative recognition of our centre and its important role. With the acceptance of an ever-increasing number of low proficiency students to the foundation course each year, we can certainly make the case for expansion, for a dedicated budget for updating resources, for increased staffing and, eventually, a purpose-built facility to serve the whole university. Thus, we will continue to bring student endorsement of the EDC to the attention of administrators, in the hope that we may play a more permanent and visible role in helping all who wish !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 323-338 to improve their English skills. After all, the ultimate success and potential for growth of a self-access facility is its integration with and recognition by the rest of the institution (Dixon, 2006; Sturtridge, 2000).

Conclusion The self-access facility at a Gulf University has evolved to serve the needs of a specific group of Gulf Arab learners. We try to take into account these studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; background and prior exposure to and training in English while striving to reverse studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; perceptions that the onus for learning comes from the teacher.

We also try to capitalize on their reward-oriented expectations by offering incentives for their achievements. In these respects, we consider our facility a success, and it certainly has become a second home for many ex-foundation students, now well into their medical studies, which they pursue in the same building. Nevertheless, there are a number of improvements we intend to make to further enhance their self-study environment and their learning. A priority is reconfiguring the space currently occupied by the EDC to increase its effectiveness, through studying the layouts of successful SACs in other settings, such as Kanda University, Japan, (Cooker, 2007) and taking cues from those to adapt our facility, by, for example, adding a sound-proof space for discussions and movie viewing, and rearranging the different centres for various skills practice. We have recently been assured of administrative support from the AGU president to do this, and have also attracted the interest and participation of a new group of users, postgraduate students in various specialized fields such as Arid Sciences and Education which are also offered at our institution. These are encouraging indicators that the important role of the EDC in helping students with their English proficiency is increasingly being recognized. Above all, student input will continue to be valued, both as a source of encouragement and assurance that we are on the right path, and to remind us of the work that still lies ahead.

Notes on the contributors Diane Malcolm is English Unit Head at Arabian Gulf University (AGU), Bahrain, where she has taught first-year medical students for over 25 years. She established the AGU English Unit self-access centre in 1998, and has coordinated its activities since then. !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 323-338 Mohamed Majed has been the self-access facility supervisor at Arabian Gulf University (AGU), Bahrain, since 2011.

References Clarke, M. (2006). Beyond antagonism? The discursive construction of ‘new’ teachers in the United Arab Emirates. Teaching Education, 17(3), 225237. doi:10.1080/10476210600849698 Dixon, D. (2006). Why have an independent learning centre? In D. Dixon, H. Baba, P. Cozens, & M. Thomas (Eds.), Independent learning schemes: A practical approach (pp. 45-58). Dubai, UAE: TESOL Arabia.

Cooker, L. (2007). The Self-Access Learning Centre at Kanda University of International Studies (KUIS), Chiba, Japan. Independence, Newsletter of the IATEFL Learner Autonomy Special Interest Group, 41, 29-32.

Cooker, L. (2010). Some self-access principles. Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal, 1(1), 5-9. Retrieved from http://sisaljournal.org/archives/jun10/cooker/ Fareh, S. (2010). Challenges of teaching English in the Arab world: Why can’t EFL programs deliver as expected? Procedia 2(2), 3600-3604. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.03.55 Gardner, D., & Miller, L. (1999). Establishing self-access: From theory to practice. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Gardner, D., & Miller, L. (2011). Managing self-access language learning: Principles and practice. System, 39(1), 78-89. doi:10.1016/j.system.2011.01.01 Gorevanova, A., & Gulyamova, J. (2009). The supported open learning centre (SOLC) at the British Council, Uzbekistan. Independence, Newsletter of the IATEFL Learner Autonomy Special Interest Group, 45, 25-29.

Hozayen, G. (2011). Egyptian students’ readiness for autonomous language learning. In D. Gardner (Ed.), Fostering autonomy in language learning (pp. 115-125). Gaziantep, Turkey: Zirve University. Retrieved from http://ilac2010.zirve.edu.tr Kelly, R. (1996). Language counseling for learner autonomy: The skilled helper in self-access learning. In R. Pemberton, E. S. L. Li, W. W. F. Or, & H. D. Pierson (Eds.), Taking control: Autonomy in language learning (pp. 93114). Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

Malcolm, D. (2000). Giving credit where it’s due: Self-directed learning and marks. Independence, Newsletter of the IATEFL Learner Autonomy Special Interest Group, 28, 10-13. !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 323-338 Morrison, B. (2009). From the thrill of drilling to the dangers of scaffolding.

Independence, Newsletter of the IATEFL Learner Autonomy Special Interest Group, 46, 25-26.

Onsman, A. (2011). It is better to light a candle than ban the darkness: Government led academic development in Saudi Arabian universities.

Higher Education 62, 519-532. doi:10.1007/s10734-010-9402-y O’Sullivan, A. (2004, September). Reading and Arab college students – Issues in the United Arab Emirates Higher Colleges of Technology. In M. Singhal & J. Liontas (Eds.) Proceedings of the first international online conference on second and foreign language teaching and research. Retrieved from: http://www.readingmatrix.com/onlineconference/proceedings2004.html Pemberton, R., Li, E. S. L., Or, W. W. F., & Pierson, H. D. (Eds.). (1996). Taking control: Autonomy in language learning. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

Qashoa, S. (2006). Motivation among learners of English in the secondary schools in the Eastern Coast of the UAE (Unpublished master’s thesis).

British University in Dubai, UAE. Rabab’ah, G. (2002). Communication problems facing Arab learners of English.

Journal of Language and Learning, 3(1), 180-197.

Shih, Y.-L. (2007). The self-access centre at Soochow University, Taiwan.

Independence, Newsletter of the IATEFL Learner Autonomy Special Interest Group, 40, 37-40.

Sturtridge, G. (2000). Notes from Cassandra: Why universities might fail to meet their students’ needs. In CIEL Handbook 1: Integrating independent learning with the curriculum (pp. 22-27). Retrieved from: https://www.llas.ac.uk/resources/gpg/1400 Syed, Z. (2003). The sociocultural context of English language teaching in the Gulf. TESOL Quarterly, 37(2), 337-340. doi:10.2307/3588508

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 323-338 Appendix Questionnaire about the benefits of the EDC What is your opinion about the benefits of the English Development Center (EDC) you used in the foundation year?

Please indicate how much you agree with the sentences by putting a check ! under the number: 5 = YES!!!; 4 = Yes; 3 = so-so; 2 = No; 1 = NO!!

Statement 5 4 3 2 1 1. Working in the EDC helped me improve my English skills.

2. I learned some new ways to improve my English skills in the EDC. 3. Working in the EDC helped me manage my English learning outside of English class.

4. I will use the ways for self study I learned in the EDC for improving my English in future.

5. Working in the EDC made me more confident about my English skills.

6. I got enough help and guidance about using the EDC from my teachers and EDC supervisor.

7. I think foundation students should have to do a minimum number of hours in the EDC. 8. I recommend the EDC for all students who wish to improve their English.

Write your answers to questions 9 & 10 on the back of this paper (in Arabic or English) 9. What was the biggest benefit you got from working in the EDC? 10. What didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t you like about the EDC self-study?

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Medics on the Move South Africa: Access to Medical Words Kris Van de Poel, University of Antwerp, Belgium and North West University, South Africa Christine Fourie, Stellenbosch University and North West University, South Africa and University of Antwerp, Belgium Karen Seberechts, University of Antwerp, Belgium Abstract South African medical students who are Cuban-trained and therefore Spanishspeaking, on their return to South Africa need to learn medical vocabulary, terminology, and appropriate interactional discourse in the two major languages of English and Afrikaans, in order to be able to practise professional medicine effectively and efficiently. Indeed, their language problems are further compounded by differences in medical equipment and in medical practices between Cuba and South Africa. To meet these particular studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; needs and provide a communication support tool, the concept of a paper-based pocket-size multi-lingual illustrated dictionary was introduced as an additional component in a blended learning approach, to complement online materials called MoM-SA. The dictionary, to which students are invited to add material, has word lists in English, Afrikaans and Spanish, and offers links to the online materials. Students can add terminology, translations into other African languages and images, so that the dictionary grows and reflects the everyday needs of the students, who, at the same time, become co-owners of the dictionary; thus, process has become content and, as a result, learner motivation has increased.

Keywords: medical terminology, medical discourse, communication support tool, multilingual medical practice, ESP, MoM-SA

Setting the Scene: Cuban-Trained South African Medical Students With eleven official languages, communication challenges in a multilingual South African (SA) professional healthcare context are manifold.

Medical professionals are expected to communicate in different languages depending on the region where they operate. In the Western Cape province, for instance, they are expected to communicate in English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa, the three dominant languages in the region. Since medical students apply to a school which may not be in the area where they were raised, they are very often challenged with having to learn another language in which to function professionally. Moreover, it is by no means certain that they will have been schooled in both Afrikaans and English, as well as another African language. First year medical students at the University of Stellenbosch therefore sit language proficiency tests when they enter university and have to take part in an academic !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 339-352 literacy course in either English or Afrikaans, whichever has proved to be their least strong language. Apart from this academic literacy course, the students also have to complete a communication course in their weakest language, between the two languages of isiXhosa and Afrikaans.

However, an altogether different linguistic challenge came about in 1985, when South Africa and Cuba signed a cooperative health agreement as part of an intervention which seeks to address the shortage of qualified medical doctors in South Africa (Health Care in South Africa, 2013).

Through the programme, on an annual basis, a group of medical students from South Africa, who have not passed the entry requirements to medical school, are allowed to spend the first six years of their training in Cuba. During this period the students receive twelve months of intensive Spanish language training, followed by five years of medical training (undertaken in Spanish in a preventionoriented health care system). Upon their return to South Africa, the students are admitted to different universities where they do their internships and complete their studies, undertaking the Cuban final qualifying exam which is ratified in South Africa.

At Stellenbosch University, where the participants in this study were enrolled, the intensive orientation programme, which has been designed for them as a group, with their specific needs in mind, consists of 1) medical skills training appropriate to curative-oriented health care, 2) language courses with a focus on medical communication in English and Afrikaans (the two major languages for professional medical communication in the Western Cape region of South Africa) and 3) supervised clinical ward rotations in the university hospital.

Since these medical students, whose home language is often not English or Afrikaans, but who may have been schooled in one of these languages, have undertaken all of their medical training in Spanish, they have learned the medical vocabulary as well as more general medical communication practices only in Spanish. Consequently, in order to be able to communicate and practise medicine effectively in South Africa, they need to (re-)learn the medical vocabulary and terminology, as well as related interactional discourse or scripts.

Medics on the Move and Medics on the Move South Africa (MoM-SA) Since quality of doctor-patient and doctor-colleague communication can !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 339-352 directly influence the quality of patient care (Hewett, Watson, Gallois, Ward, & Leggett, 2009; Watson, Hewett, & Gallois, 2012) and may even improve patient health outcomes (Stewart, 1995), communication training has, in recent years, received ample attention in patient-centred medicine. Even though it has become an integrated component of a western medical curriculum, language support guides (such as the Calgary-Cambridge guides; Silverman, Kurtz, & Draper, 2005) â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;typically mention the use of a second or foreign language as just one of many issues in cross-cultural communication without providing any solutions or prescriptions to address ensuing communication problemsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (Gasiorek & Van de Poel, 2012, p. 4).

This need to address the issue of cross-cultural communication for medical professionals has led to the development of Medics on the Move (MoM). Medics on the Move started in 2006 as an EU co-funded project and has since developed into an online tool for six European languages at beginners (MoM-basic) and advanced level (MoM-advanced) with translation support for six other languages (www.medicsmove.eu). MoM is intended for (pre-)professionals to use autonomously as a communication tool in clinical settings, but it can also be used as a learning tool in training and teaching contexts.

The online materials for beginners (MoM basic) are based on scenario texts which follow the doctor-patient consultation timeline interspersed with communicative situations with colleagues. The syllabus is functional and speechact-based and the scenario texts have different types of support: phonetic (audio and systematic pronunciation training), grammatical (rule-based with examples from medical contexts), lexical (wordlist and wordmaps bringing words together in semantic fields) and communication (a task-based approach, see below for more examples).

Due to the communication challenges for the students in a South African medical professional setting and the fact that SA medical schools have integrated patient-centred communication in their medical training programmes, the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Stellenbosch University introduced a language-specific communication training programme for all students. Given the complex profile of the learners, the restricted number of teaching hours and the lack of targeted teaching and learning materials, the approach adopted in the developmental process was critical. The programme was conceived, in 2013, as a !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 339-352 collaboration between the Language Centre and the Medics on the Move team, with input from local developers, pedagogues, material designers and medical consultants. It has adopted a blended learning approach (Graham, 2006) consisting of (limited) contact teaching (20h) and autonomous online learning (see, among others, Little 1991) and is tailored for a South African context for online and contact teaching and learning both in Afrikaans and English1. In order to inform the programme, called MoM-SA, a needs analysis was carried out involving staff and students. Since the Cuban-trained students have special needs, they were studied separately.

Needs Analysis as Part of MoM-SA Implementation In 2012, after having completed the medical training programme in Cuba and having participated in the medical orientation programme, a group of ten Cuban-trained SA students2 took part in a needs analysis (questionnaire and focus group) that was conducted with a view to increasing learning output (Van de Poel & Gasiorek, in press). Students reported reversed culture shock with respect to South African culture and clinical contexts (Szkudlarek, 2010), in terms of personal and medical experiences, as well as language skills. Students explained, among others, that they had to get used to the food cooked at home and they often felt estranged from their families and friends, but, specifically, they had difficulties with professional communication, and, more particularly, with understanding and using medical terminology in English and Afrikaans. The overall findings, with respect to medical communication, were that these preprofessionals suffer from the threat of losing face when trying to be the doctors they want to be.

One of the major linguistic preconditions was that students had to make their own notes and vocabulary lists in order to cope with their own deficient medical language skills while on ward rotation. Moreover, the difficulties with terminology were compounded by differences in medical equipment and medical practices between Cuba (focused on primary healthcare, i.e. prevention) and South Africa (focused on secondary or curative care). Students were at a loss and claimed, â&#x20AC;&#x153;You find yourself in a ward and almost everything that you see you "!The South African MoM-team is lead by Kris Van de Poel and Tobie van Dyk. The project is undertaken with financial support from ICELDA and the research unit for Applied Language Studies at the University of Antwerp in Belgium.! #!At Stellenbosch, about ten Cuban-trained students take part in the annual intensive programme.

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 339-352 don’t know what it is because the equipment is different” or "you don't know what it is called". The same holds true for the use of abbreviations which students experienced as “secret codes” that make life “complicated”. Needs analysts concluded that the students' lack of vocabulary and specific terminology should be systematically addressed. Students themselves hint at a possible solution, “We know the Spanish medical terms, but it is English now” (responses as reported in Van de Poel & Gasiorek, in press).

On the basis of the findings it was decided to introduce the Cuban-trained students to MoM-SA materials and engage them in blended learning; however, clinical settings are not always predictable and can therefore not be learned entirely as pre-patterned chunks. To meet the students’ particular linguistic and communicative needs and to get them involved in creating their own learning content, the MoM-SA team sought to develop the optimal cocktail of blended learning communication support.

MoM-SA’s Missing Link: a Pocket Size Dictionary The online version of MoM-SA and the course book derived from it contain ample opportunities to learn, internalise and extend general and specialised medical vocabulary at a basic level. Lexical items are presented in the context of a written scenario, with audio support and translation into six languages (for the basic course the topics covered are Greeting, Examining and instructing, History taking, Symptom analysis, Case presentations, Emotions, Explaining results, The management plan, Planning and Problem solving. See Figure 1 for the different components of one unit taken from the English MoM).

Figure 1. Overview of Unit 1 Content !

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Words are presented as part of scenarios and can be looked up in an online wordlist which contains audio, grammatical information, carrier phrases and translations (see Figure 2 for an extract of a scenario text of the first unit in English and Figure 3 for a lemma from the online wordlist in English).

Figure 2. Scenario Text of Unit 1: Where Do You Come From?

Figure 3. One Entry from the MoM-basic Wordlist To effectively foster contextualised learning, the words and terms are also arranged in interactive wordmaps where they are grouped by topic/semantic fields, as shown in Figure 4 (Swanepoel & Van de Poel, 2002).

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Figure 4. An Interactive Mindmap on the Health Care Team (the red links refer to the wordlist) However, as pointed out above, the need for extra on-the-job support was accentuated when students went on ward routines and struggled to communicate with patients and medical staff. Consequently, the concept of a pocket size dictionary was developed containing general medical words as well as medical terms and supported by images and drawings (Van de Poel & Seberechts, 2013).

Following the requirements set out in Swanepoel and Van de Poel (2002), the communication support tool was arranged as illustrated multilingual word lists containing English, Afrikaans and Spanish, reflecting the contexts that students encounter. To effectively foster contextualised learning, the words and terms were grouped per topic.

Learning was guided by presenting words in subfields, systematically presenting the words as linked to the drawings. For reasons of saliency, the words were ordered alphabetically in Spanish. Moreover, a fourth column was introduced to have students add their own comments and learning tips on pronunciation, translations into any of the African languages, etc. An alphabetical index provided easy access to the required word. Wherever possible, a link to a relevant online MoM-SA page was added (see Figure 5). All the development stages were discussed with the South African lecturer and the lemmata were translated by a native speaker of Spanish who is familiar with the project.

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Figure 5. An Example of a Page from the Pocket Picture Dictionary In August 2013, this concept was introduced to a class of eight medical students who had just completed their medical training in Cuba. The dictionary was offered to them as an interactive booklet and students were invited to take part in the process of developing content for the dictionary. Since only five medical topics, i.e., body parts, garments, equipment, diseases and organisation, were included, every student received one paper version of the dictionary and was invited to use the space provided to add terminology, images and suggestions on a weekly basis. In this way they could become co-owners of the dictionary of an ongoing project, as described in the introduction of the booklet, shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Introduction to MoM Booklet Dear Cuban-trained medical students â&#x20AC;Ś We have made a start with a few and very different topics and a limited number of languages. This is an invitation for you to continue to work on and expand the word lists in this dictionary on your own or with a peer. YOU know best which words you want to be taught. Make notes, make drawings, take a picture with your cellphone and just inform us what you need. At the end of the course we will collect your notes and give you an edited version in return. This makes you a co-author of the MoM-vocabulary list. It is an honour for us to welcome you on the team.

The MoM-team

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info@medicsmove.eu

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 339-352 Additionally, during three lessons, five minutes were spent on providing feedback on the existing booklet as well as on brainstorming ideas concerning the extension of the list. All of the students’ contributions were collected at the end of the course and integrated for the second version of the dictionary. In line with what is indicated above, as a thank-you they received an updated and extended version of the list that acknowledges them as contributors to the dictionary.

Students’ Findings and Experiences Judging from the students’ willingness to participate in learning activities in class at the start of the 20-hour course on the one hand, and from their spontaneously-asked questions related to vocabulary and grammar on the other, the lecturer concluded that her students are motivated to learn how to communicate in Afrikaans within a professional medical context. During class conversations, the students showed their motivation by spontaneously consulting the dictionary, as well as by adding information to it.

Nevertheless, as expected, due to the limited number of words recorded in the dictionary (135 only), the shortcoming of the materials developed so far was evident, once the students left the safety of their classroom. After the first 10 hours of attending class, students spent a week observing surgery in the Gynaecology Department of the hospital and were involved in conversations with the patients on topics ranging from administering medication to discussing a cancerous tumour. Afterwards, students revealed that they were often at a loss trying to communicate with patients in Afrikaans. Confirming the potential usefulness of the pocket-size dictionary, while observing or being on duty in the hospital, the students added more words and suggestions to the dictionary-inprogress. The notes that the students made in the dictionary were both in English and Spanish, possibly an indication that the students were still in the process of moving from and between Spanish, the Cuban language of instruction, to English, their chosen South African language of instruction. Most students added vocabulary such as the names of diseases, or symptoms such as “itching” or explained that they would like vocabulary related to systems review, e.g. the muscular system and the digestive system. One student also requested basic sentence structures, such as questions and instructions: “Short of breath. How do you ask ‘short of breath’?” This comment underlines that students experience a !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 339-352 need for language support when they have to communicate with patients.

Although this kind of communication support is not part of the dictionary, students can contribute to and enrich the teaching based on their own experience.

Scenarios following the consultation timeline are part of the online MoM-SA, but given the limitations of classroom contact time, not all can be dealt with in class.

We can only hope that through the teaching we have established a framework for ongoing and continuous learning.

When asked to comment on the dictionary, one student replied: “It helps you to find a word when you are in a hurry”. At the end of the course the dictionaries were collected in and the students' notes analysed. Most students extended the word list by adding names of diseases and more symptoms to the lemmata. There seems to be a correspondence between the number of notes added to the dictionary and the learning gain of the student. A higher number of notes in the dictionaries seems to correlate positively with a consistent increase in proficiency throughout the course. It seems therefore that the dictionary-inprogress contributes to learning. Moreover, the focus on the tool seems to reinforce students' motivation as shown in the course evaluation. As part of the evaluation process, students indicated their degree of (dis)agreement on a fourpoint Likert scale. In the present context, it is relevant to note that an overwhelming majority of 86% (strongly) agreed that their “Afrikaans vocabulary has improved” and that the materials are viewed as being relevant to their needs.

However, almost half of the students felt that more time should be allocated in their training programme towards the Afrikaans communication course and they expressed the hope that their medical vocabulary knowledge would improve.

The Cuban-trained South African medical students clearly have different needs from the other SA medical students attending courses in Afrikaans which we tried to cater for. To the current group of students, who are co-authors of the pocket dictionary, process has indeed become content (Legenhausen, 2013).

While the learners were using and compiling the word list, they had to investigate their needs both as students in a South African learning environment and as future medical professionals. The students' learning needs clearly came to the fore and were emphasized when they were in real-life professional situations that depended on effective communication. In one way, of course, these pre-professionals already have acquired an identity as medics; however, they have to express their !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 339-352 professional identity in line with the new environment. To this end, they need a tool that gives them access to the language they need; therefore, when they were contributing to the word list, they were at the same time also contributing to the formation of their own SA-identity (as medical professionals) as they experienced it on ward rotation. In turn, these needs had to be translated to the content and structuring principles of the dictionary, which had to be adapted and developed as the course content continued, because these experiences continuously informed the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; needs. The on-going process of contributing to the dictionary had the added benefit that, in a very simple but effective and visible way, it suggested to students that the (communication course) content was growing as their learning needs developed and that learning is therefore a continuous and dynamic process.

Hopefully, these students will benefit to some extent, during the rest of their training and possibly into their professional careers, from the use of the pocket dictionary.

The Future of the Wordlist Booklet Based on the end-of-course feedback from the students, the dictionary will be extended and developed further to include more topics and words. Contexts that will be included are related to systemsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; review (symptoms and illnesses), which are components of MoM-advanced and already exist for the European languages, but will have to be developed for Afrikaans.

Moreover, we intend to include QR codes. These are machine-readable codes consisting of an array of black and white squares, typically used for storing URLs or other information for reading by the camera on a smartphone. Since most students have access to a smartphone and most only have access to a computer while on campus, we expect this to be a useful add-on next to the urls in the dictionary in order to refer the students to relevant online/mobile scenarios within the MoM-SA course. The revised paper edition of the dictionary will be tested in 2014 and studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; attention will be drawn to the possibilities of the online vocabulary components and contexts.

At the same time, the MoM team is studying the potential to include the dictionary in the already existing online MoM-SA materials, extending them with more words and graphics online. The online dictionary could include audio examples and function as a new medium and additional learning platform within MoM-SA online. !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 339-352 Finally, since MoM-SA does exist as an online, but also as a mobile tool, it is worth considering turning the dictionary component into an app. This opens some perspectives because smartphone apps would always be at hand, or, as one of the Cuban-trained students explains in her feedback on the future of the dictionary: “I would use the dictionary because sometimes I forget a word in english but I remember it in spanish. It would be more convient for me to have it as an app coz it mininmizes the chances of me losing the dictionary and its more accesible that way (sic.).”

Concluding Remarks Language support systems, such as the pocket picture dictionary, may also have a beneficial role to play in supporting the Cuban-trained students’ re-entry process (see Van de Poel & Gasiorek, in press, for a detailed analysis). Ideally, tools of this kind should help students save mental energy (i.e. by removing the burden of constructing language learning materials on their own and relying on the community for shared input), which should also allow them more available mental resources to cope with the challenges of re-entry to South Africa and to engage more fully in other areas of their pre-professional life. Additionally, to the extent that these materials help students address the linguistic and communicative challenges they face, they may also help these students build confidence in their academic and (pre-)professional lives. Finally, if these communication support tools are developed as online/mobile resources, they will have the potential to foster the learners’ autonomous and continuous learning and training in a clinical context, which could provide benefits well beyond the students’ initial return and orientation programme.

Notes on the contributors Kris Van de Poel, University of Antwerp, Belgium & North West University, South Africa, has taught and studied applied linguistic topics for the past thirty years. As MoM’s coordinator, MoM-SA is of special interest to her since it marries issues of language for occupational as well as academic purposes.

Christine Fourie is a freelance lecturer at Stellenbosch University’s Language Centre, South Africa, while doing a PhD on the role of the teacher in blended learning at the University of Antwerp, Belgium.

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 339-352 Karen Seberechts is a junior researcher at the University of Antwerp, Belgium and has just finished a Master’s thesis on autonomous vocabulary learning.

References Gasiorek, J., & Van de Poel, K. (2012). Divergent perspectives on languagediscordant mobile medical professionals’ communication with colleagues: An exploratory study. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 40(4), 368-383. doi:10.1080/00909882.2012.712708.

Graham, R. G. (2006). Blended learning systems – definition, current trends, and future directions. In C. J. Bonk & R. G. Graham (Eds.), The handbook of blended learning: Global perspectives, local designs (pp. 3-21). San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.

Health Care in South Africa. (2012, July). SouthAfrica.info. Retrieved from http://www.southafrica.info/about/health/health.htm#.UluRDbwWStc Hewett, D. G., Watson, B. M., Gallois, C., Ward, M., & Leggett, B. A. (2009).

Communication in medical records: Intergroup language and patient care.

Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 28, 119-138. doi:10.1177.0261927X08330612 Hirsch, M. (2013). SA-Cuba medical programme criticized. Retrieved from http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/sa-cuba-medicalprogramme-criticised-1.1545474#.Uod3hyjR6MM Legenhausen, L. (2013, September). Learner autonomy as a response to the challenges of educational inclusion. Paper presented at the IATEFL Learner Autonomy Special Interest Group local conference, Hannover, Germany.

Little, D. (1991). Learner autonomy, 1: Definitions, issues and problems. Dublin, Ireland: Authentik.

Medics on the Move. http://www.medicsmove.eu Silverman, J. D., Kurtz, S. M., & Draper, J. (2006). Skills for communicating with patients. Oxford, UK: Radcliffe.

Szkudlarek, B. (2010). Re-entry̶A review of the literature. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 34(1), 1-21. doi:10.1016/j.ijintrel.2009.06.006 Stewart, M. A. (1995). Effective physician-patient communication and health outcomes: A review. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 152(9), 1423-1433.

Swanepoel, P., & Van de Poel, K. (2003). Theoretical and methodological !

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 339-352 pluralism in designing effective lexical support for CALL. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 16(2-3), 173-211. doi:10.1076/call.16.2.173.15878 Van de Poel, K., & Gasiorek, J. (in press). “We feel stupid and we shouldn’t”: Towards developing a support system for Cuban-trained medical students.

Per Linguam.

Van de Poel, K., & Seberechts, K. (2013). A pocket picture dictionary. English (EN)/ Afrikaans (AFR) / Español for Cuban-trained medical students.

Bloemfontein, South Africa: ICELDA. Watson, B. M., Hewett, D. G., & Gallois, C. (2012). Intergroup communication and health care. In H. Giles (Ed.), Handbook of intergroup communication (pp. 293-305). New York, NY: Routledge.

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Introduction to the Column Katherine Thornton, Otemon Gakuin University, Osaka, Japan This third installment of the regular column documenting the curriculum development project taking place at the Self-Access Learning Centre (SALC) at Kanda University of International Studies (KUIS), Japan, focuses on the third stage in Nation and Macalister’s framework, namely Principles. While the previous installment (Takahashi et al., 2013) focused on establishing a clear understanding of student needs, essentially the “what”, or the content of the curriculum, this stage focuses on establishing guiding principles for the “how”: the format, sequencing of content and assessment procedures to be developed.

In this installment, Elizabeth Lammons explains the process of deciding these principles, and how they were then used to evaluate the existing curriculum. The results of this evaluation allow the learning advisors to have a clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the current content and delivery model, which will prove invaluable in the re-development process, which will also be guided by these principles. A copy of the principles in full is available in the Appendix.

Principles: Establishing the Foundation for a Self-access Curriculum Elizabeth Lammons, Kanda University of International Studies, Japan In continuation of the previous installment of this column, (Takahashi, et. al, 2013), this paper describes the principles stage which was undertaken in 2012 and culminated in an evaluation of the Freshman curriculum in 2013. As explained in the first installment of this column (Thornton, 2013), the learning advisor (LA) team at Kanda University of International Studies (KUIS) which consists of 10 full time learning advisors, has been involved in the process of redesigning a curriculum for the Self-Access Learning Centre (SALC) by following a framework adapted from the Nation and Macalister (2010) model. Following the needs analysis stage of this investigation, principles were established that were then used to evaluate the SALC curricular offerings in the form of modules to Freshman students. These modules include the First Steps Module (FSM) and the Learning How to Learn (LHL) module.

This installment is an explanation of the process undertaken to determine the principles that would provide the foundation for the curriculum and the resulting

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checklists that were utilized to review the current SALC Freshman curriculum and provide direction for the future iteration.

Based upon the results of the environment analysis, the needs analysis, focus groups, consulting literature and established learning outcomes, the LAs decided on principles for a future self-directed language learning course. Using Nation and Macalister’s (2010) subdivision of principles, the team set about creating principles for format and presentation, content and sequencing, and assessment. The team members split into three working groups and brainstormed ideas in Google Docs for each of the subdivisions. Then, each section of the principles was discussed online and in person with the whole LA team to ascertain which principles were necessary.

The principles were created as “should” statements to assist in determining whether the statements have been realized in the current and future iterations of the SALC curriculum.

From the established principles, small working groups were created within the curriculum team to turn those principles into working checklists that could be used to evaluate the current FSM and the LHL Module. This was undertaken by a curriculum team of six LAs who regularly updated the remaining LAs on progress and decisions via online platforms such as Google Docs and Moodle and in LA meetings. Within the curriculum group, working groups were established to handle the creation of each checklist for each area of the principles.

For the purposes of explaining the details of each of the initial principles and the finalized principle documents, the first half of this column installment has been organized according to the principle subdivisions: Format and Presentation, Content and Sequencing, and Assessment.

Format and Presentation The purpose of this area of the principles was to establish the activities offered in the curriculum and the ways in which learners would use the materials offered. This included whether the course would follow a classroom or module format as well as the types of interactions that would be appropriate - group, pair, individual, face-to-face, or online.

A major question that guided the team was “What should the delivery format be?” There was discussion about whether paper-based, online or a combination would

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be appropriate for the new curriculum. Another question that arose was “what kind of integration with language courses is appropriate or realistic?” This was important because the SALC operates within a four-year language university thus some interaction with language courses occurs through SALC orientations with freshman students in their English classes to explain SALC services which include the modules.

In addition, LAs often visit classes periodically to do workshops on SALC resources, motivation, strategies, and the like.

Following are some examples of some of the initial brainstormed principles that became finalized principles. Initially, the LA team brainstormed this statement: “Learners should reflect on their learning in the different forms including written form.” This was later changed to “Learners should have opportunities to reflect on learning in both written form and face-to-face.” This was important because the current First Steps Module limits learners to responding only in written form. The LAs realized that this might prevent learners from sharing more because of their writing abilities or other reasons that might impede them from reflecting more deeply on their learning. Further, another principle that was elicited during the brainstorming session by discussions about format and presentation was, “Learners should be able to implement their plan (with or without support from LAs)”. This initial statement led to a theme in the final draft of the principles which is titled, “Compulsory/optional” and there are two should statements within this category. First, “Any course involving the writing of a learning plan should also include a certain time of implementation (the length of time may vary according to the individual course).” Second, “Learners should have optional opportunities to continue implementing a plan after a course has been completed.” This is significant because in the FSM, learners do not have the opportunity to implement the learning plan that they create at the end of the module.

Above all, LAs were concerned that learners did not have opportunities to try out their learning plan and to some degree this prevents the learners from making informed choices about implementing and evaluating their own learning cycles/plan. Thus, giving learners this opportunity might help them feel empowered to evaluate and make changes to their learning. Other items such as these were thoroughly discussed and culminated in a final principles document for format and presentation which can be found in the Appendix.

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Content and Sequencing To establish these principles, the LA team decided the content of the SALC courses and the order in which it would appear in the courses. There were several questions that the team attempted to answer. In the interest of space, this section discusses two example statements. As with format and presentation, the content and sequencing finalized principle statements are included in the Appendix.

A primary focus for content and sequencing was “How much ‘input’ should the curriculum have? How much ‘experiential’ content?” Currently, FSM focuses on learner training in that each unit of the module focuses on different aspects of selfdirected learning. Concepts that learners are exposed to via the units include goalsetting, needs analysis, time management, learning and affective strategies and creating a learning plan. Many of the units were uneven in the amount of input that the learners receive regarding the different topics. In short, there is a lot of reading and a fair amount of writing about how to learn. Some initial principle statements for this section addressed this issue. For instance, because of the concern about the amount of content, ‘learning burden’ was an established concept. For learning burden there were two initial statements, “The amount of content covered (whether as input or implementation of learning plans) should be realistic for a freshman student given their obligations to classes and extracurricular activities” and “Some content (e.g. learning strategies, time management strategies) should be spread over several weeks rather than delivered in one unit/lesson/chapter/workshop.” These initial statements actually became the finalized statements for this section of the principles. Moreover, the discussion about learning burden led to the idea of core course content and optional course content. Core course content was deemed content that learners absolutely needed to know in order to create, implement and evaluate a learning plan.

These concepts are needs analysis, goal-setting, resources, strategies, making and implementing a learning plan. On the other hand, optional course content was distinguished from core course content in that it may not be necessary for all students.

Thus it should be available for learners to utilize when they need it. This content includes time management and affective factors.

Another question that arose from discussions about content and sequencing was “how to move learners from awareness to control of their learning processes?” A possible answer that was proposed was giving learners the opportunity to spend one

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semester for exploring and raising their awareness (about themselves as learners and the SALC/KUIS facilities) and another semester for narrowing down their focus and practicing taking control of their learning. However, the resulting principle statement was less detailed, “Students should spend some time exploring and raising their awareness before narrowing down their focus and practicing taking control of their learning.” The timeframe component in the initial principle was taken out because it is possible for students to do both in one semester and it should not be limiting.

Assessment Considering the scope of the different aspects of assessment such as grading, feedback and course evaluation that resulted from the meetings regarding these principles, the principles for assessment were organized into three sections: Grading/Assessment, Feedback, and Course Evaluation. The following includes an explanation of a sample principle from each of the aforementioned areas from initial discussion to completion. A major area in Grading/Assessment was the question of “How would learners be assessed?” An initial principle statement was, “Students should be assessed on their ability to apply concepts introduced to them through core content sessions (module unit/class) to their own learning.” Also, “Grading procedures (rubrics, learning plans, etc.) should be shared with students at the start of the course, and made clear to them with as much detail as possible.” These statements were later changed to: “Students should be assessed on core learning outcomes introduced in a module/course.” and “The core learning outcomes will be identified clearly for each module/course.” These principles allow the LAs to see whether or not the current Freshman curriculum and future versions are consistent in the method in which information is shared with students about how they are graded.

Next, the team addressed the question of the nature of the feedback that should be provided to students during the course or at the end of the course. An issue that was important in this section was the importance of a manageable assessment process for current and future LAs. Currently there are 10 LAs at KUIS, but managing feedback for hundreds of freshman students in addition to sophomores and advising sessions can take time, notwithstanding other responsibilities. Thus, feedback has to be manageable for the personnel as well as useful for the students. A principle that addressed this was, “Students should receive ongoing written feedback

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(written advising) on their self-directed language learning on a regular basis from a learning advisor (at least once every two weeks).â&#x20AC;? This was discussed because the LAs wanted to make sure that there was a sustainable system in place regardless of changes to the student population numbers or LA personnel. This principle was not modified in the final version of the principles.

Following feedback, it was vital to think about the course evaluation as this would allow the LA team to evaluate the effectiveness of the courses which is obviously useful for ensuring that the curriculum is meeting the needs of its primary stakeholders. It also allows for changes to be implemented when necessary. For this area, the initial principles were relatively simple and all were adopted as principles in the final document. These items were all compiled together into a final principles document for assessment which can be found in the Appendix.

The next section of the column is an explanation of how the principles were transformed into checklists that were used to evaluate the curriculum, and the results of that evaluation.

Creating Checklists for Evaluation It was essential to create an easy, sustainable system for evaluation that could allow the LAs to see at a glance whether or not the established principles were being met in the existing curriculum and in future iterations. In order to do this efficiently, small working groups within the curriculum team, which comprised six learning advisors, were created to transform the principles into checklists that could be used to evaluate the existing curriculum. The three working groups created checklists for: content and sequencing, format and presentation, and assessment. Each working group examined the principles in one of those areas and shaped them into questions that could be used to determine whether those principles were being met through the current modules. After the checklists were created, each group piloted the checklists with the first unit from the First Steps Module. Again this was completed in groups because it allowed the LAs involved to confer about the questions to ensure that the checklists were appropriate evaluation tools. In order to make the most of the curriculum work for the academic year, the curriculum team split into two working groups: one group designed and piloted a new version of the SALC freshman curriculum (which will be addressed in a forthcoming column installment) while the

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other focused on using the checklists to evaluate the FSM and LHL. The checklists had items that were organized by theme based upon the principles.

Once the checklists were finalized, the working group used them to evaluate the First Steps Module. After evaluating the module using the checklists, the groups met again to discuss their findings and to make recommendations about aspects that were unearthed during the evaluation process. This process was also conducted with the LHL module.

Results of Evaluation After evaluating the existing modules, two members of the curriculum team organized the results into strengths and weaknesses. As the evaluation took place for the FSM first and in interest of space, the focus of this section is a summary of the findings for the strengths and weaknesses of FSM only.

Strengths and Weaknesses: Format and presentation First, for the evaluation of the module for this area, the entire module was assessed utilizing the checklist for format and presentation. As evidenced in Table 1 below, the LAs found more weaknesses than strengths with the format and presentation of FSM, so this is an area that needs attention during the creation stage of a new module/course.

Table 1. Format and Presentation Strengths and Weaknesses

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There are almost an equal number of strengths and weaknesses for content and sequencing for FSM. Each unit was assessed individually for this area as the LAs needed to look at all content: core course content and optional content and the organization of that content. Because there are many items for this section, an attempt has been made to cover the major areas in Table 2 below.

Table 2. Content and Sequencing Strengths and Weaknesses

Focusing on improving these areas by providing solutions to these issues via a new curriculum is the action that has been suggested so that the curriculum that is provided to learners is aligned with the SALCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s principles.

Strengths and weaknesses: Assessment Finally, the FSM was evaluated again as a whole for this component. With this area it was found that there are more strengths than weaknesses. Table 3 demonstrates those strengths and weaknesses.

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Table 3. Assessment Strengths and Weaknesses

As with the other sections, the summary of the findings raises the LA teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s awareness of their current curricular offerings and allows them to be mindful of the changes that need to occur for the betterment of the stakeholders.

Conclusion This installment of the column has described the establishment of principles for the SALC Freshman curriculum. The findings from the evaluation stage have enabled the team to prioritize the weaknesses of the FSM and to recognize its strengths. These strengths can be capitalized on and the weaknesses that were found can be addressed in the creation of a new module/course. Through the principles-based approach to the curriculum, the LA team can easily accommodate changes with research, stakeholdersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; needs, and theory. It is possible to do this by discarding or changing principles without having to dispose of all of them (Nation & Macalister, 2010). By establishing principles and evaluating the current Freshman self-directed learning curriculum, the LA team is better equipped to create a more sustainable and relevant program.

Notes on the contributor Elizabeth Lammons holds an MA in TESOL from Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, USA. Her interests include learning advising, self-directed learning and professional development.

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Acknowledgements At various stages, the following people have been key members of the project described in this case study: Junko Noguchi, Neil Curry, Yuki Hasegawa, Elizabeth Lammons, Tanya McCarthy, Brian R. Morrison, Jo Mynard, Diego Navarro, Akiyuki Sakai, Keiko Takahashi, Katherine Thornton, Satoko Watkins, and Atsumi Yamaguchi.

References Nation, I. S. P., & Macalister, J. (2010). Language curriculum design. London, UK: Routledge.

Takahashi, K., Mynard, J., Noguchi, J., Sakai, A., Thornton, K., & Yamaguchi, A. (2013). Needs analysis: Investigating studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; self-directed learning needs using multiple data source. Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal, 4(3), 208218. Retrieved from: http://sisaljournal.org/archives/sep13/takahashi_et_al Thornton, K. (2013). A framework for curriculum reform: Re-designing a curriculum for self-directed learning. Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal, 4(2), 142153. Retrieved from http://sisaljournal.org/archives/june13/thornton/

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Appendix Principles for Format and Presentation, Content and Sequencing and Assessment Principles - Format and Presentation Flexibility: 1. Each course/module should have three kinds of content: (1) Core Course Content (CCC) which is deemed essential for all students (2) Optional Course Content (OCC) which students are provided access to, but are not required to do, and (3) Resources and Materials (R&M) which are chosen by the learners and relate to their needs and goals 2. Students should be free to choose their own R&M within the context of the course.

3. Learners should decide how to apply the CCC and OCC to their own learning 4. Syllabuses should cater for different learning styles and preferences 5. Learners should reflect on their learning in both written form and face to face Compulsory/optional: 6. Any course involving the writing of a learning plan should also include a certain time of implementation (the length of time may vary according to the individual course) 7. Learners should have optional opportunities to continue implementing a plan after a course has been completed.

Input & Experience: 8. Learners should have opportunities to experiment with all of the core content or optional content that they learn about. (No content should be introduced without including such â&#x20AC;&#x153;experimentationâ&#x20AC;? activities.)

Integration with language classes: 9. Some learner training should occur as part of regular language courses (essential concepts to be decided on the basis of our needs analysis and with teachers) Interaction 10. Learners should be provided with opportunities to interact with other learners and have opportunities to share and learn from each other, in all courses, either face to face or online (or both).

Presentation: 11. All input should be comprehensible for the learners 12. Some bilingual support for technical terms should be made available for students who want to use it (glossary etc).

13. The workload for students should be equal each week 14. The workload for each course should be realistic given other requirements on studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; time, and credit awarded (if applicable)

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Principles - Content & Sequencing Content: 1. Students should learn the following four different kinds of skills to optimize their learning. a.

Socio-Affective Skills b.

Cognitive Skills c.

Metacognitive Skills d.

Self Management Skills Objectives: 2. Students should have a clear understanding of the aims and objectives of any course at the beginning (for example by sharing Learning Plans, as well as explaining them in course literature/orientation sessions).

Awareness & Control: 3. Students should spend some time exploring and raising their awareness before narrowing down their focus and practicing taking control of their learning.

Learning history: 4. The course should help learners explore and make the most effective use of previous learning experiences and inform LAs about how they have learned languages previously Implementation: 5. Students should have opportunities to implement what they have learned about in the learner training and reflect on it (combination of input & experience) in a single course Implementing an outside class plan: 6. Learners should have the opportunity to implement further optional learning plans outside class.

Personalization: 7. The course should provide guidance in and opportunities for personalization of learning (Students should understand how to draw on their preferences and individual differences to personalize the content & have chances to exercise that personalization.)

Teach- & learnability: 8. The teaching of content (input) should take account of when the learners are most ready to learn them (most likely different for different learners so needs to be flexible) Learning Burden: 9. The amount of content covered (whether as input or implementation of learning plans) should be realistic for a freshman student given their obligations to classes and extracurricular activities Learning Burden:

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10. Some content (e.g. learning strategies, time management strategies - others) should be spread over several weeks rather than delivered in one unit/lesson/chapter/workshop Spaced retrieval: 11. Students should have increasingly spaced, repeated opportunities to retrieve and give attention to wanted items from learner training in a variety of contexts Reflection: 12. Students should reflect on each stage of the learning process.

13. Students should receive guidance and training about how to reflect/monitor their work.

Principles-Assessment Grading/Assessment Content to be assessed: 1. Students should be assessed on the core learning outcomes introduced in a module/course 2. The core learning outcomes should be identified clearly for each course/module 3. Language proficiency (grammatical accuracy etc) should not be included in assessment 4. Studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; overall assessment should incorporate a participation element, i.e. that they completed a minimum amount of work each week Evidence: 5. Student assessment should incorporate artifacts (i.e. evidence in the form of written reflections / documentation / portfolio / completed activities) 6. Other assessable evidence will vary depending on the course or module, but could include: written reports, interviews/advising sessions, document analysis of written work or activities, LHL-style learning pack, class/online participation, attendance , self-assessment Workload: 7. Any assessment should be practical and realistic for the learning advisor (time-wise) Consistency: 8. Assessment should be consistent between advisors (using grading rubrics, doing norming sessions, using consistent approaches to penalties for missed work).

Transparency: 9. Clear definitions of terms / metalanguage should be used to assess students, and shared with them

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10. Each course should have clear policies about minimum requirements, attendance, late submissions and missing/incomplete work, which should be shared with students and adhered to by all advisors 11. Grading procedures (rubrics, learning plans etc.) should be shared with students at the start of the course or during the orientation, and made clear to them with as much detail as possible.

12. Course outcomes should be clear to students and they should know that the focus is on learning skills rather than linguistic skills Level of metacognition: 13. For each learning outcome, a level of metacognition should be identified, i.e. “Largely unaware”, “Becoming aware” “Largely aware” “In control” or similar 14. Descriptions of target behaviors and examples will be included on a rubric for assessment purposes 15. A simplified version of the rubric (or a translation) should be made available to students and referred to when giving feedback Feedback 16. Students should receive ongoing written feedback (written advising) on a regular basis from a learning advisor (at least once every 2 weeks) 17. Students should receive feedback both during and at the end of a course or module 18. Students should receive feedback on their SDLL skills appropriate the stage they are at 19. Non-credit bearing content should still include feedback (even if there is no “grade” or formal assessment) 20. Students should not receive feedback from their learning advisors on their linguistic skills, but will be advised on how they can get this kind of feedback (PC / WC / SALC materials) Course Evaluation 21. Student surveys should be conducted at the end of each course 22. Student grades should be used to determine whether each course is achieving its objectives for the students who take it 23. LAs and teachers should be invited to give their assessment of course effectiveness on a regular basis 24. A small group of LAs should be in charge of monitoring and modifying each unit of work (course/module) each year

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 367-371

Promoting Independent Language Learning Cross-Campus at the University of Leeds through a Self-Access Area Carolin Schneider, University of Leeds, UK

The Language Centre at the University of Leeds concentrates on the full range of language training and preparation courses, both for pre-sessional and for current university students. These courses relate both to the learning of English and of foreign languages.

The Self-Access Area constitutes the Language Centre’s resource library for language learning materials and supports learners on Language Centre and other modern language courses, as well as independent language learners from across the university. Catering for approximately 11,000 users, the Self-Access Area opens, on average, for 46 hours per week, with evening and Saturday opening times during term time and exam weeks. Among the services that the Self-Access Area provides are a wide range of language learning resources in print and various audiovisual formats, induction tours, an up-to-date online library catalogue and a social media presence. As part of the Language Centre, the SelfAccess Area team is connected with staff and students across the university. The service also offers a range of opportunities which encourage human interaction both amongst language learners and between learners and specialists. It also acts as a flexible social and study space.

The main initiatives or valuable ‘accessories’ for language learning to be discussed in this brief overview are •

Language learning advising

•

Language exchange

•

Conversation sessions Language Learning Advising An important member of the Self-Access Area team is the Language

Learning Adviser, Jadzia Terlecka, who helps users with anything related to language learning. This includes confidential advice, confidence-building and training sessions on different aspects of language learning. Students can book

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 367-371 appointments with her, or drop in during her advising times, which are between 11am and 5pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Coming from a teaching background herself, she liaises with teaching staff and other partners within the university and develops learning materials to be used as part of Self-Access Area induction sessions and workshops. She also delivers a range of workshops on independent learning, which form a regular part of English Language courses taught in the Language Centre.

Language Exchange The Language Exchange Scheme seeks to connect native and nonnative speakers of any particular language with the joint aims of achieving additional practice and intercultural exchange.

Currently, language learners find their exchange partners through a contact folder held in the Self-Access Area, and arrange their own meetings.

Once a year the Self-Access Area team arrange social meetings for potential exchange partners to meet in an informal setting. Many successful exchange partnerships have been formed as a result of these meetings, although only participant numbers are consistently monitored.

In the future, the Language Exchange is envisaged to be made available through an online network similar to online discussion forums, as well as face-to-face or using Skype. Several UK Language Centres have already been successful with this.

Conversation Sessions The Language Exchange is very popular throughout the year, but since it sometimes takes a while to find an exchange partner, the Self-Access Area introduced Conversation Sessions in the spring of 2013. These are 15-minute sessions with a volunteer, offering an opportunity to have a chat, discuss grammar or do exercises in the learnerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s target language. Volunteers, primarily students, are not expected to act as teachers; they are expert speakers of their native language and, as such, can provide the opportunity for learners to talk. The conversation sessions are popular and new volunteers sign up regularly, to help others, and also to develop new skills themselves, such as interpersonal and listening skills.

Volunteers have also reported that by volunteering they learned about other

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 367-371 cultures, made new friends, gained confidence and enhanced their mentoring skills.

Discovery Themes With its regular activities, the Self-Access Area supports the University of Leeds’ Curriculum Enhancement project (http://curriculum.leeds.ac.uk/).

This recently-released project allows students to enhance their learning through credit-bearing modules that explore specific subjects, issues or skills that lie outside their primary study choice. This way, students can broaden their knowledge and experience beyond their key subject area, meet students from other disciplines and develop a range of new skills.

The Self-Access Area, in particular, supports students who choose the Discovery Theme of ‘Languages and Intercultural Understanding’. Modules under this theme focus on topics such as learning a foreign language, the functions of language, translation and communication in a multilingual world, and how literature, films and theatre can offer insights into other societies and cultures (http://curriculum.leeds.ac.uk/broadening/broadening-strands).

The Self-Access Area already has a range of materials which support cultural insights, for example, a large film library and a collection of foreign language short stories and novels, and staff are currently developing small poetry collections in German, French and Spanish.

Links within the University Self-Access Area staff members recognise the importance of close working relationships and make an effort to develop and maintain these with departments across the university campus. Some members of the Self-Access Area team and Language Centre work in other university departments as well as in the Language Centre, which gives us immediate access to a range of contacts.

The Self-Access Area team also work closely with the Language Centre’s technical team, for example, when developing new materials. A MOOC is currently being developed in cooperation with the technical team and the Business School. If it is accepted, it will be available through the FutureLearn platform in 2014.

The Self-Access Area team is constantly developing new relationships within the university, whilst maintaining existing ones with partners like the !"#

SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 367-371 Business School and the Leeds University Union. For example, language learners can take advantage of an international students club and a conversation club for learners of English, as well as a variety of Leeds University Union clubs and societies that bring together native speakers and language learners.

Since September 2012, the Self-Access Area has a stall at the quarterly New Staff Information Fair, an event that welcomes new starters to the university.

This way a wide variety of staff members can be reached, who will often come and join the Self-Access Area, and also share the information about the service both with colleagues and students.

Staff Training and Development In order to be able to cater effectively for usersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; needs, the Self-Access Area Manager, Carolin Schneider, is keen on staff training and development. Any new counter assistant who deals with enquiries is assigned a buddy who is already working in the Self-Access Area, to reassure them and help them become a fullytrained and integrated team member.

Most of the regular staff training focuses on staff-user interaction, and takes place whenever staff need to be informed or reminded about customer care standards, stock matters and innovations, and apply to both experienced and new staff members. As the majority of counter assistants are, or have been, international students or language students themselves, they can share their own experiences and expertise with users, which add to customer engagement and satisfaction.

Find out More To find out more, visit: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/arts/info/20056/language_centre/ http://tinyurl.com/saaopac https://www.diigo.com/profile/saaleedsuni To follow the Language Centre on social media, visit: http://twitter.com/LeedsLangCentre http://www.facebook.com/LeedsLangCentre https://foursquare.com/LeedsLangCentre

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SiSAL Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, December 2013, 367-371 Notes on the contributor Carolin Schneider manages the Language Centreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Self-Access Area at the University of Leeds. She is a chartered librarian and her current research interests include languages, new technologies, social networking and how librarians and libraries can help people achieve what they need and want. Email Carolin: C.Schneider@leeds.ac.uk

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