A First Attempt at Advising: Getting Comfortable With Unfamiliar Advising Strategies

Diane Raluy, Kanda University of International Studies

Raluy, D. (2022). A First Attempt at Advising: Getting Comfortable With Unfamiliar Advising Strategies. Relay Journal, 5(2), 99-106. https://doi.org/10.37237/relay/050204

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Abstract

This reflective paper is based on an advising session carried out as part of a learning advising course offered by the Research Institute of Learner Autonomy Education (RILAE). The aim of the course is to understand and practise basic advising strategies. As part of the requirements of completion of the course, advisors-to-be are asked to conduct an advising session with a language student. This paper will focus on key moments of one advising session carried out with a Japanese Korean-major student, considering the strategies and techniques used. It will conclude by offering some thoughts and perspectives on this advising journey.

Keywords: advising, Japanese university, praising, reflection

In this reflective paper, I will reflect on the first time I took on the role of learning advisor. This first advising session with one of my students will focus on basic learning strategies I learnt during a course on advising in language learning organised by the Research Institute of Learner Autonomy Education (RILAE). First, I will share some background information and context. Second, I will analyse the session in more detail, then, I will focus on an ‘aha moment’ that occurred during the session. Finally, I will offer some concluding thoughts on this first experience as a learning advisor.

Background and Context

I am originally from France and have been teaching English at the university level in Japan for about seven years. I now work at Kanda University of International Studies (KUIS) as a lecturer. Although I do not have a formal advisor role, students often come to me for advice. As a non-native speaker, I often remember the time when I, too, was a learner and had to find my own learning strategies. I feel the role of a teacher does not stop at the classroom door but is also to guide learners on their own learning journey. Therefore, in order to better support them and also gain new skills, I decided to take part in the RILAE language advising course. The course covered basic advising strategies based on Kato and Mynard’s (2016) book, including complimenting, used in order to give more confidence to the advisee; summarising, which shows the advisor is actively listening to the advisee and understands their concerns; metaphors, leading to a better understanding of a situation, thoughts and feelings; and experience sharing, when the advisor shares their own experience to relate to the advisee and offer a different view.

I asked one of my students to participate in a one-off advising session. She is a Korean major freshman student whom I had been teaching twice a week for about six weeks. She took part in an English lounge (conversation practice) activity that I was running and built rapport through this activity. Her level of English is limited, so she needed extra help and prompting, but she was able to follow our conversation and reflect on her learning.

During our session, my original plan was to focus on praising, summarising and using metaphors, but through the flow of the conversation, I also used experience sharing. While I always use a positive tone when communicating with students, praising does not come naturally to me. I come from a country where people only praise on meaningful occasions. Hence, I struggle to praise students beyond saying “Good job” or “Well done” and wanted to focus on more meaningful praise. Therefore, I felt I had to focus on this aspect and tried to emphasise the positive aspects of her learning journey. The use of metaphors is also an aspect of advising I am not familiar with, so I wanted to practise it more and find my own metaphor.

The Session

The session was held in a study room in the Self-Access Learning Centre (SALC) of the university, focusing primarily on the student’s study habits. I started the session by asking her to explain how she currently studies English. She replied that she is currently focusing on learning vocabulary, using a book she bought for one of her English classes. Her aim is to take the TOEIC test every year in order to be able to measure her progress.

Throughout our session, I used summarising three times: first, when she explained how she currently studies, then when she formalised a learning strategy she wants to use to practise vocabulary, and finally when she talked about what she does not like about studying English. The following extract exemplifies the first use of the summarising strategy.

Student (S): I don’t have many vocabulary so I think when I, when I study and speak, I talk in English. I need to vocabulary more every time. I can’t tell my, my thinking.

Learning Advisor (LA): Your opinions?

S: Yeah, yeah. Opinions, I can’t tell quickly.

LA: Okay, and, so how do you learn vocabulary only by using books and remembering?  What do you do to learn vocabulary? Do you only have one way do you use several ways?

S: One way now I study only books but I want to talk with foreign people, and write my opinion. I want to writing skill.

LA: So you want to first learn the vocabulary from a book and then use it in conversation.  Or in writing.

S: Yeah, right. Yeah.

I thought summarising was helpful for both the student and me. Hearing me summarise what she said made her feel she was able to make herself understood and realise she could communicate successfully. At the same time, it allowed me to make sure I understood what she wanted to communicate.

My advisee being a Korean-major student, I wanted to find out more about how she envisages English and if she actually likes the language. In order to do so, I decided to use a metaphor comparing her relationship with the language to that of a boyfriend although I did not know whether she had ever had one. At first, she did not really understand why, so I had to explain that while I knew she needed the language for both university and her future career, I also wanted to know about her feelings. 

LA: If you were describing your relationship with English, for example, English is your boyfriend. How is your relationship? Are you just starting dating? Are you very much in love? Are you almost breaking up? How is your relationship with English? If English were your boyfriend, how would you be?

S: I want to, I want to be work in airport now.

LA: Okay.

S: So if I work there, I need to speak English, Japanese and another language.

LA: But what I mean by that is the reason I choose the love story is because it’s not about need. I know you need English but do you actually like English? What are your feelings towards English? How do you feel about English? Not just thinking about needs but thinking about your feelings.

S: Yeah, I like English to speak, speaking. I don’t like study English but I need to, I know it need for me.

LA: So you like communicating and using English but you don’t like this serious studying, so you like the language, you just don’t like the study.

S: Yes.

I thought this metaphor was interesting as it explores the sentimental aspect of learning a language. However, it turned out to be a bit challenging for her, either due to her level of English or lack of awareness of her own feelings. 

Regarding the experience sharing part, we discussed how watching films in English could be a great way to acquire more vocabulary and improve her listening skills. I asked her what she could do to remember the vocabulary from films, and she did not seem to understand. I explained further, but she still did not quite understand. So I decided to share my experience as a learner of using films. She finally understood what I was saying, thought my learning strategy was a good idea and said she would try it. 

LA: How can you make studying fun?

S: Ah. I study. For example I study with friends. I study English. I watch movies or I listening to music.

LA: Okay.

S: In English.

LA: Very good. When, when you, for example, when you watch a movie, it’s nice it’s fun. What do you do to try and remember or use the vocabulary you hear?

S: I want to see? In English but Japanese subtitles matching.

LA: So what could you change? What could you do to remember English from the movie more? For example, when I was a student when I was learning English, because you know, I’m French. So when I was learning the language, I used to watch films. And first I would watch the films in English with French subtitles. But then I would watch the film again and again and again. And the second time I would put English subtitles, the third time too and the fourth time too and then the fifth time, no subtitles. And from my experience that worked really, really well for me. Do you think that’s something that could work for you? Watching the same thing again and again. It can be a bit tiring sometimes if you don’t like the movie.

S: Yeah, but it’s boring, but I think it’s better.

LA: Do you think it’s boring? Even if you find something you really really like, like a film you really really like. For me, it wasn’t boring. It was the same movie again and again. I really really liked that movie.

S: Ah.

LA: So if you choose a movie you really really like. Do you think it’s it could work?

S: Yeah. Like, my favourite movie?

LA: Yeah.

S: Yeah, it’s not boring.

LA: Or favourite TV show or favourite song that you play again and again.

S: Yeah, I try. I have watched English movie for first time yet.

LA: Only once?

S: Only one. One film in English. So I try to this way.

While she understood what I was asking, I would have wanted the solution to come from her rather than from me and for her to find her own way. On the one hand, I believe she can make progress using films in this way; on the other hand, I felt I failed in my approach as it did not come from her. This could potentially be due to the fact that she did not seem to have ever considered the idea of having fun while learning English. In our conversation, studying English sounded like a complex and serious task, not one that can come naturally as part of everyday life. She had only watched one film in English in her life, so she did not have enough experience with this activity to develop her own learning strategies. 

A Key Moment

A key moment in our session would be when she realised that learning vocabulary did not only consist of memorising a list of words and their definitions but also being able to use these words in sentences. When she noticed she needed to actively use the vocabulary herself, she made her own plan and decided she would first use it in writing and then in conversation. She decided on her own learning strategies and then created steps to take, as can be seen in the following extract.

LA: So you’ve been studying vocabulary for about one month? Yeah. From that vocabulary, new vocabulary you learned, have you used any? Have you used that vocabulary in writing or in speaking yet?

S: I can’t use it yet. 

LA: Okay. Why do you think you can’t use it? Because you know the meaning of the words, yeah?

S: Ah, I, I use vocabulary. My vocabulary to speak with. New vocabulary but I can’t use it I already learned vocabulary, so I use it, so new vocabulary put my head but I can’t use now.

LA: Not yet. Why? Why do you think you can’t? Do you think is because it’s easy to use the vocabulary you know better?

S: Yeah.

LA: Okay, and, but it’s important to use the new vocabulary, right?

S: Yeah.

LA: So what can what could you do to use the new vocabulary? What can you do? How can you use it? How can you push yourself?

S: My, my mind. I think use new vocabulary.

LA: So remembering to use it?

S: Yeah.

LA: Okay. Could there be maybe a technique you could use to, to make you use the vocabulary? For example, some people like to make a list of words and then use them in class or in the English lounge. Some other people just look at the vocabulary and practice writing sentences. Using the new vocabulary. There are many, many techniques. What do you think could work for you?

S: I want to, I want to write sentence first. And next I use this sentence speaking. It’s good. Better.

LA: Why?

S: I, I can learn vocabulary meanings, but I don’t know what the [unintelligible] I use.

LA: You mean you need the context?

S: Yeah.

LA: And know how to use it?

S: Yeah. So I need to know to use this.

LA: So first, you need to understand the structure. And the way you use the vocabulary in and then you will be able to use it in speaking.

S: Yeah.

LA: So two steps.

S: Yes.

This extract shows that when prompted, the student is able to create her own learning strategies. Prompts are a very important aspect of advising as they give a sense of direction without taking control. The student may be guided in a way, but they still decide on the steps they are willing to take. The use of the summarising advising strategy at the end was an effective way to recap what had just been said and to make this newly devised learning strategy a formal plan to act upon.

Concluding Thoughts

Overall, the session was relatively successful for a first attempt. I believe that the student left the session with a few learning strategies she wants to use and somewhat more confidence in her ability to communicate in English. She mentioned having no experience talking to foreigners in our session, so being able to have a conversation all in English with a positive outcome seemed to have boosted her confidence in some measure. If I had to do the session again, I would probably also focus on her time management issue as she mentioned it at the beginning of the session, but we did not touch on it. I should have helped in that way too.

Through this process, I realised that I do like advising and would really like to do a follow-up session with this student in the future in order to help her more. I also think that it is nice to take the time to sit down and speak to students about their learning. As a teacher, I often read or hear students’ reflections, but I can only reply succinctly, primarily in writing or at the end of each class. Taking the time to help students is a wonderful experience I wish I could enjoy more often. Unfortunately, as a teacher, time is very limited, so it is not something I can do with all my students. One possibility would be to modify the reflection tasks in my class in order for me to focus on a specific group of students during that task at the end of every lesson. I currently have students discuss their thoughts on the lesson and what they have learnt from it freely with their partner, but another possibility could be to sit down with a different group each time and take the time to reflect with them and possibly advise them. I used to work on goal setting and learner autonomy in my classroom at my previous university. The activities prompted students to create clear goals for each unit, regularly reflect on their progress with a partner and they also got advice from me. Even though, at KUIS, the SALC tends to replace the activities I used to implement, not all my students use the SALC to its full potential, so I wonder if I should bring these activities back and enhance them through what I have learnt from this advising course. This is the next challenge for me as a teacher.

Notes on the contributor

Diane Raluy is a lecturer at Kanda University of International Studies (KUIS). She has been working as an EFL instructor for over ten years in France and Japan teaching a wide range of students from early education to seniors and now focusing on university teaching. She received a master’s degree in language didactics (didactique des langues) from the Sorbonne University, Paris 3. She is interested in integrating online tools in the classroom, learner autonomy and interactions.

References

Kato, S., & Mynard, J. (2016). Reflective dialogue: Advising in language learning. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315739649 

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