Editorial

Dominique Vola Ambinintsoa, Kanda University of International Studies

Isra Wongsarnpigoon, Kanda University of International Studies

Wongsarnpigoon, I., & Ambinintsoa, D .V. (2022). Editorial. Relay Journal, 5(1), 1-3. https://doi.org/10.37237/relay/050101

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We are pleased to be able to present Volume 5, Issue 1 of Relay Journal. Relay is dedicated to promoting research and best practice in learner and teacher autonomy from practitioners and learners at all levels. In this issue, we feature three articles addressing a variety of aspects of learner autonomy. Additionally, the Reflective Practice column contains a reflection on practice in advising in language learning.

In the first featured article, William S. Davis and Liam Printer focus on the three basic psychological needs of Self-Determination Theory (SDT): autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Informed by recent research on SDT, they suggest a hypothesized framework for a “needs-supportive world language pedagogy” which emphasizes the interdependence and the equal importance of the three basic psychological needs. They argue that, like autonomy, competence and relatedness should be taken into account and promoted in language learning and teaching. They give four examples, which have been used in their own classrooms, illustrating how the basic psychological needs can be promoted and integrated in classroom settings. This article thus provides not only arguments on the significance of fostering the basic psychological needs but also some practical ideas on how that can be done.

Our second featured article is by Carol J. Everhard, who draws on her extensive professional experience in writing a response to Gardner and Miller’s (2021) article on the state of self-access learning in our previous issue. Everhard relates her personal connection with Gardner and Miller’s landmark Establishing Self-Access: From Theory to Practice (1999) and how she was able to utilize it in her own teaching. She then offers her own reaction to some of the themes which Gardner and Miller highlighted in their Relay Journal article, taking into account and recalling her own history in self-access. Finally, Everhard introduces several examples of current trends and innovations in self-access and also identifies potential future directions for the field. This article serves not only as an excellent companion piece to Gardner and Miller’s paper, but also stands on its own as a personal account of how self-access language learning has evolved and will continue to evolve, based on years of first-hand experience.

In our third article, Yuta Homma and Huw Davies provide an autoethnographic account of a Japanese undergraduate learner’s transformative development during his 4 years of university. Honma analyzes his own reflective journals from his time as a university student, which contain his reflections on his learning at the time, examining the content, the linguistic features used in the journals, as well as the emotions expressed within. Honma, with support from Davies (his learning advisor as a student) identifies significant themes found in the journals and how he grew along his learning journey. The authors also view Honma’s development using the framework of Kato and Mynard’s (2015) learning trajectory to help identify the stages he was going through. They highlight how transformative learning trajectories are accompanied by potentially difficult stages of instability and rebuilding. This detailed, analytic perspective provided by the learner–researcher himself may be of interest to learners who are in the process of similar transformations, as an example of what the trajectory may entail or of how they can reflect on their experiences. The article will also be useful to educators working with such learners, in that it can provide insight into how to support their processes of discovery and rebuilding.

The final article in this issue is a reflection on an advising session by Gráinne Hiney. She describes how she helped a student become more self-aware and self-confident through an advising session, in which she used different advising strategies and introduced three advising tools, along with the 24 Character Strengths chart from the VIA website (VIA Institute on Character, 2022). Even though she and the student did not have time to use the tools during the session, her description of how the tools can be used enabled the student to reflect on possible strengths she has already and on ways to develop her language skills. Hiney’s article can help readers understand more about advising, namely some strategies and tools that can be used in advising sessions and their potential helpfulness in promoting reflection.

We would like to express our gratitude to the authors for sharing their work and reflections in Relay Journal. We would also like to thank all of the reviewers for their helpful comments that have enabled the authors to improve their articles and to further their reflection on their writing. Thank you as well to our proofreader for all the hard work and to our production staff who contributed to the publication process. 

Notes on the Editors

Dominique Vola Ambinintsoa is a learning advisor and lecturer at Kanda University of International Studies. She holds a PhD in applied linguistics, focusing on learner autonomy (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand) and a Master of Education in TESOL (State University of New York at Buffalo, US). She has a particular interest in learner autonomy, self-access language learning, advising in language learning, and positive psychology in education. 

Isra Wongsarnpigoon is a Senior Learning Advisor and Resource Coordinator in the Self-Access Learning Center at Kanda University of International Studies. He holds an M.S.Ed from Temple University, Japan Campus. His interests include multilingualism in language learning, learning spaces and environments, and learner autonomy. 

References

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

Gardner, D., & Miller, L. (2021). After “Establishing…”: Self-Access Learning then, now and into the future. Relay Journal, 4(2), 55-65. https://doi.org/10.37237/relay/040202

Kato, S., & Mynard, J. (2015). Reflective dialogue: Advising in language learning. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315739649

VIA Institute on Character. (2022). The 24 Character Strengths. https://www.viacharacter.org/character-strengths

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