Dominique Vola Ambinintsoa, Kanda University of International Studies
Isra Wongsarnpigoon, Kanda University of International Studies
Ambinintsoa, D. V. & Wongsarnpigoon, I. (2023). Editorial. Relay Journal, 6(2), 102-104. https://doi.org/10.37237/relay/060201
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Welcome to Volume 6, Issue 2 of Relay Journal. Aligned with the goals of the Research Institute for Learner Autonomy Education, this journal is aimed at advancing research and practice in both learner and teacher autonomy while fostering a dynamic community of researcher-practitioners.
Relay Journal employs a post-publication open-review system, in which articles that have undergone initial editing are published on our website and receive a publicly viewable review from a peer in the field. Authors can revise their work based on these reviews before the final paginated version is published. Readers are encouraged to provide feedback by commenting on the articles at any point in the publication process, fostering a dynamic, thoughtful, and engaging conversation with authors, reviewers, or other readers.
In this issue, we are delighted to present four papers. In our first featured paper, Aya Hayasaki applies dimensions of English language ownership (Seilhamer, 2015) to semi-structured interviews with two Japanese EFL learners in order to explore the evolution of their perceptions of English language ownership over time. The results show that experience living in a predominantly English-speaking country does not always enhance a learner’s sense of ownership of English, nor does living in a non-English-speaking country necessarily limit that sense. Hayasaki goes on to emphasize the need to legitimize different varieties of English in order to boost learners’ confidence in their own English.
The second featured paper by Haruka Ubukata and Allen Ying contains a discussion on the use of the reflective Wheel of Language Learning tool (Kato & Sugawara, 2009) to help EFL Japanese university students identify the language skills they wanted to improve as well as the strategies they believed would help them. While students focused on various skills, the most common were speaking, confidence, and vocabulary, with diverse strategies proposed. Ubukata and Ying, however, found that students require additional teacher support in terms of resource choices and reflection guidance to enhance their awareness.
Reflections on advising and teaching practices are encouraged and welcomed in each issue of Relay Journal, hence the existence of the Reflective Practice column. In this issue, Michelle Jerrems reflects on her first advising session with a learner who did not appear to have a deep metacognitive awareness of their own learning. Jerrems focuses on her use of three key advising strategies—restating, empathy, and complimenting—in order to evaluate her own ability to apply them effectively in an advising context.
The last paper of this issue appears in the Perspectives column. John Larson shares his perspective on the evolution and fall of language labs in institutions of formal education. He provides some advice on what self-access learning centers can do to avoid the same fate as the language labs.
We would like to thank all the authors of the issue as well as the people who have contributed to the publication process, in particular, Emily Marzin and Chrissy Pemberton for their assistance in copyediting, and to Kayo Hirono for her help in expediting the production of this issue. We would also like to express our heartfelt gratitude to the reviewers who have provided valuable feedback on the papers.
Notes on the Editors
Dominique Vola Ambinintsoa is a senior learning advisor and lecturer at Kanda University of International Studies in Japan. She holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand) and an Ed.M in TESOL (State University of New York at Buffalo, US). Her research interests include learner autonomy, self-regulated learning, psychology of language learning, and advising in language learning.
Isra Wongsarnpigoon is a lecturer in the Faculty of Global Liberal Arts 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
Kato, S., & Sugawara, H. (2009). Action-oriented language learning advising: A new approach to promote independent language learning. The Journal of Kanda University of International Studies, 21, 455–475. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237226385
Seilhamer, M. F. (2015). The ownership of English in Taiwan. World Englishes, 34(3), 370–388. https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12147