Dominique Vola Ambinintsoa, Kanda University of International Studies
Isra Wongsarnpigoon, Kanda University of International Studies
Ambinintsoa, D. V. & Wongsarnpigoon, I. (2024). Editorial. Relay Journal, 7(1), 1-3. https://doi.org/10.37237/relay/070101
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We are pleased to announce the publication of Volume 7, Issue 1 of Relay Journal. Relay is committed to promoting research, best practices, and reflection related to learner autonomy, teacher autonomy, and advising in language learning; drawing insights from practitioners and learners across all levels; and encouraging dialogue by means of its unique post-publication peer review system. The contributions to this present issue exemplify those features.
Our featured article in this issue is by Haruka Ubukata, who presents her autobiographical research in which she investigated her own beliefs regarding advising in her first year as a language learning advisor. Adapting Richards and Lockart’s (1994) categorization of English teachers’ types of beliefs and using Kato and Mynard’s (2016) learning trajectory for advisors, Ubukata analyzed 224 reflection entries. She found that among the four types of beliefs identified, those about advising were the most common, and she also emphasized the dynamic nature of those beliefs. Her article enlights readers on novice advisors’ perspectives on advising and can serve as a good example of advisor- or teacher-development practice.
The second paper, by Nikki Marzoña, features in our Reflective Practice column. Marzoña reflects on an advising session in which she engaged in reflective dialogue with a student about a previously set action plan. The dialogue enabled her to understand the challenges the student had in following the action plan and to help him adjust it. Reflecting on the session sparked Marzoña’s awareness of her innate assumptions regarding learners’ capacities as well as the usefulness of certain advising strategies that she was unable to use in the session.
In this issue’s Innovative Practice column, Hatice Karaaslan and Yazgülü Gökgöz share a reflective narrative describing an innovative use of vision boards to ‘humanize digital spaces.’ After enumerating the benefits of using vision boards, Karaaslan discusses how she introduced digital vision boards to her students during events that she terms ‘vision board parties.’ Having participated in those parties as a student, Gökgöz shares her reflection on the experience as well as her journey to self-discovery. This account shows the dramatic effect that advising tools such as vision boards, accompanied with reflection prompts, can have on learner development.
This issue features two papers in the Perspective column. The first is written by Katherine Thornton. This rather unique paper demonstrates the ‘relaying’ nature of Relay Journal, as it serves as a response to a Vye’s (2023) review written in response to yet another review by Everhard (2022), which itself reviewed yet another paper by Gardner and Miller (2021) focusing on the evolution of self-access language learning since the publication of their seminal book (Gardner & Miller, 1999). Drawing on the challenges of physical self-access learning centers that Vye highlighted in her paper, Thornton shares her own experience regarding those challenges in her context. She also points out some advantages of recent technological innovations for self-access language learning.
The second paper in the Perspective column and the final paper in this issue is written by Aleksandr Gutkovskii. Gutkovskii reflects on the conflict between his implicit beliefs regarding accuracy in language learning and an autonomy-supportive project that he wanted to implement in his teaching. He highlights the contradiction between his awareness of the importance of learner autonomy and his teacher beliefs, shaped by his language learning background, having made his instruction more grammar-based and distant from promoting learner autonomy. Realizing that conflict made him reflect deeply on his teacher beliefs and on the possible integration of grammar into the autonomous learning project.
We would like to thank Kayo Hirono for her precious help in expediting the production of this issue. We also express our heartfelt gratitude to all the reviewers for this issue for their insightful comments. We encourage all readers to comment on any of the papers at any time.
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 and translanguaging in language learning, learning spaces and environments, and learner autonomy.
References
Everhard, C. J. (2022). There’s something about SALL: A response to Gardner and Miller. Relay Journal, 5(1), 19–30. https://doi.org/10.37237/relay/050103
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. (2016). Reflective dialogue: Advising in language learning. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315739649
Richards, J. C., & Lockhart, C. (1994). Reflective teaching in second language classrooms. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511667169
Vye, S. (2023). There is something about affirming SALL: An Everhard and Gardner and Miller review. Relay Journal,6(1), 95–101. https://doi.org/10.37237/relay/060107