Isra Wongsarnpigoon, Kanda University of International Studies
Dominique Vola Ambinintsoa, Kanda University of International Studies
Wongsarnpigoon, I., & Ambinintsoa, D .V. (2022). Editorial. Relay Journal, 5(2), 65-67. https://doi.org/10.37237/relay/050201
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Welcome to Volume 5, Issue 2 of Relay Journal. This journal shares with its publishing organization, the Research Institute for Learner Autonomy Education (RILAE), the purpose of promoting research and practice in learner and teacher autonomy, as well as encouraging an active community of researcher-practitioners. This issue contains contributions which exemplify this spirit of applying theory to best practice for the purpose of nurturing autonomous language learners.
Relay Journal operates on an open-review process, in which articles which have passed through an initial editing process receive open reviews on the web publication. Authors then have the opportunity to revise their papers based on these reviews before the final paginated version. All readers are invited to leave feedback on the articles at any stage of the publication process, with a view to encouraging a productive, lively, reflective dialogue.
In this issue we are delighted to present five papers. In our first featured paper, Gamze Guven-Yalcin, Rukiye Buse Kayaalp, Selin Doğan, Betül Öztürk, Emir Şamil Doğan, Ayşenur Neşeli, and Ömer Faruk Acar report on the development of a group of peer advisor trainees at a university in Turkey. They explore how autonomy-supportive elements of the advisor training program helped the peer advisors to develop and exercise their agentic engagement, as evidenced through their own reflections. The authors also examine how the trainees’ identities as new advisors developed through the support which was provided to them and which they gave each other. This paper is an enlightening account of the growth that peer advisors themselves can experience by participating in such programs; it may inspire educators or advisors interested in nurturing learners’ agency and autonomy or in supporting learners to foster those traits in their peers.
In the next paper, Pınar Üstündağ-Algın, Hatice Karaaslan, and Tim Murphey illustrate their use of interventions to promote acts of sharing and caring in their respective contexts and the fruits of their efforts. In the first part of the paper, Üstündağ-Algın and Karaaslan explain how they employed aspects of Social and Emotional Learning in a pilot peer mentorship program at their university. They share excerpts from participants’ reflections in order to demonstrate how the students benefited and grew from the mutual connections built in the program. In the second half, Murphey relates how he used the same principles in classroom assignments to encourage his students to develop sharing and caring relationships with those around them. He provides excerpts from students’ reflections as examples of the positive results. The authors end by offering suggestions and resources for readers who wish to put similar ideas into practice. This practical article serves as a welcome guide for how educators can help students build stimulating, beneficial personal connections, which may be especially needed in these times.
Relay Journal encourages and welcomes reflections on advising and teaching practices in each issue, hence, the existence of the Reflective Practice column. For this issue, we have two papers on reflections drawn from the analyses of advising and mentoring sessions. In the first paper, Diane Raluy describes how she attempted to put into practice what she had learned from one of the advising courses offered by RILAE in an advising session. Referring to excerpts from the session, Raluy analyzes her use of different advising strategies and their effectiveness and identifies a key moment when she was able to raise her advisee’s awareness of an important aspect of learning vocabulary. Raluy’s article gives us insights into what advising is and how it can help learners reflect on their learning.
In the second Reflective Practice paper, Pınar Üstündağ-Algın reflects on her mentoring session with a colleague. Üstündağ-Algın describes how she used a reflective tool called “Picture of Life” (PoL) along with other advising strategies in order to help her mentee reflect deeply about her life during the session. From her analysis of the session extracts, Üstündağ-Algın identifies three positive emotions felt by the mentee: joy, interest, and serenity. Her paper can help readers understand that mentoring does not always have to focus on issues that the mentee has. A mentoring session can also be used to help the mentee reflect on meaningful aspects of their life; and the use of PoL seems to serve that purpose well.
Finally, Gráinne Hiney reviews the second graduation symposium of the Advisor Education program conducted by RILAE, which was held in March 2022. She summarizes addresses given by attendees and representatives of the graduates, as well as the presentations given by the three featured speakers. As a graduate of the program herself, Hiney also shares her impressions of the proceedings. This review might interest readers in watching the actual presentations; for those intrigued by Hiney’s account, recordings are available at this link. The paper may also inspire some to join the next graduation symposium in March 2023 (information available here) or participate in the program themselves.
We would like to thank all of the authors and editors who have contributed to the publication process, in particular to Chrissy Pemberton for her assistance in copyediting, and to Kayo Namaizawa and Kayo Hirono for their help in expediting the production of this issue. We would also like to express our gratitude in advance to the reviewers who will have provided valuable feedback on the papers.
Finally, we would like to express our deepest condolences to our Turkish colleagues and authors and all others who have been affected by the recent major earthquake. We wish them and their fellow citizens a swift recovery.
Notes on the editors
Isra Wongsarnpigoon is a learning advisor in the Self-Access Learning Center and researcher for the Research Institute for Learner Autonomy Education 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.
Dominique Vola Ambinintsoa is a learning advisor and lecturer at Kanda University of International Studies. She holds a PhD from Victoria University of Wellington and a Master of Education from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Her interests include learner autonomy, advising, and positive psychology in language education.