Issue Of SiSAL Journal Research Articles

Introduction

Welcome to the second issue of SiSAL journal for 2021 which features contributions from colleagues based in Belgium, Canada, Mexico and Japan. We would like to sincerely thank the authors, the reviewers and members of the editorial team who make the publication of this journal possible.

Introduction

Welcome to Volume 12 issue 1 - the first issue of SiSAL journal for 2021. The current issue is a regular issue which contains five regular papers, one ethnography, and two reviews. Contributions come from colleagues based in Japan, New Zealand, Turkey and the USA.

Introduction

Welcome to the March 2020 issue of SiSAL Journal which contains two regular papers, two reviews, one summary, and a call for papers.

Introduction

Welcome to the September 2019 issue of SiSAL Journal which contains five regular papers. The first paper by Dominic G. Edsall who is based at Ritsumeikan University, Japan and UCL Institute of Education, UK. Edsall explores how game theory (Osborne, 2004) can be applied to the design and management of self-access learning activities. The author discusses some of the basic principles by using theoretical examples to explore issues of autonomy and motivation from the unique perspective of costs and rewards.

Introduction

Welcome to the June 2019 issue of SiSAL Journal which contains four regular papers and three reviews. Coincidentally, three of four regular papers focus on the roles of learners within self-access centres. In addition, one of the conference reviews is by an undergraduate student (Shirakawa) who presented his research at a self-access conference in Japan. Finally, the book review (Cotterall) is for a volume edited by Murray and Lamb that (among other things) explores how learners appropriate and take ownership of spaces for learning. Our observations from conferences and recent papers, including this issue of SiSAL Journal, indicate that student leadership and learner ownership and empowerment are growing areas of development for self-access. We will continue to observe this aspect of our practice with interest.

Introduction: Supporting Leadership and Academic Development in a SALC

Welcome to the 31st issue of SiSAL Journal which is Issue 8, Volume 4. This is a general issue organized into two key themes: leadership, and academic support. There are also two book reviews, details of three relevant events coming up in 2018 and a call for papers for a special issue.

Editorial

Welcome to the 30th issue of SiSAL Journal which is Issue 8, Volume 3. This is a general issue, but I organised it into three key themes: learning spaces (three papers), supporting learners (two papers), and professional development for learning advisors (two papers). There are also details three relevant events coming up within the next year.

Self-Access Centre and Autonomous Learning Management: Where Are We Now and Where Are We Going?

As mentioned in the foreword to this journal special issue, in 2016, the editors helped organise the 7th Independent Learning Association Conference which was held in Wuhan in November, with lectures from keynotes and other global experts in the field. The main conference title was “Autonomy Within and Beyond the Classroom” and the editors also facilitated a symposium within the conference, “Management of Self-Access Learning Centres (SACs) and Autonomy”. This involved presentations from well-respected SAC managers and researchers from around the world. These authorities had gathered to discuss the past, present and future for SACs. The following article introduces and contextualises presentations given at the symposium and the conference by invited speakers and keynotes. Each of these presenters was offered the opportunity of writing a paper, and those that accepted are included in this issue of SiSAL Journal.

Editorial

This is the 18th issue of SiSAL Journal and includes contributions from Australia, the USA, Iran, Turkey, the UK, Japan, and Ecuador.

Editorial: Understanding and Supporting Self-Access Learners

This is the 17th issue of SiSAL Journal and includes contributions from Japan, Turkey, China, and New Zealand. Although it is a general issue, the themes that bind the articles together centre around understanding our learners better and supporting their self-directed learning.

Editorial

As Guest Editor for this special issue of SiSAL, in which the themes are accessing and accessorising for self-access language learning (SALL), it gives me great pleasure to welcome readers, old and new, whether veterans in the field of SALL, or relative novices. While any journal editor is both facilitated and limited by the range and quality of submissions that are received for a special issue such as this one, my hope from the outset was to be able to bring together a collection in which the various strands and threads of knowledge and experience related to self-access which writers had to offer would weave together to create a web of fabric which would be varied and colourful and aesthetically pleasing and, at the same time, interesting and intellectually satisfying. My desire for an issue which would genuinely add to our knowledge of self-access, which would highlight some key but neglected SALL areas, and which would be suitably globally representative and geographically diverse in relation to SALL activity, may even have been surpassed. In the December 2012 issue of SiSAL Journal, edited by Heath Rose, in my featured article, I suggested that it was time to re-think the meaning of the term self-access and of how it is placed in relation to strategic learning and autonomy in language learning (Everhard, 2012). To this end, I talked about the many misconceptions that exist in relation to self-access language learning and offered a historically-based explanation as to why they have arisen. These misconceptions have to some extent been aided and abetted by the ‘mysteries’ which still surround autonomy and the practices which promote it, although, thankfully, we have the likes of Little (1997; 2013) who continues to further our understanding of autonomy and its relationship with self-access. Although cooperation, interdependence and relatedness are nowadays considered to be the key issues for autonomy, to be able to ‘nurture…its unfolding’ (Noels, 2009, p. 302), like Riley (1997, p. 116) and Little (1997, p. 36), I continue to insist that ‘access to self’ is the essential ingredient in the autonomy – self-access mix (Everhard, 2012, pp. 379-380) and this has been my guiding principle in the selecting and arranging of submissions.

Editorial

Welcome to a general issue of SiSAL Journal that features contributions from colleagues based in Turkey, Jamaica, Mexico, New Zealand and Japan. In this issue, we touch on a range of themes such as online support for self-access and writing, conducting a self-directed learning needs analysis, and uncovering the effects of intentional encouragement for self-access by instructors. We are also fortunate enough to feature reviews of two recent books that have implications for the field of self-access learning.

Editorial

Welcome to this special issue of SiSAL Journal on Self-Access Writing Support. I believe that writing is a skill for which self direction is particularly important because it is so output oriented and as such is often such a solitary activity. Whether in the middle of a thriving Self-Access Centre, or at home alone in the middle of the night, writers need to know tools they can turn to for help, and need to understand how they can use those tools to best advantage. I am therefore glad to have had the opportunity to bring you this special issue on Self-Access Writing Support.

Editorial

Welcome to the special issue of SiSAL Journal on strategies and self-regulation in self-access learning. Learner strategy and self-regulation theory have been in a state of flux in recent years, and I believe it is an exciting time to share new ideas, conceptualizations and models of research in order to move the field forward. Therefore, I was eager to pursue a special issue where emerging voices in these fields could be heard, and these new ideas could be shared. In addition, I was also impressed by the number of learner strategy-related papers presented at this year’s Independent Learning Association conference in Wellington, New Zealand. The representation of strategic learning in the ILA conference is indicative of a growing trend in the field to move towards a self-access and learner autonomy perspective. I, for one, feel the potential to share knowledge between these fields is immense.

Editorial

Welcome to the second general issue of SiSAL Journal. Once again, through the publication of a general issue we are able to include some interesting articles that might not necessarily have been received for publication in a special issue. Issues of SiSAL Journal have a good international representation and this current issue is no exception. Contributions come from Mexico, Hong Kong, Japan and Iran. Although this is a general issue of SiSAL Journal, I have identified some salient themes coming through in the articles. These are: training for autonomous learning; scaffolding self-access use; and beliefs about learning and using the L2.

Editorial

Welcome to the June 2012 issue of SiSAL Journal. This is the ninth issue of the journal and the first one that is not a special issue. The editors felt that it was appropriate that having some general issues might attract submissions on emerging interest areas within the field of self-access learning.

Editorial

A very warm welcome to the first issue of SiSAL journal of 2012, a special issue associated with the recent IATEFL Learner Autonomy SIG-sponsored conference, Advising for Language Learner Autonomy, held on November 12, 2011, at Kanda University of International Studies. This issue features papers from presenters at the conference who are all involved in advising for language learning (ALL). This conference was the first to be entirely dedicated to the field of language advising, and as such marks another significant landmark in the journey of ALL towards being fully recognized as a professional field in its own right (previous landmarks being the publication of the first book on advising in 2001 by Mozzon-McPherson and Vismans, a special issue of System in 2007, and the introduction of a professional qualification in learning advising at the University of Hull).

Editorial

Welcome to the December 2011 issue of SiSAL Journal, a special issue highlighting success in a self-access learning context. Given that it is the final issue of 2011 we thought it fitting to start by sharing some of the successful endeavours the journal has been involved in this year. SiSAL is continuing to successfully expand its readership and range of accessibility, making it an increasingly important contributor to the practice of self-access education around the world. SiSAL Journal is now indexed in seven databases: DOAJ, Academia.edu, EBSCO, Open J-Gate, Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory, WilsonWeb and Google Scholar.

Editorial

Welcome to the September 2011 issue of SiSAL Journal, a special issue on CALL, e-learning and m-learning. Technology has, in one form of another, been a part of self-access learning since the very first self-access centres (SACs) of the 1980s. Some of the better-funded centres featured elaborate listening and recording machinery and (occasionally) early personal computers. Early software programmes and language-learning websites available for self-access use tended to be aimed at individual study, initially following the language lab model, and were often designed to teach or test discrete language points. Of course, in 2011 programmes aimed at individual study do still exist and certainly have a place in self-access learning, particularly if a learner has identified a target language area that the software or website covers. However, in this special issue we go beyond language learning software and look at tools and technologies currently available to the learner as self-access resources.

Editorial

Welcome to the June, 2011 issue of SiSAL Journal. Learner involvement is relevant to self-access learning in a number of ways and this special issue will highlight three of them through its contributions. Firstly, there is a learner’s involvement in his or or her own self-directed learning. Secondly, there is the emotional involvement with learning. Thirdly, there is learner involvement in the actual running of a self-access centre.