This workshop demonstrates how a virtual classroom based international exchange program implemented with the University of Hawaii, three universities in Europe, and elsewhere enhanced student learning and motivation for international exchange. We will share administrative knowhow and instructional approaches toward successful program implementation using classroom video data and other materials. The workshop is useful for university leaders, international program administrators, and instructors interested in enhancing international exchange in the post-COVID era.

How can we best support our students’ linguistic learning journeys as we simultaneously struggle with our own teaching journeys during a pandemic? This workshop starts with self-reflection, a mental scan of how participants are adapting and coping with the new challenges of being flexible to teach online, face-to-face, and hybrid classes. It is aimed at teachers who are new to using drama: from energizing ice-breakers to project-based process drama, ending with cool downs.

This corpus-based research investigates vocabulary taught in Japanese EFL senior high school textbooks. Results show that most vocabulary words appearing in textbooks are what native speakers often use, indicating that Japanese EFL learners can be exposed to high-frequency words in the real world by using textbooks. However, textbooks cannot suffice in order for learners to read English texts intended for native speakers.

This study presents teachers’ cognitions on pronunciation feedback in an online environment. Teachers’ written comments on students’ pronunciation and semi-structured interviews reveal that the teachers have various approaches to providing pronunciation feedback. In particular, they encourage students to increase their confidence in speaking rather than correcting the pronunciation based on the native speaker norm. This presentation concludes with a brief discussion of implications for feedback on pronunciation both in online study and the classroom.

In January 2021, Equity in ELT Japan organized a three day forum on professional development where educators from all contexts and backgrounds came together to shed light on inequity within the industry and discuss how to make positive change. In this roundtable, the organizing committee will discuss their motivations for participating in its inception, share insights about issues that arose and discuss how a commitment to transparency contributed to the success of the event.

The Internet has revolutionized every aspect of language education. However, the downside of digital technology is it also enables unscrupulous students to find novel ways to cheat. In this session, the presenters will discuss a recent incident in which over 1400 students from 90 institutions in Japan were caught cheating using digital technology.

Although there is an apparent need for scrutiny of the lived experiences of foreign assistant language teachers (ALTs) in their situated contexts, research addressing them has been insufficient. This study explored, via narrative interviews, the identities and their constructions of 25 ALTs in the JET Programme. The findings revealed that the gestalt of ALT identity comprises two primary categories: foreigner identity and dabbler identity, and their six incumbent sub-identities (e.g., sojourner and greenhorn).

This study explored learner perceptions and readiness for autonomy after one year of emergency remote learning. An open-ended survey was administered to 850 first-year undergraduates across eight faculties. Qualitative analysis of learner perspectives highlighted positive and negative impacts of self-directed online learning in areas such as technology, social relationships, affective issues, and self-monitoring strategies. The researchers concluded that autonomy-based educational technology should be widely adopted in higher education contexts and, if possible, pre-university orientation programs.

Having trouble getting up from couches or the floor? Is your balance shaky? Brain hemisphere synchronization not optimized? Then this practical, fun, and low impact online workshop is for you. These exercises, based on the biomechanics of martial science, will help you in your daily life and increase the longevity of your body. You do not have to identify as a senior, so the earlier the start the more benefit you will get.

Project-based learning and teaching (PBLT) has been recognized as an approach that fosters learner autonomy. This presentation introduces the Students as Teachers project, during which university students prepared and taught a 90-minute lesson based on a unit from a four skills textbook. Student reflections throughout the project and at the end of it will be discussed in detail to show how students developed new perspectives on their development as learners of English.

Collaborative online international learning (COIL) is a method of virtual exchange that offers a way to help bridge the opportunity gap to study abroad by providing cross-cultural exchanges without leaving home. This presentation outlines the process of implementing COIL activities with university students in China and Japan and reports on the impact of such activities on student perspectives of language development, motivation to study a foreign language, and intercultural competencies.

Teletandem is an online language exchange, where two students learning each other’s languages are paired to practise their languages and support each other’s learning online. The researchers administered a survey and several interviews to investigate the experiences of teletandem participants from a Japanese and an Australian university, specifically focussing on the programme’s impact on students’ motivation to learn, their autonomous learning skills, and their identities as language learners and users.

In this presentation, I describe the context and challenges that led me to include social emotional learning (SEL) methods in my teaching. I discuss specific strategies and activities I utilized in online university courses with ELLs and share some positive outcomes of the approach. SEL practices include various activities and strategies; however, as the method I utilized was not implemented campus-wide, I introduce only a handful of activities and strategies that learners successfully used.

First, an overview of peer teaching will be given. Next, an introduction to a peer-teaching activity will be shared. Then data will be presented about students’ opinions about the experience of teaching, how this experience will help them in the future, advice they would give to others about peer teaching, and if peer teaching was a positive or negative experience. Lastly, possible ways for instructors to use this activity will be discussed.

This study examined intermediate and advanced Japanese EFL learners’ perceptions regarding their own and their teachers’ responsibility in learning the foreign language autonomously, their decision-making ability in learning the foreign language, and their EFL autonomous learning activities inside and outside the classroom.

Eye-tracking equipment for second language acquisition purposes is an underused tool. This is due in part to budget constraints and a lack of affordable devices on the market. This study examines whether low-cost, self-fabricated equipment can be used to assist students in their study of the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) by allowing students the opportunity to visually observe their recorded eye-movements after taking a TOEIC practice examination.

The presenter will report on a qualitative investigation of Japanese college students' learning experience in teletandem. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of Japanese female college students had joined a series of language learning sessions with American college students online since October 2020. Drawing on the analysis of pre-/post-questionnaires, student reflections, and interviews, the researcher will discuss the impact of tandem learning in the online environment, particularly on the students’ self-concepts in L2 learning.