As emerging technologies rapidly evolve, language teachers in the 21st century face an increasing challenge in determining how to integrate them into their language classrooms. The existing literature emphasises that a crucial element for successful technology integration is for teachers to hold sufficient proficiency in technology and adopt…

Group-level self-regulation significantly impacts online collaborative learning performance (Panadero & Järvelä, 2015). Recently, online collaborative learning has been actively implemented in English language education in Japan, and group-level self-regulation, closely related to online collaborative learning, attracts the attention of…

Due to its accessibility and popularity, anime has been explored as a motivation for learning Japanese and as a pedagogical tool linking Japanese-as-a-foreign-language (JFL) literacy practices inside and outside of the classroom. However, JFL learners' actual practices in anime-mediated self-directed learning have not been fully investigated.…

Despite progress in recent years, Japanese classrooms continue to present challenges for educators seeking to promote language learner autonomy. Adopting an action research/case study design, the present study explored how, in a 5-week student-led project, an intact group of learners could contribute to the development of their own autonomy. Data…

Purpose: This study proposed a metacognition-inclusive self-regulated learning (SRL) approach to out-of-class listening practice and explored its impact on learners' listening performance and their reported use of self-regulatory listening strategies. Design/methodology/approach: Participants comprised 45 students learning English at a university…

This study examines whether ten weeks of direct instruction of affixes with online systems can improve learners' knowledge of affixes by using Affix Master 10 (AM10), a collection of online self-study materials developed by the current researchers. The aim of AM10 is to let students comprehensively learn 30 prefixes and 31 suffixes. The two…

The purpose of this study is to examine which, and how, reflective practices as instructional strategies affect students' self-directed learning (SDL) competencies in second language university classes. To answer the research questions, an explanatory mixed-methods approach was used to extend quantitative research through qualitative research.…

Although initial research involving Intelligent Personal Assistants (IPAs) for language learning have yielded promising results, no study has examined their use in the context of Autonomous Second Language Learning (ASLL). Thus, the main goal of this pilot study was to investigate the use of an IPA, specifically Alexa, for ASLL. Two Japanese…

The careful use of online learning can achieve a variety of goals in sustainable education, such as providing access for students, particularly in times of crisis, as well as providing them with opportunities to study interdependently. Also, it gives them the opportunity to develop thinking skills and awareness to become active in working towards…

ELT materials tend to use prestige variety speakers as models, an underlying assumption being that this is needed in order to acquire the phonology necessary to parse English speech (Rose & Galloway, 2019). Global Englishes Language Teaching (GELT) (Galloway & Rose, 2018) provides the potential for movement away from such 'native speaker'…

This study aims to address how practitioners successfully implement action learning in organizations with different cultural values. To effectively adopt action learning, Japanese learners need to learn questioning skills, as they have been brought up in an atmosphere that negates questioning. Using Kolb's learning model, this study aims to…

The present study was motivated by theoretical considerations in cognitive linguistics associated with the concept projection as well as by theories in cognitive science related to self-directed learning on computers, to apply them in developing Japanese learners' knowledge of the different degrees of sureness attached to CERTAIN, PROBABLE, and…

This article reports on an autoethnography by two authors who analysed the interrelationship of their experiences as foreign language learners, educators, and researchers. Both participant-researchers had taken advantage of the accessibility of online learning resources to learn new languages, had incorporated digital tools into their teaching…

In this exploratory study, the author examines both students' and teachers' perceptions of Moxtra, a cross-platform cloud collaboration service, as a blended learning tool in a language course. Participants were 242 first-year students studying General English and 8 teachers at the Bunkyo English Communication Centre (BECC) at Hiroshima Bunkyo…

English has become increasingly important for Japanese medical professionals in Japan. However, the curricula at medical schools in Japan are so extensive that the time allocated for English classes is usually very limited, which means those classes often do not have the depth or scope to improve the English communication skills of medical…