JASAL2023 National Conference: Post-Conference Page

JASAL2023 took place at Gifu Shotoku Gakuen University, Hashima Campus, on Saturday, 21st October 2023. It was held in a hybrid format and had around 100 participants. This year, the focus was on Student Agency and Leadership in Self-Access Learning Communities.
Visit the 2023 pre-conference page here.

Plenary Speaker

Daniel Hooper (PhD, Nagoya University of Foreign Studies) is an associate professor in the Department of English Communication at Tokyo Kasei University. He has taught in Japan for 17 years, predominantly in higher education and English conversation schools. His doctoral thesis was an ethnographic case study of a student-led learning community in a Japanese university self-access center. His research interests include learner and teacher identity, communities of practice, and the English conversation school industry. His most recent project is “From Student to Community Leader: A Guide for Autonomy-Supportive Leadership Development” a practice-oriented book co-authored with Satoko Watkins and published by Candlin and Mynard. He gave a presentation titled “Fixing Issues under the Radar: Student Agency and Leadership in Self-Access Learning Communities” in which he discussed and facilitated dialogue around student leadership support in self-access.

Conference Schedule and Program

Friday, 20th October, 2023

A SAC Tour of English World (an elementary school SAC) was held by the Gifu Shotoku Gakuen University MELT team. University students who volunteer as staff at English World led a tour of the site and shared about their role in the space. Participants were able to tour the school and learn about the elementary school English program. More details and photos are here.

Saturday 21st October, 2023

This year was our second year offering the conference in a hybrid format, meaning that there were both online and on-site presentations. As in the previous conference, online presentations were screened in presentation rooms at the venue, and all on-site presenters signed into Zoom and shared their slides. In this way, online participants could also attend their presentations. Some elements, such as the Poster Session and SAC tour, were available for on-site participants only.