Post-conference page
Thank you to all the students, teachers, managers and staff who attended this year’s student conference. There were 73 participants, including 40 student presenters from 13 universities, and 10 prefectures were represented.
Presentation 1: Konan Women’s University
We are from e-space at Konan Women’s University. e-space is English space. We are student staff. There are many ways to get English skills in e-space. For example, there are a lot of materials, people, activities, games and books. Students can study English as they wish in e-space. e-space staff create unique and enjoyable projects and some workshop for participants. We hope to get students who want to make friends who are motivated to improve their English skills.
Presentation 2: Gifu Shotoku Gakuen University
My presentation introduces the center MELT at Gifu Shotoku Gakuen University. “MELT” means the atmosphere is warm and welcoming. I describe my work as a Learning Assistant (LA). There are mainly three parts to the LA role. First, I encourage students to speak in English. Second, I advise students who want to improve their English and to get a better score in the TOEIC or Eiken. Finally, I keep MELT clean. I will describe the three challenges I have as an LA and how I have tried to deal with them so far.
Presentation 3: Meijo University
We are going to talk about our center from the staff viewpoint, including the challenges we have had and the ways we have addressed them. In addition, we will introduce our university and the center named Global Plaza. By using examples, we will talk about its users and the usage of the center. Furthermore, we are going to share the strengths of our center from the users’ viewpoints. Each user received
different benefits and support, so we are going to share what we have learned from the center and how it has affected and changed us.
Presentation 4: Ritsumeikan University Osaka Ibaraki Campus
As OIC BBP (Beyond Borders Plaza) management staff, we manage BBP in different sections such as reception, consultation, management of SNS & website and organizing international exchange events. Our mission is to overcome international borders, cultural boundaries and language barriers on campus. To accomplish them, we have held various interactive events with local and international students. In our
presentation, we will explain the facilities of OIC BBP, our roles and activities that we have done so far. Also, we will talk issues that we have encountered and how we intend to tackle these issues to develop our OIC BBP.
Presentation 5: Ryutsu Keizai University
We are from Ryutsu Keizai University in Ibaraki. Most students are sports majors, 85 to 15 male to female ratio, and about 2% are international students. There is no English major. Our center’s name is Community Learning International Plaza, or CLIP. Some areas are: listening corner, free talk area, testing corner, and DVDs. We have
a speaking club and appointments. Users speak English, play games or watch sports. There is only one student staff member working twice a week. The main issue is getting students to come. Athletes have many commitments. We are still thinking about how to address it.
Presentation 6: Kyoto University of Foreign Studies
The purpose of NINJA is to facilitate learner’s awareness of their capacity to be autonomous learners. We are called NINJA Cast members (28 students) including counter staff (12 students) and Have a Chat staff (11 students). We have three tasks such as working as receptionist, planning and conducting some events and doing Peer Advising (student to student advising). We have meetings regularly to share information and to solve the issues that we have. However, we still have some issues that we cannot solve easily. We will tell you about the issues and how we are currently addressing them.
Presentation 7: Hiroshima Bunkyo University
We are from Hiroshima Bunkyo University. We work as student staff in the SALC, where students can study English autonomously. The center contains English DVDs, CDs, reading materials at various levels, magazines and so on. There are 17 student staff members called SALCers. Our duties include lending and returning books and student support. We also organize a Christmas party every year. We think our
problem is that more than half of the students do not use the SALC. So, we divided the SALC student staff into two groups and are about to start new projects.
Presentation 8: Osaka Institute of Technology
Issues and Challenges during a Free Conversation Activity: This presentation will discuss the issues and challenges that the student staff members face during a free conversation activity. During this daily activity, students can come to the language learning center and talk freely with a native speaker and student staff members. This activity has recently become very popular attracting a large number of daily users. This increase in users has also presented new challenges, in particular the way to deal with large numbers of users so that everyone has an opportunity to speak and how to accommodate students with very different levels of English language ability. The presenters will discuss how they are addressing these challenges.
Presentation 9: Ritsumeikan University Kinugasa Campus
The presentation focuses on the Beyond Borders Plaza (BBP) at Kinugasa Campus (KIC) of Ritsumeikan University. It contains two sections. The first section includes a brief introduction about KIC and BBP. The design inside BBP satisfies users with different purposes, and represents the diverse makeup of BBP users and student staff. The second section describes successful events; identifies the challenges faced by the student staff; and discusses solutions to problems. For example, harmonizing the differences between student staff members’ motivation by assigning respective responsibilities based on their strengths. This presentation highlights the student staff’s achievements at BBP.
Presentation 10: Musashi University
Musashi University has a self-access language learning center called Musashi Communication Village (MCV) which promotes students to learn foreign languages. MCV provides a lot of attractive programs such as seasonal events, conversation lessons and counseling. These programs are organized by student staff and native speakers. In fact, people are prohibited to speak Japanese in MCV and open for everyone in Musashi, so many exchange students use it to interact with Japanese
students. However, we have some serious issues, for example, students speaking Japanese there and reducing the number of visitors. Students are cooperating to make MCV better!
Presentation 11: Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University
This presentation introduces the Self-Access Learning Center (SALC) at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU). APU promotes linguistic and cultural diversity as the student body consists of Japanese students and international students from 91 different countries and regions. The SALC aims to help students become autonomous language learners and confident language users who continue to grow as lifelong learners. Through a variety of social and linguistic support systems from Peer Advisors, Language Advisors, social events and learning resources, the SALC helps students learn languages and develop communication skills. We will discuss challenges to organize the SALC in a multi-language environment.
Presentation 12: Ritsumeikan University Biwako Kusatsu Campus
We present about students’ involvement in a newly built plaza; BBP (Beyond Borders Plaza), at the Ritsumeikan University, Biwako Kusatsu Campus(BKC). The purpose of this presentation is to explain and share about student staff working system, and the awareness of internationalization, based on the events conducted during Spring 2019. Also, we are planning to touch on future targets of the group
emphasizing on mutual support. Besides, we will discuss the challenges faced and how we overcame them.
Presentation 13: Otemon Gakuin University
In our presentation, we will introduce ECO, the self-access center in our school. This year, Otemon Gakuin University was separated into 2 campuses and as a result, we now have 2 self-access facilities. On this occasion, we will share our experiences from both facilities. Also, we will share the goals of our student group, the support and the activities that we actually do in our community. Aside from our goals and
experiences, we will also share some of the problems that we have faced together with all of you from other schools, think of the possible solutions together. Lastly, share our future plans.
The Japan Association for Self-Access Learning 