As usual, as a domestic partner of JALT, we are able to run a forum at their international conference. This year’s forum will take place on the weekend of 1-2 November, in Tokyo.
If you would like to give a short presentation on SALL-related research or practices at this year’s JALT conference, please consider submitting a proposal for the JASAL Forum.
As per the conference rules, the forum has a maximum of 6 presenters, so submissions will be vetted for quality and relevance to JASAL members. Relevance to the JALT2025 conference theme may also be considered. Please submit your proposal to JASAL using this form by Friday, 16 May 2025.
The exact format of the forum (length of presentations etc.) will be decided once we have vetted the proposals and finalized the line-up.
This year’s JALT theme is: JALT2025: LanguageS: Learning, Teaching, Assessing
Saturday, October 11, 2025 JASAL2025 Conference at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU), Beppu, Oita. (Approx. time: 09:00–18:00) Followed by Evening Networking Reception (details to follow, approx. time: 20:00–22:00)
Sunday, October 12, 2025 Beppu Tour & Post Conference Reflection over Lunch(Approx. time: 10:00–14:00)
Plenary Talk
Addressing affect in self-access learning settings Dr. Maria Giovanna Tassinari Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
Conference Theme
Emotions in Self-Access Language Learning
As anyone who has spent any time learning a language knows, managing emotions is a vital part of the process. Language learning can lead to anxiety, but also great joy, and sustaining motivation is not always straightforward. This is especially the case in self-access environments, where various affective factors can influence the degree to which learners engage with the affordances offered by these spaces, and how they interact with other users. For self-access practitioners, considering emotions can affect the design of our spaces, the services offered, the role of staff and the physical (or virtual) set-up of the facilities, among other factors.
Call for Papers
At this year’s JASAL conference, we invite you to share your own practices and research on the role of emotions in your self-access contexts, and how the consideration of emotions has shaped your spaces.
We welcome submissions on this and other self-access related topics, such as:
Managing and administrating self-access centres
Learning advising/counselling/coaching
SAC design and layout
Self-access and curriculum, learning program design
Learning communities and learner involvement in SACs
Student perspectives on self-access language learning (SALL)
Virtual self-access
Influence of AI on self-access
Assessment of self-access SALL
Research design in SALL
Professional development for SALL / Learning advisor education
Promotion of SACs & SALL
Lifelong learning
Study abroad & SALL
Presentation Formats
We are accepting proposals for the following kinds of presentations. Please note that at this year’s conference we will have a limited number of online presentation slots available.
Research presentation (on-site or online) (20+5 mins)
Practices presentation (on-site or online) (15+10mins)
Workshop (on-site only) (45 mins)
Poster session (on-site only)
When submitting your proposal, please indicate if you are only able to accept an online presentation slot. All presenters should be JASAL members at time of registration. (To join JASAL, please send us an email, and include the information requested on the website.)
We welcome submissions in both English and Japanese. Please note that each presenter should be the lead presenter on only ONE submission, and may appear as a co-presenter on only one other submission.
Undergraduate students are welcome to submit to one of these formats with a member of staff (faculty member or administrator), but we encourage these students to participate in the dedicated student conference and other student-centred events, where they will have more opportunities to interact with peers.
We are proud to announce our 6th annual JASAL Student Forum 2025!
This event is a unique opportunity for SALC student staff, volunteers, and students who regularly use their SALC and want to make a difference to come together with peers from various universities for a lively and meaningful discussion.
Whether you’re supporting your SALC as a staff member or just love using the space to improve your language skills and connect with others, this is your chance to: – Share your ideas and experiences – Learn how other students run their SALC and engage with language learners – Feel inspired by new ideas and creative approaches
Teachers, advisors, and administrators are also welcome to join as listeners or supporters, but please note that this forum is designed especially for students to speak and lead the conversation.
Date: Saturday, June 14th Time: 10:00-12:00 Format: Online (Zoom meeting)
We look forward to seeing you there! Colin Mitchell & Hisako Yamashita JASAL Student Involvement Coordinators
※ Please note that this is a student conference. We only accept submissions from students. For more information on the JASAL National Conferences please see this page.
JASAL is delighted to announce our new board, who will be in place from April 2025-March 2028. We’re excited to drive JASAL forward over the next 3 years! See here for more information about the board.
A big thank-you to everyone who presented and participated in our 8th JASAL Student Conference on Saturday, December 7th! Although virtually it was so lovely to see so many students, and to hear many of their inspiring presentations about all the amazing projects they are involved in through their university SALCs across Japan and Canada.
We hope the participants of the conference enjoyed it as much as we organizers did. We had around 30 students presenting and taking part in discussions as well as more than 10 teachers and administrators to support and learn from these student-presenters and student-participants.
It was a wonderful event with many inspiring ideas shared among students and teachers! We, conference organizers, once again would like to say a huge thank-you to all the wonderful presenters who prepared very thoroughly and shared their SALC stories with all of us.
We wish all the best to all the conference participants in realizing their action plans drawn towards the end of the conference.
Greetings to all students involved in self-access language learning centers, their advisors, and teachers!
Are you currently working or volunteering for a self-access center at your university?
Are you interested in sharing your self-access-related experiences with students from other universities?
Do you want to meet and hear the stories of other students with similar experiences?
Then please join us for the 8th JASAL Student Conference and share your stories and listen to the stories of others!
Teachers and advisors are your students working on some amazing self-access projects? Or are they new to self-access and want to hear how other universities are doing?
Then please encourage your students to join, present or just attend the 7th JASAL Student Conference. Your students can introduce their facilities and student staff activities, or share their own experiences of learning languages, studying abroad or using their self-access language learning centers.
Presentations can be either solo or group presentations.
Date: Saturday, December 7th Time: 09:30-13:00 Format: Online (Zoom meeting)
There are two ways to participate:
Option 1 (Present + Attend): Submit your proposal by Tuesday, November 23, 2024, here
Option 2 (Just Attend): Register to participate by Monday, December 01, 2024,here
We, the organizers of Student Conference, are looking forward to seeing you at our online event and hearing your stories about self-access and/or language-learning journeys!
For more information, refer to the PDF below!
※ Please note that this is a student conference. We only accept submissions from students. For more information on the JASAL National Conferences please see this page.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the JASAL Forum at JALT last Saturday, titled Evolutions in self-access language learning. It was a great event, where we got to see both old and new faces!
We had three excellent presentations from members Stacey Vye, Suwako Uehara and Agnes Maria Francis, and a fruitful discussion.
Hello! This autumn we asked all our members to re-register. The old list of members was retired on October 31st 2024, so if you have not re-registered you will no longer receive emails from JASAL. We don’t want to lose you, so please, please check your email inbox and click on the link to re-register. It takes under two minutes. (We sent a reminder last week!)
If you are unsure if you on the current list, please email us at jasalorg@gmail.com.
Thank you so much for helping us keep our list current.
Download the conference program with the conference schedule and all presentation abstracts, plus other useful information about this year’s conference from the conference webpage.
Register for the conference to access the sign up form for the Friday SAC tour, order your lunch and reserve your spot at the networking reception. Please note that bento orders and reservations for the networking reception must be received by Wednesday, 16th October.
The Japan Association for Self-Access Learning 