Here is a one-page schedule for Saturday’s conference. Please refer to the full program – see below or the conference page – for abstracts and further information.

If you have booked a spot on the charter bus to attend JASAL2022 at AIU on Saturday, please board the bus from Bus Stop 5 on the EAST side of Akita Station – see map below. Please note, this is NOT the West side where there is a bigger bus terminal. The bus will leave at 9am so please arrive in good time. There are still a few spaces available on the bus.

If you do not intend to take the bus, and will travel by public transport, please note that you need to be on the 08:09 train to Wada station from Akita, to pick up the 08:35 bus that will take you to AIU.

After the conference, we will get the 18:35 local bus to Wada station to return to Akita. Please note that this is the last bus of the day so please make sure to take it if you want to avoid getting a taxi.

For those coming straight from the airport, you may be able to share a taxi with other JASAL participants. There is a natural meeting place by the Namahage masks in the airport lobby. A taxi should cost around ¥2000.

A basic schedule for our JASAL2022 National Conference, held at and co-sponsored by Akita International University, is now available. Further information about presentations will be released in the coming weeks. Be sure to register by Friday 30th September if you are planning on attending on-site in Akita, so we can reserve lunches and transportation for the venue. If you register after that, please make your own way to AIU on public transport. Online participants should register and submit payment by Thurs, October 20th. See the conference page for more information.

Saturday 22nd October, 2022

Conference theme: Inclusion and Accessibility in Self-Access Language Learning

This year, JASAL’s national conference will focus on inclusion and accessibility in self-access language learning (SALL). We are delighted to invite members to join us (on-site or online) and our special plenary panel of guest speakers to explore these issues at our conference.

Just in case you haven’t seen it, a report on the JASAL Online Student Conference 2021 has been published in the current issue of SiSAL Journal. It is a good summary of the event if you missed it! We are looking forward to holding more student events this year.

We at JASAL are delighted to announce that JASAL Journal 3(2), will be a joint issue co-edited with JASAL’s American sister organization, the International Association for Language Learning Technology (IALLT). The editor and guest editors for this Special Issue are Betsy Lavolette (IALLT/JASAL), Daniel Hooper (JASAL), and Angelika Kraemer (IALLT). Please see the Call for Proposals. The deadline for abstracts is June 1, 2022. We greatly look forward to receiving your proposals!

We have already received a number of excellent submissions for issue 3.1 of JASAL Journal. However, we would like to extend the call for papers to March 28th for any research or practice papers which specifically focus on the JASAL2021 national conference theme: “Post-Pandemic Perspectives on Learning Spaces: Challenges, Opportunities, and Stakes” 

Our guest editor for this issue is Dr John Augeri, an expert on learning space design, and we are very much hoping that “Learning Spaces” can be a central theme in this issue, making the most of John’s expertise.

If you would like to contribute a paper on this theme, there are two options:

1. Research paper (3000–5000 words in English or 6000–10000 characters in Japanese) giving details of a research project conducted on the topic of learning spaces
2. Discussion of self-access practices (2000–2500 words in English, 4000–5000 characters in Japanese) detailing your space design and its underlying principles. These can be new or existing designs, including how your spaces have responded/adapted to the pandemic 

See the JASAL Journal website page for the style guide and formatting details. 

JASAL Journal 2(2), edited by Naomi Fujishima and Garold Murray, has been published! It is a really full issue with a featured article, a research paper, a practice paper, conference reports, a panel discussion review, and a book review. There is so much to read over your winter holiday break. Thank you so much to the all the contributors, the editorial team, the reviewers and our editors for all the incredibly hard work that went into this issue!

It has been an incredibly fruitful and busy period for JASAL. We had our national conference JASAL2021 (held online) in October. This was a truly wonderful day of networking and presentations, with the conference theme Learning Space Design and Usage in Self-Access Language Learning.

Then, we held a Forum at JALT2021 (also online) on November 13, discussing Serendipities in Self-Access Learning: Positives from the Pandemic, which was a great opportunity to introduce some people to our field and our community.

Finally, we held our 5th JASAL Student Conference, on the afternoon of Saturday, November 27, also online.

Thank you to everyone who has made these events such a success. We are still buzzing from all the stimulation and fresh ideas!