There has been interest in learner autonomy in the field of language education for many years but the role of the teacher remains uncertain. In Japan, where this research was conducted, it is not commonplace for comprehensive programs that foster autonomous learning to be integrated into formal English education, but some institutions and educators have taken steps in this direction. This study gives an overview of two different contexts in which teacher support for autonomous learning was woven into English education at Japanese universities; firstly, in a course that was dedicated to self-directed learning and secondly, in a speaking course that included a self-directed learning strand. Survey data that were collected from 50 students in these two contexts suggest that the support given in both course types was largely beneficial to learners, with similar outcomes in many areas but a noteworthy difference in the amount of time spent studying outside of class.

In Japan, like most English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts, students have few opportunities to use English in daily life, and this limits their ability to develop their language skills. To address this, many teachers provide homework tasks and guide students towards autonomous learning. In an effort to do the latter, a private Facebook group was created for students at a women's university in Tokyo. Through the group, the teacher aimed to provide out-of-class opportunities for English communication; facilitate access to English-language resources; motivate students to study/use English; and create a learning community that had student leaders. This article draws on a small-scale questionnaire, participant interviews, and activity within the Facebook group to examine the extent to which these goals were achieved.Typeset by Research-publishing.net Cover design by © Easy Conferences, info@easyconferences.eu, www.easyconferences.eu Cover layout by © Raphaël Savina (raphael@savina.net) Photo "bridge" on cover by © Andriy Markov/Shutterstock Photo "frog" on cover by © Fany Savina (fany.savina@gmail.com) Fonts used are licensed under a SIL Open Font License ISBN13: 978-1-908416-43-8 (Paperback -Print on demand, black and white) Print on demand technology is a high-quality, innovative and ecological printing method; with which the book is never 'out of stock' or 'out of print'. ISBN13: 978-1-908416-44-5 (Ebook, PDF, colour) ISBN13: 978-1-908416-45-2 (Ebook, EPUB, colour) Legal deposit, Ireland:

This paper reports on a forum featuring four presentations on learner autonomy research, all with practical applications. The paper gives an overview of the purpose of the forum, a short summary of each of the presentations, a discussion of some of the main themes and methods, and a summary of the ways in which the forum themes were continued to be investigated through the Q&A session and in follow-up recordings and interviews. The four projects described in the paper are: the role of classroom teachers in fostering out-of-class, autonomous language learning, exploring online peer interaction in social networking sites, examining the relationship between students’ agency and affordances for learning when studying abroad, and investigating learner autonomy in a self-access context from a self-determination theory perspective.

​Louise Ohashi details her involvement with the organization JALT (Japan Association for Language Teaching) from her perspective as a teacher, researcher, graduate student, and mother. She tells us from an insider’s perspective what it means to be involved in such an organization and the many benefits and difficulties that one can encounter with such a commitment.

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 practices, and had researched how technology could be used as a learning aid for students inside and outside the classroom. In this collaborative autoethnography, they turned the research lens upon themselves and each other to develop understandings of the way their experiences as language learners and researchers impacted upon their teacher cognition and teaching practices.