This paper explores expanding a self-access language learning desk online. In 2017, Osaka University’s Center for International Affairs expanded its Language Support Desk to allow students from different campuses to access its services via online synchronous language support sessions that mimic the in-person ones. While there is an abundance of resources available to students online through online writing labs and online writing centers, most of these services only consist of reference materials with no option for advising or language teaching. Furthermore, the few universities that offer language learning services usually implement an asynchronous system through a delayed medium such as email. In this paper, we describe the implementation of online sessions at Osaka Unversity and highlight issues and opportunities for the future based on our experience and observations.

English writing centers in Japan are a somewhat new phenomenon. The purpose of this study was to gain a perspective of actual operations of writing centers abroad. We visited the English writing centers of three universities in California with well-established, large centers to get a perspective of the day-to-day operations and best practices on how to run a writing center. The universities that we visited include the Hume Center for Writing and Speaking at Stanford University; the University of California, Berkeley Student Learning Center; and the University of California, Davis Student Academic Success Center.

The Center for International Affairs within the Graduate School of Engineering at Osaka University created its own Self-Access Learning (SAL) desk initially as an effort to support its students’ writing capabilities. The Academic Writing Help Desk, as it was initially called, soon became popular after opening in 2015. For the 2016 school year, several issues, opportunities and additional needs were addressed, and the Center decided to expand the desk’s purpose and services to incorporate the English output capabilities of writing, presentations and conversation. The desk was renamed to the Language Support Desk, and it has continued to show impressive results in adding value for the engineering students. This paper briefly describes the creation of the Academic Writing Help Desk, and then explains its substantial changes, as well as the results for the 2016 operations. Discussion points are finally provided for future considerations.

The topic of job satisfaction is important for businesses to decrease employee turnover and increase overall productivity. With international business being conducted around the world more than ever, job satisfaction becomes increasingly difficult to measure when dealing with different cultures and environments. One of the most important theories of job satisfaction and motivation is Herzberg's Two-Factor theory. Due to a dominance of quantitative research being utilized in testing the theory, research continues to provide conflicting results on its validity. This research utilizes a cross-cultural, qualitative methodology on US and Japanese insurance employees in an attempt to provide clarification to and practical application of the theory. The results generally support the Two-Factor theory, but indicate that the factors of job satisfaction may be more complex, especially when researching crosscountry factors. It is suggested that further similar qualitative research should be conducted as a means of explaining the discrepancies of quantitative research and providing additional insight on the topic.