Beyond The Abstracts: Language Policy in Self-Access Learning

Description

In this Beyond The Abstracts conversation I speak with Katherine Thornton. Katherine is an Associate Professor at the Institute for General Education of Otemon Gakuin University, Osaka, Japan. In addition to teaching and working as a learning advisor, she is also Program Director of their Self-Access Learning Center, known as E-CO. Katherine is also the President of the Japan Association for Self-Access Learning (JASAL).

We cover:

• Katherine’s education, background, and negotiation of professional, personal, and research identities.
• Her advice for early career scholars in the fields of autonomy or self-access learning.
• We also delve into her research on language policy and self-access: exploring what it is and why it is important, the relationship between language policy and local user needs, and multilingualism in self-access learning spaces in Japan.
• Lastly, we cover Katherine’s ideas about the current state and future of the field of self-access learning.

This conversation will be essential viewing for anyone with an interest in these areas.

https://learnerautonomy.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/researcher-interviews/