SiSAL Journal Special Issue:  ‘Online advising and consultations in self-access.’

Editors: Jo Mynard and Adelia Peña Clavel

Submission deadline: December 20th 2022. Publication date: March, 2023.

In March 2023, we will publish a special issue on online advising and consultations in self-access. Online advising and consulting became the usual way to support students for extended periods during the COVID-19 pandemic when schools and campuses were closed and students were studying at home. However, some institutions had already been offering such support for many years, even before the pandemic. We are hoping to learn from our collective experiences and answer questions such as: 

Call for papers. SiSAL Journal is planning to publish a special issue on student leadership in self-access in December 2017 (Volume 8, Issue 4) edited by Kevin Knight, Jo Mynard, and Erin Okamoto. DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: September 10th, 2017.

Information for potential contributors

The editors take view that language learner autonomy and self-access learning can be applied  to other areas of students’ lives and not just the process of language learning. Equally, by engaging in leadership roles, learners take charge of not only aspects of their lives but also their language learning. Further, we believe that a Self-Access Learning center (SALC) can and does promote student leadership development. Until now the bodies of work on language learner autonomy / self-access and on student leadership have taken two separate academic paths, yet there are benefits for combining the two fields. A closer examination of the literature alongside an investigation of how leadership is conceptualized in self-access learning could shed light on our understanding of language learner autonomy. In this special issue, we hope to explore the two overlapping fields by featuring contributions from different contexts and perspectives. One such perspective may be where self-access learners are engaged in leadership roles. These roles might include students working or volunteering in a SALC, students organizing events, or students taking charge of other aspects of SALCs. Another perspective may be how self-access learning makes it possible for individual students or groups of students to achieve shared visions or create social change. A third perspective may be how self-access learners conceptualize leadership.  Finally, how do SALC leaders’ conceptualizations of  leadership and self-access learning influence SALC design and operations? Continue reading →

Call for papers. SiSAL Journal is planning to publish a special issue on virtual and other learning spaces in June 2016 (Volume 7, Issue 2). DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: January 15th, 2016.

Editors of the special issue: Curtis Edlin and Jo Mynard

Information for potential contributors

Learning environments have been long studied in classroom contexts, and we know that environmental factors play a role in students’ learning: temperature, space, seating arrangement and types of seating, flexibility of layout, and orientation all play a role in influencing activity and learning in classroom contexts. Though one might expect that environmental factors influence activity and learning to an even greater degree outside the classroom with no teacher to mediate activity, the topic has received little treatment to date. Fortunately, over the past few years there has been growing interest in space design for autonomous language learning. For example, the theme of an AILA RenLA symposium at the World Congress in Brisbane in 2014 convened by Terry Lamb and Garold Murray was ‘space, place and autonomy in language learning and teaching’.

In this special issue, the editors would like to explore aspects of both physical and virtual spaces that influence activities and learning within them. The editors invite submissions from colleagues who are interested in the use of space and design to support self-access learning. The papers can be research papers, theoretical papers, and/or practical papers. Themes may include (but are not restricted to):

1. Space design principles for supporting language learners in self-access settings.
2. Online space design and e-learning for language learners.
3. The role of social spaces in language learning.
4. Metaphorical spaces in learning (such as Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development – ZPD, or Murphey’s zones of proximal adjusting – ZPA (Murphey, 1996; 2013).
5. Other topics related to space, place, or learning environments in self access learning learning (please check with us first).

This special issue will publish the following:

1. Research papers (around 4000 words)
2. Summaries and works in progress (around 2000 words)
3. Descriptions of practice and practical applications based on research (up to 3500 words)
4. Perspectives (opinions and reflections) (around 2000 words)
5. Reviews of events, academic books, articles, and learning resources (around 2000 words)

Submissions will follow the usual blind peer review process. Please refer to the following page for a detailed description of submission types and format:

https://sisaljournal.org/for-authors/submission-guidelines/

Deadline for submissions: January 15th, 2016

Articles can be submitted via the usual channels outlined on the SiSAL Journal website: https://sisaljournal.org/

References

Murphey T. (1996). Proactive adjusting to the zone of proximal development: Learner and teacher strategies. Paper presented at the 2nd Conference for Socio-Cultural Research Vygotsky and Piaget; Geneva, Switzerland: September 1996, Psychological Sciences Research Institute: Geneva, Switzerland.

Murphey, T. (2013). Adapting ways for meaningful action: ZPDs and ZPAs. In J. Arnold & T. Murphey (Eds.), Meaningful action: Earl Stevick’s influence on language teaching (pp. 172-189). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.