(Cite as: Tachino, T. (July 31, 2025). A Café of Ideas: Exploring agency and autonomy at PanSIG 2025. CUE SIG Newsletter.)
I once thought about hiring an interior designer to have my office magically transformed into a beautiful café while retaining all the functionalities of an office. I never acted on that thought, but I found my café on a much grander scale in the self-access learning center at Kanda University of International Studies (KUIS), where this year’s PanSIG took place. This building was where students could come to consult with language advisers, check out and use learning materials, practice with other people and AI, play board games in their target languages, or just play on their artificial turf. This venue was emblematic of this year’s theme: agency and autonomy in language learning.
To appreciate the theme and venue, I went to several sessions on language advising. Scott Shelton-Strong, who works as a language adviser at KUIS, explained the theoretical foundation behind their approach, and the role of a language adviser is to use reflective dialogues to help learners discover their own paths for learning. In practical terms, he said he did little formal preparation before each advising session because to do so (and set an agenda for the session) would run counter to the basic philosophy of learner agency. Instead, he lets the learners initiate, and he listens to what’s concerning them at that moment. His role is to validate their concerns and help them clarify what they really want in their language learning.
Of course, this kind of intimate, individual conversation is difficult to achieve in a classroom, but classroom teachers can prioritize human connections. This was the argument put forward by Curtis Kelly in the CUE forum, and he pointed out that students are more motivated when they have friends in class. Motivation, he argued, needs to be seen not as an individual but as a collective factor.
Kie Yamamoto, in the same CUE forum, extended this point by examining agency through an ecological lens. This view does not deny the individual level, but it accommodates the role and interaction of various factors at multiple levels, including the level of the classroom, institution, and community. Because the teacher is only one factor in this ecosystem, we cannot guarantee agency or motivation, but we can introduce initiatives that make it easier for students to pursue learner agency. Her example included a tele-tandem virtual exchange program, where students from different countries discussed various cultural practices with little teacher intervention.
While most presentations at this conference discussed how to increase student agency and autonomy, Will Simpson, in the same CUE forum, questioned the assumption that more is necessarily better. He explored the theoretical and ideological consequences of idealized learner autonomy, which included the erasure of teachers. If learners are completely autonomous, they would not need teachers, and they would not recognize the role of teacher efforts, even if they played a role in their successes. He cautioned against pursuing agency and autonomy for their own sakes and urged us to consider their role in a particular context: What are agency and autonomy for in the context of language learning?
These theoretical and practical issues are also relevant for teacher-researchers, as we pursue our research goals. My session with Julia Kimura offered practical discussions in response to the
research productivity challenges of the attendees, including a lack of motivation, time, and opportunities. We suggested an approach that does not rely on motivation, offered some tips on time management, and explored where and how to find opportunities for research projects.
Beyond official presentations, the conference offered many opportunities to connect with old acquaintances and meet new people, and my fantasy café could not have been a better place. I had a long conversation with Kinsella Valies and Max Pardeilhan over Italian chocolate, and it was a pleasure to discuss our multilingual experience in literature, ranging from Ovid, Shakespeare, Proust, Camus, to Joyce. Unfortunately, “[p]leasure and action make the hours seem short” (Othello, 2.3.380) and “our revels now are ended” (Tempest, 4.1.165). What else can I say other than, “Where shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?” (Macbeth, 1.1.3-4).