The CAES Handbook of Language Advising

The Handbook of Language Advising By Aditi Jhaveri & Albert Wong 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS CONTENT Acknowledgements Overview Language advising as dialogue Peer observation feedback data and advising dialogue Adviser self-reflection forms and macro-skills data Adviser self-reflection forms and micro-skills data Data demonstrating use of macro- and micro-skills in adviser-advisee transcribed dialogue Data on student experiences and expectations of adviser skills and strategies - in their words Self-directed learning and the affective dimension of language advising Data on student experiences and expectations of affect in language advising - in their words Affect in advisers’ self-reflections Data on affect in adviser peer observation feedback Data demonstrating use of affective skills in advisor-advisee transcribed dialogue Appendix I: Language Advising - Peer Observation Form PAGE 3 4 5 5 7 10 12 Appendix II: Self-reflection Form for language advisers References 23 24 Figures and Tables 1. Figure 1: Example structure of an advising session p.6 2. Table 1: Macro-skills of language counselling p.4 3. Table 2: Micro-skills of language counselling p.9 2 15 16 17 18 19 19 22 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to express our appreciation to those who have generously assisted us in this study. We are especially indebted to The University of Hong Kong for granting us the Teaching Development Grant to conduct this study, and to the Centre for Applied English Studies and Dr. Miranda Legg for their support. Our special thanks is reserved for our students who willingly spared their time to talk to us and without whom this project would not have been complete. We are also tremendously grateful to the General Language Advising team members, particularly Lowana and Daya for sharing their valuable insights; the Communication Assistants for inviting us to look at their reflections; Ashley Hazell for informing us about the adviser peer review process; and to Paul Pan for his help in preparing advising videos. Lastly, we would like to thank all those who were involved in this project in one way or another. This project has been the result of collective effort. 3 OVERVIEW This study, funded by a Teaching Development Grant from The University of Hong Kong (HKU) in 2018, sought to examine the role of language advisers at the Centre for Applied English Studies (CAES) in (1) facilitating dialogue with students to enhance dialogic teaching and learning and (2) supporting learners through use of affect in English language advising. The idea of dialogue as central to advising has been advanced by Mynard’s (2012) ‘tool model’ (p. 35) in which dialogue refers to a psychological tool grounded in sociocultural theory that allows the learner to uncover their self through three stages: mediation, negotiation and transformation. This process relies on the 3 parts of the tool consisting of: a cognitive part for the learner e.g., guides.; a theoretical part for the adviser e.g., knowledge; and a practical component for the advising sessions e.g., space. These tools are therefore seen as being dependent on personal, physical and contextual dimensions. The term ‘Affect’ in the study refers to emotions, feelings, attitudes, beliefs and moods, which when used as a resource during language advising, can facilitate learning, especially because emotions have long been linked to cognition. In order to conduct the study, 15 advising dialogues were recorded, transcribed and coded to analyse the dialogic and affective components of language adviser and advisee interactions during formal advising sessions. This data was then triangulated with 10 learner and 8 adviser interviews, 8 adviser reflections, and 4 written peer reviews of advisers. Results show substantial evidence of a dialogic exchange between advisers and learners but suggest that advisers’ ability to reflect on different advising skills that they make use of can be limited. Data further demonstrate that advisers and their students both make significant use of emotional expressions in language advising discourse and advisers are generally attuned to learners’ feelings, which they respond to by empathising, encouraging, and mirroring or reflecting feelings. Additionally, advisers with a friendly and approachable disposition who listen carefully, offer encouragement, and smile more are generally viewed as being more effective. The fact that advisers are not always able to provide a comprehensive reflective account of the repertoire of dialogic and affective skills they use suggests that the use of these tacit skills needs to be made explicit through advising workshops and training programs. We hope that advisers can hone their skills through role play scenarios and videos produced as part of the deliverables of this project. We envisage that this handbook along with the set of videos produced on language advising can serve as a resource for not just language advisers, Communication Assistants, peer tutors, and teachers involved in group or one-on-one interactions with students, but also for academic advisers and dissertation supervisors in HKU as well as outside the University. 4 LANGUAGE ADVISING AS DIALOGUE Dialogue constitutes one of the most effective ways in which language teachers or advisers help language learners. Therefore, one of the areas of focus of this handbook is the dialogue that takes place between an adviser and his/her student during advising in language learning (ALL) (Mynard & Carson, 2012). ALL generally refers to the one-to-one interaction between the teacher and student, which gradually leads to learner autonomy.This approach is embedded in a sociocultural view of learning (Lantolf, 2000), and researchers have argued that a one-on-one dialogue between teacher and student has an empowering effect on learners by enabling them to engage in deep reflection about their learning (Kato, 2012; Kato & Mynard, 2017). This discourse in seen as different from the usual teacher-student conversation in the sense that advising comprises a set of systematic interventions aimed at supporting students and helping them identify their own learning needs and path (Esch, 1996). According to Cohen (2014), in order to better facilitate students’ language learning within the language advising process, advisers need to have the consciousness to adopt different kinds of dialogic strategies within the language advising program design. Similarly, Kelly (1996) refers to the language advising discourse between the language counsellor and the learner as a “form of therapeutic dialogue that enables an individual to manage a problem” (1996, p. 94) and applies Roger’s (1951) person-centered counselling approach to the field of language education. Kato and Mynard (2017) take this idea of dialogue in language advising further and propose that “advising in language learning is an intentional dialogue whose aim is for the learner to be able to reflect deeply, make connections, and take responsibility for his or her language learning” (p. 2). They believe that language advisers are crucial in promoting learners’ awareness of the language learning process by engaging with them in “intentional reflective dialogue (IRD)” (p. 6). Our data (below) extracted from adviser peer observation forms (see appendix I) also highlight the importance of a dialogic exchange between adviser and advisee. PEER OBSERVATION FEEDBACK DATA AND ADVISING DIALOGUE A good example of an advising session with a 1st year student with so much ‘advising’ dialogue going on. It seemed like real negotiation. Working it out together was in progress from beginning to end. There was a nice 50-50 ratio of her input and your input. It worked almost like a sample advising session. I think your advising dialogue helped her [advisee] confirm what she wanted to do in the session for the interview practise. [Adviser used] advising ‘mode’ in the form of eliciting, drawing out responses. 5 These feedback comments commend advisers on exemplifying the dialogic give and take between adviser and student, and clearly position advising as a distinct skill from teaching. Adhering to a dialogue-based approach, Kato and Yamashita (2015 as cited in Mynard, 2018 ) suggest that a simple advising session may look like Figure 1 below where the left-hand column shows key areas that an adviser needs to focus on to support the learner, and the right-hand column shows some of the discursive advising strategies that an adviser might need to use to enable deep learner reflection. Figure 1: Example structure of an advising session (Kato & Yamashita, 2015) Kelly (1996) refers to advisers as “self-access helpers” to emphasise their work on promoting learner autonomy and classifies the above advising skills in the left hand and right hand columns as macro-skills and micro-skills respectively. According to Kelly, macro-skills refer to specific strategies used by a self-access helper that can facilitate learner self-management of a self-access project. She further classifies advising macro-skills into various sub-categories which include initiating, goal-setting, guiding, modelling, supporting, giving feedback, evaluating, linking and concluding (as shown in Table 1 below). According to Kelly (1996), the sub-categories within the macro-skills of language counselling category from the very first “Initiating” stage to the very end “Concluding” stage (as shown in Table 1 below) basically follow the sequence of a cycle implemented by language advisers during their advising process. However, some of these skills can be deployed at any stage of the process depending on learners’ needs to different advising circumstances. 6 Additionally, Hobbs and Dofs (2015) point out that both macro-skills and micro-skills adopted can combine a more direct approach together with a more indirect one within the advising discourse. Table 1: Macro-skills of language counselling Skills Initiating Goal-setting Guiding Modelling Supporting Giving feedback Evaluating Linking Concluding Description Purpose Introducing new directions and options Helping the learner to formulate specific goals and objectives Offering advice and information, direction and ideas; suggesting Demonstrating target behaviour Providing encouragement and reinforcement Expressing a constructive reaction to the learner’s efforts Appraising the learner’s process and achievement Connecting the learner’s goals and tasks to wider issues Bringing a sequence of work to a conclusion To promote learner focus and reduce uncertainty To enable the learner to focus on a manageable goal To help the learner develop alternative strategies To provide examples of knowledge and skills that the learner desire To help the learner persist; create trust; acknowledge and encourage effort To assist the learner’s self-awareness and capacity for self-appraisal To acknowledge the significance of the learner’s effort and achievement To help establish the relevance and value of the learner’s project To help the learner establish boundaries and define achievement In relation to the above macro-skills, the data (below) obtained from adviser self-reflection forms (see appendix II) show an overwhelming preoccupation with how to guide students. Most comments in these forms refer to strategies for guiding students, and while some statements cover macro-skills of goal-setting, supporting, providing feedback, and concluding, generally, macro-skills of initiating, evaluating, and linking do not feature prominently in adviser self-reflections. ADVISER SELF-REFLECTION FORMS AND MACRO-SKILLS DATA Skill Initiating Goal-setting Examples from adviser self-reflection forms x Design a plan with students of immediate things they can start doing right away. We encourage students to try at least one thing of the ones suggested 7 and they seem happy to have just one small goal to accomplish. Guiding We try to focus on what’s most urgent and what students can realistically do in the time they have left before turning in their assignment. Use/memorise phrases. With time they will become more natural. For anxiety: practice, impromptu speech, Breadmasters/English corner, figure out/voicing what they’re really scared about. When we discuss ways in which students can engage with the critics we usually suggest them to integrate them into their own sentences and make an evaluation of the source. We usually suggest students to consider the way they are linking paragraphs together, how they are developing their thesis making sure that it ‘runs’ through the whole essay, we also advise them to make a clear statement from the beginning and use of references and quotations to support their arguments. If they don’t understand the rule we usually give an explanation of why what they wrote is not correct. Suggest students to use phrasal verbs and collocations that native or advanced learners would use in order to sound more natural. Provided guidance on CV writing. Modelling Supporting Suggest prioritising information. Read other pieces of writing that are similar to what they need to write. If they need to write essays then we recommend to read essays and try to pay attention to the language other writers use to introduce new ideas, give examples, evaluate sources Use sample videos provided by their teachers. During sessions we point out things people on the videos have done well. Encourage students to join discussions and chats with peer tutors/come back. Refer students to peer tutors, English corner, board games as these activities are not so task-oriented. Giving feedback Have pretend discussions. At the end of the workshop the adviser corrects those mistakes and offers suggestions. This is done because students ask for more feedback even during discussions like board games and English corner. If students want us to focus on language we usually highlight mistakes and get students to correct by themselves. Evaluating Linking Concluding Highlight words from sentence to sentence to point out coherence issues. x x At the end of the session we usually write down a list of things they specifically need pay attention to when editing their essays. 8 Advisers’ tendency to make guiding the focal point of their reflection raises a concern that has been identified by Morrison & Navarro (2012) who contend that advisers may find it challenging to use the “guiding” strategy since they must try to keep the balance of their roles between being an adviser and being a teacher so as to avoid being too prescriptive. This suggests that an understanding of the distinction between advising and teaching is crucial to good advising because while the former relies on dialogue so that the learner can identify his/her own needs and path for language acquisition, the latter adopts a more traditional and standard approach to help students achieve language learning goals. The absence of reference to macro-skills such as initiating, evaluating and linking in our adviser self-reflection data could be explained in one of two ways: (1) either the advisers feel confident about these skills and do not feel the need to mention them or (2) they have not given much thought to these skills and their relevance for advising. If it is the latter, a language adviser training workshop or programme could help address this issue. In contrast to macro-skills, which even when used repeatedly in a session (Morrison & Navarro, 2012), tend to have a sequence that in turn forms the advising cycle, micro-skills can not only be used at any stage of the language advising process but sometimes a few micro-skills can also be used together (Kelly, 1996). Some examples of micro-skills include: attending, restating, paraphrasing, summarising, questioning, interpreting, reflecting feelings, empathising, and confronting (as shown in Table 2 below). According to Mozzon-McPherson (2000), these micro-skills focus more on the “person-centred counselling model” (Egan, 1990) as they put more emphasis on students’ learning autonomy development and self-responsibility taking. This thus makes the learner-centred advising practice most distinguishable from the traditional teacher-centred teaching practice while linking advising with counselling therapy (Mozzon-McPherson, 2001). But in addition to Kelly’s macro- and micro-skills classification, Mozzon-McPherson (1999) argue for the need for cognitive, theoretical, and practical “tools” that can facilitate advising. These tools, may for example include data from processes such as needs analysis and/or learning styles analysis, skills such as time management, and objects such as study plan to name a few. Table 2: Micro-skills of language counselling Skills Attending Description Giving the learner your undivided attention Restating Repeating in your own words what the learner says Paraphrasing Simplifying the learner’s statements by focusing on the essence of the message 9 Purpose To show respect and interest; to focus on the person To check your understanding and to confirm the learner’s meaning To clarify the message and to sort out conflicting or confused meanings Summarizing Questioning Interpreting Reflecting feelings Empathizing Confronting Bringing together the main elements of a message Using open questions to encourage self-exploration Offering explanations for learner experiences Surfacing the emotional content of learner statements Identifying with the learner’s experience and perception Surfacing discrepancies and contradictions in the learner’s communication To create focus and direction To elicit and to stimulate learner disclosure and self-definition To provide new perspectives; to help self-understanding To show that the whole person has been understood To create a bond of shared understanding To deepen self-awareness, particularly of self-defeating behaviour Of the nine micro-skills above, adviser self-reflection statements show a predominant focus on questioning and attending skills. ADVISER SELF-REFLECTION FORMS AND MICRO-SKILLS DATA Among all the statements related to micro-skills, questioning received the most attention from advisers in their self-reflection documents. Here are some examples from the data of reference to questioning skills: Try to ask the right questions to find out what it is that students really need. Ask students about ways in which they learned best. Ask what’s more urgent. Ask students about what they feel they need to improve. Sometimes they’re not aware of their own issues. Ask about the assignment, rubrics, task, thesis. Ask students about the function of paragraphs, sentences, reference. Next to questioning, instances showing micro-skills of attending were seen most commonly in adviser reflection forms. Usually, these were phrased in terms of what the adviser suggests or would like to do better in the future. Here are some examples: I need to listen more. Be more patient Regarding participation, it is important to understand students’ preferences, personalities, learning styles and reasons for attending workshops. 10 Other micro-skills such as summarising appeared once in the reflections and one reflective statement - “Point out how references sometimes contradict their argument” - alluded to the micro-skill of confronting. (Micro-skills of empathising and reflecting feelings have been discussed under the section on the affective dimension of language advising). In brief, the self-reflection data from advisers reveal that while advisers generally reflect on their questioning and attending skills, they rarely refer to the micro-skills of restating, paraphrasing, interpreting, and confronting. One possible reason for this could be that advisers see the use of the skills they have not mentioned in the form as a given. In other words, they may think that it is obvious that in the process of advising they would be making use of the other micro-skills too. However, if this is the case, then there is a need for this tacit understanding to be made explicit so that those new to advising can benefit from this knowledge. The simplicity of Kelly’s macro- and micro-skills framework combined with its comprehensive categorisation of the different skills made it suitable for analysing the data gathered through this study. However, it is worth noting that advising skills can be viewed through different scholarly lenses, which are equally if not more rigorous in presenting the various analytical components of advising. Voller (1998), whose work was published soon after Kelly’s, took a different approach and classified the features of a consultation together with the communication strategies into four dimensions, namely, the “key features of the first consultation”, the “feedback loop”, the “communication strategies of active Listening” and “motivating”. Based on this categorisation scheme proposed by Voller along with Kelly’s (1996) language counselling skills scheme and Regent’s (1993) counselling roles, Pemberton, Toogood, Ho and Lam (2001) developed a list of 21 advising strategies for a language advising program that fell into four main dimensions: asking questions, clarifying, advising and motivating. Apart from person-centred or learner-centred skills, which also include counselling and reflective skills consisting of mirroring, paraphrasing, summarising, and helping skills used in language advising settings, Stickler (2001) points out the necessity for language advisers to have the consciousness of intercultural or trans-cultural counselling or the need to have the life experience of at least two kinds of languages and cultures. However, Kato and Sugawara (2009) adopted the idea of coaching skills from Whitworth, Kimsey-House and Sandahl (1998) and incorporated it into the field of language advising to facilitate students’ self-reflection on their own language learning. Yet despite the different taxonomies and nomenclature, essentially, the point of most skills and strategies proposed has been to encourage autonomous learning so that advisers can nurture learners’ capacity to be independent and responsive to their own learning. Hence, most advising frameworks are built with the aim to encourage advisers to accompany learners in their path towards autonomy by responding to learners’ concerns and offering guidance that caters to learners’ learning needs (Ciekanski, 2007). 11 Transcriptions of adviser-advisee dialogue obtained during this research show how macro- and micro-skills can be used in language advising. It is worth noting that a few macro-skills can overlap in a particular excerpt of an advising dialogue. For example, in the Goal identification and setting excerpt below, the adviser is not only helping the student identify and set the language learning goal but also using the macro-skill of concluding to wrap this part of their exchange. Similarly, advisers may make use of many micro-skills simultaneously to achieve their advising goal. This can be seen in the excerpt below as the adviser is able to use a question not only as a micro-skill for questioning but also as a paraphrasing tool. DATA DEMONSTRATING USE OF MACRO- AND MICRO-SKILLS IN ADVISOR-ADVISEE TRANSCRIBED DIALOGUE GOAL IDENTIFICATION AND SETTING (see video AS1) S: First of all, I kind of know two problems of mine. >>> goal-identification T: ok, what are they? >>> questioning S: I don’t do well in examination. It is very timed [sic]. T: Oh…, so time constraint. >>> restating/paraphrasing. How do you know you don’t have enough time? >>> questioning S: I usually spent maybe 10 minutes for this kind of question. But if it’s an IELTS test, I can only spent 20 minutes in total for one such task. 40 minutes for extended writing… T: So…, overall one hour, which is very short.>>> empathising. How long do you think you need at the moment to do these two tasks? >>> questioning S: I need to think about the questions for 3 minutes (uh-huh). I’m not used to them (em). Yeah. T: So, instead of one hour, you might prefer to finish it in 1.5? >>> paraphrasing/questioning S: Maybe… T: So we have to decrease the time… by about half-an-hour. Yeah. >>> restating S: and in forming ideas, I usually need a long time. T: But the more you practice, the less time you will take. >>> interpreting S: yeah. T: it will become your second nature and you won’t have to worry about it. >>> interpreting T: So let’s try to aim for that. Shall we? >>> Goal-setting/Concluding And this topic is Tourism in Economy. Now, let us see how the macro-skill of initiating is used by the adviser in the excerpt below. Just like the excerpt above, note that initiating here, which is being used by the adviser to enhance focus and reduce learner uncertainty, could also be viewed as goal-setting because of the specificity of student’s 12 responses. Furthermore, in addition to micro-skills of restating and questioning which have been used in the excerpt above, this dialogue presents an instance of evaluating through which the adviser appraises the learner’s response and progress. INITIATING (see video AS2) T: So if you have to focus on the three most important points that you would say I will start doing it from today no matter what the academic assignment , which ones do you think you can easily start implementing in your writing? >>> initiating/goal-identification and setting S: the cohesion …topic sentence. T: Ok, that’s good. And that’s very important. >>> encouraging/evaluating S: And formality? T: Yeah, formality.>>> restating S: The intro… can be concise and clear. T: Exactly. How? >>> questioning In the excerpt below, the adviser is concluding the consultation but still seeks to support the student by providing reinforcement to help him/her to persist. The adviser gauges the leaner’s uncertainty and subsequently through questioning enables the student to come up with a time frame for taking the IELTS exam and encourages follow-up action. SUPPORTING/CONCLUDING (see video AS3) T: So next time we will work on it. (yeah). >>> supporting S: Thanks. T: Good luck! When is your IELTS exam? >>> supporting/questioning S: I have not decided yet. T: Will you give yourself a month? >>> questioning/eliciting S: I think I am uncomfortable with that for now. T: You should give yourself two or three months then. >>> suggesting/guiding S: But I think I have to get it before May. T: ok. So this semester we can focus on it. >>> concluding/supporting/ensuring follow-up In the scenario below, the adviser guides the student to write about the information presented in the graph by using the macro-skills of guiding, evaluating, providing feedback and summarising. The adviser also relies on micro-skills of questioning,restating and paraphrasing to successfully engage 13 in this advising dialogue. It is worth noticing that the adviser does not at any point answer the questions but through focused guiding questions is able to elicit the answers from the learner. GUIDING T (reading task instructions aloud): “The graph below shows average early rain fall in Moscow and San Francisco measures. Summarize information by selecting information and reporting features and make comparisons where relevant”. T: Now, as soon as you look at the graph, what are the two or maximum three things that catch your attention right away? >>> asking guiding questions S: I mean, the most important of this graph should be… the distribution so there are two countries so it’s comparing between them. T: So, what are the most noticeable patterns? offering direction/guiding/questioning S: the two cities have like very different distributions in terms of rainfall… T: ok, that’s good. Yeah. >>> evaluating/providing feedback S: So San Francisco has a very dry summer, and their winter is exceptionally wet and they have a lot of rainfall but it’s different in Moscow and the rainfall pattern in Moscow is much more even… so, it does not have a large range as supposed to San Francisco. T: Interesting, so your first observation is that there are extremes in San Francisco..of rainfall. Large differences between the seasons and months… and for Moscow, it’s more or less constant. >>> restating/paraphrasing. And another observation? >>> questioning S: So the graph shows the average rainfall of a couple of years. It says average of each year for every month. Yeah, it shows the month of every year and it has some seasonal patterns. T: What is the specific pattern? Questioning/guiding S: Moscow is wet in summer and dry in winter and San Francisco is the opposite. T: great. Yeah!!! >>> evaluating/providing feedback. So…. Let’s say that within 150 words, these are the two things that you can elaborate on and write about… yeah. >>> summarising Even though students are unaware of theoretical advising terminology, interviews with learners reveal that they see guiding, supporting, questioning, and restating skills as important too. 14 DATA ON STUDENT EXPERIENCES AND EXPECTATIONS OF ADVISER SKILLS AND STRATEGIES - IN THEIR OWN WORDS Good advisers: “communicate well.” “repeat important things.” “have teaching tips and strategies for important exams like IELTS.” “check with me what I mean to write or say.” “ask questions about what I want to do.” “help me understand text.” “don’t change my content [revise/proofread my writing] but show me how to do it better”. “suggest”. For example: “Phrasing like this would be better.” “follow-up on tasks.” “are older and more experienced. Their level of English is better…and they give useful advice.” “are knowledgeable and have specialization [have specialized knowledge]. For example, Business, Law, Engineering. “It’s good to have someone field-specific when I am doing case studies or practicing for job interviews.” “give discipline-side advice too. My adviser knew about Sociology and said “How about you test XXX theory?” S/he is really well-read on the topic.” “watch your progress.” “show multiple layers of meanings in text and how word order can change meaning.” For example, “where to put the adverbial for emphasis.” S/he has a very high level of knowledge.” Good advisers don’t: “point out minor mistakes like you have missed an ‘s’.” “simply suggest name of thesaurus or website to find synonyms. It’s not useful.” “just focus on coursework.” “give superficial advice.” The last two remarks made by students also go to show that despite popular beliefs that students are only interested in grades and visit advising sessions with the aim to focus on assignments, some are in fact interested in knowledge that extends beyond course work (which corresponds to Kelly’s (1996) framework of linking learning to wider issues and goals) while many are keen to have a deeper learning experience. 15 SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING AND THE AFFECTIVE DIMENSION OF LANGUAGE ADVISING Previous studies suggest that learners’ affect is of great significance in their self-directed language learning. Brown and White (2010) recognized three spheres of learners’ emotion in the process of learners’ self-directed language learning: 1) becoming aware of their emotions; 2) reflecting on their emotions; and 3) managing their emotions. They also argue that a process-oriented approach would be much better in the investigation of the affective factors in learners’ self-directed learning as well as the interaction between the two parties. They emphasise that the role affect plays in language learning and teaching processes are still under-researched and there is a need to focus more on learners’ language learning experiences during their L2 acquisition process (Brown & White, 2010). Therefore, although studies focusing on the affective aspect of self-directed language learning are large in number, those concerned specifically with language advising are in fact limited. Tassinari and Ciekanski (2011) conducted one of the first studies focusing on the kind of role affective factors play in learners’ language learning process so as to help facilitate language advisers’ attempts to enhance learners’ autonomy in language learning. Their research focused on: (1) how language learners and their advisers deal with affective issues, or in other words emotions and feelings, in the language advising processes,and (2) how advisers can successfully identify and distinguish language learners’ expressed as well as unexpressed affective issues through interactive advising discourse to help learners become more self-directed and autonomous in their language learning. They found that within the discourse contexts between advisers and language learners, the affective aspect accounts for a very large percentage. They also suggested that language advisers should deal with affective issues during the language learning process, particularly the effect of positive and negative feelings on the learners, as well as respond to their implicit and explicit behaviors, which is actually not an easy issue to tackle because it may require psychological knowledge, which language advisers trained only in the pedagogical domain may not be equipped to address. Based on Damasio’s (2002) classification of emotions, a minor adaptation of Plutchik’s circumplex of basic emotions, Kehrein’s (2002) criteria of emotions in speech, and Kerbrat-Orecchioni’s (1980) classification of subjectivity, Tassinari and Ciekanski (2011) developed a categorisation system for coding advising discourse and tagging items in terms of two main aspects: (1) affective terms and (2) evaluative terms. Candas and Eneau (2010, p.150) found that the use of affective strategies include “looking for interesting texts, watching funny videos, avoiding boring and demotivating tasks”, or taking into account one’s own mood while learning, all occupy a significant place in learning management overall (Tassinari & Ciekanski, 2011). These affective strategies do exert a deep impact on learners’ learning process in spite of learners’ individual differences; however, what is interesting is that learners themselves do not truly regard the use of these affective strategies as carrying on “learning tasks” since these tasks bring so much happiness to them that they do not even realise that they are 16 finishing academic work. Tassinari (2016) situates language advising firmly within the language learning process, and believes that learning is influenced by cognitive, matacognitive, and affective factors (among others) within the socio-cognitive framework.He propounds the need for language advisers to support the affective aspect of student learning rather than merely focusing on the cognitive and meta-cognitive aspects because of the established inter-relation between cognition and emotion. The importance of affect in interactions with their advisers has been underscored by students too. DATA ON STUDENT EXPERIENCES AND EXPECTATIONS OF AFFECT IN LANGUAGE ADVISING - IN THEIR OWN WORDS Positive Affect My adviser is “kind, helpful, gentle, knowledgeable.” S/he “is not too serious because I won’t go again [if they are too serious]. S/he does “not put pressure [on me] like secondary school.” I like long-term advising because advisers “know what I really need, they know my weaknesses” and they “look after me”. It’s more personal. My adviser is “very supportive.” “Friendliness is important because I am a very shy person. If tutor is cold, I will have fear of speaking.” The adviser should be “eager to help and be able to understand my situation”. “Cozy conversation” with adviser. “It gives me confidence to talk”. One-on-one advising “makes me less nervous” in speaking English. “I am better now but still stutter.” The atmosphere in advising is “cheerful and I am not afraid of making mistakes. The general feeling is very nice.” “I don’t feel embarrassed in front of my adviser.” “I need encouragement when I learn.” “I need emotional support because I am timid. I like teachers who accept my shortcomings.” In the early stage, students need confidence and emotional support but with time, advisers can increase the linguistic input. I like teachers/advisers who “love to discuss things with students. They love literature and writing and language.” “Passion in teacher will be transferred to the student.” I like advisers who “get involved.” Good advisers can “make us believe that we can improve to the level of the teacher.” “The environment [during advising] is more relaxed. [unlike lectures or tutorials] where if someone is shy, they won’t speak up. “It’s really nice to practice speaking with teachers.” 17 “I am now more comfortable in [making] presentations”. “Good advisers show consistent care for their students.” Negative Affect “Teacher doesn’t seem interested.” The adviser seemed “bored with all the mistakes I made…a little disappointed. Didn’t give me encouragement.” The adviser “doesn’t understand my need”. [There’s] “lack of emotion”. But it is not only students who are aware of the centrality of affect in advising dialogue. Advisers themselves tend to identify and acknowledge their own emotions and that of their students in order to navigate the advising process. AFFECT IN ADVISERS’ SELF- REFLECTIONS Many advisers see emotions manifest during advising when students display or talk about their lack of confidence or anxiety, discouragement, and disengagement. Adviser Perception of Student Affect Lack of confidence mostly because students don’t understand spoken English. Even though students have good level of English their nerves get in the way of speaking in public. Students don’t realise/are not proud of their accomplishments and how good they are. They apologise all the time. What could be done better? How can I minimise students’ concerns? Some students do not seem very engaged as they don’t participate much. The data below from the CAES advisers show that they believe students benefit from positive emotions shown by the adviser such as encouragement, empathy and patience, and in turn they would like their students to feel confident, proud, happy and engaged. Adviser Reflection on their own Affect We encourage students to try at least one thing of the ones suggested and they seem happy to have just one small goal to accomplish. Some of us don’t point out too many language mistakes…it may discourage some students. Be more patient. Acknowledge their problems are real. Thus, advisers often strive to find ways to minimise negative affect for students even though there are times when they do not feel they have been successful in allaying students’ concerns. 18 It is when advisers feel at a loss for affective strategies that a training programme with formalised methods of peer observation and feedback can be particularly helpful. DATA ON AFFECT IN ADVISER PEER OBSERVATION FEEDBACK Although one of the limitations of the data obtained is that it does not show advisers in situations where they are struggling to resolve student negative affect, comments from the peer observation feedback forms do show the affective components of advising dialogue that are valued: There was a good degree of rapport and ease with each other. Your friendly manner, as I’ve seen in other situations is one part of what brings students like XXX back to seek your help. Friendly, comfortable, supportive manner. Praise given, e.g. ‘good’ / ‘great’. Good simple questioning at the beginning to ‘get to know’ the student. Professional, friendly and approachable manner. Introduced yourself and asked her her details although she was determined to get everything she needed off her chest as soon as she came in! She seemed quite rushed and in a tizzy but you kept reassuring her with ‘no problem’ to the initial issues that cropped up. Friendly, professional manner as always. Thus, the research shows that friendliness, approachability, and being supportive are regarded as desirable qualities in advisers, and students respond well to advisers who get to know them, make them feel comfortable, put them at ease, and are able to guide, praise and reassure them as needed. The transcribed dialogues below show how advisers tune into and respond to learner affect in language advising. DATA DEMONSTRATING USE OF AFFECTIVE ADVISOR-ADVISEE TRANSCRIBED DIALOGUE SKILLS IN The excerpt below shows how the adviser responds to a learner who feels s/he goes blank when someone asks her/him a question in English. The adviser wants to reassure the learner and consider the possibility that most of us need to pause to think before articulating our response, thereby normalising the student’s feelings. In addition, as the student seems to be plagued by self-doubt, the adviser challenges and confronts his/her beliefs by asking if one can be weak at pausing and formulating their thoughts, and then repeats that hesitation is quite normal. 19 REFLECTING AND NORMALIZING FEELINGS (see video AS4) S: a blank… I would say a blank… the teacher asked me a very simple question, for example, what are you doing ? And I really didn’t have any idea and I don’t know why… (emmm…) I had nothing to say. T: isn’t it natural that we think as we are trying to express ourselves? >>> empathising and normalising feelings S: that’s what I am weak at… (emm…) exactly… T: Can you be weak at it? And it’s just something quite normal… you know…, maybe sometimes we hesitate or rephrase. I mean everything that you say would be a provisional attempt. Do you feel that this is just a natural part of the conversation that you have with people? >>> confronting S: perhaps it is… (emmm…) emmm…. Just like now…, I don’t know how to continue on… T: emmm… what do you find difficult? Questioning S: ahhh… I have no idea what I should say… my mind isn’t working now… The exchange below shows a student who is anxious because s/he needs to go on an exchange programme and also submit assignments. Note how the adviser expresses his empathy by referring to things “piling up”. He takes care not to interrupt and reassures her/him that bringing the wrong speech is not a problem. The adviser then suggests prioritising tasks to help the student. EMPATHISING AND LISTENING S: that’s the assignment and I thought yeah, this is November. Don’t expect to have free time. T: oh, right. But then, is it like…things are piling up or…? (ahhh…) or you’ve just had mid-term, so presumably in a few weeks time you all will have your finals. >>> empathising S: yeah. Actually I thought I am the last people to have finished my mid-term, that’s late, but then our friend who is in this faculty of Science told me he had another mid-term test this afternoon. I thought yeah, I am not the last one, yeah! I meant to bring the speech but I have got the wrong one… T: alright, (yeah) ok… it’s ok…>>> reassuring S: It’s just another assignment but I think I am not good at coping with stress I think because last time when I go back home I looked at the criteria of the exchange programme again and I found they have to look at my GPA from my semester one and I suddenly become very nervous (ahh~) because this semester the difficulty increased, so I don’t think I have done well. T: you still in … S: in year one? T: you still in the top range…, right? >>> encouraging S: I am not sure because I am like having Spanish and I think it really difficult this year… and after I had mid-term of Spanish, I actually for the following two nights, I dreamed of like doing 20 the test again and I know (oh, God. Ha ha ha) the mistakes I have made and it really unpleasant to… you know…to dream of it over and over again. T：Of course. >>> mirroring. But at the moment, what would be your priority? I mean you might have a few plans in mind, I mean, logistical preparation, which is just a matter of applying and just waiting to be given a place. Ok, and preparing your statements maybe taking your IELTS and then at this stage you might actually all another process of preparing yourself I guess psychologically. >>> guiding It is hoped that the above instances of transcribed dialogues demonstrating the macro- and micro-skills of language advising, the data from the peer feedback and self-reflection forms as well as student interviews will not only be useful for language advisers, communication assistants, and peer tutors but also for dissertation supervisors and academic advisers and/or any academic who provides consultations to students on a one-on-one capacity. 21 Appendix I Language Advising: Peer Observation Form Observed adviser: Peer observer: Date and Time: Advising Stages Description/Comments 1. Introduction/Getting to Know Student/Rapport 2. Understanding of Language Issues/Needs 3. Advising dialogue 4. Strategies and Advice Given Strengths: Suggestions for improvement: Response (optional): 22 Appendix II Self-reflection Document for Language Advisers 1. Date of advising 2. Area of English language learning addressed 3. Learner background/interests/needs 4. Brief discussion of key challenges faced by the learner? What are some key difficulties that the learner seemed to be facing? In what contexts do they manifest themselves? What does the learner regard as key reasons for such challenges? 5. General principles made use of during the advising session Give specific examples with some details 6. To what extent do you regard the use of such general principles of advising as effective? In what ways? *7. To what extent do you regard the use of your dialogic and affective skills as being effective? Provide examples. 7. What aspects of the advising session would you have done differently if you were to conduct the session again? 8. Resources used *10. 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