Applying an Advising Method to Teaching: How We Can Foster Learner Autonomy in a Class
By: Jun Kato
In this unstable and rapidly changing society, the word SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) has become known to everyone around the world. So, is there any sustainable way for English learning? There might be a clue to that in how we can foster learner autonomy in a classroom.
While teaching English online and at university, I have been studying and pursuing ways to improve my own English skills as well to obtain a professional certification for ESACⓇ (English Study Advisor’s Certificate), which is offered by ALC Education. I have been teaching first-year and second-year students, and most of the latter tend not to go on to take an English class in their third year at our university. That means, for the students who do not major in English, their English study at university might end in their second year. In these few years, it is also notable that we have been through the pandemic of COVID-19. Because of these facts, I am seeking ways to tell my students how important it is to keep learning by themselves, even when they finish their English courses or if they cannot take in-person lectures. In this article, I would like to share the experiences I had in my teaching and write about how we can apply advising methods in a class, which are usually discussed separately from the teaching fields.
What do advisors do?
Kato (2020) says the fundamental role of an advisor is not to give concrete advice to a learner, while the word advise itself means “to offer suggestions about the best course of action to someone”(Oxford Languages, 2025). Kato states that advisors’ job is to encourage learners to think by themselves, by fostering their metacognition through reflective dialogues. The ultimate goal for an advising session is to give learners new perspectives and help them accomplish their goals by themselves. As mentioned above, the most significant thing of all is that advisors, unlike teachers, do not give answers or teach English. Moreover, advisors need to listen to learners, showing empathy to them. During one session, an advisor should build rapport, ask what is needed to solve the problem in English learning, and help the learner to plan their study specifically to this end.
I hold advising sessions in my online lessons as well, and that last step seems especially difficult for me. Recommending our own study habits or tips is not an ideal way of advising, as there are thousands of ways to learn depending on the learner. The session should be individualized and optimized, so there are no general solutions for a session.
Online lectures during the pandemic
I started my teaching career in university five years ago, in the midst of the COVID pandemic. We had to proceed with our lectures online and there were two options for lecturers: on-time lectures using platforms such as Zoom or Google Meet, and on-demand lectures using text-based materials. I chose to give my lecture on-demand, but it was really challenging for me to make materials. I had not even had any experience in giving a lecture in person, other than one-on-one online lessons and classes with a small number of students. At first, I received some comments from my students which said that they needed some kind of audio guide along with my materials. From then on, I decided to spend more time on replying to comments from my students and giving individual feedback for students who were behind in their assignments. As time went on, I came to realize that one-on-one lessons and group lectures had a lot in common, and to wonder if I could make use of advising methods in my teaching.
In 2022, in-person lectures were restarted at our university, and almost all of the English classes were switched to in-person. There are 30 to 40 students in an English class, and initially, I was never sure that I could successfully manage such a class. I had got to feel so comfortable holding classes online before that. I felt rather awkward speaking in front of so many students. I needed to change my mindset to make my lecture more comfortable both for myself and for the students. And then it suddenly dawned on me that if I could give a lecture that was more focused on each student in the class, it would be much easier for me. Since then, I have been trying to focus on a student who I am asking a question to. If there is anything they cannot understand or answer, I immediately share that with other students, because they might be struggling with the same problem.
Active Listening in a class
There are some key techniques to conducting an advising session and these techniques include Active Listening. To listen actively, we must, most of all, make sure that we are truly listening to a learner, making eye contact, and giving responses to what the speaker is saying. The technique is also effective in the classroom, where students can easily feel insecure and vulnerable. That is especially true for Japanese students, many of whom assume that they always have to use grammatically perfect English when speaking in front of others. Even if they seem to make a mistake, I try to understand what they want to say and listen to their opinions until the end, giving positive feedback on their answers. I think what is most important is letting students learn that it is all right to make a mistake in the classroom. This makes them feel secure or less embarrassed to express their opinions freely. We cannot make progress and speak for ourselves until we truly feel that we are accepted and understood.
I often ask my students what makes them think a specific answer for a question is correct. Sometimes, they cannot answer why they choose the answer even themselves. By asking open-ended questions to reflect the process of thinking like this, we can let students put their thoughts into words and help them figure out the problem by themselves. I believe acquiring skills to reflect themselves will lead to fostering their autonomy on their English learning.
Learning English with more fun
In my advising session, I ask learners if there are any activities which they like to do in their free time and recommend making use of these activities for their English study. It will also be effective in our classroom to adopt a method by which we can enjoy learning English most. At the end of a lesson at university, I usually show some YouTube videos, which enables students to learn phrases from daily conversations and feel familiar with English. The videos may be music videos of famous pop-singers or extracts from interviews with celebrities. I even show them YouTube Shorts in which Japanese customs are introduced by foreign travelers. While watching videos, I let my students write down any words or phrases they can comprehend. By doing so, they can naturally immerse themselves in English and become more interested in it, away from the textbook. They will also be able to learn the cultural backgrounds of foreign countries, which they cannot experience in Japan. English songs, dramas, movies, and books are full of daily vocabulary which we can use in everyday life. Some of my students wrote in their comments that they realized how enjoyable it was to watch movies in English, as they had never done so before. There are also students who say they have become more interested in English pop songs after watching music videos in my class.
Lýdia Machová, who is a language mentor and TED Talk speaker, says that one of the most important keys to becoming a polyglot is that we enjoy the process of learning a new language (2018). I have met so many foreign language learners who started learning a language simply because they like the actors, songs, food, or movies of the country where it is spoken. Sadly, Japanese students are prone to start their English study before they realize why they need to learn English. Thus, they never know that it really is such fun to study it. Once students realize how enjoyable and fun it is to learn English, they will keep on studying English autonomously even after finishing their courses.
Learning English is like a lifelong marathon race. If teachers could choose to accompany learners rather than to lead them, they might be able to go much farther than they were expected to go. I sincerely hope that their English study experience in university will be more than getting a credit or good scores in TOEIC test.
Jun Kato is a part-time lecturer at Tohoku Gakuin University. She holds a Master’s degree in Information Science and a TESOL/TEFL certification. She feels happiest when she shares the enjoyment of learning English with her students and is also interested in other foreign languages and cultures. She has been learning languages including Korean, Italian, and German.