Research Information System
Self-Directed Learning and Advising in Language Learning, Ankara, Turkey, 24 April 2021
Advising policies and practices aim to foster learner autonomy, focusing on the
individual learning process, of not only learners but also teachers and learning advisors.
In the specific context of Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University School of Foreign
Languages (AYBU-SFL), language instructors were offered a transformative learning
experience called Advisor Education Program (AEP), building on the expertise and
resources gained via the Advising in Language Learning (ALL) training received from
Kanda University of International Studies (KUIS) in Japan. Of the four modules, Getting
Started, Going Deeper and Becoming Aware were completed by the trainees. Their skillbased training required gaining a thorough understanding of the fundamentals of ALL
along with actively running advising sessions with students. As such, trainees were
provided with the opportunity to achieve content attainment and content application
simultaneously, weaving theory with practice on their path to becoming a learning
advisor. This talk will present the findings from the open-ended, self-report
questionnaires administered prior to and at the end of each module to collect trainee
reflections on the AEP content and efficiency, and the implications for future
implementations will be discussed. One of the trainees will also share her reflections on
her experience of moving beyond “teaching” in the classroom and shifting role from a
teacher to a learning advisor.