Using Active Engagement Strategy to Promote Learning Awareness and Self-Monitoring

This paper reports an ongoing practice attempting to promote learning awareness and self-monitoring in a Japanese language oral communication classroom of a 12-Week Preparatory Course under the local in-service teachers¡¯ Japanese language teacher training programme. It aims to share the experiences and challenges faced in planning and implementation of the practice. In providing a mid-term review on the effort taken, an online questionnaire was administered to the 15 course participants. The results of the questionnaire obtained from 14 respondents, together with reflection reports submitted by 3 selected participants were examined to find out the influence of the practice onto their learning and perceptions among the participants towards the practice within the first half of the course of 6 weeks. The initial findings showed positive results in the aspect of learning awareness in all participants. However, there were only a few cases with indication in the aspect of self-monitoring. ? Keywords- active engagement, learning awareness, self-monitoring, Japanese language, oral communication, teacher training