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Teacher-student conferences about essay writing #135

Teacher-student conferences (TSC) about essay writing can help students to raise their awareness of their strengths and weaknesses and revise their essays. However, few studies on the effect on learner autonomy (LA) to develop their writing skills have been conducted in Japan. Therefore, the present study aims to explore the influences of TSC on LA and students’ writing strategy use. An illustrative case study was administered with six 2nd-year university students in central Japan for 3 months. For this, data was collected through classroom observation notes, interviews, and the target students' learning logs. Using inductive thematic analysis, the researcher coded the data and categorized it into three groups: the use of secondary references, the use of a grammar reference book, and collaborative writing activities. Data illustrated that students still needed the teacher to judge whether their writing strategies were appropriate; however, the more actively students were engaged in conferences, the more revisions they conducted while utilising more writing strategies. Therefore, this study attests to the claim that teachers and students can collaboratively explore ways for students to revise their papers by themselves (Hirvela & Belcher, 2018). Accordingly, TSC will contribute to writing instructions and LA in EFL tertiary educational contexts.