Creating the L-café: An Administrator’s Standpoint

Abstract

In this narrative, a professor and administrator tells the story behind the creation of the L-café, a social learning space for language learning located on the campus of a large national university in Japan. Tracing the development of the L-café from a vice-president’s vision of a place where Japanese students could practice their nascent English skills in a comfortable, relaxed environment to its actual opening the author provides a step-by-step account from an administrator’: perspective. He then reflects on what he learned from his experience and what he sees as the affordances offered by this facility. He recounts how the experience gave him a new perspective as an educator with an increased awareness of the importance of focusing on students’ well-being and providing opportunities for out-of-class language learning.