About

Teaching You to Teach Yourself

The Blog

RyanLayman.com is a blog about learning.  Learning is always student-centered.  By definition it can only be done by the student.  Readers who come to RyanLayman.com are interested in learning how to learn a language, or interested in developments in language education in Japan.  They include students, teachers, or other people involved in the language learning industry who have an interest in students learning to teach themselves.

Ryan`s practice is formed by his own experience teaching himself to learn the Japanese language in a short time, and so RyanLayman.com is a site where students and teachers can learn about self-learning:  What it is, how it can work, and what is needed for it to flourish.

You, as a reader and commenter, are invited to join in the discussion.  I invite you to take a look around and learn as much as you can.  If what you see suits your fancy, then by all means subscribe and keep reading, keep commenting, and keep learning.

The Author

Ryan Layman is a teacher, blogger, and entrepreneur based in Kanazawa, Japan.  He currently holds a position as Assistant Professor of English Language at Kanazawa Institute of Technology, and is currently pursuing research opportunities in computer-assisted autonomous learning.  Ryan has gained this interest in autonomous learning after self-teaching himself the Japanese language from very little ability to very fluent in about two years.

During his time working in Japan, Ryan also became really interested in teacher training, believing continuous career development no longer an option but a requirement in a world in which the pace of technology and learning must be continuously and increasingly rapidly accelerated for both students and teachers alike.  To this end he is currently working as the Essential English Center`s Forum Director as part of KIT`s teacher training initiative.  His duties include identifying what teachers need and want for career development, planning monthly forums to facilitate the training, and ensuring that teachers have all of the tools and information they require to pursue career opportunities in Japan and abroad.

In addition to his work duties, Ryan Layman is a member of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and The Japan Association of Language Teaching (JALT).  In an effort to pursue business opportunities in self-learning he is also a member of the Entrepreneur`s Association of Tokyo.  He does his best to attend meetings to hear about new developments and to attempt to adapt this information to suit his students and readers.

Ryan is currently working on numerous projects to advance the prominence of self-study/autonomous language learning in Japan, as well as computer-assisted language learning, and is open to being approached with proposals and projects that advance this cause.