Sunday April 9, 2017 2 - 4 p.m. Shizuoka Kyouiku Kaikan (map) Effectiveness of Team-Teaching in Japanese High Schools Farrah Hasnain English education and team teaching in Japanese public and private high schools demand the collaboration of JTEs and ALTs. The roles of each in terms of lesson preparation/materials selection, as well as the perceived agency of the Japanese Teachers of English (JTEs) and Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) in the present national foreign language curriculum can become sources of conflict and dysfunction. This is an examination of the pre-service and in-service training that JTEs and ALTs receive from their respective boards of education, government programs, and dispatch companies. Current and former senior high school ALTs and JTEs nationwide were surveyed and interviewed. Both parties felt that there needs to be clearer guidelines of their individual roles to team-teach effectively. Farrah Hasnain is currently in her third year of the JET Program as an ALT at a public senior high school. She is originally from Washington, DC.
Sunday April 23, 2017 13:30 - 1530 at Create Hamamatsu (map) Intercultural Communication Skills Japanese Corporations Need: Applications to the Language Classroom Prof. Tomoko Yoshida, Keio University As the world becomes increasingly global, most college graduates obtain jobs that involve communicating with a wide variety of people. To better understand what kinds of intercultural communication skills Japanese corporations need, we conducted five focus groups with a total of 27 participants. Our analyses revealed that participants’ examples of intercultural communication included more domestic examples (e.g., gender, region, job type, age) than international ones. Further, many of the techniques described by the participants were an amalgam of “Japanese” (e.g., sasshi, situation-specific adjustment) and “Western” (e.g., verbalizing thoughts, taking the initiative) communication skills. This interactive workshop will present the results of the study and provide an opportunity for participants to brainstorm and share different classroom activities to foster these skills. Tomoko Yoshida is a professor in the Faculty of Business and Commerce at Keio University. She is very well known in the field of Intercultural Studies and has authored, co-authored or co-edited over eight books or book chapters and 30 journal articles (too numerous to list here). She has also authored multiple articles on the experiences of Japanese returnees and Japanese biethnics in Japan. Born in the Philippines and having spent the first 18 years of her life outside of Japan, Tomoko has a personal and professional interest in the identity of those who live in the interstices of society. She has served as the journal editor of the Journal of Intercultural Communication since 2014 and will be the Vice President of SIETAR Japan starting in April, 2017. And she is also very friendly!
February 19, 2017 クリエート浜松 Room 51 1:30 - 3:30 Professor Laura L. Kusaka, Ed.D. Aichi University Junior College Native-Speakerism and Nihonjinron in University English Education Abstract: In this talk, I present selected examples from stories co-constructed with me in interviews conducted over a period of three years with five other Japanese American university teachers who find themselves positioned by dominant discourses in which native speaker (NS) is a code word for White (Kubota & Fujimoto, 2013). In addition, how tenets of nihonjinron (Befu, 2001) impact them as TESOL professionals is explored. Participants are encouraged to examine how such issues influence their own lives as language educators in Japan.Biodata: Laura L. Kusaka, Ed.D. has been living in Japan since 1974 and began her TESOL career in 1988. She is a professor at Aichi University Junior College and her research interests include teacher and learner identity, native-speakerism in English language teaching, and issues arising from researcher/participant interaction. January 15, 2017 1-3 p.m. クリエートHamamatsu浜松 Room 51 Bridging the Gap: Teaching English as an ALT Farrah Hasnain -- 3rd year ALT Bridging the Gap: Teaching English as an ALT
Abstract: In
this presentation, I will show how English is currently being taught in
public and private high schools throughout Japan. I will also show what
current ALTs and JTEs are like and how that plays a role in
team-teaching. We will discuss how language teaching works before
students enter university, and provide tips on how to apply our teaching
strategies in a university setting. ALTs and professors in Japan have
similar situations in the classroom. Many of us teach large classes,
work with students at various levels, and try to connect with whomever
we teach. We will also have a discussion about how we can better prepare
students for studying English in post-secondary education.
-------------------------------------------- October 8, 2016 6-8 p.m. Create Hamamatsu 浜松 Bldg. Room 51 Teaching English in Japan: Understanding Identity Development Through Teachers’ Stories. Prof. Diane Nagatomo Ochanomizu Women's University Teaching English in Japan: Understanding Identity Development Through Teachers’ Stories This presentation for Hamamatsu JALT will be divided into two parts. First, I will describe the results of my recent study that investigated the personal and professional identity development of (female) English teachers in Japan who have chosen to reside here as permanent migrants. Most teachers come to Japan because of a desire for a temporary overseas adventure, but some decide to make Japan their permanent home and English language teaching their career. In particular, my research focused on foreign women who are married to Japanese men. These women must deal with the racially motivated employment constraints that affect all foreign EFL teachers in Japan, but unlike their male counterparts, they must also navigate gendered waters that primarily view women as wives and mothers. The participants of my larger study are women ranging in age from 25 to 64, and they have lived, worked, and taught in various contexts. My talk at Hamamatsu JALT, will introduce the twists and turns my participants experienced as they navigated their personal and professional lives as English language teachers in Japan. Using Gee’s (2000) theoretical lens, I will describe their resistance in accepting gendered and racial identity characteristics ascribed by others, and how they have resourcefully turned them into achieved identity characteristics of their own making. The second part of the presentation will be a workshop, where participants will be invited to analyze and discuss their own personal and professional identity development using the four perspectives from Gee’s theoretical framework. Participants will hopefully become more aware that their own personal and professional identity development is the result of interaction with numerous people, only students, colleagues, and school administrators, but also with teachers’ own families and with members of the local community as well. September 18 General Meeting Create 浜松 Building 13:00-16:00 The meeting is more likely to be two hours, rather than three. Basic details follow from Sue Sullivan (Membership). July 2, 2016 Hamamatsu Create 浜松 18:00-20:00 Room 21
Developing Content-Based Learning With Reading Circles In content-based instruction, materials and activities are selected and adapted to suit student needs while giving them hands-on experience with authentic language input. One method of introducing content to university students studying English is through reading circles. Reading circles are peer-led groups in which students read the same topic and share their interpretations of it. They provide an opportunity to introduce content and promote autonomous learning while developing a wide range of linguistic skills and stimulating the transference of knowledge between the students’ L1 and L2. This presentation will discuss an action research project investigating the use of reading circles to introduce content in an intermediate level reading class at a marine sciences and technology university. The circles were scaffolded in a three-step format over the course of a semester. In the beginning the teacher prepared materials to introduce reading skills such as skimming and scanning, finding meaning from context, and vocabulary acquisition strategies. Next student groups were given readings and created reading activities to share with the other groups. Finally, the student groups chose their own readings from science and news websites and prepared materials to teach to their classmates. The topics were all self-selected by the students who chose readings based on aspects of science that they were interested in. End of term surveys showed the students enjoyed the autonomy of choosing and teaching the topics to their classmates. They also gained confidence in their reading skills.
Wendy Gough has been teaching at the college and university level in Japan for over ten years. Her teaching focus has primarily been on English for specific purposes (ESP) and her research interests include creating autonomous environments in reading and writing classrooms. At Tokai University, Wendy helps coordinate the Active Tokai Local Ambassadors (ATLAS) English group, which does community outreach projects to support the English needs of the Shimizu community. She is currently pursuing her Doctorate in Education and plans to focus her dissertation research on ESP and ATLAS club activities.
Saturday, May 28, 18:00-20:00, Hamamatsu Create 浜松 Room 21 There has been rapid expansion of the use of technology in education since the turn of the century. A myriad of new tools enable novel teaching strategies that have changed the face of classrooms around the globe. Teachers who adopt e-learning into their courses have been criticised for valuing the use of technology over learning outcomes. In this age of information, the appropriate use of technology for improving the learning environment is an essential aspect of instructional design. How e-learning systems fit into the curriculum and their effects on in-class and online pedagogy are topics that require careful consideration. This presentation will showcase several examples of e-learning integration with an analysis of their student engagement and pedagogy. This will be followed by a discussion of the roles of the classroom, students, teachers, and online learning environments and how these fit into the curriculum as elements of instructional design. Finally, we will examine some of the pedagogical reasons given by educators who refuse to adopt e-learning into their courses, and consider the merits of their arguments.
  e-learning system based on Moodle. In his role as system administrator, Adam oversees nearly 200 online courses taught by more than 30 professors and delivered to over 1,000 students university-wide.Saturday, April 16,
18:00-21:00, Hamamatsu Create 浜松, Room 51 (then join us at Kumar in Act City B1)
Creating and Adapting Teaching Materials Greg Goodmacher, Keiwa College & freelance writer The
presenter believes that teachers, not textbooks, should manage classes.
Each class is unique; therefore, mass-produced textbooks usually do not
fit specific student needs. However, many teachers are inexperienced in regard to both creating their own materials and to adapting course books. The
presenter wants to help teachers to improve their skills and to
increase their confidence regarding creating teaching materials. Among
the topics to be covered are adapting textbooks for students with
different learning styles, creating lessons with realia (maps, catalogs,
songs, etc.), using visual images, and supplementing textbooks with
additional activities. The
presenter invites participants to bring textbooks that they use in their
classes and to ask questions about how to use them more effectively. All participants will actively work together while sharing their ideas and experience in creating teaching materials.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday, March 13, 1:00-4:00, Hamamatsu Create 浜松, Room 51 Acquiring English in Japan is a lifetime journey: Ways to keep students motivated. Daichi Tanabe, Kawane High School. 日本では英語の需要、そしてより高い英語力が求められるようになってきていることは言うまでもありません。それに伴い、学校英語教育に対する要求は今まで以上に高度なものになりつつあります。しかしながら、未だに“英語が使えない”という言葉を耳にする頻度は変わりません。今回は英語学習における重要な要素であるモチベーションと実際の学校英語教育の現場から見た課題や現状、効果的なアクティビティについて話したいと思います 。 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hamamatsu JALT : Anthony Marshall, Shizuoka University of Art and Culture "Improvement of Task Performance by Videoing Tasks, Student Self-Assessment, and Task Repetition" Monday January 25, 1800- 2000 Hamamatsu Create 浜松 (Room 21 or 22) 参加費：会員 無料、非会員 1,000 円 One of the best ways to prepare language learners to function in an English-speaking environment is to provide them with the opportunity to improve their performance of practical tasks in the L2. Wouldn't it be beneficial to have an optimised, tried and tested classroom procedure for this? Research undertaken by this presenter tested a hypothesis for such a procedure. Students
were video-recorded while giving presentations. They were then asked to
watch themselves on video and to fill in a self-assessment form to
judge their own performance in relation to a model standard of
performance. This model focused on techniques for emphasising key
points. Students then used their self-feedback to improve a second
performance of the same presentation.
The procedure, while not yet perfected, showed definite benefits in focus, attitude, self-awareness, and task improvement for the learners. While this exercise is very specific, the procedure has been applied to a variety of real-world tasks that help students function better in an English-speaking environment. Anthony will illustrate the procedure and discuss ways in which it can be successfully implemented. JALT Hamamatsu’s annual My Share and end of year party! Saturday December 12, from 6:00PM Hamamatsu Create 浜松 (Room 21 or 22)
Christmas
and the New Year are closer than you think, which means that JALT
Hamamatsu’s Annual “My Share” is just around the corner. Ten presenters,
two hours, ten–fifteen minutes each! It’s fun, it’s fast, it’s furious.
It’s our most popular event and it fills up fast! If you want to try out a presentation for
2016, or if you just have ten minutes of wisdom to impart, why not give us
the summarised version? Do you have a great teaching tip, a story to
share, some lifestyle advice, a song to share, or a pecha kucha personal
challenge? Then send a brief synopsis of your presentation idea,
including your name and current employment, to Sue Sullivan at
flowerclip62@hotmail[dot]com ASAP! First in first served.
Presenters receive a 1500 yen honorarium which can go towards the costs
of our year-end party , which surely you will want to join, directly
after the presentations. Party Venue: TBA Meeting Cost: Members and Friends: Free
Hamamatsu JALT: September 20 Marie Kjeldgaard & Nicholas Bradley (2 Presentations!) Sunday, September 20, 2015 at Create Hamamatsu クリエイト浜松 Room 22, 1:30 ~
参加費：会員 無料、非会員 1,000 円
What Makes an Error? Common English Mistakes and How to Help Students Correct Them Marie Kjeldgaard Aichi University There will be a short workshop section for the audience to discuss errors they've noticed their students making and ways to correct them. Therefore, could you please feel free to bring examples of student errors for discussion in this presentation. An observant instructor will notice that different Japanese students often make similar mistakes when speaking or writing in English. This is due not to a lack of care or intelligence on the students’ part, but to underlying differences in the two languages. Although instructors are often aware of these mistakes, without knowledge of the reasoning behind them it can be difficult to help students correct them. After analyzing information collected from student work over the course of several years of university English instruction, the presenter has identified several types of common errors. For example, some are the result of students making a direct translation from Japanese to English; some are the result of English loanwords that have a different meaning in Japanese; some arise from grammatical constructs that do not exist in the Japanese language, etc. It is important to correct mistakes that interfere with comprehension without undermining students’ confidence. It can be helpful to frame some words or phrases not as “wrong,” but as examples of “Japanese English” (as opposed to American/British/Australian/other varieties of English); knowing the origin of the error is necessary to determine when this is appropriate. In other cases, exercises focused on explaining and practicing a particular phrase or grammar point may be more useful; some sample activities will be presented. When the instructor is aware of why a student is making a particular mistake, it is easier to choose an effective response.
My problem with culture Nicholas Bradley Aichi University A great deal of literature has been produced highlighting the importance of culture as a part of language teaching. As a result of this growing awareness, many textbooks, teacher resources and guides have been produced to assist teachers, like me, who want to raise students’ awareness of culture but are a little unsure about how to do it. A cursory glance will show that a large number of these textbooks and resources deal with culture in very superficial ways. I will argue that by explicitly problematizing the very concept of culture, and showing that cultural divisions are subjective and ideologically based, students will be less likely to stereotype and “essentialize” cultural categories and, ultimately, be able to view the multitude of cultural images they meet inside or outside the classroom with a more critical eye. Classroom examples and information will also be presented to show how the concept of culture can be problematized in a way that is suitable for EFL students.Hamamatsu JALT: July 11 Andy Boon, Associate Professor
Faculty of Humanities, Toyo University (Tokyo)
Hosted by Cengage Learning, Andy Boon will be speaking on two topics at this meeting. A Cengage rep will also be in attendance to answer questions and offer support. Saturday July 11, 2015 at Create Hamamatsu クリエイト浜松 Room 22, 6:30 ~8:30
参加費：会員 無料、非会員 1,000 円
Presentation 1. Setting up an extensive reading course: the beginning, the middle, and the end.
This presentation / workshop will provide an outline of an extensive reading elective reading course for second year students at Toyo Gakuen University. It will describe the decisions that were made when designing the course, the in-class activities that helped foster learner confidence and motivation, and the evaluation of the course from the perspectives of both the students and teacher alike. During the presentation / workshop, teachers will be encouraged to take part in the in-class activities and comment on the ideas presented.
Presentation 2. Inspire or perspire? Getting students speaking
This presentation will introduce the audience to a number of strategies that can help break the silence in the Japanese classroom and get students engaging in meaningful communication. Audience members will be asked to try out a number of tried and tested speaking activities and also be encouraged to share their ideas for getting students talking to one another in the L2.
Andrew Boon is an associate professor in the faculty of humanities at Toyo Gakuen University, Tokyo. He has been teaching in Japan for over 17 years and is an Aston University PhD student. He has been an active member of JALT since 2004, has presented at numerous conferences, and has published several articles on teacher development, motivation, and methodology. He is also co-author of Inspire; a 3-level listening and speaking course book (Cengage Learning, 2013-14). Hamamatsu JALT: May 25 Dr. Stefanie Pillai, Associate Professor
Faculty of Languages &
Linguistics, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Monday May 25, 2015 at Create Hamamatsu クリエイト浜松 Room 22, 6:30 ~
The Re-colonization of English Language Education: The Case of Malaysia English language education in Malaysia has gone through various changes in post-independent Malaysia due to
ever-changing education policies. I will start by talking about the
major policies and their impact on (i) English language education in
schools and higher education, and (ii) the status of English in
present-day Malaysia. My focus will be on recent policies, which, I
argue, are creating an elite group of English language speakers in a
context where English remains a gatekeeping tool among employers. I will
also show how these policies largely ignore the (i) existing pool of
English language educators and researchers, (ii) multilingual context of
Malaysia, and (iii) Malaysian variety of English. I will then discuss
how these education policies and practices are bringing us back to our
pre-independent period, where (i) there were different education
pathways at the school level and, (ii) English language education was
mainly for the socially advantaged from urban areas. I
will end by looking at whether there is hope for English language
education in Malaysia to be “de-colonised,” and for the acrolectal
variety of Malaysian English to be accepted as a teaching model. Although
the English language context in Malaysia is different from Japan, some
of the issues brought up in this talk will be familiar to English
educators in Japan.
Considering
the use of L1 (Japanese) in English language classes: A discussion of its effectiveness
Professor Rintaro Sato, Nara University & Dan Frost, a school owner in Hamamatsu Saturday March 28, 2015 at Create Hamamatsu クリエイト浜松 Room 22, 6:30 pm doors open.7:00 Professor Sato will present on his position: Language acquisition or learning is input-driven. It is crucial for learners to be given a great amount of L2 (English) input. From the point of view of second language acquisition theories, it is clear that teachers should conduct their English classes in English to provide students with a lot of high quality input, and then lead them to speak English. However, having English as the primary language does not mean that there should be no use of Japanese. We suggest that teachers should use the Japanese language effectively and selectively when needed in a minimum fashion. I will talk about the importance of English-medium classes and the reasons, and crucial roles of the Japanese language.言語習得・学習において、インプットは重要な役割をはたす。学習者には大量の英語のインプットが与えられることは不可欠であり、第2言 語習得理論からも生徒に潤沢な質の高いインプットを与え、そして英語を話させるために、教師は英語で授業を行うべきであることは明らかである。しかしなが ら、それは日本語を完全に排除すべきということではなく、最小にとどめながらも効果的に使用すべきである。プレゼンテーションでは以上について詳しく話す 予定である。
英 語の授業においては、抽象的な英単語の日本語訳や、文法の理解のために英語と日本語を対比させる場合を除いては、日本語は使用すべきでないと考える。授業 でコミュニケーション言語は英語であるという規則にすれば、教師も生徒も日本語に頼ることなく、自身の英語でのコミュニケーション能力に誇りを持てるよう になっていくはずである。 8:45
Questions and answers from the audience, until about 9:00 pm.
Andrew Reimann
Sunday February 14, 2015 1:30 - 4:30 p.m. (approximately) クリエイト浜松 Create Hamamatsu -- Room 54
Raising Cultural Awareness through Critical Incidents: A Cross Cultural Analysis of Speech Acts and Humour In cross cultural communication, humour is often used as a powerful speech act for breaking the ice, building relationships or diffusing a difficult situation. However universal, the idea of “funny” is rarely translatable because it is highly personal and context and culture specific. As a result many jokes, sarcastic or ironical remarks, which may be deeply tied to culture, are often unperceived, misunderstood or deemed offensive. This presentation will explore examples of humour in communication and describe ways in which they may be applied to the EFL classroom, used to bridge cultures and work as a mutual communication strategy. The first section will provide background on various methods, mediums and styles of humour as well as several case studies and examples from Japan, the U.K., Canada and America. The final section will report on a survey of Japanese university student’s perceptions of “funny” by analysing and ranking several examples of humour from a selection of international film and television media. In conclusion the factors effecting the success or failure of humour in interpersonal and intercultural settings will be clarified. These include flexibility, creativity and multilevel awareness of individual and cultural differences in communication styles.
Andrew Reimann is from Vancouver, Canada and has a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from Macquarie University. He teaches classes on Comparative Culture Studies and Intercultural Communication. His research interests include raising cultural awareness and communication strategies. His recent publications include; Context, Culture and Communication, Culture Studies Handbook and Raising Cultural Awareness as part of EFL Teaching in Japan. Andrew first realized the importance of intercultural communication in kindergarten when he discovered that Canadian people spoke mostly English and not German. Growing up in a bilingual family as well as a bilingual and multicultural country, he discovered that communication was more about flexibility and negotiating meaning than grammar and pronunciation. During his career in Japan he has taught every level from babies (no typo!) and kindergarten to university students and the senior community. Raising cultural awareness continues to be the focus of research and lectures, aimed towards creating a functioning global society with more inclusive perspectives and an integrative worldview. Sunday, January 18, 2015: Daniel Devolin
クリエイト浜松 Room 21 Create Hamamatsu Room 21 from 1:30
Originally from Canada, Daniel has spent the last 12 years living and working in and around Toyohashi, Japan. He has a broad range of experience at all levels and in most conventional education environments in Japan. He currently teaches for the Contemporary International English Department at Aichi University. JALT Hamamatsu's Annual "My Share"
クリエイト浜松 Room 21 Create Hamamatsu Room 21
Saturday, December 13, 2014 from 6:00 p.m. Come one, come all, once again to the favorite event of JALT Hamamatsu, our annual My Share.
Bring an idea, an experience, a teaching method or anything else you think would wow our audience, and that you can present in 10 to 15 minutes. Please send a brief synopsis of what you would like to present, including your name and a description of your current work situation, to Dan Frost at letoutthestops@yahoo.com by December 6. Look at the main page for programme details. There will be a year-end party most at Heartland after the meeting. Saturday, October 25, 2014: Gregg McNabb & Adam Jenkins Create Hamamatsu Building 1800-2100 ２０１４年１０月25日 クリエイト浜松 Room 21
The Why and How of Using E-learning Systems なぜ/どのように eラーニングで学ぶか Perhaps you do not really want to change what you're doing now. Maybe you think learning about using computers is too time consuming and troublesome because you have too much to do. Maybe you think young people are already too digital, so we should slow down their computer usage. No matter how you may feel, e-learning and blended learning will soon be facts of life. MEXT has already decided that e-learning will be part of your future as a teacher. You need to get ready. We want to help! Gregg McNabb 静岡理工科大学准教授。
Saturday September 20, 2014: Prof. Kensaku Yoshida
A Discussion and Debate on English Education in Japan with Kensaku Yoshida and Dan Frost
「英語の授業をすべて英語で行うことの意味と可能性」 吉田研作：上智大学言語教育研究センター教授 D a n F r o s t : 静岡大学講師、静岡大学付属中学校ＡＬＴ
英語の授業で英語だけを使う。たとえば、生徒が英語での言い方が分からない時に、“How do you say □□ in English?”と英語で質問したり、先生が英語の文法の説明をする時に、英語だけを使ったりする。 さらには、生徒同士の会話も英語だけを使うことをもとめていく。今の日本の英語教育でこれは可能だろうか。 可能だとすればどのようにすればよいだろうか。または、日本語を排除するのではなく、日本語を活かしながら、 より英語力を養うことは可能だろうか。それはどのような方法なのだろうか。 それぞれの立場で長く英語教育に携わってきた２人が、互いの主張を交し合います。 これからの日本における英語教育はどうあればよいのかを、考えていきます。
The Details ◇ 時間： ２６年９月２０日（土） ７：００ｐｍ‐９：１０ｐｍ 受付：６：３０ｐｍより ◇ 場所： クリエイト浜松 53 会議室、 飲み物・軽食をお出し致します ◇ 入場料： ＪＡＬＴの会員以外の方：１０００円 （事前の申し込みは不要です。当日受付にてお支払ください。） ＪＡＬＴ会員：Ｆｒｅｅ
スケジュール Ａ．７：００ｐｍ‐７：２０ｐｍ 小学校の授業において、ローマ字の授業は必要であるか。 Ｂ．７：２０ｐｍ‐８：００ｐｍ 文部科学省の指針では中学校の英語の授業をすべて英語で行うことがのぞましいとしている。 それは可能であるか。この後10 分休憩。 Ｃ．８：１０pm‐８：５０ｐｍ 文部科学省の指針では高校の英語の授業をすべて英語で行うことがのぞましいとしている。 それは可能であるか。 Ｄ．８：５０pm―９：１０ｐｍ 英語の授業はすべて英語だけでできるか。 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Is "English only" really possible, or is it better to allow the use of Japanese in English language classes in Japan? The speakers will discuss this question as it pertains to different levels of English education in Japan, from learning “romaji” and conversational English in elementary school, to the more rigorous English study conducted in junior and senior high school. Please do attend to listen, reflect and offer your considered viewpoints as well.
Dr. Kensaku Yoshida is a professor of applied linguistics and TESOL at Sophia University (上 智大学) in Tokyo. He was a student at the University of Michigan and, later, a visiting professor at the University of Delaware. He has written extensively on language education, and has also been on advisory boards to the Japanese government based on his expertise in English education. Dan Frost operates his own English conversation school and has a Masters in teaching English to young learners. He also teaches English at a university and junior high school. Sunday July 13, 2014: Roehl Sybing
Create Hamamatsu Building 1330-1530
Integration of critical thinking in EFL education
In the course of this presentation, the presenter will discuss the integration of critical thinking (CT) skills into the EFL curriculum. CT involves the demonstration and evaluation of higher cognitive skills, which have broad implications for learner development if fostered in formal classroom settings. Despite its potential, evidence suggests that the development of CT skills is lacking in EFL education. Nonetheless, CT remains a fundamental concept to teaching and learning in order to help learners to become fluent, bilingual or even multilingual speakers. Previous examples of the classroom application of CT in language education and other subject areas will be provided to suggest pedagogical implications for language educators.
Roehl Sybing is an English instructor at Nanzan Junior College. His research interests include critical thinking in language education and culture in language acquisition. He resides in Nagoya and has taught in various language school, senior high school and university contexts in Japan and the United States since 2004. Saturday June 14, 2014: Jon Dujmovich Create Hamamatsu Building 1830-2030
English Activities for Intercultural Awareness This Presentation/Workshop is aimed to provide English language teachers some basic knowledge of how to incorporate intercultural activities into their language curriculum adjusted for students' language ability and intercultural developmental stage. Participants will be introduced to some basic intercultural development concepts and will take part in activities that focus on various stages of development and ages. Workshop activities will range widely and include demonstration and discussion for classes from teaching young learners, children, adolescents, and adult learners.
Jon Dujmovich is an Assistant Professor at Aichi University and Director of Imagination Ink. In 2008 he was awarded a grant to design and implement an English language intercultural communications pilot course for third year junior high school students in Shizuoka prefecture with the aim to prepare them for "international classes" at high school that had increased intercultural contact leading to study abroad. Prior to that, Jon worked in the corporate world as an intercultural trainer and language instructor for Matsushita National/Panasonic Overseas Training Center and Excel International.
Saturday May 17, 2014: Renaud Davies
Create Hamamatsu Building, 1st floor (ground floor) far south end, from 1830-2030
How to Build a Mobile-Friendly Interactive Website The purpose of this workshop is to demonstrate how free online technology can be utilized to create an interactive learning environment for your students. Participants will learn how to create a simple and mobile-friendly website using a free website builder called "Wix." Participants will then be introduced to a variety of free tools which can be easily embedded into their site allowing for a more interactive, creative and autonomous learning experience for students. The workshop aims to introduce both simple and more complex tools so as to cater to both tech-savvy and novice participants. Please bring your wi-fi equipped computers. Renaud Davies is an instructor at Hiroshima Bunkyo Women's University. He is very active in creating an online curriculum for students and has a teaching with technology blog which can be accessed at: http://eslrenaud.wordpress.com/. Sunday April 13, 2014: Susan Sullivan
Create Hamamatsu Building 1330-1530
Sunday March 9, 2014: Daniel Warchulsky Hamamatsu Create Building, Room 22, 1330-1530
Developing Fluency and Communication Skills through Discussion and Debate In Japan, to a large extent, English instruction still tends to focus on the development of grammatical competence/skills, often at the expense of students’ communication skills. Given this observation, how can educators effectively assist students in improving their overall fluency and communicative abilities? This presentation will explore how instructors, using a communicative methodology, can help ensure that students are successful in achieving these goals through a curriculum and classroom activities that focus on discussion and/or debate. The presenter will provide participants with examples of activities and outline a methodology that instructors at the high school and university level can utilize to promote and enhance their students’ fluency, communicative ability, and other skills.
Daniel Warchulsky is from Canada and is currently employed in Tokyo as a language instructor at Rikkyo University. He obtained a Master of Educational Studies – TESOL Specialization from University of Newcastle (Australia). Previously, he taught at public and private senior high schools in Japan.
February 8, 2014: Richard Miller Hamamatsu Create Building, Room 22, 1830-2030
Teacher Employment Issues This presentation will begin with an overview of the job market for language professionals in Japan, and the current trends for the job market. Results from surveys and questionnaires that the presenter has obtained through his role as the Job Information Centre (JIC) editor will be given. A brief overview of what an academic CV is will be given, then the presentation will then go into areas that educators may want to focus on to improve their CV. This includes what the presenter refers to as “the balanced scorecard” and how audience participants can look for weaknesses in their own career marketability. At the presentation, copies of past published articles will be distributed as well as other worksheets.
Richard Miller
is currently the Job Information Centre (JIC) editor for the JALT
Language Teacher. He has published numerous articles on employment
issues, getting employment and improving resumes for teaching
professionals. He is an associate professor at Kobe Gakuin University in
the Business Administration Department in Kobe.
January 19, 2014: Lesley Ito Hamamatsu Create Building, Room 22, 1300-1600 (approx.) Experience the Power of Cross-Curricular Lessons for Young Learners! Cross-curricular ELT lessons combine English with other subjects to interest and motivate young learners and give them a chance to use the English they have learned in a real context. These types of lessons are quite common in ESL classes throughout Europe, but are rare in EFL classes in Japan. The presenter was so inspired by what her colleagues in Europe were doing that she created an entire pre-school/elementary cross-curricular program called the "Double Ring Lesson" for her new school, BIG BOW English Lab in Nagoya. Several classroom-tested EFL cross-curricular lessons will be demonstrated in this interactive workshop. An explanation on how these types of lessons can be made appropriate for the EFL class will be given. See how these types of lessons can invigorate your EFL program!
December 14, 2013:
Annual "My Share" & Year-end get-together (忘年会)
My Share will be
held on Saturday, December 14 from 6:30 to 8.30 pm at Create Hamamatsu, Room 22. It is 10 minutes north of Hamamatsu Station. Members and friends are asked to
present for up to 10 minutes on a range of topics pertaining to language learning and teaching, including
experiences, memorable events of the last year, new teaching ideas, insights into
language acquisition, etc. This annual event fills up fast, so please don't delay! Contact Dan
Frost at danshonest@yahoo.com) by
December 8th with a short abstract and biography. Indeed, two have just arrived (below)....
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