JALT Event

From generation to generation we are tasked with preparing each other for the future. This session is about how we prepare our young learners for the future. Many times, the people around us can best help us.

Local business owner and community leader, Walter Tsushima, will join us to talk about how English language conversation schools are part of the solution to help prepare our young people for a rapidly advancing future. After a brief opening statement, he will be interviewed by moderator, Wayne Malcolm, Fukui-JALT Program Chair. Between audience and moderator questions, we look to have a good time gaining insight through Walter’s experiences. If you have any questions for Walter, please send them to wamalcolmjalt2008@gmail.com.

After Walter, Keith Ikoma will talk to us about his work at the International College of Technology, in particular, the work he has been doing on recognizing patterns in Japanese English education with regard to motivation and demotivation. Learners can accomplish a lot if they are properly motivated to study and succeed, and the same is true in reverse. They will fail if they cannot find the proper motivation. Understanding these issues can help teachers find ways to provide a better learning experience for their students. Again, if you have any questions for Keith, send them to the email address above.

After each guest is interviewed, there will be a short panel discussion to review the afternoon. This proves to be an afternoon of stimulating and insightful discussion. We are looking forward to having you be a part of it.
 

Bio info / 平塚貴晶：
Walter Tsushima is the dedicated owner of Spyglass Kids English School located in Fukui, Japan. With a genuine passion for language teaching and a strong commitment to providing quality education, Walter and his team of instructors have worked diligently to create a nurturing and engaging learning environment for students of all ages.

Keith Ikoma is an Assistant Professor at International College of Technology, Kanazawa (国際高等専門学校), working with students at the secondary and post-secondary levels. He has taught in Japan for ten years, which has included working with students of many different ages, and leading seminars for ALTs, especially focusing on team teaching communication activities for high school students.

COST: FREE FOR ALL JALT MEMBERS / 会員無料 500 yen for NON-JALT MEMBERS (Please pay at the Venue) / 非会員 500円 (会場にてお支払いください)

This month our JALT event will be held at Eikei University of Hiroshima, and you won't want to miss it.

Is it too late to put the genie back in the bottle?

On July 1st, Keith Barrs will talk about generative AI, and its growing impact on the world. It's title: Feeding the Dragon: Is the Rise of Generative AI the Demise of Humanity?

On the one hand, generative AI is a blessing. On the other, we can view generative AI as detracting from the creativity and uniqueness of human output.

Keith Barrs works in the Department of English at Hiroshima Shudo University. His main academic interests are in the fields of linguistic landscape research and corpus linguistics studies, in particular investigating the borrowing and assimilation of English loanwords into the Japanese language. More recently he also become interested in the impact of AI technologies, not only on the field of language education but also more generally on the survival of the human species as a whole.

For over 30 years, hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals have set foot on Japanese soil as foreign assistant language teachers (ALTs) through the government-sponsored Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) program (CLAIR, 2022). The job of the ALTs is to teach English in public schools, in tandem with Japanese teachers of English (JTEs). Despite, or perhaps by virtue of, the immense popularity achieved and tremendous funding allocated, the legitimacy and the efficacy of the program have neither been closely questioned nor systematically investigated. This paper presents a study that explored, via narrative interviewing, the identities and their constructions of ALTs in the JET program. The participants in the study were 25 former ALTs with diverse demographic variables who have experience living in various parts of Japan at different time periods. Findings revealed that ALT identity is comprised of two interconnected primary categories, foreigner identity and dabbler identity.

Takaaki Hiratsuka is a Professor at Ryukoku University in Kyoto, Japan, where he supervises master’s and PhD students, both Japanese and non-Japanese, in related fields of language teacher education and narrative inquiry. He received his PhD in language teaching and learning from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is also the Chairperson of JALT 2023 Conference. His recent book publications include: Narrative inquiry into language teacher identity: ALTs in the JET program (2022, Routledge) and Team teachers in Japan: Beliefs, identities, and emotions (2023, Routledge).   

There is a short drink/snack/rest break midway through the event.

This is a face-to-face event sponsored by Gunma JALT.

This presentation explores critical thinking (CT) and its assessment. Some CT research has identified problem-solving methods, including deductive reasoning, as essential in creating CT assessments. However, when discussing CT in classrooms, other researchers have emphasized the individual nature of CT and focused on learner dispositions, such as open-mindedness. Emily Lai's (2011) scoping review of CT studies synthesized a definition of CT as "analyzing arguments, making inferences using inductive or deductive reasoning, judging or evaluating, and making decisions or solving problems" (p. 2). Although Lai's definition is useful, it is also quite broad which can make it challenging to apply in local contexts. This ambiguity in terms and approaches is often cited by teachers as a roadblock to designing CT lessons and assessments (Shively et al., 2018).

This presentation draws on a range of academic texts to illustrate various facets of CT. For example, what does CT look like? According to Facione, Facione, and Sanchez (1994) CT involves not just problem-solving but also evaluation and decision-making. How can CT be improved? Some researchers highlight the importance of metacognitive processes in CT, such as monitoring and self-regulation (Halpern & Nummedal, 1995). Further still, some researchers focus on the significance of CT dispositions, such as being truth-seeking and open-minded.

To contextualize this issue in local terms, attendees will be provided prominent definitions of CT from educational, philosophical, and cognitive science perspectives to discuss. The teaching and assessment of CT will be described from three different aspects, including what students are asked to do (e.g., recognizing biases), the features of task completion (e.g., completing a table), and the purpose of the assessment (e.g., analyzing argument structures).

Overall, this presentation highlights the complexity of CT and its assessment, drawing on a range of definitions and approaches from various fields. It closes with a discussion of practical suggestions for designing CT assessments that are authentic and engaging, and that address the different aspects of CT, including problem-solving, evaluation, decision-making, and dispositions.

References:

Facione, N. C., Facione, P. A., & Sanchez, C. A. (1994). Critical thinking disposition as a measure of competent clinical judgment: The development of the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory. Journal of Nursing Education, 33(8), 345-350. https://doi.org/10.3928/0148-4834-19941001-05

Halpern, D. F., & Nummedal, S. G. (1995). Closing thoughts about helping students improve how they think. Teaching of Psychology, 22(1), 82-83. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15328023top2201_24

Lai, E. R. (2011). Critical thinking: A literature review. Pearson's Research Reports, 6, 1-49.

Shively, K., Stith, K. M., & Rubenstein, L. D. (2018). Measuring what matters: Assessing creativity, critical thinking, and the design process. Gifted Child Today, 41(3), 149-158. https://doi.org/10.1177/1076217518768361

Dennis Koyama, Ph.D., is an associate professor of rhetoric and data science in the Faculty of Liberal Arts at Sophia University, Japan. His research interests include learning transfer, collaborative learning, critical thinking, L2 writing, and professional development. His research has appeared in Language Testing, Language Assessment Quarterly, Language Learning & Technology, Journal of Second Language Writing, Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, Studies in Self-Access Learning, Teaching in Higher Education, among other publishing venues.

We will take a short break midway through the event.

This is an online event hosted by Gunma JALT. See below for access information.

This presentation explains how important it is for L2 students to gain confidence to speak English through cooperative learning in classrooms. While doing communicative activities in groupwork, they are trying to scaffold and learn something new from the other group members. In short, L2 students in these situations feel self-esteem, inspiration, and sympathy. Even though they may have negative feelings in the groupwork, some positive members play a role as supporters. Such supportive learning often empowers L2 learners to enjoy their successful cooperative learning. This speaker will demonstrate classroom activities to focus on how L2 students can turn trauma into triumph in communication.

Abstract: Sociolinguistics is a major area in second language research and is a topic commonly covered in graduate school education programs worldwide. For EFL teachers, it can often seem difficult to bring the theory and research of sociolinguistics into the actual classroom. In this series of concurrent sessions, MA students enrolled in sociolinguistics at Akita International University will present practical lessons that can bridge the concepts and theories associated with sociolinguistics with actual classroom teaching. In their lesson plans, students must focus on one of the sociolinguistic concepts covered in class, such as language and gender, language ideologies, learner identities, language variation etc. There will be two concurrent sessions of approximately 25 minutes each, and participants will be free to move between ongoing presentations

Date Saturday July 29th, 2023

Starting at 2 pm

Online event

(Zoom – Akita JALT members with be sent a Zoom link for the presentation)

All others who would like to join can send an email to: akita@jalt.org and the zoom link will be given.

Yokohama JALT will hold a hybrid event:

        In person: at Yokohama Youth Center at Kannai Hall (the venue information is below)

        Online: on Zoom

1) Jeffrey Martin - Students transcribing and studying their conversations for guided practice

Abstract: There is opportunity in having L2 learners analyze transcriptions of their interactions. I would like to share the takeaways from research of mine about how a JSL learner benefited from the study of his own transcribed conversations. I would then like to share a classroom project done with EFL learners that was inspired by this research. The students followed a guided process of recording, transcribing, and analyzing their L2 conversations. Each student drew unique insights. 

Bio: Jeffrey Martin has taught EFL learners in a variety of settings within secondary and tertiary education in Japan. He is pursuing a Ph.D. at Temple University, Japan Campus. Some of his research interests include materials design, vocabulary development, L2 listening, and pragmatics. 

2) Tomoe Sato - Quizizz Lesson

Abstract: Have you had an experience where you lost your students’ focus and attention but continued with your class? In order to bring liveliness in class, I have been using online educational games and recently started using Quizizz Lesson. It is not merely engaging, but students seem to pay more attention because they want to rank higher in the leaderboard. They could participate anonymously, and there are plenty of free features for us to create lessons.

Bio: Tomoe is an English instructor at Yokohama City University. She has taught ESL and Japanese at colleges and universities in the US before returning to Japan. Her research interests include motivations, gamifications, and Mobile Assisted Language Learning.

3) Teddy Bratton - Cliffhanger Script Presentations

Abstract: The cliffhanger script presentation is a multifaceted and highly customizable activity that allows students to practice a wide range of language skills. By using of video clips from popular TV shows and movies, students are not only exposed to and encouraged to use authentic English, but are also motivated to pursue opportunities to engage with the language outside of the classroom. Due to the difficulty involved in creating original materials for this activity, I will be giving some tips based on my own experience.

Bio: Theodore A. "Teddy" Bratton has a decade of experience teaching English in Japan. He currently works at Ferris University in Yokohama. His research interests include task-based language teaching and student motivation.

4) Morgen Livingston - Otter.ai

Abstract: In this presentation, I will share my experiences of Otter.ai, a speech transcription technology, and an associated speaking activity I designed to boost students’ speaking confidence, improve self-correction ability, and enable self-directed learning. Based on my experiences using this activity both online and in person, I will demonstrate how to use Otter.ai, discuss challenges I faced, and give general tips on how it can be used to improve students’ speaking ability.  

Bio: I have been teaching EFL in Japan for around 7 years. Most recently, I taught university students at Toin University and am currently teaching soft CLIL lessons to junior and senior high schoolers at Salesio Gakuin. I'm interested in the affective areas of language acquisition and am always trying to find ways to incorporate critical thinking and real world skills into my lessons. 

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Venue

   Yokohama Youth: Seishonen Ikusei Center

   Address: B1F Kannai Hall, 4-42-1 Sumiyoshi-cho, Naka-ku, Yokohama 231-8454, Japan

Access

   7 minutes walk from Kannai Station on JR Negishi Line

   5 minutes walk from Kannai Station (Yokohama Municipal Subway Blue Line)

   5 minutes walk from Bashamichi Station (Minatomirai Line)

   https://yokohama-youth.jp/ikusei/access/　(in Japanese)

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Business Meeting / Free Share and Social!

Okayama JALT is going to hold a combined business meeting and free-share even this Saturday, June 17, at our usual location at Notre Dame Seishin University. Feel free to join us as we talk about the needs of JALT members in Okayama, and share other teaching, researching, networking ideas with each other.

After the meeting, we are tentatively planning to walk over to Kamp, just west of Okayama Station, and continue the discussion(s) in a more relaxed atmosphere.

Task Based Learning (TBL) and Project-Based Learning (PBL) have potential to increase student interest and engagement in the classroom by asking students to complete meaningful tasks and projects in the target language, rather than focussing on language learning activities. However, TBL and PBL present many challenges to teachers especially in curriculum development and classroom management. In this session, the presenter will provide practical guidance on classroom and time management, and grading. He will introduce some tasks that he has successfully used, and a 15-week PBL course, which will aid participants in developing effective TBL and PBL activities for their own classes. 

Bio:
Peter Lutes is an associate professor in the Faculty of Agriculture of Kagawa University. He has extensive teaching experience across diverse settings, including eikaiwa, juku, corporate training, and post-secondary education. He has also conducted teacher workshops & training in Japan, Canada and various parts of Asia. His interests include curriculum development, Task-Based/Project-Based Learning, learner beliefs and student information networks.

In this workshop, we'll delve into the benefits and potential drawbacks of incorporating AI in language education. We'll explore how educators can integrate the new technology to create content-specific materials that are level-appropriate for their students. Furthermore, we'll discuss the use of AI as a tool for language learners, including the creation of study plans and receiving constructive feedback on coursework.

Additionally, we will cover topics such as managing institutional policies, addressing privacy concerns, and student training. Please bring your laptop as we explore the possibilities and address concerns.