JALT Event

Our Chapter's first meeting of the year will be an online gathering. Come chat with the officers, and feel free to give us feedback on what you'd like to see for presentations this year and next year at our chapter. Also, Jim Smiley will be giving a presentation. 

Jim Smiley - 'Pedagogising'

How can reading instructors develop materials that support engagement beyond traditional comprehension? This presentation introduces ’pedagogising’: an innovative approach that creates a structured sequence of interactive activities, transforming a static reading passage into a dynamic learning experience that promotes critical engagement with the text.

Zoom link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82928680741?pwd=DnqROxezaNzRxe2ZVZ9rWfFtUiLaIw...

Okinawa JALT
March 1, 2025 (Saturday) 18:00~19:30
Okinawa Prefecture Gender Equality Center (Tiruru)
Presenting Off-Script: Socio-Emotional and Embodied Cognitive Scaffolding
Joseph Falout (Nihon University)
Students entering undergraduate and graduate programs have difficulty presenting advanced
ideas in English without following premade scripts. They can struggle speaking off-script during
formal presentations at any length, brief question and answer follow-ups, or informal small-
group discussions. This workshop introduces five pedagogical features that you can incorporate
into your lessons—no matter what ages or levels you are teaching—to foster student abilities to
speak smoothly off-script. These five features are: (1) Teamwork strategies, (2) Improvisation
practice, (3) Paralinguistics focus, (4) Open templates, and (5) Coaching as a process.
Experience something fresh and useful to bring back to your students.
Bio

Joseph Falout, an associate professor at Nihon University, received multiple
awards from his school for teaching contributions and from JALT for his
research. He authored or co-authored 60-plus academic works on psychology
in language learning, notably on: (1) demotivation-to-remotivation processes,
(2) classroom group dynamics with Ideal Classmates Priming, and (3) teaching
and researching with Critical Participatory Looping.

We will have a short talk about Extensive Reading from David Schneer on Sunday 26 January 19:00-20:00. The event will involve a short 20-30 minute casual talk from our PresentER, followed by around 20-30 minutes of questions and discussion. PresentERs takes place on the last Sunday of each month online on Zoom. It is free for anyone to attend.

Although Extensive Reading is often discussed and implemented in English language learning programs in Japan, especially universities, it is less common in K-12 English medium international schools. David has set up Extensive Reading libraries throughout his career in international schools in Japan, Singapore and Indonesia. In this presentation he will discuss his experiences with ER in an international school context, including the successes, challenges and varied community perspectives. 

There is another Positive Discipline workshop by JALT TYL coming up soon. This time, a large portion of it is devoted to productive discussion and each participant will be encouraged to participate actively. It will be very different from a normal online presentation event where you just watch!

Register from here: https://forms.gle/q5A2xiY8NWBB8hc18

Are you interested in the Direct Method?

Would you like to experience a lesson from a student's perspective?

Do you want to learn some basic Ukrainian?

Then this lecture is just for you!

In this session, Andriana will conduct a Ukrainian language lesson for novice learners using the direct method, where only the target language is used for instruction, in contrast to typical methods that employ both the target language and a medium language (e.g., English). The lesson incorporates common practices from Japanese as a Second Language (JSL) instruction, and Tomoseki will provide insights into the background of this method and ongoing reforms in JSL education, especially in terms of grammar instruction.

The lesson will give participants the chance to feel what it’s like to be a student learning a language they don’t know at all. At the same time, it will show just how much can be learned — and taught — using the Direct Method when the right strategies and planning are in place.

This session is part of a larger research project. Participants will be invited to complete a short questionnaire to share their thoughts and experiences. The survey is optional, but it will help us better understand how the Direct Method functions in actual teaching and learning situations. Additionally, the perspectives and opinions of other language teachers would be very valuable.

Andriana Holubka is Assistant Professor in the Global Initiative Center at Gunma University and a new member of Gunma JALT. An aspiring researcher, she is a graduate of Kyiv National University. Andriana moved to Japan from the Ukraine in 2022, after the start of the Russian invasion of her home country. She has been a student at Gunma University, and worked as an ALT in the Primary School Affiliated with Gunma University.

Tomoseki Watanabe is Lecturer and International Exchange Coordinator at the Global Initiative Center, Gunma University. He is a graduate of International Christian University, a new member of Gunma JALT, and a life-long learner of English. Tomoseki taught Japanese in CIS countries and is a former specialist in Japanese Language Education for The Japan Foundation.

Abstract

This presentation will give an overview of my master’s dissertation titled: The Role of the L1 at an Eikaiwa: Preferences of Adult Learners and Instructors.

Students who seek instruction at eikaiwa (English conversation) schools in Japan seem to be looking for an authentic L2 experience. However, the concept of “authenticity” in the L2 classroom may vary among individuals. Does the use of Japanese (the L1) by students or instructors inhibit learners from having an “authentic” experience? With recent literature highlighting the pedagogical benefits of L1 use in L2 learning e.g., translanguaging and code-switching, I sought to explore instructor and learner opinions of its use. Instructors and adult learners at an eikaiwa were asked their opinions on English-only policies and if they thought the L1 was beneficial in class. I also sought to determine if there was a proficiency effect (Carson and Kashihara, 2012) among different levels of students. 

In addition to discussing L1 use in the classroom, this presentation will explore the eikaiwa context and the lack of research, and stigma surrounding it. Throughout the presentation, I will provide discussion topics for participants to reflect on their own beliefs about L1 use in the classroom. 

Angela R. Wolf holds a Master of Arts in TESOL (University of Birmingham), a Bachelor of Science in TV/Digital Film, and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology (SUNY Fredonia). Her research interests include L1 use in the L2 classroom, gender, the L2 self, CLIL, and learner motivation. She is currently an Assistant Professor at Aichi University.

RSVP: https://forms.gle/G7bDd7viNfvxh47m9

Location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/1EAS1xu1gX76Mrey9

 Learner corpora are ‘systematic collections of authentic, continuous and contextualized language use (spoken or written) by L2 learners stored in electronic format’ (Callies & Paquot, 2015). For EFL instructors, examining student language production through corpora can improve one’s understanding of such issues as frequent spelling and grammatical errors, and over/under-use of particular words or phrases by learners at different proficiency levels. This presentation will begin with an overview of some of the key findings from learner corpus research to date. The focus will then shift to a look at the ICNALE suite of corpora (Ishikawa, 2023). Participants will be given a brief explanation of the various corpora available, followed by useful insights into the spoken and written language production of Japanese university students. I also present the provisional findings of an ongoing co-investigation into lexical bundles in argumentative essays and monologues taken from two ICNALE subcorpora. Finally, I will offer recommendations and advice on how teacher practitioners can best utilize learner corpora for their own pedagogical purposes.

Back to School 2025 is Osaka JALT’s 15th annual spring conference sharing ideas on a wide range of topics related to language teaching and learning in a low-key environment to help everyone in the new academic year. This year's conference will again be in person at Osaka Jogakuin University, near Tamatsukuri station on the JR Loop Line and Nagahori Tsurumi-Ryokuchi Metro line. It will also again be an Open Campus day at OJU, so there will be additional presentations that participants in the conference can attend as well.

The Call for Presentations is now open via this link. The deadline for submissions is Saturday, March 15, 2025.

Please mark your calendar and plan to join us on Sunday, April 27th for what is sure to be another fantastic day of learning and sharing at OJU!

Dr. Melodie Cook: "Ten Recommendations for Helping Make Classes Barrier-Free"

In this presentation, Dr. Melodie Cook will offer teachers of all levels ten simple ways to engage their neurodiverse students. In this presentation, she will introduce practical hints for teachers, such as how to organize their classes, which fonts they should use for materials, how students should be grouped, how to offer assignment choices, and much more. The suggestions are based on a summary of research done for the book Barrier-Free Instruction in Japan: Recommendations for Teachers at all Levels of Schooling, published by Candlin & Mynard. Melodie’s hope is that teachers will come away with ideas that will help make their classes more accessible to all students.

Dr. Melodie Cook is a professor at the University of Niigata Prefecture. She recently published a co-edited a book on barrier-free education in Japan with Alex Burke and Dr. Davey Young entitled Barrier-Free Instruction in Japan: Recommendations for Teachers at all Levels of Schooling, published by Candlin & Mynard. Her research interests include large-scale testing, gender in education, teacher education, multicultural family experiences in Japan, and most recently, helping teachers understand how to better engage their neurodiverse students.

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This highly anticipated event is hosted by Yokohama JALT. We would like to thank Jo Mynard and her team at Candlin & Mynard ePublishing for her support.

Link for discount of the ebook featured in the presentation: Click HERE

A big thank you goes out to the GALE SIG and the Ibaraki JALT chapter. Without their help, this event would not be possible.

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Date: January 26, 2025 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm

Place: Keio University Hiyoshi Campus, Raiosha Building 2F (Directions)

Melodie Cook's slides

Matching Exercise 

This short synopsis will outline  the importance and development of te reo Māori through a historical timeline.

Matthew Cotter, formerly a primary school teacher in New Zealand is an associate professor at Hokusei Gakuen University in Sapporo, Japan. He holds a B.A (Māori Studies), B.Sc. (Psychology), Dip.Teach and a M.Ed specializing in TESOL. His research interests include IVE, CALL and indigenous culture support.