JALT Event

Much English language teaching focuses on grammar at the level of the sentence, and many students have little awareness of how to use language at the level of discourse.
This workshop will examine some common vocabulary and grammar points from the point of view of discourse. The presenter will introduce language activities that help raise students’ awareness of the importance of discourse in shaping language output, and creating coherent stretches of language, with the focus on spoken, interactive language.
The activities, will include such items as question formation, reported speech, present perfect questions of experience, and are adaptable to a variety of levels and classroom situations.

The theme of this event is practical hands-on activities, tips, & techniques that may be applicable to teachers of a wide range of levels, from elementary school, junior & senior high school, and university level. We intend to make this a time for diverse teachers to come together and share ideas that will help us all get re-energized and off to a great start to the new school year.
Doors and registration opens at 12:45, presentations start soon after 1:00.
1:05 - 1:20 Jeff Crawford - Osaka Shoin Women's University
Dicto-comp - Keeping it Simple
The presenter will introduce a format of dictogloss that is simple to use, takes very little preparation and can be used as a post-task consciousness-raising activity. The input is based on mistakes learners make during a main task. It can be tweaked to accommodate a variety of levels and has been used effectively at junior high school as well as academically oriented universities. It has also been used to implicitly introduce target forms in PPP style lessons.
1:20 - 1:45 Raymond Bolger - Hiroshima Prefectural Junior and Senior High School
Effective Games for Grammar Practice
The presenter will demonstrate how card games and board games can be used to practice a variety of grammar patterns. By playing the games, students can gain valuable speaking practice by repeatedly but enjoyably using selected sentence patterns.
1:50 - 2:15 Brian Wojtowicz - (MA TESL/TEFL, Birmingham University)
Effectively Utilizing Simple Utterances: Preparing to Step Outside the Box
This presentation will not attempt to reinvent the wheel but rather will aim to tighten the spokes and strengthen the frame by reviewing some standard communicative patterns through a unique and versatile perspective. The concept presented is adaptable for teachers of all or most professions and applicable for learners from all or most levels and ages.
2:20 - 2:45 Joshua Cohen - Kwansei Gakuin University
Five Principles for Building Oral Reading Fluency
Successful approaches to improving reading fluency in L1 learners suggest a set of principles which language teachers may find helpful in planning classroom activities for reading fluency development. This workshop will propose five fluency-building principles that can be applied in any L2 or foreign language classroom and suggest multiple ways of implementing each principle.
2:45-3:00 Break
3:00 - 3:25 Harry Carley - Matsuyama University
The Eigo Note and…
For the school year 2009-2010, all 33 elementary schools within Imabari City, Ehime Prefecture, began utilizing the Eigo Note text. The presenter will offer ideas and tips on what additional material was added to each lesson to make them more meaningful and educationally enhanced for the 5th and 6th graders.
3:30 - 4:15 Steven Herder (Doshisha Women's College) and Rebecca King (Seibo Jogakuin)
Extensive reading ideas both inside and outside the box
Since 2007 we have been using our 1440-book library of graded readers in our junior and senior high school English classes. Simply relying on reading the books for fluency practice and merely doing book reports doesn't sustain younger student interest and it isn't the most effective way to get the most out of this giant learning opportunity. Therefore, in addition to published graded reader activity ideas (Bamford & Day, 2004), we have experimented in a number of ways, using graded readers both creatively and traditionally. This session will begin with a very brief introduction of pedagogical reasons for doing ER and an equally short outline of our program. We will then share up to a dozen or so ideas of things we've done and finish with some reflections on what works and doesn't work for us. We hope to encourage others to share their experiences and spark some new ideas for all participants.
4:20 - 4:50 Oana Maria Cusen - Ritsumeikan University
Blending teaching content with project-based teaching: a classroom project
Combining project-based teaching and content-based teaching allows teachers to shift their roles in the classroom from controllers to facilitators of learning. This presentation will show, through the means of a classroom project, how the teacher can facilitate students' learning by giving them the responsibility for their own projects, as well as the opportunity to use English in a natural way, to accomplish various academic tasks. The project, along with students' work and their feedback at the end of the project will be introduced in detail, along with some ideas for using similar projects in different classrooms.
5:00 ~ Dinner and drinks will follow the presentations at the nearby Supaisu Oukoku Indian restaurant on the fifth floor of the O-CAT building. Feel free to join us there even if you can't make it for the presentations!

(1) This presentation reports on a self-reflective, video-based approach to teaching Japanese EFL learners to use and understand speech acts appropriately, focusing on disagreements.
(2) Lateral Thinking puzzles involve scenarios that require learners to discover solutions through creative questioning. This workshop demonstrates how puzzles provide meaningful question practice in a wide range of speaking classes.

See the East Shikoku Chapter for description.
Please sign up in advance and let us know if you need a ride and/or a hotel room. A social gathering is planned after the conference.

Pragmatics, Teaching Children, Extensive Reading, and Learner Development will be some of the topics discussed at this multifaceted meeting, devoted to JALT Special Interest Groups. First, each of the speakers will give a brief introduction of those groups, and will explain some "important findings and trends in the field." There will also be a short talk about other SIGs. Then, in small groups, there will be more detailed discussions.

I used to tell people, when I spoke to educators outside Japan, that EIKEN was the biggest test they’d never heard of. I can’t use that line anymore. Over the past six years, acceptance of EIKEN scores by U.S. and Australian colleges and universities, and general interest in the test among international educators, has grown far beyond what any of us imagined possible when, in 2003, we launched a long-term project to introduce Japan’s national English test to the international community. I’ll tell you how we did it, why it’s working, what it means for Japan, and how it involves the JALT community. I’ll also debunk a few myths, expose a trade secret or two, and subject participants to a hands-on experience of the pain (and, perhaps, fun) experienced daily by the editors who prepare EIKEN test items.

I used to tell people, when I spoke to educators outside Japan, that EIKEN was the biggest test they’d never heard of. I can’t use that line anymore. Over the past six years, acceptance of EIKEN scores by U.S. and Australian colleges and universities, and general interest in the test among international educators, has grown far beyond what any of us imagined possible when, in 2003, we launched a long-term project to introduce Japan’s national English test to the international community. I’ll tell you how we did it, why it’s working, what it means for Japan, and how it involves the JALT community. I’ll also debunk a few myths, expose a trade secret or two, and subject participants to a hands-on experience of the pain (and, perhaps, fun) experienced daily by the editors who prepare EIKEN test items.

Getting started in action or classroom-based research can be a bewildering endeavor. The goal of this workshop is to provide novice teacher-researchers with a simple and versatile quantitative research design template that can be easily implemented in most language classroom settings. Participants will complete a set of worksheets that outline a clear research plan from research question to data analysis and leave the workshop with an easy-to-follow research plan tailored to their personal interests.

Ideas to help your students and self learn quickly. A look at cost-effective and appropriate ways to use software and technology.

Glen Charles Rowell is an Australian Humanitarian who came to Japan in January, 2001. He also is the Coordinator of ETJ-Hokkaido, a teacher at Little Tree English School, a business owner, a designer at A4JP.com, and motivational speaker. He is here to help people learn about language, learning, technology, and ways to improve their lives.

Matt Shannon’s presentation will focus on deploying effective creative writing assignments in late junior and early senior public high school classes does not appear to have any foundation in MEXT curricula; this session will address some steps taken to allow creative student responses while staying within the scope of existing compositional and argumentative forms for thus age group.
Asako Katou’s presentation focuses on high school students’ and teachers’ classroom practices; attitudes toward English, motivation, activities and topics involved under the current curriculum. Also there is a focus on their concerns about the upcoming curriculum, which makes us think outside the box when we try to find the solution to the problems.
Cecilia Smith will discuss how historical movies can help achieve many outcomes including: providing an effective means of introducing higher level vocabulary; developing critical thinking; developing written and spoken English as well as research skills; opening students to new ideas and providing a background to studying contemporary issues.
Kyoko Tomuro This presentation shows the process in which TOEIC Part 1 test takers read pictures and choose one out of four statements they hear on audio tape. Three phases were discovered in the process: (1) evaluating pictures, (2) considering the candidate statements during listening intervals, and (3) eliminating other possible answers and selecting one from the choices. Ten mutually interwoven factors were observed and were analyzed. When test takers made the final decision, they were often influenced by familiar words. The results of an additional test indicated sentences rather than keywords (the content words) were necessary to construct meanings. When the stories in both visual literacy and listening (language) matched, learners were able to understand the meaning.
Delano Cannegieter will present tips and strategies for ‘tricking’ students into liking English more by helping them to get ready for the ‘real world.’