JALT Event

Urdu: A Language Rich in History, Culture, and Elegance -

presented by Najma Janjua, Ph.D., Professor and Head, Department of Languages, Faculty of Medicine, Kawasaki Medical School, Kurashiki, Okayama

Urdu, known for its charm and elegance, and deep cultural and historical roots, is spoken by more than 500 million people worldwide. This presentation will provide a brief introduction to the history of Urdu, its culture, and the beauty of its Nastaliq script, which is written from right to left. Attendees will gain a basic understanding of the Urdu alphabet, and how letters are joined to form words. The presentation will also highlight the melodic sounds of Urdu poetry and prose and their significance in South Asian literature and culture. For those participants interested in learning the language, recommendations for resources will be provided to help them speak, read, and write Urdu at their desired level and pace.

Catharsis Through Support – Black Women in Professional Spaces in Japan

Within the small expat community in Japan, the Black diaspora is generally considered to be  a minority within the minority. This presentation is based on a research paper exploring the professional journeys of Black women and non-binary individuals living and working in Japan. Through ethnographic dialogue, we explored the multi-faceted experiences of navigating social and professional contexts as Black individuals from various countries. We analyzed these dialogues to uncover the ways in which our participants have maintained their intersectional identities and found support within local communities. This presentation will focus on the overarching themes of identity, challenges, survival and support. We hope that as our talk elucidates the challenges and triumphs of these Black individuals in Japan, it will serve as the impetus for the crafting of more inclusive spaces and avenues of support. 

Registration link  Short link: https://forms.gle/akXRoZg7XuQzT3hFA

Biodata:

Kinsella Valies is an assistant professor at Jissen Women’s University and Aoyama Gakuin University, Japan. She holds a Masters in Applied Linguistics from the University of Limerick, and has published articles on speaking assessment, teaching and assessing with film and TTRPG, motivation, and teacher supporting students. She is also co-author of the chapter Black Women’s Ibasho - Creating a Space of Belonging in Multilingual Matters’ New Perspectives on Language Education, Reimagining Dialogue on Identity, Language and Power (2023).

Lisa M. Barker-Hunsberger is a full-time lecturer at Kyushu Sangyo University. She is an Apple Distinguished Educator with an MA in linguistics. Lisa has been an educator for over 15 years, having taught in Jamaica, France and Japan, where her teaching experience has ranged from kindergarteners to retirees. She regularly delivers presentations and workshops on effective presentation design.

Abstract: For most students, the ultimate goal of learning a second or other language is to interact successfully with others using that language. While some may achieve this through reading and writing, the greater majority appear to prefer to develop their listening and speaking skills. In this workshop, I will introduce various interactive activities and tasks designed to enhance students’ listening, speaking, and interaction skills. The workshop will begin with participants engaging in a one-minute speech activity, designed to develop students’ fluency as well as bottom-up listening skills. Participants will also experience the more cognitively demanding two-minute speech activity, which focuses on improving students’ top-down listening skills and ability to interact in the target language. Following this, a dictogloss task will challenge participants to simultaneously call upon their bottom-up and top-down listening skills, topic schemata, and grammatical skills in the target language. Through read aloud practice, participants will be offered an opportunity to improve the natural sound and intelligibility of their spoken English through explicit instruction of pronunciation, rhythm, and intonation. We will then do an unfocused task based on the topic of the dictogloss passage. The workshop will conclude with a brief overview of the activities along with their theoretical underpinnings and anecdotal evidence supporting the lesson structure. This workshop will be highly interactive; those attending will be expected to participate actively with others in the room.

Speaker bio: Adrian Leis is a professor in the Center for Liberal Arts Education at Tohoku Gakuin University with more than 25 years’ experience teaching English in Japan. He earned his PhD in Educational Informatics from Tohoku University and focuses his research on language education, language learning motivation, and computer-assisted language learning. Adrian has published more than 60 research papers in domestic and international journals and has authored several books, including Innovations in Flipping the Language Classroom (2019), Insights into Flipped Classrooms (2023), Mindsets in Language Education (forthcoming, 2025), Screen Media in Language Education (forthcoming, 2025), and the Dictogloss in Action textbook series (forthcoming, 2025).  

Simon Cooke is Associate Professor in the Center for General Education at Tohoku Institute of Technology in Sendai, Japan. He earned his PhD in Information Sciences from Tohoku University. Simon has more than  25 years’ experience teaching English in Japan and is co-author of a number of TOEIC textbooks as well as the Ultimate Listening textbook series (2019) and the Dictogloss in Action textbook series (forthcoming, 2025). His fields of research include motivational dynamics in second language acquisition, autonomous learning, and mobile-assisted language learning (MALL).

Abstract: In the age of technology, we are provided with ever increasing numbers of tools and online practice modes that we can use with our students. However, for best use, these tools must be understood, tailored to our students, modified to match their needs, and push the limits of our imaginations. In this presentation, we talk about multimodal online tools: what they are, and what they aren’t with some advice on how to navigate them. We also invite teachers to discuss and try out some of the multimodal tools that we have created and use at Tohoku University. Furthermore, we present some of our findings and encourage conversations about the future of multimodal online tools in the EFL classroom.

Speakers:

Ryan Spring is an associate professor at Tohoku University where he works with his colleagues to manage and deliver the English curriculum for general education classes. His PhD is in applying cognitive linguistics to second language acquisition and his current research interests include: Objective Measures of L2 Speech and Writing, Curriculum Evaluation, Statistics and Visual Media and Technology in EFL Education.

Jessie Takeda is a lecturer at Tohoku University, where she teaches 4-skill general academic English courses to 1st and 2nd year students alongside colleagues Ryan and Emily. She holds a master's degree in TESOL. In addition to classroom instruction, she specialises in designing educational materials that are both engaging and pedagogically effective, with a strong emphasis on aesthetic quality and intuitive use.

Emily MacFarlane is an experienced English language educator teaching Academic Reading and Writing, and Academic Listening and Speaking at Tohoku University.  She is actively engaged in ongoing research on paragraph writing and fluency with her colleagues and is dedicated to enhancing academic English skills among university students.

Freedom of Speech on the Japanese University Campus

Gerry Yokota, Professor Emerita Osaka University

Too often I hear students complaining that their freedom of speech is being suppressed. I propose a community discussion sharing our sense of the atmosphere on our campuses. Is there robust exchange of views on controversial issues, or is there a sense that risky issues are taboo?  Isn’t support for freedom of speech on campus essential for educating global citizens who are capable of expressing their views? If they do not get this practice now, how will they be prepared to deal with controversy in the real world after graduation? What is the best way to support them?

Google Meet joining info

Date: 28 September, 2024 @14:00

Video call link: https://meet.google.com/zpc-orzr-mkp
Or dial: ‪(JP) +81 3-4545-0450‬ PIN: ‪292 690 489 3932‬#
More phone numbers: https://tel.meet/zpc-orzr-mkp?pin=2926904893932

This year the Yamagata JALT Chapter is happy to host its very first Mini Conference.The theme of this year’s conference is English Teaching and Learning “Hacks”. Presentations and workshops will focus on various aspects connected to this theme. In particular, this year’s talks will highlight practical strategies to teach and learn a language more effectively, efficiently, and enjoyably. Please join us for a day of stimulating professional growth. And a free pizza lunch!

We will have a short talk about Extensive Reading from Adam Ezard on Sunday 29 September 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.

Through trial and error over four years, Adam has introduced, adapted and expanded on an ER component of the English course at the junior high school. He will share his progress, how he has changed various aspects, and how he's linked output tasks to the reading (and listening) that students do. He has been able to track students over this time and there is some evidence of improvement in reading, writing and listening as measured by an outside test (the GTEC test). He's still struggling with the best way to adapt the course to balance motivation and achievement. As far as he's aware, not too many junior high schools are using ER in this way, so he'd like to both share this adventure with teachers who may be thinking about this step, as well as to receive advice and comments from more experienced PresentERs. 

Meeting Information

Date: Sunday, September 29, 2024, 9:40 ~ Venue: Ibaraki University, Mito Campus University Library Fee: Members: Free, Non-Members: 500 yen

Meeting Schedule

Morning Session

9:40 AM – 10:00 AM Registration  

10:00 AM – 10:05 AM Opening Remarks

10:10 AM – 11:10 AM Presentation 1: Invited Speaker

Title: Thematic Coding: Looking for Patterns in Survey Data

Presenter: Andy Boon, Toyo Gakuen University

In this presentation, the presenter will describe a qualitative research study he conducted to gather stories about how and why English teachers started in the profession and why they continue to teach (Boon & Yanase, 2023). He will explain the steps of deciding the research theme and tool, creating and piloting the survey, collecting and analyzing the data, and writing it up. The audience will be encouraged to examine an exemplar to see the themes that can emerge through data analysis.

11:10 AM – 11:20 AM Break

11:20 AM – 12:05  AM Presentation 2: Invited Speaker

Title: Designing a Critical Thinking Course

Presenter: Andy Boon, Toyo Gakuen University

The presenter will give an overview of a critical thinking course he developed for 4th-year returnee students that made use of the critical thinking activities from Hadley & Boon, 2023. The presenter will describe the syllabus, the lessons, the activities, and the means of assessment. The aim is to support and inspire ideas for language teachers to foster a critical mindset in our students to help prepare them for an increasingly complex, information-saturated world.

12:05 AM – 1:20 PM Lunch Break

Afternoon Session

1:20 PM – 2:20 PM Presentation 3

Title: Empowering Beginner English Language Writers: Developing CEFR-Aligned Writing Materials for Pre-A1 and A1 Levels

Presenter: Engel Villarreal, Tsuchiura Nihon University Secondary School: This presentation details and action research for developing writing materials and activities for Japanese Pre-A1 to A1 CEFR-level English language learners. Research has shown that Japanese learners said levels need support to address the cognitive load issue associated with writing by promoting mastery of fundamental writing skills required to succeed in higher-level writing tasks. Such support is particularly essential in the areas of orthographic control and graphomotor fluency, underscoring the need to develop scaffolded activities and incorporate deliberate practice into ESL instruction to support learners who are still grappling with basic writing issues. Though a case study, we will go through the process of developing these teaching materials, highlighting the unique challenges developing CEFR-aligned writing materials at this particular level poses, particularly in assessing writing and the lack of detailed descriptors at CEFR levels Pre-A1 to A1. By the end of the session, participants will not only have gained insight into the challenges of developing CEFR-aligned materials, but will also have learned practical strategies and scalable tools for developing teaching materials to empowering even beginner CEFR level learners to write

2:20 PM – 2:30 PM Break

2:30 PM – 3:10 PM Presentation 4

Title: My Teaching—Changing; Evolving? Devolving?

Presenter: Martin Pauly, University of Tsukuba

My methods have changed over the years; stricter, especially organization of the first day.  Influenced by the teachings of Marc Helgesen, I have incorporated physical activities (i.e., One-minute Exercise, Sign Language, individual student tasks).   But in other areas (e.g., evaluations) I feel I may be considered not strict enough. I welcome you, as a student, to join The First Day of Class.  

3:15 PM – 3:55 PM  Presentation 5

Title: Mock Teaching Demonstration

Presenter: Tim Cook, Iryo Sosei University

English instructors sometimes teach in situations where they lack peer feedback on their instruction. This session is to allow me to demonstrate a reading lesson as an example of what he I teach this semester to three different first-year university classes of differing abilities, although all within the CERF A1 or Beginner level. I endeavor to maintain a communicative approach to teaching but typically end up speaking more than I would like. My aim in this demonstration is to receive feedback on how I may improve my instruction as well as to share teaching ideas that others may find useful. Your participation is most appreciated.

3:55 PM – 4:00 PM Closing Remarks

We will have a short talk about Extensive Reading from Chris Fry on Sunday 25 August 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.

Chris will talk about running class libraries with adult classes in Barcelona over a period of 40 years. He'll talk about choosing and obtaining books back then and how he would do it today, as well as how to sell Extensive Reading to students. Chris created catalogues of readers at each level organised by genres to help students find a book they would like and insisted that everyone start at a level where some would find it too easy, but that no one would find it too difficult. He set targets and provided feedback on the level and quantity of their reading during the course and obtained feedback about the books very term to be able to eliminate less popular titles from each connection. 

After the presentation, there will be plenty of opportunities to ask questions.  

<Presentation 1>
Challenges of Multilingual Families
Montserrat Sanz Yagüe
Kobe City University of Foreign Studies

Monolingual families are all alike; every multilingual family is multilingual in its own way”. Following this Anna Karenina principle, we will argue that raising multilingual children is a complex task that involves many factors, decisions, and adjustments to the environment. The result is that there are no two multilingual children alike and that families need to understand the general principles underlying bilingualism to make their own decisions at every stage. This talk combines an account of the personal experience of the speaker—a mother of three multilingual/multicultural children— with reflections on the general issues discussed in the literature on bilingualism. The different results achieved with the three children serve to illustrate the topics involved in raising multilingual families, including some language impairments in children with special needs.

Montserrat Sanz Yagüe (Spain, 1966), graduated with a degree on English Philology from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She has a Master in Linguistics and a PhD in Linguistics and Brain and Cognitive Sciences from the University of Rochester (NY). In 1996 she became a professor at Kobe City University of Foreign Studies, where she teaches Spanish and performs research on theoretical linguistics and L2 acquisition processes.

<Presentation 2>
Various Paths to Bilingualism Whilst Living in Japan
Frances Shiobara
Kobe Shoin Women's University

Bringing up multilingual children raises numerous challenges from home language, schooling, literacy, study abroad to finally higher education choices. This presentation will incorporate research in second language acquisition against the backdrop of my personal experiences raising three bilingual children in Japan. Firstly, I will cover a variety of examples of ways you can provide plentiful and rich language input for your children whilst living in Japan. Secondly, I will outline some of the choices in schooling you can take from pre-school through high school along with ways to enhance literacy to improve test scores. Finally, I will cover different paths that can be taken for higher education and how to get there.

My three children have all taken different paths to university education incorporating Japanese public school, Japanese private school, international school, Japanese university, foreign university, and study abroad. The aim of this presentation is to provide parents and educators with information on a wide range of choices that can be made when raising children rather than a one size fits all approach. In addition to raising three bilingual children, I am also director of The Foreign Language Education Center at Kobe Shoin Women’s University and have supervised numerous students taking part in study abroad programs at university as well as helping to set up St. Michael’s International Saturday School program for elementary school students in Sannomiya. There will be plenty of time for questions and answers and I welcome any input from the audience.

Frances Shiobara has been living and teaching in Japan since 1989, and she has been teaching in higher education for over 30 years. She is currently Director of the Foreign Language Education Center at Kobe Shoin Women’s University, Japan. She was previously Chair of the Department of English. She also set up and teaches in an International School English program for elementary school students. She has a Master of Education in Applied Linguistics from Temple University, Japan and a Doctor of Education from The University of Liverpool, UK. Her main areas of interest are teaching English to young learners, gender equality in higher education and attitudes to technology in education.