Canada is a very important country in language education research, having practiced immersion education since the 1960’s. In addition to Roy Lyster, the research community there includes Merrill Swain, Patsy Lightbown, Nina Spada, and Jim Cummins. Roy has been a leader in the emergence of Instructed Second Language Acquisition, where findings from English-Medium Instruction, Immersion Education, CLIL, and other models are fed back into SLA. His key research foci are teacher development, focus on form, and integration of language and content. He is well-known for his CAPA model of integration. Applying this model imaginatively allows teachers of standard language courses to incorporate some content into their classes (increasing motivation and the knowledge that students have), and subject-matter teachers in immersion education to incorporate some focus on form, ensuring that students improve their productive (output) skills (including improving their vocabulary and grammar), not only their comprehension.
NOTE: People are welcome to turn up on the day, but we would like to get some idea of numbers, so notifying Rick Lavin (rlavin@pu-kumamoto.ac.jp) in advance of your intention to attend would be greatly appreciated. Queries also welcome at the same address.
*This event is organized by the Prefectural University of Kumamoto. The NanKyu Chapter of JALT is helping to sponsor this event.
