2015 April 12 | Nagasaki JALT Executive | Poster Sessions: Meet YOUR Nagasaki JALT Executive

Thanks to everyone who came out for the April meeting. The executives presented on a range of topics, providing something for everyone.

Thom Rawson (President) presented about making a digital textbook.

Thom Rawson

• By making learning materials digital, teachers are better able to engage students where they spend much of their time and attention already: online and on their digital devices.
• Digital textbooks allow for immediate feedback to students through automatic grading. This not only saves time for the teacher but can motivate students.
• There are a variety of platforms available for creating digital coursework, including the following:
• • LMS: Moodle, Blackboard, Manaba
  • Google: Google Docs, YouTube, Blogger

2015 February 22 | Sergio Mazzarelli | Fostering Learning Autonomy with the European Language Portfolio / Peer Evaluation Using Moodle

Sergio Mazzarelli
Kwassui Women's University

The speaker will offer two presentations. The first will explain how an adapted version of the European Language Portfolio (ELP) was used to foster student autonomy and motivation in three classes at a Japanese university. In particular, the presentation will focus on how the ELP helped students formulate learning goals and self-monitor progress in achieving those goals. There is growing interest in the ELP, but many teachers are not sure how to make it work in the Japanese context. Far from intending to be prescriptive, the presenter hopes to inspire others to find their own way to deploy this powerful tool.

2015 January 10 | Dawn Kobayashi | Focus on Drama | Sponsored by CUE SIG!

Dawn Kobayashi
Sponsored by CUE SIG

This presentation will both introduce to attendees how the presenter is using drama as the main teaching methodology in university English lessons and give attendees a chance to try out some of the drama techniques for themselves. Finally attendees will be encouraged to reflect on how they might employ similar techniques in their teaching environments.

2014 December 13 | Terry Fellner | Pseudoscience in EFL: What is it and "woo" is responsible?

Terry Fellner

This presentation will focus on the use of several practices and methodologies currently found in language teaching that have little or no scientific evidence to support their use. The presentation begins with an examination of what is meant by the terms “pseudo-science” and “woo” and then provides the audience with a fun pseudoscience demonstration to illustrate how these concept can be easily accepted and misunderstood. This talk will examine the efficacy of the following concepts: learning styles, left/right brain learners, multiple intelligences, and neuro linguistic programming as well as question the teaching and utilization of several common TOEIC test strategies. The presentation concludes with a brief discussion about why it can be difficult to get evidence-based results in EFL contexts and yet, why it is important that we try.

Bio: Terry Fellner is Associate Professor at the Center for General Education at Saga University. He has been a teacher, teacher trainer, researcher, for more than 20 years in Africa, Canada, and Japan. Currently he is the section editor of @CUE in The OnCUE Journal, and his research interests include motivation, vocabulary acquisition, outdoor language learning and L2 reading.

Location: Dejima Koryu Kaikan, 2-11 Dejimamachi, Nagasaki

Fee for JALT members: Free

Fee for one-day members: 1,000 yen, free for students

Contact or Queries: Email contact form

2014 November 21~24 | JALT 2014 International | Conversations Across Borders

JALT2014: Conversations Across Borders

JALT2014: Conversations Across Borders

40th Annual International Conference on Language
Teaching and Learning & Educational Materials Exhibition
Friday, 21 November 2014 - Monday, 24 November 2014
Tsukuba International Congress Center (Epochal Tsukuba)
Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

2014 November 1 | David Gann | A Four-step process for critical thinking instruction

A Four-step process for critical thinking instruction

Date and Time: Saturday, 1 November 2014 - 2:00pm - 4:00p
Speaker: David Gann

David Gann will present on the materials and resources for critical thinking instruction that he has helped develop over the past four years. These include (1) Critically Minded, a fourteen-episode podcast aimed at explicit instruction of critical thinking as a language-based skill set; (2) online text reconstruction exercises (TREs) of two kinds, the first focusing on argument indicators (AIs), and the second focusing on dialectical discourse items (DDIs) commonly used to initiate various modes of communication related to negotiating shared understandings; (3) online asynchronous computer-mediated communication (CMC) in which learners put the recently learned language and metalanguage to use in real communication and collaboration in a content-based learning environment; and (4) in-class group discussion where learners use the same or similar language in face-to-face communication. He will also discuss the assessment tools that he has developed for tracking students’ progress. Attendees will gain an enhanced understanding of critical thinking instruction and a practical understanding of the resources which they are invited to use in their own classes.

2014 October 12 | Cory Koby | Japanese High School English Curriculum Changes...

Cory Koby

Ready or not, here it comes! Japanese high school English curriculum changes under the new course of study

Date and Time: Sunday, 12 October 2014 - 2:00pm - 4:00pm

Speaker: Cory Koby

Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology introduced its once-in-a-decade “Course of Study” in 2009, and the final phase of the mandated changes took effect in April 2013. Cory will outline the changes in high school English language curriculum, with particular attention paid to what has NOT changed. Teacher and student perceptions, attitudes, and practices will be discussed, and empirical evidence will be presented which illustrate the significant obstacles facing the implementation MEXT’s goal of TLEIE (Teaching and Learning English in English).