2014 May 17 | Cecilia Salzer | Teaching Phonics to English Language Learners

In May of 2014, Nagasaki JALT visited Nagasaki Junior College and were treated to a lecture by Cecilia "Sash" Salzer on the methodology for Teaching Phonics to ELLs (English Language Learners). The talk included extensive background on the presenter as well as some tips and ideas for introducing phonics to children.

2014 May 10~11 | PanSIG Conference | Miyazaki Municipal University

Karen Masatsugu presents a
short study abroad project.

I had the privilege to attend the annual PanSIG (http://pansig.org) conference which was hosted in Miyazaki City at the Miyazaki Municipal University (May 10th and 11th). In recollection, Miyazaki City is a really nice place with wide stretching avenues and palm tree lined streets. Being in southern Japan, the climate is warm as are the people who often greeted me in various ways using English decrying a population unafraid of internationalization.

This year's PanSIG format involved a plethora of poster-style discussion groups and forums. There were also some interesting plenary speaker sessions. Although I didn't participate directly in the conference as a presenter, the close quarters and discussion-centric style made for thought-provoking discourse - I was able to take in quite a lot over a short period of time. Here enclosed are some notes and images from the weekend.

2014 April 19 | Brendan Van Deusen | Extensive Reading and Task-basedLearning

Presenting on Extensive Reading
and Task-based Learning

This month we moved the venue from Nagasaki City up to Sasebo and Nagasaki International University for a presentation by Brendan Van Deusen. He took us through the concepts of using Extensive Reading and Task-based learning for the focus of this talk. The details of the presentation/workshop as well as the announcements made at the meeting are contained in these minutes.

2014 January 11 | Andy Boon | Instant Messenger: Journeys of Discoveries

Andy Boon from
Toyo Gakuen University

This month, Nagasaki JALT was privileged to have Andy Boon from Toyo Gakuen University as our guest speaker. He gave two presentations which included his doctoral research project on IMCD as well as methods for moving English learning beyond the classroom. Those topics and the monthly Nagasaki JALT announcements will be covered in this post.

2013 December 14 | Joe Tomei | Surveys in the Classroom

Joe discussing surveys
in the classroom

In the second half of our December chapter meeting, Mr. Joseph Tomei of Kumamoto Gakuen University discussed the use of surveys as an integrated component for language acquisition and practice. This post will cover some of the ideas that were covered during the second talk.

2013 December 14 | Joe Tomei | Music in the Classroom

During December's meeting, the Nagasaki JALT faithful were fortunate to have two very interesting lectures given by Mr. Joseph Tomei of Kumamoto Gakuen University.

Joe is a specialist in using music for building listening skills through various cloze activities.  Also, our presenter discussed the use of surveys as an integrated component for language acquisition and practice.

Lastly, Joe is promoting the PanSIG 2014 conference which enables the JALT Special Interest Groups to meet at the same location for the purposes of SIG promotion and membership. The theme of this year's conference will be "Sustainability; Making Teaching and Learning Last" and will be held in May of 2014. There are more details in the 2nd post for this monthly meeting (click here).

Included in this meeting report are some notes and thoughts from those presentations as well as some chapter news and announcements. Comments are welcome!

2013 November 16 | Robinson Fritz | Using Intercultural Theories for ALTs and JTEs...

November 16th brought about our Nagasaki JALT monthly meeting and a chance for some educational development at the hands of Robinson Fritz, Associate Professor at Nagasaki University in the Faculty of Economics. Rob has been on staff at N.U. since this past April and specializes in Intercultural Theories and Communication. His presentation focused on Using Intercultural Theories for ALTs and JTEs to Successfully Understand Each Other.

At the time of his presentation, Rob is a candidate for Ph.D in Intercultural Communication at the University of Sheffield in the U.K. His research has taken him into an area that, although widely studied in Europe appears to be little studied here in Japan.