Newsletter – April 2020

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Dear Kyoto JALT Chapter Members & Friends,

As the Covid-19 outbreak that is sweeping the globe seems to be on the rise we all wonder what the future holds in store for us. We know that the efforts of companies, schools, and the government are frustrating for a lot of you, but we will make it through this. Unfortunately, our April event has been cancelled as well as almost all other events until the end of June; however, the annual international conference in November is still on schedule. You can find more information later in the newsletter. In these wild and unnerving times, we know you will persevere.

Here are links for information on the disease from the World Health Organization

General: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019

Prevention: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/technical-guidance/infection-prevention-and-control

Also In this issue there is some JALT news, an interesting scholarship opportunity, and information on an online event. There is a call for research participants at the end of the newsletter

Richard Sparrow

Publicity Chair

On behalf of the Kyoto JALT Team

Kyoto JALT’s 2020 Event Schedule (Upcoming)

Getting your Research funded: A Symposium presented by Kyoto JALT (POSTPONED)
One of the little-known steps to getting research done is getting it paid for. Come listen to Other researchers’ experiences in applying for grant money in Japan.

Lilt SIG Collaboration: April 19th (CANCELED)
This is a collaboration with Lilt SIG on creative writing in ELT.

TESOL x Brain SIG: June 20-21 (POSTPONED UNTIL 2021)
This event, planned by TESOL in collaboration with JALT’s Mind, Brain, and Education SIG introduces the brain-based learning methods that have been developed so far.

Academic Publishing Workshop (TBA)
Everyone knows you need to publish, but not everyone knows the ins, outs, and rigors of the publishing process.

4 Corners Talk: November (TBA)
In collaboration with the other Kansai Chapters we hope to bring a JALT 2020 speaker to the Kansai region for a pre-conference talk.

GALE Collaboration: December 5
Sexual harassment in the workplace is one of the serious issues of our time and can be hard to navigate by yourself.

News

JALT Election
The NPO JALT Nominations and Elections Committee is happy to announce the 2020 elections for the JALT Board of Directors and Auditor. All JALT members in good standing will be invited to cast a ballot in this election.

Voting will begin on April 1st, 2020, and end on May 17th, 2020, with the results being announced on May 25th, 2020, and then submitted for approval to the JALT Ordinary General Meeting. The newly elected Board of Directors and Auditor will begin their official position on January 1st, 2021, for two years. An email with an individualized ballot and further instructions will be sent to every JALT member on April 1st, 2020.

For details, please see
https://jalt.org/main/nominees-2020-executive-board-elections

JALT2019 Plenaries on YouTube
Our JALT2019 plenary sessions have been uploaded to YouTube. Here’s the plenary speaker playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpP8yzHmmyNEoKhvf9fQ6SgN_ib4JH56P

Online Events

Best of EVO 2020, Electronic Village Online, presented online
Electronic Village Online (EVO) is an annual event where participants and ESOL experts engage in collaborative, online discussion or hands-on virtual workshops of professional and scholarly benefit. This happens every year, for five weeks in January-February, since 2001. For more information see http://evosessions.org

This “Best of EVO 2020” session highlights all the outstanding sessions from EVO 2020 which took place earlier this year. Originally scheduled to be held as a blended event at two time slots in the Technology Showcase: Exhibition Hall at the annual TESOL conference at TESOL 2020 in Denver, the Best of EVO is being organized this year as an ONLINE event by Electronic Village Online (EVO) Coordinators and session moderators Vance Stevens and Jane Chien on behalf of all EVO Coordinators and EVO session moderators 

What is this about? 
Coordinators, moderators, and participants in Electronic Village Online speak about their EVO 2020 sessions and about how EVO functions. Moderators will overview their sessions, and participants are invited to describe their experiences as members of the EVO online community. Panelists will explain how to become involved as moderators or participants next year. For more information please go here
Fee: Free
Date & time: Sunday, April 3rd and 4th, 2020

Call for Papers

Task-Based Learning SIG of JALT:
Fifth Task-Based Language Teaching in Asia Conference

The Proceedings for TBLT in Asia 2018 are now available here.
Thanks to all the contributors.

Scholarships

In 2009, JSPS received an endowment from Emperor Akihito on the 20th
year of his reign. Amidst a severe economic environment in Japanese
society, His Majesty’s desire was to encourage and support young
scientists who are working diligently to advance their studies and
research. In deference to his wishes, JSPS established the Ikushi
Prize program and placed it into operation in FY 2010. It functions to
formally recognize outstanding doctoral students who can be expected
to contribute to Japan’s future scientific advancement.
Applicable fields:
All files of the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. 
Eligibility:
Candidates must be doctoral students with outstanding academic records, 
who possess abundant qualities of humanity and who pursue their studies 
and research in an independent and vigorous manner. They must be nominated 
by either the president of their university or the director of an academic society to 
which they belong. They must be enrolled in a university doctoral program on 
1 May and be under 34 years of age on 1 April of the subject fiscal year. 
Overseas students enrolled in university doctoral programs in Japan are also eligible. 
For more details: 
https://www.jsps.go.jp/english/e-ikushi-prize/outline.html (in English)
https://www.jsps.go.jp/j-ikushi-prize/gaiyo.html (in Japanese)
The following documents are required for the Ikushi Prize nomination:
https://www.jsps.go.jp/j-ikushi-prize/yoshiki.html
1) A statement from JALT (initial draft by those who nominate a nominee) 
explaining the reason(s) for the nomination (to be prepared by JCO).
2)  Nominee’s information 
3)  Reason for nomination
   A – by a teacher of the doctoral program
   B – by a researcher who knows the nominee’s work
4) Summary of research — by the nominee
If anyone would like to make a nomination, please send the information
and supporting documents to the JALT Central Office at <jco@jalt.org>
by May 22, 2020 for the Ikushi Prize.

Research help needed: Request for Research participants

Zemi in Japanese Universities
Dear all,

We are two teacher/researchers based in Kansai who are investigating how foreign (i.e. non-Japanese) instructors feel about teaching the zemi in Japanese universities. We feel that the zemi offers unique challenges and opportunities for instructors assigned to teach these courses, and we want to understand them more deeply.

We hope to interview foreign teachers who are currently teaching zemi classes in Japan. Each interview will take around 60 minutes to complete. We are happy to meet any willing interviewees at their place of choice.

If this sounds like an interesting topic for you to discuss, please contact us at the following email: <zemi_interviews2019@hotmail.com>.

Many thanks,

Martin Hawkes, The University of Shiga Prefecture
Calum Adamson, Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts

Writing in Japanese Universities

Purpose:
The aim of this study is to examine how Japanese students’ writing improves over the school year and to see how effective online grammar checkers are in improving grammatical accuracy. Specifically, the study seeks to examine grammatical accuracy, fluency (how many words students can write in 30 minutes along with 10 minutes for editing), complexity (vocabulary and syntactical).

(1)研究の目的
本研究の目的は、日本の学生の文章表現が1学年にわたってどのように向上するか、オンライン文法チェッカーが文法的正確さを向上させる上でどれほど効果的であるかを調べることです。

Call for Participants:

I am hoping to obtain permission to gather data at three to four institutions in western Japan and in Kansai region and to solicit the cooperation of approximately 120 students. Students will be asked to write a total of three papers, one every four months, concerning various topics.

西日本 3大学施設の調査

西日本の3〜4大学施設でデータを収集し、約120人の学生の協力をしてもらえるように承諾を頂きます。 学生はさまざまなトピックについて、4か月に1回、合計3つの論文を書くように依頼します。

Contact Information:

Email: long@dhs.kyutech.ac.jp

Address: Kyushu Institute of Technology, 1-1 Sensui-cho, Tobata-Ku, Kitakyushu-city, 804-8550
Telephone: 093-884-3447

Appreciatively,

Robert William Long III Ed. S Kyushu Institute of Technology

Finally

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