2011 Events Archive

Kansai JALT Event: Pecha Kucha Volume #11

Saturday December 17, 2011

Kyoto JALT will be teaming up with the Kobe, Nara, and Osaka chapters for a exciting year-end event — Pecha Kucha Night Volume #11. There will be 12 presentations which follow this year’s theme of Teaching and Learning as a Social Process, and it promises to be both an informative and entertaining evening.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Kyoto JALT Chapter Annual General Meeting (AGM)

Kyoto JALT members are welcome to the Annual General Meeting! Find out more about what has been happening with the Kyoto chapter and what’s in store for 2012. The AGM is followed by a joint event between Gender Awareness in Language Education (GALE) SIG and Kyoto JALT.

View revised 2011 Kyoto Chapter constitution here. 

Kyoto JALT and GALE (Gender Awareness in Language Education) SIG Joint Event

Teaching Language and Gender Issues in the EFL Classroom

Presenters…

Todd Squires

Kinki University

The Masculine Structure of Desire: Power and English acquisition in a pre-departure EAP program

10:20 – 11:00

Within mainstream L2 motivation research the relationship between gender and the reasons why individuals decide to learn an L2 and how they maintain the motivation to continue has yet to be adequately addressed. This is particularly troubling since in the past five years interest in identity has been the most highly written about topics in the field, and gender is seldom mentioned as being part of the L2 self.

This paper represents part of the author’s project intended to remedy this shortcoming by introducing an alternative approach to gender and the desire to acquire an L2 that is based in psychoanalysis and Marxist theory. In particular, this paper will consider how within the praxis of a discussion task a masculine motivation is negotiated and co-constructed.

Data from a discussion between three men is introduced and discussed to highlight the ways in which they construct their masculinity in regard to the acquisition of English and how they form a nucleus of solidarity based upon an orthodox masculinity where the acquisition of English is figured a means of empowerment.

Gerry Yokota

How can movies be used in the EFL and/or Gender Studies classroom most effectively to enhance critical thinking and language skills?

Osaka University

11:10 – 11:40

How can movies be used in the EFL and/or Gender Studies classroom most effectively to enhance critical thinking and language skills?

In this presentation, I will introduce the basic principles involved in my approach to materials development and course design, based on my experience teaching four types of classes: undergraduate EFL, two undergraduate seminars (Introduction to Gender Studies and Introduction to Peace Studies), and a graduate seminar (Language, Culture and Gender). Specific pedagogical issues will include effective combination of audio, video and captured stills; employment of mass media reviews as well as online user reviews; instruction in the textual analysis of scripts; listening exercises; and role playing, debate and composition activities.Visit the GALE SIG website to learn more about this JALT Special Interest Group.

2011-2012 Kyoto Chapter Elections

All Kyoto JALT members are eligible to vote for the five elected chapter officers: President, Program Chair, Treasurer, Membership Chair and Publicity Chair.

Details on candidates sitting for the 2011-2012 election can be found here. Nominations for any position are still being accepted.

Online Voting

Voting is now being done online, VOTE HERE.

Electronic voting will close at 22:00 on October 29, 2011. You also have the option to vote in person at the Annual General Meeting.

Want to help out with the chapter events? There are a number of appointed positions available. Please contact Catherine Kinoshita for more information.

Sunday, July 24th, 2011

Project-based learning and teaching

Kyoto JALT is pleased to announce the schedule for our July event. Project based teaching has the potential for bringing the best out of students, both higher- and lower levels. It is an excellent way to get students motivated and work with their English in a productive and fun way.

This day will bring together several teachers who practice project based teaching.Go here to view the schedule, full abstracts and bio data for each presenter.

Classroom projects: changing studentsʼ worldview

Oana Cusen

Ritsumeikan University

Combining two current trends in language education, project based teaching and content based teaching, allows teachers to take the focus away from learning English as a subject, and shift it to learning “in” English. This presentation will show how a classroom project can do exactly this.

The 24/7 classroom

Oliver Kinghorn

Kyoto Sangyo University / Kyoto University of Foreign Languages / Konan University

By reinventing the traditional class notebook, the digital portfolio is an online platform where students can widen the scope and depth of their understanding of class content, present their ideas in unique and dynamic ways, and collaborate and interact with peers.

This presentation demonstrates three different online platforms for hosting digital portfolios, outlines the advantages of this form of project-based learning, and shows concrete examples of first and second year university student’s digital portfolios from three distinctly different ESL courses.

Introducing the project-based English program in college of sports and health science of Ritsumeikan university

Syuhei Kimura

Ritsumeikan University

This presentation introduces the Project-based English Program in the College of Sports and Health Science of Ritsumeikan University and to report how it has worked, by showing several videos of the students’ presentations and their writings, with comments based on experience of teaching in the course year and a half.

Position! Place! Shape! Story Project

Heidi S. Durning

Seika University

This presentation will introduce the 3 week process of how to teach the Position! Place! Shape! Story Project. This project has been a part of a curriculum at Seika University for the past 10 years in which students learn English while visualizing and combining drawing and English expression. The presentation will also introduce student works in order to demonstrate the results of the teaching process.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

The Potential of Cognates to Aid Language Learning

Presenters: Frank Daulton and James Rogers

Tohoku Earthquake Fundraising Event

The Tohoku Earthquake fundraiser will take place following the above presentation. All funds raised at this event will be donated via NPO JALT National to be distributed on a proportional basis to approved Japan-based relief groups.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

My Share

Time to get ready for the new academic year! Why not get some tips and ideas from fellow teachers?

This was an event open to all teachers, from experienced to newbie! It was an excellent opportunity for instructors to get some advice or offer suggestions on language teaching and learning.

Three excellent teachers shared some of their experiences (see details below). Members came, joined, listened, and learned!

John Campbell-Larsen

Momoyama Gakuin University

Time: 11:30-12:00 
Strategy and discourse of questioning

Asking questions to one’s interlocutor is a key part of any kind of naturalistic conversation. For many Japanese students of English, this area causes a multitude of problems. The grammar of question formation, lack of vocabulary and concerns about politeness and appropriateness often inhibit students in developing adequate questioning skills. Many students stick to well-rehearsed, generic questions that are basically transactional in nature, and the overall result is that many so-called ‘conversations’ more closely resemble interviews or interrogations.

This presentation will detail ways in which students have been lead to a more naturalistic style of questioning through repeated practice of certain strategic and discourse patterns, such as strategizing around linguistic shortcomings by exemplification, signaling the phatic nature of the questions by personalizing and use of discourse markers.

The presenter will detail classroom implementation of this approach, and provide handouts and worksheets as used in actual classes.Download:
Presentation Handouts #1-3
Presentation Slides

Mizuka Tsukamoto

Osaka Jogakuin College

Time: 12:10-12:40 
A cooperative reading activity

Students find L2 reading materials difficult. Examples of the reasons are that they are unfamiliar with the topic and that the texts include too many words they do not know / understand. In the latter case, students spend a lot of time using their dictionary, word for word to check the meaning. This makes it difficult for them to grasp the ideas of the content.

Covering the reading text in four stages and incorporating some pair work and group work, explained in this activity, enable students, especially in a class with both relatively weak and relatively strong students, to grasp and to understand the content.

The four stages include: context setting, pre-teaching vocabulary, skimming and reading for details. Students’ comprehensions of the reading are checked by comprehension questions within the activity.

Richard Miller

Kansai University

Time: 13:00-13:30 
Utilizing The Learning Portfolio in Classes

Reflecting on what has been learned is an important and integral part of the learning process for several reasons. It allows the learner to reflect and to deepen the understanding of the skills and knowledge that they have acquired. In addition, the portfolio can become a record for the student to keep of what they have taken away from the class.

For the instructor it can be a measure for the progress of the class and as a feedback tool to have the instructor understand what the learner thought was important. It can also be utilized as a testing device to test students speaking ability as well as a peer to peer reviewing exercise where students are able to compare and contrast with classmates.

This presentation will explain how I successfully integrated this learning device in a communications course with students at Kansai University.Download:
Presentation Handout

Saturday, January 15, 2011

The power of visual images in EFL

Sandra Healy (Kyoto Sangyo Univ.) – Penny Sugihara (Kansai Univ.)

The power of visual images to convey messages, send affective signals and to stimulate the imagination is undeniable. We now have available infinite resources for accessing, storing and retrieving digitally generated images.

In EFL teaching images can be used to illustrate or present language points, to offer systematic practice or to stimulate creative and imaginative spin-offs.

The presenter, Ms. Healy, (Penny S. was away) introduced simple yet effective ways of enriching the visual landscape of the classroom through the use of images. Ms. Healy demonstrated how images can be used to engage, stir up curiosity, provide inspiration and motivation for writing and speaking and generally enhance learners’ classroom experience.

The importance of involving learners in resourcing visual materials for themselves was emphasized and examples of student-made visuals were included.