JALT members, please check your email!
All JALT members were sent an email with information about an extraordinary general meeting (EOGM) regarding two voting items and details on the voting process. We kindly request members to check their emails and vote. The email title is “NPO JALT – EOGM Absentee Ballot for 2023,” and it was sent from vote@jalt.org
The deadline for JALT 2023 call for proposals is fast approaching. Vetted proposals will be accepted until Sunday, February 12, 2023, 11:59pm. Unvetted proposals until Sunday, May 14, 2023, 11:59pm.
For more information, you can visit the call for proposals page here:
https://jalt.org/conference/call-proposals
Date/time: Tuesday, December 6 (6:30-7:30)
Venue: Kochi University, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Meeting Room 5 (4F)
Co-sponsored by the KU International Studies Course
In what we are planning as a new regular East Shikoku event, our ‘Learner Showcase’ series celebrates ELLs who have gone on to lead inspirational lives, thanks in part to the power of language learning. The series targets language learners through chapter outreach and draws attention to East Shikoku JALT as community language education resource.
In the first event in this new series, we invite Mr. Daisuke Kanamori to share his ELL journey that has taken him around the world. Daisuke’s journey is highlighted by humanitarian aid and refugee work in Africa, local conflict resolution accomplishments in challenging international contexts, and social contributions at home. Daisuke studied English and Intercultural Communication at university in Kochi and participated in JALT programs such as the Asian Youth Forum as an undergraduate. Bringing together language, culture, and his passion for soccer, he then founded an NPO to help children recover from the Great East Japan Earthquake Through this NPO, he led an international exchange by taking Fukushima youth to the 2012 London Olympics. Daisuke returned to school to study at Oxford and at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland (M.Litt. in Peace and Conflict Studies), and then began a career in international public service, working for NGOs in Zambia and Kenya, and then for JICA in South Sudan. Daisuke currently works for the UN in New York City.
East Shikoku JALT’s ‘Learner Showcase’ Series aims to:
November 8, 2022 From 18:00 – 20:30
KUT Eikokuji Campus, Room A106
ELT Lightning Talks Seminar
JALT East Shikoku JALT Chapter is now accepting lightning talk proposals that focus on language teaching and research. The Lightning Talk format will combine 15-minute focused presentations with a follow-up group interaction session. Discussion will continue with an informal 2022 Chapter bonenkai. Lightning Talks should be submitted by Tuesday, November 1st. Submissions are closed. Please join for our 1st ‘live’ meeting in over 2 years!
ELT Lightning Talks Seminar lineup
Continue readingAbstract: Well aware of the difficulties Japanese speakers face in learning English pronunciation, and with over 20 years of study and practical experience teaching Japanese group students in New York City, I created a complete methodology for teaching English pronunciation which has proven successful. Speech is a physical skill. Our first language is spoken unconsciously thanks to muscle memory, which allows us to focus on what we’re saying, not on how we’re moving our mouth to form the words. The pronunciation of other languages however often requires consciously learning new physical mechanics, sounds and rhythm patterns, etc. This is especially true for Japanese speakers learning English. In this workshop I will present an overview of my methodology and specific examples of how I teach, including various techniques that are essential for Japanese speakers to learn. This workshop will be of value to anyone who is interested in teaching English pronunciation to Japanese or other foreign speakers. I will be delighted to answer any and all questions about my work and experience in this field. Participants are encouraged to watch my free introduction video series as a preview to my workshop. These can be found in the landing page links in my bio data below.
Bio: Joshua Popenoe worked in Japan for 16 years as a voice talent/singer and creative artist. Since returning to New York City in 1998, he has focused primarily on English pronunciation training for Japanese speakers. Joshua developed the Popenoe Method, a complete and comprehensive pronunciation training program, and produced the Popenoe Method Online Video Pronunciation Master Course, currently available as a subscription membership course. For more information on the Popenoe Method, check out this website at the following links:
https://popenoe-method.mykajabi.com/english-landing-page (English)
https://popenoe-method.mykajabi.com/japanese-landing-page (Japanese)
Register for event here: https://forms.gle/Ephh1MzQ9mumR5CN6
Abstract: After two years of the pandemic, it is still difficult to say what a ‘normal’ classroom will be like anymore. What important lessons were learnt in these past two years, and are there benefits to online learning beyond virus prevention? The author examined perspectives and experiences on what it was like learning remotely as a university student over the course of two years. Surveys and one on one interviews were conducted on a target demographic of students. The research had surprisingly mixed results both positive and negative. Students were asked which style of learning they preferred – online, face-to-face or a blend of both. Curiously, there was a three-way split between all options in the first year. In the second year, a majority favored online or blended learning. Although many students and teachers are quick to assume that face-to-face learning allows young people to enjoy a more “normal” university life – the results indicate that there are cases where the merits of online learning exceed those of face-to-face classes.
Continue readingThose who teach in universities are experts in their fields, but many do not have teaching backgrounds. ‘Scaffolding’ can be conceptualized as a means to structure students’ learning experiences regardless of the subject or course in ways that assist them to reach the target of a lesson, course goals and their learning potential. In this presentation, we will unpack the concept of scaffolding by showing the learning theory that supports it; its role in that theory, and practical step by step examples of how scaffolding can work within a lesson to help students reach their learning potential. The claim will be made that ‘teaching is scaffolding”. As a part of our teacher development, recognition of this concept will allow our tacit knowledge of teaching to become more explicit, leading to ways to reconceptualize our teaching and better inform it.
Continue readingFor over three decades, hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals have set foot on Japanese soil as foreign assistant language teachers (ALTs) through the government- sponsored Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) program. The job of the ALTs is to teach English in elementary and secondary schools, in tandem with Japanese teachers of English (JTEs). Although there is an apparent need for scrutiny of the lived experiences of ALTs in their situated contexts, empirical discussion and research addressing them have been remarkably insufficient, as previous studies have focused primarily on the advantages and shortcomings of individual teachers and the characteristics of their team-teaching practices. Against this backdrop, the study on which this presentation is based explored, via narrative interviews, the identities and their constructions of 25 ALTs in the JET program. The findings revealed that the gestalt of ALT identity is comprised of two primary categories (i.e., foreigner identity and dabbler identity) and their six incumbent sub-identities (i.e., celebrity, sojourner, English expert, assistant, greenhorn, and Japanese novice). The presentation concludes with implications for teacher education and identity research.
Continue readingMatsuyama JALT and East Shikoku JALT are inviting you to a Zoom presentation with Alexandra Burke on Students in the back and on the edge: neurodiverse students and your teaching methods
Date: Sunday, May 9, 2021
Time: 14:00 – 16:00 (Osaka, Sapporo, Tokyo)
Cost: Free to JALT members and non-members.
Location: via Zoom. No public link will be provided, so if you’re interested, you can register in advance for this meeting: (Click here)
Continue readingNaomi Wilks-Smith (RMIT University, Australia)
Time: May 22, 2021 01:30PM Osaka, Sapporo, Tokyo Join Zoom
Presentation slides can be found here.
Abstract:
Translanguaging offers practical ways to bring bilingual and multilingual learners’ languages into classrooms that have traditionally been monolingual. Translanguaging not only invites languages into classrooms but utilises them in pedagogical ways to expand on the content and conceptual knowledge and understandings of learners to leverage their learning. In this way, translanguaging connects the entire repertoire of a student’s linguistic skill-set and knowledge across languages with their overall learning. This presentation will introduce the concept of translanguaging and share examples of practice from a linguistically and culturally diverse Australian primary school context that draw on the varied multilingual abilities of students as learning resources.
Bio: Dr. Naomi Wilks-Smith is a language education specialist, teacher and researcher. She is a Lecturer at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.
East Shikoku JALT Chapter 