Donna Brinton: Dispelling Pronunciation Myths

• Saturday, December 7
• 4:30-6:00
• Room A108
• Kochi University of Technology (Eikokuji Campus)

Isn’t it impossible to impact students’ fossilized pronunciation? Wouldn’t students make more progress if they just practiced more? Don’t you need to be a native speaker to teach pronunciation? Isn’t the best way to teach pronunciation by having students listen and repeat? The field of pronunciation teaching abounds with myths that derive from lay beliefs about acquiring the sound system of a second language. Unfortunately, without adequate teacher preparation, teachers often buy into these myths and remain unprepared to teach pronunciation. In this talk, Donna Brinton presents an overview of recent research in practical phonetics that helps to dispel some of the above popularly-held misconceptions. She also summarizes best practice for pronunciation teachers.

Understanding Peer Feedback in the Writing Classroom: A Theoretical and Practical Approach

• Date: Oct. 6th
• Time:  14:00-16:00
• Place:  Kagawa University, Olive Square, Global Cafe. 
• Speaker:  Luke Draper

A Narrative Approach to Teaching Pragmatics and Intercultural Awareness

Date: Monday, September 16 (6:30-7:30)

Place: KUT/Kochi Prefectural University, Eikokuji Campus, Room A104

Prof. Noriko Ishihara will facilitate a workshop discussing a narrative approach to instructional pragmatics and intercultural communication. She will illustrate the approach through her own story and its interpretation. This will lead into a discussion about possible ways teachers can use their stories to teach pragmatics with their best effort not to stereotype others and essentialize cultures

Noriko Ishihara, Ph.D. is Professor of Applied Linguistics/EFL at Hosei University, Japan. She facilitates teachers’ professional development courses in Japan and the U.S. on language teaching methodology, pragmatics, and intercultural communication. Her research interests include instructional pragmatics, identity and language learning, language teacher development, and peace linguistics.

Date: Saturday, June 15, 2019 (12:00-6:00)
Venue: Ehime University, Johoku Campus, Faculty of Education, Building 4, 4F
Multi-media Zone (Room 42) and Room 41
愛媛大学城北キャンパス 教育学部4号館4階　マルチゾーン型教室(42番)及び41番
Sponsors: Matsuyama JALT, East Shikoku JALT, Oxford University Press Website: East Shikoku JALT – http://esjalt.org JALT Members and students: free One-Day Member Fee: 1000 yen

Continue reading →

Date: April 21st, 2019
Time: 3:00-5:00pm
Place: English Cafe, Olive Square, Kagawa University
Speaker: Andrew Caldwell
Topic: Dictogloss: Improve Motivation and Participation

Dictogloss: Improve Motivation and Participation

Do you have trouble getting unmotivated students to participate in class? Do you have troubles finding an effective activity for classes with students of varied abilities? Andrew will introduce an interactive and cooperative activity which allows students to integrate the four language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing into one activity. Dictogloss (also known as Grammar Dictation) is quite different to traditional dictation. It is a type of information gap activity that requires the learners to interact with each other in order to complete a target task. Dictogloss is also an effective motivational tool because it encourages lower-level students to participate in groups and to become more actively involved in their own language learning. Additionally, it also helps to develop the students’ grammatical competence. It was first developed in Australia and can be used with students ranging from junior high to university. Continue reading →

MyShare (Icebreakers)
Kagawa University
Olive Square, English Cafe
Feb. 3rd, 2-4pm