Due to travel restrictions, this event has been canceled.

Language education in context: Bilingual experiences from Melbourne, Australia

• Speaker: Dr. Naomi Wilks-Smith, RMIT University
• Date: Thursday, April 9 (6:30 – 7:30)
• Location: KUT, Eikokuji Campus (Room TBA0

Japanese is amongst a plethora of languages taught in schools and spoken in the community in Melbourne, Australia. This presentation explores the provision of Japanese in Melbourne, both as an additional language in schools, and as a home language in the community. It outlines the wide range of programs available and the practical strategies that families are using to raise children with Japanese in Melbourne. This presentation responds to the JALT Bilingualism SIG publication ‘Raising Bilingual and Bicultural Children in Japan: Essays from the Inaka’ (2018), in which stories were shared from families raising children with English in Japan, by sharing reverse stories of raising children with Japanese in the English-dominant context of Melbourne, Australia. It is anticipated that the understanding of bilingualism is further enhanced through the sharing of these context-specific stories and that teachers and families can expand their repertoire of strategies by learning from each other. 

JALT has expanded our family-friendly policy. As in previous years, attendees are welcome to bring their child(ren) and a guardian free of charge. At JALT2020, you may also bring a spouse/partner with you without paying. Your spouse/partner may like to see your session, understand more about the organization you volunteer for or simply spend time with you while you are away from home. This provides that opportunity.

We are also arranging onsite childcare this year. It will be available to attendees regardless of whether or not they present. At this stage, we are asking those who make presentation proposals to indicate if they would like to use this service or not so we can get a rough idea of potential numbers. More details here:https://jalt.org/conference/jalt2020/information-families

The call for presentation proposals will be open until February 24th. Details here: https://jalt.org/conference/call-proposals

The call for papers is now open for the 11th Shikoku JALT Conference to be held at Tokushima University on Saturday, June 20th, 2020. The Conference will be co-sponsored by East Shikoku JALT, Matsuyama JALT and Oxford University Press. 

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

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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