Building on the success of last year’s family-inclusive My Share Maikawa Mountain Retreat, we are planning another East Shikoku JALT autumn retreat in the same location on the weekend of October 24th.

At this year’s event, we will gather to share stories about raising bilingual/bicultural children. What language choices and parenting strategies do parents of so-called ‘hafu’ children make? What are the issues, concerns, and challenges of parents of such children? What language and cultural issues do our ‘hafu’ children face? What educational opportunities are available to bilingual kids in rural areas like ours with no access to international schools? What can we learn from each other as language teachers and parents? How do Japanese parents nurture or maintain bilingualism in their families? What are the language/cultural hurdles when both parents are non-Japanese? And there are broader questions to consider as well, such as what it really means to be bilingual or bicultural, and what to make of labels like ‘hafu’.

There is exceptional variation and richness of experience in the way parents deal with these and other questions about raising bilingual/bicultural children. Coming together in a relaxed, natural environment like Maikawa to share our successes (and failures) will offer us the chance to learn from each other.

Anyone who would like to share their story, or come and hear the stories of others, is most welcome to attend.

If you want to share your story, we ask that you contact us by Friday, October 9th. No title or details are necessary, just an expression of interest to contribute by sharing your story. We are planning a relaxed round table format, depending on the number of people who wish to share stories. In keeping with our informal aims for this event, we will not use a presentation-driven format.

Additional information: Continue reading →

Speaker: Terry Laskowski

Date &Time: Saturday, 26 September 2015 – 6:30pm – 8:00pm

Abstract: What makes teachers professionals? One way to approach this question is to look at Shulman’s (1986) seminal article on teacher knowledge, in which he divided it into two areas: subject matter knowledge (what to teach), and pedagogical knowledge (how to teach it). In this talk, we will look at the value of professional knowledge informed by professional theories of teaching as a means to nourish the teacher’s pedagogical knowledge. Through ongoing development of professional knowledge, manifested in professional discourse, teachers are able to rename experiences and reconstruct practice so that they can form conceptualizations of their teaching to better inform practice, which hopefully can lead to teacher change as well. Practical examples of putting theory into practice and the professional discourse to describe why the teacher does what he or she does will be presented.

Location: Kochi University, Room TBA

Fees: free for JALT members & 1,000 yen for one-day members.

Speaker: Nobuo Tsuda, professor at Konan University’s Institute of Language and Culture. Professor Tsuda is also an ETS authorized Propell facilitator. Day & Time: Sat 11 Jul, 14:00 – 16:00 Location: Tokushima University, Josanjima Campus Continue reading →

The 6th Annual Shikoku JALT Conference will be held at Tokushima University in Tokushima on Saturday, June 13th, 2015. The Conference will be co-sponsored by East Shikoku JALT, Matsuyama JALT, and Oxford University Press.

Conference Program & Map

Date, time & location

• Saturday, June 13th, 1:00-5:30 (time may change slightly for scheduling purposes)
• Tokushima University, Integrated Arts & Sciences Building 1, rooms 302-303 , Josanjima Campus

Keynote address

• Speaker: Neil Cowie, Okayama University
• Title: Language Teaching, Digital Technology and Assessment

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• Location:  English Cafe, Olive Square, Kagawa University.
• Date:  Sunday, December 14th.
• Time:  15:30-17:30

Date: November 1st, 2014
Time: 12:00 noon for lunch. Sessions will begin at 13:00.
Location: Maikawa, Konan, Kochi, in the old schoolhouse. Maikawa pin here: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zYyGqNZwwKEU.k7g4WthvKefg

Speakers:

• Gerard Marchesseau, Integrating meaning with form to practice pronunciation
• Maiko Ogasawara, Making Audience-friendly 
• Paul Daniels, Implementing an ESP Project-based learning curriculum
• Michael Sharpe, Science Challenge – a novel language-learning project
• Von Holt, Language learning activities for children
• Takahiro Ioroi, Using a Flip Instruction Model in Japan

Abstracts Continue reading →

• Date: Saturday July 26th, 3:00 – 5:00
• Speaker: Dr. Najma Janjua
• Location: Kagawa University, Takamatsu (Olive Square, English Cafe).

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Co-sponsored by East Shikoku JALT, Matsuyama JALT, and Oxford University Press.

Keynote & featured speakers:
Keynote address: Rob Waring – Notre Dame Seishin University OUP Featured Speaker: Sakae Onoda – Kanda University of Foreign Studies

Day, Time & Location: Saturday, May 10th (1:00 – 5:00), Ehime University, Matsuyama

Download PDF: 5th Annual Shikoku JALT Conference Program

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We are very pleased to welcome Keita Kikuchi who is a leading scholar in the study of demotivation in L2 learning. He has published a number of important empirical studies on demotivation among Japanese learners of English (e.g. Kikuchi 2009, Listening to our learners’ voices: What demotivates Japanese high school students? Language Teaching Research 13(4). Sakai and Kikuchi 2009, An analysis of demotivators in the EFL classroom. System 37).

Bio:
Keita Kikuchi is an Associate Professor at Kanagawa University, Japan. He holds an Ed.D. in TESOL from Temple University, Japan, and an MA in ESL from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. His research interests include curriculum development and second language acquisition, especially individual differences.

Description of talk:
In my talk, I will introduce the idea of researching demotivation in English language learning contexts and present findings of studies conducted mainly in Japan. Then, I will discuss the future direction of demotivation studies.

In order to facilitate a fruitful discussion on this topic, I will use examples from my own studies (Kikuchi, 2009; Kikuchi and Sakai, 2009; Sakai and Kikuchi, 2009). By the end of the talk, I hope to have demonstrated that demotivators may vary in different situations. Finally, I would like to encourage a reflective group discussion regarding the variety of demotivators within ELT and within the audience’s own teaching contexts.

Date: December 14, 2013
Time: 5 – 7 PM  (followed by dinner).
Location: University of Kochi (Kochi Women’s University) LL room.
*** This event will be followed by our annual end of the year party. ***

Speakers: Dr. Senath Walter Perera and Dr. Carol Leon
Please join Dr. Walter Perera from Sri Lanka and Dr. Carol Leon from Malaysia for a discussion of issues that student-writers face in their respective multi-lingual outer circle contexts.
Date: Saturday, November 9
Time: 10:00 – 11:00
Place: Kochi University, Humanities Bldg, 5F, Enshu Room 1
Speaker profiles:
Dr. Senath Walter Perera is Senior Professor of English at the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka. He specializes in Sri Lankan writing in English with a focus on the Sri Lankan novel of expatriation. Perera also serves on the Gratiaen Trust which administers the Gratiaen Prize instituted by Michael Ondaatje to promote English creative writing in Sri Lanka. He has been Editor of The Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities since 1996 and was recently awarded the Trinity College Kandy Prize for his contribution to Education.
Dr. Carol Leon is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Malaya. Her areas of expertise include post colonial literature, travel literature, and Malaysian children’s literature.