Kobe Chapter

(Read the archived description for the Kobe Chapter)

Kobe Chapter Events in 2002

Events archive by year:
2008 [7]; 2007 [6]; 2006 [10]; 2005 [7]; 2004 [6]; 2003 [7]; 2002; 2001 [8];

Sunday, February 17th, 2002

The Intergration of English Language Education within Mainstream University Discipline-Area Study in Japan: A Case Study of 'Shimada' University and The Sociology Department

Speaker: Prof. Alan Brady, PhD, Kwansei Gakuin University
Time: 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., February 17th, 2002)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 500 yen (for both of today's presentations)
Prefecture: Hyogo
City: Kobe
Venue: Kobe YMCA 4F LETS (between JR Sannomiya and JR Shin-Kobe)
Description: There will be two presentations today.
The intention of this study is to help those people involved in the teaching and research of ELE (English Language Education) at university in Japan to more clearly understand and value what is important to them regarding higher education ELE. The absence of integrated and interdisciplinary structures on the one hand, and a clear and consistent learning mission on the other hand may be the case with higher education ELE at certain institutions in Japan. The study is undertaken from the standpoint of one person who looks for possible solutions to problems of action within the environment in which he works.

Developing Fluency: Practical Suggestions for Modifying Discussion Activities

Speaker: William Lawrenz, Osaka Jyogakuin Junior College
Time: 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., February 17th, 2002)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 500 yen (for both of today's presentations)
Prefecture: Hyogo
City: Kobe
Venue: Kobe YMCA 4F LETS (between JR Sannomiya and JR Shin-Kobe)
Description: There will be two presentations today.
Discussion classes at Osaka Jyogakuin Junior College provide an excellent opportunity for students to expand their English speaking skills using a variety of new and challenging topics. Most TESOL teachers would agree that the first step toward developing greater fluency begins with practice. Repetition or recycling of material during class sessions is a key factor in helping students become familair with any new language items being presented. But how can instructors keep learner interest and motivation high while at the same time providing the necessary repetitions? This presentation explores practical techniques that can be applied to almost any lesson material to add variety, thus meeting the need for practice while keeping atudents actively engaged and interested.

Sunday, April 28th, 2002

Miniconference: English Language Teaching in Secondary Education

Speaker: Seven speakers (details below)
Time: 1:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., April 28th, 2002)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Hyogo
City: Kobe
Venue: Kobe YMCA Sannomiya (between JR Sannomiya and JR Shin-Kobe)
Description:

Making an Effective Presentation Skills Program
Robert Mahon
This mini-conference presentation explains how to prioritize an effective presentation skills course, and how to make modifications of methodological goals and strategies depending on students' level of language proficiency. Presentation skills for review include the following: speaking skills, organization of text, "Three-Step Method", using of power Point, and audience involvement. Adaptation to particular conditions of diverse educational institutions will also be considered.
Bridging the Gap between the Classroom & the Real World
Paul Rosengrave
How can we make our classes feel real & relevant to our students? A key to successful learning lies in the use of content-rich, high-interest, task-based activities. We will be looking at how various Longman ELT speaking and listening courses build communicative competence, motivate learners, and bridge the gap between the classrooms & the real world. Ideas & activities will be aimed at teenage & young-adult classroom situations.
A Comparative Study of English Textbooks Used in Japan, Korea and Taiwan focusing on Fifth and Sixth Grades
Yoko Honda
This presentation examines the language content, the points in common and the level of English in English programs taught at elementary schools in Japan, Korea and Taiwan. It also compares the teaching materials (textbooks in particular) used. The first section compares the total number of words in the textbooks used by the three areas, the second section looks at parts of speech, the third section compares word categories, the fourth section investigates sentence patterns and the final section explores sentences which contain the verbs "like", "have" and "want".
Adapting Textbook Activities for Speaking Practice
Rebecca Arthur
Although many English textbooks provide a variety of speaking practice activities, their one-size-fits-all approach often results in activities do not meet the needs of the students. Fortunately, many textbook activities can be easily adapted on the spot to provide students with more appropriate speaking activies. In this workshop a variety of ways to adapt textbook activities so they are more suitable will be presented and practiced. These adaptations can be done with almost no preparation. Although based on activities for false beginners, these adaptations are suitable for almost any level.
English Communicative Competence for Senior High School Students - Issues and Suggestions
Yoshiro Kamitani
In this presentation, research on whether the National Center of English effectively measures English communicative competence will be briefly presented. This will be followed briefly by reaseach on English oral communication texbooks. Finally, based on some of the issues that are raised, some suggestions will be proposed for helping students develop communicative competence more effectively.
Classroom Management in Language Classrooms
Keiko Sakui
Classroom management is a neglected area of research in language teaching. The need to understand classroom management is urgent especially in contemporary Japanese classrooms. This presentation is a partial report of an ethnographic study on teacher beliefs and practices of classroom management carried out in Japanese high and junior high school English classrooms. The porpose of this longitudinal study is whether/what types of management problems ocuur in language classrooms and how teachers address these problems. The data for this study are teacher interviews and classroom observations over one academic year.
Programs for Cross-cultural Understanding in Kobe Municipal Fukiai High School
Atsushi Masumi
This presentation is a brief introduction and explanation of the English classes in the international course at Kobe Municipal Fukiai High School. What has been going on in the classes, TV conferences, topic studies in the LL classes, and the cultural exchange programs will be introduced and explained. Problems will also be discussed.

Sunday, June 23rd, 2002

Teacher Education: 6 Workshops

Speaker: Gerald Williams, Daniel T. Kirk, Judith Johnson, Stuart Ruttan, Paula Corozzi, Jan Visscher, Joshua Kurzweil and Brian Long
Time: 1:00 PM - 4:45 PM (Sun., June 23rd, 2002)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Hyogo
City: Kobe
Venue: Kobe YMCA 4F LETS (between JR Sannomiya and JR Shin-Kobe)
Description:

Curriculum Design: Maintaining standards among teachers (Gerald Williams) The focus of the presentation would be factors in introducing a single syllabus to a variety of teachers. This presentation will draw on the ongoing experience of standardizing the curriculum at a mid to low level private university.
Teacher Interaction in a Teacher Development Seminar (Daniel T. Kirk) The objectives of the Yokkaichi Teacher Development Initiative are to help teachers in three development ares: language learning, language teaching and computer literacy.
Teacher Education and Kokoro no Kyoiku (Judith Johnson) A type of Moral Education focuses on developing to (a) identify problems and find creative solutions, (b) possess the will to appreciate different cultures, (c) strive for excellence and (d) comprehend unity. These should be integrated into Teacher Education.
Reflective and Reflexive Practices for Teacher Development (Stuart Rattan) Reflective practices are presented as both purposeful and specific work-related reflection activities. The notion of reflexivity is presented as a more critical aspect of one's development as a reflective teacher.
Observation and Feedback in Teacher Training (Paula Corozzi and Jan Visscher) Both a top-down approach, looking at general principles of language learning and teaching, and a bottom-up approach to achieve optimal implementation of these principles, are employed. In this workshop, the presenters will show excerpts from a video-recored lesson, after which participants take on the parts of teacher and observers!
Teaching and Learning Experientially (Joshua Kurzweil and Brian Long) In this workshop, the presenters will explore the relationship between experiential learning and teacher training. Participants will be invited to compare the cycle of experiential learning with other frameworks commonly used in teacher training courses.

Sunday, July 14th, 2002

Storytelling in Language Teaching

Speaker: Charles Kowalski
Time: 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., July 14th, 2002)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 500 yen
Prefecture: Hyogo
City: Kobe
Venue: Kobe YMCA Chapel (between JR Sannomiya and JR Shin-Kobe)
Description: Storytelling is as much a part of life as language itself and a good story has the power to awaken the imagination and express our deepest thoughts and feelings. This workshop is for language teachers interested in bringing the power of storytelling into their classrooms. The first part of the workshop will discuss the benefits that storytelling can bring to a language class. The second part will present several story-based classroom activities for use with all language leaners from beginning to advanced levels. The participants in previous workshops have described the experience as very inspiring and very informative.

Sunday, September 29th, 2002

Process and Thought: Two Articles that have Shaped EFL Writing Instruction, and Stories for the Heart

Speaker: Curtis Kelly, Heian Women's University
Time: 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., September 29th, 2002)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 500 yen (for both of today's presentations)
Prefecture: Hyogo
City: Kobe
Venue: Kobe YMCA 4F LETS (between JR Sannomiya and JR Shin-Kobe)
Description: There will be two presentations today, both by Curtis Kelly, Heian Women's University.

Process and Thought: Two Articles that have Shaped EFL Writing Instruction:
Two paradigm-shaping articles have shaped the field of EFL writing instruction. One article introduced the concept of process, while the other defined contrastive rhetoric. Curtis Kelly will discuss the fascinating theories these articles have spawned, discuss how English and Japanese are organized differently, and give suggestions for how to teach organizations in class.
Stories for the Heart:
Stories are magic.They are more comprehensive than any other format, and they touch the learners' hearts. To understand the secret of their power we have to examine how our brains have evolved and the theory from psychology of "moral development." The presenter will discuss these theories and give you five heart-warming stories to try out in your own college or high school English classes.

Saturday, November 16th, 2002

Boinguage (What is it? Attend and discover.)

Speaker: John F. Fanselow
Time: 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM (Sat., November 16th, 2002)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1000 yen (for both of today's presentations)
Prefecture: Hyogo
City: Kobe
Venue: Kobe YMCA Chapel (between JR Sannomiya and JR Shin-Kobe)
Description: Dr. Fanselow will present a workshop on boinguage. What is "boinguage"? During the workshop, teachers will learn "boinguage" and learn ways that knowing it will help them improve their listening skills and the listening skills of their students. Please see how helpful it can be in the learning and teaching of the English Language. Please note that this presentation will be followed by a presentation by Jane Willis of Aston University.

Cat's Feat: From Practice to Principle in Task Design and Task-based Learning

Speaker: Dr. Jane Willis, Aston University
Time: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM (Sat., November 16th, 2002)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1000 yen (for both of today's presentations)
Prefecture: Hyogo
City: Kobe
Venue: Kobe YMCA Chapel (between JR Sannomiya and JR Shin-Kobe)
Description: Willis will show how a series of communication tasks can be generated from one theme and demonstrate their use in class. She will illustrate activities which provide a focus on vocabulary, lexical phrases and grammar within the context of the task, and then summarise the principles and learning theories that support task-based learning(TBL). About the speaker: Dr. Jane Willis is one of the Main Speakers at the JALT 2002 National Conference. She worked as a language teacher and trainer in Africa, the Middle East and South East Asia before joining Aston University in the UK. Please note that this presentation will follow an earlier presentation by John F. Fanselow.

Sunday, December 8th, 2002

Potpourri Meeting (three presentations)

Speaker: Matsumoto Toyoko, Hirouchi Hiroko and Michael Skelton
Time: 1:30 PM - 4:00 PM (Sun., December 8th, 2002)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 500 yen
Prefecture: Hyogo
City: Kobe
Venue: Kobe YMCA Chapel (between JR Sannomiya and JR Shin-Kobe)
Description: This special afternoon features three talks by three presenters.

Double Object Construction and the Verb.
Matsumoto Toyoko, Graduate student of Kobe City University of Foreign Studies.
We can teach learners as follows: The sentence, "He told me a story." is correct but we can not say, "He said me hello." If our students ask us why, how can we explain it? There seems to be no clear rule on the realtionship between verbs and sentence stuructures. There are, however, some studies on this relationship. During this talk, Matsumoto will refer to this studies.
Differences in Responses to Japanese & Australian Indirect Complaints.
Hirouchi Hiroko, Sonoda Gakuin Women's University.
Multiple Intelligences and the Language Teacher.
Michael Skelton, Seiwa University.
In the early 1980s Howard Gardner challenged the idea that intelligence is a fixed, unitary concept and proposed that we are intelligent in different ways. According to Gardner's theory we have at least eight intelligences varying in strength within each individual to make up his/her unique intelligence profile. Among the educational implications of this theory are that we all learn in different ways (and, if teachers, we tend to teach in a way that reflects our preferred intelligence). This presentation will offer a brief overview of multiple intelligence theory and then invite participants to investigate their own teaching style in the light of the theory.

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