Sendai Chapter

(Read the archived description for the Sendai Chapter)

Sendai Chapter Events in 2006

Events archive by year:
2008 [10]; 2007 [11]; 2006; 2005 [11]; 2004 [11]; 2003 [8]; 2002 [9]; 2001 [8];

Sunday, January 29th, 2006

Sensory Experience - reexperienced

Speaker: Various presenters
Time: 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM (Sun., January 29th, 2006)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Miyagi
City: Sendai
Venue: Sendai Mediatheque map
Description: Last May, 80 people plus 20 staff took part in a fascinating "Sensory English Experience." At today's meeting, we'll see the DVD recorded of this event, plus engage in a variety of sensory exploration experiences.

Saturday, February 11th, 2006

Submodalities of the Senses

Speaker: Dr Charles Adamson
Time: 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM (Sat., February 11th, 2006)
Fee (JALT members): 10,000 yen (two days); 5,000 yen (one day)
Fee (One-Day members): 12,000 yen (two days); 6,000 yen (one day)

Non-members coming in pairs pay Member Price
Prefecture: Miyagi
City: Sendai
Venue: Sendai Gaiko Gakuin, Itsutsubashi 2-1-13
Description: PLEASE NOTE: This is a TWO DAY event, February 11 AND 12!

The Submodalities of the Senses NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) workshop will be just the thing for you to discover how to use your senses. During two days you will investigate three of the senses (vision, hearing, motion/emotion) in great detail. You will learn how the mind uses the various sub-features to process meaning. For example, you will learn how you represent confusion and understanding and then how to change that confusion into understanding. In those two days you will learn many such processes, ones that you can take home and use. You will learn to motivate yourself at anytime, change your mood, change how you feel about things, alter your likes and dislikes, improve your English fluency and increase your efficiency when you study.

Perfect for students, teachers, or those interested in personal improvment.

For further information, email: sensorysendai@yahoo.com

Sunday, March 26th, 2006

Discussion: Issues in Language Teaching

Speaker: Various Presenters
Time: 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM (Sun., March 26th, 2006)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Miyagi
City: Sendai
Venue: Sendai Mediatheque map
Description: Details to be announced

Sunday, April 23rd, 2006

A lesson in Chinese (and Discussion)

Speaker: Jacky Young and Tom Warren-Price (Ikuei Gakuen High School)
Time: 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM (Sun., April 23rd, 2006)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Miyagi
City: Sendai
Venue: Aoba-ku Chuo Shimin Center (formerly called "Ichiban-cho Shimin Center") 2-1-4 Ichiban-cho, Aoba-ku, Sendai-shi, 980-0811
Description: Learning interactive beginner Chinese the teacher-led way. Also some cultural considerations and a recipe for Jacky's delicious home-made Chinese dumplings. Followed by a discussion on assessing the benefits/costs of the teacher-led Chinese language lesson and how it can affect the way we ourselves feel as the recipients of language teaching.

Saturday, May 27th, 2006

Learner Psychology and Motivation. A two-day workshop.

Speaker: Curtis Kelly
Time: 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM (Sat., May 27th, 2006)
Fee (JALT members): please see details above
Fee (One-Day members): 1000 yen (student non-members first time = free, then 500 yen thereafter)
Prefecture: Miyagi
City: Sendai
Venue: AER Building, 28th floor, kensyuusitu 2 map
Description: Date:

Saturday May 27th and Sunday May 28th

The May meeting will be divided into THREE sessions.

Sessions one and two will take place in Lala Green Green Resort Hotel in Sakunami, Sendai.

Session three will take place In AER in Sendai city centre.

Please Note:

Due to the fact that Curtis has to catch a plane back to Osaka early Sunday evening, the officers have decided to move the Sunday afternoon session to AER and shorten his presentation to 2.5 hours. We would like to apologize for any inconvenience this change of plans may have caused.

Final call: if you want to stay overnight, please reply to this e-mail before May 12 indicating interest. Booking will depend on room availability.

Locations and times:

Session 1: (Saturday May 27th) 2-5 pm - Lala Green Green Resort Hotel, Sakunami

Session 2: (Sunday May 28th) 9-11:30 am - Lala Green Green Resort Hotel, Sakunami.

For hotel access and other information, go here: http://www.outdoorjapan.com/accommodation/accommodation-lala-green-green.html

Shuttle bus leaving from Sendai Station to hotel at 11:30am

Meet at Stained Glass window in Sendai Station at 11:10am

Session 3: (Sunday May 28th) 2-4:30pm - AER Building, 28th floor, kensyuusitu 2

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Sessions one and two, taking place at Lala Green Green Resort Hotel, Sakunami will consist of the two topics detailed below:

Session three, taking place in AER in Sendai city centre, will be a potted version of the Saturday PM/Sunday AM sessions.

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Admission:

Sessions one and two: Overnight Price: 11,700 (includes dinner and breakfast)

Session three: Non-members-1000 Yen; student non-members-FREE for their first attendance, then 500 yen thereafter.

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Topic 1 - The Psychology of Difficult Students

Every college teacher must face students who are bored, indifferent, and even hostile. While there are no simple solutions for dealing with such students, four theories in psychology related to motivation, moral development, and learning provide fascinating insights. The presenter will also explain how our pedagogy is based on the industrial model, and how humanistic techniques can dismantle the "wall of fear."

Topic 2 - Stories for the Heart

Stories are magic. If you have ever told one in the classroom, then you know their power. They are more comprehensible than any other format, and they touch the learners' hearts. As one college student wrote: "The story makes me grow up every time." But 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.

Biodata

Curtis Kelly, a 25-year resident of Japan, is the author of Significant Scribbles, Basics in Writing, The Snoop Detective Conversation Book, and the Writing from Within series. He is a professor of English at Osaka Gakuin University and has a doctorate in adult education. He recently finished a Ministry of Education research project on using e-learning to train Japanese elementary school English teachers. Because of his specialties - teaching English writing, Adult Education, teaching children English, and storytelling - he often presents in Japan, Korea and Taiwan. He has been a featured speaker at the International JALT conference and has been in invited speaker on the JALT 4-corners and ETJ teacher development tours.

Note:

There was an article on May's presenter, Curtis Kelly, in Friday April 28th's edition of The Daily Yomiuri - page 19, in which he explained about ways of meeting the needs of today's English students in Japanese schools.-

The article is available online at

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/language/20060428TDY19001.htm

As the May meeting will also include dealing with and meeting student needs, this article should be of great interest to all.

Sunday, June 18th, 2006

Text exploitation workshop:Moving from accuracy to fluency

Speaker: Gerry Lassche
Time: 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM (Sun., June 18th, 2006)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1000 yen; student non-members-FREE for their first attendance, then 500 yen thereafter.
Prefecture: Miyagi
City: Sendai
Venue: Asahigaoka Shimin Center, Meeting room 3 (easily accessible from Asahigaoka subway station)
Description: Current high school classroom conditions tend to prepare students for testing and university entrance exams, which creates conflicts with current communicative pedagogical practices. A more pedagogically sound rationale for extending fluency-based reading comprehension is provided in this workshop.

This rationale focuses on exploiting texts more deeply, beyond accuracy-based comprehension modes. It includes 4 parts:

1. looking at texts according to length of discourse;

2. categories of information as perceived by the text-maker and text-user, as well as from the text as a stand-alone product;

3. learner strategy development, for developing textual production;

4. and an evaluative phase of all the choices outlined.

In this workshop, participants will have a go hands-on with this rationale to exploit an example text, thus creating options which can serve as points of departure for material design. The handout used in the workshop is provided on this website. A journal article based on this rationale will be provided to participants as well.

Sunday, July 30th, 2006

Primary School Ryugaku: The debate

Speaker: For: Annamaree Sugai, Tohoku Gakuin University, John Wiltshier, Miyagi University

Against: Christopher Cuadra, Shokei Gakuin College, Elaine Gilmour, Miyagi Gakuin University
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., July 30th, 2006)
Fee (JALT members): JALT members Free, ETJ members 500 yen
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Miyagi
City: Sendai
Venue: Sendai AER Building (just north of Sendai Station) 28F, Dai 2 kensyuusitu
Description: The meeting will have 3 parts:

1. A presentation of a case study: 2:00-2:45

2. A punchy and lively debate: 3:00-3:40

3. A panel discussion with questions / comments from the audience: 3:50-4:30

In the initial presentation John will present details of a case study he undertook last year of 2 children who were taken out of Japanese primary school for a year to attend primary school in the UK specifically to improve their English ability. Evidence from tests, children's work and interviews taken with the children, teachers and parents to support findings will be presented. The presentation will also include psychological, social and logistical issues; specifically how to gauge the proper emotional, psychological, and social environment to support your children and the costs involved in such a project. A lively debate of the above motion will follow. In addition to debating the motion this part of the meeting will provide an opportunity for Japanese high school / university students / teachers to witness a native speaker debate. An accompanying 'how to debate'worksheet will be given to all participants. The debate is sure to bring up issues such as: the danger of having young children learn a second language, and how to maintain a child's language ability. Finally, there will be a panel discussion which allows the audience to air their own views and ask the speakers questions.

We look forward to welcoming as many teachers, parents and students as possible.

A web-site has been made to support this debate. From it you can download and view a number of resources which will enrich your experience of the event, or simply provide some food for thought for anyone considering Ryuugaku or even debating!

http://www.geocities.com/jaltsendai/ryuugaku/

Bio-data:

John Wiltshier has been a teacher for 17 years, 11 of which were in Japan. Last year John was invited by Columbia University to hold a teacher training workshop and this year he will be a speaker on the ETJ Teacher Training Tour to be held at various venues around Japan. John has also presented internationally at IATEFL UK and TESOL in U.S. His main research areas are teaching methodology and language acquisition especially related to young learners. John was the original founder of ETJ Sendai and is currently working as an Associate Professor at Miyagi University.

Elaine Gilmour has an MSc in Applied Linguistics from Edinburgh University and has been teaching in Japan at universities for the past 17 years. She has many years experience in setting up and co-coordinating study abroad tours for university students. She has been involved in a variety of research projects, most notably looking at how children learn languages/ raising bilingual children, and language, culture and learning. Her other enduring interests are language testing and developing CALL programs. She regularly presents at conferences in Japan and overseas, and is currently preparing for her PhD. Elaine is Associate Professor at Miyagi Gakuin Women's University.

Chris Cuadra is Associate Professor at Shokei College and has been teaching in Sendai for 15 years. His relevant experience ranges from teaching children who have lived abroad to acting as liaison between college students and language schools on short-term study abroad programs to the UK. Chris has an MA in Linguistics from the University of Surrey and his main research interests are in Sociolinguistics and Bilingualism.

Annamaree Sugai has been teaching in Japan for 16 years ; seven years at University level. Her masters degree is in TEFL from Reading University in the U.K and her research interests are in Intercultural communication, Vocabulary acquisition and Needs analysis. She has had papers published in each of these fields. She has also done several presentations including for JALT and the Sendai Kokoro Poetry Society. Annamaree's voice is recorded on several English learning CD's. She is currently teaching at Tohoku Gakuin University and working on her next publication relating to how language can be studied in a target language through the medium of poetry.

Sunday, August 27th, 2006

Double-feature!

1- Discussion - English Imperialism

2- Discussion - "Why Taku and Hana Can't Learn English"

Speaker: Discussion 1- Tomoko Fujinami Izumi High School

Discussion 2- Anthony Crooks, Associate Professor at Miyagi University of Education
Time: 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM (Sun., August 27th, 2006)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Miyagi
City: Sendai
Venue: Sendai Mediatheque map
Description: Discussion 1 -

This session will present the problems and consequences that result from the adoption of English as the medium in international communication. We will look at how mythology of global English is working through school system. Critical education should be introduced so that students are made aware of the relationship between language and power in the world.

Discussion 2-

Anthony Crooks will lead a discussion based on Mike Guests article 'Japan's struggle with English - Why?' from his 'Indirectly Speaking' column in the Daily Yomiuri. The article proposes "eight reasons for this phenomenon" including "A cultural propensity toward reticence" and "The lack of a real need for English." These - and other - factors will be discussed in regards to Guest's beliefs that a greater understanding of such issues will "allow teachers to reassess or temper their methods and thereby help learners adopt more beneficial approaches." We will also raise the question of whether there is a basis to Guest's original contention, i.e. that there is a major problem with English education in Japan. Please be willing to be involved in what we hope to be an active and interesting discussion!

Anthony Crooks is Associate Professor at Miyagi University of Education. His interests lie in Teacher Education, Native Speaker English teacher professional identity, World Englishes, and Sociopolitical issues in ELT.

Sunday, September 24th, 2006

Effective Presentations

Speaker: Kay Hammond
Time: 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM (Sun., September 24th, 2006)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Miyagi
City: Sendai
Venue: Sendai Mediatheque map
Description: Come and enjoy this JALT-award-winning presentation! This session covers the core skills required to make an effective presentation in a variety of situations. Participants will have the opportunity to practice learning and evaluating, and then teaching these skills in the workshop. The focus will be on developing an effective personal presentation style without hiding behind fancy visuals. Furthermore, participants will learn to develop their own presentations skills syllabus and avoid the common difficulties in setting up such a course. People who have to teach presentation skills or use them in their own work will find this workshop useful.

Kay Hammond PhD teaches at International ChristianUniversity in Tokyo. She has participated in speech contests as a judge and contestant. She has taught presentation skills in a variety of contexts.

Sunday, October 29th, 2006

(1) BULATS test trials & (2) Cambridge ESOL exams

Speaker: (1) Elaine Gilmour & (2) Martin Nuttall
Time: 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM (Sun., October 29th, 2006)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Miyagi
City: Sendai
Venue: AER Building, 28th floor, kensyuusitu 2 map
Description: Double Feature!

(1) We'll examine the results of BULATS exam trails, and consider students' motivations and achievements. Samples of test items and a syllabus for teaching BULATS preparation will be provided. Check BULATS out in English:

www.BULATS.org

or Japanese:

http://www.eiken.or.jp/bulats/index.html

(2) All about the range of Cambridge ESOL exams currently offered for language learners. If you want to know how your (or your students') English communication skills shape up, why not come and find out? More information on the Cambridge exams can be found at the following URL:

http://www.cambridgeesol.org/exams/

Sunday, November 12th, 2006

Tohoku Book EXPO

Speaker: Various
Time: 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM (Sun., November 12th, 2006)
Fee (JALT members): 1000 yen
Fee (One-Day members): 500 yen
Prefecture: Miyagi
City: Sendai
Venue: Forest Sendai (http://www.f-sendai.jp/)
Description: (more Expo info at http://www.eltnews.com/ETJ/events/expos.shtml)
There will be presentations and displays of materials for college teachers, high school teachers. elementary school teachers, kindergarten teachers. In fact, the aim is to provide top-class presentations and material displays for every kind of English teacher.

Sunday, December 17th, 2006

JALT Reports and Bonnenkai

Speaker: TBA
Time: 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM (Sun., December 17th, 2006)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Miyagi
City: Sendai
Venue: Sendai Mediatheque map
Description: Details to follow...

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