West Tokyo Chapter

(Read the archived description for the West Tokyo Chapter)

West Tokyo Chapter Events in 2007

Events archive by year:
2008 [3]; 2007; 2006 [5]; 2005 [6]; 2004 [5]; 2003 [7]; 2002 [6]; 2001 [5];

Saturday, March 31st, 2007

Micro-Conference #4: CALL: Get in the mood for Moodle!

Speaker: Jason La Greca, Kevin Ryan, Peter Ruthven-Stuart, Ted O'Neill
Time: 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM (Sat., March 31st, 2007)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 2000 yen
Prefecture: Tokyo
City: Tokyo
Venue: Tokyo Keizai University (near Kokubunji Station on the JR Chuo). Map: http://www.tku.ac.jp/ ~koho/english/campus/access.html. Bldg. 3, LL2 (on the 2nd floor)
Description: The West Tokyo Chapter of JALT announces the fourth in a series of micro-conferences, each featuring several presenters exploring a particular topic for a whole day. This month's theme is: all aspects of Moodle.

Friday, July 27th, 2007

Astonishing Research: Opportunities, Discovery and Results

Speaker: Andy Boon, Simon Stevens, and Dr. Urszula Clark
Time: 5:45 PM - 9:00 PM (Fri., July 27th, 2007)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): free
Prefecture: Tokyo
City: Tokyo
Venue: British Council, Tokyo. Map: http://www.britishcouncil.org/japan-about-us-tokyo-centre-contact-details.htm
Description: Professional development for EFL teachers: Aston University in collaboration with the JALT West Tokyo Chapter, the British Council, and Oxford University Press invites you to an evening of presentations exploring the topics of research, writing and distance learning.

17.45-18.00: Doors open

18.00-18.45: Distance learner support and discovery using IMCD

Andy Boon (Toyo Gakuen University)

Andy Boon will describe Instant Messenger Cooperative Development (IMCD) (Boon, 2005), an online tool which utilizes the MSN Instant Messenger service and Julian Edge's (1992, 2002) Cooperative Development discourse framework for professional development; he will then explain how ELT professionals use IMCD to interact together in a mutually-supportive and non judgmental way so as to gain new understandings about their current thinking and research.

19.00-19.45: Writing a dissertation

Simon Stevens (British Council)

In many MA programmes, students receive only some general guidelines on academic writing and little or no explicit teaching on this vital skill. Simon Stevens will give a practical account of the ins and outs of writing a dissertation and what he himself learned from the endeavour � with a view to supporting anyone currently writing, or planning to write a dissertation, or anyone interested in the research writing process in general.

20.00-20.45: New technologies and distance learning

Dr. Urszula Clark (Aston University, UK)

In recent years there have been tremendous changes in the methods and technologies for distance learning - for example, the use of email, VLEs, electronic databases of books and journals, and corpora. Dr. Urszula Clark will explore these, focusing particularly on the Aston Corpus Network (ACORN) project, and will relate them to the learning experiences of present-day students.

20.45-21.00: Closing remarks

To pre-register for the event, please email:Andy Boon (bromleycross@hotmail.com)

Sunday, September 30th, 2007

Exploring EFL Presentation Skills

Speaker: Keiji Nomura, Tim Knight, Peter Ross, Simon Stevens, Naho Hashimoto, and Andy Boon
Time: 10:00 AM - 5:45 PM (Sun., September 30th, 2007)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Tokyo
City: Kokubunji-shi
Venue: Tokyo Keizai University, Daiichi Kenkyuu Center, Room 1310
Description: JALT West Tokyo Chapter announce the fifth in our series of micro-conferences, each featuring several presenters exploring a particular topic for a whole day. September's theme is all about Exploring Presentation Skills.

10:15-11:00 Keiji Nomura (Tokyo Keizai University)

Teaching English Presentation Classes from a Speech Communication Perspective

One of the most important objectives for Japanese college students learning English is to improve their communicative skills. Based on this idea, Tokyo Keizai University requires all freshmen to take a course in English Presentation Skills. As the coordinator of this course, the presenter will discuss the instructional objectives of the program and instructional assessment procedures. He will also show samples of actual student presentations, and discuss successful learning activities including instruction in the theory and practice of audience analysis, rhetoric, message construction, verbal and nonverbal expressions, and evaluating peers' presentations.

11:15-12:00 Tim Knight (Shirayuri College)

Poster presentations from topic statements: a stimulating and engaging course for college students

The presenter will outline a 9 week poster presentations project which he has used successfully with middle level students at several universities. Merging and refining ideas from two other projects, the presenter developed a 4-skills presentation course that is easy to run, requires hardly any photocopying or difficult administration, but which has proved to be popular, engaging and satisfying for students. It requires them to choose their own topic, to conduct interviews, discussions and research, to design a poster and to make a presentation �Eseveral times. The presenter will describe the course in detail and provide examples of students'work.

12.00-13.00 Lunch

13.00-13.45 Peter Ross (Tokyo Keizai University)

Presentations for LLEP university students

Asking university students to give in-class presentations can be an excellent way to stimulate enthusiasm and generate meaningful discussion, leaving students with a feeling of success and accomplishment. However, asking students at a low level of English proficiency to present on topics that are too hard for them can accomplish just the opposite, leading to frustration for all concerned--the audience, the teacher, and the presenters themselves. One solution is to steer LLEP students away from research-based presentations in favor of simple, non-academic topics, asking presenters to draw information from their own experience, expertise and imagination. Participants in this workshop will construct a sample non-academic presentation, and view videos of successful student performance.

14.00-15.30 Simon Stevens (British Council) and Naho Hashimoto

Lessons learnt from designing and implementing a three-year undergraduate presentation course: Student and teacher perspectives.

Much of the literature on course and syllabus design tends to describe the process as being systematic and linear rather than an unpredictable, messy and challenging process. This presentation will outline the reflections, doubts and decisions of a teacher and one of his students with respect to designing a new course and the resulting outcomes at a women's university in Tokyo. It is divided into two parts. Initially, the teacher will suggest a number of general principles that can be learnt from curricula innovation of a social science research based course where the product is a student presentation. Secondly, a recent student graduate of the programme will reflect on what it was like to be a participant on the three-year course.

15.45-17.00 Andy Boon (Toyo Gakuen University)

Getting up there and doing it (1): Tips on giving presentations at academic conferences

As a teacher researcher, presenting one's work at an academic conference can be a rewarding and enjoyable experience, facilitating valuable insights for both presenter and audience, and providing an essential means of professional self-development. This presentation will provide a number of tips for preparing and giving presentations at academic conferences / JALT chapter events with the aim of encouraging potential new presenters to get up there and give it a go!

Getting up there and doing it (2): Exploring EFL presentation skills - Sharing our ideas

In the second part, the presenter will invite members of the audience up to the front to share their ideas on the theme of today's micro-conference:

1] How do you / would you teach presentation classes in your particular context?

2] How do you / would you go about assessing presentations?

3] What topics do your / would your students present on?

4] How did you / would you go about designing a presentation course?

5] What problems have you experiences and overcome when teaching presentation skills?

6] What experiences have you had giving presentations?

7] What advice do you have for future presenters?

17.00-17.30 Closing Remarks

Sunday, October 14th, 2007

The 2nd JALT Joint Tokyo Conference - Innovation in Language Teaching

Speaker: Joe Falout, Dr. Yukio Tono, Bill Pellowe, Yuri Komuro, Chuck Sandy, and Dr. Tim Murphey
Time: 9:45 AM - 5:30 PM (Sun., October 14th, 2007)
Fee (JALT members): 2,000 yen (pre-registration 1,500 yen)
Fee (One-Day members): 3,000 yen
Prefecture: Tokyo
City: Tokyo
Venue: Toyo Gakuen University, Hongo Campus - http://www.tyg.jp/e/other_information/access_information.html
Description: 9.45-10.15: Registration

10.15-11.00: Joseph Falout: Re-motivating the Demotivated

Research shows the strongest influence on learner motivation is the teacher, and learners subjected to demotivating factors early in their formal studies are less able to control their affective states years later. This presentation will provide an overview of learner demotivation, will offer examples of how demotivated learners became re-motivated, and will conclude with implications for teachers and learners.

Joseph Falout started his career teaching ESL and college composition in the Chicagoland area. Now he is an assistant professor at Nihon University. His research theme has been demotivation in EFL learners in Japan.

11.15-12.00: Dr. Yukio Tono: Corpus-Based Analysis of Learner Language

I will argue that a learner corpus, a large collection of speech or writings by language learners, will make a great contribution to the improvement of various areas of language teaching. Especially I will introduce the corpus-building project of 10,000 students' free compositions called JEFLL and discuss its implications.

Dr Yukio Tono is Associate Professor at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. He received his PhD in Corpus Linguistics at Lancaster University. He is famous for his fully corpus-based TV English program on NHK "100 Go de Start Eikaiwa" (scheduled to rerun from October 2007)

12.00-13.15: Lunch

13.15-14.00: Bill Pellowe: Using Video iPods to Deliver Class Content

The video iPod is actually an affordable alternative to other portable technologies such as laptop computers. Pellowe will use one to demonstrate how to use video, slides (similar to PowerPoint), photos and audio to better engage students. A detailed handout of software and web-based supplementary materials will be provided.

Bill Pellowe received his MA in TEFL with distinction from the University of Birmingham. He has been teaching in Japan since 1990. Bill runs ELT Calendar (www.eltcalendar.com). His latest project is ELT Podcast(www.eltpodcast.com).

14.15-15.00: Yuri Komuro: Dictionary Instruction in the Classroom

A "dictionary" means a hand-held electronic one, not a paper one any more, at least to many university students. Now they can access several dictionaries anytime, anywhere. However, do students make good use of them? This presentation will introduce some research that carries implications on more effective dictionary instruction and learning/teaching materials we could introduce into classrooms.

Yuri Komuro is an associate professor at Chuo University. Her specialty is English lexicography, and her main research interests focus on the development of collocational dictionaries.

15.15-16.00: Chuck Sandy: Critical Thinking for Active Communication

What is critical thinking and why is it essential for communication? In this interactive presentation, participants will explore these questions before being introduced to a variety of critical thinking activities appropriate for any classroom where the emphasis is on communication and where teachers wish to make learning more active.

Chuck Sandy is an ELT materials writer, teacher trainer, essayist, and poet and has most recently been working on the forthcoming Active Skills for Communication series (Heinle). He's a frequent presenter at conferences around the world where he passionately speaks about the joys of engaging students in project work and the need for materials and practices that promote critical thinking.

16.15-17.00: Dr. Tim Murphey: In honor of Wilga Rivers - Hothousing Innovative Interactive Language Teaching: Dare to Imagine

We will look at what a hothouse class might look like, what would ideally help students learn more rapidly. We will look at how we can innovate with new and old ideas thus having more resources and possibilities. In honor of Wilga Rivers, this presentation will be very interactive.

Language Hungry! Tim Murphey (PhD Neuchatel, Switzerland), series editor for TESOL's Professional Development in Language Education, Group Dynamics in the Language Classroom co-author with Zoltan Dornyei, juggles, sings, and skis.

17.00-17.30: Coffee with the Presenters

Conference website: http://www.tokyojointconf07.info/

To Pre-Register, email: Andy Boon (Conference Co-Chair) andrew.boon@tyg.jp

Sunday, December 16th, 2007

Micro-Conference #6: The Ins & Outs of Language Testing

Speaker: Terry Yearly (TOFL Seminar), Gerry Lasche (Miyagi Gakuin Women's University), Andy Boon (Toyo Gakuen University), Kristie Sage (Komazawa University), and Jeff Hubbell (Hosei University)
Time: 9:45 AM - 5:30 PM (Sun., December 16th, 2007)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 2000 yen
Prefecture: Tokyo
City: Tokyo
Venue: Tokyo Keizai University, Daiichi Kenkyuu Center, Room 1310
Description: The West Tokyo Chapter of JALT (Japan Association for Language Teaching), and the TEVAL SIG (Testing & Evaluation Special Interest Group) announce the sixth in a new series of micro-conferences, each featuring several presenters exploring a particular topic for a whole day. The theme of this conference is testing � both standardized tests, and the ones we make for our own classes.

9.45-10.00 Registration

10:00-12:00 Terry Yearley (TOFL Seminar)

A Course for the TOEFL iBT Independent Writing Task (The 30 minute essay).

In the first hour, the presenter will lead an interactive tour of a 6-week study course to prepare for the IWT (the 30-minute essay), showing how each element of essay structure is taught and practiced in the classroom. In the remaining time, participants will themselves attempt an IWT, under simulated test conditions.

12:00-13:00: Lunch

13:00-13:45 Gerry Lassche (Miyagi Gakuin Women's University)

Assessing Young Learners' Language (YLL)

Assessing L2 development and proficiency tends to be a complicated responsibility for teachers and unpleasant for learners. It is even more complicated in the case of young (pre-adult) L2 learners (YLL), whose L2 proficiency develops even as L1 proficiency is still maturing and the learner continues to develop emotionally, socially, cognitively. The presenter will discuss issues of psychological development as they relate to YLL assessment, comparing and contrasting with the case of adult learners; will suggest guidelines for responsible assessment of YLL; and will briefly present assessment portfolios as a possible solution to some of the issues raised.

14:00-14:45 Andy Boon (Toyo Gakuen University)

Gambaro! Sustaining Student Motivation in TOEIC Classes

Good motivation is vital for progress and success in L2 acquisition. And yet, in TOEIC preparation classes, where authentic test practice is often at a level higher than the students' proficiency, it can be easy for the students to withdraw their energy investment, lose confidence in their ability and simply give up. The presenter will provide an overview of a 2nd-year university TOEIC course that he teaches and will describe a number of techniques for generating and sustaining student motivation.

15:00-15:45 Kristie Sage (Komazawa University)

Performance Testing Made More Objective by Utilising Test Specifications

Performance testing is widely regarded as subjective, but can probably be made more objective through the use of Test Specifications (TS). The presenter will first argue that TS can act as a blueprint to inform test development and, once made transparent, can be re-used by both their designer and others; and will then address how this transparency can be enhanced by making TS databases, linking video and other downloadable material to the TS, and setting standards.

16:00-17:30 Jeff Hubbell (Hosei University)

The Quirky World of Multiple-Choice (MC) Item Writing

MC test items may seem to use the target language artificially, but they are practical and well-accepted, so many EFL teachers are routinely called on to aid in the construction of MC items for large-scale, high-stakes L2 tests. Unfortunately, resources to establish the reliability of MC items or the validity of score interpretation generally fall far short of the piloting or other resources available to ETS or Cambridge. The presenter will offer examples and tips from the literature and from over 25 years of experience that should prove useful to those who find themselves involved in MC item writing; and will illustrate theoretical guidelines with concrete examples, some hands-on practice, and open and frank discussion of issues that ad hoc test developers may face.

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