Yokohama Chapter

(Read the archived description for the Yokohama Chapter)

Yokohama Chapter Events in 2006

Events archive by year:
2007 [7]; 2006; 2005 [10]; 2004 [11]; 2003 [9]; 2002 [10]; 2001 [8];

Sunday, January 15th, 2006

Why do Students Lose their Motivation?

Speaker: Kiwa Arai
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., January 15th, 2006)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Kanagawa
City: Yokohama
Venue: Kanagawa Roudou Plaza near Ishikawacho JR station Kitaguchi see map http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/osirase/06/1480/map.htm
Description: Encouraging and maintaining students�f motivation is certainly a difficult task, but so often we see our students lose their willingness to learn. This presentation will focus on findings and implications on losing motivation, "demotivation", of Japanese university students through their negative experiences in language classes. Results from a questionnaire will show what demotivating experiences are most common among Japanese students. In addition, how students react to such demotivating experiences reveals very interesting patterns.

Mini-bio

Kiwa Arai teaches English Teaching Methodology I & II besides Intermediate English at Sophia University, Tokyo.

Her research interests include learner characteristics, particularly student motivation (also demotivation) and learning strategies.

Sunday, February 19th, 2006

Content-Based Instruction Workshop: Windows on Teaching Young Learners

Speaker: Mitsue Allen-Tamai
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., February 19th, 2006)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Kanagawa
City: Yokohama
Venue: Ginou Bunka Kaikan (Skills & Culture Center) near JR Kannai & Yokohama Subway Isezakichojamachi [See yojalt.bravehost.com for details & a map]
Description: Current (mainly) English educational situations of Japanese young learners will be briefly introduced, together with serious educational problems or challenges that Japan is now facing. Then the presentation moves to a short summary of the history of content-based instruction (CBI) and its application to EFL situations referring to actual examples in Japan. Using some models of content-based instruction, participants will create their own CBI.

Mini-Bio

Professor Allen-Tamai currently lectures at Bunkyo Gakuin University (both undergraduate and postgraduate levels) and is Director of their Children's English Program at Child Education Center. She also lectures at Temple, Sophia, Aoyama Gakuin and Obirin Universities.

Her many publications include:

Mitsue Allen-Tamai.(2005). Doraemon Bilingual Picturebook 1 & 2 Tokyo, Shogakkann.

K. Tomita, M. Allen-Tamai, & M. Kinoshita. (2003), Hi, English Book 1 & 2 Tokyo, Tokyo-Shoseki

Mitsue Allen-Tamai. Little Readers 1, 2, & 3 (2003). Tokyo, Shogakkan Production.

Mitsue Allen-Tamai. Big Fun Book 2 & 3 (2003), Tokyo Shogakkan Production.

H. Asano, and 31 writers. New Horizon 1, 2, & 3 (2002). Tokyo, Tokyo-Shoseki(These are the best-selling junior high school textbooks in Japan, gaining 41 per cent of the total share.)

Sunday, March 12th, 2006

Fun Activities with Junior and Senior-High Learners

Speaker: Jonathan Robinson
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., March 12th, 2006)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Kanagawa
City: Yokohama
Venue: Ginou Bunka Kaikan (Skills & Culture Center) near JR Kannai & Yokohama Subway Isezakichojamachi [See yojalt.bravehost.com for details & a map]
Description: Are you running out of ideas? Sure, we all do. Here's your chance to learn from and share your ideas with other teaching professionals.

During this presentation you will learn how to make your activities more effective while achieving your lesson goals. Each activity introduced will have your students moving and speaking with English in no time. Come along and join the fun! You'll be glad you did.

During the break and after the presentation you will have opportunities to explore the latest OUP textbooks and consult with Jonathan about suitable materials for your classes. Plus our usual tea break will be enhanced by a slice of free pizza, courtesy of OUP-not to be missed!

Mini-bio:

Jonathan has been in the field of Education for the past 3 years. After graduation from Hawaii Pacific University, he began teaching at a Junior High School while on Japan Exchange Teaching Program. As the current Oxford University Press consultant to Kanagawa, he aims to assist teachers in finding the techniques and tools to motivate their students.

Sunday, April 9th, 2006

NLP and Feldenkrais: Body and Mind in the Classroom

Speaker: Sylvie Kuehne
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., April 9th, 2006)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Kanagawa
City: Yokohama
Venue: Ginou Bunka Kaikan (Skills & Culture Center) near JR Kannai & Yokohama Subway Isezakichojamachi [See yojalt.bravehost.com for details & a map]
Description: This workshop offers practical information on our brain, self-image and learning. Participants will explore Feldenkrais and NLP, two exciting body-mind fields. Both NLP and Feldenkrais are based on an empowering vision of the human being as capable of learning.

Following a brief introduction to the Feldenkrais Method�, the presenter will explain typical stress patterns and show simple movements to deactivate and reduce unnecessary tension. NLP basics such as rapport, IQs, anchors and map of the world will be presented with pairwork and examples of practical applications in the classroom.

Mini-bio: A cosmopolitan Canadian who has been living and teaching in Japan since 1986, Kuehne is a licensed Feldenkrais Practitioner and NLP Practitioner. She has been interested in body-mind connections in education for over thirty years.

Sunday, May 14th, 2006

Making a Small-class Atmosphere in Big University Classes

Speaker: Theron Muller
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., May 14th, 2006)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Kanagawa
City: Yokohama
Venue: Ginou Bunka Kaikan (Skills & Culture Center) near JR Kannai & Yokohama Subway Isezakichojamachi [See yojalt.bravehost.com for details & a map]
Description: There�fs a barrier that holds many big university classes back; a large-class atmosphere. This presentation will demonstrate how large classes can be broken down into smaller groups, and how within those groups communication can thrive and prosper. Beyond organization factors, incorporation of tasks that break the mold of one lesson, one unit in the book will be simultaneously introduced.

Bio:

Theron Muller is co-owner of Noah Learning Center, a small English conversation school in Nagano City. He also teaches at Nagano Seisen Junior College and Nagano National College of Technology. He holds an MA in TEFL/TESL from the University of Birmingham, UK.

Sunday, June 11th, 2006

Practical Pragmatics: Teaching Speech Acts in EFL Classrooms

Speaker: Toshihiko Suzuki
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., June 11th, 2006)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Kanagawa
City: Yokohama
Venue: Ginou Bunka Kaikan (Skills & Culture Center) near JR Kannai & Yokohama Subway Isezakichojamachi [See yojalt.bravehost.com for details & a map]
Description: In this session the presenter will talk about his attempt to develop learners�fpragmatic competence by the instruction of speech act performance strategies. Participants will be first familiarised with basic concepts in pragmatics: pragmalinguistics, socio-pragmatics, speech acts, illocutionary force, politeness, semantic formulae, etc. Then the speaker will introduce what he has been up to in his classes: the instruction of speech act performance strategies in EFL (e.g. thanking, apologising, requesting, complaining) through an autonomous skit project. Video will be shown for participants to appreciate the learners�f accomplishments there. There will be a workshop session where participants engage in the assessment of the learners�f pragmatic competence in the speech act performance. The presenter will also introduce his recent �ediscourse speech act corpus�f (DSAC) project, by which the large scale data on speech acts performance in English (of both native speakers�f and learners�f) is to be accumulated and compiled.

Mini-bio: Toshihiko Suzuki is a full-time instructor of EFL at Sophia University, Japan. He received B.A. from Waseda University (Japan), M.A. in ELT and Ph.D. in Linguistics from Lancaster University (UK). His research area includes pragmatics (linguistic politeness, speech act performance strategies, etc.) learner autonomy and other Linguistics and ELT related issues.

Sunday, July 9th, 2006

Teaching English to Older Learners

Speaker: Tadashi Ishida
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., July 9th, 2006)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Kanagawa
City: Yokohama
Venue: Ginou Bunka Kaikan (Skills & Culture Center) near JR Kannai & Yokohama Subway Isezakichojamachi [See yojalt.bravehost.com for details & a map]
Description: The presentation will include

1. Watching a video "How to teach English to older learners" showing demonstration lessons by four English teachers(three natives and one non-native)

2. Discussion and feedback from the floor on the video

3. How can a teacher motivate older learners in learning English ? Live demonstration with four of Ishida's students.(two male /two female students over 60)

4. Discussion: What kind of role should a native teacher play in teaching English to older learners ?

Mini-bio: Tadashi Ishida has been teaching English to senior citizens at a community center in Tokyo, sponsored by the Taito Ward Board of Education for the past 23 years. He is the founder of the Teaching Older Learners SIG and published a book titled �gHajimeyou! Ikigaitoshiteno Eigo�hwith Shumpu Publishing. He was a national vice president of JALT for 5 years.

Sunday, September 10th, 2006

Toybox, Music box: Teaching Young and Special Needs Learners with classical music, toys, and Mexican music

Speaker: Francisco Sanchez
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., September 10th, 2006)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Kanagawa
City: Yokohama
Venue: Ginou Bunka Kaikan (Skills & Culture Center) near JR Kannai & Yokohama Subway Isezakichojamachi [See yojalt.bravehost.com for details & a map]
Description: Francisco has been teaching elementary level and special needs learners in Yokohama elementary schools for five years. He will share techniques he has developed for learning language happily and effectively using toys, classical music and Mexican music. Teachers of Spanish are also welcome.

Sunday, October 15th, 2006

The Song of Myself: Haiku in the EFL Classroom

Speaker: Trudie Heiman
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., October 15th, 2006)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Kanagawa
City: Yokohama
Venue: Ginou Bunka Kaikan (Skills & Culture Center) near JR Kannai & Yokohama Subway Isezakichojamachi [See yojalt.bravehost.com for details & a map]
Description: Come and experience a creative, fun, hands-on workshop on how and why Haiku in the EFL classroom can teach your students much about English, how it works in relationship to hiragana/ katakana, and boost their pride & understanding of this unique Japanese art form that has spread world- wide. You will learn ways to present this to your students, write some of your own haiku on the spot and also learn how to produce beautiful hand- bound editions for each of your students with very little cash outlay.

Bio: Trudie Heiman, a Canadian, has been using her self- published text book, The Song Of Myself, for over ten years with students at Tokushima Bunri University in Kagawa where she is a professor with the Faculty of British and American Language and Culture. Her students produce a 100 page journal on personal development topics and publish hand-made art books of English Haiku: Productive! and Pleasurable! Ms. Heiman's ESL/EFL experience in Canada and Japan includes course & program development,implementation & management. She has presented workshops on personal development and journal writing for language development, self publishing in Canada, Japan, Thailand, Korea and USA.

Sunday, November 12th, 2006

1) Blogs as a Teacher Research Tool; 2)Teaching Comparative Religion

Speaker: 1) Renata Suzuki 2) Jean-Paul DuQuette
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., November 12th, 2006)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Kanagawa
City: Yokohama
Venue: Kanagawa Roudou Plaza near Ishikawacho JR station Kitaguchi see map http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/osirase/06/1480/map.htm
Description: Suzuki shares how blogs can be used as a self-reflective research tool, comparing with teacher diaries and illustrating with a research study of teacher use of motivation strategies.

DuQuette: Japan is often seen by the west as a deeply spiritual country. In 21st Century Japan, however, students particularly seem disinterested or perceive religion with ambivalence or distrust. Can (and should) English as a Foreign Language teachers play a role in improving knowledge of comparative religion in their classrooms? In this presentation, the results of a small-scale informal university student survey on world religion will be examined. Then, general recommendations for appropriate integration of content-based lessons on religion will be discussed.

Mini-bios: Suzuki is an Oxford graduate teaching Economics English at Sophia University. DuQuette is Co-Director of the English Language Program at Nihon University's College of International Relations and received his MA from the University of Hawaii.

Sunday, December 10th, 2006

Hyper-reading

Speaker: Matt Sparling
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., December 10th, 2006)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Kanagawa
City: Yokohama
Venue: Ginou Bunka Kaikan (Skills & Culture Center) near JR Kannai & Yokohama Subway Isezakichojamachi [See yojalt.bravehost.com for details & a map]
Description: I've got something cooking with a colleague that might interest you teachers. We call it Hyper-Reading. Not hyper- as in excessive, hyper- as in Internet hypertext. We've tried to manipulate classroom text into collaborative activities which are kind of quasi-conversational.

They're good activities to encourage interaction among younger learners who are ready to read but might not have the foundation to hold simple conversations.

Since we've got two hours, I imagine the first hour I could talk through the concept, show a short video clip of the activities from my own class and then have everyone try out the exercises. That second hour we could continue some of the activities as well as go over follow-up work and assessment possibilities. The last twenty minutes or so will be open for discussion and questions.

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