Okayama Chapter

(Read the archived description for the Okayama Chapter)

Okayama Chapter Events in 2004

Events archive by year:
2008 [11]; 2007 [13]; 2006 [8]; 2005 [12]; 2004; 2003 [9]; 2002 [12]; 2001 [8];

Saturday, January 17th, 2004

English Language and Culture Study through Jokes

Speaker: Scott Gardner
Time: 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM (Sat., January 17th, 2004)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1000 yen; students 500 yen
Prefecture: Okayama
City: Okayama
Venue: Okayama Sankaku building near Omotecho in Okayama city
Description: College students in a speaking/listening class spent part of their semester studying American and/or Western jokes. Students were expected to interpret and evaluate the jokes, and to draw what they could about the language used and the cultures that produced them, with the instructor's assistance. At the end of the semester they participated in two projects which allowed them to demonstrate what they had observed: acting out humorous skits, and creating their own jokes.

Saturday, February 14th, 2004

Personal Development Strategies to Improve Your EFL Career

Speaker: Trudie Heiman
Time: 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM (Sat., February 14th, 2004)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1000 yen; students 500 yen
Prefecture: Okayama
City: Okayama
Venue: Okayama Sankaku building near Omotecho in Okayama city
Description: This workshop will be an experiential workshop where you will focus on you and what you would really like for your career! Find out how goal setting, affirmations, visualizations and internal dialoguing can be applied to your life as a teacher.

Saturday, April 10th, 2004

Japanese College Student's Beliefs About the Enjoyment and Usefulness of Classroom Tasks

Speaker: Peter Burden
Time: 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM (Sat., April 10th, 2004)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1000 yen; students 500 yen
Prefecture: Okayama
City: Okayama
Venue: Okayama Sankaku building near Omotecho in Okayama city
Description: Assumptions of effective classroom practice are often based on anecdotal evidence and the intuitive sense of teachers. In this workshop we will discuss what we as teachers think are useful learning tasks. We will examine different expectations that may lead to possible misunderstandings of teacher and learner roles. A study of first year university students evaluating tasks through a closed-item survey and interviews will be outlined. We will discuss the results, implications of whether students are likely to accept real-language activities as being useful and how teachers can make learning more relevant to learners' perceived needs. Awareness of these differing beliefs may help avoid teacher/learner mismatch.

Sunday, May 23rd, 2004

It Says Something To Me About My Life: Using Pop Music Effectively in the Classroom

Speaker: Paul Hullah
Time: 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM (Sun., May 23rd, 2004)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1000 yen; students 500 yen
Prefecture: Okayama
City: Okayama
Venue: Okayama Sankaku building near Omotecho in Okayama city
Description: It has been claimed that, for many L2 students, pop music is their most frequent and meaningful exposure to English outside the EFL classroom (Domoney and Harris, 1993). However, feedback from student surveys suggests that this potentially rich resource material has long been underused or inappropriately presented at the tertiary level in Japan. Suggestions as to how pop lyrics might more effectively be utilized as catalysts to original communicative expression will be made, and the presenter will describe and discuss a pop-lyric textbook he has been working on for some time, already piloted in Japan and currently being considered for publication by several international EFL publishers.

Saturday, June 12th, 2004

A Database of Classroom English in Communicative Language Teaching

Speaker: Kumiko Miyamoto
Time: 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM (Sat., June 12th, 2004)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1000 yen; students 500 yen
Prefecture: Okayama
City: Okayama
Venue: Okayama Sankaku building near Omotecho in Okayama city
Description: In Japan, there are a lot of English teachers who are not confident in using English in their classrooms. That can deprive the learners of their chances to learn. One reason why the teachers of English in Japan are reluctant to conduct their classes in English is that their knowledge of classroom English is limited. Kumiko Miyamoto assumes that if they know more expressions to conduct and control the class in English, their communicative competence will improve. Considering these facts, Miyamoto has made a database of classroom English for those teachers who wish to improve their communicative competence.
This meeting is followed by A Unified Approach to Integrated English, from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM.

A Unified Approach to Integrated English

Speaker: Paul Moritoshi
Time: 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM (Sat., June 12th, 2004)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1000 yen; students 500 yen
Prefecture: Okayama
City: Okayama
Venue: Okayama Sankaku building near Omotecho in Okayama city
Description: In the 2003-4 academic year, Sanyo Gakuen University (Okayama City) devised and initiated a systematic and possibly unique approach to the teaching of its integrated (4-skills) English courses across all student levels. This 45-minute presentation explains, justifies and exemplifies this approach. After describing and justifying the approach's rationale, examples of students' work will be presented and discussed. The audience will then be invited to comment on the design and materials in order to assess the approach's strengths and weaknesses.
This presentation would be useful for those dissatisfied with the integrated English textbooks currently on the market or to those seeking alternative and refreshing ways to integrate the teaching of speaking, listening, reading and writing.
This event is preceeded by an earlier presentation on using pop music (3:00 PM - 4:00 PM).

Saturday, July 3rd, 2004

Using Nisei (second generation Japanese-American) Literature as an EFL Reading Material

Speaker: Charlie Canning
Time: 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM (Sat., July 3rd, 2004)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1000 yen; students 500 yen
Prefecture: Okayama
City: Okayama
Venue: Okayama Sankaku building near Omotecho in Okayama city
Description: In the presentation, Charlie Canning discusses the benefits of using Nisei literature as an EFL reading material to bridge the gap between authentic materials written in English and material related to Japan. Canning begins the talk by reviewing some of the principal research on the subject of second language acquisition reading theory before presenting what Suzuki says in "Nihonjin wa Naze Eigo ga Dekinai Ka?" ("Why Can't Japanese Speak English?"). Then he will share his own classroom experiences using autobiography and short stories from Nisei authors in Hawaii, Seattle, and California. Canning briefly introduces some representative works from three authors and also shows video clips from two films. Canning will distribute a short bibliography of the texts and films discussed.

Sunday, August 8th, 2004

Metacognitive Language Learning Strategy Training for Japanese Learners of English as a Foreign Language

Speaker: Jason Williams
Time: 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM (Sun., August 8th, 2004)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1000 yen; students 500 yen
Prefecture: Okayama
City: Okayama
Venue: Okayama Sankaku building near Omotecho in Okayama city
Description: This presentation by Jason Williams introduces a study conducted on a group of 27 Japanese high school and university students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) to determine the effectiveness of teaching metacognitive language learning strategies in helping students to actively engage in and manage their own learning. Students learned a combination of two of the following three strategies:

using practice opportunities,
self-evaluation and
selective attention.

Williams incorporated the teaching, practice and evaluation of the strategies into already existing classes. The interventions were found to be successful as students exhibited

an understanding of and increase in strategy use, skill and task improvement,
increased motivation and
betterment of student attitudes towards their language ability and language learning.

Saturday, December 11th, 2004

Bias and Balance in EFL Content on Controversial Issues

Speaker: Trevor Sargent (Tottori University)
Time: 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM (Sat., December 11th, 2004)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1000 yen; students 500 yen
Prefecture: Okayama
City: Okayama
Venue: Okayama Sankaku building near Omotecho in Okayama city
Description: A disturbing trend toward promoting the teaching of biased views of controversial global issues in EFL classrooms, while inventing excuses for not offering of balanced approaches, has been gathering momentum under JALT auspices recently. This presentation looks at specific instances of this, points out the dangers for students and why this is forbidden by law in Britain, and offers solutions based on current academic practice and mainstream global education.

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