Sendai Chapter

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Sendai Chapter Events in 2002

Events archive by year:
2008 [10]; 2007 [11]; 2006 [12]; 2005 [11]; 2004 [11]; 2003 [8]; 2002; 2001 [8];

Sunday, January 27th, 2002

Desuggestopedia and Other Methods of Accelerating Language Learning

Speaker: Charles Adamson
Time: 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., January 27th, 2002)
Fee (JALT members): free (also free for TALE members; TALE is Tohoku Association of Language Educators)
Fee (One-Day members): ¥1000 (for non-JALT and non-TALE members).
Prefecture: Miyagi
City: Sendai
Venue: Ichibancho Shimin Center (behind Maruzen)
Description: Want to increase your students' learning? Want to make your classes more fun and effective at the same time? This month's meeting will describe the latest advances in accelerated learning, with particular attention being paid to improvements to Suggestopedia (now called Desuggestopedia), a teaching method that accelerates learning by coordinating the suggestions that the student receives while learning. This is primarily accomplished by treating the pedagogic, the psychological, and astistic aspects as equals. In this presentation, Charles Adamson reports practial aspects of desuggestopedia gleaned from a conference entitled "The Next Frontier in Learning: Accelerated Learning" (Conference of the International Alliance of Learning, Jan 16-20, 2002). Adamson's report will focus on what teachers can bring into their classrooms.
To gain a more complete understanding of the themes that will be addressed by both the conference and this presentation, see the conference website at www.ialearn.org.

Thursday, February 14th, 2002

Teachers for change: Uh! I don't understand...

Speaker: John F. Fanselow
Time: 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM (Thu., February 14th, 2002)
Fee (JALT members): free for everyone
Fee (One-Day members): free for everyone
Prefecture: Miyagi
City: Sendai
Venue: Miyagi Kenmin Kaikan 6F Rm. 602, 3-3-7 Kokubuncho Aoba-ku, Sendai (tel: 22-225-8641). [map]
Description: Often teachers meet with stunned silence from students when asking questions in the language classroom.The central goal of the workshop will be to introduce/practice/develop a range of activities which can teach students how to ask a wide range of questions. Knowing a range of questions to ask will help students move beyond muttering strange sounds and constantly acting helpless, as reflected in their constant expressions of lack of understanding. Come and experience some totally different activities to try in your English classes. Prof. Fanselow is President of International Pacific College, Palmerston North, New Zealand, and Professor Emeritus, Columbia University, Teachers College, New York, U.S.A.

Sunday, February 24th, 2002

TESOL: An Art and Craft or a Science?

Speaker: discussion group
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., February 24th, 2002)
Fee (JALT members): free (also free for TALE members; TALE is Tohoku Association of Language Educators)
Fee (One-Day members): ¥1000 (for non-JALT and non-TALE members).
Prefecture: Miyagi
City: Sendai
Venue: Ichibancho Shimin Center (behind Maruzen)
Description: Each of the articles listed below deals with the question, Is TESOL an Art and Craft or is it a Science? These four articles will be drawn upon to enliven the discussion on February 24. You can find these articles on-line at The Journal of the Imagination and in Language Learning and Teaching (Volume V).

Argument and Entertainment: TESOL as a Science
Elana Shohamy
TESOL: Art and Craft
Henry Widdowson
An Attitude of Inquiry: TESOL as a Science
Diane Larsen-Freeman
Precision, Elegance and Simplicity: Perspectives on TESOL and Art
G. Richard Tucker

Whilst it is not necessary to read these articles before youcome to the session, it would be an advantage to you to look them over beforehand.
Note that the starting time is 2:00 from now on.

Sunday, April 28th, 2002

Motivation Levels and Learning Preferences of Second Year English Conversation Students

Speaker: Mitchell Clark, Miyagi Gakuin
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., April 28th, 2002)
Fee (JALT members): free (also free for TALE members; TALE is Tohoku Association of Language Educators)
Fee (One-Day members): 1000 yen (for non-JALT and non-TALE members)
Prefecture: Miyagi
City: Sendai
Venue: Ichibancho Shimin Center (behind Maruzen)
Description: The focus is a study of English Department students at Miyagi Gakuin Women's College. A questionnaire was used to investigate the background of students, current English study patterns, reasons for studying English and plans for future usage of the target language. I will outline previous research about motivation and language learning, especially in Japanese EFL contexts. Participants will receive a detailed handout and discuss their own experiences related to this topic.

Sunday, May 26th, 2002

Task-based Business Communicative Activities

Speaker: Jonah Glick, Pearson Education
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., May 26th, 2002)
Fee (JALT members): free (also free for TALE members; TALE is Tohoku Association of Language Educators)
Fee (One-Day members): 1000 yen (for non-JALT and non-TALE members)
Prefecture: Miyagi
City: Sendai
Venue: Ichibancho Shimin Center (behind Maruzen)
Description: The business English student in Japan is coming increasingly under pressure to perform and to prove that he or she has mastered the rudiments of the English language. Companies are increasingly demanding that their employees be able to function in the English speaking business world, and are increasingly requiring candidates for managerial promotion to reach a certain score on standardized testing. As a result the teaching community is under even more pressure to prepare students to accomplish specific business tasks instead of simply preparing them to hold an everyday conversation or to discuss current events. Although there is an argument to be made for continuing to teach students general English, this seminar will explore some ideas for using task-based business communicative activities to help teachers and program administrators meet the needs of their students more accurately. Since tasked-based teaching emphasizes the idea of making courses revolve around communicative tasks that the students need to accomplish outside the classroom, it is a timely teaching strategy for Business English instructors in Japan. The presenter will explore with the participants various ways of identifying target tasks that the students must learn to accomplish in their jobs and various ways to break those tasks down into practicable pedagogical tasks that the students can do in the classroom. Finally, the presenter will show how those pedagogical tasks give the students the tools to complete the target task. Examples will be taken from readily available textbooks.

Sunday, September 29th, 2002

Stephen Krashen Vs Robert O'Neill - A Discussion on Current Issues in Second Language Acquisition

Speaker: various speakers
Time: 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM (Sun., September 29th, 2002)
Fee (JALT members): free (also free for TALE members; TALE is Tohoku Association of Language Educators)
Fee (One-Day members): 1000 yen (for non-JALT and non-TALE members)
Prefecture: Miyagi
City: Sendai
Venue: Aibaku Chuo Shmin Center (formerly the Ichibancho Shimin Center) behind Maruzen
Description: During this session, participants will be encouraged to join in a debate on current issues in Second Language Acquisition, in particular focusing on a discussion between leading authorities in the field Stephen Krashen and Robert O'Neill, a discussion that took place on-line in the form of four articles. Links to these articles can be found on the Sendai JALT page, www.geocities.com/jaltsendai.

Sunday, October 27th, 2002

Developing Visual Literacy in the Language Classroom

Speaker: Terry Royce
Time: 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM (Sun., October 27th, 2002)
Fee (JALT members): free (also free for TALE members; TALE is Tohoku Association of Language Educators)
Fee (One-Day members): 1000 yen (for non-JALT and non-TALE members)
Prefecture: Miyagi
City: Sendai
Venue: Aibaku Chuo Shimin Center (formerly the Ichibancho Shimin Center) behind Maruzen
Description: Is there now a need to include visual literacy as one of the aims of learner language development, given the burgeoning visual culture that is appearing in our textbooks and on the Internet? If so, what can we as teachers do to develop our own visual literacy skills so that we can help our students to extract the multiple messages of the new forms of media? For a long time now the image in textbooks has been largely ignored - for example, in many Mombukagakusho reading textbooks, the stories or passages are often presented with both images and writing combined. How often are these used as a powerful source of meaning, or simply ignored as page fillers? Understanding the importance of the image in your textbooks can in actual fact become a valuable tool for developing students' vocabulary, pre-reading, reading, comprehension, speaking, and listening skills (it is even useful for assessment!). The participants in this workshop will be shown some ideas on how to extract visual meaning through questioning the images in their classrooms, and will have opportunities examine actual Mombukagakusho textbooks and examples of web pages in terms of these questions. The focus will be on practical teaching ideas to try the next day you teach. If possible, participants are requested to bring examples of their own Monbusho-approved or commercial class textbooks (which include visuals), as they may form part of the workshop activities.
About the presenter:Terry Royce is Program Director at the Tokyo campus of the Teachers College Columbia University MA in TESOL Program and has been appointed by Teachers College (New York) to the Tokyo program. He teaches courses in discourse analysis, pedagogical grammar, and TESOL classroom methods and practica on this program. He obtained his Ph.D. in Linguistic Science from the University of Reading (UK) and his MA in Applied Linguistics from Sydney University (Aust). His research interests include the analysis of multimodality, discourse and cohesion analysis across disciplines (specifically scientific and economics discourse), the application of systemic-functional linguistics to discourse varieties and TESOL education, and the forensic linguistic analysis of police negotiators of discourse.

Sunday, November 17th, 2002

Innervoice, Time, Planning and Practice

Speaker: Marc Helgesen, Miyagi Gakuin Women�s College
Time: 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM (Sun., November 17th, 2002)
Fee (JALT members): free (also free for TALE members; TALE is Tohoku Association of Language Educators)
Fee (One-Day members): 1000 yen (for non-JALT and non-TALE members)
Prefecture: Miyagi
City: Sendai
Venue: Aibaku Chuo Shimin Center (formerly the Ichibancho Shimin Center) behind Maruzen
Description: Whenever you have a conversation, you are really having two: one with the person you are talking to and one with yourself. At times, this innervoice is simply a monitor (Does he understand what I am saying? Does she agree with me? Do I need to say more?) At other times, it is almost a totally different conversation (You [to a colleague]: Hi. How was your weekend? Your innervoice: Gee, where did you get that necktie? It is the ugliest thing I�ve ever seen). In this activity-based workshop, we will explore ways to help learners develop their innervoice and use it as a tool for expanding their English. We will look at sensory modalities (visual, auditory, and kinesthetic) as a way of increasing awareness. We will also consider techniques for language planning including mental rehearsal, guided visualization and mind-mapping. These are all ways to encourage learner focus, fluency and confidence. The presenter will introduce "Talking to yourself in English homework" and will consider the language costs of instant production (You�re A. You�re B. Here�s the task. TALK!) Examples from the popular English Firsthand series will be used but the activities can be used with any classroom materials.
Marc Helgesen is professor at Miyagi Gakuin Women�s College, Sendai. He is author of over 100 articles and books including the English Firsthand and Workplace English series (Longman) and Active Listening (Cambridge). He also teaches in the MA TESOL Program at Columbia University Teachers College Japan.

Sunday, December 8th, 2002

"It was fun! So what?": A Critical Analysis of the Role of Fun in Children's ELT

Speaker: John Wiltshier, Sendai University
Time: 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM (Sun., December 8th, 2002)
Fee (JALT members): free (also free for TALE members; TALE is Tohoku Association of Language Educators)
Fee (One-Day members): 1000 yen (for non-JALT and non-TALE members)
Prefecture: Miyagi
City: Sendai
Venue: Aibaku Chuo Shimin Center (formerly the Ichibancho Shimin Center) behind Maruzen
Description: "Fun" must be the most overused and misused term in Children's ELT. Nothing is inherently "fun", just as nothing is inherently motivating. Fun can produce chaotic classes and is a poor substitute for actual learning and student success. So why do many English teachers, especially Children's English teachers, seem to be under pressure to make classes fun? When is fun useful and when does it become destructive to learning? What are other more permanent, pedagogically sound motivational strategies? By the end of this approximately one hour presentation the audience will:

have helped build a 3 dimensional model of motivational strategies in the presentation room;
have used the model to reflect on their own teaching situation and children's ELT in particular;
have learnt a simple technique called 'STAR analysis' and used it to analyze some common and not so common children's class activities;
have watched 4 videos of successful children's classes which contain ideas that can be immediately used in their own classes.

About the speaker: John Wiltshier trained in primary education at Lancaster University. He was a primary school teacher for 6 years in the UK and has taught at kindergarten, primary, junior and senior high schools in Miyagi over a period of 8 years. John also holds a masters degree in TESOL from Manchester University with a special emphasis on young learners. He has been the main speaker at the annual Sendai City Board of Education conference and guest speaker at Shokei Junior College. He currently teaches at Sendai University.(PLEASE NOTE: The meeting will be followed by JALT/TALE business (officer election and program planning) and the joint JALT/TALE bonenkai)

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