Tokyo Chapter

(Read the archived description for the Tokyo Chapter)

Tokyo Chapter Events in 2007

Events archive by year:
2008 [3]; 2007; 2006 [3]; 2005 [9]; 2004 [6]; 2003 [6]; 2002 [3]; 2001 [4];

Sunday, January 21st, 2007

Second Kanto Junior and Senior High School Teaching Seminar

Speaker: John Letcher, Ivan Sorrentino, Nick Kendall, Roger Pattimore, Daniel Droukis, William Matheny, Chuck Sandy, Curtis Kelly and Martin Nuttall
Time: 9:45 AM - 5:45 PM (Sun., January 21st, 2007)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): free
Prefecture: Tokyo
City: Tokyo
Venue: The British Council Tokyo Central map
Description: Welcome to a full day of practical teaching advice by prominent researchers and materials writers. Topics include:

Improving listening skills-John Letcher

Speaking: What's wrong with my students' English?-Ivan Sorrentino

Professional development: Shape up into a first class teacher-Nick Kendall

Activites: Warm up activities for high school-Roger Pattimore

Activities: Asking and answering questions-Daniel Droukis

Plays: English on the stage rather than on the page-William Matheny

Projects: Simple projects to consolidate learning-Chuck Sandy

Writing: What research teaches us about teaching writing-Curtis Kelly

Testing: the KET and PET speaking tests-Martin Nuttall

TO RESERVE A PLACE PLEASE EMAIL:

Name:

Address

School

Phone

Fax

to japanelt@cambridge.org

Friday, April 6th, 2007

Behavior Analysis in Second Language Teaching and Learning: Exploding the Myth of Monolithic Behaviorism

Speaker: Professor Peter Castagnaro
Time: 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM (Fri., April 6th, 2007)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Tokyo
City: Tokyo
Venue: Temple University Japan (Azabu Campus) room 317
Description: This talk will consider why the version and vision of psychology that began with B. F. Skinner in the 1930s-60s has never been seriously considered by practitioners and researchers in the interdisciplinary field of second language teaching and learning.

It will attempt a brief outline of the approach and history of behavior analysis � the modern name for Skinner's psychology - and how this system of the scientific study of behavior addresses the field of language as "verbal behavior." Further, it will be suggested that behavior analysis might well be an improvement over other psychological approaches in the second language field due to its inherent practicality in staying at the level of its observations

Space is limited for participation in this seminar. If you are interested in attending, please contact Megumi Kawate-Mierzejewska at mierze@tuj.ac.jp

Friday, July 20th, 2007

Expressing Causation in English and Japanese

Speaker: Dr. Chikako Shigemori Bucar (University of Ljubljana)
Time: 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM (Fri., July 20th, 2007)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Tokyo
City: Tokyo
Venue: Temple University Japan (Minamiazabu campus)
Description: Abstract

The Japanese causative (the affix -(s)ase-, "shieki") is usually taught in the latter half of the beginners level, about the same time when learners are introduced to passive, giving and receiving verbs, various conjunctions to build longer sentences, and so on. Existing sources point out that the learners are not eager to use this causative affix in their production in Japanese. In case of English speaking learners, we may suspect that they lack confidence in using it, since there is no comparable morpheme in their mother tongue. Added to this, the Japanese morpheme -(s)ase- has various functions, i.e. besides causation, it may express non-interference, permission, transitive action etc. Inside Japanese, the causative affix seems to appear more in literary texts, and much less in newspaper articles and/or everyday conversation.

Based on contrastive research and corpus studies the presenter will explore whether the causative should really be taught at the beginner's level as is presently the case

Space is limited for participation in this seminar. If you are interested in attending, please contact Megumi Kawate-Mierzejewska at

seminar2006jaltokyo@gmail.com

Short Biography

1977 International Christian University in Tokyo, Bachelor of Arts in General Linguistics.

1991 University of Tsukuba in Japan, Master's degree in International Affairs (Japanese Language Teaching)

2003 University of Ljubljana, Ph. D. in General Linguistics, (title of the doctoral thesis: "Voice in Contrast: Japanese and Slovene")

Work

1985 � 1989: Lecturer of the Japanese and English Language in the Department of Chemistry Education and Informatics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

1992 � 1999: Lecturer of the Slovene Language in the Department of Slavic Languages at J.W. Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany.

1992 � 1997: Lecturer of the Japanese Language in the Department of Japanese Studies at J.W. Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany.

1999 -2003: Assistant in Japanese Studies, Dept. of Asian and African Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

2003 � present: Assistant Professor in Japanese Studies, Dept. of Asian and African Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

October 2006 � September 2007: Visiting Researcher (Hakuho Japanese Language Research Fellowship) at the National Institute for Japanese Lanugage in Tokyo.

Friday, September 14th, 2007

Active Learning: Cooperative Learning in the College Classroom

Speaker: Dr. Roger Johnson
Time: 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM (Fri., September 14th, 2007)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Tokyo
City: Tokyo
Venue: Temple University Japan Room 213
Description: There is a strong effort to make college classrooms a place where students are more active and less passive, where students talk through the material they are learning with others, and where students are connected to each other in a way that encourages them to share their ideas, seek help when they need it, and be concerned about the learning of their classmates. The key strategy for structuring this active learning environment is cooperative learning where students are put into groups that are structured to work cooperatively. Social Interdependence Theory contributes a set of basic elements of a cooperative relationship that provide the strategies for the instructor to create the cooperation in student groups. Cooperative Learning is an excellent example of translating theory to practice and is supported by a huge amount of research that supports cooperative work on numerous student outcomes including achievement, positive attitudes and relationships, and self-esteem and psychological health.

Speaker (biodata):

Dr. Roger T. Johnson is a professor of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Minnesota. He holds his doctoral degree from the University of California in Berkeley. He is the Co-Director of the Cooperative Learning Center. Dr. Johnson's public school teaching experience includes kindergarten through eighth grade instruction in self-contained classrooms, open schools, multi-age situations, cottage schools, and departmentalized (science) schools. At the college level, Dr. Johnson has taught teacher-preparation courses for undergraduate through PhD programs. He has consulted with schools throughout the United States and Canada, Panama, England, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and New Zealand. In 1965 Dr. Johnson received an award for outstanding teaching from the Jefferson County Schools, and has since been honored with several national awards including the American Psychological Association the American Society Engineering Education, National Council for the Social Studies, Minnesota Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Ball State University, and the Broek International Prize for Contributions to Education. Dr. Johnson is the author of numerous research articles, book chapters, and books. Nationally, Dr. Johnson is a leading authority on inquiry teaching and science education. He has served on task forces examining college policy, environmental quality, science education, math education, elementary education, and cooperative learning.

Space is limited for participation in this seminar. If you are interested in attending, please contact Megumi Kawate-Mierzejewska at

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: 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

Ins and Outs of Language Teaching

Speaker: Terry Yearly, Gerry Lasche, Andy Boone, Kristie Sage, Jeff Hubbel
Time: 10:00 AM - 5:45 PM (Sun., December 16th, 2007)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 2000 yen
Prefecture: Tokyo
City: Tokyo
Venue: Tokyo Keizai University: Dai ichi kenkyuu center room 1310
Description: This is a one day conference on testing sponsored by Tokyo and West Tokyo chapters as well the Testing and Evaluation (TEVAL) SIG.

It features both presentations on standardized tests and testing designed for our own classrooms.

More info at http://www.geocities.com/jaltwesttokyo.tku

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