Gifu Chapter

(Read the archived description for the Gifu Chapter)

Gifu Chapter Events in 2008

Events archive by year:
2008; 2007 [8]; 2006 [8]; 2005 [6]; 2003 [6]; 2002 [6]; 2001 [9];

Saturday, February 16th, 2008

Using mobile phones in the language classroom

Speaker: Alex Burke
Time: 7:00 PM - 8:45 PM (Sat., February 16th, 2008)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Gifu
City: Gifu
Venue: Heartful Square (southeast section of Gifu JR Station), Gifu City, Gifu-ken
Description: Since most people have one and almost all mobile phones in Japan possess voice or video recording capability, the ubiquitous keitai offers a wealth of teaching opportunities. You can listen anywhere, anytime: fast, convenient and relevant. Come and see what happens to student motivation and learning when you greet them with "get out your phones, it's keitai time." This workshop will show you how to use this approach in your teaching setting with practical applications, assist with technical issues, offer ideas on policy, and highlight equity issues. Bring your mobile phone and open up your classroom to more authentic communication.

Saturday, March 8th, 2008

SELHi Project: Enriching EFL through the teaching of pragmatics

Speaker: Jeremie Bouchard (Sapporo Sacred Heart School)
Time: 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM (Sat., March 8th, 2008)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Gifu
City: Gifu
Venue: Heartful Square (southeast section of Gifu JR Station), Gifu City, Gifu-ken
Description: The presentation, a combination of lecture and group discussion, will focus on a SELHi (Super English Language High School) initiative involving two English courses: Comprehensive and Interactive. The Comprehensive course emphasizes a combination of sentence-based and discourse-based grammar teaching, and the Interactive course shifts towards the teaching of pragmatics. The presentation will also include a review of the Interactive English textbook created for high school second grade students, which was designed around the teaching of speech acts (language functions, e.g. compliments, apologies, requests, complaints, etc.). The main inspiration for this textbook came from an article written in The Language Teacher of May 2004 by John Fujimori and No�l Houck titled "Practical criteria for teaching speech acts". Along with Fujimori and Houck's emphasis on pragmatics as a necessary part of any language curriculum, the general argument of this presentation calls for a change in emphasis in the EFL classroom, from English as the sole object of study to English as a tool for effective communication.

Saturday, April 19th, 2008

Brazilian Education in Tokai

Speaker: Claudio da Silva (Escola Comunitaria Paulo Freire) & Craig Alan Volker (PhD, Gifu Shotoku Gakuen University)
Time: 7:00 PM - 8:45 PM (Sat., April 19th, 2008)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Gifu
City: Gifu
Venue: Heartful Square (southeast section of Gifu JR Station), Gifu City, Gifu-ken
Description: In recent years, the Tokai region has experienced a rapid increase in the number of foreign residents, especially Brazilians, now the largest ethnic minority in the region. Many Portuguese-speaking children in public schools often have problems because of poor Japanese skills, a lack of support with homework, and a lack of understanding of their cultural background. Private Brazilian schools are often not regulated by either Japanese or Brazilian law. This presentation discusses the challenges of establishing a school in Toyota that provides a high level of education and bilingualism in both Japanese and Portuguese. Advice for teaching Brazilian children in public schools will also be discussed.

Saturday, May 3rd, 2008

Vygotsky in Your Pocket: Walk Away With 5 Effective Classroom Collaboration Techniques

Speaker: Mike Stockwell
Time: 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM (Sat., May 3rd, 2008)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Gifu
City: Gifu
Venue: Heartful Square (southeast section of Gifu JR Station), Gifu City, Gifu-ken
Description: The objective of this workshop is to introduce participants to methods to improve classroom collaboration through an awareness of group dynamics. Participants will leave the event with 5 tried and tested techniques that will help students feel more challenged and stay on task in the target language. The theme of the workshop is to supply participants with more teacher craftwork skills based on the Vygotskian view of learning as a social and collaborative activity.

Saturday, June 21st, 2008

Exploring Portfolio Assessment in the EFL Classroom

Speaker: Steve Quasha, Sugiyama Women's University (Nagoya)
Time: 7:00 PM - 8:45 PM (Sat., June 21st, 2008)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Gifu
City: Gifu
Venue: Heartful Square (southeast section of Gifu JR Station), Gifu City, Gifu-ken
Description: In this workshop, the author will demonstrate how portfolio assessment plays an integral part in his communicative English courses at a Japanese women's university. Participants will experience tasks and activities that will enable them to successfully develop their own grading rubrics, peer assessment projects and learn how the notion of shared accountability improves language acquisition based on interactional theories of language. Furthermore, the notion of sharing information is central to Task-Based Learning and Teaching; the reporting phase.

Creating portfolios provide students with the chance to learn the skills of reflection, self-evaluation, and critical thinking. All of which can lead them more readily onto the path of independent learning. Come and experience the many ways portfolios can be used in your own teaching situation to promote student generated experiential learning regardless of the age of your students.

Saturday, July 12th, 2008

Phonetics and Phonology: A crash course in human language pronunciation.

Speaker: Jon Catanzariti, Ogaki Board of Education
Time: 7:00 PM - 8:45 PM (Sat., July 12th, 2008)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Gifu
City: Gifu
Venue: Heartful Square (southeast section of Gifu JR Station), Gifu City, Gifu-ken
Description: Although we spend so long giving our students examples of native-English, why do they revert back to katakana-like pronunciation? The reality is that ��listen and repeat" exercises only go so far as tools for 'ear-training'? Intonation and pronunciation problems are two of the biggest barriers that stand between students and their requested goal of native-like pronunciation. In this presentation, I would like to introduce participants to the International Phonetic Association, the rules of phonation, the raw sounds of the English language, and discuss how we can utilise them in the classroom. I hope everyone will gain insight into the mechanics of phonetics and learn alternative ways toward solving pronunciation problems for Japanese students.

Saturday, September 20th, 2008

Stories that don't begin with "once upon a time"

Speaker: Bob Jones, REJ English House
Time: 7:00 PM - 8:45 PM (Sat., September 20th, 2008)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Gifu
City: Gifu
Venue: Heartful Square (southeast section of Gifu JR Station), Gifu City, Gifu-ken
Description: Andrew Wright says, 'Go to any pub or party and you will hear a constant babble of stories. The whole world is full of storytellers.' In this presentation, we will look at some of the typical structural and lexical features of the type of stories that adults tell each other in conversation. We will then consider how we can make our students more aware of these features and how we can train them to become more fluent and effective as conversational storytellers.

Saturday, October 18th, 2008

Bringing English and Intercultural Activities to Young Children

Speaker: Kim Horne and Aya Asano, Izumi Chuo Kindergarten, Gifu
Time: 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM (Sat., October 18th, 2008)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Gifu
City: Gifu
Venue: Heartful Square (southeast section of Gifu JR Station), Gifu City, Gifu-ken
Description: Participants will learn songs, chants and other effective class activities to make learning English fun for young children. How to make a cultural exchange accessible to young students will also be explored. The presenters will show how fifty of their Japanese 4-6 year old students got into the homes and hearts of their American counterparts without ever leaving Japan.

Bio blurbs:

Kim Horne was born in the U.S., and has been crisscrossing cultures since infancy. She has a background in theatre and began teaching English to children & training teachers in Japan in 2000. She currently works at Izumi Chuo Kindergarten in Gifu City.

Aya Asano is Director of the Department of International English Education at Izumi Chuo Kindergarten, a private kindergarten that has been in operation in Gifu for the past 40 years.

Saturday, November 15th, 2008

The Pecha-kucha Group Share from JALT National

Speaker: Various Members
Time: 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM (Sat., November 15th, 2008)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Gifu
City: Gifu
Venue: Heartful Square (southeast section of Gifu JR Station), Gifu City, Gifu-ken
Description: Six of our members will attempt to utilize the growing trend of "pecha-kucha" (using 20 slides for 20 seconds each) to showcase one activity that they learned about at the recent JALT National Conference.

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