Gunma Chapter

(Read the archived description for the Gunma Chapter)

Gunma Chapter Events in 2004

Events archive by year:
2008 [10]; 2007 [11]; 2006 [10]; 2005 [8]; 2004; 2003 [10]; 2002 [9]; 2001 [11];

Sunday, January 25th, 2004

Raising Children Bilingually & Biculturally in Japan

Speaker: Frances Causer
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., January 25th, 2004)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Gunma
City: Maebashi
Venue: Maebashi Kyoai Gakuen College, 1154-4 Koyahara-machi, Maebashi, Gunma (tel: 027-266-7575)
Description: This presentation will suggest ways of maximising your opportunities to bring up your children bilingually. The presenter will focus mainly on how you could do this by joining bunko, groups run by parents and volunteers for bilingual children. The presenter will also suggest how to take advantage of your local educational authority's facilities for your own bilingual purposes, and how to make the most of your own resources as you face the challenge of bringing up your children to be bilingual and bicultural. The presenter hopes to allow plenty of time for discussion with the audience on the points that are of most interest to them.

Sunday, February 22nd, 2004

Effects of Repetition on EFL Listening Comprehension: Development of a CALL System to Improve EFL Listening Comprehension Skills

Speaker: Yutaka Yamauchi
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., February 22nd, 2004)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Gunma
City: Maebashi
Venue: MIT: Maebashi Institute of Technology (Maebashi Koka Daigaku), 460-1 Kamisadori, Maebashi
Description: This presentation demonstrates a CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) system aimed at improving EFL listening comprehension (LC) skills and shows some results of the experiment on the effects of repetition on EFL/LC. This particular CALL system employs computer-based dictation and is designed to examine how effective it is for Japanese learners of English to repeatedly listen to the target English sentence spoken at normal speed. Yutaka YAMAUCHI is an associate professor of Tokyo International University and teaches English language and information science.

Sunday, April 25th, 2004

Adapting Online Reading Materials

Speaker: James Duggan
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., April 25th, 2004)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Gunma
City: Maebashi
Venue: Maebashi Kyoai Gakuen College, 1154-4 Koyahara-machi, Maebashi, Gunma (tel: 027-266-7575)
Description: Adapting their own materials can often help teachers to better meet the needs of their classes. The Internet can be a source of relevant, up-to-date, and interesting reading material that teachers can adapt into their class lesson plans. In this presentation, websites that can provide such materials will first be introduced. Then, examples of how these reading resources were adapted into actual lessons plans will be presented.

Sunday, May 16th, 2004

A Teaching Strategy: How to Develop Communicative Competence through Shadowing and L1

Speaker: Atsuko Yamazaki, Kazuko Nomachi
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., May 16th, 2004)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Gunma
City: Maebashi
Venue: MIT: Maebashi Institute of Technology (Maebashi Koka Daigaku), 460-1 Kamisadori, Maebashi
Description: This presentation will demonstrate a new method for teaching lower-level adult students, Functional Mapping Method. In this method, the learner's L1 is used purposefully so that learners can establish linkages between L2 utterances and L1 concepts and notions. The presenters will show the teaching procedure through a micro lesson and discuss about the results of the study.

Sunday, June 20th, 2004

A Way to Use Graded Readers Effectively and Extensively

Speaker: Rie Iwahashi
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., June 20th, 2004)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Gunma
City: Maebashi
Venue: Maebashi Kyoai Gakuen College, 1154-4 Koyahara-machi, Maebashi, Gunma (tel: 027-266-7575)
Description: Is it really true that Japanese students read well in English? Unfortunately, that's not the case when we take "amount of reading" into consideration. Extensive reading enables students to build confidence and motivation in English as well as the habit of reading. In this presentation we will cover highly motivational and effective techniques for using readers with students at all levels.

Sunday, July 18th, 2004

Materials Development: Custom-Made Videos for Your Classes

Speaker: Scott Berlin
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., July 18th, 2004)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Gunma
City: Gunma
Venue: Gunma Prefectural College of Health Sciences (323-1Kamioki-machi, Maebashi)
Description: In Japan, the economy and competition for new students is prompting universities to make big changes. Frequently these changes result in new curriculums being designed. Using the latest multimedia tools, university departments are creating content-based materials for their own curriculums. The presenter, Scott Berlin, shows some custom-made video materials, pointing out their merits while providing information on how teachers can create their own videos. In addition, Berlin will demonstrate techniques using video in the classroom.

Sunday, August 22nd, 2004

JALT-Gunma 16th Kusatsu Summer Workshop (Day 1 of 2)

Speaker: Main Speaker: Michael McCarthy
Time: 11:00 AM - 9:00 PM (Sun., August 22nd, 2004)
Fee (JALT members): 9000 yen including Room & Board
Fee (One-Day members): 9000 yen including Room & Board
Prefecture: Gunma
City: Kusatsu
Venue: Kusatsu Seminar House, 737 Kusatsu, Kusatsu-machi, Guma-ken (venue tel: 0279-88-2212, fax 0279-88-8030)
Description: This is a two-day (Aug. 22-23) event. Day 1 features a talk by Dr. Michael McCarthy on Vocabulary teaching and Acquisition. There will also be three presentations by participants and a party. Contact, Morijiro Shibayama, mshibaya@jcom.home.ne.jp

Monday, August 23rd, 2004

JALT-Gunma 16th Kusatsu Summer Workshop (Day 2 of 2)

Speaker: Main Speaker: Michael McCarthy
Time: 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM (Mon., August 23rd, 2004)
Fee (JALT members): 9000 yen including Room & Board
Fee (One-Day members): 9000 yen including Room & Board
Prefecture: Gunma
City: Kusatsu
Venue: Kusatsu Seminar House, 737 Kusatsu, Kusatsu-machi, Guma-ken (venue tel: 0279-88-2212, fax 0279-88-8030)
Description: This is a two-day (Aug. 22-23) event. Day 2 features a talk by Dr. Michael McCarthy on What constitutes a basic vocabulary and an advanced vocabulary. Additionally, there will be three presentations by particiopants. Contact Morijiro Shibayama, mshibaya@jcom.home.ne.jp

Sunday, September 12th, 2004

Learner Opportunities Outside the Classroom

Speaker: Ken Biegel
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., September 12th, 2004)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Gunma
City: Maebashi
Venue: Maebashi Kyoai Gakuen College, 1154-4 Koyahara-machi, Maebashi, Gunma (tel: 027-266-7575)
Description: Teachers are often asked for ways to practice English outside the classroom. This presentation will focus on established organizations, the use of multimedia, and how to best develop Internet resources. We also focus on developing language learning cooperatives and networks through the Internet.

Sunday, October 31st, 2004

Creating a Textbook for the Teaching of English for Science and Technology

Speaker: Tom Goodier, Nodai Niko High School
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., October 31st, 2004)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen (students: 200 yen)
Prefecture: Gunma
City: Maebashi
Venue: MIT: Maebashi Institute of Technology (Maebashi Koka Daigaku), 460-1 Kamisadori, Maebashi
Description: This presentation gives the pedagogical considerations and the rationale for the textbook DISCOVER - English Communication for Science, Technology, and the Environment. Author Tom Goodier talks about the textbook's format, the content incorporated, and the methodologies utilized to develop communicative proficiency. There will also be an opportunity to carry out activities and tasks contained in the textbook. Tom Goodier, educated in England, has a background in Engineering & Computer Technology. He began his TEFL career in Hong Kong in 1988. He has been in Japan since 1989 teaching English at high schools and colleges. He is currently a full time teacher at Nodai Niko High School. He got his masters degree in Applied Linguistics from The University of Southern Queensland. His first EFL textbook was published in 2003. He is a member of IATEFL and JALT.

Sunday, November 28th, 2004

From competition to cooperation: Games in the EFL classroom

Speaker: Chris Hunt
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., November 28th, 2004)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen (students: 200 yen)
Prefecture: Gunma
City: Maebashi
Venue: Maebashi Kyoai Gakuen College, 1154-4 Koyahara-machi, Maebashi, Gunma (tel: 027-266-7575)
Description: Games are an accepted tool for language learning but little thought has been given to the relationship between the structure of games and the effect on learning. Games are not inherently competitive and there are degrees of competitiveness within different game structures. The usefulness of a game for learning purposes can be measured by the lack of competitiveness that it contains.

Competition can be defined as Mutually Exclusive Goal Attainment (Alfie Kohn, No Contest, 1992). I win you lose. Competitive games are goal orientated but the goal is extrinsic to the process. This can lead learners, especially children, to focus on winning rather than on learning. Moreover losing is damaging to self-esteem and self-confidence, both vital in language acquisition. In co-operative games the focus is on the process, i.e. on the learning itself.

Excellence is not victory. Trying to do well and trying to beat others are two different things. Direct experience of different game structures is the best way for teachers to learn how structure affects learning outcomes. Ultimately co-operative structures are more rewarding for students and teachers alike. And that goes for the World, too.

Chris Hunt is no stranger to games. He learnt to play chess at the age of 4 and was making his own games by the age of 7. As a teenager he became interested in role-playing games and created one of his own. His interest in co-operative games came much later after he began teaching English in Japan and observed the difficulties that competitive games can create, especially in the children's classroom. His love of making games is matched only by his interest in creating music. His other passions include collecting juggling balls and writing, examples of which can be seen at the website www.wisehat.com . He is editor of the Teaching Children Special Interest Group's newsletter "Teachers Learning with Children" and a regular contributor to "Snakes and Ladders" and "Think Tank". Chris has been in Japan twelve years.

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