Gunma Chapter

(Read the archived description for the Gunma Chapter)

Gunma Chapter Events in 2008

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

Sunday, January 27th, 2008

Creating and Maintaining Student Autonomy

Speaker: Tomomi Katsuki
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., January 27th, 2008)
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: Most students' English learning time is a few hours a week with their teacher. As learners of language ourselves, we know this is never enough to reach a good level of competence. How can we motivate our students to study outside of class? The presenter will consider what materials they should choose drawing from texts available from Cambridge University Press.

Sunday, February 24th, 2008

Once upon a time in an EFL classroom: Stories as a window to culture and language

Speaker: Renee Sawazaki
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., February 24th, 2008)
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 workshop will focus on practical techniques for encouraging students, even at the beginning level, to use stories in order to not only build language skills, but to gain insights into foreign cultures. The speaker will share her experiences of incorporating folk tales and stories in her courses for non-English majors. Participants will try out some of these practices and consider how they could adapt them to their own teaching situation. These techniques can be readily used for students in high school and up. Benefits for language development include vocabulary acquisition, contextualized input and guided output tasks for fluency skills development. The speaker will also share her unique model for cultural understanding and demonstrate how she encourages students to apply it when analyzing a culture based on a folk tale.

Renee Sawazaki has taught EFL in Japan for 16 years and has been happily involved in Gunma JALT for the past 12. She has a Masters in Teaching from the School for International Training in Vermont, is an associate professor of English at Surugadai University in Saitama, and coordinates Rainbow Families, a literacy-based study group for bilingual children. Her primary interests include EFL methodology and materials development, early childhood education, intercultural understanding and storytelling.

Sunday, April 27th, 2008

Teaching Spanish in Japan

Speaker: Maria Fernandez
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., April 27th, 2008)
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: Even though English is the main language taught in Japan, at university level other European languages such as French, German or Spanish are also offered. The speaker is eager to share her experience teaching Spanish in Japan and will describe the university curriculum, the students background, profile, needs and objectives as well as the materials mostly used by Spanish teachers.

Sunday, May 18th, 2008

From Research to Video Blog: A Final Project for Japanese University Students

Speaker: John Spiri
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., May 18th, 2008)
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: University students in Japan can benefit by conducting research in English. The presenter will describe a final project for first and second year students at a university of technology in Japan involving research, writing, revising, presenting, and finally uploading a video of the presentations onto a class blog, with corresponding text, for review, discussion, and future students. University students in Japan can benefit by conducting research in English. The presenter will describe a final project for first and second year students at a university of technology in Japan involving research, writing, revising, presenting, and finally uploading a video of the presentations onto a class blog, with corresponding text, for review, discussion, and future students.

Saturday, June 7th, 2008

Critical Approaches to Teaching Writing: Mindfulness and the power of "no"

Speaker: Marlen Harrison
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sat., June 7th, 2008)
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: As "World Englishes" continue to dominate discussions of writing pedagogy, instructors ponder acceptable uses/performances of written language. In this lively discussion, we'll use Thich Nhat Han's Mindfulness Trainings as inspiration to consider L2 writing instruction and assessment, correcting student writing, and our identities as instructors.

Sunday, July 20th, 2008

Validity and validation of language tests

Speaker: Rie Koizumi (Tokiwa University)
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., July 20th, 2008)
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: Validity and validation are highly important to the development and use of language tests. In this presentation, I will first describe the concept of validity and the procedures of validation using examples from projects I have been involved in. I will also organize a workshop to demonstrate techniques to develop tests with high content validity (e.g., writing test specifications).

Saturday, August 23rd, 2008

Kusatsu Summer Seminar, August 23-24 (Two-Day Event)

Speaker: Main Speaker: Kim Bradford-Watts,M.A., Kyoto Women's University
Time: 1:00 PM - 8:00 PM (Sat., August 23rd, 2008)
Fee (JALT members): 9000 yen (Program, 3000 yen; Room and Board 6000 yen)
Fee (One-Day members): 9000 yen (Program, 3000 yen; Room and Board 6000yen)
Prefecture: Gunma
City: Kusatsu
Venue: Kusatsu Seminar House, 737 Kusatsu, Kusatsu-machi, Guma-ken (venue tel: 0279-88-2212, fax 0279-88-8030)
Description: The lecturers: 1) Speaking Skills: Theory and materials we use, 2) Classroom management in the speaking class.

Presentations: Participants are welcome to make a presentation. (5 slots, 30 min. each)

August 23: 13:00-13:30 Registration, 13:30-1350 Orientation, 14:00-14:30 Presentation, 14:30-15:00 Presentation, 15:30-17:00 Lecture(1), 18:00-20:00 Dinner&Party

August 24: 7:00-8:00 Breakfast, 9:00-930 Presentation, 9:30-10:00 Presentation, !0:30-12:00 Lecture(2), 12:00-13:00 Lunch, 13:00-13:30 Presentation, 13:30-14:00 Closing & Farewell

For more information contact Morijiro Shibayama mshibaya@jcom.home.ne.jp, Barry Keith barryekeith@gmail.com, Michele Steele psisnowar@ybb.ne.jp

Sunday, September 21st, 2008

Becoming Bilingual in Asia

Speaker: Jason Good
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., September 21st, 2008)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Gunma
City: Maebashi
Venue: Ikuei Junior College, 1656-1, Kyome-cho, Takasaki, Gunma (tel: 027-352-1981)
Description: This year there are more than 100 registered bilingual and international schools in Bangkok, both public and private. Taiwan has 12 large bilingual schools across the country, including a government sponsored bilingual school which with a 20 year history. In Korea, thousands of children from elementary to high school are attending after school English programs, some of which are on the same level as native English speakers. Let's discuss the bilingual school movement that is sweeping across Asia, and how Japan fits into the picture.

Sunday, October 26th, 2008

Exploring Portfolio Assessment in the EFL Classroom

Speaker: Steve Quasha
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sun., October 26th, 2008)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1000 yen; first-timers free
Prefecture: Gunma
City: Maebashi
Venue: MIT: Maebashi Institute of Technology (Maebashi Koka Daigaku), 460-1 Kamisadori, Maebashi
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.

Saturday, November 8th, 2008

Developing 4 Skills of Language Acquisition with Picture Books and Stories

Speaker: Naoko McLellan
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Sat., November 8th, 2008)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1000 yen; first-timers, free
Prefecture: Gunma
City: Maebashi
Venue: MIT: Maebashi Institute of Technology (Maebashi Koka Daigaku), 460-1 Kamisadori, Maebashi
Description: In this presentation, the presenter will share how 4 skills of language acquisition can be guided using stories and picture books in the classroom in Elementary Schools with the understanding of the development of learning process. Stories as holistic approaches to language learning will expand or branch into many different directions, allowing students to pursue personal interests through foreign language.

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