The Japan Association for Language Teaching

Fukuoka Chapter

(Read the archived description for the Fukuoka Chapter)

Fukuoka Chapter Events in 2005

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

Saturday, April 9th, 2005

Whose English is Better, Anyway, the Queen's or the President's? Which Features Are Different, and Which Are the Same?

Speaker: Kenneth G. Schaefer, Temple University Japan
Time: 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM (Sat., April 9th, 2005)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Fukuoka
City: Fukuoka
Venue: Fukuoka Jo Gakuin Tenjin Satellite Campus (9F), Tenjin 2-8-38, Chuo-ku, Fukuoka-shi map
Description: Dr. Schaefer's first presentation will be a brief historical account of the differences between British and American English and the features that mark the differences. This presentation will also focus on how Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand English fit into the international picture.

The second presentation will focus on the importance of intonation in English. It will start with a definition of the suprasegmental features of English (pitch, stress, length, and juncture) and will then focus on how these features are used to do specific things in English. The presentation will include an summary of the differences between Japanese and English intonation and will include suggestions for teaching intonation in EFL classes.

Saturday, May 28th, 2005

Creating and Using Dialogues Productively

Speaker: Mike Guest, Miyazaki Medical College
Time: 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM (Sat., May 28th, 2005)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Fukuoka
City: Fukuoka
Venue: Fukuoka Jo Gakuin Tenjin Satellite Campus (9F), Tenjin 2-8-38, Chuo-ku, Fukuoka-shi map
Description: Dialogues, both written and spoken, are a regular feature of language learning classrooms. However, a poorly-written or poorly-utilized dialogue can be detrimental to language learning development, as well as being a waste of energy for students and teachers. In this workshop, Mike Guest will demonstrate some guidelines and principles from which productive and meaningful dialogues can be created. These include considerations such as clarifying environmental factors of a text, utilizing appropriate discourse signals, and indicating the psychological condition of the participants. Guest will also provide concrete suggestions as to how dialogues can be incorporated into more extended activities such as role-plays, skits or other projects.

Saturday, June 25th, 2005

Fostering Awareness of Learning Styles and Alternative Approaches to Learning English

Speaker: Steve Brown, Professor at Konan Women's University in Kobe and JALT President
Time: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM (Sat., June 25th, 2005)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Fukuoka
City: Fukuoka
Venue: Fukuoka Jo Gakuin Tenjin Satellite Campus (9F), Tenjin 2-8-38, Chuo-ku, Fukuoka-shi map
Description: Learners in colleges and universities are often left to their own devices when it comes to furthering their English studies outside the classroom. Having emerged from an exam-passing approach to get into the college or university, many of them are not quite sure how to set about improving their English, or even of what works (or doesn't work) for them. In this presentation, Steve Brown describes and evaluates an orientation programme for incoming students in the English Department of a women's junior college. The programme was aimed at fostering students' awareness of their own learning styles, and also at alerting them to alternative approaches to learning English. This won't be a one-way presentation. Steve will show some of the approaches used in the programme - active participation is encouraged! He also hopes to share ideas for ways in which this kind of programme might work in other contexts and institutions.

JALT Open Mike

The presentation will be followed by an Open Mike session, when everyone can chance to ask questions, suggest ideas and share their concerns, complaints and opinions. Enjoy a no-holds-barred session with JALT's current President, Steve Brown!

Brief Bio

Steve Brown has been teaching in Japan for 20 years and before that in the UK and Kuwait. He's interested in autonomy in language learning and has been Coordinator of the Learner Development SIG, as well as serving as Site Chair and Programme Chair at recent national conferences.

Saturday, July 9th, 2005

The Implication of Japanese Loan Words in English Vocabulary Instruction/Officer Elections

Speaker: Lyndon Small, Fukuoka University
Time: 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM (Sat., July 9th, 2005)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Fukuoka
City: Fukuoka
Venue: Fukuoka Jo Gakuin Tenjin Satellite Campus (9F), Tenjin 2-8-38, Chuo-ku, Fukuoka-shi map
Description: With a descriptive linguistic focus, the first part of the presentation will detail the four major lexico-grammatical patterns of gairaig (loan words), including numerous sub-categories. Discussion will then highlight issues relating to word knowledge and the explicit teaching of loan word types to Japanese learners of English. The suggestion is that gairaigo can help learners to expand both their English vocabulary and their awareness of vocabulary acquired in Japanese.

Bio: Lyndon graduated with an M.Ed (TESOL) from the University of New England, Australia. In Japan, he has taught English for the last 12 years at senior high school and university level. He has published research on gairaigo and is interested in the associated fields of sematics and vocabulary acquisition.

Fukuoka JALT will also hold officer elections on this date.

Saturday, September 17th, 2005

Two Sessions on Communicative CALL

Speaker: Ian Brown, Kyoto Sangyo University
Time: 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM (Sat., September 17th, 2005)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): 1,000 yen
Prefecture: Fukuoka
City: Fukuoka
Venue: Fukuoka Jo Gakuin Tenjin Satellite Campus (9F), Tenjin 2-8-38, Chuo-ku, Fukuoka-shi map
Description: Session 1: The Communicative CALL Teacher

This session will look at the role of the successful Communicative CALL teacher. Using computers should be no different to using whiteboards and CD players and the same communicative methodology used in the classroom can and should be applied when using CALL. Successful CALL is built on integration to the curriculum with proficient guidance from teachers that can provide many advantages for communicative teaching. As well as providing a theoretic underpinning, practical ideas and guidelines to 'good' CALL teaching will be discussed.

Session 2 Sample Communicative CALL Lesson Activities

This session will demonstrate practical activities for using the WWW for communicative CALL, revolving around commonly used topics such as newspapers, weather, movies and recipes. They build on a number of language skills and can be adapted for different levels. All activities include pre and/or post classroom lessons and procedures, demonstrating how CALL can be used communicatively and integrated to classroom study. Complete lesson plans and procedures will be provided that the participants will be able to use in their classes

Bio

Ian Brown (Grad. Dip Ed TESOL, Master of Ed TESOL) is currently teaching at Kyoto Sangyo University. His teaching background spans over fifteen years with experience teaching in Japan, Australia and Thailand. He has a long interest in CALL and for a number of years coordinated all aspects of the extensive CALL program at the Australian Centre of Languages in Sydney. He has presented papers and workshops on various aspects of ELT and CALL at conferences and workshops in Japan, Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Friday, October 21st, 2005

Questions & Considerations for Teaching Vocabulary

Speaker: I. S. Paul Nation, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Time: 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM (Fri., October 21st, 2005)
Fee (JALT members): free (also free for Temple Univeristy students)
Fee (One-Day members): free
Prefecture: Fukuoka
City: Fukuoka
Venue: Tsukushi Kaikan, Tenjin 4-8-10, Chuo-ku, Fukuoka-shi map
Description: Recent writing on first language vocabulary learning (Baumann and Kame'enui, 2004) has focused quite strongly on the value of teaching vocabulary, seeing teaching as being a very positive thing to do. This paper shows that teaching vocabulary has very limited value because of the very small contribution that teaching can make to overall knowledge of a word. Teaching can also have negative effects if it is not done well. Good teaching needs to focus on high frequency words, avoid interference, involve rich instruction, involve thoughtful processing, take account of spaced retrieval, direct attention to underlying concepts, and provide learner training in vocabulary learning. Direct teaching should only be a small part of a well-balanced vocabulary program which provides opportunities for learning through meaning-focused input, meaning -focused output, language-focused learning, and fluency development.

Paul Nation is a professor in Applied Linguistics in the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He has taught in Indonesia, Thailand, the United States, Finland, and Japan. His specialist interests are language teaching methodology and vocabulary learning. His latest book is Learning Vocabulary in Another Language published by Cambridge University Press (2001).

This event is being co-sponsored by Temple University Japan.

Saturday, October 29th, 2005

Significant Scribbles: From sentence combining to diary writing

Speaker: Curtis Kelly, Osaka Gakuin University
Time: 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM (Sat., October 29th, 2005)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): free (co-sponsored by Pearson Longman)
Prefecture: Fukuoka
City: Fukuoka
Venue: Fukuoka Jo Gakuin Tenjin Satellite Campus (9F), Tenjin 2-8-38, Chuo-ku, Fukuoka-shi map
Description: Sentence combining has been around since the 1960's, but it has been largely overlooked, despite research showing its effectiveness. Recent findings in brain studies, however, suggest that we have grossly underestimated the power of this unusual technique for teaching grammar and writing. The presenter will explain what sentence combining is, discuss some of the research that shows its unique advantages, and demonstrate a grammar/writing course that incorporates this methodology. The course, Longman's in Significant Scribbles New Edition, has students doing sentence combining on one hand while engaging in extensive writing on the other, through diaries, key-pal writing, or making stories about pictures. This dual approach allows students to employ newly-gained grammar and writing skills almost instantaneously. The participants will engage in discussions on how we can employ new insights on learning, and how to attend to both the linguistic and psychological needs of learners.

Curtis Kelly, a 25-year resident of Japan, is the author of Significant Scribbles, Basics in Writing, The Snoop Detective Conversation Book, and the Writing from Within series. He is a professor of English at Osaka Gakuin University and has a doctorate in adult education. He recently finished a Ministry of Education research project on using e-learning to train Japanese elementary school English teachers. Because of his specialties - teaching English writing, Adult Education, teaching children English, and storytelling - he often presents in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. He has also hosted weekly television and radio shows on local Japanese networks.

This event will be co-sponsored by Pearson Longman. Pearson Longman will have a book display at the venue and every attendee will also get a copy of Significant Scribbles (new edition).

Saturday, November 26th, 2005

Two Presentions: Teaching Listening to Low-Level Learners & Teaching the Strategies of Speaking

Speaker: Alastair Graham-Marr, ABAX
Time: 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM (Sat., November 26th, 2005)
Fee (JALT members): free
Fee (One-Day members): free
Prefecture: Fukuoka
City: Fukuoka
Venue: Tsukushi Kaikan, Tenjin 4-8-10, Chuo-ku, Fukuoka-shi map
Description: Part I: Teaching Listening to Low-Level Learners

Teaching listening effectively means teaching both phonology and knowledge of discourse. A working knowledge of the phonology of natural connected speech, elisions and liaisons, weak forms and reductions helps students with their 'bottom-up' decoding skills. Developing student knowledge of discourse, particularly of scripts (those discourses in English that tend to follow a set pattern) helps them with their 'top-down' predictive skills.

Part II: Teaching the Strategies of Speaking: Helping Students with Fluency, Involvement and Clarification Strategies

All of us use strategies when we speak. We use strategies to confirm or clarify what we're saying and what we're hearing, to show interest, to maintain and develop conversations and to help with fluency. This talk introduces a new speaking and listening text, Communication Spotlight, that in addition to giving students practice in talking and helping them with the means to do so, helps students be aware of and learn to use these different communication strategies.

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The Japan Association for Language Teaching
Urban Edge Bldg 5F, 1-37-9 Taito, Taito-ku, Tokyo 110-0016, Japan
Tel: 0352885443