From the Editor...

LLL SIG has had a busy year in 2008, having taken part in several large conferences, including the Pan-SIG conference at Doshisha University in Kyoto and the JALT National Conference in Tokyo, as well as a number of smaller meetings and events. We are already gearing up for this year’s activities, which will include participating in conferences, compiling a resource page for our website and screening submissions for a special lifelong language learning issue of The Language Teacher.

This issue of the LLL SIG newsletter starts with a greeting from the SIG coordinator, Eric Skier, in which he reminds us of upcoming events and urges members to get involved. This is followed by a brief report about LLL SIG’s activities at JALT 2008 and reports by our members-at-large, Curtis Kelly, Kim Bradford-Watts, Martin Pauly and Geoff Sinha, who offer their thoughts about the SIG, past and present. For those of you following the Ueno Park series, we have the sixth installment from Tadashi Ishida. We also have a My Share article from Kim Bradford-Watts in which she explains how to get students involved in planning a party. Finally, please look at the call for submissions for the Lifelong Language Learning Special Issue of The Language Teacher.

Best wishes for 2009.

Julia Harper, co-editor