JALT Talk Newsletter

Hello, and welcome to a special edition of JALT Talk, with timely announcements from the Japan Association for Language Teaching.

2025 Technology in Teaching / Professional Development Workshops

Instead of holding TNT and PD workshops on the Friday of the conference, these workshops have move online, and will be held this weekend (August 9th!)

Workshop Basic details:

Date: August 9th
Time: 11:00 AM - 5:30 PM
Cost: JALT Members: 4,000 yen; non-members: 6,000 yen
Schedule and Registration: https://events.jalt.org/event/46/

Technology in Teaching (TnT)

The current and future reality for language teachers is technology in and surrounding our community of practice. Now, this can be seen negatively or positively. Teachers, learners, and by extension all those connected to the language education field face the challenge of selecting appropriate tools and learning how to use them. The aim of these TnT Workshops is to help participants in attendance navigate their way through the exciting array of educational technologies available, select those that are appropriate for their context, and learn how to effectively make use of them in their educational environments. The TnT workshop leaders, experts with the techniques and technologies they will demonstrate, will offer guidance on using specific technologies, and share ways to best integrate the technologies with language teaching and education practices.

Professional Development (PD)

The technology-based presentations are our digital offering, while the PD workshops are our more analog offering. At these workshops you can learn more about, for example, data analysis approaches for your research study, writing abstracts, developing ideas for research studies, how to enhance your resume, troubleshooting a thesis or dissertation proposal, career planning, etc. Technology may be a dominant feature in our lives as the global pandemic forced educators and learners alike to develop new cyber competencies. The times also pushed educators, learners, researchers, etc. to hone their other competencies. The PD workshops are JALTs way to provide additional support to our community of practice.

JALT International Conference News

JALT2025 Basic details:

Title: 51st Annual International Conference on Language Teaching and Learning & Educational Materials Exhibition
When: Friday, October 31 - Sunday, November 2, 2025
Where: National Youth Olympic Center, Yoyogi, Tokyo
Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/wR973syaJ2PSivbEA
Theme:
LanguageS: Learning, Teaching, Assessing
— JALT 50 Years —
Challenges and Perspectives
General conference information

Registration:

Registration is now open: https://events.jalt.org/event/37/registrations
Early bird registration discounts end October 15th
Presenters: Register by September 15th!
Special discounts for Junior, Student, Senior, and Global Professional Registrations

Plenary Speakers

Plenary Speaker: Naoko Taguchi
Plenary Speaker: Shoko Sasayama
JALT Junior Plenary Speaker: Masato Kaneko 金子正人
Details: https://jalt.org/conference/jalt2025/plenary-speakers/

Panel Discussions

JALT2025 will feature two exclusive panels, new additions to the conference.

Details: https://jalt.org/conference/jalt2025/featured-panels/

Plenary Themed Panel Discussion (Friday, October 31st, 2025)

Title: Perspectives on Internationalization in and for Japan
Moderators: Samuel Nfor and Emily Choong
Panelists:
- Naoko Taguchi (Northern Arizona University)
- Shoko Sasayama (Waseda University)
- Masato Kaneko (Yokohama City Minami Yoshida Elementary School)
- Kuniaki Sato (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT))
- Kazumi Sakai (Dokkyo University)

Theme Featured Panel Discussion (Sunday, November 2nd, 2025)

Title: Language Revitalization: Ainu, Southern Ryukyuan, Māori, and Welsh languages
Moderators: Maria Gabriela Schmidt and Anton Potgieter
Panelists:
- Kathryn Jones (Direcctor, IAITH: Welsh Centre for Language Planning)
- Sachiyo Fujita-Round (Daito Bunka University)
- Matthew Cotter (Hokusei Gakuen University)

Invited and Featured Speakers

Details: https://jalt.org/conference/jalt2025/invited-and-featured-speakers/

Invited Speakers

Invited Speaker (Asian Scholar): Ladomchanh Khantry
Invited Speaker (Kevin Cleary): Kinsella Valies

Featured Speakers

Eileen Küepper (Sponsored by ICLE SIG)
Noriko Nagai (Sponsored by CEFR LP SIG)
(Possibly more to be confirmed)

Childcare

Childcare will be available during the conference. Details will be announced soon. We hope that this encourages parents and caregivers to apply to give a presentation or poster at JALT2025.