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A Day Celebrating Learner Development: Work in
Progress
Speaker: Andy Barfield, Mike Nix, Stacy Vye, Yoko Wakui, Eiko
Iwata, Marlen Harrison, Kathi Kitao, Ellen Head, Denise
Haugh, Amy Fenning, Matthew Apple, Larry Metzger, and
more!
Time: 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM (10:00 - 17:00)
Description:
Co-sponsored by Osaka Chapter and the Learner Development
SIG, the morning session will feature a panel discussion with
speakers who recently attended the conference on “Autonomy:
Maintaining Control” in Hong Kong and Huangzhou, China. The
afternoon will offer a chance to preview a variety of presentations
before the LD forum at JALT’s national conference in November.
Whether you have been conducting an action research project, are
thinking about starting one, or just want to know more about some
interesting things that others have been doing in their classrooms,
bring your experiences, ideas, and questions for a day of sharing
and learning.
Place: Osaka City Municipal Lifelong Learning Center, on the fifth
floor of Umeda's Dai-2 Building, just southeast and across the
street from the Hilton Hotel. Tel: 06-6345-5000 http://www.manabi.
city.osaka.jp/
Cost: members 200 yen / 100 for student members; "One-day
members" 2000 yen / 1200 yen for full-time students..
Saturday, November 13th, 2004
Support for Narrow Listening Libraries, followed by
Annual Chapter Business Meeting and Officers' Election
Speaker: Brian Caspino, Himeji Dokkyo University
Time: 6:30 PM - 8:45 PM (18:30 - 20:45)
Description:
Learners may feel overwhelmed when encountering uncontrolled
casual conversation for the first time. Narrow Listening, the
repeated listening of native speakers answering a question familiar
and interesting to both speaker and listener, can be a powerful
listening resource for the second language learner from beginning
to highly-advanced stages of language acquisition. Attendees will
be provided with an introduction to the rationale and ideas behind
Narrow Listening. The speaker will also present a recent study of
student reaction to Narrow Listening and some ideas for designing
a Narrow Listening library.
Annual Chapter officers election and business meeting/dinner party
will follow presentation. Come learn about listening and then help
chart our Chapter's course for the coming year.
Place: Osaka City Municipal Lifelong Learning Center, on the fifth
floor of Umeda's Dai-2 Building, just southeast and across the
street from the Hilton Hotel. Tel: 06-6345-5000 http://www.manabi.
city.osaka.jp/
Cost: members free; "One-day members" 1000 yen / 600 yen for
full-time students.
Report:
Support for Narrow Listening Libraries
Speaker: Brian Caspino, Himeji Dokkyo University
Brian Caspino presented some compelling preliminary research on
Narrow Listening Libraries to the very interested members of the
audience at an Osaka JALT Chapter meeting in mid-November.
Using Krashen and Dupuy's model of 'narrow listening' (listening
repeatedly to brief answers to a small set of interesting questions
as supplied by several different speakers), Brian created a set of
listening materials and asked a group of volunteer subjects to rate
their helpfulness in improving listening comprehension. According
to his results, 100% of the students found Narrow Listening to be
helpful or very helpful in improving listening comprehension.
Variations in student appreciation seemed to correlate strongly with
TOEIC scores (higher and lower-level scoring students found the
materials to be more useful than students with mid-range scores).
A lively discussion and some suggestions for extending and
adapting the model followed his presentation.
Report by:Deryn P. Verity, Ph.D. Professor, Osaka Jogakuin
College
Report:
Thanks to everyone involved, we had an eventful JALT meeting on
Saturday, Novermber 13th. The evening began with Brian
Caspino adding to our knowledge of listening comprehension in his
presentation and argument for Narrow Listening, a technique
originally developed by Stephen Krashen. It`s a rather simple, but
effective tool where students are asked to generate topics and
questions that are of interest to them. They then go out and record
native speakers answering their questions. These tapes provide
material for the repeated listening of naturally spoken
conversation. This is great for listening comprehension,
pronunciation, and developing confidence in the target language.
The meeting continued over dinner and drinks at Asian Kitchen.
I`m sure I don`t just speak for myself when I say just as much
valuable information was shared over dinner as at the actual
meeting. We also voted on our 2004-2005 Osaka Executive
Committee. Here are the results:
Bob Sanderson (President)
Marlen Harrison (Treasurer)
Brian Caspino (Program Chair)
Cameron Romney (Membership Chair)
Steve Silsbee (Publicity Chair)
Kurt Hartje (Website Editor & Refreshments Chair)
Pam Wolpoff (Recording Secretary)
Anne-Marie Tanahashi, Steve Cornwell, and Deryn Verity
(Members at Large)
A special thanks to those members who have agreed to serve as
Chapter Officers. Together we will make this an exciting year to
come. I`m looking forward to seeing everyone and MORE at our
next Osaka meeting.
Report by: Pam Wolpoff
Friday, November 19th, 2004
National Conference Committee national (Nara Prefecture)
30th annual JALT International Conference (day 1 of 4)
Speaker: Various speakers
Time: 4:00 PM - 9:00 PM (16:00 - 21:00)
Description:
The theme of the 30th annual JALT International Conference is
Language Learning for Life. The focus is on creating an awareness
of what enhances students' interest and skills in a foreign language
for a lifetime. See the JALT Conference website http://jalt.
org/jalt2004 for full details.
Place: Tezukayama University, Nara
Cost: members See the Conference website; "One-day members"
See the JALT Conference website http://jalt.org/jalt2004 for full
details).
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