Getting Japanese Students to Speak Up / Eliminating “dead time” in the classroom

November 21 @ 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM

This Autumn Workshop is sponsored by Alma Publishing .

Bruno Vannieu, Alma Publishing (19:30 – 20:15)
Getting Japanese Students to Speak Up
Registered participants of the Autumn Workshop will receive free access to the Udemy course Getting Your Students to Speak in the Japanese Classroom (normally ¥3600). This 70-minute course, featuring real classroom footage, presents a practical framework for energizing any Japanese EFL classroom—regardless of students’ initial motivation or class size. In the workshop, we’ll look at several key strategies from the course. Ideally, participants will have viewed the course beforehand, so we can dive straight into discussion. But don’t worry, everyone is welcome to join, even if you haven’t had the chance to go through it yet.

Bruno Vannieu has been teaching French at the university level in Japan for over 25 years, including eleven years at Kobe University, where he was honored with the Best Teacher Award on six occasions. His research centers on intercultural communication and language pedagogy. He is the author of Getting Your Students to Speak in the Japanese Classroom and has co-authored numerous French and English language textbooks.

Stephen Richmond, Bukkyo University (20:15 – 21:00)
Eliminating “dead time” in the classroom – Techniques for keeping as many students on task for as long as humanly possible
In speaking classes, we want to make some time to interact with students one-on-one; whether that is giving conversation tests, listening to their oral production, or giving direct feedback. But what do other students do while teachers are working with individuals or pairs? In this workshop, we’ll go over a few simple ideas to keep our students focussed and on task during those times.

Stephen Richmond has been teaching EFL in Japan and researching intercultural communication since 1999. He currently teaches at Bukkyo University in Kyoto. He has written and co-written several English language textbooks and phrasebooks, and has been involved in editing and translating newspapers, magazines, and other media.

Register now to get the Zoom link and your Udemy coupon:
https://form.jotform.com/almalang/2025-autumn-workshop-registration

Building Intercultural Understanding: From Simulation to Skill – Eileen Kuepper, of the University of Applied Sciences Bonn-Rhein-Sieg

November 8 @ 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

What happens when students take the lead in building intercultural understanding through language? This workshop explores student-centered simulation as a powerful tool for language development, global competence, and reflective learning. Based on the Intercultural & Social Entrepreneurship Exchange (ISEE)—a long-running international collaboration between students in Germany, Jordan, Kosovo, and China—participants will explore how learners design, adapt, and reflect on fictional business ideas across cultural boundaries.

The workshop guides attendees through sample activities where students act as entrepreneurs, collaborators, and cultural analysts. Participants will engage in a brief simulation, consider the role of cultural difference in shaping communication and teamwork, and explore how learners synthesize theory and experience through final presentations and guided cultural reflection.

Discussion will focus on how such simulations promote language use in authentic, purposeful tasks, build intercultural awareness, and encourage learners to take ownership of their progress. Attendees will also receive low-threshold, adaptable templates, reflection prompts, and a project planning framework to design their own intercultural experiences with minimal resources.

Whether you’re teaching business English, CLIL, general EFL, or global citizenship, this session will offer practical, student-centered strategies for fostering meaningful cultural engagement and language growth.

Eileen Kuepper (Küpper) is a Senior Lecturer in Intercultural Communication and English at the Language Center of the University of Applied Sciences Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, in Germany. Her academic interests include international exchange, intercultural business communication, and diversity management. She actively develops summer schools in underrepresented study-abroad destinations and promotes low-threshold internationalisation at home to enhance students’ intercultural competence, support inclusive student development, and broaden perspectives on global academic engagement.

The meeting will take place in Room 6 of the Osaka Municipal Lifelong Learning Center, on the 5th floor of the Ekimae Dai-2 Building in Umeda.

RSVP HERE to let us know how many to expect for the meeting, and for dinner and drinks afterward.

JALT members and full-time students: FREE, Non-members: ¥1000