2022 Back to School Presentation Abstracts

Jennifer Yphantides – A grassroots effort to help Ukrainian refugees learn English

In this session, the presenter will discuss a grassroots effort she began with a former colleague to support refugees from Ukraine as they settle into their new lives in the UK. The session will cover how the initiative started, some of the successes, and a number of the practical challenges including checking teachers, finding appropriate materials, and supporting students with trauma.

Lori Zenuk-Nishide – Model United Nations: Building English as a lingua franca and 21st century learning skills

This presentation will introduce some insights drawn from research on ELF (English as a Lingua Franca) in MUN (Model United Nations) simulations and will summarize some of the best practices in MUN events and delegate preparation. Model United Nations (MUN) simulations are uniquely positioned to help students develop their language ability and their global competencies, as well as being ideal opportunities for participants to experience ELF in an intensely communicative context. 

Paschal Orjika – Self-directed learning in the university classroom

This presentation is a professional contribution to university research and learning. It presents the benefits of self-directed learning as a teaching method at universities. Self-directed learning is best introduced to students during the transition period from high school to the university (Van et al, 2015), and then reinforced throughout the university years. Interestingly, self-directed learning does not end within the university walls - it does exist beyond those walls.

John Carle – How to create a digital workbook

The presenter will detail how he was able to create a digital workbook on a publisher’s version of the ZenGengo platform and successfully bring it to market. He will share his knowledge and resources so that any educator can make their online vision a reality. Participants will learn how to create content that far surpasses Google Forms and other similar learning tools. Please join us and feel free to ask any questions.

Wade Muncil – Starting a startup from the start

In this presentation, Muncil provides an overview of the current situation with start-ups, then moves on to the relevance and application of start-ups in education. He offers a template for an assignment from Fall semester, 2021, along with a student-made video based on that assignment. Attendees are welcome to use the template to craft their own assignment related to their teaching context.

Eucharia Donnery – The International Virtual Exchange (IVE) Project: Meeting low-level EFL learner needs

After six years of accuracy-based English study at JHS and SHS, the International Virtual Exchange (IVE) Project offers an alternative for Japanese university students to meaningfully communicate with people THROUGH English. The (IVE) Project can provide low-level university learners with counterparts predominantly in Colombia, as well as other countries including Taiwan, Indonesia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Kenya among others. The presentation traces the journeys of three students over a two-semester period, and how their writing developed.

Terry Tuttle – A how-to video activity sequence for Japanese high school EFL students

Many conversation textbooks offer an insufficient volume of meaningful use for the language features they cover. This activity sequence uses real videos from TikTok and YouTube as authentic materials to supplement a textbook unit on using imperative form for instructions and advice. Students are guided through a modular activity set from listening comprehension exercises through guided practice, before finally scripting and filming their own instructional videos for evaluation.

Paul Goldberg – Xreading: What’s new and what’s next

Xreading is an online library that gives students access to thousands of graded readers and allows instructors to track their students’ reading progress. Since its launch in 2014, the system is being continuously being updated and improved with new features and more books. In this presentation, the founder of Xreading will explain the new features and improvements, and review what is planned for the future.

Paul Mathieson & Claire Murray – The AWL Readers: An Academic Vocabulary Story

Authentic academic materials rarely have sufficient academic vocabulary range and frequency to facilitate meaningful academic vocabulary learning. Against this background, the presenter wrote a fictional graded reader series (‘The AWL Readers’). The AWL Readers follow the adventures (and misadventures) of a fictional university student and her unusual friend. They include all 570 AWL words, with spaced repetition.  This presentation will discuss how and why the AWL Readers were created and how they can be used.

Thomas Boutorwick – ESL Speed Readings, the free mobile app

Speed reading, part of Nation's (2013) fluency strand, is an important language learning skill. This presentation introduces a free speed reading app which includes 120 graded stories. Each of these stories has a comprehension quiz consisting of 8-10 multiple-choice questions. The app manages the administrative tasks of speed reading, including automatic quiz scoring and data visualization. By doing so, learners can focus on increasing their reading speed and not worry about the details.

Zoe Barber – (Un)willing to communicate?: Incorporating different modes of participation in the classroom

The strong emphasis placed on oral production and willingness to communicate (WTC) in Japanese EFL contexts has led to the conflation of L2 oral production and active participation. This approach ignores other participation modes that contribute significantly to learners' L2 acquisition and active participation. By reconceptualizing classroom participation as “willingness to participate” (WTP), EFL teachers can accommodate multiple participation styles. This presentation will give suggestions for incorporating alternative and silent participation modes into classroom practice.

Anthony Walsh – A step-by-step guide for speech contests

This presentation will provide helpful recommendations in facilitating a speech contest. Setting up a well-structured event requires timeframes for contestants to transition smoothly. Therefore, it is imperative to design guidelines for judges to keep score. Incidentally, scoring mechanisms takes out all the disagreements on selecting a winner. Furthermore, having goals clearly outlined helps participants prepare for reading aloud whether that is online or in front of an audience. 

Elizabeth Leigh – A tour of the “Zero-waste” town of Kamikatsu, Tokushima prefecture

Kamikatsu’s residents sort waste into 45 types in 13 categories, and managed to recycle 81% of all their refuse in 2016. This presentation describes a recent tour of this town, which was the first municipality in Japan to put into effect a “Zero Waste” policy.

Eric Martin & Robert Kerrigan – Presentation and evaluation of an Extensive Listening program using Xreading

The researchers will describe an extensive listening, and an extensive listening with textual support, pilot program conducted in 2021 in which university ELF learners listened to graded readers independently over one semester. The researchers will also present the results of the study and suggestions for alterations to the program and future research. These include ideas for setting appropriate goals and for scaffolding learners away from textual support to focus on listening exclusively and successfully.

Michael Herke – From the known to the new: Everyday creative arguments for language learning

Arguments (minimally defined as a claim plus a reason to accept it) are not only ubiquitous in daily interactions, but are also an essential mechanism for creating new knowledge and, therefore, they should have a central place in 21st century classrooms. Participants will learn the core features of argument and their functions, what differentiates arguments, and, most importantly, meet a wide range of examples that can be easily imported into traditional language learning activities. 

Matthew Wiegand – Re-evaluating expectations of camera use in online language classes

Students and teachers have varying expectations about camera use during online language classes in platforms like Zoom. Furthermore teachers know of students' resistance to camera use. Some feel strongly and require that cameras should be turned on. However my research shows that students felt ambivalence - only 26% thought it was important to keep cameras on. My research shows there are many valid and interesting reasons for this. Perhaps it is time to reevaluate our expectations. 

Mehrasa Alizadeh – Professional development and distance learning with Gather.Town: A preliminary report

This show-and-tell presentation is a report on the experimental use of a Metaverse-like platform called Gather.Town in a JALT professional development (PD) event and at an elementary school and a university class. The presenter will talk about the features of the platform and make a comparison to Zoom and other teleconferencing tools. She will then showcase what went on at the PD event and the online classes in reference to transformative learning design.

Hanami!

Our first Hanami social since the start of the pandemic, in Osaka Castle Park!

Sunday, April 10, 2022 - 12:00pm to 5:00pm

NOTICE: Due to rain in the weather forecast for April 3rd, our hanami has been postponed until Sunday, APRIL 10th.

Fingers crossed the weather will be nice and there will still be some cherry blossoms on the trees!

Come join the Osaka JALT team for some friendly peer-, near-peer-, and community mentoring and networking at our first hanami event since before the start of the pandemic, in Osakajokoen (Osaka Castle Park)! This year will undoubtedly be more low-key than in more normal times, but it's a FREE event that's open to everyone, so please feel free to bring family, friends, colleagues, students, and anyone you like. Look for our blue JALT banner on the south side of the park, due south of the castle and north of the NTT Building, an easy walk from Morinomiya or Tanimachiyonchome metro stations. We'll have some snacks and drinks to share and plastic sheets to sit on, so stop by empty handed or bring something to eat and drink if you like, maybe an additional sheet to sit on, and most importantly a happy vibe to celebrate the cherry blossoms, the coming of spring, and the start of the new academic year (and hopefully a return to at least a semblance of more normal times)! Stop by when you can for as long or as short as you like.

Check back closer to the date for updates. In case of rain this event will be postponed until Sunday, April 10.

We will be here, just look for the Osaka JALT flag!

JALT 2022 in Fukuoka

Learning from Students, Educating Teachers—Research and Practice

Friday, November 11, 2022 to Monday, November 14, 2022 Fukuoka International Congress Center

48th Annual Conference on Language Teaching and Learning & Educational Materials Exhibition

On behalf of the JALT Conference Planning Team, and broader JALT community, I am delighted to announce that we will be returning to a face-to-face conference in Fukuoka City, Japan for JALT2022.

Recently, the renowned linguist Larry Selinker quoted the Talmud on his social media page when he posted the following: "Much I have learned from my teachers, even more I have learned from my colleagues, but from my students I have learned more than anyone else" (Ta'anit 7a). All of us who are language teachers will find ourselves quietly nodding in agreement as we think about the enduring truth of this statement. Even as students learn much from us during our language lessons, if we are open, intentional, and inquisitive, we find equally that our learners become our teachers. They help us to improve as we develop new practices and insights for teaching them and others later on. This idea is reflected in this year’s conference theme: Learning from Students, Educating Teachers—Research and Practice. During this conference, participants will be able to share classroom research on what they have learned from their learners, and in doing so, enrich all of us in the common goal of improving our students' second language learning experience. If you are a learner planning to attend, you will find a community open to your experiences and insights.

By evoking the word "experience," this implies that our pursuit takes place not within a closed circle, but also with administrators, publishers, and others who have chosen to partner with us in promoting language acquisition education. They are also invited to share what they have learned so that together, we can make a lasting impact in our language learners' lives.

To those ends, I hope that you'll make the journey to Fukuoka and share your experiences, research, and informed insights. As you prepare, here are some questions for reflecting not only on what you might have to share, but also what you might wish to explore:

• What was one of the most interesting things I learned this year as a language teacher?
• What is one of the biggest problems I have constantly faced in my current teaching environment? What have I done in response? What worked? What hasn't worked?
• What are the things that students do in my classes that help me to develop as a language teacher?
• What is one aspect of my teaching that I would like to improve?
• To what degree does what I do in the class match with what I believe is a teacher?
• In what way can my classroom research help improve the practices of other language teachers?

Many more questions of this sort could be asked, but even from this small sample, I think you will begin to see that the answers you have—as well as a realization that you may not have many answers, help form a foundational bridge-building with others that will lead to new discoveries. Your openness to searching for new answers to old question will help make your experience at JALT 2022 an even more meaningful one.

We will have a number of streams during this conference that will embody the spirit of this year's theme. Among these will be:

• Presentations and workshops for equipping you to conduct solid qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research.
• Sessions based on classroom research offering practical ideas, useful advice, and informed insights for how to enhance the effectiveness of your language lessons.
• Showcase presentations from students—both graduate and undergraduate—aimed at including their voices and lived experience to our expanding conversation on how to improve the quality of language acquisition education in Japan and beyond.

If you have ideas and suggestions for other types of sessions, do not hesitate to share them by sending a message to the Director of Program via our contact form.

One last, but very important point, as in years past, we will be offering three fee-waiver scholarships. These will cover the cost of registration for JALT2022. Full details will be on available here once the schedule has been determined. Bookmark the JALT site so you can easily keep up to date with announcements for the conference, subscribe to our newsletter, and follow us on social media.

As can be seen symbolically in this year's logo, JALT2022 is your chance to come together with other dynamic colleagues, and together share ideas, findings, and insights that might have once started out as a bit "fuzzy," but which during our shared discourse and interactions, become a clear contribution to the lives of others.

You are important, and as a professional teaching community, we need each other. Join us for JALT2022 in Fukuoka!

Gregory Hadley
JALT2022 Conference Chair

Why teachers and linguists must change our mindsets: Towards a trans-disciplinary and trans-lingual approach

In Collaboration with SIETAR Kansai Osaka JALT is proud to present:

Why teachers and linguists must change our mindsets: Towards a trans-disciplinary and trans-lingual approach

Speaker:  Ahmar Mahboob, Sydney University

Date:    September 26, 2021 (Sun.)  

Time:    14:00-17:00

Fee:      Free for all

Language: English

ZOOM Online presentation *registration required*

Contact: fujimotodonna@gmail.com to get the Zoom link and for any questions.

Description:

Ahmar Mahboob is a linguistics professor who has gone well beyond the usual academic timeline. After teaching at various universities, publishing a long list of scholarly papers and books, organizing and presenting at many international conferences, Ahmar is making teachers rethink what we do in the classroom. According to Ahmar, there is no point in doing and teaching research if “it isn’t helping anybody.” He has developed the CREDIBLE approach, a teaching guideline that encourages students and teachers to create projects that address the real needs of people and communities where they live.

We will be able to gain some new perspectives, not only for teaching, but, time permitting, we can also ask Ahmar about his work with: World Englishes, non native speakerism, multilingualism, language variation, identity management, spirituality, poetry, and living as an Indigenous Australian with his adopted family.

Profile of the speaker:

Ahmar Mahboob is Professor of Linguistics at Sydney University, Australia. What makes him distinctive from all other well-published academics is the fact that he is a ‘nomadic’ professor. Off and on for more than two years he has led this life style, which he states enables him to engage with everyday people in a one-to-one basis where he can experience firsthand the dialects and literacies that he would be unable to gain by staying at the university. He is an advocate of subaltern linguistics, which involves the study of social groups excluded from dominant power structures. Rather than outsiders study communities, it is the people themselves who carry out the work to enable their own well-being, prosperity, and empowerment. Recently, Mahboob is engaged with an Australian indigenous family on some new projects.

なぜ教員や言語学者は考え方を変えなければならないのか：

学際的で言語横断的なアプローチへ向かって

発表者:  Ahmar Mahboob　（ シドニー大学 ）

日程:    2021年9月26日(日)  

時間:    14:00-17:00

費用:    無料

言語:　英語

Zoomによるオンライン・プレゼンテーションですので事前登録が必要です。

お問い合わせ先: Zoom参加のリンク取得、ご質問はfujimotodonna@gmail.com まで。

プログラムの説明:

Ahmar　Mahboob氏は通常のアカデミックタイムラインをはるかに超える言語学の教授です。様々な大学で教え、学術論文や書籍を多数出版し、多くの国際会議を主催して、発表してきたMahboob氏は教員たちに対して教室で何をするかについて考え直させています。彼は、「誰の役にも立たない」のであれば、研究したり、教えても意味がないと言います。彼はCREDIBLEアプローチを開発しました。これは、学生と教員に地域で暮らす人々やコミュニティが真の需要に対処する研究課題を促進させるための学習ガイドラインです。

私たちは、指導のためのいくつもの新たな視点を得るだけではなく、時間が許せば、Ahmar氏に世界共通語としての英語(World Englishes)、ネイティブでない話者主義(non native speakerism)、多言語主義、言語の変化(language variation)、アイデンティティ管理、精神性 、詩 、そして養子先の家族とともにオーストラリアの先住民としての暮らしなどについても尋ねることが出来るでしょう。

発表者のプロフィール:

Ahmar Mahboob氏 はオーストラリアのシドニー大学言語学の教授です。彼が他の研究者と大きく異なる点は、彼が「遊牧民」のような教授であるということです。　2年以上にわたる断続的な暮らしは、彼が人や民族との日常的な関わりのなかで、方言や読み書きの能力を直接に体験することができるライフスタイルを導きだしました。これらの経験は、大学に留まり続けると得られないであろうと言います。彼は支配的なパワーストラクチャーから、排除された社会グループの研究を含むサブオルタナティブ言語学の提唱者です。部外者がコミュニティを学ぶのではなく、そのような社会集団の人々が中心となって、自分たちの幸福、繁栄、エンパワーメントを可能にするための研究を行うというものです。最近、Mahboob氏はオーストラリア先住民の家族と新しいプロジェクトに携わっています。

SIETAR Kansai - Online International Collaboration: “It’s Just a Click Away"

In Collaboration with SIETAR Kansai Osaka JALT is proud to present:

SIETAR Kansai - Online International Collaboration: “It’s Just a Click Away"

The Corona virus pandemic has had a huge impact on education, and it has been particularly disastrous for study abroad programs. This presentation will be of particular interest to those who are responsible for organizing international exchange as well as for instructors of intercultural communication courses. The presenters, Wade Muncil and Scott Johnston, will share their work that began in 2007 when they first collaborated, where one was teaching in Japan and the other had a class in the United Arab Emirates. They continued this collaboration for eight years, and despite difficulties, such as time differences, technological glitches, and cultural gaps, it was worthwhile for not only the students but for the instructors themselves. Other positive developments took place as well: A university course in the U.S. was added to the UAE-Japan connection, students from the UAE visited Japan for a week, and Muncil and Johnston made international presentations in the U.S. and in Abu Dhabi. More recently they have organized a guest speaker program: in 2020 and 2021 where speakers from the UAE, Jordan, Brazil, and the U.S. addressed an audience in Japan through Zoom. Teachers are invited to join their Facebook group called Building Bridges in Education where educators can network and learn from each other (www.facebook.com/groups/buildingbridgesineducation)

Wade Muncil holds a Master of Arts in Teaching from the School for International Training and presently teaches at Osaka Jogakuin University/College after spending nine years teaching in the Western Region of The United Arab Emirates. His interests are documenting and preserving the cultures of our planet and promoting community service in education, business, and government.

Scott Johnston has a Ph.D. in Education from Michigan State University and has been a professor at Osaka Jogakuin University since 2004. He is also Dean of the Osaka Jogakuin Graduate School. He is interested in involving students with their learning and has held a LINE/ZOOM “journal class” with the semester/year abroad students to facilitate their learning while overseas. In addition, he taught the Educational Internship class at OJU in which students interned at local elementary and junior high schools while taking an OJU class to reflect on their learning.

This presentation is an extended version of the talk that Wade Muncil gave at our Back to School 2021 mini-conference on May 9, and is co-sponsored with SIETAR Kansai.

Registration is required to get the Zoom link by emailing Donna Fujimoto at fujimotodonna@gmail.com .

Event Type: JALT Event

Event Theme: International Collaboration

Online Meeting: Yes

Cost for Jalt Members: Free

Cost for non-Jalt Members: Free

2021年６月例会　　SIETAR 関西　・　JALT　大阪　合同例会

「オンラインの国際協力：“クリックするだけです”」

公演者: ウェイド・マンシル：氏、スコット・ジョンストン氏　　共に大阪女学院

開催日:    June 27, 2021 (Sunday)                        

時間:        14:00-17:00             

参加料:   無料

言語:     英語

ZOOM Online presentation *registration required*

お問い合わせ先：　お申込み、または、お問い合わせは、fujimotodonna@gmail.com まで

概要:

新型コロナウィルス感染症の世界的な大流行が教育に多大な影響をもたらせました。特に海外留学プログラムは、破滅的な被害を受けました。６月の定例会では、国際交流団体や異文化コミュニケーションコースの指導者に対して責任を持つ方々が、特に関心を示す事柄について講演します。発表者のマンシル氏とジョンストン氏は、2007年に第1回目の共同研究を始めます。研究では、一方が日本で、他方はＵＡＥ（アラブ首長国連邦）において教育指導を分担しました。二人は、時差、技術的な不具合、文化の違いなどの困難にもかかわらず、共同研究を8年間継続させました。それは、学生だけではなく指導者にとってもやりがいのある取り組みでした。

その他の積極的な動きは、アメリカの大学コースがUAEと日本間の連結を追加したり、UAE出身の学生が日本を1週間訪問したり、マンシル氏とジョンストン氏がアメリカとアブダビで国際的な発表をしました。最近では、２０２０，２０２１年にゲストスピーカー・プﾛグラムを体系づけて、UAE,ジョーダン、ブラジル、アメリカから、日本の聴衆者に向けたZOOMによる公演会を実施しました。教員は、教育者のネットワークや互いに学び合えるBuilding Bridges in Education と呼ばれるFacebookグループへの参加に招待されます。

 ( www.facebook.com/groups/buildingbridgesineducation)

 興味がある人は、この機会をお見逃しなく、是非ご参加​ください。

発表者:

ウェイド・マンシル：米国スクール・フォー・インターナショナル・トレーニング（SIT）で教育学の修士号を取得。現在は、UAE西部で9年間の教育活動を経て、大阪女学院/大阪女学院短期大学で教職に就く。地球の文化

の記述と保存、さらに、教育、ビジネスと政治の地域奉仕活動に関心を持つ。

  スコット・ジョンストン： ミシガン州立大学で、教育学の博士号を取得し、2004年からは大阪女学院（OJU）の教授で大学院の学部長。学生を取り込んだ学びに関心を持つ。半期/1年の海外学生と共にLINE/ZOOM による“journal class”を開催し、学生の留学先での学びを促進している。さらに、学内の教育研修講座では、学生が地域の小学校や中学校で体験した教育実習の学びを講座の授業に反映させる指導を行っている。