1998 - Fukuoka JALT Events Archive

Fukuoka JALT's Book Fair 1998
Rod Ellis, featured speaker
January 25, 1998.
The plenary session by Rod Ellis was very well-attended, with over 130 people. This was about half of the people in attendance at that hour, suggesting that the plenary was an important factor for many of those who braved the cold.

We have to note that the book fair's attendence was hurt by the weather -- many parts of Kyushu were snowed in. We don't know for sure, of course, how significant this factor was, but we do know that it played a part, resulting in lower attendence than expected. After sorting through the sign-in data and removing the names of publisher reps who had signed in by mistake, we had 346 names. In Fukuoka, we had the coldest weekend of the year, but the day was sunny, so we were fortunate in that regard.

This year marked a first in terms of distances travelled; we had at least three people from Korea. Some teachers came from as far as Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and some from Miyazaki avoided the unexpected snow by flying in. Rod Ellis, our plenary speaker, flew in from Philladelphia.

This year also marked the first time we had official representation from KOTESOL, the Korea Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages organization.

In addition to being a good motivator, the technique of interviewing is useful in giving students practice in speaking, listening to, reading, and writing English. Outside of class, interviewing bridges the gap between English learned in the classroom and English used in the real world. Using video and cassettes, Chinen will show teachers the mini-skills students need to do interviewing and show how to use interviewing in their own teaching situations.

(There is a more detailed description of this presentation on this site.)

Christine Chinen, who teaches at Fukuoka University, has written a book on interviewing.

xtensive reading programs promote high volumes of reading among students. This workshop/presentation will describe ways to promote these high volumes of reading as well as discuss annectdotal findings and well-documented studies to describe the effectiveness of large quantities of reading. Among the reasons to promote extensive reading is evidence that it enhances not only reading ability but many other areas of language proficiency as well, primarily vocabulary, grammar, writing, and listening. Intensive reading programs facilitate intrinsic motivation and a greater feeling of confidence. An extensive reading program should be subject to simple management techniques in order to derive the greatest use to teachers and students. In this workshop presentation, materials, graded readers and other sources will be discussed, as will the issues of 'authentic' materials vs. 'simplified' material vs. 'graded' material. For a hands-on experience, participants will be invited to view and comment on graded readers, publishers' catalogs and promotional materials.

Keith Lane, MEd, has lived and taught in Japan for twelve years. Presently he teaches for Miyazaki International College, where in addition to English courses he also team-teaches credit bearing content courses in English. He also has considerable experience in community language programs and English at the secondary level. He is also highly involved with JALT and promoting regional ties among the Kyushu chapters.

his workshop/presentation has four purposes: to practice second-language (L2) test development activities, including specification and item-writing; to spot and critique poorly written tests and items; to learn what's new in oral testing (The Test of Spoken English) and TOEFL (Computer-Based Testing and TOEFL 2000); and to get an overview of the ITP TOEFL and other standardized tests. The second half of this presentation includes a hands-on demonstration of the TOEFL computer-based test in a computer lab; each participant will have access to their own terminal.

(There is a more detailed description of this presentation on this server.)

Joseph A. Murphy, Ph. D., is a Professor of English at Nagasaki Junshin Catholic University. He is also the ETS consultant in Japan for ITP, TOEFL, CBT, TOEFL 2000, and TSE. During the past 10 years, he has served on 5 different test development committes at ETS.

Asian students and writing teachers often resist use of the process approach in favor of more traditional methods that emphasize grammar and error correction. The speaker will present evidence from his experience and research at Korean universities which suggests that certain "process-oriented" techniques may help students produce better compositions as well as increase their motivation and confidence. There will also be group activities that encourage participants to exchange ideas and suggest ways for dealing with typical problems encountered in teaching writing at the university level, including motivating students, responding to student writing, and teaching various stages of the writing process.

(There is a more detailed description of this presentation on this server, as well as an announcement regarding the KOTESOL-Vetted Speaker Award.)

Dr. Rodney E. Tyson, MATESOL and PhD (Second Language Acquisition and Teaching), is an Assistant Professor at Daejin University, Republic of Korea (South Korea). He has been teaching in Korea for 10 years.
Homepage link: http://road.daejin.ac.kr/~rtyson

Dr. Jack Kimball (Miyazaki Medical College professor) develops web-based EFL learning resources for science, medicine and poetry. Kimball also co-cordinates the CUE N-SIG (the College and University Educator National Special Interest Group of JALT) and edits the newsletter, ON CUE. He received his Ed.D. in Sociolinguistics from Harvard University in 1990, and his MA in Applied Linguistics from University of Massachusetts in 1985.
Homepage link: http://interserver.miyazaki-med.ac.jp/~Kimball

Jonathan B. Britten has taught in Japanese universities since 1989, when he was selected by Monbusho to teach at Kitakyusu University on the JET Program. H has been teaching at Nakamura University in Fukuoka since 1992. He holds an MA in English/Creative Writing from University of Memphis and a BA from the University of the South. His short-story collection "Pachyderm and Other Stories" was published in 1988. In 1993 he won a Tennessee Williams Scholarship to the Sewanee Writers' Conference. Britten is an active JALT member and former editor of ON CUE, the newsletter for College and University Educators.

1. Understanding (and Redefining) Bilingualism
2. Raising Bilingual/Bicultural Children

Fred Anderson
Sunday, September 13, 1998 (2:00 - 5:00)

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aising bilingual children is a topic of interest to many of us whether we are teaching returnees or raising multi-cultural children of our own. This special presentation is one sure to arouse the interest of a wide audience and is one not to miss. This event will actually be two presentations, both by Fred Anderson, PhD. "Although the two presentations are closely related (with the first intended to set the stage for the second), they are independent enough such that participants do not need to attend both if they don't want to," notes Dr. Anderson."The first presentation is basically academic/theoretical (but without assuming any prior background on the part of the participants); the second is more practical."

Presentation One:
Understanding (and Redefining) Bilingualism
This presentation will be an academic introduction to the study of bilingualism for teachers, parents and other interested parties, examining key concepts of the field, but at the same time arguing that the field (as currently conceived) fails to address the needs of many bilingual persons, especially children.

Presentation Two:
Raising Bilingual/Bicultural Children
In this workshop-style presentation, participants will share their experiences and feelings as parents (or potential parents) of bilingual children. No particular "method" of raising children bilingually/biculturally (or choosing not to do so) will be espoused; however, various issues and problems in bilingual child rearing will be discussed.

Fred Anderson has a PhD in linguistics from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, with major areas of concentration in ethnolinguistics (sociocultural linguistics), language learning & teaching, and Japanese linguistics. He has taught in Japan for approximately 16 of the past 21 years, and has been a Foreign Professor (EFL and applied linguistics) at Fukuoka University of Education since 1987.

Fred has also taught classes in linguistics and in child language acquisition at the University of Hawai'i; and a seminar on classroom communication in the MA-TESOL program at Northern Arizona University. Fred has long been active in the JALT community. Currently (since 1995) he is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the JALT Journal; he also serves as Kyushu liaison to the JALT Bilingualim N-SIG. Past JALT involvement includes Fukuoka Program Chair (1988-89), Fukuoka Chapter President (1989-90), and member of national Nominations and Elections Committee (1990). He has given presentations at 5 JALT international conferences (1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991), and at other national/international conferences including TESOL, AAAL (American Association for Applied Linguistics), PacSLRF (Pacific Second Language Research Forum), IAWE (International Association for World Englishes), JACET (Japan Association for College English Teaching), and LLA (Language Laboratory Association of Japan). His publications include a chapter in "A Handbook for Teaching English at Japanese Colleges and Universities" (ed. by Paul Wadden, Oxford, 1993), and a chapter in a forthcoming volume of studies in Japanese bilingualism. His doctoral dissertation was an ethnographic study of Japanese elementary-school classroom discourse. Fred is also the father of two (somewhat) bilingual children, ages 12 (almost) and 9.

1. Successful Fast Paced Lessons with MAT (the Model Action Talk method)
2. Running a Sucessful Eikaiwa School: A Strategy of Four Skills

Samuel Yang
Sunday, October 25, 1998 (2:00 - 5:00)

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uccessful Fast Paced Lessons with MAT (the Model Action Talk method) Part one of this two-part presentation will focus on teaching children through fast paced lessons. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the presenter's lesson format, he will conduct a typical lesson. This lesson's students will be the members of the audience, and the language being studied will be neither English nor Japanese. This will enable the participants to fully understand the dynamics of the speedy rhythm of the Model Action Talk method (MAT) and allow participants to appreciate the students' perspective of learning a language.

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art Two is entitled A Strategy of Four Skills This presentation is geared towards the retention of students in commercial English schools. Manages or even teaches at English schools want to see their business grow and keep their students progressing. The problem is finding ways to attain these goals. In this presentation, the speaker will suggest solutions to achieve these goals and promote strategies for beating the competition. This incorporates a curriculum and policy design that will enable you to teach all four skills of English (speaking, listening, reading and writing). The amazing results will give you confidence to compete in a tough market.

Sam Yang teaches at various English schools and companies. He was born in Korea but grew up in Orange County, California. Originally a counselor in Los Angeles, he enjoys teaching English to all ages. He and his family plan to live in Japan a long time. Sam earned an M.A. in Education at Biola University near Los Angeles. Aside from teaching, you can see Sam playing keyboard every Sunday at 1:30 p.m. at the Maruko Inn in Hakata for Hakata New Life Church.