Ibaraki JALT December Meeting Saturday, December 12th 13:00 – 17:00 Co-sponsor : Ibaraki University 1. Featured Speaker Presentation ( 13:30~ 14:30) English Pronunciation Instruction: Considering Phonological Differences between English and Japanese Abstract: Intelligibility is considered an important goal of L2 pronunciation. However, many second/foreign language learners find it difficult to acquire intelligible pronunciation. This presentation focuses on phonological differences between English and Japanese. I will discuss the pronunciation problems faced by Japanese learners of English and factors contributing to the problems. I will also introduce teaching materials designed especially for Japanese students learning English pronunciation. by Yuko Koike ( Ibaraki University) (University Education Center/The College of Humanities) Yuko Koike teaches English as a part-time instructor at Ibaraki University. She receiv...
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The Japan Association for Language Teaching 全国語学教育学会 Next Meeting: Saturday, September 12th, 2015, 09:30 – 17:00 Tsukuba Gakuin Daigaku Morning Presenters: Mayu SHINTANI (University of Tsukuba) Image Schema-Based Instructions on English Grammar (10:00 ~10:50): Cognitive linguistics has been devoting to reveal the very nature of language since the last few decades. One of their most fruitful results is the abstraction of the general patterns, the “image schemata,” underlying the grammatical entities. In this presentation, we will propose the grammar teaching method adopting the image-schema theory and show its strong potential in language teaching areas. As the instruction is more visible to learners than the ordinary character-based ones, it could offer them a clearer (and probably less boring) way to understand the grammar. We will also give the data collected in the experiment with native Japanese speaking students at several universities to prove the effectivenes...
The Japan Association for Language Teaching 全国語学教育学会 Next Meeting Saturday, May 23rd, 2015, 10:00 – 17:00 Featured Morning Speaker: Joyce Cunningham Tokiwa University Professor (Ibaraki University Professor Emerita) Morning presentation (10:30 - 11:45): Anne of Green Gables in the Language Classroom You will be invited to participate in a short introduction to the much-loved novel, Anne of Green Gables. Most Japanese students seem to enjoy this story and engage in the activities with enthusiasm. Eastern Canada will be described and you will gain an initial understanding of the people, attitudes and values that form this part of Canada. Above all, we will focus on Prince Edward Island and the story of its popular heroine, Anne. A few key scenes in the movie will be viewed and accompanied by worksheets for classroom use. You will also become acquainted with the author, L. M. Montgomery, and learn more about the...
Next Ibaraki JALT Meeting Saturday, February 14th, 2015, 09:30 – 17:00 at Tsukuba Gakuin Daigaku Azuma 3-1, Tsukuba The Japan Association for Language Teaching 全国語学教育学会 (Ibaraki Chapter) Featured Morning Speaker: Maria Gabriela SCHMIDT University of Tsukuba--Associate Professor Morning presentation (10:00 - 11:45): Listening and Pronunciation - Keep an eye on the mother tongue Maria Gabriela Schmidt To combine listening and pronunciation in language teaching is not that simple. Each belong to the opposite side of the sound, but listening is mostly invisible to us, and pronunciation is on the surface. When a student cannot understand the listening part, we will not be aware immediately, but if the sound of spoken language does not fit, it is obvious. - The approach will begin with the influence of L1 our mother tongue and then will switch to listening and pronunciation in the classroom and what we should consider important for the exe...
The Japan Association for Language Teaching -JALT- Sunday, Sep, 28th, 13:30 – 17:00 Presentations: 1. Popular Songs in the Language Learning Classroom (13:30-14:15) by Robert Betts (Tokiwa University) This workshop demonstrates the use of popular songs in the classroom to practice reading, writing, listening, and speaking in the language classroom. The use of songs in the practice of language teaching is well documented in foreign language learning research. Songs selected from popular music motivates learners to explore language outside the normal structure for language learning activities in the classroom. In addition, the use of popular songs encourages students to listen to and sing songs in the target language. The criteria for selecting popular songs are based on the following ideas: a) purpose – the purpose for using a song in the classroom (learn vocabulary/practice skills/content or message), b) length – th...
Previous Meeting - Saturday, May 17 全国語学教育学会 The Japan Association for Language Teaching -JALT- Co-sponsor : Ibaraki University
Presentation:
1. Featured Speaker Presentation (14:30~ 16:00) Vocabulary and textbooks: What textbooks do, what they don't, and what you can do by Dale Brown (Osaka University) The commonsense view of vocabulary learning is that learning a word means learning its meaning. Vocabulary researchers, however, have established that there is a lot more to learning a word than this. Full
mastery of a word includes, among other things, knowing its spoken and written form, knowing the concepts it can refer to and what other words it is related to, and knowing the grammatical and collocational patterns
it occurs in. Classroom observation studies appear to show that teachers, for the most part, take the commonsense view and focus on word meaning. This presentation will begin by reporting on a study which
aimed to find out whether the same i...
First Meeting in 2014 - Sunday, Feb, 9th
Aloha, The meeting has NOT been cancelled but expected attendance will be low with highways and local roads closed. Enjoy the snow! 全国語学教育学会 The Japan Association for Language Teaching -JALT- Sunday, Feb, 9th, 10:00 – 17:00 Meeting Presentations: 1. University Accreditation: It's Impact on EFL Teaching (10:00-12:00) by Bern Mulvey ( Iwate University) As of 2004, all universities in Japan must submit to an external accreditation evaluation, to be repeated every seven years. The universities receive written assessments in multiple categories from one of four official accrediting agencies. These assessments are intended to provide detailed evaluations of curriculum appropriateness and teacher effectiveness, not to mention school/program effectiveness in meeting mission objectives. All reports are publicized. The universities also receive grades: pass, probation, or fail. In other words, at least in ...