Proofreading: Problems and Practice

August 2, 2010 by Okayama Chapter

Native English-speaking teachers at Japanese universities are often asked to proofread manuscripts written by colleagues in scientific fields. However, research has questioned the efficacy of "native checks" by language teachers on professional texts. The presenters will first describe an ongoing study centering on proofreading done by three groups of native English speakers on nursing abstracts. Different revision strategies employed by these proofreaders will be discussed. The second hour will follow a workshop format; attendees can explore their own revision strategies and attitudes towards proofreading and error correction.

Language Acquisition by Cochlear Implant Infants Deafened by Meningitis

August 2, 2010 by Okayama Chapter

Bacterial meningitis causes sensorineural deafness in 13 to 30% of infant survivors. Until the development of cochlear implants deafened children could acquire signed but not oral language. The language outcomes of 41 prelingually deafened children who received cochlear implants before three years of age were analyzed using the patient records at one implant centre in Australia. While the spoken language of these children was significantly better than it would have been without cochlear implants, there might be greater benefit with more language training.

Teaching a Process Approach to Paragraph Writing

May 13, 2010 by Okayama Chapter

Academic writing skills can be one of the most challenging yet rewarding skills to teach to EFL learners. This presentation will focus on ways to guide students through the stages of writing a clear, cohesive, and well-organized paragraph – knowledge which they can also utilize for later essay writing. Additionally, attention will be given to the background and attributes of the process approach as well as various methods of carrying out peer review activities. Real writing samples will be used to supplement the description.

Practical Business English for Lower Level Learners

March 8, 2010 by Okayama Chapter

What are the needs of lower level business students? How can we develop practical skills and/ or exam scores in a limited time? How can we adapt our lessons to meet a variety of course types? These questions and more will be answered using content from Business Venture Third Edition.

Grant Trew: During his 20 years in Japan, he has been a teacher, teacher trainer, course coordinator for a large language school, testing and evaluation consultant and writer of ELT materials.

Self-Access Language Learning as Classroom-Based Instruction

March 8, 2010 by Okayama Chapter

This workshop focuses on how self-access language learning might be integrated into the curriculum in high schools and universities. In the first part of the workshop, the presenter outlines a course in self-directed language learning that he developed and delivered to first-year Japanese university students. He then discusses what he learned from the process and a 3-year research project exploring the learners’ experiences. In the second part, participants have an opportunity to examine the pedagogical model and explore how they might adapt it to their teaching/learning situation.

Being Constructive with Moodle

January 15, 2010 by Okayama Chapter

In this workshop, the audience will learn how to blend Moodle into their language classes. They will get hands-on experience in setting up a course and populating it with resources and activities. The presenter will emphasize those aspects of Moodle that facilitate collaborative learning. By the end of this workshop, the audience should be in a position to have their own students take a constructive role in their own Moodle courses.

Peter Ruthven-Stuart has been using Moodle since 2003 as both a teacher and administrator. He is interested in constructivist and collaborative online task design.

Writing a graded reader

January 15, 2010 by Okayama Chapter

In this presentation, Rob Waring will focus on the process of writing a graded reader. He will look at the story formation stage by identifying story plot and development, and showing key elements that should or should not be in place for a good story to be told. Then Waring will look at how a graded reader syllabus is created by investigating in detail how words are selected and grammar syllabuses selected. Following this, the presenter will show how to put it together to write motivating graded reading materials.

Task-based learning in a themed context

January 15, 2010 by Okayama Chapter

Task-based language teaching (TBLT) represents the evolution of communicative language teaching into a more structured performance-based approach. Gone is the day when anything-goes "free conversation" passed for language teaching; instead, TBLT's emphasis on achieving clear, quantifiable, authentic goals allows students to gauge their strengths and weaknesses in meaningful ways, boosting motivation and the possibility for a sustained virtuous cycle of language learning.

The functional literacy theory and the contextual learning theory as applied to English language learning

September 14, 2009 by Anonymous

The presenter, the 2009 Balsamo Asian Scholar, will kick off her participation in the Four Corners Tour by discussing these theories with regard to her own language learning (English and Japanese) as well as her work advocating for better English language teaching in her native Philippines.

This will be followed by two short presentations by local speakers.

From textbooks to TESOL Quarterly: Publishing for EFL teachers

August 12, 2009 by Anonymous

Many teachers want to publish but are often put off by the challenging and frustrating publishing process. The two presenters will attempt to give advice and information on how to make this process clearer and more ‘doable’. Based on a little bit of success and a huge amount of failure, the presenters will share their experiences of publishing a textbook and academic articles in journals and books with tips on how and what to write.