Kitakyushu JALT Meeting Reports: Archive for 2008
Our meeting reports archive contains reports of our meetings from 1999 to June 2008.
To see reports for later events, visit the reports page.
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12 January 2008
Marcos Benevides
Themed Tasks for the Communicative Classroom
Benevides arranged his presentation, which was sponsored by Pearson Longman, as a meal. The appetizers were nuggets of information about task-based instruction, such as the ease of use in multi-level classrooms since the same tasks can be performed with various degrees of grammatical complexity or difficulty of vocabulary. Benevides argued that themed tasks work best over the course of a semester. The students take one roles in a light simulation, such as the manufacturing company in his textbook, Widgets, which provided the entrée of the presentation. The story line, group work, and rotation of manufactured projects from group to group give students intrinsic motivation. In fact, by using subtle peer pressure, Benevides has been able to keep the students working entirely in English for each class session. As a result, attendance is also very high. For dessert, participants brainstormed other themes around which they could devise a set of tasks: being stranded on a desert island, designing the perfect high school, choosing a charity project and the country it will benefit, filling an empty shopping mall, renewing a blighted neighborhood.
Reported by Margaret Orleans
9 February 2008
David Latz & James Burdis
Dichotomies and Issues in Japanese Elementary School English Education: A Tale of Two Teachers
David Latz introduced the evening’s program with a retrospective timeline of MEXT’s policy reforms for English education in elementary school, an interesting recapitulation of Tom Merner’s projection of the plans in his presentation to us in September 2004, two years after the “Period of Integrated Study” became compulsory for primary grades. As anticipated then, the program still leaves the content of activities up to the individual schools-- and does not yet appear to have much to do with teaching English per se. Speaking and Listening continue to be the main focus of any EFL offered, with no attention to Reading or Writing.
James Burdis then told us about his work as a Native Speaker teacher at a local private elementary school; in a program which appeared to be much more extensive and intensive than that of the public school which Latz described next.
We finished the evening with group discussions of: curriculum; native vs. non-native teachers; Japanese elementary school teachers and training; and dispatch teachers vs. teachers as faculty.
These first-hand indications of initial English exposure for Japanese students should prove helpful for secondary and tertiary level instructors. (reported by Dave Pite)
Reported by Dave Pite
8 March 2008
Koichi Kawamura, Onuma Junior High School, Kasukabe, Saitama
New Ideas to Change Junior High School English Lessons
We started off with a quiz about the speaker, a great way to simultaneously introduce himself and his topic�language teaching at the junior high level. Kids love games and Mr. Kawamura has lots of them, following the vocabulary-building warm-up with relative pronoun practice, description, yes/no and information questions, speed-reading and group discussion, as well as dialogue practice. He had us standing and moving around, repeating lines quickly with a partner while judging each others� performance, and numerous other usable, useful exercises. Peppered with amusing anecdotes, the presentation finished with an explanation of how students' desks may be arranged together for a dynamic �English Salon� and a video clip of his classroom�full of engaged and interested children.
Reported by Dave Pite
12 April 2008
Yusuke Yanase, Hiroshima University
A three-dimensional understanding of communicative language ability
Yanase posits three dimensions of communicative language teaching, namely physical and linguistic ability�and "mindreading ability". He recalled being baffled in high school when his teacher brought a tape recorder into the classroom�because he had understood English language learning to be synonymous with translation. He is dismayed by the quantitative values applied to English communicative competence via TOEFL and TOEIC scores and emphasizes educational goals as opposed to business goals�prevalent in commercial ELT companies. Invoking theories of communicative competence, he led us through considerations of language usage appropriate to situations and the various ways we negotiate communication through anticipation of intended meaning. He pointed out that while talking he was watching our reactions, which in turn affected his performance, which implied our participation in the presentation�as tends to happen in all verbal interactions. Via diagrams, he helped us understand how linguistic knowledge combines with world knowledge to provide strategic competence, the real driving force behind meaningful conversation. As observed by one grateful member of the audience, this presentation really helped put into perspective what we as teachers-- albeit oft-times unaware of theoretical rationale-- are actually trying to do in our classrooms.
Reported by Dave Pite
10 May 2008
Stephanie Tacata, Baiko Gakuin University
Gender Equality: Teaching Beyond Grammar
Tacata started off with the old linguistic/sexist riddle about the doctor who was a woman to illustrate how verbal sexual differentiation, commonly employed by conceptual language to help establish meaning, tends to influence speakers' world views, maintaining and perpetuating sexual discrimination. She pointed out the plethora of morphological baggage attached to our conceptions of the English words "husband" and "wife", observing that in Japanese, the former translates as "lord and master" while the latter means literally "in house".
Tacata asks how we as teachers can provide English as a communicative resource without perpetuating gender-specific roles in the process. She suggested we consider individually our differing perceptions and assumptions about words such as waiter/waitress or steward/stewardess etc. and then discuss in groups ways to include gender-inclusive dialogue in our classes. Handouts included research about identity via language and a bibliography of Japan's Woman's Movement publications.
An important question was whether the variable in such discussions was the teacher, or the students' individual experience—a particularly valid point in our cross-cultural classrooms. It was finally suggested that the best we Western agenda-loaded teachers can do is provide students with as many choices as possible in the language we teach, and leave them to use it as they see fit.
(reported by Dave Pite)
Reported by Dave Pite
14 June 2008
Melinda Rawahara
Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling (TPR-S)
Combining Asher’s Total Physical Response (TPR) from the 1960s with Krashen’s language modern acquisition strategies, California Spanish teacher Blaine Ray developed TPR-S in 1990 to continue teaching grammar, reading and writing along with vocabulary by changing from commands to the third person singular, facilitating story-telling—a long-term memory technique which has had considerable popularity and success with the college students it was designed for.
Melinda Kawahara has been studying and teaching the TPR-S method for many years in Japan and written storybooks to aid in teaching it to young learners. Stressing that a key to internalizing structures lies in sufficient repetition, she described the process of establishing meaning and posing questions that yield answers to form personalized stories written by the students.
Then she promised to teach us a new language in 35 minutes. She read us one of her very short stories in Spanish, and then illustrated meaning with illustrated flashcards and English translation. This was followed by “circling”—a technique of highlighting the posted vocabulary items for review and questions repeating the words many times. Finally, we all constructed little booklets containing a bare story outline, which we completed in our own (Spanish) words.
While none of us are yet ready to work for the United Nations, an impressive amount of vocabulary and awareness of grammatical structure of the language was absorbed by all the adults and children present.
Reported by Dave Pite
