— Foreword —

This issue of LLLd you so! celebrates the Lifelong Language Learning SIG getting an official Japanese title as well. This comes after months of online discussion and a vote of SIG members. The new title more clearly reflects the target group of learners who we wish to learn more about and for whom we wish to improve teaching practice in Japan. The Japanese name is 生涯語学教育研究部会(Shogai Gogakukyoiku Kenkyubukai).

In this issue, Emi Itoi, SIG Coordinator, reports some exciting news about our group and the implications of this for us. Following this are reports from the Membership Chair, Amanda Harlow, the Treasurer, Julia Harper-Tanaka, and the Publicity chair, Naoko Miki. Please read each of these reports. Together they paint a picture of our small, but growing group of language professionals concerned with the delivery of effective curricula to older learners. Our main concern at this time is “getting the word out” about LLL SIG, recruiting new members, and increasing opportunities for members to become involved.

There are two conference reports in this issue. Amanda Harlow reports on the LLL SIG poster presentation, “We want to talk in English too!” at the 22nd JALT Hokkaido Conference, held on the afternoon of October 9th at Hokusei Gakuen University, Sapporo on Friday, September 23, 2005. This poster session used writing samples by older learners to show the diversity of their interests and their enjoyment of writing about events and interests in their lives.

The second conference report is of the LLL (Lifelong Language Learning)-SIG Forum held at the 2005 JALT Conference in Shizuoka. The convener of the Forum was Margaret Yamanaka. The Forum took the unique form of a Teaching Contest. The Master of Ceremonies was Emi Itoi, the contestants were Martin Pauly, Midori Iwano, Margaret Yamanaka, and Robert Baines, and the students were Kikuo Terashima, Kan’ya Suzuki, Shizue Hirose, and Takako Ohara. The reports of the lesson plans written by each contestant are followed by reflections by each of the contestants and the students.

There is also an article by Masako Endo who discusses an advanced level class in which Japanese adult female learners translated life-stage relevant articles from Time Magazine.

The editors of LLLd you so! encourage you to submit articles, interviews, conference reports, descriptions of research in progress, and teaching ideas suitable for classes of older learners for upcoming issues of the newsletter. We look forward to receiving your submissions.

Kim Bradford-Watts
Newsletter Co-editor