Event Report, Tottori Chapter January 2018

Christopher Hollis and Shirley Leane shared their knowledge and expertise with us on the subjects of both teaching philosophies and teaching methods.
First, Chris shared the importance of teaching English in English. He emphasized that teaching the students in the target language comes with a large number of benefits, such as exposing the students to more varied input and more complex forms of the language, enabling students to receive more feedback with regards to their communicative competency, and improving student motivation to use L2. Of course, there are some challenges involved with teaching English in English, such as student discipline, comprehension and time, and Chris went through how to address these challenges. He stated that through teaching our students language-learning strategies, such as how to use communications repair when communication breaks-down, or how to do circumlocution in order to explain things that they want to say in simple terms, we can empower our students to take control of their own language learning. He also showed a number of activities that can be used to help facilitate the teaching of English in English, such as “In Other Words” for practicing retelling skills, “Reverse Taboo” for practicing communication repair skills, and “Mystery Word Hints Quiz” for practicing circumlocution skills.
Next, Shirley Leane took us on a guided tour through the evolution of teaching philosophy with regards to teaching foreign languages. She covered the three major teaching philosophies of classical humanism, reconstructionism, and progressivism. All three philosophies come with a number of pros and cons, and Shirley believes that all three philosophies can bring something to the table when it comes to language instruction. She then explained the concept of task-based learning, which involves using the target language to carry out tasks, which not only makes language learning more interesting, but also improves linguistic competency as well. Shirley shared a number of real life tasks that she has assigned her students, and stressed how these tasks both make learning compelling and make for great learning tools in their own right.
Both presentations were incredibly informative, and exposed us to key concepts and information. We very much appreciated the knowledge that both speakers shared with us, and hope that they will be able to impart more knowledge to us in the future.