Event Report, Tottori Chapter June 2017

We at Tottori JALT were pleased to host two back-to-back presentations on Sunday, June 25, 2017. The first presentation was titled “Improving Student Motivation through Using Language Support Centers: How the “E-Clinic” Benefits the English Program at Shimane University” and was presented by Lynne Murphy and John Telloyan of Shimane University. Lynne and John introduced to the audience the dynamic impact that an English language support center, like the “E-clinic” at Shimane University, can have on the student population. They explained how effective and varied use of such a center can influence students’ motivation towards English, referring to their experience as a successful example. Lynn and John began by examining the need for such a center, then explained the history of their own center, introduced to the audience some of the challenges they faced in terms of financial support and space availability and how to overcome these challenges, and then inspired the audience to start the process of opening their own centers at their respective educational institutions. Through Lynne and John’s presentation we learned that language support centers can be used to host language learning lectures, provide essential resources to students, and make available a location where students can seek advice about foreign language study. We at Tottori JALT hope such centers can be opened at more institutions throughout Tottori and Japan for the benefit of our students. 
The second presentation was titled Role Plays – Activities with the Potential to Teach Everything! ロールプレイを使った英語教育の可能性 and was presented by Sean Banville of Tottori University and Tottori University of Environmental Studies. He presented his ideas on the versatility of role-play activities and showed us how role-plays can be used to teach all skills and aspects of English. We looked at the effectiveness of role-plays as an activity to get students out of their shells and have fun with language learning. Sean also explained how role-plays can bring F.I.R.E. to your class, where F.I.R.E. stands for the ability for role-plays to bring Fun activities that Integrate language learning and Recycle language learned and Exploit everything in the classroom. Attendees took part in several fun role plays for warm-ups, grammar, vocabulary, reading, listening, writing, functions, decision-making and more. Twenty-four people attended the engaging and motivating June 25 Tottori JALT workshop.