Martin Pauly , Mary Nobuoka, Featured Speaker , Gabriela Schmidt , Naomi Takagi

Presentations:

1. Looking Back on Influences of Child Raising after 25 Years
by Martin Pauly (13:00~13:30)
I will reflect on events which influenced our family in attempts to raise our boys bilingually. The influence of the JALT Bilingualism SIG, advice from others, experiences in forming a Play Group and later a Saturday School, the local school, are topics to be touched on.
Martin has been a member of the Bilingualism SIG since its inception. He has been at the Tsukuba University of Technology for 23 years and will retire next March.
2. Featured Speaker Presentation
Raising Bilingual Children in Japan
by Mary Nobuoka (13:45~ 15:15)
Join us for a talk about the basics of raising children to be bilingual with Mary Nobuoka, coordinator of Bilingualism SIG, a special interest group of the Japan Association of Language Teachers. Mary will talk about the advantages and challenges of raising bilingual children in Japan, education options and ideas for supporting your child’s language skills. Q&A will follow.
Mary is currently raising her bicultural, bilingual, 11-year-old son in Yokohama. She also teaches bilingual children literacy skills in an active “Saturday school” in Sakuragicho. We’re looking forward to this informative talk for those of us at the beginning of our bilingual journey.
3. Bilingual in Japan: German and Japanese– Reflecting theory
and experience in language acquisition –
by Gabriela Schmidt (15:45~16:15)
“Bilingual” in Japan is often focused on Japanese / English (American English). But there are a lot of children living in Japan with a bilingual or trilingual or even more languages from various countries. As a linguist I would like to reflect the theoretical background of natural (not instructed) language acquisition and the experience I had by raising my son in a mostly Japanese environment with a German speaking mother. Comparing my way with the insights I gained from talking to other parents, I will include some experience from teaching German in the French School in Tokyo to children, young people with an amazing multi-cultural and multi-lingual background. The critical age – timeframe (2-3 years old, 6-7 years old and 12-13 years old) seems to be very important to become really bilingual, and language is culture and gives an identity.
Mainz University (Germany) MA in Philosophy, Ph.D. in Comparative Linguistics, since 1993 teaching German in Korea, since 1998 in Okinawa and Kanto, actually at Tsukuba University. First interested in how to teach
conversation (linguistics-pragmatics), later in the CEFR, a big impact had my degree for Intercultural
Communication 2012 at Jena University.
4. Code-switching of Bilingual Teachers in EFL Classrooms
by Naomi Takagi (16:15~16:45)
Summary: Code-switching is a discourse phenomenon of changing from one language to another and is commonly observed in bilingual conversations. The use of code-switching in language classrooms has been controversial. It is a pedagogical asset for bilingual teachers to communicate effectively with their students, but it can also deprive students of the opportunity for maximum exposure to the target language. This presentation will discuss preliminary findings of when and why instructors use code-switching, what effects it has on students, and in what situations code-switching may serve useful purposes.
Naomi Takagi has taught ESL reading and writing as well as academic, technical, and professional communication as a graduate student at an American university, and currently teaches general English courses at Ibaraki University. Her recent research addressed the use of group-thinking techniques for improving argumentative writing of EFL students.
5. Business Meeting (17:00~17:30)
Sunday, December 8, 13:00 – 17:30
at
Ibaraki University, Humanities building Room C205
(Doors open from 12:45 a.m. No pre-registration required!)
JALT Members: Free Non-Members: 500　
JALT Ibaraki chapter meetings are open to all interested in learning and teaching languages. Abstracts for the presentations and access information for the venue, as well as further information for future events are available on the chapter home page.
http://ibarakijalt.blogspot.com/
. . . and afterwards join us for the
Annual Chapter Year-End Party
Starts at 17:45 p.m.! At Coji Coji
Support the Chapter Book Fair!
Donate your unwanted books – and get used books for 50!