Gavin Thomas, Teresa Stockwell, Aubra Bulin, Heather Suzuki

JALT2024 Pre-presentations!
Come see some of what’s in store in Shizuoka

Empowering Educators: Disability Rights and Reality in Japan
Teresa Stockwell, Gavin Thomas
This presentation explores the experiences of educators with disabilities in Japan, examining both progress and ongoing challenges.

Examining Accommodations for Learner Diversity With UDL
Heather Suzuki
This presentation discusses accommodations made by Japanese university English teachers for diverse learners including those with disabilities or special learning needs.

I Am Not a Robot: Teaching Soft Skills in Language Classes
Aubra Bulin
In the age of GenAI, what can teachers do to solidify their place in education? In this session, language teachers will reaffirm their roles by considering the importance of teaching soft skills.

Postponed for a future date: Boosting Student Speaking Success with Positive Self-Talk

Finding ways to boost student speaking ability remains a burning issue in Japan. I hope you will join me in this session where I will explore the potential of positive self-talk to improve students’ speaking performance. Since self-talk can mediate students’ emotions and performance during tasks (Tod et al., 2011), it can provide insights into students’ experiences during stressful situations such as speech assessments. In the first part of this presentation, I will discuss the research findings from an experimental study on the effect of positive self-talk on university students’ speaking performance. Then in the second interactive part of the presentation, we will explore methods for promoting positive self-talk in speaking tasks.