Eucharia Donnery

In the twenty-first century Japanese university level EFL class, there are a number of gaps that emerge between the English teacher and the average Japanese student: age, gender, nationality, and cultural identity. However, with respect to this report, one of the most critical gaps is that of the digital natives, the students, versus digital immigrants, the teacher. This gap can lead to an imbalance of power for the inexperienced teacher, who may shun technology completely due to lack of confidence. However, technology is a resource with which university students have grown up, and most see it as powerful tool within their mother tongue. This workshop demonstrates that technology is a media with which many students are familiar. Therefore, by its inclusion into the curriculum, technology can be a veritable wellspring for maximizing English usage in the classroom. In this workshop, participants will discuss their own experiences with technology, both personally and professionally before an explanation of a comparative study between Skype and international student exchange sessions and an overview of CALL in general.
See Tokyo Chapter website for details:http://www.tokyojalt.org/index.html