Anthony RobinsHong Kong may seem very different from Japan, with its British colonial history and its status now as a Special Administrative Region (S.A.R.) of China. Certainly, there are contrasts concerning language teaching, with the aim and need to focus on Cantonese, Mandarin (Putonghua) and English. However, concerning English teaching, there are both similarities and […]

All participants!Enjoy our annual barbecue, a longstanding annual event. It gives you the chance to meet and network with our members and enjoy food and drink together. Please bring food/drink to add to the mix!

Paul Shimizu (Intercom Press)This presentation will feature a smorgasbord of ideas which the speaker has developed and borrowed from teachers and students. It will include educational, philosophical and psychological reasons and the speaker looks forward to receiving feedback from participants. It will not be a lecture and nor will it be a computer presentation. It […]

Peter RichardsonEducation in Japan is changing. The stereotypical grammar translation classes of yesteryear are being shown the door and teachers in every type of school are being challenged to look at lessons in a different way. This presentation looks at the changes from the viewpoint of an ALT and how it is affecting our jobs […]

Yuri Jody Yujobo, Blogoja DimoskiIn this joint meeting with Aichi University two invited speakers from Tamagawa University will speak on: ‘Developing inquiry-based ELF-aware teaching materials and assessments for tomorrow’s global citizens’ and ‘Teaching and assessment materials for communicative capability in ELF-aware classrooms and beyond’. They will be followed by ELF related reports from speakers associated […]

Donna M. BrintonIsn’t it impossible to impact students’ fossilized pronunciation? Wouldn’t students make more progress if they just practiced more? Don’t you need to be a native speaker to teach pronunciation? Isn’t the best way to teach pronunciation by having students listen and repeat? In this talk, Donna Brinton presents an overview of recent research […]

Andy NonakaAccording to Keidanren, the Federation of Economic Organizations, communication skills are really required for businesspeople in Japan, and they need to try to develop the competences to survive. The skills, however, are vaguely defined in Japanese culture (e.g., the anticipation of conversation flows, compromising with superiors, and attitudinal flexibility to various topics.) On the […]

Michael Stout In this workshop, participants will learn how to do classroom research. The workshop leader will share first hand accounts of classroom research projects he has participated in, and share insights he has gained from doing classroom research. Throughout the workshop, participants will be led through a series of reflection tasks that will help […]

Ben GibbonTesting L2 speaking in large classes is applicable at all levels of foreign language learning at schools and universities in Japan. The presented model aims to meaningfully test students’ L2 speaking-skills in less than 60 mins. Listening, reading and writing assessments are efficient and practical. However, oral testing remains our field’s shortfall. This method […]

Bill JonesPlaying cards are an inexpensive, durable and extremely practical tool which can be effectively used in a variety of classroom situations, from speaking and listening classes to reading and writing classes. They provide not only excitement, but also contribute to active participation regardless of the motivational level of the students. These time-tested techniques have […]

Anthony Robins, Sherry Schafer, Taka Nagamine et al..Join us for our first online ‘My Share’ meeting on Sunday 14th June at our usual time slot of 1:30 to 4:00. It will even include a virtual tea/coffee break in the middle, so have something ready for that!  You are welcome either to join our other presenters for about 15 […]

Jean TaylorSchool trips, which take place in the second year at Japanese high schools, are a major event in the lives of students here.  At the speaker’s high school, around 150 students in the ‘academic course’ go to California for two weeks, living with a family there.  For some this is a highly anticipated prospect; […]

Takao Imai (Nanzan University)Takao Imai introduces his session: “In this session, I would like to share with you what I recently started to study. It is about construal differences between Japanese and English. Many scholars have presented theories related to construal differences between Japanese and English. I believe that having Japanese learners of English notice […]

Ayako Suzuki, Rasami Chaikul, Sherry Schaefer, Nora Kotseva-KatsuraThis annual joint forum from Aichi University’s Institute for Research in Humanities and Social Sciences (IRHSA) and JALT’s Toyohashi Chapter brings together four speakers, affiliated with Tamagawa University, Aichi University and Aichi Gakuin University. Full details can be found in the links to the flyer. Registration is necessary, […]

FUJIWARA, Yasuhiro (Meijo University)The main purposes of this talk are twofold. One is to introduce recent developments in language testing from the perspectives of World Englishes (WE) and English as a lingua franca (ELF). In short, WE respects the diversity of Englishes and evaluators while ELF assesses how learners achieve an assigned task while accommodating […]

Howard Brown, University of Niigata PrefectureIn Japan, more and more universities are offering courses taught in English. On nearly 50% of campuses in Japan, students are studying economics, political science, history, chemistry, literature, linguistics, and more in English. This is an exciting new role for English on Japanese campuses but it also brings with it […]

Bill JonesPresentation summary: Playing cards are an inexpensive, durable and extremely practical tool which can be effectively used in a variety of classroom situations, from speaking and listening classes to reading and writing classes. They provide not only excitement, but also contribute to active participation regardless of the motivational level of the students. These time-tested […]

James Venema and Bao YuxiIn this presentation ‘Maximizing English in the EFL classroom: encouraging the negotiation of meaning’, the speakers will focus on these issues:  Obstacles to L2 use in the EFL classroom  Encouraging L2 in the EFL classroom  Encouraging the Negotiation of Meaning in English  Research findings: What negotiations of complex meanings look like […]

This year’s forum from Aichi University’s Institute for Research in Humanities and Social Sciences is once again supported by JALT Toyohashi. This year it features five speakers: Nobuyuki Hino on ‘Going beyond paradigms and chronology in teaching English for global communication’ Tomoyuki Kawashima ‘Instructional strategies for improving intelligibility of varieties of English accents George O’Neal ‘Intelligible […]

Robert Murphy, Catriona Chalmers, Ann MayedaOur ‘Grand Forum’, jointly with Gifu and Nagoya Chapters, features three main speakers, plus other presenters giving short papers and Pechakucha presentations.

Scott Combs, Natsumi Sugiura, Anthony RobinsOur December meeting is ‘My Share’ style and features three speakers: Scott Combs: Developing English Conversation in Kindergarden. Natsumi Sugiura: Gaining experience through online teaching. Anthony Robins:  Trans Asia: Indonesian students online joining Japanese students in the classroom.

Elisabeth Williams (Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts)Exploring linguistic diversity in Japan as a method to teach theories of bilingualism This presentation has two goals: (1) to discuss common myths connected to notions of bilingualism in Japan and (2) to look at specific activities that can challenge these myths while effectively teaching about theories of […]

Keita KodamaIncorporating the use of literature into the EFL classroom: Pedagogical approaches to develop critical thinking of Japanese learners of English At ‘Plat’ Toyohashi Arts Theatre (near Toyohashi Station) The purpose of this presentation is to explore the benefit of using literature as a material for “the training of critical thinking” (Kramsch and Kramsch, 2000: […]

Takayuki NagamineResearching nonnative pronunciation; the effect of ‘seeing’ in L2 speech production research. The presentation, in which Taka will provide an overview of his research within the theme of ‘the use of technology’, will be in two parts with a break. In Part 1, he will touch on the use of technology in Phonetics and […]

Mark BrierleyThere are no shortcuts to becoming good at English. Like many things, it takes time. If we can find ways that are easy and enjoyable, we are more likely to spend time. Research has shown that starting reading easy books means students get better faster. The student practice of reading many easy and enjoyable […]