Category: Talk

  • Double Presentation – Adam Murray – March 3, 2024

    A double feature presentation with Adam Murray at Iwate University.

    Sunday, March 3, 2024

    The Faculty of Education, Building 1 (教育学部一号館)
    Room E22.

    Free Admission.

    Listening: The Essential Language Skill In the first part of my talk, I will talk about the impact of anxiety on foreign language learning. I personally became interested in this area of research from my experiences learning and using Japanese. I conducted a medium-sized study with 176 undergraduate students who were enrolled in compulsory EFL classes for non-English majors at four universities. I will talk about the design of the study in both practical and theoretical terms. I will also describe the relationship between listening anxiety and performance on the one-way listening tasks based on the listening section of the TOEIC test. In the second part, I will talk about listening instruction in the classroom. I will talk about some of the issues that need to be considered when selecting listening materials (authentic vs. textbook). Also, I will talk about students’ perceptions of listening materials in terms of perceived difficulty. Finally, I will demonstrate some supplementary listening activities that can be easily adapted for your classes.

    Formative Assessment for the Language Classroom: Do’s and Don’ts Effective classroom-based assessment is essential for all language classrooms. At the end of today’s hands-on workshop, the participants will be able to: 1. Understand basic concepts about testing and assessment 2. Know the purposes of summative and formative assessment 3. Be able use some assessment tools in their courses

    About Adam Murray: 

    Adam Murray is a professor at the University of the Ryukyus. His research interests are listening instruction, materials development, and classroom-based assessment. He is currently the President of the JALT Okinawa Chapter.

  • May 22 – Dr. Patrick Dougherty – Discovering your Educational Philosophy

    Event Date: Sunday, May 22, 2022 1:30pm

    Zoom Link: Zoom link is now on event page below.

    Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/680678543160613

    Abstract:

    Debates over education policy, whether at the school level or in the community, have individuals espousing a philosophy of education, whether the debaters recognize this or not is a question.

    At the conclusion of this workshop, participants will be able to

    Describe five general Philosophies of Education
    Outline his or her Philosophy of Education in relation to the five
    Identify the philosophy (or philosophies) of education active in the local context.
    Apply a philosophy or philosophies toward the solution of self-identified educational challenges.

    Presenter:

    Dr. Patrick Dougherty is the Dean of the Faculty of International Liberal Arts, Head of the English for Academic Purposes Program, Director of the Active Learning and Assessment Center, and a professor of International Liberal Arts at Akita International University in Akita, Japan. He has been an educator for thirty-four years, active in the United States, Japan, and the United Arab Emirates at the secondary, undergraduate, and graduate levels. He holds graduate degrees in educational leadership, education, history, and applied linguistics.

  • Embracing Folk Culture through English Language Courses – Ben Grafström

    Date – January 30

    Time – 2:00pm – 4:00pm

    Venus – Online – Zoom Link TBA

    Event Page – https://www.facebook.com/events/323838102984391

    Ben Grafström (Akita University)

    Abstract

    This presentation is a reflection on my teaching practices—specifically, those I use in a class called “English Conversation for the Humanities” for first year university students. This class (in Japanese, Bunkei eikaiwa) is a core curriculum course for humanities and social science students. By selecting a cultural theme for the course (e.g., time studies, textual analysis, folk cultural studies), I tend to emphasize the “humanities” component over the “conversation” one. Since my background is in Japanese literary and cultural studies, emphasizing the bunkei provides the students with interesting course material as well as increases my motivation as a teacher.
    Keeping in mind that the ultimate purpose of the course is to improve students’ English language ability, I use a number of approaches that will meet their needs as foreign language learners. The approaches I rely on most are Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), English Medium Instruction (EMI), Integrated Learning, and Active Learning. In this presentation I will share my successes with CLIL, EMI, and Integrated Learning, and my failure with Active Learning! Educators do not always share their failures with each other in public forums, but in so doing I hope to reflect on my teaching practices with colleagues so that we may all progress as educators together.

    BIO

    Ben has an M.A. in East Asian Language and Literature with a concentration in Japanese literature from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is currently a lecturer at Akita University, where his course load mainly consists of English for Academic Purposes for 1st and 2nd year students.Ben has been in Japan for 13 years—3 in eastern Hokkaido and 10 in Akita. Before coming to Japan he was a high school teacher at Monsignor Bonner High School, just outside Philadelphia, and a graduate student at the University of Colorado, Boulder.