Category: Talk

  • Upcoming – Daniel Newbury – Google Education Suite

    Event Speaker: Daniel Newbury
    Fee for JALT members: free
    Fee for non-JALT members: 1000 yen (500 yen for students)
    Contact or Queries: iwatejalt@hotmail.com
    Date and Time: Sunday, January 27, 2019 – 1:30pm to 4:30pm
    Location: AIINA in Morioka Rm 809 – View Map

     

    Note: The speaker will be referencing Google during their talk. Participants are encouraged to bring a smartphone, tablet or laptop with cellular connectivity. There is no reliable Wi-Fi connectivity at the presentation site.

    Abstract:

    Do more with less by leveraging Google Education productivity tools to support improved learning outcomes while reducing your workload. Google’s search engine is the world’s most used search engine, but it’s lesser known Google Classroom suite provides a set of tools for fostering engagement and productivity in the classroom. Everything from testing, content delivery, and collaboration can be streamlined and improved through this free Google-driven toolbox. In this presentation I will provide hands-on lessons in maximizing this powerful tool so that you can provide superior results in your teaching.

    Units of study in speaking textbooks often culminate in a cumulative end-of-unit task. These tasks are valuable to learners in both their preparation and performance. As useful as these tasks are, their complexity can result in disappointing outcomes that leave both learners and the teacher befuddled. I will explore different ways to get the most out of these tasks and turn them into tools for supporting learning in the oral communication classroom.

    Bio:

    Daniel Newbury’s research interests are integrating technology with language learning and designing tasks that balance fluency and accuracy. Dan is associate professor at Fuji University.

     

  • Teaching English to Young Learners: six challenges in search of solutions

    Jamie Hall from Iwate University asked me to pass this information along. The event is free to attend. Please let him know by email if you coming. Thank you.

    _____________________________________

    Iwate Association of English Education

     (東北英語教育学会岩手支部) Presents

    Teaching English to Young Learners:

    six challenges in search of solutions

    Day and time: Monday, November 12, 18:00 – 19:30

    Place: Room E22 Faculty of Education （総合教育研究棟(教育系) E22号室

    Description:

    English is being introduced globally to children at increasingly lower ages in state and private schools. Recent research has identified a number of key challenges that teachers face in the young learner classroom as a result of these new policy directives (Copland et al. 2014).  This presentation will introduce 6 of these challenges and, drawing on chapters from The Routledge Handbook of Teaching English to Young Learners (Garton and Copland, 2018), it will suggest some tentative solutions.

    Biography:

    pdplkoapggnkikglFiona Copland is Professor of TESOL (Teaching English as a Second Language) at the University of Stirling, Scotland, where she is also Associate Dean for Research in the Faculty of Social Sciences. She has taught English in Nigeria, Hong Kong, Japan and the UK, and has worked as ateacher trainer in Japan and the UK. She has been Programme Director of a number of master’s programmes in TESOL and supervises PhD students in a range of areas.  Dr. Copland has researched and published in the areas of teacher education, teaching English to young learners, native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) and linguistic ethnography.

    Please direct inquiries to (問い合わせ先)：James Hall (jhall@iwate-u.ac.jp)

    Anyone can attend, but it would be appreciated if you would inform James beforehand.

  • Upcoming – Getting Ready for 2020 – Alison Nemoto

    Event Speaker: Alison Nemoto
    Fee for JALT members: free
    Fee for non-JALT members: 1000 yen (500 yen for students)
    Contact or Queries: iwatejalt@hotmail.com

    Date and TIme: Sunday, April 22, 2018 – 1:30pm to 4:30pm
    Location: AIINA in Morioka Rm 813 – View Map

    Abstract:

    This is a period of enormous change in Japanese primary education, as English advances to become a subject for the upper grades and a compulsory activity for the middle grades from 2020. After working on the MEXT committee which developed the materials; “We Can!” and ”Let’s Try!” in this presentation I will share my ideas about how they should be ideally used in the classroom this year and next.  I will also provide feedback on the new curriculum from student teachers who are trying it out in university classes and from children at pilot schools already using the materials.

    Bio:

    B.Ed (Hons), M.A. in TEYL, (Teaching English to Young Learners).

    Alison is from the UK and trained as a primary school teacher, before coming to Japan on the JET programme in 1989. She has over 20 years of experience teaching in kindergartens, primary schools and junior high schools in the coastal area of Fukushima and worked for a year as the only native teacher in the 16 primary schools in Minamisoma City, Fukushima, directly after the earthquake, Tsunami and nuclear disaster of 2011.

    Since 2012, she has been as a Specially Appointed Associate Professor at Miyagi University of Education. She teaches English communication, writing and practical teaching skills to undergraduates who will become primary and secondary school teachers of English. Her areas of research are children’s opinions on reflective learning activities, active learning methods for Japanese primary English classrooms and the effect of storytelling as a gateway to English learning. She is involved in in-service teacher training at the university and works as an adviser in primary English education to numerous public schools the Tohoku area.

    Alison has worked for over ten years with various publishing companies, including Kairyudo and Kumon, on the development of materials for young learners in both public primary and junior high schools, and private language schools. She was appointed as an English curriculum and materials development adviser to the Myanmar Government, helped develop two texbooks and visited Myanmar three times from 2016-2017. She was also appointed as an English curriculum and materials development advisor for MEXT from Dec. 2016 – Dec. 2017, working on the syllabus reform and development of the materials; “Let’s Try!” and “We Can!” to be used from April 2018 until the new English primary school curriculum officially begins in 2020.

    She is programs chair for Sendai JALT and enjoys travelling, art, watching movies and yoga in her spare time.