Category: Talk

  • Upcoming: Double Presentation: Global English Seminar and What can be done with Corpora – Barry Grossman

    Event Speaker: Barry GrossmanFee for JALT 

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    members: freeFee for non-JALT members: 1000 yen (500 yen for students)
    Contact or Queries: iwatejalt@hotmail.com

    Date and TIme: Sunday, January 28, 2018 – 1:30pm to 4:30pm

    Location: AIINA in Morioka Rm 605 – View Map

    Presentation #1: (45 minutes)

    Title: “Global English Seminar Project: A navigation app for foreign tourists and residents”

    The need for English information in a local community is being met by a university’s ‘Global English Seminar’ class. In order to make visiting the area more convenient for foreign tourists and residents, the seminar class has made a free iPhone app that provides information in English on local tourist spots, businesses and services. The educational and societal goals, methods, results, and challenges of this three-year project will be presented.

    Hands-on Workshop: (90 minutes)

    Title: “What can you do with a corpus?”

    Online corpora have become very user-friendly in the past few years. In this hands-on workshop, we will learn to use the corpus engine at Brigham Young University. The corpus can be beneficial as a language resource for teachers and students, but we will also discuss its use for classroom activities. By the end of the workshop, participants will have the confidence to use a corpus on their own and be able to explore the various functions an online corpus can offer.

    Bio

    Born 1965: Brooklyn, NY

    Academics

    1988: University of Colorado, BA in English Literature

    1991: University of Colorado, MA in Linguistics / TEFL

    2017: University of Birmingham (UK), PhD. in English & Applied Linguistics

    (Thesis in Cognitive Corpus Linguistics)

     

    Employment

    1991: Tokyo, English Language School

    1992: Hirosaki, English Language School

    1993: Hachinohe National Institute of Technology

    1996: Hachinohe University, Lecturer

    2013: Hachinohe Gakuin University, Professor

     

    Besides having published numerous articles on EFL and Linguistics, he has given research presentations in Japan, Canada, Korea, Italy, & The Netherlands.

  • Upcoming – Gerome Rothman – Understanding Labour Contracts and the Five Year Rule

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    Date and Time: Sunday, 29 October 2017– 1:30pm – 4:30pm
    Speaker: Gerome Rothman
    Location: AIINA Rm 602 (map https://goo.gl/maps/kEQo5UV2jPr)
    Fee for JALT members: Free
    Fee for one-day members: 1,000 yen (500 yen for students)

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    The talk will  begin by giving a brief background about temporary labor contracts to set up an examination about a unique problem facing language educators in the corporate and university sector – the so called five-year rule/ten-year rule.  This rule purports to provide a method for temporary labor contracts to become converted to permanent contracts.  This presentation will discuss the ins and outs of this new policy, the myths associated with it, the implications of the policy.  It will close by explaining why cooperation, rather than competition with ones colleagues is the only way to build solidarity and improve working conditions in the academic workplace.

    Bio:  Gerome Rothman is a Field Director and Organizer at Zenkoku Ippan Tokyo General Union (Tozen Union for short).  As an organizer at Tozen he is a case officer for 10 of its locals, responsible for leading collective bargaining, drafting demands and legal documents, and representing the union to third parties such as the Labor Relations Commission 労働委員会.  He is also Tozen’s representative to the executive of Rengo Tokyo, Rengo being the national federation with which Tozen became affiliated in 2016.  He is also English language instructor at the  Foreign Service Training Institute of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

    About Tozen Union:  Tozen a Japanese labor union based in Tokyo with members who hail from over 35 countries. Members work in a diverse range of sectors including language education, financial services, warehousing, and translation/interpretation.  Tozen aims to be the most democratic and transparent union in the world.  Our website is at www.tokyogeneralunion.org http://www.tokyogeneralunion.org.

  • MEES 2017 – Over and Out

    MEES 2017 came and went today, and it was a roaring success. We had a number of amazing presentations. Here some photos of the event. Thank you for coming out everyone. We’ll see you all next year.

    All photography ©2017 Jason Hill.