Tag: language

  • A Growth Mindset for Language Education – Adrian Leis

    February 15 @ 1:30 PM – 4:00 PM

    Location: KIOXIA AIINA in Morioka – Room 602

    〒020-0045　1-7-1 Moriokaekinishidori, Morioka, Iwate 020-0045, Japan

    Abstract

    This presentation explores how growth mindset theory can empower learners to see ability as something that can be developed rather than fixed. Drawing on research in educational psychology and classroom-based practice, the presentation examines how beliefs about intelligence influence motivation, risk-taking, and resilience. Through interactive examples and practical activities, participants will experience how small changes in feedback, task design, and classroom culture can strengthen students’ willingness to challenge themselves. The session also invites participants to reflect on their own mindsets, both as language teachers and as language learners, highlighting the role of scaffolding, praise, and productive failure in building confidence, creativity, and long-term engagement with learning.

    Profile

    Adrian Leis is a professor at Tohoku Gakuin University and founder of SielpA Books. His work focuses on language-learning motivation, self-worth theory, and task-based pedagogy. He is widely published and actively involved in teacher education, textbook development, and research that bridges theory with classroom practice.

  • Music and language in the brain: Ways to use music to facilitate language learning – Amanda Gillis-Furutaka

    • Date: Sunday, February 26 1:30pm
    • Location: Online – Zoom link included when you register for event
    • Cost: JALT Members – Free. Non-member – 500 yen
    • Event Registration is here: https://iwamorifeb26.peatix.com/view

    Outline: Music is found in all cultures worldwide. It is an international language that communicates emotion across other language barriers. Importantly, listening to music involves the whole brain. We will explore how music is processed not only through our ears and auditory cortex, but also through our senses of touch and sight, and how we can recall music through visual and tactile stimuli as well as an audio stimulus. We will experience howinstrumental music activates areas of the brain associated with language. And understand why motor areas of our brain are activated automatically when we hear music, even when we are sitting or lying still. These phenomena explain why using music in a classroom is especially stimulating and conducive to learning. Participants will be invited to share the ways in which they use music in their classrooms and the positive outcomes they have experienced. The presenter will also introduce additional suggestions for using music to stimulate language learning both in the face-to-face classroom and when teaching online.

    Bio: Amanda Gillis-Furutaka is a professor in the Department of English at Kyoto Sangyo University. She has an MA in TESOL from the University of Birmingham and a PhD in music from the University of London Goldsmiths College. She has taught in a variety of countries and researched in a variety of fields but her main interest these days is how to apply the latest findings in brain science to the language classroom. She is currently the Coordinator of the JALT
    Mind, Brain, and Education SIG.

  • February 27, 2022: Dr. Jackie Steele

    Event Date: February 27, 2022 Sunday, 1pm 
    Location: Online (Register with Peatix here!)

    Come and join us on February 27th for our event with Dr. Jackie Steele.

    Co-sponsored by the JALT CALL and GALE SIGs and the Iwate-Aomori, Kyoto, Okinawa, Saitama, Shizuoka and Yokohama JALT Chapters.