Kyoto JALT My Share Event Sunday, March 30th, 2014 Time: 10:00~ (Registration starts at 9:30) Venue: Campus Plaza Kyoto Located near JR Kyoto Station Map to venue Cost: JALT members free; one day-members 500 yen 9:30 Doors open/Registration All times include 20 minutes for presentation, 10 minutes for Q&A/Discussion, and roughly 5 minutes break between speakers 10:00 Opening comments 10:05 Michael Furmanovsky (Ryukoku University) Getting to Know You: A First Day of the Year Activity that Keeps on Giving A positive first impression that acts to humanize the instructor can create a good impression and sense of trust from day one. This activity gives students interesting and humanizing information about the teacher through a first day collaborative activity in groups of three. The teacher places around 10 items that reflect his or her interests and background in a bag. These can include books, magazines, CDs, favorite snacks, photos etc. The class is divided into groups of three, A,B and C. A goes outside the room with the teacher who then talks for 5 minutes about her/his background and interests. Students B and C stay in the classroom and look at different items from the bag that are placed in different parts of the room. The three then reunite and discuss what they learned about the instructor. This is followed by a simple True/False quiz about the instructor in which all three students must collaborate to get the answer. 10:40 Atsuko Kosaka (Aichi University) Finding and Developing Students Writers Voice by Utilizing Unexpected Questions Voice is often recognized as one of the traits of good writing (Anderson 2005, 56-57). Yet it is not easy for L2 students to give voice to their writing. This presentation focuses on the interactive activity of exploring and developing ones own voice in the prewriting stage. First, the presenter briefly discusses the finding of topics to write about and offers possible lists and questions. Then, she assists the participants in creating unusual questions for others that may help to uncover and extract interesting information.. Next, the participants choose unexpected questions and brainstorm ideas in a small group. The presentation will end with examples of questions that students created (such as What is the most expensive item you have ever bought?) and with a brief analysis of how interactive topic finding helps L2 students to develop their voice. 11:15 James Rogers (Kansai Gaidai University) Formulaic Focused Vocabulary Instruction: Moving Beyond Isolated Vocabulary Teaching Traditionally, vocabulary instruction has focused on singular lexi. “Word lists” have been at the heart of ESL curriculums for nearly a century, and still play a central role in materials creation and assessment.. However, research has shown this to be an inefficient way to learn. Many researchers are also beginning to rethink the concept of what is a “word.” Despite much research being conducted on the topic of formulaic language, and a multitude of recommendations of its inclusion in second language instruction methodologies, ESL students throughout the word still struggle to develop formulaic fluency. This presentation will discuss why formulaic language is so important for students in obtaining fluency in a second language. Reasons behind this lack of this essential aspect to obtaining fluency, and suggestions of ways in which teachers and researchers can approach the inclusion of such instruction in their research/courses will also be presented. 11:45 Break 12:05 Gordon Leversidge (Otsuma Womens University, Waseda University) The Tiered Wedding Cake Merry Go Round: Vocabulary and Out of Date C20 Stereotypes The presentation will begin with an information gap exercise from the 2013 British Class Survey and the Japanese Newsweek Edition’s visualization of it. This helps conceptualise some of the changes from C20 to C21 society and can be used to create activities, particularly for new and re-emerging vocabulary. The Japanese Newsweek’s very visual manga-like Tiered Wedding Cake Merry Go Round captures and instantly presents the results of a survey of the changes in British class and society. However, these changes are not limited to the UK; they are present to some degree in all industrialized societies, including Japan. The visualization offers a framework for the creation and analysis of many vocabulary groupings and a starting point for discussion on various topics. The personal danger is that students are more aware of and sensitive about which tier they are and others are on. 12:40 Jeff Crawford (Kinki University) Shaping Listening Input to Reach Remedial learners Commonly understood to be a necessity to second language acquisition is the importance of exposure to comprehensible input in incremental stages, commonly known as the Input Hypothesis. Not surprisingly, dialogues and audio tracks are an important part of contemporary EFL material as these items expose learners to among other things, authentic sounding language use. However, the successful implementation of dialogues and listening tracks is predicated by the belief that learners are actively engaging with the instructional material. The Japanese university system has a large number of remedial level learners whose proficiency and/or lack of motivation are problematic barriers that prevent students from experiencing success with commercially produced listening resources. This presentation will demonstrate how the effective use of customized dialogues in a remedial-level classroom can engage learners and put listening tasks more in reach of the learners’ proficiency levels. 1:15 Closing remarks
Posted on: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 00:41:09 +0000
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