ELT Calendar

Sunday, June 18th, 2006

Teachers Unions in Japan (and chapter members' presentations)
Time: 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Speaker: Robert Aspinall, and Chapter Presenters
Organization: Ibaraki Chapter of the Japan Association for Language Teaching
Location: Daigo City, Ibaraki Prefecture
Short description: Teachers Unions in Japan, Robert Aspinall. This presentation is based on the presenter's book (which is based on his PhD thesis.

NEW Finding Out: A child-centered approach for Japanese children (in Osaka)
Time: 9:30 AM - 2:00 PM
Speaker: David Paul
Organization: Macmillan LanguageHouse
Location: Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture
Short description: For the New Finding Out information and activities tour, David Paul will run workshops on the following four themes: Active learning and communication.

Ways of Focussing on Language
Time: 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Speaker: To be announced
Organization: The British Council Tokyo Centre
Location: Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis
Short description: When we teach new language, what does the learner need to understand in order to use the language appropriately and correctly? This seminar will give teachers guidelines to follow when analysing new language for lessons.

Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening and Problem Solving
Time: 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Speaker: Mike Waugh and Steve McAtamaney
Organization: ETJ Hiroshima (English Teachers in Japan)
Location: Hiroshima City, Hiroshima Prefecture
Short description: This meeting will be workshop style. In the first part, discussion will focus on how to incorporate reading, writing, speaking and listening into your lessons regardless of the level of the students.

TKT Seminar
Time: 12:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Speaker: British Council
Organization: The British Council Teacher Training Seminars
Location: Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture
Short description: TKT tests knowledge about the teaching of English to speakers of other languages, and concentrates on the knowledge needed by all English language teachers.

Seven Steps to Success with Young Learners
Time: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Speaker: Stan Pederson
Organization: Iwate-Aomori Chapter of the Japan Association for Language Teaching
Location: Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture
Short description: Young learners are less able to adapt education to their own needs. The teacher must therefore prepare more fully to provide them with a rich learning experience.

Using Stories as a basis for movement activities in class
Time: 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Speaker: Chantal Hemmi
Organization: ETJ Tokyo (English Teachers in Japan)
Location: Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis
Short description: This ETJ Tokyo meeting features Chantal Hemmi from the British Council, who will be presenting on using stories as a basis for movement activities in class.

Portfolios as Alternative Assessment
Time: 1:30 PM - 4:00 PM
Speaker: Suzanne Bonn, Nagoya University of Foreign Studies
Organization: Toyohashi Chapter of the Japan Association for Language Teaching
Location: Toyohashi City, Aichi Prefecture
Short description: This workshop and presentation will offer effective methods for integrating portfolios in the language classroom and for adapting portfolios to learners of different levels, curriculum, and content.

Children Learn While They Play, Children Learn While They Communicate
Time: 1:30 PM - 4:30 PM
Speaker: Mayuka Habbick
Organization: ETJ Saitama (English Teachers in Japan)
Location: Saitama City, Saitama Prefecture
Short description: In this interactive workshop, Mayuka Habbick will share her ideas and activities which motivate children becoming and being independent learners. .

Power of the Pen Awards
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Speaker: TBA
Organization: Okinawa Chapter of the Japan Association for Language Teaching
Location: Nishihara City, Okinawa Prefecture
Short description: For details on this event, please contact Okinawa JALT, or visit their website. Details will be published here as they become available.

Assessing English Proficiency by Computer: Call Software and Prosody Analysis
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Speaker: Hiroyuki Obari, Aoyama Gakuin University
Organization: Gunma Chapter of the Japan Association for Language Teaching
Location: Maebashi City, Gunma Prefecture
Short description: This presentation is about effectiveness of the Computed Assessment System for English Communication (CASEC) as a means of assessing EFL learner's fluency in communication.

Text exploitation workshop: Moving from accuracy to fluency
Time: 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Speaker: Gerry Lassche
Organization: Sendai Chapter of the Japan Association for Language Teaching
Location: Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture
Short description: Current high school classroom conditions tend to prepare students for testing and university entrance exams, which creates conflicts with current communicative pedagogical practices.

Psycholinguists and Second Language Ability
Time: 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Speaker: Jun Yamada (Professor, Hiroshima University)
Organization: Hiroshima Chapter of the Japan Association for Language Teaching
Location: Hiroshima City, Hiroshima Prefecture
Short description: The ability to imitate seems to involve not only general intelligence but also L2 ability. A pscholinguistic experiment recently found that English majors, in contrast to non-English majors, produced utterances closer to those of model speakers.

Phonics: Why and How
Time: 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Speaker: Peter Warner
Organization: ETJ Osaka (English Teachers in Japan)
Location: Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture
Short description: By explaining the Reading Triangle and demonstrating various activities, the presenter will show why phonics is essential for teaching English, and how to do it.

Make Some Noise
Time: 5:00 PM - 11:30 PM
Speaker: Comedy acts: Ami and her guitar and The Comedy Store; Music act: Warawara
Organization: Amnesty International, Group 78 Tokyo
Location: Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis
Short description: Have a laugh and Make Some Noise at a fun night of stand-up comedy acts: Ami and her guitar and The Comedy Store. And don't forget your dancing shoes as these acts are followed by dance music from Warawara.