Kitakyushu JALT:

Preliminary Report on Linguistic Readiness of Japanese Students Studying at an American University

Date: Saturday, April 8th, 2006 Time: 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM

Speaker: L. Dennis Woolbright, Kazuko Nishioka, and Yuji Hayashi

Description:
About 150,000 Japanese students take the TOEFL test every year, which is about 20 per cent of the total test-takers in the world. Educational Testing Service (ETS) has announced that a new-generation on-line Test of English as Foreign Language iBT(TOEFL) will come into operation in 2006 in Japan. A significant change in the test is that it will be an Internet based test with a mandatory speaking and writing component. The new test will examine comprehensive abilities in listening, reading, writing and speaking. The reason for this change is that many university professors complained that a high score on the TOEFL test did not necessarily mean that a student was academically prepared for university studies. This study looks at the strengths and perceived weaknesses of Japanese students studying at a private American university. Eight students and eight native English instructors were interviewed for this study using two questionnaires. A gap was noticed between students and teachers perceptions of areas of weaknesses and strengths in Japanese learners.

Presenters L. Dennis Woolbright, Kazuko Nishioka, and Yuji Hayashi all teach at Seinan Jo Gakuin University in the Humanities Department where they have been formulating this research for the last three years.

Following this presentation will be a short workshop entitled Frivolity in the Classroom, by Malcolm Swanson. Sometimes it's good to break away from formal studies and do something fun. Better still if that activity involves a bit of learning! In this short workshop, we'll look at creating simple animation movies using a laptop computer and a digital video camera. After a brief explanation and a demonstration of movies created by students, attendees will have an opportunity to create short movies themselves. Finally, we will discuss how these techniques could be used in a language-learning classroom. Malcolm Swanson teaches at Seinan Jo Gakuin University in Kitakyushu.

Organization: Kitakyushu Chapter of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (Kitakyushu JALT)

Cost: JALT Members: free
Non-members: 1,000 yen

Venue: Kitakyushu International Conference Center, room 31 (a 5-minute walk from the Kokura train station for shinkansen, JR train)

Location: Kitakyushu City, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan

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Website: hosted.jalt.org/chapters/kq/

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