Kitakyushu JALT Meeting Reports: Archive for 2002
Our meeting reports archive contains reports of our meetings from 1999 to June 2008.
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12 January 2002
Various (Moderator: Paul Collett)
The Future of Kitakyushu JALT - Questionnaire, roundtable discussion
Since its inception seven years ago, Kitakyushu JALT has focussed upon the hosting of the national conference in 2001. With that successfully accomplished, we are looking to the future. The January 2002 meeting was devoted to evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of our chapter as it presently exists and discussion of where we want it to go from here. Questionnaires were distributed (and made available on-line for absent members) for feedback and focusing upon issues.
The first hour was a roundtable opportunity to voice opinions of past performance and future possibilities. Then we divided into groups to discuss questions dealing with what other chapters do that seems feasible for us, what problems and solutions have been encountered in the past, changes the chapter has undergone and future directions we want to see. During the final thirty minutes, results were pooled in the larger group. Chief considerations for future directions included soliciting leadership from, as well as increasing, the Japanese membership and using TLT or other articles as a focus for discussion at meetings. The mood throughout was generally self-congratulatory and genially optimistic.
Reported by Dave Pite
9 February 2002
Various (Moderator: Kana Higashijima)
Deconstructing TLT
In line with our resolution to vary the format of monthly meetings, February's was devoted to discussion of an article in The Language Teacher (January 2002), moderated by a local member. We looked at "Cultural Effects on Learning and Teaching English in Vietnam" by Nguyen Thi Hoai, a research report about EFL instruction in Vietnam and found many similarities with EFL instruction in Japan.
Ms. Higashijima began by asking what we thought of student expectations that the teacher have all the answers. Discussion moved to a point made in the article that "grammar courses are easier to teach". For a trained grammarian this may be so but what about teachers who are not and consider conversation practice to be more important anyway?
It is OK for the teacher not to know the answers sometimes; furthermore that teaches something important in itself, i.e. proof that it is possible to be a fluent speaker without knowing much about grammar per se. Teachers should promote student autonomy and the idea that there is often more than one answer. As 'learning assistants', we need to show students how to effectively use reference materials?electronic and otherwise. Anecdotes surfaced about "grammar translation without the grammar". The article's "uncertainty avoidance" and "eliciting permission to speak from classmates" are familiar themes in Japanese classrooms.
Inevitably the discussion swung around to "the status quo" and "the way it's always been done", by "the old guard" trained in grammar translation and not actually speaking English very well. These are the ones who are training new teachers now so it appears no changes may be apparent for at least another generation. Are teachers in exam orientated Japan doing students a disservice by teaching an English that will not get them into universities? It was pointed out that, while learning grammar is not necessarily bad and can in fact be fun, it should be balanced by "real communication ". Now that Japanese companies are starting to peg salaries to demonstrated English proficiency (indicated via TOEIC scores) we may see a change in attitude by learners. There was some speculation about how the debate/discussion-orientated new directions in other subjects might change student attitudes toward their English conversation classes.
While more than a little reminiscent of endless lunch-hour conversations among language teachers, the formal organization of this discussion seemed to make it more constructive - and optimistic.
Reported by Dave Pite
9 March 2002
Tom Merner (Japan College of Foreign Languages) and Kensaku Yoshida (Sophia University)
English in Elementary Schools: What Will it Mean for Secondary School Teachers?
FLES and FLEX-- Their Feasibility in Relation to Junior High Scho
For Tom Merner and Kensaku Yoshida, Kitakyushu was one stop of many across Japan. They are explaining changes in the public school curriculum to be implemented in April 2002.
The new three hours per week of "Sogotekina Gakushu no Jikan" (Period of Integrated Studies) is to focus upon "International Understanding" and/or "English Activities"?proportions of which are to be left to the discretion of individual school administrators. They may opt for English to be taught once a week, once a year, or not at all. This and other examples of the range of interpretations available provided insight into the state of Mombusho's new program. Another eye-opener was that the teacher training available?and budget allotted to it?are both pitifully meagre, particularly in comparison to those of Taiwan and Korea.
FLES (Foreign Language instruction in Elementary Schools) and FLEX (Foreign Language Experience) were compared and contrasted in terms of their relative merits, with FLES appearing to be the logical choice for experienced classroom teachers, often unwilling to tackle something completely new. (That leaves FLEX for the rest of us, foreign ALTs. Sound familiar?)
Some logistical problems were discussed, including writing achievement tests when the number of prescribed words has dropped to 100. The rest vary depending on the textbook, of which there are 25 different ones being used in high schools, seven in junior high. Both FLES and FLEX appear to face major and mutually exclusive challenges concerning students' prior knowledge of and current ability in English.
The speakers maintained a high level of audience interest throughout their two hour presentation as they outlined the project and demonstrated how its ambitious and eloquent philosophy sometimes clashed with rather unrealistic plans for implementation?and fuzzy concepts of internationalization. Despite their somewhat gloomy assessment of the state of Japan's education system however, scholars such as these make one feel as though it is in good hands.
Reported by Dave Pite
13 April 2002
Malcolm Swanson (www.pukeko.ws); Nigel Stott (Fukuoka Prefectural University); Paul Collett (noise.as)
On the Edge: Integrating Technologies in the Classroom
Malcolm Swanson introduced this very well-attended and informative set of three presentations, telling us they would start simple and get more complex. That they did.
Swanson's was a basic introduction to editing video on a Macintosh computer - from explaining what equipment is needed, through demonstrating how easy manipulating content with iMovie software is, to showing us the finished product, an apocalyptic school trip to a local nuclear power plant
Next, observing that software developers retail a ¥60 CD for about ¥5000, Nigel Stott showed us how he saves a lot of money, and makes materials ideally suited to his classes, using a professional level multimedia authoring tool. Many programs seem to add on gadgets and bells-and-whistles to be "interactive-learning", with no pedagogical justification; this was made apparent by the contrast with Stott's focus upon using the computer as a presentation tool, while scrupulously retaining responsibility for personal guidance and checking of students' projects. He has exploited the technology to facillitate students working at their own pace, while freeing the instructor for face time with small groups. (Interestingly, hints may be gleaned from his approach on how to exploit commercial software for use in the one-computer classroom, making them a little more economical.)
Finally, Paul Collett, as promised, intrigued us with his innovative method to get college students' attention, by programming English lessons they can access with their mobile phones. Online absence forms and email contact forms are also available for teachers' convenience. Interested (and capable) users were invited to download the scripts and modify them for their own purposes.
This triple-layered presentation had something for everyone; evidenced by a follow-up question session that took the meeting well into overtime.
Reported by Dave Pite
11 May 2002
Panel: Patricia Kasamatsu, Tony Ruiz, Hiroshi Otani, Andrew Zitzman
Homework 1
The panelists presented their homework policies, each member of the audience gave their views, and then a group discussion continued throughout the meeting. Kasamatsu believes that "children cannot not have homework" or lessons will degenerate into a repititous going over of what they have forgotten. She assigns five to ten minutes of reading or writing for very young ones, rewarded with stamps and presents; journal-keeping for junior high school level and up. Ruiz stresses the old adage "practice makes perfect", assigning free writing on topics he chooses to his college classes, and testing them on it. Otani points out that for his engineering students, English is an important subject "in theory", but that it actually seems to deteriorate as they progress through their other subjects. Realizing that students do not do homework that does not have to be handed in, he has required students to copy out passages from the textbook several times, to help them internalize the language. Zitzman finds the logistics of monitoring large classes, when many students are involved in a variety of extracurricular activities, make it difficult for part-time teachers to effectively assign homework.
Audience members exhibited a similar range in attitude towards the necessity of homework, as well as gradations of encouragement between the 'carrot or stick approach' (such as prizes, bonus points, staying after class, failure etc.). Journals, quizzes, individual and group projects, video assignments, research (disguised as game preparation) were some formats mentioned. Some valuable insights were provided by students telling how they felt about homework and explaining some of their own methods for self-study.
Our animated evening's discussion seemed to be well summed up by Zitzman's concluding observation that homework is best directed toward helping students find their own way of accessing and learning the material.
Reported by Dave Pite
8 June 2002
Panel: Michael Vrbanac, Judith Johnson, Chris Carman, Margaret Orleans
Homework II
May's panel discussion focused upon why and how homework is assigned. This month's Round Two was about the practicality of it, what good homework consists of. Four panelists shared what works for them.
Michael Vrbanac started with an explanation of the extensive homework exercises that are an integral part of the elementary school EFL program he teaches. Listening and repeating exercises on CD, reinforced with picture cards, are done at home and checked in class. The rationale is that native language is acquired through listening, and in Japan there is not enough English outside of the classroom to listen to.
Judith Johnson teaches English to engineering students. She goes with them to the library and helps them select books appropriate to their level. The reading of novels is encouraged rather than short stories for a deeper engagement with the material. Book reports, either written or oral, get extra credit. Malcolm Swanson's "English Communication" forms are also used in her classes, as kind of a written conversation between teacher and student.
Chris Carman pragmatically considers homework in terms of class size and atmosphere, assigning listening/cloze exercises, vocabulary and writing. Students also comment on each others' writing. Homework is not actually graded, as it is supplementary, being problematic to base lessons upon completed homework. It may be corrected however, upon request.
Margaret Orleans often assigns group projects, to be presented to the rest of the class, and graded. The awareness that what is not completed in class must be done for homework, with the accompanying logistical problems of meeting together to do it, certainly spurs the attempt to remain on task in the classroom! Another of her, more subtle, methods of encouragement is a policy to never give students a paper that is blank on the back. Always put on something extra, such as a game or a quiz, and the students always seem to do it.
Audience participation was encouraged throughout the panel presentations, including questioning the pedagogical justification or feasibility of assignments, suggesting alternative methodologies with similar aims, and other feedback. Everyone got some ideas to take home.
Reported by Dave Pite
13 July 2002
Various (Moderator: Kimiko Murata)
Deconstructing TLT, Part II
In this our second meeting devoted to a teaching topic from The Language Teacher, we discussed bullying in schools, with reference to the article, Biracials and Bullying: Preparing Kids for School by Frank E. Daulton, May 2002 issue.
Situations in which bullying occurs were identified and various ways of dealing with them were discussed. Although large class sizes tend to be blamed for such problems, school boards often oppose downsizing, so teacher support is minimized. In Japan one's identity is defined by their place in the (hierarchal) group - there is not the same value placed upon individuality as in other countries. This uchi-soto (insider-outsider) dynamic plays a large role in instigating and prolonging bullying.
In considering the psychology of the bullying personality, it was pointed out that loneliness, rejection or family problems sometimes cause children to aggressively demand attention. Victims tend toward avoidance. (Noticing prolonged absence from school is often what alerts teachers and parents to the situation.)
Sometimes problems are ignored and not talked about, in the hope that they will "work themselves out". However, discussion about dealing with bullying mostly centred upon the need to face the problem head on, to find means of awareness-raising of all concerned. Although students are often "told" not to participate in bullying, it was pointed out that "training" is more appropriate, showing the potentially hurtful effects and encouraging empathy and understanding, as well as teaching intervention techniques. Other countries offer these kinds of programs from elementary school. An article from The School House (publ. JALT Vol. 9; Issue 4) by Yumiko Kiguchi was introduced, which describes an awareness-raising exercise based on discussion and reflection of the issues in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
From a linguistic viewpoint, a couple of potentially hurtful words were examined morphologically. The term hafu refers to children with one Japanese parent and the other of a different race, and might be seen as simply an example of the often quaint "Japanese-English" expressions that drop the second part of a phrase. ("Half and half" does not have the same denigrating connotation as does "half", in referring to a human being.) Batakusai carries the negative connotation "reeking of Western style" as well as evoking an admirable and enviable exotic Western flair.
Chairperson Murata concluded the meeting by pointing out the importance of teachers continually monitoring their classroom language, to be sensitive to all their students.
Reported by Dave Pite
14 September 2002
Joy Jarman-Walsh
Shuffling Strategies
Ms. Joy Jarman-Walsh demonstrated her method for facilitating communication in her EFL classes via discussion in groups about groupwork?advantages, disadvantages, goals and organization. Some interesting observations emerged, were presented, and noted collectively. Groups were reshuffled, randomly twice, then deliberately by our presenter. Thus our group discussions modeled the group dynamics under discussion. Jarman-Walsh finds four basic personality types, characterized as Leader, Helper, Shy/Inactive and Saboteur. She groups her students in combinations of these, finding they need a balance of at least one, preferably two, Helper types, and only one Leader, of course. Shy/Inactive types are best all grouped together. Saboteurs need a little talk with the teacher.
To determine why group activities never seemed to work in her classes Jarman-Walsh had drawn upon her psychology experience to formulate personality tests, but found them inconclusive, as students tend to respond differently as individuals. She tried different ways of grouping - random, student-selected and teacher-selected, judging their effectiveness by the grades that participating students received, and found the last to be the most effective. A three-student triangle is the best size, provided that tasks are divided equally and each student speaks (English only) in the presentation.
This interesting take on class organization finished with a hotly contested quiz review - rewarded by chocolates instead of grades.
Reported by Dave Pite
9 November 2002
Francis Bolstad
An Introduction to NLP in Teaching
Francis Bolstad started with Neurolinguistic Programming at age sixteen, at a seminar given by his father, Dr. Richard Bolstad, a leader in the field in New Zealand. A branch of self-help psychology with roots and connections in Multiple Intelligences theory, Parent Effectiveness Training and Transactional Analysis, NLP may be effectively exploited in the language classroom to move students toward desirable attitudes and mental states conducive to learning. Developed in the 1970s (Bandler and Grinder, 1975), behaviour modification techniques likened to the famous example of Pavlov's dog are designed to help people use their minds better to learn more. NLP researchers collate how successful people do things.
As an introductory example, Bolstad led us through a process of 'anchoring', in which a desirable physical and mental state is achieved through reminiscence of enjoyable experience and then 'anchored' by the introduction of a private word or gesture that may be used to return to the state when desired. He pointed out that daily life is full of such 'anchors'; readily available for use in teaching. Noticing his elementary school EFL students preparing to write whenever he reached for chalk at the board, it was an simple step to combine the gesture with the instruction, 'Take out your notebooks,' to introduce new vocabulary. More sophisticated uses of NLP target learning disabilities and removal of severe test anxiety.
Reminding us that students learn 25% more when relaxed, Bolstad pointed out that essential aspects of the technique are having subjects fully in a strong state, precise timing and a unique and readily replicable anchor.
Though perhaps a bit daunting for new practitioners to introduce NLP into EFL classes, Bolstad claims a high success rate with his elementary school students, attested to by his competent and insightful guidance of our experience throughout the meeting.
Reported by Dave Pite
18 November 2002
Jane Willis, Aston University
Using Stories with Children
At our second November meeting, author Jane Willis shared with us techniques for using stories in teaching English from elementary school teachers around the world, including our chapter's own Fumiko Yamazaki. Both children and teachers love stories for a number of reasons. Perhaps the most significant from an SLA point of view are that children are very meaning-focussed during story-telling, which leads to the building up of receptive vocabulary, and that stories offer multiple opportunities for the natural recycling of language.
The focus of Willis' talk was on interacting with the young learners in the target language as much as possible. She handed out a list of useful references as well as lists of suggested activities to accompany telling of stories, listening to stories, reading stories and doing follow-up activities. Working from these lists and audio-taped examples, the audience suggested additional possible approaches to various elements of the stories. The evening concluded with a sharing of favorite children's stories brought along by members of the audience.
Reported by Margaret Orleans
14 December 2002
Julian Warden, Oxford University Press
Promoting Fluency
Julian Warden began his presentation by calling on the audience to differentiate between accuracy and fluency and polled the audience on the relative importance of each to their students. The answers seemed to depend on what level of students were being taught. Throughout the session, Warden continued to emphasize the importance of involving students emotionally in the topics and activities in order to encourage fluency. He also explained the need to check assumptions when using realia as the schema of the author/teacher may vary from that of the students.
In workshop style, participants paired off to evaluate sample activities in terms of the naturalness of the language and situation, the communicative potential, and the appropriateness for our students. At the end of the session, Warden treated us to pizza and the opportunity to examine other Oxford texts first-hand.
Reported by Margaret Orleans
