Kitakyushu JALT Meeting Reports: Archive for 2004
Our meeting reports archive contains reports of our meetings from 1999 to June 2008.
To see reports for later events, visit the reports page.
View archive for:
7 February 2004
Christopher Chase
Cartooning and Drawing Techniques for Teachers
Christopher Chase took all the mystery out of cartooning by relating his discovery that he was not the gifted cartoonist he had always thought when he came to Japan and found the corridors of an art school papered with outstanding drawings by student after student. It turned out that the secret is practice. So, under Chris' guidance we started practicing the kinds of things we wanted to be able to draw for handouts, on the blackboard, or for our own greeting cards. He handed out samples of basic facial expressions and body positions downloaded from Duane Barnhart's webpage , a site Chris highly recommends, along with Bob Weber, Jr.‚s page . Not only is copying encouraged as a way of seeing how human bodies and other subjects are put together, but tracing with paper or a lightbox is a practice engaged in by professionals. Having been assured that with enough hours of work we would all become competent cartoonists (but not oil portraitists), we set to drawing individual and cooperative figures. Chris recommends background music as a way of stimulating right-brain activity and downtime like boring faculty meetings and long telephone conversations with elderly aunts as perfect occasions for doing the necessary hours of practice.
Reported by Margaret Orleans
13 February 2004
Jennifer Bassett
A Box of Delights: Stories for Extensive Reading
As part of her Japan tour sponsored by Oxford University Press, Jennifer Bassett,editor of Oxford Bookworms, talked to us about graded readers and the many benefits of extensive reading for second language learners, such as vocabulary consolidation and dealing with aspects of extended text including discourse markers, ellipsis and internal reference. Lexical strategies mentioned were guessing unknown words from context (and learning when to stop trying to guess and move on), learning to accept fuzzy meaning, when to (and when not to) use a dictionary and, most importantly, learning to tolerate ambiguity. After clarifying terms such as "Fabula" (what happened), the basic story material, and "Sjuzhet" (how it is told), shaping the events of a story into a narrative, Bassett offered some suggestions of how to motivate students to get involved with the text they are reading together. An example was "implied texts"—letters and events mentioned in the story but not elaborated upon. Students can write them in the style the character or narrator might have used.
Over refreshments kindly supplied by OUP, we finished the meeting by looking over the display of sample graded readers, while chatting more informally about them with our very knowledgeable speaker.
Reported by Dave Pite
6 March 2004
Covenant Players
International Communications Theatre
The Covenant Players theatre organization gets around. They are currently performing in 73 countries in fifteen languages. And they have been twice to Kitakyushu! Albeit actors rather than English teachers, they share with many a commitment to enriching communication through imaginative dramatic performances, exercises and discussion. Of the network of members, three (from America, South Africa and Poland) presented us with some more of their philosophy and techniques during their second visit here.
Kurt Purucker, Cathy Purucker and Liliana Kwarcinska introduced their style of drama on a ‘bare stage’-- one end of the room with a chair in the middle. They invited the audience to imagine and suggest how the stage would be set up and then performed a short skit, followed by discussion of ways to use it in a classroom situation. (Their English Language Communication Program (ELCP) is based on the concept that creative involvement circumvents inhibitions about speaking a foreign language and allows the free flow of previously studied vocabulary, grammatical structure and correct accent. Over 1700 plays have been written by Founder, Director and President, Charles M. Tanner.)
Next, two volunteers were given separate instructions of how to interact on stage and the result was discussed and analysed from theatrical, cultural and linguistic perspectives. In another exercise, everyone tried to draw a described object; and finally we imagined a large box from which we pulled out imaginary objects which the others tried to identify.
The very entertaining and inspiring evening finished with an open discussion of new ideas and suggested ways to use and adapt them in a communicative classroom.
Reported by Dave Pite
10 April 2004
Chris Carman, Paul Collett
Class Presentations
Chris Carman uses student presentation projects to thwart the (mumbled) one-word answer syndrome we are all so familiar with in our classes. Students got interested and he exploited that interest, made them work for it. Instead of putting together an outline for the students, for example, he wrote it on the blackboard and had them copy it for themselves.
Groups of students each chose a country and then presented some aspect of its culture. (Limitations were placed upon France, and food, the most popular choices.) They researched in the library and on computers; they were encouraged to use graphics, sound and video-- but they had to present live. Progress reports were required from the groups, as well as a Comprehension Quiz for their audience to complete during the presentation. (It keeps them a little quieter.)
Carman also reported on methods used by Michael Penn, who has his students do about five presentations per semester with his first year university classes. Teams and topics are assigned by the teacher until the final one, which can be about anything the groups decide.
Inspired by Joe Tomei’s presentation to Kitakyushu JALT on the topic several years ago, Paul Collett has been organizing presentations with his elementary classes of nurses ever since. He outlined a very useful classroom organization that enables four groups to simultaneously present at one time, rotating and alternating with the audience groups.
Collett then walked us through the rationale for this sort of project, the set-up, basic techniques, materials, time frame and assessment as well as some issues of planning and reflections.
Feedback was rampant from the extremely interested audience; obviously presentations will soon be introduced into more curricula in this area.
Reported by Dave Pite
8 May 2004
Tim Allan
When Are Rights Wrong?
Tim Allan gave us an interesting and useful demonstration of how to use controversial issues in the EFL classroom while raising social awareness at the same time. A card-carrying member of Amnesty International, he began his presentation by pointing out that human rights transgressions are in our face a lot these days-- for example, that morning he had watched Donald Rumsfeld on CNN re: Iraq) and then walked us through some examples of what he does with this material.
Part A introduced the concept of human rights. In pairs we emulated students brainstorming examples in relation to habits, race, speech, war and work. Then we tried a Who (or What) am I? game, using people and groups who have worked for human rights. This was followed by a cloze listening exercise of the song "Biko" by Peter Gabriel. We watched part of an Amnesty International video featuring the Dalai Lama and discussed it and then looked at reports of activities involving analysis of letters and emails to various governments on behalf of prisoners in their countries.
Time was running out to practice all of the activities available for this very important subject so Mr. Allan quickly mentioned several more (from the GILE SIG) to take away and try in our classrooms. Human Rights Squares - Pair Talk Review involved questions and cloze exercises, Human Rights Squares - Group Talk Review was a simple (bilingual) board game with discussion topics on each square, and Talkopoly was another board game focused upon global issues. On the last page of his handout was a list of further Expansion Ideas and Website Information.
After this very full presentation from a speaker obviously well informed and excited about his topic, we were left with the impression that the surface of it had just barely been scratched.
Reported by Dave Pite
27 May 2004
Merinda Wilson
Using Readers in the Classroom
Merinda Wilson, editor of OUP's Dominoes series of graded readers, proposed a number of ways in which such readers could be exploited in classroom settings. For her, the most important aspect of extensive reading texts is that they are extended narratives with strong story lines which give students the opportunity to apply their knowledge of such texts in their native language and which serve as a springboard to L2 writing. In fact, she insisted that readers are best used by integrating the four skills. The Dominoes series therefore has comprehension check, vocabulary, and extension exercises interleaved in the books and available online.
Students seem to spend less time with text these days, in any language. They watch videos or chat on cell phones, so when they read they prefer comics and when they do research they turn to electronic dictionaries and Internet search engines. In order to lure them into reading, low level readers now make extensive use of illustrations.
Among the activities Wilson suggested were gapped passages, with the excised words carefully chosen so that their absence is not obvious grammatically or semantically, to be compared with a full oral version of the text. Once they have seen an example of such an exercise, groups of students can create similar ones to challenge their fellow students. Another exercise was to substitute synonyms that break collocations (depart the room, for a small time) in a text and see if students can identify them. She also demonstrated reading along with a taped text, then turning down the volume and later restoring it to see if the students can maintain the pace.
Reported by Margaret Orleans
12 June 2004
Curtis Kelly
Teaching English to Children
After introducing himself, his background and research interests in teaching kids, Curtis Kelly led groups in discussing the most important aspects of children’s classes: continual reinforcement of taught material and the necessity of supplementary materials. It was pointed out that curiosity remains the most important aspect of language learning, trashing the critical age hypothesis (as did Krashen).
Kelly outlined big changes in MEXT policies for elementary schools and introduced key concepts of how children learn and how the brain works.
He pointed out that the brain makes about 250 million connections per second, so the more we use our heads, the more connections we make, the more neural pathways. The more we have to think about something and process it, the more deeply we are going to learn it. Problem solving raises our level of intelligence.
Integrated groups of neurons that fire together are more successful intellectually, as well. Many processes are happening simultaneously, operated by our brain. Harnessing as many as possible via multi-sensory input is good for deep learning. Music and stories make rich language input. Mozart encourages reading proficiency and primes the neurons for deep thinking. Research show that kids are better at picking up pronunciation but older people have more cognitive abilities. We process language by “noticing, structuring and proceduralizing.” The left brain handles detail; the right brain global processing. He pointed out Jane Willis’ belief that teachers can emulate caretakers; repeating key points, making positive comments, correcting and expanding, and asking questions.
In little groups we made mini lesson plans and gave on-off demos of teaching specific language points with the Ahn Model of a Language Acquisition Device (LAD) powered by availability of input, along with actual language need, facilitating real acquisition and deep learning. It was a refreshing and stimulating evening that went way overtime in avid discussion.
Reported by Dave Pite
18 September 2004
Tom Merner
English in the Elementary School
Tom Merner gave us what he called an up-dated version of his presentation with Kensaku Yoshida in March 2002. At that time they outlined changes in the Japanese public school curriculum due to be implemented the following month, observing that the new three hours per week of "Sogotekina Gakushu no Jikan" (Period of Integrated Studies) did not specify the extent to which “International Understanding” would focus upon “English Activities,” proportions of which were to be left to the discretion of individual school administrators. This time, the first of Merner’s overhead projections showed that, in 2003, 88.3 percent of schools were conducting English activities, for an average of about eleven hours—per year! On the other hand, about ten percent of schools offered about 3.5 hours per week of English activities.
The type of activity varies widely as well. Some, such as “special zones for structural reform” for example, catch the headlines but are usually organized by politicians primarily concerned with looking good. However, Merner feels the English activities programs do have in common basic principles which can be seen as a refreshing retake on English language teaching. Their stated purpose is to promote child-centered activities, based on interest and curiosity, oriented toward the discovery for themselves of another culture and world view. Rather than mimicking the largely unsuccessful attempts in junior and senior high school to teach the English language per se, elementary schools should try to use it as a tool to foster interest and desire in communication with other cultures. Merner pointed out how struggling with a foreign language may facilitate improvement of communication skills otherwise difficult in a monolingual classroom. It was noticed that after these English activities had begun to be used, Japanese kids were beginning to communicate with each other better in their own language. Viewed from a holistic educational perspective, this accomplishment would appear superior to getting first-graders to parrot directions to the post office.
The primary goal is to provide the experience of using English as a tool for communication rather than to just mechanically produce it—and, too often, develop a dislike for the language in the process. Other purposes for the program were outlined as well, such as encouraging children through problem solving, more closely aligning course contents with children’s developmental stages, exploiting roles of homeroom teachers and continuing language activities through the upper grades. Specific pedagogical maxims are observed, such as respecting the “Silent Period” and recognizing the importance of nonverbal communication—or one-word responses, as well as giving full credence to all four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing—in that order.
Merner finished his informative and thought-provoking presentation by showing and explaining some parts of Junior Columbus 21, his soon to be published textbook. Although, as he pointed out, the prognosis for English as a formal subject before junior high school is “not anytime soon,” by incorporating the principles of basing learning activities on children’s interest and curiosity, these attractively laid-out books should provide good support for English activities in elementary schools.
Reported by Dave Pite
16 October 2004
Kay Hammond
Delivery Skills for Public Speaking
Hammond described the semester course on public speaking that she teaches in Tokyo before leading the audience through a mini-version of it. She believes that too much class time is consumed in the writing of speeches, so her students work with a single five-minute speech for the duration of the course, allowing the entire group to present their speeches and have them evaluated in a single class period. In subsequent sessions, students can view their videotapes privately for additional feedback.
Besides teaching students to be good evaluators, Hammond stresses only one or two presentation skills per round of speeches, so students can focus fully on their approach to the podium, their posture, the avoidance of vocalized pause, their fluency, and their gestures, and can even practice making mistakes and putting themselves in stressful situations.
In the workshop, participants worked in groups of four with 30-second fill-in-the-blank speeches about their favorite food. As each person spoke, other members of the group concentrated on evaluating a single aspect of the presentation and provided immediate feedback. After five quick rounds of speeches and feedback, everyone felt they had made progress as public speakers.
Reported by Margaret Orleans
15 November 2004
Peter and Karen Viney
Attainable goals and self-directed learning – IN English
About a dozen JALT members enjoyed a very informative and informal evening with Peter and Karen Viney (sponsored by Oxford University Press) as they showed off their new books-- and their new grand-daughter (ubiquitously appearing between slides projected of text layout and example passages). Veteran authors of the seminal Streamlines series with over thirty years of combined experience teaching EFL and authoring textbooks, the Vineys are a wealth of information about English teaching generally, which they shared in the context of their latest textbooks.
Layout was discussed, stressing the importance of limiting the amount of material per page in the student book, focusing more on fewer items. Letting students move more quickly through a text helps provide them with a sense of progress and achievement. Restricting directions in the student book allows greater freedom for teachers to vary the (extensive) teacher’s book suggestions, and improvise to suit their individual approach. Separate self-study packs contain drills boring in class but vital for reinforcement – and often demanded by students. Authentic family situations with ‘lots going on underneath’ heightens real interest. Not including the dialogue written builds suspense useful for maintaining interest. Rich illustrations are valuable as they may be mined extensively for varied discussion and they also help change the standard textbook image. The smaller size of the latest evolution of Streamlines (in English) does too, by reverting to the style common to language texts in the ‘70s when the Vineys first introduced their magazine-sized (and uncluttered) text as an alternative.
Reported by Dave Pite
