Fukuoka JALT

NOVEMBER

Title: Tender Teachers - How BOEs now "procure" teachers by tender bid
Speaker: Chris Flynn

The Ministry of Education appears to be putting more emphasis on communicative English in primary and secondary schools. To meet this demand the number of Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) taking up positions at public schools has dramatically increased over the past decade. However, due to financial pressures on local governments, the method of procuring ALTs has taken a dramatic change from directly hiring ALTs on the JET Program, to acquiring ALTs by tender. Currently all ALTs in Fukuoka City and Kitakyushu City schools are “procured” by tender. Forty prefectural high schools also use outsourced ALTs. The presentation detailed how the tendering process is carried out, focusing on the problems facing teachers who work for the “dispatch” companies. Over the past few years I have obtained thousands of pages of documentation through the Freedom of Information Act, and have pieced together how the dispatch companies make profits by keeping costs (ALT salary etc.) to a minimum.

Chris Flynn is a Professor in the Faculty of Management and Information Sciences at the Kyushu Institute of Information Sciences.

Also at the November meeting: Fukuoka JALT Elections for 2010 Officers


OCTOBER

Title: Curriculum Development for Language Teachers
Speaker: Dr. Katerina Petchko (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies and TUJ)

The goal of this presentation was to provide language teachers with the theoretical knowledge and practical skills needed to plan, develop, and implement a systematic language curriculum. The presentation provided an overview of the field of curriculum including topics such as: the philosophical foundations of curriculum; the role of society and culture in curriculum development; and learning theory and human development as considerations for curriculum design. The focus was on educational practice and language curricula in Japan. This event was sponsored by Temple University Japan.


SEPTEMBER

Title: Motivation and Identity: Three Presentations
Speakers: Tim Prichard, Sunao Fukunaga, and Quint Baldwin

For this event, we had three presentations on the general theme of motivation and identity. These presentations were based on studies that explore beliefs of teaching and learning using different conceptual frameworks.

Tim Pritchard, Kyushu Sangyo University
Amotivation, Extrinsic and Intrinsic Orientation and Proficiency in Japanese Students of English at Two Tertiary Institutions
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Sunao Fukunaga, Koryo Senior High School/University of Washington, Seattle
Exploring Experienced Japanese High School English Teachers’ Professional Identity
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Quint Baldwin, Kyushu Sangyo University
Autonomy and Motivation


JULY

The 4th Annual Fukuoka JALT Applied Linguistics Colloquium

In the 4th Annual Fukuoka JALT Applied Linguistics Colloquium, keynote speaker Kristen Sullivan introduced the principles she applies in her listening and speaking classes, and discussed their use in other contexts as well.  In other presentations, Miki Tokunaga presented how she teaches metalanguage to low proficiency university students. Paul Turner shared a case study on a Japanese university student’s motivation and self-concept. Trevor Holster discussed a Facets analysis of inter-rater reliability on dictation test. Jane Harland showed how non-native speakers can prepare research presentations. Yuko Yamashita gave a talk about the use of mind-mapping in reading classes to improve text comprehension. Aaron Gibson and Jeff Anderson talked about tasks utilizing mobile phone technology to facilitate language learning. Stewart Viita and J. Lake discussed the effects of cultural differences in Japanese university classes taught by native English speaking teachers. Stella Millikan discussed her research on administrators’, teachers’, and students’ beliefs regarding the use of the ALC Net Academy program. Sharmine Barriga and J. Lake presented on some of the tensions and relations between English language and literature departments in Japanese universities. Harry Carley talked about the current ‘Eigo Note’ program being piloted and used in Japanese elementary schools. Wakako Pennington showed how to teach debate in EFL classes. Jack Brajcich used corpus analysis to talk about North Americans’ use of the syllable “Oh” in everyday conversation.


JUNE

Alexanne Don - Using the appraisal framework: An introduction for language researchers

Dr. Don defined the appraisal framework, explaining the different aspects and definitions of language in painstaking detail. She discussed the frameworks’ origins in Systemic Functional Linguistics, and gave examples of the appraisal resources of attitude, engagement, and graduation. She illustrated how the levels of the framework interact, and showed how to use the framework to assess written and spoken texts. Dr. Don tried to illustrate the pedagogical applications for the framework for assessing native versus non-native speaker writings, and use of language in real situations. In the second half of the presentation allowed participants to attempt to analyze examples from a linguistics textbook. Participants were expected to use the framework terminology to categorize samples of language into the different types of attitude and engagement. Dr. Don concluded the presentation with a question and answer session.


MARCH

Patrick Rosenkjar - Using Literature in Teaching Language

Dr. Rosenkjar outlined some of the potential uses of poetry and literature in the Japanese EFL classroom and offered a number of useful ways to move away from the traditional approach to literature of looking at difficult works and listening to lectures on the theory of literature.  One of the key elements here presented was the distinction between literary and non-literary writing.  Where non-literary writing simply conveys information, literary writing "creates the illusion of actually having an experience."  In exploring this topic, a great deal rests on the use of the text to convey meaning and feeling.  In order to further examine a text, students need to be taught techniques to carefully find how the writers create the perceptually salient features of any writing sample.  To demonstrate this, Dr. Rosenkjar asked groups to discuss certain features of a poem and then share their findings with the class.  The class then brainstormed on different meanings of the features, and discussed ideas that could be supported by the text.  In closing, the speaker presented a model of how these techniques could be incorporated into the classroom.


FEBRUARY

Two related presentations were given, one focused on more practical issues of how students are demotivated in language classrooms and what teachers can do about it, and one focused on research on how demotivators can be measured and analyzed.

Demotivators in English Language Learning

How can teachers help students to be more motivated to learn a foreign language? This is a question that many foreign language teachers ask themselves. Common demotivators based on the findings of several qualitative and quantitative studies of demotivation were identified and discussed.

Questionnaire Construction and Analysis with Rasch, Factor Analysis, and Structure Equation Modeling

Important steps in questionnaire development and the use of Rasch measurement analysis and structural equation modeling for confirmatory factor analysis were discussed. A lively discussion between audience members of an example questionnaire of demotivators ensued.


JANUARY

Donna Tatsuki – Using a Film Corpus for Pragmatic Analysis: Challenging Assumptions about Authenticity

Dr. Tatsuki first defined pragmatics' relation to language teaching. She then went on to discuss the assumptions teachers have regarding the use of movies in the classroom, such as providing context, input, and pragmatic usage of language.  She questioned the validity of these assumptions, saying that many teachers are rather uncritical of the language and content in movies they choose.  She presented her own research on assessing films as source material for EFL lessons, showing the similarities and differences between the language presented in films and the sociolinguistic and paralinguistic usage of the same language indicated in previous research.  She found that certain behaviors found in film are more real than in standard EFL texts and materials, while others do not provide more realistic usage. She concluded the presentation by having attendees analyze film clips for sociolinguistic and paralinguistic elements.