JALT Annual International Conference
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JALT PanSIG 2025 Conference
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Fukuoka JALT is a chapter of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT)
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Upcoming Fukuoka JALT events:
Overview (details below):
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Calls for Conference Presentation Proposals:What's happening around JALT? |
May 10, 2025
(1) David Paul: Building up students' ability to discuss a wide range of topics
(2) Call for Submissions: Fukuoka JALT My Share
Earlier than usual: 17:00-20:00 (5PM-8PM), doors open at 16:30
David Paul
On May 10th, first we'll welcome back David Paul, a well-known teacher trainer and course book author. After that, we'll have four MyShare demonstrations. Details below:
Building up students' ability to discuss a wide range of topics (17:00-18:00)
David Paul will introduce his new course, 'Discussion Skills', and show how it is effective in building up students' ability to discuss a wide range of topics. The course is a new edition of 'Communication Strategies', though it has been changed quite a bit and lots of digital components have been added. It is appropriate for high school, university and adults.
The presentation will also look at extensive free digital materials that support the course including interactive worksheets, audio, presentation tools, teacher's guides, online crosswords, mind maps, and situations and role plays. There will also be a demonstration of a free interactive worksheet system that enables teachers to monitor students work online - Teachers are welcome to use this worksheet system with other courses.
This presentation will be in person as well as online: Sign up for the Zoom link here https://forms.gle/bxqcX71pUomvuxAGA
David Paul built up a successful group of schools in Hiroshima, Korea and Thailand and used this success as a platform for supporting the professional development of teachers through ETJ, TESOL certificate programs, MA courses, Expos/conventions, social media and general teacher training. He is the author of various books including 'Finding Out', 'Discussion Skills', 'Communicate', 'Motivate' and 'Teaching English to Children in Asia'.
Fukuoka JALT My Share (MyShare follows David Paul's presentation)
The Fukuoka JALT MyShare event is an opportunity for language teachers to share their work with a wider audience and gain constructive feedback. With a semi-formal round-table discussion format, MyShare offers time for multiple presenters to explain a specific language learning activity or idea. This portion of the meeting will be in person only.
1. Troy Zangara: List Videos
I will demonstrate an activity that uses list videos as a stimulus for meaningful discussion and communication. List videos are videos that provide a list of the top number of items in a category, such as "Top 10 places to visit in Japan" or "My favorite things about Japan." This format of video engages students by drawing on their background knowledge and experiences. Students work together in groups to build a consensus on a list. See https://jalt-publications.org/articles/29224-list-videos
2. Amal Abdessamad: Discussion Skills
My proposed activity titled "Discussion Skills" focuses on using Colours, Colours Everywhere by Julia Donaldson & Sharon King-Chai as a reading support tool for a discussion activity. This picture book is colorful, engaging, beautifully crafted, and features minimal text. Furthermore, it is narrated from the perspective of a deaf girl, though her deafness is not foregrounded. Thus, the implicit intent of this activity is to communicate topics of empathy, inclusivity, and awareness among students.
3. Pharo Sok: One Fold at a Time: Making English Writing and Speaking More Enjoyable With Origami
Drawing on existing scholarship on foreign language enjoyment (FLE), this presentation shares an activity that incorporates writing, making origami, and speaking in university English courses. Together, students constructed not only works of origami, but also supportive communities that facilitated artistic and linguistic expression. Referring to questionnaire data, we can also see how students made sense of the activity and the role that enjoyment played in their impressions.
Building up students' ability to discuss a wide range of topics (17:00-18:00)
David Paul will introduce his new course, 'Discussion Skills', and show how it is effective in building up students' ability to discuss a wide range of topics. The course is a new edition of 'Communication Strategies', though it has been changed quite a bit and lots of digital components have been added. It is appropriate for high school, university and adults.
The presentation will also look at extensive free digital materials that support the course including interactive worksheets, audio, presentation tools, teacher's guides, online crosswords, mind maps, and situations and role plays. There will also be a demonstration of a free interactive worksheet system that enables teachers to monitor students work online - Teachers are welcome to use this worksheet system with other courses.
This presentation will be in person as well as online: Sign up for the Zoom link here https://forms.gle/bxqcX71pUomvuxAGA
David Paul built up a successful group of schools in Hiroshima, Korea and Thailand and used this success as a platform for supporting the professional development of teachers through ETJ, TESOL certificate programs, MA courses, Expos/conventions, social media and general teacher training. He is the author of various books including 'Finding Out', 'Discussion Skills', 'Communicate', 'Motivate' and 'Teaching English to Children in Asia'.
Fukuoka JALT My Share (MyShare follows David Paul's presentation)
The Fukuoka JALT MyShare event is an opportunity for language teachers to share their work with a wider audience and gain constructive feedback. With a semi-formal round-table discussion format, MyShare offers time for multiple presenters to explain a specific language learning activity or idea. This portion of the meeting will be in person only.
1. Troy Zangara: List Videos
I will demonstrate an activity that uses list videos as a stimulus for meaningful discussion and communication. List videos are videos that provide a list of the top number of items in a category, such as "Top 10 places to visit in Japan" or "My favorite things about Japan." This format of video engages students by drawing on their background knowledge and experiences. Students work together in groups to build a consensus on a list. See https://jalt-publications.org/articles/29224-list-videos
2. Amal Abdessamad: Discussion Skills
My proposed activity titled "Discussion Skills" focuses on using Colours, Colours Everywhere by Julia Donaldson & Sharon King-Chai as a reading support tool for a discussion activity. This picture book is colorful, engaging, beautifully crafted, and features minimal text. Furthermore, it is narrated from the perspective of a deaf girl, though her deafness is not foregrounded. Thus, the implicit intent of this activity is to communicate topics of empathy, inclusivity, and awareness among students.
3. Pharo Sok: One Fold at a Time: Making English Writing and Speaking More Enjoyable With Origami
Drawing on existing scholarship on foreign language enjoyment (FLE), this presentation shares an activity that incorporates writing, making origami, and speaking in university English courses. Together, students constructed not only works of origami, but also supportive communities that facilitated artistic and linguistic expression. Referring to questionnaire data, we can also see how students made sense of the activity and the role that enjoyment played in their impressions.
Fee: Free for everyone (David Paul's presentation promotes a textbook, and the publisher is sponsoring this event)
Location: Elgala (Daimaru East) Building, Tenjin (6 F, Kurume University Satellite Campus room; go in the back entrance shown on the map). From Hakata, take the Nanakuma Subway Line to Tenjin-Minami Station, exit 4. If you haven't been to this location before, please note that the entrance is NOT through the department store, it is around the back from the department store entrances, here: https://goo.gl/maps/hj8VXmpfjAykeXBV9 (You'll find this by Googling エルガーラ オフィス棟). Click here to watch a video showing the venue location.
Location: Elgala (Daimaru East) Building, Tenjin (6 F, Kurume University Satellite Campus room; go in the back entrance shown on the map). From Hakata, take the Nanakuma Subway Line to Tenjin-Minami Station, exit 4. If you haven't been to this location before, please note that the entrance is NOT through the department store, it is around the back from the department store entrances, here: https://goo.gl/maps/hj8VXmpfjAykeXBV9 (You'll find this by Googling エルガーラ オフィス棟). Click here to watch a video showing the venue location.
June 14, 2025
Art in the Language Classroom - Why and How?
Will Tiley
Will Tiley
"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life"
Pablo Picasso
The idea of incorporating art into language lessons does, at first, seem quite unusual. Why do this? What educational benefits could this possibly offer? This presentation will aim to introduce some reasons behind arts integration in language education - not as decorative filler, but as a tool for building language skills, developing confidence and encouraging creative and critical expression. The first half will look at the theoretical basis for arts integration, including its alignment with existing educational theories and practices and some of the unique opportunities that art can bring to language learning contexts. The second half will then focus on practical methods to incorporate arts activities into your own classes, including creative activities and frameworks to help students engage with works of art effectively.
Will Tiley is a lecturer at Kyushu Institute of Technology (Iizuka Campus). He has been exploring the role of art in language learning contexts for a few years now, and is continuing this line of inquiry on the DProf TESOL doctorate program at St Andrews University in the UK. His other research interests include language teachers as language learners, and communicative approaches to vocabulary acquisition. He has no painting or drawing skills whatsoever, but occasionally moonlights as a bass guitarist when he needs to let off some steam.
Pablo Picasso
The idea of incorporating art into language lessons does, at first, seem quite unusual. Why do this? What educational benefits could this possibly offer? This presentation will aim to introduce some reasons behind arts integration in language education - not as decorative filler, but as a tool for building language skills, developing confidence and encouraging creative and critical expression. The first half will look at the theoretical basis for arts integration, including its alignment with existing educational theories and practices and some of the unique opportunities that art can bring to language learning contexts. The second half will then focus on practical methods to incorporate arts activities into your own classes, including creative activities and frameworks to help students engage with works of art effectively.
Will Tiley is a lecturer at Kyushu Institute of Technology (Iizuka Campus). He has been exploring the role of art in language learning contexts for a few years now, and is continuing this line of inquiry on the DProf TESOL doctorate program at St Andrews University in the UK. His other research interests include language teachers as language learners, and communicative approaches to vocabulary acquisition. He has no painting or drawing skills whatsoever, but occasionally moonlights as a bass guitarist when he needs to let off some steam.
July 19, 2025
Developing Metapragmatic Awareness in English Courses at TGUP Global Traction Universities in Japan
Dylan Brown
18:00-20:00 (6PM-8PM)
Dylan Brown
Most English teachers don't have the time or inclination to go into pragmatics, and given the fact that we live in a world where global Englishes and English as a lingua franca increasingly predominate over native-speaker norms, it may be of questionable worth anyway. But because of this very likelihood that students will encounter Englishes other than the textbook variety if they travel, it makes sense to raise their awareness about pragmatics. This presentation will explore ways of preparing our students to navigate ELF and foreign English immersion scenarios through the development of metapragmatic awareness.
Dylan Lawson Brown is from South Africa. His various stints on JET, eikaiwa and presently dispatch for Fukuoka BOE add up to a total of fifteen years of teaching in Japan. He has recently completed a MEd (TESOL) with the University of Dundee and this presentation is based on his dissertation
Dylan Lawson Brown is from South Africa. His various stints on JET, eikaiwa and presently dispatch for Fukuoka BOE add up to a total of fifteen years of teaching in Japan. He has recently completed a MEd (TESOL) with the University of Dundee and this presentation is based on his dissertation