2023 Archive of Past Fukuoka JALT events

This shows our past events from 2023. Upcoming events are listed on our front page.

May 20th, 2023
Using No-Code Tools for Language Experiments and Activities (Laurie Griffiths)
​言語実験とアクティビティーにおけるノーコードツールの使用（発表者: ローリー・グリフィス​）
6PM (18:00) in person and online

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The online part of this event was recorded. The video is available here: https://youtu.be/BOBzuDwLP_w

PsychoPy is a no-code tool for building psychology and language experiments. In this workshop, Laurie will demonstrate how to design, build, run and collect data from a language experiment using PsychoPy. The first half of the talk will consist of a live demonstration of building a PsychoPy experiment. The second half will be a Q and A session where you find out more about how to build experiments for your own research.
This event will be in-person and online; details will be posted here on the day.
  • Sat., 20th May, 2023 
  • Doors open at 6PM 
  • Demo: 6:30-7:30, followed by Q&A 
  • Free admission (non-JALT members welcome!)
  • Hybrid: Online and in-person! 
  • Note the venue (this month only) Engineer Cafe at Fukuoka Akarenga Cultural Center ("Red Brick Building"), 1-15-30 Tenjin, Chuo-ku, Fukuoka City (map: https://goo.gl/maps/5qXgfFTVxNQgUw5y6)
  • This event is cosponsored by the Engineer Cafe (Hacker Space Fukuoka) at Fukuoka Akarenga Cultural Center, and JALT's Student Peer Interaction Network Subcommittee (SPINS).
  • As usual, attendees will be getting together after the meeting to socialize at a local pub or restaurant and anyone is welcome to join.​

​概要: PsychoPy は、心理学と言語実験を構築するためのノーコード ツールです。 このワークショップでは、ローリーさんがPsychoPy を使用した言語実験の設計、構築、実行、およびデータ収集の方法を実演します。 トークの前半は、PsychoPy 実験を構築するライブ デモンストレーション、後半は、自分の研究のための実験を構築する方法について詳しく知るための質疑応答セッションとなります。

​​Saturday, April 8th
Fukuoka JALT My Share
6PM (18:00) in person

Title: Arts-based gender transformative education in high school EFL​
Presenter name: Yaya Yao, Kyushu University

This early stage youth participatory action research (YPAR) study explores how arts-based pedagogies can facilitate gender transformative education in the Japanese high school English teaching context. Language education can play a key role in working towards gender equity through collaborative approaches that foster agency, criticality, and relationality in creative, multidisciplinary ways.

Yaya Yao is an educator, editor, and poet born and raised in downtown Tkaronto. She is the author of Flesh, Tongue and the lead writer of the Educator's Equity Companion Guide. Over the past 20 years, Yaya has in worked in school, university, and NGO settings in Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, and Thailand. She lives with her family in Fukuoka, Japan, where she is pursuing a PhD at Kyushu University with a focus on arts-based transformative education. 

Title: Tourism Video Project (and Film Festival)
Presenter name: Brendan Van Deusen, Nagasaki International University

This presentation will cover a student-led tourism video project. The presenter will provide an overview of the process in which students were responsible for researching, writing, filming, performing in, and editing a 5 minute video that introduced a local tourism location. Short selected clips will be presented to illustrate the final results. Finally, the presenter will discuss future plans to expand this project into a mini-film festival on campus.

Brendan Van Deusen is a Senior Assistant Professor in the Dept. of International Tourism at Nagasaki International University. His areas of interest include the use of technology in language teaching and project-based learning.

Title: Teaching Phonics Through Games in the Classroom
Presenter name: Steven Apotheker, Seinan Gakuin University

Japanese students are notorious for freezing mid-sentence when reading a passage. This is because they lack the skills to sound out long words. In this presentation, I will give an example of two easy, no prep, classroom games that you can use to introduce your students to phonics. I will also give a simple progression to follow when teaching phonics.

Steven Apotheker is an Assistant Professor at Seinan Gakuin University in Fukuoka, Japan.

Title: Role of Reported Speech in Teaching by Talking with no Texts
Presenter name: David John Wood, Chikushi Jogakuen University

Through this presentation, I hope to confirm some communication basics, as learning from and about each other is communication's primary function. To extend an activity's potential, reporting speech can link and reinforce classes. Participants can enjoy some recorded examples of interactions.

David John Wood is a Communication Program designer, with thousands of classes and students for over 20 years. He has been a JALT member since 1980s, a SIG founder and a National Executive representative at TESOL’s convention. He loves movies, music and poetry, and was Sony Pictures Cinema English Chief Editor. He has sung on national TV, and just published his first book on Amazon.

​Cost: 1000 yen to non-JALT members. Free for JALT members.
Location: Elgala (Daimaru East) Building, Tenjin (6 F, Kurume University Satellite Campus room; go in the back entrance shown on the map) Also note that since the Nanakuma Subway Line connected to Hakata Station in late March, this venue has become much easier for anyone coming from the Hakata area. Please take the Nanakuma Subway Line to Tenjin-Minami Station, exit 2.
​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)

March 25, 2023 (Saturday)
University Entrance Examinations Stratify High School English Education (Fukunaga, Sunao)
​6:15 PM in person

This qualitative study examined how the Japanese university English entrance examination reform functions as policy planning and elucidates how the reform has ended up stratifying high school English teaching practices, exacerbating disparities between students who have access to quality instruction and those who do not. Central to the argument is how the lack of understanding of intersectionality when planning English education policy leads to planning inequality and privileging elites in the Japanese education context.

Keywords
English education policy, university entrance examinations, intersectionality

Schedule: 
  • Doors open 18:00
  • Presentation 18:15-19:45
  • Out of room by 20:00
As usual, attendees will be getting together after the meeting to socialize at a local pub or restaurant and anyone is welcome to join. 

Please note that the mask policy for the venue is to require masks. 

Cost: 1000 yen to non-JALT members. Free for JALT members.
Location: Elgala (Daimaru East) Building, Tenjin (6 F, Kurume University Satellite Campus; go in the back entrance shown on the map)
​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)

February 11, 2023 (Saturday)
An Introduction to Test Item Analysis Using jMetrik (Trevor Holster)
​5:30 PM online and in-person

Update: This event will be HYBRID. It was designed as an online event, so if you've been planning to attend online, please don't worry, you'll still get the full presentation experience. If you're in the area, though, and would like to gather in the same room to get hands-on assistance, come to our usual venue: Elgala (Daimaru East) Building, Tenjin (6 F, Kurume University Satellite Campus), back entrance, map: https://goo.gl/maps/hj8VXmpfjAykeXBV9

Test item analysis can provide valuable information about classroom tests, as well as for researchers and standardized test developers. This workshop is intended to introduce the basic principles of item analysis to novices with no previous experience of test analysis. It will provide hands-on experience using the free jMetrik software package.

Although basic analysis can be conducted in spreadsheet software such as Microsoft Excel, dedicated software such as jMetrik is faster and provides a much deeper range of analysis. However, learning how to import data and conduct the analysis can be difficult for novices. This workshop will provide a walk-through demonstration of data formatting and importation, and then demonstrations of classical and Rasch item analysis. A sample dataset will be provided and participants are encouraged to bring a Windows, Mac, or Linux laptop to practice conducting the analysis.

This presentation is co-sponsored by the JALT CALL SIG and the JALT TEVAL SIG.

Cost: 500 yen to non-JALT members. Free for JALT members.

Schedule:
  • Doors open and Zoom starts: 5:30
  • 5:30 - 6:00 Socializing, orientation, and troubleshooting of hybrid set up
  • 6:00 Presentation starts

January 22nd (Sunday) 
More Personal Finance in Japan with Ben Tanaka (Shearon)
2 PM - 4 PM in person

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We're finally back to an in-person meeting this month! This will not be recorded and it will not be on Zoom. 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)

Description: 
Personal finance is the cornerstone of a comfortable life. If you have good money habits and knowledge you will be able to enjoy your life and spend your time doing interesting and productive things. If you have bad money habits and knowledge you will probably not enjoy your life and will spend a lot of time worrying about money. This session will go through a rapid-fire series of practical personal finance principles and tips for residents of Japan, followed by a question and answer discussion session. This is a new workshop format so should be useful even if you have attended a RetireJapan seminar before.

Cost: Free for JALT members, 1,000 yen for non-members.
Location: Elgala (Daimaru East) Building, Tenjin (6 F, Kurume University Satellite Campus; go in the back entrance shown on the map)
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