2014/08/23 Kusatsu

The 25th Annual Workshop in Kusatsu

Featured Lecturer: Dr. Roy Lyster

This year Gunma JALT invited Dr. Roy Lyster from McGill University in Montreal to speak on Content and Language Integrated Learning or CLIL (pronounced /klɪl/). Dr. Lyster's straight-forward lecture style and easy-going manner made this year's workshop an out-and-out success. Rather than simply selling CLIL to attendees, Dr. Lyster was honest and forthright about CLIL's limits while extolling its virtues.

In his first lecture, Dr. Lyster defined CLIL, comparing and contrasting it against immersion programs. He then presented his view that CLIL is best practiced by using a "counterbalanced" approach in which content and language complement each other. He persuaded attendees that shifting student focus between content and language helps amplify student motivation and learning.

In his second lecture, Dr. Lyster presented concrete ideas and methods demonstrating counterbalanced CLIL teaching. Not only did he recommend scaffolding, referential questioning and corrective feedback, Dr. Lyster was very specific about the types and ways in which these techniques should be carried out. His detailed explanation, supported by videos and transcripts of actual CLIL classrooms, gave Kusatsu attendees something they could easily take home and implement in their own classrooms.

Dr. Lyster's research examines content-based second language instruction and the effects of instructional interventions—such as teacher scaffolding and corrective feedback—designed to counterbalance form-focused and content-based approaches. His research interests also include collaboration among language teachers for integrated language learning and biliteracy development. He was co-president then president of the Canadian Association of Applied Linguistics from 2004 to 2008 and serves on the Advisory Committee of Studies in Second Language Acquisition and The Canadian Modern Language Review and on the Editorial Boards of of The Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education and Language Teaching Research. A comprehensive explanation of Dr. Lyster's counterbalanced CLIL teaching techniques can be found in his book, Learning and Teaching Languages Through Content: A counterbalanced approach. His email is roy.lyster@mcgill.ca and the PowerPoint files he used to present at Kusatsu are at the bottom of this page.

Martin Pauly gave us an overview of the differences between and history behind American Sign Language (ASL) and Japanese Sign Language (JSL). Participants enjoyed learning a few signs in both languages, and this comparison suggested an interesting comparative linguistic overview. Pauly showed that code-switching and code-blending, common strategies in EFL/ESL, are also employed by ASL and JSL learners. Lastly, he lead a hands-on activity where participants got to try their signing skills.

Chutatip Yumitani gave an impassioned overview of her content-based procedural and declarative grammar course at Tohoku Fukushi University. Yumitani showed how her use of mind maps and scaffolding exercises help her students prepare and deliver an English presentation without the usual crutches of notes and rote memorization. Through this class, Yumitani hopes that her students will develop a holistic sense of English grammar rather than being bogged down by lists of rules and exceptions.

Nathaniel French detailed how he guided a group of first-year university English beyond the "fluency barrier". Using handcrafted materials called Variable Sentence Response (VSR) sheets and Conversation Cards, French directed participants in the use of these materials and showed videos of his students' impressive results. French's materials, student recordings and transcripts can be inspected and downloaded for free at his website: fluencydriven.com.

Kazushige Cho and Fuyuhiko Sekido teamed up to present about their experiences with CLIL. Cho went to the trouble of creating a CLIL lesson from scratch and detailed his tribulations doing so. Starting with the media-based textbooks Insights 2014 and English through the News Media, he created various engaging activities based on them. Then Sekido showed how he uses CLIL in his English literature-based classes. He gave participants a model of his class, along with some of his own activity ideas. The takeaway message from both Cho and Sekido that CLIL is a time-consuming, but ultimately worthwhile teaching methodology.

Participants: The Kusatsu Krew

Schedule: