Saturday, 22nd January 2022, 18.00-20.00 via Zoom (Please note the time change from our usual meetings).This month, we have three speakers lined up and are offering a second chance to hear from these fantastic presenters, who gave talks at our recent conference. Here are their abstracts and bios:

Title: Introducing three activities to foster L2 source-based writing

Bio: Junko Otoshi is a professor at Okayama University in Japan. Her research interests include L1 and L2 composition studies and language testing.

Abstract:

Undergraduate students in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context have difficulty integrating informational sources into their texts because of their basic English writing skills and lack of academic knowledge in each discipline. Therefore, EFL writing teachers need to provide step-by-step support to help students find, connect, and integrate informational source texts into the students’ writing (Zhang, 2013). This presentation will report on an online practice for second language (L2) source-based writing activities that aim to develop rhetorical, linguistic, and critical thinking skills. Specifically, three activities—verbal reasoning quizzes, paraphrasing and response paragraph writing—and a data commentary exercise will be introduced as approaches to write a discussion essay. The presentation will conclude with some pedagogical implications for L2 source-based writing instruction, followed by student reflections on their online activities.

Title: Using Project Based Learning (PBL) 

Bio: Peter Lutes is an Associate Professor at Faculty of Agriculture of Kagawa National University. His research interests include curriculum development, English for Specific Purposes, Teacher Training, and Task & Project Based Learning. He is currently conducting funded developmental education and training programs in Japan and Cambodia.

Abstract: Project Based Learning (PBL) can be an effective tool to encourage student motivation and engagement. Learners are asked to complete projects in the target language whereby they experience using the language in a natural and practical context and can focus on their educational and  professional development. However, PBL is challenging to use in the classroom for educators. The presenter will offer a working definition PBL, and outline a model project based course that can be used at university or in corporate settings.The presenter will also share classroom techniques that have been effective in the PBL classroom.

Title: Self-reflection as a method for motivation in the ESL classroom 

Bio: Shaun James Alan Wilbraham is currently working as a lecturer at Hiroshima Shudo University and Hiroshima College of Foreign Languages. Outside the classroom, Shaun works on his own podcast and believes the sharing of ideas and building communities is be crucial. In the classroom, Shaun places a high importance on motivation and is dedicated to English and Spanish teaching. While his background is literary, Shaun enjoys looking at language as a tool of human perception and wishes to explore this avenue further with his research.

Abstract: In the ESL classroom determining a student’s motivation can be difficult. This presentation underlines the importance of reflection and how it can be used to estimate a student’s motivations. To do so, a group of students were asked to write a letter to their future self that would be then read again in a year’s time. The central hypothesis of this project is that the letter gives students a fixed time-frame in which they are to achieve a new goal. Secondly, it is also hypothesized that the contents of the letter contain the motivations of the student in the present, and these will become the focal point of the letter. From the data, mutual answers as well as anomalies were highlighted, so that the teacher is made aware of the collective motivations of the class. Finally, the presenter wishes to show how this style of exercise could be used to help students to connect with themselves and the teacher.

The Zoom link will be emailed to Newsletter subscribers a day in advance, on Friday, Jan 21st.

• If you do not already have a Zoom account, you can sign up for free here.

Previous years' events are archived here.