Past Events (2016)

“How I Learned English/Japanese"

「どうやって英語・日本語を勉強したか」

Presenters: Matsumi Kawasaki and David Barker of Gifu University

December 18, 2016

35 people attended the event at Tottori University.

We were delighted to welcome Mutsumi Kawasaki and David Barker to Tottori for a witty and relatable presentation on their personal experiences of learning a second language. This was a particularly memorable presentation because it was the first one held in Tottori that was conducted in both English and Japanese.

David began by explaining in Japanese how he went about the task of learning the language, and what he discovered about language learning on the journey. Drawing from his experiences, he talked of his belief that learners need to move from being students to users of language and they have to feel that they are making success. While there may be emotional ups and downs with learning a language, the fundamental message is that a massive investment of time and effort – especially outside the classroom – will see a huge payoff in language acquisition.

Continuing this thought, Mutsumi related in English how she overcame her initial negative feelings about the language and her experiences of the highs and lows of learning English. While she does not believe that language learners necessarily have to travel abroad to acquire another language, she built upon David’s message that diligent repetition and perseverance are crucial elements of successful language learning. Interactive group activities got the presentation participants involved by having them consider their personal enjoyment and achievements in their own language studies.

Many thanks and a big well done are extended to Mutsumi and David for an engaging and practical presentation, one that each and every member can take lessons from, both for their own learning and for their teaching.

Reported by Raymond Levy

Event Report on the National JALT Website can be found here

For more photos of the presentation, please click this link

(Click here for a PDF of the event information) (イベントに関する詳細は、こちらをクリックしてください)

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"My Share" (Click here for a PDF of the event information) (イベントに関する詳細は、こちらをクリックしてください)

Sunday, November 13, 2016

26 people attended the event at Tottori University.

By 1) Naho Iwata, Noriko Nakada, Hitomi Taniguchi of Aoya and Tottori Higashi Senior High Schools Using iPads in the Classroom

2) Nicolas Verhoeven of Tottori University of Environmental Studies What is a ‘Good’ Teacher?

3) Shirley Leane of Tottori University Assessing Communication Skills in Large Classes

On September 13, 2016 Tottori JALT held a “My Share” event at Tottori University. Naho Iwata (Aoya high school), Noriko Nakada and Hitomi Taniguchi (both from Tottori Higashi high school) talked about Using iPads in the Classroom. Nicolas Verhoeven of Tottori University of Environmental Studies talked about What is a ‘Good’ Teacher? And, Shirley Leane of Tottori University gave a workshop on Assessing Communication Skills in Large Classes.

Presentation 1: Naho Iwata, Hitomi Taniguchi and Noriko Nakada talked about the pressures that public school teachers are feeling recently to use ICT tools, such as the iPad, in the language classroom. Such tools are being encouraged in order to improve students' learning and scores. The speakers discussed what they learned through actually using the iPad in their own classrooms (the good, bad and the ugly) and shared several teaching ideas that displayed ways to effectively use the iPad as not only a teaching tool, but more importantly, as a learning tool. They introduced two main activities. The first was a show and tell introduction of the students’ favorite spots arund school. The students videotaped their speeches using iPads and then compiled several videos into a seamless video presentation. The second was a jigsaw activity where the students became ‘experts’ about various endangered animal species through researching information on the iPads (in English or Japanese) and then did group discussions and presentations. In conclusion, the speakers believe that there are limitless possibilities for ICT tools to improve our students’ learning, motivation and confidence, but that such tools must be used properly if you want effective learning to actually occur.

Presentation 2: Nicolas Verhoeven actively discussed with the audience the question of What Makes a ‘Good’ Teacher? He reminded us that our own cultural backgrounds and personal experiences create “ideal images” of "the good teacher." Nico had us passionately discussing in no time our own ideas about what the teacher is supposed to do in the classroom, and shared with us his ideas on some bad habits (such as “flying with the fastest student”) that language teachers need to avoid. He emphasized that “inside a good teacher’s classroom there is a lot of LEARNING going on” and suggested the book Learning Teaching by Jim Scrivener as a great reference for those who want to become great teachers.

Presentation 3: Shirley Leane discussed the difficulties of Assessing Communicative Skills in Large Classes. We talked about the reasons why teachers assess students, the large variety of tests that exist, and which of them might be useful in our classes. In no time Shirley had the audience in groups of four debating hot topics related to assessment and evaluation. She presented the audience with various difficult testing situations in classrooms where the teacher had to somehow find a way to accurately assess the students’ language abilities. She then asked us what we would do in that situation, whether we agreed with the suggested means of assessment, and if we had any suggestions for improvements. The presentation was thoroughly engaging and every participant got a chance to give their opinions and discuss various interesting aspects related to the difficulties language teachers face every day. The takeaway message was that assessment must meet the goals of the class. She recommended a free online reference called “Teaching and Learning Languages, A Guide” as a good resource for busy teachers.

Reported by Christopher J. Hollis

Event Report on the National JALT Website can be found here

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Ways to Enhance Students' Meaning-Focused Learning

2種類のインプットと２種類のアウトプット～

Sunday, October 2, 2016

By Hiroki Uchida

30 people attended the event at Tottori University.

We were very happy to welcome back Hiroki Uchida to Tottori for a wonderful presentation on meaning-focused learning. Meaning-focused learning is one of the four strands of language learning, with the other three being meaning-focused input, language-focused learning, and fluency development. This type of practice is significant because it often involves situations that are meaningful and true to learners’ daily lives. Hiroki explained that while language learners can attain a foundation from language-focused learning, fluency and accuracy development can only come through meaning-focused learning.

After explaining the importance of meaning-focused learning, Hiroki went into the main segment of his presentation: activities. Hiroki came prepared with far more practical activities than we could cover in one presentation and chose what he thought were good examples, including Chorus reading, Japanese-to-English translations, Cloze Procedures, and Dictogloss. For each example, the presentations attendees were made to perform the activities themselves or in a group in order to grasp the process and potential difficulties that a learner would encounter. The only downside was that we could not spend more time experimenting with the great activities that were introduced.

A warm thanks and well done are extended to Hiroki for his informative and ultimately useful presentation. It is a sure thing that many members are eager to try his suggestions in their classes.

Reported by Raymond Levy

Event Report on the National JALT Website can be found here

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Getting Students to Engage with Each Other and with the Teacher in Positive, Challenging and Motivating Ways

学習者同士、学習者対指導者の英語でのコミュニケーションをサポートする～楽しく、達成感のある授業を目指して～

Sunday, June 26, 2016

By Paul Shimizu

30 people attended the event at Tottori University.

Mr. Paul Shimizu presented on “how to get students to engage with each other and with the teacher in positive, challenging and motivating ways.” Mr. Shimizu addressed many of the problems foreign language teachers face in our language classrooms, particularly, the problem of unmotivated students who don’t feel particularly challenged. He discussed ways to mitigate such problems and turn them around into opportunities for effective language learning. Mr. Shimizu provided useful advice on how to motivate our foreign language students to more proactively engage with each other (and with the teacher) in the target language. He showed some listening, reading, writing and speaking activities that can be adapted to most any proficiency and/or age range. One exercise that he used was called a “Panic Square.” Here students have to put pictures into certain areas of the square, listening for instructions about what pictures go where from the instructor. Mr. Shimizu said it was a useful means for checking listening skills, and for encouraging students to speak without stopping. The “Panic Square” activity can also be modified into a bingo game that is both fun and motivational for students. Mr. Shimizu showed us ways to make learning fun, interesting, motivational, engaging, and still “academically focused” at the same time. He believes that language learning should be regarded as a pleasant, engaging and fun activity. After all one of our basic aims as teachers is to have students come into the class expecting a ‘good time’ and leaving knowing they did have a ‘good time’ (while still learning). Fourteen people attended this very engaging and motivating Tottori JALT presentation.

Reported by Christopher J. Hollis

Event Report on the National JALT Website can be found here

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Little Changes Lead to Big Successes That Can Inspire Students

ほんの少し変えることで、英語学習者はぐんと伸びる

Sunday, April 17, 2016

By Aleda Krause

25 people attended the event at Tottori University

We were very pleased to have Aleda Krause in Tottori. She talked about how to change the teaching methods in our classes, from very small changes to bigger changes. The idea is that these changes can drastically improve the learning that’s happening in the class. After she explained the theory, we had the opportunity to practice some activities in pairs, like an information gap activity, or in groups, including a vocabulary Uno-style “onion” game and a tic-tac-toe activity which could be used with a whole class. She advised us that new teaching methods don’t always work the first time so we should persevere, and try again. Each time we do an activity we will improve, making it easier to inspire the students.

The workshop was very successful and participants were very happy to experience firsthand some of the activities Aleda uses in her classes. She also generously shared her teaching materials with us at the end of the presentation, as well as giving some card games away as prizes. Thank you, Aleda, for making the trip to Tottori.

Reported by Nicholas Verhoeven

Event Report on the National JALT Website can be found

1) For more photos of Aleda's presentation, please click this link

2) For information on Aleda Krause’s Publications click here

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Teaching for World Citizenship: Global Education and Language Teaching

世界の一員として - グローバル教育と語学教育

By Professor Kip Cates Tottori University

Sunday, February 21, 2016

35 people attended the event at Tottori University.

Kip Cates has worked at Tottori University for 30 years so we were very pleased to invite him to do his first ever presentation for Tottori Chapter. The main message of his presentation was that “Language is a key that can open the door to a whole culture”.

The theme of Kip’s first workshop was world writing systems. He showed us how to recognize ten different writing systems and we then practiced some basic translation into English. We learned some very interesting things, for example, vowels are not absolutely necessary for understanding a sentence, and that the Japanese writing system is quite close to Egyptian hieroglyphics. By the end of the workshop, members were able to quickly recognize the different writing systems.

After a 10 minutes break, he gave a second workshop about languages in the world. Participants learned how to say basic greetings in various languages, and how to recognize a language by knowing its basic pronunciation.

As well as teaching us about languages, Kip demonstrated good teaching techniques and participants had a very enjoyable afternoon. Everyone was actively involved in the workshop, and even those who are multi-lingual still learned things we didn’t know about world languages.