Chapter Events for 2008"

Welcome to one of the most exciting sections of our home page. Here we will tell you how we are all involved in planning events, in making decisions on what can be done to keep the Chapter alive, and in taking actions in various ways to put our plans in concrete forms. This year, we've lined up some electrifying ideas for everyone to join in. So please take a look, decide, and be involved too!!!

For further information on our chapter programs, contact: Martin Pauly, Program Chair


December Meeting and Year-end Bonenkai

Date: Sunday, December 14, 2008
Event: Ibaraki Chapter December Meeting and Year-End Bonenkai
Place: Mito Shimin Kaikan (Room 305)

You can print: [a poster in Japanese for December 2008 Meeting]
You can print: [a poster in English for December 2008 Meeting]

Program: 12:00 - 17:00

Program Part 1 (12:15~14:55):
Chapter Presenters: The presenters' presentation contents and bios will be revised when the information comes in.


1)  Title:  Highlights of JALT2008
    Presenter:  Joyce Cunningham 

2)  Title:  Google as Home Base
    Presenter;  Dan Waldhoff >

3)  Title:  JALT '08 Conference Reports
    Presenter:  John Racine

4)  Title to be announced
    Presenter:  Machi Okumura (Title to be announced)

5)  Title: Translation-Transliteration-Summary of Japanese Domain Specific Texts    Presenter:  Jeroen Bode
Jeroen Bode has been working since 2005 for Tsukuba University as a lecturer. 
From 2007 he started also as an independent official translator of Japanese. 
His translation work led him to redirect his attention to applied language 
skills during the process of translating. He received his M.A. in Japanese 
language and culture in 1996 from Leiden University in the Netherlands.

6)  Title: Drama and Language Education
    Presenter:  Samuel Nfor 

7)  Title:  Extensive Reading and the Effect of Shadowing
    Presenters:  Takayuki Nakanishi and Atsuko Ueda   

8)  Title:  Effective Use of Information Technology in College EFL Courses:
    Preliminary report
    Presenter:  Mariko Miyao

9)  Title:  What I Learned at JALT '08/Sign Language in the Classroom
    Presenter:  Martin Pauly 

Program Part 2 (15:00~16:00):
Featured Presenter: Steve Brown, Former President of JALT National
Title: JALT: History, Relations with Domestic & International Organizations, Challenges

Program Part 3: Business (16:00~17:00)
Business session and election of chapter officers.

Entrance fee: Members: Free, Non-members: 500 yen

**** Bonenkai/Hanashiai will be held at the Drunken Duck after the meeting.****



April All-Day Meeting

Date: Sunday, April 27, 2008
Event: Ibaraki Chapter April All-Day Meeting
Place: Ibaraki Christian University, Hitachi Oomika

Morning Session (Part 1): 10:00-12:00
(Registration from 09:30)

Presenter: Elaine Gilmour, Miyagi Gakuin Women's University
Title: Teaching Culture Ethnographically/Study Abroad Programs

Presentation Summary:
This presentation examines what an ethnographic approach to teaching
culture is, and suggests components for a community based ethnography
course. We'll also consider the point of such a course from the students'
perspective, by looking at questionnaire response data provided by students
who have participated in Study Abroad programs during their university
experience.

Lunch Break: 12:00-14:00

Afternoon Session (Part 2): 14:00 - 15:30

Presenter: Alastair Graham-Marr, ABAX
Title: Actually Teaching Listening

Presentation Summary:
Teaching listening effectively means teaching both phonology and knowledge
of discourse. A working knowledge of the phonology of natural connected
speech, elisions and liaisons, weak forms and reductions helps students with
their 'bottom-up' decoding skills. Developing student knowledge of discourse,
particularly of scripts (those discourses in English that tend to follow
a set pattern) helps them with their 'top-down' predictive skills.

For the direction, go to: [Getting to Ibaraki Christian University]
You can print a poster in Japanese: [Poster in Japanese for April 2008 Meeting]

Entrance fee: Members: Free, Non-members: free

**** Business Meeting will follow the afternoon presentations.****


February One-Day Meeting

Date: Sunday, February 17, 2008
Event: Ibaraki Chapter February One-Day Meeting
Place: Tsukuba Gakuin University, Tsukuba


Morning Session (Part 1): 9:45-11:45

Presenter: Joe Tomei, Kumamoto Gakuen University
Title: How Did We Get Here? Understanding the Current Situation of
Japanese Higher Education By Examining Its History

Presentation Summary:
For those from the West, there are a large number of seemingly
inexplicable features in Japanese education in general and Japanese
higher education in particular. I would like to suggest that they are
understandable when we examine the full history of Japanese
education, which allows us to see that decisions made many decades
earlier on the basis of far different circumstances have carried over
into the present day. Viewing Japanese higher education in this way
presents a middle course between the notion that a system that
actively discriminates and a system free of any taint or blemish.
The presentation will then end with some discussion on the best way to
effect change within the system.

Lunch Break: 12:00-14:00

Afternoon Session (Part 2): 14:00 - 15:30

Presenter: Joe Tomei, Kumamoto Gakuen University
Title: Teaching Phonetics for Multiple Purposes - One Approach

Presentation Summary:
The large number of phonetic texts available suggests that there is
no real consensus about what a phonetics class should teach. In this
presentation, I will present the outline of my own phonetics course
that addresses multiple needs in the university curriculum, needs
which are often unaddressed, and include encouraging a familiarity
with IPA and English dialects, coping with aspects of what a
university course might be like in the West, and encouraging further
interest and research. I hope to show how a course that focusses on
these multiple aspects can function in a university curriculum and
some of the potential pitfalls it may face.

For the direction in Japanese, go to: [[交通案内図] & [近隣マップ]]
For the direction in English, go to: [Getting to Tsukuba Gakuin Univeristy]

To download a poster of the meeting, click: [Meeting notice poster]

Entrance fee: Members: Free, Non-members: 500 yen

**** Business Meeting will follow the afternoon presentations.****

***** Our Chapter wishes to thank the PALE-SIG (Professionalism, Administration
and Leadership in Education Special Interest Group) for their support
in bringing this month's presenter to the Ibaraki Chapter. *****