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Opinions & PerspectivesToward a Participatory Democracy:

Bridging JALT’s Communication Gap – James J. Scott4

5

13

21

27

Importance of “MultiWord Chunks” inFacilitating Communicative Competence

Hazel Ketko

Adapting DiPietro’s Strategic Interactionsto an EFL Context

Robert W. Long III

PSA Programs in Japan: Dilemmas andSolutions

Richard Shooltz & Dirk Yuricich

Report Special Report on Korea TESOL2000

Joyce Cunningham

12December, 2000

Volume 24, Number 12

全国語学教育学会The Japan Association for Language Teaching

December 2000 1

contents

As you open this issue, we’ll be moving into the wintrydepths of Christmas and the New Year. From everyone on The Language Teacher staff, we extend to all

our readers the very warmest of Christmas greetings, andbest wishes for a happy and prosperous New Year. This yearhas been a good one for TLT, and flicking back through the12 issues we’ve published, I’m amazed at the sheer volumeand variety of material that has been produced by this un-sung band of volunteers.

One area that does cry out for more material is the Japa-nese section of our publication. We are desperately in needof feature articles and column articles in Japanese, andwould encourage anyone with an interest in producingsomething to get in touch with our Japanese editorKinugawa Takao. Please look at the back of this issue for sub-mission details and contact information.

The Chapter in Your Life column this month features not achapter, but our very own Peer Support Group—one of themore exciting developments that TLT has incorporated thisyear. The group coordinator, Andy Barfield is now lookingfor more group members to assist with their work of collabo-rating with writers. If you are interested in assisting with thisvaluable work, please contact Andy at <[email protected]>.

Seasons greetings to you all.Malcolm Swanson

TLT Editor<[email protected]>

　皆さんが今月号を開かれるころ、町では、クリスマスと正月を間近

に控え、冬支度を始めていることでしょう。The Language Teacher

のスタッフ全てから、全ての読者の皆さんにメリー・クリスマス、よ

いお年を、という言葉をお送りしたいと思います。今年は、T L T に

とって良き１年であり、無事1 2 号を刊行することができました。私

は、ボランティアの手によって支えられてきたTLTの内容、そして多

様さに驚かされています。より多くの投稿を期待しているのは、日本

語部門です。投稿論文、コラム記事を切実に期待しています。どなた

ても、興味があれば日本語編集者の衣川隆生にご連絡ください。連絡

先と投稿の詳細は、巻末の情報をご覧ください。

　今月のChapter in Your Lifeは、支部を特集しているものではありま

せんが、今年度TLTが取り込んだ最もエキサイティングなものの一つ

であるピア・サポート・グループを紹介します。グループのコーディ

ネーターであるAndy Barfieldは、彼らの仕事を支援してくださるメン

バーを捜しています。もし、あなたがこの価値有る仕事に興味が有れ

ば、ぜひAndy <[email protected]>にご連絡を。

　では、良いお年をお迎えください。

opinions & perspectives4 Toward a Participatory

Democracy:Bridging JALT’s communi-cation gap

features5 Importance of “Multi

Word Chunks”13 Adapting DiPietro’s

Strategic Interactions21 PSA Programs in Japanreport27 Special Report on Korea

TESOL2000a chapter in your life28 Celebrating Collaborationmy share34 Building Schema in a

Reading Class35 Intercultural Communica-

tion Aspect into ReadingMaterials for Japanesestudents of English

off the presses37 Thomson LearningDepartments38 Book Reviews39 Recently Received41 JALT News43 SIG Focus47 Special Interest Groups

News49 Chapter Reports50 Chapter Meeting Special51 Chapter Meetings53 Conference Calendar54 Job Information Center56 Bulletin Board56 Advertiser Index

2 The Language Teacher 24:12

December 2000 3


Opinions & Perspectives

Toward a Participatory Democracy:Bridging JALT’s communication gap

James J. Scott, Kagoshima JALT

In “The Way Ahead and the Menu Option: Tangential to the plot?” Charles Jannuzi (2000) pro-

poses a menu plan for JALT membership fees as “ameans by which the organization could control itsown reforms while receiving a direct line of infor-mation on how it was meeting members’ wants andneeds” (p. 3). I suggest that the problem is not lim-ited to bottom-up communication regarding thewants and needs of JALT members (important assuch communication undoubtedly is). Rather, weneed to drastically improve two-way communicationbetween our national leadership and our rank-and-file members regarding all of those issues where thedecisions that JALT makes are likely to have a sig-nificant impact on the organization’s future.

Let’s start with top-down communication. In thefour years since I have taken a more or less activeinterest in what happens at the national level, JALThas increased its membership fees by over 40%, al-tered the composition of its Executive Board, andrevised its constitution and bylaws in order to gainofficial recognition from the Japanese governmentas a non-profit organization (NPO). Yet, despite theimportance of these measures, in each instance JALTdecided on a course of action before most of ourrank-and-file members were even aware that theissue in question was being discussed.

Each of the above measures may have been desir-able—perhaps even necessary. However, when anorganization takes such measures without first in-forming its members regarding the issues involved,that organization risks alienating the very peoplewithout whose support it cannot hope to prosper.This is a risk that JALT should not be willing to take.JALT’s leadership can deal with this problem by mak-ing greater use of a forum that already exists—the“Opinions and Perspectives” column in The LanguageTeacher. When there is a clear consensus at the na-tional level (i.e., among Executive Board members)regarding a different measure, one individual couldbe delegated to write a column explaining what needsto be done and why (this approach might have beenuseful in explaining to our members JALT’s decisionto seek official recognition as an NPO). When opin-ion at the national level is divided, each of the oppos-ing camps could delegate an individual to prepare acolumn presenting its views. The two columns couldthen appear back-to-back in the same issue of TLT.

Let us now turn to bottom-up communication.Assuming that both sides of an issue have been pre-sented to our members, how can JALT’s leadership

find out what our members think? One way wouldbe to invite members to respond via email andsnail-mail addresses appended to the column. An-other would be to conduct a telephone survey.

Admittedly, JALT lacks the expertise need to con-duct a truly scientific survey, but for our purposes,we don’t need too high a degree of accuracy. All weneed is a survey sufficiently accurate so as to give usa rough idea of how our members feel. Is there aconsensus in either direction regarding a given is-sue? Or, is opinion more or less evenly divided?

The logistics of conducting such a survey shouldnot pose any insurmountable problems. The leadersof the opposing sides could agree upon a mutuallyacceptable list of questions. JALT’s database could beused to randomly select the names of, say, 300members. Each chapter president could be given thelist of questions, together with the names of thoseto be surveyed selected from his or her chapter (ofcourse in larger chapters, the president could askother officers to assist calling members). After thesurvey has been completed, the results could betabulated by JALT’s central office and published inthe JENL and TLT. This would give our nationalleadership and our rank-and-file members a chanceto find out what a randomly selected sample of ourmembership thinks about a given issue. Such trans-parency would surely help to make JALT more re-sponsive to its members’ needs.

Which approach to use would depend on the in-formation required. Inviting members to submittheir views would probably elicit in-depth responsesfrom those members who feel most strongly about agiven issue. Conversely, conducting a telephonesurvey of a randomly selected sample of our mem-bership would give us a rough idea of how ourmembership as a whole feels about the issue inquestion. And, of course, there is nothing to stopJALT from employing both approaches should thesituation merit doing so.

It is doubtful that anyone who has witnessed JALTproceedings at the national level would seriouslyclaim that we don’t have a serious problem with two-way communication between our national leadershipand our rank-and-file members. If the measures pro-posed above serve to improve such communication, astronger organization will surely be the result.

ReferencesJannuzi, C. (2000). The Way Ahead and the Menu Option:

Tangential to the plot? The Language Teacher, 24 (9), 3-5.

December 2000 5

Importance of

“MultiWordChunks”in Facilitating

CommunicativeCompetence and

its PedagogicImplications

Hazel KetkoHiroshima International School,

Hijiyama UniversityThis article will discuss the importance of

“multiword chunks” in facilitating communicative competence, by contrasting the fre-

quency of chunk use by native speakers of English(NSs) and Japanese learners of English (JLEs) intheir spoken discourse. Based on the findings, someof the pedagogic implications for “vocabularyteaching” will be discussed. Although multiwordchunks occur in both written and spoken dis-course, this article is concerned only with chunksin spoken discourse.

Definition of “Multiwordchunks”In this article, the term“multiword chunks” is usedbroadly to refer to vocabularyitems consisting of a sequence oftwo or more words which “se-mantically and/or syntacticallyform a meaningful and insepa-rable unit” (Moon, 1997, p.43).They include collocations (e.g.“alcoholic drink”), polywords (e.g.“by the way”), idioms (e.g. “takeaction”), phrasal verbs (e.g. “putoff”), fixed phrases with prag-matic functions (e.g. “no kid-ding”), and “sentence frames”which allow some degree of in-flection and expansion (e.g. “The+ (intensifier) + adjective + thingis . . .”). The terms “multiwordchunks” and “chunks” will beused interchangeably in this ar-ticle. In-depth discussions aboutthe terminology and identifica-tion of multiword chunks can befound in Yorio (1980), Nattinger& DeCarrico (1992), Moon(1997), and Carter (1998).

Importance of MultiwordChunks in Facilitating Commu-nicative CompetenceWiddowson (1989) views com-municative competence as beingcomposed of two elements:

“grammatical competence” (knowledge) and “prag-matic competence” (ability). He explains that“knowledge can be characterized in terms of de-grees of analyzability, ability can be characterizedin terms of degrees of accessibility” (p.132). Hisconcept of analyzability leads to the question:“How far can the English language be analyzed?”Recent research (e.g. Bolinger, 1975; Pawley andSyder, 1983; Peters, 1983) suggests that a large partof the English language is formulaic, and is based

英語母語話者の語彙は多量のmulti-word chunksで構

成されている。これらのchunksはコミュニケーション

能力を高めるために重要な役割を担っている。スピー

チディスコースでの英語母語話者と日本人英語学習者

によるc h u n k s の使用頻度を比較した。本論では、

multi-work chunksの使用でスピーキングの流暢さは向

上するということが主張されている。英語学習者がコ

ミュニケーション能力を高めたいなら、彼らは使用頻

度の高いmulti-word chunksを習得し、使用することが

重要であると結論づけられている。


on units beyond the level of the orthographicword. In other words, a majority of the linguisticknowledge of English NSs “takes the form less ofanalyzed grammatical rules than adaptable lexicalchunks” (Widdowson, 1989, p.132). Bolinger(1975, 1976) suggests that a large part of the En-glish language, although analyzable, is not beingused on an analyzed basis. Pawley & Syder (1983,p.193) also indicate that “native speakers do notexercise the creative potential of syntactic rules toanything like their full extent.” Thus, grammaticalcompetence is not a matter of being able to analyzea single sentence down to its every word, butrather, it is “a matter of knowing how the scale isto be applied: when analysis is called for and whenit is not” (Widdowson, 1898, p.133). Over-analysisof grammatical rules will lead to production ofsuch expressions as “Before you leap, look,” which isgrammatically correct but “linguistically ill-formed” (ibid., p.133)—a sign of incompetence.

Widdowson’s concept of accessibility is the abilityto access the mental lexicon to retrieve a piece of“ready-made” language appropriate to a particularcontext. This “schematic view of competence”(Aston, 1995, p.262) rests on the underlying beliefthat the human memory system stores lexical repre-sentations in multiple forms (Bolinger, 1976; Pawley& Syder, 1983). This concept of accessibility of mul-tiple representations implies an element of “choice”that has to be made during language use. This choiceis what Pawley and Syder (1983) refer to as“nativelike selection,” which suggests that “the lan-guage system enables particular meanings to be con-veyed in multiple ways, and that these different pathsdo not all have equal value: some expressions seem toacquire some sort of valence” (Skehan, 1995, p.97).According to Pawley & Syder (1983, p.193), only a“small proportion of the total set of grammatical sen-tences are nativelike in form”, and if a language userselects expressions which are not nativelike, his/herexpressions will be judged to be “unidiomatic, odd orforeignisms” (Pawley & Syder, 1983, p.193).

The above brief discussion highlights the fact thatknowledge of multiword chunks and how to selectand use them in appropriate contexts is a sign ofcommunicative competence. Widdowson (1989,p.135) puts it succinctly:

Communicative competence is a matter ofknowing a stock of partially pre-assembled pat-terns, formulaic frameworks, and a kit of rules …and being able to apply the rules to make what-ever adjustments are necessary according to con-textual demands.

A Comparison in the Use of Multiword Chunksbetween NSs and JLEsIn a recent study (Ketko, 2000), two research cor-pora (Corpora A and B) compiled for a different

study (Cox, 1998) were analyzed by the author forNS chunk use in their spontaneous spoken discoursewhile engaging in two communicative tasks (seeAppendix A). Corpus A consisted of 8,097 wordsand was made up of transcripts of 24 pairs of NSsdoing Task A. Corpus B consisted of 8,088 wordsand was made up of transcripts of 25 pairs of NSsdoing Task B. The NS chunk use was then comparedwith that of six Japanese learners of English (JLEs)while doing the same tasks. The JLEs had over 10years of formal English language education (sixyears in junior and senior high school, four years inuniversity), and were considered to have a high pro-ficiency in the English language (they were all En-glish majors in university and had a TOEIC score of600 or above). However, none of them had had ex-posure to English outside the classroom.

The study found that NSs used significantly morechunks than JLEs: The NSs used an average of onechunk in every three to five words, whereas the JLEsused an average of one chunk in every 11 to 16words. The study also revealed that the most com-mon types of chunks used by NSs while doing thecommunicative tasks were:

1. Fixed phrases with pragmatic functions, such asrealizing communicative strategies (e.g. para-phrasing, stalling, giving evaluative response),mitigating own opinion by using “vague lan-guage” (Channell, 1994), etc. For example, Imean; you know; that’s interesting; . . . or somethinglike that.

2. Fixed phrases with discoursal functions, e.g. ofcourse; because of.

3. Common collocations, including prepositionalphrases and phrasal verbs, e.g. deal with; atpresent.

4. Sentence frames labeled “lexicalized sentencestems” by Pawley & Syder, (1983). For example,N + would be [adj.] to + V: I would be happy tohelp; She would be delighted to go there.

5. Semi-fixed or fixed phrases made up of commonde-lexicalized words (words which carry little orno definite meaning when taken out of context),such as “take,” “get,” “make,” “have.” For ex-ample, You’ve got to . . .; get upset; take your time;take care; take it easy.

The study further showed the following features ofchunk use by JLEs engaging in the communicativetasks:

1. Repeated use of a limited number of chunks withdiscoursal and pragmatic functions (e.g. I think;of course).

2. Limited use of common collocations and “vaguelanguage” which were frequently spotted in NSdiscourse.

feature: ketko

December 2000 7

3. Sentences were mostly built “on the spot” on aword-by-word basis. This resulted in slow and farfrom fluent output. Moreover, some JLE dis-course was unidiomatic and non-nativelike attimes.

4. Various instances of erroneous chunk use by theJLEs were found. For example, I don’t have an idea(for “I have no idea”); As I told above (for “As I saidabove”).

Although the results were not surprising, they lendsupport to previous claims (e.g. Pawley & Syder,1983; Nattinger & DeCarrico, 1992; Lewis, 1993)that NSs use a lot of multiword chunks in their spo-ken discourse, emphasizing their important role infacilitating nativelike fluency and communicativecompetence.

The study also highlighted the fact that even JLEswith relatively high English proficiency lack thelexical competence to speak naturally and idiomati-cally. The limited chunk use by the JLEs indicatedthat they had to compose most sentences fromscratch, thus slowing down language productiontime. More importantly, generating sentences fromscratch at times led to unidiomatic or “non-nativelike” expressions.

As discussed above, the study showed that the NSsverbally realized some communicative strategies(e.g. giving evaluative responses) by uttering a widevariety of chunks, such as “That’s interesting”;“That’s a point”; “I liked your idea”; “That’s true”, etc.In contrast, the JLEs verbal realization of such astrategy was limited to repeated use of only a fewexpressions (most notably “I think so” and “I agree”),indicating that they might not have in their lexi-cons a wide enough repertoire of the multiwordchunks commonly used by NSs.

These findings point to the fact that if learners areto become competent users of the English language,they should acquire and use multiword chunks intheir discourse. It also becomes apparent that in EFLsituations, such as in Japan, where most English lan-guage learners very rarely have the benefit of learningfrom direct interactions with NSs, one effective wayto acquire multiword chunks, especially those withpragmatic functions, is to be exposed to authentic NSspoken discourse in the language classroom.

Pedagogical ImplicationsThe above discussion underscores the importance ofraising learner consciousness in the use ofmultiword chunks in the language classroom. It alsoalerts teachers to the fact that:

1. Learners need to acquire a) a wide repertoire ofmultiword chunks, and b) the ability to makenative-like selections in the use and languagemanipulation of such chunks. To do this, learn-ers should be exposed to spontaneous NS dis-

course so that they can see how and whenchunks are manipulated and used by NSs. Thiscan be achieved by the use of authentic teachingmaterials. Additionally, teachers should “in-crease carefully-controlled teacher-talking-time”(Lewis, 1997, p.52), i.e. they should constantlyrepeat and recycle common collocations andexpressions while talking to their students.

2. Learners should be made aware of the close rela-tionship and integration of grammar and lexis.They need to learn commonly used multiwordchunks for fluency, and they also need to knowand use grammar, which is regulative in func-tion, to adapt a lexical chunk to a particular con-text (Nyyssönen, 1995).

3. The extensive use of sentence frames also suggeststhat “it may be possible to teach some of what hasusually been considered as grammar in terms ofvocabulary” (Kennedy, 1990, p.216). For instance,the word “would” is traditionally taught as “theconditional.” However, the various common pat-terns it forms with other words can be more easilytaught lexically as fixed/semi-fixed sentenceframes, without analyzing their internal struc-tures, e.g. “Would you like …” (offering); “I wouldrather . . .” (showing preference), etc.

4. 1Vocabulary learning should not be limited tothe learning of single-word definition and usage.Instead, learners should be taught the variousaspects of a word such as its common colloca-tions, and related grammatical patterns (Nation,1994). In particular, the more de-lexicalized aword is, the more important it is to teach theword in different contexts, showing its mostcommon collocations, and different usage, etc.(Lewis, 1997).

5. The common use of discourse and interactivedevices by NSs informs us that these are usefuldevices and not “linguistic crutches” or “emptyfillers” as viewed by some teachers (Nattinger &DeCarrico, 1992), and therefore should be in-cluded in the language learning syllabus. It alsoimplies that an “overall preoccupation withlexis at clause- or sentence-level” (McCarthy,1984, p.14) is not the right approach to teach-ing vocabulary. Instead, McCarthy suggests thatwe should examine the use of chunks in rela-tion to other lexical units “(a) above sentence-level, (b) across conversational turn-boundaries,and (c) within the broad framework of discourseorganization.”

Some Classroom ActivitiesOutlined below are suggestions for adapting class-room activities to incorporate teaching multiwordchunks to language learners. While some of theactivities may have been used by language teachers

feature: ketko


for a long time, the main focus and emphasis hereis on “chunk” acquisition and usage, rather thanout-of-context, single, space-bound words.Discovering the use of chunks through discussion andL1/L2 comparisonOne effective way to sensitize JLEs to the use of com-mon chunks with discoursal or pragmatic functions isto have students compare their own discourse withNS discourse. This can be done by asking JLEs andNSs to do the same communicative tasks. Their dis-course can then be recorded and transcribed for JLEsto compare. Alternatively, NS spoken discourse frommovie scripts, TV talk show transcripts, etc. down-loaded from theInternet can be pre-sented to studentswho can then discusshow some commonchunks are used andwhat their functionsare. For example, thefollowing is an ex-cerpt of a transcriptof two NSs doing a language task:

A: Why don’t we each give an example and then . . .B: Fine with me.A: Okay, now, . . .

Students have to identify all the chunks therein anddiscuss their functions. (e.g. “Why don’t we” is asentence frame for making suggestions. “Fine withme” is a chunk with the pragmatic function ofshowing agreement. “Okay, now” is a chunk withthe discoursal function of a shifting topic.) Studentsare also encouraged to suggest L1 equivalents.

As Yorio (1980, p.440) points out, the emphasishere should be placed on raising learners’ awarenessof “sociolinguistic variables, not on immediate pro-duction”. This can be best achieved by discussionand L1/L2 comparison.

“Spot-A-Chunk” activity to sensitize JLEs to the conceptof “chunking”Many JLEs tend to translate word for word from L1to L2 or vice versa, ignoring the fact that manymultiword chunks cannot be analyzed and brokendown to single words. Thus, giving students a shortarticle or transcript of conversation and askingthem to spot all the chunks therein is a good exer-cise for making them realize what constitutes a“chunk” and how frequently chunks are used inEnglish. After spotting all the chunks, various ac-tivities can be done, for example, have studentssuggest L1 equivalents for some of the fixed idiom-atic chunks. Some teachers may think that this is areversion to the outdated “Grammar-translation”method. However, as Lewis (1997) points out,many multiword chunks, especially those with

pragmatic functions, do have equivalents in otherlanguages. Having students translate chunk-for-chunk (not word-for-word) has the advantage ofgetting students to associate chunks in L2 withtheir L1 equivalents, which can greatly reduce theburden of L2 learning on the students. This exer-cise is especially useful for spotting chunks formedby de-lexicalized words. Many students tend to ig-nore “small” words (e.g. “take,” “get,” “point”) be-cause they understand the literal meaning of suchwords. However, many useful chunks formed bysuch words are idiomatic, and their real meaning ishard to decipher, e.g. “take your time,” “take it

easy,” “take abreak,” “take yourpoint.” Identifyingand learning howto use these chunkswill greatly increasethe students’ vo-cabulary size andfluency.

For sentenceframes or chunks that can have different words inthem (e.g. The thing/point/problem is . . .), studentscan be asked to suggest which word(s) can be substi-tuted in the frame and the respective meanings ofeach.

Using corpora and concordances in the classroomWith the advance of computer technology, corporaand concordances are now available relatively easilyto teachers for use in the language classroom. Theuse of corpora and concordances is advantageousbecause it encourages students to discover languageuse on their own (Tribble & Jones, 1990). Corporafor classroom use can be compiled using variousmaterials depending on the needs and skill levels ofstudents. Some good sources of materials includeacademic textbooks, movie scripts, news and talkshow transcripts downloadable from various sites onthe Internet, etc. (For detailed instructions on howto compile a corpus, please refer to John,1997.)

By running a corpus through a concordancingprogram (e.g. ConApp; Web Concordancer;WordSmith), a concordance list for a certain wordcan be generated (see Appendix B). Students can beasked to look at such a list and discover for them-selves the most common uses of, for example, a de-lexicalized word and its collocations, and thecontexts with in which such collocations are used.They can then share their discoveries with thewhole class. Teachers can use concordance lists tocreate language exercises such as gap filling exer-cises. For ESP teachers, a corpus made up of a singletheme or subject can be created, and used to showstudents the high frequency chunks in a specificcontent domain.

feature: ketko

“. . . grammatical competence is not amatter of being able to analyze a single

sentence down to its every word . . .”

December 2000 9

Short language exercises and gamesCommonly used language exercises and games caneasily be adapted to give students quick, short spurtsof chunk practice. Below are just a few:

a) Scrambled SentencesStudents have to put the words in the right or-der. The sentences should be, or contain, com-mon multiword chunks. For example:it/for/go - go for itits/or/never/now - it’s now or never

b) HangmanUse short fixed, commonly used expressions.The function of the expression can be given tostudents as a hint. For example: G O F O R I T(Hint: An expression used to encourage someoneto try something)

c) De-lexicalized Word RaceGive the class a de-lexicalized word (e.g. take). Insmall groups, students have 5 minutes to comeup with as many common expressions contain-ing the word as possible. For example:take a bath; take your time; take it easy . . .

The above are just a few activities, among many,which are useful for raising learner awareness in L2chunk use. More suggestions can be found inLewis’s Implementing the Lexical Approach (1997,Chapters 6 & 7).

ConclusionThe fact that native speakers of English use a lot ofmultiword chunks in their discourse is indisput-able. Equally indisputable is the important roleplayed by these chunks in the facilitation of com-municative competence. However, it is still notcommon practice for language teachers to system-atically introduce such chunks to L2 students. Al-though a few language textbooks have started todraw learners’ attention to the concept and impor-tance of chunks, the majority of the textbookswriters with books on the market have been slowto catch on. Before learners can be taught suchchunks, a paradigm shift in the concept of “vo-cabulary teaching” has to be embraced by languageteachers and material writers alike. This can onlybe achieved through more disciplined research inthis area. Teachers are also encouraged to take onthe role of researchers by investigating more intothe natural language of English.

AcknowledgementsI would like to thank Jane Willis and the two anony-mous reviewers for their invaluable comments and sug-gestions on earlier drafts of this paper. Thanks, also, toDavid Cox for allowing me to use his research corporain my study.

Hazel Ketko received her MSc inTESOL from Aston University,Birmingham, U.K., and is nowteaching EFL at Hiroshima Inter-national School and HijiyamaUniversity. She is interested incorpus analysis and computa-tional linguistics. <[email protected]>

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Ketko, H. (2000). A comparative study in the use of multiwordchunks between English native speakers and Japanese learnersof English. Unpublished MSc dissertation. Birmingham:Aston University.

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Oxford University Press.Nyyssönen, H. (1995). Grammar and lexis in communica-

tive competence. In Cook, G., & Seidlhofer, B. (Eds.),Principle and practice in applied linguistics: Studies in honourof H.G. Widdowson. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Pawley, A., & Syder, F. (1983). Two puzzles for linguistictheory: nativelike selection and nativelike fluency. InRichards, J., & Schmidt, R. (Eds.), Language and communi-cation. London: Longman.

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“Wow, that was such a great lesson, I really want others to try it!”

｢すばらしい授業！、これを他の人にも試してもらいたい！」

Every teacher has run a lesson which just ‘worked’. So, why not share it around? The My Share Columnis seeking material from creative, enthusiastic teachers for possible publication.

全ての教師は授業の実践者です。この貴重な経験をみんなで分かち合おうではありませんか。My Share Columnは創造的で、熱心な教師

からの実践方法、マテリアルの投稿をお待ちしています。

For more information, please contact the editor <[email protected]>詳しくは、<[email protected]>へご連絡ください。

Peters, A.M. (1983). The units of language acquisition. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.

Skehan, P. (1995). Analysability, accessibility, and ability for use.In Cook, G., & Seidlhofer, B. (Eds.), Principle and practice inapplied linguistics: Studies in honour of H.G. Widdowson. Ox-ford: Oxford University Press.

Tribble, C., & Jones, G. (1990). Concordances in the classroom: A

resource book for teachers. London: Longman.Widdowson, H.G. (1989). Knowledge of language and

ability for use. Applied Linguistics, 10(2), 128-37.Yorio, C. (1980). Conventionalized language forms and

the development of communicative competence. TESOLQuarterly, 14, 433-42.

Appendix AThe communicative tasks used in the study

Task AList the three most interesting cities or places in your country and say why people should visit them.Discuss your ideas briefly and then say which of your partner’s places you would most like to visit.

Task BWhat advice would you give to the person who wrote this letter? Discuss your ideas and then agree on thetwo best suggestions.

Dear Angie:My husband and I are worried about our daughter. She refuses to do anything we tell her to do and is very rude to

us. Also, she has become very friendly with a girl we don’t like. We don’t trust her anymore because she is alwayslying to us. Are we pushing her away from us? We don’t know what to do, and we’re worried that she is going to getinto trouble.

Worried Parents

Appendix BFirst 12 Concordance lines for “take” (Brown Corpus)

forget it all. But you just have to take a few multivitamins and plough on.se next year when the school will take a further cut because a reorganisathought I would get a good degree, take a law conversion course and becomes must keep you busy - but please take a moment to hear the views of an ‘oBut if moral theology is thus to take account of biology, then it must sun asked: ‘Is it practical? If you take action against parents you tend tos minister, when asked if he would take action on class size, 1991 W H Aorder or a personal computer can take advantage of materials in an easy-twith Springer and Mark Fielding to take advantage of tax changes that allowus fought to get this far that we take 9am starts very seriously. We hadwas one of the first in Britain to take an interest in this music, invitinliving in TV and theatre, which I take as success. But in answer to the q


December 2000 13

AdaptingDiPietro’sStrategic

Interactions toan EFL

Context

Robert W. Long IIIKyushu Institute of Technology

Introduction: Time for a Change?If you are like many teachers, you probably havebeen using a textbook that relies heavily on situ-ational/grammar routines, along with a few refer-ences to functions. Popular textbooks that use thisapproach include English Firsthand, Interchange, TrueColors, Headway among others; typical situationsinclude dating, personalities customs, gettingaround town, movies, and meeting classmates. Atfirst glance this approach seems the most sensibleapproach to teaching communicative oral English;however, unless one has very motivated students,this approach (especially after the several weeks)

Robert DiPietroのstrategic interactions (SI)

は、E S L の環境ではうまく利用されている

が、EFLの環境では、そのままこのアプロー

チを実行するのは困難である。本論では、

strategic interactions (SI)の理論的根拠が紹

介され、日本人大学生と行った予備研究で明

らかになった4 つの問題点が報告される。ま

た、EFLの環境のためのSIとして、多数のプ

ラグマティックタスクの利用、関連文脈の多

様化、多様な会話ストラテジーをとりいれた

モデルの使用、学生の評価やフィードバック

の採用など変更点が挙げられている。さら

に、初級、中級レベル学習者のためのプラグ

マティックタスクが例提示されている。

tends to fall flat, with teachersinitiating most of the routines,and students ending up trying tomemorize words and phrases.Even in the best of circumstances,it is difficult to make this ap-proach work since it is a collec-tion of unrelated conversationalroutines and vocabulary with noconnection to the speaker’s ownidentity and context. This lack ofintimacy may have negative con-sequences for those learning for-eign languages as DiPietro (1994)states: “The transactional value ofany utterance must be interpretedin the context of a particularspeaker working through a sce-nario with a personal game planin mind” (p. 39). Language is tiedto context and to identity, takingaway these two crucial elementsleaves students with only a verysuperficial knowledge of Englishstructures.

A second issue relates to thetendency of some teachers to be-lieve that their students are be-coming more fluent if theymaster more grammar and con-versational role plays. Knowledge

of English, however, does not lead to interactivecompetency. Since language involves emotions,communication breakdowns can easily occur whena speaker is being persuaded, pressured, or annoyed.Also, interactions are often complex as well as am-biguous; DiPietro discusses the breadth of this ambi-guity and breaks it down into three parts: (a)structural (focus on information), (b) transactional(focus on negotiation and intention), and (c) inter-action (emphasis on roles and speaker identity) am-biguity. Furthermore, breakdowns in conversationscan easily occur because there is a variety of waysthat meaning can be expressed, and students maynot be familiar with every colloquial expression and


feature: long

cultural convention (see also, DiPietro, 1983).In short, I found that the act of rehearsing com-

munication tends to be superficial, and predictablesince the only motivation to speak is to receive agrade. When language instruction and textbooksignore the importance that one’s emotions andidentity has on communication, students will havedifficulty being motivated. With strategic interac-tions (SI), the motivation to speak (just as it is inreal life) comes from trying to solve problems, inter-act and form relationships, and to project one’s ownidentity and views.

Strategic InteractionsThe procedure for SI has three stages: (a) the re-hearsal stage where participants discuss and negoti-ate the problem-solving strategies and discuss whichfunctional expressions are applicable to given situa-tion, (b) the performance stage in which studentsperform the scenario in front of participants, and (c)the debriefing stage, a time in which students (andthe teacher) will discuss their reactions to the sce-nario and whether or not their responses were ap-propriate and accurate. Strategic interactions can bedone with novice to advanced speakers, from word-level phrases to paragraph length speech; grammarand forms are learned by analyzing errors (andstrengths) in their own responses. The principle aimof strategic interactions (SI) is to develop studentconfidence, fluency, linguistic accuracy, and prag-matic competency.

Students are cast in various contexts in whichthey are reacting to questions, comments, observa-tions, opinions, invitations, problems, and con-flicts. Strategic interactions are more than aglorified role play insofar that they are open-endedallowing teachers to explore differences in lan-guage and outcomes; furthermore, they can be epi-sodic, covering two or more events. Second, notonly is there a shared context, but the participantshave their own agendas and identities that arelinked to the real world. There are also differenttypes of scenarios: group, multiple-roled, data-based, and open-ended (below).

Piloting Strategic InteractionsI began piloting SI a year and half ago with 66 firstand second year university students who met for 90minutes once a week for class. It soon became clearthat various tasks were needed to sustain studentmotivation from lesson to lesson and that even nov-ice open-ended scenarios were too difficult. The lit-erature on pragmatics was helpful: there are sixtypes of tasks that can help develop a student’s in-teractive or pragmatic performance. (For more de-tails, see Brown, in press; Hudson, T., Detmer, E., &Brown, J. 1992, 1995; Yoshitake & Enochs, 1996;Enochs & Yoshitake-Strain, 1999).

1. Written Discourse Completion Tasks are any prag-matics measures that oblige examinees to (a) reada written situation description and then (b) writewhat they would say next in the situation.

2. Multiple-choice Discourse Completion Tasks are anypragmatic measures that oblige examinees to (a)read a written description then (b) select whatthey think would be best to say next in the situa-tion from a list of options.

3. Oral Discourse Completion Tasks are any pragmat-ics measures that oblige examinees to (a) listen toa situation description (typically from a cassetterecording) and (b) speak aloud what they wouldsay next in that situation (usually into anothercassette recorder).

4. Discourse Role-Play Tasks are any pragmatic mea-sures that oblige the examinees to (a) read a situ-ation description and (b) play a role with anotherperson in the situation.

5. Discourse Self-Assessment Tasks are any pragmaticmeasures that oblige examinees to (a) read a situ-ation description and (b) rate their own ability toperform pragmatically in that situation.

6. Role-Play Self-Assessments are any pragmaticsmeasures that oblige the examinee to both (a)view their own pragmatic performance(s) in pre-viously video-recorded role plays and (b) ratethose performances.

Due to equipment restraints, I have piloted all butthe last task. In time, I found it very helpful to se-quence activites, starting with easier multiple-choicediscourse completion tasks, and discourse self-as-sessment tasks followed by written discoursecompletion tasks, before moving on to more open-ended discourse role plays; see Appendixes B and Cof a description of novice and intermediate-levelactivities that have proven successful in stimulatinginteraction and developing interactive competency.

A second problem related to situations that werefamiliar, meaningful and realistic, a context that mystudents could immediately relate to and would findinteresting. In the real world, Japanese studentsrarely would speak English to each other except forsituations like English clubs meetings; therefore, itseemed logical to have situations based on four in-tercultural contexts (a) orientation (in which stu-dents ask for directions, or help foreigners in somemanner), (b) socialization, (c) problem-solving, and(d) conflict resolution. (See Appendix A for a deduc-tive dialogue based based on orientation). Beforebeginning each task, I read outloud the situation,outlined the purpose of the two (or more) roles, andexplained any underlying social or cultural factorsthat might be relevant.

Also, in the initial phase of piloting, I had toomany scenarios either ending too quickly or turninginto an interrogative bout of questions and answers.

December 2000 15

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For example, if one of the goals in a scenario was toa discover two interesting things about a classmate,many students would briefly answer the questionswith one or two words. For further insight into is-sues relating to self-disclosure and communicativestyles, see Lebra,1987; Barnlund, 1975, Kobayashi &Nihei, 1995. I decided to emphasize conversationalstrategies, using the direct approach (Richards,1990) of teaching fixed expressions. As Dornyei andThurrel (1994) maintain, “polished conversational-ists are in command of hundreds of such phrasesand use them, for example to break smoothly into aconversation, to hold the listener’s interest, tochange the subject, to react to what others say, andto step elegantly out of the conversation when theywish” (p. 41). Thus, extensively modeling thesephrases and how students can work from brief andformal responses to longer, and more spontaneous,personal, and informal replies proved very helpfulas was writing deductive dialogues that includedinterruptions, use of fillers, topic-shifts, hestitationdevices, and various kinds of closings (see AppendixA). Random reviews of various tasks (usually five orsix times over two months) helped to improve prag-matic competency insofar that students would beencouraged to speak faster, and extend on their an-swers as they changed partners and roles.

A final issue related to debriefing and evaluation.As for debriefing students on specific issues or prob-lems that they had in their interactions, I relied ontwo methods in which to provide feedback: ran-domly selecting and listening in on two or threepairs of students and using their strengths andweaknesses as a means of feedback for everyone inthe class, and using written discourse completionand discourse role play tasks as a means of identify-ing problematic areas for discussion. Serious atten-tion to grammatical or sociolinguistic errors wouldonly be given if they were repeated over a period ofseveral weeks. As for exams, I have used two kindsof tests, the first being a speaking, listening andwriting test which included two versions. Again,following the same procedures used for the SI tasks,a student writes his or her name on the test,changes exams with a classmate, reads aloud thecomments, questions, opinions within each task,and then records the responses of his partner. Whenstudents finish one section, they can then changepartners. I found that it is important to leaveenough time so that students can check and editany mistakes. A second option is a reading and writ-ing test that contains various tasks, and gambits;students write down how they would verbally re-spond to each situation and prompt. Evaluation ofstudent performance is based on three criteria: (a)accuracy, if the student’s choice of vocabulary andwording is suitable; (b) appropriateness, whether astudent’s response was relevant, sensitive, polite,

and mature; and (c) effort, whether or not the re-sponse was sufficient. Depending on how strict onewanted to be, students could meet two or all of theabove criteria.

ConclusionIt might appear that the teacher’s role with SI-based activities is limited, but for this approach towork, teachers still need to observe the dynamics ofthe pair or group, paying close attention to bodylanguage, intonation, and to turn-taking. Further-more, teachers need to suggest options and modelutterances if the pair or group appears to be sty-mied. In conclusion, I found using SI-based activi-ties made my class far more interactive andinteresting. It allowed me to put aside the shop-ping list of functions and conversational routinesthat textbooks offer and break into some real con-versations and interactions.

Robert W. Long has been teachingin Japan for seven years in bothHiroshima and Kitakyushu. Heholds a specialist degree in TESL.Aside from strategic interactionsand curriculum, his current re-search areas include culture, socialpsychology, and interlanguage.<[email protected]>

ReferencesBarnlund, D. (1975). Public and prive self in Japan and the

United States: Communicative styles of two cultures. Tokyo:Simul.

Brown, J. D. (in press). Six types of pragmatics tests in twodifferent contexts. In K. Rose & G. Kasper (Eds.), Prag-matics in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-versity.

DiPietro, R. (1994). Strategic interaction: Learning languagesthrough scenarios. UK: Cambridge University Press.

DiPietro, R. (1983). Scenarios, discourse, and real-life roles.In J.W. Oller, P.A. Richard-Amato (Eds.), Methods thatwork. London: Newbury House Publishers.

Dornyei, Z. & Thurrell, S. (1994). Teaching conversationalskills intensively: course content and rationale. ELT Jour-nal, 48 (1), 40-49.

Enochs, K., & Yoshitake-Strain, S. (1999). Evaluating sixmeasures of EFL learners’ pragmatics competence. JALTJournal, 21, 29-50.

Gershon, S. & Mares, C. (1997). Online Basic: the fast routeto fluency. UK: Heinemann.

Helgesen, M, Brown, S. & Mandeville, T. (1999). EnglishFirsthand 1. Hong Kong: Addison Wesley

Hudson, T., Detmer, E., & Brown, J. D. (1992). A frameworkfor testing cross-cultural pragmatics: Technical report #2.Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i Press.

Hudson, T., Detmer, E., & Brown, J. D. (1995). Developingprototypic measures of cross cultural pragmatics: Technicalreport #7. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i Press.

Kobayashi, K. & Nehei, Y. (1995). Designing an intercul-tural syllabus I. Bulletin of the faculty of education, (Hu-


manities and Social Sciences) Ibaraki University 44, 169-184.Lebra, T. (1987). The cultural significance of silence in

Japanese communication. Multilingua 6 (4), 343-357.Maurer, J. & Schoenberg, S. (1999). True Colors: An EFL

course for real communication. New York: Addison WesleyRichards, J. (1990). Conversationaly speaking: approaches

to the teaching of conversation. In J. Richards (Ed.) The

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Appendix ADeductive Dialogue

Directions: Write your name on your paper and change papers. Write your partner’s response on his or her ownpaper. After finishing, practice the following gambits, changing partners. Work on fluency and accuracy.

Gambit 1 – Geez, This is the craziest sport I have ever seen

Situation: Getting oriented in JapanProblem: An American does not understand sumo, and wants to know all about it.Purpose: Explain the rules, and goals to sumo.Grammar: Models: should, shouldn’t, must, mustn’t.Relevant expressions: “Well, I don’t know that much about it, but . . .”

“In sumo, the goal is to push, throw down one’s opponent”

language teaching Matrix. Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-sity Press.

Richards, J. (1994). Interchange: English for internationalcommunication. Australia: Cambridge University Press.

Sores, J. (1991). Headway. Oxford: Oxford Unversity Press.Yoshitake, S., & Enochs, K. (1996). Self assessment and role

play for evaluating appropriateness in speech act realiza-tions. ICU Language Research Bulletin, 11, 57-76.

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December 2000 21

PSA Programsin Japan:

Dilemmas andSolutions

Choosing A PSA ProgramThe Japan Times (1997, p.14) reported that, accord-ing to the Japanese Ministry of Justice, over 180,000Japanese students went abroad for studying or re-search in 1996. Since many of these students cameright from Japanese high schools, this has led to theopening of many Preparations for Study Abroad (PSA)courses, throughout Japan. There can be two prob-lems with PSA courses. First, the classes may focuson English as a foreign language (EFL) and not em-phasize English for Special Purpose (ESP) skills. Sec-ond, because many high school guidance teachershave not lived or studied abroad, they may notknow how to advise their students. This paperwould like to provide some information about theproblems that some of these programs have in Ja-pan and why Japanese students do not always excelwhen they enter an overseas university.

Richard ShooltzTokyo Kasei University

Dirk YuricichFormer PSA Director

Selecting the StudentIntellectually, Japanese studentsare prepared for studying at a for-eign university. The Japan Times(1996) reported on a study donein 1995 by the International As-sociation for the Evaluation ofEducational Achievement whichshowed that out of 46 countriesworld wide Japanese studentsranked 3rd in math (with 605points, the world average was513) and 3rd in science (with 571points, the world average was516). This study shows that theeducation the students receive inJapan have prepared them quitewell when compared to the stu-dents in other countries. Butscores may be a poor indicator of

a student’s performance overseas; thus, when se-lecting a student for a PSA program, it is importantto choose someone who is highly motivated, whosees English as a tool to communicate ideas, andwho is willing to work hard at learning the neces-sary study skills needed to do well at a foreign uni-versity. Students should be asked how motivatedthey will be in having to attend class consistently,read hundreds of pages a week, take detailed notes,and contribute to class discussions. As Ballard(1996, p.155) has written:

Overseas students cling tenaciously to thelearning strategies that have worked so well forthem in the past. They assume that hard workcorrelates with success, and so if they do poorlyin an early test in a course they are prepared towork even longer hours to improve theirgrade—the problem is that they are working in

本国内で通う海外留学準備コース（PSA )で

ある。これらのコースは、海外の大学や短大

の厳しさに備えるためのものである。しか

し、これらの多くは、外国語としての英語教

育（EFL）向けであり、学生が本当に必要と

している大学・短大での授業に対応できる英

語（ESP/PSA)の訓練をしていない。このこ

とは、多くの学生が予測されることに何の準

備もしないで、海外の大学・短大で学び始め

ることを意味している。本論では、どのよう

な種類のESP/PSAプログラムを学生が探す

べきなのか、学生がプログラムを選択する際

に助言するには、教師はどのようなことを

知っておくべきなのかを論述する。


feature: shooltz

a reproductive rather than analytical style . . .[therefore] . . . their difficulties lie in the dis-junction of expectations about the styles oflearning that are required and the excuse ofpoor language competence merely glosses overthese more basic problems.

Choosing a PSA ProgramAfter a student has been selected, the next step is tofind an appropriate PSA program for them to enter.There are several aspects that should be consideredbefore a program is selected. First, teachers need tofind out whether the success-ful completion of the programallows the student to enter ajunior college or universitydirectly, or if students have toattend an English languageprogram. It is important thatthe PSA program helps thestudents develop the neces-sary TOEFL scores to allowthem to score a minimum of450 points, which is the bare minimum needed tobe allowed into a two-year junior college program ora minimum of 550 to 575 for a state four-year uni-versity. To accomplish this, a PSA program shouldhave connections with as few schools as possible.Some programs stress the fact that they have con-nections with many different colleges in several dif-ferent countries. The problem with such programs isthey do not provide a sound and specific curriculumthat helps the student develop the study skills theyneed. If a program attempts to state that it preparesa student for many colleges, it really is not prepar-ing a student properly for any college. In Japan, justas the entrance exam to each university is slightlydifferent so to are the requirements for colleges ineach state or prefecture in various countries. Thegoal of a PSA program should be to prepare the stu-dent in a year’s time to be able to enter the foreigncollege as a regular student and not to have to at-tend further English classes at a foreign college’sEnglish language center in order to meet thecollege’s requirements.

To check on the success of the program, a teachershould ask to see the success rate of former gradu-ates from past PSA programs: How many studentsare able to enter directly into a college and howmany need to enter EFL classes before they can pro-ceed? Also, teachers should check on the number ofJapanese students who have graduated from theforeign universities, and how long getting a degreehas taken them. Each student is different, but a jun-ior college student normally takes two to three yearsto graduate. If it is taking longer, then perhaps thestudents are not being prepared properly beforethey arrive at the college.

Finally, a good PSA program should follow up onthe students after they graduate to see what type ofjobs the students are getting or if they are pursuingfurther education. This is the real mark of a good PSAprogram—do they follow the students from the timethey enter the PSA program until they graduate andcontinue their careers? Only by getting feedback fromthe students can a PSA program improve the coursesit offers. Also, any PSA program that is unable to pro-vide the above information may indicate that it isonly in business to make money and not developingthe academic skills the students need to excel at an

overseas university or college.Having connections with

as few schools as possibleallows a PSA program to de-velop courses that will trans-fer to the foreign college.Programs that know the for-eign college requirementscan set up courses in Japanthat will then transfer to theforeign college and help theJapanese student graduate

perhaps six months to one year ahead of time. It isimportant that the teacher checks to make sure thatthe transfer credits apply directly to college gradua-tion and are not being transferred to the EFL pro-gram since this will not help the student to graduateearly. In order that the students receive the properinstruction to get the credits they need, the majorityof teachers involved in the PSA program shouldhave a Master’s or other advanced degrees. For classcredits to transfer, colleges require that courses mustbe taught by teachers who have, at least, a Master’sDegree in the subject area.

A Proper PSA CurriculumWhen a teacher is looking for a course for the stu-dent to join, the most important aspect is the cur-riculum. However, this can be difficult to evaluatebecause most teachers in Japan have not studiedoverseas so they may be prone to choose a programwhich is more EFL oriented instead of more ESP aca-demically oriented. Teachers should remember thatthe student going overseas not only needs to learnEnglish but also to develop different study skills sothey can compete with the other students in theclass. Ballard (see Table 1) points out the differencesbetween a good EFL program and the kind of aca-demic program a PSA student needs in order to de-velop the skills necessary to excel at a foreignuniversity or junior college.

ListeningSince university teachers convey most of their infor-mation through lectures, a student’s listening com-prehension is extremely important. Even taping and

“the student going overseas. . . needs to . . . develop

different study skills so theycan compete with the other

students in the class”

December 2000 23

feature: shooltz

listening to lectures again becomes difficult if a stu-dent is taking three or four courses a week. A PSAcourse needs to teach students how to recognizeimportant issues and avoid becoming concernedwith understanding every single detail of a lecture.The course should also incorporate a note-takingclass in conjunction with a listening program, usingtapes that are academically oriented to give the stu-dents plenty of practice in learning their note-tak-ing skills. Unlike Japanese schools, foreignuniversity professors only write a small part of theirlectures on the board, so it is imperative that thestudent be able to listen and identify the importantconcepts being talked about and not wait for themto be put on the board.

SpeakingA PSA student will be expected to express theiropinions about what has been covered in the lec-tures and to relate this to the reading assignments.A student is expected to move beyond phrases like“It is interesting” or “I think so too” and to statetheir opinion as well as to explain their reasoning. Agood PSA program should help students to debateand disagree with others. While this may be a chal-

lenge for many Japanese students,offering effective criticism in aclass discussion reinforces thetenet that students can learn fromeach other. Also, student partici-pation can be an integral part of astudent’s grade.

Because a professor might ask aforeign student to explain thesituation in their country, a goodPSA speaking program should alsohelp the student to develop goodoral presentation skills. Havingstudents give two- or three-minute speeches in class, particu-larly developing effective causeand effect arguments, will helpbuild their confidence in publicspeaking.

ReadingBamford (1993, p. 63) has ob-served, “that Japanese studentshave been trained to use a singlestrategy for dealing with unfamil-iar written language: transpose itword-for-word into Japanese.”This method slows a student’sreading speed down so muchthat it could take 30 or 40 min-utes to read a single page. Since aforeign university will often havestudents reading 30 or 40 pages a

Table 1. Contrasting Aims of Language and Academic Classes

Mode: Language class aims: Academic class aims:

Listening: total comprehension selective of content

capacity to “store” whole text selective “storage”/note-taking

attention to discrete language critical responsive-ness to content

features, e.g. pronunciation and sentence construction

Speaking: production of accurate sentences expression of com-plex ideas

accurate pronunciation and raising relevant questions/criticisms

intonation

Reading: generation of correct linguistic development of ideasstructures

manipulation of appropriate command of appro-registers priate style of

argument

Writing: generation of correct linguistic development of ideasstructures

manipulation of appropriate command of appro-registers priate style of

argument

Note: Ballard (1996, p.156)

day in addition to writing several essays summariz-ing what they have read, it is clear that a PSAcourse needs to move students away from thisword-to-word technique to a skim and scanmethod that focuses on the main ideas of the story.For example, a program can begin with shorternewspaper type stories so the students can developtheir vocabulary along with developing their scan-ning and speed-reading techniques. At the sametime, students should be encouraged to presentsummaries of their readings and compare themwith others. Teachers can then help students todevelop and support their own opinions.

Locating resource material in a library is anotherimportant aspect a PSA program should cover; stu-dents should learn how to access data in electronicformats and to find information in relevant journalsand books. This is another reason why a good PSAprogram should be connected to as few colleges aspossible: Information about the library, for example,can be given along with maps and brochures.

WritingFor many subjects, students will need to write well.This skill is often overlooked in secondary educa-


December 2000 25

feature: shooltz

tion because of the Japanese university exam, whichis comprised of multiple choice and short answerquestions. Thus, students may never write long es-says in Japanese, let alone in English. In fact, theonly time a Japanese student writes any kind of re-search paper will be for a university seminar class,usually in their senior year. Therefore, a final goal ofPSA program should include an eight to ten-pagetyped research paper with corresponding footnotesand bibliography. The writing program should becentered around a process writing style that takesthe student from choosing a proper idea, to outlin-ing their papers, writing a first draft, editing the firstdraft, and then rewriting the first draft into an im-proved second draft to be submitted for a grade.Emphasis should be placed on having students writein their own words, properly citing any informa-tion. At a foreign university, plagiarism is consid-ered a serious offense, so students need to bereminded of this and taught the importance of do-ing their own work. Kenner (2000, p.26), the courseleader of the European Commercial Law Depart-ment at the University of Leicester, writes a studentcaught plagiarizing will in the worse cases, be ex-pelled from the university. This is a policy at all uni-versities and junior colleges, wherever a studentmay attend.

A writing course should also help prepare studentsfor essay tests that are sometimes given at foreignuniversities. Most social science courses have essaytests in which the student may have one or twohours to choose three or four topics and then writea two or three-page essay about each topic. There-fore, students need to be taught how to quickly ana-lyze the topic, generate an outline, and then writetheir essay, drawing information from their notesand the outside readings. A PSA program shouldgradually develop such skills so that they are able towrite two good essays in a 60-minute period.

Cultural AwarenessBesides the importance of academic preparation, aPSA program should review the social customs andmorals of the target country; this will solve manycross-cultural problems that can arise in livingabroad. Teachers need to discuss serious issues likeemergencies (dealing with the police, fire depart-ment or going to the hospital) along with problemssuch as unfriendly roommates, and unhelpful pro-fessors. It is important that the student knowswhere to turn, so they are not left to suffer in si-lence, but can get the most out of their education ata foreign university.

ConclusionWith more students wishing to go overseas to study,it is important that teachers know more about PSAprograms to provide an in-depth orientation so that

students can make an informed choice. The transi-tion from a Japanese high school to a foreign uni-versity or junior college can be difficult if thestudent is not well prepared. Thus, any school thatis unable to describe its courses or provide informa-tion on the students is one to avoid. Since the stu-dents will be investing a lot of time and money inthis program, it is important that they get theirmoney’s worth out of it. In short, these generalguidelines will help high school teachers to find anappropriate PSA course for their students to pursue.After all, there is nothing more disappointing thanfor someone to spend their time, money, and en-ergy in a program that does not properly preparethem to fulfill their dreams. The better a teacher isprepared to help their students, the better choicesthe students will make for their future.

Richard Shooltz is a lecturer at Tokyo Kasei University,teaching oral communication and reading. He has alsotaught oral communication in a PSA program that sentstudents to study in America. <[email protected]>

Dirk Yuricich was the designer and director of a PSA pro-gram for eight years in Tokyo. He taught university studyskills, cross-cultural relations, English conversation andlistening comprehension for twelve years in Japan andAustria. Presently, he works as a freelance photographer-writer in the United States. <[email protected]>

ReferencesBallard, B. (1996). Through Language to Learning: Preparing

Overseas Students for Study in Western Universities. In H.Coleman, (Ed.). Society and the Language Classroom. Cam-bridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bamford, J. (1993). Beyond Grammar Translation: TeachingStudents to Really Read. In P. Wadden, (Ed), London: Ox-ford University Press.

Wasted Talent. (1997, April, 20). Japan Times. p.14.Students Here Excel in Areas They Hate. (1996, November

21). Japan Times. p.2.Kenner, J. (2000). Postgraduate Student Handbook 2000-

2002, University of Leicester Press, September 2000.

PAC3 at JALT2001Don’t forget!!

The deadline for presentationsubmissions is

January 15, 2001<www.jalt.org/jalt2001/submissions>


December 2000 27

Special Report on Korea TESOL2000

Report

Korea TESOL2000 was held this year from Sep-tember 30 to October 1st at Kyoungbuk Na-

tional University in Taegu City, located approxi-mately half way between Seoul and Pusan in SouthKorea. The conference theme was Casting the Net:Diversity in Language and Learning.

It was a friendly, exciting conference with about750 teachers in attendance. It was presided over byKorea’s Outgoing President Han SangHo, ConferenceChair and Incoming President Andrew Finch andProgramme Chair Kirsten Reitan. Our very own JaneHoelker, Korea TESOL International Liaison Chair,was present, and another very pleasant surprise wasseeing Jill Robbins, JALT99 Conference ProgrammeChair, who wishes you all well and looks forward toseeing you at JALT2000. Internationally renownedplenary speakers included Dr. Richard Allwright (ofthe University of Lancaster, who spoke at JALT98),Dr. Leo Van Lier (of Monterey Institute of Interna-tional Studies in California) and a special workshopwas lead by Dr. Andy Curtis (who spoke at JALT99and is now studying and writing in Ontario, Canada).Other dignitaries included Utebayeva Zaira from theKazakhstan Institute of Management and her col-league Larissa Akihanova, an expert in Business En-glish from Soros Language School in Kazakhstan.Galina Nickolaevna Lovtsevitch, the President of EastRussian TESOL was there as well, and we hope thatthis will be the beginning of a deepening relationshipbetween our three countries (as you may know, agroup of JALTers, including Bill Balsamo and others,attended the East Russian conference last June).

The KoreaTESOL president referred to PAC3 andJALT and gave a glowing report before a packed ple-nary. During the conference, David McMurray, JALTNational Treasurer and JALT2001 ConferenceProgramme Chair, and I (as JALT representative) werehard at work contacting all our PAC (Pan Asian Con-sortium) supporters to invite them to the PAC3 andJALT2001 planning meetings in Shizuoka, as well asupdating them about our conferences and encourag-ing them to attend the next combined event inKitakyushu. PAC includes such national organiza-tions as ThaiTESOL, ETA ROC (Taiwan), KoreaTESOL,and JALT, and receives support from TESOL Interna-tional, IATEFL and TESL Canada. OutgoingKoreaTESOL President Han SangHo and KoreaTESOLPublications Chair Robert Dickey are giving a jointpresentation at JALT2001, and we worked with themon such programming details as brainstorming anappropriate title for their presentation. DavidMcMurray and I did lots of networking: making con-tacts, and discussing issues with professionals fromaround the world (some of whom are mentionedabove), and JALT was on the lips of the main speakersand was referred to at the opening ceremony and

other meetings. At least 20 JALT members werepresent and highly visible at KoreaTESOL, for manywere presenting. I took over JALT material, (thanksJunko Fujio, JALT Central Office Supervisor for pre-paring this) and there was a JALT table, along with aCUE SIG and an AYF table to represent JALT well.

The PAC3/JALT2001 meeting got positive reac-tions from attendees: David announced that ChrisCandlin and Anne Burns are doing a joint plenary.He pointed out that 25-minute slots are beingplanned for JALT2001 in the hope that more pre-senters will be able to give a paper (and thus, morepaying attendees). It was also appreciated when itwas pointed out that JALT2001 Programming isbusy searching for low cost accommodation for ourattendees outside of Japan. Kip Cates, with his tal-ent for reaching out to people and getting thementhusiastic about his ideas on globalization, wasthere to chair the Asian Youth Forum meeting.

David and I were invited to several receptions andlunches, and each was a great opportunity to do a lotof building bridges between countries, and boost theimage of JALT. The Call for Papers for JALT2001 wasincluded in the conference handbag and the hand-book contained a one-page announcement on PAC3in Kitakyushu with encouragement to apply topresent before January 15, 2001, plus another fullpage in the PAC Journal and encouragement to sub-mit academic papers before November 30, 2000.

Social activities at the conference included a cock-tail party on the first night for international guestsand the conference organizing committees hostedby Hakmun Publishing and their President KimYoung-Chul greeted visitors with Banner Japan andtheir Director, Trevor Reynolds and Manager ChrisLovering. On the second night of the conference,there were Korean traditional music concerts orga-nized by the Kyungpook University Department ofMusic and tasty Korean food to enjoy around town.

Both David and I wish to congratulateKoreaTESOL for a job well done. We especially wantto thank our partner organization for the unfailingcourtesy and kindness they extended to us duringthe conference. We hope that you will consider at-tending the next KoreaTESOL conference (to beheld the first weekend in October in Seoul nextyear) to discover for yourselves Korean conferencehospitality, good academic presentations, and inter-esting travel in another land.

This report has been about KoreaTESOL, but it isalso about PAC3 at JALT2001, now being preparedfor you. We encourage you to mark the dates No-vember 22-25, 2001 in Kitakyushu on your calendarright now. Please join us there.

Reported by Joyce CunninghamJALT National Programme Chair


edited by joyce cunningham & miyao mariko

In this month's issue, a very special, useful service *The Writer's Peer Support Group* is described, and a warm invi-tation to all is extended to take advantage of this service. As always, the coeditors encourage Chapters and SIGs tosubmit 800-word reports to this column in English, Japanese, or a combination of both.

Celebrating Collaboration: The Writer's Peer Support GroupWilma Luth & Andrew Obermeier*

*Authors' note: This text is the collaborative reading andwriting of Andy Barfield, Wayne Johnson, Wilma Luth,Andrew Obermeier, Jill Robbins, and Craig Sower.

Now nearing its first birthday, The Writers' PeerSupport Group (PSG) has become a vibrant dimen-sion of The Language Teacher (TLT)'s editorial pro-cess. Whereas TLT's Column Editors and EditorialAdvisory Board are charged with deciding what ar-ticles will be included in each issue, the PSG servesonly to help writers revise and improve their draftsprior to submission. We are a pre-publication writ-ers' workshop and can be contacted directly byemail at <[email protected]>.

Inquiries are welcome at any stage of the writingprocess. The PSG has been con-tacted by some writers with justa germ of an idea. Knowing howthe PSG could assist them gavethem the impetus to start writ-ing. First contact with otherwriters has included receivingtheir complete drafts with the

request for help in improving them.

Some Frequently Asked QuestionsQuestion: What kind of support can I expect from

the PSG?Answer: We aim to help writers further their drafts

by providing each writer with two empatheticreading responders who are committed to work-ing through several drafts if the writer feels itnecessary.

Question: How do I contact the PSG?Answer: Email us at <[email protected]>.Question: How should I send attachments to the

PSG? Answer: Send your paper as an attachment in “rtf”

format.Question: My paper is on a topic that is relatively

obscure. Will the PSG be able to help me? Answer: The research interests of PSG members

cover a wide range, and we try as much as pos-sible to match writers with readers familiar withtheir topic.

The Practice of Peer SupportWhen Andy Barfield, the PSG coordinator, receivesa paper, he sends a query to the group list to see

which two readers will volunteer to work with theauthor. The prime goal is for each author-reader-reader triad to create a dynamic discussion aroundthe draft in progress. The readers read the draft sepa-rately, exchange comments on the content, andthen prepare and send a response to the writer. Thewriter revises and sends the draft back to the read-ers. The process continues until the writer is satis-fied and ready to submit the article for publication.

To a writer contributing to PSG, we act not aseditors or teachers, but as peers. We do our best todevelop a sense of trust between the writer andreader. Our aim is to help writers improve theirdrafts through a careful process of reading, re-sponding, and revising. The following are key ques-tions on our side: How could this be clearer? Hasthe writer remembered to address the intended au-dience? Do we need more background informa-tion?

In practice, a reader's response might look like this:

[Reader's name: I can see how this drama activ-ity fosters risk-taking in the moment. How doesit encourage taking risks at other times in class?In what way do you notice that students' pro-nunciation improves because of it? How oftenwould you suggest using this activity in class?How does it help katakana pronunciation? Ithink that, by including answers to some ofthese questions in your description, you couldbroaden the appeal of the activity. Good luckand please let us know if you have any ques-tions or comments!]

We believe that this kind of comment demonstratesgreat respect for the voice of the author. The authorhas been asked questions around his/her text andrevisions are entirely up to the writer.

There is a fine line between being supportive andbeing critical. If we are too supportive, we can offerthe writer very little input for a revision. If we are toocritical, we will discourage. The members of the PSGare all familiar with the joys and frustrations of at-tempting to express ourselves clearly and succinctlyin writing. We also know firsthand the benefits ofhaving our writing responded to by a thoughtful andsensitive reader. It is these dual experiences that wewill keep foremost in our minds when we respond toyour draft. So, when can we expect your paper?

Working Together!

A Chapter in Your Life



December 2000 33

edited by scott gardner and oishi harumiMy Share

Building Schema in a Reading ClassYuka Homan, Musashi Institute of Technology

Schema theory asserts that background knowledgefacilitates reading comprehension for languagelearners. This article introduces an activity in a read-ing course which is designed to take advantage ofstudents’ background knowledge, and eventuallylead to reading fluency.

In a Current Affairs English reading course that Iteach at a university, one of the major purposes is todraw the students’ attention to domestic and inter-national affairs by reading English newspapers. Un-fortunately, after experiencing less than satisfyingresults in past courses, I realized that it was not easyto use the students’ schema in reading comprehen-sion because most students did not have a solidbackground about current issues in the first place. Infact, in questionnaires about their reading habits,more than 90% of my students answered that theynever read Japanese newspapers on a daily basis, letalone English newspapers. Nation (1990) indicatesthat if learners read about familiar topics, they willcope with unknown words in context easily. How-ever, when they encounter unknown low frequencyvocabulary in a newspaper article, lack of schemaprevents them from skipping over these unknownwords to grasp the meaning of the text. This articleintroduces a schema-building exercise in which thestudents acquire the background knowledge deliber-ately, both inside and outside the classroom.

Reading MaterialNewspapers are the major material source in thisactivity. The most significant requirements of read-ing material are timeliness and authenticity. If thematerial is up-to-date, the students are likely to beinterested, because the topic is authentic both inand out of the classroom. When the students hap-pen to watch a Japanese TV program related to atopic that they are learning in class, they will paymore attention to it. Then, once they understandthe general issues of the topic, they may becomestimulated by their curiosity to learn more in En-glish about more profound aspects such as culture,religion, and history. Thus, this development of thestudents’ interests and motivation to learn aboutcurrent topics is important in the process of over-coming their lack of background knowledge.

The English written texts I use are extracted fromthe Daily Yomiuri and the Asahi Evening News, whichare issued from major Japanese newspaper compa-nies, the Asahi Shimbun and the Yomiuri Shimbun.Since many of the articles in these English language

papers are basically identical tothe Japanese originals, they areeasier to read when the studentsuse their background knowledge

than other international newspapers issued abroad.Editorials, especially, can become useful materialsfor this particular activity because the English ver-sion of an editorial is often directly translated fromthe original Japanese version.

ProcedureStep 1: Teacher’s explanation of the exercise (15-20 min)

The teacher should make sure the students under-stand that the aim is to build new schemata aboutcurrent topics both in Japanese and English. Thus,the students are expected to read and watch thenews in Japanese outside the classroom before theycome to class in order to perform the activity well inthe classroom. It is very important for the studentsto understand the procedure clearly at this stage.

Step 2: Pre-reading—guessing words from context inJapanese text (15 min)The entire class receives a written Japanese text froma Japanese newspaper. The text includes about tencloze blanks. The students individually fill in theJapanese meanings they think appropriate. After 15minutes, the class forms pairs to compare their an-swers. Then, the teacher randomly calls upon somestudents to give the results of their guesses.

Step 3: Reading 1—guessing words from context in Japa-nese/English text (15 min)After they have a solid basis of knowledge in the par-ticular topic, the students receive a Japanese text, thistime with English key words in terms of context andvocabulary frequency. The article is different from theprevious reading but shares the same topic. The stu-dents individually guess these English words in con-text, and compare answers in pairs. Then, the teachercalls upon some students to give their answers.

Step 4: Reading 2—guessing words from context in En-glish text (15-20 min)The students receive an English text similar to theJapanese one that they used in the previous reading.The students individually fill in the missing targetwords. The first letter of the target word may be in-dicated for the students to guess more easily. Afterten minutes, the students compare with their part-ners, then the teacher checks their guesses by call-ing upon some students to give their answers.

Benefits of the ActivityThis activity is characterized as providing studentswith background knowledge in Japanese beforestudying a topic in English. Furthermore, different


my share

texts with the same topic enable the students tohave opportunities not only to understand the con-text but also to experience repetitions of the samevocabulary. As Nation (1990) emphasizes “repeti-tion and attention” of words for vocabulary learn-ing, this schema-building activity helps toencourage vocabulary development.

Other effects of this activity are a sense ofachievement and confidence that most students willhave by the end of the course. The students’ accom-plishments will encourage them to learn aboutother world issues, which will inspire the learners’motivation to learn English. It is undeniable thatthis activity definitely requires time and effort for

Intercultural Communication Aspect into Read-ing Materials for Japanese students of English

Mayumi Okada

It seems that for Japanese learners an “internationalorientation” influences their success in learning En-glish. Therefore I picked up the essays having theaspect of intercultural communication as the read-ing material in the class. The reading material Ipicked up is “on the key board” in Asahi Weekly.The unique point of it is that all the writers of theessays live in Japan, but they have had the experi-ences of living in many other countries, and all ofthem seem like "multicultural men" (Adler, 1994) tome. I usually ask the students to read the materielbefore the lessons and write their answers to thequestions, which I gave them beforehand. I usuallygive three questions. Two of them are concerningthe content of the essays, and the other is the ques-tion, which will make the students think about thedifferences between Japanese and foreign culturesand the reasons why there occurred differences be-tween them. In the class they will have discussionsbased on the answers they had written down. Dis-cussion is the good way to improve their speakingand listening ability, and also because of the con-tents of the reading material it will enhance theirmotivation as well. This lesson plan will not onlygive Japanese students the chance to practice speak-ing in English but also widen their view to becomeinternational citizens and enhance their motivationof learning English.

日本人の英語学習者には、"International Orientation"が、英語

学習の動機として大きな影響を与えると考えられる。それゆえ、学

校の通常のReadingの授業にIntercultural Communication（異文

化間コミュニケーション）についての内容を折り込んではどうだろ

うか。私が、今回とりあげる方法は、異文化間コミュニケーション

both students and teacher. However, the gains instudents’ knowledge of current affairs and of read-ing skills make it worthwhile.

ReferencesNation, P. (1990). Teaching & learning vocabulary. New

York: Newbury House.

Quick GuideKey Words: Schema, Motivation, Vocabulary

Learner English Level: IntermediateLearner Maturity Level: Adult

Preparation Time: Approximately 60-90 minutesActivity Time: Two class meetings

に最も重点をおいている。生徒が異文化に対

する柔軟性を高め多様な視点を持てるよう、

異文化についての知識を得たり、自国の文化

と比較したり分析する事を重視している。

使用する教材は、Asahi Weeklyの "on the

keyboard" である。なぜこの教材が望ましいのかというと、書い

ている人の国籍が多様であり（オーストラリア、イギリス、イン

ド、アメリカ、ニュージーランド等）、日本人とは違った視点を

持ってはいるが、自民族中心主義的な考えをもっている人がいない

事が挙げられる。また、全員日本にその時点で住んでいる人である

が、それまでに多くの国で生活しいろいろな経験をした人が多く、

日本を見る見方もユニークで、彼等の意見を聞いて日本という国に

ついても、より深く考える機会を与えてくれる。Reading教材とし

ての難易度は、高校生以上の中級者以上にはちょうどよく、難解な

単語も少ない。また、日本のお花見や、ロンドンの地下鉄といった

身近な内容が多く分かりやすい。注に、日本語の意味も添えてくれ

ているので、英語が得意でない人にも、とりかかりやすいのではな

いだろうか。長さも、約250wordsで、読みやすい。

それでは、実際にどのようにして、授業を行っているか次に説明

しよう。私は、毎週readingの宿題として、この"on the keyboard"

を授業の前に生徒に読ませ、その内容の理解をはかる質問を２つ

と、もう一つ自分の意見を考えたり述べたりする質問に対する答え

をノートに書いてくるように指示している。　例えば、1999年５

月10日号の"on the Keyboard"では、インド人Smitha Mallyaさ

んのエッセイをよんだ後、次のような質問に答える事を、宿題とし

て与えた。（意見を述べさせる質問だけ抜粋）

What do you think makes a difference between thecareer opportunities of Japanese women and thoseof Indian women?

この質問を出したのは、エッセイの中で、以下のような文があっ

たからである。

. . . Coming from such a background, it is verydisappointing to see that women in Japan havehardly any opportunities to rise to the top in mostareas. Even graduates of top universities often endup serving tea and making photo copies while their

December 2000 35

male counterparts chalk out challenging careers forthemselves.Although many companies offer the so-called "ca-reer-track" for women, the fact remains that thesewomen rarely quite make it to positions of realpower in the company. While it is extremely unfairto women, it is also a serious loss for society at largeif the true potential of these women is not utilizedto its fullest capacity.

�� !"#$%&'()*+,-./01234'56789�� !"#$%&�'("!$)%*&+,-./ !"+01�� !"#$%&"'()*+

Really I don't know. Maybe the top of the mostcompanies in Japan are men. They don't like thewomen become the top of the men. Now the situa-tion is changing, because many people know thatall men on the top in Japan are not able.

�� !"#$%&'()*+,-�.

In India the number of the students with high aca-demic background may not be so many. In such asituation society needs women's ability, I think.

この授業の後、日本の男尊女卑の体質についての意見や、日本が

どう変わっていけばいいかという考え方、インド社会のどんな点が

良いかなどについていろいろな話し合い（discussion)を行った。私

の行っている授業は、少人数の授業であるが、discussionの時大切

にしている事は、正しい答えは何かということを探したり、自分が

正しいのだと相手を説得することを目的としないことである。一つ

の出来事に対して、いろいろな見方があるという事を知り、自由に

意見を出し合い、相手の言おうとしている事を理解できるまで話し

合うということを一番の目標に置いている。初級者、中級者にとっ

ては、自分の意見が攻撃されるというような不安感をいだくことが

少なく、その方が話しやすいのではないだろうか。また、指導上気

をつけていることは、このエッセイストが、この国の代表者ではな

く、あくまで、ある外国出身のひとりの人という扱いをする事であ

る。ある国の人に対するステレオタイプを生徒に与えてはいけない

と考えているからである。この時の授業で、生徒からは、「記事を

読んで、初めてインドの女性の社会進出についてよくわかった。イ

ンドに対するイメージが変わった」という意見が聞かれた。

さて、もし、この方法を20～30人のクラスで行うのであれば、

クラスを４人から５人のグループに分け、質問に対する答えをグ

ループ内で話し合うという方法がよい。そして、授業の最後10分く

らいを使って、グループでどのような答えが出たか、グループのひ

とりの人にまとめて発表してもらう。その発表者は未然に決めてお

くのではなく、その場で決定した方が、discussionで、みんなが真

剣に取り組むであろう。最後に発表するために、他の生徒の話もよ

く聞かなくてはならないので、このdiscussionは、listeningの力を

向上させるのにも、コミュニケーションスキルを身につけるために

も、役立つ。また、もし、時間があまれば、そのグループごとの発

表を聞いて感じたことなどを、クラス全員で話し合うのもよい。

私は、何人かの生徒に対してこの授業をもう４年位続けている。

担当した生徒は、このエッセイの内容が非常におもしろいので、

readingは得意ではないが、毎週どんな事が書いてあるのか楽しみ

で止められないと言っている。また、柔軟性のある考え方を知るこ

とが出来た事や、日本に暮らす外国の人々のいきいきとした生き方

が自分の人生観を変えたかもしれないという生徒もいる。彼女は、

始めたころは、中学校３年生位の語彙レベルであったが、今では、

このエッセイを一度読むぐらいで、大体理解できる程の力がつい

た。そのうえ、いろいろな国の人が書いているので、出身国ごとに

文体が多少違うということにも気付いたと述べている。また、討論

の際にも、いろいろなスキルを使って参加できるようになった。

英語はコミュニケーションの道具であると言われている。英文で

書かれた内容を読み取るために英語を勉強し、また、それについ

て自分の意見を述べるために勉強するというのは、まさしく英語

をコミュニケーションの道具だと考えた授業である。また、異文

化コミュニケーションというと、つい各国の服そうや食事、時間

や空間についての感覚の違いなどを想像しがちであるが、この教

材には、それだけではカバーできないような、intercultural com-

munication（異文化間コミュニケーション）について考える内容

がふんだんに折り込まれている。このような教材をただ読むだけ

ではなく、それを自分たちの生活と比較したり分析したりする事

で、異文化に対する多様な視点を持つ事ができるようになる。今

後の英語教育には、そのような事を目標に置くことも必要ではな

いだろうか。



January 15, 2001

<www.jalt.org/jalt2001/submissions>

参考文献

Asahi Weeky (May 10th, 1999 edition).

Quick GuideKey Words: Reading material, intercultural communica-

tion, discussionLearner English: Intermediate and up

Learner Maturity Level: High school to AdultPreparation Time: One hourActivity Time: 40-60 minutes

my share


December 2000 37

Off the Pressesedited by malcolm swanson

Thomson LearningOff the Presses offers readers a glimpse into what is happening in the world of our publishingcolleagues. This month we feature an article by John Lowe of Thomson Learning. For furtherinquiries about this column, please contact <[email protected]>.

I am delighted that Thomson Learning is thefeatured publisher in this month's Off the Presses

column, and would like to thank The LanguageTeacher for providing us with this opportunity totell you something about our company. In thisshort feature I would also like to mention some ofour new materials, their underpinning pedagogy,and explain how we hope to build partnershipswith educators across Japan.

Thomson Learning, part of the Thomson Corpo-ration, is one of the world's leading providers oflifelong learning information, with educationalcontent delivered both through published textsand also online through the Internet. Boston-basedHeinle & Heinle (which incorporates NewburyHouse) serves as our principal ELT materials devel-opment center, and maintains a strong editorialpresence in Asia.

Thomson Learning is currently the second big-gest educational college publisher in the UnitedStates, and has considerable authorial and editorialexpertise. In the last year Thomson Learning hasdecided to focus this expertise more on ELT pub-lishing and launched a major initiative, which willprovide teachers and learners with exciting newmaterials, and will lead to new developments inour field.

The first of these new materials is the three levelseries Expressions written by David Nunan, theworld-renowned theorist and course book writer,and one of Thomson's outstanding lineup of emi-nent figures in the language teaching field. Thecentral unifying concept behind the series is that ofmeaningful English communication and the seriesitself is built around meaningful communicationtasks. Expressions is specifically designed to pro-vide learners with Professor Nunan's vision of thethree essential elements to success in learning aforeign language. The first of these is access to lan-guage data, that is samples of spoken and writtenlanguage. The second is information about the lan-guage and the culture, as well as information aboutlearning processes. The third is providing opportu-nities for learners to practice the target language.

Other new titles include the Tapestry series(Rebecca Oxford), a 12-book integrated curriculum,ranging from low intermediate to advanced andcovering all four skills. An exciting feature of thisseries is the accompanying CNN videos, whichcontain authentic broadcast extracts related to top-ics in the units. Diane Larsen-Freeman is the series

editor for the new platinum edition of the best sell-ing four-level grammar series, Grammar Dimen-sions, which takes a more communicativeapproach to grammar than usually found in "tradi-tional" grammar texts. Bruce Rogers has written anew Complete Guide to the TOEFL CBT editionwith CD-ROM, which provides electronic practicethrough tutorials, TOEFL exercise types and a testbank of TOEFL questions. These are just a few ofthe titles we are able to offer in a range of skillsacross the ELT spectrum.

In Japan we now have six ELT staff, with morethan 30 years of Japan teaching experience, and weare always delighted to arrange visits, workshops,or book displays at your institutions. We also inviteand sponsor key authors to give presentations inJapan, and are sometimes able to arrange specialvisits for such authors to give workshops at yourschool or college.

Publishing quality ELT materials such as the titlesabove involves a continual dialogue between edu-cators and publishers, and your comments andideas help us prepare materials that are suitable foryour classrooms. For this reason, and because ofthe many publishing projects we are working on,we are setting up reviewer groups and are currentlyseeking members. Again, please contact us for moredetails.

As a result of our ELT expansion, we are also ac-tively seeking potential authors for workbooks,teacher's guides and textbooks. Please contact us orvisit our websites for more information:

Thomson Learning, Brooks Bldg. 3F, 1-4-1Kudankita, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0073Tel: (03) 3511-4390; fax: (03) 3511-4391<[email protected]><www.heinle.com><www.thomsonlearningasia.com>

Did you knowJALT offers research grants?

For details,contact the JALT Central Office.


Departments

Book Reviewsedited by katharine isbell and oda masaki

Words and Rules. Steven Pinker. New York: BasicBooks, 1999. pp. xi + 348. ¥4446. ISBN: 0-465-07269-0.

Following up on the success of The Language Instinct(1994), Steven Pinker narrows his focus in Wordsand Rules to dwell upon the seemingly dull inven-tory of English irregular verbs. The focus on irregu-lar verbs is an intriguing choice, and Pinker deftlyillustrates how this narrow focus reveals insightsinto the formal properties of the mind.

There is clearly no TESOL influence in this work,but this is precisely why it is of interest to EFLteachers. We are likely to find a new appreciation ofthe role that irregularity has in language learning.Examine any short sample of spoken or written En-glish and count how frequently irregular verb formsappear. It becomes apparent that if a learner doesnot have these forms readily available, basic com-prehension and production will be seriously handi-capped. Prevailing wisdom tells us that these can beacquired through communicative tasks, but Pinkersuggests that something more is needed.

He argues that desire to communicate is not thedriving force of language acquisition. Communica-tion is certainly a motivating factor in languagelearning, but the act of communicating does not initself drive acquisition. Pinker cites children’s errorssuch as cutted and setted (p. 194) that are less am-biguous, and thus more communicative, than thecorrect forms.

Pinker proposes an innate mechanism that allowsmemorized irregularities to block the application ofpreviously acquired rules. Children stop sayingputted because they rapidly notice the use of put inpast tense contexts. Pinker would not likely agreethat this is unconscious learning since it is impos-sible to qualify such mental processes. He would saythat this learning is an effect of the rapid neuraldevelopment that occurs before puberty, and teach-ers should be wary not to hinder it in children orexpect to find as much of it in adults. The implica-tion is that for adult learners drill and memorizationtricks play a significant role in the path toward com-municative competence.

Pinker explains that it is precisely because theirregular forms are the most frequent that they areirregular. Witness the many irregular forms, fadingin frequency, that give pause to native speakers.Should it be strived or strove? Again, there are impli-cations here for teaching: the exceptions to rules,because of their high frequency, are perhaps more

important than the rules, which are actually justdefault systems for unfamiliar entities.

The irregular/regular dichotomy becomes a pow-erful tool for understanding how the mind works.The focus on irregular verbs and the English pasttense rule turns out to be the perfect case study totest the debate between rationalism and empiricism.Is the mind a blank slate, or is it packed with innatestructure? Irregular forms held in memory are fam-ily resemblance categories, learned by experienceand association (support for rationalism), and theycan block the application of a rule so that we don’tsay goed. Grammatical rules, such as adding -ed toregular verbs, are classical categories (support forempiricism).

Pinker’s early work in L1 acquisition earned him atop spot in the field at MIT, but he has shined(shone?) brightest in his books written for wider audi-ences. He is a Renaissance man of pop culture, psy-chology, linguistics, and philosophy who excels inillustrating the polarized debates that rage inacademia with real-world examples. The present workwill appeal to anyone with an interest in language.

Reviewed by Dennis RichesTokyo University of Technology, Hachioji

East Meets West: Problems and Solutions: Under-standing Misunderstandings between JTEs andALTs. Todd Jay Leonard and Sutoh Utako. Tokyo:Taishukan, 1999. pp. 235. ¥2000. ISBN: 4-469-24446-5.

With East Meets West: Problems and Solutions, ToddJay Leonard offers another contribution to English-Japanese bilingual discourse. This new tome, an ex-tension and a continuation of his previousTeam-Teaching Together, provides an amusing andentertaining look at the cultural and interpersonalfender-benders and even heavier collisions that oc-cur with regularity between native English-speakingAssistant Language Teachers (ALTs) and their Japa-nese counterparts. Like its predecessor, East MeetsWest is presented bilingually with Leonard’s Englishon the left-hand pages and an annotated translationby Sutoh Utako on the right, making the materialhighly accessible.

The value of this book lies not so much in its in-sights relative to language instruction, but in itsattempt to broaden and deepen communicationbetween Japanese English teachers and ALTs. Theintense level of activity and fast pace of life in sec-ondary schools can prohibit substantive dialog be-tween Japanese staff and the native English speakersemployed as ALTs. Discomfort with communicationin a foreign language among Japanese and the re-spect for privacy can also limit the range and depth

December 2000 39

book reviews

of discourse between ALTs and their hosts in theschools. East Meets West can possibly fill this gap.One of its short, Q&A-styled chapters can easily beperused and discussed during the morning tea break,post-lunch recess, or perhaps in the often-frenziedmoments between lessons. Leonard’s book may helpgive people more to say than hello and goodbye. Thetopical areas broached in the book are indeed onesthat likely would not come up otherwise—privacy,gossip, homosexuality, noisy foreigners, pervert su-pervisors, and others. Manga-like illustrations serveto support a generally comic, light-handed treat-ment of some delicate issues.

A more obvious use for the book is as a supple-mentary orientation manual for recently arrived JETProgram participants and the school personnel whowill work with them. Problems encountered on adaily basis both in and outside schools receive au-thoritative answers from former JET and longtimeJapan resident Leonard. Newly arrived JET partici-pants and others new to Japan might avoid a num-ber of almost predictable faux pas through a quickread of the short chapters.

For the curious JTE and other Japanese readers,the book contains glosses of idioms and not-so-com-mon lexis used by Leonard—for example, razzle-dazzle or an ALT who is full of himself—which ineffect make the book a language learning resourcefor students of English as well as a cross-culturalguide. What this book doesn’t offer, however, is aconsideration of the subtleties and complexities ofteam-teaching by Japanese English teachers andALTs. Only a fourth or so of the chapters treat class-room phenomena or nuts and bolts issues related tolanguage instruction. That, however, is clearly be-yond the scope of the book and, one suspects, is ofless interest to a commercial publisher likeTaishukan. For those who doubt the efficacy of JTE-ALT team-teaching, the author offers a strong testi-monial about the impact of native English-speakerson secondary students in an epilogue. Withoutdoubt, Leonard’s new book sheds light on numerousmysteries for Japanese and English speaking co-workers and is a valuable primer for those seeking toavoid cultural and interpersonal fender-benders.

Reviewed by William MathenyTokai City ALT

Oxford Picture Dictionary Japanese-English ver-sion. Norma Shapiro & Jayme Adelson-Goldstein.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. pp. 227.¥2290. ISBN: 0-19-435190-4.

Finally, after 20 years of teaching English in Japan, Ihave found a useful topic- and vocabulary-baseddictionary that should be mandatory material for allJapanese students studying the English language.

The bilingual English-Japanese Oxford Picture Dictio-nary is organized in an easy-to-understand formatdesigned to facilitate learning English vocabulary ata rapid, yet interesting and structured pace. Thewords and corresponding pictures are useful, direct,and right on target.

The Oxford Picture Dictionary illustrates and de-fines over 3700 words—not just nouns, but alsoverbs, adjectives, and prepositions—with extremelywell drawn, high-quality, color illustrations de-signed to engage students in a fun and challengingway. The A-4 sized dictionary is approximately 1/2inch (1 cm) thick, so carrying it around presents noproblem.

The age level of students using this dictionary canrange anywhere from 15-years-old on up. I use thisdictionary in my university classes and continuingeducation classes with equal amounts of success.Not only is the format very clear and easy to under-stand, but also the vocabulary is topically organizedinto 140 key topics, which are in turn grouped by12 themes. For example, under the theme food, thedictionary lists such topics as fruit, vegetables, meatand poultry, deli and seafood, the market, containersand packaged foods, weights and measures, food prepa-ration, kitchen utensils, fast food, a coffee shop menu,and a restaurant.

The dictionary comes with two sets of audiocas-settes. One set, the dictionary cassette (3 cassettes),is a recording of the over 3700 words in clear, easy-to-repeat American English. Female and male voicesalternate reading of the words by topic. This set isperfect for the language lab, enhancing both listen-ing and pronunciation practice, and thus enablingthe learner to study at his or her own pace. Theother audiocassette focuses on aural discrimination.

In addition to all this, there are also two work-books: Beginner and Intermediate. Each page is inhigh quality color, which helps to develop studentinterest, and corresponds directly to the 140 topicspresented in the student version of the Oxford PictureDictionary. The beginning workbook is at the wordlevel while the intermediate is aimed more towardsentence building. The workbooks lend themselves toindividual, pair, or group work and both can be usedfor speaking practice in class as well.

A teacher’s book includes the complete OxfordPicture Dictionary with wraparound notes, addedteaching strategies that actually work, and step-by-step lesson plans that the teacher can implementinto the classroom in a solid, professional manner.

The Oxford Picture Dictionary gives new meaningto the old adage, “If you don’t know the words, youcan’t speak the language.” I highly recommend thedictionary with its accompanying audiocassettesand workbooks as a supplementary textbook to helpstudents learn English vocabulary in a systematic,goal-oriented fashion. Another added advantage is


December 2000 41

book reviews/JALT news

that the dictionary can be taught by a teacher, usedas a complete self-study program, or a combinationof the two.

Reviewed by Lawrence KlepingerNagoya, Japan

Recently Receivedcompiled by angela ota

The following items are available for review. Over-seas reviewers are welcome. Reviewers of all class-room related books must test the materials in theclassroom. An asterisk indicates first notice. An ex-clamation mark indicates third and final notice. Allfinal notice items will be discarded after the 31st ofDecember. Please contact Publishers’ Reviews Cop-ies Liaison. Materials will be held for two weeks be-fore being sent to reviewers and when requested bymore than one reviewer will go to the reviewer withthe most expertise in the field. Please make refer-ence to qualifications when requesting materials.Publishers should send all materials for review, bothfor students (text and all peripherals) and for teach-ers, to Publishers’ Reviews Copies Liaison.

For Students

Course BooksWhat’s It Like? Life and Culture in Britain Today

(student’s, teacher’s, cassette). Collie, J., & Martin, A.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

JapaneseJapanese Beyond Words: How to Walk and Talk Like a

Native Speaker. Horvat, A. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press,2000.

Supplementary MaterialsClassroom Games and Activities. Kailani, T., & Al-Ansari,

H. Reading: Garnet Publishing Ltd., 2000.

Reading & Writing SkillsBetter Writing. Harrison, R. Reading: Garnet Publishing

Ltd., 2000.*Focusing on IELTS Reading and Writing Skills.

O’Sullivan, K., & Lindeck, J. Sydney: NCELTR, 2000.

For Teachers

Grammar for English Language Teachers: With exer-cises and a key. Parrott, M. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-versity Press, 2000.

JALT Newsedited by amy e. hawley

This month, this column appears to be short, but donot let the length deceive you. It is jam-packed fullof important news. First, we have an announcementfrom Gene van Troyer regarding the March 2001issue of The Language Teacher. TLT is becomingmore and more user friendly and I think that every-one will like what Mr. van Troyer has to report. Sec-ond, Peter Gray has the results of the JALT Nationalelection. A special thanks to Mr. Gray for all of hishard work on this past election. Also, a big con-gratulations to all of the newly elected and re-elected JALT National Directors.

Next month, I plan to feature some reports fromthe JALT 2000 Conference at Granship in Shizuokawhich took place last month. Be sure to check itout. Also, throughout 2001, feel free to send me anyshort articles, announcements, stories, etc. that youmay feel the rest of the JALT world could benefitfrom knowing. Thank you all for a great first year asthe JALT News column editor and I look forward toa wonderful 2001.

Happy Holidays!�今月号のこのコラムは短そうに見えますが、そんなことはありませ

ん。重要なニュースが凝縮されています。まず、Gene van Troyer

から2001年３月号TLTに関わる発表があります。TLTはよりユー

ザフレンドリーになっていきます。皆さんはGene van Troyer氏か

らの報告を喜んでいただけることでしょう。第二に、Peter Grayが

JALT全国選出役員選挙の結果を報告しています。Gray氏の今選挙

に関わる多大な貢献に深く感謝を捧げます。そして、新しくJ A L T

全国選出委員に選ばれた方々におめでとうを述べたいと思います。

来月は、静岡で先月行われたJALT 2000の報告を行う予定です。ご

期待ください。また、2001年も、短い記事、お知らせ、ストーリな

どをお気軽に私のところまでお送りください。JALT NEWSコラ

ム・エディターとしての最初の年を無事終え、来年2001年が素晴ら

しい年でありますことを期待して。よいお年を。

Amy E. Hawley

March TLT To Appear As CD-ROMAlways a useful addition to the working languageteacher’s resources, The Language Teacher is about tobecome even more useful! The JALT PublicationsBoard has a special treat for JALT members and sub-scribers to its publications: the March 2001 issuestarts the new year and the new millennium off bygiving them not just the news they’re used to get-ting in TLT, but also a CD-ROM of the whole ofyears 1999-2000. That’s 24 issues, 1600 pages, closeto 350 articles, in interlinked and indexed files,compatible with both Macintosh and Windows op-erating systems—all of this at no additional cost toJALT members and subscribers. Just one moreteacher-minded gift from the friendly folks at TLT.


The deadline for presentation submissions isJanuary 15, 2001



December 2000 43

JALT news/SIG focus

But that’s not all! Also included will be the 1999-2000 JALT Journals, a first for JJ that we hope repre-sents the springboard for future JJ archival CDs.

The happy spin-off is that extra CD’s will alsoserve as new membership and subscriber incentives,and be offered for sale to non-members for a modest1500 yen. If last year’s enthusiastic reception of theTLT Episode One: Volumes 1-10 CD is any indication,the JALT Publications Board is confident that thisspecial March offering will be equally well received.�常に語学教師のリソースとして有益な役割を果たしていたT h e

Language Teacherがより役に立つ物となります。

　JALT出版委員会はJALT会員と購読者に対して特別の出版物を企

画しています。2001年３月号は、新しい年、そして新しい千年紀を

これまでのTLTではなく、2000年から2001年の全てを含んだCD-

ROMとして出版いたします。24号、350の記事がインデックスファ

イルと相互にリンクが張られ、マッキントッシュでもウィンドウズ

でも操作可能な方式で提供されます。そして、これに対して、追加

の費用も必要有りません。それだけではありません。さらに、1999

から2000年のJALT Journalもそれに含まれる予定です。このような

サービスは、新しい会員や購読者を呼ぶ結果を生むでしょう。そし

て、これらのC D は非会員には、1 5 0 0 円で提供される予定です。

JALT出版委員会はこの号が皆さんのお手元に確実に届くことを確信

しております。 Gene van Troyer

JALT 2000 National OfficersElection Final Results

Position Name Votes Received

Auditor: Daniel Gossman 154Abstain 10Write-in 1

Director of Gene van Troyer 150Public Relations: Abstain 10

Write-in 5

Director of Keith Lane 105Program: David Neill 59

Abstain 1Write-in 0

gîqOMMM年全国選出委員選挙結果

職名氏名　　　　　投票数

会計監査: Daniel Gossman 154棄権 10書込み投票 1

広報担当理事 Gene van Troyer 150�� 棄権 10

書込み投票 5

企画担当理事 Keith Lane 105David Neill 59棄権　�� 1

�� 書込み投票　　　�� 0

Peter Gray

Foreign LanguageLiteracy SIG

David Dycus

SIG Focusedited by aleda krause

The SIGFocuscolumn

offers achance for a

closer look atone of JALT’s

Special InterestGroups. Each

month we publishan introduction to

a SIG and somesamples fromits publica-tions. Readersplease notethat thesample articlescome directlyfrom the SIG’s

publications andreflect the concerns

of its members, notnecessarily those of The

Language Teacher.

Foreign Language Literacy SIG

“I never know what I think about somethinguntil I read what I’ve written on it.”

William Faulkner

Reading and writing. These essential, if complex,skills in many first languages are of growing impor-tance and even greater complexity in the learning ofa foreign language. The Foreign Language LiteracySIG is a group of language educators in JALT inter-ested in the learning and teaching of reading andwriting in a foreign or second language and the so-cial product that is literacy.

As of 2000, members receive our newsletter, the FLLiteracy SIG Bulletin, three times a year. In addition,the FLL SIG supports the publication of the biannualinternational journal Literacy Across Cultures (LAC),which members receive for free. To date, LAC hascarried articles from educators worldwide, includingFinland, Malaysia, Argentina, the United States, andof course, Japan. Its articles are abstracted andarchived by ERIC/CALT/NCLE in the United Statesand by CILT in the United Kingdom. One major goalof the FLL SIG is to connect language teachers, espe-cially nonnative English instructors, inside and out-side of Japan, regardless of economic/technologicaldisparities. To this end, LAC is offered in both printand various electronic formats. For non-FLL SIGmembers, an annual subscription (two issues) to theprint version is available in Japan and internationallyfor the same low fee in yen or the equivalent in inter-


national postage coupons. In addition to the printversion, LAC is made available to subscribers in anemail version. Contact Charles Jannuzi<[email protected]> for informationon both how to subscribe to the print version and/oremail version. Online issues can be found at<www.aasa.ac.jp/~dcdycus/LAC.HTM>.

Of course, the best way to receive all of the aboveis to become a member of the FLL SIG. For moreinformation on joining the FLL SIG, participating asan officer (we can always use a hand!), or for infor-mation on contributing to Literacy Across Cultures orthe FL Literacy SIG Bulletin, please contact DavidDycus by email <[email protected]> or bymail at Aichi Shukutoku University, 9 Katahira,Nagakute-cho, Nagakute, Aichi-gun, 480-1197.

We hope you enjoy the article by FatimahHashim, which was featured in the March 1999 is-sue Literacy Across Cultures (Volume 3, Number 1).

Enabling a Reader Through PictureBooks: A Case Study

Fatimah Hashim, University of Malaya, KualaLumpur, MalaysiaMany teachers are often at a loss of what to dowith their low-proficiency EFL learners. Theselearners are seen to be lowly motivated as they nor-mally have an assumption of inferiority: “I findEnglish difficult,” “I don’t like the subject,” “I amnot good.” There is value in training them to readin order to improve their proficiency and hencetheir motivation towards learning the language.

This paper discusses the merits of using picturebooks together with the explicit teaching of read-ing strategies in an interactive environment totrain beginning readers. Results of a small study onthe use of picture books to train a thirteen year oldto read in English suggest that the learner madeprogress in her reading because interaction was thevehicle for instruction—the text series and theteacher brought together a critical set of events tosupport and provide scaffolding for the interac-tions the learner had with the texts.

Using Picture Books With Adolescent ReadersPicture books have long been considered to be ofuse only for young, beginning readers, both infirst- and second-language reading. There is adearth of research on their potential for facilitatingreading for older learners learning English as a sec-ond or foreign language. However, one persistentproponent of the use of picture books for second-language learners, Smallwood (1987, 1992), hasshown that literature exists that is appropriate forlow-proficiency English learners who are older thanthe average age the picture books are written for. In

fact, she found this literature to be appropriate foradult EFL learners as well. She outlines the charac-teristics of picture books:

• The themes, topics or storylines of the books areappropriate to the age of the learners. The maincharacters are similar in age or older than thelearners.

• The sentence patterns are simple and mostlycontrolled. These are often repeated.

• There is limited use of unfamiliar language andexperiences.

• Rhyming is included as it aids memorisation andis generally useful in language learning.

• The plot is simple and straightforward, in chro-nological order. Descriptions of characters aresimple and clear. The stories are often actionpacked.

• The use of dialogue is realistic.• The books are suitable for reading aloud.• The stories are short and can be completed in 5-

10 minute sittings.• The books are single volumes, ensuring the

student’s sense of completion.• The books are well illustrated. Ideally, the reader

is able to understand the story just by looking atthe pictures. (Smallwood posits that this is im-portant as both the teacher and the studentsdepend on the pictures to explain new vocabu-lary or experiences.)

• The amount of text on a page is limited, as thepage should contain more illustrations than text.As the students increase in language proficiency,there should be more text than pictures.

Smallwood’s list describes simple texts for a specificgroup of learners with specific needs, in particular,low-proficiency EFL learners. Her view reflects thethinking of proponents of teaching low-proficiencylearners to learn a second or foreign languagethrough reading. The advocacy of picture booksalso involves issues raised in EFL’s ongoing debateabout the merits and demerits of using simplifiedversus authentic texts. Elley (1984) argues thattexts are simple only with respect to the needs of aspecific audience, and this view is echoed byAlderson and Urquhart (1984), who assert thattexts should be selected in terms of their appropri-ateness for the audience. Appropriateness involvesmany factors, including the amount of redundancyin a text (Haynes, 1984) and textual “density”(Berman, 1984), which need to be taken into ac-count when choosing reading materials. Theseviews are further affirmed by Carrell, Devine, andEskey (1988, p. 272) who conclude: “Reading ofreal, if simplified, texts should be at the heart ofany second language reading program.”

SIG focus: foreign language literacy

December 2000 45


In Search of a Model for Teaching ReadingQuestions of what materials to use are closely con-nected to reading models and teaching methods.Models of reading instruction abound, eachemphasising particular processes and the instructionthat stimulates those processes. One promisingmodel for remedial reading instruction comes fromClay (1979). Clay’s theory advocates the use of ex-plicit, systematic teaching of reading skills, espe-cially the elements of decoding, which is inopposition to the position of the whole languageapproach that places emphasis on the creation ofauthentic learning environments where any skillsinstruction that occurs should be in the context ofnatural reading and done only as needed. Clay’smethodology and instructional principles, calledReading Recovery (Clay, 1993), combine elementsof learning and teaching of potential value for astrategy-training model in reading for disadvan-taged learners.

A close examination of the philosophy behind theReading Recovery approach reveals that much couldbe adopted from Clay’s theories of how learning canbe accelerated. Through her work with at-risk read-ers, Clay posits that the low-achieving child needssecurity, self-confidence and acceptance. She arguesthat in order to facilitate learning for low-achievingchildren, the reading program must begin with theindividual child to provide appropriate experiencesfor building on her prior knowledge. Drawing onVygotsky’s notion of the “zone of proximal develop-ment” (z.p.d.), Clay reasons that the essence of suc-cessful teaching is for the teacher to know whateach child’s potential is for a particular task and towork with the child to reach her highest potential.

The notion of the teacher’s role implicit in herview is that, in working alongside the child, theteacher can become a keen observer and developskills in nurturing appropriate responses which canadvance the child’s learning. The teacher is also sup-posed to be fostering strategic control to enable thelearner to learn to read by reading, promoting thedevelopment of the “Matthew Effect” (Stanovich,1986), wherein the more a strategic reader reads, themore she improves her reading achievement. Theinteraction between child and instructor is crucialto its success. Although it may appear that Clay isparticularly focused on a theory of early reading andchild development in L1, there is a great deal in hermethodology that seems useful for the accelerationof learning among low-achieving learners more gen-erally. Whether she intended it or not, Clay hasopened an avenue for generating practice-basedknowledge about teaching reading.

Based on Clay’s theory and pedagogy of accelerat-ing learning for the low-achieving learner, a readingprogram very similar to Reading Recovery (Clay,1979) was developed for a thirteen-year-old EFL

learner, Azira. Basically, Azira read picture booksfrom the lowest level (a few words on a page) andmoved up the levels (8-10 sentences on a page) asshe progressed. Here’s a brief description of the im-pact of the program on her.

Azira’s Progress in ReadingAzira came from a very poor family and spoke noEnglish at home. She said English was an importantbut difficult subject. She could remember readingabout five English books with little understanding.She admitted that she had made no effort to im-prove her English on her own because she thoughtthat she was not good in the subject. When askedwhat she did when she had difficulty understandingan English storybook, she said she just put the bookaside.

Although she appeared enthusiastic, Azira was atimid student when she read her first book for theprogram. She paused often and struggled to read alevel one book (four short sentences a page). Shereacted very positively to words of praise for goodlearning practices such as attempts at self-correc-tion. As a result, she seldom made the same mis-take twice. She was apprehensive about giving thewrong answers, speaking softly when she was notsure. Even when she gave the correct answer, shewould hesitate when asked to repeat. On many oc-casions she responded to questions by staring atthe book and frowning. To the question “Do youthink you can be good in English?” she replied, “Idon’t know. It’s hard.”

After a few readings which were closely facilitatedby the teacher, she began to show signs that she wasconsciously thinking about her learning, as illus-trated by some of her earlier journal entries:

When I come across a difficult word, I try tosound the words several times to hear it so I canunderstand what I am reading.

I am not careful when reading. I go too fast andmake mistakes. I hope to be more careful by pro-nouncing the words more clearly.

She had also begun to hypothesise about her readingability. I observed that Azira would copy down thetitle and mark it every time she completed reading abook. She gave two reasons for doing that. One wasto count the number of books she had read success-fully and the other was to note the titles so she couldrecall the stories. Evidently, being able to read andunderstand what she read was important to her.

She was also trying very hard to use the promptedstrategies to facilitate her reading and reported theuse of self questions often. When asked how shepractised self questions, she said, “When I come to adifficult word, I stop for a while and if I understand,I move on.” Asked which strategy facilitated hercomprehension, she said, “I look at the pictures. I


try to follow the story.”Asked if she could tell me what she thought

brought about the significant improvement in herreading fluency and comprehension, she said, “Iunderstand the story.” Her journal entry, however,provided some clues:

I am trying to improve my English. With shortwords or words I have come across, I try to al-ways remember the correct pronunciation be-fore sounding out the words. With words thatare difficult, I pronounce over and over againuntil I remember them.

Data from my observation record corroborate thedata from her journal. Her journal entries indicatea realisation of her gains through involvement inthe project. Towards the end she wrote:

It [the program] has helped me a lot. I learnhow to understand difficult words. Before this Idare not read in English. Now I know a lot ofEnglish words.

As acknowledged by her and as indicated by herreading performance, more and more encounterswith known words gave her direct access to widervocabulary of words that required little or no spe-cial processing. Her journal entries show a real con-cern for managing her reading and correctingerrors. Constantly repeated in the entries is thesentence, “When I read, I try to be conscious of myerrors and correct them.”

The Roles of the Text, the Teacher and theLearnerAs this case study shows, respite for struggling EFLreaders can be found in a reading program using pic-ture books and where the teacher primes interactionwith the learner so the learner can interact with thetext successfully. The books used in these lessonsplayed an important role. The student could readthese short books quickly, gaining confidence thatcomes with accomplishment. In addition, the lan-guage of the text builds on and repeats phrases, thusfacilitating the learner’s interaction with it. This re-petitiveness helps the learner to grasp importantpoints and to provide an adequate synopsis of what isbeing read. This is important, as it has been shownthat not being able to produce a summary is a clearsign that comprehension is not proceeding smoothly(Brown, Palincsar, and Armbruster, 1984). Becausethere is not much to remember, with guidance thelearner can recall significant events in the stories forretelling. There is also less need for the learner to in-terpret the story since the storylines are simple. Thisreduces the fear of not being able to understand thecontent, which might affect learner confidence. Thebooks also present material that is appropriate for thekind of interaction fostered in the program.

In general, the feelings of success and achieve-ment that come with being able to read these textsand understand stories written in English can moti-vate learners to read more, improving their readingand understanding. When learners can easily graspand quickly become familiar with the story, they aremore likely to find reading a manageable and re-warding challenge (Clay, 1993). The picture booksbecome a form of “Comprehensible input”(Krashen, 1985) for these learners.

The role of the teacher is to guide the student tothink about her reaction to the story and, in so do-ing, assess her comprehension. For example, Azira’sattempts at sounding words were mainly guesses, asshe had limited oral language to draw on. That iswhy the presence of the teacher is crucial—the feed-back component of the interaction between theteacher and the learner is the essence of the ap-proach adopted in this reading program. Becausethe aim is to make the student less dependent onthe teacher as she gains confidence in her ability,providing immediate feedback on successful at-tempts is important. But responsibility also lies withthe learner. The learner in this study attempted totake responsibility for her own learning by trying toproblem-solve her reading, illustrating that learningor reading a book successfully in English with accu-racy and understanding was partly up to her. As herdiary entries show, she was also capable of reflectingon her learning.

Some PropositionsBasically, how we treat individual learners is what ismost important for learning to take place. A non-threatening environment can be created where theyare encouraged to succeed in an atmosphere of com-radeship and understanding. With this in mind, Iwould like to advance the following propositionsabout training low-proficiency or under-achievinglearners in the use of strategies to facilitate EFL read-ing and comprehension.

1) It is possible to gain efficiency in reading whenthe learner’s attitude is positive; the practice ofstrategies is followed by reflection on the experi-ence; there is comprehensible input from theteacher/trainer; immediate feedback is given ongood practices; learners are allowed to use L1 incommunication; [and] L1 is used when theteacher explains meanings and concepts [and]when instructions are given.

2) Fluency and accuracy in reading can be achievedwithout oral proficiency in the language butwith the use of carefully selected texts of appro-priate difficulty.

3) Clay’s instructional method and learning theoryis potentially useful for guiding training in for-eign language reading.


December 2000 47


The study set out to document the effectiveness ofusing picture books together with the explicit teach-ing of reading strategies in an interactive environ-ment, as proposed by Clay, in training alow-proficiency EFL reader. The results indicate thatClay’s methodology is useful. Her model of readingacquisition defines reading as working continuouslyon manageable texts with the story as the focalpoint of attention. Azira’s progress in reading andcomprehension can be understood based on theprinciples driving this model of reading instruction.

Fatimah Hashim can be contacted at: Dept ofLanguage Education, Faculty of Education, Univer-sity of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA;<[email protected]>.

ReferencesAlderson, J. C. & Urquhart, A. H. (1984). Postscript on

Davies. In J. C. Alderson & A. H. Urquhart (Eds.), Readingin a foreign language (pp. 196-198). Harlow: Longman.

Berman, R. A. (1984). Syntactic components of the foreignlanguage reading process. In J. C. Alderson & A. H.Urquhart (Eds.), Reading in a foreign language (pp.

139-159). Harlow: Longman.Carrell, P.L., Devine, J. & Eskey, D.E. (Eds.). (1988). Interac-

tive approaches to second language reading. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.

Clay, M. M. (1979). Reading: the patterning of complexbehaviour. London: Heinemann.

Clay, M. M. (1991). Becoming literate: the construction ofinner control. Auckland: Heinemann.

Clay, M. M. (1993). Reading recovery: a guidebook for teachersin training. Auckland: Heinemann.

Elley, W.B. (1984). Exploring the reading of second lan-guage learners in Fiji. In Alderson, J. C. & Urquhart, A.H. (Eds.), Reading in a foreign language (pp. 281-301).Harlow: Longman.

Haynes, M. (1984). Patterns and perils of guessing in sec-ond language reading. In J. Handscombe, R. Orem & B.P. Taylor (Eds.), On TESOL 83 (pp. 163-77). Washington,D.C.: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Lan-guages.

Krashen, S. (1985). The power of reading. In S. Krashen(Ed.), Inquiries and insights (pp. 89-113). Haywood Ca.:Alemany Press.

Smallwood, B. A. (1987). Children’s literature for limitedEnglish proficiency students, ages 9-14. (Eric documentreproduction service no. ED 356647).

Smallwood, B. A. (1992). Children’s literature for adult ESLliteracy. Washington: ERIC Digest.

Stanovich, K. E. (1986). Matthew effects in reading: Someconsequences of individual differences in the acquisitionof literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 21 (4), 360-407.

Special Interest GroupsNews

edited by gregory hadley

JALT2000 at Shizuoka is past, but now is the time to getinvolved with one of the Special Interest Groups as theygear up for the upcoming year. For more information,contact any of the SIG coordinators below.

SIG Contacts

edited by gregory hadley

Bilingualism—Peter Gray, t/f: 011-897-9891(h);<[email protected]>; website<www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve_mc/jaltbsig/>

Computer-Assisted Language Learning—ElinMelchior; t: 0568-75-0136(h), 0568-76-0905(w);<[email protected]>; website <www.jaltcall.org/>

College and University Educators—AlanMackenzie; t/f: 03-3757-7008(h);<[email protected]>

Global Issues in Language Education—Kip A.Cates; t/f: 0857-31-5650(w);

<[email protected]>; website <www.jalt.org/global/>

Japanese as a Second Language—Stacey TarvinIsomura; <[email protected]>

Junior and Senior High School—Barry Mateer; t:044-933-8588(h); <[email protected]>; website<http://www.esl.sakuragaoka.ac.jp/tsh/>

Learner Development—Hugh Nicoll; t: 0985-20-4788(w); f: 0985-20-4807(w); <[email protected]>

Material Writers—James Swan; t/f: 0742-41-9576(w); <[email protected]>; website<www.jalt.org/mwsig/>

Professionalism, Administration, and Leadershipin Education—Edward Haig; f: 052-805-3875(w);<[email protected]>; website<www.voicenet.co.jp/~davald/PALEJournals.html>

Teacher Education—Lois Scott-Conley; <[email protected]>; website <www.jalt.org/teach/>

Teaching Children—Aleda Krause; t: 048-776-0392;f: 048-776-7952; <[email protected]>

Testing and Evaluation—Leo Yoffe; t/f: 027-233-8696(h); <[email protected]>; website<www.jalt.org/test/>

Video—Daniel Walsh; t: 0722-99-5127(h);<[email protected]>; website <www.jalt.org/video/>

Affiliate SIGs

Foreign Language Literacy—Charles Jannuzi; t/f:0776-27-7102(h); <[email protected]>;website <www.aasa.ac.jp/~dcdycus/>

Other Language Educators—Rudolf Reinelt; t/f:

PAC� at JALT�� Don’t forget!!

The deadline for presentation submissions isJanuary !" ��

#www%jalt%org/jalt�� /submissions(


089-927-6293(h); <[email protected]>Gender Awareness in Language Education—

Cheiron McMahill; t: 0270-65-8511(w); f: 0270-65-9538(w); <[email protected]>;

website < http://www2.gol.com/users/ath/gale/>

Forming SIGs

Pragmatics—Yamashita Sayoko; t/f: 03-5803-5908(w); <[email protected]>

Applied Linguistics—Thom Simmons; t/f: 045-845-8242; <[email protected]>

Cross Culture—David Brooks; t: 042-778-8052(w); f:042-778-9233; <[email protected]>

Chapter Reportsedited by diane pelyk

Kitakyushu: September—The Pedagogical Poten-tial of Songs by Roland Brown. Brown divided hispresentation between a detailed motivational, lin-guistic, and methodological justification for theuse of songs in the EFL classroom and actual prac-tical activities. He has found songs to be a greatway to personalize the content of his classes andhas devised an interview and report pair activity tofind out what type of music his students prefer. Hethen prepares a schedule of volunteers who bringin recordings and lyrics that he then utilizes toprepare customized exercises which exploit thelearning potential of student favorites.

The five practical activities were the following: 1)A music and genre quiz for practicing speaking,especially the language of agreement/disagree-ment and eliciting reasons; 2) A lyric competitionwhich extends beyond mere cloze activities to asophisticated use of definitions for practicing lexisprediction and listening comprehension; 3) Songsand discussion for practicing fluency; 4) Structuresongs for practicing specific grammatical struc-tures such as narrative tenses or conditionals; 5)Singing, for practicing pronunciation, rhythm,and intonation.

Reported by Margaret Orleans

Nagoya: September—Language and Self-Image byKay Hammond. Hammond presented some of theinsights she had gained through her research intohow women feel about themselves and their bod-ies. Young people are often taught that “Sticks andstones may break my bones, but words will neverhurt me.” In reality, people tend to care verymuch about how others see them. In the case ofyoung women, puberty often involves a loss of

confidence and greater concern about self-image.Hammond then invited participants to divide

into small groups and discuss what they had beentold about adulthood when they were children. Alively discussion followed, in which many partici-pants related personal anecdotes about themselvesor their students. One participant noted, for ex-ample, that her female students often shied awayfrom textbook activities that involved describingother class members and referred to everyone, re-gardless of build, as medium.

The presenter noted that we live in an age wherepressure from peers and the media has madepeople feel that they must cultivate a certain lookin order to be considered normal. Women whoaspire to look like fashion models may be unawarethat a fashion model’s figure is far from normaland she may, in fact, be dangerously underweight.Hammond then asked participants to fill in aquestionnaire asking whether they had ever beenteased about their bodies, how they felt at thetime, and whether it still affected them now. Be-cause of the private nature of these questions, par-ticipants were told that they would not be askedto share those with others, but to use them purelyfor personal reflection.

In her research, Hammond interviewed 28women about their experiences of being teased.She shared a transcript of one of these interviewswith us and noted how the woman concernedtried to trivialize criticisms of her appearance buthad also experienced a “people watching over me”syndrome as a result of them. The typical ten-dency is to react to criticism by thinking, “Oh myGod, what’s wrong with me?” Perhaps a more ap-propriate reaction might be to reflect, “What’swrong with these people that they have to criticizeme in the first place?”

Reported by Bob Jones

Omiya: September—What’s Action ResearchAbout? by Neil Cowie and Ethel Ogane. The pre-sentation began with the question, “Why are youhere?” This raised some interesting questionsabout what action research actually entails andhow busy teachers can easily find the time to carryout research.

Ogane summarized the history of action research(AR) and outlined some of the different ap-proaches that have been used. AR has viewedteachers as learners doing research to resolve prob-lematic issues within their environments, as re-searchers trying to find ways to improve theteaching and learning environments, and as socialreformers working within the network of theirenvironments to bring about change.

AR embraces many different approaches to doingresearch and is consequently difficult to define,

chapter reports

December 2000 49

chapter reports

but several ideas were presented. AR seems to in-volve research that is done in the classroom orteaching environment and is often carried out bypracticing teachers in the hope that the researchwill have an impact on their environment. Thereare challenges, but also a variety of benefits, whendoing this kind of research. Some of the chal-lenges include maintaining motivation especiallyif a teacher is working alone, collaboration withcolleagues who are perhaps not interested in re-search, clarifying useful questions, finding enoughtime, and starting a new method in the classroom.However, AR encourages the researcher to do morereading and to look for professional collaboration.This is likely to lead to self-improvement and in-creased confidence. The research is carried out bythose best placed to solve problems and improvepractices to enhance our understanding of theteaching and learning process.

Cowie asked the audience to work in groups tocreate their own models of the research process.The groups then worked to relate a selection ofteaching activities to the various stages within theprocess. The audience was then asked to circulatearound the groups and discuss and share theirideas.

The second half of the presentation focused ongenerating ideas and questions which might leadthe audience to carry out their own research.Working in small groups with people who hadsimilar interests, the audience used several ques-tions from the handout (e.g. What is happening inmy classroom that I am concerned about?) to dis-cuss issues which are directly connected with theirpresent situation and which could be researchedpractically. At the end of the discussion, thegroups reported their ideas and progress to theaudience. It seems as though several ideas for re-search were generated and some tentative plansfor carrying out AR in the future were made.

Reported by Yvonne Annable

Toyohashi: September—Expanding and ExploringLanguage Using Rhythm and Rap Music by PriscaMolotsi. Because music can get the listeners toreach into the more guarded areas of their psy-ches, it can be a powerful tool in the classroom ifused well. The presenter explained and then hadthe participants experience a number of activitiesinvolving the use of music that she utilizes in oralcommunication and writing classes at the univer-sity level. An especially engaging “ice breaker” hasall students record a piece of their favorite musicat home on a cassette tape. A particular piece isthen chosen for listening and the whole classshares their impressions about the music and whatit says about the person who chose it. After theopinions are offered, the person who chose the

music reveals their identity and then commentson the accuracy of the personality analysis madeby classmates. In another activity, students areencouraged to write about the images they per-ceive after hearing numerous samples of music. Avocabulary associated with emotions and a widerange of adjectives are generated from this activityand can be used in a creative writing exercise. Onecan focus attention on the elements of rhyme bywriting lyrics for a blues song after listening toseveral examples and understanding the structure.Student interest in the popular music of rap/hiphop can be harnessed in such an activity.

The presenter’s own artistic expertise and love ofmusic were quite contagious and again reinforcedthe importance of the instructor’s own enthusiasmfor the materials taught.

Reported by Laura Kusaka

Chapter Meeting SpecialThe JALT Hokkaido 17th Annual

Language Conference

The JALT Hokkaido 17th Annual Language Conferencewas held on June 10-11, 2000. The conference wasquite successful. About 150 different teachers at-tended, and counting people who went both days,there were over 180 people. Everything wentsmoothly. There were a variety of topics presented,and the atmosphere was very relaxed and friendly.There were 36 presentations over the two days thatranged from teaching children to using technologyin the classroom. There were 4 presentations relatedto teaching English to children, two presentationson making your own text books and other materi-als, two on using technology, and a variety of pre-sentations that were applicable for teaching juniorhigh through university students. Eighteen of thethirty-six presentations were from educators wholive outside of Hokkaido.

Eight publishers were present with display boothsand representatives to answer participants’ ques-tions. They were:

Pearson Education JapanThe English ResourceThomson LearningDavid English HouseCambridge University PressOxford University PressIntercom PressEFL Press

Not only was the conference a success in terms ofattendees’ satisfaction, but it was also successful fi-


chapter meetings

nancially. JALT Hokkaido’s membership-tier systemincludes the regular national membership and theinnovative local membership. The local member-ship is for those who really enjoy the monthly pre-sentations and annual language conference, but donot want to receive The Language Teacher and otherpublications (Ed. note: That’s too bad!!). This systemis a way to help chapters survive during these chal-lenging times.

Over the two-day conference, 14 teachers re-newed their local membership and 27 new teacherssigned up in this category. This resulted in ¥108,000of local membership revenue. This is money thatthe chapter can keep at the chapter level to fundendeavors such as offering quality programs, verylow cost teacher training, and a chance for membersto share their ideas and research at monthly meet-ings and at the language conference. Fifteen teach-ers renewed at the national level and four signed upas new national members. The chapter also col-lected publisher’s revenue of about ¥300,000, in-cluding ads taken out for the conference programby publishers who did not come.

The CALL Recipe for Wired Teachers book, whichwas hot off the press, was a big success, selling 27copies. The chapter still has 73 copies left and con-tinued to sell them at the JALT Hokkaido Global Is-sues Workshop on September 24, which wasco-sponsored with the Global Issues in Language Edu-cation (GILE) SIG, and at monthly meetings. JALTHokkaido Chapter sold them for ¥1,500 to non-CALL members and ¥1,000 to CALL members. Thisresulted in a profit to the chapter of ¥14,000. Totalnet profit for the chapter was ¥306,000. This helpsto buffer the pain of the chapter grant cut from¥381,000 last fiscal year to ¥210,000 this fiscal year.The chapter plans to publish a JALT Hokkaido Pro-ceedings, which would be the fourth year in a rowand qualify it to get an ISBN number.

Alan M. CogenJALT Hokkaido President<[email protected]>

Chapter Meetingsedited by tom merner

Fukuoka—Navigating the Waters of Real Life En-glish by Christopher Chase. Traditional EFL edu-cation leaves most students ill prepared for reallife English outside their classrooms. In the “realworld,” language flows as a living part of humancommunication and cultural forms of expression(e.g., in movies, music, literature, poetry, theinternet and television). This workshop will ex-plore how we can help our students to success-fully navigate authentic language situations andculture. Sunday December 10, 14:00-17:00; AsoForeign Language & Travel College (map on website);one-day members 1000 yen.

Gifu—Do I Really Need a Course Book? by AlunDavies. An interactive workshop on making andusing visual materials, worksheets, and workcards for conversation/discussion classes. Partici-pants will design and make a selection of visuals,worksheets and work cards (using Word 2000)and old-fashioned cut & paste! Please bring col-ored pens or pencils and glue sticks. Sunday De-cember 3, 14:00-17:00; Dream Theater, Gifu City;one-day members 1000 yen.

Hiroshima—Bonenkai. Come one and all tothe Hiroshima JALT bonenkai (year-end party)to mingle and chat and celebrate the endof another great year. Keep an eye on<http://www.gethiroshima.com/Events>for Hiroshima JALT meetings and events.Saturday December 9; Place and time to be an-nounced.

Hokkaido—2000 Bonenkai. JALT Hokkaido willprovide the turkeys, stuffing and gravy, and bev-erages. Each person is asked to bring a dish toshare with others. Salads and vegetables are al-ways desirable. Further details will be posted onour homepage. There will be live music with spe-cial guest stars David Hyre and Robert McGuirebringing us the blues. Sunday December 10, 12:00-?; Hokkaido International School (5-minute walkfrom Sumikawa Station). JALT members free, one-daymembers 1000 yen.

Ibaraki—Using Digital Cameras in the Classroomby Neil Parry. Digital cameras can do a lot morethan just take pictures; they can be used in a vari-ety of ways to enliven and enhance your classes,and also be a valuable classroom managementaid. The presenter will demonstrate how usefulthey can be and discuss various tricks and tech-niques. The presentation will be followed by achapter planning meeting and bonenkai. SundayDecember 17, 13:30-17:00; Tsuchiura Ulara Bldg—Kennan-Shougai-Gakushuu Center (across fromTsuchiura Station); one-day members 500 yen.

The Language Teacher runs Special Issuesregularly throughout the year. Groupswith interests in specific areas of lan-guage education are cordially invitedto submit proposals, with a view tocollaboratively developing material forpublication. For further details, pleasecontact the Editor.

December 2000 51

chapter meetings

Kagoshima—AGM followed by a bonenkai. Opento all members. Saturday December 9, 14:00-16:00;Iris Kyuden Plaza 2nd Floor.

Kanazawa—JALT Kanazawa Annual ChristmasParty. Date and venue to be announced. For info:visit our website: <http://www.jaist.ac.jp/~mark/jalt.html>. Members who have not been receivingJALT program info via email please contact BillHolden at <[email protected]>.

Kitakyushu—My Share: My Favorite Teacher Re-source by Paul Collet, Takashi Inomori et. al. Sev-eral speakers will give short talks on how andwhere they find practical lesson materials. Talkswill be relevant to teachers of students of all levelsand in all class sizes. Saturday, December 9, 19:00-21:00; Kitakyushu International Conference Center,room 31; one-day members 500 yen.

Kobe—Annual Potpourri Meeting and Bonenkai. 1)Conversation Elsewhere by M. Dwyer, J. Louise, J.Brooks and J. Caragata; 2) Improving Public SpeakingAbility Using Video Cameras by T. Torbert; 3) Activat-ing Writing through Timely Topics by N. Nagaki and J.Plant; and 4) Pragmalinguistic Differences in Responsesto Indirect Complaints: Comparing Japanese and Aus-tralian Parents and Children by H. Horiuchi. Our an-nual business meeting and bonenkai (year-end party)will follow these four presentations. Sunday Decem-ber 10, 13:30-16:30; Kobe YMCA 4F LETS.

Matsuyama—Empowering Students Via Ethno-graphic Study Abroad by Linda Kadota. Intro-duces a one-week cross-cultural experienceprogram for first-year students and describes thecurriculum designed for the pre-departure orienta-tion sessions, the week abroad, and the post-re-turn presentations. The comprehensivepre-departure orientation prepares the students fortheir week overseas and supports them while theyconduct ethnographic research in English for thefirst time. After the short presentation we willhave a Year-End Pot Luck party and will hold elec-tions of new officers. Sunday December 10, 14:00-16:30; Shinonome High School Kinenkan 4F; one-daymembers 1000 yen; local members 4000 yen per year.

Miyazaki—Learner Centered Academic Writing byGiles Parker, Nagasaki University. This presenta-tion will introduce learner-centered academic writ-ing activities. We will also look at ways ofevaluating writing. In this way we will see thatacademic writing skills can be enhanced and trans-ferred to reading and speaking skills. The AnnualMiyazaki JALT Meeting will precede the presenta-tion. Saturday December 2, 14:00-17:00; MiyazakiMunicipal Univ.

Nagasaki—My Share. If you have any favorite ma-terial, method, activity, or worksheet for anylearning skill or type of language, don’t hesitate tobring it, share it, demonstrate it, and explain it.You have about 10 minutes to display your idea.

Any theme is welcome, but we are especially inter-ested in anything connected to seasonal activities,or ideas for first day of classes in the spring. Pleasenote that we will also be holding elections for2001 local chapter officers. Saturday December 9,13:30-16:30; Nagasaki Shimin Kaikan; one-day mem-bers 1000 yen.

Nagoya—My Share. Come to an open-microphoneend-of-the-year JALT where anyone in the audi-ence can share their lesson idea, a TESL researchtopic, or a report of their favorite presentationfrom the yearly conference. Afterwards we willgather at a local restaurant for a bonenkai (year-endparty). Sunday December 10, 13:30-16:00; NagoyaInternational Center 3rd fl. room 1; one-day members1000 yen.

Nara—Promoting Learner Autonomy: Risks andRewards by Terry Vanderveen. This will be thefinal chapter meeting this year, and following theabove presentation we will have a chapter meetingand a Potluck Party. Everyone is welcome. Mem-bers and guests are asked to bring a food dish anda drink of your choice. Please come and share yourthoughts and hopes about YOUR Nara Chapter aswell as to enjoy some holiday happiness with usall. Sunday December 17, 14:00-17:00; TezukayamaUniversity (Kintetsu Gakuenmae Campus).

Niigata—Panel Discussion on Half-Japanese Chil-dren and Bullying by Frank E. Daulton & AkinoriSeki, Niigata Women’s College. Throughout theworld, students seen as different or weak are bul-lied. However certain Japanese “cultural factors”exaggerate the severity of bullying. Moreover, chil-dren of one Japanese and one non-Japanese par-ent, often referred to as “half” children, are amongthe most likely and vulnerable targets. This paneldiscussion will include various viewpoints, includ-ing those of academics, families, and youths. Sun-day December 10, 13:00-15:30; Niigata Women’sCollege, Niigata-city; one-day members 1000 yen.

Okayama—How can Okayama JALT serve yourneeds? There will be a revue of the past year and adiscussion on what the chapter can do for itsmembers in 2001. All suggestions are welcome.Subsequently, elections for all officer positions willbe held. The merriment will continue at the JALTbonenkai (year-end party) held at a local eatery.Come eat, drink, and be merry! Saturday December9, 15:00-17:00 (Bonenkai to follow from around18:00); Ai Plaza.

Omiya—My Share Part 4 by Ian Willey, MichaelStout, Okada Chikahiko, Paul Lyddon, Do, AdrianClarke, Larry the Bear, and others . Join us for thelatest installment of practical, new ideas you canuse right away in your classes. Bring an idea youcan share in 15 minutes, too. Then come to ourannual meeting to discuss 2001 in Omiya. Stickaround for our second annual wine and cheese


chapter meetings

party. Sunday December 10, 14:00-17:00; Omiya Jack(near west exit of JR Omiya station).

Osaka—Paraphrasing: What’s New? What’s Old?What Works? by William J. Teweles, KwanseiGakuin University. This talk will focus on ways toincorporate paraphrasing into a composition class.Paraphrasing is a well-structured way to help stu-dents with vocabulary development, sentencestructure, and summary writing in general. Usingpractice activities from standard textbooks andhuman interest-type articles from newspapers, thespeaker will feature a few preferred intermediate-level paraphrase activities. The presentation is tobe followed by elections of chapter officers for2001 and a bonenkai (at participants’ expense)nearby. Sunday December 3, 14:00-16:30, AbenoYMCA; one-day members 1000 yen.

Sendai—Video for Independent Learning by KeithAdams. The speaker will present a framework forstudents to use with authentic video materials inindependent study. Key principles concerning se-lection of programs and self-study techniques willbe discussed and demonstrated. Keith’s presenta-tion will be followed by our annual end-of-yearmeeting and dinner, which everyone is welcometo attend. Date to be announced; Seinen Bunka Cen-ter, 1st floor (across from Asahigaoka subway station).

West Tokyo—It’s In Your Hands: Career Develop-ment Workshop. Finding and getting the rightjob, networking, polishing your confidence andself-esteem, expanding your credentials, present-ing, writing, and getting publishing will be thetopics explored in focus groups led by experiencedWest Tokyo members. Our annual general meet-ing and elections of officers for 2001 will be heldafter the session. Enhance your career and creden-tials through professional growth as a leader inJALT. Sunday December 10, 13:30-16:00; MachidaShimin Hall, 7 min. from the West exit of OdakyuMachida Station; one-day members 1000 yen.

Yamagata—Liverpool, England, in terms of Englishand Englishmen by Anthony Cunningham,Yamagata Prefectural Board of Education. The pre-senter will speak on the above-mentioned topic interms of every possible aspect of Liverpool, En-gland, ranging from its history, culture, music,and education to English, hopefully focusing onthe possibility of a description of communicativeEnglish which is expected of Japanese learners ofEnglish. Sunday December 10, 13:30-16:00;Yamagata Kajo-Kominkan Sogogakushu Center (t:0236-45-6163); one-day members 1000 yen.

Yokohama—The Textbook Screening System inJapan and the Teaching Materials in EnglishTextbooks by Masanori Ogushi, Senior TextbookSpecialist, Ministry of Education. The presenterwill describe in detail the current textbook systemin Japan, and then, defining the Monbusho-au-

thorized textbook as the standardized course bookfor instruction guided by the Course of Study, dis-cuss how to use the textbook effectively. SundayDecember 10, 14:00-16:30; Gino Bunka Kaikan, 6F,Rm. 6030; one-day members 1000 yen.

Chapter Contacts

People wishing to get in touch with chapters forinformation can use the following list of contacts.Chapters wishing to make alterations to their listedcontact person should send all information to theeditor: Tom Merner; t/f: 045-822-6623;<[email protected]>.

Akita—Suzuki Takeshi; t: 0184-22-1562;<[email protected]>

Chiba—Yukiko Watanabe;<[email protected]>

Fukui—Watanabe Takako; t/f: 0776-34-8334;<[email protected]>

Fukuoka—J. Lake; <[email protected]>; website<www.kyushu.com/jalt/events.html>

Gifu (Affiliate Chapter)—Paul Doyon; t: 058-329-1328, f: 058-326-2607; <[email protected]>

Gunma—Wayne Pennington; t/f: 027-283-8984;<[email protected]>; website<202.236.153.60/JALT/>

Hamamatsu—Brendan Lyons; t/f: 053-454-4649;<[email protected]>

Himeji—William Balsamo; t: 0792-54-5711;<[email protected]>

Hiroshima—Joy Jarman-Walsh; t: 082-878-9931;<[email protected]>; website <http://litcal.yasuda-u.ac.jp/student/jalthiroshima.html>

Hokkaido—Dave Hyre; t: 011-387-7344;<[email protected]>; website<www2.crosswinds.net/~hyrejalthokkaido/JALTPage/>

Ibaraki—Martin Pauly; t: 0298-58-9523; f: 0298-58-9529; <[email protected]>; website<www.kasei.ac.jp/JALT/Ibaraki.html>

Iwate—Mary Burkitt; t/f: 019-647-7185;<[email protected]>

Kagawa—David Juteau; t:0883-53-8844; <[email protected]>

Kagoshima—Nick Walters; t: 0996-21-2062;<[email protected]>; Mori Reiko; 099-285-7447; <[email protected]>; website<www.kyushu.com/jalt/kagoshima.html>

Kanazawa—Bill Holden; t: 076-229-6140(w), 229-5608(h); <[email protected]>; website<www.jaist.ac.jp/~mark/jalt.html>

Kitakyushu—Chris Carman; t: 093-603-1611(w);592-2883(h); <[email protected]>;website <www.seafolk.ne.jp/kqjalt/>

December 2000 53

chapter meetings/conference calendar

Kobe—Brent Jones; t/f: 0797-31-2068;<[email protected]>

Kumamoto—Andrew Shaffer; t: 096-339-1952;<[email protected]>; website<www.kyushu.com/jalt/kumamoto.html>

Matsuyama—Linda Kadota; t: 089-931-6211; f: 089-934-9055; <[email protected]>

Miyazaki—Sylvan Payne; t: 0985-85-5931; f: 0985-84-3396; <[email protected]>; website<www.miyazaki-mic.ac.jp/faculty/klane/html_JALT/mzkj/mzkjpub.html>

Nagasaki—Tim Allan; t/f: 095-824-6580;<[email protected]>; Shiina Katsunobu; t/f: 095-861-5356; <[email protected]>; website<www.kyushu.com/jalt/nagasaki.html>

Nagoya—Claire Gelder; t: 052-781-0165; f: 052-781-4334; <[email protected]>

Nara—Shiki Osato; t/f: 0745-77-1961;<[email protected]>

Niigata—Robin Nagano; t/f: 0258-47-9810;<[email protected]>

Okayama—Peter Burden; t/f: 086 293 3545; <[email protected]>

Okinawa—Caroline Latham; t/f: 0980-54-0787;<[email protected]>

Omiya—Okada Chikahiko; t/f: 047-377-4695;<[email protected]>; Aleda Krause; t:048-776-0392; <[email protected]>; website<www2.gol.com/users/ljc/omiya.html>

Osaka—Nakamura Kimiko; t/f: 06-376-3741;<[email protected]>; website <www.sun-inet.or.jp/~kimiko/josaka.html>

Sendai—John Wiltshier; t: 0225-88-3832;<[email protected]>; website<www.geocities.com/jaltsendai>

Shizuoka—Amy Hawley; t/f: 054-248-5090;<[email protected]>; website<www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/1952/>

Shinshu—Mary Aruga; t: 0266-27-3894;<[email protected]>

Tochigi—Jim Chambers; t/f: 028-627-1858;<[email protected]>

Tokushima—Meg Ishida; <[email protected]>

Tokyo—Allan Murphy; <[email protected]>;Suzuki Takako; t/f: 0424-61-1460

Toyohashi—Laura Kusaka; t: 0532-88-2658;<[email protected]>

West Tokyo—Kobayashi Etsuo; t: 042-366-2947;<[email protected]>; website <jalt.org/chap-ters/wtokyo/>

Yamagata—Sugawara Fumio; t/f: 0238-85-2468Yamaguchi—Shima Yukiko; t: 0836-88-5421;

<[email protected]>Yokohama—Ron Thornton; t/f: 0467-31-2797;

<[email protected]>

Conference Calendaredited by lynne roecklein

New listings are welcome. Please submit information tothe editor by the 15th of the month, at least three monthsahead (four months for overseas conferences). Thus, De-cember 15th is the deadline for a March conference inJapan or an April conference overseas, especially when theconference is early in the month.

Upcoming Conferences

January 11-13, 2001—The Fifth HIL PhonologyConference (HILP 5): Conflicts in Phonology willbe held at the University of Potsdam, Germany.Since the emergence of constraint-based ap-proaches to phonology, conflicts between differ-ent aspects of phonology and also betweenphonology and other domains of grammar, likesyntax, morphology and semantics, have been animportant research area. Of the three workshops,the one on language acquisition (emphasis on theareas of learnability, acquisition and typology, andacquisition of stored representations) looks espe-cially relevant to Language Teacher readers. Formore information, see the website at<www.ling.uni-potsdam.de/aktuelles/hilp5_aktuell.html>, contact Caroline Fery at<[email protected]> or write to:HILP 5 Committee, Institute for Linguistics, Uni-versity of Potsdam, Postfach 501553, 14415Potsdam, Germany; t: 049-331-977-2950; f: 049-331-977-2761.

Reminders—Calls For Papers

December 15, 2000—The JSAA (Japanese StudiesAssociation of Australia) 2001 Biennial Confer-ence, co-hosted by the University of New SouthWales (UNSW) and the University of Sydney, aimsto advance knowledge and understanding of Ja-pan, the Japanese people and the Japanese lan-guage. The concerns of primary and secondaryschool personnel in particular will be addressed onthe last day. The website at<www.arts.unsw.edu.au/languages> may be yield-ing information. Otherwise, for submission de-tails, contact <[email protected]> and forother information: JSAA Conference; Dept. ofJapanese & Korean, The University of NSW,UNSW, 2052, NSW, Australia; t: 61 2 9385 3760; f:61 2 9385 3731; <[email protected]>.

Reminders—Conferences

December 11-15, 2000—International Conferenceon Stress and Rhythm at CIEFL (Central Instituteof English and Foreign Languages) in Hyderabad,


India. Among many invited speakers will be PaulKiparsky (keynote), Fijimura Osamu, SuzanneUrbanczyk, Rene Kager, Diana Archangeli, andSharon Inkelas. For more information, see<www.cieflconf.homepage.com> or contactK.G.Vijayakrishnan (<[email protected]>); De-partment of Linguistics, CIEFL, Hyderabad500007, India.

December 12-14, 2000—WAVEip: Workshop onthe Analysis of Varieties of English intonationand prosody, to be held at Victoria University ofWellington, New Zealand, aims to bring togetherresearchers from around the world who will con-sider the intonation and prosody of standard andemerging varieties of English as well as relatedgeographic and sociolinguistic variation in a work-shop approach featuring a mix of discussion pa-pers and hands-on analysis of speech materials.For details, including registration, go to<www.vuw.ac.nz/lals/WAVEip> or email Paul War-ren at <[email protected]> or write him atthe School of Linguistics and Applied LanguageStudies, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box600, Wellington, New Zealand; t: 64-4-463-5631; f:64-4-463-5604.

December 14-16, 2000—International Languagein Education Conference (ILEC) 2000: Innova-tion and Language Education, at The Universityof Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China. The aim ofILEC is to help researchers, curriculum developers,teachers, teacher educators, etc., to bridge theoryand practice at all levels of education. A featuredsub-theme in ILEC 2000’s papers, workshops, col-loquia, and poster sessions will be InformationTechnology in Language Education. See the ILECwebsite at <www.hku.hk/ilec2000>. Other contactformats: Secretariat ILEC 2000; c/o The Faculty ofEducation, The University of Hong Kong,Pokfulam, Hong Kong; t: 852-2859-2781; f: 852-2547-1924; email <[email protected]>.

January 23-26, 2001—Seventh International Sym-posium on Social Communication, to be held inSantiago de Cuba, Cuba, by the Center of AppliedLinguistics of the Santiago de Cuba’s branch of theMinistry of Science, Technology and the Environ-ment. This interdisciplinary event will focus onsocial communication processes from the pointsof view of Applied Linguistics, Computational Lin-guistics, Medicine, Voice Processing, Mass Media,and Ethnology and Folklore. Seminars, papers,workshops, and posters in applied linguistics ad-dress foreign language teaching, phonetics andphonology, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics,textual linguists and pragmalinguistics, and trans-lations. See <parlevink.cs.utwente.nl/Cuba/english.html> for complete information. Contact:Eloina Miyares Bermudez, Secretaria Ejecutiva,Comite Organizador, VII Simposio Internacional

de Comunicacion, Social Centro de LinguisticaAplicada, Apartado Postal 4067, Vista Alegre,Santiago de Cuba 4, Cuba 90400; t: 53-226-42760or 53-226-41081; f: 53-22-6 41579;<[email protected]>.

Job Information Centeredited by bettina begole

To list a position in The Language Teacher, please fax oremail Bettina Begole, Job Information Center. Please sendemails to <[email protected]> and faxes to 0857-87-0858.Please email rather than fax, if possible. The notice shouldbe received before the 15th of the month, two monthsbefore publication, and contain the following information:city and prefecture, name of institution, title of position,whether full- or part-time, qualifications, duties, salary andbenefits, application materials, deadline, and contact in-formation. A special form is not necessary.

Ehime-ken—The Economics Faculty of MatsuyamaUniversity is looking for a full-time EFL instructorto begin April 1, 2001. Qualifications: native-speaker competency with an MA in TEFL/TESL/TESOL; knowledge of Japan and/or experience inteaching Japanese students would be helpful. Du-ties: teach six 90-minute classes a week, includinglarge classes of around 60 students. Salary & Ben-efits: two-year, nonrenewable contract includessalary of roughly 4,300,000 yen/year; airfare toand from Matsuyama; partial payment of healthinsurance; research funds. Application Materials:resume, transcripts, copy of diploma, list of aca-demic achievements, references, and an essay onEnglish language education; application materialswill not be returned. Deadline: January 10, 2001.Contact: Dean of the Economics Faculty;Matsuyama University, 4-2 Bunkyo-cho,Matsuyama 790-8578; no email or telephone in-quiries.

Hiroshima-ken—The Kure YWCA is seeking a full-time English instructor for children and adults.Qualifications: university degree. Duties: plan-ning, preparation, and teaching; 22 classroomhours/week. Salary & Benefits: 260,000 yen/month. Application Materials: resume, two let-ters of recommendation. Deadline: January 10,2001. Contact: Ms. Tomoko Yamasaki; KureYWCA, 3-1 Saiwaicho, Kure, Hiroshima 737-0028;t/f: 0823-21-2424.

Hiroshima-ken—K&F Academy in Takehara-shi isseeking a full-time English instructor interested inan immersion experience in traditional Japan tobegin January, 2001. Qualifications: BA and ESLteaching experience, strong interest in Japanese

conference calendar/JIC

December 2000 55

JIC

culture and language required; ESL training, expe-rience working with Japanese children preferred.Applicant must be willing to make a firm commit-ment of at least eighteen months, although prefer-ence will be given to those candidates who arepotentially available for a longer commitment.Duties: teach small classes for a range of ages; or-ganize frequent extracurricular activities for schooland community participants. The work schedule isfive days a week, with up to 25 teaching hours.Organizing and participating in extracurricularactivities is also an important aspect of this posi-tion. Salary & Benefits: Initial 18 months’ remu-neration is 4,500,000 yen paid as a monthlysalary, plus a completion bonus of 80,000 yen.K&F English Academy maintains an incentive sys-tem which often increases the regular monthlysalary. Other benefits include a furnished apart-ment at 45,000 yen/month, one-week spring vaca-tion and about two weeks vacation duringChristmas; all national holidays; visa sponsorship.Application Materials: Send the following materi-als in the body of an email message (not as an at-tachment): (1) letter of introduction which clearlyaddresses the above minimum requirements andalso responds thoughtfully to these two questions:“Based on what you know so far, why does thisopportunity at K&F English Academy sound likethe right opportunity for you at this time in yourlife?” and “What special skills or interests couldyou bring to K&F English Academy?”; (2) resume,including email and/or fax information; (3) emailaddresses of two professional references (referencesable to address teaching experience are preferred).Also send a recent, full-length photo in JPEG orWindows Bitmap format. Contact: all materials tobe sent electronically to <[email protected]>. Addi-tional information: <www.kf-ac.com>.

Tokyo—The School of Literature, Waseda Univer-sity, is seeking candidates for a full-time, tenuredfaculty position to begin April 2002. Qualifica-tions: PhD level in EFL, applied linguistics, orsimilar area of study; solid and ongoing high-qual-ity research and publication; teaching and re-search interests in one or more of the followingareas: CALL, language testing and evaluation, cur-riculum development. Conversational ability inJapanese would be an advantage. Duties: performdepartmental and university teaching and otherduties in line with appointed, tenured position.Salary & Benefits: competitive salary and otherallowances. Application Materials: CV/resume,cover letter, names and addresses of three refereeswho will provide recommendations. Deadline:February 15, 2001. Contact: EFL Position, Depart-ment of English, School of Literature, Waseda Uni-versity, 1-24-1 Toyama, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo162-8644;<[email protected]>. Other infor-

mation: Please note that notification will be madeonly to those candidates whose recommendationsare taken up. It is expected that the first stage ofselection will be completed by the end of April2001.

Tokyo—Sakuragaoka Girls’ Junior and Senior HighSchool is looking for a full-time English instructorto begin April 1, 2001. Qualifications: native-En-glish competency; computer literacy; Japanesespeaking and reading ability; MA in TESOL or RSAdiploma. Ability to effectively apply currentTESOL theory in teaching greatly preferred. Du-ties: work Monday-Friday, 9:00-5:00, 14-18 class-room hours per week. Classes include oralcommunication lessons and themed after-schoollessons. Participate in two 5-day English campsand occasional recruiting activities (paid in addi-tion to regular salary). Salary & Benefits: Salarybegins at 340,000 yen/month; paid and regularschool holidays (approximately 10 weeks/year);visa sponsorship. Contact:<[email protected]>; f: 03-3949-0677.Other information: Applicants must be able toattend interview in person. Interviews in Novem-ber or early December. No phone calls, please.<http://www.sakuragaoka.ac.jp>. SakuragaokaGirls’ Junior and Senior High School is a privategirls’ school in north Tokyo. There are eight nativeEnglish-speaking teachers and approximately fourstudents for every computer in the school.Sakuragaoka has a high-speed internal LAN and adirect T1 connection to the Internet. Each full-time ESL teacher has exclusive use of an AppleMacintosh PowerBook G3 computer.

Web CornerYou can receive the updated JIC job listings on the20th of each month by email at <[email protected]>and view them online on JALT’s homepage (addressbelow).

Here are a variety of sites with information rel-evant to teaching in Japan:1. EFL, ESL, and Other Teaching Jobs in Japan at

<www.jobsinjapan.com/want-ads.htm>2. Information for those seeking university positions

(not a job list) at <www.voicenet.co.jp/~davald/univquestions.html>

3. ELT News at <www.eltnews.com/jobsinjapan.shtml>

4. JALT Jobs and Career Enhancement links at<www.jalt.org/jalt_e/main/careers/careers.html>

5. Teaching English in Japan: A Guide to Getting aJob at <www.wizweb.com/~susan/mainpage.html>

6. ESL Café’s Job Center at <www.pacificnet.net/~sperling/jobcenter.html>

7. Ohayo Sensei at <www.wco.com/~ohayo/>8. NACSIS (National Center for Science Information


Systems’ Japanese site) career information at<nacwww.nacsis.ac.jp/>

9. The Digital Education Information Network JobCentre at <www.go-ed.com/jobs/iatefl>

10. EFL in Asia at <www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Flats/7947/eflasia.htm>

11. Jobs in Japan at <www.englishresource.com/classifieds/jobs.shtml>

12. Job information at <www.ESLworldwide.com>

差別に関する

The Language Teacher Job Information Center の方針

私たちは、日本国の法規、国際法、一般的良識に従い、差別用語と雇用

差別に反対します。JIC/Positions コラムの求人広告は、原則として、性

別、年令、人種、宗教、出身国による条件は掲載しません。(例えば、イギ

リス人、アメリカ人というよりは、ネイティブ並の語学力という表現をお

使いください。) これらの条件が法的に要求されているなど、やむをえな

い理由のある場合は、下記の用紙の「その他の条件」の欄に、その理由と

ともにお書きください。編集者は、この方針にそぐわない求人広告を編集

したり、書き直しをお願いしたりする権利を留保します。

求人広告掲載をご希望の方は、下記の用紙に必要事項をご記入の上、掲

載希望月の２か月前の15日までに当コラム編集者までファクスでお送りく

ださい。英語、日本語とも: Bettina Begole、fax: 0857-87-0858。

TLT/Job Information CenterPolicy on Discrimination

We oppose discriminatory language, policies, and employment practicesin accordance with Japanese law, International law, and human goodsense. Announcements in the JIC/Positions column should not containexclusions or requirements concerning gender, age, race, religion, orcountry of origin (“native speaker competency,” rather than “British” or“American”), unless there are legal requirements or other compellingreasons for such discrimination, in which case those reasons should beclearly explained in the job announcement. The editors reserve the rightto edit ads for clarity, and to return ads for rewriting if they do not com-ply with this policy.

We encourage employers in all areas of language education to usethis free service in order to reach the widest group of qualified, caringprofessionals. Nonpublic personnel searches and/or discriminatorylimitations reduce the number of qualified applicants, and are thuscounterproductive to locating the best qualified person for a position.

JIC/bulletin board

Bulletin Boardedited by brian cullen

Contributors to the Bulletin Board are requested bythe column editor to submit announcements of upto 150 words written in a paragraph format andnot in abbreviated or outline form. Submissionsshould be made by the 20th of the month. To re-peat an announcement, please contact the editor.For information about more upcoming conferences,see the Conference Calendar column.

Calls for Papers (in order of deadlines)

JSAA 2001: Biennial Conference—The JapaneseStudies Association of Australia 2001 BiennialConference will be held from June 27-30 inSydney—the largest city in the Oceania region andthe gateway to Australia, by the University of NewSouth Wales and the University of Sydney. Theconference aims to advance the knowledge andunderstanding of Japan, the Japanese people, andthe Japanese language, and at the same timestrengthen the relationship between Australia andJapan. Authors are invited to submit original un-published work in all areas of Japanese Studies.Papers may be presented in either English or Japa-nese, and an abstract of 500-700 English words or1000-1500 Japanese characters is to be submittedby December 15, 2000. For more informationcontact: JSAA Conference Committee; The Dept.of Japanese & Korean Studies, The University ofNew South Wales, UNSW, Kensington, 2052, Aus-tralia; t: 61-2-9385-3760;<[email protected]>.

CUE 2001: The Second Annual CUE Conference—The CUE 2001 conference will be held on May 12-13, 2001 at Miho Kenshukan of Tokai Universityin Shimizu City, Shizuoka. The conference themeis “Autonomy: a two-day exploration into howlearner and teacher autonomy is developing andhow we can help it to develop.” Examples of ques-tions to be explored are: Is autonomy a naturaldevelopment of human thinking, a human right,a culturally loaded question, an overblown ideol-ogy? What techniques, methods, materials, andideas can we use to enable ourselves and our stu-dents to develop their own sense of autonomy?One-hour papers, demonstrations, workshops, androundtable discussions from both theoretical andpractical perspectives are sought as well as propos-als for a limited number of two-hour sessions. Thedeadline for proposals is January 25, 2001. Infor-mation: <www.wilde.org/cue/conferences/autonomy.html> or <http://www.wild-e.org/cue/conferences/content.html>. Contact: AlanMackenzie <[email protected]> or Eamon

Advertiser Index

Key: IFC = inside front coverIBC = inside back coverOBC = outside back cover

CUP .................................................... 29, 30, 31, 32

Council .................................................................. 2

MacMillan ....................................................... 26, 36

OUP ........................................................... IFC, OBC

Pearson ............................................. 12, 24, 40, IBC

Seido .................................................................... 12

SIT ....................................................................... 20

Thomson ....................................................... 26, 36

December 2000 57

bulletin board

McCafferty <[email protected]>. Those wishing tosubmit a proposal specifically aimed at Japaneseteachers of English, please refer inquiries in Japa-nese or English to Masahiko Goshi <[email protected]>.

TLT Japan’s Meritocratic Education Special Is-sue—A special issue of The Language Teacher isscheduled for publication in November 2001. Thisspecial issue will analyse whether Japan’s educa-tion system, being historically based on merit (i.e.,that entrance into universities has traditionallybeen decided exclusively by students’ entranceexamination scores), is in need of qualitative re-form. The editor encourages papers which exam-ine this method of selection and other issues ofsocial responsibility stemming from it (e.g., rank-ing schools, juku, ijime), thereby providing usefulinsight into the education system teachers areworking in, which might in turn promote moresocially aware classrooms. Submissions, in eitherEnglish or Japanese (if possible, please include anabstract in English), of feature, opinion and per-spective articles investigating these or related is-sues are especially invited. Please submit yourmanuscripts by February 1, 2001. Send submis-sions and enquiries to: Kent Hill; 202 Hikone-so,3461-1 Tokiwa-cho, Machida City, Tokyo 194-0213; t/f: 042-798-1599; <[email protected]>.

Papers and New Members: JALA—The Japan An-thropological Linguistic Association (JALA),formed last year, invites new members and an-nounces a call for papers to its first journal publi-cation (to be published in May of 2001). JALA is aprofessional association for the study of the inter-relationship of people, language, and culture. JALAwelcomes as members any person interested indiscussing these topics from an anthropologicalpoint of view. Information:<www.fsci.fuk.kindai.ac.jp/~iaoi/jala.html> (Japa-nese) or <kyushu.com/jala> (English).

PacSLRF 2001—The Pacific Second Language Re-search Forum conference will be held from Octo-ber 4-7, 2001 at the University of Hawai’i atManoa, Honolulu, Hawai’i, USA. This conferencewill focus on research in second language acquisi-tion, particularly in Asian and Pacific languages.Invited plenary speakers will include Kevin Gregg(St. Andrew’s University in Osaka, Japan), WilliamO’Grady (University of Hawai’i at Manoa), JeffSiegel (University of New England in New SouthWales, Australia), Noeau Warner (University ofHawai’i at Manoa), Karen Watson-Gegeo (Univer-sity of California, Davis), and Lydia White (McGillUniversity in Montreal, Canada). Proposals forpapers, posters, and colloquia regarding any aspectof research in second language acquisition, par-ticularly in Asian and Pacific languages, are in-vited. For submission guidelines or further

information, please visit our website at<www.LLL.hawaii.edu/pacslrf>.The submissiondeadline is April 2, 2001. Contact: PacSLRF 2001,c/o National Foreign Language Resource Center,University of Hawai’i at Manoa, 1859 East-WestRoad #106, Honolulu, HI 96822 USA; t:001-808-956-9424; f: 1-808-956-5983;<[email protected]>.

Other Announcements

TESOL Online Career Center—Debuting in the fallof 2000 and featuring job listings from around theglobe, career resources, and much more, it will bethe career site devoted to TESOL professionals. Weare very excited about this project and the oppor-tunity to better serve our members. Stay posted at<www.tesol.edu>.

Staff Recruitment—The Language Teacher needsEnglish language proofreaders immediately. Quali-fied applicants will be JALT members with lan-guage teaching experience, Japanese residency, afax, email, and a computer that can processMacintosh files. The position will require severalhours of concentrated work every month, listservsubscription, and occasional online and face-to-face meetings. If more qualified candidates applythan we can accept, we will consider them in or-der as further vacancies appear. The supervisedapprentice program of The Language Teacher trainsproofreaders in TLT style, format, and operations.Apprentices begin by shadowing experiencedproofreaders, rotating from section to section ofthe magazine until they become familiar withTLT’s operations as a whole. They then assumeproofreading tasks themselves. Consequently,when annual or occasional staff vacancies arise,the best qualified candidates tend to come fromcurrent staff, and the result is often a succession ofvacancies filled and created in turn. As a rule, TLTrecruits publicly for proofreaders and translatorsonly, giving senior proofreaders and translatorsfirst priority as other staff positions become va-cant. Please submit a curriculum vitae and coverletter to the Publications Board Chair;<[email protected]>.



January 15, 2001



SubmissionsThe editors welcome submissions of materialsconcerned with all aspects of language educa-tion, particularly with relevance to Japan.Materials in English should be sent in RichText Format by either email or post. Postalsubmissions must include a clearly labeleddiskette and one printed copy. Manuscriptsshould follow the American Psychological As-sociation (APA) style as it appears in The Lan-guage Teacher. The editors reserve the right toedit all copy for length, style, and clarity,without prior notification to authors. Dead-lines indicated below.日本語記事の投稿要領：編集者は、外国語教育に関

する、あらゆる話題の記事の投稿を歓迎します。原

稿は、なるべくA 4版用紙を使用してください。ワー

プロ、原稿用紙への手書きに関わりなく、頁数を打

ち、段落の最初は必ず１文字空け、１行2 7 字、横書

きでお願いいたします。１頁の行数は、特に指定し

ませんが、行間はなるべく広めにおとりください。

The Language Teacher は、American Psycho-logical Association (APA) のスタイルに従っています。日本語記事の注・参考文献・引用などの書き方も

これに準じた形式でお願いします。ご不明の点は、

The Language Teacherのバックナンバーの日本語記事をご参照くださるか、日本語編集者にお問い合わせ

ください。スペース等の都合でご希望に沿い兼ねる場

合もありますので、ご了承ください。編集者は、編集

の都合上、ご投稿いただいた記事の一部を、著者に無

断で変更したり、削除したりすることがあります。

Feature ArticlesEnglish. Well written, well-documented ar-ticles of up to 3,000 words. Pages should benumbered, new paragraphs indented (nottabbed), word count noted, and sub-headings(bold-faced or italic) used throughout for theconvenience of readers. The author’s name,affiliation, and contact details should appearon the top of the first page. An abstract of upto 150 words, biographical information of upto 100 words, and any photographs, tables, ordrawings should be sent in separate files.Send all material to Robert Long.日本語論文です。400字詰原稿用紙20枚以内。左寄

せで題名を記し、その下に右寄せで著者名、改行し

て右寄せで所属機関を明記してください。章、節に

分け、太字または斜体字でそれぞれ見出しをつけて

ください。図表・写真は、本文の中には入れず、別

紙にし、本文の挿入箇所に印を付けてください。フ

ロッピーをお送りいただく場合は、別文書でお願い

いたします。英語のタイトル、著者・所属機関の

ローマ字表記、150ワード以内の英文要旨、100ワー

ド以内の著者の和文略歴を別紙にお書きください。

原本と原本のコピー２部、計３部を日本語編集者に

お送りください。査読の後、採否を決定します。

Opinion & Perspectives. Pieces of up to1,500 words must be informed and of cur-rent concern to professionals in the lan-guage teaching field. Send submissions tothe editor.原稿用紙10～15枚以内。現在話題となっている事

柄への意見、問題提起などを掲載するコラムです。

別紙に、英語のタイトル、著者・所属機関のローマ

字表記、英文要旨を記入し、日本語編集者にお送り

ください。締切は、掲載をご希望になる号の発行月

の２カ月前の15日必着です。

Interviews. If you are interested in interview-ing a well-known professional in the field,please consult the editor first.「有名人」へのインタビュー記事です。インタ

ビューをされる前に日本語編集者にご相談ください。

Readers’ Views. Responses to articles orother items in TLT are invited. Submissionsof up to 500 words should be sent to the

editor by the 15th of the month, 3 monthsprior to publication, to allow time to requesta response to appear in the same issue, ifappropriate. TLT will not publish anony-mous correspondence unless there is a com-pelling reason to do so, and then only if thecorrespondent is known to the editor.

The Language Teacher に掲載された記事などへの意見をお寄せください。長さは1 , 0 0 0 字以内、締切

は、掲載をご希望になる号の発行月の3カ月前の15日

に日本語編集者必着です。編集者が必要と判断した

場合は、関係者に、それに対する反論の執筆を依頼

し、同じ号に両方の意見を掲載します。

Conference Reports. If you will be attendingan international or regional conference andare able to write a report of up to 1,500 words,please contact the editor.言語教育に関連する学会の国際大会等に参加する予

定の方で、その報告を執筆したい方は、日本語編集

者にご相談ください。長さは原稿用紙8枚程度です。

DepartmentsMy Share. We invite up to 1,000 words on asuccessful teaching technique or lesson planyou have used. Readers should be able toreplicate your technique or lesson plan. Sendsubmissions to the My Share editor.学習活動に関する実践的なアイディアの報告を載せ

るコラムです。教育現場で幅広く利用できるもの、

進歩的な言語教育の原理を反映したものを優先的に

採用します。絵なども入れることができますが、白

黒で、著作権のないもの、または文書による掲載許

可があるものをお願いします。別紙に、英語のタイ

トル、著者・所属機関のローマ字表記、200ワード程

度の英文要旨を記入し、My Share 編集者にお送りください。締切は、掲載をご希望になる号の発行月の

２カ月前の15日必着です。

Book Reviews. We invite reviews of booksand other educational materials. We do notpublish unsolicited reviews. Contact the Pub-lishers’ Review Copies Liaison for submissionguidelines and the Book Reviews editor forpermission to review unlisted materials.書評です。原則として、その本の書かれている言

語で書くことになっています。書評を書かれる場合

は、Publishers Review Copies Liaison にご相談ください。また、重複を避け、T h e L a n g u a g eTeacher に掲載するにふさわしい本であるかどうかを確認するため、事前に Book Review 編集者にお問い合わせください。

JALT News. All news pertaining to officialJALT organizational activities should be sentto the JALT News editors. Deadline: 15th of themonth, 2 months prior to publication.

J A L Tによる催し物などのお知らせを掲載したい方は、JALT News 編集者にご相談ください。締切は、掲載をご希望になる号の発行月の2 カ月前の1 5 日に

JALT News 編集者必着です。

Special Interest Group News. JALT-recognisedSpecial Interest Groups may submit a monthlyreport to the Special Interest Group Newseditor. Deadline: 15th of the month, 2 monthsprior to publication.

JALT公認の Special Interest Group で、毎月のお知らせを掲載したい方は、SIGS 編集者にご相談ください。締切は、掲載をご希望になる号の発行月の2

カ月前の15日に SIGS 編集者必着です。

Chapter Reports. Each Chapter may submita monthly report of up to 400 words whichshould (a) identify the chapter, (b) have atitle—usually the presentation title, (c) havea by-line with the presenter’s name, (d) in-clude the month in which the presentationwas given, (e) conclude with the reporter’s

name. For specific guidelines contact theChapter Reports editor. Deadline: 15th of themonth, 2 months prior to publication.地方支部会の会合での発表の報告です。長さは原稿

用紙2枚から４枚。原稿の冒頭に (a) 支部会名、(b) 発

表の題名、(c) 発表者名を明記し、(d) 発表がいつ行わ

れたかが分かる表現を含めてください。また、(e) 文

末に報告執筆者名をお書きください。締切は、掲載

をご希望になる号の発行月の2 カ月前の1 5 日に

Chapter Reports 編集者必着です。日本語の報告はChapter Reports日本語編集者にお送りください。

Chapter Meetings. Chapters must followthe precise format used in every issue of TLT(i.e., topic, speaker, date, time, place, fee,and other information in order, followed bya brief, objective description of the event).Maps of new locations can be printed uponconsultation with the column editor. Meet-ings that are scheduled for the first week ofthe month should be published in the previ-ous month’s issue. Announcements or re-quests for guidelines should be sent to theChapter Meetings editor. Deadline: 15th ofthe month, 2 months prior to publication.支部の会合のお知らせです。原稿の始めに支部名

を明記し、発表の題名、発表者名、日時、場所、参

加費、問い合わせ先の担当者名と電話番号・ファク

ス番号を箇条書きしてください。最後に、簡単な発

表の内容、発表者の�介を付け加えても結構です。

地図を掲載したい方は、Chapter Announcements編集者にご相談ください。第1 週に会合を予定する

場合は、前月号に掲載することになりますので、ご

注意ください。締切は、掲載をご希望になる号の発

行月の2カ月前の15日にChapter Announcements編集者必着です。

Bulletin Board. Calls for papers, participa-tion in/announcements of conferences, col-loquia, seminars, or research projects may beposted in this column. Email or fax yourannouncements of up to 150 words to theBulletin Board editor. Deadline: 15th of themonth, 2 months prior to publication.

J A L T 以外の団体による催し物などのお知らせ、J A L T、あるいはそれ以外の団体による発表者、論文

の募集を無料で掲載します。J A L T以外の団体による

催し物のお知らせには、参加費に関する情報を含め

ることはできません。The Language Teacher 及びJ A L Tは、この欄の広告の内容を保証することはできません。お知らせの掲載は、一つの催しにつき一

回、3 0 0 字以内とさせていただきます。締切は、掲

載をご希望になる号の発行月の2 カ月前の1 5 日に

Bulletin Board 編集者必着です。その後、Confer-ence Calendar 欄に、毎月、短いお知らせを載せることはできます。ご希望の際は、Conference Cal-endar 編集者にお申し出ください。

JIC/Positions. TLT encourages all prospectiveemployers to use this free service to locate themost qualified language teachers in Japan.Contact the Job Information Center editorfor an announcement form. Deadline forsubmitting forms: 15th of the month twomonths prior to publication. Publication doesnot indicate endorsement of the institutionby JALT. It is the position of the JALT ExecutiveBoard that no positions-wanted announce-ments will be printed.求人欄です。掲載したい方は、Job Information

Center/Positions 編集者にAnnouncement Formを請求してください。締切は、掲載をご希望になる

号の発行月の2カ月前の15日に Job InformationCenter/Positions 編集者必着です。The LanguageTeacher 及び JALTは、この欄の広告の内容を保証することはできません。なお、求職広告不掲載が JALTExecutive Board の方針です。　

December 2000 59

JALT Publications Board Chair — Gene van Troyert/f: 0582-79-4050; [email protected]

Editor — Malcolm Swansonc/o Kyushu Junior College of Kinki University, 1-5-30Komoda-higashi, Iizuka 820-8513; t: 0948-22-5727 ext 57;f: 0948-24-8591; [email protected]

Associate Editor — Robert Long3-26 Sensui-cho, Tobata-ku, Kitakyushu 804t: 093-883-5022, f: 093-884-3400 (w); [email protected]

Japanese-Language Editor — 衣川隆生(Kinugawa Takao)t/f: 0298-53-7477 (w); [email protected]

Japanese-Language Associate Editor — 小野正樹 (OnoMasaki) t/f: 0298-53-7372 (w); [email protected]

Assistant Editor — Paul Lewist/f: 052-709-1307 (h); [email protected]

TLT Online Editor — Bob GettingsHokusei Gakuen Women’s Junior College,t: 011-613-2488 (h); t: 011-561-7156(w); f: 011-513-7505 (w); [email protected]

COLUMN EDITORS

A Chapter in Your Life — Joyce Cunningham& Miyao Mariko

Joyce Cunningham: Faculty of Humanities, IbarakiUniversity, 2-1-1 Bunkyo, Mito 310-0056t: 029-228-8455; f: 029-228-8499English: [email protected]; 日本語: [email protected]

My Share — Scott Gardner & Oishi Harumit/f: 086-281-9105; [email protected]

Book Reviews — Katharine IsbellMiyazaki International College, 1405 Kano, Kiyotake-cho,Miyazaki-gun 889-1605;t: 0985-85-5931 (w); f: 0985-84-3396 (w); [email protected]

Publishers’ Review Copies Liaison — Angela OtaWest Park Communication Services, Funakoshi 957-6,Gosen-shi, Niigata 959-1805; t: 0250-41-1104; f: 0250-41-1226; [email protected]

Letters — Malcolm Swanson (See Editor) & Koarai Mikiyat/f: 011-614-5753 (h); [email protected]

Bulletin Board — Brian Cullen & Saito MakikoBrian Cullen: Shoken 2-1-15-10001, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya464-0082English: [email protected]; 日本語: [email protected]

SIG Focus — Aleda Krauset: 048-776-0392; f: 048-776-7952; [email protected]

SIG Reports — Robert Longt: 093-883-5022; f: 093-884-3400 (w); [email protected]

Chapter Reports — Diane Pelyk & Nagano YoshikoRenace Beppu 102, 6 Kumi, Ogura, Beppu, Oitat/f: 0977-6690 English: [email protected]日本語: [email protected]

Chapter Meetings — Tom Merner1-55-17 Higiriyama, Konan-ku, Yokohama 233-0015;t/f: 045-822-6623 (w); [email protected]

JALT News — Amy Hawley & Sugino ToshikoAmy Hawley: 205 Summer House, 91-2 Zenzamachi,Shizuoka-shi, Shizuoka-ken 420-0842t/f: 054-248-5090; [email protected] Toshiko: [email protected]

For information on advertising in TLT, please contact the JALT Central Office:Urban Edge Bldg. 5F, 1-37-9 Taito, Taito-ku, Tokyo 110-0016; t: 03-3837-1630; f: 03-3837-1631; [email protected]

Staff ListConference Calendar — Lynne Roecklein

Faculty of Regional Studies, GifuUniversity, 1-1 Yanagido, Gifu 501-1193;t: 058-293-3096 (w); f: 058-293-3118 (w); [email protected]

Job Information Center/Positions — Bettina Begole436 Kuwabara, Aoya-cho, Ketaka-gun,Tottori 689-0529; [email protected]

OCCASIONAL COLUMN EDITORS

Educational Innovations/Creative Course Design — DanielJ. McIntyre; [email protected]

Net Nuggets — Larry Davies; [email protected]

Working Papers — Joseph Tomei; [email protected]

PRODUCTION

Proofreaders — Scott Gardner, Aleda Krause, Beverley ElsomLafaye, Robert Long, Amanda O’Brien, Steven Snyder, ColemanSouth, Kinugawa Takao, Ono Masaki, Tsukahara Maki

和文要旨作成協力者ﾑ阿部恵美佳(Japanese abstracts — Abe Emika)

Design & Layout — The Word Workst: 045-314-9324; f: 045-316-4409; [email protected]

Printing — Koshinsha Co., Ltd., Osaka

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

Torkil Christensen (Hokusei Women’s Junior College);Steve Cornwell (Osaka Jogakuin Junior College);Michael Furmanovsky (Ryukoku University);Ron Grove (Mejiro University); John C. Herbert (KwanseiGakuin University); Wayne Johnson (Ryukoku Univer-sity); Steve McGuire (Nagoya University of Arts);Laura MacGregor (Sophia University);Daniel J. McIntyre (Tokyo University);Tonia McKay (Osaka Jogakuin Junior College);Miyanaga Chieko (Kyoto Tachibana Women’sUniversity); Tim Murphey (Nanzan University);Jill Robbins (EnglishDotCom.org);Lynne Roecklein (Gifu University); Sakui Keiko (KwanseiGakuin University); Shiozawa Mayumi (Ashiya Women’sJr. College); Craig Sower (Shujitsu Women’s University);Tamara Swenson (Osaka Jogakuin Junior College);Takahashi Sachiko (Okayama Notre Dame SeishinWomen’s University); Gene van Troyer (Gifu Universityof Education)

PEER SUPPORT GROUPCoordinator — Andy Barfield

Foreign Language Center, Univ. of Tsukuba,Tennodai 1-1-1, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken 305-0006;[email protected]: Andy Barfield, Wayne K. Johnson, Wilma Luth,Jill Robbins, Sandra Smith, Craig Sower

TLT Online: www.jalt.org/tlt

JALT Central Office — Urban Edge Bldg. 5F, 1-37-9 Taito,Taito-ku, Tokyo 110-0016; t: 03-3837-1630;f: 03-3837-1631; [email protected]


Membership InformationJALT is a professional organization dedicated to the improvement of language learning and teaching in Japan, a vehicle forthe exchange of new ideas and techniques, and a means of keeping abreast of new developments in a rapidly changing field.JALT, formed in 1976, has an international membership of over 3,500. There are currently 39 JALT chapters and 1 affiliate chapterthroughout Japan (listed below). It is the Japan affiliate of International TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of OtherLanguages) and a branch of IATEFL (International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language).Publications — JALT publishes The Language Teacher, a monthly magazine of articles and announcements onprofessional concerns; the semi-annual JALT Journal; JALT Conference Proceedings (annual); and JALT Applied Materials(a monograph series).Meetings and Conferences — The JALT International Conference on Language Teaching/Learning attracts some 2,000participants annually. The program consists of over 300 papers, workshops, colloquia, and poster sessions, a publishers’exhibition of some 1,000m2, an employment center, and social events. Local chapter meetings are held on a monthly orbi-monthly basis in each JALT chapter, and Special Interest Groups, SIGs, disseminate information on areas of specialinterest. jalt also sponsors special events, such as conferences on testing and other themes.Chapters — Akita, Chiba, Fukui, Fukuoka, Gunma, Hamamatsu, Himeji, Hiroshima, Hokkaido, Ibaraki, Iwate, Kagawa,Kagoshima, Kanazawa, Kitakyushu, Kobe, Kumamoto, Kyoto, Matsuyama, Miyazaki, Nagasaki, Nagoya, Nara, Niigata,Okayama, Okinawa, Omiya, Osaka, Sendai, Shinshu, Shizuoka, Tochigi, Tokushima, Tokyo, Toyohashi, West Tokyo,Yamagata, Yamaguchi, Yokohama, Gifu (affiliate).SIGs — Bilingualism; College and University Educators; Computer-Assisted Language Learning; Global Issues in LanguageEducation; Japanese as a Second Language; Jr./Sr. High School; Learner Development; Material Writers; Professionalism,Administration, and Leadership in Education; Teacher Education; Teaching Children; Testing and Evaluation; Video;Other Language Educators (affiliate); Foreign Language Literacy (affiliate); Gender Awareness in Language Education(affiliate). JALT members can join as many SIGs as they wish for a fee of ¥1,500 per SIG.Awards for Research Grants and Development — Awarded annually. Applications must be made to the JALT ResearchGrants Committee Chair by August 16. Awards are announced at the annual conference.Membership — Regular Membership (¥10,000) includes membership in the nearest chapter. Student Memberships(¥6,000) are available to full-time students with proper identification. Joint Memberships (¥17,000), available to twoindividuals sharing the same mailing address, receive only one copy of each JALT publication. Group Memberships(¥6,500/person) are available to five or more people employed by the same institution. One copy of each publication isprovided for every five members or fraction thereof. Applications may be made at any JALT meeting, by using the postalmoney transfer form (yubin furikae) found in every issue of The Language Teacher, or by sending an International PostalMoney Order (no check surcharge), a check or money order in yen (on a Japanese bank), in dollars (on a U.S. bank), or inpounds (on a U.K. bank) to the Central Office. Joint and Group Members must apply, renew, and pay membership feestogether with the other members of their group.

Central OfficeUrban Edge Building, 5th Floor, 1-37-9 Taito, Taito-ku, Tokyo 110-0016

tel: 03-3837-1630; fax: 03-3837-1631; [email protected]

gîq�� !"#$"%&'()*

　JALTは最新の言語理論に基づくよりよい教授法を提供し、日本における語学学習の向上と発展を図ることを目的とする学術団体です。1976年に設立さ

れたJALTは、海外も含めて3,500名以上の会員を擁しています。現在日本全国に40の支部（下記参照）を持ち、TESOL（英語教師協会）の加盟団体、お

よびIATEFL（国際英語教育学会）の日本支部でもあります。

�� ：JALTは、語学教育の専門分野に関する記事、お知らせを掲載した月刊誌The Language Teacher、年２回発行のJALT Journal、JALT Ap-

plied Materials（モノグラフシリーズ)、およびJALT年次大会会報を発行しています。

�� !�：JALTの語学教育･語学学習に関する国際年次大会には、毎年2,000人が集まります。年次大会のプログラムは300の論文、ワークショップ、

コロキアム、ポスターセッション、出版社による展示、就職情報センター、そして懇親会で構成されています。支部例会は、各JALTの支部で毎月もしく

は隔月に１回行われています。分野別研究部会、SIGは、分野別の情報の普及活動を行っています。JALTはまた、テスティングや他のテーマについての

研究会などの特別な行事を支援しています。

��：現在、全国に39の支部と1つの準支部があります。（秋田、千葉、福井、福岡、群馬、浜松、姫路、広島、北海道、茨城、岩手、香川、鹿児島、金

沢、北九州、神戸、熊本、京都、松山、宮崎、長崎、名古屋、奈良、新潟、岡山、沖縄、大宮、大阪、仙台、信州、静岡、栃木、徳島、東京、豊橋、西東

京、山形、山口、横浜、岐阜［準支部］）

�� !"#$：バイリンガリズム、大学外国語教育、コンピュータ利用語学学習、グローバル問題、日本語教育、中学・高校外国語教育、ビデオ、学

習者ディベロプメント、教材開発、外国語教育政策とプロフェッショナリズム、教師教育、児童教育、試験と評価、ビデオ利用語学学習、他言語教育(準

分野別研究部会)、外国語リテラシー(準分野別研究部会)、ジェンダーと語学教育(準分野別研究部会)。

JALT の会員は一つにつき1,500円の会費で、複数の分野別研究会に参加することができます。

�� !"：研究助成金についての応募は、8月16日までに、JALT語学教育学習研究助成金委員長まで申し出てください。研究助成金については、年次

大会で発表をします。

�� !�"：個人会員（¥10,000): 最寄りの支部の会費も含まれています。学生会員（¥6,000): 学生証を持つ全日制の学生（大学院生を含む）が対象

です。共同会員（¥17,000): 住居を共にする個人2名が対象です。但し、JALT出版物は1部だけ送付されます。団体会員(1名¥6,500): 勤務先が同一の個

人が５名以上集まった場合に限られます。JALT出版物は、5名ごとに1部送付されます。入会の申し込みは、The Language Teacher のとじ込みの郵便

振り替え用紙をご利用いただくか、国際郵便為替（不足金がないようにしてください）、小切手、為替を円立て(日本の銀行を利用してください)、ドル立

て(アメリカの銀行を利用してください)、あるいはポンド立て（イギリスの銀行を利用してください)で、本部宛にお送りください。また、例会での申し込

みも随時受け付けています。

gîq�� : 〒110-0016　東京都台東区台東 1-37-9 アーバンエッジビル５F

Tel. 03-3837-1630; fax. 03-3837-1631; [email protected]

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