“INTRODUCING, for Your Enlightenment and Entertainment, . . . The Speech, Drama, & Debate SIG!”

(Drumroll and trumpet fanfare)

A little too dramatic? Yes, well, that’s who we are. Founded in 2012, we are a small SIG with 50+ members. However, this information does not tell you much about who we are.  Who are we, you ask?

We are Orators. We teach speech and presentation, and we are unusually good orators. At SIG forums at PanSIG or the JALT international conference, I am amazed at the consistently excellent quality of speakers in the SIG. We practice what we teach!

We are Dramatic. One focus of the SIG is drama. Yes, we do plays, radio dramas, and readers theatre productions, but we also incorporate roleplays, simulations, theatre games, improv activities, and extremely useful process drama techniques into our language and content classes.

We are Argumentative. Debate is another focus of the SIG. Debate teaches important critical thinking and public speaking skills, and the way we teach it is fun, yet challenging.

We are Serious Professionals. In addition to being interesting teachers, we also write articles, textbooks, and performance pieces. We conduct research. We go to great lengths to mentor the younger members. We volunteer in the JALT organization.

We are an Active SIG. Here are our main activities, organized by the different roles we take on:

Publication Producer: Bulletins are sent out to members every few months, about three per year. Mask & Gavel is our official peer-reviewed journal that comes out once a year and The SDD Resource Journal, a collection of My Share-type articles, comes out occasionally.

News Station: Current news relevant to our SIG is featured on our Facebook, Facebook Group, and Facebook Events pages.

Event Producer: With Oxford University Press we sponsored events with Carolyn Graham (of Jazz Chants fame) and Ken Wilson (improv and Smart Choice). We have had Ken Wilson present at our events four times in the last seven years. (Thank you, OUP!) At JALT2016 in Nagoya, we co-sponsored the OUP party featuring our coordinator singing bossa nova.

Presentation Agent: We have been asked to provide presenters and one-day mini-conferences for chapters. Please contact us if you are interested in presenting at or sponsoring an SD&D/chapter mini-conference.

Conference Sponsor: Every year we organize our own family-friendly conferences throughout Japan (Kansai, Tokai, Kanto areas). For three years we have had conferences in Okinawa, and this past February we held a conference in Sapporo during the Snow Festival. We actively welcome students to attend free of charge, give presentations, and participate in performances. In 2019 our “Performance in Education: Research & Practice” conference with plenary speakers Dr. Rod Ellis and Dr. Vivian Bussinguer-Khavari will be held at Nanzan University in Nagoya (June 15-17) and Okinawa (June 20-23) with Okinawa chapter and Materials Writers SIG. The call for papers and registration is still open. (See information box below.)

Club: Our small SIG of 50+ people had over 20 people meet in a pizza bar on Saturday of JALT2018. It was serious, loud, raucous, humorous; that is to say, it was a family gathering.

Name Change

In our 2018 business meeting, we decided to change our SIG name to the Performance in Education (PIE) SIG because the new name includes more of what our members do. And because, of course, everyone loves PIE. Come join us for a slice of the PIE!

Official Website: https://sites.google.com/site/
speechdramaanddebatepublicsite/

Conferences Website : https://sites.google.com/view/sddsigconferences/home

Contact: speechdramadebate.jalt@gmail.com.

Social Media: Twitter: @SigSdd; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SpeechDramaDebateSIG/

Publications Info: https://sites.google.com/site/speechdramaanddebatepublicsite/home/mask-g...