This is the July report of the International Affairs Committee. In each issue, we highlight benefits and professional activities that we have through our partnerships. Below, we detail President Dawn Lucovich’s presentations at Korea TESOL (KOTESOL) and Bangladesh English Language Teachers Association (BELTA), the participation of five JALT members at BELTA, and the winners of the seven TESOL complimentary memberships.
Dawn represented JALT at the 2021 KOTESOL International Conference, which was from 19 to 28 February, and at the 9th BELTA International Conference on Saturday 6 March. At KOTESOL, she participated in a roundtable session and talked about collaboration between Japanese and Korean professional organizations and how to maximize benefits. At BELTA, Dawn gave a presentation about post-COVID-19 strategies for education and English language teaching. In both talks, she emphasized the importance of collaborative professional development as leaders, teachers, and researchers, both domestically and internationally.
This year BELTA kindly invited five JALT members to join the 9th BELTA International Conference, 2021. The theme of the online event was Education during the Pandemic: Learning amid Crisis and Emerging Opportunities. There were 12 stand-alone presentations at this year’s conference. The five JALT members who attended were Shirley Ando, Anne Howard, Naoya Shibata, Koki Tomita, Chhayankdhar Singh Rathore.
Finally, we are pleased to announce the seven JALT members who have won one-year TESOL International Association complimentary memberships: Kyle Undem, Michael Skelton, Edmund Fec, Joseph Oliver, Bjorn Fuisting, Matthew Douglas French, and Alexandra Jane Burke. We received just over 50 entries into the drawing and the seven winners were drawn via a randomizer application. All winners demonstrated that they are active JALT members. Congratulations to the winners, and thanks to everyone who took the time to apply. The drawing will take place again next year.
JALT Research Grant Proposal Deadline: September 30
Each year, JALT awards up to three grants for a maximum of 100,000 yen each for research on language teaching in Japan. Only JALT members who have no outside funding sources to conduct research are eligible to apply. The goal of the grants is to support language teachers in their professional development and to encourage teachers to engage in classroom-based research. Grant applications are collected each summer and vetted by the JALT Research Grants Committee. Winners of the grants receive funding before the start of the following school year, during which they conduct their studies, provide quarterly reports, and receive guidance from the committee. Following the completion of the research, winners are invited to give presentations on their projects at the JALT international conference and to publish a paper in The Language Teacher. The deadline for proposals for projects starting in the 2022 school year is September 30, 2021.
Details and application forms can be found on the JALT Research Grants website.