The Future of JALT Publications - At the time of writing, in late January 1999, JALT Executive Board discussions regarding the 1999-2000 budget are underway. Publications, as the one of the most visible products of our organization, are currently under close scrutiny by the JALT budget and policy makers. Japan's economic hardships took their toll on The Language Teacher last year, resulting in reduced advertisement revenue. JALT budget allocations for publications also shrunk. We have compensated by trimming the size of TLT . Without compromising the quality of the content, we have made cuts to all parts of the magazine. We continue to flourish, and the creative thinking of our staff to keep TLT looking good has been admirable. However, if the current trend continues, TLT will have to make some choices. We certainly endeavour to maintain our position as a monthly periodical, but without the support and belief that JALT publications are important, our status will undoubtedly be altered.
The lead article in this issue, by Joseph Tomei, Christopher Glick, and Mark Holst, presents information about projects and their suitability to EFL classes and describes a survey project that the authors have used with great success. Roger Pattimore describes an e-mail writing course which he piloted with third-year junior high school students.
This month's selection of practical articles for classroom use continues with Alan Mackenzie's article which describes a product development simulation he has used with intermediate business English classes, in which groups of students designed a product and presented a boardroom proposal for its adoption. Next, Tammy Slater discusses the usefulness of illustrations in pair-work tasks in language classrooms and shows, through transcriptions of student discourse, how illustrations can influence the language which learners use to complete various pair-work tasks.
Fan Xianlong reports a successful program he has developed for use with graduate students in China which integrates the development of receptive and productive English language skills to facilitate overall competence.
Our Japanese language article this month, by Yamato Ryusuke, reports on a study of intermediate Japanese EFL learners' metacognitive writing strategies and the relationship between metacognition and quality of written work.
In an interview with Kirstin Schwartz, Career Services Coordinator for TESOL, Craig Sower and Wayne K. Johnson report on recent employment trends around the world.
In the Opinions and Perspectives section, Johanne Leveille poses the question, Will our students be ready for the future? and offers some suggestions on how educators in Japan can help.
