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The Language Teacher | |
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JALT has two types of organisations,
the regional chapters, which number about 39 at present and the National Special
Interest Groups (N-SIGs) of which JALT has 12 and two are currently forming. N-SIG
members receive three or more newsletters yearly. N-SIGs are also active in international
networking and special publications. This special edition of the JALT The
Language Teacher, for example, is part of the PALE N-SIG mission to promote
international relations and publications. The N-SIGs conduct an annual forum and
annual general meeting (AGM) at the international JALT conference, held this year,
October 9-12 in Hamamatsu, Japan. N-SIGs also conduct roundtables and colloquia at
the conference as well as events throughout the year in regions all over Japan. The
N-SIGs can be contacted individually with the information included with each brief
or through the central office in Tokyo. Linguistic, geographic and political factors have worked together to make bilingualism less prominent in Japan than in many other countries. Nevertheless, a small percentage of the Japanese population has always been bilingual, and this percentage continues to increase. The Bilingualism N-SIG was formed to help serve this growing community of bilingual speakers and scholars. We strive to encourage bilingualism research, facilitate the wide dissemination of findings on bilingualism, and provide a base for mutual support among our members. At the time of our N-SIG's formation in 1990, the majority of our members were parents trying to raise and educate their children bilingually in Japan, and child bilingualism remains a core issue for our N-SIG. At the 1996 JALT International Conference, the best attended of our three presentations on bilingualism was a roundtable discussion entitled "Educational Options for Bilingual Children in Japan." Six panelists described how and why they choose between Japanese public school, international school, distance education, self-organized Saturday school, and boarding school for their children's formal education, and how they balanced this education with the language environment in their homes. Every year we organize several presentations on bilingualism at the JALT International Conference. Our N-SIG has never limited itself to issues concerning child bilingualism. We encourage a variety of bilingualism studies, and as our membership (over 300 at present) continues to increase so does the range of bilingual issues that we are able to address in our presentations and publications. The Bilingualism N-SIG produces three types of publications. N-SIG members receive our 20-page bimonthly newsletter, Bilingual Japan, which contains a mixture of formal and informal articles about bilingualism and biculturalism in Japan. Regular newsletter columns include "Bilingualism and Biculturalism in the News," "Research Forum," "Bilingual Case-Study," "Bilingual Child-Raising in Japan," and "Children's Books." We have published four monographs on bilingualism which can be purchased by members and non-members. Three of the monographs are written in English and one in Japanese. The material in all of the monographs originally appeared in our newsletter as a serial. In 1995 we published the inaugural issue of our annual journal, The Japan Journal of Multilingualism and Multiculturalism, as a forum for longer research articles on bilingualism. The third issue will be published in the fall of 1997. The journal is available by subscription to both members and non-members. To assist N-SIG members in obtaining research materials on bilingualism, we have
established The Bilingual Resource, an extensive bibliography of books and
articles on bilingualism which members have access to and are willing to lend to
other members. For more information about the activities or publications of the Bilingualism
N-SIG, contact Peter Gray at: 1-3-5-1 Atsubetsu-higashi, Atsubetsu-ku, Sapporo JAPAN
004. Tel/fax (h): +81 (11) 897 9891; Tel. (w): +81 (11) 881 2721; Fax (w): +81 (11)
881 9843; Email: <rxp03054@niftyserve.or.jp>. CUE networks with instructors of foreign languages employed at colleges and universities in Japan and internationally. We address the specific needs of foreign language teachers in higher education by (a) offering a base for mutual support, networking, and professional development among the group's members, (b) disseminating information about current research relating to language teaching in higher education, (c) helping members understand information related to teaching at colleges and universities in Japan, (d) providing a forum for the exchange of information and opinion between educators in higher education. To reach our goals we have focused on the following activities:
We believe that working toward these goals will not only benefit the CUE N-SIG
members, but also their students and institutions.
For more Information contact: Sandra T. Nakata--Co-Coordinator, 4811 Kami-Tsuruma
#353, Sagamihara-Shi, Kanagawa-Ken 228. Tel: +81 (462) 51 1520 ext 267-6178; Email:
<75021.1560@compuserve.com>
or Thom Simmons--Co-Coordinator, 2-28-10-303 Morigaoka, Isogoku, Yokohama 235 JAPAN.
Fax: +81 (45) 845 8242; Email: <malang@gol.com>
or our Web page at <http://interserver.miyazaki-med.ac.jp/~cue/1.html>. The JALT CALL N-SIG: this "letter soup" means we are the computer special interest group in Japan's second largest language teaching organization. With about 275 members in June 1996, we hope to act as a force within JALT and the language teaching profession to encourage and facilitate computer use for teaching, learning, research, administration, and evaluation. We were founded in 1992 through the efforts of Professor Kazunori Nozawa, Toyohashi University of Technology, and officially recognized as a JALT N-SIG in 1993. Since then we have been disseminating information through our newsletters, published three times a year. In 1993, we held a conference on computers and composition at Kinjo Gakuin University in Nagoya. In 1994, we published the proceedings of the conference, held a software fair, and participated in several regional conferences. In 1995, we held another software fair, and provided CALL programs at JALT's international conference, JALT95, regional conferences and chapter presentations. We established our own Internet e-list for EFL in Japan, <jaltcall>. This list allows anyone from around the world to participate in an ongoing discussion of topics related to teaching languages in Japan. Professor Ozeki at Chubu University maintains the computers, while Steve McGuire manages the list. Steve has also started other lists for JALT executives and N-SIG officers. Kazunori Nozawa also started our electronic journal, JALTCALL-EJ, in 1995. For more information, try our Web Page, maintained by Larry Davies, at: <http://langue.hyper.chubu.ac.jp/jalt/>.
Please read the welcome message you will be sent to learn how to receive <jaltcall>
as a digest. For more information contact: Kevin Ryan, Showa Women's University, 1-7 Taishido,
Setagaya, Tokyo 154 JAPAN. Email: <ryan@swu.ac.jp>. If you are in any way interested in the concerns discussed in the article (this
issue), "Literacy in Foreign Language," (or in the teaching and learning
of reading and writing as it relates to FLT and your own teaching and research interests),
you are by all means encouraged to join and empower this forming N-SIG. Become an
officer or an active member and help see this through to fruition. The field of FL
Literacy is undeveloped and wide open and so is this nascent N-SIG. As educators in the 1990s, we live in critical times. How can we prepare our students to cope with the problems facing our global village? What is our responsibility as language teachers in a world of war, poverty, prejudice, and pollution? These questions are addressed by JALT's Global Issues in Language Education N-SIG, a unique group of professional language educators working to promote global awareness, international understanding, and the study of world problems through foreign language teaching. Our N-SIG is comprised of classroom teachers, school directors, and textbook writers who share a special interest in global education, a new approach to teaching which aims at enabling students to effectively acquire a foreign language while empowering them with the knowledge, skills, and commitment required by world citizens for the solution of global problems. Our SIG thus has a double commitment to excellence in language education and to "teaching for a better world." The Global Issues N-SIG was established in June 1991. Our official aims are: (a) to promote the integration of global issues, global awareness and social responsibility into foreign language teaching; (b) to promote networking and mutual support among language educators dealing with global issues; and (c) to promote awareness among language teachers of important developments in global education and the related fields of environmental education, human rights education, peace education, and development education. We produce an exciting quarterly newsletter containing a wealth of information: global education abstracts from language teaching journals, articles on topics such as women's issues and human rights, reports on peace education conferences, and overseas pen pal programs, classroom activities on rainforests and prejudice reduction, and a "Who's Doing What?" section profiling teachers involved with areas such as AIDS education, intercultural understanding, and world hunger. In addition to the newsletter, our N-SIG has also produced three special issues of JALT's monthly magazine containing articles, activities, book reviews, and bibliographies on topics such as global education course design, Third World study tours, conflict resolution, and global issues in children's EFL. We are proud of our many networking contacts, which include peace and global issue groups in TESOL and IATEFL as well as international organizations such as Educators for Social Responsibility, Amnesty International, and UNESCO. Each year our N-SIG organizes a variety of presentations for local, regional, and national conferences. Typical events include chapter presentations on world citizenship, workshops on global awareness EFL games, a recent Tokyo symposium on peace education, and annual colloquia and roundtables at JALT's national conference on such topics as LINGUAPAX, environmentally friendly language teaching, global issues in textbooks, and socially-responsible teaching materials. Other N-SIG activities include EFL book donations to resource-poor countries such
as Vietnam, fund-raising for children's homes in India, national lecture tours by
Russian and European peace educators, and promotion of international events such
as Earth Day. Those interested in our SIG are warmly invited to join or to write
us for more information and a sample copy of our newsletter.
When looking at this list, one may wonder how challenging and demanding it is
to consider and study all these issues. In a sense, the JSL N-SIG is a meeting place
of people with various specialties within the field of general second/foreign language
education. We are in a stronger position for this, since we can exchange ideas and
information with members of other N-SIGs who are more tuned to each specific issue.
The main project of the N-SIG this year has been in student-centered language learning (SCLL). Various presentations were given throughout Japan on "Making Your Classroom Student-Centered." These presentations took place in Tokyo for the JALT Tokyo Bookfair, in Kyoto for the JALT Kansai Bookfair, and in Osaka for the Osaka Teachers Union. Other presentations were given for the JET Program in Kobe for their Kobe Renewers' Conference. In addition to the presentations, the N-SIG has published three newsletters and will soon be publishing its handbook, Holistic Student-Centered Language Learning (SCLL) Handbook for Japanese Secondary Foreign Language Education. After this handbook is published, we plan to give three or four Saturday workshops on SCLL in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, and/or Kanazawa. We will begin another project: the development of an activity/project cards packet.
This packet will include 250 junior high school and 250 senior high school activity
and project cards, teacher's instructions, translation of high school card directions,
supplementary materials, and an email Teachers' HOTLINE line for those who have questions
about using the cards. For more information contact: Michael Reber, JSH N-SIG Joint
Coordinator, 148 Nishishin-machi, Matto, Ishikawa-ken 924. Tel (h): +81 (762) 74
3144; Tel (w): +81 (762) 76 1111; Fax (w): +81 (762) 741634; Email: <hokusei@incl.or.jp>. Many students of English in Japan ask their teachers, "What is the best way to learn English?" Meanwhile, many language teachers are struggling with their own language learning experiences. On both sides of the language "street," one often finds frustrated learners who look back on years of study and practice and ask, when will I really be able to speak/read/write/understand _______ (insert language name here) well? Japanese classrooms, like those in other countries, have a history of teacher control and student passivity. In the search for alternatives to that paradigm, some teachers see great potential in the trend toward learners taking responsibility for their own learning. It was with this hope for effecting change in language learning that we started the LD N-SIG in 1994. It is a network for language teachers interested in developing learner autonomy, improving use by students of learning strategies and improving our own language learning ability. About half of our current (over 180) members are Japanese (teaching English or Japanese as a second language), while the remainder are foreigners, most of whom are teaching English. We have just decided to merge our two quarterly, bilingual newsletters, Learning Learning and Learner to Learner, into one. The new Learning Learning will feature articles on learner autonomy and learning strategies together with regular columns on learner development related conferences and activities in and out of the country, conference presentation reviews, book reviews, journal reviews, and members' publications. It will include a feature of our previous publication Learner to Learner, a forum for members to share ideas and advice about their own learning of Japanese and other languages. There is also a Learner Development web page at: <http://www.ipcs.shizuoka.ac.jp/~eanaoki/LD/homeE.html> that carries information about the N-SIG, event information, links to other sites, and some of the articles in the back issues of Learning Learning. Apart from local meetings, we sponsor individual presentations and colloquia at the annual International JALT conferences. The Learner Development N-SIG co-sponsored a symposium with the Shizuoka JALT chapter on "Strategies for Learner Autonomy" in May 1995, which featured presentations on topics ranging from cooperative learning to self-access arrangements and classroom-based learner training. In 1996, The Learner Development N-SIG worked with the Japanese as a Second Language N-SIG to organize a day of presentations on "Kanji Teaching and Learning," and a one-day program of twelve action workshops with the Teacher Education N-SIG in Tokyo. Internationally, we already have strong links with groups that include HASALD
in Hong Kong, Thai TESOL's Self-Access SIG, and IATEFL's Learner Independence SIG.
We hope to extend such links to other groups, and at the same time maintain our focus
on the Japanese context. Those interested in the Learner Development N-SIG are warmly
invited to join or to write us for more information and a sample copy of our newsletter.
Now in its fifth year, the MW N-SIG brings together teachers interested in producing original teaching materials, whether intended simply for their own classroom use or to reach a wider audience through publication. Since we aim to embrace all media, perhaps "Materials Creators" would have been a more apt choice of names, but since the creation of all teaching materials begins with writing, "Materials Writers" will suffice. Some people, particularly those who have not yet published commercially, are perhaps intimidated by the sound of it and apprehensive about joining us. Don't be! We want to bring non-commercial writers in touch with commercial ones, novice writers into touch with more experienced ones, and everyone into closer touch with publishers. Our premise is that doing so will promote continually rising standards in language teaching materials. In the last few years, our activities at JALT's international conferences have snowballed. We have sponsored speakers, arranged a publisher's roundtable on copyright, and organized an annual swap-meet of original teaching materials, which we co-sponsor with the Language Teacher's "My Share" column editor. "My Share--Live!" is now a regular feature of the conference and always attracts a good number of teachers with activities and lesson plans to swap. It also inspired a junior version at the Tokyo Spring Conference of 1995. Submissions from these three events were collected into a volume of teaching ideas, appropriately entitled Our Share (published in February 1997). It is our intention to continue hosting this event each year and to make the production of subsequent collections an ongoing project. Our newsletter, now in its fifth volume, has attracted a wide variety of articles on a number of subjects related to materials writing. Submissions are always welcome, especially since last year's decision to increase its frequency to six per year. Our aim now and for the future is to maintain at least bimonthly publication. Articles range in genre from the personal experience ("how I did it") type to the more theoretical ("what considerations to keep in mind") type, including factually-oriented articles such as those keeping us abreast of commercial publishers' submission requirements, market needs, the intricacies of copyright law, and so on. We see the MW N-SIG as perfectly capable of hooking up to just about any other,
a "hub" N-SIG as it were. No matter what your interest in language teaching,
active participation in MW will inspire you to translate your interests into teachable
language materials. Join us to expand your horizons and project your expertise to
future generations--become a Materials Writer! Many people learn languages other than English and Japanese at various institutional
and private levels in Japan. Some of the members of JALT are teachers (and learners)
of languages such as German, French, Chinese, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian.
The idea for OLE started with the insight that teachers and learners of other languages
and cultures should be able to share as many ideas as possible with all people concerned
and demonstrate their views, concerns, and interests on a wider scale within JALT.
Tasks: Presently, the following tasks seem to be urgent:
Activities for OLE Teachers
Networking: Teachers (and learners) of languages beyond English and Japanese
at all levels of education are invited to participate. A unique characteristic of
this forming N-SIG, however, is that it has to network with many people still outside
JALT (e.g. teachers organized in their own German, French, Chinese teachers' associations).
Thus this N-SIG also helps with spreading knowledge about JALT. The JALT PALE N-SIG was formed to provide information and discussion on a broad spectrum of issues that underlay the field of language education as a professional endeavour. We consider the welfare of society as the defining attribute of a profession as well as the mission and the standard of professional competence and success. To that end, for the sake of continued development of the profession, commitment to ethics and continued education are essential. Furthermore, since language education plays an essential role in society and access to quality education should be the right of all people, we promote the independence and autonomy of the professional community, and at the same time believe that individual professionals bear responsibility for their role in language education. To keep teachers apprised of current research and trends, we maintain a professional forum for administration, education, research and leadership. The PALE Newsletter has included articles on peer observation, student performance, copyright laws, publishing on the Internet and in Japan, tenure, adjunct faculty, discriminatory practices, announcements from other professional education organisations, controversy surrounding the Japanese Ministry of Education's guidelines, implementing theory in applied linguistics in the classroom, and teaching in large classes. PALE considers the following points essential for language educators:
For more information, contact the Membership Chair Shiozawa Tadashi at: Jarudan
Shinkanayama 301, Kanayama 1-8-19 Naka-ku, Nagoya 460. Email: <shiozawa@clc.hyper.chubu.ac.jp>
or at his Web page: <http://langue.hyper.chubu.ac.jp/shiozawa/>. Everyone's students, no matter how old they are now, once were children. Chances are that if those children began learning another language when they were young, then their language skills, their understanding and appreciation of other cultures, even their social skills in their first language are better than those of their peers who didn't have the same opportunity. Teachers of children know this, and we know how important it is for children to begin their language education early and successfully. Teaching children has therefore become one of the biggest and fastest growing fields in second and foreign language education. However, many teachers of children teach in isolation, or have limited contact with innovations and trends in the field. JALT's TC N-SIG has been formed to help these teachers. We are one of the newer N-SIGs, having just celebrated our first birthday in January 1997. Teachers of children do many different things professionally: classroom teaching, materials preparation, research, even training other teachers of children. Our goals are to help this diverse group by offering a forum for sharing information, networking with other professionals, and providing support groups. Teachers of children want and need information about teaching in elementary schools, teaching returnees, preparing materials for children, and teacher training courses. We publish a quarterly newsletter with articles about these topics. In our first year the newsletter had articles about using picture books, computers in EFL for kids, Internet sources, and numerous tips and ideas for the classroom, plus a calendar of events for teachers of children all over Japan. We have worked with the Kobe and Gunma chapters to provide presentations for local area teachers, and sponsored a roundtable discussion at both JALT95 and JALT96, with speakers Yuri Kuno, Yoko Matsuka, Ritsuko Nakata, Masami Ormandy, and David Paul. Now we are working to form links with other international groups, as well as to cooperate in opening up international doors for educators of children. Within the next 5 years, the Japanese Ministry of Education has plans to introduce
English education into all elementary schools in Japan. What does that mean to those
of us who now teach children? What role might we play in helping elementary school
teachers with this new role? How can we work with schools to provide quality English
language education to children? We will be discussing and debating questions such
as these in the months to come. Join the TC N-SIG and help figure out the answers.
Video has vast potential for enriching language study and making it more enjoyable and effective. Research into how best to choose from and use available materials is our primary goal. Video can offer multilingual and multicultural perspectives in what are often otherwise essentially monolingual and monocultural societies. Its methodology extends across all disciplines and involves the areas of instruction, teaching training/ development, and research. We aim to confront the need for quality communication between specialist and beginner, to provide practical guidance, and to influence video producers to increase the choice, quality, and availability of pedagogically relevant material. The Video N-SIG increasingly sees itself as part of an international and, in particular, an East Asian community. Since regional education systems share many similarities, we believe that our organization can help facilitate the exchange of insights into, and applications of, the use of video in our classrooms. Our newsletter, Video Rising, is published three times a year and averages
16 to 20 pages; contributors hail from all over the globe. In addition to articles
and announcements, it contains reviews of ELT and other video materials and reviews
of Japanese language teaching videos. The section "Swap Shop" provides
practical tips and ideas for video use in the form of lesson plans. While most issues
addressed in Video Rising have to do with the use of authentic video (as opposed
to ELT videos made specifically for teaching purposes), articles on the use of video
cameras and the videotaping of both students and teachers also appear. Additionally,
the Video N-SIG cooperates with other N-SIGs to see how video can serve their purposes.
Johanna E. Katchen, Coordinator of the Video N-SIG can be reached at: Dept of Foreign Languages, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, 30043, TAIWAN ROC. Tel. (w) +886 (3) 574 2705; Tel. (h): +886 (3) 572 0149; Fax (w): +886 (3) 571 8977; Email: <katchen@FL.nthu.edu.tw>.
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