Saturday Presentations
Rising EMI in Japan: Implications for EAP practice
- Brown, Howard - University of Niigata Prefecture
- 10:05 - 10:30
- Room 513
Short Paper
Drawing on ongoing case studies of four English-medium Instruction programs in Japan and a nation-wide survey of universities offering EMI, the researcher will discuss the current state of EMI programs and connections between EMI and language programs. Possible implications of the growth of EMI for EAP practice will be considered.
Bio: Howard Brown is an associate professor at the University of Niigata Prefecture where he heads the Academic-Communicative English program and sits of the steering committee for the English- medium Studies program. His recent research interests include program and curriculum design for CLIL and EMI and the relationship between EMI and EAP.
Vocabulary acquisition and autonomous learning: Creating autonomous vocabulary notebooks
- McCandie, Tanja - Nanzan University
- 10:45 - 11:10
- Room 508
Short Paper
This presentation will focus on how creating learner driven vocabulary notebooks gives students control over their learning and how teachers can assess these notebooks and their students’ vocabulary acquisition.
Bio: Tanja McCandie has taught English in Canada, England, and Japan and is currently teaching at Nanzan University in Nagoya.
Asking for Help in the Communicative Classroom
- Rian, Joel - Hokkaido Information University
- 10:45 - 11:45
- Room 507
Workshop
When language learners don’t understand what someone is saying, they can interrupt and request repetition, clarification, or slower delivery—a communication strategy called “Asking for Help” that receives too little classroom attention. This workshop offers activities and materials that practice this communication strategy in the Japanese EFL university classroom.
Bio: Joel Rian is a full-time lecturer in the Faculty of Business Administration & Information Science at Hokkaido Information University. Currently a PhD candidate at Macquarie University, he is researching communication strategy training and use in the EFL classroom.
Student perceptions of smartphone use for learning
- Hall, Jeremiah - Nagoya University of Foreign Studies
- 11:20 - 11:45
- Room 508
Short Paper
This presentation explores the results of a survey measuring student perceptions of smartphone use for learning. Surveying students helps instructors make informed classroom policies on technology use and tailor the policies to their students’ specific needs. Participants will receive a copy of the survey and survey results.
Bio: Jeremiah Hall is a full-time EFL lecturer at Nagoya University of Foreign Studies. In 2004, he received a M.A. in English from California State University, Fullerton, and taught for the English Department and the Business Communication Program for nine years. His research interests include technology use in learning and vocabulary retention.
Slide design for academic presentations
- Beck, Daniel - Toyo Gakuen University
- 12:00 - 1:00
- Room 508
Workshop
This workshop will discuss the shortcomings of academic presentations that rely on poorly designed, text-heavy slides and will demonstrate simple design principles and examples that can help academics present research in a serious manner while still using slides that complement the results and impact audiences.
Bio: Daniel Beck teaches at Toyo Gakuen University and Waseda University. His areas of interest include technology in language learning, especially design and social media.
Implementing the task-based syllabus in the Japanese classroom.
- Gentner, Michael Thomas - Panyapiwat University
- 12:00 - 12:25
- Room 513
Short Paper
This presentation will focus on a task-based teaching approach specifically designed for the learning preferences of Japanese EFL students. Research by Japanese and international scholars are presented followed by sample material and lesson plans that produce more effective teaching and more efficient learning.
Bio: Michael Thomas Gentner obtained his Ph.D in TESOL as well as certifications in TEFL and CELTA. He lectures, writes, and speaks on topics related to EFL in Asia. He has taught in Korea,China, Japan, Cambodia, and Thailand. He is presently Associate Professor of English at Panyapiwat University in Bangkok.
Pedagogical Activity Preferences: Differences based on placement exam level
- Ockert, David - Toyo University
- 12:35 - 1:00
- Room 507
Short Paper
The presenter reports on first-year Japanese university student (N=220) pedagogical preferences. Six may be considered instructivist pedagogical activities (TAs) and six are constructivist CLT/TBLT activities. All the C/TBAs are ranked higher by the UI group and show a statistically significant difference compared with the PI group. The results are discussed.
Bio: David Ockert has a M.Ed. from Temple University and a Level 2 JLPT certificate. He presently works for Toyo University. His research interests are in CLT, TBLT, CALL, motivation and student affect and self-determination theory in educational contexts.
Pronunciation course for international PhD students
- Clingwall, C Dion - Hiroshima University
- 12:35 - 1:00
- Room 513
Short Paper
This presentation looks at the demand versus the need for an intensive pronunciation course within the curriculum framework of an international PhD graduate program. Of particular importance are the course outcomes which were drawn from learner feedback.
Bio: Dion Clingwall hails from Canada and now works as an associate professor in the Phoenix Leader Education Program at Hiroshima University. His current research interests include international graduate education, scientific writing, pronunciation, presentation skills, and English education for nurses.
World English’s, EIL, and English as a Lingua Franca: Incorporating a pluralistic view of English into our teaching
- D’Angelo, James - Chukyo University
- 2:00 - 3:00
- Room 513
Plenary
Many English language teachers and university educators around the world are at least familiar with the terms world Englishes, EIL and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), but they are often misinterpreted, and their commonalities and differences are not well understood. This keynote will begin with a brief explanation of the three constructs including the history of their development, and then focus primarily on ELF and its potential as a paradigm to inform our teaching. The talk will proceed from the stance that theory is important in informing practice, and we practitioners can benefit greatly by keeping in touch with developments in related research fields. Within the context of Japanese higher education, and in many of Kachru’s other ‘expanding circle’ countries (Turkey, Greece, Austria, China, Brazil, Vietnam), there has been great recent interest in ELF, but teachers are not clear on its classroom implications. In this talk, I will provide a range of concrete ideas to implement and test out in your English skills classes, as well as those which could be used to inform EMI- or CLIL-based education, in a way that best fits Japan.We cannot at this point say there is an “ELF method”, but with the cooperation of an increasing number of teachers around the world, it seems clear that ELF insights can be of great value in helping to adjust our classrooms to better reflect, and better prepare our students for, the reality they will face in their future work and personal lives.
References:
D’Angelo, J. (2012) “WEs informed EIL Curriculum at Chukyo: Towards a functional, educated, multilingual outcome.” In A. Matsuda (ed.) Principles and Practices of Teaching English as an International Language. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Jenkins, J. (2013) English as a Lingua Franca in the International University: The Politics of Academic English Language Policy. London: Routledge.
Seidlhofer, B. (2009) “Common Ground and Different Realities: world Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca.” World Englishes, 28(2), 236–245.
Widdowson, H.G. (2012) “ELF and the inconvenience of established concepts.” Journal of English as a Lingua Franca, 1(1): 5–26.
Bio: James D’Angelo is professor in the College of World Englishes, Chukyo University and chair of the World Englishes and Business major there. He serves on the board of the Japan Association for Asian Englishes (JAFAE), and as Editor in Chief of the Routledge journal Asian Englishes. His work has appeared in World Englishes, English World-Wide, and in various edited book collections with Multilingual Matters, Springer, John Benjamins and Kinseido. His primary interest lies in synthesizing an ELT paradigm for the expanding circle, and Japan in particular, which draws on features of World Englishes, EIL, and English as a Lingua Franca.
College and University Educators (CUE) SIG Annual General Meeting
- Gough, Wendy - SIG Coordinator
- 3:10 - 3:45
- Room 513
Meeting
The CUE SIG Annual General Meeting (AGM) and an opportunity for SIG members to become involved and discuss CUE activities. We will announce officer openings and discuss the new CUE Circular newsletter and the 2016 ESP Symposium 2016. CUE will also hold an AGM at the JALT International Conference in November where we will present officer reports, hold officer elections, and continue the dialogue from the CUE conference AGM.
Measuring Faculty EAP Self-Efficacy for “Super Global” Purposes
- Sponseller, Aaron - Hiroshima University Graduate School of Education
- 3:50 - 5:20
- Room 504
Poster Presentation
Improving faculty EAP skills is challenging. This presentation showcases what one department at a “Super Global” university did to begin meeting their EAP goals. A survey measuring faculty members’ EAP self-efficacy was designed, distributed, validated, and acted upon to address the EAP needs the faculty identified as most critical.
Bio: Aaron C. Sponseller is a lecturer in the Graduate School of Education at Hiroshima University. He teaches research methodology and his research interests include English for academic purposes and novel approaches to early childhood L2 literacy development.
4-minute presentations
- Payne, Sylvan - Hitotsubashi University
- Beck, Daniel - Toyo Gakuen University
- 3:50 - 5:20
- Room 504
Poster Presentation
How do we teach presentation skills to large classes of language students with limited time? This presentation advocates starting small with strict time limits, and outlines the step-by-step process of teaching skills, choosing topics, preparing scripts and slideshows, monitoring practice, assessing performance, and managing presentation events.
Bio: Sylvan Payne teaches in the PACE Program at Hitotsubashi University. He specializes in presentation skills and digital materials development. He has an MA in TEFL from Columbia International University. Daniel Beck teaches at Toyo Gakuen University and Waseda University. His areas of interest include technology in language learning, especially design and social media.
Using computers to improve English language learners’ pronunciation
- Barnes, Ryan - Nagoya Gakuin University
- 3:50 - 5:20
- Room 504
Poster Presentation
This poster presentation will examine some free (or low-cost) and easy-to-use software programs that aid in English language learners’ pronunciation. Some implementations include making podcasts, automatic pronunciation scoring, and facilitated assessment inside and outside of the classroom. It will also examine findings and recommendations in the research.
Bio: Ryan Barnes is a lecturer in the Faculty of Economics at Nagoya Gakuin University. His research interests include computer assisted language learning and English language learner peer assessment.
Integrating online speech into the university classroom
- Ross, Gary - Kanazawa University
- 3:50 - 4:50
- Room 508
Workshop
Online speech is a powerful tool now being built into modern browsers. This workshop will demonstrate a system that allows students to have conversations with their computer, which are then graded automatically. Such tools will revolutionize how students practice speaking outside the classroom, and how educators track speaking progress.
Bio: The presenter was the head of online development for English language learning at KIDI Parsons School of Design, and is now the Director of English in the Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Science Dept. at Kanazawa University.
Gamification – Uncertain rewards and dopamine
- Cihi, Guy - Lexxica R&D
- 3:50 - 4:50
- Room 513
Presentation
Presenter will review gamification trends, and Paul Howard-Jones’ research into how uncertain rewards increase the production of dopamine; a neurotransmitter associated with emotional attachment and memory. Presenter will conclude by introducing a free mobile EFL game integrating uncertain rewards in an efficient way.
Student awareness of their own language learning goals
- Kitzman, Alison - Kinki University
- 5:05 - 5:30
- Room 507
Short Paper
Teachers often lament how students are ill prepared for and unaware of the higher expectations of university. This presentation will first address how 330 university freshmen reported on their personal goal setting and expectations, then how to approach goal setting more effectively in the classroom.
Bio: Alison Kitzman received her MA TESOL at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and created an EFL program in Russia before coming to Japan. Since 1997 she has worked at Kinki University teaching Business English, creating curricula, and writing materials. Her research interests include learning inhibitions, needs theory, and pronunciation.
Decolonizing the self: Becoming a teacher educator
- Snyder, Bill - Kanda University of International Studies
- 5:05 - 5:30
- Room 513
Short Paper
Analyzing topics, texts, and assignments from twenty years of second language acquisition course syllabuses, the presenter’s change in disciplinary identity from linguist to language teacher educator is traced. The process reflects a growing belief in the disciplinary independence of language teacher education. Implications for language teacher education curricula are discussed.
Bio: Bill Snyder is Assistant Director of the MA TESOL Program at Kanda University of International Studies. He received his PhD in linguistics, specializing in second language acquisition from Northwestern University. He is interested in reflective practice in professional development and curriculum design for language teacher education.
Sunday Presentations
Corrective Feedback: Sharing ideas and perspectives
- Rae, Jenell - Sugiyama Jogakuen University
- 9:30 - 10:30
- Room 507
Workshop
Instructors often lack consistency or a solid system for assessing writing. In this presentation a quick review of different schools of thought on error correction will be discussed. Audience members will then participate in a workshop in which they will evaluate writing samples and compare their approaches to error correction.
Bio: Jenell is from the U.S., and has been teaching English for about 12 years. Before teaching in Japan, she taught ESL, freshman composition, and literature in the Los Angeles area. She is currently the coordinator of first-year Grammar and second-year Reading and Writing at Sugiyama Jogakuen in Nagoya, Japan.
Working to ensure students’ needs with appropriate topics
- Kitzman, Alison - Kinki University
- 9:30 - 9:55
- Room 508
Short paper
This presentation will analyze the results of a 905-student survey-ranking of 20 topics and reveal which ones most interest students. Discussion will include student-needs and recommendations for optimally choosing topics or manipulating less popular topics in order to optimally motivate students to produce English in a student-centered fashion.
Bio: Alison Kitzman received her MA TESOL at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and created an EFL program in Russia before coming to Japan. Since 1997 she has worked at Kinki University teaching Business English, creating curricula, and writing materials. Her research interests include learning inhibitions, needs theory, and pronunciation.
Diagnosing L2 listening abilities: Preliminary findings
- Carney, Nathaniel - Kobe College
- 10:05 - 10:30
- Room 508
Short paper
In this presentation, the researcher gives a brief overview of L2 diagnostic assessment research and then describes a diagnostic approach to L2 listening that employed dictation and transcription tasks to understand 66 Japanese university EFL learners’ strengths and weaknesses segmenting native English speech.
Bio: Nathaniel Carney is an Associate Professor of English at Kobe College in Nishinomiya. His research interests include L2 language assessment, L2 listening and speaking pedagogy, and formulaic language’s role in fluency.
Case Study: Diversity in cross-boundary innovation program
- Ng, Lay Sion - Osaka University
- 10:45 - 11:10
- Room 507
Short paper
Cross-Boundary Innovation Program (CBI), established by Osaka University and sponsored by Japan government, is a program that attempts to produce next generation Ph.D. graduates who are able to think outside the box. Personal experiences and explanation about how diverse is this program will be shared during the presentation. Also, problems and challenges for achieving diversity that the members of the program are facing now would be explained. After looking through those issues, we will come to the discussion that “can CBI program really achieve ”diversity“ by making the students global all-round leaders?”.
Bio: Ng Lay Sion, Born in Malaysia. Undergraduate in Faculty of Human Development and Culture (British Literatute), Fukushima University. Graduate in Language and Culture department (American Literature), Osaka University.
Implementing the four strands in course design and lesson planning
- Beck, Daniel - Toyo Gakuen University
- 10:45 - 11:45
- Room 508
Workshop
Nation proposes a “four strands” approach to balance tasks in courses and lessons. In this workshop, participants will hear the rationale for the four strands and be given examples of tasks for each strand and ideas of how to plan courses and lessons that successfully balance the strands.
Bio: Daniel Beck teaches at Toyo Gakuen University and Waseda University. His areas of interest include technology in language learning, especially design and social media.
Retelling stories for positive past selves
- Falout, Joseph - Nihon University
- 10:45 - 11:10
- Room 513
Short paper
Helping students find guidance, temporal continuity, and meaning in learning, past selves are images learners have of themselves in past learning experiences, and are continually reconstructed in the present by self-stories. Retelling self-stories, for motivated or demotivated students, promotes increased motivation, self-regulation, enjoyment, and learning in the present and future.
Bio: Joseph Falout, an Associate Professor at Nihon University, has authored or coauthored over 40 publications of papers and book chapters about language learning affect, motivation, and group dynamics. He received awards for publications and presentations from JALT. Collaborations include creating: critical participatory looping, present communities of imagining, and ideal classmates.
Blended English Language Learning (BELL): Blending on-site teaching in a university academic English program with distance learning
- Tanaka, Keiko - Meiji Gakuin University
- Ueno, Aviva - Meiji Gakuin University
- 11:20 - 11:45
- Room 507
Short paper
This presentation introduces Blended English Language Learning (BELL), a program which addresses the issues of insufficient communicative opportunities in classrooms, limited resources to lower student-teacher ratio, and declining student motivation. It is of interest to university educators seeking an innovative way to address the needs of learners and educational institutions.
Bio: Keiko Tanaka is a Professor in the Faculty of International Studies at Meiji Gakuin University. Her interest is in academic English education and L2 motivation. She teaches sociolinguistics, TESOL, and applied linguistics. She was formerly an MA. TESOL Program coordinator at a California state university.
Bio: Aviva Ueno is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of International Studies at Meiji Gakuin University. Her areas of interest are using technology to make language acquisition more accessible to learners, using journal studies to promote reflective teaching and L2 motivation.
All together now: Poetry, gender, race, and language skills
- Hoffman Aoki, Quenby - Sophia University
- 12:00 - 12:25
- Room 507
Short paper
This presentation focuses on the use of contemporary poetry by women and writers of color as a tool for developing language skills and awareness of gender and race. Carefully-selected poems are relevant for students at various skill levels, and are easily connected with current events and students’ life experience.
Bio: Quenby Hoffman Aoki teaches at Sophia University in the English Literature Department. Her academic background is Japanese Language (B.S. 1988) and TESOL (M.S. 1995), but books have always been her first love. She has scribbled in various notebooks her entire life and shows no signs of stopping.
Trends in access to higher education in Japan
- Laurence, David - Chubu University
- 12:00 - 12:25
- Room 513
Short paper
Demographic shifts in Japan are putting pressures on the higher education system. This presentation will discuss how these shifts change who has access to higher education, how they see it, what educators teach, how they teach it, and how educators will need to approach students in this new context.
Bio: David Laurence is associate professor at Chubu University’s Department of English Language and Culture and holds a Master of Arts in Linguistics from Ohio University. He is currently a doctoral candidate with the University of Liverpool, and this presentation stems from the studies he is doing there.
Navigating student-level diversity to develop communicative competence through oral presentations
- Hall, Jeremiah - Nagoya University of Foreign Studies
- Hirata, Eric - Nagoya University of Foreign Studies
- 12:35 - 1:00
- Room 507
Short paper
The presenters will share strategies for adapting oral presentation course instruction to meet the diverse needs of EFL students from differing student levels and areas of study. Participants will learn to meet their students’ varied communicative goals and receive sample course materials for instruction and assessment.
Bio: Jeremiah Hall is a full-time EFL lecturer at Nagoya University of Foreign Studies. In 2004, he received a M.A. in English from California State University, Fullerton, and taught for the English Department and the Business Communication Program for nine years. His research interests include technology use in learning and vocabulary retention.
Bio: Eric Hirata is a full-time EFL lecturer at Nagoya University of Foreign Studies. In 2012, he received a M.A. in Applied Linguistics and English Language Teaching from The University of Nottingham. He has taught at vocational colleges, universities, and technological institutes in the Nagoya area for the last ten years. His fields of research include corpus linguistics and peer response in academic writing.
What does the diversity of learning and teaching environments entail: A Non-native speaker’s view?
- Shiozawa, Tadashi - Chubu University
- 2:00 - 3:00
- Room 513
Plenary
“I have no problems with World Englishes, but can we really use Indian English as a model in Japan?” “Kohei got a 950 on the TOEIC, but Mayu can’t even spell ‘tennis’ and she’s an English major.” “Some students on the study abroad program stick together and speak Japanese 24–7. What a waste!” These are typical teacher room comments among native speaker teachers in Japan.
As the diversity among our students, Englishes we teach, and the learning environments increase, so do our concerns. But could we take this diversity as an asset or resource, rather than a group of problems to be solved? In fact, this diversity of English, students, teaching approaches, and environments could be a redeeming property for English education in Japan. This is especially true for non-native speaker teachers of English in respect to reticent, less-motivated Japanese students. In the first half of this talk, some of the issues related to the increasing diversity of our teaching and learning environments at Japanese universities will be described and the reasons why they could be positively recognized will be explained. The latter half will focus on how we can make the best use of the diversity we face now.
Bio: Tadashi Shiozawa is Professor at Chubu University in Kasugai, Aichi Prefecture, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in language acquisition and multi-cultural communication. His main interests are in EFL, affective domains of language learning, and the impact of environment on language learning behavior. He is an author and editor of a number of books, textbooks and journals including the Activator series, Anchor Eng-Jap. dictionary, JACET Bulletin, English Education and Culture (Eigo kyoiku to bunka), English and Current Society (gendai shakai to eigo) and World Trek (a government authorized high school textbook) among others. He is one of the original members of the CUE SIG.
Autotomizing collaborative writing with Google docs
- Boyce, Nick - Nagoya University of Foreign Studies (NUFS)
- 3:20 - 3:45
- Room 507
Short paper
How can we help students improve their writing? Collaboration provides a motivating community for both teachers and students. Using Google Docs can extend collaboration in essay structure and grammar. The presenter will suggest activities that guide student feedback and enable students to learn together.
Bio: Currently at Nagoya University of Foreign Studies (NUFS), Nick has been teaching writing and presentation skills at various levels in Japan for the last few years. With a previous background in information technology, Nick is passionate about using technology to guide and enable student autonomy.
How to publish for OnCUE Journal
- Hill, Glen - Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine
- 3:20 - 3:45
- Room 513
Workshop
This talk will provide information on the various sections of OnCUE Journal (OCJ) for potential authors, so they will know what is appropriate to submit. The presentation will outline the process of accepting a paper, from initial submission to editing to final approval. Questions from the audience are invited.
Bio: Glen Hill has been teaching EFL in Japan since 1998. He is the CUE SIG Publications Chair and the chief editor of the OnCUE Journal. He was copyeditor of a scientific journal for 5 years. He teaches reading skills and technical writing and is strongly interested in teaching ESP.