Oxford in Oita

Next Saturday (June 18th) the Oxford Kids Tour is coming to Oita.

Details available at:

http://www.oupjapan.co.jp/events/summertour/schedule.shtml#shikokukyushuokinawa

Read Full Post »

ETJ Oita Workshop

The next workshop will be on Sunday November 14th at Compal Hall, Oita City. The workshop will be from 18:30 – 20:30.

Details

Presentation: Checking Comprehension / Checking Understanding
(Simon Goddard Weedon)
This short presentation will look at different ways to make sure students are understanding the language the see, hear and say.

Discussion:
It’s the end of the year as we know it! Please bring one idea or story from your 2010 classes. In small groups, we will share ideas, stories and challenges.

Read Full Post »

Sep 2010 Presentation

These are the presentation notes for Simon’s session on teaching reading fluency for Elementary School students.

ETJ Presentation Sep 2010

Read Full Post »

Oita English Language Teaching Seminar 2010

Thank you to everyone who came to the event yesterday – I hope you enjoyed the presentations and went home with some new ideas for your classes. Big thanks to all the presenters too.

Simon’s Presentation Notes:

Oita English Teaching Seminar 2010 handout

Oita Godo Shinbun report on the seminar

OkiNet2010

Read Full Post »

ETJ-Oita / Oita JALT End of Year Workshop

The final workshop of 2009 will be held on Sunday November 29th at Compal Hall, from 18:30-20:30.

This will be a biggy!! 2 rooms and 4 presentations, 2 presentations will run at the same time so you can choose which one to attend!

Presentation Info:

Using Literature to Teach “Empathy” to Medical Students

“Empathy” is an important term in medicine, but it is an abstract concept that is difficult to define, even for native English speakers. This presentation reports on a course that was taught to fourth-year Japanese medical students. The goal of the course was to deepen students’ understanding of “empathy” using English readings of poetry, fiction and non-fiction. This presentation outlines the methods and materials used, and the results of a student questionnaire that was given at the end of the course.

Sean Chidlow is a lecturer in the Department of Medicine at Oita University. His field of research is the Medical Humanities. Specifically, he is interested in the methods of using literature to teach concepts that are relevant to the field of medicine.

 

Using mind maps to promote critical thinking in writing and debating

In advanced English classes where debate, discussion and research papers are used as assessments, students need critical thinking skills in order to succeed in these tasks. This presentation will examine the adoption of a mind mapping software, rationale, that was introduced into and Advanced English II class at APU in order to enhance students writing, and debating skills. Building on the literature of the value of critical thinking mind maps, the authors examine how electronic mind-mapping can be used effectively in the classroom to promote student’s debating and writing skills.

Lindsay Mack is a lecturer at APU where she teaches Advanced English classes. Her research interests include: critical pedagogy and academic writing.

 

Testing your tests – do they achieve what you want them to?

Teachers of all persuasions incorporate some kind of testing into their classrooms. BUT, …… do the students and teachers always get the maximum benefit from these. The presentation will look at the difference in style and approach for placement, assessment, diagnostic and achievement tests and will suggest a number of approaches designed to motivate students

Simon Weedon is co-founder of ‘E’ English School, and teaches at Meiho Junior/Senior High School. He is Coordinator of ETJ-Oita and is a monthly columnist for The Daily Yomiuri.

 

Classroom Activities for Eigo Note and Beyond

With the introduction of English as a set class for 5^th and 6^th Grade Elementary School students, teachers are now faced with a unique opportunity, and also a challenge. The presentation will feature a range of immediately useable classroom activities for participants to take to their own classrooms.

Etsuko Minami is Vice Principal of Higashi Wasada Elementary School in Oita City. She is an active ETJ Committee Member with a keen interest in promoting English education at Elementary School level.

Read Full Post »

ETJ EXPO in Fukuoka

The ETJ Expo will be held on Sunday December 6th in Fukuoka. It’s an all day event with multiple seminars/presentations every hour. There will be a large display area with major and minor EFL publishers attending.

For more detailed information, and pre-registration go to http://www.eltnews.com/ETJ/events/expos.shtml

Expo Leaflet available here (English and Japanese explanations)

Expoflyer2009 (3)

Read Full Post »

September 27th Event

Another successful Sunday night!! Over 20 people attended the second ETJ/JALT workshop in Oita and were treated to presentations on using songs effectively, and a selection of tried and trusted games for Elementary School students.

Neil Millington, a lecturer at APU, gave a very useful presentation on using songs as the basis for a number of activities. These are the presentation note. Also, go to http://groups.google.co.jp/group/etjoita  (the documents section) to download a sample lesson plan “Beach Lesson Plan”:

‘Using Songs Effectively’

Presented by Neil Millington

1. 1.      Using songs as a warm up or introduction to a topic or theme.

Write down the titles of a few children’s songs that you know

 2.      Language Learning

Songs, rhymes, and chants play an important role as far as the development of language in young children this is also true for Second Language Learning.

a)      Listening                                                 f)  Repetition

b)      Speaking                                                 g) Real life

c)      Vocabulary Learning                h) Memory

d)     Grammar                                                 i)  Fun

e)   Culture                                                       (Murphey 1992)

1. 3.      Classroom tasks for children learning a foreign language

• have coherence and unity for learners
• have meaning and purpose for learners
• have clear language learning goals
• have a beginning and an end
• involve the learners actively

(Adapted from Cameron 2001:31)

 4.      Three stages

preparation                                     core activity                        follow up

 (Adapted from Cameron 2001:33)

1. 5.      Developing a song into a task

 6.      Being creative with songs

 References

Brewster, J., Ellis, G. & Girard, D. (1992) The Primary English Teacher’s Guide Harmonsworth: Penguin

 Cameron, L. (2001) Teaching Languages to Young Learners. Cambridge: CUP

 Moon, J. (2000) Children Learning English Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann

 Murphey, T. (1992) Music and Song Oxford: OUP

 Phillips, S. (1993) Young Learners Oxford: OUP

 Useful links

 Words to popular songs

 http://www.esl-kids.com/songs/animalfair.html

 Videos and words with advice

 http://www.supersimplesongs.com/cds.html

 British Council – Songs for Kids

 http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-songs.htm?mtklink=kids-songs-kids-popular-offers

Read Full Post »

Next Event

日に日に涼しさも増し、日も短くなって参りましたが、皆様いかがおすごしでしょうか。 下記にて大分JALTとETJの合同イベントを開催いたしますのでお知らせいたします。 

We are pleased to announce that the next Oita JALT/ETJ event is on Sunday, September 27th from 6:30pm-8:30pm. 

Oita JALT/ETJ Event: Presentation ‘Using Songs Effectively’ presented by Neil Millington and ‘Introducing useful games for Elementary School students’ presented by Simon Weedon and Ed Kellerman

PRESENTATION: Using Songs Effectively  Songs are frequently used in English Language Teaching classrooms all over the world and are a part of a multitude of young learner language programmes. This presentation aims to look at why songs can be considered valuable pedagogical tools. Then, using several classic and original songs for children, the presentation aims to explore how songs can be used most effectively. 

Neil Millington is a lecturer at APU Ritsumeikan University where he teaches Fundamental and Intermediate English classes. His teaching interests include Task-Based-Learning and Teaching Young Learners. 

PRESENTATION: Introducing games for Elementary School students  Games can bring a whole new dimension to classes and can be very motivating for young learners studying English. There are not too many Elementary School students that do not enjoy playing games, however the use of games needs to be weighed against their education value. The presenters will introduce some tried and trusted language learning games that are suitable for Elementary School students. 

Simon Weedon is the Co-owner of E English School in Oita. He has lived in Japan since 1996 and is an ETJ-Oita Coordinator and Daily Yomiuri columnist. 

Ed Kellerman is co-owner of Albion English School, Head of Oki-Net and a veteran of kindergartens and Elementary Schools in Oita. 

DATE & TIME: 27th September 2009, 6:30pm-8:30pm

PLACE: Compal Hall (Room 309), Oita City. 大分県大分市府内町１丁目５−３８  09…  http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=compal+hall+Oita+Japan&sll=37.0625 FEE: JALT members Free / Non-members 500 Yen  We hope to see you there!

Read Full Post »

Using Japanese Effectively in Class

 ETJ-Oita. June 5^th 2005 Workshop

How to use Japanese Effectively in class

 

The presentation looked at two key ideas when teaching children

l  appropriate simplification of language

a number of classroom techniques were discussed that can help students get over the barrier of listening completely in English.

l  allowing first language use to allow real communication to take place

Oliver argued that by banning Japanese from the classroom we also prevent real incidental communication taking place between teacher and student (see example transcript below). He cited an example of a teacher who complained about a student who insisted on speaking Japanese because he wanted to talk about his father’s new car. The teacher followed school policy of not allowing any Japanese use and the student became frustrated and disruptive. If the teacher had allowed some L1 use and responded in English, the students would have been more responsive and would also have learned more in the class.

 

The presentation started with the following from “Donaldson, 1978 “..while things may be too difficult and hard for children to ‘give a verbal response’, with simplification and encouragement, Donaldson has proved that children as young as five can apply logical thought to what they are being asked.”

 

This was followed by activities highlighting classroom techniques

1. Topic highlighting – T: “your family, how many people are in your family?”
2. Providing examples – T: ”mother?, father?, sister?”
3. Use of gesture – T: “mother (holds up one finger, father (holds up a second finger)”
4. Using noun proper instead of pronoun – T: “your sister, what’s your sister’s name?” (NOT what’s her name?)

 

Following this the attendees were asked to think of how these techniques could be used to simplify the following:

1. What did you do yesterday?
2. Oh really? Did you get a new bike?……What colour is it?

 

In the next section Oliver presented a transcript of a conversation he had with a 4 year old student, and asked the attendees to consider the kinds of simplification used to ensure meaning

Following this, the attendees considered the following questions

Does this help with

l  keyword listening skills?

l  recognizing question intonation

l  “get by” language (using words in place of sentences to communicate

l  learning to take risks

l  learning not to panic when they don’t understand

 

 

TRANSCRIPT

Teacher      What did you do yesterday?

Student       eiga mita

T                      eiga?? What’s eiga?

S                          T-Joy…Park Place (movie theatre name)

T                          oh, you watched a movie. What movie?

S                          ehh???

T                          The movie’s name. Harry Potter? Ultraman?

S                          Tarzan. Tarzan suki?

T                          yeah, but I realy like comedies

S                          comed… (trying to imitate what the teacher said)

T                          comedies. Like “ha, ha, ha” movies (gestures laughing)

S                          amari suki ja nai

T                          sorry?

S                          no like

T                          oh, you don’t like comedies (gestures by shaking head)

Read Full Post »