Nakasendo English Conference - Recently Updated Pages

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mickstout — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:19:09 CDT

Michael Stout's Blog
The Nakasendo English Conference Homepage
JALT Omiya
Murphey, T., Asaoka, C., & Sekiguchi, M. (2004). Primary teachers co-learning English with their students.
Wading the Web 2

conecteme ao msn

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 10:30:43 CDT

Meeting Room Schedule

Date	Time	Group/Meeting	Venue
June 12	1 p.m.	Book Club	2nd Floor Meeting Room

The 2008 Conference Organising Committee and Volunteers

mickstout — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 23:54:01 CDT

Conference Chair:	Michael Stout	JALT Omiya
Programme Chair:	Adam Murray	JALT Jr/Sr SIG
Treasurer:	Abdel Ibrahim	JALT Omiya
Publicity Chair:	Sarah Louisa Birchley	ESTEEM
Website Administrator:	Leander Hughes	JALT Jr/Sr SIG
Site Chair:	Masa Tsuneyasu	JALT Omiya
Volunteer Co-ordinators:	Rick Bales	JALT Jr/Sr SIG
	Jennifer Park	AJET
Member at large:	Ken Biegel	eTLC
Advisors:	Hugh Graham-Marr	ABAX
	Roberto Rabbini	EEP
	Alastair Lamond	Macmillan
	Andy Boon	Aston University

Volunteers:

The Nakasendo English Conference Story

mickstout — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 23:49:45 CDT

About four years ago members of JALT Omiya started talking about organising a one-day conference. They were inspired by the efforts of other JALT chapters especially the JALT Hokkaido Language Conference. From there various other developments in Japan's ELT community had an influence including JALT West Tokyo's minconferences and the Joint-Tokyo JALT one-day conference. Also, the PAN-SIG Conference and the work of the JALT-JET Liaison committee were inspirations. Eventually a group of people who met at events organised by JALT, AJET, ESTEEM, ETJ, and others, saw a trend toward cooperation developing between a growing number of ELT organisations in Japan, and they wanted to be a part of it.

Up to this point the co-operation had been within JALT, or between JALT and one other organisation. Usually one of the organisations held a dominant role and the other provided support. The logical next step was to hold a multi-organisation event. The group of people who became the Nakasendo English Conference Organising Committee realised that many of them belonged to more than one organisation. They had many connections through their involvement in a variety of ELT communities. They decided that it was time to start making better use of their connections. So, on Sunday, 25th November 2007 at the JALT National Conference in Tokyo, the first Nakasendo English Conference Organising Committee meeting was held.

The first order of business was finding a conference site and deciding on a date for the conference. Neither of these two tasks was easy. Members of the committee checked out public community centres but they were unable to reserve a space because of the reservation system.

"To Reform or Not to Reform? That is the Question" an article about JET in-service training

mickstout — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 22:01:16 CDT

This is a paper reporting on research that Roberto did on JET in-service training (IST). It is well worth reading. The abstract is below. You can download both article as well.

Abstract
This paper evaluates the in-service training (IST) offered by the Japanese government to non Japanese assistant Language teachers (ALTs) on the JET Program in Japan. Established in 1987, the Program employs approximately 6000 predominantly native English speakers to assist Japanese foreign language teachers at the secondary school level in raising students’ English communicative skills. In view of the grand scale of the program, little independent research has focused on the evaluation of its teacher development policy or the effectiveness of the methodologies it employs. The primary aim here is to assess the training program in terms of its pedagogical orientation, and to ultimately offer suggestions which may enhance the training experience for future JET participants.

【緒言】国際化の進展は著しく教育現場におけるそれも例外でない。ALTの多数は初来日であり、文化摩擦、故国での価値観との違いにとまどう場合が多い。
　実際に赴任したALTが「学校格差による葛藤」、「日本人教師との共同授業（Team Teaching）に起因する葛藤」、「赴任校での孤立化」により苦悩する場面は多々ある。ALTが直面するこれら広義の文化摩擦は、ストレス亢進、疎外感、抑うつ感情を誘発する可能性を否定できない。この状態は「ALT個人」の悲劇だけでなく、生徒にとっても有益な状態ではない。
　このような問題を軽減する方法として、ALTが日本で最初に受講する「初任者研修＝in service training,以下IST」は重要な位置をしめる。しかしながら、「IST」に関するALT自身の評価、効果に関する調査報告はない。そこで、我々は本調査においてISTに関する実態を調査した。
【調査対象】第一報において報告した同一の８５名を対象とした。
【調査方法】ISTに関する２１質問項目（自由記載１項目を含む）。言語教育に関する経験などに関する５質問項目を英語で質問した。
【結果】ISTが９月からの「実際の日本人生徒に対する授業」で有益であったかの質問に対して、過半数は有益ではないと回答があった。これを含め、学会当日は本調査から得た「IST」に関するALTの評価を報告し考察する。
これは、ジェットプログラムによって日本にやってくるALTが最初に受講する「初任者研修＝in service training,以下IST」の実態を調査し評価したものである。
１９８７年に始まったこのプログラムは、現在日本の中学、高校における英語のコミュニケーション能力を高めるため、主に日本人教師のアシスタントとして現場に派遣される、英語を母国語とする外国人約6,000人を抱えている。
しかしながらこの壮大なプログラムの教育指導方針や、またその効果においての調査報告はない。
そこで本調査においてISTの教育指導方法の見直しや、また今後のジェットプログラム参加者にむけた新たな方法を提案したい。

Nakasendo English Conference Home

mickstout — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 02:58:51 CDT

Reflecting on the 2008 Nakasendo English Conference

leanderhughes — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:05:47 CDT

Everyone who volunteered their time, effort, and creativity to make the 2008 Nakasendo English Conference possible deserves a vote of thanks (including, but not limited to, all of those listed here).

Among the most amazing things was the efforts made to publicize the conference. Many people have commented on the 2008 conference website and the logo. The conference was promoted on the websites of the participating organizations. Some of the volunteers promoted the conference on their own websites as well, for example: Sanae's Place and this AllAbout web page. ETJ-Tokyo promoted the conference on its discussion list. So, the conference had a strong web presence.

Participants found the conference to be one of the most rewarding that they have attended. It was refreshing to have teaching professionals from diverse backgrounds come together and share their thoughts and experiences. The presentations and panel discussion helped spark ideas as to how we can work together to improve our teaching as well as language education in general. Also, although the turnout was somewhat lower than we had expected, the modest numbers made for a more intimate atmosphere where it was possible to have meaningful discussions with everyone who attended.

Some challenges for next year include: 1) Finding ways to bring in more participants, 2) Finding a venue that is even more accessible than Seigakuin University (if that is possible), and 3) Showing that some tangible progress in education has ensued from the cooperation between organizations and individuals forged through NEC 2008 (and thereby validating NEC's reason de etre and generating starting points for further discussion at NEC 2009).

2008 Panel Discussion "Making Connections: Where do we go from here

mickstout — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 19:46:58 CDT

adammurray
Apr 21 2008, 1:01 AM EDT
At the upcoming conference, we have one hour available for the panel discussion. What are some good questions / topics that we can ask the panelists to address?

We expect that there will be around 6 panelists, so if allocate each speaker 5 minutes, that would allow 30 minutes for a Q & A session with the audience?

mickstout
Apr 21 2008, 8:38 AM EDT
We some good discussions already started. What do you think?

adammurray
Apr 22 2008, 5:53 PM EDT
That's true. That just seemed too obvious!

Anonymous
May 8 2008, 6:22 PM EDT
We need to remember that the panel discussion theme is "where do we go from here?" That means issues like whether or not there will be another Nakasendo English Conference or not, which orgs will participate, who will constitute the organising committee...etc, need to be discussed, along with teh issues raised elsewhere on this wiki.
I think it's be useful too, to get EVERYONE to share what their vision for the Nakasendo English Conference should be!!

The 2008 Nakasendo English Conference

mickstout — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 19:37:34 CDT

The 2008 conference theme was "Working together to improve teaching practice" and the discussion panel theme was "Where do we go from here?".
The 2008 Nakasendo English Conference discussion panel was chaired by Tim Murphey and representatives from JALT Omiya, the JALT Jr/Sr High School Special Interest Group, the Association of Japan Exchange and Teaching (AJET), the Elementary School Thematic English Education Movement (ESTEEM), the English Teacher and Learner Cooperative (eTLC).