AKITA JALT meetings in 2007
picture album page 1 - the 1st meeting of 2007
(pictures of the May meeting below)
April


"Stories are probably as ancient as language itself. Imagine an early man sitting around the camp fire telling about the close escape from death he had on the last hunt of the season. Or an early woman describing how she discovered the sweet honey after watching a bear tear open a bees' nest and eventually lead the angry bees away as it left... "

"Move forward in time to the first written stories we have from the Middle East. The creation stories to validate mankind. The stories of heroes instructing the young, such as David and Goliath or Ulysses. The parables of Jesus and the Zen koans each tell a story that instructs, motivates and challenges the listeners to construct meaning from them to improve or at least measure their actions and life to some standard or norm in other words to lean how to live in the world..."





Guest speaker: Jarrett Dave, Ragan Jr.
Date: April 21st, 2007
Title: The Power of Stories to Teach and Motivate
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Place: Yugakusha (next to Akita Red Cross Hospital)
Room: Kenshushitsu #2

12 people attended.

Chapter Report (to be printed in The Language Teacher) Guest speakers: Jarrett Dave, Ragan Jr. AKITA - April 2007 "The Power of Stories to Teach and Motivate - Jarrett Dave, Ragan Jr. - Story telling has been the preferred method of teaching since ancient times. It is still used in many societies as a way to help people understand the world. From the stories we hear and tell we learn right and wrong, and what is deemed useful and wasteful. In socio-cultural terms we construct our identity along with others in our society through the stories we tell. In neuroscience terms stories help us make patterns of neurons in our brains that are used to shape and control our behaviors, thoughts and beliefs about what is possible and impossible for ourselves and for our society. Professor Ragan discussed the effectiveness of motivational stories in the language classroom as both a tool for language learning and for enhancing learning strategies, thus improving the learners' motivation for language acquisition. He shared two of his favorite motivational stories that he uses to help himself and his students construct a more useful way of looking at and hopefully tackling the world of learning English specifically and life in general. Reported by Stephen Shucart

AKITA JALT meetings in 2007
picture album page 1 - the 2st meeting of 2007
(pictures of the April meeting above)
May



Martin Pauly is teaching the audience how to sign words, numbers, alphabets -- asking for name, expressing pleasure in meeting someone as well as introducing yourself in a sign language. Some people in the audience actually introduced themselves using the manual alphabet they have learned at the session. They found it not so hard and so much fun!



Guest speaker: Martin Pauly (Tsukuba University of Technology)
Date: May 26th, 2007
Title: Sign Language in the Language-teaching Classroom
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Place: AIU (Akita International University)
Room: B-103

18 people attended.

Chapter Report (to be printed in The Language Teacher) Guest speakers: Martin Pauly AKITA – May 2007 Sign Language in the Language-teaching Classroom- Martin Pauly. - Deaf and hard-of-hearing students are entering mainstream schools and mainstream society. A knowledge of Sign Language may aid teachers and hearing students in communicating with, and creating a more friendly environment for, these students. Professor Martin Pauly has been at Tsukuba University of Technology, Division for the Visually Impaired, for 15 years. He introduced his school’s program for the deaf through a video, then used a series of activities to introduce the audience to ASL and JSL/NS (American Sign Language and Japanese Sign Language/Nihon Shuwa). This demonstrated how some strategies for introducing Sign Language into the classroom could be accomplished, and showed how they are transferable to a classroom of visually impaired or older students. A lively question and answer session ended his presentation. Reported by Stephen Shucart

more pictures
go to JALT photo album 44

go to pictures of the meetings in 2006
go to pictures of the meetings in 2005
go to pictures of the meetings in 2004
go to pictures of the meetings in 2003
go to pictures of the meetings in 2002
go to pictures of the meetings in 2001
go to pictures of the past meetings (1998 - 2000)
Akita JALT

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