AKITA JALT meetings in 2007
picture album page 2 - the 3rd meeting of 2007
(pictures of the July meeting below)
June



"Now more than 600 institutions in America, Canada, and Australia recognize EIKEN for international admissions. In USA 265 colleges and universities recognize EIKEN in 36 states."
"Why do schools recognize EIKEN? There are several reasons: 1) educational value and prestige in Japan 2) accessibility 3) quality of test items 4) performance assessment 5) correlation with TOEFL ..."

Guest speaker: Michael Todd Fouts
Date: June 23rd, 2007
Title: STEP EIKEN: An insider's guide to Japan's national English test
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Place: AIU (Akita International University)
Room: B-103

12 people attended.

Chapter Report (to be printed in The Language Teacher) Guest speakers: Michael Todd Fouts AKITA – June 2007 Who is STEP? What is EIKEN? EIKEN goes global by Michael Todd Fouts – This was an excellent commercial PowerPoint-illustrated presentation by Michael Fouts, the International Operations Manager and Chief Editor at the Society for Testing English Proficiency (STEP). The presentation was divided into two parts. Part 1: “Who is STEP? What is EIKEN?” was a crash course in the history, purpose, and content of the EIKEN Test in Practical English Proficiency--one of the world’s most widely administered language tests. This included a hands-on demonstration where the audience of English teaching professionals was challenged to find 9 errors in a sample Eiken question. The best of us could only find 5 errors. After a short break Mr. Fouts launched into Part 2: “EIKEN goes global”, wherein he explained how, until four years ago, EIKEN was virtually unheard of outside Japan. Yet now the test is recognized for admissions at hundreds of institutions in North America and Australia. He then explained the growth of EIKEN from a domestic test to a global qualification, and explained the potential impact on education in Japan. The presentation ended with a lively question and answer session. Reported by Stephen Shucart

AKITA JALT meetings in 2007
picture album page 2 - the 4th meeting of 2007
(pictures of the June meeting above)

July




Guest speaker: Grant Trew (Oxford University Press)
Date: July 28th, 2007
Title: STEP EIKEN: The New TOEIC Test : Understanding and Overcoming the Challenges
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Place: AIU (Akita International University)
Room: B-103

17 people attended.

Chapter Report (to be printed in The Language Teacher) Guest speakers: Grant Trew (Oxford University Press) Akita: July – "The New TOEIC Test: Understanding and Overcoming the Challenges" by Grant Trew of Oxford University Press. Understanding the nuances of this new format is very important for test takers and instructors. First, Mr. Trew reviewed the Listening and Reading Comprehensions sections of the test highlighting that British, Australian, New Zealand, and North American English would be used in the Listening section. Also, passages in both sections will be longer and more complicated. The second part of the presentation reviewed the new sections of the test – the optional Speaking and Writing parts of the test. While these upgrades may seem daunting, Trew insists this new TOEIC reflects the current standard within the English community. Lastly, Trew said get exposure to natural English, always be interactive, learn time management, but most of all – have fun. Trew, an expert in testing and a long-time instructor of exam technique, has recently authored the Oxford Tactics for the TOEICR Series Speaking and Writing Tests Student Book and the Official Oxford University Press Japan Teacher's Guide to the TOEICR Test. For more on TOEIC see the ETS website at http://www.ets.org. For info on Oxford University Press Japan see http://www.oupjapan.co.jp/. Reported by Wayne Malcolm

more pictures
go to JALT photo album 45

go to pictures of the meetings in 2007
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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