jalt60

AKITA JALT meetings in 2011
picture album page 3 - the 5th meeting of 2011
(Go to the October meeting)
(Go to the November meeting)

September

Guest speakers: Cameron Romney
Date: September 24th, 2011
Meeting Topic: Typography and document design for classroom materials
Time: 10:00AM - 12:00PM
Place: B-103 at Akita International University

7 people attended.

Chapter Report
(to be printed in The Language Teacher)
Guest speaker: Cameron Romney

AKITA – September 2011 – Typography and document design for classroom materials – Cameron Romney. This presentation was focused on handouts language teachers use in the classroom. Romney presented research that concluded, poorly designed handouts do not necessarily de-motivate or obstruct the learning of students, but well-designed handouts can add a sense of focus to an activity or assignment, as well as assist in comprehension thus advancing learning. The presentation was divided into three sections – typography, page layout, and graphics. In an interactive style Romney posed, to the participants, discussions questions about the level of understanding of these facets of materials design. He presented some best practices for each that included ideas like using common typefaces (e.g. - times new roman) to increasing white space to making sure usage of graphics aligns with instructional purpose. Comments by those in attendance suggested the presentation was educational and valuable.

Reported by Wayne Malcolm

AKITA JALT meetings in 2011
picture album page 3 - the 6th meeting of 2011
(Go to the September meeting)
(Go to the November meeting)

October

Guest speakers: Ms. Ibuki Aiba, Ms. Reika Maruyama, and Ms. Megumi Kimoto

Date: October 29th, 2011
Meeting Topic: The learning environment at AIU for EAP students and foreign students studying Japanese
Time: 10:00AM - 12:00PM
Place: B-103 at Akita International University

10 people attended.

Chapter Report
(to be printed in The Language Teacher)
Guest speakers: Ms. Ibuki Aiba, Ms. Reika Maruyama, and Ms. Megumi Kimoto

AKITA – October 2011 - The learning environment at AIU for EAP students and foreign students studying Japanese - Ms. Ibuki Aiba, Ms. Reika Maruyama, and Ms. Megumi Kimoto. The presenters were Japanese Language Teaching and English Language Teaching graduate students at Akita International University. The question they asked in their study was “Is AIU really intercultural?” They did a survey of both Japanese and International students attending the university and discussed the preliminary results as a warm-up for what they will present at JALT National. What seemed to be the most interesting aspect of their study was one of the variables they isolated – the “Globality Score” of the students; i.e. they put a weight on whether the students had lived overseas or not and for how long. The Akita-JALT Annual General Meeting was held after the presentation.

Reported by Stephen Shucart

AKITA JALT meetings in 2011
picture album page 3 - the 7th meeting of 2011
(Go to the September meeting)
(Go to the October meeting)

November

Guest speaker: Laurel Kamada
Date: Thursday, November 24th, 2011
Title: Ideologies/Stereotypes that Japanese-learners of English take to class
Time: 6:00PM-7:30PM
Place: D-105 at Akita International University

37 people attended.

Chapter Report
(to be printed in The Language Teacher)
Guest speaker: Laurel Kamada

AKITA – November 2011 – Ideologies/Stereotypes that Japanese-learners of English take to class: Identities of 'Japaneseness' and 'The Other' from Elementary School to University - Ms. Laurel Kamada. Part of the Four Corners Tour, Kamada talked about research she had done concerning the identities and general beliefs of particular groups of Japanese learners of English. Starting with an explanation and presentation of the research data and findings from a study conducted with six teenage girls of bi-cultural backgrounds Kamada gave her insights into how the teenagers constructed their personal identities. Kamada then talked about the learning beliefs of university students, and about a study she did to gauge stereotypes held by three groups of people – Japanese kids and adults, and foreigners. At the talk Kamada gave questionnaire and inquired about the answers. The concluding Q&A session yielded commentary about identity, racism, bi-culturalism, bi-lingualism, etc.

Reported by Wayne Malcolm

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