jalt61

AKITA JALT meetings in 2012
picture album page 1 - the 1st meeting of 2012

March

Guest speakers: Susumu Hiyama (Akita Prefectural University)
Date: Saturday, March 24th, 2012
Meeting Topic: Old English for Today
Time: 10:00AM - 12:00PM
Place: JOIN US (Kenshushitsu-6)

10 people attended.

Chapter Report
(to be printed in The Language Teacher)
Guest speaker: Susumu Hiyama

AKITA: March 2012 – Old English for Today by Susumu Hiyama. This presentation was in two sections – discussion then workshop. Hiyama specializes in English philology – literary history of the English language. He first treated participants to a discussion of the three main periods in the history of the English language (Old English, Middle English, and Modern English), which gave the audience a base so they could engage Old English readings. Hiyama then led the group in sounding-out the fundamental Old English alphabet. Finally, led by Hiyama, everyone read passages from the Old English text Beowulf. It was noted during the concluding discussion that learning to read Old English might assist with improving English language pronunciation. This was an educational and interactive session.

Reported by Wayne Malcolm

AKITA JALT meetings in 2012
picture album page 1 - the 2nd meeting of 2012

April

Guest speakers: Takaaki Hiratsuka (University of Auckland)
Date: Saturday, April 14th, 2012
Title: Interwoven Stories Told by High School JTEs and ALTs
Time: 10:00AM - 12:00PM
Place: JOIN US (Kenshushitsu-6)

18 people attended.

Chapter Report
(to be printed in The Language Teacher)
Guest speaker: Takaaki Hiratsuka

AKITA: April 2012 – Interwoven Stories Told by High School JTEs and ALTs - Takaaki Hiratsuka. Japan has used team teaching by JTEs and ALTs in daily English lessons through the JET programme for more than two decades. The issue of teachers' as well as students' perceptions of their participation in this programme has begun to attract attention. This presentation shared stories from a four-month research project that took place at two Akita high schools. The presentation started with a survey of the literature then moved on to a video of actual team teaching in a Japanese high school. The research project is part of a PhD dissertation that the presenter is conducting at the University of Auckland. Local Akita JET ALTs, and JTEs were present at the meeting, so a quite informative discussion took place during the Q&A session.

Reported by Stephen Shucart

AKITA JALT meetings in 2012
picture album page 1 - the 3rd meeting of 2012

May

Guest speakers: Kim Horne (Kindergarten teacher)
Date: Saturday, May 26th, 2012
Title: Workshop for teachers of young learners
Time: 10:00AM - 12:00PM
Place: JOIN US (Kenshushitsu-6)

9 people attended.

Chapter Report
(to be printed in The Language Teacher)
Guest speaker: Kim Horne

AKITA – May 2012 – Brain Rules, Jewels, and Tools – Kim Thorne. This workshop focused on providing teachers with a comprehensive toolkit to use with young learners. Ms. Thorne employed alively mix of songs and physical activities to illustrate her thesis of kids having short attention spans, so interactive and stimulating activities are vital to their learning. The key to understanding the context of the presentation was her detailed, multisensory explanation of brain rules, teaching jewels and instructional tools. The new focus of Japanese education on Elementary school aged English learners made this a very timely presentation.

Reported by Stephen Shucart

"GENKI" English education homepage by Takeshi Suzuki

go back to "genki" homepage index