Date: June 9th, 2013
Time: 2:00 – 5:00

 JALT Omiya and ETJ Saitama Joint Event: Each year JALT Omiya and ETJ Saitama come together to share several short presentation workshops.

Miori Shimada: Creating songs with familiar melodies for young learners’ EFL classrooms.

Abstract:  The presentation is to discuss how to create effective songs for children’s EFL classrooms using familiar melodies such as London Bridge. The presenter will introduce simple question songs and picture books using those melodies. The audience will then have a short time to explore creating easy songs for their own classrooms towards the end.

Bio: Miori Shimada has been teaching English to different groups of learners at various schools and institutions for fifteen years. For these seven years she has also taught at several universities in Tokyo and Saitama and had a strong interest in teacher education.

Saori Kaji: Easy activities for Kids

Abstract: In this presentation the audience will be shown several ideas to help children concentrate on the task at hand. Flash card tower, Sit like a Ninja and How to talk about Japan through characters are ideas that she believes will be useful to a wide variety of teachers.

Bio: Saori has been teaching for the last 7 years at home to children of assorted ages. She is a member of a chain franchise that specialises in teaching English to children.

Tyson Rode: 必要性•実用性 Integrating content and language through presentations in the EFL context.

Abstract: In this presentation, the audience will hear an argument for content-based presentations and how they instill a sense of necessity and practicality for students in the classroom. The presenter will also give examples of content-based presentations.

Bio: Tyson Rode has been teaching English in Japan since 2004. Some of his research interests include: academic writing, bilingualism, and content-based language instruction.

Fumie Kakuchi: Changing [Eikaiwa] in ES Today

Abstract: In this short presentation the audience and presenter will consider the benefits of the recently implemented Foreign Language Activities. Also key points for meeting the goals of the course of study will be discussed.

Bio: Fumie Kakuchi is a Japanese Assistant Teacher for Saitama City. There she teaches a 35 hour per year program for 5th and 6th grade students. She has worked in one of the city’s model schools for the last three years. Her other experience includes teaching private lessons and working for ‘cram’ schools. Her interests include teacher training and curriculum development.


John Mangan: Making effective yet simple lesson plans and materials that adapt to your needs

Abstract: In Saitama City there is an Engish conversation program for 5th-9th grade with a city-wide curriculum. However 3rd and 4th graders now also have up to 10 lessons a year, with no existing curriculum or plans made for those lessons. This presentation covers how a solution for this was decided and how to adapt it to both English and Japanese with linkage to the alread existing program for upper grade levels.

Bio: John Mangan is a ALT instructor in City for the past 4 years. This has included both Elementary and Junior High schools of every grade level. During this time he worked at 4 model schools – 3 elementary and 1 junior high. His other experience includes teaching corporate business English, private high schools, ‘cram’ school lessons and various private students.

The presenter was assigned to teach English to a repeaters’ class in a university. Those students had previously failed the basic English course for various reasons. They therefore needed more and different support from the teacher compared to regular students. In order to motivate these repeater students, the presenter chose a suitable textbook for them and created activities based on that textbook.

In this presentation, the presenter introduced a coloring activity based on a low-level textbook of English anecdotes. The textbook displays a monochrome illustration for each story on every two pages, and students are assigned to color the illustration of each unit towards the end of the class, when they have completed the reading practice and relevant exercises and understand the story fully. After this coloring activity, each student examines the work of the other students, asking them questions about their work and exchanging their impressions with one another. These activities aim at strengthening the community among classmates and enhancing their learning attitudes towards the English language.

During the presentation, the presenter also offered an opportunity for the audience to experience the actual activities, share their work, and discuss their ideas about the activities. As coloring is a favorite activity for children and even for adults these days, the application of similar activities for different age groups was also be explored.