This meeting provided a preview of some of the presentations that were later given at the JALT2006 Conference (the 32nd JALT International Conference on Language Teaching and Learning, in the city of Kitakyushu). The event featured three speakers, Eric Skier, Masa Tsuneyasu and Kyoko Miyazato. Summaries of each of their presentations are provided below.
Eric Skier
What motivates older learners?
In this presentation, Mr. Skier presented a paper on the motivations of elderly learners at a culture center in Japan and how learning of those motivations affected the approach to teaching, the role of the teacher, and the decision on which materials to use. Participants, who currently are or may very well be teaching similar students that make up the fastest growing segment of Japanese society in the near future, also had an opportunity to share their stories, observations, and classroom-proven practices.
Masa Tsuneyasu
Teaching Writing
In this presentation, Ms. Tsuneyasu first summarized the major differences between the written rhetoric of the two languages: Japanese and English. Then elaborated on the inclinations of how Japanese students write English papers based on the findings of a writing experiment. Finally, the author discussed some effective ways to teach writing papers in English for Japanese students.
Kyoko Miyazato
Role and Power Sharing Between JTEs and AETs
The study Ms. Miyazato presented investigated team-teaching (TT) relationships between JTEs (Japanese Teachers of English) and AETs (Assistant English Teachers) focusing on power-sharing between native-speaking (NS) and non-native-speaking (NNS) EFL teachers in Japanese high schools.