Teachers College

Describing Japanese Language and Text: Applications of Systemic Functional Theory

Presenters: Motoki Sano (the National Institute for Japanese Language)
Yumiko Mizusawa (the University of Wollongong in Australia)
Date: Sunday, March 30th, 2008
Time: 2:30-4:30 pm

Description:

Describing any language in context is not merely a matter of "structure". It is also a matter of "function". Considering both structure and function enables an understanding of language as a form of social behaviour. One theory that allows a researcher to interpret language from both a functional and a structural perspective is Systemic Functional (SF) theory. In this seminar, by employing SF theory, we will explore some of the characteristics of Japanese language and texts. The exploration will be carried out through two presentations: the first one will examine the complexity of Japanese texts (by Mr.Sano) and the second one will explore the nature of the genre of Directives in Japanese administrative contexts (by Ms. Mizusawa).

About the Presenters:

Motoki Sano is a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute for Japanese Language. He is a member of the "NIHONGO CORPUS" project, where he contributes to the construction of the first Japanese balanced corpus, "Balanced Corpus of Contemporary Written Japanese". His speciality is text typology employing Systemic Functional theory.

Yumiko Mizusawa is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wollongong in Australia. Her interests include language use in Japanese and Australian workplaces, cross-cultural differences, and language acquisition. (top)

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How to Get Published

Presenter: Steve Cornwell, Ed. D. (JALT Journal editor)
Date: Sunday, March 16th, 2008
Time: 2:30-4:30

Description:

Whether studying for a masters or a doctorate; conducting quantitative or qualitative research, or working as a teacher or administrator, one thing that almost all of us working in education have in common is the need to publish. Many of us live in a publish-or-perish world, and even if we do not feel the pressure to publish, publishing offers a chance to engage with our colleagues about our work. This presentation will help writers understand the publishing process from selecting a journal and submitting an article to receiving reviewer's feedback, and handling revisions (and even how to disagree with a review).

About the Presenter:

Steve Cornwell is a graduate of the Ed.D. program at Temple University Japan and the MAT program at the School for International Training. He is editor of the JALT Journal. In addition to his editing work, he has been an Editorial Advisory Board member for JALT publications, has served on the Publications Committee for TESOL, Inc. and has reviewed manuscripts for various publishers including Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, McGraw Hill, and Macmillan Education. (top)

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The Creative Classroom: Jazz Chants, Music and Poetry For Adult and Young Learners

Presenter: Carolyn Graham
Date: Saturday, December 1st, 2007
Time: 2:30-5:30pm

Description:

This three-hour seminar will explore the use of jazz chants in the language classroom. Learn how to create a grammar chant, a vocabulary chant or a chant designed to develop everyday conversation skills. Ms. Graham will discuss the creation and performance of songs and the use of rhythm and simple movement as tools for language development. Explore storytelling, creating and performing poetry and the in-class performance of poetry and jazz chants. This seminar is appropriate for all language teaching contexts, young learners, junior and senior high schools, conversation schools, and even for adults!

About the Presenter:

Carolyn Graham taught English as a Second Language at New York University for 25 years and was a Teaching Fellow at Harvard for nine summers. She currently is working primarily as an author and teacher trainer, giving annual seminars at NYU School of Education and Columbia Teachers College in New York and Tokyo. She is the creator of Jazz Chants and has presented her techniques for using chanting, poetry and music in the classroom throughout the world. She is also a professional musician who worked in the piano bars of New York and Boston for twenty years. (top)

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Demystifying Writing: Teaching and Researching Writing in EFL Contexts

Presenter: Professor Paul Matsuda - Associate Professor of English, Arizona State University
Visiting Researcher, Nagoya University
Date: Sunday, July 8th, 2007
Time: 2:00-4:00pm

Description:

In the early years of TESOL, writing was considered to be the last of the four skills to be learned and taught. In recent years, writing has become one of the most viable topics of research and discussion in TESOL and applied linguistics world wide. While the need for students to learn to write in English is certainly increasing in Japan, the study and teaching of writingbeyond the construction of grammatical sentencesdoes not seem to have become an integral part of language education or teacher preparation in this context. In this presentation, the presenter will discuss the growing importance of written communication and consider possible obstacles to the integration of writing into language teaching and teacher preparation in Japan.

About the Presenter:

Dr. Paul Kei Matsuda is Visiting Researcher at Nagoya University and Associate Professor of English at Arizona State University, where he works with doctoral students in Rhetoric/Composition and Linguistics as well as master's students in TESOL. He has founded and chairs the Symposium on Second Language Writing, and chaired the Nonnative English Speakers in TESOL (NNEST) Caucus at TESOL. A native of Japan, Paul has published widely on second language writing. URL: http://matsuda.jslw.org/. (top)

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Functional mediation in changes in constraints in a contact situation

Presenter: Professor Ricardo Otheguy, - Research Institute for the Study of Language in Urban Society (RISLUS) Graduate Center, CUNY, New York
Date: Sunday, June 24th, 2007
2:00-4:00pm:

Description:

In the variable use of subject personal pronouns in Spanish, when this usage is compared to non-contact dialects, the weakening of certain usage constraints is detected. The constraint related to Continuity of Reference is a clear example of this. But a quantitative analysis comparing two generations of speakers shows that the weakening of theconstraint is mediated by functional considerations.

About the Presenter:

Professor Otheguy is co-editor of the 2002 volume published by John Benjamins Signal, meaning, and message: Perspectives on sign-based linguistics and is recently one of the three founding co-editors of the new journal Spanish in Context. He is co-principal investigator in a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation supporting a sociolinguistic study of variable use of subject pronouns in the Spanish of New York, and is also co-principal investigator in a grant from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund supporting an acquisitional study on the effect of knowledge of Spanish syntax on the acquisition of English reading. He is founding director of the Research Institute for the Study of Language in Urban Society, a CUNY center housed at the Graduate Center and closely associated with the Linguistics Department. (top)

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Not just for "communication"

Presenter: Andrew Wolpert - Emerson College, Sussex, UK
Date: Sunday, March 18th, 2007
Time: 3:00-5:00pm

Description:

Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) is known in Japan mainly as an educator and a philosopher. However, he worked in many other fields including science, art, agriculture, medicine, sociology, and architecture. Steiner lived and worked during the social, cultural and political turmoil at the beginning of the last century and he saw it as his task to empower his fellow humans by awakening them to the spiritual potential so easily lost in the already increasingly pervasive materialism of his time.

The work of Rudolf Steiner gives rise to many questions about language, its role in our development and how it is best learned and taught. The rationale for foreign language learning in the Waldorf School curriculum is based on considerations beyond the obvious practical ones. It is an approach to education which acknowledges that our children bring something with them and that one of our tasks as teachers is to help them discover who they are.

Language has a crucial role in this pedagogical process, and foreign language teaching based on an understanding of growth and development is an essential support in the unfolding and realization of our humanity.

About the Presenters:

Andrew Wolpert received his teaching qualifications from the Institute of Education (IOE) at London University, UK. He is currently working in Japan introducing the work of Rudolf Steiner in the context of language and general cultural studies. His particular interests are Shakespeare and Renaissance Art, and the history and role of the English in the world. (top)

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Goodbye CBT - Hello iBT! How changes will affect educators and test takers

Presenter: Michael Ringen - President of ALPHA Frontiers, Owner of Alpha Lingua Academy. Current TC graduate student.
Date: Sunday, February 11th, 2007
Time: 2:00-4:00pm

Description:

When the TOEFL CBT ended in September 2006, many Japanese test takers were left with test scores below what they wanted, or needed. The addition of a new speaking section, combined with the elimination of the structure (grammar) section on the new test, has caused many test takers who need a minimum score of 80 or 100 anxiety and despair.

This two-hour seminar is meant to address people's fears by providing useful information for both test takers and educators. For example, the differences between the old CBT and the new iBT will be illustrated from both a theoretical and a practical perspective. Tips will be provided on how to best prepare for the iBT, especially on how to prepare for the new sections - speaking & writing.

About the Presenters:

Michael Ringen has been an English educator in Japan for more than ten years. He owns an educational consulting company, ALPHA Frontiers. Through his company, he is currently employed as a lecturer and curriculum designer at a new university, Digital Hollywood University. He also owns a test preparation school called Alpha Lingua Academy, at which students learn test-taking strategies to improve scores for such tests as GMAT, GRE, and TOEFL. (top)

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How to Use Art Museums as Educational Resources

Presenter: Dr. Miyuki Otaka - Teachers College, Columbia University, NY
Date: Saturday, December 9th, 2006
Time: 3:00-5:00pm
Date: Saturday, December 16th, 2006 (added due to demand)
Time: 1:00-3:00pm (note different start time)

Description:

Currently, many art museums in Japan offer an increasing number of educational exhibitions and programs for various constituencies, such as school groups, families, and adults. This presentation will discuss several features of education that can take place in the context of art museums and suggest some approaches to make this education meaningful to learners. The discussion will include several examples of educational opportunities that museums in the United States and Japan provide.
Note: This public seminar will be in Japanese.

About the Presenter:

Dr. Miyuki Otaka received her a BA in art history from Keio University and an MA in Visual Arts Administration (Museums) from New York University. She went to the United States in 1997 as a Fulbright grant recipient; since then she has been studying art and art-museum-based education, primarily in New York City. During this process, she worked for education departments in several museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, as an intern, gallery facilitator, and Japanese/English translator.

Dr. Otaka's research focuses on what significance people's art experiences have in their daily lives. Her dissertation work examined families' everyday art experiences after participating in art-museum family programs in New York City. Her pedagogy for art programs, based loosely on the principles of the art of tea, aims to facilitate both individual and interpersonal learning about art and people. One of her ongoing projects since 2001 has been to provide art programs for multigenerational groups in a minority ethnic community in Thailand. (top)

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The Creative Classroom: Jazz Chants, Music & Poetry

Presenter: Carolyn Graham
Date: Saturday, December 2nd Time:2:30-5:30 pm

Description:

This three-hour seminar will explore the use of jazz chants in the language classroom. Learn how to create a grammar chant, a vocabulary chant or a chant designed to develop everyday conversation skills. Ms. Graham will discuss the creation and performance of songs and the use of rhythm and simple movement as tools for language development. Explore storytelling, creating and performing poetry and the in-class performance of poetry and jazz chants.

About the Presenter:

Carolyn Graham taught English as a Second Language at New York University for 25 years and was a Teaching Fellow at Harvard for nine summers. She currently is working primarily as an author and teacher trainer, giving annual seminars at NYU School of Education and Columbia Teachers College in New York and Tokyo. She is the creator of Jazz Chants and has presented her techniques for using chanting, poetry and music in the classroom throughout the world. She is also a professional musician who worked in the piano bars of New York and Boston for twenty years. (top)

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Popoki's Peace Project: Questioning, Expressing and Working for Peace

Presenter: Ronni Alexander
Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies
Date: Sunday October 8th, 2:00-4:30pm

Description:

Popoki's Peace Project is a project which uses Popoki's Peace Book (53 pp., bilingual in English and Japanese, colored pencil, forthcoming) and 'Popoki's Peace Message' 1(DVD, 10 min., English/Japanese narration) to help foster thinking and action for peace. These materials focus on a broad range of topics related to peace and can be used in a variety of settings, including social studies or language classrooms. While the simplicity of the approach makes them appropriate for children, they can also be used successfully with people of all ages. Workshops generally include viewing the DVD, some exercises to help participants think about core values, and an art and/or creative project incorporating the ideas presented.

This presentation will be composed of a brief description of Popoki's Peace Project, some examples of different kinds of workshops, and a mini-workshop. It is hoped that the presentation will help participants to think about how to use these materials in their own settings. DVD version of Popoki's Peace Book included in the Iwanami Shoten DVD Book Peace Archives Museum for Peace

About the Presenters:

Ronni Alexander is a peace activist and professor of transnational relations at the Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies, Kobe University, Japan. Her scholarly interests focus on issues relating to gender, sexuality and violence, with a focus on the Pacific Islands. Recently, her Popoki Peace Project has been attracting attention as a tool for positive peace education. (top)

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Self-mastery of English through digital thinking

Presenter: John F. Fanselow,
President International Pacific College
Professor Emeritus, Columbia University, Teachers College
Date: Saturday April 22nd, 2:00-4:00pm

Description:

In the workshop, we will learn ways to apply four types of activities to expand and make more automatic ways to discover unknown meanings of words, phrases and structures on our own.

Is digital thinking related to computers? Come to the public seminar and find out! Are the four types of activities different from the usual activities we do? Yes. How? Come to the public seminar and find out!

About the Presenter:

John F. Fanselow started teaching English in Nigeria as a member of the first group of Peace Corps Volunteers sent to Nigeria after John F. Kennedy established the American volunteer organization in 1961.

After teaching at a teacher training college in Nigeria for two years, he was invited to train new volunteers bound for Nigeria at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York. While training volunteers he started work on his Ph.D. He took a two-year break from his studies when Teachers College under contract with the Peace Corps sent him to Somalia to train Peace Corps volunteers there. In Somalia he worked with both Somali and American teachers, visiting every intermediate and high school in the country numerous times.

After he returned to Teachers College from Somalia, he continued to train Peace Corps volunteers in Togo and Senegal during semester breaks. When he completed his Ph.D. at Teachers College, Columbia University, he was invited to join the faculty there.

His experiences in Africa opened his eyes to a wide range of worlds that totally transformed his thinking and feelings. His entire professional life developed as it did because of the profound influences on him during his five years in Africa.

For the past thirty years, he not only directed the graduate program in TESOL at Teachers College, Columbia University but he established an off-campus graduate program in TESOL in Tokyo. For a decade he split his time between teaching in the graduate program in New York and Tokyo. By teaching at TESOL Summer Institutes at UCLA, the University of Oregon, San Francisco State, Georgetown and ESADE in Barcelona, he was able to work with a very wide range of teachers from around the world. These teaching experiences, together with his living in Tokyo, have continued to strengthen the open, exploratory thinking forged during his Peace Corps experiences.

In addition to Contrasting Conversations, he has written Breaking Rules, also published by Longman, and Try the Opposite, published by SIMUL International in Tokyo and reprinted by International Pacific College. He has also produced a collection of lesson plans and teaching practices called Teaching English in Exhilarating Circumstances, which was distributed by the United States Peace Corps to volunteers in various countries.

In addition to his books, he has written scores of articles, two of which were first published in the TESOL Quarterly and subsequently reprinted in anthologies: "Beyond Rashomon" and "Let's see". The latter article received the Malkemes prize from the American Language Program at New York University for the best article of the year for relating ideas to practice and formed the basis for Contrasting Conversations as "Beyond Rashomon" was the foundation for Breaking Rules. Another article in the TESOL Quarterly, "It's too damn tight" highlights his interest in authentic language, as the title suggests! His "Postcard realities", published in a collection edited by Cassanave and Schecter, (Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates) reflects on the transforming experience of his Peace Corps years.

He has served as President of TESOL International as well as Second Vice President and Program Chair for the 1976 TESOL Convention. He was also president of New York State TESOL. He has made countless presentations at TESOL, JALT and dozens of TESOL affiliates around the world. In the 1999 January / February issue of ESOL Magazine, he was named one of thirty American ELS Pioneers.

He became Professor Emeritus of Teachers College, Colombia University in 1997, at which time his students established a scholarship fund in his name to encourage "Fanslovian" ideas and practices among MA candidates in TESOL at Teachers College, Columbia University both in New York and at the off-campus program in Tokyo.

He was appointed President of International Pacific College in Palmerston North, New Zealand in1998, a tertiary institution for the internationally minded that he had been associated with since before it was founded in 1989. (top)

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"Raising languages from the dead": Aboriginal language revitalization in south east Australia

Presenter: Michael Walsh, University of Sydney
Date: Sunday April 9th Time: 2:30-4:00pm

Description:

By 1991 the heavily settled south east of Australia had been characterized as a disaster area for Indigenous languages: just one language still alive and that with only a few aged speakers.

15 years later a significant number of these languages have made a comeback being used for public speeches, in educational settings and in day to day discourse. Indigenous people are now part of the process of regaining their linguistic heritage through gathering existing documentation as well as creating new recordings of supposedly dead languages.

We will briefly survey how this came to pass in south east of Australia (including the states of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia). At the same time we will be addressing a range of questions:

• how valid is the reporting on linguistic vitality?
• can poorly documented languages with no active speakers be revived?
• what is the role of linguists and other "experts" in the process?
• in trying to uplift the Indigenous language situation in NSW what can we learn from initiatives elsewhere: from other parts of the Pacific (Hawaii and New Zealand) and the Pacific rim (British Columbia, California and Japan)
• how can one manage the politics of language revitalization?
• what role can technology play in bringing languages back?

Although many difficulties have been encountered the message is quite optimistic: Aboriginal languages that had been written off as 'extinct' are now being taught from the earliest years through to university level!

About the Presenter:

Michael Walsh joined the Linguistics Department at Sydney University in 1982. Beginning fieldwork on Australian Indigenous languages in 1972 he has continued this interest to the present, mainly in northern Australia but more recently in New South Wales. Apart from the documentation and description of languages, he is particularly interested in lexical semantics, cross-cultural communication and the law. Currently he is involved in a team project documenting song traditions at Wadeye in the Northern Territory. At the same time he is developing a database for the languages of New South Wales. (top)

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The Environment in the Balance: Jury Role-play in the Classroom

Presenters: Barry Keith - Gunma University,
Yoko Munezane - Shibuya Kyoiku Gakuen,
Charles Varcoe - Kaisei Junior and Senior High school
Date: Sunday February 26, 3:00-5:00pm

Description:

From 2009, a jury system will be launched in Japanese courts. Under the new saiban-in system, six randomly selected citizens will work as lay judges alongside three professional judges to try serious offenses. During this workshop, jointly-developed lessons for high school and universities are introduced. Inspired by the film Twelve Angry Men, the lessons give students the chance to experience a trial that reflects the changes in the Japanese judicial system, while also learning about Global Issues and sharpening their critical thinking and language skills. First, students research global issues relating to the environment and present in groups. They investigate the case history, and consider solutions to the problem. Then students collaboratively write a courtroom drama and perform it. Finally, their classmates form a jury to present their judgment on the case. Through this step-by-step process students ready themselves for action to solve problems cooperatively in the real world.

About the Presenters:

Barry Keith has been in Japan since 1988, and is teaching at Gunma University. His interests include global issues, newspapers in education, and needs analysis. He can be contacted at keith@eng.gunma-u.ac.jp

Charles Varcoe has been in Japan since 1996 and is teaching at Kaisei Junior and Senior High School, Toho University and Kanagawa University. His interests include global issues and promoting autonomy in learning. He can be contacted at charlesvco@yahoo.co.jp.

Yoko Munezane teaches at Shibuya Kyoiku Gakuen Shibuya. Recognized for her creative teaching ideas, she is the 2005 recipient of the John Fanselow Award at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her interests include global issues, literature and various media in language learning.  She can be contacted at munezane@zephyr.dti.ne.jp (top)

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