FAB: Connecting Neuroscience and EFL (July 9 in Kitakyushu & July 10 in Kansai)

Plenary #1:
5 Powerful Teaching Techniques:
Improve Memory and Learning in the Classroom!

10:00 - 10:40 (July 9 in Kitakyushu, July 10 in Kansai)

 


Robert S. Murphy is a doctoral student in Cognitive Development and Applied Linguistics with over 18 years of teaching experience in Japan. He has been working closely with professors, staff, and graduates of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and their online WIDE World program, with the goal of connecting Harvard's research in Neuroscience, Psychology, and Education to TEFL in Japan. Robert is a tutor for the University of Birmingham, lecturer at University of Kitakyushu, and the editor of ETJ Journal.

What can teachers do to dramatically enhance student memory and learning in the EFL classroom? Five easy to implement techniques will be provided for teachers to take home and put on their classroom walls. This session will discuss provocative new discoveries in brain research and learning. The content, stemming from Robert's research at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, is cutting-edge yet highly practical. Plenty of powerful take-home activities for your EFL classroom. Make your life easier -and your students happier with these neuro-'logical' EFL techniques! 

Plenary #2:
Neuroplasticity:
How Emotion, Cognition and Movement Shape Learning

10:50 - 11:30 (July 9 in Kitakyushu, July 10 in Kansai)

 

 

Curtis Kelly (EdD) is a Professor of English at Kansai University in Japan. He has spent most of his life developing learner-centered methods and materials for English students, especially those with low confidence, ability and motivation. He believes learners should be pulled into English study rather than pushed. His 29 books include Active Skills for Communication (Cengage), Writing from Within (Cambridge), and Significant Scribbles (Longman).

We learn because the brain is plastic.  It is not hard-wired nor are processing areas fixed, as was long believed.  Of special interest to us is how the reward system of the brain affects plasticity and learning, including the super-learning we call addiction.  While we still do not have a complete view on the influence of dopamine, the fact that the reward system connects the cognitive, emotional, memory, and movement parts of our brains give us clues as to what might or might not work in the language learning.

Plenary #3:
ELT and “The Science of Happiness”

14:00 - 14:40 (July 9 in Kitakyushu, July 10 in Kansai)

 

 

 

Marc Helgesen is professor at Miyagi Gakuin Women's University, Sendai and adjunct professor at Teachers College Columbia University MA TESOL program – Tokyo. He is the author of over 150 articles, books and textbooks related to English Language Teaching and has been a plenary, featured or invited speaker at conferences on five continents.

As ELT teachers, we all deal with educational psychology – either with awareness or by default. This activity-based session looks at ways positive psychology (TIME magazine calls it “The science of happiness”) can be combined with clear language learning goals for active, invested learning.

Traditional psychology deals with mental illness. Positive psychology investigates mental health: What do happy, mentally healthy people do? How much of our happiness is predetermined (the “set point”)? This is more than “the power of positive thinking”. It is sharing with our students the concrete behaviors that elicit positive emotion (and endorphins!) and connecting them to language learning/practice tasks.

Plenary #4:
The Brain on Agency

14:50 - 15:30 (July 9 in Kitakyushu, July 10 in Kansai)

 

 

Tim Murphey (PhD applied linguistics, University of Neuchatel, Switzerland), professor at Kanda University of International Studies and adjunct graduate school professor at Waseda, Nagoya University of Foreign Studies, and Hawaii Pacific University, most recently publishes and presents with a a variety of international research groups spaning topics as diverse as emotions and SLA; student agency, voice, and motivation; and neuroscience applications in the classroom.

Organizing our classes to allow students to feel some control (agency) over language, by actually using it, can create routes to intense motivation. The resulting excitement is something students often want to repeat. This presentation briefly describes what happens in the brain and why it is so exciting and outlines practical ways that teachers can help their students use a foreign language agentively in order to feel this excitement repeatedly in and out of classes. This presentation of course overlaps with positive psychology, memory studies, and general learning principles of the brain, and seeks to examine directly the setting up of activities to provide more of the thrill of agency.

FAB-EFL.com Tuesday, May 17, 2011, 9:17 AM

 

M Yam

M Yam


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