Events http://conf.posterous.com Conferences, Seminars, Webinars on education, linguistics, language learning/teaching, e-learning, m-learning posterous.com Mon, 31 Oct 2011 12:34:00 -0700 JALT2011| 37th Annual International Conference on Language Teaching and Learning & Educational Materials Exhibition 18 – 21 November, 2011, National Olympics Memorial Center, Yoyogi, Tokyo. http://conf.posterous.com/jalt2011-37th-annual-international-conference http://conf.posterous.com/jalt2011-37th-annual-international-conference
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Jalt CALL Forum at JALT 2011

The forum is titled, "Students utilize technology every day. . .Do your classes?" We will hope to bring the concept of CALL to a wider audience by featuring speakers who understand that students' lives are infused with technology and have decided to leverage that fact to improve their teaching.

TIME: Saturday Nov. 19, 12:40 - 1:40 pm.

PLACE: Main Hall

 

☆Our presentation

Title: Learning and growing with blogs in EFL contexts

Presentation category: Paper Presentation (Short Paper)

Summary (75)
Integrating web-based resources for communication in EFL classes helps provide a communicative environment where students can use English to interact with people beyond the classroom walls. This paper will discuss how language teachers can overcome challenges of students with limited computer experience and lack of motivation for learning by integrating a class blog with Web 2.0 tools (such as Twitter) to promote collaborative activities between classes in Japan and those overseas.

Abstract (150-250)
If teaching, learning, and growing are indeed a single, social process (Pederson, 2011), then integrating web-based resources for communication in EFL classes makes sense. These tools provide a communicative environment where students can use English to interact with people beyond the classroom walls. However, the potential benefits may not be reaped unless due consideration is given to students with limited computer experience (vis-à-vis cellphones), and those with negative feelings toward using or learning English. This paper will discuss how language teachers can overcome these challenges by utilizing a class blog for maximizing the advantages of technology integration. Keys to effective implementation of online activities include ease of accessibility and use, meaningful links between in- and out-of class activities, and face-to-face or online activities for focus-on-form. Two implementations of a class blog will be examined to compare different blogging platforms (Blogger vs. Posterous) and classroom settings (computer lab vs. regular classroom). The presenters will also show how Web 2.0 tools (such as Twitter) were used in combination with a class blog to further promote collaborative activities between classes in Japan and those overseas.

Reference:
Pederson, S. (2011). Scattered leaves. JALT 2011- 37th Annual International Conference on Language Teaching and Learning & Educational Materials. Retrieved from http://jalt.org/conference

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Thu, 15 Sep 2011 13:48:00 -0700 Asia TEFL 2011 - The influence of L1 syntactic patterns on Japanese EFL learners’ interlanguage grammar http://conf.posterous.com/asia-tefl-2011-the-influence-of-l1-syntactic http://conf.posterous.com/asia-tefl-2011-the-influence-of-l1-syntactic

Call for Presentations

  • Theme: Teaching English in a Changing Asia : Challenges and Directions
  • Dates: July 27-29, 2011
  • Venue: Hotel Seoul KyoYuk MunHwa HoeKwan, Seoul, Korea

Subtopics

  • Approaches and Methodologies 
  • Curriculum 
  • Distance Education 
  • Education / Language Policy 
  • International / Intercultural Communication 
  • Second Language Acquisition 
  • Materials Writing and Design 
  • Multiple Intelligences and Learning Styles 
  • Teacher Education 
  • Teaching Young Learners 
  • Testing, Assessment, and Evaluation 
  • The Use of IT in Language Teaching 
  • Using Local Literatures in English or Translations for Teaching English

The abstract must not exceed 250 words, while the bio-data must not exceed 60 words. 

Deadline for Proposal Submission: February 10, 2011

(January 03, 2011 at  7:00 PM)

----------------------------------------------------------

Proposal Abstract (Yamauchi & Uchida) 

The influence of L1 syntactic patterns on Japanese EFL learners’ interlanguage grammar

The influence of L1 syntactic patterns on Japanese EFL learners’ Interlanguage grammar This presentation is a part of our 4-year research study (2010-2013, supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research: 22520573) that aims to (i) identify and describe major features of Japanese EFL learners’ interlanguage grammar at an earlier stage in development, focusing primarily on errors possibly influenced by the L1 syntax, and (ii) develop a practicable way for language teachers to progressively build learner corpus using data from their own classes.

During the 2010 fall semester, the authors set up several writing tasks for their classes using Moodle, and the students performed the tasks online outside of the classroom. The focus of this presentation is on common errors that have been identified so far in the students’ writing that strongly suggest the influence of Japanese syntactic patterns, including: (a) mapping a topic-comment construction in Japanese to a subject-predicate construction, which is likely to be linked to the use of a be-verb like Japanese topic marker wa; (b) omission of refernce to known information, where zero anaphora is expected in Japanese; and (c) confusion of predicate-argument relations, especially with psychological predicates.

The observation and analysis of the initial set of learners’ writing data suggest that seemingly diffferent grammatical errors may be derived from a common feature of interlanguage grammar. A further elaborated short list of such interlangauge features will help the teacher to effectively promote learners’ noticing of their problems and restructuring their interlanguage grammars.

20110612_10_osaka_4AsiaTEFL0725.pdf Download this file

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Sun, 12 Jun 2011 15:10:00 -0700 The Asian Conference on Language Learning - June 10-12 2011, Osaka Japan http://conf.posterous.com/the-asian-conference-on-language-learning-jun http://conf.posterous.com/the-asian-conference-on-language-learning-jun
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CONFERENCE THEME: "Connecting Theory and Practice"

Call For Papers: The abstract submissions deadline is April 1, 2011

The Asian Conference on Language Learning 2011 will be held alongside the Asian Conference on Technology in the Classroom. Registrants for either conference will allow attendees the option of attending sessions in the other.

(Originally Posted on February 03, 2011 at 11:00 AM)

-------------------------------------------------------

Abstract 

Detecting the influence of L1 syntactic patterns on Japanese EFL learners’ Interlanguage grammar

Yamauchi, Uchida & Kojima

In this presentation, the authors discuss findings from their ongoing study (2010-2013, supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research: 22520573) that aims to (i) identify and describe major features of Japanese EFL learners’ interlanguage grammar at an earlier stage in development, focusing primarily on errors possibly influenced by the L1 syntax, and (ii) develop a practicable way for language teachers to progressively build learner corpora using data from their own classes.

During the 2010 fall semester, the authors set up several writing tasks for their classes using Moodle forums, which provided a secure environment within which students could experiment with online interactive English activities. The students’ forum posts were assembled into a learner corpus, for which purpose a tool is currently being developed to convert a Moodle xml file into a standard spreadsheet format.

The focus of this presentation is on common errors that have been identified so far in the students’ writing that strongly suggest the influence of Japanese syntactic patterns, including: (a) mapping a topic-comment construction in Japanese to a subject-predicate construction, as in the use of a be-verb in place of the Japanese topic marker wa; (b) omission of reference to known information, where no anaphora are normally used in Japanese; and (c) confusion of predicate-argument relations, especially with psychological predicates.

The observation and analysis of the initial set of learners’ writing data suggest that seemingly different grammatical errors may be derived from a common feature of interlanguage grammar. A further elaborated short list of such interlanguage features will be developed for teachers to help learners to notice problems and to restructure their interlanguage grammars.

 

Presentation Slides

20110612_osaka_ACLL_Yamauchi_Uchida_Kojima.pdf Download this file

 

Updated on June 13, 2011

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Sun, 12 Jun 2011 15:00:00 -0700 JALT CALL 2011, June 3 - 5 at Kurume University http://conf.posterous.com/jalt-call-2011 http://conf.posterous.com/jalt-call-2011
Jaltcall2011
Check out this website I found at jaltcall.org

The 2011 JALT CALL SIG Conference will be held on June 3 - 5 at Kurume University, Mii Campus, in Fukuoka.

The theme will be Building Learning Environments

Proposal submission : February 15

 

Proposal Abstract 

(Yamauchi & Uchida) 

Overcoming Barriers to Student Engagement in Using English Online

Japanese university students not majoring in English have few opportunities to use English outside of the classroom. In this study, online learning environments have been used to compensate for this disadvantage of EFL contexts. The authors chose Moodle forums, which provided a secure platform for students to experiment with online interactive English activities, such as discussions, sharing work, and posting comments. Also, one of the authors connected one of the classes to the Moodle network, which allowed students to roam into associated classes. These scenarios will be described in more detail in the presentation.

 

Before commencing our pilot studies, it was anticipated from a literature review and previous university classroom observations (Yamauchi 2009; Stout 2010; Kikuchi & Otsuka 2008; Kiyota 2008; and Maeda 2009) that most students had limited computer experience (vis-à-vis cellphones), some had negative feelings about learning or using English, some were reluctant to engage in dialogue, and classrooms provided limited access to ICT. These observed attributes were thought to inhibit participation in online activities outside of the classroom.


This presentation summarizes three case studies using Moodle for out-of-class activities, and presents student performance data and feedback to discuss the relationship between the above limitations and the motivation of students to participate. In brief, features of learning technology, characteristics of instructional settings, appropriateness of student skill sets, attitudes toward language, and dispositions toward dialogic interaction may be implicated in student behavior. Based on these findings, suggestions will be made to overcome the above limitations and increase student engagement.  (249)

 

(Posted on January 29, 2011)

 

Presentation Slides

20110605_kurume_JALTCALL_Yamauchi_Uchida.pdf Download this file

(Updated on June 13, 2011)

 

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Tue, 31 May 2011 18:47:00 -0700 FAB: Connecting Neuroscience and EFL (July 9 in Kitakyushu & July 10 in Kansai) http://conf.posterous.com/fab-connecting-neuroscience-and-efl-july-9-in http://conf.posterous.com/fab-connecting-neuroscience-and-efl-july-9-in

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

 

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Thu, 19 May 2011 22:08:00 -0700 AILA 2011 August 23-28, 2011, Beijing http://conf.posterous.com/aila-2011-august-23-28-201-beijing http://conf.posterous.com/aila-2011-august-23-28-201-beijing

The 16th World Congress of Applied Linguistics(AILA2011) will be held in Beijing on August 23-28, 2011. Get registered and pay the registration fee on-line before April 15, 2011, you’ll enjoy the early bird discount.

Theme: Harmony in diversity: language, culture, society
Time:  August 23-28, 2011
Venue: Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing
Organizer: Organized by Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée (International Association of Applied Linguistics)
Hosted by: China English Language Education Association
Beijing Foreign Studies University
Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
National Research Centre for Foreign Language Education

Strands:
A: Language Acquisition and Processing
1.First Language Acquisition
2.Second Language Acquisition
3.Written and Visual Literacy
4.Psycholinguistics

B: Language Teaching and Learning
5.Mother Tongue Education
6.Standard Language Education
7.Foreign Language Teaching and Teacher Development
8.Learner Autonomy in Language Learning
9.Language and Education in Multilingual Settings
10.Educational Technology and Language Learning

C: Language in Professions
11.Business and Professional Communication
12.Translating, Interpreting and Mediation
13.Language and the Law
14.Language and the workplace
15.Language in the Media and Public Discourse

D: Language in Societies
16.Sociolinguistics
17.Language Policy
18.Multilingualism and Multiculturalism
19.Intercultural Communication
20.Applied linguistics within Asian contexts

E: Applied Linguistics and Methodology
21.Discourse Analysis and Pragmatics
22.Rhetoric and Stylistics
23.Contrastive Linguistics and Error Analysis
24.Lexicography and Lexicology
25.Multimodality in Discourse and Text
26.Language Evaluation, Assessment and Testing

Plenary Speakers:
Allan Bell (Auckland University of Technology)
Malcolm Coulthard (University of Aston)
Diane Larsen-Freeman (University of Michigan)
Barbara Seidlhofer (University of Vienna)
Gu Yueguo (Beijing Foreign Studies University, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)

Invited Symposia:
• Patricia Duff (University of British Columbia): Multilingualism and Language Policy
• Gao Yihong (Peking University): Language, identity and globalization
• Nkonko Kamwangamalu (Howard University) & Gary Barkhuizen (University of Auckland): Migration, language maintenance and shift: Multiple perspectives
• Franćise Salager-Meyer (University of Los Andes): Languages for Specific Purposes
• Elana Shohamy (Tel Aviv University): Language Testing
• Marjolijn Verspoor & Kees de Bot (University of Groningen): Dynamic Systems Theory and Second Language Development

 

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Tue, 08 Mar 2011 20:31:00 -0800 The Asian Conference on Education - October 27-30 2011, Osaka http://conf.posterous.com/the-asian-conference-on-education-october-27 http://conf.posterous.com/the-asian-conference-on-education-october-27
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Conference Theme: Learning and Teaching in a Globalised World

As the 2009 and 2010 Asian Conferences on Education showed, education and lifelong learning have been seen as a solution to a host of local and global problems whilst globalized education systems are becoming increasing socially, ethnically and culturally diverse. The Third Asian Conference on Education extends these discussions to consider learning and teaching in a globalized world. The conference organizers encourage submissions that consider learning and teaching through one of the following sub-themes, although submission of other topics for consideration is also welcome:

- Challenges, resistances and negotiations in learning and teaching
- Community, culture and globalization
- Diversities, belonging and un/belonging
- Equity, social justice and social change
- Learning and teaching in a global knowledge economy
- Learning and teaching in glocal spaces

Call for Papers Deadline: July 15 2011

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Tue, 08 Mar 2011 02:00:00 -0800 The 9th Asia TEFL International Conference July 27-29 http://conf.posterous.com/asia-tefl http://conf.posterous.com/asia-tefl
Asiatefl

Call for Presentations

  • Theme: Teaching English in a Changing Asia : Challenges and Directions
  • Dates: July 27-29, 2011
  • Venue: Hotel Seoul KyoYuk MunHwa HoeKwan, Seoul, Korea

Subtopics

  • Approaches and Methodologies 
  • Curriculum 
  • Distance Education 
  • Education / Language Policy 
  • International / Intercultural Communication 
  • Second Language Acquisition 
  • Materials Writing and Design 
  • Multiple Intelligences and Learning Styles 
  • Teacher Education 
  • Teaching Young Learners 
  • Testing, Assessment, and Evaluation 
  • The Use of IT in Language Teaching 
  • Using Local Literatures in English or Translations for Teaching English

The abstract must not exceed 250 words, while the bio-data must not exceed 60 words. 

Deadline for Proposal Submission: February 10, 2011

(January 03, 2011 at  7:00 PM)

----------------------------------------------------------

Proposal Abstract (Yamauchi & Uchida) 

The influence of L1 syntactic patterns on Japanese EFL learners’ Interlanguage grammar This presentation is a part of our 4-year research study (2010-2013, supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research: 22520573) that aims to (i) identify and describe major features of Japanese EFL learners’ interlanguage grammar at an earlier stage in development, focusing primarily on errors possibly influenced by the L1 syntax, and (ii) develop a practicable way for language teachers to progressively build learner corpus using data from their own classes.

During the 2010 fall semester, the authors set up several writing tasks for their classes using Moodle, and the students performed the tasks online outside of the classroom. The focus of this presentation is on common errors that have been identified so far in the students’ writing that strongly suggest the influence of Japanese syntactic patterns, including: (a) mapping a topic-comment construction in Japanese to a subject-predicate construction, which is likely to be linked to the use of a be-verb like Japanese topic marker wa; (b) omission of refernce to known information, where zero anaphora is expected in Japanese; and (c) confusion of predicate-argument relations, especially with psychological predicates.

The observation and analysis of the initial set of learners’ writing data suggest that seemingly diffferent grammatical errors may be derived from a common feature of interlanguage grammar. A further elaborated short list of such interlangauge features will help the teacher to effectively promote learners’ noticing of their problems and restructuring their interlanguage grammars.

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Wed, 02 Mar 2011 20:05:00 -0800 ICBL - International Conference on Interactive Computer aided Blended Learning 2-4 November 2011 http://conf.posterous.com/icbl-international-conference-on-interactive http://conf.posterous.com/icbl-international-conference-on-interactive
Check out this website I found at icbl-conference.org

(2011-03-03_13

4th International Conference on Interactive Computer-Aided Blended Learning

2-4 November 2011 in Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala
http://www.icbl-conference.org

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

Collecting experiences and needs of Education Institutions/Organizations in e-Learning
o Advanced strategies and conceptions
o Best praxis
o Advanced methods
o Teaching/Learning strategies
o Regional differences
o Language learning
o Embedded learning and learning on demand
o Knowledge management and learning
o Quality assurance, sustainability
o Cost-effectiveness
o Education policies
o Digital divide and learning
Technology-Enhanced Learning methodologies, tools
o Platforms and authoring tools
o Environments and tools for e-learning / m-learning / lifelong learning
o Language Learning Platforms and authoring tools
o CSCL (Computer Supported Collaborative Learning)
o GIS (Geographical Information Systems) in Education
o LBS (Location-Based Services) for TEL
o Mash-Up technologies
o Networks/Grids for learning
o Adaptive learning environments
o Responsive environments
o Tools for interactive learning and teaching
o Methods of content adaptation
o Adapted learning flow, content and monitoring process
Individual, social & organizational learning processes
o Knowledge management and learning
o Workplace learning
o Learning orchestration
o Ubiquitous learning
o Context-aware learning
o Self-regulated and Self-directed learning
o Cultural awareness
Pedagogical and psychological issues
o New learning models and applications
o New roles of the instructor & learner
o Problem and project based learning
o Collaborative knowledge building
o Serious game-based and simulated-based learning
o Story-telling and relfection-based learning
o Instructional design and learning design approaches
o Teaching techniques and strategies for blended learning
o Evaluation and outcomes assessment
o Social networks for learning
Technical and theoretical issues
o Learning Objects and Reusability
o Platforms and authoring tools
o Applications of the Semantic Web
o Remote and virtual laboratories
o Standards and style-guides
o Hypermedia applications and virtual reality worlds
o Ubiquous computing
o Digital HDTV and 3DTV supporting learning
o Embedded learning and learning ond demand
o Human-centered computing
o Accesible learning for all: visual, hearing and physical impairments
o Standards about accessibility and learning
Real world experiences
Mobile applications in learning
Pilot projects / Products / Applications

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Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:30:00 -0800 45th Annual Conference and Exhibition | Brighton, 15th-19th April 2011 http://conf.posterous.com/45th-annual-conference-and-exhibition-brighto http://conf.posterous.com/45th-annual-conference-and-exhibition-brighto

Iatefl

 

My proposal

Title: Listening skills training to promote noticing, automatization and learner autonomy

Poster

Abstract:

Effective listening skills training should include a well-balanced combination of activities targeting both bottom-up and top-down processing, and also be designed to encourage learners to practice listening and speaking constantly. This study explores how activities such as dictation, dictogloss, and sharing learners' talks can be combined in a well-balanced manner, with a limited but motivational use of technology.

Summary:

Effective listening skills training should include a well-balanced combination of activities targeting both bottom-up and top-down processing, and training bottom-up processing skills is particularly important for Japanese learners of English, whose L1 is totally different - phonetically and syntactically - from the target language. It is also important, especially in an EFL environment, to design learning activities to encourage learners to practice listening and speaking constantly, both in and outside of the classroom. This study reports a 15 week EFL course focused on listening skills where the class meets face to face once a week at a traditional classroom. It explores how activities targeting different skills can be combined in a well-balanced manner. In class time, partial dictation using songs is given as a warm-up activity, and to explicitly teach a selected set of features of English sound, such as weakening, elision, liaison, and analogy from loan words, which are most challenging for Japanese learners (later on students play the role of teacher and take charge of the song dictation). After themed listening-for-meaning activities coupled with speaking practice, a dictogloss task is given to revisit what they have learned and promote noticing. As homework, they are asked to record and share their speech or conversations, and comment on each other on an online sharing site, where timely feedback from the teacher is given. Their reflection journals are shared online too. The results will be discussed and analyzed in the presentation.

(Originally Posted on January 03, 2011 at  8:31 PM)

------------------------

準備!

 

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Mon, 14 Feb 2011 22:16:00 -0800 Moodle Moot Japan 2011 - 2月22日~23日 http://conf.posterous.com/moodle-moot-japan-2011 http://conf.posterous.com/moodle-moot-japan-2011
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via moodlejapan.org
第3回 Moodleの教育者と開発者による研修会
2011年 2月22日(09:30-17:30)~23日(09:00-16:00)
高知工科大学
発表:英語を「使いながら学ぶ」ためのForum活用 
非英語専攻の日本人大学生の多くは授業外で英語を使う機会をほとんどもたない。週1回、授業で英語を勉強するだけでは、英語力向上だけでなく、英語を「伝達手段」として認識することも難しい。この状況を改善するために、MoodleのForum を含めオンラインでの英語使用機会の提供は非常に有望である。また、発表で取り上げるように、Forum の利用により、間違いを恐れて中間言語使用をためらう学生たちに、個々の間違いを訂正することなくFocus on Form を促すフィードバックが容易になる。
Forum 中心のMoodleコースの作成自体は容易であるが、普通教室での授業における課外活動にForumを利用する場合には、Moodle利用法の周知とForum活動の設計の面などで工夫が必要である。本発表では、これらの工夫の実践例として、Forum を利用した英語活動を充実させるためのスキル(オンライン辞書・ハイパーリンク・画像などの利用も含む)の段階的な導入、授業と連携させたForum活動例(授業前の協同予習・授業後の発展学習)、Moodle Networkを利用した学校間交流プロジェクトについて報告する。
Moodle Forums for helping students learn English by using it
Many non-English majors in Japanese universities have few opportunities to use English outside of the classroom. It is difficult for those who only study English once a week in class to improve their English, or even to recognize it as a means of communication. To make up for this disadvantage in the EFL environment, it can be quite helpful to provide opportunities to use English online, including discussions using Moodle forums. Using discussion forums also allows the teacher to easily give focus-on-form oriented feedback without correcting every error they make.
Although it's fairly easy to set up a Moodle course to mainly provide forum activities, if the F2F class meets in a traditional classroom and not all students regularly use a computer at home, some considerations are necessary regarding how to familiarize students with using Moodle and how to design forum activities. This presentation reports some of the author’s attempts to facilitate and encourage students to use Moodle forums outside of the class, including a step-by-step introduction to skills that will help them communicate in English online, forum activities directly related to in-class activities, and an intercollege project using Moodle Network.

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Thu, 03 Feb 2011 18:21:00 -0800 17th Conference of International Association for World Englishes, Arts - Nov 23-25, 2011 http://conf.posterous.com/17th-conference-of-international-association http://conf.posterous.com/17th-conference-of-international-association
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17th Conference of International Association for World Englishes

Hosted by Monash University
November 23-25, 2011

The 17th Annual Conference of International Association for World Englishes (IAWE) is being hosted by Monash University from November 23-25, 2011.

IAWE is an international scholarly association which aims to establish links among those who are involved with any aspect of World Englishes in research and/or teaching. The association focuses on global issues relating to three major aspects of World Englishes, language, literature, and pedagogy.
IAWE is committed to the study of the forms and functions of varieties of Englishes in diverse cultural and sociolinguistic contexts.

Invited Speakers

Keynote speaker: Prof. Andy Kirkpatrick (Hong Kong Institute of Education)
Plenary speaker: Assoc. Prof. Farzad Sharifian (Monash University)
Plenary speaker: Dr. Alan Firth (Newcastle University)
Focus lecture: Dr. Ahmar Mahboob (University of Sydney
Focus lecture: Prof. Pam Peters (Macquarie University)
Focus lecture: Prof. Ian Malcolm (Edith Cowan University)

To register click https://www.secureregistrations.com/IAWE2011/

IAWE website: http://www.iaweworks.org/index.php

If you wish to receive updates about the conference as they become available, email your details to mail@thefullpretzel.com.au.

The deadline for submissions is Friday 1st April 2011

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Fri, 28 Jan 2011 15:08:00 -0800 Language Symposium | CLI | Northwestern University April 15—16, 2011 http://conf.posterous.com/language-symposium-cli-northwestern-universit http://conf.posterous.com/language-symposium-cli-northwestern-universit
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Sounds really interesting, though I'll be in the U.K. then. Maybe next time.

Topics may include:
- Integrating global skills into language curricula
- Models of teaching languages across the disciplines
- Fostering the development of intercultural competence
- Cultural exchanges with universities abroad
- Making study abroad meaningful
- Service learning (i.e. language and community)
- Language study for careers and professions
- Language for special purposes (i.e. medicine, engineering, research, business, diplomacy, music, etc...)
- Assessing global language skills

Language instructors at all levels are invited to submit proposals; all languages are welcome.

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Thu, 27 Jan 2011 22:43:00 -0800 Eurocall 2011, Nottingham, England 31st August - 3rd September http://conf.posterous.com/eurocall-2011 http://conf.posterous.com/eurocall-2011
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(Invited to take part in a joint presentation on an Interschool project using Moodle Network.) 

Proposal Abstract

Interschool Collaborative Activities Using a Customized Moodle Network

Harashima, Kanda, Sato & Yamauchi 

Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, recently wrote concerning thriving social-networking services, “Each site is a silo, walled off from the others,” (2010, p.2) and expressed his concerns about the closed nature of online community sites. This concern very much applies to the communities developed inside Learning Management Systems (LMSs). The inhabitants at one LMS site hardly ever communicate or collaborate with those living in other LMS sites, because each LMS world is closed and the service is strictly limited to its registered users. We have thought it regrettable, and hoped for some ways to allow users of different LMSs, both teachers and students, to share ideas, materials, quizzes, resources, and tasks among themselves.

Moodle is a very popular open-source LMS. With version 1.8 Moodle has incorporated a networking function through which different instances of Moodle can be connected with each other and the students at each Moodle site can move to other Moodle sites without signing off. Although this Moodle Networking function, or M-net, provides a very promising way for teachers to share resources and for students to communicate and collaborate with remote partners, little has been studied concerning the practical merit of using M-net for collaborative learning.

The authors set out to conduct an experiment on setting up M-net between servers at different locations in 2009. After establishing and testing the M-net, we began to engage our students in a number of interschool collaborative activities.

The first semester we implemented three activities: Exchange Forum, where students from three different schools gathered on M-net and exchanged opinions on current issues; TOEIC Reading Quizzes, where students remotely accessed and solved TOEIC-style quizzes; and Collaborative Database, where students from remote Moodle sites put their efforts together and created a database of the world’s most influential people.

After the semester, we realized upon reflection that each remote user was not easily identified as to which school/Moodle site he or she represented. This led us to have the M-net customized by a programmer so that each remote user could get color coding, which enabled users to visually distinguish each remote user according to school or site.

With this modification we introduced Interschool Discussion in the second semester using M-net, where students engaged in debate-like structured discussions on some controversial social issues. 124 students from four different universities exchanged heated discussions over M-net, being fully aware who was coming from which Moodle site this time. Toward the end of the activity we conducted a questionnaire. The results revealed some interesting insights into the differences between face-to-face and online discussion types, students’ sentiment toward remote discussion partners, the effectiveness of M-net and its customization, and the significance of being connected to learners whom they would never see in real life. In this presentation we will report our analyses and findings concerning the data we collected.

Works Cited

Berners-Lee, T. (2010). Long live the Web: A call for continued open standards and neutrality. Scientific American. Online. Retrieved on Feb. 3, 2011 from http:// www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=long-live-the-web

Presentation Slides (PDF)
Eurocall2011final-2.pdf Download this file

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Mon, 03 Jan 2011 10:04:00 -0800 UCL - Learner Corpus Research 2011 :15-17 September 2011 http://conf.posterous.com/ucl-learner-corpus-research-2011 http://conf.posterous.com/ucl-learner-corpus-research-2011
Learner Corpus Research 2011

To mark the 20th anniversary of its creation, the Centre for English Corpus Linguistics of the University of Louvain is organizing a conference entitled “20 years of learner corpus research: looking back, moving ahead” in Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium) on 15-17 September 2011.

Conference themes

We particularly welcome papers that address the relevance of learner corpus research to:

Cognitive linguistics
Discourse studies
(e-)lexicography
Grammar and syntax
Language for academic/specific purposes
Language varieties
Lexicology and phraseology
Natural language processing
Second language acquisition
Second/foreign language teaching

The conference will also feature three thematic sessions, for which submissions are invited.

1. Language for Specific Purposes Learner Corpora (convenor: Magali Paquot)
The “Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) Learner Corpora” thematic session aims to bring together researchers that are particularly interested in the collection, annotation and analysis of LSP learner corpora and their practical applications.

2. Learner Corpora and Cognitivism (convenor: Fanny Meunier)
The “Learner Corpora and Cognitivism” thematic session aims to bring together researchers working with learner corpora (either as their main source of data or in combination with other data types) to help account for cognitive processes at play in second language acquisition.

3. Learner Corpora and World Englishes (convenor: Gaëtanelle Gilquin)
The aim of the “Learner Corpora and World Englishes” thematic session is to bring the fields of SLA and World Englishes one step closer to each other by examining the possible links and synergies between Learner Englishes and indigenised varieties of English, as they emerge from corpora.

 

Proposal Abstract (Uchida & Yamauchi)

Small-scale building of learner corpora for study of syntactic errors made by Japanese learners of English

Our four-year research project, which is supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, aims at improving the writing ability of Japanese learners of English. The research focus of the project is on cross-linguistic influence in language learning, specifically syntactic transfer from Japanese to English, which is behind errors in learners’ interlanguages. By pointing out major syntactic traits commonly found in the production of learners, we aim to shortlist the problems caused by negative transfer that need to be addressed in college/university classrooms with urgency.

At middle-level colleges and universities in Japan, the average proficiency level of students is considerably lower than that of learners whose production data comprise the major learner corpora such as ICLE (Université Catholique de Louvain) and NICE (Nagoya University). This means that those corpora are not necessarily the right materials for the research performed in the purpose of improving proficiency of the majority of the Japanese college/university students. Rather, "personalised" corpora, consisting of data produced by special sets of learners, e.g., the students enrolled in a given course, should be collected and examined.

During the 2010 autumn semester, we set up several writing tasks for our classes using Moodle, and the students performed the tasks online outside of the classroom. The primary purpose of this pilot study was to collect data, but at the same time we intended to design our writing tasks to help motivate the students to use English online for communicative purposes and keep them engaged in productive activities, which was expected to be challenging for reasons discussed below.

This presentation will specifically address this latter issue. It will answer the following research questions: (1) How we can encourage students to get online and participate? (2) What types of topics are preferable for the learners? (3) How can feedback from the peers and teachers help to keep the activities going? These issues are significant especially in the context of teaching EFL to Japanese learners, since in Japan many non-English majors in universities have few opportunities to use English outside the classroom. For most of them writing in English is nothing but an ordeal, and very few have experience emailing, texting or social networking using English. Another factor to be considered is their lack of familiarity with computers: it is not uncommon for students, especially in their first year, to have little previous experience using computers at home. Under such circumstances writing activities outside the classroom tend to be difficult to organise and therefore careful designing of activities is prerequisite.

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Mon, 03 Jan 2011 02:20:00 -0800 ASIALEX - Asian Association for Lexicography: 22-24 August 2011 http://conf.posterous.com/asialex-asian-association-for-lexicography http://conf.posterous.com/asialex-asian-association-for-lexicography

I don't think I will present something but I've been interested in ASIALEX. Great to have it in Japan!

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ASIALEX 2011 (The 7th International Conference) is held in Kyoto.

Theme: LEXICOGRAPHY: Theoretical and Practical Perspectives

22-24 August 2011 

CALL FOR PAPERS/POSTERS/SOFTWARE DEMONSTRATION

All papers will be blindly reviewed. Prospective presenters are to submit abstracts to reach ASIALEX before 28 February 2011. Abstracts should be between 250 and 300 words, which do not include references. Abstracts should contain the following: three keywords, a central argument of the paper, how the study was conducted and some (preliminary) conclusions. Papers that fail to follow these guidelines will be rejected.

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Mon, 03 Jan 2011 01:59:00 -0800 Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities http://conf.posterous.com/hawaii-international-conference-on-arts-and-h http://conf.posterous.com/hawaii-international-conference-on-arts-and-h
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  • The main goal: to provide an opportunity for academicians and professionals from various arts and humanities related fields from all over the world to come together and learn from each other. 
  • An additional goal: to provide a place for academicians and professionals with cross-disciplinary interests related to arts and humanities to meet and interact with members inside and outside their own particular disciplines. 

 

I'm presenting at this conference with my co-researcher: “DETECTING JAPANESE SYNTACTIC TRAITS IN LOWER-LEVEL LEARNERS' WRITTEN ENGLISH PRODUCTION” (Uchida & Yamauchi 2011).

presentation_20110109.mov Watch on Posterous

Abstract: 

Grammatical transfer has long been considered one of the major factors behind errors in learners’ interlanguages. In most cases discussed in the literature, however, the learners in question are at upper intermediate or advanced levels and the analyses tend to be focused on the differences between their production and that of native speakers. In the context of teaching English at middle-level colleges and universities in Japan, where the average proficiency level of students is considerably lower, a different approach to grammatical errors may be more appropriate.

So far in our project, pilot studies have suggested that learners at lower levels of proficiency predominantly rely on the grammar of their native language (i.e., Japanese), rather than only occasionally having recourse to it. In this presentation, we will show how particular types of ungrammatical structures repeatedly occur in such students’ written production, as a result of direct misapplication of Japanese syntactic rules. These include thematization, omission of reference to known information, and free word order, which are all characteristic of Japanese syntax.

As a preliminary to describing and explaining these error patterns in a more precise way, we are collecting more samples of learner language, through the use of Moodle modules such as “forums” and “assignments”. How we are organizing these activities and collecting data will be described.

 

 

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