Marc Sheffner and Konrad Bayer
What is ‘immediate’ about the method? Come and find out, it’ll be hot, the room
will be air conditioned and these guys put on a good show! What more I can say.
July 19th 2009.
Tezukayama Gakkuenmae Campus.
2pm-5pm
BIO – MARC
A linguist by education and personal history, Marc learnt French from his
mother, English from his father, and has taught himself other languages since
then, with varying success. He came to Japan with the Black Ships, and is now
full-time at some university in Nara he can never remember the name of.
BIO – KORY
A musician by education and necessity, Kory decided to become an English teacher
rather than an employee of a fast food restaurant. He has taught in English in
Canada, Korea, and Japan. He is currently working at 5 universities in Kansai.
He plays in a hard rock band and writes music with a few friends. For 5 years he
played in a Funk `n’ Soul band called BumpSkool.
SUMMARY
The 2 presenters will introduce the Immediate Method, developed in Japan by
French teachers several years ago (see their website for more details
http://www.almalang.com/about.html) They will show how they use it in their
university language classes (although the method is also used in J and SHS. What
is “immediate” about this method? Simply, the instructor drills the class in a
small number of grammar and lexical items that are grouped around a central
theme, and, after allowing some time for independent practice, the instructor
then “tests” students individually or in small groups by requiring them to
“immediately” use what they have learned in conversation.
The developers of this method have created textbooks to be used with it, but it
is possible to use this method with other textbooks or no textbook. The
presenters will describe how they use this method both with and without the
official textbook.
The presenters have been using this method for ages, at least two years, and
have used it both with the IM textbook and with other (required) texts. They
have used the method with both English majors and with non-majors, in small (15
students) and large (50 students) classes. They will report the successes and
problems they have encountered using this method, and ways they have adapted it.
As long as nobody asks any long questions, we can all be finished early and go
out for a drink afterwards!
Nara JALT 