Content and Language Integrated Learning: A Panel Discussion.
Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is an umbrella term for several language teaching approaches, including immersion, English-medium instruction (EMI), and English for Specific Purposes (ESP). This event brings together a panel of experts in these approaches to offer perspective and discussion on this exciting area of language teaching.
Date: April 19 (Sunday) Time: 10:00–12:00 Venue: Nara Women’s University (S-Bldg, Room 228) Fee: ¥1,000 (JALT members free)
Getting to know the CEFR: An introduction to the Common European Framework of Reference
The next Nara JALT event is co-hosted by the JALT CEFR and Language Portfolio SIG and features two speakers: Jack Bower, a local chapter member now working at Tezukayama University, and Gary Cook from the Hiroshima Bukyo University.
Speakers:
Presentation 1: Jack Bower (Tezukayama University)
Suggestions and Resources for Using the CEFR in Language Education
Presentation 2: Gary Cook (Hiroshima Bunkyo University)
The CEFR Shuffle: Getting Familiar with Can-do Statements
Date: Saturday, December 7th, 2019
Time: 14:00-17:30
Venue: Nara Women’s University (S-Building, Room 228)
Presentation 1 (14:15~15:30): Jack Bower (Tezukayama University)
Suggestions and Resources for Using the CEFR in Language Education
The Common European Framework of Reference for languages (CEFR) has become increasingly influential in foreign language education around the world. However, many language teachers remain unfamiliar with the CEFR and unsure of how it can be used to improve foreign language curricula and classroom practice. This presentation will give a brief overview of the CEFR followed by succinct explanations of four major uses the CEFR for language teachers. These uses are:
1. for setting language proficiency goals for programs, courses and lessons
2. for fostering learner autonomy
3. for designing classroom assessments
4. for language teacher professional development
For each of these areas practical suggestions will be made, and participants will be directed to further resources.
Biography: Jack Bower is an associate professor at the Tezukayama University general education centre. He has taught English at Japanese Universities for over ten years and he recently graduated with a PhD from Macquarie University. His research interests include curriculum development and language assessment.
Presentation 2 (16:00~17:15): Gary Cook (Hiroshima Bunkyo University)
The CEFR Shuffle: Getting Familiar with Can-do Statements
Since 2012, staff at Hiroshima Bunkyo University have been involved in creating curricula with the CEFR as a guide for its language learning center; the Bunkyo English Communication Center (BECC). One aspect of the CEFR, Can Do statements, form the basis of goals incorporated into many of the 18 courses offered at the BECC. While staff had participated in CEFR-focused professional development, little had been done for students to raise their awareness of the CEFR. From 2017, 31 first-year students were introduced to an activity dubbed the ‘CEFR-shuffle’: a sorting exercise utilizing self-assessment descriptors. Those students were then asked to repeat the CEFR-shuffle once each year. This workshop will introduce the results of students’ performance from the ‘CEFR-shuffle’ over 3 years, and ask participants to take part in a descriptor-sorting exercise in which they can experience how useful this activity could be for themselves and their students to become familiarized with the CEFR.
Biography: Gary Cook has been a lecturer and coordinator at Hiroshima Bunkyo University since 2011. He has previous teaching experience in Spain, France, England, Georgia, and his native New Zealand. His research interests are in the areas of curriculum development and the CEFR.
With the 2019 JALT International Conference approaching, Nara Chapter continued its exploration of the conference theme, Teacher Efficacy, Learner Agency, at a local level from the perspective of both established and early-career educators.
In the first presentation, Robert Maran, Professor Emeritus at Osaka Shoin Women’s University, discussed an EFL program he had coordinated, focusing on his observation and interpretation of “learner agency” in program planning and “collective teacher efficacy” among the team of teachers. He first talked about the general outline of the coordinated EFL program and the subjects and students, and then briefly mentioned what “learner agency” and “teacher efficacy” are. In terms of the concept of teacher efficacy, Maran focused on “evidence of impact”, or the actual confirmation of how teachers have influenced students’ learning outcomes. Well, how can “evidence of impact” be measured? Can only test results show it? Is the creation of learning portfolios a better indication? Does students’ participation in communicative activities only during class hours verify it? Let’s face it, given the general characteristics of the students his team taught – non-English majors with no clear need for learning English – he concluded that if the students at least adopted a positive attitude towards learning English, it could be interpreted as “evidence of impact.” Maran also introduced a function of collective teacher efficacy: experiences = four sources of collective teacher efficacy (mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, social persuasion, and affective statuses); and environment = six enabling conditions of collective teacher efficacy (advanced teacher influence, good consensus, cohesive staff, knowledge of one another’s work, responsiveness of leadership, and effective systems of intervention). He then analyzed the coordinated EFL program based on all the ten components. The employment situations of team teachers – whether they teach full-time or part-time – would affect the process of promoting collective teacher efficacy in EFL programs, since team teachers need to pursue shared educational goals and work together as one interdependent unit. Under prominent team leaders, well-coordinated EFL programs would have considerable potential for developing learner agency. Teacher efficacy and learner agency intertwine closely and cannot be separated.
In the second presentation, Sayaka Ishimizu, Associate Professor at the National Institute of Technology (Kosen), Nara College, talked about a teaching approach using a study tracker based on the Bullet Journal Method (BuJo). BuJo is a journaling method of tasks, events, and notes on a daily basis, which is an analog system for the digital age. After knowing how little time her students had spent on self-study outside class hours and how poorly they had organized their everyday class requirements and tasks, Ishimizu introduced in April, 2019 the study tracker system that encourages approximately 200 students in a one-year English course to keep a log of their everyday self-study hours on monthly study track sheets. The monthly study track sheet has four self-study areas that the students need to be engaged in and keep time records of: vocabulary build-up, assignments, class-content review, and class-content preparation. There is also space for “tasks” on the sheet where the students need to fill in the title of tasks when assigned specific tasks to carry out. Their daily records were added up and converted into weekly records. A preliminary survey highlighted that there was an increase in self-study hours compared with a year earlier among 150 out of 200 of the students who had reported their self-study hours at the end of this spring semester. By keeping records and revisiting their study trackers, the students were also able to observe their time allocation for each self-study area and amend it to improve their grades. It could be controversial whether those records self-reported by students are accurate and trustworthy, however, her focus appeared on the process of students’ self-engagement in keeping study records and forming a good study habit, rather than on an increase in their study hours. Ishimizu is herself a practitioner of BuJo and a witness to its effectiveness in empowering her time and energy. It would be interesting to know the complete results and observation of her study tracker project and how “evidence of impact” can be interpreted in her study.
I was honored to invite as presenters to this September event two active members of Nara Chapter: Robert Maran, my respected mentor, and Sayaka Ishimizu, a former colleague and close friend. Both presentations were well received and obtained positive feedback. It was a good opportunity to explore the conference theme, Teacher Efficacy, Learner Agency, just before the 4CT event in October and the JALT international conference in November. I hope this September event served as a booster for JALT 2019 from our local chapter.
Nara JALT 