On behalf of the JALT Conference Planning Team, and broader JALT community, I am delighted to announce that we will be returning to a face-to-face conference in Fukuoka City, Japan for JALT2022.
Recently, the renowned linguist Larry Selinker quoted the Talmud on his social media page when he posted the following: "Much I have learned from my teachers, even more I have learned from my colleagues, but from my students I have learned more than anyone else" (Ta'anit 7a). All of us who are language teachers will find ourselves quietly nodding in agreement as we think about the enduring truth of this statement. Even as students learn much from us during our language lessons, if we are open, intentional, and inquisitive, we find equally that our learners become our teachers. They help us to improve as we develop new practices and insights for teaching them and others later on. This idea is reflected in this year’s conference theme: Learning from Students, Educating Teachers—Research and Practice. During this conference, participants will be able to share classroom research on what they have learned from their learners, and in doing so, enrich all of us in the common goal of improving our students' second language learning experience. If you are a learner planning to attend, you will find a community open to your experiences and insights.
By evoking the word "experience," this implies that our pursuit takes place not within a closed circle, but also with administrators, publishers, and others who have chosen to partner with us in promoting language acquisition education. They are also invited to share what they have learned so that together, we can make a lasting impact in our language learners' lives.
To those ends, I hope that you'll make the journey to Fukuoka and share your experiences, research, and informed insights. As you prepare, here are some questions for reflecting not only on what you might have to share, but also what you might wish to explore:
- What was one of the most interesting things I learned this year as a language teacher?
- What is one of the biggest problems I have constantly faced in my current teaching environment? What have I done in response? What worked? What hasn't worked?
- What are the things that students do in my classes that help me to develop as a language teacher?
- What is one aspect of my teaching that I would like to improve?
- To what degree does what I do in the class match with what I believe is a teacher?
- In what way can my classroom research help improve the practices of other language teachers?
Many more questions of this sort could be asked, but even from this small sample, I think you will begin to see that the answers you have—as well as a realization that you may not have many answers, help form a foundational bridge-building with others that will lead to new discoveries. Your openness to searching for new answers to old question will help make your experience at JALT 2022 an even more meaningful one.
We will have a number of streams during this conference that will embody the spirit of this year's theme. Among these will be:
- Presentations and workshops for equipping you to conduct solid qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research.
- Sessions based on classroom research offering practical ideas, useful advice, and informed insights for how to enhance the effectiveness of your language lessons.
- Showcase presentations from students—both graduate and undergraduate—aimed at including their voices and lived experience to our expanding conversation on how to improve the quality of language acquisition education in Japan and beyond.
If you have ideas and suggestions for other types of sessions, do not hesitate to share them by sending a message to the Director of Program via our contact form.
One last, but very important point, as in years past, we will be offering three fee-waiver scholarships. These will cover the cost of registration for JALT2022. Full details will be on available here once the schedule has been determined. Bookmark the JALT site so you can easily keep up to date with announcements for the conference, subscribe to our newsletter, and follow us on social media.
As can be seen symbolically in this year's logo, JALT2022 is your chance to come together with other dynamic colleagues, and together share ideas, findings, and insights that might have once started out as a bit "fuzzy," but which during our shared discourse and interactions, become a clear contribution to the lives of others.
You are important, and as a professional teaching community, we need each other. Join us for JALT2022 in Fukuoka!
Gregory Hadley
JALT2022 Conference Chair
Sunday, March 20, 2022 at 3:40PM