Osaka JALT Journal Vol. 10 is out!
If you are looking for a job or an employer, please visit the JALT Jobs Forum.
We are pleased to welcome you to Osaka Jogakuin University for the 2024 Back to School Conference.
Registration will begin at 9:30 on the second floor.
Please refer to the schedule below for the room numbers and presentation contents:
Presentation Abstracts and Presenter Bios can be found here.
2024, Back to school, Conference, OJU, Osaka 
Sunday, May 15, 2022 - 9:30am to 9:30pm
Back to School 2022 is Osaka JALT’s 12th annual spring conference aiming to share ideas on a wide range of topics related to language teaching and learning to help everyone in the new academic year. This year's conference will again be online, which, as in the past two years, has the benefit of allowing us to welcome presenters and participants from all around the world. To get a sense of what to expect, and to see some of what you might have missed last year, please see the schedule and some of the recorded sessions from last year's conference and the presenters' bios and abstracts.
Please click here to view the abstracts for the conference presentations.
Here is the schedule for the Back to School Conference, please click on the presentation names to watch the videos.
Jennifer Yphantides – A grassroots effort to help Ukrainian refugees learn English
Jennifer Yphantides is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Liberal Arts at Soka University in Tokyo.
Lori Zenuk-Nishide – Model United Nations: Building English as a lingua franca and 21st century learning skills
Lori Zenuk-Nishide is the Director of Model United Nations Programs at Kobe City University of Foreign Studies. She has taken delegations to over 60 conferences, and co-founded a high school and university conference since 1990.
Paschal Orjika – Self-directed learning in the university classroom
Paschal Orjika, is a graduate of Nanzan University, and currently teaches at Maple English School. He holds both a Bachelor's and a Master's degree. His area of specialization is self-directed learning, human resource development and adult education.
John Carle – How to create a digital workbook
John Carle is the author of The English Gym series, written under the pen name, Jon Charles. His books have been used at over twenty universities and language schools in Japan.
Wade Muncil – Starting a startup from the start
Wade Muncil holds a Master of Arts in Teaching from the School for International Training and is presently teaching at Osaka Jogakuin University/College after spending nine years teaching in the Western Region of The United Arab Emirates. His interests are hiking, documenting and preserving the great cultures of our planet, and promoting service learning.
Eucharia Donnery – The International Virtual Exchange (IVE) Project: Meeting low-level EFL learner needs
Eucharia Donnery works as a coordinator of communicative English at the World Language Center, Soka University, Tokyo.
Terry Tuttle – A how-to video activity sequence for Japanese high school EFL students
Terry R. Tuttle is an ALT for Higashiosaka City, an Osaka JALT Member-at-Large, and a GALE SIG Co-Coordinator. He is pursuing a M.S.Ed degree with a concentration in TESOL at Temple University, Japan Campus.
Paul Goldberg – Xreading: What’s new and what’s next
Paul Goldberg has taught English for over 20 years, and is the founder of the online system, Xreading, which he developed to make extensive reading more accessible for students and easier for teachers to manage.
Paul Mathieson & Claire Murray – The AWL Readers: An Academic Vocabulary Story
Paul Mathieson is an associate professor at Nara Medical University, where he teaches medical students and nursing students. He is also a PhD candidate at Kyoto University.
Claire Murray has an MA in Applied Linguistics from the University of Birmingham, UK. She is currently an ESP lecturer at Nara Medical University.
Thomas Boutorwick – ESL Speed Readings, the free mobile app
Thomas (TJ) Boutorwick received his PhD in Applied Linguistics from Victoria University of Wellington in 2017. His research focuses on vocabulary development through reading. He also develops educational software and currently resides in Hiroshima.
Zoe Barber – (Un)willing to communicate?: Incorporating different modes of participation in the classroom
Zoe Barber is from Australia and has taught English at various educational levels in Japan for 10 years. She is a graduate of the Queensland University of Technology and currently teaches at Konan University.
Anthony Walsh – A step-by-step guide for speech contests
Anthony Walsh is from Melbourne, is a graduate of University of Southern Queensland and currently teaches at the University of Fukuchiyama. He is trying to stay healthy by learning to cook various dishes.
Elizabeth Leigh – A tour of the “Zero-waste” town of Kamikatsu, Tokushima prefecture
Elizabeth Leigh is from the UK, is a graduate of Manchester University, and is currently a Tokunin teacher at Osaka Metropolitan University. Her interests include hiking, swimming and scuba diving, as well as environmental issues.
Eric Martin & Robert Kerrigan – Presentation and evaluation of an Extensive Listening program using Xreading
Eric Shepherd Martin teaches at Momoyama Gakuin University and is a candidate for a Ph.D. in applied linguistics from Temple University. He can be reached at ericshepherdmartin@gmail.com.
Robert Kerrigan teaches at Shitennoji University and is pursuing a Ph.D. in applied linguistics from Temple University. He can be reached at kerrigan@shitennoji.ac.jp.
Michael Herke – From the known to the new: Everyday creative arguments for language learning
Michael Herke has been living in Kansai for over 20 years. He has taught in public and private institutions in Canada and Japan. He works in the Faculty of International Studies at Setsunan University in Osaka.
Matthew Wiegand – Re-evaluating expectations of camera use in online language classes
Matthew Wiegand: BA Cultural Anthropology, UC Santa Cruz, Global Japanese Studies, Meiji University. MA candidate at Waseda GSICCS. Teacher at University of Tsukuba Attached High School at Komaba, Sundai College of Business and Foreign Languages
Mehrasa Alizadeh – Professional development and distance learning with Gather.Town: A preliminary report
Mehrasa Alizadeh is an assistant professor at the International Professional University of Technology in Osaka, where she teaches EFL courses. Mehrasa's research interests include blended, mobile and immersive learning in second language education.
Back to school, Conference 
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:
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:
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
2022, Conference, Fukuoka, JALT Thank you to everyone for making Back to School 2021 a great success. Click on the links in the block schedule to see recordings of sessions. More will be added later.
Back to School 2021 is Osaka JALT’s 11th annual spring mini-conference which aims to share ideas on a wide range of language teaching and learning topics to help everyone in the new academic year. There is sure to be something for everyone, and all are very welcome to join us for all or any part of the day or evening.
This year we'll again hold the event online due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. Last year's event was our first online event and it went very well. Here's last year's schedule with links to recorded presentations, and abstracts.
Many thanks to everyone who submitted presentation proposals this year! Below are this year's conference presenters and presentation titles with some of the pre-recorded session links. You can find the list of presenters, their biographies, presentation titles and abstracts here.
Back to School 2021 Schedule
Supplementary Files & Links from the chat:
John Carle's "Who will take care of Mum?" Document.
Free Trial Request for EssayJack
https://share.nearpod.com/ZhNMVdDfldb
https://nflrc.hawaii.edu/rfl/item/399
https://www.thebrianselznick.com/
https://youtu.be/0HeujZ45OZE?t=12
This event is free for everyone, so please help spread the word and plan to join us on Sunday, May 9th, for part or all of what is sure to be a great day and evening!
Back to School 2021は、新年度に向けて言語教育や学びに関するさまざまなアイデアを参加者の皆さんと共有する、大阪JALTが年に一度開催する春のミニ会議です。今年の会議はコロナ感染拡大に伴い5月9日（日）にオンラインにて開催します。過去の会議もそうであるように、今年のミニ会議も参加者の皆さんにきっと何かをもたらすはずです。最後まであるいはその日のいくつかのセッションの参加でも歓迎いたします。
どのような内容か興味がありましたら、去年のスケジュールと録音されたプレゼンテーションとプレゼンテーションの要約をご覧ください。
今年度のこのイベントも大阪女学院大学 国際共生研究所（RIICC）との共催です。開始時間および終了時間に変更が生じる可能性はありますが、日時が近づいてきましたら詳細はこのホームページ上でお伝えいたしますのでご確認ください。
プレゼンテーションを現在募集中です！締め切りは4月4日です。企画書提出の際にいただいた情報はこのイベントの目的のみで使われます。 何か質問がございましたら osakajalt@gmail.com までいつでもご連絡ください。
参加費は無料です。皆さんのカレンダーの５月９日（日）（母の日ですね！）にしるしをつけてください。このイベントを宣伝して、企画書を提出して、そしていくつかのあるいは全部のセッションにご参加ください！きっと素敵な一日になりますよ！
2021年5月9日（日）9:30a.m. ～ 9:30p.m.
大阪
発表者：後日発表します。
連絡先および質問：osakajalt@gmail.comまでメールをお願いします。
イベントのテーマ：年に一度春に開催されるミニ会議です。
2021, Back to school, Conference, Online
;)
Osaka JALT is pleased to co-sponsor a mini-conference on Effective Language Teaching: The Never-Ending Challenge, to be held on Saturday, July 21 (10 am - 5 pm) at the Kansai University of International Studies (KUIS) campus in Amagasaki.
Other co-sponsors are the LiLT SIG, the Kobe JALT Chapter, the Jr/Sr. High School SIG, Cengage Learning, Pearson Kirihara, Oxford Unversity Press , the Research Institute for Communication and the Department of English Education of Kansai University of International Studies.
Thanks to the sponsors, this event is free for everyone.
Call for Submissions deadline: Sunday, June 17, midnight
Check website here for criteria.
The theme is “Effective Language Teaching: The Never-Ending Challenge.”
The objectives are:
1. to identify the challenges language teachers face in the classroom,
2. to come up with ways to confront these challenges, and
3. to develop a network among high schools and universities to share information about language teaching.
The plenary speaker is Prof. Paul Hullah (Meiji Gakuin University, Tokyo)
Former Miyazaki JALT Chapter President Paul Hullah (PhD, English Literature, Edinburgh University) is currently tenured faculty at Meiji Gakuin University in Tokyo. A vocal campaigner for the use of literature in English teaching, he is co-founder of Liberlit, an organization for ‘Discussion and Defense of the Role of ‘Literary’ Texts in the English Curriculum’. He is himself a prolific author. He has written and edited volumes of literary criticism, EFL-based research articles and textbooks, journalism, and creative writing, and has presented regularly at conferences word-wide during the last two decades: Rock UK, a socio-cultural history of British rock music in textbook form, was published this year by Cengage Learning, and his fifth collection of poetry, Homing, was published in the UK in 2011 by Word Power Books.
Two versions of the poster for the Call for Papers for the one day conference at KUIS ("Effective Language Teaching: The Never-Ending Challenge") are now available:
Download them - print them - post them!
Show your support for this Osaka JALT co-sponsored event by spreading the word, or by submitting a proposal!
Conference, KUIS, Osaka JALT co-sponsor, poster 
