JALT2012 National Conference -- Oct. 12-15 at Hamamatsu, Shizuoka

Osaka JALT Chapter Officer Nominations -- deadline Sept. 22

Osaka JALT Chapter Officer Nominations -- deadline Sept. 22
 
It’s almost that time of year again when we are required to hold chapter officer elections. Officers serve from the end of one national JALT conference to the next, so we plan to hold elections in early October before JALT2012 begins on Oct. 12. Our current officers would like to cordially invite you to throw your hat into the ring as a way of actively participating in running the chapter.
 
We’re required to have at least four but preferably five members fill the positions of Chapter President, Treasurer, Membership Chair, Publicity Chair, and Publicity Chair. (According to JALT rules it’s possible for one person to fill two of these positions, except that the President and Treasurer must be different people who are unrelated.) The past several years we have also had several Officers at Large that help in various ways, and it’s also possible to have other specific officers, such as Web-editor, Facilities Chair, Recording Secretary, Disaster Relief Chair, and so on. The possibilities are fairly limitless.

Duties of the required “Executive” Officers ideally are roughly as follows:
 
The Chapter President coordinates and oversees the running of the chapter, recruits and liaises with and assists other officers as necessary, represents the Chapter at JALT’s 3 annual national Executive Board meetings and in ongoing online JALT-wide discussions, and submits an annual report to the Executive Board.

The Treasurer manages the chapter’s money and maintains and submits monthly and annual financial reports.
 
The Program Chair oversees the organizing of our events, in collaboration with other officers and volunteers.
 
The Membership Chair focuses on our regular members by signing up and welcoming new members, sending reminders to those whose membership dues are coming or have come due, and maintains our membership records.

The Publicity Chair primarily focuses on spreading the word about what we’re doing to non-JALT members via our email list, facebook group, and any other way that is deemed appropriate.
 
I hope you’ll consider volunteering as an officer in the coming year, though of course you don’t need to be an officer to be actively involved.
 
Please let us know by Saturday, September 22, if you’d like to be an officer in the coming year by emailing us at osakajalt@yahoo.com . Hopefully we’ll have an ample number of officers so as to spread the workload and so that no one is overly burdened. You can also email Chapter President Bob Sanderson directly with any questions or concerns you may have.

July 21 conf.: Effective Language Teaching: The Never-Ending Challenge

Effective Language Teaching:

The Never-Ending Challenge

http://lilt.jalt.org/events/july-21-effective-language-teaching

Date: Saturday, July 21, 10:00 – 17:00

Location: Kansai University of International Studies, Amagasaki campus.

Registration fee: Thanks to the sponsors, this event is FREE for everyone.

Osaka JALT is pleased to co-sponsor this one-day mini-conference on Saturday, July 21, 2012, at Kansai University of International Studies (KUIS) in Amagasaki (Hyogo).

Other co-sponsors are the Literature in Language Teaching (LiLT SIG), Kobe JALT, the JALT Jr/Sr. High School SIG, Cengage Learning, Pearson Kirihara, and Oxford Unversity Press, the Research Institute for Communication and the Department of English Education of Kansai University of International Studies.

The theme is “Effective Language Teaching: The Never-Ending Challenge.”

The objectives are:
*to identify the challenges language teachers face in the classroom,
*to come up with ways to confront these challenges, and
*to develop a network among high schools and universities to share information about language teaching.

Plenary Speakers:
This year’s plenary speakers are Paul Hullah (Meiji Gakuen University, Tokyo), and Kazuhiro Nomura (Kobe City University of Foreign Studies).

Ratification of Osaka JALT Constitution: Voting Deadline June 21

 Osaka JALT Chapter Constitution ratified

The results of the ballot to ratify our new updated chapter constitution is as follows:
Yes -- 105 members
No -- 2 members
Abstain -- 5 members

Voting ended June 21. We had 112 votes out of 198 paid-up members, for a fairly high 56% participation rate (and 53% approval, so a clear majority). The new constitution can be viewed at http://www.osakajalt.org/constitution/, and a list of all ratified chapter & SIG constitutions is posted at http://jalt.org/general/chapter-and-sig-constitutions.

NOTE: If you are a paid-up member who did NOT get your ballot in an email titled "Osaka JALT Constituiton", then there may be a problem with your email address in our records, so please check and/or update it with our Membership Chair.
And if you DID get the ballot but did not vote, then please let us know that your email address is valid, as this election is a good opportunity to confirm or update your info with us.

For more info on this, please click on the Editorial link above, or the link below:

http://www.osakajalt.org/blog/2012/6/3/ratification-of-osaka-jalt-constitution-voting-deadline-june.html

Call for Presentations at KUIS on July 21 (due June 17)

 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:

• A color jpg
• A Greyscale PDF

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!