ELT in Japan (ELT-J)

New research on understanding metaphors | ScienceBlog.com

Dyslexia varies across language barriers | ScienceBlog.com

1. Devising Multiple-choice Questions, Quizzes and Tests. pdf 2. Semantic mapping activities for the speaking class.pdf

ELT - J Issue #2 Preview Article: Devising Multiple-choice Questions, Quizzes and Tests Issue 2 of ELT in Japan will consist of four articles: (1)  "Teaching English [l] sounds vs. [r] sounds: Integrating applied phonology into the EFL classroom"; (2) "Devising multiple-choice questions, quizzes and tests"; (3) "Semantic mapping activities for the speaking class"; and (4)"Semantic mapping activities for the writing class".  Here are two of those articles available for download in a special preview of ELT-J Issue #2, which will be published in full by the end of this month (Feb. 2010). Click on the links below to view the articles at GoogleDocs. You can download them from there as well, in .pdf .     1. Devising Multiple-choice Questions, Quizzes and Tests https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B2aIR7UspFzpMDMxYTVkNmMtYzdlMS00ZmZlLWJjOTEtYTU5M2IyMmJmNTlk&hl=en introductory excerpt: In this article we will look at how to in...

This was originally posted 14 February, but I am re-posting it in order to put it back on top and up front. This is the two-article preview of issue #2 of ELT in Japan .    ELT - J Issue #2 Preview Articles: (1) Multiple Choice Questions and (2) Semantic Mapping for English Conversation Class ELT - J Issue #2 Preview Articles: (1) Multiple Choice Questions and (2) Semantic Mapping for the English Conversation Class ELT - J Issue #2 Preview Article: Devising Multiple-choice Questions, Quizzes and Tests Issue 2 of ELT in Japan will consist of four articles: (1)  "Teaching English [l] sounds vs. [r] sounds: Integrating applied phonology into the EFL classroom"; (2) "Devising multiple-choice questions, quizzes and tests"; (3) "Semantic mapping activities for the speaking class"; and (4)"Semantic mapping activities for the writing class". Here is a preview of Issue #2 with two of the articles in draft form: 1. Devising multiple-choic...

 Link and excerpt below: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Japaneses-Read-Your-Feeling-by-Your-Eyes-the-Americans-by-Your-Mouth-54495.shtml The Japanese Read Your Feelings in Your Eyes, the Americans by Your Mouth Huge cultural differences    By Stefan Anitei, Science Editor 11th of May 2007, 10:39 GMT excerpt-- The culture we belong to dictates each and every of our gestures. Also, a real cultural abyss has been revealed in the way we appreciate facial expressions amongst cultures. "For instance, in Japan, people tend to look to the eyes for emotional cues, whereas Americans tend to look to the mouth," said researcher Masaki Yuki, a behavioral scientist at Hokkaido University in Japan. "This could be because the Japanese, when in the presence of others, try to suppress their emotions more than Americans do. In any case, the eyes are more difficult to control than the mouth, so they probably provide better clues about a person's emotional state...

Some theories on the development of language include the idea that spoken language has its origins in gestural routines. Gestural language combined with phonetic ability to move language to speech. See this recent article for evidence that supports such theories. Link and excerpt below. http://health.yahoo.com/news/healthday/gesturesorwordstothebrainitsthesame.html Gestures or Words? To the Brain, It's the Same HealthDay By Jamie Talan, HealthDay Reporter - Tue Feb 23, 8:50 PM PST excerpt-- At least that's what evolutionary language theorists would have people believe. Spoken language, they contend, is unique to the human brain, and that sets people apart from other primates. But new research, co-authored by Patrick J. Gannon, a physical anthropologist and chairman of basic science education at Hofstra University School of Medicine, suggests that the brain doesn't really care how it receives information. A waving hand up in the air to summon a waiter for "c...

Here is the feed page for ELT-J at feedburner.com. You can choose the reader you want over on the right of the page.   http://feeds.feedburner.com/EnglishLanguageTeachingInJapanelt-j This one gets you an e-mail subscription to ELT-J: http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=EnglishLanguageTeachingInJapanelt-j 

ELT in Japan Issue #1 featured seven articles. Here is a bonus article that is longer than a typical ELT-J piece. It provides more background, graphics and resources to two of the features of issue #1. They are: 1.  Writing Systems: Positive transfer or negative interference for EFL learning? and  2.  Do Japanese EFL students need katakana eigo to learn and to read English? The bonus article is available at the link below in read-only .pdf which you can also download and read in Adobe Acrobat Reader. An abstract is provided here.    Can Native Literacy Practices Impact EFL Learning? The Example of Japan Charles Jannuzi, University of Fukui, Japan Abstract Katakana eigo is a Japanese term referring to English rendered into a written form that uses one of the two syllabaries of written Japanese. On the one hand, it aids a legitimate process: the borrowing and subsequent nativization of terms from English into Japanese. On the other ...

You can read them in the public access folder at GoogleDocs (read-only using a reader that is like GoogleBooks),  or you can download them from the GoogleDocs interface. Creative Commons License 3.0 applies. ELT in Japan Issue #1 (Dec. 2009) in PDF You can read them in the public access folder at GoogleDocs (read-only using a reader that is like GoogleBooks),  or you can download them from the GoogleDocs interface. Creative Commons License 3.0 applies. ELT in Japan Issue #1 (first published December 2009) Click on the title of the article to view it. 1.  Writing Systems: Positive transfer or negative interference for EFL learning? 2.  Do Japanese EFL students need katakana eigo to learn and to read English? 3.  Teaching as a foreign national at Japanese universities: Shifting terms of institutional status, employment, work conditions and related concerns 4.  Ten reasons why English learning fails in Japan 5...

Google/Blogger provides an e-mail subscription service through Feedburner. I have placed such a subscription form on the sidebar (left side of page). Just enter your subscription. It looks like the one below. In fact, you can also use this one; it is active. Enter your email address: Delivered by FeedBurner

People have asked about getting updates mailed to their chosen e-mail address--either as a supplement or in place of the Web 2.0 'feeds' (RSS, Atom), which push updated content into your 'reader' program (e.g., Yahoo Reader, Google Reader, or something your e-mail program or web browser gives you) or onto personalized web pages (e.g., Igoogle and MyYahoo). The persistent usefulness of e-mail can not be denied.  As far as I can tell, Blogger doesn't have an e-mail subscription service native to it. I had been using a free service for one of my blogs, but I didn't like the fact that I couldn't control the ads in it, so I dropped it. One fix is possible, IF you have a google account. If you have a google account (and do things like gmail, googledocs, Buzz, etc.), you can set up a search as a feed that is then pushed to your e-mail address. Here is how: 1. Go to: http://www.google.com/alerts/ 2. Create a Google Alert. 3. Enter the to...

ELT - J Issue #2 Preview Articles: (1) Multiple Choice Questions and (2) Semantic Mapping for English Conversation Class ELT - J Issue #2 Preview Article: Devising Multiple-choice Questions, Quizzes and Tests Issue 2 of ELT in Japan will consist of four articles: (1)  "Teaching English [l] sounds vs. [r] sounds: Integrating applied phonology into the EFL classroom"; (2) "Devising multiple-choice questions, quizzes and tests"; (3) "Semantic mapping activities for the speaking class"; and (4)"Semantic mapping activities for the writing class". Here is a preview of Issue #2 with two of the articles in draft form: 1. Devising multiple-choice questions, quizzes and tests http://eltinjapan.blogspot.com/2010/02/elt-j-issue-2-preview-article-devising.html 2. Semantic mapping activities for the speaking class http://eltinjapan.blogspot.com/2010/02/elt-j-issue-2-preview-article-semantic.html Note: All content is copyright (c) 2010 of Charle...

This is the second preview article for issue #2 of ELT-J (the first issue of 2010). It's an article on vocabulary development and practice in support of the EFL speaking/conversation class. Here is a link to the article in .pdf form. You should be able to download it and view it using Adobe Acrobat Reader, or view it with your web browser--googledocuments makes it viewable with just about any advanced browser (the document looks like googlebooks). All the articles (all four) of issue #2 will be consolidated and re-published as one issue later this month. Semantic Mapping Activities for the Speaking Class https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B8LogtWAF3y8Y2YyZTNlYTktMTg0Ny00ZjdlLTgwZmItNjUxM2JjNmQxODVi&hl=en_GB Note: All content is copyright (c) 2010 of Charles Jannuzi   and ELT in Japan , but is available for re-use, re-distribution and dissemination under the Creative Common license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ ).

Issue 2 of ELT in Japan will consist of four articles: (1)  "Teaching English [l] sounds vs. [r] sounds: Integrating applied phonology into the EFL classroom"; (2) "Devising multiple-choice questions, quizzes and tests"; (3) "Semantic mapping activities for the speaking class"; and (4)"Semantic mapping activities for the writing class".  Here is a special preview of Issue 2, article (2) from the list above. All four articles will be published together as one issue later this month (February 2010): ELT - J Issue #2 Preview Article: Devising Multiple-choice Questions, Quizzes and Tests by Charles Jannuzi, University of Fukui, Japan Introduction Chances are that, if you teach EFL at a tertiary level in Japan, your students are most familiar with relatively 'conservative' types of assessment tasks. However, these tasks are also further limited by an overall orientation of turning L2 (EFL) into L1 (Japanese). For example, they h...

http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/english-language-teaching-in-japan-elt-j

I'll add this to this blog's links, but here is the address and its description below. This seems to be about much of the same focus as ELT-J --teaching English in Japan, much of it at the tertiary level.  http://eisensei.blogspot.com/ Hello and welcome to *eisensei! I decided to create this blog with the intent of improving my teaching skills. Please allow me to explain: I am currently teaching English at a post-secondary institution in Japan. While I really enjoy my work, I have to say that I cannot help feeling somewhat isolated - meaning that there are no other full-time EFL instructors with whom I could discuss ideas and techniques. Although I do have experience, I think it is still important to bounce ideas off of others and get advice on different areas of teaching. Now, I do belong to several associations, subscribe to a few journals, and am a member on some forums, which have helped me greatly, but I think that again it is that contact with others in the same s...

Issue 2 of ELT in Japan will consist of four articles: 1.  Teaching English [l] sounds vs. [r] sounds: Integrating applied phonology into the EFL classroom 2.  Devising multiple-choice questions, quizzes and tests 3.  Semantic mapping activities for the speaking class 4.  Semantic mapping activities for the writing class Issue 2 of ELT in Japan is scheduled to be published before the end of February 2010. Meanwhile, if you haven't already, check out issue 1 , which was published in December 2009. http://eltinjapan.blogspot.com/2009/12/elt-in-japan-issue-1-december-2009.html