Becoming a Better English Teacher Through Action Research Michael Stout Michael Stout led the audience through a well-paced and thoughtfully-structured overview of how Action Research (AR) can benefit teachers. After beginning with a brief introduction outlining the principles behind this approach, Stout drew on his own experience of using AR...

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Teaching Methods in a Blended English Learning Environment Huy Tran On Saturday, June 8, 2019, Huy Tran presented Teaching Methods in a Blended English Learning Environment. Mr. Tran described his own school in Kikuchi where students use computers to study English. He called it a Flipped Classroom where students do...

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Designing EFL Materials that Work Barbara Hoskins Sakamoto Ms. Hoskins gave a workshop and presentation on Saturday, May 11, discussing her very successful children's textbook Let's Go and why it has remained the EFL standard for children's texts for the past couple of decades. She talked about how there needs...

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Anxiety and Student Perceptions of Fairness During Collaborative Testing Stephen Case, Hudson Murrell Mr. Case and Mr. Murrell gave a presentation on Saturday April 13, discussing how anxiety affects the perceptions of tasks and how this impacts collaborative testing. Collaborative testing features two students in a test situation where the...

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The Blended Classroom - Taking Learning Online Paul Collett, Malcolm Swanson Mr. Collett and Mr. Swanson gave a presentation and workshop on March 16, discussing using online tools in the classroom, specifically Moodle and Google Classroom. Mr. Collett walked the audience through the various pros and cons of the Google...

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A Workshop: Sequencing Classroom Activities / Tasks for More Effective Communication Charlie Bell On Saturday, February 9th, 2019, Charlie Bell gave a presentation about sequencing classroom activities for more effective communication. The presentation started with a discussion about some of the common issues teachers face when implementing communicative teaching methods....

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Mindsets and Foreign Language Learning Michael Berg Mr. Berg presented his thesis from his paper on how mindset, either a growth mindset or a fixed mindset, affects language learning, with a specific focus on Japan. He found that a fixed mindset, one where natural talent is expected to succeed in...

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The Benefits, Challenges, and Results of a Research-based Vocabulary Program Stuart McLean Stuart McLean, of Osaka Jo Gakuin outlined the challenges he faced when creating a vocabulary based program at his university. He began by outlining a number of terms, focusing on the difference between vocabulary size and vocabulary level....

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Turning Speaking Tasks Into Assessment Activities Jerry Talandis Jr. The presentation outlined a number of ways to bridge the theory of testing in English classes in Japan into practical applications that teachers can use to promote language acquisition through testing. Mr. Talandis argued that since testing in English classes in...

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Grounded Theory in Applied Linguistics Research: Attractive Nuisance or Helpful Guide? Gregory Hadley Dr. Hadley of Niigata University discussed the value and challenges of Grounded Theory as it applies to research in applied linguistics. He began by defining in broad terms what is meant by grounded theory as, he argues,...

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