A brilliant talk about TED talks

In this eight-minute talk, Anderson ... clearly [and concisely] spilled the beans about public speaking.

Reference

• Anderson, Chris. (2016, March). TED's secret to great public speaking [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/chris_anderson_teds_secret_to_great_public_speaking 

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Short report: A find-someone-who activity

In the morning on Aug. 12, at PIGATE's Special Summer Session (SSS), Mr. Nobuyuki Takaki led a find-someone-who activity, which he introduced with "instruction checking questions" (The PIGATE Blog, 2017.06.01), and 10 interaction prompts that he'd printed on a large envelope (snapshot below).

Find-someone-who interaction prompts for the SSS, 2017.08.12

Afterwards, when participants had shared their findings, and were reflecting on the activity in general, Mr. Takaki made a point of mentioning that it had been an integrated-skills activity, in which participants had listened, read, spoken, and written. When I feigned surprise that participants had used all four basic skills (listening, reading, speaking, and writing) during the activity, Mr. Takaki reiterated the point, so I'm quite certain that participants got it.

Paul Beaufait, The Prefectural University of Kumamoto

ボーフェ ポール, 公立大学法人熊本県立大学

Shadowing for Improving Listening and Reading Skills (Fukushima & Lavin, 2013): A brief review

On June 13th, Mr. Taishi Kaneko (right) made his début as an emcee for guest speakers Mr. Hiroshi Fukushima (left) and Prof. Richard Lavin (center) at the PIGATE gathering in the KGU English Lounge. I hope we'll see and hear from them all again soon!

Mr. Kaneko introduced the guest speakers.

Along with a bit of historical and theoretical background, Mr. Fukushima and Prof. Lavin introduced two types of shadowing. The first focused learners' attention on the sounds of the target language, and the second focused on content–namely vocabulary, syntax (grammar) and meaning. 

PIGATE members had opportunities to try a little of both types. Then Mr. Fukushima reported on an on-going study to assess the effectiveness of shadowing relative to standardized test results. 

Prof. Takaki summed up the session.

Below are a couple of books on shadowing (Kadota, 2007, and Tamai, 2005) highlighted either in the presentation itself or in Prof. Takaki's summary. The other (Kadota, 2012), which I discovered today at Amazon, JP, appears to be a follow-up on the first.

• Kadota, Shuuhei. (2007). シャドーイングと音読の科学 [shadouingu to ondoku no kagaku: the science of shadowing and reading aloud]. Tokyo, JP: Cosmopia.
• Kadota, Shuuhei. (2012). シャドーイング・音読と英語習得の科学 [shadouingu, ondoku to eigo shutoku no kagaku: the science of shadowing, reading aloud and English acquisition]. Tokyo, JP: Cosmopia.
• Tamai, Ken. (2005). リスニング指導法としてのシャドーイングの効果に関する研究 [risuningu shidouhou toshite no shadouingu no kouka ni kan suru kenkyuu: a study of the effects of shadowing as a method for teaching listening]. Tokyo, JP: Kazama Shobou.

Though there seemed to be a general consensus among audience members about the potential of shadowing for dedicated individual language learners, a question remained about how teachers might adopt and adapt such practices for general classroom instructional purposes.

If you have other key readings to suggest, other questions about shadowing, or suggestions regarding shadowing and classroom teaching practices in particular, please feel free to spell them out in comments on this post.

Coming June 13th: Fukushima and Lavin on Shadowing!

Shadowing is a practice of repeating the words of a model just after they are spoken. It is used quite widely in English education in Japan, where it first became popular after simultaneous interpreters found it beneficial in their training. It is considered important for beginners, because it is helpful in learning pronunciation. It is also considered useful for more advanced learners, because the time pressure can help learners increase the speed of their reactions.

In this presentation, Mr. Fukushima and Prof. Lavin outline the history and theoretical background of shadowing, and then look at its uses in improving language skills. Mr. Fukushima reports on a study he is conducting, in which he is using shadowing to try to improve his TOEIC® scores. 

(Presentation abstract, revised, 06 June 2015)

Mr. Fukushima (right, below) has a Master's degree from the University of New South Wales (Australia), and is working on a Doctoral degree in the Graduate School of Letters at the Prefectural University of Kumamoto (PUK). Prof. Lavin (left, below) teaches in the Department of English Language and Literature at the PUK.

Their presentation will take place in the English Lounge at Kumamoto Gakuen University (bldg. 1, 1st fl.). For a map showing the location and info. about getting there, please see the Meeting Location page.

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Learning English the STELLAR way - Channel NewsAsia

Here's a bit of news about English teaching and learning in Singapore from Faris Mokhtar:

• Learning English the STELLAR way - Channel NewsAsia
• POSTED: 20 Apr 2015 23:03
• UPDATED: 20 Apr 2015 23:52

I'd never heard of STELLAR before. How about you?

Are any of the activities the article mentions already in your teaching kit, or do they sound like they may be worth trying out (adopting and adapting)?

I'd love to read your thoughts about STELLAR practices in comments on this post!

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'via Blog this'

Reflections on the monthly meeting: Dec. 13, 2014

First of all, I'd like to congratulate Ms. Fukushima (right) on her role leading the meeting at KGU on December 13th, 2014. For a teacher in training, it took a lot of courage to do so in English, an additional language for her. I have no doubt that as she gains public speaking experience of that sort she will need to rely less and less upon prepared scripts.

Three other main speakers rounded out the schedule.

Dec 2014 meeting! Pigs at KGU!!

PIGATE held its December meeting at the KGU English Lounge. Check below for pictures!