Theme: "The Active Classroom"

Date: Sunday, September 23
Time: 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Venue: Hokkai Gakuen University, Building 2, First Floor
Fees: Members: free; Conference guests: Y2,000, or Y1,000 if pre-registered
Hotels/Accommodations: Check under Hokkaido Links of Interest for hotel information

Download Program and Schedule here (PDF, 5.7MB)

The 24th Hokkaido Language Conference will be held Sunday, September 23, at Hokkai Gakuen University's Sapporo Toyohira Campus. This year’s conference theme is “The Active Classroom” and the presentations we have selected are sure to provide you with that little “spark of something” to try in your classes. We are pleased and fortunate to have Don Maybin from the Shonan Institute of Technology as our plenary speaker thanks to the sponsorship of Macmillan Languagehouse, Japan. Join us for an exciting day of presentations, workshops and forums on various aspects of language teaching. Make it a long weekend as Monday is a national holiday. Sapporo is beautiful in September.

Easiest access to this year's conference site is via the Toho (blue) subway line. Get off the subway at Gakuen-mae station, which connects directly to the university.

Featured Presentation

Don Maybin: Communication Strategies — Any Language, Anywhere

Abstract: This workshop is a comprehensive introduction to communication strategies, including practical exercises to develop their use in the ESL/EFL classroom. The presenter will start with a working definition of communication strategies, introduce specific training models, and then apply them in a variety of activities. Each activity has been used with varying ages and levels of students, including secondary, university and adult learners from low level to advanced ability, and in a range of contexts, including individual tutorials, team teaching, university and company classes, as well as in the teaching of languages other than English. Language instructors of all experience levels should find something useful. Full audience participation is requested.

このワークショップでは、ストラテジーの紹介、実用的な演習、ESL/EFLの授業中などのコミュニケーションストラテジーについて詳しく紹介します。講演のはじめにコミュニケーションストラテジーの定義を定めます。次に具体的なモデルを紹介して、実際に演習に使用します。それぞれの演習は様々な年齢や英語能力の学生について実際に使った事があるものです。また様々な形態、個人レッスン、高校でのチームティーチング、大学や会社での授業、さらに英語以外の言語で行なった事もあります。全ての先生にとってこの講演は有意義であると思います。実際の授業の形式で行いますので参加して下されば幸いです。

Bio: Don Maybin presently teaches at Shonan Institute of Technology in Japan. He is a former director of the Language Institute of Japan and has a comprehensive, practical background in ELT having worked with young children, secondary school students, and adult learners, as well as university students. He was a featured speaker at JALT’s 2006 National Conference in Kita-Kyushu and is co-author of The Active Learner (Macmillan Language House, Japan), a textbook for training learners in the use of communication strategies.

ドンメイビン氏は現在、湘南工科大学の准教授です。 以前は小田原にある外国語研修センター(Language Institute of Japan, LIOJ) の学長でした。彼は大学生以外にも小、中学生や高校生、大人、年配の方まで幅広く英語等の外国語を教えていた経験があります。 2006年北九州市で行われた全国語学教育学会(JALT)の特別招待講演者(featured speaker)にも選ばれています。最近の著書The Active Learnerシリーズ (Macmillan Languagehouse, 2007) は学生にコミュニケーションストラテジーを教えるために書かれています。