This seminar will be conducted by 3-hour online Zoom sessions for four days: Saturday, September 17, Sunday, September 18, Saturday, September 24 and Sunday, September 25 from 10:00 to 13:00 (JST).  Students taking this seminar for credit must attend all four days. Students can add/drop this seminar course by 14:00 on Saturday, September 17.

The pre sign-up (or course registration for those who are taking this seminar for credit) is required for anybody attending the public session on September 17 from 10:00 to 13:00. The sign-up process must be completed through "Distinguished Lecturer Series Seminar Sign-Up Form" that is available on TUJ Grad Ed website. The sign-up deadline is Friday, September 16 at 12:00. The public session Zoom link will be provided to those people who completed the online sign-up (or course registration) process by 18:00 on Friday, September 16.

The seminar seeks to address some of the most important reasons why many of our second/foreign language learners continue to have low confidence in using English for authentic communication. The first session of the seminar will provide a synthesis of recent scholarship in ELT and its related disciplines, highlighting some of the most important research insights that can help us understand why a small number of L2 students achieve success in acquiring the target language, while many continue to struggle. The second session will explore evidence-based instructional strategies for teaching vocabulary and grammar and how to integrate these in the existing L2 curriculum. The third and fourth sessions will explore new ways of teaching language skills (i.e., reading, listening, speaking and writing) to diverse groups of students in Japan and other similar contexts.       

Throughout the sessions, participants will be encouraged to reflect on their knowledge and beliefs about the nature of language learning and how they can best support their struggling students in acquiring the target language in the most pleasant and efficient manner.

At the end of the seminar, participants are expected to demonstrate a deeper understanding of current thinking in ELT, key factors that impede the process of language acquisition and practical strategies that can be productively employed to support student learning. They will also be well-equipped to explore potential research topics that could be further developed into a full research proposal for their masters’ thesis.