CJLEA Newsletter August 01

The CJLEA Newsletter encourages articles of interest to instructors, researchers, administrators and students at all educational levels on theory, research, and classroom practice in language/culture teaching. Articles dealing with pedagogical strategies, materials and curriculum development, language/culture teaching technology, the teaching of literature, assessment, community awareness projects and international studies would be equally welcome; the foregoing list illustrates the range of concerns that might be addressed in submissions. We welcome manuscripts from teachers at all levels.

The CJLEA Fall Assembly is scheduled on October 6th, 2001. Naomi Hashimoto Kraft is hosting the assembly at the Montclair Middle School. For more information, visit the CJLEA Fall Assembly page.

The CJLEA is soliciting share session proposals for presentations at our annual meetings. The theme of our Fall meeting is: Let's Articulate! Smoothly and Clearly. If you are interested in submitting a session proposal, please use the proposal form.

Your annual membership is from September through August and it will expire very soon. Please take a moment to fill out a renewal form and mail it with a check to the address on the form. You will also be receiving a renewal notice by U.S. Mail sometime soon.

The CJLEA Summer Workshop was held on July 6th and 7th at the Pikes Peak Community College hosted by Rieko McAdams. The objective of the workshop was to come up with teaching modules based on the National Standards (the K-16 Japanese National Standards) in order to create materials that will accommodate the requirements of K-16 articulation for all institutions in Colorado and Wyoming. Workshop participants shared their knowledge and experiences to find ways to integrate National Standard based instruction, issues in articulation and various teaching methods.

Many thanks go out to Rieko McAdams and Dr. Wally Astor at the Pikes Peak Community College for providing facilities as well as breakfast and lunch, Yumiko Guajardo and Kaoru Slotsve for preparing materials and ideas, and Ryoko Yoshida Keaton for raising a major portion of the funding to make the workshop possible.

The organizers, Yumiko Guajardo and Kaoru Slotsve, have been working hard to get more funding to continue the project. Interested members will be welcome to join this exciting project. Look for updates in the future issues!

I was born and grew-up in Tokyo. In 1977 I received a degree in World History from Gakushuin University, Mejiro, Tokyo. An interest to study English led me to the United States in 1979 where I enrolled at Colorado Mountain College (CMC) in Glenwood Springs. After a semester of cultural and language submersion at CMC, I transferred to Colorado State University (CSU) in Fort Collins to begin a Master's program in Linguistics and Teaching English as a Second Language. During my Master's program I taught English for the city of Fort Collins' Adult Basic Education program and for CSU's Office of International Education and the Intensive English Program. I received my Master's degree from CSU in 1982.

I returned to Japan following completion of my Master's program and enjoyed a number of work experiences during the next five years. I worked as an interpreter, translator, and coordinator for Japan's public broadcasting corporation Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK) with the department of Cultural, Industry and Science, News, Drama and Performance, International Relations, and Overseas Broadcasting. Projects with NHK included Japanese and English interpretation and translation for interviews, news scripts and negotiations during program production. I also provided interpretation services at international conferences and for visits by foreign officials. I was an English instructor at Simul Academy and Athenee Francais in Tokyo, and also taught English to company executives with the Education Council Inc. Teaching responsibilities included conversational English instruction and fundamental interpretation skills to high level English language students.

In 1988 I returned to the United States to marry and begin a family. I continued working for NHK until the birth of my second daughter. Volunteer activities include teaching Japanese culture to elementary school students and serving as president of CSU's International Women's Club for five years. Currently, I am a Japanese Language Instructor with CSU's Foreign Language Department. My daughters, Yukiko and Junko, and I spend summers with my mother in the Tokyo area.

O-bon Holiday （お盆休み）
The Japan Forum
Bon Holidays
Kids Web Japan, Japan Information Network
O-bon (The Buddhist festival of the dead)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

These are a few examples of what you find on the Internet. You may conduct your own search using search engines. One of the recommended is Google.

I have fourteen-year's foreign language teaching experience. I taught elementary and intermediate Japanese at University of Idaho from 1999 to 2001, and taught English at Hiroshima prefecture senior high schools from 1987 to 1999. I have an MA-TESL degree from University of Idaho, where I learned linguistics and current issues in pedagogy, second language acquisition, and psycholinguistics. My professors allowed me to choose topics related Japanese and Japanese teaching for the term projects, so I researched Japanese from several viewpoints. In addition, I completed Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language at Exchange: Japan Teacher Training Institute at Bryn Mawr College. Thus, I have theoretical background and practical experience of teaching Japanese.

Serving as a native speaking Japanese teacher and a non-native speaking English teacher, I have considered the strength of the two different positions. As a Japanese teacher, I know of the language and can provide various contexts where students can practice authentic language in classroom. In addition, I have studied about the language so that I can effectively answer students' questions such as "Why do you say it that way?" I believe that it is very important to present the language in a linguistically sound manner and to provide students many opportunities to use the language in context.

At University of Idaho I was responsible for developing curriculum, selecting textbooks, designing supplementary materials, and designing and executing testing and student evaluation materials. I enriched interaction with and among students, providing pair-work and group-work activities. I used audio-visual materials, anime, Japanese songs, etc., which are linguistically and culturally related to the lessons. I introduced weekly fude-pen kanji practice and Calligraphy Art Projects to promote the students' interests to learn kanji.

I am a friendly, hard-working, and enthusiastic teacher. I always try to make learning interesting and meaningful to the students. I am confident about my experiences teaching Japanese. I also have a strong will to develop my teaching skills by communicating and working with other teachers. Thus, I believe I can contribute to any academic environment.

The University of Northern Colorado, Greely, Colorado, is looking for an
instructor who can teach two sections of First Year Japapnese and one
section of Second Year Japanese in the fall of 2001 (and in the spring,
2002). They are also looking for someone who can teach Contemporary Japan,
a lecture course taught in English. It would be ideal if the same person
can teach both the language and lecture courses, which makes the position
almost full-time. They seriously would like to build up the Japanese
program at UNC.

If you know of anyone who may be qualified/eligible/interested, please get
in touch with Dr. Peter Kastner at:
e-mail: pkastne@unco.edu
phone: (970) 351-3417

A: WebWhacker is a program that lets you download web pages or web sites to your computer, more specifically to your hard drive or equivallent storage space. By doing this, you can view web pages or web sites without being connected to the Internet. This is beneficial whenever you want to view web pages with no Internet connection. For example, you might want to show web pages to your students in a room without an Internet connection or with a very slow Intenet connection. Another example is when you want to archive web pages or web sites for future reference.

WebWhacker Education Edition is available to educators who use Windows. For more information about the edition, visit this page.

The Japan Foundation
Japanese-Language Teaching Materials Donation Program
This program donates a variety of teaching materials to overseas educational institutions offering regular courses in the Japanese language. The donations are to become the property of the recipient institutions, and are not to be owned privately by teachers or students.

For more information, visit Materials Donation Program Page.

CARLA (Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition)
LCTL Material Development Mini-Grant Opportunity
Since 1993, CARLA's Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTL) Project has worked to support LCTL instruction with a variety of opportunities and tools which include: a series of electronic mailing lists for LCTL instructors; a database of where LCTLs are taught at K-12 and post-secondary institutions around the U.S.; and a series of summer institutes and workshops specifically designed for LCTL instructors.
For more information, visit LCTL Material Development Mini-Grant Opportunity page.

September 8 ~ 9: CCFLT Linguafest 2001, Colorado Springs, CO
October 6 (Sat.): CJLEA Fall Assembly, Denver, CO
October 13 (Sat.): CCFLT Fall Conference 2001, Central City, Colorado
October 31~ November 3: ATA 42nd Annual Conference, Los Angeles, CA
American Translators Association
November TDA: Colorado Regional Speech Contest
Boulder, CO, Contact: Minori Murata
November 9 ~ 11: AJLS Tenth Annual Meeting, Medford, MA
Association for Japanese Literary Studies
November 15 (Thu.) ~ 18 (Sun.): ACTFL 2001
November 22 ~ 25: PAC3 at JALT2001, Kokura, Japan
Japan Association for Language Teaching
December 2 (Sun.): The 18th Annual Japanese Language Proficiency Test
Contact: Japan Foundation

February 21 -23: CCFLT Spring Conference 2002, Colorado Springs, CO
Colorado Congress of Foreign Language Teachers
Proposal deadline is October 30, 2001
March 7 ~ 9: Southwest Conference on Language Teaching
Oklahoma City, OK
March 21 ~ 23: Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, Kansas City, MO
March 26 ~ 30: CALICO 2002, Davis, CA
April 4 ~ 7: AAS Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C.
July 11 ~ 14: CASTEL/J 2002, San Diego, CA
Proposal deadline is August 31, 2001

Please consider our invitation to join or renew membership in the Colorado Japanese Language Education Association (CJLEA). The aims of the Association are to promote interest in and improve the quality of instruction of Japanese language at all levels in the state of Colorado, and to provide for the professional/educational growth of the membership. The CJLEA was established in April 1995, with a grant from the Japan Foundation Language Center. Among the benefits of membership are receiving a newsletter, attending events and networking with Japanese educators and other professionals.

Membership is open to teachers and students of Japanese language and others interested in Japanese language and culture education.
Membership and Renewal Form

Joan E. Ericson, President
Colorado College
Ryoko Yoshida Keaton, Co-President & Public Relations
Transpacific Business Resources, Inc.
Kaoru Slotsve, Vice-President & Public Relations
Kelly Walsh H.S./Natrona County H.S.
Kyoko Saegusa, Secretary
University of Colorado, Boulder
Mako Beecken, Treasurer
Colorado State University

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