Welcome to the JALT2024 Special Ed. of JALTCALL News!

With the JALT 2024 International Conference just around the corner, we thought it would be helpful to highlight some upcoming sessions that JATLCALL members will be involved with. Personally, I love looking through the abstracts and planning my days to make the most of my conference experience. The sessions listed below were sent to us by members but there are surely more presentations and workshops you can add to your CALL schedule. The full schedule for JALT2024 can be found here. 

We also have big news coming soon about JALTCALL2025 so be sure to stop by the JALTCALL table next week in Shizuoka to say hello and see what we have planned for next year!

We're always open to feedback and suggestions so please don't hesitate to get in touch. We're also happy to include member contributions to the newsletter so if you have anything you'd like to share, get in touch with Bradley Irwin (Publicity Chair) at publicity@jaltcall.org.

In this special edition of JALTCALL News:

Day: Friday, November 15 @13:00 - 14:30

Room: 905

Presenters: Adam Jenkins, Gretchen Clark, and Geoff Carr

Targeted at EFL professionals tasked with conference management, this interactive workshop will lead participants through the basics of event management on Indico. By walking through configuration of each stage of the event, participants will learn how to leverage Indico’s comprehensive suite of tools. Attendees will leave with actionable insights and best practices for using Indico to enhance the impact and reach of conferences, making the most of this powerful platform to foster academic excellence and collaboration.

Attendee request: If you have not already, please make an account on events.jalt.org before the workshop.

Day: Saturday, November 16th @11:50 - 13:20

Room: Umi (EME)

Presenter: Brent A. Jones

Aimed at High School and University English Teachers this presentation examines a collaborative online project with Japanese, Indonesian, and Filipino students, focusing on intercultural sensitivity using the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI). It highlights a student-led conference on global issues, enriched by diverse activities and discussions. The session will showcase key IDI findings, revealing enhanced communication skills, cultural awareness, and understanding of global challenges. Attendees will explore the IDI's role in fostering international sensitivity in higher education.

Day: Saturday, November 16th @13:35 - 14:35

Room: 904

Presenter: Louise Ohashi

A session for teachers who want to learn about a range of AI tools and tasks they can use in their lessons. With the sudden influx of AI tools, many educators need guidance to exploit their potential benefits and curb student misuse. This workshop will demonstrate how to use AI tools such as writing assistants, chatbots, translation/transcription aids, and AI hubs to develop all four skills. In addition, the presenter will suggest ways to limit misuse of AI, with participants encouraged to share their concerns, exchange information, offer advice, and network with others for on-going support.

Day: Saturday, November 16th @15:55 - 16:20

Room: Hikae 1 (2F)

Presenter: Yoshiho Satake

For those interested in language education using VR, this study examines the effects of using VR for English teaching in Japan, focusing on virtual tour guiding in English by nine university students. The study found improvements in English proficiency and self-assessment by conducting five sets of activities involving research, writing, and performing tours in virtual spaces. The participants appreciated the freedom of choice, immersive experience, and gamification aspects of using avatars.

Day: Saturday, November 16th @17:50 - 18:15

Room: Practice Room 2 (B1)

Presenters: Jeng-yih Tim Hsu and Gregory Birch

This study documents a collaborative-online-international-learning (COIL) exchange between a Taiwanese and Japanese university. This study explored changes in students' willingness to communicate in English, learning engagement, intercultural awareness, and student performance during presentations as well as teacher and student views of course effectiveness. The findings suggest that the exchange has enhanced students' engagement and improved intercultural awareness. It is confirmed that trust, team dynamics, and task selection are essential components of a successful COIL course.

Day: Saturday, November 16th @18:25 - 18:50

Room: 1101

Presenters: Bob Cvitkovic and Omar Massoud

This presentation introduces an AI-based approach to efficiently and accurately assess speaking skills, focusing on comprehensibility and intelligibility. Traditional methods, requiring human evaluators and transcription, are time-consuming and impractical for many educators. By integrating AI tools for assessment, including AI-developed rubrics and transcription, this methodology offers a streamlined, objective way to evaluate speaking proficiency. It represents a significant shift towards leveraging technology in language education, promising educators rapid, reliable evaluation metrics to enhance teaching effectiveness.

Day: Sunday, November 17th @14:20 - 15:20

Room: 1001-2

Presenters: Jenifer Larson-Hall and Suwako Uehara

For those preparing for university job applications, this session will address the topics of building up your curriculum vitae (CV) by publishing articles and doing presentations. Two researchers with experience editing journals, doing university job searches, and publishing in international journals will give tips about how to increase your chances of getting a job in Japan.

Day: Monday, November 18th @10:40 - 11:05

Room: 909

Presenter: Alex Serebriakoff

This presentation will cover the activity methodolgy and results observed as well as how smartphone recording and self-assessment can be a powerful tool for improving speaking skills. In speaking exams our students often fall back to simple sentences with basic grammar. However they will not achieve a band 6 or above unless they display a variety of grammar forms. Can self-assessment via smartphone recordings help them see and address this problem? 24 students have been analysing recordings of themselves to understand and hopefully address this weakness.  Over two semesters a significant increase in the number of grammar forms used has been observed and effect which persists into mock exams. 

Day: Sunday, November 17th @16:50 - 18:20

Room: Rehearsal Room (B1) - 607

Hosts: Robert Swire and Robert Dykes 

Join us for an engaging discussion of prompt engineering and fine-tuning of GPT models for second language acquisition. Learn practical applications in SLA classrooms and participate in a moderated discussion on the transformative role of AI in language learning. This presentation is perfect for educators and technologists looking to better understand or enhance their teaching methods with cutting-edge AI tools.

Be sure to swing by the JALTCALL table to say hello and learn about what we have coming up in the near future!