In this issue:

CUE CONFERENCE
2016

FOUR FEATURE
ARTICLESCUE CAREERS

CUE CIRCULARISSUE 1
November

2016

News and articles from the JALT College and University Educators Special Interest Group

Welcome to the first issue of CUE Circular!
Here it is; a new quarterly newsletter/magazine-style publication from the College andUniversity Educators Special Interest Group of JALT (Japan Association for Language
Teaching). We’re excited that months of hard work from a lot of people have finallyculminated in a first issue, and we hope you’ll enjoy what you find here.

What’s it all about?
Well, with CUE Circular, we’re aiming to create a forum for new kinds of articles, essays,commentaries, and discussions about topics that really matter in a practical sense toteachers in the CUE field. That is, we hope to accomplish the following: to share lessformal, albeit well-written, articles that fall somewhere between the stuff of lunchtime
discussions around the table in the part-time teachers’ room, and the polished andthoroughly researched contents of scholarly journals. There is a lot to discuss, reflect on,
and write about within our field, and many of us have plenty to contribute, but notCUE CIRCULAR 11/2016

everyone is necessarily cut out to expand theboundaries of humanity’s knowledge throughgroundbreaking investigative formal research, written
up according to strict journalistic standards. And let’s
be honest; a lot of the time, we might not be muchdisposed to read a great deal of heavy scholarly
research, either. Let’s meet somewhere towards the
middle!
The CUE SIG is a collection of teachers with common
concerns, motivations, and challenges. We all haveexperiences worth sharing, we all have interestingteaching ideas, we all work towards similar goals andto solve similar problems, and we’ve all developed
points of view on a wide range of topics within ourfield. CUE Circular will be a place to share concise,well-written articles of practical and professional
interest, so please join in! Readers will be glad you
did, and you’ll be adding to your resume.
We’re pleased to present four feature articles in thisfirst issue, along with the first in a series that will deal
with matters of career and professional development.
Before getting to those, though, we invite you to
consider contributing a submission for a future issue.
Share your success stories (and failures!), teachingideas, opinions, reflections, responses, and narrative
reports of less-formal action research projects either
completed or in progress.
What’s happening in your teaching?
What’s influencing your decisions?
What obstacles have you overcome, and how?
What ideas or opinions do you have that others might
be interested to read?
What have you read, heard, or seen recently that’schanged your approach to teaching, either in or out of
the classroom?
Again, welcome to CUE Circular. Please join with us in
helping to make it a success!

Steve Paton, Editor
JALT CUE SIG

Scenes from this year’s CUE
Conference, at Kindai University,
Osaka, in September!2CUE CIRCULAR 11/2016

2016 CUE Conference
Thanks to everyone who attended, presented, or
helped organize the 2016 CUE Conference “conTENT
with teaching CONtent? Embracing Alternative
Methodologies in the Modern Language Classroom” in
Osaka. The conference was held at Kindai University
on Saturday, September 24 and featured two plenary
speeches in addition to 35 short presentations, 10
posters, a textbook exhibition, and a reference bookraffle. A total of 77 attendees had ample chances to
network and discuss a variety of practical andtheoretical topics of interest to university instructors.
The conference was well organized and had a friendly
atmosphere.
Professor Laurence Anthony from Waseda University
gave the first plenary talk entitled “ESP-informed
Content-Based Learning: Suggestions for Keeping theLanguage in Learning.” He discussed how integrating
elements of ESP methodology into content-basedlearning classrooms can help us develop classes thatmeet both content and language learning goals.
In the second plenary speech, “A Third Revolution in
ELT? CLIL as a Methodology for Competency-based
Language Education,” Professor Makoto Ikeda from
Sophia University discussed the importance ofteaching global competencies as well as English skills.
He examined the role of content and language
integrated learning in the Japanese educational
system and outlined ways it can be incorporated into
English language instruction. A link to Professor
Ikeda’s slides is provided on the 2016 CUE Conference
website, at http://conference.jaltcue.org/jalt-cueconference-2016-memories/ .
Saturday evening, the plenary speakers and over 20
conference participants gathered for the lively
conference networking party at a nearby restaurant.
Photos from both the conference and the networking
party are available on the CUE conference website.
Major upcoming events CUE is planning include our
JALT CUE SIG!3

CUE CIRCULAR 11/2016

4th ESP Symposium in 2017 and our 25th anniversary
conference in 2018. We will also hold a CUE SIG
forum at the upcoming JALT PanSIG Conference,
which is scheduled for May 19-21, 2017 at Akita
International University. Ideas for themes, venues,
and speakers for these or other CUE events can beshared with Program Chair Daniel Newbury or SIG
Coordinator Wendy Gough.
Information about upcoming CUE events will be
posted on the CUE website and emailed to SIG
members once planning begins. If you’re not getting
CUE’s monthly emails, check your spam folder orcontact Publicity Chair Jamie Taylor. Event
information can also be found on the CUE Yahoo
group, CUE Facebook page, and CUE members-only
Facebook group.

Feature articles
Classroom management tips andtraining

5

Sara Hendricks

Giving an L1 leg up in Moodle

7

Glen Hill

Closing the circle

10

Sylvain Bergeron & Richard Sampson

We asked for help from within: English
lecture meetings as an ESP project12

Keiichiro Kobayashi

CUE Careers column
Job market overview

15

Michael Parrish and Richard Miller

JALT CUE SIG!4

CUE CIRCULAR 11/2016

Feature articles
Classroom
management tips andtraining
Sara Hendricks shares someinsights from a particular branch of
psychology.
Sara Hendricks, Ritsumeikan
Asia Pacific University
Sara Hendricks received her
Master's Degree in TESOL in the
U.S. and has since taught inmany different countries,
including China, Japan, andMexico.
saraannhendricks@gmail.com

During one unexceptional December
morning, I had an unusually high numberof late students shuffle in half asleep thendaydream through my instructions for a
fun game. The game was not, in fact, any
fun because of the sluggish attitudes andlack of attention. The rest of class went
barely uphill. As I rebuked this student for
stumbling in thirty minutes late or thatstudent for not doing their homework, I
felt like I was living out my own personal
Groundhog Day. Reflecting on my classafterwards, I was reminded of myundergraduate days, studying animal
psychology. I felt like I was trying again to
get that lazy rat to run the maze, when day
after day, he just sat there, cleaning his fur
and eyeballing me. “Electric shock isn’t
allowed anymore, so what are you going to
do?” If I could get that rat to run the maze(fastest in the class!), train a two-week-old
JALT CUE SIG

chick to peck a succession of red and white
dots, and get my dog to heel off leash, why
couldn’t I get a few college students toparticipate in a fun English speaking
game? I needed to get back to the basics.
How does one modify behavior; animal orotherwise?
Punishment is a common fallback to try
to modify behavior. We spray cats withwater when they scratch the sofa or shoutat the dog when it chews our shoes. We
give students a big red X when they can’t
answer the test questions, or we sternly
lecture them when they miss too many
classes. However, do these things work?
The same students are continually late, thesame students “forget” their homework,
the same students fall asleep in the back ofclass. Are we building a good relationshipby punishing our students? Are they goingto keep coming to class if they’re hassled
once they get there? Do they want to dotheir best for someone who’s always
bringing up what they did wrong?
Extinction means you just ignore thenegative behavior until it goes away on its
own. For example, just wait until thatannoyingly playful kitten matures into acat. Think about elementary level
freshman students. At the beginning of thesemester, they giggle uproariously
whenever asked to speak the slightest bitof English. While annoying, this behavior
can just be ignored, as the surprise andembarrassment at speaking English willquickly fade.

!5

CUE CIRCULAR 11/2016

Training an incompatible behavior
replaces a negative behavior with a neutral
one. In the animal world, this might beused for a dog that, for example, jumps on
guests. You might teach that dog to sit
whenever the front door opens as sitting is
incompatible with jumping on people.
Think of what is annoying you duringclass. Are students falling asleep? Have
students stand and move around often inclass. Are they playing on their phones?
Prepare a tactile activity or fast-paced
partner game. The students can’t sleep ifthey’re standing, and they can’t text if theirhands are racing to organize vocabulary
words into categories of noun, verb, or
adjective. A phrase I often use in class is“Listen with your eyes.” Sleeping, drawing
pictures, and doing homework for otherclasses are all impossible if the students
have open eyes pointed at whomever isspeaking. Of course, you have to take into
account attention spans and be kind to
your students. Ten minutes might be thelimit that they can attentively listen to
English at a time. However, ten minutes ofconcentrating is better than twenty
minutes of staring out the window.
Putting the bad behavior on cue
would be training an annoyingly noisy dog
to “speak.” Then, the cue is never given atnight when people are sleeping, and thedog will (hopefully) not speak without thecommand. In the classroom, this might besomething like putting cell phone use or
speaking Japanese on cue. Give thestudents time to ask one another questionsin Japanese before they begin a group
activity. Give them a few minutes to use
their phones as dictionaries, do a bit ofresearch, or record an English
conversation. In practice, this will limit
JALT CUE SIG

their unasked-for cell phone use andcasual Japanese side conversations.
Positive reinforcement is an effective
contrast to punishments. Rather thanadding something bad to stop a bad
behavior, add something good to reward agood behavior. For instance, giving a dog apat when it stays close during a walk rather
than jerking on the leash when it pulls. In
the classroom, it is occasionally as simple
as changing how we phrase things;insteadof “taking points away” when students are
not participating, all students start at zeroand “earn points” when they participate.
This sort of reinforcement must be
immediate and specific. Listen during classand target exact behaviors, “Yangte, I’m
glad you’re here today on time. Ikumi,
good comment, you really understood thelistening. Keiko, thanks for helping yourclassmate understand how to do theactivity.” Praise, good grades, a chance tomove around, a fun activity, stickers on
homework, candy, public recognition, or
listening to their favorite English song are
all ways to positively reward your students.
Changing the motivation is the mosteffective way to change behavior but also
the most difficult. If you have a dog that isalways noisy early in the morning, it ismotivated to bark due to loneliness orboredom. If you take the dog on a walk, thebarking stops because it’s no longer boredor lonely. In class, it can be compared to
students who won’t stop trying to secretly
use the computers during a lab day.
They’re bored. A live stream of a soccer
match is more motivating than yourlesson. If you manually turn off their
computer, they are still bored andprobably not any more motivated to listen.
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CUE CIRCULAR 11/2016

What to do? Simply, (not actually simple)
plan more motivating classes. Students
keep sleeping through class? Whatever
they were doing late last night was moreenjoyable than your class. Figure out how
to create a fun class where the students
enjoy working with each other. Students
won’t do homework? Is it challenging,interesting, and essential to class? This is a
tough thing to do, and I know that every
second of every class can’t be super fun,constructivist, and life-affirming.
Sometimes, speaking drills, writing essays,or reading a less than fascinating portionof the textbook is necessary.
So, I advise starting with the hardest oneof these behavior modifications “change
the motivation” first, and working our way
backwards. Set aside a chunk of every
lesson for time to plan something specificto the students’ lives that will actually
motivate them to pay attention or do thehomework or arrive on time. For the restof class, cobble together a mix of putting
the behavior on cue, asking for an
incompatible behavior, patiently waitingfor extinction to take its course, rewarding
positive behaviors, and avoiding
punishment whenever we can. Hey, if I
can get a lazy, unmotivated rat to flip apattern of switches, surely we can get ourstudents to participate in a fun game,right?

JALT CUE SIG

Giving an L1 leg up in
MoodleOnline systems are more effectivewith good language support.
Glen Hill, Obihiro University ofAgriculture and Veterinary
Medicine
Glen Hill has been teaching
English in Japan since 1998. Hecurrently teaches ER andtechnical writing. He also edits
the OnCUE Journal.
glenahill@gmail.com

At my university, we use the Moodle
course management system for most of ourEnglish courses. I’m happy to say that a
few of the science teachers use it, too, andthey are growing in number. As forlanguage course use, however, we havecome to realize that despite today’s youth
being very capable with cell phone
technology, they are not all that literatewith computers. Couple that to trying towade through online material only inEnglish, and you have the makings for adisaster in communication.
First-year students are overwhelmed as it
is with getting used to a university setting
and its own idiosyncrasies. Orientation
days and computer training at the
beginning of the first semester are
mandatory necessary evils, but adding tothat a system such as Moodle only
compiles their stress. High school students
may have graduated with 6 years ofEnglish education, but their last 1-2 years
do not involve much oral communication,
so they need help in adjusting to a college
environment. We teachers at my university!7

CUE CIRCULAR 11/2016

speak in English >95% of class time, so wehave found that a good solution is to offersome L1 in Moodle.
Moodle allows teachers to create whatevercourse pages they need, and they may
include lessons in neatly blocked off
sections. But moreover, page designs can
incorporate links, embedded videos or
audios, homework assignments, quizzes,
and much more. Students can access all of
this via the Internet, whether they use acomputer, tablet, or cell phone. There iseven a Moodle App that has recently beendeveloped, but at this time it has someproblems with quizzes.
Students can choose to switch some of thedisplayed text on Moodle pages into a
handful of languages (English, Japanese,
Korean, Chinese, Spanish). This feature
helps students who struggle at such a basic
level as knowing what buttons to push tocomplete an operation or to send
homework to their teacher. This L1
language crutch also shows up in their
Moodle profile, making it easier for themto understand how to input various data,and how to set their email to one of 3
visibility modes. So, it’s helpful to pointout to students how they can flip thisswitch.

In addition, my colleagues and I havedeveloped over the past few years somehelp screens and videos in Japanese. All
students taking our required English I, II,
and III courses will see their course pageand its contents, but they will also have tosign up for a second page which we call the
Supplementary Materials page. Essentially,
it contains homework that everyone takes,
no matter if their class specialty is forreading skills, composition, or oral
communication. But it takes a lot to
explain what this Supplementary Materials
page contains. Most students seem toaccess Moodle with their cell phones, so
we’ve been forced to use short descriptions
for the various links or section headings,
but it may not be enough. This is where theL1 support comes in.
We’ve used the Book function of Moodle tocreate explanatory material that shows up
as embedded chapters, complete withtables of contents which allow students toclick on a chapter title and navigate pastunwanted sections. There is also a Page
feature which displays only one screen(one page) of text. In both of these Moodle
features, each page of information hasbilingual text with English on top andJapanese on the bottom (Figure 1).

Figure 1. A link to a Book chapter (green icon) and a Page document (blue icon), each with bilingual titles.
The Page link also shows a bilingual blurb to explain further what is inside. The check mark (☑) indicatesto students that a student has opened the item.
JALT CUE SIG!8CUE CIRCULAR 11/2016

Inside the chapters or in stand-alone
blocks are videos (Figure 2) that we havecreated using the free Screencast-O-Matic
downloadable software. Students canwatch the screencasts to see what buttons
are needed, what text should be entered,and what additional information isrequired to perform various operations.
Some videos show students how to
download Firefox, how to fix audio
problems, how to edit their Moodle profile,and how to set the spelling checker. Others
are specific to courses such as Reading
Skills, for which students have to learn
how to use the Moodle graded reader quiz
function. The screencasts are narrated inJapanese by a student who has experiencein the topic to lend support to weak L2
ability and to avoid communicative
problems in explaining such things bynative English speakers. As thescreenshots are displayed in the videos, thestudent narrator can point with the cursor
and open/close items to demonstrate how
the viewer can do things.
All of this works, of course, only if students
open the Moodle pages and read theinformation. As incentive for this, someteachers give a quiz on the second day ofclass. Quiz content is based on whatever
the teacher chooses from the course pageor Supplementary Materials page. And,even if students make mistakes on the quizor neglect to study beforehand, theinformation will always remain accessible
to them online instead of buried in
cluttered file folders or crumpled at thebottom of their backpacks.

Figure 2. Screenshot of one chapter in the Book from Figure 2, showing bilingual text and an embedded
Screencast-O-Matic video. Arrows (⊲⊳) on the top and bottom right corners of this block are for moving
to next or prior pages in the chapter.
JALT CUE SIG!9CUE CIRCULAR 11/2016

Closing the circle
What happens after students returnfrom studying abroad?
Sylvain Bergeron & Richard
Sampson, Gunma University
Richard Sampson holds a PhD
from Griffith University inAustralia. His research interests
include language learner andteacher psychology as a complex
system and possible selves.
sampson@gunma-u.ac.jp
Sylvain Bergeron is member ofGunma University's Center forInternational Education andResearch. His research interests
include global education
management and learnercentered methodology.
bergeron@gunma-u.ac.jp

Influenced by discourses of “globalizationas-opportunity” (Yamagami & Tollefson,2011), universities are under increasingpressure to develop programs of overseas
English study. Our institution is certainly
no different. The following presents a
narrative of some of our experiences withparticipants in study-abroad programs.
These experiences encouraged us todevelop an evolving concept of theimportance of metaphorically “closing thecircle,” by working to continue supporting
students after their return from study
outside Japan.
Having set up a new short-term studyabroad program, and with only a very
limited number of English-major learners,
the university was eager that a range ofstudents would take part. Reflecting
JALT CUE SIG

similar programs elsewhere, learners
would be exposed to a blend of English
language learning, introduction to local
culture and industry, and extra-curricular
activities. We sent out a call for
expressions of interest, and little by little
our pool of participants grew. Over thefollowing weeks, teachers, administrators,
students, and parents became intertwinedby the time, energy, and financial
commitments required to see the studyabroad program through. We met withparticipants over a series of pre-departure
information sessions. Gradually they came
to include us in exploring their aspirations
for the program. They focused on their
upcoming step outside of Japan, asking
detailed questions about the host country
and projecting forward to imagine
situations when overseas.
After their return to Japan, we also honed
in on participants’ time abroad, inviting
them to tell us stories of their exploits. In
most cases there was an intense eagerness
to share with someone who would listen.
This served our purpose well; we had beenencouraged to gather student narratives inorder to produce an information sheet for
the next cohort of participants. Yet, sitting
across the interview table, student after
student seemed to be hinting at more thantheir experiences overseas. There was a
palpable sense of What’s next? Where andwhen would it be possible to continue tomaintain their acquired language skills?
How could they extend exploration of theworks-in-progress that were their second
language identities? Embarrassingly, we
did not have answers. The university had
not considered this far, and certainly there
was no funding for any post-return
sessions.
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CUE CIRCULAR 11/2016

A couple of months later we contacted
these same students to act as sales agentsat a study-abroad fair. A handful oflearners agreed to take part, yet their
enthusiasm had gone. It was at this pointthat our awkwardness again reminded usof the lack of support these students had
been shown.

development that can occur in any context.
Such mindsets have negative
consequences, in that “a strong belief inlanguage learning as a natural process thatis best achieved abroad situates the learneras a passive vessel absorbing language
rather than as an active agent” (Ryan &Mercer, 2011, p. 170).

Put simply, the situation equated topurchasing an expensive item with noafter-sales service once money is placed in
the till and the sale finalized. Not unlike
the quality of service expected in a regularbusiness transaction, the same should betrue when we speak in terms of quality ofeducation within the sphere ofinternational education. Our experiences
drew our attention to a number of ways inwhich a primary focus on time overseas
does harm to students through theirexperiences in study-abroad programs.

Moreover, our interviews with studentssuggested study abroad to be so much
more than cognitive outcomes that can beconverted into credits. Both inside andoutside the classroom, affective processes
play just as important a role in the qualityof the study-abroad experience. Students’motivation and identity dynamically evolve
throughout their time overseas, as initial
anticipatory expectations transform ininteraction with situated, individual
experiences (Irie & Ryan, 2015). The
affective quality of time abroad and thenoticing that occurs connected with theseexperiences can heavily influence theongoing trajectory of students’ language
learning motivation as they come back toJapan. In a very real sense, quality ofeducation becomes synonymous withquality of experience (and vice versa) as it
pertains to the delivery of study-abroad
programs. And experiences do not end at a
set time. We carry them with us
throughout our lives.

Administrative aspects for the homeinstitution commonly revolve around theduration and content of study in the hostinstitution classroom. Completion of arequired course equates to credit for
English lessons back at the homeinstitution. The top-down pressure of“globalization-as-opportunity” (Yamagami& Tollefson, 2011) is countered by numberof students gaining credit for study abroad.
Conversation finished.
The lack of ongoing support compounds a
message that study abroad isfundamentally different from study within
Japan. It reinforces a mindset that moreadvanced English study is something that
occurs overseas separately from regularstudy within Japan, rather than viewing
this study as a continuing part of selfJALT CUE SIG

At the university in question, change is
gradually occurring. We have taken it uponourselves to meet with learners for English
lunches, providing evidence of student
interest. This extended discussion has seen
the proposal of a kind of English café, notonly for returning students, but also foranyone interested in using their English
outside the classroom. Naturally,!11

CUE CIRCULAR 11/2016

structural and financial obstacles still
remain. Yet, by “closing the circle” andallowing students a space to reflect on andcompare their experiences with others, wehope that we are heading in a direction
more beneficial to our participants.

We asked for help fromwithin: English lecture
meetings as an ESP
project

References
Irie, K., & Ryan, S. (2015). Study abroad
and the dynamics of change in learner L2
self-concept. In Z. Dörnyei, P. D.
MacIntyre, & A. Henry (Eds.),
Motivational dynamics in language
learning (pp. 343-366). Bristol, UK:
Multilingual Matters.

Matching content with student
interest made a positive difference.
Keiichiro Kobayashi,
Kanto Gakuin University

Ryan, S., & Mercer, S. (2011). Natural
talent, natural acquisition and abroad:
Learner attributions of agency inlanguage learning. In G. Murray, X. Gao,
& T. Lamb (Eds.), Identity, motivation andautonomy in language learning (pp.
160-176). Bristol, UK: Multilingual
Matters.
Yamagami, M., & Tollefson, J. W. (2011).
Elite discourses of globalization in Japan:
The role of English. In P. Seargeant (Ed.),
English in Japan in the era of globalization(pp. 15-37). Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave
Macmillan.

CUE Circular
www.jaltcue.org/cuecircular

JALT CUE SIG

Keiichiro Kobayashi has beenteaching English subjects
to science-major students in
Yokohama for 30 years.
kobakei@kanto-gakuin.ac.jp

As English teachers in a science
department, we had recognized two major
problems for a long time. First, ourscience-major students are generally
earnest but typically passive in theirattitude in English classes, especially when
the content of textbooks does not cater totheir scientific interest. Secondly, it is noteasy to find textbooks that provide
interesting up-to-date scientificinformation but yet are not too difficult for
students without sufficient knowledge ofEnglish grammar and vocabulary.
With the aim of coping with these
problems, we started in 2014 a project of
temporarily turning a few sessions of ourregular English classes into special English
lecture meetings on the topics of science.
Though the lecture meetings for thisproject are open to all university students
and staff, they differ from usual college
lecture meetings in that the lecturers are
Japanese science experts from our own
faculty and the audience are mostly!12CUE CIRCULAR 11/2016

students of our regular English classes. We
chose to run the lecture meetings in small
English classes with about 15-40 students,
where the students’ motivation to study
English is usually high. By doing so, wewere also able to start the project quickly
and avoid problems that usually occur
when holding larger-scale college lecture
meetings, such as choosing appropriate
lecturers (in terms of the students’interests), budget problems, reservationsof lecture halls, and ensuring a good-sized
audience.
To get the project underway, we first asked
some Japanese experts in our department
to brainstorm interesting scientific topics
in their specific fields. Following theexperts’ proposals, we started producing
English text materials which could provide
the students with prerequisite knowledge
for understanding the themes of those
lecture topics, including essential English
vocabulary lists. After we read those texts
with our students as preview materials in a
few sessions of our English classes, thoseexperts were invited to the classroom as
special guest lecturers and asked to givelectures in English on the science topics
they chose.
Since 2014, five experts in our faculty havegiven lectures on the following science
topics:An expert of biology, Professor Yoshiichiro Kitamura, chose the topic “Pavlov’s
Dogs.”He explained how conditioned
responses occur in animals, including
humans.
An expert of biomedical engineering,
Professor Hiroyuki Mino, chose the topic,“Brain and Drug Addiction.” He explained
JALT CUE SIG

why people become addicted to drugs byshowing the brain mechanism by which we
feel pleasure.
An expert of chemistry, Professor Hirokazu
Iida, chose the topic, “The Chemistry of a
Flame from a Candle,” where he addressed
the question of what it is exactly that isburning on a candle: is it the wax, the wick,or something else?
An expert of electricity and electronics,
Professor Hiroaki Uehara, chose the topic,“War of Currents,” where he explained thedifferent properties of direct current andalternating current, and how a conflictoccurred between Thomas Edison and
Nikola Tesla over the patent for a viable
system for providing electricity.
An expert of biomechanics, Professor
Kentaro Takahashi, introduced the subject
known as “Gait Analysis,” which looks atwhat is happening physically, specificallywith our bones and muscles, when wepractice the activity of walking.
While flexibility was needed for managing
collaborative work between English
teachers and experts of science, it gave thelecture meetings a number of unexpectedcharacteristics. First, the students’questions were collected a few days before
the lectures and conveyed to the lecturers
so that they can give brief and succinct
answers to the students in the Q and A
sessions. Secondly, the lecturers, also as
teachers, summarized or elaborated
further on the lecture themes in Japanese
after the English session, to boost thestudents’ understanding of the topics.
Finally, the students’ reactions wereshared by both the lecturers and the!13CUE CIRCULAR 11/2016

English teachers after the events as
incentives for continuing this project.
As English teachers, our expectation forthis project was that it would help to solve
the above-mentioned two major problems
in the following respects.
First, we
expected our students to engage in thelecture meetings positively because thetopics of the lectures were well chosen by
faculty members who know best where ourstudents’ interests lie; in fact, with the helpof English teachers, almost all the students
managed to ask their questions in English
after the lectures. Secondly, we expectedthat the experts’ advice would enable us to
produce proper preview text materials forthe lectures because they knew exactly
what knowledge the audience should haveto understand their lectures. As expected,
their advice led us into searching for text
materials not only from books but also
from among a wide variety of online
sources; consequently, we could produce
level-appropriate, interesting English textmaterials in an extremely flexible manner.
Reactions from the students after the
events have been generally favorable andusually mention such points as follows:(i) preview studies being helpful inunderstanding English lectures;(ii) realization of English not as a subject
to learn but as a tool for study;(iii) their becoming interested to learn
about scientific topics outside of theirfields; and(iv) their being thankful for the experts’visiting their English class as guest
lecturers.

keeping its quality, our observation at thisstage is that this project is a possible
solution for the above-mentioned two
problems in our English classrooms.
Specifically, we believe that it is a concrete
instance of ESP projects showing how
English teachers and the experts in one
department can collaborate with eachother to produce attractive English text
materials, and also for creating a desirable
class environment for science-major
students in our English classes.
(This project has been supported by theSociety of Humanities at the College of
Science and Engineering and the College ofArchitecture and Environmental Design in
Kanto Gakuin University.)

Submit an article!
What’s happening in your teaching?
What’s influencing your decisions?
What obstacles have you overcome,and how?
What ideas or opinions do you havethat others might be interested toread?
What have you read, heard, or seen
recently that’s changed your approachto teaching, either in or out of theclassroom?

w w w .j a l t c u e .o rg /c u e c i rc u l a r

Though we still have unresolved issues,
such as how to scale up this project while
JALT CUE SIG!14

CUE CIRCULAR 11/2016

CUE Careers
Job market overview
Since this is our first CUE Careers column,
we thought that we would start with an
overview of the current job market in
Japan for college and university teachersand some issues to consider when
examining the different types ofprofessional teaching positions available.
The employment market has changed
recently, and as with most things in Japan,
there is a dichotomy of slow and fastchange occurring simultaneously within
academia as well as other sectors ofJapanese society. Upon perusing thelargest academic job site in Japan,
JRECIN, the first things that strike manyfrom outside of the country are theplethora of “professor” jobs that do not
require a terminal degree and the relatively
low salary base when compared to otherregions of the world. While the rest of theworld has continued to have inflation
within the job market, the local economy
has persistently had low to negative
inflation, thus accounting for the lower
remuneration here. Salaries aside, there
has been “title inflation” though, as
reflected in the increase in assistant andassociate professor positions that do notnecessarily require corresponding
academic qualifications and research
publications as might be expected at thesame level of position in other countries.
For Japanese institutions, the one issue
that has continued to harbor change is thedemographic shift in the number of
JALT CUE SIG

In this regular column, Michael Parrish andRichard Miller offer insights on theemployment market for college anduniversity language teachers in Japan, as
well as general career guidance, advice, andstrategies.
Contributions from readers with specificareas of expertise, or regarding specificissues or changes in the job market, areencouraged.

Michael Parrish and Richard
Miller are the current cocoordinators of the Job
Information Center at the
JALT National Conference,
and are former editors of the
Career Development column
in The Language Teacher.
email: cuecareers@gmail.com

students entering the universities. Thisdecline has led to the closure or the threatof closure of a number of colleges anduniversities. There are now far fewer juniorcolleges than ever before. This has led to
institutions trying to squeeze as muchvalue for money out of the language faculty
as possible. There is the example of a large
university in Tokyo hiring language
teachers to teach 12 classes over 6 days; on
top of that were weekly meetings, a twoweek summer holiday and pressures topublish. All that for a mere 3.6 million yen
annually. While this is one of the moreegregious examples of institutional costsavings at the expense of professionalism,
there are others. Numerous institutions
have moved towards hiring faculty on 3- to
5- year limited-term contracts with acorresponding decrease in tenured
positions for both Japanese and nonJapanese faculty. In addition there is a!15

CUE CIRCULAR 11/2016

growing reliance on part-time staff tocover more classes. This is in an attempt tosave money and to skirt the new 2013
labor law granting permanent employee
status (seishain) after five years ofcontinuous employment. This new
employment law will come into full effectin 2018 and has the potential of forcing theaffected workers either to find new
employment or to become full-time,permanent faculty members (thoughperhaps not with the same benefits ascurrent tenured faculty).
There are still ample opportunities forlanguage professionals in Japan, however.
And with the latest rankings of universities
in the world showing that there are relative
drops for Japanese universities, there
continues to be demand for professionals
who are willing to research, publish andcontribute to the overall academic
community. Pressure from all levels ofadministration for research is constant,and those language professionals who arewilling to research and publish willcontinue to be recruited by institutions.
In addition, the Global 30 initiatives thatbegan five to ten years ago have pushed
many Japanese universities to globalize.
One avenue of internationalization has
been the recruitment of faculty to teachcontent subjects in English, often as
visiting professors, which could benefit
current language teachers withbackgrounds outside linguistics andeducation. Another result of the Global 30
is that there has been an increase in thenumber of study abroad / exchange
programs that send students overseas aswell as bring in students from abroad.
These require a number of professionals to
JALT CUE SIG

help fulfill the roles that are required forthe work of preparing study abroad
program curricula and to facilitate
students both going abroad and coming
into Japanese universities.
It is clear that the Japanese academic labormarket is going through some dynamicchanges, providing opportunities in someareas, while at the same time worsening
conditions in others. We hope this column
will help the readers navigate a clear
course and find their way to successful
college and university careers in Japan.

CUE Circular
Issue #1, November 2016
A publication of the JALT College andUniversity Educators Special Interest GroupISSN pending
All rights re se rve dw w w .j a l t c u e .o rg /c u e c i rc u l a r
EditorSteve Paton

Assistant Editor

Dion Clingwall

Proofreading

Glen Hill

CUE SIG Officers
Coordinator
Program Chair
Treasurer
Membership

Wendy Gough
Daniel Newbury
Gareth Barnes
Lorna Asami
Kinsella Valies
Publications Chair Glen Hill
Webmaster
Gavin Brooks
Publicity Chair
Jamie Taylor!16