OnCUE Journal, 2(2), pp. 157-159

Review
JALT 2007 Conference Report
Paul Wicking
Meijo University
The 33rd JALT International Conference was held in Tokyo November
23-25, 2008. I had never attended a JALT conference before, and so
I had assumed that it would be an easy-going affair, with lots of time
for introspection and quiet reflection on the art of language education.
Therefore, the conference theme “Challenging Assumptions” turned
out to be particularly apt, as the conference was nothing like myassumptions at all.

Friday, Nov. 23rdUpon arriving at the National Olympics Memorial Youth Centre brightand early Friday morning, I was quickly overwhelmed by the sheer scaleof the event. There seemed to be a thousand presentations all leaping
out of my Quick Guide schedule, all baying for my attention. I searched
desperately for a presentation on “How to Choose Presentations,” tono avail.
I eventually found my way to six presentations on Friday, the highlightbeing a session by Amanda Gillis-Furutaka. Amanda led a discussion
on “Education Choices for Bicultural Kids in Japan”, which challenged
my assumption that International Schools are always the best choice if
you can afford it. In fact, there are a whole host of benefits to a local
Japanese school, such as close proximity to home, curriculum strengths
in areas such as socialisation and leadership, excellent school meals
and sports teams. Amanda gave some examples using her children, oneof whom attended an international school and two of whom attended
the local Japanese school. For each child, these educational choices
were best.
The CUE SIG AGM was held Friday evening, and gave me a chance
to meet face-to-face the good folks that keep our SIG running. Thereseems to be a whole lot planned for 2008, with heaps of opportunity
for people to get involved. Afterward, I retired to my capsule hotel in157

Wicking, “JALT 2007 Conference Report”

Shinjuku that evening for a much needed rest in preparation for thenext day. My humidi-crib bed was the perfect environment to peruse
the schedule for the next day and plan a course of action.

Saturday, Nov. 24th
Saturday morning brought a plenary lecture from Paul Nation on
designing vocabulary tasks, which was full of great advice and badjokes. The great advice included ways to adapt tasks to increase thechance of vocabulary learning taking place, which I definitely planon using in my classes; the bad jokes, I won’t. There was more great
advice being given in the afternoon by David McCullough, who spokeon the topic of making small group discussions work from his doctoral
research into small group learning. David ended the session with lotsof useful techniques for improving classroom discussion. As I haveoften run into a wall of silence when attempting to do small group
work with my university classes, this presentation was particularly
rewarding. After a yakitori dinner in Kabuki-cho and a hot bath back at
my capsule hotel, I was all charged-up for a final day of JALT-ing.

Sunday, Nov. 25th
Sunday morning was packed full of more great speakers, but I wasn’t
sure whether to head home at midday or stay around for the Sunday
afternoon sessions. In the end, I decided to stay and was very glad I
did. Damian Lucantonio gave a brilliant presentation on pop culture
and global issues in a tiny room filled to capacity. Damian uses music
videos in his classes as a springboard for launching critical thinking
tasks and discussions into global issues such as poverty, war, and childsoldiers. The really interesting thing for me was that he doesn’t use thelyrics as a text. Instead, he concentrates on the moving image as a way
to probe students’ understanding and get them motivated to talk about
important social and political topics.
As I caught the shinkansen home that evening, my mind was buzzing
with the sights and sounds of JALT 2007. I think it’ll take me the next
12 months just to re-read my notes and digest all that went down over
the three days. This year’s conference will be held at the same place,and promises to be bigger and grander still. I really appreciate all thehelp and support given to me by CUE in order to get to the conference.
I look forward to seeing you all again in November.

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OnCUE Journal, 2(2), pp. 157-159

From left to right: Terry Fellner (Treasurer) and Matt Apple (SIGCoordinator) offer congratulations and a certificate to CUE 2007
Scholar Paul Wicking at the CUE 2007 AGM.

CUE 2007 Scholar Award Recipient:Paul Wicking
As the CUE 2007 Scholar, Paul received a grant from theCollege and University Educators’ Special Interest Group tohelp defray the costs of his attending the JALT International
Conference at the Yoyogi Olympic Memorial Youth Center inTokyo.
CUE SIG is planning to sponsor up to two CUE SIG
members for the 2008 JALT Conference. Please see page 160
in this issue for a brief list of award benefits and visit the CUE
SIG web page at http://jaltcue-sig.org for more information
about application requirements for the CUE 2008 ScholarAward.
159