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Message from the Editi_'Of'___
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CUE 2000: C
ConferenceCele tier

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Dias , Ford, Mccafferty & Ockey:
The IATEF 2000 ConferenceReviewed

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EducationalOpportunities
for TeacherisAbroad18

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Magellan K.K.
Magellan K.K. are Independent International Investment Advisers. We
advise the long stay Educational Professional working in Japan, of
whatever nationality, whether Language Teacher, Lecturer or University
Professor on how best to use their privileged expatriate status to achieve
their long term financial objectives.
As an Educator living and working in Japan you have joined the ranks ofthe long stay Educational Professionals who choose to live and workoverseas. The motivations to do so are many and complex but common tomost is the opportunity it provides by way of an income higher than could
be enjoyed at home to accumulate some sort of wealth. One of the pricesthat all expatriates pay for the benefits of living and working overseas isthat they lose the advantages of the Retirement, Medical and Healthcarearrangements that their domestically based counterparts continue to enjoy.
Magellan, commercial members of JALT, specialize in the Off Shore
Saving, Investment and Insurance schemes that all expatriates need toreplace those they have chosen to leave behind. Whether your need is tofill the hole in your retirement planning, save to buy a home or simply to
enjoy the benefits of off shore banking, we can help. With access to thewidest possible range of products in the international market place, adetailed knowledge of the complex rules relating to off shore taxation,
current and future residence / domicile issues, we can help you design anappropriate, tailor made solution. To discuss the expatriate solution tothese, or indeed any other financial matter, contact in the first instance,with no obligation, Jim Neufeld, Magellan's Country Manager for WesternJapan at:Magellan K.K.
Grand Palace Bldg. #705
2 - 2 - 18 Nagai Higashi
Sumiyoshi-ku
OSAKA
558 - 0004
Tel-: 06 - 4700 - 3158

Fax: 06 - 4700 - 3159

Email: mokk@gol.com

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OnCQ:all
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To provide a forum for the presentation and discussion of research, ideas and curriculum activitiesof broad interest to College and University Language Educators.

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Dates:
July 31, Nov. 30, March 30(Deadlines June 1, Sept. 1, Feb. 1)
Contact: Michael Carroll,michael@kyokyo-u.ac.jp

IIIIClrCIDIICIllllnlldll

llr 2118:Feel free to contact board members about your SIG

ExKIIIIIIIBeard:
AlanMackenzie,CUE SIG Coordinatorand On CUE Layout:KeiseI1
Uniwrsity; Riverside Heights 2a, Yaguchi 3-12-12 , Ota-ku, Tokyo 1460093 Tel/Fax: 03-3757-7008 E-mail: <asm@typhoon .co.jp>
Steven Snyder, Treuurer: Kyushu Univesity of Health and Welfare;
1714-1 YO$hino-cho,Nobeoka-shi, Miyazaki-ken, 882-8508,
Tel: 0982-23-5670, email: <snyder@phoenix.ac.jp>

Eamon McCafferty,Program Chair: Tokai University, Shimizu campus; 439-52-201 Utouzaka, Shimizu-shi, Shizuoka-ken, Japan , 424-0873 ;(h) Tel/Fax: 0543-48-8299; (w) Tel: 0543-48-8299, Fax: 0543-34-9837;
E-mail : <eamon@gol.com>

Hugh Nicol Membenhlp Chair: Miyazaki Koritsu Daigaku , 1-1-2
Funatsuka, Miyazakiishi 880-8520 Tel: 0985-22-8812 (h) 0985-20-2000 ,ext 1306 (w) Fax: 0985-20-4807 (w)E-mail : <bnicoll@funatsuka .miyllZllki-mu.ac.jp >MichaelCarroll,Publlcatiom Chair/On CUE Editor: Kyoto University
Of Education; English Dept. , I Fujinomori-Cho, Fukakusa, Fushimi-Ku ,Kyoto 612--0863 Tel: 075-723-1275 (h) 07Hi44-8240 (w) Fax: 075-645l 734(w) E-mail: <michael@kyokyo-u.ac .jp>

IRCUE
EdltlrlllllM11'1lllrd:
AndrowObcnncier (From the Chalkfacc)<andrewo@gol.com>;S11Sar1
PbilJippouuis<splilipp@myaz.aki-mic.ac.jp>;JoocphTomei <jtomci@kumas,alauc.jp>; Debra Papplor(Opinion aid Pmpcclive, ProfessionalDevelopment) <toonomada@hotmcom>; Marl<
Wcinkle(ProfesaionalDovdopmcnt)<toonomado@hotmail.com>; JohoMclaughlin<jmcl@gol.com>; Steven Snyder (ROllicM, Cybcrpipelinc)<snydcr@phocmx.ac.jp>

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Messaue-lro• theEditor,,--•',;,::iMichael Carrol, "On CUE" Editor

ICD

In .the second issue of On CUE this year, andour second as editors, we and the CUE executive have been mulling oyer a few changes. We
inherited a steadily growing reputation, built up
Charles J annuzi and Bernby the previous editor$~
Mulvey, and before them, Jack Kimball. On
CUEis in the pi:ocess of acquiring ISSN status,
thanks to Charles. A possible next step would
M tc;>introduce peer reviewing.

submissions and the number of readers. The
readership of On CUE is quite small at the moment, and in one sense does not give very much
exposure to the writers, considering the amountof work that goes into producing a paper. On
the other hand, having papers peer reviewed
would entail more work and may result in having a longer gap between submission and publication.

PeerreVlewt11
Ina nutshell:

The1r1cess

A peer reviewed journal has a number ofreviewers, the editorial board or review board, withexpertise in a rang~ of fields relevant to the journal's theme. Instead of the editor selecting articles, :he or she sends each submission anonymously to one or two reviewers . Each reviewer
evaluates the · quality of the submission andmakes one of three recommendations : publish,
reject or publish after amendments. This is ess~ntially the same process as the one involved
in.evaluating Master's or PhD theses. The purpose is to maintain a high standard by separating quality control from the day to day editorial
responsibilities, in particular the need to meetdeadlines. The anonymity is to allow a focus oncontent aside from the reputation of the writer(or any personal feelings between reviewer andwriter). Refereed publications have higher status than non-refereed ones. This is important
for writers' cvs, and may have a knock-on effecton the journal by attracting more submissions.

In order to get started on the road to peer reviewing, we'd need to establish a group of people interested in working together as a review
board. In practice, of course, board members
are quite independent. Their reviews are directed
only to the writer and editor. Nevertheless, inorder to set up such a system from scratch, somepreliminary benchmarking work would need to
be done, to establish the criteria on which papers would be evaluated, and to ensure that reviewers were operating from a broadly similar
base.

Back1111CUE
The question for CUE is whether we want totake this route. Over the last several years thequality of On CUE has been very high, at leastas high as many refereed journals, so the aim
would not be as much to acknowledge the quality as to enhance it. One advantage this kind ofchange might be to increase both the number ofI

Whatdi VII tlllnkil
On CUE is 'owned' by the members of CUE.
What do you, the members, think about this?
We'd welcome any comments, in favour, against,
or simply ruminative.

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CUE
2000:Conterence
ReportEdited by Alan Mackenzie, CUE Coordinator andConference ChairlltrldUCdll
All who attended the CUE conference in May
agreed that we had a great weekend. The atmosphere was congenial, the group sizes cozy, thefacilities comfortable, and the hospitality outstanding. Keisen University proved an able andwarm host and there were even suggestions thata future national conference be held there. We'll
have to wait and see about that, but as far as
CUE and the other SIGs involved were concerned, we were very happy with the event.
After the event, we asked two of the conference attendees to review it for us. Since Kay
Hammond and Greg Goodmacher attended anumber of presentations on both days of the conference, they are in a good position to give theCUE membership an overview of what happened, and suggest changes for future events.

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The College and University Educators special interest group sponsored the "Content andLanguage Education : Looking at the Future"
conference at Keisen University in Tokyo on
May 21 and 22. This conference was, for manyreasons, one of the best conferences that I haveattended in over six years of teaching and attending conferences in Japan.
The presentations focused on content-based
language instruction from both highly theoretical perspectives and very practical applications.
Members of the College and University Educators, Global Issues in Language Education, Gender Awareness In Language Education, Materials Writers, and Pragmatics special interest
groups of JALT presented their valuable experiences with content-based language education .
No famous international speakers presented
at this conference . The presenters were teachers in Japan who are researching and learning
about combining content and language educa-tion. As a result, attendees received a wellrounded education about diverse issues in content-based education that relate directly to manyof our teaching situations.
The atmosphere of this conference was serious, yet it was more personal than the national
JALT conferences . Less than two hundred people attended this event. Because of the smaller
number of attendees, we had more chances to
ask questions and interact with each other. This
interaction led to several highly spirited discussions in which presenters were actively challenged to defend their positions.
The host institution, Keisen University, gave
tremendous support to the conference . By providing a free bus service at fifteen minute intervals, Keisen University staff made reaching theuniversity from the train station and hotels convenient and comfortable despite the rain. Keisen
University even generously arranged for cafeteria staff to provide free lunches on Saturday.
Slurping noodles and discussing teaching, we
relaxed together in the cafeteria . This calm atmosphere promoted bonding and informal but
useful conversations.
The location of the conference also contributed to the relaxed feeling. The university is in aquiet area away from the noise and bustle ofTokyo City. Keisen is an attractive campus witha lot of foliage. The facilities were clean andimpressive. Classrooms were equipped withmuch of the latest technology. The presentation
rooms were all within a short walk from eachother, so finding them was easy and fast. Eachspecial interest group that participated in theconference had its own room. This helped
attendees to quickly get where they wanted tobe .
The social gathering of the conference was"The CUE Jump." Held on Saturday evening,
the party was a great chance for everyone to get

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to know each other outside of presentations. The
food was good, and the excellent French, Australian, and Californian wine caused the lowering of affective filters.
The one negative point of the conference wasthat some of the time slots for presentations were
only forty minutes long. This short period wasinadequate for giving a solid presentation andfor encouraging substantial discussions. However, the organisers have plans to rectify this situation at the next CUE conference, which promises to be another rewarding experience.

RIVIIW
2:Kav1111111111
A conference about teaching at the university level may seem a bit daunting to someone
who does not teach in the university circle. This
was the perception I held before attending the
CUE ron:fBJEn02hel:ionM ay20th;2l5tatKeisen
University~ however, that soon changed. I foundmost of the presentations I attended to be wellpresented and very accessible to someone who
aspires to teach at a university.
There were several presentations that I foundparticularly interesting. "Re-inventing the wheel:
Considerations in designing a content-based
course" by Greg O'Dowd, gave a comprehensive overview of theoretical , social and institutional considerations when planning a contentbased course. This was one of the first sessionsof the conference and as such gave an excellent
framework from which to appreciate later sessions.
Another impressive session was "Every picture tells a story" by John Small . This was awell-paced session with easy to follow handouts .
The focus was on the use of telling and re-telling stories to encourage fluency and confidence
in students. The contents of this presentation
were given in such a way as to be immediately
applicable in my classes. There was also a discussion of how to vary the material to suit different levels.
The presentation that remains most vivid tome was "From design to assessment: Topics of
personal development in a content-based program" by Trudie Heiman . Samples of students'
writing on personal topics such as "One hundred things I want" or "One hundred things I
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want to get rid of' allowed me to see some ofthe depth of character behind the sea of faces ina Japanese class. As workshop participants, wewere invited to start writing our own lists. The
personal depth of the topics in addition to theenthusiastic presentation of this workshop madea lasting impression.
The Saturday night social event "The CUE
Jump" provided a relaxing time to catch up withpeople who had been diving into different workshops during the day. The event was well catered for and there was plenty left over to extend the feast to breakfast the next day.
There were a couple of points that I thought
could have been improved. Firstly, the interesting contents of some sessions were dulled a little by presenters who adopted the style of reading from their handouts rather than presenting
the material. Secondly, although there was avariety of featured publisher presentations between sessions, many sessions went over theirallotted time and thus it was sometimes difficult to attend those presentations.
The final event of the conference was a group
evaluation session. This provided an excellent
opportunity for participants to express conclusions, positive and negative, about the conference . In general many participants expressed
their satisfaction with the conference and appreciation of the generosity shown by Keisen University in hosting the event. I thoroughly enjoyed the conference and I will certainly be
CUEing up for the next one.

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IBCUE

Conterence
Calender7-10 Second Language Research: Past,
Present and Future. Universityof
Wisconsin-Madison,SecondLanguage
Research Forum. Madison, Wisconsin.
Hanh Nguyen. E-mailslrf2000@studentorg.wisc.edu. Web site
http://mendota.english.wisc.edu/- SLRFIEdited by Alan Mackenzie

7-10 SLRF: Second LanguageResearch
Forum, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Contact: Applied Linguistics Students
Association (ALSA), SLRF Committee,
24-26 Internationalcolloquiumon Instructed
Universityof Wisconsin-Madison,Deptsecond language learning, Brussels,ofEnglish, 7 I 87 H.C. White Hall, 600
Belgium Contact: GeraldineDe Visscher.
North Park St, Madison, WI 53706-1475
Fax: +32 2 629 3684. Email:USA. Email:geraldine.de.visscher@vub.ac.be;Web:
slrf2000@studentorg.wisc.edu;Web:
http://www.vub.ac.be/CLIN/confres/
http://mendota.english.wisc.edu/-SLRF

1111112011

31-2 Sept '00 EUROCALL 2000, Dundee,
7-10 10th AnnualConferenceofdte
ScotlandContact: Jonathan Payens,
EuropeanSecond Language AssociaEUROCALL Office,The Language
tion (EUROSLA 10), Krakow, Poland
Institute UniversityofHull, Hull HU6Contact: Web: http://www.us.edupl/
7RX UK.
Fax: +44 1482 473 816. Email:uniwersytet/konferencje/2000/filang/
eurocall@hull.ac.uk; Web:http://
eurosla/EUROSLA2000.html
dbs.tay.ac.uk/eurocall2000/
7-9 Univenitat de Barcelonaand
Universidad de Granada. IV International Conferenceon Languages for
1-3 An internationalconference on Che
SpecificPurposes, Barcelona, Spain.
theory and applicationof diagrams,
Contact Frances Luttikhuizen,Facultat deEdinbmgh, ScotlandContact: Web: http:/
Geologia,Zona Universitariade Pedrable,/www-cs.hartford.edu/---d2k/
Universitatde Barcelona, 08028
Barcelona, Spain. Fax +34-93-402-13-40.
2-10 Conferenceand courses on new
E-mail frances@natura.geo.uh.es
theoreticalperspectiveson syntax andsemantics In cognitive science,_British
7-9 Language Across Boundaries,
Dubrovnik, Croatia Contact: Email:
Association of Applied Lmgwstics
ctt.cogsci@fsb.hr(BAAL). 33rd Annual Meeting (precededby BAAL Summer Schools),Cambridge,
Language in the mind? Implications
England Andy Cawdell, Conference
for research and education,Singapore
Contact. E-mailContact: ConferenceSecretary,Language
andy.cawdell@BAAL.org.uk.MC.
in the Mind? Dept of English Language
Manning, Summer Schools Contact E& Literature,FASS, 7 Arts Link Block
mail m.c.manning@anglia.ac.uk. Web
ASS, National Universityof Singapore,site http://www.BAAL.org.uk
Singapore 117570. Email:ellconlk@nus.edusg; Web: http://
11-13 2nd InternationalConferenceIn
www.fas.nus.edu.sg/ell/
contrastivesemantics and pragmatics(SIC-CSP 2000), Cambridge, UK
2nd National congress on foreign
Contact: Dr K. M. Jaszcz.olt,Dept oflanguage teaching policy,App~ied
Linguistics,MML, Universityof
Linguistics Associationof Brazil, Pelotas,
Cambridge, Sidgwick Avenue,CamBrazil Contact: Web: http://bridge CB3 9DA UK. Web:http://atlas.ucpel.tche.br/-alab/
www.newn.cam.ac.uk/SIC-CSP2000/
4-7 NEW SOUNDS 2000 . Universityof
Amsterdam and UniversityofKlagenfurt. 14-17 First AnnualConferenceof die
Associationof InternetResearchen:
Fourth InternationalSymposiumon the
The state of Cheinterdiscipllne,
Acquisitionof Second-LanguageSpeech.
Lawrence,Kansas USA Contact: Web:
Contact: Secretariat,New Sounds 2000,
http://www.cddc.vtedu/aoir/
DepartmentofEnglish, Universityof
Amsterdam, Spuistraat2 JO, IO12 VT
15-17 New Challenges. Panama TESOL
Amsterdam, The Netherlands.e-mail:14th Annual Conference,Panama City,
newsounds@hum.uva.nl
Panama. Carlos A. King. Tel. +314-0366.
Fax +314-0368 or -0369. E-mail5-10 7dt European Summer Seminar In
cking@sinfo.net
InterculturalStudies,"Buildmg
CommunicationIn Europe:People and 15-16 Symposiumon Second Language
Organi7.adons,"
Institute for Intercultural
Writing.West Lafayette,Indiana.Paul
Communicationin associationwith
Kei Matsuda or TonySilva, Department
SIETAREuropa. Krakow,Poland. ITC
ofEnglish, PurdueUniversity,West
Seminar administration,Marnixstraat
Lafayette,Indiana 47907-1356. Tel. 765154-1, 1016 TE Amsterdam, The
494-3769. E-mailNetherlands. Tel. +31-20-6242212.Fax
pmatsuda@purdue.edu.Web site http://+31-20-6241513.E-mail
icdweb.cc.purdue.edu/-silvat/sympobvhouten@euronet.nl.
sium/2000/.......

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5,. luul 2

20-23 9th InternationalConferenceon
functionalgrammar, Madrid, Spain
Contact Dr Ricarco Maira) , ICFG9,
Facultad de Filologia,Dpto. de Filologiasde Educacion a Distancia, cl- Senda de)Rey, SIN 28040 Madrid, Spain. Tel: +34
913986819 ; Fax: +34 913986826.
Email: fgconference@vip.uned.es
22-24 INSOLICO '2000: 7th International
SociolinguisticConference, Sofia,
Bulgaria Contact: _E
manuil _Kostov, St
Kliment Ochridski Umvers1tyof Sofia,
Faculty of Slavic Philologies,BG- I 504
Sofia, Bulgaria. Fax: +3592 946 0255.
Email: ernanuil@slav.uni-sofia.bg
22-24 5dt TELRI Seminar: Corpus
linguistics- how to extract meaningfrom corpora, Ljubljana, Sloverua
Contact: Email: telri-admin@idsmannheim.de; Web: http://nJ.ijs.si/telriOO/
22-25 TESOLANZ. The SeventhNational
Conferenceon CommunityLanguages
and ESOL , "Language: Continuity,
Challenge and Change," Auckland, New
Zealand Helen Nicholls, 235 Mt. Albert
Rood, Auckland 1003, New Zealand. Tel.
+(0)9-6293606. Fax +(0)9-6293613._Email hkniche@iprolink.co.nz. Web site
http://wwwcmsl.co.nz/clesol2000/
27-30 Leaming 2000: Reassessing the virtual
university, Roanoke, VirginiaUSA
Contact: Len Hatfield. Email:len.hatfield@vt.edu;Web: http://
www.cddc.vt.edu/learning
28-30 ChangingFaces: Facmg Change. TESLCanada and TESLNova Scotia. TESLCanada 2000, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Sandra Heft. Tel. 902-861-1227. E-mailsmheft@navnet.net.Web site http://
www.tesl.ca

30-0ct I Casting the Net: Diversity in
Language Leaming and Leaming.
Korea TESOL. Annual Conference,
Taegu, South Korea. Jane Hoelker,
International Affairs Liaison. Seoul
National University, Hoam #104 East,239-1 Pongchon 7 dong, Kwanak-gu,
Seoul 151-057, South Korea. Fax +82-2871-4056. E-mailhoelkerj@hotmail.com.Web site: http://
www.kotesol.org/conference

lctlhr2000
5-7

Image and .bllqery: an international
conferenceon literature and the arts,
St Catharines, Ontario, Canada Contact:
Imageand ImageryConferenceon
Literatureand the Arts, c/o Corrado
Federici,Esther Raventos-Pons& Paolo
Cianfrone,DeptofFrench, Italian andSpanish, Brock University,St.
Catharines, Ontario, Canada L2S 3AI.
Fax: + I 905 688 2789 (Attn: Esther
Raventos-Pons).Email:image@www.brocku.ca

6-7

1st Freiburg workshop on Romance
corpus llnguutlcs: Spoken language
corpora- state of Cheart, projects,
and new perspectives, Freiburg im
Bresgau, Gennany
Contact: Claus D. Pusch,AlbertLudwigs-Universitaet,Rmumisches
Seminar,Werthmannplatz3, D-79085
Freiburg im Bresgau, Germany.Fax: +49
761 203 3195. Email: pusch@uni-

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freiburg.de;Web: http://onmibus.unifreiburg.de/-pusch/kmpus_2000/
english.htm
66dt Annualronference of theHumanities and Arts Higher Education
Network: Subject lmowledge andprofessiooal practice in Chearts andhumanities, Milton Keynes, UK Contact:
Kelvin Lack, Institutefor Educational
Technology,TheOpen University,WaltonHall. Milton KeynesMK7 6AA UK. Tel:
+44 1908653 488. Email:k.j.lack@open.ac.uk; Web:http://
iet.open.ac.uk/research/hers,'index.htm--'~
I

Vokes from the Classroom.
Angoltan_arokNemzetkoziEgyesulete
IATEFLHungary. Pees, Hungaiy.
Proposal Deadline June 15, 2000. Eva
Illes, Budapest 1146, Ajtosi Durer Sor
19-21, Hungary. Tel. +36-1-388-8326.
Fax +36-1-252-2897.E-mailevailles@hotmail.com

8-9

Queen Maiy, Montreal.Quebec H3W

19-22 Teachen Working Together.Mexico
TESOL (MEXTESOL). Annual
Conference,Aguascalientes,Mexico.
Contact MEXTESOL,AC ., San Borja
726-2, Col. del Valle,C.P.03100, Mexico 3-5
D.F.Tel. +5-575-16-48.Fax +5-575-5473. E-mail3-5
mextesol@mail.internet.com.mx. Website http://www.mextesol.uvmnet.edu.

Education Expo 2000. Tokyo (Distance
Learning Center)7-12 The Structure of Leamer Language:
Information Stnicture, linguistic
stnlcture, and the dynamics ofacquisition.San Feliu de Guixols,
SpainEuropeanResearch Conferences,
European ScienceFoundation,and theEuroconferencesActivityof the European
Union. ValerieAllspach-Kiechel.E-mailvallspach@esf.org. Web site http://
www.esforg/euresco12-13 Languages & The Media. 3rd
InternationalConferenceand Exhibition,"ConvergingMarkets and Multimedia,"
Berlin, Germany.ICEF GmbH,
Niebuhrstr.69 A, 10629Berlin, Germany.
Tel. +49-30-32761 40. Fax +49-30-324
98 33. E-mail languagesmedia@icef.com. Web site http://
www.languages-media.com
13-15 Destination 21st Century: New
Challenges.ASCOCOPI (Columbian
Associationof Teachersof English).
Conference, Cartagena, Columbia.
Proposal DeadlineMay 31, 2000. JoEllen
M. Simpson.Tel. +57-2-339-8497.Fax+57-2-333-0494. E-mailjsimpson@colurnbianet.net.Web site
http://www.asocopi.edu.co

NMlllllll'2000

1W5 Canada. Tel:+l 514 340 3540 ext.
2-54138; Fax: +I 514 340 3548. Email:kaufmanh@magellan.umontreal.ca;Web:
http://www.criugm.qc.ca/
mentalexiconf2000

21-22 Enrouragng
Strategic Classroom
Applications. INGED (furlcey).Adana,
Turkey. ProposalDeadline June 16, 2000.
Sehnaz Sahinkarakas,Yadim,Cukurova
University,Adana 01330, Turkey.Fax+90-322-338-6275.E-mailssehnaz.@yahoo.com.
Web site http://
www.ekmekci.com
23-24 Internationalconference on cognitivemodeling in lmgulstics 2000, Pereslavl'•
Zalesskiy, Russia Deadlinefor abstracts:
1 &ptember ·oo
Contact: ProfValeiy Solovyev,Russia,
420140, Kaz.an,Fuchika str., 127-88. Tel:
+7 8432 624 252 (home).Email:vladimir_polyakov@yahoo.comAND
solovyev@tatincom.ru
26-28 SPEAQ AnnualConference,"Aujourd'hui• DemaJn •Tomorrow•
Today,"Quebec, Canada. Proposal
Deadline May 31, 2000. Gis?e B.
Veilleux, c/o SPEAQ, 7400 St-Laurmt
Boulevards,Suite 530, Montreal, QC ,Canada. Tel. 514-271-3700.Fax 514271-4587.E-mail speaq@aqops.qc.ca.
Web site http://station05.qc.ca/
partenaires/speaq/
26-28 Romance Languages and Linguistic
Communities in theUnited States. The
Latin American Studies Center andUnion Latina. InternationalConference,
CollegePark, Maiyland. S. Sosnowski,
Director, Latin American Studies Center,
UniversityofMaiyland, College Park,
Maiyland 29742. Tel. 301-405-6459.Fax
301-405-3665E-mailal68@urnail.umdedu . Web site http://
www.inform.umdedu/EdRes/Colleges/
ARHU/Depts/LAS/

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8-9

Towards CheNew Millemium. JALT
26th Annual InternationalConferenceon
LanguageTeachingand Leaming ,Shizuoka, Japan. Keith Lane, JALT
Central Office,Urban Edge Building SF,
1-37-9Taito,Taito-ku,Tokyo 110-0016
Japan. Tel.+81-3-3837-1630. Fax +81-33837-1631.E-mailjalt@gol.com. Web
site http://www.jalt.org
JACET AnnualConference. Okinawa
Best Practice in TEFL Egyptesol.
Annual cooventionand bookexposition.
Cairo, Egypt. Deena Boarie, Convention
Chair. Tel.+202-267-5677.Fax +202267-5699. E-mail cdc@intouch.com.
Web site http://www.egyptesol.org
MulCilanguageCongress: A way topromote theuse of rn, multbnedia andlanguage IndustriesIn lesser usedlanguages, San Sebastian,Spain
Contact:Jokin Garatea, International
Department,GAIA, C\ Camino
Portuetxe, 14, EdificioIbaeta I, 20018,
San Sebastian,Spain. Tel: +34 943 31
6666; Fax: +34 943_31 1066. Email :garatea@gaia.es

10-12 Art ofELT. SlovakAssociationof
TeachersofEnglish (SAUNSATE).
Conference, Bratislava,Slovakia.
ProposalDeadlineMay 31, 2000. Eva
Tandlichov· KaramFFUK, Gondova2,
81801 Bratislava, Slovakia.Tel.+421-75933-9119.Fax +421-7-366-016. E-mailtandlichova@fphil.uniba.sk
10-12 2000: Changes and ChallengesIn ELT.
ETA-ROC(faiwan). TheNinth
InternationalSymposiumand Book Fair
on English Teaching,.Taipei,Taiwan.
Johanna E. Katchen,Departmentof
Foreign Languages,NationalTsing Hua
University, Hsinchu 30043, Taiwan.Tel.
+886-3-5742705.Fax +886-3-571•8977.
E-mail katchen@mx.nthuedu.tw. Web
site http://www.helios.fl.nthu.edu.tw/-eta
14-16 Language for Specific Purposes:
Tuningin to theNew MIiiennium,Jobor
Bahru, Malaysia. TheDirector, LSP2000,
Departmentof Modern Languages,
Facultyof Managementand Human
ResourceDevelopment,Universiti
TeknologiMalaysia, 81310 UTM,
Skudai, Johor, Johor Darul Takzim,
Malaysia. Tel. +607-5503304. Fax +6075566911.E-mailkhairi_izwan@hotmail.com.Web site
http://www.fppsm.utm.my/lsp2000/
index.him.

14-15 'TheCenter for Multicultural
27-28 FrenchApplied Linguistics ConfederaLiterature for C1illdrenand Youngtion: 3rd IntemationaJConference Adults. Third Conference,"Reading the
Cognitive penpectives in applied
WorldIII." San Francisco, California.
linguistics and language learning/
Bobbi Kyle, Registrar. Tel.415-242-2451.
teaching, Avignon,France
E-mail bobbikyle@aol.com.
Contact:Coordinator, StephanieClerc.
15-17 Learning to Teach: Approadles andEmail: stephanie.clerc@univ-avignon.fr;
15-16 Challenge, Change, and Moving On:
Methods in Language Teacher
Web:http://u2.u-strasbg.fr/dilanet/
Living and Leaming In a Culturally
Education, Institute for Applied
cofdelcollo3.htm
Divene Society. The Departmentof
Language Studies. 8th IALS Symposium
Education,Employmentand Training,for Language TeacherEducatois,
27-29 Independent Scholan: The PublicVictoria, Australia. Multicultural
Edinburgh, Scotland Proposal DeadlineIntellectualsof the Future.National
Education 2000, Melbourne,Australia.
July 31, 2000. SymposiumAdministrator,
Coalitionof IndependentScholars
Contact Drina Andrews, Multicultural
Institutefor Applied Language Studies,(NCIS). Raleigh,North Carolina. Thomas
Education Manager.E-mail
TheUniversityof Edinburgh,21 Hill
C. Jepsen, Program Chair, 515 Morgan
andrews.andrina.a@edurnail.vie.gov.au
Place, EdinburghEH8 9DP, Scotland,
Creek Road, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
United Kingdom. Fax +44-131-66727514-4931.Tel. 9 I 9-933-0377.E-mail18-20 2nd International Conference on the5927. E-mail ials.symposiwn@ed.ac.uk.
tjepsen@mindspring.com Web site http:/
Mental Lexicon, Montreal, Canada/www.ncis.org.
Contact: Helene Kaufinan.,Centre derecherche,Institut universitairede
geriatricde Montreal, 4565 chemin

I

IDCIE
15-19 Researeh & Practie in Professional
Dbcoune , City Universityof Hong
Kong, Abstract Deadline May 31, 2000.
Tel.+852-2788-8209or +852-21942625. Fax +852-2788-7261.E-mailProf.Discourse2000@cityu.edu.hk. Web
site http://
ProfDiscourse2000.cityu.edu.hk.

11-15 Intemationai conference on stress andrhythm,Hyderabad, India
Contact: Dr K. G. Vijayakrishnan, Deptof Linguistics, CIEFL, Hyderabad
500007. Email: vijay@ciefl.emet.in;
Web: http://
www.cieflconfhomepage.com

14-16 World Englishes and Globalization:
Facing Challenges and Muimtdng
16-19 Language Leamen in the 21st
Opportunities, InternationalAssociation
Century: Every One, Every Day, Every
for WorldEnglishes ()AWE) . 7th
Where, AmericanCouncil on theInternationalConference, Portland,
TeachingofForeign Languages
Oregon. KimberleyBrown, IAWE
(ACTFL). Annual conference, Boston,
Secretary. E-mail brownk@pdx.edu.
Massachusetts.ACTFL, 6 Executive
Plaza, Yonkers, New York 10701-6801.
Tel. 914-963-8830. Fax 914-963-1275. E- 14-16 Raising The ProfileInto The New
Millennium,Grupo de Especialistasen
mail actflhq@aol.com. Web site http://
www.actfl.org/.
Lengua Inglesa: Associacionde
Linguistas de Cuba (GELI-ALC). Annual
17-19 ICEF Berlin.International Language
Conference, Havana, Cuba. Proposal
Fair,"EXPOLINGUA Berm," Berlin,
DeadlineOctober 15, 2000. TonyIneyan.
Tel.+53-7-30-8014.Fax +53-7-33-8943.
Germany.Sylke Sedelies, ICEF Berlin,
E-mail t_cup_IO@calva.com.
Niebuhrstr.69A, 10629Berlin, Germany.
Tel. +49-30-32-76-140. Fax +49-30-3214-16 Innovationand Language Education,
49-833. E-mail expolingua@icef.com.
The Universityof Hong Kong. InternaWeb site http://www.expolingua.com.
tional Language in Education(ILEC )Conference2000, Hong Kong, SAR,
24-26 Bilingualism at the Ends of the Earth,
China. Secretariat,ILEC 2000, c/o
Waikato, New Zealand Contact: A/Prof.
Faculty of Education,The Universityof
Ray Harlow, Deptof General& AppliedHong Kong, Pokfulam,Hong Kong,
Linguistics, Univesityof Waikato, Private
Bag 3105, Hamilton,NZ. Tel: +64 7 838
SAR, China. Tel.+852-2859-2781.Fax+852-2547-1924. E-mail4466 ext 8771; Fax: +64 7 838 4932.
Web:http://www.waikato.ac.nz/ling/ilec2000@hkucc.hku.hk. Web site http://
www.hkuhk/ilec2000.
reorua29

Online Educa Berlin."6th International Conference on Technology
Supported Leamklg and Training,"
Berlin, Gennany. ICEF Berlin, Sylke
Sedelies, Niebuhstr. 69 A, D-10629
Berlin. Tel. +49-(0)30-32-761-40.Fax+49-(0)30-32-498-33.E-mailsylke.sedelies@icef.com. Web site http://
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27-30 Modem Language Association ofAmerica (MLA).Annual conference,
TBA ML.A, 10 Astor Place, New York,New York 10003-6981.Fax 212-4779863. E-mail convention@mla.org.

111111112001
3-6

on penistent convenation: Penpectives from researeh and design, Maui,
Hawaii Contact: Web: http://
www.pliantorg/personal/Tom-Erickson/
HICSS34pc.html

DIClllllllr
2000
1-2

4-8

Treasuringthe Old, Challmglng theNew, TESOL-ITALY.
:XXVthNational
Convention, Assisi, Italy.Rosanna
Fiorentino,Via San Erasmo 4, 00184
Rome, Italy. Tel.+39--06-70475392.Email blasco@rpilo.it. Web site http://
www.eurolink.it/tesol.

6-8

3-7

World Languages In MuhDingual
Contexa , Hyderabad,Contact: Prof
Makhan Lal Tickoo, President, International Congress, CIEFL, Hyderabad500
007, India. Tel: +9140701 8131; Fax:+
91 40 701 8402. Email:congress@ciefl.ernet.in

4-7Linguistic Society of America. Annual
Conference, Washington,D.C. Margaret
Reynolds, 1325 18th Street, NW, Suite
211, Washington,District of Columbia
20036. Tel.202-835-1714. Fax 202-8351717. E-mail lsa@lsadc.org. Web site
http://www.lsadc.org

ozcm 2000 Conference: HumancomputerInteraction lnterfacmg
reality in the new mlDenium, Sydney,
Australia Contact:OzCHl2000,WellDone Ewnts, PO Box 90, Cambewarra,
NSW 2450, Australia. Email:oz.chi@welldone.com.au; Web: http://
www.cmis.csiro.au/oz.chi2000/
5th English In South East Asia
Conference (5ESEA): Commmicatlon,
identity, power and education- rvlea
and functlom of Englishes, Perth,WesternAustralia Contact:Conference
Convenor, 5ESEA, School of Languages
and InterculturalEducation,Curtin
UniversityofTechnology, GPO Ul 987,
Perth WA 6845, Australia. Email:esea@hits.curtin.edu.au;Web:http://
hits.curtin.edu.au/-esea

3rd Annual workshop and minitrack

11-13 15th Holland Institute of Generative
Linguistics Phooology Conference(HILP5), Potsdam, GermanyDeadline
for abstracts: 1 October '00
Contact:HILP 5 Committee,Institutefor
Linguistics,Universityof Potsdam,
Postfach501553, 14415Potsdam,
Germany.Email: hilp5@kronos.ling.unipotsdam.de ; Web: http://www.ling.unipotsdam.de/aktuelles/hilp5

123-25 7th Intemational Symposium on social
communication, Santiagode Cuba, Cuba
Contact: Dr. Eloina Miyares Bermudez,
SecretariaEjecutiva, CornitaOrganiz.ador,
VII SimposioIntercionalde
CommunicacionSocial, Centro de
LinguisticaAplicada, Apartado Postal
4067, Vista Alegre, Santiagode Cuba, 4,
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+53 226 41579. Email:leonel@lingapli.ciges.infcu; Web: http://parlevink.cs.utwente.nl/Cuba/index.html
26-28 English for O«upational Purposes:
What is it and how to teach lt?Contents, Methods, and Materials,
IATEFLESPSIG and VHS Bielefeld,
Dept of Modem Languages. Conference,
Bielefeld,Gennany. Proposal Deadline
October 31, 2000. RegistrationDeadline
January 20, 2001. Contact JWH Ridder,
IATEFL ESPSIG Event Coordinator,
Beethovenstr.5, D-33604 Bielefeld,
Germany.TEI. +49-521-521-2440.Fax+49-521-66209.E-mailjwh.ridder@tonline.de.

Mllal2001
12-14 OpeningGates In Teacher Education,
Mofet Institute, Israel. First Virtual
Conference. Jean Vermel,Co-convener.
Beit Berl College. E-mailjean@macam.ac.il. Web site http://
vcisrael.macam98.ac.il
24-27 American Association of Applied
Lingubtlcs (AAAL). AAAL 2001
Annual Convention,St. Louis, Missouri.
AAAL, PO Box 21686, Eagan,
Minnesota 55121-0686. Tel.612-9530805. Fax 612-431-8404.E-mailaaaloffice@aaal.org. Web site http://
www.aaal.org/
27-3 Gateway To The Future. TESOLAnnual conference(includingpre- andpostconventioninstitutes, and publisher
and software exhibition),St. Louis,
Missouri . TESOL, 700 South Washington
St, Ste. 200, Alexandria,Virginia223_14.

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Sunlnlr21Dl:lllllllal111112

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Grice's
Cooperative
Principle
andthe'l1nbi1101s'
Japanese'hai'· · '~Martln.Brµdshaw, YokohamaYMCALanguage and
The 'liai' response.so~etuncs seems an inBusiness College
dispensable part Qfany Japaneseconversation.

Translated as a straightforward affirmative
Witness any telephone ·cqttversation between
Mr. Okada's 'hai' could well have been
'yes',
Japanese salarymen.0ft¢n; it can appear to haveno greater comrilunicatiye'fun~tionthan to punc- interpreted as "Yes, what would you like to
But this, to be know?". But clearly, given his body language
tuate periods of extende<;lsilence.
.,-,-i: ,_.,__.,)
sure, misses the illocutioharfs:ubtleties that its - head down, staring at the resume in front ofusage oftenjq,1plx~S:,<
J:;rat1Sl~ted,'hai' is most him, an obviousturning away- combined withoften treateQMeq;µiy~lenttoa} yes' response in a prolonged period of silence, it was intended·convenient,'
this rendering is as something very different. My immediate
English. Butwhile
to a large e;tent overly simplistic as it fails to thought was that Keith's question was quite atake into account the varied nuance which occa- reasonable one - considering, after all, that hewas being interviewedfor a job! So why the hesi~qt~xt ' -i:';sions it(~i¥ttt:onaitation?
I supposed that Keith initially felt the
A num~r of yea.rsago~I waspart of the hiring committee.at a college'interviewingprospec- same way. I was a little slow interpreting theteac~ersfor a position in situation. Keith, to his credit, was a little more
tive Etiglish lan:guage
the com(ngJch~I .y¢ar. ~ pf the applicants perceptive.
Before attempting to surmise the underlying
British teacher named Keith.
interview~
1
Mr. Ok~da "a,.n.ewJ~pru,.e~edirectorat the col- forces at work in our exchange, let's briefly outlege, andlconductedtb.eintetvtew.
Toward the line the main points ofGrice's CooperativePrinend of the,interview Keithjisked Mr. Okada ciple.
about the salaryconditions tb.eposition he had
C1111rat1Ve
PrlnCIDII
applied .for. .Unlike our previous director, Mr. Brice's
According to Grice, the interpretation of an
Okada always requested ·.a second interview
bQpefulapplican~ :to discuss salary. utterance in a talk exchange can only be worked
alone wit1'
I was unaware of this at the time. AlthoughKeith out if we assume that the people engaged in the
spoke JapaneseJh,iently~tiletnterview was con- exchange are attempting to be cooperative.
"Make your conversationalcontributionsuch
ducted.e~dreiy'inEnglish. -0ur :discussion went
somet}!irigiikethis:··· · -···•. ·:·'./:.;-·
as is required, at the stage at which it occurs,by the accepted purpose or direction of theKeith:. Mr. O~dp, may I q,sk the salary
talk exchange in which you are engaged.Onei" ,citn.diilo~ofthe .pomtion I am bemight label this the cooperative principle. "·.ing interviewed for?
(Grice, 1975, p. 45)
Okada: .
(three mini1tesof silence, with
Subordinate to this Cooperative Principle·okada ·hea(J d~wn staring at
Grice counted four maxims (nine including.· .·Keith'sresume) · ..
Martin:' . (quie_tlytoKeith)'Keith,perhaps you submaxims):
lY<!llli{(ikf!
kJrepeaiyour question
1. Quantity: Give the right amount of in·:ht,:;ffipfin~1tl '° : ,·formation; that is
Keith: · .(quietly.to Martin}No,
it's all right.
(a) make your contribution as informative•:Keith: (tc,.Mf; Okada) Couldyou tell mea
as is required (for the current purposes oft<, :"'·:
lit,tl~· ,more about the college
the exchange).
(b) do not make your contribution more
informative than is required.
' ··:,-~-~"-'.~- ·~-4,,

waia.

of

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was I able to read the intent, the illocutionary
2. Quality: Try to make your contribution
force, of the seemingly inscrutable 'hai': that
one that is true; that isfrom Mr . Okada 's perspective we, the English(a) do not say what you believe to be false.
(b) do not say that for which you lack ad- speaking foreigners, not he, were the uncooperative ones. His intention could only be underequate evidence .
stood by relating what he uttered to its wider
3. Relation: Be relevant.
cultural/situational context.
4. Manner: Be perspicuous:
To anyone arriving culturally unaware in Ja(a) avoid obscurity of expression.
(b) avoid ambiguity .
pan, the subtleties of Japanese social etiquetteand expected behaviour are often misinterpreted,(c) be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity).
or commonly not even noted. I do not want to(d) be orderly. (Grice, 1975, pp. 45-46)
Any apparent breaches of the maxims in an get sidetracked into a lengthy discussion of Japaexchange are resolved by an appeal to the Co- nese protocol. But to get to the bottom of the'dilemma' encountered in our job interview let
operative Principle.
Grice goes on to note that these maxims are me say a few words about what I think led to myfrequently broken; they are exploited by confusion. Clearly, the illocutionary force of'hai' (yes) was very different for the two parties
conversants for the purpose of conveying more
involved - the two English-speakers and thethan they actually denote. A participant in a talkone Japanese speaker .
exchange may fail to fulfill a maxim in various'Yes' in English, like 'hai' in Japanese, canways, which include the following. Grice called
possess differing language functions, or Speech
this conversational implicature:
Acts . Its single sense can have variable force .
1. A
speakermay
quietlyandunostentatiously violate a maxim, in the For example, as permission: May I borrowyour
pen? Yes,go ahead; as affirmation: Joe left workcase of lies, for example.
early today? Yes,he left about an hour ago; as
2. A speaker may opt out of the Cooperative
query: Mr. Bradshaw? Yes (what do you want)?
Principle, as for example when people
refuse to answer a question. He/she may to name but a few. Like 'yes' in English, the J apasay, for example, 'I cannot say more; my nese 'hai' can also have differing force-someinstances being more direct than others. As I did
lips are sealed'.
3. A speaker may be faced by a clash: He/ not know at the time of our interview, 'hai' inJapanese, or sometimes the use of 'yes' by Japashe may be unable, for example, to fulfill
nese when speaking English, can simply mean
the first maxim of Quality (be as informative as is required) without violating the'I hear you'. That is, it can mean no more thansecond maxim of Quality (have adequate'I understand what you said'. In such instances,
it is not to be taken as an affirmation of whatevidence for what you say).
4. A speaker may flout a maxim; that is, he/ was previously said nor as a positive response
she may blatantly fail to fulfill it. (Grice to anything, even if uttered in response to aclearly stated yes/no question.
1975,p.49)
ButwhatarewetomakeofMr.
Okada's 'hai'
Returning to our little exchange, what then,can we surmise, actually went on between Keithand the subsequent three-minute silence? Obviand Mr. Okada? Was it that Okada was attemptously, during the prolonged quiet, Mr. Okada had
ing to convey something to us imp/icitly throughno intention of responding further to the queshis response that I initially missed? To be sure, tion; in fact, he had no intention of saying anythe propositional content of the utterance was thing before we did . It was our 'turn'. As theclear enough if a 'yes' rendering of it is accepted,
silence became increasingly uncomfortable, thebut what about its illocutionaryforce, the actual
onus was clearly on us to make the next move.
intention of the utterance? It seemed that Grice's
But why the onus?Well, as Mr. Okada must have
Cooperative Principle was not obtaining particuseen it, Keith asked the wrong question at thelarly well at all in the situation. All communicawrong time and the extralinguistic signals attendtion had come to an abrupt standstill - one party ing his 'hai' response should have been an imbecoming very uncooperative indeed! Only later mediate indication to us that he thought it an

I

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SUllm8r
2111:.._

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inappropriate question, at least while I waspresent.
We can only surmise what was running
through his mind as he stared blankly at Keith's
resume: Well, they've done it now, how are they
going to get out of this one? The onus was on us( or, at least, on Keith) because, given the relationship between Speaker and Hearer (in thiscase, job applicant and school director), the directness of the question had resulted in a loss offace for Okada, and his responding to it could
only have resulted in even more of a loss. From
Okada's standpoint, the question was a clear
imposition (I), defined relative to the social distance (D) between him and Keith and his powerover Keith (P).
Moreover, Japanese social etiquette in suchsituations demands that the Speaker (the one who
created the discomfort) not the Hearer find a way
to manoeuvre out of the created unpleasantness.
Smoothing over such social gaffes is most easily achieved by simply changing the subject andpretending the original question had not beenuttered.
Concomitantly, the Hearer ( although it was
to him that the question had been directed) is
absolved of any commitment to respond; his lackof 'cooperation' is considered justified due tothe inappropriateness of the question and his relationship to the Speaker.
Clearly, then, Mr. Okada, from the principles
of his social etiquette, was not required to respond any further than he did . In fact , the ambivalent message conveyed in his usage of' hai'
was almost certainly calculated to affect a purposeful end, namely, to have the Speaker, Keith,assess the appropriateness of his question withthe hope that by doing so he would change his'behaviour ' .
From a Japanese perspective, Okada's seemingly uncooperative response was culturally permissible, given his social rights as a power figure in the proceedings .
My strategy, on the other hand, one thatproved inappropriate to the situation, was to takea typical Westerner's assertive approach to theimpasse; that is, try the question again in anothermanner in the hope of succeeding. This could
have meant rephrasing the question or framing
it in more polite, less threatening terms. In theinterview, I advised Keith to try again using Japa-

10......

2

nese, thinking naively that by pushing the issue
Keith would have his question answered .
Let us now interpret Okada 's 'hai' response
according to each of Grice's four maxims :QuantbThe single word 'hai' followed by prolonged
silence and dismissive body language I initiallyinterpreted as uncooperative behaviour on thepart of the Hearer, Okada. No additional information was forthcoming, no explanations given,no attempt made to alleviate the resulting tension; only the scantiest of informational content
was given . However, as noted above, this tension was purposeful. Okada felt wronged and,as such, believed it was our responsibility, given
the (D), (P) and (I) of the situation , to rectify thewrong . It was at this juncture, however, where
our two cultures clashed: Okada felt he was being sufficiently informative, while we felt thequestion deserved further response.

Qualltv
andReladan
As to the Quality and Relation maxims, it canbe argued that Mr. Okada followed the Cooperative Principle in giving the response he did.
His 'hai' response could not be taken as false,
nor could it be considered irrelevant to the situation.

MannerFrom my then uninformed cross-cultural perspective, Okada's reply seemed wholly ambiguous. While the propositional content of his verbal response seemed to say to Keith, "Yes, you
may indeed ask about the salary conditions of
the position", the body language and silence
which accompanied it, and thus his reply's intended illocutionary force, demanded that the
opposite conclusion be drawn.
From my naive viewpoint, the verbal and nonlanguage elements ofOkada's response were atodds. I thus wrongly concluded that the utterance violated Grice's fourth maxim. For Okada
and Keith, on the other hand, both of whom recognized the illocutionary force of the utterance ,no ambiguity nor obscurity of expression would
have been evident. Through his indirectness,
Okada was able to maintain the level of politeness required of the situation, while, at the sametime, signalling his displeasure - the intention

lnCUEof which was to effect a change in Keith's behaviour.
Clearly, then, Okada exploited the Quantity
maxim through implicature. He opted out of the
Cooperative Principle, deliberately violating it
to convey a pragmatic meaning that transcended
its literal semantic meaning. Although the threeof us shared a common language system, Keithand I had to bring our knowledge of Japanesesocial roles and relationships to bear on the situation, constructing a sequence of inferences from
Okada's ambiguous utterance in an attempt torender it 'cooperative'; that is, we had to makea leap from form to function as we went about
constructing a discourse that was both meaningful and coherent. Obviously, Okada did not intend us to take his utterance at face value; only
through inference were we able to arrive at theintended meaning.
Okada's intent also lends support to Scollon
and Scollon's (1983) notion that "simultaneouswith the basic message is a metamessage" (p.
159), in this case resulting in a tension between
the cooperative and politeness principles. By responding with a simple 'hai', Okada acknowledged that he had heard what Keith had saida response aimed at maintaining the required
level of social politeness. At the same time hewas clearly showing his refusal to answer thequestion, leaving us the task to figure out themetamessage why. And clearly, our confusion
was not with the what of the utterance but its
why. As Scollon and Scollon (1983) aptly phrase
it, we were left "untangling the interwoven
strands of message and metamessage." (p. 159)
Turning briefly again to the issue of politeness, the distance and power relationship between Okada and Keith demanded that Okada
be left relatively free from imposition in dealing with his interviewee. Out of respect for
Okada's (the Hearer's) negative face, it was necessary for Keith to advance his imposition withcare. However, his question did not give Okada
a way out - hence, the need, from Okada's
viewpoint, for an ambiguous response. Okada's
taciturnity was a reminder to us of the distanceand power dynamics involved- an asymmetrical relationship requiring deference by the subordinate members. As Scollon and Scollon(1983) note, problems often arise between cultures when " ...one party had assumed solidarity

politeness while the other had assumed deference politeness as the appropriate set of strategies for interaction." (p. 185) The tendency ofsome Westerner's to treat everyone, despite theirsocial status, informally often backfires in cultures, like Japan's, where codes of conduct areclearly defined and ritualistic behaviour honoured. Respect for this issue, that of deference,is where I stumbled when asking Keith to repeat
his question in Japanese; on the other hand, it
was where Keith's deeper understanding of theculture served him well. Misreading the situation, I assumed solidarity politeness; Keith more
wisely, deference politeness - the latter, ofcourse, proving the more appropriate strategy forthe occasion.

11111
1. The names, Okada and Keith, have been fictionalized.

Reterencn
Grice, P. (1975). Logic and conversation. In
D. Davidson and G. Harman (eds.) The Logic ofgrammar. Encino, California: Dickinson.
Scollon, Ron & Scollon, Suzanne B. K.
(1983). Face in interethnic communication . In
J. Richards & Schmidt (eds.) Language andCommunication. London: Longman.

" Koen.. Sj)<)n,;orslHI:l)Jr4Jtj81f~ft*

Shizuok:J City Board of Educati,mThe Japan Foundation

THE JAP.o\NFOL1:\'DATIO"iShiLuola Prekl'turc Boatd of Educa1io11

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ThelATEFL
2000Conlerence

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Reviewed

Joseph Dias, Kitasato University
Keith Ford, Tokyo Woman's Christian University
Eamon McCafferty, Tokai University
Gary Ockey, International University of Japansenter's room minutes before one of his talks
with a request for OHP film, my impression isthat he takes a seat-of-the-pants approach to presentations, altering his talk's content and delivery according to the vagaries of audience response. It seems to work for him due to his
wealth of experience, knowledge and engaging
manner.
Maley began by reminding the audience thatthe usual conception of what teachers bring to
the classroom includes knowledge, skills andattitude, with the focus, in recent years, increasingly falling on the third of these. In other words,
there has been a shift from the question of 'what'
Arewemaking
themost111urselves?to 'why.' Another tripartite system for understanding the role of teachers is by thinking of
TmeIItalk: Making
Ille••• 11veunenmaterials, students and teachers as being the
Preseaner: AlanMIieyIISSUIOIIIIID
three critical components. He believes that after
Unlnrsttv,
ThllllDIIJ
With his distinguished white beard, flowing years of interest in student-centeredness, there \1tunic, and air of self-possession, Alan Maley is now a shift towards the teacher and what he/ ,comes across as someone between scholar and she can bring to the learning process. Maley conguru, with a dash of latent Timothy Leary-like tends, and few would challenge this contention,
anti-establishmentarianism. Having attended a that we may not be actualizing as much of our \number of his talks in the States, Thailand, Ja- potential as teachers as possible. When we teach,pan, and Malaysia, I anticipated a presentation we do not leave behind our personalities, beliefs,
that would make no attempt to dazzle, presented emotions, culture, etc. His presentation centeredby a man who, with his quiet dignity, has the on the simple truth that "we are what we teach."ability to draw large audiences. Dublin was no The more awareness we have of who we are, I
exception: That is exactly what the attentive the more effective we can be as teachers. He \presented a useful OHP (Figure 1: Did he boraudience got.
Maley's talk was based on his observation that row the film minutes before? Perhaps we'll neverteachers receive little or no training in how to know?) with a circle in the middle representing
present themselves effectively in the classroom "self." Radiating from it were the abundantand his feeling that this situation was in need of qualities and factors that contribute to its forremedy. The presentation was billed as "Focus- mation. Maley spoke at length on voice and be- l
ing on the six Ps of presentations: Preparation, liefs, as he felt these have been areas of greatest l
Purpose, Presentation skills, Presence, Person- neglect. (A new book by Maley is entitled The
ality and Passion." However, these were not cov- Language Teachers Voice).
The one audience participation activity thatered in a systematic or thorough way. Having
once been approached by Mr. Maley in a pre- was offered involved having the participants disThe 34th International IATEFL Annual Conference was held at the Burlington Hotel in theheart of Dublin between the 2'7111
and the 31st ofMarch 2000. Given the quality of the presentations on offer, it was not only the Guinness thatwent down well over the five days. Aside froma host of social events, which included traditional
Irish music, jazz poetry by Carolyn Graham, an
Irish ceili and a talk by James Joyce's nephew,
there was also an array of presentations, posters
and exhibits to tempt participants. The following are a sample of some of the academic presentations on offer.

12SUll• er2HI: .._IICIEI, 1111112

Figure 1: Making the most of yourself
cuss the qualities of a particular teacher who had
made the biggest impact on them. The mostemotional 'testimonial' was made by a womanfrom Sri Lanka whose teacher beat her regularly!! I thought of my dear Italian teacher, Father Spolini, who had a flair for motivating hormone-laced teenage boys by beginning hiscourses with the revelation that Italians put sex
into EVERYTHING-even their nouns. I felt
sad that my partner could not think of a single
teacher who made a significant impact on her
life. I suppose it wasn't surprising that she wasno longer a teacher and now worked as a school
administrator.
I've often felt that by his example as a presenter, Alan Maley has more to say about teaching than anything in particular he speaks about.
The audience is never quite sure what he is going to say next and, at times, his spontaneity puts
him in compromising positions, as it did when
he made remarks - clearly perceived as being
sexist by many audience members - about'overly made-up and dressed' female teachers
he encountered in his own school days andsqueaky-voiced Thai in-service teachers, hispresent charges. Yes, he is a teacher and a hu-

man being-prejudicesthem? Should we?

and all. Should he hide

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In a particularly practical presentation, Matt
Wicks introduced a drama project aimed initiallyat 12-16 year olds in an EFL context. 'Romeoand Juliet: the original TEFL couple?' offered a
representative sample from his forthcoming
photocopiable resource book, 'Imaginative
Projects' (out in July 2000, CUP). It proved agood balance between audience participation
and an outlining of his project approach .
Wicks began by presenting a video clip fromhis Portuguese teenagers performing their versions of Shakespeare. He then involved half ofthe twenty or so participants at his workshop ina warm-up activity he had used with his students
involving a quick-fire questions and answers
drill that introduced the play's protagonists. At
the beginning, a few reluctant smiles of the "OK,13

IICIE

SUl•er 2018:111111118,1111112

so we 're gonna be the students again" variety
could be seen among the back tier of the twogroups we had been divided into. However, theysoon mellowed as Matt confidently choreographed the entire room through a couple of creative activities from his soon to be published book.
The fifty-minute session was a high-energy
demonstration of activities that no doubt worked
just as well in Matt's classes as they did with us.
Watching clips of the enthusiastic teenagers perform their own unique version of Romeo andJuliet confirmed this. They had written and produced the entire script using Matt as a resource
to assist them. That they truly 'owned' the project
was amply demonstrated by the humorous andculturally localized anecdotes they had woven
into the original story.
The questions that Matt answered from thefloor towards the end of his session clearly
showed that many participants were keen to try
out the project for themselves. One important
point that came out of this period was that the
project had made space in the classroom for
multiple types oflearning and learners. One example of this was of a quiet, shy student (thelikes of which we all know) who got enthusiastically involved in the performance in a 'behindthe-scenes' production role.
Just like our students, we teachers slot insomewhere along the introvert-extrovert continuum, and the way we tailor our courses reflects this reality. Matt Wicks certainly fell somewhere to the far right of that line but was still
able to show us that projects have a place in any
syllabus that aims to be inclusive and promote
self-directed learning. Is there a lesson here? Of
course, there always is, and maybe it goes something like this: Trust your students. Give them alittle space to shine. What they are capable ofproducing might just blow you away!

a test that has just been launched in Ireland as
an alternative to tests such as the Cambridge
suite, TOEFL, and TOEIC. A couple of features
help to bring this test in line with current classroom practice. First, it is interactive in that it
includes two or three students and two examiners, one of which participates in the interaction
and plays a role in controlling the pace of thetest. Another important feature of the test is theelement of portfolio assessment. To prepare forthe test, candidates are told to research a miniproject on a topic of their choice, read one book,and follow one news story in both printed andspoken form. They are also required to keep alog of these tasks. The 30-35 minute test follows a similar pattern, beginning with the examiner asking one of the students to talk about
his research project. The examinee takes about
5 minutes to accomplish this task, and then theother participants and the interlocutor ask theexaminee questions about his research. Next, theinterlocutor asks one of the other examinees totake 5 minutes to talk about the book he has read,followed by questions from the others. The final examinee is asked to take about 5 minutes
to talk about his/her prepared news story. Again,
this is followed by questions. Finally, the test
concludes with a decision-making task based on
authentic and locally relevant materials provided
by the instructor, and a follow-up discussion
based on the tasks completed by each examinee
and on the decision-making task.
The presenter reported that examinees havereacted very positively to this exciting and innovative test format. She stated that most importantly the examinees like the idea of being tested
on topics that they have chosen. The washback
effect could also be positive since the performance-based test requires students to study authentic language topically and holistically. However,having two trained examiners is no doubt costly,
1111
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and so far there is a lack of quantitative evidence
TideII Tall: TestII lntlracuveEn1Usll:
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tears.
This evidence should be available soon; thePnsenter: Gr1n1111
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presenter was excited to announce that in April
lfreetance,lreladl
2000, the Irish Department of Education and
The two following conference sessions on
Science had agreed to allocate funds for the test
testing, evaluation, and assessment offered revofor three years to get the project started.
lutionary ideas that got my research juices flowing. The first introduced the oral component of

wn,ut

14

Sallallr2181:Vela•l.lna2

8RCUE

Re-evaluaunasell•assessment

see if a way can be devised so that self-assessment can be effectively utilized when high stakes
decisions are involved.

small-scale research, she interviewed four representatives of university entrance committees
and four employers from various locations in Israel to consider how they value self-assessment
compared with teacher and external assessment.
Her exploratory research found that both employers and higher education institutions are reluctant to use self-assessment alone, but both groups
felt it could provide valuable information whencoupled with other types of assessment.
Employers also felt that self-assessment revealed a lot about the personality of the individual, which was helpful when making hiring
decisions .
In regard to the importance of training an individual to self-assess, both employers and educators agreed that it should start from school age.
However, personality still has an effect evenwhen careful training has taken place .
Educators also stated that self-assessment
should not be a part of high stakes assessment.
Interestingly, when asked to assess their own language proficiency, the subjects in the study (bothemployers and educators) felt that their own selfassessment was a better measuring stick than thatof an external examination or teacher evaluation.
The presenter suggested that this apparent
contradiction could be explained by the fact thatthe employers' and educators' self-assessments
had no repercussions on decision-making, andtherefore they could be honest in their own selfassessment. On the other hand, a person applying for a job or trying to get accepted at a university might not be completely honest about his or
her proficiency because of the importance of thedecision.
A number of valuable insights regarding theworth and uses of self-assessment were brought
up in this presentation which should be further
investigated in various contexts. If these findings can be confirmed, it might be interesting toVideo is becoming an almost standard feature of ESL/EFL course books. However, eventhose billed as authentic can be disappointingly
stilted. There is also the problem that although
video courses for general English abound, video
materials for more specialized purposes are relatively rare. The presenter explained his solution
to the lack of appropriate audiovisual resourcesin his area, medical ESP: he made his own. Although this may not seem feasible to many people due to logistical restraints, the speakershowed how obstacles could be overcome if thetask is approached in small steps.
He laid the groundwork for shooting the videos by getting the cooperation of general practitioners in the States and Britain. They consented
to having a day's worth of their consultations
videotaped-of course, subject to the informed
consent of patients. The speaker demonstrated
how the videotaped consultations were madeaccessible and comprehensible by fitting conversation analytic-inspired tasks to them. Diascharacterized conversation analysis (CA) as away of looking at communication sequentially,usually, by audiotaping or videotaping naturally
occurring events, creating 'close' transcriptions,and discovering interactional features that aresalient and relevant to an issue of interest. Giving an example of the value CA might have for
medical practitioners, and their teachers, henoted Paul ten Have's observation (which hemakes in his article "Doctor-Patient Interaction
Reconsidered") that although "Oh" is common
in informal conversation, it is rare in the speechof professionals (such as GPs) when they are
speaking with patients. This is important because
its use signals to the other party that a message
has been received and acknowledged. Therefore,
its absence may be a sign of trouble.
In the process of transcribing and analyzing consultations between physicians and patients, Dias

TIiieII Tall: HIWdi 1• 111ver1
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c1ars11.
Smith introduced a new way of considering va- Presenter: JIIIPh8111(lltallll lllbflrsltJ,
lidity which she termed 'user validity' . In her
Japanl15

Slnllllr2ll1: lalllllel,1111112

OICIE
was able to lead students to discover how such
abstract concepts as 'client participation', 'patient power', 'user direction' and 'patient-centred health care' manifest themselves at a practical level (by focusing on such seemingly trivial
features of talk as occurrences of "Oh .").
Although the talk seemed to have been intended to inspire teachers dissatisfied with commercially produced video materials to makemore relevant ones themselves and develop creative uses for them, it was clear during the question/answer period that this was a very tall orderfor most time-strapped teachers. The most burning question was: Do you plan to create a commercially available medical ESP video course?
His announcement that he had no such intention
was greeted with disappointment.

•

ment as to who was to blame for the outcome .
The audience was invited to reflect on this dataand offer opinions. It was suggested that thelearners' reluctance to try and jointly co-construct more sophisticated discourse was partly
due to the gender, nationality, cultural and proficiency differences. While accepting this,Batstone argued that involving learners in thiskind of 'free-wheeling discourse' was notenough to stretch their language skills, and thatthey need to be encouraged to think consciously
about developing their own interlanguage prior
to undertaking the task. There was little timeremaining to go into how this might be achieved,
however, any prior focus on grammar, phrases,or vocabulary which was to be incorporated into
the task output would, one imagines, have aconsideable trade-off in terms of degree of fluean1n1
and11nn.Wharsallab1111Pency.

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Two presentations offered critical perspecAnthony
Bruton's
presentation
focused on atives on the meaning-form dichotomy, raisingquestions of how best to combine linguistic ac- construct which has recently been put forward
curacy and fluency. They addressed questions as being an essential component of Task-Basedof both terminology and methodology concern- Language Teaching (TBLT): focus on form. The
ing task andfocus on form , both of which in re- distinction between focus on form (FonF) andcent years have become important terms in peda- focus onformS is one attributed to Michael Long.
Focus on formS essentially involves using a pregogic debate.
In his presentation 'Language using, language scriptive grammar-based syllabus and therefore
is a proactive method of giving attention to gramlearning' Rob Batstone criticised task-based
matical form. Focus on form tends to be reacmethodology for failing to promote learners'
accuracy and interlanguage development. The tive and done in the context of communicative
data he presented for discussion demonstrated interaction, and is triggered by communicative
how a typical meaning-oriented task, such as breakdown. Bruton outlined the rather nebulous
asking small groups to decide 'Who should be distinction between the two terms, suggesting it
thrown out of the balloon in order to save oth- to be practically meaningless. He also cited thisers?' tended to result in ungrammaticalised lexis as a general criticism of the lack of terminologiand pidginised learner discourse as learners were cal rigor in theoretical discussions . Furthermore,engaged primarily in communicating meaning. he suggested that the recent collection of papers
He suggested that this is because learners can- expounding the benefits of focus on form, ednot cope with the attentional load of attending ited by Doughty and Williams was a rather cynito content and form at the same time, especially cal attempt by academic buddies to piece towhen the task is a complex one. The data he pre- gether under one theme what were essentiallysented was of two ESL learners (one a Swiss very different perspectives on the role of gramfemale, the other a Brazilian male) who were mar in language teaching. He suggested that
asked to discuss a set of tragic, but extremely many academics are far too eager to jump on
hypothetical, events and come to some agree- any theoretical bandwagon that offers publish11jt

laCIEI
1Slallllr2111: Vllalel,IIIH2

ing opportunities. However, the main question
concerning explicit and implicit instruction still
remains: does form-focused instruction, regardless of its terminological disguise, result in promoting language acquisition? As with so muchtheoretical debate behind our profession thesedays the old cliche still rings true: the jury is
still out.
To continue in a proverbial vein: coming awayfrom the presentation I was left with the reminderthat while as practising teachers we should consider the valuable support of research and theory,
we should not be duped into partaking of 'oldwine in new skins' or expect easy solutions tocomplex problems. Mary Ruane (see below) reinforced this message in the final plenary session.

by one individual or group. She warned that realvision and deep planning could only come later,when there is deep ownership of a project. She
therefore called for us to help reculture rather
than attempt to restructure our workplaces.
Drawing on an old proverb that we all know
to be a truism but often forget in our daily lives,
the softly spoken but powerful speaker from
Dublin's own University College (UCD) re2
minded us simply that 'good fences make goodneighbors'. A fitting end to a gathering in thename of improvement: growth within ourselvesthat must ultimately trickle-down to our students,
and progress that should also seep deep into thestructures that support us on our journeys.
Perhaps this profession that we have all chosen (or fallen into) is one particularly conducive
to encouraging the journey of self-discovery that
Ruane spoke of If so, it may be useful to reflect
Ne11Uadn1
thePathupon her message that there are no universal•••••••• •rn••111V11'111• 11111. answers to the challenges we meet in our life
Prlllllllr:
M•nIINI ll•lllnttv r:1•1111 and work, but rather "it is the walk that makes
DlbllnJ
the path and not the path that makes the walk."
Mary Ruane set a suitably reflective tone forthe final plenary of the conference. The audience was asked to consider whether the various
methods many of us are apt to embrace (sometimes unkindly referred to as the 'methods fetish') in our genuine desire to be better teachers,
KOTESOLNationalConference
could ever really provide the answers to the problems we seek to address. She cautioned us toremember that these methods can be used to givethe impression that great things are happening,whereas in reality there is no panacea, no silver
bullet. Rather, she continued, what we have to
do is take ownership of our problems and by
September 30 - October 1, 2000
doing so move forward and improve. In thisi.-"' • l,~movement or 'journey' that our careers becomef:J'. Kyoungbuk University0O
we need a goal, Ruane reasoned. Carrying the
::c
;.
Taegu
metaphor further in a manner most teachers canRepublic of Korea
surely identify with, she said that on that journey we have no map and are therefore constantly
inventing and reinventing our goals as we go
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along.
Once again returning to the phrase 'ownership' to address the question of our place within
the institutions we work at, Ruane talked of thevarious 'visions' that might exist within theseeducational establishments and how many ofthem have been applied or imposed on others

!
I

TIIII
IIT••-=.......u•......ell••···CASTING THE NET:
DIVERSITY IN
LANGUAGEANDLEARNING?

1u

IICIE--- Educational
tor= Opportunities-- Teachers
Abroad
-=
..
...
•E
•
•

1:1

;

Debra Pappier and Mark Weinklea.

For teachers living abroad, .pursuing an advanced degree can be a complicated .pr~ess.
Trying to decide whether to study by dlstanceor on-campus is difficult enough. Theeffort isfurther compounded by financialconcems, time
constraints and trying to determine the qualityof schools you may never have heard of In addition to providing a list of educational opportunities, this issue's Professional Development
Page will deal with some of the more common
questions regarding distance .and on.:campus
education for teachers living abroad.
The following information ism ·no way exhaustive. CUE ·members are advised ·'·to thoroughly review any program before considering
it. Information about distance _degrees was obtained from James P. Duffy's How fo Earn an
Advanced Degn!e without Going'to Graduate
School. Information about indtvid-qal
programs
was obtained from program catalogs and thewebsites:listed.
·

AreDistance
Pra1rams
as81111as
Theirln-Cam111s
c1unter11ns?
While the quality of individual distance programs varies, misinformation about distanceeducation in ge~eral abounds. During a recent
on-line discussion about distance education at
ELTASIA in which I participated, one teachingprofessional said he would consider an A-average distance student about the same as a B-average on-campus student. Many of his reasonsfor this belief revolved around the genuine disadvantages of distance learning including lackof teacher/student interaction and limited accessto research materials. In addition, however, hesupported his argument with some of the morecommonfallacies about distance programs: pri~'ly _that the degrees awarded are different
from on~campus ones and that the requirements

11

Sll•er 2111:lllllml 8,111112

Welcome to On Cue's newest column:

Tbl Praf111la11I
0tVIIOIRltltPage. Thissection of On Cue will be devoted to thenoble cause of helping you, the CUE
members, to improve your professionalsituation. Our goal is to provide easyto-understandinformation for bothteachers already working at the college/
university level and those who are hop•
ing to move into that area.
Some columns might be just what
you are looking for while others will deal
with a step you've already taken.
Upcoming topics include advice on publications and tips for getting hired. If you
have a topic, a question, feedback, or
further information about a topic thatwould be useful to other CUE members
please contact toonomads@hotmail.com

are easier.
The truth is that requirements and course
work for reputable distance programs are usually either identical to or derived from the oncampus programs. The distance degree programsof accredited schools (North America) andschools with Royal Charters (UK) come under
the same scrutiny as the other programs theschool offers (more about accreditation and royalcharters later) and must meet the same standards. The degrees awarded are exactly the sameas those awarded to on-campus students. Degrees obtained through a distance program do
not say 'distance degree' on them.
Another common fallacy is that distance programs, like extension programs or continuing
education programs (which usually award certificates, not degrees), are separate from the university. While distance programs might have a
special office or department to deal only with
their students, the programs themselves are notseparate from the university. They are usually
included within the school or department that isawarding the degree (i.e. the School of Education, the Humanities Department).
If the program that you are considering is notpart of a university, not from an accredited
school, awards a degree that says distance on it,
or seems to have reduced requirements, investigate further. There's a good chance that it is not
the kind of degree you are looking for.

TOEFL 550, IELTS 6.0, or CanDridge
Profuiemy C heal tuors andoneweek semnar in yoiJ coumy
appli:ation a,'llilable on-Jio!; learning
tookit on CDROM ; 25% dflComl for
up-front payirent

Ptl : £1,735 ; Pts 2 • 3: £1,300
Distance / A~rage 3 years
each; Total: £4 ,335
Distance~¥480,000 to ¥540.000 per

MA TEFL (cert, dip, MA)

MA TEFL (Cert, DipL MA)

iversityofReadiig (UK)iversityofB~

Distance

Distaix:eDistance andon CWJ¥>IB

MEd . (Ed Tech for ELT)
MA in Lmgui,tics (1ESOL)MA TESOL/Ed.D
MEd. / Ed.D.
Camrrlge CELTA
Ed.D. (Ed Leadersh4i Cha~e)
Phd Ed Adrnin

B.Ed; C'rradDipEd; MEd .; PhD

iversityof Manchester
iversty of Surrey (UK)~le (US w/ Japan CWJ¥>us)
iversity of Southern Queenshn:Im.)nguageResources Kobee Fieki~ Insttute (US)uearb Sturt Uni\ersity, Awtralia$12,000 per year/$ 4,000
per trini:ster

A$3,463 pa (PIT pro-rata)

Distance

Kobe Part-Tire

Distance

3-credits ¥190,000 MEd . -30 Tokyo, Osaka , (Fukooka
credits
MEd . only)£5,600Distance, 6-week s1111Irer
scb:>ol

MA App L~ /1ESOL

iversityof LeicesterDist=

M Ed 1ESOL , MA 1ESOL

akinUniversity (Australia)

part

9 mhs full rim: optiJn~ + 2 one-week£7,500 approx

MA Japanese ~ andSociety

iversity of Sheffieki (UK)(UK)

IELTS 6.0 ; .Tapa!J!SeLanguage
Profuien;y 2. Oriematim n Tokyo

Distm;e25% discourt for up-front
payroem

App Liiguiitics MA/ Postgrad Dip

acquire University (Amtraw)

resrlertials Hiroshim

TOEFL 550, IELTS 6.0

On-CmJllUi Tokyo/
Weekerxl Classes¥70 ,000 per credit for 34
credits + ¥40 ,000 initialfees

MA TESOL

hni>il Teachers Co&ge (US arxl
pan)

Pr1111111n11
De

Contact The Distan:e Leamiig Centre

llllSI mkl MEd . Adrnin

25% dio;counl tor ~-front p3)1D.!nl

TOEFL 575; or GRE or MAT;

IELTS 7, TOEFL 600 or TWE 4.5; 6
week teaching bhck ; persoml tutor

essentnL TOEFL 550

IELTS 7.0; pracfue teaclmg
coiq:iooem• UK , Greece, or on video~

Dip £3,000 ; MSc . £6 ,000

1EFL Cert, Dip TEFL , MSc . 1EFL

ton University (UK)Co~uerTeaclmg post requ..ed ; GRE not.
M .A: I week classroom
obsenati:m(a~where in the world)
Cert Japan 19 days , MA
US 2 bhcks 8 weeks

Cert ¥195,000, MA$18,932

1ESOL Certili.:ate, MA in Teachiil!

.I. (US)TOEFL 580 or GRE

TOEFL 580 or GRE

011IER INFORM.ATIONTokyo-eve/Sats ; sw»rersclx>ol(Chi.:ago

Distance

On-Carq,m Australia / 4
Weeks

DISTANCE OR ONCAMPUS?

$26 ,600 +on-Clll1lJUS
foes$4,350 (-¥460 ,000) approx.

CELIA A$2 , 150 DELTA
A$3,300COST

MA Hunanties

MA Hunanties

CELTM>ELTA

DEGREES/CERT. OFFERED

iversityof Chi.:ago

minguez Hills

lifonm State Univ

stralian 1ESOL Traimg Centre ,mrrlge (UK)SCHOOL- • •2818: 1811111111,lnll!

lnCIEi• ••anlll•Alln.... •••• .. •111 ... 1111111nc•
versa•11-Ca•••Pr11n• IP

I Though the degree awarded and the material
i studied may be the same, learning by distance
I and learning on-campus differ significantly.
ii Studying in isolation without the ability to easi ily question peers and professorsregardingcourse

i material might be consideredthe most significant•!

disadvantageof distant study.On-campusstudents
have the benefit of regular discoursewith instructors who are often working professionalsin theirfields(for example:LeslieBeebe,RebeccaOxford,
and Ted Rogers at Columbia in Tokyo) and cantherefore offer both theoretical and practical advtce.
Other disadvantages for distance learners include lack of a supervisedteachingpracticum,limited feedback,and, dependingon the area the students live in, limited (or non-existent) access tonecessaryresearch materials. Studentson campus
have access to school librariesand other resources
as well as a staff network that can assist in acquiring necessarymaterials.
Some programssuch as UniversityofBirmingham's MA in IBFL, offered in association withDavid English House, try to combat the disadvantages of distance studyby puttingstudentsin touchwith local tutors and networkingthem with otherstudents in the program.
For the working teacher, the most significant
advantageof distance study is the flexibility.With
no classes to attend, the distance learner can arrange the completion of his or her degree aroundan established or changing work schedule. In addition, for those living outside major cities, distance education may be the only option: there arelimitedon-campuschoices in Japan. Other advantages include being able to work at your own paceand a largerpool of schoolsto choose from, which
increasesoptionsregardingthe kind of degree,thearea of study,and the price.
While presumablythe actual completionof oncampus and distance programsrequire similar effort on the part of the student, distance learners
must be independent and able to motivate themselves to complete course work without outside
reminders. Some distance students find it easy tofall behind in course work because of the lack of
the traditional term/semesterstructure.

28·- 1181Knew
I aScllool11lallllmlllit
accndlllllonaidBovalnanan
One of the reasonsthat distanceeducationmay
be regarded with some suspicion (especially inNorth America) is that it is associated with mailorder degreesthat require little or no course work.
When exploringNorth American schoolsstudents
should look for accredited institutions that haveboth on-campus and distance programs. The accreditation system is complicated and there aremany different accreditation boards. To further
complicate things, some schools create their own
accreditation boards to approve their own programs. Accreditation doesn't guarantee a goodschool, and lack of accreditationdoesn't guarantee a bad one,but accreditationis the generalstandard for choosinga reputableschool.When dealing
with a completely unknown school, it is best to
ask specificallyby whom they are accredited,andto check a list of standard accreditationboards (agood list can be found in James Duffy's book).
The systemsin the UK, Australia, and Canada
are similar to each other and much simpler thanaccreditation.The title 'university' is, in itself, anaccreditation UK universitieshave what is calleda Royal Charter,which givesthem the authoritytoaward degrees.In England,the QualityAssurance
Agencyof the HigherEducationFundingCouncil
assesses and grades the quality of each discipline
offeredby universities.If a courseor a set of courses
receive a failing grade, they must be improved inorder to continue (Informationprovidedby Clare
FurneauxofReadingUniversity).Canada and Australia have similarquality assuranceagencies.It is
usually possibleto find out what rating the school
received during its last review. Programs that received high marks will usually include this as asellingpoint in theirbrochuresor on their websites.

CllllllcallslllllDIPlalU
WehaveincludedinformationaboutCambridge
certificatesand diplomason our list for those who
might have a MA in a related field but want to get
specific IBFL training in order to improve theircredentials.

PIUllldEllD
In most cases those already working in college
and universitypossessa Master's degree. Thougha number of good Master's programsin IBFL areavailable to those living in Japan there are a limited number of options for those who wish to pursue higher degrees. We have included as many as
possible. If you are currently pursuing a higher
degreeor know of a programnot listedhere, please

DnCUE
let us know about them so that we may include itin the next issue for other CUE members. Some
universities where distance or reduced residency
Ph.D / Ed.D study may be possible but for which
we were unable to get any detailed information
about are Nova University (US), U. Of Hawaii
at Manoa (US), York University (UK), Open
University (UK), and Macguire University(Aus).

CIIIICtlnllrlllllll
GRE (Graduation Record Ell!Dination) test centres are in
Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Okinawa, Osaka, Sapporo, Sendai, and Tokyo.
Tel: 03-3269-9601; Fu 03-3260-2587; Website: http://www.gre.org

Australian TESOL TrainingCentre 237 Oxford Street. Bondi Junction,
NSW 2022, Australia . Website: http://www.ace.edtLau/attc
SIT School for InternationalTraining,Kipling Road, P.O. Box 676,
Brattleboro, Vermont, 05302-0676 USA. Website: http://
www.sltedu; E-mail: tesolcert@sltedu

UniversityOf Chicago Tel: 03-3359-9621; Website: http://
humanitles.uchlcago.edu/humanitles/japan
Universityof ManchesterFaculty of Education,Oxford Road,
Mandlester, England, M13 9PL. Tel: +44 (0)161 275 3467; Fu: +44(0)161 275 3480; E-mail: CELSE@man.ac.uk; Website: http://
www.man.ac.uk/CELSE

Columbia University, TeachersCollege
Tel 03-5325-6305; Fu 03-5325-6306; E-mail: lnfo@tc-japan.edu;
Website: http://www .tc-japan.edu

TempleUniversityTel: 0120-86-1026; tuJinfo@tuj.ac.jp; Website:
http://www.tuj.ac.Jp ; TUJ, Tokyo Center, Graduate College of
Education, 2-8-12 Minaml Ambu, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0047. Tel:
03-5441-9842; Fax: 03-5441-9822. Osaka Tel: 06-6577-1277; Fu:
06-6577-1281. Fukuoka Tel: 092-781-7410; Fax: 092-712-4223.
Aston UniversityWebsite: http://www.les.aston.ac.uk/lsu Tokyo
ccntact: Christopher Gallagher Tel: 0422-33-3392; Fax: 0422-333500. Nagoya contact: Katsuml Ito Tel:052- 732-4660; Fax: 052-7324691; E-mail: katsuml@aston.offlce.ne.Jp or Brian McNeW, Tel/fax:
052-834-1362; E-mail: burachiu@spice.or.jp

California State Universityat DominguezHills SAC 2-2126 , 1000
E.Vlctorla St, Canon, Ca. 90747 USA. Web site: http://
www.csudh.edu/hux/
Deakin UniversityWebsite: http://www.dealdn.ed1Lau/international

Macguire University Linguistics Department (attn. postgraduate
officer), Macquire Unlvenlty, NSW 2109, Australia. E-mail:llngpgo@elm.mq .edlLau; www.llng.mq.ed1Lau

The Universityof Reading The Coune Administrator, Centre forApplied Language Studies, P.O. Box 241, Reading RG6 6WB, UK.
Website: http://www.rd.ac.uk/AcaDepts/cl/CALSfmdeLhtml
UniversityofBinningbam David English House., Polesta Bldg, 7-5
Nakamadti, Naka-ku, Hiroshima City, 730. Tel: 082-244-2633; dehat@mxa.meshnetor.jp;Website:http://www.blrmingham.ac.uk

University of SheffieldDavid English Howe,details above.

Universityof Leicester Helen Whitfield, Fax: +44 (0) 116 252 3653;
E-mail: hw8@le.ac.uk; Website: http://www.leicester.ac.uk/
education/coun

Universityof Surrey Tammy Hughes, Fax: +44 (0)148 325 9507;
Website: http://www .surrey.ac.uk/ELl/ma.html

Universityof SouthernQueenslandWebsite: http://www.usq.edlLau
Purdue University Admission s, Office of Graduate Studies, School of
Education. 1440 Liberal Arts and EducationBuilding,Room 6104,
W. Lafayette, IN 47907-1440; Tel: 1-765-494-2345; E-mail:gradoffice@soe.purdue.edu, Website: http://www.soe.purdue.edu/
gradoffice
The Fielding Institute (US) Website: http://www.fielding.edu

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IICIE

andPowerin• language••!I 'WeAretheWorld"
Andrew Obermeier, Osaka City University
•=u

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Though my students were moved by "We Are
the World"'s message of hope and contribution
to humanity, repeated viewings led me to see itin a different light. Subtle culturalc .9nfrontation revealed itself amidst this amalgamationof forty-five artists singing to fight hunger .in
Africa. Juxtapositions of blacks and w4ites arescattered throughout the video, and as a result I
saw examples of how dominant and minority
cultures cope when forced to interact. ·Culture in competition is a well explored issue. Language is a deceptively ge1,1t1evehicle
that allows classes in power to oppress. Shannon (1995) reveals linguistic oppression _of
Mexican Americans in her case study of a classroom of a bilingual classroom. Heath (1983)andDelpit ( 1988) write of the linguistic andparalinguistic barriers black children must overcome in order to progress academically. Ogbu
( 1995) discusses how minorities, particularly
blacks, get caught in a cycle of learned helplessness. Perhaps most relevant to readers of thisarticle, Pennycook (1994) writes of the spreadof English as veiled imperialism, and assertsthat the English teaching profession is a perpetuation of colonialism. In this article, I hopeto heighten the reader's sensitivity to the subtleties of how power relationships play themselves out linguistically through critical analysis of a popular music video.
"We Are the World", narrated by Jane Fonda,
leads the viewer through the three distinct recording sessions that resulted in the pop song.
In the first session, Micheal Jackson, Quincy
Jones, Stevie Wonder, and Lionel Richie gathered to compose; in the second, forty-five celebrity artists are recorded singing solos and inchorus; and in the third, the recordings werecompiled, edited and touched up to produce thefinal version. Although numerous white celebrities contributed their voices to the project, it
wasan almost completely black team who madethesong,andwho later invited other artists to22lend their voices to it. The resulting assembly
has blacks running the show, with whites put inan unfamiliar position of subservience.
I came to see the group gathered for the second recording session as a micro society: theforty-five artists invited are personifications ofsubsegments of American society, and here theymust harmonize and sing. Though none of theartists involved could be accused of bigotry, cultural habits result in subtle and unconscious
domineering behavior .
In the United States, where racism is disdained , it persists camouflaged . One of thestrongest camouflaging agents is language:
words often demarcate lines between ' us' and'them'. During the singing rehearsal , as the camera cut from white face to white face, artists cameto a consensus to change the lyrics. They wanted
the 'better' in the verse "we are the ones whomake a better day, just you and me" changed to'brighter'.
'Better' is clearly the superior word in thecontext of the song and its cause, but this groupof linguistically nimble stars chose 'brighter'.
The majority awareness should have been highenough to realize that the last thing one should
wish upon the starving and sun-parched of Ethiopia is 'brightness'. This word at best conveys
superficial exuberance and at worst, irritating illumination. As Stevie Wonder put it, "'Better'has more bite." The change in the lyrics happened almost immediately after rehearsal began,an instant rebuke to the writers and hosts.
Shortly after, co-writer Micheal Jackson was
snubbed when his proposal to integrate a shortchorus in an Ethiopian language was brusquely
disregarded . Other instances of whites behaving inappropriately in the video abound for thesensitive viewer .
Choosing 'brighter' over 'better', and choosing not to sing a few verses in the language ofthe song's beneficiaries are two instances of insensitivity as people unconsciously clanned to-Sllnualr2118:1811111118,
11... 281CUE
gether, entwined by the thin veil of language .
The choices mentioned above could beviewed as subtle assertions of the status quo .
Without making any clear racist statement, the"Brighter Coalition" established its dominancewith an oppressive underlying message: "OK,you black guys wrote this song, and now you'recoralling us around to sing it, but we know what's
right and 'brighter' is the word we're singing.
And you can just forget about us singing in some
African tongue, our language, English, is the language of the world."
Perhaps I am taking too big a leap, and somemight say this is an inconsequential instance, but
a similar line of analysis showed how language
usage in Scholastic Aptitude Test in the UnitedStates favoured students of the white middle
class in the college admissions process . Linguistic chauvanism is an integral part of the
Darwinistic competition that occurs between
cultures.
A different version of this phenomenon isplayed out internationally . I have an opportunity
to make English teaching my profession because
my mother tongue happens to be the one usedby the world's most powerful nations . Many of
my students feel that their career advancement
depends on their ability to speak a language that
I learned without effort.
It is my hope that the reader has been mademore sensitive to this mechanism. As English
teachers, we must be responsible examples ofusers of our language, and explore the complexities and paradoxes of our privilege .

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1111,ences
Delpit, L. D. (1988). The silenced dialogue:
power and pedagogy in educating other people'schildren . Harvard Educational Review 58, 3,
280-298.
Heath, S. B. (1983) . Ways with words. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
Ogbu, J. (1995). Cultural problems in minority education : Their interpretations and consequences, part one. The Urban Review 27, 3, 189205.
Pennycook, A (1994). The cultural politics
of English
as a second language,
London:Longman.
Shannon, S. ( 1995). The hegemony of English: A case study of one bilingual classroom asa site of resistance. Linguistics and Education7, 175-200.

f :71.feasesuhmil brief summaries of currenl..

f in~.liouse pu6ficalions and ahslracls of \
~

.

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researc.fi reporls

lo I.fie editor:,.

~ !llGc.baef Gar.roff ( michaef@.fyo£_yo-u.ac.jp) ;'ii

S11111er
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HeroesandDrama:
i ASecond
APPiication
languagelearning
Ii• torEnglish~~(; -~f:; ' \;!·.

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Jim Corbett,Pusan TeacherTrainingCenter,S. Korea
Class
11111nnaa11
I taughtthis lessonsixtimesdwing a.three-weekworkshop. Each class consisted eight or nine
middle and high school Korean English ~herstowhose speakinglevelranged from intermediateadvanced.

ofndlnllnnatlll

Bac...

In my previous article, I provided techniques
for combiningdrama and literaturein anEnglish

class using a scene from Oliver Twist as a guide.
Since that lesson succeeded in generating·meaningfulinteraction,I consideredpossibilitiesin coma.trainee
bining drama with other subjects.
suggestedusing shortskitsaboutfamo~ peopl~toteachEnglish,I developedthislessonon TerryFox,-totaisean amputeewho ran halfwayacrossCanada
moneyforresearch. The lessonbeginswith
simpleexercisesonvocabularyand coricludes\v,ith
dramatic interpretationsof specificeven~in Terry's life. ·
,.

When

cancer........
.

·wann11

Terry Fox was an energeticteenager who
played many sports but in 1977, doctors discovereda cancerous___in his rightleg.
Terry'sleg was ____
abovehis knee tostop the cancer from spreading. While in thehospital,he was so movedby the ____of other patientsthat he decidedto run acrossCanadato raise money for cancer research.
Terry regained his strengthby pushing hiswheel chair up steep mountainsday after day.
In 1979 he begantrainingfor his cross-country
The Marathon of___began in St. John's, Newfoundlandon April 12, 1980 and ended in ThunderBay,
Ontario on September 1, 1980 when cancer
spreadto Terry's____Althoughhe did
not make it across Canada, he ran 5300km
throughsix provincesand collected--totalling almost $25 million. Terry had
dreamed of raising one dollar from everyCanadian and the populationat the time was 25
million. The AnnualTerryFox Run for cancer
research is now held in more than 60 countries.

Theteitcherbegnjsby elicitingnamesof famous
people. Groupsmake a list of adjectivesthat de2
scribe a hero. After a discussingsome of the ad- 08NIIID18DllcllVllVGroupsselectthree
eventsfrom the following
jectives with the class, the teacher explains thatthe themeof the lessonwill be a hero named Terry time line and rank the dates with number one as
the most importantand number three as the least
Fox.
important. The groupswill explain their choices
to the class.
IIIVIII-WIV1
Partners·discuss the meanings of these eight*March 9, 1977: Terry gets a cancerous tuwords by filling in the blanks:mour in his right leg and his leg is amputatedabove the knee.
arlificial Jfope lungs /umour
ompufaied marai.lion clonaiions

suffering*April 12, 1980: In St. John's, Terrybegins

his Marathonof Hope by dippinghis artificial
leg into the AtlanticOcean.
24

IICIIE*February1, 1981: The populationof Canada
is 24 million. Terry'sdream of raisingone dollar from every Canadian is realized as funds
from the Marathonof Hope reaches$24.1 million.

S1••r2DH:llllll1llllll2
side of ThunderBay.
B. Each group now selects one of these quotes:•

C. Usingthe scenariofrom part A as a guide,eachgroup creates an original skit in which TerryFox says the quote from part B. Everyone in
the groupmust speakand participatein the skit.

DIVIIIIRllllllcllVb3

Note: Since the skits can accomodatemany difThe teacher explains the reactions of Terry's ferent characters,the number of students in eachparents when he first suggested running across group can vary dependingon the class size.
Canada. AlthoughBetty,Terry'smother,objected,
Rolly,his father,simplysaid, "When?".
fl-ck
Discussionson this lessongeneratedmany imA. The class discussespossiblereasonswhy Ter- aginative teaching ideas like using scenario 3 inry's parentshad differentopinions.
the dramaticinterpretationto practiseQ and A and
B. Thisroleplaywill helpthe studentsunderstand performingscenario5 to reinforceexpressionsusedvariousattitudesin this issue. Groupmembers in emergencies.
of four or five sit in a circle and the teacher
The quotes in part B of the drama interpretaassignscharacterroles like Terry,Betty,Rolly, tion reinforcecomprehensionof the auxiliaryverbs
Darren (Terry's brother), Doug (Terry's best "can" and "will". Developmentactivity3 provides
friend),doctorsand patients. Terrybeginsthe practice in expressingopinions and also includes
discussionby introducinghis planto run across vocabularyrelated to family. Many trainees also
Canada and the others respond. The teacher concludedthat in additionto challengingstudents
has the studentsexpress differentopinionsby to communicate clearly and spontaneously,thechangingthe roles severaltimes.
creativityrequiredforthe drama interpretationalso
sparkedenthusiasmin learninga secondlanguage.
A. After the discussions,the teacher divides theclass into groupsof four. Each groupmust selectone of the followingscenariosthatoccurred
duringthe Marathonof Hope.
1. Terryis runningdowna streetwhen a musician hands him an expensive guitar as adonation.
2. Terry'sartificialleg breakswhile he is running.
3. Terryis talking to a class at an elementary
school.
4. Terryis running through a city when a pee
wee baseball team collects donationsfrom
spectatorsand motorists.
5. Terrybecomesweak and collapsesjust out-I!
.I

1. "I will never give up on a dream."
2. "Somewherethe hurting must stop."
3. "I just wish peoplewouldrealiz.eanythingis
possible.":
4. "I promiseI won't give up."f5
5. "I can make it!"*June 28, 1981:
Terry Fox dies at theRoyal ColumbianHospital.
*September22, 1996:
Over 1,000,000
people fromCanadaand aroundthe worldparticipatein the SixteenthAnnualTerryFox Run.

•

CIDCIUsllft
The centralthemeof my lessonson OliverTwist
and TerryFox wasthe livesof individuals.Before
experimentingwith drama, I assumedthat unique
events were essential for generatingdiscussions,role plays and skits in an English class but after
examiningtheses two lessons,I realizedthat character developmentis more important. This is whyclassicplayslike Hamletand Death of a Salesman
revolvearound centralcharacters. A letter from aformer trainee expressinge~thusiasm in my lesson on TerryFox has inspired me to incorporate
more activitiesrelated to character development
and drama.

25.!

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cv11er1i1eline:•
ic andGenerallnlormation• 1cad11--• S01rces
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Steven Snyder, Kyushu University
of Health and Welfare•:;

In the last issue of Cyberpipeline, I mentioned
through the Internet, herea source for used books
is another one:'. <www.alibris.com>
Alipri~~qies ·ttigl:tly~ecommended by oneof our CUE mem~rs and I can see why. I did a
number o.ftest searches and an order and I foundthat thes.ervice is very .well organized and easy
to use:. For theb(?oks I looked for, I got a few
service over the other, butmore ~t~s .with <>rte
I Sllspect_the results will depend upon the typeofbook youareJooking for. In the case of mytest. searches ; ff appeared that each service wasaccess~g ~i~et~n,t;co.l!~cJions,so you might try
both '$erYic~swhetifoolting for a difficult to findbook : :;;._.:.·;,~ ,/; <...\' ...:
Ull_lflct( >;?·.ABE .· ·..-:·
Ifook
Exchange<~.a_b~ ;;~om>, you don't have the option of
con~ctiii.gthe bookstores yourself, as all orders
are Pt'?4~$.
S~ tnr~ugl;iAlibris. I have been told
is cost effective and very
that the ~ibns·•sfupping
effici~~\f~~ ~c~eaper rates are available . Ordering is'a:'sfraightJorward affair: you will encoun'<>fs~~we~es requesting informater a se~~~tion aoou( you,'credifcard details and shipping
prefer~pc,e~.;;'l,*~ Illost,,pnline booksellers, you.}'.pn,~hases in a "shopping
can if.~t groupb~~~~/, 8.~y~u don't haveto process each book.. , ·.·.···.·.··1y,··.·'·. .•. ...·.
separa.\~.

..,....

;~.linguafranca.com>

is. Tlµs ~hewe:t,sit~of a magazine which calls
i~l~ tt Jiereviey/of~c~emic life." There are,o,f~Qllfse~.a large,nu,mbetof periodicals that catej{J~;~~ .;~J>,eqiti{interests of academia. The. ~~\\ti)'-,~'f.'~:;.~;/i~:·;t;/~-~;~t:/::;~.,-~·:.21

periodicals directed at general academic interest are fewer, arguably two of the most notable
are The Chronicle of Higher Education and
Linguafranca . For those unfamiliar with them'
The Chronicle is styled like a newspaper,
whereas Linguafranca is very much a magazine.
Years ago, I was fighting with everyone else to
get my hands on a recent issue of The Chronicle
from our library, usually with little success. I
even planned on getting my own subscription,
until I found out how expensive it was.
I now subscribe to Linguafranca and if you
are looking of a source of general happenings inacademia let me recommend it to you. The website is a good way to see if the magazine is foryou by checking out some feature articles fromprevious issues. The Linguafranca website also
has very useful links which may be of particular interest to university and college educators.
One section, called "Bookshelf' lists 6 online book stores that specialize in intellectual andhard to find books. Another section of interest is
the archive of "Breakthrough Books," which
includes the current issue on "Technology andHigher Education." There are over 60 archived
topics. Of course there are tidbits from the current issue and there is a archive or previously
featured articles with some dating back to 1996.
Whereas The Chronicle jobs section<chronicle.com/free/jobs> is a regularly visitedsite by many of us teaching in Japan, the conference and jobs section at the Linguafranca site isdisappointing. There are few entries, and very
few of relevance to many On CUE readers, butthere are some items which I haven't seen inother places .

SllaHner
2118:..._.

GnCUE
You can subscribe, make inquires and update your mailing address through the site. Even
if you are already a subscriber, the website isstill a useful resource.

Why is it important?
There is a terrible pull of specialization whichhaunts all of us working in academia, and separates us from the fast changing developments inother areas of scholarship. Working in relative
isolation magnifies the problem. General periodicals like The Chronicle and Linguafranca not
only bring you ideas and information that you'dbe hard pressed to get on your own, but they also
mold the experience with interesting writing that
underlines important connections. Lots of notices and reviews of books, too.
One of the nicest features of the Linguafranca
website is the archive of"Breakthrough Books"
columns . Breakthrough Books is a regular column in Linguafranca where 6 or more noted
scholars in a field not only recommend new
books, they say why they recommend them. So,
if you feeling that you are falling behind, or you
want more intellectual stimulation of a generalnature, then this is a excellent place to go.

ArtsandLeners
11111<www.cybereditions.com/aldaily>

What is it?
If you want to be a bit more active in gettingthat intellectual stimulation, then the link to The
Arts and Letters Daily is something you won't
want to miss. You can find this link on the
Linguafranca webpage. The Arts and Letters
Daily link is an amazing resource. The website'smotto is "Vertes odit moras," which at the bottom of the page you learn means "Truth hatesdelay," (taken from Sophocles' Oedipus).The
page itself looks like the front page of a newspaper with four columns, but it functions as central links page to just about any intellectuallystimulating site that is on the web. There are 17
Newpaper links, 11 news services (e.g. Associated Press), 3 major news magazine pages, 55
links to magazine sites, 24 links to sources ofbook reviews, 29 links to well known columnists, 14 links to Ezines, and a number of otherlinks- and that is just the first of the four col-8,lalle 2

umns! The other three columns consist of brief
descriptions of online articles, new books, andessays with a link to each item. Some links are
updated daily, while others will be there for alonger time. Every possible subject appears, andsometimes it is worth scanning the pages justfor the entertainment value . Here are some selected headings from a recent weekend edition,"72Jorkr"n!J{l)i/./i72Joodj7/ffen is /die fio/dr"n!Ja
puppy . .9/'s nice, bu/ i/you fiof don loo long fie 'ff
piss all ouer you ... ""7./ie fulure {l)on'I be unrecognr'zably exolra, says
0/euen :An..fer. 9or all Ifie dr'zzyrng c.lian!les Ilia/
shape hisfory, our s/one~age mrnds remarn basicallyIfie same ... ""Xelzsc.lie

lias long served as a palron sarnf of

pos/modern drscourse. :7.Juf{l)asn'f lie really /us/ anarrsfocraf, obsessed {l)i/./i.lirerarcliy.? ... ""%am

G.liomsky 's hngurslrcs .lias been a/lac..fed

because ii rsn'f a science h'ke of<f...s!ylepliysr'cs. Jhs
crilrcs, lie says, don'/ undersfandXe{l)/on ... "I followed the link to the Chomsky item andit turned out to be an interview piece by an Italian journalist filled with wonderful insights.
Another link to the L.A. Times led to a series ofarticles about languages in Southern California.
An article entitled "Language Enclaves Are Havens, Prisons" claimed that over 120 languages
are spoken in the L.A. area. Another article wasabout brain surgery around language areas in thebrain.
The site also has an archive and, though thelinks are fragile, these older links can prove very
informative. Needless to say, this is a site thatcan best be exploited by those with lots of timeon their hands. But even if you have only a little
time, this site may prove helpful.

Why is it important?
This site is the mother of all news information link pages. But better than other link pages,
this one has separated the interesting, the timely,
and the valuable from much of the useless messof the web-it functions as a web digest. To be
sure, it has its editorial perspective, and is associated with Linuafranca, but that also gives thesite much of its value.

'l1

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Slm• er2ll1: 1a111118
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IIICIECNOHIIP< www.cnethelp.com>

is it?
•- WhatThis is a website devoted to providing help
adviceand tips for computer users. In the pre• vious issueofCyberpipeline I wrote about early
-

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•

&

warning mailing lists for academic books andpublications, where you receive titles in advanceof the publications. The CNET Help website
offers a similar idea for computer uses: a numberof "tips" mailing lists. The tips are organizedby six topic categories: hardware tips, software
tips, Internet tips, web building tips, games tips
and consumer electronics tips . Within thesecategories are specific areas for which advice
or ideas are given, such as tips for JavaScript ,tips for PowerPoint, tips for CD-Recording , tips
for Photoshop Pro, tips for Mac OS, etc . Manyof the lists address the needs of PC users, but agood number address cross-platform uses. Whenyou subscribe to a particular list, you then receive an email each workday with a single tip
included . The messages can be in either text or
html format.

Why is it important?
Although mail lists can quickly clog up yourmail box, getting small bites of information
regularly is a very helpful way to learn about
things. This is especially true of the computerworld, where the systems are designed to learn
through experimentation and the manuals are
unreadable . These days university teachers areheavily dependent computer users, who often
lack gurus. Not only that, we are increasingly
confronted with different platforms and a large
number of applications. To be sure, many of
the tips you will receive will be useless, but they
are easily discarded . The hard part is getting
those rare bits of information that push out themargins and some of these tips may do just that.
The site also contains links to tutorials and otherkinds of help- but be careful, some of those
links will lead to services that charge for advice
or tutorials.

21

Snna• 2118:........

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01thecushv
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Colin Sloss on Bern Mulvey
I was much better informed
Bern Mulvey's fascinating accoof our Japanese and foreign ctional universities . And I thouworking in private colleges wer
time! Although I agreed with al
he made, I am not sure I agree wisuggestion that it is difficult to arneed for the proposed new re£by the Japanese government.
Certainly, drastic cuts int ;working in national universill
get rid of some of those "malin etheir privileges as academics
institutions.
s to me,d·hich allow
exist (a relativ
d deadline
fre
nment) aralso
conducive to
producing creative academic
work.

rule standards. Trying to run a university as if itwere just another corporation may result in·. greater efficiency in certain areas, but it will alter the quality of the work being done. While itwould not be wise to deny the need for the reform of the Japanese national universities, it does
seem in the case of these proposed reforms thatthey would be more likely to result in impoverishment rather than improvement.

11111
MUIVIVIIPIIIS
Despite having read Mr. Sloss' response very
carefully, I must admit to a certain amount ofconfusion. In my article, I attempted to provide
an impartial English summary
explaining the following:I) what reforms were being proposed by Monbusho,
2)why they were being pro"J/e Iba/ .ha/.£ lr'ltfebusinessposed, andslialf 6ecome wise. "3) the nature of (and reasoning
behind) Japanese faculty/staff re&clesiaslicus
sistance to their implementation.
Unfortunately,
Mr . Sloss.
seems to have mistaken attempts~) fairness in my presentation of these issues withan unconditional endorsement of the reforms
themselves.
My article neither makes nor implies such a
position .
Beyond the fact that almost one third is devoted to summarizing the various criticisms of
the proposals, I conclude the paper with the following statements: "the current proposals as now
written place too much emphasis on budgetaryconcerns ...to be ideal" and "could not we ...work
together in order to achieve a more balanced deal
with the government, thereby improving longterm prospects for everyone?" (Mulvey 2000,¥.Y,.;-'s per ·volv
m his
really m
cially support higher edund academic work can not
merely by simplistic, slide-

21

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23). Where in this is an unqualified acceptance do represent an important first step in what ideofMonbusho's terms?
ally will be an on-going dialogue, one in which
Mr. Sloss' comments seem directed less at it is to be hoped foreign residents of Japan may
me than at some vaguely
defined,also come to participate.
McCarthyesque boogeyman out to steal the soSuch participation, though, should not degencalled freedoms of academics everywhere. Un- erate into a "Monbusho is bad because it isfortunately, his obsession with skewering this Monbusho" -type diatribe. Unfortunately, by igfictional beast leads him to fits of misquotation noring economic and demographic realities in
and/or invention to better suit his rhetorical his attempts to demonize Monbusho, Mr. Sloss
needs. For example, Mr. Sloss writes that initi- comes close to doing just that.
ating "drastic cuts in the number of those workAn attempt to establish minimum standards
ing in national universities" just "to get rid of of financial and professional accountability atsome malingerers" would be absurd; my re- the national university level is not McCarthyism,
sponse to him is simple: no one is advocating nor should it be made out to be.
such a thing! As I state quite clearly on page 20,
while Monbusho is considering faculty/staff cuts,
this decision is being made in reaction to "theMulvey, Bern. (2000). The recent Monbusho
low national birthrate and resultant decrease in reform proposals: Ramifications and opportunities.
the number of applicants for university entrance" On Cue, 8,1, 18-23.
- i.e., they are responding to the demographic
reality that (as early as the year 2007) there simply may not be enough students to go around .
While one could argue that a 35% reduction
in staff and faculty is an overreaction to this problem, Mr. Sloss chooses to avoid the complexities of the issue entirely, focusing instead on bemoaning a planned mass-martyring of innocentsin order to catch a few scoundrels - a plan
which Mr. Sloss, to be frank, appears to haveinvented .
The Japanese national university system is inneed of reform. Tightened standards of financial and professional accountability - including, yes, the ability to fire those few individuals
who continue to abuse the system - must be
parts of any rational proposal to reform this system .
This is not a controversial position; even Japanese educators against the proposed reforms
agree that something must be done. Why? Ironically, their intention in backing reforms of some
sort is not to destroy the idyllic working environment that Mr. Sloss imagines already to bein place, but to create such an environment.
Are the proposed reforms perfect? Of course
not - and for reasons I state quite clearly in mypaper. Monbusho's proposed reforms, however,

REFERENCE

38

SUmm•2818:lellllll88,111H2

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liSIIJBiB//:Developinu

listelill Skillsthr1ughRickaid,,,~,· '\ . .. ·11111111rt
llll111 _1111Hnn• sen,MacMIiian
tan11a11
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lbl.1991.1111+
132.118tl~~l515~25..._
Reviewed by Michael J. Crawford,·:_).-_;
11olikaido University of Education, Hakodate Campus,:::Listening to a secondlanguage at natural speed
often pos¢$·i :1mibleni forleaniers. Almost every
languageJeacher lias ·Iieard'°the complaint "peo~:~o~ hi~-or her students. In
ple speak"io<>fasi
Englis~ part what'inruc~::natural speech challengingJs t Mt~~ ~Jlte.)r\~number of reductions silclf af~ i}uiffa,..·for '' have to," and so on.
Although Jl.19st=1Js.teQingtex!books make an efsotn¢of these reductions,fort tothis revfe~ er
extent they havegotten s~~rt:,shrifl·their importance forcompreliJnsi6ii •of'n~fural ' speech has been underestimated .-.- . r·:.-·- ~ ·~
stekt(!~~foc~ing, more attention onr¢uctioµs ;,''Hit)?arad~~-.,i~t~iting"is a welcome
a~tion. :i9 theJisteningte~kmarket. Aimed
at:pre-ihtennediatefo intetrttediate learners ofEnglish, the book's major emphasis is on teaching reductions, or "sound changes" as the authors
refer to them. As .can be de<luced from the title,_-~Jdto provide exampop and iod(
ples of tedµctiotis real language. The text cont~fos'°20 units,:of w.hich introduces one ormore reductions ' and uses song to provide exofthetn.·•,___.
_
amples _The .Ul)itsfollow the srup.ebasic format. First,
the students _listen tofive sentences (on the cassette which com.es·with :the book) and do a cloze
exercise in which they are asked to guess the reductions to :l,e studied-in:the unit. The reductions are tlien explained in a brief section written
in Japane _se. Ne~th~ stu4e~ts listen to 12 morecloze sen.tences-·and hvo •:,-short conversations
which contain the _same ,reductions. After thisthfsong :is playedfot :tl,1.e·fi(st time, and the students :answer :a f-¢w·questions ,as they hsten. The
sqngis then played~gain, andthis time the stud~iits ~o¢pl,ete acloze ;exercise of the lyrics withof

introduceatleast
rJtfthatto-~roe-and'.
that
0

Sis·:~

rriU$ic
.iare
in

:each

a

spaces for the reductions (and spaces for someother words as well). At the end of the chapter
there are readings about the lyrics and/or the artist, both of which are available in oral form on
the cassette tape .
There are a number of things about "Hit Parade Listening" which make it an attractive option for university-level teachers in Japan who
have listening and/or general English classes.
First, the inclusion of music tends to motivate
students. Many students may not have had achance to listen to music in their junior high andhigh school classes, so doing so may be a neededbreath of fresh air. Another good point is the explanations in Japanese mentioned above. The explanations are short and to the point, and provide students with the information they need tounderstand the reductions introduced in each
unit. These explanations are useful for all teachers, of course, but perhaps especially so for native English speaking teachers who may not have
the Japanese skills required to explain reductions
and feel that their students would have trouble
understanding an explanation in English. Evenif a native English speaking teacher cannot readthe section, he or she can simply have the students read it and rest assured the concept has
been explained . (It should perhaps be noted that
this explanation is the only section of the chapter written in Japanese. Everything else, including the exercise instructions, is written in English.) The cloze exercises that the students do
before listening to the songs in each unit are also
well done . The sentences are read at natural
speed on the tape and also provide excellent
examples of natural conversational speech, including sentences such as ''I'd better let you go"
and "You should've known better."

11

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In addition to the points mentioned above,
perhaps the strongest endorsement of "Hit Parade Listening" are the results for the pre-test
and post-test (a cloze listening test of reductions)
included in the text for two first-year university
classes this reviewer taught at the Hokkaido University of Education in the fall semester of 1999.
Students in both classes performed significantly
better on the post-test than they did on the pretest. Among the 32 students for whom both pretest and post-test data were available, some students did twice as well on the post-test. Although
this of course do not prove that the text was effective, it is somewhat striking, and demonstrates
that the students were much better able to understand reduced forms at the end of the course.
Despite the positive aspects of "Hit Parade
Listening" mentioned above, clearly no textbook
is perfect and this one is not an exception. One
problem is lack of variety in the exercises in thebook. The text relies a bit too heavily on cloze
exercises. These may be well-written and useful, but after 20 units of cloze exercises students
may feel that they never want to do another one
again . Another problem is that some of the songs
provide few examples of the reductions they aremeant to exemplify . Although the cloze exercises that come before the songs provide ample
practice for the students, real examples of theiruse are also very important. Finally, the fact ofthe matter is that although most teachers will befamiliar with the songs and the artists includedin the book, many students (at least the Hokkaido
University of Education) do not know artists like
The Carpenters, Chicago, Michael Bolton, The
Eagles, etc . Although artists students do knowsuch as Mariah Carey and Celine Dion are also
included in the book, they are in the minority .
More recent songs and more artists that are familiar to college-age Japanese learners would
be welcome .
These shortcomings do not detract from theoverall value of the text, and will hopefully be
addressed if a second edition is published. The
text is easy to use, fun to teach , and, from thisreviewer's experience, pedagogically effective.
Clearly, teachers need to do other activities inclass to maintain variety and interest, but this istrue for every textbook on the market. I lookforward to using it next semester.

32

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