In this issue:

CUE AT JALT 2017

THREE FEATURE
ARTICLESCUE CAREERS

CUE CIRCULARISSUE 5
APRIL

2018

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

Kanda University of International Studies (KUIS), in Chiba

Photo by Rob Stevenson

Here’s to the 2018 academic year being a great one!
Welcome to our first issue for 2018. We hope your semester is off to a good start.
In this issue we’re featuring three articles on a good variety of topics relevant toteaching in Japan’s university sector, with each of them drawing on the authors’ own
experiences of success, surprise, and learning. The regular CUE Careers column
discusses allocating time towards career planning and goals.
Are you trying anything new this semester? Perhaps some new courses, new content,
new software, new approaches…? Let us know how it goes! Narrative accounts of yourexperiences, opinions, and impressions make great reading for the rest of us, and mightsave someone the time and effort of re-inventing the wheel.
Please enjoy this issue of CUE Circular.

Steve Paton, Editor

CUE at JALT2017
The CUE SIG information table was busy as usual
at JALT2017. We’re grateful that officers and nonofficers helped to staff it from time to time. It wasalso very nice to see some faces from the CUE
AGM audience stop by and ask questions.
Whether they came from the AGM or not, people
generally wanted to know the usual stuff, mostly
what CUE is all about. Since there is no academic
specialty in CUE, it’s always fun to explain wecover everything. People in CUE can be interested
in ER, CALL, materials writing, or nothing inparticular. The SIG is there to help people in any
way they can, whether new or experienced, andwe’d like as many suggestions as possible thatmembers and non-members can muster. One
visitor remarked on how approachable the officers
are, and that’s a great compliment. With over 500
members, CUE should do more than most other
SIGs (and it often does), but we need to hear from
more people.
Talks with visitors always get around to thefollowing specific topics:
What sections are in the OnCUE Journal?
(answer: not just feature articles, and not justresearch papers with heavy quantitative analyses;
detailed descriptions of guidelines for each areavailable on request).
What is the CUE Circular? (answer: an online
publication for classroom-related issues, a step or
two above My Share quality and a step below
formal academic writing; it also contains anadvice column on job information).

The CUE table and the SIG’s AGM
at JALT 2017.
JALT CUE SIG

Does CUE offer grant money? (answer: YES!
check out the homepage which has recently beenrevised; the grants help people in their research,
and we ask for little in return).

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What kind of meetings does CUE hold? (answer: there is an annual September
conference which alternates with an ESP Symposium for poster presentations; this year
is a large 2-day 25th anniversary conference; CUE also assists other SIGs with their
meetings).
What else can you tell me about CUE? (answer: take part as a volunteer atmeetings to learn how it runs and how to network, work with OCJ or CC editors to
shadow their efforts or to serve as proofreaders, help out with our anniversary
conference this year and learn how such things are created, plus learn a little about CUE
history).
So, approach those approachable officers, and ask or volunteer what you like. We would
always like to see more people helping out to make CUE the best SIG, not just thebiggest.

Glen Hill, Publications Chair

Feature articles
What happened when the teacher learned along with thestudents?

4

Gota Hayashi

Successfully managing the transition into tertiary education in
Japan: a personal journey

6

Julyan Nutt
10

SkELL as an L2 writing resource
Cynthia Quinn

CUE Careers column
13

Setting priorities for the academic year
Michael Parrish and Richard Miller

text
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Feature articles
What happened when
the teacher learned
along with thestudents?
Gota Hayashi, Tokyo Keizai
University and Gakushuin
University
Gota Hayashi was educated in
the U.S. from fourth grade until
graduating from university. He
received his master’s degree in
TESOL from Teachers College,
Columbia University in Tokyo.
ghayashi@tku.ac.jp

This is my fourth semester of teaching acourse called Self Directed Learning. It isa course in which I have students plan,
conduct, and organize their own learning.
For all four semesters, I have beenlearning along with the students, and I
would like to share with you what
happened during this process.
I learned that what I care about is
not necessarily what the students
care about.
One of the activities that I have had
students do is to make their own six-wordstories. My story is: Enjoy learning andapply by teaching. It does not have to be asentence. I made mine a sentence because
it is easy to remember, and it is really
what I like to do. One student wrote:
Playing soccer with my best buddies.

JALT CUE SIG

Another student wrote: Have a nice timewith horses.
I learned that some students might
have been influenced by myexamples.
For example, my six-word story started
with the word enjoy, and many of mystudents’ six-word stories started with theword enjoy as well. One student wrote:
Enjoy learning English and watchingmovies. Another student wrote: Enjoy
dancing and communicating with friends.
Even if some of them might have decided
to borrow a word because it resonatedwith them, the students’ stories were still
unique.
I have a lot of fun teaching thecourse because it is part of who Iam.
An effective principle of leadership issetting an example by one’s own behavior(Alston & Gorton, 2011). I am lucky
because I get to do my own self-directed
learning, and in class, I get to learn what
the students are learning, to help myself
learn and teach better. Since the students
are first-year students taking Self
Directed Learning as a required course, I
figured that setting an example will help
students learn new ways of living, which
as Bandura (1986) argued requires
expending much time and effort anddisrupting secure routines.

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I noticed patterns in students’choices.
I noticed that many students like to learn
English by watching TED talks andmovies and listening to music. Still otherschose to study for TOEFL or IELTS, sothat they can score high enough to study
abroad as part of their school’s program.
I learned that identifying whatworks can be very difficult.
The majority of students are 18 years old
and are still trying to figure out who they
really are and what to do with their lives(Erikson, 2000). Furthermore, although I
have had more experience conducting myown learning plans, the past threesemesters have been all over the place. In
other words, I packed so many things I
had wanted to do when I had started out
with my plan the first semester. It is only
recently, in the fourth semester that I
have finally developed better focus andlearned what works well for me.
I learned to relate better tostudents.
Looking at their journal entries, in which
many students not only share their five
weeks of self-directed learning, but also
their assignments for all the courses theytake, I realized how much homework they
have from all the classes that they aretaking, not to mention having to study for
midterms and final exams.
With my plans to do my own self-directed
learning, I learned that after a focused
period of learning, usually at a desk, I
need to get moving. For example, I reallyfeel that integrating going to the gym as
part of my plan helped me maintain the
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stamina to keep learning (Reason, 2010).
Instead of wondering why the students
were writing about dance, soccer, club
activities, and part-time jobs all the time
instead of other activities that involve
learning to develop their linguistic
proficiency, by being in the learners' shoes
I learned that those activities actually help
maintain their physical and mentalbalance.
I learned that self-directed learning
is easier when other people are also
doing it.
By doing the self-directed learning withmy students, I learned that it gets easierwith time. Reflecting on the process andupdating my plan as I went along before
moving onto the next phase of my plan
was very helpful. Moreover, I think I
would have had a much more difficult
time sticking to my plans if I had notmade myself accountable to my students(Young, 2017). I also hope that mystudents will choose to continue planning,organizing, and conducting their own
learning after they finish taking mycourse.
References
Alston, A. J. & Gorton, R. (2011). Schoolleadership and administration:
Important concepts, case studies, &simulations (9th ed.). New York, NY:
McGraw-Hill.
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations ofthoughts & actions: A social cognitive
theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: PrenticeHall, Inc.

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Erikson, E. (2000). The Erik Erikson
reader. New York, NY: W.W. Norton &Company.
Gakushuin University. (n.d.). Study
Abroad. Retrieved from http://
www.univ.gakushuin.ac.jp/iss/en/
studyabroad/
Reason, C. (2010). Leading a learningorganization: The science of working
with others. Bloomington, IN: Solution
Tree Press.
Young, D. S. (2017). Stick with it: A
scientifically proven process forchanging your life- for good. New York,
NY: Harper Collins.

Submit an article!
What’s happening in your teaching?
What’s influencing your decisions?
What obstacles have you overcome, andhow?
What ideas or opinions do you have that
others might be interested to read?
What have you read, heard, or seen
recently that’s changed your approach toteaching, either in or out of theclassroom?
CUE Circular aims to publish quality,interesting, practical articles about theday-to-day nature of teaching in our
sector.

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

JALT CUE SIG

Successfully managing
the transition into
tertiary education in
Japan: a personal
journey
Julyan Nutt, Tokai Gakuen
University
Julyan Nutt has beenteaching in Japan for twenty
years. His research interests
include peer-assisted learningand improving motivational
issues in the ESL classroom.
nutt@tokaigakuen-u.ac.jp

Teaching part-time at a university inJapan can seem like an attractive
proposition, with four months holiday a
year, especially for someone already living
in Japan and teaching at a less financiallyrewarding job. Once one or two classes
are secured, and after having obtained
contacts through other teachers, it isrelatively easy to expand this portfolio tofifteen or sixteen classes spread over
several institutions—a full-time parttimer.
At the tertiary level in Japan, the numberof classes taught by part-time lecturers far
outweighs those taught by full-time
professors (Nagatomo, 2012), especiallyin language classes. The part-time faculty
often teaches the bulk of the corecurriculum classes, with the full-time
faculty teaching the more specialized
subjects. With almost all universities
requiring credits in foreign language
courses, the majority of classes that part!6

CUE CIRCULAR 4/2018

time lecturers teach are to non-English
majors. And to further complicate
matters, the newest teachers are likely to
be offered the lowest-proficiency classes.
A rude awakening
When I first walked into a university
classroom, the lights were not switchedon, students were sprawled over the desks
at the back of the classroom sleeping or
chatting among themselves, and barely athird of the class managed to murmur areply when I greeted them. Students
wandered into the classroom fifteen or
twenty minutes late, shrugging when I
asked them for an explanation. Questions
were met with silence, and individually,
students invariably responded withshiranai or wakaranai. Pairwork was
only sustained in my direct presence, withstudents returning to personal chitchat as
I moved on to monitor another group.
Activities generally petered out after a few
minutes, and students brazenly used theirphones or shouted to each other acrossthe classroom. Clearly, there were
motivational issues that needed to beaddressed.
Fifteen years later, when I now enter theclassroom, students are seated in two
rows of pairs from the front of theclassroom with their textbooks out, readyto answer their names as I call the classroll on the chime of the bell. And while it
still may be a struggle to have students
openly volunteer answers, they are willingto when called upon. So what has
happened in the intervening years?

JALT CUE SIG

Empathy
Non-English majors often do not like
English. It can be seen as an enigma,
something they have failed at in the pastand cannot master. The thought of having
to speak it in front of their peers can beabhorrent for them. Understanding this isparamount.
Empathy should not just be limited to anunderstanding of the students’ difficulties
with language learning. Students areindividuals and should be treated as such.
As teenagers, they are negotiating difficult
periods in their lives, which may cause anincrease in disciplinary issues. Trials
conducted by researchers from the
Department of Psychology at Stanford
University revealed that “experiments…
show that…an empathic approach todiscipline…motivates better
behavior” (Okonofua, Paunesku, andWalton, 2016). I have found that
attempting to understand why students
are being disruptive or unresponsive
works better than the more punitive
approach of removing them from theclassroom.
The authoritative parent
There are as many styles of parenting as
people, but Diana Baumrind (1971), therenowned clinical and developmental
psychologist, loosely categorizes them as
permissive-indulgent, permissiveneglectful, authoritarian, andauthoritative. Briefly, permissiveindulgent parents are caring andaffectionate, but lack discipline;
permissive-neglectful are distant anduninterested; authoritarian are autocratic!7

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and intolerant; and authoritative tend tobe firm but fair.
It does not take too much of a stretch of
the imagination to realize that theseparenting categories can be translated
into similar teaching styles (Bernstein,2013). We all know the permissiveneglectful lecturer who delivers the samelecture year in, year out, or theauthoritarian teacher who dismisses
students for minor transgressions. I admitthat in my preliminary years I sometimes
fell into the latter category. Struggling tomanage unruly students, it was easier toremove them from the class than to findthe reasons for their disruptive behavior.
Now I am definitely in the authoritative
camp, and I let the students know what is
expected of them from day one. Withoccasional reminders throughout thecourse, disruptive behavior has been kept
to a minimum. As part of the orientationon the first day of the course, with a stern
face, I seat the students as I want themand then write a list of rules for classroom
behavior on the blackboard and therepercussions of infractions. I explain thisfirst in English, then in Japanese, andthen have the students write them down
and explain that this is an agreement
between us. Then with a more lighthearted approach, I explain that actually I
am a “nice guy” and that as long as they
follow these simple rules, which are thebasics of courteous behaviour, we should
all get along fine. Then we invariably
move on to a fun activity involving thewhole of the class, myself included, wherestudents can get to know each other. The
die, however, has been cast.

JALT CUE SIG

Nurturing self-efficacy
Any university teacher who has taught acourse to non-English majors in Japan
will at some point have been told: “Eigodekinai.” Many students believe this.
Albert Bandura, a leader in the field of
self-efficacy, encapsulates it well:“People’s beliefs about their abilities havea profound effect on those abilities.…
People who have a sense of efficacy
bounce back from failures” (quoted in
Goleman, 2005). Instilling this in theclassroom is, in my opinion, the biggest
hurdle to overcome once classroom
management issues are under control.
There are three simple methods that canaccomplish this: set achievable goals,
provide real-time feedback, and give realtime remedial assistance. When students
are working on pair practice or grammar
exercises, continuous assistance is often
required on a more individual basis.
Eliciting answers from the students andavoiding spoon-feeding the answers
instills a sense of self-efficacy. The cycle iscompleted at the end of each class byproviding a ten-minute quiz. The aim of
the quiz is not so much to test thestudents, but rather to reinforce the selfbelief that they have learned something inclass.
Using L1 in the classroom
The place of L1 in the classroom has long
been debated (Auerbach, 1993).
Personally, I think there is no debate,especially with beginner to elementarylevel classes. Class time is managed more
efficiently if complicated tasks are
explained in the students’ native tongue(Cianflone, 2009). I find it exasperating!8

CUE CIRCULAR 4/2018that beginner-level textbooks have
explanations directed towards thestudents in a language at a much higher
level than that of the task itself.
An additional benefit of using L1 is thatstudents see you as a language learner.
Students are more than happy to pointout my mistakes, for which I am grateful.
By leading by example, students can be
encouraged to attempt language
structures that they may not have fullconfidence in using.
I am not insinuating that classes should
be conducted in L1, in fact the opposite.
When addressing the class as a whole, I
believe that L1 should be kept to aminimum and only used in the
aforementioned situation—judiciously,
and dependent on the needs of the class.
Pair rotation and peer-assisted
learning
At the lower level, English conversation
classes require repetitive pair activities.
Less motivated students, who work with
their peers, often fail to see such activities
through to completion. To overcome this,after each activity, I have the studentschange partners, by having one of the pairmove to the seat in front of them,alternating the rows that are required tomove each week. This system (or similarsystems) should be implemented on thefirst day after orientation, in order to let
the students know what is expected ofthem.
An added benefit of pair rotation is peerassisted learning. Even in streamed
classes, there can be a wide range of
JALT CUE SIG

English abilities. I found in a previous
study (Nutt, 2014) that students are often
reluctant to ask the teacher when they do
not understand for fear of losing face, so
students can benefit from teaching eachother, and not only the student beingtaught, but also the “student” teacher
gains a better understanding through theteaching process. This is particularly
valuable when doing grammar or
vocabulary exercises.
A final word
In the fifteen years I have been teachingin tertiary education, some of the mostrewarding classes I have taught have been
the lower-level, non-English majorclasses. The moment when the switch
clicks, as a student finally grasps agrammar concept and understands thatthey can “do” English, is a pleasure towitness. It is in these classes where wecan see the biggest improvement in
students’ confidence in their English
ability. I do, however, have one final wordof warning: make it clear from the very
beginning what you expect of yourstudents. Woe betide the teacher who
tries to implement a new, strict regime
halfway through the semester. They are
unlikely to be met with a positive
response.
References
Auerbach, E. R. (1993). Reexamining
English only in the ESL classroom.
TESOL Quarterly, 27(1), 9-32.
Baumrind, D. (1971). Current patterns ofparental authority. Developmental
Psychology, 4(1, Pt. 2), 1-103.

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Bernstein, D. A. (September, 2013).
Parenting and teaching: What’s theconnection in our classroom? Part one oftwo: How teaching styles can affectbehavioral and educational outcomes in
the classroom. Psychology Teacher
Network (American Psychological
Association). http://www.apa.org/ed/
precollege/ptn/2013/09/parentingteaching.aspx

Cianflone, E. (2009). L1 use in English
courses at university level, a survey ofliterature on students and teachers’
perspectives. ESP World, 8(22), 41-45.
Goleman, D. (2005). Emotional
Intelligence: Why it can matter morethan IQ. New York, NY: Bantam Books
Nagatomo, D. H. (2012). Exploringjapanese university English teachers’
professional identity. Bristol, U.K.:
Multilingual Matters.
Nutt, J. (2014). The use of peer-assisted
learning for review presentations inheterogeneous classes. The Language
Teacher, 38(5), 42-45.
Okonofua, J. A., Paunesku, D. andWalton, G. M. (2016). Brief intervention
to encourage empathic discipline cuts
suspension rates in half among
adolescents. Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, 113(19), 5226.
Poole, G. S. (2010). The JapaneseProfessor: The Ethnography of a
University Faculty. Rotterdam, The
Netherlands: Sense Publishers.

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SkELL as an L2 writing
resource
Cynthia Quinn, Kobe
University
Cynthia Quinn is Specially
Appointed Associate
Professor in the Graduate
School of Intercultural
Studies. Her researchinterests are in L2 writing,corpus linguistics, and genre.
cynthia@people.kobe-u.ac.jp

As most of us know, prior to university,
Japanese learners of English have spentmuch of their English class timetranslating between English andJapanese. Through this process, students
come to be heavy bilingual dictionary
users (Hirata, 2017), as they focus on
exchanging word meanings across the two
languages. Although L1 translation is an
important part of vocabulary learning,
there are many other aspects of“knowing” a word (Coxhead, 2006).
To help students better navigate thelexical demands of the writing process, I
have introduced the use oflanguage
corpora into my L2 writing courses. This
process, of learners exploring language
use through corpus research, is referred
to as “data-driven learning” (Boulton,2011), and although there is a wealth of
information to be gained through thisapproach, it is, in truth, a time-consuming
task for learners. However, corpus tools
can be manageable for learners,
particularly when based on a corpus
system that is suitable for foreign
language learners (rather than language!10CUE CIRCULAR 4/2018

researchers) and when the research tasks
are directed and purposeful.
Although I have introduced several
corpora to various groups of students,
SkELL (Sketch Engine for Language
Learners:
http://skell.sketchengine.co.uk/) has
been the most practical for the following
reasons. One, it is a no-cost, web-based
resource. Students can access it freely andconveniently, avoiding the hassles of login
IDs or passwords. Teachers do not needto do any class set-up or secure a budget
to pay for the service. Most of thesebenefits do not exist with other online
corpora, making SkELL a great resource
for first-time corpus users.
The second reason I would recommend
SkELL is its simplicity. Hardly any
explanation is necessary for learners to
begin using it. The interface is extremelyuser-friendly, with its three searchfunctions readily apparent to learners.
Learners can review contextualized usageof target words through example
sentences and through word sketches thatsummarize an item’s common collocates.
They can also explore synonyms via word
clouds that display words with similar
usage distributions to the queried item.
For novice users, these three query
options make it both a practical classroom
tool and an independent learning
resource.
In what ways can SkELL be exploited as
an L2 writing resource? To begin with,
SkELL is a useful paraphrasing tool.
Lexical substitution (replacing a wordwith a synonym) is important for effective
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paraphrasing, and with the “Similar
Words” function, students can findappropriate lexical substitutes. In theexample below, “prepared” and“productive” were discovered via thisfunction, while the phrasal verb “dealwith” was identified as a collocate of“setback” through Word Sketch.
Original: Studies show that people who
fail but then keep trying anyway are
better equipped to respond to setbacks in
a constructive way.
Paraphrase: According to research,people who fail but continue to try are
better prepared to deal with setbacks in a
productive way.
SkELL is also useful for creating
thematically-related word webs. As a prewriting technique, word webs help
students develop a vocabulary set forcomposition or expand their lexical
options in specific topic areas. Suppose astudent plans to write about creativity inJapanese education. Referencing theword cloud generated by SkELL for“creativity” offers words such as
imagination, innovation, flexibility,
awareness, passion, talent, and courage. A
click on any one of these words connects
to a word sketch, where learners canquickly explore collocates for thatparticular term. To put the information
they discover to practical use, students
can write original sentences based on theusage patterns they have observed, which
can also serve as an effective writing
preparation task. Finally, this samereferencing process can also be used toencourage greater lexical variety in!11CUE CIRCULAR 4/2018

student writing by prompting receptive
vocabulary and encouraging writers tomake greater use of their lexical
knowledge. Often students know otherappropriate words but are unable to recall
them easily while writing.
When it comes to composing a text,
learners typically use their dictionaries tolocate the words they need (Quinn, 2013).
However, rather than depending on
dictionary entries for individual items,
collocations can support learners inconstructing more accurate, naturalsentences. For example, instead of thisstatement: “The person must create a very
new idea” (for the idea to be recognized asa creative contribution), the student canquery “idea” in Word Sketch to find word
combinations such as “introduce an idea”
and “original idea” that can be put
together for a more natural-sounding
sentence: “The person must introduce anoriginal idea...” Importantly, through thisprocess, learners are encouraged tocompose their texts based on chunks oflanguage, rather than discrete lexical
items.
Once students are comfortable using
SkELL, I often refer them to the sitethrough my teacher feedback for the
purpose of encouraging self-correction.
Often preposition- and collocation-typeerrors can be quickly resolved through a
corpus query, while problems withgeneral lexical usage may be retrievable if
the student is willing to spend more time
researching. In either case, SkELL is agood resource for lexical-oriented errorsthat are not especially complex.

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For those who are experienced at
conducting corpus research, SkELL islikely to be too basic in its search options
and capabilities. For language learners,
however, these limitations are its
advantages: SkELL is able to respond to
many learner-oriented vocabulary
problems and queries, while alsodelivering results that are manageable
and accessible to non-specialists.

References
Boulton, A. (2011). What data for datadriven learning? The EUROCALL Review,
20, 23-27.
Coxhead, A. (2006). Essentials ofteaching academic vocabulary. Boston,
MA: Heinle Cengage Learning.
Hirata, Y. (2017, June). Helping Japanese
students use online monolingual
dictionaries. Poster session presented at
the meeting of JALT CALL, Matsuyama
University, Shikoku, Japan.
Quinn, C. (2013). Students’ use of online
reference tools for English composition
and revision. Departmental Bulletin
Paper of Graduate School ofIntercultural Studies, Kobe University,39, 19-41.

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CUE Careers
Setting priorities forthe academic year
This installment of the CUE Careerscolumn comes at the beginning of theacademic year, a good time to think about
goals for the coming semester and year.
In another column, I have written about
various ideas for career advancement andplanning (Parrish, 2015), primarily
focusing on networking and publishing
opportunities. Miller (2012) advocatedusing the SMART goals framework incareer planning, which is a valuable toolfor implementing goals and increasing the
likelihood of attaining them. Each of theactivities suggested in our previous
columns have merit for building a strong
CV; however, two aspects we have notdiscussed are how to budget time and how
to prioritize implementation of yourcareer development plans.
A good first step is a personal time audit,
which requires that you log how you
spend every quarter- or half-hour block oftime each day for one week. You will findsurprising areas where time is wasted orused inefficiently, as well as useable gapsof free time which can be repurposed topursue your career development goals.
Even ten to fifteen spare minutes per day
can add up to hours of productive timeover the course of a semester. Then, once
your schedule is mapped, block off
exclusive time for specific tasks—
exercising or studying or writing— and be
strict with yourself (and your colleagues)
JALT CUE SIG

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

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

about not allowing other activities tocreep into your schedule.
Having determined your available time,
the next step is to choose the specificgoals or activities that will provide
maximum benefit in your particular
circumstances. There are many
interesting activities and worthy goals
that would benefit an educator’s career,
but it is impossible to pursue them all.
How do we choose?
Business consultant Peter Bregman (2011)
uses the analogy of an all-you-can-eat
buffet to describe the choices anddemands on our time. There are many
tempting items, but if you try to enjoy
them all, you end up bloated andunsatisfied. He suggests you choose three
to five main focus areas in your life, suchas “spending quality time with family”,!13

CUE CIRCULAR 4/2018“improving health”, or “broadening
professional expertise”.

my most important areas of focus for the
coming year.

The particular choices of focus do notmatter. They will vary by individual;
however, they should relate to both yourprofessional and personal life. Your
choices should not be too broad andshould be achievable within a one-yeartime frame. Focus areas can be things you
would like start or develop in yourself, or
things you are already doing and would
like to maintain and continue. Remember,these core focus areas do not represent
goals in and of themselves. Rather, they
are categories within which your goal
setting will be structured. These
component goals may arranged in the
SMART goals framework, and will, by
nature, vary in scope and completion
time. Once the main focus areas are
decided, determine an approximate
allocation of time to each of the areas, andavoid committing time to activities that
do not apply.

At times, daily exigencies pop up anddistract you, and sometimes these
problems cannot be ignored or
postponed. But it is worth the extra effort
to maintain focus on your primary goals.
You will have to learn to politely say “no”
to interesting opportunities or worthwhile
projects, just because they do not fit yourcurrent allocation of time and areas offocus. Alternatively, you can plan toadjust your focus areas periodically,adding and deleting items, orredistributing time allocated to each area.

As an example, my focus areas for the
next year are:a) Improve my research and publicationsb) Serve my students wellc) Spend quality time with my familyd) Pursue volunteer activitiese) Maintain my fitness and healthIn planning a day or week, try to assess
the extent to which any given activity willfurther your core goals. Of course, there
are many other things I might like, or
could choose— binge watch Game ofThrones, study Swahili, build an
investment portfolio— but they are not

JALT CUE SIG

To plan and achieve your goals for the
coming year, keep the words of time
management expert David Allen in mind:“You can do ANYTHING, but you can’t do
EVERYTHING” (as quoted in
Hammonds, 2000).
References
Bregman, P. (2011). 18 minutes: Find
your focus, master distraction, and get
the right things done. New York, NY:
Business Plus.
Hammonds, K. H. (April, 2000). You cando anything—but not everything. Fast
Company. Retrieved from https://www.fastcompany.com/40384/you-cando-anything-not-everything
Miller, R. (2012). SMART goals and goal
setting for career enhancement. The
Language Teacher, 36(4), p.110-111.
Retrieved from https://www.jaltpublications.org/tlt/departments/job-!14

CUE CIRCULAR 4/2018

info-centre/articles/1661-smart-goalsand-goal-setting-career-enhancement
Parrish, M. (2015). A fresh start on careerdevelopment. The Language Teacher,39(3), p. 42-43. Retrieved from https://www.jalt-publications.org/tlt/
departments/career-development-corner/
articles/4482-fresh-start-careerdevelopment
Resources
Peter Bregman’s 18-Minute Planner:
http://peterbregman.com/wp-content/
uploads/2016/03/18MinutesKit-1.pdf

CUE Circular
Issue #5, April 2018
A publication of the JALT College andUniversity Educators Special Interest GroupISSN 2432-5570
All rights re se rve dw w w .j a l t c u e .o rg /c u e c i rc u l a r

EditorSteve Paton

Assistant Editor

Dion Clingwall

Proofreading

Mary Hillis
Ryan Richardson

David Allen
https://gettingthingsdone.com/

Glen Hill

CUE SIG Officers
Coordinator
Program Chair
Treasurer
Membership

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

JALT CUE SIG!15