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appropriate for Storytime? How much of anaccent is acceptable? What level ofintonation?

anyone lives in the Nishinomiya area andwould be interested in being involved with
the Storytime project, please contact me.

On the one hand, Storytime is a freeoffering to the public; on the other hand,the presentation quality in Storytime isimportant to me. Storytime is not primarily
meant to be a forum for students practicing
English; rather, as expressed earlier, it is an
opportunity for children to hear English
books and songs spoken by native andexpert English speakers. With the threestudents who participated in November, I
definitely feel that goal was met. However,with lower-level students, I think the qualityof the Storytime experience could becompromised.

Author correspondence:<Email> carney@mail.kobe-c.ac.jp

A final issue on my mind is the actual valueof the Storytime Project for the children andparents who attend. One of the students
who participated in November mentionedthat “It is a little strange to read English
books, because the children do not speak
English.” I understood the comment.
Though Storytime is not completely
monolingual (i.e., using Japanese sometimes
is encouraged), it is true that some of thechildren who come to Storytime do not
speak much English, and they probably do
not completely understand the stories thatare read. Some of the children do not (orperhaps cannot) sing along with the songs.
What value are they gaining from Storytime?
Are their parents forcing them to attend forthe wrong reasons? Obviously, I cannot
definitively answer these questions.
However, I continue thinking about how I
can make Storytime as accessible andinteresting as possible to the children
attending, while also generally maintaining
the use of English and the goal of exposing
children to the sounds of English throughchildren’s books and songs.

he theme of this year’s JALT
conference was transformation inlanguage education, with the goal
being to explore the transformative powerof education from many vantage points.
Looking through the conference handbook,
I was thrilled to see some of the biggest
names in the field of language teaching andresearch as well as many presentations
related to how computer technology cantransform the way language is taught andlearnt. The use of technology in language
learning and teaching is of special interest tome, so I felt like a kid about to enter a huge
candy store. What a golden feeling!

Conclusion
I am looking forward to another year ofEnglish Storytime events. My thanks again
to the Learner Development SIG for seeing
value in the project and for supporting it. If
SPRING 2017

Reflections on andTakeaways fromJALT 2016
JALT2016

Daniel G. C. Hougham
40Hiroshima UniversityT

I am delighted to report on how theconference has affected my development asa language learner and teacher-researcher.
For me, the main takeaways from theconference were collaborative action
research, digital teaching/learning tools, andsecrets of transformation in language
education in Japan.
Collaborative Action ResearchI began the weekend with Professor Anne
Burns' plenary titled Transforming the Shape ofthe Way We Work. Burns, of the Universityof New South Wales (Australia), is mostwell known for her work introducing
teachers to the excitement and usefulness ofLD GRANTS UPDATE

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doing collaborative action research (AR) in
their particular teaching contexts. Her
reader-friendly book, Doing Action Research inEnglish Language Teaching (2010), has beenused by language teacher-researchers
worldwide, and helped guide my own
master’s dissertation project which,incidentally, I presented at the University ofBirmingham’s Graduate Student Showcase
at JALT2016. In her plenary, Burns
discussed different shades of the meaning oftransformation and how we can change theshape of what we do in several different
ways. For example, by introducing changes
to our practices of language learning andteaching, and improving the way we interact
with our colleagues and learners throughdoing collaborative AR. She talked about
the basic steps in AR: Plan, Action, Observe
and Reflect (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Cyclical AR model based on Kemmis and McTaggart (1988).

For me, the takeaway message from her talk
was an encouraging reminder that carryingout AR is a practical and methodical way forteachers to continually and collaboratively
strive to deal with common issues andimprove teaching practices. Her talkrefreshed my fond memories of carrying out
the AR cycle, and it made me feelempowered to continue with my efforts toSPRING 2017

improve interactions and learning outcomesthrough doing collaborative AR in mycurrent university teaching contexts. It also
encouraged me to seek out further
opportunities to share with others with aview to recognizing and crystallizing themost important aspects of the AR I havealready completed and the AR I am
currently working on.
One such opportunity presented itself while
participating in Burns’ practice-oriented
workshop called Transformation in yourClassroom: What Works? on Sunday. In thisworkshop, Burns guided participants insharing how we are transforming orintending to transform our classrooms,teaching, and how we work with learners.
One of the very “hot” issues discussed in
my group was the transformative power ofeducational technology and how it canindeed help to engage students, promotelearner development, and facilitate thecreation of effective and efficient
opportunities for learning. I greatly enjoyed
the opportunity to share with my groupmembers about my successful experiencesusing online learning/teaching tools toengage students and train them in language
learning strategies which help them develop
their English vocabulary efficiently andeffectively.
DigitalLearning/TeachingTools
One of the Saturday
afternoon
posterpresentations
thatimmediately attracted myattention was Websites &Apps that will Change yourClassroom by Erin Morrisand Herman Bartelan of Kanda Institute ofForeign Languages. Their poster presented awide-ranging list of websites and apps incategories of all skills, speaking & listening,reading & writing, vocabulary, andmiscellaneous. For me, one of the key
points to be remembered came from a
conversation with Morris in which I asked

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her which one of the foremost online
vocabulary learning tools listed on herposter she thought is more useful, Quizlet
or Memrise. Her response was that she finds
Memrise, which I had not used much before
the conference, particularly useful. Shortly
after the conference, I had another go atusing Memrise to study Japanese vocabulary
and I am pleased to say that I have since
become captivated by Memrise’s userfriendliness and usefulness. I am now
steadily and efficiently learning new
Japanese vocabulary at a remarkably highrate of retention and progress toward mygoal of acing the Japanese Language
Proficiency Test (N2: upper-intermediatelevel) this coming July. I find Memrise’s
mobile app for iPhone especially brilliantly
designed and easy-to-use. What I havelearned firsthand is that Memrise’s recipe for
effortless learning comprises several simple
ingredients, one of which is science which
involves giving our brains just the rightworkout by continuous choreographed
testing and adaptive “spaced repetition” ofwhat we've learned at scientifically
optimized times so our memories of newwords are always growing stronger, andnever forgotten. Another ingredient is fun,which involves turning learning language
into a compelling, competitive game where
we grow a colorful garden of memory;
planting the seeds of new words andnurturing them through reviews and tests
until they grow strong, take root andblossom into flowers in our long-term
memory. I now plan to create my own
multimedia flashcard courses and introduce
Memrise to my students as supplementarymaterial to be used alongside textbook
materials, and as a very useful tool to help
them achieve their language learning goals
such as getting a high score on the TOEIC
test. To learn more about Memrise (and signup—it’s
totallyfree),goto
www.memrise.com and enjoy learning more!
Another one of the poster presentations
that particularly appealed to me wasTransforming Vocabulary Learning with Quizlet
by Brent Wright of Kanazawa Institute ofSPRING 2017

Technology. Wright presented his research
project in which he aimed to enable hisstudents to experience how easy it is tomake digital flashcards and thus motivatethem to use Quizlet to study vocabularyautonomously and effectively. In his project,
he attempted to measure not only theamount of time it took his university
students to make 20 English-Japaneseflashcards using Quizlet with smartphones,
but also the accuracy of the flashcards theycreated. His findings were that the averagecompletion time of 7 minutes 50 seconds
was a reasonably low burden to students,
and that accuracy may be an issue that canbe addressed by, for example, having
students check each other’s work using
Quizlet’s built-in audio to check how words
on their word cards sound. The key idea forme was that it is certainly worth training
students to make their own word card setswith Quizlet in class, especially as they cancheck each other’s work using Quizlet’s
excellent audio feature.

Quizlet is undoubtedly a very popular tool
among language teachers. This was shownby the large number of other JALT2016
presentations showing how it can transformthe way vocabulary is studied. Among thesepresentations was a workshop called Quizlet:
The Optimum Digital Flashcard Tool by Bruce
Lander of Matsuyama University. Lander
introduced some of Quizlet’s newest
features, such as the collaborative teambased classroom game “Quizlet Live,”
which requires participants to work together
to correctly match the target words anddefinitions of a Quizlet set. Quizlet Live is,by all accounts, now taking the world bystorm (Wolff, 2016). I have also experienced
great and rapid success in introducing
Quizlet Live in my own classrooms, having
received overwhelmingly positive feedback
on it from my students over the past severalmonths. The most memorable experience
for me from Lander’s workshop was playing
a very enjoyable game of Quizlet Live forLD GRANTS UPDATE

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the first time from a student’s perspective
using our smartphones. This experiencestrengthened my resolve to continue using
Quizlet Live and other Quizlet activities tomake lessons more enjoyable for students.
Lander also encouraged us to attend theJALTCALL 2017 conference that will beheld in Matsuyama in June, inspiring me to
not only attend the conference but also givepresentations to share my successful
experiences promoting active learning andlearner development through computerassisted language learning, especially using
Quizlet.
Among other key
digital takeaways, ofparticular note is
how Google Docscantransformstudent writing. In
his poster session
titledTransform
Student Writing with Google Docs, Nick Boyesof Nagoya University of Foreign Studies
explained that Google Docs, which is a free
web-based word processing software, can beused to foster collaboration and autonomy
among students. With proper support froma teacher, Google Docs allows students toquickly and easily share their written workwith their peers and give each otherimmediate, personalized error-correction
feedback, working together on the same
document at the same time. As an added
anxiety-reducing bonus, we never have tohit “save” again, as all of our changes areautomatically saved as we type.
Secrets of Transformation in Language
Education in Japan
In their presentation called Transforming
Teacher Development, Chuck Sandy, Barbara
Sakamoto, and John Fanselow ofInternational
TeacherDevelopment
Institute (iTDi) led a thought-provoking
discussion about our beliefs about language
teaching and learning. Fanselow reminded
us of Socrates’ wise words on ignorance:“True knowledge exists in knowing that you
know nothing.” Indeed, these wise words
SPRING 2017

prompted me to reflect on my ignorance
and seek out other nuggets of Socrates’
wisdom, one of which I found is especiallyrelevant here: “The secret of change is tofocus all of your energy, not on fighting theold, but on building the new.” For me, then,an additional and crucial takeaway fromJALT2016 was a renewed focus of all of myenergy on “building the new,” with a view
to furthering collaborative action research
and making further use of innovative digitalteaching/learning tools, especially Memrise,Quizlet, and Google’s suite of productivityapps.
One other secret of transformation is ofspecial importance and relevance here. In
his presentation titled The Power of the Senpai,David Barker of BTB Press explained frompast experience that there is no use trying tofight against Japanese university students’tendency to observe hierarchies, as Japanesesociety places strong emphasis on hierarchy,
and the senpai/kohai relationship is a
powerful example of this: the senpai (senioror older student) may even have more
influence on the kohai (junior or youngerstudent) than the sensei (teacher). It istherefore advisable for us teachers to try andharness the power of senpai/kohai
relationships in order to transform ourclasses into more cohesive and supportive
learner groups. To harness the “power ofthe senpai,” I plan on trying to get to know
my university students more deeply byparticipating in more of their extracurricular
activities, creating more opportunities forthem to learn about each other in class, andstructuring in-class activities in culturally
sensitive ways that make use of the naturaldynamics of the Japanese classroom. For
example, it has been suggested that certain
group members can be assigned specificroles such as “leader” to coordinate a
discussion, “secretary” to record groupdecisions, and “spokesperson” to reportback to the class (Anderson, 1993, p. 108).
Conclusion
In conclusion, I received a great deal oftakeaways, handouts, inspiration, andLD GRANTS UPDATE

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LEARNING LEARNING 

Volume 24 Issue 1 May 2017encouragement at JALT2016. As a result, I
am encouraged to keep striving to transformmyself into a better learner, a better teacherresearcher, a more supportive colleague, amore successful materials creator, and amore productive citizen of Japan and theworld.
I encourage everyone to participate in theJALT International Conference in the future.
The conference allows participants a venue
for meeting experts in the field, learning
about new research, ideas, and materials,
networking, learning about graduate study atmany top graduate level TESOL programs,
transforming yourself, and building yourcareer. There was such a wide range ofexcellent workshops and presentations, thehard part was deciding which to attend
because there were often several interesting
events being held concurrently. Overall,most of the presentations I attended werevery practical.
As the grateful recipient of the JALT2016
International Conference Grant, I would
like to express my sincere thanks to theLearner Development Special Interest
Group (LD SIG) for awarding me the grant
and making my journey to attend andpresent at the conference in Nagoya
possible. It is thanks to the LD SIG grantthat I had such a valuable experience at theconference, so I am deeply grateful to all
LD SIG team members, especially Jim
Ronald who posted information about thegrant and tagged me through Facebook,thus encouraging me to join the SIG andapply for the grant in the first place. I am
incredibly thankful to be a member of sucha supportive, well-developed group, and Istrongly recommend that other eligible LD
SIG members (or soon-to-be members) canand should apply for LD SIG grants ofinterest to them. Finally, I would also like toexpress my heartfelt gratitude to Arnold
Arao and Yoko Sakurai for their valuableadvice and comments on this report. I am
also particularly grateful to Aaron Sponseller,
Philip Head and Jim Ronald for their great
help with proofreading /copyediting.
SPRING 2017

References
Anderson, F. E. (1993). The enigma of thecollege classroom: nails that don’t stickup. In P. Wadden (Ed.), A handbook forteaching English at Japanese colleges anduniversities (pp. 101-1l0). New York:
Oxford University Press.
Burns, A. (2010). Doing action research in
English language teaching: A guide forpractitioners. New York: Routledge.
Kemmis, S., & McTaggart, R. (1988). The
action research planner. Melbourne: Deakin
University.
Wolff, G. (2016). Quizlet Live: Theclassroom game now taking the world
by storm. The Language Teacher, 40(6),25-27. Retrieved from http://jaltpublications.org/node/27/articles/552
8-quizlet-live-classroom-game-nowtaking-world-storm
Author correspondence:<Email> d.hougham@gmail.com

LEARNERDEVELOPMENTGRANT DEADLINESRESEARCH GRANT
Friday, 30 June 2017 (23:59 JST)PROJECT GRANTS
Friday, 30 June 2017 (23:59 JST)
JALT INTERNATIONALCONFERENCE GRANT
Friday, 25 August 2017 (23:59 JST)LD GRANTS UPDATE

For more information please visit:
http://ld-sig.org/grants/46