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AATJ
NEWSLETTER
Message from the President
Greetings! I’m Ann Jordan, President of AATJ. For the past three
years, it has been my honor to serve as Vice President andPresident-Elect of AATJ. I’d like to take this opportunity tointroduce myself to those of you who don’t know me. I retired
from full-time teaching in California after a career that began in
1981 in a tiny elementary school surrounded by lettuce fields justsouth of Salinas and concluded at Los Gatos High School in theheart of the Silicon Valley, where I started a Japanese program
twenty years ago. I currently work with teachers in the J-LEAP
program, which has given me the opportunity to witness firsthandAnn Jordansome of the wonderful things that are happening in Japaneseclassrooms (and for now, on Zoom) around the U.S. I am also thedaughter of a lifelong teacher, Tei Yajima Dacus, who came to the U.S. to attend university as manyof you did, and I’m grateful that she encouraged me to pursue teaching.
The challenges and uncertainty of the past year continue in education, but I am constantly inspiredby the resilience and strength of Japanese language teachers, and especially by the spirit ofcooperation and caring. From the teacher in North Carolina, who reached out to ask forsuggestions for how to help support a teacher in a neighboring city whose program was injeopardy, to the teacher in San Francisco, who is mentoring a fellow middle school teacher on theother side of the U.S. whom she has never met, to the high school teacher in New Jersey, who
made time to Zoom with two teachers in California to share advice about how to get a Japanese
program started in a feeder district. These are just a few examples of many, I’m sure. In some ways,
even though we have had to remain physically apart, the community has become closer. When one
teacher or program is struggling, we all feel a sense of responsibility to help. And when one teacher
or program is successful, we all celebrate.
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The past few months have given the Japanese teaching community several reasons for joy andpride. Jessica Haxhi, who served as AATJ’s very first President, is the new President of ACTFL, leading
all of the language teachers in the nation. Two of the five finalists for ACTFL’s Teacher of the Year
2021 were Japanese teachers: Carla Swick (AKATJ) and Elena Kamenetzky (KAJLT), who went on to
win! I recently had the pleasure of talking with Kamenetzky sensei, and you can read my interview
with her later in this issue (p. 5). AATJ was also very pleased to announce that Yasu-Hiko Tohsaku,
who served as Co-President with Jessica Haxhi, will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award (p. 11)
at the Spring Conference. Congratulations to you all, and thank you for your professional leadership,teaching excellence, and dedicated service. You make us proud! Right now, whether they areteaching in-person or in front of a screen, there are exemplary teacher-leaders throughout theUnited States, and the AATJ Outstanding Teacher Award is one way that we can recognize theirefforts. Criteria and nomination forms can be found on the website under Professional
Development, so please think about nominating a colleague.
Although it’s only been a few months, AATJ has been busy in 2021. I’d like to share a few recent andupcoming activities, starting with the Annual Nengajo Contest (p. 23). So much talent and creativity
were reflected in the almost 500 submissions from elementary through college students! Be sure to
take a look at the winning designs on the AATJ website. Many thanks to the teachers across the U.S.
for giving your students the opportunity to participate, and to Nengajo Contest Director Cameron
Chien and his successor, Andy Scott, for organizing the very complicated logistics of the first 100%
online contest.
On January 16th, the first webinar of the year focused on the National Japanese Exam, not only on
the content of the exam, but the important role that NJE plays in advocacy and student motivation(p. 21). If you missed it, I encourage you to view the webinar video on the Professional
Development page of the website. On Feb. 16, the first ever webinar co-sponsored by ACTFL and
AATJ featured Teacher of the Year Elena Kamenetzky and ACTFL President Jessica Haxhi, who sharedwith teachers of all languages on “Engaging Our Learners: Lessons Learned While Teaching
Japanese”. On March 6, the CUNY teachers presented a webinar on“New York Tough: Working
Together For Creating Teaching Materials”.
The Spring Conference will be March 25-27 (p. 24), and though we wish we could meet in person in
Seattle as originally planned, the virtual format will make it possible for many more to join. The
keynote speaker is Hirata Oriza, who will be presenting on “Japanese Language Education in the Eraof Dialogue”, and there are many exciting conference sessions to choose from. Much appreciation to
the dedicated and hard-working Co-Directors of this year’s very different Spring Conference: YoshikoMori, Fumiko Nazikian, and Mieko Kawai.

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From February 3-5, President-Elect Tomoko Takami, Executive Director Susan Schmidt, Advocacy
Director Noriko Otsuka, and I participated in Language Advocacy Day, organized by the Joint
National Committee for Languages and National Council for Languages and International Studies. It
was a very powerful feeling to join more than 270 others from every state to meet with legislators
to advocate on behalf of language education, and it was encouraging to receive such a positive
response.
AATJ is committed to serving the needs of its members across the profession. The Japan Foundation
Los Angeles is a key ally of AATJ in this effort, and we are so grateful for that partnership. Your
responses to the recent JFLA/AATJ COVID-19 survey are critical to helping JFLA understand how the
pandemic continues to affect Japanese language teaching in the US and to determine the best way
to provide support. We look forward to sharing the initial results of that survey with you at the
Spring Conference. Additionally, the newly formed Diversity and Inclusion Task Force, headed by
Past President Suwako Watanabe, held their first meeting late last year (p. 20), and we will continue
to share updates on their important work.
Finally, I wish to express my deep appreciation to Immediate Past President Junko Mori, who led
with grace and calm during such a difficult and unprecedented time. The guidance and historicalcontext provided by Past Presidents Suwako Watanabe and Yoshiko Saito-Abbott (current Director ofProfessional Development), and Executive Director Susan Schmidt, was especially critical, and I am
so grateful for that. Vice President Shingo Satsutani, President-Elect Tomoko Takami, and I willcontinue to rely on them as we go forward. Shortly after my mom passed away last September, I
found a very simple message she had written during the lonely months of isolation due to COVIDrestrictions at her facility. The message was 希望, and I want to pass that on to you. Let us go
forward together with hope and optimism.

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Message from the Vice President[副会長からのご挨拶]
2020年1月ちょうど新型コロナウイルスがまさに猛威を奮わんとしている時に副会長に就任し2年目を迎えました。私の任期が終了するまでには今回のパンデミックにも収束してほしいと切に願っている毎日が続いています。急な遠隔授業開始で途方に暮れる毎日でしたが様々なウェビ
ナーに参加したりオンライン上の種々のプログラムに慣れていきながら、少しづつ「ニューノーマル」（新しい日常）に向かって奮闘されている先生方も多いことと思います。
このような厳しい状況の中、今まで学会やワークショップそしてセミナーなど費用や時間の面で参加したくてもできなかった先生方もこの期間中、自宅にいながら参加することができ、今まで会ったことのな
い世界中の先生とパソコンのモニタースクリーンを通してリアルタイム
で会って話せたり、一人で悩んでいたことをオンライン会議システム
を通して共有できたり、ややプラスの体験をされている先生方もいらっしゃると思います。また、社交面で不安のある生徒たちにスクリーンを通して日本語の学習の機会を創出された先生方もいらっしゃ

Shingoるようです。

Satsutani

できるだけ多くの正確な情報をもとにパンデミック収束後の「ニュー札谷新吾

ノーマル」の中での日本語教育について考えていくためにAATJと国際交流基金(LA)が協力し合って数度に渡ってアンケートを実施しています。AATJや国際交流基金からお願いメールが届くと思いますのでご協力のほどを何卒よろしくお願い申し上げます。
いつもは大学の先生方が中心のAATJ春の学会も今年はK-12の先生方にもできるだけ多く参加していただけるよう、工夫を凝らして三日間にわたってオンラインで開催しますので是非ご参加ください。これまでAATJが中心となって実施してきたウェビナーはいつでも閲覧視聴できるようAATJのホームページからアクセスできますのでご利用ください。
JAPANESE NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY やTEACHER AWARDなどは例年通り継続中です。AATJから先生方へ配信されるメールにてその詳細をお知らせいたします。
最後になりましたが、今年2021年はACTFLのJessica Haxhi会長もTeacher of the YEARのElena
Kamenetzky先生も日本語教師であるという最高の年になりました。パンデミック後の日本語プロ
グラムの存続や創設に関してのアドボカシーの観点から見て絶好の機会ではないでしょうか。
AATJとしてお手伝いできることがあるかもしれませんのでsatsutan@cod.eduまでいつでもご連絡ください。
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Meet Elena Kamenetzky, 2021 ACTFL Teacher of the Year
Interview by Ann Jordan, AATJ President

Elena Kamenetzky sensei, of Eastern High School in Louisville, KY is the first ACTFL Teacher of theYear from Kentucky, so the entire Bluegrass State language teaching community joins Japaneseteachers around the country in our excitement! She’s a Macalester College (MN) Asian Studies
grad, a JET alum (Achimura in Nagano-ken), an officer in her local affiliate (KAJLT), and is now theface of language teaching in the United States, representing more than 13,000 language educators.
But while I enjoyed reading about her in newspaper articles, her ACTFL bio, and her video in thegreat JFLA interviews of non-native speaker Japanese teachers, “Sensei! Why Japanese?”, I wanted
to get to know the REAL Kamenetzky sensei! So I recently sat down with her for a great
conversation about everything from the challenges of a non-native speaker Japanese teacher, to
how language learning helps students overcome social anxiety, to why winning ACTFL TOY freaked
her out, and even the Kentucky/Japan bourbon connection. Here’s our conversation.

Ann: First of all, on behalf of AATJ, congratulations on being chosen ACTFL’s Teacher of the Year!
We’re all so proud. How was the selection process different this year because of COVID?
Elena: Thank you so much. One thing that was totally different is that normally in the final step of
the process, you’re required to videotape yourself teaching a whole class period, and submit awritten reflection, but that wasn’t possible this year. All of the other stuff was pretty much thesame: samples of student work with your reflection and how you graded it, what that shows, how
it relates to what you’re teaching. Letters of recommendation (from a fellow teacher, a current orformer student or parent, and an administrator) had to be submitted in May or June. But as for thevideo of myself teaching, there was no way to make one. From March to the end of the year, myschool was completely asynchronous. We did one live class meeting per week, but the district
made it optional. In one of my sections of Japanese 2, I had one student! She came to every single
class, though. This school year, classes are synchronous, but we started too late to submit anything
to ACTFL.
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I found out by stalking, I mean, researching you online, that you actually were studying Spanish inhigh school, and that you signed up for Japanese kind of on a whim with your friend, Megan, in
your junior year, without any specific interest in Japan. What was it about the experiment inJapanese that got you hooked?
I really loved English, and I dreamed for a long time that I was going to be an English teacher. I
thought that was my destiny. But taking Japanese made me realize that what I was really interested
in was linguistics and languages, and I didn’t realize this until I started studying a language that wasso different from my English. The differences were really, really fascinating, and just learning how
this other language worked and all the cool stuff you do in Japanese that you don’t do in English,
and vice versa, really hooked me. And of course, the culture. I was always a nerd. I read Marvel
comics growing up, and then it was a lateral move from there to anime.
Your very first Japanese teacher, Adrianne Sheybani, is still teaching Japanese at Pleasant Valley
High School. This is your 11th year at Eastern High School. Lots of things in education change over
the years, and what we know about how to engage learners evolves, but some things remainpretty fundamental. Are there aspects of your teaching that were effective and engaging for you
as a high school student in Sheybani sensei’s class?
Yes. It was always engaging when we were able to use something authentic, even if we didn’t
understand it completely. Being able to understand even a part of it felt like a personal triumph.
Short videos, anime, manga, whenever we got to use those things, was suuuuuuuuper engaging!
Sheybani sensei must know that you are the ACTFL TOY. Are you in touch with her?

She sent me a nice message, and I
sent her a message back. Actually, weboth take students to Japan over thesummer with Laurasian’s New
Perspectives Japan program, which I
realized a few years ago when I saw
her video testimonial on theirwebsite. So I emailed her and said, “I
don’t know if you remember me, but
I wanted you to know that we’re
doing the same program.”

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You take students to Japan every other year?
We were supposed to go in 2020, but it was canceled, and something that I feel bad about is that I
was so confident, for no reason whatsoever, that the pandemic would be over by now, that I told
the kids, “We’re going to go in 2021!” And then when we were doing online school in the fall, andthings were just not getting better, and there were constant parent questions about whether thetrip would be canceled, about the down payment, and other concerns. I made the decision not to
do a 2021 trip. I felt bad because I had promised the kids, but I learned a lesson. I should notpromise to do things that are out of my control. In 2020 we were supposed to visit a high school in
Osaka that was scheduled to go to Koshien, which was so cool. They were going to have their school
sports day at Koshien! It was such a fantastic opportunity for my students. We’ll just have to wait for2022. Can we PLEASE have the pandemic over by 2022?
Well, you are keeping their motivation and interest up, so those students will have anotheropportunity to go after high school. And you didn’t go to Japan until college. Tell me about thatexperience — what was wonderful, what was challenging?
I was a junior in college. It was a five month program at Nanzan University in Aichi. What I recall as
being wonderful was my host family. They were so welcoming, so excellent, and they helped me somuch. I’m really glad I chose to live with a host family instead of in the dorms. What waschallenging was that we had limited opportunities to interact with the Japanese student body atNanzan. We were in a program specifically for international students because it had to align with theAmerican semester. We had intensive Japanese classes, but the content classes were taught inEnglish, and the international students were kind of separated. I went to a club fair in February,planning to join the tennis club and determined to make Japanese friends. But they practiced forthree hours a day, and I couldn’t do that because the international students were taking really hardclasses, and I had to spend that amount of time doing homework.
There are specific challenges for non-native (Elena) and native-adjacent speaker (Ann) teachers ofJapanese, including self-confidence and others’ perceptions of our legitimacy. Are there somechallenges that you face?
The challenge is that I’m always very aware that I’m a non-native speaker, and since I haven’t lived inJapan for almost eleven years, I know that my proficiency has declined. The Japanese that I use
everyday is classroom Japanese, high school Japanese, so I have to push myself to try to read theMainichi Shinbun every day, listen to something Japanese every day. Winning this award freaked meout because I thought, “Oh my god! What if I have to speak using keigo in front of someone?!”7

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I feel your pain!
Like at the AATJ reception at ACTFL, when you invited me to speak, and I replied to the email withthe script of what I was going to say, and said, “I’m thinking of saying something like this.” Really thereason I wrote it out was because I wanted someone to tell me if my keigo was wrong. You told me
it was fine, and I was relieved. I went back and forth. Kansha….shiteimasu.
Itashimasu….shiteorimasu….Which is better?
Those struggles are real. The flip side of that, though, is that there can also be some benefits tobeing a teacher of Japanese who didn’t grow up speaking the language, especially at the highschool level. What do you think?
I think one of the plusses, in terms of being a teacher, is that I can anticipate where the problem
areas are. I can tell students, “You’re struggling with this. I struggled with this, too.” I can tell what’s
going to be hard for students, and when I tell them they really have to super, super, super memorize
te-form and know it like the back of your hand. It gives a little bit of weight when I say to students,
you NEED to do this even though it’s hard because it’s really necessary as a non-native speaker likeme to put your nose to the grindstone and make kanji flashcards or do a practice diary. I had ajournal that I kept in college, where I wrote down everything that I was struggling with. At one point
I had pages and pages of jidoushi, tadoushi pairs because I just could not keep them straight.
Hajimemasu… hajimarimasu…
You’ve been in their shoes. I’d really like to know more about something that I read in one of thearticles. You credited learning Japanese and Spanish with helping you to improve your social skills
and cope with anxiety issues. Even before the pandemic, our students were struggling with social
anxiety. Now, after more than a year of being isolated from their peers, those issues are muchworse. What is it about learning languages that helped you to deal with your own struggles?
First of all, I had a teacher who required me to participate, but was very encouraging about it. She
didn’t let me run away. Also, in Japanese, learning from the very beginning about things like “watch
your body language” or doing “aizuchi” as being part of conversation skills made talking to people
much easier than I thought it was. Participating in a conversation with my peers on a daily basis withkids in my Japanese class who were completely outside of my social clique also helped. For example,
in math class, you don’t always get that experience where you’re made to talk with someone. Youmight have to do peer work to solve a problem, but you’re not talking about something personal,
you’re talking about the math problem, and not for very long. So it was an experience different fromwhat I had in my other classes, which forced me to become more aware and learn more about how
to interact with other human beings, and about my skills and deficiencies in other areas and how to

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address those. And it forced me to have interactions with students who were outside of my little“friend bubble” and to take social risks.
Do you have any thoughts about how teachers in this current remote environment might replicate
what worked for you as a student in terms of reducing social anxiety?
At the start of this year, our school was adamant that we needed to send a message that this is “realschool” and attendance is not optional, so I was really hard core about not letting in kids if they tried
to show up late. But as the year went on, I realized that I don’t know the reason why students might
not be paying attention or why they’re not here, and I should stop assuming. Who knows whether
the issue is that they overslept or they’re playing video games. It might be because they have ayounger sibling whom they’re trying to help with online school, or their wifi went out. So I decided
it wasn’t my role to police that because I don’t know what’s going on, and I can’t see or control thelearning environment. I started to focus instead on encouraging them as much as possible, and evenwhen a student is totally wrong when I call on them, I just say, “It’s okay...Why don’t you just repeat
after me.” I think I’ve been spoon-feeding kids a lot more than I would normally, but to a certain
extent, that’s just what this year has been. It’s important for them to feel some success.
What is the origin of the Japanese program at Eastern HS?
I don’t know when the program at my school started. At the time I was hired at Eastern, the school
had a JROTC program taught by Col. Schneider, whose wife was the Japanese teacher. They had
been stationed in Japan. I was hired when Mrs. Schneider retired. I was literally walking down thestreet to drop my application off at the Perkins (a local family restaurant), to put my masters degree
to good use waiting tables, when I got the phone call from Jefferson County offering me theJapanese teaching position at Eastern. I had been applying for jobs all over, but kept hearing, “Oh,
we’d love to have a Japanese program, but we can’t hire a new teacher.” I was panicking because
the school year was about to start and I didn’t have a job. The first week of school, I still lived anhour away in Cincinnati and had to wake up at 3AM to get to school on time. There are currently
three teachers of Japanese in my district, which is one of the largest districts in the country.
What is the connection between Louisville and Japanese language? Is it the auto industry?
The auto and bourbon industries. In the 70s and 80s, the bourbon industry was failing in Kentucky,
but at the same time, there was a generation growing up in Japan that didn’t know the war, but was
really hungry for American products. I don’t remember what the first distillery was, but one of theLouisville distilleries made a distribution deal with Suntory. People here were skeptical of being able
to market Kentucky Bourbon to young people in Japan, but Suntory said yes, absolutely. Since then,9

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a lot of Kentucky distilleries have gotten into that market, so you can get great Kentucky bourbon in
Japan pretty easily and cheaply. There’s also bourbon made in Japan, but it doesn’t taste the same,even to someone with a non-sophisticated palate like me. The natural environment that the
ingredients are grown in, just like wine, really matters. We also have a huge Toyota plant in Scott
County and a Mitsubishi plant.
So there was a compelling reason for Japanese to start, and Colonel Schneider, who was alreadyteaching at Eastern, had lived in Japan. I can imagine that it may have started with, “Well...mywife could teach a Japanese class…” and here we are. A lot of programs start in a non-linear way
like that. My last question is about your involvement in KAJLT, where you have been an officer
since 2012. How has involvement in KAJLT been good for you and your program?
For the teacher of the year application, you have to prepare a portfolio about your professional
achievements and leadership, so I talked about my involvement with KAJLT. The one time that I wasable to attend ACTFL was when I received a grant from AATJ to attend the leadership training, which
covered my travel expenses. That was really, really amazing. Being part of KAJLT has made me awareof lots of cool opportunities that I wouldn’t have been aware of otherwise, like the Nengajo Contest,
Japan Bowl, and the Kentucky World Language Association Showcase. It helps me give back to theJapanese learning community in a really meaningful way. And it’s not really for you, it’s for yourstudents. Getting your students involved in things like the Speech Contest, Japan Bowl, Language
Showcase grows your program. But also, it’s job security. It’s what the students tell their parents
about, what they tell other students about, and what you get publicity for in the local paper. It
makes your program look really appealing.
Thank you, Kamenetzky sensei, and best wishes for an amazing year as you embark on your 2021
Teacher of the Year adventure. よろしくお願いします！

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Dr. Yasu-Hiko Tohsaku Receives Lifetime Achievement Award
Junko Mori, Immediate Past President

Starting this year, AATJ implemented a mechanism to solicit nominations for this award from its
members. The selection committee, consisting of three past presidents, Dr. Laurel Rodd (2015Lifetime Achievement Award recipient), Dr. Yoshiko Saito-Abbott, and Dr. Motoko Tabuse, identified
Dr. Yasu-Hiko Tohsaku, Professor at the School of Global Policy and Strategy, University ofCalifornia, San Diego as the recipient of the 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award. We, the current
AATJ officers, also found him to be an epitome of what this award is about, and we are certain thatmany AATJ members share this sentiment.
Tohsaku sensei’s achievements in his career are too many to list in
this short article. He has been the backbone of numerous projects
that have shaped our field today, including the National Standards
for Foreign Language Education Collaborative Project in the 1990s,
the AP Japanese Language and Culture Task Force in the 2000s, and
the Global Articulation Project of Japanese (J-GAP) in the 2010s.
His involvement was also critical in making possible theconsolidation of two national organizations, the Association ofTeachers of Japanese (ATJ) and the National Council of Japanese
Language Teachers (NCJLT), and he subsequently served as one of
two initial Co-Presidents of the newly-formed American
Association of Teachers of Japanese (AATJ). He is currently serving
as the Japanese representative to the Executive Board of the
National Standards (World-Readiness Standards) Collaborative
Project, President of the International Association of ComputerBased Japanese Instruction (CASTEL/J), and a board member of theJapanese Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (JACTFL).
Tohsaku sensei has been a prolific writer as well. His publications include Yookoso!: Invitation toContemporary Japanese and Yookoso!: Continuing with Contemporary Japanese (McGraw-Hill)—
the first Japanese textbook series in the U.S. that targeted functional and communication skills
among JFL learners. Doraemon no Dokodemo Nihongo (co-authored, Shogakukan) was perhaps thefirst to incorporate Japanese pop culture into Japanese language textbooks. He has also written
and edited numerous books for Japanese language educators, including Gakushu no Meyasu[Curriculum Guidelines of Chinese and Korean Instruction in Japanese High Schools] (co-author,
The Japan Forum), Japanese Language Instruction: 77 Tips Series (co-general editor, Kuroshio
Shuppan) and Japanese Language Education x ICT (supervising editor, Hitsuji Shobo). In his 2013
book, NIPPON3.0 no Shohoosen [Prescription for Japan 3.0] (Kodansha), he argues for the active
agency of Japanese learners who use language as a tool for identifying themselves. This idea has
been further developed and explored in his forthcoming co-edited volume, Social Networking
Approach to Japanese Language Teaching: Intersection of Language and Culture in the Digital Age(Routledge).
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The nomination letter writer identified one of Tohsaku sensei’s strengths to be his ability to inspire
teachers by making theories accessible. Indeed, he has given countless lectures worldwide topromote new ideas, provide concrete examples, and encourage teachers to collaborate with eachother to explore these ideas further. We believe that many of the readers of this newsletter have
had a chance to be inspired and energized by his engaging presentations.
We sincerely thank Tohsaku sensei for all that he has done to support and inspire Japanese language
educators. Our association and our field would not be where we are now without Tohsaku-sensei’stireless and inspiring work and mentorship.
The award will be presented to Tohsaku sensei, during the 2021 AATJ Spring Conference. Please join
us at 4:00-4:30 pm (EST) on Friday, March 26, 2021 to celebrate Dr. Tohsaku’s achievements. In
addition, Tohsaku sensei will give us a special presentation at a webinar scheduled on April 17th. The
title of his presentation is “ニューノーマル、ネクストノーマル時代の日本語教育—日本語を教えない日本語教育” [Japanese Language Education in the Next Normal—We won't teachJapanese]. Stay tuned for more details regarding this webinar.

KCJS Virtual Summer 2021 Programs
The Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies is offering two intensive virtual language programs
that cover one year of Japanese in one summer.
Modern Japanese•

Courses offered: second year, third year, and fourth year+•

Small class sizes and tailored curriculum•

Online engagement with Japanese experts and peers

Classical Japanese•

Introduction to Classical Japanese grammar•

Read classical Japanese texts with the aid of a dictionary•

Small class size and select virtual visits

For more information and to apply, please go to uge.columbia.edu.

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Engaging Students Virtually through Online Japanese Club
Kristin Wingate, Japanese Teacher at Cranford High School, New Jersey

Cranford High School’s Japanese Program, established in 2001, is fortunate to have 106 students
enrolled in the high school program and a total of 99 students in both its feeder middle school
programs during the 2020-2021 academic year. The Japanese Club offered at Cranford High has
been a staple extracurricular for many students, featuring not only cultural activities, further
exploration of Japanese history, and an end-of-year luncheon/Senior Send-off, but also annual
community-wide events such as bunkasai, sushi workshops, taiko drum demonstrations, and more.
During the pandemic, all extracurricular activities at Cranford have been virtual. Although at first
this may be disappointing, I think in turn it’s working out surprisingly well to give students better
access to attend. Club meetings take place after office hours, so students no longer have to divide
their time between seeing a faculty member for extra help or attending a club meeting forsocialization and enjoyment. From September until December, I found that students were actively
asking me when the next club meetings
were, sending apologetic emails formissing club, and were virtually lining up
at the door for me to open up the Google
Meet the minute our meeting was tostart.
Throughout my time at Cranford High School advising Japanese Club, I can easily tell that students
find a special home here with their friends and peers. It’s a place where they can truly bethemselves, express their thoughts, and bond with their friends over common interests. Our virtual
club environment is no different.
I think one of the biggest selling points this year was an idea from our current club president, Ethan
Parish, senior at CHS. Back in the fall, he had the idea to have “flash presentations”, which are shortpresentations given by members who volunteer to talk about their interests related to Japaneseculture. We always reiterate that club should be purely fun, not stressful, so students who want topresent are welcome to, but anyone who wants to just listen is free to, as well. Through our seriesof flash presentations, club members can connect with each other through their common interestsand passions. Those have been the majority of our meeting agendas, but other meetings havefeatured Japanese holiday/cultural discussions led by both myself and students. We’ve had themed
meetings such as Japanese Christmas and for Halloween we had students present on youkai, which
many students are deeply interested in.

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Our Japanese Club meets twice a month, averaging about 26 students per meeting consistently. 30
students recently completed an anonymous survey, first asking if they were currently a student ofJapanese, a student taking a different foreign language, or not currently taking a language class.
Students currently enrolled in Japanese:

Students enrolled in another foreign language:

You can view more student feedback from current students of Japanese here.
If you think it’s too late to start up your virtual Japanese Club, it’s not! It’s a great way to have yourstudents connect with one another, get to know you outside of your classes, and further advocate
for your Japanese Program in your school community. I thought for Japanese Club at Cranford HighSchool, going virtual would be a bust, but it turned out to be even more far-reaching and effective
than our average in-person club.

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Are your students the next Cheng & Tsui Karaoke Superstars?
Chinese and Japanese language
students are invited to film andsubmit a karaoke music video.
Our panel of judges will select five
finalists. The winners are determinedby an online vote, so family, friends,
and classmates can take part, too.
This year, students have theopportunity to use their language
skills for a cause: the top three
karaoke superstars will earn prizes
to benefit their classes and local
communities.
More details at:cheng-tsui.com/karaoke

IMPORTANT DATES
2/23: Video submission opens
4/15: Video submission deadline
4/22: Finalists announced
4/22-4/28: Public voting
4/30: Winners announced
PRIZES
1st Place: $500 gift certificate
2nd Place: $300 gift certificate
3rd Place: $200 gift certificate
Prizes go to the winners’ language
classes. If preferred, Cheng &Tsui will make an equivalent cash
donation to a local food pantry.

www.cheng-tsui.com
1.800.554.1963 | inquiries@cheng-tsui.com
25 West Street, Boston, MA 02111 USA

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The JNHS Induction Ceremony: Celebrating Community andSharing Our Dreams
Carla Swick, Japanese Teacher at Palmer High School, Alaska

The purpose of The Japanese National Honor Society (JNHS) is to “recognize and encourage
scholastic achievement and excellence in Japanese study, to unite teachers and administrators indeveloping and maintaining high standards of Japanese language education, and to promotealtruistic conduct through various activities.” Students must be in the first term of their second
year of Japanese with a 3.0 overall G.P.A. and a 3.5 G.P.A. in Japanese to be eligible for recognition.

In pre-Covid times, our JNHS Induction Ceremony has always been a formal in-person event. It is an
opportunity to honor our Japanese language students with families, administrators, andcommunity members present. The evening begins with words of welcome from our principal and acandle ceremony that includes a representative from each world language at our school andnational honor society. I invite the consul from the Consular Office of Japan in Anchorage to give anaddress and help present the certificates. If we have any Japanese exchange students at our schoolthat year, I invite them to give a reflective speech on their year as a Palmer Moose. My goal is to
give everyone a voice and a chance to share their story. After a few speeches and introductions, we
say “Itadakimasu”, then share a potluck dinner together.
My favorite part of the ceremony is the inductees’ Daruma speeches. The Daruma doll is a symbolof the Japanese proverb: Nana-korobi ya-oki or Fall down seven times, get up eight, which means:never give up trying! The Daruma dolls are made so that they will right themselves whenever they
are tipped over, which symbolizes patience and perseverance, even when times are tough. I wantto encourage lifelong learning and goal setting in my classes, so the Daruma speech is a way forstudents to formally state their dream. My students create and design their own Daruma out of
paper mâché in class and then write a speech in Japanese. The speech includes a self-introduction,
the value of studying Japanese, and their personal Daruma goal. Each student comes up witheither a short-term or long-term goal. It does not have to be Japanese-related, but it needs to be
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important to the student. At the ceremony, JNHS inductees
give their speech in Japanese and English, and then paintin one eye of their Daruma to symbolize their goal. Whenthey realize their dream or goal, they will paint in the othereye. I have had students contact me years later to let meknow they reached their goal. One student, Josh, wanted
to graduate from business school and become a pastor.
Another student, Jeremy, wanted to become the fastest
sprinter on our high school track team before hegraduated. And Sophia wanted to become an exchange
student and study a year in Japan. All of them met theirgoals.
Throughout the year, I try to create opportunities for our
JNHS members to take on the role of ambassador or leader
and get involved outside the classroom. When our sistercity delegation visits from Saroma, Japan our members
support their activities and help with hosting. Members have been guest speakers for local
elementary schools’ Internet Safety Night and officials for the district kids’ track meet. As guest
sensei, members help run the charter’s school annual Japan Day and are often cultural/language
presenters in Palmer’s elementary and middle schools. I loveseeing my students step outside their comfort zones andbecome more confident as they share their own love of
language and culture with others.
In March of 2020, like many schools around the nation, wewere forced to teach remote for the remainder of the school
year. We were unable to hold our traditional face-to-faceceremony, so instead we honored our JNHS students with ahome delivery of their certificate, cords, and a special
handmade kanji painting of their name. This spring we will
return to our JNHS
Induction Ceremony
either Covid-mitigated or
virtual. Like the Daruma,
we will #ganbariMASUKU
and adapt to new times.

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Japanese National Honor Society Chapter Spotlight
Holly Didi-Ogren, The College of New Jersey

The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) is a public, state institution located in central New Jersey with anundergraduate student population of approximately 6500. The College is comprised of sevenschools, and has a strong liberal arts core in addition to a handful of professional programs. The
college also enrolls about 600 graduate students.
The Japanese Program at TCNJ is housed in the Department of World Languages and Cultures, and
we enroll an average of 50 students per semester in our Japanese language courses. Since I joined
TCNJ as the Japanese Program Director in 2006, I have worked alongside an adjunct as the only fulltime faculty member in the program.
Students interested in taking Japanese at TCNJ may do so to fulfill Liberal Learning (general
education) requirements, to complete a minor, or to complete a Japanese language specializationin the World Languages and Linguistics major that went into effect in 2018. Connecting Japanese toa major has been a crucial way of recruiting and retaining students in Japanese language courses,
and we look forward to continuing to recognize eligible students in our program – including majors– through induction into the Japanese National Honor Society.
We have had a JNHS chapter at TCNJ every year since 2015. Per requirements for JNHS induction at
a 4-year institution of higher education such as ours, students are inducted into the JNHS thesemester they graduate, and induction is a way of recognizing the academic achievements of ourstudents. While students who have completed a Japanese minor and – more recently – the World
Languages and Linguistics major with a specialization in Japanese typically comprise the pool of
inductees, JNHS also offers an opportunity for recognition to students who are unable to completea minor (or major) in Japanese. We usually hold an induction ceremony in late April or early May.
Family and friends are invited, and we usually have 15-20 people in attendance in addition to the
inductees who typically number 4-6. We ask each inductee to prepare brief (1-2 minute) remarks inJapanese on what they’ve gained from studying Japanese and their future plans, we pass out thecertificates and the honor cords, everyone in attendance sings a short song in celebration of theinductees’ achievements, and we then have a reception. Those coming to support the inductees
are given a program with the names of the inductees, English translations of the inductees’
remarks, and words to the song we do together to celebrate. Students in Japanese language
classes are encouraged to attend the ceremony by way of a few extra credit points for their current
language course, and we extend invitations to on-campus student clubs connected to Japan.

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The ceremony is an important occasion not only for recognizing the academic achievements of theinductees, but also for helping newer students to see Japan-connected pathways both during theirtime in college and beyond. It is also an opportunity to reconnect with students who may not havetaken a language class for a year or more, as some of the inductees complete the required fivesemesters of language study by fall of their junior year. The ceremony is also an important chance toadvocate for Japanese language study on our campus, as audience member include students withan interest in Japan who are not currently enrolled in Japanese language courses.

Recognize Your Students’ Achievements with JNHSThe Japanese National Honor Society recognizes and encourages achievement and excellence inthe study of the Japanese language. The American Association of Teachers of Japanese (AATJ) is
pleased to assist teachers with a way to recognize their outstanding students, to encourage themto continue in the study of Japanese, and to promote activities that give students ways to use theirlanguage skills. Students inducted into JNHS receive certificates and also are able to order red-andwhite cords to be worn at graduation ceremonies.
Nominate your students for induction into the Japanese National Honor Society.
Requirements for membership and procedures for forming JNHS chapters and nominating students
can be found on the following pages, as well as lists of the students most recently inducted into the
JNHS:
Information for high school teachers: https://www.aatj.org/jnhs-pcc
Information for post-secondary teachers: https://www.aatj.org/jnhs-cc
During the pandemic, which has presented difficulties for teachers in making payments for JNHS
chapters, it is possible for students to pay their own induction fees via the AATJ website. Pleaseinquire about this, and any other matters, by writing to Maiko Bacha at jnhs@aatj.org.

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Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion Interim Report
Suwako Watanabe, AATJ Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion Chair

As reported in the AATJ Newsletter Volume 9, No. 3, a call for nominations of individuals to serveon the Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion Issues was sent out in the summer of 2020. In order toensure diverse and inclusive representation, The AATJ Executive Officers took many factors into
consideration in naming members to the task force, including educational setting, language
background, ethnicity, and region, and we are deeply appreciative of their thoughtfulness. The
following AATJ members were appointed as members of the task force:
Clayton Frederick (Everett Alvarez High School, CA)
Janet Ikeda (Washington and Lee University, VA)
Hiroaki Kawamura (University of Findlay, OH)
Laura Moy (Eastview High School, MN)
Kimiko Suzuki (Haverford College, PA)
Jae Takeuchi (Clemson University, SC)
Suwako Watanabe (Portland State University, OR), Chair
Marcus Williams (New Heights Academy Charter School, NY)In early December 2020, the Executive Officers met with the task force members virtually to
explain the group’s charge: “To explore ways to improve AATJ’s current practices with the goal ofenhancing its capacity to address issues concerning diversity and inclusion within the association/
profession, in the classroom, and in the society in general.” After this initial meeting, the task force
members decided to read key articles in the special edition of the AATJ’s journal Japanese
Language and Literature, Vol. 54 No.2. by its first meeting on December 22, 2020.
At the meeting, we first got ourselves familiar with AATJ’s organizational structure, governance,
activities, and programs. During two subsequent meetings, we reviewed the mission statement andthe purposes of the association in the Bylaws to identify elements that are not aligned with thecurrent needs of our profession and field to address diversity and inclusion. We also brainstormed
on current activities that are not effectively enhancing diversity and inclusion and how or why they
are not effective.
After our three meetings, we started to see our direction for recommendations as follows:
1. Core Values: We strongly feel that as a professional organization AATJ should be committed toholding diversity, inclusion, and equity as its core values. This should lead to offering training andworkshops addressing diversity and inclusion as regular professional development.
2. Membership Database: AATJ needs to have a more comprehensive grasp of the profiles of its
membership in terms of various aspects beyond basic demographic information such as language
background, discipline or subject, and institutional setting.

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3. The Bylaws: The current purposes in the bylaws should be updated to align with the current
status of the field, where the profiles of both teachers and learners have changed drastically sincethe 1960s as well as the 1990s, and they should be revised after close examination of theassociation’s goals to include a vision for societal impact and sustainability of our profession.
Redefining the goals of an association should have a major impact on its membership, and we hopethat AATJ ensures a mechanism in the revision process to reflect views of as many members as
possible.
4. Intersectional Exchange and Collaboration: While we recognize that collaborative work between
K-12 and college and between disciplines has been taking place, we feel that AATJ could do more tofoster such collaboration and exchange of ideas among members with diverse backgrounds.
Of course, we are not limited to these four points, and there are many other ideas and issues suchas diversified learner profiles, diversity in teaching materials, research on diversity and inclusion,and the decline of teacher capacity. We hope that our work will eventually lead to enhancement ofservices that AATJ provides to its members and help advance the field of Japanese language
education, including pedagogy, linguistics, literature, and culture.

AATJ Webinar News
Yoshiko Saito-Abbott, AATJ Professional Development Director

The series of webinars organized by AATJ and supported by the Japan Foundation-Los Angeles(JFLA) continues in the New Year. The first AATJ/JFLA webinar in the 2021 series took place on
January 16: ”Advocating for proficiency-oriented Japanese language learning through the National
Japanese Exam” with Tomomi Sato, Miyuki Johnson, Junko Tokuda Simpson, and Yasu-Hiko
Tohsaku. The presenters discussed how teachers can use the National Japanese Exam to celebrate
their students’ listening and reading performance, to reflect on their own teaching, and toadvocate for their Japanese programs and motivate their students’ language learning.
On February 16 AATJ co-hosted a webinar with ACTFL, featuring Jessica Haxhi, ACTFL 2021
President, and Elena Kamenetsky, ACTFL 2021 National Language Teacher of the Year. Their topic
was “Engaging Our Learners: Lessons Learned While Teaching Japanese.” Almost 1,000 teachers
from all world languages registered in advance for this webinar!
A second AATJ/JFLA webinar was offered on March 6: “New York Tough: Working Together for
Creating Online Teaching Materials”; the presenters were teachers at City University of New York(CUNY) campuses: Asako Tochika, Kazuko Saito, Maayan Barkan, Shige (CJ) Suzuki, and Tomonori
Nagano.

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On April 17, Yasu-Hiko Tohsaku, the recipient of the 2021 AATJ Lifetime Achievement Award, will
speak on “Japanese Language Education in the Next Normal - We Won't Teach Japanese”.
Webinar information (including recordings of past sessions and links to register for upcoming
webinars) can be found online at https://www.aatj.org/teaching-resources
AATJ plans to continue to deliver webinars that meet members’ needs, so please feel free to contact
us and suggest topics in which you would like to participate.

Bridging Scholarships Available for Fall 2021 Study
The United States-Japan Bridging Foundation funds scholarships through AATJ to help students
study abroad in Japan.
The Bridging Project is accepting applications from American students who will participate in studyabroad programs in Japan beginning Fall 2021. The deadline for receipt of applicatons is April 16,
2021.
Funding from private foundations, corporations, and individuals has made it possible to award
scholarships for travel and living expenses while studying abroad in Japan beginning in AugustOctober of 2021. Undergraduate students majoring in any field of study are eligible to apply forthese scholarships. Prior Japanese language study is not required. Applicants must be U.S. citizens
and must be enrolled as undergraduates in a college or university in the U.S. Their terms of study inJapan should be at least three months long. Bridging Scholarship recipients will receive a stipend of$2,500 (for students on single-semester programs), or either $4,000 or $4,500 (for students on fullyear programs).
The Bridging Scholarship application form is available online or as a Word form document that canbe filled out, printed, and mailed with other application materials. Go to http://www.aatj.org/
studyabroad/japan-bridging-scholarships for a link to the online application and to the paper form.
The results of the selecton will be announced in mid July. Selecton is made by a committee and isbased on academic potential and financial need. Scholarship recipients will be expected toparticipate in an orientation program via Zoom prior to departure and send a brief report about
their study in Japan to the AATJ ofce within 90 days of returning from abroad.
Bridging Scholarships will only be awarded if/when study abroad in Japan resumes. The program issubject to change depending on local and international conditions due to COVID. Students awarded
grants for Fall 2021 departures who are unable to study abroad due to COVID-related cancellations
may be able to defer to the Spring 2022 semester, pending approval from the Bridging Foundation
Board. In such cases, academic-year grants will convert to one-semester grants.
For more information about the Bridging Foundation, please visit www.bridgingfoundation.org.
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2021 AATJ “Year of the Ox” Nengajo Contest Results
Cameron Chien, AATJ Nengajo Contest Director

Congratulations and thank you to all participants in the 2021 AATJ Nengajo Contest! It was a joy toview all of your amazing students’ work and the creativity imbued in each card. We sincerely hopethat this contest has had a positive impact in helping you further
spread the joy of Japanese culture and advocate for yourprogram.
We had 472 cards
submitted by 66 teachers
from schools nationwide
this challenging year. The
winning cards werechosen by blindanonymous judging, with
ACTFL 2021 Teacher of
the Year Elena
Kamenetzky sensei, AATJ President Ann Jordan sensei, andincoming AATJ Nengajo Contest Director Andy Scott sensei serving
as judges. I have confidence that the winning cards represent
each category very well.
All of the winners received an award certificate and an Amazon
gift card ($25 for firstplace, $20 for second
place, and $15 for third
place) for theiraccomplishments. Somestudents received an
Honorable Mention,
which means their card
was one of the finalists,
and all participantsreceived certificates ofparticipation.
Once again, thank you very much for your interest and participation in the 2021 AATJ Nengajo
Contest: Year of the Ox! We eagerly look forward to your students’ creative work in next year’s
Contest: Year of the Tiger! If you have questions or concerns, please contact Cameron Chien atcameron.chien@gmail.com. The winning cards’ images are on display in slide show format on the
AATJ website: www.aatj.org.

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2021 AATJ Annual Spring Conference
The 2021 Annual Spring Conference will be held VIRTUALLY between Thursday, March 25, andSaturday, March 27, 2021. The event will take place with live online sessions via Zoom, in theafternoons and evenings of the conference days. In addition to a special keynote presentation, theconference will feature panel sessions and individual paper presentation sessions on topics
including assessment, materials development, language and technology, curriculum and course
design, linguistics, second language acquisition, and literature.
RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS, LIVE AND RECORDED FOR LATER VIEWING
Live research presentation sessions (8 panels and 31 individual papers) will take place between
4:30 and 9:00 PM Eastern US time on Thursday, March 26, and Friday, March 27, at the times listed
in the schedule. The presentations will also be recorded and available for later viewing by those
who have registered for the conference. Registrants will be sent passwords for logging in during thelive conference and for viewing recordings afterwards.
The conference program and schedule can be accessed in interactive and downloadable PDF
format on AATJ’s website at https://www.aatj.org/conferences-spring, and a list of presentations is
printed here beginning on p. 26.
REGISTRATION IS OPEN UNTIL MARCH 20
Conference registration opened on February 15, 2021. Registration rates are as follows:
AATJ Members - College Level: $50
AATJ Members - K-12 Level: $30
AATJ Members - Students: $20
We hope that many K-12 teachers – who often have difficulty attending the in-person Spring
Conference – will be interested in attending and/or viewing the conference this year in its online
format.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER FOR THE 2021 SPRING CONFERENCE
The 2021 conference keynote speaker will be Oriza Hirata (平田オリザ), one of the key figures in
the contemporary theater scene in Japan; he will deliver his talk, entitled 「対話の時代の日本語教育」[Japanese Language Education in the Era of “Dialogue”], online from Japan.

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Playwright, director, leader of Seinendan, artistic director of Komaba Agora Theater and artistic
director of Kinosaki International Arts Center, Oriza Hirata is one of the key figures in thecontemporary theater scene in Japan. He has received many awards, including the 39th Kishida
Kunio Drama Award with "Tokyo Note (Tokyo Notes)" in 1995. In 1998, he received the 5th Yomiuri
Theater Award for Outstanding Director, for his production of "Tsuki no Misaki (The Cape of theMoon)," a play written by Masataka Matsuda. Hirata wrote and directed "Ueno Dobutsuen Sai-saisai Shugeki (Attacking Ueno Zoo for the Fourth Time)" in 2002 and won the 9th Yomiuri TheaterAward for Outstanding Production.
Currently, in addition to holding positions as Research Professor at Osaka University; Tokyo
University of the Arts; and Professional and Vocational University of International Tourism and Art
Management, Mr. Hirata is directing his efforts into delivering workshops around Japan on the useof drama as an approach for supporting communicative education.

36th Annual SEATJ Conference Held Virtually
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 36th Southeastern Association of Teachers of Japanese
Conference was held virtually at North Carolina State University on Saturday, February 27, 2021.
We welcomed 84 participants, including 40 presenters and co-presenters from not only theSoutheast but from other parts of the U.S. (22 states), Japan, and even the Netherlands.
The theme of the conference was “Preparing students for self-directed learning beyond theJapanese program”. We had 30 excellent presentations related to the theme. Dr. Yuri Kumagai,
Senior Lecturer at Smith College, as this year's keynote speaker gave her speech “ What
Language Education Can Do "Now": Nurturing students' autonomy and criticality” 「『今』の時代に求められることばの教育：学習者の自律性と批判性を培うために」.

SEATJ is pleased to announce that the 2021 SEATJ Teacher of the Year was awarded to Dr. Kathy
Negrelli, Associate Professor of Japanese at Kennesaw State University.
SEATJ also recognized outgoing officer Dr. Hironori Nishi (University of Memphis).

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AATJ 2021 VIRTUAL SPRING CONFERENCE
Research Presentations
Friday, March 26 – Saturday, March 27, 2021
Papers whose titles appear in Japanese in the program will be delivered inJapanese; those with only English titles will be delivered in English

ALL TIMES ARE EASTERN US
Friday, March 26, Afternoon Session – 4:30-6:25

SESSION 1-A: PEDAGOGY PANEL: CURRICULUM/COURSE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION
Chair: Yasu-Hiko Tohsaku, University of California, San Diego

Panel Title: 2 $".XR\X1.?<EABF 9_7PTg}e|)USVM^H(Japanese Language
Education for Creating Global Citizens: Connecting with Glocal Society through the Achievement of SDGs)
2

K A I (Expanding students’ horizons: Sustainable
Development Goals as a backbone theme in the Japanese classroom)
Minori Inada, University of California, San Diego

2

O
A
O
1
AI
TO
s
(Student-centered collaborative learning for realizing a peaceful world: Messages for peace through creating a
website)Junko Tokuda Simpson, University of California, San Diego

2-

O
O
:
V
KO
(Community service byhigh school students to achieve the SDGs: Connection with the community through volunteering)
Rie Tsuboi, San Dieguito High School Academy

2Hyperdoc
G
-SDGs
TO
achieving SDGs)
Yasu-Hiko Tohsaku, University of California, San Diego(Hyperdocs for online inquiry-based learning: ForSESSION 1-B: PEDAGOGY PANEL: CURRICULUM/COURSE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION
Chair: Asako Hayashi-Takakura, University of California, Los Angeles
Panel Title: 2,-L]f{dbl[X8?<rxsu|Xt}jcfo
Learners To “Authors “ Through Original Creative Writing),=D@C<(Journey From2   L ]  & W : Z  P R I  Q ^   1 J t } j c f o  ,  D@C>< X  5world: Report on Project Based Learning (PBL) activities)
Asako Hayashi-Takakura, University of California, Los Angeles < (From the classroom to the“Group story creation opens a gateway to Japanese studies”
Lisa Steward, University of California, Los Angeles; Lisa Guiotoko, Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University“From buyer to builder: Leveraging language instruction and library expertise to bridge resource gaps through thecreation of Japanese works”
Tomoko Bialock, University of California, Los Angeles
Discussant
Asako Hayashi-Takakura, University of California, Los Angeles

SESSION 1-C: LINGUISTICS PAPERS

Chair: Yoshiko Mori, Georgetown University
A
I
Linguistic microaggressions and L2-Japanese speaker legitimacy”
Jae DiBello Takeuchi, Clemson University“Utterance-final tteyuu as a discourse-pragmatic connective in conversation and storytelling”
Michiko Kaneyasu, Old Dominion University

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2<G#1WKN^%*hpikmvH<(Code system of quotation marks in present-day Japanese)
Hidemi Riggs, University of California, Irvine”Recipients’ behaviors in storytelling by native speakers and learners of Japanese”
Megumi Iida, University of Arizona

SESSION 1-D: PEDAGOGY AND SIG PAPERS
Chair: Mieko Kawai, University of Virginia
Japanese for Specific Purposes SIG:
2OO
AI (How to better prepare students
for their future careers: Toward the development of "Japanese for professional communication”)
Wakana Maekawa, Masami Ikeda, and Takako Aikawa, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

 Study Abroad SIG:
“More than study abroad: Evolution of internships abroad from goodwill volunteering to sustainable internships inJapan”
Nobuko Koyama, University of California, Davis
Pedagogy: Curriculum/Course Design and Implementation:
2(Virtual inter-university experiential study abroad program)
Yuki Waugh, Texas A&M University; Naoko Ozaki, Rice University; Hajime Kumahata, Baylor University

Pedagogy: Materials Development:
2TOO(An examination of issues concerning support for Japanese learners with learning disabilities (LD) after thetransition to remote instruction under Covid-19
Yumiko Matsunaga, University of Colorado, Boulder

Friday, March 26, Evening Session – 7:20 – 9:15

SESSION 2-A: PEDAGOGY PANEL: CURRICULUM/COURSE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION
Chair: Noriko Hanabusa, University of Notre Dame
Panel Title:2
O
Autonomy from Diversified Perspectives)

O(The Power of Tadoku: Possibilities for Nurturing(Basic principles and practices of tadoku leading to2Oautonomous learning)
Makiko Awano, NPO Tagengo Tadoku

R

2O
tadoku: Allowing learners to read freely)
Tomoko Katayama, Tokyo University; Nanae Sakuta, Tsuda University(Fostering readers’ autonomy throughG  , - X 0  ( V  2   !  2 + ; - [ X 6 4 3  L ] H (Autonomous tadoku? Findings from learnerinterviews)
Wataru Takahashi, Kanda University of International StudiesG  2 L ]  , - ' X  h  k [   , - d  j c ~ i  X .  H < (Cultivating learner agency: From tadoku to
student-proposed course)<
Noriko Hanabusa, University of Notre Dame

SESSION 2-B: PEDAGOGY PANEL: LANGUAGE AND TECHNOLOGY
Chair: Midori Ishida, San Jose State University
Panel Title: 2O
OK(COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) Between Japan and the US in Japanese Language Education:
Implementation and Prospects)
2

A(Implementing COIL in JapaneseO(Designing a COIL program for developing

language teaching and learning)
Keiko Ikeda, Kansai University
2Ointercultural competence)
Midori Ishida, San Jose State University

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3

2

:
O
:
O
(Modest and careful co-leadership in COIL: Exploring a successful task-based multi-party
conversation from Interactional Sociolinguistics)
Yasue Kodama Yanai, San Jose State University

2 COIL()
OK:O
A I (Lingua franca intransforming COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning): Two cases of Japan-US collaborations)Nobuko Chikamatsu, DePaul University

SESSION 2-C: SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION / PEDAGOGY: ASSESSMENT PAPERS
Chair: Yoshiko Mori, Georgetown University”Adult Japanese-language learners’ choice of point-of-view and their storytelling styles”
Masahiko Minami, San Francisco State University; Hiroko Sugawara, University of California, Santa Barbara“Unlearning the redundant particle no in Japanese relative clauses”
Yunchuan Chen, Duke University
2

K: (Incidental
vocabulary acquisition through graded readers: How many words can one incidentally learn through available
Japanese graded readers?)
Mamoru Hatakeyama, University of Victoria

2

LO
TO
AI
:
corrective feedback: A case study of learners of Japanese as a foreign language)
Jun Takahashi, University of Nevada, Reno

(Engagement with written

SESSION 2-D: JAPANESE AS A HERITAGE LANGUAGE SIG / PEDAGOGY: LANGUAGE AND CULTURE PAPERS
Chair: Fumiko Nazikian, Columbia University(Remote learning: Attempts and challenges at the2

O
Japanese Academy of the Rockies)
Hisako Schibli, University of Colorado, Boulder

K

2

)
G
(Additivebilingual Japanese heritage language students at hosyuko (K-12) : A case study from socio-psychologicalperspectives)
Hitomi Oketani and Kyoko Kawase, Eastern Michigan University

2

OK
S
O
:
s
to perceive culture: With an intercultural project Cultura)
Masako Douglas, California State University, Long Beach

2

C
model of intercultural competence in an online course)
Noriko Fujioka-Ito, University of Cincinnati

CulturaGIO(JHL instruction to learn how(Tasks using the process

Saturday, March 27, Afternoon Session – 4:30 – 6:25

SESSION 3-A: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SIG PANEL
Chair: Hiromi Miyagi-Lusthaus, Boston University
Panel Title:2
Japanese Language Education)
2

K
O(How to Approach Social Justice Topics in(Social justice in the Japanese language

classroom: Why it matters)
Yoshihiro Mochizuki, University of Michigan
2

O O
K
O :
explore diversity in Japan: What an L1 teacher learned from L2 and heritage speaker TAs)
Noriko Sugimori, Kalamazoo College

2

O
2
O
AI
zainichi children’s literature for an intermediate Japanese language course)
Naemi McPherson, Brown University

2

AI(Teaching social justice through manga}
Hiromi Miyagi-Lusthaus, Boston University

K(Activities toK(Using28

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SESSION 3-B: PEDAGOGY PAPERS: LANGUAGE AND TECHNOLOGY; MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
Chair: Mieko Kawai, University of Virginia(Applications of immersive virtual reality in Japanese)

2

O
O
Kazumi Hatasa, Duke University

2

VoiceThread
O
OK(Enhancing learners’ output using the multifunctional app “VoiceThread”: What is necessary to makeasynchronous classes interactive?)
Yuki Yoshimura, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

2

A
L
: :
O A
(How to make the most of rapid
development of one-to-one technology environment: New implementation model at elementary levels)
Yoshiro Hanai and Shoko Emori, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh

SESSION 3-C: PEDAGOGY PAPERS: CURRICULUM/COURSE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION
Chair: Fumiko Nazikian, Columbia Universitys] (Online collaborative video translation project for A-

2

O
bomb testimony)
Kazumi Matsumoto, Ball State University

2

O
:
K
O
: O
(Comparing face to face instruction and remote learning through data analysis of the 4 language skills: A reportfrom a summer intensive program)
Yumiko Tashiro, Kenyon College; Erika Hirano, Pennsylvania State University; Mayumi Hirano, University of Nevada,
Las Vegas; Brian Hagihara (Thompson), University of South Florida

2

O
KDO
during remote learning)
Tomoko Shibata, Princeton University

2

O(Enhancing “student voice” in virtual learning)
Naofumi Tatsumi, Shigeru Eguchi, and Miharu Nittono, Columbia University(Efficacy of autonomous learning of Japanese pronunciation

SESSION 3-D: CLASSICAL JAPANESE SIG / PEDAGOGY: MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT PAPERS
Chair: Yoshiko Mori, Georgetown University“Waka as a standard of language use”
Paul Warnick, Brigham Young University“Kyogoku School poetics and the meaning of poetic ‘enlightenment’”
Caroline Wake, University of Northern Colorado“Steps towards the indigenization of the curriculum: Introducing Ainu culture and history into the Japanese
language classroom”
Nina Langton, University of Britich Columbia, Okanagon“Using negative exemplars in kanji homework and assessments to deepen orthographic awareness: Effects andreflections ”
Ryan Lidster, Marshall University; Chisato Kojima, Illinois Wesleyan University

Saturday, March 27, Evening Session - 7:20 – 9:15

SESSION 4-A: PEDAGOGY PANEL: CURRICULUM/COURSE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION
Chair: Shinsuke Tsuchiya, Brigham Young University
Panel Title: <The Performed Culture Approach: Rehearsing for Improv (T):

Active analysis in immersive classrooms: A student perspective on acting and ‘performing Japanese culture’ “
Christopher J Staley, University of Pittsburgh

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Culture talks: Preparing learners for open-ended tasks and improvisation in remote instruction”
Karen Curtin, Portland State University“Tryout: Narrative improvisations for intermediate-level Japanese learners”
Kumiko Takizawa and Shunichi Maruyama, The Ohio State University
 “Connect NOW! Creating social purposes for interpersonal and presentational modes of written communication”
Shinsuke Tsuchiya and Steven Leach, Brigham Young University

SESSION 4-B: LITERATURE PANEL

Chair: Malgorzata Citko, University of Texas, Austin
Panel Title: When Warriors Ruled Japan: Dynamics of Power and Symbolic Authority in the Medieval Era“Women and salvation in medieval Japan: Gender approaches to the Tale of Heike
Saeko Kimura, Tsuda University“Disorder in the court! Taiheiki and the violent world of Japanese war chronicles”
Jeremy Sather, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University“Imperial collections of Japanese poetry are not compiled for shoguns: ‘New continued collection of ancient andmodern times’
Malgorzata Karolina Citko, University of Texas, Austin

SESSION 4-C: PEDAGOGY PANEL: LANGUAGE, CULTURE, AND IDENTITY
Chair: Momoyo Shimazu, Kansai University
Panel Title: 2
K O
in Language Education in the Age of COVID-19)(Rethinking the Notion of “Connection”

2(Activating “symbolic self” in the Japanese classroom)

22

K
Yuko Takahashi, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

2

:
O
I2
O
building “connections” in telecollaborative spaces)
Yuri Kumagai, Smith College; Momoyo Shimazu, Kansai University:(Students’ negotiation forG o z ~ j i y q | V   X O U Y X  . X  /   O U Y U ` b n ~ m a m a X d ~ l ~ g | w ~ o H < (The promiseof language education in transitional times: Entangling and untangling language and identity)
Emi Otsuji, University of Technology Sydney; Makiko Matsuda, Kanazawa University
DiscussantNeriko Musha Doerr, Ramapo College

SESSION 4-D: PEDAGOGY PAPERS: CURRICULUM/COURSE DESIGN AND MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT
Chair: Fumiko Nazikian, Columbia University
2

O
pedagogy: Curriculum design for intermediate Japanese)
Kyoko Matsui Loetscher, Columbia University

2

OG
facilitate thinking from multiple perspectives)
Yoshiko Mori, Georgetown University(Implementing multiliteracies(Multiple reading instructions toTeaching the benefactive with concept-based language instruction (C-BLI) and SCOBAs: Moving from concepts
toward proficiency”
Amy Ohta, University of Washington; Kyoko Masuda, Georgia Institute of Technology“Teaching of storytelling in the Japanese-as-a-foreign-language classroom”
Chikako Takehara, Harvard University

Thursday, March 25
Keynote Session: 7:00 – 8:45 PM

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AATJ-Sponsored Sessions at the Association for Asian Studies Virtual
Conference
Tuesday, March 23, 12:00 – 1:30 PM

Beyond Content-Based Instruction: Japanese Language Collaborations with JapaneseStudies to Optimize LearningThis panel is part of the Association for Asian Studies program and requires registration for the AAS conference.
Chair: Anna Zielinska-Elliott (Boston University)
Panelists:
Nobuko Chikamatsu (DePaul University)
Hideki Hara (Japan Foundation)
Danielle Rocheleau Salaz (University of Colorado)Emi Yamanaka (Boston University)

Thursday, March 25, 6:00 PM
Classical Japanese SIG Roundtable and Meeting
Speakers: Professor Hashimoto Yuta, National Museum of Japanese History
Dr. Laura Moretti, University of Cambridge
Zoom link:
https://byu.zoom.us/j/95533110897?pwd=R0pqQzlhYVc3Tk5VTUxaVnBWNGpFZz09
Meeting ID: 955 3311 0897
Passcode: 187103

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