Professional Development News

The first issue of ATJ's new e-newsletter on professional development was published on August 1 and also reproduced as an eight-page supplement in the current issue of the Newsletter. Future issues of the News will appear quarterly. It will deal with K-16 Japanese language teaching and language pedagogy and include teaching tips, techniques for making make classes more effective and fun, suggestions on developing and and using materials, discussions on curricular and pedagogical issues, recommendations of useful web resources for Japanese language teachers, and other topics of interest. If you are interested in subscribing, please send an e-mail message to the ATJ office at atj@colorado.edu; your e-mail address will be added to the distribution list. Among the contributing editors for the first few issues will be Joan Ericson, Yukiko Hatasa, Carl Falsgraf, Hiroko Kataoka, Ruyko Kubota, Mari Noda, Patty Thornton, and Yasu-Hiko Tohasku.

New Visions for Foreign Language Education

In a recent memorandum on international education policy, President Clinton advocated a new and more important role for the study of a second language for every American child. In that memorandum of April 19, he stated: "To continue to compete successfully in the global economy and to maintain our role as a world leader, the United States needs to ensure that its citizens develop a broad understanding of the world, proficiency in other languages, and knowledge of other cultures" ( http://exchanges.state.gov/education/remarks/whstatement.htm).

Foreign language educators are responding to this and other demands for more and longer sequences of study for all American children. From June 15-18, 160 foreign language educators attended a retreat in Leesburg, Virginia where they developed an action plan for the promotion of foreign language education in the United States. The group represented a broad spectrum of foreign language educators, including teachers, program directors, college and university professors and representatives of publishers and governmental agencies from throughout the nation.

Supported by funds from the U.S. Department of Education awarded to the National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center (NFLRC) and administered by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), conference participants examined and discussed current issues relating to foreign language education in the United States. The goal of the project is to assure that every child in the nation has an opportunity to learn to communicate well in at least one language other than English, beginning in the earliest grades for all children and continuing through the university level for Americans who need more specialized language skills.

The project is continuing as groups of educators and national organizations work together to address issues related to research on how children and adults best learn to speak and understand a foreign language, how to find and train enough teachers to fill the classrooms of the nation as all children begin to study another language, and how to develop and maintain cutting-edge programs and teachers. Over 5000 language educators are expected to continue discussion of the project at the annual meeting of the American Council of Teachers of Foreign Languages and numerous other national and regional language organizations in Boston, November 17-19. Participating in the project from ATJ and the Alliance are Hiroko Kataoka (ATJ), Yasu-Hiko Tohsaku (ATJ), Cyrus Rolbin (NCJLT), and Susan Schmidt (Alliance Executive Director). The Japanese field was also represented at the June retreat by Teresa Austin from Massachusetts and Carl Falsgraf and Suwako Watanabe from Oregon. ATJ members interested in the project are invited to contact these participants or the ATJ office for more information or to share their own ideas and concerns.

LangNet Project Report

ATJ is involved in an innovative project that promises to provide efficient language learning resource sharing to our profession via the Internet: the LangNet Project. In collaboration with representatives of other language professional associations, coordinated by the National Foreign Language Center, we are creating a shared database of resources that teachers find most useful. This database will be made available to the entire community of language teachers and learners through LangNet. The members of a Japanese LangNet National Editorial Board have identified an initial set of Japanese language learning profiles (descriptors of learners with specific learning needs) and is selecting and reviewing materials that serve those profiles. The first identified profiles concentrate on reading skills.

1. Japanese Language Learners with Specific Needs in Reading Skills Development
Learners of Japanese face special challenges in dealing with the complexities of the Japanese writing system. Some stu- dents ("heritage learners") have a family background in spoken language and need to develop reading skills as well. Other students may be particularly interested in reading (because they are intrigued by the Japanese writing systems or because of a particular professional goal) and want to do more than the other students in a class. These students need individualized reading instruction that allows them to develop skills beyond those of their classmates (accelerated instruction) or to focus on reading about particular topics of interest to them (Japanese for specific purposes). Still other students may have gaps in their reading abilities that need to be addressed individually (specialized reading development needs) so they can progress with the other students in a class. All these students benefit from selection of materials tailored to their specific needs.

Learners of Japanese as a heritage language include those who were born and raised for some period of time in Japan, who have now moved to, or temporarily reside in, an English-speaking country where they are being educated in English. Heritage learners also include those born and raised in an English-speaking environment whose immediate families contain native Japanese speakers, as well as Japanese-American students who are de- scended from Japanese immigrants of previous generations. Such students may have little functional contact with Japanese language, but they sometimes have knowledge of the culture and may have specific learning goals related to their families and backgrounds.

Secondary teachers often find they have one or two students in a class who are fascinated by kanji or have a particular interest such as manga that drives their learning. University or adult learners may be motivated by a desire to read texts related to a particular professional interest. Such students need self-paced instructional materials that will help them develop reading skills related to their particular skill levels and interests. Other learn- ers may have significant need to target one aspect of reading for development. They may need a) resources for in- creasing control of Japanese orthography hiragana, katakana, or kanji; or b) resources targeting other aspects of reading, such as vocabulary identification, scanning to identify main and subsidiary ideas, skimming for facts, vocabulary development in specific fields, or reading classical Japanese or kanbun.

2. Teachers Seeking to Develop Skills to Work with Learners Who Need Reading Skills Development
Some instructors need to maintain or improve their own reading skills. Others are in need of information about how learners acquire these skills or ideas for classroom practice and curriculum or materials design.

We are asking for your assistance in identifying language learning resources that are appropriate for these profiles so that they can be entered into the LangNet database. We are particularly interested in your recommendations of very specific "learning objects" video clips, teacher-prepared exercises, excerpts from published books, etc. that clearly target the learning needs of specific learners. A good way to identify learning objects for the Japanese LangNet project is to think through the continuum of resources you use for a particular type of student in your classroom. The following is an example of a process that may be helpful in recommending Learning Objects.

Learner Profile
I use [Textbook A] in my 2nd year language course in which I have 2 learners who were in Japan on an AFS exchange program and did not take the first-year course. The chapters of the book are organized by situation and function. I go through the book chapter by chapter and name the supplemental learning resources I use throughout the year for these students, who may otherwise feel frus- trated that their reading skills don't match their oral ability. I use an extra grammar explanation in [Chapter 2] because these learners don't understand the explanation in [Textbook A]. I found a video for teaching kana to Japanese children that incorporates cultural information and also contains some more advanced vocabulary items concerning the chapter theme. And I created [Worksheet A] to go along with it. When these learners fall behind on a certain point, I give them [Handout C]. When they pick up on the relatively easy grammar points and vocabulary in Chapter 3 and get bored with the textbook, I give them [Exercises X and Y] from [Textbook B] to challenge them to expand their knowledge. I created a game that uses the vocabulary and kanji from [Chapter 4] that these learn- ers and the other students can play together. When I have students who are interested in a certain topic, I give them a reading passage from a children's book. I supplement the writing exercises from [Chapter 5 of the Textbook] with [Workbook Exercises 3 & 4 from Workbook A] because they fit the needs for additional background explanation of these learners in my class and they follow the theme of the chapter.

Submitting Learning Objects
Please suggest any items that you feel might be useful for the LangNet database whether you have created them yourself or they are published and available in print, online, or in some other medium. Suggestions can be sent by mail, fax, or e-mail to ATJ at the addresses found on the front page of the Newsletter.