I hope you all had a good start in this year of the Dog!

We at the ATJ office have been very busy preparing for the upcoming International Conference on Japanese Language Education, to be held at Columbia University, August 5-6, 2006. We received about 300 abstracts for individual paper and panel presentations, and about one third have been accepted for oral presentation. In addition, about 40 papers have been accepted for poster presentation. All the reviews and other related matters are very time-consuming, and we sincerely appreciate an extremely dedicated and hard-working seminar committee, chaired by Professor . I would also like to take this opportunity to thank 日本語教育学会, which has been extremely supportive and helped us in publicizing the conference as well as giving us helpful guidance and advice in planning this conference. I would also personally like to express our sincere appreciation to Susan Schmidt and Kathy Ajisaka of the ATJ office, who have had to shoulder an enormous amount of work related to the conference. Conference information, including the registration form, is included in this Newsletter. The deadline for early registration is May 1, 2006. Hotel accommodations near Columbia University are limited, so early registration is recommended.

Earlier this year you received a ballot for the new president-elect and three board members. This year's nomination committee worked very hard to prepare an excellent slate of candidates, and we thank Professor Yasuko Ito Watt and the members of the committee. Please send in your ballot if you have not done so already.

Although the ATJ will not have an extensive program this year at AAS, members should find the ATJ-sponsored roundtable discussion interesting. It is entitled, “Getting Out the Words: Publishing for Foreign Language Educators” and will be held on Thursday evening. Several of our SIGs are also meeting on the afternoon of April 6; that information is found in this issue of the Newsletter. The ATJ also endorsed two panels, “The Development of Narrative Structure: Japanese as a Heritage Language and as a Foreign Language” (chaired by Professor Minami) and “More than a Mushroom Cloud: Strategies for Teaching Hiroshima and Nagasaki” (chaired by Professor Hirata). These panels all look very interesting, and I hope many ATJ members will be able to attend the AAS. We will also hold our general membership meeting from 1:00–2:30 p.m. on April 8.

The AP task force has been hard at work. The draft version of the AP Japanese Language and Culture Course is now available on the AP Japanese home page on AP Central. At the Second Annual Symposium on Japanese Language Education in the US, sponsored by the Japan Foundation-Los Angeles last November, there was a lot of interest and discussion on AP. One of the sentiments expressed at the symposium is that while it is obviously important to train and educate pre-college teachers about AP Japanese, we college teachers should also take an active interest and be better informed about the program. AP Japanese is a concrete step toward better articulation between pre-college and college programs, and we should all cooperate in making this a successful undertaking.

This is the last message I will be writing as President of the ATJ. I would like to thank our Past President Professor Seiichi Makino for his support and guidance during my tenure. I have enjoyed working for the ATJ over the years in many different capacities. Starting on April 7, Professor will be our President, and I will continue to support him. I will also continue to serve as a co-chair of the steering committee of the International Conference. I hope to see many of you at Columbia University this August.