International Conference on Japanese Language Education Held in New York, August 5–6, 2006
やった！
The conference featured three keynote speakers, each representing an important strength or aspect of our discipline. Merrill Swain represented the field of Second Language Acquisition (a particular strength in North America); Susan Napier, anime literature/culture (strong motivation for studying Japanese among youth); and Yasu-Hiko Tohsaku, the important area of assessment, especially in view of the establishment of the Advanced Placement (AP) program in the U.S. All three keynote presentations were excellent and inspiring.
The conference featured 44 invited presentations and more than 150 papers and panels. Presenters came from all over the world, including Japan, Korea, the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and Brazil. We are truly grateful to all the presenters since the quality and attractiveness of the conference depended on their contributions. The presentations covered a wide range of areas and subject matters, and with ten concurrent sessions, I am sure we all had to face difficult choices of which session to attend.
Nine representatives of Japanese Teachers’ Associations from Japan, South Korea, the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia, Europe, and the U.S. contributed their views on the topic of the 3C’s—cultures, connections, and communities—in Japanese language education. I wish we had had more time for discussion at the end, but the Tooronkai, I believe, highlighted similarities and differences among these countries. Going beyond the classroom and making connections with communities seems to be a common trend in many countries. It seems that we are faced with seemingly opposing trends—teaching Japanese in increasingly multicultural contexts, and teaching a language, Japanese, which is increasingly becoming pan-cultural thanks to the popularity of Japan’s popular culture.
We were very excited to see so much interest in the conference. The number of participants was a little over 600, well beyond our initial projection. This proved to be quite challenging logistically, but thanks to all the hard work of Susan Schmidt and Kathy Ajisaka (ATJ office), and Fumiko Nazikian (local chair), everything went very smoothly.
Hosting a conference of this size is really a group effort. Besides those mentioned above, there are people who reviewed the abstracts, student volunteers, people who chaired the sessions, and many others. Our heartfelt "thank you" to all of them. Last but not least, I would like to thank Seiichi Makino and Wesley Jacobsen for their contributions, Hiroko Furuyama and Kazuo Tsuda for their fundraising efforts, and Laura Koga and Shingo Satsutani for their support and for arranging the NCJLT sessions. This was the first time the ATJ and the NCJLT cooperated in hosting a conference, and we hope this accelerates further cooperation between the two organizations.
Naomi McGloin
Past President, ATJ; Co-Chair, ICJLE
ICJLE Plenary Sessions Available on DVD
The four plenary sessions at the International Conference on Japanese Language Education were videotaped, with the permission of the presenters. The recordings are available in DVD format, together with copies of supporting materials for each presentation, as follows:
Merrill Swain, "Languaging and Agency in Second Language Learning": DVD video of presentation (in English), 6-page handout (in English), and summary.
Susan Napier, "From Impressionism to Anime: Japan as Fantasy and Fan Cult in the Eyes of the West": DVD video of presentation (in English) and 10-page transcript of talk (in English).
Yasu-Hiko Tohsaku, "The Roles of Assessment in the Japanese Language Classroom": DVD video of presentation (in Japanese), 24-page handout (in English and Japanese), and summary.
Representatives of Japanese Language Education Associations around the World, "The Three C’s of Standards: Cultures, Connections, and Communities" (panel discussion): DVD video of panel discussion (in Japanese) and 19 pages of supporting documents from six of the presenters (in Japanese).
If you are interested in obtaining any of these sets of materials, please contact the ATJ office by e-mail (atj@colorado.edu) to request them. The cost is $10 for each session to cover the cost of materials preparation and shipping.
Many Thanks!
The organizers of the International Conference on Japanese Language Education (ICJLE), held in New York on August 5–6, 2006, would like to express their thanks to the many organizations and individuals who made the conference possible and contributed their time and energy to its success.
In New York, a large group of faculty members, graduate and undergraduate students, and volunteers worked both before and during the conference:
Faculty and graduate students of the East Asian Languages and Cultures Department, Columbia University: Shigeru Eguchi, Miyuki Fukai, Mamoru Hatakeyama, Miharu Nittono, Keiko Okamoto, Jisuk Park, and Shinji Sato.
Volunteers from the Summer MA Program in Japanese Pedagogy: Noriko Araki, Machiko Bomberger, Mie Buskirk, Jiro Harasaki, Hiroko Ishikawa, Junko Ito, Mariko Kawaguchi, Miho Kameda, Yuko Kawabe, Yukie Mammoto, Eri Mikami, Yumiko Naito, Miwa Otsuka, Ayako Shiga, Kyoko Takahara, Akiko Takamatsu, Masami Tamagawa, Makoto Tamizuka, Fumi Yamakawa, and Hyo Jung Youn.
Students and staff members at Columbia University: Ken Aoki, Cyrus Ebnesajjad, Yoko Fujimoto, Naomi Furusawa, Julie Jo, Nauen Kim, Yonghan Kim, Patrick Luhan, Felix Marte, Mayumi Nagano, and Geoff Sant.
A number of corporate and organizational sponsors contributed financially to the success of the conference: Toshiba International Foundation, The Japan Foundation, Shoyu Club, Toyota Motor Corporation of North America, and several departments and institutes of Columbia University: Weatherhead Institute, School of International and Public Affairs, Donald Keene Center, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, and Summer MS Program in Japanese Pedagogy. Exhibitors included Kodansa America, Kinokuniya Bookstores, Cheng & Tsui Publishers, JP Trading Company, and Japan National Tourist Organization.
The conference steering committee members contributed hundreds of hours of their time over more than a year in planning and executing the conference: Naomi McGloin and Seiichi Makino (co-chairs); Mutsuko Endo Hudson (program committee chair); Hiroko Furuyama, Wesley Jacobsen, Junko Mori, and Lindsay Amthor Yotsukura (ATJ Board members); Laura Koga, Shingo Satsutani, and Kazuo Tsuda (NCJLT Board members); Fumiko Nazikian (Columbia University); Kathy Ajisaka and Susan Schmidt (ATJ/NCJLT staff).
Nominations for Board and President-Elect Positions
The Nominating Committee of the ATJ Board will propose a slate of candidates for election to the positions of President-Elect and three Board members of ATJ, to serve three-year terms from spring 2007 to spring 2009. If you would like to suggest candidates for these positions, please send their names, email addresses, and brief profiles to the ATJ office (atj@colorado.edu) or to the chair of the Nominating Committee, Lindsay Amthor Yotsukura (ly@umd.edu).
Call for Proposals ATJ 2007 Seminar
The Association of Teachers of Japanese (ATJ) 2007 Seminar will take place at the Boston Marriott, in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS), on Thursday, March 22, 2007. The Seminar will feature a full day of concurrent sessions on various issues related to Japanese language and literature with presentations by ATJ members.
ATJ invites proposals for individual papers and panels. A proposal must be in one of the following areas: (1) linguistics, (2) literature, (3) pedagogy, and (4) second language acquisition. ATJ also welcomes session proposals from the ATJ Special Interest Groups (SIGs). Individual papers are 20 minutes long with an additional 5 minutes for discussion. Organized panels are 100 minutes long in total and should be limited to four active participants (four paper presenters, or three presenters and one discussant). An abstract for an individual paper should be no more than 300 words in English or 700 characters in Japanese. For organized panels, a maximum 300-word or 700-character abstract is required from each participant, in addition to a maximum 300-word or 700-character abstract for the panel itself. The submission deadline is Friday, October 27, 2006.
Beginning on August 10, 2006, abstracts should be submitted at www.japaneseteaching.org/ATJseminar/2007/. Questions regarding submission should be addressed to Yoshiko Mori, the Seminar Committee Chair, at moriy@georgetown.edu. For technical support, contact webmaster@japaneseteaching.org.
Printing Errors, JLL Vol. 40 No. 1 (April 2006)
The recently mailed issue of Japanese Language and Literature (The Journal of the ATJ) contains a very large number of typographical errors. The cause has been traced to a problem with PDF files at the printing company. A corrected version of this issue will be sent to all subscribers as soon as possible. In the meantime, if you are an ATJ member and would like to receive a correct version of a particular article or review as a PDF file, please email your request to the coordinating editor, Timothy J. Vance (vancet@email.arizona.edu). Please also discard the copy of JLL 40:1 that you recently received. Please note, however, that the article by R. Keller Kimbrough on pp. 1-36 contains illustrations that make it too large to send as an attachment. Subscribers who request a corrected version of this article will receive a PDF file without the illustrations. We sincerely regret the inconvenience that this technical glitch has caused.
ATJ Endowment Is Growing
ATJ has joined the ranks of other non-profit organizations in establishing an endowment fund. Contributions of any amount to this fund, which are tax-deductible, will help to ensure that the Association can continue to provide services to members in the future. A contribution has recently been made to the Endowment by Duane Olson. Please consider donating when you next renew your membership, or by mail at any time. For more information, contact the ATJ office.