ICJLE 2008

The 2008 International Conference on Japanese Language Education (ICJLE) will be held at Pusan University of Foreign Studies, Korea, July 11–13, 2008. (The ICJLE is a biennial event; in 2006 ATJ and NCJLT hosted the conference in New York City.) The working title of the 2008 conference is "Building Toward Broader Networking for Japanese Language Education and Japanese Studies." Pusan University of Foreign Studies (College of Japanese), San 55-1 Uam-Dong Nam-gu Pusan 608-738, South Korea. +82-51-640-3018. Fax: +82-51-640-3270. icjle2008@gmail.com. Skype: icjle2008.

The 16th Annual Meeting of the Association for Japanese Literary Studies will be held at Princeton University on November 2–4, 2007. The theme of this year's conference is "Literature and Literary Theory." Available on the website (www.princeton.edu/ajls/) are the conference program and online registration (available until October 22, 2007). The registration fee is $40 ($30 for students), which includes a lunch buffet on Friday and a conference reception/dinner at Prospect House on Saturday. On-site registration will be available at $50.00 per person. A block of rooms has been reserved at Nassau Inn, located within walking distance of campus. A special rate of $129/night has been negotiated with the hotel. To reserve a room, please call the Inn directly by Friday, September 29, at 800-862-7728 or 609-921-7500 and ask for the "Japanese Literary Association Group." For additional venues, as well as information on travel and parking, please see the website. Questions about the conference can be directed to ajls2007@princeton.edu.

A panel session at the upcoming ACTFL conference in San Antonio will focus on the AP Japanese Language and Culture program and the results of its first year. Entitled "AP Japanese Language and Culture: Where We Are and Where We're Headed," the session will take place on Saturday, November 17, at 3:15 p.m. The presenters will be Laurel Rodd (University of Colorado), David Baum (Educational Testing Service), and Masumi Reade (The Woodlands High School). The panelists will discuss the results of the 2007 AP Japanese Language and Culture exam, the college comparability study and its use in grade-setting, washback effects on secondary curricula, plans for the 2008 exam, and recommendations for colleges and universities in using AP grades in offering credit or making placement decisions.

The Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research (CALPER) at Pennsylvania State University announces that the project "Learning through Listening Towards Advanced Japanese Proficiency" has added new video clips to its online collection of materials: http://calper.la.psu.edu/learningthroughlistening/index.php. Currently, video clips are available for the following topics: education, learning Japanese language, cross-cultural communication, cellular phones, college life in Japan and in the U.S., food culture, gender, home stay, Japanese Valentine's Day.

The CALPER Japanese project aims at providing digital video clips of speech samples that can be incorporated into intermediate or advanced level Japanese language courses. These video clips have been developed from unscripted, spontaneous interviews and conversations with various Japanese speakers. They can be used not only for improving learners' listening comprehension skills, but also for encouraging learners to explore features of spontaneous speech which have not been introduced systematically in the classroom.The project plans to add more information regarding sample theme-based units incorporating these video clips. A CALPER workshop on Japanese and Korean will be held May 31–June 1, 2008, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Professor Kozue Uzawa and Ms. Amelia Fielden, authors of Ferris Wheel: 101 Modern and Contemporary Tanka (Cheng & Tsui, 2006), were honored by the Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture at Columbia University with the 2007 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize. This prize, given annually since 1979, is awarded for the translation of a modern or classical work that best captures the literary merit and spirit of the Japanese original.

In Ferris Wheel, each of 101 translated poems, many appearing in English for the first time, combines classical form with an unmistakably modern sensibility. Each poem is presented in three forms on the same page: in English translation, romanized transliteration, and the original Japanese.

Uzawa is a tanka poet and former professor of Japanese language and culture, recently retired from the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada. Her first collection of tanka was entitled Kanada nite (In Canada). Uzawa is also an editor of Gusts, Canada's first English tanka journal. Fielden is an Australian translator and poet. www.cheng-tsui.com.

Foreign Language Annals is pleased to announce three forthcoming special topics focus issues. We invite you to submit manuscripts for these issues as well as for our general issues; special issues will be incorporated into Foreign Language Annals' regular quarterly issues. The special issues, along with submission deadlines, are as follows: 2009, "Language Learning and Disabilities, Anxiety, and Special Needs" (submit manuscripts by January 1, 2008); 2010, "Language Learning and Study Abroad" (submit manuscripts by January 1, 2009); 2011, "Language Learning and the Standards" (submit manuscripts by January 1, 2010). All manuscripts submitted to Foreign Language Annals should be submitted through our Editorial Manager electronic manuscript system. To submit manuscripts for the special issues, please go to http://fla.edmgr.com and register as an author; if you have already registered, simply click "log in" when you enter the site. When submitting a manuscript for a special issue, please make a note in the "Author Comments" section that the article is for consideration for the special issue.

Cheng & Tsui Company has released the third, revised, and expanded edition of the high school textbook series Adventures in Japanese. A new introduction in both the textbook and the teacher handbook highlights the ways in which Adventures in Japanese fulfills ACTFL's National Standards for Foreign Language Education and helps students prepare for the AP® Japanese Language and Culture Exam. The third edition textbook also offers expanded cultural notes, and the teacher handbook includes a new answer key. The third edition textbook and teacher handbook are compatible with the second edition workbooks, audio CDs, and multimedia companions. Adventures in Japanese combines cultural activities with beginning-to-advanced language learning. Speaking, listening, reading, and writing are equally stressed in the series, which introduces students to Japanese culture as well as the language. Culturally related activities and topics range from making onigiri (rice balls) to learning Japanese songs to understanding the educational system in Japan. marketing@cheng-tsui.com.