AATJ's 2004 Summer Institute in Japan

As part of its mission, the Alliance of Associations of Teachers of Japanese (AATJ) works to offer teachers professional development opportunities. One such opportunity in the summer of 2004 was a month-long Language, Culture, and Technology Institute in Japan for non-native-speaking K-12 teachers. Thirteen teachers from around the US spent three weeks in residence at the Japan Foundation's Japanese-Language Institute in Urawa, Saitama, studying language, visiting local schools and other cultural institutions, and developing media-based materials for use in their classrooms and to share with others. Before leaving for Japan, the group reviewed the basics of classroom technology at the Japan Foundation Center in Los Angeles, where they gathered again after returning from Japan to edit and finalize their materials and meet with other teachers at the First Symposium on Japanese Language Education in the US.

The materials developed by the Institute's participants include a sophisticated 15-minute video introduction to transportation in Japan, illustrated reviews of verb forms and sentence patterns, visits with Japanese students in their classrooms and at leisure, a classroom unit on ecologically conscious lifestyles, and a rich trove of photographs and films. Some of these materials are available for use by other teachers. They can be viewed and downloaded from this website: please click on this link to read descriptions of the projects or download them.

The Alliance is grateful to the Japan Foundation's Urawa and Los Angeles offices for their cooperation in making the Summer Institute a success. Funding was obtained from the US Department of Education's Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad program and the Shoyu Club Foundatiion of Japan.