ATJ Seminar 2006
In 2006 the Association of Teachers of Japanese (ATJ) Seminar will take a special form. Rather than being held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, the Seminar will be a part of the International Conference on Japanese Language Education (ICJLE), which is being sponsored by ATJ and the National Council on Japanese Language Teaching (NCJLT) and which will be held at Columbia University in New York City on August 5-6, 2006. The ICJLE is the first international-scale conference on Japanese language and literature education to be held outside Asia, and it will feature two full days of concurrent sessions with presentations on linguistics, literature, culture, pedagogy, and second-language acquisition. The keynote speakers will be Susan Napier (University of Texas), speaking on Japanese popular culture, and Merrill Swain, speaking on second language acquisition. Invited presenters and panels will address language proficiency and assessment; heritage language education; classical Japanese; modern literature; culture in the language classroom; and other topics of wide interest.
For program, registration, and housing information on ICJLE 2006, please visit the conference website: http://www.japaneseteaching.org/icjle
ATJ Activities at the AAS Conference
In conjunction with the Association for Asian Studies Conference, which will be held in San Francisco April 6-9, 2006, AT will sponsor the following sessions and activities. All will be held at the San Francisco Marriott Hotel:
Annual General Membership Meeting
ATJ's annual General Membership Meeting will be held Saturday, April 8 from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. in Yerba Beuna Salon 10 & 11, on the Lower B2 level of the San Francisco Marriott. Special presentations will include a preview of the International Conference on Japanese Language Education (ICJLE), an update on the Japanese AP (Advanced Placement) program, and reports from several Special Interest Groups. The meeting will also feature news about professional development opportunities and other projects of the Association; remarks from ATJ's incoming President, Wesley Jacobsen; a special presentation to outgoing Past President Seiichi Makino; an announcement of the results of the annual election of new Board members and a new President-elect; and a selection of door prizes.
Special Interest Group Meetings
Four of ATJ's Special Interest Groups (SIGs) have scheduled meetings on April 6 and 7 in conjunction with the general membership meeting and the AAS Conference.
- The Japanese as a Heritage Language (JHL) SIG will meet from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 6, in Pacific Suite I, on the 4th floor of the Marriott. This session, organized and chaired by Masako Douglas, will feature three presentations by graduate students and young faculty members from California State University: Atsuko Atagi (MA student, CSU Long Beach): "Case Study on the Positioning of Japanese Numeric Phrases in JHL Children's Narratives"; Akiko Kurogi (Faculty, CSU Long Beach): "JHL Learners' Use of Ellipsis in Spoken Japanese Discourse"; Masako Nunn (Faculty, CSU Channel Islands): "Motivational Beliefs among High School Japanese Language Learners in Socio-cultural Perspective".
ATJ members and others with an interest in heritage language education are invited to attend.
- The newly formed Language and Culture SIG will meet from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 6, in Sierra Suite J on the 5th floor of the Marriott. ATJ members and others with an interest in culture as part of language education are invited to attend this organizing meeting for the SIG. Topics will include: the connection between language and culture; cultural instinct (does it exist?); assessment of cultural competency/literacy (is it possible?); cultural discourse (where is it located? does it jeopardize foreign language and culture instruction?); and cultural education (how should it be done?) Moderating the discussion will be SIG coordinator Seiichi Makino.
- The Study Abroad for Advanced Skills (SAFAS) SIG will meet from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 6, in Sierra Suite I on the 5th floor of the Marriott. ATJ members and others who are interested in the issues of study abroad and the development of advanced-level skills in language through in-country experience and study are welcome to attend this session, which will be moderated by Mari Noda.
- The Classical Japanese (Bungo) SIG will meet Friday evening, April 7, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., in Sierra Suite I, on the 5th floor of the Marriott. The meeting will focus on several approaches to teaching classical Japanese, including a discussion of Haruo Shirane's new book, Classical Japanese: A Grammar, and a presentation by Edward Kamens of online materials he has developed for his bungo course. The organizers, Stephen Miller and Charlotte Eubanks, welcome the attendance of ATJ members who do not necessarily teach bungo but who might be interested in introducing it into their language program using some of the new materials and textbooks that are now available.
For further information on any of the SIG meetings, please contact the ATJ office.
ATJ-Sponsored Roundtable
"Getting Out the Words": Publishing for Foreign Language Educators" is ATJ's sponsored session at this year's AAS conference. The roundtable will take place from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. Thursday, April 6, in Yerba Buena Salon 14 & 15 on the Lower B2 level of the Marriott. The panel of book and journal editors and publishers will review the state of publishing, both in print and online, in the foreign languages field, with a focus on Japanese and other Asian languages; look at the future; and offer advice to teachers and scholars who wish their work to reach the widest possible audience. The panelists are: Jill Cheng, Publisher, Cheng & Tsui Company; Kathleen Dillon, Co-Editor of the online refereed Heritage Language Journal; Michael Staley, Editor, Kodansha International; and Suwako Watanabe, Editorial Board member of Foreign Language Annals. The roundtable will be chaired by Timothy Vance Coordinating Editor of ATJ's journal Japanese Language and Literature.
Please plan on attending this important session for insights, advice, and discussion of issues that affect everyone teaching foreign languages today.
Other Sessions of Interest
Two sessions at the AAS conference have been endorsed by ATJ and should be of special interest to Association members.
The panel session More than a Mushroom Cloud: Strategies for Teaching Hiroshima and Nagasaki" will take place on Friday, April 7, from 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. in Yerba Buena Salon 10 & 11 on the Lower B2 level of the Marriott. The session will be chaired by Hosea Hirata of Tufts University, and the panelists include Toshiko Yokota, California State University Los Angeles; Marnie Jorenby, Grinnell College; James J. Orr, Bucknell College; and Mark E. Lincicome, College of the Holy Cross. They will discuss strategies for engaging students in the issues of war and remembrance and for teaching and discussing the atomic bombings in literature, language, and social science courses.
The panel session The Development of Narrative Structure: Japanese as a Heritage Language and as a Foreign Language will take place on Saturday, April 8, from 8:30 - 10:30 a.m., in Nob Hill B on the Lower B2 level of the Marriott. The session will be chaired by Masahiko Minami of San Francisco State University, and the panelists include Momoe Saito Fu, Stanford University; Sanae Fukuda, Kobe University; Hiromi Nishida Urayama, University of California at Berkeley; Seiko Kosaka, University of California at Berkeley; and Emi Fujiyama, University of Nevada at Las Vegas. They will bring various points of view to a discussion of narratives and storytelling by students of Japanese as a heritage and as a foreign language.
Conference Information
To make reservations at the San Francisco Marriott, which is located at 55 Fourth St., San Francisco, CA 94103, please phone 415-896-1600 or fax 415-486-8101. Mention the Association for Asian Studies Conference to receive a special room rate. Reservations can also be made online through a link from the AAS website: www.aasianst.org. The AAS website also has information on registering for the Association for Asian Studies Conference, which offers dozens of panel sessions on Japanese culture, history, literature, and language, as well as exhibits by publishers of books on Japan and on the Japanese language. The complete conference program is posted on the AAS website: (http://www.aasianst.org). We encourage all ATJ members to attend the AAS conference.
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