Event

Focus on Form in English Teaching: Integrating Meaning and Form

Saturday, November 3rd, 2001, 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Speaker: Sean Izumi, Sophia University

We will focus on the issues concerning how we can best integrate focus on meaning or communication on the one hand and focus on language forms or grammar on the other. We will also take a historical perspective on the issues of grammar teaching and overview some of the most popular proposals that have been put forth for language teaching over the last few decades. We will examine the rationale and problems of each of these approaches to language teaching. Then, we will consider the notion of focus on form proposed by Mike Long (1991, 1998) and others, which tries to integrate attention to form and attention to meaning in the course of language leaning and teaching. The subsequent discussion will focus on issues that need to be addressed in focus-on-form teaching. We will see some SLA studies that have examined the efficacy of focus on form in second language leaning.

Organization: Akita Chapter of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (Akita JALT)

Cost: JALT Members: free
Non-members: 1,000 yen (500 yen for students)

Venue: GH-300, MSU-A (Minnesota State University Akita)

Location: Akita City, Akita Prefecture, Japan

Contact Akita JALT

Suzuki Takeshi

Work phone: 0184-22-1562