Event
HomeTask-based Business Communicative Activities
Sunday, May 26th, 2002, 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Speaker: Jonah Glick, Pearson Education
The business English student in Japan is coming increasingly under pressure to perform and to prove that he or she has mastered the rudiments of the English language. Companies are increasingly demanding that their employees be able to function in the English speaking business world, and are increasingly requiring candidates for managerial promotion to reach a certain score on standardized testing. As a result the teaching community is under even more pressure to prepare students to accomplish specific business tasks instead of simply preparing them to hold an everyday conversation or to discuss current events. Although there is an argument to be made for continuing to teach students general English, this seminar will explore some ideas for using task-based business communicative activities to help teachers and program administrators meet the needs of their students more accurately. Since tasked-based teaching emphasizes the idea of making courses revolve around communicative tasks that the students need to accomplish outside the classroom, it is a timely teaching strategy for Business English instructors in Japan. The presenter will explore with the participants various ways of identifying target tasks that the students must learn to accomplish in their jobs and various ways to break those tasks down into practicable pedagogical tasks that the students can do in the classroom. Finally, the presenter will show how those pedagogical tasks give the students the tools to complete the target task. Examples will be taken from readily available textbooks.
Organization: Sendai Chapter of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (Sendai JALT)
Cost: JALT Members: free (also free for TALE members; TALE is Tohoku Association of Language Educators)
Non-members: 1000 yen (for non-JALT and non-TALE members)
Venue: Ichibancho Shimin Center (behind Maruzen)
Location: Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan
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