Okayama JALT June Meeting
Saturday, June 20th, 2020, 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Speaker: Shawna Carroll; Caleb Prichard
Teaching Cross-Cultural Communication Through Power-Hierarchies
Shawna Carroll
In this presentation, I examine the dangers in teaching cross-cultural communication in terms of the 'Other,' as in people in a different country, and instead advocate a power-hierarchy approach that focuses on intersectional identities, power/oppression, and diversity within Japan. First, I explain the power-hierarchy approach to teaching cross-cultural communication and show how students responded to this through surveys, journal entries, and assignments. I also discuss their final assignment, a website meant to interact with students in Canada, as one way to deconstruct power imbalances in Japan, while creating an authentic cross-cultural learning process for students in both countries.
Activities to Get Learners More Active in Conversation
Caleb Prichard
Learners are often passive in conversations in the target language, and this has several consequences for them both in developing fluency and forming relationships. This session will present and model activities which have been shown to get learners to be more active, including: initiating conversation, asking follow-up questions, making interesting comments, elaborating when answering, changing the topic, and closing the conversation.Organization: Okayama Chapter of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (Okayama JALT)
Cost: free
Venue: Online
Location: Online, Online Events, Online Event