Dates: September 1st (Thu.)—3rd (Sat.), 2016

        Theme: Designing English Education in a Borderless Era

        Many pedagogical approaches have been developed and implemented to cope with the teaching challenges we face. Much research has been conducted to investigate what approaches or techniques are effective, how students are evaluated, and/or what resources are to be directed towards the growing needs for English competency in a borderless era. From the practitioner's viewpoint, we are faced with the issues of how to work with an ever increasing number of diverse needs and with students who often approach second language learning with vastly different expectations.

        The JACET 55th (2016) International Convention will comprehensively discuss new perspectives and initiatives for English education from the primary to college levels centering on the three themes of pedagogy, materials development, and evaluation. We will examine these innovative approaches from the viewpoint of second language acquisition theory. While progressing with interdisciplinary research in the context of globalization and plurilingual environments, we will also explore how to design and implement new pedagogical methods adapted to the globalized era and the integrated teaching of language and contents. The JACET 55th (2016) International Convention will offer opportunities for discussion on all levels of English education for the classroom and beyond in this borderless era and investigate how insights gained from such research and discussion can be applied to tertiary education.

        Speakers:

        1.Nina Spada (Prof.of University of Toronto)

         Nina Spada currently teaches graduate level courses in the Second Language Education Program in the University of Toronto. She is a co-author of a book titled “COLT Observation Scheme”, which is a well-known coding manual designed to throw light on how the classroom process contributes to successful learning. She is also a co-author of the award-winning textbook “How Languages Are Learned,” which is in its fourth edition and is used worldwide as a standard textbook in second language learning.

        Her present research focuses on relationships between instruction and learning outcomes. She is currently conducting a research project funded by SSHRC entitled “Isolated and Integrated Form-focused Instruction: Effects on Second Language Learning.” The primary question motivating this research is whether it is more effective to draw second language learners’ attention to language form in ways that are isolated from or integrated with communicative interaction.

        2.Kaye Chon (Prof.of Hong Kong Polytechnic University)

        Kaye Chon is currently Dean and Chair Professor of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Under his leadership, the School has arisen as one of the world’s leading institutions in hospitality and tourism management. In 2009, the School was ranked no. 2 in the global ranking of hospitality and tourism schools based on research and scholarship, according to a study published in the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research.

        A frequent speaker at international conferences, he is recognized internationally for his research, scholarship and academic leadership in the areas of Hospitality Management, Hospitality and Tourism Marketing and Convention Tourism. He has published over 200 papers in international journals and professional publications and has authored or edited eight books. One of his textbooks “Welcome to Hospitality: An Introduction” has been adopted as a textbook in more than 100 hospitality and tourism schools worldwide. He is currently the Chief Editor of the Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing and the Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research.

        3.Yukio Tono (Prof.of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies)

        Yukio Tono is Professor of corpus linguistics at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. He received his PhD at Lancaster University. His research interest includes corpus applications in English language teaching and second language acquisition, L2 vocabulary acquisition, learner corpus research, and pedagogical lexicography. He co-authored several books, such as “Corpus-Based Language Studies” (with Tony McEnery and Richard Xiao, 2006, Routledge), “Frequency Dictionary of Japanese” (with Makoto Yamazaki and Kikuo Maekawa, 2013, Routledge), and “Developmental and Crosslinguistic Perspectives in Learner Corpus Research” (with Yuji Kawaguchi and Makoto Minegishi, 2012, John Benjamins). He also edited several bilingual dictionaries, including “ACE CROWN English-Japanese Dictionary” (Sanseido, 2nd edition, 2014), “Shogakukan PROGRESSIVE English-Japanese Dictionary” (with Kenichi Seto, 2012). He is a chief editor of the journal, LEXICOGRAPHY (Springer), and serves as an editorial board member of several international journals such as International Journal of Lexicography (Oxford University Press), Corpora (Edinburgh University Press), and International Journal of Learner Corpus Research (John Benjamins). His current research focuses on the adaptation of the CEFR into the Japanese EFL context using the framework called the CEFR-J and how various language resources can help facilitate the use of the CEFR-J for English language teaching in Japan.