Registration for the Student Conference now open!

Happy New Year from the JASAL committee!

The Student Involvement in Self Access Centres Conference is now coming up very soon (1st & 2nd Feb) (more details here). We have around 10 different student presentations for participants to enjoy, and hope that many JASAL members can come to learn from and support students working hard in Self Access Centres around Japan.

If you are planning to attend the conference, please register by completing this

Conference Registration Form

and sending it to studentconference2013ATgmail.com ASAP. We will also accept onsite registration, but it would help our planning greatly if you could indicate your interest for the different events we will be holding in advance. Registration is free for all students, but, as we are a non-profit conference with very limited funding, we ask for a suggested donation of ¥2000 from professionals attending the conference, to help us cover transportation, food and accommodation costs for student participants who otherwise would not be able to attend.

If you would like to use the onsite accommodation at Nanzan Kenshu Centre, please make sure you return the form by 24th January (sorry about the short notice). Please understand that, due to a limited supply, we cannot promise to be able to meet all requests.

Hope to see many of you in Nagoya in a few weeks!

Student Involvement Conference Update

Season’s Greetings from JASAL! I’m sure there have been many parties held in Centres over the last few weeks, and that we’re all looking forward to a well-earned break.

The nights are drawing in, which means that it’s almost time for Father Christmas to visit, and more importantly, that the Student Involvement in SACs Conference is getting closer. We are happy to announce that there will events over 3 days (1^st -3^rd Feb), with the main event, the student presentations, taking place on Sat 2^nd Feb. See the conference page for more details.

The deadline for proposals from students (max. 200 words) is January 10th. Please have your students email their proposals to studentconference2013@gmail.com, where they will be read and selected by the conference committee, made up of Sugiyama Jogakuen University students.

You can now view information about the conference schedule, access and accommodation details on the conference page here

If you are intending to bring/send students to either attend or present at this conference, but have not yet submitted a proposal or confirmed your interest, please contact the conference organisers at the email address above, especially if you would like to use the accommodation provided at the Centre, as it is quite limited. If the demand is high, it may be necessary to find alternative accommodation.

Gook luck with all your SAC related endeavours in 2013 – JASAL will be here to support you!

Student Conference: more details

More information has now been added about the Student Involvement in Self Access Centers Conference.

Please download this Conference details document and share it with interested students.

We will add more information as it becomes available so please check the conference page (linked to above) regularly.

Announcement: Student Conference In February 2013

JASAL is proud to support the first ever student conference for Student Involvement in Self Access Centers in Japan, organised by students and staff at Sugiyama Jogakuen University in Nagoya, in association with Nanzan University and JASAL. It will take place in February in Nagoya, and is targetted primarily at students, (although teachers, learning advisors and managers are also encouraged to attend and support their students at the event). For more details, click here.

We hope to see many JASAL members there, supporting their students as they present and share their ideas!

Thank you for coming – presentation files now available!

Thank you for those who came to the JASAL forum at JALT 2012 Hamamatsu! We had over 50 people join our forum this year! We will be updating our website with information about the Student Conference, photos of our forum, and with summary and PDFs of the presentations.

Join us at JASAL Forum at JALT 2012!

JASAL will host the anuual JASAL Forum titled “Making a difference through Self Access” at JALT 2012 Hamamatsu. We will have 3 presentations, 4 poster presentations, and discussion time.

Please come and join us!

For details, please click here or go to the “Conferences” tab on this website.

Date: Saturday, 13th October
Time: 3:50pm – 5:20pm
Room: 21

Add your Centre to the Japan Self-Access Centre Registry!

The field of self-access in Japan is a diverse one, with centres set in a variety of contexts serving a variety of communities, and new centres of all shapes and sizes popping up all the time.

One of our central missions at JASAL is to facilitate communication between centres. To this end, we have created the Japan Self-Access Centre Registry. Our goal is to have an entry for every self-access centre in the country. We need to know what centres are out there, and we need to be able to contact each other to share information and resources, conduct research, etc. We have a lot to learn from each other.

The registry is a Google Docs spreadsheet with a Google Docs form linked to it. Form entries are automatically added to the spreadsheet, which is sorted alphabetically by the second column, “School Name in English”. Both documents are publicly accessible. We have kept the registry quite simple to ensure ease of use.

Please click here to add your centre to the registry!

Click here to view the Japan Self-Access Centre Registry!

We invite anyone connected to a self-access centre in Japan (JASAL member or not) to make an entry for their centre.

Any feedback on the registry is welcome anytime. Please e-mail jasalorg@gmail.com or any of the Executive Committee members.

Call for Presentations – JASAL Forum at JALT 2012

CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS

for the JASAL Forum at JALT2012, Hamamatsu (12^th – 15^th October 2012)

Making a difference through self access

Self access learning, as a growing field in language learning, aims to make a difference in learners’ lives by providing opportunities for language learning not available within the constraints of a classroom setting. To be successful, however, these opportunities need to be promoted and fostered through institutional policies and programmes, and the provision of professional support.

In keeping with this year’s JALT theme, JASAL invites contributions from members which illustrate how self-access learning can make a difference in learners’ language learning and development or address how challenges to successful self-access may be overcome.

We invite submissions on areas including, but not limited to:

–     SAC layout
–     Managing and administrating SACs
–     Materials
–     Learning program design
–     Integrating self-access with curriculum
–     Learner involvement in self-access
–     Self-access learning communities
–     Learning advising/counselling
–     Assessment of self-access learning
–     Evaluating SACs
–     Research design
–     Interaction and collaboration with colleagues and administrators

Following on the success of last year’s event, this year’s JALT forum will consist of a poster session followed by two short presentations and an open forum discussion.

Proposals should include the following:

Title
Format (poster or presentation)
Name(s) of presenter(s) and affiliation(s)
JALT membership number of all presenters, (if applicable)
150-200 word abstract
75-word summary which clearly states your topic
Equipment you will require

Please submit your proposal to Katherine Thornton (thornton.katherineATgmail.com) and CC jasalorgATgmail.com by Fri, April 6, 2012.

Please note that while the JALT deadline for submissions is April 13, we need time to put together our proposal. If for some reason your presentation cannot be included in the JASAL Forum, we will notify you so you can submit your proposal to the JALT conference as an individual paper before the April 13^th deadline.

Please understand that depending on the number and nature of proposals we receive, we may have to ask you to change from a presentation to a poster or vice versa.

For more information on the JALT 2012 conference, please visit: http://jalt.org/conference

Photos and PDFs from JALT 2011

Thank you to all, both members and non-members alike, who attended and contributed to the 2011 JASAL Forum at JALT on 19th November 2011, and made it such a success! With 5 posters, 2 presentations and a lively discussion, it turned into a very enjoyable and informative afternoon. Our theme this year was Growing Trends in Self Access Learning, and many of the contributions focused on the different ways in which institutions promote self-access usage in their respective centres. Look out for Azusa Kodate’s review of the event in the near future (details to be posted on this website). Go to Conference JALT 2011 to see some photos from the Forum. Some of the PDFs and ppts of the presentations are already up, too.