In this session, I will briefly report on a school filmmaking project I organised. This showcase session will show attendees just how creative and video savvy our students can be if given the chance to freely express their talents using these skills and talents. At the end (time permitting) we will open the floor for further comments and discussion. Links to guides for how attendees can mirror this approach will also be provided.

The presenter will report on the effectiveness of the literacy program she developed for 5th and 6th graders of public elementary schools in Tokyo. She worked with the school board and compared the students in experimental schools and those in control schools (N = 3085). The ANOVA results suggested that the students developed their reading ability and its subset abilities significantly, and the effectiveness of the program was verified.

This presentation will highlight the effects of students’ self-assessments on their English learning in elementary schools. The presenter examined 26 sixth graders’ self-assessment sheets to understand the relationship between students’ self-assessments and their learning progress. By reflecting on their performance toward each lesson goal, students gained confidence in their small accomplishments, which helped them enjoy English lessons. Findings and implications for the application of self-assessment will be discussed.

In this session, one student from each of the grade levels I teach (junior high school 2nd- and 3rd-years, and, and high school 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-year) will take part as panelists in a symposium. They will talk about their experiences as learners with a specific focus on teacher feedback as well as some other issues.

There is increasing pressure to equip students with global skills and to be able to use English. This presentation details a project-based communication task for junior high school students in one school. Also, the elements that facilitated how the project was adapted from an out-of-class oral research project to an in-class collaborative written communication project in response to the limitations imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic will be highlighted.

Reading picture books regularly in class can help young learners acquire language and early literacy skills, while developing their critical thinking and emotional intelligence. However, the constraints of online learning and rules for socially distancing within face-to-face classrooms have made doing an interactive read aloud very challenging. In this presentation different technological solutions, both readymade and homemade, will be introduced so that teachers can continue to use picture books with learners online and in person.

From 2014, Myanmar began reforming primary school English education, and new textbooks from grades 1 to 4 have been introduced into all public primary schools. The presenters, who were involved in developing the textbooks, will compare the current books with the former ones. Based on observations of classes and the voices of teachers from online forums, they will discuss the positive reviews of the textbook as well as challenges in using it.

With the recent change of English as a primary subject in elementary schools, Japanese homeroom teachers have faced difficulties. This presentation will describe the teaching circumstances between a Japanese English teacher and an assistant language teacher. With two experienced teachers who understand the curriculum goals, lesson planning and delivery appear to be more efficient than with a homeroom teacher. Compared to class feedback from another school, students overall enjoyed classes and learnt more English.

Project-based learning is a teaching approach that can turn students into active learners by engaging them in real-world situations where they apply their knowledge to achieve their goals. The researcher will present case examples of implementing and organizing PBL projects in EFL teaching. This will include sharing the experiences of PBL English classes in Brazil as well as those in Japan, and how to adopt PBL into various contexts for different age groups.

Participants will discuss what the content and language integrated learning (CLIL) approach is and how to use it in an international preschool class setting. Participants will also be able to create their own CLIL-based lesson plans during this session.

Most young learners love craft projects, whether it’s drawing, coloring, or creating. For this reason, many language teachers have incorporated craft projects into their classes. Although craft activities are enjoyable, there is a real risk that very little language acquisition may take place. This presentation will explain the benefits of incorporating craft projects within a second language learning curriculum, and what type of activities might provide maximum language acquisition.

MEXT has encouraged “small talk” conversation activities in elementary schools. However, homeroom teachers and students may be unsure how to conduct these activities smoothly. The presenters have created experimental resources and guidelines to support and expand on small talk, and monitored their implementation in local 5th and 6th grade classrooms. The presenters will summarize the results these initiatives have had, using data from surveys, interviews, and classroom observations, and make suggestions based on their findings.

The Teaching Younger Learners SIG Annual General Meeting and Forum. The first part of this forum will be devoted to SIG business and the AGM. We will explain each officer role and open the floor up for questions. The second part, depending on time, will focus on questions from our membership and how to better build a community with the SIG. We will offer ideas for activities and suggestions moving forward with professional development using a hybrid format. We look forward to seeing your there.

For students who use English as a second language, the “speaking” skill is usually placed after reading, writing, and listening. This is not due to the priorities in actual life communication needs, but largely due to the exam-driven educational systems in Asia. In this forum, we will introduce an 8-week long Youth Leadership Program which prepares children and teenagers to speak English in public through various leadership role designs.

This presentation discusses what empathy is in terms of interactional competence, and problematizes the current scope of L2 pragmatic instruction. Constructing empathetic moments together with the interlocutor is critical in order to build social relationships and social solidarity. However, the ways in which L2 speakers display empathy (or not) in ordinary conversations lack in-depth discussion. Using conversation analysis, we analyze empathetic moments between Swedish and Japanese advanced users of English and discuss possible interventions.

Online international exchanges are becoming an essential element of teaching and learning intercultural communicative competence. One of the challenges for learners engaged in such virtual exchanges is that not all participants may be familiar with specific aspects of their own lingua-culture. In this study, we developed an inquiry-based model of online intercultural exchange. We then conducted a series of empirical experiments to test the validity of the model in an L2 classroom in Japan.

In this study, I will present a detailed analysis of video-recorded classroom interactions provided by MEXT. Using a conversation analytic (CA) approach, I will explore how English teachers deploy interactional resources to create interactional space with the students. Based on the analysis, I will discuss some implications for teacher development.

If you want your students to use the English they are studying in class to interact with others around the world, come to this workshop to find out how. It is easy and free-of-charge whilst the benefits are numerous. Students love being able to interact with their peers in other countries. While doing so they improve their linguistic, intercultural and communicative competencies as has been proven by research into this project.

This study was on the use of hedges in L2 English learners’ online discussion via the LINE messaging platform. Specifically, the study focused on the influence of two interactant-related variables on learners' use of hedges: non-agreement and relationship closeness. The study found that there was a slightly greater rate of hedge use in responses that expressed non-agreement and a higher rate of hedge use between participants who were distant.