Report on Kansai LD SIG get-together November 2015
Time: November 29th 2015 10.30 – 12.30
Place: Hito-Machi Community Center, Kyoto
In attendance: Chris Fitzgerald and Anita Aden
Apologies for absence sent by: Katherine Thornton, Richard Silver, Rachelle Meilleur and Ann Flanagan
This being the first Kansai get-together, we talked about what we have done/would like to do with the LD SIG. Having met at the LD forum at JALT a week previously, we took the opportunity to get to know each other more. We spoke a lot about identity and our personal identities as ‘foreigners’, and what the term ‘foreign’ has represented to different groups of people whom we have known in Japan. We discussed about our experiences of integration into Japan and the possible effects it may have on future plans.
We shared issues and challenges faced in our working contexts (Mukogawa Women’s University and Kyoto University of Foreign Studies). Anita spoke about her need to determine guidelines for clear assessment when creating content for new courses. Chris spoke about concerns in his institute’s Self Access Center where students misuse one-to-one time with teachers to express personal issues.
As the discussion focused on teaching contexts, we decided to focus more on research interests in the next get-together.
We discussed future possibilities for Kansai get-togethers and ways to further publicize to attract more attendees. We thought about other possible venues for get-togethers, as this venue is suitable for people near Kyoto, but the location might be too far for many Kansai residents. Despite this, we settled on this location for the next get-together and set the date for Sunday, January 17th at the same time: 10:30 a.m. Please download the Flyer for the 17 January Get-together.