Poster Session 1

Innovations in EAP: Material Design

Tony Cripps, Fern Sakamoto, and Sean H. Toland

This poster outlines the design, development, and implementation of a communicative academic English course at a Japanese university.

Transpacific Online Collaborative Writing: A Stanford - ICU Exchange Project

Dan Ferreira

The presenter will discuss the pedagogical and technological implications of designing and implementing a collaborative online writing course between two universities—Stanford University and International Christian University. The poster will illustrate how the two main instructors of each institution applied the principles of established conceptual frameworks related to computer-mediated collaborative writing projects such as the one in this study. The presenter will also discuss the technological implications for setting up a project of this nature from a Japanese infrastructural point of view.

Analysis of Study Abroad Summer Program

Tetsuya Fukuda, Keita Yagi, and Tanya Erdelyi

The purpose of this research is to investigate the improvement in English skills after an English program overseas. It was found that participants in a study abroad program showed more gains with statistical significance than those who did not. Moreover, a comparison between students who graduated from a Japanese high school (JPN) and those who graduated from an international school or school overseas (INT) showed that JPN students benefited from studying overseas more than INT.

CEFR-Based Standardization of Speaking Exercises for ESP Instruction

James Andrew Horvat

This ESP-focused language school’s approach is to use the CEFR Can-Do list to design standardized activities for the learner to communicate about their field and to employ the standardized activities in their instruction. Out of the hundreds of cases at this Institute, some results of their instruction are discussed. In general, efficiency and direct focus on needs were observed more than with non-standard ways of choosing speaking and writing activities.

Student-Created Tours to Local Tourist Destinations

Kazumi Kato and Wendy M. Gough

Community outreach projects to support international tourism in small towns provide an excellent chance for students to develop practical English skills outside the classroom. This presentation will discuss the 2017 stage of a community outreach project that involves English support for luxury liner passengers stopping in a portside town. Students are researching the area and creating tour routes to be compiled into a guidebook accessible in print, via the university’s homepage, or as an i-Book.

Japanese Scientists' English for Research Publication Purposes

Leigh McDowell

This poster examines Japanese scientists’ experiences in using English as a professional language; in particular in the publication of their work in English-medium journals. Quantitative questionnaire data expanded through qualitative data from reflective interviews drive this exploration of the Japanese ERPP context in four key areas: (1) the research writing process, (2) the benefits and (3) burdens of using English as an additional language, and (4) the perception of language errors in the publication process.

Scaffolding Procedure Genres with Teaching-Learning Cycles

Colin F. Rundle

This poster explains how procedure genres can be scaffolded using the teaching-learning cycle. The cycle consists of five stages, which are building the field, modeling the text, joint-construction, independent construction, and linking to other genres. The poster details activities, tasks and models of procedure genres that can be used in each stage of the cycle, highlighting common problems and how to avoid them. It will also overview other genres that the presenter has taught using the cycle.

Using Text Analysis Measures to Aid in EFL Content Textbook Selection

Dax Thomas

This paper reports on the usefulness of text analysis measures in the selection of content textbooks used in an intermediate level, themed EFL class. The text of three potential content books was analyzed using three different measures: readability, lexical diversity, and vocabulary range. The combination of these three measures into a single index proved to be very helpful in ranking the texts’ appropriateness for use with a specific level of EFL learner.

Creating Functional English Materials for Training Tokyo 2020 Olympics Student Volunteers

Kevin Thomas

The poster outlines the process of material creation for a 15 week course for prospective Olympic volunteers at my institution. The poster will illustrate the stages of research into the tasks students are likely to be asked to do, the construction of a functional syllabus around these tasks and finally the creation of engaging, level appropriate and task-relevant materials.

English as Common Business Language: The Current Situations in Japanese Corporations

Saeko Ozawa Ujiie

English has become the language of international business communication. Major companies in Japan are also using English as the official or the common business language. The study is about the status of English use in businesses in Japan, using an inductive approach to find out how English is being used in corporations in Japan, in order to determine the impacts and implications of the use of English for business communication in Japan in broader perspectives.