October 27, 2015

Top Notch Tips competition launched to find teachers’ best lesson plans and teaching tips

Pearson Japan has launched a competition for teachers in universities, colleges and private language schools to submit their best lesson plan or teaching tip for a chance to be published in the upcoming Top Notch Tips booklet. If your tip or lesson plan is one of the 20 published, you’ll get a Pearson Teachers’ Library for your school or college and be put into a draw to win an iPad for yourself, too.

The competition will be judged by Joan Saslow and Allen Ascher, authors of Top Notch, and the booklet will be published in January 2015.

Click here for full details and to enter the competition.

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October 15, 2015

Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary Ninth Edition Now Available in Japan

To celebrate the release in Japan of the ninth edition of its world bestseller, Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (OALD), Oxford University Press held a launch party in Tokyo on 30th September 2015.

Patrick White, Content Director of the ELT Division and Reference Grammar at Oxford University Press, and Obunsha, co-distributor in Japan, gave presentations at the party, which also commemorated A.S. Hornby and other editors of the first editions, who dedicated their life to making the dictionary.

The dictionary has sold over 38 million copies since the publication of the first edition nearly 70 years ago, and it currently has over 100 million users including the mobile apps. The new ninth edition has an increased focus on facilitating learners’ speaking and writing, and offers access to online premium content including updated iSpeaker and iWriter with extensive pronunciation support via videos with record and playback functionality.

Also in this edition, contemporary words such as 'Twitter' and ‘blogsphere' have been added, along with words of Japanese origin including 'shonen' and 'shojo'.

Click here to learn more about OALD9.
OALD9 is available at ELTBOOKS

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Win an all-expenses-paid trip to Oxford next Summer with Headway and OUP!

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Headway in 2016, Oxford University Press has launched a competition to win a 2-week teacher training course at an Oxford University college, all expenses paid. To enter the competition, teachers need to describe how Headway has helped them improve their teaching skills and the way it has helped their students learn English. The deadline for entries is 11th January 2016 and the course will be held at Exeter College, Oxford in July next year.

For full details, visit the competition page.
 See also: • Interview with John and Liz Soars from 2001 article • John and Liz Soars receive MBEs for services to English language teaching article • Buy Headway from ELTBOOKS.com

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October 13, 2015

2015 Extensive Reading Foundation Awards Announced

The Extensive Reading Foundation (ERF) has announced the 11th Annual Language Learner Literature Awards (LLL Awards) for books published in 2014. An international jury chose the winning books in six categories, taking into account Internet votes and comments of students and teachers from around the world. To find out more about the ERF and view the winners of the LLL Awards 2015, click here
 In Japan, the finalists and winners can be ordered through ELTBOOKS.com See also: • Extensive Reading; Why do it, how to do it, how not to do it article • Free Guide to Extensive Reading on ELTBOOKS article

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October 10, 2015

This week is Japan Teacher’s Week

To celebrate International Teacher's Day, NPO Teach For Japan, with the support of the Ministry of Education and others, has organised Japan Teacher's Week 2015.

The week started out with a discussion hosted by Yusuke Matsuda, founder of Teach For Japan. Items under discussion included: the life of the typical teachers in Japan; the experience of teachers in Japan vs that of those in other countries; career paths for teachers; and the impact of new initiatives from MEXT.

Other events happening during Japan Teacher's Week include:
- A free exhibition "Teacher's Voices" being held at MEXT in Tokyo until the 9th October and in Ebisu from 5th to 12th October;
- TEDxTokyo on 10th October with the topic "Igniting Curiosity".
All events are in Japanese only.

Also during Japan Teacher's Week, Japanese recruitment website DODA is also featuring education related job posts from 5th until 18th October.

More information on Japan Teacher's Week can be found here.

About Teach For Japan:
Teach For Japan is a non-profit organization founded by Yusuke Matsuda in 2012 with a vision to tackle education inequity in Japan by recruiting, training, and supporting teachers and appointing them in various schools to reach out to underprivileged and troubled children and inspire them.

To learn more about Teach for Japan, click here.

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August 26, 2015

Upcoming TEMI seminars in Nagoya, Hamamatsu and Tokyo

Regular ELT News contributor Helene Jarmol Uchida will be giving teacher-training seminars in Hamamatsu (Sept. 19), Nagoya (Sept. 20) & Tokyo (Oct. 11) and Oct. 12 ). The events are organized by the NPO Teaching English Methods Institute (TEMI). Participating in these TEMI Seminars leads to obtaining the TEMI Certificate, a valuable addition to your credentials and professional development. Helene is the founder of TEMI, Director of Little America English Schools, and a lecturer at Seinan Gakuin University, Fukuoka Women's University, and Chikushi Jogakuen University. For more information about these seminars, please see the TEMI website, temi.or.jp/1st-carat or contact Yuki Matsubara, TEMI National Coordinator (092-521-8826).

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August 19, 2015

Oxford University Press was selected to partner with Otsu City on developing a teaching methodology

Oxford University Press commissioned by the Otsu City Board of Education in Shiga as partner in the “Research and Development of ICT-driven Foreign Language Teaching Methodology” project.

Oxford University Press (located in Minato-ku, Tokyo; represented by Managing Director Kiyokazu Nakamura) has been selected to partner with the Otsu City Board of Education in Shiga on a project to research and develop an ICT-based teaching methodology for elementary school Foreign Language Activities classes. The Otsu City government, led by Mayor Naomi Koshi, will establish a leading English education programme for 37 public elementary schools, using Oxford University Press materials, customised lesson plans and teacher training. The project is scheduled to run until the end of March 2018.

Overview The Japanese government introduced Foreign Language Activities to elementary school education for fifth and sixth graders in 2011, with plans to incorporate English language classes into the official curriculum of elementary education by 2020, urging educational institutions as well as local governments in Japan to focus more on English language education for children. Since 2014, the Otsu City government has introduced several schemes to enhance English language training at public schools as part of a wider educational plan for facilitating international understanding, including employing more assistant language teachers (ALT), exploring English teaching methods that harness information and communications technology (ICT), and experimenting with foreign language activities for children in early elementary school years. In October of the same year, the Board of Education held an open tender to find a partner for their “Research and Development of an ICT-driven Foreign Language Teaching Methodology” project with a total budget of \161 million. The applicants were required to provide a detailed proposal for materials, training and assessment before being approved to conduct a nine-week pilot programme in a city school. Oxford University Press was announced as the winning bid on June 6th.

The project consists of a syllabus designed to not only help children improve their English skills, but to nurture their “ability to live”, as stated in the Ministry national curriculum guidelines for elementary schools. This “ability” encompasses communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking skills. The project also requires an extensive teacher training programme, created to help elementary school teachers conduct English lessons confidently and consistently.

The programme will be further developed in 5 model schools from September 2015 before being rolled out to all 37 public elementary schools in the city at the start of the 2016 academic year.

Through collaborating with teachers, technology partners and academic researchers at the University of Oxford, Oxford University Press works to create the best possible environment for learning and teaching. With a history dating back to 1478 and over 50 years’ experience in Japan’s educational industry, Oxford University Press is most widely known as a book publisher, however it also provides a wide range of educational services, working with institutions and teachers to meet the changing needs of students at all ages and levels. Oxford University Press is driven by its mission and belief that education changes lives and it strives to create vibrant classrooms which prepare students and teachers for the global stage.

More Details http://www.oupjapan.co.jp/news/pr/media/oup_pr_20150820_E_otsu.pdf

[Contact] For more details, please contact us. Richard Attwood Business Development Manager, Japan Oxford University Press

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