Date: 19th February 2022 (Saturday), 15:00 – 18:00 GMT
Location: Online seminar using Zoom software
Speaker: Dr Yasu-Hiko Tohsaku (University of California, San Diego) <biography>
Fee: 5 pounds (BATJ members), 10 pounds (non-members)
Maximum number of participants: 200
Spoken language: Japanese

Target audience; Japanese language educators in the United Kingdom and Europe. (Applications from those in other regions will also be accepted if places are available). Post-graduate university students specialising in Japanese language education in the United Kingdom and Europe are also welcomed to join.

Registration and payment: To register, please go to our Eventbrite page
*Please note the cancellation is not possible once the ticket has been ordered.

Registration deadline: 7th February 2022 (Monday), 12:00 GMT
*Once the number of places has been filled, applications will close.

<Outline of the seminar>
We are nearly two years into a pandemic. We, Japanese language educators, have been faced with many challenges in this new chaotic learning environment, and have been trying to overcome them to continue educating our students effectively. In this talk, I will discuss the state of the current learning environment, what we have lost, what we have gained, and what instructional and assessment strategies we have been using. The end of the current pandemic is still out of sight and the learning environment is expected to continue changing for some time to come. I will explore what strategies Japanese language educators and students should use to adapt in the future to an ever-changing and ambiguous learning environment.

Event information

Planned schedule: There may be an optional social gathering after the seminar (TBC)

Organisers: The British Association for Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language and the Japan Foundation, London.

Yasu-Hiko Tohsaku (Ph.D. in linguistics, University of California, San Diego) is Professor at the School of Global Policy and Strategy, University of California, San Diego. His current research interests are: second language acquisition theory, language pedagogy, and language assessment. His publications include: “Yookoso!: Invitation to Contemporary Japanese”, “Yookoso!: Continuing with Contemporary Japanese” (McGraw-Hill 2006), “Doraemon no Dokodemo Nihongo (Japanese Language Learning Anywhere by Doraemon)” (co-author 2009), and “Gakushu no Meyasu (Curriculum Guidelines of Chinese and Korean Instruction in Japanese High Schools)” (co-author, The Japan Forum 2012, 2013), “Japanese Language Instruction: 77 Tips Series” (co-general editor, Kuroshio Shuppan 2012-) and “Japanese Language Education x ICT” (supervising editor, Hitsuji Shobo 2019). In “Nippon 3.0 no Shohosen (Prescription for Japan 3.0)” (Kodansha 2013), he proposed a new approach to language teaching, and in his recent publication, “Social Networking Approach to Japanese Language Teaching: Intersection of Language and Culture in the Digital Age”, (co-editor, Routledge 2021), he explores this new approach and its application to classroom practices. He was formerly President of the Association of Teachers of Japanese and the American Association of Teachers of Japanese, a board member of the Joint National Committee on Languages, a task force member of AP Japanese, Chair of the inaugural AP Development Committee, and Executive Director of the Global Articulation Project of Japanese (J-GAP). He is currently the Japanese representative to the Executive Board of the National Standards (World-Readiness Standards) Collaborative Project, President of the International Association of Computer-Based Japanese Instruction (CASTEL/J), and Vice-President of the Japanese Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (JACTFL). He is also currently Visiting Professor of both Kansai University and Ho Chi Minh City National University of Education. He received the 2015 Society of Teaching Japanese as a Second Language Award. He also received the 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of Teachers of Japanese.