Overview / 開催概要

Theme: Revisiting our Teaching Practices through Reflection and Action Research

In the process of reviewing half a century of English language teaching trends, we see drastic changes in the roles and positions of teachers and learners, as well as in teaching materials. Approaches to teaching have shifted to accommodate the original purpose of language use, that is, communication with others. We have observed the emergence of the Internet as a teaching tool and how it has gathered special momentum during the spread of COVID-19. Interest in teaching now places learners in central focus. Autonomy and identity of learners have become heightened concerns. Teachers’ roles and positions have changed from following the transmission style to being more facilitative of the students’ learning process. In keeping abreast of such remarkable changes in English language teaching, JACET seminars have focused on a variety of themes, including classroom teaching and material development which are most recent.

In the seminar that marks this 50th anniversary, we would like to revisit our teaching practice. The global pandemic necessitated changing our venue of teaching into something that for many of us was novel, the online classroom. What has been learned from that experience so far in terms of advantages and disadvantages? What new perspectives have we gained about face-to-face teaching? In this era where we teachers are now presented the option of conducting classes face-to-face or online, we would like to reassess the manner in which we inspire and instruct as language teachers. Our seminar therefore seeks to address the following questions: What does it mean to improve teaching? What does good teaching practice mean? We hope this seminar will offer a variety of new angles from which to view how teachers teach and learners learn in these challenging times.