JALT Conference Proceedings - JALT1997


Volume: 1997
Date of publication: October 1998

Over four days, thousands of educators, administrators, researchers and students gather to attend hundreds of presentations on topics extending from acquisition to Theatresports. These presentations—whether by experts who at the forefront of education or teachers on the firing line in the classroom—address every issue of importance in our field. Moreover, they come in multiple flavors, from the rigorously theoretical, to the humanistically creative and consummately practical. Exhibitions of materials, poster sessions, social net-working opportunities and events such as Town Square Australia contribute to an atmosphere which is for all intents an amalgam of passionate investigation and genial cooperation. At the same time, the host city becomes virtually a country apart: international, intercultural, polyglot. 

The pieces in this volume may be said to represent the essence and heart of the conference. 

The wide variety of articles precludes a tight organization. Rather, they have been placed into three broad categories. Section One is made up of articles with a more theoretical or analytical approach and a focus mainly on how the learner interacts with language. There are papers on goal setting, language attrition, contrastive analysis and so forth. Section Two changes the focus to include how the teacher interacts with or organizes a class. There are papers here on language tests and testing, course development and student profiles. There are also papers addressing teacher development. Section Three takes us deeper into the classroom, with the main focus being on activities and class management. Papers here cover such topics as composition, drama and video. In addition, there are papers introducing activities for second foreign language classes. 

In all, the 32 selections here provide a solid review of the conference and should give the reader insights into a number of different aspects of our ever-developing field.