| Officers |
| Written by Adam Murray | |
| Wednesday, 29 March 2006 | |
ACTJ Executive Committee 2009 - 2010
Michael Stout - PresidentAnthony Fenton - Vice PresidentAnthony Fenton B.P.E, B.A, TESOL Cert., M.Ed., moved to Japan in September 1991, but is regularly in Canada. He lent some support during the initial start-up of ACTJ. He has taught at junior and senior high schools, colleges, and is currently teaching and participating in several research projects at a university in Japan and Australia. He is working hard to complete his PhD in comparative education and is active in presenting his research at conferences in Canada, Japan, and Australia. His volunteer work ranges from developmental education projects in Myanmar and Vietnam to serving as review mentor and academic editor for several journals.
Andrew Reimann - Publications ChairThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view itI first came to Japan in 1996 as a fairly inexperienced, recent university graduate. Since that time, I have worked at many different places and institutions under a variety of circumstances, resulting in some very interesting, learning experiences. Prior to coming to Japan my experience included one year teaching ESL in Mexico, establishing an English school in Montreal, and almost five years teaching experience at different schools and organizations in Canada. My undergraduate degree is from the University of Victoria, where I also worked with the English Language Program as a Cultural Assistant and had the opportunity to instruct and interact with students from around the world. My research interests focus on bilingual language learning, motivational differences and developing cultural competence. Growing up in a bilingual family, my mother speaking only German and my father English, and in a bilingual country, Canada, the factors which influence language acquisition were very relevant and interesting for me, and I sought how to best apply these principles to the university classroom context. Through my experiences I have managed to achieve various degrees of proficiency in five languages. The phenomenon of bilingualism is of great interest to me and will continue to playa dominant role in my future endeavors. At present I am completing a Doctorate of Applied Linguistics at Macquarie University in Australia. The coursework which focused on curriculum innovation, research methods and communicative language testing is now complete and I am working on my dissertation which aims to explore ways to develop Meta-cultural awareness, skills, strategies and teaching methods across different cultures and contexts. In my free time, I particularly enjoy travelling and any outdoor sports. As my hometown is Vancouver, I was lucky growing up to be able to enjoy skiing, cycling, hiking, kayaking, sailing and scuba diving which are among my favourite activities. I currently live near Omiya in Saitama.
Rick Bales - Membership ChairThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view itRichard Bales is originally from Winnipeg, Canada and has been living in Saitama since 2002. During the last eight years, he has worked as an instructor in an ESL program at the University of Manitoba, Canada, as a ALT on the JET Program in elementary and junior high schools in Iwatsuki, Saitama, and during the last three years as an NET for Saitama City. Rick currently instructs at Tokyo Kasei University in Tokyo. His interests are vocabulary, SLA, and corpus linguistics.
Public Relations Chair (vacant)Recording Secretary - Paul Rowan
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I am from Vancouver Island but have lived and worked in quite a number of places in BC, Alta, and Sask. first as a logger and First Aid Attendant and then later as an EMT-1. When an injury ended my emergency medical career, I discover ESL instructing and decided I liked it. Once I decided that ESL could be my second career, I then embarked on the journey to obtain request education to make me a better teacher. I first studied TESOL at VCC in Vancouver. They have an excellent program that really opened my eyes ESL/EFL L2 education. With this education, I taught at a number of English “colleges” in Vancouver, language schools here in Japan including business/corporate English teaching in the Kanto region. However, while I found that the VCC programme gave me a solid foundation to teach, it did not offer the type of information that would help me deal better with my student’s learning challenges. So, on to a Master’s degree I went and as I learnt more about L2 education, my employment prospects improved. Currently, I hold a Masters in Applied Linguistics and I teach full-time at Yokohama City University and part-time at Waseda University. My research interests are in vocabulary acquisition, reading comprehension and in task-based lessons where students can use different forms of media for their English production and self-evaluation. Currently I am married and I have two daughters (one 6 year old and a 1½ year old). As you might expect, life is busy in my house but I will do my best for ACTJ. I look forward to meeting and talking with you all, be it at one of our functions or elsewhere.
Adam Murray - Treasurer / acting WebmasterThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view itAdam Murray is originally from Port Hope, Ontario. He graduated from Brock University with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in 1997. In the fall of 1997, he came to Japan on the working holiday program with plans to stay a year or two. Almost 10 years later, he is still happily living and working in Japan. He is now teaching at Tokai University (Shimizu campus). In the past, he was actively involved with an English conversation pilot project in public elementary and junior high schools. He also conducts workshops for JTE and elementary school homeroom teachers. He is interested in learning technologies, learner motivation and classroom dynamics.
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| Last Updated ( Sunday, 08 November 2009 ) |