JALT2007: The Japan Association for Language Teaching 33rd International Conference

Conference Theme: "Challenging Assumptions: Looking In, Looking Out"

JALT is celebrating its 33rd International Conference this year. This event gives us an optimal opportunity to take another look at where we started and where we are going in language practice and research. Our field is relatively young yet it has been very productive in the last 30 years, as we have seen constant shifts in our understanding of how our students are learning their second/foreign language(s). In a nutshell, theories of second language acquisition and language pedagogy have developed to view language learning not as an individual, but more as a social phenomenon. This shift has enabled us to understand language learning more comprehensively, but at the same time our field today has become diverse and fragmented.

How, then, can language teachers, administrators, and researchers make sense of this flux? Our Conference goal is to raise questions that challenge our understanding of how learning occurs, how we can plan our learning environment, and why we teach. More specifically, we will look at three layers of language learning:

• At the core and micro level, how does learning occur? Is it a one-way transmission of knowledge and skills delivered by an expert to a novice? Or is it a two-way interactional process?
• At a policy/institutional level, what are they to learn? Are we facilitating the process for language "learners" or language "users"? As professionals, do we assume that students learn the basics and move on to their own specific needs in their use of language? Do they all need to learn skills and knowledge of language before learning content?
• At a community level, why are we engaged in language teaching/learning? Are we responding to the needs of the community? Are we really globalizing our future citizens?

As participants in JALT2007, let us be prepared to ask these questions. Language research will continue to change and shift; this Conference will provide us with some directions for how to approach research and the application of its findings for the next generation of JALT.

Yuriko Kite, JALT2007 Conference Chair